The Third International Conference
to Promote the Taxation of Land Values and Free Trade
[Reprinted from Land & Liberty,
September, 1926]
The report that follows covers the International
Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark 1926, July 20th to 26th,
during which was born International Union of Land Value Taxation
and Free Trade.
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Of all the international gatherings of a non-official character that
Europe has witnessed since the end of the great War (World War I) it
is probable that none has surpassed in intellectual quality, and in
world-wide significance, the Conference of the followers of Henry
George that for a week in the latter part of July, 1926, held forth in
the joint Assembly Chamber of the Houses of Parliament at Copenhagen.
It was known as the Third International Conference to Promote the
Taxation of Land Values and free Trade; and the records of the
British-Danish Secretariat showed that more than 400 representatives
of 26 countries had enrolled for the Conference, and members from 17
nations were actually in attendance on the opening day. It was the
largest International Conference of the followers of Henry George yet
brought together.
Parliament, the Public and the Press
In Denmark, where the philosophy and economic teaching of Henry
George are known and accepted more generally than in any other
country, the Conference, because of its character and composition,
took on the aspect of an event of national importance. The newspapers
of the capital city and the provinces carried detailed reports of the
proceedings from day to day and pictures and cartoons of distinctive
personalities among the membership. Several important German dailies
also gave space to the proceedings and noted the findings.
The semi-official recognition of the importance of the Conference by
the Danish Government was evidenced not only by the opening of the
Parliament buildings for the daily sessions, but by the presence of
eminent Members of Parliament and Ministers at various Conference
functions, at which these statesmen disclosed publicly their
understanding of and sympathy with the economic philosophy of Henry
George and the programme of the Conference. In no other country in the
world could such a gathering have received a more generous and
understanding welcome than was accorded on this occasion by the public
men and press of Denmark.
From scores of columns of news and editorial publicity during the
Conference we select the following arresting passage extracted from a
leading editorial in Politiken, the chief Liberal daily of the
country:
" No longer is it a case of a few harmless
enthusiasts meeting together with their Georgeist ideas to improve
the whole state of society by means of a single tax. That is a stage
that belongs to the past. The Taxation of Land Values has now become
practical politics, and it is with a true farseeing vision that the
organizers of the great and distinguished Congress, which opened
yesterday in the Houses of Parliament, chose for their place of
assembly a city where, as it happens, at this very moment we are
busying ourselves with the readjustment of the taxes levied upon
real estate. Our revision of taxation takes a form that undoubtedly
does not reach out to the full principle upon which the new law is
based; but it does indicate a great, an essential, and therefore a
decisive step, in the right direction. At this Conference,
officially opened in the parliamentary buildings of our country,
there were present the former Radical Home Minister, the former
Moderate Liberal Home Minister, while the present Home Minister,
belonging to the Social Democratic Party, not able to be present at
the meeting, sent a long letter to be read at the Conference wherein
he praised the Taxation of Land Values. Here we have an expression
of the fact that three of the political parties of this country have
now accepted this great and significant tax reform. Without their
co-operation it would not have been possible to carry through the
law in the last session of Parliament. The Radical Party was the
first that gave shelter to the ideas of Land Value Taxation, just as
it was the Radical Ministry which was the first to establish the
valuation of the land - the bare land. Later on the Social Democrats
followed, at first without great enthusiasm, and the party of the
Moderate Liberals also came along, although not without a good deal
of fighting among themselves. It is only the Conservatives that defy
the new ideas and the new time."
Letter from the Danish Home Minister
Most important was the letter read at the opening of the Conference
from the Government Minister for Home Affairs, Mr. Hauge, who had been
the sponsor in Parliament, for the recent legislation introducing land
value taxation for the raising of municipal, country and parish
revenues. In this letter, Mr. Hauge indicated clearly the intent of
the Government to go forward, fast as public opinion would support
them, with further measures for relieving industry of tax burdens by
gradual and increasing concentration of taxation upon land values. "The
community," he declared, "should assert its unrestricted
right to appropriate the economic rent of land."
