EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL REFORM.* 



II, THE SOCIALISTIC METHOD, 



Communism, Socialism, Nationalism, Anarchism and Ni- 

 hilism are terms with which we have grown familiar within 

 a few years. All of the movements to which these terms 

 are applied had their origin in the old world and under con- 

 ditions of society and laws wholly different from ours. As 

 they appear on this side of the sea there is a certain ele- 

 ment of unreality in them of which in thought we cannot 

 readily divest ourselves, the arguments by which they are 

 supported being so completely out of harmony with the 

 conditions with which we are familiar. 



We hear more and more of these movements in this 

 country, mainly from three causes. First, because on the 

 average the wage-earners are relatively much better off than 

 formerly, and are naturally and properly anxious for a still 

 greater amelioration of their condition; secondly, because 

 there is a rapidly growing interest in social questions, and 

 desire on the part of the better educated and more pros- 

 perous to find the safest and most effective means for the 

 improvement of the position of the whole ; and thirdly, 

 because these two conditions afford the stimulus to enthu- 

 siastic and often untrained dreamers to unload their new 

 and fantastic or old and exploded schemes upon eagerly 

 listening ears, or the opportunity for the soldier, or perhaps 

 I should more properly say the sailor, of fortune to float 

 his leaky craft for a time upon the swelling wave of popu- 

 lar interest. Mr. Laurence Gronlund, one of the high- 

 priests of the socialistic movement here, Avrites of certain 

 of Fourier's anticipations, "These very soon commenced to 

 fire the American heart, and like a mighty wave they passed 

 over the whole settled part of the United States from east 

 to west, and, indeed, their dying embers did not expire till 

 fifteen years later." Certainly a remarkable state of affairs. 

 "Mr, Chairman and Gentlemen of the Board ! " said a poor- 

 law guardian in the north of Ireland, " The eyes of Eu- 

 rope are upon us. The apple of discord has been flung in 



* Copyright, 1890, by James H. West. 



