My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

LAND NATIONALIZATION 323introduction to the great problem of the land ;and Iaccordingly devoted my attention to the subject, studyingvoluminous reports on agriculture, on Irish famines,on Highland crofters, and numbers of special treatisesdealing with the various aspects of this vast and farreachingquestion.My book was published in March,1882, under the title "Land Nationalization: itsNecessity and its Aims," and gave, in a compactform, the only general account of the evils of ourland system as it exists in England, Ireland, andScotland ; a comparison with other countries or placesin which a better system prevails, together with asolution of the problem of how to replace it by theonly just system, without any confiscation of propertyor injury to any living individual. The book has hada large circulation, and, in a revised edition, is stillon sale ; and, together with numerous tracts issued bythe Society, has done much to educate public opinionon this most vital of all political or social questions.As, however, it was quite certain that it wouldtake a very long time before even the first stepstowards land nationalization would be taken, I tookevery opportunity of advocating such other fundamentalreforms as seemed to me demanded by equityand to be essential to social well-being. One of theearliest was on the subject of interest, about whichthere was much difference of opinion among advancedthinkers. A discussion having arisen in The ChristianSocialist, I developed my views at some length in anarticle which appeared in the issue of March, 1884.Soon after our society was started, Henry George,author of that remarkable work, " Progress andPoverty," came to England, and I had the pleasureof making his acquaintance. He spoke at several ofour meetings and elsewhere in London, as well as in