TAXATION AND WASTEFUL EXPENDITURE lyi 



If the ordre de jour is to tax the wealthy, and here 

 let us thoroughly understand that the wealthy class in- 

 cludes all those whose incomes are over ;^i6o or £200 per 

 annum, every finance minister has a very ticklish 

 undertaking. 



It is the easiest thing in the world for the Government 

 to tell every poor struggling clerk and shop-keeper and 

 the poorly paid professional classes, whose chief diffi- 

 culty in this life is to make both ends meet, that because 

 their incomes may exceed £160 per annum, they are 

 accounted as well-to-do, but it is quite another thing to 

 make these people see the force of the argument. If you 

 try to make them believe that it is necessary, in the inte- 

 rests of the commonweal, that they should be taxed, 

 they would say : 



' You only find it necessary to tax us because your 

 own foolish laws have so restricted the wealth of the 

 country, and consequently the taxable area, as to compel 

 you to fall back upon people of our class, who find it 

 sufficiently hard to live without being forced to shell out 

 for income-tax and poor-rates." 



This would be quite a proper reply. 



Let this question of taxation be, therefore, co-opera- 

 tive. If the British public are called upon to contribute 

 £80,000,000 and more for State needs, all they ask Co-operative 

 is that Government should adopt a sensible, up-to-date 

 fiscal arrangement and a practical agricultural system, 

 and the general wealth of the country would at once 

 begin to expand. Increased wealth means a large increase 

 in the number of persons Kable to taxation, and a larger 



Taxation 



