DEFERRED PAY, ALLOWANCES AND RATION 31

latter custom has caused us to forget. The newplan is required to satisfy ideals of social justicemuch higher than we have been attaining withoutit.

Let us welcome this demand. If we can makethe upsetting of established arrangements, whichthe exigencies of war finance require, the oppor-tunity to improve the social distribution of in-comes, all the better.

With this object in view we can add a secondand a third principle to the first principle ofdeferring a proportion of current earnings. Wehave suggested that about a half of what isrequired can be obtained by outright taxes,leaving a half to be supplied by deferment ofearnings. Let our second principle provide thatthe bulk of the new taxes shall fall on the incomegroups of £250 or more, and that the main partof the contribution of the lower income groupsshall take the form, not of foregoing income out-right, but of merely deferring it.

The third principle must be directed to themaintenance of adequate minimum standards,—better and not worse than have existed hitherto.Thus, whilst the second principle puts heavierburdens on the richer classes, the third principleallows special reliefs to the poorer.

To carry out the third principle requires twodistinct proposals. In the scheme which I firstput forward in The Times I attempted to dealwith the problem by proposing a minimum exemptincome, this minimum to be increased for amarried man in accordance with the size of his