ORDINARY SHARES AND PRIOR CHARGE ISSUES.
A remarkably interesting and also practical chapter is the one dealing with the modern theory of the superiority of Ordinary or Common shares over the Prior Charge issues. Of course, in many instances this popularity is really due to their more speculative character. It is not so much, however, that aspect of the matter with which Mr. Withers deals as with the actual yield over a prolonged period when compared with the Prior Charge issues, and in that connexion the useful point is made that it is often when prices of goods and services are high—in other words, when the purchasing value of the pound has declined—that indus- trial concerns are prospering and are giving to the share- holders a high rate of dividend compensating for the reduced purchasing power of money, whereas the holder of the 4 per cent. Debenture stock has to be content with his strictly limited dividend.
Previous page
