THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
499
wealth, it may be said (commonly speaking), is of two forms. First, that which is produced by skill and labor, which, as we have seen, grows cheaper and cheaper as civilization advances; and, second, that which is produced by the growth of society— i. e. the value that attaches to land by reason of population or ground rents, which grow dearer and dearer as civilization advances. Men need wealth individually. This each one produces by his individual labor, and his right to it is inviolate.
We also have need of a social fund to defray the common expenses of government, such as schools, public bridges, roads, care of the sick and aged, the unfortunate who are now left to the humiliations of charity, or worse still, the mortification of alms. Ground rents are produced socially. To use this social fund to defray the expenses of society would, in reality, consist in all sharing equally in the value of the land, or in other words, would restore the land of the world to the people of the world. We would collect these ground rents by means of a single tax, placed not upon land, for all land does not rent for the same price, but upon land according to its value.
Hon. Wm. P. Saunders, of London, says: “This would in reality be no tax at all, but a pension for everybody.” Let this simple yet radical change be adopted, and how soon would our present unjust standard of social equality disappear. Then respect for the aged, pity, tenderness and love for the blind, crippled and unfortunate would be accorded, whatever their social rank. Then hearts would count as high as heads, and heads as high as gold. Hear the words of one, who dwelt so long in the thought upon the misery and injustice in the world, and this remedy, until in prophetic vision he at length caught a glimpse of the future—
“ Far as human eye could see;
Saw r the vision of the world and all the wonders that would be.”
And as he gazed he wrote this picture for our comfort and hope. So earnest and intense was his soul, so inspired his thought, that between the lines, for ages, will be heard the very sound of his heart-throbs. The fiat has gone forth. With steam and electricity, and the new powers born of progress, forces have entered the world that will either compel us to a higher plane or overwhelm us as nation after nation, as civilization after civilization have been overwhelmed before. Plven now, in old bottles, the new wine begins to ferment, and elemental forces gather for the strife. But if, while there is yet time, we turn to Justice and obey her, if we trust Liberty and follow her, the dangers that now threaten must disappear, the forces that now menace will turn to agencies of elevation. Think of the powers now wasted; of the infinite fields of knowledge yet to be explored; of the possibilities of which the wondrous inventions of this century give us but a hint. With want destroyed; with greed changed to noble passions; with the fraternity that is born of equality, taking the place of the jealousy and fear that now array men against each other; with mental power loosed by conditions that give to the humblest comfort and leisure, and who shall measure the heights to which our civilization may soar? Words fail the thought!
It is the Golden Age of which poets have sung and high raised seers häve told in metaphor. It is the glorious vision which has always haunted man with gleams of fitful splendor. It is what he saw, whose eyes at Patmos were closed in a trance. It is the culmination of Christianity—the city of God on earth, with its walls of jasper and its gates of pearl! It is the reign of the Prince of Peace!