Work's dialogue with Henry George

Prologue

CAUSES GROW.

OW strangely causes grow. 'Tis all a growth, and yet there is a destiny. How wondrous strange came Liberty. And yet, in all its ways there was a course and purpose that showed divine direction. For centuries and centuries, Liberty hardly dared to speak, and yet it lived. It hid its head, but its heart still beat, and its soul still grew with fond desires. Religion denounced it. Tyranny threatened it. Still it lived. Hope, though blindly, still inspired it and made it feel a promise that it could not see. Thus inspired, it struggled on. It grew and found a place in the common heart of

PROLOGUE. 5

mankind. At last it dared to speak. It was heard, and its voice was heeded. At Runnymede a King hailed Liberty! Six centuries ago beneath the blue arches of EnMand's skies, the

o

spirit of Liberty was formed into living shape and given its freedom. Freedom of life and of property was made the chartered guaranty of the King. Now it could breathe aloud. It could raise its voice. It could move. It could use its hands. It could inspire mankind. For full four centuries, and more, it had the freedom of the realm. Still it was not satisfied. It had no place to rear its temples. It had no place to call its own. It had no home. At last new inspiration came. It lifted men. It made them look, they knew not where. It made them see, they knew not what. It made them move. Into the sea! Into the coming winter! Into the dark beyond ! God was there. Beyond was home. Through all the centuries; yes, through all the ages. He had kept a virgin home for Liberty. Securely, He kept it in patient and sacred waiting. Waiting at its birth. Watching its sleep in the cradle of

6 PROLOGUE.

life. Cheering the joys of its childhood plays. Guiding the course of its youthful love. Reaching His hand to the full grown man.

Welcome! Oh, what a welcome! How warm was that Decem.ber day! How animate Old Plymouth Rock ! Hugged by the land, and kissed by the seas, it throbbed with love as it gave America to be forevermore a home to Liberty. Joyous Liberty ! God has given thee a place to be thine own ; a place to rear thine altars ; a home. As He has done to thee, his faithful child, do ye even so unto thy faithful children.

Home ! America ! The gladdest w^ords that tongue can speak; the sweetest songs that soul can sing.

Part 1. A GEORGE GOVERNMENT FORMED

TRIED AND PROVEN.

REMARKABLE RESULTS.

Chapter I

A CONFERENCE WITH MR. GEORGE.

HAVE read Progress and Poverty, Mr. Georo-e. It is a o-reat work. It marks an era. If I understand it rightly I desire to help you. There are some things in it on Taxes that I don't quite understand.

You believe in using Taxes with which to work reforms. I want to confer with you on that subject. You believe that "great changes" can best be brought about under *' old forms." I took this from your book. Now tell me, please, in plain language, just what reforms you propose to accomplish through Taxation, and how you propose to do it. Make it very plain, please, and make it very simple to a common comprehension. I desire to understand the inmost idea of your philosophy.

lO WORK AND COMPENSATION.

George. — "I propose to raise wages; increase the earnings of capital ; extirpate pauperism ; abolish poverty ; give remunerative employment to whoever wishes it ; afford free scope to human powers ; lessen crime ; elevate morals, and taste and intelligence ; purify government, and carry civilization to yet nobler heights."

Work. — That would, indeed, be a great reform. I do not see a single purpose but appeals to the highest and best impulses of the human heart. There is nothing evil, but everything of good in what you undertake. The poor who suffer may lift their eyes in hope. All who long for a purer life or a better government, can see the sign of better days. Crime is to be repressed. Morals elevated. We are to be given a more refined taste. A higher intelligence and a grander civilization. The mere contemplation of such prospects makes men think better of the world. I will join you. Tell us how all this is to be done.

How TO BE Done,

George. — " I propose a simple yet a sovereign remedy — to appropriate rent by taxation. We already take some rent by taxation, we have

THE GEORGE PHILOSOPHY. I I

only to make some changes in our modes of taxation to take it all. It is not necessary to confiscate land ; it is only necessary to confiscate rent. Let land owners continue to call it their own land. We may safely leave them the shell if we take the kernel."

