CHAPTER V 



The idea of private property in land is an 

 outrage upon the sense of citizenship. The 

 land-owning fellowship has been at immense 

 pains to make this fact clear to us all. The 

 landlord party has dinned into our ears that 

 the price of corn is too low : it has moaned 

 over the Repeal of the Corn Laws, and has 

 whined because the people were able to obtain 

 a cheap loaf. When one section of the com- 

 munity is distressed because another and 

 the larger section is relieved to some extent 

 from famine, there must be something wrong. 

 Little by little sops have been thrown to 

 agriculture, but nothing has been done which 

 was calculated to bring real prosperity to the 

 land. Nothing has been done because in 

 truth nothing could be done under the cir- 

 cumstances. The only cure which is visible, 



a united State effort, has scarcely been ever 



124 



