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ST. (HENRY) GEORGE AND THE NEW YORK DRAGON.

One of the fiercest election battles ever fought on the American continent will be brought to a close in New York City on the 2nd of November. For forty days the din of fight has resounded, not on Manhattan Island alone, but with endless reverberations over the length and breadth of the great Republic. Indeed, the interest excited by Mr. Henry George's candidature for the Mayoralty of New York has never been surpassed, except when the Presidency of the United States itself was at stake. Yet, strange to say, the daily press of this country has preserved an almost unbroken silence -a conspiracy of silence-on the subject.

The reason is not far to seek. Mr. Henry George comes forward as the champion of labour, and both the daily press and the great news agencies of this country and of America are the merest creations of capital. This being so it will, perhaps, not be amiss to give the readers of THE DEMOCRAT Some slight account of the campaign and the broad issues raised by it.

The Mayor of New York possesses power, patronage, and emoluments unknown to the chief magistrate of an English or Scottish city. Candidates have been known to spend as much as 200,000 dols. (£40,000) in their efforts to secure the prize, which has rarely fallen into clean hands. Tammany Hall is a synonym for corruption, and even theft, wherever the English language is spoken, and the recent wholesale arrest and imprisonment of aldermen and party wirepullers are sufficient evidence that civic virtue in New York is still at a very low ebb.

The paving of the city is something atrocious. Not half the site is built upon, yet the overcrowding in the working class quarters is unparalleled. London has a population of 15,000 to the square mile; Canton, 35,000; and New York, 85,000! One large tenement block has no fewer than 2,500 denizens. The death rate in the Mulberry Bend District is 65 per 1,000!

Hitherto the chief sufferers, the toilers and spinners, have been the mere sport of the professional politicians. The Democratic and Republican parties, like our British Liberals and Conservatives, have been the two thieves between whom the people have evermore been crucified. Unscrupulous in many instances as our own Caucus has proved itself, it is miles and miles behind the New York "machine" in infamy.

60,000 workmen, in Clarendon Hall, on the 23rd of September. It speaks for itself:

The delegates of the trade and labour organisations of the city of New York, in conference assembled, make this declaration :Holding that the corruptions of Government and the impoverishment of labour result from neglect of the self-evident truths proclaimed by the founders of this Republic-that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights-we aim at the abolition of the system which compels men to pay their fellow-creatures for the use of God's gifts to all, and permits monopolisers to deprive labour of natural oppor tunities for employment, thus filling the land with tramps and paupers, and bringing about an unnatural competition which tends to reduce wages to starvation rates and to make the wealth-producer the industrial slave of those who grow rich by his toil.

Holding, moreover, that the advantages arising from social growth and improvement belong to society at large, we aim at the abolition of the system which makes such beneficent inventions as the railroad and telegraph a means for the oppression of the people and the aggrandisement of an aristocracy of wealth and power. We declare the truc purposes of government to be the maintenance of that sacred right of property which gives to every one opportunity to employ his labour, and security that he shall enjoy its fruits; to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak, and the unscrupulous from robbing the honest; and to do, for the equal benefit of all, such things as can be better done by organised society than by individuals; and we aim at the abolition of all laws which give to any class of citizens advantages, either judicial, financial, industrial, or political, that are not equally shared by all others.

We further declare that the people of New York City should have full control of their own local affairs, that the practice of drawing grand jurors from one class should cease, and the requirement of a property qualification for trial jurors should be abolished; that the procedure of our courts should be so simplified and reformed that the rich shall have no advantage over the poor; that the officious intermeddling of the police with peaceful assem blages should be stopped; that the laws for the safety and sanitary inspection of buildings should be enforced; that in public work the direct employment of labour should be preferred to the system which gives to contractors opportunity to defraud the city while grinding their workmen, and that in public employments equal pay should be accorded to equal work, without distinction of sex.

