The origin and the causes of those movements in public opinion which bring about great constitutional and social changes are frequently most difficult to trace, especially by contemporary observers. For a full understanding of such movements, it is necessary to wait for the historian's point of view, and to survey a wider field than is possible whilst the events are occurring, when much of the material for final judgment as to the causes in operation is concealed in an undisclosed future.
That there is a movement in progress tending to the nationalization of railways in England is apparent to every thoughtful observer of the times. But whence does this movement come, and what are its principal causes? We are able to identify some of them, less able to weigh the relative importance of each, still less able to foretell the ultimate share which each will have on the future course of development, which will depend on the direction taken by other movements in public opinion which, at the moment, may seem to be entirely independent of all connection with the particular movement we are considering.
I will refer to a few of the causes which seem to me to be most prominently at work, but I will not attempt to state them in the order of their importance. I will merely enumerate those which are plainly discernible as existing in some shape or other.
The first I will name, though it may not be the most influential, is the existence of a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the present state of railway administration. I suppose that if railway services were as good as possible, charges as cheap as possible, profits as high as possible, and the management as perfect as it is possible for railway management to be, and these conditions were generally admitted to exist, the natural instinct to leave well alone would prevent any proposal for nationalization from obtaining a hearing.
It must be conceded that there is a certain feeling of dissatisfaction, superficial and indefinite though it be, to which advocates of nationalization, whose schemes originate in considerations which have no relation either to the excellence or to the imperfections of railway arrangements, are able to appeal in the pursuit of their aims. It is not that many people really think that our railways do not, as a whole, serve the public well, whatever individuals may say in moments of haste. Hut complaints are sufficiently numerous to have a real importance as an influence on public opinion. And, unfortunately, their influence is to a large extent independent of their justice. The existence of criticism, which, after all, is only another name for difference of opinion, is inevitable, and probably would be inevitable under the most perfect system of railway management which the world has seen or ever can see. State railways would not be immaculate. The nature of railway business lays it open, to an exceptional extent, to the unpopularity which unavoidably gathers round every institution on which there is universal dependence. Providence itself does not wholly escape unpopularity. No other industry is comparable with the railway industry in the close dependence upon it of the vast majority of the people. The necessity for transport services penetrates more frequently and more deeply into the lives and habits of the people than any of the other prime necessities of civilization. The need for transport is a tyranny. All tyrants are unpopular. And the tyranny of a need is apt to beget, by an illogical transposition of ideas, a dislike of those who are responsible for supplying the need. People are conscious of grievances, or, let us say, unsupplied wants. They cannot measure the range of possibility which limits the supply of those wants or remedies for those grievances. They constantly wish for the impossible, but have not sufficient knowledge to distinguish between the possible and the impossible. Defects which cannot be remedied are generally condemned with more emphasis than those which are due to mismanagement. It is irrelevant to consider whether the dissatisfaction to which I have referred is justified or not. Whether well or ill founded, it must be set down as one of the causes of the movement for nationalization.
The second cause I would mention is a belief, growing from a suspicion into a conviction under the stimulus of repeated failures in control experiments, that it is impossible for any Government, by any legislative or executive action in any form, to exercise useful and effective control over railways. People turn in despair from ideas of regulation and control to ideas of ownership.
The third cause is the prevalence of that feeling which, for want of a better name, I will call district jealousy. The competition of privately-owned railways undoubtedly does create inequalities. It would be mere affectation to pretend that the railway accommodation and facilities afforded to all places and all districts are equal in merit and value. The less favored districts see other districts enjoying superior facilities. They do not allow for differences in conditions which, in some cases, explain and justify the differences of service. I say in some cases, because it would be impossible to deny that in other cases the comparative inferiority of railway facilities cannot be explained away by inevitable determining conditions. Hence district jealousy arises and a desire for uniformity, such uniformity as it is hoped a State system of railways would give.
The fourth cause I would name is the example of other countries. This is affecting men's judgments with great force. We are slow to be moved by foreign example. But there is an increasing tendency to submit to international influences, and foreign example in this matter does, on the whole, point to national railways becoming the generally accepted system.
The fifth cause is the one which, I think, has more to do with the initiation of the discussion of nationalization schemes than any other cause. This is the general tendency of the time to Socialistic experiments. If there were no Socialists, and no Socialism in the thought of the age, there would, we may safely conclude, be no talk of nationalization of railways. It is the Socialistic propaganda, and the influence which that propaganda has had on many minds, which more than anything else has brought the question of the nationalization of railways within the range of practical discussion.