Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/729

Rh constrained to adopt the scientific theory of the universe. But he must show "that the larger creed leads to a larger life; that it makes him more liberal and tolerant, more pure and upright, more loving and unselfish, more strenuous, as becomes a soldier fighting in the foremost ranks in the campaign against sin and misery; so that, when the last day comes, which comes to all, it may be recorded of him that his individual atom of existence left the world, on the whole, a little better, rather than a little worse, than he found it."

The latest attempt to design an ideal republic is contained in Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy (Ticknor, 50 cents), which has the form of a story about a Boston young man who went into a trance for over a century, to recover consciousness among the family of a retired physician with a charming daughter. Stripped of its narrative dressing, the author's plan for reorganizing society is, that the people manage the whole industry of the country through the government. Each individual contributes to the common labor all he can of the kind of work he is best fitted for, and each draws from the public storehouses an equal share of goods. The saving of misdirected effort under this system makes it possible for all to be mustered out of industrial service at the age of forty-five, having entered it at twenty-one, after a liberal education. Houses and land are rented from the government. Money has no function. Accumulations of personal property become burdensome the moment they exceed what adds to the real comfort. The dread of want and desire of luxury being eliminated, the motives relied on to draw out the best efforts of the citizens are honor, patriotism, and the sense of duty. For the first three years after persons reach the industrial age they are assignable to any occupation, which makes all work of equal honor, and gives a prodigious impulse to the invention of labor-saving devices. The classes deficient in body or mind are regarded as members of the same family as their stronger brethren, and receive support and care as a right, not as charity. Hours of labor are less in the more disagreeable and laborious occupations, so as to make all equally attractive. Women are organized as an allied force in the industrial army, and employed for a few years in occupations suited to their sex. They have a world of their own, instead of entering into an unnatural rivalry with men. Marriages are contracted only from inclination or sexual selection. Most of the evils of all sorts which we at present deplore are eliminated by removing the conditions which put a premium on baseness.

The alcohol question is treated in a liberal but earnest manner by G. H. Stockham, M. D., in his little book entitled Temperance and Prohibition (The author, Oakland, Cal., 75 cents). Dr. Stockham gives a sketch of the temperance movement, accounts of the making and adulteration of alcoholic beverages, and a statement of the observed physiological action of alcohol. He includes also a summary of the liquor laws of Great Britain and America, with a chapter on prohibition, and one on suggested remedies for intemperance. He condemns prohibition as being ineffectual and tyrannical, and condemns also the licensing of saloons, as encouraging drunkenness and crime. He thinks a great step in the right direction would be to grant licenses only for the sale of beer, cider, and light wines to be drunk on the premises, and for the sale of spirits not to be drunk on the premises. He would be glad to see closer restrictive measures than these when society has been educated up to the point of supporting them.

Modern Speculation is an address by M. W. Quick, of Titusville, Pa., before the New York State Grange, January 24, 1888. The address points out the evil effect of gambling in agricultural produce on the prices of such articles, and asks the support of farmers in securing legislation to prevent fictitious sales of agricultural commodities. The pamphlet contains also the text of a bill having this object, with answers to objections, and explanations of the terms used on the exchanges.

A number of documents important for students of American and English history are made readily accessible in the Old South Leaflets (Heath, 5 cents a copy; one hundred copies, $3). They are pamphlets of twelve to twenty pages, without covers, and the General Series at present comprises the