Progress With The Georgist Educational Effort:
The Shortest Short-cut of Them All

Frank Chodorov

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, November-December 1937]

During the six months ending September 30 of this year the School has sold 3,510 copies of Henry George's books. We are unable to break down this figure into the various titles, but we know that about 95 per cent of our purchases from the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, the publishers of these books, are for Progress and Poverty.

These copies of Progress and Poverty are bought by students, either those taking the course in fundamental economics in our classes or those who are studying in our Correspondence Course. Each book is sold for the published price of one dollar.

Figures for the sale of books to book stores and libraries are not at this moment available. But it is reasonable to presume that the advertising given to the book by class leaders and extension secretaries, to say nothing of the thousands of pieces of mail matter being sent out by the School, must result in stimulating this distribution.

These figures are not published vaingloriously, for the School will not be satisfied until the distribution of Progress and Poverty reaches a much higher annual figure. We believe that by the end of the School year next summer the annual sale of copies of Progress and Poverty will reach a total of 10,000. We have higher hopes.

The School is not in the book selling business. Its problem is to teach the philosophy of Henry George. But since its textbook is Progress and Poverty, the sale of this book is something of an indication of how fast the school method is developing. It must be remembered that not every student buys the book. It is advertised in all of our literature and in all of our classes that the textbook can be obtained at local libraries. And every class contains couples who come together and buy one book for the use of both.

It has been suggested that the School method is too slow. That we should have an abridgement of Progress and Poverty, or some other textbook which can be grasped much more easily than this classic. Whatever textbook we use will have to be sold. The effort to induce people to read such a textbook will not be any less than the effort expended in inducing people to study Progress and Poverty. Therefore, it does not seem logical to substitute for Progress and Poverty some other book which may be or may not be satisfactory, when it is realiized that there will be no saving in the cost or effort of inducing people to investigate the subject matter. The only reason for substituting another book for Progress and Poverty as the textbook would be that this other book is better, that is, more convincing, clearer, more interesting. That however will be decided when and if the book is written and published. Until a better book than Progress and Poverty appears there does not seem to be any reason for even discussing a change.

The suggestion for a change of textbooks comes from those good people who are somewhat impatient. They are looking for a short-cut. It occurs to the writer that short cuts have been sought by Georgeists for the past fifty years. Political activity, street corner speaking, handing out pamphlets, organizing clubs the writer was himself engaged in these activities for nearly a quarter of a century, and has always found them wanting. The measure of success of any Georgeist activity is the number of new converts that activity can claim. That should be our yardstick.

The School has proven that its method has been quicker, that it has paid more dividends for the effort and expense involved, than any other activity carried on by the Georgeists since the time of Henry George. It is the shortest short-cut that has yet been devised.

If the reader of this article is an old timer, let him ask himself what definite proof has he of the number of converts he has made during the years that he has been talking Henry George. Also, let him ask himself whether any effort he has expended compares with that of the School, in which the teacher takes a group of people thoroughly through "Progress and Poverty" in ten weeks. If every one of this group is not a full fledged convert, in that he is able to argue out every point in economics or social philosophy, is of minor consideration. The fact is that he has become acquainted with Henry George, that his mind is thinking along the lines of a free economy rather than along the lines of monopoly.

The School method is the shortest short-cut of them all.