“There is another fundamental question, Mr. Midith, that I have been
wanting to ask you for some time,” said Mr. Uwins as we were ready the
next evening to listen to Mr. Midith’s Marsian narrative, “and that
question is the _ownership_ of _land_. I have thought and written quite
extensively on that subject, but have thus far not been able to solve
it to my entire satisfaction. We would undoubtedly be very much pleased
to have you give us an account of the Marsian theory and practice of
owning land. It is certainly a fundamental question, for, as you said,
all wealth comes _from_ or _out_ of the land by the application of
labor.”
“That is very true,” said Mr. Midith; “it is one of the fundamental
problems of economics, and, when once solved, it is apparently the
simplest.
“Land is not produced by labor, and, therefore, we do not consider
land wealth like you do. Of course the improvement made on land is
wealth and belongs exclusively to the producers. We recognize the right
of owning land only by _occupancy_ and _use_, not by deed, or paper
title, as you pretend to own it. _Vacant land_ is as free with us as
air and sea, because there is much more highly productive land now,
and probably ever will be, than the human inhabitants of _any_ planet
can utilize. At least, I believe, no one can produce trustworthy
evidence to the contrary. By vacant land I mean all that land which is
not worked at all, and all that which, under monopoly, is worked for a
landlord, by renters or by wage-workers. For example: A vacant farm or
town-lot, a rented farm or town-lot, and a farm or town-lot worked for
a land-owner by wage-workers under monopolistic laws like the laws of
owning land by deed or paper title. In short, by ‘vacant land,’ I mean
all unoccupied land, and all land that would not be utilized by the
present owners if all monopolistic land privileges were removed.
“Our communities consist of about 120 families, or 120,000 persons
each, and contain about 144 square miles of land, populated nearly
twice as densely as Belgium, the secret of which I have already told
you. Yet there is plenty of highly productive land left unoccupied for
additional communities or individuals, should they ever desire it. We
never entertain any fear of over-population. It is highly probable that
a highly-intelligent, well-adjusted human society will never be pressed
with over-population, as we shall consider more fully under the head of
sex relations.”
“But did the Marsians always own land only by occupancy and use like
you now do?” asked Mrs. Uwins.
“Oh, no; our ancestors owned it by deed like you own it now. But in
time, the most thoughtful men and women began to feel that it is wrong
to own and control the whole or a portion of the earth’s surface by
virtue of a deed, or paper title. They reasoned something like this: If
a person has a just right to own, by deed, forty acres of the earth’s
surface and all what is beneath that surface to the center of the
earth, for that is the depth a farm is claimed to extend downward,
then he has an equal, just right to own, in a similar manner, any
amount of it.”
“Upon what principle, Mr. Midith, do you claim that it is more wrong to
own land by _deed_ than to own it by _occupancy_ and _use_?” asked Rev.
Dudley.
“The principle of the one is entirely different from the principle of
the other. When an individual or collection of individuals own land by
occupancy and use only, he makes his own physical powers the measure of
the amount he can occupy and use, which can cover only a small area;
for man’s physical powers to occupy and use land are very limited. He
can use but a very limited area to stand on, to lie on, to build his
residence on, and to use for agricultural and sportive purposes. He
can occupy and use only so little of the earth’s surface that there
will be more left than all the rest of the human race can similarly
utilize. Under these conditions there could be no land monopoly, and
with the disappearance of land monopoly nearly all other monopoly would
disappear; for all wealth comes from the land by the application of
labor, and if vacant land were free all could apply their labor to land
and produce their necessary wealth. No one would be out of employment.
No one would work for less than he actually earned. With vacant land
free no one would be the industrial slave of another.
“By _deed_, under certain conditions, an individual, or a small
collection of individuals, may own the _whole_ land area of the earth
or of any other planet or world. There is no further limit to the
amount of land an individual may own by deed. This causes land monopoly
and industrial slavery, because if a few own large tracts of land by
deed, there is not enough left to supply all the remainder of mankind.
This causes land monopoly, and land monopoly causes either directly or
indirectly nearly all other forms of monopoly. Let us illustrate this a
little more fully:
“A person who claims to own a forty-acre farm by virtue of a deed he
holds of it, claims to have a legal right to remove forcibly any and
all human beings from the same if he chooses, and, if he cannot remove
them as an individual, the government from which he bought the deed
must assist him in making the removal or eviction.
