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 RSWSWS 585 chimerical. As regards the gain of the comanunity from machinery qua consumers, Mr. Hobson thinks that the 'poorest classes whose consumption of machine productions is smallest gain least.' After a summary of the results of recent inquiries on the subject of influx of population, Mr. Hobson tackles the' difiScult question of sweating, its causes, symptoms, and remedies. He considers that ' the malady is rightly traceable in its full force neither to the action of individuals nor of industrial classes, but to the relation which subsists between these individuals and classes,' and that its main cause is the excessive supply of low-skilled labour due to various causes influx from the country and froin abroad, free importation of cheap goods, introduction of machinery, and the levelling influence of education. Another cause is mentioned as operative in London, viz. the break up of London factories owing to the stress of provincial competition, which has ' furnished the sweating trades with a large quantity of unemployed and starving people from whom to draw.' No facts, however, are adduced in support of this assertion. The chief conclusions of Mr. Charles Booth and the Lords' Com- mittee on the subject of sweating are fairly summarized, and the chief remedies which have been suggested factory legislation, co-operative production, trade unionism, public workshops, restricted immigration, and the eight hours' day are passed successively in review, though Mr. Hobson does not expect very much from any of them singly. ' Trade Unionism as an effective agent in securing the industrial welfare of workers is seen to rest upon the basis of restriction of labour supply'. a rather mechanical view, though true to a great extent over short periods of time. Over long periods the efifcacy of Trade Unionism rests rather on its effect on the standard of life. So far as can be gathered from his balanced criticism Mr. Hobson looks on General Booth's ' social drainage' scheme with qualified favour, at least, as an experiment. He speaks with no uncertain sound in favour of further restriction of the work of children and married women, and the legal regulation or prohibition of outwork for wonten; basing his argument on the sound basis of the paramount importance of the national 'crop' of children, even if other crops have to suffer in consequence. The next chapter treats of the moral aspects of poverty a question almost as perplexing as that of free will and fatalism. How far the victim of poverty is the helpless sport of circumstances, or how far he is ' master of his fate'will be differently decided even in the same case by observers of different temperaments. Mr. Hobson thinks that the moral factor in poverty has been over-rated, and it is probable on the whole that English writers have attributed too much power to the labcurer over his environment as the Germans have attributed too little. In the case of drink, Mr. Hobsoil seelllS himself to have underrated the import- ance of the moral factor. The last part of the book is taken up with a rapid review of socialistic legislation in so far as it has been due to the ' direct pressure