The Georgist movement is a curious phenomenon. Here, it comes out of the blue with the publication of a book in 1879, the very year of the "crime of 79" in Greenbacker lore, during a time of intense public debate on the "money question," and ascendancy of the Populists and various Populist political parties which actually took control of several state governments, or control of the dominant party (Democrats) as in Texas--where was the popular base of support for the Georgists, and in particular, where did the money come from to finance their activities? So far as I know, no Georgist party ever came to power anywhere except perhaps in a few municipalities. Where did the money come from in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries that is the source of the huge endowments that residually fund their activities today? [see note below]
Ed, I do have an hypothesis, perhaps you will comment. You might say it is a conspiracy theory.
The funding came covertly from the declared enemies of the Greenbackers and Populists.
What do you say?
Note: In a recent discussion an interlocutor of mine asked:
"But my question is why they were popular and with what class of deep pocketed people? Surely not land speculators. Industrialists, maybe, trying to divert taxes from themselves? Not railroads. Miners and oil barons? Shipbuilders? Merchants? Farmers and cattlemen? Who was Robert Schalkenbach?"
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