AGRICULTURE AND THE SINGLE TAX. 491 



the title is subverted at once. So, too, if a special assessment, or a 

 mere water rate, is not paid, the land is sold, and a new title deliv- 

 ered to the purchaser, and this happens even if the non-payment is 

 the result of accident. Personal property is liable to seizure and 

 sale in like manner, and this is right, because the state must have 

 the means of existence. All persons have had notice that such 

 are the conditions of civilized life, the alternative to which is 

 the feudal system, or the worse condition that went before it. 



When we are told that the state could not divest itself of the 

 right to resume possession of the land, we reply that it never has 

 done so. It has only divested itself of the right to take it with- 

 out just compensation. If any casuist puts himself back of the 

 contract, and says it was wrong in the beginning and void db initio, 

 he has before him the immense task of turning the world over 

 without a fulcrum ; for the world, after an incalculable deal of 

 shifting and balancing, has settled down to the belief that agree- 

 ments made in writing should be kept. 



Suppose we admit that there are two sides to the question, and 

 that it is submitted to a jury from the moon. A holds that pri- 

 vate property in land is a disadvantage to society, and should 

 therefore be abolished without compensation to owners. B holds 

 that it is an advantage to society, independently of constitutions 

 and laws, and he shows in addition that a solemn agreement has 

 been made that it shall not be abolished without compensation. 

 Both advance such arguments as they may. A says (using the 

 words of Mr. George in his speech at Brighton Beach, July 28, 

 1889) : 



" So monstrous is private ownership of land, so unjust is it 

 so ridiculous even is it, that a few men should be the owners of 

 the element on which and from which a whole people must live 

 so clear is it that all men have by nature equal rights to the use 

 of the land that private property in land as we know it can only 

 long continue where from the force of habit it is acquiesced in 

 and never questioned. When it is thought about, when it is 

 talked about, even when it is defended, it is doomed." 



B replies that " force of habit " is another name for human ex- 

 perience, and that it has stronger presumptions in its favor than 

 anybody's inner consciousness ; that the usefulness of land resides 

 in its cultivation, and that no man can show from inner con- 

 sciousness that better, or as good, cultivation would result from 

 the abolition of private ownership ; and that, if worse cultivation 

 should follow, the whole human race would be sufferers. Would 

 not the men from the moon say : " Gentlemen, your arguments 

 are somewhat confusing. We perceive that private ownership of 

 land, like most of your institutions, has advantages and disad- 

 vantages ; but there is one fact about which no confusion exists, 



