by Dr. Mason Gaffney, Riverside, CA
We are indebted to Mary Rawson for the history of
Louis Denison ("Single-tax") Taylor, eight times Mayor of
Vancouver. The "silent treatment" that academic economists
accord to Georgist ideas has its counterpart in the silence
of historians about applied Georgism. There is a vacuum
for Georgist historians to fill.
It is a happy mnemonic coincidence that another
Georgist mayor was also named Taylor: Edward Robeson (E.R.)
Taylor, Mayor of San Francisco, 1907-10. E.R. Taylor was
not only a Georgist, he helped George write Progress and
Poverty. Charles A. Barker, George's premier biographer,
credits Taylor more than any other with improving George's
style. Taylor, a Renaissance man, was, among other things,
a poet, whose work adorns Book IX of P&P.
San Francisco was levelled and burned in 1906;
Taylor took office shortly thereafter, and San Francisco
was renewed in a short time. With buildings gone, and most
taxes based on property, and a Georgist mayor, what do you
suppose the City used for its tax base? Could that explain
the instant recovery? O, Historians, please get busy,
before I have to scoop you.
Is it just a coincidence that Vancouver and San
Francisco are two of the most livable and beautiful cities
in the world? Not likely, but that only begins the story.
Many, many cities got Georgist fever in this era, from
coast to coast and, to some degree, around the world. It
was the Golden Age of U.S. and Canadian cities, 1890-1930.
New York, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, Houston, San
Diego, Milwaukee, Edmonton, Calgary -- we know they all
moved in the Georgist direction in this period, and they
grew like fury. There is so much more we do not know -
even little Minot, ND, for example, and Sioux City, IA, had
Georgist mayors. How could urban historians have
overlooked such a powerful force? I'm not sure, but they
have -- let's move in and fill the gap.
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Dr. Mason Gaffney is an Economics Professor and
author of numerous scholarly articles and books, including
The Corruption of Economics (Shepheard-Walwyn, 1994) which
is available from The Robert Schalkenbach Foundation,
http://www.progress.org/books
(Editor's note: For more information on Edward R.
Taylor, see Ed Dodson's web site,
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5148/georgists_22.html For an article written by a more recent Georgist mayor, read
"The Great Adventure" by former Southfield, MI Mayor James Clarkson in this
issue of GroundSwell.)