Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-09-02
HENRY GEORGES
TWO UNIVERSITIES
One Was His Varied Experience in
California; the other, the Uni
versity Of Books-His Boy
hood in Philadelphia
Bv ELLIS RANDALL

] HTITHOUT question Progress and Pow
! w erty' Is one Of the worlds great books
! You don't have to ask a single-taxer about
that You don't have 20 believe In Henry
/ Georges economic philosophy, or tenth
/ part Of ii, or a hundredth part II Is the
book of downright thinker. No economist
knows his subject unless he has read
| Progress and Poverty" and every econo-
mist, from Herbert Spencer and Thomas
Huxley down TO the present day, has taken
a stand for or against it's teachings. II is a
book to he recommended to young men as
part Of their reading, whether its teachings
be approved or not. The effect of its pub
lication-whch was not so immediate in
America as in Europe-was to stir the con-
servatism OF the world II took economic
literature out OF the possmistic mood into
the optimistic. II has been translated into
almost every living tongue, including the
Chinese and the japanese. Such book is
a landmark. however fallacious it's premises
or It's conclusions
The author of Progress and Poverty" was
born in Philadelphia seventy-si2 years ago
today. The anniversary will be celebrated
by slnglc-taxers Of Philadelphia and other
parts Of the country A pilgrimage viii be
made to the house on 10th street, south of
Pine, whore their prophet first saw the
light of day. Henry Georges father in 1889
was in the book publishing business in this
city. His grandfather had been one Of the
best known shipmasters OF Philadelphia.
Around the Horn
At the age Of Ia Henry left school for
good. The financial condition Of the fam
lily had changed and Henry resolved to
go to work He obtained employment in
IL, Vg,,.-
Front street at 81 week. His duties
were to copy, to tie up bundles and TO
run errands Afterward he did clerical
work in the Office of a marine adjuster. At
the age of l6 his inherited yearning for
the sea proved irresistible, and after some
difficulty he obtained his parents permission
to sail as foremast boy on an East India
man bound for Melbourne, Australia, and
Calcutta On his return he learned to set
type in the Office of King Baird; but in
1857. at the age Of is, he set out to seek his
fortune i'm California, working his passage
on n ship that rounded the Horn and reached
San Francisco in the spring of the next year.
The career of no other American is more
impressive than that of Henry George, un-
favored as he was by accident or the help
of others. Neither schools, votes nor
money contributed to his success but only
his genius. Much of his education was OBJ
tained i'm what is popularity called 1.-THE
school of hard knocks" During the years
he spent on the Pacific coast he expert
enced many ups and downs OF fortune He
drifted from one employment to another
usually in financial straits in the early years
but through no lack of effort on his part
He was a clerk i'm a store in the Fraser
River gold fields Of British Columbia Re-
turning to California, he was wegher in a
rice mill farmland, a printer, a peddler
of clothes wringers, an inspector Of gas
meters. Finally he began to write for the
press. In the course of a few years he be-
came one Of the best known journalists on
the coast and the story Of his newspaper ex-
periences is one of the most interesting
chapters in his life. As correspondent for
the New York Tribune he wrote an article
on the Chinese question which gained the
warm commendation of John Stuart Mil.
The long. hard. bitter struggle in Cali
fornia, often humiating, often incenslng,
often discouraging but never crushing nor
dishonoring, was, as a friend once wrote
Henry Georges university"
Preparing a Masterpiece
But another large part of his education
was obtained in the university of books His
son writes, in the Life Of Henry Geurge"
of his boyhood days: Though he had left
school, his real education suffered no in
terruption. In school or out of It. he had
acquired fondness for reading. Or per-
haps 1t was that at his birth, while the
Fairies of Gain Fashion and Pleasure
passed him by, one came and sat beside his
cradle and softly sang
Mine is the world of thought, the world Of
dream;
Mine all the past and all the future mine.
First he had a grounding in the Bible;
and the Puritanical familiarity with book.
chapter and verse, which in the elders
nodded speech established habit and guided
the steps of life, filled the young mind with
a myriad of living pictures"
The boy read omnivorously of the bool,s
In the old Quaker Apprentices Library and
the Franklin Institute Library. He attended
the popular scientific lectures at the Frank
lin Institute. Romance. adventure. poetrv
and science were his early loves In later
life George ascribed to this fondness Tor
reading his real education and the conn
mencement OF his career. When at the are
OF Ss he began work on Progress ana
Poverty" he had accumulated, despite the
thinness OF his purse at that time ana the
hardships he had undergone in his varied
career a private library Of 500 volumes
They related to political economy history
ana biography poetry, philosophy. the
sciences In popular form and travels ana
discovery with but few works Of fiction.
though he was an admirer of George Isliors
novels. These books We're his chief nos
sessions In the world. Indeed, for a while
In the house on LIST street. San Francisco
where the main work on Progress and Pow
eriy' was done there was no carpet on the
parlor floor, as the family could not AFFORD
20 buy one. In addition 10 his o.,. t,l