Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/597

 wws 575 They see in America the same features of society as those which they have discovered in England--the same evil consequences of a capitalistic system, and the same indications of eventual transition to a new order. Mrs. Aveling follows the example set by her father, Karl Marx, in making copious extracts from official publications, such as the reports issued by the various Bureaus of Labour, respecting the condition of the workers, the conduct of the employers, and the question of woman and child labour. In their account of the organisa- tions formed by workmen and others in America the authors rely largely on Professor Ely's book on the Labor Movement in America, and to this they add a series of portraits of the working-class leaders, including Mr. Henry George, and a critical review of the circumstances of the trial of the Chicago anarchists. From their visit to the States they have brought back the ' general impressions' that the ' extremes of wealth and poverty' are'more marked than in Europe,' and that ' there seems to be no social and intellectual middle class,' that ' the condition of the working class is no better,' and that ' unconscious socialism' is more prevalent. M. Paul Lafargue is, like Dr. and Mrs. Aveling, a disciple of Marx. He traces the Evolution of Property from Savagery to Civilisation, beginning with 'primitive communism,' and passing through'family collectivism' and 'feudal property' to 'bourgeois property.' He maintains, like Marx, that capital is essentially a creation of modern times, and that in no other society has it existed as a universal or dominant fact. He illustrates his argument by a considerable number of facts gleaned from writers on primitive society, and the customs of savage races, and his material arranged with skill. Mr. Thompson's essay on the gestive 'attempt to show the has been collected with care and Purse and the Conscience is a sug- connection between economics and ethics.' He examines the conception of justice as applied to monetary affairs, and finds that it involves the idea' of a distribution propor- tionate to services rendered to the community.' He shows how far the 'competitive system tends to realise this idea,' and how far ethical considerations are involved in the stages which intervene before competitive tendencies are fulfilled, in order to increase ' adapta- bility' in the laboureL and lessen immobility, and to remove such hindrances as changes in fashion. He points out how these ethical considerations are ' further concerned in the necessity of perfecting the environment, and the conditions,' of the competitive system by the suppression of crime, and the provision of health and education for ' those who would otherwise be crippled for the want of it.' He then proceeds to discuss the methods of dealing with various circumstances, which tend to modify, or to nullify, justice under the competitive system, apart from hindrances within it or without. He next inquires whether socialism affords a remedy for these evils, and 'opens a short cut to justice ;' and he concludes that it is ' inadmissible' because of the