The record-union., 1899-03-12

Uneasiness as to What May be Necessary
to Meet the Deficiency.

| Free Trade-The Problem Will
Form the Subject of Important
Debate When the Budget is
| Submitted to Parliament.
| NEW YORK, March 1.-THE London
correspondent of the Tribune" writes:
Unless all signs fail, there will be
important debates on fiscal problems
after the Chancellor of the Exchequer
lays his budget before the Commons.
One of these signs is the ominous
warning from Sir Michael Hicks Beach
that the balance of revenue and ex-
penditure may be on the wrong side,
and that measures may be required for
Injecting considerable deficit Another
straw which shows the direction of the
wind is Mr.. Morley's protest against the
alarming increase of national expendi-
lures. The most remarka BILE indication,
| however, of transition stage in ma
tional finance is the candor of the lead
ing journal in recommending the re-
imposition of duties which were abol-
ished when free trade was established
as the permanent policy of the United
|
opinion has published important ar
ticles by an expert financier, and virtu-
ally adopts his conclusion that the time
has come for reconsidering and revising
the entire system of taxation in a bold
and comprehensive way. The argument
is as follows:
1.-THE national expenditures have
| increased about 50 per cent during
twenty years, and the bulk of the addi-
tional burden has been thrown upon
direct taxation, whereas indirect taxa
ton has remained almost unchanged,
customs and excise being taken to-
gether. The direct duties have been
nearly trebled, and the income tax has
grown proportionately. and all the ex-
traordinary burdens of the State and a
steadily increasing share of the ordi-
nary burdens have been thrown by di-
rect taxation upon a limited class.
These increased direct charges now
operate as high tax upon capital, and
are detrimental to the interests of the
working cla2Ses. They also involve ex-
haustion of what was once great gold
reserve. 1t was once. easy to meet a
fresh emergency by putting an extra
penny on the tax, but it is no longer
practicable to do this, since the extra
Ordinary resource has been converted
into the ordinary source Of revenue, I'M
der conditions of profound peace. The
/ income tax has not been below 6 pence
in six years, and year after year it has
stood at 8 pence. The center of gravity
of taxation has been altered by a ire
mendouS increase of direct charges
without any corresponding addition to
indirect charges.
THE conclusions from these premises
are courageously drawn by the Times.
| It will be the act of a weak Govern
ment if the probable deficit of the
Treasury be met by adding another
penny to the income tax, or by the
feeble expedient of a suspension of the
sinking fund. 1t is dangerous to de-
pend continuously upon direct taxa
ton for carrying extraordinary bur
dens. and it is hardly less perilous to
restrict the list of chargeable commodi-
ties for indirect taxation by reimposing
the shilling duty on wheat and the half
penny duty ON sugar. and also to re-
nounce the idea that free breakfast
table is sacred British privilege
1.-THE Times doubts if the present
Char cellcr of the Exchequer is likely to
propose these radical changes, yet it
is convinced that if some measures of
the kind are not adopted England will
find itself confronted with far more
serious financial problems in the inme-
diate future.
"It is needless to add that the Chan
cellor of the Exchequer who ventures
to propose duties on wheat and sugar
will be charged with treason to free
trade. Duties on wheat and sugar will
be the entering wedge for the policy of
indirect taxation, which free-traders
have beer describing for half century
as ruinous to protectionist America.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is not
likely to expose himself to destructive
criticism by Liberal benches by pro-
posing SO radical a change in the finan-
cial system as the abandonment of
English free trade.
There will be budget speech with
temporary expediencies, and the, Chan
cellor of the Exchequer will wriggle out
of his deficit by suspending the new
sinking fund and reimposing the to-
bacco duty which was reduced last
year.
Nevertheless it is fact of deep sig
nificance that powerful journal like
the Times which not only understands
but also directs the forces of English
opinion, should be advising a return to
corn laws and sugar duties 1t is an
unanswerable proof that free trade has
| ceased to be regarded with supersti-
tious awe as an economic fetch The
strain of increasing expenditures in
times of peace is forcing candid ex-
perts to admit that no reserves of taxa
/ ton are available to free trade for
period of war, and that whenever
great campaign comes on the door will
be opened for a protective tariff.
when the Times is willing to con-
slider the expediency of levying duties
on wheat and sugar there is no reason
to doubt that there are powerful inter
ests in the country which are prepared
to sanction this policy in the face, of
| impassioned defamation in favor of
free trade and the traditions of Golden
/ ism. A duty on wheat would be re-
garded by agricultural England as
genuine relief measure for the pro-
ltracted depression which has prevailed
without interruption since the adoption
| Of free trade.
| "A duty on sugar would enable the
colonial Office to make reciprocity ar