FIRST LABOR BUDGET

Evening Star, Issue 18668, 24 June 1924, Page 10

FIRST LABOR BUDGET

ME SNOWDEN’S ADROIT ffiANCEUVRES.

A SET-BACK FOB THE BOLSHIES,

[By an Old Staged]

LONDON, May 1.

i The House of Commons reassembled this I week after the Easter holidays in a state ! of groat congestion and suppressed cxcitc- | lueiit. Things have undergone a sea I t-jiamm at Westminster since those happy, | halcyon days when our party politics were icon lined to* an eminently respectable game •of iua and outs played by eminently rc- , putable gentlemen who called themselves ; Liberals and Conservatives. In those old, : forgotten, far-off days there was really no ’ hustle. And after a decent vacation I elderly and middle-aged M.P.s toddled [back to Westminster at decorous ease, perfectly assured that no self-respecting j Government would fail to temper the wind to the shorn lamb. Those days arc past. Ami this week members stampeded back in a hurry, not to waste two or three sittings in ([allying with matters of no importance, but to hear Mr Philip Snowdon unfold right away the details of iho first Labor Budget. Hence all the congestion and excitement on the very first, day of resumed parliamentary activity. Alov; and aloft not a | -pare seat was to be had by the foolish ‘ political virgin who arrived a few minutes | fate. The atmosphere was one of oppressive gloom. For weeks the newspapers | had been full of dark forebodings. The lobby correspondents mistrusted the pale least of Mr Philip Snowdon’s proletarian [countenance. The follow looked too much j like D.mton to be trusted with a Budget. After the usual tedious preliminaries, like the strumming of the orchestra before the curtain rings up, enter the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the days of his youth, wlien ho was a Civil Service clerk, Mr Philip Snowdon met with a serious bicydc accident which has crippled him for the I rest of his life He hobbled into the j Mouse on a crutch stick. His colleagues I made room for him on (he Treasury bench, | Lid helped him to place his official deli ‘itch box on the, table. All the mil-

immures present eyed that formidable re- . ptaclc with all tire fascination of South k' ncrican dictators watching an explosive comb. Some of them could almost hoar i:. licking. At length Mr Snowden ••'••niggled to bis feet., look his stance at the Treasury table, and removed the lid of tiro infernal machine. Strong men on the Tory benches mopped their brows. Exultant Communists, sitting behind the Treasury bench, licked their lips.

Thu dramatic situation was frightfully intense, Mr Snowden scorned the sartorial artifices of the Treasury tradition. On Budget day even the great Gladstone, carefully valeted by his devoted wife, used to appear irr a special vest and with the historic collar properly emphasised. Mr Asquith was himself not proof against such an occasion. It was the one day when he discarded those baggy K.C. trousers that are the despair of successive editors of the ‘Tailor and Cutter-’ for brand-new wedding brecks solemnly creased. Small fry like Mr M'Kenna, Messrs Austen and Novill Chamberlain, and Sir Robert Horne frankly appeared in the habiliments of the bridegroom. Mr Philip Snowden faced bis audience, which included six cx-Chanccl-Inrs of the Exchequer, in his usual grey tweed lounge suit and well-worn tic. But even Mr Snowden is probably human. There was just a slight. Hush of pleasurable excitement and personal prowess on those strong, sallow features.

He spoke clearly, in a rather highpitched voice, marshalled his facts beautifully, and proceeded in ordered sequence. He compressed his speech within three half-hours. For the first half-hour he played the cat-and-mouse game with the millionaires. He devoted that time entirely to a placid review of the national finances, reeling off sensational millions calmly, as though he had ail his life been tutor to Mr Pierpont. Morgan. The next half-hour was even more exquisitely torturing. Mr Snowden approached the question of taxation, but speculatively, in the vein of philosophic conjecture and academic doubt. Alone of all that vast assembly Mr Snowden was privileged to have at hand the means of physical refreshment. A glass of water, of blameless lute, stood at his elbow. He forgot about it. There were Dives across the floor who would have given golden sovereigns for a drop of water. Mr Snowden was not even parched. At long last the Labor Chanceltor of the Exchequer, after glancing at the House of Commons clock, perceived that the third half-hour of his speech had arrived. With swift, unfaltering decision he came lo Ihc realities. 'The payers of super-tax fell Unit their moment had come. The bomb was positively about In co off. And now (here began to dawn Hie astounding explanation of a- mischievous little smile that kept chasing itself across the features of Socialism's Lord High Executioner. The terrible bomb was a dud. There wasn’t going to be any explosion—not this year. At the moment Air Snowden and hi# party had other fish to fry. Adroitly Viking a roseate view; of the country's financial situation, and a thoroughly optimistic one of its prospects, Mr Snowdon proceeded lo scatter a largesse of benefactions, He had somoilring for everybody. For the practical housewives be had a free breakfast table, halving lire tea and sugar duties, and relaxing the imposts on a lariety of other popular foods. For the mmse.s of the community lie had reduced amusement taxes and cheaper Idnemns. For the thrifty householders and small tenants he had the abolition of the inhabited house duty. For the anxious m.siiii'ss man lie bud cheaper telephone alls and the repeal of the corporation tux. For the noble army of motorists ho had furiihies affording prospects of reduced license duty. And, finally, for the tremu-■n-.s millionaires, lie hud the unexpected boon of not one extra penny of additional luxation of any kind whatsoever. When this momentous fact- dawned on the understanding of the House there really was one of (hose occasions when you might hear a pin drop. What did it mean; The answer was promptly supplied in the Glasgow vernacular. The formidable Mr Kirkwood exclaimed ecstatically : “ Lei's hoe the General Hlcciion the noo I” Precisely. Mr Snowden has presented his political opponents with a very awkward dilemma, lie has introduced a Budget on which no rational election agent would dream of allowing his clients to contest a General Flection. How Mr Snowden, after his iiuisii largesse out of a puiely conjectural surplus, is going to finance his Government’s ambitions unemployment, housing, and educational schemes, is a problem of Hie future. The only effective counter to Mr .Snowden's Budget is the sinister one o! keeping the Labor Parly long enou ;h in oflieo to throw the onus of meeting the handsome prospective deficit on their own

..ininccllet' (if the Exchequer. Ihe prospect. is not a pleasing one, cilliiT from the party politicians’ or the timid-millionaires’ point of view. Because t hunt is not much doubt how that, grim humorist Mr hnov.Men would adjust mat,fts, it, in iaci, he acuiilly survived !o mlroducc ;i, second Budget, and additional taxation proved t hen iiece.vsarv. Meanwhile, Mr .\sijuil.h v. as constrained in iicdf>n- his apr.-f/iHt; benediction on the Labor Budget, ,-md at, the moment the demise of Mr Ramsay MacDonald's Ministry has hern unavoidably postponed. One,’amusing episode, outside Parliament, is worth mentioning. The Bob lu-visi delegates now .n London from Moscow attended the opening of the Wembley Bxldhitiori, and, after the Done;, current in Russia about a Usd revolution in (his country, e\|joricncud ;i derided I c nine rat non ! al set - ban h. The glamor and ills l enthusiasm of the spectacular Ibitvl opening of the British Empire Exhibition Las given these gentlemen furiously to think.