The Economy of Local Rates 185
taken away from them, and possibly more, to the poor.
No one has any real doubt, however he may measure
wants, that wants are nothing like so unequal as wealth
at the present time, and therefore no one can doubt
that the present power of production would go much
further if purchasing power were much more equally
distributed : hence the almost universal acquiescence
in the provision of elementary education at the expense
of taxpayers and in progressive taxation. Measures
adapted to produce greater equality are, however,
exceedingly unsuitable for local authorities. The
smaller the locality the more capricious and ineffectual
are likely to be any efforts it may make to carry out
such a policy. It seems clearly desirable that all such
measures should be applied to the largest possible
area, and that subordinate authorities should be left
to act, like the individual, from motives of self-
interest.
It is possible that some reader may think that it is
a reductio ad absurdum of the whole of this argument
to point out that it can be applied to national areas,
which, after all, are only localities, and some of them
not very large ones. It is perfectly true that the argu-
ment can be so applied. There is, however, no reductio
ad absurdum, but only a pertinent illustration. The
smaller a national area is, and the easier a movement
between it and other areas, the more likely is it to
conceive its interest in the same way as a subordinate
locality, and the more futile will be any attempt it
may make to benefit its ‘“ inhabitants.” That western
European nations have been as successful as they
have been in such attempts is to be explained by
the fact that those between which movement is really