Henry George Jr.

Overview

Henry George Jr. (November 3, 1862 – November 14, 1916) was the eldest son of economist Henry George — reporter, two-term U.S. Congressman, and author of the standard filial biography of his father. Born in Sacramento, California, he began work in a printing office at sixteen, moved with his family to Brooklyn in 1880, and worked as a Brooklyn Eagle reporter before accompanying his father as secretary on George's 1884 lecture tour of Great Britain. He went on to editorial posts with the London Truth, the North American Review, and the Georgist weekly The Standard (managing editor, 1887–1891), and later worked as a Washington correspondent for a syndicate of Western newspapers.[1]

Congressional Career

Elected as a Democrat from New York, George Jr. served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives — the 62nd and 63rd Congresses, from March 4, 1911 to March 3, 1915 — representing successive New York districts. As a Congressman he gave speeches and sponsored bills favoring a single tax on land values. He did not seek reelection in 1914 and afterward devoted himself to literary work until his death in Washington, D.C. in 1916; he is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn — the same cemetery where his father and sister Jennie are buried.[1][2]

While in Congress, he made a publicized visit to Vancouver in October 1911, at the height of that city's land-only municipal tax system, to promote his father's economic theories; he was reported as remarking that "Vancouver is regarded as an advanced city, as a city leading the way."[3]

Life of Henry George (1900)

After his father's fatal 1897 mayoral campaign, George Jr. spent three years compiling family papers, letters, and his own memory into The Life of Henry George (Doubleday & McClure, 1900) — the standard primary biography, and the source nearly every later account of George's life builds on or argues with, including Barker's 1955 academic biography. The book is public domain and its complete text is hosted on this wiki; see The Life of Henry George for the full work and sources/publicdomain/life-of-henry-george.md for the raw transcription. It is a sympathetic, filial account — documentary gold on dates and correspondence, but cited on this wiki with that loyalty noted (D-claims where the son characterizes his father).

Nuances and Limits

• Primary-source status, not independent secondary scholarship. Wherever this wiki cites George Jr. for episodes in his father's life (the 1886 and 1897 mayoral campaigns, the Irish Land War reporting, the "flash of insight" account), the citation is to a family member's memoir, not a disinterested historian — treated as A-claims for quoted primary material (letters, speeches, vote totals) and D-claims for interpretation.
• His own political career is comparatively thin in the record here. Beyond the congressional basics and the Vancouver visit, this page does not yet cover his 1897 mayoral candidacy (he was put forward, with little support, to carry his father's ticket after George Sr.'s death) in depth — see The Last Campaign, 1897.

See Also

• Henry George — his father
• The Life of Henry George — the biography he wrote
• 1897 NYC Mayoral Campaign — his father's fatal campaign, which he was put forward to complete
• Vancouver — site of his 1911 congressional visit during the city's single-tax era
• L.D. Taylor — Vancouver's single-tax mayor, whom he met on that visit

Sources

1. United States House of Representatives, Office of the Historian, "GEORGE, Henry, Jr.," History, Art & Archives. history.house.gov — used for birth/death dates and places, congressional districts and dates of service, and pre-congressional career (A-claims; official U.S. House biography).
2. U.S. Congress, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "GEORGE, Henry, Jr." bioguide.congress.gov — corroborating official record of congressional service and party affiliation (A-claim).
3. "Single Tax City: Vancouver's Worldwide Celebrity, 1911," Opposite the City (blog), 17 October 2016. oppositethecity.wordpress.com — used, via this wiki's Vancouver and L.D. Taylor pages, for the October 1911 visit and quotation (secondary/tertiary source, cited for period detail).
4. Henry George Jr. (1900), The Life of Henry George, Doubleday & McClure — public domain, full text hosted on this wiki: life-of-henry-george — used for the book's scope and the "three periods" structure (A-claim, primary work).