214 RAILWAY RATES AND CONDITIONS 



policy has been made possible, first, by the large number of 

 directors or large holders of railway shares occupying seats 

 in both Houses of Parliament, and, secondly, by the policy 

 of amalgamation and the elimination of competition between 

 the several companies. The latter was perhaps a necessary 

 corollary of over-representation in Parliament, and one policy 

 helped forward and re-acted on the other. The elimination 

 of competition does not necessarily imply the direct increase 

 of rates, but it has always meant the withdrawal or reduction 

 of other facilities, and thus increased the cost of carriage to 

 freighters. 



It is an interesting fact that railway questions cut across 

 the ordinary divisions of party, and whichever Government 

 may be in power, leaders cannot control their followers to 

 the extent of driving them into their own lobby. On a critical 

 division Front Bench members will urge their Front Bench 

 policy, but they will use the whip most sparingly, and dis- 

 obedience to the whip is not recorded against backsliders. 

 It is doubtful if any other " Interest " can show as much 

 cohesion in both Houses of Parliament as can the so-called 

 " Railway Interest." This fact alone renders it well-nigh 

 impossible to obtain fair or reasonable legislation, since it enables 

 those who direct the general policy of the railway companies 

 to defeat every amendment to measures of which the general 

 managers disapprove. If it be a private Bill and the battle 

 be fought out in the Committee -rooms upstairs, the railway 

 companies, with their practically unlimited resources, retain 

 most of the counsel who are authorities on railway law, or 

 who have made a reputation in this branch of legal work, 

 and consequently the traders, or the employees, stand very 

 little chance of seeing a really fair measure placed on the 

 Statute Book. 



Another factor has been the attitude of the Board of Trade. 

 That Department has been endowed with a variety of powers 

 for dealing with railway matters. One of their functions is 

 to act as conciliators between traders and the railways, with 

 a view to reducing litigation. It is probable that a certain 

 amount of litigation has been thus averted, but incidentally 



