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THE  ABCOF  TAXATION

created  by  those  tributary  surroundings  which  are
provided  through  taxation,  and  hence  such  value  is
largely  the  product  of  the  labour  of  the  community  as
represented  in  its  public,  quasi-public,  and  private
outlays.  A  man  who  owns  land  owns  the  soil,  which
of  itself  has  little  or  no  value,  and  he  owns  every  right
and  privilege,  fee,  title,  etc.,  pertaining  to  the  land
from  zenith  to  earth’s  centre,  exclusive  and  absolute
as  against  any  other  individual,  but  qualified  and
conditional  as  against  the  community.
Private  ownership  of  land  may  be  defined  as  the
proprietorship  of  the  rights  and  privileges  pertaining
to  the  situation.  It  extends  to  the  exclusion  of  all
other  persons  (person  being  limited  in  law  to  “  an
individual,  or  a  body  corporate,  other  than  the  State”),
but  is  subject  always  to  the  claims  of  the  community
to  its  share  in  the  value  of  those  rights  and  privileges,
so  far  as  that  value  is  a  social  product,  this  claim  to
be  asserted  and  maintained  by  means  of  the  sovereign
power  of  taxation.
Property  in  land,  ownership  of  land,  in  law,  means
tenure,  holding,  right  of  possession  (subject  to  the
sovereign  right  of  taxation)  and  no  more.  The  owner
can  have  no  more  enjoyment  of  these  rights  than  can
the  possessor  as  defined  by  Henry  George.  Either
must  have  an  exclusive  enjoyment  (proprietorship)
in  the  benefits  of  which  no  one  else  can  claim  a  share
except  through  the  agency  of  taxation.  The  rights  of
the  public  are  the  same  under  either  definition.
If,  under  the  single  tax,  land  owners  should  be
allowed  to  retain  a  small  percentage  of  rent,  there  is
no  moral  difference  whether  such  privilege  attach  to
their  ownership  or  to  their  possession.  In  either  case