nate freights are charged on the carriage of
goods, unfair preferences are given, but Parliament is powerless to
check this."[731]

"The railway system to-day is the greatest protection ever heard of in
favour of the foreigner, and neither Mr. Chamberlain nor Mr. Balfour,
nor any other man makes a single proposal to touch the railway
question. Why? Because the House of Commons is dominated by the
railway interest."[732] "Our railway experience proves that it is not
enough to make preferential rates illegal. They reappear too easily in
the form of rebates and even of allowances which belong to the more
private chapters of capitalist history. The attempt of the Railway
Commission to abolish preference in railway rates has left us with a
system which could not be much worse from the national industrial
point of view."[733]

"Imperial trade suffers no more serious handicap than that imposed
upon it by shipping rings and railway companies, which exploit the
Imperial needs of transport for their own purposes, which hamper the
ready flow of Imperial trade, and, for an insignificant percentage,
turn the British seamen off the water in favour of the Lascar."[734]

"The railways of India, which yield a great portion of our Indian
revenue, are owned by the Indian Government. The well-managed and
prosperous systems of Australasia, with the best conditions of labour
and the lowest freights of any railways in the world, are State owned.
Why, then, should not the British Government own and control in the
public interest the systems which are so wastefully and inefficiently
managed by the present companies?"[735]

The last Annual Conference of the Independent Labour Party resolved:
"That in the opinion of this Conference the time is ripe for the
nationalisation of the railways of the country, and that our
representatives be asked to urge forward a measure to that effect in
Parliament."[736] The Fabians think that "An equitable basis of
purchase may be found in Mr. Gladstone's Act of 1844, which enables
the Treasury to buy out the shareholders of lines built since that
date at twenty-five years' purchase, calculated on the earnings of the
previous three years. The price of the railways need not be an
insuperable, or even a serious, difficulty in the way of national
possession of the means of transit."[737]

The demand of the Socialists that the Government should acquire the
railways would perhaps be reasonable if that demand was n