to be
subject to the highest rate of duty, it would not be until five more
lives had passed that it would be reduced to a pitiful million. The
most patient Labour party might not unreasonably demand something a
trifle more revolutionary than this."[455]

According to the above proposals the income-tax would return
_47,600,000l._ per annum. This sum seems far too moderate to most
Socialist writers. Councillor Glyde, for instance, gives in a widely
read pamphlet elaborate tables in which the produce of a graduated
income-tax is carefully calculated. The Fabian Society would make "a
moderate beginning" by taxing large incomes _2s. 6d._ in the pound.
Councillor Glyde would begin by levying a _3s._ income-tax on them.
Taxation of incomes in accordance with his proposals would bring in
_70,281,839l._ per annum.[456]

Mr. Smart, of the Independent Labour Party, gives lengthy details of a
taxation reform scheme in which figure a foundation-tax, a special
property-tax, and a super-tax. Large incomes would have to pay 17-1/2
per cent., or _3s. 6d._ in the pound, and his property and income tax
would bring in _78,000,000l._ per annum.[457]

Mr. Philip Snowden, M.P., submits a different scheme of taxation.
There is to be an income-tax of _1s._ in the pound and a graduated
super-tax up to _6s._ in the pound. Whilst the three authorities
mentioned so far propose to take from the large incomes _2s. 6d._,
_3s._, and _3s. 6d._ in the pound as a "moderate beginning," Mr.
Snowden would, presumably also as a "moderate beginning," take _7s._
in the pound from them. He is quite touched with his own generosity
and magnanimity, for might he not demand at once _17s._ or _20s._ in
the pound? "To console the possessors of incomes in the higher grade,
say _50,000l._ a year, to the payment of an income-tax of _1s._ in the
pound, we may remind them that they still retain _33,500l._ a year,
which is a very generous payment by labour to them for the privilege
of seeing them exist in gorgeous splendour and sumptuous
idleness."[458]

The proposals regarding the estate duty to be charged also vary. The
Fabian Society proposes a maximum of 15 per cent. Mr. Smart would be
satisfied with a graduated estate duty with a maximum of 25 per cent,
instead of the present maximum of 8 per cent.[459] Mr. Snowden
proposes a scale of duties which ranges from 1 per cent, up to 50 per
cent.[460]

Besides the very greatly increased income-tax and estate duty, the