"I would invert the whole Henry George principle,and I would tax personal property of the household kind so heavily that it would necessarily pass out of private hands;I would make its tenure so costly that it would be impossible to any but the very rich,who are also the very wicked,and ought to suffer."
"Oh,come,now!"
"I refer you to your Testament.In the end,all household property would pass into the hands of the state."
"Aren't you getting worse and worse?"
"Oh,I'm not supposing there won't be a long interval when household property will be in the hands of powerful monopolies,and many millionaires will be made by letting it out to middle-class tenants like you and me,along with the houses we hire of them.I have no doubt that there will be a Standard Household-Effect Company,which will extend its relations to Europe,and get the household effects of the whole world into its grasp.It will be a fearful oppression,and we shall probably groan under it for generations,but it will liberate us from our personal ownership of them,and from the far more crushing weight of the moth-ball.We shall suffer,but--"
