essential things of life, and he has laid it firmly. Intellect with him is not the beginning and the end of all things. Intuition is again revealed as the prime moving impulse of our life.

Another man is Franz Oppenheimer, who in his work, The State, an epitome of his larger works, reveals a desire to return to first principles. The State is undoubtedly the most learned, the most thorough analytical treatise of the growth of the State that has been written. Oppenheimer, holding a high position as an economist in the University of Berlin, has had a singular experience in studying "the leviathan," as Thomas Hobbes called it, at close quarters. Oppenheimer is an optimist. He sees a better condition ahead of us where the land-free labourer will come into his own.

The third man is Dr. Nicolai, who was Professor of physiology at the University of Berlin. He is a Prussian of the kind almost unknown to the people of this day, an opponent of Prussian militarism, and one who protested openly when Germany invaded Belgium. He was incarcerated in the fortress of Graudenz. His book, just published, called The Biology of War, is one of the most valuable contributions to the thought of the world which has come out of this strife. It may be called the greatest work on the brotherhood of man that has been written since the Bible. Here again is a return to first principles, and the message of Dr. Nicolai is one of peace and joy. He says:

"How we formulate our morality, however, is no matter; all that matters is that we should bethink ourselves of ourselves and understand that man is an individual unit and at the same time a part of a superordinate organism. Whosoever knows this, and realizes it not merely as a truth

which can be acquired, but as a living law in him and a feeling, is a human being indeed and in truth. But whosoever does not realize this is no true human being, no matter how much he may outwardly resemble one, or, as Kant puts it, how civilized he may be; for he lacks that essential thing which differentiates man from all other living beings the feeling of belonging to the genus humanum. "Whoever is a human being at all is also a moral human being. In face of this truth no isolated occurrences have any importance save as phenomena, and so it is with war. If humanity wins, the death-knell of war will have sounded, but only then; for man cannot and will not break his sword in sunder so long as he does not know that a sword has neither part nor lot in the conception of mankind, but is merely a tool to be laid aside like any other."

I recommend these works to all reformers. The first will enable socialists to correct many of the inaccuracies upon which their doctrines are based, particularly as to their notions of evolution. The second will assist them in arriving at a true estimate of what the State is and how it came into being. The third will teach them the evil effects of compulsion and show that mankind can enjoy natural rights to the full only under a system of voluntary co-operation. Let me quote a few more sentences from The Biology of War, which we all may take to heart.

"Virtue can be taught, but only through self-knowledge. This settles the subjective aspect of the matter, for there is no virtue which is identical for all. Every virtue, like everything else, is dependent upon the individuality of the one. But this subjectivism has its limitations. There is an objective and general principle of virtue that plainly proclaims that it is impossible for a virtue or even a characteristic to develop if the rudiment of it is not present in us. Out of this natural impossibility grows a positive demand. All men should recognize as clearly as possible the powers and potentialities that lie within them and develop them to their highest perfection. The individual man should

consider how or by what means he can accomplish a maximum achievement and best serve mankind. . . . The modern Socratic theory of evolution does not require a man to remain permanently in the place where a rational or irrational destiny has placed him; it desires a man to seek out his place in the world in such a way that it will have meant progress to him."

He says, "When every one of us follows his inborn laws, he in his way best serves mankind." Then he deals with what he calls " the bond between individualism and objectivism," in two striking pass

ages:

"What has been said applies to each one individually, but in a still higher degree to people in general. The latter are naturally more conservative, and it is more difficult to turn them into a new direction, because this requires a uniform variation of the majority. This, however, occurs only in very rare cases. Even the most many-sided nation can and will accomplish useful things only in the direction which conforms to its genius. A nation which attempts all things exhibits no virtue, but dilettantism.

"This principle of the division of labour, which from our present view of nature we accept almost as a matter of course, was vaguely foreseen by the genius of Socrates. It supplies the bond between individualism and objectivism; it permits unlimited individualism, but trains it in the direction of the most useful socialism."

Here we have a statement of the beneficence of a system of voluntary co-operation which is of great value. Unlimited individualism is what is essential if the cause of humanity, the brotherhood of man, is to triumph. That Socialism which is based upon the proposal: that the State shall control all the means of production, distribution, and exchange; for the equal benefit of all; and that the State shall have power to do what it wills with persons, their faculties, and their possessions, is a system of compulsory

co-operation in which the individual is denied natural rights and will become the puppet of the State. Such a system cannot be other than a reversion to the worst form of despotism the world has known.

CHAPTER XIII

THE WAY TO FREEDOM

"We stand in the presence of a revolution,- not a bloody revolution; America is not given to the spilling of blood, but a silent revolution, whereby America will insist upon recovering in practice those ideals which she has always professed, upon securing a government devoted to the general interest and not to special interests."- WOODROW WILSON, The New Freedom. Chap. I, p. 30.

THE future of the Commonwealth is at stake, and the question uppermost in the minds of serious thinkers and earnest business men is what can be done to satisfy the demands of the discontented. They say they have given a fuller pay envelope, shorter hours, pensions, sick benefits, etc., and the workers are not satisfied. They say the more we give the more they want. Of course. Must not that condition follow the method of "giving"? The rise in rent and the cost of commodities and transportation must surely eat up every rise in nominal wage. Can it be otherwise under the present economic and fiscal system? What else then can be done in the way of attempting to satisfy the workers? Well, many are now trying bonus systems, profit-sharing, and co-partnership schemes. And what success will they have? None. They may unrest for a while, but that is all.

allay the fever of For the economic