The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1912-05-18
TOM l.. JOHNSON: THE
MAN AND HIS WORK
BY HON. HENRY GEORGE. JR.
In the T1veMtle h Ce71t2I1u Mn0nzime


the River Rubicon, doubtless the
whole course of subsequent history
would have been changed.
Had King Charles warship not
turned back the little vessel that was
about to carry the obscure Oliver
Cromwell from the country of his
birth but of religious intolerance, to
the new America where he might
live and worship as he pleased that
sovereign might have died a natural
death with his head on his shoulders.
and the mighty trend of events in
England have taken an entirely diff
ferent course.
Had not the brilliant, reckless,
worldly Leo Tolstoi had his int nse
sympathies arrested by few indi-
vidual cases of brutalizing poverty in
the sea of misery surging around the
Imperial splendors Of the ancient
Russian capital, Moscow, humanity
might not have been blessed with the
glory of that peerless latter-day NOR
alist and seer.
And SO it seems that out of &C.
cfdents come big results to the world.
So, at any rate, We may say of a
great man Of our own times, of our
own blood, Of our own nation, who
has just closed the final chapter of
his 11fe-Tom Loftin Johnson.
For OF him it may be said that had
he not taken a railroad journey on
q certain day; or, taking that jour-
ney. had he not been offered a GER
tain book by the train newsboy; or
had the book 80 offered been any
other than the one offered-the
whole course Of his life might have
been changed. He might then have
died at last at an advanced age, one
of the rich Of the earth, but with
out having felt its real love-rather
felt the hatred of his generation,
which is SO often the penalty of being
a Prince Of Privilege. Instead, he
died at the comparatively early age
of fifty-seven, physically a wreck,
with but q small part Of his former
fortune, seemingly defeated in all his
great political efforts, his most cher
ished hopes destroyed, and yet VIC
tor over all. His death consecrated
the struggles of his life. His prin-
ciples received new strength and
vigor as the voice that uttered them
became forever still. The spirit of
the man became enshrined In the
hearts of those who had hailed him
as their army leader, to be passed
on to posterity and be used by them
as a slogan in the prodigious war
against privilege.
Tom L. johnson was about thirty
years old when he took this railroad
journey and bought from a train
newsboy cheap paper-covered copy
of a book called Social Problems.' -
OF the author of the book, Henry
George, he had never before heard.
What wonder? Johnson was not a
book student. George had come out
of the West with a book called "Pro-
gress and Poverty These two books,
Progress and Poverty and Social
Problems" were attracting wide at
tention. Although treating of the
science of political economy, their
style was stripped of technical and
dry-as-dust Technology and state
ment. They offered essential prin-
ciples in simple. vivid language.
They pulsed with sympathy and
meaning for the unschooled.
For political economy really deals
with the nature Of. wealth and the
natural laws of it's production and
distribution. Hitherto, however, it
has not been treated as a science,
but as a loose, confused, disconnected
kind of teaching, that gives counter
ance to privileges by which the few
may rob many. In Georges pages
political economy is hailed as a
science-a science made up of ma
tural laws; a science that proclaims
equal rights. Political economy there
reveals the unequal distribution OF
wealth as the cause of enormous for
tunes on the one hand and Of vast
and deeping poverty on the other.
It charges certain forms of priv
1lege, such as land monopoly, public
franchise monopoly, and tariff
monopoly, with the production OF
this unequal distribution.
Tom L. ohnson found that this
applied with peculiar force to his
own case. He was monopolist
Yet the plea for social justice ap-
pealed to his mind and his heart
He pushed deeper into the George
philosophy.
At that very time Johnson was on
his way to make the sale of street
railroad patent. He was a. large and
rapidly rising figure in the world OF
street railroad affairs in the middle
western cities. He had come up ou
of poverty with little or no schooling
Yet he had an extraordinary inven-
tive and managing ability. This was
backed by an unusual adaptability
huge capacity for work and an
iron constitution, a joyous, sanguine
temperament, an audacity tempered
by wisdom, and a personal appear
ance and magnetism that vanquished
where his natural force did not bea,
down opposition
He was born on a Kentucky plan
tation, of g. line of slave owners One
OF these was the distinguished Rich
ard M. Johnson, vice president of the
United States in 1873. Tom John.
sons father was Albert w. johnson
When the Civil war opened Alber,
johnson enlisted on the southern side