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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 71

An Initial Wrong

An Initial Wrong.

This was the initial wrong which had been done by that system—a certain number of settlers were by this means able to make profits without rendering any service, because, as he had shown, it was the community which rendered the service by making roads, bridging streams, and other public improvements. But it was the men who only helped as individuals amongst the rest of the community who pocketed the whole of the premium thus obtainable. He did not like using hard names, but the name "black-mailing" occurred to him as exactly appropriate to this sort of thing. He would give an illustration. If a party were crossing a desert with a caravan, and shortly before coming to the next watering place, a certain number of men who had the fleetest horses should ride forward and entrench themselves at the next spring, when the rest came up they demanded toll as the condition precedent to taking any of the water. All would agree that that was blackmailing. What was the difference between that and a capitalist who had money going in advance of a second lot of settlers, forestalling them, and demanding an additional premium for the land to be taken up?