"Diaper Dole"

The Canadian Government last week proposed to give away money every month for every child in Canada under 16.

This nationwide bonanza would begin July 1, 1945. It would be a permanent addition to Canada's social-security program. The new payments, called family allowances, would probably be made by check, to parents and guardians. Basic monthly allowances: $5 for every child of five and under; $6 for every child of six to ten; $7 for those of ten to 13; $8 for 13-to-16-year-olds.

Money from Heaven. Lest the Government be accused of directly subsidizing procreation, there were limits. Families with more than four children would get a little less than the basic allowances. Benefits for the fifth child would be $1 less than the basic allowance, $2 less for the sixth and seventh children, $3 less for the eighth and all the rest. But a paragon who had sired 15 children in 16 years would still be able to draw $816 a year from the treasury. By July 1, 1946 the Dionnes would draw $420 for the quintuplets alone.

For a lot of Canadians (average 1942 income: $665), the new allowances would be literally money from heaven, a substantial increase in the family income. A Canadian farm family, for example, with four children and a net cash income of $50 a month, would immediately have 50% more to spend.

But for Canadians who pay income taxes (2,000,000), the new allowances would, in the end, mean little or no actual gain. The catch: they will lose all or part of the net tax exemptions which they now receive for each child. The Government hopes to pick up $50,000,000 in increased tax revenue, hold the net cost of the plan to $200,000,000 a year. Even so this would be a whopping addition to the Dominion budget.

Taxpayers' Money? Where was the money coming from? The Government did not say. Nearest thing to an official answer came from the Prime Minister's parliamentary assistant, Brooke Claxton, who made hopeful noises about increasing "the consuming and purchasing power of the whole community," presumably increasing tax revenues without upping tax rates. Said Mr. Claxton: "This is a great step forward in the equalization and fair distribution of income . . . one of the greatest and most daring . . . economic measures ever put forward." So far, the Mackenzie King Government has been no believer in deficit-finance, has met a good half of Canada's wartime costs by taxation. If the Government is consistent, the new allowances will come out of current taxes.

Money for Politics? The plan was prime political bait, thrown out by a Government whose election prospects have been steadily diminished by the rise of the socialist C.C.F. The socialists took their time about commenting. Tory Leader John Bracken damned the scheme outright ("All the earmarks of a political bribe"). Canada's trade-union leaders suspected a move to substitute a dole for higher wages. In low-wage, Catholic Quebec, where the Government hoped to make its biggest hit, there were complaints that the plan discouraged big families. Throughout Canada, the opposition press raised an almost unanimous hullabaloo. The Calgary Herald achieved the crack-of-the-week, called the plan a "diaper dole."

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