LAND S. LI B E RTY

JULY & AUGUST, 1976

n,

Layfield—A Damp Squib

"r^HE non-event of the year" is ing the cogitations of the sixteen- are without merit, as will be seen how one critic has described man committee led by Mr. Frank from the summary of conclusions the report of the committee of en- Layfield, Q.C., is the lack of any printed on another page. quiry into local government fin- fundamental guiding principles as Our main concern, however, is ance* set up two years ago. Cer- a basis for their conclusions. to examine the reasons given by tainly there are no revelations, new Instead, it deals with conflicting the committee for their rejection of ideas or startling proposals in the principles and interests, all of site-value rating which are con- Report. Most of the arguments which must be balanced or modi- fined to one paragraph in the body in it have been bandied about for fied in some way so as to arrive at of the Report but given four pages years among politicians, journalists yet another compromise to be in the annex. and interested professional bodies grafted on to the patchwork of Evidence on the merits of site- and the only distinctive feature in local government legislation that value rating was submitted from at this Report of 500 pages contain- is now on the statute book. least five sources and while it was This is not to say that all the too much to hope that all the argu- • Local Government Finance, report of recommendations, if viewed within ments advanced would prove per- the Committee of Enquiry, published suasive, it was expected at least by H.M.S.O. £5.75. the context of present rating law, that the case for site-value rating Land & Liberty would be understood and that the committee's statements made JOURNAL OF THE UNITED COMMITTEE FOR THE about it and upon which they TAXATION OF LAND VALUES LTD. based their conclusions, would be accurate and clear. 177 VAUXHALL BRIDGE ROAD. LONDON. S.W.I The comments and criticism of TELEPHONE 01 834 4266 the committee give the appearance of relying not upon independent JULY & AUGUST, 1976 ISS No. 0023-7574 thinking but upon previous reports Established: JUNE, 1894 Annual Subscription: that have rejected site-value rating. Nos. 986 & 987 U.K. and Sterling Area: £2.50 Authority is sought from the VOL. LXXXIII U.S.A. and Canada: $5 Simes Committee's report despite the fact that its main arguments Editor Asst. Editor were torpedoed by the first Whit- V. H. BLUNDELL R. B. LINLEY stable Valuation in 1962, and from the government Green Paper The Future Shape of Local Govern- ment' which was universally con- demned for its superficial treat- ment of all aspects of rating re- form; largely, it was suspected, due to its being a scissors and paste job cribbed from a variety of selec- ted sources. In stating the arguments advan- ced in favour of site-value rating, the Report says: "Finally there is the argument Contents that the unrealised value of land is created by the community and not by the owner; site-value rating Layfield—A Damp Squib 49 Editorial would enable the community to recover a share of the value." This, of course, is not the argu- Main Points in the ment for site-value rating at all, Layfield Report 51 but almost word for word, the argument for the development land . Under site-value rating The Arrogance of Man 54 A. J. Carter the rate or tax is not confined to "unrealised" values but covers all existing land values whether real- A Problem as Old as ised or not, provided they are legally realisable. Naboth's Vineyard 56 Nicholas Bilitch This blunder is not just a pass- ing slip. It is repeated later: "Whether site-value rating is an Not so Free Enterprise 58 appropriate basis for promoting land use or taxing development gains is debatable." Land, Culture and the Stating that the new Develop- Biology of Man 59 Fred Harrison ment Land Tax will take care of the taxation of development values Billionaire and the Tax 62 Joseph Zashin

Are Justice and Liberty in Style Again? 63 Robert Clancy

Letters to the Editor 64 the Report continues: "In these circumstances, a local • See Pros and Cons of Site-Value Rating. a comment by Land & Liberty on the Green Paper. Land & Liberty Press lOp.

50 LAND & LIBERTY tax on site values loses its rele- erior use were forbidden by the Main Points in the Report of the vance."* planners. Layfleld Committee of Enquiry Does it indeed? Despite this logical and fair prin- into Local Government. Quite apart from these consi- ciple, an objection is raised against derations, the committee sees site-value rating that "It would be "powerful objections of principle unfair to tax owners on the full Recommendations and considerable practical diffi- potential site value in such cir- * Existing rating system should be culty" in site-value rating. The cumstances," as though this were retained but modified to meet powerful objections of principle proposed. modern conditions. * Domestic dwellings should be are not mentioned unless they are The problems attendant upon assessed on capital or selling resolving such matters, including contained in the committee's value in place of present annual "three tests" of site-value rating other statutory limitations preven- or letting value because there is which are as follows: ting a site owner from realising the more evidence of the former and (i) Whether the tax would foster full potentiality of his site, are declining evidence of the latter accountability; among those considered as having through the fall in the number (ii) how firm the foundation of considerable practical difficulty. of lettings at market rents. the tax would be for financing But let us take the criteria of * Agricultural land and buildings local services; the three tests of the committee should be brought into the rat- ing system. (iii) how readily the tax could be and see how they have applied them to site-value rating and found * A local income tax, to the order absorbed with full effect into of £1,500 million per annum, it wanting. the framework of local taxa- should be levied as an additional tion. (i) Whether the tax would foster source of income and as a means Not only are moral principles— accountability. of strengthening local autonomy. powerful ones—discreetly ignored, The argument here is that not all Estimated cost of administration so also are economic principles as site owners live in the same local —£100 million a year. is evidenced by the statement that authority area as that in which * The body which spends money "insofar as the burden of the tax their land is sited. Thus they should be responsible for raising were passed on to tenants, the would have no say through the it and councils should be res- local ballot box as to how their ponsible to their local electors levy would be hidden in rents." for the money they raise. But it is an economic axiom that were spent and on matters affecting their assessment. Local income tax proposed a tax upon the pure rent of land would not necessarily lead to in- cannot be shifted on to anyone But the present system, which crease in overall tax level but else. the committee wish to retain, would be used to reduce amount At one point, the committee operates to a comparable extent of Government grants and thus seem to grasp the principle of site- against this principle in that busi- reduce national taxation. ness firms in a rateable area have value rating as is shown by the Possible Further Sources statement that the liability for the no vote; only residents have. The tax is based on the market rental rate on empty which Tourist taxes, lotteries, vehicle excise tax. of the site and that every single belong to "absentee" landlords is parcel of land would have to be also levied without regard for elec- Rejected toral representation. valued. But then they say: "In Local fuel tax; taxes on profits of its intention, site-value rating If it is thought that this prin- local firms; payroll tax; local sales would tax those who would derive ciple is an important one, then a tax; prescribed share of national the potential benefit of develop- change in the local electoral sys- taxes; rating of site values. tem is the answer. ment value." NOTES: Finally it must be stated that Such conflicting statements can 1. Sixty-five per cent of present the accountability argument con- only cloud and confuse those not local expenditure contributed familiar with the principles of site- flicts with the suggestion that the by national government. I value rating. site tax would be "hidden in rents" 2. Three million employees of local One of the cardinal principles of in which case the absent site government absorb almost half site-value rating is that no site owner, making no contribution, local authority costs in wages owner would be taxed upon a can hardly have a claim to be re- and salaries etc. value he could not realise and this presented! 3. Four-and-a-half million rate- payers enjoy rate rebates or re- has been made clear in all litera- (ii) How firm the foundation of lief. ture on the subject and was stres- the tax would be for financing 4. Vacant land makes no contribu- sed in the United Committee's evi- local services. tion to local revenues and it is dence. A garden, a golf course The committee argues that site- not proposed to change this. or a parcel of agricultural land value rating would not provide "a 5. It is not proposed to change the would be rated and taxed on the firm or predictable basis for system whereby the more run- value of that use only if any sup- (authorities to finance local ser- down a property becomes the lower its assessment for rates. vices." They consider that the * The proposed Development Land Tax will 6. The Government is not com- have the exactly opposite effect to site- present town planning system mitted to the Layfield report value rating—what is required is not would preclude accurate valua- land nationalisation through the Com- and invites comments from in- munity Land Act. aided by the Deve- tions of permissible planning use. terested parties, which should lopment Land Tax but a free market "Assessments of site values would aided by site-value rating. be submitted by November 30.

