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says, "the forces of industrial development have by no means reached their zenith," it may be well still to give competition a little further trial, and to temper a little our enthusiasm for a state we cannot picture, Mr. Hillquit, is indeed naively conscious that the socialist state must not be introduced too suddenly : there are certain industries, such as small farming, that will, "at least for many years to come," not be proper objects for socialization.
The book would have been of more homogeneous value had the author omitted much elementary and fragmentary treatment of the history of ethics and law, had he bravely eliminated the numerous rhetorical passages into which his sympathies lead him, and had he been more liberal in stating the sources of his statistics. On the whole however he has contributed worthily to the literature of socialism. A. B. Wolfe
Orthodox Socialism: A Criticism. By James Edward Le Ros- siGNOL. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1907. Pp. vii+147.
This meaty little book will no doubt fill a need both for the lay- man and the college teacher. It gives a compact exposition and searching criticism of the various essential doctrines of what the author calls the "creed of socialism." Socialism, he acutely observes, is a religion, not a science. The articles of its creed relate to the labor- value theory, the theory of surplus value, the iron law of wages, crises, machinery, the economic interpretation of history, the class struggle, and the social revolution, and these he proceeds to examine in as many chapters.
As a criticism of socialistic doctrines, the book is mostly destruc- tive, often with a savage, raking crossfire of cold logic, sometimes, however, with unconscious misinterpretation and forensic overem- phasis, the latter being due to the author's inability to warm himself to an adequate appreciation of such truth as socialistic theory may contain and such services as it may have rendered. To quote but an instance or two: "If, then, the taking of interest is robbery the whole institution of private property is robbery, and that is exactly
what the socialists say. 'Property is theft,' says Proudhon "
It seems hardly intelligent to quote Proudhon as an authority on modern socialism. Moreover the implication that socialists con- demn all private property is simply untrue. Again, "the countries
