# The Gaelic State in the Past & Future/Chapter 8

VIII.
Approaching Problems.
The purpose of this little book has been to examine the working of the old Irish State, to show how that State was affected by the attempt at military conquest, to see how, when that conquest succeeded in overthrowing the form of the State and uprooting it out of the soil, its memory persisted in the instincts and expectations of the Nation, and made all the uprisings of the Nation malleable to its ancient will, and finally to see how far those instincts could be translated into the new conditions and experiences of the national life in a re-birth of the old State. It is no part of its business to examine the problems that will beset the future State of Ireland. It has a sufficiently hardy task to carry ​out, however inefficiently, its declared purpose without undertaking expeditions not proper to that purpose. Yet certain problems lie within the automatic function of such a State, and some of these may be briefly indicated.
There is, for example, the question of taxation. In most countries of late movements have arisen demanding that taxation should be charged upon wealth and not upon the heads of the population. This has, necessarily perhaps, taken the form of a class-war in these other countries; but it is at bottom not a class question at all, but a question of a sound and a fairly obvious economic principle. A State can only levy taxation in proportion to its wealth, and therefore can only levy taxation upon that wealth, wherever that wealth be held. To attempt to discover that wealth by a mere counting of heads is a procedure the falsity of which could be exposed by a class of school-children. That means that any taxation by heads of population, direct or indirect, however it be scaled, graded or disguised, is bad national economy, and therefore bad national finance. How otherwise, then, can taxation be levied? Here again the old State comes with a suggestion. We have seen that, though there is no direct proof that the system was completed, its taxation was levied on the stateships, presumably with some regard to their capacities. That taxation was redistributed by them in their own assemblies according to their local circumstances. If that method were adopted again the State would derive its revenues from its stateships, and would levy it ​in proportion to their abilities. That proportion would at least be more easy to estimate in their case than in the case of individuals; whereas if the stateships became not merely economic units but trading units their balance-sheets would at once reveal the proportion of their capacities, and the State would thus be enabled to charge its taxation directly upon its wealth in an equitable ratio.
At first the incidence of this system would be light, but it would gather importance with time. It is agreed that Ireland will need to protect, and in some cases heavily protect, her young industries. But in the degree in which such protection succeeded in its intention it would cease to be profitable from the point of view of taxation. Then the Nation would need to claim a levy on the wealth it had created for itself, for the purposes of government and security.
Such a system would in great measure answer the question of the unused mineral resources of the country. These are, as is well-known, very considerable, and one of the first tasks of an Irish State would be to see that they were used though it would be an equally important task to see that they were not mined so that they rendered whole tracts of countryside foul and filthy as in other countries. Such mineral deposits in the soil of a country are part of the national wealth. Its State cannot grant monopolies of them to individuals or companies, especially in a country where the soil of old was held and of late was won back by its people. They would naturally, in such a State as has been outlined, ​be held and worked by the stateships in whose territories they lay, under the direction of the State. But then the question arises, what royalties would the State charge for the working of what truly is the wealth of the whole Nation and not the sole possession of any of its stateships? And the answer is that if taxation were levied on stateships according to their capacities this would automatically adjust itself without the necessity of adopting any direct device.
Then there is the question of the promotion of industry. No State can leave this to hazard. It must be made part of a disciplined effort. Nations must be made as far as is possible self-subsistent. No government can stand idly by and say that its people are either naturally industrial or agricultural, or declare piously that the whims and hazards of private enterprise are the workings of wisdom. Attitudes of this kind are the abrogation of all government. Governments, in the degree in which they are governments, must set out to create what, after, careful thought, they conceive to be a living and liveable balance of the activities of the national life, and to create it by and in an order that ensures dignity, decency and subsistence to all its people. The task may not be easy, but any neglect of it is treason to the State. In an Ireland organised by responsible stateships the task would be simplified. Ireland possesses, possibly in as great a measure as any nation, what is known as White-Power. By harnessing the manifold rivers that intersect her soil electricity can be directed to each ​of these stateships for their use in order that they might as communities create industries within their territories. It would be to their interest to do so, if only to keep their population within their fellowships, and to the general wealth of the fellowships, instead of letting them drift to the stateships of the cities. But the general direction of such efforts would lie with the State, which would seek so to order things that there be in the national life a balance of all the parts that are necessary to a self-subsistent and thriving nation. Ireland would remain mainly agricultural, because of the richness of the soil and because the neglect of agriculture is national suicide; but she will cease to repeat the words of her enemies that her destiny is agricultural only. Her destiny is what she will make it by an organised and disciplined endeavour.
Finally there is the question of the language. This does not truly lie within the scope of the book, but only because without it the book would not be possible. Firstly, because it was in the language of the Irish Nation that the Irish State was created; secondly, because it was only when the language was recovered as an intellectual possession and passion that the outlines of that State could be seen clearly, the memories of which at that time were struggling in the acts and deeds of a resurgent people. We have been tracing a historical continuity, but the key of that continuity is the language. The State of the future might be built on the foundations of the past, but the Nation inhabiting it would not be the same Nation if it spoke by the tongue of a ​foreigner; and then it is probable that the State would not fully answer its expectations, because the change of a nation's speech implies a weakening of. its surety of intuition. The recovery of the language in daily use is not a sentimentalism but a national necessity if the Nation is to act with the full certainty of its hereditary mind. It is also necessary to its dignity among the nations which also is not merely an honourable emotion but actually an estimable quality in commerce. Ireland will utter her State aright when she utters her own speech aright, and when she does both other nations will look at her, think separately of her and deal directly with her. Her dignity will be a national beauty, and will aid her prosperity. For it is not when a Nation is crowned that its dignity is completed, but when it speaks; and not when it lisps with a stranger's tongue but when it speaks with its own.