Reduction of Wages on the Railways: The Irish Sweep Scandal From Our Ows London, Nov. 20.
The announcement of Supplementary Estimates of £10,056,000 of which £108 millions will go to the Ministry of Labour for the Unemployment, fond, ig, none he lasa leavy a blow that it was more or less expected.
The last Conservative Budget statement in May 1929 showed a surplus from the previous year of Jover £18 millions and anticipated a surplus for the ensuing year of In the first Socialist Budget this had been changed to a deficit of £14,523,000, of which nine millions were new expenditure due to the Government's legislation, The Wall Street "slump" and the Harry disaster, it should fairly he Jadded, had hit business so badly that Stamp Duties were £5,330,000 short of estimates, At the present rate of going the pessimists say that the deficit on the next Budget will 50 millions.
With the increase of unemployment and the laxity in the distribution of the dole "introduced by the Socialists, it is recognized that money must be found. What the Government is blamed for is setting a Royal Commission to inquire further into unemployment and its "Jrelief, when it is an open secret that" the inter-party inquiry last summer made certain discover ies, particularly in respect of abuses of the dole, and made certain suggestions, on which action, could and should have been taken, The Railway Dispute Before this reaches you, it will be known whether the railway com panies' proposals to cut the wages and salaries bill by roughly 10 per cent. all round will bring on a trike, The amount to be saved the Whitechapel by-election, where Jewish voters have seriously been alienated by the White Paper.
There is not the slightest daubs that the Government intended to carry out its obligations to Jew and Arab alike, under the Mandate, ly \and with strick im= ity. But the wording of its intentions was unhappy.
The Irish Sweep The Dublin Sweepstake on the Manchester November Handicap got up in aid of Irish Hospitals has given rise to some pointed questions con the subject of expenses, This legitimized by the Irish Free State Government by the Public Charitable Hospitals Act, under which a committee known as the Hospitals Trust, Ltd, was formed to organize " sweep, a Welk known bookmaker of Dublin, Mr. Walter J. Duggan, being engaged as expert to assist in running it, The public response was enor mous, 850 girls being retained to deal with the correspondence. The British Government, however, ruled that letters from England to the promoters would be opened and: money therein returned to the senders, sweeps being illegal in England, and in fact 9,081 letters. were thus opened. The total subscription nevertheless totalled £058, 618.
Now comes the question of dis tribution which according to offciak figures quoted by the "Daily Mail" was as follows:
Total receipts 8,618 to 13126 Pris ovsellers of winning Uckets)
money (incieding award 409,527
Prowotion. fees and expenses 117,000-
But the "Daily Mail" now alleges that there were 263,446 other tickets—which at 10/- a ticket restaffs and £1,500,000 from the shop men.
At the meeting this week between representatives of the four principal railway groups and the Metropolitan, and of six organiza tions of the men, Sir Ralph Wedgwood, for the Companies, argued that the reductions would bring the Jwarwage of shop men to the level lof that in the general engineering industry.
'The Companies' position is that the railways simply cannot without these reductions. The men's position is that in that case the shareholders ought to pay. However, their official reply will be given on' November 28, There are two bodies available for purposes of arbitration standing between a deadlock and a general strike—the Central Wages Board Jcomposed only of representatives of leither party; and the National Wages Board under an independent Chairman and including representatives of users of railways. present £191,723—that never came into the account, Tickets were issued to ticket sellers it says in books of 12, on which only £5 had to be remitted to headquarters. Thus the ticket sellers received on, the basis of the ticket value within £1 of what went to the hospitals.
Lord Powerscourt, chairman' of the Huspitals Committee, states that. the whole running of the sweep was supervised by a firm of chartered Jaccountante who in dre course will fssuo a full statement of course it remains to be seen what the ticket sellers actually got, whether salary fand commission or only commission.
Their case apart, the raising of money for political and charitable: Purposes has become quite an expert's job. Only yesterday I was. told on good authority that these men demond as much as 10 or 12
For cent, of their takings, The Epileptic Motorists That part of the new Trafic Act which enforces tests for motor
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.