chief matter involved, We
cannot do without the capitalist; but a Communal Capitalist is
infinitely preferable to a private capitalist. Municipal Socialism is
the watchword of the future; and instead of being jealous of the
existing powers of the County Council, I would increase those powers
tenfold; for without the widest kind of power, and even of despotic
power, invested in some central authority, the chaotic expansion of
London will go on to the enrichment of the few and the abiding injury
of the many.

One of the greatest difficulties in this expansion of the area is the
means of locomotion. It is at present in the power of a railway
company, which is after all only a private trading concern, to create
or ruin the prosperity of a suburb by the kind of provision which it
makes for it necessities. A good, rapid, cheap, and frequent service
of trains is a matter of the utmost importance to a suburb. But here
again, our method of expansion is left to chance and haphazard. The
speculative builder does not trouble himself about a train-service; he
knows by experience that he can attract a population to any given
locality, and he leaves the new residents to discover the
inconveniences of the locality for themselves. It might be supposed
that the railway company, in its own interest, would be quick to profit
by the new population on its line of route; sometimes it does so, but
in many instances it does not. One would suppose by the grudging way
in which extra trains are put on to meet the needs of an increased
population, that the railway company was a beneficent association,
granting favours, instead of a trading concern in search of new
business. The only real remedy for this kind of evil is that all the
means of locomotion within a twenty-five miles radius of Charing Cross
should be in the hands of one central authority. If a County Council
is capable of superintending a tramway system, it should also be
capable of superintending the suburban railway system for the public
good. And if it be thought much too vast an undertaking for the County
Council to become the proprietor of all the suburban lines, it should
at least be in the power of the Council to exercise effective control
over their working, and to compel the companies to make adequate
provision for the outlying populations.

But it is clear that if factories and businesses were removed into
suburban districts, carrying their armies of workers with t