Brain's Rise

Although its premature disclosure was a sensation, Hugh Dalton's budget itself was as quiet as a Treasury mouse. Besides the liquor taxes (see above), it sought Government revenues from football pools and dog racing (but not from horse racing). The profits tax was doubled.*

Dalton's successor, Sir Stafford ("The Brain") Cripps, now at the pinnacle of his power, has more rigorous ideas than Dalton on the fiscal policy of a Socialist Government (TIME, Nov. 10). The first Cripps budget, to be presented in April, may contain more drastic provisions.

In fact, the Labor Ministers of all shades of Socialism are being inexorably driven toward more & more drastic policies by the logic of their drastic Socialist premises and the pressure of Britain's crisis. Labor Minister George Isaacs last week issued an order that seemed to breathe authoritarian fire. Under Isaacs' ukase he can direct British men & women without jobs, and those in industries considered unessential, to register and to take jobs in essential industries.

In a nervous flurry, Isaacs explained to the House of Commons that his order was merely intended to put loafing spivs to work and to tap the manpower resources of the football pools, which are big business in Britain (see cut). Whereupon the Manchester Guardian commented:

"Mr. Isaacs has gone butterfly hunting with a battery of 12-inch guns. The order . . . will require the use of some of the most formidable powers that have ever been taken by a British Government in time of peace."

*On another Dalton tax measure, allowing only half the money spent on advertising to be deducted as business expenses in computing income tax, the Wall Street Journal pungently commented: "The hate of the Marxians ... for advertising is no mere whim. If you believe that the purpose of making and selling things is to furnish people what they choose to have, advertising appears useful. . . . But if you believe that the mass of consumers are subhuman, bound to do something foolish and destructive if left to themselves . . . advertising is a terrible thing. It is likely to cause people to want something and [that] may be troublesome to the higher authority."

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