UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
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 AN INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 A HISTORY OF SOCIALISM. Third Edition, 
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 AN INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS KIRKUP 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 REVISED AND ENLARGED 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 
 
 1907 
 All rights reserved
 
 Kt- 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This book was first published at the end of 1887. 
 It went into a second edition in 1888, and has been 
 out of print since 1890. 
 
 For the present edition I have very carefully 
 revised the book in the light of the fresh knowledge 
 and experience which we have gained since 1888. 
 ^ But I have not found it necessary to alter it in any 
 essential respect. The changes I have made are such 
 as have been requisite to bring it up to date in its 
 references to recent and contemporary events or 
 desirable for the further clearing up and development 
 of a great and perplexing subject. 
 
 As I stated in my preface to the first edition, 
 ^ ' the aim of this book is to bring out what is funda- 
 > mental in Socialism, both as contrasted with the 
 prevailing social system and with theories for which 
 it is usually mistaken.' It is an attempt to discover 
 what is enduring and beneficent in the socialist 
 movement by a study of the forces, principles, and 
 tendencies which are at work in the present stage of 
 historic evolution. An inquiry into Socialism natu- 
 rally divides itself into three parts. We must first 
 consider the problem which Socialism undertakes to 
 
 217911
 
 vi INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 solve ; and this leads us to study the origin and 
 nature of the present system. We have next to 
 determine as clearly as possible what Socialism is and 
 the nature of the solution it offers. And, lastly, we 
 have to discuss how far the solution is likely to be 
 successful. These points I have treated in succession, 
 but without adhering to a rigid division of topics. 
 
 The reader will find also that I have not adopted 
 a formal and technical style of treatment. Socialism 
 is not a technical subject merely, but a wide human 
 question, most intimately connected with the moral, 
 social, and political development of the present age. 
 It appeals to the general intelligence. In such a move- 
 ment the only effective teachers and critics are Time 
 and his daughter Experience, who have indeed already 
 taught us some very notable lessons. The good 
 reader will find in this book the net result of an exten- 
 sive and prolonged study of the socialist movement 
 as illustrated by these two great instructors of erring 
 men. 
 
 The 'Inquiry' is a companion volume to my 
 'History of Socialism.' Those who desire references 
 to authorities, or who wish to study the development 
 of socialistic theories, will find them there. But I 
 should like here to make special acknowledgment of 
 my obligations among German economists to Roscher, 
 Adolf Wagner, Adolf Held, and, above all, to Schaffle ; 
 also to Laveleye and J. S. Mill. 
 
 T. KIRKUP.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAl'TER PAGE 
 
 I. Introduction i 
 
 Brief sketch of the rise and progress of Socialism — 
 Socialism connected with the general historic move- 
 ment of the time, especially with the growth of 
 democracy — Interest of the subject for our own 
 country. 
 
 II. Rise of the Present System. 
 
 III. Examination of the Present System 
 
 IV. What is Socialism ? . 
 
 V. Current Views on Socialism 
 
 VI. Moral Aspects of Socialism . 
 
 VII. Difficulties and Objections 
 
 VIII. Prospects of Socialism . 
 
 33 
 
 63 
 
 99 
 
 119 
 
 138 
 155 
 177 
 
 IX. Conclusion 207
 
 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Men now generally recognise that socialism is one of 
 the most remarkable forces of the age in which we live, 
 and that it is spreading in almost every part of the 
 civilised world. It is a vague movement, the scope 
 and meaning of which cannot easily be defined. And 
 there are two very obvious reasons why this should be 
 so : we have not yet decided how to use the word, and 
 the movement itself is in a state of incessant develop- 
 ment. Both name and thing are to a very large degree 
 unfixed. 
 
 For the present, however, we may say that socialism 
 claims to be the economic and social side of a wider 
 historical process, which in politics is democracy and 
 in ethics means justice, humanity, and generous service 
 to society ; a process which set in long ago, but whose 
 accumulating effects are only beginning to be really 
 felt. While it professes first of all to be a movement 
 for the deliverance of the poor, the aim of socialism 
 is towards the renovation and progress of the entire 
 human society. 
 
 cj4
 
 2 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 Socialism is therefore the outcome of forces which 
 are vast, real, and incessantly growing, but have as 
 yet only partially taken shape. The conditions 
 which led to its rise and growth did not come into 
 action till about the end of the eighteenth century. 
 It is a modern movement. There is a reasonable 
 historical use of the word, and in this reasonable sense 
 socialism may be said to have a definite beginning 
 with the theories of Robert Owen in England, and of 
 Saint-Simon and Fourier in France. 
 
 The origin of a name which is now one of alarm 
 and of hope throughout the civilised world is even 
 more recent. It appears to have been first used in 
 the ' Poor Man's Guardian ' in 1833, and became 
 current in England in 1835, during the agitation of 
 Robert Owen. 
 
 From the first diffusion of the new creed its history 
 has been a strangely chequered one. It has assumed 
 many forms, and known a great variety of fortune, 
 but on the whole it has followed a continuous line of 
 development, and made vast progress. It was in 1817 
 that Robert Owen published his plans of social recon- 
 struction. The theories of Saint-Simon began de- 
 finitely to take a socialistic direction about the same 
 time. The newest phase of the revolutionary spirit 
 had its rise just two years after the Revolution had 
 apparently received its quietus at Waterloo, and 
 since then it has grown both in intensity and volume. 
 
 The history of the early socialism is at first sight 
 one of absolute failure, the causes of which are only too 
 manifest. With much that was valuable the early 
 theorists mixed a large proportion of activity that was 
 extravagant, Utopian, and subversive of social order.
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 But it would be a great mistake to estimate the pioneer 
 movements of the world by their immediate and visible 
 results. In the schools of Saint-Simon, Fourier, and 
 Owen the seeds of fresh and vital thought regarding 
 the first principles of society were liberally cast abroad. 
 A rude shock was for a time at least given to the self- 
 complacent optimism of an era which had no reason 
 to be thus content with its achievements. Through 
 the efforts of the early socialism not a few of the most 
 gifted youth of France were inspired with a generous 
 enthusiasm for human progress, which was afterwards 
 displayed in many and various walks of life. J. S. 
 Mill has narrated in his autobiography how the growth 
 of his opinions was affected by the discussions of 
 French socialism. In the days of its decline the 
 agitation of Owen gave birth to what is called the 
 co-operative movement, which has grown from the 
 smallest beginnings to be a great and beneficent 
 influence. 
 
 The gravest error of the early socialists lay in the 
 fact that they associated their central principle with 
 so much extraneous matter of an objectionable kind ; 
 and this mistake has been equalled by the perversity 
 with which ordinary history has fixed attention on 
 this matter, as if it were the very essence of socialist 
 teaching. It might be thought that, while recording 
 and condemning the errors of original thinkers, it 
 should be one of the main functions of history to make 
 prominent and perpetual whatever is salutary and 
 suggestive of better things. With regard to the 
 early socialism this reasonable method has been 
 reversed. Of the valuable aspects of its teaching 
 current history has had little or nothing to say, but
 
 4 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 it has persistently emphasised the quixotic and ex- 
 travagant. 
 
 In the time which preceded the revolution of 
 February 1848, Paris was the great centre of social 
 fermentation, when new and startling theories for the 
 reconstruction of society grew up rapidly. The school 
 of Fourier had a brief period of prosperity. Cabet 
 published his ' Voyage en Icarie ' in 1840. Louis 
 Blanc's ' Organisation du Travail ' appeared in the same 
 year. Proudhon's attack on property also came out 
 in 1840, and was only the first of a series of trenchant 
 and paradoxical utterances, calculated alike to shake 
 orthodox economists and too sanguine socialistic 
 dreamers out of their easy optimism. Paris was at 
 this period the place of pilgrimage for the inquiring 
 and revolutionary spirits of Europe. In the few years 
 which preceded 1848 it was visited by three men 
 who were destined to play a great role in the social 
 revolution — by Lassalle, the founder of the Social 
 Democracy of Germany, by Marx, the organising and 
 directing head of the International, and the expounder 
 of scientific socialism, and by Bakunin, the apostle of 
 Anarchism. It was here, too, that Mr. Ludlow 
 became acquainted with Fourierism, and thus learned 
 those principles of association which were utilised in 
 the Christian socialist movement in England. 
 
 The cause of the working man has perhaps never 
 had such an opportunity as under the Provisional 
 Government which ruled in France during the spring 
 of 1848. Had Louis Blanc been an energetic leader, 
 had he decisively appealed to the working classes of 
 Paris and the industrial centres of France, socialism 
 might have won at least a temporary triumph. But
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 Louis Blanc had not personal force and decision of 
 character enough to fit him for such a career. He 
 was an amiable and genial enthusiast, who was little 
 qualified to be a leader and controller of men on a 
 large scale. The opportunity was lost ; but the 
 national strength of France had to be put forth in 
 order to suppress the rising of the discontented masses 
 of Paris which afterwards ensued. 
 
 The Christian socialism of England, under the 
 leadership of Maurice and Kingsley, did a good work 
 in protesting against the evils of the competitive 
 system, in insisting upon the necessity of ethical and 
 spiritual principles as the saving elements of society, 
 and in promoting co-operation ; but for some years 
 even the co-operative movement was not a very great 
 success. About 1850 the socialist movement in 
 France and England, which had run more or less on 
 parallel lines since 1817, had come to a close. 
 
 In the period which followed the abortive efforts 
 of the revolutionary year 1848, socialism was con- 
 sidered even by just and sympathetic students to be 
 dead, without hope of resurrection. By such as took 
 the trouble to think of it at all it was believed to be 
 a transient social disease, a phase of revolutionary 
 frenzy, which had troubled certain hot and fevered 
 brains, but which had passed away, never to return. 
 Yet even before the failures of 1848 the beginnings 
 of a socialistic propaganda of a far more powerful and 
 resolute character than anything previously known 
 had already been made in a new quarter. 
 
 There were two European countries which were 
 supposed to be proof against socialistic ideas, Germany 
 and Russia. Neither of them had a proletariat in the
 
 6 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 modern sense of the word, and Russia especially was 
 believed to have in its communal institutions a firm 
 bulwark against discontent, and a guarantee that the 
 mass of the people could not sink into the condition 
 of poverty and demoralisation which characterised 
 the workmen of the West. It was in those two 
 countries that the subsequent development of socialism 
 was destined to be most potent and virulent. 
 
 The revolutionary thinkers with whom German 
 and Russian socialism originated had all made their 
 first studies in the movement during the restless years 
 which culminated in 1848. But their activity did not 
 take a notable historic form till a later period. 
 
 Considered as a historical movement German 
 socialism really began with the agitation of Lassalle 
 in 1863. Since that time its career has been one of 
 rapid and almost uninterrupted progress. When 
 Lassalle began his propaganda in Berlin he could 
 hardly obtain a hearing even from working-class 
 audiences. At the first election for the Imperial Diet, 
 in 187 1, Social Democracy counted only 6,695 votes 
 in the capital. For the whole Empire they polled only 
 102,000 votes and returned only two members. In 
 1877 their entire poll for the Empire had increased to 
 nearly half a million. It declined during the period 
 when the anti-socialist legislation was being discussed 
 and passed, but it soon began to rise again. At the 
 election of 1887 it was 763,000, while in Berlin alone 
 it was 93,000, and in Hamburg 51,000. In 1890 the 
 entire socialist poll rose to 1,427,000, in 1893 it was 
 1,786,000, and 2,100,000 in 1898. They won their 
 greatest triumph in 1903, when they had 3,010,000 
 votes, or nearly one-third of the whole number cast
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 in the Empire, and returned eighty-one members to 
 the Reichstag. Even at the general election of 1907, 
 when they returned only forty-three members, they 
 polled about 3,250,000, being one million more than 
 the next strongest party, the Centre. At the great 
 centres of population, as in the Empire generally, they 
 were now the strongest party. 
 
 This marvellous change has been produced in 
 little more than a generation — that is to say, in the 
 period which elapsed between 1871 and 1907. But 
 we cannot rightly estimate the magnitude of the 
 transformation without taking into account the 
 influence which it has exercised on German thought. 
 A movement which in England not many years ago 
 was dismissed with an idle epigram or with an in- 
 excusable perversion and misrepresentation of the 
 truth has been deemed worthy of grave and judicial 
 treatment by her best thinkers. It has found converts 
 among her ablest economists, and where it has not 
 commanded assent it has very powerfully altered the 
 prevailing tone of thought and determined the direction 
 of inquiry. Its influence in this way can fairly be 
 compared to that of Darwinism in natural science. 
 It has also seriously affected legislation. The cause 
 of the poor man was with all sincerity and earnestness 
 adopted by the first Emperor and his redoubtable 
 Chancellor, and an important series of measures for 
 the insurance of workmen against accident, sickness, 
 and old age were passed. Bismarck was above all 
 things a realist statesman, who had his eyes open to 
 the facts and forces with which he had to deal. Even 
 the strongest rulers must obey the dominant ten- 
 dencies of their time. Bismarck established a new
 
 8 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 and a better order over a wide expanse of human 
 affairs, and prepared the way for further progress. 
 
 In the course of its history the Social Democratic 
 party of Germany has given abundant proof of in- 
 telligence, discipline, and enthusiasm. Since the world 
 began no organisation of working men has had such a 
 record. But its career has been marred by the ultra- 
 revolutionary dogmatism of its beliefs and policy. 
 The healthy and natural development of democracy 
 in Germany has been obstructed and weakened by its 
 excessive loyalty to the traditions of the Marx school. 
 Its social task has in the same way been postponed or 
 only very partially performed. It has not been true 
 to its name and mission of Social Democracy. With- 
 out sufficient reason its leaders have at many points 
 placed themselves in opposition to the national life and 
 spirit of Germany, and accordingly they and the cause 
 they represent have suffered. The first need of the 
 German Social Democracy now is to emancipate itself 
 from the traditions of the past, and to frame a pro- 
 gramme and a policy suited to the circumstances in 
 which it actually finds itself. 
 
 Lassalle was the originator of the Social Democracy 
 of Germany, but he was in some measure indebted to 
 Karl Marx for his scientific weapons ; and by the 
 influence of Marx it has been controlled chiefly since 
 the founder's death. Beyond comparison Marx has 
 done more than any other man to diffuse the socialistic 
 creed. He was a man of strong personality, with a 
 vast learning wielded by an intellect of marvellous 
 acuteness and power. All these great gifts he devoted 
 to the proletariat, whose cause he served for forty 
 laborious years, both in agitation and in propaganda,
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 and in scientifically working out the socialistic concep- 
 tion of social evolution. Besides so largely controlling 
 the Social Democratic movement of Germany he was 
 the real founder and chief of the International, which 
 from 1864 to 1872 exercised no little influence in 
 Europe, though its real power was by no means com- 
 mensurate with the attention it excited. 
 
 A notable event in the development of socialism 
 was the revolt of the Commune of Paris in 1871. The 
 aims of that rising are probably not even yet quite 
 clear. Perhaps they were not quite clear to the 
 leaders themselves. But there can be no doubt it 
 was a rising for the autonomy of Paris, which has 
 always been far in advance of the provinces ; and 
 though the socialists formed only a small minority 
 of its leading members, the movement was the out- 
 come of a profound social discontent. It was a move- 
 ment for home rule in Paris based on social discontent 
 and supported by the masses of her population. 
 
 The revolutionary movement of Russia has taken 
 an aggressive form suited to the political and other 
 conditions of the country. The social movement of 
 Russia did not properly begin till 1870 ; and at first 
 its aim was by a peaceful propaganda among the 
 people to prepare the way for a new order of things. 
 But as this activity was repressed by the government 
 without mercy, the revolutionary party also determined 
 to show no mercy, and after 1878 they carried on an 
 implacable war against the Czardom. It was a 
 struggle against an autocratic rule conducted by a 
 band of resolute men and women, well educated, 
 imbued with the most advanced ideas of Western 
 Europe, and wielding without reserve the resources
 
 io INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 of modern science. In 1881 the conflict had its 
 catastrophe for the time being in the assassination of 
 the Emperor Alexander II. Under his successor, 
 Alexander III., the movement was suppressed. It 
 began to gather head again before the end of the 
 nineteenth century, and on the failure of Russia in the 
 war with Japan it broke out with extraordinary 
 intensity. The socialists have been the moving 
 spirits in the terrible revolutionary risings against the 
 Czardom. 
 
 Repressed for a time by the overthrow of the 
 Commune in 1871, the social movement in France soon 
 became active again. From 1876 the socialist parties 
 have through a chequered experience of debate and 
 dissension advanced both in numbers and organisation. 
 At the general election of 1906 the socialist vote rose 
 to 1,120,000, while seventy-five socialists and 143 
 radical socialists were returned to the Chamber. 
 Socialism is making a like advance in Belgium, Austria, 
 and Italy, in Holland and Denmark, and even in Norway 
 and Sweden. It may generally be said that in the 
 large towns and industrial centres of the Continent 
 socialism, more or less conscious and avowed, and 
 more or less revolutionary, is the real creed of the 
 working men ; and from time to time it certifies its 
 strength by large meetings and demonstrations usually 
 well disciplined and organised, but occasionally 
 attended with disturbance. 
 
 Great Britain for a long time led the way in measures 
 of practical socialism, such as factory Acts. Since 
 1883 we have had a revival of avowed and organised 
 socialism, and the trade unions have been considerably 
 leavened with socialist opinion and the socialist
 
 INTRODUCTION n 
 
 spirit. But it was not till the general election of 1906 
 that a Labour- Socialist party appeared as a conspicuous 
 force in national affairs. 
 
 Those who attribute the growth of socialism 
 merely to backward political conditions, and regard 
 freedom as an effectual remedy for discontent, would 
 do well to give a little attention to America. There 
 we find signs of gathering social trouble and of the 
 developing antagonism between labour and capital, 
 which point to far deeper sources of evil. For many 
 years America has been receiving from Eastern and 
 Southern Europe a vast mass of immigrants, whom 
 she cannot easily assimilate. All the best land is 
 passing into private hands. Soon there will be no 
 space for the further extension of homesteads. Before 
 many years are over the wide regions of the West, 
 which have so long afforded scope for the enterprise 
 and relief for the discontent of the civilised world, 
 will have been occupied. Land will no longer be 
 obtainable at prices which the labourer can pay. It 
 will be a turning-point in the history of the poor man. 
 For obvious reasons connected with the marvellous 
 extent and immense natural resources of the country 
 and with the energetic character of the people, America 
 has rapidly become the seat of the most gigantic 
 industrialism in the world. The Republic is confronted 
 with a colossal capitalism organised in trusts such as 
 men have never before seen. And it has labour 
 organisations which are to a large degree socialistic in 
 aim and tendency. In America the problems of the 
 old world are reappearing under new conditions 
 determined by the special circumstances of the country. 
 
 Socialism in its more practical forms is rapidly
 
 12 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 growing in the English colonies at the Antipodes, 
 and even in South Africa. There is an active socialist 
 party in Japan. 
 
 From the brief review which we have thus made 
 of the external history of socialism we have seen how 
 the theory of a few visionary and Utopian thinkers 
 has become a great power in the world. The cause 
 of labour, which it claims to represent, has twice been 
 concerned with risings in Paris, which it required the 
 exertion of the national strength of France to repress. 
 It now confronts with unflinching resolution two of the 
 strongest governments in the world, Germany and 
 Russia. It is still growing in almost every country of 
 Europe, and in many great countries beyond it. In a 
 form purified from the Utopian and extravagant 
 elements with which during its history it has so fre- 
 quently been associated, it has gained the adherence 
 of some of the greatest economic thinkers of recent 
 times. This is a considerable record for a movement 
 which has not been a century in existence. 
 
 To avoid repetition we have made no special 
 reference to the nature of the theories advocated by 
 the different socialists. These theories can be much 
 more comprehensively stated in view of the general 
 development of the subject, and accordingly we now 
 proceed to give, in a preliminary way but in a con- 
 nected form, the cardinal principle of socialism. What 
 is fundamental in all the phases of socialism has been 
 well expressed by the Saint-Simonian school. The 
 key-note of the past has been the exploitation of man 
 by man in the three forms of slavery, serfdom, and 
 wage-labour. The key-note of the future must be 
 the exploitation of the globe by man associated to man.
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 As slave-labour and serf-labour have been the 
 prevalent forms in past ages of history ; as wage-labour 
 is the prevalent form at present ; so for the future the 
 prevalent form contemplated by socialism is associated 
 or co-operative labour. Both on historical and theo- 
 retical grounds there can be no doubt that such is the 
 essence of socialism. To prove it fully we should need 
 to quote at large the literature of socialism. But it 
 will suffice here to show that the different schools and 
 phases of socialism are variations of this fundamental 
 idea ; varied by nearly every possible difference of 
 modifying condition and circumstance, and mixed up 
 with the most contradictory opinions in religion, 
 philosophy, politics, and social ethics. In the his- 
 torical development of socialism three phases may be 
 broadly recognised. 
 
 The first stage was marked by private experiment *' 
 in founding associations especially in connection with 
 the schools of Owen and Fourier. Apart from many 
 fantastic details which especially characterised the 
 schemes of Fourier, these associations were intended 
 to be self-supporting communities based on co-operative 
 labour of the most varied kind, with the best available 
 machinery and uniting all the advantages of town and 
 country life. Most of them failed in the form given 
 them by their founders, but they exercised an im- 
 portant influence on the subsequent development of 
 socialism. 
 
 Of the second stage the most characteristic features 
 are to be found in the proposals of Louis Blanc and 
 Lassalle. The theories of Owen, Saint-Simon, and 
 Fourier grew up under the reaction consequent on the 
 excesses and conflicts of the French Revolution. By
 
 i 4 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 the time of Louis Blanc, however, the democratic 
 development had resumed its natural course, and the 
 socialist movement joined it. Louis Blanc and Lassalle 
 advocated, first, a democratic state based on universal 
 suffrage, and, second, the establishment of productive 
 associations of workmen with state subsidies. The 
 proposals were democratic and socialistic, but not 
 revolutionary. 
 
 In the third stage the revolutionary principle is in 
 full career among the most active and prominent 
 socialists. To this stage belongs the school of Karl 
 Marx, whose ideas as agitator were embodied in the 
 International, the aim of which was to supersede the 
 existing states by a vast combination of the workers 
 of all nations. It may generally be stated that the 
 aim of Social Democracy is to obtain possession of 
 political power, and thus to establish a collectivism 
 from which private property in land and capital is 
 excluded. The Anarchists are another school of 
 revolutionary socialists, who in the International were 
 opposed to the centralising methods of the Marx school, 
 and who, objecting to the principle of authority or 
 compulsion in social organisation, hope to accomplish 
 the renovation of society by the free federation of free 
 associations on the ruins of the existing order of things. 
 Both schools aim at the abolition of the existing state 
 as an organ of the wealthy and privileged class, differ- 
 ing, however, as to the ways and means of accomplish- 
 ing it. 
 
 While all the schools of socialists have based their 
 theories of reconstruction on a criticism of the existing 
 society, this is a special feature of the later schools, 
 especially that of Marx, inasmuch as they have accepted
 
 INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 in the fullest sense the scientific doctrine of evolution. 
 Marx appears as agitator and revolutionist in the 
 International, but this is only one side of his activity. 
 No agitation or effort of the revolutionary spirit can 
 produce a change which is inconsistent with the natural 
 tendencies of social evolution. Were socialism not 
 necessitated by the positive forces of the social move- 
 ment, it might be a seductive theory, but it would be 
 mere Utopianism, and no scientific student of society 
 could support it. So far from being a Utopian dream, 
 socialism, according to Marx, is the inevitable outcome 
 of the movement of modern society. Of this move- 
 ment Marx is the critic and interpreter. His scientific 
 function is to bring men to a clear consciousness of 
 facts which are establishing themselves, intelligently 
 to see a process which is already going forward in all 
 the countries where the modern industrial methods 
 prevail. The scientific or conscious socialism therefore 
 is merely a reflection or mirroring in the human in- 
 telligence of a great world-historic process, which is 
 fulfilling itself, whether we see it or not, whether we 
 will it or not. But the most reluctant must eventually 
 see it and will it, as it must develop its activity till it 
 force itself on the attention of every one, and will urge 
 even the strongest reactionary forward in its irresistible 
 sweep. Science and force can merely assist at the birth 
 of a new social era, which must take place when the 
 time is fulfilled. At the utmost they can only alleviate 
 the pangs of delivery. 
 
 Besides those two schools of what may be called 
 militant and aggressive socialism, of which naturally 
 we hear most in the newspapers, and which are by 
 many regarded as the only possible forms of socialism,
 
 16 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 there are many phases of conservative and Christian 
 socialism that require notice. Christian socialists 
 especially see in our competitive system merely a very 
 modern form of the principle of self-interest degenerat- 
 ing into a selfishness that refuses to be its brother's 
 keeper, and tending to the dissolution of society. 
 While professing to be essential to the continuance 
 and conservation of social order, especially of the 
 Church and family, the present system is in the view of 
 such men subversive of Christian morality and ruinous 
 to all sound and healthy social life. On the other hand, 
 in the much-maligned socialism they find the principle 
 of co-operation and mutual help, which is simply the 
 ethical spirit of Christianity applied to industry and 
 social reform, and would peacefully remedy the evils 
 of competition by promoting associations of workmen 
 with a common capital. Such a form of socialism has 
 been associated both with Catholic and Protestant 
 Christianity, and is and has been a beneficent influence 
 in Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, and England. 
 
 Without pretending to a nicety of distinction not 
 justified by broad historic fact, we have offered the 
 above as the leading forms of organised socialism, but 
 we must also refer to the eminent thinkers who, 
 though not belonging to any school or active propa- 
 ganda, have regarded socialism as the fittest form of 
 economic organisation for the future and the next 
 stage in social evolution. Of these men were J. S. 
 Mill and Rodbertus ; and among living representatives 
 the most eminent probably is A. Scharfle, one of the 
 greatest authorities in sociology, especially in the 
 application of evolution to the study of society. Such 
 believers in socialism are to be met with in the most
 
 INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 unexpected quarters. We are prepared to find that 
 George Sand was one of them, but it may surprise 
 many that a great critic like Sainte-Beuve expects 
 improvement for the future in the same direction. 
 Moreover, it is a noteworthy fact that most of the 
 recent English political economists have recognised 
 the value of the co-operative system, though they 
 have generally failed to perceive its full import as 
 indicating a new form of industrial organisation 
 fundamentally different from the present. While 
 in many writers, such as Jevons and Cairnes, there is 
 this glimpse of the tendency to a new economic order, 
 in J. S. Mill we have the conscious recognition that 
 English economics must and ought to pass into so- 
 cialism. Should we regard this as the Utopian side of 
 Mill's teaching, or is it only another proof that he was 
 a man of wider horizon, of keener perception, and of 
 deeper sympathy with struggling humanity than the 
 best of his disciples ? The question is worth con- 
 sidering. 1 
 
 1 For J. S. Mill's deliberate judgment on socialism see his Auto- 
 biography, pp. 61, 162, 167, &c, and above all his Political Economy, 
 chapter on the ' Probable Future of the Labouring Classes.' At his 
 death he left fragments of an unfinished work on socialism, which 
 were published under the title of ' Chapters on Socialism ' in the 
 Fortnightly Review for 1879. The statement of Schaffle's position 
 given above is based on his Ban unci Leben des socialen Korpcrs (1878), 
 a systematic study of society from the evolution point of view, in 
 four vols. In vol. ii. 120 of this work he expresses his belief that 
 1 the future belongs to the purified socialism.' In a small volume 
 (Hopelessness of the Social-democratic Outlook, 1885), consisting of 
 three letters addressed to a statesman, and written under the feeling 
 of alarm caused by the progress of the unpurified and revolutionary 
 socialism both in Germany and Austria, Schaffle takes a different 
 attitude. With regard to J. S. Mill, it need scarcely be said that his 
 views on the subject are tentative, as might be expected of a man 
 
 C
 
 18 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 In following the development of socialism from its 
 origin in France and England to the present day, 
 nothing impresses us so strongly as the vitality of the 
 movement. Its power of adapting itself to men and 
 nations of the most different condition and tempera- 
 ment, its Protean readiness to assume new forms as 
 circumstances require, have been remarkable. It has 
 disappeared in one decade only to rise up with renewed 
 vigour in the next, and when driven from one country 
 it has forthwith begun to raise its alarming front in 
 another. It is now growing in every civilised country, 
 and in every one it has peculiarities of form and colour. 
 As we have seen, there is a central principle common 
 to all phases of socialism, but in every other respect 
 it is most plastic and adaptive. It is found in con- 
 nection with the most opposite opinions on other 
 matters, political, social, ethical, and religious. To 
 those who will not take the trouble to distinguish the 
 essence of a movement from its accidental features, it 
 seems the most elusive and contradictory of historical 
 phenomena. Some of its critics seem to regard this 
 as a weakness and a vice. How subject to rational 
 examination theories that are so variable and in- 
 consistent ? 
 