Woi^k. — I see you have it just as it is in your book. I cannot remember all the o'lorious reforms you propose, but I do recall some of them. They cheer the heart and fill the soul. What prospects we do contemplate ! Raise wages. Extirpate pauperism. Abolish poverty. Lessen crime and raise morals. Now, how will putting all taxes on land abolish pauperism and lessen crime ? How can one idea embrace so many purposes ? How can one remedy cure so many diseases ? The remedy to be so universal must be possessed of some wonderful substance. Its like was never known before.

George. — *' When all is taken by taxation, for the needs of the community, then will the equality ordained by nature be attained. No citizen will have an advantage over any other citizen, save as is given by his industry, skill, and intelligence ; and each will obtain what he fairly earns."

Picture of a George Heaven.

Woj^k. — I see, you have it again as it is in your book. What will be the final outcome of all this ?

George. — '' Words fail the thought. It zvill be the Golden Age of zuhich poets have S2ing and highraised seers have told in nietaphor. It is a glorious vision which has ahvays haunted meii zvith the gleams of fitfil splendor. It zvas zvhat he sazv, zvhose eyes at Patmos, zvere closed i7i trance. It is the ctihnii'iatio7i of Christianity — the city of God on earth zvith its zvalls of jasper and its gates of gold. It is the reign of the Prince of Peace!'

Work. — Again I see you have it just as it is in Progress and Poverty, Mr. George, that is very beautiful. Little could be added. It fills every desire. It is the substance of every hope. It is a perfect picture of every fond ideal of the human soul. None are so poor but it will help them. Poverty in rags and want is often made to feel a deeper sense of things, and helped to see diviner sights. The suffering soul can read those words and then thank heaven. Men, who long have sought to see a better way and a better world, can behold in these, your beautiful

DELIGHTFUL PROSPECTS. 13

lines, a prophecy. The Christian pilgrim, worn down in fighting the battles of the Cross, and who is weary in waiting, can read this joyous prospect and see the second coming of his Lord. Poets can read this vision, and these gleams of fitful splendor, and be inspired. Artists can behold the city of God, the walls of jasper, the gates of pearl, and then paint pictures that shall never die. The earth will now look greener, its fruits taste much sweeter, its summers will be morebalmy, it winters will be warmer, and the heavens will be brighter than they have ever been before.

Chapter II. The Forming Of A George Govern- Ment

AM deeply moved, Mr. George. I will do all I can, and faithfully, to help you. Let us go right at work. Let not one moment be delayed. I feel a deep desire that must be gratified. I am filled with a wonder that must be satisfied. Now the first thing in forming a new administration is to make estimates and present a Budget, that is, a statement of estimated receipts and expenditures. This we ought to do. Until we make such an estimate we cannot tell how much of the entire revenue will be needed for expenses, nor how much will be left to apply in satisfying other needs of society, such as ''extirpating pauperism and poverty." We can quite easily make this estimate, for we can get from

MAKING CALCULATIONS. 15

the Tenth Census the necessary items of expense, also the amount of improved land. We will multiply the acres of land by the price of rent, and that will be our estimated receipts ; we will add the expenses of the Nation for a year, to expenses of the States for the same time, and that will give us our estimated expenditures. By subtracting the necessary expenditures from our total of receipts, we will have the balance that can be employed in "extirpating pauperism and poverty." Now, you may take a pencil, for you are a mathematician, and I will take the Census, and we will figure this thing out.

Making a Budget.

What part of each farm shall we confiscate ?

George. — Only that part which is left after allowing the owner full pay for all improvements. My whole plan is based upon the idea that the naked land belongs to the public, and, therefore, the public has a right to confiscate it. The improvements, however, belong to the persons who make them, and in confiscating the land we must be sure that the right to improvements is sacredly guarded. Where there is any doubt give the owner the benefit.

i6

WORK AND COMPENSATION.

