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The article presents a report on Henry George's Remedies for Britain's Land Problems. When Henry George sailed for Great Britain in 1881, no one could have prophesied the far reaching consequences of his act. Within two yean both he and his book "Progress and Poverty," were to become household words in Great Britain. It is also true that George's arrest by the Irish constabulary in August, 1882, while he was observing conditions in the west of Ireland, and the questions subsequently asked in the House of Commons about this affair, gave him a publicity far beyond the effect of his book or speeches at this date. In his speeches George presented two main points: The social and economic condition of the British working man, and the remedy for his ills. In defining George's message to the British the author may leave out of consideration for the present the first of these points. Most British papers acknowledged the plight of the working man in the Eighteen Eighties; what George contributed in this respect was a description of conditions in unusually specific and moving terms.

The article throws light on the industrialization and regional development in Ireland between 1958-72. Ireland lagged in industrial growth not only far behind Great Britain but also the rest of Northern Europe. Owing to the inability of the Irish Government to engender a viable economy, the 1950s were years of economic, social and psychological depression. In 1958 the first program of Economic Development was launched, marking the cessation of hostility toward foreign investment and the dismantling of protectionist barriers. The new economic strategy, implemented under the aegis of the Industrial Development Authority (I.D.A.), called for vigorous encouragement of foreign industry and promotion of a healthy export oriented economy. in Ireland the incentives surpass those offered elsewhere in Europe. Foremost among those are non-repayable cash grants for the cost of fixed assets of up to 35 per cent of the total cost. To promote a more harmonious regional balance the I.D.A. adopted a strategy of economic decentralization, meaning the discouragement of further industrialization in the immediate Dublin, Ireland, area.

The article discussed the thoughts of the activist Henry George in light of land reform movements. Although activist Henry George, at age thirty-nine, was still somewhat of a tyro at public speaking, at the end of the relatively brief west-coast "training phase" of his speaking in the Land League Movements his accomplishments and progress were substantial and significant. A little later, after extensive practice on the platforms of Ireland, Scotland, and England, he was to become infinitely better, especially in delivery, the effective use of humor, audience contact and adaptation, and persuasiveness; yet, even with all of the hazards and encumbrances of the manuscript mode of presentation, he was already well above the average of the day as a public speaker. In the five-week political campaign series of 1876, after starting out with a very carefully worked-out manuscript speech, he quickly made the transition over into the extemporaneous mode as the basic materials became so thoroughly familiar as to be always instantly at hand. In his longer, broader, and much more significant land-reform career, he followed in grand scale exactly the same pattern that is here seen in small scale.

The article focuses on Henry George's analysis of the social conditions in Great Britain. The discussion must be introduced by a brief outline of the manner in which the American social philosopher was drawn into the maelstrom of British reform. The work "Progress and Poverty" had stated the social problem from a worldwide point of view. For a first hand knowledge of conditions in society he had, of course, leaned heavily on his experiences and observations in the United States; what he had to say about the rest of the world was drawn from secondary sources. But clearly George was from the beginning interested not merely in carrying his message to the British Isles through the circulation there of his book, but in using Great Britain as a proving ground for his theories. The magnet that drew George Britain-ward was the current revolt of the Irish peasants. The pull of the British situation was evident in Progress and Poverty itself; for George declared that while writing the chapter "Inferences from Facts" he had been "looking over the literature of Irish misery.

The article focuses on the role of political economist Henry George in the fight for Irish freedom. George, deeply stirred by the situation in Ireland, started to write an article on the subject for the "Appleton's Journal," but the work grew under his pen until it became a small book of seventeen chapters. He called it "The Irish Land Question: What It Involves And How It Can Be Settled." In it he showed that in order to relieve Ireland of the horror of rack-renting and to give the benefits of their labor to the Irish people, it was necessary to take the annual rental value of the land alone for community needs, using the new source of revenue to relieve industry and thrift from taxation. Under such a system the laborer would get what he created. No one would have an advantage as a mere landholder. And even though the owner of the land be an Englishman living in England, the value of the land of Ireland would accrue to the Irish people as a whole. D. Appleton & Co. published the book.

Ireland has been the victim of invasions since time immemorial. The Romans did not conquer the island but Saint Patrick did. From the 5th to the 9th centuries it was a seat of religious learning, from which missionaries went to all parts of Western Europe. A century or so later the Puritan Cromwell came with his war without quarter, in which men, women, and children were slaughtered. His infamous Settlement in 1653 meant in effect that great landed estates were given his English followers, and thus was inaugurated the absentee landlord system that plagued the island for centuries. The consequences for Ireland of this dispossession have been enormous. Except in the district of Ulster, where landholding Anglo-Saxon farmers cultivated their own farms, the system of vast landed estates was disastrous, because the absentee landlords had little interest in agriculture. In the Republic of Ireland today stiff examinations are set, in Irish, for all those planning to teach. Villages where Irish is the mother tongue of everyone are inundated, especially during the summer, with students who come to perfect their Irish before taking their examinations.