Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/291

 planted. Let us assume that we have data in hand by which we know that this fertility-value is normally in proportion to the number of acre-feet of water we can hold for a certain length of time upon a definite area. Granted that we know the amount of water we have available in our reservoir, the problem, as a matter of fact, can be solved by a surveyor with a few simple instruments of measurement; but if we want an actual picture of our values in terms of fertility, all we have to do is to throw a dike around this area and flood it with our available water. The total fertility-value of the land can be measured by the total amount of water available: the value of fractional areas can be measured by the amount of water which is delivered to these areas, and the minus value of the remaining projections can be measured by the areas which are visible above the water table. But, however these fractional values vary, the sum of them must always be equal to the total number of acre-feet. In the same way, population, under democracy, will justly measure the basic value of total area, and local population-density will measure the proportional value of any fractional area.

Such a conception as this does not assume any unmeasurable or arbitrary “value” such as those delirious conceptions which would measure area by its “richness” or its “social utility” in terms of our fluctuating dollar: on the contrary, it simply takes into our reckoning the fact that with the achievement of democracy certain closely-guarded areas of value, controlled by individuals, came politically under community control and should properly have been merged in the whole economic system by the imposition of pro rata responsibility. This change, together with the fact that we provided politically for freedom of individual movement, made the whole national area subject to the same scientific law which governs dynamic value of any kind, namely, that such value is a measurable modification of the equilibrium in which it is exerted. The continuation of an arbitrary system of taxation, based on need and activity, and the maintenance of a gold-standard of value, with no attempt to take production and ownership of gold out of private or alien hands, thus controlling its quantity, left strongholds of im-