Page:Fred Arthur McKenzie - British Railways and the War (1917).djvu/20

 the system of railway accounts. Hundreds of clerks had been employed at the Railway Clearing House at Euston, London, in dissecting payments covering different lines, so that each line should have its proper share. This work was no longer required. The vast amount of competition maintained before the war for traffic at once ceased. British railways, particularly those competing with others for the business of particular towns, had maintained staffs of canvassers not only for freight, but even for passenger traffic. Their competition went so far that, in some cases, if it was announced that a visitor was coming to one of the Midland towns he would promptly receive at his home address callers on behalf of rival railways asking him to buy his ticket by their line. There was still more acute canvassing for goods traffic. All the great companies had extensive publicity departments, which, by posters, pamphlets, and newspaper articles, sought to bring home to people generally the attractions of their lines. In the years before the war this publicity had tended to grow more and more elaborate and more and more costly. Now it was swept away at a stroke. The weekly traffic returns of the different lines were no longer required, and so ceased to be published. The reports of the companies were cut down to a bare minimum, and in many cases even these reduced reports were not sent to the shareholders unless they specially asked for them. The tickets issued by various companies for the same points were made for a time available by the trains of