“Loss”—A Misleading Word.

This was an illustration of his statement that while the expenditure was wholly shown in the railway expenditure account the benefits of the expenditure and efforts of the railway men, from the General Manager downwards, were not reflected in the revenue account. He believed that he had probably said enough to bring home to his hearers, as business men, his point and to illustrate the fallacy of saying that the difference between revenue and expenditure in the railway account was the measure of what was (quite erroneously) termed the “loss” on the railways.

Nevertheless, he was not going to say that the difference was a figure that should not improve, or that they should salve their consciences by saying “Sterling says it is for social service or some other thing.” He recognised that that figure had to be kept within the bounds of what the community could reasonably afford; and how was that to be done?