ary member of the public undoubtedly is
that excess profits on the making of munitions simply ought not to
exist. If engineering firms are permitted to maintain their old standard
of profit and dividend (with fair arrangements, of course, for new
capital and depreciation), they ought to be more than satisfied. Great
heat was developed on the debate by the representatives of various
capitalist interests, notably Sir Arthur Markham, Mr. J. M. Henderson,
Sir Croydon Marks, and Sir Alfred Mond; and some of them were not even
ashamed to hint that if their demands were not agreed to there might be
a diminution of output. At a moment when tens of thousands of men are
giving up their whole incomes as well as their savings, in order to
fight for their country, it is impossible to imagine any spectacle more
unedifying for the wage-earning class than that of these malcontent
capitalist legislators angrily fighting for their extra war-profits.
When one remembers that it was these same gentlemen who were so
enthusiastic for compelling younger and poorer men to sacrifice
everything they possess, it is hard to find words to say what ought to
be said of them. We hope, at all events, that the names of those who
voted against the Government on the division will not be allowed to be
forgotten in the constituencies.

16. _Pall Mall Gazette_, January 31, 1916:

_From Our Own Correspondent._

PARIS, _Saturday_.

The trouble that has been brewing for months past at the Central Markets
has now come to a head. A well-known dealer was suspended by the Prefect
of Police; the Home Office thought this insufficient and revoked his
licence; and there is now talk of a prosecution.

The Central Markets are not a place which the habitual Parisian cares to
venture into. Apart from its own peculiar and particularly pungent
odours, the markets are peopled with a class of stallkeeper who do not
exactly keep their tongue in their pocket, as the French say. They have,
in fact, a flow of language, and it requires a brave man to make a stand
against it--and all the brave men are at the front just now.

But the Central Markets not only have a language of their own; they have
ways and methods of dealing that require long years of acquaintance to
fathom, so only experts venture to make head or tail of them.

All this means that between the Central Markets, at the depository, and
most of all that Paris wants to eat, and the actual consumer as
represented