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HENRY 
GEORGE 

Life, 

HBI7I 
6348 

 HB171 
G348c 
v.10 

THE LIBRARY OF 
THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA 

 DATE DUE 

ZUXUXZUXUi 

I 

JOSTEN'S NO. 3O-5O5 

 BY HIS SON 
HENRY GEORGE, JR. 

THE LIFE OF 
HENRY GEORGE 

THIRD PERIOD 

NEW YORK: DOUBLEDAY 
PAGE & COMPANY 9 1904 

 < P 
CM cfi 

 THIED PERIOD 
PROPAGATION OF THE PHILOSOPHY 

 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye 
hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. 

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the 
sonl: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both sou] and bod}' in 
hell. Matthew x. 27, 28 

 CHAPTER I. 

"PROGRESS AND POVERTY" PUBLISHED. 
1879-1880. AGE, 40-41. 

THE diary shows that on March 22, 1879, a copy of 
"Progress and Poverty" in manuscript was shipped 
to D. Appleton & Co., Publishers, New York. No West 
Coast house was judged to have facilities for placing a 
book of this kind on the market. Moreover, the Apple- 
tons were the American publishers of the works of Her 
bert Spencer, whose "Social Statics" Mr. George regarded 
as having in some degree ploughed the ground for his 
own book. They also published "The International Sci 
entific Series" which he had in his library and to which 
he thought "Progress and Poverty" might perhaps be 
added. But about the middle of April he received word 
from the Appleton Company: 

"We have read your MS. on political economy. It 
has the merit of being written with great clearness and 
force, but is very aggressive. There is very little to 
encourage the publication of any such work at this time 
and we feel we must decline it." 

However, the author had meanwhile asked his brother, 
Thomas L. George, to go on from Philadelphia and confer 
on publication with Professor William Swinton, Henry 

315 

•Ml 

 316 LIFE OP HENBY GEOEGE [187W889 

George's old California friend, now living in New York, 
and with A. S. Hallidie, a member of the Board of Trus 
tees of the San Francisco Free Library, who had gone 
East to buy books. The three gentlemen called on Wil 
liam H. Appleton, the senior member of the firm, and 
found him disposed to reconsider the matter, though his 
strong feeling was that the publication of such a book 
would not pay. And there he halted, so that the manu 
script was submitted to other houses. Thomas George 
wrote to his brother on May 13: 

"I have just telegraphed you after consultation with 
Professor Swinton, and by his advice, that it 'seems 
impossible to get publisher without plates.' Appleton 
rejected the MS. and Harper, also, the latter emphati 
cally, considering it revolutionary and all that sort of 
thing. Swinton and I called at Scribner's this morn 
ing . . . and were much pleased with our inter 
view. In the event of Scribner refusing we shall try 
Boston." 

Meanwhile, and before Appleton had written the first 
letter of rejection, Henry George, not wishing to remain 
idle, and for that matter urged by necessity to do some 
thing to make a living which his office of meter inspector 
had not recently afforded, re-entered public affairs. He 
started a four-paged weekly paper, "The State"—"A jour 
nal of politics and opinion." It was printed by William 
M. Hinton, who had opened a printing office on Clay 
Street. Mr. George did most of the writing, but Dr. Tay- 
lor, James V. Coffey and other friends made contribu 
tions. The paper was high in tone and temperate, though 
strong in language. It forcibly opposed the new constitu 
tion that the convention had drawn up and which was to be 
submitted to a popular vote early in May. Mr. George 

 Age,40-41] "THE STATE" 317 

held that such an instrument would strengthen the land 
and railroad monopolies and that it had many other seri 
ous faults. The masses of the people thought otherwise, 
however, so that it was adopted by a large vote. 

"The State" afterwards dealt with a number of matters 
of public interest in California, and took a vigorous ad 
verse position to General Grant, who purposed completing 
a circle of the globe by way of San Francisco, to the end, 
as many like George believed, of becoming candidate for a 
third term of the Presidency. To Henry George, Grant 
was distinguished as the President who had had the worst 
of all political rings and corruptionists about him. 
George's attack was so sincere and so strenuous that later, 
when Grant arrived, and John Kussell Young, who was of 
the General's party, offered to arrange for a private in 
terview, George refused. 

"The State" had a short life, suspending with the 
eleventh number. Not that it was losing money, for while 
it did not have much of a circulation, it was just about 
paying for itself. Mr. George stopped it because, having 
undertaken to make plates of his book, he found that that 
far more important matter demanded all of his available 
time. 

It is an old story how the copyright of Milton's "Para 
dise Lost" was originally sold for five pounds, and it goes 
with the history of literature how many famous books from 
"Bobinson Crusoe" down to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" were 
at start thought to be such poor business ventures as to 
have to struggle for publication. "Progress and Pov 
erty" had fallen into the same category. The ability it 
showed was conceded, but aside from its doctrines to 
which some objected, the book was thought unlikely to pay 
the expense of handling. In truth, no works of political 
economy up to that time had paid. There was nothing 

 318 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1879-1S80 

for the author to do but himself to make his plates and 
then try again for a publisher. 

But to a man who had no money—who indeed, was in 
debt—the expense of making plates was a serious matter. 
The way cleared, however. "My old partner, Mr. Hin- 
ton," said Mr. George later,1 "who had got himself a 
printing office, thereupon said that he had faith enough 
in anything I should do to make the plates; and I put 
the manuscript in his hands." The diary on May 17 con 
tains the note: "Commenced to set type on book. Set 
first two sticks myself." 

But with characteristic pains, the author revised his 
manuscript, chapter by chapter, before the printers re 
ceived it. Not a page or a paragraph escaped until it met 
whatever new questions had arisen in his mind. And he 
made many changes, but not one affecting principle. Most 
of them related to terseness, expression and arrangement.2 

Those competent to judge will perhaps hold with the 
author that taken altogether the changes made in the 

1 Meeker Notes, October, 1897. See also "The Science of Political 
Economy," p. 203. 

2 A comparison of title pages will illustrate this : 
As submitted to Appleton : As revised and printed: 
" Progress and Poverty " Progress and Poverty 

"An inquiry into the Causs of "An inquiry into the Cause of 
Recurring Paroxysms of Industri- Industrial Depressions and of In- 
al Depressions and of Increasing crease of Want with Increase of 
Want with Increasing Wealth. Wealth. 

" A Remedy Proposed." " The Remedy." 

There was also an important rearrangement and addition. As submitted 
to Appleton, the work consisted of eight grand divisions or books. The 
revision cast it into ten. The original Book VI, entitled, "The Remedy," 
and consisting of ten chapters, he divided into three books, as follows : 
Book VI, "The Remedy," two chapters (one of them, entitled, "The True 
Remedy,") being new; Book VII, "Justice of the Remedy,"five chapters; and 
Book VIII, "Application of the Remedy," four chapters. The numbering 

 Age, 40-41] THE BOOK REVISED 319 

manuscript at the time of putting the work into type 
made a marked improvement in "Progress and Poverty," 
as still further clearing and smoothing an already grace 
ful, lucid style; but it is to the termination of the work 
that chief attention will turn. The manuscript ended 
with the closing words of Book VIII, or what by subse 
quent numbering became Book X. The author had ended 
his task, he had answered the riddle of industrial depres 
sions, shown the cause of increase of want with increase 
of wealth and pointed to the remedy. But thought still 
mounted, his heart still moved him; so that while the 
printers were busy setting type on what he had previously 
written, he now wrote a chapter entitled "The Problem of 
Individual Life" to form the conclusion. This was not 
a mere rhetorical flourish, a splendid peroration to an 
elevated argument. His soul's message was going out to 
the world. He had made the long, hard struggle to find 
the Truth and to tell it. Would the Truth prevail? He 
understood the conditions that beset it and he answered: 
"Ultimately, yes. But in our own times, or in times of 
which any memory of us remains, who shall say?" He 
made a supreme appeal to those "who in their heart of 
hearts have taken the cross of a new crusade"; to those 
who seeing the Truth, "will toil for it; suffer for it; if 
need be, die for it." It was a trumpet call to those who 
would fight with Ormuzd! And he followed this up later, 
at the first formal publication of the work,1 with a dedi- 

of former Books VII and VIII was changed to IX and X, respectively. 
Besides the motto to precede the general work, one was now set at the 
head of each book, that heading Book VIII, being written by Dr. Taylor. 
It was ascribed to "Old Play," which, however, gave place to Taylor's 
name in the fourth edition, as George heard it highly commended and 
wished its author to have full credit. 
1 First Appletou edition. 

 320 LITE OF HENRY GEORGE [1879-1880 

cation of it "to those who, seeing the vice and misery that 
spring from the unequal distribution of wealth and privi 
lege, feel the possibility of a higher social state and would 
strive for its attainment." 

During all this labour of making plates, Taylor was of 
inestimable service to his friend, encouraging and sug 
gesting, reading proofs, and even, like George, going back 
to the printer's case to set a few sticks of type. Nor did 
George forget his other friends. He now did as he had 
done during the previous work of writing—called for 
their aid whenever they could give it. For instance, John 
Swett has said: 

"It was when he was putting 'Progress and Poverty' in 
type that Mr. George came, saying that some criticisms 
had been made by a friend respecting syntax, and that 
as he [George] depended more upon his ear than upon 
a knowledge of rules, he may have fallen into some gross 
errors. He, therefore, wanted me, as a friend, to read 
a set of proofs—the same set, in fact, on which the 
grammatical critic had made marks. I found that 
these marks related almost entirely to 'so's' and 'as's.J 
According to my liberal view, Mr. George's use of these 
marked words was in almost every instance correct. In 
deed, as I now remember, the only incorrect use of them 
was in a single instance, which by some chance the 
critic had overlooked. 

"Mr. George did not ask me to pass upon the subject 
matter of the work. Nor would I have felt in a posi 
tion to do so, because I had made no special study of 
such matters. He asked me to read for grammatical 
slips; and from what he said, I expected to find here 
and there a break. I was greatly surprised to find prac 
tically nothing to criticise. His ear was as good as the 
rules of syntax." 

One of his friends had originally suggested that the 
book be published by subscription, and the author con- 

 Age,«Mi] PROPHECY AS TO BOOK 321 

eluded to follow this idea to the extent of an informal 
"Author's Edition" of five hundred copies. He printed 
a descriptive circular or prospectus of the work announ 
cing that he would issue in August a small "Author's Proof 
Edition," under the title, "Political Economy of the So 
cial Problem."1 He sent this circular to those of his 
friends who he thought would take an interest in the mat 
ter, and he sold enough copies at three dollars apiece to 
enable him to pay part of the cost of printing the edition. 
One of the first copies he sent to his father in Phila 
delphia, who had reached his eighty-first year. With the 
book he sent this letter (September 15) : 

"It is with a deep feeling of gratitude to Our Father 
in Heaven that I send you a printed copy of this book. 
I am grateful that I have been enabled to live to write 
it, and that you have been enabled to live to see it. 
It represents a great deal of work and a good deal of 
sacrifice, but now it is done. It will not be recognised 
at first—maybe not for some time—but it will ulti 
mately be considered a great book, will be published in 
both hemispheres, and be translated into different lan 
guages. This I know, though neither of us may ever see 
it here. But the belief that I have expressed in this 
book—the belief that there is yet another life for us 
makes that of little moment." 

A fortnight after writing this letter, the author re 
ceived from D. Appleton & Co. of New York a proposal 
to publish the book. This was in response to an effort 

1 The title, " Progress and Poverty," was the name used when the book 
was first submitted to Appleton and the other Eastern publishers, as shown 
by the original manuscript. Why Mr. George announced a totally differ 
ent one in this circular perhaps came from a desire to protect the former 
title until it had been printed with the book and copyrighted. He 
showed similar care with his later books. 

 322 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1879-1880 

he had again made to find a publisher. "I sent," he said, 
"copies of the author's edition without binding to pub 
lishers both in America and England, offering to put the 
plates at their disposal for printing. I received but one 
proposal, that of Appleton & Co. They offered to take 
it and bring it out at once, and I acceded to this."1 The 
publishers proposed to issue the book at two dollars a 
copy and agreed to give a royalty of fifteen per cent. 

To his friend, John Swinton, of New York, brother of 
Professor William Swinton, Mr. George wrote in satis 
faction : 

"So, at last, I feel sure of getting the book published! 
This is a very great relief to me. I was from the first 
apprehensive about finding a publisher and Somers 
brought to me a message from you as to the difficul 
ties that was anything but encouraging. Turning 
aside from everything else, I worked hard and faith 
fully to get the book through, only to feel when the 
writing had been finished that I was but on the threshold 
of the real difficulty. When, in spite of your brother's 
efforts, I could get no one to publish from the manu 
script, I had to work on an uncertainty and make the 
plates. To do this I had to stop the little paper that 
I had started." 

Soon following this letter Mr. George wrote another to 
John Swinton: 

"If the book gets well started, gets before the public 
in such a way as to attract attention, I have no fear 
for it. I know what it will encounter; but, for all that, 
it has in it the power of truth. When you read it in 
its proper order and carefully, you will see, I think, that 
it is the most important contribution to the science 
of political economy yet made; that, on their own 

1 Meeker notes, October, 1897. 

 Age, 4<Mi] THE BOOK GOES FORTH 323 

ground, and with their own weapons, I have utterly 
broken down the whole structure of the current polit 
ical economy, which you so truly characterise. The pro 
fessors will first ignore, then pooh-pooh, and then try 
to hold the shattered fragments of their theories to 
gether; but this book opens the discussion along lines 
on which they cannot make a successful defence." 

Mr. George also received some cheer through compli 
mentary copies of the "Author's Edition" which he sent 
to such distinguished persons as he thought would be 
interested in it; one copy going to Gladstone, who had 
just made a speech or two with radical tendencies on the 
land question, another to Sir George Grey, the master 
spirit of New Zealand; and others to Herbert Spencer and 
the Duke of Argyll, both of whom, the one as author of 
"Social Statics" and the other of "The Eeign of Law/' 
would, the author presumed, welcome a work harmonising 
with principles they had enunciated. Spencer does not 
appear to have responded, but the Duke sent a courteous 
acknowledgment. Gladstone on one of his customary pos 
tal cards said (Hawarden, November 11, 1879): "Accept 
my best thanks for the copy of your interesting work, 
which reached me to-day, and which I have begun to 
examine. There is no question which requires a more 
careful examination than the land question in this and 
other countries, and I shall set great store on whatever 
information you may furnish under this head." Sir 
George Grey wrote in a still more gratifying way (Auck 
land, N. Z., January 27, 1880). "I have already read a 
large part of the book," he said. "I regard it as one of- 
the ablest works on the great questions of the time, which 
has come under my notice. It will be of great use to me. 
. . . It has cheered me much to find that there is so 
able a man working in California, upon subjects on which 

 324 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1879-isso 

I believe the whole future of mankind now mainly 
hangs." 

Early in 1880 John Russell Young went to London and 
carried a number of copies of "Progress and Poverty" with 
him which he presented with personal letters to notable 
men of his acquaintance, among them being W. Fraser 
Eae, L. H. Courtney, II. P., Dean Stanley, and Henry 
Labouchere, M. P., Thomas Hughes and Henry Faw- 
cett, M. P., as well as the Irish Members of Parliament, 
A. M. Sullivan and J. O'Connor Power, and he wrote back 
to Mr. George that most of these copies of the book were 
getting read and that some would probably produce results. 

But if such messages were beginning to come in from 
the outside world, recognition at home was slow. Friendly 
newspapers like the "San Francisco Examiner" and the 
"Sacramento Bee" said complimentary things, without at 
tempting to discuss or even to notice extendedly. Most 
of the papers, if they did not treat the book with con 
temptuous silence, sneered at the "hobby" of "little Harry 
George," and said in substance with the "Alta California" 
that the book never would be heard of. This belief found 
expression beyond the newspapers, as indicated by an inci 
dent related by Mr. George in his "Science of Political 
Economy" r1 

"When the first few copies of my 'Progress and Pov 
erty7 were printed in an author's edition in San Fran 
cisco, a large land-owner (the late General Beale, proprie 
tor of the Tejon Ranch, and afterwards United States 
Minister to Austria), sought me to express the pleasure 
with which he had read it as an intellectual performance. 
This, he said, he had felt at liberty to enjoy, for, to 
speak with the freedom of philosophic frankness, he was 

i Pages 170,171. 

 Age,4<Ml] PERSONAL EXPLANATIONS 325 

certain my work would never be heard of by those whom 
I wished it to affect." 

The Sacramento "Record-Union," the railroad organ, 
was really the first representative of the hostile newspaper 
interests to honour the book with a serious and extended 
criticism. The author was moved to reply. He filled four 
and a half columns, incidentally making some personal ex 
planations that we should note. 

"If [in replying] I shall seem to show any of that 
absence of diffidence which you deem one of the re 
markable characteristics of my book, do not charge it 
to any want of respect or lack of proper modesty, but 
to the fact that when a man has so thought out and 
tested his opinions that they have in his mind the high 
est certainty, it would be but affectation for him to 
assume doubts he does not feel. . . . 

"For my own part I am not lacking in respect for 
authority. Like everybody else, I am disposed to be 
lieve whatever I am told by those reputed wise and 
learned, and if I have been enabled to emancipate my 
self from ideas which have fettered far abler men, it is, 
doubtless, due to the fact that my study of social prob 
lems was in a country like this, where they have been 
presented with peculiar directness, and perhaps also to 
the fact that I was led to think a good deal before I 
had a chance to do much reading." 

Mr. George was depressed by hearing from the Apple- 
tons that they would not attempt publication until after 
the Christmas holidays. They wrote, moreover, that their 
London agent had failed to induce any of the English 
houses to take the book, one publisher saying that "if the 
plates were sent free of cost" he would not publish it. 
The Appleton agent had concluded that English publishers 
generally would not look with much favour on the book 

 326 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1879-1880 

because it antagonised the tenets of the current political 
economy. Nor did the Appletons themselves see any ad 
vantage for the author in putting in the American edition 
of the book the words "rights of translation reserved," 
since to their view there was small chance of anything of 
importance being done in the way of translation. 

This dashed the hopes that had begun to rise, and what 
increased the author's depression was that though it had 
brought comparatively little return to him during the last 
two years, he was about to yield up his office of inspector 
of gas meters, George C. Perkins, a Kepublican, having 
been elected to succeed Governor William S. Irwin. While 
friendly with him, Mr. George would not ask, nor did he 
expect, anything from Mr. Perkins, and a few days after 
taking his chair in January, 1880, the new Governor ap 
pointed a Eepublican to the office of gas meter inspector. 

Henry George had written a book which he was confi 
dent would some day become famous; but in writing it, he 
had chosen the hard road of the social pioneer, and in the 
fall of 1879, when his friend John Eussell Young was 
in San Francisco with the General Grant party, he was 
beginning to realise with secret bitterness the difficult 
task he would have from now forward in making a living; 
for the world regards as an impractical man and a 
dreamer him who is in advance of his time. To a man 
with such a mission as Mr. George had set before him 
self, the making of a living would have been a difficult 
task even under good general circumstances; but Califor 
nia now was industrially under a cloud. He said later: 
"I could hardly walk a block without meeting a citizen 
begging for ten cents."1 Eighteen years later Mr. Young 
said: 

1 "The Land Question," Chapter XV. 

 Age, «-ti] LETTER TO NOKDHOFP 327 

i 

"I saw much of George in these California days. He 
talked of his career, was swimming in heavy seas. This 
could only be divined bit by bit, for the proud, self- 
respecting, sensitive gentleman made no sign. Then 
came the knowledge of the book, the new gospel. I 
never see 'Progress and Poverty'- without recalling the 
pathetic circumstances under which it was written and 
honouring the courage of the author. The clouds 
were heavy over George. Proud, brave, smiling, hope 
ful—San Francisco did not appreciate him; had never 
given him recognition. He would speak of it as cold 
and barren, ruled by strenuous men too busy with mines 
and wheat and empire building to listen to prophecy."1 

About the time he was talking to Young, George ex 
pressed kindred sentiments in a letter to Charles Nordhoff, 
one of the chief editorial writers for the "New York Her 
ald," whom he had met early in the seventies in San 
Francisco and whose strong belief in immortality made a 
deep impression on his mind. The letter (December 21) 
Tan: 

"Your kind letter reached me last Monday, but until 
now I have not had time to acknowledge it. It has 
given me a great deal of pleasure—more than you 
can think. It pleases me that you remember me, and it 
pleases me that you like my book. Your friendship and 
your opinion I value very much. You know how ear 
nest men are drawn towards those for whom they feel 
an intellectual sympathy, and I have derived so much 
from you that it pleases me very much that my book 
interests and pleases you. 

"As for the book itself, I believe it sets forth some 
very great truths that have been hitherto ignored and 
slurred over, and I think they will grow on you as they 
have grown on me. To write the book was not an easy 

1 Signed article by John Russell Young in "New York 
Herald," October 30, 1897. 

 328 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [m»-i880 

task for me, and I could not have done it but for the 
animation of a very deep and very strong feeling, and 
when I got through it was with such a deep thank 
fulness that I cannot express it. I had hard work, too, 
to get it into print and to get it a publisher, and it 
has been weary waiting. But now Appletons write me 
that they will publish it in January. 

"With all deference to your judgment, I think you 
are wrong in your opinion that I should have briefly 
stated the economic laws. That would have been suffi 
cient if I had been writing for men like you. But I 
have aimed to reach a very much larger audience. I 
have tried to make a book which would be intelligible 
to those who have never read and never thought on 
such subjects before, and to do that in such a way as to 
get the primary truths firmly established in their minds. 
And it is astonishing and appalling how few there are 
capable of logical thought—or, rather, who are willing 
to undertake it. 

"In the latter parts the book is too much condensed, 
I know, and I had to omit a good deal I should like to 
have said. The fact is it covers too wide a scope for 
one volume. The chapters, for instance, relating to the 
development of civilisation are but a bare skeleton of 
what I should like to say, and do not begin to present 
the argument as strongly as I feel it. But at least an 
outline seemed to me essential, and I did not know, 
even if I lived, if I should ever find opportunity to 
write again. 

"If this book makes success enough to insure it a re 
ception . . . and if opportunity is given me, there 
are two books I should like to write—one a brief political 
economy, which, without controversy, should lay down 
the principles of the science, and make of it a harmoni 
ous whole; and the other a dissection of this material 
istic philosophy which, with its false assumption of sci 
ence, passes current with so many. 

"You speak of the intellectual poverty of this coast. 
You can hardly understand how deep it is, for of course 
you came in contact with the highest people, and they 

 Age, 40-41] THE GROUND OF FAITH 329 

must have seemed to you relatively far more numerous 
than they really are. This is bad enough; but what is 
worse is the moral atmosphere—at least in the circles in 
which I have moved and lived. Do you know what im 
pressed me so much with you and made me want to talk 
with you, was that you actually believed in the immor 
tality of the soul. It made you to me almost a curios 
ity, and I thought of it over and over again. It was 
like meeting a man whose opinion was worth something 
who told you he saw something which you would very 
much like to see; but which you could not make out for 
yourself and which every one around you whose opinion 
was worth anything said did not exist at all. At that 
time I should have gladly hailed any assurance that was 
to be found in spiritualism, but I found in it nothing 
but humbug, and in its believers, fools.1 

"But now I really, and for myself, believe with you. 
Out of the train of thought which is set forth in that 
book; out of the earnest, burning desire to do what I 
might to relieve human misery and make life brighter, 
has come to me a faith, which, though it is not as defi 
nite and vivid and firm as must be the Christian's faith, 
when it is really felt, is yet very much to me. The 
opportunity to write that book came out of crushing 
disaster, and it represents more than labour. But I 
would not forego this satisfaction for any success. And 
I feel that there is much, very much, of which I get 
only vague glimpses or rather suggestions of glimpses. 

"I should like very much to talk with you. There 
are so many things on which I should like to compare 
notes with you. Sometime I may have the chance." 

Thus it is clear that Henry George did not look for the 
initial advancemennt of his ideas in California. As John 
Russell Young subsequently said: "George never for a 
moment—never when under the grinding heel of bitter 

1 Three years later he wrote from Brooklyn to Taylor: " There is evi 
dently something in spiritualism; but I am the more convinced that it is 
a bad thing to have anything to do with." 

 330 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1879-1880 

conditions—doubted the truth of his mission to mankind 
and its ultimate success. But this obviously was not to be 
attained in Eldorado." 

All was not against him, for now two circumstances 
occurred that were of importance to him. One of these 
concerned the translation of "Progress and Poverty" into 
German by a cultured man named C. D. F. von Giitschow, 
who, having lost a fortune in Germany, had recently come 
to California to begin life anew, and who, chancing to 
read a copy of the "Author's Edition," was so impressed 
with the work that he at once asked for permission to 
translate it. Consent was gladly given on the single con 
dition that the translation should be faithful. Mr. George 
could read no foreign tongue, but he afterwards had as 
surance that this translation was excellent—by far the 
best of three soon published in Germany. 

The other circumstance of importance was the conver 
sion of a scholarly Englishman, Dr. Montague E. Leverson, 
who had personally known and studied under William 
Ellis and John Stuart Mill, and who had in 1876 pub 
lished in New York a primer of political economy for 
grammar and high schools and the lower colleges. He had 
come to California to arrange for the publication and 
introduction of the book on the Pacific Coast, but learning 
of "Progress and Poverty" through Professor Joseph Le- 
Conte of the University of California, he declared, imme 
diately on reading it, that he had met his master in the 
study and that not another copy of his primer should be 
issued until the work had been re-written. This mani 
festation of rare intellectual honesty was never forgotten 
by Mr. George. 

But George's gaze was turned eastward. To Dr. Tay- 
lor, who had gone to Washington, D. C., on business, he 
wrote (February 17, 1880) : 

 Age, 40-41] GATHERING ATTENTION 331 

"I got yesterday the first European notice of our 
book. It is in the Parisian 'Revue Scientifique,' signed 
by Emile de Laveleye. I got Phil Roach to translate 
it for me. It is first-class—says the book has instructed 
him and led him to think; indorses substantially the 
whole programme; says the chapter on Decline of Civili 
sation is worthy of being added to 'De Tocqueville's 
immortal work/ etc. So, my friend in need, your judg 
ment is being verified. The 'Graphic' of February 4, 
had a very fine notice. I am told also that there have 
been fine notices in the 'Boston Transcript' and in some 
of the Cincinnati papers; but have not yet seen them. 

"By the bye, there is one thing I would like to have 
you do for me in the East which I forgot to mention. 
Among the many projects which I have been vaguely 
meditating is that of lecturing through the East. I 
wish if you can get time, you would go and see Red- 
path or some other of the Lecture Bureau people. I 
had a card from Redpath some time since asking about 
the publisher of the book. Possibly that will soon get 
advertised enough to enable me to begin to draw a little, 
and I have faith in my own ability if I once get started. 
I know you don't share that—but I have always felt it, 
and on two or three occasions have tested it. For the 
present I am doing a little hack work—and waiting. 
But soon my time for waiting will be past." 

Mr. George sent his California University lecture, "The 
Study of Political Economy," to the "Popular Science 
Monthly," owned by the publishers of his book, D. Ap- 
pleton & Co. It was accepted and appeared in the March 
number (1880). For the same periodical he wrote by invi 
tation on "The Kcarney Agitation in California," which 
appeared in August. The lecture on "Moses" was not 
suited to that magazine, but under the title of "The Leader 
of the Exodus," it was sent to another American, and 
afterwards to an English, periodical. The author was un 
known and the article, though one of the most brilliant 

 332 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1879-1880 

pieces of writing that ever came from his pen, was in 
both instances rejected. 

Again George wrote to Taylor (March 12) : 

"I am sorry you have not seen or heard of my book. 
. . . I wish you would go into one of the Wash 
ington bookstores and inquire whether they have it or 
have had it. You know how I feel about the ultimate 
fate of the book. That does not worry me. What I 
am concerned about is the meeting of my obligations 
to Hinton. I have been calculating that by the early 
part of next month I could get a return or an advance 
from Appleton which would enable me to square up with 
Hinton. There will be no difficulty if the book is sell 
ing; but it will be hard if it has not yet begun. Well; 
we shall see. 

"I have been sick and am far from well—the old 
trouble of which I have several times spoken to you, 
growing more intense. The doctor says I must rest. 
That is the best prescription, but often the hardest to 
take." 

The illness of which he spoke was writer's cramp and 
biliousness, with bladder trouble; all proceeding from 
overwork and nervous strain. First had come the year 
and a half of hard writing and then the long months of 
striving and waiting for results. He had written in De 
cember (1879) to John Eussell Young: 

"What a book of this kind, so much out of the usual 
run, really needs is such a service as Mill in his auto 
biography speaks of having rendered to Carlyle's Trench 
Eevolution' in a first review. But whether it is at 
first applauded or denounced makes little difference, 
provided it is treated with attention. The book fairly 
started, will go. This is not merely my judgment; it 
is my experience. I have put out enough copies to thor 
oughly test it, and I am more than satisfied of that." 

 Age, 40-«] FIRST IMPORTANT REVIEWS 333 

Towards the middle of March (1880) a brilliant review, 
that covered most of a page, appeared in the "New York 
Sun," from the pen of M. W. Hazeltine. What it meant 
to the author he wrote to John Swinton (March 22): 

"A year ago to-day I finished my book and shipped it 
off to seek a publisher. After the toil and the pains of 
the writing came the anxiety, the rebuff, the weary 
waiting; and I have longed that by this day at least 
there might be some sure sign that the seed I tried to 
plant there had not fallen by the wayside. This re 
view is that sign; it secures for my book that attention 
which is all I ask." 

Important reviews soon followed in other Eastern news 
papers and periodicals, so that the gaze in that direction 
was stronger than ever. Moreover, the Appletons wrote 
tha-t if the author would consent to a reduction in copy- 
right, they would issue a dollar, paper-covered edition of 
the work, to which he gladly agreed. One of the instru 
ments in bringing this about was a young man in the Ap- 
pleton employ, A. J. Steers, who had read the book and 
was enthusiastic about it. Mr. George wrote (April 4) 
in reply to a letter from him: 

"I cannot tell you how grateful your letter is to me 
and how much I thank you for it. I have wanted a 
cheap edition very much. . . . 

"But it is not this of which I speak so much as the 
sympathy and interest your letter expresses and which 
makes me feel that the book has spoken to you as I knew 
there would be some men to whom it would speak. 
This is my reward—the verification of my faith. It 
is very, very much to me—more than profit, more than 
fame. I knew when 1 wrote it that my book would 
sometime find such men, but whether I should ever know 
it, that I could not tell; for many a man does his work 

 334 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1879-1880 

and in this life sees no result. And no matter how 
much of a success the book may become in my lifetime, 
I do not think I shall be proud of it, as men are proud 
of writing a successful history or novel. The feeling 
is one of deep gratitude that it has been permitted me 
to do something. And this, already, I know—your kind 
letter is one of the proofs of it—that every here and 
there is a man on whom these ideas have taken hold, as 
they have taken hold of me, and who in his turn will be 
a fresh centre. 

"You speak of how little you can do. Did you ever 
think of it, how little we know of what we can do, or of 
what we do? Sometimes a word, a little act, starts a 
train that, if we could follow it, we should see leads to 
the widest results. But it is not the result so much 
as the effort to do what we can, with which we are con 
cerned." 

At length John Russell Young wrote hopefully of being 
able to get George a writing position in New York on the 
"Herald" that would permit him to do his work away from 
the office and give him much time to himself. Young per 
ceiving his circumstances, voluntarily sent him money with 
which to go East. Having nothing to keep him, and 
arranging to pay those to whom he owed money at the 
earliest opportunity, in August of 1880 Henry George took 
train for New York, leaving his family behind him. His 
purse was so light that he was compelled to travel third 
class. But no sooner had he got well started than his 
spirits threw off their depression, and although he was 
going into practically a new world where he had not half 
a dozen friends, confidence came, for the time of waiting 
had passed. From Winnemucca he wrote back to Taylor, 
who had returned to San Francisco: "I am enjoying the 
trip and am full of hope. The spell is broken and I have 
taken a new start." 

 CHAPTER II. 
COMMENCING THE NEW YORK CAREER. 

1880-1881. AGE, 41-42. 

IT was towards the middle of August, 1880, that Henry 
George set foot in New York almost as poor in the 
money sense as any immigrant who ever landed in the 
great city. He had but three personal friends there—the 
two Swintons (William and John) and Charles Nordhoff of 
the "New York Herald." John Russell Young, who had 
spoken hopefully of getting him a place on the "Her 
ald," was away. On returning, he, with Nordhoff, recom 
mended George for a vacant writing position on the paper. 
No action was taken in the matter for some time, and 
word eventually came that there was no chance for the 
San Francisco man. The book, first fixed at two dollars 
and afterwards at one dollar (when the author cut his 
copyright to ten per cent.), was selling; but as yet it 
yielded little. William H. Appleton, at the head of the 
publishing firm, was very friendly, and so also was Pro 
fessor E. L. Youmans of the "Popular Science Monthly." 
The latter invited a political article and paid for it; 
though it was not used, owing to a change in editorial 
policy. But there was little to do at writing just now, 
and the eyes of the California man turned to politics. 
TheHancock-Garfield Presidential fight had commenced, 

335 

 336 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1880-1881 

and from a visit with William Swinton and William C. 
De Witt of Brooklyn to Hancock at Governor's Island, 
headquarters of the Department of the Atlantic, which 
the General commanded, Mr. George was favourably im 
pressed with the candidate's simplicity and manly bearing. 
He believed that as two generals of the Civil War were 
contesting, the old "bloody-shirt" issues could not be used 
by either side, and therefore that there would be a chance 
for new ideas and radical sentiments. Suddenly the Re 
publicans raised the tariff issue, declaring for protection 
and denouncing the Democrats for free traders. The 
Democratic managers responded with a straddle. Just 
then Henry George entered the campaign. 

"I was not then very well known in New York, but 
just before the election, when the tariff issue was sprung, 
the Democratic Committee sent for me and told me 
they had heard that I was the best man in all the coun 
try to talk to the working men on the question of the 
tariff. I told them I didn't know about that, but that 
I could talk to working men and that I should like to 
talk to them about the tariff. They asked me if I 
would go out and make some speeches. I said, 'Cer 
tainly I wilP; and they made a great list of engagements 
for me that ran close up to the day of election, so that 
I went out. Well, it seems that what they were after 
was somebody to tell the working men that the Demo 
cratic party was as good as the Kepublican party for 
the tariff. I went to a crowded meeting. The gentle 
man who spoke before me made that kind of a speech 
and then I was put on the platform. I told them that 
I had heard of a high-tariff Democrat, though I could 
not conceive how there could be such a thing; and I 
knew there were men who called themselves revenue- 
tariff Democrats; but there was also another kind of 
Democrat, and that was a no-tariff Democrat; and that 
what was wanted was to sweep away the custom houses 
and custom house officers and have free trade. Well, 

 Age. 41-42] MADE A SENSATION 337 

the audience applauded, but you ought to have seen the 
men on the platform there; and I went off without a 
man to shake my hand. I got that night as I was going 
to my next engagement, a telegraphic despatch asking 
me to go by midnight train to New York. The chair 
man of the committee met me and begged me not to 
make any more speeches."1 

But there was one place in New York State where 
Henry George could talk out plainly for free trade, and 
that was in Brooklyn. Thomas Kinsella, editor of the 
"Brooklyn Eagle," William C. De Witt and a number of 
other influential Democrats were busy fighting the Demo 
cratic machine in the city, holding lively meetings in 
Jefferson Hall. There Mr. George was invited to speak, 
and he fearlessly demanded the abolition of custom houses. 
Andrew McLean, then managing editor of the "Eagle," 
but now editor of the "Brooklyn Citizen," says of that 
meeting: 

"I had read 'Progress and Poverty' with deep pleasure 
and had reviewed it in the 'Eagle.' Time and again I 
discussed it with the more thoughtful men in the office. 
We greeted it as giving clear expression to those vague 
and misty thoughts that had been floating in our minds. 
I had not met Mr. George and did not know what he 
looked like. One night during the Hancock campaign 
I dropped into Jefferson Hall while a mass meeting was 
being held, without knowing precisely who were to 
speak. I was tired out with newspaper and election 
work and was glad to find a seat out of the way, and 
must admit that I drowsed during the remarks of some 
of our more or less familiar Brooklyn men. Presently 
a new voice commenced, and the abrupt, direct, clear- 
cut sentences, together with the radical meaning they 
bore, startled me. I stood up and looked at the new 

1 Speech in Birmingham, England, Jan. 23, 1881. 

 338 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1880-1881 

speaker. He was a short, sturdy man, with scant hair 
and full reddish beard. I had never before seen him. 
But I could not mistake his style of speech. I said to 
myself: 'Thou art the man! There most certainly is 
the author of that book "Progress and Poverty."' I 
did no more drowsing, and after the speech was over I 
went and introduced myself to Mr. George." 

This speech of Henry George was a rarity in the cam 
paign. Democratic speakers generally dodged the tariff 
question, and General Hancock himself pronounced it a 
"local issue." Mr. George believed that Hancock's defeat, 
which was by a very narrow vote, was due to this evasion. 

After election Mr. George was still at sea about his 
plans. His wife, in California, wishing to lighten his bur 
den had taken boarders, and his oldest boy was working 
in a printing office there. George wrote to Taylor (October 
13): "I shall not go back to California, unless for some 
thing. I don't know precisely what I shall do, but some 
thing will open. . . . Don't think me a Micawber. I 
shall go to work if I have to go to the case." 

He did not have to go to the printer's case; yet for a 
time he had to break a resolution not to seek or to accept 
employment that would require the publication of any of 
his work unsigned. Shortly before his death he said of 
this 1880 period: 

"Mr. Appleton informed me that among the men he 
esteemed of great reputation who had expressed admira 
tion of 'Progress and Poverty' was Abram S. Hewitt, a 
wealthy man and a Member of Congress; and when Mr. 
Hewitt came from Europe I got a communication from 
him asking to see me. I responded. He said some 
good things of the ability shown in 'Progress and Pov 
erty' and that he would like to get me to do some work 
that he had not time to do himself, on an investigation 
commission's report that he intended to make to Con- 

 Age. 41-42] WRITING FOE HEWITT 339 

gress. I needed work and could not refuse to put what 
ability I had at his service, with the understanding that 
I was to do faithfully what he required of me and to 
keep the matter secret, allowing him to make whatever 
use of it he might see fit over his own signature in his 
report."1 

To Taylor, George wrote confidentially at the time 
(November 20, 1880) : 

"I have taken a job from Hewitt to prepare a 
Congressional report—the labour investigation. Have 
agreed to give him three hours a day for $50 per week, 
till the thing is done, or either of us is dissatisfied. 
So, raising a little money in advance, I have taken 
a room. . . . My job begins to-morrow. Before it 
gets through, unless it should terminate suddenly, I 
shall have got my feet down. I shall get, first thing, 
a suit of clothes, and make some acquaintances." 

As will be seen, other writing interrupted the Hewitt 
work, which ended, as noted in a letter to Taylor (March 
6, 1881) : 

"I took my matter down to Hewitt and read it to him. 
He was much pleased with it and laid out what he 
wanted done in the further steps; but when I asked 
him for another $100 he changed his tune, thought it 
was costing too much, and that he would stop. I told 
him I was very glad, that I felt I was working too 
cheap, but that having undertaken it I had not wished 
to say anything. So I stopped, though it was incon 
venient to do so right then, as I had laid my plans on 
getting another $100 to-day. I got the first $100 of 

1 Roused by some public remarks made by Mr. Hewitt during the 1897 
New York Mayoralty campaign, Mr. George dictated this statement to a 
stenographer, but subsequently concluded that its publication then was 
not appropriate. His death soon followed and it never appeared. 

 340 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [M80-1881 

course. It really ought to have been more under our 
agreement, but I had that uncomfortable feeling that 
prevents you from making out your bills in first-class 
style, and though I had intended the $100 to be only 
on account, said nothing about any more." 

The best information as to the way "Progress and Pov 
erty" was going and other matters of interest is found in 
correspondence with Taylor. 

November 20, 1880. 

"I did feel depressed when I wrote you before. But 
it was not so much on account of circumstances. I am 
in my way of thinking a good deal of a Stoic. Adverse 
fortune does not much depress me. What always wor 
ries me is the thought that / might have done better— 
that it is myself who is to blame—and it seemed to 
me then as if I had been fooling away my time very 
largely. The fact of course is that I have been labour 
ing under many disadvantages. However, there is no 
use in talking about that. 

"I found when I got here that the book had had noth 
ing like a fair start in the East, and the political com- 
paign seemed to check its sale. I think now that it is 
going to start off. The first copies of the paper [75 
cent] edition were received in the store this afternoon, 
and one will go to you by the mail which follows this. 
The preface bothered me very much. I wrote two or 
three—possibly enough for ten—and finally throwing it 
all aside, came down to a simple summary of the book.1 

"I suppose you saw the 'Atlantic Monthly's' double- 
barrelled notice. . . . 

"I got to-day a letter from Wm. D. LeSueur of On 
tario, who has an article in the July 'Science Monthly.' 
I gave him a copy of the book when I met him here, 
and I attach a good deal of importance to his opinion, 
for he is a man of weight. . . . He started in, of 

1 Preface appearing in the fourth and all subsequent 
editions of " Progress and Poverty." 

 Age 41-42] AWAKENING EECOGNITION 341 

course, all against it, for, in addition to previous pre 
dilections, Goldwin Smith, for whom he has a good deal 
of respect, sat down on it. But he writes me that he 
has never read a book with so much interest; that during 
the last few days while he was reading the last part he 
could think of nothing else; that he is a thorough con 
vert, with the exception that he thinks the men to 
whom the State has sold lands ought to get some recom 
pense, though he admits that there would be infinitely 
less injustice in giving them nothing than in continuing 
the present system; and that now his most ardent desire 
is to be a co-worker for the destruction of private prop 
erty in land. ... In short he wants to be counted 
in, and proposes to begin the campaign in Canada. 
Now here is a man who in my opinion is worth half the 
college professors in the United States. 

"I showed the letter to Youmans, who has a very 
great opinion of LeSueur, and he at the same time was 
reading a letter from another man, Professor Ellis, I 
believe, of whom he has also a great opinion, and to 
whom he had given a copy of 'P. and P.' Ellis also said 
it was a most remarkable book—the most profound and 
original book on such subjects yet produced in America; 
that it ought to be immediately translated into German 
(he had just returned from three years there) and that 
for his part he proposed to write a review for ——— (some 
unpronounceable name). Youmans proposed to have 
these letters copied, that he might send them to Kegan 
Paul [publisher] of London, to whom he wrote a few 
days ago in reference to an English edition. 

"Did I tell you that Michael Davitt pledged the Land 
League to push it in Great Britain? I shall send him 
copies by Tuesday's steamer. . . . 

"I lecture in Hudson (N". Y.) on the 6th, beginning 
a 'star course.' I am to be followed by David A. Wells, 
Park Godwin and Eaton (Civil-Service Reformer). 

December 18, 1880. 

"I got to-day copies of the German translation, as far 
as out—8 numbers to beginning of Book XL It is 
very neatly and tastefully gotten up. I also got a long 

 342 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1880-1881 

letter from the publisher. He says it will be a success, 
and that a number of long reviews are being prepared. 
The whole will be out this month. . . . 

"I dined with Albert S. Bolles, author of 'Financial 
History/ etc., on Tuesday. Last night I dined with 
Dana of the 'Sun,' the company consisting of his fam 
ily, Hazeltine, the reviewer, John Swinton and myself. 
He lives in magnificent style. I have plenty of chance 
to go into company, but have hitherto kept out of it; 
for until last week I had only my old clothes, and last 
night felt rather out of place, when seated on the right 
of the hostess, yet the only man in the room in a busi 
ness suit. However! 

"My wife thinks she can get along cheaper at board 
ing than keeping house, and so I have told her to sell out. 
. . . So life goes. My pleasant little home—that I 
was so comfortable in—is gone, and I am afloat at 42, 
poorer than at 21. I do not complain; hut there is some 
bitterness in it." 

January 4, 1881. 

"... About the hook. At last, it begins to 
look as though it had really taken hold. When I came 
East I found that it had hardly got started here. And 
during the campaign and until the last two weeks in 
December it went very slow. But then a movement 
began, and on the last day of the year every copy of the 
previous editions and every copy of the 1,000 of the 
cheap edition were gone, and orders and inquiries came 
piling in from every quarter. Appleton & Co. begin to 
realise for the first time that I have been telling them 
the truth, and that they have got hold of a book capable 
of an enormous sale; and now they are beginning to 
open out. . . . 

"Comparatively speaking, the success of the book is 
already tremendous—for, so far as I can learn, no book 
on political economy has ever yet been published in the 
United States (or to my astonishment, I learn in Eng 
land either) that has sold 1,000 copies in the first year 
(unless forced into the schools), and in fact the entire 
sales of most of them are to be counted in hundreds, 

 Age, 41-12] A LITERARY CONQUEST 343 

not thousands. My book is getting to be regarded here 
as the phenomenal one, and such publishers as Holt are 
already regretting that they did not take it when they 
had a chance. 

"And to-day I get the first ringing note from the 
radicals of England in a copy of the Leeds 'Indepen 
dent/ which declares it a book which every Englishman 
ought to road, and proposes to receive subscriptions for 
it.1 The future of the book is, I think, secure. 

"... I want to go and see John Eussell Young. 
His wife is dying. Poor fellow! his cup seems filled 
to the brim. 

"P. S. Mrs. Young is dead. I add this in Young's 
room, where I am staying to receive his brother-in-law 
from Philadelphia. . . . General Grant has left, 
after a long stay. That is one good thing about the old 
fellow; he is true to his friends." 

JanuaryJ21, 1881. 

"The book is a success. The sale sems now to have 
commenced in good earnest, and orders are coming from 
all parts of the country—in ones, two and tens and 
twenties. Better still, Kegan Paul, who has hardly 
more than got his 500 [from Appleton] writes that he 
will probably want more and arranges a cypher so that 
he can cable. The German notices are way up. It has 
at last got a show in Europe. . . . 

"You will see by the 'Popular Science' this month 
that Youmans has at last read Book X. of 'Progress 
and Poverty' ['The Law of Human Progress']. He him 
self is the best example of the need of that book. He 
would not take the trouble to vote at election time, said 
that he should have to slowly evolute, and has told me 
several times that there was no use in trying to fight 
evils of which he himself is as conscious as any one, 
as to get rid of them is a matter of thousands of 
years!" 

iThe editor of the Leeds "Independent" was Dr. F E. Lees, the dis 
tinguished temperance advocate. He had read while on a visit to United 
States a copy of the " Author's Edition " of " Progress and. Poverty." 

 344 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1880-1881 

January 23, 1881. 

"Slowly but steadily everything seems opening to 
me. If I live I am going to fill a large place and do a 
large work—that now is clear. 

"Do you see how the 'Sun' is opening up the taxation 
question and advertising me? Chip in, if you have 
leisure, with some short communications. There is some 
satisfaction in writing for a paper that prints over 
120,000. I suppose you have seen the 'Popular Science' 
for this month. Youmans says I don't make converts; 
I find them in all directions. Every day I get letters." 

To the picture of conditions at this time, which these 
letters from George to Taylor give, must be added a de 
scription from memory which John Russell Young wrote 
the day following his friend's death. 

"These early New York days were of extreme and 
honourable poverty. I saw Henry George a great deal 
—was almost a daily companion. It was a daring ex 
periment—this unknown gentleman, with no aid but 
his own high spirit, nothing in his carpet-bag but one 
book of gospel, coming at 42 to make his way into the 
heart of mighty Babylon. The more I studied George 
under heavy conditions the more I admired him. His 
ability and his courage; his honesty, independence and 
intellectual power were those of a leader of men. 

"We took walks on the Battery, whither we went 
under the flush of strenuous midnight work, the great 
city at peace and no companions this side of the stars; 
strolls in the Park, in Westchester and the suburbs of 
Brooklyn—the brave, intrepid soul wrapped up in his 
book and smiling upon fate. . . . 

"George was resolute in his creed. He gave it to you 
as the truth to be accepted, in a sense of worship, a 
dogma of political infallibility. 'Does this not mean 
war? Can you, unless when dealing with craven con 
ditions among men, hope to take land from its owners 
without war ?' 'I do not see,' said George, 'that a mue- 

 Age. 41-42] IRISH LAND QUESTION 346 

ket need be fired. But if necessary, war be it, then. 
There was never a holier cause. No, never a holier 
cause.' 

"Here was the gentlest and kindest of men, who 
would shrink from a gun fired in anger, ready for uni 
versal war rather than that his gospel should not be 
accepted.. It was the courage which as has been writ 
ten makes one a majority." 

Mr. George had for a while stopped work on the Hewitt 
report to write an article on the Irish Land Question for 
"Appleton's Journal." The subject growing on him, he 
kept on with his writing until he had a little book of seven 
teen chapters. In this brief work he gave the first striking 
evidence of a high order of practical ability, showing that, 
besides the genius to formulate a philosophy, he had the 
wisdom to avail himself of passing events to apply it. 

On April 20, 1879, the month after the completion of 
"Progress and Poverty," Michael Davitt, fresh from seven 
years of penal servitude in an English prison for devotion 
to the principle of Irish independence, had organised a 
mass meeting in Irishtown, County Mayo, Ireland, for 
John Ferguson and Thomas Brennan to address, in denun 
ciation of the landlord tyranny and rack-renting that were 
driving the western peasantry into starvation. With the 
cry of "The land for the people," he struck a spark that 
kindled a spreading fire. The failure of physical resist 
ance to the English power, on the one hand, and of Par 
liamentary action by Parnell and his legislative colleagues, 
on the other, drove all the Irish faction into Davitt's 
movement, to make common war on the landlords. This 
landlord class, though comparatively small and living for 
the most part in England, not only made a heavy rent 
charge upon the toil of the labouring masses, but wielded 
pretty much all political power, filling all local offices, 

. 

 346 LIFE OF HENKY GEOKGE [1880-1881 

such as sheriffs', grand jurors', and justices of the peace, 
besides through their class interests controlling legislation 
in the Imperial British Parliament. In the fall of 1879 
the Irish National Land League was formally organised 
in Dublin, with Parnell as president and Davitt as one 
of the honorary secretaries. It was to supersede the Home 
Rule League, of which Parnell had been the head, and was 
to be the official organisation of so much of the Irish Par 
liamentary party as acknowledged his leadership. Its im 
mediate purpose was to "bring about a reduction of rack- 
rents." It was also, at least, so far as Parnell and his 
particular adherents were concerned, to facilitate the crea 
tion of a peasant proprietary, in enabling tenants to be 
come owners of their holdings by paying a "fair" rent for 
a limited number of years. There was division over this 
latter purpose, however. Davitt, the fire and soul of the 
extending organisation, continued to proclaim the prin 
ciple of "the land for the people," including in its benefits, 
though somewhat vaguely, not only all the tenant farmers, 
but the much greater class of agricultural labourers as 
well. And Patrick Ford, of the "Irish World," a weekly 
newspaper published in New York and devoted to Irish 
and Irish-American affairs, the great organising factor in 
the United States, took his stand on the old Irish doc 
trine that the land of Ireland "belongs to the whole Irish 
people . . . without exception of persons," and he de 
manded that it "be restored to its owners with all pos 
sible speed." 

While these differing principles and purposes were put 
forward by the respective factions, all united to defend 
those Irish agricultural tenants who were threatened with 
eviction for refusing to pay "unjust" rents. This was 
striking the ruling class on the "sensitive pocket nerve," 
and both sides prepared for war. The Irish Land League 

 Age, 41-42] LAND LEAGUE WAR 347 

needed money. Parnell, with Dillon, came to the United 
States, and with the truly powerful backing of the "Irish 
World," spoke to great meetings in sixty-two' cities, ad 
dressed the House of Representatives at Washington, col 
lected a war chest of $200,000, and before leaving in March, 
1880, formally organised the auxiliary American Land 
League. 

Knowing that Parnell was a land-owner, with views and 
feelings of the land-owning class, and that he had been 
educated in a conservative English university, George did 
not expect much in the way of radical action from him, 
though he believed radical public opinion would sweep him 
along. But to Davitt, born a Mayo peasant, and by in 
stinct a "man of the people," George looked with high 
hope, and when Davitt came to America on Land League 
business, towards the fall of 1880, George met him, with 
the result, as we have seen in the letter to Taylor: "Davitt 
pledges the Land League to push it ["Progress and Pov 
erty"] in Great Britain." 

Mr. George perceived that the Irish rent-war was fast 
making that country the theatre in the world-wide drama 
of the land question. He therefore addressed himself to it 
in his pamphlet, under the title of "The Irish Land Ques 
tion : What It Involves, and How Alone It can be Settled." 
He aimed to show that the only solution lay in observ 
ing the principle of common ownership in land, by taking, 
through the medium of taxation, the rental value for all 
the people. Thus the advantage that the rack-renting 
landlord class had hitherto possessed would be transferred 
to the people as a whole, and no one would get any ad 
vantage as a mere landholder. But he did not have Ire 
land alone in his mind. Said he :* 

1 "The Land Question," Chap. XVII (Memorial Edition, pp. 106, 107). 

 348 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [1880-1881 

"What I urge the men of Ireland to do is to proclaim 
without limitation or evasion, that the land, of natural 
right, is the common property of the whole people, and 
to propose practical measures which will recognise this 
right in Great Britain as well as in Ireland. What I 
urge the Land Leagues of the United States to do is 
to announce this great principle as of universal applica 
tion; to give their movement a reference to America 
as well as to Ireland; to broaden and deepen and 
strengthen it by making it a movement for the regen 
eration of the world—a movement which shall concen 
trate and give shape to aspirations that are stirring 
among all nations." 

The pamphlet was finished at the end of February and 
was at once published by Appleton in New York, and a 
month later by William Eeeves in London, John Haywood 
& Sons in Manchester and Cameron & Ferguson in 
Glasgow. 

Mr. George had meanwhile brought his family East, 
and was with them boarding at Fort Washington in the 
upper part of New York. At times he was very hard 
pressed for money and once drew on Taylor in far-off San 
Francisco for the sum of twenty dollars. We quote again 
from the Taylor correspondence. 

" 'The Irish Land Question' has been noticed mag 
nificently: 2~y2 columns in 'Times,' 2% in 'Sun,' 1 in 
'Express,' 2% in 'Star,' 2% in 'Charleston News,' etc. 
And the astonishing thing is the goodness of the com 
ments. Nothing like the back action of the early no 
tices of 'Progress and Poverty.' I am getting famous, 
if I am not making money. 1 have two magazine ar 
ticles and a cyclopedia article to write1 and if that 
'Herald' thing docs not turn, can, I think, go on the 

!Qn "Chinese Immigration" for Lalor's "Cyclopedia 
of Political Science, Political Economy," etc. 

