Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-01-24
Henry George Talks
He Believes the Australian System OF
Voting Will be Adopted in
New York.
The Irish Could Never Have Elected
Parnel and Davitt Without
That Law.
His Euronean Stunning Tour.

LIS IOUT.
Henry George, of New York, was at the
Pacific Hotel on mis- way to Des Moines,
Iowa. When question ed regarding the
nature of his trip west, he said:
II am going to Des Moines to lecture.
From there I go to Minneapolis and st,
Paul, and one or two other points in the
north west and will then return to New
York Last week I appeared before a
committee of the Ohio legislature at
Columbus with Thomas G. Sherman and
L. L. Thompson, and made an argum ent
in favor of the Australian system of
secret ballot. I believe the Australian
system of voting will be the law in half a
dozen states before the year is over. 1t
will be adopted again by the New York
legislature, and | have reason to believe
that Governor Hill will not veto it again.
Governor Francis Of Missouri, is in favor
of 1t and the ID easure will be strongly
presented to the Missouri legislature.
The system is almost certain 30 become a
law in Rhode Island and Connecticut and
may be adopted in Ohio and Indiana.
The arguments in favor of it are much
easier to present since the election than
they were before, because the orruption
of voters was so plainly carried to a
greater extent than ever before. The
public can not help seeing that the only
remedy is some such way of voting as
that provided by the Australian system
The Irish parliamentary agitation was
made possible by the system alone. Dc
you suppose the Irish electors would ever
dared to elect Parnell and Davitt had
they not been able to do so by secret
votes? 1t is splendid system, and as
| said before, it is almost certain to be
adopted ID New York, by the present
legislature and be approved by Gov
Hill.
"Do you think the cause of free trade
has been set back by the election of Gen
eral Harrison?"
"By no means. On the contrary it bas
| been advanced twenty years. The party
in opposition Is che party of the radical
ideas, and we shall presently SEQ Dem
ocratic party as radical as the most pro-
! gressive men could wish. The trouble
with the tariff reform Democratic party
this year was that it was led by Prohibi
tionists. By the time we are to fight the
next campaign, the Democratic Prohibi-
ZIONIST will join the Republican party
and the Republican free traders come
over to the Dem ocrats. The issues will
be clearly drawn. The people will get
their stOmachs full of protection under
Harrison.
"The single tax idea is advancing very
rapidly. The signatures to petition in
its favor to Congress are coming in So
fast that we can hardly handle them
| There are million of them already. We
expect the realization of the theory first
| in the adoption of free trade and then in
the growth of National party. In the
old country where the land-holdings are
more concentrated than in the United
| States, the advocates of the tax a-e mul
| tiplying very rapidly. This is particu-
larly true of England, and the Liberal
party is likely to be its champion. The
Liberals, you know, are opposed to the
land purchase bill simply because the
Tories are in favor of it. Now the Lib
erals are advocating a tax on ground
rents, which is the next thing to tax
| upon land values according to our views.
TIE ideas in favor of the land tax are
diffusing so fast that they will probably
be an issue in the next general Parlia-
mentary election. Though I have only
been home from England three weeks
am going back again the last of next
month, and shall spend three months in
stumping England, Ireland and Scot
land"
"What do you think of the action of
the police in forbidding the meetings of
anarchists?"
81 think it was very arbitrary, and
am surprised the people OF Chicago
should tolerate it. The people of Chioa-
go have been in a sort of white terror
over the anarchist business, and have
maze themselves ridiculous. The right
of free assemblage must not be
inteffered with by authority. Yet so il
is, the pendulum swings back and forth
the advocacy of force on one slice and
the unreasonable fear of society on the
other"