The Land Question in British Politics

Matthew Warriner

[An address delivered at the Henry George Congress, Chicago, 12 September 1928. Reprinted from Land and Freedom, Vol. XXVIII, No.6, November-December 1928]

WHILE I am not a Single Taxer, I do believe that Henry George was the greatest moral and economic teacher in the history of the world. He set forth very clearly in the Law of Human Progress that mankind could achieve peace and satisfaction only by associating with one another on equal terms.

The economic condition in Great Britain is described as distressing, as appalling and intolerable. However, I contend that when a situation really becomes intolerable something is done about it, and those who are preventing the situation from improving will have cause to fear.

England has lost her supremacy in the markets of the world. In the coal industry, which was a great economic resource of England, today there are 250,000 surplus men. If I lived in South Wales, I would be a surplus man. I have heard that there are 500,000 children in South Wales who are actually on the point of starvation.

As to the textile trade, all the countries of Europe are learning to manufacture their own cotton and wool materials.

In the majority of trades the ranks of the unemployed are increasing, and are now officially stated to be 1,500, 000. This figure includes only those on the registered exchanges. It does not include a lot of men who are too proud to beg because there is some pride in the men of England yet. Visualize two or three million people out of employment and you will see at once that attention is going to be forced upon the land question in England.

The argument has started, and we shall take it up and make it hotter and hotter.

The unemployment question is the land question. You call it poverty; you call it unemployment; it is all the same thing. The trade unions and trade union leaders who are trying to better the condition of their members have misled their members. The trade unions are now being forced to accept reductions in wages.

The Church is still influential in England.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, after a brief consideration of the problems, referred to the depression in England as an industrial blight. "What I think is necessary is a revival of religion." I think he is right about this. If Englishmen would take the religion of Henry George, and give up their privileges in land, they could accomplish much.

We next come to the Tory party the old responsible party of England. They are a fine bunch. Mr. Baldwin is the cleverest leader they could have selected. But as to the unemployment question; what does he say about it? What does he say about the land question, which they do not like to admit as being the same? He says "I do not know anything about it, and I have never professed to know. If the people want redemption, they must re- deem themselves."

Now as to the Liberals. Mr. Lloyd George, who won the war, said that he was going to make England a land fit for heroes. It seems to me you have to be a hero to live in England now.

On occasions when the land question was investigated, research committees said that the land of England belongs to the people. But the land is the gift of the Almighty to less than 1,000 people in England. God has evidently forgotten the other forty million.

The Labor Party is making a very much needed protest against the unequal distribution of the wealth that is being produced in England.

Is there a hint in any of these parties that they begin to know anything about this land question? I cannot discover it. I do not see that they are trying to do anything to solve the problem. Can you look for any help from any of these parties?

It is true that the Liberal Party has been flirting with the Taxation of Land Values for over forty years. But try to look for anything effective, and there is nothing in any of them.

What about the Taxation of Land Values people? They are all good people. Enough has been said as to the injury that has been done to the cause of Henry George by the use of Tax and Taxes. There is no appeal in the Taxation of Land Value at all. It is advisable for you who call yourselves Single Taxers to examine why it is that you have not made more progress.

You point to Australia and say, you have Land Value Taxation there. Actually land monopolies are more firmly entrenched in Australia than ever.

Henry George has not failed. He has never been tried. But Taxation of Land Values will always fail. When you say to a man "Don't you pay your taxes, they are all unnecessary," he will not understand you. Tell him "If you have land pay the rent of it" and he will answer you, "That would suit me fine." The idea is at once clear to him. The truth is that so long as land value taxation is mixed up with taxes on the products of labor, you will have land monopoly, and will have it entrenched for all time.

A few of us got together under the leadership of Mr. Outhwaite, who is a passionate lover of freedom, and we said this attempt to compromise with a principle is bound to fail and the attempt only wastes time. This attempt to get 20% justice is a waste of time. Let us go to the people and say to them, "You have a right to live on earth." Let us go to them and ask them Will you stand behind us if we go and demand the equal right of every man to the bounties of nature and attack the robbery of taxation?

Do you wonder that, seeing the truth, we decided to go out on our own when we found Mr. Snowden telling the people we are going to buy the land of England for the people of England and it is not going to cost you a penny. How does he explain that? He means to say they are going to pay for it in paper. Well of course it is crooked. I do not like to attribute such motives to people; I really think it is ignorance. Among so much ignorance there is no room for sin.

We mean to go at it definitely and work at it definitely. We will go out for the by-elections. At the expenditure of very little money we will make more impression on the people of England than those of our friends who operate through the Labor, or any other existing party.