Socialists in French Municipalities, a compilation from official reports. Charles H. Kerr & Company, Chicago Price 5 cents. Socialists at Work, by Robert Hunter. The Macmillan Company, New York. Price $1.50, net. APPENDIX II HOW SOCIALIST BOOKS ARE PUBLISHED Nothing bears more remarkable evidence to the growth of the American Socialist movement than the phenomenal development of its literature. Even more eloquently than the Socialist vote, this literature tells of the onward sweep of Socialism in this country. Only a few years ago, the entire literature of Socialism published in this country was less than the present monthly output. There was Bellamy's "Looking Backward," a belated expression of the utopian school, not related to modern scientific Socialism, though it accomplished considerable good in its day; there were a couple of volumes by Professor R.T. Ely, obviously inspired by a desire to be fair, but missing the essential principles of Socialism; there were a couple of volumes by Laurence Gronlund and there was Sprague's "Socialism From Genesis to Revelation." These and a handful of pamphlets constituted America's contribution to Socialist literature. Added to these, were a few books and pamphlets translated from the German, most of them written in a heavy, ponderous style which the average American worker found exceedingly difficult. The great classics of Socialism were not available to any but those able to read some other language than English. "Socialism is a foreign movement," said the American complacently. Even six or seven years ago, the publication of a Socialist pamphlet by an American writer was regarded as a very notable event in the movement and the writer was assured of a certain fame in consequence. Now, in this year, 1908, it is very different. There are hundreds of excellent books and pamphlets available to the American worker and student of Socialism, dealing with every conceivable phase of the subject. Whereas ten years ago none of the great industrial countries of the world had a more meagre Socialist literature than America, to-day America leads the world in its output. Only a few of the many Socialist books have been issued by ordinary capitalist publishing houses. Half a dozen volumes by such writers as Ghent, Hillquit, Hunter, Spargo and Sinclair exhaust the list. It could not be expected that ordinary publishers would issue books and pamphlets purposely written for propaganda on the one hand, nor the more serious works which are expensive to produce and slow to sell upon the other hand. The Socialists themselves have published all the rest--the propaganda books and pamphlets, the translations of great Socialist classics and the important contributions to the literature of Socialist philosophy and economics made by American students, many of whom are the products of the Socialist movement itself.