This °biter dictum seems to have excited a great deal
of criticism, but we do not suppose that Mr. McKenna meant more than to express the opinion that if people would only realise it, by far the cheapest and most effective way of raising taxation is by direct imposts. It would greatly benefit the working classes to pay their Income-tax directly rather than in the form of taxation on tea, sugar, alcohol, and tobacco. Human beings being constituted, however, as they are, it is pretty certain that the more ignorant portion of them will prefer to have the tax-gatherer's blows dealt at them in the dark rather than in the open. On the whole, we are inclined to believe that the present compromise between direct and indirect taxation is a very sound one, for the whole product of our indirect taxation goes into the Exchequer. The essential objection to indirect taxation on the ground of extreme wastefulness does not begin till taxes have a Pro- tective effect. To raise such taxes is like drawing water in a bucket full of holes.
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