Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-03
OF
ENGLAND PANIED
LANDLORDS ARE ASKED TO
DISG0RGE GAINS
LoRDLY OILERS PROTEST LOUD
AGAINST MEASURE
Coming Visit Of Portuguese King to
Edward Recalls Beginning of
Firm Friendship Between
TWO Monarchs

LONDON. Sept. 2.-The air of aris-
tocratic England is filled with lamenta-
ton and woe. Dukes and earls who
have long lived in luxurious idleness are
asked to disgorge their ill-gotten gains
but instead of listening quietly anC
obeying humbly, the lordly idlers are
making day and night hideous witt
their wailing. In piteous tones they
declare the budget will be their ruin
chequer, persists in his taxation pro-
posals, they say, they will be compelled
to curtail their expenditure, discharge
their workmen, let their houses, and
maybe sell their ancestral estates.
Homeless and penniless, there is
nothing for them but the workhouse
To dig they cannot, and to beg they
are ashamed. In time the aristocrat
paupers will be entitled to old age PEN
sions. According to Lloyd George the
fact that many Of the aristocracy may
be compelled to sell their estates is no
argument against the budget. The
argument Is the other way. In this
country agricultural enterprises has
been grievously checked because large
tracts of land are owned by men who,
in consequence of the folly and eX-
travagance Of their ancestors, are ut
terly unable to put an end to this state
OF affairs.
Lloyd George recently told an aud
ience in the east end that mot far
from where they were meeting, and not
many years ago, between the Lea and
the Thames there were hundreds OF
acres of land which were not very use
full even for agricultural purposes. In
the main, 1t was soddened marsh. The
commerce of London increased under
free trade. The tonnage of the ship
ping went up by hundreds of thousands
of tons. Labor was attracted from all
parts of the country to cope with all
the trade and business done. What
happened? There was no housing ac-
commodation. That part of London
became overcrowded. That was the
opportunity of the owners of the marsh
and that land became valuable building
land, and land that used to be rented
at $40 or $15 an acre had been selling
within the last few years for from $40,
900 to $4,000 an acre.
After Landlords
'rWho created that increment? Who
made the golden swamp? Was 1t the
landlord? Was 1t his energy? Was II
his brains? 1t had been brought about
by the combined efforts of people en-
gagged in trade-the merchant, the ship
owner, the dock laborer, the workman
everybody except the landlord. During
the time it was marsh the landlord
was paying his rates and taxes. But
not on $40 or SIS an acre. 1t was agri-
cultural land, and a muniflcent Tory
government voted some $10000,000 to
pay half the rates of these poor, dis
tressed landlords
Lloyd George has made up his mind
that the landlords, like other people,
will have to pay for their privileges
The landlords, among other things, are
railing at the death duties. Mr.. Car
negie in his problems of Today" says
it is difficult to understand why, al
the death of its possessor, great
wealth created by the aid of the COM
munity should not be shared by the
community. Where wealth accrues
honorably, he says, "the people are al
ways silent partners
Coming from such a quarter, the fol-
lowing remarks of Mr.. Carnegie are
very striking: MEN who continue
boarding great sums all their lives, the
proper use of which for public ends
would work good to the community
from which it chiefly came, should be
made to feel that the community, in
the form of the state, cannot thus be
deprived of its proper share. By tax
ing estates heavily at death the state
marks its condemnation of the selfish
millionaire's unworthy life."
The truth is, the trouble which is be-
ing made over the budget is dictated
largely. if not solely, by. party mo-
tives. This was clearly visible in the
speech delivered the other day at a
great unionist gathering by Walter
Long. His case was TO represent
Lloyd George as a kind of revolution
ary monster who had got beyond the
control OF the prime minister. What