 Age, 41-42] INCREASING BEPTTTATION 349 

'Brooklyn Eagle.' I am going to give the 'Hoses' lec 
ture before long. 

"About the railroad people: McClatchy of Sacramento 
told my wife that Lcland Stanford (to whom he sent 
'Progress and Poverty') read it while sick, and told him 
that he had become 'a disciple of Henry George.' If 
that means anything, it will tell." 

May 12, 1881. 

"Inclosed find check for $20. . . . You do not 
know, and I cannot readily tell you how much this little 
accommodation has been to me. It is not so much the 
want of money as the mental effect it produces—the 
morbid condition. The man who does not understand 
that, does not know how it is possible for people to 
commit suicide. This thing has weighted me very 
much. Could I have felt free and been relieved of the 
terrible anxiety, I could have in the same time accom 
plished many times as much. But yet it has seemed 
as though a Providence helped me through. 

"When I drew on you for this $20 it seemed my 
darkest hour. I was weak and weary in mind and 
body. . . . 

"Article of mine in 'Appleton's' for this month. Got 
pay for that—$50. 'Scribner's' will have an article 
pitching into me, which I hear privately is by Professor 
Sumner. None of those people have dared attack openly 

yet." 

May 25, 1881. 

"Why do you allow the papers there to abuse me 
without sending me a copy? To be abused and not to 
know of it is almost as bad as not to be abused at 
all. . . . 

"Yes: look at the Ecpublican party, and also look at 
the Democratic party! It is pot and kettle. I am done. 

"... I shall have article in 'Appleton's' for 
June and in 'North American' for July—'pot boilers' 
both."1 

1 " The Taxation of Land Values," " Appleton's Journal," June, 1881; 
" Common Sense in Taxation," "North American Review," July, 1881. 

 350 LIFE OP HENEY GEORGE [1880-1881 

Meanwhile Mr. George had hegun to lecture. Early 
in May (1881) he spoke in Chickering Hall, New York, 
and shortly afterwards in Historical Hall, Brooklyn; in 
both places, of course, on the land question. The weather 
on both occasions was warm, but nevertheless he made 
$130 on the first and nearly $200 on the second. A lot of 
young converts managed the New York lecture. Eev. 
E. Heber Newton, of All Soul's Episcopal Church, intro 
duced Mr. George, having a few days before found that 
this was the friend of his boyhood. Andrew McLean, 
of the "Eagle," arranged for the Brooklyn lecture. 
Through him Thomas G. Shearman, who had won a repu 
tation at the New York bar, as a skilful corporation law 
yer and as the successful defender and devoted friend 
of Henry Ward Beeeher, was interested in this lecture 
and met Mr. George for the first time. It was the be 
ginning of a life-long friendship. Mr. Shearman had but 
just read "Progress and Poverty" and had been deeply 
impressed with it; but he doubted whether rent alone 
would suffice to pay all taxes, while he objected to the use 
of the word "confiscation." He was an aggressive free 
trader and had spent much time and money in agitating 
against the protective tariff idea. But he had not yet 
fully grasped the fact that a/Z tariffs and all indirect taxes 
were unjust, because they tax poverty far more than 
wealth; nor did "Progress and Poverty" call his attention 
to this. He now studied the subject on statistical lines; 
and in a few months starting from an opposite point of 
view and on an entirely independent line of reasoning 
he arrived at substantially the same conclusions with 
Henry George. Soon after their meeting, by his invitation, 
Mr. George addressed the Brooklyn Ecvenue Eeform Club, 
of which Henry Ward Beeeher was president; and before 
long the distinguished lawyer was in his own way working 

 Age, 41-42] ENTERS LECTURE FIELD 351 

on the same radical lines as Mr. George, with an energy 
that caused the latter to write to him: "You suggest to 
me what was said of Brougham, 'a steam-engine in 
breeches.'" 

In this connection it may be mentioned that Mr. George 
joined the New York Free Trade Club through one of 
its active young men, Poultney Bigelow, son of John 
Bigelow, ex-United States Minister to France. Young 
Bigelow was a convert to "Progress and Poverty" and of 
his abilities and prospects for influence in the community 
Mr. George thought highly. Soon after joining the club 
the author attended a Free Trade Club dinner. He was 
surprised and disgusted at the lack of radical spirit mani 
fested in the speeches, it being evident that with the gen 
erality of members "free trade" meant only "tariff re 
form." He wrote to Bigelow, who could not get there, 
that being called upon to speak, he gave them "four min 
utes' worth of horse sense." 

It was with important results that Henry George now 
began to lecture before the Land League organisations, 
writing Taylor (June 13), "I talk here [Saint Albans, 
Vermont] to-morrow night, and then go to Montreal (two 
lectures), Ottawa and Toronto, and four or five places in 
New York on the way back. Rutland and this place are 
$25 each; Montreal and Ottawa, speculation; Toronto, 
$50, and the others $25 each. Good enough though to 
see the country and get my hand in." But "getting his 
hand in" involved, as most other things did with him, 
concentrated effort. Here, for instance, are two of the 
casual diary notes: 

"Montreal, June 16.—Lecture 'Irish Land Question' 
a total failure. Don't know whether to attribute it to 
bad physical condition, or that I cannot get up enthu 
siasm in going over same ground twice. This certain, 

 352 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE 

that I should have written it beforehand. Will try to 
do better to-morrow. Feel very bad, but must try to 
pluck victory from defeat." 

"Montreal, June 17.—Did it. Best ever have done. 
Astonished and pleased them all." 

The lecture programme in the North was cut short and 
diverted West—Mr. George making a trip to San Fran 
cisco with his wife and younger daughter to attend to 
some private business of a friend.1 On August 11 he lec 
tured there on the land question in Metropolitan Temple, 
but now instead of the "beggarly array of empty benches" 
which had greeted him while he was writing "Progress 
and Poverty," a large audience was attracted by the world- 
renown his book was winning. The early friends and be 
lievers were there and were filled with cheer and enthu 
siasm over this, to them, remarkable manifestation of 
change in the public mind. But even this was not with 
out its shadow for the lecturer. On the afternoon pre 
ceding the discourse he sent a note to Taylor: "One of my 
creditors has been after me, and 1 fear some of them may 
make an attempt to garnishee proceeds to-night. I should 
like to consult you, but cannot go down." However, this 

1 Mr. George had found in the spring that he was not without honour in 
California, for at the time that John F. Miller, Republican, was elected 
by the California legislature to the United States Senate, Henry George 
received two complimentary votes, those of George C. Gorham of San 
Francisco and Warren S. Chase of Santa Barbara and Ventura, the latter 
saying, in making the nomination: " I shall name neither a lawyer nor a 
soldier, but a political economist who has distinguished himself and ac 
quired a national reputation; who is throughout the world recognised 
as the peer of such intellects as Ricardo, John Stuart Mill and Malthus." 
Though Mr. George wrote to James V. Coffey, who apprised him of the 
occurrence, " I presume that is about as near as I shall ever come to being 
elected to anything," yet he appreciated the compliment. 

 Age. 41-42] FRANCIS GEOEGE SHAW 353 

matter was arranged and before Mr. George left San Fran- 
eiseo he had paid off all but a small portion of the old 
debts there. On the eve of his departure for the East his 
intimate friends gave him an informal little dinner at 
Campi's restaurant on Clay Street, in the centre of his 
old activities, and sent him off with a fervent God speed. 
On his return to New York the Appleton people had 
surprising news for him. One thousand copies of the 
best edition of "Progresss and Poverty" had been ordered 
by Francis G. Shaw, a man of means and advanced years, 
living quietly on Staten Island, New York Bay. One of 
his daughters had married George William Curtis, the dis 
tinguished author, editor and orator, and another into the 
family of James Russell Lowell, the poet and United 
States Minister to England. Mr. Shaw was best known 
in some circles for the substantial nature of his benevolent 
works. George wrote to Taylor about him (September 7) : 

"The book they tell me has been selling splendidly. 
One item is that Francis G. Shaw ordered one thousand 
copies to place in the libraries throughout the country. 
I saw him to-day He is the father of the Colonel Shaw 
who was killed leading coloured troops in the war and 
was 'buried with his niggers.'1 He says he had become 
hopeless on social questions till sixty days ago he got my 
book. 'The light broke upon him,' and he wants to 
spread it. 

"You, better than any one else, can understand how 
this gratifies me. He did not want to be known; but 
I told him it was the highest compliment and best ad 
vertisement of the book, and the knowledge of it would 
spread as many copies as the donation. 

"I see too, by the English papers that Alfred Eussell 
Wallace has been indorsing 'Progress and Poverty' 

1 The Colonel Shaw to whom the splendid bronze memorial 
has heen raised in Boston, Mass. 

 354 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1880-1881 

which he says 'is undoubtedly the most remarkable and 
important work of the present century.' 
"So the seed has begun to sprout." 

Following hard upon the Shaw matter came what Mr. 
George considered of even greater importance. To Taylor 
(September 12) he said: 

"I have concluded an arrangement with the 'Irish 
World/ by which I shall go to Ireland and England 
in about two weeks. I will take my wife and two daugh 
ters with me, leaving the boys here in New York. The 
engagement is for three months, but of course, when 
I get over there I may stay longer. My terms with 
the 'World' are very good, considering how much I want 
to make the trip. I am to get passage both ways for 
myself and family and $GO per week. Thus the chance 
I have long waited for opens. It will be a big thing 
for me. I think the biggest I have had yet." 

A crisis had now come in Irish affairs. The Conserva 
tive Government going out, had left the legacy of the 
agrarian trouble in Ireland for the incoming Liberal Gov 
ernment, headed by Gladstone, to cope with. Lord Cow- 
per was the new Irish Viceroy, and William E. Forster, 
who had done so much for popular education in England 
by the extension of the board schools, became the Chief 
Secretary. The Irishjandlords went clamouring to them 
about the difficulty or getting rents from old tenants and 
the intimidation of, and in some instances violence to, new 
tenants, through the workings of the Land League. Fors- 
ter and Cowper had both sought to secure some legal relief 
for tenants; but both urged the passage of coercive mea 
sures to repress the violence of injured tenants. The 
writ of habeas corpus was suspended; and hundreds of 
men, known or "suspected" to be connected with the popu- 

 Age,41-42] "IRISH WORLD" PROPOSAL 365 

lar movement, were imprisoned without trial. Davitt had 
some time before been arrested and sent back to Portland 
prison on the ground of violation of the conditions of his 
ticket-of-leave. And now the arrest of Parnell was threat 
ened. 

The proposal for correspondence with the "Irish World," 
had come to Mr. George, but he had been unable to accept 
until Mr. Shaw, seeing in this an opportunity to help the 
new cause in which he had enlisted, put at his disposal a 
little money that enabled him to meet some small obli 
gations and make the start. But he was delayed until 
the middle of October and meanwhile he wrote to Mr. 
Shaw (October 9) : 

" 'Truth' to-day commences the republication of 'Prog 
ress and Poverty.' I am very glad of this. From all I 
hear its circulation is between 75,000 and 100,000. 
This gives an enormous audience, and largely of a kind 
that cannot be reached in any other way. . . . 

"One of the firm of Kegan Paul & Co., the London 
publishers of 'Progress and Poverty,' was in Appleton's 
yesterday. He says the book at first was dead as a log; 
but has now picked up and is selling rapidly. He an 
ticipates a very large sale." 

"Truth" was a New York, one cent, poor man's daily 
paper. Its chief editorial writer was Louis F. Post, a 
young man bred to the bar and possessing an extremely 
fair and open mind. He had skimmed "Progress and 
Poverty," formed hasty and loose opinions and written 
flippantly about it; but returning to a closer examination, 
he had gradually changed his views, until the book whis 
pered to him, "Leave thy nets and follow me," and he 
obeyed. Thenceforward Henry George had no more de 
voted friend or thorough and stanch disciple. The au 
thor was asked to permit "Truth" to republish the book 

 356 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1880-1881 

serially. Though compensation was not offered, he con 
sented, glad in this way to "spread the light" among 
working men.1 

But a matter of domestic consideration engaged Mr. 
George's mind before setting off. His two sons were to 
stay behind; the problem was how to employ them during 
the separation. The younger one, Dick, it was settled 
was to return to school, and with the elder, Harry, the 
question was whether he should be put in a newspaper 
office or be sent to Harvard College, where special con 
siderations at the time had let down the bars to poor 
men's sons. In talking the matter over with the boy the 
father weighed it in this way: "Going to college, you will 
make life friendships, but you will come out filled with 
much that will have to be unlearned. Going to newspaper 
work, you will come in touch with the practical world, 
will be getting a profession and learning to make yourself 
useful." So the decision was for newspaper work. An 
opening was made on the "Brooklyn Eagle" by Andrew 
McLean, and the boy was put to the first small reporting. 
To assist him in learning to write, the father gave his son 
four rules: First, to make short sentences; second, to avoid 
adjectives; third, to use small words; and fourth—a gen 
eral rule—not to attempt "fine" writing; to say as simply 
and as briefly as possible all that should be said, and then 
to stop. 

Before sailing Mr. George went to Philadelphia to bid 
good-bye to his parents, who were now advanced in years. 
He was accompanied by his boys part of the way and was 
in a meditative mood, saying, as if half to himself: "When 
I had finished 'Progress and Poverty' I was certain that 

1 Afterwards the "Chicago Express" followed "Truth's" 
example aiid printed the book serially. 

 Age, «-42] SAILS FOB EUROPE 357 

I had written a great book and that the time would come 
when the truth in it would set the world afire. But I 
could not feel confident of seeing in my own lifetime more 
than perhaps a hundred persons who would grasp it and 
believe in it. Yet now, only two years after its publi 
cation, it is being talked of all over the world; and men 
are rising up everywhere to hail it!" 

All the preparations being at length made, Henry 
George, with his wife and his two daughters, on Saturday, 
October 15, 1881, sailed on the steamship Spain of the 
National line, for Liverpool. 

 CHAPTER III. 

THE IRISH LAND LEAGUE MOVEMENT. 
1881-1882. AGE, 42-43. 

TWO days before Mr. George sailed for Europe news 
had come that Parnell and two other Parliamenta 
rians, John Dillon and J. J. O'Kelly, had been sent to jail, 
which swelled the list of political prisoners under the 
crimes or coercion act to something like five hundred. 
While George was on the sea, Patrick Ford of the "Irish 
World," cabled to Patrick Egan, the Land League treas 
urer, suggesting that the League retaliate with a manifesto 
calling upon agricultural tenants to pay no rent whatever 
until the Government would withdraw the coercion act. 
Egan approved of the idea and transmitted it to Parnell 
in Kilmainham jail. The latter disliked to strike so rad 
ical a blow at the landlord interests, but nevertheless he 
yielded to the necessity of using the only weapon left in 
his hands. The no-rent manifesto was accordingly sent 
out in the name of the Land League. At that the Gov 
ernment advanced another step and suppressed the League; 
whereupon Patrick Egan went to Paris to protect the war 
chest, while the women, headed by Miss Anna Parnell, 
organised the Ladies' Land League to carry on the field- 
work. 

As has been said, Mr. George sailed for Liverpool, but 

358 

 Age, 42-a] NO-RENT MANIFESTO 359 

he changed his plans and got off at Queenstown when 
the ship put into that Irish port. He hurried to Dublin, 
after stopping a few hours in Cork. 

"With an area of only 32,000 square miles and a popu 
lation of little more than five millions," Mr. George said 
at one time, "Ireland now required for its government in 
a time of profound peace 15,000 military constables and 
40,000 picked troops." The regular army and the Eoyal 
Irish Constabulary, the soldier-police, he described in a 
few words in his first letter to the "Irish World" (No 
vember 3) : 

"The police are a stalwart body of men, clad in com 
fortable, dark-green uniforms; the soldiers are the pick 
of English and Scotch regiments—strong, active men, in 
the very prime of life, wearing smart, clean uniforms. 
. . . Every now and again you meet a detachment 
marching down the street with rifles on their shoulders 
and blankets on their backs, on their way to the country 
to guard somebody's castle, or help evict somebody's 
tenants." 

Touching the nature of the government, he said: 

"It is not merely a despotism; it is a despotism sus 
tained by alien force, and wielded in the interests of a 
privileged class, who look upon the great masses of the 
people as intended but to be hewers of their wood and 
drawers of their water. . . . 

"I leave out of consideration for the moment the 
present extraordinary condition of things when constitu 
tional guarantees for personal liberty are utterly sus 
pended, and any man in the country may he hauled off 
to prison at the nod of an irresponsible dictator. I 
speak of the normal times and the ordinary workings 
of government." 

 360 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1881-1882 

But, wrote Mr. George, "the people have become accus- 
(tomed to act together" in wielding the weapon of passive 
resistance. It is from his private letters to Patrick Ford 
that we get the clearest and most intimate view of some 
phases of the movement. For instance, on November 10 
he wrote: 

"... The truth is that I landed here at a most 
unfortunate time for my purpose, and have found more 
difficulty in 'getting my feet down' than I could have 
imagined would be possible. . . . 

"The first intimation I got was on the tender [in 
Cork Harbour] when the agent who had the passenger 
list from the steamer, called me aside and asked if I 
was Henry George, and telling me he was a Land 
Leaguer, told me I was expected. He wanted to change 
my name [on our trunks] telling me I should cer 
tainly be dogged from the moment 1 landed and possibly 
be arrested. I, of course, refused any such kindness, 
telling him that I did not propose to disguise myself 
and that the whole detective force was welcome to listen 
to all I had to say. 

"... As I said before, it seems hard for a 
stranger to get to the bottom, and things change. But 
one impression has not changed. I got indignant as 
eoon as I landed, and 1 have not got over it yet. This 
is the most damnable government that exists to-day out 
of Russia—Miss Helen Taylor [step-daughter of John 
Stuart Mill] says, 'outside of Turkey.' 

"... As to the clergy: Croke struck a harder 
blow than Gladstone. It was as Dr. Nulty said to me, 
'Et tu Brute.'1 

"If I had told you what the general statement of the 
men I met at first was, it would have been that the 
clergy were the greatest force the Land League had to 
meet. It is really better than that. The majority of 
the clergy are, I am inclined to think, with the people 

1 Archbishop Croke became radical later and gave encour 
agement to the popular cause. 

 Age, 42-43] FIRST VIEWS OF IRELAND 361 

and the no-rent fight, but they are for the most part 
'bull-dozed' and the others are most active. . . . 

"Miss Helen Taylor came [to Dublin] last week to 
propose that she should . . . take charge, letting 
Miss Parnell go to Holyhead and direct from there. 
Her idea was that as soon as the Government found 
that the Ladies' League was really doing effective work 
in keeping up the spirit of the people they would swoop 
down on the women, too, and that it would hurt the 
Government more to arrest her [an English woman] 
in Ireland than it would to arrest an Irish woman, and 
would hurt them much more to arrest Miss Parnell in 
England than it would to arrest her in Ireland. (Miss 
Taylor, who is one of the most intelligent women I 
ever met, if not the most intelligent, says the existence 
of the Gladstone Government is involved; that they will 
stop at nothing, rather than lose power.) . . . Miss 
Parnell's objection was that she could not be spared. 

"... I am certain that everything is working 
together to the end we both desire—the radicalisation of 
the movement and the people. . . . 

"Biehop Nulty told me that the English Catholics 
and the Irish Catholic land-owners had been deluging 
Rome with complaints. But, he said, the Pope is a man 
of strong common sense, and had refused BO far to in 
terfere." 

Mr. George had not been long in Dublin before four 
committees waited on him to ask him to deliver a public 
speech. Edward Dwyer Gray, proprietor of the "Free 
man's Journal," advised him to speak in England first, 
as that would give him more influence; but writing Ford 
on the matter (November 10), George said: "My sympa 
thies go so strongly with this people that it would seem 
to me cowardly to refuse anything that might encourage 
them; and besides at this time it is extremely important 
to get them into line. ... I will not talk politics; 
but I will not stint the truth." Mr. George had not yet 

 362 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1881-1882 

come to his full powers as a speaker and his wife wrote to 
their sons (November 10) that she was very anxious about 
the lecture. "I earnestly hope it will be a success," said 
she, "but somehow I think he will suit an English audience 
better, as he is unimpassioned like them, and not demon 
strative like Irishmen." Mr. George spoke on the 14th. 
The result satisfied him, as he wrote to Ford (Novem 
ber 15) : 

"My lecture last night was a grand success, and I 
had the hardest work possible to avoid being dragged 
through the streets. It was, in fact, the only chance 
the Dublin people had had since the suppression of the 
Land League to show their enthusiasm." 

The demonstration after the lecture to which Mr. George 
alludes was a custom with which he became abruptly ac 
quainted when a crowd surged about his carriage and 
attempted to unhitch the horse, with the intention of 
themselves drawing the vehicle. He got almost indignant. 
He ordered the driver to whip up and gave him a liberal 
fee when he cleared the crowd. When addressing another 
Dublin audience some months afterwards Mr. George re 
ferred to the incident. He said the custom was undemo 
cratic and savoured too much of the subservience to which 
through the long generations they had been habituated in 
giving rent and thanks for the privilege of living on the 
common soil. The audience applauded to the echo. The 
people were ready to hear plain speech and to embrace 
new ideas. A few days after the Dublin lecture (January 
1, 1882) George wrote to Taylor: "The majority of the 
Irish don't know yet how to get at what they want. Like 
all great movements, it is a blind groping forward. But 
it is the beginning of the revolution, sure." 

Bishop Nulty had been made to feel the displeasure of 

 Age, 42-13] EEV. DE. THOMAS NULTY 363 

the higher Catholic authorities for his by this time famous 
pastoral letter declaring common rights in land, and was 
probably secretly reproved for an interview with him which 
Mr. George had published in the "Irish World," and which 
in garbled form was cabled back to a London paper. Fol 
lowing this George wrote to Ford (December 28) : 

"I presume we have at last got Dr. Nulty into the 
trouble he has been so anxious to avoid. One of the 
reasons I went to Mullingar was to sound him about 
the publication of his platform [from the pastoral let 
ter].1 I believe I told you that I got the Ladies [Land 
League] to order a lot printed just as it appeared in 
the 'Irish World.' Alfred Webb, who was printing 
them, suggested to me that perhaps the Doctor would 
not like it, and that he was doing such good work that 
we ought to be very careful not to embarrass him. 

"So I did not ask his permission, for J did not want 

1 This passage from the Kt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Nulty's pastoral letter to 
the clergy and laity of the Diocese of Meath, ran : 

"The land of every country is the gift of its Creator to the people of 
that country ; it is the patrimony and inheritance bequeathed to them by 
their common Father, out of which they can, by continuous labour and 
toil, provide themselves with everything they require for their main 
tenance and support, for their material comfort and enjoyment. God was 
perfectly free in the act by which He created us ; but, having created us, 
He bound himself by that act to provide ns with the means necessary for 
our subsistence. The land is tlie only means of this kind now known 
to us. 

"Theland, therefore, of every conntry is the common property of the 
people of that country, because its real owner, the Creator who made it, 
has transferred it as a voluntary gift to them. Terram autem dedit 
Jiliis hominum. Now, as every individual in that country is a creature 
and child of God, and as all His creatures are equal in His sight, any 
settlement of the land of a country that would exclude the humblest man 
in that country from his share in the common inheritance would be not 
only au injustice and a wrong to that man, but, moreover, would be an 
impious resistance to the benevolent intentions of his Creator." 

 364 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1881-1882 

to commit him. I merely told him it was being done, 
and he made no objection. 

"Well, the thing is beginning to tell. It is going all 
over the country and some of the priests are distributing 
it, and it is getting pasted up, and the Tory papers and 
all the English papers are reprinting it as an outra 
geous official declaration of communism from a Catho 
lic bishop; and from all I have heard of their temper, 
I shall be surprised if the English prelates don't try to 
raise a row at Rome about it. 

"But it is going to do an immense amount of good." 

In the same letter George made some comments from 
his inside point of view upon persons in the movement 
and its management. 

"There is a great amount of 'whigging' in this Land 
League movement, more than I thought before coming 
here. And I think this is especially true of the leaders. 
With very many of those for whom it is doing the most, 
the 'Irish World' is anything but popular. And I have 
felt from the beginning as if there was a good deal of 
that feeling about myself. We are regarded as dan 
gerous allies. I have, of course, never pretended to see 
or notice this, though I have had some curiosity about 
it, as to how much was due to conservatism and how 
much to influences from America. But come what may, 
this movement is going to assume a much more radical 
phase. In spite of everything, the light is spreading." 

Mr. George then related how when "United Ireland," 
the official league organ, was seized, the plates of the num 
ber just to be issued were got off to his lodgings and hid 
den under his bed, whence they were sent in a trunk to 
London, where the League managers, instead of putting 
them to press at once, lost several days and much money 
in negotiating about the matter. Ultimately "one paper 
was got out in London, and another totally different in 

 Age. 42-43] PARNELL AND DAVITT 365 

Dublin, and an edition from the Dublin plates worked off 
in Liverpool." He observed to Ford in a letter from 
London: 

"Some of them told me that this was splendid, as 
showing the Government that when one paper was sup 
pressed three would spring up; but I told them that in 
my opinion the Government would laugh at such work 
and see how easy it was to make them spend their re 
sources. 

"... To sum up: It appears to me that there 
is in many things a lack of management, and conse 
quently, waste both of opportunities and resources. 

"Sometimes it seems to me as if a lot of small men 
had found themselves in the lead of a tremendous move 
ment, and finding themselves lifted into importance and 
power they never dreamed of, are jealous of anybody 
else sharing the honour. 

"I do not refer to Parnell, who, I think from all I 
hear of him, is a first-class man, though he lacks quali 
ties and powers in which Davitt is strong. 

"I wish I had got here before the suppression, that I 
might have seen the thing in free play. 

"Miss Parnell, from all I learn, is really an extraor 
dinary executive and organiser, and the Ladies are and 
have been doing their work wonderfully well, consider 
ing all the difficulties. . . . 

"Miss Taylor urged me not to return to Ireland, say 
ing that I was greatly needed, and that the Government 
will certainly arrest me before long. But while I won't 
put myself in the way of that, I don't feel like turn 
ing aside for fear of it. My sympathies are so strongly 
with this fight against such tremendous odds of every 
kind that it is impossible for me not to feel myself 
in it." 

It was at this time, when Mr. George was in London 
and his wife and daughters in Dublin, that Miss Parnell 
got word from a confidential source inside Dublin Castle 

 366 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1881-1882 

that the Ladies' Land League was to be proscribed; that 
she and her able assistant, Miss Nannie Lynch, were to 
be arrested at once; and that one of the Dublin jails was 
actually being cleared out for the reception of the women. 
These two ladies needed no further hint; they immedi 
ately sped for London, Miss Lynch sending her official 
books to Mrs. George for safekeeping. The remaining 
ladies invited Mrs. George to preside that day over the 
regular business meeting of the Ladies' League. She 
never before had attempted to preside at any kind of a 
meeting and.her embarrassment was heightened by the 
presence of men, whom she afterwards was told were Gov 
ernment detectives, and a number of reporters and corre 
spondents. But the women triumphed. The absence of 
Miss Parnell and the appearance of an American woman 
in the chair completely nonplussed the Dublin Government 
officials and the Ladies' Land League escaped proscription. 
Mr. George's post of special correspondent of the "Irish 
World," the mouthpiece, so to speak, of the Land League 
in America, the chief source of the "sinews of war," gave 
him an introduction to all the prominent men in the 
Irish movement, from Parnell in Kilmainham jail to Jus- 
tin McCarthy in London and Patrick Egan in Paris, while 
his reputation as the author of "Progress and Poverty" 
and of "The Irish Land Question" gave him a standing 
outside political circles. He therefore had little difficulty 
in making acquaintances. But he quickly discovered that 
the members of the Irish Parliamentary party, while cor 
dial enough at dinner parties and on other social occa 
sions, and polished and polite under all circumstances, 
were always guarded in speaking with him on the affairs 
of the movement, and many of them absolutely uncom 
municative. As time passed on this condition of aloof 
ness grew. 

 Age, 42-43] MISS HELEN TAYLOE 367 

Aside from these formal acquaintances, Mr. George 
while in Dublin formed some friendships of a deep and 
lasting kind. One of these was that of Dr. James E. 
Kelly, who, upon the American's arrival in the city in the 
period of national despondence consequent upon the arrest 
of the leaders, was one of the first persons to welcome 
him to Ireland. Dr. Kelly was thoroughly in sympathy 
with and made many sacrifices for the popular cause. 
During the Georges' stay in Dublin he frequently enter 
tained them at his house and almost daily saw and talked 
with Mr. George on social or political matters, or on ques 
tions of philosophy. 

Another warm Irish attachment formed at this time was 
with Rev. Thomas Dawson of the Catholic order of the 
Oblate Fathers, who then lived at Glencree. He had read 
"Progress and Poverty " and had become imbued with its 
spirit and with the belief that no matter what its author 
called himself, the final chapter of the book proved him 
to be essentially a Catholic. It was to Father Dawson 
that Mr. George subsequently wrote the letter touching his 
religious faith which has already been quoted.1 

As we have seen, Miss Helen Taylor was another of the 
important acquaintances made in Dublin. Acquaintance 
strengthened into warm friendship, and when the Georges 
went to London in January they accepted her hearty invi 
tation to share her hospitality at South Kensington. She 
possessed sufficient means to make her independent, and 
for years had been doing all in her power, with voice, pen 
and purse, to advance public ideas along the lines taught 
by her famous step-father, John Stuart Mill. She be 
lieved that were Mr. Mill alive he would have been heart 
and soul with the Irish in their struggle and would have 

i Pages 311-312. 

 368 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [issi-1882 

been among the first to greet "Progress and Poverty" as 
containing the truth, notwithstanding its contradiction of 
much that he had previously taught. 

After spending several weeks with Miss Taylor, the 
Georges visited Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Hyndman in 
Portland Place, and afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Thomas 
Briggs at Dulwich. Mr. Hyndman had long been one of 
the leading writers on the London press, but a too active 
sympathy with the Irish movement had caused him to be 
"boycotted." An intense socialist, he was president of 
the Democratic Federation, which propagated those doc 
trines in England. For a time he seemed hopeful of con 
verting Mr. George to his views, while the American 
thought socialism in his friend was weakening. Hynd 
man had found at the British Museum a copy of a lecture 
by Thomas Spence on "The Eeal Eights of Man," deliv 
ered before the Philosophical Society of Newcastle, No 
vember 8, 1775, a year before the publication of Smith's 
"Wealth of Nations," and for which the Society, as 
Spence said, did him "the honour to expel him." In the 
lecture Spence proclaimed common rights in land and 
proposed that land values be taken for public purposes, 
all other taxes to be remitted. George had never heard 
of Spence and was delighted at the discovery. He urged 
Hyndman to publish the lecture in tract form, believing 
that it would do much good. Mrs. George suggested that 
this might prove disadvantageous to Mr. George, for peo 
ple might say that if the idea of taxing land values had 
been proposed a hundred years before and had since been 
ignored by the world, there was little use of George in 
his "Progress and Poverty" trying to popularise the prin 
ciple now. Her husband answered that most people hesi 
tate to accept an idea thought to be new; that if the pro 
posal in "Progress and Poverty" could be shown to be 

 Age, 43-43] MEETS HEEBEET SPENCER 369 

really an old one, it might make much more rapid way. 
And so he urged Hyndman to publish the lecture, which 
the latter did; while George himself sent a copy to Pat 
rick Ford for publication in the "Irish World." 

It was while they were guests of the Hyndmans that 
Mr. George met Herbert Spencer. Through the Hynd 
mans, Mr. and Mrs. George were invited to a reception 
at Mrs. (since Lady) Jeune's. It was a "London crush," 
the drawing-rooms thronged and many notables present, 
among them, Tennyson, tall, careless and dreamy—in 
appearance every inch a poet; and Browning, on this occa 
sion at least, smart and dapper, and so far from appear 
ing a great poet, looked, as Mrs. George said, "like a pros 
perous merchant draper." Mr. George admired both of 
these men, but was introduced to neither. He met Spen 
cer, however, as soon as the latter appeared. This gave 
him real pleasure. He had been hearing stories of vanity 
in the English philosopher that he could scarcely credit, 
as he put him on a high plane, not because of the evo 
lutionary philosophy, for it was that to which George 
referred when, in writing to Charles Nordhoff before leav 
ing San Francisco, in 1879,1 he said he would like some 
time to write a book dissecting "this materialistic philoso 
phy, which, with its false assumption of science, passes 
current with so many." But he had all along held Spen 
cer as immovably against the institution of private prop 
erty in land, and had in "Progress and Poverty" quoted 
from the English philosopher's scathing ninth chapter of 
"Social Statics." He, therefore, expected to find a man 
who, like himself, saw in the agrarian struggle in Ireland 
the raising of the question of land ownership and funda 
mental economic principles. Their conversation quickly 

1 Page 328. 

 370 LIFE OP HENEY GEORGE [1881-1882 

turned to Ireland, for scarcely had they exchanged civili 
ties when Spencer bluntly asked what George thought 
of Irish matters. The American condemned the Govern 
ment and praised the League. Spencer burst into vehe 
ment dissent. "They," said he, meaning the imprisoned 
Land Leaguers, "have got only what they deserve. They 
are inciting the people to refuse to pay to their landlords 
what is rightfully theirs—rent." This speech and the 
manner of its delivery so differed from what was expected 
of the man who in "Social Statics" wrote, "equity does 
not permit property in land," that Mr. George was first 
astonished and then disgusted at this flat denial of prin 
ciple. "It is evident that we cannot agree on this mat 
ter," was all that he could say, and he abruptly left Mr. 
Spencer. The meeting had proved a deep disappointment. 
Mr. George seldom outside the family circle spoke of it, 
but to Dr. Taylor he wrote soon after the occurrence 
(March, 1882) : "Discount Herbert Spencer. He is most 
horribly conceited, and I don't believe really great men 
are." 

It was about this time that Mr. and Mrs. Walter Wren 
entertained Mr. and Mrs. George at dinner. To put Mrs. 
George at her ease, Mr. Wren, in the American fashion, 
presented the other guests to her, among them Mr. and 
Mrs. Walter Besant. But Mr. George was made ac 
quainted with the inconvenience of the English custom of 
not introducing. For after the dinner Mrs. George asked 
her husband how he liked Besant. He said he did not 
know. "Why, you were apparently on good terms with 
him?" "Good heavens!" he exclaimed. "Have I been 
talking with Walter Besant all evening without knowing 
him?" 

A little while after this came a meeting with John 
Bright and Joseph Chamberlain, who were members of 

 Age.42-»3] HEIGHT AND CHAMBERLAIN 371 

the Gladstone Cabinet. To Ford, George wrote privately 
(April 22) : 

"I dined with Walter Wren at the Eeform Club last 
night and he had John Bright and Joseph Chamberlain 
there to meet me. We started in on Irish affairs with 
the soup, for Bright asked me point blank what I 
thought of what I had seen in Ireland, and I had to 
tell him, though it was not very flattering. We kept it 
up to half past ten, when Mr. Bright had to go down 
to the House, having left his daughter in the gallery, 
but Chamberlain remained until nearly twelve. 

"Bright has got to the end of his tether, and will 
never get past where he is now; but Chamberlain is an 
extremely bright man, and his conversation, which was 
unreserved, was extremely interesting to me, and would 
make a most interesting letter if I could use it, which 
of course I cannot. . . . 

"Chamberlain has evidently been reading the 'Irish 
World,' for he alluded to some things in my letters, and 
he told me laughingly to look out when I went back to 
Ireland that I did not get reasonably 'suspected.' 

"I told him that I wanted to see Michael Davitt; that 
Harcourt had refused me; and asked him if he could 
help me. He said he could not, as the Home Secretary 
would be jealous of any interference by him; but he 
added that he thought I should be able to see Davitt 
before I went home, which I took to mean that Davitt 
would be released before long. This I sincerely hope, 
for he is badly needed in Ireland. 

"Of course meeting a Cabinet Minister in that way I 
could not catechise him about what the Government in 
tended; but I gathered from what he said that he at 
least was in favour of going further with the land-bill 
and relieving the rigours of coercion, which I take it, 
at least in the line of the suspect business, will be the 
policy of the Government. . . . 

"Kegan Paul told me this morning that he met Jus- 
tin McCarthy at dinner last night, and that he told him 
that the Irish members were getting frightened at the 

 372 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1881-1882 

length to which the movement was going, and were dis 
posed to unite with the Government on fixing up the 
land bill. I only tell you this sort of stuff for what 
it is worth, but my notion is that there will be some 
sort of joint attempt all around to settle the Irish land 
question, and—that it won't settle! . . ." 

Justin McCarthy's reported utterance and Chamber 
lain's reference to the probable future policy of the Gov 
ernment were of a piece. Although the "no-rent" move 
ment was as strong as ever, if not stronger, Parnell and 
some of his immediate associates had had enough. As 
serting for an excuse that the no-rent movement had 
failed, they had run up the white flag. Through Captain 
O'Shea and others, Parnell had entered into a pact with 
the Government, by which he was to "slow down" the 
Land League agitation, while the Government was to re 
lease the suspects and extend the existing land act, both 
of which it was glad enough to do. George wrote to 
Ford (June 6): "Kettle says that O'Kelly, who came 
over to Ireland to get Parnell to make some compromise, 
and got put into prison, to the amusement of all inside, 
gradually worked on his fears." 

But there was at the time no public talk of a dicker with 
the enemy and no previous word that there was to be a 
liberation, so that when Parnell and his Parliamentary 
associate prisoners, Dillon and O'Kelly, walked forth from 
Kilmainham on May 2 there was general astonishment 
and rejoicing over what appeared to be the Irish leader's 
victory and Gladstone's defeat. But at least some of the 
insiders suspected, if they did not know of, the treaty. 
George wrote to Ford (June 6): "The evening Parnell was 
let out, the Ladies [Land League], instead of rejoicing, 
were like mourners at a wake." 

On the other side, to liberate Parnell or in any way to 

 Age, 42-43] PHOENIX PARK MUEDEES 373 

treat with the man who had been denounced as "steeped in 
treason to the lips" was to discredit the policy of the Vice 
roy and the Chief Secretary. So Cowper and Forster 
resigned. Earl Spencer and Lord Frederick Cavendish 
were appointed to the respective places, and on May 6 
made their official entry into Dublin. At seven o'clock 
that evening the new Chief Secretary and Mr. Burke, 
the Under Secretary, were killed by a band of political 
assassins calling themselves "Invincibles." 

Mr. George had hurried that day from Dublin to Lon 
don to meet Michael Davitt, who as publicly announced, 
and evidently as a part of the Government's more lenient 
policy, was to be released from Portland prison. In his 
"Irish World" letter of May 9, Mr. George said that he 
had been with Davitt until late that night and was to 
meet him next day. 

"We did meet, but earlier than either he of I ex 
pected. I was awakened early in the morning by a 
telegram from a friend in Dublin [Dr. James B. Kelly], 
telling me that the new Chief Secretary and the Under 
Secretary had been stabbed to death in Phoenix Park. 
But for the terms of the despatch and the character 
of my friend I should have thought the story a wild 
rumour, for Dublin is a good place for rumours. But 
these left no doubt, and getting out as soon as I could, 
while all London was yet asleep, I after awhile man 
aged to find a cabman dozing on his cab, and rousing 
him with some difficulty, got him to drive me to the 
Westminster Palace hotel. I went at once to Davitt's 
room, woke him up, and handed him the despatch as he 
lay in bed. 'My God!' was his exclamation, 'have I 
got out of Portland for this!' And then he added 
mournfully: 'For the first time in my life I despair. 
It seems like the curse that has always followed Ire 
land.' 

"I went and woke Dillon. He, though less surprised, 

 374 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [issi-1882 

was hardly less impressed. It seems that before they 
went to bed on Saturday night, or rather on Sunday 
morning, word was brought to them of the murders by 
one of the reporters of the 'Central News'; but it seemed 
so incredible that both the Chief Secretary and the 
Under Secretary should be stabbed to death in Phcenix 
Park, that it was at once set down as a hoax. Davitt, 
his mind filled with the vivid impressions of the first 
hours of freedom, after fifteen long months of imprison 
ment, and with friendly greetings ringing in his ear, 
had gone to sleep without reverting to the report again; 
but Dillon said he had been thinking over it all, and 
that the more he brooded over it the more it seemed 
'too strange not to be true'; its very improbability seem 
ing, as he thought of it, proof that it could not be 
wholly invention. 

"After waking up Mr. Dillon, I went at his request 
to Mr. O'Kelly's room with the same intelligence, and 
soon the only London Sunday paper, the 'Observer,' 
came with the confirmation of print. Mr. Dillon went 
out to find Mr. Parnell, who came to the hotel, and after 
a conference the manifesto to the Irish people was writ 
ten by Davitt, and having been submitted to the Par- 
nellite members, who nearly all gathered in the hotel 
towards the afternoon, was signed by Parnell and Dillon 
as well as Davitt, sent out to the papers, and telegraphed 
to Dublin, where Alfred Webb had been holding his 
printing office in readiness to strike it off, and whence 
prominent members of the party had been asking by 
telegraph for the issuance of something of the kind." 

The manifesto that Mr. George speaks of was addressed 
to the Irish people. It denounced the crime as "cowardly 
and unprovoked" and hoped that the murderers would 
be brought to justice. George said in his "Irish World" 
letter of May 9 that ParnelFs "first impulse was imme 
diately to resign his seat, but after consultation with other 
members he contented himself with sending a message to 
Mr. Gladstone offering to do this if it would in any way 

 Age, 42-43] DAVITT'S GREAT MOMENT 375 

make the Premier's position easier, but received a reply 
expressing a hope that he would do no such thing." 

That Sunday was a day of confusion. Fearing that 
the English would rise in violent retaliation against the 
Irish residents, some counselled the Irish leaders to seek 
safety in France, and this was the sentiment among most 
of the guests at the dinner party at A. M. Sullivan's, where 
Mr. and Mrs. George had been invited. For when Mr. 
George put the question as to what Davitt should do, Mrs. 
George was alone in saying that Davitt "should go to 
Ireland by the first train, and be a leader to the people 
in this hour of dismay!" An exclamation went around 
the table, and some one said that if Davitt went there 
in the then state of passionate feeling he would be killed 
by the Government supporters. Mrs. George replied: 
"How could Michael Davitt die better than with his peo 
ple?" Mr. George said little more than that his wife's 
words expressed his own feeling; but he never forgot 
those words, and he repeated them to her fifteen years 
later when his own supreme moment for decision came. 

Contrary to expectation, no disturbances anywhere fol 
lowed the news of the Phoenix Park murders, though the 
Government was compelled by public opinion to reverse 
its intended policy of leniency, and turned the screws of 
coercion even tighter than they had been at the height of 
the no-rent agitation. Parnell inside the House of Com 
mons opposed this; yet outside he did all he could to kill 
the old movement. He had no intention of reviving the 
Land League in any form. Indeed, the day that Davitt 
was released from Portland, Parnell had denounced the 
Ladies' Land League to him, saying that it "must be sup 
pressed" or else he would "leave public life,"1 and he 

» " Life of Charles Stewart Parnell," by R. Barry O'Brien, Vol. I, p. 364. 

 376 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [1881-1882 

actually did kill it by refusing it money from the general 
fund. Dillon thought that the land agitation should be 
carried on, and he went to Parnell and asked: "What are 
your intentions? Do you mean to carry on the war or 
to slow down the agitation?" "To slow down the agita 
tion," said Parnell.1 By October he had succeeded so 
effectually with the "slowing down" that he organised a 
new league. It was the old Irish National Land League 
with "Land" left out. He became president, and Home 
Eule was made the primary aim. Nothing was heard of 
the principle of "The Land for the People," with which 
Michael Davitt had set Ireland aflame. On the contrary, 
in his first speech under the new auspices Parnell said that 
"no solution of the land question can be accepted as a 
final one that does not insure the occupying farmers the 
right of becoming owners by purchase of the holdings 
which they now occupy as tenants." 

It was the old peasant proprietary cry—a proposal to 
swap landlords, and to swap largely on the terms of the 
existing landlords. All thought of the agricultural la 
bourers and of the great mass of the Irish nation who 
were too poor to buy land—all reference to natural, equal 
rights to land, was ignored. 

But the fact of a Kilmainham treaty and of the sur 
render of the movement by Parnell to the Gladstone gov 
ernment came out only by degrees. In writing to the 
"Irish World" George tried to put the best face on the 
thing, refusing at first to write what he suspected; but in 
his private letters to Ford he spoke without reserve. On 
May 17 he wrote: "The whole situation is very bad and 
perplexing. The Land League in its present form on 
both sides of the water seems to me to he smashed. But 

i " Life of Charles Stewart Parnell," by E. Barry O'Brien, VoL I, p. 365. 

 Age.42-«J TREATY OF KILMAINHAM 377 

the seed has been planted. . . . We who have seen 
the light must win because much greater forces than our 
selves are working with us." Three days later he wrote, 
"Parnell seems to me to have thrown away the greatest 
opportunity any Irishman ever had. It is the birthright 
for the mess of pottage." 

 CHAPTEE IV. 

STARTING THE REVOLUTION IN GREAT 
BRITAIN. 

1882. AGE, 43. 

A FEW months of immurement in Kilmainham jail, 
even while mitigated by personal comforts, if not 
luxuries, and the companionship of numerous political 
friends, had sufficed for Parnell; and he came out to "slow 
down" the great Land League movement that had roused 
the enthusiasm of tens and hundreds of thousands on two 
continents. But neither the seven years of hard penal 
servitude nor the year or more of subsequent and lighter 
solitary incarceration in the English prison had broken 
the spirit of Michael Davitt. He had no thought of sur 
render to the Government. In a letter to the "London 
Standard" he showed that while he had given up his old 
idea of the efficacy of physical force and dynamite to bring 
reforms, he did not wish to be a party to the Kilmainham 
treaty; and on the 21st of May he made a speech at Man 
chester on these lines. Mr. George had been invited to 
lecture on the Irish question in Free Trade Hall and Mr. 
Davitt to preside. To Mrs. George her husband that 
night wrote: "It was Davitt's lecture, not mine. He 
wanted to make a pronunciamento, and had it all written 
out, and got through only a few minutes before the time 

378 

 Age, 43] DAVITT'S PRONTJNCIAMENTO 379 

when, according to the programme, I was to have closed— 
so that 1 spoke for only about fifteen minutes, and as usual 
under such circumstances, hardly did myself justice. He 
was nice about it, though, and I was very glad to have 
him take the time and sit down on the 'Treaty of Kil- 
mainliam.'" 

"Disruption" was the cry at once raised by the Par- 
nellites against Davitt in consequence of this speech—a 
fatal cry in so many Irish struggles. They who had them 
selves made the real departure in setting themselves against 
the Land League movement, audaciously charged Davitt 
with aiding Ford and George in trying to make a split 
in the ranks. Davitt could suffer imprisonment, but he 
shrank from this. He told George a few days later when 
they met in Dublin that he thought it wiser for them 
not to travel together into the West of Ireland as they, 
or at least as George, had contemplated. Mr. George 
wrote privately to Patrick Ford from Dublin (May 27) : 

"I have seen Davitt ... at Dr. Joseph Kenny's. 
I told him I would go into the west with him to-morrow, 
but could plainly see he did not want me to go. . . . 
I expressed my mind to him and to Kenny (a Parnellite 
first, last and all the time). I told him I thought 
you had been extremely moderate; that I was sick of 
this undemocratic talk of 'leaders'; that Davitt did rep 
resent a much greater idea than Parnell; that it was 
not merely now, but during Davitt's long imprisonment 
that we had been holding him up as such; that instead 
of making a break, you were doing your utmost to pre 
vent it; that it was radical men's work and radical 
men's money that had been the backbone of the Ameri 
can support, and that they would not consent to be 
iised, and to be told that what they had been sacrificing 
for was a failure and a humbug; and that there was 
no use of disguising the fact that between the pro 
gramme on which American money had been largely 

 380 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1882 

gathered and the programme now offered them was a 
wide chasm; and that in America at least I believed 
the smash had already come. I told them, of course, a 
good deal more than I could begin to write. Healy 
came in, and without resuming the conversation I left. 
"With the exception of myself, Davitt has seen no 
body since he came out but the Parnellites and the Whig 
section of the Land League. He himself is all right, but 
he is a very impressible man. He is to come to see me to 
morrow. I shall tell him what I think, but I won't go 
down into the west with him, though I have been in 
tending to do so ever since I have been here, only re 
maining because things were so volcanic. Of course I 
know what they din into his ears—'George has captured 
you for the "Irish World."' He as much as told me so 
before. But whatever happens now, Davitt will be to 
those moderates—what shall I call them—a bull in a 
china shop. I am confident of that." 

But- if Davitt shrank from an open break, he certainly 
had plans distinct from those of Parnell, as shown by a 
letter from George to Francis G. Shaw (May 30): 

"Davitt is all right. He believes just as we do, but 
he is very much afraid of breaking up the movement, 
and is sensitive to the taunt that he has been 'captured 
by Henry George and the "Irish World."' . . . 

"Michael Davitt is full of the idea of popularising 
'Progress and Poverty.' That was the first thing he 
said to me. He had read it twice before, and he read it 
twice again while in Portland [prison], and as you may 
see from his speeches and letters, he believes in it en 
tirely. He says if a copy of that book can be put in 
every workman's club and Land League and library in 
the three kingdoms the revolution will be made. His 
first act was to demand of Parnell and Dillon £500 to 
use in the English propaganda, £300 of which he wanted 
to put in my hands for as many copies of 'Progress 
and Poverty' as it would bring. Parnell and Dillon at 

 Age,43] "PROGRESS AND POVERTY" 381 

first agreed, and he went to Paris to get Egan's con 
sent. Egan refused; but afterwards wrote that what 
Davitt wanted would have to be granted, and then after 
the Manchester speech Parnell and Dillon refused. 

"The fact is that the line is really drawn and the 
split made, but not publicly. They [the Parncllites] 
will not budge beyond extension of the purchase clause; 
Davitt is for nationalisation and our programme. And 
the whole strength of the Land League management is 
to be used—in fact, it has all along been used—against 
the spread of more radical ideas. Davitt says he is 
going to the United States for the purpose of getting 
money for the propaganda." 

But the money that was wanted came suddenly from 
another quarter. Mr. Shaw had that very month (May 
10) sent Mr. George $500, saying: "As you do not tell me 
how I can help the cause just now, I take my own way 
and inclose a draft which I hope may strengthen the 
hands of you, its representative." And nine days later 
Mr. Shaw wrote that he had received a pledge of $3,000 
for the circulation of "Progress and Poverty" from a man 
richer than he was who did not want to be known. He 
said that some of the money he would hold until he could 
learn what Mr. George advised doing with it, but that 
meanwhile he had ordered of Appleton a thousand copies 
of the book specially bound in cloth covers to be sent to 
the members of the Society for Political Education who 
were men of importance scattered about the country, and 
that he had preceded this by sending to them copies of 
George's pamphlet, "The Irish Land Question." Mr. 
George was at first inclined to believe that this society was 
"a sort of mutual admiration affair," on the members of 
which it would be useless to waste money; but the fact 
of the distribution subsequently raising some contention 
in the columns of the Boston "Advertiser," he then wrote 

 382 LIFE OP HENRY GEOKGE 

to Mr. Shaw (August 3): "You have kicked up a row. 
And of all the things we want to do, to kick up a row is 
first and foremost. For when the row begins then those 
who most bitterly oppose us serve the cause the most." 

But to go back. On June G, 1882, came an earthquake. 
Michael Davitt, despite ParnelFs express opposition, made 
a dashing speech in Liverpool, came out squarely against 
the peasant proprietary scheme and declared himself flatly 
for "land nationalisation." Davitt did not espouse the 
George method of application, which was to absorb land 
values through taxation. He leaned rather to Alfred Rus 
sell Wallace's plan of buying the land from the land-own 
ers (though at half the market valuation) and then exact 
ing a rent from the holders, which seemed to the socialists 
to include their idea of "management." But method just 
then was a secondary matter with Henry George. What 
he was most interested in at this time was the assertion 
of the principle of common rights in land, and he took 
Davitt's speech to be the old Land League cry of "the 
land for the people," advanced a stage towards practical 
application. The speech created a sensation. George was 
filled with exultation and wrote to Shaw (June 8) : 

"'Now, by St. Paul, the work goes bravely on!' I 
think we may fairly say that we have done something, 
and that our theory ( !) is at last forced into discussion. 
I should have sent you a congratulatory despatch last 
night; but I knew you would read the 'Irish World' 
and would know I was thinking of you when sending 
the news. 1 have gained the point I have been quietly 
working for, and now those who oppose us most bitterly 
will help us most. Well, after all the toil and worry 
and the heart sickness, when the devil comes to whisper, 
'You are doing nothing!' there are sonic half hours that 
pay for all. And because I feel that, I know that you 
must feel that, too." 

 Age, 43] A POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE 383 
On the same day George wrote to Ford: 

"Davitt will be with you as soon as this letter. So 
there is no use of my saying anything about him. 
. . . For the moment the Kilmainham Treatyites are 
'flabbergasted,' but they will rally and fight. It is a 
long fight and a wide fight—it is not won or nearly won; 
but it has commenced, and there is no more sailing 
under false colours. . . . 

"Well, I feel like congratulating you. At last the 
banner of principle is flung to the breeze, so that all 
men can see it, and the real, world-wide fight begun. 
What we have been hoping and praying and quietly 
working for is so far accomplished. 

"Davitt proposes compensation. Of course neither 
you, nor I, nor Bishop Nulty agree to anything of that 
sort; but that makes no difference. It is best that 
Davitt should propose it, for his great work from now 
on is to be rather in England than in Ireland. . . . 
I don't care what plan any one proposes, so that he 
goes on the right line. . . . 

"I lecture in the Rotunda (Dublin) Saturday night. 
You can well imagine what I will say." 

This lecture, Mr. George's second in Dublin, was deliv 
ered on June 10. It was on the "Irish Land Question" 
and was for the benefit of the Prisoners' Aid Societies. It 
took the line of and supported Davitt's Liverpool speech 
and was well received, for he wrote to Ford three days 
afterwards: "Sexton, who had been all the week in Dublin 
lying quiet, put in an appearance at the lecture, and on 
moving thanks to me essayed to defend somewhat the 
peasant proprietary business; but I went for that in my 
reply, and evidently carried the audience with me. . . . 
What was a most significant thing was that from begin 
ning to end Parnell's name was not mentioned. . . . 
There was not a voice for him, not a cheer." 