“But if one has a legal right to own 40 acres by deed, he has an equal
legal right to own 40,000 acres, or the whole United States, or the
whole earth. Under this condition, the individual or individuals who
own the earth would be masters, and all the rest of the human race
would be slaves.
“The owner or owners of this land, composing the United States or the
earth, would have a perfect legal right to demand all his or their
fellowmen to vacate the land. But he (if one owns it) owns all the dry
land, and nothing but water surface is left for the non-landowners.
And, if the non-landowners are loyal and true to their government and
to the landlord, they must immediately vacate all dry land, which
implies that they must all drown in the water area not covered by the
landlord’s deed, whenever the landlord demands it; if they refuse to do
so they are rebels and a deed becomes a legal farce.
“There is one other important point to be considered under this head;
the point is, that if we trace the abstract of a deed back to the first
pretended owner, whether individual or nation, we find him to be a
fraud, a thief, or a robber; that is, he obtained the land by fraud, or
by force, or by robbery, or by conquest, or by discovery. He did not
create it by labor, nor was the deed given to him by the Creator. Such
is the condition of ownership of land by deed.
“All wealth, as we have already seen, organized-self, material and
mental, comes ultimately from the earth, and requires labor for its
production. The man and the land must be permitted to come together or
the man must starve.
“Under the deed system, the landlord has _first_ the right to fence the
poor off from the land, and then make a bargain with him for his labor;
the laborer is bound to accept what the landlord is pleased to pay him,
or the laborer must starve, since the laborer is prevented to apply his
labor to land from which all wealth is produced. Land is monopolized
by deed. To illustrate: The present population of the earth is about
one-and-a-half billions, and the total land area of the same is about
fifty-three millions of square miles. Hence, each individual born on
earth is by nature entitled to a proportionate share of this land; and
his fair share of this land is far more than a person could utilize, if
land were owned only by occupancy and use. Hence, if any person is in
need of land, somebody has robbed him of his birthright.
“Thus is the laborer at a great disadvantage, when the land is owned or
monopolized by deed. But now notice the difference when vacant land is
free. If the landlord had to make the contract with the laborer for his
work, _before_ the landlord had the legal right to fence the laborer
off from the vacant land, the laborer would work for no less than he
actually earned; if the landlord would not pay him that amount, the
laborer would work land for himself wherever he would find some vacant,
and receive the full benefit of his labor.
“Thus if one person owns the whole surface of the earth, or other
planet, by a deed or paper title, and all the remainder of the
inhabitants were living on it by his _permission_, the conditions of
the world would be the worst conceivable as regards owning land. If
ten individuals owned it similarly, the conditions would be bad, but
somewhat better than they would be if one owned it, and so on up.
“So the Marsites gradually came to the conclusion that no one ought to
be prevented from using and occupying, without paying for it, as much
land as he wants wherever he finds it vacant; because there is, as I
have already stated, more highly productive land than can be utilized
for all practical purposes now and perhaps for all future ages. And
further because when a person is born and can utilize land for the
maintenance of his existence, he is entitled to his proportionate share
of the earth’s surface without paying for the permission of living on
earth.
“By experience, personal and ancestral, which always constitutes the
entire stock of intelligence, we slowly learned that the monopolization
of vacant land is doubtless the principal cause of a vicious social
and industrial system. 1. Because it produces an army of forced idlers
who are prevented by the landlord from applying their labor to land
from which all wealth proceeds, and toward which all industry must be
directed. 2. It practically forces the laborer to accept the landlord’s
offer whatever it may be. And 3. It affords an army of rent-takers who
are enabled to live an idle life by appropriating the earnings of the
laborers. Hence nearly all other social and industrial evils may be
traced directly or indirectly to the monopolization of vacant land.
“In our system vacant land is perfectly free to any one who
wants to utilize it; no one pays for living on Mars, and there
is, notwithstanding the dense population, more land than all the
inhabitants can utilize, the same as here if vacant land was free. With
us no one can, or desires to monopolize land, and therefore no one pays
_rent_. We have, by the economic arrangement of freeing vacant land,
completely eliminated rent. We have then, as far as I have explained
our social and industrial system to you, neither _profit_, _interest_,
nor _rent_.”
