Practicable Land Nationalization. By this time a large proportion of Radicals and other genuine Social Reformers have become fully convinced that no proper settlement of the Land Question-whether in Ireland or Great Britain-can be attained except in accordance with the principles of Land Nationalization. The resolution of the Trades' Union Congress at Dundee (September, 1889), and the programme adopted by the Metropolitan Radical Federation (April, 1890), show that both London and provincial workers agree on this point. But although the principle of the collective ownership of the soil is now so widely accepted, comparatively little attention is paid to the practical methods of giving effect to that principle. Whilst the Land Nationalisation Society (11, Southampton Street, Strand, London, W.C.), advocates the State purchase of the landlords' rights, and the English Land Restoration League (8, Duke Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.), insists on the Taxation of Land Values, many other means of carrying out the principle of Land Nationalization are neglected. For want of a more detailed and practical programme, Parliament is even permitted to sanction the alienation of public glebe lands and tithes; the London County Council is allowed to vote the sale of its Metropolitan land; and the Liberal leaders are forgiven their persistent hankering after Leasehold Enfranchisement in England, Peasant Proprietorship in Ireland, and the other obsolete ideals of the "Free Land" school. The Fabian Society asserts* the necessity of the extinction of private property in land, which enables private individuals idly to appropriate, in the form of Rent, the price for permission to use the earth, as well as for the advantages of superior soils and sites.† Until all such payments are either made to the public through their representative institutions, or else recovered from the private landholders by taxation of their incomes, the benefits arising from the value of the nation's land can never be equitably shared by the whole people. *See Prospectus of the Fabian Society. + The difficulty of stopping short at mere "Land' "Nationalization is set forth in Fabian Tract No. 7, "Capital and Land." ensure reform. The principle must be applied to the actual circumstances of practical politics in each particular time and place, in order that the Member of Parliament, the Town or County Councillor, the Vestryman, and the Elector himself, may realise the opportunities which daily present themselves for the adoption of the principle. Believing in the collective control by the people themselves of the country in which they live, the Fabian Society suggests the following for Radicals and Socialists, and all other Social Reformers who are in favor of Land Nationalisation : 1. That all existing public rights over land and its rent be carefully preserved and not alienated; for instance:— (a) That the London County Council and other public bodies should never sell any land they become possessed of. (b) That no sale of Glebe Lands, Charity Lands, or Tithes in Ecclesiastical or other public ownership be permitted. (c) That no Crown Lands be sold, or Crown leaseholds allowed to be "enfranchised." (d) That all existing commons, footpaths, roadside wastes, rights of way, fishings, &c., &c,, be carefully maintained, especially by local public authorities. (e) That no measure of Land Purchase for occupying ownership, peasant proprietorship, or leasehold enfranchisement, be permitted, whether in Ireland or Great Britain.* 2. That all financial reforms leading in the direction of the taxation of land values be strongly supported, such as :-t (a) The abolition or even the mere diminution of Customs and Excise. (b) The taxation of Ground Rents and Values. (c) The rating of vacant land, including parks and squares to which the public are not admitted; and the collection of rates upon them and upon empty houses. (d) The division of rates between owner and occupier. (e) The graduation and differentiation of the Income Tax. (f) The re-assessment of the Land Tax. (g) The equalisation, increase, and graduation of the death duties. (1) The special taxation of the unearned increment. 3. That the present private rights of individual owners of land and its modifications be gradually limited in the public intesest, as by: (a) Compelling owners of unused agricultural land to cultivate or sell it. (b) Compelling the amplest possible precautions against accidents in mines, quarries, &c., and on railways, &c. (c) Limiting railway rates and charges. * See Fabian Tract No. 11, "The Workers' Political Programme." + See Fabian Tract No. 5, "Facts for Socialists." (d) Limiting the hours of work in mines, on railways and tramways, (e) Enforcing against house owners all necessary sanitary laws, (g) Reserving to the public authorities all future unearned increment of land values. (h) Reform of the present system of granting excessive compensation for property taken for public objects without deduction for the owner's misuse or neglect. 4. That public authorities gradually take over all leading public services: (a) The municipalization of all waterworks, gasworks, tramways, &c.† (b) The public provision and maintenance of all schools, libraries, &c. (c) The public supply and maintenance of artisans' dwellings, allotments, cottages, &c. (d) The public administration of railways and canals. (e) The nationalization of mining royalties. (f) Acquisition by public authorities of land whenever and wherever possible. * See Fabian Tract No. 9, "An Eight Hours Bill." All candidates for public offices, whether for Parliament, for Town or County Councils, or for Vestries or Local Boards, should be asked whether they accept these proposals. Suitable questions are given in Fabian Tract No. 11, "The Worker's Political Programme.' This is, of course, not a complete programme, even of Land Nationalization; and complete Land Nationalization would itself leave other reforms still necessary. But every proposal in this programme could be immediately carried out by the present administrators of our public affairs without injustice or disturbance. Many of them, indeed, relate to matters already within the discretion of public authorities, and left unheeded only because the attention of Land Nationalizers has not been directed to them. NOTE ON COMPENSATION.