We declare the crowding of so many of our people into narrow tenements at enormous rents, while half the area of the city is yet unbuilt upon, to be a scandalous evil, and that to remedy this state of things all taxes on buildings and improvements should be abolished, so that no fine shall be put upon the employment of labour in increasing living accommodation; and taxes should be levied on land irrespective of improvements, so that those who are now holding land vacant shall be compelled either to build on it themselves, or to give up the land to those who will.

We declare, futhermore that the enormous value which the presence of a million and a half of people gives to the land of this city belongs properly to the whole community; that it should not go to the enrichment of individuals or corporations, but should be taken in taxation and applied to the improvement and beautifying of the city, to the promotion of the health, comfort, education and recreation of its people, and to the providing of means of transit commensurate with the needs of a great metrobe left in the hands of corporations, which, while gaining enormous profits from the growth of population, oppress their employés and provoke strikes that interrupt travel and imperil the public peace, but should by lawful process be assumed by the city and operated for public benefit.

polis. We also declare the existing means of transit should not

To clear the way for such reforms as are impossible without it, we favour a constitutional convention, and since the ballot is the only method by which in our republic the redress of political and social grievance is to be sought, we especially call for such changes in our elective methods as shall lessen the need of money in elections, discourage bribery, and prevent intimidation. And since. in the coming most important municipal election, independent political action affords the only hope of exposing and breaking up the extortion and peculation by which a standing army of professional politicians corrupt the people whom they plunder, we call on all citizens who desire honest government to join us in an effort to secure it, and to show for once that the will of the people may prevail even against the money and organisation of banded spoilsmen.

At the meeting where the above platform was affirmed by the Labour Delegates the voting for

candidates stood thus:

Well, the George campaign is a gallant effort to smash up this "machine" and to undo the numerous evils it has brought on the city. But it means a great deal more than that. Not merely is the civic Government to be clean, it is to be based on new principles-on the principles advocated in "Progress and Poverty." The following is the platform enthusiastically endorsed by the delegates of Eventually, the nomination was made all but

Henry George James G. Coogan William S. Thorne..

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unanimous by the 410 representatives of the 175 Labour Unions of the city. Men of all nationalities -Americans, Englishmen, Scotsmen, Irishmen, Germans, Scandinavians, Poles, and negroes-took part in the proceedings, which were alike interesting and significant. For example, Mr. William Martin, 'the Coogan Chieftain," said :—

"I move an amendment. It is that a plank pledging our nominee to support a prohibitive Protective tariff on all foreign manufactures

Many delegates (scornfully): "The tariff's played out!"

George P. Lloyd: "I was once foolish enough to be a Protectionist, but, thanks to Henry George, I

have left Protection far behind."

American Protection began with George Washington, and it may end with Henry George.

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It having been carried, on the motion of Mr. Jablonowski (Credentials Secretary), that the nomination for Mayor was in order, Mr. James Casselby (United Carpenters) said: We who pay the taxes speak to you in behalf of one who has raised himself to eminence among working men. He wields a weapon nobler than the sword. He is the preceptor of the whole human race. He is known as well in Europe as on this Continent. I propose Henry George as Mayor."

Frank Farrell (Engineers) a noted coloured orator, seconded the motion : “Jefferson once said, In selecting a candidate look to his honesty, his capacity, and his fidelity.' Our organisation, 1,800 strong, demands such a man. Such a man is necessary for the freedom, peace, and prosperity of our children. The monopolists live on the toil of the masses, and tell us that we have no rights they are bound to respect. Our political movement will work a peaceful revolution—a revolution as decisive as that preached by John Brown. It means industrial emanicipation, and Henry George is the man to lead us to the consummation of our hopes."

The

Altogether respectable middle-class New York showed itself to great advantage in Chickering Hall.

