The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1918. "CONSCRIPTION OF WEALTH."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17393, 2 October 1918, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1918. "CONSCRIPTION OF WEALTH."

We still hear a good deal of the cant catch-cry "conscription of wealth,'' which has so often been raised by persons who are bent on blocking measures for the vigorous prosecution of the war. Th© fallacy of the theory is skillfully exposed by Mr. T. Ccoke Taylor, M.P., in the "Contemporary." He points out that high income taxes may be quite justified during the war, owing to the money reqxiirein'ents of the Government, and as a check upon undue expenditure on luxuries. Such inoatne taxation is being imposed with the consent of all parties, but it is something more that is meant by the people who dream of what they call " conscriptioa of wealth." They mean in some vague way levies on capital —on the capital of living men us distinct from death dues, which are levies on the estates of i the dead. Mr. Taylor, by carrying this vague demand to its logical conclusion, shows how foolish it is. To ask for tha confiscation of, say, 10 or 20 per cent, or' a living man's capital, whether in goods, machinery, buildings, shares, or 'debentures, is a proposition which, if ! attempted, might bring down the fabric of national credit with la crash, and , national credit is a- factor absolutely necessary for winning the war. What the State requires for the war is not capital, but income—the things pro- ! dnced — food, clothing, equipment, munitions, transport end so on. These !are things produced for the purpose of being consumed, not for purposes of capital. "You cannot feed your sblidiers upon fields and barns. You cannot clothe them with cotton-bushes. j sheep tiocks, spinning mills looms, and [tiewing-maohines. You cannot arm ! them with blast furnace and machine ; shops. On the other hand, in order to keep your income you must sufficiently maintain your capital. If you were to consume all your flocks and herds, if you were to wear out your machinery, vehicles, roads and railways without renewals, that would be to consume or destroy your capital. Your income in j food, clothing, and transport would ■.soon diminish." The material part of lhe cost of tlip war is being provided out of the world's current income, its income. not in coins, bank-notes, end bank balances, which are not really the world's income jat all, but out of the worlds' real inj cuint* in iho necessary commodities of jail kind.-;, in food, clothing, transport, ! etc. What is required now is the ! maximum production of commodities at |the minimum east to the nation. All j "conscription of wealth "other than by jway of imposts on income such as we | now have would simply mean transfer of capital from private to State ownership. The real issue pressed upon public attention by the advocacy of "con- ; script ion. oi? wealth" is therefore this : — {"As the war is being provided for out | o!' inoomo in commodities, and not out lof oapUal. should we (chopping for the j moment all consideration of. the r'g'its loir private owners) have more or le^s . income or goods wherewith to fight the iwar if our capital were State-oared rather than private property?" What does that mean? Simply this. "Should ■we have more food if the Government • u'.vnc-d and managed all thi? farms and ! gardens of the country? Would farmers an'l gardeners produce more food las civil t-ervant« than as private trad'ors? Would Government co-itrol iti- • crease the productiveness of all industries to a greater extent than it would :incrfa.s3 their cost?" The process of i transfer, tco, would he v process of ienormous magnitude and oompiexity. : Think o5" tho impassibility of carrying isuch a. process through in time of v:»r. iwlien all the energi^r. and lwuuvrs of j the Government iro already ovfrstrainfd. The only way a levy on capital, other than a genuino income tax, could be met by th 0 vast majority of so-called rapitaliots wotiid be hy their

transferring to the Government a share in their plant, buildings, etc., equivalent to the amount of the levy made upon them. Not only every engineering works, but every manufacturing firm, however largo or small, every farmer, merchant, and shopkeeper, every barber and milk-dealer, who could not find cash enough to satisfy the Government percentage capital tax would henceforth have to recognise the Government as owner of a percentage of his business, with, of course, the right of someone on behalf of the Government to share in the control and direction of that business. As Mr. Taylor asks, "Was ever anything more absurd proposed by men outside a lunatic asylum? And at a time like this, too, when the successful management of war matters is taxing to the utmost not only the I directing brains of the country, but also I the war-depleted permanent staff and enormously swollen temporary staff of the country's civilian servants'."