or will capitalist collectivism at
this stage proceed even this fast. Not only do the small taxpayers
oppose the government going into debt, but as taxpayers they are
responsible for all deficiencies, and they want only such governmental
enterprises as both produce a surplus and a sufficient one to pay the
deficits of the nonproductive departments of government. To-day only
about one fifth of the taxpayers pay either land or inheritance taxes.
But the increasing military expenditures and the greater difficulty of
securing large sums by indirect taxation will increase this proportion.
It is likely, then, that State enterprises which, under private
capitalism, were used recklessly as aids to land speculation will now be
required, as in Germany and other continental countries, to produce a
surplus to relieve taxpayers. Private capitalism used the State for
promoting the private interests of its directors, State capitalism uses
it to produce profits for its shareholders, the small farmers, as
taxpayers, or in the form of profits distributed among them as
consumers. Only as the government begins to take a considerable share of
that increased value in land which nearly every public undertaking
brings about, will _all_ wisely managed government enterprises produce
such profits.

The advance of "State Socialism," though it has several other aspects,
can be roughly measured by the number of government enterprises and
employees. The railways, telegraphs, and the few government-owned mines
of New Zealand, have been calculated to employ about one eighth of the
population, a greater proportion than in America or Great Britain, but
scarcely greater than in Germany or France--and not a very great stride
even towards "State Socialism." And it seems likely that the present
proportion in New Zealand will remain for some time where it is.
Government banking, steamships, bakeries, and the government monopoly of
the sale of liquor and tobacco might not prove immediately profitable,
and are less heard of than formerly.

Where "State Socialism" has proceeded such a little distance, the
material benefits it promises to labor (though in a lesser proportion
than to other classes) have not yet accrued. "It must be admitted,"
write Le Rossignol and Stewart, "that the benefits of land reform and
other Liberal legislation have accrued chiefly to the owners of land and
other forms of property, and the condition of the landless and
propertyless wage