Nationalisation of railways

THE Nationalisation of railways is a subject of such enormous proportions, and its issues are so momentous to the entire community, that it is obviously impossible to more than indicate in, somewhat brief outline, rather than to discuss fully its manifold effects. Therefore, without any formal introductory remarks, I will at once endeavour as briefly as possible to set before you a statement of the case in some important particulars.

There are political economists who contend that railways, being the essential means of communication in a country, should be controlled by the people’s government for the benefit of the population rather than as commercial undertakings, whose prime consideration is to make a dividend for shareholders.

This argument, no doubt, proves attractive to many, but I venture to question whether any Government officials, however expert they may be in discussing theoretical questions or in criticising reports of their subordinates, would be able either to effect any appreciable improvement in the general management of a railway system or to keep themselves in close touch with the trade requirements of the localities which the railways serve. The manager of a railway is usually selected because he has passed through a graduated process of training in subordinate offices – sometimes from the lowest grades. He has also spent many years in more or less intimate connection with the traffic to be worked, and he thus possesses a qualification which only such experience can afford. He has come into contact with all sorts and conditions of men, and he is as well able to deal with delicate and often complicated questions affecting the interests of the employees under his control as with the commercial requirements which have to be judiciously met. It is only in very rare instances that men thus qualified would be found in Government offices, the great majority of such having received only a theoretical training.

An efficient and alert railway manager, with a due appreciation of the necessity of applying strict and sound commercial principles to the management of his railway, will be found in frequent personal intercourse with the leading traders whose prosperity is intimately bound up with the progress and development of his line, and, as a result of their intimacy, the resources of the district served should be developed to the utmost extent. It is too often assumed by traders that an inevitable antagonism exists between themselves and the railway managers. This fallacy, however, is we believe, rapidly giving place to a sense of mutual confidence, the further development of which must without question have the most beneficent results. A railway manager can no more afford to indulge in arbitrary treatment of the traders, or to impose conditions of transit likely