90 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



lected at the source, it can not be evaded. The tax on sugar has excited 

 little protest because it has been paid unconsciously. It has been con- 

 cealed in the price. " Few people taste the tax on sugar in their tea." 

 There is little likelihood of such a tax being shifted upon the well-to-do. 

 It is practically certain, however, that the incidence of the income tax 

 will fall in part upon this class. " Historically considered, income 

 taxes have been more or less successful efforts to throw an increased 

 share of public expenses upon the wealthy." 1111 The fifth, socialism, 

 sums up the drift of the age towards property better than any other 

 word. It expresses the humanitarianism of the time. Tenement house 

 owners and steamship companies are confronted with regulations that 

 are growing more stringent. Private property in the wasting resources 

 of nature is being abridged in the interest of posterity. The liability of 

 employers to employees for accidents is increasing. Assumption of 

 risk, contributory negligence, and the fellow servant doctrine are fast 

 being abrogated by statute. A system of social insurance is being insti- 

 tuted that is distributing the unmerited hardships due to accidents, 

 sickness, old age and unemployment in a more equitable manner. There 

 is no more indubitable sign of progress toward the ideal of equality. 

 Factory legislation is spreading and is becoming more exacting. The 

 hours of labor are more and more being regulated in the interest of the 

 public health and safety. The fixing of minimum rates of wages is 

 seriously discussed. Social legislation is looked upon as promotive 

 rather than as subversive of liberty and a new conception of liberty is 

 gaining ground. 



Fundamentally, socialism is not a disease but a symptom and a 

 remedy for a disordered social condition. For this reason it demands 

 serious attention and can not be laughed out of court. No political 

 party is immune from its influence, but the rapid increase in the vote 

 of the Socialist party, the growing volume of discontent, and the large 

 vote polled by the newly organized Progressive party in 1912 indicate 

 that neither of our two historic parties has been keeping step properly 

 with the times. Many people vainly imagine that socialism can be dis- 

 posed of by pointing out the absurdity of certain of the dogmas of 

 Marx, such as the class struggle and surplus value, to which some doc- 

 trinaires subscribe. Nothing can well be farther from the mark. The 

 only effective way to meet socialism is to correct the economic and social 

 conditions which account for its origin and existence. 



Men do not become discontented because they have theories, but have theo- 

 ries, because they are discontented.^ 



iia"Winthrop More Daniels, "The Elements of Public Finance," p. 187. 

 12 Walter E. Weyl, op. cit., p. 189. 



(To be continued.) 



