Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1259

Carbon of a letter from Heath to Raymond V. McNally, 200 East 16th Street, New York, New York NY

August 7, 1939

My dear Mr. McNally:

Henry George, as a moralist, believed himself under divine command to destroy evil and drive poverty out of the world. To do this he thought it necessary to abolish private property in land.

But as a Political Scientist, in order to preserve freedom of exchange and the values of civilized life, he proposed:

“To ABOLISH ALL TAXATION save that on land values.”

And he urged that this abolition would, in its effects, abolish all taxation whatsoever, for then all costs of public services would, of necessity, be met out of their proceeds in ground rent. Thus would public services be distributed no longer by favor as tax-supported privileges but as land values received in exchange for the ground rents that the public services, and the great demand for them under no-taxation, would create.

His problem then became: In whose hands should rest the sales of public services and advantages and the collection of the rent paid for them? Should political persons using force grant and determine occupancies and take rents under rules promulgated by or for them? Or, should proprietary persons using consent and exchange give possession and services by bargain and sale and upon terms fixed not “administratively” but in the freedom and democracy of an open market?

Henry George, the Political Scientist, took his firm stand on the side of freedom and democracy, by exchange, and against the baleful dominion of political administration and control over property and possession. He felt, even if he did not clearly see, that land users under the heel of tax-taking politicians as to their security of possession, even without other taxes, would be in as bad plight as ever before. To him, all true sciences taught the ways of creation, the ways of the Creator, and thus taught men how to create, where moralists would teach them to destroy. The Political Scientist in him taught the conservation of men’s wealth and values by the abrogation of force and the creation of public values by a voluntary exchange relationship between the users and the possessors of land and those in whom its ownership and democratic administration rests by public consent.

The problem of today is: Who shall deliver us out of the hand of the politician? Henry George saw this but dimly. Nevertheless, he turned sharply, even if ungraciously, to the land owner for public service without force and only by consent and exchange. Shall we follow him?

As one who would not strive to justify Henry George in the role of a destroyer of the exchange relationship and its values, but one who would honor him in his capacity as a creator, I should like to enjoy your further personal acquaintance. I plan to be at my New York address, Kings Crown Hotel, 420 West 116th Street (Telephone University 4-2700), the fortnight beginning August 28th. Please advise me if you expect to be in or near New York then and if I may have the pleasure of a visit from you during that time and at our common convenience.

Very sincerely yours,

Spencer Heath Encl.

Inspiration of Beauty

Private Property in Land Explained.