SOCIALIST VIEWS ON BRITISH RAILWAYS AND SHIPPING
Many Socialists complain, and they complain with good cause, about the
railways of Great Britain. All the British railways are in private
hands, and they are very inefficient. They are in many respects very
backward, badly equipped, and badly managed. They have wasted their
capital, watered their stock, and have paid dividends out of capital;
their freight charges are exorbitant; besides, they give habitually
and by various means, with which it would lead too far to deal in this
book, preferential treatment of a very substantial kind to the
foreigner.
Many Socialists have extracted from British Government publications
instances of such preferential treatment. One of the most widely read
Socialist writers, for example, gives among others the following
freight charges favouring the foreigner:
"Carriage of a ton of British meat, Liverpool to London, _2l._:
Carriage of a ton of foreign meat, Liverpool to London, _1l. 5s._:
Carriage of a ton of eggs Galway to London, _4l. 14s._: Carriage of a
ton of eggs Denmark to London, _1l. 4s._: Carriage of a ton of plums,
apples, and pears, Queenborough (Kent) to London, _1l. 5s._: Carriage
of same from Flushing (Holland), _12s. 6d._: Carriage per ton of
English pianos Liverpool to London _3l. 10s._: Carriage as above of
foreign, _1l. 5s._: British timber per ton Cardiff to Birmingham,
_16s. 8d._: foreign as above _8s. 10d._ In the carriage of iron ore
and steel rails the American railways charge _6s. 3d._ where the
British charge _29s. 3d._"[729]
"The real enemy are the monopolists of land and locomotion--the
landlord and the raillord who are uprooting the British people from
their native soil. It is in fact by no means easy to say which is the
greater malefactor of the two."[730] Such differential charges are
bound to cripple the British industries, and in view of the harm which
is thus being done to British farmers, manufacturers, and traders, it
is only natural that British Socialists are unanimous in condemning
the anti-British freight policy of the railways and in recommending
that they should be taken over and managed by the State.
"There are nearly 24,000 miles of railway in the kingdom, the greater
part of which is owned or controlled by a dozen great companies, who,
moreover, have standing conferences through which they exercise a
virtual monopoly against the public, although they have all the
expenses of competing concerns. The public bears the costs and
inconveniences of competition without many of its benefits. The total
capital of the companies is _1,300,000,000l._ of which _200,000,000l._
is nominal or 'watered' stock. A very large part of the rest was for
extravagant sums paid to great landowners for their land and another
large part for legal expenses. On this huge capital a sum of
_44,000,000l._ has to be earned in dividends. If the State bought out
the railways, it could borrow this necessary sum for at least
_5,000,000l._ to _8,000,000l._ a year less than this, and at once
effect enormous savings resulting from the present competitive and
chaotic methods of the companies. Despite the virtual monopoly, there
are over 3,000 railway directors drawing fees or salaries amounting to
nearly _1,500,000l._ Of the principal of these there are eighty in the
Lords and twenty-five in the Commons. Mr. Gladstone predicted that if
the State did not control the railway companies, they would control
the State, and this has come to pass. Their servants are overworked
and underpaid, extortionate freights are charged on the carriage of
goods, unfair preferences are given, but Parliament is powerless to
check this."[731]
"The railway system to-day is the greatest protection ever heard of in
favour of the foreigner, and neither Mr. Chamberlain nor Mr. Balfour,
nor any other man makes a single proposal to touch the railway
question. Why? Because the House of Commons is dominated by the
railway interest."[732] "Our railway experience proves that it is not
enough to make preferential rates illegal. They reappear too easily in
the form of rebates and even of allowances which belong to the more
private chapters of capitalist history. The attempt of the Railway
Commission to abolish preference in railway rates has left us with a
system which could not be much worse from the national industrial
point of view."[733]
"Imperial trade suffers no more serious handicap than that imposed
upon it by shipping rings and railway companies, which exploit the
Imperial needs of transport for their own purposes, which hamper the
ready flow of Imperial trade, and, for an insignificant percentage,
turn the British seamen off the water in favour of the Lascar."[734]
"The railways of India, which yield a great portion of our Indian
revenue, are owned by the Indian Government. The well-managed and
prosperous systems of Australasia, with the best conditions of labour
and the lowest freights of any railways in the world, are State owned.
Why, then, should not the British Government own and control in the
public interest the systems which are so wastefully and inefficiently
managed by the present companies?"[735]
The last Annual Conference of the Independent Labour Party resolved:
"That in the opinion of this Conference the time is ripe for the
nationalisation of the railways of the country, and that our
representatives be asked to urge forward a measure to that effect in
Parliament."[736] The Fabians think that "An equitable basis of
purchase may be found in Mr. Gladstone's Act of 1844, which enables
the Treasury to buy out the shareholders of lines built since that
date at twenty-five years' purchase, calculated on the earnings of the
previous three years. The price of the railways need not be an
insuperable, or even a serious, difficulty in the way of national
possession of the means of transit."[737]
The demand of the Socialists that the Government should acquire the
railways would perhaps be reasonable if that demand was not coupled
with extravagant and fantastic ideas regarding their future
management. The different Socialistic views as to the proper
management of State railways are summed up as follows by Mr.
