IS TAXATION THE ONLY WAY OF REFORM?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1090, 31 August 1912, Page 4

IS TAXATION THE ONLY WAY OF REFORM?

Mr Richard Higgs, writing in the Socialist Revle.vv for June, rises this question. He laments that taxation is overrated as a means of amelioration. All the efforts of modern reformers to relieve or remove poverty are summed up in the one word taxation - Taxation, Mr Higgs insists, is no remedy. He argues ; The organisation of industry, and especially the organisation ol the vital productive trades, is the alternative to taxation. Either the people must he organised to produce their own food, clothing and shelter in publicly owned and managed establishments, or else the levelling process must come about by means of some form of heavy taxation of the wealthy classes. Organised production of necessities for use by the producers can easily be brought about by means of State and municipal farms, factories and workshops; it will produce commodities instead of revenue, aud after a little financial starting it will finance itself, aud eventually cause tax collecting to become one of the lost arts.

Mr Higgs would begin bis organised production by providing for the needs of those who are employed by the Government, national or local ;

Is it an impossible task to nationalise sufficient farms, fishing fleets and factories to provide for the needs of State and municipal employees, and so make a start by bringing a part, and that the lowest, of the consuming public outside the region ol finance ? The organisation of industry for consumption by those for whom the State now provides is a levelling-up process, leaving the wealthy in the enjoyment ot their wealth, and providing by production for those who have nothing. Taxation is a levelling-down process, taking from the rich for the questionable benefit of the poor. Organised production would excite but a minimum of hostility ou the part of the most powerful section of the community, and would largely secure its active co-opera-tion, while taxation is the line oi greatest resistance. Organisation appeals to the best, the humanitarian and constructive side of the people, while taxation by touching offtimes bard-earned profits arouses all the evil passions engendered by many years of profitseeking industry. Organisation is a clearly-cut, simple project, and has nothing watever to do with

the mysterious jargon affected by professors of finance. It recognises that the only cure for starvation is food, the only cure for raggedness is clothes, the only cure for homelessness is homes, and the only cure for poverty is wealth, and those very real and tangible things it produces in a way that even the most ignorant can understand.