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symbols of the class then dominant is the 

 result of fruitful labour, conscious of what it 

 was aiming at, and of historic conditions that 

 have changed the economic trend of the 

 world (the discovery of America, for instance). 

 It made its revolution at the end of the i8th 

 century and acquired power. In the history 

 of the civilised world it has written a golden 

 page by its national epics and by its marvel- 

 lous applications of science to industry ; but 

 to-day it is wandering over the descending 

 curve of the parabola, and certain symptoms 

 point out to us its coming dissolution. Without 

 its disappearance, moreover, the establishment 

 of a new social phase will not be possible. 



Economic individualism, carried to its last 

 consequences, necessarily causes the pro- 

 gressive augmentation of property in the 

 hands of an increasingly restricted number of 

 persons. The millionaire is a new word 

 which characterises the igth century, and it is 

 the clear impression of this phenomenon in 

 which Henry George saw the historic law of 

 individualism which causes the rich to be- 

 come more and more rich and the poor more 

 and more poor.** 



Now it is evident that the more restricted 

 is the number of those who hold the land 

 and the means of production, the easier is 

 their expropriation with or without indem- 

 nity for the advantage of a single proprietor 

 who is, and who can only be, the community. 



The land is the physical basis of the social 

 organism. U is then absurd that it should 



* Henry George, Progress and Poverty, London, 1887. 



