Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer's early writings, including Social Statics, were
of an entirely different spirit from his later writings. Henry George called
attention to the difference.
Herbert Spencer: Social Statics
Given a race of beings having like claims to pursue the objects of their
desires; given a world adapted to the gratification of those desires — a
world into which such beings are similarly born — and it unavoidably
follows that they equal rights to the use of this world. For if each of them
has "freedom
to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom
of any other," then each of them is free to use the earth for the satisfaction
of his wants, provided he allows all others the same liberty. And
conversely, it is manifest that no one, or part of them, may use the
earth in such
a way as to prevent the rest from similarly using it; seeing that to
do this
is
to assume greater freedom than the rest, and consequently to break the
law.
Equity, therefore, does not permit property in land. For if one portion
of the earth's surface may justly become the possession of an individual
and
may be held by him for his sole use and benefit as a thing to which he
has an exclusive right, then other portions of the earth's surface may be
so held;
and eventually the whole of the earth's surface may be so held, and our
planet may thus lapse altogether into private hands. Observe now the dilemma
to which
this leads. Suppose the entire habitable globe to be so enclosed, it follows
that if the landowners have a valid right to its surface, all who are
not landowners have no right at all to its surface. Hence, such can exist
on the
earth by sufferance only. They are all trespassers. Save by the permission
of the lords of the soil, they can have no room for the soles of their
feet. Nay, should the others think fit to deny them a resting place, these
landless
men
might equitably be expelled from the earth altogether. If, then, the assumption
that land can be held as property involves that the whole globe may become
the private domain of a part of its inhabitants; and if, by consequence,
the rest of its inhabitants can then exercise their faculties — then
exist even
— only by consent of the landowners, it is manifest than an exclusive
possession of the soil necessitates an infringement of the law of equal freedom.
For
men who cannot "live and move and have their being" without
the leave of others cannot be equally free with those others.
Herbert Spencer, quoted by James Dundas White in a pamphlet entitled "Land-Value
Policy"
"You have turned over the soil to a few inches in depth with a spade
or a plough; you have scattered over this prepared surface a few seeds ;
and you have gathered the fruits which the sun, rain, and air helped the
soil to produce. Just tell me, if you please, by what magic have these acts
made you sole owner of that vast mass of matter, having for its base the
surface of your estate, and for its apex the centre of the globe? . . . You
say truly, when you say that 'whilst they were unreclaimed these lands belonged
to all men.' And it is my duty to tell you that they belong to all men still;
and that your ' improvements' as you call them, cannot vitiate the claim
of all men. You may plough and harrow, and sow and reap; you may turn over
the soil as often as you like; but all your manipulations will fail to make
that soil yours, which was not yours to begin with. . . . This extra worth
which your labour has imparted to it is fairly yours . . . but admitting
this, is quite a different thing from recognising your right to the land
itself." [Herbert Spencer, Social Statics, 1851, ix, 4]
Rev. A. C. Auchmuty: Gems from George,
a themed collection of excerpts from the writings of Henry
George (with links to sources)
GREAT as John Stuart Mill was and pure as he was — warm heart
and noble mind — he yet never saw the true harmony of economic
laws, nor realized how from this one great fundamental wrong flow want
and misery, and vice and shame. Else he could never have written this
sentence: "The land of Ireland, the land of every country, belongs to
the people of that country. The individuals called landowners have no
right in morality and justice to anything but the rent, or compensation
for its salable value."
In the name of the Prophet — figs! If the land of any country belong to
the people of that country, what right, in morality and justice, have the individuals
called landowners to the rent? If the land belong to the people, why in the name
of morality and justice should the people pay its salable value for their own?
Herbert Spencer says: "Had we to deal with the parties who originally robbed
the human race of its heritage, we might make short work of the matter?" Why
not make short work of the matter anyhow? For this robbery is not like the robbery
of a horse or a sum of money, that ceases with the act. It is a fresh and continuous
robbery, that goes on every day and every hour. It is not from the produce of
the past that rent is drawn; it is from the produce of the present. It is a toll
levied upon labor constantly and continuously. Every blow of the hammer, every
stroke of the pick, every thrust of the shuttle, every throb of the steam engine
pay it tribute. It levies upon the earnings of the men who, deep underground,
risk their lives, and of those who over white surges hang to reeling masts; it
claims the just reward of the capitalist and the fruits of the inventor's patient
effort; it takes little children from play and from school, and compels them
to work before their bones are hard or their muscles are firm; it robs the shivering
of warmth; the hungry, of food; the sick, of medicine; the anxious, of peace.
It debases, and embrutes, and embitters. — Progress & Poverty — Book
VII, Chapter 3, Justice of the Remedy: Claim of Landowners to Compensation
... go to "Gems from George"
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