What the Commonwealth
Land Party Want

J. W. Graham Peace

[First published 1925]

We want the land, the whole land, and nothing but the land.

We want it for the whole people, not for any section, and we want it now not by instalments but all at once.

Why We Want the Land.

Because it is impossible to live without it.

Because it is the only source of any wealth.

Because from it alone Labour produces all wealth.

Because our food is wealth drawn from land.

Because our clothes are wealth drawn from land.

Because our houses are wealth drawn from land and built on land.

Because everything we need through life is wealth drawn from land.

Because it is the gift of Nature to all mankind, not only to those now living upon it, but to all the generations yet to come. Because it is the storehouse in which is contained more than enough of all that man needs to sustain his life and minister to his comfort.

Because every child comes into this world with an equal right to life.

Because each child brings with it not only a mouth, but hands and arms by which it can in due time feed, clothe and house itself from land.

The Land Lords who now claim the land as their private property deny the equal right to life of the landless and, by compelling these to pay rent, actually charge them for permission to live.

How We Propose to Get the Land

Not by purchase; land, being the gift of Nature to all her children for equal use, cannot, never has been, nor ever can be private property.

Not by any method of "compensation"; that would be to admit a right that does not exist.

Not by counting the people and measuring the land and then dividing it into equal portions. Such a mechanical division could not be carried out, for we do not all require to use the same area of land; the farmer will need a number of acres for his work, while a worker in the town may occupy but a fraction of an acre.

Not by any partial or step-by-step taxation of laud values: experience has shown that we cannot get the land that way. Not by Leasehold Enfranchisement: that would be to make more Land Lords.

Not by any method of Nationalisation: that would involve a great State department, with a number of costly and unnecessary officials.

Not by Confiscation: the land is, and always has been, the property of the living. They have not got it, consequently it is being confiscated now. To restore the land would not be confiscation but restitution.

The C.L.P. propose that a Declaration of Common Right to the Land shall be made in the House of Commons, after which the whole of the land shall be deemed as from an appointed date to be restored to the people.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer could immediately introduce a Finance Bill (Budget) in which there would be no taxes, but making provision for the collection from each holder of any land of its full annual rent. The whole of the rent to be pooled, and part allocated to the municipalities per head of population, as revenue in lieu of rates; these to be entirely abolished at once. The balance of the Land-Rent Fund would be used for nationally-administered public services.

All land has a value and its rent can be easily ascertained. By collecting the rent of land whether used or held idle, and using the Land-Rent to pay for public services every citizen would pay for the land he desired to use, and would get his equal share of the value of the land returned to him in those services.

The economic rent of land is the natural revenue of a community. Public expenditure should not, and need not, exceed the amount of the annual Land-Rent Fund, which grows from year to year as population expands, and thus provides automatically for increasing social needs.

What We Claim For This Plan.

That it is just: consequently no injustice can be done in puthing it into effect.

That it is simple: requiring no elaborate machinery, and that no new Act of Parliament would be necessary. As a Finance measure it would be entirely within the scope of the House of Commons, and the Lords could not interfere to prevent its passage into law.

That it will smash land monopoly making it unprofitable to hold any land idle.

That it will abolish unemployment: opening all the natural resources of the country to the labour of the people.

That it will raise and keep wages at their natural level: removing the unemployed man, whose competition it is that now forces wages down in spite of all the organisation of labour.

That it will make all men masters of their own lives since, with all natural resources open to labour, no man will be under the obligation to work for another for ages in order to live.

That by ensuring the maximum production, there being no unemployed, it will keep prices low, thus increasing the purchasing power of wages.

That it will abolish the present wage-slavery and place all workers upon an equal footing with employers in bargaining for employment. The employer knowing that the man need -- -~ not take the job: the man, knowing that the employer knows.

That it will abolish slums, since it will no longer pay to keep these dens upon valuable land, the full rental of which has to be paid quite regardless of the use or non-use of the land itself.

That it will solve the transport question: the land being restored, the community will be able to take whatever it wants for roads without any payment to Land Lords.

That it will solve the housing question for the same reason.

That the abolition of rates upon buildings and machinery will make possible and desirable the adoption of every form of labour-saving device, and that, in the absence of unemployed, such devices will really be labour-saving in the direction of increasing leisure; not, as now, leading to a reduction in the number of "hands" required.

That it will secure to the community the entire increase in land value due to public improvements.

That it will abolish involuntary poverty : no able-bodied person will be unable to secure an opportunity to work either upon his own account, or for an employer.

That it will for ever remove the fear of want, with which will go all that ugly selfishness that is so manifest under present conditions.

That it will give human nature a chance to develop free from the stunting and distorting influences that disfigure it to-day.

That it will permanently improve our trade since trade is only the exchange of goods for goods. "Goods" are wealth drawn from land, and with land freed from the grip of mono poly, there will be no check either upon the production of goods or upon their exchange.