Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-26
ENGLISH BUDGET
MAY PROVE SHOCK
Legislation for Taxation of
Land Values Is Expected
to Cause Surprise.
BY the Associated Press.

LONDON, December 26.-England is
beginning to wonder about the first
budget of the Labor party government,
which is to be submitted to Parliament
early in the new year.
It Is rumored that Philip Snowden,
chancellor of the eXchequer has pre-
pared first-claSs shock for landowners
in the shape of legislation for the tax
alton of land values. There are some
who believe that this alone will yield
enough money to pay for all the social
legislation now contemplated by the
Labor government.
Snowden himself has not eased any
ones mind on the subject. The other
n1-ht, when he was being feted by one
OF the ancient London companies, he
observed that 1t was perhaps as we'll
that the honor was being done him now
and not few months hence.
1T Is within the realm Of possibility"
he said, that may not then have the
warm place In your affections which I
believe you entertain for me this eve
ming. I must ask that, even then you
will believe that whatever I may be
compelled to do I am doing 1t In what
I believe to be the best interests Of our
country
DuuSCt Eagerly fAWalteus
That was Snowden'S first allusion to
his forthcoming budget, which is await
ed with eager interest by all classes and
polltlcal creeds. He meant every word
OF 1t from the bottom of his heart, for
his socialism is more than a brand of
politics to him; 1t is a religion.
1noeeo, years ago, when he made his
f1rst public speech before the Cowling
Liberal Club, he chose as his subject
The Religion Of Socialism" And in
calling attention to the evils of that
day he mentioned "the tramping Social
list Of Nazareth" and contrasted Him
with bishops who draw large salaries
while thousands Of their countrymen
starve.
1t has been said that Snowden has
the bitterest tongue and the sweetest
smile in the House of Commons. Twenty
years ago he used to be singled out as
the most fiery and implacable member
OF the embryonic Labor party. But a
great change has come over his political
life in recent years. Sympathy and ap-
probation are mingled in his outlook; he
radiates kindness for his fellow men.
HIS nre warns but does not Scorch..
Is Potential Prime Minister.
Physically frail, Snowden towers in
tellectually over many of his fellow
Socialists and 1t is an open secret that
he may one day head the Labor
party should Ramsay Macdonald choose
to retire. Thus he Is a potential prime
minister.
Even in his schooldays Snowden had
the gift Of CAB" and he actually spent
his honeymoon lecturing on socialism.
He met his future wife, Miss Ethel An
maxim, at the Independent Labor Party
conference of 1905.
Mrs. Snowden's influence may have
some effect in shaping the forthcoming
budget IN an indirect manner, for she is
the type of brilliant woman who infiu-
ences, perhaps unconsciously, every one
and everything with which she comes in
contact.
Aside from the personal factors in
volved, the coming budget must. be of
wide interest throughout the world to
every one who is watching the expert
ment OF Socialist government in Eng
land. The budget. by its very nature,
VIII epitomize the economic creed of the
Labor party.