The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-12-03
WHAT IS A CAPITAL LEvY2

 posal was approved and the bill was ordered to be brought in. This was the beginning of the national debt of Great Britain, and was explained and excused, by saying that the Parliament found it impossible without ex- citing most formidable discontents, to raise by taxation the supplies necessary to defend the liberty and independence of the nation. There was plenty of money seeking bor- rover, and so the expedient was adopted of borrowing instead of putting an additional tax upon an already heavily taxed people.
 In borrowing the million pounds sink ing fund was provided for. The expectation was that the money would be repaid in a few years; yet it was never repaid. On tho contrary, Parliament very soon had need of more money, and borrowed more, until, at the peace of Utrecht, the debt amounted to fifty millions. The British public was now thoroughly alarmed by the size of the ob- ligation. As the debt increased the fear that the nation would be ruined grew, and there was great protest when, in the war of the Austrian succession, the debt rose to eighty millions. In the last part of the eighteenth century it was George Greville's opinion that the nation must sink under debt of one hundred and forty millions unless a portion of the load were borne by the American col onies. The war that ensued from the effort to make the colonists pay added another hun dred millions to the score. Early in the nine teenth century the total had reached eight hundred milions-with rising tendency debt that Macaulay says was "the greatest prodigy that ever perplexed the sagacity and confounded the pride of statesmen and phi losophers." Those who saw only the bur den, as Edmund Burke said, were mortified; but Burke could see also the strength that supported 1t. As the burden grew 50 also grew the ability, of Great Britain to bear it, the fact being that the money borrowed de- cided the struggle between the English and the Dutch for naval supremacy, and Britain expanded her trade and prospered as never before.
 The national debt steadily increased with the nation always able to prosper under it, until it appeared that new economic law had been established, to wit, that a national debt need never cause public anxiety but can be increased, and again increased, to in finity. That there is, however, limit to this sort of thing is sinking into the minds of great many people in Great Britain today. Because of the increase in the last century and the tremendous addition of debt acquired In carrying on Britain's oper- ations in the late World war, the debt now amounts to something over seven billions of pounds, or some thirty-five billions of dollars in our money, while the annual interest charge is 54,oo0,0oo pounds sterling, which is more than five times what Great Britain spends yearly for education, for housing of the people and for public health. The inter est paid is a tremendous load, especially when the country has to spend nearly one hundred millions in war pensions.
 The labor party in Great Britain is fully persuaded that Great Britain cannot go on under such adverse condition, and it pro- poses capital levy to wipe out this debt or bring it down to pre-war size. The capital levy is described for us by H. G. Wells, the historian, in an article for the New York World. The levy is not aimed at the pro- ducer and the manufacturer, but at the class .we speak of as profiteers, or, as MT. Wells defines it. Adventurous wealth in the hands of new men without any tradition of public behavior" and lis nuisance to serious business people, because it founders use- lessly and adventurously," and, in brief, is demoralizing to commercial and public life.
 MT. Wells does not explain how tax law is to be framed so as hit capital If it is a deer and miss it if 1t Is calf, but evidently he believes the thing can be done. The levy, if ordered, will be graded after the manner of our income tax. It will be very light on the small fortunes and will be proportion- ately heavy as the fortunes are larger, until the levy will be essentially charge on the very large fortunes. It will not be repeated, and is for a specific purpose Mr. Wells says: q want to point out that even if it were not necessary charge, it would still for other reasons be an advisable thing to deal with the accumulation of loose money in this country"
 From this 1t Is seen that it is not alone the economic situation that is to be bet tered, but the moral situation also, and, according to MT. Wells' view, the last con- sideration is as important as the first. The two motives appear to be of powerful influ- encs as is witnessed in the unusual success dates in the recent general election; and MT. Wells opinion Is that the plan will be carried out, if not as the result of the recent cleo tion then as the result of the next election. The combination of too heavy load and too much wealth badly distributed makes a campaign argument that is likely to have effect.
 In all this we have more than a neighborly interest, since Senator LaFollette's successful campaign advocacy of the policy of. making our xpo olth vov for fRa mar