THE MEPHISTOPHELES OF TO-DAY—HONEST LABOR’S TEMPTATION.
PUCK, October 20th, 1886.
The part that Mr. Henry George played in the troublous days of 1886 was probably profitable to himself, and to no one else. He started in with a reputation of a sincere and high-minded philosopher somewhat in advance of his time, but the moment he got the Socialist nomination for Mayor of New York, he turned into as frank and downright a demagogue as ever tried to tempt a mob with promise of the pillage of the rich.
“We are sincerely pleased to see that Mr. Henry George has come out frankly and made his canvass on the basis of an out-and-out alliance with the Anarchists. He no longer pretends to belong among the respectable reformers; he arrays his followers squarely and honestly against the law and the established order of things. He was a sanguine theorist so long as he kept at book-making. Now that he has taken to talking, he is a thorough-going, zealous demagogue of the old-fashioned sort. ‘Vote for me,’ he cries to the lawless, the idle and the improvident, ‘and I will give you free rides and free land; and the police shall be muzzled, and all laws that you do not like shall be repealed. A contract shall no longer be sacred, and if any man has wealth, he shall share it with you. The land of the rich shall be confiscated, and you may boycott to your hearts’ content.’ It may be doubted whether this is the right way to win favor with decent citizens; but it is Mr. George’s way of going to work.”
