SETTING THE PACE.
And now we have the Labour Party apparently propos- ing as a plank in their electoral platform schemes, not of economy, but of a further proposed increa,se in direct taxation to the extent of some £100 millions annually. Only a part of this is to be devoted to debt redemption, much of it being apparently intended for still further outlays, and that notwithstanding the fact that the huge outlays for social objects during recent years appear to have merely involved a redistribution of wealth with no addition to the wealth fund of the country as a whole, while industrial depression has never been more marked than during these years of unproductive outlays by the Exchequer. Moreover, the evil of these extravagant proposals to capture the fancy of the rnasseais that, even when they da not materialize through the non-success at the polls of those who put them forward, they appear to "set the pace" in the sense that other parties feel that they must adopt some portion of the programme. It becomes, in fact, a case not of competitive effort to increase the wealth fund of -the nation, and with it the good of all, but of a kind of mad race as to which party can produce the most attractive spending programme calcu- lated to give it a lease of political power. To do the present Government full jushee, no such extravagant programmes were submitted by them at the last election, but unfortunately there has none the less, been a com- plete failure to economize, and as a result we seem no nearer to conditions making either for a big reduction in the National Debt services, or for setting free funds
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