Give and Take

After World War I Britain's railways presented their Government with a whopping $300,000,000 bill for rent and dam ages, which the Government paid under protest. This time the Government wanted nothing like that, and on Sept. 1 it simply took control of all railway transportation in the British Isles. Since then stockholders have waited anxiously to find out how much profit the Government would allow them.

But for the past three weeks speculators in the City have been gambling on "generous" terms. The value of railway stocks has risen by $400,000,000. Last week the stocks went even higher. Minister of Transport Euan Wallace announced that the four main British railroads which have operated under a pool scheme since the war began, would be guaranteed a wartime profit of -L-40,000,000 ($160,000,000) a year. Since the guaranteed profit was based on the revenues for 1935, 1936 and 1937, excluding the depression year of 1938, the terms seemed more than generous. In addition, the companies will split profits above -L-40,000,000 up to -L-43,500,000, after which the Government will take half until -L-68,500,000 has been reached; after that, all. Since the agreement allows the companies to increase rates as prices and labor costs rise, financial writers figured that the stockholders would get more dividends than they have received in many peace years.

Editorially many newspapers figured the same thing in different terms. Snorted Lord Beaverbrook's Daily Express: "It is all give by the Government, it is all take by the railways. And who gets nothing? The public."

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