Page:Hints About Investments (1926).pdf/183

 that when they go right he gets his fixed rate and no more.

Hitherto the participating preference share has been issued almost solely by companies which, from the nature of the enterprise conducted, are more liable to fluctuations of fortune than those which are engaged in transport or industry in the narrower sense of the word. It is a pity that this is so, because a participating preference has thus acquired a slightly speculative association, which is an obstacle in the way of its wider adoption.

Some preference shares and stocks are called "guaranteed," and get from this high-sounding name more consideration than they deserve from investors. This was shown when the real nature of the guarantee of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada's guaranteed stock was revealed in the strong light of disaster. All that it meant was that the company guaranteed to pay the interest if it could, just as it promised to pay, if it could, the dividends on the various preference issues. Investors are apt to assume that a guaranteed stock is necessarily guaranteed by some outside authority which is not affected by the fortunes of the company, and sometimes this is so, but by no means always. The guaranteed stocks of the British railway companies rank before the preferences