Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/759

 REVIEWS 743

Problems of Modern Democracy. Political and Economic Essays. By EDWIN LAWRENCE GODKIN. Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 332. $2.

THE editor of the Nation is not sweet to the average American taste, but certain of us may take him with advantage in moderate doses preferably after meals. His view of the mission of the edu- cated man in a democracy is that he should be a sort of political memento mori to the multitude. He discharges the function with a Spartan determination which frequently reacts against its purpose. Yet if Mr. Godkin is educated out of feeling with and for the multitude, he is of a type that may well be attended to by the few, and through them may profitably affect the many.

Essays published in several magazines from January 1865 to Octo- ber 1896 makeup the present volume. The titles are: Aristocratic Opinions of Democracy; Popular Government; Some Political and Social Aspects of the Tariff; Criminal Politics ; The Economic Man ; Idleness and Immorality ; The Duty of Educated Men in a Democracy ; Who will Pay the Bills of Socialism? The Political Situation in 1896 ; The Real Problems of Democracy; The Expenditures of Rich Men.

The essays from first to last are serious, strong, and judicial. They are of more than transient importance. They rise to the rank of social phenomena. They are like the atmospheric currents at a given point of observation ; not at first glance revealers of general and permanent laws, but of inestimable value toward making out laws. The deliberate thoughts of a man like Mr. Godkin afford an incomparable means of acquaintance with some of the factors in our civilization. No person who is capable of considering Americans, American institutions, and American ideas as still in their apprentice years, no one who can rule out the presumption of perfection from his estimates of American con- ditions, can afford to ignore these criticisms of facts and forces in our national life.

Precisely because the arguments and points of view are so signifi cant, it is important to point out that they are not final nor always tenable. For instance, Mr. Godkin becomes the spokesman of an obsolescent conception in the following (p. 172): "There is unhappily no absolute test of success in economic legislation. All that the wisest legislator can look for as a sign of his success in dealing with eco- nomic problems is a reduction in the amount of discontent among the poor. To abolish discontent among the poor completely, in any