up in the clouds and had to
be brought down to common earth; how conclusively the Companies proved
that the railways had done their best to encourage and help every
industry and that their efforts had not been unsuccessful; but I will
resist the temptation, and proceed to the Reports which the Commissioners
presented to His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant. As I have said, there
were two reports, one signed by four, the other by three Commissioners.
The Majority Report bore the signatures of the Chairman, the Rt. Hon.
Lord Pirrie, Colonel (now Sir) Hutcheson Poe, and Mr. Thomas Sexton,
while the Minority Report was signed by Sir Herbert Jekyll, Mr. W. M.
Acworth, and Mr. (now Sir) John Aspinall. The first-mentioned Report was
not so favourable to the railways as the other, yet the worst thing it
said of the Companies was that they were commercial bodies conducted on
commercial principles and ran the railways for profit, and it admitted
that Irish railway managers neglected few opportunities for developing
traffic. In a sort of way it apologised for the evidence-seeking printed
papers to which I have already referred, and admitted that had the
Commissioners been in possession of the statistics of trade and industry
published in 1906 by the Department of Agriculture (which seemed to have
surprised them by the facts and figures they contained of Ireland's
progress) these circulars might have been framed differently. The Report
also said that the complaints the Commissioners received would have been
fewer in number if some of the public witnesses had been better informed
and had taken pains to verify their statements. The Commissioners
further reported that they were satisfied that it was impracticable for
the Railway Companies, as commercial undertakings, to make such reduction
in rates as was desired, and, "as the economic condition of the country
required," but it was not mentioned that no inquiry had been made as to
the economic condition alluded to. In regard to this question of
economic condition the Minority Report took a more modest view. It
expressed the opinion that regarding the causes which had retarded the
expansion of traffic upon the Irish lines, "A complete answer would
involve an inquiry ranging over the whole field of agriculture and
industry in all its aspects," and that this the Commissioners had not
made. It also added that the statistics of Irish trade which had been
published by the Department of