 384 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1882 

Nevertheless, as Mr. George had predicted, the "Kil- 
mainham Treatyites" soon rallied and began to fight, and 
fight with effect. They attacked George covertly at first, 
aiming to arouse national jealousy against him by speaking 
of him as "an American" and a "cosmopolitan politician." 
But Davitt they attacked more openly, for having con 
siderable influence on telegraphic and other large channels 
of news and political comment, they could and did harry 
him on both sides of the ocean at once. 

Davitt's position was trying. Patrick Ford had ar 
ranged for a big reception to him in the Academy of 
Music, New York; but a committee from the Parnellite 
faction went down the bay, first reached him and made 
out such a case that he felt the necessity of giving a promi 
nent place in his first speech in America to an explana 
tion that he had not been "captured" by Henry George 
or anybody else. 

Then again occurred the unlocked for. Some promi 
nent prelates in the Catholic Church in the United States 
had condemned the Land League movement as attacking 
the rights of property. Eev. Dr. Edward McGlynn of 
St. Stephen's Catholic Church, one of the largest in New 
York, had privately expressed strong approval of the move 
ment, but had never spoken publicly on this or any kin 
dred subject. He had been widely known both for the 
eloquence of his utterances and the independence of his 
views, and yielding to the pressure to come out and take 
a public stand on the land question, he had laid prudential 
considerations aside, and consented to speak at the Davitt 
reception. He followed Davitt and made an extraordi 
nary speech on the lines of the land for the people. Ele 
gant in diction and oratorical in delivery, it flashed with 
wit and burned with enthusiasm. He spoke as a priest 
of the people, who bore witness to the everlasting truth. 

 Age. 43] REV. DE. ED WARD McGLYNN 385 

He encouraged Davitt to "preach the gospel" and not to 
apologise for it or explain it away. His address made 
such a sensation that the Doctor was invited to speak at 
most of the meetings with Davitt during the short tour, 
and he did speak at three, at one of them saying: 

"If I might take the liberty of advising him [Davitt] 
I should say: 'Explain not away one tittle of it, but 
preach the gospel in its purity!' [Cheers.] I say it 
is a good gospel, not only for Ireland, but for England, 
for Scotland and for America, too. [Great cheering.] 
And if in this country we do not as yet feel quite so much 
the terrible pressure of numbers upon the land, the same 
terrible struggle between 'Progress and Poverty,' as is felt 
in other lands, no thanks are due at all to our political 
system, but thanks only to the bounties of nature, and 
to the millions of acres of virgin lands with which God 
has blessed us. But when these virgin lands shall have 
been occupied; when the population shall have increased 
here as it has elsewhere in proportion to our extent of 
territory, we shall have precisely the same problem to 
solve, and the sooner we solve it the better. [Loud 
cheering.] And so I quite agree with Michael Davitt 
to the full, and with Henry George to the full [loud 
cheering, and three cheers for Henry George], and lest 
any timid, scrupulous soul might fear that I was falling 
into the arms of Henry George, I say that I stand on 
the same platform with Bishop Nulty, of Meath, Ire 
land. [Cheers.] But for that matter—to let you again 
into a secret—my private opinion is, that if I had to 
fall into the arms of anybody, I don't know a man into 
whose arms 1 should be more willing to fall than into 
the arms of Henry George." [Loud cheers.] 

These speeches were too marked in their effects on popu 
lar thought in this country, the main source of Land 
League funds, to go unnoticed by those at Kome and 
elsewhere bent on suppressing the Irish cause; and the 

 386 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1882 

powers which had silenced so many of the clergy of Ire 
land, among them Dr. Nulty, for the same kind of utter 
ances, now turned towards New York. They caused Car 
dinal Simeoni, Prefect of the Propaganda, in the name 
of the Pope, to write several letters to Cardinal McCloskey 
in New York complaining of "the priest McGlynn" who 
seemed "very much inclined to favour the Irish Revolu 
tion" and who was making speeches containing "proposi 
tions openly opposed to the teachings of the Catholic 
Church." The Cardinal Prefect ordered Dr. McGlynn's 
suspension, unless Cardinal McCloskey should deem an 
other course advisable. Dr. McGlynn after the first letter 
of complaint had an interview with Cardinal McCloskey. 
He explained his doctrine, and as he said five years later,1 
he defended it from the Cardinal's "misunderstandings and 
misapprehensions." "I told him substantially," said Dr. 
McGlynn, "that I knew my theology well enough not to 
sin against it ignorantly, and that I loved my religion too 
well to sin against it wilfully." As a result of this inter 
view Dr. McGlj'nn said he would not speak further for 
the Irish Land League cause. "I voluntarily promised 
to abstain from making Land League speeches, not be 
cause I acknowledged the right of any one to forbid me, 
but because I knew too well the power of my ecclesiastical 
superiors to impair and almost destroy my usefulness in 
the ministry of Christ's Church to which I had conse 
crated my life." 

While to Patrick Ford, Dr. McGlynn was a revelation, 
to Henry George he was more than that, for never before 
had he heard of the clergyman. McGlynn was a new star 
in the sky; as George wrote to the "Irish World," a "Peter 
the Hermit" in the new crusade; and as he wrote to Ford 

1Di. McGlynn's review of his own case, "The Standard," Feb. 5,1887. 

 Age, 43] A PETER THE HERMIT 387 

privately: "If Davitt's trip had no other result, it were 
well worth this. To start such a man is worth a trip 
around the world three times over. He is 'an army with 
banners.'" 

But it was of Davitt that George wrote chiefly to Ford 
at this time. Before any adequate report of the New 
York meeting had reached him, he said (June 20): "To 
day there is a despatch that Davitt says that there is no 
dispute between him and Parnell, and that the latter's 
scheme will be carried first. It won't. Davitt has awak 
ened the echoes both in Ireland and in England. He is 
first and Parnell is nowhere, if he [Davitt] will only stand 
firm and not get scared. Tell him so for me." George wrote 
ten days later, "It's a nice combination [against Davitt] 
—Government, Fenians, Whigs and Parliamentarians! 
When I say Fenians I mean only those of the Devoy 
stripe." But Davitt yielded to the pressure, both while 
in America and subsequently when he returned to the 
British side. He allowed the great work of his life to 
be subordinated to the comparatively trifling Parliamen 
tary programme. George's views are reflected in letters 
to Ford: 

London, July 1. 

"I got the New York 'Tribune's' report of Davitt's 
speech, sent to me by Mr. Shaw. It is several shades 
more apologetic than I should like to see it. Think of 
a man having seriously to defend himself from the 
charges cf being captured by Henry George and run by 
the 'Irish World'! . . . But whatever temporary 
events may be, we can afford to laugh at those who op 
pose us. They are simply drifting, while 'the stars in 
their courses are with us.' Don't lose heart for a 
moment, however much you may be tempted. Those 
who oppose us most bitterly will help our cause the 
most." 

 388 LIFE OF HENEY GEOEGE [1882 

London, July 4. 

"The Kilmainham treaty has gone to smash sure 
enough at last. The situation, though, is not a good 
one—the old fight in the dark is to go on again. Ire 
land has plenty of good minor officers and guerilla 
chiefs, but not a single general. Davitt is nearest, but 
he lessened his influence and injured his usefulness by 
what seems to me like weakness. ... A great 
leader would not begin an important campaign by an 
apology, and I am well satisfied that you had nothing 
to do with that. Well, I am sorry for Davitt's sake, 
but the cause moves on no matter who falls." 

Dublin, August 4. 

"As for me, Davitt should have had sense enough 
to know that no one could have made him my 'trumpet.' 
He had too great a position. And surely he need not 
have been afraid of my trying to put him in the posi 
tion of a disciple of mine. For in public and in pri 
vate I have been engaged in pushing him to the front 
as the 'great leader.' But his enemies—O'Kelly first, 
I think—charged him with being captured by Henry 
George and the 'Irish World.' They saw that that an 
noyed and affected him, and then they pushed it. All 
he had to do was simply to go forward and not mind 
them. But their talk affected him so much that he was 
afraid to be seen with me or to have me go where he 
went. And so they made him morbidly afraid of the 
'Irish World.' It seems to me pitiable weakness when 
a man's enemies can thus make him afraid of and un 
just to his friends. Davitt has let his enemies turn 
him and swerve him in various ways; he has put him 
self on the defensive when he ought to have been on the 
aggressive, and has kept himself in hot water and 
dropped from the position he might have held. 

"But he is a noble character, and by far the best of 
the lot." 

The palpable fact was that Henry George felt increas 
ingly lonely in the Irish movement—all the leaders save 

 Age, 43] TO INVADE AFRICA 389 

Davitt and Brennan hostile to him in principle, and even 
Davitt now shunning close connection and Brennan gone 
off to the South of France in utter disgust with the Kil- 
mainham business. George had come in touch with many 
representative men in England like Joseph Cowen, pro 
prietor of the "Newcastle Chronicle," Thomas F. Walker, 
manufacturer, Birmingham; and William Saunders, Presi 
dent of the Central News Agency in London. He had 
also met on very friendly terms the new Chief Secretary 
for Ireland, George O. Trevelyan; and for John Morley 
he wrote a "Fortnightly" article. But these men were 
of the general British radical movement and not of the 
Irish movement per se. 

Yet on the other hand, such men as John Ferguson of 
Glasgow and Rev. Harold Eylett of Belfast joined with a 
host of Scottish and English radicals in wishing the war 
carried into Africa, believing that the most effective way 
to carry on the Irish land-for-thc-people fight would be by 
raising the issue in England and Scotland. To this end 
Mr. George was invited to deliver an address in Glasgow 
on St. Patrick's night, the 17th of March. He accepted 
and spoke before a great public meeting in the City Hall. 
Three nights later he spoke before another big meeting in 
the National Hall. John Ferguson took the chair at the 
first meeting and Richard McGhee at the second. Many 
persons date the radical land movement in Scotland from 
these meetings, and it is clear that they put the spark to 
the agitation among the crofters, or small farmers, which 
soon blazed up. 

Davitt had had something of this idea of spreading the 
war to the British side of the Irish Sea in wishing to 
circulate "Progress and Poverty," and now George, get 
ting the Shaw money, obtained the means with which to 
carry the idea forward. Shaw cabled that he would send 

 390 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1882 

£300, and George replied by letter, "Now we shall start 
the revolution!" 

He made an arrangement with James C. Durant, who 
had a printing office in Clement's Inn-Passage, for setting 
type and making plates of "Progress and Poverty" for a 
book of eighty-eight pages, quarto form, and paper cover, 
to sell at sixpence a copy. Durant was an enthusiastic 
admirer of the book and agreed to risk one third of the 
expense, and to take his pay out of the profits, if there 
should be any. George was to meet the other two thirds 
of expense. He did not look for any profit to himself 
after paying Durant; indeed, unless the sale should be 
very large they both stood to lose on the operation; but 
both were moved by the spirit of the propaganda. 

Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. were to handle the sixpenny 
edition on commission. From thinking nothing at all of 
the book, they had come to have great expectations of it, 
George writing Shaw as early as February 11 (1882): 

"Paul, of Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., says it is the 
most astonishing success he ever knew. When they first 
got it out no one would touch it. They laughed at 
the idea of selling an American book on political econ 
omy. It was a long while before they got rid of twenty 
copies. Then, as he says, purely on its own strength, 
the book to their astonishment began to make its way. 
Their first edition was out early in December (1881). 
They have got another; that is going faster, and they 
anticipate a big sale." 

It was Mr. George's idea to push the reading of "Prog 
ress and Poverty" all over the three kingdoms. As a pre 
liminary to this, he bought a set of plates of "The Irish 
Land Question" from the Glasgow publishers, Cameron 
& Ferguson—the Ferguson who had with Davitt and 

 Age, 43] A SIXPENNY EDITION 391 

Brennan begun the Land League movement. From those 
plates an edition of five thousand copies of the pamphlet 
was struck off and sold at threepence each. Copies of it, 
together with a little four-paged tract by Mr. Shaw, en 
titled "A Piece of Land," were sent to all the newspapers 
in the United Kingdom and to all the Members of Parlia 
ment. In a similar way copies of "Progress and Pov 
erty" were sent out when it appeared. Sample copies were 
also sent to every Land League organisation and every 
working men's club with a circular offering to supply quan 
tities at wholesale rates. This edition of the book was 
also advertised in some of the papers, so that the £300 
from America was made to go as far as it would in the 
propaganda work, and Mr. George was enabled to write by 
June 30 to Mr. Shaw: "So, my dear friend, we are in the 
way of doing something—so much that I don't like to say 
what I really think. The big stone is really moving. All 
it wants is a little push to start it rolling. And that, I 
think we are about to give. It is not what we do so much 
as what we start other people doing." 

As if in a measure to meet the "slowing down" policy 
of the Parliamentary party, Patrick Ford had asked Mr. 
George to stump Ireland; but he had dissented. "I am 
willing and anxious to do all I can," he wrote (June 22), 
"and 1 have done all 1 have been asked to do; but you must 
remember I am not an Irishman, and these people are jeal 
ous of advice or interference from an outsider. That is 
the reason they are thrusting me forward, saying I have 
captured Davitt, etc. You see how Harris alludes to me 
as a 'cosmopolitan politician.' I don't like to mix in Irish 
politics on this account." 

Nevertheless, he now concluded to make a correspon 
dence trip to Western Ireland. He set off early in August, 
accompanied by an Englishman, James Leigh Joynes, one 

 392 LIFE OF HENKY GEORGE [1882 

of the masters of Eton College, who wished to see some 
thing of the popular side of the Irish movement and who 
was engaged to write some descriptive articles for the 
London "Times." Joynes started out with the average 
Englishman's idea that rural Ireland was a place of out 
rages and murders. As they rode along part of their 
journey on an open jaunting car, he appeared somewhat 
apprehensive of their being mistaken for landlords and 
shot from behind the walls or hedges that fringed the 
roads. But the most peaceable of rural country met their 
view, and many pictures of industry that gave rise to 
Mr. George's expression in an "Irish World" letter (Au 
gust 22) that "of all the libels upon the Irish, that which 
stigmatises them as idlers is the worst. If there are on 
the earth's surface any people who will work harder and 
suffer more for those who cling to them, I do not know 
where they are to be found." 

At length the travellers arrived at the little town of 
Loughree. It was "guarded by seven police fortresses," 
besides having "two police barracks and a large military 
barrack." "As we drove down the street to the only hotel," 
said Mr. George, "the police seemed to start from the 
houses on each side and follow us." And the moment the 
travellers sprang to the ground both were arrested under 
the Crimes Act as "suspicious strangers." Said Mr. 
George: 

"The whole thing struck me as infinitely ridiculous. 
There was, after all, a good deal of human nature in 
Artemus Ward's declaration that he was willing to sac 
rifice all his wife's relatives to save the Union. And 
in my satisfaction in seeing an Eton master lugged 
through the town as too suspicious a stranger to be left 
at large 1 lost all sense of annoyance at my own arrest. 
In fact, my only regret was that it was not Kegan 
Paul." 

 Age, 43] ARRESTED IN IRELAND 393 

They were taken into a barred room in the barrack, and 
despite Joynes' profuse protestations that there must be 
some mistake, the police went through the baggage and 
examined all the papers. Mr. George says: 

"A rough draft of a bit of poetry was scanned over 
by a knot of constables as though it had been a Moon 
light general order or a receipt for making dynamite, 
while as for a little leaflet, 'A Piece of Land,' by our 
countryman, Francis G. Shaw, I think they must almost 
have got it by heart the way they stared at it. . . . I 
could not feel angry—the whole thing was too supremely 
ridiculous, but the Eton master could not see the joke. 
To come to Ireland only to be mistaken for an emissary 
of sedition, a would-be assassin of landlords, or maimer 
of cattle, was something that had not entered into his 
calculations." 

Eesident Magistrate Byrne who came to examine them 
apparently soon concluded that there had been a mistake, 
even if the police had acted upon telegraphic orders from 
some source. At any rate, after three hours' detention 
the suspects were released, not, however, without a formal 
protest from Mr. George against the proceedings as "need 
lessly annoying and insulting." 

After spending that night at the hotel they visited Prior 
Corbett of the Carmelite Order and the stores of several 
"suspects." Then they drove to the town of Athenry, a 
few miles distant and within the same police district—"a 
town of one pump," an ordinary hand pump, from which 
the entire water supply of the place is drawn. Yet in so 
small a town, which furthermore could not support a sin 
gle doctor, were quartered no less than twenty-six police 
constables and fifty-six soldiers. The travellers visited 
Father McPhilpin and then viewed the antiquities of the 
place, after which they went to the railway-station to take 

 394 LIFE OF HENEY GEORGE [1882 

train for Galway. But the police, a great number of 
whom had appeared to be lounging around, closed in and 
arrested George, but not Joynes. After several hours' 
detention, Mr. George was taken before Magistrate Byrne 

—the same magistrate who had examined him at Loughree 

—and a lot of foolish testimony was presented touching 
the prisoner's movements and the nature of bis printed 
papers and written notes. One of the papers put in evi 
dence was a list of names, with the supposed letters "F. 
C." after some of them, which the Head Constable believed 
meant "Fenian Centre," but which the magistrate inter 
preted to be "T. C.," and to mean "Town Councillor." 
The upshot of the matter was Mr. George's discharge. 

"The magistrate then summed up with a justification 
of the police for arresting me, and to my surprise fin 
ished by discharging me. Whether what had seemed 
to me the manifest purpose to require bail had been 
altered by the telegrams which Mr. Trevelyan stated in 
the House of Commons he had sent to Ireland on the 
subject, or whether it was the magistrate's own sense, 
I cannot tell." 

The trip affected a radical change in Mr. Joynes' views 
of the state of Ireland, and he wrote letters to the Lon 
don "Times" based upon what he had seen and heard 
that seemed incomprehensible to the editor, so that the 
arrangement between Joynes and the newspaper was can 
celled. 

When Mr. George got back to Dublin in the middle of 
August he wrote to Mr. Shaw: "I have just returned from 
a very interesting trip into the west, in which among other 
things I saw the inside of two 'British Bastiles.'" He 
also sent to the President of the United States a letter 

 Age,«] A SECOND ARREST 395 

of protest at the usclcssness of the American Ministerial 
representation at the Court of St. James, making his own 
case the occasion of his writing and saying that while he 
fully realised the duty of an American citizen "in a for 
eign country to conform his conduct to the laws of that 
country, and that he cannot expect exemption from such 
police regulations as its Government may deem necessary," 
yet "that it is due to their own dignity that the United 
States should claim for their citizens travelling in countries 
with which they maintain relations of amity, exemption 
from wanton annoyances, unreasonable inquisitions and 
imprisonment upon frivolous pretexts." He averred that 
American citizens had been imprisoned there "without 
trial, and even without specific accusation," while the only 
action taken by the United States so far as known and 
currently reported there was on the part of American 
consuls who "attempted to bribe them by offers of money 
into acknowledgment of the justice of their arbitrary im 
prisonment by agreeing to leave the country as a condition 
of release." The letter was aimed at James Eussell Low- 
ell, the United States Minister to the Court of St. James 
—"a place," as Mr. George often afterwards described it, 
"for the spoiling of good poets." To make the protest 
more direct seemed inadvisable on account of the relations 
existing between Lowell and Mr. Shaw. Nevertheless, the 
letter stirred up the Administration at Washington to call 
upon the Government representatives for proper action in 
such cases. When Mr. George returned to the United 
States he was invited by Secretary of State Frelinghuy- 
sen to put in a claim for damages, but he declined, saying 
that all he asked for was protection to the citizen in his 
proper rights abroad. 

In a letter to Mr. Shaw (September 12) Mr. George 
wrote with some amusement: 

 396 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE 

"By the bye, I met William H. Appleton in London. 
He told me that Lowell had been talking to him about 
me, and asked, 'Why, who in the world buys such a 
book as that?' 

" 'Well,' said Appleton, 'one man who buys it is a 
friend of yours—Francis G. Shaw. Tie bought a thou 
sand, and then he came back and bought another thou 
sand." 

" 'Goodness!' exclaimed Lowell—or words to that 
effect; 'he is a dear, good friend of mine, but—but, he 
must be getting eccentric!' 

"I brought a letter to Lowell from John Eussell 
Young, but never presented it." 

The incident of Mr. George's arrest and the Parliamen 
tary questioning relative to it were noticed by all the news 
papers in Great Britain and Ireland, all of which fell in 
most aptly with George's plans to "start the revolution." 
The press had just been noticing "The Irish Land Ques 
tion" pamphlet very liberally and now at last the English 
printers had the sixpenny edition of "Progress and Pov 
erty" ready. Twelve thousand copies were printed in the 
first edition, and two thousand were distributed free. 
Within a few days there was, perhaps, reason for his joy 
ous words to Shaw, "I feel as though we are really begin 
ning to 'move the world,'" for the London "Times" set 
an example to the British newspapers and periodicals by 
seriously reviewing "Progress and Poverty" in a five-col 
umn article—an example that brought reviews tumbling 
in. Kegan Paul sold all the copies of the book he had on 
hand by the afternoon of the day on which the "Times" 
article appeared. John Eussell Young, then United States 
Minister to China, sent George congratulations from 
Pekin, saying that the fact of such a lengthy review, was, 
regardless of its spirit, the "blue ribbon of critical appro 
bation," and that it ranked George "at once among the 

 Age.43] LONDON "TIMES" REVIEWS 397 

thinkers of the age," whose words were "worth heeding in 
England." No one more fully appreciated the signifi 
cance of the article than the author himself, and he wrote 
to his San Francisco friend, Dr. Taylor (September 16): 
"I send you the 'Times' notice. The book which the 
'Alta California' said never would be heard of is at last, 
it is now safe to say, famous. The cheap edition is going 
off well. One house in Melbourne took 1,300 copies and 
300 went to New Zealand." To Mr. Young, he wrote 
shortly after returning to New York (January 17, 1883): 

"The review in the 'Times' gratified me very much. 
The 'Times' had alluded to me previously in several 
editorials, saying that I could no longer be ignored, and 
a good many other things not too flattering. I saw in 
a moment that the review was from a friendly hand. 
If you noticed it, you must have seen that it was writ 
ten with great skill; for the purpose of directing atten 
tion to the book, slurring over those things that would 
be disagreeable to the British people and dwelling on 
those things that would attract them. The 'Atheneum,' 
alluding to it, said it was by Fraser Rae. I went to 
see him, delivering your letter; and had a very pleasant 
talk. He had got the book originally from you. He 
was very anxious for me to dine with him and meet a 
professor of political economy at one of the Scotch uni 
versities, who desired to meet me; but I was leaving 
London for Ireland and could not do so." 

Then, too, came encouragement from another quarter. 
Early in 1882 the Land Nationalisation Society had been 
started in London. The eminent Alfred Russell Wallace 
was at its head and his recent book, "Land Nationalisa 
tion," ostensibly embodied its aim. It contained in its 
membership those who like Wallace desired to take posses 
sion of the land by purchase and then have the State exact 
an annual quit-rent from whoever held it; those who had 

 398 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE 

the socialistic idea of having the State take possession of 
the land with or without compensation and then manage it; 
and those who with Henry George repudiated all idea 
either of compensation or of management and would rec 
ognise common rights to land simply by having the State 
appropriate its annual value by taxation. Such conflict 
ing elements could not long continue together, and soon 
those holding the George idea withdrew and organised on 
their own distinctive lines, giving the name of the Land 
Reform Union to their organisation. But meanwhile the 
Land Nationalisation Society invited Mr. George to lec 
ture under the auspices of a working men's audience in 
Memorial Hall on September 6, Professor Wallace presid 
ing. This was Henry George's first public speech in Lon 
don and he addressed the class he was very anxious to 
reach. For as he said in April in writing to Mr. Shaw: 
"I have little hope of the literary class here—never at all 
of the men who have made their reputations. It is the 
masses whom we must try to educate, and they are hard 
to get at through ordinary channels." 

This working men's lecture was followed by a meeting 
on the afternoon of the 19th that gave him real satisfac 
tion—a meeting of Church of England clergymen. The 
proceedings had much the nature of a conference, Mr. 
George making a few preliminary remarks explanatory of 
his principles and then answering questions. He wrote to 
Mr. Shaw (September 21) : "The meeting of clergymen 
was most remarkable. It occupied three hours. The ball 
has surely commenced to roll." That evening he was hon 
oured with a two shilling working men's banquet, and then 
he bade adieu to his English friends and started for Dub 
lin and home. 

On the eve of his departure from Dublin, Mr. George 
was entertained at a banquet by T. D. Sullivan, M. P., 

 Age. 43] SAILS FOR HOME 399 

Dwyer Gray, owner of the "Freeman's Journal," Michael 
Davitt, Dr. James E. Kelly, Father Behan, Dr. Joseph 
Kenny, and other well-known citizens; and then, the eldest 
daughter who had been ill with typhoid fever being strong 
enough to travel, the family proceeded to Queenstown and 
on October 4 embarked on the National liner Helvetia 
for New York. 

But before leaving Dublin Mr. George wrote to Mr. 
Shaw (September 26): 

"Sure as we live, we have kindled the fire in Eng 
land, and there is no human power that can put it out. 
Thanks to you, and the friend who made the contribu 
tion through you, I think I have in this year done a 
bigger work (or rather started bigger forces) than any 
American who ever crossed to the old country. I say 
this freely to you, because without you 1 could not have 
come or stayed. 

"Our English friends are very earnest for me to stay; 
but I know the movement will go ahead without me. 
No man is necessary to it now. We may help a little; 
but whether we help or not, it will go on. 

"Hope to have a twenty thousand new edition of 
'Progress and Poverty' printed by next Monday." 

 CHAPTER V. 

KINDLING THE FIEE AT HOME. 
1882-1883. AGE, 43-44. 

A YEAR before Henry George had Bailed away from 
New York scarcely noticed. Now he returned to 
find himself, as he said, "pretty near famous"; the news 
papers heralding him, the labor unions crowding spacious 
Cooper Union for a formal welcome, and men notable at 
bench and bar, in politics, the ministry and commercial 
pursuits banqueting him at Delmonico's. Hon. Algernon 
S. Sullivan was toastmaster at the banquet, with Justice 
Arnoux, Justice Van Brunt, Henry Ward Beecher, Thomas 
G. Shearman, Andrew McLean, and Francis B. Thurber 
among the speakers. Mr. George alarmed his immediate 
friends by mistaking the hour and arriving late, and 
amused others by having forgotten to get his shoes pol 
ished. But the occasion passed with fine effect, the 
guest's speech being marked by quiet delivery, yet intense 
feeling, for he believed this to be but another indication 
that the world was awakening to the truth. That differ 
ent feelings were also awakening elsewhere was manifest 
from the fact that amid the generally favourable notices 
of the press was one observing that a number of the per 
sons present representing special privileges probably had 

400 

 Age, 43-44]] ^HONOURED AT HOME 401 

no notion of the ideas promulgated by the man they 
honoured, since they acted like a lot of fat sheep who had 
without realising their danger invited a wolf into the fold. 
If Mr. George did not feel the force of this remark at 
once, he did when, three years later, lines of interest were 
drawn, and many of those who had feted him at Del- 
monico's took front rank among the "Society Savers" ar 
rayed against him. Then he said with a twinkling eye 
to those about him: "Those gentlemen gave me a com 
plimentary dinner once." 

But no matter to what changed feelings some of the 
banqueters afterwards awakened, the fact of such an event 
gave evidence, as much as the working men's reception, 
of a strong tide setting in the direction to which the 
George ideas pointed, so that it was with a consciousness 
of rising power that he wrote to Eev. Father Dawson of 
Ireland (October 23): "I find that the prophet is hon 
oured, even in his own country"; and that he wrote to 
Taylor at the same time: "It is a good deal like going to 
sleep and waking up famous." 

Charles Nordhoff of the "New York Herald"' thought 
the time had come for Mr. George to be most useful in 
Congress; that there he could get the best hearing before 
the country and make his influence felt in tangible laws, 
primarily towards a liberation of trade, for Nordhoff was 
a radical free trader. To Nordhoff's letter suggesting 
that he talk with Patrick Ford about the matter, George 
replied (October 29): "I think I can be quite as useful 
outside of Congress as in, and I should not now seek a 
nomination in any way. So I shall not say anything to 
the 'Irish World' people about the matter. But I quite 
as fully appreciate your kindness and your esteem as 
though I wanted the place." 

One of the first things that Mr. George did after get- 

 402 LIFE OP HENEY GEOEGE [I88a-l883 

ting back was to call upon Eev. Dr. Edward McGlynn 
and pay his respects. The clergyman was a native of 
New York, of Irish parentage. At an early age he be 
came a protege of Archbishop Hughes, who sent him to 
the College of the Propaganda at Rome to study for the 
priesthood. He was distinguished as a student and was 
ordained at twenty-two, becoming at first the assistant, 
and at thirty, the successor to Eev. Dr. Cummings of St. 
Stephen's Church, New York. Dr. Cummings was a man 
of extensive learning and very liberal views. As such he 
had large influence in the community, an influence which 
his young successor, with like qualities, acquired and ex 
tended. Dr. McGlynn was two years Henry George's 
senior, and when they met was in his forty-sixth year. 
A copy of "Progress and Poverty" had been given to him 
by A. J. Steers, the young man in D. Appleton & Co.'s 
employ who had helped persuade that house to get out 
a dollar edition of the book in 1880. 

On meeting Dr. McGlynn, Henry George found a large 
man physically, of urbane manners, many intellectual 
graces and remarkable conversational gifts; and with 
those qualities of heart and mind that made him the loved 
and venerated priest, confessor, adviser, leader—the fa 
ther—among the poor of a great New York City parish. 
Dr. McGlynn subsequently speaking of this meeting, said: 
"Already captured by 'Progress and Poverty,' I was now 
captured by its author. I found united with his lofty 
intellect and virile character, the simplicity and sweet 
ness of a child—in fact, that 'something feminine' which 
a Frenchman has said is to be found in all men truly 
great." The two men talked simply, yet they understood 
each other. That meeting began the intimate friendship 
between "the Priest and the Prophet." 

There were many calls for lectures and some for arti- 

 Age, 43-M] DEATH OF MR. SHAW 403 

cles from Mr. George's pen, and he was in the midst of 
his plans when death struck down his friend, Francis G. 
Shaw, after seventy-two years of usefulness to his kind. 
To Mrs. George, who was in Philadelphia, her husband 
hastily wrote (November 8): "I got this morning a letter 
from Mrs. Lowell saying that her father, Mr. Shaw, was 
very sick and could not live. I went over there as soon 
as I could and found he had died last night. I have no 
sorrow for his sake, but I feel the loss of such a friend 
and deeply regret that I did not get an opportunity to 
see him again. Yet this is generally the way our last 
partings seem to us—partings for a day!" 

Beautiful memorial sketches of Mr. Shaw were written 
by Sydney Howard Gay and George William Curtis and 
printed for private circulation. Mr. George made the 
dedication of a new book later in the year the wreath of 
his lasting tribute, but in the first days he expressed his 
sentiments to the daughter, Mrs. Lowell (November 15): 
"There was between us something of that feeling that 
among the ancients was the closest of ties. I was, in 
some respects at least, his proxy, his younger man, whom 
he sent into the struggle he would have made himself; 
and this thought will always be to me a satisfaction and 
a strength." 

Mr. George made a lecturing trip to St. Louis, Terre 
Haute and Wheeling, speaking on the land question. 
When he got back to New York he wrote to Taylor 
(January 17) : 

"I have received $1000, which Mr. Shaw left me. 
This puts me at ease. I shall use it in the way I know he 
intended it—to give me leisure to do some writing—and 
before that is gone I shall have my feet well under me. 

"What a curious life mine is—literally from hand to 
mouth; and yet always a way seems to open. 

 404 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [1882-1883 

"I want to do something strong on the tariff; and 
then a popularisation—in the form probably of question 
and answer—of our doctrines, with special view to the 
farmers. And by that time the cheap 'Progress and 
Poverty' will have told, and I shall have made some pay 
ing lecture engagements. 

"My article goes in the 'North American Review5 next 
month (March number). 

"Get the 'Modern Beview5 for January. It is the 
best review of 'Progress and Poverty' yet."1 

Note should be taken of the "North American Eeview" 
article of which Mr. George spoke. It was entitled 
"Money in Elections." In it he advocated, as the correc 
tive of purchase and intimidation of voters, the adoption 
of the Australian secret ballot system. In San Francisco 
twelve years before he had made the same proposal in 
the "Overland Monthly," and when in 1886 he became 
candidate for the New York Mayoralty, this principle 
formed one of the planks of his platform. 

But this "North American" article was now merely 
by the way. The English cheap edition of "Progress and 
Poverty" was doing so well that the author was set on a 
cheap American edition. He thought of importing a 
duplicate set of the English plates, but abandoned this to 
put the book in the hands of John W. Lovell, a publisher 
of standard books in cheap form, who had just started a 
serial library, with a complete book in each number. They 
were paper covered, compact, attractive volumes. "Prog 
ress and Poverty," like the average number, was sold for 
twenty cents—more than the English edition, but there 
were compensating advantages in size and appearance and 
as to distribution. Mr. George was to get ten per cent. 

1 Signed article by George Sarson, M. A. 

 Age, 43-u] CHEAP EDITION OF BOOKS 405 

royalty, the same as from Appleton for the better edition; 
but this in effect amounted to very little, for the author 
gave away so many copies and made such large personal 
discounts to those who bought quantities for educational 
purposes, that the Lovell edition brought small return to 
him, considering the great sale. 

"The Irish Land Question" also was put in Lovell's 
Library, and at ten cents a copy. In order to make it 
apply to the United States and the world, rather than to 
Ireland exclusively, the title was modified to "The Land 
Question," which the book has since carried. 

The "Land League organisation in the United States 
had since Parnell's change of policy pretty generally gone 
to pieces. What remained was used to push the cheap 
editions of the books. But a far greater agency was found 
in the Order of the Knights of Labour. This organisa 
tion had sprung from a local secret society formed by 
ten Philadelphia garment cutters in 1869. Not until the 
close of the seventies did it assume great proportions, and 
by 1883 it had local assemblies or branch organisations all 
over the country. Its more recent declaration of prin 
ciples, though in some respects vague and confused, had 
a clear central purpose—that of equal rights for all and 
special privileges to none. Its "fifth demand" ran: 

"The land, including all the natural sources of wealth, 
is the heritage of all the people, and should not be sub 
ject to speculative traffic. Occupancy and use should 
be the only title to the possession of land. Taxes upon 
land should be levied upon its full value for use, exclu 
sive of improvements, and should be sufficient to take for 
the community all unearned increment." 

While this had for several years been in the declara 
tion of principles, nobody had paid much attention to 

 406 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1882-1883 

it as a practical idea, and it had hepn allowed to lie 
dormant. But discussion of the Irish land question had, 
with other things, drawn attention to the land question at 
home; and T. V. Powderly, Grand Master Workman, 
made a personal declaration on the question and helped 
Mr. George, who had joined the order, to get "Progress 
and Poverty" and "The Land Question" into the local 
assemblies. George set high value on this and wrote 
Thomas F. Walker of Birmingham, England (April 21): 

"I inclose you a very significant clipping. Powderly 
is head of the great organisation of the 'Knights of La 
bour.' Up to this he (as most of the leaders of laboui* 
organisations) has considered the land question as of no 
practical importance. His change will have a very im 
portant effect. It is, moreover, only one indication of 
the general change that is going on. 

"The 20-cent edition of 'Progress and Poverty* got 
out in February and is working powerfully. We are 
gaining rapidly in every direction. It will not be long 
now before the movement will show in politics." 

Mr. George and his little bunch of immediate friends 
in New York at this time started an organisation called 
the Free Soil Society. Besides being fairly descriptive 
of their purpose—to free the soil from speculation—the 
name had historical associations, having been used by an 
aggressive anti-slavery party before the civil war. The 
new organisation was federal in its plan, starting from 
local groups. Louis F. Post, formerly of "Truth" but now 
returned to his law practice, was president; Eev. K. Heber 
Newton, treasurer; and Charles F. Adams, a young lawyer 
of brilliant parts, secretary; with John P. Cranford, a 
prosperous city contractor in Brooklyn; T. L. McCready, 
A. J. Steers, who had given "Progress and Poverty" to 

 Age, 43-44] FREE SOIL SOCIETY 407 

Dr. McGlynn; several members of the "Irish World'' 
editorial staff, Professor L. E. Wilmarth, Clinton Furbish, 
William McCabe, John Beverly Robinson, and Henry 
George, his wife (for women were eligible), his sons and 
his eldest daughter were of the first members. The ob 
ject was purely propaganda; the method, all means that 
would promote thought. The society proved effective for 
a time in getting together those who were already per 
suaded; but it brought in few new people and died a quiet 
death before a great while. 

It resulted, however, in some informal, half-past six 
o'clock dinners in a small restaurant in the wholesale dis 
trict on Duane Street, New York, kept by a Portuguese 
named Pedro D. Beraza. These dinners were occasional, 
and talk was informal. Mr. George, light-hearted and 
sanguine as a boy, generally sat at the head of the board 
and passed a question around to each by turn when he 
wanted an expression of views. They were essentially 
"experience" meetings. Nor was any allowed to pass 
without delivering his personal testimony to the progress 
of "the cause." In those days small events gave the 
brethren much cheer. 

The thousand dollars left by Mr. Shaw enabled Mr. 
George to commence early in the year on the cherished 
plan of writing a book on the tariff question. To James 
McClatchy of the "Sacramento Bee," who in some alarm 
admonished him not to attempt too much, he wrote (March 
28) : "Don't be afraid that I shall get out of my depth. I 
am well conscious of the limits of human effort of which 
you speak, and there is too much in my own line to do 
for me to venture beyond it. My real purpose in treat 
ing the tariff question is to show workingmen that the 
question is the land question, and that they are to a great 
extent wasting their efforts in barking up the wrong tree." 

 408 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1883-1883 

\Vhen Mr. George had got well along in the writing two 
important proposals came to him. One was from Alien 
Thorndike Eice, proprietor of the "North American Ke- 
view," for a political and economic weekly paper, to be 
edited and partly owned by George. The other was for 
a series of signed articles for "Frank Leslie's Illustrated 
Newspaper." He wrote Taylor (March 25): 

"As to the paper negotiations, they finally came to 
this. Capitalist to put up $25,000, to take fifty-five 
shares of stock, I to have forty-five. I to have control 
and a salary of seventy-five dollars a week until the 
thing paid, and then a hundred dollars a week, in addi 
tion to the earnings of my stock. They wanted to start 
on the 15th of May. After a good deal of consideration 
I refused. I think I shall go into a paper, though, 
about September or October, and believe I can make a 
combination that will assure success. This will solve 
the bread and butter question for good. 

"In the meantime I have made an arrangement to 
write a weekly article for thirteen weeks for 'Frank Les 
lie,' the articles to be two columns and a half and I to 
get $100 for each. 

"My free-trade matter I think of selling to a news 
paper in the same manner before bringing it out in book 
form." 

So he laid aside work on the tariff book to write the 
"Frank Leslie" articles. They were intended by the 
paper's managers to be a counter-attraction, as it were, to 
a series of articles just started by "Harper's Weekly" from 
the pen of Professor William G. Suinner of the chair of 
political economy at Yale. George's articles were to deal 
with current social questions from his own standpoint, 
under the title of "Problems of the Time." His purpose 
was, as he wrote in the preface to their book form after 
wards, "to present the momentous social problems of our 

 Age, 43-44] PROBLEMS OF THE TIME 409 

time, unencumbered by technicalities, and without that 
abstract reasoning which some of the principles of po 
litical economy require for thorough explanation." 

The fifth article dealt with "The March of Concentra 
tion." It spoke of the obvious increase in size of land 
holdings, incidentally stating that a mere glance at the 
United States Census reports for 1870 and 1880 showed 
that the general figures utterly contradicted the deduc 
tions that the average size of farms was decreasing, and 
that the reports were, therefore, unreliable and worthless. 
This brought to the front the man who had superintended 
both censuses—Professor Francis A. Walker, who had 
held the chairs of political economy in two colleges and 
was author of a text book on the subject. In a curt letter 
to "Frank Leslie's" he offered if the reports were not 
clear to Mr. George to supply "a more elementary state 
ment, illustrated with diagrams," in support of the official 
statement that the average size of farms was decreasing. 
George at once replied, Walker made a surrejoinder, and 
George a rebutter, all of which served to show George's 
keen, analytical powers. The "New York Sun" in subse 
quently reviewing the case said: "It is amusing because, 
while there is no lack of suavity and decorum on the part 
of Mr. George, his opponent squirms and sputters as one 
flagrant blunder after another is brought forward and the 
spike of logic is driven home through his egregious falla 
cies." Nor was the matter cleared up until the Census 
Bureau explained—what at the time of the controversy it 
had not realised—that the tables for 1870 were based on 
improved area and those of 1880 on total area, thus mak 
ing Walker's comparison of the two censuses impossible, 
and proving George's charge of carelessness.1 

1See "Statistics of Agriculture." U. S. Census for 1880, 
issued 1883, p. xiv. 

 410 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1882-1883 

In the summer Mr. George put the "Leslie" articles 
together with the view to publication in book form. He 
made each article a chapter, and added eight more and 
a conclusion. He named the book "Social Problems" and 
dedicated it to the memory of Francis G. Shaw, with the 
quotation from Eevelation: "Yea, saith the Spirit, that 
they may rest from their labours; and their works do fol 
low them." With the book he printed as appendices, Mr. 
Shaw's little tract, "A Piece of Land"; a letter on "The 
Condition of English Agricultural Labourers," by William 
Saunders of London; and the Walker Census controversy. 
The book was put into the hands of Belford, Clarke & Co., 
publishers, of New York and Chicago, but was not brought 
out until January. 

In April, 1883, a proposal had come before the New 
York Legislature for the establishment of a State Bureau 
of Labour Statistics. Before the bill was passed—before 
he had decided whether or not he wanted it—Mr. George's 
name was urged by a number of labour unions for the 
place of Commissioner. But when the bill creating the 
Bureau was passed, Governor Cleveland appointed a polit 
ical supporter. 

At the end of July Mr. George wrote to Mrs. Lowell 
in connection with some other matters: "I have met with 
a loss that bites out a big piece of my work and quite 
disarranges my calculations as to what 1 should accom 
plish. All the manuscript that I have been making for a 
book to be published this fall has gone—where I cannot 
tell, but I presume into an ash barrel." It was the free 
trade book, and was equal to about a hundred printed 
pages. The family had been boarding on Fourteenth 
Street, near Seventh Avenue. Thence they moved to a 
furnished house on Hancock Street, Brooklyn. The manu 
script was lost in the Fourteenth Street house, Mr. George 

 Age, 43-44] LOSS OP MANUSCRIPT 411 

ultimately settling down to the conclusion that he had 
inadvertently included it in a lot of waste papers that he 
told a servant to carry off and destroy. This was a loss 
in several senses. Taylor early in August became his 
confidant. 

"For past two weeks I have been staying home push 
ing doggedly at work. I find there is considerable I 
want to add to 'Social Problems/ though for my own 
exigencies I should hurry it into print. And I have 
found it hard to make headway. Writing well on exact 
subjects is of all work the hardest. Yet I should be de 
lighted if I could see my way clear to keeping at it. 
How blessed are they for whom the pot boils of itself! 
I have now just $25 in the world, about half a week's 
living with economy; no, not that. However, this is no 
new experience to me. 

"That MS. is a very serious loss even in the financial 
aspect. 

"I shall get out this book, and I have several other 
things in mind. 

"One suggested to me by William Swinton is to take 
Smith's 'Wealth of Nations,' cut out the parts not 
necessary to a clear understanding of Smith's economy 
(giving a synopsis of such parts), annotate it, and pub 
lish at a popular price. I have nearly finished a reading 
—really the first thorough one I ever gave the book— 
with this view, and think I could make an exceedingly 
useful volume, rendering Smith much more intelli 
gible to the general reader, and pointing where he goes 
astray and all his successors have followed him. 

"What do you think of it? Write me how it strikes 
you. I would give $20 of my available assets for a good 
Saturday afternoon talk with you." 

As the latter part of this letter shows, there was no 
sitting down for repining. And the idea he threw out 
for an annotated "Wealth of Nations," was later on taken 

 412 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1882-1883 

up and the work begun, though more pressing things pre 
vented it from being carried forward any considerable 
distance, and it was never finished. 

That summer he went with his family and Louis F. 
Post and family to Budd's Lake in New Jersey for a two 
weeks' camping trip, which gave him, he told Taylor, 
"more of a dead rest," than he "had had for years." But 
he continued (August 12) : 

"There is, it seems to me, an undertone of sadness in 
life which engulfs a man—at least a thoughtful man— 
who does not keep moving. Pleasure is in action—and 
the highest pleasure in action directed to large and gen 
erous social objects. ... 

"How it is all passing! I have been lying under the 
trees thinking of that, and of the infinite mystery with 
which we are surrounded. What fools are these posi- 
tivists. Our positive knowledge! More and more cer 
tain it seems to me that this life must be only a stage, a 
passage. You are right, conduct is the one thing." 

The problem of individual life—it was the constant 
problem with Mr. George in the seasons of quietness. 
Yet the abstraction of the philosopher did not in his 
case work the result so often shown in history—make the 
man on the domestic side less attentive and tender, as wit 
ness the note written by the husband on the night of 
October 12 for the wife to find on waking next morning: 

"It is twenty-three years ago to-night since we first 
met—I only a month or two older than Harry, and you 
not much older than our Jen. For twenty-three years we 
have been closer to each other than to any one else in the 
world, and I think we esteem each other more and love 
each other better than when we first began to love. You 
are now 'fat, fair and' forty/ and to me the mature 

 Age, 43-44] A LITTLE LOVE LETTER 413 

woman is handsomer and more lovable than the slip of 
a girl whom twenty-three years ago I met without know 
ing that my life was to be bound up with hers. We are 
not rich—so poor just now, in fact, that all I can give 
you on this anniversary is a little love letter; but there 
is no one we can afford to envy, and in each other's love 
we have what no wealth could compensate for. And so 
let us go on, true and loving, trusting in Him to carry 
us further who has brought us so far with so little to 
regret. For twenty-three years you have been mine and I 
have been yours, and though twenty-three years your 
husband, I am more than ever your lover." 

Just as philosophical meditations did not draw him 
into forgetfulness of the tender relations of his partner 
ship, neither did his widening fame spoil, or in the least 
change him. The same directness and simplicity that 
had characterised the obscure San Francisco editor now 
distinguished the man whose book was being read in many 
lands. Take a letter that he wrote to his English friend 
Thomas F. Walker of Birmingham regarding the British 
Cabinet Minister, Joseph Chamberlain. Walker wrote of 
a report that Chamberlain "with one keen question had 
once 'floored' the author of 'Progress and Poverty.'" 
Walker afterwards found that the report was mere gossip, 
but at the time George wrote to him (March 27) : 

"As for Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, I had the pleasure 
of meeting him once, dining at the Eeform Club on in 
vitation of Mr. Wren with Messrs. Chamberlain and 
Bright. Tf Mr. Chamberlain floored me with one keen 
question, 1 was certainly ignorant of the fact, and I 
think he is ignorant of it, too. Mr. Bright left after 
we got through the dinner, about ten, and then we three 
adjourned to the smoking room and continued the con 
versation until midnight. This conversation, which was 
very interesting to me, was not in the nature of a dis- 

 414 LIFE OF HENEY GEOEGE [1882-1883 

cussion, and I do not think my views upon the land ques 
tion were even once alluded to, either by me or any one 
else. I did not attempt in any way to impress my ideas 
upon Mr. Chamberlain. J was too much interested in 
finding out what kind of a man he was and what were 
the opinions of the foremost English Kadieal leader 
upon the general course of English politics. We talked 
mainly of the Irish question, the relation of the Par- 
nellites and the Liberals (this was just before the Kil- 
mainham Treaty, and Mr. Chamberlain intimated that 
something of that kind was coming) and the democratic 
feeling in England. Mr. Chamberlain said a great 
many things which interested me very much. He gave 
me the English Radical views of the mistakes of the 
Irish Parliamentarians, and he made a number of very 
keen observations upon the feeling of the English peo 
ple, saying among other things that the great lower class 
had no ill feeling towards the aristocracy, and looked on 
the display of wealth with admiration rather than envy. 
He impressed me as a very able man, who had carried 
into politics keen business sense and power of combina 
tion; but nothing of the reformer. My judgment of 
him was that he was an ambitious man who would go as 
far towards democracy as was popular, but no farther; 
and that if he did not get his locks shorn by the fasci 
nations of aristocratic society, might play an important 
part in English politics in the years to come. I do not 
think we talked about principles of any kind—as to 
whether anything was right or wrong. All our talk was 
of politics, the feelings of the people, what might be and 
what might not be. 

"As for being floored with keen questions, I am per 
fectly willing, if I ever go to England again, to go 
into the largest hall that can be filled and to allow any 
one to put to me what questions he pleases. 

"I was firmly convinced of the truth of the views ad 
vanced in 'Progress and Poverty' when I wrote it. I 
came to them slowly and carefully, and had tried them 
by every test that I could apply. But I am all the more 
convinced since I have seen how utterly impossible it 

 Age, 41-14] INVITED TO ENGLAND 416 

seems to be for any one to controvert or shake them. 
There is not a single one of all the criticisms of 'Prog 
ress and Poverty' that have yet appeared that I have 
deemed even worth the answering. The points they make 
are in all cases founded on misrepresentation and are 
abundantly answered in the book itself." 

The reference in this letter to going to England again 
touched a subject on which some of the British friends 
kept harping. They had much of that implicit confi 
dence in the cause that Henry George at all times exhib 
ited. Some of them had desired him to remain there in 
the fall of 1882; and when William Saunders, President 
of the Central News Agency, crossed to the American 
side on a business visit a few months later, he offered 
Mr. George an engagement to start a paper in London, 
which however George refused. Later still James C. Du- 
rant wrote that a lecturing campaign through England 
and Scotland could be arranged, and this was followed 
by a formal letter from E. P. B. Frost, Secretary of the 
Land Reform Union, inviting him to speak under its 
auspices and guaranteeing his expenses, with prospect of 
some profits, for he was known to depend upon constant 
exertions for a living. Mr. George thought this a great 
chance to push the work. He concluded that he would 
embrace it so soon as he had "Social Problems" off his 
hands and an article for the "North American Review." l 
With a feeling of natural pride his thoughts ran from 
the fame he was getting in the world to the old folks at 
Philadelphia, the father nearing the completion of his 
eighty-fifth year; the mother, in her seventy-third year. 
On the eve of his father's birthday, the son wrote a letter 
inclosing a little present and telling about the books, the 

i " Over-production," " North American Review," December, 1883. 

 416 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE 

English friends and the lectures, to which came the reply 
(October 17) : 

"Yesterday was the anniversary of my birthday. 
Time goes quickly with Old Dad. 1 was expecting 
something from my children and the postman brought 
six letters for me. 

"By-gone days come back to me as if it was only last 
week when you came to me saying that you would go to 
California and that you would try your fortune there. 
I did not object; and now the result has been all I could 
have wished. 

"And then when I opened the letters from your dear 
wife and children J broke down. The old parental heart 
gave way and burst." 

This was the last letter K. S. H. George wrote to his 
son. Within a few days he was prostrated with pneu 
monia and on the 2Cth died. He was conscious until al 
most the last and contemplated approaching dissolution 
with a serene mind. He had all of his children at his 
bedside and he blessed each by turn, with their marriage 
partners and children. He had, he said, been favoured 
above the average. The Scriptures set man's allotted days 
at three score and ten; his had been above four score. 
He had had for the most part a peaceful, happy life; and 
Providence had sent him many loving children. He was 
now ready, he said, to be gathered to his fathers. And 
thus like a patriarch of old passed Richard Samuel Henry 
George. His wife, weakened by grief, was seized with in 
flammation of the stomach, and of this died one week 
after her husband, and was buried in the same grave with 
him in Mt. Maria Cemetery, Philadelphia. 

They had died when their son, Henry, was getting, so 
far as they could see from the quiet Philadelphia home, 
as much blame as praise from the world. "Progress and 

 Age. 43-44] DEATH OF PAKENTS 417 

Poverty" had come too late for them. The father read 
it, and pride of his son's valiant courage and high pur 
pose filled his heart. He saw at once that it was based 
upon justice and equality, and he pronounced it a great 
book. But he was in his eightieth year when it was 
printed. He was living in the past; he did not give 
enough heed to the pressing, struggling world about him to 
see the full purpose and strength of the book. It was the 
brave, fcturdy son that he thought of, rather than of the 
son's book. And to the mother, the son had been still 
the child, to be encouraged and guided in the moral ways. 
"I am too old to read the book," she said when it came; 
and though a calm smile overspread her face at the sound 
of the public applause of her son, it was sweeter to her 
devout mind to have him join the morning prayers when 
the father read as of yore from the Scriptures; or to have 
him sit with her and the family in old St. Paul's and 
listen to the preaching of the Blessed Word. 

"Their deaths were as beautiful as their lives," Henry 
George wrote to Dr. Taylor; and death seemed much 
nearer to him than before. Yet he did not shrink. His 
heart's most precious desire was at last safe. "Yes, I 
could die now," he exclaimed one day as he was crossing 
Broadway with his son, Richard. The street was clear 
for the moment. He had stopped short in the middle of 
the roadway and spoke as if musing, his eyes turned up 
ward, as though intently regarding the building tops. 
"Why do you say that?" asked the son in amazement. 
The question brought the father out of his reverie with 
a start. "I was thinking," he answered, walking to the 
sidewalk, "that I could die now and the work would go 
on. It no longer depends upon one man. It is no longer 
a 'Henry George' movement—a one-man movement. It is 
the movement of many men in many lands. I can help 

 418 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1882-1883 

it while I live; but my death could not stop it. The 
Great Revolution has begun." 

But if he felt this way, his friends in the cause felt that 
there was need of his fiery zeal everywhere. So that in 
answer to the increasing calls from England he set sail 
four days before Christinas with his son, Harry, on the 
City of Richmond of the Inman Line. As when a boy 
on his first voyage before the mast, he entered in his pocket 
diary, "East wind and smooth sea." 

 CHAPTEE VI. 

BEITISH LECTUEB CAMPAIGN. 
1884. AGE, 45. 

