Truth CONSCRIPTION OF WEALTH

NZ Truth, Issue 579, 22 July 1916, Page 4

Truth

CONSCRIPTION OF WEALTH

THE PEOPLE'B PAPER.

NEW ZEALAND HEAD OFFICE— Wemngton: Msnher«-stre«t PROVINCIAL REPREBENTATIVEB— Auckland: 3 Ciutorru-rtreet East Chrlstehureh: tQ2 Qloucester>«treet Dunedln: Communication* Box 681, P.O.

TERMS TO SUBSCRIBERS. N.Z. Abroad PKB ANNUM 18 0 16 6 \ PATABM ItC ADYANOB HALF.TBABI.T ....„« 6 7 9 \ by QUARTBBLT 8 0 i 0 ) Po«tal NoUt or M»noy Order.

SATURDAY, JULT 22, 1916,

A SIMPLE DEFINITION

Ever since the European bloodbath developed the serious symptoms it now bears, there have beau alternate cries for — (1) Conscrip- j tion of men; (2) Conscription of wealth, -And the beef buccaneers, the shipping sharks, the rubber robbers, the food forestalled, the "big business" burglars, and the rascally army' contractors havo roared with one Voice that — (1) The conscription of- men is dead easy; (2)' the conscription of wealth is "impossible." And the delectable hirelings fighting the battlo of the exploiting gangs m plutocratic prints like the Wellington "Morning Mist" and the "Daily Drizzle," the Christchuroh " ' Press '-imist," and other perfervid fluters for Plute have ejaculated. "Heahj HeahJ" to these specious and impious definitions of patriotism by compulsion, and fatriotism by choice. • • • Wo have been assured over and over again by our Wizard of Finance and Square Deal railsitters that they would go baldheaded for conscription of wealth only for the fact that such is "impossible." Out of the murk which those fatuous barrackors for Fat have created, we find a definition by such an expert as Sir Leo C. Money, Mi*., one of tho leading finanwd writers, it

not the leading British economist, showing that one of the very simplest 'enactments would be that to conscript wealth. Sir Leo C. Money advocates starting with the £100 a week man, and proceeding by a steep gradation to the £1000 a week man (and, he, adds "there are plenty of these"). He would make the wealth tax so great that, once a war begins. the £1000 a week man wouldjjfnave but the ordinary necessaries of life left for himself, the rest being absolutely taken by the State during the progress of the war. "With such a law m operation m each "Christian" country, Sir Leo opines that wars would be scarce commodities, and that our "diplomatic" service would bo selected from some other class than the brainless noodle rejects of Eton, Harrow, Oxford and Cambridge. • • 0 Lot us apply the same sane reasoning to New Zealaud, Australia, Canada, and all the allied countries, not even excluding "poro Belgium" and "gallant little Serbia." So koou as v war starts, let there be immediate conscription of wealth to finance sucli war, instead of burdeniug i poor posterity with staggering interest bills— bills calculated to stagger both masculinity and

femininity. Let ns take a basis of £400 per annum. Even m these war-swept times, when the voice of the exploiters almost drowns the vicious howl of the eonseriptionists, the sum of £400 is a comfortable basis upon which any decent family may rest, clothe itself, feed itself, educate itself, and go to the pictures. • * * . "Why, then, if a family head is patriotic should he desire more than £400 for the use of his wife and family? Therefore, taking him at his word that he is a real and not a sham patriot, we proceed to work. " Let every penny above £400 be absolutely confiscated on the outbreak of war and during its continuance. Let th? surplus over and above £400 be applied to the rigid prosecution of war, instead of the feverish pursuit of dividends and the purchasing of costly silks and motor cars. Petrol m war time smells too bad and costs too much to produce that bad smell — so cut it out. Wars usually don't last very long, and let the man with £400 a year show a spirit of abstention from joy-riding, and let the flappers of the family become more sedate and consequently better citizenesses. • • • ■ Let every bean above £400 a year be relentlessly appropriated by the Government, whether it is Square DeaL Liberal, Labor, Direct Action, Socialist. Such appropriation to date from the daywar was declared until the peace parley waa duly signed and attested. "Truth" guarantees that such a splendid international, law would be the best war suppressor ever introduced. It would be a war asphyxiator, a Mnd of "Hun gas" from the standpoint of the "War Lords. And who would it affect! "Would it take a droub out of the pocket of Bill Bonehead and Co, ? Not much. ■It would cast the burden of war on those delirous patriots who make it, and then call upon the ox-like soldiery to fare forth to the shambles to slay and be slain — to fill the green fields with the groans of the dying, and the trenches with the crumpled bones of -the dead. • • • The dancing dervishes who pronounce their made-to-order "opinions" on both the conscriptions m the columns of the plute press — the "kept" papers — have the brazen effrontery *to bray that, while it is perfectly correct forcibly to seize a sacred life and hurl it into the jaws of Moloch, it is perfectly wrong similarly to seize filthy lucre and fling it into the war chest! And they follow up this heresy with the monkey-like chatter that, even were it advisable so to do, it is not possible to seize wealth. And, then, contradicting themselves, as Sir Joseph "Ward did on Tuesday night m reply to Mr. Wilford, they declare if the war lasts too long it may be necessary to forcibly take possession of all surplus wealth, and they "won't hesitate to do so" ! 1 "We must confess that an "argument" of this sort is too inane for serious reply, and yet everybody with enough patriotism to attempt a rejoinder is howled at by fanatical mobs as though he were committing the heinous crime of lese majeste against tho god of Mammon. In verity, if Christ came to New Zealand today preaching His doctrines of peace and goodwill, and repeating His anathemas against Boodle, He would bo treated a darned sight rougher than He was nineteen hundred years ago. • • • It is palpable that Mammon is v much easier individual to conscribo than any living human entity. Mammon could not possibly administer a kick on the shins, or carry a concealed weapon, determined, if forfeits be tho game, to make the decision as dear as possible to the interlopers. There are, too, rights of Magna Charta and Habeas Corpus m the individual which are not possessed by dollars. Personally, dollars cannot appeal on the grounds of assault ; while the individual, as-, sisted by dollars, may invoke those long forgotten statutes handed to us from the days when men had stamina enough to fight for their liberties, and even to cut off the head of a king when he withheld such from them.