What is going to happen to the Jordinary salaried individual here when China imposes the additional taxation on September 1 that already has been indicated will become effective? By how much the cost of. living will be increased cannot be Jestimated but that it will be very heavy is fully apparent by the pubication of the classification of articles to be subjected to new taxation. The readiest answer to the question is, of course, that firms must pay higher salaries, but higher wages fare not quite so easily met in present day trading as all that, Modern Jcompetition and modern overhead costs must have made profitable! trading extremely difficult. That profits are made must be admitted, Jotherwise firms would not continue, but profits are not constant, and is only by sound administration, jereation of reserves for the rainy' Jdays, or the availability of addition.
reserves in the hopes of better imes that institutions are able to wry on. If then for the sake of argument we start off by admitting that firms will not be able to stand a scale of remuneration comment surate with the increased cost of living what is going to happen? Firms may reduce staffs, and the saving thus effected utilized _towards increasing the remuneration of those that remain employed. This may not be a very practicable solu tion, as it must be assumed at the! offset that firms employ only the re quisite number of hands for eff. Jcient, economical and expeditious; trading. That would appear to dash that suggestion to the ground. The lonly other scheme seems to lie with {the employees themselves and can they, the employees, so alter their [standard of living as to enable them to continue on the same scale of pay after September—1—assuming by that date the new taxation is imposed. To this question we will not venture a reply, but it takes very little time to be brought) face to face with the fact that to-
Jday—we speak of Shanghai part eylarisi—practically all households: are being Fun on strictly economical lines, and the already high cost of fiving has become so burdensome that many households are compelled to seek paying guests, and further!
by no means the mest junior, are living under conditions and elr-Jcumstances that almost defy further retrenchment, However, as this additional taxation has not yet become aw. there still is time for the Powers to ery halt.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.