Rampaging Socialism

Oscar B. Johannsen

[Reprinted from The Gargoyle, May 1962]

As the cancer of our unjust and unwise system of land tenure metastasizes throughout the nation, the economic quacks devise remedies which increase its disastrous, effects. The palliatives offered invariably are of a socialistic nature, and at the present time have become so numerous and so all embracing that the average citizen is becoming increasingly uneasy.

Most believe that this is a new development. Actually, it is the culmination of a series of socialistic measures which have snowballed to a point where one would have to be blind not to notice.

It all started with the inception of our nation, if not before. The ownership of human beings, and the ownership of the one thing human beings need for survival -- land -- were permitted. These evils created problems which resulted in attempts to reform from the very beginning.

The early history of the United States is studded with measures to circumvent the iniquity of human slavery. It was not until the Civil war abolished this evil that its serious effects on the economic, moral and social life of the nation were eliminated . Probably not until many years later was it generally recognized that the nation, and particularly the South, would have been better off if slavery had never been introduced into the country.

__ ____ _ All during this period, the ownership of land brought with it involuntary poverty on the part of many of the people together with successive booms and busts. To alleviate these conditions, socialistic measures were introduced from time to time in Congress and in the various legislative bodies. For example, as a result of poverty, reformers concerned with the education of poor children came up with the socialistic proposal of making education a function of government. This was done in the 1830's. The result was that for the most part primary and secondary education was conducted in socialistic institutions called public schools. This has been in existence so long that most people have lost sight of the fact that public schools are socialised schools. Had it not been for the poverty of many people which was occasioned by the land problem, there would not have appeared the necessity for socialized schools, so today we would have had the finest private schools in the world, just as we have the finest private medical system in the world.

Up until the past generation, the socialistic measures which were adopted were done so sporadically. This was probably because of the free land available in the West. However, once for all practical purposes, the land in America was all enclosed, it was inevitable that either the land problem would be solved or socialistic measures would proliferate to ameliorate the economic and social problems which would become increasingly worse. The very fact that such socialistic institution as our socialistic school system exacerbated the problems. Not only were they an economic drain, but with the inevitable emphasis on secularism and the denial of religious values, the graduates were amenable to the socialistic proposals which are now snowballing.

What started out slowly over 150 years ago has reached a point where it seems almost impossible to stop. Today we have such proposals as socialized housing under the innocuous term of urban renewal. We have socialized medicine under the dishonest euphemism of medicare. We even have proposals for the removal of protective tariffs which are in the direction of freedom, but these proposals are tied in with so many devices to help business which presumably will be hurt by lowering tariffs that the net result is greater socialization of business.

With increasing socialism comes a decrease in freedom. The President's castigation of the steel companies for doing what they had a perfect right to do, raise their prices, is the clearest possible indication that we are losing our freedom at an alarming rate.

What can be done about it? Conservative groups and organizations are springing up all over the country as a result of people's awakening to the threats to freedom. However, although this conservative revival will probably stem the tide to socialism for a time, it will not stop it. The economic dislocations brought on by the land problem will make it appear necessary for the government to institute socialistic measures.

The only real solution is to solve the land problem. The possibilities of doing that at the present time are exceedingly small. The only ones who recognize that the land problem is the cancer which turns government into a socialistic state are the Georgists. The classical economic students, who call themselves libertarians, unfortunately do not understand the importance of the treatment of the land, they recognize the dangers of the socialistic state, but not the dangers of the private ownership of land.

All any of us can do is to keep trying. While the probabilities of awakening the people to the land problem are small, nonetheless with modern means of communication - the radio, television and newspapers - it is, at least, possible that almost overnight a gigantic debate of this whole subject might occur.

Unless something like this occurs, it is almost certain that the creeping socialism in America will turn into rampaging socialism.