PENALISING THE THRIFTY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 11, 13 July 1931, Page 8

PENALISING THE THRIFTY

, (To the Editor.) , Sir,—l was jnucli interested in ''Xhrjf t's" letter in Saturday's "Post." My husband, a returned.soldier, received fair, wages as •a carpenter for ■ a few years, every possible shilling of which we saved—pictures about twice 1 a your, no fine clothes, no drink, his only extravagance being one tin ot tobacco per week.' After much sacrificing we acquired two properties: ono we live in and one w,e let, the rent of which we have not received for somemonths, the tenant being on relief works. My husband has been able to get very little work this last two years, but .cannot get relief woi'k, because his wife has property. Wo cannot sell our properties, borrow further on them, or get rent for them, ,'and my savings have gone. My tenant, a man who has'received a ■'much higher wage than my husband, but' has had a good time with it, can get relief wqrk, and, having a 'jlarge family, gets plenty ot sympathy 'ancl all • the help that's going.' I am selling->parts of my homo tp get fbod' o for my. children, not clothes. ,\Vho gets the best of it: tho thrifty man or the spendthpft-^thc man who gambles' or drinks? When 1 have lost my properties—and the' sooner the mortgagees ■ claim them , the better—then 'my husband will be eligible for relief work, and if ever my husband is- fortunate enough to get a decent wage again I am spending it as fast as I get it, and in times like the present and in our old age the. State can keep us—the very thing wo were trying to avoid. Certainly, the thrifty are penalised —I am, etc., DISGUSTED.