PRICE, 15 CENTS.

DISCOVERY
F  TuiE

MI A

ss

NGI

L IN K.

AN  ATTACK
UPO  TE 1F

ENEMY

OF LABOR,

BY F. P. WILLAMS.

PUBLISHED iw F. P. WILLIAMS,
733 Greene Avenue,
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK,

I       -     - -             ________-    _





DISCOVERY
OF THE

MISSING

LINK.

AN ATTACK
UPON THE"
ENEMY OF LABOR.

COPYRIGHT, I885, BY F. P. WILLIAMS.
PUBLISHED BY F. P. WILLIAMS,
733 Greene Avenue,
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.



TO THAT MAN
OF WHOSE ACHIEVEMENT
EMANCIPATED LABOR
WILL SING
IN EVERLASTING ANTHEM,
HENRY GEORGE,
THESE LINES ARE INSCRIBED.



DISCOVERY      OF   THE    MISSING     LINK.
AN   ATTACK    UPON    THE    ENEMY    OF   LABOR.
RIDING upon the platform of a street car one day, I
heard a statement made by one of two men who
were talking by my side, which riveted my attention and
fixed the incident indelibly in my memory.
The speaker, who seemed to be a man of temperate
habits, declared that although he had steady employment,
his most valuable earthly possessions consisted of a few plain
chairs, a bedstead and a table; and that he could not boast
of being owner of a single carpet. " But," said he in cheerful tones, " I do not envy even those who walk upon velvet;
for, thanks to my careful wife and to her constant scrubbing, my bare floor is in itself a luxury."
Surely, thought I as I left the car, this is a ccntented man;
contented, although he is deprived of life's bare necessities;
contented, with the prospect ever before him of a charity
hospital in the event of sickness or accident; and of a
pauper burial in the event of death. Contented! oh, mysterious tranquillity of his blood I although he knows full well that
his devoted wife is condemned to a life of grinding poverty
and toil. But there is a still greater mystery connected with



his condition. Why cannot he get a carpet for his floor?
Why is he, although spending his life in labor, unable to get
a decent support for his life-unable to get life's bare necessities?
These thoughts were not in their nature new to me; the
incident caused only a new presentment of an oft-pondered
subject. Frequently had I thought of the condition of "our
lower laboring classes "-those unfortunates who are forced
to spend their lives in poverty, although they labor as faithfully and persistently as do those from whose whirling carriage wheels they shrink at street crossings.
"Oh," said my friends, to whom I at times spoke my
thoughts, " you are puzzled by a problem that is easily solved.
These and all other workers get just what their labor is worth
in the market; some work is worth more than other work,
therefore the difference in the condition of the workers."
" Ah," said I, "but why is some labor worth so little?"
"The rate of wages," was the reply, "is regulated by
supply and demand; where labor is hard to get wages are
high, and where the supply of labor is abundant wages are
low. In industrial centers-in cities where population is
dense, the wages of those in the lowest grades of labor are
perhaps barely sufficient to keep body and soul together;
nevertheless, these wages are all that this labor is worth, owing
to the condition of the labor market."
"But," said I, " is it not a hard thing that a man should
be brought into a world of abundance and forced to go
through it bearing all of the heaviest burdens of life, and still
be unable to secure for himself and his loved ones even a
slight part of that abundance?"
" Your proteges," answered my friends, "have at their
command the means of bettering their condition. Let
them find more remunerative employment. Let them by
temperance, industry and frugality raise themselves to
positions where they can earn higher wages. Let them not
grovel in the dust, but with Excelsior writtten upon their



banners, set their faces toward the summit of the hill
Opulence. There is always room at the top."
I knew, however, that this offering for the improvement
of the condition of the laboring poor would not, even if
practicable as an operation, act as a benefaction; for, if it
were possible for all in the lowest ranks of labor to raise
themselves to a higher grade, the wages of that grade would,
" owing to the condition of the labor market," fall, and a
new predicament would be the only result. No; these
workers would still be insufficiently fed, clad and sheltered,
and the problem remained unsolved.
To my mind it was so manifestly unjust that a being
having two hands to labor with, and an intelligence to guide
that labor, should be obliged to spend his life in poverty,
although giving all of that life to labor, that I could not
dismiss the subject from my thoughts.
My friends, in explaining to me their views of the nature of the relationship of capital and labor, frequently
spoke of their co-operation as being an action of a vast and
delicately adjusted machinery of beneficence, and sometimes went on to enlarge upon and glorify the industrial
system in its entirety.
" This system," they cried with enthusiasm, " is perfect
in action and reaction, and operates for the benefit of the
entire community. It has been carefully and laboriously
constructed; from time to time new wheels have been added
to facilitate motion, until it has become a gigantic complexity of movement with perfect interplay in all of its parts.
But however perfect a machinery may be, it cannot be made
to transcend the limitations of the law to which it is indebted for the power of motion. The law that regulates the
operation of our system is this: Motion is the resultant of
the blending of the two forces supply and demand. When
at any point either force is present alone it must remain unemployed. This law is so obvious and simple that a child



can see and comprehend it. Supply must be met by demand and demand by supply."
"It seems to me," I replied, " that your system, if it is
designed to benefit the entire community, should be so constructed as to provide for the entire amount of the two forces
in existence; and yet you must acknowledge in regard to
labor, that even when your system is operating, as you would
claim fully and satisfactorily, there are then forces standing
idle. Let it be known in any industrial center that labor is
wanted, and there are more offerings by far than the opening
will provide for; surely there must have been some mistake
made in the construction of your system; there is certainly
fault somewhere."
" My dear sir," exclaimed my friends, "you must not
try to make us responsible for that which we cannot govern.
The tendency of population is to increase faster than subsistence. Capital is produced by our own prudence, while
the excess of population comes from the imprudence of
others. Capital cannot at the mere bidding of labor swell
itself up into proportions large enough to provide for all of
labor; the thing is manifestly impossible. The surplus of
population has no claim upon capital. View the matter in
the light of reason. Look around you upon the world of
life that is below man; there is waste. Nature evidently does
not intend that all of life shall continue. From the abundance the fittest is selected and survives, the rest perishes.
So with man; those who suffer are those unworthy of success;
habits of shiftlessness, habits of idleness, habits of drink
have made them unfit; and although it may seem a harsh
thing to say, it is nevertheless true that if we should follow
the example of Nature and allow the unfit to reap the legitimate result of incapacity, we would all be in better condition
They would perish and be out of an existence for which they
have no adaptation, and we, the survivors, would have increased subsistence. But the foundation that underlies our
social fabric is not unmixed justice. Charity enters largely



into the composition; and so we deprive ourselves in order
to sustain these people, who have forfeited all right to lfe, in
almshouses and jails, and-oh, marvel of Christian forbearance-we even permit them to reproduce paupers at will. In
short, a large portion of population has no claim whatever
upon subsistence, and society will always be thus unjustly
balanced unless some rigid check upon the increase of population among the lower classes is established."
"Ah!" said I; "I have heard that remedy proposed before. Some would call even infanticide to their aid. But
we will have fallen upon strange times when we provide subsistence for one human being by taking the life of another.
I look around me, and the sight that meets my eye seems to
corroborate your declaration that the conditions of society
do not arise from pure justice; for behold! as the poor sink
deeper and deeper in want and misery, the rich wax fat and
thrive apace. Behold on one hand wealth, luxury, life; behold on the other hand poverty, destitution, death. I fear
that the foundations of our social fabric will not bear examinations There are suspicious marks upon them, even now,
that look like blood. It is a bad plan to lay foundation
walls in human blood. Even if the apparent waste which
we see in the lower spheres of life is waste, why should we
fix our eyes on that which is beneath us instead of looking
above for guidance? We are commanded to be fruitful and
multiply. The earth is given to man for him to live upon.
Surely it is ample enough to provide for all life that comes
upon it, and surely every complete human being who comes
upon this planet comes with a title deed from our Creator to
his maintenance."
"Old Fogyism," sneered my opponents. "When what we
read in musty old books is at complete variance with all we
see around us, the time has come to walk by sight, and not
by faith."
"Did I think," I replied, "that you comprehend what you
see I might agree with you; but, as you evidently lack un


derstanding, I will look elsewhere for an answer to my question 7 Why should any man who gives all of his life to labor
be unable to obtain a decent support for that life, and
why should any competent man who searches for work seek
in vain P?



