XXXIV] LAND NATIONALIZATION 251 



paper which I prepared, I endeavoured to go to the very 

 heart of the question propounded by Mr. Miller, " How to 

 cause Wealth to be more equably distributed.'* It occupies 

 twenty-four pages of the Report, but I give here an abstract 

 of it prepared for the newspapers. 



HOW TO CAUSE WEALTH TO BE MORE EQUABLY 

 DISTRIBUTED. 



(Abstract.) 



As the bulk of the community live on wages, the only means by which 

 they can obtain a larger proportion of the wealth they produce is by 

 wages becoming generally higher, and by work being more constant ; 

 and in order that this change may be permanent, and be commensurate 

 with the evil to be remedied, it must be brought about, not by any form 

 of charity, or of local or individual action, but by social rearrangements 

 which will be self-acting and self-sufficing. The fundamental objection 

 often made that a general rise of wages would interfere with our foreign 

 commerce was shown to be unsound, and it has been refuted by Mill, 

 Fawcett, and other pohtical economists. 



The cause of low wages was next discussed, and was shown to be due, 

 not to a superabundance of labourers, but to the fact that the majority 

 of labourers have nothing but daily wages between themselves and 

 starvation, under which conditions wages are necessarily driven down to 

 the minimum on which life can be supported. This absolute dependence 

 of labourers on daily earnings is at a maximum in great cities where 

 access to land and to natural products is completely cut off, and it is here 

 that these earnings sink to their minimum, and at the same time that the 

 wages of highly skilled labour is at a maximum, the latter phenomenon 

 being that which is chiefly dwelt on by economists. Illustrative cases 

 of these low wages were given, and they were shown to be intimately 

 connected with the existence and continued growth of our great cities. 



The diminution of the population of the purely agricultural districts 

 was next dwelt upon, and it was traced back to the circumstance that the 

 natural growth and extension of village communities is checked by the 

 direct action of landlords. Evidence of this fact was adduced from 

 the writings of Sir George Grey, Mr. Francis Heath, John Bright, Mr. 

 Thomas Hardy, and the Rev. Stopford Brooke, and its deplorable results 

 were shown to be a great diminution of food produced in the country, 

 overcrowding, and intense competition, with incalculable vice and misery 

 in towns. 



The beneficial results of allowing labourers to have land were next 

 detailed. Evidence was adduced showing the great amount of produce 

 which is obtained by labourers from allotments, although these are, 



