today can have raw
land by going to it; but there are millions who would regard it simply
as "transportation for life," if they were forced to go and live on new
land and get their living out of it. Private ownership of land is only
division of labor. If it is true in any sense that we all own the soil
in common, the best use we can make of our undivided interests is to
vest them all gratuitously (just as we now do) in any who will assume
the function of directly treating the soil, while the rest of us take
other shares in the social organization. The reason is, because in
this way we all get more than we would if each one owned some land and
used it directly. Supply and demand now determine the distribution of
population between the direct use of land and other pursuits; and if
the total profits and chances of land-culture were reduced by taking
all the "unearned increment" in taxes, there would simply be a
redistribution of industry until the profits of land-culture, less
taxes and without chances from increasing value, were equal to the
profits of other pursuits under exemption from taxation.

It is remarkable that jealousy of individual property in land often
goes along with very exaggerated doctrines of tribal or national
property in land. We are told that John, James, and William ought not
to possess part of the earth's surface because it belongs to all men;
but it is held that Egyptians, Nicaraguans, or Indians have such right
to the territory which they occupy, that they may bar the avenues of
commerce and civilization if they choose, and that it is wrong to
override their prejudices or expropriate their land. The truth is, that
the notion that the race own the earth has practical meaning only for
the latter class of cases.

The great gains of a great capitalist in a modern state must be put
under the head of wages of superintendence. Anyone who believes that
any great enterprise of an industrial character can be started without
labor must have little experience of life. Let anyone try to get a
railroad built, or to start a factory and win reputation for its
products, or to start a school and win a reputation for it, or to found
a newspaper and make it a success, or to start any other enterprise,
and he will find what obstacles must be overcome, what risks must be
taken, what perseverance and courage are required, what foresight and
sagacity are necessary. Especially in a new country, where many tasks
are wait