Page:The Complete Works of Henry George Volume 3.djvu/114

 CHAPTER XVH.

IN HOC SIGNO VINCES.

EIT me recapitulate. What I want to impress upon those who may read this book is this :

The land question is nowhere a mere local question ; it is a universal question. It involves the great problem of the distribution of wealth, which is everywhere forcing itself upon attention.

It cannot be settled by measures which in their nature can have but local application. It can be settled only by measures which in their nature will apply everywhere.

It cannot be settled by half-way measures. It can be settled only by the acknowledgment of equal rights to land. Upon this basis it can be settled easily and per- manently.

If the Irish reformers take this ground, they will make their fight the common fight of all the peoples ; they will concentrate strength and divide opposition. They will turn the flank of the system that oppresses them, and awake the struggle in its very intrenchments. They will rouse against it a force that is like the force of rising tides.

What I urge the men of Ireland to do is to proclaim, without limitation or evasion, that the land, of natural right, is the common property of the whole people, and

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