THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT.
MAY 14, 1903.
THE MEANING OF LIFE
Sermon bj Bev, Herbert 8. Bigelow, If ar-
lajr for Text Ueary George' "Vro
grene and PoTertj" ,
(Fieported for The Independent by
Daniel Klefer of the Ohio Single Tax
league.)
: "What then Is the meaning of life
of life absolutely and Inevitably
bounded by death? To" me It seems
intelligibly only as the avenue and
vestibule of another' life." .
These word 3 from the closing chap
ter of "Progress and Poverty" were
discussed Sunday evening by Herbert
L a 'V
HERBERT S. BIGELOW.
S. Bigelow, pastor of the Vine Street
Congregational church, Cincinnati, in
a Bermon; on the Meaning of Life.
"As an original thinker in the field
of : political economy, Henry George
is well known,!' said Mr. Bigelow.
"But the service he has rendered ip,
quickening the springs of religious
life is not so widely appreciated,
v "What led to the writing of "Prog
ress and Poverty" is told by the au
thor as follows;
- '-"When I first realized the squalid
tormented me, and would not let me
rest, for thinking of jwrhat caused it
and how it could be cured.
"To find the cause and cure of this
fiocial disease or poverty Henry George
Te-wrote the Science of Political Econ
cmy. x Instead of the "dismal and de-.
pairing science Political Economy
had been, it becamefjider his treat
ment, 'radiant with hope!'
'In the beginning the author , had
Intended to confine his discussion to
political economy. But the principle
which stood out in that discussion led
him, inevitably, into another field of
.thought, and beginning with an in
quiry into the causes of poverty, he
concluded With a declaration of faith
in the immortality of the soul.
. V ".'Out of this inquiry , he said, 'has
to find, and a faith that was dead re
vives. "Thousands of thoughtful and earn
est men have had the same experience.
-They have begun by. embracing the
teachings of Henry George on the
Bubject of political economy. They
have 1 ended by finding a new relig
ious philosophy, and the 'faith that
was dead revives.'
"Near the close of Henry George's
life a young man called upon him
whose whole career had been changed
by this book, "Progress and Poverty."
The young man told Mr. George his
religious experience, which is by no
means exceptional, He had: been born,
in the faith of the; mother church He
had had a long and, futile struggle;io
-suppress his questionings and remain
in tinH cnurcii. ai ia.sL ne leu n.
Then .he drifted like aj, ship with
-broken rudder. K He saw much' of pby-
preachers -apologize for ;th$ degrada
tlon and slavery of their fellows. SorAe
,'sald there were too many people in
the world", "and they looked with favor
pft; War and stn'encet-:aSii;ii8SBP:-'1
reducing the surplus : populations Oth
ers declared there was not wealth
-enough to go round." Others' 'stoutlyi
maintained that; we, must .always fcave
the- .poorwlt'flj i andjhat biuman
woe there; jcou tbe HQertd $jgarth.
The youag;iiaa44enianed;whyc tftese
; things; should bSvSp Mi a,.word 'iwade
by the good JGod He got no answer
to -.his-, question i rSomeJimesti they
Jaugh&J":. aft jhira-.n SomHiwesv Oiipy
frowned- on :ihim..' But answer? him
they could;npt? Then:Ji-camft;tQ.-the
conclusion . that this . must be the
devil's. world. ( - .'.'. c '.:
"He lost all faith in God. He be
came an unbeliever, even a scorner.
His heart became a sun-scorched des
ert. There were no springs of faith.
There were no places green and fresh
with hope. There was no truth which
seemed to him beautiful; no cause
which seemed to him holy; no , sign
that there -was anywhere in the
blind universe a God who cared.
-"At last a copy of "Progress and
Poverty" fell into his. hands. He had
heard that the book was dry reading.
For him it read like a romance, be
cause he went to it, not for enter
tainment, but with a consuming desire
to find a solution for the dark prob
lem of poverty. In the mind of the
author he saw this blind universe re
duced to order. He saw human
wretchedness and wrong traced to
their final causes, not in the mistakes
of the creator, but in the ignorance
of the creature. He saw that creaticn
was not a colossal blunder. His soul
was stirred by the mignty tnougm 01
this book, which unfolded and re
vealed to him the possibility of a hu
man society living in conformity with
the laws of nature and rewarded for
its obedience with abundance and
peace.
"The faith that was dead revived.
This book had saved him from unbe
lief and pointed the way back to a
larger' and a happier and more ra
tional faith than he had ever known.
