that it was almost as good "as we should
expect from a Socialist Chancellor in his first year of office," and
said that if Mr. Philip Snowden, were Chancellor, the Budget would have
been little different from what it was.[127] And it is true that the
principles of the Budget as interpreted by Mr. Snowden only a few years
ago in his booklet, "The Socialist Budget," are in nearly every instance
the same, though they are to be somewhat more widely applied in this
Socialist scheme. Of course all Socialists would have desired a smaller
portion of the Budget to go to Dreadnoughts and a larger part to
education, though, in view of the popularity of the Navy, it is doubtful
whether Labour Party Socialist's would materially cut naval expenditure
(see Chapter V). It must also be noted that the Socialists are wholly
opposed to the increase of indirect taxation on tobacco and liquor, some
four fifths of which falls on the shoulders of the workingman. But aside
from these points, there is more similarity than contrast between the
two plans.

Mr. Snowden declared that it was the intention of the Socialists to make
the rich poorer and the poor richer, that they were going to use the
power of taxation for that purpose, and that the Budget marked the
beginning of the new era, an opinion in strange contrast with Premier
Asquith's statement _concerning the same Budget, for which he was
responsible_, that one of its chief purposes was "_to increase the
stability and security of property_."

Indeed the word "Socialism" has been extended in England to include
measures far less radical than those contemplated by the present
government. The Fabian Society, the chief advocate of "municipal
Socialism" and a professed and recognized Socialist organization,
considers even the post office and factory legislation as being
installments of Socialism, while the Labour Party would restrict the
term to the nationalization or municipalization of industries--but the
difference is not of very great importance. The latter class of reform
will undoubtedly mark a revolution in the policy of the British
government, but, as Kautsky says, this revolution may only serve "to
Prussianize it," _i.e._ to introduce "State Socialism."

"The best government," says Mr. Webb, "is no longer 'that which governs
least,' but 'that which can safely and advantageously administer most.'"

"Wherever rent and interest are being absorbed under public control
for publ