es which makes it harder for a labouring man to keep up his
strength or for the small man of the middle class to maintain his
style of living. There is nothing in these taxes which makes it more
difficult for any hard-working person, whether he works with his hands
or his head, to keep a home together in decent comfort. No impediment
has been placed by these taxes upon enterprise; no hampering
restrictions interrupt the flow of commerce. On the contrary, if the
tax upon spirits should result in a diminution in the consumption of
strong drink, depend upon it, the State will gain, and all classes
will gain. The health of millions of people, the happiness of hundreds
of thousands of homes, will be sensibly improved, and money that would
have been spent upon whisky will flow into other channels, much less
likely to produce evil and much more likely to produce employment. And
if the tax on undeveloped land, on land, that is to say, which is kept
out of the market, which is held up idly in order that its owner may
reap unearned profit by the exertions and through the needs of the
surrounding community, if that tax should have the effect of breaking
this monopoly and of making land cheaper, a tremendous check on every
form of productive activity will have been removed. All sorts of
enterprises will become economically possible which are now impossible
owing to the artificially high price of land, and new forces will be
liberated to stimulate the wealth of the nation.

But it is not on these points that I wish to dwell this afternoon. I
want to tell you about the meaning and the spirit of the Budget. Upon
the Budget and upon the policy of the Budget depends a far-reaching
plan of social organisation designed to give a greater measure of
security to all classes, but particularly to the labouring classes.
In the centre of that plan stands the policy of national insurance.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has been for more than a year at work
upon this scheme, and it is proposed--I hope next year, if there is a
next year--it is proposed, working through the great friendly
societies, which have done so much invaluable work on these lines, to
make sure that, by the aid of a substantial subvention from the State,
even the poorest steady worker or the poorest family shall be enabled
to make provision against sickness, against invalidity, and for the
widows and orphans who may be left behind.

Side by side with this is the scheme of in