El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-18
BRITISH CRISIS Of
MOMENT To
ENGLAND
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was in no way responsible. The gov
eminent wants 10 percent CT the in
/ crease in value of his property thus
created.
CndeVelOped Land Taxed.
The third feature is the tax on un.
developed land direct tax Of
| half-penny in the pound. a trifle over
percent, payable annually; the land
| TO be reasseSsed every five years
This is the only one of the land taxes
! which is analogous TO the general
practice of state taxation in the United
! States. Strange 20 say ii was the most
! objectional feature OF the entire Lloyd
| George scheme. The landlords could
stomach an increment duty and a re-
/ version duty, in which they were
forced to give to the state portion of
! the money earned for them by the
community, but they regarded as
monstrous imposition the taxation of
! their idle land.
! 1t was a blow aimed directly at
/ the heart of the British aristocracy,
for it meant tax on the game pre-
/ serves. The horrible suggestion mas
| made that it might force some of the
! game preserves to be turned back to the
vulgar uses of agriculture, in order
| that the land might come under the
exceptions granted to farm lands.
Would Break Up Land Holding.
Of course the government designed
! these taxes as much to make large land
holding Improbable, and therefore to
! force division of estates, as it did not
! raise revenues. In this respect 1t may
| be said that the taxes were not bona
| fide revenue measures, but were aimed
! to break up, as far as possible, the
present land system. The Tories made
the most of the argument against this
abuse of the taxing power. but in the
some breath they ciamored for pro-
| tective tariff to protect their wheat
fields against the "pauper" wheat of
America and Argentina.
As a matter of fact the new land
taxes are not revolutionary, except in
England. They are the same taxes
are imposed in France, in Germany, in
the United States, in Australia, and in
practically every civilized nation in
the world. The hue and cry against
the Lloyd-George Budget came from
q comparatively few people who live by
the labor of the many. and who had
come to regard their inequitable and
unjust privileges as being the rightful
reward of superiority.
The BurdensOme Land Laws.
Englishmen, secure in their SNUG
comlacency, look across the Atlantic
and pity the poor Americans engaged
in a titanic struggle with the trusts,
and Enthusiastically give thanks they are
not as the rest Of men. But as a
matter of fact a third of the people
of England are hungry because of
the extortions of trust more powerful
and more wicked than all of the
American monopolies together.
Land Trust Grasping.
The Land Trust IS the curse of Eng
land since il controls not only prac-
tically all of the land, but also because
that control. has the approval of law
and custom, because that Trust has
a permanent majority in the upper
chamber of parliament. and because
owning the land it controls all of the
products of the land. This Trust is not
organized on the New Jersey holding
company principle, but it is none the
less compact and effective organiza-
ton. It has no president and no
board of directors, but is none the less
susceptible to the control of the cap
tains Of privilege, and is bound to-
gether by the strictest Of mems
agreements in an eternal community of
interests.
To utter a word in derogation of
that Trust is to breathe treason against
the state and against all organized
civilization, in the estimation of conser-
tenant peasant regards the proposition
to cut UP his lordship'S estate as
mOnStrouS crime.
But all Britons are not conservative.
The Liberal party, now in power in the
commons, has determined to attack this
gigantic land monopoly and, If possible
70 ameliorate its evils An American
observer could not but sympathize with
the ardor of the Radical hosts, who, in
the recent campaign, sang as a rallying
song, to the tune of Marching Through
Georgia. these words:
Sound a blast for freedom, boys, and
send it far and wide,
March along TO victory, for God is on
our side,
While the voice of Nature thunders DER
the rising tide
God made the land for the peopler
The land, The land,
Twas God who gave the land,
The landi The land,
The ground on which we stand,
Why should we be beggars with the
ballot in our hand?
God gave the land to the people,"
1t is true that some good Americans
might have been shocked to see the
portrait of their compatriot, Henry