"When the young man had finished
his: story, Mr.: George replied that the
sweetest reward he could have was in
such evidence that his teachings had
inspired his fellows with a vital
faith in God and a new hope for man.
Then, putting his hand on the young
man's arm, he added:
'"My work is done. I have searched
and found law in its sovereign beauty,
even where men said there was no
law. If the soul dies there is a1 break
in nature's laws. That I cannot be
lieve. These laws must hold their
sway even where we cannot see. We
cannot tell where or how, but we
have seen enough to establish our
faith in the universality of - natural
law, therefore we must believe in the
future life of the soul.
"The meaning of Henry George may
be made clear by the following illus
tration. A famous astronomer discov
ered a certain law governing heavenly
bodies. According to this law, there
should have been, at a given place
in the heavens, a star. But men
could see no star there, and some ar
gued fr&m the absence of the star
that the astronomer was in error.
The astronomer insisted that if men
could not find the star it was the
fault of their eyesight and- not the
fault-of this law.
"At last, a wonderful lens was In
vented, and behold, the star was
found where, 'the astronomer had de
clared it ought to be. You see, ihe
astronomer had traced the law part
way. He knew it must hold good all
the way. When others doubted, he
saw that star. He saw it with the eye
of faith, a faith that was based upon
a knowledge of law. '
"So it is with the life of the soul.
The philosopher sees that the laws
of nature, when rightly understood,
point to the happiness and develop
ment of the human soul, as the goal
of creation. If the soul dies then life
is an infinite series of failures. This
ha cannnt believe. He insists that the
laws must hold good all the way. No
lens has been discovered powerim
enough to sight the shores of that
distant life, but it is the faith of the
philosopher, based upon a study of
nature's laws, that in due time, stars
of glory yet unseen will be revealed
to man.
. "Meanwhile we adopt the faith
which offers us the only rational ex
planation of the universe, namely,
that lif eis a school-house for im
mortal souls."
CRITIQUES O SINGLE TAX
The Independent of June 11 will de
vote part of its' space to criticisms of
the single tax as presented in tnis is
sue. Articles must be to the point
and not too long. I would suggest that
Mr. Post's argument be made the ob
jective point of attack. It will be
the fortress most difficult to- capture.
Is it true - that taxation . according to
benefits conferred is alone ethically
justifiable? Is it true that taxation
according to ability to pay is legal
ised robbery? -Is -it true that, indi
vidual man produces any but the sim
plest things unaided by his fellows?
"Even as to these, is it true that the
individual's right of property in his
product is alwaysJndefeasable?.' ,
In the light of the past ten years of
trust-building who is rightsMr. Post
or the. socialists? ..The latter contend
that competition' carries within itselC
the seeds of its; own, death;, Mr. Post,
avers that like . begets like and that
monopoly has s grown because the see l
land monopoly7-has. grown and is
bearing fruit .; ; :; ,,.
Waiving technical controversy, . is
tne single tax expedient? . Will the
rules for applying it to farms and
town lots, serve , in applying it to
railroad rights of way ? De France.
Politico-Economic Thoughts
(Written for Henry George Edition
of The Independent)
As a suggestion to start with I
would call attention of all readers of
this Issue to the necessity of retaining
possession of it until they receive the
issue of early June, which will be de
voted to criticisms of the single tax,
if they would be in a position to prop
erly judge of the merits of the George
ideas and weigh the objections to
them for what they ire worth. Those
who criticise the single tax are prone
to misrepresent it, Ignorantly or oth
erwise, and absurd notions are ad
vanced in order to combat it, which
only confuse and mislead those who
are not in position to detect the er
rors that are put forth as logic and
fact, uy retaining their copies of this
Issue they can compare the argu
ments pro and con and arrive at some
thing akin to reasonable and logical
conclusions as to the truth or falsity
of our contentions.
WHAT IS VALUE?
A definition and an argument
Henry George wrote at greater
length on the word "value" than any
other term in all of his great works,
thus giving the impression that this
terni is of more importance in politi
cal economy than any other. I be
lieve this to be true, and have given a
great deal of study to the finding Of
an accurate definition for . it Alter
eight attempts, consisting of a some
what long drawn out dissertation on
the meaninc of the word and subse
quent revisions and eliminations, I
completed the definition to my. own
satisfaction more than a. year ago
and now submit it for the first time,
'I have never seen anything even bor
dering on this treatment of the term,
and if I have not erred, I think I
have helped to unravel a knotty point
in our philosophy. The following is
the definition:
"Value" is an intangible something
that bears an absolute relationship to
man and applies to the things which
serve to satisfy his wants. It exists
because he exists and is a natural
factor that can neither be "seen, felt
or heard. It is made manifest only
by the action of the mind in fixing
price and the action of mind in price
fixing results from the natural law
which impels man to seek satisfaction
of his desires by the least expenditure
of mental or physical exertion.
