Organisation and Salesmanship.

It was Sir Arthur Stanley's view—and with this we are in entire agreement—that railways can do much to secure prosperity through efficient organisation and effective salesmanship. In my last letter I dwelt upon the value of an attractive passenger station as a business-bringer, likening this to the “shop window” of the railway organisation. By ways such as this, and by the whole-hearted support of every employee in the direction of traffic solicitation, the future of the railway can be assured, and with it, of course, the future of every individual worker. Another point brought out in the Institute of Transport Presidential Address was the inelasticity of railway carriage charges. Railways certainly do attach far too much importance to the value of the commodity carried, and too little importance to actual cost of service. The old axiom of “charging what the traffic will bear” was doubtless sound enough in the “good old days,” but now it should not be forgotten that to the road page 20 carrier the value of the commodity handled matters little. His charge is always based on the truck load, irrespective of its contents, and railways would be well advised to work more on these lines in the future.