Work. — Very well. We will figure this out very quickly. I see by the Census, that all lands occupied as farms, amount to 536,081,835 acres, of which, 284,771,042 acres are tillable. I see that the whole number of farms is 4,008,907, having a total actual value of 110,197,096,776. Therefore, an averag'e American farm has 134 acres, of which 70 acres are tillable, and which is worth $2,549, or $19 per acre. Now we will figure the cost of ordinary improvements on an ordinary average farm of 134 acres, with 70 acres tillable. The first item is the breaking of the 70 acres at |2 an acre, $140. Then there is an orchard of 100 trees. In money and labor they cost |ioo. Put the fences at $200, the barn at I300, and the house at |8oo, miscellaneous improvements, such as wells, tiling, vines, etc., |iio. This makes even $1,650.

Improvements Too Low.

George. — I think you have valued the house and the barn too low. Eight hundred dollars would not build me a decent barn, and I300 would hardly more than build a dog house.

Work. — That is true. But you live in the city. Dwellings and barns, and all kinds of buildings

FARM IMPROVEMENT. I 7

in cities and towns, are much more expensive, and much better, than people generally enjoy on \ farms. The average farm is worth but $2,560. So buildings must be moderate. We have put the improvements moderately low, I am sure. Perhaps the majority of farmers have better improvements. Still there are some who don't have as o-ood.

George. — Now, what part of the value does this leave to the naked land ?

Work. — About one-third.

George. — That is about what I thought. Many have criticised my policy who supposed I intended to take farm, improvements, and all. I simply propose to take the naked land, which will be about one-third of the value of all farms. That value was created by the public and, therefore, belongs to the community, and in confiscating it the commonwealth gets its own.

Work. — That all seems very reasonable. There are many farms on which the improvements cost more than the farms would sell for. A large part of the farms of this country have cost more in labor and improvements, than they would sell for in the market. Especially is this true in the Eastern and Middle States, i8

^ WORK AND COMPENSATION.

where the farms were chopped out of the forests, / and where even then, the soil had to be made out of a surface hterally covered with stones. I do not at all doubt but that all our farm lands have cost, in labor and improvements, more than two-thirds of their present market value. Still we will count improvements at two-thirds. Now we have a definite rule, so far as farm lands are concerned. We will now make our calculations. First we will compute on the farm lands. We want to tax that part belonging to the public so that the owner will pay thereon a fair rent. He will then be using his own improvements on a rented farm. He will thus be secured, as you direct he sacredly shall be, in the property which is solely the work of his own hands. This will be in fact rentino- land in "such manner as to sacredly guard the right of private improvement," which is one of the fundamental ideas of your grand philosophy.

Renting of an Average Farm.

Now what would a fair rent for the whole of a farm of 134 acres with 70 acres tillable? Now a dollar an acre on the whole piece would be nearly two dollars an acre for the tillable land, and

AN AVERAGE FARM. I 9

nearly 6 per cent, on its actual value. It seems to me that we ought not to go above that rate. Two dollars an acre is very fair rent for tillable land in any locality; and in many places and for many qualities of tillable land it is very hig-h. A dollar an acre, however, on all lands will make an easy computation and will be a very fair rental value. If we could tax all lands for their full value, at a dollar an acre, it would give us I536,- 081,835. Only a third of this, however, belongs to the public, therefore, we can only tax that third and can only get as a revenue, one-third of that amount, which makes $178,693,945. This eives us all the revenue that will arise from a confiscation of rents on farm lands, after deducting the improvements which belong to the owners. We can figure this another way, and, perhaps, it will make it plainer. A farm of 134 acres, with 70 acres tillable, would rent for I140, at $2 an acre for tillable land. One-third of this, or 146, would belong to the government. Now there are 4,008,907 farms, and at $46 each, they would give us just $184,419,722. This way gives a little more. Still I think the other figures are as high as we ought to put rents, taking the whole country through.

