One hundred years ago
ON FRIDAY week, Mr. Asquith received a deputation from the London cabmen. Mr. Lough,' M.P., their spokesman, gave some curious facts as to the cab-industry. There are eleven thousand cabs, over fifteen thousand drivers, and twenty-five thousand hors- es, and altogether some one hundred and twenty thousand human beings depend upon the industry. The value of the stock was about £1,000,000, and the yearly earnings are £3,000,000. The pre- sent season had been a trying one, and there were many men literally starving. Their chief points of complaint were boy-licences; "bilking," — i.e., the disap- pearance of the fare without paying; the privileged cab system of the great rail- ways, by which the Companies made some £11,000 a year; and the private railway busses. Mr. Asquith, though sympathetic, could promise little relief. The railway Companies' yards were their own, but he would try to stop their omnibuses plying for hire. He was most anxious to find a remedy for the "bilk- ing;" but it was not practical to give the cabman and the nearest constable power to detain a fare who did not pay. The Spectator 9 September 1893
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