Review of the Book

Sphere of Individualism
by Connor D. Ross

Joseph Dana Miller

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, January-February 1937]

Joseph Dana Miller was during this period Editor of Land and Freedom. Many of the editorials published were unsigned. This review is signed by Mr. Miller.

Here is a work that merits all praise. It summarizes the doctrine of liberty without any reference to Henry George or the Single Tax. The author's definition and exposition leave little to be desired, and he enlists Blackstone in his support while insisting on his own conception of liberty, which is in harmony with the best that has been written.

He says:

"If we believe in the principle that every man is entitled to live his own life in his own way, subject to the same right as his fellowmen, and the proposal is to affect that right, then the proposal becomes of the utmost importance." (Page 23.)

With this we shall find Henry George and Herbert Spencer in agreement.

An interesting point raised by the author is not commonly reflected upon. He asks us to consider that little of our legislation and none of our tax laws were passed avowedly for the benefit of the rich and well to do. On the contrary, all this legislation was passed in the supposed interests of the common man. He mentions the income tax as an example rather conspicuous. We can all recall the arguments used at the time the income tax was passed.

The programme of the Roosevelt administration, to which only passing allusion is made, the purpose of which is to benefit the "forgotten man," is an example of these misdirected attempts to improve the condition of the struggling poor, while increasing the burden of taxation, and making it harder for the poor to live. And here occurs a significant passage:

"We have not the cause of a Samson for the wrecking of vengeance for our blindness. But we have the power that was his and more. Shall we use that power to pull down the social structure upon our own heads, or use it to restore the structure as it was originally designed? " (Page 41.)

Mr. Ross tells the interesting story of Gary, Indiana, under the chapter headed, "The Magic City." It would make a valuable Single Tax tract in itself. We should pause to mention the fact that Mr. Ross was formerly Assistant Attorney General of Indiana. He is therefore familiar with the laws. Better still he knows the natural laws of economics. And this short chapter demonstrates his familiarity with these laws. We are permitting ourselves the citation of certain striking passages which may convey an idea of Mr. Ross' literary quality. On page 61 he says:

"And after all, the discovery of truth is largely a question of one's wanting to know it. The possession of it is a question for us to decide. The truth does not barter with us nor sell. It does not lie nor can it be lied to. Man is not so cunning as to cheat or to defraud it. He can shun or battle, and thus prolong his own error, but truth knows no defeat it has all the time there is."

May we not commend this to every student of the Henry George School? For the hundred or more current definitions of "capitalism," so called, the divergence of which has made the term unacceptable for general usage, we suggest to the dictionary makers Mr. Ross' definition, "The exercise of human energy by means of the tools of industry." It is simple enough and all inclusive.

From page 86 we quote:

"Is it any wonder that labor and capital natural friends feel the pinch of the shackles of governmental regulation? With these conditions confronting the producers of the country, why talk of the money question? Why fight the shadow and ignore the substance?"

From page 88 we cite the following:

"It is said old things have passed away. The Constitution and the horse and buggy are of a day that is dead. The thought of their day should be shunned if for no other reason there might be a historian, hoary with age, who would perhaps turn back the pages of history and seek guidance in the story of Joseph and his stricken the lane 1 of Goshen."

And Mr. Ross propounds on one page the significant question: "What has become of the ancestral estate in our America?" What indeed?

Congratulations, Mr. Ross!

We must now bring to an end these quotations. But our thanks are due for a very notable contribution to the literature of freedom.