THE RURAL PROBLEM 47 



which would at the same time provide for development by 

 the community of land that private owners could not culti- 

 vate. The power to acquire land jar the community at a 

 valuation is the need most important step in the solution oj the 

 rural problem. 



The ideal of the single tax and the ideal of complete land 

 nationalisation are both so far off as not to demand a search- 

 ing examination here. But the first steps towards these 

 ideals, viz., the proposal to tax land values, and the proposal 

 to give the community sweeping powers of purchase for any 

 purpose — except that of selling again to a private individual 

 — arc both immediate and practical ; of these the latter is by 

 far the more necessary of the two. In purely agricultural 

 districts the site value is a negligible quantity. 



The landlords of the country derive their chief wealth 

 from the need of the workers to have room to live, and the 

 need of industry to have space for production and distribu- 

 tion. The Land Taxer proposes to make the landowner pay 

 heavily for the privilege of restricting these needs ; and 

 argues that such taxation will result in loosening the bonds 

 of private ownership, and minimising the restriction of the 

 needs. But this could be achieved more directly and effec- 

 tively by giving to the community power to acquire belts of 

 agricultural land round the towns, and the means of loco- 

 motion and transit for their full development ; and in purely 

 country districts by providing machinery to secure for the 

 public all land which is not being properly developed, or 

 which is required for housing, small holdings, or any other 

 public purpose. If men are rich, whether as owners of land 

 or any other form of wealth, tax them. If they are public 

 nuisances, whether by holding up land or in any other way, 

 coerce them. But to mix up the two processes only leads 

 to confusion. 



To what extent land is actually held in private hands 

 which is either not fully developed or of which the com- 

 munity has need for its own purposes will subsequently 

 become more evident. It is sufficient for the moment to 

 know that such a position exists ; and the fact of its existence 

 fully justifies a free community taking steps to put an end 

 to it. All that is required for that purpose is a short Act of 



