SOME POINTS ON THE LAND QUESTION 513 



tion would fall on land, instead of, as now, on various forms of prop- 

 erty, and this would be all. Doubtless, this would confer some benefit, 

 but how is it to secure a juster distribution of profits, how is it to 

 cause poverty to change its coat, and plenty come where want has 

 hitherto existed ? It is impossible to see how these results are to 

 ensue, and the land theoi'ists do not tell us. 



The good that is pictured is a dream, whereas the evil would be 

 immeasurable ; and when we had all finally settled down to the new 

 conditions, we should contemplate some such picture as the following : 

 All the farm-lands in the country in a condition of shameful neglect, 

 and their productiveness seriously decreased ; state tenants going 

 from farm to farm, cultivating the fields solely for their immediate 

 yield, neither planting orchards, nor fertilizing, nor keeping in repair 

 fences or drains. The ambition to improve would be paralyzed, and the 

 desire to keep up the productiveness of the acres to a standard would 

 no longer exist. As soon as one piece of land would be exhausted, the 

 tenant would move to another. Every motive for careful cultivation 

 and preservation would be replaced by motives for immediate profit. 

 These conditions would follow any form of national ownership ; but 

 if George's tax of rental value were strictly enforced, there would be 

 no inducement, as I have shown elsewhere in this article, to work the 

 laud at all. In towns and cities, or wherever land is used for commer- 

 cial purposes, we should see rent paid just as it is now, but to the state 

 instead of to individuals. The only difference would be, that all taxes 

 would fall on land. Houses, bonds, mortgages, stocks, personal effects 

 would be untaxed ; that is to say, the greater part of most rich men's 

 possessions would be unburdened, but rent would remain just as it is 

 now, and enter into the price of commodities just as it does now. As 

 the scheme is to tax up to the rental value, this rental value would be 

 what competition and demand made it. Favorable situations would 

 be bid for and go to the highest bidder, and consequently the poor 

 would be pressed to the wall as much then as now. 



Nor is this all. Under such an enormous enlargement of the pow- 

 ers of Government, jobbery and corruption would have a field for its 

 operation such as the most sanguine Tweed never dreamed of. Our 

 politicians would have all the corner lots, all the choice situations. 

 And then, if the rents should prove to be in magnitude what Mr. 

 George supposes, think of the funds that would lie in the state treas- 

 uries as tempting reserves for the schemes and devices of speculators 

 and law-makers ! 



I have been able in the brief space allowed me to no more than 

 roughly hint at all the possibilities involved in the stai'tling scheme of 

 the Georgeian economics. If it were possible to collect unearned in- 

 crement, or to determine what it is and so adjust taxation that it should 

 take just the increment and no more (which would be about as difficult 

 as for Shylock to cut his pound of flesh and shed no blood), the gain 

 vol. xxx. — 33 



