xxii. How to Pay for the War 



up-to-date transport systems will have to be introduced 

 throughout many portions of the Empire, and chiefly 

 throughout the United Kingdom, if we are to hold our 

 own and take full advantage of the trade boom that will 

 fall upon us directly the War is over and the trade channels 

 or, let us say, the trade-sluices, are opened and start to 

 flow fiercely and freely again. This country especially, 

 in proportion to the needs of her population, of the volume 

 of trade that should be hers when peace comes, and in 

 face of the chances that she has had in the past to do 

 better, but has only ignored, stands in the greatest need 

 of having her transport systems generally thoroughly 

 re-organized and brought up to date. Unless this is done, 

 and done very soon, we shall not be able to avoid the 

 serious congestion of traffic and the stifling effect this 

 congestion is bound to have on our trade when the War 

 comes to an end and everything and everybody will be, 

 or will want to be, on the move. 



Some time ago, in 1904, Mr. E. A. Pratt, a writer who 

 is, or ought to be, well known as an authority on matters 

 dealing with agriculture, home industries, trade unions, 

 and British industries, as well as on the railway systems of 

 this country, told us in his " Organization of Agriculture," 

 that the subject of agricultural (and trade) organization, 

 together with the whole question of the transport of the 

 commodities when produced, has very wide ramifications 

 as between the railways and transport systems and our 

 producers and manufacturers — issues whose ramifications 

 are, in fact, far too wide to be squeezed in between the 

 covers of any popular book. At the same time Mr. Pratt 

 manages to squeeze in much valuable information on the 

 need of the general public helping to bring about the 

 better organization of our transport systems and thus 

 enable them to be more capable of assisting in their turn 

 to develop the agricultural, and the import and exporc 

 trade of this country. 



