There is no direct connection between the Chicago anarchists and the Henry George movement but it is doubtful if this movement could have taken place but for the unrest of 1886 which as we have seen had manifested itself in serious strikes, chief of which was that on the Southwestern railways. George had attained celebrity by his brilliant book "Progress and Poverty" which, after the usual struggle of an author with no money, he had succeeded in getting Appleton to publish in 1880.1 As a complete remedy for the misery of the poor he advocated raising all money for the support of the government from taxation on land. Although opposed to private property in land he wrote, "It is not necessary to confiscate land; it is only necessary to confiscate rent." He fully believed that the whole expense of government could be met by this single tax.

2

George's nostrum was attractive to those who thought there was an unequal distribution of wealth and privilege, to some reformers and to some rentiers and idlers who drew their living from the dividends and interest on their stocks and bonds and were willing to see all taxation shifted to the land. Yet for the United States with her broad acres it was seen to be impracticable and it had the defect of increasing the burdens of the agricultural

the Law, F. J. Hill; 123 U. S. Reports, 131; The Story of a Labor Agitator, Buchanan; Life of Henry George; Life of Henry D. Lloyd, i.; Dewey, National Problems; H. T. Peck, Twenty Years of the Republic; Frank Harris, The Bomb (1909), a romance based on facts. In 1893 Governor Altgeld pardoned the three anarchists who were in the penitentiary. A pamphlet giving his reasons is in the Boston Athenæum.

1 The dedication is dated March 1879 and copyright was taken out in that year but the book was not published until after the Christmas holidays. Life of Henry George, H. George, Jr., 325.

2 Progress and Poverty, 364.

class, the growers of the nation's food, whose welfare should be a prime concern of any American government. Realizing the force of this objection George attempted to show that his scheme would be a good thing for the farmer and, as he believed that the tariff was a tax, he proposed the removal of all custom duties as well as of all taxes on personal property. It was the belief of the free-traders that the farmer was unjustly taxed and, in so far as George took this ground, his reasoning was not ineffective. The book had a moderate success by reason of its fascinating method and style but it was easy to see that, owing to the wide uncultivated domain in America in 1880, the plan virtually to confiscate all the land could not be upheld as a sound economic policy. But when George crossed to the "tight little island” where land is not plenty and is owned by a few, he seemed, through the cheap edition of his book and his attractive lectures, to be preaching a gospel that would elevate humanity; he was bringing good tidings to those of the world whose life was thought to be one of dumb despair.

The reputation that George gained in England reacted upon his countrymen and when he returned to New York he was, to use his own words, "pretty near famous." 1 Labor Unions crowded a meeting at Cooper Union to bid him welcome. The bench, the bar and prominent clergymen joined with men in politics and trade to give him a banquet at Delmonico's. His son and biographer in his interesting book tells his story by the headings of his chapters: "Starting the Revolution in Great Britain"; "Kindling the fire at home."

11882. Life, 400.

2

Somewhat later George received an invitation to deliver lectures in Great Britain, going thither when, according to his biographer, he was "at the moment next to Gladstone the most talked of man in England." 1 On his return again to the United States "he was recognized as a leader among the restless laboring classes - to be with the House of Want rather than with the House of Have." Nominated for mayor of New York City in 1886 by a combination of the trade and labor unions he made a good fight against Abram S. Hewitt, the candidate of Tammany and of the County Democracy and Theodore Roosevelt nominated by a Citizens' committee of one hundred and the Republicans. Hewitt received 90,552 votes, George 68,110 and Roosevelt 60,435. Hewitt made a good mayor. Roosevelt afterwards exhibited excellent administrative qualities as President and either were a better mayor than George. But as we look at it now, the "Haves" were unnecessarily alarmed by George's large vote. Hewitt, restless and energetic, maintained during the canvass that Henry George arrayed one class against all other classes, and The Nation, after the result of the election was known, intimated that his vote was made up of boycotters, socialists, anarchists and cranks. These may indeed have swelled his vote; nevertheless he stood "as the incarnation of a demand that the world should be made a better place to live in than it is to-day" and as the apostle of discontent among industrious working-men. "The greater the prosperity, the greater the discontent" is a saying as old as Sanscrit and it was this natural discon

tent that gave George his large vote. But he was a better man for mayor than many a one that Tammany has put in the place. "Progress and Poverty," although advocating a policy that would not have answered for the United States of 1880, was the work of an honest and sincere man. George was neither socialist nor anarchist. "I would preserve order and enforce the law," he declared. Recognizing "the shocking contrast between monstrous wealth and debasing want" in New York City, he showed himself imbued with a true American principle in his speech formally accepting the nomination: "I believe and have long believed that through politics was the way and the only way, by which anything real and permanent could be secured for labor." 1

The passage of the Interstate Commerce Act [approved February 4, 1887] was one of the notable legislative acts during Cleveland's first administration. The West and the South had been bitter in their criticism of the railroads, largely because of the favoritism they showed to large shippers and friends through the medium of rebates and special facilities. The different State acts had proved ineffective as remedies for the evils complained of and the people now looked to Congress who, by a decision of the United States Supreme Court, had exclusive power to regulate commerce among the States. The popular desire was well represented by John H. Reagan of Texas, ex-Postmaster-General of the Southern Confederacy, who, during his long service in the House of

1 Life, 467, 469, 475. My main authorities have been Life of H. George, by H. George, Jr., and Progress and Poverty (1884). I have also consulted The Nation for the last half of 1886.

Representatives, devoted himself to securing an act to regulate interstate commerce. He had the House with him but ran up against a wall in the Senate. Aid however was at hand, although he would have preferred that the Senator who took up the cause had been swayed by more radical ideas.

Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois took his seat in the Senate in 1883. He had a profound reverence for Lincoln, whom in personal appearance he was supposed to resemble, and, like most Illinois statesmen, respected Douglas's mental powers. Although not possessed of extraordinary ability, he had the persistency of purpose that accomplishes results and this, together with his ardent patriotism and high personal character, won him the regard of his associates. As Governor of Illinois he had studied the railroad system, so that when he came to the Senate he had the basic knowledge necessary for what turned out to be his mission. The Senate proceedings, wrote Woodrow Wilson in his brilliant book on Congressional Government, "bear most of the characteristic features of committee rule." 1 Therefore the new Senator

is anxious in regard to his committee assignments which are influenced by the leading members. Cullom did not think that he had been properly treated in this respect; and in the Republican caucus he gave vent to his disappointment. He was however placed upon the Committee on Railroads, which had always been a "non-working committee," but he determined to make its influence felt. Full of the idea of regulating interstate commerce, he wrought with a zeal that at first gained so little con