The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-01
HENK 4GEoRaE.s LAND THEORIES.
The Kind of Opposition He Met in England
The Land Question the Great Issue.
You found much opposition!a


| the men who invited me to speak came to ne by
| night and frankly told me that none of them
! dared ask for a hall, and requested me to hire
one for myself. The factor, who is virtually
! king of the place, refused the hall, but through
| the Independence of Free Church minister
managed to get sehoolhouse, though the fac
tor threatened to get out an interdict, and prob
| ably would have done so had he had time. You
never saw a more delighted audience i'll your
| life--they almost took the roof off with their
cheers and laughter But not one of them
! dared to come forward and shake hands with
me in public afterward for fear OF being marked
| for landlord bOycotting; and in Inverness, the
| capital of the Highlands, the gentleman who had
| been instrumental IN getting me to speak there,
| and who had offered to guarantee all expenses,
sat a front bench, but didn't dare to once APP
plaud or to bid me goodbye, for the reason he is
business man and could have easily been ruined
| by the landowning interest. In that section of
the country the condition of the people was
| pressed to me by one of the crofters, who said:
| We have been more afraid of the landlord
! than of the Almighty, and more afraid of the
factor than even of the landlord and of the
ground officer still more than of the factor
You didn't meet opposition of this kind in
the large cites!'
Not so marked, of course, but even in Lon
don my friends found it impossible to get any
hall in a central location for a farewell meeting
| it was intended to have. After having been re-
fused one hall after another they tried to get q
theater and then a church, with no better sue
cess, and the meeting had to be abandoned. In
! several places also clergymen who had invited
me to occupy their pulpits were obliged by their
church officers to rescind the invitation"
did you occupy any pulpit"
Zone, that of the Rev. David McCrae, Pres
byterian, of Dundee, who has the largest con
gregation there. Every inch of standing room
was packed and hundreds were unable to gain
admittance"
You do not mean to tell me you made
political speech in Scottish Presbyterian
Church2'
mo; in place of the regular sermon / de-
livered lecture upon Moses and the Mosaic
legislation, which, to my mind has great bear
ing upon questions of the present"
Did you find any other clergymen sympathiz-
ing with you!"
MANY, and of all denominations, from the
Catholic to the Unitarian. Many Of the most
active supporters in England of the views / en-
tertain are clergymen of the Established
Church In the north of Scotland my meetings
were generally opened with prayer by clergy
men. An English clergyman, the Rev. Mr..
Headam, presided at the farewell banquet they
gave me in London. In several other places
clergymen presided at my lectures, and in
nearly all cases there were clergymen upon the
platform"
''Tt has been said by the English papers that
you lost hold by taking too radical stand, and
scouting the idea of any compensation to land
lords"
Don't believe that There was on the begin
nipg great timidity even among my friends on
that point, and even the gentlemen at whose in
vitation | went to England urged me, prior to
my first meeting, to say nothing on the question
if ! could not favor it. | refused, telling them
if | spoke at all must speak my honest convic-
tions and that this matter of compensation of
landlords went to the heart Of the question:;
either the landlords rightfully owEed the SOIL or
the soil belonged rightfully to the whole people
There can be no middle ground and no cOmpro-
mise, and the advocate of the land for the people
throws away the strength of his position by ad-
uniting any. However, it is certain wherever /
went carried my audiences with me on this
point, save perhaps at Oxford and Cambridge
where l had purely university audiences, largely
composed of course of young men belonging to
the land owning class In Liverpool, for in
stance, where such an cutlery had been made
against me that no one save the chairman, Dr.
Cummins, NJ. P, would come on the platform,
and the audience was evidently hostile, carried
them so far with me that when in conclusion, l
put the question of compensation to the audi
ence, the vote was unanimous against it save
three"
'You do not think the conservative English
people will ever embrace your idea of taking the
land from its present owners without paying
them for itl"
II do not propose to take the land from the
landlords | merely propose to take the rent by
taxation, which is, in some respects, different
proposition
that amounts to the same thing; you do not
think the conservative English people will ever
consent to thatP
''To my mind nothing is more certain. In the
| first place. the English people are not whit
more conservative than any other people as
their history shows, and as any one who merely
mixes among them can see for himself Con
sentative institutions and conservative infu-
ences are very strong in England, but they are
rapidly yielding to the great influences of the
times. | think man has to know America to
fully understand England at the present time,
aud whoever looks carefully will see very
rapid assimilation is going on and that the dem
the surface but further than this it is so utterly
absurd and so manifestly unjust that a few men
| should own the land, on which and from wicn
the whole people must live, that such an insti-
tuition can only exist when it is treated as a mat
ter of course. 1t cannot stand discussion The
discussion has now commenced and has reached
such point that it cannot be stopped"
you do not care much for the opposition
them"
''On the contrary, it shows the strength of the
movement. Before leaving England, on my pre-
vious visit, was invited to a conference with
number of clergymen of the Established Church
upon the land question. Many of them, while
agreeing in the abstract that the land belonged
to the whole people and should be resumed by
them, urged that the proposition ought to be put
in the mildest way in order to minimize opposi
ton, but told them that opposition was not to
be feared that if we could only get three or four
of the big landhOlders to go through the country,
defending their title to their estates, we might
fold our arms. In England and Scotland land
lordism is already on the defensive"
''How did you find the Scotch to take hold of
this question:"
"Splendidly. Thanks to John Knox, the
Scottish people have long had high standard of
general education, and have been accustomed to
chop logic on theological questions aud when
they take hold of matter of this kind they go to
the root They are, moreover, very largely
religious people and the social question, is after
all, at the bottom of religious question. The
Scotch character is wei. shown in the maefesto
issued by the Land Restoration League, formed
while was there They commence with the
declaration that Scotland was made by the
Creator, and evidently he intended it for all the
Scottish people and not for q few of their num-
Der. On the question of compensation they de
clare that matter of justice the land should
not only be restored to the people, but the land
lords should be obliged to compensate those they