The Reign of Natural Law
(An Allegory of a Kingdom)
Henry Ware Allen
[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, May-June
1940]
I. PROSPERITY
THERE was once a king who ruled so wisely that his kingdom became
famous for the happiness and prosperity of his people. In this kingdom
there was no real poverty and consequently but little crime.
Employment was so abundant and well paid that none were idle excepting
those who chose to be so. There was neither poverty nor fear of
poverty and as a result, both Capital and Labor were liberated to the
fullest extent for employment in the creation of wealth and for the
satisfying of those greater needs which come with an advancing
civilization. There was a steady increase in salaries and wages,
accompanied by a steady decrease in the cost of living. This resulted
from improved methods of production and transportation, and everyone
benefited accordingly.
The wise ruler of this kingdom had planned so well that no taxes of
any kind whatsoever were levied against industry or the finished
products of industry. Capital and Labor were alike treated as
beneficent factors for prosperity and were never subjected to the
penalizing effects of taxation. The direct result of this regime was
encouragement to all the activities in which Capital and Labor were
involved. Unparalleled progress in building, manufacturing, the arts
and sciences, and improvements naturally resulted from this freedom.
Justice, the most God-like of all the virtues, was the test which had
been applied in every part of the great plan adopted by the king, and
accordingly it was decreed that the full reward of labor of every kind
should be given to him who labored, and without the penalizing
influence of enforced contribution to the public treasury. He well
knew that misery would surely follow the imposition of taxes upon the
people, and had, therefore, devised a seemingly mysterious plan which
enabled them to live happily without the payment of any taxes
whatsoever. He knew that revenue would be required for the customary
expenses of government just as food would be needed by every living
animal, but by the exercise of the power which he possessed, he was
able to provide for this revenue without the imposition of taxes upon
anyone. This revenue was derived from ground rent. It was a community
fund created automatically by the industry of all ; it therefore
belonged to all, and was rightfully used for the payment of all
community, or government expenses. It should be understood that owner-
ship and use by the community of economic or ground rent which is
purely the product of population, the presence of a community, is in
perfect harmony with the individualism of democracy and is in no way
to be confused with the philosophy of communism. This source of public
revenue was negligible where population was sparse, but was great
where population was dense. It was always amply sufficient for the
expenses of government. This law, which provided public revenue from
ground rent was, perhaps, the most beneficent of all the laws
instituted by the king.
When ability of everyone to earn a good living had become fully
established as an unvarying rule of life, the sacred right to property
also came to be recognized as a matter of course and to a degree never
before attained. Human nature had not been changed. The king realized
it was created good in the first place, and never had been corrupted
excepting where the laws of a country had been bad and in
contradiction to natural law. Incidentally, the king was free from
that aggrandizement of self which usually surrounds royalty with
magnificence and splendor, secured by a process of extortion upon
unwilling subjects.
His palace was indeed grand in its dimensions and its appropriate
utility, but at the same time simple and without extravagant cost.
Furthermore, the king did not support a retinue of courtiers to do him
honor by their servile attendance. Instead, he maintained a personnel
of workers selected for their fitness to assist him in the execution
of his mandates, limited always to service for minimum public
functions. The king believed that that government was best which
governed least. He never interfered with legitimate private business
in any way.
The government thus established was based not upon the majesty of
royalty but, instead, upon the majesty of democracy, excepting that it
had been given to the people as the perfected plan of a great and wise
ruler. This kingdom was unique in being the first of its kind in
providing that in every department of the government the same code of
morals which apply to the conduct of the individual must apply with
equal force to every act of the government itself. In particular, the
commands, "Thou shalt not kill" and "Thou shalt not
steal" were rigidly enforced.
Before that time it had been assumed that the king could do no wrong
and this had been interpreted to mean that the government, for
example, could sacrifice its own people in warfare in order to satisfy
what was termed "economic necessity." But the far greater
crime of governments had been the relentless taking of property away
from citizens by taxation, in total disregard of property rights or
other demands of justice.
In recognition of the people's gratitude to their king and as an
expression of their love and loyalty, there had been erected
voluntarily by them temples in every part of the kingdom, where they
were accustomed to assemble in order to express their fealty to their
ruler and to consider plans proposed from time to time for their
cooperation with him in his great enterprise.
II. DECLINE
Now it came to pass that in the course of time, being well pleased
with the administration of his kingdom and having confidence in the
ability of his subjects, by use of the native intelligence with which
they had been endowed, to continue the government as established, the
king concluded to abdicate in favor of another. The people were on a
certain day to select this successor to their beloved ruler. In due
course the new king was placed in power and the smoothness and success
with which the new administration continued prompted much praise.