JULY & AUGUST, 1976 51 often have to be based upon answered in advance in the evi- dent's personal income. The ob- assumptions about the land use dence supplied to the committee ject, to achieve more local accoun- likely to be permitted." And why but have been ignored. tability, has obvious merits, but not? It would be up to the plann- A re-hash of stock objections to the cost and complexity must ing authorities to confirm or deny site-value rating has been dished surely make even a country as an assumed redevelopment use and up again as though these objec- punch-drunk with bureaucracy as this might well shake up the plan- tions have never been answered, Britain think twice. How effec- ners to the great advantage of leaving the reader of the Report, tive such a tax would be is debat- everyone.* Indeed this would be if not familiar with the subject, able. One danger is that people an unintended bonus of site-value the impression that they are un- with high incomes will move from rating. answerable. expensively taxed to cheaply taxed In any event, as Mr. Hector Yet the committee itself would areas. If adjustments are made to Wilks made clear in his valuation appear to have little faith in their equalise disparities between dif- of Whitstable, the total heredita- own objections to site-value rating ferent areas, then LIT will lose ments presenting problems were for, in the final paragraph they most of its point. The fact is that less than one per cent and of these, say: the taxpayer contributes substan- about 0.1 per cent presented sub- "Before final decisions could be tially to local government expen- stantial difficulties (not unresolv- taken, a much more thoroughgo- diture, and whether he is worried able) as to development potential. ing practical study of the opera- about the finer points of the way All the above evidence was before tion of site-value rating would be in which it is collected is doubt- the committee. needed than the limited field ful. What he is more concerned The tax base, in short, would studies carried out at Whitstable." about is that the burden should be no more unpredictable than Their final comment is that the be reduced. that of the present system which Community Land Act and the de- "The Report devotes a great deal has to cope with changes in build- velopment land tax "effectively re- of space to the question of accoun- ings and improvements—indeed move site-value rating from con- tability, and says that many com- far less we consider. sideration." This is despite the plaints were received by the Com- Says the Report: "The intention fact that such legislation will affect mittee about local authority spend- of site-value rating is that the only land ripe for development or ing. Indeed, when it is realised owner's liability for the tax is redevelopment. Millions of pro- that between 1952 and 1974 the based on the market rental of the perties will remain unaffected. number of local authority employ- site." That is correct. But the Even so, it is estimated that the ees increased from 1.45 million to Report adds, "This basis means full implementation of the Com- nearly 3 million, and that expendi- first that the planning system has munity Land Act is unlikely to be ture rose from £900 million in 1950 to be sufficiently detailed and ex- realised until twenty or thirty to the current figure of around plicit so as to identify for each years hence. Long before this, the £13,000 million, this is hardly sur- parcel of land the nature of the Act will be repealed with or with- prising. The Report makes sev- permissible development." But it out the help of the Conservative eral sensible recommendations is nonsense to assume that every Party (who have promised repeal) about monitoring staffing and ex- plot of land in the country has an for, to borrow a phrase from the penditure, and it is to be hoped economic and marketable develop- committee quoted earlier in an- that the Government will take ment potential that would have to other context, and to use it with determined action to implement be ascertained. more justification, this legislation them. inspires "powerful objections of "The Report recommends taking (iii) Practical considerations. principle and considerable practi- the capital value of buildings as These include the need for a cal difficulty." Formidable in fact. a basis for the rating assessment complete register of land owners * * * and land transactions (which is instead of rental values. Site- highly desirable and presents no 'pHE following comments are value rating is rejected, although, practical problems as the Danish taken from the editorial of since it is local authority services system testifies); the costs (un- Country Life, May 27: that largely create site values, it specified) which are evidently not "The average ratepayer's reaction would seem a more logical basis for rating than building values. an effective argument against the when he learns that in order to The Report also recommends the committee's proposed income tax find a more equitable way of finan- rating of agricultural land and which is an additional cost not a cing local government it is pro- buildings on the grounds that "we substitute cost; and various other posed to employ 13,000 more civil see no good reason ... for dis- practical difficulties which are "for- servants and spend an extra £100 crimination in favour of agricul- midable." million a year, is likely to be one of horrified disbelief. Yet just ture." Provided that, as is sug- Apart from "accountability" gested, this new burden on far- which we have dealt with, there such a proposal has been put for- ward by the Layfield Committee in mers is offset in some other way, is nothing new in the objections there seems no reason for not re- catalogued and all have been its report, Local Government Finance (HMSO. £5.75), published moving this particular anomaly from the system. * See Planning, Housing and Land Values recently. The Report recom- (Ray Thomas) and Administrative Im- mends the introduction of local plications of Site-Value Rating (Peter "It is now up to the Government Hudson) Land & Liberty Press 25p each. income tax levied on each resi- to make up its mind about the re-

52 LAND & LIBERTY commendations put forward. The dorsed. little has been heard about them Committee believes that the only "The committee established to in- from the opposition, beyond gen- way to sustain a vital local demo- vestigate rating was originally sup- eral condemnation. cracy is to enlarge the share of posed to report by the end of 1974, But in a recent speech to the local taxation and make council- so that the 1975 rates could be British Property Federation, Tim- lors more directly accountable to amended. Had such a target been othy Raison, Conservative M.P. local electorates. But surely a achieved, it would have set a speed for Aylesbury, outlined his party's more fundamental and better solu- record; a two-year delay shows dis- policy towards land. He recog- tion would be to return more res- tinct evidence of haste. nised that the first essential was ponsibility directly to the public "It is said that the main recom- stability of legislation instead of in general, with less rates and mendation will be the introduction the accustomed legislate/repeal taxes and greater freedom of of a local income tax, involving an double act of alternating Labour choice to the individual to spend extra 12,000 bureaucrats and cost- and Conservative governments, his money as he pleases. The ing an extra £100 million. Such and established that his party, like Welfare State should act as a extravagance is obviously not jus- the Labour party, regarded gains safety-net and not as an over- tified, especially in the present from betterment as rather different stuffed feather bed that suffocates economic climate. from other types of gain and thus all attempts at enterprise and self- "The natural reform would have a fit object of taxation. determination." been the introduction of land value The tax upon betterment should * * * rating; this would have been fair not, however, be too high, he said, EQUALLY incisive was the East in itself, and would have had the otherwise it would become a deter- Anglian Daily Times of May 15: useful side effect of encouraging rent to those who would other- "Soon after the Labour Gov- development. Unfortunately, the wise bring their land forward for development. In Standing Com- ernment came to office in March, cumbersome Community Land Bill mittee, Mr. Raison pointed out, 1974, there was a loud public out- seems to have made such a change the Conservatives had proposed a cry about the rates. Conservative too difficult. 60 per cent rate of Development local government reforms were "It is to be expected, then, that Land Tax instead of the Govern- just coming into effect, with disas- money will continue to be raised ment's 80 per cent rising to 100 trous results. much as it is now. The bulk will come from the taxpayer, through per cent. Hardly an alternative "The Cabinet had an awkward policy. problem. It could not afford to Government grants, and the rest A better though weak alterna- act, partly because the Party had will be levied on property values. "The key point that needs exami- tive would have been a return to no official policy on rates, and the last Conservative Govern- partly because every available nation is how sharp and unexpec- ted increases of the sort seen in ment's proposed land hoarding penny had been promised to the charge, which, ineffectual though unions in the "social contract". 1974 and 1975 can be prevented. These caused untold suffering and it might have been, at least had "Equally, it could not afford to distress to many people, particu- the merit of fining a particular do nothing, since it was hoping to larly those on fixed incomes. kind of inactivity which deprived win another General Election a "Perhaps the Government should the community of the use of part few months later. It therefore fol- act by raising the Exchequer sub- of its natural resources instead of lowed the traditional course taken sidy; perhaps the local authority taxing the occasion of contem- by all governments which find should act by cutting its expendi- plated development. themselves in this sort of diffi- tures to the level its ratepayers On the Community Land Act culty; it set up a special com- can afford. As we have seen, itself. Conservatives can find them- mittee. neither of these things happened. selves on far firmer and more fami- "Such a committee consists of a "The only possible alternative liar ground: the rejection of the number of worthy and distin- would be to insist that all major underlying principle that public guished people, who meet irregu- public expenditure should be is desirable for its own larly to listen to speeches given approved by the ratepayers, by re- sake; the extravagant bureaucracy by other worthy and distinguished ferendum. The householder would and the superfluity of the Act, people. When they have heard then, at least, know how far he since what needs to be done can everything that anybody has to was putting himself into debt, and be done via taxation. say, they summarise the proceed- be prepared when the bills were This latter point is a good one ings, add their own recommenda- presented to him." and one which Conservatives could tions, and present the whole thing put to better effect if they would to the Government. recognise that while the taxation OPPOSITION'S LAND "POLICY" of betterment does indeed have a "The Government then intro- r duces whatever measures its own J^HE latest attempt at an assault disincentive effect upon develop- Party research staff has drawn up, upon the land problem, the ment, as Mr. Raison acknow- and have been approved by its own Community Land Act, commenced ledged, the taxation of economic Party members. Should these at operation on April 6. Its fiscal rent penalises only land misuse any point happen to coincide with ally, the Development Land Tax and speculation, the very element anything that the committee has becomes functional on August 1. in the market which both Labour proposed, it congratulates itself on Both, in their own way, are potent and Conservatives regard as dis- having its ideas independently en- pieces of socialist legislation yet tasteful and harmful.

