Exploiting Gloom

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 499, 31 October 1928, Page 9

Exploiting Gloom

DEAN INGE KEEN MAN OF BUSINESS BIRKENHEAD’S OPINION (United l l .A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and NZ. Press Association) Reed. 1.25 p.m. LONDON, Tuesday. Lord Birkenhead, in the “Evening Standard,” submits an incisive reply to Dean Inge’s article, in which the Dean asked if members of the Cabinet were not overpaid at £5,000 a year. “I have an admiration for Dean Inge, who is a scholar with great gifts as a journalist, and very clever, without being an insincere poseur,” he says. “He has exploited this gloomy “business to the uttermost. He is not particularly gloomy. His gloom is really a pose. “Ascetic in appearance, he has a sense of humour which he has never permitted to decommerciaiise his journalistic career. “I should have thought that Dean Inge would have lamented the squalid meanness which leaves the Prime Minister of England £5,000 a year and no pension. The inadequacy of judicial salaries is also a scandal, and the Leader of the Opposition should receive a salary. “The Dean thinks it dignified to be content with a small income, yet I seem to remember the Dean justifying his own journalistic activities by the plea that he could not support his family on his deaconal salary. “Moreover, I have heard many reports from Fleet Street, very gratifying to the reputation of the Reverend Dean as a man of business. He is an astute negotiator of the very valuable material he sells. “I suggest that for the guidance of public men the Dean should inform us how much he himself would allow anyone to earn.” “COMBINE HIGH THINKING WITH PLAIN LIVING” THE DEAN’S COME-BACK (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Tuesday. Dean Inge, who was shown this reply, wrote emphasising that there were no personalities in his article. Socialists say that nobody ought to have more than £SOO a year. He suggested that ten times more ought to content the high-minded servant of the State. “This sum does content our Admirals, Generals and Bishops. It would seem untold wealth to our greatest scholars and scientific discoverers. Our most gifted men ought to show us how to combine highthinking with plain-living, which is not difflcult.”