Widnes Examiner. — 1899-08-18 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

LOCAL BRA.NCH, BUTTERMARKET STREET,  WARRINGTON.  SETTING a trap for the A Shilling Duty, benevolent is never a wise Noceeuing, and the Protectionists who have fixed so many traps lately, must not be astonished if any device of this kind in connection with old-age pensions is regarded with special distrust. Mr. CHAPLIN has been diseourr ing upon old-age pensions and a shilling duty no corn, and hence we may fairly consider that the proposition is a feeler. The registratioa dutY would yield about two millions of money. Of course, we are assured that the re-imposition Of this duty would not raise the price of corn or et bread and flour. We may be excused a reasonable scepticism on this head. Mr. CHAPLIN declares that when the duty was taken off it did not affect the price of wheat. That may be, because all reductions do not take effect at once, and this one was appropriated by the wheat buyers and the floursellers and bakers. But au increase in price always tells at once end that is the point to be kept well in mind. The consumer is seldom allowed the advantage or stocks purchased at a reduced price, and if e shilling a quarter duty were placed upon foreige corn, which is now in hardly the SAME, proportion to the total comumed as it was when Mr. Lowg took off the duty, the price of broad and flour would be sure to be affected. The consumption ef foreign corn in this country is now between BO and six million quarters more per year than it Wes when Mr. LOWE took off the duty. There will he a great and natural reluctance to placing any la' post on food, and especially upon what has beer' called the staff of life, because bread forms s° large a part of the food of the working classes. It would be a reactionary policy, and, as such, would be resisted to the utmost. It would be so indirect contribution by the wage-earners to the pension they were to receive, and it would affect the poorest of men most. The richer and the higher classes do not consume much bread,and the cern-duty would, relatively, affect them very little. The suggestion, moreover, is untimely. If the Government desires to give pensions to the aged and deserving poor it should not dream of get' ling the money by taxation of this kind, likely enough to grow with the extensioo of the scheme. If the shilling duty would pro' duce two millions for a small beginning, tw° shillings would double it, and four shillings would furnish as much money as is ever likely to be re' quired. It would be so easy to 4rgue that it woUld be better to increase the duty than to find song° other tax, when more money would be required, es it certainly would be in the course of a few years: Public discussion will soon convince the doubtft.,l3 that a bread tax, however small, for the purpose of obtaining funds for an old-age pension schen)* will never do at all. It is not necessary to sugge4 an alternative plan of raising the money. Finding the money is the duty of the Statesmen who pro" pound the scheme, and if any new taxation be re" quired it should fall upon;the persons best able te bear it, and not upon a poor class already paying more to the State than its earnings justify. ref: haps it is fortunate that Mr. CHAPLIN has so earl/ in the recess indicated the danger which beset° us—namely, a trap for the benevolent. Baia mildly Protectionist,in order to be mildly humsee' is a policy that will not answer and ought net t° answer.  NEVER was a crime cep' The Censpiracy mitted that was less like tbe at Rennes. work of an individual 00 fanatic than the one which has occurred at Renues' A blundering fanatic would not have escaped, be would not have shot at Me. LABORI from behiO3 , and he would probably have desired to becoule martyr there and then. The crime and the methoa of its commission indicate preparation and th° co-operation of several persons. The assassin 0$ to wound the distinguished advocate, and tile' others were to seize his documents, either t° spare General MERCER or to paralyse the defehce' Incidentally, the story about the priest preveet' ing any disclosure as to what had been seen iu graveyard is of some importance. It may he't strictly correct, and yet it helps ua to understall_d the effective manner in which the assassin 11' eluded capture for the time. Someone has bee: helping him, he has been acting upon a plan, ale he has been promised a sufficient reward to ra3 s the crime worth attempting. To get at DROYI36 would have been a more complete and tragic '5llO ing,, to the whole affair. Failing this, there 'l7 Jesutical cunning in aiming at his advocate, e,do at a time when military men were about to evidence. This view of the case invests it 71 gt eater seriousness, and apparently this is they 4 of the French police, who seem to have becorae $ We active in Paris as they me inactive elsewhere. believe they have some eines, and that the cricso.. nal will not escape their vigilance. He maY c° 0 mit suicide, and he may be shipped out cf catbe country, his name may escape notice for le. time, but the whole plot is certain to be disc „do later on. We say the whole plot because not for for a moment believe that what has haPPe°r, is the whole plot. The intention was to kill Cl' 10 TAIN DREYFUS, and it has been frustrated bY Thef vigilance of the police and the military. • t die have, however, been a little too sanguine ab°ll.tseg distance between Paris and Rennes being in 1 • chls" an :obstruction to the plans of the atm' t. The conspirators have been unable to 80' . r all their plans. They the dered by public opinion and bY The increased vigilance of the authorities.icat. ,ea precautions taken at first were rid will be furthe hill