660 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
It must be recognized that while these contributions have been enabling the collectivist movement to gather strength, as important or even weightier influences have been at work in the world of facts. To mention but two forces ; the Parish Council's Act gives power to local governing bodies to become land owners, and in some cases the power has been already exer- cised ; the municipalization of monopolies has proceeded with great rapidity of recent years. 1
If it is asked why so little attention has been given to the critics of collectivism, the answer is not far to seek. 2 The work of the earlier and influential critics like Herbert Spencer has been undone, as is evidenced by the strong collectivist tendency of the last few decades. Whatever be the strength of individual- ism elsewhere it has no hold on the social philosophy of con- temporary England, though it is still as strong as ever in some commercial and financial circles, such as manufacturers' associa- tions and the Liberty and Property Defense League.
Many great writers are neither individualist nor collectivist, such, for example, as Marshall, Cunningham, Sidgwick, Leslie Stephen, and Charles Booth. Even John Morley's latest politi- cal addresses are "tainted" with vague demands for "Labor." The defense of individualism rests, with one exception, in the hands of writers who are their own refutation. The strongest
1 References. SHAW, A., Municipal Government in Great Britain, New York. BELL and PATON, Glasgow: Its Municipal Administration, Glasgow, 1896. PARKER, G. F., " Birmingham," Century, November 1896; WEBB, S., Socialism in England, Soc. Sci. Ser. ; " Municipal Progress," Cobp. Soc.Ann.; Three Years' Work of the Lon- don County Council. London (Weekly Organ of the London Reform Union), invalua- ble for students of municipal movements.
2 References. MARSHALL, Economics, 2d ed. CUNNINGHAM, History of English Industry and Commerce, Vol. II., Cambridge, 1892. SIDGWICK, Methods of Ethics, 5th ed., London, 1893; Elements of Politics, London, 1891 ; Principles of Political Economy, London, 1883; STEPHEN, L., Science of Ethics, London, 1882; Social Rights ana Duties, 2 vols., London, 1896. BOSANQUET, B., Aspects of the Social Problem, "The Moral Aspects of Socialism," Int. Jour, of Ethics, July 1896. MALLOCK, W. H., Labor and the Popular Welfare, London, 1894; Classes and Masses, London, 1896. DONIS- THORPE, W., Individualism, a System of Politics, London, 1889 ; Law in a Free State, London, 1895. HAKE and WESSLAU, The Coming Individualism, London, 1896. McKECHNlE, The State and the Individual, Glasgow, 1896.
