SOME SPECIFIC PROPOSALS.
(To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] Suo—The suggestion contained in the last paragraph of your article "Some Specific Proposals," if carried out, would probably do more to promote the use of wheat substitutes than anything else, especially if a maximum price were fixed not exceeding that of wheat flour. In this West of England town oatmeal is 41d. to 5d. a pound, barley flour is 44., and wheat flour only 31d. Thus a premium is put on buying wheat. Is there anything in the relative cost of production, or in the state of the market, to place these substitutes, whose use it is desired to encourage, at such a competitive disadvantage?
Since you are out to find fresh sources of taxation, allow me to suggest (1) a really heavy duty on all licences to deal in plate and jewellery, combined with a tax on every sale transaction of such articles; and (2) a tax on all displayed advertisements exceeding a certain number of square inches in newspapers, and of square feet in the case of posters. No doubt scarcity of paper is putting some temporary check on the flagrant abuse of adver- tising, but enough still goes on to bear a well-merited tax.-
Previous page
