When the House debated the Budget on Tuesday, Mr. Asquith
took exception to the treatment of realized assets as revenue, but for which, as he said, the Budget would show a deficit. He expressed regret at the abolition of the Land Value Duties, though they had not yielded " rare and refreshing fruit" ; but he commended Mr. Chamberlain's new taxes, especially the Corporation Tax, which was " a permanent addition to our financial armoury." Mt Asquith went on to say that the expenditure must be reduced. " It was the hydra-headed thing which called itself the Civil Service, but which was-no more a Civil Service than• an associe,tion. or group of parasitic excres- cences upon the normal administrative- system of the country, that was largely responsible." While Mr. Asquith pointed out that no other belligerent Power had raised so large a share of the cost of the war from taxes, Mr; Clynes complained that the Government had borrowed too much and taxed too little. Mr. Clynes lamented the " tender treatment " of the landed classes and the higher taxes on, beer and spirits.. He advocated a Capital Levy, for the sake of paying .off the Debt " in. a very few years." Mr. Clynes showed more wisdom in urging,the necessity of greater production, chiefly for the slake of the working man, whose real wages would thus be raised. What was needed, he thought, was a Government guarantee that " over-production should never again be allowed'to be the cause of unemployment." Mr. Clynea's hint is worth following up.
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