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BOOK REVIEWS

Three Acres and Liberty. By Bolton Hall. MacMillan. Cloth, 435 pp., $1.50.

Here is a combination of the Single Tax, "Back to the Land" and suburbanite enthusiasm, tempered with the supervision of an agricultural expert and written in charming literary style. Such a combination should be pleasing to a great variety of readers, and it certainly is. The farmer, gardener, suburbanite, chicken-farmer, bee and fruit raiser, nature lover and poet will all find something to enjoy in its pages, while it has much of great value to the sociologist. The burden of the book is that on three acres enough can be raised to give economic freedom. While the book does many things, as has been suggested, it seems to fall something short of proving its main thesis. There is no doubt but what enormous crops, far exceeding the average at present can be brought from the land. The examples which are quoted, and which are largely taken from Kropotkin, may on the whole be accepted, although some of them seem to lack discriminating accuracy in statement. But the present writer, like Kropotkin, neglects to tell us that the market gardeners of Paris, who have conquered climate and soil and cultivated the earth to an intensity unknown elsewhere on earth are sunk in a poverty as deep as that of the city sweat-shops. Their hours are the limit of human endurance, their only sleep being often that which they can catch on their carts as they wait outside the walls of Paris, to be first in line at the market. Nor have all those who have tried market gardening been so successful as Mr. Hall would have us believe. There are plenty of failures in the neighborhood of every great city. The fruit belt of Michigan could tell a story longer than the volume before us could contain on this point.

Passing by this optimism, which is excusable in the enthusiast, even though it destroy the heart of the argument of the book, there is still enough that is valuable, interesting and helpful to make it one of the important books of the year. There are a host of practical suggestions from how to buy a farm to what to plant and how to care for it, although on the latter point the writer wisely refers to technical works on gardening rather than cumber his pages with details on points already covered. Here one notes some omissions that might well be supplied in a later addition. A discussion on the possibilities of intensive fruit raising should not have neglected the new dwarf fruit that enable such wonders to be so quickly wrought, nor, in work with so much of detail one should have expected to have seen some reference to the raising of such fruits as strawber

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ries in barrels and boxes. Again the author's pessimism leads him to overlook the failures that have been met with in vacant lot cultivation by philanthropic bodies and to mention only the more remarkable successes.

That there will be a tremendous "Back to the Land" movement as soon as economic conditions permit is certain. That even under capitalism there is much of a movement in that direction is evident. That such a movement can ever solve any problem of present time, or give "liberty" to any large number is doubtful. Yet if it does no more than arouse a desire in those who have the possibility of cultivating the soil it will have done good.

Sex and Society. By William I. Thomas. igo Press. Cloth, 325 pp., $2.00.

University of Chi

After discussing the various theories that see in woman a partially developed man, a lower human being, etc. Prof. Thomas con.cludes his chapter on "Organic Differences in the Sexes" with the statement that:

"Man consumes energy more rapidly; woman is more conservative of it. The structural variability of man is mainly toward motion; woman's variational tendency is not toward motion, but toward reproduction. Man is fitted for feats of strength and bursts of energy; woman has more stability and endurance. While woman

remains nearer to the infantile type, man approaches more nearly to the senile. The extreme variational tendency of man expresses itself in a larger percentage of genius, insanity and idiocy; woman remains more nearly normal."

The book is a close social and psychological study of sex relations and the part which they have played in race evolution. It is a welcome relief from the vast amount of undigested sentimental rot that it poured forth on this subject, and this whether the reader agree with the author or not. Indeed there are not many conclusions with which to agree or disagree as the work is largely descriptive of facts.

There are chapters on Sex and "Primitive Social Control," "Social Feeling," "Primitive Industry," "Primitive Morality," "The Psychology of Exogamy," "The Psychology of Modest and Clothing," "The Adventitious Character of Woman" and "The Mind of Woman and the Lower Races."

The Theoretical System of Karl Marx in the Light of Recent Criticism. By Louis B. Boudin. Charles H. Kerr & Co. Cloth, 286 pp., $1.00.

The contents of this work are already familiar to our readers as it was first published in the columns of the International Socialist Review. It is an attempt to present the Marxian system of thought, with the emphasis on the system. The materialistic interpretation of history, the doctrine of the class struggle and the labor theory of value are shown to be integral parts of one symmetrical system.

