Tramps And Millionaires

llenry George snyg tbat if liis land conBgcstioa lallacy is adoptcd "the result will bc to abolish the Ineqirarfty that pro(hiocs tbu tramp and the millionaire." Of course, wc profer to bcliove tlmt Mr. George really believen wliat lie says, bilt tuis position ca only be taken ufter conccding that his couclusions are singularly ill-gnmmled. The auolitlon of the inequality whicli produces the tramp and the millionairc is as practical au undertuUinj; as would be the abolltion of tlio#e laW8 of nature wliieli produce death by freeing at one end of the scale, and deatk by fiinstroke ut the otlier. 'J'he tramp and the millionaire have always existed; under every form of government, iu veiy age. in every stage of civilizaliou. They have existed always beeause they are the prodnets, not as Mr. George thinks, of ia sliglit a fuctor ms the land queslion, but of these differences of charactcr, teinperameiit and capaeily which are afl inuch beyoud legislative control as the courses of the stars. The potentiil tramp is the man who was born lu.y, who lias ueithir atubition nor selffespect, wlio cures for nothing but the iiidulgcnce of his animal appetites. Tlie poteutial millionaiiu is the boni worker; tlie man who f rom yuwth up lias an auibition; who posse.ses lirmness to deny liimself; who conquers his appetites; who looks beforo and calculutes and labors for the coming tiiue. Take WO such men, one with the tramp's ivlolence, the other wilh tlie inillionaire's thrilt nnd industry; put them down side by siile naked and helpless 011 a deseit lUBDd; and in one year the one will be wliat he was at tirt-t, ii;imely, a pauper, while the other will have becoine a oapitalist. Henry George is l in jr the ponr anytbing but a kindness in tiying to pursuade them that leglslation either can or ought to alter the lonililions which depend upou tlie iuheient dill'orences benveen men. It is aburd to pretend, as he does, that procreas nnd cqnalization are attainable throii:li iiis palent medicine theory. lt is absurd to pretend, as tie does, thiit everybody wants lüiui; that everyliody would take land if they eould get it; that the poMeagloh of land lias a liindaniental relation to the advance of human society. It Is not philosophy but fuslian which characterizessucli wildiind whirlinj; words aa Mr. (ieorge addressed the other niglit to kis Hrooklyn udieuce. It may deceive the more ignoraut, but only to their confusión and harin, and it is distinetly unfrieiidly to teacli them snob foolishness and fallacy. 'Diere nevar will come a time when the American peorfle will Be prepared to try Mr. George's experiment, but he may succeed iu makhif? mmiy people diss itistied with their condition, and he may persuade some to abandon substance for sbadow. All these who inheritthe tramp nature, who think "the world owes them a living," who were bom tired, and who cannot see why the rich should not "divido up," are, of course, certain to Indorse Mr. Georjfe. He tells them that success in llfe is a crime, that the iucapable and idle ought to ghare cqually with the capable and Indostrloui, aud that "ioequalities" can be removed by his panacea. Iíut the men who get 011 in the world don't do it by listening to that kind of stuff, but by putting their shoulders to the wheel. While Mr. Georjre's foliosvers are diseussing his theories in the saloons the smvessful men oi the future are attendliyt to their business, saJVÜlg their surplus earning-, extending their practical knowledge. That is how and why they will presen tl y be well-to-do, and they will eet mi 11 precisely the same mauner aud for the same reason under any circumstances. The pi dn truth is, that tliere will always be trampa and miÜJoaalres so long as there are competent and incompetent men, and there will always be these dííferenéea of capacity so long as there are bil mal) beings.