TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

We live in troubled and momentous times. Discordant voices resound on every side. The social aspirations of daily bread toilers seem to many to be in direct antagonism to all existing and peaceful relations, to ultimate economical welfare. The upward striving of the masses appears to many minds to threaten the very core of whole industries, to sap their economical founda­tions. Capital is jealously and quietly putting on its armour ; Labour is eagerly equipping itself for further fray and the defence of its already achieved position. Whatever be the outcome, there seems inevitably close at hand a. period of suffering and privation for many- - the unavoidable companion of transition from one economical stage to another. And if the result of the agitation should place this country at an economical disadvantage the battle will at no distant period be renewed, probably many steps retraced, and bring further discontent and distress in its train. It therefore behoves all parties to 1 the struggle to study the question minutely, to weigh carefully all that can he said in each other’s favour, all that can be brought forward to show lucidly the position vdiieh ought to’ be taken up for the economical welfare of the community in general.

Without committing myself to the whole of the positions taken up by Dr. G. von Schulze-Gaevernitz, I came to the conclusion whilst reading the work that within it lay ihe elements by which the future position of our whole industries and economical prosperity might ho guided to a safe haven. It seemed to me that such an admirable work should he as widely distributed as possible: that