176 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



— perhaps an unworthy one — that some agri- 

 cultural landowners who are also great city 

 landowners are induced to think that it is best 

 to let sleeping dogs lie, even if one of them is 

 doing damage as it rests, because they imagine 

 that a bedrock discussion of land taxation 

 would do more harm to their interests in one 

 direction than good in another. Whatever basis 

 there may be for that suspicion, I think that it 

 is an unfortunate circumstance that when some 

 wild land-tax proposal is made and is con- 

 demned, the hostile criticism is accompanied by 

 no practical suggestions for an alternative, and 

 is often most injudiciously phrased. It comes 

 from one party in the name of conservation and 

 fair play. It is easily made to appear to repre- 

 sent a policy of class greed. 



" Tax the land ! " is a very good cry from one 

 point of view. It appeals to the selfishness of 

 every man who has no land. It appeals to the 

 sense of fair play of others with its artful sug- 

 gestion that the land is not taxed now, and that 

 for the first time in history certain incorruptible 

 Robespierres are asking the rich landowner to 

 pay a small mite to the national exchequer. 



