Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-11-15
EXAGGERATED PATERNAL1sM.

mand will be met.
EXAGGERATED PATERNALISM.
The British people are feeling the effects Of the
exaggerated paternalisn which has been shown in
recent years in the constantly increasing taxes
which in recent years, have been levied for the
benefit of the manual,worker. The name of these
taxes is legion, and they have been levied for the
purpose of protecting the workman against most of
the ills to which flesh is heir. The most c%onspicu-
GUS of these recent taxes is the unemployment tax,
intended for the laudable purpose of protecting the
workman and his family against want when it was
impossible for him to find occupation.
The unemployment tax, however, has had an ef-
feet quite different from that intended and desired
by at least some of its advocates. 1t has operated
to place a premium on idleness. Men who have nd
particular love for work have found that with the
unemployment dues and such other benefits as it is
possible to have slipped in under the very liberal
regulations, a family can exist in moderate COM
fort without doing any work whatever. That being
true, why work? .-r.
That line of argument is quite certain to be fol-
lowed by a considerable percentage of people when
ever a way is shown them whereby they can get
along without work. Old age pensions remove the
necessity of accommodating a little nest egg for de-
Ginning years. Pensions during illness provide for
that contingency: Widows are comfortably provid-
cd for. And the unemployment dues provide food
and shelter from day to day, which is all that some
individuals find necessary. :
The money expended for these purposes does not
come out of the aid. Land taxes have been levied
to the point-and in some cases beyond it-of con-
:%hscation. Income taxes bear heavily OH those who
must pay them. The industries in which %unemploy-
lnent benefciaries are ordinarily employed are pay
ing all the taxes that they can raise and keep their
heads above water, and their problem is rendered
more difficult by the reluctance of many of the pen
|sioners to work, and their i%nsistence on high wages
when they do work.
But the taxes are still inadequate. There are still
more people who wish to be unemployed, and those
not at work, and not inclined to work, could use
more of the good things of life if they had them.
Taxation has reached a point in most instances
where higher rates would be productive Of less
revenue, and in order to meet the demand for more
money to spend on gratuities the bcneiciaries of
that plan have proposed to 60 right to the heart of
the matter and make a capital levy, which means, in
brief, to find out who have property and then take
a liberal slice Of it away from them and distribute
it among those who have none and who are un-
willing to put forth the necessary effort to create it.
The indications are that the extreme labor fac
ton has broken its pick in making its public de-
mand for a direct capital levy. There has been
a decided reaction. not on the part of those of great
wealth, who have been pretty we'll MIXED anyway,
but from those in moderate circumstances, who have
accumulated a little property by means of hard
work, and who do not like the idea of having their
savings taken from them and distributed among
professional idlers.
The people Of this class would perhaps not be
among the first direct victims Of the proposed tax.
But it is clear that if the process is once started, it
will not readily be stopped. The proceeds of the
hrst capital levy would soon be dissipated, and an
other would be necessary, and another and so on.
There would be no end short of a general ~confsca-
ton of property, and when one gets right next to
him. the real working Britisher is inclined to be
tenacious of that which he has earned, and which he
believes lawfully to be his.
That seems to be the spirit which administered
such a startling defeat to the labor candidates in the
English municipal ~elections a week or two ago. 1t
has entered into the campaign which will be term
mated by today's elections, and unless the signs are
wrong, there will be a somewhat impressive demon
%stration today Of the determination of the British
middle class to call a halt on paternalism and to
insist on recognition Of the principle that if people
are to eat they must work.