The gentlemen to whom the letter was addressed showed no anxiety to be enlightened. The great weight of authority behind this scheme did not impel them towards any investigation, and it is this complete lack of any effort at enquiry which justifies the suspicion that they have reason to be content with the undesirable state of things which has been shown to exist.

They cannot say it is impracticable, because they have not the materials on which to form a judgment; but it is impossible that any impartial person can say that this negative attitude is one consistent with their plain duty to their shareholders, their workmen, or the public.

It is self-evident that, had the railway managers been anxious for the reform of the present chaotic condition, they could have appointed one, or more, of their very able engineers to examine into this scheme and publish a report upon it.

Until this straightforward course is adopted it is impossible to state the objections entertained by these gentlemen. Perhaps, after all, silence is their best

weapon.

Dr. Hele Shaw, F.R.S., a great scientific and railway expert, wrote in The Times of May 25, 1914:

"There are two aspects of this question of a central Goods Clearing House for London: (1) Commercial and Economic ; and (2) Engineering.

"I, of course, cannot speak with authority of the former, but I have read, with great interest, the Report of Mr. Edgar Harper, formerly the Statistical Officer of the London County Council, and now Chief Valuing Officer for Somerset House, who has examined the financial side of the Clearing House proposition as advanced by the New Transport Company, and in that report, which has been printed and widely circulated, he shows that after paying 5 per cent. on the necessary capital

of £14,000,000, there would be an actual surplus profit of more than 66 per cent. per annum.

"If these extraordinary figures are absurd, it will, I imagine, be the first absurd document to which Mr. Harper's name has been attached.

"As to the engineering side, I feel on more assured ground, and, in common with many engineers, I have inspected and studied the plans and drawings of the Clearing House and the actual working of the trial machinery, and, as far as I can see, the scheme appears to be perfectly sound from this point of view. . . . Although I do not pretend to say that all its details are perfect, at any rate it deserves and must have a careful and prolonged examination. If there are any flaws, these must be definitely pointed out; if the scheme is unsound, the reasons for unsoundness must be given; if anything better can be suggested, it will be the duty of those giving evidence to bring forward their suggestion. Any scheme or proposition which can really contribute toward the end in view must be fairly dealt with, and, when the remedy is discovered, there must be no shrinking from its application, no matter how drastic or revolutionary such remedy may be."

If the criminal apathy of railway direction leads to a great industrial disaster, the culprits will have to reckon with their outraged victims.

The importance of this question has been repeatedly pressed upon public departments, and for this reason, that with the exception of the Foreign Office there is no department which is not more or less affected. by the present state of things.

Lord Selborne, Mr. Asquith, Mr. McKenna, Mr. Lloyd George, Lord Buxton, Mr. John Burns, Mr. Birrell, Lord Loreburn, Lord Haldane, Mr. Winston Churchill, Mr. Balfour, and Mr. Runciman have all had the matter placed before them, and have all dealt with it in the approved British official method

of evasion, which, practised for so many years, has led to the inefficiency which is costing the country hundreds of thousands of lives, and hundreds of millions of money.

It will be interesting to note how the German Government, or, to speak more accurately, the German Emperor, deals with such problems.

No one can deny, whatever the outcome of the war may be, that the Germans have shown that in matters of commercial progress no prejudice or red tape is allowed to block the path.

In the present instance, Dr. Johannes, the German Consul-General in London, was instructed by his government to write a letter stating that much interest had been aroused by an article in a London paper, and that he was desired by his government to enquire of the originator whether the scheme would be applicable to the German Empire.

On being informed that it most certainly would be so applicable, Dr. Johannes made a visit of inspection and a further visit was afterwards received from Herr von Schäwen of the German Ministry of Transport. The date of this visit was June, 1914.

He spent some hours in examining and making notes on the scheme and the machinery, and his final observation was: "What an instrument for a mobili

sation!"

The scheme which aroused the interest and admiration of the Germans, with their astounding military machine, and which appealed to them as having special military value, is apparently beneath the notice of our own General Staff.

It is also apparently beneath the notice of any of those public departments which, if the claims which have been put forward are true, have enormous interests at stake.

Certain letters have been received from Cabinet

Ministers, which cannot be quoted, as they are marked private," but they betray an ignorance of the important issues involved which would disgrace a schoolboy.

But man, proud man,

Dressed in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
Like an angry ape, plays such fantastic tricks
Before high Heaven, as make the angels weep.

CHAPTER V

ECONOMIES

It will be better to summarise in a short chapter the economies estimated, and apparent, which go to make up the sum of £365,000,000 per annum which it has been claimed could be saved to the nation.

That this sum of £365,000,000 is an underestimate it is confidently believed, but in the figures used in arriving at the following totals, margins as wide as, at times, 50 per cent. have been allowed. The object has been not to give the opponents of reform an opportunity for captious criticism.

The loss incurred by the unnecessary detention of vessels in port owing to railway congestion, consequent on maladministration, is undoubtedly a very large sum, and it is certain that £100,000,000 is much below the mark.