THE scenes into which Mr. George was hurrying ex 
ceeded his fondest wishes. Next to Gladstone, he 
was at the moment the most talked of man in England. 
This was chiefly because more than forty thousand copies 
of the sixpenny edition of "Progress and Poverty" had 
bci-n sold. The book was the burning theme. It en 
gaged the critical reviews and the newspapers; it entered 
into lectures, debates and mock parliaments. It had 
stormed the redoubts of conservatism—the great seats of 
learning. Rt.. Hon. Henry Pawcett, M.P., Postmaster- 
General and Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge, 
had grappled with the book's chief proposal and after 
wards incorporated his views in his "Manual of Political 
Economy." For Oxford spoke one of its professors, Ar 
nold Toynbee, M.A., a young man of high character and 
brilliant parts, who in two lectures before fashionable 
West End London audiences essayed to answer the book.1 

i Mr. Toynbee died of brain fever soon after these lectures. Failure to 
carry conviction to all those present, and especially to some socialists who 
made rude and noisy opposition, is believed to have preyed on the in 
tense, sensitive, high-purposed mind, until chagrin induced the fatal 
fever. The lectures were published after his death by his close friend, 
Sir«Alfred Milner. 

419 

 420 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [ISM 

So wide had become the interest in it, that timid Privi 
lege grew alarmed and the landlord "Liberty and Property 
Defense League," through Lord Brain well, one of its 
council, made a furious attack; while the "Edinburgh He- 
view" linked Herbert Spencer's "Social Statics" with 
"Progress and Poverty" in a common condemnation, and 
brought from the English philosopher his first indirect 
denial of the truth he had proclaimed in the unequivocal 
words that "the right of mankind at large to the earth's 
surface is still valid; all deeds, customs and laws not 
withstanding."1 

And well might the special interests take alarm. Not 
only had no work on political economy excited such gen 
eral attention, but no book of the kind had ever struck 
so boldly at the mother of vested rights—private property 
in land. "Abolition, without compensation," was the cry. 
A fleeting curiosity in an audacious and brilliantly writ 
ten work might perhaps account for its circulation among 
the educated classes; but how explain its popularity among 
the labouring masses who could rarely afford to buy or find 
time or inclination to read a book of any kind? Yet cer 
tain it was that literature could furnish no precedent for 
the way this book was going the rounds of working 
men's unions, clubs and societies; and indications were 
not wanting that its sentiments with time must crystal 
lise political and social discontent among the file leaders 
of the all-pervading army of the poor and rouse a demand 
not to be satisfied with the trifling reforms that hitherto 
had been conferred with much show and condescension. 

True, no less a personage than the Prime Minister, Mr. 

111 Social Statics," p. 134. Spencer made his denial in a letter to a 
London Tory newspaper, "St. James's Gazette." Referring to this Spencer 
letter, George at the time wrote Taylor: "Spencer is going the way of 
Comte — going insane from vanity." 

 Age, 45] GEORGE ON ALL TONGUES 421 

Gladstone, had pronounced as "in form and substance the 
best answer to George," an address delivered by the Gov 
ernment Statistician, Bqbert Giffen, who proved by fig 
ures the "progress of the working classes in the last cen 
tury." But on the other hand, those missionaries among 
the miserably poor, the Congregational Union, gave voice 
to "the bitter cry of outcast London" in a pamphlet that 
showed with startling vividness that a vast part of the 
population lived in homes "compared with which the lair 
of a wild beast would be a comfortable and healthy spot"; 
while the "Pall Mall Gazette," helped by the Salvation 
Army, soon afterwards revealed indubitably the existence 
of a horrible traffic in young girls. Even so-called Radi 
cal leaders could see what might come. "If something is 
not done quickly to meet the growing necessities of the 
case," cried the Et. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, "we may 
live to see theories as wild and methods as unjust as those 
suggested by the American economist adopted as the creed 
of no inconsiderable portion of the electorate."1 Cham 
berlain, like a shrewd politician, had his ear to the ground. 
Nor did he overlook the subsequent fact that a typical 
English audience- crowded into St. James's Hall, in West 
End London, late in December to hear the Irish patriot, 
Michael Davitt, lecture on "The Land for the People" 
under the auspices of the Land Eeform Union. As Mr. 
Chamberlain said: social reform was in the air. 

It was on the last day of December (1883) that Henry 
George arrived in Liverpool. He was met by Davitt and 
Eichard McGhee, of Glasgow. Davitt was now without 
let or hindrance preaching the doctrine of land nation 
alisation and paying no more attention to the Parnellites 

^"Laborers' and Artisans' Dwellings," by Kt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, 
"Fortnightly Review," December, 1883. 

 422 LIFE OF HENRY GEOKGE [1884 

(who for the time were in eclipse) than to those physical- 
force men, who were trying dynamite explosions in Eng 
land as a means of compelling public recognition of Irish 
claims. After stopping off over night at Birmingham to 
consult with Thomas F. Walker, who had been distribut 
ing "Progress and Poverty" extensively among the mem 
bers of the Liberal Association, the political sponsors for 
Joseph Chamberlain and John Bright, Mr. George went 
up to London; which however he left again, to make 
a formal entry on Sunday afternoon, January 6, when 
he was received just outside Euston Station by a con 
course of labour organisations; and from the top of a 
four-wheel cab he made a short speech, thanking them for 
their welcome and explaining the purpose of his coming. 

The conspicuous movers in the Land Reform Union 
were William Saunders, Miss Helen Taylor, Thomas F. 
Walker, Eev. S. D. Headlam, James Durant, Ecv. Phillip 
A. Wicksteed, Eichard McGhec, Thomas Briggs, Dr. Gavin 
B. Clark, H. H. Champion, E. P. B. Frost, J. L. Joynes, 
Eev. J. E. Symes and William Eeeve, the publisher. 
These and others made up a fund to meet the expenses 
of the George campaign, for, unlike the custom of pay- 
lectures in the United States, most lectures in Great Brit 
ain are delivered practically free, only a few front scats 
being charged for and reserved. Arrangement had been 
made for George to lecture in most of the important cities 
and towns of Great Britain, the campaign to be opened 
in St. James's Hall, London, on January !). 

But before he opened the course, Mr. George had to 
settle two important questions. The first affected his at 
titude towards socialism. Mr. Champion, the treasurer, 
and Mr. Frost, the secretary of the Land Reform Union, 
were in reality not wholly in harmony with the individ 
ualism of "Progress and Poverty," but believed rather in 

 Age, 45] BRUSH WITH SOCIALISTS 423 

the collectivism, of Karl Marx, who had a few months 
before died in London after a long residence there. These 
two men, with one or two others, waited on Mr. George 
and plainly said that if he did not make the socialistic 
programme part of his own and call for nationalisation of 
capital, including all machinery, the socialists would be 
compelled to oppose his campaign. Mr. George replied 
with some sharpness that he had come across the sea on 
invitation of the Land Reform Union to lecture on the 
principles with which his name was identified and no 
others; that his principles were clearly explained in his 
books; and that the socialists could support or oppose, 
as they pleased. As a matter of fact Champion and Frost 
made no further objection and quietly acquiesced in 
George's plans, but men like Hyndman at the head of the 
socialistic movement'per se made covert opposition. 

The other question for settlement was as to "confisca 
tion."1 This was the most common objection to the George 
proposal, and even some of the members of the Land Re 
form Union urged him to be as mild as possible and to 
say nothing against compensation to landlords, for, said 
they, the English nation will never consent to take prop 
erty from the landlords without paying for it. His an 
swer to them was short and clear. The land of right be 
longed to all the people, or it belonged to those who 

1 August Lewis on this point says : " In a conversation with Mr. George 
one day, I said : ' Thomas G. Shearman thinks that it was a grave error 
and a great detriment to the progress of the movement that the word 
"confiscation" should ever have been used. You should have called it 
instead the gradual absorption of rent. What is your opinion about that ? 
Would you avoid the term "confiscation" were you to write "Progress 
and Poverty " to-day ?' His face assumed a sort of a troubled and dis 
pleased expressiou, and he said : ' I don't know what I should do to-day ; 
but when I wrote the book, I was not in the humour to have much con 
sideration for anybody's feelings.'" 

 424 LIFE OP HENRY GEOKGE [1884 

called themselves landlords. If it belonged to the land 
lords, they might do what they pleased with their own; 
and no one could have basis for complaint. If it be 
longed to all the people,.then it should be restored at once; 
nor could they in justice be called upon to pay one penny 
for getting back what was of right theirs. To give com 
pensation, would be to concede the landlords' right of 
title. He himself did not want confiscation—he wanted 
to stop confiscation—to stop those who called themselves 
landlords from taking rent, which did not belong to them, 
and to give it to the community to which it did belong, 
which he proposed to do by means of taxation. However, 
he said he would tell his audience that they could com 
pensate if they pleased, but that he did not think it would 
be just to do so. Thus Mr. George had to contend 
with two sets of his own supporters before he met the 
common enemy. But he hesitated no more with the one 
than with the other. 

As showing the habits and temperament of the man, it 
may be interesting to note the way he prepared himself 
for what he believed was to be the most important address 
in the tour—the lecture in St. James's Hall. Most of 
the day before he kept to his lodgings near Russell Square 
thinking out the line of his discourse, which was to be 
on the subject of "Progress and Poverty." Slowly and 
with labour he dictated to his son. In the afternoon he 
sent for another stenographer and worked late into the 
evening alternately with the two writers. In this way he 
used his son up and sent him off to bed, continuing with 
the other shorthand writer. Early next morning when 
the son waked he found that his father had been up and at 
work betimes. The father announced, somewhat to the 
young man's dismay, that he had cast aside all the work 
of the day before and that since rising he had commenced 

 From London photograph taken during lecture tour of 1883 -4. 

 I 

 Age, 45] ST. JAMES'S HALL SPEECH 425 

on a new, and the true, line. Proceeding along this new 
line, Mr. George dictated to his son and the other sten 
ographer who was again called in, all that day, except 
when interrupted by members of the committee. He was 
in fact busy almost up to the moment when the committee 
called to conduct him to the hall. Then there was a scram 
ble to get papers together, to dress and get off. And the 
upshot of it all was that the notes were not used, for only 
in main points and general sequence of ideas was that 
which was delivered like that which had been dictated 
with so much labour. 

The great hall was packed; every seat and every foot of 
available standing room was filled. The platform even 
was crowded, mostly with members of the Union, and 
Michael Davitt conspicuous. All classes and vocations were 
represented there—nobles and commoners, men noted in 
politics, literature, the ministry and the professions, or 
leading in the world of manual labour. Ill health prevented 
John Euskin from presiding or even attending, but Henry 
Labouchere, M.P., editor of "Truth/' filled the chair with 
capital effect. He said that the country had in the last 
two centuries four Georges who had meddled with and 
muddled public affairs. Now came George the Fifth who 
did not wear a crown, but who came with keen intelli 
gence and a generous impulse—a man whose sympathies 
were with the poor and lowly, instead of with the high 
and mighty. 

Just before rising Mr. George whispered to his friend, 
Thomas K Walker: "If I speak too long, pull my coat- 
tail. I have the habits of a writer, rather than those of 
a speaker. When I get thinking, ideas come with a rush; 
so that when I am on my feet I lose the sense of time." 
But Mr. Walker forgot the suggestion in the charm of the 
finished address. The pre-eminent qualities of the lee- 

 426 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [ISM 

ture were sincerity and confidence. As in California he 
had said to the early California reviewer that "when a 
man has so thought out and tested his opinions that 
they have in his mind the highest certainty, it would be 
but affectation for him to assume doubts he docs not feel," 
so now, as he stood up before the great and distinguished 
audience in the capital of the world, he had that dead cer 
tainty of air, which, accompanied by a direct, sympa 
thetic manner, a flow of clear language, a logical order, 
quick response and complete command of the subject, cap 
tivated his listeners, and caused the arch Tory newspaper, 
"The Standard," next morning to say sarcastically: "He 
is perfectly simple and straightforward; a man with a 
mission; born to set right in a single generation the errors 
of six thousand years." 

The climax of the lecture was reached when Mr. George 
said that charity could not lift the poor of London from 
the misery and squalor of the slums—that resort must be 
made to justice. Cheers interrupted, and a voice cried: 
"Who brought them into the world?" "God Almighty, 
in my opinion," cried the lecturer, electrifying his audi 
ence; "and whom God Almighty brings into the world 
who shall dare to put out?" 

Justice, he went on to say, compelled the returning of 
the land to the people without cost—but if doing this 
should work a hardship upon some—the helpless widow, 
for instance—whose case was constantly being brought 
forward—he would favour some provision for that. Sta 
tistics showed some two hundred thousand widows in Eng 
land of all kinds and ages. Every widow, from the lady 
who sat on the throne down to the poorest labourer's 
widow, could receive, not as a matter of charity, but as 
a matter of justice, a pension of £100 a year Laughter, 
cheers and some hissing followed this, and the Tory papers 

 Age, 45] A SPARE TO GUNPOWDER 427 

next day denounced George for disrespect to the Queen. 
In response to calls at the close of the lecture, Michael 
Davitt made a short, spirited speech, thus again publicly 
associating himself with Henry George. 

The London lecture was to the press throughout the 
three kingdoms like a spark to gunpowder. Mr. George 
wrote to his wife, "I can't begin to send you the papers 
in which I am discussed, attacked and commented on, for 
I would have to send all the English, Scottish and Irish 
press. I am getting advertised to my heart's content, 
and I shall have crowds wherever I go. ... I could 
be a social lion if 1 would permit it. But I won't fool 
with that sort of thing." 

The new book "Social Problems," British rights to which 
.the author sold to Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., was now 
out in various editions; and this, with his former books, 
was to be seen on every bookstall of any pretensions in 
the British Islands. He had received £400 for "Social 
Problems," which he sent home to pay some debts in New 
York and California. 

The first provincial lectures were at Plymouth on the 
15th and Cardiff on the 16th of January, touching both 
of which Mr. George wrote Mr. Walker of Birmingham, 
from Cardiff: "My lectures both at Plymouth and here 
were, I think, telling successes." Then relative to "con 
fiscation," he said: 

"I believe I am wise in taking the advance ground 
clearly and plainly. No matter how moderate I had 
been, there would have been precisely the same denun 
ciation. The real cause of this is that the land-owning 
classes begin to realise the danger, not any particular 
thing I say. 

"The advance, whatever it may be, will draw the fire; 
and I am doing a service to more moderate men in draw- 

 428 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [ISM 

ing that fire so much ahead of the ground they occupy. 
It will make them seem and feel quite moderate. 

"As for your Eadicals who have got into a flurry, 
don't mind that. In a very short time they will rally 
again. In a few months from now you will see many 
of the men who are now so fearful of confiscation openly 
avowing themselves 'confiscators.' 

"The Tory press are doing our work. They will do 
more for us than we could by any exertion do for 
ourselves." 

A fortnight afterwards George wrote to Walker: "The 
thing to do is for you to pose as a compensationist, and 
me as a confiscationist, just as Snap & Gobble join differ 
ent churches. With you and Miss Taylor representing 
the conservative wing, the landlords may well ask to be 
preserved from their friends."1 

After Cardiff, Mr. George spoke in Bristol and Bir 
mingham. The Birmingham "Owl" said of the latter 
lecture: 

"It was a magnificent audience that gathered to hear 
Henry George, and one which gave forth no uncertain 
sound. It was one of the most unanimous and enthu 
siastic audiences I have seen in town for years. When 

1 While on a visit to Birmingham, Mr. George, in company with Mr. 
Walker, Edward McHugh, lecture agent for the Land Reform Union, and 
young George, went to hear Miss Helen Taylor address a big working 
men's meeting at Smethwick, a suburb. As they entered the hall she 
had reached the compensation point in her address and said in substance: 
" Compensation ? Yes, I am in favour of compensation to the landlords. 
And this can be easily arranged. First let the landlords pay to the na 
tion the back taxes of four shillings in the pound on the actual value of 
their land from the time of Charles II.—from which time they have been 
paying little or nothing — and, moreover, let them pay to the nation in 
terest and compound interest on the money thus withheld, and then out 
of this great fund we can compensate the present individual cases." Mr. 
George joined heartily in the general laughter and applauded vigorously. 

 Age, 45] TABOOED BY POLITICIANS 429 

Mr. George first came forward the cheering was tre 
mendous. And again, when, after a portrayal of the 
evils consequent on the present state of things, the lec 
turer asked 'Was it not time that a missionary came from 
somewhere ?' the applause was deafening, as the crowded 
audience recognised and accepted the missionary in 
Henry George." 

Hard upon the London lecture, the official Liberals had 
followed suit of the Tory and Parnellite parties, and 
tabooed George. Evidence of this was given in each place 
where he spoke; but it was most marked in Liverpool, 
where he appeared on January 25. The Junior Reform 
Club, which had invited him to be its guest at dinner, 
withdrew the invitation; Mr. Samuel Smith, M.P., a 
wealthy and distinguished citizen of Liverpool, who had 
spent much in public benevolence, delivered a set lecture 
against the American; and the papers were united in 
condemnation. So that, although a large audience gath 
ered in the Rotunda to hear the radical land reformer, 
the customary platform support had to be dispensed with. 
He wrote to Walker: 

"My lecture here was a victory that would have done 
your heart good. The set against me in Birmingham 
was nothing to the set against me here. Poor Jackson, 
on whom all arrangements devolved, seemed utterly 
demoralised. . . . He had not ventured to send out 
any complimentary tickets—said no clergyman or man 
of note would accept one. Not a soul was to go on the 
stage with me save Dr. Cummins, M.P.; and I urged 
him not to, but he insisted that he would. Samuel 
Smith's relatives and family were in the audience, which 
was evidently largely in sympathy with him, and warmly 
applauded his name when I mentioned it. But the con 
sciousness of opposition, which always rouses me, gave 
me the stimulus I needed to overcome physical weakness, 

 430 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [i884 

for I was in bad trim from loss of sleep, and T carried 
the audience with me, step by step, till you never saw a 
more enthusiastic crowd. Jackson has told me since 
that he believed organised opposition had been planned; 
but that before I got to the place where they could object 
I had the audience, and the fuglemen left in disgust. 
At the close I called for a vote on compensation, and 
there were only three hands held up against it—two 
of which Jackson afterwards told me were those of land 
speculators. A rush was made for the platform as soon 
as I got through, and I could not get away for some 
time for the handshaking. Of the effects at the time 
there could be no doubt, and I hear of the most grati 
fying effects upon those who did not go." 

The Liverpool "Post" next day said editorially: "Mr. 
George's lecture in Liverpool last night had all the sweet 
and seductive beauty which has stolen away the judgment 
of many a reader of his famous book. . . . He appa 
rently has convinced -a large number of persons that thiev 
ing is no theft, for his great audience last night pro 
nounced unanimously in favour of appropriating the land 
of the country and giving the present owners no com 
pensation." 

But if Mr. George was making conquests, his oppo 
nents were not idle, the most conspicuous among them 
being Frederic Harrison, the Positivist, and John Bright. 
After George had spoken in Birmingham, Bright made a 
speech there on "the most extraordinary, the greatest, the 
wildest, the most remarkable" social proposition "im 
ported lately by an American inventor." George read 
Blight's speech in Scotland, whence he wrote Walker 
(Dundee, February 3): 

"I can fancy your disgust if you heard Mr. Bright. 
The old man is utterly ignorant of what he is talking 

 Age, 45] BRIGHT AND HAERISON 431 

about. If John Bright would meet me on the platform 
and discuss the matter, I would be glad of the oppor 
tunity. If you think it would be a good thing to do, 
write to him to that effect. 

"Frederic Harrison is lecturing against me. Has 
delivered two lectures in Edinburgh, and lectures again, 
to-night at Newcastle. His is the very craziness of 
opposition, if I can judge by the reports. 

"We are certainly getting the animals stirred up, and 
before the Liberals know it will have the Eadical rank 
and file, no matter what may become of their leaders. 
I am glad it was Bright and not Chamberlain that came 
out against us—not that I care for any one's opposition, 
but that I am glad that he has not taken a stand which 
might injure his future usefulness." 

Mr. George's confidence of getting the "Eadical rank 
and file" came not only from what he had seen in Eng 
land, but from what he was observing in Scotland, which 
he had entered after lecturing in Bolton and Newcastle. 

If England had discontent among her slum population 
to make her ripe for the consideration of the land ques 
tion, so Scotland had her own condition, perhaps more di 
rectly traceable to the land problem. Two years pre 
viously the crofters in the Western Island of Skye, had 
centred attention by resisting, for a time with force, the 
inclosure, by a large land-owner, of a piece of land that 
had been a common grazing ground from time immemo 
rial. Physical resistance was put down only when the 
crofters had been brutally clubbed by a body of police 
sent up from Glasgow for the purpose. Public opinion 
sided strongly with the peasants, and the incident blew 
into live sparks again the seemingly dead ashes of wrath 
originally set into fierce glow by clearances and evictions 
in many parts of Scotland, some of them within com 
paratively recent times. Sheep and deer of large pro- 

 432 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [18&4 

prietors had become the solitary occupants of regions once 
studded with the habitations of a hardy people. A Royal 
Commission had been appointed to examine into crofter 
grievances and the still worse cotter troubles. This Com 
mission subsequently effected what had been brought 
about in Ireland—a reduction in rents. But this could 
not be a complete remedy. The questions of property, 
ownership, equal rights, justice had been raised. It only 
needed a man like Henry George, with a simple, clear- 
cut proposition to give point and force to the general con 
viction of wrong, by turning all thought into a single 
channel—which he proceeded to do by demanding the 
restoration of the common rights in land. The opening 
of the Scottish course with a lecture in Dundee was there 
fore under auspicious circumstances. The lecture was 
in Newsome's Circus. Rev. David Macrae, a vigorous no- 
compensationist, was in the chair, and three or four other 
clergymen and several councilmen among those on the 
platform. 

Yet there was the fly in the ointment. To many minds 
Henry George had desecrated the Lord's Day by partici 
pating in a mass meeting in London on the Sunday of his 
public entry into the Metropolis. But this lapse was 
quickly forgotten in the glow of religious fervor he excited 
when, by invitation, he delivered in Rev. Mr. Macrae's 
temporary church, in the Kinnaird Hall, the lecture on 
"Moses" which, while at work on "Progress and Poverty," 
he had delivered, in San Francisco, before the Young 
Men's Hebrew Association of that city. Its eloquence 
and fire and vivid picturing spoke to the hearts and minds 
of a people still possessing many of the traits of the 
Covenanter of old, and as it were, gave the active, speak 
ing support of the Scriptures to the proclamation of 
equal rights to the land. Mr. George repeated the "Moses" 

 Age. 45] AWAKENS RELIGIOUS FERVOUR 433 

lecture several times in Scotland during this and subse 
quent trips, and latterly had it put in pamphlet form for 
free distribution. This lecture and other things tended 
in the minds of many to give a religious benediction to all 
his utterances; and a number of his lectures in the High 
lands on the land question were opened or closed with 
prayer, pronounced by some devout person on the plat 
form or in the audience. 

The lecture course was north to Wick and Keiss, and 
incidentally Mr. George visited John o' Groat's house at 
the extreme northeastern point of Great Britain. Then 
he retraced his steps and turned west to the Island of 
Skye. He lectured at Portree and made informal speeches 
on the land question at Glendale and "Dig. Edward Mc- 
Hugh, who was acting as Mr. George's lecture agent, 
says of the Portree lecture: 

"McDonald of Skeabost, an important landlord in the 
island, was present and showed a lively interest. After 
the address proper he took the floor to ask what Mr. 
George recommended the people to do with the landlords 
if their lands should be taken from them. Mr. George 
replied that he would do with the landlords as the fisher 
man does with the oyster—open it, take out the fish and 
throw the shells away. The answer made a sensation 
and McDonald stalked out of the hall. Mr. George did 
not learn until afterwards of the singular aptness of his 
reply, since this same McDonald had taken from the 
people of Skye the immemorial privilege of fishing for 
oysters in the shallow waters of the island and had 
thereby increased his own and his fellow landlords' in 
come by sending the supply to the London market." 

From Skye, Mr. George proceeded to Glasgow, Inver 
ness, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. But of all the lectures 
in Scotland, that in Glasgow proved to be the most im- 

 434 LIFE OF HENEY GEOEGE [1884 

portant. He spoke there twice, on February 18 and again 
on February 25, both times in the City Hall. The first 
lecture was of the regular course. There were some 
empty seats in the hall, but the audience was anything 
but apathetic, for at the close five hundred persons re 
mained to take part in the formation of an organisation 
to propagate the ideas held by the lecturer. To launch 
this organisation in good style, the second meeting was 
held, with Mr. George as the chief spokesman, John Mur- 
dock in the chair, and William Forsyth, proprietor of the 
Cobden Hotel of the city, to move the resolutions for 
mally establishing the Scottish Land Restoration League 
—a title suggested by Richard McGhee, one of the active 
workers in the plan. The hall was jammed, and enough 
people were turned away to have made another big meet 
ing. Mr. George was at his best, as were all the other 
speakers. The audience was hot with enthusiasm and 
gave itself up to wild cheering when a couple of pipers in 
costume came pressing through the throng playing na 
tional airs. In a word, the Scottish Land Restoration 
League started off with a furor, and 1940 signatures 
were handed in to the committee for enrollment on the 
membership list. William Forsyth was elected President, 
and Mr. George wrote the League's proclamation to the 
people of Scotland. The action in Glasgow was conta 
gious. Similar societies were formed very quickly in 
Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness, Edinburgh, Greenock and 
several other cities. 

Entering England again, Mr. George lectured in Leeds, 
Oxford, Cambridge and Hull, and then went back to Lon 
don. He had set out on the tour expecting to meet with 
all manner of opposition arising from frightened special 
interests, class feelings, local prejudices and other cir 
cumstances. Yet strange as it may appear, it remained 

 Age, 45] UPEOAE AT OXFORD 435 

for Oxford, that ancient and famous seat of learning, to 
earn the distinction of discreditable conduct. Michael 
Davitt, who came there shortly afterwards to lecture, was 
locked in his hotel chambers by a body of the University 
students, and did not get out in time to speak. Mr. 
George did not suffer this treatment, but his lecture in 
this intellectual centre was attended by the turmoil of 
the hustings. There were honours, for during his two 
days' stay in Oxford he was the guest of Professor F. Max 
Miiller; and at the lecture, which was held in the Claren 
don Assembly room, P. York Powell, M.A., lecturer in 
law, presided, and a number of ladies and men prominent 
in the University attended. But in the midst of the 
audience, which consisted chiefly of under-graduates, sat 
a bunch of unruly young aristocrats, who, by shouting, 
ironically cheering and general noise, kept up a disturb 
ance throughout the proceedings. This made a smooth 
and connected discourse impossible; but when the lec 
turer, assuming his audience for the most part to be well 
grounded in economic subjects, cut short his address 
proper to answer questions, one man after another took 
the floor, not to put simple interrogatories, as invited, 
but, possibly following the University debating habit, to 
make a speech, often with the harsh manner and strong 
epithets of a special pleader. 

Alfred Marshall, lecturer on political economy at Bal- 
liol College, was the first to rise. He observed, among 
other things, that not a single economic doctrine in Mr. 
George's book was both new and true, since what was 
new was not true, and what was true was not new. He 
announced that he had repeatedly challenged any one to 
disprove this, but that no one had come forward. More 
over, he was of opinion that Mr. George in tis book had 
not understood a single author whom he had undertaken 

 436 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1884 

to criticise; but he (Marshall) offered no censure, be 
cause Mr. George had not had the special training neces 
sary to understand them. Interspersed with assevera 
tions of this kind was a shower of questions. 

The lecturer's chief reply was that he was willing to 
subject "Progress and Poverty" to Mr. Marshall's test— 
that it contained nothing that was both new and true. 
Because, said Mr. George, the book was based upon the 
truth; and the truth could not be a new thing; it al 
ways had existed and it must be everlasting. He endeav 
oured to pick out and answer a number of Marshall's 
questions, and he really succeeded in winning the support 
and applause of a considerable part of the audience. But 
there were cheers from others for the Balliol man; and 
he, after rising very often and engaging much time, 
turned to his supporters and announced that the lec 
turer had failed to meet his queries; whereupon he sat 
down.1 

But the climax of disorder was reached when Mr. Cony- 
beare, son-in-law of Professor Miiller, denounced Mr. 
George's remedy as a "nostrum" that was "scandalously 
immoral." He delivered this with a tone and manner 
that called forth mingled cries of dissent and approval 
from the divided audience and that excited the lecturer 
himself to say—for he did not recognise the speaker—that 
he must withdraw the compliment he had paid early in 
the evening to the University's learning and good man 
ners. This remark increased the uproar for a time; and 
Professor Miiller sat on the platform, an uncomfortable, 
yet outwardly calm, witness to this caustic interchange 
between a member of his family and his guest. The tur- 

1 George's final views of Marshall as a political economist may be found 
in " The Science of Political Economy." See Marshall in index. 

 Age, 45] PEOF. F. MAX MtfLLER 437 

bulence was stilled when Mr. Conybeare arose and said 
that he intended no reflection upon Mr. George's charac 
ter—that he intended only frankly to criticise ideas. Mr. 
George had met the young man before, but had lost sight 
of his relationship to his host. When attention was 
drawn to the matter after the lecture, he was pained and 
mortified and expressed to Professor Miiller his sorrow 
that he had shown weakness in allowing the young man's 
words to chafe him. The professor on his side was much 
moved. He apologised for what he called a public in 
sult to a guest by a member of the family; the offence 
being the more flagrant he said, since the one who had 
caused it had not read "Progress and Poverty" and could 
not properly judge of its doctrines. Nothing could have 
added to the sincere and graceful bearing of the eminent 
scholar in the difficult circumstances. 

The Cambridge lecture proved to be as quiet and or 
derly as the Oxford lecture had been noisy and disorderly. 
The audience was very large; and though the questions 
indicated that opposition to the principles enunciated 
was not wanting, the proceedings were stamped with every 
mark of propriety. 

When Mr. George got back to London he found that 
his managers could not again obtain St. James's Hall 
for him—that on one pretext or another it had been re 
fused; but he spoke four times in other halls, and so 
closed his triumphal tour. He had been speaking with 
fiery zeal for the best part of three months; had travelled 
from Plymouth in the South to John o' Groat's House 
in the North, and from Hull in the East to the Hebrides 
in the West. On the 5th of April he was given a fare 
well banquet at the Criterion by the Land Eestoration 
League, when he said in his address that a flame had been 
lit in Great Britain that would be fanned by every wind. 

 438 LITE OF HENRY GEORGE [1884 

On invitation, chiefly of Michael Davitt, Mr. George 
crossed to Ireland and lectured to a large audience in the 
Ancient Concert Eooms, Dublin, on "The Land for the 
People," Mr. Allingham, the Mayor of Waterford, in 
the chair. On Sunday morning, April 13, Mr. George em 
barked at Quecnstown with his son on the Guion liner 
Oregon and sailed for New York. 

Although the several months in Great Britain had been, 
as a whole, strenuous, there were intervals of relaxation. 
One of these was when Wilfred Meynell, editor of the 
Catholic "Weekly Eegister," took Mr. George to meet Car 
dinal Manning. Mr. Meynell said after the death of 
both men: 

"It was my great privilege to introduce Henry George 
to Cardinal Manning. I have a vision of the two pro 
files facing each other in the dim light of the growing 
dusk, and I recall the emotion of tone in which each 
man made frankly to the other a sort of profession of 
faith. They had travelled to the same goal from oppo 
site directions. 'I loved the people,' said Henry George, 
'and that love brought me to Christ as their best friend 
and teacher.' 'And I,' said the Cardinal, loved Christ, 
and so learned to love the people for whom He died.' 
They faced each other in silence for a moment—in a 
silence more eloquent than words." 

There were also lighter moments, when Mr. George's 
sunshiny nature gave itself free play. Humour was one 
of his salient qualities, and there were many amusing 
incidents in passing. For instance, on reaching Cardiff, 
he went to a Turkish bath to relieve his fatigue. When 
the bath itself was over and he lay resting in the cooling 
room, he was treated to a discussion of "this American, 
Henry George," between an attendant and a visitor; nei 
ther of whom apparently had the least idea that Mr. 

 Age, 45] INCIDENT AT THE BATH 439 

George was in the apartment with them. In whatever 
else they differed, the talkers were agreed that "the Ameri 
can" was preaching robbery; that he wanted to take prop 
erty away from people; that Americans were "all a set 
of liars." "All except the Canadians," said Mr. George, 
getting into the conversation. Continuing, he said: 
"Those American busybodies like Henry George should 
be sent back to America to try their doctrines there be 
fore they try to force them upon us." 

"Yes, yes," answered both the other men. 

"Why, just to think what he teaches," exclaimed George, 
with show of indignation. "Here is the Marquis of Bute, 
who owns so much of the land of Cardiff. Of course the 
land is his." 

"Yes," said the men. 

"And he can do what he pleases with his own property." 

"Yes," was the response. 

"And, of course, since the land is his and he can do 
what he pleases with his own property, he can, if he wants 
to, clear off a large part of the population of Cardiff— 
can, if he should choose to do so, destroy an important 
section of the city." 

At this the men made protest; and as Mr. George 
pressed for the rights and privileges of the Marquis of 
Bute, the men became more and more radical, until they 
asserted that the nobleman really had no better right to 
the land there than anybody else in Cardiff—the very 
principle they had previously condemned in "the Ameri 
can." Mr. George played the staunch conservative to the 
last and left the building without revealing himself. 

At another time, while on a train to Aberdeen, he fell 
into conversation with the only other occupant of the 
compartment—a man who talked well and freely, and 
who said he was a newspaper writer. Various subjects 

 440 LIFE OP HENEY GEOEGE [ISM 

were passed under contribution until, with a bright and 
airy way, the stranger came to the subject of "Henry 
George and his lecture trip." "Ah, what do you think of 
him?" said Mr. George. "A Yankee with a Yankee 
money-making scheme," said the other. "Our trans-At- 
lantic cousins are clever at such things. The man writes 
well; he puts things in a plausible way. He makes a 
proposition which for very hugeness has the charm of 
novelty. And really, the fellow is as entertaining as a 
speaker as he is as a writer." 

"Then you have heard him lecture," said Mr. George 
calmly. 

"Oh, yes," was the gay reply, and then in response to 
questions that drew him on, he gave a ludicrous descrip 
tion of Henry George's personal appearance, his companion 
joining in his laughter over it. The entertainment contin 
ued until the journalist left the train. Just as he was 
stepping out of the compartment, Mr. George said: "I owe 
you an apology; but you interested me so deeply that 
I did not like to stop you. Please accept my card." 
The gentleman gave one glance at the bit of pasteboard 
and then almost fell out on the platform. 

Thus while at times he might pass for a native, he did 
not always. "Watch me play Englishman," said he one 
day to his son as their train pulled into Euston station. 
"Here, porter," he called, "get my luggage." "Is it an 
American trunk, sir?" said the man. Mr. George turned 
to his son and silently admitted the failure of the ex 
periment. 

It was while travelling in a third-class carriage in Eng 
land that a poor woman got in at a way station and 
brought with her a jute or hemp satchel, such as is com 
monly seen in the hands of school children. She put 
this satchel down on the seat beside her, doubtless not 

 Age, 45] 

WOMAN WITH THE SHOES 

441 

noticing that one just like it was already there—a satchel 
which belonged to Mr. George and which was one of 
many receptacles for books and papers that he had, as 
by custom, accumulated on his travels. Presently the 
woman got out; and later Mr. George, thinking of some 
notes, put his hand into his satchel to get them. Instead 
of the notes, he found a strange and dilapidated pair of 
shoes. He was thrown into a sea of wonder, from which 
he did not emerge until thought recurred of the woman 
passenger who had just before gotten out. At a station 
where he had a few minutes' time, he telegraphed back 
along the line in hope of hearing of his papers, and 
word came that a complaint had been lodged by an in 
dignant woman who protested that she had been robbed 
of a pair of shoes by a man who stuffed her satchel with 
a lot of paper trash. The philosopher was glad enough 
to forward her bag and a day later got his own in 
exchange. 

 CHAPTEE VII. 

"PROTECTION OR FREE TRADE?" 
1884-1886. AGE, 45-47. 

HENRY GEORGE at home had passed beyond the 
world of letters into the world of practical things. 
Besides being an author, he was recognised as a leader 
among the restless labouring classes—to be with the 
House of Want, rather than with the House of Have. 
The working men honoured his return with a mass meet 
ing in Cooper Union. But men who made a business of 
politics or who moved in the privileged and fashionable 
world, held aloof, for instead of standing for glittering and 
unmeaning generalities, Henry George began to be under 
stood to menace a revolution in political and social affairs. 
They instinctively drew away; and hence it was that a 
complimentary dinner given to him on the 30th of April, 
1884, at the Cosmopolitan Theatre, New York, lacked the 
lustre of the Delmonico banquet of the year before; and 
a lecture in the Academy of Music proved a total failure, 
scarcely enough people being present to pay for rent and 
advertising. This lecture was given under the manage 
ment of the theatrical and lecture firm of Brooks & 
Dickson, who made a six months' contract with Mr. 
George for a tour of the United States and Canada, he to 
get his expenses and sixty per cent, of the profits. Mr. 

442 

 Age, 45-47] GEORGE'S SPEAKING STYLE 443 

Brooks had been in England and had witnessed Mr. 
George's great success there, and both men looked for 
like success in this country. The utter fiasco attending 
the first lecture threw the firm into gloom, as they could 
see nothing but failure all along the line. Mr. George 
no sooner learned of their views than, with characteristic 
promptness, he released them from their contract and with 
out consideration. Whatever lectures he delivered during 
the next year were under other management, generally 
his own. 

Mr. George had during the British tour won great lau 
rels as a platform speaker. Yet there were many who 
had spoken of his power as commonplace. The fact was 
that he was not even. He did not memorise, nor, except 
in the single lecture on Moses, did he read. He some 
times used a skeleton of heads, but his common practice 
was to speak without written notes of any kind. For 
this he prepared by meditation shortly before speaking; 
lying down, if possible, and perhaps smoking. He merely 
arranged a line of thought, and left the precise form of 
expression to inspiration when on his feet. This subjected 
him largely to conditions; a quiet audience, no matter 
how friendly, drawing forth a subdued speech, while a 
lively audience, friendly or hostile, provoked animation. 
He himself was conscious of this and said he could do 
best when facing opposition. Charles Frederick Adams 
tells how his friend returned from a lecture in Massa 
chusetts one day and paid: "Come out to lunch, Charley; 
1 am so ashamed of that lecture as an artistic perform 
ance that I want to spend the money I got for it." Louis 
F. Post supplies an illustration of Henry George's two 
ways of speaking. He went to the working men's wel 
come meeting in Cooper Union on Mr. George's return 
in 1884. 

 444 LIFE OF HENEY GEORGE [1884-1886 

"It was there that I had my first taste of his power 
as an orator. His London speech at St. James's Hall 
had been described by the English press in such super 
lative terms as an oratorical effort that I wondered. The 
London 'Times/ in a column editorial, had compared 
him as an orator with Cobden and Bright so much to 
their disadvantage that 1 began to question the standards 
of English oratory. George had seemed to me the best 
writer I had ever read, but no orator at all—at best only 
a plain speaker. And when he responded to the speech 
of welcome at Cooper Union I was still much puzzled 
by the estimate the London 'Times' had made. It 
was far from oratory in any sense. In matter it was 
excellent. George's oratory never failed in that respect. 
But in manner it was tame and unimpressive. After 
he had finished, and while some one else without orator 
ical ability was speaking, I went out for a ruminative 
smoke. Upon returning after possibly an hour's ab 
sence, a voice came up to me through the subterranean 
corridors as I entered the street door of Cooper Union, 
which made me think that now an orator had certainly 
come forth. As I descended, and a burst of applause fol 
lowed a period, this impression grew. The voice was 
strange to me, and I wondered as its volume swelled 
what prodigy of platform eloquence this man could be. 
Hurrying forward with that impression deepening, and 
coming to one of the doors which disclosed the stage and 
a large part of an enthusiastic audience, there I beheld 
upon the platform, with one arm extended and head 
thrown hack, his voice filling the hall and his sentiments 
stirring the blood of his auditors, no one else but Henry 
George. He had again been called upon to speak, and 
for nearly an hour he held his audience entranced, my 
self among the rest. Long before he had finished I knew 
why the London 'Times' thought him as great or greater 
than Cobden or Bright." 

While he did some intermittent lecturing and speaking, 
Mr. George's chief purpose at this period was to apply 
himself to writing. The first thing he took up was an 

 Age, 45-17] REPLY TO ARGYLL 445 

attack made on him and his principles by the Duke of 
Argyll in an article in the "Nineteenth Century" for 
April, entitled, "The Prophet of San Francisco." The 
article had appeared during the closing days of the Brit 
ish lecture trip, and the "Nineteenth Century," the "Fort 
nightly," and the "Pall Mall Gazette" hastened to offer 
their columns for reply. When Mr. George decided to 
answer he chose the same periodical through which he had 
been attacked. 

But Mr. George was reluctant to enter the lists. He 
treated the attack as chiefly abusive, and abuse he be 
lieved not worth heeding. Whatever of principle ap 
peared he considered to be answered in advance in "Prog 
ress and Poverty." But the active men in the Scottish 
Land Restoration League pointed out that, besides being 
a Peer of the Realm, close in rank to Royalty itself, the 
Duke was titular chief of the great Campbell clan. A 
controversy between the "Peer" and the "Prophet" would, 
the League advisers argued, carry the land question into 
every household in Scotland and arouse the highlanders. 
So Mr. George set himself to the task of replying in the 
brief moments of leisure that remained to him during his 
tour. He sat up a considerable part of the night in 
Cork, previous to sailing for America, working on the 
article. He actually had it written, and the ordinary 
critic would perhaps have said, completely written; but 
it did not satisfy its exacting author. He said to his son: 
"I'll not send it off now, but take it to New York and 
polish it like a steel shot." And with the title of "The 
'Reduction to Iniquity,'" the reply appeared in the July 
number of the "Nineteenth Century." 

The Duke had dropped as suddenly and as far in 
Henry George's estimation as had that other philosopher, 
Herbert Spencer. George acknowledged his obligations 

 446 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1884-1888 

to the Duke as the author of the "Reign of Law," and as 
pointing out "the existence of physical laws and adapta 
tions which compel the mind that thinks upon them to 
the recognition of creative purpose." Like the Duke, he 
had beheld "the grand simplicity and unspeakable har 
mony of universal law." But he now learned with 
amazement that the Duke's splendid philosophy broke 
down when it trenched on social affairs, and that "a trum 
pery title and a patch of ground" fettered "a mind that 
had communed with nature and busied itself with causes 
and beginnings." How little he cared for the Duke's un 
fairness and personal bitterness is shown by his passing 
them with contemptuous silence. But he considered the 
Scotsman as untrue to his own philosophy; and a dis 
honest philosopher kindled his wrath. For an intellec 
tual leader who would consciously mislead, he had no 
mercy; so that in his reply, he coupled false philosopher 
and false philosophy, and together held them up to gen 
eral scorn. 

This one article, "polished like a steel shot," seemed 
to suffice. It was received by the Duke of Argyll in 
silence; nor did he ever attempt to make rejoinder. It 
was accepted by the reading world with the mixed feel 
ings excited by the other writings from George's pen. 
But by all those in sympathy with the objects of the 
Scottish Land Restoration League it was hailed with dem 
onstrations of joy. Accompanied by the Duke's article, 
it was soon published in pamphlet form under the cap 
tion of "The Peer and the Prophet," and in the hands 
of the League, was carried into the homes and factories 
of the cities, while it became a kind of "fiery cross" 
through the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, sum 
moning the clansmen to the great struggle for natural 
rights. A similar pamphlet was published in the United 

 Age, 45-47] TAKEFF BOOK BEGUN ANEW 447 

States with the title of "Property in Land," and became 
an effective instrument for propaganda. 

The reply to the Duke of Argyll Mr. George regarded as 
a mere thing in passing, compared with the work to which 
he now settled down—the tariff book, or pamphlet, for he 
did not determine beforehand what size he would make 
it. A year had passed since the loss of the manuscript 
of the first book. Mr. George with his family spent the 
summer on a farm on Long Island, near Jamaica, worked 
by Walter Cranford, son of John P. Cranford of Brooklyn, 
an early and ardent advocate of the Georgeian ideas, and 
who with his purse gave much help to their spread. There 
on the Cranford farm Mr. George applied himself with 
steady industry to his task. 

The book, intended primarily for working men, aimed, 
as he said in his preface, not only to examine the argu 
ments commonly used, but, carrying the inquiry farther 
than the controversialists on either side had yet ventured 
to go, sought to discover why protection retained such 
popular strength in spite of all exposures of its fallacies; 
endeavoured to trace the connection between the tariff 
question and those still more important social questions, 
then rapidly becoming the "burning questions" of the 
times; and sought to show to what radical measures the 
principle of free trade logically led. In a letter to Walker 
of Birmingham (September 25) the author explained: 
"I first knock all the claims of protection; then turn 
around and show that .the mere abolition of protection 
would accomplish nothing for the working classes; but 
that to accomplish anything for them, the principle of 
free trade must be carried out to its full extent, which 
means, of course, the abolition of all taxes and the appro 
priation of land values." 

When the writing was well advanced, Mr. George had 

 448 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1884-1886 

some correspondence about it with Dr. Taylor of San 
Francisco, who suggested employment of the inductive 
method. George replied (September 14): "My view of 
the matter is the reverse of yours. 1 do not think induc 
tion employed in such questions as the tariff is of any 
use. What the people want is theory; and until they get 
a correct theory into their heads, all citing of facts is 
useless." 

Mr. George was much interested in the animals on the 
Cranford farm and particularly in a fine blooded bull 
that was often tethered in a grass field just outside the 
window. The animal was much annoyed by flies, and in 
walking around would wind his rope short until his head 
was drawn close to the stake, and he could do little more 
in the hot summer sun than switch his tail and bellow. 
Often and often the philosopher stopped work to go out 
and drive the bull in the opposite direction and free his 
rope. This commonplace incident, oft repeated, suggested 
the opening illustration in the introductory chapter, 
which, instead of first, was about the last part of the 
book to be written at the Cranford farm. 

In the fall the family moved to a house in Brooklyn, 
on Macon Street. Soon after that, on the urging of his 
boyhood friend, Eev. Dr. E. Heber Newton, Mr. George 
accepted an invitation to attend the Ninth Congress of 
the Episcopal Church, at Detroit, and speak to the topic, 
"Is our civilisation just to working men?" Rev. John 
W. Kramer, of New York, who was secretary of the Con 
gress, afterwards said. 

"Mr. George's first words were in answer to the ques 
tion asked. He said: 'It is not. Try it by whatever 
test you will, it is glaringly, bitterly and increasingly 
unjust.' I remember the emphatic fervour with which this 
opening was uttered. It attracted the audience; it 

 Age, 45-17] CLEVELAND AND BLAINE 449 

startled men. But hearty applause came, given by 
many hearers who were not ready to agree with the 
strong statement, but who were for the moment captured 
by the sublime courage of the speaker. The address 
was published in full in the proceedings of the Congress." 

The presidential campaign had for some weeks been in 
full swing, but for the first time in many years Mr. 
George could not warm up. Blaine, the Republican can 
didate, had avowed himself a champion of what George 
called the "protection humbug," and Patrick Ford was 
out with the "Irish World" strongly in Blaine's support. 
Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts was running as a 
Greenback-Labour candidate, but George quickly con 
cluded that Butler was insincere in this and a mere "de 
coy duck for the Republican party." Yet the Democrats 
avoided the issue. George wrote Taylor as early as Au 
gust: "I am utterly disgusted with the attitude of the 
Democratic party. It is a mere party of expediency, and 
as such can never win. Cleveland's nomination was an 
expediency nomination." George, however, in effect voted 
for Cleveland. Leaving for Scotland before election day, 
he paired with a friend who had intended to vote for 
Blaine. And after the election was over and Cleveland 
was known to have won, George wrote a signed article 
for William Saunders' London paper, "The Democrat," 
stating among other things that events had shown that 
now the tariff issue could no longer be avoided, that it 
would split the Democratic party in two and that it 
would raise the underlying question of why some grow so 
rich while others, though they work hard, are yet so poor. 

The managers of the Scottish Land Restoration League 
had sent a pressing call to Mr. George to come and make 
a lecture and speaking campaign through the lowlands 

 450 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1884-1886 

which contained the important political centres, for it 
was the purpose to force the land question into politics. 
And in order that he might the easier do this, they raised 
a fund with which to meet the heaviest expenses. Mr. 
George decided that this would be the most important 
vork he could do for the time and in October he crossed 
the Atlantic alone. 

In order to draw general attention to the campaign, a 
big meeting was held under the auspices of the English 
League in St. James's Hall, London. The hall was 
packed. Mr. George, of course, was the central figure, 
and Miss Taylor, Michael Davitt, William Forsyth, Presi 
dent of the Scottish League, and others spoke. George 
had now come to full powers as a speaker and his address 
was thought by many to be the finest he had yet deliv 
ered in Great Britain. The effect of this meeting was 
to set the press, and particularly the Scottish press, agog 
on the subject. 

The Scottish campaign opened in the City Hall in 
Glasgow on November 21. The hall was crowded with a 
pay audience and people were turned away. Lectures in 
other towns followed in close succession, the one in Kil- 
marnock on Christmas Eve being appropriate to the night 
and particularly fine. 

Trouble had again broken out between the crofters and 
the half dozen or less landlords in Skye and the other 
Western Islands. Police from Glasgow and Royal Naval 
Marines had been sent there to keep the peace. The 
League arranged for several meetings in Skye for Mr. 
George, all of which were e"minently successful, some of 
the soldiers attending and applauding the lecturer's sen 
timents. On returning to Glasgow, Mr. George was in 
terviewed at length by a representative of the "Pall Mall 
Gazette" of London. In answer to the question what, 

 Age, 45-47] BELIEF FOE THE CEOFTEES 451 

apart from his radical remedy, could he suggest in the 
way of immediate measures of relief for the crofters, 
he said: 

"The withdrawal of the army of invasion, the suspen 
sion, at least as to crofter holdings, of all laws for the 
collection of rent; the suspension of all laws for the 
preservation of game, and of the law requiring gun 
licenses. The enactment of a short bill of this kind 
would greatly relieve the crofters, while larger measures 
were being considered, and would obviate the neces 
sity for any charitable fund, such as the Earl of Breadal- 
bane and the Rev. Mr. McDonald of Inverness, are rais 
ing, which could be turned to the relief of the landlords, 
if any of them really suffered by not getting rents. The 
suspension of the gun license and of game laws would 
enable the crofters to protect their crops, and vary their 
diet, while accustoming them to the use of arms, a thing 
in itself much to be desired among a free people." 

The campaign was closed as it began, with an address 
in London. The English League had asked the Lord 
Mayor for the use of Guildhall. Being refused that, they 
decifled to hold a meeting of the unemployed outside the 
hall, or more precisely, in front of the Royal Exchange. 
The meeting took place Saturday afternoon, January 17. 
It was estimated that seven thousand people were in the 
gathering. William Saunders, Rev. Stewart Headlam, 
Rev. Mr. Hastings, Rev. C. Fleming Williams, William 
Miller, Peter Hennessy (tailor), A. Pike (shoemaker) 
and A. Brown (joiner) were among the speakers. The 
strongest point in Mr. George's speech was when he 
pointed to the inscription in great letters across the front 
of the Royal Exchange and said: "Look up there. 'The 
Earth is the Lord's.'" [A voice: "The landlords'!"] 
"Aye, the landlords'. They have substituted the land- 

 452 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1884-1886 

lords for the Lord above all; and the want of employ 
ment, the misery which exists from one end of the king 
dom to the other—the misery which encircles society 
vherever civilisation goes, is caused by the sin of the 
denial of justice." 

Before sailing for home, Mr. George was induced to 
lecture in Liverpool and also to cross the Irish Sea and 
address a North of Ireland audience at Belfast, the capi 
tal of Ulster. Both gatherings were large, the latter, fill 
ing Ulster Hall, numbering between four and five thou 
sand people. Enthusiasm in both cities was very great. 

The result of the trip across the Atlantic was summed 
up by Miss Taylor in a note to Mrs. George: "Mr. George's 
name is in our papers every day for praise or blame, and 
he has more warm friends here than bitter enemies." 
She might also have said that Joseph Chamberlain, the 
then leading Kadical, had in a speech taken such advanced 
ground for the taxation of land values that his name 
was very frequently coupled with Mr. George's. The 
visit had a further significance in that some of the friends 
urged George to return and stand for Parliament, assur 
ing him that he could be elected in any one of a number 
of constituencies. He wrote to Durant in the matter 
(February 11) : "I am at heart as much a citizen of Old 
England as of Xew England, but I think that from the 
accident of my birth I should be under disadvantage on 
your side of the water. At any rate, I should not deem 
it prudent to'go over there, unless there was such a con 
siderable call as made it seem clearly my duty. When 
this point is reached it will be time to talk about it." 
Within that year a general election took place under 
the new franchise act and redistribution of seats, and 
to use Mr. George's words "a little knot of thorough 
going 'Land Eestorationists'" were "returned" to the new 

 Ag*, 45-17] A SEAT IN PARLIAMENT 463 

Parliament, "with quite a large fringe of men sufficiently 
advanced for immediate purposes." However, Irish, mat 
ters engaged British politics for some time afterward and 
little more than educational work could be done along 
land restoration lines in Parliament. 

In addition to the foregoing signs of progress in Great 
Britain was one to which, if not Mr. George's recent trip, 
at least his former visits and the extensive reading of his 
books might reasonably be supposed to have been a con 
tributing cause. It was the truly extraordinary report 
made in spring of 1885 by a "Eoyal Commission on the 
Housing of the Working Classes," which recommended 
that a local tax of four per cent, of its selling value be 
placed upon vacant or inadequately used land, as tend 
ing to relieve general "rates" (i. e., local taxes), and 
by forcing new land into use, to bring down the price 
of general building land.1 The members of the Commis- 

1This passage of the report ran as follows: "At present, land available 
for buililing in the neigllhourhood of our populous centres, though its capi 
tal value is very great, is probably producing a. small yearly return until 
it is let for building. The owners of this land are rated [taxed locally], 
not in relation to the real value, but to the actual annual income. They 
can thus afford to keep their land out of the market, and to part with 
only small quantities, so as to raise the price beyond the actual monopoly 
price which the land would command by its advantages of position. 
Meantime, the general expenditure of the town on improvements is in 
creasing the value of their property. If this land were rated [taxed lo 
cally] at, say, four per cent, on its selling value, the owners would have a 
more direct incentive to part with it to those who are desirous of building, 
and a twofold advantage would result to the community. First, all the 
valuable property would contribute to the rates [local taxes], and thus 
the burden on the occupiers would be diminished by the increase in the 
rateable property. Secondly, the owners of the building land would be 
forced to offer their land for sale, and thus their competition with one 
another would bring down the price of building land, and so diminish the 
tax iu the shape of ground rent, or price paid for land, which is now 
levied on urban enterprise by the adjacent laud-owners — a tax, be it re- 

 454 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE 

sion were, Sir Charles W. Dilke, Bart, (chairman), 
H.K.H. the Prince of Wales, Cardinal Manning, Lord 
Salisbury, Lord Brownlow, Lord Carrington, George J. 
Goschen, Sir E. A. Cross, Et. Eev. W. Walshaw How, 
Bishop of Bedford; Hon. E. Lyulph Stanley, W. McCul- 
logh Torrens, Henry Broadhurst, George Godwin, F.R.S., 
Samuel Morley, Sir George Harrison, E. Dwyer Gray and 
Jesse Collings. The large majority of the commissioners 
seem to have approved of this proposal. At any rate, 
but three formally dissented from it—Salisbury, Goschen 
and Cross. 

