MR. SNOWDEN'S LAND TAX PROPOSALS .sx A Long-Deferred Measure of Justice For the Community .sx EFFECTS ALREADY BEING FELT .sx By Alderman F. C. R. DOUGLAS , M.A. .sx THE proposal of a Land Value Tax was rightly described by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as the most important and characteristic feature of his Budget and this is so , in spite of the fact that the Land Value Tax will not , in fact , be assessed until the year 1933-34 and collected in the year 1934-35 .sx The intervening period will be used for making the valuation including the preparation of the maps , plans , registers , and other necessary documents .sx COST OF VALUATION .sx It is estimated that the valuation will cost between one million and one million five hundred thousand pounds , and this estimate is based upon the fact that there will be from ten to twelve million separate pieces of land to be valued .sx Subsequent valuations are to be made at intervals of five years and are estimated to cost only 165,000 on each occasion .sx The Land Value upon which the tax will be imposed was defined in general terms by the Chancellor as :sx " the price which a purchaser would pay for a piece of land at the date to which the valuation is directed if , firstly , the existing buildings and works ( with certain exceptions ) thereon , were not there , and secondly , all other pieces of land were in their existing conditions with all buildings and improvements thereon .sx " The tax which it is proposed to levy in the first place is at the rate of a 1d .sx for each 1 of land value .sx This may appear at first sight to be a small charge , but it must be remembered that is imposed on a capital value , and is therefore equivalent to about 1s .sx 8d .sx on the annual value .sx SMALL MAN EXEMPT .sx No tax will be collected from any person whose total liability in respect of every piece of land in which he has an interest is 10s .sx or less .sx Where land is subject to a lease granted for fifty years or longer period the tax will be collected from the Lessee , but he will have a right to deduct a proportionate part from the rent which he pays .sx It is not proposed to value or tax minerals , and it is only proposed to tax agricultural land where it has a value for some other purpose than agriculture and only upon the excess of the value over its agricultural value .sx These are departures from the general principle of land value taxation , but it may be that it was considered that there was not sufficient backing in the House of Commons to carry the whole proposal .sx CONSIDERABLE YIELD .sx No estimate has been submitted as to the probable yield of the tax but there is no doubt that it will be considerable , and the cost of collection , once the system is in working order , will be comparatively small .sx In the debate on the Budget resolutions the Marquis of Hartington referred to " the perfectly colossal sum which this tax would realise " in the City of London .sx " It would be a sum of many millions of pounds per year .sx " Londoners would do well to bear this in mind in view of the possibility that the valuation will be made available eventually for local rating purposes .sx If the County rate were imposed on land values the relief to the poorer boroughs of London would be enormous .sx VALUATION FIRST .sx Some disappointment may be felt at the fact that the tax will not begin to operate until two years hence , but it is evident that the Chancellor has made up his mind to have actually in existence an effective valuation of the land before the tax begins to be collected .sx It may be observed also that the mere anticipation of it is already beginning to have an economic effect .sx A few days after the Budget statement , I met a prominent London Estate agent , who complained bitterly about the Land Value Tax and how it was going to raise rents .sx In the next breath he told me that he was dealing with a site for which the owners had been asking 800,000 and that the Budget had knocked 50,000 off its value .sx I suggested to him that if the purchaser paid so much less he would not require to charge any higher rent in spite of the Land Tax value , and in fact would not be able to do so .sx GREAT CONSTRUCTIVE STEP .sx The cheapening and making available of land for building and for industrial purposes generally is even more important than the revenue which will be derived from the tax , and viewed in that light the budget is by far the greatest constructive step yet taken for the ultimate solution of the problem of unemployment .sx The opposition to this measure will undoubtedly be strenuous but it is interesting to observe that it is not directed so much to the principle as to clouding the issue by making out that the actual proposals are imperfect .sx The claim of the community to the land value remains almost unchallenged .sx MR. R. H. TAWNEY'S ELOQUENT APPEAL FOR SOCIAL EQUALITY .sx What Is It That Determines A Nation's Level Of Civilisation ?sx STUPIDITY AND HORROR OF INEQUALITY .sx THE Socialist Movement is indeed fortunate in possessing men of the vision and calibre of R. H. Tawney to keep our minds on the ideals that inspired its pioneers .sx With daily tasks to be performed , current political events to be studied , all of us run a danger of allowing the basic principles for which we stand to be to get a little rusted .sx But here is a man , with a wide knowledge of practical affairs , who can present to us in a new form , and with the enthusiasm of a discoverer , the truth and glory of one of the most important facets of our faith .sx Fruits of Prosperity .sx In Equality ( Allen & Unwin , 7s .sx 6d .sx ) Mr. Tawney takes as his theme a saying of Matthew Arnold , the truth of which he proves on historical , economic and moral grounds .sx " On the one side , in fact , inequality harms by pampering ; on the other by vulgarising and depressing .sx A system founded on it is against nature , and in the long run breaks down .sx " It may well be , Mr. Tawney argues , that Britain's material wealth can never reach the same height as that of the United States .sx But prosperity does not rest so much on wealth as on the reactions of the individuals of the community to each other , their mutual appreciation and the amenity and dignity of the lives they are enabled to live .sx That alone determines the level of civilisation which a nation has attained .sx Equality of income he condemns as neither practical nor desirable .sx It is by the extent to which its citizens can enjoy equality of opportunity and those bare necessities , health and education , that the happiness of a nation can be measured .sx By this standard , England is pitifully behind most of the other great nations .sx On the question of family allowances based on cash payments , Mr. Tawney says :sx - " The course of wisdom - and also , it must be admitted , the course most conducive to a diminution of inequality - is to complete the first storey of the house before beginning the second .sx It is to abolish the Ancoats and Bermondseys rather than to distribute cash subsidies to those who live in them .sx When the conditions of health , education and economic security - not to mention beauty of environment - have been made a common possession , the time may have come to use the surplus that remains to provide a free income which the individual can spend at his own discretion .sx " Glasgow Instance .sx A particularly striking example of inequality in Mr. Tawney's sense , is given in retard to two wards in the City of Glasgow :sx the death rates per 1,000 from respiratory and infectious diseases in the rich Cathcart ward are 0.76 and 0.12 respectively .sx The corresponding figures for the poor Gorbals ward are 3.84 and 1.86 , and when , on top of this , the opportunities of advanced education at the disposal of the children of working people are compared with those available to the favoured few , the gross inequality which the nation still tolerates is exposed in all its stupidity and horror .sx This book is so full of interesting matter that any attempt to condense it is really futile .sx It can be heartily commended to all serious students of Socialism and should undoubtedly be placed in every public library .sx Mr. Tawney has done the Movement a great service .sx G. R. S. .sx RALLY ROUND THE PEOPLE'S GOVERNMENT .sx Need For Some Clear Thinking .sx By CHARLES DUKES , M.P. .sx THE most trying ordeal to which a democracy may be submitted is to " possess its soul in patience " whilst the storm of economic conflict rages around it .sx We could not pretend that all is well either with the Government or with the movement in the country , but it would be equally fallacious to conclude that the circumstances confronting the Labour Government arise out of the conditions over which they have control .sx Look At The Facts .sx It is easy to point to the rising figures of unemployment , and then to go back to the familiar quotations of the General Election and to pillory the Government for not having diverted the flow of commercial tendency from trade stagnation .sx Now , let us briefly look at the facts .sx There has been a fall in wholesale prices of 30 per cent .sx This is due mainly to the precipitant return to the Gold Standard and to the hoarding of bullion by the U.S.A. and France .sx In other words , the economic tendency of 1929 has been aggravated by dear money , and world confidence has been shaken because no one is able to predict finality in the downward trend of commodity prices .sx Instances like the Wall Street Crash and the Hatry failure are symptomatic of the undercurrent of the commercial crisis .sx Let us review the alternatives that are being suggested by the political opponents of Labour .sx The only alternatives suggested by the Tory Party are Tariffs and Economy .sx Tariffs are being deliberately advocated as a means of increasing prices and lowering real wages .sx The Liberal Party whilst supporting the Government in certain measures of social reform call for a new " Geddes Act " and economies on services , including wages , of 10 per cent .sx As to those organs which normally speak for the moneyed interests , in the last few weeks we have read the laudation of the German State in enforcing wage reductions .sx On every hand the old policy of economy at the expense of labour is being advocated as the only means of restoring prosperity .sx It is true that here and there a voice is heard calling for similar sacrifices on the part of the rentier class , but those of us who experienced the early post-war attack on wages know the value to be attached to these pious appeals to the moneyed interests to forgo their " bond .sx " Waiting For Collapse .sx What then should be the attitude of the Labour Government in the face of these demands ?sx It has been subjected to attack on an unprecedented scale .sx We are not putting things too high if we assert that in many fields of industry employers have marked time in the hope that the life of the Government was likely to be of short duration .sx They know that the urge of reorganisation would be less insistent if our opponents were in Office .sx In other words they have preferred to mark time awaiting the collapse of the Government so that they might go , " cap-in-hand , " as concession hunters , to Mr. Baldwin , rather than apply drive and initiative to the reorganisation of their undertakings .sx There are those who would prefer some spectacular attempt at legislation which would end the life of the Government , but which they believe would appeal to the mass of the people .sx I fear that they have forgotten the lesson of 1924 .sx Nothing would suit the reactionary employer better than to get this Government out of Office now , so that an attack could be made upon labour standards whilst the conditions of the labour market are at zero .sx