352 History of Inland Transport 



Government in Relation to the Railways of the Country," 

 given to the Great Western Railway (London) Lecture and 

 Debating Society on February n, 1909 : 



" Traders are apt to conveniently overlook the fact that 

 owner's risk rates did not precede the ordinary rates, but that 

 they have depended from the latter, and proposals have 

 actually been made that the order of things should be reversed, 

 and the owner's risk rates made the base rates, the company's 

 risk rates being arrived at by the addition of some percentage. 

 Traders well know the value of the insurance which the differ- 

 ence between the two classes of rates represents to them, 

 and, indeed, base their practice in making use of either rate 

 upon this knowledge. If the trader is prepared to be his own 

 insurer, that is, when there is a sufficiently wide margin be- 

 tween the two rates, he takes the owner's risk rate ; but if he 

 considers his goods are too valuable for him to accept the risk 

 himself, he makes the company do so by sending his freight 

 at the ordinary rates." 



In the controversies which have arisen on this question of 

 owner's risk frequent reference has been made to the fact 

 that in Germany there is only one kind of rate, and that under 

 it the State railways do, nominally, assume the risk. I have, 

 however, already shown in my pamphlets on " German versus 

 British Railways " and " German Railways and Traders " 

 that unless the consignments forwarded on the German State 

 railways are packed so securely that it is practically im- 

 possible for them to come to any harm, they are accepted by 

 the railway officials only after the trader has signed a form of 

 indemnity declaring that the goods are either " unpacked " 

 or " insufficiently packed," thus absolving the State railways 

 of the responsibility they are supposed to accept. 



Complaints respecting " preferential rates " have been an 

 especially fertile source of controversy and litigation. The 

 phrase as here used is somewhat misleading. The real ground 

 of complaint is against, not simply " preference," but " undue 

 preference." 



If a lower rate is given for a 2-ton or a 5-ton than for a 

 2-cwt. or a 5~cwt. consignment, the trader in the former case 

 gets a distinct advantage over the trader in the latter case, 

 just in the same way as the wholesale man buys a large 

 quantity of goods at a lower price than that asked for from 



