To _unduly_ increase rates would diminish
traffic and induce competition by road and sea. Past experience teaches
this.
It used to be said that railway companies asserted, in justification of
their rates, that they were fixed on the principle of "what the traffic
could bear," and the companies were reproached on the ground that the
principle involved an injustice, but a principle which involved the
imposition of rates beyond what the traffic _could bear_, could hardly be
said to be either sound or just. However that may be, the Government
have imposed upon the Irish railways a burden of working expenses which
they cannot bear. What is the remedy? Whatever course is adopted, it is
devoutly to be hoped that it will be fair and just to the proprietors of
a railway system, which has done so much for Ireland, and in respect of
which the proprietors have received on their capital an annual return
averaging less than 4 per cent.! No bloated capitalists these. Irish
railway shareholders largely consist of people of moderate means, and
their individual holdings, on the Midland Great-Western, for example,
average only 570 pounds per shareholder.
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