Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/483

 REVIEWS 469

weak are plundered by the strong. Wealth is centralized, that is, it is hoarded in a few hands, who are enabled thereby to control govern- ment and direct legislation, thus still farther to increase and perpetu- ate their power. A most pertinent example is to be found in the flagrant plundering of the gold-standard nations by the great banking firms of the nineteenth century (page 289). Second, the period of hoarding is followed by a period of plunder by violence, in which those who have not, plunder those who have. This period begins when the power of attack surpasses the power of defense. That is whenever the hoarders who control the police power are unable to protect their wealth. As illustrations, we have the plunder of the Orient by the Crusaders, of the Temple by Philip the Fair, of the monasteries by the Protestant reformers, and of India by the English.

Third, the period of plunder is followed by a period of economic activity. Greed now defies fear. Imagination, or the emotional nature, ceases to direct the energies of men. The era of faith, or " magic" as Mr. Adams calls it, ends. The first effect of " economic competition is to dissipate the energy that has been amassed by war." But as a wealthy class develops, diffusion is followed by concentra- tion. The wealthy control legislation and exploit the energy of the productive classes. Economic society is crippled, and gradually ceases to produce wealth. The hoarded wealth of the few no longer seeks productive forms of activity, but is squandered upon luxuries and vices. A period of decline and decay sets in. The many are helpless because the few make the laws and control the police power. But at last the time comes again when hoarded wealth can no longer protect its own. Then the cycle is repeated. Thus there is no hope for society save in this endless labor of Sisyphus. The nations are doomed to go on toiling up the slope, only to find in their very pros- perity the seeds of decay and ruin, which develop in obedience to laws irrevocable and irremediable.

Mr. Adams' metaphysical vagaries would be harmless enough did they not have a direct application to present issues. Some passages, in fact, sound very much like campaign literature.

"As the twentieth century approaches, the salient characteristic of

the age is the ascendancy of the economic type of man \lthough

the conventions of popular government are preserved, capital is at least as absolute as under the Caesars, and, among capitalists, the money lenders form an aristocracy. Debtors are in reality powerless because