-The Compensation to Landlords which Land Nationalizers rightly resist must not be confounded with payments made by public bodies to private owners for plots of land required for direct use by the public or their representatives. As the funds for such purchases must be obtained by increased burdens on land values, the payment will not really be an indemnity, but simply a means of compelling the entire landlord class to share the loss that would otherwise fall on the single member whose particular plot of land was required, and who would thus be ruined, whilst the rest of the landlords enjoyed their property undisturbed. Public opinion would never sanction so partial a proceeding, and it is therefore certain that land nationalized in this way will always be purchased at the expense of the landowners generally. THE THE FABIAN SOCIETY consists of Socialists. A statement of its Rules, etc., and the following publications can be obtained from the Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 276 Strand, London, W.C. “FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM." Library Edition, 6s.; or, direct from the Secretary for Cash, 4/6 (postage 4 d.) Cheap Edition, Paper cover, 1/-; ditto, plain cloth, 2/-. At all booksellers, or post free from the Secretary for 1/- and 2/- respectively. FABIAN TRACTS. No. 1.-Why are the Many Poor? 85th thous. Price 6 for 1d.; 1/- per 100. No. 5.-Facts for Socialists. A survey of the distribution of income and the condition of classes in England, gathered from official returns, and from the works of economists and statisticians. 40th thousand. 16 pp., 1d. or 9d. per doz. No. 7.--Capital and Land. A similar survey of the distribution of property, with a criticism of the distinction sometimes set up between Land and Capital as instruments of production. 15th thousand. 16 pp., id. or 9d per doz, No. 8.-Facts for Londoners. 5th thousand. 56 pp., 6d. ; or 4/6 doz. No. 9.-An Eight Hours Bill. Full notes explain the Trade Option clause and the precedents on which the Bill is founded. 20th thous. 16 pp., id. ; 9d, doz. No. 10.-Figures for Londoners.. 20th thous. 4 pp., 6 for id.; 1/- 100. No. 11. The Workers' Political Program. 20th thous. 20pp., 1d.; 9d.doz. No. 12.-Practicable Land Nationalization. 4 pp., 6 for id.; or 1/- 100. No. 13.-What Socialism Is. 80th thous. 4 pp., 6 for 1d.; or 1/- per 100, No. 14. The New Reform Bill. A draft Act of Parliament providing for Adult Suffrage, Payment of Members and their election expenses, Second Ballot, and a thorough system of Registration. 15th thous. 20 pp., 1d.; or 9d. per doz. No. 15.-English Progress towards Social Democracy. id.; 9d, doz. No. 16.-A Plea for an Eight Hours Bill. 4 pp., 6 for id.; 1/- per 100. No. 17.-Reform of the Poor Law. 20 pp., Id.; 9d. per doz, No. 18.-Facts for Bristol. 16 pp, 1d.; or 9d. doz. No. 19.-What the Farm Labourer Wants. 4 pp., 6 for 1d.; or 1/- 100. No. 20.-Questions for Poor Law Guardians. 4 pp., 6 for 1d.; or 1/- 100. No. 21.-Questions for London Vestrymen. 4 pp., 6 for id.; or 1/- 100. No. 22.-The Truth about Leasehold Enfranchisement, gives reasons why Socialists oppose the proposal. 4 pp., 6 for id.; or 1/- per 100. No. 23. The Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 16 pp., Id.; or 9d. per doz. No. 38-A Welsh Translation of No. 1. 4 pp, 6 for id., or 1/- 100. No. 40.-The Fabian Manifesto for the General Election of 1892. 16 pp., 1d. each, or 9d. per dozen. No. 41.-The Fabian Society: What it has done and how it has done it. 32 pp., 1d. each, or 9d. per dozen. No. 43.-Vote, Vote, Vote. 2 p. leaflet, 5/- per 1,000. The Fabian Municipal Program. No. 1 (Tract No. 30).-The Unearned Increment. No. 2 (Tract No. 31).-London's Heritage in the City Guilds. No. 5 (Tract No. 34.)-London's Water Tribute. Each 4 pp., the 8 in red cover for id., or separately, 1/- 100. No. 6 (Tract No. 35.)-Municipalization of the London Docks. WE English have a habit of speaking of England as if it belonged to us. We are wrong: England is now private property; and if a laboring man out of employment makes so free with "his country" as to lie down for a night's sleep on it without paying its owners for the accommodation, he is imprisoned as a rogue and a vagabond. The price we must pay rises as the population grows; for the more people there are, the higher they will bid against one another for their dwellings and places of business. In London, for instance, the price paid annually to the ground landlords for the use of the soil alone is £16,000,000; and it goes up by £304,634 every year, without counting the additional charge for new buildings, or repairs and improvements to old ones. After payments of one sort or another to the owners of the whole country have been deducted from the produce of the workers' labor, the balance left for wages is so small, that if every working-class family got an equal share, each share would come to less than 100 a year, which (though it would seem a fortune to many poor people) is not enough for a comfortable living, much less for saving. Nevertheless the proprietary classes, without working at all for it, divide among them enough to give over two hundred thousand rich families more than 1,000 a year, and still leave more than 300 a year per family for over a million and a quarter families of moderately well-off people in addition to what they make by their professions and businesses. The Extreme Cases. The above figures, bad as they are, only represent averages, and give no idea of the extreme cases of wealth and poverty. Some of our great landowners get upwards of £4,000 a week without ever doing a stroke of work for it; whilst the laborers on their estates, working early and late from the time they are lads until they go into the union as aged and worn-out paupers, get eleven shillings a week. As women get lower wages than men when they work, but receive just as large incomes from property when they are rich and idle, a comparison between the share of our yearly produce that goes to a poor working woman at the East end of London, working sixteen hours a day for a shilling, and the rich, idle lady at the West end, is still more startling. If you doubt these statements, read Fabian Tract No. 5, " Facts for Socialists," in which you will find hundreds of the most terrible figures concerning the misery caused by our present social system, with full references to standard authorities for every one of them. What Comes of Inequality. If you are a person of common sense and natural feeling, you must have often thought over these inequalities and their cruel in |