Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1344

Carbon of typewritten letter to Mary Fels, Peter Stuyvesant Hotel, Central Park West and 86^th Street, New York, N.Y. Note that this was typed by someone other than Heath and the phrase “more abundant state” of real estate, which doesn’t make sense here, apparently was a misunderstanding of Heath’s dictation of “moribund state,” which makes perfect sense.

January 30, 1940

 

 

 

Dear Mrs. Fels:-

 

It was very delightful to have the pleasure of seeing you again after so many years. I had been thinking and speaking of you many times both in Eng­land and in America, and had the pleasure of knowing that you were keeping up, in one form or another, your kindly activities on behalf of suffering mankind. It is good to know that you are in this only relative­ly safe land of the living, and that you still carry on as unselfishly as in the days of yore.

 

It pleases me to know that you are seeing life predominantly from the spiritual point of view. The materialistic outlook always involves the use of crude and destructive force as the instrument for putting things right in the world. The spiritual outlook always takes account of love in the form of service, and of mutual love in the form of exchange of services. To me this is the only real and true foundation for enduring social relationships. And it is the spiritual and, therefore, the only vital element in political economy or any of the social sciences. I am more and more intrigued by this spiritual aspect and content of economics, for it reduces all the wealth and other material things of the world to the mere instruments of human service which they are. I am strong for the principle and sanctity of ownership, for it is only by ownership that things can be exchanged or otherwise used on behalf of others. Henry George’s proposition, in its positive simplicity and practical application wi11 have the effect of so enormously increasing ground rent as to rehabilitate the institution of property in land, and redeeming it from its present more abundant /moribund?/ state into the great and peaceful agency of public service and administration that the world so lacks and now so sadly needs. I hope you have found some in­timation of all this in the little booklet that I think I left with you entitled “The Inspiration of Beauty,” which to me means motivation by the divine, and all of which is epitomized in sonnet form on the last page.

 

The other pamphlet which I enclose is an analysis of the institution of private property in land as the social agency perfectly adapted by nature for the per­formance of community services by exchange – the only way in which they can be successfully performed. I need hardly call your attention that this functional interpretation in terms of the very necessary and essen­tial services that the institution is adapted to perform is the true spiritual approach – the only approach that reveals the beauty inherent in social institutions and their authentic functioning.

 

This letter is merely meant to accompany the Christmas greeting card which was spoken of during our visit, and which I promised to send you. I hope you will like my somewhat juvenile and, possibly, simplified version of the Lord’s Prayer.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

 

SH:ML

Enc.

Inspiration of Beauty

Private Property in Land

Lord’s Prayer