lar industries to which they refer.
The first is taken from _the Sunday Pictorial_, of all papers.[35]

Immense increases in the profits of two shipping companies are, as
a result of the ceaseless rise in freights, disclosed in the
reports of two Newcastle lines published yesterday. The high cost
of freights is largely responsible for the dearness of food, coal,
and other necessities of life. The gross profits of the Cairn Line
of Steamships, Ltd., amounted to L292,108, and the net profits,
after deducting the special war taxation and other items, were
L162,689. A dividend of 10 per cent, with bonus of 4s. per share,
is recommended. This makes a total of 30 per cent, free of income
tax, as against 10 per cent last year, when the total profits
amounted to L97,335. Less than half of this company's capital is
paid up, the total authorised being L600,000; there are also
debentures of about L150,000.

The next quotation is from the _New Statesman_:--[36]

Glasgow is exceedingly prosperous, and iron and steel manufacturers
tell me that the next three or four years, peace or war, must mean
a period of prosperity for them. Government orders now absorb so
large a proportion of output that outside requirements are simply
not being met. Owing to the scarcity of shipping this deficiency is
not being filled by imports from America (the only other possible
source of supply), so that unfilled orders are accumulating. A
waggon manufacturer told me he had sufficient work in sight to keep
him going for five years. It must be remembered that part of the
cost of the war is being met temporarily by depreciation--railway
tracks, rolling stock, locomotives, etc., _to mention only one
industry_,[37] not being replaced as they wear out, or being
maintained to the minimum degree necessary. This means that,
although less obvious than the reconstruction of ruined parts of
Belgium, France, Poland, and Eastern Prussia, repairs and
replacements aggregating many millions sterling in cost will have
to be carried out after the war in countries that have not been
invaded. A peace boom in the iron and steel and shipbuilding trades
appears certain.

Here, before passing on to more general considerations, we may notice
incidentally--it is brought out in the first quotation--that the
taxation of w