160 The Right Hon. Lord Montagu of BeauUeu [April 3, 



slower traffic, and for those who for various reasons will continue to 

 use horse carriages instead of mechanically propelled vehicles. That 

 there were two Bills before the Houses of Parliament at the beginning 

 of the session to provide a western exit from London, in itself shows 

 the trend of events ; and one only need add that every civil engineer 

 of importance, every student of traffic problems, every government 

 official whose department is connected with the subject, in addition to 

 at least three royal commissions, and one departmental committee, 

 have reported in favour of a new national road policy, including the 

 making of fresh exits from towns to relieve the congestion of popula- 

 tion and the congestion of traffic alike. One of the most important 

 questions of the day is the establishment of a central highway board 

 to superintend the maintenance of main roads. Their management 

 to-day is in the hands of thousands of local authorities, w^ho are nearly 

 all working on different systems of road making — entailing waste and 

 inefficiency. If the motor car compels the re-organisation of our high- 

 way system on a national basis, it will on that ground alone be 

 worthy of the gratitude of posterity. 



I must now pass on to some other changes for which the modern 

 motor car is responsible. 



Its political and social effects are many and important. Politi- 

 cally, I am glad to say that neither of the great parties in the State 

 can claim the general body of motorists as being particularly attached 

 to it, though perhaps the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, look- 

 ing upon motorists as being a rich class, and therefore his special 

 prey, and believing that they will bear further taxation without meet- 

 ings in Trafalgar Square or invasions of the House of Commons in 

 motor omnibuses, may perhaps alienate the loyalty of Liberal motorists. 

 The majority of motor cars, however, belong to people possessed of 

 moderate means, and it would be just as fair to assert that a man Avas 

 to be specially heavily taxed because he possessed a horse-carriage, as to 

 presume him to be exceedingly wealthy because he is in possession of a 

 motor car. Of course, a few millionaires possess some very expensive 

 motor cars, but the majority of motor-car owners are neither richer 

 nor poorer than the majority of horse-carriage owners. 



There are seasons, however, in the political world when the motor 

 car owner is extremely popular with the chiefs of all political parties, 

 that is at election times. It is then that cabinet ministers write 

 flattering personal notes to well-known motorists asking them to 

 lend cars for the coming bye or general elections, and the most 

 bitter of anti-motorists of both sexes. Conservative or Radical, may 

 be seen penning gushing notes to their friends, asking them if they 

 can obtain the use of motor cars to help her or his friend to victory 

 at the polls. And the voter himself is becoming so convinced of the 

 superiority of the motor car as a vehicle for election purposes that in 

 many cases he will not only not walk to the poll half a mile away, 

 but he refuses to go in the most luxurious horse-drawn sociable or 



