Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1923-01-12

most responsible for the high cost Of
! livingi The big tea corporations, like
Lipton's, have been paying from IL
to 20 per cent dividends and some Of
the big brewers, like Guinness, from
% TO 20 per cent-above all taxes.
Wages Are Not Tax Free.
But labor does not receive It's wages
taX-free. Far from it. The work
ing-elasses Of Great Britain pay al
most Sl,00,000,000 yearly in indi-
rect taxes. The workers must pay the
government 5 cents on every pound
of sugar, 7 10 3 cents on every hound
Of coffee, 10 to ID cents on every
pound of tea! $500, 600, 900 was raised
from such taxes last year, $3.50, 900
600 from tobacco, and nearly ST.
900, 900, 900 from alcoholic drinks
lregarded as neither a crime nor a
luxury in the British Isles)-and of
all this labor paid the greater part.
But this is not the only grievance
organized labor has against the row.
eminent as one of the causes of the
high cost Of living. Great Britain
has long adopted a policy of social
reform Of which the wage learners
are the chief beneficiaries. Now not
only these reforms but also such vital
things as education are being cut
down and starved on the ground Of
retrenchment. Last years budget
showed the following lin round fig
ures):
Interest on Pub,
lie Debt----A----S2,0 00, 100000
Army and Navy 1,000, 100000
War Pnesions----- 500,000,000
Education, Health,
Housing and Old
Pensions ----- 00,000,0 900
In the November election campaign
the iabor party alone demanded a
considerable increase of expenditures
for education, housing pure milk and
medical care for children and moth
ers, and the increase of the govern
mental subsidies already enacted to
cheaper home-produced food and
coal. Leading men like Viscount Hal
dane and well known bishops pointed
out that the Labor party alone fav-
ored an adequate treatment of edu-
cation. Nor were the sums proposed
by the Labor party out of the realm
of practical politics. While they
would increase the expenditures un-
der the head of education, housing,
ETC., by a considerable percentage this
would mean an increase of the total
budget by only small per cent.
Unemployment Chief Issue.
Most paramount of all the para
mount issues was unemployment
Here the Labor party's remedy is no
longer unemployment insurance but
"a 'reopening trade with
foreign countries by the national
organization of production" and
(2) "a large program of nee
essary and useful public works"
These remedies for unemployment
would demand a large-scale use of
government funds or credit. But UNI
is a large-scale burden
on industry and the nation.
Is not this labor union part of the
program also redical? Perhaps. 1t |
frankly aims ito bring about more
equitable distribution of the nations |
wealth by constitutional MEANS"
That policy may be radical, but it is |
certainly not revolutionary-having
been advocated by Lloyd George and
Winston Churchill in Great Britain, |
and by equally eminent and non-rev-
dictionary statesmen in other coun- |
tries.
There can be no question: The |
success of the British Labor party in |
November was mainly due to the
sound policy of social reconstruction
nut forward by the labor union ele-
ment.