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Is it possible that we Georgists have walled ourselves off from all other economic lore as though ours is the beginning and end? About 328 B.C. the Chinese felt so superior to outside barbarians that they built a 1400 mile long wall. Following the Anglo-Chinese war (1839-42) the Chinese were amazed how backward they were in relation to the foreign invaders.

Religious groups have their Chinese type walls, too. The Hebrew religion begins and ends with the Torah (old testament) and regards the new testament as forgery. The agnostic considers all Bibles, Korans and other religious writings as abominations, that we'd be better off without any of it to cloud men's minds.

Four generations have passed on Georgism as blacksmiths and farmers passed on their skills father to son; some of us acquired our knowledge through reading PROGRESS & POVERTY by ourselves or in classroom. But like the Chinese and Hebrews, we've built a wall around George's words and go no further.

George wrote (The Problem; Progress and Poverty page 3) that in the preceding century productive power increased through the marvels of the first industrial revolution, and he deplored that children were running machinery. A child labor amendment failed to pass in 1920,but many labor laws enacted since have made such child abuse a thing of the distant past.

The marvels of the first revolution were eclipsed by the second, still going on. Automation, computerization, supermarts, air and space conquest, and electronics. Duplicating machines give us instant copies of anything. This year's microfilm surpasses last year's or of five years ago. Hard labor jobs performed by stalwart men only a few years ago are mechanized and today women have truck and bus operator jobs. Brawn won't get you a job today; college and technical training are needed.

"Upon streets lighted with gas" and "the tramp comes with the locomotive" (P&P,7) date the book. Lord Macaulay's prophesy is hinted at but not explained for newer generations except in the newer glossary, page 572, that hungry hordes would soon elect a president.

George correctly predicted poverty to reach California, but he couldn't visualize the degradation and lawlessness we have today coast to coast. Why couldn't we, who knew how to make a better world, make ourselves heard, to eradicate war, crime, domestic strife and poverty? We let radio and TV pass us by. We let the socialist loudmouths have their way, expecting them to fail. We let legislators make one mess after another, expecting them to realize that ours was the ultimate reform, that they'd adopt it without any advice or lobbying from us.

Of Interest (P&P 177-196 George quotes Frederic Bastiat's "illustration of the plane" (mentioned 63 times). How many readers have stumbled over this, confused a woodshaving plane with an aeroplane? A minor criticism, but the word "tool" (any tool) would have been more comfortable. Our lesson sheets contained brief statements of definitions of land, labor, capital, rent, wages, interest, and should have been printed in the 75th anniversary edition for clarification.

Not realizing that students attend a first or second session and often drop out, we have acquainted too many with Thomas Malthus, and, since 1945 "population explosion" is on everybody's lips; we helped. One Georgist recently oracled that pressure of urban overcrowding will force our reform after all else fails. How can it when it is not apparent and nobody knows we're here?

"The Story of the Savannah" is practically our liturgy (p. 235-243), showing how a community forms, how land value arises. A teacher gave numerous chalktalks based on this theme. Another of my favorities is George's supposition of an island arising from the "German Ocean" (p. 293). When I tell it I bring it closer to home by telling of "Streeterville"; Captain Streeter's fishing boat stranded July 1886 off shore of our Gold Coast where millionaires lived. Tugboats couldn't pull him loose, so he invited scavengers to fill in around the boat, invited unemployed to come there, build tar paper shacks and live there free of rent. The Gold Coasters claimed riparian rights, evicted Streeter's people and confiscated the land, his well provisioned ship demolished along with the shacks. The shoreline millionaires expropriated everything.

"The Law of Human Progress" (473-552) and Conclusion (553-565) are a philosophical and prophetic masterpiece. We get a glimpse (p. 557) of tyranny of czarist Russia; and from his statements that "the earth is the tomb of dead empires (p. 485) and that every nation "really perished from internal decay" we see that's what happened in Africa and Asia. Unfortunately here again we were impotent to advise how to make a true democratic government. A new breed of landlords took over, and tyranny is still there. The socialists were there in force well trained to train the new leaders. Our Georgists Chinese Wall held us back as it did when East Germany built its atrocious Berlin Wall.

The Liberty Amendment Committee, for 25 years authored and led by Willis E. Stone, is now headed by W. Cleon Skousen, Salt Lake City, whose Freemen Institute people are studying Henry George. It behoves us to move closer to them as individuals ask our congressmen in Washington to support the Liberty Amendment before them now. Stone contends the income tax to be utterly unneeded, that federal government has wasted this revenue shamefully, and names stupid useless projects supported by it. Although the Liberty Amendment does not contain an alternative rider, we could ask our congressmen to do so, to provide for a 1% remittance by states of their land value tax collection. Since no tax is currently collected by states, this could start the machinery.

Discussing economy in government, greater education, thrift, industry, cooperatives, and government interference (299-327) points up that a college history text denounces "WASP" (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) control of government and society, John Calvin's creed, "Work hard, save money, you'll go to heaven", and supports big government. I put in a weak protest that WASP is a racist obnoxious name, but many voices will be needed to erase the word. Despite economics being taught wrong in our colleges, unworkable government projects fouling our economy, and crime running rampant, we must scale our Georgist Chinese Wall, find a way to be heard far, wide, and quickly, undo harm done so that we can see a Georgist economy in our lifetime.