News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-12-14
WHY DOES MISERY EXIST.
Mr. Henry George Says it is Because OF BAD
Laws and Social Regulations.

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Henry George in his lecture on the
Malthusian Theory" said that the
theory of Nautilus, that social vice and
misery sprang from the tendency OF
| population to increase faster than the
means of subsistence, is one that Is OF
practical importance, because 1t affects
thought and action. The belief in any
cause of social phenomena would neces-
saI1ly produce action to accord with that
belief. 1t was therefore important that
the theory of human misery should be
correct. He regarded Nautilus as man
OF small calibre, whose false theory had
made for him a reputation far. beyond
his deserts. It was a significant fact that
men never, in their hearts and con-
sciences, would acknowledge the title OF
brute force. Even victors would not be-
leve it was right. 1t was impossible to
look about the world and see the social
inequality that exists and the masses
tollng for bare subsistence, while others
rolled in wealth, without the thought
that such state of society was not right.
Yet Nautilus took the responsibility of
social and political institutions and put
it upon the Maker of the universe.
Nautilus argued that no change in social
institutions could alleviate human
misery; that there are two principles
clashing-one, the instinct of reproduc-
| ton, and the other, the refusal of nature
to provide food for the surplus popula.
ton thus produced; so that population
must be constantly kept down by hun
ger, pestilence, war, crime, mortality,
neglect, infantcide, prostitution and dis
ease.
The fact was that Nautilus was wrong
when he said that population increases
In geometrical ratio while subsistence
increases only in an arithmetical pro-
portion. Nautilus erred in the theory
that human misery is the result of inev-
liable law. He erred in furnishing to
those who live in luxury an excuse for
believing that it was not their fault that
any human beings were starving, but the
fault of the Almighty. The Malthusian
theory fell in with the prevalent doc
trine of supply and demand as the cause
OF the rise and fall of wages, and also
with the doctrine of rent. The theory
had also received some encouragement
from the modern doctrine OF the survival
of the fittest Even Darwin recognized
the Malthusian idea as a partial state
ment of his own theories. Thus the
Malthusian theory had come to be al
most generally adopted in the civilized
world. The theory had done much harm
in darkening faith, sitting conscience,
in lowering views of human life, in pre-
venting the improvement of social insti-
buttons, in enabling the public con-
science to look with equanimity upon
the spectacle of infants dying from want
of proper nourishment, and of millions
born to the prison and the almshouse.
Mr.. George denied that there was any
proof that there are more people in the
world now than there were 10000 years
ago. He denied that there was any proof
that there are now more people in this
country than there were When it was in
habited by savages. He denied that
there was any country in the world that
could show, a pressure of population upon
subsistence. He asserted that vice and
misery everywhere could be traced to bad
laws and social Institutions, to ignorance
and rapacity. He denies that the present
state and past condition of ireland were
due to, over-population. He said that
Ireland's suffeEings were due to bad laws,
to unjust Withholding of the peoples
rights, to the wasteful beasts of landlords,
who took the substance of the country
and spent it ipIanaaen- dissipation. The
only over population he saw in Ireland
was an over-population of policemen.
How utterly absurd was the present use
of the land given by God to the people.
What an absurdity that Stuyvesant square
should be closed every night at shutdown
because an old man named Peter St1y-
vesant, who died 200 years ago, willed
it. What an outrage that the land down
in Park Row, where the fire burned down
building year ago, should be held at
5000, 900, on title derived from some old
Dutchman, so that the present owner
should live in luxury at the expense of
the people of New York. He believed,
with Jefferson, that the usufruct of the
land belongs to the people. He believed,
with Black Hawk, that land should not
be owned like otherproperty.