LITERARY NOTICES. 



131 



cord with his religion. He sees that the 

 theory of development demands a recon- 

 struction of theology, and frankly says so. 

 His own conceptions of the reconstruction 

 necessary are modestly and clearly stated. 

 His idea of Deity is that of a Being resi- 

 dent and immanent in Nature, who creates 

 by means of natural law in a perfectly in- 

 telligible order. At the point in evolu- 

 tion where man became a morally respon- 

 sible being, he deems the human soul to 

 have been born. As physical evil has been 

 the means, through the pain and struggle it 

 has involved, of racial elevation, so he holds 

 moral evil to be equally necessary for the 

 growth of character. How, otherwise, he 

 asks, than by the possibility of fall, could 

 man have gained the strength to rise ? Prof. 

 Le Conte is instructive, suggestive, and can- 

 did throughout every chapter of his book. 

 It will be fruitful and helpful to many who 

 fear that the progress of science means the 

 abolition of religion ; that Darwin and Spen- 

 cer have come to uproot sentiments which 

 Galileo, Kepler, and Newton only elevated 

 and deepened. 



Wealth and Proc.uess: A Critical Ex- 

 amination' OP the Labor Problem. By 

 George GuNTON. New York: D.Apple- 

 ton & Co. Pp. 382. Price, $1. 



In this book the author undertakes to 

 establish a natural basis for industrial re- 

 form ; to show how to increase wages with- 

 out reducing profits or lowering rents ; and 

 to expound the economic philosophy of the 

 eight-hour movement. Whatever may be 

 thought of the sufficiency of his conclu- 

 sions, the critic must admit that his doctrines 

 and proofs are well thought out and clearly 

 stated, without passion and without preju- 

 dice. The book really has a duplex origin, 

 for its central thought was conceived and 

 the first effort to state it was made by the 

 late Ira Steward, the leader of the labor- 

 reform movement in Massachusetts. Just 

 before his death, in 18S3, he made a re- 

 quest that Mr. Gunton should complete his 

 unfinished work. This author had the ad- 

 vantage of extensive experience and excep- 

 tional opportunities for observation with 

 industrial affairs, and had been a close stu- 

 dent of economic questions. He perceived 

 the magnitude and perplexity of the task 

 imposed upon him, and has met it in the 



fashion of a manly thinker. This book 

 contains about half of what he has to say, 

 the presentation of the principles of social 

 economics being reserved for another vol- 

 ume. The precise points considered in the 

 present volume are the definition of the law 

 and cause of increasing production, and 

 the theoretical statement and historical es- 

 tablishment of the law of wages. Under 

 the former head, the socialistic postulate, 

 that " labor is the creator of all wealth," 

 is shown to be fallacious, and it is main- 

 tained that — inversely to the general con- 

 ception — the prosperity of the laborer is 

 the basis of the capitalist's success. The 

 "wages fund," Francis A. Walker's, and 

 Mr. George's theories of the law of wages, 

 are all dismissed as unsound, and the true 

 theory is defined to be that " the chief de- 

 termining influence in the general rate of 

 wages in any country, class, or industry is 

 the standard of living of the most expensive 

 families furnishing a necessary part of the 

 supply of labor in that country, class, or 

 industry." This law is illustrated and en- 

 forced by a review of the conditions of 

 workingmen's wages and modes of living in 

 Asia and in Europe in the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centuries, and down to the nine- 

 teenth century. The standard of living is 

 determined by the daily wants of the people 

 concerned— not what they have vague de- 

 sires to have, but what they will struggle 

 to get. These wants regulate consumption, 

 and that regulates production, and thus the 

 prosperity of the capitalist and the commu- 

 nity is determined. The standard of the 

 wants is elevated by enUirging the social 

 opportunities of the masses, but not by en- 

 larging them faster than the capacity for 

 enjoying them is augmented. The first step 

 toward this end is a reduction of the hours 

 of labor, for, without time to improve them, 

 other means for promoting the same object 

 — education, free lectures, public libraries, 

 parks, museums, and art-galleries — are ne- 

 cessarily ineffectual. Yet this must be done 

 wisely, and commensurably with the en- 

 largement of other facilities ; for, to give. 

 idle hours to a man who does not know how 

 to use them aright, is only a curse. With 

 this reduction, which it is proposed to make 

 to eight hours a day, should go half-time, 

 schools for children at work under sixteen 

 years of age. Among the immediate effects 



