In chapter viii. it is maintained that the Anti-semitic movement in Austria is really socialistic in character, the "Liberal" press being largely in the hands of the Jews, and Liberalism identified with Economic laissez faire. Rudolf Meyer and Baron von Vogelsang are described as the intellectual leaders of the Austrian Catholic Socialists, though the former is a Protestant-a refugee from Germany because he had attacked Bismarck. Chapter ix. deals with Switzerland, where, owing to the large amount of democratic self-government, the Catholics have less fear of the State than elsewhere, and where consequently the Catholic Socialists have embraced the doctrines of State Socialism with less hesitation than in France and Germany (p. 242.). The chapter is mainly devoted to an account of the opinions and work of Gaspard Decurtins, who, though a devout Catholic, has not hesitated to ally himself with the Radicals or with the Socialists on questions of Economic reform. In Most of the French Catholics maintain the principles of "Economic liberty," and are opposed to any extension of the powers of the State; but the party represented by Count de Mun, having as its ideal a return to the Economic régime of the Middle Ages, has come, like Catholic Socialists elsewhere, to move gradually in the direction of State Socialism (p. 287). In the same chapter (x.) Professor Nitti points out the backwardness of Belgium in respect of labour legislation. In Belgium, and in other countries where the Catholics are in power, the clergy do not trouble themselves to take up social questions, as in countries such as Germany where the Catholics are in a minority. Italy and Spain the clergy hold aloof from Socialism and Socialism in these countries takes an attitude of violent hostility to the Church. On the other hand, in England and in the United States of America, Cardinals have appeared as champions of the struggling labourer (chap. xi.). In speaking of the growth of Roman Catholicism in England and Scotland, Professor Nitti seems to overlook the fact that this is almost entirely due to Irish immigration and he is reading the present into the past when he says that the English Catholics have "democratic traditions" (p. 298). But with regard to recent events, such as the part played by Cardinal Manning in the Dock Strike, the attitude of Archbishop Walsh to the Irish Land Question, and the defence of the "Knights of Labour" by Cardinal Gibbons, Professor Nitti's account is as careful as it is interesting. The last chapter, to which one turns with special interest at the present time, treats of the attitude of the Pope to the Social Question. Professor Nitti shows the effect produced on the mind of Leo XIII. by the sympathy of Catholic ecclesiastics with more or less Socialistic movements in many countries in the world (p. 343). In spite of his Encyclical of 1878 against Socialism, the Pope "has given his benediction to the Catholic Socialist Vogelsang in Austria, in France he has encouraged the work of Count de Mun, he has sided with the Irish peasantry, he has removed (at the intercession of Cardinal Gibbons) the decree of excommunication from the "Knights of Labour," he has permitted American Catholics to read Henry George, he has encouraged the Socialist clergy of Germany, he has helped the work of Cardinal Mermillod and of Gaspard Decurtins in Switzerland, and he has not put in the "Index" any of the numerous Catholic writers who embrace and maintain Socialistic principles." Although Professor Nitti does not seem to think that the present Pope is likely to take exactly the path marked out for him by "uno scrittore inglese assai noto, lo Stead," (in the article on "The Papacy" in the Contemporary Review of August, 1889), being too much preoccupied with his claims to the temporal power; yet he holds that "the temporal power is for ever at an end," and that "if the papacy were to follow the impulse of so many of its bishops, if it had the courage to proclaim peace between capital and labour, recognizing the claims of the latter upon the former, it would find itself at the head of a movement which no one could check, and which might perhaps realize for the Church her old dream of universal dominion. The Catholic Socialists are not, as were the Liberal Catholics of the school of Lamennais and Lacordaire, solitary thinkers. They dispose of many forces, they are at the head of a large agitation, and base their criticisms and their aspirations on a real evil and a real need. Unlike the social democrats, they wish to reform society in the name of God, but they do not on that account wish the reform to be less radical or less thorough, and they do not on that account exercise on the workmen an attraction less powerful or less dangerous." Why "dangerous"? Professor Nitti's sympathetic account of the Catholic Socialists makes his reader apt to forget that, after all, his attitude is that of an Economic critic, who distrusts the efficacy of the Socialistic remedy, and who yet feels. that the professor of Economic science cannot influence the mass of men like the priest who will dare to make himself a tribune of the people. We look forward with interest to the succeeding volumes of Professor Nitti's undertaking. An English translation of the present work is, I believe, in preparation, and will be welcomed by many students of social questions. There is no book in the English language in which the information can be obtained and Professor Nitti has put together, in a thoroughly readable form, results gathered from very many French and German authorities. D. G. RITCHIE. THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN AMERICA. By RICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Economy in the Johns Hopkins University. [xiii., 373 pp. 8vo. 68. Heinemann. London, 1899.] By THE WORKING-CLASS MOVEMENT IN AMERICA. EDWARD and ELEANOR MARX AVELING. [Second edition, enlarged. 