Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-04

Great Britain, after a season of COM
parative quiet, is again perturbed py
German war scare, second In magnitude
only to that great panic which followed
the revelations concerning the German
naval program early last year. That now
historic panic was not the result OF r.
responsible agitation nor OF yellow
Journalism, but resulted from the solemn
announcement by the government that
the German empire had secretly acceler-
ated its naval program and was launch
ing dreadnoughts and all-big-gun cruisers
much more rapidly and much more fire.
quently than the Britons had suspected.
The result was a marked quickening of
the British naval activity, the immediate
augmentation of the dreadnought-build-
ing program, the announcement of the
inauguration of colonial nav1es and
more taxes.
The manner in which the government,
then as now under control of the liberal
party, levied these taxes. caused the
British people to forget the threatened
danger of foreign war in clash and clamor
OF a great domestic political battle. Ine
government in the Lloyd-George budget
sought to change the method of taxation
by introducing the principle of taxation
of land values and of the unearned incre-
ment in land. 1t also increased the tax
alton on such luxuries as spirits ana
automobile fuel. and it added to the in
come tax super-tax, which fell only
upon the very wealthy.
-.
The cry for the increase in the navy
had come from the wealthy and the land
80 owning classes.
Wealthy Glasses but they were
Cried for Big Navy. most m sn unw,'''1 te
increased direct taxation to meet the
| financial requirements of a two-keel-to-
one navy They presented a counter
proposition advocating that the required
additional revenue should be raised by
tariff taxation, an indirect method. They
asserted that this not only would furnish
the needed revenue, but would bolster up
the decaying industry of the islands by
affording protection against the cheaper
products of other countries Harking
back to the ancient English system OF
protective tariffs, this reform was to
give protective stimulus not alone to
British manufacturers, but also to Brit
ish landowners, since the scheme included
| a tariff tax on wheat and other bread
stuffs. The fact that Great Britain can
not produce more than one-fourth OF the
grain necessary to feed its people was
circumvented by a proposal to give the
British colonies a preference which would
admit their wheat at lower duty than
that Of foreign countries. But in any
event, the proposed reform included the
substitution of tax on bread for the
intended tax on land. Everybody eats
bread, very few people in England own
land.
The ensuing struggle between the two
parties ended in the election last jan
| uary of house of commons in which the
liberal government remained in power by
virtue of a more or less precarious coali-
ton with the labor party and the Irish ma
tionalists. The house Of lords, which had
refused to pass the budget, now bowed
to the will of the people and the new
system of taxation became the law of
the land. On account of the great task
of assessing the land values. something
not attempted in England in centuries.
the new land taxes are not yet in actual
force, and IL will be some time before
the system may be judged by its re-
suits.
During the campaign the real issue of
taxation was obfuscated by the constant