It is true beyond question that English railways have cost more to construct than the railways of any other country. The capital expenditure of all railways in England is represented by the figure of about £56,000 per mile as compared with about £21,000, which is the corresponding figure for German railways, and about £12,000 per mile for American railways. Railway proprietors in England are not responsible for the high capital cost. They were forced by law, and by custom powerful as law, to pay monstrously inflated values for their lands. Burden upon burden has been heaped upon them by the action of the Legislature, by the requirements of Government departments, and by the exactions of public opinion. They have borne heavy losses in being compelled to spend capital without regard to their ability to secure adequate return upon it, and assuredly no reckoning is due from them to the public in this matter. The reverse would be more true. The total capitalization of railways in the United Kingdom in the year 1907, as given in the Board of Trade Returns, was 1,294 millions sterling, of which 196 millions represents nominal additions. The net earnings (some of which, however, arose from miscellaneous sources independent of the operation of the railways) amounted to £44,940,000, or 3.47 per cent on the nominal capital. Out of a total of 1,294 millions sterling, 136 millions of loan and preferential capital received interest or dividends in excess of 4 per cent. This presumably arose from the insecurity of capital, involving the payment of a high rate of interest or dividend. One hundred and eighty-one millions of ordinary capital received dividends in excess of 4 per cent. per annum. The capital receiving interest or dividends in excess of 4 per cent. per annum is, therefore, 317 millions, or 24.5 per cent. of the total. It cannot be said on these figures that the interest received by those who provided the capital for the railways is excessive.