126 Transactions of the 



lose it. It is proposed to limit the amount of property which a man 

 shall be allowed to accumulate. 



I know the statement of this intention is to limit the (juantity of 

 land, but no man of sense will fail to see the object aimed at is to 

 diminish individual importance, and to do this, by a total .sacrifice 

 of all laudable energy and ambition. Indeed, when this sop was first 

 thrown to the diseased mind to which it was addressed, it was 

 expressly stated that the whole estate of a man was aimed at, and 

 various sums were named as the maximum of acquisition permitted. 



No one of the slighest intelligence but must see that money in large 

 masses under one control, can be used in a far more dangerous way 

 than can the same value in land. Land, however, was thought most 

 assailable, and the fact of large estates, the heritage of a past genera- 

 tion and peoi)le, being retained, it was thought would furnish point 

 to the attack. 



It is but fair to give the proposition in the very words of those who 

 make it. Not tocriticise this language, and the inconsistency of the 

 provisions of this platform, it provides for a maximum quantity of 

 land which any one may hold or own. These sumj)tuary laws have 

 been repeatedly tried, and the trial has always been followed by aban- 

 donment. All writers upon political economy condemn them, as 

 restraining that exercise of industry and desire of acquisition which, 

 in the great average of human intellects, are the only incentives to 

 labor. 



Mr. Buckle treats of these laws as arguing, in those approving of 

 them, such fatuity as renders them incapable of reasoning in regard 

 to them. It is supposed that the intention is not merely to prevent 

 engrossment, but to do so, that lands may be fairly divided among 

 the people, so that all may be provided with a sure source of income 

 and support, of approximate equality in value. The proposed scheme 

 will accomplish no such result. 



The quantity or the square mile is no test of either i>roductiveness 

 nor value. One mile is worth half a million, another would be high 

 at a thousand dollars, and their capacity to support life in equal 

 ratio. Besides, there are somewhat less than say two hundred thou- 

 sand .square miles in California, and there are eight hundred tliou- 

 sand souls to divide it among. One hundred and sixty acres per head 

 exhausts the land. If this division is to be had, I object to the man 

 who can pay for six hundred and forty acres, depriving those other 

 men of their just share simply because they cannot pay. Under this 

 new system the bloated capitalist, who has his six children and a 

 wife, mtiy own five thousand one hundred and twenty acres of land, 

 while his impecunious neighbor, with a dozen children, can own no 

 land whatever. In short, two hundred thousand reformers will own 

 all the land, and these two hundred thousand will be composed of 

 say forty thousand men with their attendant families. 



The really poor man would at last find himself with Dickens' char- 

 acter, all in a muddle, and as far oH' from comfort as ever. That 

 there is no desire to obtain lands for the purpose of making homes, 

 to the extent of making it necessary to disturb present holdings, is 

 evident. 



There are hundreds of thousands of acres of good land in this State 

 at this day subject to entry at government price, and there is a large 

 number of thousands ofifered at a price but little in advance of the 