Other Real Estate.

We now come to the valuation and taxation of city lots and blocks, manufactories, machine shops, mills and mines. We must make a new estimate of improvements. Improvements on this class of land are much greater in proportion to the value of the land than in farm property. The land in cities and towns has no value except its use for building purposes. The principal value is in the superstructure. As we have before remarked, on farms, buildings are comparatively cheap. In cities and towns the improvements are much more elaborate and therefore much more expensive. I am of the opinion that there is more than twice the comparative value in city improvements as in farm improvements. At the very centre of a great city, building lots may have a fabulous value. There the value of the naked lot may more nearly equal the value of the superstructure. As you leave the business centre, however, the difference increases, and in the residence portion of a city a 1 10,000 improvement is often made on a $1,000 lot. I think at any rate it would be safe to say that the naked land value in cities and towns is not more than one-fifth of the ag-

COUNTING UP EXPENSES. 2 1

gregate value of land and improvements. All kinds of real estate including mills, manufactories, distilleries, business blocks and city residences are valued at $9,881,000,000. All mines are valued at 1781,000,000. Adding the mines we have a total value of kinds of real estate outside of farms, and amounting to 110,662,000,000. You see it is "nip and tuck" between farms and other kinds of real estate. Farms, however, because of cheaper improvements, and greater land value, Avill yield us a greater revenue. The naked land value in this last $10,000,000,000 cannot be counted more than $2,000,000,000. We will tax this value, which belongs to the pubHc, at 6 per cent. That will make^ this rent about the same rate that we have placed on farm values, and will give us a revenue of $120,000,000. This added to our revenues from farms will give us the enormous annual revenue of $298,693,945. This is indeed a great sum, and if properly and prudently expended, can be made to do a world of good.

Counting Expenses.

There will be, of course, some expenses that will have to be paid out of this revenue before we can expend it in the "extirpation of pauperism and poverty." It will be impossible to cut down very materially, the present expenses of o-overnment. Our schools will have to be maintained, the poor houses kept up, the cities cleaned and supplied with water and light, roads will have to be kept in repair and many new ones constructed. It would be an endless task to determine the amount needed for all these necessary expenses in every State, and territory, and county, and township, and school district, except that Gen. Francis A. Walker, with whom I believe you are acquainted, has done all this work for us. Excepting machinery, he is the Ricardo of America. You will find it all tabulated on page 25, Vol. VII., Tenth Census. In the aggregate these necessary expenses are 1312,750,721. This does not include our national expenses. Last year these expenses amounted to $260,226,- 935. These expenses cannot be curtailed to any great extent at present. Adding these two sums together will give us our estimate of the necessary expenses for the coming year. Now we have all the data necessary for the formation of a Budget :

THE BUDGET. 23

The George Budget.

Now here Is our Budget.

Estimated Receipts.

Taxes on all farm lands, at $1 an acre, making about ^2 an acre on all tillable lands, and about 6 per cent, of actual value, after deducting all improvements ^178,693,945

Taxes on ground value of all other real estate,

at 6 per cent, of actual value 120,000,000

Estimated Expenditures.

National expenses, same as last year ^260,226,935

State, county, city, town, school, poor house, road, and other taxes, in States and Territories 312,750,721

Total expenditures ^572,977,656

Recapitulation.

Total receipts $298,693,945

Total necessary expenditures 572,977,656

Deficit first year $274,283,711

Chapter III. Great Trouble

GEORGE. — Is there not some mistake in our figuring ?

