From the PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. The theory and policy of Guild Socialism, or National Guilds, have been developed over a period of years, and primarily with a view to British industrial conditions. The widespread interest which they have aroused in the United States of America shows, however, that, while there is much in the American conditions that is different, there are nevertheless, broadly speaking, similar social diseases calling for similar remedies. It is not for an Englishman to prescribe to the citizens of other countries the medicine for their social ills: he has amply enough on hand in seeking to act as a physician - one among many - to his own countrymen, threatened as they seem to be by the alternatives of a sudden breaking up or of a gradual breaking down of the mechanism of British industry. This is, indeed, too pessimistic a statement to express the real facts of the industrial situation in Great Britain at the present time; for there are forces of creation as well as forces of destruction at work. But at best it will be a hard-run race between these forces, and the prospects of a victory for the creative forces have not grown brighter of late.