MOUNTING FIGURES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 19

MOUNTING FIGURES

COST OF GOVERNMENT

BRITAIN'S POSITION

Salaries and wages alone in the British Ministry of Labour this year will cost the nation £4,200,000, while the estimates for the Post Office, Inland Revenue, and Customs Departments are over £72,000,000. The number employed iv the British Civil Service has now risen to 304,000. ■ These facts are set out in an article in the "Daily Mail," in which alarm is expressed at the growth of the Civil Service under the Labour Government. One person in every 100 is now a State official. , Two of the outstanding features or the Socialist administration are, the increase of the workless and the growth of the Civil Service, says the article. The same cause—high taxation—pro duees opposite results. The nation is living in a vicious circle. The crushing burden of taxation on industry causes unemployment. Unemployment leads to more taxation for the social services and an ever-increasing Civil Service staff for " administration. \ On the balance, the State is the loser. More goes out than comes in. The poorer the country becomes, the more depressed trade, the higher rises the tido -f bureaucracy. Excluding tin Irish Departments, the total number employed in tho Civil Service in 1914 was 248,700. In January, 1930, it was 304,000, to which several hundreds have since been added. Mr. Churchill solemnly promised the House of Commons. soon after he took office as Chancellor to reduce each year the cost of the Civil Service by £10,000,000, and also to suspend recruitment from the outside. He signally.failed to carry out his promise in; both cases. ' BRIBES TO ELECTORS. I suppose under our present/political system, with' all parties competing in bribing the electorate in order ,to win' votes, events were too strong for Mr. Churchill,: and the taxpayer sighed in vain for tho promised relief. Apart from -any defects in administration, the-Wcia!-services and increased taxation^—and they are not unrelated —are. largely responsible for the steady and- persistent growth of our Civil Service, in spite 'of Eoyal ( Commissions and Committees of Inquiry galore. ' Including those not on: tho establishment,, such as- temporary; clerjks and other classes, England has to-day one State official in every hundred of the population, reckoning men, women, and

children. Even where the-staffs-show some slight reduction, there ia an immense increase in coat. The Post Office stag on 31st March, 1914, was 233,900, costing £17,204,000. The total number oil 31st-March, 1928, was only-229,----000. but it cost £40,050,000. ' ' ' NEVI.R SUCH AN INFLUX. Bureaucracy is the- handmaiden^, of Socialism, which Btanda for riationalisa-' tion and State Control. One is tho complement of tho other. -'There 'has-never been such an influx into the' Civi1 Sorvice as that 'since'fh'e Sdcialist Govqrnment took office. . Just before, 100 vacancies were offered at an examination for the clerical class. That number had to: be increased to 700, many of the candidates callea up getting less than. 50 per cent, of tho total marks. But more recruits were still needed,'and last January_ it was necessary to hold another examination, at which as many a3 500 vacancies were offered. At a competition last December for another. branch' of the Civil Service 350 vacancies were notified. This large numbor also was not enough, and 450 /received appointments. Kcarlv all .these candidates ere required in the departments .dealing with the social services and tho revenue and taxation departments, where the rising expenditure in the Civil Service is most pronounced. • , The 1930-31 Estimates of expenditure issued by the Socialist Government for two departments alone—the Ministry of Health and the Ministry ,of Labour—reach the staggering total of £96,995,801, an increase of £10,000,000 over last year. The cost of salaries and wages for the Ministry of .Health is £1,866,350— an increat of more than £200,000 compared with last year. The salary bill in the Ministry of Labour will cost £4,241^000. This department i-i telegrams and telephones alone- spends £53,000 a year. The total estimates for the current year for fie Post Office., the Inland. Bevenue, and the Customs and Excise are & 72,409,050,. as compared with. £70,----703,425 last year. This ia an increase of £1,706,225. As against 1929^30, the cost of administration in the Post Office has gone :up'by £1,170,000; in the Inland Beveniie by £414>625, and in the Customs and Excise by £121,600. The increased cost of the Civil Service in almost every direction is one of the outstanding features of the Estimates issued bj the Socialist Government. Coming; events east their shadows before. . ■