"The Single Tax party had a curious electioneering badge for use in the New York Mayoralty Campaign. This consisted of a white cat with an arched back, and hair on end, while round the border is the legend "Free Trade, Free Land, Free Men." The motto of the cat is "I scratch," and its adoption as the emblem of the party is said to be the outcome of one of the earliest puzzles, called "Do you see the cat?" which was current some 12 or 14 years ago. . . " -- The Single Tax (Glasgow, February, 1898)
(I'm not sure they had the timing right. It appears to be from Fall 1888, a few years after the 1886 mayoral campaign. And "see the cat" came out of the Anti-Poverty Society meeting in November 6, 1887. Here are reports from two different Brooklyn newspapers:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1888-09-18:
And Think They Know Which Way It Is Jumping.
Henry George and His Friends Want a Democrat in the Presidential Chair and a Republlcan at Albany.
The Single Tax Club of Brooklyn held a meeting last night at the Atheneum. Henry George, Louis F. Post, Everett B. Glacken and other advocates of the single tax system were present and sat upon the platform. Members of the club scattered through the audience wore bright red silk badges upon each of which appeared the picture of a ferocious looking feline with its back up. Upon the badge were also inscribed the letters “C. A. T.,” which Mr. George said stood for Cleveland and Thurman.
Despite the inclement weather a large audience was present, which evidently expected that Mr. George would explain why he supported Cleveland and Thurman and not David Bennett Hill. The apostle of Free Trade, however, was not to be caught in any such trap. He said a great deal about the Democratic national candidates, but not one word about the State contest.
The only intimation the audience had of the proposed George ticket was the following, printed upon slips of paper and scattered through the hall: "For President, Grover Cleveland; for Vice President, Allen G. Thurman; for Governor, Warner Miller.”
Mr. Everett B. Glacken, president of Typographical Union No. 6, presided at the meeting. Upon taking the chair he made a brief speech, in the course of which he said that it was a mistake to suppose that, because the Single Tax Club would support, at the coming election, the national Democratic, ticket, its members were Democrats. “We can,” he said, “expect little from the politicians of either party, but as Mr. Cleveland in his Message advocates a reduction of the Tariff we are of the opinion that he will be more apt to help our ideas than the Republican candidate. The object of this club is to make popular the method of taxation advocated by Henry George—that is, the abolition of all taxation except a single tax upon the rental value of land.”
Mr. Louis F. Post was then introduced. He said:
Before going any further I would like to explain to those who do not know the secret why we wear the picture of a cat upon our badge. Last Winter Judge McGuire, of California, told a very apt story which illustrates fully the point which I wish to bring out. "Many of you,’ he said, “have seen in shop windows a roughly drawn landscape and underneath it the words, Find the Cat.' At first glance all that could be seen were a few trees surrounded by tangled, brushwood, but after studying it a while, and having first this and then that part of the animal pointed out, the whole animal came suddenly into view; in other words, you were able to see the cat."
So we adopted the emblem of the cat, with the inscription, Free Trade, Free Land and Free Men.” Unless a man can see this he has never seen the cat. We intend to support Cleveland and Thurman because we have seen the cat, and all we can say is that, if Mr. Cleveland did not mean Free Trade in his Message, he made a long jump toward it.
The Democratic party has got a cat, on the tail board of its wagon which is just now going our way. When, the wagon comes to a cross road and turns in another direction we will get out of it. We are only riding for a rest, any way, and are used to walking.
The Republican party was born in liberty, but it got so far ahead toward freedom that it thought it was time to turn back again, and it is now going in the other direction.
If we win with Cleveland this year we will knock 7 percent out of the Protection system, and another time we will get rid of the other 40 percent.
Just before election the Republican party imports England over here to scare our workmen. Their speakers talk about the low wages over there, and their campaign literary bureau scatters all over the country cards bearing the imprint of the English flag upon them, accompanied with some so called Quotations from the London Times. After election the Republican party imports foreign workmen into their mines and factories.
It is not fair to compare Free Trade England with High Tariff America, but if you want to make a comparison, take the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. In 1866 Free Trade flourished in both of them. At that time Victoria was ahead of New South Wales, and by far the more prosperous of the two. In 1866 Victoria adopted a protective Tariff, and from that day to the present New South Wales, which remained for Free Trade, has outstripped her former rival in every form of prosperity. There are today 1,000 more factories in New South Wales than in Victoria and the exports and imports of the former are several million times more than the latter. Fellow workingmen, we do not expect to obtain a relief from our present burdens in a reform of the tariff; this will only come when we have Free Trade, free land and tree country.
