Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/872

 REVIEWS.

The Social Unrest: Studies in Labor and Socialist Movements. By JOHN GRAHAM BROOKS. New York : The Macmillan Co., 1903. Pp. 394.

FEW investigators in this field have not crossed the path of Mr. Brooks in the cities of America and Europe. A large part of the evi- dence in this volume has been gleaned from conversations and corre- spondence, and one is invited to listen to the confidential admissions of labor leaders, socialists, and capitalists in the privacy of closed offices and back parlors.

" Social unrest " arises from justified suspicion. Capitalists com- plain of the bad conduct and low character of miners and woodcutters, yet import more of the same kind to help break strikes. They decry "paternalism," praise individualism and self-reliance, yet lobby for high tariffs, purchase franchises, corrupt courts, and fatten on privi- leges. They antagonize labor unions and construct colossal combina- tions. They admit the abstract right of laboring men to unite, but use all available means to crush them as soon as they become effective. Business uses up men until they are fifty years old and then abandons them, crippled and sick, to the chances of old age. Society devises vast advantages from the introduction of inventions, but throws the cost on those least able to bear it.

Politics and business have already united ; the " trust " has com- pelled the public to look to governments for protection. Free compe- tition without regulation is confessedly a failure, for it digs its own grave.

Social unrest is not entirely new, and it is not confined to trade unions and socialists. The civilized world is in ferment, eager for something new and better. Even the placid waters of the Orient are disturbed by mature commerce and culture. The newspapers irritate and awaken dormant desires. Business men and taxpayers who are enemies of socialism are more ready to welcome governmental interfer- ence when they see city councils bought up for private interests, profits concealed, and privileges of a few made a burden upon generations unborn.

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