The addresses made during the week by the present Finance Minister, C
Bramsnaes; by Ole Hansen, President of the Upper House; by Ove Rode,
ex-Minister of Home Affairs and by Niels Frederiksen, M.P., were all
significant. The address of the last named, who is President of the
Danish Congress of Housemen (small farmers) which was in session
during the Georgeist Conference, was an inspiring assurance of the
vital fact that the small landowners of Denmark are the chief
supporters of the economic policies which the Conference had been
organized to promote. At the opening meeting there were also in
attendance Dr. O. C. Kragh, ex-Minister of Home Affairs and a
Vice-President of the Conference; Klaus Berntsen, M.P., an
ex-Minister; Col. Parkov, M.P., who officially represented the
Parliament, and H. C. Henningsen, M.P., who brilliantly piloted the
recent Land Values Act through the Lower House.
The President's Address
A feature of the opening session on 20th July was the inaugural
address of the President, the Hon. Charles O'Connor Hennessy, of New
York. Not, he contended, from the peace gestures of Locarno, or the
futilities of disarmament conference, could peace and prosperity come
to the world, but from the abolition of the monopoly of natural
recourses and the breaking down of economic barriers that hamper the
freedom of men everywhere to work and exchange the products of their
labour. President Hennessy's significant address, which made a
profound impression on the Conference, was widely noticed in the
press.
Greetings to the Conference were delivered by Antonio Albendin for
Spain; Wm. Reid for Great Britain; Johan Hansson for Sweden; Alex.
Paletta for Germany; Mrs. Signe Björner for Denmark; D. de Clerq
for Holland; Sam Meyer for France; V. M. Avendano-Losada for
Venezuela; Dr. J. J. Pikler for Hungary; S. Wielgolaski for Norway,
and Pavlos Ciannelia officially delegated by the Government of Greece
and representing also the German-Austrian Land Reform Union in Vienna.
Letters were read from Louis F. Post (Washington, D.C., U.S.A.), Mrs.
Joseph Fels (New York), Governor Hans Krüger (Germany), Peter
Burt (Scotland); and many others.
Next in size and importance to the Danish and British delegations to
the Conference was the attendance from Germany of twenty-two
adherents, all active in public life of that country, four being
members of State Parliaments.
Radio Talk
On Friday, 23rd July, by arrangement made and well advertised in
advance, a special address on Land Value Taxation and Free Trade was
broadcast by Mr. Hennessy, through the Government radio station at
Copenhagen. The speech was immediately translated and repeated in the
Danish tongue by Mrs. Signe Björner. The manager of the station
gave the assurance that a great radio audience had listened to it.
Henry George Library in Parliament
Equally significant of great public interest was the ceremony in the
library of the Houses of Parliament, where at the instance at Mr.
Berthelsen a special section has been set aside and devoted
exclusively to the writings of Henry George in many languages besides
kindred publications dealing with his philosophy, including complete
bound files of LAND & LIBERTY.
Anna George de Mille
Another interesting feature of the Conference was the enthusiastic
reception given to Anna George de Mille, the daughter of Henry George,
and her daughters Agnes and Margaret. Mrs. Anna de Mille was
repeatedly interviewed by the Copenhagen papers and her portrait was
extensively published throughout Denmark. She made persuasive
impromptu addresses at the Conference meetings, at the Congress of the
Danish Small Holders and at the banquet held before the members
departed for their widely scattered homes.
Declaration by the Finance Minister
It was at this inspiring banquet that Mr. Bramsnaes, the Danish
Finance Minister, showed his deep interest in the objects of the
Conference and expressed his belief that the next practical step,
following the passing of the recent Land Values act for local
taxation, would be a further national tax on land values.
During the week in which the Conference was in session at the
Parliament Houses, important and informing papers on various aspects
of Land Value Taxation and Free Trade movement throughout the world
were read and discussed, as may be seen from our more detailed "Diary
of the Proceedings." The Danish, Swedish, British, French, German
and American points of view were all represented. A paper by Lawson
Purdy of New York on " Land Value Taxation in the United States"
was particularly notable.
