Community property

“ The rights of property have been so much extended that the rights of the community have almost altogether disappeared, and it is hardly too much to say that the prosperity and the comfort and the liberties of a great proportion of the population has been laid at the feet of a small number of proprietors, who neither toil nor spin. ”

“ Like man himself, every form of the property of man possesses, besides its special character which makes it the private possession of an individual, a universal side which men gives the community a well-grounded claim to a right to it. That the State and the municipality appropriate a part of the property of every citizen as taxes we all consider a matter of course, or that the law limits the free control of the individual's property. ”

“ You may, if you will, convert them into a house, and, in consideration of the labor and skill required for so doing, we will grant you, during a certain time, the privilege of letting the rooms, at your own price, to those who desire to occupy them; but at the close of that time the building must become common property, to be disposed of as we please." This is exactly what the community says to the gentlemen who employ themselves in converting its common property into books, and to say more would be doing great injustice. ”

“ It distinguishes equity from equality in distribution of all good, wealth included. Public property is rightly public when the wants and energies of all the community are best provided for by such common ownership. Proof in each particular case is essential against the presumption that individual needs are the best impulses to provision for welfare. Even common property is limited necessarily to the numbers who can use it. No property or wealth can exist for anybody without the control of some human individuals for whom it is accumulated. ”

“ Another significant institution of civilization is the idea of ownership, the division of property into public property and private property and the right of the private property owner to do what he will with his property, subject always to the over-riding principle of eminent domain: the right of the community to expropriate private property for public uses, with or without compensation.
Another institution of civilization is the provision of public services in addition to means of communication and transportation. ”

“ When you bring together the Scotch township which is nothing more than an association of tenants, the Russian mir which seems to have long been only an association of serfs, the Servian village which, on the other hand, is a household community, and the allmend or commons which are a consequence and accompaniment of private property, you confuse things which are absolutely different, and which, moreover, are very far removed from the system of community in land that you are anxious to prove. ”

“ Those who are giving their time and energy to the production of wealth, face the fact that property rights have been so construed as to give property owners a first claim on production and to make property income a fixed charge on the industry of the community. ”

“ Regulating Private Property.—No matter what the city authorities may do in the way of planning streets properly, and expending great care upon public buildings, the outward attractiveness of a community depends to a large extent upon the good taste and civic pride of its individual inhabitants. Within reasonable bounds a man can erect anything he pleases upon his own land. ”

“ But, subject to this proviso, the state is at liberty to deal with landed property as the general interests of the community may require, even to the extent, if it so happen, of doing with the whole, what is done with a part whenever a bill is passed for a railroad or a new street. The community has too much at stake in the proper cultivation of the land, and in the conditions annexed to the occupancy of it, to leave these things to the discretion of a class of persons called landlords, when they have shown themselves unfit for the trust. ”

“ The tax upon land values is, therefore, the most just and equal of all taxes. It falls only upon those who receive from society a peculiar and valuable benefit, and upon them in proportion to the benefit they receive. It419 is the taking by the community, for the use of the community, of that value which is the creation of the community. It is the application of the common property to common uses. When all rent is taken by taxation for the needs of the community, then will the equality ordained by nature be attained. ”

“ No owner of land need be dispossessed, and no restriction need be placed upon the amount of land any one could hold. For, rent being taken by the State in taxes, land, no matter in whose name it stood, or in what parcels it was held, would be really common property, and every member of the community would participate in the advantages of its ownership. ”

“ In the earliest society the proprietors made their own wealth, and so long as it comes to the owners in the direct way, no other opinion would arise in any equitable community than that property should make the law for property, and persons the law for persons. ”

“ This "joint family" or "village community" system, therefore, so far from denying the right of several property in land, is founded upon that right. Assuredly, our ancestors did not trouble themselves much about the philosophical foundations of property. But I am well assured that if any one had tried to persuade a village community that all mankind had as much right as they to their land, that missionary of "absolute political ethics" would have been short-lived. ”

“ It is not inconceivable that more radical needs will be recognized by legislatures and courts in the next twenty years. The need for the protection of the community against the selfishness of a few large property owners, for instance, may bring about the creation of a municipal board representing all the people of a community as a factor in the real estate market.
A municipality in the United States may become the owner of land by gift, dedication, or devise, and may use such land for any purpose whatsoever not inconsistent with the conditions of the gift, dedication, or devise. ”

“ Therefore, it seems necessary that all of the every-day rights of property, of social arrangements, of marriage, of contracts—everything that makes up the life of a social community—shall be under the control, not of a remote or distant authority, but of one that is limited to, and derives its ideas and principles from, a local community. ”

“ All property and all enterprises that now have, or subsequently shall have the character of a national public service or of a monopoly in fact, must become the property of the community.
The Nation shall ensure to the individual and to the family the conditions necessary to their development. ”

“ Property is abolished and community of goods established, so that private citizens have no further need for savings, and the savings of his life-time are appropriated by the State. Next, the organisation of industry by the State necessitates the separation of the family. ”

