Note 28 — Chapter VIII · THOSE WHO WORK AND THOSE WHO WAIT

I use this phrase with intention. Interest, once defined as the reward of "abstinence," is now usually explained by the economists of the schools to be the reward of "waiting." "Abstinence" has been laughed out of court.

[29] The State has now agreed to buy out this undertaking.

[30] In view of the fact that the Single Tax doctrines of Henry George are still sedulously propagated in this country it is of interest to quote here the following passage from one of Mr George's latest works:

"We have no fear of capital, regarding it as the natural handmaiden of labour; we look on interest itself as natural and just; we would set no limit to accumulation, nor impose on the rich any burden that is not equally placed on the poor; we see no evil in competition, but deem unrestricted competition to be as necessary to the health of the industrial and social organisms as the free circulation of the blood is to the health of the bodily organism—to be the agency whereby the fullest co-operation is to be secured. We would simply take for the community what belongs to the community, the value that attaches to land by the growth of the community; leave sacredly to the individual all that belongs to the individual; and, treating necessary monopolies as functions of the State, abolish all restrictions and prohibitions save those required for public health, safety, morals, and convenience."—From "The Condition of Labour" by Henry George. Published by Swan, Sonnenschein, 1891. Pages 91 and 92.

This gospel of unrestricted competition (in the same volume Henry George chided Pope Leo XIII. for counselling the State to restrict the employment of women and children) is actually preached to the poor as a solution of the problem of poverty.