A Perspective on Revitalizing
the Georgist Movement

Malcolm Franklin

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, March-April 1941]

Mr. Philip Rubin in his article in LAND AND FREEDOM, "A Plea for Revitalized the Georgeist Movement in America", makes an eloquent apology for action and a strong plea for organization. Why have not we Georgeists in America progressed as have Georgeists in other places, like Denmark, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand? asks Mr. Rubin; and he proceeds to give us the answer. According to Mr. Rubin, a small part of the blame lies in the conditions of the times prior to 1933 (prior to the New Deal?) and almost all the rest of the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of Georgeists who are "intellectual snobs", "immaculate idealists" and "dogmatists" who "are proud, oh how proud, of our virginity".

If refusing to compromise with truth earns such labels, then purists deserve them. In my opinion, the only way to make real and lasting progress here or anywhere else is to stand by our guns and preach and, above all, teach truth and nothing else. Let us not degrade our "virginity" by the corruption of Socialism (even the variety known as "moderate"), nor soil our hands amongst the racketeers. As Mr. Chodorov says, throwing out the rascals does little good: "We must get rid of rascality." All the revitalizing suggested by Mr. Rubin has been tried over and over again, by all sorts of pressure groups, for generations, and has always been a failure, because it deals with effects and not with causes, or because admittance of heresies has revolted the very people it sets out to convert. In our own day, witness Townsendism, Buchmanism, Coughlinism, Communism, etc.

I hope and trust that most Georgeists, after reflection, will not be misled by such proposals as "revitalizing," and will persist in keeping our doctrines pure.