Work.— If there is, we can readily find it. The total value of all kinds of taxable real estate, together with improvements, is worth in actual value, about $20,000,000,000. There can be no possible doubt but that two-thirds of this value, even in farm lands, is in the improvement which labor has put on the land. Nor can there be any doubt but what a much greater proportion of all other kinds of real estate, or the value thereof, is in its improvements. We could not, by any reasonable calculation, compute the value of the improvements of the entire |20,ooo,- 000,000 at less than #15,000,000,000. That, under your theory of government, would leave but 15,000,000,000 belonging to the public. I .say

FARMERS REBELLION. 25

that lands in this country, less improvements, are not worth $4,000,000,000 ; but we will count it $5,000,000,000. Six per cent, on this $5,000,000,- 000 would give us an annual revenue of $300,- 000,000. This would give a little more than half enough with which to pay the necessary expenses of government. My friend, we are brought face to face with immutable facts. We have taxed the whole country the last dollar we can tax it. under your theory of government, and here we are, at the end of the first year, over a quarter of a billion behind on expenses. We have taxed all farm lands a dollar an acre. This has made the tax about $2 an acre on all tillable lands. In order to get out of debt next year, and be left in anything like a respectable financial condition, we will have to tax all tillable farm land at the rate of $6 an acre, and city and mining real estate in the same proportion.

The Farmers' Rebellion.

This failure in our revenues is only a small part of the trouble upon our hands. The farm owners all over the country, are in rebellion. They have figured this thing out. They have found that in this country there is over $43,000,-

000,000 of wealth. That they have only $10,000,- 000,000, or less than one-fourth of the entire amount. They also find that they have only one-half of their distributive share of wealth. They have 12,500 to a family, while the people living in cities and towns have $5,000 to each family. They now see that we are trying to rob them, and that we are doing so in the interest of $20,000,000,000 of wealth in moneys and chattels belonging to speculators. They are becoming convinced that we are a set of scheming scoundrels, bent on robbing them of their homes. They are preparing to defend themselves. There are 4,000,000 of them.

Ropes and Shotguns.

They are buying ropesand shotguns. They are hanging our tax collectors to the trees. We are getting in a worse condition than was ever seen in Ireland. In the midst of all this trouble, the poor are pounding at our doors. They want us to "extirpate pauperism and poverty." The poor crying women and little moaning children are hanging to our coat tails, and begging for shelter and bread. Then there is another trouble. Our confiscation

MR. GEORGE BUSTED. 27

of rent has, in no wise, repressed existing wrongs. Jay Gould is robbing railroads, the Bulls and Bears are slashing prices, railroad managers are squeezing people, distilleries are making whiskies just the same, and the saloonkeepers are dealing it out. All this robbery is going on with no more reference to rent, than the winds upon the ocean. Thieves are prowling the country. Burglars are blowing open safes. Robbers are waylaying their victims. There is a perfect anarchy everywhere. Everything seems to be incited to desperation by the rebellion we have on our hands. How are we to put this rebellion down ?

No Way Out.

We have no money. Our only source of revenue is armed against us. Where can we get an army ? The rich will not fight and never would. You can't o^et wao-e labor to

o o

help rob these farmers. They would sooner help confiscate the money and the chattels of the rich. So you see there is no source from which w^e can draw troops. There is no earthly source from which we can draw revenue. We have no allies ; we have no friends. Every one doubts us and despises us. We have lost both the P'oodwill and the confidence of mankind. We are out of money ; and without an army. We have a rebelHon on our hands and have no means, nor troops, with which to put it down ! Mr. George, zve are busted !

The Real Picture.

Let me see ! How was that beautiful description you gave of the place to which your methods would lead us ? It was like the beautiful picture with which Claude Melnotte deceived the fair Pauline. Where have gone those gleams of fitful splendor, the walls of jasper and gates of pearl ? Where are those beautiful things that were seen by Him, whose eyes were closed in trance, at Patmos ? How easy it is to dream of fond delights and wake to find but misery. Let me change your beautiful description. Let me transpose its similes. Let me write it upside down and turn it wrong side out. Here it is :

Words fail, and thoughts confuse the mind ! It is the Dark Age of Rapine and of Murder ! A hair-raisino^ vision zt^hich men have zuith snakes in their boots. What He saw on the mountain top zvhen the Devil lied to Him. It is the culmination

THE IMMOVABLE ROCKS. 29

of madness ; the land of confusion, with prison zvalls ; the reign of the Devil on earth ! It is Destruction, Death, Damnation ! !

