Darrell Figgis

“ But then the question arises, what royalties would the State charge for the working of what truly is the wealth of the whole Nation and not the sole possession of any of its stateships? And the answer is that if taxation were levied on stateships according to their capacities this would automatically adjust itself without the necessity of adopting any direct device.
Then there is the question of the promotion of industry. No State can leave this to hazard. It must be made part of a disciplined effort. Nations must be made as far as is possible self-subsistent. ”

“ The State of the future might be built on the foundations of the past, but the Nation inhabiting it would not be the same Nation if it spoke by the tongue of a foreigner; and then it is probable that the State would not fully answer its expectations, because the change of a nation's speech implies a weakening of. its surety of intuition. The recovery of the language in daily use is not a sentimentalism but a national necessity if the Nation is to act with the full certainty of its hereditary mind. ”

“ No government can stand idly by and say that its people are either naturally industrial or agricultural, or declare piously that the whims and hazards of private enterprise are the workings of wisdom. ”

“ It would be to their interest to do so, if only to keep their population within their fellowships, and to the general wealth of the fellowships, instead of letting them drift to the stateships of the cities. But the general direction of such efforts would lie with the State, which would seek so to order things that there be in the national life a balance of all the parts that are necessary to a self-subsistent and thriving nation. Ireland would remain mainly agricultural, because of the richness of the soil and because the neglect of agriculture is national suicide ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ By harnessing the manifold rivers that intersect her soil electricity can be directed to each of these stateships for their use in order that they might as communities create industries within their territories. ”