The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-06-28
HENRY GEORGE.
The Causes to Which Poverty II Due.
lITcnfy Hctvge, IN Frank Lesiie's Illustrated
Ne:ysua,,et

Nrwspapefi
The terms rich and poor are Of course
frequently used in n comparative sense
Among Irish peasants, kept on the
verge of starvation by the tribute wrnng
from them to maintain in luxury ah-
scntec landlords in London or Paris,
"the woman with three COWS" will he
looked on a. rich, while in the society
OF mlllionaires man with only $500, 900
will be regarded as poor But when
people say we cannot all be rich, or
when they say that We must always
have the poor with liz, they do not use
the words in this comparative sense
They mean by the rich those who have
enough, or more than enough, wealth
to CRAFTY all reasonable wants, and, by
the poor, those who have not
Now, using the word in this sense, l
Join iss,ie with those who say that we
cannot all be rich: with those who de
elare that In human, society the poor
must always exist. | lo not, of course,
mean that we might al have an array,
OF servants; that We all might ontshine
each other in dress, in e1uipagc. in the
lavishness Of our balls and dinners. III
the magliiiiceiice OF our houses. That
would be n contrad iction in terms.
What mean is. that We might all have
leisure, comfort and abundance. not
merely of the necessarics. but even of
what are now esteemed the clegancies
and luxuries of life. | do not mean
to say that absolute equality could be
had or would b, desirable. / do not
| - 4
would want the same quantity of all
the different forms OF wealth. But /
do mean TO sny that we might all have
enonghi that we might all have sr
much OF NIL the material things we nov
struggle for; that no one would want
to rob or svin,lle his neighbor; that
no one would worry all day or lie awake
at nights, fearing he might be brought
to poverty, or thinking how he might
acquire wealth
Does this seem o utopian dream?
What would people of fifty years ago
have thought If one who would have
Told them that ii was possible to sew
by steam-power; TO cross the Atlantic
in six days or the continent in three; to
have message sent from London at
noon delivered in Boston three hours
before noon; to hear in New York the
voice Of man talking in Chicago?
DID YOU ever seq n pail of swill given
to pen Of hungry hogs? That is
human society as it is.
Did you ever see a large company of
~ell-bred md well-dr, s4sd men and
women sitting down I'D gogi Dime,
That is human society rs it might be.
We are SO accustomed topoyortv that
even in tho most advanced countries we
regard it as the natural lot of the great
masses OF the people: that we take it
] as a matter Of course that even in our
highest civilization large classes should
want the necessaries of healthfnl life,
and the vast majority should only get a
poor and pinched living by the hardest
i toll. Professors Of political economy
! t.Wci, that this condition Of things is
/ the result of social laws of which it is
idle to complain? Ministers Of religion
preach that this il the condition which
/ nm all-wise. all-pomerful Creator III
tended fnr His children. Ii an archi-
| tect were to build a theater so that not
more than one-tentb Of the audience
could see and hear, We would call him
bungler and botch. II a man were
/ to give feast and provide so little
food that nine-tenths of his guests must
go away hungry, we would call him a
j fool. or worse. Yet so accustomed are
We to poverty. that hven tile preachers
Of what passes for Christianity tell us
that the great Architect Of the Uni
verse, to whose infinite skill all nature
testifies, has made such botch job oi
this world that the great majority oil
the human creatures whom He has
called into il are condemned bv the
conditions He has imposed to want,
suffering and brutalizing toll whicl,
gives no opportunity for the develop,
meat of mental powers must pass
Their lives in hard struggle to merely
live.
Yet who can look about him without
seeing that to whatever cause poverty
may by due. il is not due to the mig.
gardliness of nature: without seeing
that it is blindness or blasphememy tc
assume that the Creator has condemned
the masses Of men to hard toll for q
bare li,ings
III the mass Of the population of New
York are jammed into the fever-breed
ing rooms of tenement houses, it is moi
because there arc not vacant lots enough
In aud around New York to give eacl
family space for separate home. L
settlers are going into Montans
and Dakota and Manitoba, j,
Is not because there are mo-
| .xT, ,,rVsll.x.1 Il
the eenters of population. II farmers
are payins one-fourth, one-third, o.
even one-half their crops for the priv
ilege of getting land to cultivate, it i
not because there is not, even in on
Oldest States, great quantities of lane
which no oae is cultivating.
So true is it that poverty does no
come from the inability to produc,
more wealth that in all branches O
production the power to produce is i,
excess Of the ability to find mar
ket: that tho constant fear is not tina
too little, but that too much, will h,
produced! DO we not maintain higl
tariff. and keep at every port a hord
of custom-house officers. for fear tn
people Of other countries will over
whelm us with THEN goods? Is not
great part of our machinery constantl
idle? Are there not, even III what "
call good times, an immense number q
unemployed men who would gladly b
at work producing wealth if they coul,
only get the opportunity? Do we no
even now hear. from every side, q
embarrassment from the very exces
OF productive power, and of combine
tions to reduce production? Coal ope
rators band together to limit their on,
put; iron works have shut down, or ar
running on half-time; distillers hay
: agreed to limit their production to one
half their capacity, and sngar retiners I
6Oper cent; paper mills are suspendin
for one, two or three days week; til
: gunny-cloth manufacturers, Mt recer
: meeting, agreed to close their mill
until the present oyer-stock on I'll
market is greatly reduced; many othe
manufacturers have done the sam
thing. The shoemaking machinery ,
New England can in six months ful
runninu II IL said snunly the whol