CH. XVII LAND NATIONALIZATION— WHY? AND HOW? 297 



and praised this article as demonstrating the futility and 

 impracticability of land nationalization, I gladly seize the 

 opportunity afforded me of stating the other side of the 

 question. This is the more necessary because the readers 

 of Professor Fawcett's article will certainly carry away the 

 impression that my proposals are substantially the same 

 as those of Mr. George, and that a criticism of the one 

 will apply equally to the other ; whereas not only are they 

 absolutely distinct and unlike, but those first advanced 

 by myself have commended themselves to a considerable 

 number of advanced thinkers who previously held 

 nationalization to be impracticable, and have led to the 

 formation of a Land Nationalization Society, which has 

 now been twenty years ^ in existence, and is gradually but 

 surely aiding in the formation of a distinctively English 

 school of land reformers. These facts, to which Professor 

 Fawcett's attention has been specially directed, surely 

 required that some notice, however brief, should be given 

 to them in an article written expressly to instruct the 

 public on this great question. 



In order to place this problem fairly before my readers 

 within the limits here assigned to me, it will be necessary 

 to omit the consideration of some of its aspects altogether, 

 and to treat others very briefly. The fundamental 

 question undoubtedly is, the right or the wrong, the 

 justice or the injustice, of private property in land. And 

 then follows the question of results; right and justice 

 lead to good results — to happiness and general well- 

 being; wrong and injustice as surely lead to bad results, 

 and their fruits are moral evil and ph3^sical suffering. 

 We have to inquire, then, what are the actual results of 

 modern landlordism ? and thus confirm or modify the 

 conclusions we have reached from general principles. 

 Finally, we have to consider how we can best carry into 

 effect right and just principles so as most certainly to reap 

 the reward of moral and physical well-being. This really 

 exhausts the subject. The historical inquiry — how 

 private property in land arose, what changes it has under- 

 1 Founded in March, 188L 



