WOMEN SHOWER M'S.P. WITH PROTESTS

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160731, 18 August 1920, Page 9

WOMEN SHOWER M'S.P. WITH PROTESTS

LONDON', Jimp 26. Cabinet A!blisters arc learning painfully that there arc limits to (Iritish taxpayers’ patience. Animalist scones in the Commons this week lefiect the angry opinion outside, especially among the new women oioctorate who hornhard jM.IVs with shoals of letters ami postcards protesting against the swollen department cx|teu dif 11 re.

Official returns show l.riti.-di taxation per head has risen from .125 Its in 101 -t” to X'J'J to-day. Tho American taxpayer |;ays only XI2 7a, the. Trench •£'.) Us, the Italian £ 4 J 2s, hut the most striking contrast is Gcrma-ny’s £ti. Accordingly the man in the street asks himself: "Did we win the- war or did Germ an v r”

This week's revolt of the taxpayer, as expressed during the last six months iu speeches from every quarter of tho House, compelled Chui chill to withdraw his proitosal to ic-dolhe the whole, army in scarlet at an, ultimate- cost of ,£2,000,000 Only the household troops and Guards are te resume the scarlet dress uniform, the rest of the army must remain exintent with khaki until the Commons relents, if it ever does. Another volley of protest arose over the new railway policy of the Government as explained by Sir Eric Geddas, one of Lloyd George's ‘supermen” of the war period. Geddes has elaborated what the Commons’ Select Committed called a- grandiose ministry of iiinu brandies, headed by thirty officials, wo. se eon blued salaries total XVLOOO, iududitg seven dim-tors-general who shall receive from. X'3WJ(! to xnc-ijO cadi annually. These are all businessmen brought in from the outside, and ill is easy to imagine the feelings of civil servants whose highest salaries are ,£IOOO. Geddes’ new jiolicy definitely ruiin out nationalisation, which Lloyd George was supposed to favour iu the early stages of the war. Instead, Geddes proposes the management of railways •shall continue to be vested in the companies themselves, with the ministry of transportation acting as a supervising body. All useless competition shall be eliminated and smaller railways merged in larger undertakings. Profits earned in excess of the pre-war standard will be divided between the companies and the .State. A number of little railway board* with their directors and headquarters staff arc to be extinguished. In Geddes' phrase "One, block of capital, will be made to do the work of two.” He says tho utmost possible, saving from (his co-ordination is j£20,000,000 annually, and it takes vears oven to reach that. Meanwhile tho public is greatly exercised by the heavy increase in rates and fares imposed to enable railways to pay their way. In .March last Geddes i.aid 7b per cent, increase in goods rates was ‘‘unthinkable.” “What does that mean,’’ h-e exclaimed in horror, ‘’on the cost of food and living? What would it do with industry and with agriculture.? You can not face that. Yet nme months later ho carried through Parliament' a 50 per cent, increase. and by next autumn he will have reached the 70 per cent, level.

State-managed railways, Englishmen certainly will not have.