Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-05
By HENRY w. BUM.

@HE following is brief summary
of the most important news of
the world for the seven days
ended May 4:
X X X X -
THE BRITISH EMPIRE.-The main
points of the officially promulgated
election program of the Labor party
may be summarized as follows:
The party, which is neither Com
munist nor Bolshevist, sets its face
against force, revolution and confisca-
tions as means of achieving new So
cial order. and stands for ordered
progress through democratic methods
for peaceful but steadily urged ma
tional reconstruction and development"
having for its goal "a socialist, Coop
erative commonwealth as the only al
tentative to reaction or revolution"
A substantial program Of public
works is promised, though on no such
scale as the one trumpeted by Lloyd
George.
Maturity benefits are promised, CORE
spending almost precisely to those re-
Gently promised by Premier Baldwin.
Support is pledged to the League OF
Nations international labor office.
Should the party achieve the power 1t
will at once adopt the washington"
eight-hour day for workers.
Immed summoning of an inter-
national disarmament conference is de-
manded.
In improvement of the export trade
lies the chief hope of a radical Solu-
ton of the unemployment problem. A
comprehensive plan OF export credits
should be the most prominent feature
of grand program looking to revival
of export trade Meantime, certain
pallatives for unemployment are indi-
Gated AS extension of the compulsory
term of schooling, and more generous
provision of retirement pensions for
aged workers. Adequate legislation in
the above senses is promised should
Labor win at the polls.
Moreover, a victorious Labor party
would nationalize coal and other mines
and would vigorously develop scientific
utilization of coal by-products.
It is proposed that houses be built
by the government, not for sale to
workers, but for rent to them at reason
able rates.
The taxation policy of the party is
stated as follows:
THE party stands for a system OF
taxation that will distribute the burden
fairly according to ability to pay. 1t
will abolish taxes on food and other
necessarieS, providing what revenue is
needed by death duties on large estates
and by graduating the income tax and
SurtaX, relieving the smaller and IN
creasing the contributions from the
larger incomes. The party will carry
still further the differentiation between
earned and unearned income"
Strangely, Russia is not mentioned.
The ideal of a socialist, cooperative
state may be discounted as recognized
by the majority of the party to be
| iaI lie oT16
| Conservatives are not inhoSpitable to
| the idea of naturalization of the mines.
AS to taxation, it seems unlikely that
Labor would make extraordinary
changes; at any rate, except very, very
| gradually. There's a point beyond
which you can't further curtail the
already cur-tail'd cur. The which is
| sufficiently known to MesSrs. Macdonald,
| Snowden. Henderson, etc. But of course
| an election platform, anywhere on the
planet. has to De adorned with chapletS
of millennial promises.
! The GondOn) lord mayors fund Tor
| the relief of distressed mining areas
has been closed with total collection
of $4,217,200. The government has
! pledged d like amount. About $3,250, 900
has been dispensed leaving more than
| $5,000,000 still to be dispensed.
| Last week l stated incorrectly that
the British budget for the new fiscal
year (began April -, calls for a total
expenditure less by about $200,000,o00
than the total estimated for the pre-
vious fiscal year. 1t calls for total
expenditure greater by about l94,000,-
600 than that estimated for the preced-
ing fiscal year.
A huge Fairey-Napier monoplane
Squadron Leader Jones-Williams and
Flight Lieut.. Jenkins, has made the
first nonstop flight from Greet Britain
| (CTanTelI Ai-Grcn1a, LNcc.rcn.re), to
India (KarachDi time 30 hours and