Page:The Complete Works of Henry George Volume 3.djvu/236

 44 THE CONDITION OF LABOR.

If, as 'your Holiness conveys, this inclusion of the words, " nor his field," is to be taken as sanctioning pri- vate property in land as it exists to-day, then, but with far greater force, must the words, " his man-servant, nor his maid-servant," be taken to sanction chattel slavery; for it is evident from other provisions of the same code that these terms referred both to bondsmen for a term of years and to perpetual slaves. But the word "field" involves the idea of use and improvement, to which the right of possession and ownership does attach without recognition of property in the land itself. And that this reference to the " field " is not a sanction of private prop- erty in land as it exists to-day is proved by the fact that the Mosaic code expressly denied such unqualified owner- ship in land, and with the declaration, "the land also shall not be sold forever, because it is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me," provided for its rever- sion every fiftieth year; thus, in a way adapted to the primitive industrial conditions of the time, securing to all of the chosen people a foothold in the soil.

Nowhere in fact throughout the Scriptures can the slightest justification be found for the attaching to land of the same right of property that justly attaches to the things produced by labor. Everywhere is it treated as the free bounty of God, "the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

6. That fathers should provide for their children and that private property in land is necessary to enable them to do so. (14-17.)

With all that your Holiness has to say of the sacred- ness of the family relation we are in full accord. But how the obligation of the father to the child can justify private property in land we cannot see. You reason that private property in land is necessary to the discharge of

�� �