What we have lost through the private ownership of our railways may be gauged by the experience of Belgium. The Belgian State Railways sell tickets which enable one to travel continuously, if desired, for the time specified thereon, within the limits of the country. For instance a five-day ticket will cost 16s. 6d. second class, or 9s. 6d. third class. During the life of one of these tickets it serves as a pass, and it is only necessary to show it upon request. The total length of the railways is nearly 3,000 miles. All that is required to obtain the circular tickets is to present at the office an unmounted photograph of small size, which is attached to the ticket as a means of identification. When the ticket is purchased an extra 4s. is demanded for the safe return of the ticket after its term of usefulness expires. On the morning after the expiration of the ticket it can be delivered at any ticket office along the line, and the 4s. extra will be returned. This system enables one to travel at a minimum expense. One would like to know why, if private trading produces the best results, that travel is cheap in Belgium and dear in England. Why cannot a Briton, favoured as he is with all the alleged virtues of private enterprise in railway management, obtain a circular ticket to travel in the United Kingdom? The benefits of the Belgian railways are conspicuous in the matter of the housing question. Cheap workmen's tickets are issued at rates so low that men are enabled to live at considerable distances from their work. How low the fares are may be gathered from the following figures:
WORKMEN'S TICKETS ON BELGIAN STATE RAILWAYS
| Distance. | For one Journey daily to and fro. Six Days' Ticket. |
| Miles. | s. d. |
| 3 | 0 9¼ |
| 6 | 1 0 |
| 12 | 1 2½ |
| 24 | 1 7¼ |
| 31 | 1 9¾ |
| 62 | 2 6¼ |
Thus the daily return fare for 31 miles is less than 3¾d.!
The special workmen's tariff has existed in Belgium since 1870, and was at first simply introduced to give Belgian manufacturers the command of plenty of cheap labour. But the Minister builded bigger than he knew, for the cheap fares have caused a profound revolution in the position of Belgian workmen. In 1870, 14,223 tickets were issued; in 1890, 1,188,415; in 1901, 4,412,723! As a result it is estimated that 100,000 industrial workers, out of a total number of 900,000, although employed in the towns, continue to live in the country, own a patch of ground, and, with the higher wages of the town, enjoy the inestimable advantages of country life.
It is only through the nationalization of our railways that we can secure (1) for the travelling public the speed, safety and comfort which science has taught us how to command, (2) for the railway servants safety and a just share of the product of their labour, and (3) for the goods service rapid and economical transport. It is nothing less than national shame that our railway men receive an average wage of only 25s. per week. It is nothing less than national folly that our lives are placed at the mercy of underpaid and overworked signalmen.
A striking illustration of national treatment as compared with the existing private exploitation of our national wealth is to be found in the coal trade. Upon coal is built the wealth and commerce of the United Kingdom. To it we owe our pre-eminence in manufactures and our world-wide shipping and commerce. Without it the United Kingdom would quickly sink to the position of a third-rate power. It might be assumed a priori, therefore, that the production and use of coal would be regarded by the British Government as a matter of national concern. As a matter of incredible fact, so little do we regard coal production that we even allow our rare supplies of naval coal to remain in private hands and to be sold freely to foreigners. The tradition of "liberty" could surely no further go.
From first to last private coal production and private coal distribution are wasteful of life, material, and labour. Of our output of 260,000,000 tons of coal less than 10,000,000 tons are mined by machinery! In nine-tenths of our coal-mines coal-cutting machines are unknown! Thus a vast amount of unnecessary hand labour is used in a degrading and dangerous occupation. From a national point of view it is undesirable that a single unnecessary man should descend the mines. Under private exploitation coal-mining employment reads thus (I quote from the Census of Production Report, 1907):
UNITED KINGDOM COAL-MINES, 1907