Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ... MUNICIPAL MONOPOLIES. Modern society is marked by three momentous but quiet revolutions, which distinguish it from any that have preceded. The first is a moral, the second a technical, the third an economic revolution. The moral revolution is that remarkable humanitarian wave which is showing itself in religion, politics, industry. The Sunday-school scholar of to-day knows almost nothing of the creeds and catechisms which engrossed the childhood of our mothers; but he learns about the Man Christ, and scarcely gets a hint at the wrath and vengeance of God. The politician protests by the heavens above and the earth beneath that he is above all the friend of the workingman. In industry the air is rife with schemes for profit-sharing, co-operation, and socialism. All this is a new way of looking at things. The world has shifted its moral standpoint. A revolution has occurred in the very hearts of men. And a moral revolution is the all-important one in society. It is the beliefs, the hopes, the ideals of men that transform and renovate their social institutions. Everything else must conform to these new ideas. The standpoint which we shall take to-day on every social and industrial question is determined mainly by the way we look at this revolution in morals. The technical revolution consists in the unparalleled march of science and invention. Nature is made the slave of man instead of his master. The locomotive engineer is as mighty as ten thousand Greeks and Romans. This technical revolution effects its greatest results in the means of communication and transportation. It has separated the farmer from the manufacturer by thousands of miles. It has built up cities like condensed empires. It has caused a minute and rigid division of labor....