Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/131

 REVIEWS

means that those who impress their character on things should own them, the laborer should possess and the rich parasite should have no title to lands or houses. So, if one claims that work is the origin of the right to property, by what reasoning can we defend the fortunes acquired in stock jobbing ? Ordinarily labor is accompanied by poverty, while those who abstain from labor are the owners. Others affirm that prop- erty is the creation of law. But what makes law ? Economic relations. The historic mission of capitalistic property is to secure a powerful method of associated labor. It is one of many historic forms of gov- erning labor, and is destined in its turn to yield place to some kind of free cooperation. It is not a sacred and eternal institution, but simply a temporary phenomenon.

Loria touches a favorite theme when he banters Malthus. The devout pastor fancied he had discovered a divine decree ; it turns out to be simply a passing phase of abnormal conditions in the England of his day. Excessive population is a consequence of low wages, hard treatment, uncertain employment, hopelessness of outlook. Well-fed people do not propagate so rapidly. Give every laborer higher wages, shorter hours, and a plot of ground and he will imitate the French peasants and bring only two children into the world. It is not moral self-control which leads to balance of outgo and income, but an improvement of material conditions, and this alone, which leads to self- restraint. The granary of the world contains more food than is neces- sary to nourish the whole human race ; but the key to the granary is in the pocket of the rich.

Socialism is treated historically and sympathetically. The partial and fantastic forms of socialism are discussed with satirical comments. There is the socialism of the " single taxers," which fights agrarian ownership, but accepts capitalism in other property. There is the form of the theory zealously advocated by the rich German banker, Herr Saniter, which attacks the iniquity of landed property, but holds bank stock to be holy and inviolable. There is the school of the Catholic socialists, "a many-colored collection of barons, tutors of noble fam- ilies, and priests " who combat profits of industry and commerce and place the rents of landed proprietors under the shield of religion. Plato, Campanella, Bruno, and More are touched, and the early French writers briefly characterized. Mar\ ted with great respect; he

is the "greatest thinker of the social sciences since Ricardo." 1 rejects the pet notion of the disciples of Marx that value is fixed by