xix SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 351 



2. The number of men who can advantageously acquire 

 small farms is therefore greatly reduced. 



3. The unearned increment of the land is taken from 

 the community who create it and is given to individuals. 



4. The inheritors of these small farms of different 

 qualities of land will compete unequally with each other, 

 and those holding the poorer land must sooner or later sell 

 their farms or fall into the hands of the money-lender. 



The system therefore contains within itself the elements 

 of decay and failure. 



In all these respects State-tenancy is greatly to be pre- 

 ferred to small-freeholding, and a general system of State- 

 tenancy can only be secured by a complete Nationalization 

 of the Land. 



Land Taxation Who will Pay it ? 



One of the most important points of difference between 

 the followers of Henry George and Land-Nationalizers 

 is on the question whether the landlord can throw the 

 burden of a heavy land-tax upon the tenant. This 

 question has been the subject of much discussion for some 

 years past, and the proposal to tax land-values, especially 

 in large cities and wherever land is held by the owners in 

 expectation of a great rise in value for building purposes, 

 has been generally adopted by the more advanced section 

 of the Liberal party. It therefore becomes very im- 

 portant to ascertain whether such a tax will really fall 

 upon the landlord, or whether it will not, in the course of 

 a few years at furthest, be shifted to the tenant, who will 

 thus be no better off than before. 



The one strong point of the advocates of land- taxation 

 is the appeal to authority. Adam Smith says : 



1 1 A tax upon ground rents would not raise the rents of houses. 

 It would fall altogether upon the owner of the ground rent, who 

 acts always as a monopolist, and exacts the greatest rent which can 

 be got for his ground." 



Ricardo says : 







"A tax on rent would fall wholly on the landlords, and could 

 not be shifted to any class of consumers. ... It would leave 



