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ELECTION PAMPHLETS-No. 
 
 I. 
 
 n 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES MAVOR 
 
 Professor of Political Economy and Statistics 
 St. Mungo's College Glasgow 
 
 THE RADICAL PROGRAMME. 
 
 Gei ERAL Summary. 
 
 Political questions run in two main \ines~^rs^, Consti- 
 tutional questions ; second. Economic questions. In the 
 first class are included those questions regarding the 
 structure of government ; and in the second, those regarding 
 the functions of government in relation to the industrial 
 and social life of the people. The art of politics consists, 
 indeed, in the organization of the city and the state for ends 
 common to the citizens. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONS. 
 
 The most urgent constitutional question at the moment 
 is the question of the Government of Ireland. 
 
 The union between England and Ireland, effected in 
 1800, was the result, not of free choice, but of conquest. 
 The Treaty of Union, secured by corruption, has been 
 maintained by coercion. No measure mvolving merely the 
 granting of powers of local administration will ren<ove the 
 grievance that the \x\s\\ feel. They must have legislative 
 
 '^^ QOUf 
 
power. They want to conduct their own affairs in their 
 own way. The exercise of the franchise is a delusion, 
 unless effect is given to plain messages from the polls ; and 
 the plain message which has again and again been sent by 
 the Irish constituencies is a message demanding Home 
 Rule. To disregard this message is to incite the Irish to 
 rebellion. They have adopted the means provided by us 
 to ask for what they want. Can we persist in refusing to 
 grant it ? 
 
 Another constitutional question of importance for us is 
 the quejtion of Home Rule for Scotland. Although the 
 Scots Treaty of Union of 1707 was not the outcome, direct 
 or indirect, of conquest, as was the Treaty of Union with 
 Ireland, it was, like the Irish Treaty, the direct outcome of 
 corruption. The object of the Scots Union was to secure 
 the solidarity of Great Britain ; and infamous as the means 
 were by which the Act of Union was passed in the Scots 
 Parliament, the solidarity of Great Britain was secured. 
 No one would now propose to abrogate the Treaty of 
 Union ; but the time may have come when it is desirable 
 to modify it. Scots affairs are too apt to be thrust aside 
 in the pressure of imperial affairs, and, as ever, the quiet 
 people are given the go-by. Some measure of legislative 
 independence must also be granted to Scotland, should the 
 message from the constituencies be decisively in favour of 
 the decentralization of legislative power. 
 
 Still another constitutional question is the question of 
 the House of Lords. Is it to be mended or ended? The 
 House of Lords is the rallying ground of reactionaries. It 
 is the last stronghold of those who resist progress. In a 
 sense it represents the past, although its past is not very 
 remote — only thirty-three of its i}atents of nobility are older 
 than the reign of Elizabeth. Still it represents the past. 
 If it were only possible for a second chamber to represent 
 the future — if it were possible to have a chamber which 
 should represent the interest of posterity against the 
 assumed aggressive selfishness of the existing generation, 
 there might be something to be said for it : but care for 
 
s 
 
 posterity is not one of the virtues of the peerage. The 
 House of Lords remains as it is only because it is regarded 
 as ornamental, and because it has usually stopped short of 
 being destructive. The long list of progressive measures 
 •which the House of Lords has either delayed, or so far 
 prevented, is a sufficient condemnation of a body instinc- 
 tively reactionary and essentially alien to the spirit of 
 progress. 
 
 Belonging also to the order of constitutional questions, 
 there is the question of Shorter Parliaments. The 
 existing Parliament affords a conspicuous example of the 
 disadvantage of the septennial period. The general 
 election may be expected to show how far Parliament has 
 dragged behind public opinion during the past three or 
 four years ; yet it is in the power of the Government 
 to block the way of all progress until July, 1893. Quin- 
 quennial, triennial, and annual Parliaments have been 
 suggested by various schools of politicians during the 
 past century. The arguments for a period shorter than 
 seven years are invincible; the points of dispute lie as 
 between one, three, and five years periods. The general 
 argument in favour of annual Parliaments is the sensitive- 
 ness of so short-lived a Parliament, both collectively and 
 as regards its members, to public opinion. It is noteworthy, 
 however, that most of the arguments of the leading 
 advocates of annual Parliaments — first, the Benthamites, 
 and subsequently the Chartists, were based upon the then 
 prevalent venality of members of Parliament. No doubt 
 offices and titles are still dispensed to reward services in 
 support of the Government ; but no doubt also political life 
 is much purer than it was seventy years ago ; and there is 
 less necessity for devising safeguards against a corruption 
 which no longer exists. The arguments against annual 
 Parliaments are the great disturbance to industry which an 
 annual general election would cause if the people were really 
 stirred; and the polit'-^al indifference which would result 
 from annual ParliameuiS if the peo])le were not stirred. As 
 a practical issue the question really lies between triennial 
 
4 
 
 and (luiiKinennial Parliaments. A qnin(iuennial Parliament, 
 which should last its full term, would be scarcely le,»s 
 disadvantageous than a septennial Parliament which 
 dissolved a year before its necessary dissolution. The 
 trienninl Parliament offers, on the whole, the fewest 
 disadvantages ; and, there is little doubt, would result in 
 stimulation of interest in politics, and in more rapid 
 |)olitical progress than we now experience. 
 
 It is notable that during the sixty years that have elapsed 
 since the Reform Bill of 1832, there have been just twenty 
 Parliaments, their average duration having been three years,. 
 
 Among projected Electorat, Reforms, perhaps the 
 widest in its scope is that of Manhood Suffrage. This 
 amounts to the simplification of the complicated system of 
 franchises* which exists at present, to the abolition of all 
 property qualifications, to the abolition of plural voting, and 
 to the abolition of Parliamentary seats for representatives of 
 the Universities. Of less extensive range than Manhood 
 Suffrage is the "One Man One Vote" franchise. This 
 involves no alteration in the system of franchises, save the 
 prevention of plural voting. An Equal Parliamentary 
 Franchise for Men and Women is the logical sequence 
 to the extension of the municipal franchise to women. The 
 attitude of Mr. Gladstone upon the women's suffrage ques- 
 tion is liable to misinterpretation. Enthusiasts for the 
 enfranchisement of women are not likely to remain under 
 the stigma of a charge of supineness. When the demand 
 for women suffrage is sufficiently demonstratively made, it 
 is quite certain that the demand will be met. 
 
 Associated with this class of proposed electoral reforms 
 is the urgently needed Amendment of the Registration 
 Laws. The twelve months' residential qualification results 
 in the disfranchisement of a large number of persons, the 
 nature of whose employment is such as to involve com- 
 paratively frequent changes of residence. The diminution 
 of the period of residence to three months, and even also 
 
 I 
 
 * There are seven different forms of fmnchise. 
 
t 
 
 the quarterly registration of electors, as well as greater 
 efficiency in registration, are absolutely necessary reform^:. 
 
 The tendency in most couiitries where political life is 
 healthily keen is towards the multiplication of parties. Hut 
 the effectiveness of this multiplication of parties and the 
 advancement of progressive ideas are seriously handicapped 
 by the absence of a Skcond Ballot. Many men who 
 have general sympathy with the Libv^ral party, for example, 
 despair of the efficacy of political action because there is 
 no opportunity for seriously testing public opinion upon 
 any questions other than those adopted by the party 
 leaders, or upon the candidature of men other than those 
 adopted by the caucuses. A i)reliminary ballot, where 
 candidates of any shade of opinion might have an oppor- 
 tunity of testing the strength of the cause they represent, 
 would, on the whole, be a great advantage, and would, in 
 this country, probably be free from some of the disadvantages 
 that are alleged to attach to the working out of the method 
 in France. The Payment of Parliamentary Election 
 Returning Officers' Expenses and the Payment of 
 Members of Parliament are justifiable alike on his- 
 torical and on modern grounds. Members of Parliament 
 were entitled to wages, collected from the comnmnities 
 represented by royal writ, until the fifteenth or sixteenth 
 century, when gradually the constituencies pled exemption 
 from the ancient practice. The payment of members and 
 the payment of election expenses are the necessary sequence 
 of the extension of the franchise and of the abolition of the 
 property qualification for Parliamentary candidates.* 
 
 Following strictly Parliamentary questions, there comes 
 Disestablishment, which, striking as it does at the 
 relation of Church and State, belongs to the class of con- 
 stitutional questions. If the principle of local veto were 
 
 * Members of Parliament are paid in the following countries. — Austria, Belgium, 
 Denmark, France, Prussia, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, 
 Switzerland, United States, Mexico, Orange Free States ; and among British 
 possessions, Canada, Newfoundlar.d, New Zealand, New South Wales, South 
 Australia, Queensland, and Victoria. 
 
applied here, as mo.-t of us wish to see it applied in another 
 department, there can be little doubt of the result. The 
 keener and more subtle and alert the intelligence of the 
 people, the more likel\' they are to have varied theological 
 opinions, and the more likely they are to reject the 
 uniformity of a State Church. No people have been more 
 enthusiastic advocates of religious equality than the Scots. 
 The disestablishment of the Church in Scotland, as well as 
 of the Church in Wales, where the conditions are analagous, 
 cannot be deferred wlien a pause in the political atmosphere 
 aifords a favourable o})portunity for dealing with the 
 (]uestion. It is clear that the burdens presently borne by 
 landowners by immemorial usage for the maintenance of 
 the State Church ought not to be simply discharged, but 
 that tney should, as legitimate burdens, be devoted to the 
 purposes of the community, preferably to education. It is, 
 however, unfair to regard the question as involving merely 
 pecuniary considerations. The disestablishment and dis- 
 endowment of the Church of Scotland ought to be carried 
 out in no niggardly spirit. 
 
 t 
 
 ECONOMIC QUESTIONS. 
 
 The second class of questions is the Economic ; and here 
 we pass from the structure of government to the practical 
 working of the governmental organism. These economico- 
 political questions may be useful'y sub-divided into {a). 
 those which affect the State; (/-') those which affect the 
 municipality ; {c) those which affect the family ; and (d) 
 those which affect industry. Among those which affect 
 {a) the State, there is the series of questions regarding 
 Administration. Many Administrative Reforms are 
 needed in all the departments of governmental action. 
 Mere age and the inevitable tendency of State offices to 
 formalism produce inefficiency. The Dockyards, the Ad- 
 miralty, the War Office, the Board of Trade, the Post 
 Office, the Customs, and the Excise are incrusted with 
 antiquated, expensive, and useless formalism. Every one of 
 
« 
 
 them afiforfls a field for the exercise of administrative skill 
 in rendering them more efficient as well as less costly 
 instruments in the public service. Associated with adminis- 
 trative questions is that of the Reform of thk Poor Law. 
 The system of voting in the election of Poor Law 
 Guardians in England is open to grave abuse, and the 
 maintenance of the poor is indifferent and wasteful, both 
 in great Britain and in Ireland. The formation of farm 
 colonies, after the manner of the successful colonies on the 
 Continent, seems the most rational method of dealing with 
 those whose inability to struggle in the competitive system 
 has been made manifest. The labour of these unfortunates, 
 in order to be even appro, imately sufficient to maintain 
 them, must be organised, and '^eir lives in some measure 
 also regulated for them. 
 
 Associated with Poor jud\ Administration, although 
 wider in its scope, is the question of State Pensions for 
 iHE Aged. It is open to question whether, under existiii^a; 
 conditions, State pensions for the aged would not result in 
 the diminution of wages. Pensions in any case arc deferred 
 p ly. So long as to any material extent wages depend upon 
 the cost of subsistence, as in the lower grades of labour 
 they still do, they must at present include theoretically 
 some provision for old age, except in so far as provision is 
 made under the existing poor law, which also, to a certain 
 extent, results in a reduction from wages. Since such 
 is the case, it is evident that a national pension, above 
 a certain age, would tend to diminish the need for saving, 
 and therefore to lessen the amount of wages which a work- 
 man would need and would be inclined to take, even if he 
 were able to hold out for more. It is to be admitted at 
 once that national provision for old age is attractive ; and 
 if it could be achieved without reflex action upon earnings 
 during years of maturity, it would be a great advantage. 
 Any practicable scheme must, however, not only be wider 
 than a mere addition to the poor law, but must take into 
 account the efforts in the direction of securing provision 
 for old age carried on for many years by means of volun- 
 
8 
 
 tiiiv oii^aiuzatioiis. The Friendly Societies, vvilli their 
 4,394,000 members, ^'20,000,000 of funds, and their 
 or^^nnized social life, cannot l)e left out of account in 
 formulating a national scheme. If the national insurance 
 scheme were com])ulsory, it would unquestionably put a 
 stop to the <];rowth of the Fiiendly Societies; if it were 
 optional, the ])ayment to tlie State would require to be less 
 or more, or the .>ame as that of the Fr'endly Societies. If 
 ih.e payment were less, the Societies would sulTer in mem- 
 licrship; if the payment were more the State scheme would 
 fail; while, if it were the same as the Friendly Societies, 
 there would be so nice a balance of monetary advantages 
 that probably both schemes would dwindle. An optional 
 State scheme would necessarily appeal to precisely the 
 same class of thrifty people as the Friendly Societies 
 appeal to. Moreover, the maintenance of social life, the 
 < ultivation of a spirit of good fellowship and mutual 
 helj)fuiness which the Friendly Societies secure and which 
 a great State scheme would do nothing to promote, 
 are necessarily, to some extent, bound up with the 
 '"benefits" of the Societies. The social element would 
 tend to be seriously injured if the "benefit" element were 
 spoilt by a State scheme, whether compulsory or ojitional. 
 It is surely not impracticable to devise a scheme which 
 would render the security of the Friendly Societies' Funds 
 vA solute by State endorsation, or even to subsidize the 
 Fiiendly Societies in such a way as to enlarge their useful- 
 ntvs, while retaining the iniensity of social life, of which 
 they have helped 10 preserve the continuity, in an age when 
 many of the tendencies have been towards the breaking-up 
 of social ties. At the same time action should be taken in 
 the direction of amending the poor law, so as to secure the 
 ctmfoit in old age of all who have a claim on the coni- 
 ir.unity for maintenance. 
 
 An adequate system of Sfxondary and Tfxhnicai> 
 Fducation, and a national system for the Education ok 
 TiACHERs, to replace the existing moribund system of 
 dt nominaticnal Normal Training Colleges (the survival of 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 the now abandoiud (l(.'iK»miiuilionnl rducation), nuist be 
 the next steps in educational administration. 
 
 AllcTting also the State, tlieri- is the series of questions 
 undm the head of Taxaiion. 
 
 It is inevitable that as the functions of the Government 
 incrense. jn^overnmcntal e.\i)enditure must increase also. 
 'J'he revenue to meet this expenditure has so far arisen 
 only to a small extent from direet [i.iyment for j^overn- 
 mentnl services; for the Post OfHee is practically the only 
 enterprise of the Government which is calculated to yield 
 a surplus of revenue over exi)enditure. Among [)rojects 
 of reform in the dejjartment of taxation, there is the 
 I'v^irAusATioN OK iHi: Dkatm Dv'iiEs. At i)rcsent there 
 are four diflerent duties payable Ujjon inheritance. These 
 are tiie Probate, Legacy, Succession, and Instate Duties. 
 Personal property (cash, moveables, iVc. ) is charged with 
 Probate, Legacy, and Estate Dut)-, while real property 
 (land, ii'C.) is charged with Succession and Estate Duties 
 alone. The result is that real jMoperty is charged only 
 from one-half to one-third of the death duties recoverable 
 from personal ])i-operty of the same value. The equalisa- 
 tion of the death duties will doubtless be the first step, for 
 Mr. Gladstone has for long been anxious to effect this; 
 but a Gradia'JKT) Dka'j h Ditv must be the next step. 
 Under such a sclieme of taxation the large estates would 
 contribute a much larger amount to the national revenue 
 than they do now ; and such a provision would tend to 
 prevent the admittedly "mischievous accumulation of pro- 
 perty in few hands." Among other taxation schemes 
 which have received the sanction of the highest author! des 
 is the scheme for a Graduated Ixcgmk Tax. Whether 
 the principle of sacrifice or that of benefits received be 
 taken as the piinciple of taxation, the Graduated Income 
 Tax is by far the most equitable. The question of the 
 Taxation of Land Values has been thrust into pro- 
 minence within the past few years. Income from landed 
 property is at present liable to Income Tax ; but the 
 proposal is that a special Land Tax be imposed upon 
 
10 
 
 the value of land as annually determined. This tax might 
 be imposed for national or for municipal purposes. The 
 central idea is not that landowners do not bear a fair share, 
 directly or indirectly, in national and municipal taxation, 
 although this also is held by some ; but that the increase in 
 the value of land ought to belong to the community, and 
 that special taxation is the simplest means of securing for 
 the community this increasing value. The special point of 
 attack is, however, the apparent escape of the ground 
 landlord fror^ local taxation. It has been the custom, in 
 granting feus for an annual payment, for the superior to 
 contract himself out of the obligation to pay local taxes. 
 The possibility of devising a method which would prevent 
 the landlord from thus contracting himself out of his obli- 
 gation to contribute to local taxation must soon engage the 
 attention of Parliament, and any scheme which will effect 
 the object aimed at must necessaril)' secure the support of 
 those who advocate radical reform in methods of taxation. 
 
