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The Audacious War by Clarence W. Barron
page 99 of 146 (67%)
his company was providing 250,000 pounds sterling a year to maintain
the wages of the workmen at war up to the same amount as they would
receive if they had stayed at home. He said that in one of his
offices, of 80 men eligible for the work, 78 had enlisted, and, what
was wonderful, the women were glad to take up the heavy work abandoned
by the men,--something they would have refused to do in all ordinary
times. On the whole, the output of this concern and its efficiency
were materially increased, not diminished, by the war.

It is figured that troops at the front mean an expenditure of one pound
per man per day, and that English troops in training mean an
expenditure of not less than ten shillings per man per day.

The war expenses of Great Britain must thus be above one million pounds
per day and steadily increasing. Indeed, the best economic estimate I
have of the cost of the war to England is 500,000,000 pounds the first
year.

While the English declare that they are fighting for their children and
their grandchildren, they are not willing to leave to them the full
load of the war-cost, and gladly do they assume all possible burdens in
the present time.

The income tax, which began in 1842 at two pence in the pound, has now
been doubled from one shilling and three pence to two shillings and six
pence in the pound. This is on the average, and takes nearly one
eighth of a man's income. There are very great variations in this tax.
The rate I have given is the rate on dividends. Upon wages and
salaries the tax is somewhat less.

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