Some day or other, commerce will acknowledge fully the truth
preached by the American economist, Mr. Wells, that the cost and the facility of transport have become even more important than the extent of production. We shall have all Governments insisting on immense reductions, especially for heavy goods, and on better goods trains for the whole Conti- nent, and probably offering even in England heavy bonusea for widening the railways, so as to admit of lines solely intended for goods traffic. The French Government has this week taken an immense step forward in this direction. The Budget Committee, which on finance almost governs the Chamber, has agreed to the sacrifice of a railway-tax yielding annually £1,640,000, on condition that the Companies shall make an equivalent reduction in their charges for carrying goods by the fast trains. This is in all but form precisely the end to which railway reformers in America are trying to force the through Companies, and we see even in England the same spirit in the recent conflict upon railway rates.
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