F.—ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 123 
It will be seen that railway expenditure has been reduced almost in 
proportion to railway receipts. The net railway revenue of the four 
grouped railway companies has fallen to 67 per cent. of the amount in 
1923, whilst the net revenue from all sources has fallen to 63 per cent. 
of the 1923 amount. 
Similar declines in receipts and expenditure are to be observed in most 
of the European railways, as in those of the United States of America, 
as the table on p. 123 shows. 
The railways selected have been chosen to show how the serious fall in 
receipts has affected countries with widely differing characteristics. It 
will be noticed that the fall in receipts on the British railways, serious as it 
is, is not so great as in most of the European countries ; but it should be 
remembered that in Great Britain railway receipts had not, as in these 
countries, been rising fairly steadily up to 1929. 
The effect of the changes in receipts and expenditure on British rail- 
ways has been very marked. First in the numbers of staff employed. 
In 1921 the number of staff on the railways comprised by the four grouped 
companies, including the Railway Clearing House, was 735,870. This 
had fallen to 681,778 in 1923, to 642,137 in 1929, and to 615,592 in 1931. 
The effect on railway dividends has, of course, been even more marked. 
In 1913 the net revenue earned by the companies within the groups 
represented 4-41 per cent. on all capital. ‘The return was 4:40 per cent. 
in 1923, 3-96 per cent. in 1927, 4-17 per cent. in 1929, 3°48 per cent. in 
1931, 2°30 per cent. in 1932, and 2-68 per cent. in 1933. 
The stocks chiefly affected are, of course, the ordinary stocks. The 
average earnings on ordinary stocks were in 1913, 5°55 per cent.; in 1929, 
3°27 per cent.; in 1931, 0:95 per cent.; in 1932, 0°57 per cent.; in 1933, 
0°77 per cent. 
The causes of this decline in railway traffic and railway revenue are 
not far to seek. They are industrial depression, the contraction of 
international trade, and the competition of roads, and to a lesser extent 
of coastwise and air transport. 
In the case of passenger traffic it is probable that a relatively small part 
of the decrease is due to economic depression, and that the bulk of it is 
due to road competition, including that of the private motor-car. Thus 
if we compare 1929, a year of relatively good trade, with 1923, in which 
trade was definitely not as good, we find a marked diminution both in 
the total number of ordinary passengers and in the total receipts from 
them. ‘The figures are shown in the next table. 
Four grouped companies. 
1929 as 
1923. 1929. percentage 
of 1923. 
Total number of ordinary 
passengers. . . 1633-Fm.- 589°8 m. 93 
Total receipts from ordinary 
passengers . ; = 255 °4.m: £48-3 m. 87 
Thus there was a decrease of 43:6 million in the number of such 
passengers, and of {7-1 million in the receipts from them. 
