THE PROBLEM.-

"Shall Avarice Rule?" asks "a friend of humanity" in the seventy page pamphlet before us. The anonymous author seems to be much of a pessimist, a man, or woman, struggling either to incite the citizens of the United States to dissatisfaction, or one interested for the good of the Country, but blinded to certain facts in it. In the preface he says that the "object of this pamphlet is to turn the thought of the earnest working men of our country to the social problem of the times." He then proceeds to turn them to it very forcibly and to show that the moneyed men of America and the Corporation are getting control of the Government, and will bye and bye rule the United States; that we are on the verge of an awful precipice and likely to fall over unless something be done at once. He proposes to have a tax upon property which shall increase in percentage as the amount of property rises. On $100,000 there is to be one per cent. paid as taxes; on $1090,000 ten per cent.; on $10,000 but one tenth of one per cent. Thus would he prevent all large fortunes little thinking apparently that the growth of the United States is due to individual labor spurred on by ambition, which would be killed by the impossibility of attaining its end.

Yet the idea is good in spite of the danger. The richer the man the more he should pay in proportion to his wealth. One percent of of $10,000 is a much larger amount for a human being to pay in taxes than one percent of $100,000.

But besides this our "friend of humanity" proposes to put all corporations under government control and cites many good authorities to support him in this and the taxation question. The "Problem" being solved he closes with the defiant remark that "if this be socialism, I am a socialist. . . ." Such books seldom do good, yet they often have their use. Let us hope this one may affect any mind that takes it up for good. But there is always a certain feeling of disapprobation accompanying anything of this sort when at the close one finds that the author does not wish to connect his name with it.

*Translations from the Georgias and the Republic of Plato. New York, Charles Scribner Sons.

-The Problem. Shall Avarice Rule. Anonymous. J. A. Bliss, New York.