Page:The Complete Works of Henry George Volume 3.djvu/177

 THE "REDUCTION TO INIQUITY." 59

from excess but from deficiency of democracy, and mainly from our failure to recognize the equality of natural rights as well as of political rights. In comparing the two coun- tries, it may be well to note that the exposure of abuses is quicker and sharper in the United States than in Eng- land, and that to some extent abuses which in the one country appear in naked deformity, are in the other hidden by the ivy of custom and respectability. But be this as it may, the reforms I propose, instead of adding to corruptive forces, would destroy prolific sources of cor- ruption. Our "protective" tariff, our excise taxes, and demoralizing system of local taxation, would, in their direct and indirect effects, corrupt any government, even if not aided by the corrupting effects of the grabbing for public lands. But the first step I propose would sweep away these corruptive influences, and it is to governments thus reformed, in a state of society in which the reckless struggle for wealth would be lessened by the elimination of the fear of want, that I would give, not the manage- ment of land or the direction of enterprise, but the administration of the funds arising from the appropria- tion of economic rent.

The Duke styles me a Pessimist. But, however pessi- mistic I may be as to present social tendencies, I have a firm faith in human nature. I am convinced that the attainment of pure government is merely a matter of conforming social institutions to moral law. If we do this, there is, to my mind, no reason why in the proper sphere of public administration we should not find men as honest and as faithful as when acting in private capa- cities.

But to return to the " reduction to iniquity." Test the institution of private property in land by its fruits in any country where it exists. Take Scotland. What, there, are its results ? That wild beasts have supplanted human

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