In the opinion of Albert Jay Nock, Henry George today is "preeminently the Forgotten Man of Anglo- American civilization." If this be true it is a severe indictment of Anglo-American cultural veneer and its superficial sciences and of the mental shallowness of our intelligentsia, except, of course, where the forgetting of Henry George has been done with malice aforethought.

Personally, we cannot believe that Henry George has been forgotten in a natural manner. We do believe that the vast majority of Anglo-Americans have not, as yet, ever heard of Henry George, but the fact is of little import because the majority does not lead it follows.

If it is true that George "was one of the greatest of philosophers, and the spontaneous concurring voice of all his contemporaries acclaimed him as one of the best of men," we are not persuaded that this acclaim came from naught but empty heads speaking as poll-parrots. If we are wrong in that the Anglo-Americans are a civilization of parrots and stooges, why is it that they have failed or forgotten to apply their powers of observation and deduction to other phases of social activities in addition to that of taxation?

When Progress and Poverty continues to be "even after sixty years, the most successful book on economics ever published," the forgetting of its author certainly has not been a natural consequence.

There is but one unavoidable inference to be drawn concerning the "eclipse" of Henry George, and this inference reflects most shamefully upon the cultured, artistic, scientific intelligentsia of these United States, in that the author met with clearer understanding and acquired more influence in England and in Ireland than he did in his native land. If, in forgetting Henry George, England and Ireland may be classified as moronic peoples, what are we? If British brains are so much jelly if Irish hearts are so many pounds of pulp what are ours?

Mr. Nock knows of no precedent for forgetting Henry George. We know of many precedents, after sitting in the legislative branch of government. Which of Henry George's predecessors equaled his accomplishment? Not one. He has no predecessors. Is the fiddler the predecessor of the violinist? The virtuoso is an artist for art's sake; the fiddler plays for a price in any alley which yields the most pennies; where is the parallel?

When our disillusionment had been made complete, in legislative halls, we had come to know many fiddlers from all walks of life from universities, from colleges, from commerce and industry, from bench and bar and pulpit. All these fiddlers, when confronted with the plain, simple and sufficient truths penned by Henry George, were skilled in producing precedents for avoiding the paths of right thought, right procedure and right results.

This world's records are filled with precedents all legally established by our political leaders and their predecessors for continuing the exploitation of the people.

The newspapers which made widespread comment upon the advent of Henry George's book, in 1880, have not forgotten him, but they have, perforce, drawn the curtain of silence. Our professional economists, who have read Progress and Poverty, have not forgotten its author; but discretion weighs with them more than valor. A wage-paying job in hand is worth more than two soapbox platforms in the public park, and these job-holders know equally well how to apply the rules for reading and writing and arithmetic to taxation as they do to all other subjects within the ken of man. In the matter of failing to collect site-rents they appear to be parrots and stooges; in realities they are not.

However inferentially low Mr. Nock's essay has placed Anglo-American intelligence we are not persuaded that this amply demonstrated attribute, in the fields of industry and art and science, leaves suddenly bereft, when Single Tax thoughts are in order, those who formulate our laws and their enforcements. There is too much evidence, to the contrary, "behind the scenes" in civic leadership. Did King John sign the Magna Charta before he was compelled? Do parasites voluntarily cease their insect activities? Are not "wars and rumors of wars" age-old subterfuges for diverting mediocre mankind from its economic miseries?

There are plenty of precedents, among those who place power above truth, for burying Henry George in the pit of silence.

However, we offer no disparagement to insects. We make no analogy between insects and civic leaders. We simply aim to illustrate the point, by extreme example, that parasitism in man or insect exists in a degree depending upon individual conscience in choosing between the exercise of power and the furtherance of truth.

The insect steadily pursues his vocation. The civic leader is anxious and willing and ready to prove, by fiddling, that actual experience in expediencies, superficialities, froth and fizzle, lead nowhere but to miserable awakenings. By indirection and negation they will prove to each generation that nothing but truth permanently can succeed, just as the insect indirectly proves that sanitation and eternal vigilance are the price of good health and freedom.

Henry George no longer will be forgotten when the King Johns are certain that it is high time to sign the new Magna Charta and to lift the curtain of silence.