"A Critique of Socialism: Read Before The Ruskin Club of Oakland California, 1905" by George R. Sims

George Robert Sims was an English journalist, poet, dramatist, novelist and bon vivant. Sims began writing lively humour and satiric pieces for Fun magazine and The Referee, but he was soon concentrating on social reform, particularly the plight of the poor in London's slums. This book was initially intended as a speech to be read out at the Ruskin Club of Oakland near San Francisco in 1905, before the likes of the Soviet Union, before Stalin and Lenin, even before the October Revolution and the end of the Tzars which made socialism a touchy topic.