AT last I met a man who answered my question fully and
satisfactorily. He told me why my friend of the car
platform has no carpet; why he and his equals are deprived
of the luxuries of life and possess so few of its ordinary comforts. He told me why the labor market is in such a condition that the masses of mankind, the lower laboring classes,
are forced to spend their days in toiling for wages that will
not lift them above poverty. He told me why the industrial
community is periodically forced to suffer a prostration that
takes from these unfortunates even the opportunity to labor,
and thrusts them into beggary and starvation. He showed
me the real cause of hard times. He showed me that these
evils are but so many manifestations of one gigantic evil; in
phrases so direct and with reasoning so clear that I, who had
always viewed Political Economy as a wearisome labyrinth,
saw instantly the true position of the various factors in production with regard to each other; the identity of the interests of labor and capital; the uselessness of the methods
practiced by the laboring classes with a view to the betterment of their condition; the origin of the wrong ideas about
the relationship of labor and capital which prevail; the real
evil and the only remedy.
In this new light, everything that had been obscure became
plain. Cause became as visible as effect. The friends and
the enemies of labor arranged themselves in their proper positions, and I saw them standing under the full blaze of Truth
in their real characters.
That which I saw, I will now endeavor to show in words
of my own choosing:



10

T is clear that the reason why the masses of mankind get
such small wages, lies in the fact that workmen are obliged
to compete with each other for opportunities to work; but
let us not, therefore, jump at conclusions. We will not say
with some that there are too many workmen in existence; that
the ranks of labor must be thinned out in order to bring them
within the limits of subsistence; that some human beings
must be killed in order to provide life for others. Nor will
we say that the bird Capital can sing but does not sing well
enough, and that we will choke it until it sings better.
Perhapswe have been using wrong endeavors in our efforts
to secure a full harmony. Suppose that it were possible to
make work always plentiful. Suppose that we could devise a
method whereby there would be a constant demand for all
labor; whereby the supply of labor would never exceed the
demand for labor. Under such conditions, would any workmen be poorly housed, poorly clothed and ill-fed? Would
not able and willing workers always earn good wages-always
see "good times?" Would not the very land be vocal with
a song of thanksgiving? Could enforced idleness exist except as a result of incapacity or bad character; and thus
would not a line be distinctly drawn between the worthy and
unworthy poor; and would not this be a great advance in
the path of progress?
We see that men all around us are obliged to bid against
each other for opportunities to work. Why is this so?
Political economists have taught, hitherto, that the reason
of this is, that the part of capital which is set apart for the
employment and payment of labor, and which part of capital they term "the wages fund," grows much less rapidly
than population increases; consequently, there must be competition among workmen for employment and a downward
tendency of wages. Is this a true reason? Does capital
employ labor? Are wages paid out of capital? What are
wages?
In our day a man usually gets for his labor money, and



11

so we naturally think and speak of wages as money. But
if a man or a body of men could be placed in a spot where
nature is ordinarily fruitful and money unknown, labor
would still make wages.
Let us imagine such a community and see if there is
anything pertaining to such conditions that will aid us in
our search.
Here, then, is a community living in total ignorance of
the refinements of civilization, which are so common with
us. Each man supplies his wants in a direct manner and is
independent of the others. By his labor he produces that
which he needs in food, clothing and shelter; or, in other
words, by his labor he makes wages. Tages are the produce
of labor. Nature offers to the man opportunities for the
exertion of labor, and the man does labor, and his labor
produces wages. Wages made in this manner are natural
wages. In this community at this time capital does not
employ labor. Population does not overpass subsistence, for
every new workman who appears in the community finds
opportunities open to him, and he can make just as good
wages as the others.
Presently a light dawns upon the minds of these people.
They perceive that the concentration of a man's energies
upon a single pursuit will yield better results than the diffusion of his labor among many pursuits; so one man
becomes a hunter and spends all his labor in the pursuit and
capture of game, and in preparing the snares and weapons
of the chase. Another man becomes, perhaps, a herdsman,
and another follows a still different pursuit.
Thus is division of labor introduced, and production is
increased thereby. Each man follows a single pursuit, uninterruptedly, and each vocation is thus brought to greater
perfection than was possible before, and yields larger results;
that is, each workman produces more than he did beforehe makes better wages. And by exchanging portions of his
wages that he does not need, with other men, for portions of



12

their wages that he does need, each workman rids himself
of his own superabundance and obtains satisfaction for his
desires. The division of labor is a step taken in the path of
progress by this community. Labor has advanced to a
better position. Production has increased and wages have
risen as a direct result.
Time passes, and labor becomes still further divided.
The man who labored in hunting and the manufacture of
weapons, now devotes all his labor to manufacture. All the
powers of his mind, and all his dexterity are concentrated
upon snares and weapons. They become more and more
effective, and the result is that the hunter secures more game
by his labor. And all labor is benefited thereby; for production of game having increased, men of all other pursuits
can obtain satisfaction for their desires, as regards game, by
a smaller expenditure of their own production than before.
Thus does the community advance step by step, and its
progress is marked by a continuous increase in the wages of
labor. Growth of population, division of labor, subdivision
of labor and labor-saving inventions, all cause increase of
production, and increase of production is increase of wages
for all labor.
Here is a man in the community who does not consume
all his wages. His labor is expended on sheep. These
sheep he reclaimed from a wild state and are his wages-his
natural wages. But instead of using up all his wages he sets
some of them apart, he reserves them-that is, he becomes
a man of wealth. This wealth he uses to assist him in the
production of more wealth-that is, he uses his wealth as
capital. Capital is wealth used in production.  He still
labors and makes wages. He spends his labor at times in
shearing his sheep, thus producing an article that can be
exchanged for other commodities; and as every fleece is
worth more when clipped than when upon the back of the
sheep, this added value, which is the production of labor, is
wages.



13

The capital that is employed yields a voluntary increase
to this capitalist. That which is a lamb becomes in course
of time a full-grown sheep, and additional lambs are born.
And, notwithstanding the fact that deaths occur in the flock,
the capital shows at the end of the season a net increase
from growth and reproduction. This increase is the result
of the working of the laws of nature-it is a natural increase
of capital. It is not the production of labor, and therefore
is not wages. It is interest. Interest is the increase of capital
over and above that due to labor.
By the-additions made by labor and nature the capital
invested in this business increases until in time the capitalist
sees that his business is too large to be managed by a single
person, and so he undertakes to secure the assistance of
other men. He finds them working in natural opportunities
and making natural wages. They are pursuing and capturing wild animals, as the capitalist once did. He tells them
his needs; he proposes co-operation of labor and offers his
capital for employment. He finds, however, that in order
to secure the co-operation of these men he must promise
that he will pay them as much as they are making for themselves. A bargain is made and the business is continued.
The new workers, not having had as much experience as
the capitalist, and therefore not possessing so much skill,
are fit to perform only that labor which can be done by unskilled hands. This labor is done under the direction of
the capitalist, whose labor is spent in the general supervision
of all branches and details of the business. This supervision
is skilled labor, or labor of superintendence. Under this
management the business yields an increase of production,
for as the concentration of labor produces more than labor
diffused, so does co-operation of concentration produce
still larger results.
The capitalist pays to the unskilled workmen from time to
time the equivalent of their production, and the rest of the
produce remains in his hands, it being interest and wages of



14

superintendence. There can be no quarrel between the
capitalist and the unskilled workmen as to what share of the
produce belongs to each. Did the capitalist fancy that his
ownership of capital would enable him to be unjust to labor,
he would soon learn better. Natural opportunities being
free, men will not hire themselves out to work for less than
natural wages. Neither can workmen by combination or
otherwise force the capitalist to pay them more than their just
wages. There are other men working for themselves in
natural opportunities who can be hired for the equivalent of
natural wages.
We see therefore that in this community the rate of wages
is determined by nature and not by the fiat of capitalists.
We see also that the supply of labor never exceeds the
demand for labor; that workmen are not obliged to compete
with each other for employment, but that capitalists are
obliged to compete with natural opportunities in order to
secure the co-operation of labor. We see that labor is the
employer of capital, and that antagonism between labor and
capital is impossible. We see that there are natural opportunities open to labor; there is no stoppage of industry; no
season of commercial prostration; no financial crash; no
men looking in vain for work. Will men in this community
ever consent to work for less than natural wages? Shall it
ever come to pass that they will spend their days in toil and
lie down to sleep at night in hovels? Will employment be
constant forever? Let us see.
Time passes; cultivation of the soil begins. Labor, instead of being employed only in gathering the spontaneous
yield of nature, is directed more and more to the care of the
soil-to agriculture. Presently appears a man whose ideas
are different from those which have been prevalent in the
community. He claims individual ownership of a portion
of what have always been free opportunities of nature; or,
to express his position in his own words, he has become
" seized and possessed of a certain piece or parcel of land."



