288 Evolution and Social Reform : 



living men have an equal right of use ; that it will compel every 

 individual controlling natural opportunities to utilize them by 

 employment of labor or abandon them to others ; that it will thus 

 l)rovide opportunities of work for all men, and secure to each the 

 full reward of his labor ; and that as a result involuntary poverty 

 will be abolished, and the greed, intemperance, and vice that 

 spring from poverty and the dread of poverty will be swept away." 



Truly a consummation devoutly to be wislied ! I should 

 feel more confidence in Mr. George's prophecy if I had 

 not unfortunately read his explanation of financial crises, 

 which seems to me the most elaborate and consistent mis- 

 statement of an economic question which it ever entered 

 into the mind of man to conceive. It is a most admirable 

 demonstration of wliat a courser a hobby may become when 

 he takes the bit between his teeth. 



Mr. George's theory, of course, is that these crises are 

 the result of private ow-nership of land, and of land 

 speculations. l$o^\ I cannot imagine anyone who has 

 passed through two or three of these crises, and wlio has 

 really been familiar with the course of events, advancing 

 any theory so preposterous. A crisis, a panic, is a very 

 simple matter if you keep in view the peculiarities of hu- 

 man nature, which curiously enough are seldom taken into 

 account by tlie Socialist, extreme or limited. The order is 

 simply tliis : a period of commercial calm provokes the 

 development of business enterprises ; this development 

 increases capital and stinuilates confidence ; confidence in 

 turn begets credit and tliis reacts upon production ; the re- 

 sulting production still further stinuilates credit, and strong 

 and weak alike are induced to spread themselves to the 

 utmost upon the strength of public confidence ; tliose who 

 have been most successful and who are most shrewd now 

 feel that it is best to make sure of wliat they liave acquired, 

 and begin buying real estate which has long lagged behind 

 l)ersonal property in the advance ; its value of course rises ; 

 at tlie same time the system of commercial credits has 

 readied the state of tension which is typified by tlxe Prince 

 ]vui)ert's drop of tlie jjliysicist, of which break oif but 

 tlie tiniest point the whole mass will fly into the finest 

 ])OAvder. Somewhere a hollow shell breaks, a bank or a 

 merchant fails, financial institutions stop lending, the notes 

 which fall due cannot be extended the credit system ex- 

 ])lodes, and the members of the community, weak and strong 

 alike, are involved in a common ruin. 



