Sir Josiah Stamp contributes a lively opening chapter to Mr.
W. V. Wood's instructive little book on Railways in the Home University Library (Thornton Butterworth, 2s.). Sir Josiah points out that the railway companies have conferred incalculable benefits on the nation but have derived relatively modest profits from their enterprise, and he hints that the whole question of transport needs to be reconsidered as a whole. Mr. Wood, in the pages which follow, sets out the principles of railway working and gives the salient facts and figures that show how widely a railway differs from any other form of commercial enterprise. His sceptical chapter on railway statistics, which have recently been multiplied by the Ministry of Transport, and his explanation of the theory of rates and charges are specially to be noted.
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