Considerable space is given to a discussion of the various critics of Marxism. In this respect it is particularly timely since the Revisionist movement, which produced most of these critics seems to have practically dissappeared so that their criticisms may now be

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looked upon as completed. Much use has been made of those portions of Marx' work which have not yet appeared in English. It is here that the author appears at his best. There are many who will disagree with some of his presentations of Marxism, which is patterned very closely after that of Kautsky, but there are few who will deny that he has made good in overthrowing the critics of Marx. The book cannot be looked upon as an adequate presentation of the Marxian philosophy, it is doubtful if any such presentation can be made in less space than that occupied by Marx in the original statement-but to the person who has already read the first volume of Marx and an average amout of Socialist literature this book will bring new ideas and give a much better grasp of the philosophy of Socialism.

It is almost the first of what promises to be an extensive literature in English corresponding to that already existing in other languages, expounding, explaining, elaborating Marxism.

PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT

A NEW WAY TO BUY STOCK.

Most readers of the Review are already famaliar with the cooperative plan on which the publishing house of Charles H. Kerr & Company is organized. Starting without capital, and getting our support not from capitalists but from laborers, we have gradually found new co-operative stockholders, until at the end of June we have a paid-up capital of $23,380.00. But all this and several thousand dollars of borrowed capital beside is invested in copyrights, plates, books and accumulated advertising, so that more capital is needed if we are to enlarge our work.

We can not expect to receive large sums from investors, first because our work is not in the interest of the people who have large sums, and second because we offer no dividends. Moreover, we regard it as essential to the future of the publishing house that the control be kept in the membership of the socialist party, so we are making no effort to secure stock subscriptions for more than a single share. We already have 1761 stockholders; if we could double the number within a year we could more than double the output of socialist books. Only a small portion of those who have subscribed for stock were able to pay the full ten dollars at one time. Most of the stock has been paid for in monthly installments of one dollar each. This plan has been a great advantage on both sides, but there have been some serious drawbacks which we believe the new plan will overcome. The stock subscribers have had to promise definitely to pay a dollar a month, while the office force of the publishing house has had to keep a record of each promise and send notices when payments were delayed. We have allowed those making payments to buy books at reduced prices while paying for stock, and this has worked out unequally in the case of those unable for various reasons to complete their payments. Some have put off buying books until their stock should be fully paid for, and on account of ill health or loss of jobs have been unable to get any benefit whatever from their stock, subscriptions. Others have paid a single dollar on stock, pur

chased a large number of books at cost, and then have stopped their payments. And the office force has had to put a good deal of unproductive labor into the collection of the deferred payments of some who have finally paid. We believe our new plan will work better on both sides.

The New Plan. Our discount on books to stockholders is forty per cent when we prepay charges, fifty per cent when books are sent at purchaser's expense. To buy stock on the new plan, simply send the retail price for what books you want to the amount of a dollar or more at a time. We will send the books and with them a credit certificate for 40% or 50% of the amount of the remittance, according to whether we prepay the charges on the books or not. These certificates will be received the same as cash at any time within a year in payment for a share of stock; after a year has expired they will be of no value. Thus the purchase within a year of books to the amount of $25.00 if we prepay charges, or $20.00 if purchaser pays charges, will entitle the purchaser to a full-paid share of stock without any direct outlay.

These credit certificates will be transferable. If several numbers of a local or branch of the Socialist Party will buy books and turn over their certificates to the secretary, a share of stock can easily be secured without burdening any one.

In this way the purchasers of books have everything to gain and nothing to lose. They will for every remittance get their money's worth of books. If they buy the number specified within the year, they get their stock without any direct outlay. If not, they have no explanation or apology to offer, and they will receive no letters requesting them to keep up their payments.

The publishing house on the other hand will save an immense amount of unproductive labor, and will be enabled to make every dollar count toward the circulation of more socialist books.

"JUNE BREAKS ALL RECORDS."

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Our readers will remember that April broke all previous records for the sale of books. We had expected that the April record would stand untouched until fall, but June, ordinarily a dull month, has surpassed April. Our book sales for June have been $2878.68, Review receipts $155.51, stock subscriptions $216.93, total $3251.12. The large total book sales are partly due to special orders from the Wilshire Book Company and the Appeal to Reason, and partly to the fact that many stockholders responded to the offer of a special discount during the month of June. The result is encouraging in that it has enabled us to meet our most pressing obligations without resorting to a bank loan at high interest, but it does not mean that further

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