A VOLUNTARY FUND FOR OUR PRESENT DISTRESS
[To the Editor of the SrEcr.vron]
Sin—Canon Donaldson in his recent addresses has brought an indictment against the Church of this land for its callous negligence with regard to the industrial distress among us. Ile deplored the tendency to concentrate attention on its economic causes instead of on a remedy for its actual conditions. In its main features the present distress has much in common with the conditions of many past decades. And it is difficult to see how any real relief could be achieved without a grasp of the economic situation ; and when that is studied its complexity is so great that it may well baffle initiative. For at bottom the wider aspects of the problem are riders on the problem of population.
But there is one definite aspect of the present-day situation which can be approached without dealing with fundamentals— the relation of the present unemployment to our unexampled taxation. The French Government attempted to solve a similar question by what would have been nominally—perhaps really--a " voluntary " levy on capital. There are those among us who have often wondered if we, in this country, could not go further in this direction, and establish an indubi- tably voluntary fund for the reduction of that proportion of our War Debts which will not be met by foreign payments. Things suit the French nation which would not suit us, and, in our eyes, a fund would not be " voluntary " if it were established and regulated by the Government.
To a really Voluntary Fund (such as that organized by the Times for the restoration of St. Paul's) our people of every class will subscribe with startling generosity. But for most of us there must be a " fund." Example is not enough for us ; and very few individuals have followed that of His Majesty the King, and, if rumour may be accepted, of Mr. Stanley Baldwin. Most Englishmen need enterprise organized by others if they are to show the self-sacrifice on behalf of each other which Canon Donaldson reminded us we should all exercise. Probably, neither he, nor any other reformer, realizes how ready the ordinary Englishman of whatever calling in life is to give if he is asked, nor how incapable he is of deciding how to give unless he is asked. But the average person would not be spontaneously attracted by the idea of contributing to national necessities in the form of payment of debts ; and a strong appeal would have to be made on a well- organized basis. The success of many of our great philan- thropic_ societies,, and the success of the Freewill Offering
movement in the Churches, gives an idea of the double lines on which a methodical organization of such a Voluntary Fund might be worked. In England money can be obtained for almost any object if there is a strong enough central committee to galvanize public opinion, and a sufficiently well organized network of local effort depending on its initiative.
The first essential of a Voluntary Fund would be a Committee of well-known individuals (dissociated from the Government), comprising representatives of all classes and interests, among them financiers, Trade Union men and women, leisured women who are experts in raising " funds," employers and representa- tives of the professional classes. It would be their business to stimulate throughout the whole nation the spirit which regards self-sacrifice in common as a privilege, and the appeal should be not only to capitalisti great and small, but to wage-earners and those who subsist on small salaried incomes. There might even be a Farthing Fund for those who arc obliged to accept the dole.
This would set the minimum standard for contributions ! Wage-earners and people living on small salaries might be able to give small sums, say, from one shilling up to five pounds, according to their individual circumstances. It may -seem a bold thing to say, but probably small capitalists (who had not children to get out in the world) paying Income Tax at the lowest rate would be able to venture £100 or 2200; without much reducing the purchasing power of their income, though they would, of course, lessen their reserve fund. The sacrifice would not be all a sacrifice to those whose large incomes are earned, because reduced taxation would enable them to save ; and even large capitalists, who would have the best chance of making a real lasting sacrifice—the sacrifice of power—would gain if their relations with their employees were happier.
Indeed, the highest gain to the nation would be the result of kindly feeling which comes from an unselfish effort made by all in common. Generous giving by rich and poor, for the relief of conditions of destitution and misery, might prove to be a well-spring of charity which we all lack. " If I give my goods to feed the poor and have not charity I am nothing
-worth nothing to my neighbours as well as to God.—I am,
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