300 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



Let us next look at the question from the point of view 

 of the rights of individuals, as members of a society which 

 upholds freedom as a fundamental principle of its 

 existence. In such a society it will surely be admitted 

 that every man has an equal right to live. Not, be it 

 observed, a right to be kept alive by others ; not a right 

 to claim any part of the produce of others' labour, but, 

 simply, freedom to support himself by labour, freedom 

 from all obstructions by his fellow-men of his own 

 freedom to labour. Not to have this freedom of action 

 is to be a slave : and to this extent at least it will be 

 admitted that all men are, or should be, equal. 



But man cannot live without access to the natural 

 products which are essential to life — to air, to water, to 

 food, to clothing, to fire. If the means of getting these 

 are monopolized by some, then the rest are denied their 

 most elementary right — the right to support themselves 

 by their own labour. But neither pure air, nor water, 

 neither food, clothing, nor fire, can be obtained without 

 land. A free use of land is, therefore, the absolute first 

 condition of freedom to live; and it follows that the 

 monopoly of land by some must be wrong, because it 

 necessarily implies the right of some to prevent others 

 from obtaining the necessaries of life. 



Another consideration which shows the private owner- 

 ship of land to be unjust is the fact (admitted by all 

 economists), that the whole commercial value of land is 

 the creation of society, increasing just as population and 

 civilization increase. If one man had a grant of an un- 

 inhabited island or country, the size of Britain, the value 

 per acre of all the land which he did not use himself 

 would be nil. Rather than live alone he would give land 

 to any one who would settle near him. And when others 

 came he would sell them land, as it is sold in all new 

 countries, for a mere trifle, while he could never enforce 

 his rights over those who took possession of remote parts 

 of his territory. But, just as the population increased 

 the land would rise in value ; till, when towns and cities 

 had sprung up, and all the arts of civilized life were 

 practised, and communications were established with every 



