CHAPTER VIII 
THE ECONOMY OF LOCAL RATES 
No government can afford to disregard the ideas of 
equity entertained by its subjects at any particular 
time. It is no use to try to forget the fact that men 
are generally prepared to sacrifice their economic 
interests on many altars, one of which is dedicated to 
Justice. The State has to satisfy their desire for 
equity as well as their desire for material welfare. 
But of the two principles, Equity and Economy, Equity 
is ultimately the weaker. History, and indeed the 
recollection of every middle-aged man, provide in- 
stances which go to show that the judgment of 
mankind about what is equitable is liable to change, 
and that one of the forces which cause it to change is 
mankind's discovery from time to time that what was 
supposed to be quite just and equitable in some par- 
ticular matter has become, or perhaps always was, 
uneconomical. To take an example far enough 
removed from our own time to be beyond the sphere 
of current controversy, let us look at the disappearance 
of the medieval belief in the iniquity of taking 
interest for the loan of money. The opinion that 
taking interest was inequitable was undoubtedly 
broken down by the observation that business was 
much assisted by it, or, in other words, that it was an 
economical institution. So continually we find self- 
interest and an optimistic belief that what is for the 
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