239 pp. 2s. 6d. Sonnenschein. London, 1891.] Professor Ely's admirable work, of which this is a new edition, is not so widely known in England as it should be. Under the general head of "The Labour Movement in America," it deals with four main groups of social phenomena in America: (1) Early Communism, (2) Labour Organization, (3) Co-operation, (4) Socialism. It may be doubted how far Professor Ely is successful in exhibiting these various groups as different phases of a single movement, but there can be no doubt of the value and interest of the information which he has collected and sifted. America, the land of experiments, has been fruitful in communistic societies of various types. Professor Ely estimates that there are at present from seventy to eighty of these communities in the United States, with a membership of from six to seven thousand, and owning property to the value of about twenty-five millions of dollars. But in considering these communities as economic experiments, it must be remembered that the most successful among them have had their origin in religious or semi-religious motives; their communism has been secondary, not primary. The most successful of all are the Shaker communities, of which the earliest was founded by Mother Ann Lee in 1776. At present there are seventeen Shaker societies, forming about seventy "communities," and with a membership of about four thousand. They are, however, declining in numbers. These societies are religious, celibate, and communistic; economically they are a complete success; it is said that there has never been a failure among them. Readers of Howells' "Undiscovered Country" will remember the touching sketch he gives of their mode of life, and of their quaint quietism. The Harmonists of Economy, near Pittsburgh, are on similar lines, celibate, and primarily religious. They are exceedingly rich, owning property of the value of ten millions of dollars; but their numbers have declined from one thousand to forty, and they are fast dying out. The principal non-celibate communities are those of Zoar, in Ohio, founded in 1817, with three hundred and ninety members, and of Amana, in Iowa, dating from 1842, with eighteen hundred members, and owning twenty-five thousand acres of land. Though non-celibate, both these are religious in character, and both are communistic. Such are the chief of the communities that survive: a far larger number have perished. Looked at as an attempt to establish a new social order, American Communism is a failure, but it has provided a number of social experiments of a most instructive character. It is worth noticing that idleness has not been found a source of serious trouble in the communities: the force of public opinion is too strong for it. The really serious difficulties have been, first, petty jealousies, and, secondly, the absence of a career for the more energetic spirits. In the non-religious communities a collapse has often resulted, not from any specific difficulty, but from the absence of any binding force strong enough to hold the community together. The section of Professor Ely's book which deals with the American Labour Societies covers more important and less familiar ground. He has given special attention to the earlier periods of the Labour Movement; but the information he has been able to collect as to these periods is scanty and scattered. It would seem that, though no doubt there was agitation for the redress of particular grievances previously, as well as local and temporary organization, yet the real history of organized labour in America does not begin before the year 1850. The printers led off in that year, and the hatters soon followed suit. The Unions were often at first limited to one or more states, but they have shown a steady tendency to enlarge their borders, and to become first national and then "international," (i.e. in the American sense, including Americans out of America). But alongside of these larger organizations, smaller local organizations often survive. There are about one hundred of these in New York City alone. The strength of the national or "international" Trades Unions varies from two to twentyfive thousand members, the two largest being the Union of the Iron and Steel workers and that of the Printers. Far larger was the Shoemakers' Union, called the "Knights of St. Crispin," said to have had at one time a hundred thousand members, but now extinct. The Grange or Farmers' Union is also of great size and considerable political influence, but it is not properly a Labourers' Union. The Trades Unions have their central body in the "Federation of Organized Trades and Labour Unions," formed in 1881, and somewhat corresponding to our Trades Union Congress. On the other hand, what is called in England the "new Unionism" is most nearly represented by the well-known organization of the Knights of Labour, which aims at raising the position of the labouring class as a whole, and not merely of sections thereof. The programme of the Knights of Labour is, however, moral and not simply economical: its first object is "to make industrial and negroes. moral worth, not wealth, the true standard of individual and national greatness; and it has freely espoused the cause of women and The "Labour Movement in America" thus represents very different principles and aims. Its total strength, supposing the whole movement united in a single aim, may best be judged by Professor Ely's estimate that there were in 1886 five hundred labour papers in the States, of which nine or ten were dailies. I hope that Professor Ely will bring his next edition up to date; the present one is only carried up to 1886, and it will be interesting to hear how far he thinks the "reaction" against labour organization, which was setting in in that year, has gone. What useful What, then, is the effect of all this organization? purposes does it serve, and what are its dangers? On the good points of labour organization Professor Ely is full and satisfactory. The Trades Unions enable their members to withhold their labour temporarily from the market, and generally put them in a better position in making their bargain with their employers. They are valuable in supplying information as to the condition of the labour market in different parts, though, in America as in England, it would seem that this function might be far more effectively performed than it is. They enable the number of apprentices admitted to learn each trade to be limited. They improve the education of their members, especially in regard to prudence in marriage and to temperance. But, however much the American Unions may have done for temperance, it is certainly not true that "total abstinence is scarcely known outside of America" (p. 130, n.). Lastly, they are gradually training the labourers to insurance, though on this point they are still considerably behind the English Unions. Professor Ely's sympathy with the needs and aspirations of the labourers is so strong, that he finds it difficult to admit that there is an unfavourable side to the labour movement. But he points out two special dangers which its progress is likely to bring nearer to American society. The first lies in the belief of the labour leaders in an inflation of the coinage as a nostrum for industrial troubles. The second is the possibility that speculators may use labour organizations as a means of raising and depressing the value of railway stocks. Further, in America as in England, the great danger is that "the demagogue may get control of the labour movement, with all its vast potentialities for good or evil." Yet this peril cannot be averted by the inevitably fruitless attempt to suppress Trades Unions, but only by that guidance which the labourers have a right to expect from those who have brains to think, and are Christians, and care for these things. "We must |