Page:The Complete Works of Henry George Volume 3.djvu/72

 CHAPTER XI.

HOW TO WIN.

NOB, is it merely the laboring-classes of Great Britain who may thus be brought into the fight, if the true standard be raised. To demand the nationalization of land by the simple means I have proposed makes possible nay, as the discussion goes on, makes inevitable an irresistible combination, the combination of labor and capital against landlordism. This combination proved its power by winning the battle of free trade in 1846 against the most determined resistance of the landed interest. It would be much more powerful now, and, if it can again be made on the land question, it can again force the intrenchments of the landed aristocracy.

This combination cannot be made on any of the timid, illogical schemes as yet proposed ; but it can be made on the broad principle that land is rightfully common prop- erty. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is yet true that, while the present position of the Irish agitators does involve a menace to capital, the absolute denial of the right of private property in land would not.

In admitting that the landlords ought to get any rent at all, in admitting that, if the land is taken from them, they must be paid for it, the Irish agitators give away their whole case. For in this they admit that the land really belongs to the landlords, and put property in land in the same category with other property. Thus they

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