Mr. Henry George, the next speaker, was received with enthusiastic rounds of applause. He said:
Ladies and Gentlemen—Most of us have seen the cat and therefore there is no use in my urging you to support Cleveland and Thurman, because you recognize the fact that what they stand for is the great advance that we so much desire. The Protection superstition is just what we have to fight. We want to abolish all the taxes that injure labor, and destroy all the monopolies that hamper it.
Although the Democratic party by its measure goes but a little way, it sets its face toward Free Trade, and the man who leads in this movement for the emancipation of labor is Grover Cleveland. He has turned the whole country into a debating club. A great principle is at stake.
The Protectionists appeal to the lowest passions, the densest superstitions, but I have faith in the intelligence of our working people and I am confident that in November the death knell of Protection in the United States will be struck. Let us elect Mr. Cleveland and then you will see how high the Free Trade spirit will rise in the Democratic ranks; then you will see how proud men will be to be called Free Traders.
At this point in his address Mr. George was interrupted by a man in the lower end of the hall who shouted out: “We don’t want Free Trade!”
“He has not seen the cat.” said someone on the platform.
“He sees it through a glass darkly, if he sees it at all,” said Mr. George; and resuming the thread of his discourse he launched out into an extended exposition of his free land theories. At the close of his speech a collection was taken up and the meeting adjourned.
and the Brooklyn Times Union of the same date:
A Meeting at the Athenaeum Addressed by Henry George and Others Last Night.
Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather last evening, the seating capacity of the Athenaeum, Atlantic avenue, near Clinton street, was taxed to its utmost to accommodate those who came to listen to Mr. Henry George and other disciples of the free trade and tax theories. The meeting was called to order shortly after 8 o'clock by Mr. Everett B. Glackin, who presided. He briefly reviewed the objects and aims of the United Labor party for the information of those not acquainted with their platform, and stated that nothing abort of the abolition of all the taxes except land rents would in the least degree ameliorate the condition of the wage-earner.
Mr. Louis F. Post was then introduced. He prefaced his speech by a humorous comparison of the difficulties to be experienced in thoroughly understanding the practical application of the single tax scheme and a certain cat story he heard out West, in the window of a picture dealer's store in a Western town, he continued, was a painting of a beautiful landscape, and on the white lower margin of the painting read the legend. "Where is the Cat?" Passers by were attracted to the store window by the novelty of the picture, and each endeavored to succeed in locating the feline representative, but without success. One day there happened along an individual whose perceptive faculties were unusually developed, and after scrutinizing the painting for a few moments he discovered the cat. Not being of an esoteric nature and wishing to impart his knowledge to those who were gazing at the picture, this individual began pointing out the different portions of the animal, observing that the thorns at the base of the landscape represented the cat’s claws, two large leaves on a tree were outlines of its ears, two soaring birds its eyes, and the whole landscape was then plainly seen to represent a fully developed cat.
"So with the tax on land values,” said the speaker; “when properly propounded the theory presents no difficulty to the average comprehension.” Mr. Post was frequently applauded.
There was an intermission of ten minutes, daring which a collection was taken up, and then the discussion was resumed by Mr. John Butler, of Harrisburg, Pa., who made a very forcible address and was frequently applauded.
Tremendous applause greeted Mr. Henry George, who next took the platform. When silence had been restored the great free trader remarked that it was evident, from the disposition shown by those present when free trade was mentioned, that there was no necessity of urging them to vote for Cleveland and Thurman, who were, he said, pioneers in the movement for the removal of all duties on imports. The Mills bill, he continued, was merely an entering wedge designed to sunder the protective rock, but it was of vast importance in that it indicated the goal to which the Democracy was advancing.
“Free traders throughout the country," Mr. George went on, "ought to thank Mr. Cleveland for his influence in converting the country into a gigantic debating club, for it is only by discussion that the evils of restricted commercial intercourse could be elucidated and made apparent. The watchwords in this campaign,” he continued, "were to be 'free trade, free land and free men,' and the Democracy is the party through which they are to be achieved.”
Before the meeting adjourned the Chairman announced that there would be a meeting of the Revenue Reform Club at Thayer’s Hall, corner at Bedford and Fulton avenues, on Thursday evening next.
The New York Times article didn't mention the cat.
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