If the nation owns the railways, the nation must take all the risks of State ownership, and we could only trust that the existing purity of our politics and the common sense, honorable character, and long experience in self-government of the English people would suffice to protect the commonwealth from these perils resulting in serious harm. But whatever may be the issue of the consideration of the question of State purchase of railways, I am prepared to believe that English railways will continue, whether under State management or under private management, to deserve the praise which Mr. W. M. Acworth expressed in his recent address as President of the Economic Section of the British Association in Dublin, by saying that in his judgment—after, I may remind you, a fuller study of railway conditions in all countries of the world than has been given to the subject of many men in England—that "English railways are, on the whole, among the best, if not actually the best, in the world."
[CONCERNING ADVANCES IN RAILWAY RATES]
February 8, 1909.—Ordered to be printed.
Mr. Elkins, from the Committee on Interstate Commerce, submitted the following
ADVERSE REPORT.
[To accompany S. 423.]
The Committee on Interstate Commerce, to which was referred Senate bill 423 "To amend section 6 of an act entitled 'An act to regulate commerce,' approved February fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and acts amendatory thereof," respectfully reports said bill adversely, and recommends its indefinite postponement.
The amendment proposed to section 6 will be found on page 4, commencing on line 10, and ending on page 5, on line 8, of the bill, as follows: