Peace and happiness / by the Right Hon. Lord Avebury.

  • John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Peace and happiness / by the Right Hon. Lord Avebury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    391/408 (page 375)
    much rarer: and that is international good feeling. The late Mr. E. Atkinson, the eminent American economist, said: “ The burden of national taxation and militarism in the com- peting countries of Europe, all of which must come out of the annual product, is so much greater that, by comparison, the United States can make a net profit of about 5 per cent on the entire annual product before the cost of militarism and the heavy taxes of the European competitors have been defrayed. Such is the burden of militarism which must be removed before there can be any competi- tion on even terms between European manu- facturers and those of the United States in supplying other continents and in sharing in the great commerce of the world. ” Moreover, since he wrote, the burden of militarism has become much more onerous; perhaps 10 per cent would now be nearer the mark. I do not say that the United States are employ- ing their time and manhood to the best advantage. Their fiscal system is devised to check the use and cultivation of their