While on this trip to Great Britain Mr. George, as on 
former occasions, met many people interesting to him, 
but one of particular interest was the Et. Hon. James 
Bryce, notable in literature and politics, and who, the 
American found on personal contact, bore out his reputa 
tion for broadness of mind and democracy of spirit. The 
two men had a long talk on subjects of common interest 
to them. Mr. Bryce says of this meeting: 

"Mr. George quite won the heart of my sister by ad 
miring her cat which was quite a privileged character in 
our household—so privileged that it walked over my 
papers with impunity and spoiled many of 'The Ameri 
can Commonwealth' proofs by lying down on them while 
the ink was fresh." 

Mr. George intended to do some lecturing on reaching 
home, but the general lecture season had been bad and 
two or three that he tried proved unprofitable financially. 

membered, which is no recompense for any industry or expenditure on 
their part, but is the natural result of the industry and activity of the 
townspeople themselves. Your Majesty's Commissioners would recom 
mend that these matters should be included in legislatiou when the law 
of rating conies to be dealt with by Parliament." 

 Age, 45-47] CONVERSATION WITH FIELD 455 

He therefore settled down to writing, which engaged him 
mainly until the close of the summer of the next year, 
1886. Articles for the "North American Eeview" con 
stituted much of this writing. First appeared in the July 
number, 1885, a "conversation" on the subject of "Land 
and Taxation" between him, representing his own ideas, 
and the eminent jurist, David Dudley Field, speaking 
for the established ideas. The managing editor of the 
"Eeview," Lorettus S. Metcalf, brought the gentlemen to 
gether at luncheon and explained that in order to place 
in juxtaposition the two views he would ask them to con 
verse, each from his own standpoint, on the subject of 
"Land and Taxation," while a shorthand writer should 
take down all that was said. Of this matter Mr. Metcalf 
later said: 

"The gentlemen had not met before, but they quickly 
measured each other and fell into cordial, easy, deferen 
tial interchange of thought. The remarkable feature of 
this meeting was the exhibition on both sides of the art 
of exact expression. So accurately did each speak that, 
except to catch typographical errors, not a single change 
was made in either manuscript or proof. The conver 
sation was a marvel of clear thinking and precise utter 
ance." 

Mr. George always considered that he had by far the 
better part of the conversation; indeed, later he had 
the article reprinted in tract form for general circulation. 

In the "North American Eeview" for February, 188G, 
the author had an article treating of trans-Atlantic social 
and political affairs under the caption of "England and 
Ireland"; and in the April number one entitled, "More 
about American Landlordism," showing the concentrat 
ing tendency of ownership. Mr. Metcalf had now with- 

 456 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1884-1886 

drawn from the management of the "North American 
Eeview" and James Eedpath, who took his place, engaged 
Mr. George to write a series of articles on "Labour in 
Pennsylvania"—Pennsylvania, the home of "protection" 
and strikes. The author visited the State and presented 
in four numbers between August, 1886, and January, 
1887, his findings, based largely upon official statements 
and the evidence of the labourers themselves. The arti 
cles related chiefly to the great coal and iron regions 
owned by a comparatively few men, each in his own dis 
trict as autocratic as a baron of old, for, said the writer, 
reaching the bottom of his conclusions, "the power of the 
sole landlord enables the operator or superintendent to 
exercise such control as he cares to and may deem pru 
dent. He may enact dog laws, goat laws, chicken laws, 
liquor laws, or any other laws that he pleases, short of 
the point of producing a general revolt; may regulate 
trade and control amusements." 

But though these magazine articles engrossed much of 
his time, what chiefly absorbed him. after his return from 
Scotland up to the middle of 1886 was the completion 
and publication of the book, "Protection or Free Trade?" 
Some of the chapters of this work had appeared in serial 
form in a combination of newspapers in the fall and 
winter of 1885. From this the author obtained nearly 
$3,000, which more than paid for the printing in book 
form early in 1886. The latter he concluded to do him 
self under the name of Henry George & Co., his son, 
Eichard, being, in James Ecdpath's language, "Co." The 
office was in Astor Place, New York, in joint occupancy 
with an agency of Porter & Coates, Philadelphia publish 
ers, the representative of which was Gaybert Barnes, 
whose acquaintance had been made through William 
Swinton. Besides handling the new book, Henry George 

 Age, 45-17] TOM L. JOHNSON 457 

& Co. became the sole publishers of the cloth editions 
of the other George works. 

It was while he was putting the new book through the 
newspapers that the acquaintance with Tom L. Johnson 
began. Mr. Johnson was a young man of just thirty-one, 
flushed with success as an inventor and Western street 
railroad manager and owner. He was born in Kentucky 
of a line famous in that State's politics. His father had 
been a planter and had lost all in the Civil War. Young 
Tom, with little more than a year's schooling, went to 
work at fifteen and quickly developed a mechanical and 
managing genius, which, with the acquisition of street 
railroad franchises in Cleveland and other cities, rapidly 
led to fortune. One day in a railroad car he bought and 
read Henry George's "Social Problems." That led him 
to read "Progress and Poverty," and to accept the doc 
trines that these books taught, even though their funda 
mental principle was based upon the destruction of 
monopolies, the very things that were the source of his rap 
idly increasing wealth. It was when he came to Brook 
lyn to purchase a street railroad that he called on Mr. 
George. He says of this interview: 

"I had looked forward with more intense interest to 
the meeting than I was aware of, for when I tried to 
speak in a manly way of what was in my heart, I was 
conscious of much emotion. I said that I should rather 
have it to say to my children that I had met Henry 
George and had entertained him under my own roof as 
my guest than to be able to transmit to them any worldly 
blessing. 

"I did not want to talk about myself. I did not go 
there for that. I went to talk to Mr. George about his 
cause; and I wanted in some way to call it my cause, too. 
But he stretched out on a lounge and I sat in a chair and 
I found myself telling him the story of my life. 

 458 LIFE OP HENEY GEORGE [IKM-IRRB 

"Then I said: 'Mr. George, your book on the tariff 
question will soon be out. I want to help to do good 
with it. 1 want 200 copies so as to send one to each 
lawyer and clergyman in Cleveland.' 1 also said to him: 
'I cannot write, and I cannot speak. The least I can 
do is to make money with which to push our cause.' 

"Mr. George answered: 'You do not know whether or 
not you can write; you have not tried. You do not 
know whether or not you can speak; you have not tried. 
Take an interest in political questions. Jt is well enough 
to make money, but the abilities that can make money 
can do other things, too.'" 

 CHAPTEE VIII. 

CANDIDATE FOE MAYOR OF NEW YORK. 
1886. AGE, 47. 

BUSY during the summer of 1886 in pressing the 
circulation of his new book, "Protection or Free 
Trade?" and in preparing the series of articles on "La 
bour in Pennsylvania" for the "North American Review"; 
proposing towards the end of the year to start the long 
thought of weekly, and contemplating before that another 
short lecturing trip through Great Britain, as friends 
there suggested, Mr. George saw his time well laid out. 
But one day, while in his office talking with Tom L. 
Johnson and Gaybert Barnes, young Eichard George en 
tered with a newspaper that announced that the labour 
unions of the city proposed to enter politics in the fall 
in the hope of bringing about better political and social 
conditions and intended to invite Henry George to be 
their candidate for mayor. The little group thought the 
story entertaining, but none regarded it seriously. Nor 
did Mr. George think much of the matter even when 
waited upon by a committee from a conference of trade 
and labour unions, which, representing nearly all the 
labour organisations in New York, was being held with 
the view to political action. Mr. George was qualified to 
run for the office, having moved to Pleasant Avenue, New 

459 

 460 LIFE OF HENKY GEOEGE [1886 

York, but he told the committee that he had planned 
important work that he would not like to interrupt. 
Nevertheless, the committee after a few days returned 
and was more urgent. Mr. George told them that he 
was in sympathy with the trade unions and that he be 
lieved that the remedy for the evils of which they com 
plained'lay through the ballot, but that trade union 
candidates the year before had not only met with igno 
minious defeat, but had not received anything like the 
united support of the trade union members themselves. 
He was willing to stand for principle, he said, but did 
not wish to be made ridiculous by a miserably small vote. 
Therefore, he did not care to consider the matter. Yet 
again the committee returned, this time to assure him 
that, whereas, the unions the year before had not been 
harmonious, they were entirely so now; and that though 
there was a long list of offices to fill in the fall election, 
the unions would concentrate their entire efforts on the 
single candidate for Mayor. 

Mr. George had meanwhile been talking quietly to some 
of his friends, most of whom seemed extremely flattered 
over the recognition he was getting. They were anxious to 
use the occasion to preach the land question and the many 
things that it involved. Charles Frederick Adams argued 
that the great majority of working men held various and 
confusing views and that if George stood he would supply 
a clear, concise, coherent body of principles, which, while 
educating and rallying the working men themselves, 
would appeal even more strongly to the book-reading, 
thoughtful elements of the community. Tom L. John 
son said that he was not acquainted with conditions in 
New York, but that if George decided to fight, he would 
heartily support. In the emergency Mr. George con 
sulted Dr. McGlynn, who possessed a large knowledge of 

 Age, 47] THE MASTER STROKE 461 

political affairs and manifested a lively interest in this 
particular matter. The Doctor counselled him to run. 

Matters were in this state when the labour committee 
for the third time •waited upon Mr. George and urged him 
to consider the matter and to write a formal letter to 
James P. Archibald, Secretary of the Labour Conference, 
either accepting or declining the proposition. Mr. George 
consented, for he believed now that a large proportion 
of the men in the unions were earnestly looking to him 
for leadership in a fight against their hard living condi 
tions. Then he conceived what Dr. McGlynn called his 
"master stroke." At the end of August he wrote the 
letter to Archibald. In it he set forth -fully and clearly 
his own views and stated that his sense of duty would 
not permit him to refuse any part assigned to him by 
the common consent of earnest men really bent upon 
carrying into politics the principles he held dear. Yet 
failure would hurt the very cause they wished to help. 
"For this reason," he wrote, "it seems to me that the 
only condition on which it would be wise in a Labour 
Convention to nominate me, or on which I should be justi 
fied in accepting such a nomination, would be that at least 
thirty thousand citizens should, over their signatures, ex 
press the wish that 1 should become a candidate, and 
pledge themselves in such case to go to the polls and vote 
for me. This would be a guarantee that there should be 
no ignominious failure, and a mandate that I could not 
refuse. On this condition I would accept the nomina 
tion if tendered to me." 

Unusual and difficult of fulfilment as this condition 
was, it was nevertheless hailed by the labour bodies not 
only in New York but elsewhere with many marks of 
satisfaction and enthusiasm. This was particularly 
shown at the annual Labour Day parade early in Sep- 

 462 LIFE OP HENEY GEORGE [1886 

tember, which Mr. George was invited to review in Union 
Square with the then mayor of the city, William E. 
Grace. 

The working men were without political machinery 
and the election laws at the time made party machinery 
greatly advantageous. The laws were such as to make 
bribery, intimidation, and miscounting so common a 
practice as to give singular force to the cynical observa 
tion of a Democratic subordinate manager, who said: 
"How can George win? He has no inspectors of elec 
tion !" Nevertheless, the way signatures to George 
pledges were rolling in daunted and even frightened the 
Democratic leaders; for a large part of George strength 
was developing in what had been Democratic strongholds. 

New York City was, and under one name or another had 
been for the most part since the organisation of the Tam 
many charitable and political society a hundred years be 
fore, strongly Democratic. That society had started out 
with Jeffersonian principles and an opposition to aris 
tocracy and Hamilton's federalism, but long years of po 
litical power had corrupted its principles and made it the 
instrument of the unscrupulous, until the Tweed expo 
sures in the seventies made its name synonymous with 
political debauchery.1 Tammany went into eclipse and a 
regenerated party under the name of County Democracy 
arose triumphant. But power corrupted that, too, and 
it fell into the hands of professional politicians, though 
it retained in its membership list many of the respectable 
names with which it had started out. In the last pre 
ceding city election the County Democracy party had 

!In exposing the naturalisation frauds, Dr. Montague R. Leverson 
struck the first blow at Tammany, though it was not until later, when 
evidences of the theft of public money were obtained, that the Tweed 
ring felL 

 Age, 47] TALK WITH W. M. IVINS 463 

elected William R. Grace to the mayoralty. Now both 
factions saw a common danger in the rise of George. 
They, therefore, sent a joint emissary to wait upon the 
proposed labour candidate. About this interview Mr. 
George a few days before his death said :* 

"Before my nomination had formally taken place I 
received a request from Mr. William M. Ivins, then 
Chamberlain of the city, and a close political friend and 
representative of Mr. Grace, to privately meet him. I 
did so at Seighortner's, on Lafayette Place. We sat 
down in a private room, unattended, and smoked some 
cigars together. Mr. Ivins insisted that I could not 
possibly be elected Mayor of New York, no matter how 
many people might vote for me; that the men who voted 
knew nothing of the real forces that dominated New 
York. He said that I could not possibly be counted in. 
He offered on behalf of Tammany Hall and the County 
Democracy that if I would refuse the nomination for 
mayor they would run me for Congress, select a city 
district in which the nomination of the two was equiva 
lent to election; that I should be at no expense what 
ever, but might go to Europe or anywhere I willed, and 
when I came back should receive a certificate of election 
to the House of Representatives. I said to him finally: 
'You tell me I cannot possibly get the office. Why, if 
1 cannot possibly get the office, do you want me to with 
draw?' His reply was: 'You cannot be elected, but your 
running will raise hell!' I said: 'You have relieved me 
of embarrassment. I do not want the responsibility and 
the work of the office of the Mayor of New York, but I 
do want to raise hell! I am decided and will run/ " 

It was not the office he was after; he wanted to plant 
the seed. He wrote to Taylor (September 10): "It is 
by no means impossible that I shall be elected. But the 

1 Published reply to statement made in the newspapers by Abram S. 
Hewitt, October, 1897. 

 464 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1886 

one thing sure is that if I do go into the fight the cam 
paign will bring the land question into practical politics 
and do more to popularise its discussion than years of 
writing would do. This is the only temptation to me." 

Election really looked more than possible—even prob 
able. With four other candidates in the field—Republi 
can, Prohibitionist, and one for each of the Democratic 
factions—it was estimated that George would require for 
election little more than twice the thirty thousand votes 
guaranteed in the pledges now being rapidly signed; 
whereas, the labour organisations themselves were sup 
posed to have a membership of sixty-five thousand. The 
nominating convention of the Trade and Labour Confer 
ence took place in Clarendon Hall on September 23. It 
adopted a platform written by Henry George, which the 
"New York World" characterised as "an epitome of Mr. 
George's popular essay entitled 'Progress and Poverty.'" 
One hundred and seventy-five labour organisations were 
represented by 409 delegates, from whom George received 
on the first ballot 360 votes, while 31 votes were cast for 
a popular furniture dealer named J. J. Coogan; and 18, 
purely by way of compliment, for William S. Thorn, Su 
perintendent of the Second Avenue Eailroad, who had 
treated his men extremely well. The proceedings were 
remarkable for enthusiasm and harmony among the usually 
hostile and warring factions of the labour bodies. Sel 
dom before had labour representatives manifested such 
confidence of success in a political contest. 

And interest in the nomination extended beyond the 
labour unions. It sprang up among "that great body of 
citizens," said Mr. George, "who, though not working men 
in the narrow sense of the term, feel the bitterness of 
the struggle for existence as much as does the manual 
labourer, and are as deeply conscious of the corruptions 

 Age. 47] BEYOND THE LABOUK UNIONS 466 

of our politics and the wrong of our social system." 
These had not to any number signed the pledge to vote 
for George, but they gave voice to their support by a 
meeting in Chickering Hall on October 2, at which Rev. 
John W. Kramer presided, and Rev. Dr. R. Heber New 
ton, Professor Thomas Davidson, Daniel DeLeon, Ph.D. 
of Columbia College; Charles F. Wingate, Professor 
David B. Scott of the College of the City of New York, 
and the Rev. Dr. Edward McGlynn spoke. The meeting 
packed the hall and with a roar of approval passed reso 
lutions indorsing George's nomination by the Trade and 
Labour Conference. 

Dr. McGlynn spoke, said one who heard him, "as if he 
expected that night to be his last." And it was a mighty 
moment in his life. He had been forbidden by his eccle 
siastical superior to speak. Some days before Archbishop 
Corrigan had written Dr. McGlynn expressing anxiety 
about the latter's "relations with Henry George" and 
hoping that he would "leave aside" anything that would 
seem "to coincide with socialism." In order to show 
what manner of man Henry George was and the true 
nature of his teachings, Dr. McGlynn suggested that Mr. 
George call on the Archbishop, which he did, bearing a 
letter of introduction from Dr. McGlynn. The Arch 
bishop received Mr. George courteously, but was not pre 
pared to hear him explain the land doctrine, as he said, 
after giving a history of the case, that Dr. McGlynn had 
violated an understanding made in 1882 that he was to 
make no more public utterances. "The Archbishop told 
me," said Mr. George afterwards,1 "that he had called his 
council to meet at twelve that day for the purpose of 
taking into consideration the case of Dr. McGlynn, and 

* "The Standard," January 8, 1887. 

 466 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1886 

as I understood at the time, of suspending him." "On 
leaving the Archbishop," continued Mr. George, "I called 
on Dr. McGlynn and informed him of the result of my 
interview. He said that his understanding of the prom 
ise he had felt himself obliged to make in 1882 was that 
he should deliver no more speeenes on the Irish question, 
which promise he had kept; that he had since made 
speeches on behalf of Mr. Cleveland [during the presi 
dential canvass] to which there had been no remonstrances 
whatever, and that he had not up to that time received 
any inhibition from speaking at the Chickering Hall 
meeting; yet even should one come, he could not, now 
that he had been announced to speak, refrain from doing 
so consistently with his own self-respect and without pub 
licly renouncing the rights of an American citizen." 

Then it was that Dr. McGlynn received a letter from 
the Archbishop forbidding him to take part in the Chick 
ering Hall meeting or "to take any part in future in any 
political meeting whatever without permission of the Sa 
cred Congregation of Propaganda Fide." Other priests 
who were expected to attend the meeting and speak had 
been warned and stayed away. But the pastor of St. 
Stephen's attended and spoke as never before in his life. 
Nor did any—not even Mr. George—know for many days 
after the campaign was over that on the morning fol 
lowing the meeting Archbishop Corrigan had suspended 
Dr. McGlynn for two weeks. 

The formal nomination of Henry George having been 
made by the labour conference and indorsed by business 
and professional men in public meeting, a formal accept 
ance was arranged to take place in the historic Cooper 
Union Hall on October 5. The multitude was so great that 
Mr. George had some difficulty in squeezing in, and an 
immense overflow meeting took place outside. Several 

 Age, 47] COOPER UNION NOMINATION 467 

large bundles containing the signatures of more than 
thirty-four thousand voters who had pledged them 
selves to support George at the polls were, amid much 
excitement, passed in over men's heads and placed upon 
the edge of the platform in general view. Rev. Mr. 
Kramer first presented the resolutions of the Chickering 
Hall meeting to John McMackin, Chairman of the Execu 
tive Committee of the Labour Party, and then Mr. Mc 
Mackin tendered the nomination with its indorsement to 
Mr. George, who on rising was received with a long ova 
tion of cheering. When quiet was restored he said: 

"The step I am about to take has not been entered 
upon lightly. When my nomination for Mayor of New 
York was first talked of I regarded it as a nomination 
which was not to be thought about. I did not desire to 
be Mayor of New York. I have had in my time political 
ambition, but years ago I gave it up. I saw what prac 
tical politics meant; I saw that under the conditions as 
they were a man who would make a political career must 
cringe and fawn and intrigue and natter, and I resolved 
that I should not so degrade my manhood. Another 
career opened to me; the path that I had chosen—that 
my eyes were fixed upon—was rather that of a pioneer— 
that of the men wlio go in advance of politics, the men 
who break the road that after they have gone will be 
trod by millions. It seemed to me that there lay duty 
and that there lay my career, and since this nomination 
has been talked about my friends here and through the 
country and beyond the seas have sent me letter after 
letter, asking me not to lower, as they are pleased to 
term it, the position I occupied by running for a muni 
cipal office. But I believe, and have long believed, that 
working men ought to go into politics. I believe, and I 
have long believed, that through politics was the way, 
and the only way, by which anything real and perma 
nent could be secured for labour. In that path, however, 
I did not expect to tread. That, I thought, would de- 

 468 LIFE OP HENEY GEOEGE [1886 

volve upon others, but when the secretary of this nomi 
nating convention came to me and said, 'You are the only 
man upon whom we can unite, and I want you to write 
me a letter either accepting or refusing to accept and 
giving your reasons,' that put a different face on the 
matter. When it came that way I could not refuse, but 
I made my conditions. I asked for a guarantee of good 
faith; I asked for some tangible evidence that my fellow- 
citizens of New York really wanted me to act. That 
evidence you have given me: All I asked, and more." 

The office of Mayor of New York, he said, important 
though it was, was fettered by commissions, the occu 
pants of only two of which he could remove. But still 
he had the power of visitation and inquisition—of find 
ing out how things were going—and the further power 
of appealing to the people; and those powers he pro 
posed, if elected, to use to their utmost and to destroy 
political corruption. But the mayoralty movement meant 
even more. Chattel slavery was dead; there now devolved 
upon them the task of removing industrial slavery. 

"We have hordes of citizens living in want and in vice 
born of want, existing under conditions that would appall 
heathen. Is this by the will of our Divine Creator ? No. 
It is the fault of men; and as men and citizens, on us 
devolves the duty of removing this wrong; and in that 
platform which the convention has adopted and on 
which I stand the first step is taken. Why should there 
be such abject poverty in this city? There is one 
great fact that stares in the face any one who chooses to 
look at it. That fact is that the vast majority of men 
and women and children in New York have no legal 
right to live here at all. Most of us—ninety-nine per 
cent, at least—must pay the other one per cent, by the 
week or month or quarter for the privilege of staying 
here and working like slaves. . . . 

"Now, is there any reason for such over-crowding? 

 Age. 47] HEEE HE MADE A VOW 469 

There is plenty of room on this island. There are miles 
and miles and miles of land all around this nucleus. 
Why cannot we take that and build houses upon it for 
our accommodation ? Simply because it is held by dogs 
in the manger who will not use it themselves nor allow 
anybody else to use it, unless he pays an enormous price 
for it—because what the Creator intended for the habi 
tation of the people whom He called into being is held 
at an enormous rent or an enormous price. . . . 

"But what do we propose to do about it ? We propose, 
in the first place, as our platform indicates, to make the 
buildings cheaper, by taking the tax off buildings. We 
propose to put that tax on land exclusive of improve 
ments, so that a man who is holding land vacant will 
have to pay as much for it as if he was using it, just 
upon the same principle that a man who should go to a 
hotel and hire a room and take the key and go away would 
have to pay as much for it as if he had occupied the 
room and slept in it. In that way we propose to drive 
out the dog in the manger who is holding from you what 
he will not use himself. We propose in that way to re 
move this barrier and open the land to the use of labour 
in putting up buildings for the accomodation of the 
people of the city. . . . 

"I am your candidate for Mayor of New York. It is 
something that a little while ago I never dreamt of. 
Years ago I came to this city from the West, unknown, 
knowing nobody, and I saw and recognised for the first 
time the shocking contrast between monstrous wealth 
and debasing want. And here I made a vow, from 
which I have never faltered, to seek out and remedy, 
if 1 could, the cause that condemned little children to 
lead such lives as you know them to lead in the squalid 
districts. It is because of that that I stand before you 
to-night, presenting myself for the chief office of your 
city—espousing the cause, not only of your rights but of 
those who are weaker than you. Think of it! Little 
ones dying by thousands in this city; a veritable slaugh 
ter of the innocents before their time has come. Is it 
not our duty as citizens to address ourselves to the ad- 

 470 LIFE OF EENKY GEORGE [1886 

justment of social wrongs that force out of the world 
those who are called into it almost before they are here— 
that social wrong that forces girls upon the streets and 
our boys into the grog shops and then into penitenti 
aries? We are beginning a movement for the abolition 
of industrial slavery, and what we do on this side of the 
water will send its impulse across the land and over the 
sea, and give courage to all men to think and act. Let 
us, therefore, stand together. Let us do everything that 
is possible for men to do from now until the second of 
next month, that success may crown our efforts, and that 
to us in this city may belong the honour of having led 
the van in this great movement." 

The press gave large reports of the meeting. All of 
them confessed that George, because of his high char 
acter and personal abilities, and because of the unprece 
dented signs of harmony among the labour unions in 
support of him, would be an important factor in the muni 
cipal contest. Most of the papers did not seem to know 
exactly what attitude to assume as yet. Only two of 
them showed downright ill will, "The Daily Illustrated 
Graphic" calling George another Jack Cade and the 
"Evening Post" saying that while not apprehending his 
election, he might "get a vote large enough to demoralise 
the officers of the law and diminish the protection we 
now enjoy against mob violence." 

By voluntary contributions and assessments, the labour 
unions raised some money for the uses of the election 
committee, though the amount was inadequate to meet 
even the necessary and legitimate needs imposed by the 
election laws, which, among other things, required each 
party to print and distribute its own tickets. The cam 
paign on the working men's side began and ended with few 
brass bands and little red fire. The working men's head 
quarters on Eighth Street were anything but garish; nor 

 Age, 47] AUGUST LEWIS' FRIENDSHIP 471 

was there any show or pretence about Mr. George's head 
quarters in the Colonnade Hotel, around the corner on 
Broadway. Most of the work was done hy volunteers, 
and hall rent for some of the larger meetings, at least, 
was, contrary to all political usage, collected from the 
audience hy "passing the hat." Other money came from 
some of Mr. George's close friends, chiefly from Tom 
L. Johnson; and some, in small sums, came through the 
mails from unknown sympathisers in the city and outside. 

A notable contribution was a cheque for $100 from a 
stranger, August Lewis of August Lewis & Co., straw 
goods importers and manufacturers on Grcene Street, New 
York. The cheque was accompanied by a short note of 
good will, and Mr. Lewis soon afterwards followed this 
by a personal visit. He was born in Aix-la-Chapelle, 
Germany, of Jewish parents and received an ordinary 
grammar school education. Coming to this country in 
1869, whither some members of his family had preceded 
him, he joined one of them in business. As a member of 
the Society for Political Education he had in 1882 re 
ceived one of the complimentary copies of "Progress" and 
Poverty" presented to that organisation by Francis G. 
Shaw; but not until Mr. George was a candidate and 
began to be vigorously discussed in the newspapers did 
Mr. Lewis read the book. It immediately did for him 
what it had done for Mr. Shaw—brought him hope where 
before had been despair of the social problem. And 
feeling so, though it ran counter to his political habits 
and social affiliations, Mr. Lewis gave Henry George his 
moral and material support. He quickly took his place 
as one of Mr. George's closest friends, and in the end 
he shared with Tom L. Johnson the honour of the dedi 
cation of the philosopher's last book. 

Mr. George's refusal to withdraw from the mayoralty 

 472 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE 

contest, and his rapidly gathering strength left little hope 
of victory for the Democracy, save in the course some of 
the party papers urged—the union of the two factions. 
But it was evident when the Tammany convention met 
on October 11, that a considerable number of the dele 
gates were for George and would have favoured his in 
dorsement. But the little group controlling the machine 
had no thought of such a thing. Yet they did not see 
hope in a candidate from their own factional ranks. They 
therefore selected a man identified with the other faction 
—Abram S. Hewitt. Hewitt's name was presented to 
the convention and the perfunctory form of nomination 
was gone through with by the delegates, though few of 
them had had a hint of what was coming and astonish 
ment for a time was supreme. 

Abram S. Hewitt was of the large iron manufacturing 
firm of Cooper, Hewitt & Co. He was son-in-law of the 
then late philanthropist, Peter Cooper, and brother-in- 
law of Edward Cooper, sometime Mayor of New York. 
For years he had been Congressman from New York. 
He was the same Abram S- Hewitt who in 1880 had 
spoken in praise of "Progress and Poverty" to William 
H. Appleton, the publisher, and who, through Mr. Apple- 
ton, had invited an acquaintance with Mr. George, whom 
he engaged privately to work on a Congressional report, 
which work was discontinued on Hewitt's refusal longer 
to pay what George regarded as reasonable compensation. 
Their agreement had been for privacy on both sides, as 
the Congressman intended to use the report as his own; 
but Hewitt now, during the mayoralty campaign, broke 
the seal of confidence, and gave to one of the newspapers 
a story that George had once been his secretary, but had 
to be discharged because he would run the land tax into 
everything. No response was made to this at the time, 

 Age, 47] ABEAM HEWITT'S CANDID ACT 473 

but eleven years later, during the second mayoralty can 
vass, when Mr. Hewitt was reported to have made some 
personal statements about him that called for reply, Mr. 
George dictated to a stenographer a statement of the 1880 
episode, although afterwards he concluded that the occa 
sion was inappropriate to publish it. 

Mr. Hewitt in his letter of acceptance took the ground 
that he had been called upon to save society. 

"An attempt is being made to organise one class of 
our citizens against all other classes, and to place the 
government of the city in the hands of men willing to 
represent the special interests of this class, to the ex 
clusion of the just rights of the other classes. The in 
jurious effects arising from the conclusion that any con 
siderable portion of our people desire to substitute the 
ideas of anarchists, nihilists, communists, socialists, and 
mere theorists for the democratic principle of indi 
vidual liberty, which involves the right to private prop 
erty, would react with the greatest severity upon those 
who depend upon their daily labour for their daily bread, 
and who are looking forward to a better condition for 
themselves and their children by the accumulation of 
capital through abstinence and economy. The horrors 
of the French Revolution and the atrocities of the Com 
mune offer conclusive proof of the dreadful consequences 
of doctrines which can only be enforced by revolution 
and bloodshed, even when reduced to practice by men of 
good intentions and blameless private life." 

Mr. Hewitt seemed to believe that since he was under 
taking to defend social order and institutions against 
"anarchists, nihilists, communists, socialists and mere 
theorists," the Republicans should make common cause 
with him and support him. But the Republicans cleaved 
to themselves and nominated for mayor an able young 

 474 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE 

man of large personal fortune and artistocratic connec 
tions and ideas—Theodore Roosevelt. 

Practically all the politicians and all the daily press 
except the "Volks Zeitung" and a little paper called "The 
Leader," which had started for the campaign and of 
which Louis F. Post was made the editor,1 were now in 
full cry against George; and the lies, intentional and 
accidental, that one paper started the others took up and 
circulated. For instance, George was reported by the 
"Sun" to have said in a speech that with all its horrors 
the great epoch of the French Revolution was about to 
repeat itself, and the "Evening Post," with a seeming 
malice prepense, repeatedly in editorials (and "Harpers 
Weekly," with letterpress and a cartoon) quoted this in 
the face of its obvious inconsistency with George's known 
principles and direct denials.. Mrs. Lowell, Francis G. 

!Mr. Post says: " 'The Leader' was the only newspaper support that 
the George party had after the campaign opened, except the 'Volks 
Zeitung,' the socialist paper, printed in German. At first the ' Volks 
Zeitung' opened its editorial columns to articles in support of George in 
English, and I did the work. But early in the campaign ' The Leader" was 
started. It jumped at once to a circulation of 35,000 daily, and was self- 
supporting from the beginning. But to make it self-supporting all the 
editorial and reportorial work had to be contributed without pay. And 
this was done. Though the other newspapers unanimously opposed 
George, their sub-editors and reporters almost unanimously supported 
him. As they could do nothing for him in their own papers, they vol 
unteered in large numbers for work upon 'The Leader." After doing a full 
day's work on their respective papers, they would turn in and do an 
other day's work, in the same twenty-four hours, for us. And this they 
continued to the last. Where all were so devoted it would be invidious 
to mention names, even if I could remember them. But the managing 
editor's and the city editor's chairs were filled in this way; and as fine a 
body of reporters as ever came together on any paper joined with the rest 
of us in working for ' The Leader' without pay throughout the campaign. 
Editorial writers on other papers also contributed to this unpaid work by 
sending in editorials and special articles." 

 Age, 47] AN AGGBESSIVE CAMPAIGN 475 

Shaw's daughter, wrote in some alarm to Mr. George 
about the reported utterances, and he replied: "I not only 
never meant to encourage lawlessness or disorder, but 
never did, by direction or indirection. On the contrary, 
I have told my people in the most emphatic way that I 
would preserve order and enforce the law." 

But George did not have much time for explanations 
of this kind. His campaign was not defensive, but offen 
sive ; not one of excuses, but of aggression. He addressed 
an open letter to the Democratic candidate pointing out 
that Hewitt himself represented the dangerous and un 
scrupulous classes, as personified by Richard Croker and 
the many other professional politicians about him; whereas 
he (George) represented the great working mass of the 
community—the workers with head as well as with hand; 
and that as an English statesman had happily phrased it, 
the working men's movement was one of "the masses 
against the classes." Finally he proposed that Hewitt 
and he discuss the various questions of the campaign in 
joint debate. 

Hewitt's reply was quite as spirited. He ascribed 
George's candidacy to his "peculiar views as to the nature 
of property"; and asserted again that he was supported 
by "all the anarchists, nihilists, communists and social 
ists in the community," with whom he (Hewitt) did 
"not wish to confound the men supporting him whom" 
George had "stigmatised as politicians." He also re 
gretted that he could not "accommodate in debate a gen 
tleman for whose 'remarkable acuteness, fertility and lit 
erary power' [he had the] highest respect." 

Two other open letters passed between the candidates, 
one from George, in which he offered Hewitt half his 
time at a meeting to take place that week at Chiekering 
Hall; and one from Hewitt declining the proffer and de- 

 476 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE 

claring it George's purpose "to array working men against 
millionaires."1 

This was the kernel of opposition from press and plat 
form to George. He was denounced as a "marauder," an 
"assailant of other people's rights," a "leveller," a "rob 
ber of the poor," a "revolutionist," an "apostle of an 
archy and destruction," a "man who attacks the sacred 
foundations of property," and a "recreant to liberty"— 
so that that came to pass which Mr. George predicted in 
his speech of acceptance, when he said: "This, in my opin 
ion, will be one of the fiercest contests that ever took 
place in this or any other American city. Every influ 
ence that can be arrayed against me will be used. There 
will be falsehoods and slanders, everything that money 
and energy and political knowledge can command." 

One instance of this was given when a story was pub 
lished that Dr. McGlynn had withdrawn his support from 
George. At the risk of further displeasure to his eccle 
siastical superiors, the Doctor gave out a statement to 
the newspapers in which he said that his "admiration 
and affection for Henry George's genius and character" 
were, "if possible, increasing every day." Though it was 
not yet known, Dr. McGlynn had been "disciplined" for 
disobeying his Archbishop's order, which was literally, 
not to speak at the Chickering Hall meeting, but which 
was really, as subsequent events proved, not to help 
George. But now towards the close of the contest, 
when the last supreme efforts were being made, and 
when McGlynn's great influence was strongly felt, the 
higher resident dignitaries in the Church did not hesitate 

*For the full text of this correspondence and a sketch of the contest, 
see a small compilation by Louis F. Post and Fred C. Leubuscher, en 
titled "The George-Hewitt Campaign," formerly published by John W. 
Lovell Company, New York. 

 Age, 47] POLITICS FROM THE ALTAR 477 

themselves to enter the conflict. For, in answer to a 
letter from one of Mr. Hewitt's chief managers, Et. Kev. 
Monsignor Preston, Vicar-General of the Diocese, made 
a formal, written reply condemning George's principles 
as "unsound, unsafe and contrary to the teachings of the 
Church," and averring that if "logically carried out," 
they "would prove the ruin of the working men he pro 
fesses to befriend"; adding that "although we never in 
terfere directly in elections, we would not wish now to be 
misunderstood at a time when the best interests of so 
ciety may be in danger." This letter was promptly given 
to the press and distributed at the Church doors the Sun 
day preceding election day, and it strengthened the de 
nunciation launched in sermons from several Catholic 
altars against Henry George and what he was declared 
to represent. 

A single furtive attempt was made on George's per 
sonal character. A story was published in some San 
Francisco papers, and telegraphed to some New York 
papers, that he was once connected with a piratical expe 
dition. This referred to the Brontes Mexican Eevolution 
enterprise, with the details of which the reader has al 
ready been made acquainted.1 The tale of piracy was 
seen to be ridiculous and was quickly dropped. As by 
common accord, George's enemies spoke of him as of pure 
private life and unquestionable abilities—an honest and 
dangerous fanatic. 

Yet the cries of threatened machine politicians and 
corruptionists and an opposing press frightened into co 
operation the timid rich and a large commercial class, 
who always fear changes, even though they be the sweep 
ing away of long-standing abuses; so that Henry George 

1 Pages 165-67. 

 478 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1886 

had a tremendous combination of forces, good and bad, 
respectable and disreputable, arrayed against him. But 
if such powers opposed, he had the intense, burning en 
thusiasm of the great working masses behind him—"a 
power," to use his own words, "stronger than money, more 
potent than trained politicians"; something to meet and 
"throw them aside like chaff before a gale." 

Louis Prang, the Boston art publisher, who feared for 
George's dignity as an author and teacher of a great idea 
if he should enter upon a speaking campaign, urged him 
to follow General Grant's custom and make no speeches. 
But George replied: "I appreciate all you say. Never 
theless, I have been called into this fight, and I propose to 
go through with it. While it was perfectly proper for 
Grant to make no campaign speeches, that is the very 
thing I must do; and I look forward to a month of speak 
ing every night." 

And never before in New York, and perhaps nowhere 
else in the country, had there been such a speaking cam 
paign. In halls and from "cart-tails," at the noon din 
ner hour or at midnight, before exclusive audiences and 
before street throngs, in the commercial centres and 
through the tenement regions, Henry George spoke. 
Rather than a seeker for office, he was a man with a 
mission, preaching the way to cast out involuntary pov 
erty from civilisation. Bather than a politician ready 
to pare away and compromise, he pressed straight for 
equality and freedom, and in a breath-taking way struck 
at the ignorant prejudices of his own followers as sharply 
as at those of his fiercest antagonists. While it was, for 
instance, the rule to temporise on the tariff and liquor 
questions, George called for the abolition of custom houses 
and of excise and licenses. He made speeches, frequently 
as many as twelve or fourteen a day, of a variety, strength, 

 Age, 47) A NEW KIND OF POLITICS 479 

clearness, fire and human sympathy that amazed and 
thrilled the multitudes that flocked to hear him, and that 
inspired with increasing energy the scores and hundreds 
of all walks of life who sprang up to talk for him and 
his cause. Among these were Patrick Ford, who, though 
he did not actually speak, sat upon the Cooper Union 
platform and gave the strong editorial backing of the 
"Irish World"; General Master Workman Powderly of 
the Knights of Labour; Samuel Gompers, President of 
the American Federation of Labour; and Piev. J. O. S. 
Huntington, son of the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of 
Central New York, and head of the Episcopal Order 
of the Holy Cross. There had been many municipal elec 
tions in New York before, but none like this. They had 
been purely political; this involved social questions as 

• well. The sure sign of internal interest was the registra 
tion of voters, preparatory to the formal balloting. This 
year, with no accompanying State or national contests to 
augment it, the registration was extremely heavy. 

Outside, the press of the country noted, discussed and 
divided, as though they were active participants; while 
beyond the broad seas, men at the antipodes watched and 
waited, and the British public, in placid ignorance of 
most things American, was by cable reports in its news 
papers daily informed of each important event in this 
New York mayoralty struggle, as though it involved the 
advancement or downfall of a sovereign State. The truth 

—the vital spark—the expression of hope of a less bitter 
struggle for subsistence for all men, even the meanest 
and lowest, that had raised the California writer from 
obscurity, that had given his book on political economy 
a world-wide circulation, that had gathered throngs to 
hear him speak from one end of Great Britain to the 
other, was now infused into a city election and centred 

 480 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1886 

the gaze of millions—made the world its audience. Let 
ters of God-speed poured in upon the candidate from a 
thousand sources—from organisations whose hearts beat 
responsive to his trumpet call; from isolated individuals 
he never saw and never could expect to see. "The great 
question"—he dashed off in a note of cheer to Mr. Gut- 
schow, German translator of "Progress and Poverty," who 
had sent money out of his small purse for the campaign— 
"The great question is at last in politics and the struggle 
has begun." 

The campaign closed with the Republicans deprecating 
both Hewitt and George, and the Democrats. crying that 
a vote for Eoosevelt was a vote for George, while the 
policy of those who feared the rise of the labour power 
was "anything to beat George." The last and most sig 
nal proof to them that their fears were well founded was 
a parade of labour unions on the Saturday night three 
days before election. Through a cold, drenching rain, 
without brass bands, uniforms or any of the usual polit 
ical trappings, bearing aloft their trade-union banners, 
and with here and there a few torches, but mostly in 
darkness, the long, dense line of men, headed by William 
McCabe, a journeyman printer, were two hours in march 
ing past the reviewing platform in Union Square, and 
made one continuous, fervid shout of salutation to the 
man, their candidate, standing there. 

So the campaign closed, and election day came. Then 
was seen the great disadvantage of the working men's 
party. It had no representatives in the polling places to 
count the votes. Moreover, under the election law it had 
to print its own ballots and distribute them to voters, and 
some of the election districts were actually without distrib 
utors and ballots. The law worked for the benefit of the 
party "machines." Yet men without pay and without 

 Age, 47] A BUNKER HILL VICTORY 481 

food stood from dawn till nightfall working for George. 
Late in the evening the returns showed that Abram S. 
Ilewitt had been elected Mayor, with George second, and 
Roosevelt third; the official canvass subsequently showing 
for Hewitt, 90,552; for George, 68,110; and for Roose 
velt, 60,435. Mr. George believed at the time, and many 
circumstances afterwards confirmed his belief, that he 
had really been elected, but had been "counted out." 

But he had got all that he really wanted—a big vote. 
At twelve o'clock election night, when the event was no 
further in doubt, he made a speech at the working men's 
headquarters on Eighth Street, crowded with the more 
active among his supporters. Disappointment was writ 
ten on most faces there. They had fought with the con 
fidence of winning. Defeat was bitter. But George's 
voice rang out bell-like and clear: 

"I congratulate you to-night upon the victory we have 
won. The future is ours. This is the Bunker Hill. 
We have been driven back as the continental troops were 
from Bunker Hill. If they won no technical victory, 
they did win a victory that echoed round the world and 
still rings. They won a victory that made this Republic 
a reality; and thank God, men of New York, we in this 
fight have won a victory that makes the true Republic 
of the future certain. We have lit a fire that will never 
go out. We have begun a movement that, defeated, and 
defeated, and defeated, must still go on. All the great 
currents of our time, all the aspirations of the heart of 
man, all the new forces of our civilisation are with us 
and for us. They never fail who die in a good cause. 
This has been but a skirmish that prepares our forces 
for the battles that are to follow." 

These words of courage thrilled all who heard and 
called out round after round of cheers. 

 CHAPTER IX. 

"THE STANDARD" AND THE ANTI- 
POVEETY SOCIETY. 

1886-1887. AGE, 47-48. 

AFTEB an undisturbed night's sleep, Henry George on 
J\. the morning following the mayoralty election was 
hack at his Astor Place office. To a "Sun" reporter who 
came to ask him of his plans, he said: "I shall huy a hottle 
of ink and a box of pens and again go to writing." 

The press, abroad as well as at home, recognised in him 
a new power in the public world. The London papers 
were thoroughly alive to this, the Tory "St. James's Ga 
zette" observing that "the election should cause all re 
spectable Americans to forget the trumpery of party 
fights and political differentism and face the new danger 
threatening the commonwealth." On the other hand, the 
Radical "Pall Mall Budget" said: 

"The two words 'Henry George' on the voting paper 
against which 68,000 persons put their mark did not 
even to these 68,000 mean only the five feet, nine inches 
of commonplace flesh and blood, thatched with sandy 
hair and shod with American leather. They meant 
much more than that. They meant an embodied pro 
test against the kingdom of this world, which after 
nineteen centuries, alike under democracies and monar- 
cies and empires, is still ruled by Mammon 'the least 

482 

 Age, 47-48] THE FIRST SKIRMISH 483 

erected spirit that fell from heaven.' He stood as the 
incarnation of a demand that the world should be made 
a better place to live in than it is to-day; and his candi 
dature was a groan of discontent with the actual, and 
therefore of aspiration after the ideal." 

The "New York Times" expressed the views of many 
thoughtful persons at home in saying: "That a new party 
should suddenly have been called into existence in this 
city, and without an existing organisation, without a 
party fund, and under the leadership of men inexperi 
enced in political work, should have given its candidate a 
vote nearly equalling that cast in recent years by any of 
the existing political parties is at once seen to be an 
event demanding the most serious attention and study." 

And well might the press so speak. For letters of con 
gratulation poured in upon Mr. George from all parts of 
the country, and in many places he was talked of as 
labour candidate for the presidency in 1888. Moreover, 
four days after the election a crowded meeting for rejoic 
ing was held in the large hall of Cooper Union. Mr. 
George's speech was fine in tone. "It is not the end of 
the campaign," said he; "it is the beginning. We have 
fought the first skirmish." They must go on, press 
ing forward the land question and the kindred ideas. 

And he now demanded a radical reform of those voting 
laws which, as he believed was instanced in the recent 
contest, enabled the unscrupulous to manipulate elections. 
He demanded the Australian ballot system. He had ad 
vocated this reform in magazine articles in 1871 and 
1883; he had inserted it, though not in express terms, in 
the platform he had written and stood on in the may 
oralty fight. But at this Cooper Union congratulation 
meeting on November 6, 1886, began the agitation of 
the idea for the first time seriously in American politics. 

 484 LIFE OF HENRY GEOKGE [1886-1887 

It was taken up by the trade unions and labour move 
ments in various parts of the country, and acquiring sup 
port from other sources, was, in one form or another, 
within a few years adopted by most of the States in the 
Union, and ultimately by all. 

With a view to carrying the land reform, ballot reform 
and lesser principles into practical effect, resolutions were 
passed at the Cooper Union meeting declaring that a per 
manent political organisation be effected in New York 
and elsewhere. It was also resolved to carry on syste 
matic educational work through the, medium of lectures 
and speeches and reading matter. A committee to direct 
this consisting of John McMackin, Eev. Dr. McGlynn and 
Prof. David B. Scott was named. The latter, on ac 
count of ill health, soon gave place to James Eedpath, 
managing editor of the "North American Review." This 
committee opened an office in the Cooper Union building, 
and with Gaybert Barnes as secretary, at once com 
menced the organisation through the country, and espe 
cially through New York State, of "Land and Labour 
Clubs." 

But more important than this, at least to Mr. George 
personally, was the announcement of his intention to 
start a weekly newspaper—the first number to be issued 
on January 8 of the new year. A prospectus he sent out 
brought in many yearly subscriptions, with money in ad 
vance; and with this money and $500 borrowed from a 
deeply interested English friend, Thomas Briggs of Lon 
don, the paper was started, the printing being done on 
the presses of the "New York Herald," by courtesy of 
James Gordon Bennett. Mr. George had thought of nam 
ing his paper "Light," but on the suggestion of John 
Eussell Young, he adopted the title of "The Standard." 

The paper started with high expectations and a large 

 Age, 47-48] "THE STANDARD" STAFF 485 

salaried staff. Besides Mr. George as editor and pro 
prietor, there were Wm. T. Croasdale, a trained news 
paper man, as managing editor; Louis F. Post as editorial 
and special writer, Eev. John W. Kramer as special 
writer, J. W. Sullivan as labour editor and special writer, 
W. B. Scott as stenographer to Mr. George and exchange 
editor, Henry George, Jr., as correspondence editor; T. L. 
McCready, John V. George and Richard F. George in the 
business department, and William McCabe as foreman of 
the composing room—eleven men in all, besides the type 
setters. 

Mr. George said in his salutatory that he established the 
paper with the hope of aiding in the work of abolishing 
"industrial slavery." "Confident in the strength of 
truth," he said, "I shall give no quarter to abuses and 
ask none of their champions. ... I shall endeavour 
to conduct this paper by the same rules on which a just 
man would regulate his conduct. ... I hope to make 
this paper the worthy exponent and advocate of a great 
party yet unnamed that is now beginning to form, but 
at the same time to make its contents so varied and inter 
esting as to insure for it a general circulation." 

The first issues of the paper contained many well writ 
ten articles on political and economic matters—in fact 
were "varied and interesting." But everything was 
thrown into eclipse by signed articles from Mr. George's 
pen on "The McGlynn Case," which was now attracting 
international attention. 

As has been said in the previous chapter, Dr. McGlynn 
was suspended from his priestly office for two weeks dur 
ing the mayoralty campaign for refusing to absent him 
self from the George meeting in Chickering Hall, while 
the Vicar-General of tlie diocese a few days before elec 
tion wrote a letter that was published in the newspapers 

 486 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [1886-1887 

condemning Mr. George's principles as "unsound, unsafe 
and contrary to the teachings of the Church." A fortnight 
or more following the election the Archbishop, in a pastoral 
letter that was read in all the Catholic churches in New 
York, attacked "certain unsound principles and theories 
which assailed the rights of property." Though not naming 
Henry George, it was clear that the principles were those 
with which he was identified. A few days later an inter 
view with Dr. McGlynn appeared in the "New York 
Tribune" avowing the very principles that the Archbishop 
had condemned, and taking direct issue in asserting that 
they were not contrary to the doctrines of the Church. 
For this the Archbishop suspended Dr. McGlynn for the 
remainder of the year and wrote a letter to the Cardinal 
Prefect of the Propaganda laying the matter before him.1 
This letter procured a cable ordering Dr. McGlynn to 
Koine. When the Archbishop by letter informed him of 
this, Dr. McGlynn by letter replied that several grave 
reasons, among them his physician's orders (he had heart 
trouble, which, with other complications, ultimately 
caused his death) would prevent his undertaking the jour 
ney. But he added: 

"As I cannot go to Eome to give an account of my 
doctrine about land, I would say that I have made it 
clear in speeches, in reported interviews and in published 
articles, and I repeat it here: I have taught and shall 
continue to teach in speeches and writings as long as 1 
live, that land is rightfully the property of the people in 
common and that private ownership of land is against 
natural justice, no matter by what civil or ecclesiastical 
laws it may be sanctioned; and I would bring about 
instantly, if I could, such change of laws all the world 

1 Statement of Rt. Rev. M. A. Corrigan, " The Standard," 
January 29, 1887. 

 Age, 47-48] McGLYNN'S LAND DOCTRINE 487 

over as would confiscate private property in land, with 
out one penny of compensation to the miscalled owners."1 

The Archbishop responded to this declaration by ex 
tending Dr. McGlynn's suspension until such time as 
Cardinal Simeoni or the Pope should act. 

Meanwhile, Mr. George had early in December (1886) 
addressed an open letter to the Archbishop answering 
that part of the pastoral "taken by the press as placing 
the Catholic Church in the attitude of a champion of 
private property in land." The article did not pass be 
yond a quiet discussion of economic principles. But 
when Archbishop Corrigan procured the order for Dr. 
McGlynn to go to Borne, Mr. George came out in a blaz 
ing article in the first issue of "The Standard." He 
presented the importance of the subject in this style: 

"The case of Dr. McGlynn brings up in definite form 
the most important issues which have ever been presented 
in the history of the Catholic Church in the United 
States. It has in fact an interest far transcending this 
country, in so much as the question which it involves 
is the attitude of the greatest of Christian Churches 
towards the world-wide social movement of our times, 
and its decision will be fraught with the most important 
consequences both to the development of that movement 
and to the Church itself." 

He reached the heart of the matter when he said: 

"What Dr. McGlynn is punished for is for taking 
the side of the working men against the system of in 
justice and spoliation and the rotten rings which have 
made the government in New York a by-word of corrup 
tion. In the last Presidential election Dr. McGlynn 

*Dr. McGlynn's review of his case, "The Standard," February 5, 1887. 

 488 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1886-1887 

made some vigorous speeches in behalf of the Democratic 
candidate without a word or thought of remonstrance. 
His sin is in taking a side in politics which was opposed 
to the rings that had the support of the Catholic hier 
archy." 

Some of Dr. McGlynn's friends, said George, advised 
the clergyman's obeying the summons to Borne, "in order 
to present the case of those Catholics who believe in the 
common right to land, and to force the question to an 
issue, which would forever still any pretence that this doc 
trine was condemned by the Church."1 To this Mr. 
George replied: 

"This might be all very well if Dr. McGlynn could go 
to Eome after some such unequivocal popular express 
ion as would convince the Eoman authorities that he 
was the ambassador of American Catholics, and that 
they did not propose to be trifled with. But for him to 
go to Eome as a suspended priest with any expectation 
of getting a hearing as against an Archbishop, backed by 
all the influence of the rich Catholics of the United 
States, and by all the powerful influence of the English 
Colony and English intriguers at Eome, would be folly. 
Dr. McGlynn would have no chance in Eome to make 
any presentation of the case, even if the Propaganda 
were a perfectly impartial tribunal. ... Is it 
likely that they would give any hearing now to the 'priest 
McGlynn,' whom they condemned four years ago because 
of his partiality to the 'Irish revolution' ?" 

Mr. George quoted Vicar-General Preston to the effect 
that Dr. McGlynn was "not sent for to be complimented," 

1 This was Mr. George's own view at first, but he yielded to the judg 
ment of Dr. McGlynn, who, from what he had seen in Rome while at the 
College of the Propaganda, believed he would be unable to get a hearing 
at the Vatican. 