The people not having discernment, do not foresee the long
train of evils that will follow this change of social conditions,
and they acquiesce in the views of this man. They acknowledge his title as owner of the soil, as lord of the land. The
lord of the land, speaking in his own behalf to the children
of the soil, says: "Ho, people! In the name of God,
amen. Know ye that I have become seized and possessed
of this my certain piece or parcel of land, and that the
same is secured to myself, my heirs and assigns forever, to
have and to hold."
Now, that word " forever," should raise a demurrer
among the people, for thought would show them that although they have the right to bind themselvesto uphold a
usurper, they have no right to bind unborn generations.
However, the people are simple and passive, and the lord
of the land speaks again: " My land is goodly land and fit
for the support of man; therefore, people, if any of you
wish to enjoy its fruits you may do so-provided that you
give me out of the production of your labor a certain proportion that we will call rent. This rent belongs to me because I am lord of the land. It is true that production is
not greater because of my ownership; that in giving me rent
you producers will be contributing to the support of a nonproducer; that thus the community will be impoverished in
a double sense, for it will lose the labor of one who, but for
his receipt of rent, would be obliged to labor. All this is
true, but it is right that you should give me rent, because I am
lord of the land. Furthermore, it is an eminently fair bargain that I propose. Give me rent and I will open to you
opportunities to labor. Give me rent and I will give you
life." The people looking and finding that there are other
lords all around them, are obliged;to give rent or die; so they
hire from the lords of the land opportunities to work; they
begin to pay to Landlordism a tax for the privilege of using
what have always been free opportunities of nature.
At this moment wages fall. At this moment interest falls



also. For into produce, that was formerly divided between labor and capital, Landlordism now thrusts a hand and
draws forth rent; not until rent is taken out can produce
be divided between labor and capital. At this moment labor
and capital are put into false relationship with each other,
for labor being shut out from natural opportunities-land,
the reservoir of wealth, being reduced to private ownership
-the chances to accumulate wealth are thereby given to the
powerful, and men are obliged to ask employment of them
and to compete with each other for that employment.
Whereupon instructors exclaim: "Behold, capital employs
labor '"
The full effects of Landlordism are not yet seen.
Time passes, knowledge increases-and some land passes
into uses higher than agriculture. Villages grow into towns,
and towns become in course of time immense cities, where
many industries flourish, and where exchange of produce is
carried on in great markets. Tens of thousands of workers
now labor upon the same land that formerly supported only
a few hundreds. Here are manufacturers engaged in working capital into marketable shapes; here are merchants engaged in the exchange of produce; and here are other
workers engaged in the multitudinous pursuits necessitated by
the congregation of people and by the division of labor.
The conditions of society are now vastly different from
those of the early days. In those days wealth was distributed
equitably and labor received its full wages. All persons in
the community were equal in wealth and social standing or
nearly so. Education and industry were the only means by
which a man could rise above his fellows. But now Landlordism has been taking rent out of produce year after
year for a long time. Growth of population, discovery, invention and improvement, which each and all formerly benefited the whole community by raising the rate of wages, now
benefit Landlordism alone; for they increase production
and consequently the desirability and value of land. The



17

result is that the wealth of the community becomes concentrated and is in the possession of the few. We see on one
side a class of people who live in houses that are palaces;
who ride through the streets with magnificent livery and
equipage; who.are clothed in rich apparel, and who eat and
drink the choicest foods and the rarest wines. These people
call themselves " the upper class " of society. On the other
side we see a class of people who live in hovels and in garrets; who are dressed in mean clothing; and whose meals
are made of the coarsest victuals. These people are called
" the lower class " of society.
The full effects of Landlordism are not yet seen.
Those who are styled the representatives of the people,
assemble and resolve: That it is necessary that a fund shall
be raised for the establishment and maintenance of those
safeguards, and those institutions of beneficence and benevolence, which a Christianized state of society demands, such
as police, almshouses and jails; for the pauper and the
criminal ranks are being rapidly recruited by the music of
the march of civilization.
Totally ignorant of the fact that the true tax fund is that
which is being wrested from the people by Landlordismthe rent of land-the law-makers then proceed to assess
industry for public purposes. This augments the nonproducing class, for to levy taxes upon wealth necessitates
the employment of officials for espionage, for appraisement
and for attachment. This tax levy tends also to separate
still more the upper and the lower classes of society; for the
embarkation in industrial enterprise now calls for a large
outlay for the payment of the taxes which are levied upon
and included in the values of all products. Many men of
small means are thus forced into the ranks of those seeking
employment. And instructors looking at the ever-increasing
ranks of labor, exclaim: "Alas! Population increases faster
than subsistence."
The full effects of Landlordism are not yet seen.



18

The pampered desires of the upper classes give birth to
species of delinquencies that were not dreamed of in the
early, innocent days; and the community is startled again
and again by evidences of demoralization that appear without apparent cause. But the shocks are not of a violent
nature, for these are easy-going days and a time of smooth
language. Velvet-voiced teachers have arisen among the
upper classes who preach to them the art of living from the
charming gospel of sweetness and light. These teachers
proclaim that life is to be looked upon in a spirit of sweet
reasonableness, And that everything unpleasant should be
put out of sight. They laugh pleasantly at the rude conceits
of that low type of men who formerly taught that the perfection of society can be attained only through individual selfrenunciation, self-immolation and martyrdom; then starting
from new data, they show with a mighty demonstration that
captivates all advanced and aesthetic minds, that the true
agent of conversion is a beautiful, impersonal factor that
works out the salvation of society, while society is eating,
and drinking, and being merry, called by the cultured and
ethical name Evolution.
The lower classes, although possessing nothing that has the
least semblance of luxury, strive in their miserable way to
follow the example of those above them, and take kindly to
certain resorts that are opened to them by shrewd and moneyloving individuals.  Liquor saloons draw customers in
legions, and thrive and multiply. Sons and daughters growing up in squalid homes walk into infamy with their first
steps and go down alive into the pit. As sinfulness among
the lower classes has an aspect far more menacing to society
than irregularities among the upper classes, the upper classes
command the lower classes to repent and to sign long and
strong pledges; meanwhile building for them 'gaol and
gallows. But the lower classes hold to their manner of life
so stubbornly, that the upper classes begin to talk of an
ulcerous growth that is gnawing among the vitals of civiliza


19

tion, and to whisper of a terrible specter which ever and anon
is seen keeping step by step with the people in their progress, and which cannot be exorcised.
The full effects of Landlordism are not yet realized.
All this time production in the community has been increasing. Education has given a wonderful impetus to the
minds of men, resulting in astonishing discoveries and inventions, which, being put into use, cause nature to respond
more and more liberally to labor; and, as a consequence,
the competition for land has been growing more and more
intense and rent has been steadily rising. At last a speculative craze for the possession of land seizes the minds of the
people, and land values leap higher and higher. The rent
that is based upon these false values and that Landlordism
now demands is greater than labor and capital can pay. Industries decline, production ceases, and unemployed men
walk the streets. They beg for work, but there is no work.
They beg for bread; they demand bread. Gaunt and holloweyed they march in long procession through the streets,
uttering demands and threats. To these the upper classes respond by drawing around their possessions a cordon, whose
fixed bayonets glitter with terrible meaning. But women
and children are starving and men are desperate, and pro.
tection does not protect. Black night settles down upon the
community. A thousand flames leap upward into the heavens;
the dreadful sound of artillery crashes upon the air; the
upper and the lower classes meet with fierce onset amid a
din of imprecations, shrieks and groans; and the blood that
was so high and the blood that was so low mingle again at
last upon a common level, and the full effects of Landlordism
are realized.