JULY & AUGUST, 1976 53 THE ARROGANCE OF MAN Four essays by A. J. Carter

1. THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

"The confidence in his own resourcefulness which has enthused western man since the Renaissance instils in him the conviction that there arc no bounds to his mastery of nature."

HE odds must now be against mankind's survival tions for subsistence. The natural domain is ex- T into the twenty-first century. As the hazards ploited for immediate satisfaction when it should be multiply, so do the chances of disaster. Men cannot conserved to meet perennial human needs, the earth indefinitely stockpile nuclear weapons without detona- being treated not as a capital asset but as an object ting them, lethal chemicals and bacteria without re- of current consumption, without heed for the future. leasing them, or radioactive isotopes without becom- The earth is the home of the whole of mankind; as ing exposed to them. If a small quantity of dynamite individuals we are merely tenants for our brief stay explodes there may be a serious but local accident; upon it. The land surface of the planet, with the if a minute quantity of nerve gas is let loose there atmosphere above and the minerals below, is a gift may be a final and universal accident. Man has to all human beings: to those who have lived and created stuff so dangerous that it must not be delib- died, to those who live now, and to those who are erately used, or allowed to leak out or be stolen, ever. not yet born. Primitive peoples appreciate this, but This is beyond man's capacity to achieve. Because the sophisticated are blind to it. They parcel up the human beings are not perfect, they cannot devise earth and deliver it into ownership as if it were pro- foolproof defences against every known contingency perty, to be bought and sold like a . even in the short term (mental aberration, earth If natural reserves are not to be depleted, men must tremors, aerial bombardment for ransom?), still less reconsider the sort of technology they want, the prepare for the unforeseeable in the long term. amount of energy they burn and the manner in which Already hydrogen bombs have been mislaid and re- that energy is obtained. Attention should be given covered, failsafe devices have jammed, and nerve gas to the recycling of materials, the production of goods has escaped and dispersed, yet radioactive waste from that last and the utilization of sources of energy that nuclear power stations has to be shielded from human are not going to run out or jeopardize human life. It contact for hundreds of years. Plutonium, an artifi- is wiser to harness the energy of the sun, the wind cial element extremely damaging to living organisms, and the water than to unleash nuclear power which has to be shielded for hundreds of thousands of years, could contaminate the environment in perpetuity. Such a proposition so absurd that, if the manufacture of natural methods of energy generation are suitable for plutonium goes on, it is certain that mankind is under the poorer developing countries and could supersede sentence of death. existing nuclear power programmes, so avoiding dis- The confidence in his own resourcefulness which semination and misuse of nuclear capability and the has enthused western man since the Renaissance in- risks inherent in storing and shifting toxic substances. stils in him the conviction that there are no bounds However, it may be that the industrialized coun- to his mastery of nature. Man can assuredly work tries in the west and elsewhere will have to curtail many wondrous spells, but he is so intoxicated with their demand for energy and their output of goods success that he does not know when to stop. Like and learn to reaffirm personal attributes. The acqui- the sorcerer's apprentice, he dabbles in magic whose sition of wealth is honourable but more fittingly a repercussions he can no longer foretell. means to human fulfilment than an end in itself. Never in the past has the natural world been so Happiness could be enhanced if the accumulation of abused. Throughout history the sequences of nature goods of diminishing utility were to give way to a have been accepted as the indisputable background simpler style of living. to human events. The ancient peoples who lived on Ownership of the earth enables some to command the banks of flooding rivers farmed the fertile land what is meant for all and others to command nothing. with thankfulness, and out of that fertility sprang It is the root cause of inequality among people every- noble and enduring civilizations. What would have where. It is also the root cause of dissention among happened to the early Egyptians if they had diverted nations, for the nation state has its origin in the the course of the Nile? corporate ownership of territory. As some individuals The agrarian tradition is to husband the land, but have larger or more precious chunks of the earth than industrial societies use land recklessly, squander irre- others, so do some nations, which they claim to be placeable metals and fuels, pollute abundantly, dis- theirs by occupation and which they retain by mili- turb the ecological equilibrium and imperil the condi- tary force. True equality of opportunity lies in the

54 LAND & LIBERTY equal rights of all human beings to the bounty of From Our Catalogue nature. Crops belong to those who cultivate them Orders for books and booklets will be acknow- and the treasures under the ground to those who ledged with a proforma invoice and despatched upon extract them, but royalties from the oil in the oil receipt of remittance. fields of Abu Dhabi should be apportioned not among the natives of Abu Dhabi, nor even among the popu- LAND AND PROPERTY TAXATION AND lation of the Arabian peninsula, but among the people URBAN PROBLEMS of the world. Arc Property Taxes Obsolete? Report of a round Today sovereignty is vested in the nation state: table conference of tax and municipal experts who national governments regulate local governments but discuss the reform of local taxation. Relevant to are not themselves regulated. This arrangement is the and other countries. National not immutable, for empires may embrace many League of Cities special report. Reprinted from nations and cities may be states. The international Nation's Cities (USA). order is not predestined to consist of sovereign I6pp booklet (large format) 20p nations (with the corollary that every nation has one Arguments for Changing the Tax to a voice whatever its population), nor is the only alter- Land Value Tax by Arthur P. Becker. Reprinted native a world super-state synthesized from the nation from Tax Policy (USA) Sept/Dec 1970. states. Rather, the aim should be to dismantle the 17pp booklet 30p barriers among states and encourage the association Assessor Watson's New Country-wide Reappraisal of individuals. As it is not necessary for Christian System by Felix J. Weil. Foreword by County Asses- denominations to unite but only for a flowering of sor Philip E. Watson. A thorough briefing on the Christian fellowship to render the denominational re-organisation of the appraisal of real estate in Los divisions of no importance, so it is not the amalgama- Angeles, Calif. tion of states that is required but the breaking down 17pp booklet 30p of statehood, a reversion from the concept of the Better Assessments for Better Cities. Report of a sovereignty of states which direct citizens, to that of round table conference on assessments the sovereignty of individuals who elect governments. in the USA. A panel of forty experts calls for sweep- One of the most fruitful forms of cooperation tran- ing changes in land and property valuations. Re- scending national frontiers is trade, which arises printed from Nation's Cities. spontaneously but is all too often subjected to politi- 32pp booklet (large format) 30p cal hindrance. Free international trade promotes Containment Policies for Urban Sprawl by Mason the interdependence of peoples and contributes to Gaffney. What to do about one of America's most the maintenance of peace. pressing problems. Reprinted from Approaches to (to be continued) the Study of Urbanization. 19pp booklet 30p Hartford: A Case Study in Assessment Reform by J. ADVERTISEMENT Ted Gwartney. An examination of the property tax in the USA. What is 12pp booklet 25p Further selections from our catalogue will appear in future issues. Happening to • * •

the British Economy ? GEORGE MUSSON

By OLIVER SMEDLEY regret to announce the death of George Musson of Derbyshire at the end of May. He was Whether you are a serious student eighty three and had been ill for some time. George Musson, an ardent advocate of the ideas of Henry of economics or an interested George was, until his health precluded it, a regular layman, this book offers the attender at conferences of the International Union rare opportunity to widen your for Land Value Taxation and Free Trade where he vision on the vital issues of the day. livened up sessions with his outspoken comments. He was a life-long Labour Party supporter which 200pp. Paperback, £2.95 he did not regard as inconsistent with his Georgeist Reliance School of Investment, Neville House, views for he was no slavish follower of socialist doc- Wendens Ambo, Saffron Walden, Essex. Or from trine or Labour Party policies. Land & Liberty Press. He will be remembered and missed. To his family go our sincere condolences.