But the meeting of the campaign was that held in the Cooper Institute, on October 5th, when Mr. George was presented with a requisition signed by 34,000 electors, and formally accepted the mayoralty candidature. "Peter Cooper's Acre " says The (New York) World, has witnessed some great scenes in the past, both within and without the noble monument upreared for the honour and glory of the people. Seldom, if ever, has it contained a more feverish, excited tempest of humanity than that which eddied and swirled and choked itself in and about the big hall last night. There was a strong leaven of Socialism permeating the place, the people, and the proceedings. The central tables of the reporters' row were eagerly grasped by representatives of Socialist papers, who appeared anxious, whether welcome or not, to identify their journals with the George movement. One paper, away off in Texas, had a credentialled correspondent present ready to send the glad tidings clear across to the Lone Star State, and perhaps start a wild bazoo for George as future President. Leaflets from Parnassus were scattered throughout the hall to the following effect :

Ho! ye workmen, see the campaign
Now is raging high;

For we now are all united,
Victory is nigh.

CHORUS.

Hold New York, for George is coming,
Loud his praises sing;

We will cast our votes together
For our Labour King.

See the workmen now advancing,
George is leading on!
Politicians now are falling,
They will soon be gone.
Fierce and long the campaign rages,
But our help is near:
Onward comes the Labour-hero,

Cheer, ye workmen, cheer!

Mr. John McMackin, chairman of the Conven. tion of Organised Labour, in introducing Mr. George, said: The labour organisations of this city have hitherto done the bidding of the political parties, and the only difference that has occurred this year is that we have made the selection of the candidate. We have selected one whose genius has done more to bring lustre to the American name than any other statesman since the days of Washington. The election of Henry George, while it will mean the elevation of a just man to be Mayor here, will lift the hearts of millions throughout the world, and they will turn again to this country as the great land where all men can enjoy equal rights and opportunities.

The next important step in the campaign was the summoning on October 1st, of a meeting of business and professional men in Chickering Hall, to confirm the choice of the working men. assemblage was large, influential, and enthusiastic. The Rev. Dr. Kramer, a gentleman who commands universal respect, presided. The Rev. Dr. Heber Newton was the first speaker. He was glad that social questions were coming to the front, and that they had found so able and conscientious an exponent as Mr. Henry George. He was followed by Professor Thomas Davidson, who held that although meekness was a fine virtue it was a serious political mistake. The movement would avert the threatened horrors of social war. Dr. De Leon proved conclusively that New York is in the grip of a gang of "tax-dodgers," who have heaped nearly the whole of the rates and taxes on the workers. Mr. Charles F. Wingate severely castigated the venal press of New York, and was followed by Professor D. Scott (Scot by name and Mr. George's rising was the signal for a splendid nationality), who lauded the author of "Progress and ovation. We can only quote disjointed sentences Poverty" as the beneficent renovator of the "dis- from his speech, but even the opposition journals mal science." The last speaker was the Rev. Dr. admit that it was masterly in every detail. McGlynn. His mingled pathos, sarcasm, and rich" Working-men of New York," said he, “I am your Irish humour were irresistible. candidate. Now it devolves on you to elect me.

Never in my time has any American citizen received from his fellow-citizens such a compliment as has been consummated to-night, and never shall any act of mine bring discredit on that compliment. If money can beat me, I shall be beaten; but, I do believe, we shall win in spite of all. Í see in this gathering enthusiasm-a power that is stronger than money, more potent than trained politics. The office of Mayor is an important and powerful position. When I take the girth of office, I will be the Mayor of the whole city. I will preserve order at all risks. The rich in this city have had very little to complain of, and a corrupt Government is, and always must be, a Government for men who have money. We are beginning a movement for the abolition of industrial slavery, and what we do on this side of the water will send an impulse across the whole country, and give courage to all men to think and act. This is at once a revolt against political corruption and social injustice. The politicians and many respectable journals think very poorly of this movement because they term it a class movement. Class movement ! What class is it? The working class. An English writer has divided all men into three classes-working men, beggar men, and thieves and this is correct. There are only three ways of getting the product of labour-by working for it, by having it given to you, or by stealing it. If this is a class movement, then it is a movement of the working class against the beggar men and the thieves.

