New-York tribune., 1885-03-01
land AND TAXATION.

Mr.. Henry George in his lecture at Brooklyn
On Monday evening, endeavOrcd to apply to
American problems the theories In regard TO
the occupation of land which he has Tor some
time urged 80 zealOusly rs remedy for social
evils in Great Britain. 1t seems to hlr. George
that here, rs well as elsewhere, poverty exists
onIv because ownership of land exists, and that
if everybody were free to occupy and work
land. everybody would be well of. For, he
saws. is il not plain that in every new country
we see that poverty is virtually unknown
becouse land is free Wages are higher there
than elsewhere. because land is free. After n
time the country becomes more thickly settled,
opd woces always decline as the land gets more
fully occupied.
Agrarianism is not new thing. very nttle
addition lns been made to its theories or Its
methods, and very little good done by it, since
the DAYS of ancient Rome The attack upon
property in land is after all neither more mol
less in principle than the attack upon property
of every Sort The right to own anything. the
right to have any reward whatever for ones
own labor, skill, enterprise, foresight or
economy, is denied by the men who have
none of these qualities, and also by set OF
theorists who conceive that those who have none
of these qualities ought nevertheless to enjoy
this world as well, and to get as large share OF
its benefits and blessings, as those who, by the
nossession and exercise of useful powers,
confer benefits upon their race and their age.
The theory of Mr.. George, as respects the
ownership of land is based upon several false
assumptons. 1t is not the fact that the com
parative absence of poverty i'll new countries is
due TO freedom of the land 1t is due rather to
the fact that the poor, the shIftlcss and the
incapable do not go to new countries. Those
who choose for themselves the struggle with
nature in its sterncst moods are not, as rule
crpplcs in mind or body. They not people
unwilling to work, to sacrifice, or to suffer
The incapables, and the less capable, remain
where an organized society provides them more
easy bcrths. and some satisfaction of their
appetitcs, tastes or habits. The new society
filled with men and women by this natural
process of selection, knows little OF poverty TIL
it becomes sufficiently developed and organized
and firmly established to offer places OF ease for
the mental and moral cripples, the industrial
barnaclcs, and the people who prefer to rail ut
wealth instead of earning it and saving it.
One point Of Mr.. Georges remarks ncverthe-
less deserves serious consideration. He points
to the fact that large estates in this country
have been acquired by foreign owners, who
rent them or arrange for their management 10y
agents and hired employees, while they, the
owners, live in other lands and enjoy the
profits. There are some reasons for obccting
to this state of things quite apart from the
agrarian theory which Mr. George delights in.
Nor has the evil been passed unnoticcd by
American legislation. In the statrte-books of
not a few States, laws passed fifty years ago or
more may be found, under which the property
of,alien and nonresident owners was subjected
to double or treble taxation. II is said that
list recently used in Congressional debate,
embracing estates exceeding twenty million
acres owned by foreign associations and ndi-
viduals is but very imperfect statement OF the
1nantity of land so owned. The time may not
be far distant when the people of the Western
States, and perhaps of the Southern, may find
it expcdicnt to revive methods of taxation
which for some years past have been In the
main disused.