TAXING THE MAID.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1331, 8 January 1912, Page 6

TAXING THE MAID.

If. mistresses and servants had'not written a word about'his 2Gs.'tax, Mr.'LloydGeorge would have said .that was'.proof they wanted it. Became, thousands of them are' flooding the newspaper offices with sound reasons- and ailgry protests against the 20s. tax, he regards tho writers as.cither knaves «;•• fools. A It is n new idea that one British politician shall force upon two or three million people a tax they detest for "benefits they despise. But it is not new for Mr. Lbvd-George to treat his critics as a mob oi' rogues and 'dupes. And as he refuses to heed tho mistresses and the servants oi the kingdom, we will take it'that his Bill has piis'sedand become an Act.' . . •':;.,'"'

Let us imagine tha the National. Insurance Act is in operation. All the officials who" are'to number us in tho. State ledgers,'and tap our' pockets, ahd prod us along the road to the Chancellor's reformed.' earth'.rind .improved heaven, arc safely- seated on their spools., The Act, we assume; is"in full'blast. All that tboniistress.and the.maid hayo.to do is to find the moiiey. First we "will consider the* _ healthy voung maid who is in a good' situation. She is drawing a low. w-age, but she must pay'her 13s. just as if slio were a highsal'aried servant in the West End. lno tax is scandalously high in proportion to her small handful of monthly shillings. If Mr. Llovd-Geb'rge asked the same proportion for" the s-itme benefits from;a man and a voter, that voter would go out ami look for tho Chancellor with a political crowbar. * .' ' , But the voung maid will pay and pay and keen on paying, lor-what? What will slie get'for'her money? Sanatorium treatment—if-she -lias consumption-and when'tliP. sanatoria are built? A ticket for a. convalescent home? Thirty shillings if she marries and has a baby, and if her husband is- pa.v'ng Mr. Lloyd-George s officials his weekly,tax as well? Anything else? Yes; if the maid is ill a Stale doctorthat is, a doctor; win works longer hours for less reward than he had beforo the Act arrived—and she may have a few bottles of medicine: free. .. "Ftcc?" asks the maid.- Quito free,'except that she hus'paid for it twenty or.a hundred times over, as the case'may be. And if tho Statc'tsweated medical man had not been available her mistress would have brought in her own doctor and paid him decently and seen the maid through her illness for nothing. Wo return now to tho servant who is not marrying'.' We..s'upp.ise her'to be'one of the maids that the Chancellor pities. "You must not take.'tho West End as a criterion," ho warns us,' Agreed; we consider the servant "who is working iu a middl,c-class. homo, of the humbler kind. She is suddenly.seized with illness. Tho Chancellor's friends have argued thit now, thanks to hi'tiiV the mistress is no longer morally boivnd to keep the' sick maid. When the State comes iu.at the door, sentiment' can dodge out by tiro window. It might"'bo that the poor servant was unfit to be moved. The doctor might, and will-in many instances; for-, bid it. The mistress nurses her. But the' maid receives'no' sick benefit payments unless she is removed. - ' ■'

Still, she may 'bo not so dangerously sfcricker, as:that, afid the'doctor may advise her to go back to her parents to recover. If they live in Devon,'-Scotland,' the Midlands, how is the servant'to pay her fares out of the overwhelming 7s. Gd. to which.she is entitled after certain formalities? Of. her relatives, if they aro near, may have no Tpom'for her; she may have no or friends. What can she do then on 7s. Gd. n. week? lint there, is u more impudent:'swindle still in tho .Act. .'lf the mistress contracts to pay for her maid during.illness, they will between them still have jo ti.nd •t.'.d. a week for some cloudy benefit or another. Hut—and. this is'tho deadly point —the Shite guarantees- that if they pay an extra-lldl a.-week between'them, tile niaid will get the sick, bonclits.', That lots the cat out. of the "bag."' The Act itself values the sick benefits that" have made, the .Chancellor's worshippers shout in admiration as .worth l!d. a week. 'So 'the' mistress and the maid who pay Gd. a week'will'not be receiving 9(1. for 4d.,- nor 3s. lid: for Id., or whatever the latest calculation may bo; They will Iks paying Gd: for lid. When the women of the kingdom realise this fit't clearly,' tho gum 0n..-Mr. Lloyd-George's stamps will not appeal very strongly to tho peculiar taste'.—i'To'in "Tho Weekly Dispatch."