portant problem was, What must I do to be saved? At other times the most pressing problem has been political rather than social. The chief difficulties of the present problem are: first, over-population, using the word not as meaning that there are more human beings than the earth has capacity to support, but that they may, and do, increase more rapidly than the power of providing them with the means of subsistence; second, the difficulty arising from the appropriation of the earth's surface; third, the social separation of classes and the impersonality of the relations between employers and workmen men have, to a large extent, ceased to be bound to those who direct them by fixed personal relations; the fourth, and most important, is what is termed the exploitation of persons by things.

"The impersonal results of labor have acquired a value in human life which they never had before. The worth of persons tends to be estimated by their power of producing, and still more by their command over wealth that has already been produced. Men have ceased to be enslaved by men; but they are beginning to fall under the dominion of their own creations. . . . Each is in the hands of a blind fate, a power, not himself, which makes for Production, and to the dictates of this Moloch, the well-being of each has to be subordinated. As the Greeks were said, when enslaved by the Romans, to have conquered their masters, so it might seem as if, in a kind of inverse way, mind in conquering matters had become enslaved by it. . . . Society has passed from that state in which men stand in fixed relations to one another, governed by authority and custom, to that in which they stand in fluctuating relations, governed by economic and other mechanical conditions; and the progress of society is towards a state in which, by certain new combinations, men may gain a mastery over those mechanical conditions."

The sentence last quoted shows how far the philosophical standpoint is removed from the scientific. We do not hope, by certain new combinations, to get the mastery over the law of gravitation. As long as philosophy occupies itself with speculating about getting the better of the economic and other mechanical conditions which govern men there is great danger that it will remain barren.

A good illustration of the tardiness with which ideas work down among the mass of men is found in the way they receive the doctrine that a society is an organism. Many years ago some statesman remarked that constitutions are not made: they grow. The remark was hailed as very profound, and of course, compared with the obverse dictum which even now has a strong hold on many men-. This idea has been spread

ing, and almost every writer on social subjects reiterates the statement, society is an organism. Schopenhauer said the thoughts of any great intellect cannot stand being strained through the vulgar mind; and certainly this idea in getting through the skulls of many writers gets distorted in wonderful ways. Mr. Mackenzie devotes a chapter to this subject, in which he describes several curiosities of this sort. One of these applies to Mr. Gronlund and socialists of his stripe, who regard 66 the union of human beings as the primary fact with regard to them, and the individual life as a mere outcome of social conditions. The natural conclusion of

this view would be that the individual has no right to any independent life of his own; that he owes all he is and has to the society in which he is born, and that society may fairly use him as a mere means to its development." Still, Mr. Makenzie does not add anything to the conception of the social organism as it has been worked out by writers such as Schäffle and Herbert Spencer.

The book does not pretend to offer a solution of the "social problem," or even to hint in what direction the solution is to be found. It has, however, a value for its lucid way of stating the problem and its difficulties, and for some of the criticisms it makes upon solutions that have been proposed. Its faults are, as it seems to us, that it does not take sufficient account of the results that have been achieved by the researches of science.

POLITICS IN THE MAGAZINES.
NOVEMBER.

In the The Popular Science Monthly, ARTHUR KITSON attempts a reply to Mr. Blaine's lately celebrated apology for "protection." The Logic of Free Trade is said to be contrasted with that of Protection very much as the methods of the school of Aristotle are to those of Bacon. The trouble with the protectionist conclusion is that it does not, and can not possibly rest on a complete induction. . The same objection applies to the free-trade conclusion. In this respect the two theories are on a footing of equality; and if this were the only method of arriving at true conclusions, the case would be hopeless. Fortunately, some general principles have been discovered of one the writer says that it is a self-evident truth. Such a proposition may be taken as a premise - for instance: "International commerce is based not upon arbitrary or fanciful considerations but upon the unequal distribution among men and regions of aptitudes to produce the general commodities which are

necessary or useful for the sustenance, comfort, and advantage of human life." This proposition, said to be self-evidently true, may be taken as a premise, as by Mr. Gladstone in the controversy with Mr. Blaine, and from it follows "naturally" that the checking of the natural flow of commodities from one region or one class of men to another causes loss to both.

The inductive war between "protection" and “free-trade" having resulted in a drawn battle, recourse must be had to deduction. And this method gives an unequivocal decision in favor of free-trade. The validity of the writer's contention cannot be denied. Too much space is devoted to logic in general and too little to the application of it to the particular case in hand. That "self-evident” proposition ought to have been elaborated, and the "natural" sequence of free-trade might have been made to appear more clearly.

The writer of Some Lessons from Barbarism, ELAINE GOODALE, has spent several years among the Sioux Indians engaged in philanthropic work. The tribes comprehended under this name are said to be more typical of the natural Indian than are most others within our borders, who have been either degraded and demoralized by contact with us, or else transformed into commonplace farming communities. The Sioux retain their native habits to a large extent. Some of the factors of superiority to civilized habits are said to be dress, out-door life, respect for personal property, freedom from conventionalities, courtesy, simplicity of government. The points are well taken, and the remarks should be read by every one in the hope of shaking off some of his arrogance of race.

