196 



DISCOVERY 



to budget for a decreased revenue, to meet which three 

 alternatives are suggested. 



The first of these, the ehmination of debt redemption, 

 has been chosen by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 

 order to enable him to reduce the rate of tax. But, as 

 Professor Knoop points out, there has so far been no 

 reduction of debt out of taxation, and the proposed relief 

 amounts to meeting liabilities out of capital. There can 

 be little doubt that there will be a deficit to be met. 



Increased borrowing, the second suggestion, is agreed 

 to be bad finance and bad economics ; and there is just 

 the possibility that the resultant depreciation in our 

 international credit might accentuate the trade depression. 



The proposed reductions in expenditure are also appar- 

 ently inadequate, as well as on the wrong lines ; for, 

 however great the need for economy, such essentials as 

 public education and housing should surely be the last 

 to come under the " Axe." This year's estimates include 

 nearly /140, 000,000 for the fighting ser\'ices — three years 

 after the conclusion of the " war to end war." One of the 

 main roads to reduced taxation and revived trade lies 

 clearly in the direction of a real League of Nations which 

 would ensure a long spell of world peace, as liinted in your 

 Editorial Notes for June. Admittedly this remedy suffers 

 from the same defect as the immediate reduction of taxa- 

 tion. Its full effects could not be felt at once. But I 

 can see no reason wh\- the emergence of more friendly 

 relations between the nations should not be reflected 

 almost immediately in the national account by an im- 

 mediate cessation of some expenditure on armaments. 



Other methods of reducing expenditure — such as a leVy 

 on capital to redeem war debt, a reduction of the rate of 

 interest on War Loan, and mutual cancellation of inter- 

 national war indebtedness — and of thus rendering reduced 

 taxation a practical proposition, are, perhaps, rather too 

 controversial for discussion here, although I believe they 

 deserve more sympathetic consideration than they receive 

 in most quarters. 



Possibly, however, the most effective means of putting 

 the national revenue in a condition to permit of an im- 

 mediate reduction in the rate of taxation, and one which 

 if properly understood would gain most popular support, 

 would be to endeavour to increase the yield of the taxes 

 by more intensive administration. It is common know- 

 ledge that much revenue escapes the Exchequer through 

 the insufficient staffing of the Inland Revenue Depart- 

 ment. As a certain sum of money must be found to 

 meet expenditure, it is clear that, where evasion by the 

 few is possible, the many — and in particular the larger 

 firms and companies who are bound to publish balance 

 sheets, and their employees — will have to be taxed at a 

 higher rate than would be the case if all bore their fair 

 share of the burden. Reduction in the faciUties for 

 evasion could be attained in two waj's : by rendering the 

 jjenalties for discovered evasion more severe ; and by 

 increasing the technical staft". The comparatively small 

 additional expenditure on salaries would almost certainly 

 be amply rewarded by the collection of large amounts of 

 tax. Our taxation system would acquire in practice as 

 well as in theory the attribute of equalitj' of incidence. 



The psychological efiect of this on the honest taxpayer 

 would be important. For many taxpayers meet the 

 collector's demands reluctantly, not so much because 

 they grudge the money to the nation as that they feel that 

 their neighbours are not all paying their fair share. 



Yours, etc., 

 R. J. C. Weber. 

 3 High Street, 



RUISLIP, illDDLESEX. 



June 6, 1922. 



NOTES FROil CONTEMPOR-\RIES 



Not so long ago we were hearing a good deal about 

 proposals for the electrification of our railway systems. 

 On this matter an abstract from a paper read before the 

 Institute of Transport by Mr. Roger T. Smith appeared 

 in The Electrician of May 19 {6d.). Mr. Smith is not by 

 any means sanguine as to the economic possibilities of 

 such an undertaking at present, but he advocates that 

 railway companies and manufacturers should co-operate 

 closely to produce electric traction equipment. More- 

 over, he gives interesting details of a new machine, called 

 the " Transverter," and designed by Mr. W. E. Highfield 

 and Mr. J. E. Calverlej", which should considerably reduce 

 the cost of transmission of electricity by converting 

 alternating to direct currents. 



As we go to press, the latest news of the second Mount 

 Everest Expedition is that it has reached a point 

 less than 2.000 feet from the summit. An important 

 feature of the new attempt is the employment of 

 oxygen. " The apparatus," as it is described in the 

 May number of Tlw Geographical Journal (2s.), " complete 

 with four bottles of oxygen, weighs 32 lb., and it is 

 estimated that each bottle will serve for 100 to 120 

 minutes' climbing ; or we should say, exercise, for Prof. 

 Dreyer stipulates for as generous a supply of ox^-gen 

 (2-0 to 2 '4 litres per minute) in descending as in ascending, 

 and I litre per minute while at rest, even while asleep." 



Norwegian literature is finding a growing public in Great 

 Britain. Its sturdiness and virility appeal to a kindred 

 feeling towards life. Yet, as M. Linge indicates in an 

 article on Henrik Wergeland in the April number of Modern 

 Languages (is.Gd.), " Lentil 1830 Norway had no literature. 

 Denmark was the intellectual centre. All Norwegians 

 ^^•ith literary pretensions studied in Denmark, and wrote 

 in Danish, according to Danish principles. In that 

 momentous year, 1830, however, the German romantic 

 movement, and the influence of the national reawakening 

 in France, reached Norway. \\'ergeland was thrilled and 

 produced his great work." This was a poem. The Creation 

 — Mankind and the Messiah. It advocated freedom and 

 equality, and greath- matured the campaign for separation 

 from Sweden. The Norwegian Authors' Society has 

 recently proposed that the Government should purchase 

 Wergeland's house in Kristiania and turn it into a 

 Wergeland JMuseum. 



The Editor regrets that the first part of Mr. Julian S. 

 Huxley's paper on Sex and its Detenninatio)! has been 

 unavoidabl)' held back till the August issue. 



