manual labor as a factor in life and politics.
I had, indeed, on the yacht been making a rough sketch of a second
article on this subject, which would develop the argument of the first.

That night I glanced at the proofs before going to bed, reflecting on
the best methods by which the political intelligence of the masses could
be roused, reached, and guided. The unopened letters, none of which
looked inviting, I put by my bedside, to be examined when I woke next
morning. All except one were circulars. One, bearing a business monogram
and evidently directed by a clerk, differed from the rest in having a
foreign stamp on it. I indolently tore this open, and discovered that it
was an invitation from a great political body in New York to visit the
United States next winter and deliver a series of addresses on the
fundamental fallacies of Socialism.

It was at Ardverikie, many years before, that I had first embarked on a
serious study of statistics as essential to any clear comprehension of
social principles and problems. By an odd coincidence, it was at
Ardverikie likewise that, after years of laborious thought as to
political questions which must soon, as I then foresaw, become for
politicians the most vital questions of all, I received an invitation to
address, with regard to these very questions, a public far wider than
that of all Great Britain put together.

CHAPTER XVI

POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN AMERICA

Addresses on Socialism--Arrangements for Their
Delivery--American Society in Long Island and New
York--Harvard--Prof. William James--President
Roosevelt--Chicago--Second Stay in New York--New York to
Brittany--_A Critical Examination of Socialism_--Propaganda in
England.

The invitation which I have just mentioned emanated from the Civic
Federation of New York--a body established for the promotion, by
knowledge and sober argument, of some rational harmony between the
employing classes and the employed. Its council comprised prominent
members of both, such as Mr. Gompers, the trade-union leader, on one
side, and industrial magnates of international fame on the other. It had
just been decided to include in their educational scheme the delivery at
various centers of special lectures on Socialism, by some thinker from
Europe or England who would deal with the subject in a temperate and yet
a conservative spirit. It had ultimately been decided that the person
who would best sui