 The Nationalization ok the Land, or rather the 
 Resumption of State Ownership of Land has not, as 
 yet, entered fully into the domain of practical politics. The 
 advocacy of a policy of confiscation cannot be seriously 
 entertained. Even if it could be carried out, it would 
 inevitably lead to indescribable confusion and reaction. It 
 is now, however, practically unquestioned that State owner- 
 ship of land in a country like ours is not only advisable 
 from the point of view of social well-being, but is practicable 
 from the point of view of administration. The remaining 
 question is one of finance. The conversion of existing rents 
 into perpetual annuities would almost certainly turn out to 
 be a financial blunder of the first magnitude ; and even any 
 conceivable amount of compensation might involve an 
 annual payment, which alterations in the value of money 
 might render ruinous to every one but the fortunate holders 
 of land consols. If the expediency of nationalizing the land 
 be admitted, the means of doing so without direct compen- 
 sation will, no doubt, emerge. It might be arranged, for 
 example, on the terminable lease principle. Since land held 
 
11 
 
 i 
 
 under lease for ninety-nine years is saleable in the market 
 for nearly half the duration of the lease at the same price as 
 it would fetch if it were freehold land, no injustice would be 
 done to existing holders of land, or even to their immediate 
 descendants by the intimation that, say in the year 2000, 
 or at an earlier period, on actuarial valuation, the land should 
 revert to the nation. If such an arrangement had been 
 made in the year 1800, the resumption to take place in 
 1900, no party in the State would have now viewed the 
 prospect of State ownership of land with apprehension. A 
 hundred years is a mere speck in the life of a nation. A 
 change which, if immediately operative, might produce 
 grave disturbance, might be projected forward with the 
 certainty that the other elements in the national life would 
 adapt themselves to the new conditions ere they came into 
 effect. 
 
 The Resuimptiox of Statf. Ownership of Minerals 
 rests upon substantially the same basis as the resumption of 
 State land ownership, indeed it is necessarily involved in 
 this. Short ot complete resumption, however, it is proposed 
 to impose a Special Tax upon Mineral Rents or 
 Royalties. This tax may be applied to local or national 
 purposes, or to both. The arguments for the special 
 taxation of mineral rents are the same as those for the 
 taxation of land re.-ts, with the added consideration that the 
 exploitation of the mineral resources of a country are 
 necessarily an exhausting exploitation. Sooner or later our 
 coal will give out. The special taxation of mineral rents 
 would be a means of securing for the nation a larger portion 
 of the annual production from a source of national wealth 
 which cannot continue to be indefinitely productive. The 
 actual amount of the mineral rents, royalties, wayleaves, 
 &c., in the United Kingdom, has never been precisely 
 determined; but the royalties alone are estimated to 
 amount approximately to ;^6,ooo,ooo annually. 
 
 The policy of Indirect Taxation has for many years 
 been abandoned by this country. The survivals of the 
 system whose collapse followed the repeal of the corn 
 
12 
 
 laws are the Breakfast Tabli': Duties. The duties on 
 tea, coffee, and cocoa amount altogether to under five 
 millions. The sole attempt to justify the maintenance of 
 the breakfast table duties is to regard them as a species of 
 income tax upon small incomes; but one of the essential 
 principles of taxation is violated in the tea tax — for its impo- 
 sition involves a charge upon the people immensely higher 
 than the produce of the tax. It is to be hoped that the 
 next Liberal budget will get rid of the breakfast table duties 
 as u.inecessary and irritating items in the revenue. 
 
 Fr^jm projects of reforms connected with state administra- 
 tion and taxation, we pass to similar j^rojects connected with 
 {!>) the Municipality. Those who remember the spirit 
 and general tenor of Municipai, Legislation twenty-five 
 }'eais ago, and compare these with the spirit and tenor of 
 municipal legislation now, will find a startling difference. 
 The tendency of nearly all municipal legislation up till 
 about 1870 was opposed to municipal enterprise. Public 
 services of all kinds, monopolistic in their nature, were 
 allowed to fall into the hands of ])rivate individuals and 
 joint stock companies. The municipalities were supine, 
 and statesmen were theoretically opposed to do at public 
 expense and by public servants what they conceived might 
 be as well done by private enterprise. Thus the supply 
 of water, gas, the means of transport, and other public 
 services, in their very nature the subjects of monopolies, 
 I ame in many of the great towns to be owned and managed 
 by joint stock companies. Private enterprise had its day, 
 but at last the tide turned, and public enterprise, as regards 
 public services, decisively took its place.* 
 
 Municipal debt is counterbalanced by municipal pro- 
 perty. The gain in finance and in life has been incalcul- 
 able. The doctrines of the Manchester school, involving 
 the policy of non-interference, have been abandoned. 
 
