“ The term foreigner in the United States has no class signification. It does not mean barbarian, for all Americans, save Indians, are of foreign birth or origin. But immigration comes from lands where there is great suffering and primarily want of bread. The city man will have to solve his own problem, but the countryman, and by that we mean the dweller on the farms, has his labour troubles, but there is no Socialism about him. ”

“ We bear with the excesses of the trade unions of to-day, but we deplore what is likely to be that inevitable result when the consciousness of power seems to be “in excess of the the consciousness of responsibility.” ”

“ As Americans we must of course listen to the claims of Socialism, for it is characteristic of us to keep up with the times and the progress of human thought. Prof. Gilman believes that the social problem is a great degree the problem of the city. One-fourth of the population is urban. ”

“ Gilman has a little fun with William Morris, who makes sad-looking wall paper, admirable poetry, second-hand Socialistic romances, and who also constructs Americana out of “his own inner consciousness.”
In the United States we do not want to take the cars to Utopia. The American spirit despises stagnation. Common sense tells us, with Mills, that, although salient individualism may be hurtful, the crushing out of it is despotism. ”

“ We want exactly those variants which engender the peculiar national temper. Just as we have another sky and climate than England, France, Germany, and Austria, so we have a disposition which is our own, and may we ever keep it. ”

“ Gilman's ideas are optimistic, and he thinks it is impossible that Socialism can make any headway in this country at least for many centuries to come, and if it ever does come it will be a Socialism as far distant as the poles from the present vague theories. ”

“ What is essentially novel is the method which serves Prof. Gilman in showing why social movements which are rife in Europe to-day cannot take root here, because of that racial difference which belongs to us as Americans. ”

“ One wants to know if we are so much worse to-day than the world of a thousand or only five hundred years ago. The cool, thoughtful man who has studied history must think that man is better, generally. ”

“ In fact, he never could save the dollar necessary to leave it. He becomes the mooning Socialist, who believes that to “the shiftless by right belong the goods of the earth.” He may be only a maudlin Socialist, a worthless creature, or may be a violent one. ”

“ He buys land, becomes an American citizen, and votes for a President. His boy goes to a good school. Johann may have had original ideas of his own fitted for his former German surroundings and may still abuse the Kaiser, but after a while he puts more confidence in what he observes as happening around him. He has been hard working and honest, and the fruits of perseverance are his. ”

“ This tendency to live in cities is on the increase, and it may be that in the time to come “one-half of the population may live in towns of 4,000 inhabitants or upward.” This population is not native; it may be composed of 40 per cent of foreigners. ”