Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-16
The British Budget,


Philip Snowden, British chancellor of
the exchequer, showed at The Hague
last Summer that he is a man of iron
courage. The budget just introduced
In the House of Commons enhances his
reputation as an economist of rare
fortitude. To pile fresh tax burdens
on the already heavily bent back of
John Bull called for valor of no mean
magnitude in the present demoralised
state of British economies. Mr. Snowden
faced the issue unfiinchingly.
As the chancellor pointed out in his
memorable Naval Conference broadcast
to this country, the British people are
still groaning and toiling under the
staggering costs of the World War. The
gigantic sums. required for war debt
charges and pensions are aggravated
by the doles which the treasury is dis
gorging in combat with the seemingly
invincible unemployment problem.
Coincident with rising expenditure,
Britain is confronted by falling revenue,
due in large measure to the serious
decline in her export trade. Several
years ago, jointly In behalf of suffering
industry and of the needy treasury,
Parliament strapped ancient British
traditions by imposing a series Of pro-
tective tariff duties.
The so-called McKenna rates on
articles like automobiles, clocks, watches,
films and silks not only produced sub
stantial income, but arrested for
eign competition. Later, Safeguard
ing duties" designed to counterfeit
dumping" in the British market, were
enacted. Mr.. Snowden told the House
of Commons on Monday that. much as
these concessions to the tariff principle
may bleed his free trade heart, treasury
exigencies require their maintenance in
part or in whole.
The chancellor reports a deficit Of
$210, 900 900 in a budget which requires
to be balanced at roundly $4,000, 000, 900.
Thus the British and American nation
al households are run at approximately
the same cost, but at fabulously greater
expense per capita, as far as the Britons
are concerned, with their population Of
a bare one-third of our own.
To raise the necessary wind, Mr.
Snowden boldly asks for more money
from direct taxation. He would, first
OF all, increase the basic income tax
from four shillings in the pound to
four shillings six pence-roundly, in
our money, from dollar to $1.12-on
every SIS of taxable income. This means
22Ih per cent, rate stupendously
more than the one at which the average
American taxpayer contributes to Mr..
Melons strong box. The chancellor
calls his proposals "a poor mans
budget, because it imposes fresh bur-
dens on only some $4,000 persons, all
Of whom fall within the higher tax
brackets. Whether the poor man" will
look upon Mr.. Snowden's scheme to
tack another tax of two cents gallon
on beer Is a question. He announces
that the brewers have promised not to
pass the increase on to the consumer.
Surtax rates and inheritance taxes are
also revised upward by the relentless
Labor watchdog of the British treasury.
Henceforward, if Mr.. Snowden has his
way, on any estate of $4,000. 900 or
more, the death duties" would be fifty
per cent. Hitherto they have been forty
per cent. In other words, an exact half
Of big estates would in future be handed
over to the ravenous exchequer. In a
grimly humorous allusion to diminishing
revenue, the chancellor recently la
mented that Britishers have not been
dying UP to expectations"
Taxation remains Britannia's crown
ing and crushing problem. An analysis
of the Snowden budget turns the
searchlight on the reasons why she is
ready, after centuries of supremacy at
sea, to yield parity to this plutocratic
ziant of the Western World. The British
must still pay heavy toll for ornaments
AS they contemplate all that lies behind
the Labor governments budget, their
anxiety for progressive curtailment OF
naval and military expenditure Is
bound to be whetted. There is no less
food for reflection in this country on