Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1241

Carbon of letter to Louis Pensak, 933 46th Street, Brooklyn NY. Note that the second sentence to the end of the first paragraph is supplied from pencil notes attached to the carbon copy, although there is no indication that this was necessarily where it was intended to be inserted.

November 19th, 1939

Dear Mr. Pensak:

Here is a functional analysis of what is probably the basic institution on which society rests — private property in land. The institution of Property in Land puts men on the contract and consent (covenant) basis in their relations towards each other in respect to those elements and advantages of environment that because of conflict cannot otherwise be freely possessed and enjoyed. Moreover, the state of security achieved by this contractual relation is the foundation of peaceable community life, for it protects not only the enjoyment of land, but also the employment of land in the preparation of goods and services destined for others through the civilized system of contract and measured exchange.

The exchange function or process is taken as the key to the validity of this institution. This is the same fundamental social relationship discovered as the basis of all quality and value in the “Energy Concept of Population.”

All social institutions may well be interpreted and appraised in the light of their contribution to this basic social function — namely, voluntary exchange of energy in service forms. This building up and mutual enhancement of each other’s power by the social units and groups is what gives the population its creative power over its environment and thus the power to govern and determine, indirectly, its own evolution.

Sincerely,