THE RAILWAY PROBLEM
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—May a mere producer be heard on the railway problem ? My trade before the War was ninety-five per cent. export and normally my firm employs over 2,000 men. To-day our exports have shrunk to less than one-third of what they were in 1914, although our price is well below pre-War. Naturally I turn my attention to the Home Trade and there I find road transport of the greatest value. Rail transport is slow and uncertain and damage is not infrequent. By road my goods are delivered the same day in perfect condition. The cost is not so much a consideration as convenience.
Last year I paid 21,074 in licence duties and petrol tax on four lorries. They are fitted with pneumatic tyres and are as well maintained and as silent as private cars. Who is able to say that these lorries did not pay ;their full share for the wear and tear they contributed to the roads ? It is doubtful if a heavy lorry fitted with pneumatic tyres can do any harm to our main roads. Vibration and noise are less than from a horse and cart with steel tyres. Now can the Government afford to discourage these revenue producers ? Between us we users of the road are paying in taxation a sum equal to the whole cost of maintaining and improving the roads. It is true that two-thirds of that sum is being devoted to the financial consequences of War profiteering, but what hope is there of balancing the Budget without us ? Railway shareholders are naturally concerned at the progress that road transport is making, but it would be suicidal to continue using an old form of transport if a cheaper and better one has been discovered. Shareholders in cotton mills, ships and steel works have also to go without dividends and are as much entitled to consideration. At present I am supplying the railways with steel at the price of pre-War and paying fifty per cent. more for rail transport. The railway companies have done nothing to assist the steel trade to meet the competition of those countries which by inflation have got rid of their pre-War debts, thereby reducing their taxation and their cost of production. Some of us have suffered in the past from railway strikes and are alive to the dangers of monopolies of any kind. Ulster is getting on quite well to-day without railways, and we may again have reason to be thankful that all our eggs are not in the railway basket.—
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