Why should there be such abject poverty in this city? There is one great fact stares us in the face. The vast majority of men, women, and children in New York have no legal right to be here at all. Most of us-99 per cent. at least-must pay the other 1 per cent. by week, or month, or quarter for the privilege of staying here and working like slaves. When real estate goes up here it is not the house that does it. It is the land. The great mass of our people pay a full fourth of their earnings for the privilege of the naked earth on which they stand. There are miles and miles of land all around us. Why can't we have that to build on? Simply because it is held by dogs-inmanger who cannot use it, and won't let anybody else use it.

What do we propose to do about it? To make buildings cheaper by taking the tax off them and putting it on the land, exclusive of improvements, so that men who hold land vacant will have to pay for it as if they were using it, just as a man who hires a room in a hotel and, locking the door, puts the key into his pocket and sleeps somewhere else, would have to pay for it all the same. In that way we propose to drive out the dog in the

manger.

I am called a Socialist. But I am also an individualist. I believe that every individual man ought to have an individual wife and an individual home. There is no reason why every working citizen should not have his own house to live in.

Again, our roads should be owned by the people, and operated by the people. We could take those railroads and run them free, and we could pay for

it out of the increased value of the people's property.

These are but steps, but the aim of our movement is the establishment of equal rights to man. Much of the difficulty arises out of the fact that we disinherit the very children who come into the world. The little ones dying in our tenement districts-have they no business here? Don't they come into life with any rights vested in them by their Creator? In the early days of New Zealand, when the English colonists bought up the land, they experienced considerable difficulties. As soon as they were well settled in their property the women of the natives came around again with babies and wanted something. But we owe you nothing,' said the colonists; we paid you for your land. 'Yes; but you have not paid these,' said the women, pointing to their little ones."

Most of the arguments used by Mr. George in this momentous campaign are doubtless familiar to the readers of THE DEMOCRAT, but on the tongue of the Prophet of San Francisco they never become trite, and now they have the added interest and novelty of being brought within the range of practical politics. They have already made the party Shibboleths Tammany Hall and Irving Hall supremely ridiculous. Consternation reigns in Wall Street and on the Stock Exchange. Unable to agree about the division of the spoils of office, the Republicans and Democrats have cach started candidates-Roosewelt and Hewitt-of the usual orthodox profit-mongering, market-rigging, theftious order, considerably augmenting thereby Mr. George's chance of heading the poll.

May they persevere in their resolutions to the end. Their discomfiture will carry confusion into the camp of the children of Mammon all over the world, and breathe into their despoiled and downtrodden victims of every race and every clime an assured hope that this world is, after all, not the devil's domain, but God Almighty's.

For mankind are one in spirit,
And an instinct bears along,
Round the earth's electric circle,
The swift flash of right or wrong.
Whether conscious or unconscious,
Humanity's vast frame,
Through its ocean-sundered fibres,
Feels the gush of joy or shame:
In the gain or loss of one race
All the rest have equal claim.

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THE LANARKSHIRE MINERS.

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These impoverished and downtrodden workers held a great demonstration at Motherwell Saturday, the 4th of September, at which three members of Parliament had been induced to attend and speak, viz., Mr. Charles Bradlaugh, Mr. Stephen Mason, and Mr. Donald Crawford, assisted by several well-known Glasgow politicians.

The object was, of course, the old one of attempting to improve, by organisation and united action, the chronically wretched condition of the mining population. Hitherto, all efforts made during the last forty years have, practically, failed to achieve more than the most temporary amelioration.

The very thing the miners require to improve their condition speedily and satisfactorily is, therefore, State regulation of hours of labour and rates of wages.

The miners are not poor because they do not work hard enough or do not produce enough wealth. It is because the wealth they do produce is not shared equitably. The power of monopoly only allows the starvation wages given them, while the monopolists take all the rest. The State, therefore, is the proper authority to deal with oppressive monopoly, and it could not have a fitter

case.

Besides, such interference is nothing new, it has only not been sufficiently extended in the proper direction. There can be no mistake about the soundness of the principle.

Miners' rows of dwellings are still distinguished by the absence of adequate accommodation, or proper sanitary arrangements, while the wolf of poverty stands a permanent sentinel at the door. The first and highest duty of a well-governed If it be asked, "Why have all attempts to raise State is to secure the comfort and happiness of its the condition of the miners to one of compara-people-not of a few only, but of all. tive comfort and happiness hitherto failed?" the answer, is "That the causes which create the existing state of things have not been properly understood."

