The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13

a few shillings for rainy day he puts it in the postoffice savings bank where he
 can get it on demand. When he was told
 that the war bonds which he was asked
 to buy at $1. 20 a week would be repayable
 in 15 years he shied at once. What will
 happen to me if I am out of work next year," he asked, and no amount of eX- planation could make him understand the
 process of realizing his bonds in the
 market. A good many middle class people
 could not understand why it was that
 the per cent offered did not appeal to
 the workman as against the 21a per cent offered by the postoffice. The fact is that interest is a matter to which the British workman pays little attention.
 He seldom lets his money lie long enough in the postoffice to draw any, and, at any rate. the extra 2i2 per cent on war loan
 bonds would only amount to 62 cents in
 the year, and did not weigh at all against the supposed difficulty in getting his
 money when he wanted it.
 There are now two proposals being se-
 riously considered by the financial au-
 thorities to cope with the situation, one
 of which may be described as purely
 voluntary and the other as compulsory
 The first is no less than lottery loan
 and. leaving out all consideration of the
 morality or otherwise of lotteries the
 suggestion betrays more imagination than
 We have been accustomed to look for in
 official quarters. If there is one char acteristic more ingrained than another in the British workman it is the sporting in- |Jtinct. Never week passes that he has
 not bob or half dollar"-25 or 60 cents-on 8 horse race or a football match, and the chance of winning a big prize in lottery and at the same time doing his country a service would prove lrresistibly attractive. And the appeal to the gambling spirit is also combined with real lesson in thrift, for this is a lottery in which there are to be no blanks. The proposal is to issue per cent loan repayable at par in 15 or 20 years. The service of the loan is to be provided for at per cent, but the inter- est will only be paid at 21a per cent The other 2R per cent will be used to ere ate fund from which large capital prizes will be paid every year to the win ners in the draw. Thus every subscriber to the loan will not only receive his money back in full, but he will get the same interest on it that he would get rom the postoffice savings bank, and he will stand the chance of winning A bg prize that will make him a rich man for llIe or course the idea is not new, It has been worked by many continental European cities, and the plain and un- adorned lottery is a permanent feature or the finance of several European coun- tries. In ordinary times the Puritanical objection to gambling in all it's forms. which Is so powerful in England. would be sure to kill such scheme. but in the present national emergency 1t may go through, especially when it is corpIed With the possibility of teaching the really needed lesson of thrift
 Ihe other scheme is in the nature of a rofced loan, but as a matter of fact if is "eicomed py most of the workingmen with whom I have discussed it. If is a plan to make the employer hold hack certain portion of every mans and wom- an surpius war earnings and pay it over to une state. Every week the pay clerk would SUCK a stamp representing the value of the mans contribution in his pay book, and the employer Wonld have 10 buy these stamps at the postoffice When the stamps in the book req ched the value of $25 they would be exchaneed at the postoffice for war loan bond bearing interest at per cent. If m;eht be thought that a loan like this se,, bring as it does of compusion, would cre- ate loud protest in England. but the contrary is the case. The only form of thrift that the British workman lnou,s IS the semi-compulsory kind, such as his SICK club. his trade union subscrintion HIS purlai insurance. This is collected weekly, and he is compelled to nov ;t by the knowledge that if he fails ha ,,;,, lose all the benefits of what he has aI- ready paid in. The weekly pavmen+ system is ingrained in his being. ana he has been accustomed to the stamp deduc- lion system of Lloyd-George's national insurance scheme, the contributions to which are collected in this way
 The point of view was expressed +o mo very accurately the other day by a motor 1 mechanic with whom I was discnssins | the proposal
 Its all right" he said ..If thev want ] my money, let them come and fake If and l won't grumble. But dhev won,t get it any other way. War bonus or no l var Nar bonus, ! lay my hands on it l
 The Retort Effective
 From London Opinion.