branch of modern production, with an organisation fitted for social ownership and providing one more proof of the historical accuracy of the Marxian theory of economic and social progress.
The Traffic Trust.
Closely bound up with the problems of fuel resources and of power raising are those which concern the transport of materials from place to place, whether by road, by rail, or over sea. The exchange pf commodities, which became general with the rise of the capitalist system of production, necessitated considerable outlay on improvement of means of communication between one place and another. First, roads, then canals and, afterwards, tramways and railways, were the successive stages in the interlacing of the new industrial and commercial areas. Postal, telegraph and telephone services were called into being for the interchange of messages and the economy of time and effort which modern productive efficiency demands. It was in the provision of these requirements that the iron, steel, engineering and coal industries found the encouragement which so immensely fostered their growth. The adoption of liquid fuel and of rubber for commercial purposes added the motor vehicle to the means of land transit, and the harnessing of electricity has brought into use a new variation of railway carriage. This continuous improvement in the means of communication has played an all-important part in making possible the co-ordination of various productive undertakings and the practical combination of smaller businesses into single enterprises of gigantic size.
At home, the canals and railways afforded the first opportunity for landowners and capitalists to "pool" their accumulated rents and profits and to attain to a community of interest where previously there had been fierce economic antagonisms. The tramways, motor transport and kindred undertakings have, since then, brought together financiers, electrical engineers and local industrial magnates into the same businesses. All the electrical undertakings and power companies are considering a project for linking up their businesses with the colliery, iron and steel and similar companies on the one hand, and the railway companies, now converted to a policy of electrification of their services, upon the other. The banking and investment corporations and the
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