XVII LAND NATIONALIZATION— WHY ? AND HOW ? 299 



As Professor Fawcett and Mr. Shaw-Lefevre have both 

 shown, the land hunger of the rich is insatiable ; and, as 

 is well put by the Edinhvrgh Review — " It stands to 

 reason that if the sale and purchase of land were 

 perfectly easy and free, those persons would buy most 

 land and give the best price for it who had most money 

 to buy it with." 



The Right w Wrong of Landlordism. 



To determine whether private property in land is right 

 and just, and compatible with the well-being of the 

 whole community, it will be well to glance briefly at the 

 true foundations of property, and the admitted rights of a 

 free man. Property is, primarily, that which is obtained 

 or produced by the exertion of labour or the exercise of 

 skill. In this a man has a right of property, to use, to 

 give away, or to exchange. This is a universally admitted 

 right which forms part of the very foundations of society, 

 and many eminent writers maintain that it is the only 

 way in which private property can justly arise. Property 

 is, however, usually admitted in any natural product 

 found by an individual and obtained without labour ; but 

 this kind of property has never the absolute character of 

 the former kind, since if the thing found is not abundant 

 and is essential to life or w^ell-being, the individual right 

 to its exclusive possession is not admitted. The single 

 good spring of water on an island, a single group of fruit 

 or other useful trees, a single pond or stream containing 

 abundance of fish, are not allowed to be appropriated by 

 the first discoverer to the exclusion of his fellow men. 



Property in the results of a man's labour has no such 

 limitations ; it is usually hurtful to no one, and with free 

 access to natural agencies and products, and freedom of 

 exchange between man and man, is beneficial to all. 

 There is no other natural and universal source of private 

 property but this — that every man has a right to the 

 produce of his own labour; and hence, as land is not 

 produced by man and is essential to man's life and 

 happiness, it cannot equitably become private property. 



