RAILWAY POLICY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 737, 9 February 1910, Page 4

RAILWAY POLICY.

We are very glad to see. that the Hastings Chamber of Commerce, has turned its attention to the railways administration.; Its example is one that should be followed by the Chambers in other centres, for we cannot think of any subject more suitable for the consideration of bodies claiming to take* an interest in the commercial development of the country than ' the management. of national transit. :. The manifest anxiety of Mr. Millar to put a better face on the .railways admin : istration is evidence of the Government's fear; that.the. public is : '.not quite so apathetic as it was two or three years ago, when SiE Joseph AVard could lose hundreds-'of thousands 'per annum on; .the v railways and yet talk -with, 'confidence 1 , and sucoess of tho-perfection' \and de-r sirableness of the "3 per cent, policy." How far public -opinion lias progressed may be understood • from' the fact that The Dominion can say, to-day without reproof, and ot, course without ■ ■ contradiction) what, a couple of years -ago; would '■.. evoke from the" Peime Minister-.and his friends language which \ they, ■ would probably, not like anybody, to recall to them to-day. The railways have lost sonie millions : of money under the Liberal Administration—millions that, should never have; been- lost; and ■ millions, : too, -that, in view the abounding prosperity of our, primary industries, should have appeared on the other side'of the ledger. . Even' if Mr. Millar:had any acquaintance with the science of railroading—which ho has not—he could not make the railways'pay, for/ as Sir William 'Russell put it to ; the Hastings,,'. Chamber , of. Commerce, "so long as ..the Minister had charge, he would be influenced by the.political' vote." The resolution carried by the Hastings Chamber .is one thatnobody can honestly .object, to, and that the public, has millions'of: pounds' worth of good reason for endorsing. ■. The .public, we are .' convinced,' is ready tq.welcbme;- from -the' : other Chambers of Comiiaerce a .declaration that; "non-pbliti«il .management.: [of the railways] is the best method of securing economical and satisfactory 'resUlts.^,-','v--v- ; :" ; .- '■■