“Only, when I first realized the squalid misery of a great cit= y, it appalled and tormented me, and would not let me rest, for thinking of wh= at caused it and how it could be cured”

[This article was printed without i= nformation about the writer, in the bimonthly magazine “Progress”, number 1067, May-June 2005, published by the organizations “Prosper Australi= a” <www.prosper.org.au> and “EarthSharing” <www.eart= hsharing.org.au>, edited by Karl Williams, Melbourne.]

Henry George (1839-1897)

This self-made printer-jour= nalist, political economist, and reformer was the most important and influential radical social thinker of the 19^th century America= . He became the third most famous man in the United States, only surpassed in pu= blic acclaim by Thomas Edison and Mark Twain (who himself became a “Georgist”). George was translated into almost e= very language that knew print, and some of the greatest and most influential thinkers of his time paid him the loftiest of tributes.

Very much the self-made man= , his formative experiences were rich and varied. Born in <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Philadelphia as the second of ten child= ren, he was raised in modest circumstances. He left school when 13 years old and spent 2 years as a clerk before seeking adventures and signing on as a fore= mast boy on a merchant ship which sailed around the globe for three years.<= /o:p>

On his return he learnt typ= esetting for 9 months before shipping out again to California. Leaving the ship in San Francisco in 1858 he headed for British Columbia to join the gold rush= ; but the expedition was a failure.

George returned to San Francisco where he married Australian-born Annie Corsina Fox. Times were t= ough, and the Georges lived in real poverty to the point where in 1865 the family, with the addition of 2 young sons, was near starvation. Despite this, George continued to improve his mind with dedicated study and was starting to get a reputation as a writer. He thereafter managed to rise rapidly to the positi= on of managing editor of the San Francisco Daily Evening Post. However, he n= ever forgot that desperation of real poverty – this experience served him well.

George became outspoken aga= inst the major inequities of his day such as the illegal actions of monopolies, mini= ng interests, political corruption, and the exploitation of new Chinese immigr= ants in California. As a deeply religious and moral man, he felt that America could not condone such actions.

It’s worth examining = further the other influences that moulded this bold and original thinker. For start= ers, all through his life he tried to ennoble himself with the great works of literature - Fox TV and such trash played no part in Henry’s upbringi= ng! As a boy he witnessed the fabulous of wealth of India, but most human life he= saw grovelling in the dirt.

New York later made a simil= ar impression during a trip there in the late 1860’s, where he observed = the apparent paradox of extreme wealth existing side by side with poverty so harrowing and degrading that the victims of it had lost the will to escape.= In California he li= ved and worked in a rapidly developing society where he had the unique opportunity = of studying the formation of a civilization – how an encampment on the g= old fields evolved into a thriving metropolis. And as he saw the beginning of wealth, he noted the first appearance of pauperism. He saw degradation form= ing as he saw the advent of leisure and affluence, and he felt compelled to discover why they arose concurrently.

The key to the mystery soon= lay open to his mind. In San Franc= isco the railroad from the east was soon expected, and he was amazed and disturb= ed by the advice he receiving – to buy land and hold it. Already, much l= and was selling for $1,000 an acre, some of it used only for grazing cows. As he later wrote “We must do something, otherwise t= he very ground which nourishes and shelters us, as vital as the air, will be monopolised by a few men. Those few will own and rule us. And then democracy will perish.”

Meanwhile, back at the chro= nology, in an 1871 pamphlet, Our Land and L= and Policy, George first set out his theory of rent as the primary cause of monopoly and poverty, and advocated a single tax on land. Between 1877 and = 1879 he worked on his mighty masterpiece, Progress and Poverty. For its eloquence and stirring emotional impact alone, this grand work of genius would be considered essential reading, written simply = but so beautifully that it has been compared to the very greatest works of the English language.

Yet there was no inkling th= en as to the huge impact this book would have on the world. George was unable to fin= d a publisher and so self-published an edition of 500, doing much of the typesetting himself. When the first 500 sold quickly, a publisher was happy= to take the plates. The book became a sensation in both America and England, eventually selling millions of copies and being translated into numerous languages. The scientist and writer, Alfred Russell Wallace, described Progress and Poverty as “the = most remarkable and important book of the present century.”

