The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-11-11

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Foolish QUEST
taxes to a point never before dreamed of:
he would he as good a lingo as there was
In the kingdom. His only worry was that
the deficit wasn't so big as he would like.
For his purposes, the biggest one possible
would serve best. He actually set at work
to make 1t look bigger than 1t was, and
managed to initiate it to about SIG. 0 .cOo.
For he had a scheme to increase the
taxes and make the people like it.
Mystery About Him.
There was vast mystery about the f1nan-
cial scheme which would come from the
keen-eyed little Welshman who had once
convinced a very solemn court that it
wasn't wicked to steal If you were hun
cry. There were a million or so of paup-
ers in the kingdom, ard other millions who
went hungry more or less of the time.
There were also IL or Is great land-owning
dukes who by the exercise of marvellous
foresight in the selection of forbears back
to the time when the Conqueror divided up
England among his favorites, owned so
much land and money that they couldn't
count their Incomes. The millions who
We're hungry went back and read those
speeches of the sharp-tongued Welshman.
about stealing when you're hungry, and
opined that the coming budget wouldn't
do them much harm. Likewise the land
lord dukes read the same speeches. and
We're impressed that the budget wouldn't
do them much good. 1t turned out that
both views We're correct.
MI. Lloyd-George sent out for all the
figures that all the accountants and sta
tisticians in his department could pro-
vide; he studied them all, said nothing.
and sawed wood. and one day his budget
was presented to the commons.
The great dukes. and the rest OF the
multi-millionaires of the kingdom studied
it, and weren't sure. They studied it some
more, and at last. they got the idea. Lord
Rosebery. who overlooked picking a ducal
ancestry in the time of William the Nor
man, but cleverly rectined the error some
900 years later by marrying O Roths-
child and making himself one of the
wealthiest men in the Kingdom, expressed
claiming:
Heavens. This hn't a budget: IT'S a
0~revolution!'
Aims at Ultra Rich.
1t was, too; the beginning of one. So
AZ ANOk " ~ Als LlOyu.
George had written n Whole political pro-
gram into that budget. It was aimed at
the very rich: Would 1t raise the neces-
sary money? Well, rather: it would raise
SO much that he provided that some of the
taxes should not AXE effect for years to
come.
The budget. in short. was a proposal to
tax the fat out of the over-fat, and dis
tribute it aroun where it would do the
lean millions the most good. The. poor
didn't get an added penny of burden, save
a very tritie for forms sake on liquor and
tobacco. But the net budget certainly did
make it expensive for aslich man to die,
The income tax when Lloyd-GeorEe
started in, was about $50 on an income OF
81 600 u year. On the theory that a man
with $1,000 a year was a very dangerous
~r,onopolist, that tax was reduced to $l2.
Eut when he got up to the man with 5000.
a year. Mr.. Lloyd-George raised his in
year he raised the tax from s1,33 to 5000;
at $4,000 a year, from s6.G65 to Sic, 290. and
at $2,Go0,OG0 4 year, he tilted it. upward
from $6I, 0D to S165, 900.
That was bad enough for the poor rich:
but when they came to die. Mr.. Lloyd
George was there waiting for them to give
an experience that they could null over
IN the hereafter. He found hat a man
with q So, COO estate was taxed $1,000. and
he deciaed that was enough; he didn't
raise it. But when he reached the enter
prising citizen Who had worked hard at
the plow or on the docks and laid by a
million dollars, he took $4,000 of it.
whereas the former contribution at death
had been only $4,000. At SIS, UOO, 600. he
screwed # up to sSoo,0e0. whereas the
former rate on a fortune of that size had
been only $45O,OG0.
And just to make it good-there being q
number OF elderly folk in Great Britain
with really comfortable fortunes, and the
chancellor feeling that he might need the
money about the time they would die-he
provided that a s50,000.0Oa estate should be
n,ulcted to the tune of $4,000, GOO. That
was just about double the former levy.
Protectionists Get Busy.
The dukes and the rich brewers and the
other great fortune owners had been adj
vising My. L~loyG-George to increase the
tax on SllCar- and ON coffee and ON that