Blatchford: "The railways belong to railway companies, who carry goods
and passengers and charge fares and rates to make profit. Socialists
all say that the railways should be bought by the people. Some say
that fares should be charged, some that the railways should be
free--just as the roads, rivers, and bridges now are; but all agree
that any profit made by the railways should belong to the whole
nation, just as do the profits now made by the Post Office and the
telegraphs."[738]
One Socialist writer modestly proposes that the fare anywhere in
Great Britain should be a shilling. "Look at our railroads--might they
not be the property of the community at large as well as the high
roads, instead of being a monopoly in the hands of private persons
whose sole object is to enrich themselves at the cost of their fellow
citizens? If so, it has been proved that you could go to any part of
these islands with a shilling ticket."[739]
Other Socialists advocate that railway travelling should be made
absolutely free to all, and that the costs of running the railways
free of charge should be borne exclusively by the rich. "The blessings
of free travel are too many by far for enumeration, but one stands
out. It is the only effective means yet suggested for the extirpation
of our vile city slums. At present the sweated must live near their
work."[740] "Overcrowding can only be cured outright by one sovereign
remedy--by giving the toiler a home in the country; and free travel
alone makes this possible. There is no reason why a 'docker' should
not grow his own vegetables and be his own dairyman at the same time.
Free travel would in a few years change the whole face of
society."[741] "A nation that can afford to spend _140,000,000l._ a
year on strong liquors might not unreasonably be asked to strike even
the forty odd millions off its drink-bill--about half that amount
would suffice for the purpose--and take them out in free ozone."[742]
"Then would rise the question how to make up for the abolition of
passenger fares. The answer, it seems to me, is not far to seek. The
substitute tax must be levied on the 'unearned increment' of land,
urban and rural. The people must therefore unfalteringly press for the
reassessment of the 'land-tax' by gradual increase up to _20s._ in the
pound, and in the meantime procure any further funds necessary from
our surplus capital by a graduated income-tax. Personally I abhor
usury, whether in the shape of railway dividends or Government
Consols, as alike _contra naturam_ and _contra Christum_."[743]
In order to further the policy of free travelling by railway,
Socialists appear to have founded a "Free Railway Travel League,"
domiciled at 359 Strand, London, W.C. I am not aware whether the Free
Railway Travel League--every tramp should join it--exists still.
It is only logical that, if the railways should be made free for the
carriage of people, they should likewise be made free for the
transport of goods. "It is obvious that if railways can be worked free
for passengers they may be made free for goods as well. Free goods
traffic would everywhere equalise the price of commodities, be they
the produce of sea or land, mine or manufacture, and equal wages in
town and country would speedily follow equal prices with beneficial
results to the people altogether incalculable. Granted free passes,
free freights will doubtless in time follow almost as a matter of
course."[744]
When free travel by railway has been established, free travel by
tramway, which has already been demanded by municipal reformers (see
Chapter XVII.), will necessarily also be introduced. A publication
issued by the most scientific body of British Socialists, the Fabian
Society, urges: "There is only one safe principle to guide the
reformer. The tramways, the light railways, and the railways must be
regarded as the modern form of the king's highway. Our fathers spent
time and trouble ridding the roads of tolls; and railway rates and
passenger fares are merely modern tolls. Their abolition must come
sooner or later."[745] "We have abolished the turnpike gate and the
toll-collector, and our highways are free in the sense that they are
maintained by general assessment. And if the turnpike gate was an
odious obstruction to the traveller, how much more obnoxious to him,
or her, is the railway ticket-box?"[746]
Railways may be made free before the ideal Socialist State of the
future has been created, but they will certainly be free as soon as
the Socialist commonwealth has been established. "Railways will play a
very great part indeed in the Socialist State, They will be absolutely
'free' for every purpose. The cost of actual working is comparatively
inconsiderable, while the benefits of free transit are incalculable.