“Would you, then, take the land away from the landlord and give it to
others, perhaps to some who have always lived an idle life?” asked Rev.
Dudley.
“I would by no means do any forcible or legal taking or giving as you
call it. Vacant land will never become free by physical force or by
statute law. It will be monopolized by law as long as the people, both
landlords and landless, do not clearly see the evil of owning it by
deed. But just as soon as the landless man and woman begins to see
that the landlord lives from the products of his or her labor, which
necessitates the masses to remain poor, cruel, ignorant, and as soon
as the landlord clearly sees that this poverty, cruelty and ignorance
caused by the monopolization of land endangers his life and property,
and prevents _him_ from living in a world of refinement in which all
can be rich, kind and intelligent, vacant land will become free,
and not before. Just in proportion as man will clearly see and feel
this, vacant land will become free, like the _chattel_ slave who was
gradually set free from the bondage of _chattel_ slavery. At one time
they sold for more than a thousand dollars apiece; now they are not
worth 15 cents a dozen financially. So with vacant land. In my opinion
there is no escape from the conclusion, that the masses of your people
will soon see, that there is something very wrong in owning vacant
land, for thousands of your foremost thinkers see it already more or
less clearly.
“Under the head of ‘How the transition from the old to the new order of
things was accomplished,’ I shall explain how vacant land on Mars was
set free.”
“I think I clearly see the effects of it now,” said Mr. Uwins. “If
vacant land were free for all, the servants and hired help would
work land for themselves, unless the rich paid them just what the
laborer actually earns, under which condition the employer can not
grow rich from the labor of others. Men and women can grow rich, as
you call it, only by the monopolization of land or some other natural
opportunities--by appropriating the earnings of some one else. I
must confess your land system appears very just and simple when once
explained.”
“Now let us see,” said Mr. Midith as Mr. Uwins had finished speaking,
“if we can summarize the most important points of the Marsian social
and economic system, as far as I have told you about them.
“To begin with, the Marsites, as I have explained, have no cities
and towns. It is a well-known fact that, in the lowest stages of
savagery, even among your _present_ savages, man has no cities and
towns and no particular fixed habitation. A single individual, or
at best a few, roam together with no permanent residence; but as
civilization advances, the individuals form a closer union and choose
a more permanent place of residence. From this closer association
and co-operation, man, like the gregarious animals, reap advantages
and these advantages continue to unfold man’s social nature; and in
order to satisfy this social nature to the fullest extent, during a
certain stage of civilization, he builds large cities. At this city
stage of intellectual development, he feels the need of association
and co-operation, but he does not yet see and feel the disadvantages,
the uselessness, and other evils of cities and also of a lonely
country. But as man’s intellectual powers continue to unfold, as his
sensibilities become more acute, and as he employs more and more
machinery to perform his manual toil, he slowly but gradually discovers
the evil effects of dividing the population into cities and country;
for both are faulty, both are unhealthy, both are inconvenient, and
both are useless.
“After man has discovered this, he begins to locate his large buildings
in beautiful parks, at short intervals, in straight lines, on the
perimeter of a rectangular community. (See p. 58.) The large size
families and the nearness of the buildings satisfy his social nature;
the arrangement of buildings, in straight lines, gives commercial
and mechanical advantages; the large families give him social and
domestic advantages which greatly conduce to his health, prosperity
and happiness. The _form_ and _size_ of our communities give us the
greatest commercial and agricultural advantages. We all live right
on the edge of the agricultural land from which all wealth must be
produced, either directly or indirectly. With us a farmer need not come
to town to sell his produce, nor need a townman go into the country to
farm.
“Thus you see that some labor and some commerce is managed exclusively
by the individual, such as keeping his private apartment, buying his
own meals, clothes, etc. Some by the family, such as buying the goods
for the family store, etc. Some by the community, such as agriculture,
mining, etc. Some by the neighborhood, such as railroading, etc. Some
in the Fano and some in the Modano. All is justice, equity, order,
kindness and harmony. Everybody and everything has, by the force of
free competition, drifted into that for which each is best fitted.”