companies have given six weeks' notice of the proposed increase
in their rates for the carriage of merchandise. The in- crease, which among business men is considered as equivalent to 4 per cent. all round, is the logical outcome of the Railway Rates Act, which in turn represented the bargain struck between the Government and the companies over the railway strike of 1911. From a summary of mercantile and industrial opinion in Friday's Times we gather that while traders generally are not opposed to the statutory powers conferred on the companies, in view of the safeguards provided by the Acts of 1888 and 1894 in the shape of appeal to the Board of Trade and the Railway Commissioners, the feeling is afloat that administrative economies and reduced facilities might render the new rates largely unnecessary ; and that in adding 4 per cent. to the whole of the carriage bill the companies are budgeting for an unnecessary surplus. To this it may be retorted that this is only a precaution to meet the possi- bility of further concessions to the men. The Manufacturers' Section of the London Chamber of Commerce have already passed a resolution condemning the increase, and the reports from the principal commercial centres indicate a general dis- satisfaction amongst shipowners, manufacturers, and traders. Exception must be made of Bradford and Manchester, where the advances are acquiesced in as inevitable by the merchants and big firms, who entertain no doubt that in the long run the charges will fall on the consumer.
Previous page
