Henry
George was born in Philadelphia in 1839. After working as a sailor
he settled in California where he became a typesetter and printer.
By the 1860s. He wrote for several newspapers
and eventually became the owner of the San
Francisco Evening Post.
George was a crusading reporter who was later to have a considerable
influence on a generation of investigative journalists such as Benjamin
Flower, Frank Norris, Ida
Tarbell, Charles Edward Russell,
Lincoln Steffens, David
Graham Phillips, C. P. Connolly,
Upton Sinclair and Ray
Stannard Baker.
George wrote two books that had a tremendous influence on political
radicals: Our
Land and Land Policy (1870)
and Progress
and Poverty
(1877). In these two books George argued that the gap between the
rich and the poor could only be closed by replacing the various taxes
levied on labour and capital with a single tax on the value of property.
Progress
and Poverty
sold over two million copies.
George made six lecture tours of Europe where there was more interest
in his views than in the USA. As well as writing for magazines such
as Arena in the United States, George
published several more books including Social
Problems
(1883), Protection
or Free Trade
(1886), Perplexed
Philosopher
(1892) and Science
of Political Economy
(1897).
Henry
George
died in 1897.
(1) Henry
George,
Progress
and Poverty (1879)
The reason why, in spite
of the increase of productive power wages constantly tend to a minimum
which will give but a bare living, is that, with increase in productive
power, rent tends to even greater increase, thus producing a constant
tendency to the forcing down of wages.
(2)
Henry George, Progress and Poverty
(1879)
It is true that wealth has been greatly increased, and that
the average of comfort,
leisure and refinement has been raised; but these gains are not general.
In them the lowest class do not share. This association of poverty
with progress is the great enigma of our times. There is a vague but
general feeling of
disappointment; an increased bitterness among the working classes;
a widespread feeling of unrest and brooding revolution. The civilized
world is trembling on the verge of a great movement. Either it must
be a leap upward, which will open the way to advances yet undreamed
of,
or it must be a plunge downward which will carry us back toward barbarism.
(3) Tom
Mann, Memoirs (1923)
In 1886 I read Henry George's book, Progress and Poverty. This
was a big event for me; it impressed me as by far the most valuable
book I had so far read. It enabled me to see more clearly the vastness
of the social problem, to realize that every country was confronted
by it.
Henry George's cure for economic problems, as advocated in Progress
and Poverty is the Single Tax. I could not accept all George's
claims on behalf of his proposal, though for lack of economic knowledge
I was unable to refute these claims.
His book was a fine stimulus to me, full of incentive to noble endeavour,
imparting much valuable information, throwing light on many questions
of real importance, and giving me what I wanted - a glorious hope
for the future of humanity, a firm conviction that the social problem
could and would be solved. I must
again give a reminder that Socialism was known only to a few persons,
and that no Socialist organization existed at that time.
(4)
Philip Snowden, An Autobiography
(1934)
I heard Henry George just
before Progress and Poverty had been published, a book which
had made a tremendous impression in the United States and Great Britain.
Henry George was having something of a triumphal tour through Scotland.
The Scottish Radicals had been captured by the theories he had advanced
in Progress and Poverty.
No book ever written on the social problem made so many converts.
Economic facts and theories have never been presented in such an attractive
way. Although Henry George was not a socialist, his book led many
of his readers to socialism. Keir Hardie told me that it was Progress
and Poverty which gave him his first ideas of socialism.
Henry George had a very impressive platform style. In appearance he
was of middle height, well built, had a full, brown beard, and would
have passed for a Nonconformist minister. His style of speaking was
conversational, rather than oratorical.
(5)
Henry Snell, Men Movements and Myself
(1936)
I was one of the many
thousands of young men whose political and social views were greatly
stimulated by Henry George's famous book Progress and Poverty,
which, if measured by the breadth and the depth of its influence on
the thoughtful workmen of the eighties, must be considered as one
of the greatest political documents of that generation.
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