The Georgists of New York

Robert Clancy

[An unsigned essay written to commemorate the golden jubilee of the movement started by Henry George that continued after his death in 1897. The author is thought to be Robert Clancy, Director at the time of the Henry George School of Social Science in New York City.]

New York, Capital of the World, has always been the center of new ideas. It is not surprising, therefore, that America's Most original economist, Henry George, chose this metropolis to launch a book with a new idea -- Progress and Poverty -- a work that has been translated into every civilized language, and has had more copies distributed than any book of its kind before or since. George's proposal, "To abolish all taxation save that on land values, won a large world-wide following. In New York the movement was strong, and George's followers -- first called Single Taxers, later Georgists -- have since played an active part in the life of the city. On the occasion of New York1s Golden Jubilee, it is fitting to recall the activities of the Georgists of New York for the past half-century.

When George died in 1897 he had just gone through a strenuous campaign for the mayoralty of New York, and had he not died a few days before election, it was generally conceded that he would have won the contest. If George had lived, then, he would have been the first mayor of Greater New York, which was consolidated in 1898. As it was, that distinction went to R.A. Van Wyck, George's implacable foe, who nevertheless respected his adversary.

Among later New York mayors who were more sympathetic to Henry George and his ideas were Seth Low, William J. Gaynor and Fiorello H. La Guardia.

Seth Low had been one of the candidates in the four-cornered 1897 campaign, and though he and George were rivals, it was a friendly competition. It was in Low's administration (1902-1903) that the Georgists of New York gained a victory -- a law was passed providing for the separate assessment of land and buildings, thus making possible consideration of a land value tax..

Chief credit for securing this separate assessment goes to Lawson Purdy who worked at it for several years as Secretary of the New York Tax Reform Association -- an organization made up largely of fiscal-minded Georgists. Later -- in 1907 -- Mr. Purdy was appointed Tax Commissioner of New York, and retained that post until 1917 -- a long period of valuable service. Today he is President of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, the Georgist publishing house.

Mayor Gaynor (1910-1913), as a result of Georgist agitation over New York's increasing congestion, appointed a Commission to study the problem. Such followers of George as F.C. Howe, A.C. Pleydell and Benjamin C. Marsh served on the Commission, which recommended that the tax on buildings be reduced to half the tax on land. Opposition, however, was too great, and the proposal was killed.

But after World War I the problem raised its head again. Like today, there was an acute housing shortage. Unlike today, something was done. In 1921 a law was passed in New York providing for a ten-year exemption of new dwellings that should be built up to 1922. No New Yorker need be reminded of the tremendous building boom that then took place. The housing shortage was relieved without costing the city one cent. Georgist sympathizers, such as Raymond V. Ingersoll of the City Club, helped pass that law. (Ingersoll later became Brooklyn's borough president.)

Curiously, one of the opponents of the exemption law -- at that time President of the Board of Aldermen -- was a man who professed to be a follower of Henry George -- Fiorello H. La Guardia. At the Centenary of Henry George in New York, 1939, Mayor La Guardia said he was working for George' s reforms and carrying on his work. Commenting editorially on this, the World-Telegram remembered that George had stood for one tax and promised that the next time the Mayor proposed a new tax, he would be reminded of that.

Later attempts to increase the land value tax and relieve improvements from taxation were made in the City Council -- the Belous-Quinn bill in 1938 and the De Giovanni bill in 1944. Both were defeated, but civic associations, particularly in Queens, continue to work for the measure.

In other ways New York Georgists and sympathizers have made their influence felt in municipal affairs. Walter Fairchild led the move for the adoption of the Torrens system of land-title registration. Harold S. Buttenheim, editor of The American City, and Philip H. Cornick of the Institute of Public Administration, are frequently consulted on civic matters.

Henry George, Jr. followed in his father's campaigning footsteps in New York. With the slogan "Let George do it," he ran for Congress in 1910 on the Democratic ticket. Though his district had always been Republican, he was elected -- and re-elected in 1912. In Congress, George, Jr. gave single tax talks and proposed land value taxation for the District of Columbia.

Others of the George family took part in the Georgist movement and the life of the city -- Richard George, sculptor son of the economist; Anna George de Mille, biographer of her father, actress and social leader. Agnes de Mille -- Mrs. de Mille's daughter and Henry George's granddaughter -- has distinguished herself as Broadway's leading choreographer.

New York has been the scene of many Georgist conferences, and organizations. It was in this city, in 1909, that the first Fels Fund Conference was held. Joseph Fels, the famous soap manufacturer, had established this fund to promote single tax campaigns. After years of political failure, the attempt was abandoned.

The leading New York Georgist organization for at least the first half of this fifty-year period was the Manhattan Single Tax Club.. Among its members have been Samuel Seabury, Robert Schalkenbach, Louis F. Post, Thomas G. Shearman, John S. Crosby, James R. Brown, Lawson Purdy -- a veritable Who's Who of the movement. The Club is still going with Charles H. Ingersoll, co-inventor of the famous Ingersoll dollar watch, as President.

Another long-lived enterprise in New York was the magazine Land and Freedom, published for thirty-eight years by the movement's beloved sage and poet, Joseph Dana! Miller, at the same address -- 150 Nassau Street. It was through Miller's journal that two unsuccessful but adventurous political parties were launched -- the Single Tax Party in 1920 and the Commonwealth Land Party in 1924. After Miller's death in 1939, Land and Freedom continued until 1943, then was suspended. Today New York's Georgist voice is the Henry George News. It wasn't only through clubs and conferences that the Georgists of New York worked. There was much street-corner oratory, and the favorite spot ,was Broadway and 125th Street -- "Bughouse Corner." Other social gospels were preached there, too, and the socialists would complain that single taxers stole their crowds Dean of the street-corner was Morris Van Veen, who still occasionally brings out his flag and platform.

1924 -- the year of the last Georgist political rally, was also the first year of a new type of Georgist effort. In that year, Robert Schalkenbach, a wealthy New York printer, died and bequeathed his estate for the purpose of printing and propagating the works and ideas of Henry George. The newspapers received this news with varying reactions, the New York Sun termed it "An Odd Bequest." But the Foundation that bears the printer's name has continued and expanded its work to the very present, publishing and distributing all of Henry George's works on a considerable scale. New works are also published, the latest being Oswald Garrison Villard's Free Trade-Free World.

Another New York Georgist, Oscar Geiger, also read the signs of the times. He had been associated with most of the political efforts but felt that something more was needed -- an educational institution where the principles of Henry George could be taught. After nursing his dream for years, Geiger founded the Henry George School of Social Science in 1932; In the beginning, the new school was only a name, but it must have been what was needed, for it grew rapidly -- and before he died in 1934, Geiger was confident it would continue growing. And grow it did -- through depression, New Deal, war, inflation. From 79th Street to 29th Street to 69th Street the School has made successive moves to accommodate its growth. Since Oscar Geiger the Directors have been Norman C. Fowles (now deceased), Otto K. Dorn (now Vice-President of the School), Frank Chodorov (now editor of Analysis), Margaret E. Bateman (author of Whose World?), and Robert Clancy (co-author of You and America's Future). Twenty-two branches of the School are flourishing throughout the United States and Canada. Thousands of students have passed through its doors, among them men and women prominent in the city's life -- in municipal departments, in journalism, in education, in business, in the professions.

After fifty uncertain but eventful years, a steady stride has been struck with the present educational effort. The next fifty years should prove evocative for the Georgists of New York.