The Co - operative Traveller Abroad. By Edward Owen Greening. (Arthur Standing.)—We
are by no means at one with this author and his friends in their views of socio-economical questions ; certain points of difference in opinion between us are, indeed, alluded to in this volume. But such differences do not prevent us from recognising the earnestness of this writer, the cheeriness and wholesomeness of his sentiments on life in general, and the vivacity of his narrative. The bulk of the book is given up to an account—the fullest that has yet been published anywhere—of the celebrated familistere of Guise, so long asso- ciated with the name of the late M. Godin. But Mr. Greening also tells, with a bright amplitude of detail, the story of his journey from London to Guise. We might have been spared certain ethical, political, and even physiological digressions, which are apt to run into commonplace, such as that "it is the law of our nature that all our faculties, like the blacksmith's muscles, grow by exercise and perish from disuse." As an offset to these, we get such confessions as the following on the sub- ject of a peasant-proprietary in land :—" The [French] peasant landowners, instead of paying 5 per cent, interest on the value of their fields to a landlord, find themselves compelled to pay twice as much in the shape of interest upon mortgages. They work harder than an English farm-labourer for a less income." Mr. Greening's raptures over Paris, even if they be not distinguished by novelty, have all the charm of naivete. His statements on the subject of the Godin familistere at Guise, being exhaustive from their own point of view, are thoroughly deserving of the most careful perusal, apart altogether from the question of his accuracy in respect of facts or theories. There is no doubt whatever as to the high-mindedness-of M. Godin. Altogether, The Co-operative Traveller Abroad will be thoroughly enjoyed even by those who do not find in Co-operation the complete realisation of the enthusiasm of humanity.
Previous page
