The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-02-21
"SOCIAL PROBLEMS"
Mr.. Henry Georges Latest Work In sul
port OF his Land Theories.


port OF his Land Theories.
Mr.. Henry Georges now book, 'socia
Problems" il reviewed at length BY the
English newspapers. 1t may best be de
scribed a. q series of short essays il
illustration and expansion Of the funda
mental thesis expounded' in Progress
and Poverty" In tho latter work Mr.
George claims that the progress of mate
rial civilization tends, necessarily and in.
evitably, to increasing inequality of social
al conditions. 30 that a. the rich gel
richer the poor get poorer, and it assigns
as the main cauas Of this increasing in
equality the Fundamental mistake Of
treating land ss private property" The
main inference drawn from this funda.
mental assumption is sufficiently familiar
to all readers of Mr.. Georges Garlic,
work; it il that tho true remedy for 80
cial difficulties lies in the complete abo.
litiou of private property in land This
iasthe root OF the evil, and if this be once
extiuguished all other evils of the social
state that arc really remediable and not
inherent in tho nature of things will
gradually but surely disappear. In his
present work Mr.. George very considers'
bly, enlarges the catalogue Of these evils.
According to him, capitalists, monopo.
lists and fraudulent despoilers of other
mems rights will be swept away, national
debts will disappear and each man that
lives will enter upon bis right to enjoy
that portion of tho earth 3 surface which
is inalienably bis according to the IRE
frsssble and eternal principles PROFOUND.
ed in the Constitution of the United
States. These results, together with the
futility, in his view, of any remedy less
drastic than bis own, are displayed by
Mr.. George in an ingenious illustration
which gives his own peculiar views in biz
.oun forcible language and exhibits the
enormous extent Of bis assumptions and
the inAexible rigor of his conclusions:
"Suppose an island, the soil Of which
is conceded to be property of few OF
the inhabitants. The rest OF the inhabi.
tank of this Island must either hire land
of these landowners, paying rent for it,
or sell their labor to them, receiving
wages. A. population increases the COM
pe :ition between the non.lsndowners for
employment or the msans of employment
must increase rent and decrease wages
until the non.landounen get merely .
bare living, and the landowners get all
tho reat of the produce of the island.
Now, suppose any improvement or inven.
ton made which will increase the eff
cheney of labor, it is manifest that, as
soon ~ it becomes general, the compe.
tition between the Landowners must
give the land d.owners all the benefit. No
matter how great the improvement be it
can lave but this ultimate result. II
the improvements are 80 great that all
tho wealth the island can produce or
that the landowners care for can be OBJ.
tained with one.half the labor, they can
let the other half of the laborers starve
or evict them into the sea, or if they are
pious people Of the conventional. sort,
xho believe that God Almighty intended
these laborers to live though BE did not
provide any land for them TO live on,
they may support them ss paupes or
sti them of to some other country, ~
the English Government 10 shipping the
surplus Irishmen. But whether they
let them die or keep them alive, thsy
would have no use for them, and if i'm.
proysment still vent on they would have
use for less of them"
DANGERS TO CIVILIZATION.
In another part of his work Mr.. George
points out tho dangers which threaten
society shouId these social problems be
neglected:
1T il startling to think how destruc.
tive in civilized nation like ours would
be such fierce conflicts q 6ll the history
of the past. The wars Of highly civiliz.
ed countries, since the opening of the
ora of steam and machinery, have been
duels of armies rather than conflicts OF
peoples or clauses. Our only glimpse OF
what might happen were passion fully
aroused was 10 the struggle Of the Paris
Commune. And, since 1870, to the
knowledge Of petroleum has been added
that of even moro destructive agents.
The explosion of g little nitro.glycerine
under 4 few water. mains would make a
great city uninhsbitable; the blowing up
Of few railroad bridges and tunnels
would bring famine quicker than the wall
of circum vanation that Titus drew
around jerusalem the pumping of at
mosphsric air into the gas.mains, and
the application Of q match, would tear
up every street and level every house.
The Thirty Years War set back civiliza.
ton in Germany; so fierce war now
would all but destroy it. Not merely
have destructive powers vastly increased
but the whole social organization has
become vastly more delicate.
"In simpler state, msstsr and man,
neighbor and neighbor, know each other,
and there Is that touch Of the elbow
which, in times of danger, enables socie-
ty tQ rally. But present tendencies are
to the loss of this. In London, dwellera
in one house do not know those in the
next, the tenants Of adjoining rooms are
utter strangers to each other. Let civil
conflict break or Paralyze the authority
that preserves order, and the vast popu.
lation would become terror.stricken
AOU, u4t0Oub PSAut Va A3Aiy W k4AASiesS
of cohesion, and London would be sack.
ed and burned by an army Of thieves
London is only the greatest of great cit.
les. What is true of London is true oi
New York, and the same measure true
of the many cities whose hundreds ol
thousands sre steadily growing toward
millions. These vast sggregations of hu'
msnity, where be who seeks iaolstiou
may find it moro truly than in the desert
whore wealth and poverty touch and
jostls, where one revels and another
staryes within q fow feet of each other
yet separated by al great gulf as thai
fixed between Dives in hell and Lazarus
in Abraham's bosom-they are centres
and types of our civilization. Let jar o.
shock dislocat the complex and delicate
organization,' let the policeman. trun
cheon be thrown down or wrested from
him, and the fountains of the great deep
are opened, and quicker than ever before
chaos comes again.
UWhan q mighty wind meeta a stronf