The Return to Laisser Faire

From the author:

In this book my endeavor will be to do two things for the benefit of students of politics and citizenship. I shall set myself out to discredit Socialism, but that is the least worthy and the least inspiring of my aims. I shall do it, if I succeed, not so much by a study and analysis of Socialism, as by a study and explanation of the working of economic laws and the structure of civilized society—the study, in a word, of the science of civilization and Individualism. I shall write without reference to political party programs, without reference to election results, and with a sole desire to abide by principles.

My earnest hope is that these pages will be read by that great mass of serious, perplexed electors eager only for the right, unconcerned with party labels, but much concerned to see this old country take its proper place once more at the head of the civilized nations of the world. “The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.”