Democracy is Essential to Georgeist Reforms

Charles Joseph Smith

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, May-June 1941]

The only form of government under which the Georgeist reform is possible of attainment is that of democracy. But to expect any measure of success should we not be willing to make use of the processes of democracy? The opponents of Georgeist principles are certainly exploiting those facilities to the utmost; indeed, they have acted with a zeal that strongly suggests an abuse of democratic processes. Is it not about time we recognize that the activities of our adversaries have reached a stage which demands immediate counter-action?

Perhaps of late we have been relying too much on the notion that injustice will somehow become exhausted, thereby enabling us to overtake it in hare-tortoise fashion. This is wishful thinking, for it is not in the nature of injustice to assume any such static condition in this world as we know it. Such a negative approach must be futile when pitted against a wrong which has again and again demonstrated its proficiency.

One of the important factors in molding laws and public opinion is our educational system. Our opponents are quite alert to all the possibilities in this field. The opportunity for their further profiting in this direction lies in the fact that many universities throughout the country are presently faced with a serious curtailment of income. This leaves them easy prey to the temptation of "endowments," "scholarships" and the like, offered by real estate groups. The most recent of these to have fastened upon institutions of higher education is the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers. Under their sponsorship, courses are given in "professional training in real estate appraisal," both at Yale University and at the University of Southern California. With one division of the Institute on the Atlantic and the other on the Pacific coast, it would almost seem that they are applying to the propaganda of "respectable" economics the ideas gained from the pincer movements of present-day aggressors. They will probably close in on the mid-continent universities in due time. One thing is certain whatever else may be taught in the courses, no effort will be made to point out the contradiction in the subject-term itself, real estate, a misnomer which confuses wealth with land.