AGRARIAN TENDENCIES IN EUROPE 47 



present essentially the same point of view, i.e., that 

 every individual has an inalienable right to an equal 

 share in land which is the common inheritance of 

 mankind. The point of view of these early reform- 

 ers is indicated by the doctrine laid down in the 

 essay of Ogilvie that "every man has a right to an 

 equal share of the soil, in its original state," and 

 that "everyone, by* whose labor any portion of the 

 soil has been rendered more fertile, has a right to 

 the additional produce of that fertility, or to the 

 value of it, and may transmit this right to other 

 men." In commenting on these maxims Ogilvie 

 says : "On the first of these maxims depend freedom 

 and prosperity of the lower ranks. On the second, 

 the perfection of the art of agriculture and the im- 

 provement of the common stock and wealth of the 

 community." 



The land reform movement did not make much 

 headway until the Land Nationalization Society 

 was founded in England in 1881, as a result of the 

 book by Alfred Russel Wallace on Land National- 

 ization: Its Necessity and Its Aims. This dis- 

 tinguished scientist and social reformer, a contem- 

 porary of both Charles Darwin and Henry George, 

 advocated the confiscation of privately owned land 

 by means of the taxation of land values. The So- 

 ciety did not make much headway for a time. The 

 advocates of land nationalization could not agree 

 as to methods. While some agreed with the policy 

 advocated by Wallace, others strongly advocated 



