HEREDITY AND POLITICS 159 



of copyright, by which the poet might receive a more 

 adequate remuneration, and suggestions have been 

 made, emanating, we believe, from a labour party, that 

 some authority should have power to declare any 

 transcendent piece of literature at once to be public 

 property, without more ado. Then again every man is 

 obliged to pay his stockbroker, whereas a great number 

 of people pride themselves on borrowing all the books 

 they require from a lending library for the sum of one 

 guinea a year, showing clearly the relative values they 

 themselves attach to the two types of service. How- 

 ever, exceptional cases affect average results to but a 

 small extent. Broadly speaking, a successful man is 

 of use in the world and earns a better income than 

 a failure who can barely pay his way. We conclude 

 then, firstly, that the present limit of income beyond 

 which no relief of tax is given to a father of children 

 should either be abrogated altogether or else raised 

 very materially. 



Secondly, if we accept this conclusion another follows. 

 If, as at present, a fixed sum is allowed for each child, 

 irrespective of the income of the father, it may be a 

 considerable relief to the man of small income, whose 

 natural standard of expense is lower, while being incon- 

 siderable when the income is larger. Indeed, we may 

 go further, and say that since the relief given to the 

 man of small income must be provided by raising the 

 general scale of the tax, the more competent man of 

 larger income will be made to pay for the advantage 

 of the less competent man of smaller income, and the 

 racial effect may actually be bad. 



We see, then, that the only sound principle would be 



