Mr. Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister,[1] found that the Government
must raise a very large amount of money to defray the heavy cost of
the old-age pensions (S628) and the far heavier cost of eight new
battleships. Mr. Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or
Secretary of the Treasury, brought in a Budget[2] which roused excited
and long-continued debate. The Chancellor's measure called for a
great increase of taxes on real estate in towns and cities where the
land had risen in value, and on land containing coal, iron, or other
valuable minerals.[3]
[1] Mr. Asquith succeeded Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Liberal
Prime Minister (S628), who died in the spring of 1908.
[2] The official estimate of the amount of money which the Government
must raise by taxation to meet its expenses for the year, together
with the scheme of taxation proposed, are called the Budget.
[3] In all cases where the owner of the land had himself done nothing
to produce the rise in value, the Chancellor called that rise the
"unearned increment," and held that the owner should be taxed for it
accordingly. Most great landowners and many small ones execrate the
man who made a practical application of this unpalatable phrase.
The House of Commons passed the Budget (1909), but the House of Lords,
which includes the wealthiest landowners in the British Isles,
rejected it. They declared that it was not only unjust and
oppressive, but that it was a long step toward the establishment of
socialism, and that it threatened to lead to the confiscation of
private property in land. A bitter conflict ensued between the two
branches of Parliament.
This contest was rendered harder by the actions of a small number of
turbulent women, who demanded complete suffrage but failed to get it
(SS599, 608).[1] Adopting the methods of a football team, they
endeavored to force themselves into the House of Commons; they
interrupted public meetings, smashed winows, assaulted members of the
Cabinet, and, in one case, tried to destroy the ballots at the
polls,--in short, they broke the laws in order to convince the country
of their fitness to take part in making them. Over six hundred of
these offenders were put in prison, not because they asked for "Votes
for Women," but because they deliberately, persistently, and
recklessly misconducted themselves.
[1] The great majority of woman suffragists refused to adopt these
violent methods.