The Philosophy of Henry George

Harry James Cantwell

[A lecture, delivered before the Trades and Labor Council,
Walhalla Hall, St. Louis, 10 July 1898. Published in 1901]

PHlLOSOPHY means literally "love of wisdom." There is no love or desire without search and therefore Philosophy may be defined, as indeed it is by some, "the search after wisdom."

I shall attempt hastily to review the work of Henry George, who sought so patiently for wisdom, and whose search was so richly rewarded.

It is impossible to consider accurately the work of any man without examining the antecedents and environment of the man himself; for no man, however great, is unaffected by his surroundings, and therefore I shall blend at hazard through my imperfect remarks, much of the man, George, with my mention of his work.

When Henry George was born, a convention of fairies attended, and endowed the child with many priceless gifts, all of which were necessary to the completion of this most striking personality of our time.

One gave him mirth and humor, that the tragedy of life might be lightened, and he was, therefore, always sane. One gave him courage, that he might look undaunted on all that mortals may see. One gave him eloquence, that his thoughts might find expression, charming to the ears of men. One gave him logic, that the thoughts which entered the ears of men might find lodgment in their brains; but most blest of all the gifts bestowed was the gift of poverty, for from this gift came pity for the sorrows and sufferings of men, and this is the key to his philosophy. Through the tears which pity shed, his mind's eye saw, as the astronomer with the telescope views the heavens, the sights which are denied to common eyes.

Henry George grew to manhood in poverty. His early education was gained in the forecastle of a ship. In consequence, his mind was not distorted by being taught any system of political economy.

He realized that he was a Man- that earth was before him, the sea beneath him, and God in the heavens above him. Of all the wondrous mysteries of shore and sea, he aspired to know no more than he might learn without reliance upon any teacher but his native intellect.

Books he mastered by the hundred, but none of them ever mastered him.

He always felt, as all men must feel who hope for wisdom, that no matter how great the writer of a book may be, he is, after all, but a man, subject to the errors of men, and that if one would really learn anything from books, he must examine the thoughts expressed in the books and test their truths by his own sum of experiences.

George looked out upon this vast world of ours and "grasped the sorry scheme of things entire".

He heard the cry of the disinherited. He saw the millions, less valiant and less strong- minded than himself, chained to daily and unremitting toil. More, he saw the thousands to whom the boon of daily toil for bread was denied.

He saw around him the wonderful changes which invention had already wrought and still was making daily. He saw how men were daily becoming mere superfluous things and how the machine which, if ministering to the good of all would be man's blessing, by ministering to the good of the few, becomes men's curse.

He saw how the producing power of each man upon earth was increasing in a geometrical ratio, while the opportunity to produce was denied to many and the creature comforts of life were therefore denied them.

He realized that all the inequality, the suffering and misery of the world were caused by ignoring the fact that the earth was made for all men and that government or society should exist only for the good of the many. These were not entirely new thoughts. Saints and sages in all ages have thought them and expressed them more or less clearly, and poets have sung them always, sometimes in heroic strain, but often in mild and modest verse. But never were they seen more clearly than by his vision, nor uttered in such trumpet tones as came from his tongue. Our age had forgotten, in its search for material things, the object of all material search. It had become so intent upon the means that it had forgotten the end. It had lost sight of mankind in seeking what might minister to the wants of some men.

How much had been forgotten is shown by the fact that when Henry George wrote his first great book, Progress and Poverty, he found it necessary to demonstrate that man could not exist as a freeman when his right to standing room upon earth depended upon the will of another.

Every government has, theoretically at least, recognized the truth that the soil belongs to the nation, the tribe, and that private, absolute ownership of land rests upon no law of Nature or of God, but merely upon expediency -- upon the assumption, false or true, that the interests of all are best gained by permitting private ownership.

Henry George believed that earth was the gift of God to all his children; that the interest of the many was not promoted by permitting absolute ownership of land; that no man could rightfully withhold the use of land from others unless he used it himself, and that the good of the many (which is the object or professed object of all government) is best sub-served by permitting an ownership in the use of land only.

He demonstrated that there are but three natural factors in production -- land, labor and capital - and that capital is stored-up labor.

With the unused lands open to the free use of men, he became convinced that enforced poverty would disappear from the earth and that he who would do so, might eat bread in the sweat of his face, with no man the unwilling subject of another. He demonstrated that the great value of land was due entirely to the presence of human beings in the vicinity; that when men built cities, fabulous values accrued to lands as the work of society and not necessarily because of the labor of the owner of the land.

This he termed the "unearned increment," the contribution to value which Society made; and, following the scheme of a great French society of thinkers who lived before the Revolution, he devised what is now known as the "Single Tax," which has for its object the taking of this unearned increment for the benefit of the whole community. Some so-called "Single Taxers," who do not understand Henry George, may pretend that he attempted by the single tax to secure the adoption of a mere fiscal regulation which should put all the taxes upon land, because land cannot be hid from the assessor and personal property may. Henry George preached noi such milk - and - water doctrine. His theory was that the use of land should be taxed for the benefit of the community, because it belongs to the community; and that what man wrought by his labor should not be taxed, because the tax on land would raise sufficient revenue and because to tax values other than land discourages industry. He believed that many of the evils of our civilization were due to land monopoly; that under our present system, where absolute private ownership of land is recognized, men are shut out from the use of the land; and, believing that men have the same right to the use of land as to the use of air, as necessary to their existence, he proposed to prevent the idle holding of land by taxing all lands to the full rental value, exclusive of improvements, and to devote the revenue thus raised to the common fund.

