El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-18
Landlords and Land Laws
Trouble English People
XII.-XIII.-THE BRITISH CRISIS.

London. England. July 1S-Half or
all the land in England is owned by
1000 persons and more than half of ell
the fifty-six million acres of England,
Wales, Scotland and Ireland is owned
by 5000 persons. TwO-thirds of all the
land in the entire kingdom is owned by
fewer than ten thousand persons. OF
the population of fOrty-five million
people. only sixty-o1e thousand farmers
cultivate the land which they own.
Twenty seven dukes own more than
five million acres, the duke of Suther-
land alone possessing 1,350, 600 acres.
The dukes own approximately one
tenth of all the land in Great Britain.
The farmers who own their own land
are few indeed: and of that sixty-One
thousand, fewer than fifteen thousand
own more than so acres. the great
majority possessing holdings of less
than five acres in extent. And. accord
ing to British government statistics,
one-third of the people of Great Britain
are constantly on the verge of starva-
ton
The landlords own the country and
until now they have ruled the country
with no one to dispute their will. They
have never paid any taxes on their land.
The land laws and the revenue laws
| have been framed always by the land
lords in the interest of the landlords
Every political and social agency for
centuries has been operating TO increase
| the size of individual holdings of land
and TO make 1t more and more difficult
| for land to be sold or for estates to be
! divided.
Budget Interfered With Landlords.
The Lloyd-George Budget was the
| first political attempt to interfere
seriously with the privileges of the
| landlords, and its provisions would be
regarded in any other country as being
| mild almost to the point of futility.
! But the astonished landlords arose en-
masse and declared that Lloyd George
was a Socialist. that his Budget was
| confiscatory and that its operations
would destroy the British Empire and
/ send It's old nobility to the demnition
| bow-wows. That the owner OF land
| should be forced to pay a tax upon 1t
/ was a notion so novel a proposition so
preposterous, a crime so constituencies,
| that 1t seemed to be altogether impos-
| sible. But the Budget passed the Com
mons, was rejected by the Lords, was
made the chief issue in a general elsc-
| ton, was approved at the polls, and
! now is the law Of England
! Tenants Occupy All Land.
In the United States where a direct
| tax on the value of land is a generally
! accepted and approved method Of rails
! ing taxes by and for the several states,
| it is difficult to understand the British
| quarrel between landlords and people. In
! the first place England never has taxed
I land values. The revenue derived from
! real estate, known as the rates" is cal
| culated at go much percent on the
! annual rent proIIced b: the land
Practically all land is occupied by
| tenants, but in the few instances where
the proprietor occupies his own land.
annual rent, generally representing an
| infinitesimal fraction of the true rent
| value. In the case Of the Cardiff tailor
shop, made famous in the recent cam
paign, it was shown that a tailor. occu-
| pying eight hundred square yards of
| land, paid rates on a rental valuation
| of S4935, while the Marquis OF Butte,
| who occupied Cardiff Castle, in the i'm
mediate neighborhood. paid for five
| hundred thousand square yards on a
| rental valuation of s4605. Because
| Lloyd-GeOrge called attention to this
| enormous discrepancy. he was accused
by the Conservative press of "calumny
! and of Slandering the noble Marquis OF
Butte. His effrontery in referring to
this tailor shop was denounced all over
the country as proving his utter unfit
ness for his high position as Chancellor
of the Exchequer.
| In every instance where land is
| rented, the tenant or lessee must pay
the rates The owner OF the land never
pays taxes on his own property. This
| system was arranged by the Peers