Ceremony at the Liberty Memorial
No review of the Conference would be complete without reference to
the great outdoor ceremony in the streets of Copenhagen, incident to
the placing in the name of the Conference and of the Congress of
Housemen (Small Holders) of a floral garland at the base of the
historic Liberty Column which stands in one of the city's busiest
public thoroughfares. This dramatic event, according to extensive
newspaper reports, seemed to strike the imagination of the people of
Denmark. The monument was erected about 1792 to commemorate the
emancipation of the peasants of Denmark from a virtual serfdom imposed
on them by a cruel system of landlordism. Public traffic was excluded
from the square by the police while the delegates to the Housemen's
Congress and those from the Georgeist Conference marched to the
monument to take part in the ceremony, for which a great crowd had
assembled. There the President of the Conference handed the floral
wreath to Anna George de Mille, the daughter of Henry George, who
placed it at the foot of the granite column, amid immense applause,
while women members of the Conference bore the national flags of all
the countries represented at the demonstration. It was an inspiring
sight. The laying of the garland and the flags, which was under the
able management of Mr. F. Folke, president of the Danish Henry George
Union, was followed by appropriate addresses by President Hennessy and
Andrew MacLaren, M.P., in English; by Ove Rode, M.P., and Ole Hansen,
M.P., in Danish; Sam Meyer in French; H. Peus, President of the Anhalt
Diet, in German; and Mrs. Harbou, Hoff, member of the Copenhagen
Magistracy, speaking both in English and Danish. During intervals in
the speech-making; the Housemen sang some of their uplifting and
beautiful songs.
Tour of Denmark
After the sessions in Copenhagen, meetings attended by a large number
of the Conference members were held in Odense, at the Housemen's High
School where Mr. Jakob E Lange, translator of
Progress and Poverty, is the distinguished principal. Then
followed a series of meetings in Jutland, fully reported in the local
newspapers, in which among others Mr. Andrew MacLaren, M.P., Messrs.
A. Barteld, M.P. and A. Paletta, and the tireless Mr. Folke took a
prominent part. The press certainly made the most of the visit in that
part of Denmark, as in Copenhagen.
The press interview with the President and others, including Mrs.
Anna de Mille, Miss Colbron and Mr. MacLaren, added materially to the
success of the Conference in all the extraordinary publicity it
enjoyed.
Conference Resolutions
Chief among the decisions of the Conference was the adoption by
unanimous vote of an address, reported by the Resolutions Committee of
which Ashley Mitchell of England was Chairman, to be transmitted to
the Council and the Assembly of the League of Nations at Geneva.
It declared that, until there is a frank recognition of the root
causes of international misunderstanding and discord and a sincere and
earnest determination to remove them, there can be no permanent peace
and progress in the world. The Treaty of Locarno, it maintained, even
if ratified, will be ineffective so long as evil economic conditions
remain to inspire the envies, hates and fears which are the common
causes of war.
A further resolution reaffirmed the declaration of principle and
policy adopted by the International Conference held at Oxford in 1923,
and declared in favour not only of free trade across national
frontiers but affirmed that peace, contentment and prosperity within
national boundaries must be sought in the abolition of all legal and
arbitrary restrictions upon or impediments to the right of men freely
to produce wealth, freely to exchange it, and freely to enjoy the
results of their labour.
Formation of the International Union
The concluding act of the Conference was the adoption, after extended
discussion, of a resolution offered by Frederic Cyrus Leubuscher of
New York to form a permanent International Union to promote Land Value
Taxation and Free Trade, and giving to President Hennessy and the
British-Danish Secretariat the power to appoint a Provisional
Committee to carry on the international work until the next Conference
which is expected to be held in 1928. The resolution fixed the
international headquarters in London, England, and recognized LAND &
LIBERTY, published at 11, Tothill Street, London, S.W.1, as the organ
of the International Union.
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