 If the great causes of the world had no other 
 purpose than to be the subject merely of disquisition 
 and disputation, if it be the final aim of the massive 
 and living forces of history only to afford material to 
 be analysed and tabulated, we might see some ground 
 
 whose mind was continually open to new light and to new possi- 
 bilities of human progress. Naturally, he does not speak of the 
 future with the confidence of Schaffle. For Sainte-Beuve's views on 
 socialism see his Vie de Proudhon.
 
 INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 for such criticism. If socialism were an academic 
 thesis, with no more human application than the 
 latest question of the schools, such an objection would 
 be intelligible enough. Alas ! the matter we have 
 to deal with is not so simple as this. The cause of 
 the working man, of which socialism is, rightly or 
 wrongly, a powerful expression, is not a mere theory 
 or formula adapted to the conditions of debate. It 
 represents well or ill the grievances and aspirations 
 after a better life of untold millions of human beings, 
 who toil and suffer under widely different conditions of 
 civilisation. Whether we like it or not, socialism has 
 already a long roll of martyrs and confessors who 
 have been faithful to their convictions under calumny 
 and misrepresentation of the grossest kind, who have 
 died at the barricades, who have pined in exile in 
 tropical swamps and Siberian mines. Socialism is a 
 contemporary manifestation of social grievance which 
 has through long generations been borne by the sweat- 
 ing millions of labour that have endured patiently 
 and died in silent misery, leaving no record of their 
 awful burden of sorrow. It is the cause of wretched 
 multitudes of men and women and children that has 
 at last found utterance and organisation, the protest 
 of workers that still suffer from excessive hours of 
 monotonous drudgery in mine and factory in many 
 lands, who live in economic insecurity and degrada- 
 tion, surrounded by the superabundant wealth which 
 their toil has created. Surely the proceedings of such 
 a movement cannot reasonably be expected to conform 
 to any academic rule. 
 
 Moreover, in estimating the success or failure 
 of a movement we should have regard to the
 
 20 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 magnitude of the task it undertakes. Socialism aims at 
 achieving a vast transformation in the theory and 
 practice of human affairs. The first efforts towards 
 such a great result must of necessity be doubtful and 
 tentative. In this respect the career of Robert Owen 
 may be taken as a sample of the whole movement. If 
 Owen had followed the beaten routine he would have 
 been celebrated as the first cotton-spinner and the 
 most notable philanthropist of his day, and would 
 probably have died a millionaire and a member of the 
 House of Lords. But he dared to be original in his 
 schemes of philanthropic reform, and failed. Are 
 not the failures of some men greater than the most 
 eminent success of the ordinary kind ? 
 
 When we consider the magnitude of the problem 
 which it attempts to solve, when we contemplate 
 the seething and fermenting forces of which it is the 
 expression, we need not wonder that socialism takes 
 so many forms. Its plasticity and adaptiveness are 
 to be reckoned among the first elements of its strength. 
 It cannot be fixed in a dogma. It cannot be identified 
 with the theories of any single thinker. It grows out of 
 real and living forces, ethical, political, and industrial, 
 which compel fresh inquiry and experiment in all 
 directions. Such a movement, with its robust strength, 
 its exhaustless vitality and rapid development, cannot 
 be reduced to a formula. 
 
 There can be no doubt that socialism is only a 
 pronounced and notable phase of a larger movement. 
 On the ethical side it is the outcome, exaggerated and 
 unreasonable it may be, of a strong aspiration for a 
 higher life among the workers. In times that are still 
 recent, the moral consciousness of man has received
 
 INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 a new elevation and expansion. We have awakened 
 to the fact that the majority of the human family, 
 including most women and the working classes, have 
 been virtually shut out from all participation in 
 the world's inheritance of knowledge and culture. 
 Woman has seldom been the free and worthy com- 
 panion of man. From time immemorial the labour- 
 ing classes have been sunk in drudgery and ignorance, 
 bearing the burden of society without sharing in its 
 happiness. Neither woman nor worker has had any 
 substantial part in a free, healthy, and well-developed 
 life, in which mind and body receive just and adequate 
 attention. In the French Revolution a great change 
 was proclaimed, in which the watchwords of liberty, 
 equality, and fraternity announced a complete reversal 
 of the old injustice. Cynics and disbelievers in human 
 progress will still laugh at the wild unreality of these 
 ideals. Yet we all believe in freedom, and fraternity 
 is one of the precepts of Christianity. As to equality, 
 Christianity goes farther than the Revolution ; it 
 requires that we be servants one of another, it insists 
 on the law of mutual service. 
 
 Such ideals assuredly will never die out in the 
 world. The best and noblest hearts will always return 
 to them with fresh yearning for their realisation, 
 and there is, let us hope, a very substantial sense in 
 which the experience of men will find them true 
 and sound. What many are beginning to see is that 
 such ideals require for their realisation a solid economic 
 basis. Without a corresponding economic change 
 the best ethical and social aspirations cannot be 
 realised. What value have such brilliant watchwords 
 to a starving proletariat ? What is the meaning of
 
 22 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 human brotherhood, when the existing arrange- 
 ments of property are such as to make the word a 
 mockery ? Without a great economic change, our 
 much-vaunted freedom is also wanting in solidity 
 and efficacy ; is only another dearly cherished delusion. 
 Is socialism the economic complement of the French 
 Revolution ? 
 
 However it be as regards socialism, there can be 
 no doubt that, apart from the cynics, the sceptics, 
 incorrigible doctrinaires, and mere men of the world, 
 there is a growing spirit of righteous discontent with 
 our social and economic arrangements. Our present 
 condition, strongly fortified though it be by prescrip- 
 tion and the conservatism of vested rights, is hopelessly 
 at variance with the moral sense of the elite of men, 
 who have always been the pioneers of progress. The 
 same spirit more and more pervades the mass of 
 serious and thinking men. That spirit has descended 
 to the people, and is there accentuated by deep and 
 acute feeling of long unmerited suffering. It may be 
 that the condition of the workmen has greatly improved 
 in most countries during the last fifty years, but it is 
 very doubtful whether their economic improvement 
 has kept pace with their advancing intelligence and 
 the growing sense of their rights and claims. There 
 can be no doubt that their condition is still, in many 
 countries, extremely bad, and that we may discern 
 among them a growing enlightenment, greater power 
 of organisation, a higher feeling of what is right and 
 due, a stronger aspiration after higher things, and 
 that all this intellectual and ethical development 
 impresses on them every day a sharper consciousness 
 of the contrast between their actual state and the
 
 INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 better life to which they ought to attain. This opposi- 
 tion of the progressive ethical and social spirit to the 
 established economic order, with its faulty arrangements 
 handed down from the past, is one of the most signifi- 
 cant facts of our time. 
 
 For we must recognise the fact that the economic 
 arrangements now prevailing in most civilised 
 countries were made at a time when the mass of the 
 people had no share in education, legislation, or 
 government, and when they were not permitted to 
 organise in defence of their rights. Is it not natural, 
 then, that they should find these arrangements most 
 unsatisfactory, and that the spirit of social innovation 
 is abroad ? 
 
 In connection with this, few men realise the vast 
 influence likely to be exercised on our economic and 
 social condition by the growth of democracy. During 
 the last generation the mass of the people in most 
 civilised countries have for the first time been admitted 
 to a share in political power. As is just and fitting, the 
 right of universal suffrage has been associated with 
 universal education. At the same time, the cheap 
 newspaper and the diffusion of cheap literature have 
 brought political and all other forms of knowledge 
 within the reach of the lowest of the people. The 
 extension of the railway system, of cheap postage, 
 and of cheap telegraphic communication has given 
 them facilities for common action and organisation 
 which they never possessed before. By many it 
 may not be considered a very desirable thing that 
 the duty of bearing arms has also become universal on 
 the continent of Europe ; but in the wide and incessant 
 rise of democracy it is a most important fact that the
 
 24 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 old professional soldiery has given place to a national 
 army which must continue to be greatly in sympathy 
 with the mass of the people. The armed support of 
 the rulers of Europe now consists of educated citizens, 
 who are not long enough with the flag to be dissociated 
 from popular feeling. 
 
 These are elementary facts known to every one. 
 But we do not sufficiently realise the far-reaching 
 influence that they are calculated to exercise on our 
 whole social development. Many are disappointed 
 because the democracy, while holding the form of 
 power, is content to leave the substance in the hands 
 of the old parties. Such men are strangely ignorant 
 of the facts and conditions of the question. Some of 
 us seem to have already forgotten the low estate out 
 of which we emerged not many years ago ; how short 
 a time it is since education became general and any- 
 thing like a real stimulus was given to the intelligence 
 of the people. There always is a class of impatient 
 workers, who would like to reap the harvest before 
 they have sown the seed. It is the exceeding lateness 
 of the sowing that we must all lament. It will ever 
 excite wonder and amazement that a country which 
 has so long claimed to be in the van of progress did 
 not establish a national system of education till 1870. 
 Nearly four centuries have passed away since England 
 through the Protestant Reformation declared that 
 light was better than darkness, and so slow have we 
 been in seeing that light was better for the mass of the 
 people ! 
 
 It would be well that our energetic friends should 
 have a little patience with the people. The evil 
 habits bred by immemorial ignorance and servitude
 
 INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 cannot be thrown off in a day. Long years, genera- 
 tions perhaps, must pass before the new influences 
 can have exhausted or even fairly developed them- 
 selves. The results likely to be evolved through the 
 rise of an educated and organised democracy establish- 
 ing itself under potent conditions all over the civilised 
 world cannot be measured and tabulated in the first 
 generation. We see a multitude of new forces, each of 
 which is powerful, the combined influence of which 
 no man can calculate. Of the era into which through 
 such conditions we are marching, we can but say that 
 it will be different from anything the world has yet 
 produced, and that the efforts to confine the new order 
 within the conventional limits and to direct it along 
 the old lines will be in vain. The democratic move- 
 ment is just beginning, and it is rather early to pass 
 sentence upon it ; but of this at least we may be 
 sure, that the people who think that the democracy 
 consists of vote by ballot, and that everything else 
 will proceed in the old style, will be grievously dis- 
 appointed. 
 
 The democratic movement is a vast complexity of 
 living forces which cannot be reduced to a formula. It 
 is a solid and massive movement made up of many 
 contributing influences. Social progress and the march 
 of history do not move on isolated lines. Soul and 
 body, the physical and intellectual growth of man, 
 the inner and outer life of society, the moral and 
 material development of history and of civilisation 
 must be contemplated as a whole. There can be no 
 real political advance without a corresponding moral 
 improvement, and both should rest on a sound economic 
 basis. Not each nation only, but the whole human
 
 26 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 society, under the conditions which now prevail, is 
 a vast organism, a body of many members with a 
 mutual life. It is quite misleading to consider man 
 and his circumstances in isolation ; to regard him 
 apart from the past out of which he has grown, or 
 from the present of which he is a unit. 
 
 We should, therefore, strongly recommend the 
 confident and dogmatic people who undertake to 
 measure the new democracy, to lay their formulas 
 aside and keep their eyes open. Even for them the 
 coming time may bring a few lessons. The problem 
 is a complex one, which should be approached from 
 many points of view and treated by a catholic variety 
 of methods. Only let them proceed on a sympathetic 
 consideration of the real conditions of the case. Every- 
 thing that tends to raise man in soul, body, or estate 
 should be encouraged. 
 
 The formulas both of criticism and of reform drawn 
 from the experience of the past and dogmatically 
 applied to the modern democracy are, therefore, 
 likely to fail us. But there is a special reason why 
 men should keep their minds open for the reception 
 of new light. It is the supreme interest of all that 
 the course of change should not degenerate into 
 violence, and nothing is more likely to bring about 
 such a fatal issue than obstinate resistance to reform 
 when confronted with the headstrong and unreasoning 
 spirit of innovation. Perhaps there is hardly a 
 violent movement in the past that has done any real 
 good. Violence has generally intervened only to 
 mar the work of wise and moderate change. At these 
 crises men have so often opposed each other, who were 
 fitted to co-operate for the common advantage.
 
 INTRODUCTION 27 
 
 Besides the fearful havoc they caused at the time, 
 revolutions have usually led to strong reaction, to 
 moral lassitude and the dull prison-house of apathy and 
 despair. Probably there is not a violent revolution 
 in history that one can contemplate with a solid and 
 genuine approval. 
 
 Of those who drew the sword at the Reformation, 
 how many, whether victors or vanquished, derived any 
 conspicuous benefit from the struggle ? In Germany 
 it ended in the horrors of the Thirty Years' War. In 
 France there were civil wars for a generation, and 
 when Protestantism was at last dragooned and expelled, 
 did Catholic France gain by driving out so many of 
 her best subjects ? The Scots were always obstinately 
 in the right, and refused to be reasonable even with 
 Cromwell, and fell into narrowness, uncharitableness, 
 and insensibility to the beautiful in worship and in 
 common life. By means it may be of inglorious com- 
 promises, England had the greatest success in wedding 
 the best of the new to the best of the old. There is a 
 convenience in believing that one's opponents are of 
 the devil, but it is a convenience frequently purchased 
 at the expense of truth and charity. For the com- 
 prehension of history, charity is almost as essential as 
 the scientific spirit. He is merely a partisan whose 
 sympathies are all on one side. We can entirely 
 love and admire only the peaceful victories of reason 
 and of the progressive wisdom and goodness, and of 
 these no revolutionary party can claim a monopoly. 
 The parties are generally champions of half-truths 
 and incomplete virtues. There may be critical and 
 decisive moments in the history of the world when 
 good men must choose a side ; but they are not the
 
 28 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 worst who have hesitated most before taking the 
 final step. 
 
 Let us hope, then, that the modern democracy, 
 while it fulfils its mission with fitting energy, will 
 rule with moderation and dignity. A quiet and 
 temperate power is the best, and in the long run the 
 most effective. 
 
 In this country we are accustomed to peaceful and 
 constitutional methods of action, and though the 
 progress is lamentably slow, our experience as com- 
 pared with that of other lands entirely justifies the 
 course we have pursued. While we have been compara- 
 tively free from the violence so frequently attendant 
 on social change, we are in most respects ahead of our 
 neighbours. But it may be that we have special 
 cause of anxiety for the future. The industrial revolu- 
 tion brought about by mechanical invention was for 
 a long time worked out chiefly in England, and has 
 most powerfully affected the national life. One of its 
 most prominent effects has been to call into existence 
 a vast number of workers almost entirely dependent on 
 wage-labour, which is often precarious and irregular. 
 Our large towns are swarming with workers who have 
 no capital and live from hand to mouth. Even in 
 ordinary times a sudden change of industry may throw 
 thousands of them out of the employment which is 
 their only resource ; in times of depression the outlook 
 grows extremely dark. In the rural districts we find 
 the same general divorce of the workmen from the 
 means of production. No country of the world has in 
 proportion to its size such a host of workers divorced 
 from land and capital, without control of the conditions 
 under which they labour, and living in economic
 
 INTRODUCTION 29 
 
 insecurity. This is probably the most conspicuous 
 result of the industrial revolution and of that marvellous 
 supremacy in the markets of the world, of which we 
 were once so proud, which at one time promised so 
 much. It is not a particularly glorious consummation. 
 Nor is there any marked sign of improvement. Our 
 rural workers still keep flocking to the large towns. In 
 spite of a very considerable emigration and a declining 
 birth-rate, our population increases by about half a 
 million every year. Who can believe that the expan- 
 sion of our industries will keep pace with such an expan- 
 sion of population ? In the poor of London and our 
 large towns a question is advancing upon us in com- 
 parison with which that of Ireland is a bright and 
 hopeful one. 
 
 It is true we had the statistics of Mr. Giffen, 
 showing how the working classes had improved during 
 the fifty years before he wrote. Of the general improve- 
 ment, especially among the skilled and organised 
 workmen, there can be no doubt ; but there are many 
 circumstances relating to our industrial development 
 which very materially lessen the hope and comfort 
 derivable from such figures. In the first place, the 
 period adopted for comparison with the present was 
 1830-1840, when, as Mr. Giffen himself explains, the 
 condition of labour was extremely low. Indeed, it 
 seems to be universally admitted that the period from 
 1780 to 1840 was the worst in the history of the English 
 labourer since the feudal system began to decline in 
 the middle of the fourteenth century. How then can 
 we draw any solid comfort from such comparisons ? 
 
 We should also remember that the period since 
 1850 has been a time of industrial expansion connected
 
 3 o INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 with opportunities for energetic workmen that the 
 world has never before seen, and such, in many essen- 
 tial respects, as we can never again see. During that 
 time the railway and telegraph systems have been 
 extended over the whole civilised world. Sailing vessels 
 have been superseded by steamships. The machine 
 industry which we devised has been carried to other 
 lands. Water and gas, and other appliances of 
 modern life, have been introduced into the towns. In 
 all these great industrial undertakings Englishmen 
 led the way and gained the firstfruits to be derived from 
 new enterprises. A colonial expansion on a corre- 
 sponding scale has taken place at the same time. 
 Steamships have conveyed across the seas hundreds of 
 thousands of energetic colonists who under other 
 circumstances might have been discontented at home. 
 The goldfields of California and Victoria, the gigantic 
 valley of the Mississippi, and the wide expanse of the 
 North-west, as well as the vast pastoral and agricultural 
 regions of Australia, have been exploited by the Anglo- 
 Saxon. These are only the most marked features 
 of a marvellous expansion which has embraced the 
 whole world ; and a combination of fortunate condi- 
 tions has given Englishmen and the cognate Americans 
 the first place in the great movement. No wonder 
 Chartism died out ! It would have been fearful if 
 the English workman had not won a small share in this 
 spoliation of the world. 
 
 But according to all human probability, this 
 expansion is a most exceptional phenomenon. The 
 world will not require a new railway system every 
 generation ; and each country is learning to keep its 
 own lines in working order. We must not expect
 
 INTRODUCTION 31 
 
 that we shall again be the teachers of mankind in an 
 industrial revolution. At any rate, there are no more 
 Mississippi valleys in this planet lying unoccupied and 
 unexploited since the birth of time ; and there is only 
 one Australia. There is, indeed, much unoccupied 
 room in this planet ; but no such extraordinary oppor- 
 tunities as we had in 1850. Our success in the past is 
 no proof that our economic and industrial methods are 
 to be accepted as good for the time coming. 
 
 Moreover, the improved condition of the workmen 
 has been due largely to better organisation among 
 themselves, and to the beneficent intervention of 
 society. The period from 1780 to 1840 was also a 
 period of expansion, but it was a time when the workers 
 were ignorant, lacking in organisation, and without 
 protection from society. It was a time of wretchedness 
 for labour but of rapid accumulation of wealth by the 
 capitalists and landlords. The period since 1850 has 
 seen the development of trade unions and co-operation, 
 the diffusion of education, and the operation of the 
 Factory Acts. All of these are forms of social organisa- 
 tion and control. It would seem that it is in this 
 direction and not in the assertion of individualism 
 that improvement may be attained. 
 
 The period since 1850 has, therefore, been a record 
 of progress, gained largely through exceptional oppor- 
 tunities of expansion. And we must face the fact 
 that we have an enormous population dependent on 
 the precarious demands of a labour market which 
 cannot possibly expand in the future as it has done in 
 the past. Countries which were once our customers 
 have become our rivals. Our industrial supremacy, 
 once absolutely unquestioned, is now disputed in
 
 32 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 various markets by Germany, Belgium, France, and 
 America. 
 
 For the difficulties of the new time there is no 
 panacea. It is impossible there can be any panacea 
 except the very old and comprehensive one that every 
 man and institution in the country endeavour to do 
 their duty. Fortunately there is amongst us a growing 
 spirit of reasonable and energetic reform. We are 
 agreed that social troubles cannot be met by obstinate 
 resistance, nor can they be removed by stormy and 
 fanatical change. We can expect to succeed only by 
 the freest discussion of social and economic questions, 
 and by the wise and energetic adaptation of our 
 institutions to the necessities of the time. Nothing 
 is so trying to the unreason of innovation as to be 
 subjected to calm and dispassionate inquiry. Nothing 
 is so disconcerting to a hoary abuse as to turn the full 
 light of day upon it. The fanaticism of revolution and 
 the fanaticism of reaction will both disappear under 
 the wholesome and searching influences of truth and 
 fact. 
 
 In view of all the foregoing considerations it is 
 imperative that we examine the claims of socialism 
 in a spirit of fairness. But we shall be better able to 
 do so if we learn to understand the origin and nature 
 of the present system.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 
 
 As we have seen, England led the way in the industrial 
 revolution by which the present social and economic 
 system was introduced. In England, therefore, we must 
 study its rise and progress. It arose by a gradual process 
 of development out of the mediaeval order of society. 
 The mediaeval order was characterised by two great 
 institutions, feudalism and the Catholic Church. 
 
 Under the feudal system the tillers of the soil 
 rendered to their superiors customary dues both 
 in kind and in labour. At the beginning of the four- 
 teenth century money rents began to take the place 
 of the old customary dues. Thus early did a cash 
 nexus supersede the old relation of dependence of 
 the tenant on his lord. In the Wars of the Roses 
 during the latter half of the fifteenth century the 
 feudal nobility was for the most part destroyed ; and 
 the strongly centralised rule of Edward IV. and the 
 Tudors was established. Round the Tudor dynasty 
 a court nobility grew up instead of the old feudal 
 nobility. Whereas in feudal times the power of the 
 noble depended on the number and efficiency of the 
 fighting men he could bring into the field, the influence 
 of the court noble depended chiefly on the length of 
 his rent-roll. He was forbidden by law to maintain 
 bands of retainers as formerly, and indeed he had 
 
 D
 
 34 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 now no particular interest in keeping them. They 
 were therefore broken up, and the old fighting men 
 became a useless and dangerous class of idlers. 
 
 A great rise in the price of wool, which marked 
 the early part of the sixteenth century, increased 
 the tendency to adopt the merely commercial use of 
 land. The landlords found it more profitable to 
 convert the small holdings of the peasantry into sheep- 
 runs. Inclosures led to evictions, by which vast 
 numbers were driven from the soil and forced into a 
 life of vagabondage. When the monasteries were 
 broken up and the Church lands were seized by Henry 
 VIII. and his courtiers, things became very much 
 worse. The fall of feudalism and of the Catholic 
 Church thus meant the dissolution of an ancient 
 society, the effects of which it is hardly possible for us 
 to realise. 
 
 Here we are concerned chiefly with its influence 
 on the social and economic life of the mass of the 
 people. Commercial ideas as to the use of land 
 had become supreme. Reasons of State and of good 
 government of the most convincing and urgent nature 
 there might be that the rural population should not 
 be turned adrift into poverty and vagrancy. But 
 the political and legal power rested entirely with the 
 King, and with his courtiers and privy councillors, 
 who were or aspired to be landholders. The private 
 interest of the landowning class determined the general 
 course of social economic development. Reasons of 
 State and the good of the people were alike put aside. 
 Legislation to check inclosures, which was repeatedly 
 passed during a long period of years, had little per- 
 manent effect, because those who were able to enforce
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 35 
 
 the laws were interested in setting them aside. The 
 few risings that took place were put down by the 
 nobles with the aid of foreign mercenaries. 
 
 During this vast process of change, which con- 
 tinued for about a century, the people were for the 
 most part not only unorganised, but voiceless. Yet 
 we have some clear glimpses of their condition. Most 
 vivid are the references to it in the introduction to 
 More's ' Utopia.' Those mild animals, the sheep, we 
 are told, had begun to devour men and unpeople not 
 only villages but towns. To make room for them 
 thousands of acres were inclosed by some insatiable 
 wretch ; and owners as well as tenants were turned out 
 by force or fraud or wearied by repeated wrongs into 
 parting with their property. Men and women, old 
 and young, were driven from their homes, not knowing 
 where to go. They were obliged to sell their house- 
 hold stuff almost for nothing, and the money being 
 soon spent, they had no resource but to steal and be 
 hanged for it, or to go about and beg. In this way 
 began that process of eviction which continued in 
 Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland till the nine- 
 teenth century. The cultivators of the soil under a 
 feudal or a clan system were expelled under pressure 
 of a new system, in which money considerations were 
 supreme. 
 
 The landholding class, which had thus forced the 
 poor people into vagabondage, proceeded by a course 
 of savage legislation to cure the evil, now become 
 national, which they had themselves created. Vaga- 
 bonds were whipped ; they were put in the stocks, or in 
 the pillory, where they had their ears cut off ; and they 
 were hanged in rows twenty at a time. By an Act 
 
 D 2
 
 36 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 passed in the reign of Edward VI., which, however, 
 was repealed in two years, they could even be reduced 
 to slavery. 
 
 Such industry apart from agriculture as existed in 
 mediaeval times was organised in guilds, which were 
 combinations of merchants and craftsmen for the 
 defence and promotion of their common interests 
 at a time when law and order were not securely estab- 
 lished. The separation of these industrialists into 
 the two classes of employer and employed had not yet 
 declared itself. Apprentice, journeyman, and master 
 were generally speaking merely three stages in the 
 career of the worker. But the property of these 
 guilds was also confiscated by Henry VIII. and the 
 nobles who ruled in the name of his son Edward. In 
 the course of time the guild system broke down. 
 The action of the new central power, which sought 
 to regulate industry in all its departments, was not 
 favourable to self-governing local industry. Thus 
 the mediaeval organisation of industry was dissolved. 
 Many influences contributed to introduce a division of 
 interests among the industrialists, with the general 
 result that a class of employers distinct from the 
 employed was finally constituted. The workmen 
 were everywhere treated as an inferior class, being 
 without education or political rights, and crushed 
 under a load of oppressive legislative enactments and 
 adverse social and economic conditions. 
 
 We can now see how rural life and town life alike 
 felt the far-reaching effects of this revolution. Through- 
 out the country the castles of the feudal nobles and 
 the abbeys and other religious houses had been centres 
 of busy life. Nobles like the famous Earl of War-
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 37 
 
 wick the Kingmaker had great numbers of retainers, 
 tenants, and all manner of dependants. The religious 
 houses were centres of arts and crafts, of hospitality 
 and of almsgiving, as well as of religion. In the 
 course of the revolution feudal retainers and tenants, 
 the monks and their tenants and dependants, lost 
 their means of living, and were driven loose from 
 their old moorings. Their homes and their customary 
 habits of life were alike cruelly broken up. Even if 
 they had been able and willing to work, the labour 
 market of those days was totally inadequate to absorb 
 the numbers thus cast adrift. Wages, compared with 
 the price of food, were miserably low. Towns decayed, 
 and rural life sank to a low level both in interest 
 and activity. It was not till the reign of Elizabeth 
 that things began to settle down under the new condi- 
 tions. By the middle of the seventeenth century, 
 according to the estimate of Thorold Rogers, at least 
 half the population of England was dependent on 
 weekly wages. 
 
 The main effect of these changes was that the 
 mediaeval organisation of society, resting on the manor 
 and the guild under the feudal and Catholic systems, 
 was destroyed to make way for the system which 
 now prevails. 
 
 After a long period of preparation and gradual 
 development the forces of change set in with special 
 rapidity and intensity about the middle of the 
 eighteenth century. An industrial revolution asso- 
 ciated with mechanical invention, with the application 
 of steam as the motive power, and with the rise of 
 the factory system, then definitely began, and is still 
 proceeding in almost every country of the world. 
 
 217911.
 
 38 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 A variety of causes combined to make England 
 the first great scene of its activity. She was supreme on 
 the sea, and had driven her rivals, both French and 
 Dutch, out of North America and East India. She 
 had a considerable share of the West Indies, at that 
 time a colonial possession of much greater importance 
 than now. Liverpool and Bristol took a leading part 
 in the lucrative and nefarious slave trade. Thus Eng- 
 land had established a vast colonial empire, secured 
 by her domination of the seas ; and she had won for 
 herself an ever-growing commerce and markets in 
 every part of the world, which were continually 
 widening. The wars in which we were incessantly 
 engaged from the revolution of 1689 to Waterloo were 
 fought out abroad, and did not materially interfere 
 with the development of our industries — in fact most 
 effectually promoted them by extending and securing 
 our markets. While the nations of the Continent 
 were devastated and exhausted by long wars waged 
 on their own territory, the soil of England was free 
 from foreign armies. Within her own borders there 
 was peace, under the shadow of which she had time 
 to accumulate an immense capital, and to train a 
 numerous class of workmen in the new methods of 
 industry. We had nearly a hundred years of this 
 industrial progress before Germany, so long disunited 
 and overrun by foreign armies, could enter upon the 
 race. 
 
 At home a variety of other causes tended not less 
 powerfully towards the development of the new system 
 of industry. That we had coal and iron and other 
 minerals necessary for it in great abundance and in 
 close proximity to each other is a familiar fact. We
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 39 
 
 have a climate suited to a laborious industry, and a 
 geographical position favourable to a wide commerce 
 and to the development of colonial enterprise. Re- 
 ligious and political discontent even more than the 
 spirit of enterprise urged large numbers of the people 
 during the seventeenth century to seek the freer and 
 larger field of opportunity beyond the ocean. We 
 have already referred to the process by which the 
 working people of England were divorced from the 
 soil on the downfall of feudalism and of the Catholic 
 Church. Of this process historical science will in the 
 future have much to say. It had one clear result of 
 the greatest importance, to deprive a large mass of 
 the population of a fixed interest in the soil, to drive 
 them into the towns, and thus to prepare for the 
 coming time a numerous class which as workers or 
 capitalists would carry on the new industrialism. 
 