Many men hold up their hands in horror and declare that this is confiscation. Well, perhaps it is, but all taxation is more or less confiscation, and among systems of taxation this would have the unique merit of being taxation for the general good. It is perhaps a further advance towards socialism than our age is ready to make. It is a direct and positive reaffirmation of the truth, apparent to the thinkers of all nations and ages, however it may commonly be denied to-day, that the right to property exists only by consent of society.

This, then, is the sum of Henry George's teaching on the land question: that absolute private property in land should be abolished; that individual possession and use of all lands should be secured; and to attain this end he would have the tilled land and the unfilled land beside it taxed alike; he would have the lot with the costly business block taxed no more than the vacant lot adjacent to it. The result of this would be, in his opinion, to throw open to the uses of men the unused lands everywhere and thus to promote and encourage industry and improvement.

In short, he would make it impossible for any man to hold land without subjecting it to its fullest use.

Henry George's work, however, is not confined to teaching the world old -- new -- truths about land.

He has irradiated and illumined the whole field of economics by his brilliant intellect.

He has made plain the proposition that the object of the existence of all men should be the gratification of the reasonable desires of each, and he has constantly combated the idea so prevalent to-day, that most men shall be nothing more than mere ministers to the desires of others.

He has studied the problems of political economy as they should be studied -- that is, in their relation to men as Men and not as things. He exposed the fallacies of a protective tariff with perfect skill; and with merciless scorn ridiculed the idea that the many should be taxed to confer bounties upon the few in the hope that the few may encourage industry by re-distributing a portion of the bounties. He studied political economy with the aid of the magnifying glass of common sense.

Malthus had paralyzed human endeavor and taught that all progress was of no avail, by the enunciation of the doctrine that human population increased in a geometrical ratio while subsistence increased arithmetically; and the doctors of the temples of learning accepted this dismal theory as a mathematical truth.

George destroyed the doctrine by the illustration that for every mouth God put on earth he puts two hands with a brain back of them to feed the mouth.

He proved that subsistence increased geometrically and at a greater ratio than population, and showed that until God should see fit to create men all mouth and without hands or brains (which we hope will never be) the limit of subsistence cannot be reached.

In his "Principles of Political Economy," he has added much to the sum of human knowledge by his clear views upon money; in fact, there is no entrenched error, however strong or backed by influence however powerful, that he has not attacked and come off victorious.

He started out in life an intense individualist. Marx was unknown in America, and George's early ideas of socialism were gained from those who would have every man made by the same pattern and fitted to a certain groove by a tyrannical bureaucracy.

He believed, however, in real socialism -- broad socialism; for his every act in life was towards the building up of society and was a part of his constant struggle for common opportunities and the common enjoyment of all things which nature and society give to man.

Perhaps he did not always give society all its due, but in his declaration that he favored public ownership of natural monopolies and common absolute ownership of lands is found essentially all the principle of modern socialism.

Socialists who oppose George should remember that everything which he taught is necessary to socialism, and socialism can never come without accepting many of Henry George's theories first.

We who have come to regard George as an apostle of the new but ever ancient gospel of the rights of man; we who love the man for his perfect truth, and cherish his faith, often wonder why there are so few of us and that his convincing statements, his self-evident propositions, have not already conquered the world of thought. We forget that Henry George joined "the Choir Invisible" in our own recent memory, and that the God-Man, Christ, had been crucified a hundred years and thousands of his followers had been mangled by beasts of prey or burned at the stake, before the least of his democratic doctrines had been accepted by the great world. Christ said, "I come not to bring peace, but a sword." Christ was a social revolutionist. Christ did not teach a dogma. Christ did not enunciate a hair -- splitting system. Christ declared a principle, and that principle was the Brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God; and to him it really meant that your brother should sit at table with you and share your fortune; that the children of God should share equally in his bounties; and however much his professed followers may now misunderstand and misinterpret him, Henry George declared anew this ancient, Christ-like doctrine. His life was consecrated to humanity and his labor was always for real democracy, for a government for the good of all.

Henry George believed in expediency. He recognized the difficulty of teaching truth. He knew that truth was not confined within the symbol -- that men were prone to idolatry, to worshipping the idol and forgetting the spirit. He knew that most men look at the apparent immediate cause and cannot see beyond. In other words, truth is rarely apparent at once, but must be sought for long. He recognized the power of special interests which seek to enslave the body by chaining the soul of men to error; and while always cherishing the ideal, always dreaming of the day when men should be entirely free, he was ready to champion any doctrine in the direction of freedom and justice, even though it went but a little way. For Henry George always recognized that men can be so gradually enslaved that they lose the desire for freedom. The life convict becomes accustomed to the darkness of the cell and the glorious rays of the noonday sun offend his eyes. For this reason he was always ready to postpone his ideals to gain a real immediate advantage for humanity, however slight.

I have hoped to give but a slight idea of Henry George in this study. Could you have seen him in action you would know that of him, more than of any other man of our time may it be truly said:

"His pure and eloquent blood spoke in his cheeks,
And so divinely wrought,
That one might almost say his body thought."

If you would master the real problems of politics, if you would be delighted by illustration, if you would be brought to think accurately, if you would have your mind broadened and your sympathies deepened, read his works; and whether you accept all of his philosophy or not, you will be convinced that here was a giant, every fibre of whose being thrilled for humanity -- one who feared naught but God, and one who loved, unselfishly, all mankind.