THE CALL OF THE LAND 



rent or only a part is assumed by the state. 

 In neither case can you safely allow a great 

 surplus to lie idle in the treasury. You 

 must appropriate all of it for regular pur- 

 poses, more or less legitimate. The greater 

 your revenue over the necessary outlays, the 

 less proper will be the objects to which you 

 will apply it; still it must and will be ap- 

 plied. Now, the point is that in an emer- 

 gency of deficit you will have to withdraw 

 from some of these objects; and, whatever 

 they are, trouble will result. To deprive 

 the people of cheap bread would occasion 

 no less rebellion than to dock wages in army 

 or navy or the salaries of postal clerks. 



Again, other taxes than a land tax are 

 needed for regulative and disciplinary pur- 

 poses. I do not refer primarily to taxation 

 upon traffic in intoxicants, although there 

 are very strong reasons for supposing this 

 the best means of handling that gigantic 

 evil. The ethical objection to it, that it 

 makes the state partner in crime, I regard 

 as wholly fanciful, deriving its entire force 

 from the double sense of the word "license." 



284 



