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Llanelly Star

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5NCOM E-TAX RELIEF. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has decided 011 a, very sensible reform. He is goinr: to extend further the principle that pc.-consideration in the assess- ment of income should be shown to the married man, as compared with the bachelor, and to the family man, as com- pared with both. Of course, the abate- ment applies only to men of fairly modest incomes—presumably the limit will be £ 700 a year. But, even so, the con- cession is one of some importance, not merely to the working classes, but to young professional men, traders, and others, who, at the very opening of their careers, find their household expenses have an inclination to increase until it sometimes proves a difficult matter to make their receipts cover their outgoings. Their case merited special consideration, and we only regret that the relief on ac- I count of a wife is to amount to no more t than L25 a year. But Mr. Bonar Law is face to face with a hai-ar-sing situation; he has to provide by some means for the cost of the war from day to day-nearly a round million—and he is bound jealous- ly to guard the sources of national revenue. And, in association with the other measures adopted in recent years for the benefit of the man with family responsibilities, the benefit will be by no means negligible. For instance, with the new wife allowance, the existing abatement, and the relief on account of young children, the position of many families will be considerably ameliorated, since a man with a wife and two children will bo effectively exempt up to £ 195; with three children, up to £ 220; with four children, up to £ 245, and so on. LABOUR AND CAPITAL. i In a striking letter to "The Times," Mr. Frederic Harrison, dealing with the labour unrest throughout the country, refers to the activities of "revolutionists" who are clamouring to divert the wsr into a civil war of Labour againtb Capital. Ho points out that to get rid of Capital as a social institution would be the suicide of Trade Unions, of Co- operative and all other Insurance and Benefit Societies. The pride of the Unions and of all other invaluable Labour associ- ations is this. They have formed a collec- tive capital of their own, with which they fan meet the Employer face to face on equal terms. For two generations now, since 1851, the Unions have steadily grown in strength—and in Wealth. They now count their millions of subscribers, their millions sterling of reserve funds. In 1915 the Co-operative Societies in- creased their sales by about 15 millions sterling: their yearly turnover now ap- proaches one hundred millions. The col- lective capital of the wages-receiving class is an important feature in the wealth and stability of the Nation. Destroy that Capital of the Employec1- pull it down on themselves like blind Samson—along with the Capital of the- Employers—and with what have they to deal ? The State Ask the Russian labourer to-day—What is the State ? Does it give him anything but casual plunder and anarchy P Does it give him safety, wages, or even bread "In a sense," (Mr. Harrison con- tinues), "we are Socialists "day: our ai system is Socialism in a sense. In a way, I have always been a Socialist myself. For 50 years I have denounced Plutonomy and all absolute rights of Property in favour of the paramount claim of society to dispose of what could have no existence hut for aocieiy itself. In that sense I am a Socialist; and I mean a great deal mora than what is meant hy many sentimental, aesthetic, so-called Socialists. But that which mas- querades as Socialism, and is striving in tlu< orisis to TWns and Labotir the revolutionary Communism—of which the aim is to abolish Capital; the weapon is to ( paralyze Industry; the result to plunge society into confusion. Can it be the deliberate policy of our workmen to re- duce our country to the industrial chaos 1 of Russia, in some cloudy i'sion that ii will raise the condition of their class and prove them to be a bove the greed and | selfishness of Wealth ?" 1 h BOROUGH MEMBER AND f! DISENDOWMENT. t Writing in the "Welsh Outlook," Miv Llewelyn Williams, M.P., claims that the- Welsh people have behaved with singular magnanimity in not demanding that the financial provisions of the Welsh Church. Act should be reconsidered. In hi9 judgment, Parliament has erred on the side of generosity to the Church, and if the Bishops have the hardihood to claim. further concessions to the Church, then, Wales will demand that the whole matter shall bo re-opened. The result of that will be, he declares, that the Church wilt be prevented from making a profit of at least one million pounds out of the war. We have no space at our disposal this week to give the elaborate figures upon I which the Borough Member bases his- rather sweeping statement. It is his con- viction that the terms of disendowment in the Act are generous in the extreme. So far from being a "mean little Bill," no. British Parliament, in his judgment, ha:8. ever granted such liberal terms to a dis- established church. Adopting Mr. Me Keitna's figures, Mr. Williams points out that one effect of the war has been a startling and unprecedented increase in the rate of interest. Owing to thte in- crease, he calculated that the Church will, f actually make a profit on the Commuta- tion Sum-21 per cent. on C2,250,000, or P.56,260 a year. In addition, the price 01 l tithe has gone up. This means that in- j stead of the commutation sum being 21 millions a-9 estimated by Mr. AfpKenns in 1913, it will not be far short of 3 millions—a clear gain of from half to three-quarters of a million. Will the Church," he goes on, "ask that the date of Disendowment be expedited ? Of ¡ course not. Why ? Because the Church benefits hugely from the delay."

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