 It was a condition of things in which the natural 
 advantages and resources of the country conspired 
 with the tendencies of our social development to give 
 England the first place in the industrial revolution. 
 Our success has been set down to different causes 
 more or less flattering to the national pride. It is 
 supposed to have been greatly due to the peculiar 
 sagacity, energy, and love of freedom of the English 
 race ; and it is true that we possess a considerable 
 share of these desirable qualities, but without any 
 conspicuous superiority to the French and Germans. 
 In view of our immense advantages both natural and 
 historical, in view of our enormous mineral wealth 
 and our insular position, which has protected us from 
 the worst consequences of Continental warfare, such 
 explanations have no serious importance.
 
 4 o INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 For generations our markets had been extending, 
 and the love of gain had been whetted by the tribute 
 both of the East and West. The old methods of 
 industry were unable to keep pace with the demands 
 of a market so rapidly growing and with the insatiable 
 spirit of acquisition. New and more powerful pro- 
 ductive forces were required. A potent stimulus was 
 thus given to the inventive spirit, which, after long 
 experiment and unsuccessful effort, at last supplied 
 the want with mechanical appliances connected with 
 the names of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton. 
 Above all, a new motive power for the new machinery 
 was found by James Watt, the greatest innovator and 
 revolutionist the world has ever seen. The work 
 formerly done by the human hand, by horse-power, 
 or by the uncertain forces of wind and water, was 
 now performed by steam, a strong and regular agency, 
 which can be created as required, and works both in 
 summer and winter, in perfect obedience to the guiding 
 hand of man. In a few decades the methods and con- 
 ditions of industry and of social life were entirely 
 changed. The spinning-wheel gave way to the 
 spinning-jenny. The hand-loom was driven out by the 
 power-loom. The stage-coach was superseded by the 
 railway train, the sailing-vessel by the steamship. 
 The application of steam to printing gave us cheap 
 literature and the penny newspaper. Such are a few 
 of the features of the industrial revolution. Society 
 was established on a new technical basis. 
 
 Even the proximate results of the industrial re- 
 volution in the history of England were incalculable. 
 It gave employment to vast numbers of new work- 
 men. Many of the capitalists who were successful in
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 41 
 
 the struggle for wealth made vast fortunes out of 
 trade. The growing demand for agricultural produce 
 on the part of the increasing industrial population, 
 intensified as it was by our exclusion from foreign 
 markets by wars and corn-laws, led to an enormous 
 rise of rents and to a rapid expansion of cultivation. 
 The landowners and the industrial magnates, and 
 adventurers enriched with the spoils of the East and 
 West, carried their well-filled coffers to the House of 
 Lords. The new industry furnished Britain with the 
 resources for carrying on the gigantic struggle with 
 Napoleon. And it cheapened the products of industry, 
 creating and multiplying to a marvellous degree all 
 the means and appliances of happiness and culture. 
 
 One most important result of the industrial revolu- 
 tion was to concentrate industry in the hands of a 
 limited number of capitalists. Industry was now 
 organised on a large scale in factories. The capitalist 
 who could provide himself with steam-power and the 
 best machinery, who could most skilfully and energetic- 
 ally take advantage of the division and organisation 
 of labour, had a crushing superiority over the isolated 
 producer working on the old methods. In this way 
 a large system of industry was established, by which 
 the small producer was completely overborne in the 
 competitive struggle. The spinning was transferred 
 from the cottage to the factory. The hand-loom 
 weaver was slowly starved out before the power-loom. 
 The small farmer, too, was out of date. In every 
 department the most economical and effective methods 
 of industry prevailed. 
 
 From the beginning of the industrial revolution it 
 was apparent, however, that the new system was
 
 42 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 oppressive alike to the workers whom it employed, 
 and to the small producer whom it superseded. Along 
 with steam-power and the new machinery cheap labour 
 was the great desideratum of the capitalist in the 
 competition which now ensued. Cheap labour was 
 accordingly mercilessly utilised in factory organisation. 
 Hence the systematic employment of women and 
 children to tend the new machinery in the factories. 
 In order to provide a sufficiency of such cheap labour 
 the owners of factories entered into contracts with 
 the Poor-Law Guardians of London and other places, 
 by which batches of children were forwarded to the 
 industrial centres ; in some cases it was agreed that an 
 idiot should be taken for every 7 nineteen of sound 
 mind. These poor creatures were worked for twelve 
 or even fifteen hours a day, and were often cruelly 
 beaten by the overseers. Many of the children were 
 taken into the mills at the age of five or six, some- 
 times earlier. Without parental oversight, without 
 education, demoralised by weary drudgery under in- 
 sanitary conditions, badly fed and badly housed, we 
 need not wonder that they grew up to be morally 
 and physically degenerate, and that their offspring 
 was no better. Mothers employed for very long 
 hours in factories, and without the most elementary 
 knowledge of their domestic duties, were not likely to 
 bring up good and healthy children. Apart from 
 more terrible evils, the physique of England must have 
 permanently suffered from the abuses of our indus- 
 trialism. Altogether, even the soberest record of our 
 factory S3*stem is too revolting for belief and even 
 description. By such methods were the industrial 
 glories of England established and enormous fortunes
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 43 
 
 made — out of the groans, and tears, and degradation 
 of innocent children and helpless women. 1 
 
 But the fearful contrast of accumulating wealth 
 and unspeakable misery was not confined to the 
 factory system. Mining was probably worse, and 
 agriculture was no better. During the whole course 
 of the great war with Napoleon rents increased enor- 
 mously, the process of money-making going forward 
 on a basis of misery. During the war the rental of 
 Scotland rose from 2,000,000/. a 3^ear to about 
 5,278,000/. The rent of farms in Essex increased at 
 the same time from 10s. to 45s. and even 50s. per 
 acre ; in Berkshire and Wiltshire from 14s. to 70s. 
 per acre. In these years the price of wheat rose again 
 and again to famine prices : in 1795 it was 126s., in 
 1801 it rose to 139s. and even 180s. per quarter ; in 
 1812 it again stood at 126s. per quarter. It might 
 reasonably be expected that wages must have risen 
 in something like a tolerable proportion to the rise in 
 the price of the staple food, but the advance was 
 confined to skilled artisans, and in their case it was 
 only partial. 2 
 
 1 The record of the shame, and it should also be said of the 
 penitence, of England is told in the annals of the factor}'- and other 
 legislation, especially in the various parliamentary reports. The 
 early results of the industrial revolution are described in Porter's 
 Progress of the Nation. The influence of the same revolution has 
 been worked out with great power and elaboration by Karl Marx in 
 his Capital. For an impartial and moderate account of its results, 
 see Spencer Walpole's History of England, since 18/5. 
 
 2 ' In some few cases there had been an advance of wages, but 
 this occurred only to skilled artisans, and even with them the rise 
 was wholly incommensurate with the increased cost of all the 
 necessaries of life. The mere labourer — he who has nothing to bring 
 to market but his limbs and sinews — did not participate in this 
 partial compensation for high prices, but was in most cases an eager
 
 44 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 After the war, though rents fell very considerably, 
 they were still greatly in advance of what they had 
 previously been, while the misery of the people steadily 
 continued both in town and country, in some years 
 swelling to an unbearable degree of intensity. The 
 wretchedness of the workers culminated in the fearful 
 years about 1840. We need not here repeat the har- 
 rowing tale of the wretchedness which then prevailed 
 among our industrial population. Miserable dwellings, 
 towns in which the laws of sanitation were set at 
 defiance, food of the worst quality, and frequently 
 not to be had at all, incredible ignorance, moods of 
 despair alternating with the spirit of angry revolt 
 and riot — such were the too prevalent features in the 
 condition of the working classes. Chartism was simply 
 the expression of the dire agony of English labour 
 in its long death-wrestle with disease, starvation, and 
 ignorance. 
 
 Of all the phenomena connected with the industrial 
 revolution nothing is so striking and characteristic as 
 the fate of the hand-loom weavers. Though invented 
 by Cartwright in 1787, the power-loom was not put to 
 practical use till 1801, and it was some years later 
 before it began to be a dangerous rival of the hand- 
 loom. Thus for several decades after the invention 
 of the new methods of spinning, and the application 
 of steam to machinery, the hand-loom continued to 
 
 competitor for employment at the same, or nearly the same, wages 
 as had been given before the war. There was a superabundant 
 supply of labourers constantly competing for employment at the 
 large government establishments, where the weekly wages did not 
 exceed i 5s., while the price of the quartern loaf was is. iod., and the 
 other necessary outgoings of a labourer's family were nearly as high 
 in proportion.' — Porter, vol. ii. 283.
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 45 
 
 be the sole or chief means of weaving. Consequently 
 a large number of weavers were required to supply 
 the greatly increased demand that had sprung up 
 under the new conditions. It is estimated that in 
 1833 there were 250,000 hand-loom weavers in Great 
 Britain, and 800,000 persons dependent on this 
 industry. By that time, however, the hand-loom was 
 doomed. It is one of the acknowledged evils of the 
 new system that the workman is part of a great 
 industrial mechanism, that in the division of labour 
 he learns his own particular function and nothing else ; 
 but that if a change occurs rendering his particular work 
 unnecessary he is helpless and exposed to ruin. This 
 was the fate of the poor hand-loom weavers, whose 
 agony, prolonged by poor-relief, on 2\&. a day, is one 
 of the saddest chapters of the industrial revolution. 
 
 But the evil results of the new industrial competi- 
 tion were not confined to our own country. The 
 demand for raw cotton by our rapidly growing mills 
 greatly stimulated its production in America. American 
 slavery assumed a harder and crueller aspect. The 
 inordinate love of gain that impelled men to overtask 
 the poor children in English factories could not be 
 resisted by the slave-owners in the Southern States, 
 and the system of working out their hands in seven 
 years was introduced. The poor negro, toiling amidst 
 the swamps of Alabama or Louisiana under the lash 
 of a Legree, felt the influence of the new industrial 
 system. In spite of protection our industrial supre- 
 macy exercised a severe pressure on the workers of 
 the Continent ; and in India, where protection did not 
 exist, it whitened the plains with the bones of the 
 cottage-weavers.
 
 46 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 We have heard much of the blessings conferred on 
 mankind through the industrial progress of the last 
 hundred years, how it has extended the control of 
 man over the resources of nature, and multiplied all 
 the necessaries of life ; how it has given us railways, 
 the electric telegraph, cheap books, cheap newspapers, 
 gas, an efficient water supply, and a thousand other 
 appliances of a higher and better civilisation. All 
 this it has done to a marvellous degree. But let us 
 not forget that especially in its earlier stages the 
 industrial revolution acted without social or ethical 
 control, and, being made the instrument of private 
 gain, resulted in the excessive enrichment of the few, 
 and in the impoverishment and degradation of the 
 many. Unless the material and technical appliances 
 of civilisation are subordinate to moral ends and to 
 the promotion of true social well-being, we have no 
 guarantee that their influence will be beneficial. Like 
 the natural forces, steam and electricity, by which it 
 is moved, the mechanism of the industrial revolution 
 must be directed by intelligence acting on principles 
 of justice and humanity, in order that it be a true 
 instrument of progress. If the triumphs of mechan- 
 ical invention are only to be weapons for more 
 effectually subjecting and exploiting the masses of 
 mankind, better that James Watt had never suc- 
 ceeded with the steam-engine. Under the new system, 
 as under the old, the ethical factor is the dominant 
 one. The supreme question must be, how to make 
 the new industrial forces subservient to the good 
 of men. 
 
 The rulers and leaders of England had other work 
 to do than to control the industrial revolution for the
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 47 
 
 good of the people. While Watt was perfecting the 
 steam-engine they were preparing to coerce the 
 American colonies. Later on, when the new industrial 
 system was developing into its colossal manhood, they 
 were fighting the French and maintaining the corn- 
 laws. On the whole, the new system was left to the 
 free energy of the industrialists, and it degenerated 
 into a rapacious scramble for wealth, from which a 
 favoured few emerged successful. 
 
 Before long it became evident that a new division 
 of classes had become permanently established in 
 England. Having no fixed interest in the soil of his 
 native country, finding that, with his small and rude 
 means of production, he could no longer compete 
 against machinery, the workman was fain to enrol 
 himself in the service of the capitalist. Naturally he 
 found a difficulty in adapting himself to the tedious 
 and demoralising drudgery of a mill. But necessity, 
 in the form of hunger, quelled his courage. A popula- 
 tion of workers suited to the new conditions rapidly 
 grew up, a population that too generally was drunken, 
 thriftless, and thoughtless, of poor physique and poor 
 morale. It was, indeed, one of the worst evils of the 
 industrial revolution that it so powerfully stimulated 
 the growth of such a class. In large and populous 
 districts not a public school existed. Thus a gigantic 
 industrialism was established, marked on the one hand 
 by successful capitalists, who grew enormously wealthy, 
 and on the other by a vast host of working men 
 divorced from land and capital, exposed to all the 
 vicissitudes of an ever-changing trade, over which 
 they had no more control than over a hurricane or 
 an earthquake, often without a fixed home, their
 
 48 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 family life broken up by the despotic requirements of 
 the factory. 
 
 The most striking results of the industrial revolu- 
 tion have therefore been : first, the concentration of 
 industry in the hands of successful capitalists ; second, 
 the creation of the modern proletariat. The last word 
 is not here used as a term of reproach. It is a suffi- 
 ciently accurate name for a class of workers who have 
 practically nothing to depend on but wage-labour 
 that is often precarious and inadequate. Be it also 
 remembered that the period of worst degradation and 
 impoverishment for English labour coincided with the 
 most marvellous development of riches that the world 
 had seen up to that date, that is to say, with the 
 period from 1780 to 1850, from the time steam came 
 into effective play till the middle of the last cen- 
 tury. Against this sad destiny the individual worker 
 could do little to protect himself. He was at the 
 mercy of forces over which he had only the most 
 limited control. He had before him the alternative 
 either to rise to be a capitalist, using other men's 
 labour, or to be a labourer used by a capitalist. The 
 former alternative could fall only to a very few. The 
 mass sank into a condition of economic dependency. 
 For we must emphasise the fact that the isolated 
 worker of the olden time, with his small means of 
 production, had to disappear in proportion as the 
 revolution extended. It was a struggle between the 
 isolated workman using his own small capital, and 
 the large industry. The victory was to the latter, 
 to the large system of production with machinery 
 moved by steam, with large numbers of workmen 
 organised and directed by capitalists competing for
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 49 
 
 their own profit. The independent workman, utilising 
 his own capital, had on the whole to disappear. 
 
 The revolution, which began in England, as we 
 have seen, still goes forward, and is extending over 
 the whole world. In almost every European country 
 it is establishing itself. Distant countries, which were 
 once merely the markets and producers of raw material 
 for England, are beginning to adopt the methods of 
 the new industry. This India is doing ; and even 
 China, which so long excluded European influences, 
 is now ready to introduce railways, telegraphs, and 
 the other appliances of the West. Her long hesita- 
 tion was probably due not only to the fear of political 
 interference on the part of foreign powers, but of 
 having her own social system disturbed by the new 
 industry. If the hand-loom weavers of England suffered 
 so much from the changes made by mechanical inven- 
 tion, what will be the fate of the craftsmen of China 
 with their backward methods of production ? 
 
 In this world-revolution steam has become a com- 
 paratively old agent, and has been reinforced by 
 electricity, marking a further advance in the dominion 
 of man over nature. James Watt, patiently devising 
 means for applying steam to the service of man, and 
 Benjamin Franklin compelling the lightning from the 
 clouds, are the worthy representatives of the new era. 
 
 In no country of the world has the new indus- 
 trialism made such gigantic strides as in America. A 
 paper drawn up by a committee of the American 
 Social Science Association, and read at its meeting in 
 Cincinnati in 1878, depicts with great vividness the 
 change made by labour-saving machinery in the 
 United States. In agriculture, the old wooden plough 
 
 E
 
 5 o INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 is of course replaced by the steam-plough ; sowing, 
 formerly done by hand, is now done by machinery. 
 On the vast prairie lands of the Mississippi and in 
 California the grain is cut by reapers with cutters 
 which are ten, twelve, eighteen, and even twenty-four 
 feet long. 
 
 To such a degree of perfection is the mechanism 
 for harvesting brought that ' in California machines 
 are made and used, which at one and the same time, 
 in moving over the field, cut the grain, thresh, winnow, 
 and sack it, and the filled sacks are left in rows where, 
 but a few moments before, stood the golden grain 
 untouched, inviting to its harvest.' So with all the 
 other operations of American husbandry : ' machinery 
 digs potatoes, milks the cows, makes the butter and 
 cheese.' 
 
 In the carriage of agricultural products to the 
 great centres of population a similar revolution has 
 been effected. ' Even our cattle and hogs are no 
 longer required to walk to the shambles ; the iron 
 horse takes them to the butcher, labour-saving pro- 
 cesses slaughter them, dress them, prepare their flesh 
 for the market, for the table, and stop only at mastica- 
 tion, deglutition, and digestion. 
 
 ' To-day, one man with the aid of machinery will 
 produce as much food as could be produced by the 
 naked muscle and tools of a score of our fathers. 
 There is now no known limit to the power of its pro- 
 duction. In consumption there is no corresponding 
 increase. Our fathers required, obtained, and used as 
 many ounces of food per day as we do. It might 
 have been different in kind and quality — nothing 
 more.
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT'S YSTEM 51 
 
 ' Not long ago the farm found constant employ- 
 ment for all the sons of the farm and many of the 
 children of the city. Now, the farm furnishes employ- 
 ment for but a very small number of its sons, and that 
 for a very few weeks or months at most in the year, 
 and for the rest work must be had in the cities and 
 towns, or not at all. 
 
 ' Here we find the true reason for the stagnation 
 in the population of the older agricultural sections, 
 and abnormal growth and crowding of the cities.' 
 
 Formerly the farmers raised their own wool and 
 flax, which were spun and woven into cloth by the 
 members of their household. Now all is changed. 
 Carding, spinning, weaving, knitting, and sewing are 
 done by machinery. 
 
 In all the operations of building and carpentry we 
 see a like change. ' Machinery does nine-tenths of 
 the labour, and muscle the little remainder.' 
 
 Boots and shoes are now made by machinery. 
 The introduction of machinery into the watch trade 
 is superseding the hand watchmakers of England and 
 Switzerland. The operations of mining and engineer- 
 ing are carried on with the aid of powerful machinery. 
 
 The paper of the American Social Science Associa- 
 tion then goes on to explain the general results of 
 the industrial revolution in that country in the follow- 
 ing manner : 
 
 ' Now, let us see what have been the general 
 effects which have resulted from the use of labour- 
 saving machinery. I will briefly sum them up in a 
 few distinct conclusions. 
 
 ' 1. It has broken up and destroyed our whole 
 system of agriculture as practised by our fathers,
 
 52 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 which required the whole time and attention of all 
 the sons of the farm and many from the towns, in the 
 never-ending duties of food production, and has driven 
 them to the towns and cities to hunt for employment, 
 or remain in great part idle. 
 
 1 2. It has broken up and destroyed our whole 
 system of household and family manufactures, as done 
 by our mothers, when all took part in the labour and 
 shared in the product, to the comfort of all ; and has 
 compelled the daughters of our country and towns to 
 factory operations for ten or twelve hours a day in 
 the manufacture of cloth they may not wear, though 
 next to nakedness in the shivering blast ; or to the 
 city to ply their needles for eighteen or twenty hours 
 a day, in hunger and cold ; or to the street in thou- 
 sands, spinning yarns and weaving webs that become 
 their shrouds. 
 
 ' 3. It has broken up and destroyed our whole 
 system of working in wood and iron and leather in 
 small shops of one, two, or it may be half a dozen 
 workmen, in every town, village, or hamlet in the 
 country, with blacksmith shops in near neighbourhood 
 upon every road, where every man was a workman 
 who could take the rough iron or unshaped wood and 
 uncut leather and carry it through all its operations, 
 until a thoroughly finished article was produced, and 
 has compelled all to production in large shops, where 
 machinery has minutely divided all work, requiring 
 only knowledge and strength enough to attend a 
 machine that will heel shoes, or cut nails, or card 
 wool, or spin yarn, or do some other small fraction of 
 a complete whole. 
 
 ' 4. It has broken up and destroyed our whole
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 53 
 
 system of individual and independent action in pro- 
 duction and manufacture, whereby any man who 
 possessed a trade by his own hands could at once 
 make that trade his support and means of advance- 
 ment, free of control by any other man, and has com- 
 pelled all working men and women to a system of 
 communal work, where, in hundreds and thousands, 
 they are forced to labour with no other interest in 
 the work than is granted to them in the wages paid 
 for so much toil ; with no voice, no right, no interest 
 in the product of their hands and brains, but subject 
 to the uncontrolled interest and caprice of those who 
 too often know no other motive than that of avarice. 
 
 ' 5. It has so enormously developed the power of 
 production as to far outstrip man's utmost power of 
 consumption, enabling less than one-half of the pro- 
 ducing and working classes, working ten hours a day, 
 to produce vastly more than a market can be found 
 for ; filling our granaries, warehouses, depots, and 
 stores with enormous amounts of products of every 
 description, for which there is no sale, though never 
 before offered at such low prices, with multitudes of 
 men and women in the greatest want — being without 
 food, clothing, shelter — without work, and conse- 
 quently without means to obtain the simplest neces- 
 saries of life. 
 
 ' 6. It has thrown out of employment substantially 
 one-half of the working classes. In fact, it has utterly 
 destroyed all regular or constant employment for any 
 considerable class in any industry, and is constantly 
 and steadily displacing able and willing men, and 
 filling their places with women and children ; leaving 
 no place to be filled by, and no demand for, the
 
 54 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 constantly increasing numbers developed in our increase 
 of population, in this way adding to the number of 
 the unemployed. It takes married women in thou- 
 sands from their maternal cares and duties, and 
 children but little more than infants from the schools, 
 putting them to the care of machinery and its work, 
 until quite one-third of the machine tenders in our 
 country are women and children : thus breaking down 
 the mothers, slaughtering the infants, and giving em- 
 ployment to any who obtain it only upon such condi- 
 tions of uncertaint}', insecurity, competition with the 
 workless, and steady reduction in wages, as create a 
 constant struggle to obtain the little work they do 
 have, and get such compensation for it as will barely 
 support life even when in health. 
 
 1 These points show clearly the changes which have 
 taken place in all our industries within a period of 
 little more than half a century — changes greater than 
 the world had before known during its whole existence.' 
 
 As America is a new country, inhabited by a people 
 of unusual energy and inventiveness, the industrial 
 revolution is running its course there with unex- 
 ampled rapidity and completeness. But in a general 
 way its effects are the same wherever it is introduced. 
 
 Parallel with the development of the industrial 
 revolution there was a revolution of ideas even more 
 important, which also culminated during the eighteenth 
 century, and was the outcome of social and spiritual 
 forces that had long been preparing. Rightly under- 
 stood, the two revolutions will be found to have a 
 kindred origin. They were both the result of a clearer 
 comprehension and more perfect mastery of nature
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 55 
 
 and of its phenomena and resources. An age which 
 found out the secret of lightning, which drew it from 
 the clouds and made it the messenger of man, naturally 
 enough was marked by the revolt against superstition. 
 For thereby one of the chief strongholds of superstition 
 had been invaded ; the marvels of nature were no 
 longer a subject of unreasoning awe, but of scientific 
 inquiry and of application to the service of man. Both 
 revolutions proceeded from the growing knowledge 
 and dominion of man, and a better understanding of 
 his relation to nature and his fellow-men. Hence the 
 triumphs of steam and electricity. The revolt against 
 the ' right divine of kings to govern wrong ' took its 
 rise in the same spirit ; as also the ideas of enlighten- 
 ment, humanity, and social progress, which will, we 
 hope, become the common spiritual heritage of man- 
 kind. 
 
 Such ideas have been largely associated with the 
 French Revolution, but this was really only a terrific 
 explosion resulting from their action on the too fervid 
 temperament of the French. While giving them a 
 world-historic publicity, the French Revolution also 
 tended very powerfully to discredit them and delay 
 their realisation. Even yet the watchwords of the 
 Revolution — Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity — can 
 hardly be mentioned without a cynical smile ; and it 
 must be admitted that the contrast between the 
 loftiness of the ideal and the grim realities with which 
 they have been associated in actual history is suffi- 
 ciently painful. 
 
 In their more practical and prosaic form the new 
 ideas grew up and flourished chiefly in Holland and 
 England, especially in England. Greatest of all was
 
 56 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 the principle of freedom as applied to religion, politics, 
 and economics, and as associated with the right and 
 supremacy of individual reason. It was a far-reaching 
 principle which in the Anglo-Saxon world we claim to 
 have realised in quite a notable way, and undoubtedly 
 it has been a potent sign of progress, though not the 
 universally efficacious means of remedy and renova- 
 tion that we have believed it to be. In politics many 
 believe that our theory and practice of it are about 
 perfect, and there can be no doubt that in the economic 
 sphere the advance has been marvellous. 
 
 In economics the great teacher of freedom was 
 Adam Smith, with whom it was no mere formula, but 
 the well-considered result of wide research into the 
 circumstances of his own and of preceding times, and 
 therefore maintained with constant reference to fact ; 
 it was a philosophic principle illustrated, verified, and 
 limited by history. His exposition of the principle 
 was founded on inductive evidence that the true 
 interests of men and nations suffered from industrial 
 and commercial restraints. Many of those restraints 
 had been imposed by the short-sighted and selfish 
 policy of classes and nations. Some of them were 
 simply the survivals of an earlier state of society, at 
 that time necessary and beneficial, but in Smith's 
 time antiquated and worse than useless. It was only 
 natural that when the light of inquiry was turned upon 
 them these restraints should be found to be irrational, 
 vexatious, and oppressive. 
 
 Even if the restrictions of which we speak had been 
 required by the best interests of the time before Adam 
 Smith, they would not have been applicable to the new 
 industrial era marked by the introduction of a great
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 57 
 
 mechanical power such as steam. The first effective 
 steam-engine was turned out of the Soho works at 
 Birmingham, in which James Watt was a partner, in 
 1776, the same year that saw the publication of the 
 ' Wealth of Nations.' Both were products of their 
 time, the result of ideas and forces which had long 
 been growing. For the development of the new 
 mechanical power, which in the course of a few decades 
 was to revolutionise every department of industry, 
 mining, agriculture, manufactures, inland communica- 
 tion and shipping, free scope was the first desideratum. 
 We need not wonder that the principles of Adam 
 Smith were by clear-sighted and progressive men 
 hailed as the true and seasonable word for the new era. 
 What above all things was wanted was room for a 
 mighty development of new forces, to which the old 
 rules were inapplicable, to which obviously no set of 
 rules could be prescribed, room for the energy and 
 sagacity of the founders of English industrialism. 
 It was inevitable that the giant power should break 
 the fetters of the past. The repeal of the Corn Laws 
 in 1846 and the accompanying legislation marked the 
 definite triumph of the revolutionary forces embodied 
 in modern industry. 
 
 By many it was thought that the boon of freedom 
 was an effectual means of social regeneration. The 
 naive confidence of early reformers in the efficacy of 
 liberty is indeed almost pathetic. Relieve industry 
 from its old restraints, and prosperity would set in 
 with a full tide. Release the labourer from his dis- 
 abilities, leave him free to follow his own interests, 
 and all would be well. Set the negro free and he would 
 at once conduct himself like a Christian gentleman.
 
 58 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 Believers in economic freedom were not content with 
 saying that free trade had been one of the conditions 
 of our prosperity ; in their view it had been the chief 
 substantive cause of it. Freedom was a social and 
 political panacea. It could work miracles. 
 
 Freedom was undoubtedly one of the greatest 
 gains of the new era. Freedom, civil and religious, 
 freedom of thought and speech, freedom to reside 
 where you pleased, and to shape your own career as 
 you pleased — all this meant so much, and was so full 
 of promise. It was a new thing in the history of the 
 world, and, as compared with the restraints of an 
 earlier time, it was a splendid acquisition. Even for 
 the agricultural labourer working for eight shillings 
 a week, or the factory hand drudging for twelve or 
 fifteen hours a day, it was an improvement. Hitherto 
 the change from feudalism had chiefly tended to de- 
 prive the English workman of the old securities 
 without conferring on him the blessings of a new era. 
 For him our social system had been oppression and 
 neglect tempered with almsgiving ; a regime marked 
 by the unholy alliance of oppression and pauperisa- 
 tion. It was well, therefore, to relieve him from the 
 demoralising influence of the old poor-law, and to 
 grant him the right of combination and other rights 
 of a free man. 
 