55 JN his lengthy biography of , pub- lished in 1952, Charles Albro Barker refers to a A Problem meeting between the former and the noted economic historian, Professor James E. Thorold Rogers of Ox- ford University. The two met during one of George's Xubolh's 1 visits to the U.K. According to Barker, Thorold Rogers is alleged to have told George that "Of all ISICHOLai l the thieves in the world, the landowners of England "There can be no lasting justice where one part of tin are the worst and the most unscrupulous." These rest of mankind as a condition whereby they ma h are harsh words, but it should be remembered that the history of up to (and including) the Malthus, wrapped the subject up in gloomy forebod- times when both George and the controversial Ox- ings, giving to economics the reputation of being the ford Professor were in their prime as outspoken dismal science. critics of historic landlordism, was bitter. Much of Over the past hundred years or so, many books on this resentment arose from the long history of rapa- the land question have been written, such as Graham cious landlordism; the social and economic conse- Peace's The Great Robbery and J. L. and Barbara quences arising from the many Acts of , Hammond's The Village Labourer. William Ogilvie, which had robbed the English peasant of his rights Thomas Spence, Patrick Edward Dove and the great in ; the Highland clearances which naturalist and contemporary of Charles Darwin, pauperised the Scottish Highlanders; and the resented Alfred Russell Wallace with his book Land Nationali- absentee landlords who were a perpetual thorn in sation, Its Necessity and Its Aims, all wrote well and the side of Irish rural politics. eloquently on the iniquities arising out of land mono- However much we may deplore the failure of suc- poly as it affected the society they were familiar with. cessive British governments to bring about a just A new and welcome addition to the subject has system of land tenure, it would be an unnecessary recently been published.* It is essentially a history exaggeration to describe contemporary British land- of the many attempts at over a period owners (of whatever hue) in such blunt and uncom- of some seventy-five years. The author is Dr. Roy promising terms as were ascribed to the late radical Douglas. I have no hesitation in recommending it professor. as essential reading for those who see in sound land The rot, which has bedevilled the many attempts reform a fundamental requirement for the free and to put right a long and nagging injustice, probably liberal commonwealth. Rent is the great equaliser. began with the dissolution of the monasteries during Its appropriation by the community leaves men and the reign of the Tudors. Thorold Rogers, whose women free to enjoy the fruits of their efforts and monumental researches and painstaking studies cul- skills. There can be no lasting justice in a world minated in a scholarly economic history entitled Six where one part of humanity controls the land, exact- Centuries of Work and Wages, did not mince his ing tribute from the rest of mankind as a condition words as may be seen from the following quotation: whereby they may have use of and access to nature's "I contend that from 1563 to 1824, a conspiracy con- broad acres, without which human progress and cocted by the law and carried out by parties interes- development are inhibited. ted in its success, was entered into, to cheat the In the eighteenth century owning land was synony- English workman of his wages, to tie him to the soil, mous with political power and influence; the landed to deprive him of hope and to degrade him into irre- aristocracy were virtually unassailable in the security mediable poverty." they enjoyed in influencing the conduct of the nation's Rogers was not alone in holding such partisan affairs. The landless majority were reduced to being views, as readers of Progress and Poverty can testify. hired servants without security or rights. To be a Way back in 1776, the sage of Kirkcaldy, Adam peer and member of the landed aristocracy was to be Smith, noted in that, "As soon above the law to the extent that one could not be as the land of any country has all become private arrested for debt, have one's estates impounded, or property, the landlords, like all other men, love to be made bankrupt The privileges they enjoyed were reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent legion. The middle of the nineteenth century has even for its natural produce." Though George found seen the abolition of the Com Laws, the adoption of the economic answer to the riddle of land and rent free trade and the rise of a prosperous middle class from Ricardo's theory on the subject, and wished to of businessmen, tradesmen and the professional collect land rent for public use—in the process free- classes Their influence in the House of ing the land for everyone's benefit and use—I have was growing with the widening of the franchise. In long considered that his affinity to was spite of the increased influence of the rising middle greater than to Ricardo. Whereas Smith and George classes, land monopoly was still a powerful interest brought to the subject a humanity and the spirit of to be reckoned with. To be landless and poor was progress if only mankind would obey the laws of • Land, People and Politics, Roy Douglas. Allison & Busbv, nature and use their common sense, Ricardo, like 239pp.. £6.50.

56 LAND & LIBERTY saddled the people of Britain with a bureaucratic nightmare of monumental proportions—the Commu- as Old as nity Land Act. To add insult to injury and stupidity we have attempted to inflate our way out of every Vineyard self-imposed economic difficulty. Attempts to persuade politicians (and others) that 3IL1TCH land-value taxation is the only viable means of bring- ujnity controls the land, exacting tribute from the ing about universal rights to land are parried with the age-old objections of the sanctity of private pro- »vc use of and access to nature's broad acres." perty, and the injustice it would cause to "widows, the lot of a growing proletariat who were for the orphans and pensioners." In fact, the same objec- most part descendants of forebears who had been tions which greeted attempts to abolish ! It dispossessed of their common rights in land. leaves one with the despairing thought that the That such conditions no longer prevail is not to greatest obstacle to human progress is not merely infer that a solution to the land problem is no longer ignorance and unsound thinking, but that vast phan- to be the subject of reform. More people own some tom army of widows and their many dependents. land than ever before, but the basic problem of Most attempts at social and political reform have "freeing the land" remains. a regrettable tendency to be over-concerned with Roy Douglas has provided a most useful account of reconciling sectional "interests" and the preservation the many attempts to reform the law as it affects our (or creation) of group privileges. The welfare state, rights to land; and how, in the process, this altered which has dominated British politics these past the pattern of British politics, the conflict being often seventy years, has bypassed intelligent economic re- bitter and violent. It was not unknown for troops form, providing in its place the subsidised council to be called in aid of the civil authorities. More than house and a great deal of ill-conceived rent control any other event, landlordism probably brought about legislation, thereby creating a new privileged class— the ultimate breach between Ireland and the rest of the protected tenant, euphemistically known as the the British Isles. The first serious attempt to bring "sitting tenant." It is this kind of sophistry which about comprehensive land reform was Lloyd George's constantly irritated and angered the late Thorold "People's Budget" of 1909, whose provisions allowed Rogers, who exclaimed, when ending a lecture to his for a valuation list of all land in the United Kingdom. Oxford students: "Governments have been too weak The taxes to be levied on land were derisory and of or too dishonest to be sensible, and are consequently little significance, but the prospect of a nationwide crippling the intelligence of those whose affairs they land valuation would have provided the essential administer, by pandering to the foolish, dangerous foundation for the eventual collection of economic and wholly unjust dictum, that private interests are rent for the public purse; also, assuredly, it would public benefits." have led eventually to a more just distribution of By way of conclusion, Roy Douglas would, no land among the people of Britain. doubt, concur with a view expressed by the late Pro- It is a sad reflection of the times we live in that fessor C. R. Fay in his classic work The Corn Laws the growth of the welfare state and an increasingly and Social England: state-managed economy have so obscured the prob- "Where the rent of land for a particular use in lem posed by the land question, that the subject is competition with other uses is being considered, then nowadays treated as a minor irritant requiring legis- rent is part of the cost of production; but where land lation to facilitate the dirigiste mania for centralised as a whole is being considered, it is not: it is then economic planning. The Liberal Party, who once emphatically a result and not a cause: it does not placed land reform (together with free trade and the enter then into the cost of production. When Adam balanced budget) as the cornerstone of their econo- Smith was writing, the land of England, and of mic policy, have reduced the former to a parochial Scotland even more, was very much in the making. debate on financing part of local government expen- There was no suggestion of finality. Land usance, diture through site-value rating. Useful though such therefore, did not suggest exclusive monopoly. There a measure would be, it would fail to perform the were hundreds of square miles 'awaiting enclosure important function of freeing land so that none should and cultivation, even in island Britain. The sore spot be called upon to pay tribute to landlords for the was not the scarcity of land as a whole but the desire right of access to land, while retaining the equally of enclosing landlords for coveted pieces—a problem important right of all to enjoy security of tenure to as old as Naboth's vineyard." [Naboth was an Israel- such lands as they may need for the purpose of work, ite whose vineyard was seized by King Ahab after pleasure and a home. Naboth had refused to sell it and had been stoned Over the past fifty years we have abandoned free to death on the orders of Jezebel the King's wife (I. trade; balanced budgets are for nostalgia only; and Kings 21.)] a sound land reform policy is as far from being achieved as ever, the present Government having •My italics.

