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

average man some Of the rights claimed
for him by his radical champions. The
sum of $500. 600 was provided for labor
exchanges as an insurance against unem-
ployment Under this provision labor ex-
changes were opened in all parts Of the
kingdom Ito assist in the finding of en-
ployment. to save the man who was out of
Work-perchance his wife and his family
from starvation until he gets employ
ment."
More than a million dollars was voted
Tor road Improvement, to serve the double
purpose of lettering the highways and of
giving employment to labor. Another mill
useful schemes in agriculture in the ex-
tension of light railways. afforestration
and the like. Another million was appro-
priated for making scientific experiments
available land now lying idle. All this
was in addition to the provisions already
made for old age pensions.
These extraordinary proposals of the
liberal party were denounced by the con-
sentative opposition as
An ACCack being the vanguard of
on Property. stitutt taaA " of private orH
property and as an effort to convert the
state into socialistic commune. Oddly
enough, from the American point of view,
the conservatives directed the force of
their opposition not toward the provisions
Tor insurance against unemployment and
old age pensions, but upon the principle
OF land taxation. Indeed, the conserva-
tives themselves had promised old age
pensions to the people and, as a political
eXped1ent, had voted to extend the pen
a 10 sINI <~v lxyA H.
radical budget. The opposition also had
promised the people to deal with the prob
lem of unemployment. They did not re-
gard these things as being dangerously
land. which Americans accept as a matter
OF course. was to the British tories the
very essence of a revolutionary social
ism.
Americans as partners in the inherit
ance of liberties wrested from the Brit
ish crown by outraged citizens are proud
of that long line of victories for free
dom begun when the barons wrested the
great charter from the unwilling hands
of King John, and continued by Simon de
Montfort and all his successors in the
militant movements for the extension of
popular government. But 1t must be re-
membered that in England all of these re-
forms were instituted on behalf of the
land-owning classes. In the march of the
centuries the population of England has
been growing constantly, while the land
owning class has been diminishing con-
stantly in number: The British system
of land tenures has the effect of in
creasing the sizes of individual estates.
and 1t effectually prevents the operation
of the natural law which decreases the
size of individual land holdings in pro-
portion to the increase of population.
HA
1t was at this point that the United
tote 70 h. Dri<i Oh,
system, when in the
Not Possible In Virginia legislature
r:lJ cl.A Mr. Jefferson sue
oAAseu Ss0'oS' ceeded in abolishing
the law of primogeniture and entail,
making 1t impossible to transmit large
estates intact from generation to genera
ton. Perhaps this reform in the system
of land tenures may be set down as the
greatest accomplishment of the Ameri-
can revolution. At any rate it. makes
forever impossible in the United States
such a conflict between landlords and
people is now being waged in England.
Whether whig Or tory, liberal or con-
sentative, every English legislature until
the second parliament of King Edward
VII. elected in 1906, was controlled en-
tirely in both branches by the landown-
ing classes. That parliament, with it's
huge liberal majority, for the first time
classes of the English people. 1t sought
to impose upon the landlords a share in
the burden of government which they
never had borne, because they never
would impose it upon themselves. The
commons passed the budget only to see
it rejected by the landlords in the house
of peers. despite the fact that for three
centuries the commons had exercised sole
and exclusive legislation with respect to
taxation. The question went to the
people, or to such Of them as are en-
titled by the ownership or use Of landed
property to a vote. The liberal govern
ment was sustained, but by a margin too
narrow to stand as victory for the
radical social reform movement. 1t was
but the first battle Of the war. other
battles will be fought, many Of them
perhaps, but the social revolutionists have
faith to believe that they will eventually
triumph. In the words of Mr. Lloyd
George, mo country, however rich. can
permanently afford to have quartered
upon it's revenue a class which declines
to do the duty which it was called upon
to perform This means a declaration
of war against the land owning leisure
classes, and it presages the impending
revolution.
TOMORROW-THE BRITISH CRISIS.
IX-The Fate of the Lords.