The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1910 HOW GERMANS ARE TAXED.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2731, 9 February 1910, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1910 HOW GERMANS ARE TAXED.

Because of our closer intimacy with English affairs, we are apt to consider that the wretched conditions under which hundreds of thousands of workers in the Old Country make their living are peculiar to that country. Quite frequently our attention is drawn to the sharp contrast existing between ostentatious wealth on the one hand and distressing poverty on the other; and oftentimes an unfavorable comparison is simultaneously made in regard to Germany and other commercial rivals. It is suggested that, because of these unsatisfactory social conditions, the stamina of the -masses in England is deteriorating, and that in this important respect she is being left in the rear by more progressive rivals. One school of political economists points to a main cause 'for this alleged deterioration, namely England’s adherence to a free-trade policy. They claim that Germany under -protection keeps her population constantly employed at good wages, 'whilst a large percentage of England’s workers spend a great portion of tlieir time as members of the unemployed army. It is difficult to obtain anything like a reliable comparison in -a matter of this kind, but tilat there are two sides to this question i s abundantly proved by an article that is published in another column of the present issue. In this a member of the German Reichstag describes the conditions of German workers under the protective tariff. "We already know that, as Germany cannot produce nearly enough meat for her 60,000,000 people and foreign importations are virtually barred, the masses have to adopt a vegetarian diet, varied by inferior horseflesh. Because of the restrictions placed on foreign meat prices of home produce are kept at an -abnormally high figure. This, of course, suits the German farmer and landholder, and as agrarian interests are paramount in the Reichstag, it is difficult to effect any change in the way of cheapening meat. But for the influence thus exerted it is .practically certain that German ports would long ago have been opened to frozen meat from Australia, New Zealand and tho Argentine, with resultant benefit to the German masses. However, it appears that meat is only one of the items through which the German Government oppresses its workers. They are taxed heavily on all the important necessaries of life. In 1908 meat was taxed to the extent of £15,000,000, corn £53,000,000, salt £3,000,000, sugar £7,000,000, heer £6,000,000, brandy £7,000,000. In Berlin the price of wheat, which, of course, means the price of bread, has advanced fifty per cent, during the last seven years, whilst in London it has increased less than 25 per cent. A working man with an income of from £4O to £6O per year contributes to the German Government in indirect taxes on food between. £2 and £2 10s per annum. There are 200,000 men and -women, employed iii the tobacco in-' dustry; and their wages are said to

average but £3O per annum. It is little wonder, therefore, that with prices of food stuffs so high and wages so low, these workers are so reduced in vitality that they cannot resist the germs ol : tuberculosis, and 75 per cent, are described as consumptive. Last year, when the German Chancellor was compelled to find money for the huge naval policy, the bulk of the increased taxation was again heaped upon the workers, the amount of the fresh impost upon articles of daily consumption totalling 338,000,000 marks, roughly, £16,000,000. Enough lias been quoted to show that while a protective tariff may be advantageous to a nation desirous of pushing its manufactures, it is quite a mistake to look upon it as a sure panacea for national prosperity.