ON THE OWNERSHIP OF SCENERY 



•yiVW HO owns the earth? God made it 

 ^^^^ with infinite pains and graciously 

 gave it to a needy race, and man- 

 kind has been fighting over it pretty much 

 ever since the beginning. I think I dis- 

 cern a measurable difference of opinion 

 zimong professors of political economy as 

 to how that fight ought to be settled. Of 

 course, in the past the ownership of the 

 earth has nearly always gone to the strong- 

 est; and though exceptions seem now to 

 be coming in, the rule is far from being 

 outlawed. First the patriarchs and then 

 the leading tribes controlled what they 

 could by physical force; and now the 

 nation with the greatest stand of arms 

 gets the most land. Manchuria hesitates 

 between Russia and Japan, waiting to know 

 which has the superior navy. Between 

 individual men the division follows the same 

 law: the strongest pioneer took the best 

 farm, while to-day the best of the forests, 

 the coal lands, the rivers and the shores 

 belong to those highwaymen admiringly 



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