We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
26 Ely: A Liberal Economist Defends Landlordism.
- Authors
Cord, Steven B.; Andelson, Robert V.
- Abstract
This article focuses on the response of Emil O. Jorgensen to economist Richard T. Ely's criticisms of the single tax proposal by Henry George. His most extensive criticisms of the single tax are contained in his Outlines of Land Economics and his Outlines of Economics. In 1925 Ely and his Outlines of Land Economics were the targets of a 205-page attack by a Georgist, Emil O. Jorgensen, the vitriolic tone of which is typified by its cumbersome but pugnacious title. False Education in Our Colleges and Universities: An Exposé of Professor. Richard T. Ely and His Institute for Research in Land Economics and Public Utilities was published in Chicago by the Manufacturers and Merchants Federal Tax League, of which Jorgensen was information director. It accuses Ely of bias, hypocrisy, and mendacity, and strongly implies that the policies of his Institute were tailored to accommodate the landed interests prominent among its donors. Whether or not Jorgensen was justified in impugning Ely's motives, he could scarcely have chosen a better way to vitiate the effectiveness of his offensive. One finds it difficult to escape the conclusion that, were it not for Ely's prestige, many of his postures would be dismissed as perverse by most economists, regardless of their estimate of George, and that these postures fairly invited Jorgensen's intemperate response. Had Jorgensen been content to concentrate his fire on these without resorting to personal invective, his book might have been more successful in accomplishing its purpose. However, in his attempted refutation of the thirty-two chief fallacies that he purports to find in the Outlines of Land Economics and, to a lesser extent, in other works by Ely, Jorgensen does manage to score some telling points.
- Subjects
ELY, Richard Theodore, 1854-1943; GEORGE, Henry, 1839-1897; JORGENSEN, Emil O.; SINGLE tax; LAND value taxation
- Publication
American Journal of Economics & Sociology, 2004, Vol 63, Issue 2, p361
- ISSN
0002-9246
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1536-7150.2004.00293.x