Synopses & Reviews
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. REASONS FOR STATE OWNERSHIP. I come next to the important consideration? generally overlooked by railway nationalisation advocates?as to the reasons which have led in other countries to an adoption of the principle of State-ownership of railways, with or without State operation. We are constantly being told of what has been done elsewhere; but is there any real similarity between the conditions of these other countries and our own ? Have we ourselves been warranted in maintaining company-ownership instead of doing the same as these other lands have done ? Have they, further, always resorted to State railways from a deliberate conviction that that is the better system, or have they not, rather, often been forced to adopt this expedient because, in their particular circumstances, they had no alternative? GERMANY. To begin with Germany, where the railway nationalisation principle has attained its highest and most successful development, the policy of State purchase of company-owned lines, initiatedby Prince Bismarck, was due to various causes. Military considerations are assumed to have been paramount. Situated as Prussia was, geographically, and in view of European political conditions in general, it was thought in the highest degree desirable, in the interests of that kingdom?if not also of the prospective future Empire?that there should be lines of railway which, though not necessarily remunerative from a commercial standpoint, would allow of a rapid concentration or distribution of troops; and, for the same reason, it was no less needful that the State should be able to command, also, the use of all the main lines of existing railway. There were, however, other considerations besides; and in this connection the Financial Times of February 20, 1908, says: ? ...
Synopsis
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