To decentralise the population so as to efface the distinction between
dwellers in town and country is to renovate humanity physically and
morally."[747]
After travel and transport has been made absolutely free on land
throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain, the free travel
and transport principle will of course be extended to travel and
transport by sea, and free travel and transport by sea will better
bind the Empire together than a Pan-Britannic Customs Union. The most
scientific body of British Socialists, the Fabian Society, says: "A
logical consequence of the national management of internal means of
communication will be the completion of the State control of our
oversea transit. It is impossible here to go into details. Let it
suffice to remark that already the nation has a direct financial
interest in the great steamship lines, through its mail subsidies and
Admiralty loans with corresponding claims for service in war; that
intellectually the nation, by its pride in its magnificent mercantile
fleet, regards it as a national possession, and declines to consider
our shipping as the mere private property of the shareholders of the
steamship companies; and finally, that our navy is maintained at
enormous public expense expressly to protect the mercantile fleet,
which at present is mainly private property."[748] "The notion that
the forces making for disintegration can be neutralised by 10 per
cent. preferential duties is not worth discussing; indeed, the raising
of the fiscal question seems at least as likely to reveal our
commercial antagonisms as our community of interests. And the huge
distances will be mighty forces on the side of disintegration unless
we abolish them. Well, why not abolish them? Distances are now counted
in days, not in miles. The Atlantic Ocean is as wide as it was in
1870; but the United States are four days nearer than they were then.
Commercially, however, distance is mainly a matter of freightage. Now
it is as possible to abolish ocean freightage as it was to make
Waterloo Bridge toll-free, or establish the Woolwich free ferry. It is
already worth our while to give Canada the use of the British Navy for
nothing. Why not give her the use of the mercantile marine for nothing
instead of taxing bread to give her a preference? Or, if that is too
much, why not offer her special rates? It is really only a question of
ocean road making. A national mercantile fleet plying between the
provinces of the Empire, and carrying Empire goods and passengers
either free or at charges far enough below cost to bring Australasia
and Canada commercially nearer to England than to the Continent, would
form a link with the mother-country which once brought fully into use
could never be snapped without causing a commercial crisis in every
province."[749]
The purchase of the whole British mercantile marine by the Government
would incidentally have the effect of abolishing the British shipping
rings, which, like the British railways, frequently penalise with
discriminating rates the British producer and shipper. "Of the real
conditions of ocean traffic, at present, the public has no suspicion.
All our lines of communication are controlled by shipping rings which
carry preferential rating (an illegal practice in our inland transit)
to an extent that would shock Mr. Chamberlain back again to Free
Trade if he realised it; for their preferences are by no means
patriotic; they have helped Belgium into our Indian market, and
Germany and America into South Africa and New Zealand. The cotton
conference of Liverpool directly assisted the American exporters of
cotton to China by the heavy charges they made against the Lancashire
manufacturer--charges which were modified only after repeated
protests. These rings and rates constitute the most dangerous
disintegrating force we have to face."[750]
There is much justification in the complaints of the Socialists with
regard to British railways and shipping, but their proposals are, as
usual, quite Utopian. For all ills of the body politic and economic,
the Socialists have only one remedy, and that an infallible
one--nationalisation, or rather Socialisation.
The policy of the British railway and shipping rings is no doubt a
national scandal, but their defects and delinquencies may no doubt be
counteracted by appropriate Government action and legislation. It is
probably now too late for the State to acquire the railways. The State
cannot afford to risk a large capital loss. Railway purchase would
apparently be too speculative an undertaking.
If the State should acquire the railways, they would certainly be run
at a profit. The sooner the Socialists abandon their fixed idea that
profit on private and national undertakings is immoral, the better
will it be for them. So long as they decry profit and propose to work
State undertakings without a profit, so long can they not be taken
seriously. Profit consists in part of the salary of direction, in part
of the earnings set aside for effecting the necessary alterations,
improvements, and extensions, and for forming a reserve fund for
making losses good, &c. Therefore abandonment of profit would mean the
decline and decay of the national capital.
FOOTNOTES:
[729] Davidson, _Free Trade_ v. _Fettered Transport_, p. 9.
[730] _Ibid._ p. 7.
[731] _Reformers' Year Book_, 1907, pp. 119, 120.
[732] Hyndman, _Real Reform_, p. 14.
[733] _Fabianism and the Fiscal Question_, p. 17.
[734] Macdonald, _Labour and the Empire_, p. 96.
[735] _Reformers' Year Book_, 1907, p. 120.
[736] _Independent Labour Party Report, Annual Conference_, 1907, p.
50.
[737] _Socialism and Labour Policy_, p. 14.
[738] Blatchford, _Britain for the British_, p. 86.
[739] Sorge, _Socialism and the Worker_, p. 13.
[740] Davidson, _Free Trade and Fettered Transport_, p. 17.
[741] Davidson, _Free Rails and Trams_, p. 9.
[742] _Ibid._ p. 13.
[743] Davidson, _Free Rails and Free Trams_, p. 7.
[744] _Ibid._ p. 14.
[745] _Public Control of Electric Power and Transit_, p. 10.
[746] Davidson, _Free Rails and Trams_, p. 5.
[747] Davidson, _The Old Order and the New_, p. 158.
[748] _Public Control of Electric Power and Transit_, p. 14.
[749] _Fabianism and the Fiscal Question_, p. 16.
[750] _Fabianism and the Fiscal Question_, p. 16.