What, then, do we propose to do? I think there are very few Socialists who wish to confiscate the land without any kind of compensation. But all Socialists demand that the land shall return to the possession of the people. Britain for the British! What could be more just? How are the people to get the land? There are many suggestions. Perhaps the fairest would be to allow the landowner the same latitude that is allowed to the inventor, who, as Mr. Mallock claims, is really the creator of two-thirds of our wealth. We allow the inventor to draw rent on his patent for fourteen years. Why not limit the private possession of land to the same term? Pay the present owners of land the full rent for fourteen or, say, twenty years, or, in a case where land has been bought in good faith, within the past fifty years, allow the owner the full rent for thirty years. This would be more than we grant our inventors, though they _add_ to the national wealth, whereas the landlord simply takes wealth away from the national store. The method I here advise would require a "Compulsory Purchase Act" to compel landowners to sell their land at a fair price to the nation when and wherever the public convenience required it. This view is expressed clearly in a speech made by the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain at Trowbridge in 1885-- We propose that local authorities shall have power in every case to take land by compulsion at a fair price for every public purpose, and that they should be able to let the land again, with absolute security of tenure, for allotments and for small holdings. Others, again, recommend a land tax, and with perfect justice. If the City Council improves a street, at the cost of the ratepayer, the landlord raises his rent. What does that mean? It means that the ratepayer has increased the value of the landlord's property at the cost of the rates. It would only be just, then, that the whole increase should be taken back from the landlord by the city. Therefore, it would be quite just to tax the landlords to the full extent of their "unearned increment." In _Progress and Poverty_, and in the book on _Land Nationalisation_ by Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, you will find these subjects of the taxation and the purchase of land fully and clearly treated. My object is to show that it is to the interest of the nation that the private ownership of land should cease. _Books to Read on the Land_:-- _Progress and Poverty._ By Henry George, 1s. Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner, & Co. _Land Nationalisation._ By Alfred Russell Wallace, 1s. Swan Sonnenschein. _Five Precursors of Henry George._ By J. Morrison Davidson. London, Labour Leader Office, 1s. CHAPTER VI LUXURY AND THE GREAT USEFUL EMPLOYMENT FRAUD There is one excuse which is still too often made for the extravagance of the rich, and that is the excuse that "_The consumption of luxuries by the rich finds useful employment for the poor_."