JULY & AUGUST, 1976 57 Not So Free Expenditure, which is to examine 'J HE best economic system the system of land-use planning to Enterprise is one broken down into find out why the delays occur. as small parts as are economi- The land and planning spokes- jyjEASURES already operative or cally possible and where those man for the National Housebuil- in the pipeline "will, within parts are run by the consti- ders Federation, Roger Humber, the lifetime of most of us, qualify tuency for whom they are sup- claims that planners have forgot- Britain to become a member of posed to operate; and here, ten their prime function and in- Comecom (the Soviet version of if anything happens that is stead are trying to be architects: the Common Market)," says Rus- harmful or corrupt, the vic- "I have come across a case where sell Lewis, in an Aims for Freedom tims have nobody to blame they were arguing over the depth and Enterprise study.* but themselves. of the groove in the wooden doors The socialist societies of the —Ralph Nader of garages on a private estate. They eastern bloc are not wholly socia- frequently try to change the type list, says Mr. Lewis. "The enter- of window for cosmetic reasons— prise which makes even the Soviet Minister or his minions. and then go on to specify the size economy tick is based on the free- "One does not find free societies of the window pane. They may dom of some people . . . the pea- —not anyway in anything like the be pursuing excellence, but they sants on their private plots, the form we could recognise—except seem to have forgotten the maxim fixers in the wasteland of Soviet where one also finds the institu- laid down by the Department of economic planning, and the mana- tions of the free market and the the Environment—their ultimate gers in their factories .... The private ownership of property. boss in Circular 9/76: 'The best decision-takers have rights denied "Democratic politicians seemed is often the enemy of the good'." to the rest of the community and, to vie with one another to treat in return, they up to a point deliver the free enterprise goose like a Books Received the results their masters require. battery hen, and the result has Civilization on Square Wheels by "In contemporary Britain, by been a debasement of the golden W. Stuart Morrell. Vantage Press, contrast, the opposite is happen- eggs, by means of inflation, which, Inc. N.Y. USA $5.95. ing. The position of the managers as Lenin long ago observed, is the is steadily worsening. Rising taxes surest way to destroy capitalism." Agrarian Reform and Agrarian Re- add to the weight of business over- formism by David Lehmann. Faber heads, reduce net profits, diminish Cost of Planning Delays & Faber, paperback £1.80. reserves and erode incentives. J^HE costs incurred by developers Climate and the Environment by "The abiding weakness of State J. F. Griffiths. Paul Elek, £2.95. industry which invariably makes it due to town planning delays Defending the Undefendable by a drag on the economy is not only often now comprise a significant Walter Block. Fleet Press Cor- that it is cushioned from market element in the cost of housebuild- poration NY, USA. $9.95. pressures by the taxpayer. Still ing, according to a recent report. more important, the managers are Mr. Brian De'Ath, who runs a Food and Poverty by Radha Sinha. never quite free to get on with small building company, says: "In Croom Helm Ltd, £6.50. their job of production and, in the past two years alone I reckon this respect, are worse placed than the delays have added £3,000 to MARGARET BATEMAN the price of each house, and over their counterparts either in the Margaret Bateman became interes- Soviet Union or in free-enterprise the whole period the prices will ted in the philosophy of Henry firms here, because politicians in- have doubled from £7,000 or so to George through the late John terfere with them, especially over nearer £20,000." Anderson of Montreal who started pricing and redundancy. Wates, one of the largest house- the Henpf George School of Social "All the signs are that the Nat- builders, are considering suing Science in Montreal in 1938. Mar- Surrey County Council for up to garet Bateman taught in those ional Enterprise Board will be no early classes and helped Mr. more inhibited than Mr. Benn in- £350,000 worth of costs incurred during the past four years of nego- Anderson to get the School on its tended it to be about buying up way. or into any company that takes its tiations for a £100 millions project. Planning delays are now so In 1941 Margaret was invited to fancy. A large part of British in- become assistant director of the dustry and commerce will be tied TBWTR » V,. £ » Henry George School in New York up in planning agreements, any and in a few years became director failure to achieve the targets of upon the resignation of the late which will presumably fall under Mr. Frank Chodorov. She held that the heading of "failing the nation" position until about 1950 when ill and will make them easy game for health forced her to resign. She takeover or victimisation should was author of Whose World? a compendium of land tenures they do anything to displease the throughout the world.

*Neither Freedom nor Enterprise by Rus- After twenty-three years of in- sel Lewis. Published by Aims for Free- creasingly serious heart condition, dom and Enterprise, PO Box 443, 5 widespread that the problem Plough Place, Fetter Lane, London merits a sub-committee of the she died early in March 1976. EC4P 4LS, price 25p. Commons Select Committe e on STRETHEL WALTON 58 LAND & LIBERTY Land, Culture and the Biology

of Man (PART III) FRED HARRISON "The challenge to man today is to undo the mistake of our (comparatively recent) ancestors, and transform rights to land back to their multi-dimensional form, serving the interests of both the individual and of society."

