Mexico weekly ledger., 1898-09-22
GREED OF THE PLUTOCRATS.
GOLDSMITH AND HENRY GEORGE.

Many Years Ago the Gentle English Poet
Sang . Warning With the Same Import
~ That Uttered In Prose by Modern
Resormers-Hanna's Pickle.
Especial Washington letter.
"History frequently repeats itself"
Is an old saying, full of wisdom, whose
truth is often confirmed in the most i'm
pressive manner by current events.
It is equally true that ideas reproduce
themselves with a persisteney that is
amazing and at times and places SO far
separated that we must take them to be
immortal in their nature and universal
in their application.
For instance, in this country there is
q school Of philosophers or political
economists who declare incessantly--
as some people think with "damnable
iteration''-that the trouble, indeed
the curse, with the age in which we
live is the unequal distribution of
wealth, on, as it is sometimes put, 1.-THE
concentration of wealth in the hands of
the few" OF this school Henry George,
one OF the most luminous minds and
facile writers of this century, was easily
the chief. I am inclined to believe that
he would have been the chief of polit-
ical economists and philosophers in any
era Of the world. Second to him per-
haps in this category stands Thomas G.
Sherman of New York.
Now, let it be remembered that these
men did not or do not inveigh against
wealth per Sc. They would have been
idiots or demagogues to do SO, and,
whatever else they are, they are most
assuredly neither idiots nor demagogues.
Their entire contention is that by
reason Of a system of laws-especially
laws Of taxation-which they denounce
as irrational, unjust, ever criminal, the
wealth Of the country is 70 thoroughly
concentrated in the hands of the few
and 50 unequally and unfairly distribut-
ed that a moneyed aristocracy is being
built up in this country, the masses of
the people pauperized, and unrest, riots,
strikes and all their concomitant evils
the natural results. From these prem
ises they predict woeful disaster to
our institutions and to the fabric Of so.
ciety unless q remedy is speedily found.
These men and their fellows have
been denounced by the plutocratic press
and orators as enemies of good govern
ment and good order for introducing a
new and revolutionary idea into our
political affairs because they condemn
the unequal distribution of wealth and
plead for a more equitable arrangement
which they claim would ameliorate
present conditions and work for the bet
terment of all our people. But they are
not amenable to the charge Of %inventing
q new idea, as we shall presently see.
Nor car they be justly arraigned at the
bar of public opinion as revolutionists
unless perohance an idea at least 200
years old-how much older I know not
can be characterized as revolutionary.
Nor r they the enemies of the human
race and Of organized society. If they
are, they are found in strange and gen.
tie company-good company, illustri-
Gus company.
Some Gentle Revolutionists.
Of all the countless sons of Adam ]
think a gentler spirit never lived to
bless his kind than Oliver Goldsmith.
A kinder heart never beat in human
bosom. Indeed his exceeding kindness
was his financial ruin. His was not
only q theoretical kindness; it was ex-
tremely practical-so practical that his
indiscriminate charity kept him in pow
erty and in debt SO long as he lived,
Notwithstanding the large sums he
earned with his pen. Greater men there
have been, but a better beloved one
never. His name still remains and will
forever remain as a synonym for gen.
tleness, b~enevolence, loving kindness.
The man who would represent Gold.
smith to be q revolutionist or an enemy
Of mankind would write himself down
an ass.
In 1868 or 1869 he wrote 1.-THE De.
serted Village" which has become q
classic and which is a poetical picture
Of his native village of Lishoy, in Ire.
land, and the ruin which had come upon
it by reason Of the concentration of the
ownership of all the land in the neigh.
borhood into the hands of one man.
Not long since, while lecturing in
Ohio on Picturesque Public Men,
wanting something to. read on the
train, I bought a copy of Goldsmith
poems and reread 1.-THE Deserted Vii
lage." found it as enhancing as when
I first perused it 80 years ago. The fol
lowing revolutionary" excerpt from
that poem sounds much like a metrical
rendering Of q speech by Henry George,