* * * We are bound to say that the
three companies have made out a pretty good case, but that was what we expected. It would really be much better if motorists did not cultivate, as they sometimes seem inclined to do, a clas. interest. The 4d. duty on petrol is indispensable for the derating scheme. Not everybody, of course, can hope indirectly to recover this addition to the price, but a great many people may fairly hope to do so. Every- body will gain by the increased prosperity of the country. For the rest, the right way to protect the interests of motorists • is to promote such challenges to would-be petrol monopolists as would prevent any monopoly from becoming a danger. This can be done, not by sending weeping deputations to the Prime Minister, but by developing the by-products of the British coal mines, by the use of pulverized coal for ships—an extraordinarily promising method—and by organizing pressure on the monopolists such as motorists themselves can bring to bear in various familiar ways..
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