May 1.
However opinions may differ as to the merits of Mr, Winston Churchill's first budget, no one Jcould well deny that ff is the most interesting we have had in recent years, The great experiment of the return to a gold standard is dealt with in a parate article. But there quite enough in the rest of the budget to occupy one's attention. "Income~iax payers receive a welcome reduction of 6d, with special exemption for people of small incomes; not only are the McKenna duties restored, but the principle of preference to the Dominions is definitely es tablished; and a scheme of national pension insurance is introduced, to which employees as well as employers must contribute, It is curious to find Labour critics objecting to the last named project on tha ground that industry cannot. en. dure the extra burden involved at this precise time. One ci not but suspect that the root of their objection is that the workman will have to pay well as his master, instead of receiving the pension as an "out and out" gift. But this is precisely the merit of the scheme. It is a truism that people value possession in proportion a they have to pay for it In Germany old age pensions were in operation long before Mr. Lloyd George introduced them in England, but, unlike Mr. Lloyd George's method, the man scheme of pensions requit-jed a regular contribution, however small, from each worker, To make the labouring classes contribute to their future pensions, should tend to give them anew interest in the welfare lof their trade as a whole, to reduce the number of frivolous strikes, and to impart stability to the whole course of industry and commerce.
The Opposition's denunciation of Mr. Churchill's proposals as "a rich man's budget" strikes one as purely conventional, In actual fact when we examine what he proposes to tax, we find that he has been particularly jeareful to touch only articles which might be described as
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.