TRANSPORT. 261 



supposing the railways were State property ; 

 could have followed the Australian example, and 

 carried the farmer's goods to market at one-eighth 

 or one-tenth the usual traffic rates. But there 

 never has been in England a government sym- 

 pathetic to agriculture for this past half century, 

 and there is no reason for supposing other than 

 that, in regard to railway rates as in regard to 

 all else, the interests of the land would have 

 been ignored if railway rates had been a matter 

 of State control. 



But, presuming now a movement of rural 

 regeneration, it is certain that a careful watch 

 would need to be kept that the railway com- 

 panies did not hamper or smother it. Great 

 Britain is peculiarly favourably situated for 

 cheap transport from farm to city. There are 

 no very great distances, no great mountains, 

 several good rivers ; and the crowded centres of 

 population are fairly well distributed over the 

 country. It is an unlucky farmer who has 

 not a fairly big city within fifty miles of his 

 farm, and that is a distance over which motor 

 traction can keep railway rates in check. I 

 foresee no difficulty at all of transport in the 



