All the Railway Companies threaten to increase their fares in
order to meet the rise in coals, in wages, and in iron. The increase is to affect both passengers and goods, and will in the latter de- partment, we are told, be very severely felt. Considering that the Companies are benefiting greatly by the rise in the rate of wages, which, as the Chairman of the Great Eastern said this week, sets the people free to move about, that they are profiting by the new price of coal, and that they are for the most part distributing increased dividends, we think they might wait a year. The effect will be equivalent to a slight decrease of fares, sure to be recouped by increased custom. If they want to get a little more out of their customers, let them sell adhesive labels with the names of stations on them at a penny each, and so get rid of the greatest of travellers' nuisances, the necessity of waiting to see your luggage labelled. That would bring them an average of about two- pence a passenger, and cause no grumbling. We question also if the small-parcel traffic has anything like the development it might attain, if the rates were carefully revised.
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