Page:The Gaelic State in the Past & Future.djvu/91

 in proportion to their abilities. That proportion would at least be more easy to estimate in their case than in the case of individuals; whereas if the stateships became not merely economic units but trading units their balance-sheets would at once reveal the proportion of their capacities, and the State would thus be enabled to charge its taxation directly upon its wealth in an equitable ratio.

At first the incidence of this system would be light, but it would gather importance with time. It is agreed that Ireland will need to protect, and in some cases heavily protect, her young industries. But in the degree in which such protection succeeded in its intention it would cease to be profitable from the point of view of taxation. Then the Nation would need to claim a levy on the wealth it had created for itself, for the purposes of government and security.

Such a system would in great measure answer the question of the unused mineral resources of the country. These are, as is well-known, very considerable, and one of the first tasks of an Irish State would be to see that they were used though it would be an equally important task to see that they were not mined so that they rendered whole tracts of countryside foul and filthy as in other countries. Such mineral deposits in the soil of a country are part of the national wealth. Its State cannot grant monopolies of them to individuals or companies, especially in a country where the soil of old was held and of late was won back by its people. They would naturally, in such a State as has been outlined,