Thoughts from our Readers .sx WOMEN MOTORISTS .sx To the Editor of the " Echo " .sx Sir , - I have no desire to prolong a controversy which in the nature of things does not admit of a verdict being arrived at with anything like demonstrable precision .sx But since your correspondent " R. M. Russell " has re-opened the discussion on Women Motorists by quoting the general manager of an insurance company that " lady drivers are , as a whole , just as capable as anybody else , " I may be permitted to remark that this evidence is far from conclusive .sx A correspondence is now going on in a London daily paper on the question of the capability of women drivers .sx It was started some days ago by an article bearing the name of Mr. John Prioleau , with a picture inset having the caption , " They take their eyes off the road to talk .sx " Mr. Prioleau contends that " Woman is the menace of the roads , " and gives his reasons .sx I never went so far as this .sx I said that women - meaning , of course , the majority and not the exceptions - are a menace on the roads , partly because many of them are temperamentally wholly unfitted for motor-driving , and largely because many of them do not trouble to learn the management of the machine and seem unable to develop any sense of responsibility in signalling .sx There are , of course , other menaces on the road , and recklessness is too often exhibited by the young male whether as motor-cyclist or the driver of a tradesman's vehicle .sx There is this to be said for the latter type ( though nothing excuses dangerous driving ) that where goods have to be delivered on a long round the temptation to be speedy is understandable .sx I have some sympathy , too , with the drivers of long-distance coaches , governed , as they are , by a rigorous , perhaps too rigorous , time-table .sx But two ( or three ) blacks never yet made a white , and if it be true that certain kinds of motoring sins are chargeable especially to women , some public service may be done by drawing attention to them .sx Like my first letter , Mr. Prioleau's article has provoked correspondence .sx As is only natural , lady drivers write sticking up for their sex and blaming the males .sx But there is the other side of the question .sx One letter published to-day exactly bears out what I have been told by several of my men ( motorist ) friends .sx The writer signs himself " Rudge , " and his points are :sx - ( 1 ) Women drivers are mostly of the leisure class , accustomed to deference , and expect male drivers to give way to them on the road - in other words , one law for the woman and another for the man .sx ( 2 ) Large numbers of women never learn the right use of the controls , let alone the rules of signalling , and venture into dangerous traffic with barely an elementary knowledge of driving .sx ( 3 ) Men are so distrustful of women motorists that they give them a wide berth .sx Hence the comparative immunity from accidents in which women are involved .sx This is the answer to any testimony , though correct as far as it goes and given in good faith , from insurance companies as to women being " as capable as enibody else " at the wheel .sx H.E.B. .sx Cheltenham , March 19 , 1931 .sx HOW TO SAVE .sx Sir , - There is much talk of economy , public and private these days , and various cuts in armaments have been made , but a more important one could be made by allowing no money for poison gas experiments .sx Let me describe the sort of thing that should be stopped .sx One of the most important English papers says :sx " The best gas for suffocation is called Phosgene .sx Mustard burns the flesh off well , and penetrates any clothing as found in the War .sx Lewisite is a burning gas like mustard , but more powerful .sx Lewisite can be sprayed on cities , as with a hose , from aircraft .sx It has an excellent effect in burning clothes , skin and flesh of all citizens and soldiers .sx " Professor Lee , one of the inventors , claims that it can penetrate any mass , and passes through the flesh or down the lungs burning the victim's inside out .sx Professor Lewin of the Berlin University , a world-recognised authority on poisons , with 20 years of special study of chemical warfare , says :sx " Thirty types of poison gas have so far been isolated , and could be prepared speedily , and in quantity , and against every one of these all antidotes and all protective measures are virtually useless .sx " Dr. E. H. Stancomb , M.B. , C.M. , says :sx " There is no protection because I know Lewisite burns through brick .sx Three drops of it on an animal and you burn its inside out .sx " This takes two to three hours .sx These things are being applied to animals now at Porton , and also to soldiers , who can refuse the experiment , but I strongly object to animals being used as they are helpless , so that this treatment is very offensive to anybody possessing either sympathy or a sense of justice .sx Some people have both - others have neither .sx As regards the penetrator of these things it is sadism run to seed .sx No good could possibly come of it as we have signed and ratified a Geneva Protocol that has pledged us and the following nations not to use poison gas against each other :sx Austria , Belgium , United Kingdom of Great Britain and North Ireland , Canada , Australia , New Zealand , Union of South Africa , Irish Free State , India , China , Denmark , Egypt , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Liberia , Persia , Portugal , Rumania , Spain , the Soviet Union , Sweden , Turkey , Venezuela , and so on .sx The Secretary of State for War has definitely stated that these experiments are being tried out for " offensive as well as defensive " warfare , so we shall be using it on little children and babies , as it is to be dropped on citizens as well as soldiers , and it takes about three hours to kill .sx Has England the smallest claim under these circumstances to be considered a Christian country ?sx The laity are moving in this matter to a small extent , but