Guild Socialism. By Niles Carpenter. (Appleton. 103. 6d. net.)
Mr. Carpenter, a lecturer at Harvard, has written the clearest and most informing exposition of the new Guild Socialist theories that we have yet seen. He has taken great pains to produce an accurate history of the movement and dis- passionate account of the rival doctrines propounded by Mr. Cole, Mr. Hobson and others. He then proceeds to examine the Guild ideas critically, and, of course, has no difficulty in showing that they are contradictory, unpractical and often absurd. But in a closing chapter he suggests that the fundamental notion of "democratic industrial self- government" is worth developing and that it might be fur- thered with the aid of the co-operative societies, provided always that the Guildsmen leave politics alone and do not try to compromise with Mandan Collectivism.
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