APPENDIX  D

177

right  of  all  men  to  life  and  to  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  a  right
based  upon  the  brotherhood  of  man  which  is  derived  from  the
fatherhood  of  God.  This  is  the  injustice  that  we  would
abolish  in  order  to  abolish  involuntary  poverty.
That  the  appropriation  of  the  rental  value  of  land  to-  public
uses  in  the  form  of  a  tax  would  abolish  the  injustice  which  has
just  been  described,  and  thus  abolish  involuntary  poverty,
is  clear;  since  in  such  case  no  one  would  hold  lands  except
for  use,  and  the  masses  of  men,  having  free  access  to  unoccupied
lands,  would  be  able  to  Acert  their  labour  directly  upon  natural
bounties  and  to  enjoy  the  full  fruits  and  products  of  their
labours,  beginning  to  pay  a  portion  of  the  fruits  of  their  industry
to  the  public  treasury  only  when,  with  the  growth  of  the  community ­
  and  the  extension  to  them  of  the  benefits  of  civilisation,
there  would  come  to  their  lands  a  rental  value  distinct  from
the  value  of  the  products  of  their  industry,  which  value  they
would  willingly  pay  as  the  exact  equivalent  of  the  new  advantages ­
  coming  to  them  from  the  community;  and  again  in  such
case  men  would  not  be  compelled  to  work  for  employers  for
wages  less  than  absolutely  just  wages,  namely,  the  equivalent
of  the  new  value  created  by  their  labour;  since  men  surely
would  not  consent  to  work  for  unjust  wages,  when  they  could
obtain  perfectly  just  wages  by  working  for  themselves;  and,
finally,  since,  when  what  belongs  to  the  community  shall  have
been  given  to  the  community,  the  only  valuable  things  that
men  shall  own  as  private  property  will  be  those  things  that
have  been  produced  by  private  industry,  the  boundless  desires
and  capacities  of  civilised  human  nature  for  good  things  will
always  create  a  demand  for  these  good  things,  namely,  the
products  of  labour  —  a  demand  always  greater  than  the
supply;  and  therefore  for  the  labour  that  produces  these
good  things  there'will  always  be  a  demand  greater  than  the
supply  and  the  labourer  will  be  able  to  command  perfectly
just  wages—  which  are  a  perfect  equivalent  in  the  product  of
some  other  person’s  labour  for  the  new  value  which  his  own
labour  produces.