Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/369

 from land and must go back to land to be effective, and which it is the utmost folly to blunt or divert, as we do, year by year.

What does it matter that a few are fortunate, if order is provided for ail, and needless destitution barred, in face of the fact that today many citizens are defrauded, and goaded into disloyalty under our present system.

As for the proposal to make land-area, gauged in terms of population-density, the basis of certified value, or currency, there is less likely to be an objection; for we all know that there is something wrong with our tokens of value and are only afraid to change until we are sure that there is available a better basis, to which to pin our faith, than imaginary gold or dubious political discretion.

Effort we can conceive: freedom we vaguely worship; but economic value is still a myth. Only in a measurable zone of self-imposed order has it any reality, and basic precision in its measurement is a pre-requisite of freedom in any given area, over any extended period of time.