Notices
The Fundatental Fallacy of Socialisn. Edited by ARTHUR PREUSS. St. Louis: B. Herder, i9o8. 8vo, pp. I9I. The subtitle indicates that this is "An Exposition of the Question of Landownership," and includes an account of the famous McGlynn case. It is written by a Catholic who seeks to prove that the public ownership of land is contrary to the teaching of the Catholic church, especially that embodied in the encyclicals of Leo XIII. These encyclicals and Henry George's open letter to the Pope are discussed in detail. The author then seeks to prove that the removal of the ban of excommunication which had been pronounced against McGlynn because of his advocacy of Henry George's theories did not mean, as it was commonly supposed, that the single tax was not contrary to Catholic doctrine. The argument is that on this point the apostolic delegate accepted the decision of four professors of the Catholic University of America, which decision the author declares wrong and without ecclesiastical authority. The final conclusion is that public ownership of land being wrong, similar arguments will prove the error of public ownership of other agents of production-hence the fallacy of socialism.
- DOI
- 10.1086/251431
- Volume
- 16 (4)
- Pages
- 246-247
- Language
- en
- Export
- BibTeX
- Sources
- semanticscholar openalex crossref