Untitled

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 210, 5 March 1914, Page 4

THE PATH TO PEACE. Mr. Norman Angell, who is still trying to convince the world of the absurdity of war, has addressed his latest appeal to the workers. He says in a little book entitled, "War and the Workers," that the working classes of Europe must be regarded as consenting to the enormous expenditure on armaments and to the perpetuation of a system which renders war possible. Individuals and groups have made protests, but no mandate from the people has reached the Governments. The chief apostlo of the peace movement wants a combination of all sorts of working-class opinion in support of a delinite programme of reform, with the ear-marking of warlike expenditure as its cardinal feature. The defence levy pn property in Germany had an immediate depressing effect on the world of finance, and a corresponding sobering effect on the extreme militarist party. The proposal of the French Government to meet an enlarged army vote by levying an income tax had similar results, and Mr. Angell points the moral by suggesting that all the money spent on armaments should be raised by means of special taxes, preferably on property or incomes. Incidentally he asks the workers to "get rid of the favorite idea of the Socialist parties that wars and armaments are inspired by little groups of people called 'international' or 'cosmopolitan' financiers." These groups, being bent on business and more than ordinarily detached from national rivalries and ambitions, "have in recent years used their power effec-

lively for peace and it is the business of the workers to turn this enlightened self-interest to thoir own advantage." Wu do jiot suppose Mr. Angell would argue seriously that special war taxes would mean necessarily a revulsion from th« policy of inflated armaments. The experience of the United Kingdom on this point has been significant. The people who are loudest in demanding more battleships are those affected by the Budget of 1900, which introduced new taxes on property and wealth. Those taxes have enabled the national revenue to keep pace with the enormous naval expenditure and there has been no proposal from the taxpayers for a reduction of armaments. But the principle of direct taxation for defence is sound even if its adoption does not promise immediate relief to the overburdened nations, remarks the Lyttclton Times. A consciousness of personal sacrifice is an excellent stimulus to thought and when the nations think clearly about war they will abolish it.