HIGH TAXATION.

Northern Advocate, 30 January 1922, Page 5

HIGH TAXATION.

NATIONAL EARNING POWER

A FALSE THEORY.

LONDON, Jan. 27

At 'a meeting of the London Joint City and Midland Bank, Mr R. McKenna said: "Our present scale of taxation is so high as to undermine our national business energy and enterprise, and deprive us of indispensable capital. The only reme'dy is to reduce expenditure to the utmost limit consistent with our constructual obligations and the supply of indispensable services. If we do so now we shall quickly recover our national earning power. With it will come the elasticity of revenue which we experienced in the second half of last century." Dealing with the question of labour agd the restriction of output, he said mistaken economic ideas were at the root of much of our trouble.

Mr McKenna said he believed that the 'Tnajoritv of the workmen thought that a restriction of the output hiul the effect of preventing men ibeing thrown oat of employment. We must convince them that their theory was false. All restriction of output raised the price of the article produced, and if restriction operated over a wide enough field it must increase the general cost of living. thereby reducing the real value of wages received by all workmen.—A. and X.Z.