The Socialistic Method. 291 



cepting in the clear interest of the whole body. The com- 

 munity has the right of might and can be relied upon to 

 exercise the right in establishing such rules as are necessary 

 for its own preservation. 



And now, bearing in mind that the present holders of 

 land have acquired it precisely as they have acquired other 

 things, through the methods established by the community 

 as right and just, we are called upon to step in and quietly 

 relieve them of it. Perhaps most ingeniously absurd of all 

 is the proposition to distinguish between the land and the 

 improvements upon it, acquired in precisely the same way. 

 Excepting in the cities and in property similar to city 

 property this is absolutely impossible. Moreover I can by 

 my personal labor make land which is worth now one dollar 

 per acre, worth a few years hence one hundred dollars per 

 acre, without stepping my foot upon it or allowing a stick 

 or a stone to be moved, simply by making it accessible, by 

 building roads, and in other ways making that which was 

 unknown and unavailable greatly useful to mankind. This 

 increase of value, which is wholly due to my labor, Mr. 

 George says is not mine, but belongs to those who would 

 forever have left the land in its previous useless condition. 



As to the matter of the "unearned increment" in the 

 value of land, upon which so much stress is laid, that is, 

 the advance in value (where there happens to be an ad- 

 vance ) whicli is not the result of any action upon the part 

 of the holder, since so great a man as John Stuart Mill 

 was beguiled with it, it is no wonder that we of the com- 

 moner sort were for a time in like manner led astray. But 

 in what respect does real estate differ in this regard from 

 personal estate ? One man buys land, giving therefor the 

 highest price that anyone will venture and assuming the 

 payment of all the taxes and other charges thereon includ- 

 ing the burden of interest, with the chance of an advance 

 or a loss, that chance being greater or less according to his 

 shrewdness. The tide of improvement turns that way and 

 he reaps a profit. Another man buys beans, upon which, 

 however, he pays no taxes. There happens to be a short 

 crop or a fire in a great warehouse ; the price of beans is 

 advanced and he reaps an enormous profit. But, says 

 Henry George, ''there is a limited supply of land." Yes, 

 we reply, and there is a liinited supply of beans. The 

 reasons for the increment of value are of precisely the same 



