Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3088

Andelson Correspondence – to, from and about Robert Vernon Andelson

1959-1961

 

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2875

Penned inscription in copy of Citadel, Market and Altar sent to

Robert Vernon Andelson, 5111 College Avenue, San Diego 5, California,

per his request following Heath’s visit to Campbell House in July, 1959.

September 19, 1959

 

 

To

   The Henry George School, San Diego

   With all Best Wishes and in full

     fundamental accord.

 

(Signed) Spencer Heath

 

September, 1959

 

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2239

Carbon of three typed pages by Robert V. Andelson.

No indication as to whether or where it might have been published.

No date

 

  AN AFTERNOON WITH SPENCER HEATH

Robert V. Andelson

It was my privilege last August to spend an afternoon in conversation with Spencer Heath. I use the word “privilege” advisedly, for I am well aware that many Georgists regard Mr. Heath with emotions ordinarily reserved for Benedict Arnold and Judas Iscariot; for this man, who years ago materially assisted Oscar Geiger in the founding of the Henry George School of Social Science, is today the most formidable critic of the philosophy it teaches. A passion for individual freedom, inspired by Progress and Poverty, led him finally to reject its social remedy as overly coercive.

 I came to meet him quite by accident, although I had earlier read portions of his magnum opus, Citadel, Market and Altar, which impressed me by the sonorous eloquence of its closely-reasoned prose. In the course of a visit to California, he arrived one day as a luncheon guest at Campbell House near San Jacinto, where I was helping to conduct a socio-religious seminar with a group of graduate students. White-bearded and surmounted by unique spectacles of his own invention, the visage of this tall old patriarch would alone have been enough to pique my interest. But the originality of his book had already made me curious to know its author.

 When, as we were introduced, he learned of my association with the School, he evidently sensed an area of mutual concern. After lunch, while others toured the grounds, we sought each other out and probed each other’s minds for several hours until his companions returned to drive him back to town.

 Appreciatively acknowledging his own debt to Henry George, Mr. Heath quietly but forcefully explained the reasons which led him to repudiate site-value taxation in favor of a system grounded on the indefeasibility of private land titles. It was really more of a monologue than a discussion, for I was ill-prepared to attempt an on-the-spot refutation of the intricate and tightly woven argument which for years had been his chief preoccupation. I shall not here engage to summarize its substance; suffice it to say that although I did not find it ultimately convincing, it struck me as an imposing line of reasoning with which Georgists would do well to come to grips.

 Without doubt, Spencer Heath is one of the most arresting speculative geniuses of our time. A former patent attorney and research engineer, he pioneered in the development of the airplane propeller. After a distinguished career in law and engineering, he turned in middle life to a profound study of the natural and social sciences. He has welded insights from all these fields into a truly impressive synthetic system which he calls “socionomy, the new natural science of society.” His thinking has been acclaimed by such outstanding figures as William Ernest Hocking, Roscoe Pound, John Chamberlain, Virgil Jordan and Ralph Sockman. Yet within the Georgist movement it is conspicuously and deliberately neglected.

 For decades we followers of Henry George have cried for an honest examin­ation of his doctrines. We have demanded that his opponents try to prove him wrong with arguments, instead of merely dismissing him with a historical footnote or a patronizing allusion to his literary style. But an honest critical examination has appeared. In 1952 Spencer Heath published Progress and Poverty Reviewed, a concise attempt at refutation which, whether successful or not, should command our earnest attention and our respect for its thoughtfulness and sincerity. Yet our response is to treat its author in the very same way in which we complain that Henry George is treated. Our response is to ignore him.

 Sociologists who have studied the morphology of institutions have long observed a dismal pattern of crystallization, ossification, and eventual disintegration. Concomitant with this has been a tendency toward super­stitious veneration of the founder, and uncritical acceptance of the “sacred canon” of the institution. The time has come for us to ask ourselves these questions: Have we made of Henry George a sacred cow and of his works a sacred canon? Have we transformed his living witness into a rigid dogma propagated by a catechism? Have our extensions become shrines of a sectarian orthodoxy which operates according to the hoary fallacy that “error” has no right to a hearing?

 The existence of our movement is itself proof that to dismiss is not to refute, and that ideas cannot be made to disappear by pretending that they do not exist. If we really believe in the philosophy of Progress and Poverty, let us quit playing ostrich and defend it in the marketplace of open inquiry and free debate. If it has merit, we need not fear for its survival.

 But if, out of a school with over twenty branches, we are unwilling or unable to come up with a careful and convincing answer to Mr. Heath’s critique, then, although the Henry George philosophy may yet deserve to survive, we, as a movement, shall not, for we shall have become unworthy to carry the banner of him who wrote:

I propose to beg no question, to shrink from no conclusion, but to follow truth wherever it may lead. Upon us is the responsibility of seeking the law, for in the very heart of our civilization today women faint and little children moan. But what that law may prove to be is not our affair. If the conclusions that we reach run counter to our prejudices, let us not flinch . . .

                                               /Ends here/

 

 

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2737

Letter to Heath at 312 Halesworth, Santa Ana, California, from Robert Vernon Andelson, Executive Director, Henry George School of Social Science, San Diego Extension, 5111 College Avenue, San Diego 15, California

April 5, 1960

 

Dear Mr. Heath:

 

Last week I spent an evening with Dr. Ake Sandler, Professor of Government at Los Angeles State College. He had heard about you from Bob Scanland, and expressed a desire to meet you.

