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 224 has been abundantly fulfilled. The disputes and struggles connected with labor, and the conditions of the poorest classes of the community, have directed the attention of many thoughtful men and women to the social and economic problems of the day, and in all parts of the world these are presenting themselves to educationists, social reformers, politicians and statesmen, as the matters which above all others are urgently demanding careful study and investigation. M. de Laveleye put the dominant thought into words when he said: 'The message of the eighteenth century to men was, 'Thou shalt cease to be the slave of nobles and despots who oppress thee: thou art free and sovereign.' But the problem of our times is, 'It is a grand thing to be free and sovereign, but how is it that the sovereign often starves? How is it that those who are held to be the source of power often cannot, even by hard work, provide themselves with the necessaries of life?'" (Contemporary Review, March, 1890.)

"From a survey of the chief conditions of industry which have been brought about by the great development of machinery, and of the application of science, it is evident that the present century is in a large sense a probationary epoch, an era of beginnings. Indeed it is not at all a question of whether the existing social order shall be changed, but of how the inevitable change shall be made. . . . It is long since Carlyle pointed out that 'this that they call organizing of labor is, if well understood, the problem of the whole future for all who will, in future pretend to govern men;' but it is only now that politicians are beginning to recognize that it is the most important piece of work which lies immediately before them. Like the Bishop of Durham, I believe 'that the unequal heritage which we enjoy, containing as it does, the common enjoyment of the highest forces for inspiring and disciplining a generous character, not only prepares us to face the problem of the organization of industry as a fellowship of service, but lays on us the obligation of doing so. The life of nations is a mission no less than the life of men, and unless the teaching of history misleads us, this is part of the mission of England. May the will answer to the call. Men upon the whole are what they can be—nations what they would.'"

"Hitze (Die Quintessenz der Socialen Fragen) has truly said that the problem of the day is, 'To find a social organization corresponding to the modern conditions of production, as the social organization of the Middle Ages corresponded with the simple conditions of