that cheese, does not grow in the cheesemonger's shop, nor do legs of mutton originate on iron hooks in butchers' shops, but that these articles have to be brought from somewhere, perhaps from the other side of the world, and that she has to pay for the bringing. A well-known member of Parliament has truly affirmed that the cost of transport very often exceeds the original cost of the article transported.

It is absolutely necessary to drive this point home before proceeding.

The reader must not jump to the conclusion that a list of railway rates gives the whole facts of the case. True, such a list might show that the railway freight charge of the finished article was only a fraction of the selling price; but how far from the actual truth, and how misleading this figure might be, can be shown in the case of ordinary crockery:

(1) The cost of transport of the finished article is only one of the transport charges involved, and the railway rate is only a portion of this particular charge.1

(2) Another transport charge involved is that of carrying the clay and other material used in manufacture, to the pottery, which may or may not be adjacent to the source of supply.

(3) There is the cost of transport of coal to the pottery, which may be a heavy item;

(4) And the charge for packing is also a heavy item of transport expense.

Besides these there are many other transport charges.

Thus it will be seen that the railway rate for the transport of the finished article is only a small part of those transport charges which go to make up the selling price of the article. It is therefore idle to argue

1 It is quite true that the railway is not the only delinquent. It is true that the vast auxiliary work of carting, the gross turnover of which is about four times the goods traffic turnover of railways, is also in a state of chaos. It is, however, the defects of railway terminal arrangements which lie at the root of the trouble.

further the importance of this question to every individual.

It is the object of this book to place the public in possession of knowledge which, if acted upon, will considerably enrich every member of the community.

Owing to the defects of our internal transport arrangements, our commerce has been damaged and is in jeopardy; and the whole existence of the British Empire is consequently at stake. If the facts and the figures set forth in this work be true, there can be no other conclusion than the above.

It is quite conceivable that had there been fifty or a hundred ships of war commanded with the ability of the captain of the Emden, we might have been forced by starvation to a national capitulation.

Enemy ships, however, are not the only danger to the country. The paralysis of our mining industry would have been a mortal blow to our fleet. That this paralysis might have been produced by means other than strikes is incontestable, and with the details of such means as it was proposed by the enemy to employ, the public will no doubt be made acquainted after

the war.

It is imperative that this country should be able to supply itself with the necessities of existence; that it is not so able is due to railway mismanagement, and has nothing whatever to do with the merits of either Free Trade or Protection.

To place the case fully before the public, it will be necessary to show that the Board of Trade has been privy to this mismanagement, and has connived at it. It is undeniable that the work of railway engineers has been admirable and progressive, but it is also true that faulty railway administration has more than neutralised every improvement, by opposition to

reform.

For the reactionaries of his time, George Stephenson with his locomotive was the original villain of the piece;

he was received with unbridled abuse and persecution. Most of Stephenson's time was spent in fighting fools. He was old before he had the command of money, or he might have accomplished many things. Westinghouse was treated as a madman when he proposed to stop trains by means of air. Vanderbilt's answer to his request for an interview was that he had no time to waste with fools." Later, Westinghouse was able to return the compliment.

Recently Mr. Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, was for a long time received with obloquy, and certain schemes of railway reform with which he is identified are now meeting with like treatment. Automatic lubrication and automatic coupling were bitterly opposed, and automatic coupling is still sacrificed to the rapacity of private wagon-builders, whilst the lives of shunters are offered on the altar of Mammon. Mammon answers this act of faith with his usual irony, and makes the process it is permitted to retain by far the more expensive of the two.

Railway direction has consistently opposed Mr. A. W. Gattie's scheme for central goods clearing houses in all large centres, a movement of foresight and practical utility and an economic reform involving the comfort and happiness of hundreds of millions of people. There is this, however, to be said in favour of the attitude of railway direction towards central goods clearance-it cannot be expected to approve of what it has never taken the least trouble to understand or to investigate.

The public should be made aware that many thousands of lives have been "sacrificed," and thousands of human beings condemned to hideous torments and agonising deaths, because railway directors will not insist on adequate experiment being made in the electric block system of signalling. They still persist in asking human beings to do what the human being can never do, viz., to guarantee itself against error.

Electric apparatus could easily protect the public against ninety-five per cent. of railway disasters.