 * Glasgow was among the earliest in the field. The water supply had been taken 
 over from private I- npaniesbj' the Corporation in 1856, gas followed in 1869 and 
 in i8gi, land purchase and city improvement in 1866, municipal lodging-houses and 
 dwelling-houses from 1871 onwards, tramway lines in 1870, and tramway transport 
 .and electric lighting in 1892. 
 
 i 
 
1 
 
 y 
 
 ic 
 
 vcn 
 
 ind 
 md 
 ort 
 
 The further extension of municipal functions is onh a cjues- 
 tion of time. A general Act to empower municipalities to 
 acquire land and conduct any affairsf under simple 
 authorization by the Board of Trade, after public announce- 
 ment and evidence upon the scope of their intentions, is 
 much needed. The cost of special Parliamentary Bills for 
 municipal affairs is enormous, and much of it is entirely 
 unnecessary.:}: 
 
 Powers for thi; Compulsory Piirchase of Land for 
 Public Purposes are urgently needed by municipalities, if 
 they are to be saved from the extortion of urban landlords, 
 and if the city is to be saved from constriction by the 
 suburban landowners. Associated also with municipal 
 administration is the reform of the Licensing Laws. The 
 Local Veto on the Liquor Traffic has already acquired 
 so great a hold U()on ihv public mind that its i assage in the 
 next Parliament can hardly be matter of doubt. 
 
 The chief point for discussion in the question of Muni- 
 cipal Taxa'iion, is the incidence of taxation as regards 
 ground landlord, property owner, and occupier. At present 
 the ground landlord escapes local taxation, excepting in so 
 far as he may be held to receive a less annual amount for 
 his land in respect of his freedom from liability to the 
 imposition of local taxes. A direct retrospective tax upon 
 feu duties and ground annuals would necessarily fall to be 
 paid by the owner of these ; although where the landowner 
 had a practical monopoly it would be possible, unless he 
 were prevented by extremely careful provisions in the 
 taxinsr Act, to contract himself out of his liabilitv as he 
 does at present. It is well fully to face the probable con- 
 sequences of the imposition of a special tax upon land 
 value. Such a tax might tend to reduce the capital 
 value of land, as the tax might be regarded as liable 
 to increase. If also a tax were leviable upon a valuation 
 
 t The amendment of the Tramways Act, 1870, to permit Corporations to run 
 carriages on their own tramway lines, is one of the most urgently needed reforms. 
 
 X Since 1864, Glasgow has spent £*6ifi<:i in Parliamentary expenses. Nicol : 
 Statistics of Glasgow, i89«, p. 174. 
 
u 
 
 of unoccupied ground, this would tend, in the case of 
 weak holders, to throw such ground into the market, and so 
 for a time depress the price of land. Taken by itself, it 
 might, however, tend to throw the ownership of urban 
 ground especially, into the hands of strong holders, wealthy 
 companies, trusts, and the like, unless there were a visible 
 tendency towards the ultimate absorption of the whole 
 increment in value, in which case there would necessarily 
 be a wholesale clearing out of investors from property in 
 land, and a consequent demand for investment in other 
 forms. There is no doubt that this would produce an 
 extensive change in the dislribution of wealth ; it would 
 probably tend in the direction of its greater equalization, 
 although this is a speculative question upon which it would 
 not be fitting to enter here. 
 
 Among economic questions affecting the (c) Family are 
 necessary reforms in the Marriage Laws, especially those of 
 England. The costliness and useless formality of the pre- 
 liminaries to marriage in England are fruitful of much 
 mischief. The simplification of these preliminaries is 
 urgently demanded by those who are aware of the difti- 
 culties experienced by working men in relation to the 
 legal formalities of marriage. Connected also with this 
 are much needed reforms in the Laws ok Divorce in 
 the direction of rendering divorce less costly, and in ren- 
 dering valid the marriage with a deceased wife's sister. 
 
