The half-year ending June, 1908, has been a disastrous period
for British railways: The statistics recently published show a decline of £521,000 in receipts and an increase of £667,000 in expenditure, thus involving a decrease of £1,188,000 in net revenue. The causes assigned are manifold, the chief being the decline in trade and the high price of coal, and that the former cause is not confined to Great Britain is shown by the fact that the returns of one of the principal American railways for the same period show a far greater falling off in gross receipts. Incidentally we may note that the Daily Chronicle, in a useful comparative table, shows that the great decrease in the volume of exports and imports shown in the Board of Trade Returns is more than paralleled by the American figures, a fact which Tariff Reformers will do well to note.
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