1909.] Notes Regarding Railway Regulation. 6l 



NOTES REGARDING RAILWAY REGULATION. 



By S. J. McLean, LL.B. 



Member of the Board of Railway Commissioners for Canada. 



(Summary of Paper Read igth March, 19 10) 



The corporate form of management has great financial and produc- 

 tive power. At the same time it is recognized that the large volume of 

 capital invested in a corporation renders competition less immediately 

 effective. As a result of this we find a large amount of regulative legis- 

 lation dealing with corporations. 



In the modern state regulation has been worked out in two ways; 

 First, by publicity, Second, by direct regulation. 



It has been recognized that the field of railway transportation requires 

 direct regulation. The part played by railway transportation in modern 

 history may be exemplified in many ways. For example, east bound 

 shipments of wheat from the North West; British Columbia shingles and 

 lumber east bound ; west bound shipments of manufactured products, and 

 also the agricultural products such as potatoes, etc. In an older country, 

 for example Great Britain, railways assist development which has already 

 taken place. In a new country, like Canada, the railway is a colonizing 

 factor as well. An example of this may be obtained from the expansion 

 of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the West and the construction of the 

 Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and the Canadian Northern Railway. At 

 present about seven-tenths of the C. P. R. mileage is west of the lakes. 

 About 37 per cent, of the total railway mileage of Canada was on the basis 

 of the figures of 1909 west of the lakes. 



Two types of policy have been pursued in regard to railways — (a) 

 Government ownership, (b) Private ownership. In Great Britain and 

 Ireland, United States and Canada which have a little more than one-half 

 of the railway mileage of the world, the policy is to have private ownership 

 plus Government regulation. 



In the development of regulation England has led the way. As early 

 as 1854 it affirmatively recognized that competition might work out 



