xxxii] CALIFORNIA TO QUEBEC 199 



prairies of the West gave them illimitable acres of marvel- 

 lously fertile soil ; — it is not surprising that these conditions 

 with such a people should have resulted in that mad race 

 for wealth in which they have beaten the record, and have 

 produced a greater number of multi-millionaires than all the 

 rest of the world combined, with the disastrous results already 

 briefly indicated. 



But this is only one side of the American character. 

 Everywhere there are indications of a deep love of nature, a 

 devotion to science and to literature fully proportionate to 

 that of the older countries ; while in inventiveness and in the 

 applications of science to human needs they have long been 

 in the first rank. But what is more important, there is also 

 rapidly developing among them a full recognition of the 

 failings of our common social system, and a determination 

 to remedy it. As in Germany, in France, and in England, 

 the socialists are becoming a power in America. They 

 already influence public opinion, and will soon influence the 

 legislatures. The glaring fact is now being widely recog- 

 nized that with them, as with all the old nations of Europe, 

 an increase in wealth and in command over the powers of 

 nature such as the world has never before seen, has not added 

 to the true well-being of any part of society. It is also 

 indisputable that, as regards the enormous masses of the 

 labouring and industrial population, it has greatly increased 

 the numbers of those whose lives are "below the margin of 

 poverty," while, as John Stuart Mill declared many years 

 ago, it has not reduced the labour of any human being. 



An American (Mr. Bellamy) gave us the books that first 

 opened the eyes of great numbers of educated readers to the 

 practicability, the simplicity, and the beauty of Socialism. It 

 is to America that the world looks to lead the way towards a 

 just and peaceful modification of the social organism, based 

 upon a recognition of the principle of Equality of Oppor- 

 tunity, and by means of the Organization of the Labour of 

 all for the Equal Good of all. 



