A few months ago I was asked to present "The Case Against Socialism" to
the League of the Republic, an organization within the student body of
the University of California, it being the last of a series in which a
member of the Faculty of Stanford University and a much respected
Socialist of the State took part, neither of whom, much to my regret,
was I able to hear. What I said seemed to please some of the more
vigorous non-Socialists present who thought it should be printed. Those
who prefer pleasant reading should skip the "Case" and read the
"Critique." Edward F. Adams

San Francisco, June
Nineteen hundred and thirteen



The Case Against Socialism



The postponement of this address, which was to have been delivered two
weeks ago, was a real disappointment to me for I did not then know that
another opportunity would be arranged. As one approaches maturity, it
becomes a joy to talk to a group of young people in the light of whose
pleasant faces one seems to renew his own youth. Youth is the most
precious thing there is - it knows so little it never worries.

It is difficult for me to be here at this hour of the day and it has
been impossible for me to hear those who have preceded me in this
course. What I have to say may therefore have too little relation to
what has been presented from other points of view to be satisfactory in