THE DYING MIDDLE CLASS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4491, 13 November 1922, Page 3

THE DYING MIDDLE CLASS

“STRANGLED BY TAXES*”

lb' the class which was the great nursery of our public services really being destroyed? If so, what will . by the effect on our national life ? (asks the London Morning Ppst). On the poijit of the dwindling of the Middle Class there was no expression of doubt in any quarter. The facta, unfortunately, are too plain. A statistical official, discussing the question in the light of the last quarterly return of vital statistics, said that caution was needed in drawing conclusions from one quarter’s figures, or even one year’s figures. But with all caution it was impossible to avoid seeing in them (1) a reflection of the present serious depression, wihic.i ’ m’ght 'however,, be only a temporary phase, and (2) a sharp accentuation of the tendency which had been indicated fo" some time past of a dwindling of the marriage rate and the ' birth rate in' the middle classes. If the birth rate per 1000 living of all ■ the centres' of population in England were set out in arithmetical progression the table would represent with almost complete accuracy the gradations in the social character of those centres. London industrial suburbs wore found, with far higher birth rates than the “dormitory” suburbs, where the population was more largely middle class in type, and in the ■ country the industrial centres had higher birth rates than places like Bath, Bournemouth, Eastbourne, and Hastings. Allowance, of course, had to. be made for the age character of the population, and a comparison would not be quite exact unless it were kept to persons of the productive age. But the disparities were so great that making all allowances, it was clear that the general birth rate in the whole community was declining, and that the decline was ■ enormously greater among the middle classes than among the industrial classes.

Oh this point he called attention to the birth rate figures' for- some typical seaside towns : Eastbourne 15.3, Hastings 15.9, Bournemouth 16.3, Brighten 18, Southampton (where the population is partly industriay) 21.8. Taking the London area, the birth rate rose exactly with the proportion of shim dwellings, and in all the poprest quarters it was above the national average. Where a centre could be defined as mainly middle class and professional it showed a birth, rate far below the national average. / A family doctor with a large middle class practice in London was very pessimistic: “We are rapidly coming to the point,” he said, "when, speaking as to the greater proportion of the population, only those who accept in some form or another charity can afford to have children. Very many professional and middle class people have been driven from the houses they used .to occupy by excessively higher taxes, higher rents and rates, higher cost of all forms' pf service. They were forced into flats and apartments. Flats make a family difficulty. A young married couple of my acquaintance living in a flat found that their first infant cost £135 in nursing, home fees, etc., on his arrival in this world.; and they have to meet now a heavy item each week for his care.

Everybody Robs tli-c Middle Class. “Everybody robs the middle class. The Government is the first Jobber. Minor public authorities follow its lead, and practically every class that has* service, to sell shows’ a like rapacity

"The vanishing middle class had as one of its chief virtue® a hatred of receiving alms. It is perhaps interesting to note that in my expert-, ence tlhe new rich do not share that as a rule. They are far more ready to use the hospitals- even when tlhey can well afford to pay. But the old class b! modest means goes down with its ‘no charity' flag hailed tb the mast pacing all the time taxes and rates' for help tp people who are real - ly better off .than themselves.” Lord Decies, of the Income Taxpayers’ Society, said that his society had daily reminders bf the actual misery inflicted upon the middle classes by the ruinously high taxation of the Government. They heard Oif scores of cases where homes had to be broken up to pay rates and taxes. Still more commonly people were being forced, to sell their little heirlooms and bits of personal poverty. What rankled was’ the knowledge that tlie desperate exaction on them were not for necessary purposes They did not grumble at the war taxes. But they knew that the tayes now were partly for extravagances and unnecessary doles. The middle class family which had to pay at least twice as / much as formerly for the education of its children had .then to meet enormously increased taxes and rates’ for the education of the children who paid nothing. Tne increase in the cost of education charity covered* by the rates was greater than in that covered by the tiixe/, and it hit hardest the middle class man trying to biding up a family, as it was levied oh the Value of the house he Occupied. ' In Lord Decies’ view.the only hope is in a great reduction of taxation, tb be made possible by Government economy and “by aiming at. a greater equality of sacrifice in regard to war costs. “Of ail the people the most to he pitied" fie added, “arte the poor professional classes, and those people who are dependent on small investments of small propertied secured a® the fruit of previous thrift. To the knowledge of our society these people are in many cases actually in need of proper food. Their plight is most pitiful, and it is dangerous to the community in the discouragement it gives to thrift.”