Under no system could we expect railways to be free from complaints. They arise equally from the nature of the business and the nature of the customers. But with a view to seeing whether State ownership would remedy the complaints that exist, let us try to understand as clearly as possible what the complaints are. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Lloyd-George), speaking to a deputation of traders in 1906, when he was President of the Board of Trade, said that he was impressed with the "great and growing discontent with the whole system." Now what are the causes of the present discontent? Is it great? Is it growing? These are questions very difficult to answer. But there are some useful data available for the answer. The way has been made plain and easy for complainants against railways. Every encouragement and every facility has been afforded to them. A special Court has been created--the Railway and Canal Commission--the constitution of which was carefully framed so as to encourage anyone with a grievance against railways to hope that he would get a sympathetic hearing of his case. The applications to that Court were so few that those people who cannot bring themselves to believe that the number of real, as distinct from imaginary, grievances against railways are remarkably few, said that the public were deterred from bringing complaints forward by the expense of litigation before the Railway Commissioners. So, to render the path of the complainant still easier, a procedure was introduced which is unique for simplicity and cheapness. All, without distinction, who had any complaint or grievance of any sort or kind against any railway or canal company, were invited to come and lay the same before a Department of Government, the Board of Trade, who practically promised to use their influence to secure an amicable adjustment of any differences. This procedure is so simple, so sweeping, so all-embracing, so encouraging to complainants, and has, on the whole, been exercised by the Board of Trade with so much tact and success, that its records should supply the information we are seeking.