SCRIPTION of rights to land to all groups in rights based on personal status, whereas the courts A human societies, up until recent times, consti- conducted their reasoning on the basis of contracts tuted the mechanism for ensuring stability: for it and absolute rights. While the traditional system guaranteed material security for everyone. Social could protect the rights of those who needed, but structures were not rigid, but were flexibly tailored lacked land, the government courts disregarded need to ensure a high-level adaptation to the natural re- and favoured those who possessed, and could pro- sources on which mankind depended for his survival duce proof of a right to the use of a piece of land. and evolution. But never was the right to life, Croups in conflict through guaranteed access to land, sacrificed. Disruption of traditional land tenure rights brought Conflict over land at the individual level is paral- about dramatic changes in social relationships. The leled by conflict at the higher level of groups. The depth of those changes have not yet been fully causes, however, are frequently disguised (religion is plumbed: but the consequences have been injurious. a favourite "explanation" of friction). For while the We are familiar with the agonising social and eco- cause of tension in relatively simple societies like the nomic results of the in Britain. Some of Ait Ndhir appears clear enough, where cause and the impact on us is lost, however, since the processes effect have been telescoped into short periods of time, dragged out over many decades. But there are recent problems arise when we turn to complex societies like examples which we can examine. One. a tribe in the UK. We shall refer to two problems, Ulster and Morocco—the Ait Ndhir—find themselves and their the devolution of power. social constitution presented with a similar break- The working class people of Northern Ireland are down: "Massive acquisition of tribal land for agri- daily at each other's throats; horrifying murders are cultural colonisation and the forced introduction of now routine events. The cause? The most potent ... led to the breakdown of the theory for criticising Western political democracies, tribal framework and ... the formation of a landless, Marxism, is rendered mute. For according to that anomic rural proletariat."1 ideology, the working class (comprised of Catholics Competition between traditional values and prac- and Protestants) ought to be united in directing its tices and those invoked by modern judicial systems fury at capitalists—not each other. based on the European model, gives rise to profound The demand for devolution of power to Scotland social and psychological disorientation. Sharman has and Wales and even the regions of England (with detailed such a conflict within the Adhola, a tribe some people in Cornwall already claiming the ancient in Uganda.3 She shows how land disputes can be right to set up its own Parliament) is threatening the settled by the clan chiefs, but in some significant way political stability of the rest of the UK. Why, after altered in the courts. There is a direct conflict over centuries of political and economic unification, do the principles to be applied by these two sources of the Scots and Welsh vigorously demand recognition authority. While the clans are concerned to empha- —institutionalised in Parliaments set up on their own sise the rights to use land, "The government courts soil—of their differences? uphold the right of individuals to alienate land over Orthodox political science, placing emphasis on which they have rights of allocation, and to allocate institutions, on administrative efficiency, on the dis- land without reference to their traditional obliga- bursement of benefits, is no better equipped to explain tions." these phenomena than Marxist dogma. The explana- Unscrupulous members of the tribe, who think they tion has to be sought in the primordial territorial might succeed in litigation, can enhance their pro- loyalties of groups of people, the complex elements prietary rights by going direct to the courts, which which give them their identities and constitute their "do not distinguish between rights of alienation, unique cultures; these are the things which lead rights of allocation and rights of use, so that where them to challenge the sanctity and strength of the rights of use are upheld they are transformed into modern political state. rights of administration and alienation." Only by a thorough understanding of the synthesis The clan chiefs, not surprisingly, were dissatisfied (through evolutionary time-scales) of groups of people with the conflict between the two approaches. They with their physical environment—an interaction which wished to retain the traditional system of multiple heavily determined the substance of their cultures—

JULY & AUGUST, 1976 59 can we understand why thousands of Ibos gave up problems: food shortage, and despoliation of the their lives in a bid to separate from Nigeria; why the environment. people of East Pakistan insisted on breaking up the The UN estimates that about 460 million people— state of Pakistan to create their own territorial iden- tity, Bangladesh. Similarly—but in the opposite direc- tion—why so many peasants of North Vietnam died in their bid to unite with their kin in the south; why as? " so many citizens of Cyprus identify with Greece as their motherland. Only then can we see how the transformation from communal rights to land into private rights has been a fundamental cause of disequilibrium in social sys- tems. Only then can we understand the dynamics about 15 per cent of the total world population—are of change in the contemporary world, which are seek- suffering from malnutrition. If anything, this is an ing to undo the work of the European powers which under-estimate. Now one way of tackling the prob- over three centuries have amalgamated territorial lem is the creation of more family farms on the peoples into artificial political unions within borders huge tracts which are either idle (but privately which have no cultural or biological validity. Only owned, therefore excluding those in need) or, through then can we begin to get down to the work of rede- their very size, are farmed at below optimum levels. fining rights to land which, harmonised with the fun- Land reform programmes in the third world aim to damental principles developed over not thousands resettle people on to land. Where this is actually but millions of years, will serve the future interests accomplished, two main results can be discerned: of mankind. (1) less pressure on urban areas, and (2) increased food output, due to improved productivity. Ancient and modern societies But what of the people who are not included or Societies have functioned as stable units because who are left behind in the urban slums? Are they they implicitly recognised the need for a communal to be denied a share of the benefits? And why basis to land rights. These rights, as we have seen, should those on the land be free to enjoy the higher subsist in groups—rather than individuals—and are economic rent which results from increased yields? founded on need for, and the actual use of, land. An ad valorem land tax slices a part of the farmer's These latter principles are abstracted from land income away from him—the part he had no hand in tenure systems in their various forms employed creating—and enables a government to disburse it throughout time in contrasting ecological environ- for the well-being of the whole community. ments. Their persistence has not been due to a And now, the ecological hazards facing mankind. convenient accident. They were built into the gene- From north-west India, to Senegal and Chad in Africa, tic structure of man the social animal. There is no the sands of the deserts are creeping over the natural other way to account for their presence in different fertility which sustains life. Peasants in highland social systems and persistence through time; only Pakistan and the valleys of Indonesia cut down sap- now are we beginning to understand the significant lings for firewood and trigger off soil erosion which causal relationship between genetics and cultural in turn floods the fertile plains, silting up the irriga- forms. As Hamilton affirms: "Thus we would ex- tion channels and smashing the ecosystems built up pect the genetic system to have various inbuilt safe- over millions of years. The lesson is clear: somehow, guards and to provide, not a blank sheet for indivi- to restore the earth to its natural fertility, man has dual cultural development, but a sheet at least lightly to engage in a gigantic crusade aimed at conserving scrawled with certain tentative outlines."3 the existing environment—only then can the deserts The challenge to man today is to undo the mistake be pushed back. of our (comparatively recent) ancestors, and trans- But who is to undertake such a task? Individuals form rights to land back to their multi-dimensional have neither the strength nor the resources. Clearly, form (serving the interests of both the individual and it must be a communal task. Let us assume, then, of society) and to ensure that possessory rights are that man has the wisdom to undertake such a land grounded in need and use. We argue that the system reclamation project; let us assume that the resources which meets modern needs takes a fiscal form: the are channelled into developing the skills which enable distribution of land values among the community us to turn infertile soil into lush gardens of wheat and through the taxation system—the taxation of land fruit. Who should own that land? Which theory of values, which was effectively the system adopted by property rights is consonant with the objective? human civilisations extending back several thousands It would be anathema to justice if such land, having of years. We can examine the efficacy of our pro- been converted from desert to grassland, were owned posed solution in the context of some of the awe- privately by individuals! Ought it not to be recog- some problems which need to be—and eventually nised as the property of the whole community? And must be—tackled. We shall examine two (related) yet, the physical work of watering and planting the

60 LAND & LIBERTY edge of the desert would be performed by individuals, eyes of men conditioned by European culture. Note, people who loved the land, enjoyed lives paced by for example, this passage from Wynne-Edwards' book the seasons of nature; these people, too, must receive Animal Dispersion: their rewards. How can their interests be harmonised with the rights of the community? Again, we can "It can be surmised that, as the society increases reach no conclusion other than the institution of a in size and complexity, with the growth of personal tax on the value of land. For this fiscal measure and family wealth in servants, cattle, land, domestic both guarantees returns for labour expended on the equipment, robes, jewels and gold, and with the land, and ensures the creation of a social fund from consequent widening of range in social standing be- which to finance the arts of civilisation (which in- tween the richest and the poorest, the noblest and clude the development of knowledge and resources for pushing back the encroaching deserts).

