WAR PROSPERITY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 35, 16 May 1916, Page 4

WAR PROSPERITY.

The tide of prosperity in Great Britain caused by the!expenditure of hundreds of millions of pounds in conducting the war is still at the flood (writes the London correspondent of the MelBourne Age). The 'annual balancesheets issued by public: companies whose business operations have been increased by the war tell eloquent stories of the plentifulness of money. Shipping companies, ship budding companies, engineering companies, provision merchants, millers, and manufacturers in almost every branch of industry, have been swept along on the''tide. The only trades that are quiet are the building trades', the linen trade, and the trades concerned .with the manufacture of luxuries. In normal'times the proportion of unemployI nient among members of British trade j unions is s*per cent. ;in the. most prosperous times of peace ft has seldom ! been below 2 per cent.; but' to-day it '■stands at \ per'cent. Over>6,GQQ#oQ \ British workers have obtained higher, wages since the outbreak of the war,; the total increase of their wages bill being over £1,000,000 a week. Even the down-trodden British sailor has found himself in a position to demand higher wages. Seamen on British merchant ships are now being liaid £8 a month, which is double the rate of pay before the war. The balancesheets of the few British companies ; which were engaged .in the dye manufacturing industry before the outbreak of .war read like a fairy tale, German 1 manufacturers had- almost art entire monopoly of the dye.industry, and before the war these British companies found it difficult to keep afloat. But now the demand in Great Britain for dyes cannot be .met, and prices have increased enormously. Messrs Levenstein, a Manchester .".firm of dye makers, made a profit last year, of £BO,OOO on a capital of £90,000. They paid dividends for fourteen years back on preference shares, wrote off £21,000 for depreciation, and paid a dividend of 30 per cent, on the ordinary shares. The Yorkshire Dye Wares Company increased its profits last year to £30,000, as compared with '£Bo,oo for the previous year. Provision merchants, tea companies, rubber com-/ panies, jute companies, and colliery companies have also .made large pjo-j fits out of the war conditions. Three jute companies have raised their dividends from 10 per cent, to 30 per cent, owing to the demand for jute to make sand bags for the parapets of the trenches. Tea companies, which profited by the rise in the value of their stocks of tea when the duty wasj increased to Is per lb, are paying dividends, of 20, 40, and 45 per cent. Richard Dickenson and Son, army con-, tractors and provision merchants, j made a profit of £125,000 last yearj and paid a dividend of 22f per cent, j This amount is more that five times j the average profit of the company in'' past year';, although it does not cover; a full twelve months of war conditions.; It is necessary to remember that the large dividends that are being declared tell only half the story of the | war prosperity. Only 50 per rent, of: the profits are available for distribution, the other 50 per cent, must be| naid to the State in the form of taxation on war profits. In a full financial year the Chancellor of the Exchequer, expects to get £30,000,000 from this | source, but it is probable that this amount will be greatly exceeded. So great is the prosperity which the war has brought to thousands of business concerns that it is believed the war profits tax will be increased to 75 per rout, by the Chancellor of the Exchon'tor before the war sir's.'