of dependence on the accumulations of others?
In this connection, and of primary importance, is the avenue opened to all holders of small properties to share in the increase which goes to owners of land. It has been seen that owners of the soil constantly gain from the inevitable tendencies of industrial progress. If one large owner gains, why should not the increment be the same if ten owners held the property instead of one? The more the land is subdivided, the more the vast increase arising from rent will be shared by a larger number. This, in my opinion, is the strongest reason for the encouragement of small holdings in every country. The greater the extension of small properties among the working-class, the more will they gain a share of that part of the product which goes to the owner of land by the persistent increase of population.
If, then, the gain arising from improvements is largely passed to the credit of land-owners, as Mr. Cairnes believes, it should be absolutely necessary to spread among the working-classes the doctrine that if they own their own homes, and buy the land they live on, to that extent will they “grow rich while they sleep,” independently of their other exertions. Land worth $500 to-day when bought by the savings of a laborer, besides the self-respect315 it gives him, will increase in value with the [pg 523] density of population, and become worth $600 or more without other sacrifice of his.
§ 3. —through co-operation, by which the manager's wages are shared.
It will be found, however, that, of the various industrial rewards, profits tend to diminish, meaning by “profits” only the interest and insurance given for abstinence and risk in the use of capital; but that the manager's wages (wages of superintendence) are larger than is commonly supposed in relation to other industrial rewards, owing to the position of