 Age, 47-48] ORDERED TO RECANT 489 

but "to be disciplined." Proof, if any was needed, that 
the plan was to have the case prejudged came a little 
later when the Archbishop published, as coming from 
Cardinal Simeoni, a cable message directing him to "give 
orders to have Dr. McGlynn again invited to proceed to 
Eome and also to condemn in writing the doctrines to 
which he has given utterance in public meetings or which 
have been attributed to him in the press." 

The first issue of "The Standard," or more particularly 
Mr. George's article, made a sensation, and two extra 
editions of the paper, or in all seventy-five thousand 
copies, were struck off. But "The Standard" was prac 
tically alone in the fight for Dr. McGlynn. Even papers 
with a strong Protestant bias and generally ready to 
seize upon any circumstances disadvantageous to the Cath 
olic Church, now, because of the social and political up 
heaval threatened by George and McGlynn, were glad to 
side with an Archbishop who used tyrannical power 
against a liberal and public-spirited priest and with a 
foreign power that dared to interfere with and curtail 
the rights of a citizen of the United States. And the 
newspapers approved of the Archbishop's action when, in 
the middle of January, he removed Dr. McGlynn from 
the pastorate of St. Stephen's Church. Nor did they 
make any derogatory comments at the unseemly manner 
in which the order was executed, Rev. Arthur Donnally, 
until then of St. Michael's Church, the appointee, going 
to St. Stephen's rectory, without notice of any kind, and 
in the absence of Dr. McGlynn, walking into the latter's 
private room and attempting to take instant possession, 
notwithstanding the fact that clothes, books and papers 
scattered about gave evidence that the man who had occu 
pied the chamber for twenty years was yet its occupant 
and would need a brief time to remove his effects. Fa- 

 490 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1885-1887 

ther Donnally afterwards went into the Church proper 
and tore Dr. McGlynn's name from the confessional, and 
later still, attended by a police captain, ruthlessly broke 
in upon the solemn duties of confession, and in a loud 
voice ordered two of the assistant priests, and the people 
who had come to devotions, out of the place; and this and 
much more against the all but violent protestations of a 
great congregation by whom for a generation Dr. Mc- 
Glynn had been deeply loved and venerated. 

A chorus went up from the press that Henry George in 
"attacking the Catholic Church" had destroyed his political 
future and hope of "The Standard's" success. He replied 
that he did not attack "the Church," but the men who mis 
used the Church; that he had no political aspirations, else 
he would not have re-entered journalism; and that if the 
time came when "The Standard" could not "freely and 
frankly take a stand on any question of public interest," 
then it would be "high time for it to give up the ghost." 

The case of Dr. McGlynn now seemed to be in the 
hands of the Church authorities at Rome. Yet strangely 
enough at this very time Cardinal Gibbons wrote from 
Eome to Eev. Dr. Eichard L. Burtsell, of the Epiphany 
Church, Dr. McGlynn's lifelong friend and legal adviser, 
that in personal interviews with Cardinal Simeoni and 
the Pope, both had stated to him that they had not passed 
judgment, much less condemned Dr. McGlynn. Car 
dinal Gibbons therefore urged Dr. McGlynn to go to 
Eome. As we have seen Dr. McGlynn had reluctance to 
going to Eome as he felt that he would get small chance 
of a hearing. Nevertheless he now sent word through 
Dr. Burtsell that he would go as soon as the weak state 
of his heart would permit, on condition that he should 
first be reinstated and that a public statement be made 
by some one in authority that no judgment had been 

 Age, 47-48] CROSS OP THE NEW CEUSADE 491 

passed upon the case and that his land doctrines had not 
been condemned at Eome. But Cardinal Gibbons for 
some reason or other failed to place before the Propa 
ganda or the Pope Dr. Burtsell's letter and no effort at 
reinstatement or correction of public utterances was made. 

Dr. McGlynn had not the least idea of receding from 
his position. He held that there was no conflict between 
the doctrine of the land for the people and the funda 
mental truths of the Church. Towards the end of March 
he repeated his land doctrines in a most emphatic and elo 
quent manner in a lecture in the Academy of Music on 
"The Cross of the New Crusade," before a very large 
audience, that was composed chiefly of Catholics and 
largely of St. Stephen's parishioners; and which marked 
every period with a burst of applause. 

This led almost immediately to a movement to awaken 
in the hearts and minds of the poor and outcast of the 
great city a hope for a civilisation that should be based 
on social justice and bring peace and plenty to all. The 
idea had originated some time before with Thomas L. 
McCready of "The Standard" staff. His plan was to 
form a militant society against poverty, and with it to 
go into and rouse the New York tenement regions. It 
was a new scheme to educate the masses on the land ques 
tion. After Dr. McGlynn's lecture on "The Cross of the 
New Crusade," the McCready idea took fire. The first 
steps towards organisation were taken at a little meeting 
in "The Standard" office, and a name suggested by Mc 
Cready was chosen—"The Anti-Poverty Society."1 

!The declaration of the Anti-Poverty Society consisted of a single para 
graph, viz: "The time having come for an active warfare against the 
conditions that, in spite of the advance in the powers of production, con 
demn so many to degrading poverty, and foster vice, crime, and greed, 
the Anti-Poverty Society has been formed. The object of the Society is 

 492 LIFE OF HENKY GEORGE [1888-1887 

By common voice Dr. McGlynn was named president, 
and Henry George, vice-president; with Benjamin Urner, 
a commission merchant, for treasurer, and Michael Clark, 
an editorial writer on the "Irish World," for secretary. 

The first public meeting took place in Chickering Hall 
on Sunday evening, May 1. The hall was crowded and 
thousands were turned away. Dr. McGlynn's address 
was the chief feature of the meeting. Of it Mr. George 
said in his signed editorial in "The Standard": 

"Never before in New York had a great audience 
sprung to its feet and in a tumult of enthusiasm cheered 
the Lord's Prayer; but it was the Lord's Prayer with a 
meaning that the Churches have ignored. The simple 
words, 'Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth 
as it is in heaven/ as they fell from the lips of a Christ 
ian priest who proclaims the common fatherhood of God 
and the common brotherhood of man; who points to the 
widespread poverty and suffering not as in accordance 
with God's will, but as in defiance of God's order, and who 
appeals to the love of God and the hope of heaven, not 
to make men submissive of social injustice which brings 
want and misery, but to urge them to.the duty of sweep 
ing away this injustice—have in them the power with 
which Christianity conquered the world. And in New 
York to-day, as by the sea of Galilee eighteen centuries 
ago, though the Scribes and Pharisees are filled with 
rage and the high priests and rich men are troubled and 
dismayed, the people hear them gladly." 

Men and women of all religious denominations and of 
no religion at all came in flocks to enroll as members of 

to spread, by such peaceable and lawful means as may be found most de 
sirable and efficient, a knowledge of the truth that God has made ample 
provision for the need of all men during their residence upon earth, and 
that involuntary poverty is the result of the human laws that allow indi 
viduals to claim as private property that which the Creator has provided 
for the use of alL" 

 AKe, 47-48] ANTI-POVERTY SOCIETY 493 

the Anti-Poverty Society, and the next meeting on the 
following Sunday evening was in a larger place, the Acad 
emy of Music, when Henry George made the chief address. 
The press turned loose denunciation and ridicule, but that 
only served to extend the membership and to advertise 
the meetings which came to be held regularly every Sun 
day evening in the Academy. 

The Archbishop early in May had apparently received 
a letter from Cardinal Simeoni, summoning Dr. McGlynn 
to Rome and giving him forty days from receipt of the 
letter in which to do so, under pain of excommunication, 
"to be incurred by the act itself and also by name," if he 
should fail. 

Dr. McGlynn contented himself with his former reply 
that grave reasons would prevent his making the journey 
then. The conspicuous signs in the Anti-Poverty move 
ment were that for his personal character, his doctrines 
on the land question and his consequent attitude towards 
his ecclesiastical superiors, Dr. McGlynn had a large and 
strong following—indeed, that a large part of his former 
parishioners had joined the movement and hung on every 
word that dropped from his lips. If these signs failed 
there could be no mistaking the size and character of a 
parade and demonstration held in his honour and in pro 
test against the impending excommunication. It was 
composed mainly of Catholic working men. A not- 
friendly newspaper—the "New York Herald"—estimated 
that seventy-five thousand persons took part. But in an 
ticipation of what seemed certain to occur, Henry George 
wrote in "The Standard" (June 25) : 

"There stands hard by the palace of the holy inquis 
ition in Eome a statue which has been placed there since 
Rome became the capital of a united Italy. On it is 
this inscription: 

 494 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [1886-1887 
GALILEO GALILEI 

was imprisoned in the neighbouring palace 

for having seen 
that the earth revolves around the sun. 

"In after years when the true-hearted American priest 
shall have rested from his labours, and what is now 
being done is history, there will arise by the spot where 
he shall be excommunicated such a statue and such an 
inscription. And days will come when happy little chil 
dren, such as now die like flies in tenement houses, shall 
be held up by their mothers to lay garlands upon it." 

The term of forty days having expired on July 3, the 
threatened penalty fell. The Archbishop did not attempt 
to make any ceremony of it. He merely wrote two let 
ters, one to Dr. McGlynn and one to a Catholic news 
paper addressing the clergy and laity of the diocese, say 
ing that the Doctor having failed to comply with the 
order from Eome within the time set, had thereby in 
curred excommunication. Dr. McGlynn had already been 
stripped of his church and the right to perform his 
priestly offices, so that excommunication so far as the 
outside world could see went for little. And the loving 
regard of the Catholic poor of St. Stephen's parish re 
mained unaltered. They continued to crowd into the 
Anti-Poverty meetings and wherever else their "soggarth 
aroon" publicly appeared. Nor did the excommunication 
in the least change Dr. McGlynn's own belief that he was 
still a Catholic and a priest, or lessen his sense of obligation 
to be true to the Catholic faith. Not only did he continue 
etrictiy to follow in private life that course which had 
made it impossible for searching enmity to breathe against 

 Age, 47-48] McGLYNN EXCOMMUNICATED 495 

his character as a priest or a man, but in the addresses 
before the Anti-Poverty Society and elsewhere he invari 
ably opened with the reverent spirit of a devout minister 
of the gospel, and at the heart of every discourse was 
religion. "Once a priest, always a priest," he cherished 
in his heart of hearts as among the most precious of the 
ancient sayings. 

Not content with the excommunication of Dr. Mc- 
Glynn, Archbishop Corrigan, in the interpretation of gen 
eral instructions he had received from Eome, based upon 
his own presentation of matters in New York, punished, 
by transferrence to less important missions in the diocese, 
a number of priests who failed to give outward sign of 
condemnation of Dr. McGlynn. Even Dr. Burtsell, emi 
nent in the United States as an ecclesiastical jurist, was 
deprived of an important office in the diocese and even 
tually of his church in New York City, being sent in 1890 
to the little Church of St. Mary, at Eondout, up the 
Hudson. The Archbishop in his reasons to the Propa 
ganda for this latter action said: "Dr. Burtsell has the 
name of being, and is held by public opinion, as well as 
by the followers of Dr. McGlynn, as by the clergy and 
the faithful of New York, to be not only a personal friend 
of Dr. McGlynn, but also the leader of those few discon 
tented priests who more or less sustain Dr. McGlynn, and 
moreover the counsellor, defender and abettor of the lat 
ter." Nor did the Archbishop stop here. In two in 
stances he prevented burial of persons in the Catholic 
Calvary Cemetery, because, while these persons were 
known to be strict in their duties to the Church, they 
attended the Anti-Poverty Society lectures of Dr. Mc 
Glynn. 

Meanwhile Henry George had been doing some lectur 
ing in other cities on what now began to be called the 

 496 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1886-1887 

"Single Tax" question.1 He made an important trip, 
under the auspices of Major James B. Pond's bureau, to 
Madison and Milwaukee, Wis., Burlington, la., Saginaw, 
Mich., and Chicago. But work on "The Standard" en 
gaged most of his time up to the middle of summer 
of 1887. 

Discussion over the excommunication had not entirely 
subsided when a new excitement commenced — a political 
contest for State and municipal offices. A State con 
vention called by the United Labour Party of New York 
City, met in Syracuse on August 17, with representatives 
from political labour parties or Land and Labour Clubs 
in all the important centres in the Empire State. This 
was the direct outcome of the great vote for Henry 
George's candidacy for mayor the year before. George 
and most of his immediate supporters were confident that 
the labour movement would draw out a very large vote in 
the State this year, which would permanently establish 
the new party and make it a factor in the presidential 
campaign in 1888. 

But weeks before the convention met it became evident 
that the socialists, who had supported George in 1886 
and raised no objection to the platform on which he 

term "Single Tax" may be said to have been anticipated in 
" Progress and Poverty" (Book VIII, chap, iv ; "Memorial Edition," p. 
425), but the commencement of its general use probably dates from early 
in 1887 ; Mr. George, in a speech at a single tax conference in Chicago in 
1893, saying that no one had been able to devise a suitable title for the 
cause until one day Thomas G. Shearman of New York remarked to him : 
"It seems to me that the proper title should be "The Single Tax.1" 
" And then," said Mr. George, "an article was published under that title 
and somehow or other the name stuck." The article referred to was a 
report in "The Standard " of a speech by Mr. Shearman (See "Standard," 
May 28, 1887). Mr. George never regarded the term as describing his 
philosophy, but rather as indicating the method he would take to apply it 

 Age, 47-48] FIGHT WITH SOCIALISTS 497 

stood, and which he had himself written, were now bent 
on getting their principles to the front. They consisted 
of comparatively few men in New York City, but what 
they lacked in numbers they made up in earnestness and 
activity. They now undertook to steer the new political 
movement. They not only wished to keep their social 
istic organisation intact while they acted as members in 
the larger United Labour Party, but their executive com 
mittee issued a statement insisting "that the burning 
social question is not a land tax, but the abolition of all 
private property in instruments of production." It was 
the same kind of opposition that George had encountered 
from the London socialists at the outset of his 1883-84 
lecture campaign in Great Britain. He wrote in "The 
Standard" the week before the convention met that there 
could be no place for the socialists in the new party if 
they pressed their principles. "Either they must go out," 
said he, "or the majority must go out, for it is certain 
that the majority of the men who constitute the United 
Labour Party do not propose to nationalise capital and 
are not in favour of the abolition of all private property 
in the 'instruments of production.'" 

The matter came to a head in the convention, to which 
the socialists sent contesting delegates from three of the 
New York City districts. They were given a hearing, but 
they were refused seats because they belonged to another 
political party. During that hearing they insisted on put 
ting socialism forward and on the right to be members 
of the Socialistic Labour Party while active in the United 
Labour Party as well. They became very bitter about 
their exclusion and taxed George with throwing them over 
from motives of policy. They and their associates and 
supporters put in the field a list of their own candidates 
on a purely socialistic platform. 

 498 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1880-1887 

Thus Mr. George was compelled in public action to 
draw a line of demarcation which in writing "Protection 
or Free Trade?" in 1885 he had been at pains to make 
very clear as separating his own philosophy from that of 
eocialism.1 It also happened that occasion arose for him 
to draw a line on anarchy, or rather on the Chicago an 
archists sentenced to death for being accessory to the kill 
ing of several Chicago policemen in 1885. The breaking 
up in October, 1887, by the police of a public meeting in 
New Jersey called to express sympathy with the Chicago 
anarchists caused Mr. George to protest in "The Stand 
ard" in behalf of free speech, but at the same time to say 
that he believed after reading the review of the testimony 
which was given in the Supreme Court decision2 when the 
cases were appealed that the Chicago anarchists were 
guilty under the laws of Illinois. However, he thought 
mitigating circumstances and the fact that a "tragical 
death always tends to condone mistakes and crimes" would 
plead the commutation of the sentence of death to a 
sentence of imprisonment. He wrote this publicly in 
"The Standard," and privately he wrote a letter to the 
Governor of Illinois urging clemency on the same grounds. 

But to return to the convention. Henry George and 
Dr. McGlynn, who also was a delegate, were the central 
figures. Henry George drafted the platform, in prin 
ciple the same as that he had written for his mayoralty 
campaign the year before. It soon became evident that 
he would be pressed to accept the nomination for the 

1 "Protection or Free Trade ?" chap, xxviii. (Memorial Edition, 
pp. 299-312), "Free Trade and Socialism." 

2 Some of Mr. George's friends have believed that had he read the full 
testimony of the case, and not what they believed to be the Supreme 
Courts' very unfair view of it, he would have come to a different con 
clusion. 

 Age, 47-48] GEORGE AGAIN CANDIDATE 499 

chief place on the ticket—that of Secretary of State. He 
shrank from this because he did not like to appear as an 
office hunter and because he thought it bad party policy 
to run him just then. But an intimation that it might 
be said that he held back* and wished another put forward 
because he saw small hope of election decided him to 
accept. The rest of the State ticket was filled out with 
men known in the labour movements of their respective 
localities, but little known in general politics. 

Mr. George early entered on an active speaking cam 
paign through the State and was accompanied by corre 
spondents of the "Herald" and "World" of New York 
City, who gave fair reports of his speeches and their ap 
parent effects. The Governor of the State, David B. Hill, 
having in a public speech made some reference to the 
labour party candidate and his principles, Mr. George in 
vited him to joint debate, but the Governor ignored the 
challenge. However, Sergius E. Shevitch,1 an able rep 
resentative of the socialists—one of the unseated Syra 
cuse convention delegates—challenged Mr. George to de 
bate their respective principles. The latter accepted and 
they met in Miner's Theatre on Eighth Avenue, New 
York City. Dr. McGlynn also travelled over the State 
making speeches, as did Louis F. Post, Judge James G. 
Maguire of California, Eev. Hugh 0. Pentecost of New 
ark, and many others. Moreover, a million tracts, mostly 
on the land question, were distributed. It was a canvass 
remarkably widespread and effective, considering the lack 
of money and organisation. Collections were made at 
many of the meetings, and small sums came from indi 
vidual sources, but most of the scant fund obtained for 

1A few years afterward Mr. Shevitch accepted a position in Russia under 
the Czar's government. 

 600 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1886-1887 

the campaign came from a fair held under the auspices 
of the Anti-Poverty Society and the superintendence of 
William T. Croasdale in Madison Square Garden during 
the first three weeks in October. 

All the while opposition was not asleep. The poli 
ticians in both the great parties considered that this elec 
tion involved the fate of Xew York, a pivotal State, in 
the national contest the next year, and therefore were 
bent on making strong party showings. The hierarchy of 
the Catholic Church of New York City of course set the 
seal of condemnation upon the new party and openly and 
secretly stirred up opposition everywhere. But what 
proved a great surprise to both George and McGlynn was 
that Patrick Ford broke with them and took the side of 
the Catholic Church authorities. He set aside the under 
lying land question, upon which in the past Henry George 
himself had not taken more radical ground, nor given a 
deeper foundation in ethics. He ignored the fact that 
Dr. McGlynn had on his invitation in 1882 made the very 
speeches that brought the first censures of the ecclesias 
tical authorities. He made no distinction between the 
officers or human representatives of the Church, whom 
they opposed, and the doctrines or spiritual part of the 
Church, which they did not oppose. He professed a con 
tinuance of personal friendliness to both men, but said that 
he must separate himself from their public course because 
they were warring on the Catholic Church. He set forth 
his views in three long, signed, double-leaded articles in 
the "Irish World," special editions of which were distrib 
uted widely over the State. 

Then, too, George's attitude towards the socialists and 
the Chicago anarchists, while losing what support their 
small numbers represented, together with the far wider 
and more important support they were able to influence for 

 Ago. 47-48] THE CHICAGO ANARCHISTS 501 

the time being by charging him with mean motives,1 did 
not draw to him the privileged classes, who had the year 
before charged him with preaching blood and revolution. 
But notwithstanding opposition his courageous, san 
guine nature soared. He was filled with high hopes. 
Neither the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State, 

1 Mr. George wrote after election (November 25) to C. D. F. Gutschow 
of San Francisco, the German translator of "Progress and Poverty": 
" I have no doubt whatever that the notion tLat I had turned on the 
socialists as a mere matter of policy was widely disseminated among our 
German population and did me harm, for this was the socialists' per 
sistent cry through their German papers, and I had no way of correcting 
it. The truth, however, is just the reverse. Beginning about January 
of this year, they made the most persistent efforts to force socialistic doc 
trines upon ns. I did not resist, and refused even to enter into con 
troversy with them until it became absolutely necessary. There was no 
alternative other than to consent to have the movement ranked as a 
socialistic movement or to split with the socialists. Although this lost 
us votes for the present, I am perfectly certain that it will prove of ad 
vantage in the long run. Policy, however, did not enter into my calcu 
lations ; I was only anxious to do the right thing. 

"Second, as to the anarchists. The article to which you refer 
[averring that the accused men had not had a fair trial], published in the 
second issue of the paper, was not written by me, but hy a gentleman in 
whom I have confidence, Mr. Louis F. Post. The opinion there ex 
pressed was my opinion, simply because I had received it from him, until 
I found that the Supreme Court of Illinois had made a unanimous deci 
sion. Our bench is not immaculate, but I could not believe that every 
one of seven men, with the responsibility of life and death hanging over 
him, could unjustly condemn these men. In spite of all pressure I re 
fused to say anything abont the matter until I had a chance to somewhat 
examine it for myself, and a reading of the decision of the Supreme Court 
convinced me, as it did everyone else whom I got to read it, that the men 
had not been condemned, as I had previously supposed, for mere opinion 
and general utterances. Not satisfied, however, with this, I sought the 
opinion of Judge Maguire, who expressed the same opinion which you say 
he has expressed in California. At my earnest request he said he would 
read the papers. The result on his mind you see in the last copy of ' The 
Standard' (November 19, letter of Judge Maguire to S. K. M .)• [His 

 602 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [1886-1887 

Fred. Cook, nor the Eepublican candidate, Colonel Fred. 
D. Grant, son of the late General U. S. Grant, made any 
particular canvass; whereas George spoke everywhere and 
to large audiences. He therefore became confident, as 
did those about him, of a big vote—he hoped 150,000. 
But fate decreed otherwise. He received only 72,000 
votes, as against 459,000 for the Eepublican and 480,000 
for the Democratic candidate, respectively. In New York 
City he received less than 38,000, as against 68,000 the 
year before. Louis F. Post, who was candidate for Dis 
trict Attorney on the local or county ticket of the labour 
party, was with Mr. George when news of the crushing 
defeat came. He has said: 

"He and I went to the Astor House to watch the re 
turns on the 'Herald' bulletins across the way. They 
were frightfully disappointing. It was soon evident to 
both of us that the United Labour Party movement had 
that day collapsed. In that frame of mind we went up 
town, and just as our car was about to start, we standing 
on the front platform, I said: 'Well, George, do you see 
the hand of the Lord in this?' He looked at me with 
an expression of simple confidence which I shall never 
forget, and answered: 'No, I don't see it; but it's there.' 
Then he went on to say how he had thought a way of 
bringing back the people to the land had opened in the 
labour campaign of the preceding year, but "now that 
way had closed; yet another way would open, and when 
that closed still another, until the Lord's wUl on earth 
would be done." 

finding was that the condemned anarchists were "all guilty of wilful, 
deliberate, premeditated murder."] 

" It is in the nature of things that the man who acts solely by con 
science must often be misunderstood and seem to others as if he were 
acting from low motives, when in reality he is acting from the highest. 
This cannot be avoided, but I so much value your esteem and friendship 
that I want to make this personal explanation to you." 

 Age, 47-48] THE HAND OF THE LORD 503 

Mr. George left the car to go to the labour party 
headquarters. There he found a crowd of men struck 
dumb and utterly disheartened with the defeat. He 
sprang upon the platform and words of hope and courage 
came from him, which loosed in his hearers a flood of 
emotions that showed themselves in frantic cheer on cheer 
and a pressing forward to grasp the leader's hands. 

 CHAPTEE X. 

PEOGRESS THROUGH DISSENSIONS. 
1887-1889. AGE, 48-50. 

is there to whom 'years have brought the phil- 
osophic mind/ who, looking back over his own 
career, may not see how often what seemed at the time to 
be disaster has really proved a blessing in disguise; that 
opportunity has come out of disappointment; and that 
the thing which he at the moment most strove to gain 
would have proved the thing which it would have been 
worst for him to have?" 

Thus wrote Henry George in "The Standard" immedi 
ately after the election of 1887. He expected a new hope 
to rise out of the great defeat. It was a repetition of 
the thought he had uttered to Louis F. Post on election 
night, that, though the old road had closed, a new way 
would open. And the new way did open within a few 
weeks, for President Cleveland sent to Congress a mes 
sage advising a reduction of the tariff. It was not a 
free trade message; it expressly repudiated free trade. 
It was the weak little cry of "tariff reform." But it was a 
crack in the tariff dike that discussion would wear larger. 
The hitherto dominant rings and reactionary protection 
ist powers inside the Democratic party, and Mr. Blaine 
and the Republicans outside, made dire threats against 

504 

 Age, 48-50] TAEIFF ISSUE RAISED 505 

this policy. But the President was firm. He prepared 
for a hard, stubborn fight. This could only be educa 
tional and bear upon the campaign in the fall of 1888, 
as a Republican Senate stood ready to checkmate any 
thing the Democratic House of Representatives might 
choose to do in the matter. 

This laying aside of the old war issues and raising the 
tariff question was precisely what Henry George had 
hoped for since 1876, when he made free trade speeches 
in California for Tilden, and to bring on which he sev 
eral years later wrote "Protection or Free Trade?" For 
the abolition of the tariff was necessary to establish the 
single tax as a national policy. And because parties at 
all times had been nothing to him, but principles every 
thing, he quickly announced that while he thought it 
unwise for single taxers to commit themselves to a line 
of policy so far in advance of possible changes in the 
political situation, yet it seemed to him that he would 
have to vote with the Democratic party and support Cleve 
land should Oeveland be renominated and should he con 
tinue his assault on the tariff. 

Post, Croasdale, Johnson, Lewis, Shearman, Garrison 
of Massachusetts, Maguire of California and a great num 
ber of active single taxers in New York and over the 
country viewed the matter in the same light; and many 
so expressed themselves in "The Standard." 

But there were others who wished to avoid the tariff 
issue. They desired to put an independent single tax 
candidate in the field. Some of these had left the Re 
publican party, yet thought little good could come from 
the Democratic party. Others, headed by John Mc- 
Mackin and Gaybert Barnes, plainly said they favoured 
an independent campaign in the "doubtful" States of 
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Indiana. When 

 606 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [1887-1889 

drawn into the debate in the columns of "The Standard" 
over the matter, Mr. George said that this did not look 
like standing up even for the single tax, but rather like 
leading the "United Labour Party into the same igno 
minious death trap into which Butler led the Greenback- 
Labour Party" in 1884—Butler going into the field osten 
sibly as an independent candidate, but towards the end 
of the canvass showing an undisguised purpose to defeat 
the Democratic candidate, Cleveland, and elect the Ke- 
publican candidate, Blaine. 

This independent movement probably would have had 
no standing whatever but for the support of Dr. McGlynn. 
He had made speeches for Cleveland in 1884 and was 
still on friendly terms with him. Moreover, he was a 
thorough free trader. But he could not endure the idea 
of even the loosest kind of an alliance with Tammany 
Hall, the representative of Democracy in New York City. 
Tammany Hall had worked hand in hand with Archbishop 
Corrigan and his advisers in seeking to crush the land 
or single tax movement and those who headed it. Hence 
association with it was for him intolerable. 

Barnes and McMackin had control of the central ma 
chinery of what was left of the United Labour Party. 
They also controlled the executive committee of the Land 
and Labour clubs. The names of both of these organi 
sations were used in February in a call for a national 
convention. George was aspersed for refusing to join. 
Nnd here, indeed, to the superficial was the spectacle of 
Hie prime mover in the single tax cause refusing to con 
tinue in the direct line of the single tax movement. Fric 
tion was bound to arise, and friction did arise, between 
those who were for George's policy and those against it. 
A split occurred in the Anti-Poverty Society. Not to 
make scandal, Mr. George and his supporters withdrew. 

 Age, 48-50] ANTI-POVERTY SPLIT 507 

At this time, when feeling among single taxers all over 
the country was running high, Mrs. Frances M. Milne, 
the California poet, wrote a letter of approval to "The 
Standard" office in which, quoting a taunt that Henry 
George "belonged to a party," she exclaimed: "Belonged 
to a party! No! not even a nation, not even an era 
can claim him—he belongs to the world! to all time!" 
Mr. George replied (March 7, 1888), and none but Mrs. 
Milne saw this letter till after his death: 

"I am very glad to know that you approve of my 
course, and I thank you for your good opinion; but, to 
speak frankly, I do not like the extravagance of your 
praise. This is not affectation. Such praise is the 
deadliest poison that can be offered to the human soul, 
and were I ever to accept it, my power would soon be 
gone. What power I have had comes from the fact that 
I know my own weakness; and when duty lay on me, 
have neither feared blame nor sought praise. If you 
shall survive me, as in the order of nature will be the 
case, then, when you have heard that I am dead, and it 
can be said of me, he 'has fought the good fight, he has 
kept the faith,' write me a requiem song of gladness and 
hope." * 

Before the Presidential battle opened other things of 
prime importance to Mr. George occurred. In January, 
1888, "The Standard" had entered its second year. With 
subsidence of the excitement arising from Dr. McGlynn's 
excommunication and the State campaign, the circulation 
ran down to between 20,000 and 25,000. Though this 
was several times as large as other weeklies that were re 
garded as "good advertising mediums," its radical doc- 

'A few days after his death a requiem by Mrs. Milne, entitled "From 
the Battle," appeared in the San Francisco "Star." 

 608 LIFE OF HENKY GEOBGE [1887-1889 

trines made advertisers shy and the journal had to fol 
low the pathway of the elder Garrison's "Liberator" and 
of almost all social reform papers (go almost without ad 
vertising—the mainstay of a newspaper). It was being 
read by thinking people in the various walks of life and 
was having strong intellectual influence; but its large 
staff was expensive and Mr. George was financially draw 
ing less and less from it. Lecturing, however, now began 
to yield something, yet this, like his books, did not return 
what many of his friends doubtless supposed. Only the 
year before (January 29, 1887), he wrote to his friend 
Giitschow of San Francisco: 

"That you should share in the notion that I have 
made so much money somewhat surprises me and not a 
little amuses. I allow all such newspaper statements to 
go uncontradicted and do not publish my real condition 
to the world; but the truth is, I have made very little 
out of my books—a few hundred dollars a year, that is 
all. With the exception of $2,000 I got for the English 
edition of 'Social Problems,' I have had almost nothing 
from abroad—and I am not a good saver, and besides 
my living expenses, have large demands to meet. But 
the net truth is that on the day I started 'The Standard' 
I was some thousands of dollars poorer than when I left 
San Francisco, owing that much more money. The sort 
of work that I have done does not pay. In lecturing, for 
instance, I have never made anything. The times that 
I have lectured for nothing and given up my fee have 
eaten up all I got in at other times. I merely mention 
this that you may know the real truth." 

Mr. George sacrificed his copyrights or gave away books 
whenever he thought one or the other would help to 
spread his principles; and as for lecturing, he wrote to 
his wife from the West in 1887: "The working class 
won't come to high priced lectures and there is not enough 

 Age, 48-50] THE HUTCHINS' BEQUEST 509 

of the other." At another time he wrote: "I can't go 
around assessing the people."1 Happily this improved 
with time, for his pay lectures became increasingly at 
tended. Yet 1888 was like many a year preceding—one 
of financial concern. Mr. George removed "The Stand 
ard" office up-town to 12 Union Square, and his residence 
from Harlem to East Nineteenth Street, the one in this 
way being brought within a short walk of the other. 

What may have widened the belief that Henry George 
enjoyed ample means were frequent references in the 
newspapers to his obtaining a substantial bequest, some 
setting the figures as high as $30,000. Cynics marked 
how the philosopher "progressed from poverty." The 
truth of the matter is that this bequest, first and last, 
brought little but expense and trouble. 

George Hutchins of Ancora, Camden Co., New Jersey, 
a retired farmer, dying in the fall of 1886, left the bulk 
of an estate officially appraised at something less than 
$10,000 to Henry George in trust for the dissemination 
of the George books. Mr. George had never before heard 
of this man, but regarded the bequest as a sign of the 
times and was prepared to enter upon the terms of the 
trust, when he learned from the widow that she had not 
been adequately provided for. Concluding that the en 
tire estate was not more than she morally ought to have, 
he took legal advice with the view of refusing, in her 
favour, the bequest to him. But he found this step to 
be impossible, for the collateral heirs opposed. Indeed, 
they wished to break the will, hoping thereby to get two- 
thirds of the estate for themselves. They brought action 

'One of these letters to Mrs. George calls attention to a marked char 
acteristic—preoccupation. "I flatter myself," he wrote, "that I lost 
nothing until to-night, when I found I had left my nice new dress 
boots somewhere." 

 510 LIFE OF HENKY GEOKGE [1887-1889 

and saddled big expenses for lawyer's fees upon the estate. 
Vice-Chancellor Bird in May, 1888, held the will void 
on the ground that Mr. George's books were opposed to 
public policy in declaring private property in land to be 
robbery.1 Mr. George was indignant and disgusted over 
this condemnation of his principles, but notwithstanding 
his desire to vindicate them, he offered to forego appeal 
if the collateral heirs would allow the property to go to 
the widow. They refused. He therefore appealed and 
won,2 his attorneys at this stage being James F. Minturn, 
Corporation Attorney of Hoboken, N. J., and L. A. Kus- 
sell of Cleveland, O., neither of whom, as Mr. George 
himself said, "asked nor received even the cost of print 
ing their briefs." Mr. George then tried to have the 
widow made trustee in his stead. Failing in this, he in 
structed his attorney not to oppose any claims made by 
her, and her share was thereby largely increased at the 
expense of the bequest. This left Mr. George as trustee 
a claim to the real estate (which he made over for nothing 
to Mrs. Hutchins) and $584 from the personal property. 
This money had been paid for him to John T. Woodhull 
of Camden, his former attorney. Woodhull handed 
George $256, of which the latter gave $70 to the widow 
and retained $186, to pay for the actual cost of paper, 
presswork and mailing of some of his books to fulfill the 
letter of the bequest. But George had to bring suit 
against Woodhull to recover money still in the latter's 
hands, and this suit dragged along for several years. The 
sequel came in 1892, when Mrs. Hutchins, the childless 
widow, was forced upon public charity. Her mind had 
been weakened by her troubles, and she had lost every 

1 Hutchins vs. George, 44 N. J. Equity Reports, p. 124. 
2 Williani S. Braddock exec. vs. George, 45 N. J. Equity Keports, p. 757. 

 Age, 48-50] CLEVELAND'S CAMPAIGN 611 

penny she had obtained under the will and through Mr. 
George's efforts. The announcement was made in some 
of the newspapers that the woman whose husband had left 
Henry George $30,000 was in the almshouse! But this 
was corrected as soon as the real facts became known. 
Mr. George now quietly sent little sums of money for the 
care of the heartsick and brain-weary old woman; and 
when she died, which she did soon afterwards, he bore 
the expense of her simple interment in a grave beside her 
husband at Ancora. 

But to go back to 1888: Grover Cleveland, despite 
strong opposition of the protectionists in the party, was 
renominatcd by the Democrats for the presidency, with 
United States Senator Alien G. Thurman of Indiana for 
the vice-presidency. Ex-United States Senator Benja 
min Harrison of Indiana and Levi P. Morton of New 
York, were the Eepublican candidates. In his letter of 
acceptance, Cleveland stood by his guns, and the tariff 
became the main issue in the fight. "The Standard" went 
with might and main for absolute free trade. Mr. George 
made a number of speeches in New York State and sev 
eral in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and he and his 
friends held a series of crowded mass meetings in Cooper 
Union. One of these latter meetings was of unusual na 
ture in politics. The entire time was devoted by Mr. 
George to answering questions from the audience on the 
tariff issue. Another of these meetings marked the ap 
pearance of William Lloyd Garrison, the younger, in the 
cause. He had come to be interested in the single tax 
question by reading the controversy with the Duke of 
Argyll. He subsequently said: 

"It was at Cooper Union in New York, August 27, 
1888, at a great free trade meeting, that I formally and 
publicly declared my adherence to the cause, unreserv- 

 612 LIFE OP HENBY 6EOEGE [1887-1839 

edly joining the ranks of the workers who are to know no 
pause or rest while life and strength persist. The bap 
tism was complete. Thereafter, it was my privilege to 
stand on many platforms by the side of Henry George; 
to share the intimacy of his home, and to use my tongue 
and pen in behalf of the new abolition." 

In these and other ways the single taxers carried on 
such a vigorous, radical canvass in support of Cleve 
land1 as to make the moderate Democrats murmur, "de 
liver us from our friends" and to cause the Democratic 
managers in New York to give out as a marching refrain 
in the party parade the lines 

"Don't, don't, don't be afraid, 
Tariff reform is not free trade." 

Mr. George believed that this timid, defenceless posi 
tion of the Democratic managers and lack of radical, 
aggressive tactics was the cause of Cleveland's defeat, just 
as a similar timidity had defeated Hancock in 1880. But 
looking beyond individual success or failure, he believed 
that the fight had brought the people face to face with 
the taxation question and helped to make way for their 
education on the single tax. As he had expected, Cowdrey 
and Wakefield, the United Labour Party's candidates for 
the presidency and vice-presidency had got an insignifi 
cant vote—in New York and Brooklyn, its strongest cen 
tres, less than eighteen hundred. It was charged that 
some of the managers had openly worked for the Repub 
lican candidate on election day. Perhaps the charge was 
made with reason, as one of the early acts of the new ad- 

1 Such was the enthusiasm among single taxers that Silas M. Burroughs 
crossed the Atlantic expressly to vote for Mr. Cleveland. 

 Age. 48-50] PEOGBESS OVEE SEA 513 

ministration was to appoint several of the leading man 
agers of the United Labour Party to Federal office. 

There had been a year of hard work for Henry George. 
His English friend, William Saunders, M.P., who was 
about to return to London after a short business visit in 
the United States, invited Mr. George to take a run with 
him across the sea for a change of scene. Mr. George 
accepted, and left soon after the election. But, as he 
wrote back to "The Standard": "When I heard the shouts 
from the approaching tender in Southampton and saw the 
placards of 'Welcome,' and still more when, at the Water 
loo Station, the surging crowds of Mr. Saunders' con 
stituents, who had been waiting from two o'clock in the 
afternoon till half past ten at night, pressed round us, 
I realised that I should not get much rest in England." 

In the four years since he had last been there the 
truths he held so dear had made great progress towards 
the last of those three stages into which the progress of 
an idea has been divided, viz.: I—It is too ridiculous to 
be considered; II—It is against religion; III—We al 
ways knew it. One striking sign of this progress ap 
peared in the form of a text-book on political economy. 
It was by Professor J. E. Symes of University College, 
Nottingham, England, and was written from the single 
tax point of view. Another unmistakable sign was that 
in starting a daily newspaper in London, "The Star," 
T. P. O'Connor, one of Mr. ParnelFs most brilliant par 
liamentary supporters, announced in his salutatory the 
"taxation of ground values" (the term used in England for 
single tax) to be one of the basic principles of the paper. 
Still a third sign was the utterance of Lord Chief Justice 
Coleridge in an address to the Scottish Judicial Society 
the year before, in which, speaking with reference to the 
land laws of the United Kingdom, he was reported as 

 514 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [1887-1889 

saying: "These may be for the general advantage, and 
if they can be shown to be so, by all means they should 
be maintained; but if not, does any man with any 
thing he is pleased to call his mind deny that a state 
of law under which mischief can exist, under which 
the country itself would exist not for its people but for 
a mere handful of them, ought to be instantly and abso 
lutely set aside?" Yet a fourth sign was an interview 
with Count Leon Tolstoi which appeared in the "Pall 
Mall Gazette." In it the great llussian moralist said: 
"In thirty years private property in land will be as much a 
thing of the past as now is serfdom. England, America 
and Russia will be the first to solve the problem. . . . 
Henry George had formulated the next article in the pro 
gramme of the progressist Liberals of the world." 

But without these and many similar signs, the size, 
character and warmth of the assemblages before which 
Henry George spoke during his short stay in Great Britain 
must have been to the most casual observer an unmistak 
able indication of the set and strength of the tide of 
thought. He addressed a gathering of clergymen of the 
Established Church in Zion College under the auspices 
of the Guild of St. Matthew, of which Rev. Stewart D. 
Headlam was chief spirit; the congregation of Rev. Dr. 
Parker at the midweek service in the City Temple; a 
conference of Congregational ministers in Memorial Hall, 
on invitation of Albert Spicer; a meeting of the Knights 
of Labour at Smethwick, near Birmingham; a meeting 
of the Council of the Financial Reform Association at 
Liverpool, by whom he was presented with an engrossed 
address; a mixed audience in the City Hall, Glasgow; 
another at Lambeth Baths, London, and an assemblage of 
banqueting friends before leaving. It was at the Lambeth 
meeting that he uttered the pithy sentence which has since 

 Mrs. George. 
From photograph taken in 1898. 

 Age, 48-50] IN THE BRITISH ISLES 515 

been much quoted: "Don't buy the landlords out, don't 
kick them out, but tax them out." 

So strong seemed the effect of the two weeks' visit, that 
the friends in Great Britain—Saunders, Walker, Durant, 
Burroughs, McGhee and the others—pressed Mr. George 
to return very soon and make an extended speaking trip.1 
This he consented to do. His stay in the United States 
was therefore short. After some lecturing in the West; 
an address on taxation matters, in company with Tom 
L. Johnson and Thomas G. Shearman, before an inves 
tigating committee of the Ohio legislature; and attend- 
cnce at a tariff reform conference in Chicago as a delegate 
from the New York Free Trade Club, Mr. George early 
in March (1889) returned to England, accompanied by 
his wife, his two daughters and Miss Cranford, daughter 
of John P. Cranford of Brooklyn. 

Measuring his strength by his zeal, Mr. George laid out 
an immense amount of work for himself. In addition 
to lecturing almost nightly and meeting and talking with 
great numbers of people, he planned to write weekly let 
ters to "The Standard." He spoke through the length 
and breadth of Great Britain and twice in Ireland. His 
audiences were no larger than on the former trips, but 
their character was different. He said at the reception 
given to him on his return home: 

"The temper of the audience had changed. It was 
not this time to hear a strange thing that they gathered; 
it was to hear something of which they had more than an 
inkling. And the men who took part—who came for- 

1 At the Now York welcome meeting to Mr. George on his return from 
Great Britain, Louis F. Post announced that an enthusiastic single taxer 
who had selected the name of Henry George for a new comer expected iu 
his family, had found it necessary, on the development of events, to com 
promise on the name Henrietta Georgiua. 

 516 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1887-1889 

ward to occupy the chairs—sat on the platform to move 
the votes of thanks that are customary there on such 
occasions—were men who formerly would not have 
thought of being in such a place. They were, generally 
speaking, the local notables, the file leaders, the active 
workers, as we here would say, of the Radical wing of the 
Liberal party. . . . Our ideas are in the air; men 
get them without knowing where they come from; men 
get them without thinking they are getting them, and 
men get them who still look upon us as cranks and vi 
sionaries. Mr. Henry Labouchere, M.P., for instance, 
recently declared in a speech to Ms constituents that he 
was not such a visionary as Henry George. He did not 
propose to take the land from the landlords and rent it 
out again. What he was in favour of was putting a 
tax upon land values!" 

The first lecture was on the Eighth Commandment and 
was delivered in a London Church—Camberwell Green 
Chapel, Albert Spicer in the chair—and the last was on 
the world-wide land question in the Dublin Rotunda, 
Michael Davitt in the chair and making a straight-out 
single tax speech in introduction. "Heckling" on this, 
as on the former trips, was a distinct feature. We may 
pause for a moment for a glimpse of a meeting showing 
Mr. George's characteristics—a meeting of Welsh miners 
at Rica. He opened in this way: 

"Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I shall gladly 
answer any questions after my lecture, but 'turn about 
is fair play.' Let me ask you a few questions first. 
How much can a collier earn? (A voice: 'From 20s. to 
25s.') For how long? ('All the year round.') How 
much does that come to? ('Between £60 to £70.') 
Well, for £60 to £70 a year a collier can get steady work 
by risking his life and limb. It is not an easy occupa 
tion, I suppose? ('No.') And coal miners don't live 

 Age, 48-50] SPEAKING ANECDOTES 517 

as long as Lord Chancellors? (Laughter. A voice: 
'Not usually.') But men get used to anything. It is 
no wonder that people worship snakes, that human sac 
rifices are made, that women's feet are squeezed so that 
they cannot walk. I believe we could do all this if we 
were only educated to it. Look at the advent of the 
steam-engine, the railway, the telegraph, the sewing 
machine. Everywhere around us we see amazing things 
invented by the ingenuity of man to facilitate produc 
tion, to lighten labour. All these things should have 
increased wages. But they cannot have increased wages 
if colliers can earn only £60 to £70 a year. Prof. Thor- 
old Rogers of Oxford University told me last night that 
after making calculations of the purchasing value of 
money in the reign of Henry VIII. and that of to-day, 
he found that the labourers in those days had £145 a 
year. In those days when neither skill nor science had 
advanced to help mankind, they got as much and more 
than labourers get to-day." 

Here is a passage from a lecture in the Town Hall at 
Aston-under-Lyne, England (Rev. Thomas Green, M.A., 
Chairman of the Liberal Association, presiding), that put 
the audience in roars of laughter. 

"The man who owns the land, owns the air as well. 
(Laughter and applause.) . . . There has been 
only one attempt that I have ever heard of to make air 
separately property. . . . Near Strasburg, in Ger 
many, about the 12th or 13th century, there was a con 
vent of monks, who put up a windmill. One of the lords 
in that neighbourhood—they would be called robbers 
now (cheers)—finding he could not get any tribute 
from them, set up a claim to the ownership of the air, 
and when they put up their windmill said, 'All the wind 
in these parts belongs to me.' (Laughter.) The monks 
sent in hot haste to the bishop, and told him of this 
claim. The bishop 'got up on his hind legs'—(laughter) 
—and cursed in ecclesiastical language. (Renewed 

 518 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1887-1889 

laughter.) He said the baron was a son of Belial; that 
he did not own the wind in that province; that all the 
wind that blew over it belonged to Mother Church— 
(laughter)—and that if the baron did not take back his 
demand for rent, he would launch with bell, book and 
candle the curse of Eonie. (Laughter.) Mr. Baron 
backed down. But if he had owned the land he would 
not have needed to set up a claim to the wind. Men 
cannot breathe the air unless they have land to stand 
on." 

In Eichard McGhee's words, "Henry George made a 
triumphant march through Scotland." The chief event 
was in the City Hall, Glasgow, where on Sunday evening 
April 28, Mr. George delivered a sermon on the subject 
of "Thy Kingdom Come," under the auspices of the 
Henry George Institute. Eev. J. M. Cruikshanks of St. 
Eollox United Presbyterian church, assisted by two choirs, 
conducted the services. Scarcely another person could 
have squeezed into the large hall.1 

I Among the more notable events during Mr. George's 
'appearance in London were two debates—one in St. 
James's hall with Henry M. Hyndman, the accomplished 
socialist, and the other at th'e National Liberal Club with 
Samuel Smith, M.P., the highly esteemed Liverpool bene 
factor, who defended established interests. Hyndman 
reprobated the single tax for making no attempt to abol 
ish industrial competition; Smith opposed it as immoral. 
In each case time was so brief that Mr. George contented 
himself merely with presenting the chief postulates of 
the single tax doctrine. 

A respite from the hard work came towards the end of 

iThis sermon, like many other of his Scottish addresses, was later 
printed in tract form by the Scottish Land Restoration League, and scat 
tered broadcast through Scotland.^ 

 Age, 48-50] THE PARIS CONFERENCE 510 

the tour when, accompanied by his family and by a party 
of English, Scottish, Irish and American friends, Mr. 
George went to Paris to join in a land reform conference 
that Michael Flurscheim of Germany, an energetic land 
reformer, availing himself of the encouraging auspices 
held out by the management of the exposition then in 
progress in the French capital, had got up at short notice. 
The conference was in no sense a single tax gathering.1 
All shades of opinion were represented and half a dozen 
tongues. The latter fact put Mr. George at much disad 
vantage, since he could speak only his native language. 
Nevertheless he met Michael Flurscheim of Germany, 
Agathon de Potter of Belgium and Jan Stoffel of Hol 
land; the Frenchmen G. Eug. Simon, author of "The 
Chinese City," M. A. Toubeau, Professor Charles Gamier 
and Charles Longuet of the Paris City Council, besides 
other men of continental thought and action, who were 
interesting both for their personalities and views. M. 
Toubeau especially invited attention by showing that land 
ownership in France was more concentrated than had been 
the case before the great revolution. 

Mr. George had deep private anxieties at this time. 
Almost as soon as the family reached Paris the eldest 
daughter was taken down with a malignant form of scar 
let fever and had a slow recovery. But the more lasting 
anxiety came from "The Standard" office in New York. 
For more than a year Mr. George's eldest son had been 
acting as managing editor of the paper. But the staff, 

1'' Progress and Poverty " had been translated into most of the European 
languages, and except in France, was getting attention, though as yet 
few advocates had appeared. The French translation, made by P. L. 
Le Monnier, had been published the year before, and the translation of 
" Protection or Free Trade ? " by Louis Vossion, French Consul at Phila 
delphia, about the same time ; but neither work sold widely. 

 620 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1887-1889 

composed of strong, masterful men with individual per 
sonalities and opinions, and brought together by Henry 
George himself, was not as a whole to be controlled by 
his son or by any one else. Discord soon began to brew 
in the chief's absence, and T. L. McCready and J. W. 
Sullivan, each of whom in his own way had done telling 
work in the columns of the paper, went outside and pub 
lished in a weekly just started by Hugh 0. Pentecost what 
Mr. George regarded as an attack upon the policy of 
"The Standard." Mr. McCready did not wait for Mr. 
George's return to withdraw from "The Standard," but 
Mr. Sullivan nominally remained and was dismissed. 
Two months and a half later he published in the Pentecost 
paper a long article entitled "A Collapse of Henry 
George's Pretensions," which began with abuse and ended 
with a charge that "Progress and Poverty" was based 
upon Patrick Edward Dove's "The Theory of Human 
Progression." Mr. George would have ignored the article 
as unworthy of attention had not the charge of plagiar 
ism been extensively noticed in the press and elsewhere. 
He therefore reprinted the Sullivan article in "The Stand 
ard" (October 19, 1889), passed over the abuse, and an- 
ewered the remainder by showing the absurdity of the 
charge on its face and by pointing out that if similarity 
of thought and priority of authorship on Dove's part had 
proved George a plagiarist, then the same reasoning would 
prove Dove to have copied from Herbert Spencer, who 
wrote similarly and earlier; it would likewise prove that 
Spencer stole from William Ogilvie, Professor of Humani 
ties in Kings College, Aberdeen, from 1765 to 1819; 
that Ogilvie took from Thomas Spence of Ncwcastle-on 
Tyne, who wrote an essay on the subject in 1775; and 
so on. Then Mr. George made a direct denial in these 
worde: 

 Age, 48-50] CHARGE OF PLAGIARISM E21 

"When I first came to see what is the root of our social 
difficulties and how this fundamental wrong might be 
cured in the easiest way by concentrating taxes on land 
values, I had worked out the whole thing for myself 
without conscious aid that I can remember, unless it 
might have been the light I got from Bissett's 'Strength 
of Nations' as to the economic character of the feudal 
system. When 1 published 'Our Land and Land Policy,' 
I had not even heard of the Physiocrats and the impot 
unique. But I knew that if it was really a star I had 
seen, others must have seen it, too. And so with 'Pro 
gress and Poverty.' I said in that book that it would 
come to many to whom it would seem like the echo of their 
own thoughts. And beyond what I then knew, I was 
certain that there must have been others before me who 
saw the same essential truths. And as I have heard of 
such men one after the other, I have felt that they gave 
but additional evidences that we were indeed on the true 
track, and still more clearly showed that though against 
us were ignorance and power, yet behind us were hope 
and faith and the wisdom of the ages—the deepest and 
clearest perceptions of man." 

This ended the controversy. 

 CHAPTER XL 

AUSTRALIA AND AROUND THE WORLD. 
1890. AGE, 51. 

WHILE in England in the fall of 1889, Mr. George 
had met Charles L. Garland, member of the New 
South Wales Parliament and President of the Sydney 
Single Tax Association. Mr. Garland travelled about with 
Mr. George for a short time and made some speeches from 
the same platforms. He brought urgent entreaties to Mr. 
George to arrange for a lecture tour through the Austra 
lian Colonies, such as had repeatedly been made through 
Great Britain. "Progress and Poverty" and the other 
books had been extensively circulated, discussion of eco 
nomic subjects was on and all things seemed ripe for a 
big harvest. Letters bearing the same burden reached 
Mr. George after he had returned to New York, so that he 
concluded to go to Australia. He arranged to start in 
January of the new year. 

Since his early boyhood, Australia had been a country 
of peculiar interest to him. At fifteen he had sailed to 
Melbourne, then famous for its gold discoveries. Since 
his manhood Australia obtained and held his admiration 
as a country of progressive thought and action; the home 
of the secret ballot system in advance of the rest of the 
world; the land where railroads and telegraphs are pub- 

622 

 Age, 51] STARTS FOE AUSTRALIA 523 

licly owned and operated, where savings banks and a par 
cels express service are part of the postal system, and 
where many other things are done as a matter of course 
by the public which in many other countries would seem 
revolutionary. 

Mr. George arranged to write letters for "The Stand 
ard" as frequently as lecturing and the mails would per 
mit, but as a matter of fact, the campaign in Australia 
proved to be so extraordinarily exacting that he was able 
to write only irregularly and briefly. 

The route lay by way of San Francisco. Mrs. George 
accompanied him on this trip to her native Australia, 
he playfully calling it their honeymoon. The truth was 
that he had grown so dependent upon her companionship 
that he would no longer consent to go far without her. 
On the other hand, his preoccupation needed her atten 
tion, for she wrote back from St. Louis to their children: 
"Your father this far on the journey has changed his 
own for other people's hats only five times!" 

