The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-08-31

I lie Frpeet. a Wonderful DeteIopms mt al
Civilization tn the Twentieth Century
Annie B~-xnt Say. social Reform or Rev
oIniIon IL in-yitabIe-The Tn.ur. al
/ Electricity.
| lCopyrgbt. is&J. by American Pres Associa-
! OF all the questions you suggest ~ to the
change that another century will bring in
! the conditions Of orr people, the fundamen
| tai qus7-tion-that upon which air the rest
| are dependencies this, "Will the tendency
/ toward the accumulation Of wealth in the
/ hands Of few increase or diminish
! While thisaS yet can only he answered with
An If" the determining element is clear.
| for il depends Oh laws H. certain ~ that
| Of grayitatiou
| BY virtue 81 his physical constitution
| man i a land animal, bound by the neces-
stiles of hiS existence to the surface of the
globe On it he must live, and from it he
must draw for all his needs No discovery
or invention or improvement can rid him
Of this dependence The last man. as the
first man. must have land for his standing
place and must draw his subsistence, his
very flesh and blood, from land No matter
how elaborate. how refined, how potent
his methods of production may become
they must always have land rs their in
dspeu~able basis and reservoir. and must
always consist in the combination of the
matter and focces to be found only in land
This being the case, the fundamental SO
cial rclation-tbat which determines all
othsrs-must be in the future what expert
.nce shows il TO have been in the past-the
tenure of land. Where the equal rights of
all men to the use of land are accorded no
serious inequality in the distribution of
wealth can arise in peaceful states, and ad
vance in productive power will increase the
general well being and lead to further ad
vances. But where land is treated as the
property of some, from whom others must
purchase the privilege of living and work
ing, Il tendency to inequality is ut once set
up,which every advance in productive pow
er tends to increase, for, since land is in
dispensable to the exertion of labor, no adj
vance in the power of production can ben
eft those who have merely the power to
labor
That of itself being useless, the growth
of population and the improvement of the
arts can only drive the disinherted class Of
mere laborers into Il fercer competition
with each other for the privilege of work
ing, while n larger and larger share of the
production of labor passes into the hands of
those who, in their monopolization of the
natural element of all production, have
control of the right to work Thus discov-
cry, invention and improvement-every
thing, in short, in which the material prog
ress of society consists-tends under this
primary injustice to increase inequality
i'll the distribution of wealth until at last
the Inonstrous inequality destroys advance
Il
tastrophe ordull dry rot inventions and dis
cOveries are lost and arts and letters forgot
ten.
To us of the western world, and especial
ly to us of that new world which Columbus
opened to European civilization, the won
derful improvements of the century now
closing seem naturally but the prelude to
far greater improvements in the next. But
we must not forget that the majority of
the human race know nothing of our i'm
provements, and that the long history of
humanity shows that advance has never |
before been continuous. And already we
may see, in the massing of monstrous for
tunes on the one hand and increasing in |
tensity of the struggle to live on the other,
the growth of that inequality that has over |
and over again in the worlds history stopped |
and improvement and turned |
progress into decline.
Nor is there anything that can check this |
tendency to inequality save the recognition |
Of the equal rights to the use of the ele-
nent from which alone men can live.
Abolish all other monopoles save that of
and, and the ultimate result must be but
TO increase the share OF the production of
wealth that can be taken by land owners.
1t cannot raise wages or make it easier for
mere laborers to live. Nor can any diffusion
Of education, or publication of govern
ment, or doing away with middlemen
prevent the widening of the gulf between
The rich and the poor, so long as land is
treated as subject to that individual right
Of property that rightfully belongs to the
things that human eXertion brings into
being. AS to charity, that is hopeless, and
worse than hopeless when not based on
Justice.
Therefore it is that the conditions which
will exist in this country when the children
)f children yet to be born celebrate the fifth
of the discovery of the great
Ienoese must depend upon whether while
hey yet have power, the masses of our peo-
pie accept or reject the one great reform
which Is embodied in the single tax propo-
'itlon. If they DO, and | now believe they
will, then the Twentieth century NAV see
he development of civilization that
'ranscends the imagination of the Nine
zenith century. If they do not, then there
must befall us, but on far grander scale
md with Il far quicker movement, what
1efell ancient Rome
HENRY GEORGE.