London, .
The final figures in respect to the ballot of the Welsh miners gave 73,307 votes in favor of the strike to enforce the £200 limit in the income tax exemption, and 72,837 votes against the strike.
The council of the Welsh miners have decided to defer the strike pending a conference with the Miners Federation of Great Britain, which has been asked to arrange a national ballot on the subject.
…Another thing which the public will not stand is that the miners should pretend that they are advancing the rule of the people when they are really claiming privileges for themselves at the heavy expense of others.
A good, or rather a bad, example of this tendency is provided by the Welsh miners, who are refusing to pay Income Tax.
Some miners have been earning as much as £10 and £12 a week.
Of course not all earn so much, but an appreciable number of miners earn more than is earned by clerks who pay their taxes like men.
As Labour Members in the House of Commons recently asked Mr. Chamberlain to remove all indirect taxation, the contention of a great many working men seems to be that people who earn less than £250 a year should not pay any taxes at all, and that a man who earns his living with his hands should not pay any taxation, however large his income may be!
What kind of democratic government does all this lead to?
The aristocracy of former days put forth many foolish and wicked claims in the interests of a small class, but probably nothing more unashamedly aristocratic in spirit than this.
