NOTES 679 



of course, was to illustrate the necessity of resource in all handicraft." Some of 

 the remarks in the book are perhaps a little out of date, but it should be read in 

 connection with Mr. H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon. After all, most 

 boys learn their science, and perhaps learn it best, from such works as these. 



Income-tax anomalies are the constant theme of letters to the press, but 

 remain unamended in spite of all protests ; while our Houses of Parliament, 

 instead of attending to the business of the country, spend their time in talking the 

 platitudes called politics. In the Times of December 28 last, Mr. Bernard 

 Shaw called attention to the facts that, while " windfalls " obtained by inventors 

 are not taxed as income, similar sums obtained by writers for exceptionally success- 

 ful books or plays are so treated — so that they may actually have to disburse a third 

 of such sums to the State — a gross abuse amounting to mere confiscation. In the 

 Times of next day Prof. H. H. Turner exposed another absurdity, theater saltum 

 method of fixing higher rates of income tax. Thus a man with a gross income of 

 /i,oio is taxed at the rate of 3^., pays ^151 icy., and has a net income of 

 £858 lay. ; nearly .£10 a year less than a man of a gross income of only £992, 

 who, because he is taxed at the rate of 2s. 6d., pays only £124. Prof. Turner says : 

 " I venture to suggest that the whole machinery of graduation by sudden steps is 

 wrong, and is an instance of the lamentable unfamiliarity of those in high places 

 with the simplest mathematical procedure." Quite so ; and they are ignorant of 

 almost everything else, and, moreover, do not do the work for which they are paid. 

 In the Times of March 23 Mr. John Galsworthy points out that a professional 

 man who has been earning .£3,000 to .£5,000 a year and then abandons his work 

 for national duties, say on £300 a year, will still have to pay income tax on the 

 average income of three years, amounting to over ^1,000! Would it not be 

 possible to employ Parliament during the war on compulsory and really useful 

 national work by making it sit down to amend the numerous anomalies which 

 exist in our laws and administration ? 



On March 21 His Excellency M. Paul Hymans, the Belgian Minister, read 

 an essay by the late Emile Verhaeren before the British Academy, and afterwards 

 said that Belgium deserves the support of the whole world against the barbarians 

 on account of its magnificent contributions to art. He was quite right, because 

 nations, like individuals, vary in merit more than in size, and those deserve most 

 from the world which contribute most to the world's civilisation. 



The great political events of the moment are the revolution in Russia, the 

 probable entry of the United States into the war, and the Report of the Dardan- 

 elles Commission. What would a philosopher conclude after considering all 

 these matters together ? The Russians appear to think that they have won a 

 happy future by deposing the Tsar and adopting democratic forms of government ; 

 but when we read the Dardanelles report, we doubt whether this form of govern- 

 ment is really in any way superior to despotism. Similarly we observe the 

 monstrous mistakes made by despotism in Germany, and on the other side the 

 curious hesitation of the Americans in joining the forces of civilisation against the 

 savages. Wherever we look we seem to see nothing but misgovernment. Really, 

 autocracy and democracy come to the same thing in the end — the mismanage- 

 ment of the world. After the war the world must find a better method of 

 government than it has yet created. 



