dual increase up to _20s._ in the
pound, and in the meantime procure any further funds necessary from
our surplus capital by a graduated income-tax. Personally I abhor
usury, whether in the shape of railway dividends or Government
Consols, as alike _contra naturam_ and _contra Christum_."[743]

In order to further the policy of free travelling by railway,
Socialists appear to have founded a "Free Railway Travel League,"
domiciled at 359 Strand, London, W.C. I am not aware whether the Free
Railway Travel League--every tramp should join it--exists still.

It is only logical that, if the railways should be made free for the
carriage of people, they should likewise be made free for the
transport of goods. "It is obvious that if railways can be worked free
for passengers they may be made free for goods as well. Free goods
traffic would everywhere equalise the price of commodities, be they
the produce of sea or land, mine or manufacture, and equal wages in
town and country would speedily follow equal prices with beneficial
results to the people altogether incalculable. Granted free passes,
free freights will doubtless in time follow almost as a matter of
course."[744]

When free travel by railway has been established, free travel by
tramway, which has already been demanded by municipal reformers (see
Chapter XVII.), will necessarily also be introduced. A publication
issued by the most scientific body of British Socialists, the Fabian
Society, urges: "There is only one safe principle to guide the
reformer. The tramways, the light railways, and the railways must be
regarded as the modern form of the king's highway. Our fathers spent
time and trouble ridding the roads of tolls; and railway rates and
passenger fares are merely modern tolls. Their abolition must come
sooner or later."[745] "We have abolished the turnpike gate and the
toll-collector, and our highways are free in the sense that they are
maintained by general assessment. And if the turnpike gate was an
odious obstruction to the traveller, how much more obnoxious to him,
or her, is the railway ticket-box?"[746]

Railways may be made free before the ideal Socialist State of the
future has been created, but they will certainly be free as soon as
the Socialist commonwealth has been established. "Railways will play a
very great part indeed in the Socialist State, They will be absolutely
'free' for every purpose. The cost of actual working is comparatively
inconsidera