_Question_. What do you think of Henry George for mayor?
_Answer_. Several objections have been urged, not to what Mr.
George has done, but to what Mr. George has thought, and he is the
only candidate up to this time against whom a charge of this
character could be made. Among other things, he seems to have
entertained an idea to the effect that a few men should not own
the entire earth; that a child coming into the world has a right
to standing room, and that before he walks, his mother has a right
to standing room while she holds him. He insists that if it were
possible to bottle the air, and sell it as we do mineral water, it
would be hardly fair for the capitalists of the world to embark in
such a speculation, especially where millions were allowed to die
simply because they were not able to buy breath at "pool prices."
Mr. George seems to think that the time will come when capital will
be intelligent enough and civilized enough to take care of itself.
He has a dream that poverty and crime and all the evils that go
hand in hand with partial famine, with lack of labor, and all the
diseases born of living in huts and cellars, born of poor food and
poor clothing and of bad habits, will disappear, and that the world
will be really fit to live in. He goes so far as to insist that
men ought to have more than twenty-three or twenty-four dollars a
month for digging coal, and that they ought not to be compelled to
spend that money in the store or saloon of the proprietor of the
mine. He has also stated on several occasions that a man ought
not to drive a street car for sixteen or eighteen hours a day--that
even a street-car driver ought to have the privilege now and then
of seeing his wife, or at least one of the children, awake. And
he has gone so far as to say that a letter-carrier ought not to
work longer in each day for the United States than he would for a
civilized individual.
To people that imagine that this world is already perfection; that
the condition of no one should be bettered except their own, these
ideas seem dangerous. A man who has already amassed a million,
and who has no fear for the future, and who says: "I will employ
the cheapest labor and make men work as long as they can possibly
endure the toil," will regard Mr. George as an impractical man.
It is very probable that all of us will be dead before all the
theories of Mr. George are put in practice. Some of them, however,
may at some time benefit mankind; and so far as I am concerned, I
am willing to help hasten the day, although it may not come while
I live. I do not know that I agree with many of the theories of
Mr. George. I know that I do not agree with some of them. But
there is one thing in which I do agree with him, and that is, in
his effort to benefit the human race, in his effort to do away with
some of the evils that now afflict mankind. I sympathize with him
in his endeavor to shorten the hours of labor, to increase the well-
being of laboring men, to give them better houses, better food,
and in every way to lighten the burdens that now bear upon their
bowed backs. It may be that very little can be done by law, except
to see that they are not absolutely abused; to see that the mines
in which they work are supplied with air and with means of escape
in time of danger; to prevent the deforming of children by forcing
upon them the labor of men; to shorten the hours of toil, and to
give all laborers certain liens, above all other claims, for their
work. It is easy to see that in this direction something may be
done by law.
_Question_. Colonel Ingersoll, are you a Socialist?
_Answer_. I am an Individualist instead of a Socialist. I am a
believer in individuality and in each individual taking care of
himself, and I want the Government to do just as little as it can
consistently with the safety of the nation, and I want as little
law as possible--only as much as will protect life, reputation and
property by punishing criminals and by enforcing honest contracts.
But if a government gives privileges to a few, the few must not
oppress the many. The Government has no right to bestow any
privilege upon any man or upon any corporation, except for the
public good. That which is a special privilege to the few, should
be a special benefit to the many. And whenever the privileged few
abuse the privilege so that it becomes a curse to the many, the
privilege, whatever it is, should be withdrawn. I do not pretend
to know enough to suggest a remedy for all the evils of society.
I doubt if one human mind could take into consideration the almost
infinite number of factors entering into such a problem. And this
fact that no one knows, is the excuse for trying. While I may not
believe that a certain theory will work, still, if I feel sure it
will do no harm, I am willing to see it tried.
_Question_. Do you think that Mr. George would make a good mayor?
_Answer_. I presume he would. He is a thoughtful, prudent man.
His reputation for honesty has never, so far as I know, been called
in question. It certainly does not take a genius to be mayor of
New York. If so, there have been some years when there was hardly
a mayor. I take it that a clear-headed, honest man, whose only
object is to do his duty, and with courage enough to stand by his
conscience, would make a good mayor of New York or of any other
city.
_Question_. Are you in sympathy with the workingmen and their
objects?
_Answer_. I am in sympathy with laboring men of all kinds, whether
they labor with hand or brain. The Knights of Labor, I believe,
do not allow a lawyer to become a member. I am somewhat wider in
my sympathies. No men in the world struggle more heroically; no
men in the world have suffered more, or carried a heavier cross,
or worn a sharper crown of thorns, than those that have produced
what we call the literature of our race. So my sympathies extend
all the way from hod-carriers to sculptors; from well-diggers to
astronomers. If the objects of the laboring men are to improve
their condition without injuring others; to have homes and firesides,
and wives and children; plenty to eat, good clothes to wear; to
develop their minds, to educate their children--in short, to become
prosperous and civilized, I sympathize with them, and hope they
will succeed. I have not the slightest sympathy with those that
wish to accomplish all these objects through brute force. A Nihilist
may be forgiven in Russia--may even be praised in Russia; a Socialist
may be forgiven in Germany; and certainly a Home-ruler can be
pardoned in Ireland, but in the United States there is no place
for Anarchist, Socialist or Dynamiter. In this country the political
power has been fairly divided. Poverty has just as many votes as
wealth. No man can be so poor as not to have a ballot; no man is
rich enough to have two; and no man can buy another vote, unless
somebody is mean enough and contemptible enough to sell; and if he
does sell his vote, he never should complain about the laws or
their administration. So the foolish and the wise are on an
equality, and the political power of this country is divided so
that each man is a sovereign.
Now, the laboring people are largely in the majority in this country.
If there are any laws oppressing them, they should have them
repealed. I want the laboring people--and by the word "laboring"
now, I include only the men that they include by that word--to
unite; I want them to show that they have the intelligence to act
together, and sense enough to vote for a friend. I want them to
convince both the other great parties that they cannot be purchased.
This will be an immense step in the right direction.
I have sometimes thought that I should like to see the laboring
men in power, so that they would realize how little, after all,
can be done by law. All that any man should ask, so far as the
Government is concerned, is a fair chance to compete with his
neighbors. Personally, I am for the abolition of all special
privileges that are not for the general good. My principal hope
of the future is the civilization of my race; the development not
only of the brain, but of the heart. I believe the time will come
when we shall stop raising failures, when we shall know something
of the laws governing human beings. I believe the time will come
when we shall not produce deformed persons, natural criminals. In
other words, I think the world is going to grow better and better.
This may not happen to this nation or to what we call our race,
but it may happen to some other race, and all that we do in the
right direction hastens that day and that race.
_Question_. Do you think that the old parties are about to die?
_Answer_. It is very hard to say. The country is not old enough
for tables of mortality to have been calculated upon parties. I
suppose a party, like anything else, has a period of youth, of
manhood and decay. The Democratic party is not dead. Some men
grow physically strong as they grow mentally weak. The Democratic
party lived out of office, and in disgrace, for twenty-five years,
and lived to elect a President. If the Democratic party could live
on disgrace for twenty-five years it now looks as though the
Republican party, on the memory of its glory and of its wonderful
and unparalleled achievements, might manage to creep along for a
few years more.
--_New York World_, October 26, 1886.