"ECONOMY CAMPAIGN HAS FAILED"

Evening Star, Issue 16037, 14 February 1916, Page 3

"ECONOMY CAMPAIGN HAS FAILED"

You ask ms whether I think that the War Economy Campaign lias failed. Certainly it has (writes "A Man of Business" id the 'Daily Graphic'). And why? First, because the Government's example is that of entire lack of economy. Wo have a Cabinet of 22, of whom 20 are receiving salaries averacinf over £4,400, and a. House of Commons 500 of whore members are receiving £4OO a year which thty do not need. I g;o further, and kit that if 100 moinbors—netsessavv caste—were each paid £250 a year, the Speaker to have the allocation of the money, nothing more need be spent oil private M-.Pvs Secondly, the campaign has failed because so much extravagance is permitted in Government departments. The war is carried on with the grossest indifference to money. Enough good is wasted in the British lines to support the German army. I have read of a steamer used -as an officers' club in the Dardanelles whbh was costing £IO,OOO a month. Heaven knows that no man here wants a policy of cheeseparing; but the amount of avoidable waste and extravagance is wicked. Another cause of failure in the Economy Campaign iB that the middle of a war is the wrong tinw io teach the public the principles of economy by means of lectures and literature. TO is a lesson that must begin with children at school. But if you cannot teach _ peopla to practise economy suddenly on principle, you can make them economical by statute. Virtually everything ought to ho taxed. The hua;o expenditure in this country on useless food and drink ought to ba controlled, by taxation.