Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1493

Carbon of a letter largely dictated by Heath but signed by Spencer MacCallum, replying to an inquiry about the Science of Society Foundation from Don M. Cregier, 9 Kilby Street, Worcester, Massachusetts

October 24, 1953

Dear Mr. Cregier:

    Replying to your inquiry of October 19, we are happy to give you what information we can about our work.

     Mr. Spencer Heath, former lawyer and research engineer in the aeronautical field, has been making an examination for the past twenty years into the organization of Society as distinguished from that of the ancient totalitarian political authorities and their modern (‘democratic’) successors, which is based on the technology of conquest and taxation and other forms of coercion and force. Mr. Heath’s separation of society, as the free and voluntary relationships among men on which the progress of civilization (and the sup­port of the political) depend, and the political and coercive from which they evolve, has thrown a great deal of light on the nature of our non-political institutions, especially the institution of private property in land.

     The main purpose of this Foundation is to promote understanding of the institution of private property in land. To this end we have laid open the fallacies of the land communist argument, which derives from the erroneous generalizations of Malthus, Ricardo, and J. S. Mill which Henry George greatly elaborated. However, this exposé of the false beliefs about private property in land is only preliminary to demonstrating how this institution was evolved and still is evolving toward becoming the alter­native, and free, agency for the performance of public works – without resort to taxation or the technique of war. You will find a much condensed exposition of this in “Progress and Poverty Reviewed,” by Spencer Heath, be­ginning on page twenty.

     If you haven’t a copy of Henry George’s populariza­tion of the land communist dialectic, Progress and Poverty. we will be glad to send you one in accordance with our advertisements which are appearing in several magazines as per proof enclosed. We are sending you a copy of our review of Progress and Poverty including supplementary material resulting from its publication (for which we customarily charge 25 cents). Also a critical analysis of the ten basic premises of the Land Communist argument as most recently set out by Professor Glen Hoover in the Freeman Magazine, July 27.

     We are pleased at your interest in our work, and will be even more pleased to hear more from you about it. Be­sides the above material we have, at present, several pamphlets by Mr. Heath on real estate administration. Further material of a constructive kind is being prepared.

With best wishes,

Enc.