Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1889-12-20
HENRY GEORGE.
HE LECTURES TO A LARGE AUDIENCE
AT MOXHAM

of the Application of the Single Tax
Questions and Answers--Effect of CHEAP
Land on wages-sIuoh Enthusiasm
Aroused.
A large and intelligent audience greet
ed Henly George in the Laying-out Hall,
Moxham, Tuesday night to hear his lecture
on " The Land for the People" The 500
chairs in the hall were filed, and there
were many others present.
Mr. A. j. Moxham, President of the
Henry George Club, of Johnstown, in a
short and telling speech, introduced Mr..
George, who spoke substantially as fol-
lows:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN think itim.
possible that anyone who has been in
JohnslOwn before, as have been, should
return without some feeling of sadness
and awe. The true Spirit should pluck
from such disasters the lessons of endur-
ance aud endeavor The highest and
noblest thing that man can lay before
himself is that he can do something to
make his fellow-man better than before.
We, as single-tax men, indulge in the
hope that the time may come when there
struggle for mere existence as now makes
| life SO degraded for so many hundreds of
Thousands OF human beings. We nope
that the time may come when not the few,
but the many-yes, all-may be rich, not
in the sense Of each ones having more
than his fellowmau or more than he can
use, but that he shall have enough to sat-
isfy his wants. If it be but Il hope it is a
noble hope if ii be but cream il is an
elevating one.
When we see how hard the lives of
most people are, hardly one in a hundred
yes, one in a thousand being able to
enjoy what this age of progress oSords,
we can not look with pleasure upon
things as they are. There are reasons
why so many deny Christianity. The
wOrse-t -thau-atheism preached from most
of our pulpits to-day, that things are as
they are because, OF the ordination of
Nature. they must be so, is the cause. of
it. 1t is preached that the few only can
enjoy and that the many must toll for
their enjoyment. Our belief is that 1t is
not the decree of Nature that makes so
many lives miserable. The Maker did
not intend this earth as fools paradise,
but place where man is given sphere
where his endeavor will meet with a re-
ward. There are social laws, the obedience
to which brings happiness, and the dis
obence of which brings pam and unhap-
piness, just as surely as the disobedience
Of physical laws.
Ordinarily we mean by rent the
sum paid for the hire of anything,
usually for the use of land. In
Political Economy it means that which is
| paid for the use of land alone, exclusive
of any of the things produced by human
eXcrtion. One thing is always observable
| in regard to rent-it always advances
where population grows. If tell you that
in ten years Johnslown will have poDu-
lalion of 500, 600 people, and then ask
what things will have inci eased in value
by that time, should get the answer that
clothing furniture, houses, etc, will not.
They tends to decay. The tendency of
Improvement and invention is to cheaper
the production of those things. But land
would have enormously increased in
value. The law of rent is the law of iu-
crease ofsland values. One piece of land
is more valuable than others, because it
is more desirable. Land that can be got
for nothing can command no price or
rent. Yet naturally it may be good land.
Land in Il town like this may have a GER
tain value, but land in Pittsburgh will
have greater value, and land in New
York value still greater. This is due to
the ccnterlng Of population and industries.
| Land on which Il house would bring no
more in rent than what it cost to build il,
would have no value.
DR.. Nulty says that the law of rent is
the most bcneficent measure known for
! equaiiZing the burdens of life. II meant
the taking for the use Of The community
the value added by the community to
each mans property without subracting
| from the rewards of labor.
We, by our present system, make land
individual property, We give to individu'
ais the same right in the possession of the
earth that we give to men in the produc-
tions of their labor. Hence arises the de-
sire TO take up land and hold it, and grow
rich by exacting price fol it, that some
onesmusl pay. We have in this country IA
population of $4,000, 600, and we could,
without over-taxing our producing ca
pacity, support l0U0 100000 of people.
Yet read any o, our daily newspapers,
even in the best Of times, anG YOU learn oi
lots Of men who are not able TO get ali the
work they want Then i'm hard times,
when we have one Of those industrial de,
prcssioHs, there are armies OF unemployed
men in the country. Then comes the
talk Of too many men, and the peopl
] l.. l.