SOCIAL PROGRESS A HANDBOOK of the LIBERAL MOVEMENT THE ARBITRATOR 114 East 31st Street Hg1 To those who form conclusions from known facts and who wish to outlaw war, abolish poverty, unveil superstition and secure justice 483 EXPLANATION There are some books which one cannot read and remain the same person. To hope that this volume may be such an evolutionary agency is an ambition far beyond any reasonable expectation of fulfilment; but if the reader is herein confronted with conditions that have never before been appreciated, and is thereby impelled toward further investigation, the object will have been accomplished. This Handbook summarizes actual conditions in the United States that are often overlooked-realities that every fairminded person should take into account before committing himself to definite political opinions. Those who are satisfied with the existing social order can truly testify to the great prosperity of this country and the favorable status of the workers compared with those in other parts of the world. This viewpoint is expressed in the majority of publications and can be offset against the facts herewith presented. There are good grounds for happiness. Are there equally valid causes for discontent? To dissipate the gloom engendered by the long list of inequities in the following pages, conservatives may argue that the distressing conditions are natural concomitants of our civilization which may correct themselves in the course of time; while the liberal can rejoice over the ease with which unjust conditions may be eliminated if the privileged classes will yield but a trifle of their advantageous position. There is no desire on the part of the editor to alter a single factor in the present social order unless its existence results in injustice. There is no wish to change anyone's opinion against his better judgment. There is no conscious attempt in this book at propaganda for any particular economic theory; no partiality towards any class of people. There is decided opposition to the overthrow of government by violence, to a dictatorship of any class, or to infringement of the Constitution of the United States. Whatever political and economic |