Look at this description, and then at what surrounds us. Does it not far more accurately describe the situation in which your government has placed us, than your gilded picture of visionary prospects ?

George. — It does seem so. I guess I started out before I made my reckoning. I sailed a sea that none before had ventured. I had no chart, and I had no compass. I met an unexpected breeze. It brought a storm that raised the waves so high I could not ride them. They drove me on the immovable rocks. My ship, it appears, is stranded ; and /, // seems, am busted I o

Chapter IV. Source Of Wealth

GEORGE. — Tell me, have I been s wrong ? And is it true that rents on all land values, counting out improvements, will not pay our ordinary expenses ? If that is so, then I am done, and my great book is but a farce. This cannot be. Whence comes the wealth ? Whence can it come save from the ground ?

Work. — Your whole mistake is in that thouofht. You keep your eyes upon the ground. The ground is but one element of production. You may call it a machine.

Rent in Bread.

A farmer hires a machine, that is, he rents an acre of land. It costs $2. He hires another machine, a plow and team, to plow the

RENT AND BREAD. 3 1

land. That costs $1.50. He hires another machine, a seeder with a team, and seed, to seed it. That costs $2.50. He hires another machine, reaper and binder, to harvest it. That costs $1. He hires another machine to thresh it. That costs $1. He hires another machine to grind it into flour. That costs $3. Then he hires another machine to knead it, and still another to bake it into bread. That costs much more. Now it is in food, the cheapest and most common kind of wealth. Eight machines have been employed.

First. An acre of land.

Second. A plow.

Third. A seeder.

Foui'th. A reaper.

Fifth. A threshing machine.

Sixth. A mill.

Seventh. A kneading machine.

The use of each of these machines will average as much as the use of the land ; and there has been a laree amount of labor we have not counted at all. The farmer raises twenty-five bushels of wheat. It makes, at least, 1,000 loaves of bread — the plainest kind of food.

This bread is worth |ioo. Rent forms but two per cent, of this most common kind of wealth.

Rent in Milk.

A milkman owns thirty cows. He rents a forty acre pasture. It costs him $80. This for the season would be 35 cents a day. The milkman's cows, each day, give 400 quarts of milk. He sells it readily for 5 cents a quart. In all he gets $20 a day. This costs much hard labor — late to bed, early to rise. Many hands must milk at morn and eve, and all the day is occupied in peddling through the town. Here is the simplest kind of food. The gentle cows eat the grass that grows upon the hills and drink the water from the brook. At evening and at morning the dairyman gets all the wealth in milk. In this most simple kind of wealth, which comes each day from out the ground, rent is not a fiftieth part.

Rent in Beef.

One and a half acres orows a calf. In three years it makes a beef. The rent is $9. This beef, when served as food, makes 400 steaks worth 35 cents a piece. This make I140. Be-

RENT AND CLOTH. 33 sides these steaks this beef furnishes loo pounds of roasts, worth when served, $25. Then besides the steaks and roasts, the beef furnishes 100 soups. These soups, when served as food at say ten plates each at 10 cents each plate, will bring $100. In food alone, the beef brings I265. This, however, is not all. We have still the hide, the hair, the horns and hoof and tallow. The hide makes a set of harness worth $35. The horns make handles for a hundred knives, and the hoofs make many a bottle of Peter Cooper's glue. Leaving out all save food and hide, we have I300. Again you see in all this common, every day wealth, rent forms hardly a thirtieth part.

Rent in Cloth.

So a farmer with a bit of ground and a sheep, may make a fleece of wool. This fleece, unwashed and as taken from the sheep, is worth $2, Half of this is rent. Now we follow this dollar's worth of rent — this fleece of wool. It goes to the carder, the spinner, the weaver, the dyer, the dresser, and, then to the tailor. Now it would take a small farmer's whole crop of wool to buy it.