In search of answers The foregoing conclusion may seem self-evident; yet the ethic which dominates the non-communist world today is that of private property which, when related to land, is barely decades old in most coun- tries of the world, and only a matter of hundreds of years old in a few European countries (though trace- able back to its socially-significant origins in the Classical world—with which, not surprisingly, we humblest, the principle of heritable possessions be- associate slavery on the massive, institutionalized comes firmly established. It follows, necessarily in scale). a simplified and largely sex-limited manner, the natural course of of genetic factors from It was the new ethic of private property in land parent to offspring, and has grown out of the general which turned brother against brother, and suspended custom in animal societies that property held by the the biosocial constraints which inhibited groups from social unit is retained in their possession by each coveting their neighbour's territories. It was in succeeding generation." immediate need of correction from the moment that Wynne-Edwards here uses biological and ethologi- gave it philosophical respectability. And cal evidence to justify private ownership of land. yet, apart from the remarkable efforts made by In doing so. he makes some fundamental mistakes Henry George in the latter part of the nineteenth in his interpretation of the evidence. century, the idea that it was legitimate to own land First, he fails to distinguish between the private despite the needs of others has gone substantially un- ownership of artifacts and of land. The former, questioned. created by the effort of individual labour, may claim Hitherto, the challenges to the ethic of private validation from the evidence of history: the most property in land have been founded on religion (which primitive societies have recognised individual pro- in this scientific age is for many people an unaccep- perty in tools and clothes. But no such warrant table basis for implementing drastic reforms) or on could be claimed for the private ownership of land. the overkill dogma of socialism. (2) He makes the indefensible leap from the his- The past twenty years, however, have seen the torical experience of group inheritance (based on ter- accumulation of a vast store of new knowledge, ritoriality, with all the constraints and opportunities pieced together by archaeologists, anthropologists, which that implies for the individual and the group biologists, ethologists and other scientists. This in- of which he is—or ought to be—an organic member) formation enables us to launch a devastating attack to the modern experience of individual inheritance. on the sanctity of private property in land—an attack He assumes that the former somehow validates the scientific in approach and marshalling the history of latter, when qualitatively they are different (indivi- all territorial species (not just man) behind it. dual ownership has no basis in man's biological his- tory, and the dynamics of the two systems are dichotomous). (3) Wynne-Edwards accepts without question the consequences for society of the transformation of rights to land. Yet group dynamics—as even a super- ficial study of territorial behaviour shows—are crucial for the survival of a species. For example, cohesion within the group is of paramount importance. This Unfortunately, the scientific evidence has not been cohesion has been maintained because rights to nat- used to best effect because the interpretation of the ural resources have been multi-dimensional: groups results have been ethnocentric—seen through the of human beings have ventured through time and

JULY & AUGUST, 1976 61 space as unified wholes, which has been possible be- risk of repeating ourselves, we emphasise that man's cause of the approach based on sharing genetically-based territorial behaviour, and the cul- material resources. The right to alienate land split tural variants which he developed in sympathy with up societies, creating classes with distinct experiences it, have ensured both internal (social) and external which could not identify with each other. The en- (ecological) harmony. The anti-evolutionary switch suing disharmony is more than just a danger for the to individual ownership certainly simplified the struc- social and political future: it also constitutes a serious ture of rights; but it also struck a deadly blow at the threat to man's genetic future. foundation principles of human societies.

The European interpretation of the evidence of A. R. Vinogradov, The Ait Ndhir of Morocco, Michigan U.P., 1976. territoriality blocks any attempt at deriving the cru- A. Sharman, Land Tenure and 'room for manoeuvre', in: Choice and Change (ed: J. Davis), Athlone Press, 1974. cial lessons about the role played by group property W. D. Hamilton, Innate Social Aptitudes of Man: an Approach from Evolutionary Genetics, in Biosocial Anthro- rights in integrating human social systems. At the pology (ed: R. Fox), Malaby Press, 1975.

BILLIONAIRE AND THE group of his executives. Local folk Mother Earth to work to satisfy PROPERTY TAX may have wondered why these human needs. It holds valuable acres have remained largely un- land out of production—for specu- Joseph Zashin used. Tucson has had spectacular lative purposes. The only defence J^ CLASSIC story by Leo Tolstoy growth, one of the fastest develop- a community has against this is asks the question—how much ing cities in the U.S. It expanded its power to assess it for tax pur- land does a man need. It tells of north and east and west. Only poses. When it fails to exercise a peasant struggling to earn a liv- in the southerly direction in which this it fails in a basic public trust. ing on a tiny plot. One day, he the Hughes acres are, the area has Such neglect permits the price of receives a most amazing offer. All not developed. And the few par- land to rise higher and faster than the land he can traverse in one cels that were sold brought huge almost all other factors, giving im- day—from sunrise to sunset—will prices—some at 40 times the origi- petus to inflation, and exacting a be his. Determined not to waste nal cost. heavy toll from all. The land, in- a precious minute, he is up before One local news story pointed stead of being a beneficent Mother the first rays of the sun appear in out that this acreage represented Earth for all her children, becomes the east. He sets out at a rapid almost 25 per cent of the total an instrument of distortion and in- pace. The day wears on as he area of the City of Tucson. How equity. walks acre after acre. He con- inquisitive are the reporters, offi- Somehow, the story always has tinues his steady march. The sun cials and taxpayers? How much the same ending—six feet, or six gets hotter. He is covered with property tax has this huge acreage and a half feet for a big guy. sweat. He loosens his collar, and been paying, or not paying all these goes on and on. Daylight wanes years? Has this land been assessed PRICE RESTRAINT as evening approaches. He hurries at its full cash value—the price it along to get as many more of the commands in the market place? ON ITS HEAD acres before the sun sets. He What has been sold, was to very ^CTION aimed at providing pro- presses forward despite his fatigue. knowledgeable builders and realty tection for British companies As the sun sinks in the west, he, developers, and to the State of against unfair foreign competition too, sinks to the ground. Ex- Arizona and Pima County as well. was announced by Mr. Dell's hausted, he expires. All of his tre- Is it a fact that the taxpayers of Trade Department recently. mendous effort has been in vain. the community actually subsidized The department found that four All the land he needs now is the the billionaire by permitting the complaints about goods being sold six feet to be buried in. land to be grossly underassessed, at artificially low prices in the in disregard of Arizona statutes? This story came to mind with British market were justified and the news of the death of Howard Well, Howard Hughes is gone. imposed anti-dumping measures, Hughes. A strange man of tre- What if the land had been assessed ladies' raincoats being imported mendous wealth. What are his according to State law, had paid laidies' raincoats being imported holdings and in how many com- its proper share of taxes, and the from Hongkong at less than £10 munities? Surely, the tax collec- community had received the addi- and selling in the shops at between tor will be on hand. In Tucson, it tional revenue to help pay for the £18 and £20. A provisional duty is known that when he set up his improvements needed for its of between 50p and £1 has been Hughes Plant here in the early growth? How much of a strain fixed on alarm clocks imported 50's, he purchased considerable would this have been on Hughes from China, Hungary, Poland, desert land—some 20,000 acres or or the Summa Corporation? Rumania and Russia. A 55p per so—at what was then a good price Wouldn't this have made the kilogram duty on saccharin is to for local sellers—$100 an acre. acreage even more valuable? Don't remain. In the twenty-five years since, so-called smart operators see this? A Japanese exporter of colour this land has lain fallow except for It's an old story, very old—and offset printing presses was also a small part sold in the last few widespread and worldwide, in fact. found "guilty" of dumping his years. It is a tiny part of the A pity. It deprives the peasants, machines in Britain, but no action vaunted Hughes fortune, managed the poor, the ambitious, the hard- is to be taken because he has pro- by one Summa Corporation, a working of opportunities to put mised to raise his prices.

