New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-12-08

capital 70 pay the wsr s4s1 4
is constantly heard with r.x.
frequency this question is steadily b.
coming more acute. Moreover, rsps,a
less Of levy on capital it Is of sxtye,,s
interest in connection With The Is,
problem, "The New Statesraan.0 as
London, has made a study Of the cue.
zion as it concerns Great Britain, wher
conditions closely parallel those IN hi,
country, and the conclusion reached {.
this:
e. Taking all thinrs together. Il,
| proportionatc distribution of TIE total %.
income between the wage earning class. a.
The one hand, and al the other sectigrs On
the other, remains Just about what - va.
FIVE years ago. It must, Of course. be -
membered that whilst earnings haze PEI
haps doubled, they go 10 further in the
means OF life than did thoee If 1913. Much
the game IS true % the distribution b,
tween the rewards Of person. service I'll
what the Inland Revenue calls unsx,1ea
income. The proportions DO not seem q.
have appreciably changed On the osber
hand, IL we ignore these distinctions an
consider The distribution az between taos.
families under 81, 900 year and those oVer
that figure, It : our considered 0pinior
after surveying the whole pogition-it caa
not be put any higher-that tie class i-
excess Of $1,000 year per family las Coz
siderably increased IN proportion 70 TIE
whole community; and that the aggregate
income OF this class, taken as q whole, Is
now enormously larger than Il vas before
tho war-so much larger, IN fact, as to
leave its net receipts, after paying away
possibly nearly half the total in incomc
tax, super-tax and excess profits duty. posi-
lively no less than they vsere before the war.
Taking the families of $1,000 year and
upwards as a whole, the full amount Of the
unprecedented direct taxation has been met
by the increase in gross income. The ne.
incomes do not go so far as they did; and
in the sense of disappointed expectation
the mere $1,000 year family SUFFERS more
than that of the artisan
However, before accepting this con-
clusion as settling the whole matter,
there are some important modifying
circumstances to be considered. For
example:
I'VE know, not by any means exactly
but within a relatively small margin Of
error, what was the aggregate capital value
at market prices of the privately Owned
wealth in the United Kingdom prior 70 the
war. The calculations Of various statisti-
clans, based on the available Official Stats
ticsas summarized, for instance, in Dr.
Stamps very authoritative British IN
comes and Property aud letterly tn MI
Pethick Lawrence's Levy on CAPITAL az
proximatc in placing this total AZ some
where about $4,000 100000 twelve thou.
sand five hundred million pounds. About
So per cent OF this was owned by II per
cent of the population (asch family being
worth over $1,000; whilst Il per oeat Of
the total was shared among SO per cent Of
the population, their average family fort
une (including furniture and personal Ct
fects and all savings being less than $50
We may 80 further and say that per cen:
of the nation owned twice as much wealth
as all the remaining 9s per cent
And THE New Statesman remarks
But when Nj Bonar Law or another
comes to consider how to adjust on suit
able shoulders the burden of the state debt,
he will not forget the fact that the private
fortunes of the II per cent the commu-
nifty have, in the aggregate, been increased
IN value during the war by g, 5oo,OOo,ooo
perhaps this viii be the limit of the CAPT
tai levy-and that the total drawn as IN
earned income may be found to have in
creased by some s5Oo.oo0,000 d year
This seems to put a different aspect
on the general conclusion that taking
all things together, the proportionate
distribution of the total net income
between the wage-earning class, on the
one hand, and all the other sections
ON the other, remains just about what
II was FIVE years ago The rosy color
OF this conclusion is still further clouded
by other considerations, such as:
The per cent of the population who
formerly owned two-thirds OF tho total
wealth now probably own thrcc-fourths
az or