This law, if I am not mistaken, was
first given io the world of letters by
Henry George in "Progress and Pov
erty." . , .v. .... . . , .
"Price" Js an auxiliary ' word to
"value," and denotes action of the in
dividual mind in the manifestations of
value, but price is not controlled by
value, and the two words do not stand.
for the same thing, value is co-existent
with population, while price
signifies the worth of things ACCORD
ING TO THE NOTIONS OF THE IN
DIVIDUAL. Value is not fixed by
mind-action. Man's desire to live
without exertion accounts for it, and
it exists where he exists, and varies
only as conditions of his environment
varies. If he lives in a frozen re
gion like the Klondike, those things
which sustain life will naturally have
for him a value commensurately high
er than if he were in a country of
prolific fertility, but the higher value
is in reality only a comparison as be
tween the life-sustaining products and
the money or gold dust he may have
to exchange for them and is arrived
at intuitively, or without conscious
mental effort The value of those
things which are not capable of sus
taining life really falls and reaches
a level commensurately with the
probable deficiency in the , supply of
food products. If the latter should
fall so low as, to . threaten the life of
some, those who must find a seller or
perish, will give their all for a morsel,
or commit murder. for it, but this does
not signify that the morsel would be
possessed of any great amount of real
value, but It would signify an ex
traordinary price.
Value having a vital relationship to
man's bodily wants, "it appears plaus
ible that those things having peculiar
life-sustaining qualities, and, the sup
ply of which, is normal as compared
to the - number drawing therefrom,
have the greatest amount of true val
ue for man, and that the value of ev
erything else either falls or rises as
compared to this standard, the value
of money being nq exception, and, as
a side remark the value of - money is
In its usefulness and :not in the ma
terial of which it is composed,, for, so
long as it is money it has no value as
anything else, and -can only.; be: made
valuable, as anything else by the -destruction'
of its money functions:,
Taxation has no eff ection. value but
it has a veryf.decided effect on price
fixing. On the products of labor it
enables the. seller to increase the price
at whi6h he will agree to . sell, and
force the buyer to pay the price, par
ticularly if the product is a neces
sity of life. In India salt' i3 taxed
three thousand per cent and salt Is
so dear that the millions of poor suffer
terribly because of their inability to
buy enough for their daily needs.
Any kind of taxation on those things
produced by the labor of man, whether
direct ' or indirect; whether of the
tariff variety or internal revenue, sim
ply Increases the price to the con
sumer. Not so, however, in the case
of taxation of land (the sources. of la
bor products) according to its site
value. : r , :
To illustrate: a lot in a great city
is valued at several thousand dollars
a front foot while a few dollars per
acre, in the country, will buy a large
body of land. Land value taxation
would be levied accordingly, and in
stead of enabling the owner to ask an
increased price tor land he would be
impelled to seek a buyer at a de
creased price, If he wanted to, dis
pose of it, for, if the tax should be
heavy enough to- take from him any
considerable proportion of the- per
centage of the prevailing average in
terest rate, those holding yacan; un
used lands for speculative purposes
would immediately put their property
on sale at reduced prices arid this
would affect the power-' of priee-jfixing
on all landed property for sale, "and
if the tax rate should be increased to
approximately the full interest; rate,
all unused lands would become in a
short time absolutely free of all
price-fixing and any one couldV enter
vpon them and secure, a home site at
an annual tax rate amounting to a
nominal sum as compared to the, "ren
tal charges made by the private own
ers today, who not only charge for the
use of the ground the full average
interest rate, but compel tenants to
pay all taxes in addition. " 9
To conclude, the taxation of land
values does not affect the values to
their destruction as many single tax
ers contend, but it does affect the
power of price-fixing upon land, BE
CAUSE IT - TRANSFERS THIS
POWER TO THOSE HAVING THE
POWER TO LEVY AND COLLECT
THE TAX.
If, after a body of land should be
surrendered and come into possession
of the taxing power it could be dis
posed of at a price by the simple
process of lowering or eliminating the
tax upon it, therefore, the taxation of
labor products operates to increase
the power of the private individual
to charge more or make a higher price
on things he may have for sale, twhile
the taxation of land values operates to
decrease the , power or entirely . elimi
nate It in the hands of the private' in
divfdual, and to shift; ftto5 the power
levying the tax. L. P. CUSTER.
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