Capitalist and Laborer; An Open Letter to Professor Goldwin Smith, D. C. L., in Reply to His Capital and Labor, and Modern Socialism a Lecture Delivered at the New York School of Philanthropy (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CAPITALIST AND LABORER My Dear Professor Smith: Reasons for Some time ago a friend in Tor- thls letter pamphlet containing your open letter, Progress or Revolution? with the request that I reply to it from the viewpoint of those members of the working class who believe the existing industrial system to be unjust and destined to be replaced by a saner and juster system. While I was reluctant to associate my name in a controversial way with that of so eminent a citizen in the great republic of letters, wherein I am so humble a citizen, as yourself, I could not but feel emboldened by the terms of friendship for Labor in which your letter was couched. Further, it seemed to me a matter of duty to set forth my reasons for believing that Progress must be by Revolution ? albeit that the revolution need not be associated with violence. I felt that 9 the manner in which your letter had come under my observation was in a very real sense a call to give reasons for the faith and hope which, as a Socialist, I hold. It did not require even your very modest references to your many services to the cause of the workers in years past, and your friendship for men like Joseph Arch and George Jacob Holy- oake ? men whom I also knew and loved ? to assure me that you would give my letter of reply the same courteous consideration as that which you desired for your letter which called it forth. That reply to Progress or Revolution was written, under the title Progress by Revolution, and but for pressure of other matters of more immediate importance would have been published some time ago. Now that your letter has appeared in a new and greatly revised edition, and with the imprint of an American publisher, I am grateful for the delay, since it affords me the opportunity of replying to y...