62 LAND & LIBERTY sense of state intervention for the common welfare), ARE JUSTICE AND so Nozick supports the "libertarian" View. He argues for a "minimal state" which limits itself essentially LIBERTY IN Robert Clancy to the police function. Unfortunately here too the thesis suffers from a lack of definition of "the state." STYLE AGAIN P Nozick argues against positions on either side of him: he criticizes the anarchist view that even police OR some time, in philosophical circles, such functions can be handled privately; and he argues F movements as phenomenology and linguistics against the state (whatever that is) going further than have ruled the roost, challenged only by mysticism— the police function. and traditional philosophic concepts and concerns At least, Nozick docs get around to the question of were eschewed as meaningless. land. In discussing Locke's famous theory of acqui- However, within the last few years two influential sition, he asks "which plot does an act (of labour) books have appeared*, bringing back all the regalia bring under ownership? . . . Why should one's entitle- of such resounding concepts as Justice, Liberty, Mora- ment extend to the whole object rather than just to lity, Rights. The two authors, John Rawls and Robert the added value one's labour has produced?" Here Nozick are both professors of philosophy at Harvard he is getting close, but then the argument is left University and both young—so they are not even old hanging with this disappointing conclusion: "No fogeys. workable or coherent value-added property scheme John Rawls' A Theory of Justice has been hailed has yet been devised, and any such scheme presum- as a work of first importance, ranking with Locke ably would fall to objections (similar to those) that and Mill. It is a difficult book that requires close fell the theory of Henry George." No explanation or study, and even at that, the author does not always elaboration is offered, not even a footnote, although make himself clear. nearly all his other references are carefully docu- Rawls puts forward the concept of Justice as Fair- mented and footnoted, even references to comic strip ness and defends it against rival theories such as characters. A letter to Prof. Nozick requesting a utilitarianism. He propounds two basic principles, clarification failed to produce any response. A pity, as follows: for it is just in the domain of a "value-added property 1. The Equal Liberty principles: "Each person is scheme" that is so strong. to have an equal right to the most extensive total Both Rawls and Nozick conclude their respective system of equal basic liberties compatible with a books with descriptions of their ideal societies— similar system of liberty for all." Rawls with "a social union of social unions", and 2. The Difference principle: "Social and economic Nozick with a variety of ideal communities each fol- inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both: lowing its respective star. (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged and The work of both Rawls and Nozick, I feel, suffers from being too abstract and rarefied. One longs for fb) attached to offices and positions open to all under references to a few facts. Generalizations and hypo- conditions of fair equality of opportunity." theses may very well be the stuff of which philosophy "Equality of opportunity" falls well on our ears, is made, but they need to be checked against the but Rawls is ambiguous as to how it may be applied. facts of life. It is all very well to posit ideal societies, He regards differences in ability as subject to his but it behooves any one who wants to have anything principle, and therefore differences of income result- done about it to study how human beings really ing therefrom need to be equalized. His theory behave. For example: the "state of nature", referred appears to support the welfare state concept, and the to by both authors, is a standard convention of philo- egalitarian state in a semi-socialistic way. sophy; but why try to figure out the whole thing How Rawls manages to write a long book on this from an armchair when so much recent research by subject and on equality of opportunity without dis- anthropologists, archaeologists, et al, is available? cussing equal access to land and natural resources I am reminded of a saying by a distinguished pre- is difficult to explain, but he does manage it. decessor of both men, William James, himself a pro- Robert Nozick's book, Anarchy, State and Utopia, fessor of philosophy at Harvard. He said that in this was written partly as a reply to Rawls. It begins pro- world of sweat and dirt, God cannot be a gentleman; misingly: "Individuals have rights and there are he cannot refuse to get his hands soiled. Both Rawls things no person or group may do to them (without and Nozick have kept their hands a little too clean violating their rights)." But unfortunately he does and their books have more of the classroom than of not define "rights" nor does he outline what the rights the real world about them. are. Still it is refreshing to note that two important Just as Rawls supports the "liberal" view (in the books have so boldly tackled the concepts of classical philosophy, and it may be that those of us who never •A Theory of Justice by John Rawls. Harvard University Press, 1971. 607 pages. SI 5 cloth; $4.95 paper. gave up Natural Rights, Justice and Liberty may be Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Nozick. Basic Books, New York, 1974. 367 pages. $12.95. quite in fashion again.

JULY & AUGUST, 1976 63 AN HONEST AND people with an honest currency IMPORTANT BOOK Xjetters and the freedom to earn a liveli- <5)IR, — I have had the pleasure hood. Now that the Nation's capi- tal has been dissipated on an enor- —as well as an improvement ameliorative legislation irrelevant. mous scale, it is certain that a col- to my education — of reading A nation economically in ruins, lapse hitherto unknown in the Oliver Smedley's new book What and politically in a state of history of the British people is is Happening to the British Eco- anarchy, is the ultimate nightmare; upon us and our people will look nomy? B.W.B's review is some- which, after all is what Oliver's back to pre-1914 conditions with what harsh, and less than fair to book is all about! admiration and respect for the the author. Oliver has recorded NICHOLAS A. BILITCH men who then conducted our the history of U.K. politics and London, SW15 our economic folly as he has seen affairs. Under free trade and honest money the wellbeing of the and experienced it. If he dwells <«^IR, — I read with interest the humblest people was constantly at length on the urgent need of review of Mr. Smedley's book improving. Today the wellbeing pursuing a policy of sound money entitled What is Happening to the of the humblest people is collap- and free trade, it is because he is British Economy? This book is sing. Mr. Smedley over many an honest man who believes there important because it exposes the years has made great sacrifices for can be no lasting freedom, justice evils which have followed from the the cause in which he believes and and social harmony for a society adoption of protectionist policies his book deserves the support of which settles for the soft option and because it warns of the con- every humanitarian in the country. of inflation and protection pro- sequences to the poorest people of moted by governments favouring government decisions which use S. W. ALEXANDER. London E.C.2 sectional interests. up the national capital as current If Oliver eschews the chimera of revenue. Your reviewer asks the Welfare State, it is not because whether the period before 1914 BWB writes: I regard it as an he is careless or indifferent to the was a paradise for the ordinary important function of a reviewer plight of the old, the poor and the man and woman when the free to consider to what extent the genuinely needy; rather is it be- trade and sound money policy pre- author of a book has achieved his cause he rejects the sophistry and vailed. He talks of degrading purpose in writing it. I stand to cant which sustain the collectivist social conditions, the obscenity of be corrected but I judged Mr. state—which opts for the political child labour and the workhouses. Smedley's objective to be the con- expedient of class-based conflict. Your reviewer must be much too version of the reader to his philo- His long association with the young to know anything about sophy, not the writing of a handy Anti-Dear Food Campaign and the those conditions. I suppose he book of reference for the conver- National Benevolent Fund for the would regard going to work at ted. To me, the near-absence of Aged which he founded (and has fourteen as child labour. I started evangelistic logic in Mr. Smedley's been continuously associated with before that and it was one of the work overshadowed its acknow- since 1956) is evidence enough that best things that ever happened to ledged educational and informa- he is as much concerned with the me. I was glad to see also re- tive merit. problems of the less fortunate cently in the Daily Mail a letter I agree with Mr. Bilitch about among us as we have any right to from a man brought up in the the post hoc ergo propter hoc expect from any man. workhouse who paid a splendid sophism concerning social condi- B.W.B.'s reference to child tribute to those institutions. One tions before 1914 and I was care- labour, primitive working condi- of my first experiences was visiting ful, in my review, not to give cre- tions and long hours in factories, workhouses. The food in them was dence to the notion that free trade unemployment, depressions, etc. superior to what millions of people and the gold currency were in any is one of those Post Hoc Ergo are eating today. Around 1912 way responsible. What I tried to Propter Hoc assumptions which there were fewer than 300,000 point out was that such fallacious infers that classical economics is people in all the workhouses in thinking has gained wide accep- somehow responsible for the de- the United Kingdom which then tance and that the taint that has fects of subsequent social mis- included Ireland. Of that total rubbed on to free trade, etc., needs demeanours, or which naturally only around 65,000 were the hard to be scoured off by reasoned argu- arise from the political and eco- core. In contrast with the mil- ment, not by baldly asserting that nomic philosophy with which lions on pensions or drawing doles free trade is good for us. Oliver is associated. today those who were temporarily I am indebted to Mr. Alexander Acts of Parliament safeguarding unemployed soon found work for giving me a new slant on work- young people, factory workers, etc., again and the British people as a houses. Would he not agree, how- from irresponsible behaviour of whole were a proud and indivi- ever, that workhouses, whether employers are in no way irrecon- dually responsible people. Your run like Alcatraz or the Albemarle cilable with the adoption of com- reviewer says that Mr. Smedley Club, were as much a social stigma monsense and prudence in pur- must acknowledge that free trade of their age as Henry George's suit of sound economic policies; and the gold currency are tainted almshouse was in earlier times on the contrary, a failure to imple- with the social injustice of the (Progress and Poverty, pi 14) and ment correct economic measures times in which they thrived. There the plethora of welfare grants and will inevitably make any such is no injustice in providing the hand-outs are in our own?

Published by Land & Liberty Press Ltd., 177 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, S.W.I. Made and printed in Great Britain by Rounce & Wortley Ltd., Holt, Norfolk.