 Associated also with the family is the question of how to 
 deal with Juvenile Offenders and Habitual Drunk- 
 ards. A general Act for Scotland, dealing with this 
 ■department of criminal law, ought clearly to be passed. 
 Habitual drunkards, who are already costly to the com- 
 munity and injurious to their families, ought to be confined 
 in asylums where they could be specially treated for 
 alcoholism. Children under fourteen years of age ought 
 by no means to be sent to prison. While the existing 
 system of industrial schools is in many ways defective, 
 they at least should form an alternative to the jaii, with its 
 indelible evil influences. 
 
15 
 
 The most important of the class of economico-political 
 questions which affect Industry is the question ot 
 Reduction of the Hours of Laijour. Even the most 
 reactionary would not now repeal the Factory Acts. They 
 have not resulted in diminution of wages nor in quantity of 
 production, and have resulted in visible improvement in the 
 physique of the people. The question is as to the exten- 
 sion over the whole field of industry of the principle 
 underlying the Factory Acts, viz., regard for human life as 
 life. It was not to be expected that workers in factories 
 alone were to be participators in the movement for the 
 reduction of the hours of labour. The movement has 
 spread widely, and ere long must result in a general 
 measure or series of measures dealing with different indus- 
 tries in a discriminating and practical spirit. Among 
 industrial questions of importance is the proposed Amend- 
 ment OF the Conspiracy Act of 1875. Although the 
 law on picketing has been laid down in that Act, and has 
 subsequently been confirmed by the Superior Courts, there 
 have been some contradictory decisions which render it 
 necessary to make the law clearer, and to make it quite 
 plain that picketing without violence is a perfectly legal 
 proceeding. The Employers' Liability Act has been 
 largely ineffectual through the power which it leaves to em- 
 ployers to contract themselves out of the provisions of the 
 Act. It is clear that if it is to be effectual at all, it must be 
 made compulsory. 
 
 While all of these projects should be considered by 
 electors in an intelligent and critical spirit, the general body 
 of the electorate must see it to be their duty, as well as 
 the interest and well-being of the people at large, to support 
 whatever seems likely to give the people increased power 
 over their own affairs, and whatever tends to make more 
 efficient the working of the organisation of government, 
 both national and municipal. 
 
RADICAL PROJECTS. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL. 
 
 t Ireland — Home Rule. Scotland — Home Rule. 
 
 Parliament — f Retonn of House of Lords, 
 t Electoral Retbrnis. Shorter Parliaments. 
 
 Amended Registration Laus. Second JJallot. 
 Payment of Election Ivxpenses. Manhood Suffrage. 
 Payment of Members. Womanhood Suffrage, 
 
 f Church and State — Disestablishment. 
 
 ECONOMIC. 
 
 Administration. 
 National — Administrative Reforms in Arm}' and Navy. 
 
 Adequate Provision for Secondary and 'J'echnical 
 
 Education. 
 Poor Law Reform. Secondary Education. 
 Municipal — f Powers to Purch.ase Land Compulsorily. 
 
 Powers to Run Tramwa)'s — Amendment of 
 
 Tramways Act, 1870. 
 Pc ,ers to erect Suburban Industrial Villages. 
 Powers to establish Agricultural and Industrial 
 Rural Commnnities, 
 t Local Veto upon Liquor Traffic. 
 Industrial — Compulsory Elmployer.s' Liability. 
 Amendment of Law of Conspirac\-. 
 f Extension of Factory Acts. 
 Shortening the Hours of Labour — " A Practical 
 Eight Hours Day." 
 
 Taxaitox. 
 National — f Special Taxation of Feu Duties and Ground Rents. 
 Special Taxation of Mineral Royalties. 
 I Equalization of Death Duties. 
 Graduated Income Tax. 
 Free Breakfast Table. 
 Municipal — f Municipal Taxation of Land Values. 
 
 Assessment of City Improvement Rates upon 
 Owners, arranged differentially according to 
 proximity of property to improved district. 
 1" he items vuirked ^ form part of the Aetvcastle Programme. 
 
 .n 
 
 I'vintcd by McCoityi okaii. 't Co. Liniitcd. Trinters, Maxwe)l Street, Glasgo\T. 
 Published 1>y J. li. Doi (ji.as, IW St. \'incent Street, Glasgow.