Show riEWITT VS GEORGE The pendin tost in New York City between A S ewitt the nominee for Mayor of that city on the Democratic ticket and Henry George who is running as a confessed Socialist is one of national importance As this contest is decided HO will the future national contest on the same grounds be for all thinking men admit that home time in the future this mistaken U a of the misguided men who back George must needs become n national issue in order to forever Hlt It out of the war and by so I doing prove to the men who are deceived by the ignis fatuui placed before them jy Hen with hobbies that human nature must be controlled by law I and that to substitute ny other means for governing tli > people would lead to chaos the end wh > no man could tell The following evccipt from an open letter to Mr Georgi b > P Hewitt published pub-lished in the Now Yo s n is BO true and so explicit that v ladlv crive it V space believing that any r atonable man V will at once agree with Mr Hewitt in all he writes r Let us see for one moment hun your spe oifio would in this operate thiscit s valuable buildings and improvement un the land belong almost exclusively to rich men and to corporations whom you hold in holy horror hor-ror They would at once be oVfuiptcd from V V taxes and to that extent you would dd to V their already overgrown revenues This donation however you would expect to recoup by taxation on land This taxation would even under your scheme necessarily V VV V bo applied to lands upon equal turns A lot with a building costing a million of dollars would therefore pay the same taxes as a vacant lot on tho one side or a lot with a building costing ten thousand dollars on the other side What would you accomplish by this change beyond making the rich man richer and the poor man poorer Again what will you do with the man who lives in his own house and pays no rent With you he may have regarded the pay ment of rent as a heavy burden Hence he has struggled for years to acquire a home of I his own There are thousands of such ner sons 111 tlllB CIty who painfully realize what this struggle has cost You propose to re move taxes from all other forms of value or and to impose upon land thus acquired n tax equal to the rent which it would now yield thus reducing the owner to the very servitude from which by economy and in dustry he has rescued himself and his family But there is a large class of our people who have not thus 1 acquired land but have deposited their savings in banks or have made provision for their families through the beneficent agency of life insurance Under the laws of this State these savings and accumulations or policies are chiefly loaned out on mortgages upon real estate When by means of your ingenious scheme of appropriating the rent of land by taxes you have destroyed its value to the owner what security will remain to the depositors I in savings banks and the holders of policies of insurance You will reply that the buildings and improvements will remain I Hut what value do these possess as a security when the virtual fee of the land is destroyed and what shadow of security will remain on unimproved lands and on farm lands where tho improvements are a secondary consider ation 1UClje Ue sampleS only of the diffioulties to which you can devote all the time which you generously offer to divide with me at Ohickeriug Hall You object to my conclusion that your platform means that idle labor is to be em ployed by the State You do not explain what it does moan if this be not the true Hignifioauco of a declaration otherwise un intelligible r 1 find in the newspapers the following passages quoted from remarks made by you u few days ago in New York With all its drawbacks and horrors and shortcomings the great epoch of tho French 10volution now but a century gone is about to repeat itself here Liberty equality and fraternity embodies the aspirations of every workingman in tho world today It re mains for the workingmen to reestablish J the republic not the republic of the mil lionaire and tramp What was done in 1776 in this country in Franco in 178U must be done over again Our forefathers won ns our political rights it remains that we should assert them I If I < C C I iuin ia a class movementthe tuu uprising OI the workingmon the revolt of the disinher ited class claiming their share of the wealth their toil produces You allege that the press misrepresents your statements Perhaps you will inform tho public whether the above passages arc correctly reported If they are you are con vioted out of your own mouth of seeking to inflict upon this country the horrors from which Franco has not yet recovered You seem to think that your election as Mayor of New York will in some mysterious way euro the social evils which we both do ploro If there were the slightest founda tion for this belief I should give you my hearty support because I know that my flection cannot have any such effect The duties of the Mayor are defined by law So far as they are not purely ministerial the I fcu UUAAAAlkUU uv t > nv power VFJL ilpJIUlllblUcllL where vacancies occur to a general vision of the super municipal government and to the creation of vacancies with the approval of tho Governor in case of malfeasance in office The Mayor has no control over the police force so that your promise to rcgu late its members cannot be made good He has no power to order the Health Depart V ment to undertake specific works of rectifi cation so that your assurances that will clean tho you streets purify the atmos phere and improve the sanitary oondition of the tenement houses cannot be carried into effect by you The same difficulties will confront you when you attempt to deal with the streets the docks and the schools In leading your followeis to expect reforms which you cannot execute you have to use a homely but expressive phrase bitten off more than you can chew Amongyour numerous claims for support V I have nowhere it seen assorted that you V have any patent or secret charm by which you can change the o nature of man or secure for yourself any greater power or influence for good than either of the other candidates I possesses or that they will be less oon I scientious in the discharge of their duties than you promise to be How then your election will accomplish the reforms you desire passes my comprehension but I can clearly see how you will have to disappoint t o many hopes and expectations raised by your declarations that the present disoon tent will be greatly increased to tho infinite j r damage of confidence order enterprise em I ployment and thrift While you are penning your letter another man who has risen from the ranks of labor by the force of his character and his great I practical sense and who does not parade his poverty as his claim for the position which ho fills with such honor to himself and bene I fit to the P community M Arthur was uttering to the Locomotive Engineers of I whom he is the trusted chief some words of wisdom which I commend to the deluded members of the trades unions who have abandoned the principles on which they were founded in favor of the new gospel you profess to have discovered Mr Arthur saidWe We have no sympathy for nor cooperation with any class or set of men who base their claims upon the principle that might makes right and therich owe the poor a living No man has a right to anything that does not come to him through the channel of honest acquirement If you would have name fame or wealtht work for them Have an object in life let it be as exalted as pos possible and if backed by a strong determination deter-mination and honest endeavor believe me you will attain it Much has been said and more written concerning the antagonism between capital and labor To my mind there is no such thing Between work and idleness there has never been any feeling other than antagonistic antagon-istic and it is those of the latter class who are attempting to poison the mind of the industrious V mere seems 10 uo Kfucrciiiy prevalent an idea that all capitalists are rich whereas the truth is that no great business enterprise enter-prise is owned and controlled by one man but by many each contributing something toward the mighty whole I will venture to say that most men of thrifty industrious habits are capitalists When we consider that capital is only invested wealth I hope there is not one among you my hearers but can count himself a capitalist be your pile ever so small The chiefofthe great trades union seems inclined to take little stock in your enterprise enter-prise for tho reconstruction of society by schemes which though merely ink when seton set-on caper turn to blood when put in action I believe he speaks the sentiments of all thoughtful workingmen who realize that revolution confiscation and robbery are not less ruinous to honest labor when they are disguised as a fantastic combination of poverty pov-erty and progress |