Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/109

 Area is the only controllable factor of current value. Individual effort is not controllable, and while Time, if we invest it with personality, may appear subject to appeal, giving us an easy dollar for each dollar raised by effort (like some multi-millionaire philanthropist), in reality is an inexorable factor which, not only cannot be controlled, but which, if we personally ignore, starves, kills and decomposes us and makes to land another small contribution of carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen.

If we had the One-Big-Union of which organized labor dreams, the land owner might be inclined to doubt his basic power, or if days could be rationed out like sugar, there might be some confusion as to the dependability of time; but time is fortunately out of our hands and labor cannot be primarily controlled by any individual without the creation of a new autocracy. The human animal has grown tired of Kings, of Captains of Industry and of so-called Labor-Leaders, in exact proportion to their domination. If this becomes effective we spew them out as obstacles; but as long as they merely represent a strong sentiment, we respect or endure them. From an intelligent reading of history we can see that the accomplishment of being spewed out with some dignity has come to be regarded as a “royal” attribute, whether exhibited by a Louis or a Napoleon. In the end all arbitraries go; and our apparent respect for them, when we look back, has very much the appearance of fattening the victim for the inevitable sacrifice.

The ultimate human control of economic value, then, rests logically upon the control of land-area, and this for the vital reason that land is limited in quantity and, since acquisition by conquest became unfashionable under democracy, has not been subject to unexpected and distressing duplication. Labor, limited only by time, can redouble its effort, or for awhile it can go on strike and cease entirely. No individual, whether autocrat or demagogue, can halve or double the available area of land within fixed political boundaries.

The general importance of land as an economic factor is clearly demonstrated by experience and history, and so well supported by philosophers of the caliber of Herbert Spencer and John Stuart Mill that there should be little need to argue