Foreword to the Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of
Progress & Poverty

1929

"It would require less than the fingers of the two hands to enumerate those who, from Plato down, rank with Henry George among the world's social philosophers.... No man, no graduate of a higher educational institution, has a right to regard himself as an educated man in social thought unless he has some firsthand acquaintance with the theoretical contribution of this great American thinker."

In this fiftieth year after the first publication of "Progress and Poverty" it must appear to that growing body of workers for social justice who in many lands are spreading George's gospel, that there is at this time as great a need as ever for the comprehension of the truth he sought to make plain. For, as in 1879, there if, widespread social unrest in the world. Industrial depression and unemployment are conditions common to many lands, and even in the nominally prosperous atmosphere of the United States, vast numbers are compelled to live in poverty or close to its border line. It would appear that in the half century since "Progress and Poverty" was published, there has been little abatement of the social and economic ills that have afflicted the human family everywhere, and that recur, with unfailing regularity, in cycles that seem unexplainable except to the followers of Henry George. And, at a time when world opinion is demanding that statesmanship shall outlaw war, it is important to recall that the World Economic Conference, held at Geneva in 1927 at the call of the League of Nations, found a definite interdependence of the economic causes of war and industrial depression. It seems like a vindication of the philosophy of Henry George to find that this Conference, to which the representatives of fifty nations were called, unanimously arrived at the conclusion that:

"The main trouble now is neither any material shortage of the resources of nature nor any inadequacy in man's power to exploit them. It is all, in one form or another, a maladjustment; not an insufficient productive capacity, but a series of impediments to the full utilization of that capacity. The main obstacles to economic revival have been the hindrances opposed to the free flow of labor, capital, and goods."

This, in effect, is what Henry George maintained fifty years ago, contrary to the teachings of the accepted political economy.

Greater need than ever exists for a re-examination by mankind of the remedy for the world's social and economic ills that is involved in the fundamental proposals of Henry George — proposals which Tolstoy declared must ultimately be accepted by the world because they are so logical and so unanswerable.

Therefore, the trustees of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, of New York, which was formed to bring about a wider acquaintance with the social and economic philosophy of Henry George, have considered this an appropriate time to produce from new plates this Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of "Progress and Poverty."