 But even with the gift of freedom the lot of the 
 worker was exceedingly bad. He was landless and 
 uneducated, he had no voice either in local or national 
 government, he had no real guidance or leadership of 
 any kind. Under such conditions had the working 
 man to enter the arena of competitive industry. Such 
 a freedom was in many respects a most cruel mockery.
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 59 
 
 Yet it was better than the old system, and the be- 
 ginning of better things. 
 
 The sanguine hopes that were founded on freedom 
 as a social panacea proceeded on a false theory of 
 human nature and of the laws of human progress. 
 Real progress can be established only on a wide 
 basis of improved conditions, not through the applica- 
 tion of a single formula. Freedom is one of the most 
 important elements in a happy and well-constituted 
 society, but it is only one of many. By itself it is 
 no solution of the real and positive difficulties and 
 necessities of social life. Unless wedded to moral 
 law and resting on a secure economic basis, freedom 
 is not a special blessing. The principle of freedom 
 only means that organisation should be suited and 
 subordinated to the good of man, and not made an 
 instrument of constraint and of suffering. But social 
 organisation and regular terms of union there must be, 
 as we are mutually dependent, and related to each 
 other in a thousand ways. 
 
 The doctrine of laissez-faire was therefore a well- 
 justified revolt against government in the interests 
 of a ruling class. It had a substantial truth and 
 worth in relation to the selfish, irrational, and anti- 
 quated restraints on industry and human freedom. 
 It was the fitting watchword of an era in which, 
 through the industrial revolution and through colonial 
 expansion, such splendid opportunities were offered to 
 enterprise. It has, moreover, a permanent value as 
 an expression of the rights of the individual in re- 
 ference to society, and of local and provincial interests 
 over against a central government. But it has only 
 too often served as a pretext for shirking social and
 
 60 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 political difficulties ; it has been a confession of the 
 laziness and incapacity of the governors or a sign of 
 the distrust of government on the part of the governed. 
 As we must have government, the rational method 
 surely is to bring it into harmony with the real interests, 
 wishes, and needs of the people. 
 
 In any case the history of English industry for the 
 last hundred years must have made it abundantly 
 clear that laissez-faire is not the whole truth. It has 
 been the accepted principle among us that govern- 
 ment should restrict its activity to national defence, 
 justice, police, and such necessary functions, and that 
 the free energy of the private citizens thus protected 
 by government and from government should do the 
 rest. If government were an unfriendly or doubtful 
 power standing outside of the people, and tolerated 
 only as a necessary evil, such a theory would be 
 reasonable enough. However this may be, it has 
 always broken down in practice. The abuses pre- 
 valent in every department of industry that has been 
 given up to unrestricted competition have again and 
 again proved that the theory is not consistent with 
 human well-being. To save the working population 
 of England from moral and physical ruin, government 
 has had to interfere in the most minute details of 
 industrial life, and by an endless series of enactments 
 to restrain the revolting excesses of capitalism. Our 
 theory has been laissez-faire ; our practice has been 
 individualism under state regulation. The exceptions 
 to the theory have become so numerous that the rule 
 has become the exception and the exception the rule. 
 It is just possible that neither laissez-faire nor indi- 
 vidualism under state regulation is the right method,
 
 RISE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 61 
 
 but a form of organisation proceeding directly from 
 the needs of the people in harmony with the dominant 
 conditions of social development. 
 
 At any rate it is not through the manipulation of 
 barren abstractions or of formulas suited to a past 
 state of things that real progress can be secured. Our 
 economic and political condition is very different 
 from that which prevailed when the historic doctrine 
 of laissez-faire was proclaimed. 
 
 We have now in a rough and general way sketched 
 the two tendencies which have most powerfully con- 
 tributed to the formation of modern society. On the 
 one hand is the industrial revolution leading to the 
 concentration of industry in the hands of a limited 
 number of capitalists, and to the divorce of the workers 
 from land and capital. As we have seen, the conditions 
 of the industrial revolution began to establish them- 
 selves through the downfall of the mediaeval system. 
 It set in with marked intensity towards the end of the 
 eighteenth century, and is still proceeding in almost 
 every country of the world, even the most distant 
 and conservative nations being enveloped by it. On 
 the other hand is the growing love of freedom, and 
 the aspiration after a better life, diffused through all 
 classes in recent times, and especially as connected 
 with the democratic movement. This freer and better 
 life, however, can be realised only under suitable 
 moral and economic conditions. 
 
 How reconcile these tendencies at present so 
 largely antagonistic ? How can we moralise the 
 industrial revolution, making it subservient to human 
 good ? How place the democracy under suitable 
 economic conditions ?
 
 62 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 Politically the masses of the people form the 
 democracy, but economically they are only proleta- 
 rians, a landless and even a homeless class. Can we 
 expect that the people which now more and more 
 wield the political power will patiently submit to such 
 an economic position ? 
 
 The only satisfactory form of organisation is one 
 that will combine freedom with security, one that 
 will extend and perpetuate the newly-won blessings 
 of freedom, but will add to it the equally necessary 
 boon of security and solidarity, a real and positive 
 basis for a free life ; one that will to freedom wed 
 economic and moral order. 
 
 Such is the problem that the Sphinx, which ever 
 waits at the cross-ways of human destiny, now addresses 
 to the nations of the modern world. Upon the 
 answer they give to it will depend their good or bad 
 fortune, perhaps their very existence, in the coming 
 time.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM 
 
 The course of social evolution in England has led to 
 the establishment of three great classes — landlords, 
 capitalists, and labourers. Broadly speaking, land 
 belongs to the first class, and capital to the second, 
 while below them is the large third class, which has 
 practically nothing but wage-labour to depend on for 
 subsistence. The produce of the country is in a 
 corresponding manner divided into three heads — 
 rent, profit, and wages — the first going to the landlord, 
 the second to the capitalist, and the third to the 
 labourer ; and free competition is the general principle 
 by which the respective shares of the three classes are 
 determined. 
 
 As we have seen, this condition of things was 
 gradually established after the downfall of the feudal 
 system and of the Catholic Church, and has especially 
 been developed and consolidated through the mechani- 
 cal inventions and the triumph of the new system of 
 industry. It is a condition of things which has long 
 dominated and still dominates our entire social system. 
 The economic history of this country is a record of the 
 conflicting interests of the three classes, powerfully 
 modifying and controlling the general history. The
 
 64 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 struggle of the three for political power is the most 
 important feature of recent history. We may further 
 say that the classical political economy of England is 
 generally an attempt to describe and analyse the 
 economic phenomena that prevail in a country with 
 the above arrangements of land, capital, and labour 
 as regulated by free competition. It accepts the facts 
 and arrangements as established — indeed, it fre- 
 quently assumes that they belong to the necessary 
 and permanent order of nature — and inquires into the 
 prevailing laws, tendencies, and results of such a 
 system as we have described. 
 
 The first of the three classes in our social system 
 are the landlords. Under the feudal system the tenure 
 of land had great public functions associated with it. 
 The feudal lord held the land on condition of per- 
 forming important social and national duties, especially 
 military defence, and the tillers of the ground had 
 rights which were fixed by custom. In the period 
 that followed the downfall of feudalism the tenure of 
 the landholder was gradually but completely changed. 
 For many generations the landholding class under 
 the king or alongside of him practically ruled the 
 country, and controlled the whole social system in 
 their own interest, with the result that a feudal title 
 was transformed into a private one, and the tenure 
 of land was freed from the public burdens with which 
 it had been associated. From his tenants the land- 
 holder exacted a competitive rent. His landowning 
 was no longer a great public function, for which he 
 was directly responsible to the head of the State, but 
 generally a matter of business with many special 
 advantages as a matter of business. In short, the
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 65 
 
 tenure of land had become private, competitive, and 
 commercial. 
 
 In all countries the land must be the basis of 
 industry and of the social system. The possession 
 of it therefore confers the greatest possible advantage. 
 But in a small country like England, and at a period 
 of enormous industrial expansion such as we have 
 passed through since 1776, the possession of land 
 carries with it the most exceptional advantages. 
 When the industrial revolution set in, the landowner 
 therefore reaped a golden harvest from the land 
 required for mining, factories, railways, docks, and 
 the dwelling-houses of the new industrial population. 
 The vastly increased demand for food by the same 
 industrial population led to an enormous rise of rents 
 for agricultural land, a rise which was further secured 
 by the imposition of corn laws restricting the importa- 
 tion of foreign grain. 
 
 Thus what was once a great national function has 
 been transformed into a department of money-making. 
 Though landowning is also a powerful instrument of 
 social influence and prestige, and is, further, repre- 
 sented by a special branch of the legislature, it is, 
 generally speaking, a commercial matter. 
 
 On the whole, the present function of the land- 
 owner is not fundamentally different from that of the 
 second class in our social system, the capitalist. The 
 aim and spirit of the landowner is the same as that of 
 the capitalist — to make the greatest possible income 
 out of his property. 
 
 The most important member of the present eco- 
 nomic order is the capitalist. He is the active and 
 responsible head of the whole system, directing both 
 
 F
 
 66 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 the productive and distributive operations of industry, 
 at his own risk and for his own profit. After paying 
 to the landlord his charge for the use of the land, 
 after paying his workmen the current wages, he claims 
 as his own the remainder, less or more, as earnings of 
 management, interest of capital invested, and so forth. 
 The present era is the era of the supremacy of the 
 capitalist, the reign of capitalism, in which the capitalist 
 as large farmer, ironmaster, manufacturer, shipowner, 
 merchant, or banker manages industry and sub- 
 stantially controls society. It is true that he shares 
 political power with the landowning and legal class ; 
 but, on the whole, he has been too strong even for 
 them, and in economic importance they are far in- 
 ferior to him. It is to the operations of the indus- 
 trialist that land has owed its vast increment of value ; 
 and it is through the extent and variety of his trans- 
 actions that the legal class chiefly gain their earnings. 
 The capitalist is the pivot of the whole economic and 
 social order. 
 
 Powerful and commanding though the position of 
 the capitalist class be, the case of the individual 
 capitalist is not by any means particularly comfortable 
 or secure. His position generally is one of competi- 
 tion, of struggle on every side of his existence. His 
 relation to the landowner and to the workman has to 
 be determined by competition. He has to compete 
 against rival capitalists, whose business is of a like 
 nature with his own. With these compeers he has 
 to struggle for a share in the market, which may be as 
 wide as the world. The victory remains to the com- 
 petitor who has most energy, skill, and integrity, or 
 it may be policy and unscrupulousness, who can
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 67 
 
 command the best machinery, the cheapest labour, 
 the cheapest material, the greatest natural resources. 
 In the vast movement of industry there cannot be 
 any plan, any regular proportioning of supply to 
 demand. When we have so many capitalists pro- 
 ducing without arrangement with each other and 
 without knowledge of each other's operations, in so 
 many different countries, for a market the needs of 
 which are so imperfectly ascertained, system and order 
 are impossible. The individual capitalist, or firm of 
 capitalists, must take their chance in the open market, 
 which is often as unsteady as the wind. The capitalist 
 is frequently warned of the fact that he has been 
 producing unwisely or too extensively only by the 
 discovery that he can find no sale for his goods, and 
 that he is threatened with ruin. Or he may find that 
 in consequence of the competition of rivals command- 
 ing greater advantages, natural or acquired, he can 
 sell only at unremunerative prices. Through the 
 discovery of new methods, through the opening up of 
 new countries with superior resources, through un- 
 expected changes in the public taste and requirements, 
 the heads of an old and valuable industry may find 
 themselves outrivalled. The capitalist, in short, is 
 exposed to all the fluctuations of trade and of prices, 
 to all the capricious movements of a competitive 
 industrial system which is co-extensive with the 
 world. Opponents of the present system are con- 
 demned for preaching doctrines of social anarchy ; 
 but it may fairly be asked whether our condition is not 
 anarchy already realised. 
 
 In the present economic order industrial operations 
 are directed by the capitalist, served by wage-labour. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 The characteristic feature of the present industrial 
 order is that the means of production and exchange 
 are owned and directed by a class of capitalists em- 
 ploying wage-labour. The third great class in our 
 social system is the labouring class. Labour is of 
 course an indispensable element in every form of 
 industry. The peculiarity in the position of the 
 labourer under the capitalist system is his prevalent 
 divorce from land and capital, so that he can have 
 access to the instruments of production only by 
 agreement with the capitalist. Only in this way can 
 he utilise his working power and procure the means of 
 subsistence. 
 
 Under a system of slavery the labourer also be- 
 longed to the owner of the means of production. It 
 was a wrong and cruel system ; but the owner was at 
 least interested in maintaining the value of the 
 human property which he possessed. In the feudal 
 system the serf was attached to the soil, and rendered 
 to his lord a fixed share of its produce and of his 
 labour. Such a system too was deficient in the 
 elements that confer the highest value on human 
 personality. But the serf had a fixed interest in the 
 soil, and he was the owner of the small capital with 
 which he worked. He had to a very large degree a 
 secure economic position, one over which he had a 
 considerable measure of control. Under the present 
 system the labourer has gained freedom but sacrificed 
 security. He has little capital or none, and he has 
 no fixed interest in the soil. 
 
 In an nge of free exchange the only commodity 
 which the mass of the workers possess is their labouring 
 power, and they have to offer it to the capitalist at
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 69 
 
 whatever price it can bring. To the capitalist it is 
 indispensable, and when labour is scarce the workman 
 can exact favourable terms ; but as there is generally 
 a superabundance of labour, the workman is mostly 
 at a disadvantage. The working man, however, has 
 not only to compete against his adult compeers. In 
 the development of industry the labour of women and 
 children has been and still is a powerful rival to his 
 own. Moreover, the invention and improvement of 
 machinery have enabled the capitalist to dispense 
 with labour and resist the demands of the workmen 
 for higher wages and shorter hours. In the great 
 mechanism of industry set in motion and controlled 
 by the capitalist, cheap labour and the best machinery 
 are prime elements of successful competition ; and the 
 incessant development of mechanical power is the 
 most effective means of saving labour. 
 
 It will now be seen that the cardinal facts in the 
 present social system are these : first, the concentra- 
 tion of the means of production in the hands of a 
 limited class, with the corresponding divorce of the 
 workers from land and capital ; second, a competitive 
 system which must endanger the economic existence 
 of all classes engaged in it, and must under such con- 
 ditions be waged by the mass of the people on the 
 most disadvantageous terms. It is a system of com- 
 petition in which one of the competing parties holds 
 the vantage-ground of a virtual monopoly of the 
 natural sources of subsistence and of culture. Such 
 a system must place the mass of the people in a position 
 of economic inferiority and dependence. 
 
 Under the present economic order the theory is 
 that the industrial relations of men are controlled by
 
 7 o INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 free contract ; but the contracts made by the peasant 
 farmer or the labourer with the owners of the soil and 
 of capital cannot be really free. Another part of the 
 prevailing theory is that the general welfare can be 
 best promoted by each man attending to his own ; 
 but while believing that this conveys a large measure 
 of truth, especially in view of the abuses of state 
 interference and antiquated social arrangements, we 
 must hold that it is a totally inadequate theory of 
 industry, and assuredly opens the way for a multitude 
 of new abuses. 
 
 Most socialists have certainly been too indis- 
 criminate in their denunciation of the principle of 
 competition. Competition is and must always be a 
 potent element of human progress, but it should be 
 conducted on reasonable terms. The principle of 
 competition and generally the principle of self-interest 
 should be subordinated to moral principle. Unfair 
 competition, even when carried on for the prizes of life, 
 is a thing to be absolutely condemned ; but the present 
 system is one that exposes to risk the life, character, 
 and happiness of millions of honest and industrious 
 workmen and their families. Unrestricted compe- 
 tition for the necessaries of life, even if conducted on 
 fair and equal terms, must tend to economic and social 
 disorder and insecurity. Waged on such unequal 
 terms, its tendency is towards anarchy aggravated by 
 the oppression and degradation of the masses of man- 
 kind. 
 
 We consider that such criticism must, in the judg- 
 ment of all unbiassed men who believe in the supre- 
 macy of moral law, be beyond dispute. All who 
 believe that moral principle should govern human
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 71 
 
 affairs and the operations of industry must condemn 
 a social system, the inevitable tendency of which is to 
 place the masses of the people in a position of economic 
 inferiority and insecurity, and to endanger the daily 
 bread of great numbers of the industrious workers. 
 Even the pessimists who despair of the supremacy 
 of high moral principle, but who believe that a reason- 
 able regard for fair play should prevail in the relations 
 of men, must condemn the present system. 
 
 Of course, no one will maintain that the evils of 
 society are dependent solely on economic causes, 
 however powerful and prevalent they may be. The 
 economic evils of which we have spoken are at once 
 the symptom, cause, and result of an unsatisfactory 
 state of civilisation. As such they mark an imperfect 
 state of human development, which it should be the 
 aim of all earnest men to supersede by a better and 
 higher. The highest task of all is to indicate the 
 means by which such progress may be attained ; but 
 it is very important also to have a clear view of the 
 evils which it is the inherent tendency of the capitalistic 
 system to produce. These evils we shall now proceed 
 to indicate in a more explicit way. 
 
 The most conspicuous evil of the system that has 
 prevailed since the fall of feudalism is the degradation 
 and oppression of labour. We may surely regard it 
 as hardly possible for anyone who has not a heart of 
 stone to read the history of English labour without 
 the strongest feelings of indignation and pity ! With- 
 out land, without education, having no part in local 
 or national government, badly paid, poorly fed, and 
 miserably housed ; demoralised by a poor-law system 
 which gave him in the form of alms a wretched portion
 
 72 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 of that which was his rightful due — such is the historic 
 record of the English workman. In our industrial 
 system he has been subordinated to that production 
 which ought to minister to him. He has had to work 
 long hours of monotonous and demoralising drudgery, 
 which have brought him down to that unblest level 
 of taste and feeling, in which intoxicating liquors have 
 fascinated and brutalised him so fearfully. In our 
 industrial centres the conditions of life and work have 
 been, and still too often are, lurid, depressing, and un- 
 favourable to the development of what is wholesome 
 and refined in taste and character. The workman has 
 had to compete against machinery tended by his own 
 wife and children. In the industrial changes that have 
 so frequently taken place, hundreds of thousands of 
 workmen have been reduced to ruin and exposed to 
 die of hunger or disease brought on by bad and in- 
 sufficient food and insanitary dwellings. For genera- 
 tions scarcely a voice was raised in his favour. The 
 representatives of law and of the Church passed him 
 by on the other side, leaving him to suffer in his un- 
 speakable misery. 
 
 No doubt with trade unions, education, and political 
 reform, a vast improvement has already been made, 
 and we trust there are endless possibilities of good in 
 the continually growing organisation and education of 
 the people. Freedom, education, and organisation will 
 do much for the workman. But the process of reform 
 cannot stop there. These must be made the basis 
 and the means of a further advance. So long as the 
 present wage-system prevails, there can be no real 
 solution of our social difficulties. For many years the 
 trade unions of England have been able tolerably to
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 73 
 
 hold their own in the struggle with adverse economic 
 conditions, but at best they can only secure a working 
 truce and not a permanent peace. The capitalist or 
 combination of capitalists holds the key of the posi- 
 tion, and can wait till a sufficient period of idleness 
 has exhausted the resources of the workmen. In 
 times of over-production a few weeks' cessation of 
 work may be a positive advantage to the employer. 
 But whatever the details of the struggle may be, the 
 possessor of land and capital has a permanent 
 superiority, which in the long run will tell against the 
 wage-labourer, and it is a necessity of competition 
 that the capitalist must exercise pressure on his work- 
 men in keeping wages down. This is not the fault of 
 the individual capitalist. He is bound by his position 
 constantly to aim at securing the greatest profit at the 
 least cost. Cheap production is a prime element in 
 successful competition, and one of the chief factors in 
 cheap production is cheap labour. In the intense 
 competition that now prevails in almost every depart- 
 ment of industry the margin of profit is extremely 
 small. Every available means that can diminish the 
 cost of production and save the margin of profit must 
 be adopted ; hence the inevitable tendency to bring 
 wages down to the lowest practicable level ; hence the 
 incessant pressure of the capitalist on his workmen. 
 He must do so. It may be a question of life and death 
 for himself. The employer who keeps wages above 
 the competitive level may risk his own position. The 
 securing of a profit is necessary to the maintenance 
 of the capital without which industrial operations can- 
 not be carried on. Under the present system sufficient 
 profits are necessary for the continuance of industry.
 
 74 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 For these reasons the position of the workman 
 under the capitalistic system is necessarily one of 
 dependence and insecurity, tending to oppression, de- 
 gradation, and impoverishment. Our idea of what is 
 good and right for labour cannot be realised under 
 the existing conditions. 
 
 It is only a natural result of the position which 
 the working man has occupied in all past ages of 
 history, and still occupies under the capitalistic 
 system, that the ethical sentiment connected with 
 labour is so fundamentally erroneous. In any reason- 
 able condition of things there should be but one 
 avenue to reward and honour — that of rendering 
 useful service to society. Income should depend on 
 work. Enjoyment should rest on useful service. On 
 all who are not disabled by natural incapacity, sick- 
 ness, accident, or old age, useful work should be 
 regarded as a natural obligation ; and it should be the 
 sole claim to remuneration, recognition, and distinc- 
 tion. If mankind are really to improve, we must 
 insist on the application of such an ethical standard 
 for the testing of our fashionable and prescriptive 
 notions of what is desirable and honourable. We 
 need not say that under such a trial much that is now 
 thought to be a noble vocation would prove to be a 
 trivial and even a criminal abuse of time and means. 
 
 Were such a test applied, the workman would have 
 least reason to be ashamed. His task is the most 
 indispensable of all, that of deriving from the earth 
 the means of subsistence and of culture for the entire 
 society. This is an industrial era, and ours is an 
 industrial society, yet even the leader of industry is 
 not reckoned the social equal of the landowner. The
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 75 
 
 most noble and honoured vocation is that of receiver 
 of rents. The remotest association with manual labour 
 is a matter of shame. 
 
 In a society corrupted by such a false ideal of 
 duty and honour, we need not wonder that labour 
 should be held in little esteem, that instead of being 
 regarded as a wholesome and honourable activity, it 
 should be shirked as a weariness and degradation. 
 Need we wonder that it should so generally be un- 
 intelligent, irksome, and ineffectual ? Whereas work 
 should be a willing and happy co-operation of hand, 
 brain, and artistic faculty, carried on in the proud 
 consciousness of a high social function, it is a weari- 
 some drudgery, submitted to as a necessity, borne 
 with reluctance, and flung aside at the earliest oppor- 
 tunity. We have degraded labour, made it mono- 
 tonous, mechanical, and mean, and yet we complain 
 that its duties are so poorly done. 
 
 Perhaps the most painful feature of the working 
 man's lot is the insecurity of his position. During 
 the long periods of depression, work is scarce and 
 precarious, and he must go where he has a chance of 
 finding it. At all times the changes in the labour 
 market are so great and unexpected that he can 
 hardly calculate upon a settled existence. Continual 
 fluctuations of trade force him to move. He has no 
 control, or only a very partial control, over the 
 economic and social conditions under which he must 
 work. A settled home, a piece of land for a garden, 
 a fixed outlook for his family, and a reasonable pro- 
 spect of a happy and comfortable old age, untroubled 
 by the horror of losing, through want of employment, 
 such savings as he may have made, and of ending
 
 76 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 his days in a workhouse — these for a large proportion 
 of the workmen in the industrial centres are unattain- 
 able blessings. Yet they are unquestionably such as 
 every decent and honourable working man has a right 
 to expect. 
 
 Insecurity, however, is a faint word to convey an 
 idea of the dangers which are incurred by large numbers 
 of workmen. There are trades in which they are every 
 day exposed to risk of life and limb, and the wife 
 and mother lives in constant fear of seeing the bread- 
 winner brought home dead or disabled. 
 
 This condition of insecurity under the existing 
 system of competition, however, is by no means a 
 special evil of the workman. It is the common lot of 
 all who are involved in it, and not least of the capitalists 
 who are exposed to ruin by it. The conditions of 
 industry are not only beyond the control of the work- 
 men who serve under the capitalistic system. They 
 are beyond the effective control also of the individual 
 capitalists, whose function it is to direct them, so that 
 competition frequently degenerates into disorder, and 
 into an exterminating war carried on with all the 
 weapons permitted by the law, and with many not 
 permitted by law — underselling, bribery, adulteration, 
 fraud, oppression of labour. In times when industry 
 is expanding this may not be so apparent, but when 
 trade becomes dull, stationary, or retrograde, the 
 struggle grows painful, and to many of the com- 
 petitors disastrous. In this struggle many capitalists 
 are ruined, dragging down with them numbers of 
 workmen who have no control of their economic posi- 
 tion, and are helpless under the calamity. Or it may 
 be that a combination of competitors, after crushing
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 77 
 
 or compelling the submission of their rivals, establish 
 a monopoly, and exact from the public an ample 
 compensation for all their expenditure during the 
 struggle. It is a struggle in which the strongest pre- 
 vail and the weak must look after themselves. 
 
 In the United States this process of struggle has 
 gone forward with an intensity which even in this 
 country is hardly known. For obvious reasons in- 
 dustry and money-making occupy a place in America 
 which they cannot command here. Here we have a 
 wider variety of political interests, and culture and 
 society claim a larger share of the national attention. 
 American industry has been engaged in exploiting and 
 dominating a new and immense continent. It has 
 been a struggle between great industrial corporations 
 for possession of a fresh field of enormous natural 
 resources. Never in the history of the world has such 
 an opportunity been offered to a people of such energy, 
 ingenuity, and love of acquisition. Can we wonder 
 that the industrial development is one of extraordinary 
 vastness and diversity, of competition resulting in the 
 ruin of capitalists and workmen, and of combination 
 tending to monopoly, whereby the economic interests 
 of the country are placed under the control of corpora- 
 tions with which purely commercial considerations 
 are supreme ? 
 
 Under the competitive system the chief aim is to 
 produce things that will sell. In the view of the 
 producer, quality and the effect of his wares on society 
 cannot occupy a sufficiently important place. The 
 inevitable result is the production in immense quanti- 
 ties of commodities of inferior quality, and of many 
 that are positively pernicious and that minister to
 
 7 8 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 the worst vices of human nature. How much of very 
 bad alcohol do the nations of Europe, for example, 
 manufacture for the ignorant inhabitants of Africa, 
 and yet they dare to speak of their mission in that 
 continent as the diffusion of Christian civilisation ! At 
 home the competitive system is adverse alike to the 
 development of art and to honest work. No doubt 
 adulteration and bad work are to a large degree pre- 
 vented by the fear of being found out by the intelli- 
 gent consumer ; but there are vast departments of 
 industry where at least the average consumer cannot 
 exercise an effective check, and is exposed on every 
 hand to deception, fraud, and adulteration. The vast 
 expansion of industry has no doubt produced in 
 enormous quantities the appliances of comfort, but 
 how many of them are vitiated by inefficiency, shabbi- 
 ness, and ugliness ! The pride and joy of the true 
 workman in the beauty and thoroughness of his work, 
 how can they prevail against the commercial spirit 
 that now rules the industrial world ? The classic 
 example of the depraving influences of laissez-faire is 
 London itself with its endless miles of mean and 
 squalid streets, a wilderness of shabby monotony, in 
 which houses are not built for comfort, durableness, 
 or beauty ; with its fearful contrasts of wealth minister- 
 ing to luxury and extravagance, and of the swarming 
 myriads of joyless mediocrity and hopeless misery. 
 
 An equally necessary result of the competitive 
 system is the amount of waste prevalent in industrial 
 operations. As there is no regular plan in production 
 or exchange, a vast quantity of wealth is produced 
 which is either not rationally consumed or entirely 
 wasted. This waste of wealth and of industrial power
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 79 
 
 is particularly observable in commercial crises and 
 in commercial wars, whether among capitalists or 
 between capital and labour ; in an excessively numerous 
 class of distributors absorbing excessive profits ; in 
 excessive advertising and display with a view to 
 attracting custom ; in an excessive number of com- 
 peting canals, railways, and telegraph lines. Ships 
 are built for which there is no employment, and 
 which must therefore lie idle. Vast stores of food 
 co-exist with multitudes of hungry consumers who 
 cannot find work and, not having the means of pur- 
 chase, must want. 
 
 The gigantic development of capitalism has brought 
 new possibilities of waste on the most colossal scale. 
 The noble forests of North America are being cut 
 down to manufacture paper for ignoble books and 
 ignoble journalism. It would appear that the iron 
 ores readily accessible to the most advanced nations of 
 the world, to the British, the Americans, and Germans, 
 are being rapidly depleted. Iron has been the most 
 important material factor in the progress of civilisa- 
 tion. Posterity will not bless us for thus wasting 
 the vast stores which nature has provided for our use. 
 
 We have already referred to the insecurity of 
 industrial operations under the competitive system. 
 This is essentially connected with the speculative 
 character of competitive business. As production is 
 so often carried on for a market of unknown and 
 incalculable extent, and for prices which even if 
 obtained cannot be accurately foreseen, uncertainty 
 must very greatly prevail, and the speculative spirit 
 must powerfully affect the general course of business. 
 This spirit of speculation culminates in the great
 
 80 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 Exchanges ; disturbs legitimate trade ; and not in- 
 frequently throws into insecurity, panic, and disorder 
 the industrial operations of the country, sometimes of 
 the civilised world. 
 
