ABSTRACT
On a cursory acquaintance with this volume one is tempted to dismiss it with the comment that Mr. Mallock has written another of his foolish books. The objective point of the new book is still the enforcement of the author’s pet fallacy, which he has expounded so felicitously on many a former occasion. It is restated here with somewhat greater circumstance than before, and is backed by much telling illustration and some substantial information that might well have served a more useful purpose. A fuller acquaintance with its contents, however, will convince the reader that the book has substantial merits, although these merits do not belong with the economic side of the argument. While the present volume covers a wider range of phenomena and traces
the working of the great man’s dominating efficiency through a greater variety of human relations than Mr. Mallock’s earlier books have done, the chief point of the argument is still the productive efficiency of the great man in industry and the bearing of this productive efficiency upon the equitable claim of the wealthy classes to a superior share of the product. What is to be proven is the equity and the expediency of a system of distribution in which a relatively large share of the product of industry goes to the owners of capital and the directors of business. For this purpose “the great man” in industry is tacitly identified with the captain of industry or the owner of capital. It is right that the great man, so understood, should receive a large share, because he produces a large proportion of the product of industry (book iii; pp. 197-267). And it is expedient that exceptional gains should come to this exceptional wealth-producer, because on no other terms can he be induced to take care of the economic welfare of the community – and, in the nature of things, [431] the welfare of the community, of the many, lies unreservedly in the hands of the minority of great men (book iv; pp. 271-380). The few are the chief producers.
