The House filled again for Sir Stafford Cripps who wound
up for the Labour Party, and there followed the usual exciting acrimonies of the closing stages of a Parlia- mentary field-day. Sir Stafford did produce one significant set of figures which demands attention. In 1,975 companies there had been an increase in the first quarter of 1934, as compared with a corresponding period in 1933, " of 28.9 per cent. in the profits which were returned and on the other hand the increase in money wages between 1933 and 1934 was only a half of 1 per cent., and the increase in the first months of this year had been even less.". Such statistics are a challenge to the capacity of the capitalist system to distribute wealth on a fair basis between profits and wages, which ought to be met. Sir John Simon preferred party polemics and in a speech that was really a model of its kind, delivered a blistering attack on the Labour Opposition, which will supply' a six months' supply of ammunition to Government supporters in the country.
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