The Deed and the Wage · Episode 7 of 10 · 12 min
Henry George: The Land Reformer America's Labor Movement Loved
In 1886 New York's labor unions nominated land reformer Henry George for mayor, and he finished ahead of Theodore Roosevelt. His Progress and Poverty argued that rent swallows the gains of progress, making labor and capital allies against land monopoly. For one moment the land question and the labor question were the same ballot line.
Who's who
- Henry George+2 more episodesSelf-taught printer, author of Progress and Poverty, advocate of single tax
- Abram HewittIron magnate who won the 1886 New York mayoralty
- Theodore Roosevelt+14 more episodesRepublican who finished third in the 1886 mayoral race
- Edward McGlynnNew York priest excommunicated in 1887 for backing George
- Pope Leo XIIIAuthor of Rerum Novarum, read partly as a reply to George
- Karl Marx+5 more episodesDismissed George in an 1881 letter
- Tom L. JohnsonCleveland mayor and the most consequential Georgist officeholder
- Lizzie MagieDesigner of the Landlord's Game, Monopoly's ancestor
Where it happens
- New York City+13 more episodesSite of the 1886 mayoral campaign
- San Francisco, California+12 more episodesWhere George watched land monopoly develop
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania+4 more episodesAdopted a split-rate property tax in 1913
- Detroit, Michigan+7 more episodesProposed a land value tax that stalled in the legislature
Timeline
- 1879Progress and Poverty published
- November 2, 1886New York mayoral election: Hewitt 90,552, George 68,110, Roosevelt 60,435
- July 4, 1887McGlynn excommunicated for backing George
- May 15, 1891Rerum Novarum issued; George replies with The Condition of Labor
- October 29, 1897George dies four days before the mayoral election
- January 5, 1904Magie granted a patent for the Landlord's Game
Still debated
The 1871 horseback epiphany rests on George's own later account, and the 1886 fraud allegations are contested, though most historians doubt fraud explains the margin. Whether 1886 was a road not taken or proof the coalition was never stable remains an open question.
← PreviousThe Case Against the Land Theory of Capital and LaborNext →Land Reform as Labor Policy: Mexico, Bolivia, Japan, Taiwan
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