of the companies have at some stage or other in their history had to go through periods of difficulty, and it would be foolish to think that such difficult periods cannot recur. Accordingly, in my view, companies should be extra careful at this moment of their prosperity to correct, while they are able to do so, any basic errors in their policy, such as the one to which I have drawn attention, thereby putting themselves in a better position to meet the period of depression which, as experience teaches us, usually succeeds a period of elation."
It follows from the nature of the work done by these companies that their expenses are extremely minute. Our friend, the Edinburgh Investment Trust, shows, in its revenue account, interest and dividends received, less income tax £86,950, and management expenses £4,600; this leaves £82,350 as total net revenue before paying debenture interest. As debenture interest, less tax, requires £12,400, it is more than six and a half times covered. As far as capital security goes, the investments, as we have seen, stand at £1,438,000, and are valued at £1,778,000, so that at the date of the balance-sheet the £400,000 of debentures was secured on assets worth more than four times as much. Even the preference stock's dividend is covered more than five and a half
