Taking the consumption of Gas at only 30,000,000 cubic feet per annum, and after allowing for the total cost of Coals, Labour, etc., and crediting the sales for Coke and Residuals, Rates, and Taxes, Materials, etc., the income of the Company should be as follows:
By sale of 30,000,000 feet of Gas at 5s. 10d. per 1,000 cubic feet (present price being 6s. 10d.)£8,750 0 0
,, Sale of Coke, Tar, Breeze, and Residuals, including Meter Rentals1,813 0 0
£10,563 0 0
To purchases:
,, 3,000 Tons of Coal at 17s. 6d. per ton£2,650 0 0
,, Purification, 2d. per 1,000 feet250 0 0
,, Repairs and Renewals to Works and Machinery, 4d. per 1,000 feet of Gas made500 0 0
,, Repairs, Services to Mains, Lamp Columns, and Meters, 2d. per 1,000 feet of Gas made250 0 0
,, Directors' Remuneration, Secretary and Manager's Salary, Wages at works, Rates and Taxes, etc., and Miscellaneous Expenses1,353 0 05,003 0 0
Net Profit£5,560 0 0
To pay 6 per cent. on 15,000 Preference shares at 6 per cent£900 0 0
To pay 12 per cent. on 15,000 Ordinary shares at 12 per cent.1,800 0 02,700 0 0
Leaving a surplus, available for further dividends on the Ordinary Shares and for Reserve Fund£2,860 0 0

The company expects to sell its gas and by-products for £10,563. It further expects that its entire outlay in producing the £10,563 worth of gas, etc., will be only £5,003, leaving a net profit of £5,560! Now let us look for the estimated remuneration of labour.

Here are the lines:—

To directors' remuneration, secretary and manager's salary, wages at works, rates and taxes, etc., and miscellaneous expenses£1,353
And the repair and renewal items, which include some wages750
Total£2,103

So that £2,103 per annum covers, not only wages at works, salaries, directors' fees, but repairs, rates and taxes, and miscellaneous expenses, which must include postages, stationery, etc. It is obvious, therefore, that the total reward of all bodily and mental labour, all furnace-feeding and more or less scientific management, all work whatsoever connected with the gas-making and repairs is calculated by the promoters to cost something less than £2,103. Therefore, it is actually promised to investors, in the light of day, that they can take out of the product of the company's labour profits amounting to £5,560, while all the workers, including managers, are to take only about £1,500. And nothing is more certain than that, in the present condition of what we prettily call the "labour market," thousands of men, with thousands of women and children dependent upon them, would clamour to have the chance to take a share of the £1,500 while working to make £5,560 for the investors. Nor is it that we are merely examining the extravagant promises of a prospectus. There is nothing impossible in this scheme; the company has a good thing, and it is bound to make fine profits. I have given above a few specimens of gas dividends. Here are some more:

Name of Company.Nominal Value of Shares or Stock.Dividend.Price of Shares (1905).
The British Gas Light Co., Ltd.£20 10 p.c.£41
The Ipswich Gas L. Co. (A Stk.)1013½ p.c.28
Eastbourne Gas Co. (C Stock)1015 p.c.28
Harrogate Gas Co. (A Stock)10017 p.c.340
Aldershot Gas and Water Co.1011½ p.c.23
Portsea Is. Gas Lgt. Co. (B Shs.)5013 p.c.127
European Gas Co., Ltd.1011 p.c.23
Bournemouth Gas and Water Co.1014 p.c.30
Watford Gas and Coke Co.10013½ p.c.276

In each of these cases the remuneration of labour is much less than the remuneration of those who "wait."

Thus the records of public companies place at our disposal a very fair picture of distribution as it is. We cease to wonder at the terrible error in the distribution of the nation's income. It is brought home to us that a few individuals, through a monopoly of capital, have a great economic advantage over the multitude of their fellows. That it is impossible to argue that the error of distribution accords, even roughly, with the intrinsic value of the various orders of services, is sufficiently shown in the case of these companies, for their gross profit is usually subject to deduction for the reward of brain-power before assessment by the Income Tax Commissioners. We see that it is not any form of ability, either in design or in organization (which is but design) or in manual effort which secures the largest rewards in industry. It is capital, as capital, which takes the lion's share of the product of the mental and manual labour exercised upon the small area of land which serves for the basis of our industries.[30] The landlord's share, although actually great, is relatively small. In agriculture the conditions are different. It is the landlord, as landlord, who takes the lion's share of the product of the cultivated acres of the United Kingdom.

[28] I use this phrase with intention. Interest, once defined as the reward of "abstinence," is now usually explained by the economists of the schools to be the reward of "waiting." "Abstinence" has been laughed out of court.