Mileage open Increase in Average increase Year. for traffic. ten years. per annum. 1877 17,077 -- -- 1887 19,578 2,501 250.1 1897 21,433 1,855 185.5 1907 23,108 1,675 167.5 The growth has been slow and decreases with each decade. It is probably true that the period of construction has nearly come to an end. Future additions to the mileage are not likely to be either large or of substantial importance. This rather indicates the present as a suitable time for considering a change of system. The considerations which are applicable to what I may call the age of construction are very different from those which become most important in the age of operation. It would probably be accepted as indisputable that in a country like England, where capital is plentiful and enterprise active, the system of leaving the construction of railways to private enterprise is the best system. Whatever may be thought as to the respective merits of private and public ownership, it cannot be denied that private enterprise does take more risk than any Government is likely to do, except under pressure of military necessities. The hope of gain is the strongest motive for enterprise, and this desire operates more strongly on the private citizen than it does on the State. The growth of railway mileage during the age of construction in any country is promoted by the constant influence and moving force of those incentives which act on capitalists. The spur of competition is always in active operation. Then there are the very powerful professional influences which are constantly at work to induce capitalists to spend their money on works and enterprises which afford professional work, even if they do not subsequently provide dividends. Theoretically; no doubt, railways promoted by private enterprise tend to the favoring of particular localities at the expense of other localities. Perhaps it is right that the stronger should grow at the expense of the weaker, but, at all events, it is inevitable. You cannot expect private competitors to think of anything but their own interests. And if this be so, you cannot expect from a system in which private interests predominate the same consideration of general design, from the point of view of the interests of the whole country, as from a system which places public in front of private interests.