Mr. George spoke at Bradford, Pennsylvania; Den 
ver, Colorado; and Los Angeles, California, on the way 
to the Golden Gate. In each city he had large, appre 
ciative audiences. He also was induced during the few 
hours' lie over in St. Louis, where they stopped to see 
Sister Teresa, Mrs. George's sister, to accept a reception 
and six o'clock dinner at one of the large commercial 
clubs. It was a shining success, many of the representa 
tive men of the city being present, and as Mr. Keeler, 
one of the managers on the occasion, sententiously said, 
"twenty-five million dollars sitting down to table." All 
along the line of travel across country friends came troop 
ing to the stations to greet the traveller, invariably bring 
ing word of progress by personal propaganda. 

One of these incidents had a touch of pathos. It was 

 624 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE paw 

in the Glorietta Mountains, in New Mexico, on the Santa 
Fe road. The train stopped at nightfall for dinner at a 
wretched little station in the barren country. As Mr. 
and Mrs. George got off, a tall, thin man, with long, 
ragged, grizzled beard approached and welcomed them. 
But the stranger had to make some explanation before 
Mr. George recognised him as a Methodist minister whom 
he had met some years before farther East. "Yes," said 
the clergyman, "I came West for my lungs, and now I 
am going to die of heart disease in this thin atmosphere. 
But while I am still here I propose to do all I can for the 
cause. Go in to dinner, and when you come out your 
disciples will be here to greet you." And when the trav 
ellers came from the repast they found the clergyman 
waiting, and with him five other men, one of them a train 
hand. There in that lonely place in the mountains they 
were doing what they could to preach to whomsoever came 
their way the doctrine of equal rights. 

When Mr. George entered California all the papers of 
the State talked of him in complimentary terms and of 
the name he had won in the world; and they did not 
leave off until he had sailed for Australia. A party of 
San Franciscans went to Martinez and boarded the train, 
and filled the car so full that the rest of the passengers 
considerately withdrew to other cars. Henry George was 
very happy sitting with his old comrades about him, lis 
tening and laughing over the stories they poured out. 
Dr. Taylor with moistened eyes whispered to Mrs. George: 
"Look at him. Not one bit spoiled by the world's hom 
age; just the same light-hearted boy!" 

The time was fully occupied from the moment they 
arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday to the moment of 
sailing out through the Golden Gate on Saturday. Mr. 
George lectured twice in San Francisco and once in Oak- 

 Age, 51] BEACHES SAN FRANCISCO 625 

land, made an address to a body of clergymen whom he 
met at the San Francisco Y. M. C. A., and was enter 
tained at dinner at Delmonico's by his old-time friends. 

The two San Francisco lectures, both in Metropolitan 
Hall (formerly called Temple) were on Tuesday and Fri 
day nights, the first to a paid, general audience and the 
second to a free audience of working men. Both were 
successful in every respect. The building was packed 
each time. One of the daily papers said that "for fully 
five minutes after stepping to the front of the stage, Mr. 
George looked upon a scene of wild applause." When 
silence had come—a breathless silence—with a low trem 
bling voice, that almost broke from emotion—the "Prophet 
of San Francisco"—the prophet who was being honoured 
by his former fellow-townsmen, said: 

"As I rise on this stage, the past comes back to me. 
Twelve years ago—it seems so far and yet so near— 
twelve years ago; when I was halt of speech; when to 
face an audience, it seemed to me, required as much 
courage as it would to face a battery—I stood on this 
platform to speak my first word in the cause for which 
I stand now. 1 stood on this platform to see, instead 
of the audience that greets me to-night, a beggarly 
array of empty benches. It is a long time. Many 
times, in this country and in the dear old world, I have 
stood before far greater audiences than this. I have 
been greeted by thousands who never saw me before, 
as they would greet a friend long known and well 
loved. But I don't think it ever gave me such pleasure 
to stand before an audience as it does to stand here 
to-night. (Applause.) For years and years I have 
been promising myself to come back to San Francisco. 
I have crossed the Atlantic five times before I could 
fulfill that desire. I am here now to go in a few days 
to the Antipodes; perhaps I may never return—wno 
knows? If I live I shall try to. But to San Fran- 

 526 LIFE OP HENKY GEORGE [1890 

cisco, though I never again can be a citizen of Cali 
fornia—though my path in life seems away so far 
that California looks as but a ridge on the horizon— 
my heart has always turned, and always will turn, to 
the home of my youth, to the city in which I grew up, 
to the city in which I found so many warm friends—to 
the country in which I married and in which my chil- 
• dren were born. Always it will seem to me home; and it 
is sweet to the man long absent to be welcomed home. 

"Aye, and you men, old friends, tried and true—you 
men who rallied in the early times to our movement, 
when we could count each other almost as upon one's 
fingers—I come back to you to say that at last our 
triumph is but a matter of time (applause) ; to say 
that never in the history of thought has a movement 
come forward so fast and so well. 

"Ten years ago, when I left, I was anything but hope 
ful. Ten years ago I should not have dared to say that 
in any time to which I might live, we should see the 
beginning of this great struggle. Nor have I cared. 
My part (and I think I can speak for every man who 
is enlisted in this movement)—my part has never been 
to predict results. Our feeling is the feeling of the 
great stoic emperor: 'That is the business of Jupiter; 
not ours.' 'Tis ours to do the work as we may; ours 
to plant the seed which is to give the results. But now, 
so well forward is this cause; so many strong advocates 
has it in every land; so far has it won its way, that 
now it makes no difference who lives or who dies, who 
goes forward or who holds back. Now the currents of 
the time are setting in our favour. At last—at last, 
we can say with certainty that it will be only a little 
while before all over the English speaking world, and 
then, not long after, over the rest of the civilised world, 
the great truth will be acknowledged that no human 
child comes into this world without coming into his 
equal right with all." 

The lecture was a finished one. It told upon those who 
had not heard Henry George before, and with perhaps 

 Age, 51] IN SAN FRANCISCO 627 

greater effect upon those who had known him at the he- 
ginning of his speaking career. Judge Coffey wrote East: 
"I was most gratified to find that Mr. George had devel 
oped such extraordinary capacity as a platform speaker." 
The "Examiner" said of the lecture to working men: 
"Hundreds unable to find seats stood in the aisles and 
along the walls. Woollen shirted men sat side by side 
with elegantly dressed women. The audience was thor 
oughly republican and cosmopolitan, and all the different 
elements that went to make up the crowd were equally 
enthusiastic, and the frequent applause shook the build- 
ing." 

All this demonstration over the returned San Francis 
can was like honey-dew to the souls of his old comrades 
who clustered around him with every attention of affec 
tion. One of them tells how, while Mr. George stood on 
Market Street talking with acquaintances, one beggar 
after another came and asked him for money, which each 
one got. Some one observed to the philosopher that he 
was being imposed upon; that the men who were begging 
were lazy good-for-nothing fellows who would not work. 
"How can I tell about that ?" he answered; "let the respon 
sibility for their actions rest upon them." 

Amid the sincerely warm wishes of a crowd of friends 
who came to the wharf to see them off, Mr. and Mrs. 
George sailed on February 8 on the steamship Mariposa 
for Sydney. The voyage to the Hawaiian Islands was 
pleasant but uneventful, and the vessel stopped a whole 
day at Honolulu, giving time for driving and sight 
seeing. Mrs. George was sadly affected by a change for 
the worse in the general appearance of the city since her 
childhood's residence there. The familiar places showed 
the wreck of age, without the accompaniment-of new build 
ings or improvements. But more significant than any- 

 528 LIFE OF HENRY GEOKGE [1890 

thing else was the large number of Chinese, who seemed 
to have pushed aside the Kanakas or effaced them by in 
termarriage. Mr. and Mrs. George were entertained at 
dinner at Honolulu by a party of officers belonging to 
the United States war vessels, Nipsic and Mohegan, most 
of whom proclaimed themselves to be believers in the single 
taxer. 

Of still more importance was the stop at Auckland, 
New Zealand. On setting foot ashore the Georges found 
a party of friends at the wharf, who notified them that 
the Anti-Poverty Society of Auckland had prepared an 
illuminated address for presentation later in the day. 
The travellers first drove to the residence of Sir George 
Grey at Parnell and received a hearty welcome, for that 
diplomatist and statesman had been one of the very first 
among the eminent men of the world to read "Progress 
and Poverty" and to hail its author. Mr. George wrote 
to "The Standard" (February 28) : 

"I was especially glad to meet him and to find his 
eightieth year sitting on him so lightly. It is worth 
going far to meet such a man, soldier, scholar, states 
man and political leader—an aristocrat by birth, who 
when hardly thirty wielded the powers of a dictator; 
who has been four times governor of important colo 
nies in the most important crises of their affairs, and 
then premier of the colony in which he made his home; 
who is yet an intense democrat, and who, unsoured by 
disappointments and undaunted by defeats, retains in 
the evening of life all the faith and hope that are com 
monly associated with youth. . . . What struck 
me particularly in his conversation was not merely his 
wealth of information of European as well as colonial 
history and politics, but his earnest, religious tone, his 
calm, firm conviction that this life is but a part of the 
larger life beyond, and his deep interest in the well- 
being of those who are yet to come.3' 

 Age, 51] SIK GEOKGE GKET 529 

After luncheon Sir George drove his guests to one of 
the 'Auckland hotels, where the members of the Anti- 
Poverty Society had gathered. The complimentary ad 
dress was presented to Mr. George, and Sir George Grey 
made a fine little speech, attesting his entire faith in the 
gospel of the single tax. He and Mr. George conversed 
until the very last moment of the stay, walking on the 
wharf together while the captain considerately held the 
ship something beyond her time. Mr. George promised 
to return to New Zealand and lecture on the single tax, if 
his Australian engagements would permit. But events 
were against his carrying out this plan, for two weeks 
after reaching Australia, he wrote back to New York: "I 
have spoken every night, Sundays included, and had I 
been able to cut myself up into half a dozen, would still 
have been unable fairly to meet and talk with those who 
have come to see me and who have had interesting things 
to say." 

On the day of landing at Sydney, Mrs. George's native 
city, there was an official reception at the town hall by 
Mayor Sydney Burdekin, and a number of other city as 
well as colonial dignitaries, irrespective of political par 
ties. Indeed, the Mayor himself was one of the largest 
land-owners of Sydney, so that his action bespoke a broad, 
generous mind. Mr. George had first to make a short 
speech from a carriage to a dense throng before the 
hall; and then when he entered and received the formal 
welcome of the Mayor, he made a long speech, of which 
this was a passage, as reported by the Sydney "Daily 
Telegraph": 

" 'In 1883 I wrote an article in the "North American 
Review" proposing the introduction of the Australian 
system of voting in the United States, and I was warned 
to beware of the action I was taking. But when I left 

 530 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE JNSOO 

my country a month ago ten States had adopted it, 
and it is certain eventually to be carried in everyone 
of the forty-two States and to become the American 
system. If you can teach us more, for God's sake teach 
it. Advance Australia!' A thunder of applause fol 
lowed this declaration, which was delivered with an 
effect at once remarkable and indescribable." 

Then began a whirl of meetings, receptions, interviews 
and handshakings, uninterrupted during the stay in Aus 
tralia, except while sleeping and travelling. Every one 
showed the utmost kindness. Mrs. George wrote home: 
"These people make Americans blush when thinking of 
hospitality. ... I am at this moment sitting in a 
bower of flowers." 

The second night in Sydney the Single Tax League of 
New South Wales honoured its guest with a banquet in 
the town hall, with C. L. Garland, M.P., President of 
the League, as toastmaster. Again the "Telegraph" 
reports: 

"Mr. George, who was received with enthusiastic and 
long-continued cheering, said: 'I do not like these ban 
quets. To be stuffed first is not a good preparation for 
making a speech, and for a man to sit and listen to 
laudations such as the chairman has made is not pleas 
ant. (Laughter.) If I am here this night, if I am 
here as an honoured guest; if I know this night that 
go where I may over the civilised world, I would find 
men who would gladly clasp hands with me—if it has 
been given to me to help forward a great movement— 
it is through no merit of mine; it is not from my 
energy; it is not from my learning; it is not from my 
ability—it is from the simple fact that, seeing a great 
truth, I swore to follow it. ("Hear, hear.") When 
I found the duty to do, I determined that with all the 
strength I could command, I would do it. ("Hear, 

 Age, 51] BANQUET IN SYDNEY 631 

hear.") If I were to take to myself such flattering 
things as have been said to me to-night, my usefulness 
would soon be ended.'" 

The first formal lecture took place on Saturday night, 
March 8, in Protestant Hall; a sermon followed next day 
in Pitt Street Congregational Church, the site of Mrs. 
George's childhood's home; and the next week was filled 
with lectures in Exhibition Hall and other places. The 
weather was unusually rainy, but the audiences were nev 
ertheless very large. People flocked from far and near; 
and the newspapers, especially the "Telegraph/' gave fine 
reports and extended editorials. 

The single taxers who had long been labouring in the 
cold and with little to cheer them were now, as Mrs. George 
wrote home, "fairly delirious with delight" over the unex 
pected platform abilities Mr. George exhibited and the 
great public attention he awakened and held. "What is 
all the crowd about," John Farrell said he heard one man 
ask another outside the Pitt Street Church. "Oh, a nov 
elty that's all," was the reply; "there's a man in there 
who is going to preach Christianity!" John Farrell and 
John Eamsey, two burning single taxers, were among the 
most brilliant writers in Australia. Another writer who 
had carried the fiery cross, Frank Cotton, editor of the 
Australian "Standard," wrote in his paper a fortnight or 
BO after the lecturing had begun: 

"Of the great reformer himself, all must admit that 
as a speaker and as a man he more than justifies all 
our preconceived admiration. His genial manner and 
outspoken democracy take the hearts of all true Austra 
lians by storm; and his infinite variety of illustration, 
his incisive logic, and at times passionate eloquence, 
stir his audience to laughter, to deep thought, or to 
tears almost at his will. ... I have had the plea- 

 532 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [1890 

sure of hearing all his metropolitan utterances and al 
most every speech delivered in the country districts, 
yet out of thirteen different orations, in no case was 
there any repetition of words or phrases, although in 
each the central truth was portrayed with the utmost 
clearness." 

What occurred in Sydney was repeated in all the lesser 
towns of New South Wales in which Mr. George spoke, 
and the experiences in the colony of New South Wales 
were illustrations of what took place in the other colonies 
of South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and 
Victoria. Few of the public officials appeared in Vic 
toria; but in the majority of places in the other colonies, 
the mayor and aldermen led the prominent men of the 
respective localities to tender hospitalities, one accom 
paniment of which in a number of places was the presen 
tation of handsome, illuminated addresses. At Newcas 
tle, N. S. W., Mr. George was entertained at luncheon by 
the mayor and aldermen, and the mayors of eight or nine 
small neighbouring towns were said to have been at the 
board. Lithgow, a New South Wales mining town, 
varied things somewhat by turning out with a brass band 
and a torchlight procession. Nor were the smaller places 
to be ignored; for one morning the train on which the 
Georges were travelling unexpectedly stopped at a way 
station. The breakfast station lay beyond, and Mr. 
George, who always was impatient for breakfast, put his 
head out of the window and asked: "What in heaven's 
name are we stopping here for?" "It is the Mayor and 
Aldermen who have obtained permission from the Com 
missioners to stop the train for ten minutes to read an 
address to Mr. Henry George," some one said. And the 
hungry, informal man, who hated such ceremonies, had 
to get out and be honoured. 

 Age, 51] PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND 533 

In Queensland, Sir Samuel Griffith, formerly Premier 
and soon again to hold that office, was among the first 
to welcome the American. But South Australia, though 
small, impressed Mr. George as being perhaps the most 
advanced of the colonies. He told an English audience 
on his way home that it "led the world in the single tax 
policy." "There," said he, "they have a tax imposed on 
land values, irrespective of improvements; and they have 
at least shown the practicability of such a tax. The tax 
imposed is only one half-penny in the pound on the capital 
value, but the Government is proposing to increase it 
upon a graduated scale to twopence in the pound." 

Almost as soon as he set foot in South Australia, Mr. 
George made the acquaintance of Chief Justice Way, 
whose high standing, intellectually as well as officially, 
in the colony made his attendance at every lecture and 
speech Mr. George delivered in Adelaide a compliment that 
the latter did not fail to appreciate. Another man who 
strongly impressed him was Rev. Hugh Gilmore of Ade 
laide, who was preaching the single tax faith pure and 
simple in the face of hot opposition and who on one occa 
sion exclaimed: "By God's grace, so long as I have breath 
in me, no man shall terrify me." Mr. George accounted 
him to be a man of large personal powers and wide influ 
ence—a Dr. McGlynn of South Australia. Among the 
younger single taxers in the colony at this time were 
Louis H. Berens and Ignatius Singer, who together sub 
sequently wrote "The Story of My Dictatorship"—a re 
markable little work of fiction depicting political and social 
conditions under an imagined regime of the single tax 
and which came to be extensively read in Great Britain 
and the United States. 

But it was perhaps in Victoria that Mr. George achieved 
his greatest success during the Australian tour—Victoria, 

 634 LIFE OP HENRY GEOKGE 

as strong in the faith of the protection principle as his 
own native State of Pennsylvania. It was said in Sydney 
that no matter how large his audiences might be in the 
other colonies, in Melbourne and throughout Victoria 
he must expect slender attention. But when the train 
on which the Georges travelled drew into the Melbourne 
station, there was a greater gathering than usually 
came to greet him, and a reception committee headed by 
Dr. Maloney, President of the Land Nationalisation So 
ciety. "Good heavens! another reception!" the philoso 
pher exclaimed in dismay to Mrs. George, and explaining 
that he would meet her at the hotel, he bolted out of the 
door on the opposite side of the coach. When she recov 
ered from her surprise, Mrs. George likewise tried to flee, 
but she was too late and was escorted by the committee 
with much politeness to a carriage in waiting. Presently 
Mr. George came, also, surrounded by an immense throng. 
He had been recognised and was compelled to endure the 
honours. 

The first lecture (on the single tax) was delivered in 
the Town Hall to a fine audience in numbers and char 
acter. In this discourse the lecturer drew a picture of 
his coming to Melbourne thirty-five years before. The 
second lecture was to working men, on the subject of 
"Labour and the Tariff." Daniel Cottier, art connois 
seur, of New York and London, with whom the Georges 
had become acquainted on the Maripoaa, called upon Mrs. 
George before this second lecture, and though a strong 
free trader himself, earnestly advised her to influence her 
husband not to speak on that subject in Victoria. "The 
people will not stand it," he said. "They think protec 
tion brings them their bread and butter, and they will 
stone him if he denounces it." Mrs. George replied that 
Mr. George was not to be diverted from what he consid- 

 Age, 51] THE MELBOURNE TRIUMPH 535 

ered to be his duty, even if she wished to influence him 
in another way, which she did not. Mr. Cottier admired 
the courage, but deprecated the wisdom of such a policy. 
The City Hall was crowded, with President Hancock of 
the Trades and Labour Council in the chair. Mr. George 
lost little time in going to the pith of his subject. 

"I am a free trader—a free trader absolutely. I 
should abolish all revenue tariffs. I should make trade 
absolutely free between Victoria and all other coun 
tries. I should go further than that; I should abolish 
all taxes that fall upon labour and capital—all taxes 
that fall upon the products of human industry, or any 
of the modes of human industry. How then should I 
raise needed revenues? I should raise them by a tax 
upon land values, irrespective of improvements—a tax 
that would fall upon the holder of a vacant plot of land 
near the city as heavily as upon like land upon which 
a hundred cottages stood." 

Thunders of applause that threatened to bring down 
the gallery greeted this and the long series of audacious 
free trade utterances of which this custom house abolisher 
made up his address. It was as if Melbourne had waited 
for but the radical word to bring forth an extraordinary 
exhibition of clear and emphatic dissent from the policy 
which hitherto had been only timidly opposed. Mr. Cot 
tier sat in the audience beside Mrs. George, the embodi 
ment of astonishment and delight; and he was almost 
past words when, after the lecture, three cheers were given 
and hundreds of men in the audience lingered to hand in 
their names for the formation of a free trade league— 
some of them being prominent in Melbourne. All the 
papers gave good reports and the Melbourne "Telegraph" 
said: 

 536 LIFE OF HENRY GEOKGE [1390 

"The lecturer very adroitly led up to his subject of 
land nationalisation and the single tax. Imperceptibly, 
almost, he landed his hearers in the midst of it, through 
a panegyric of Melbourne city, and regrets about pov 
erty, and pleasant jokes and amusing anecdotes. 
Whether the lecture was carefully prepared in writing 
beforehand, or was absolutely extempore is not certain; 
but in either case the result was admirable. Mr. George 
must possess a marvellous memory; or equally wonder 
ful powers of extemporaneous speech. Every sentence 
was carefully constructed and well rounded off; every 
word was in its proper place, and the most forcible and 
expressive word was used." 

At a subsequent date, Mr. George debated the tariff 
question with Mr. W. Trenwith, M.P., who was put for 
ward as representative of protectionist working men. 
The meeting occurred in Exhibition Hall before a 
crowded audience, "which," said Mr. George in "The 
Standard" (May 21), "though for the most part protec 
tionist, gave me their heartiest applause and so laughed 
at Mr. Trenwith's alleged facts and preposterous asser 
tions that I did not have to trouble myself to reply to 
them, but could occupy my time in pressing home the 
general principles, which, when once fairly considered, 
will destroy the protectionist superstition in the mind of 
any one who thinks at all." 

Although he sailed for home from Adelaide, South Aus 
tralia, and lectured there before embarking, the formal 
close of the Australian lecture campaign took place in 
Sydney a few days before. George H. Eeid, M.P., Presi 
dent of the Free Trade Association and subsequently Pre 
mier of the colony, took Mr. and Mrs. George and a party 
of their friends on a steam yacht excursion over the fa 
mously beautiful bay. Mayor Burdckin at his residence 
gave a dinner in honour of Mr. George at which were 

 Age, si] FAREWELL TO AUSTRALIA B37 

present all the members of the New South Wales Min 
istry, except the Minister of Lands and the Premier, Sir 
Henry Parks, who was confined by an accident. Several 
ex-Ministers and other leading men of the community 
•were also present. On the last day a reception was held 
in Temperance Hall, when Mrs. George was presented 
with a large album containing photographs of Australian 
friends. To her consternation and Mr. George's corre 
sponding merriment, she was made the object of short but 
formal speeches, the gentlemen of the committee standing 
and addressing her directly. When she recovered from 
her first surprise, she looked towards her husband, sitting 
close beside her. He winked, and presently dropping his 
handkerchief to the floor said as he reached down, just 
loud enough for her to hear: "How do you like it ?" 

The farewell lecture was in Protestant Hall. The sub 
ject was "Protection a fallacy; real free trade a neces 
sity." Mr. George was at his best and had the audience 
cheering throughout what the Sydney "Telegraph" called 
his "splendid deliverance." The men who called them 
selves free traders, but who had been afraid of what he 
called free trade, had come out at last, and President Eeid 
of the Free Trade League was in the chair and paid him 
this high tribute on behalf of Australia: 

"I don't think we should allow him to make this fare 
well address to us without the assurance that his name, 
famous in so many lands, has now become in Australia 
a household word. (Cheers.) The teachings of his 
wonderful books have already created a host of enthu 
siastic disciples to welcome him to these shores— 
(cheers)—and even I, who in some respects cannot call 
myself one of his disciples, can fully understand that 
enthusiasm. (Cheers.) He has thrice earned it. He 
has earned it as a thinker, he has earned it as a writei 
and he has earned it as an orator. (Cheers.) And I 

 638 LIFE OF HENEY GEOEGE [iax> 

venture to say—and these are the concluding words in 
which, on behalf of this great meeting, I bid him fare 
well—that he may and probably will be regarded by 
posterity as one of those leaders of men who rise above 
the sordid level of things as they are, who seek to revive 
the spirit and the power of Christianity, who seek to 
enrich the human intellect with humane and generous 
ideas, who create in the minds of all noble ambition— 
new spheres of philanthropy and justice—quickening 
the world's great heart with the throbbings and glad 
ness of the time to come, when the curse of toil shall 
cease from troubling, banished forever by the universal 
dignity and happiness of labour." (Prolonged cheer 
ing-) 

There were mistakes—serious mistakes—in the man 
agement of the Australian campaign which caused Mr. 
George much round-about travelling and loss of time. 
This was due chiefly to unexpected demands from scores 
of places, which disarranged the plans. It is probably 
safe to say that no man speaking on social questions had 
ever before been so warmly and so generally greeted on 
the Island Continent. But it was three months and a 
half of hard work for Henry George, speaking every night 
that he was not travelling, save one Sunday, and fre 
quently he spoke twice a day. Letters and cables came 
from Sir George Grey in New Zealand and from the Pre 
mier and Attorney-General of Tasmania warmly inviting 
him to each of these places but he was tired out and had 
to refuse. 

Incidentally to his long exacting occupation he had 
seen much to interest and instruct him. At Melbourne 
he met and talked briefly with Henry Drummond; at 
the largest cities he was complimented with temporary 
membership in the clubs, and at Sydney he was greatly 
amused at the exploit of an enthusiastic single taxer, who, 

 Age, 51] THROUGH THE RED SEA 539 

thinking that the American visitor ought to witness an 
Australian horse race, applied to a racing official to have 
Henry George made an honorary member. The official 
asked "Who is Henry George—has he any horses ?" "Yes," 
said the single taxer; '•'Progress' and 'Poverty'—and they 
are running with great success in the United States!" 

The changes of sea and sky as they passed over the 
ocean's great expanse were the travellers' chief matters of 
observation from day to day as the steamship Valetta car 
ried them north and eastward towards home. Then came 
India with its tropical scenes and the passage through 
the Eed Sea. In traversing the Gulf of Suez they skirted 
the "barren shore of the peninsula of Sinai, its bare 
rugged mountains gleaming in the fierce sun, presenting 
in all probability precisely the same appearance that they 
did when Moses led the Israelites along their base." Pass 
ing into the Mediterranean, the Georges touched at the 
foot of Italy—Brindisi—where they disembarked and 
made a short, hurried tour through Naples, Pompeii and 
Herculaneum to Eome, which they reached in the worst 
possible time of year, all who could having fled from the 
heat and fear of fever. Writing to his art-loving friend. 
Dr. Taylor, afterwards, Mr. George said: "You wotild get 
sick of old masters. We had a good time in our own 
way, unknown and unknowing, and working our way by 
signs, largely." From Eome they proceeded to Venice 
and some other places, and thence through Switzerland 
and France to Great Britain, where Mr. George, during 
a few days' sojourn, made two speeches, one in the Glas 
gow City Hall and one under the auspices of the Eadical 
Association of Walworth, London, in which he told of the 
great progress of the cause at the antipodes. 

Accompanied by Eev. J. 0. S. Huntington of New 
York, Mr. George during this short trip called upon Gen- 

 640 LIFE OF HENRY GEOKGE 

eral Booth of the Salvation Army, whom he had met in 
London six years before. He now learned that Mrs. 
Booth, who had large influence in the management and 
spiritual guidance of the great army organisation, had 
been for some time thinking of social questions, mainly 
along single tax lines, and wished to initiate a policy 
which should preach the salvation of the body as well as 
of the soul—that should seek to better material condi 
tions here, while holding out hope of a life hereafter. 
Mr. George came away from this visit to the Booths with 
sanguine feelings that the Salvation Army with its mili 
tary organisation radiating from London all over the 
globe would soon become a kind of world-wide Anti- 
Poverty Society, that, with a religious enthusiasm, would 
awaken thought and make way for the single tax idea. 
But Mrs. Booth even then was stricken with an incurable 
disease, and it soon after carried her away. With her 
seemed to go the clearest head and the boldest heart in 
that movement for a social reform policy, for only small 
steps, and those along the lines of charity, were taken 
by the army; and Mr. George reluctantly gave up hope 
that the organisation would do anything towards the 
single tax. 

Mr. and Mrs. George arrived in New York harbour on 
the steamship Servia on September 1, in time to take 
part in the first national conference of single tax men, 
which for two days met in the large hall of Cooper Union, 
where the delegates exchanged glad tidings and discussed 
measures for the propagation of the faith. It was an 
exultant home-coming to him who since January had made 
a circle of the globe, everywhere finding men and women 
in twos or threes, in tens or scores, in hundreds or thou 
sands, holding the same faith and glowing with the same 
enthusiasm. On the second day of the conference, Sep- 

 Age, si] STROKE OF APHASIA 541 

tember 2, he was introduced as being "fifty-one years old 
to-day." He said: 

"I have sat on this platform to-night with feelings 
of joy and pride. I have sat on this platform to-night 
with heartfelt thankfulness to God; and I believe that 
I only speak your voice, fellow single taxers of New 
York, when I say that the samples we have here to 
night of the single tax men of the rest of the Union 
have nerved us and inspired us and given us more hope 
for the future than anything else could. (Applause.) 

"Yes; it is my birthday to-day. (Voice: 'Long may 
you live.' Vociferous applause.) But not too long. 
Life, long life is not the best thing to wish for those 
you love. Not too long; but that in my day, whether 
it be long or short, I may do my duty, and do my best." 
(Applause.) 

A consciousness of the uncertainty of life seemed ever 
present to Henry George, and suddenly death seemed to 
come close to him, for on December 5, on returning home 
from a little informal repast with some friends, he was 
stricken with aphasia. The long hard trip around the 
world, a lecturing trip into New England, then a longer 
one into the Southwest as far as Texas, and following 
on this, worry over the present and future of "The Stand 
ard," which, while not paying, was an embarrassment to 
plans he had for other work, had brought the climax. 

Dr. James E. Kelly, the family physician, was next 
morning to sail to Europe on professional business, but 
he brought in Dr. Frederick Peterson, a young brain-spe 
cialist, and himself remained until within an hour of the 
ship's sailing. Dr. Peterson says of the case: 

"Mr. George had a great pain on the left side of his 
head, in the neighbourhood of the motor speech centre 
in the brain. He talked quite clearly, but used wrong 

 542 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE 

words, and manufactured words at times. Shown a 
watch and asked what it was, he said: 'That is a sep'; 
shown a pencil: 'That is a sep'; shown a thermometer 
he said: 'That is a sep/ and seemed to think he had used 
the correct words. He repeated words very well and 
was very much interested in asking about his condition 
and comprehended clearly the form of aphasia he was 
suffering from and the nature of the lesion. He ex 
pressed great anxiety as to the prognosis. The trouble 
was a Blight hemorrhage in the particular part of the 
brain which presides over articulate speech. He im 
proved very rapidly; his mind was perfectly clear in 
every way, aside from the difficulty in expressing him 
self. There was no paralysis of any kind. In three 
days he was able to name objects correctly. By the 
first of January the whole condition had been recov 
ered from." 

The friends showed loving attention, John Russell 
Young personally calling at the house every day, and 
August Lewis and Tom L. Johnson establishing a benevo 
lent joint dictatorship and decreeing that as soon as he 
should be strong enough, the sick man and Mrs. George 
should go off to Bermuda to stay there beyond the reach 
of all anxiety until he should have recuperated. Mr. 
George fell in with the plans of his good friends. He 
sailed early in the new year with Mrs. George, and accom 
panied by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Mendelson, parents of 
Mrs. August Lewis. He was well enough to take out 
door exercise and to do a little simple writing before he 
left, and among other things he made a brief entry on the 
last page of his pocket diary for 1890—"A memorable 
year. Much to be thankful for." 

 CHAPTER XII. 

PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC MATTERS, 
1891-1897. AGE, 52-58. 

fllHE invalid is quite himself, eating and sleeping well, 
JL and constantly on the go," wrote Mrs. George from 
Bermuda. Mr. George took the exercise of a young man— 
walking, driving and rowing; and a young single taxer, 
William E. Hicks, came from New York with a bicycle 
expressly to teach him to ride. This came easily; nor 
was a boy ever more proud of a physical accomplishment 
than was Henry George of this achievement. Regardless 
of dusty and dishevelled appearance, he would come in 
from a "spin," his blue eyes shining and his face all 
aglow with pleasure. All his children learned to ride, 
and later became his frequent wheeling companions. His 
wife likewise made many attempts to learn, so as to be 
with him in this as in other things; but several acci 
dents warned her to desist. 

The wheel brought mental as well as physical good to 
Mr. George, for it proved to him that he had not lost his 
active powers; and up to a short time of his death he 
rode with keen enjoyment, getting much of the kind of 
exhilaration that in his younger manhood had come from 
horseback riding. It became at once a means of recrea 
tion and method of stirring his mind; and if the origin 

543 

 644= LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1891-1897 

of some of the boldest conceptions and loftiest passages 
of his later writings could be traced, it might be found 
in these wheel rides. 

This was Mr. George's second mechanical triumph, his 
first being over the type-writing machine, which he began 
to use in 1884 and continued to use until his death. 
With it he "blocked out" his work, and one of his sons 
or daughters, whoever at the time was doing amanuensis 
work for him, used another. The machine in 1884 was 
unknown in some parts of the world, and a correspondent 
in Paraguay, South America, inquired how he could afford 
to have his letters put in type and printed. Mr. George 
explained that he used a little mechanism having keys 
for the fingers to play on like a kind of piano. 

For a while in 1891, Mr. George tried the phonograph, 
endeavouring to record dictations and have his amanuen 
sis transcribe at leisure. But he could not habituate him 
self to talking into the inanimate machine and he suc 
cumbed to the disconcerting effects that almost invariably 
attack the user at the outset. The instrument was deliv 
ered at the Nineteenth Street residence one afternoon 
when Mr. George was at home writing and the other mem 
bers of the family were absent. He sat down at once to 
do some dictating, but could not induce himself to take 
the instrument seriously. He could treat it only as a toy, 
and accordingly fell to playing with it. Into it he shouted 
a sailor song of his boyhood to the effect that 

"Up jumped the shark with his crooked teeth, 
Saying, Til cook the duff, if you'll cook the beef';" 

and then another song about a winsome bumboat damsel, 
who, saluted by the admiral of the fleet in terms she re 
sented, answered 

 Age, 52-58], TRAITS OF CHARACTER 645 
"Kind admiral, you be damned!" 

This last line was roared into the machine in a hurricane 
voice that brought the wondering and dismayed domes 
tics running up-stairs, only to find, when they peered into 
the room, that Mr. George was alone, seated before a 
little table and singing into a speaking tube. 

During the stay in Bermuda Mr. Simon Mendelson 
noted some conversations in promise to his daughter, who 
had remained in New York. Among the notes is this: 

" Monday, February 16, 1891. 

"In the evening E. [Mrs. Mendelson] said to Mr. 
George: 'You put abrupt questions; may I ask you a 
similar one?' 

"G. 'Certainly.' 

"E. 'What is your conception of God?' 

"G. 'Of this chair, or this bag, or the ship out there 
I can trace the genesis to man's mind. God is the 
Great Mind, the essence of all that is great and high.' 

"E. 'And you consider Him a personal God ?' 

"G. 'Not necessarily, but I do like to believe Him 
such and do believe Him; but not in any positive shape 
or form.'" 

Louis F. Post tells how one day, perhaps a year after 
the Bermuda trip, when out bicycling with Mr. George 
and riding a strange wheel, he spoke of the queer fact 
that one's own wheel comes to seem like part of one's own 
self. They had just previously conversed about the spirit: 
Mr. George had been giving reasons for belief in its ex 
istence. Upon his friend's remark, Mr. George asked if 
he saw nothing suggestive in that; if he could not discern 
an analogy between the relation of the wheel to his body 
and of his body to his spirit? 

At another time while riding slowly along Fifth Ave- 

 E46 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1891-1897 

nue, New York, with a son and a daughter, he observed 
un undertaker's wagon stop before a residence, and two 
men get down and carry up armfuls of black drapery. 
"None of that when 1 am dead," he said to his children. 
"Death is as natural as life; it means a passage into an 
other life. If a man has lived well—if he has kept the 
faith—it should be a time for rejoicing, not for repining, 
that the struggle here is over." 

Death was much in his thoughts from now forward. 
"How much there is of joy and sorrow and tragedy in 
the years that have rolled so noiselessly by since we first 
knew each other!" he wrote to Judge Coffey of Califor 
nia; "and now we are what we then thought were old 
men, and the years move all the faster." On another 
occasion he wrote to Thomas F. Walker: "I have long 
since ceased to have any dread of death, except for the 
shock of parting." While on a western lecturing trip he 
wrote to Mrs. George concerning the death of a fine St. 
Bernard dog they had raised from a pup: ''Poor old Thor! 
I cannot help feeling so sorry for him, and 1 know that 
you all must miss him very much. But we cannot tell. 
Perhaps if not that, something worse might have hap 
pened. Even in a dog, though, we feel the mystery of 
death. Let us love the closer, while life lasts." 

Staunch as a rock was his belief in immortality, and 
many of his friends loved to talk to him about it, even 
those like Louis Prang of Boston who had little faith. 
"Do you think we shall ever meet you in California 
again?" asked Mrs. Francis M. Milne of San Francisco, 
during the trip around the world. "I don't know," he 
answered; "for there is much to do. But if not here, 
then hereafter." Another friend, A. Van Dusen of New 
York, questioned: "What do you regard as the strongest 
evidence of the immortality of the soul?" The answer 

 Age, 52-58] BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 547 

was prompt, and to Mr. Van Dusen, conclusive: "The 
creation of human beings is purposeless if this is all." 
Over the body of William T. Croasdale, who died in the 
single tax faith in August, 1891, and was cremated, Mr. 
George in a funeral address said: 

"Ceased to be? No; I do not believe it! Cease to 
be? No; only to our senses yet encompassed in the 
flesh that he has shed. For our hearts bear witness to 
our reason that that which stands for good does not 
cease to be. . . . The changing matter, the pass 
ing energy that gave to this body its form are even now 
on their way to other forms. In a few hours there will 
remain to our sight but a handful of ashes. But that 
which we instinctively feel as more than matter and 
more than energy; that which in thinking of our friend 
to-day we cherish as best and highest—that cannot be 
lost. If there be in the world order and purpose, that 
still lives." 

When a young man, troubled in mind, raised the ques 
tion of whether or not suicide was justifiable, Mr. George 
replied: "Many wise men among the ancients thought it 
was. But what do we know about life; and what do we 
know about death? We are here, conscious of things to 
do. We came here not of ourselves. We must be part 
of a plan. We have work to perform. If we refuse to 
go forward with the work here, how do we know but that 
it shall have to be performed elsewhere?" 

August Lewis had on Mr. George's setting off for Ber 
muda given him a translation of Schopenhauer's "World 
as Will and Idea." Mr. George found it absorbingly in 
teresting, but " 'From A to Izzard' like a red rag to a 
bull," for the German philosopher represented that hope 
lessness of things earthly and a negation of life hereafter 
which proved a direct antithesis to George's ever-strength- 

 548 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1891-1897 

ening hopefulness and faith. With all that, the brilliant 
mind of the great German exercised its fascination. Rec 
ognising in him a philosopher of rare originality and 
astonishing versatility, Mr. George became fond of con 
sulting (or rather comparing) his views on the most 
varied topics. And he seemed to derive satisfaction from 
the fact that, in spite of its atheism, the underlying prin 
ciple of Schopenhauer's philosophy was spiritual and not 
material.1 Mr. George also seemed to take great delight 
in Schopenhauer's well known outspokenness against the 
professors, and indeed saw in the way that Schopenhauer 
had so long been ignored by them, a case analogous to 
his own. Perhaps many passages in Mr. George's later 
works bearing on this subject are somewhat to be ascribed 
to this influence.2 

Mr. George's views of the essence of Christianity he set 
forth in his published writings. His beliefs relative to 
the person of Christ were, he said one day in the last 
year of his life to his son Henry, most nearly represented 
by a short sketch written by Thomas Jefferson, entitled 
"Syllabus of an estimate of the merits of the doctrines of 
Jesus,"3 from which he quoted in "The Science of Polit 
ical Economy."4 

1See "A Perplexed Philosopher," Part III, Chapter iii, (Memorial 
Edition, pp. 125-128). 

* While having only a grammar school education, Mr. Lewis" tastes and 
talents had always led him to spend his leisure honrs'in the study, and 
capacious and well filled ^bookshelves in his home showed the choiceness 
and range of his reading. On questions of philosophy he was, at least in 
later years, the closest of Mr. George's friends; and as to the Schopen 
hauer philosophy, they had freqnent conversations subsequent to the 
Bermuda trip, in the studio 'of George Brush, to whom Mr. ^George, at 
Mr. Lewis' reqnest, sat for a full-length portrait. 

3" The Writings of Thomas Jefferson," collected and edited by Paul 
Leicester Ford, Putnam's Sons, Vol. VIII. p. 227. 

«Book It, Chapter ii, p. 132. 

 Age, 53-58] TASTE IN LITERATURE 549 

To take another view of Henry George—here is a fur 
ther excerpt from the Mendelson Bermuda notes: 

"Sunday March 1, 1891. 

"Bead Henry IV. aloud. Mr. George thinks it highly 
superior in 'every way' to Coriolanus. He particularly 
enjoys the character of Falstaff. Finds no attraction 
whatever in the character of Coriolanus; considers him 
a bad, selfish man from beginning to end; and more 
over cannot enjoy or approve of 'a piece of art without 
a high purpose.' Considers this business of war in 
Henry IV. as 'poor business.' 'The Chinese look down 
on soldiers. And is that valour? A big man ever so 
heavily armed like Douglas, the Scot, slashes the un 
armed soldiers and kills and crushes them by his mere 
weight.'" 

"Mr. George feels not the necessity of talking and 
of giving his thoughts to others, not even for the pur 
pose of getting at their thoughts. In the latter case, 
he prefers asking direct questions abruptly. In his 
talk he seldom gets animated and seldom says things 
of a higher order. When he does, he looks very absorbed 
in his subject and quite handsome. . . . 

"Though of deep feeling, he does not feel poetically. 
The poetry which he likes is not of the divine art, but 
the eloquence of feeling; that which finds its strong 
echo in his own heart. Of art per se he has no notion. 

"His mind is of a beautiful caste—simple, direct 
and comprehensive." 

The reading of Tennyson, Whittier, Swinburne, Brown 
ing, Longfellow, Macaulay, Buchanan and Arnold to him 
self or aloud in the family circle showed the poetic na 
ture; and the frequent word of encouragement to such 
rising singers as Alice Werner of London, John Farrell 
of New South Wales and Frances M. Milne of California 
showed the listening ear. But like the Psalms to Crom- 

 560 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1891-1897 

well's Ironsides, the poetry that spoke most strongly to 
him was that which moved with the intense purpose of 
his soul. For verses solely of sentiment or reflection, no 
matter how fine the language or picturing, his feeling was 
set forth in a note to Dr. Taylor (June 1, 1892): "Thanks 
for 'The Quiet Wood.' It is good, but—why, when the 
great struggle is on, and history is being made, will you 
go off into the woods and play the flute ? I should rather 
see you put your lips to the trumpet." 

Perhaps it may be well to add some lines from a letter 
Mr. George wrote subsequently (April 22, 1893) to his 
actor friend, James A. Herne, who had just produced a 
successful play, "Shore Acres": 

"I left Boston with the spell of your genius upon me, 
wishing very much to see you and sorry when I found 
I could not. 

"I cannot too much congratulate you upon your suc 
cess. You have done what you have sought to do— 
made a play pure and noble that people will come to 
hear. You have taken the strength of realism and 
added to it the strength that comes from the wider 
truth that realism fails to see; and in the simple por 
trayal of homely life, touched a universal chord. . . 
In the solemnity of the wonderfully suggestive close, 
the veil that separates us from heaven seems to grow 
thin, and things not seen to be felt. 

"But who save you can bring out the character you 
have created—a character, which to others, as to me, 
must have recalled the tender memory of some sweet 
saint of God—for such loving and unselfish souls there 
have been and are. I never before saw acting that im 
pressed me so much as yours last night. I did not feel 
like talking when I left the theatre; but I wanted to 
grasp your hand. I did not want to see you in that 
wonderful piece of acting of which they told me, where 
you reduced man to the mere animal. I am glad to 
have seen you in this, where the angel gleams forth." 

 Age, 53-58] HAMLET AND MACBETH 551 

In early life Richard III. and Hamlet of the Shake 
spearian plays most attracted Mr. George; but towards the 
close of life the vaulting ambition pictured in Macbeth 
made Mm think that in that the poet had reached his 
supreme conception. He himself, who had come out of 
obscurity and won intellectual triumphs such as no man 
in his domain of thought had ever before so quickly won, 
was keenly conscious of the dangers of ambition; and the 
poet's impersonation stood forth as the very incarnation 
of this tremendous human passion. 

Eeflecting upon the personality of Shakespeare and 
history's brief account of him, Mr. George once in con 
versation with his elder son said: "No man can do great 
writing without being conscious that it is great. But the 
great man is a modest man, and may be careless of his 
fame further than his achievements will speak for him. 
England's greatest poet, like the great poet whose mem 
ory Scotland reveres to-day, Burns, was contented, after 
doing his work, to live in retirement; feeling probably 
that 'not marble, nor the gilded monuments of princes' 
would outlive his 'powerful rhyme.' " 

But always in comparing man with man, there entered 
the relation of proportion. In answer to a question put 
by one of his family he said: "Napoleon's mind at his 
downfall was in no worse plight than that of the poor 
devil who cannot make or borrow ten dollars is relatively 
to the things that enter into his life." Edward McHugh 
tells how, being out for a stroll with Mr. George at Fort 
Hamilton, they dropped into the branch post office. There 
they met a man who wished to send away some money, 
but did not know how to fill out the official order. Mr. 
George did it for him. "It is not every day that such a 
man can have a philosopher to write for him," said Mr. 
McHugh when the stroll was resumed. "A philosopher," 

 652 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [1891-1807 

was the reply, "is no better than a bootblack. Such terms 
are only relative to our own small affairs." 

As President Lincoln modestly said he would hold Mc- 
Clellan's horse if that would help the general win the 
country a battle, so Henry George always refrained from 
assuming leadership. It was never "my principles," "my 
movement," "my cause"; but always "our principles," 
"our movement," "our cause." To Dr. Taylor he wrote 
(April 28, 1891): "How persistent is the manner in which 
the professors and those who esteem themselves the learned 
class ignore and slur me; but I am not conscious of any 
other feeling about it than that of a certain curiosity." 
This was not assumed humility. He spoke in the sim 
plicity of his nature—a simplicity that shone out in his 
private life, as witness in a letter to Mrs. George, during 
the summer of 1893: 

"I slept at home last night. Post wanted me to go 
down with him, but I thought I should prefer to sleep 
here, I had unfortunately drank two glasses of iced tea 
at supper (which I took with Post and the Hibbards) 
and owing I suppose to that, I did not get to sleep till 
after two. But the house was delightfully cool, and I 
slept until after nine, then took a bath, and for fifteen 
cents got two cups of coffee and all I wanted to eat at 
the little bakery on Twentieth Street and Second Ave 
nue. Then I came back to the house, where I have 
been waiting for the carpets to come, having sent yes 
terday a notice that I should be here between 10 and 
12 to-day." 

As with many famous men, money matters gave Mr. 
George much worry. Very little money would put him 
at his ease, although to get it he was often put to borrow 
ing. But unlike many celebrities, borrowed money with 
him was always a sacred debt, and he never failed to re- 

 Age, 52-58] AN AEDENT CHAIRMAN 553 

turn a loan punctually, if a time had been set; borrowing 
elsewhere, if he could meet the payment in no other way. 
One of his last acts before leaving New York in 1890 for 
the trip around the world was to send a check to John 
Eussell Young in final settlement of loans that enabled 
the philosopher to leave California in 1880 and helped 
to sustain him until he got his start in New York. 

Personal homage in every form Henry George treated 
with disfavour. "I do not like your over-praise," he 
wrote to Mrs. Milne, who sent him greetings on his 
return to New York from around the world. "If my 
words have spoken to your heart, it was because they 
came from my own; and though we may like to be praised 
for the little things, we do not for the big things." Once 
when an enthusiastic young chairman at a large meeting 
in Harlem, New York City, was making an earnest and 
sincere but very flattering speech in introducing Mr. 
George, the latter wriggled and writhed as though his 
character was being aspersed, instead of praised. Unable 
to bear it longer, he suddenly leaned forward and poked 
the chairman in the back with a walking-stick he had 
found beside him. The chairman, in a flood of bellow 
ing eloquence, chopped off in the middle of a word, looked 
behind him, had a whispered conference with the philoso 
pher, turned back to the audience, and said quietly: "Mr. 
George don't want me to get the rest of that off"; which 
tickled the assemblage into spasms of laughter. 

The dislike of his younger manhood to social forms 
Mr. George never conquered. He could not endure the 
accompanying vapid, small talk. Moreover, he found the 
necessity of giving special attention to his raiment par 
ticularly irksome, a dress coat and its adjuncts amount 
ing to an affliction; but he nevertheless tried to bear these 
ills with tranquillity, because as he reasoned, to conform 

 554 LIFE OF HENET GEOEGE [1891-1897 

to the small, polite usages tended to disarm antagonism to 
his crusade against giant wrongs in the vast body politic 
and body social. Yet a preoccupied mind often inter 
fered with the carrying out of his good intentions, as for 
instance, he appeared at a reception at his home in Nine 
teenth Street with the studs of his shirt bosom wrong 
side out, the ladies of the family being busy with the 
guests. At a later period, when residing at suburban Fort 
Hamilton, he spent a whole day in the business portion of 
New York and the night at the somewhat formal Hotel 
Waldorf with Tom L. Johnson without discovering that 
he had been going about with very dusty boots. But he 
made amends by having them polished before starting 
back for Fort Hamilton. 

This carelessness about dress led to many minor adven 
tures, one of which was in a sleeping-car, of which Mr. 
George was the sole occupant. The colored porter, whose 
livelihood largely depended upon fees from passengers, 
lamented to him the "po'ness of business." He made out 
euch a deplorable case that Mr. George was inspired to 
surprise him with a large tip, mentally resolving to give 
him all the change in his pocket. This proved to be much 
more than Mr. George expected and four or five times 
the customary fee, but he offered it nevertheless. 

"Dat all fo' me?" exclaimed the man incredulously, 
looking from the money to Mr. George's not over-fas 
tidious clothes, and then back to the money. And when 
Mr. George assured him that all the money was for him, 
the porter accepted it with a burst of thanks, adding: 
"I ofen heard it said, but I never would believe it; yo' 
never can tell about a frog until yo' see him jump!" 

Forgetfulness from preoccupation brought many petty 
losses. Once on a lecturing trip, with mock gravity he 
upbraided his wife, who travelled some of the way with 

 Age, 53-58] HABIT OF PREOCCUPATION 556 

him, for forgetting her umbrella at one of the stops. 
"And what have you to report, sir?" she retorted. A 
smile swept his gravity aside. "Only that I left my night 
apparel in one place, my tooth brush at another and my 
overshoes with the Governor of Missouri." Half an hour 
later he might have added the loss of his watch, which 
he left in a hotel at the first stopping place, though this 
was speedily recovered. So common were losses of this 
kind with him that he was positively relieved when he 
found that other members of the family could lose things, 
too. Returning with one of his sons from a Western 
journey, he saluted Mrs. George on reaching home with: 
"I can see that your children grow more like you every 
day." "In what way ?" asked Mrs. George. "Why, in los 
ing things. Your son here lost our tickets from St. Louis 
back to New York." Neither Mrs. George nor the sonm 
saw much in the loss of two one-thousand-mile tickets to 
smile at, but to Mr. George the incident had something 
of humour, because, while the tickets were lost, he him 
self was not this time the culprit. 

Abstraction not uncommonly carried him into a wrong 
street, took him to a wrong house and gave a wrong di 
rection to a letter, but perhaps his most surprising ex 
perience was while travelling with one of his sons in a 
sleeping-car from Cincinnati to Cleveland, Ohio. They 
went to bed in opposite, lower berths. Unable to sleep 
part of the nighl, Mr. George arose, put on some of his 
clothes, went to the smoking section and enjoyed a cigar. 
Drowsiness at length creeping upon him, he returned to 
bed and slept until the breakfast call of the porter awoke 
him in the morning. Reaching across the passageway, 
he gave the curtains of the berth opposite a vigorous shake, 
calling out: "Do you hear the joyful cry?" But instead 
of his son's voice, a feminine voice replied: "I think you 

 556 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1891-1897 

have made some mistake." Mr. George drew back in 
confusion. He looked about him to get his "bearings," 
only to find that on returning from his smoke during the 
night, he had taken the berth that some one else had ap 
parently vacated, and so had finished his night's sleep in 
wrong quarters. 

It has been said that Mr. George dreaded social occa 
sions. Yet there were gatherings of a social nature 
which he really enjoyed attending. These were little pri 
vate dinners that John Eussell Young gave, sometimes at 
the Astor House in New York and sometimes at the 
Union League in Philadelphia. At one or the other of 
these dinners he met John Mackay, William Florence, 
Joseph Jefferson, General Sherman, Colonel Alexander 
McClure, Murat Halstead, Judge Roger A. Pryor, Chaun- 
cey M. Depew and Grover Cleveland. He had never be 
fore met the ex-President, and was much pleased with 
him, believing from what fell in conversation, that if re- 
nominated for the Presidency in 1892, Cleveland would 
make a radical fight. 

John Eussell Young, though he was always a strict party 
Eepublican, was at heart a radical—an absolute free trader 
and a good deal of a single taxer. But though he talked 
unreservedly in private, his public utterances were veiled, 
one of his signed newspaper articles drawing out this 
message from his downright friend, George: 

"I don't like your "Press" article. ... I have 
some question whether the ordinary reader will know 
whether you are for Blaine or Harrison, and I fear that 
your delicate damnation of the tariff will in many 
cases be deemed by him an indorsement. The fine in 
ferences by which skilled diplomatists may convey their 
meaning to one another will not be understood in a 
town meeting." 

 Age, 52-68] SINGULAR JUDGMENT 557 

Henry George's judgment had to most of his friends a 
very singular quality. Of this Louis F. Post speaks, hav 
ing many occasions, both public and private, for putting 
his impressions to the test: 

"There was something unique about Mr. George's 
judgment. It was not intuitive, and yet it seemed at 
times to be infallibly so. I say it was not intuitive, 
because 1 never knew it to be of the slightest value, 
except when his intellect was aroused by a sense of 
responsibilitj'; and then it was startling in its directness 
and accuracy. I have often said that if Henry George 
told me how best to go to Europe, and did so without 
a sense of responsibility in the matter, I should go the 
other way; but that if he acted under a sense of re- 
sponsibilitj', I should follow his directions blindfold 
without a question or doubt." 

