from The Public June 1, 1917

A CHAIN OF REASONING. By H. Heath Bawden.

1— The Universe from our point of view = nature plus human nature

2— Human nature has needs only nature can supply

3— Civilized man has wants in addition to biological needs

4— That which will satisfy these wants is wealth

5— All wealth is derived from the land

6— For the most part only, however, as produced by labor

7— The accumulation of such labor-produced wealth is capital

8— The land belongs to nobody; or equally to all

9— The use-value of land—rent; of capitals interest; of labor—wages

10— Rent and interest are created by and belong to labor

11— Laborers constitute the majority in a democracy

12— If this majority appropriates rent for the community, nature will once more be accessible, and labor will get its full product in wages. And this will be done through the present machinery of government, without violent revolution, by merely abolishing taxes as we now know them, and enacting that the community appropriate to its own ends hereafter the wealth that the community creates which never should have been allowed to be diverted into private hands.