The Ownership, Tenure and Taxation of Land: Some Facts, Fallacies and Proposals RelatingThereto by Thomas P. WhittakerReview by: L. L. P.Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Jan., 1915), pp. 105-107Published by: Wiley for the Royal Statistical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2340850 .

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1915.] Reviews of Statistical and Economic Books. 105

means of locomotion have long rendered such a restriction obsolete. As a matter of fact scarcely 40 per cent. of the inhabitants of the parish on an average possess a settlement. Already, in recognition of this fact some cantons, Berne and Neuenburg, for example- have abolished the law of settlement within the canton. This, however, is, in the opinion of the authors, only a half measure. The possession of Swiss citizenship should confer the right to public assistance in every part of Switzerland if the applicant is on other grounds entitled to it. Still further, the percentage of foreigners residing in Switzerland is high, some i6 per cent. of the entire population. It is therefore suggested that treaties should be made with surrounding foreign countries, by which the States should indemnify one another for assistance given to their respective citizens, recalling the clause of the National Insurance Act, 1911, which permits the transfer of insured persons from one national system to another.

The abolition of communal settlement would have to be accom- panied by an equalisation rate, otherwise the financial burden on the rural cantons would be unfairly lightened at the expense of the industrial cantons.

These reforms, however, are still in the air. In the meantime the inadequacy of the public assistance has stimulated, as elsewhere, the development of organised voluntary charity. Unhappily, the development has taken a wrong direction. The tendency is to do by voluntary effort what could be better performed by public bodies, thereby letting many who ought to pay go free, and diverting the funds of those who in any case would give, from some more profitable employment of their free-will gifts. A reform of the Poor Law in the sense already indicated is, in the view of the authors, the first step needed, namely, the abolition of the parish settlement, and uniformity in regulation and administration throughout the country, since at present there is, to quote one of the authors, a different Poor Law every few kilometres; next to turn the attention of voluntary workers and contributors towards preventive work rather than to the relief of distress that has already arisen; and lastly, greater co-operation and co-ordination among existing charities. England is quoted as a country where such a desirable condition of affairs already exists. Does distance lend enchantment to Swiss eyes, or are we over modest in what we have achieved in this respect ?

There is an excellent subject-index appended to each volume. E.S.J.

11.-The Ownership, Tenure and Taxation of Land: Some Facts, Fallacies and Proposals relating thereto. By the Right Honourable Sir Thomas P. Whittaker, M.P. xxx + 574 pp., 8vo. London: Macmillan and Co., 1914. Price i2S. net.

This book is a rich storehouse of information on a variety of matters habitually, if confusingly, embraced under the general

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106 Reviews of Statistical and Economic Books. [Jan.

title of " the land question." The competent and sagacious author must have bestowed indefatigable pains, as he has brought to bear great skill and ripe judgment, on the collection, arrangement and estimate of the views and schemes examined in the eleven parts of which the volume consists. His work is not so much strikingly original as it is indubitably useful; and yet it must be pronounced to be independent. It is noteworthv that an influential politician, whose Liberalism could hardly be impeached, should manifest his unwillingness to accept accounts of the past, descriptions of the present, and forecasts of the future, that have found no small favour with considerable assertive sections of the party to which he belongs. The support, in fact, of the programme of land reform recently announced by Mr. Lloyd George, which is extended in general terms in the closing chapters of the treatise, does not err in enthusiasm; and some critics might find it difficult to recon- cile the amount of the approval given there with the drift of the reasoning and the tone of the language of the preceding pages. But all his readers, whether they be political sympathisers or opponents, must recognise with gratitude in Sir Thomas Whittaker an authority whose knowledge of his subject or subjects is both wide and profound. He has gained this remarkable acquaintance, not merely by attentive consultation of a vast mass of polemical literature, nor solely by careful study of more detached and valuable writings of a scientific character and aim, but also by keen personal observation and intimate experience of real facts. Although he traverses a very large area, he is rarelv or never caught tripping: and we can honestly say that we know of no book referring to land problems, which contains in a more compact convenient shape so much pertinent evidence and such forcible argument. The pre- sentation of debatable or disputed points is, we think, at once fair and broad; and the running commentary is admirably sane and frank.

It matters not what is the particular question on which we wish to be informed. Is it the origin of private property in land ? Here Sir Thomas Whittaker demonstrates the futility of the illusive notion of " natural rights " and shows his mastery of the later theorising of a more profound and less rhetorical political science. Is it the proportion of the wealth of the country falling to the share of landlords, agricultural or urban ? The Census of Production is invoked opportunely with the fresh statistical evidence which it can supply. Is it the history of the land tax ? We are reminded that the true account is not the view commonly current that land has escaped its fair burden in an unaltering assessment, but that the contrary conception that personal property has managed to concentrate on land alone taxes or rates intended originally to be borne by all varieties of properties or incomes is the more accurate. Nor again were the inclosures, so generally and severely blamed, deliberately unjust, while they were economically necessary or expedient. With similar acuteness our author investigates the

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1915.] Renviews of Statistical and Economic Books. 107

incidence of local rates, summarising the official and other literature dealing with this vexed topic: and the leasehold system, small ownerships and holdings, agricultural wages and cottages, and urban overcrowding, are among the remaining subjects which engage his shrewd informed attention;

But the powerful artillery of his destructive criticism has been directed mainly against the fallacies of those who pin their faith to the single remedy of the taxation of land values as a panacea for social ills. Through all the tortuous turns of their favourite arguments he follows with the deadly perseverance of a blood- hound. He combats effectually, for instance, the notion that, as the raw material of industry comes originally from land, the land of England is the source of English wealth. He exposes no less triumphantly the empty fancy that the cost of procuring sites is the chief obstacle to the provision of inexpensive housing. The final result, we venture to affirm, is the complete overthrow of a specious case buttressed by bold assertion and loose reasoning, and the reader will appreciate the neat use of the methods employed.

L.L.P.

12.-Land and the Politicians. By Harman (Grisewood and Ellis Robins. xii + 128 pp., small 8vo. London: Duckworth and Co., 1914. Price is.

This pamphlet is avowedly controversial in design. The authors describe it as " an enquiry into the Report of the Land Enquiry " Committee," and their opinion of the merits and demerits of that report is tersely summarised in their preface, " As a contribution " to the literature dealing with present-day agricultural conditions- " from the individual's, not the statesmen's point of view-it com- " mands," they remark, " serious attention and respect." " But," they add, " as a document on which legislation of vital importance " to the nation is to be framed . . . . as a basis for pro- "gressive Government action in the true sense of the word, the "Report is not only useless but positively dangerous." The Com- mittee's view, they hold, has been framed " from the standpoint "of only one section of the private interests involved-that of the "labourer." No estimate of the cost entailed bv their scheme is furnished or attempted; and yet in all Social Reform, however intrinsically desirable, it is dangerous to overlook the accompanying expense. From this general criticism they proceed to a detailed examination of the part.icular statements made; and they arrive at the conclusion that the evidence on which the proposals of the Committee rest is so imperfect in amount, and so unsatisfactory in its quiality, that it does not warrant a programme of the ambitious scope and drastic character which is contemplated.

The criticisms advTanced must, we think, be regarded as damaging where they are not destructive. The argument is temperately expressed throughout, and it is based chiefly upon a searching scrutiny of the statistics used. The critics have been at pains to

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