2i8 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



ray of light over their hves would die out, and their lot 

 be dark indeed. 



It may indeed be truly said that the attitude of these 

 so-called Socialists is as anomalous to the philanthropic 

 public as the Governments attitude is to the tax-payer. 



Let us, for instance, take the income-tax as an ex- 

 ample to illustrate our meaning. 

 National Said the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of 

 Commons, on April i8 of last year, in speaking of one 

 item only of the national income derivable from the 

 rich: 



" The income-tax is one of the most productive and 

 one of the most delicate parts of our fiscal machinery. 

 There is nothing like it to be found anywhere else in the 

 world. It produced this year something like £32,000,000 

 to the Exchequer. . . . For a tax whose effective con- 

 tinuance involves the annual perpetration of a gross in- 

 justice is a tax which ought to be reserved, at any rate, 

 for great and pressing emergencies." 



Then, after considering the anomalies which are ad- 

 mittedly characteristic of the income-tax, and manipu- 

 lating them in a manner to justify, more or less, its 

 retention as a permanent impost, he said: 



" We now recognise the tax to be a permanent part 

 of our system." 



Good! The income-tax, among others, is now re- 

 garded as a permanent part of our system of raising 

 money, but do we regard this enormously productive 

 source of income as a thing to be fostered and cared for, 

 as a source of national life-blood, which, if cut off, would 