An instance of the highly practical cast of Mr. George's 
mind when responsibility concentrated his faculties was 
given in 1893, when a general financial stringency was 
squeezing the banks of the country, and crippling and 
destroying strong and weak industrial enterprises. The 
large steel rail manufacturing company named after Tom 
L. Johnson, and located at Johnstown, Pa., was soon 
brought face to face with this problem. The president 
of the company, Arthur J. Moxham, had come into the 
single tax faith soon after Mr. Johnson's conversion in 
the middle eighties. His strength of character and high 
executive ability were attested by the people of Johns 
town when the never-to-be-forgotten flood lay the centre 
of the city in ruins, killed thirty-six hundred persons, 
and sweeping awaj' all established authority and order, 
gave place to horror, terror and frantic confusion. In 
that time of disaster Mr. Moxham was made dictator, 
with life and death powers; and for three days he held 

 558 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE ; [1891-1897 

that extraordinary office. Mr. George happened to visit 
Johnstown and Mr. Moxham in 1893, at the moment when 
the financial stringency had brought the affairs of the 
Johnson Company to a crisis. He was told by Mr. Mox 
ham that no course seemed to be left but to shut down, 
for while he could get plenty of orders for rails, he could 
get no money in payment. Whereupon Mr. George sug 
gested that the bonds of the street railroad companies or 
dering rails should be taken in payment of their orders; 
and that certificates to be used as money be issued against 
them. Mr. Moxham took the idea and developed a plan, 
calling a meeting of his employees, explained to them the 
proposal to take steel railroad bonds, place them in the 
hands of a trustee mutually acceptable to the company 
and its men, and against these bonds to issue certificates 
in small denominations with which to pay salaries and 
wages by the Johnson Company. The employees gladly 
accepted the proposal and appointed a committee to act 
for them, and the plan was put into execution, one-third 
of all salaries and wages being paid in currency and the 
other two-thirds in these bond certificates. The store 
keepers and other townspeople accepted the certificates as 
readily as money; and the company, with its several thou 
sand employees, passed through the "tight" period with 
out further trouble. Indeed, the earnings of the em 
ployees were greater at this time than at any other period 
in the history of the company. Subsequently every one 
of the certificates was drawn in and redeemed. Mr. 
George regarded this as an illustration of what the United 
States Government could do to clear up the currency 
difficulties—issue from its own treasury a paper currency, 
based upon its credit and interchangeable with its bonds. 
Mr. George lived in the Nineteenth Street house, New 
York, until the spring of 1895, when the family stored the 

 Work room in the old house at Fort Hamilton where much of ' 
Political Economy " was written. 

The Science of 

 Age, 52-58] HOME AT FOBT HAMILTON 659 

furniture and went to Herriewold Park—a little unpre 
tentious, woodland resort in the hills of Sullivan County, 
New York State, where some single taxers had built a 
few houses and had commenced to go each summer as 
early as 1889. In the fall of 1895 the Georges came 
down from Merriewold and occupied a house at Fort 
Hamilton, Long Island, which had probably been stand 
ing there thirty or forty years when Henry George, as a 
boy, had sailed out of the harbour past it on the ship 
Hindoo, bound for Australia and India. It stood on the 
bluffs at the "Narrows," between the inner and outer 
bays. The house belonged to Tom L. Johnson, who, with 
his father, had bought considerable land there with a 
view to making themselves summer homes. "In the mov 
ing and arranging," Mr. George wrote to his friend, "I 
have not been able to get fairly to work, but shall to 
morrow, and thanks to you, in the most comfortable quar 
ters I have ever worked in since 'Progress and Poverty' 
was written." 

The first marriage among the children had occurred in 
1888; the second son, Eichard, having wedded Mary E. 
Eobinson of Brooklyn; and to this couple several children 
had been born. Another marriage came in the spring 
of 1895, Jennie, the third child and first daughter, being 
united to William J. Atkinson of New York. The good 
friend in the cause, Eev. James 0. S. Huntington, had 
performed the first marriage ceremony in a little Episco 
pal Church in Brooklyn. Dr. McGlynn, who had now 
been restored to his priestly offices in the Catholic Church, 
performed the second marriage at the George residence 
on Nineteenth Street. 

"Dp to the Doctor's reinstatement in December, 1892, 
Edward McGlynn and Henry George had had no written 
communication since their separation during the presi- 

 560 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [i89i-i897 

dential campaign of 1888 and had met only casually. 
The clergyman, while living the exemplary life of a priest, 
just as though exercising his full office, had meanwhile, 
with unabating persistence, preached the single tax faith 
at his Anti-Poverty meetings in New York and in lec 
tures in many other cities. At length the wise men of 
the Church concluded that justice required a reconsidera 
tion of the case. Many have thought that the reply that 
Henry George made to the papal encyclical in 1891, of 
which we shall speak later, had influenced the broad- 
minded Leo XIII. to review the case.1 This may have 
been a contributing cause. When the Pope sent Arch 
bishop Satolli to this country as his representative, Eev. 
Dr. Burtsell called upon him to suggest a reversal of the 
act of excommunication. Archbishop Satolli, evidently 
following instructions of the Pope, suggested that Dr. 
McGlynn should present to him a full explanation of his 
doctrine on the land question. Dr. Burtsell first pre 
sented an exposition of the doctrine, which Dr. McGlynn 
indorsed as clear and accurate. Later Dr. McGlynn pre 
sented his own statement of his teachings. It was direct 
and explicit, without extenuation, just as he had been 
teaching it from the beginning. These written state 
ments were carefully considered by a committee of the 
professors of the Catholic University in Washington, who 
declared that they contained nothing contrary to the teach 
ings of the Catholic Church. These professors were the 
Eevs. Thomas Bouquillon, D.D. (Dean of the Theological 
Faculty), Thomas O'Gorman, D.D. (since appointed 

1 To Rev. Thomas Dawson, then of London, Mr. George wrote (Decem 
ber 23, 1892): " I have for some time believed Leo XIII. to be a very 
great man. . . . Whether he ever read my ' Open Letter' I cannot 
tell, but he has been acting as though he had not only read it, but had 
recognised its force." 

 Age. 52-58] DR. McGLYNN RESTORED 561 

Bishop of Sioux Falls, S. D.), Thomas J. Shahan, D.D., 
and Charles Grannan, D.D. Dr. McGlynn subsequently 
made a profession of his adhesion to the teachings of the 
Church and of the Apostolic See, and in general terms he 
recalled any word that may have escaped him not in con 
formity with the respect due to the Holy See. The papal 
representative suggested that, as Dr. McGlynn had not 
been able to join with the clergy in the regular annual 
retreat, he should go on retreat preparatory to reinstate 
ment; but when he was made to realise that this was 
likely to be construed as a punishment, the ablegate re 
frained from urging it, and left the matter to Dr. Mc- 
Glynn's judgment. The latter expressly stipulated that 
he should be free to continue to expound the single tax 
as long as he thought proper, to the Anti-Poverty Society 
or any gathering, at Cooper Union or elsewhere. With 
these tilings clearly understood, Dr. McGlynn gave his 
word to Archbishop Satolli to present himself to the 
Pope within three or four months to obtain his blessing. 
Then Archbishop Satolli in formal words, and in the 
name of the Pope, removed the ban of excommunication 
from Dr. McGlynn, and the first announcement of the 
Doctor's reinstatement was made by the papal represen 
tative from the Catholic University at Washington. 

The next day, Christmas day, 1892, for the first time 
since 1887, Dr. McGlynn celebrated mass.1 In the even 
ing he addressed the Anti-Poverty Society as usual. It 

1 By his own wish, Dr. MeGlynn at the time of his restoration was not 
attached to any parish ; and it was not until December, 1894, two years 
later, that, on the advice of Archbishop Satolli, he applied for a parish to 
Archbishop Corrigan (of the {Diocese of New York. The latter had, as 
Mr. George wrote to a friend, been " completely flabbergasted " by the res 
toration and the refusal of the Roman authorities longer to nphold the 
New York Archbishop in his declaration that the single tax doctrine was 
contrary to the teachings of the Church. But Archbishop Corrigan made 

 E62 LIFE OF^HENRY GEOKGE [1891-1897 

was a time with him for great rejoicing. He had made 
the long fight and had triumphed. The odds had been 
tremendous, but he had overcome them. Never again 
could any man say that the teachings of the .Catholic 
Church were opposed to the single tax. And he cele 
brated mass with a thankfulness that he had been given 
the strength to fight the great battle. He went to Rome 
some months afterwards and was accorded an interview 
by the Pope. The reference to the social question was of 
the briefest description. "Do you teach against private 
property?" asked his Holiness. "I do not; I am staunch 
for private property," said the Doctor. "I thought so," 
said his Holiness, and he conferred his blessing. 

When Henry George heard of Dr. McGlynn's restora 
tion, his own rejoicing swept all other considerations 
aside. He at once sent a telegram: "My wife and I send 
heartfelt congratulations." Sentiments of warm feeling 
were returned, and thus the relations of friendship, inter 
rupted for four years, were re-established; and they lasted 
until death. 

the best of his utter defeat. He quietly assigned Dr. McGlynn to the 
parish of St. Mary, in the little town of Newburgh, on the Hudson River, 
close to Rondout, where Dr. Burtsell had been sent. Archbishop Corri- 
gan at the same time engaged to give to him the first vacant parish in 
New York City that would be suitable to Dr. McGlynn's talents. 

 CHAPTER XIII. 

THE LAST BOOKS. 

1891-1896. AGE, 52-57. 

IT was in April, Boon after the return from Bermuda, 
fully restored to health and vigour, that Mr. George 
wrote to Dr. Taylor: "During the last week I have got to 
work on the 'Political Economy' I have long contemplated, 
and if my health continues good I shall keep at it. I 
have thought that perhaps it would be useful if I could 
put the ideas embodied in 'Progress and Poverty' in the 
Betting of a complete economic treatise and without con 
troversy." 

This was the "primer" that he had mentioned to Charles 
Nordhoff before leaving California in 1879. In answer 
to the pressing calls of Richard McGhee and other British 
friends, who believed they could get such a book into some 
of the schools there, he planned in the summer of 1889 to 
go straight at it and to publish by the fall. But other 
things crowded in to exclude this. Now, however, when he 
returned from Bermuda, August Lewis and Tom L. John 
son confirmed his judgment that he should withdraw 
altogether from "The Standard." And to this end they 
voluntarily, and "without suggestion or thought" from 
him, assured him that they would regard it as their best 
contribution to the cause to be allowed for a season to 

563 

 664 LIFE OF HENRY GEOEGE [1891-1896 

make him independent, so that he might, if he judged 
that to be best, devote himself to book-writing, such as 
only he was qualified to do. Subsequently dedicating 
"The Science of Political Economy" to his two friends, 
he made open acknowledgment of this in the inscription. 

But almost at the outset of work on the proposed primer 
Mr. George realised the difficulty of making a simple 
statement of the principles of political economy—the real, 
everlasting political economy—while so much confusion 
existed as to the meaning of terms in the literature relat 
ing to the science. He therefore changed his plan, left 
the primer for an after labour and laid out at once a 
much larger work—one that should recast political econ 
omy and examine and explicate terminology as well as 
principles, and which, beginning at the beginning, should 
trace the rise and partial development of the science in 
the hands of its founders a century ago, and then show 
its gradual emasculation and at last abandonment by its 
professed teachers; accompanying this with an account of 
the extension of the science outside and independently of 
the schools in the philosophy of the natural order now 
spreading over the world under the name of the single tax.j 

"Progress and Poverty" was "an inquiry into the cause 
of industrial depressions and of increase of want with 
increase of wealth." This new book, as it broadened out, 
became far more ambitious in scope. It purposed to de 
fine the science that names the conditions in which civi 
lised men shall get their living. No writer on political 
economy had ever before set himself so great a task; in 
deed, no writer ever before had assumed that he understood 
the full relations of the science, Adam Smith's immortal 
work being "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of 
the Wealth of Nations," and the most authoritative recent 
work, that of John Stuart Mill, being a treatise on the 

 Age, 52-57] COMMENCES LAST BOOK 665 

"Principles of Political Economy." To Henry George's 
view, none of the economists, from Smith to Mill, realised 
the correlation of the laws of production or likewise those 
of distribution. But though he believed he himself saw 
clearly and felt that he could prove his reasoning, he 
nevertheless hesitated to give his book the name its scope 
seemed to warrant until the writing was nearing its com 
pletion, a few months before his death. Then he defi 
nitely decided on the title which in his judgment the book 
should justly have—"The Science of Political Economy." 
But scarcely had the enlarged plan of work begun to 
take shape in the spring of 1891 when a remarkable in 
terruption occurred. No less a personage than Pope Leo 
XIII. entered the controversy on the land question, ad 
dressing an encyclical letter "to our venerable brethren, 
all patriarchs, primates, archbishops and bishops of the 
Catholic world." The encyclical was on "The Condition 
of Labour," and while there was a confusion of socialism 
and anarchism with the single tax, and neither Henry 
George nor the single tax proposition were specifically 
named, yet Archbishop Corrigan of New York hailed the 
papal letter as the highest sanction of his own opposition 
to the single tax doctrine as preached by Dr. McGlynn 
and Henry George. In London, Cardinal Manning told 
Mr. George's eldest son, who chanced to be there, that the 
Pope's letter aimed at the Henry George teachings; al 
though he intimated that between the postulates and the 
deduction Henry George could drive a coach and four. 
Mr. George wrote to his son: "For my part, I regard the 
encyclical letter as aimed at us, and at us alone, almost.1 

1 On the other hand, a number of Mr. George's Catholic friends from 
the first contended that the Pojie did not condemn the single tax doc 
trine, some like Rev. Dr. Burtsell holding that that was "free doctrine," 
to be adopted or rejected by individuals without justly incurring the dis- 

 666 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [i89i-i«9« 

And I feel very much encouraged by the honour." lie 
later wrote (June 9): "I think I ought to write something 
about it. Of course the Pope's letter itself is very weak; 
but to reply to him might give an opportunity of explain 
ing our principles to many people who know little or 
nothing about them." 

But this was not the trifling matter that Mr. George at 
first purposed to make of it; for the reply, which took the 
form of an open letter to the Pope, grew in his hands, 
as his writing usually did. It was not finished until 
September, and comprised twenty-five thousand words; 
twice as many as the encyclical, which he printed with it. 
He had intended also to publish Bishop Nultys pastoral 
letter with it, but concluded that that would make the 

pleasure or the rebuke of the Church through her officers. Mr. George 
himself, answering a correspondent in the columns of the " New York 
Sun," in January, 1893) said: "That the encyclical on the 'Condition 
of Labour' seemed to me to condemn the * single tax' theory is true. 
But it made it clear that the Pope did not rightly understand that 
theory. It was for this reason that in the open letter to which your cor 
respondent refers I asked permission to lay before the Pope the grounds 
of our belief and to show that ' our postulates are all stated or implied in 
your encyclical' and that ' they are the primary perceptions of human 
reason, the fundamental teachings of the Christian faith'; declaring that, 
so far from avoiding, ' we earnestly seek the judgment of religion, the 
tribunal of which your Holiness, as the head of the largest body of Christ 
ians, is the most august representative.' The answer has come. In the 
reinstatement of Dr. McGlynn on a correct presentation of ' single tax' 
doctrines, the highest authority of the Catholic Church has declared in 
the most emphatic manner that there is nothing in them inconsistent 
with the Catholic faith. From henceforth the encyclical on the ' Con 
dition of Labour*— a most noble and noteworthy declaration that religion 
is concerned with the social evils of our time, and that chronic poverty is 
not to be regarded as a dispensation of Providence — is evidently to be 
understood not as disapproving the ' single tax," but as disapproving of 
the grotesque misrepresentations of it that were evidently at first pre 
sented to the Pope." 

 Age, 52-57] LETTER TO THE POPE 567 

volume too bulky. He wrote to his son (August 21): 
"I think I have done a good piece of work and that it 
will be useful and will attract attention. . . . What I 
have really aimed at is to make a clear, brief explanation 
of our principles; to show their religious character, and 
to draw a line between us and the socialists. I have 
written really for such men as Cardinal Manning, General 
Booth and religious-minded men of all creeds." 

The book was published simultaneously in New York 
(United States Book Company) and London (Swan Son- 
nenschein & Company) and at the same time an Italian 
translation by Ludovieo Eusebio was brought out in Turin 
and Eome by the Unione Tipografieo-Editriee, publishers 
of the Italian translation of "Progress and Poverty," 
which Sr. Eusebio had made a year or two before. A 
copy of the translation of the "Letter to the Pope," beau 
tifully printed and handsomely bound, was presented to 
Leo XIII. personally by Monsignor Caprini, Prefect of 
the Vatican Library, though Mr. George never received, 
directly or indirectly, aught in reply. 

Mr. Walker of Birmingham voiced the feelings of the 
multitude of friends everywhere who had been shocked 
at the news of Mr. George's illness and had had linger 
ing fears of impaired powers. "The great charm of the 
book to me," wrote Walker, "was that the work revealed 
you in all your old intellectual vigour and showed in 
every paragraph that you had recovered all your mental 
powers, for which, most reverently I say, thank God!" 

But the little book did not start the large immediate 
discussion that its author expected, and he relapsed into 
a feeling he had entertained before the papal encyclical 
had appeared and which he had expressed in a letter (May 
18) to a New Church friend, James E. Mills: "How sad 
it is to see a church in all its branches offering men stones 

 568 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1891-18% 

instead of bread, and thistles instead of figs. From Prot 
estant preachers to Pope, avowed teachers of Christianity 
are with few exceptions preaching almsgiving or social 
ism, and ignoring the simple remedy of justice." George 
at times had regrets that he had stopped work on his 
political economy to make reply to the Pope, but many 
of the friends thought the latter writing could ill have 
been spared on account of its brevity and exalted religious 
tone. After three editions had been exhausted in Eng 
land, James C. Durant, of London, who had joined Mr. 
George in bringing out the sixpenny edition of "Progress 
and Poverty" in 1882, himself paid for a special edition 
of the "Open Letter to the Pope" for free circulation. 
Subsequently in the United States this little book became 
a favourite in propaganda work. 

As has been pointed out many times, the essence of 
Henry George's economics is ethical—the natural order, 
justice. It carries with it a profound belief in an All- 
maker; it pulses with the conviction of the fatherhood of 
God and the brotherhood of man. When, therefore, Her 
bert Spencer, goaded by a hot controversy raised in the 
British newspapers and periodicals over his early "Social 
Statics" (quoted by single taxers in support of single 
tax principles) made a recantation of his former senti 
ments on the land question and repudiated the principle 
he had put in such clear and unqualified terms that God 
had made the land for all the people equally, Mr. George 
was stirred to the depths. To his mind Spencer's offence 
was not merely that of a philosopher who attempted to ex 
plain away and shiftingly deny what before he had as 
serted to be a fundamental, obvious and everlasting truth, 
but that with his later philosophy, he had allowed mate 
rialism to take the place of God. Moreover, three maga 
zine articles in denial of "natural rights," written in the 

 Age, 52-57] A PERPLEXED PHILOSOPHER 669 

materialistic vein, had appeared in 1890 from the pen of 
Professor Thomas H. Huxley, and the chief postulates 
of "Progress and Poverty" were probably to the emi 
nent scientist's belief overthrown.1 George wrote to Tay- 
lor at the time (September 16, 1890) : "I suppose you 
read Huxley's 'Nineteenth Century' articles. What do 
you think of him as a philosopher? I am itching to get 
at him, and will, as soon as I can get a little leisure." 
It was early in the new year (1892) that George again 
laid aside work on his political economy and took up 
Spencer. And he took the opportunity to include Hux 
ley, picturing him in passing as "Professor Bullhead" in 
the allegorical chapter entitled "Principal Brown." 

All of Mr. George's immediate friends who learned of 
his intention to write on Spencer were greatly pleased; 
and remembering his achievements in his "Letter to the 
Pope" and his preceding reply to the Duke of Argyll, 
they prepared themselves for an intellectual treat. But 
some of the friends were alarmed when told that he 
would incidentally touch on the synthetic philosophy. Dr. 
Taylor, whom Mr. George called "of old my representa 
tive of Spencerianism," thought that George ought to 
"leave any review of the Spencerian system of phil 
osophy to those who are in that special field and who 
have had special training for such work." Continuing 
he said: "In your own particular field, I am satisfied you 
are invincible; but I should not feel so sure of you in 
metaphysics, philosophy or cosmogony. Kemember that 
life is short, and the powers of the human mind limited, 
and that you have not yet produced (what you should 
produce) a monumental work on political economy." 

1 Professor Huxley republished these essays in a volume entitled 
"Method aud Kcsulta." 

 570 LIFE OF HENEY GEOEGE [1891-1896 

George thanked Taylor for his frank counsel, which he 
took 'to be "the strongest proof of friendship." But there 
was no change of position. George wrote of the harsh 
ness of his tone towards Spencer and of his views on 
evolution in successive letters. 

April 18, 1892. 

"While I shall trim down or rather, alter in places 
my harsher references to Spencer, so as to bring them 
later—and had in fact already done so—1 think they 
must appear somewhere. I do not regard this as con 
troversy. It is rather exposure. In turning his back 
on all he has said before, Mr. Spencer has not argued, 
and no explanation is possible that does not impute 
motives. 

"As for the philosophy, I think I take a truer view 
of it than you do. It is substantially the view I took 
in 'Progress and Poverty'; but it has been fortified by a 
closer examination. John Fiske does not truly repre 
sent Spencerianism, but has grafted his own ideas on 
it. So too, I think, with Professor LcConte—or rather 
that he holds what I should call the external of evolu 
tion, with which I do not quarrel; for though I do not 
see the weight of the evidence with which it is asserted, 
it seems to me most reasonable. What I do quarrel 
with is the essential materialism of the Spencerian 
ideas; and this seems to me to inhere in them in spite 
of all Spencer's denials." 

April 29. 

"I simply don't see evolution from the animal as the 
form in which man has come. I don't deny it, and as 
I said in a sentence I hardly think you noticed, I at 
tach no importance to the question. All I contend for 
is something behind the form." 

The book, bearing title of "A Perplexed Philosopher," 
was out in October (1892). But while it was widely and 
well read, it awakened no general demonstration in press 

 Age, 52-57] ATTITUDE ON EVOLUTION 671 

or periodicals and the author had the same kind of mis 
givings that immediately followed in the wake of the 
"Letter to the Pope"—misgivings that he had misused 
his time in not keeping along with the political economy. 
Even while writing the Spencer book (in April, 1892) he 
wrote incidentally to Dr. Taylor: "Several times since be 
ginning it, I have thought that perhaps it would have 
been better to have pushed ahead with other work." 
Spencer himself never directly or indirectly during 
George's life noticed the tremendous indictment, and "A 
Perplexed Philosopher" was the sole one of the George 
books that, for many years at any rate, was not trans 
lated into other languages. Whatever may have been 
the reason of the comparative non-euccess of this book, 
it could not have been that Henry George's name had lost 
its potency, for about this time occurred what must stand 
out as remarkable in the history of economic literature. 

Tom L. Johnson of Cleveland, 0., following the advice 
given by Mr. George at their first interview in 1885, had 
gone into politics, run for Congress as a free trade, sin 
gle tax Democrat in 1888, had been defeated, had run 
again in 1890 in the same way and been elected. The 
Democrats were in power in the House of Representatives 
at Washington and brought forward a timid little tariff- 
reducing bill. Mr. Johnson conceived the idea of getting 
Henry George's "Protection or Free Trade?" into the 
"Congressional Eecord," the official report of the pro 
ceedings of Congress. "Protection or Free Trade?" had 
up to then had an extremely wide circulation, first in 
serial form in a number of newspapers, then in regular 
book form, and afterwards in cheap, popular form, through 
the efforts of educating groups known as "Hand to Hand 
Clubs," of which William J. Atkinson of JNew York and 
Logan Carlisle, son of John G. Carlisle, then United 

 572 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1891-1896 

States Senator from Kentucky, were the prime movers, 
and through whose efforts close to two hundred thousand 
copies had been put into circulation. 

Tom L. Johnson now determined to exceed this. Under 
a "leave to print'' rule, members of the House of Repre 
sentatives had long been accustomed to publish speeches 
that limited time for debate prevented them from deliv 
ering, or to publish extensive supplementary printed mat 
ter to their delivered "remarks." But as the issue of the 
"Congressional Record" was necessarily limited, members 
invariably reprinted matter from the "Record" to send to 
their constituents or whoever else in the United States 
they chose. This printing they themselves had to pay 
for; but they had the privilege of sending out such mat 
ter free through the mails, under the "franking privi 
lege." It was a time-honoured custom for members in 
this way to send a great quantity of reprinted "Congres 
sional Record" matter into their districts, especially pre 
ceding congressional or presidential elections. 

Acting upon this "leave to print" privilege, Mr. John 
son, with Mr. George's hearty approval, divided "Protec 
tion or Free Trade?" between himself and five other con 
gressmen, namely, William J. Stone of Kentucky, Joseph 
E. Washington of Tennessee, John W. Fithian of Illinois, 
Thomas Bowman of Iowa and Jerry Simpson of Kansas. 
Each man on a separate day introduced his section of the 
book as a "part of his remarks" in the tariff debate. The 
Republican minority beheld this performance with aston 
ishment. They wanted to expunge the work from the 
"Record" on the ground that an entire book had never 
before been so published. That it was not the "abuse" of 
the "leave to print" privilege, but that particular book 
which they opposed, became clear, when after having 
motions to expunge voted down, they endeavoured to offset 

 Age, 52-57] "ST. GEORGE'' IN CONGRESS 573 

the effect of the Henry George book by themselves in 
serting in the "Record" a book by George Gunton defend 
ing monopolies, though there was not afterwards enough 
call for the Gunton book to pay the cost of reprinting it 
outside the "Record." 

The Republicans then tried to make capital out of the 
incident by charging the Democrats with going headlong 
into the free trade heresy and making Henry George, with 
his single tax doctrine, their political prophet. But the 
Democrats, delighted to find something that made their 
political adversaries cry out, and not over-particular as to 
whether or not this book was consistent with their own 
professed principles and policy, showed something resem 
bling enthusiasm in circulating the enormous edition of 
the work that Mr. Johnson had printed. The Republi 
can press all over the country took up and increased the 
outcries of the Republican Congressmen, with the misrep 
resentation, perhaps unintentional, that the work was 
being printed at public expense; while the Democratic 
press defended the action of the Democratic Congressmen 
and to some extent defended the book itself; so that the 
entire country was for the time turned into debating clubs, 
with "Protection or Free Trade?" for the subject matter. 

Nothing could have better suited Mr. Johnson's purpose. 
He had the book printed compactly in large quantities at 
the rate of five-eighths of a cent a copy. The great adver 
tising the Republican and Democratic papers had given 
it made an immense demand for what was known collo 
quially in the House as "St. George," even stalwart Re 
publicans from the State of Pennsylvania being pestered 
for copies. Many congressmen sent large numbers of the 
book into their districts, and Mr. Johnson himself sent 
two hundred thousand copies into the State of Ohio. The 
National Democratic Committee had seventy thousand 

 574 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1891-1896 

copies distributed in Indiana and the Reform Club of 
New York, which was active in anti-tariff educational 
work, placed one hundred and fifty thousand in the north 
west. In all more than one million two hundred thou 
sand copies of this edition of "St. George" were printed 
and distributed, and perhaps as much as two hundred 
thousand copies of a better, two-cent edition; so that of 
this single book by Henry George almost two million 
copies were printed within less than eight years after 
being written—something never approached by any other 
work in economic literature save by the incomparable 
"Progress and Poverty," which with its many translations 
may have exceeded that number of copies. 

The expense of printing "St. George" was met partly 
by small popular contributions from free traders and 
single taxers scattered about the country; partly by larger 
sums from men like Thomas G. Shearman of New York, 
James E. Mills of California, Thomas F. Walker and 
Silas M. Burroughs of England; and partly by money 
from the National Democratic committee and the Reform 
Club of New York. But the chief expense was borne by 
Tom L. Johnson. Of course there was no thought of 
copyright in all this, Mr. George invariably sacrificing 
that when it would appreciably help the circulation of 
his writings. He looked to the propagation of the faith 
above everything else. 

It was during this period, or more precisely, on the last 
day of August, 1892, that "The Standard" succumbed to 
the inevitable, and ceased publication. After William T. 
Croasdale's death, Louis F. Post had by general request 
taken editorial control. But the paper kept running be 
hind and became too much of a financial burden longer 
to carry, as what Mr. George said in a signed statement 
in the last number had become more and more evident. 

 Age, 52-57] DEATH OP "THE STANDARD" 575 

"The work that 'The Standard' was intended to do has 
heen done, and in the larger field into which our move 
ment has passed, there is no longer need for it. For 
the usefulness of a journal devoted to the propagation 
of an idea must diminish as its end is attained. Needed 
while it is the only means of presenting that idea to 
the public and keeping its friends in touch, that need 
ceases as the idea finds wider expression and journals 
of general circulation are open to it. ... Its files 
. . . record an advance of the great cause to which 
it was devoted unprecedented in the history of such 
movements. Where in the beginning it stood alone, 
there are now scattered over the United States hun 
dreds of local journals devoted to the same cause, while 
the columns of general newspapers of the largest circu 
lation are freely opened to the advocacy of our views. 
They are, indeed, making their way through all avenues 
of thought—the pulpit, the stage and the novel, in leg 
islatures, in Congress and on the political stump. The 
ignorance and prejudice which the earlier files of 
'The Standard' showed that we then had to meet, have, 
in their cruder forms at least, almost disappeared, and 
among our most active friends are thousands of men 
who then believed our success would be the destruction 
of society. Within the last few months nearly a mil 
lion copies of a single tax book have been distributed 
under the sanction of one of the great political parties; 
and the free trade sentiment to which we were the first 
to give practical and determined expression, has so 
grown that at the recent Democratic National Conven 
tion it was strong enough to break the slated pro 
gramme and to force a free trade declaration into the 
platform. 

"Let us say good-bye to it; not as those who mourn, 
but as those who rejoice. Times change, men pass, but 
that which is built on truth endures." 

The hot and comparatively radical campaign, with most 
of the Democratic newspapers hammering on the tariff 
question, made up to some extent for the death of "The 

 676 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE [1891-1896 

Standard"; and then came Grover Cleveland's re-election 
to the presidency. 

All seemed propitious for great events. Henry George 
wanted no office; he asked only that President Cleveland 
apply the chief principle involved in his election, and 
make war on the tariff. But Cleveland's first important 
official act brought a great disappointment, for he switched 
issues, by subordinating the tariff to the money question, 
in calling a special session of Congress to deal with the 
currency. While it worked directly into the hands of the 
protectionist faction in the Democratic party, it made the 
educational work of Johnson and George in circulating 
"Protection or Free Trade?" go for naught at that time, 
whatever might result in the future from so great a circu 
lation of this book. And then, when the tariff question 
was up a year later, George wrote to Johnson (July 24, 
1894): "The President's letter to Chairman Wilson of 
the Ways and Means Committee is very bad. Free raw 
material is taking the burden off the manufacturers and 
keeping it on the consumers." 

Nevertheless, Mr. George sat in the gallery of the House 
of Representatives and listened with great happiness to 
Tom L. Johnson—a steel rail manufacturer—move to put 
steel rails on the free list and make a fervent free trade 
speech in support. The moderates in the Democratic 
party of course could not let such an incident pass. One 
of them, by voice and pointing finger, called attention 
of the House to the master in the gallery and the pupil 
on the floor; whereupon a lot of the more independent 
Democrats streamed upstairs to shake hands with the 
man who held no political office, who asked for no po- 
political patronage, who said bold things without counting 
consequences and who had a fascinating, indescribable in 
fluence over the thoughts of multitudes. 

 Age, 52-57] CHICAGO RAILROAD STRIKE . 677 

If Henry George was disappointed in Mr. Cleveland's 
first actions in this second term of the presidency, he was 
moved to great hostility to him over the matter of the 
Chicago railroad strike; when, setting aside State author 
ity, indeed, in spite of the protests of Governor Altgeld, 
the President sent Federal troops to the scene. Not a 
New York newspaper opposed the Executive action. Yet 
ten thousand men, mostly working men, assembled at a 
mass meeting in and about Cooper Union. Eev. Thomas 
A. Ducey of St. Leo's Catholic Church, Charles Fred 
erick Adams and James A. Herne the actor, were among 
the speakers, and spoke effectively and forcibly; while 
Henry George's speech seemed to hit the target's centre: 

"I yield to nobody in my respect for law and order 
and my hatred of disorder; but there is something more 
important even than law and order, and that is the 
principle of liberty. I yield to nobody in my respect- 
for the rights of property; yet I would rather see every 
locomotive in this land ditched, every car and every 
depot burned and every rail torn up, than to have them 
preserved by means of a Federal standing army. That 
is the order that reigned in Warsaw. (Long applause.) 
That is the order in the keeping of which every demo 
cratic republic before ours has fallen. I love the Ameri 
can Eepublic better than I love such order." (Long 
applause.) 

And a little later Mr. George became freshly angered 
against the President for his special message to Congress 
that threatened war with Great Britain over the Vene 
zuelan boundary dispute. Much as he hated war, George 
justified it when waged for natural rights—for liberty. 
But even talk of war between two great and enlightened 
nations like Great Britain and the United States, espe 
cially over what at bottom he believed to be a mere squab- 

 578 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1891-1896 

ble of private parties as to mineral claims, raised the wrath 
within him, and he made an indignant speech against the 
President at a mass meeting at Cooper Union. 

Henry George's estimation of the President had under 
gone a great change since he spoke and voted for him in 
1892. He wrote in the New York "Journal" on the day 
before the Presidential election, 1896: 

"The philosophic historian, who, after our grand 
children have passed away, reviews our times, must 
write of him [Cleveland] as more dangerous to the 
Republic than any of his predecessors. The sequel has 
proved that it was the Whitneys and the Huntingtons 
who had really cause for rejoicing in his election; not 
men like me. For no Harrison, no McKinley; no chief 
of trusts and rings, such as Rockefeller or Morgan; 
no king's jester of monopoly, such as Chauncey M. De- 
pew or Bob Ingersoll, could, if elected as a Republican, 
have used the place BO to strike at the vitals of the 
Republic." 

Despite this disappointment, cheer came from other 
points. Encouraging news of the progress of the single tax 
idea in political affairs was coining from Australia and 
New Zealand. Similar good news came from Great Britain. 
In the House of Commons in March, 1891, James Stuart's 
motion, that "in the opinion of this House, the freeholders 
and owners of ground values in the metropolis ought to 
contribute directly a substantial share of local taxation," 
had received 123 votes to 149 against; thus showing great 
strength for the idea. Since then it had been stead 
ily creeping over the country and more and more becom 
ing a leading question in the constituencies. The English 
Land Restoration League had been conducting, under the 
management of its able and untiring secretary, Frederick 
Verinder, a "Red Van" educational campaign^—several 

 Age, 52-57] MILESTONES OF PEOGEESS 679 

large vans that afforded two or three speakers living quar 
ters, slowly travelling from village to village, for nightly 
open-air meetings and the preaching of the faith. Wil 
liam Saundrrs, Thomas P. Walker, D'Arcy W. Eeeve, 
and S. M. Burroughs were among the contributors towards 
this work; but the largest individual contribution came 
from an Englishman in the United States who wished not 
to be publicly known in the matter. 

At home had occurred what must be a landmark in the 
history of the single tax. Henry George wrote Richard 
McGhee, of Glasgow (February 13, 1894): 

"Tom Johnson is doing great work in Congress, and 
James G. Maguire's single tax amendment to the in 
come tax bill has brought our views for the first time 
into the Congressional arena. It got six votes: Those 
of James G. Maguire of California, Tom L. Johnson 
and Michael I). Harter of Ohio, Jerry Simpson of Kan 
sas and John DeWitt Warner and Charles Tracy of 
New York—double what I had counted on, as there 
was no hope of carrying it and the measure was in a 
position in which we could not show our strength; but 
the sympathy is such among radical Democrats that 
the House cheered when the six men stood up. The 
direct line of our advance is however in State legisla 
tion, and the single tax may in that way be brought 
into political issue at almost any time." 

As Henry George surveyed the world from the quiet of 
his workroom the hand of Providence seemed to show in 
the rapid progress of the cause, and he set down, in rough 
abbreviated form, these notes for a preface for "The Sci 
ence of Political Economy," writing on the sheets the date 
of March 7, 1894: 

"The years which have elapsed since the publication of 
'Progress and Poverty' have been on my part devoted 

 580 LIFE OP HENRY GEORGE (1891-1896 

to the propagation of the truths taught in 'Progress 
and Poverty' by books, pamphlets, magazine articles, 
newspaper work, lectures and speeches, and have been 
so greatly successful as not only far to exceed what 
fifteen years ago I could have dared to look forward 
to in this time, but to have given me reason to feel that 
of all the men of whom I have ever heard who have 
attempted anything like so great a work against any 
thing like so great odds, I have been in the result of 
the endeavour to arouse thought most favoured. Not 
merely wherever the English tongue is spoken, but in 
all parts of the world, men are arising who will carry 
forward to final triumph the great movement which 
'Progress and Poverty' began. The great work is not 
done, but it is commenced, and caii never go back." 

Mr. George's purpose was to allow nothing to interfere 
with the finishing of his "Political Economy," which he 
looked forward to bringing out in the fall of 189G or 
spring of 1897; but the new alignment of national par 
ties drew him from his retirement and once more into the 
current of politics. 

The industrial depression and currency famine that 
reached its most acute stage in the summer of 1893, 
dragged along into 1896. Every field of industry in the 
country had suffered more or less during the protracted 
depression. Through the West and South the popular 
belief was that the cause of this lay mainly in an arti 
ficial shrinkage of the currency, and the demand now 
swelled to thundering tones for the remonitisation and 
free coinage of the silver dollar. In the East, at least 
among the working men, the tariff-protected trusts, the 
railroads and other monopolies were denounced as having 
muck to do with the hard times. President Cleveland 
had no sympathy with any of this, and he added fuel to 
the fire of strong feeling, for he used his office against 

 Age, 52-57] WILLIAM JENNINGS BBYAN 581 

what Mr. George, among many others, conceived to be 
popular rights, and in support of property rights, by pro 
tecting and fostering the monopolies, and by making great 
concessions to the bank and bond powers. And when the 
election lines were eventually drawn and William McKin- 
ley, representing the House of Have, was nominated by 
the Eepublican party, and William J. Bryan, at the hands 
of the radical majority in the Democratic convention, 
and for the House of Want, became the champion of free 
silver, anti-monopoly and equal rights, Cleveland openly 
took the side of the House of Have and directly and indi 
rectly worked for its success. 

Since a young man, Henry George had advocated as the 
best possible money, paper issued by the general Govern 
ment—paper based on the public credit. He regarded the 
silver coinage proposal as another form of the protective 
idea—to raise, artificially, the price of the silver com 
modity. But economically unsound as he held this prin 
ciple to be, and expensive as he believed its adoption 
would prove to those least able to help themselves—the 
mass of the working population—he thought it greatly 
preferable to the principle of privilege which the monopo 
listic powers gathered around the gold, or so-called 
"sound money" candidate represented. He went to both 
the Eepublican and Democratic National Conventions and 
afterwards travelled over the middle West, writing signed 
articles to the New York "Journal" as to what he saw 
and thought. His sympathies were with Bryan in spite 
of the free silver doctrine; but at first he could see little 
hope of success. As he travelled, however, he became hope 
ful and at length confident that Bryan would win. 

Tom L. Johnson, Louis F. Post and a great majority 
of the single taxers shared Mr. George's political views. 
But there were some who opposed Bryan on account of 

 B82 LIFE OF HENEY GEOKGE 

his free silver doctrine, which they raised above all other 
considerations. "To make the public understand" their 
position, they issued a kind of proclamation of their views, 
and noticeable among the signatures were those of 
Thomas G. Shearman, William Lloyd Garrison, Louis 
Prang and August Lewis, which proved the independent 
relations subsisting between Mr. George and his friends. 
This surprised Mr. George. His attitude was character 
istic. On the day before election he declared in the 
"Journal" his view of the issue to be, "Shall the Republic 
Live?" 

"Of those friends of mine, the few single taxers who, 
deluded, as I think, by the confusion, purpose to sepa 
rate from the majority of us on the vote, I should like 
to ask that they consider how they expected to know 
the great struggle to which we have all looked for 
ward as inevitable, when it should come? Hardly by 
the true issue appearing at first as the prominent issue. 
For all the great struggles of history have begun on 
subsidiary, and sometimes on what seemed at the mo 
ment irrelevant issues. Would they not expect to see all 
the forces of ill-gotten wealth, with the control of the 
majority of the press, on one side, and on the other a 
reliance upon the common people—the working farm 
ers and the artizan bread-winners? Is not that so 
to-day? 

"Would they not expect to see the reliance of the 
aristocratic party to be upon an assumed legality 
and a narrow interpretation of the command, 'Thou 
shalt not steal'; based not upon God's law, but upon 
man's law ? Is not this true in this case ? 

"Would they not expect to have every man who stood 
prominently for freedom denounced as an anarchist, a 
communist, a repufliator, a dishonest person, who 
wished to cut down just debts? Is not this so now? 
Would they not expect to hear predictions of the most 
dire calamity overwhelming the country if the power 
to rob the masses was lessened ever so little? Has it 

 Age, 52-57] "SHALL THE REPUBLIC LIVE?" 583 

not been so in every struggle for greater freedom that 
they can remember or have ever read of? 

"Let me ask them before they vote to consider the 
matter coolly, as if from a distance in time or space. 
. . . Gold and silver are merely the banners under 
which the rival contestants in this election have ranged 
themselves. The banks are not really concerned about 
their legitimate business under any currency. They are 
struggling for the power of profiting by the issuance of 
paper money, a function properly and constitutionally 
belonging to the nation. The railroads are not really 
concerned about the 'fifty-cent dollar,' either for them 
selves or their employees. They are concerned about 
their power of running the Government and making 
and administering the laws. The trusts and pools and 
rings are not really concerned about any reduction in 
the wages of their workmen, but for their own power 
of robbing the people. The larger business interests 
have frightened each other, as children do when one 
Bays, 'Ghost!' Let them frighten no thinking man." 

But they did frighten thinking men. For though 
Bryan received nearly a million more votes than elected 
Cleveland in 1892, the fear of a commercial panic, of 
closed factories and reduced wages, with the factors of 
intimidation and corruption, piled up a still greater vote 
for McKinley. Mr. George had seen what he believed to 
be sure signs of Bryan strength and in the "Journal" ar 
ticles had confidently predicted Bryan's election; so that 
when the returns on election night showed how he had 
miscalculated the strength of the opposing elements, he 
sustained a great shock. "Men will say that I am unre 
liable," he said with simple frankness to his eldest son 
as they went home together. And afterwards he said: 
"This result makes our fight the harder." But early 
next morning he went to the telegraph office and wired 
to Bryan a message of congratulation on his splendid 
fight and of cheer to keep his heart strong for the future. 

 CHAPTEE XIV. 
THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 
1897. AGE, 58. - 

THOUGH now only in his fifty-eighth year, Mr. George 
felt further advanced in life than most men do at 
that age. While organically sound, the iron constitution 
with which he had started out was perceptibly weakening 
under the incessant toil since boyhood and the extraordi 
nary strain of the last sixteen years in putting the breath 
of life into a world-wide movement and inspiring it with 
his own passionate enthusiasm. He became conscious as 
he travelled about during the recent presidential cam 
paign that he had lost his old physical elasticity, and he 
found it required an effort to get back to the newspaper 
habits of his younger days. And when, instead of the 
victory he had expected, defeat came, he was more keenly 
disappointed than over any previous public event during 
his lifetime. It seemed to him, as he said afterwards, that 
the century was closing in darkness; that the principle 
of democracy, which had triumphed in 1800 with the 
acendancy of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency of the 
United States, might be conquered by the Hamiltonian 
principle of aristocracy and plutocracy in 1900. If he 
said little about these sombre thoughts at the time, he 
said less of the consciousness that he probably would not 

584 

 Age, 58] THE WEAKENED BODY B85 

much longer be able physically to lead in the cause for 
equal rights. Yet that that must be done by younger 
men was clearly in his mind. But if he could not lead 
the army, he could define the law; and he quietly settled 
down again to "The Science of Political Economy"—the 
book that he hoped would prove the supreme effort of his 
life. And over and over he read in the family circle and 
softly repeated to himself, as was one of his habits, the 
lines of Browning's "Eabbi Ben Ezra," beginning: 

"Grow old along with me! 
The best is yet to be, 

The last of life, for which the first was made: 
Our times are in his hand 
Who saith, 'A whole 1 planned, 
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor 
be afraid!'" 

Mr. George found some diversion in overseeing the 
building of a house adjoining the old house that the fam 
ily occupied at Fort Hamilton. This was to be Mrs. 
George's home, and he took great interest in it. It was 
practically the only thing that took him away from his 
desk. 

But while with an iron will he held himself to his 
work, he had not the old snap and vigour; and in March 
came what seemed like a severe bilious attack—nausea, 
dizziness, utter muscular weakness. Dr. Kelly gave warn 
ing that work must stop for a while. He proposed a sea 
voyage. Mr. George would not listen to going away. "I 
must finish the book before anything else," was the reply 
to all suggestions of cessation. 

Yet the family made every effort to divert him. There 
was much reading aloud—a little of Conan Doyle, of 
Stevenson, of DeFoe for lighter things; of Tennyson, 

 686 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE [1897 

Browning and Macaulay for poetry; of Thomas Jeffer 
son's letters and Schopenhauer's works to engage reflection. 
The scriptures were a great solace. Again he listened to 
the old story of the image with head of gold and feet of 
clay; and to the story of the prophet at the king's feast 
reading the writing upon the wall: "Thou art weighed in 
the balances and art found wanting." 

During all the early part of this year the second son, 
Eichard, who had developed a talent for sculpture, was 
at work upon a bust of his father, doing the modelling 
in a chamber adjoining the writing room. At various 
times of day, suiting his own inclination, Mr. George 
came and posed; or rather reposed in an easy-chair, talk 
ing, reading or going to sleep, in any position, innocently 
supposing that he was doing all that the artist could ask. 
As with everything his children did, he took great inter 
est in this piece of work, and he believed that under the 
patient, faithful fingers of his son, this piece of sculpture 
acquired essentials that former busts of him, one by Carl 
Kohl-Smith in 1888 and one by John Scott Hartley in 
1894, did not possess. One day when both of his sons 
were present he said, after he had been for a while sitting 
for the sculptor and musing: "When I am dead, you 
boys will have this bust to carry in my funeral procession, 
as was the custom with the Romans." 

This was not uttered in any spirit of morbidness, but 
in the calm contemplation of things touching death as 
well as life. For, one day, after he had quite recovered 
from the temporary illness and lay stretched on the couch 
in his work room, his wife in a chair beside him, and he 
talked of the progress of the cause, he sprang up and 
vigorously paced the room. "The great, the very great 
advancement of our ideas," said he, "may not show now, 
but it will. And it will show more after my death than 

 Age, 58] DEATH OF DAUGHTEK JENNIE 587 

during my life. Men who now hold back will then ac 
knowledge that I have been speaking the truth. Neither 
of us can tell which of us will die first. But I shall be 
greatly disappointed if you precede me, for I have set 
my heart on having you hear what men will say of me 
and our cause when I am gone." 

And now came the lightning stroke out of the clear 
sky. The married daughter, Jennie, with her seven 
months' old baby boy, had come to visit the parents' 
house, and after a few days' illness that seemed to be but 
a form of influenza and neuralgia, suddenly died early in 
the morning of May 2. As the light of dawn came into 
his room, Henry George sat alone with his eldest son. 
He said that he had for some time felt a disaster im 
pending; that now it had come; that Herodotus, in his 
own way and according to the imagery of the time, had 
depicted a great truth in the story of Polycrates the 
Tyrant of Samos and Amasis the King of Egypt; that 
it was not in the order of things for men to have un 
broken prosperity; that evil comes mixed with good; that 
life is a strife; that there are defeats as well as victories 
—disappointments as well as triumphs. Realising this, 
he had felt that of late years he had had too much good 
fortune; that success had crowded upon his efforts; that 
even the seeming setbacks had turned into advancements. 
Just within a few days a draft of several thousand dol 
lars had come from England as the first part of a bequest 
made by Silas M. Burroughs, the ardent single tax friend, 
who had carried on a large drug business in Great Brit 
ain and her colonies. Mr. Burroughs, following William 
Saunders in death, had bequeathed to Henry George a 
one twenty-fourth interest in his estate. This filled the 
cup of prosperity full to overflowing, so that Mr. George 
had come to look for a reverse, a disaster—just as disas- 

 688 LIFE OF HENRY GEORGE p897 

ters come to other men. He had apprehended that he 
might be incapacitated from further work in the cause. 
But the blow had come in another way. 

Though this death was the first break in the family; 
though it came like a knife thrust in the heart, Henry 
George showed that outward cheer and courage and 
thought of others that seldom failed him. Even in 
so small a thing as sending messages to friends, he waited 
until the little telegraph station at Fort Hamilton should 
open, so as to help swell the business of the woman oper 
ator there, and to that extent increase her importance and 
help increase her pay. 

As soon as they learned of the death, the intimate 
friends hurried to Fort Hamilton to pour out their hearts' 
deep but scarcely spoken sympathy. Mr. George, accom 
panied by one of his sons, went to Greenwood Cemetery, 
not far from Fort Hamilton, and selected a spot beside 
where Tom L. Johnson's father, Colonel A. W. Johnson, 
was buried—just over the crest of Ocean Hill, looking 
south and east toward the Atlantic. And there the dear 
daughter was laid on a radiant spring afternoon; Dr 
McGlynn, who had married her two years before, now 
conducting the simple burial service. 

To Thomas F. Walker, Mr. George wrote: "This is the 
bitter part of life that we had not tasted, but we have 
nothing but beautiful memories, and my wife and I have 
rallied for the duties that life still brings." Mr. Mendel- 
son wrote and quoted the words of a German song—"wenn 
Mensehen von einander gehn so sagen sie 'auf Wieder- 
sehn'"—"When people take leave of each other, they say, 
'To see you again.'" Mr. George replied: "The old Ger 
man song you quote is very sweet. But it really goes 
back to the year 1. Tn one shape or another, that is the 
constant song of our race." 

 Exterior of old mansion at Fort Hamilton, which was the first George residence there, 
before the Shore Road improvements. 

 Age, 58] DRAWING UP OF WILLS 689 

Among the first of these duties, was, they believed, that 
of preparing for the future, for the duration of life now 
seemed most uncertain. Both husband and wife drew 
wills, each making the other sole beneficiary, with their 
two sons as witnesses. Besides this there was the finish 
ing of the house then being built to see to. But for Mr. 
George, the chief duty was to complete "The Political 
Economy" that had cost him so much more hard labour 
than any of his other books. So again he settled down 
quietly to writing. 

Mr. George had divided "The Science of Political Econ 
omy" into five divisions or "books" and a general intro 
duction, but, as with "Progress and Poverty," its final 
form followed many changes and rearrangements.1 

Once or twice when conscious of physical weakness he 
had expressed to Mrs. George a doubt of being able to 
hold out to complete the work, and probably it was this 
feeling that impelled him to write Chapter VIII of 

1 The divisions settled upon were: " Book I—The Meaning of Political 
Economy"; "Book II—The Nature of Wealth"; "Book III—The Pro 
duction of Wealth"; " Book IV—The Distribution of Wealth"; "Book 
V—Money: The Medium of Exchange and the Measure of Value." The 
last three books were largely written in the summer of 1897, but were 
not completed at the time of Mr. George's death; and when the work was 
published as it had been left by his hand, mauy critics spoke of the evi 
dences of declining powers in the last three divisions and especially in the 
broken and even rough places in the part on money. The truth is that 
" The Science of Political Economy " as posthumously published is the 
best example that can be found of Heury George's method of work; for 
the last three divisions or " books " present much of his earlier drafting 
of the geueral work. The money division was written in 1894 and 1895, 
as dates on the rough-draft manuscript and in note-books indicate. The 
really last work he did was in smoothing and polishing the first two di- 
visious, which Dr. Taylor assured him were equal in force, clearness and 
finish to his earlier high-water performance of " Progress and Poverty "; 
and in this opinion his own judgment concurred. 

 590 LIFE OP HENRY GEOEGE [1897 

Book II, entitled, "Breakdown of Scholastic Political 
Economy—Showing the Eeason, the Reception and Effect 
on Political Economy of 'Progress and Poverty.'" This 
chapter consists of nine and a half pages treating of the 
history of "Progress and Poverty" and of the standing 
of the new political economy it represents. No person save 
the second son, who was asked by the father to make a 
copy of this chapter, saw it until the author's decease, 
three months later, and there can be small doubt that 
feeling that death might claim him at any time, Henry 
George deemed it necessary to take this means of making 
clear to the world certain facts relating to the genesis of 
his writing and the progress and standing of his ideas. 

This did not come from any petty sense of vanity, but 
from passionate pride in and zeal to press forward the 
cardinal cause with which the very fibres of his nature 
were interwoven. He had long thought of writing an 
autobiography, for he held that no one could have so exact 
a knowledge of essential facts as the subject himself. 
This he had looked to do at the close of his life. But 
the sudden death of his daughter and his own recurring 
weakness made him conscious that the end might be 
nearer than would be compatible with such a plan, so 
that without speaking of the matter, he now slipped these 
autobiographical notes into the manuscript of his big book, 
and he quietly put in order his more important papers, 
to many attaching notes and dates. He also more freely 
than ever before in his life talked of his personal his 
tory, and in the household and to immediate friends, in 
a casual way told of past scenes with a candour and un- 
affectedness that left lasting impressions on the listeners' 
ears. Later in the year, just after he had entered on 
his last campaign against the solemn warning of his med 
ical friends, he was obviously more strongly impressed 

 Age, 58] GEOKGE'S SUMMING UP 691 

than ever with the necessity of making autobiographical 
notes, and he told Ealph Meeker, a newspaper friend, 
who had a stenographer present to take his words ver 
batim, something of the story of his life. 

Henry George's final view of the effect of his teachings 
on the orthodox presentation of political economy he set 
forth in the "Progress and Poverty" chapter of his last 
work: 

" 'Progress and Poverty' has been, in short, the most 
successful economic work ever published. Its reason 
ing has never been successfully assailed, and on three 
continents it has given birth to movements whose prac 
tical success is only a question of time. Yet though 
the scholastic political economy has been broken, it has 
not been, as I at the time anticipated, by some one of 
its professors taking up what I had pointed out; but a 
new and utterly incoherent political economy has taken 
its place in the schools. 

"Among the adherents of the scholastic economy, 
who had been claiming it as a science, there had been 
from the time of Smith no attempt to determine what 
wealth was; no attempt to say what constituted prop 
erty, and no attempt t