been allowed to transpire; but it is understood to be admitted to be at least �150,000. The total loss to the three companies may therefore be set down at �237,500 as a minimum. The probability is that when the full details are known, it may be found to reach a much higher figure.
In addition to the loss thus acknowledged in diminished dividends, there is the probable suspension of charge in connection with the strike. The damage to rolling-stock will occupy the railway workshops for a long time to come. It is already said that every item of damage is being referred to the strike. The difficulty of making an exact estimate is thus greatly enhanced.
Further, there is an item of loss to individual shareholders which cannot be ignored, that is, the loss due to the fall in the capital price of the stock. The effect of the strike was discounted by speculators, who operated for a fall in prospect of a strike for months before it took place. During the strike the stock fell, and at the close, in anticipation of a seriously reduced dividend, it fell to a lower point than it had reached during the crisis. Whether or not this is a lasting depression depends partly upon the management of the railways and partly upon the general trade of the country; but since a very large amount of the stocks of the three railways has changed hands, there can be little doubt that timid bod fide holders must have suffered heavily, while those who continued to ' bear' the stock must have realized large profits.
B. The Men. The strike has probably cost the men and the Trades Unions that have supported them from �20,000 to �30,000 in direct expenditure, strike and picket pay, &c. In unpaid wages the men in the aggregate have lost probably about �40,000. 2 Individually this loss has. been met (a) by the strike pay above me.ntioned, (b) by drawing on sawngs, (c) by incurring debt, (d) by diminished comfort. The net pecuniary sacrifice to the men on strike is difficult to arrive at, but probably �20,000 to �30,000 would fully cover it. This loss represents about one-twelfth of the year's income of the men concerned.
The loss to the ordinary shareholder in the Glasgow and SouthWestern Railway of per cent. per annum on his half year's dividend, or an actual reduction of per cent., represents the loss of onesixteenth of his year's income. The loss to the Caledonian ordinary shareholder of 1 per cent. per annum, or ] per cent. for the half-year, represents a loss of one-seventh of his year's income. The North British Company having failed to pay any dividend for the half-year to th.e ordi,na.ry shareho!der, this failure represents a loss of one-half of hs year's ncome. Even the preference shareholder of the North British Company has incurred a loss of 1 per cent., representing one quarter of his year's income. Some of thi loss would, as noted above, have been incurred in any case, but it is perhaps fair to set down the loss to the ordinary shareholder of the North British as representing .the loss due to the strike. Thus, the men on strike lost one month's ncome, the Caledonian ordinary shareholder lost about two months'
1 It must be noted generally that the degree in which the companies were affected in the fall of their stock, in the extent of the strike in their systems, in the discontent of their men, and in the rapidity of their growth, was in the following order, the,North British, the Caledonian, and the G. & S.-W. Railway. What has been said throughout applies chiefly to the first, in a less degree to the second, and least to the third. See Appendix.
2 On the difficulty of forming a reliable estimate of this and also on the difficulty of estimating the average number of men on strike during the period, see The Rail. way Strike, p. 23.