20
THIS same Landlordism, whose final effects we have seen
pictured in an imaginary community, is at work to-day
in our own community. In Landlordism we behold a perverter of natural laws, seizing all the agents of progress and
turning them into promoters of retrogression. In Landlordism we behold the cause of those seasons of industrial depression which periodically bring suffering to our community. In
Landlordism we behold the cause of the poverty that exists
and deepens in the midst of our civilization.
The increase of production which arises in every civilized
and growing community, and which, if distributed equitably,
would tend to lift all the people more and more above want;
by the unjust distribution which is now ignorantly permitted, elevates the beneficiaries of Landlordism and forces
down the masses of the people.
Competition for the ownership of land forces rent above
that figure which is warranted by the production; that
figure which would be the rent if land were free to labor,
so that competition among users could determine rent; that
figure which is the natural rent line. What labor is willing
to pay for the use of land is natural rent. What labor is
forced by Landlordism to pay for the use of land is unnatural and speculative rent.
Speculation in land values continues until it terminates
in a craze. Rent is forced to such a high point that labor
cannot afford to use land. Production declines and indusrial depression follows. This state of things lasts until, by
reason of the lack of demand for land, rent approaches the
natural rent line again, and the wearisome round begins
once more. But as land becomes more and more monopolized, producers become more and more helpless and emasculate, and consent to use land for a less and less return;
and so throughout civilization the wages of labor tend
steadily downward and poverty steadily deepens. Therefore, the only way to keep rent at the natural rent line; to
pay labor its true wages; to prevent industrial depression;



21

and to improve the condition of the laboring poor; is to
abolish Landlordism.
The great truth that Landlordism is the cause of the downward tendency of wages, has been hidden from view because
it has been believed hitherto that wages are paid out of
capital. But the moment that we discover the source of
wages-the moment that we see that wages are produced by
labor-we are on the right road; for it is evident that wages
should increase with the increasing effectiveness of labor,
and it is also evident that, notwithstandiug the increase of
production, the tendency of wages is downward.
Therefore, it must be that in the distribution of wealth
the full wages of labor are not returned to labor. Where
then do the wages go that are not returned to labor? To
capital? Evidently not; for interest falls steadily, notwithstanding the increase of production. It being clear that
labor and capital are both mulcted, what they lose must be
gained by the only other factor in production-land; and it
is only necessary to look around us to realize that this is so.
In our community and in every growing community throughout civilization, the tendency of rent is steadily upward.
THE foregoing discoveries and demonstrations of Henry
George, coupled with other invincible arguments
founded upon the natural rights of man, are set forth in
comprehensive and exhaustive manner in    the  book,
"Progress and Poverty." If we rehearse them succinctly
we shall find that we have uplifted before modern eyes a
banner of crusade-a signal to rescue from desecrating
hands, a city whose builder and maker is God.
There are three factors in production-land, labor and
capital.
Produce is distributed among the three factors in rent,
wages and interest.



22

Rent exists because of congregation of people; where
there is no community there is no competition for the use of
land, and no rent.
Wages are the produce of labor.
Interest is caused by the growing and reproducing forces
of nature. The true common rate of interest, is the average
yield of all capital. Some capital gets increase of value by
lapse of time, and some capital is inert.
Every man has the right to own himself.
Every man has the right to own that which he makes. In
a state of primitive conditions this right is acknowledged;
but in a state of civilization this right is denied, for Landlordism gives to some of the people that which is made by
all the people.
W   HILE some have been searching with great ado for a
connecting link between the body of man and the
brute creation, Henry George has revealed to us a broad
channel, opening from the mind of man to the mighty
flow of the eternal purpose of God.
Through this new enlargement of understanding we behold
the labyrinthine threadings of mankind in pursuit of wealth,
fame and power, transformed into harmonious arrangement;
and we look backward through a mighty avenue of providences, and forward through a vista leading into the precincts
of a gleaming white Throne.
" Progress and Poverty " is a grouping of burning thoughts
and glowing sentences, wherefrom a flame shall presently burst
forth to consume the last barrier that stands between man and
freedom. By this fire, shall the sword of war be forged into a
blade whose keen edge shall overturn the old earth for the
last time, and bury the ruined vestiges of barbarism.
The seal of a mighty future is opened. We hear sounds
of a vast preparation; of multitudes gathering in answer to



23

the summons of "Progress and Poverty" that is ringing
throughout the earth. Hearken to the sound of marshaling
forces 1 Out of every nation, see the true-hearted come!
Transfigured in the morning light, they shall sing a triumphant strain that will soar upward into the glorious vaults of
a rejoicing heaven, and return in celestial echoes to a new
earth.



N the city of New York-in the heart of its business
center-is a plot of land which is about being built
upon. The value of this bare land is eight hundred thousand
dollars. This value is the price of a monopoly; it is the
cost of an opportunity to impose a tax upon labor. When
it is said that these figures represent the value of this land,
the statement means that the ownership of this location
guarantees the power to collect such an immense tax from
labor that men are willing to pay eight hundred thousand
dollars for that ownership.
Let us suppose that buildings are erected upon this land,
and offered to tenants. The location being one of the finest
business stands in the metropolis of a continent is quickly
tenanted at a large yearly so-called rent. This so-called rent
that is paid to the owner of the buildings, who, because of
the prevalence of wrong ideas, is also called owner of the
land, is composed of four elements:
I. Wages.
2. Replacement of capital.
3. Interest.
4. Rent, or the price of the privilege of occupying land.
The owner of the buildings in his capacity of laborer is
entitled to wages; that is, to the production of his labor
spent in the pursuit of his business, the management of buildings,, In his capacity of capitalist, the owner of the buildings is entitled to replacement; that is, to the amount that
will compensate him for the impairment of his capital-the
wear and tear of his buildings. In his capacity of capitalist
he is also entitled to interest: the yield of capital. * But to



25

the last element, rent-the price of the privilege of occupying land, the owner of the buildings is no more entitled than
is any other individual person in the community, be he landlord or be he beggar. No individual person can act in the
capacity that warrants the appropriation of rent, because no
individual person can cause rent. Rent arises because of a
community of individual persons. Rent being caused by the
people, belongs to the people. These tenants, however, being ignorant of this truth, agree to pay and do pay to the
owner of the buildings the yearly sum demanded by Landlordism for the use of this land.
The operation of Landlordism is as certain as it is unjust.
The certainty of its work is well understood by its beneficiaries, who exult in that which brings sorrow to the community. They make open boast of the power of their beloved institution, and parade their unseemly joy berore the
people. The following is copied from the columns of a
journal devoted to  Real Estate " interests: " The land man
often looks ahead for years before he sees the consummation
of his dearest hopes. House after house goes up. Here a
church and there a school-house, evidences of coming wealth
and refinement. He waits the slow transformation. It is only
a question of time. And the years go by and find the man
rich-perhaps a millionaire. Your merchant or manufacturer
may have lost his all, meanwhile, by the fluctuations of trade
or the ever-varying tides of commerce. But the land has not
changed. It is a permanency as enduring as time. There
is no man who can, with truth, feel so proud or so exalted as
he who deals in terra firma-who buys and sells the foundation of everything." Well may they be proud who own the
foundation of everything. Well may they feel exalted who
monopolize the reservoir whence all the supplies of life must
be drawn.
All things work together for Landlordism. Does science,
by the discovery of new remedies, and by the imposition of
sanitary regulations, succeed in mastering diseases that once



