The price of the Temiteen loaf was raised on Monday
from ninepenee to nineponte-halfpenny. This is the direct result cif the 'recent increase in bakers' wages and the reduction of their working hours. It is just as well that the fact should be emphasized, for many people Still cling• to the delusion that wages can be increased and output reduced without affecting prices:. We Mink add that bread is still artificially -cheap. The real price of the loaf is about thh.teenperf es. It can only be sold ateninepence-halfrieney by the aid Of a State subsidy, whieleambentste 250;000,000'a year. Whatever might be:said by timorous folk for a bread subsidy in time of war, there can be no doube that it is' utterly' wrong in normal tithes, and that the Government should take the earliest opporttunty Of fddueing and abolishing it. Mr. Lloyd George' knows that the' British people do best when they are 'confronted with real difficulties, and not when they are coaxed into supposing that- no diffieultiet exist: The Prime Minister should adopt the bold and frank policy of saying that we' cannot afford to spend £50;000;000 on a bread subsidy. We are confident' that the nation would accept' the decision cheerfully and economize by eating a little less bread.
Previous page
