formidable list of accusations brought against railway companies, exclaimed in mocking protest:

"Oh, the wicked railway companies! It is always the railway companies ! "

It is always the railway companies. Let them lay this to heart.

It is the difficulties which beset intending agriculturists in this matter of transport which throttle enterprise. It is the speculator who has not dared to come forward, and the enterprise which has never come to fruition which are lost.

From everywhere comes the same story: can't pay, because of the railways."

"It

CHAPTER IX

CANALS AND RIVER TRAFFIC

The Times, December 16, 1915.

"This war will put an end to English supremacy at sea, not only because, as we all hope, the European Central Powers will be victorious, but because in this struggle they have the support of all neutral countries, and even the support of England's present Allies (sic). But, as a matter of fact, England's naval supremacy is already crumbling. A year ago the AustroGerman advance to the Dardanelles would have been described as a dream. To-day it is a reality. Now in these extraordinary times we Central Europeans do not need the sea-way as our road right up to the Indian frontier. In such times we can get along without it, and so a great part of the world is freed from English supremacy, if not from English pressure, and English supremacy is itself threatened.

"But the great advantage of the sea, lies in the fact that enormous quantities of goods can be carried at extremely cheap rates, and that the railways cannot compete with them. If, therefore, I must upon the strength of my experience make any prediction about the development of the new world constellation, it is this-that, not only in war time, but also in peace time, there will be an effort to attain the utmost possible independence of the sea. The development of the AustroHungarian Monarchy will presumably tend towards the identification of industry and agriculture. For this there will be need of enormous transport resources, and transport ought, if possible, to be other than railway transport. This leads to the idea of the development of the Central European Canal system, and to the improvement of waterways which are not navigable. In this way we can, to a considerable extent, although by no means entirely, obtain the advantages which belong to sea transport."

The above is a quotation from a German newspaper. The part which canals and waterways may be made to play in the internal commerce of the nation has been all too much neglected.

It was too readily concluded that with the advent of the railway the fate of canals was sealed. This might have been the case had the railways developed along the lines of scientific economy. That they did not do so has been shown.

FROM THE REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON CANALS, 1906.1

(62) There have been no considerable extensions of the mileage of waterways since the commencement of the railway era about the year 1830. Indeed, there has been a diminution of the total mileage as it stood then, because a considerable total length of waterway was converted into railway lines, or has gone entirely out of working operation, and become unnavigable. A list of the waterways which have been so converted, or have become unnavigable, is given in Vol. 1, Appendix, page III.

(63) The total mileage of canals and navigations at present used in the United Kingdom is about 4,670 miles. Of this total extent, about 3,639 miles lie in England and Wales, 183 in Scotland, and 848 in Ireland.

(64) From the point of view of management, 3,310 miles are not railway-owned or controlled. 1,360 miles, or not far from a third of the whole extent, are so owned or controlled.

But this 1,360 miles is so located as to be the key to the control of the whole system.

The railway ownership of canals in this country is in no way meant to tend to the benefit of the canal. It is a strategic ownership for the purpose of eliminating competition with the railways, or what in the United States is called "sandbagging."

The canal, strange as it may appear, can, even,

1 "The Waterways Association Digest," p. 8.

under present conditions, successfully compete with the railway.

The decay of canals dated from the introduction of railways. Canals were neglected. It was considered that the railway had come, and that the canals must go.

Abroad it was soon recognised that the railways were not the irresistible enemy which it had been supposed they would be, with the result that in Belgium and France, for instance, canal traffic is in a highly flourishing condition, and there is a healthy competition between canal and rail.

It should have been still easier to make canal traffic a business proposition in this country, and for the reason that, where railway rates are so high, the effect of the comparative lowness of canal rates would have been to place the canals at a great advantage.

Canals, however, have received very little encouragement, and have met with considerable opposition from the railway companies. The railway companies have acquired many of them, and have run them at a loss, refusing to reduce canal rates lest the railways should be compelled to do likewise.

It is conceivable that had the railways been exposed to the healthy competition of a flourishing canal traffic, it would have been absolutely necessary that they should have reformed their methods in some such direction as has been indicated in the foregoing chapters. The whole community would then have been the gainer.

It is a fact which will astonish most people, that at the present moment canal traffic is in many instances quicker than railway transit. This was not, however, so much the case before the present congestion, which is due, as has been shown, to maladministration and lack of foresight on the part of the railway authorities.

The reader must here be referred back to the table on p. 40 of chapter i. It is an unanswerable proof

of railway congestion. It shows how canals may easily be the more expeditious method of conveyance.

It must be again pointed out that this table has reference to pre-war conditions-in the year 1912. As is well known, goods traffic on our railways, as a result of war conditions, is in a state absolutely disastrous to ordinary commerce, and has been equally disastrous to the lives of our soldiers, a fact which has been stated in the Press by munitions manufacturers.

A barge travelling express takes five days to go to Birmingham from Brentford, a distance of 100 miles; this allows two and a half days for transhipment and terminals. According to the above table, the railway does not do anything like as well as this. Barge express speed may be put at something under two miles an hour. Railway wagon speed, when once the wagon is loaded, is probably about one mile per hour, but if we add to the time occupied the delays in loading and unloading, we reach the terrible results given in the table, where we discover, according to the average of the figures in the extreme right-hand column, and as emphasised by the note, a speed of one-third of a mile per hour is not achieved.

Can any merchant be otherwise than aghast at this revelation ?

In this matter of canals nothing is likely to enlighten the reader more than the evidence of Mr. de Salis, Vice-Chairman of Messrs. Fellows, Morton & Clayton, Ltd., Canal Carriers, given before the Royal Commission on canals. Mr. de Salis says:1

"The canal service is too irregular, and the time occupied in transit is too long, to meet the requirements of trade as it is conducted to-day. The first difficulty-that is the irregularity-arises from the fact that, owing to the through traffic having been driven off the canal, the number of canal carriers and the plant available for carrying the through traffic on

1 " Waterways Association Digest,” p. 9.