And, unless the miners and their advisers thoroughly understand these causes, and adopt the proper and effective means to deal with them, present efforts shall certainly end in failure as before.

Now, in perusing the reports of the speeches delivered by the M.P.'s, to which, probably, the men attach chief importance, the danger of being misdirected in their course of action is very apparent to economists, who have gone to the root of the matter; and time, money, and energy, are again liable to be practically wasted.

It is not at all likely that mere organisation of workers against employers, which does not alter the personnel of the House of Commons, or sensibly impress the quality of legislation, can be more successful in the future than it has been in the past.

It cannot be; because the power of monopoly in force against labour is still the same, and is practically irresistible to ordinary methods. The state of trade in the country, and the widespread destitution among the people, prove that mere organisation, without the knowledge of propelling principles, is powerless for permanent good

In the face of that, Mr. Bradlaugh is reported as declaring that "he is one who believed that even the hours of labour, and the rate of wages, should be settled by the employers and the employed, and not by statute law." Mr. Bradlaugh is, of course, aware that statute law already interferes to some extent with the hours of labour, and but for that interference amendment would have been hopeless. Employers and employed have been long enough trying to regulate hours and wages, with the result we know. Were each party occupying equal positions, an equitable arrangement would be possible, but they are not. The power of monopoly of land and capital is too great to allow the employed to rise above the state of serfdom and poverty, which they have always occupied, and will continue to occupy, until that very intervention of the State which Mr. Bradlaugh deprecates.

The first step is to secure adequate means of subsistence for all.

This can only be done by the State enacting such rates of wages, for a reasonable amount of labour, as will suffice to find a man and his wife and family plenty of wholesome food, good clothing, and house accommodation.

In the

Not to mention the Factory Acts as an example of salutary State interference, we find the principle applied to all the departments of the State itself, especially to the higher grades of service. Post Office, the Telegraphs, the Civil Service, the Army and Navy, the Church, the Ministry even, and in almost all public bodies the salaries and hours of service are not open to the force of monopoly competition like the work and wages of the miners, but are fixed in such a manner as to allow ample leisure for rational enjoyment and ample means of comfortable, and even luxurious, living.

Surely the actual producer of wealth is more entitled to such care and consideration than the mere administrator, who has to depend upon that production for his office and his pay?

There exists plenty of means by which the workers of society can be enabled to enjoy a life worth living and to abolish utterly the prevailing poverty and misery of the working population.

When the Duke of Richmond was appointed Secretary for Scotland by the previous Conservative Government there was no difficulty in finding him £2,000 a year, with a staff costing thousands more, to do the little necessary work, notwithstanding the enormous sums the Duke already takes annually out of the country's revenues!

Let the overworked, underpaid miners and others insist upon State interposition as the speediest, soundest, and most effectual means of coping with the evils which oppress them.

Mr. Mason, M.P., also fails to grasp the situation, and, consequently, his proposed remedy would be none at all. For example, it is fundamentally wrong to teach that manufacturing and mining industries should take rank before agriculture; or that the so-called supremacy of this country as a first-class Power depends entirely upon the coal and iron, or the like industries. "The greatness of the Empire" is a phrase being continually used

to confuse by its vagueness the minds of people set upon the solution of a social or political problem. Nothing contributes to the greatness and prosperity of any country but the industry of the people inhabiting it, and that industry must be properly directed in order to allow the wealth created to be fairly and justly distributed.

To limit or restrict agricultural produce and to expand the production of other commodities is just to reverse the natural order of industry, and, instead of conserving national independence so far as Nature's advantages allow, the country is made more and more dependent for subsistence upon other countries, as foreign supplies of food depend upon the extent of requirements of our manufactured commodities.

The over-production of the latter-and the system compels over-production, as is the case everywhere -tends to reduce their exchange value, and consequently more work brings back less food in exchange, thus creating and intensifying industrial slavery and poverty.

