xxxiv] LAND NATIONALIZATION 247 



civilized Governments act on the presumption that great accumulations 

 of capital are beneficial, and even necessary, to the well-being of the 

 community, and all legislation favours such accumulations. When the 

 people are once convinced that the reverse is the case, and legislation is 

 directed to favour small holders of capital, and to check its inordinate 

 accumulation, most of the evils complained of will cease. To this end 

 the first step would be to get rid of all Government funds, guaranteed 

 loans, railway stocks, etc., which are the main agents and tools by which 

 capital is accumulated and money is made to breed money. This could 

 be done in every case by making such stocks non-transferable after 

 a certain date, and then declaring the payments to be terminable at the 

 death of the holders and their living heirs, just as I propose to do in the 

 case of landlords. The railways should be taken by the State, existing 

 shareholders receiving annuities of the amount of their average dividends, 

 payable in like manner to themselves and their living heirs. The Limited 

 Liability Act should be repealed, because it has served only to foster the 

 worst and most iniquitous speculations, and has deluded the public into 

 the idea that they could safely share in the profits of commercial enter- 

 prises of the nature and management of which they are profoundly 

 ignorant. There would remain no safe investments for money, except 

 in some branch of agriculture, manufactures, or commerce in which 

 either the investor or some relation or friend was personally interested, 

 and thus would be brought about the diminution and practical abolition 

 of usury as a system, and of whole classes living idle lives on the interest 

 of money derived from the accumulations of previous generations. 



Of course, it will be said that the plan here proposed is wholesale 

 confiscation and repudiation ; but a little consideration will show that 

 it is nothing of the kind, and that it is really the best thing that can 

 happen even to the individual holders of the stocks dealt with. In the 

 case of the National Debt, for example, fundholders are now threatened 

 with a reduction of interest of a quarter per cent., and later on of a half 

 per cent. ; and they will be forced to accept it, because the interest on the 

 public debt regulates that of all other good investments, which will 

 inevitably rise in price enormously if any considerable portion of the 

 amount now invested in the funds seeks other investments. The offer 

 to pay off fundholders at par, will, therefore, be illusory, and the vast 

 class who live upon their dividends will inevitably have their incomes 

 reduced one-twelfth or one-sixth, while the cost of living goes on 

 continually increasing. Would they not be far better off to have their 

 present incomes secured to themselves and their living heirs? And 

 when they fully realize their position, will they not choose the latter 

 alternative if offered them ? If the series of changes here sketched out 

 were effected, the reign of capital as the tyrant and enemy of labour 

 would be at an end. When the tools with which the financier and the 

 speculator work no longer exist, the piling up of great fortunes will be 

 impossible, and much personal care and attention will be required in 

 order to make capital produce a steady return. Industry and commerce 