George explained that the r= eason so many people lived in total misery was because their natural birthright R= 11; access to land – had been systematically and surreptitiously taken aw= ay. However, instead of urging an uprising against landowners and government, George made a case for peaceful yet permanent change by removing all taxes = on what people produced with their labour and the capital goods used in production. In their place, George made clear how we must have a tax on land values, although this is really not a tax at all, but actually a user fee w= hich society ought to collect from anyone who is given exclusive use of any part= of nature.

Political prominence had be= en thrust upon George, and his spellbinding powers of oratory were used to rou= se countless thousands in mass meetings. The publication of The Irish Land Question resulted in him being sent to Ireland and England in 1881-1882 on assig= nment for the radical Irish World. Th= ere he became acquainted with leaders of the Irish Land League as well as many Eng= lish socialists and radicals. In 1883-4 he made another trip at the invitation of the Scottish land restoration league, producing on both tours a striking effect, lecturing extensively and becoming the catalyst for a new political movement to bring an end to land monopoly. Entrenched privilege had never b= een exposed and threatened so seriously.

The stakes became higher wh= en he returned to New York a hero with a strong transatlantic following, and he agreed to run for mayo= r in 1886 as the candidate of the United Labor Party – in those days, the Mayor of New York was second in effective Americ= an power only to the President. The labour unions had been unanimous that Henry George should be their candidate, and his reluctance was only overcome by a petition of 34,000 people. After a strenuous campaign against Democrat Abra= m S Hewitt and Republican Theodore Roosevelt, George came second in the poll to Hewitt; many supporters charged that fraud had robbed him of victory.<= /o:p>

Largely based in New York, George next started a weekly newspaper, The Standard, which = he used to hammer away at the issues of the day, especially the reasons for the increasing disparities of wealth. T= he Standard then gave rise to the influential Anti-Poverty Society. Meanwh= ile his world popularity was growing even more, and his next calls abroad were = to Britain in 1888 and 1889, and later to Australia and New Zealand. Now at the age o= f 51, he was one of Australia’s most celebrated men, attracting 10,000 eager listeners to hear him speak at= Melbourne’s Exhibition Building= in 1890. His visit to Australia was the catalyst for the formation of the Australian Labor Party, which based itself on h= is principles until loosing its way completely (see Clyde Cameron’s chronology of this tragedy on pages 14, Progress, No. 1067, May-June 2005).

He was now pushing himself = to the limit, and suffered a slight stroke in the winter of 1890-1891, but nevertheless continues to lecture widely and write prolifically. The powerf= ul landed interests of the Roman Catholic Church had given rise to Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical on land ownership. GeorgeR= 17;s response was The Condition of Labou= r in 1891 which was a head-on demolition (in respectful and dignified languag= e) of the warped and self-serving Church position.

He had still found time to = write more books: Social Problems (18= 83), Protection or Free Trade (1886), A Perplexed Philosopher (a critiqu= e of social philosopher Herbert Spencer in 1892) and Science of Political Economy (1897).

In the later years George f= ound himself more and more at odds with both socialists and mainstream labour leaders; his movement increasingly attracted middle class progressives.

Under immense pressure from self-inflicted overwork and against his doctor’s warnings that the st= ress of another campaign would likely prove fatal, in 1897 George again accepted nomination to run for the office of mayor of New York. Totally exhausted, he litera= lly died from overwork on the eve of the election. The huge respect and affecti= on felt for Henry George was demonstrated in the funeral ceremonies in which m= ore than a hundred thousand people viewed his body and joined the procession to= his burial site in Brooklyn.

He had dedicated his all to= solving the greatest curse afflicting humanity, and his written legacy and personal example of virtue are monuments to the pursuit of truth. Einstein said of George, “Men like Henry George are rare, unfortunately. One cannot imagine a more beautiful combination of intellectual keenness, artis= tic form, and fervent love of justice.” Leo Tolstoy wrote, “People do not argue with the teaching of George, they si= mply do not know it.” John Dewey fervently stressed the originality of George’s work, stating that, “Henry George is one of a small number of definitely original social philosophers = that the world has produced.”

Henry George was a lucid vo= ice, direct and bold, that pointed out basic truths and cut through the confusio= n of the wayward and corrupted discipline of economics. His ideas stand as despe= rately-needed today as then: he who makes should retain; what the community produces belo= ngs to the community for communal uses; and God’s earth, all of it, is the fundamental birthright of all humanity.