 In the history of the capitalistic system nothing is 
 so extraordinary as the rapid development of mechani- 
 cal power. It is only natural, when the prizes of suc- 
 cess are so enormous and the penalties of failure so 
 severe, that human ingenuity and energy should be 
 wonderfully quickened. The competitive system has 
 indeed brought out a spirit of inventiveness, a readi- 
 ness of resource, an elasticity and a power of dominating 
 nature which the world has never before seen ; and 
 it has called forth a productive and industrial power 
 which to former ages would have seemed absolutely 
 incredible. This development of industrial power still 
 continues, not only in England but in every country 
 where the modern methods have been introduced. 
 But there are two most serious evils connected with 
 it. The productive power tends vastly to exceed the 
 purchasing power and even the needs of the con- 
 sumers. As the development of machinery and of all 
 the appliances of industry under the competitive 
 system so greatly exceeds the requirements, an im- 
 mense amount of them are idle or not profitably 
 employed, and industry is threatened with confusion 
 and stagnation. Still worse, however, is the fact that 
 labour, which is one of the greatest factors of pro- 
 duction, is thrown out of employment through this 
 excessive development of machinery. But as the 
 labourers form the bulk of the population, and should 
 be by far the largest purchasers, the very force which 
 tends to over-fill the markets tends also to restrict
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 81 
 
 the purchasing power of the majority of the com- 
 munity. Thus industry under the competitive system 
 runs, and must run, in a vicious circle. The peculiar 
 vice of the system is that the development of machinery 
 cannot be duly subordinated to the good of man. It 
 is the private property of a class, and is utilised for 
 the benefit of a class. Every new invention is a 
 fresh disturbance of industry, through the abuse 
 of that which was a fresh triumph of human in- 
 genuity and should have been a blessing to the 
 human race. 
 
 All the phenomena of competitive anarchy find 
 their worst development in the great commercial and 
 industrial crises which continually recur, and which 
 have sometimes threatened to become not only 
 universal but chronic. At such times it has been our 
 lot to suffer from world-wide depression marked by 
 features of the most extraordinary character ; abun- 
 dant harvests such as this planet has never seen ; a 
 productive power in machinery and skilled labour 
 which surpasses all that the wildest romance has 
 fabled ; a large volume of actual production, but with 
 prices reduced so low by world-wide competition that 
 the producer can scarcely make a profit, whilst the 
 consumer is little benefited owing to the large profits 
 pocketed by the middleman. In the midst of all this 
 gigantic productiveness and superfluity, millions un- 
 employed and living within sight of starvation. Truly 
 a marvellous consummation ! To this pass have we 
 come under the existing regime of private competi- 
 tive capital. We have voted for individual freedom, 
 and behold we have chaos ! Like the magician, we 
 have evoked for our service a mighty mechanical 
 
 G
 
 82 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 power, but we know not the secret for controlling its 
 labours, and we suffer from its restless superhuman 
 activity. 
 
 It is unnecessary to recount the familiar phenomena 
 of an industrial crisis. We have a multitude of com- 
 peting capitalists of every class, with a market it may 
 be wide as the world. Each has a vague prospect of 
 vast possibilities of gain before him, and when trade 
 is favourable each is anxious to make the most of 
 his opportunities. Machinery is improved, establish- 
 ments are enlarged and better organised, production 
 grows lively, vigorous, and rapid in an ever-increasing 
 ratio till it becomes an impetuous and feverish rush. 
 Before long the over-filled markets are unable to take 
 off the enormous supply. Goods will not sell. Em- 
 barrassments set in, followed by forced sales at any 
 price. Inflation and over-confidence give place to in- 
 security and panic. Then comes the crash, resulting 
 in ruin to thousands of capitalists and in wide-spread 
 depression and stagnation. Hundreds of thousands of 
 workmen are thrown out of employment. All the 
 classes that depend on the operations of capital, that 
 is to say, the entire society, suffer more or less from 
 the prevailing depression. And we have the fearful 
 spectacle of starving multitudes in the midst of over- 
 flowing markets and storehouses ; superabundant food 
 and clothing and all the other means of subsistence, 
 comfort and culture, but inaccessible even to those 
 who are most anxious to work ; vast numbers of men 
 ruined through the very effectiveness and perfection 
 of the productive forces which they have themselves 
 created. The workers starve because they have pro- 
 duced too much and too well ; through the action of
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM S3 
 
 mechanical forces which have been created, but are 
 not duly controlled, by man. 
 
 So long as these productive forces are wielded in 
 such a chaotic way by private capitalists competing 
 for a world-market, without adequate knowledge of 
 its needs, without arrangement with each other, with- 
 out system and prevision, so long must such disorder 
 last. The capitalist too suffers fearfully, but it is the 
 workman that must usually bear the heaviest burden 
 of privation and wretchedness. 
 
 It would be useful and interesting if we could have 
 statistics of the waste caused by a great commercial 
 crisis ; machinery, shipping, industrial establishments 
 idle and deteriorating in value ; absolute waste in raw 
 material ; food and clothing damaged ; workmen pining 
 away in misery for want of employment, and thus 
 grievously weakened both in character and physique, 
 a fearful loss to their industrial capacity and efficiency. 
 
 In recent times nothing is so striking as the growing 
 intensity of international competition. In the labour 
 market the Belgian, Italian, and German with a lower 
 standard of living have competed heavily against the 
 French workman in his own industrial centres. The 
 foreigner has the same effect in the East end of London. 
 The Irish workman has long tended to lower wages 
 in the English labour market. Constant immigration 
 of immense numbers of workmen from almost every 
 European country must eventually bring the wages of 
 American labour down to something like the European 
 level. In the United States and in Australia, Chinese 
 labour has been a menace to white labour. It is not 
 very pleasant to contemplate this aspect of inter- 
 national competition ; the labour which is accustomed
 
 84 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 to the lowest standard of living is the fittest to pre- 
 vail under the existing system ! 
 
 The enormous immigration of cheap labour into 
 America is tending to another serious result, which 
 the people of this country would do well to consider. 
 In international competition success depends on the 
 industrial condition and capacity of the people and on 
 the natural resources of the country. With a rich 
 soil of boundless extent America has long been exer- 
 cising a severe pressure on the agriculture of Western 
 Europe. In all probability she will become a powerful, 
 it may be a too powerful, competitor in other depart- 
 ments. Some of our industries have already been 
 threatened. During the years to come we shall most 
 probably have to note the growing prevalence of 
 American competition in the various markets. The 
 Americans can produce every variety of raw material 
 in the greatest abundance ; no nation surpasses them 
 in invention and in the development of machinery ; 
 they have enormous supplies of motive power in coal, 
 natural gas, and water-power. All that they want for 
 successful competition with Europe in the world- 
 markets is a sufficient supply of cheap labour, and 
 this they are now obtaining. 
 
 With regard to the growing competition of Ger- 
 many and Belgium, especially the former, it is un- 
 necessary to speak. The Germans are better educated 
 than we are in languages and generally in matters 
 industrial and technical : and accustomed to a cheaper 
 style of living. Their training has been hardier and 
 more bracing ; they have not yet been enervated by 
 excessive prosperity. Such men are dangerous rivals. 
 Not many years ago the supremacy of England in the 

 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 85 
 
 world-markets was undisputed. Our enormous advan- 
 tages, both natural and historical, had given us a most 
 exceptional position in industry, so that in the com- 
 petitive struggle we were easy victors. Now, how- 
 ever, we have to contend against able and energetic 
 rivals with a hardier muscle and a better-trained 
 intelligence than our own. A struggle resulting in 
 a sure victory is a very different thing from one in 
 which the issue in many departments is doubtful, in 
 some is certain defeat. 
 
 One inevitable result of the vast increase of pro- 
 ductive power all over the world, and of the growing 
 intensity of international competition, is a tendency to 
 the reduction of prices, involving a reduction of profits. 
 Cheapness is the prime condition of successful com- 
 petition. In itself it is a sufficiently desirable thing. 
 Only it means suffering and, it may be, ruin to the 
 competitors who are less favourably placed. Sooner 
 or later the conviction will be forced upon us that a 
 state of industrial war cannot be favourable to human 
 happiness, even though it do tend to cheapness. 
 After all, cheapness of commodities is only one of the 
 conditions of well-being. 
 
 Thus the evils of the competitive system are felt 
 throughout the whole of society, resulting too generally 
 in demoralisation and insecurity, and indeed endanger- 
 ing the very foundation of the social fabric. It tends 
 to divide society into two opposing classes, one com- 
 posed of the rich and luxurious, and another class of 
 proletarians, thus establishing a divergence of interests 
 which must make for disunion and even revolution. 
 
 Though carried on in the name of freedom, the 
 industrial revolution has resulted in the formation of
 
 86 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 a new wealthy class which allies itself to the old 
 landed class, a plutocracy joining itself to the old 
 aristocracy. It is the two that now govern England, 
 and will to all appearance continue to govern it for 
 many a long year. But they are confronted with an 
 enormous mass of voters without property, who will 
 be a ready seed-bed for innovating principles. A 
 community thus divided cannot be said to have solved 
 the problem of social order. 
 
 Even the most important members of the social 
 body are affected by the supremacy of capitalism and 
 of the money-making spirit. Parliament, Law, the 
 Church, and Universities are institutions which exist 
 in order to render service to society, but have too 
 often and too much become dependent upon wealth, 
 are influenced by mercenary considerations, and have 
 made themselves subservient to a class. They have 
 been infected with the spirit of monopoly, living for 
 themselves and consulting their own profit, ease, and 
 comfort, instead of promoting the higher interests of 
 the society which they are bound to serve. Thus the 
 mercenary spirit, which is one of the worst charac- 
 teristics of the present age, has invaded and per- 
 verted Parliament and the Press, and the institutions 
 dedicated to religion and justice, to science and re- 
 search. Even the institution of marriage, once 
 accounted sacred and sacramental, is largely mer- 
 cenary. In how many marriages is wealth the deci- 
 sive element, rather than suitable age and kindred 
 disposition ! Nor must we forget the evil effect of the 
 system on the family and the home of the working 
 classes : the overwork of the married women and 
 children in the factories and mines ; the unfixedness of
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 87 
 
 the conditions of labour, rendering a comfortable and 
 settled home an impossibility for vast numbers of the 
 working people ; the demoralisation and degradation 
 of so much of their life, due not chiefly to intemper- 
 ance (which is often only a symptom of wider and 
 deeper mischief), but generally to the insanitary, hope- 
 less, and unsteadying conditions under which they 
 must live. The British proletariat are a landless and 
 to a large degree a homeless class. Socialism is some- 
 times accused of hostility to marriage and the family. 
 But what shall we say of the present system ? Who 
 will say that the present state of the family and of 
 the home deserves our approval ? Both are too 
 mercenary and nomadic. 
 
 It is not too much to say that the prevailing 
 system has perverted our moral judgments and de- 
 based our moral ideas. To get on is the accepted 
 rule of life, which is followed with a persistence and 
 energy truly astonishing, and with an indifference to 
 the means of success that is most deplorable. Under 
 the depraving influence of such a system the higher 
 meaning of life is forgotten. 
 
 Further, we must refer to the often hurtful influence 
 of the commercial spirit in affairs of government. In 
 the past and to this day rulers have been too much 
 engrossed with wars, squabbling diplomacies and 
 intrigues, with the idle ceremonial of courts, with 
 society and fashionable life. Under the old dynasties 
 the national strength was consumed in dynastic wars, 
 with which the true interests of the people were very 
 little concerned. How much of European history is 
 taken up with the conflicts of Hapsburg and Bourbon ! 
 More recently mere class interests and struggles have
 
 88 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 absorbed a most disproportionate amount of the atten- 
 tion of rulers. In the era of capitalism, commercial 
 wars have taken the place of the old dynastic con- 
 tests waged during the absolutist period of European 
 history. Under the competitive system the great aim 
 is to extend our markets, to open up new outlets for 
 our manufactures. It is a necessity of the position, 
 and, under the pressure of it, reasons both of morality 
 and of sound statesmanship must only too often be 
 set aside. Are our commercial wars really much 
 better than the old ones ? How shall we choose 
 between the Seven Years' War of France against 
 Frederick the Great, which was fought to avenge an 
 epigram of the too witty monarch on the Pompadour, 
 mistress of Louis XV., and the opium war of Britain 
 against China ? Vile, both of them. For many years 
 the leading nations of Europe have been eagerly 
 seeking new markets by founding colonies and by 
 annexation in Africa, Eastern Asia, and in the Pacific, 
 in all the unoccupied portions of the world, with little 
 regard to the rights of the natives, and at the serious 
 risk of a general war among themselves. In the same 
 spirit Britain is always adding to her dominions. Is 
 it really a rational policy to endanger the empire by 
 so immoderately extending its boundaries ? 
 
 Let it also be noted that the same commercial 
 spirit, which continually clamours for the extension of 
 our markets and the consequent enlargement of the 
 empire, has too often grudged the increasing expense 
 necessary for its defence. We cannot afford to pursue 
 a wise and far-seeing policy ; our aim has been to run 
 a great empire on the cheap. No rational lover of 
 his country can contemplate the incessant extension
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 89 
 
 of our dominions and the enormous growth of our 
 wealth without a feeling of alarm. We are being ever 
 brought into closer proximity to powerful rivals, to 
 whom our wealth and possessions must be a con- 
 tinual temptation. In our Indian empire, for example, 
 we now touch China on the one hand, and on the 
 other are practically conterminous with Russia. Our 
 occupation of Egypt was for a long time an occasion 
 of quarrel with France. At present, indeed, we are 
 on friendly relations with the yellow races — but who 
 can count on their permanence ? A few years ago 
 no great power could approach India except by sea. 
 The situation is very different now. Everywhere we 
 see an extending empire with vast material resources, 
 but with inadequate means of defence ; enormous 
 wealth and a declining military spirit. A great em- 
 pire and a mean and narrow spirit of commercialism 
 go ill together. 
 
 A most natural result of the present system is the 
 enormous development in modern societies of the 
 parasitic class. Wherever there is a rank growth of 
 excessive wealth, of idleness and luxury, there all 
 manner of unclean and questionable things grow and 
 multiply. The social parasite may generally be de- 
 scribed as one who lives on the social body, drawing 
 his sustenance therefrom, without rendering any 
 equivalent service, without doing any good and useful 
 work. In the view of ethical and social science it 
 matters not essentially whether the parasite belong to 
 the upper or lower ranks of the present body politic, 
 whether he draw from it half a million pounds per 
 annum or extract from it a miserable tribute of ten 
 shillings a week, the accumulated earnings of beggary
 
 9 o INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 or infamy. The difference is one of degree only. 
 For there is a wonderful hierarchy in the parasite 
 class, and each great parasite may have hundreds of 
 dependants that prey upon him continually, while 
 these again may have to afford subsistence to a lower 
 grade. But they are parasites, all of them, that live 
 on society without doing any useful work. We must 
 insist on the fundamental principle that income should 
 depend on work of an honest and useful kind, and 
 judge all ranks and professions accordingly. For the 
 scientific student of society, the fashionable and pre- 
 scriptive standard has no special claim to be con- 
 sidered, except as a peculiarly interesting subject of 
 analysis and of fair impartial appreciation. For him 
 the Apostolic precept must hold good as an inexorable 
 first principle — ' If any will not work neither shall 
 he eat.' 
 
 In insisting on work or service as fundamental, it 
 will be clear that we posit no narrow conception of 
 usefulness. The true spiritual teacher, the man ot 
 science, the medical man or statesman, as well as 
 the true captain of industry and the ordinary work- 
 man, all perform a valuable and useful function for 
 the society in which they live. The reasonable needs 
 of a highly organised community are many and 
 various, and we should encourage the development 
 of the capacity required to meet them. But such 
 development ought to be strictly controlled by con- 
 siderations of social health and social morality. The 
 debasement is awful when skill, capacity, and genius 
 make themselves subservient to fashionable vice. 
 
 The growth of parasitism is a marked feature of 
 all old societies ; but, as we have said, it is specially
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 91 
 
 fostered by the excessive accumulation of wealth so 
 prevalent in our time. The sons of those who have 
 achieved eminent success in the struggle for riches, 
 finding themselves under no necessity of exertion for 
 a livelihood, and seeing the highest place in the 
 fashionable world accorded to wealth dissociated 
 from industry, naturally pass over to the ranks of the 
 wealthy unemployed. As a natural accompaniment to 
 these great parasites, we have another class of parasites, 
 consisting of hangers-on, toadies, tuft-hunters, and all 
 manner of flatterers and caterers of pleasure, prominent 
 among whom is the demi-monde, that most peculiar 
 product of civilisation. And at the lower end of the 
 scale is the ignoble army of vagabondage, largely 
 mixed up with and reinforced from the classes above 
 described. She that began the lamentable career of 
 parasite as the mistress of the rich man ends it as an 
 outcast on the streets, demoralised, drunken, and 
 despairing. 
 
 The successive stages in the development of 
 history have been marked by the prominence of certain 
 races. The Greek and Roman had the chief function 
 in the ancient world. The Arab, the Moor, and the 
 Turk have been the great champions of Mahometanism. 
 France was the most brilliant representative of chivalry, 
 scholasticism, and the mediaeval spirit. The Jew is 
 in many lands the foremost and ablest promoter of 
 capitalism ; but without a rival in the extent and 
 activity of his influence under the existing system is 
 the Anglo-Saxon in England, America, and the Colonies. 
 It is no unimportant part of the criticism of capital 
 to take account of the great race which is its leading 
 representative.
 
 92 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 The doings of the Anglo-Saxon as the head of the 
 modern economic system are, indeed, a subject of 
 unspeakable interest to the philosophic observer. 
 His energy, adaptiveness, and still more his power of 
 dominating nature and adapting it to his needs, are such 
 as the world has never seen on so grand a scale. Alike 
 in the strong assertion of individual freedom and in 
 the faculty of colossal organisation he has not an 
 equal. 
 
 But in the career of the Anglo-Saxon there are 
 contrasts which, as material either for satire or 
 comedy, are not less extraordinary. The Anglo- 
 Saxon is a race that professes a peculiar loyalty for 
 a religion which most strongly inculcates peace, self- 
 denial, and the spirit of poverty. While in many 
 Continental countries the mass of the people have 
 fallen away from the orthodox Christianity of the 
 creeds and confessions, and even of the Bible, the 
 English-speaking people all over the world render a 
 special allegiance to the old forms of belief. Self- 
 abnegation, the contempt for wealth and for the things 
 of the world are therefore the religious duty of the 
 Anglo-Saxon. Such are his principles. What a con- 
 trast to his practice ! The acquisitiveness of the 
 Anglo-Saxon has become world-historic. His colonies 
 cover about one-fourth of the land surface of the globe. 
 His commercial emporiums and naval stations are 
 found on every coast. His ships cover the most 
 distant seas. Where our civilisation does not ruin 
 and extirpate the natives in the many lands which 
 we have occupied, we make them the instruments 
 of our enrichment. As the sun pursues his daily 
 course round the world, he sees everywhere some
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 93 
 
 worthy monument of the self-denial of Englishmen. 
 To most honest and respectable Englishmen the 
 only conceivable end in life is to make money, to 
 get on. Every Sunday, in his softly cushioned and 
 luxurious pew, the Anglo-Saxon millionaire listens 
 with perfect equanimity to scriptural lessons of 
 abnegation and to scriptural denunciations of wealth, 
 and on Monday morning hurries forth to increase his 
 store. 
 
 And yet we are not content. After swallowing 
 so many of the most desirable countries of the globe, 
 we are ready for more. Every year or so we round off 
 our possessions by incorporating a territory larger 
 than the British Isles. Lately we have seated our- 
 selves in the valley of the Nile, have annexed Burma, 
 a large portion of New Guinea, and have advanced 
 our frontier in South Africa till we can hardly tell 
 where our dominion ends. At the same time we can 
 hardly comprehend how any other nation has a 
 right to share in this gigantic appropriation of the 
 globe. We ruined the colonial empire of France ; we 
 effectually curtailed the colonial empire of Holland ; 
 we assisted the Spanish colonies in their great revolt. 
 And when the French were recently anxious to acquire 
 a remnant of the spoil, we felt unbounded surprise at 
 the aggressive spirit of our neighbours and their 
 egregious folly in devoting a small fraction of their 
 resources to the extension of their colonial possessions. 
 We had some difficulty in perceiving that the new 
 German Empire might desire a few crumbs of colonis- 
 ing enterprise ; and in Central Asia we confront the 
 Russian power, astonished the while at the persist- 
 ence and unscrupulousness of its advance, as if our
 
 94 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 experience gave us no hint for understanding such lust 
 of conquest. For be it remembered that as moral 
 teacher and censor of nations England is also pre- 
 eminent. 
 
 In a word, if you wish to see a monument of the 
 Christian self-denial of the Anglo-Saxon, look around 
 on his colonial empire and his world-wide commerce. 
 Surely no race ever took such pains to raise a memo- 
 rial of its contempt for the world, and so worthily 
 succeeded. 
 
 Of course it is not implied that the Anglo-Saxon 
 is worse than other nations have been in similar 
 circumstances. The record of Spain as a colonising 
 and conquering power is certainly very much darker 
 than that of England. The doings of the Anglo-Saxon 
 are only such as might be expected of average human 
 nature under the influence of two conflicting theories 
 of life, of Christianity on the one hand, and on the 
 other of the much more prevalent and generally 
 accepted gospel of getting on. 
 
 Now, as ever, the selfish struggle for wealth and 
 power must end sooner or later in social disaster, 
 even for those who achieve its most brilliant triumphs. 
 As it was in ancient civilisation, so it is and ever will 
 be in ours. No triumph in history could be more 
 complete than that of ancient Rome, but the season of 
 consummated victory was for those who won it the 
 beginning of ruin. Ancient Rome consolidated under 
 her empire and absorbed the whole civilisation of the 
 old world, Italian, Greek, and Phoenician. After 
 beating down the enemies of the Republic, the Roman 
 nobles threw themselves on the spoils of the conquered 
 provinces. They had at their absolute disposal the
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM 95 
 
 products of all the lands and seas of the known world ; 
 but in the course of the struggle they had awakened 
 a demon of acquisition and aggrandisement and 
 a burning thirst for spoliation and enjoyment, which 
 could not be appeased even by the colossal plunder 
 of entire civilisations. They quarrelled about the 
 division of the spoil ; after devouring all lands they 
 proceeded to devour one another, and such rapacity 
 had a fitting reward. The end was civil war and 
 ruin, the breaking up of one of the strongest social 
 organisations the world has ever seen, followed by 
 universal confusion and catastrophe, till they were 
 glad to seek the peace of desolation under the Caesars. 
 
 In the latter days of the Roman Republic it was a 
 process of mutual destruction ending in the supremacy 
 of the Caesars. The same process of mutual destruction , 
 the Wars of the Roses, closed the Feudal period in 
 England, and prepared the way for the stern rule of 
 the Tudors. Are we to see a similar process in the 
 capitalist world under forms suited to the new time ? 
 
 The capitalists and exploiters of the new industrial 
 era have had laid at their feet the spoils of a world 
 vastly richer and more extensive than that of Rome. 
 In the acquisition as in the enjoyment of this enormous 
 wealth we have seen too much of the same egotism 
 and unscrupulousness disguised under the milder 
 forms of the present day. Will the like excesses have 
 a similar consummation ? Will the struggles of the 
 capitalistic world terminate in a new Caesarism, a 
 social Caesarism resting on the democracy and ruling 
 under democratic forms ? 
 
 The result will depend essentially on the amount 
 of social virtue we have available to repress the excesses
 
 96 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 of individualism that have ruined other communities. 
 It will depend on how much we have of the salt which 
 preserves societies from decomposition. 
 
 With regard to the great member of the Anglo- 
 Saxon family of nations established on the other side 
 of the Atlantic, we can but say that mere change in 
 the development of political forms will not preserve 
 it from such evils as have afflicted the old societies. 
 In crossing the ocean the colonists left behind them the 
 monarchy and aristocracy and many other social forms 
 hoary with venerable abuse ; but they carried with 
 them an institution older and more fundamental than 
 royalty or a hereditary legislature — human nature 
 itself. It was out of human nature developing under 
 well-known historic conditions that the old evils grew ; 
 and on the other side of the Atlantic the selfishness, 
 the unscrupulousness, and the mania of acquisition 
 which are so deeply rooted in human nature will, if not 
 repressed, grow rank and bear the usual fruits. Free- 
 dom in America seems threatened by the domination 
 of great corporations combining to obtain the control 
 of industrial operations, of governments, and courts 
 of justice. If unchecked by the healthy public 
 opinion and by the collective will of the American 
 people, such corporations may establish an economic, 
 social, and political tyranny quite as oppressive as 
 anything existing in Europe. It will be a miserable 
 thing for the world if triumphant democracy and a 
 material prosperity unexampled in the annals of 
 mankind end in a fiasco such as this. The American 
 republic appears to be on the downward path to the 
 industria land commercial oligarchy which renders 
 a Ca.'sarism possible.
 
 EXAMINATION OF CAPITALISM g; 
 
 We have thus briefly indicated the evils necessarily 
 connected with capitalism as first established in 
 England and as now extending over the world. It is 
 hardly necessary to remark that the misery arising 
 from the antagonism of men and classes, and from the 
 oppression of the weak by the strong, did not begin 
 with capitalism. Under older institutions it existed 
 in still worse forms, which in the progress of society 
 were gradually superseded by a better and milder 
 regime. Such evils as still prevail under capitalism 
 it must be the aim of the men of progress in present 
 and future times also to remove. It is important to 
 have a clear diagnosis of the disease. The more 
 difficult task is to establish the conditions requisite 
 for a better and healthier development. Of one 
 thing we may be sure, that, change our institutions 
 as we may, there will in this world always be sufficient 
 scope for the reforming zeal and energy of men. 
 
 Landlordism and capitalism in England reached 
 their worst in the dark period from 1780 to 1850, 
 their evils being aggravated during the terrible wars 
 of the Revolution and the reaction consequent on 
 the Revolution. Since 1850 especially the evils have 
 been counteracted by many powerful tendencies, some 
 of which we hope are not merely palliatives, but the 
 bright symptoms and beginnings of a better order 01 
 things. These tendencies are : 
 
 1. Factory and other Acts imposed on the capitalists 
 by the legislature. 
 
 2. Increasing organisation of the workmen in 
 trade unions and co-operative societies. 
 
 3. The spread of education and general enlighten- 
 ment among all classes. 
 
 H
 
 98 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 4. The growing control of political power by the 
 masses of the people, to whose wishes our statesmen 
 must now give very considerable attention and 
 deference. 
 
 5. The vast scope afforded by the Colonies and 
 America for emigration, thus continually relieving 
 the pressure in the labour market at home, and extend- 
 ing the markets for British goods. 
 
 6. Moral and Christian influences, which have 
 always tended to check the excesses of capitalism. 
 While we must hold that capitalism is in tendency 
 essentially unfair and oppressive to the workmen, 
 and calculated to create and maintain a dangerous 
 antagonism of classes, there always have been many 
 men who were better than the system under which 
 they lived. Among the capitalists there have been 
 great numbers of kindly, just, and honourable men, 
 who were anxious to do their best for their workers. 
 The prevailing economic system has been one of 
 competition carried on under unjust conditions ; 
 but it has been greatly modified by the other influences 
 which have contributed to make the social history 
 of the last hundred years.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties that men have in 
 forming a true estimate of a new social theory is to be 
 found in the limited capacity to realise that there 
 can exist a state of things fundamentally different from 
 our own. In a general way they acknowledge that 
 great changes have occurred in the past, and that the 
 conditions of human life do vary from age to age 
 and in one country as compared with another ; but 
 in their political and social judgments they habitually 
 fail to give sufficient weight to such considerations. 
 Only those whose minds are enriched by the study of 
 other countries and widened by the cultivation of 
 the historical imagination can form a reasonable 
 opinion of unfamiliar social conditions. 
 
 The past of the world has been at all times so very 
 different from now that no man can adequately picture 
 it to himself. Even the life that men lived not long 
 ago, before the era of railways, of the penny post, and 
 of the daily paper, cannot be faithfully recalled. How 
 much more difficult to revive the still older phases 
 through which our ancestors have passed, even though 
 \he imagination be aided by the fact that in remote 
 countries there are tribes which more or less accurately 
 illustrate the backward conditions of humanity. 
 
 H2
 
 ioo INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 Instead of being the fixed and normal condition 
 of mankind, the present social system is only one in 
 a long line of succession. Human history is a record 
 of continuous evolution, in which we can see a variety 
 of stages, marked by peculiarities of institution, 
 economic, social, and political. In this evolution 
 the following periods arc broadly recognised : 
 
 The various forms of uncivilised life, when men 
 were associated in tribes, which at first gained a pre- 
 carious subsistence by gathering wild fruits, from 
 fishing and the chase ; later on, with the utilising and 
 domesticating of animals, a pastoral life was super- 
 added. At this period land was the common property 
 of the tribe, and the manual labour was done by the 
 women and by slaves. Private property in any form 
 was hardly known. 
 
