FOREWORD
TO THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
The fame won by Henry George as writer, economist and philosopher, has not diminished with the years that have passed since his death in 1897. On the contrary, there has been a steadily broadening recognition of his intellectual eminence. Significant of this was the recent Appreciation by John Dewey, the famous American educator and professor of philosophy at Columbia University, which contained these striking statements:
“It would require less than the fingers of the two hands to enumerate those who, from Plato down, rank with Henry George among the world’s social philosophers. ... No man, no graduate of a higher educational institution, has a right to regard himself as an educated man in social thought unless he has some firsthand acquaintance with the theoretical contribution of this great American thinker.”
In this fiftieth year after the first publication of “Progress and Poverty” it must appear to that growing body of workers for social justice who in many lands are spreading George’s gospel, that there is at this time as great a need as ever for the comprehension of the truth he sought to make plain. For, as in 1879, there is widespread social unrest in the world. Industrial depression and unemployment are conditions common to many lands, and even in the nominally prosperous atmosphere of the United States, vast numbers are compelled to live in poverty or close to its border line. It would appear that in the half century since “Progress and Poverty” was published, there has been little abatement of the social and economic ills that have afflicted
