ot coupled
with extravagant and fantastic ideas regarding their future
management. The different Socialistic views as to the proper
management of State railways are summed up as follows by Mr.
Blatchford: "The railways belong to railway companies, who carry goods
and passengers and charge fares and rates to make profit. Socialists
all say that the railways should be bought by the people. Some say
that fares should be charged, some that the railways should be
free--just as the roads, rivers, and bridges now are; but all agree
that any profit made by the railways should belong to the whole
nation, just as do the profits now made by the Post Office and the
telegraphs."[738]

One Socialist writer modestly proposes that the fare anywhere in
Great Britain should be a shilling. "Look at our railroads--might they
not be the property of the community at large as well as the high
roads, instead of being a monopoly in the hands of private persons
whose sole object is to enrich themselves at the cost of their fellow
citizens? If so, it has been proved that you could go to any part of
these islands with a shilling ticket."[739]

Other Socialists advocate that railway travelling should be made
absolutely free to all, and that the costs of running the railways
free of charge should be borne exclusively by the rich. "The blessings
of free travel are too many by far for enumeration, but one stands
out. It is the only effective means yet suggested for the extirpation
of our vile city slums. At present the sweated must live near their
work."[740] "Overcrowding can only be cured outright by one sovereign
remedy--by giving the toiler a home in the country; and free travel
alone makes this possible. There is no reason why a 'docker' should
not grow his own vegetables and be his own dairyman at the same time.
Free travel would in a few years change the whole face of
society."[741] "A nation that can afford to spend _140,000,000l._ a
year on strong liquors might not unreasonably be asked to strike even
the forty odd millions off its drink-bill--about half that amount
would suffice for the purpose--and take them out in free ozone."[742]
"Then would rise the question how to make up for the abolition of
passenger fares. The answer, it seems to me, is not far to seek. The
substitute tax must be levied on the 'unearned increment' of land,
urban and rural. The people must therefore unfalteringly press for the
reassessment of the 'land-tax' by gra