 Then came the agricultural stage, marked by the 
 great change to a settled life in village communities. 
 At this stage land was still generally common property. 
 
 In ancient Greece and Rome the village communities 
 grew and were consolidated into the cities so famous 
 in history, the economic basis of which on the whole 
 was slavery. Through the long wars, through the 
 importation of slave-grown corn, and the encroach- 
 ment of powerful landowners employing slave-labour, 
 the farmers of the early period of Roman history 
 disappeared. In Rome especially the rights of private 
 property were developed in a most rigorous form. 
 
 The Roman Empire, which had absorbed the 
 entire ancient world, was overthrown in Western 
 Europe by Teutonic tribes, with whom the agricultural 
 stage passed into the feudal system. The land was 
 held by a feudal tenure, that is, was associated with
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM? 101 
 
 great public burdens and functions, such as military 
 service. The labour was generally that of serfs. As 
 agriculture was still the only great industry, land had 
 to bear most of the public burdens. 
 
 The feudal system, which to people looking back 
 appears a scene of confusion and internal strife, was, as 
 compared with the condition of things that preceded 
 it among the Teutonic nations, really a process of 
 consolidation and building up. Towards the end of 
 the fifteenth century, the feudal states underwent 
 a further process of consolidation into centralised 
 states. The centralised state was represented in 
 England by the personal monarchy of the Tudor 
 period, but it attained to its completest development 
 in the absolute monarchy of Louis XIV. of Fiance. 
 In some great European countries — in Germany, 
 Italy, and Poland — this process of consolidation was 
 arrested or only partially effected. Hence the ruin of 
 Poland, which, after a long period of anarchy, was 
 partitioned by powerful neighbours. After genera- 
 tions of division and foreign invasion, Germany and 
 Italy have only recently attained to national unity. 
 During this period the mercantile system prevailed in 
 economics. 
 
 The transformation of the mediaeval society resting 
 on feudalism and Catholicism into the modern system 
 was in most countries a long and painful process. 
 The downfall of the feudal system began in England 
 so early as the middle of the fourteenth century ; 
 and even yet we are burdened with survivals of it. 
 As regards Europe generally, it is chiefly since the 
 French Revolution of 1789 that the absolute mon- 
 archy has been more or less effectively displaced by
 
 102 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 constitutional government, with parliaments consisting 
 of representatives chosen by the people. In economics 
 the period is marked by private property in land 
 superseding the feudal tenure, by competitive industry 
 and free labour — free competitive individualism. Sur- 
 vivals of an older time are apparent in such institutions 
 as the English House of Lords. The protective system 
 in countries like Germany and the United States has 
 been designed to safeguard their own industries 
 against the competition of other countries. Such an 
 exception, however large, does not affect the general 
 rule. It has only been a detail in the vast system of 
 competitive industry, which is now more or less power- 
 fully operative in every country of the world. 
 
 Let it also be said that the changes implied in this 
 vast process of transformation, which has proceeded 
 ever since the origin of human society, have not been 
 artificial or accidental. They have been the outcome 
 and expression of the dominant real and positive 
 tendencies and forces which it is the great function of 
 history to trace and elucidate, especially in their 
 relation to human progress and well-being. More- 
 over, the economic, social, and political conditions 
 were all of a piece. They were suited to each other, 
 and were all alike the general result produced by the 
 prevailing conditions of social development. Another 
 obvious remark is that the present system of com- 
 petitive industry, which to most men is so natural 
 and familiar that they cannot even realise the possibility 
 of any other, is but of yesterday. Free private owner- 
 ship of land, the free right to choose what industry 
 you please, and to follow it as you please, have, even 
 in Western Europe, come into force only since 1789.
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM? 103 
 
 Our civilisation is the latest, the most highly developed, 
 the richest in material and technical resources, and it 
 is undoubtedly the most effective for human happi- 
 ness and culture ever reached by man. At some 
 points we may have been surpassed by ancient Greece, 
 by Italy of the Renaissance, and even by certain 
 forms of mediaeval society ; but an impartial examina- 
 tion of history will show that these instances were 
 exceptional and very limited in extent and duration. 
 If the enthusiastic admirers of the past could by 
 magic be transported to the times they praise so 
 much, they would, we fear, be grievously disappointed. 
 Our immunity from small-pox and the plague, the 
 result of our superior sanitary methods — how much 
 of the vaunted glory of the older civilisations does it 
 outweigh ? 
 
 Still the present social and economic order is only 
 the latest stage in a long process of development. 
 Human institutions are not stereotyped things, but 
 passing phases in the process of history. The com- 
 petitive system can hardly claim to be a permanent 
 or final and complete theory of economic and social 
 organisation. The time must come, if it has not 
 already come, when it will be found inadequate to 
 continue and promote the progress of mankind. 
 
 Now it is the contention of socialism that in the 
 evolution of society a period has come requiring the 
 transition into a higher and wider form of organisation, 
 economic, social, and political ; a society embodying 
 a nobler ethical ideal, a free democracy with a fit and 
 suitable industrial system ; a form of society which 
 will better adapt the mechanical achievements of the 
 industrial revolution to the service of man, for the
 
 104 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 wider extension of freedom, happiness, and culture. 
 Such a form of industrial organisation, suited to a 
 higher ethical and political stage of human advance- 
 ment, socialism claims to be. 
 
 In the preceding chapter we have seen that the 
 master evils of the present economic system are these 
 two : first, the prevalent divorce of the workers from 
 land and capital ; second, on this basis a competitive 
 system waged by the mass of the people under the 
 most adverse conditions. It is the tendency of the 
 competitive system to develop and intensify these 
 evils. The more that system prevails over the old 
 forms of industry without check from countervailing 
 influences, the more it tends to accentuate the divorce 
 of the workers from land and capital and to aggravate 
 the mischief due to unfair and excessive competition. 
 The vices of the system are inherent in it. They 
 cannot be cured by any mere palliative or partial 
 reform, but must be removed through a new trans- 
 forming principle. So long and so far as the present 
 competitive system prevails, it must tend to the 
 degradation of the workers, to social insecurity and 
 disorder. 
 
 Our endeavour must be to cure, and, still better, to 
 prevent these evils. Such is the problem. How does 
 socialism propose to solve it ? 
 
 Socialists maintain that there is only one economic 
 system at once worthy of free intelligent men and 
 compatible with the present industrial conditions. 
 No economic form can be satisfactory which does not 
 terminate the divorce of the workmen from land and 
 capital. But as the inevitable tendency of industry 
 is to assume a large and concentrated form, individual
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM? 105 
 
 use of land and capital by the mass of the people is 
 no longer a possibility. The only alternative is joint 
 control of land and the large capital worked by 
 associated labour. Whereas industry is at present 
 carried on by private capitalists served by wage- 
 labour, it must in the future be conducted by associated 
 or co-operating workmen jointly owning the means 
 of production. We believe on grounds both of theory 
 and history that this must be accepted as the cardinal 
 principle of socialism. We now proceed to illustrate 
 it, especially by contrast with the leading aspects of the 
 present competitive order. 
 
 Under such a system, inasmuch as the working 
 people would themselves own the instruments of 
 production, the present monopoly of capital by a 
 class with all its inevitable consequences would cease. 
 The means and appliances of happiness and culture 
 would no longer be under the control of a privileged 
 minority. Against the evils arising from the practical 
 and virtual monopoly of land and capital by the few, 
 society would protect itself by a system of joint owner- 
 ship of the means of production ; and against the 
 evils of unlimited competition, by the principle of 
 associated labour systematically working for the general 
 good. 
 
 Under such a system industry and the welfare of 
 the working millions would no longer be exposed to 
 the risks and anarchy of our competitive system. With 
 associated labour duly organised, with industry syste- 
 matically arranged for the satisfaction of human 
 wants, the present chaos of conflicting private interests 
 would cease. The triumphs of mechanical inven- 
 tion would no longer be the instruments of private
 
 106 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 aggrandisement, but would be made directly subservient 
 to human well-being. The happiness and improvement 
 of men in general would be consciously and systemati- 
 cally recognised as the aim and goal of industrial 
 effort. Competition would not by any means entirely 
 cease. It is a principle too profoundly rooted in 
 human nature and too valuable an element in progress 
 to be dispensed with. The aim of the future would be 
 to elevate it to an honourable emulation, a fair and 
 friendly rivalry ; there would be special rewards for 
 eminent services to society ; the widest recognition of 
 merit would be a possible and desirable thing. It 
 would be a control of society by the best for the good 
 of the whole. There would be competition for social 
 distinctions and rewards, but that competition which 
 places at hazard the daily bread of so many of the 
 industrious people would, socialists hope, be entirely 
 abolished. 
 
 Instead of the slave-labour and serf-labour of the 
 past, instead of the dependent and precarious wage- 
 labour of the present, we should have free associated 
 labour, well organised for the general good. Even 
 those who most strenuously deny the possibility 
 of such a system of industry must admit that it is 
 ethically on a far higher plane than the forms which 
 have preceded it. 
 
 The fruits of labour would be distributed among 
 the associated workmen according to some good and 
 equitable principle ; and each would be free to use 
 his share as he pleased. While land and capital 
 would be under co-operative or collective manage- 
 ment, there would be private property in wealth 
 devoted to consumption and enjoyment, in food,
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM? 107 
 
 clothing, and houses. It is also quite consistent with 
 the theory of socialism that there should be private 
 ownership of land and capital, provided it be under 
 collective and equitable control. An abstract and 
 rigid collectivism, from which private property in 
 land and capital is excluded, appears to be neither 
 desirable nor practicable. A rational socialism is in 
 principle entirely opposed to interference with indi- 
 vidual freedom and initiative, so far as they are in 
 harmony with the common good. Its principle is indus- 
 trial organisation with a view to the free development 
 of men in truth, goodness, and beauty. 
 
 The theory of socialism therefore is that the present 
 economic order, in which industry is carried on by 
 private competing capitalists served by wage-labour, 
 must and ought to pass away ; and that it will give place 
 to an economic system in which industry will be con- 
 ducted with a collective capital and by associated 
 labour, with a view to an equitable system of distribu- 
 tion. It means in short that the normal and prevalent 
 form of economic organisation will be one of co- 
 operative industry. It will be a co-operative system 
 perfected and systematised by the experience and 
 progressive activity of men in harmony with the 
 natural laws of social development. 
 
 Such, according to socialism, should be the normal 
 or prevalent form of industry. It is a type of economic 
 structure and of social organisation which claims to 
 be the best and fittest under the ethical and industrial 
 conditions that now tend to prevail : and it can prevail 
 only so far as it is best and fittest. If it is the principle 
 of socialism to do violence to the natural order of 
 economic and social development, it can only work
 
 108 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 mischief, it will be a delusion and a failure, a source of 
 disturbance and suffering. But there is no ground for 
 the assumption that socialism must demand a rigid 
 and arbitrary adherence to the type. As in the old 
 economic orders, slavery, serfdom, and free labour 
 often co-existed, so in any future order there will and 
 should be many varieties of form. If the reasonable 
 historian must admit the insufficiency of the formulas 
 by which he interprets the past, even the hardiest 
 prophet, if he have any reasonableness at all, must 
 confess the weakness of the formulas with which he 
 seeks to forecast the future. But indeed the wisest 
 socialists claim merely to interpret the present, and 
 to show how the dominant forces of to-day inevitably 
 tend towards a concentrated, a collective, and socialised 
 industry. The open eye can see the process realising 
 itself under the widest diversity of tendencies which 
 are continually changing and assuming the most 
 unexpected phases. Whatever the language of agita- 
 tion may be, thinking socialists are aware that, however 
 precisely they may formulate their theories, the facts 
 will be ground in the mills of history and experience 
 in such wise as no man can foretell. History has 
 never conformed to any formula. Our feudal systems 
 and the like are only a rough and very inadequate 
 expression of a fluent and complex variety of 
 phenomena. 
 
 In the past the development of socialism has been 
 most plastic and protean ; and we may expect it to be 
 even more so in the future, in proportion as it is 
 accepted by a wider variety of human beings working 
 under widely various conditions. The development 
 of socialism necessarily follows the development of
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM? 109 
 
 the large industry and of capitalism, and the large 
 industry is spreading over the world. But should it 
 be found that in certain departments of industry the 
 small production is still the best and fittest, it may 
 continue to prevail there after the co-operative form 
 of organisation may have been introduced into the 
 large and staple branches. Socialism has no quarrel 
 with free and independent labour. Its contention is 
 that wage-labour in the service of competing capitalists 
 is not in harmony with the growing technical, political, 
 and ethical conditions. 
 
 Such is the general theory of socialism. But how 
 is such a theory to be realised ? On what methods 
 does it rely for the promotion of its ideal ? 
 
 This question will be discussed in another chapter. 
 For the present we may say that if socialism be realised, 
 the methods of realisation will, like the forms assumed 
 by it, vary indefinitely with the differences of time and 
 country. It is unreasonable to prescribe any definite 
 method by which a great principle clothes itself in fact. 
 But it is maintained that the beginnings of such a 
 social transformation are already discernible. They 
 may particularly be seen in the co-operative move- 
 ment, which has made such rapid strides in England. 
 Many ardent socialists are disposed to deny that this 
 movement is a realisation of their principles ; but, as 
 we think, very unfairly. It grew out of the socialism 
 of Robert Owen and the Christian socialism of Maurice 
 and Kingsley. In the mind of its ablest leaders the 
 conscious purpose of the movement is a peaceful 
 transformation of industry of the kind we have de- 
 scribed above. Inspired by the hope for the future 
 which the movement excited in his mind, a sagacious
 
 no INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 and sympathetic thinker like J. S. Mill declared himself 
 a socialist. 
 
 The co-operative movement is rapidly growing in 
 all the progressive countries of the world. It has stood 
 the severest tests of experience and shown the clearest 
 symptoms of a strong and healthy vitality. It is the 
 hope of many that, from the solid basis already gained., 
 the co-operative movement may by just and peaceful 
 methods more and more extend over the domain of 
 industry. The present co-operative system is, of 
 course, only a partial application of the principle of 
 socialism. But great principles are not introduced 
 ready made and complete. They are realised after 
 long preparation, through gradual processes of change, 
 in a multitude of details often prosaic enough, by 
 leavening and transforming the complex mass of facts 
 that make up history. 
 
 The socialistic movement will be most likely to 
 attain to a vigorous and durable life if it grow out of 
 the free activity of the people. Probably the best 
 thing the state can do for it is to clear the way for its 
 development by removing antiquated institutions, 
 especially those connected with local government, 
 and with the tenure and transfer of land, the effect 
 of which has been to repress the free initiative of 
 the working people. Through the extension of co- 
 operation, through its application to agriculture and 
 mining, and through the co-operative organisation of 
 trades, after the manner, it may be, of the ancient 
 guilds, but suited to the needs and exigencies of 
 modern industry, the movement might spread without 
 any special furtherance from the state. 
 
 While it does not depend for its realisation on the
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM? in 
 
 existing organs of society, socialism may be greatly 
 promoted by them. It may be realised through them. 
 Of these organs there are three leading forms : first, 
 the parish, township, municipality, or commune ; 
 second, the county or province ; third, the central 
 government or state. In proportion as these forms of 
 government are developed so as to promote the real 
 interests of the people, which is the aim of all true 
 statesmen, the nearer we are to the political conditions 
 required by a rational socialism for its realisation. 
 
 Education, post office, telegraphs, lighting and water 
 have all passed or are passing from private to public 
 control ; and in many countries railways. Many 
 reasonable people believe that building sites in towns 
 should be under municipal ownership. Thus it is 
 practically acknowledged that there are important 
 matters in which it is expedient to enlarge the sphere 
 of state and municipal control. And when we have 
 restored the self-governing township or parish to full 
 life in the rural districts, a further extension of 
 associated action will be desirable and practicable. 
 In this direction, too, what is most needed is scope 
 for the development of the free energy of the people 
 co-operating for the satisfaction of real needs. 
 
 Most critics and some adherents of socialism 
 assume that the theory implies that all those economic 
 changes must be effected by the state, a burden 
 obviously under which the strongest central govern- 
 ment would stagger and fall. On the other hand, 
 many socialists look forward to the abolition of the 
 state. All such views are one-sided. Railways 
 and other large organisations would require to be 
 under central management, but the most obvious
 
 ii2 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 requirement of the socialistic theory is a vast extension 
 of local association. Instead of being a return to the 
 crude and undeveloped simplicity of barbarism, 
 instead of being a scheme of excessive centralisation 
 and of state despotism, a rational socialism aims at 
 a more highly, a more widely developed social life and 
 organisation — a stronger and more effective central 
 government, with a wider variety of local and sub- 
 ordinate institutions. It is a theory of nobler and 
 wider social forms inspired by a higher ethical spirit, 
 able to wield in the service of man the infinitely 
 elaborate yet delicately simple and effective technical 
 and material civilisation, which has grown up since 
 the application of steam and electricity to mechanical 
 improvement. 
 
 Thus the problem could be gradually worked out 
 by a people continually growing in freedom and 
 intelligence, and in the wise adaptation of all its 
 institutions to the wants of the time. In countries 
 that are accustomed to peaceful and constitutional 
 methods of progress, there is no reason why the 
 change should not proceed smoothly, by open discus- 
 sion, by continual experiment and steady advance 
 along approved lines, with entire deference to law and 
 order, through the progress of enlightened opinion. 
 The innovators would bear the responsibility of 
 showing that their theory of improvement is desirable 
 and practicable. There would be no need for violence 
 or confiscation. As the transformation proceeded, a 
 fair price could be paid for the land and capital trans- 
 ferred to the co-operative system. In the break- 
 down of capitalism, which the socialistic theory 
 assumes as bound to precede the advent of the new
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 113 
 
 era, the selling price both of land and capital would 
 probably fall. In fact, under American competition 
 our land system has broken down, and the selling price 
 of English land has fallen. 
 
 But each country has to work out its destiny in its 
 own way in accordance with its special circumstances 
 and the special character of its people. Whether 
 owing to the temperament and habits of the people, 
 or to the condition of their social and political develop- 
 ment, there are countries to which revolution seems 
 more natural than quiet and orderly progress. There 
 are nations that periodically indulge in sensational 
 effects and theatrical situations claiming the astonish- 
 ment or admiring sympathy of the world. And 
 deplore it as we may, force, violence, and war are 
 potent factors in the real development of mankind. 
 
 Nor need it be said that, though each nation must 
 be primarily responsible for its own social develop- 
 ment, the whole movement will be international. 
 As in other large movements, one nation will influence 
 another. Great ideas and great movements do not 
 respect narrow geographical boundaries and the 
 conventional limits of states. 
 
 Though socialism most naturally allies itself with 
 the advancing democracy, there is no absolute reason 
 why the actual control of the movement should be 
 democratic. In Germany it is quite possible to 
 imagine with Rodbertus that it might proceed from 
 the emperor. It would be the realisation of an idea 
 entertained by Lassalle and to some degree by Bis- 
 marck. It is possible that the imperial court and its 
 servants, wearied of compromise with the moneyed 
 middle class, might throw themselves unreservedly 
 
 1
 
 ii4 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 on the workers both of town and country, and establish 
 a socialist empire. Such an empire, served by capable 
 officials like the present and supported by a people's 
 army inspired with the enthusiasm of a better social 
 order, might find its strength and stability immeasur- 
 ably increased. When the time is ripe for it, a policy 
 of this kind might be a wiser and fitter one than the 
 enforced and reluctant deference to the capitalist 
 class. In the dissolution of its feudal system Prussia 
 accomplished, in a few years and far more effectually, 
 a transformation which in England dragged out its 
 painful course for generations. Germany has already 
 made a very substantial beginning in state socialism. 
 Improbable as it may appear to many, we can easily 
 conceive the possibility of circumstances in which a 
 social empire would be not only desirable but necessary. 
 There can be no doubt that in the struggle among 
 nations, which at least in the immediate future is 
 likely to become more intense than formerly, the people 
 that first brings its social organisation into harmony 
 with the new conditions will have an immense advan- 
 tage. The country that can first raise its working 
 population to an intelligent and enthusiastic solidarity 
 of feeling and interest, a compact nation of free in- 
 structed men, would in the scientific warfare of to-day 
 have an exceptionally strong position against a govern- 
 ment of capitalists dragging after them an unwilling, 
 demoralised, and ignorant host of proletarians. It 
 would have all the enthusiasm of the armies of France 
 during the First Revolution, joined to the more perfect 
 technique of the present day. If socialism is the form 
 of economic organisation best fitted to produce such 
 results, it would have to be adopted. In a time of
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM? 115 
 
 highly organised societies it is the fittest type of 
 organisation that must prevail. 
 
 But, whatever the nominal form of government be, 
 it will have to take account of the needs and wishes 
 of the people. Even an imperial or conservative 
 socialism must rest on the democracy. The prevalent 
 political force is the democracy, and with it the socialist 
 movement ever tends to ally itself. 
 
 Socialism also most naturally allies itself with an 
 unselfish or altruistic system of ethics. Under a 
 socialistic system the generous and well-endowed 
 aspirant would be invited to find a field for ambition 
 in the service of society. In such a condition of things 
 there would most naturally be provided a nursery for 
 noble, liberal, and unselfish activity. 
 
 But we must insist that the claim of the class most 
 deeply interested in the question, the working class, 
 is primarily a demand for justice. As they have to 
 bear the burden of society, they claim a reasonable 
 share in culture and enjoyment. It is not a mere 
 question of sentiment, of humanitarian idealism, of 
 vague philanthropy. It is a solid demand for redress 
 and for a better adjustment of social duties and re- 
 wards, supported by the toiling and suffering millions 
 who have for untold generations had little voice or 
 none in the arrangements of society, but who are now 
 beginning to understand the real position of affairs 
 and to organise in defence of their rights. 
 
 It is a demand for justice, but we hope that the 
 development of the movement will be attended with 
 a continually growing ethical sentiment in every 
 department of human thought and action. The 
 dominant factor in history will always be the moral
 
 n6 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 one. That the movement may become wiser, more 
 peaceful and unselfish, that there may be an increasing 
 regard for the rights of others, must be the wish of all 
 good men. 
 
 We have said that the fundamental principle of 
 socialism is this : associated labour with a joint capital 
 with the view to a more equitable system of distribu- 
 tion. Thus we might define the final aim of socialism 
 to be an equitable system of distributing the fruits of 
 labour ; and economics end where they began, with the 
 consideration of human needs. 
 
 With regard to an equitable system of distribution 
 the various theorists have differed greatly, as was 
 natural. A perfectly good and just system of re- 
 muneration is not possible in this world. All that we 
 can expect is a tolerable approximation to equity and 
 reasonableness. Adherents of socialism who insist on 
 a theoretically just method, and hypercritical oppo- 
 nents who condemn it for not being able to offer such 
 a method, totally misunderstand the conditions of 
 the problem. Should remuneration be equal ? Should 
 it be according to the reasonable needs of each ? 
 Should the principle of remuneration be one that takes 
 both merit and reasonable needs into account ? 
 Should the workman receive the full product of his 
 labour ? The last is plausible in appearance, but 
 when examined is found to be void of meaning, for 
 in the highly organised industry of the present, which 
 is really a co-operation of the whole working society 
 inheriting the labours of the past, how can we dis- 
 criminate the individual share of each worker ? 
 
 Such questions may and will be discussed ; but 
 theorists should not expect that the world will wait
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM? 117 
 
 till they have settled them. It is never reasonable to 
 resist an improvement because you have not got 
 what you consider theoretically right. The wise man 
 will always be content with the best attainable good. 
 
 It is always well, however, to measure the attain- 
 ments of the present by a higher standard ; and as a 
 general principle we might suggest one that has regard 
 both to merit and needs. But in any case we must 
 remember that in the transition to the future no 
 theorist intends to cast away the experience of the 
 past as a worthless thing. Even the most revolutionary 
 socialists do not propose to construct the world anew. 
 In each step of our progress, whatever it be, we shall 
 need to have regard to the lessons of the past. 
 
 In conclusion, we repeat that socialism is a new 
 principle of social organisation based on a new form of 
 industrial organisation. While most naturally as- 
 sociating itself with the new democracy and with an 
 unselfish and humanitarian view of life, its essence is 
 an economic change. Everything else is accidental, 
 and in the view of socialism non-essential. Questions 
 connected with it as to religion, ethics, politics, and 
 as to the methods of realising the theory, may be 
 and are of supreme importance ; but they are not 
 socialism. 
 
 No thinker has stated the socialistic position with 
 greater clearness and insight than John S. Mill in the 
 chapter of his ' Political Economy ' on the probable 
 future of the working classes. After examining and 
 commending the system of industrial partnerships, 
 Mill goes on to say, ' The form of association, however, 
 which if mankind continue to improve must be ex- 
 pected in the end to predominate, is not that which
 
 n8 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 can exist between a capitalist as chief and workpeople 
 without a voice in the management, but the association 
 of the labourers themselves on terms of equality, 
 collectively owning the capital with which they carry 
 on their operations, and working under managers 
 elected and removable by themselves.' ' With his 
 unequalled candour and open-mindedness, his en- 
 thusiasm for progress and his great sympathy for the 
 working classes, Mill was remarkably well fitted to 
 appreciate both the good and the objectionable sides 
 of the historic socialism. He was familiar with 
 English socialism ; he had followed with deep interest 
 the development of the movement in France from the 
 days of Saint-Simon ; and he saw in the co-operative 
 movement of both countries the beginnings of a new 
 era for the labouring classes. On some points one 
 cannot agree with him, as in his strong accentuation 
 of the population question, and his excessive estimate 
 of the value of competition (though on these matters 
 socialists generally go to the other extreme). Yet 
 this chapter on the probable future of the labouring 
 classes still remains the best and wisest account of the 
 spirit and economic aims of socialism. And he 
 accepts for himself its fundamental principle in the 
 following words : ' I agree then with the socialist 
 writers in their conception of the form which industrial 
 operations tend to assume in the advance of improve- 
 ment ; and I entirely share their opinion that the time 
 is ripe for commencing this transformation, and that 
 it should by all just and effectual means be aided and 
 encouraged.' 
 
 1 See Mill's Political Economy. People's Edition, p. 465.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 CURRENT VIEWS ON SOCIALISM 
 
 Socialism is a theory of social organisation, based on 
 a new scheme of economic organisation. In its 
 historical development, as we have seen, it has been a 
 most plastic and changeful thing, varying according 
 to the temperament and condition of the people that 
 adopt it, and mixed up with the most contradictory 
 opinions on marriage, religion, ethical and political 
 philosophy. In these circumstances we need not 
 be surprised that inquirers and critics, even when 
 tolerably well informed, have confounded the essence 
 of the movement with its external characteristics 
 and accidental accompaniments. 
 
 It is the aim of the present chapter to emphasise 
 and illustrate the fundamental principle of socialism 
 by discriminating it from opinions with which it has so 
 frequently been associated. 
 
 I. It is still by many believed that socialism tends 
 to subvert the family and the Christian ideal of mar- 
 riage. Some of the leading socialist writers have 
 indeed enunciated theories at variance with these 
 institutions. But it should be remembered that such 
 opinions are not peculiar to socialism, and that they 
 have been most strenuously opposed within the 
 socialist schools. As a theory of economic organisation
 
 120 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 we cannot see that socialism can have any special 
 teaching adverse to marriage and the family. On the 
 contrary, it should tend to purify and elevate both, 
 by eliminating the mercenary element so common in 
 the marriages of the present day, by relieving the 
 drudgery of women, both indoors and out of doors, 
 and by abolishing prostitution — that vilest plague-spot 
 of the existing society. Its effect should be to promote 
 a more genial form of nurture and education for both 
 sexes, and to make woman the happy and cultured 
 friend and companion of man, and especially so to 
 organise society that marriage should be a life union 
 of man and woman endowed with kindred aims and 
 disposition, and not, as it so often is, a calculated 
 arrangement dictated by convenience, wealth, and 
 social position, in which youth is wedded to decrepitude 
 and beauty to capital. At present, love, marriage, 
 and the family are too much perverted by the mer- 
 cenary spirit, which it is a chief aim of socialism to 
 repress. To what baneful extent the Christian family 
 has been injured by the employment of women, 
 especially married women, in factories and mines 
 we need not repeat here. The economic reforms and 
 ethical tendencies of socialism should directly and 
 powerfully tend to remove the worst evils connected 
 with the mutual life of men and women. 
 
 2. It is also by many believed that socialism is 
 hostile to Christianity and is naturally associated 
 with secularism and a revolutionary materialism. So 
 it frequently is and has been. But the connection of 
 socialism with views of this nature is purely an accident. 
 Socialism has also been associated with Christianity, 
 both Catholic and Protestant. Considered as a
 
 CURRENT VIEWS ON SOCIALISM 121 
 
 principle and theory of social and economic life, 
 socialism is marked by the entire harmony and even 
 identity of its moral spirit with that of Christianity. 
 
