[1226] “The possession of a piece of land frees the workman from dependence upon the masters, which is one cause of poverty. The worker who possesses land is free. He has always something he can turn his hand to when out of work.” Elsewhere: “If a certain quantity of land is given to the workers their wages will surely rise, for no one will work for another unless he can get more than he gets when working for himself.” (Quoted by Escarra, p. 224, note.) The same idea occurs in Henry George, but not as a part of the general argument.
[1227] If we had not decided against the inclusion of the Italian economists, this would have been the place to devote a few words to the writings of Achille Loria. No one excels him as a writer on political economy. An elaborate superstructure of great economic, political, social, and even religious significance has been built upon the foundation of free land, which at least denotes a powerful imagination. A résumé of this thesis is contained in La Terra ed il Sistema sociale, translated for the Revue d’Économie politique in 1892. We cannot examine Loria’s system here. Suffice it to say that in his Costituzione economica odierna (1900) he demands that the law should recognise each man’s right to the land: either to a unit of land (i.e. a quantity of land such as would enable a man to live and set up as an independent producer) or, failing that, to a fraction of such a unit.
Such is the theoretical solution, but the practical suggestion is somewhat milder, a kind of territorial wage being suggested. Every master would be obliged to give to his workmen, in addition to a minimum wage, a certain amount of land at the end of a given number of years. If during that period the workman has been employed by several masters, each master should contribute in proportion to the length of time he has been in his service.
At the end of a certain period every worker would thus become a proprietor. These would thus be in the same position as their primitive ancestors were as far as natural economy is concerned, and would be able to join with the older proprietors in a kind of association of capital and labour on a footing of absolute equality, which Signor Loria thought would be a most fruitful type of organisation. During the intervening years a certain amount of pressure would have to be put upon the proprietors.
[1228] The Social Democratic Federation was founded by Hyndman in 1881. See Métin, Le Socialisme en Angleterre, chap. 6 (1897).
[1229] Bernard Shaw, The Fabian Society, what it has done and how it has done it (1892; Fabian Tract, No. 41).
[1230] Report on Fabian Policy (Fabian Tract, No. 70).
[1231] “For it was at this period that we contracted the invaluable habit of freely laughing at ourselves which has always distinguished us, and which has saved us from becoming hampered by the gushing enthusiasts who mistake their own emotions for public movements.” (Bernard Shaw, loc. cit.)
[1232] Report on Fabian Policy.
[1233] Socialism, as understood by the Fabian Society, means the organisation and conduct of the necessary industries of the country, and the appropriation of all forms of economic rent of land and capital by the nation as a whole, through the most suitable public authorities, municipal, provincial, or central. The socialism advocated by the Fabian Society is State socialism exclusively (the term is used to distinguish it from anarchist socialism). On the other hand, it “steadfastly discountenances all schemes for securing to any person, or any group of persons, the entire product of their labour. It recognises that wealth is social in its origin and must be social in its distribution, since the evolution of industry has made it impossible to distinguish the particular contribution that each person makes to the common product, or to ascertain its value.” (Report on Fabian Policy.)