Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1892-02-05
How Modern Civilization May Decline.
BY HENRY GEORGE.

4 ~ K
This consideration of the law OF human
progress not only brings the politico-
ecomic laws which in this inquiry we
have worked. out, within the scope of
a higher law-.perhaps the very highest
law our minds can. grasp; but i proves
that the making Of land common proper
ty in the way | have proposed would
give an enormous impetus to civilization
while the refusal to do so much entail
civilization like ours
must either advance or 60 back; it can
not stand still. tits not like those.
civilizations such as that
CT the Nile Valley, which moulded men
for their places and put them in it like
bricks into a pyramid. It much more
resembles that civilization whose rise
and fall is within hostoric times, and
from which it sprung.
There is just now disposition to
scoff at any implication that we are. not
in all respects progresslng 3, and the spirit
of orr times is that Of the edlct which
the flattering premier proposed to the
Chinese Emperor who burned the anci-
ent books that all who may dare TO
speak together about the She and the
Shoe. be put to death; that those who
make mention Of the past SO as to blame
the present be put to death along With.
their relatives q;
Yes, tits evident that there have been
times Of decline, just as there have been
times of advance; !; and tits further evident
that these epochs Of decline could not at
first have been generally recognized.
4 He would have been a rash man Who,
when Agustus was changing the Rome
OF brick to the Rome Of marble, when
wealth was .augmenting and magnific-
,ence increasing, when victorious legions
were extending the frontier, when mans
sners were becoming more refined. siangu-
age more polished, and literature rising
to higher splendo -he would have been
d rash man. who then would have said
that Rome was entering her decline.
Yet such was the case.
G58s And whoever will look may see that
though our civilization is apparently
advancing with greater rapidity than
ever, the same cause which turued
Roman progress into retrogression is
operating now.
What has destroyed every previous
civilization has been the tendency to the
unequal distribution Of wealth and pow
Ter. This same tendency operating with
increasing force, is observable in our
civilization to-day, showing itself in
every aggressive community and with
greater intensity the more; preg gressiye
the community. Wages and interest
tend constantly to fall, rent to rise, the
rich to become very much richer, the
poor 10 become more helpless and hope
less, and The middle class TO be.swept
away.
l have traced this tendency to its
cause. have shown BY that simple
lneaus this cause may be removed.
now wishs To- point out how, if this is
not done, progress must turn to decad-
ence, and modern civilization decline
to barbarism, as have all previous civil
iatien. 1t is worth while to point out
how this may occur, as many people
being unable to see how progress may
pass into retrogression, conceive such q
thing impossible. Gibbon, for instance
thought that modern civilization coult
never be destroyed because their remain
ed no barbarians to overrun it, and il
is y common idea thatthe invention o
printing by SO multiplying books ha:
prevented the possibility Of knowledg.
ever again being lost.
The conditions Of social progress, a,
We have traced the law, are. association
aud equality. The general tendency o
lnadern development, since the tim
| when we can first discern the CLEANS o
civilization in the darkness which follow
| ed the fall of the Western Empire, ha+
been towards political and legal equal
! iity---t to the abolition of slavery; to th
brogation Of status; to the sweeping ava,
4 of hereditary privilege; To the substit,l
tion of parliamentary for arbitrary gov
! ernment; to the rights of private jadg
ment IN mi.tters Of religion; 10 the NOR
equal security in person .and propert.
of high and low, weak and strong; to hi
greater freedom OF movement and oc
cupation, of speech and Of the press
! The history of modern civilization is LII
history Of advances in this direction--o
the struggles and triumphs Of personal
political, and religious freedom. - An,
The general law is shown by the fac
that just as this tendency has asserte
itself civilization has advanced, Will
just as it has been repressed or force
back civilization LAS been checked.
/ This tendency has reached its full ex
11s,ssion in the American Rrpnb.ic
| where political and legal rights are ah
soluteis equal, and. owing to the system
| Of rotation in office, even the growth Q
y snreaucracy is prsysn:ed; where ever:
religious belief or noa-selisf stands q