“ The equal taxation of all species of property is commonly insisted upon on the ground that all property is equally protected by the state. The basis of this idea is evidently that the enjoyment of property is made possible by the state; that there is a value created and maintained by the community, which is justly called upon to meet community expenses. ”

“ The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property in land, and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of rent, of the price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as for the advantages of superior soils and sites. The Society, further, works for the transfer to the community of the administration of such industrial capital as can conveniently be managed socially. ”

“ Property does become clothed with a public interest when used in a manner to make it of public consequence, and affect the community at large. ”

“ These defects, of course, could only be thoroughly remedied by putting into force the logical economic principle of State ownership of all land and buildings, instead of permitting the individual to do as he pleased with property made valuable by the community. ”

“ War-veterans shall receive special consideration in the enactment of a homestead law.
Landed property, the acquisition of which is necessary to satisfy the demand for housing, to promote settlement and reclamation, or to [333] improve agriculture, may be expropriated. Entailments shall be dissolved.
The cultivation and utilization of the soil is a duty of the landowner toward the community. An increase of the value of land arising without the application of labour or capital to the property shall inure to the benefit of the community as a whole. ”

“ The retirement from the farms has been checked; the neighborhood has become specially desirable for residence. Farmers who had gone to the town find now that as good or better schools are to be had in the community where their property lies and where they pay their taxes. ”

“ These community aspects are decisive in adjusting the relations now before us, and more particularly in adjudicating the clash of freedoms which the Bill of Rights was designed to resolve-the freedom of the community to regulate its life and the freedom of the individual to exercise his religion and to disseminate his ideas. Title to property as defined by State law controls property relations; it cannot control issues of civil liberties which arise precisely because a company town is a town as well as a co geries of property relations. ”

“ Apprehension of land as common property The doctrine of eminent domain, which makes the sovereign theoretically the only absolute owner of land, springs from nothing but the recognition of the sovereign as the representative of the collective rights of the people. ”

“ It is essential that relations of precise equity shall prevail between the proprietors of a Collective Home. The right of individual property in each domicile should be fortified by separate title and right of sale, subject only to chartered restrictions. In a well constructed and organized Federative Homestead such domiciles would always be salable at full cost value. A precise account, based on accurate standards of measurement, must be kept with each individual or family, including both general and special supplies and services. ”

“ The natural and desirable state is for every family to own and occupy their home, and those conditions should be encouraged which make it [252] unprofitable for any one to own real property he does not himself occupy, and which make it easy and profitable for every family to own their own home. ”

“ This is the land of absolute individuality as well as absolute equality. Every man who reaches maturity becomes the individual owner of property in one or more of its forms, the foundation being the soil for residence or productive purposes, or both, at his option. All lands are subject to individual ownership, within clearly defined limits, the public domain being held in reserve to meet new demands of increasing population. ”

“ The principle of communal property rarely survives this change, for by long possession the families acquire a prescriptive right to the portions which they cultivate, and those who manure their land well naturally object to exchange it for land which has been held by indolent, improvident neighbours. ”

“ Whilst, therefore, the residence of landed proprietors, who are prosperous and successful in the management of their properties, has a most valuable effect in promoting the stability of social order and general confidence in the laws, which are amongst the most important elements in facilitating the production of natural wealth, the non-residence of embarrassed proprietors cannot be considered injurious to the community. ”

“ Probably if a larger proportion of the capital required for land and building—say 85 per cent. instead of 66 per cent.—were lent to Public Utility Societies, they would spring up all over the country. A Public Utility Society is a group of people who band themselves together to build houses, undertaking to receive not more than 5 per cent. interest on their money. They build, and then let, and give the tenants a real inducement to look after the property well in the form of a bonus if the cost of repairs is low, and if the houses are well let. These Societies are making headway. ”

“ Land, except when used for absolutely universal welfare, must be under individual control, and even then other individuals may have the right of way because of its necessity in the common use. Peculiarities of property in land arising from limitations in quantity or quality will be spoken of under Scarcity Prices and Rent. They differ from similar questions as to any other form of property only because this form of property seems more permanent. Any force of nature brought under control by individual effort contributes to wealth of individuals till all gain equal control. ”

“ Ownership is possible for comparatively few, but there is probably nothing that contributes more to the upbuilding of a community and the development of good citizenship than the permanent residence of families in localities. ”

“ By the cession public property passes from one government to the other, but private property remains as before, and with it those municipal laws which are designed to secure its peaceful use and enjoyment. ”

“ In the meanwhile the family develops to the point of monogamy, and individual property rights usher in a new political system. An advanced form of municipal life in fortified cities having already created the ideal of city treasure to be protected, the step was ultimately taken from this to individual property rights distinct from those of the gens. ”

“ In order that the question of proprietorship may not remain too long unsettled, and thereby injure the public welfare, disturbing the peace of families and the stability of social transactions, the law has fixed a time when all claims shall be cancelled, and possession shall regain its ancient prerogative through its transformation into property. ”