27 MARCH 1915, Page 12

WAGES IN WAR TIME.

[To role Maxon or Too .ifiroorrroa..1

SIR, Would you allow me to supplement the letter you were good enough to insert last week, and to point out that it is not the poorest workers who are striking P These suffer in silence and willingly as their contribution to the war, and I have come across very numerous instances of the most touching unselfish- ness where out of extremeat poverty coppers and sixpences have been willingly given to help poor Belgian refugees, for they say "The Belgians have suffered more than we have." It is the prosperous artisans who are getting £100, £150, £200, £300 per annum who are striking and shirking. There are tens of thousands such who, owing to vote-snatching politicians, pay no Income Tax. My own income has suffered owing to the war fifty per cent., but the rate of my Income Tax is doubled, while these prosperous artisans are having the time of their lives. Sheltered by our Nary and our brave soldiers, they live in peace and plenty. If our soldiers ran short of shot and shell and food for lack of workers at home and transport, will they not feel disgusted and almost inclined to throw down their arms and refuse to defend a nation which

leaves them in the lurch P Such indifference to the national safety would be impossible in Germany, Austria, Russia, France, Serbia, or Belgium, but here in England the politician has been teaching "something for nothing," and any one who tried to instil patriotism has been denounced as a Jingo. Truly the politician is reaping as be has sown, for has he not for a long time been teaching that a man's stomach and pocket are the end of all things P—I am, Sir, Sc., A.B.°.