The total British State revenue from property is thus about £6,500,000, and that is all. If the Government wants any more money it has to tax the governed, a fact which arouses various emotions.
The consequence is that, as public expenses increase, our taxes constantly swell. The items of natural State revenue are too small, even if elastic, to meet the growing bills. This is found out by all parties. A politician out of office may, and usually does, denounce new taxes, but we never find the same politician, after taking office, taking off the taxes he has denounced; he simply cannot do it. The Conservatives, it will be remembered, were unfriendly to Sir William Harcourt's Death Duties, but when they came into power they not only did not repeal them, but it is a fact that they seriously considered increasing them.
I do not think it can be reasonably alleged that taxation has yet reached an intolerable level, indeed the facts on that head are sufficiently made plain in these pages. At the same time, I suppose that none of us desires to increase the burden of taxation more than is necessary.
Is it not well, then, to ask ourselves whether taxation need be the only hope of State revenue? Here comes in a rather curious fact. We have passed through troubled days in which additional taxation has been denounced as "Socialistic," and the "Observer" newspaper tells its readers constantly that modern Socialism simply means taxation.
_As a matter of fact, it is because the British Government has been one of the least Socialistic in the world that it finds itself in 1910 raising so much of its revenue from taxation._
The Germans are heavily taxed, but they are so much poorer than the British people that the sum they raise in taxes is much smaller than the sum raised here. It should not be forgotten that, in considering German taxes, we have to add the taxes raised by the governments of its various kingdoms and States to the taxes raised by the German Imperial Government. When that is done it will be found that the total amount so raised, although considerable, is not nearly enough to meet the Imperial and national expenditure. What is the explanation? I commend it most earnestly to the politicians and publicists who fill the air with clamour about Socialism.