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Explore the revolutionary ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Henry George as they tackle the land question, advocating for the fair distribution of land and the abolition of land ownership. Discover how their philosophies could bring about lasting change and social justice.
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and The Land Question
Written by Edward J. Dodson
“[Proudhon] was just completing a philosophical work on armed conflict between nations: War and Peace; Tolstoy was struck by the title, and it remained engraved in his memory.”
“The existing condition of owning souls cannot remained unchanged. It is better to begin to destroy serfdom from above than to wait until that time when it begins to destroy itself from below. I ask you, gentlemen, to figure out how all this can be carried out to completion.”
“He was feverishly seeking for a solution of the land question in Russia when he ran across Henry George's Progress and Poverty. This was exactly what he was looking for. Here was a peaceful and righteous solution of the problem. …”
“Let the land belong to the nation as a whole and give the use of it to those who work on it with their own hands. My father believed in the practical possibility of such a reform in Russia so deeply that he even wrote to some of the members of the Russian Government and to the Czar himself advocating the abolition of land ownership and the institution of the Single Tax in Russia.”
“As long as we make use of privileged wealth while the mass of the people are crushed by toil, there will always be wars for markets and for gold-mines, etc., which we need to maintain privileged wealth.”
“I have been acquainted with Henry George since the appearance of his Social Problems. I read them, and was struck by the correctness of his main idea, and by the unique clearness and power of his argument, which is unlike anything in scientific literature, and especially by the Christian spirit, which also stands alone in the literature of science, which pervades the book. …”
“After reading it I turned to his previous work, Progress and Poverty, and with a heightened appreciation of its author's activity.”
“The scheme of Henry George is as follows. The advantage and profit from the use of land is not everywhere the same; since the more fertile, convenient portions, adjoining populous districts, will always attract many who wish to possess them; ...”
“… and so much the more as these portions are better and more suitable they ought to be appraised according to their advantages -- the better, dearer; the worse, cheaper; the worst, cheapest of all.”
"I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means -- except by getting off his back."
“And now, thirty years have gone by since the clear, all-sided and most fundamental explanation of this great thought, -- and still it remains altogether unknown to the great majority of people.”
“One would have thought that it must be as clear as day to any educated man of our time, that the possession of land by people who do not cultivate it themselves, but prevent hundreds, nay thousands, of starving families from access to the same, must be a state of things as immoral as the possession of slaves; ...”
“…but, none the less, we see educated, refined English, Austrian, Russian, and Prussian aristocrats enjoying this cruel, base privilege; -- based on the ready sophisms which political economy affords them -- and they are not only not ashamed, but pride themselves in it. …”
“The merit of Henry George now lies in this, that he has dissipated into thin nothingness all these sophisms which are brought forward for the defence of property in land; so that the defenders of this already dare not discuss the question, but cautiously avoid it and pass it over in silence. ...”
“But Henry George has also shaken this evasive policy, and herein lies his merit; he has not rested satisfied with bringing this question to the highest degree of clearness, so that it is only the people with closed eyes who cannot perceive the immorality of private property in land.”
“I shall wait with great patience the appearance of your new book which will contain the so much needed criticism of the orthodox political economy. The reading of every one of your books makes clear to me things which were not so before and confirm me more and more in the truth and practicability of your system.”
“The chief method of opposing Henry George was … the method always employed against irrefutable and self-evident truths. This, which is still being applied to Henry George’s teaching, was that of ignoring it.”
“My father never met Henry George, but his son, Henry George, Jr., made a special trip to Russia to meet him. My father was certainly very happy to know the son of the man whom he so much admired and to hear from him of the life and activities of the great reformer. …”
“When they were parting my father turned to Mr. George and said: ‘Good-bye; we will probably never meet again. I am much older than you are and I will probably see your father in the beyond before you get there. What shall I tell him?’‘Tell him that I am continuing his work as much as it is in my power,’ said Mr. George, smiling.
“[I]n talking with him over a great range of subjects it was obvious that this man, with an aged, delicate body, had a soul of youth. …”
“He revealed the liveliest knowledge of what was going on over the world and made the keenest comments, drawing the general conclusion that the great struggle for the overthrow of industrial slavery in the world will end in victory, just as the chattel slavery struggle in the United States and Russia half a century ago ended.”
“In our family, Tanya, my oldest sister, was also carried away by the theory of Henry George, and when she received her estate under the will of my father (who gave away all his property), she resented somehow becoming the owner of land. ...”
“So an experiment was started… The peasants worked on the land and paid a tax, or rent, which was used for their needs. The peasants were very pleased with this arrangement and it worked well as long as my sister and father were there.”
“At present, the condition of our Christian world is this; -- one small portion of men possesses the greater part of the land and enormous wealth, which more and more concentrate themselves in the same hands, and are being used for the maintenance of the luxurious, effeminate, unnatural life of a smaller number of families. …”