 

 I am wondering if Mrs. Manning and yourself could arrange to get together with the Sandlers and the Andelsons some Thursday evening at my mother’s apartment in Los Angeles. If so, let me know the date and we will take it from there.

 

Cordially,

 

(signed) R.V.A.

Robert Vernon Andelson

Executive Director

 

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2875

Carbon of letter from Heath at 312 Halesworth, Santa Ana, California to Robert Vernon Andelson, Executive Director, Henry George School of Social Science, San Diego Extension, 5111 College Avenue, San Diego 15, California

May 1, 1960

 

 

Dear Mr. Andelson:

 

I was indeed sorry that I could not have a visit with Dr. Ake Sandler. After receiving your letter, I telephoned him, but he was away at Sacramento, I believe. However, his wife had him call me as soon as he returned, which happened to be just the day before I was leaving for the East. We had a very pleasant visit by telephone, with arrangements to see each other as soon as I returned to California some time later in the year.

 

 I have been wondering if the article you wrote concerning my serious critique on the practical technology of Henry George (while admiring his fundamental discovery concerning ground rent as the authentic public revenue) was ever published. In this connection, it comes to my mind that Mildred J. Loomis, at Lane’s End Homestead, in Brookville, Ohio, published a very thoughtful review of my Citadel, Market and Altar in her publication, BALANCED LIVING (March, 1958, p.44), from which review I quote as follows:

 

Those who say “Georgism is socialism,” or Georgists who are troubled by the need (in their system) to turn to a coercive agent (government) to allocate land sites and collect rent, will welcome Mr. Heath’s book. … Almost any reader will find it a test of his openness of mind.

 

 It is fortunate that there are at least a few people devoted to the philosophy of Henry George who are open-minded as to the precise application of the “general principles” which he referred to at the end of one of his prefaces to Progress and Poverty.

 

 Mrs. Manning and I planned to make another visit to San Diego and have again the pleasure of seeing you and Mrs. Andelson, but will now have to look forward to another time.

 

With many best wishes,

                            Cordially yours,

 

SH/m

 

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3088

Carbon of a letter from Heath to Robert V. Adelson,

Henry George School of Social Science, 5111 College Avenue,

San Diego 15, California

June 16, 1960

 

Dear Mr. Andelson:

 

     Bob LeFevre was very much interested in your “Final Oral Examination,” so I am sending you a copy of his reply.

 

     I include also a copy of my friend, Dr. Harper’s “Liberty Defined.”

 

     I hope everything is working out well with you.

 

Cordially,

 

Spencer Heath

SH/m

Enclosures

 

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3088

Carbon of letter from Heath to Robert V. Andelson

August 28, 1961

Dear Mr. Andelson:

I often remember with pleasure the contacts I had with you at Campbell House and in San Diego at the Henry George Head­quarters some two or more years ago. I have seldom met anyone of more pleasing personality and mind than I found in you, and since hearing that you were looking forward to obtaining your Doctor’s degree, I have been wondering what success you have had and how it is in general with you and your very attractive Mrs. Andelson.

I have just completed an academic year as a guest in residence at the Harvey Mudd College of Science and Engineering, Claremont, California, at the invitation of its admirable president, Dr. Joseph B. Platt. I have now resumed my headquarters at the address below and am looking forward to a more or less definite association with Pepperdine College in connection with courses in real estate administration and other matters relating to my Citadel, Market and Altar. It is only through Robert LeFevre and James Ingebretsen that I have had any news of you, and that but meagerly.

I hope all is prospering with you and that we may have an opportunity to meet again.

Cordially yours,

Spencer Heath

312 Halesworth Street

Santa Ana, California

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Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2875

Letter to Heath, 312 Halesworth Street, Santa Ana, California, from Robert V. Andelson, Executive director, Henry George School of Social Science, 5111 College Avenue, San Diego 15, California

August 30, 1961

 

Dear Mr. Heath:

Your flattering letter of the 20th arrived this morning, and I hasten to bring you up to date on my activities:

I received my Ph.D. a year ago last June from the University of Southern California. It was in religion but with a concentration in social ethics, and most of the men I studied under are now with the Southern California School of Theology in Claremont. The title of my dissertation is: “Human Rights: A Typological Survey of Their Theoretical Foundations.”  Since then I have had articles accepted for publication by two scholarly quarterlies — The Personalist, and The American Journal of Economics and Sociology.

As you may note, I am still with the San Diego extension of the Henry George School. My personal relationships with the members of my board here have vastly improved, and I am more or less in command of the situation.  However, I am still on the lookout for a college teaching position — preferably in ethics, social philosophy, or related areas. Perhaps you may know of something at Harvey Mudd or Pepperdine. Incidentally, I am somewhat surprised to hear of your imminent association with Pepperdine, as I did not know that followers of Socrates were welcome there.

My wife remembers you with pleasure, and we would be delighted to have you as our guest again any time you are down this way.

Our best to Mrs. Manning.

Cordially,

/s/ Bob Andelson

Robert V. Andelson

P.S.  Henceforth, you will be kept informed of my doings, since I am adding you to our mailing list.

CHARTERED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK •   INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, 50 E. 69TH ST., NEW YORK, N.Y.

 

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