As time passed, however, it became evident that variation in little
ways from the old regime was taking place. Insidiously the prevailing
sentiment was changed from justice to charity. These changes were
imperceptible at first, but they grew with accelerating force as a
result of special privileges which were being given by the new king to
favored followers. While hitherto the people had been free without
hindrance to exchange their products with those of other nations, a
new plan was now imposed which penalized them for so doing. These
protected interests were thus enabled to charge monopoly prices for
their products. In extenuation for this change the new king explained
to his people that this was really to their own advantage, as it would
prevent the entry into their country of the products of pauper labor
from abroad, and it was therefore helpful in sustaining the high
standard of living which they enjoyed. Those responsible for this
argument were hardly aware that it was precisely the same argument
which is used against the employment of labor-saving machinery.
But there was one effect of this tax which the people did not like.
For they soon found that they themselves were not able to sell to
other nations, as they had previously done, the products of their own
labor. This started a dullness in trade with resulting unemployment of
many, something new in their experience.
In place of the old plan of collecting a fair percentage from those
who developed the natural resources of precious and base metals, coal
and oil, the sources of this natural wealth were now sold outright to
these favored people who were then privileged to collect increased
prices for same. This became possible by the private ownership of
monopolized natural resources.
These changes had already caused some grumbling and discontent, but
it remained for the new king to put into execution the cleverest of
all devices by which special privilege was to be gratified at the
expense of the common people. This new plan reduced the royal domain,
the land, to private ownership, although theretofore it had been
sacredly preserved as the property of the whole people. The great
significance of this change was not appreciated at first, but little
by little it came to be realized that the public revenue which had
previously been sufficient for the payment of all governmental
expenses was now diverted more and more into the hands of the
landlords. These landlords had secured titles not only to the land
itself, but they also came into possession of the economic or ground
rent of land, which is purely a community value and which therefore
should have been sacredly conserved for the public.
Insidiously, by ninety-nine-year leases and other devices, the golden
stream which previously had emptied into the public treasury, thus
taking care of the expenses of government without taxing anyone, was
now largely diverted into the pockets of landlords. A new way to get
rich was thus established and "Napoleons of Finance"
habitually advised young men to buy inside property, and to hold it
until it could be sold with large profit over the original cost, in
this way to gather where they had not sown and to appropriate the
revenue that rightfully belonged to the community. The effect of this
was to increase all rents paid for the use of desirable locations.
Certain families which had held title to lands at the centers of
population thus came into royal incomes without having to give
anything in return. In many cases these landlords refused to sell, and
as a result more than half of the area of every city consisted in
unused vacant lots, the monopoly of which had the direct effect of
increasing the sales price or rental to be paid for any land that was
available for use.
The same phenomenon was to be observed in agricultural districts.
Farming lands which had previously been available for use at nominal
cost were now to be obtained only at excessive prices per acre. This
involved so much for the purchase of an ordinary farm that the average
farmer could not make the purchase without borrowing a large portion
of the price. This new plan gave the landlords the power to collect
immense revenues for the use of the land which the old king had
originally provided as a free gift to all of his people. Before long
this resulted in the change of ownership from the independent farmer
to those who were able to monopolize the land. Thus the increase of
land tenantry proceeded until nearly every farm was cultivated by a
tenant.
The new king took notice of this and endeavored to remedy the trouble
by the payment of fabulous amounts of money to the farmers as a reward
for their promising not to raise one crop or as a bonus for actually
raising another. He loaned public money to these farmers at
artificially low interest rates. He also made loans upon their corn,
cotton and other products at artificially high rates in an effort to
create prosperity, and meanwhile the total amount of farm loans grew
enormously. Of course, it followed that the farmer was obliged to
charge unnaturally high prices for all which he sold instead of the
low prices which prevailed when the land itself had no selling value.
Another unfortunate result of higher prices for farm products was the
loss of world markets enjoyed under the reign of the old king when
prices were low. Agriculture, now becoming overcrowded, farmers and
their sons were driven from the soil to seek employment in the
industrial centers. The cities in turn became overcrowded with the
result that millions of men were forced into the army of unemployed.
Labor leaders, ignorant of natural law, regarded employers as economic
enemies who were getting more than their share of profits ; and the
numerous strikes instituted to secure abnormally high wages were
supported by the new king.
The new king also granted huge subsidies to farmers in accordance
with the theory that by making them prosperous, their prosperity would
filter back to the classes which had been taxed for their benefit. The
result of this was to make agriculture artificially attractive, and by
the production of unnaturally large crops to aggravate instead of to
relieve the problem.
The new regime thus introduced a long series of contradictions to
natural law. These were conceived in an effort to make the people
prosperous, but had the effect of deepening the business depression.
For example, the king had observed that in prosperous times wages were
high and hours of labor comparatively short. He therefore issued an
edict that wages must be high and hours of labor short, regardless of
the operation of natural law.
