SUBSIDIZED WAGES
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sm,—Your article on subsidized wages is interesting but not convincing. Surely in the present deplorable state of trade and unemployment the scheme suggested by Sir Alfred Mond should have most serious consideration before it is rejected. Can anything be possibly worse than the present wasteful and demoralizing " dole" ? It is rather a curious omission from their argument that neither Sir Alfred Mond nor your correspondent mentioned the fact that in the country from which we are likely to suffer from commercial competition more than from any other—Germany—wages for the unemployed arc subsidized. Twenty per cent. of the wages of all workmen taken on above the average number employed, i.e., "‘ the datum line," is paid by the Government. The present demoralizing, wasteful, unproductive" dole" is heartbreaking. But this scheme has immense possibilities for good.—I am,
Sir, &e., C. H. HILDEBRAND, H.C.F. . Great Holland, Essex.
[That the scheme should have full consideration before being rejected was precisely what we urged.—En. Spectator.]
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