 One of the most remarkable features of the last 
 century was the vigorous growth of innovation and 
 revolutionary opinion on almost every subject of 
 human interest. Historically socialism has itself to a 
 large extent sprung up and flourished in such a medium. 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that it has been so much 
 associated both by friends and opponents with new 
 opinions of every kind. And yet the distinction seems 
 clear enough. Socialism is an economic transformation 
 designed in the interests of the poor man, so long 
 oppressed, so long excluded from anything like a fair 
 participation in the best blessings of culture and en- 
 joyment. In England, one of the movements for his 
 emancipation, viz. education, was long delayed 
 through the contentions of the various sections of the 
 Christian Church. Why should his economic eman- 
 cipation be deferred, why should the struggle for it be 
 confused and obscured by the importation into it of 
 theological and speculative controversies which are 
 foreign to it, and should be fought out in other fields 
 and on their own merits ? 
 
 With regard to the prevalence of anti-Christian 
 feeling in socialist schools, it should, moreover, be 
 remembered that socialism has flourished chiefly on 
 the Continent, where the defection of the mass of the 
 people from the creeds and churches is much more 
 pronounced than in this country. Continental so- 
 cialists are not more anti-Christian than Continental 
 liberals have been. The feeling of antagonism in both 
 is largely due to the fact that the churches of the
 
 122 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 Continent have been taken into the service of the state 
 and the ruling classes. The feeling is not so much 
 anti-Christian as anti-clerical, the clergy, the official 
 representatives of the Church, being regarded as the 
 dependent allies of the crown and nobility. 
 
 But it may be said that socialism is essentially 
 materialistic, inasmuch as it so strongly insists on 
 earthly happiness. For this too we can see no necessity 
 whatever. Does not the objection rest on a narrow 
 conception both of religion and of socialism ? So- 
 cialism is simply a means of realising a good and happy 
 life. Such realisation should begin here and now. 
 In this a true and worthy conception of religion en- 
 tirely agrees with socialism. The kingdom of heaven 
 must begin on earth in the heart and conduct of living 
 men. Even to say that, while socialism insists on 
 the external and economic influences for good, religion 
 emphasises the internal, is not altogether accurate. 
 The two cannot be dissociated, and it is the mark 
 of a superficial philosophy to separate them. Man 
 must be treated as a whole. It should be the aim 
 of all true reform to improve him in soul, body, and 
 estate. 
 
 3. It is believed by many that socialism aims at an 
 equal division of property. It is not easy to understand 
 the real meaning of those who entertain this strange 
 misconception of the subject. Probably they think 
 that the entire wealth of the community is to be 
 divided into equal parts corresponding to the number 
 of the people, and that each will have his share of it 
 for his private use and possession, and they com- 
 placently proceed to refute this imagination of their 
 own by alleging that in twenty-four hours the con-
 
 CURRENT VIEWS ON SOCIALISM 123 
 
 dition of inequality will have recommenced, and all 
 the old evils will have returned. No socialist con- 
 templates such an absurdity. Socialists propose the 
 concentration of land and capital under social control 
 with the view to an equitable distribution of the fruits 
 of labour. Land and capital, which are the means of 
 production, instead of being divided, are to be put 
 under collective management for the common good. 
 Wealth applied to consumption must of course be 
 divided among the individuals who enjoy it. So- 
 cialism does certainly contemplate a fairer division of 
 the fruits of industry. 
 
 It is more rational to maintain that socialism aims 
 at a state of equality inconsistent with the facts and 
 possibilities of man's nature and position. With regard 
 to such a contention, however, we must say that 
 any definition or statement about a condition of 
 equality is too vague to be of any real service. Equality 
 is an abstraction surrounded with ambiguities, and 
 reasonable men will be careful how they handle it. 
 Men are not equal either by birth or training in physical, 
 intellectual, and moral qualities, in the power of en- 
 joyment, or in the capacity to work and to dominate 
 the conditions by which life is circumscribed. We 
 cannot even say that men should have equal oppor- 
 tunity for development, culture, and happiness 
 without serious reservation, when we remember that 
 what is the just and full measure of one man's develop- 
 ment may be scanty measure for another. In fact, 
 equality is an abstraction calculated only to mislead 
 the average mind. While we believe that the idea 
 contains a substantial, though not easily definable, 
 measure of truth, it only makes confusion worse
 
 124 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 confounded to bandy it about so freely in political 
 and social controversy. 
 
 4. It is sometimes said that socialism is in principle 
 hostile to capital, that socialists are a set of ignorant 
 and misguided enthusiasts, who, wishing to produce 
 without capital, would thus destroy the economic 
 basis of civilisation, and reduce the world to the 
 condition of the primeval wilderness. Such a state- 
 ment, like some of the preceding, can spring only from 
 ignorance or wilful misrepresentation, or from that 
 confused mixture of both which so frequently passes 
 current in ordinary discussion. Instead of under- 
 valuing or denying the importance of capital, socialists 
 wish to make it more effective for the good of man by 
 transferring it from the private property of a few 
 competing individuals to the systematic management 
 of society. They believe it to be so essential to man- 
 kind that it should not be left in private hands, but 
 should be under co-operative control for the common 
 good. Capital is the result of the combined efforts of 
 successive generations of workers ; it should be re- 
 garded as the collective heritage of the industrial 
 society, and not as the peculiar possession of a com- 
 paratively small minority. 
 
 Such is the principle of socialists. It may be that 
 their system would not prove so effective for the 
 accumulation, maintenance, and utilisation of capital, 
 that it would be wasted and squandered under social 
 management. That is a rational objection, supported 
 by the late Professor Cairnes, with which socialists 
 must deal. We reserve the consideration of it to a 
 future chapter. 
 
 5. Socialists frequently speak of their theory as a
 
 CURRENT VIEWS ON SOCIALISM 125 
 
 programme of social revolution. It is so in the sense 
 that it implies a vast change or transformation in 
 society. But it is a great error to suppose that it is 
 a revolution in the sense that it has any necessary or 
 special connection with anarchy or violence. There is 
 a socialistic party which inculcates the exercise of 
 force in overturning the existing society, but it is a 
 comparatively small minority, and has been trained 
 or driven to such a method of action in countries where 
 free inquiry and discussion have been mercilessly re- 
 pressed. While accepting it as a necessity, even they 
 do not approve of a violent policy as an eligible or 
 desirable method of social reform. What socialists 
 have generally desiderated above all things has been 
 untrammelled and unprejudiced inquiry. For the 
 most part they have been men profoundly convinced, 
 all too sanguine, indeed, as to the validity and prac- 
 ticability of their schemes ; and, with naive confidence 
 in the power of truth as they understood it, have 
 been most ready to challenge discussion, and to stand 
 or fall by the result. Their appeal has been from the 
 accepted theories and institutions to science and 
 reason, to the first principles of society and of social 
 progress. This was a marked feature of the early 
 forms of socialism. The school of Saint-Simon claim 
 to have been the first to warn the governments of 
 Europe of the approach of revolutionary socialism — 
 the socialism, that is to say, which resorts to force or 
 insurrection. The violent forms of socialism have 
 flourished chiefly where free discussion and the reason- 
 able right of combination among working men have 
 been prohibited. 
 
 For the rest it should be remembered that great
 
 126 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 changes in history have generally been accomplished 
 or attended by the exercise of force. This has been 
 due to two great and constant causes. On the one 
 hand, those who were interested in the continuance of 
 the old condition of things have naturally not seen 
 their way to retire from their privileged position, or 
 to give up their vested rights or sacrifice their fixed 
 ideas of duty for the new order, which probably they 
 neither understood nor cared to understand. On the 
 other hand were the hasty and impatient innovators 
 and iconoclasts, the interest or mission or manifest 
 destiny of whom urged them to attack the old order. 
 From these conflicting views inevitably resulted the 
 irreconcilable parties, which have so frequently made 
 human progress the occasion of bloody and implacable 
 war. So it may unhappily be in the social debate 
 and trouble that at present are preparing in so many 
 countries of the world. Even the most peaceful 
 socialists hardly expect that the difficult questions 
 that demand attention can be solved on grounds of 
 pure reason, justice, and humanity ; and there can 
 be no doubt that the more resolute of them anticipate 
 a terrible international struggle of classes. If this be 
 so, if it be in the nature of socialism to evoke a great 
 struggle of classes in the future, this is only one im- 
 perative reason the more why it should be impartially 
 and accurately studied. It is a most sufficient reason 
 why we should seek to know the causes which have 
 produced it, its real aims and tendencies, and to dis- 
 cover the secret of its strength, so that the collective 
 intelligence of the civilised world may be better able 
 to deal with it. If, as many think, socialism really 
 be a revolutionary monster red with blood and seeking
 
 CURRENT VIEWS ON SOCIALISM 127 
 
 to overthrow altar and family and all that is sacred 
 and precious in human institutions, it is well that the 
 champions of truth and righteousness should know 
 the natural history, the habits and the vulnerable 
 point of the dread beast. 
 
 Even in a movement of which the main scope or 
 method is to be condemned there may be valuable 
 subsidiary lessons. Socialism is assuredly one of the 
 most powerful and vital movements of our time, 
 and it cannot be satisfactorily met by unsym- 
 pathetic condemnation and repression. Resting as 
 it does on widely prevalent discontent among the 
 workmen of many countries, it can be well and duly 
 treated only by the intelligent, energetic, and sym- 
 pathetic action of many minds anxious to promote 
 the well-being of men in harmony with the funda- 
 mental principles of human nature and of social pro- 
 gress. 
 
 But it may reasonably be said that it is the aim 
 of socialism to make revolutions a thing of the past ; 
 to establish such a real harmony of interests by re- 
 moving the present causes of contention among classes 
 and nations that the conditions tending to violent 
 change would be eliminated. Political thinkers main- 
 tain that extreme democracy, in the United States 
 for example, is the most stable form of government, 
 inasmuch as political change has reached its final 
 stage of development. No further extension of popular 
 rights being possible, the political development is 
 complete. Such disturbance as is caused by reforms 
 or efforts after reform in old societies is by the very 
 nature of the case excluded. Premising that in this 
 world of change such finality can be final only within
 
 128 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 the present horizon of social development, should we 
 not say the same of socialism ? 
 
 After all, be it remembered that revolutions are not 
 an invention of socialism, as some of its critics would 
 almost appear to suggest. If in many respects the 
 most undesirable, revolutions are also the oldest 
 phenomena in the history of society. Many of the 
 systems which now so complacently object to socialism 
 as revolutionary, were themselves revolutionary almost 
 the other day. A few years ago Liberalism was 
 revolutionary in many European countries ; is even 
 yet new and unsettled in some of them. For more 
 than a century and a half the Protestant Reformation 
 was the cause or occasion of civil and international 
 upheaval and bloodshed. To go further back, there 
 was no doubt a time when the culture of wheat and 
 the use of the plough were a revolution in social 
 economy, which the grey fathers of the prehistoric 
 dawn of the world reprobated, as an irreverent depar- 
 ture from the old paths, in such imperfect utterance as 
 was then available. And it may be that the originators 
 of such useful industry were persecuted or driven out 
 of the primeval tribe before a grateful posterity raised 
 them to the rank of gods and demigods as the bene- 
 factors of mankind. 
 
 But in our country, happily, this discussion is an 
 idle one. We have long enjoyed the right of free 
 inquiry ; and there is growing scope for free effort in 
 social and economic organisation. If the co-operative 
 type of industry is the best and fittest, we have oppor- 
 tunity for bringing it to perfection and for putting it 
 to the test both of criticism and experience. If our 
 social conditions are sound and healthy, violent inno-
 
 CURRENT VIEWS ON SOCIALISM 129 
 
 vation will find no leverage by which to disturb them. 
 If they are not sound and healthy, a government 
 which must follow the progress of opinion cannot re- 
 press change. In this country we are agreed that the 
 final appeal must be to the collective will and opinion 
 as formed by experience and free discussion. 
 
 The views of socialism hitherto considered in this 
 chapter have no necessary connection whatever with 
 the fundamental principles of the subject. They have 
 been associated with it in the course of its develop- 
 ment, but are not part of its essence. 
 
 In the remaining pages of the chapter we shall 
 discuss theories and definitions of the subject, which, 
 though inadequate, have at least a substantial measure 
 of truth. 
 
 In our first chapter we spoke of socialism as the 
 cause of the poor man, as a social transformation de- 
 signed in the interest of the poor. The same idea 
 appears in the definition of socialism as the economic 
 philosophy of the suffering classes, or the struggle for 
 the emancipation of labour. It is probable enough 
 that this will ultimately be found to represent the 
 historical meaning and import of the movement ; that 
 socialism will be accepted as a general name for a 
 series of struggles, the aim and tendency of which are 
 to accomplish the economic and social deliverance of 
 the working classes. At the very least we can at 
 present say that such definitions throw a large and 
 real light on the whole subject. In the front of every 
 socialistic programme stands the question of the 
 emancipation of the labourer, the amelioration of the 
 lot of the poor man, and his full participation in the 
 
 K
 
 130 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 material, intellectual, and spiritual heritage of the 
 human race. 
 
 It would be both premature and one-sided, how- 
 ever, to identify socialism with such great and com- 
 prehensive issues. Indeed, they are both too wide and 
 too narrow. Socialism can by no means claim ex- 
 clusively to represent the cause of the poor man. It 
 is a mistake too often made by socialists to assume 
 that they hold a monopoly of good will and sympathy 
 for the workman. In this country especially socialism 
 has simply been a phase, and not a large or influential 
 one, of a general movement on behalf of the suffering 
 classes. The field has been a wide one, in which 
 statesmen, philanthropists, and good men of very 
 different ways of thought have zealously laboured 
 according to the light that was vouchsafed them. In 
 political reform since 1832, in education, the temper- 
 ance cause, the diffusion of the products of the cheap 
 press, in factory legislation, and many other move- 
 ments, we see the beneficent action of men who had 
 no part in socialism, but who earnestly desired the 
 welfare of the poor and suffering. It is true that the 
 sympathy of many has been half-hearted, wanting in 
 insight, in comprehensive and resolute purpose. Many 
 of the schemes of reform are only palliatives, not 
 remedies ; excellent as preparatory and subsidiary to 
 a wider scheme of transformation, but not to be 
 mistaken for the scheme itself. It may be that 
 socialism will eventually absorb all the other forces 
 and movements concerned in the emancipation of 
 labour, but it has not yet done so ; and if ever it do, 
 it will only be by proving the truth and righteousness, 
 the practicability and desirability of its theory.
 
 CURRENT VIEWS ON SOCIALISM 131 
 
 But considered as a definition of socialism these 
 phrases are also of too narrow a scope. For socialism 
 professes to act not only in the interest of the poor 
 man and worker, but of the small capitalist crushed 
 by the competition of the larger, and in the interest 
 also of the great capitalist himself, whose ascendency 
 is continually threatened by the fluctuations of trade, 
 and the rivalry of his powerful compeers. It will 
 assuredly be for the true good of the wealthy and 
 luxurious idler, pursued by a devouring ennui, to 
 whose existence a moderate share of honest work 
 would give rational meaning and a wholesome stimulus. 
 For the parasites of every class it would be a saving 
 deliverance from a base and harmful life. In short, 
 the aim of socialism is to establish a real solidarity 
 of interests, to render possible for all men a healthier 
 and happier life by a more general distribution of 
 labour and its rewards. 
 
 We may add that the question of the poor is not 
 a new phenomenon in the history of the world. It is 
 about as old as human society itself, and has recurred 
 under various conditions with various efforts towards 
 solution in all countries and in all generations. It 
 was a burning question in the cities of the ancient 
 world ; it led to the peasant wars of the Middle Ages. 
 In many countries and for many generations, indeed, 
 the poor labourer could hardly move under the super- 
 incumbent weight of misery and oppression. He could 
 not speak for himself. The high annals of history 
 have hardly a word to spare for him and his con- 
 cerns. But the seeing eye can discern his sad estate. 
 The hearing ear can hear the moaning of labour 
 overtaxed, the sobbing of heavy-laden women, and
 
 132 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 the wail of children crying in vain for bread. 
 This problem has now appeared in a form entirely 
 new, induced by the novel conditions of industry 
 peculiar to our time. Socialism is the most thorough 
 and comprehensive expression and proffered solution 
 of the problem thus reappearing under strange condi- 
 tions. But it is more than this. It claims to be the 
 fittest scheme for the reorganisation of society as a 
 whole. 
 
 In this connection we may refer for a moment to 
 the claim of socialism to be the economics of democracy ; 
 to be the only economic system consistent with a 
 stable and well-constituted democracy under the 
 existing conditions. If so, its claim to dominate the 
 future is assured ; for nothing can be more certain 
 during the future of which we have any knowledge, 
 or which has any interest for us, than the predomin- 
 ance of democracy in the world. This, indeed, is the 
 Gordian knot of the entire social problem all over 
 the world — What is the economic form suitable to the 
 modern democracy ? But the question must not be 
 begged under cover of a definition. Such a claim on 
 the part of socialism must be tested by argument and, 
 above all, by experience. As we are now only defining 
 the scope and tendency of socialism, all we can do 
 here is to register the claim and refer it for discussion 
 to a subsequent chapter. 
 
 Socialism is very generally understood to mean 
 systematic interference of the state in favour of the 
 suffering classes, the use of the public resources on 
 behalf of the poor. This view of the subject receives 
 countenance, at least, from Laveleye, who defines 
 socialism thus : ' In the first place, every socialistic
 
 CURRENT VIEWS ON SOCIALISM 133 
 
 doctrine aims at introducing greater equality in social 
 conditions, and, in the second place, at realising those 
 reforms by the law or the state.' According to this 
 theory of the matter, it must be the aim of all socialistic 
 agitation to gain control of the state, and thus bring 
 about a reform or revolution in the interest of the 
 working classes. In accordance with a view that 
 regards all special action on behalf of the poor as 
 socialistic, the English poor-law and the social legis- 
 lation of Bismarck must be so described. The radical 
 socialism of men like Clemenceau and Chamberlain 
 must be referred to the same category. 
 
 There can be no doubt that a government which 
 systematically endeavours to correct the inequalities 
 handed down from the past, and which seeks to bridge 
 the gulf between rich and poor by wise and sym- 
 pathetic legislation, should be esteemed as socialistic 
 in tendency. The growth of such a tendency in govern- 
 ment is certainly one of the most significant signs of 
 the time. But it is most misleading to identify the 
 socialistic movement with state or legislative action. 
 The state is merely the central organ of society, im- 
 portant and most powerful, no doubt, but subject to 
 every kind of modification from the prevailing character 
 of social development. 
 
 In its most comprehensive interpretation socialism 
 is a theory according to which society, in its various 
 forms and through its various organs, should own the 
 means of production and manage industry for the 
 general good. Socialism is a new type of social and 
 economic organisation, the aim and tendency of which 
 are to reform the existing society, the state included. 
 It is a principle of social change, which goes beyond
 
 134 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 and behind the existing state, which will modify the 
 state, but does not depend upon it for its realisation. 
 
 The attitude of the historic socialism to the state 
 has varied greatly. The early socialists were ready to 
 accept help from any quarter, but in the experiments 
 in association which they attempted they depended 
 on private enterprise. Louis Blanc and Lassalle in- 
 voked the aid of the democratic state. The aim of 
 the Marx socialism is to supersede the existing states 
 by an international combination of workmen, and 
 eventually to abolish government as we understand it. 
 The fundamental principle of Anarchism is the aboli- 
 tion of government. In fact, the general attitude of 
 the organised socialists of the present day towards 
 the state is one of distrust and hostility. They regard 
 it as an organisation for exploiting the working classes 
 and maintaining them in economic subjection. In the 
 English parliament the representatives of labour are 
 few in number, and socialists maintain that they are 
 unable to resist the spirit of the place, in which they 
 are so insignificant a minority. The House of Commons 
 is made up of landlords, capitalists, and lawyers, who 
 naturally attend to the interests of their own class. 
 Nor can we be certain that a republican form of 
 government is an advantage to the working classes ; 
 it is possible enough that in America a government 
 controlled by the great capitalists and corporations 
 of capitalists might be much more oppressive to the 
 labourer than German imperialism. When we con- 
 sider the growing power of the great business corpora- 
 tions headed by the energetic capitalists, of whom we 
 hear so much, this fear is by no means chimerical. 
 The social development of mankind has not yet reached
 
 CURRENT VIEWS ON SOCIALISM 135 
 
 its final stage, and may have many surprises in store 
 for us. Republican institutions, controlled by mil- 
 lionaires on such a scale as is possible in America, 
 would be a sight to astonish the world. The tendency 
 towards such an unblest consummation is rapidly 
 growing. Let the true friends of the American 
 democracy be on their guard ! 
 
 For the present, however, the militant socialism 
 finds its bitterest and most formidable enemies in the 
 older forms of government, in Germany and Russia. 
 Of Russia it is unnecessary to speak. In Germany 
 it was the aim of Lassalle to establish a working 
 men's party, whose obvious policy would be one of 
 alliance with the government against the capitalist 
 class. Under the direction of Marx, who was a great 
 hater of Prussia, the Social Democracy soon took up 
 a position of strong hostility to the government ; and 
 Bismarck was long considered their special enemy. 
 Even his state socialism they regarded as a very small 
 concession to the claims of the workers, tending to 
 strengthen a centralised government, which they de- 
 test. Some of his most famous measures in the direc- 
 tion of state socialism they entirely reprobated as 
 devices for lending support to a military monarchy, 
 to a high-handed bureaucracy and a hated police, in 
 their struggle with the people. 
 
 It is not our intention here to offer a dogmatic 
 opinion on these very debatable matters, but to indi- 
 cate in a general way the relation of socialism to the 
 state, especially as at present constituted. Obviously 
 one of the gravest difficulties of our present political 
 system is, how to secure an effective representation 
 for the masses of the people. At present there is not
 
 136 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 even an approximation to it, nor is there likely to be 
 for a considerable time to come. On this point the 
 contention of socialists is, to a very large degree, well 
 founded. Under present conditions the representation 
 of the workmen in our parliaments is most inadequate, 
 that is to say, representative government does not 
 truly represent the mass of the people. 
 
 From these facts and considerations it will be 
 obvious how misleading it is to identify socialism with 
 state action. If we consider that the most convinced 
 and pronounced socialists of the time have a con- 
 firmed distrust of the state, not only at present exist- 
 ing, but of almost any possible state, it must be at 
 least misleading to say that socialism seeks to realise 
 its reforms by the law or the state. Socialism is a 
 form of economic organisation which may proceed 
 from the state, but which may with not less hope of 
 success proceed from the free initiative of the indus- 
 trial people, and from local association. It is con- 
 cerned with principles and tendencies which are more 
 fundamental than government, at least as we under- 
 stand it, with principles and tendencies involved in 
 the ethical, social, and industrial life of the people. 
 The action of the state may effect these, but it is their 
 function much more to mould and control govern- 
 ment. The economic policy of Bismarck was really a 
 tribute to the great influences embodied in socialism. 
 Both he and the Social Democrats have been only 
 more or less wisely obeying the tendencies of their time. 
 The strongest governments and the most resolute 
 revolutionary parties are only phases of the massive 
 and complex social movement of their time. They 
 cannot essentially arrest or accelerate the tendencies
 
 CURRENT VIEWS ON SOCIALISM 137 
 
 of such a movement. Governments must obey them. 
 Revolutionary parties must wait till the fulness of the 
 time has come. 
 
 So much may be said with regard to the relation 
 of socialism to the actual state. The questions we 
 have been discussing depend largely on how far the 
 state and its action conform to our ideal of what the 
 state should be and do. It is the ideal of socialism 
 that the state should be an association for the pro- 
 motion of the true interests of all its members. But 
 with this conception we rise to a higher and wider 
 order of ideas.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 MORAL ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM 
 
 We have seen that socialism is a theory of social 
 evolution based on a new principle of economic organi- 
 sation, according to which industry should be carried 
 on by co-operative workers jointly controlling the 
 means of production. It is a principle which may be 
 partially realised, even on the smallest scale. But its 
 aim is vastly wider than to be a department merely 
 in the existing economic order. It is a renovating 
 principle, which seeks to leaven and transform the 
 whole human society. First of all, it is an improved 
 industrial condition, with co-operative labour as the 
 normal or prevalent form ; and on this as a basis it 
 aims at establishing a higher and better state of 
 society in all its members, departments, and interests. 
 On the basis of a better economic order it aims at a 
 more perfect realisation of the true, the beautiful, and 
 the good, than has been attained in any previous era 
 of mankind. 
 
 Socialism is a phase of social organisation following 
 the development of capitalism and of the modern 
 system of industry, and so transforming the latter as 
 to make it more entirely serviceable to all mankind 
 without distinction of class or sex, nation or creed, 
 or colour. The subjection of labour and of women,
 
 MORAL ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM 139 
 
 the antagonism of classes, the conflicts of struggling 
 nations and races — all of these, and every form of 
 them it seeks to remove and abolish, and to realise 
 the brotherhood of man. To the wars that fasci- 
 nate and brutalise mankind, to narrow and degene- 
 rate patriotisms, to the military system which so 
 oppresses the nations of the world, to class hatreds 
 and jealousies, it is fundamentally opposed. The 
 reader will see that the programme of social change 
 implied in socialism is a wide and comprehensive one. 
 The goal is far away and not easily to be attained. 
 Obviously it is a transformation in human affairs, 
 which, if ever it be fully realised, can be brought 
 about only after long years, only after generations, 
 it may be, of intelligent experiment and strenuous 
 endeavour by the progressive part of mankind. 
 
 In the eyes of the cynical and faint-hearted, who 
 habitually despair of human progress, such a theory 
 will naturally seem ludicrous and Utopian. Even im- 
 partial and sympathetic judges, looking to the com- 
 paratively little advance made in the past, may doubt 
 the practicability of such sanguine schemes of improve- 
 ment. Principles having for their aim the abolition 
 of war, and the realisation of the brotherhood of man, 
 were they not announced in the Christian religion 
 nearly nineteen hundred years ago ? And yet we see 
 the horizon of Christendom ever dark and lowering 
 with the preparations for possible war. Hardly a year 
 passes but the dark clouds grow black and menacing, 
 and they too often break with devastating fury on some 
 devoted portion of the earth. This is the response of 
 Christian Europe after the new evangel has been for so 
 many years proclaimed and nominally accepted. Who
 
 140 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 then will say that peace and brotherhood have any 
 prospect of realisation ? 
 
 No one can deny that the process of realisation 
 has been sadly incomplete, but we must emphatically 
 assert that history gives no support to a gospel of 
 pessimism. If we contrast our ideals with the realities 
 of the present, we may well be shocked at the wretched- 
 ness of our failures ; but if we compare the practice 
 of to-day with that of nineteen hundred years ago, 
 the change for the better must be reckoned enormous. 
 In those olden times inhuman cruelty and bloodshed 
 were of familiar and everyday occurrence. Even the 
 warfare of the present time is a display of courtesy, 
 chivalry, and humanity, when compared with the 
 barbarity of ancient days. Have those who disbelieve 
 in human progress ever seen the instruments of torture 
 that were in use in every European country not many 
 generations ago ? These instruments of torture are now 
 happily relegated to antiquarian museums. During 
 the last fifty years alone, we have made a wonderful 
 advance in humane feeling and action. If we con- 
 tinue to make a like advance during the next fifty, 
 many of our most sanguine hopes will be realised. 
 The despair of human progress entertained by so many 
 has, to a large degree, its origin in their ignorance of 
 the facts of history. 
 
 To say that the great principles of peace and 
 brotherhood have never been realised is the mark of 
 an external and mechanical way of looking at history. 
 We believe that since they were first proclaimed they 
 have been in continual process of realisation. Though 
 their influence has been incomplete, it has been real, 
 pervasive and powerful, leavening rough and wild
 
 MORAL ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM 141 
 
 forms of society, infusing into many a rugged and 
 barbaric temperament an appreciation of what is 
 humane, kindly and peaceful, and gradually estab- 
 lishing there a loyalty to the better forces, which, we 
 hope, will one day govern the world. The history of 
 the moral forces, too, is a process of development, 
 which we can rightly measure only by a wide con- 
 sideration of facts. 
 
 Still our progress, if we consider what it might be 
 and ought to be, is deplorably slow. No one, there- 
 fore, who has an open mind and who has any real 
 concern for human improvement, can exclude from 
 consideration the possibility of devising better methods. 
 As in the past, so in the present and future the course 
 of thought and experience must have new views of 
 society and fresh lessons of reform to disclose. In 
 support of the moral forces and of all the educative 
 and transforming influences which have done so much 
 and are still doing so much for the good of the 
 world, socialism proposes a new principle of economic 
 organisation. 
 
