But, though Georgism is a horse so dead that to flog it would be profitless malignity, the taxation of land values, conceived not as the _only_ means of raising revenue, but as an _additional_ means of doing so, is very much in favour both with some of the leaders and with the whole rank and file of the Opposition. Nor is the reason far to seek. The misery and waste produced by our present social system are so patent and terrible that a vague feeling that “something must be done” has been spreading rapidly through all classes, and even Liberals have caught the infection. Most drastic reforms however are impossible for them because such reforms would clash with the interests of the capitalists and traders who form the backbone of the party. To them therefore the proposal to tax land values comes as a special interposition of Providence to succour them in their need. It professes to do something for the poor,--exactly what they might find some difficulty in saying. But a certain amount of ill-digested Georgism can be exploited in support of their case, while at the same time a loud and definite appeal can be made to the Liberal capitalists and the Liberal bourgeoise to share in the plunder of the land-owners. Unfortunately the cock will not fight. The working classes, not believing in Georgian economics, are, because of the hardness of their hearts, supremely indifferent to the taxation of land values. Neither the ingenuity of eccentric economists nor the eloquence of Liberal capitalists can induce them to take the slightest interest in the subject. No Trades Union Congress can be persuaded to take it up; no Labour candidate will make it a prominent plank in his platform. The workers may not be expert economists, but they are not quite so easily deluded as the Liberals suppose. They have a very shrewd eye to their own interests, and are quite acute enough to know that it is the capitalist and not the landlord who is the most active and dangerous enemy of the labourer, and to perceive that the talk about “the land monopoly” is merely a clever if somewhat transparent dodge on the part of the former to divert public indignation from himself to his sleeping partner in exploitation. I am for getting the last farthing of unearned increment wherever it can be got. But I can see no earthly reason for taxing unearned increment from land more than any other kind. What we really want is a heavily graduated income tax with a discrimination against unearned incomes. This would hit the landlord and the capitalist equally hard, and is therefore not likely to find favour with the Liberal party.