raged as plagues uncontrollable, the whole benefit reduced
to dollars and cents goes into the pockets of Landlordism;
for the result is a saving of life-a preservation of population, a more continuous demand for subsistence and therefore for land, than that which existed in more ignorant days.
All betterment of education, all subduing of warlike impulses
work out but one material result-the powerful grow richer
and the helpless poorer; for peace means uninterrupted industry, and that causes incessant demand for land. We are
taught that mankind will finally attain such perfect education that spears will be beaten into pruning hooks. Unless
existing social conditions are changed, that time will be a
millennium for Landlordism alone.
WHEN rent is confiscated by the people, how vast will be
the improvement in our condition. This one tax-a
land tax absorbing the whole of rent-when imposed by the
people, will abolish the need of any other form of taxation.
Taxation will thus be lifted from industry, and be placed
where it will equalize opportunity.
When all land is taxed its full rental value, whether used
or not, that land which is now withheld from the market for
speculative purposes will be offered for occupation.
Land being free to labor, industries will spring up on
every side. Rent being determined by production, labor
will receive its full wages and capital its true increase.
Then will the true relationship between labor and capital
be apparent. Capitalists will be obliged to compete with
nature in order to secure labor; and natural opportunities
being free to labor, no wages can fall below natural wages.
Then will the demand for labor be incessant; and then
will be solved one of the great problems of our time, and
woman will be put upon a footing of independence; for



27

labor being always in demand, she will find suitable employment and sufficient wages.
Then will abnormal concentration of business interests
be impossible; for with rent regulated by production and
taxation removed from all commodities, conditions will be
far more favorable for small ventures than for large enterprises. Free land will offer to all men an opportunity to
break away from their masters; for while the change in social
conditions will not qualify incompetence, it will give equal
chances to all workers; and those who are now dogs by
stress of circumstances will then feel a new life in their
veins, and bursting the chains which hold them to the level
of brutes rise into manhood.
When Landlordism    is abolished - when the great
monopoly that gives life to many smaller monopolies
is dead, then will they, too, be harmless. For when
the railroads, the electric, mining, oil and gas companies
are forced to pay to the people year by year the rent of all
land which they occupy with their rails, their wires, their
machinery, their pipes and their buildings, it will be
impossible for them to accumulate such immense funds as
they now roll together and use for corrupt ends.
In short, the abolition of Landlordism will be the death
knell of oppression and the annunciation of the birth of
that "' coming man," of whom prophecy has lovingly spoken;
for the typical man must be a free man, and free men can
be found only on free soil.
W ITH the knowledge of the great benefits that will
accrue to the people when land is restored to its
owners; with the light of this knowledge blazing full upon
us; it is hard to keep within conventional bounds when
speaking of the existing supremacy of injustice and
oppression.



28

Especially hard is it when we realize that the present
relationship between labor and land, which is as it is because
of Landlordism, permits the lower laboring classes to rise but
a degree above beggary in times of commercial prosperity,
and forces them into starvation in times of commercial
prostration.
And restraint is altogether unavailing when we remember
that this outrage-this robbery-this murder is legalized;
and upheld by the press, by the platform and by the pulpit.
By press, platform and pulpit we are called upon to
admire a social organization in which all the benefits of
every season of industrial activity are wrested from labor by
Landlordism; and in which the advance of land values is
termed an evidence of the prosperity of the people, when it
is, in truth, an evidence of the enrichment of some of the
people at the expense of the masses of the people.
By press, by platform and by pulpit we are called upon
to give our support to a civilization in which Landlordism
feeds and fattens upon the masses; and swells out with selfindulgence, while they grow shrunken with deprivation.
A civilization in which the wives and daughters of the
beneficiaries of Landlordism rustle in silks and glitter with
gems, while other wives and daughters draw tatters around
starved bodies in garret and in hovel.
By press, by platform and by pulpit we are called upon
to give our support to a civilization in which men are shut
out from employment, to beg for bread and to see their
children starve and die; while Landlordism lives and stands
up straight, and comfortably tides over " hard times," holding itself in readiness to fasten upon industry and drain its
life-blood anew when recuperation has set in. A civilization
in which starving children beseech helpless fathers for a
crust of bread; while the beneficiaries of Landlordism gather
around well-spread tables in the complacent belief that they
are indebted to heaven for bounties which they have in
reality gained by a distribution ordained of hell.



29

But times are changing and the powers of darkness are
failing. Popular thought has hitherto followed a leadership
which, eager always to connect industrial phenomena with
remote and uncontrollable causes, points to the somewhat
coincident recurrence of commercial crises and sun-spots,
and suggests that periodic industrial confusion may be a
result of periodic solar disturbance. But now the attention
of the people is being turned to a man who demonstrates that
the cause of the prostration of industry lies wholly within
human control, and is to be found in the disturbance by
Landlordism of a natural law given to insure to mankind a
fraternity of equality and happiness.
Nevertheless, those who suffer most under existing conditions; those who are in greatest need of the benefits that
will flow when Landlordism-that dam which holds labor in
check-is swept away, utterly fail as yet to see the great
truths now dawning upon the vision of mankind. To themto the lower laboring classes-to the masses-the source of
wages is the "boss."  They do not know that wages are
the produce of labor. They do not understand that Landlordism prevents them from getting for their labor the full
fruits of their labor.
But the day of knowledge is at hand. The sun is rising.
Oh, glorious brightness dawning upon the world to give
light and hope to all mankind I This is the dawn of a day in
which all the sons of want shall be blessed. This is a dawn
that has been pictured by prophet and seer; by mighty
voices foretelling amid the gloom of night the glory of the
sun; by wise and faithful monitors speaking the promptings
of hearts noble and true to a selfish and babbling world.
Read the words written a hundred years ago by that man
whose political arguments are, in the words of the immortal
Washington: "sound doctrine and unanswerable reasoning."
"To preserve the benefits of what is called civilized life,
and to remedy at the same time the evil which it has produced, ought to be considered as one of the first objects of



30

legislation. The first principle of civilization ought to
be that the condition of every person born into the world
after a state of civilization commences, ought not to be worse
than if he had been born before that period. It is a position not
to be controverted that the earth in its natural, uncultivated
state was and ever would have continued to be the common
property of the human race. In that state every man would
have been born to property. He would have been a joint
life proprietor with the rest in the property of the soil, and
in all of its productions, vegetable and animal. There could
be no such thing as landed property originally. Man did
not make the earth, and though he had a natural right to
occupy it, he had no right to locate as his property in perpetuity any part of it; neither did the Creator of the earth
open a land office from whence the first title deeds should
issue. Whence then arose the idea of landed property? I
answer that when cultivation began the idea of landed property began with it. Cultivation is at least one of the greatest
natural improvements ever made by human invention. It
has given to created earth a tenfold value. But the landed
monopoly that began with it has produced the greatest evil.
It has dispossessed more than half the inhabitants of every
nation of their natural inheritance, without providing for
them as ought to have been done an indemnification for that
loss, and has thereby created a species of poverty and distress that did not exist before."
it it was reserved for Henry George to trace out and
reveal the full nature of this gigantic robbery. He says:
" This robbery is not like the robbery of a horse or a sum
of money, that ceases with the act. It is a fresh and continuous robbery, that goes on every day and every hour. It is not
from the produce of the past that rent is drawn; it is from
the produce of the present. It is a toll levied upon labor
constantly and continuously. Every blow of the hammer,
every stroke of the pick, every thrust of the shuttle, every
throb of the steam engine, pay" it tribute. It levies upon



