Sir Eric Geddes moved the second reading of the Railways
Bill in the House of Commons on Thursday, May 26th. He denied that State control had brought the railway companies into their present position of difficulty. If they were grouped, as the Bill proposed, they might hope to save £25,000,000 a year in six or seven years' time. Coinpetition must be forgone ; it cost too much, and the public paid in the end. The Govern- ment did not want to exercise a needless amount of control over the companies. The railway rates should be adjusted so as to yield the dividends earned in 1913; four-fifths of any savings` would go to reduce the rates. The trade unions had "deliberately surrendered "'the right, offered by the Government, to have workmen directors on the boards, and the companies In turn had agreed to work with a National Wages Board. The Bill was opposed- only by Sir R. Banbury and by the Scottish railway companies, whose real objects were unknown.
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