U.S. Backs U.N. Plan to Control Land

This headline appeared in the Utah Independent, and hundreds of other newspapers across the country, on July 22, 1976. The article proclaims that:

“Use of all land, public and private, will be controlled by the federal government in the future”, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Rexford Tugwell predicted this week.

Land which cannot be operated effectively under private ownership, will be held by the government as public forests, parks, game preserves, grazing ranges, recreation centers, and the like, Tugwell asserted. Privately owned land will be controlled 'to whatever extent is found necessary....'"

This new federal land policy reflected the new U.N. land policy, developed and adopted at a U.N. Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, that concluded on June 11, 1976. The U.S. delegation, headed by Carla Hill, then-Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, endorsed virtually every resolution in the new policy, as did every Communist nation.

Tugwell's prediction is now complete; the federal government either owns, or has the regulatory power to control, virtually every square inch of land in the United States.

Ironically, the same year this policy was announced, Jesse Hardy bought 160 acres near Naples, Florida, to build his American dream. He had served 12 years in the Navy, and was disabled from an injury during a helicopter jump. He built a modest home, using a generator for electricity, and began developing his dream of a wildlife area around fish ponds which he hoped would bring enough paying visitors to meet his meager money needs.

The federal government now wants Jesse's land. The government has already driven out, or bought out all the other land owners in the area, to expand the wilderness area in an effort to “restore” the Everglades. Jesse's land will not be affected by the restoration plan, but he will be the only resident in the area, and as long as there is a human in the area, it will not be “wild.”

Encouraged and funded by the federal government, governments at the state and local level are buying private property, conservation easements, and development rights in every corner of the nation. When the owners, like Jesse, are not willing to sell, government is exercising its eminent domain power, forcing people off their land. Across the state in Riviera Beach, Mayor Michael Brown is leading a campaign to condemn the homes of 5000 residents, forcing them to move, so the city can acquire the land, and resell it at a profit, to developers who will build more expensive homes and buildings, as prescribed by the city plan, which will produce a higher tax yield.

This scheme is an example of the implementation of recommendation D3(1) of the U.N. document adopted in 1976. This scheme is endorsed by the National Conference of State Legislatures, and by the American Planning Association, and has become a popular tool for local governments to abuse the power of eminent domain at the expense of private property owners.

Governments have developed a wide array of tools to take private property, or to take away the use of private property by the owners. Wetlands was the tool of choice during the 1980s. The federal government took jurisdiction over more than 200 million acres of private property by announcing its “wetlands” policy, which dictated what an owner could or could not do with his own land, if the land contained moisture 12-inches below the surface, for seven days during the growing season.

The Endangered Species Act, with its “critical habitat” provisions, allows agents of the government to dictate what private owners may or may not do with their own land. The “Clean Water Initiative” takes jurisdiction on either side of every stream, and again, dictates what private owners may or may not do with their own land. Historic Districts, Heritage Areas, Scenic Highways, Scenic Rivers, Economic Development Zones, and dozens of other designations allow government at every level to control the use of every square inch of private land.

This is precisely the result called for in the 1976 U.N. document.

Perhaps America celebrated too soon when the Berlin Wall fell, and we thought capitalism had finally prevailed over socialism. America didn't win. Socialism had already invaded the United States through the United Nations, and had an army of soldiers positioned in high government offices, eager to implement its policies.

They don't call it socialism, or communism, anymore; they call it smart growth, open space, wilderness, restoration, and environmental protection. Government ownership and control of land use is the foundation of socialism - regardless of what it may be called.

© 2004 Henry Lamb - All Rights Reserved

U.S. Backs UN Plan to Control Land

The Utah Independent, July 22, 1976

[This is a reprint of an article, “Tugwell Predicts New Regulations for Land With Federal Control,” from the PHILLIP COUNTY NEWS, Malta, Montana, dated Thursday, January 4, 1934. Rexford G. Tugwell, longtime propagandist for international banking interests, authored THE NEWSTATES CONSTITUTION which seeks to “legalize” federal regionalism, reduce Americans to the status of economic serfs on the land which once was theirs, and erect a dictatorship of the financial elite upon the ruins of the Republic. The Newstates Constitution, produced at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, was funded by the Ford Foundation at a cost of $25,000,000.00.]

Helena. (UP) - Use of all land, public and private will be controlled by the federal government in the future, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Rexford Tugwell predicted this week.

Land which cannot be operated effectively under private ownership will be held by the government as public forests, parks, game preserves, grazing ranges, recreation centers and the like, Tugwell asserted.

Privately owned land will be controlled “to whatever extent is found necessary for maintaining continuous productivity,” he said.

State officials here were studying Tugwell's statement today to see how they might affect Montana.

“We have depended too long on the hope that private ownership and control would operate somehow for the benefit of society as a whole. That hope has not been realized.”

Tugwell said present acreage reductions plans were only an emergency stop gap.

“What is done is merely to keep a part of each field of each farm out of use,” he said. “It seems to me obvious that this cannot be characteristic feature of a permanent policy.”

As an alternative, Tugwell advocated controlling the total volume of farm products by limiting the area available for production, the government acquiring and devoting to other uses all land in excess of that needed for production.

He envisioned “a commercial agriculture made up of the most efficient farmers operating the best of our lands.”

Contrary to the desired trend 2,000,000 persons have returned to farms during the depression, he said.

“We already had too many farmers,” Tugwell said. “We could probably raise all the farm products we need with half our present farmers, or 12 and one-half percent of our total working population.”

“Private control has failed to use wisely its control of the land,” he concluded. “We are preparing a land program not merely for the benefit of those who held title to it but for the greater welfare of all the citizens of the country.”

A resolution favoring sharp restrictions on the private ownership of property was endorsed by a United Nations conference and supported by the United States on June 11.[1976]

The UN's Conference on Human Settlement recently met in Vancouver, British Columbia, and asked that land be managed as a public resource rather than a profit-generating commodity. It called for redistribution of land in poor countries and for a more equitable distribution of wealth.

“Land, because of its unique nature and the crucial role it plays in human settlement, cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market,” the conference declared.

In a scathing attack on human rights, the conference added, “Private land ownership also is a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice; if unchecked it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes.”

The U.S. delegation, headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Carla Hills, endorsed virtually all of the resolutions. The U.S. delegation said that the land-management proposals were not inconsistent with established national practices in the United States.

Although the conference's resolutions are nonbinding, they will be introduced to the General Assembly for ratification. With support from both the U.S. State Department and communist nations, the measures are certain to be approved.