[401] _Clarion_, November 15, 1907.

[402] Bax and Quelch, _A New Catechism of Socialism_, p. 40.

[403] Dennis Hird, _From Brute to Brother_, p. 14.

[404] _Socialism and Trade Unionism: Wherein do they Differ?_ pp. 2-8.

[405] Quelch, _Trade Unionism_, p. 16.

[406] Opening Address, Chairman Hartley at Annual Conference,
_Social-Democratic Federation Annual Report, 1906_, pp. 3, 4.

[407] John Penny, _The Political Labour Movement_, p. 15.

[408] _New Age_, November 30, 1907.

[409] _Social Democrat_, September 1907, pp. 548, 549.

[410] See the _Labour Leader_, _Clarion_, _Justice_, _Socialist
Standard_, _Socialist_, &c., for November 1907.

CHAPTER VIII

SOCIALIST VIEWS AND PROPOSALS REGARDING LAND AND THE LANDLORDS

British Socialists, as we have learned in Chapter IV.,[411] adopting
the celebrated formula of Proudhon, have proclaimed "Property is
theft," and they are of opinion that property in land is a
particularly heinous form of theft. Therefore they demand the
restitution of the land to the people, not as a matter of expediency
but as a matter of right. "Man has a right only to what his labour
makes. No man 'makes' the land."[412] "Land is the gift of Nature. It
is not made by man. Now, if a man has a right to nothing but that
which he has himself made, no man can have a right to the land, for no
man made it."[413] "The land belongs by inalienable right not to any
body of individuals but to all."[414]

O high cliffs looking heavenward,
O valleys green and fair.
Sea cliffs that seem to gird and guard
Our island once so dear,
In vain your beauty now ye spread,
For we are numbered with the dead;
A robber band has seized the land,
And we are exiles here.

The ploughman ploughs, the sower sows.
The reaper reaps the ear;
The woodman to the forest goes
Before the day grows clear,
But of our toil no fruit we see;
The harvest's not for you and me:
A robber band has seized the land,
And we are exiles here.[415]

Appealing to the passions, hatred, and greed of their followers, and
relying on their credulity, Socialist leaders proclaim not only that
the landlords are useless, but also that the people will have the land
rent free as soon as the present owners have been expropriated. "The
landlord, _qua_ landlord, performs no function in the economy of
industry or of food production. He is a rent-receiver; that, a