While in the act of writing the above, a copy of The Globe newspaper was placed in the hands of the author containing the extracts quoted below.1

1 The Globe, December 17, 1915!

TRIPLE RAILWAY COLLISION IN THE FOG.

TWELVE PERSONS REPORTED KILLED AND FIFTY INJURED.
CAUGHT IN BURNING COACHES.

Three trains came into collision at St. Bedes Junction, three miles from South Shields, on the North-Eastern Railway, early to-day. The latest reports state that 12 persons have been killed and 50 injured, although some unofficial reports give the number of dead as 13. Some of the victims were killed outright, and some burnt to death.

The accident occurred soon after 7 a.m., and a dense fog prevailed. The trains involved were:

A passenger train from South Shields.

A workmen's train returning empty from Jarrow, and
A pilot engine.

There were two separate collisions. The train from South Shields, heavily laden with passengers, the majority of whom were commercial men and workmen, collided with the pilot engine, which was overturned. Very shortly afterwards the light train coming in the opposite direction crashed into the overturned engine.

IMPRISONED AMID FLAMES.

The first and second carriages of the passenger train almost immediately burst into flames, and only a few of the imprisoned occupants escaped. A woman and a child were among those killed.

No names are available, as most of the bodies have been charred beyond recognition. A number of Royal Engineers assisted in the work of removing the dead.

All who were on the scene agree that but for the smartness of the officials in unhitching the other carriages the whole train would have been involved.

REMARKABLE ESCAPES.

All the engines were derailed. The driver of the passenger engine, William Smith, of Spicer Street, Heaton, Newcastle, was thrown a distance of 20 yards into a field, but escaped with a cut on the head. The fireman, Frank M'Cardle of Monk Street, Gateshead, had a similar remarkable escape. He was also thrown many yards from his engine, and escaped with a shaking. These men were brought to Newcastle Infirmary, and, after treatment, were able to proceed to their homes. The fireman of the pilot engine was badly injured.

Nearly all the injured were severely hurt, and are being treated at Jarrow, Newcastle, and Shields. Twenty of the injured belong to Shields.

At this junction no accident has occurred for over 30 years.

One fact will illustrate the unreasonableness of the opposition to the introduction of electric block signalling, this fact being that it is already in use on the Underground. It is true that on the Underground the main feature has been omitted, which is that the signal should be in the cab of the locomotive. On the

St. Bedes is on the busy branch line of the North-Eastern Railway, which runs from Newcastle to South Shields, the latter place being the terminus.

AN APPALLING SCENE.

PASSENGERS PINNED BENEATH BLAZING WOODWORK.

A correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Company, who reached the spot soon after the disaster, telegraphs :

Immediately after the collision occurred a fierce fire broke out, in which the first four carriages of the passenger train were involved. The fire spread so quickly that it was very difficult indeed to reach the passengers, whose cries for aid were heart-breaking.

At the point where the collision occurred there is no population, and therefore the passengers and railwaymen who were on the train were the only persons who could attempt to render assistance, for the time being, to the unfortunate travellers pinned beneath the blazing woodwork. News of the disaster, however, spread very quickly, and help was speedily forthcoming from Tyne Dock, East Jarrow, which is very close to the scene, and from Jarrow town itself.

A Press Association correspondent says there was ample assistance, but the jamming of the carriage doors and the burning wreckage made the rescue work most difficult.

EYE-WITNESSES' STORIES.

A FIRST IMPACT, A SECOND, AND THEN A THIRD."

One of the passengers, Mr. William Elder, interviewed, said he was travelling with several friends. The morning was very black, and the train was proceeding at a good speed. He and those with him were suddenly thrown in a heap on the floor when the collision occurred. Before they could pick themselves up there was a second impact, and then a third, after which the train came to a standstill.

Two of the injured passengers lying in hospital in South Shields, in the course of the interview gave some particulars of the experiences of the passengers in the fourth carriage.

George John Eales, a munition worker, living at Sunderland, said there were ten men in the compartment. He thought the whole of the carriage was pretty full of passengers, and there were from 130 to 140 altogether in the train, including a number of women who were travelling to the munition works.

Proceeding, Eales said: "I had a marvellous escape.

After the

collision I found myself unable to move. It was pitch dark. I could feel broken wreckage all round me, and the men from other parts of the compartment were groaning fearfully. I struggled in vain to get free from the seats which pinned me.

"Then the compartment filled with gas, and one end burst into