31

the earnings of the men who, deep under ground, risk their
lives, and of those who over white surges hang to reeling
masts; it claims the just reward of the capitalist and the
fruits of the inventor's patient effort; it takes little children
from play and from school, and compels them to work before
their bones are hard or their muscles are firm; it robs the
shivering of warmth; the hungry, of food; the sick, of medicine; the anxious, of peace. It debases, and embrutes, and
embitters. It crowds families of eight and ten into a single
squalid room; it herds like swine agricultural gangs of boys
and girls; it fills the gin palace and groggery with those
who have no comfort in their homes; it makes lads who
might be useful men candidates for prisons and penitentiaries; it fills brothels with girls who might- have known the
pure joy of motherhood; it sends greed and all evil pas
sions prowling through society as a hard winter drives the
wolves to the abodes of men; it darkens faith in the human
soul, and across the reflection of a just and merciful Creator
draws the veil of a hard, and blind, and cruel fate."
Of a truth the sun is rising upon the earth. Blessed
above all men are we whose fortune it is to be awake early in
the morning; whose duty and whose mission; whose pleasure
and whose passion; yea, whose very life it is to bid the people
to look and behold the sun.
Nevertheless, in the midst of our joy comes a great dread;
a fear that night may once more settle down; a terrible foreboding that dark hours of retribution may intervene before
dawn. For there is danger that under the misguidance of
false lights reprisals will be made upon the wealth in the
possession of the beneficiaries of Landlordism.
It can be said in justification of such measures that if
wealth had been equitably distributed, he whose labor does
not provide under existing conditions sufficient food and
shelter for his family, might be the possessor and acknowledged owner of a portion of the trappings of yonder rich
man, be he landlord or be he capitalist. And confusion is



82
now so great by reason of the robber, Landlordism, whose
distribution and whose favor have given to its beneficiaries
the stolen wages of labor and undue opportunities for the
accumulation of wealth, that wealth cannot be distinguished
from plunder; and it is impossible for any human be:ng to
prove that he who is chased through the streets as a thief
to-day has not as rightful a claim to the booty he is making
off with, as has he whom the law calls owner.
But because it is impossible to tell where rightful titles to
wealth exist, proceedings against its possessors can only be
of a nature that will turn confusion into anarchy.
It is the duty therefore of those among us who have a full
realization of the catastrophe that threatens society, to set
aside all other considerations-to cry aloud and spare not,
until men regard us because of our much speaking. What
though they say to us: "Let be, let be-all is well." Know
ye people, that the abomination of desolation that is standing
where it ought not-that this wicked Landlordism which turns
the stream of life into favored gardens, dams up a flood
which, though seemingly peaceful, holds Within its bosom
elements that may suddenly transform and uplift it into
terrific and overleaping billows, that shall pour seething over
every obstacle and overwhelm al things in common ruin.
Lend a hand to avert disaster! Open a flood-gate!
Make wide the breach  Sweep away the barrier, for the land
is athirst! The earth refuses to yield its fruits, and strong
men are bowed down, and women faint, and children die,
and the people cry that there is no God.. What though men point to gardens where waves all luxuriance, and where birds of gay plumage are singing! What
though men call these the blessings of Providence vouchsafed to the worthy! Behold! The abounding fruitage that
bends over high walls mocks Misery, striving outside with
parched lips to suck moisture from dried streams, because
the abomination of desolation is standing in a holy place



33

and the waters of life are stolen from the people! Tear down
that impious work of man and let the waters flow freely!
Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even
our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the
ends of the earth shall fear him.
YOU whose hearts are set upon the accumulation of riches;
you who would surrender almost life itself rather than its
passion-take warning! The people are winding the tendrils
of their hearts around their passion-a new and a just
distribution of wealth; and that passion shall overwhelm
yours.
You who are in the possession of the inheritance of a
defrauded brother, know ye that that brother, notwithstanding your wrong teaching, is beginning to call things by their
real names. He is growing up into a manhood that will demand of you a recognition of his rights; he is being educated to fill the position which is his birthright; his textbook is "Progress and Poverty," the little book which in
the mouth of the poor is as sweet as honey, and in the belly
of Landlordism as bitter as gall.
Said J. G. Holland: "We may rest assured of one thing,
namely, that the poor in the future will insist on being
recognized. If they are ignored in the mad greed for
wealth at any cost to them, they will make the future a
troubled and terrible one for our children and our chil
dren's children."
That future is already upon us. The poor are about to
insist upon recognition. They do not ask for charity-they
cannot be satisfied with alms. They ask for justice-for all
that belongs to them. Shall we turn a deaf ear to their
demand, and plunge again into the mad pursuit of wealth,
thinking to transmit to our children treasures so safely



84

guarded and institutions so strongly fortified, that nothing
can scatter the one or overthrow the other?
Ah, fatal delusion! The apex of civilization whereon
we stand and prate with fatuous complacency about our
commanding elevation, is the summit of a dreadful volcano,
Beneath us tremendous and turbulent forces rise ever and
anon in threatening ebullition and sink again into suppressed
agitation. Outside, a mighty ocean is silently and surely
penetrating the lowermost strata. Let but the flood of
knowledge reach those lawless fires, and an explosion will.
follow whose effects will be more awful than any of the judgments that have yet overtaken mankind.
A yearning for complete liberty-a hatred of all restraint
-a love of license--a spirit that, recognizing no boundary,
seeks ever to pass the limits, of its own domain-a spirit that,
having overcome superstition's power with  adolescent
strength, flouts the authority of Wisdom's mentors, in the
exultation of perverted maturity, and summons Omniscience
to stand before the bar of judgment-is taking possession of
mankind.
The accepted philosophy of to-day is that which, swelling
itself upward, declares: Natural Selection has gathered from
the heterogeneity of thought, a homogeneity of such perfect
power, that the marvelous mind of man is now prepared to
open, analyze and solve every problem.
To the people of our day, no utterance has the weight
of inspired command; no doctrine is infallible; for to them
the idea of revelation has become almost laughable. In their
minds, the proclamations of the pulpit excite only feelings
akin to derision. To them, the promise of spiritual reward.
as a compensation for bodily suffering is held up in vain;
for they are convinced that all of life is bounded by bodily
existence. Their deity is self; material gratification is their
heaven, and restlessness their religion.
When men so prepared, discover that law and order are
in conspiracy to rob them of a palpable pearl of great price



85

-of a tangible crown of life; in that day the voice of the
people will be the voice of Satan.
Woe to those false teachers who, in the guise of liberators, have quenched the light of faith and kindled hell-fires!
Still there is a way of escape, and Policy, the goddess of
the rich man's fortune, points thereto. While there is yet
time recognize this truth: All land and all rent belong to
the people. Give allegiance to this, and you will save your
wealth, although it consists in part of ill-gotten gains. Those
whom you oppress have yet human hearts, and if they see
justice secured to themselves and happiness insured to their
children, they will sink the sorrowful past in oblivion.
LANDLORDISM is doomed. It must go the way of all bad
institutions. But let not its beneficiaries sorrow too
deeply. Men have before this time suffered from the effects of
a land-slide.
Still it is not to be expected that Landlordism can be
forsworn without a struggle. Kings do not voluntarily relinquish thrones; neither does the habit of slave-holding incline
the hearts of masters toward thoughts of setting slaves free.
But if Landlordism can give no better reasons for its existence
than those which are now advanced in its behalf, it must fall
through sheer weakness.
If a man should undertake to prove to me that John
ought to be banished from society, and should argue in this
way:
All robbers should be banished;
John is a robber;
Therefore, John should be banishedAnd if I should, passing by both his major and minor
propositions, attack his conclusion; he would be justified in
treating my words with contempt, even though I should ex


36

haust oratory in declaiming about the effect that the banishment of John would have upon John's family. Yet this is
precisely the way in which our arguments are met by the
upholders of Landlordism. We say: Landlordism must be
banished, because Landlordism is a robber. But opposition
arises because the abolition of Landlordism will bring disaster
to certain individuals. For the family of this robber we have
no sympathy to spare; our concern is for the people.
Let us not be alarmed by the pictures that are drawn of
the terrible results that will follow the restoration of land
to the people. If robbery is an evil, the abolition of Landlordism can bring us nothing but good.
Although it is, indeed, even as our opponents declare, a
radically leveling operation that we propose; yet it will be a
beneficent act. The pinnacles that are rising all around us,
are altogether too high for a bad foundation; it is right that
they should be leveled down.
Level indeed! That is a strange objection to be in the
mouth of Landlordism. Let it speak rather of the men, of
the women, of the little children who have lain level and
dead upon the earth of starvation. That is the kind of leveling which Landlordism has done.
When Landlordism is abolished life will be grand and
complete; for instead of living in the poisonous atmosphere
of a world where might is right, we shall breathe an elixir
whose elements are liberty, equality and fraternity. Nor
will wealth seekers sit down in despair; they will be just as
alert, just as eager after chances to make money as they now
are. When they find that it is impossible to roll up immense fortunes, they will strive to get all that they can; just
as they are now striving.
But it is hard for our opponents, blinded as they are by
self-interest, to see these matters in the true light. Even while
they are being shown that the result of abolition of Landlordism
will be that all men will be obliged to work, they declare that
our plan is not worth the attention of practical men; that it



