DO M.P.’S “EARN” THEIR SALARIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 12, 27 December 1911, Page 5

DO M.P.’S “EARN” THEIR SALARIES.

The advent of payment of members of Parliament in England has produced a really good joke. Recently their first quarter’s salary was forwarded to the M.P.’s entitled thereto, but from the £IOO due the .treasury officials had deducted .acuna tax at the rate of one shilling and twopence in the pound. This is the rale charged upon “unearned income, the rate for income deemed to be earned being only ninepence. One wonders how these gentlem m who are ever talking about their “arduous Parliamentary labours” view the Treasury’s action' in treating their emoluments as “unearned.” It is evident that the official guardians of the public purse do not view an M.P.’s labour in the blouse as “work,” otherwise they must have assesed the salary for income tax purposes at the .ninepenny rate. A question that has arisen in connection with, the issue of the first quarter’s drafts for salaries of M.P.’s is, What are the Unionist members of Parliament doing with the money thrust upon them P The Opposition as a whole is supposed to abominate payment of members, and contended that at any rate the country should have been consulted, and the change made by a Bill in the proper manner, instead of being brought about by what the Unionists called a “sneaking little resolution in Supply.” They were all supposed to be doggedly opposed to payment, and to lie in cordial agreement with Mr Austen Chamberlain’s strong protest against payment, and his strenuous denunciation of the means adopted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer‘to introduce the change. Some 158 Unionists recorded their vote against the payment proposal, but they were overborne by the Government forces. Now the country wants to know what the Unionists are going to do with their unwanted and repugnant salaries. One member, Mr Fell, has presented his first quarter’s salary to the hospitals in his constituency. Si,. Mclvill Beachcroft lias returned his to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and asked him to acknowledge it as “conscience money” in the usijjil .manner and he is exhorting his fellow Unionists M.P.’s to follow his example. But no definite lead has been given to the “don’t want it” brigade by the heads of the party, and it '"scorns' highly probable that the majority of them will treat the drafts in the' same manner as the Radical and Labour members, who make no secret of the fact that they think the Parliamentary labourer worthy of his hire, and have acted upon this belief in spite of the Treasury’s pointed hint that they haven’t earned the money.—London correspondent.