Evening star., 1909-05-02

while the net earnings have increased
only IL per cent, which is barely suffi-
cient to meet the interest charges upon
the money borrowed to make the I'M
provements. And since the universal de-
preston. attended by marked falling
off in trade, beginning November, 1907,
the railway companies find themselves
in possession of an expensive lot OF un-
ties. The earnings have fallen off. and
there has been a general advance in the
cost OF fuel and all other forms of sup
plies which cannot be readjusted to pres
ent conditions. The consequences have
been painfully apparent in the dividends.
Every railway of Importance in the
kingdom has had its dividends reduced
except two. Stocks that have been paying
AZ per cent year after year have droppeu
to per cent; those that have been 3h
ter and none of them had any surplus to
add to its reserve at the recent dtrec-
tors meetings.
Debate on Amalgamation.
All of these things were brought out in
the debates upon the amalgamation bill
in the house Of commons, and it was
contended by those in favor of the bill
that parliament had better authorize an
open and above board amalgamation un-
der its supervision and control than COM
pei the railway companies to make Sc
cret agreements among themselves with
out government supervision which would
be followed by the discharge of employees
and increase the dividends of the stock
holders without adding to the public ben
eft MIR. Richard Bell one of the labor
way Employees Federation. took strong
grounds on this point, and argued tnat
"a legal amalgamation with government
control over rates and provisions that
t1rn lry-1 onyyy
the support of the labor unions in pref
erence to general system of pooling to
reduce expenses.
He argued that any reduction Of the
train service would be followed by the
dlseharge of employees, and that the re-
duction Of rates would be followed by a
cutting of payrolls, both of which should
De prevented If possible. The general
trend OF the debate was in that direction.
although there were several very earnest
speeches against ''any legislation that
will encourage or permit the combination
Of capital and bring upon this country
the tremendous evils against which Pres
ident Roosevelt has been struggling for
several years in the United States
Mr. Churchill. president of the board Of
trade. who spoke for the government, de-
clared himself In favor of universal ANAL
gamation of transportation lines SO far as
said AN enormous amount of money
might be saved; trade would be better
served, and shareholders would have the
prospect of higher dividends If the rail-
ways were allowed to introduce greater
coordination, more simplicity and greater
common sense in the management of their
lines. By this bill they were making an
enlightened and progressive effort to in
itlate a better state Of things In the in
terest of all parties concerned. They
sought to diminish their expenses, which
tended always to grow. Their receipts
unfortunately did not grow at the same
pace and they found themselves with di-
minished dividends, deprecated credit.
and. as a necessary result, were unable to
carry forward those extensions of new
lines, the construction of new stations,
the making of those widenings of lines
and other improvements the constant de-
velopment of which was matter which
concerned the public much as them
selves. While the companies were seek
ing advantages for themselves, they were
comforting advantages upon the public
For instance, who could deny that return
tickets by all three routes were an ad-
vantage? And by amalgamating the three
systems the public would get better
connection of trains, and would be able
to get from point to point without change
of carriage, and a better system between
the north and the east and the south and
west of England would be provided"
Mr.. Churchill continued to say that "the
railway companies had agreed. at the in
stance of the board of trade. to a clause
which would make 1t impossible for them
to dismiss any man within three years
after the passage of the bill in conse-
quence of the working of the railways in
unison. He would like to remind the
house that other pooling arrangements
were possible. Railway companies could
and did enter into arrangements to pool