Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-13
LONDON, July 3, 1910.

LONDON, July 3, 1911.
I'VE mean, at any rate. before we are
done to eliminate hunger from British
civilization
Thus spoke David Lloyd George. the
Welsh chancellor of the exchequer of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland. in his famous speech delivered at
Limehouse not quite a year ago. That
speech marked the beginning of a new
epoch in British politics, and it presaged
powerful determination to reform to the
point of revolution the existing social
order in Great Britain.
Protests against the existing order have
been heard for years, but they came as
single voices from out the midst of the
multitude and were passed as unconsid-
cred trifles. The protest was given form
and force by the budget introduced in
the house Of commons by Mr.. Lloyd
George, which undertook to revise the
revenue laws of the nation to include a
tax on land and upon unearned increment
In land. For a time the budget was dis
cussed solely with reference to it's ex-
pediency. And then the Welsh chancellor
in the LimehOuse speech gave voice to
this great swelling protest in his official
capacity as the representative of the
government and as chief guardian Of the
BILE of discomfort instantly swelled into
the thunder Of battle against the priv
ileged classes.
Americans will understand and sympa-
thize with that part Of this radical pro-
test which is directed to-
E0ualiZing ward an equalization of
All Taxes the burden OF taxes
AL AoA0S' among all the people.
placing the greatest burden upon the
broadest shoulders. Perhaps they Will
not be so quick to give their sympathetic
approval to the demand, accompanying
the protest, for those radical and even
socialistic reforms looking to the estab-
lishment of what Lloyd George has en-
braced in the defining phrase, the rights
of the average man." These rights" in
clude the right of every man to work; to
obtain fair and living wage for his
labor; to share, directly or indirectly, In
the produce Of the land; to compel non
productive consumers to serve the state
and the people in proportion to their abil-
ity; to expect from the state pension In
old age, and to stand as the equal In
political power Of every other man.
In an indivrdualistic community. such
as the United States, most people hold
to the theory that it is not the business
of the state to guarantee employment 1or
its laborers nor to pension them When
old age has robbed them of the power to
PROSPEROUS and 1t occupies position or
geographical and political isolation which
prevents its people from knowing Wnat
other nations are doing. But the Engl1sh
people know what it is to be hungry and
to stay hungry, and they have but to
look across the narrow strip of salt water
dividing them from the mainland OF Eu-
rope to see in actual operation the re-
forms which English radicals are de-
manding.
In Germany the state comedies no
rights to its people as rights, but 1t has
given to it's working
What Germany classes a great many
Is Doing. reforms as grants of
mercy vouchsafed by a divinely commits
stoned monarch. In France the people
have won for themselves many of these
rights of the average man" by sacrifice
OF blood and life. In Switzerland such
rights, with all others, lie inherently in
the democracy which controls the affairs
of the state. 1t is the concrete object
lessons presented by these continental
nations which give the British radicals
courage to back up their demands.
The Lloyd George budget incorporated
the initial movements OF social reform
legislation. 1t provided for taxes on land
designed frankly to make the ownership
of unused and reproductive land SO
burdensOme as to force it's return to cul-
tiyation and it's division into small hold
ings. 1t imposed q tax upon the 1ncreas-
ed value of landed property In cases
where the increment was the result or
the efforts exerted and improvements
made by the community as whole. 1t
levied a supertax upon incomes OF more
than $4,000 q year. 1t Impressed the
taxes on alcoholic beverages. 1t provided
for a cadastral survey of the country and
an assessment of the values OF landed
property, something not done In England
since the days of William the Conqueror
and the Domesday Book. Wits these and
other new provisions of minor character
the attempt was made to equalize the
burden Of taxation.
4
The greater part Of the revenue OF the
kingdom was directed to be expended UNI
der the terms of the
ua1n for the budget upon the al
ready organized mill
of the government. But there were also
concentrations aimed to secure to the