Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/379

 ENGLISH RAILWAY PROBLFMS OF THE NEXT DECADE 357 Their directorates differ from ours, inasmuch as--if not the president, then the vice-presidents are men of technical know- ledge, who have spent years in learning their business, and yet have not allowed detail to swamp their general views; nor are they overburdened with administrative minutise as are our officers. It seems highly probable that some change in the nature of representation on the boards of directors of the districts served must come in this country. Our larger systems have on the whole been so honestly and admirably managed by the men who built them up out of a great quantity of small local fines that the cry for this has not yet arisen; especially as the plan has been followed of selecting local directors from various districts through which the railways pass; but with the end of the building of new competitive lines, and with the growing demand for democratic local self-government, it is clear that some change of the sort will be made. In Prussia, where the organization of the State railroads has been carried out as well as possible, each local State railway board has on it members representing the commercial interests of the district, subject of course to the central office at Berlin. I am bound to add that the plan has not abolished a system of red tape administration which would be intolerable to Englishmen. The greatest safeguard which this country possesses, however, is in the potential competition which exists. No monopoly is permitted to become absolute in this country, and the possible competitor is the one thing vhich keeps all semi-monopolists from abuse of their power. The sea, too, according to the Report of the Royal Commission of 1872, affects three-fifths of our railway rates, and it is unlikely that railway companies will be allowed to acquire many more harbours; or that many amalgamations among themselves on parallel lines will now be sanctioned. It should always be remembered in defence of our system of administration by boards, that if one railway in any district goes to sleep, owing to the age or incapacity of its direction, it is highly probable tha its neighbout will be slightly more awake, and the loss of competi- tive traffic is a reminder even to the most legarthic trading corporation. Those who have seen the transformation of the Lancashire and Yorkshire from one of the least to one of the most enterprising companies, will admit the wisdom of Par. liament in refusing to sanction its amalgamation with even the immaculate London and North Western Railway some eighteen years ago.