In the article on Human Selection, Dr. A. R. WALLACE, opens up a very wide range of discussion indeed. Many different questions are here drawn together from many different lines of thought. The question of what is the ideal human society is involved in this essay; the operation of natural selection and of sexual selection is considered; the question of the mode of inheritance of variations, and the question of the industrial relations of the units and classes of existing Western communities here meet. This being the range of the article itself, it is evidently impracticable to attempt a further condensation of the contents. The conclusions may be briefly enumerated. The state of the industrial relations, involving the immense contrasts of wealth and poverty, is compared to the Augean stable, from which nothing short of complete reorganization will remove the social iniquities. Qualities acquired by the individual after birth are supposed not

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to be inherited In making this assumption the author refers to Weismann's essays of heredity for verification. Acquired qualities - the effects of use, chiefly, not being inherited, we are limited, says the author, "to some form of selection as the only means of improving the race." The form of selection which will prevail is Human Selection. There will be fewer women than men alive, and the women, independent of industrial motives, will more of them remain unmarried from choice. The remainder will be more actively courted by the men, and the resulting selection is that described as human. Finally, the state of society in which the operation of this selection will prevail is the socialistic, or, briefly, the "equal-share" state. The description of the industrial conditions proper to that state, the author takes from Mr. Bellamy, without committing himself to the details of that writer's scheme.

It will be seen that the selection on which Mr. Wallace relies for continuous improvement of the race is not to be distinguished from that which has been called sexual selection, where conscious choice is exercised by the females. In order that the discrimination shall be effective, it is claimed that the causes which at present reduce the number of males of marriageable age will cease to operate, and that the numerical superiority of the latter at birth will be maintained during that period. The disparity so produced will be still further increased by some women remaining unmarried from choice. The result will be that many men will remain unmarried from necessity, and these, it is said, will be the inferior ones. The women will be independent of sordid motives, and will therefore choose only the best partners. The means by which women are supposed to become independent of sordid motives are, first, by having necessities and comforts assured to them, and, secondly, by having all the men likewise equally well off in this respect. As Mr. Wallace says:

"When we allow ourselves to be guided by reason, justice, and public spirit in our dealings with our fellowmen, and determine to abolish poverty by recognizing the equal rights of all the citizens of our common land to an equal share of the wealth which all combine to produce... then we may safely leave the far greater and deeper problem of the improvement of the race to the cultivated minds and pure instincts of the Women of the Future.”

From which we may, perhaps, infer that Mr. Wallace has abandoned the belief he seemed to entertain, no longer than two years ago, that the agencies called by him spiritual have played in the past, and were probably destined to play in the future, an important part in the development of good on earth. If we may safely leave the great and deep problem of improvement of the race to women, there seems little reason for bringing in spiritual agencies to account for anything in the past, or to give promise for the future. As desire for improvement is the only respect in which we agree with Mr. Wallace, his several assumptions and conclusions will be criticised from time to time in other parts of this paper.

(This number of the Popular Science contains an article by Herbert Spencer on The Origin of Music.)

AMERICANA.

Talking of the best way to exterminate the lobby, what's the matter with the method pursued in the Oklahama Legislature, where, when the speaker refused to order the lobbyists out of the House, a member drew a revolver and remarked that if the House could not be protected by its own rules he proposed to protect himself? It is needless to say that the lobby was promptly dispersed. -Boston Herald

A Texas town marshal has instituted suit for ten thousand dollars against the Memphis Avalanche for calling him a Republican. The claim is moderate, and there should be no doubt whatever of the jury's verdict in the matter. Any respectable citizen is damaged fully ten thousand dollars' worth in his character and reputation by being publicly stigmatized as a Republican. St. Louis Republic.

A few days ago, a lady in this city fond of collecting curios went up to the store of a wellknown and unusually intelligent Chinese merchant. She carefully examined the various importations from the Flowery Kingdom until she found an odd little vase that pleased her fancy. "How much is it?" she asked of the proprietor.

"One dollar six bittee." "Isn't that very high?" "McKinilee billee

the almond-eyed one.

was the only response of Exchange.

"The president of the company has had his salary increased to twenty thousand a year."

"Goodness gracious, James! "broke off the coal-dealer to address his clerk, "just announce that, owing to the wages of the miners being increased as a consequence of the McKinley bill, coal will have to go up a dollar a ton."Philadelphia Times.

"You haven't a pension ?" queried the astonished Fenderson of the legless veteran who was scrubbing the marble floor of the corridor of the Bangup Building. "No, I haven't no pension, and I don't expect to get none neither," answered the veteran as he bent to his work. "How can you expect a man with no legs and one of his eyes most gone to hustle round with men in perfect health to get a pension? I tell you a man who is going to get a pension in the rush has got to be in first-class health and strong as an ox." Boston Transcript.

"That reminds me of the old Concord story of the preacher there who felt that, of course, Concord folks know, and having in a prayer used these words: dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, promptly added, which means, O Lord," and then gave the translation."- Boston Transcript.