unearned increment from land has indeed made the position of an English
land-owner, for the last two hundred years, the most fortunate that any
class of mortals ever has enjoyed; but the present moment, when the
rent of agricultural land in England is declining under the
competition of American land, is not well chosen for attacking the old
advantage. Furthermore, the unearned increment from land appears in the
United States as a gain to the first comers, who have here laid the
foundations of a new State. Since the land is a monopoly, the unearned
increment lies in the laws of Nature. Then the only question is, Who
shall have it?--the man who has the ownership by prescription, or some
or all others? It is a beneficent incident of the ownership of land
that a pioneer who reduces it to use, and helps to lay the foundations
of a new State, finds a profit in the increasing value of land as the
new State grows up. It would be unjust to take that profit away from
him, or from any successor to whom he has sold it. Moreover, there is
an unearned increment on capital and on labor, due to the presence,
around the capitalist and the laborer, of a great, industrious, and
prosperous society. A tax on land and a succession or probate duty on
capital might be perfectly justified by these facts. Unquestionably
capital accumulates with a rapidity which follows in some high series
the security, good government, peaceful order of the State in which it
is employed; and if the State steps in, on the death of the holder, to
claim a share of the inheritance, such a claim may be fully justified.
The laborer likewise gains by carrying on his labor in a strong,
highly civilized, and well-governed State far more than he could gain
with equal industry on the frontier or in the midst of anarchy. He
gains greater remuneration for his services, and he also shares in the
enjoyment of all that accumulated capital of a wealthy community which
is public or semi-public in its nature.