definite. They cannot perform a more useful service to students of social philosophy than by calling attention to these books as products of social analysis proceeding from certain common postulates and pursuing certain common methods. It must be acknowledged that discovery of consensus in both these particulars will not be equivalent to the establishment of any new doctrine, which may be expressed or implied in the agreement of these writers. The coincidence that three authors working independently upon concentric problems have adopted methods which are essentially similar and decidedly unconventional is an important indication of the direction which social inquiries are sure to take in the immediate future.
The three books, which are placed above in the order of publication, are alike in the more or less formally avowed purpose to derive from examination of facts some general laws or clues to laws about the conditions of progress in the industrial section of societary activity. They are practically alike also in assuming that such clues may be found, and the order of sequence discovered within a comparatively restricted portion of time which may be called "the present." Thus Hobson has an introductory chapter of general prolegomena to a treatise on industry; a second chapter on "The Structure of Industry before Machinery," and the remaining twelve chapters deal with industrial processes, means and organizations since the introduction of machinery, i. e., with the industry of the present century.
Of the 350 pages of Von Halle's book, one half are devoted to appendices containing documents illustrating the text. The discussion proper plunges immediately after eight pages of introduction and eight pages on American conditions previous to the Civil War, into examination of the period after 1865. The remaining 140 pages treat therefore, of what may be called a still more restricted present. Dyer has an introductory chapter on the various kinds of law with which the sociologist is concerned; a second chapter on "Conditions of Development;" a third chapter on "Early Corporate and State Regulations of Industry," and the remaining eight chapters or 228 of the 303 pages are devoted to discussion of the conditions which are practically contemporary.
Again, the three authors are alike in treating very nearly the same subjects, though under dissimilar classifications. The tables of contents deserve to be carefully compared. Placed in parallel columns, the chapter titles at once suggest points of comparison and contrast."