It also happened that the king, being urged by representatives of the
farmers to increase the price of farm products, promulgated laws which
had that effect, to the detriment of the general public. Observing
that rents were increasing, the king, instead of repealing all taxes
upon buildings and improvements, provided huge amounts of government
money to be loaned at low rates of interest to those who wanted to
build.
Again, in order to stimulate commerce, the king, in- stead of
proclaiming free trade with all nations, appointed commissions to
promote foreign trade while retaining high tariff walls around his
kingdom.
Departments of agriculture, agricultural colleges, irrigation
projects, including huge dams together with other methods, were used
to promote maximum crops, which then became embarrassing problems.
Mother Nature is a jealous mistress who punishes with inexorable
severity those who break her laws or attempt to nullify them.
Individuals and governments alike are thus chastised. Puzzled
politicians have vainly sought elsewhere for the cause of hard times.
As matters grew from bad to worse, leading directly to anarchy and
chaos, it was to have been expected that the temples which had been
established all over the country would have used their influence for
the restoration of that kingdom in whose honor they had been founded ;
and that this influence should have been supplemented by cooperation
of the educational systems of the country. But those who controlled
the temples had adopted the theory that their province was concerned
only with the spiritual welfare of men, and that their
responsibilities were bounded by the four walls of these temples. Many
of the halls of learning had been founded and practically subsidized
by beneficiaries of special privileges which had not existed in the
original kingdom, and these special privileges it was now desired to
perpetuate. Those who were responsible for the influence exerted by
the schools and colleges had accordingly condemned the natural law
which had previously prevailed, and had replaced this with specious
but unscientific substitutes having the effect of clouding the issue
and preventing restoration of the old regime.
III. REGENERATION
It has been well said that democracy without religion is an
intellectual orphan. It is also true that religion without democracy
is a spiritual orphan. For democracy and religion are inseparable. The
Fatherhood of God leads to religion; the Brotherhood of Man to
democracy. The principles of democracy are in harmony with religion
because they are based on natural law established by the Creator,
while state socialism and all other non-democratic forms of
government, having repudiated natural law, are essentially
non-religious and lead to atheism. In the temples it developed at last
that the responsibility of those in charge extended quite as much to
the welfare of all the people, based as this was upon the divine
virtue of justice, as it did to the individuals who supported the
temples. True, these temples had unctuously implored divine blessings
upon their ruler in their weekly meetings, but the Heavenly Father had
abstained from helping those who stupidly refrained from helping
themselves in a rational way. Seeing the error of their ways, a change
came over the people. Leaders in the temples who demanded the
restoration of natural law now became more and more numerous and
influential. One of these explained natural law by saying, "It
simply means making room at the Father's table for all his children."
Another stated that the people should first seek restoration of
natural law, after which all the blessings of prosperity would be
added unto them, this being a new interpretation of familiar
scripture. And in response to a general demand for the restoration of
the study of the science of political economy in schools and colleges,
natural law was restored to its rightful place in government.
So it happened that little by little a complete transformation took
place in the character and the consequent influence of these temples
which had been erected in honor of the king for having established an
ideal government.
The iniquity of the then existing social order was made to give way
to what had been originally established, and these temples were now
devoted to the restoration and support of the original order of
things. Those in the temples whose protest was strongest were exposed
and driven therefrom, while those who in the halls of learning
rebelled at the new order were made to give their places to others,
all by popular consent.
At last reason prevailed not only in the temples but, what was
equally important, in the halls of learning. Leaders arose who led the
people in a successful revolution, resulting in the deposition of the
king and the complete restoration of the natural order that had been
responsible for the prosperity of the people as originally planned by
the founder of their kingdom.
The operation was as simple as it was effective. One by one the taxes
upon business and industry were repealed. This was, in every instance,
followed by increased business activities and additional employment of
the idle. As these taxes were abolished the government simultaneously
increased its collection of its natural revenue, ground rent, and this
enabled the reduction of those enormous expenses of government. As
free trade with other peoples was inaugurated a new impetus was given
to industry of every kind.
As the inflated values which had characterized all lands were
cancelled, this had the effect of restoring the land to the people, in
consequence of which agriculture became profitable in a natural way
and all rents paid for the use of land of any kind were reduced to a
normal basis.
The government thereafter made no demands upon citizens except
payment for equivalent public services rendered. The certainty that no
laws would be passed contrary to natural law gave full encouragement
to all business enterprises. Other striking features of the change
were the reduction of public expenses to but a fraction of what they
had been, and extirpation of the spoils system, together with the
entire removal of patronage from legislators. Restoration of normal
commercial relations with the rest of the world enabled the reduction
of armaments to a police basis.
Prosperity was thus restored not by any magical influence, but by
compliance with the laws of nature provided by a wise and beneficent
Creator. At last every one of numerous taxes had been repealed,
leaving only for the government collection of economic or ground rent.
This was the superlative achievement of a perfected democracy under
Natural Law.
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