XXIII THE SOCIAL QUAGMIRE 417 



themselves and their families, for at least part of the year, 

 and thus have an alternative to starvation wages. There 

 is absolutely no other way, because it is from land alone 

 that a man can, by his own labour, obtain food and cloth- 

 ing, without the intervention of a capitalist employer. 

 But in order to ensure his doing this, he must have the 

 land on a permanent tenure ; he must be able to live on 

 it, and must never be taxed on the improvements he 

 himself makes on it ; and though he may be allowed to 

 sell or bequeath it, he must not be allowed to mortgage it, 

 since what we want is to create as many secure and per- 

 manent homes as possible, as the only safe foundation for a 

 prosperous and happy community. 



The Remedy — Free Access to Land for All. 



But in order to do this — not here and there in certain 

 localities, but everywhere throughout the length and 

 breadth of the Union — the people must resume the land, 

 which should never have been parted with, to be ad- 

 ministered locally for the benefit of all, and to be held 

 always for use, never for speculation. People are now 

 beginning to see that land speculation is the curse of the 

 country. Millionaires have, in almost every case, grown 

 by what is, fundamentally, land speculation. It is this 

 which has enabled the few to acquire the bulk of the 

 wealth created by the many toilers ; and it is by the 

 monopoly of land, whether in city lots, in railroads, mines, 

 bonanza farms, vast forests, or vaster cattle ranches, that 

 the rich are ever growing richer, and the poor more 

 numerous. 



In an American town or city to-day, it is practically 

 impossible for the worker to obtain land for cultivation, 

 except at town-lot prices ; while beyond the municipal 

 limits the land is usually held in farms of 160 acres or 

 more, the owners of which are all holding for a rise in 

 value when the town limits are extended so as to include 

 some of their property. But so soon as the land becomes 

 all municipal or township property, and it becomes re- 

 cognized that on its proper use depends the well-being of 



VOL. XL £ E 



