Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-01-18
ENGLISH SOCIAL VovEVEsTS.
Land Reform -GrOwth Of Gu.soutct
Interest In the Poor.

An increasing tendency toward what are
noted in England. The low rate Of wascs and
the. misery of the laboring people can not be
CLOSED over the social mechanism is wrong
somewhere, and men with remedies t. PRO.
pose find eager listeners. The NEST eminent
worker in this field at present is an Amqr-
can, Henry George, the author Of progress
and Poverty who has undertaken 10 over
turn the systems taught by political cc0no.
mlsts from Adam Smith to date, by proving
that labor pays wages and employs c1pital
that under proper social conditions the most
thickly settled community, that is to say the
community which contains the most labor
ers, should be the most prosperous aud con-
tain tue least pauperism and that the reason
why the enormous increase in productive
power which has marked the present century
has no tendency 10 cXtrpate poverty or to
tighten the burden Of the toicrs, but only
''widens the gulfbetween Dives aud Lazarus"
is that The gain III increase of production
goes to the landowner: Though neither
wages nor interest anywhere increase Ms ma
| teral progress goes on, yet the invariihlc ac-
compartment and mark of material progress
| is the increase OF rent-the rise Of land
| values Therefore, we must make land
common property, h. says. Mr. George gave
his first lecture Wednesday night, in London,
to about 5000 people, fully one-half the au
dlencc seeming to belong to the mi idle class,
with sprinking of clergymen The
| lecturer was received with extraordinary
enthusiasm. His speech amounted to this
| that the minimum wage rate dos not check
population. Wages 10 not rise and fall with
| the increase and decrease of capital. The
great cause of the progress of extreme pow
| erty side by side with extreme wealth was
the monopoly in land, and unless that could
be ended the two conditions would 20 on
developing till social anarchy would be the
result. This is not telt in America because
OF its vast extent, while in England the
struggle is near at hand. But the question
also arises across the Atlantic
Henry Labouchere presided al this meet
ing aud among those on the platform were
Rev. Mr.. Hcadlam, Henry Brondhursl. NJ.
7. and Michael DaVtt. Mr.. Ruskin has pub
llcly declared his sympathy for Mr. Georges
theories. y new organ called To. Dan has
been started to voice the theory that the
stronger and clcverer have no right to drive
their weaker neigbors to the wall, and it de-
nounces competitive anarchy between
workingmen of different nations"
While thus an effort is making, whether
rightly or wrongly directed, to remove the
causes OF social grievances, another and
stronger agitation is going on with which all
can sNmpathize-that is the manifestation
| mong the well-to-do classes of an unwOnlcI
and, so far as English historY Is concerned,
an unprecedented interest in the welfare of
the poor In regard to this London cor
respondent of the New York Post A. V.
Dicey, declares that it is not "A speculative yicw
but matter of plain fact that the present
generation OF Engllshmen, and still more of
Englishwomen, ale influenced by Il desire
III some cases amounting to passiOn--fol
extending among the poor and the helpless
J the benefits and joys of civilized life. rhc
outcome OF this desire is seen in the Sltur-
, day half holiday which in many trades is be-
} coming custom enforced by opinion with
!, the lnneSiOlllly OF law; n the various effort.
J 10 cast some ray OF happiness on the lot OF
the children of the city poor; in the many
similar tempts to make life brighter and
easier for the unfortunate. 'Let no man say
that benevoence has always existed in every
Christian couhtry. The point to notice is
| not the existence OF bcncvolence, but the
form IN Which it exists Mr.. Dicey says
what is really new is, that beneyolcnce ba,
taken the shape of attempts to increase moi
only the comforts but the pleasures Of the
poor and, further, that this sympathy Will
the miseries of poverty displays itself il
quarters in which you would in vain have
sought for it in other ages" the lablrs Of
those classed os skeptics being instauced il
this connection, AS one of the influences
which have led to thisincreased philanthropy
The writer mentions first the gospel of sympa
my which has been voiced by Dickens, Thack
S cray, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte. Mrs
Gaskell, Trollope, Victor Hugo and others
+ Even Carlyle is at bottom quite as truly 4
s sentlmentalist as Dickens. 1t would not b,
hard to establish that this appeal to feeling
Y which characterizes the fiction, is also /
2 CHIEF feature in the theology and in the eth
3 les OF the last half century, he adds il is OF
this ground that clergymen and agnostc!
may work in unison. By strange, though
: perfectly natural, turn Of opinion, men whc