On the other hand, by raising the maximum of food or agricultural produce the necessity of exporting manufactured products, such as iron and coal, &c., becomes less and less, and therefore their exchange value would be maintained at a level, at least not lower than the level of adequate means of subsistence. Instead of having to press or force exports, as is now being done in order to obtain in exchange the means of living, however scant, foreigners in possession of a surplus of agricultural produce, or in other words, of more than adequate means of subsistence, would gladly seek out our secondary products, such as coal, iron, machinery, &c., and willingly give ample value in exchange, thus benefitting both sides.

Mr. Mason is mistaken, therefore, in saying that we have to depend upon mining and manufactures, and not upon agriculture, for power and prosperity, But agriculture, like mining, must be freed altogether from the baneful supremacy of landlordism. No country can prosper generally where that monopoly rules as it does here. The few will wax rich and luxurious at the expense of the toil, poverty, and misery of the many; the few will then boast of "the greatness of the Empire" and speak of the absolute necessity of maintaining our supremacy as a first-class power." But all that alleged "greatness and supremacy are false and hollow; they rest upon a social and political crater which is bound to burst into activity sooner or later with overwhelming volume and force.

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The wages of workers in mines or elsewhere can never be raised without State interference, for the power of land and mineral monopoly over industry is meantime greater than the power of the State. It is absurd for Mr. Mason to say on the one hand what is quite true, viz. that the minerals rightfully belong to the State, and then immediately on the other that he did not advocate confiscation of the mineral royalties. There can be no confiscation in taking from those who fraudulently possess and enjoy property not their own, and in restoring it to the rightful owners. If the State has a right to any portion of the royalties, it has a right to the whole. To acknowledge a sliding scale is to admit the landlord's right of property, which is already

denied. To tinker about royalties in Parliament as to whether the coalmaster or ironmaster shall pay on a sliding scale or otherwise to the monopolist is sheer waste of time, and will not ameliorate one jot the condition of the miners.

What is required is (1) to stop all payments whatever of mineral rents and royalties to individuals who do nothing to earn them; (2) to divide the revenues from such sources among the people working in and about mines, in addition to their usual wages.

was 163,737,327 tons, and the number of workers The out-put of coal in 1883 over the Kingdom in and about all the mines-including iron and others-was 514,933. This gives an average of 318 tons ton, the sum accruing to each worker would have per person. At an average royalty of 1s. per been £15 18s. in addition to his wages for that year.

That result would have been attained with the low prices of coal prevailing under the existing erroneous system of competition, caused by land monopoly ; but if the miners had had adequate means of living, as they could have had easily by this method of State intervention, less coal would have been raised, and the selling prices would have been higher, thereby bringing more exchange value from abroad.

But although the classes who monopolise power in Parliament believe in and practise State interference in regulating the hours of labour and amounts of salaries-the first on a minimum, the latter on a maximum scale for themselves and relations who live upon the public taxes, every penny of which is taken from labour - they scout the very idea of acting upon the same principle towards the men who create the wealth for them.

Mr. Crawford, M.P., shows by his speech his total disinclination to do anything practical for his mining constituents.

He offers a starving multitude whatever consolation they can draw from the hackneyed and misleading statement that pauperism is less now than it was twenty years ago; as if it were not a wellknown fact that parochial authorities are reducing pauper statistics by callously denying outdoor relief, and leaving the poor and helpless to starve ! He thinks royalties the legitimate property of the landlords; if that be so, he has no business to touch them.

He does not advocate State interference for miners; and he thinks the north-east of England miners have liberty which they do not wish restricted!

The slavery of foreign workmen is held up as an example to be followed here, while the monopolists appropriate the wealth produced.

The Commissioners on Trade Depression whom, Mr. Crawford says, he formerly abused, now receive his favourable comments, because they have gathered a lot of information! He thinks the cause of dull trade a very simple one, viz., over-production; and that they can easily cure that by not producing!

How the miners are not to produce without starving, Mr. Crawford does not condescend to

consider!

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