The Railway System To-day 363 



The various classes of capital on which the rates of dividend 

 or interest paid in 1910 were either nil or not above three per 

 cent may be shown thus : 



538,873,205 



There are those who regard railway shareholders as 

 " capitalists," and consider that the keeping of railway 

 dividends at a low level, together with any depreciation in 

 the value of railway stock that may result therefrom, are 

 matters only likely to affect a comparatively few wealthy 

 men, and not, therefore, of material concern to the country 

 so long as the railways give the best possible service at the 

 lowest possible rates. In the United Kingdom, however, 

 the ownership of the railways is distributed among a far 

 greater number of persons than is the case in the United States, 

 where the control and the dividends of a great railway system 

 may alike be in the hands mainly of a few financiers. That by 

 far the larger number of shareholders in British railways have 

 comparatively small holdings was well shown by a table 

 published a few years ago giving the percentage of holdings 

 of 500 or under by shareholders, exclusive of debenture- 

 holders, in thirty-nine leading railways of the United Kingdom. 

 An analysis of this table gives the following results : 



Number of Percentage of Holdings of 



Companies. 500 or under. 



2 . . . 32 to 40 per cent. 

 10 . . . 41 50 



8 . . 51 60 



9 61 70 

 7 . . . 71 80 



3 - 81 90 



Total 39 



