As Went Slavery Will Eventually Go Landed Property H. J. Chase
[Reprinted from the Single Tax Review, 1915] I think I
understand how Mr. Bastida feels. I don't believe in property in
land any more than he does -- I even go further, perhaps. The
land doesn't belong to the people collectively any more than to
any of them individually. It's the use of the land, not the land
itself, to which everybody has an equal right. And in the use of
the land it is the duty of each generation to remember that
there will be Property in land is the bane of all progress. The
day is coming when those who uphold it, or even condone it, will
be classed with those who upheld or condoned chattel slavery.
This talk about recognizing the ownership of land itself but not
of its rent, is like saying to a slaveholder, "You own the negro
but not his wages; we are going to confiscate them."
Nevertheless, it proved impossible to found a successful
political party upon the principle that property in human beings
was wrong and should be aboli