beginning of the year 1907, to initiate a scientific discussion of
socialism in a series of lectures or speeches, to be delivered under the
auspices of certain of the great Universities in the United States. This
invitation I accepted, but, the project being a new one, some difficulty
arose as to the manner in which it might best be carried out--whether
the speeches or lectures should in each case be new, dealing with some
fresh aspect of the subject, or whether they should be arranged in a
single series to be repeated without substantial alteration in each of
the cities visited by me. The latter plan was ultimately adopted, as
tending to render the discussion of the subject more generally
comprehensible to each local audience. A series of five lectures,
substantially the same, was accordingly delivered by me in New York,
Cambridge, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. But whilst this plan
secured continuity of treatment, it secured it at the expense of
comprehensiveness. Certain important points had to be passed over. In
the present volume the substance of the original lectures has been
entirely rearranged and rewritten, and more than half the matter is new.
Even in the present volume, however, it has been impossible to treat the
subject otherwise than in a general way. At almost every point a really
complete discussion would necessitate a much fuller analysis of facts
than it has been practicable to give here. Arguments here necessarily
confined to a few pages or to a chapter, would each, for their complete
elucidation, require a separate monograph. Most readers, however, will
be able to supply much of what is missing, by the light of their own
common sense; and general arguments, in which, as in block plans of
buildings, many details are suppressed, have for practical purposes the
great advantage of being generally and easily intelligible, whereas, if
stated in fuller and more complex form, they might confuse rather than
enlighten a large number of readers.