The Outlook 



509 



mentary sanction, and thus likely to provoke opposition, and 

 have made such arrangements between themselves as were 

 within their powers and were likely to give them some of the 

 advantages they wanted, though not, perhaps, all. 



Following on certain developments in these various direc- 

 tions, a Departmental Committee was appointed, in June, 

 1909, by the Board of Trade to consider and report " vrhat 

 changes, if any, are expedient in the law relating to agreement^ 

 among railway companies, and what, if any, general provisions 

 ought to be embodied for the purpose of safeguarding the 

 various interests affected in future Acts of Parliament author- 

 ising railway amalgamations or working unions." The report 

 of this Committee [Cd. 5631] was issued in May, 1911. 



In so far as they deal with the principle that even Parliament 

 itself is powerless to prevent the tendency to co-operation 

 between railway companies originally designed to compete 

 with one another, the Committee do little more than re-echo 

 what was said, not only by the Joint Committee of 1872, 

 but even by Morrison in the speech he made in the House of 

 Commons on May 17, 1836. There is, also, a close resemblance 

 between what I have stated concerning the position in 1836 

 and at subsequent dates namely, that there was no allegation 

 that the railway companies had abused their powers, only fear 

 that they might do so and the following extract from the 

 report made by the Departmental Committee in 1911 : 



" It is, of course, to the interest of the railway companies 

 not to raise rates or stint accommodation to an extent that 

 will reduce traffic unduly, but, subject to this, a policy of self- 

 interest might frequently lead the companies to charge rates 

 which, judged by any existing standard, would be un- 

 reasonable." 



So, in 1911, no less than in 1836, and at any time between 

 those dates, the policy of the State towards the railways, as 

 far as it can be summed up in a single word, is represented 

 by this word " might." The attitude of distrust and suspicion 

 originally engendered towards the railways by the canal 

 companies evidently still survives, and is expected to form, 

 even to-day, the approved basis of State action. The principle 

 of railway co-operation is, indeed, frankly and fully accepted 

 by the Departmental Committee, who declare they have come 

 to the unanimous conclusion " that the natural lines of develop- 



