A Remembrance of Joseph Dana Miller:
The Greatest Writer of Georgeism Since 1897

Anonymous

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, May-June 1939]

In December, 1886, I called on Rev. Mr. McCarthy whom I met in Henry George's campaign that fall. He introduced me to a young man with a rosy, boyish complexion, named Joseph Dana Miller. When I had finished my business with Rev. McCarthy, Joe and I left together. Then he informed me that he was also a Georgeist and deplored his inability to take part in the speech-making of the campaign. For that reason he was taking lessons in oratory from Rev. McCarthy, for he was convinced that the '86 campaign was the beginning of a great movement that would require many trained speakers. Even then I was doubtful if politics was the way to advance the cause. I am now firmly convinced that that is "how not to do it." I told Joe that of the 68,000 votes cast for George I did not believe a thousand really understood the argument of Progress and Poverty; that dissatisffaction of the workingman with both the Democratic and Republican parties accounted for most of George's vote He was inclined to agree with me but said that in event trained speakers were required for lecturing and teaching.

With this beginning I looked forward to hearing Joseph Dana Miller frequently on the platform and on the banqueting floor, but during the ensuing fifty-two years I doubt if he made a dozen speeches. I was fairly active in Single Tax circles; indeed I was drafted as a candidate for a minor judgeship in 1887 when Henry George was a candidate for Secretary of the State of New York, and do not recall that Joe made a single speech during the campaign. George's vote in the entire State of New York was about half that he received in the City of New York the previous year. Those who knew Joe well have no doubt of his reason for not making speeches. Joe was painfully shy and modest and probably suffered when called upon to make a speech.

But those who were privileged to listen to an address from his lips were privileged indeed. Not only did he use Addisonian English but it was shot through with sincerity. He was eloquent; but I think the eloquence was innate and not imparted by his teacher in 1886. I recall one occasion of a dinner the Manhattan Single Tax Club gave to a distinguished foreigner. All of the three or four advertised speakers (of whom I was one) had prepared their addresses. After they had finished there were many cries for Joe Miller, but he shook his head. The toastmaster finally induced him to speak. It was the unanimous verdict (including the advertised speakers) that Joe's address was the hit of the evening.

He was happiest sitting in a shabby little office writing about the philosophy that was religion to him. For relaxation he wrote poetry. All old-timers remember the thrill they got from his ode to George written shortly after the Prophet's tragic death in 1897. It was in the nineties, I believe, that he and others started the National Single Taxer, which became the Single Tax Review and is now LAND AND FREEDOM. Journalism was his vocation for a half century. I can recall but two books published, one the Single Tax Year Book, and the other a volume of his poems.

His shabby little office about the size of a large closet in a shabby old building was the mecca of Georgeans from all parts of the world. Nor was the Single Tax the sole topic of conversation. He discussed politics and literature, of both of which he had an unusual grasp. And many a joke would he crack. It is not generally known that he also wrote for a number of humorous papers.

When Henry George's pen dropped from his lifeless hand in 1897, Joseph Dana Miller picked it up and worthily wielded it until 1939. That some one half as worthy will use it is the fervent hope of the few remaining 1886-ers as well as of the numerous 1939-ers.