MR. PARTON AND TRAM FARES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 12, 14 July 1922, Page 3

MR. PARTON AND TRAM FARES

TO THI IDITOR.

Sir,—Mr. A. W. Parton,-the Civic League's candidate in the, City Council by-election, is naturally anxious to reduce the wages of tramway employees, and to get support for his lower-wages policy, he offered as an inducement, in his speech on Monday night,. the usual promise of a reduced car' fare for some of the longer journeys. His definite statement was that if the proposed wage-cut were ejected, it should be possible to reduce some of the fares 25 per cent. Mr Parton is, of course, one of those who are blind to every method of financing a concession to the public, except that of taking the cost of the concession from the wage-earn-ers, and although in this case there is an alternative, he seems to be totally unaware of it. The. total wage-cut over the year in relation to the tramwaymen is estimated! at £10,000, and this, says Mr. Parton, could be used to reduce some fare 25 per cent. But last year, the net profit on the trams was £22,000—an amount that is £8000 in excess of the average annual net,profit for the last seven years—«nd it is' from this net profit that the cut in tram fares should be financed. And rightly too, because it wa6 taken from the people in excessively high fares in the first place. If, as Mr. Parton calculates, a reduction of £10,000 in wages will enable a cut of 25 per cent, in fares to be made, the utilisation of the £22,000 in the way suggested, will lower the fares by, roughly, twice as much. There would be this further advantage too, that the recently prevailing wages of the 'Iramwayrcien would be maintained, there would be no possibility of a reduction in spending power, and, therefore, no business would suffer by a falling-off in trade. Mr. Parton's idea seems to be to make the tramwaymen pay for lower fares, so that suburban land speculators might pocket substantial increases in the unimproved value of land.—l am, etc., J. GLOVER, 13th July.