State responsibilities vanish; and for the security of the individual against dictators or oligarchies we have only the confident assurance that all the precedents of tyranny will be reversed in the millennial time. Social chaos quickly followed by Cæsar would be the far more likely succession. Let us introduce a little modesty into our prophecies; let us pay moderate regard to human nature as it is, and not ask it to transform itself in fifty years or less; let us cease to lay out the road to Utopia at a right angle to the line which human progress has thus far followed. What, after all, do we desire for every man but the opportunities of ample and pleasurable life which many men now have, thanks to ability, industry, perseverance, thrift, self-denial, and selfhelp, on the part of generation after generation? Human progress were a weak thing, could not its speed be accelerated somewhat, and the moral and material happiness of the majority be multiplied at a rate beyond that of the past. But human progress were just as much a vain thing if its method could be changed at once, and moral tone be safely taken from it by the substitution of reliance upon the State for reliance upon individual faculty and personal virtue. There was never a more purely mythological creation than "The State" of the American socialist, — omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. What the actual State is, with its limited functions, we have only to use our eyes to see. The national civil service was long abandoned as loot to political workers. The American municipality in most cases has not even kept its streets clean. Only a small portion of the Kingdom of Heaven cometh through legislation. The Kingdom comes slowly, far behind the hot pace of our desires, through hard work of hand and head, and that sternest of experiences, the moral discipline of the will. To the working classes of to-day the advocate of Utopia has, for instance, no more imperative message to deliver than the commandment of abstinence from drink and tobacco. The sums that could thus be saved in the United States would plant a hundred thousand happy families every year in homes of their own, far more to be desired than the choicest corner lots in an impracticable Boston of the year 2000 A. D. ! Industry, thrift and temperance, these be very rude and homely virtues, ye right worshipful doctors and illustrious grand masters of socialism, by the side of your airy castles of indolence and affluence erected by act of Congress. But, homely and rude as they are, they have done many a good work: they have procured for mankind a long list of solid comforts, and their power has not been exhausted, while your fantastic commonwealths have risen and disappeared by the dozen. One must yet sympathize very heartily with the disgust the working-classes feel for those who come from homes of luxury to preach temperance and thrift in the intervals of their devotion to the claims of fashion. There are many kinds of intemperance, and these preachers are often forcible examples of some of the worst. A number of steps in the direction of Utopia have been indicated in this volume. It is a perpetual journey, and not all of these steps together will bring us to complete felicity. Nevertheless each step will bring us farther on the way. We may wisely hope and trust that better conditions and shorter hours of labor will gradually prevail; that a more equal division will be made of the profits of industry; that a closer coöperation will be accomplished of the capitalist, the employer and the workman; that sounder systems of taxation will equalize the burden and the ability of the tax-payer; that every family will come to own a home; that education will multiply its pervasive powers through every social grade; that accumulated wealth will be more and more freely used to strengthen and adorn the public life; that science, art and invention will irresistibly combine their offices to humanize and beautify the common lot. To a thousand agencies of good we must look for our progressive deliverance from the evils that beset us. There is no highway to Utopia, though the approaches be many. Utopia itself is a magical city that rises from its foundations and moves onward as we advance. Little respect for it could we have if it did not thus elude our hands, -as little, possibly, as we should feel for an unprogressive heaven, after a few days' residence! None the less should our march be steadfast toward it over the solid ground of Nature. The ever-becoming "philosophical city," in constant flux from good to better, cannot reach a final best. Our imperfect civilization is in many respects wonderful beyond the scope of Sir Thomas More's highest imagination. So in all probability will our fondest dream be put to shame by the future reality. But that reality will come the sooner because of our dreaming, much more because of our striving; for Utopia is a city "Built of tears and sacred flames, OF THE R UNIVERSTY CALIFORNIA SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY. 66 This list is intended to give but a few titles of the best recent books, mostly issued since 1888, on topics touched by this volume: a brief list of valuable articles in the periodicals is added. 'The Reader's Guide in Economic, Social and Political Science," edited by R. R. Bowker and George Iles (G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1891), will be found very serviceable by all students. Contemporary Socialism. By John Rae, M. A. tion, revised and enlarged. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1891. Second edi New York, Socialism New and Old. By William Graham, M. A. D. Appleton & Co. New York, 1891. A History of Socialism. By Thomas Kirkup. Adam & Charles Black. London and Edinburgh, 1892. The Quintessence of Socialism, 1889: and the Impossibility of Social Democracy, 1892. By Dr. A. Schäffle. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. London. A Plea for Liberty. Introduction by Herbert Spencer and Essays by various writers. Edited by Thomas Mackay. D. Appleton & Co. New York, 1891. Individualism, A System of Politics. By Wordsworth Donisthorpe. Macmillan & Co. London, 1889. French and German Socialism in Modern Times. By Richard T. Ely, Ph. D. Harper & Brothers. New York, 1883. Fabian Essays in Socialism. Edited by G. Bernard Shaw. Walter Scott. London, 1889. The Coöperative Commonwealth. Revised and enlarged edition and Our Destiny: The Influence of Nationalism on Morals and Religion. By Laurence Gronlund, M. A. Lee & Shepard. Boston, 1890. Christian Socialism. By Rev. M. Kaufmann, M. A. Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. London, 1888. Social Aspects of Christianity and other Essays. By Richard T. Ely, Ph. D. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. New York, 1889. Socialism from Genesis to Revelation. By F. M. Sprague. Lee & Shepard. Boston, 1893. By Philo W. Sprague. Christian Socialism: What and Why. Second edition and Political Economy. Third edition, revised and enlarged, 1888 and First Lessons in Political Economy, 1889. By Francis A. Walker. Henry Holt & Co. New York. Capital and Interest: A Critical History of Economical Theory, 1890 and The Positive Theory of Capital, 1891. By Eugen V. Böhm-Bawerk. Translated with Prefaces and Analyses by William Smart, M. A. Macmillan & Co. London. Institutes of Economics. By Elisha Benjamin Andrews. Silver, Burdett & Co. Boston, 1889. An Introduction to Political Economy. By Richard T. Ely. Chautauqua Press. New York, 1889. The Scope and Method of Political Economy. By John Neville Keynes, M. A. Macmillan & Co. London, 1891. Recent Economic Changes. By David A. Wells. D. Appleton & Co. New York, 1889. The State Elements of Historical and Practical Politics. By Woodrow Wilson. D. C. Heath & Co. Boston, 1889. Social Statics, Abridged and Revised; together with the Man versus The State. By Herbert Spencer. D. Appleton & Co. New York, 1892. State Railroad Commissions. By F. C. Clark. American Economic Association. 1891. Man and the State. Popular Lectures and Discussions before the Brooklyn Ethical Association. D. Appleton & Co. New York, 1892. Der Moderne Socialismus in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika. By A. Sartorius Freiherrn von Waltershausen. Verlag von Hermann Bahr. Berlin, 1890. The Labor Movement in America. By Richard T. Ely, Ph. D. New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. New York, 1886. Guide Pratique pour l'Application de la Participation aux |