Land Monopoly. Savage Nature [pp. 437-441]

LAND MONOPOLY.
ART. VII.-LAND MONOPOLY-SAVAGE NATURE. =.
LAND MONOPOLY is the sole parent of civilization. The savage
varieties of the human species are incapableof land monopoly, and
therefore incapable of becoming civilized. The lands of southern Africa, even among the agricultural tribes, are held in common.
The Indians of America, except a few half-civilized, hybrid tribes, or
natives, have ever held their lands in common, as mere hunting
grounds or pastures. Nor are they capable of even so holding them
when brought in contact, association, trading relations, and free competition and war of the wits, with the whites. The whites, if not
prohibited by law, soon cheat the Indian tribes out of their lands.
Early in the history of Virginia, and other American colonies, it
was found necessary to pass laws prohibiting the whites from
acquiring titles to lands reserved to the Indians. At the Cape of
Good Hope in Africa, the Dutch farmers soon defrauded the Hottentots of their lands, made part of them slaves, and drove the ballance into the bush or mountains. These bushmen have become
the most destitute, degraded, cruel, and ferocious of all savage
tribes.
Land monopoly, or the private ownership of the lands by the few
civilizes the landless, by making them quasi slaves,-that is, slaves
to capital. The land owners, would not produce luxuries, fine houses,
fine furniture, fine clothes and fine equipage for themselves; nay, they
would live, as savages, on the barest necessaries of life, had they to
support themselves by manual labor. But desiring the luxuries of
life, they say to the landless, we will permit you to live on our
lands and cultivate them, provided you will furnish us, not only
with the necessaries, but also with whatever is beautiful or ornamental in architecture, in dress, furniture, equipage, etc., and with
all the luxuries of the table. This is an inestimable blessing to the
laboring landless millions, for it habituates them to labor, system,
economy and provident habits, and leaves them, from the results of
their own labor, after paying the taxes or rents to the land
owners, twice as much of the comforts and necessaries of life
as the best conditioned savages enjoy. Thus begins civilization,
and thus only can it begin. Where there is no slavery to capital
there cannot possibly be any civilization. But negroes and Indians are incapable of amassing and administering capital, and, therefore, left to themselves, incapable of inaugurating or sustaining civilization.
We have given the first step in civilization. The next is that
the land owners make larger allowance, or give higher pay, or
wages, to the skilful and inventive laborers who fabricate luxuries for
them than to ordinary laborers who produce for them coarse necessaries only. These skilful and inventive laborers, mechanics, merchants, artists, architects, authors, physicians, etc., from their high
wages, amass fortunes, purchase lands, or hold profit-yielding capital in some other form, and help the original land owners to lash and
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