On the formation of the
Land Nationalisation Society in 1880 he retired from the Association,
and devoted himself to the larger issues which the new Society embraced.
Soon after the latter Society was started, Henry George, the American
author of "Progress and Poverty," came to England, and Wallace had many
opportunities of hearing him speak in public and of discussing matters
of common interest in private. In spite of the ridicule poured upon
Henry George's book by many eminent social reformers, Wallace
consistently upheld its general principles.
His second work on these various subjects was a small book entitled "Bad
Times," issued in 1885, in which he went deeply into the root causes of
the depression in trade which had lasted since 1874. The facts there
given were enlarged upon and continually brought up to date in his later
writings. Articles which had appeared in various magazines were gathered
together and included, with those on other subjects, in "Studies,
Scientific and Social." His last three books, which include his ideas on
social diseases and the best method of preventing them, were "The
Wonderful Century," "Social Environment and Moral Progress," and "The
Revolt of Democracy"; the two last being issued, as we have seen, in
1913, the year of his death.
In "Social Environment and Moral Progress" the conclusion of his
vehement survey of our moral and social conditions was startling: "_It
is not too much to say that our whole system of Society is rotten from
top to bottom, and that the social environment as a whole in relation to
our possibilities and our claims is the worst that the world has ever
seen_.
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