STEAM ON COUNTRY ROADS. 231 



taken where the railway chooses, and not where it would 

 suit the farmer's convenience. When at last the farmer's 

 waggon reaches the station he finds no particular trouble 

 taken to meet his needs ; his horse and carters are kept 

 hours and hours, perhaps far into the night, for a mere 

 matter of a ton or two, nor is there any special anxiety 

 shown to deliver his consignment early, though if it 

 should not be moved from the companies' premises de- 

 murrage is charged. In short, the railway companies, 

 knowing that the agriculturists until the formation of 

 the ' Farmers' Alliance' were incapable of united action, 

 have used them much as they liked. As for the rates 

 charged, the evidence recently taken, and which is to be 

 continued, shows that they are arbitrary and often ex- 

 cessive. The accommodation is poor in the extreme, 

 the charges high, the speed low, and every condition 

 against the farmer. This, in its turn, drives the farmer 

 more into the hands of the middleman. The latter 

 makes a study of the rail and its awkward ways, and 

 manages to get the goods through, of course adding to 

 their cost when they reach the public. Without the 

 dealer, under present circumstances, the farmer would 

 often find it practically impossible to get to markets not 

 in his immediate neighbourhood. The rail and its awk- 

 ward, inconvenient ways actually shut him off. In 

 manufacturing districts the transit of iron and minerals 

 and worked-up metal is managed with considerable 

 ability. There are appointed to manage the goods traffic 

 men who are alert to the conditions of modern require- 

 ments and quick to meet them. In agricultural districts 

 the question often arises if there be really any respon- 

 sible local goods managers at all. It seems to be left to 

 men who are little more than labourers, and who cannot 

 understand the patent fact that times are different now 