37

is but a dream of theorists, and advocated mainly by those
people who are outcasts from industry because of laziness and
kindred vices; people who, because of wrong ways of living,
have accumulated nothing but desires to rob virtuous men of
the fruits of their honest labor; in short, that those who seek
to bring about an equal distribution of natural privileges, are
for the most part loafers, if not worse.
Are the upholders of Landlordism aware that the real loafer
is to be found among their number? Not they, indeed. Do not
the beneficiaries of Landlordism appear in the eyes of men as
the originators and patrons of industry I How deceitful are
appearances. We, who have seen the bare reality of Landlordism, know that it is the most "potent agent in existence
for the making of the genuine article-the simon pure
loafer. Here is the son of a rich man, who as he grows up
through boyhood and youth is indulged in every desire.
The father gives him money and liberty without limit. By
the aid of a vigorous constitution, and a natural shrewdness
that steers him clear of permanent physical harm, he arrives
at man's estate; but he is not a man. He has never learned
to properly apply his energies. He knows nothing valuable,
and if thrown upon his own resources would starve, but he
does not starve.
The father dies and leaves to this son land in the
neighborhood of a growing city, and an established business. The business being well established does not slip
through the fingers of the heir all at once, but drops away
piecemeal, until at last he is minus as much of his income
as the business formerly yielded. IMeanwhile, the community
has grown and is closing in around the tract of land, and
the land becomes very desirable and more and more valu.
able as population increases.
As long as his income from the business satisfies the
heir he keeps the land out of the market, waiting for it to
increase still more in value. At last he can hold out no
longer and sells a part of the land-a few city lots-for a



38

sum many times larger than the amount which his father
paid out long ago for the whole tract. With this sum the
heir proceeds to erect buildings upon the rest of the land,
and spends the remainder of his days an idler, living upon a
tax which Landlordism enables him to impose upon and
collect from the workers.
Here is a practical institution working out practical
results with a vengeance; giving luxurious support to a
man who ought justly to beg his bread.
And this is only an instance of what is going on all
around us. There is, to-day, a class of young men in this
country who are inheritors of large fortunes, and whose sole
business in life it is to cast about for new modes of pleasure
and dissipation. Such a class was unknown a generation
ago; such a class would be unknown now, were Landlordism
not in existence.
W   ORKINGMEN of America, this is what "practical men"
have done for society in the United States. In other
countries, where the institution beloved of "practical men"
has operated more fully; where Landlordism has the people
more completely in its grasp, the contrast between the rich
and the poor is still greater than it is with us. On Manhattan Island, where one-half the population lives in tenement houses, and where more than seventy-five thousand
children are forced to toil for daily bread, there is nothing
like the misery that exists in the large centers of Europe,
where Landlordism hounds the people more thoroughly into
starvation and pauper graves.
Unless Landlordism is abolished your condition will soon
be as miserable as that of your brothers in other countries.
This is the road you are traveling under the leadership of



39

"practical men."  Do not you think that it is time to listen
to our " theorist? "
Put yourselves under the guidance of Henry George, and
you will never repent the step; for where you now have
poverty, you will then have abundance. Your hovels will be
transformed into homes. You will not, it is true, be then
called upon so frequently as you now are, to be grateful for
charity. You will not see your sick wives and children conveyed by aid of contribution to mountain and sea shore, but
you will yourselves send them in search of health, and pay the
cost out of the earnings of your own emancipated labor.
When land is restored to the people, when natural opportunities are again open and free to labor, then will labor
always be in demand, and then, then only will labor receive
its full wages.
Until you understand this great truth, all your efforts to
improve your condition are vain. Your strikes against
capitalists can never do you permanent good. One strike
alone can save you-a strike against Landlordism. There is
but one road for you to pursue, and that road is a safe highway. Every other opening is but a path leading into a wilderness and ending in a mire.
In your blindness you are striking at your friend at your
brother; at your country. When you strike at capital you
strike at your friend; and when you strike at the importation of labor you strike at your brother, and at your country.
No sane man would give a doubtful reply, if asked whether
labor is hurtful or beneficial to a community. He would say
that labor produces wealth and is a blessing. But you believe
that increase of labor by importation is hurtful to other
labor; and you therefore strive to prevent it. You believe
that the more laborers there are in a community, the smaller
must "necessarily be each laborer's wages. Your belief is
founded on the fallacy that wages are paid out of capital
This fallacy has been exploded and the wind can now blow
it away. You have only to look and to live.



40

Behold the truth! Wages are produced by labor. There
is more wealth in the community by reason of new labor;
but the increase of wealth, the enlarged production of labor,
is stolen from labor by Landlordism.
Reopen natural opportunities; restore land to the people;
and you need not quail at immigration. The cry: "America
for Americans " will never again be heard, but new laborers
will be joyfully welcomed, though they come in legions; for
in the day that land is restored to the people, labor will receive all the benefits of increase of production; and the
arrival of new laborers will mean increase of wages for all
labor.
Be not deceived by those who seek to shackle commerce
with a tariff which they label: "protection to labor." The
only protection which labor needs is the protection of
liberty. When labor is emancipated from the oppression of
Landlordism it will take all of its own; and all fetters being
immediately stricken from trade, will ring out as they fall an
acknowledgment that labor is a king.
Because of the existence of Landlordism, that arch-fiend
of civilization, lesser demons are able to torment you.
While Landlordism exists, labor and the interests of labor
are things of bargain and sale. In legislative halls, the measures that secure support are not those measures which concern the interests of labor, but those in which there is a job;
those in which there is a promise of something that will benefit
legislators.  Because of the existence of that prince of
monopolies, Landlordism, minor monopolies are able to put
into legislative halls men who go there with the intention of
upholding and forwarding the interests of their benefactors.
Founded upon the giant monopoly, Landlordism, are those
smaller monopolies which purchase the votes of legislators
with money that has been stolen from labor. Thus is lalor
directed against itself; thus is its production used to cause
the appearance upon statute books of acts which will fasten
upon its own wrists still more securely the irons of slavery.



41
Workingmen-slaves! Do you fancy that you are represented in the council halls of the nation! Open your eyes,
workingmen! Look! Behold yourselves yielding up your
substance in every direction, in order to enable tyranny to
oppress you still more. Strike down the arch-fiend, and the
lesser demons will fall with him. Liberty can exist only upon
free land. Make land free and slavery is dead at once and
forever.
Candidates, representatives and parties are weighed in
the balance and found wanting. Enlist yourselves under the
banners whereon the old rallying motto: "Free Soil" is
again blazing, and with new meaning. Send to legislative
halls only those men who will pledge themselves to introduce
and uphold measures that will remove taxation from industry
and levy it upon opportunity; for until this is done-until
all of rent is given to the real owners of the land-you, the
people of the land are robbed and you have no redress; you
are utterly helpless.
Under existing social conditions, Landlordism will continue to enter your dwellings and bid you to live upon bare
floors, that others may walk upon velvet, and you must obey.
Under existing social conditions, the meat that belongs to
you is snatched from the mouths of your children and cast to
the dogs of Landlordism. Under existing social conditions,
Landlordism enters your homes when your loved ones languish, and seizes the nourishment from the parched lips of
the sufferer, so that fine ladies may loll for the benefit of their
health at fashionable resorts, or reinvigorate themselves with
the grandeur of European cities.
Are you dead! If not, arise! Show your strength  Let
us see the people standing-aye, marching i Make ready for
a health excursion which shall cause the mighty to tremble
and the solid earth to quake!
Do not you see your sisters, wives and daughters bending
and sinking under the burdens they bear? To the fine ladies
of Landlordism, spring servants at the slightest gesture; and



