BISHOP AND SALARY

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 March 1925, Page 8

BISHOP AND SALARY

'• INCOME £3OOoTtAXES £1268. 1 Beshop Welldon, Dean of Durham, • and a railway signalman were opposed e in a public debate before an audience of miners, railwaymen and their wives 8 in'Durham recently. 1 The subject of the debate was “The p Selfish Demands of Railwaymen.” It a. was the sequel of a sermon in which the dean said that railway men were a selfish in seeking to enjoy an, advantage over other classes, of labour in a wage demand, which would cost the - country £30,000,000 a year, Durham v railway men, pointing to the Dean’s salary of £3OOO a year, challenged him . to a, debate. ‘‘lf you say that all incomes should , be equal, or that no income should . exceed a certain amount, that is an g intelligible position,” said the Dean. 3 “But it applies to tho Ministers of the ; Labour Government as much as to the deans of the cathedrals. I am told that I am absorbing the income ’ of many railwaymen. Let me place a ’ few figures before you. So far from ’ enjoyiqg an income of £3OOO a year 1 which 1 can spend on myself, I paid L ’ last year in taxation £1267/19/11. My 1 subscriptions to objects, intellectual, ' charitable and religious, amounted to 1 £584, mailing a total’ of £1852/8/11. 1 Can any honourable man say that I , am spending my income on myself? My coal bill last year was £l2l/16/1, and it was a light year! I could not.

s live in that big house if I could not in some degree depend on the interest ,t on savings I made when I was worki- ihg much longer than seven or eight hours a day, and on the profits of my y writings.”, >- Mr T. A. Westwater, the signalman e champion of the railwaymen, opened ,f with a reference to the dean’s income .. and house. “A myster to us about e h'is income is how he spends it all,” e said Mr Westwater. “If we had it T we should scarcely know how to get! ’ rid of it, ,and, like himself, would invest some of it. The railwaymen’s . programme is a rank and file programme, and thoroughly representa- ’ tive and democratic so far as the 1 1 railwaymen are concerned. Is our de--3 mand selfish because it is made for ’ ourselves? Working men are bred in ‘ an atmosphere of selfishness. Selfish, ness is the bedrock of society, and ’ private enterprise is simply another ■ term for selfishness. There is not the > slightest reason for a single poor person to be poorer if the wholly extrava- , gant estimate of £30,000,000 were con- • ceded.” ' y A Newcastle railwayman created laughter by offering to paj’ the dean i expenses if lie would debate in Newcastle. The evening’s encounter, which was conducted with the greatest friend) ness ended with loud applause for the two debaters.