the Church should rise " en masse , " and we hope that the bishops in the House of Lords will use their social , political and religious influence to give a lead to the country and insist on the abolition of this hell that has grown up in our midst , and on which we are wasting 138,000 .sx PHBE CLAUSS .sx Abergeldie , Cheltenham .sx Thoughts from our Readers .sx HOUSING COSTS .sx To the Editor of the " Echo .sx " Sir , - As a ratepayer I thank you for drawing attention in last night's " Echo " to the fact that the council have spent , or are committed to spend half a million on housing , involving the town in a rate of at least 4d .sx for the next fifty years .sx Most of these houses , let at uneconomic rates , are not for the slum-dwellers or poor working class , but for the well-paid 5 or 7 a week people , who ought to be ashamed to live cheaply at the ratepayers' expense .sx The good class houses , deprived of tenants , are rated for the benefit of those wishing to live on charity .sx Perhaps someone may be able to state how far the council may use money extracted by exorbitant rates from the residents , and under what " section and act " this is done .sx The policy of the council appears to be to drive out the residential classes , who are the backbone of the town , and replace them by people who want something for nothing , many of whom will increase the " dole " drawers sooner or later .sx It is a policy of suicide .sx What is required to make trade boom is to have residents spending 500 to 1,000 per annum in the town , benefiting all tradesmen .sx Why not surcharge the council if this expenditure on the well-to-do classes is illegal .sx DISGUSTED RATEPAYER OF 25 YEARS .sx EGG DAY .sx Sir , - So much energy and goodwill have been expended in the work of Egg Day this year for the General and Eye Hospitals that the success of the effort was assured from the beginning .sx It is intensely gratifying to record a splendid result in eggs - 20,662 ; in money , 78 10s .sx 8d .sx , and the Board of Management desire through the medium of your widely-read paper to offer their warmest thanks to the large company of collectors , and the still larger one of givers , who have combined to make Egg Day such a splendid success .sx B. ROBERTS , .sx Hon .sx Secretary Egg Day , .sx Member of Board of Management .sx TEACHERS' SALARIES .sx Sir , - May I point out to the gentleman who signs himself " Justice " that the total expenditure on education in this country amounts to about 120,000,000 , of which rather over half is provided by the rates .sx On the supremely important work of preparing the growing generation for their work in life we spend a mere trifle compared with the 240,000,000 spent on the Civil Services and about the same as we spend on the Army , Navy , and Air Force .sx Local expenditure on education amounts to little more than local expenditure on highways .sx So much for education " bleeding the country white , " as " Justice " very aptly terms it .sx As to the Burnham scale :sx - A master at a secondary school , after qualifying for this highly important post by four years of university education , receives the handsome salary of about 230 per annum , rising by increments of about 10 p.a. It is needless to say that a successful schoolmaster must be a most talented and versatile man .sx So much for the " extravagant scale of pay .sx " " In no occupation is so little work given for such a large outlay of money , " says " Justice .sx " If he had said :sx - " In no occupation is so much work given for such a small outlay of money , " he would have been nearer to the truth .sx A good schoolmaster's work is never done .sx In no occupation is there such need for unpaid overtime work .sx The actual teaching hours are few compared with the number of hours spent in out-of-school work .sx A schoolmaster does not " knock-off " at 6 p.m. each day .sx Correction of exercises and preparation of lessons keep him busy on at least five evenings in the week .sx Besides this , it is his duty to get through a considerable amount of private reading and to keep his " subject " fresh , for which the holidays are all too short .sx The good teacher is not too common .sx He usually enters the profession for love of teaching , which outweighs in his mind the lowness of the salary which he will earn .sx The result of making the salary even more inadequate will be that we get an inferior class of teachers , to whom we must entrust our sons and daughters .sx F.M.R. .sx Sir , - Reading of teachers' salaries made me think of many things , one being the time when I took school-money in pence ( and oftentimes to the village shop ) .sx It is not so much a question of the high salaries , but whether we as a nation are getting value for money .sx Judging from what may be seen weekends on the north side of the town , it appears otherwise .sx There the lads spend their time playing football in the narrow streets , smashing glass bottles and spreading them about the roads , pulling down hedges , doing damage to turf edges , breaking wooden and iron gates , using catapults on tame birds , as well as wild , etc. .sx Fifty years ago parents would have been heavily fined and children punished .sx To-day little notice seems to be taken of it , but if we are so advanced , and so much money is being spent , to my mind the least that could be done would be to teach children where to play football ( if we must be a kicking generation !sx ) and otherwise how to behave outside school hours .sx ONE WHO HAS SUFFERED .sx Sir , - It seems to me that the main point is not so much whether the teachers' salaries under the Burnham Award are too high , but that which they appear to have completely forgotten :sx Are they compatible with the people's capacity to pay ?sx The answer to this question is an emphatic " No .sx " I do not think I am wrong in saying that they inflict grievous and unjust burdens upon those least able to bear them - the parents of the children , whose wages do not average 2 a week .sx 1 .sx