42

those servants are paid out of your wages. Do not you see
your sons growing up to be candidates for prison and for
hell, because of their surroundings? Of what avail is it that
you strive to teach them aright when they suck in poison
with every breath? Organize a new society for the suppression of vice, and enter upon its record-book a resolution to
crush Landordism; for when labor has its full wages, then
will you be able to establish inviting homes; and when home
is an attractive spot, then will the dramshop flee from its
neighborhood.
Go not into the battle half-hearted, for there are whole
hearts pitted against you. But consider well your actions,
and heat not your heads thinking about "the resources
of civilization." Explosives are what we need in this warfare, and what we intend to use; but we shall use the gunpowder of the platform, the nitro-glycerine of the press
and the dynamite of the ballot. Book thoughts are mightier
than beer thoughts. Our battle is against an institution, not
against men. Were you the favorites of Landlordism, your
pockets also would gape wide to swallow the earnings of
others.
LOWER classes, you hold the balance of power. Thank
God for that I Little have the upper classes dreamed of
the final result of uriversal suffrage. Little does it matter
what they think about the coming revolution. Whether
they accept the truth or not, they must accept the
inevitable.
Although it is declared again and again by those whose
hearts are failing them with fear, that "communistic ideas"
will never gain a foothold in this country; yet this is the
land above all others where Truth speaks to a full audience;



43

this is the only country where communism of land can be
readily re-established.
It is hard-God and yourselves know how hard-for
you to see your dear ones bend under the terrible
burden of life; to see them exposed to disease, and to
worse than disease; to see them sink for want of nourishment,
and die for want of care; to lower the dead forms into the
ground, and to return again with the living ones to the spot
that is so destitute of comfort, and that is still called home!
Home! You are robbed of home! You are robbed of
family! You are robbed of life! That others may roll in
luxury, you grovel in poverty. They are so rich because
you are so poor. Your dear ones suffer and die that they
may live. Patience!   The end is near. You will find
friends where you least expect to find them.
To you, hearts that are cold and dead to your enemy, turn
with the perfect evidence of life-the full warmth of love.
Ears that are deaf to the voice of your adversary, lose not
one sound of your supplication. Voices that can invoke
nothing but confusion upon your foe, proclaim to you that
the grond day of your deliverance is at hand.
While those who are prospered by your enslavement, are
heaping up riches to which they can show no title; while
they are adding stone to stone upon majestic walls; while
they, ever looking upward, never downward, gaze proudly
upon the work of their hands, and dream but of grand
capstone, turret and pinnacle; other workers are steadily undermining their false foundations; and your hands shall hurl
the battering-ram at the tottering walls, and beat them back
again down into the dust whence they arose in accursed
effrontery.
All is in readiness for your onset. Every part of the engine of destruction is made and fitted into its place; and it
stands complete, awaiting the gathering of the overwhelming
forces that are to hurl it with terrible effect against the works
of iniquity.



44

GUARDIANS of Liberty's sacred bell, I charge you to
hold yourselves in readiness to ring. There is in that
bell a note of perfect fulness that has never yet swelled upon
the air, but that shall be sounded. In the day that land is
given back to the people, ring:
Liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof.
LIKE a storm's premonition, a tempest's first blastLike a warning convulsion of forces held fastLike a bolt from a lowering element hurledComes this cry to a pleasure and wealth chasing-world:
" We, the toilers demand,
" Our inheritance-land;
" For the night is far spent, and the day is at hand! "
What means this commotion! Oh, joy! Is it trueIs the leaven at last working downward and through!
See, doubter, behold! Lo, the forces long pent
Are uniting for exit-and this is the vent:
"Restore us our land!"
Hear that august command!
Now the night is far spent and the day is at hand.
Oh, morning long prayed for! Oh, prayer answered well!
Oh, triumph of God! Oh, confusion of hell!
Sing, ye men! Sing, ye angels! Shout, Earth! Answer, Sky!
Lo, the downtrodden call to the mighty and high:
"Restore us our land!"
See! The prostrate now stand!
For the night is far spent and the day is at hand,
Let us sing a loud hymn that shall sound over sea,
Where our brothers are struggling to set themselves free;
For our union is world-wide; their cause is our own;
We war against power, they war against throne;
Nor can tyranny stand
Upon socialized land.
Lo, the night is far spent and the day is at hand.



45
Hail brothers-a marvel! The Earth is new born!
Ye are bid to the baptism. Oaths must be sworn
That the old life is ended, a new life begun.
And as ye do pledge even so shall be done
While the firmaments stand;
Then unite in one band,
For the night is far spent and the day is at hand.
Yea, born of the Spirit! Yea, born of the Bride!
'Tis a great consummation; for God shall abide
In his temple, the hearts of the children of men;
And a garden of Eden shall bloom once again.
Hark! a heavenly band
Sings upon the blest strand:
"Lo, the night is far spent and the day is at hand."



AS the blessed morning light reveals the emblem of
Liberty floating out over the earth from a height
greater than any whereon it has hitherto waved-as the first
glorious beams of the rising sun light up with fire, the new
words that are written upon that fair banner-clear and loud
rings out a summons that resounds in startling echoes among
the mountain tops, and falls dying upon the ears of the
sleepers within the valleys.
Liberty calls! Who will answer! Who will prepare her
way! Who will make broad her road that the people may
march onward and upward and possess the heights!
Liberty calls! Who is ready I Who will drink of her
cup I Who will be clothed in her robe! Who will be
crowned with her crown!
Liberty calls! The sleepers sleep on; but some are
awake among the sleepers, and to them comes the thrilling
signal-calling them into a new day; into a new life; into a
new world.
Liberty calls! Louder, and in tones sweet with melody,
and resistless with invitation, and powerful with command.
Who will drink of her cup I fIer cup is a cup of flame
mingled with blood. Who will be clothed in her robe! Her
robe is the garment of martyrdom. Who will be crowned
with her crown! Her crown shall shine with matchless
splendor and with increasing brightness when the scepter of
the powerful is broken, and when the mighty lie prostrate in
the dust.
Liberty calls! Ye who are to spread abroad her mighty
gospel-to you she calls! The time is fully come. Earth



47

waits to hear the word that is given you to speak. For this
was the earth created, for this were ye born-and Liberty
calls!
AS the mists roll upward from the valleys; as the fresh morning air blows gratefully upon the brow; as the glad carols
of all the songsters of heaven fall upon the ear; each welcome
and broadening beam of light brings with it hope, strength,
life; for the path that during weary night-watches lay hidden from view, is now fully revealed stretching away before
us into the regions of the rising sun.
The long night is rolled away. The chasm that stopped
our progress as we groped in darkness, is now a firm highway. The keystone is fitted into its place; the bridge is
builded. We can now pass over, and wherefore should we
linger?
Come, let us begin our journey, for the day of departure
has fully dawned. Let us lift up these weary and wasted
forms and bear them over to the fair land before us. These
little ones, let us carry in our arms until we can set their
feet upon the streets of a new city, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
HARK! A shout upon the mountain tops; a cry is sounding
there!
Hark! A watcher lifts his voice, and sends a warning through the air:
" Bid the nations now awaken, and let all the earth prepare"The day of God is near!"
Ye who pray with expectation for the blessed advent-see!
In the heavens is the promise of a glory that shall be;
Banished by its dread refulgence bitter shadows fade and fleeThe day of God is near!



48

Yea, all evil shapes are shrinking and departing with the night,
And celestial heights are gleaming with a strange and awful light.
Lo, the Throne of God descends to earth-its heralds are in sightThe day of God is near!
In the name of Christ they summon; they are calling to His own:
" Come, oh quickly ye beloved and fall down before the Throne!"
See! They gather from all nations, for a mighty trump is blownThe day of God is near!
Oh, thou Faith of darkened vision: oh, thou willing slave of Doubt!
Oh, ye foolish virgins sleeping with neglected lamps burned out!
In a time of death and darkness comes the loud triumphant shout:
"The day of God is near!"



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