The Single Tax v World War One (17) June-September 1913
“the most hopeful movement of the twentieth century” v “the great war that is to be”
The Marconi Scandal
Lloyd George is accused of insider trading. It blows up into a major political scandal.
Writers Hilaire Belloc and GK Chesterton lead the attack on George and three other liberal politicians. Both have featured in this series as social commentators.
“Mr Lloyd George, our popular Welsh Chancellor, though sprung from the people, has fallen into the aristocratic vice of fluttering”
- Hilaire Belloc
Belloc was no friend of George.
The affair coincided with the Land Inquiry Committee and the reintensification of Lloyd George’s land campaign.
“St. Sebastian of Limehouse”
It is no longer clear what Chesterton meant, but the nature of the accusation undermined the moral arguments Lloyd George used in his land campaign, arguments which are inherent to the Single Tax philosophy.
Robert Lloyd George, author of David & Winston: How a Friendship Changed History (2005) claims that the damage to his integrity made it impossible for him to enact his land reform project.
Churchill, greatly concerned about his friend’s state of “frightening depression”, used his influence to dampen the whipped-up outcry. Asquith, who at one point thought that the Chancellor could not be saved, stood by him. He rallied:
“Viewing the affair as the distilled venom of Tory squires and peers and a few reactionary plutocrats - which in large part it was - the Welsh demagogue was eager to smite his enemies.”
“Lloyd George intended to use his land campaign to strike back at his Tory foes.”
- D.M. Cregier, ‘Bounder from Wales’, Lloyd George’s career before the First World War (1976)
“They have always shown infinitely greater hatred of valuation than hatred of the taxes”
“They know that every year makes it more impossible to destroy the valuation.”
“the taxation of land values will sweep the country”
Candidate for the most thought-provoking anti Single Tax argument
Tax: “levied by the State for the benefit of landlords”
“The battle-cry of Liberalism used to be ‘Freedom and Equality of Opportunity’.”
“The Liberal Party is now on a slippery slope that leads straight to destruction.”
“only a return to the old Radical ideal can save the party”
Internal resistance
Welfare = inflation
“I cannot think of any question which has a more urgent bearing on the future of Britain.”
“Single Tax Limited”
“The valuation of this country is long overdue.”
The Valuation: “It is a capital expenditure upon a work which has been overdue for a century, that one Government after another has been attempting but has hitherto failed.
We have succeeded.”
Mr Masterman:
1915, the completion of the valuation: “they know that unless they make a special effort this year which may result in the destruction of this gigantic machine …”
“Land Value Taxes are designed rather for to-morrow than to-day.”
“We shall obtain a general valuation of the land of this country which has never been obtained before”
The Marconi Scandal was also a factor
“For any party to dream of destroying the valuation and taxation based upon it is madness”
Polemical history of the Liberal party and land taxation:
Leo Chiozza Money, author of Riches and Poverty (1905, revised 1912), recent protege of Lloyd George, having worked with him on the National Insurance Act.
More insider dealing
Louis Post, prominent Single Taxer, joins Woodrow Wilson’s Cabinet.
Lloyd George hedging?
“the great war that is to be”
“The slow but steady and continuous work of education for thrity years is now bearing fruit”
“There is enough in all this to sanction a revolution”
“There are two roads, and two roads only”
“When a man is converted to the Land Values doctrine, his outlook on life becomes entirely changed.”
The Land Values philosophy: “the most hopeful movement of the twentieth century.”
“We have to thank Lord Landsdowne for proof positive that land-ownership carries with it the power of man-ownership.”
Marconi: the Chancellor was in no doubt.
“all the poor men we know derive their income from hard work, at least so long as they can find any employment at all”
Nineteen articles entitled “What is socialism”
“but what they dislike much more and fear infinitely more, is that their land has been valued.”
“It was that proposal over which the House of Lords came so badly to grief, and they will never forget that disaster as long as they live; nor will they ever forgive it.”
“We are now about to march against the central position, where land monopoly is entrenched.”
Lloyd George and “the attempts of the landlord party to drive him out of public life”
Presumably a reference to the Marconi affair.
“He’s persistent, he’s insistent, and his campaign never wanes”
wow. this saga took a twist! i so want to love chesterton. have you read his Napolean of Notting Hill? truly about reclaiming the land for the people! haha.
anyway, just a confession, i've pretty much only read your summary and the typed out quotes at the tops of your last few blogs. of course, asking you to summarize and provide context for all the quotes would be an immense amount of work. idk. follow your heart. if you spread these out over smaller posts, it would be more digestible for me.