xix SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 347 



in England cannot possibly lead to good results. It is 

 true the conditions of society in England are different. 

 There are here more capitalists ever competing for the 

 possession of land ; but " free trade " would simply enable 

 those wealthy capitalists who desire land to obtain it more 

 easily. What chance would the poor man have against 

 such competitors ? With population and wealth and 

 manufactures ever increasing, as they are in England, the 

 poor man will have less and less chance of getting land, 

 so long as it is to be obtained solely by purchase, and 

 there is neither compulsion to sell, nor right to buy at 

 equitable prices. 



Effects of Land Monopoly. 



As land is ever getting scarcer in proportion to popula- 

 tion, and in private hands must necessarily be a monopoly, it 

 offers the greatest temptation to speculators, who even 

 now frequently buy up estates offered for sale and resell 

 them in small plots at competition prices which no poor 

 man can afford to give ; and this will continue to be the 

 case so long as land is treated as a commodity to be 

 bought and sold for profit. We maintain that this is a 

 monstrous wrong and should never be permitted. Land is 

 the first necessary of life, the source of food and of all 

 kinds of wealth, and a sufficiency for health and enjoyment 

 is absolutely needed by every one. It is a political crime 

 to permit land to be monopolized by a few, to allow the 

 wealthy to employ it for mere sport or aggrandisement, 

 while thousands live in misery and have to suffer disease 

 and want because they are denied the right to live and 

 labour upon it. 



In order that all may have equal rights to use and 

 enjoy the land of their birth, it must become, not 

 theoretically only, but actually, the property of the State 

 or Local authority in trust for all ; and for all to derive 

 equal advantages from it, those who occupy it must pay a 

 rental to the State for its use. This is the only way to 

 equalise the advantages derived by the several occupiers 

 of land of different qualities and in different situations 



