Ottendorfer O. Socialism in Germany

Article. — The North American Review. — 1890. — Vol. 150. — No. 401 (Apr.) — pp. 480-489.No intelligent observer of events will deny the importance of the so-called " Social Question/' In the literature of nearly every nation that participates in the progress of the race, in books of fiction, in treatises and essays, in periodicals and scientific works, it is discussed with more or less talent and ingenuity, and such publications find large numbers of eager readers. Even the legislative bodies of many civilized nations spend much time in preparing laws for the repression of the excesses of socialism, or to remedy some 6f the most glaring evils which seem to have their source in the development of modern industry. It is not difficult to detect the cause of this. Since the origin of mankind there has been no period of equal, or even longer, duration in which the production of wealth made such immense progress as during the present century. This is, no doubt, due to the numerous inventions by which space and time have been nearly annihilated, forces multiplied a hundredfold, and nature made subservient to human enterprise.