64 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

High Court Judge, and £3,500 for the Head of the Civil Service
It may be argued that human society would be improved if ver}
large incomes—and very small ones—were abolished; but there
is little to be said for admitting the general principle of inequality
and then making special exceptions to it to the disadvantage of
public servants. Adequate salaries will deliver them—as was
pointed out in the debates on the 1937 Act—not only from the
temptation of bribery but from the more subtle temptation to
add to their incomes by writing newspaper articles which do
not always add to the dignity of the Government* So their
salaries are supposed to be equal to what they could get in other
walks of life. The Lord Chancellor's £10,000 reflects the oppor-
tunities of famous lawyers in private practice. The Law Officers
receive fees in addition to their salaries—i.e., they are paid, in
part, on a piecework basis. This greatly increases their income,
and it is sometimes suggested that the hope of getting these
prizes accounts for the large proportion of lawyers in
politics.

If the 1937 Act had fixed the standard Cabinet salary at
£3,000 instead of £5,000, it would probably have been more
popular and done little harm to the efficiency of Government.
A Minister may reasonably be expected to take somewhat less
than he could get in private life; for by so doing he encourages
the belief that men enter politics not only for what they can get,
but because their hearts are in the work and they want to serve
the people. If this belief fades, there will arise a contempt for
democratic Government as a whole. What will be the feelings of
an unemployed man, keeping a family on 303. a week, when he
reads that the Government, which has so fixed his income., has
decreed £40,000 more for itself? A large part of Hitler's pro-
paganda was an attack on politicians who were out for their
salaries. Hitler's own party and Government do not publish
detailed accounts, and so escape this criticism. Some Ministers
have, beside salaries, "official residences". That of the Prime
Minister, at 10, Downing Street, is well-known; he has also the