But I believe the existing
great companies would very generally gain by Free Trade in railways.
For, first, few new railways would be in direct competition with the
old. The old lines have level roads; they can run quicker and with
less wear and tear than the new ones, which would generally have
steeper gradients. The new Free Trade lines would be in the main a
network in the interstices of the present lines. By this the existing
companies would gain enormously; they would be the trunk lines which
the network would feed. It is true that there would soon be a second
line to Brighton; the present Brighton Company would possibly pay as
good a dividend then as they do now. But if they did not, it would
only show how they tax the public now as well as hinder trade. I am
not bound to show that the monopolists would profit by Free Trade; I
deny that the monopolists have any vested interest in their monopoly,
or that Parliament, i.e. the nation, has made any covenant with them
that their monopoly shall never be invaded.
I have suggested three great changes: (1) Perfect Free Trade at all
our ports; (2) The exploitation of the land through the National Rate
Book machinery; (3) Free Trade in Railways. Of these the last is
clearly advisable, nor is there anything (in my opinion) to be urged
on the other side.
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