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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to modern governments ; and, secondly, a 

 criticism of the tendency, just at present in 

 the ascendant, of looking to legislation for 

 the cure of all ills and the securing of all 

 benefits. "The spirit of the individualist 

 movement," the author tells us, " is one of 

 resistance to any overstepping by the legis- 

 lature of its normal boundaries. It is the 

 embodiment of the absolute principle of civil 

 liberty, or the greatest possible liberty of 

 each compatible with the equal liberty of 

 all." We need hardly observe that this is 

 sound Spencerian doctrine. Later on in the 

 volume the author has a good deal to say in 

 criticism of Mr. Spencer's " Man vs. the 

 State " ; but this does not prevent his recog- 

 nizing Mr. Spencer, on the first page of his 

 preface, as the man "who has contributed 

 more to the scientific study of society than 

 any other thinker not even excepting Au- 

 guste Comte or John Austin " ; and as the 

 one to whom the merit belongs " of formu- 

 lating this (the individualistic) theory of 

 government, and thus of laying the rough 

 foundation on which a sound art of politics 

 may be based." Mr. Donisthorpe laments 

 the fact that in England to-day "the Con- 

 servative party have thrown in their lot 

 with state socialism," and are" now playing 

 with the Liberals a game of grab for the 

 votes of those whom a Socialistic programme 

 attracts. He shows reasons, however, for 

 holding that the present tendency is rather 

 an eddy in the general current, than a main 

 movement likely to be continued in the fu- 

 ture a reaction toward unintelligent politi- 

 cal methods due to the recent inclusion (he 

 is speaking of England) of lower layers of 

 the population in the electorate. 



We pass over Chapters IV and V, en- 

 titled " What is Property ? " and " What is 

 Capital ? " which do not seem to us to have 

 a very direct bearing on the main purpose 

 of the bock ; while the style in which they 

 are written is somewhat tiresomely dispu- 

 tatious. The chapters on " The Labor 

 Question" and "The Capitalization of La- 

 bor," which immediately follow, are, on the 

 other hand, full of interest. In the first of 

 these the author describes with great force 

 the present economic condition of the la- 

 boring classes. He accepts without reserve 

 the Ricardian doctrine of the tendency of 

 wages to a minimum, maintaining that it 



has been so irresistibly proved a priori that 

 to discuss it in the light of any partial facts 

 or observations is the merest waste of time. 

 He pours unmeasured ridicule on the new- 

 fangled doctrine of " the standai'd of com- 

 fort" by which some political economists 

 try to make the Ricardian law appear less 

 cruel in its operation. " Wagedom," says 

 Mr. Donisthorpe, is only a shade better 

 than serfdom, and is virtually a kind of 

 serfdom. The remedy for it, however, 

 does not lie in socialism, which would only 

 aggravate all the ills of society, but in the 

 substitution for the wage system of what 

 Mr. Donisthorpe calls " the capitalization 

 of labor." His idea is briefly this: The 

 wage-earner at present takes, when he can 

 get it, a certain average wage from his em- 

 ployer, the amount of which does not de- 

 pend upon the profitableness or otherwise to 

 his employer of the business carried on. In 

 other words, the employer insures the laborer 

 a certain wage independently of the fortunes 

 of his business. Now, nobody insures an- 

 other without charging something for it ; 

 and the capitalist class recoup themselves 

 for insuring a certain average wage to their 

 employes by putting that average wage some- 

 what, perhaps considerably, below what their 

 average profits would justify. By the capi- 

 talization of labor Mr. Donisthorpe means 

 treating labor as capital (which he con- 

 tends it is), and establishing a partner- 

 ship between it and capital a true partner- 

 ship, in which gains and losses would be 

 shared. Mr. Donisthorpe shows how a be- 

 ginning might be made by taking the aver- 

 age wages in one or more lines of business 

 for a certain number of years, and fixing 

 the proportion which these had borne to 

 average profits during the same period. The 

 laborers might then approach the capitalists 

 and say: These are the wages you have 

 been able to pay us on the principle of in- 

 suring us a fixed compensation whether your 

 business prospered or not. Now, we wish to 

 throw our labor as so much capital into your 

 business, on the understanding that, if your 

 profits are greater than the average profits 

 of the period we have been considering, you 

 will pay us in proportion, and that, if they 

 are less, you will pay us in proportion also. 

 We must refer those of our readers who 

 wish to see how much can be urged on behalf 



