Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-10-14
MR.. GEORGES REMARKABLE SPEECH

by Mr.. Henry George, candidate for
Mayor of the American metropolis. We
invite to its reading brief as it is, it is
enough. And so Mr.. George has made
the appeal final to the workingmen of
New York. That is to say, he has at last
put into plain, concise, vicious English,
what he has all these years clothed in
some less offensive raiment in his Pro-
gress and Poverty" his essays in the Illus
trated papers, in his lectures in England,
and in his " talks to the people in this
country. He tells the workingmen of New
York that certain things ought to be free
street cars, for instance He does not
say, in so many words, the lands should be
free, but he intends it, and permits his
hearers to infer it from his remark that the
means OF transportation should be free to
carry them out to the unoccupied lands
held by capitalists on speculation.
Really George would not dare in this
campaign to preach seizure of lands and
division among the people, but he does be-
lieve in such taxation upon land, that
with the State owning the means of trans
portation cars could be run free for all to
ride. That is, he would tax some, and
many he would not tax at all, except indi-
rectly, as all consumers are. That he would
have the State own the lands, and permit
their use by those who would best use
them, is logically inferable from what he
has just said to the workingmen of New
York. At least it must result, if anything
does, from his theories.
But Henry George cannot believe
that this will ever be done in America
certainly never under our present form Of
government Generally well-informed
man on economic questions, and think
ing man certainly, Mr.. George in this
instance plays the demagogue, for he
knows very well that the street-cars will
not be free; that no man will ever pay by
lands never will be given to those not
thrifty and prudent to store and buy, Yet
he permits his hearers to think they all
should have farm free. He is bidding
for votes, and to secure them, like other
politicians and other demagogues before
him, he has got down out of his books and
now poses before the country as new
savior ELECT me Mayor" he exclaims,
and l viii put in operation a reform"
Adroit George-he did not promise re-
suits, he is too shrewd to do that.
What he did say was intended to touch
the pocket nerve; it was addressed to the
passions of men. He asked, How many
had not food How many had not place
to sleep?" Saying more than this was
not necessary. He knew his hearers would
draw the inevitable conclusion, that such
as thought they had not food or lodging
or the equivalent, ability to honestly get
them-would understand that the road to
the end was by seizure, if not then and
there by force and arms, at least in some
other way which, somehow, or in some
manner, George is to point out.
And so Mr.. Henry George progresses
from poverty sufficiently toward Commun-
ism and Socialism and Anarchism to be
now recognized by the American public as
their advocate; if not thoroughly so now,
he soon will be. George is putting ball
in motion he cannot stop Society will do
that, but in the meantime it will crush
Mr.. George, and the men now shouting his
battle-cry viii rise up and curse him.
We have no fears of Mr.. George, for,
like all intellectual cranks, his forte lies
in the theoretical. He never was practi-
cal man. lie is dangerous only so far as
danger arises from ignorant audiences
he addresses. Among others he will effect
little. But Just now he has great influence,
springing out of the enthusiasm of Il
multitude Of worllingmen in New York
and another multitude of drunken, loafng,
beer-guzzling drones, who would not work
If employment were offered them with a
premium. With these, egged on by i'm
ported Socialists, Mr.. George is present
idol and much exalted. But really he is
very little different in the ultimate of his
doctrines from Justus Scilwab and Herr
Most. They are more direct in their
methods less able to gid the socialistic
pill and there the difference really ends.
1t has been said that George and others
OF his ilk are of the better kind of Social
lists. In America there is no grading the
breed; they are, in any and every degree
and form, the enemies of a republican
system of government. They would set
up an idea that in practice is utterly dc
structive of the State as sovereignty
deriving power from the free will of the
governed. Mr.. George tells the working
men that they are enslaved, so does Justus
Schwsb. He shouts to them, You are
in industrial slavery; what are you to do
about it9' So did Anarchist Parsons and
Louis Lingg but they were more
frank, and told the workingmen
what to do about it throw
Russian bombs into the heart of American
liberty-and they did it, and Parsons,
Lingg, Engel and four others are TO swing
for it-just as Mr.. George ought to, if ever
he goes to the logical end of his vicious
doctrine and advises men to act rs did the
more advanced Socialists, Engel and Par
sons and Lingg and George may come to
that-his drift is all that way.
Society, fortunately, is vastly more CO.
hcsive than Mr.. George, in his intense
sotism, inlagines. Society believes in the
fair reward of industry and the broadcast
" sc possible for every bread-winner. But
when the bread-winner tells society it ores
him living, irrespective of his own
efforts, it repels the claim and gives the