Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/94

90 at the source, it can not be evaded. The tax on sugar has excited little protest because it has been paid unconsciously. It has been concealed in the price. "Few people taste the tax on sugar in their tea." There is little likelihood of such a tax being shifted upon the well-to-do. It is practically certain, however, that the incidence of the income tax will fall in part upon this class. "Historically considered, income taxes have been more or less successful efforts to throw an increased share of public expenses upon the wealthy." The fifth, socialism, sums up the drift of the age towards property better than any other word. It expresses the humanitarianism of the time. Tenement house owners and steamship companies are confronted with regulations that are growing more stringent. Private property in the wasting resources of nature is being abridged in the interest of posterity. The liability of employers to employees for accidents is increasing. Assumption of risk, contributory negligence, and the fellow servant doctrine are fast being abrogated by statute. A system of social insurance is being instituted that is distributing the unmerited hardships due to accidents, sickness, old age and unemployment in a more equitable manner. There is no more indubitable sign of progress toward the ideal of equality. Factory legislation is spreading and is becoming more exacting. The hours of labor are more and more being regulated in the interest of the public health and safety. The fixing of minimum rates of wages is seriously discussed. Social legislation is looked upon as promotive rather than as subversive of liberty and a new conception of liberty is gaining ground.

Fundamentally, socialism is not a disease but a symptom and a remedy for a disordered social condition. For this reason it demands serious attention and can not be laughed out of court. No political party is immune from its influence, but the rapid increase in the vote of the Socialist party, the growing volume of discontent, and the large vote polled by the newly organized Progressive party in 1912 indicate that neither of our two historic parties has been keeping step properly with the times. Many people vainly imagine that socialism can be disposed of by pointing out the absurdity of certain of the dogmas of Marx, such as the class struggle and surplus value, to which some doctrinaires subscribe. Nothing can well be farther from the mark. The only effective way to meet socialism is to correct the economic and social conditions which account for its origin and existence.