Arizona republican., 1899-03-11
Proposed to Restore Duty on
 Com to Remedy il.
FREE TRADERS ARE STARTLED
No Question That CobdeniSm is on the Wane-The London TimeS Strongly Urges an IRcrese in inc Scope of Indirect Tsxation-No Thought of Decreasing Army or Navy Expenditures

London, March 10.-The British
 budget, for the first time in many
 years, is going to show a deficit for the
 financial year which ends on March 25.
 The receipts are already half a million
 pounds sterling below Chancellor
 Hicks-Beach's estimates, and it is evil
 dent from the departmental pro
 grammes that he will have to raise
 three millions by increased taxation to
 meet the coming years requirements.
 The country has been so accustomed to
 surpluses that it is quite nonplussed.
 The Times warns it that the grave
 fiscal problems must be faced imme-
 diately. Of the two alternatives, to spend less money or to raise more rev
 enue, it may be stated emph3tically
 that public opinion rejects the former.
 MT. Morley's taunt that he could now
 define jingo as a man who is willing
 to spend 2 5O,0O0,00O annually in a time of general peace on the nations
 military equipment hasn't stung the electors. It will doubtless be often re-
 peated in the coming budget debate.
 but only by a dwindling group of the Manchester school, not by practical politicians who are concerned for the country's position in the world Even the moderate Spectator declares that mo one but a madman would propose to reduce either the land or sea forces at the present time," and this in a week when the army estimates are an- nOunced as nearly 8 million and a half above these of 1898, and the country knows that the navy will follow suit. The expenditures of the two services next year will be nearly G4S,00O 00O.
 This" says the Outlook, ''is the cost of keeping the islands and coasts of the empire inviolate, and no sane man will begrudge the cost" Chan ceIlor Hicks-Be3ch has not the slight est notion of cutting down the naval or military expenditures. He is not the man to follow Lord Randolph Churchill and resign unless the min istry reduces the departments esti- mates
 The problem of producing more rev enue finds many suggested solutions. The really startling thing is how many are proposals for protection in vary ing degrees. Evidently the nation during the years of large surplus has ceased to trembIc at the word protec- tion. The Times points out that it isn't merely an eXpedient to tide over a single year that has to be found. ''The mischief goes much deeper than any casual miscalcu.atiOn of this or that chancellor of the eXchequer. Fcr at least twenty years back the country has been pursuing a course of finan- cial policy which has disturbed the financial equilibrium and has tended more and more to alter the center of gravity of taxation. The danger is that it is so easy to get over a tempe 1 rary difficulty by the simple eXpedient of raising by an income tax an addi- tiOnal penny or pound" Its conciu- i sion, which has taken the free trade | essayist's breath away, is that it is ] mischievous to encourage the idea that i a free breakfast table is the privilege f of British subjects like the trial by l jury or the writ of haDeas corpus. The | true policy is to extend the scope of in direct taxation by the reimpOsitiOn of 1 the shilling duty on corn which was not felt, while it was in operation and l which would bring in at present 9 very i large sum. This is one proposed re- | form A duty of halfpenny pound ! on sugar, which would yield some six millions a year, is another. If some l such measures are not adopted we viii | find ourselves confronted by far more i serious financial problems i2 the im- mediate future
 The cartoonist, F. c. Gould, has al l ready neatly pictured this aS bread 1 and treacle tax. The Speaker, in the acc-1ts of a decade ago, shrieks: They are reviving the corn laws. If protection is good for a shilling per quarter it is good for five. A tory chancellor Of the exchequer might as we'll be hanged for sheep as a lamb
 A significant thing is that the reo- pie now want reasons for rejecting such proposals and not vituperation. The corn and sugar proposals are not likely to be proposed by the govern ment this year or next, but it is a rev 0lution in England that they are being calmly discussed with a view of find ing their effects Cn the national safety and prosperity. Chancellor Hicks Beach's friends say that he intends to put a tax of an additional shilling per barrel on beer and to leimpose the six pence a pound on tobacco, which was withdrawn in 1898.
 The problem is going to have a great