The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-02-21
"sOCIAL PROBLEIIg.n
Hr. Henry GoorSe's Latest Work In Cup.
port of bis Land Theoriea.

Mr. Henry Georges now book, "Sociel
Problems," 10 reviewed at length By the
English newspapers. Itmay best be de.
ocribed as eeries &C short eaasys IN
ILLUSTRATION and expanaion OF the funda.
mental thesio eXpou1ded in "Progreas
and Poverty" In tho latter work Mr.
George claima ihat the progress of mate.
rial civilization tends, necessarily end in.
evitably, TO increauing inequality of social
al conditions. GO that 90 the rich get
richer the poor get poorer, an IL aasigns
as the main cauro Of this iut ress ing in
equality the Fundamental mistake OF
treating land &C priyoto property" The
main inference drawn from this funde.
mental asoumption 10 sufficiently familiar
to ell readers Of Mr. Georges earlier
work it 10 that tho true remedy for 90.
ciel difficulties lice in the complete .kS.
iitiou OF private property in land. This
10 the root of tho evil, and IL this bo onco
eKtiuguiehed ell other evils of the eocial
state that are really zemedisble end not
inherent in tho nature of thiDRa will
gradually but ourely disappear. In bis
Preeont work Mr.. George very conaidera.
bly, enlsrge0 the catalogue OF theee evils.
According TO him, capitalists, monopo.
liots and fraudulent deopoileru of other
d.h,a %sa' 1I 1Gh's will bo ovePt away national
ii7oa will enter upon his right to enjoy
that portion of tba earth'e aurface which
10 inaiienably his according to the irre.
fregeble and eternal principles PROFOUND
Cd In the Constitution Of tho United
States. Theoe reaults, together with the
fasiiity, 10 h's view. Of any remedy less
he 10 y &.
Mr. George in en- ingenious illustration
which gives his own peculiar views in his
own forcible language and e1hibits the
enormous eEtent of bis assumptions aud
the infoxible r;gor Of bis conclusions:
"SuPpose an island, the soil of which
10 conceded to be property Of q few Of
the Inhabitants. The rest Of the inhabi.
tonts of this ialand muot either hire land
OF theeo landowners, paying ront for it,
or cell thoir labor to them, receiving
wages. As population increases the COM
petition between the non.landownero for
employment or the means of employment
munt increase rent and decrease wages
until the non.landoUnem get merely o
bare living, and tie landowners get all
the rest of the produce of the ioland.
Now, suppose any improvement or inven.
tion made which uill increase tho off,
cheney Of labor, it ia manifest that, as
soon aa it becomes general, the compe.
titlon between the non-landoVnera must
give the landowners oil the benefit. No
matter how great the improvement be it
can have but this ultimate result. If
the improvements are 60 great that all
tho wealth the island can produce or
that the landowners care for can be OBJ.
tanned With one.half tho labor, they can.
let the other half of the laborers starye
or evict them into the eeo, or If they are
pioue people Of the conventional sort,
Who believo that God Almighty intended
these leborero to live though He did not
provide any land for them to liva on.
they may support them % pnupers or
ship them of to some other country, 60
the English Government 10 chipping the
'eurplus' Irishman. But uhether they
let them die or keep thom alive, thoy
would have no use for them, and If i'm.
provement still vent on :hcy would have
use for less of them"
DANGERS TO CIVILIZATION.
In another part Of HE work Mr.. George
points out the dnngern which threaten
society ahould theae social problems be
neglected; 81. !!
tive in civilized nation like ours would
be such fierce conflicts az gil the history
OF the past. The wars Of highly ciyiliz-
ed countries, eince the opening of the
ora Of steam and machinery, have been
duels Of armies rather than conflicts of
peoples or clsaseo. Our only glimpse Of
what might happen were passion fully
aroused was in the atruggle of the Perio
Commune. And, since 1870, to the
knowledge Of petroleum hiss been added
that of even more destructive sgents.
The explosion of little nitro-glyceriue
under few wster.rnnins would make q
great city uninhabitablo; the blowing up
Of few railroad bridges and tunnels
would bring famine quicker than the wall
Of decentralization that Titus drew
around Jerusalem; the pumping of OF
moapheric eie into the ees-sss:ns, and
the application of match, would tear
up svsEy s.sast and Level s7eEy henes.
Tho Thirty Yesss' War Get back civiliza-
ton in Germany so fierce var now
would all but destroy it. Not merely
have destructive poRers vastly increased,
but the whole nocial organization has
become vastly moro delicate.
I'm o 0impler ntato, m9stor and man,
neighbor and neighbor, know each other,
and there is that touch Of the elbow
which, in times of Danger, enables eocie-
ty 70 rally. But present tendencies are
to the loa0 of this. In London, dwellers
in one house do not know those in the
next, the tenants of adjoining rooms ere
utter strangers to each other. Let civil
conflict break or paralyze the authority
that preserves order, end che vast popu.
latiop would become terrcr.stricken
mob, without point or rally or principle
of cohesion, and London would be sack
cd and burned by IN army Of thieves.
London 10 only tho greatest of great cit.
les. What 10 true Of London is true of
New York, and the aame measure true
of the maj -ities uhoae hundreds of
thousands steadily growing toward
millionn. These vast oggregations of hu.
menity, where be Who seeks Isolation
may find it moro truly then in the deeert,
where wealth and poverty touch and
jostlo, where one revels and another
sts-yes within few seet of each other,
yet separated by 40 great q gulf es that
fixed between Dives In hell and Lazarus
in Abraham's bosom--they are centres
and types of our civilization. Let jar or
shock dislocate the complex and delicate
organization, let tho policeman'e trun.
cheon be thrown down or ,urested from
him, and the fountains Of the great deep
are opened, and quicker than ever before
chaos comes again.
"When o mighty wind meets o strong
current II does cot portend emooth ses.
Aud whoever will think Of the opposing