CONSCRIPTION OF WEALTH
LABOR'S BILL DRAFTED. What does the workman mean by the Jonscription of Wealth? He means that, just as every person is rightly required to give his whole working time and strength to the service of the State, whether with the colors or in useful production to maintain the firing line, in return for the maintenance of himself and his dependents, so the owners of property must, in this emergency, give to the service of the State those resources which j now legally come to them under the official j designation of "unearned income.'" I Mr W. C. Anderson, M.P., chairman | of the Executive Committee of the Labor ' party, has drafted a Bill ;or the Conscnp- | tion of Wealth, which, under the present rules of the House of Commons, cannor. : be introduced or printed, and, unfortunately, therefore, will not get the publicity it deserves as an expression of the workman's point of view. In its first ; clause the Bill proposes to make it obliga- j tory on every person or corporate body (with certain minor exceptions) having to pay rent, interest, dividends, or other income of like nature to make the payment, not to the present owner, but to the Public Trustee, whose receipt is to be a valid discharge. The Public Trustee would thus, for the duration of war, receive and hold at the disposal of the Government and the House of Commons the seven or eight hundred million pounds a year now drawn by our propertied classes,
irrespective of any services rendered by them. The ownership and custody of property would remain unaffected, and only the income would be taken. The production and distribution of commodities would not be touched In ,any way. No profits or salary payable to anyone actually engaged in business or service would "be interfered with, but only the payments to the functionless i*ent receivers, shareholders, or mortgagees. This would, of course, leave without resources such of these people as are not earning a living by paid work. Mr Anderson's Bill accordingly empowers the Public Trustee to issue to all those from ' whom he has diverted unearned Income a I series of "allowances" as nicely adjusted ' to the requirements of each case as are I the various grades of pay and separation allowances for the men called to the colors. 'There will be the " bgal charges allowance," to cover all sueb obligations as . .- .1 ■-. join l , itps. mork'nae interests, and annuities which the quondam property , owner is under legal obligation to •continue. There will ue also a "family obligations allowance," by which the Public Trustee may enable the continuance of such non-legal obligations as annuities to relatives and servants, payments for children's schooling, and the upkeep of houses I that can neither be let nor utilised by the ! War Office. There will even he a " chariI ties allowance," to permit of the contiriu--1 ance of all customary subscriptions and gifts for public objects. All three allowances will, oi course, depend on tho fact? being established to the satisfaction ol
the Public Trustee, and on the payments specified being actually made. Finally, there will be a "maintenance allowance," for the support of any propertied person who is unalde to find remunerative employment, or of whose services no use can be made. Mr Anderson has put this provision in quite generous terms, because he proposes that the Public Trustee should have regard.to the applicant's accustomed standard of life, and should be free to fix the maintenance allowance at any rate from the pay of a private in the Army up to that of the highest rank in His Majesty's iWee. A further clause declares it to be the duty of every able-bodied person, nob already employed, and not mentally or morally deficient within the meaning of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1910, to volunteer for useful service in some capacity j but this obligation to National Service is not enforced by any fiuther sanction than a direction to tho Public Trustee to take the facts into consideration in deciding any application for the maintenance allowance. It is proposed that this measure should come Into opera tion oil the same day, apply to the same portions of the United Kingdom, and continue in force for the same period as any Act of the present or any subsequent Parliament imposing Compulsory Military fy.rvice. —■' New Statesman.'
Tho Rev. Owen Evans, president of the Welsh Ai-rC'iiblv, stales that the Wesleyan Connexion has furnished the army with mors than 100,000 men.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 16088, 13 April 1916, Page 10
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751CONSCRIPTION OF WEALTH Evening Star, Issue 16088, 13 April 1916, Page 10
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