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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sity." The writer evidently thinks 

 that to talk as we did of making- 

 " sound individuals " without pos- 

 tulating, as a necessary condition 

 thereto, the general adoption of cur- 

 rent theories in regard to the nation- 

 alization of the land, is useless. We 

 are not, however, quite of his opin- 

 ion on this point. We are not sure 

 that there would be a larger propor- 

 tion of sound individuals if the land 

 were nationalized than there is at 

 present. It is easy to say that an 

 era of general prosperity and well- 

 being would set in if these theories 

 prevailed; but the thesis has never 

 been proved, and the world is by no 

 means persuaded that it is true. Fif- 

 teen years ago the doctrine excited 

 much more interest than it does to- 

 day, and was fervently believed in 

 by many who now have either aban- 

 doned it altogether, or else have 

 come to attach only a secondary im- 

 portance to it. Mr. Bostedo believes 

 that there is a " conspiracy of si- 

 lence" on the subject in the press. 

 If there is, we are not aware of it; 

 we have certainly never joined the 

 conspiracy. What seems to us to be 

 the case is that the public has got 

 tired of a question which was very 

 widely discussed some years ago, but 

 without any very satisfactory result. 

 Our correspondent speaks of this 

 journal as " conservative. " We trust 

 we are conservative in a right sense, 

 and liberal in a right sense also. We 

 believe that the principles on which 

 human well-being mainly depends 

 are very old; but we desire at the 

 same time to see the latest results 

 of human thought applied to the 

 improvement of the general con- 



dition of mankind. The question 

 whether land should be individually 

 appropriated is manifestly one into 

 which we can not enter to-day; 

 moreover, it is not one which is like- 

 ly to be settled to every one's satis- 

 faction at any early date. Mean- 

 time we think it right to point out, 

 as we did in the article under consid- 

 eration, that character and general 

 fitness for the work of the world 

 have much, if not everything, to do 

 with happiness and success in life. 

 We all know ''sound individuals" 

 when we see them; and we know 

 that they spring from almost every 

 condition of life. A very sound in- 

 dividual, who had endured consider- 

 able hardships in his youth, became 

 President of this nation some thirty- 

 five years ago. We want more of 

 that kind, and we should not wait to 

 get the land laws fixed or unfixed 

 before doing what may presently be 

 in our power toward increasing their 

 number through such agencies as 

 education, free and temperate discus- 

 sion, and righteous government. 



One thing pleases us in Mr. Bos- 

 tedo's letter, and that is his declara- 

 tion that he does not, like very many 

 of the advocates of the single tax, 

 mix up with his arguments *' a great 

 deal of religious dogma and super- 

 stition and crude notions of natural 

 rights, etc." Perhaps the large ex- 

 tent to which single-tax writers have 

 resorted to just such faulty modes of 

 reasoning in the past has something 

 to do with the alleged "conspiracy 

 of silence." That kind of thing has 

 a very silencing effect on people who 

 wish to keep their wits clear and 

 their tempers sweet. 



