Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/608

586 THE ECONOMIC JOCRN..?L of certain tangible and painful forms of industrial grievance,' and the development of the striking parallelism of the concentration of capital into joint stock companies united by trusts and s.vndicates, and the concentration of labour into local unions amalgamated into national societies and federated in groups of allied industries. ' Competitors ?ve up the combat ? l'outra,we and fight with blunted lances.' The steps in the two sets of processes are alternate, like a game of draughts, a victory on either side giving the ?dvant?e of another move. Mr. Hobson, however, regards the concentration of capit?l into larger units as ' clearer and more perfect' than that of labour. 'The typical business form of to-day is the joint-stock company,' and ' everythiug is tending to fall under the power of a trust.' It is fair however to notice that observers, such as Professor Hadley, of Yale, take a much more limited view of the future of federations of capital, and .much caution is needed in generalizing from the limited experience of a few years. None the less, Mr. Hobsoffs treatment of the subject of combinations is interesting and suggestive. On the whole, the most valuable parts of the book are expository and critical. ' Practical men' who look for constructive suggestion, who seek not only a picture of ' Darkest England' but ' the way out,' .... may be disappointed at the series of perplexing dilemmas with which Mr. Hobson confronts them from the first page to the last. To the student, however, for whom.conclusions and practical remedies matter less than methods and critical analysis, the book cannot fail to be of great use, both as a digest of information and a stimulus to in- dependent thought, even though large parts of it may have hereafter to be modified in the light of more complete knowledge. ]u[. LLEWELLYN SMITH Con temt?orar ? Socialism. Revised and enlarged. 1891. Pp. xii 508. BY JOHN RAE, M.A. Second Edition. London: Swan Sonnenschein and Co. THIS work, which now appears in a second edition, has for many years enjoyed the reputation of being the best book in the English language on the subject of Socialism; and it is now so well known that it is not necessary to call any special attention to its leading features. In the edition that is now before us several important additions have been made. The chapter on ' The Progress and Present Position of Socialism,' dealing largely with recent events, has necessarily been almost entirely re-written. In the chapter preceding this one--the 'Introductory' chapter, in which, in the first edition, the chapter on the present position of Socialism was included--Mr. Rae remarks that'non-political Socialism may be said to have practically disappeared,' and that the only form of Socialism with which we have now to reckon is that which'may be described in three words as Revolutionary Socialist Democracy.' In the