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290 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM,
the capital expense was quite inconsiderable compared with
the current expense. And I think I am justified in saying,
that until the Englisll Government returns reliable accounts of
the commercial results of the dockyards, and other manufacturing
establishments, and shows that they are economically conducted,
it cannot bo entrusted with the vast and various
property of the railways.
It has been suggested indeed, t~hat a Governxncnt department
would conduct tho traffic of the railways by contract; but 1
am unable to see hov t>his could bo safely done. Thc care of
the perrnanent way might pcrllnps bo thus provided for, though
not so easily LLS in the case of telegraph wires. But the ot,her
branches of railway service arc so numerous and so. dependent
upon each other, that they must be under one administration.
As to the proposal to break thc railn~~p up into sections, and
commit each to the management of a cont,ractor, it seems to
me to destroy in great part the ndvanta,gcs of unity of managemont,
and to sncriticc much that is admirable in the preseut
organisation of our gwat compauics. I am far from repriling
our present railway syst'em as perfect,; but its conditions and
requirements seem to me so entirely contrary to those of the
Post Ofice, that I must regard most of tho arguments hithert'o
adduced in ftLvour of State management as misleading.
I may add that shonld a Govcrnmcnt system of telegraphs
prove successful, aud should the public desire to extend state
management still further, there is a most important aud profitable
field for its ernplayment in the couveyance of parcels and
light goods. l'russis possesses a complete system of parcel posts,
and the Scandinavian kingd.oms, Switzerland, and possibly
other continental countries, have something of the sort, In
this country the railways collect, convey, and often deliver
pnrcols for high and arbitrary charges ; a number of parcels
companies compote with talle rnil.rvays and with each other.
An drnost infiuito llumber of local carriers circulate through
the suburban and country roads, in an entirely unorgnnised
manner. The want of organisation is remedied to a slight
extent by the practice of passing parcels from one carrier to
snother, in R haphazard sort of way, but a.t each step the