 With many faults, the early teachers of socialism 
 were men who had a large and generous faith in 
 human progress. The pioneers of the world are usually 
 such as do not despair of humanity, sanguine hearts 
 in whom the tide of hope beats high. These are not 
 the men who can accurately measure difficulties, or 
 who can most scientifically analyse and determine the 
 real and positive factors in social evolution ; but they 
 supply the motive power derivable from originality of 
 conception, from fervid enthusiasm and from a per- 
 fect faith in human destiny and in the methods by 
 which they propose to ameliorate it. The theories
 
 142 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 and procedure of such pioneers very frequently cannot 
 bear criticism, but they have an abundant measure 
 of that motive power in human improvement which 
 criticism cannot supply. 
 
 But if early socialism was more remarkable for 
 enthusiasm than sober-mindedness, the later teachers 
 claim to be heard chiefly on critical and scientific 
 grounds. Their purpose is not to advertise a new social 
 panacea, but to trace the laws of social development, 
 to show how the dominant real and positive tendencies 
 of the time are working towards a new economic 
 order. In human development the present has grown 
 out of the past, and the future will grow out of the 
 present only in accordance with laws of organic 
 change, by a gradual course of adaptation, by con- 
 tinual trial and experiment on the part of intelligent 
 men, who with their habits, laws, and institutions, 
 must always be the prime factors in the great pro- 
 cess of evolution. The task of scientific socialists is 
 to point out that their ideal of progress is not a crea- 
 ture of the imagination, but irresistibly given in the 
 prevailing tendencies of the social movement. In 
 support therefore of the moral and other forces which 
 already make for human improvement, socialism offers 
 a new principle of economic organisation, not how- 
 ever as a Utopian scheme, but as a solid theory that 
 will welcome the test both of criticism and experience. 
 Unless it be given in the natural and necessary order 
 of social development, socialism makes no claim to 
 be considered. In point of fact, the greatest ex- 
 pounders of socialism insist too strongly on a necessary 
 order of historical development, so strongly that they 
 might almost be charged with fatalism. But however
 
 MORAL ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM 143 
 
 that may be, they advocate socialism on scientific 
 grounds. They maintain that the strongest forces in 
 the contemporary historic movement are on their side, 
 that violence and agitation on the one hand, and 
 repression on the other are merely the details and 
 accessories of a vast organic movement, which they 
 cannot essentially either accelerate or delay. Their 
 function is first of all to tell us what is actually going 
 on, to explain the principles, tendencies, and processes 
 of a transformation which is already in action. 
 
 In comparison with the vast transformations deter- 
 mined by great forces operating over the civilised 
 world, even what are usually called revolutions are of 
 secondary importance. With or without the scenic 
 display called the French Revolution, the ideas pro- 
 claimed therein would have been, more or less swiftly, 
 more or less effectually realised. The time for them 
 was fulfilled — the minds of men, not in one country, 
 but in all countries embraced in the European system 
 of states, were prepared for them. Revolutionary 
 force and violence no more affect the course of history 
 than rapids and falls modify the course of a river. 
 With or without such interruptions, the river pursues 
 the course determined by the physical structure of the 
 country. 
 
 It will be obvious how these considerations must 
 regulate and simplify the discussion of socialism. 
 The question is not one of the schools or of party 
 formulas ; nor is it one to be settled by conspiracy, 
 mere revolt or disturbance. It is a broad and general 
 question of historic and social evolution. 
 
 Finality in human affairs is impossible, even if it 
 were desirable. The new times raise fresh difficulties
 
 144 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 requiring new solutions, new arrangements, developed 
 institutions. We have to consider whether socialism 
 is the best and fittest form of economic organisation 
 under the conditions which now prevail or tend to 
 prevail. These conditions are of a most complex 
 nature, technical and industrial, political and moral. 
 Steam and electricity have revolutionised the technical 
 and material basis of civilisation. We have now an 
 educated, organised, and free democracy ; at least, one 
 that is making continual progress in education, organi- 
 sation, and freedom. The moral consciousness of men 
 is becoming enlightened, humanised, and expanded ; 
 it is alike more liberal, sympathetic, and exacting. 
 Under such conditions, which are every day more 
 fully developing themselves, can we expect that the 
 old economic forms will suffice ? And if not, what 
 are the new forms to be ? 
 
 In particular, let it not be forgotten that the domi- 
 nant force in human history is the ethical one. Mechani- 
 cal improvement is a most potent factor in social and 
 economic development. Much will always depend 
 on the material appliances, on the legal and political 
 institutions, on the scientific discoveries and philo- 
 sophical speculations of a given age or country ; but 
 greater than any of these is the moral spirit that 
 informs and governs the whole. How is it as regards 
 the ethical spirit of socialism, not as it is found in this 
 or that particular school, but as naturally associated 
 with the fundamental principles of the theory ? On 
 the moral side, how far is socialism likely to promote 
 the good of man ? 
 
 Socialism may justly claim that it would mean 
 a great advance in ethical development both in
 
 MORAL ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM 145 
 
 principle and practice. It is important first of all 
 to point out what we may regard as the necessary 
 minimum or indispensable basis of the socialistic con- 
 ception of society. For the growth and progress of 
 socialism it is essential that the workers attain to 
 something like true insight into their position and 
 prospects. They must see that they can succeed 
 only by union, that the true interest of each is the 
 interest of all ; and to the capacity to see this they 
 must add foresight, self-restraint, and moderation in 
 acting upon it. Starting with the conception of a 
 reasonable standard of living for all, it should be the 
 enlightened self-interest of the vast majority to 
 secure it by reasonable service to society and to be 
 content with it. From this point of view we must 
 therefore regard socialism as the combination or 
 association of the workers to realise an enlightened 
 conception of self-interest. Here individual interest 
 and the common interest meet in harmony. It is 
 on this foundation, which is both firm and broad, 
 that socialism must build. 
 
 But the socialistic conception of ethics goes far 
 beyond this. It is an ideal which is many-sided and 
 far-reaching. If such an ideal could only be partially 
 realised it would mark a wonderful advance in the 
 history of mankind. Let us consider some of its 
 aspects. Socialism involves a special condemnation 
 of two great moral heresies, which are not only pre- 
 valent but practically triumphant in the present 
 society. It is opposed, first, to the notion that over 
 an immense area of action the commercial relation 
 exhausts the range of human duty and responsibility. 
 It has grown to be one of the commonest beliefs 
 
 L
 
 146 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 that economics and industry have laws of their own 
 which arc not regulated by moral principle ; that 
 business is controlled by laws of supply and demand, 
 entitling us, for example, to buy the services of our 
 fellow men at the cheapest rate, without regard to 
 their health, character, or the consequences to society 
 generally ; that, competition being the rule in industry, 
 we must take our own interest for our guide in its 
 struggles and operations, though our action may 
 result in ruin to our competitors. Such a theory is, 
 of course, not always clearly formulated by those who 
 practise it, but few will deny that it is a general 
 principle of our competitive system. In direct opposi- 
 tion to all this, socialism maintains that industrial 
 operations should be made subservient to human 
 good ; and that the moral law should control the 
 relations of business and the whole field of human 
 action every day of the week. 
 
 It is not less opposed to another and kindred heresy, 
 which is almost equally prevalent, that a human 
 being may be degraded into an instrument or com- 
 modity. This position of degradation is precisely the 
 lot of the majority of men and women in the present 
 industrial order. In the labour market the workman 
 seeks to sell his labour-force, and if he is lucky enough 
 to find a purchaser he has his price ; if not, he and his 
 family enjoy the supreme privilege of freedom, they 
 may starve. But assuming that he is fortunate enough 
 to find a price, we must recognise that in most civilised 
 countries he has to work under conditions as to wages 
 and length of hours, &c, that leave him neither 
 strength, leisure, nor opportunity to develop the 
 qualities of a man and a citizen. In the vast industrial
 
 MORAL ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM 147 
 
 processes of production and exchange he is but an 
 item, a small part of a great mechanism. Herein 
 is the office and function of the working man, to serve 
 as an intelligent labouring machine ; and in this 
 function his force and capacity are for the most part 
 exhausted. Anything worthy of the name of culture, 
 true intellectual and artistic enjoyment of life and of 
 nature, an intelligent appreciation of his duties and 
 position — these are for him impossible, or possible 
 only on the most meagre scale. Evidently the first 
 condition of improvement is the general reduction of 
 the hours of work to eight per day. When the hours 
 of labour are generally reduced to eight, the worker 
 may be a man and a citizen. At present he is just 
 rising to a consciousness of his wrongs, the first step, 
 we hope, towards his deliverance and real participation 
 in the world's heritage of culture and in the rights 
 of manhood and citizenship. 
 
 On this eight hours' platform, then, reformers of 
 every class and party may be invited to unite. Many 
 of the critics of the democracy complain that the 
 masses are not sufficiently educated and intelligent 
 for their new responsibilities. Let them prove their 
 sincerity by joining in a universal movement for an 
 eight hours' working day. In this country there has 
 been a very real progress through the general reduction 
 of the working day to nine hours ; but in many indus- 
 tries we have not reached that point, and in some 
 of our newest, as railways and tramways, it is still 
 deplorably long. On the Continent and in America 
 long hours are too prevalent. 
 
 In this matter the conditions of labour for working 
 men are bad enough, but for working women they are 
 
 L 2
 
 148 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 decidedly worse. In all our large towns there are 
 thousands of women trying to live on low and pre- 
 carious wages, gained by labour which is continued 
 for mercilessly long hours and most trying to the 
 physique ; and, at the most susceptible time of life, 
 they are exposed to constant solicitation, especially 
 from the members of the richer classes. Poorly fed, 
 demoralised by long hours in rooms that are often 
 overcrowded and insanitary, with a glittering and 
 seductive alternative continually presented to them as 
 a way of escape from a life of hardship, can we wonder 
 that so many of the daughters of the poor are induced 
 to part with virtue and health and the hope of a good 
 and honourable life ? If the conditions of their life 
 are such that they are continually solicited, tempted, 
 or driven to the mercenary degradation and debase- 
 ment of what should be best and highest in human 
 nature, the primary responsibility must rest with our 
 social system and its upholders, and not with the 
 wretched victims. Surely it is a fitting result of a 
 commercial and competitive system that even love 
 has thus become mercenary and saleable, has been 
 made common, vile, and brutish. If systems as well 
 as men are to be known by their fruits, we cannot 
 remain in any further doubt as to the merits of the 
 existing order of things. 
 
 Against all these heresies, socialism must raise an 
 absolute protest ; against mercenary love in all its 
 forms, against the degradation of humanity through 
 bad economic conditions, and against the extrusion of 
 morality from the industrial life of men in the name 
 of any theory whatsoever. 
 
 On these points, while socialism has nothing novel
 
 MORAL ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM 149 
 
 to suggest, it certainly presents morality in a new light, 
 and with regard to the more positive aspects of ethical 
 theory, it gives fresh illustration to the highest and 
 best teaching of the world. Under a socialistic 
 system the great field of ambition and the chief scope 
 for high and useful activity will be found in the service 
 of society. It recognises that the ideal of human 
 conduct is the service of man ; but it sees not less 
 clearly that as man can be realised only in society, and 
 as individual character and happiness can be duly 
 developed only under fitting and favourable economic 
 and social conditions, it is to the service of society in 
 its various forms that we are specially called to devote 
 ourselves. Service rendered to the human society, 
 beginning with the family, and expanding through the 
 wider social groups and the nation, till it embraces the 
 whole human race : such is the moral law of socialism. 
 But it is given to few to render service on the large 
 scale. The duties of the majority of men are circum- 
 scribed by their limited capacity, and by the fixed 
 conditions of their social and geographical position. 
 In the language of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, 
 our service must be given to our neighbour ; and our 
 neighbours in the prescribed circle of human relations 
 are those of our own household, those of the same 
 street and village, those whom we meet in the daily 
 routine, as defined by nature and the actual circum- 
 stances and facts of life. But in the narrowest sphere 
 the opportunities of usefulness, well-doing, and even of 
 heroism are not few, and happily the better souls that 
 rise to the level of such occasions are more in number 
 than is often supposed. And to such as have proved 
 their worth in the humblest lot, an ever- widening
 
 150 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 sphere of good and noble activity is continually open, 
 so that the heroism which has endured and worked in 
 simple unconsciousness of itself may become a far- 
 shining example of well-doing over the wide world 
 and to the latest generations of mankind. 
 
 An enlightened and well-regulated self-interest, 
 the family affections, civic feeling and a healthy and 
 legitimate patriotism all find their due place in a 
 socialistic conception of life. The relations of men to 
 each other will more and more take the form of a 
 free interchange of services, and in this they will 
 find their inspiration, but they will be graded accord- 
 ing to their significance for the service of mankind. 
 
 Thus in the service of society there is a place and 
 a value assigned to the narrowest as well as to the 
 widest forms of useful activity, from the little sphere 
 of the mother quietly tending her children in the 
 humblest cottage to the far-reaching activity of the 
 greatest pioneers in scientific and industrial progress, 
 like Newton and James Watt, whose discoveries and 
 inventions have beneficially influenced the entire 
 human race. And corresponding to the variety in 
 the extent of service is the diversity of its intensity, 
 rising from the honest and simple performance of the 
 ordinary duties of life to the highest phases of heroism 
 and self-sacrifice. 
 
 We are not to suppose that such an ideal is likely 
 to become the working conception of duty among 
 average men for a long time to come ; but it is already 
 the accepted rule of the generous dite, and through 
 them, we hope, will influence the mass. Further, as 
 in the arrangements of socialism social service is 
 offered as the chief field of ambition, it will tend most
 
 MORAL ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM 151 
 
 effectively to make the self-interest of the aspirant 
 coincide with the good of society. In this way the 
 co-operative ideal could be made an instrument 
 of human progress to a degree that men who are 
 accustomed only to the half-false and conventional 
 moral standards of the time cannot conceive. 
 
 How much of the moral energy, devotion, and 
 enthusiasm of the past has been wasted on false and 
 pernicious ideals, in useless penance, maceration, and 
 self-immolation, in bigotry, superstition, and pedantry, 
 in blind and passionate patriotisms, in selfish jealousies, 
 and personal vanities ? Simeon Stylites standing on 
 his pillar and for thirty years wasting his body and 
 driving himself to madness by exposure and macera- 
 tion is only a supreme instance of mistaken and 
 unavailing devotion to a wrong conception of duty. 
 There are many amongst us still who toil and suffer 
 with a zeal and futility similar to that of Simeon, and 
 who should be invited to come down from their pillar 
 and help the crowd below in their actual struggles and 
 sorrows. That it may be wise and effective, social 
 service should be guided by science and the best 
 available light. 
 
 Such an ideal of service is by no means new. As 
 we have said before, it is the highest accepted morality, 
 and was enjoined on His followers by the Founder of 
 Christianity in the most sacred way — ' But I am in 
 the midst of you as he that serveth,' ' Whosoever 
 would be first among you, shall be servant of all,' 
 ' Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these 
 My brethren, ye did it unto Me.' Service rising up to 
 self-sacrifice for the good of men is the ideal of the 
 Christian life, which through centuries of Christian
 
 152 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 history has been more or less loyally cherished by 
 the purest and devoutest hearts ; but it has too 
 frequently been a dead letter. According to this 
 principle the greatest is only the chief servant of the 
 Christian society, and imperial hands even yet in 
 imitation of the Master wash the feet of beggars. 
 Pity that the history of a principle so noble should 
 have proved to so great a degree a record of failure 
 and travesty ! 
 
 Socialism may well accept it as its ethical corner- 
 stone. The greatest and highest man in society is 
 he who renders the best and noblest service. In the 
 words of Louis Blanc, ' The day will come when it 
 will be recognised that each one's debt to his fellow- 
 men is in proportion to the strength and intelligence 
 he has received from God ; and it will be a part worthy 
 of genius to assert its legitimate empire, not by the 
 amount of the tribute it will levy on society, but by 
 the greatness of the services that it will render to it.' 
 The realisation of such an ideal may be far off, but it 
 is worth striving for ; and if the world is indeed a place 
 of hope and progress and continual development in 
 all that is good and beautiful, it cannot for ever be 
 delayed. 
 
 Thus we see that socialism most powerfully makes 
 appeal to the entire ascending scale of human motives, 
 from an enlightened self-interest to the highest self- 
 sacrifice. But its special function is to provide for 
 their effectual operation forms of economic and social 
 organisation that are not only real but open up 
 widening vistas of growth and expansion. 
 
 So much for the purely ethical side of the question. 
 A further point on which we must particularly insist is
 
 MORAL ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM 153 
 
 that a system of associated workers jointly owning the 
 means of production and wielding the best machinery 
 in the service of man is both ethically and scientifically 
 on a higher plane than the present system of pre- 
 carious and degraded labour as employed by competing 
 capitalists. Such a method of free co-operative labour 
 applied to agriculture, for example, would certainly be 
 a great improvement on the present English land 
 system. Only through combination and co-operation 
 can the cultivators procure and work the best 
 machinery. Only by combination can they hold their 
 own against powerful individuals, and especially 
 against the middleman and usurer, who have so long 
 and so often been the enemies of the peasant farmer. 
 With the best machinery and co-operative labour, 
 the cultivators could introduce the most scientific 
 methods of farming, could have leisure and oppor- 
 tunity for culture and health. If such a system could 
 be generally adopted it would change the face of the 
 world. In every country where it has been introduced 
 it has already proved to be a beneficent agency. Men 
 should therefore work for its diffusion and expansion 
 in obedience to ideals that grow wider and more 
 beautiful. And thus it would ever more become a 
 system of free industry, calling forth and exercising 
 high qualities of intelligent co-operation, regard for 
 others, regard for method and order, forethought, 
 and all the elements of the social discipline required 
 for the effectual application of capital and of the 
 highest science to the service of the workers. The same 
 method could be applied to mines and factories with 
 similar results, both industrial and moral. For the 
 success of such a system it would be essential that
 
 154 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 the ethical advance of men should keep pace with the 
 industrial improvement. It would be a marvellous 
 ethical and social ideal if it could be attained ! 
 
 If it could be attained ! It will no doubt be urged 
 that theoretical considerations as to what is ideally 
 best are all very well in their way, but that the affairs 
 of the world are controlled by practical forces ; that 
 life is based on real and fixed conditions, which impose 
 an invincible barrier to vague aspiration ; that there 
 are in fact insuperable objections to the realisation 
 of socialism in the constitution of human nature 
 itself.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 
 
 The difficulties in the way of the socialistic ideal 
 may be summed up as follows : 
 
 It is too lofty a theory for human nature. The 
 only motive power in human nature that is sufficiently 
 solid and durable to bear the wear and tear of practice 
 is individual self-interest. Upon each man must rest 
 the responsibility of shaping his own career. This is 
 not a perfect method, but in a general way it is the 
 only working one. Moreover, in every form of society, 
 whatever the safeguards that may be devised, the 
 able, energetic, persevering, ambitious, and not seldom 
 the unscrupulous, will assert themselves and occupy 
 the first place. If the present system were abolished 
 to-morrow, it would merely be a change of masters. 
 
 The co-operative system of society does not provide 
 an adequate check against vice and improvidence of 
 every kind. Under the present system, when each 
 man has to act on his own responsibility, nature 
 provides a sure and effective remedy against error. 
 The penalty is failure, ruin it may be. Improvidence, 
 thoughtlessness, drunkenness, even incapacity meet 
 severe retribution. The method is often a cruel one, 
 but it is a patent and well-established law of human 
 progress against which protest is useless ; and it has
 
 156 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 the undeniable result that the fittest prevail and 
 survive. It is not an ideal system ; but the work of 
 the world is carried on under it, whereas socialism 
 might result in a deadlock. 
 
 The industrial arrangements of modern civilisa- 
 tion are too complex to be so controlled by any 
 administrative authority. England especially, with her 
 enormously large and complicated business, is one of 
 the last countries where a thoroughgoing socialism 
 proceeding from the central government would be 
 likely to succeed, notwithstanding the exceptionally 
 well-developed public spirit of her citizens. 
 
 A socialistic state would afford too great scope for 
 despotism and the spirit of routine. Repressing 
 individual initiative and enterprise, and affording 
 unbounded temptation and opportunity to an intoler- 
 able officialism, it would menace civilisation with the 
 domination of pedants, bureaucrats, and policemen. 
 Such a system, swarming with officials, high and low, 
 would be worthy only of China. If it were established, 
 it would be one of the first duties of a progressive 
 society to shake it off. It is the supreme interest of 
 free men to resist official tyranny, wherever it exists, 
 and to establish conditions of unrestricted progress. 
 Under a state socialism, however, the old despotism 
 would be renewed in a worse form than ever, inasmuch 
 as on the theory of socialism the people's means of 
 subsistence would be under the control of the official 
 class. 
 
 These objections may be more comprehensively 
 stated thus : 
 
 i. It is impracticable, because inconsistent with 
 the known and tried principles of human nature ;
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 157 
 
 with that permanent groundwork of human nature 
 which is independent of historic evolution, on which, 
 indeed, evolution itself depends. 
 
 2. It is impossible, because no central authority 
 could control interests so numerous, so enormous and 
 complicated. 
 
 3. Even if practicable, it is not the way to promote 
 the social ideal of a free and happy development, 
 because tending to interfere with individual liberty. 
 
 Now, if it were proposed to introduce a system of 
 socialism ready-made and without a testing course 
 of experiment, of preparation and co-operation with 
 the natural tendencies of social improvement, these 
 objections would be insuperable. Such a thing, 
 however, could not be reasonably contemplated. 
 Scarcely any theorist would be bold enough to propose 
 that society should forthwith repudiate its present 
 methods and adopt a new and untried system of 
 social organisation. It is, indeed, a common fault of 
 socialistic theorists that they begin at the wrong end 
 and indicate as the starting-point what even on their 
 own principles is really the goal of a long process of 
 social development, laying down as if for immediate 
 realisation a programme which it would require 
 generations to carry out. But all systems have a 
 right to be tried by their fundamental principles, and 
 not by the one-sided utterances of particular exponents. 
 We have often had reason to protest against such a 
 conception of socialism, and we must again repeat that 
 socialism is not like a new style of coat, which is 
 intended to be put on and off at pleasure. It is a 
 new principle of social organisation, which, if it prevail 
 at all, must be wrought into the very framework of
 
 i 5 8 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 the living society. Experience alone can really prove 
 whether it can become a working conception of society. 
 
 As we have said before, the great changes of 
 history are not brought in ready-made and complete. 
 They come in by gradual steps, by insensible degrees. 
 At first we see here and there a few streaks of dawn 
 indicating the approach of a brighter era, and it may 
 be long before the light gathers in a large and massive 
 volume sufficient to overspread the world. In this 
 connection we should do well to consider the labour 
 and time it cost to set up the present system of con- 
 stitutional freedom, which, if not a perfect system, is 
 at least a vast improvement on the era that preceded 
 it. It is a political form which was shaped in the 
 course of centuries by men who saw the needs of 
 their time and had the capacity to satisfy them ; it 
 was found to work well, and is now the accepted theory 
 of the countries that are politically most advanced. 
 It was gradually evolved out of previously existing 
 facts through discussion and experiment, failure and 
 struggle. Things move much more rapidly now, but 
 if society is to rise out of its present condition of 
 unsettlement to a new unity and harmony of interests, 
 the transition must be made in a similar way. 
 
 Yet even with our present experience, and in view 
 of the prevailing facts of social evolution, it is possible 
 to overrate the force of the above objections against 
 socialism. Some of them, indeed, spring from an 
 entire misunderstanding of the subject. We have 
 already protested against the identification of socialism 
 with state action. If socialism carried with it a 
 system of pedantic and intermeddling officialism, if 
 it meant that a central authority should press with
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 159 
 
 its superincumbent weight on the free play of local 
 and individual life, it would not be worth discussing for 
 a moment. An energetic central government would 
 be required in any well-ordered society, but the 
 effectiveness of such a government could be secured and 
 maintained only by a wide devolution of functions 
 and by a wise restriction of its action to certain 
 necessary duties. It may be that under a socialistic 
 system the central government would need greatly to 
 extend its control over such large industrial factors 
 as railways, but the first and most essential condition 
 of success would lie in the development of local 
 energy. 
 
 Having made those explanations, we shall now 
 proceed to discuss the objections that may be urged 
 against the possibility of a society based on co-operative 
 industry. 
 
 First objection : socialism impracticable because incon- 
 sistent with human nature. It is obvious that there 
 is in human nature a permanent groundwork which 
 all social reformers must take into account. It is 
 possible, however, greatly to overrate the strength 
 and extent of this, as has certainly been done by many 
 economists and moralists deficient in philosophic 
 training and in the historic faculty. Human nature 
 is not the fixed quantity that many believe it to be, 
 but varies almost indefinitely in accordance with the 
 laws of social evolution, and adapts itself with mar- 
 vellous plasticity to new conditions. Human nature 
 at Athens under Pericles is hardly recognisable as 
 the same thing with human nature of the Austra- 
 lian aborigines. Man in Europe has been a very 
 different being from man in China. How far is the
 
 160 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 energetic and enterprising New Englander the same 
 as the inert native of Bengal or the member of a 
 Russian commune with his fixed and conservative 
 routine of life ? The groundwork is indeed the same, 
 but the possibilities of variation and development 
 in human character are very great ; and in institutions 
 the range and variety is wonderful, from the unor- 
 ganised condition of a tribe of Bushmen to the govern- 
 ment of the British Empire. And yet even the 
 latter is imperfect and inadequate to the wants of a 
 more exacting time. How different, again, is the 
 government of Britain from that of Germany ! In 
 short, very few of us realise that capacity of variation 
 and adaptation in human nature which has so 
 powerfully contributed to give us the dominion of the 
 world. 
 
 Still, we must admit the strength and solidity of 
 self-interest as a permanent factor in human nature. 
 For reasons which it would here be tedious and 
 unnecessary to explain, this is a fact which cannot 
 be otherwise. Self-interest is a constant factor with 
 action that may be calculated, and is part and parcel 
 of human nature itself. 
 
 With this principle in its reasonable and legitimate 
 applications, however, socialism has no quarrel what- 
 soever. It claims better than any other economic 
 system to satisfy the right and healthy interests, 
 needs, and aspirations of men, not of a narrow minority 
 of men, but of all men. Whilst under the present 
 system the interests, physical, intellectual, and spiritual, 
 of the majority are sacrificed to the excessive and 
 unnatural claims of a small minority, socialism aims 
 at a more equitable distribution both of duty and of
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 161 
 
 the opportunities of enjoyment and individual develop- 
 ment. The ideal of a well-constituted society is 
 one which, while affording free play to individual 
 energy and initiative, makes them subservient to the 
 general good. It is the aim of socialism to accomplish 
 this, only by recognising, however, that it is the 
 whole body of individuals whose interests should be 
 thus promoted, and not an exceptionally favoured 
 minority. The quarrel of socialism is with the 
 excessive and abnormal development of private and 
 individual interests. It is the excess of individualism 
 that all societies must dread. How often have we 
 to complain of the excessive development of the 
 public and social spirit ? What has led to violent 
 revolutions and the ruin of states ? Has it not usually 
 been the development of private and class interests 
 to a degree utterly inconsistent with the public weal ? 
 What ruined ancient Rome ? What was the cause 
 of the French Revolution ? To anyone who has an 
 elementary acquaintance with history such questions 
 are superfluous. 
 
 Self-interest can be trusted as a principle of human 
 nature only when placed under higher ethical guidance. 
 This is a truth continually overlooked by orthodox 
 economists and by all classes of men living under 
 the present competitive system. Nothing, indeed, is 
 so amazing as the honour that has been accorded to 
 this principle of self-interest. In a civilisation calling 
 itself Christian it is the acknowledged motive power 
 in our economics ; it is the law of business ; it is sup- 
 posed to be the great instrument of progress ; and 
 under various euphemisms it has been preached in 
 season and out of season to the young as a rule of 
 
 M
 
 162 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 life and a guiding principle of a worthy ambition — in 
 sublime unconsciousness that all this is in absolute 
 contradiction to the religious principles which we 
 profess. The struggle to get on, the intense indi- 
 vidualism which has been generally accepted, in 
 practice at least, as the chief end of man cannot be 
 reconciled with any religious theory of life. Even in 
 most heathen communities the theory of every man 
 for himself would be repudiated as destructive of the 
 natural charities of life and subversive of the necessary 
 order of society. We are told, by men intimately 
 acquainted with India, that a beggar could travel 
 from one end of the country to another, and that he 
 would everywhere find the natives ready to give him a 
 share of what they have. The adherents of economic 
 orthodoxy should consider whether their theory does 
 not really tend to anarchy and the dissolution of 
 society in its primary elements. Self-interest will 
 always have a large and permanent place in the 
 evolution of humanity, but it must be subordinated 
 to higher principles of moral and social order. The 
 intensely individualised forms of it which now prevail 
 are, we trust, a passing phase in the history of mankind. 
 In the past they have not been a normal characteristic 
 of men, and will in the future, we hope, give place to 
 a milder and more social state of feeling. 
 
 While it is true that the struggle of individual 
 interest has in the past been an instrument of progress, 
 we should in this matter avoid exaggeration. The 
 struggle of interests in the past has much more generally 
 been one of societies of men against each other. It 
 has been a struggle of men organised in society, and 
 the victory has been very greatly due to improvements
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 163 
 
 in organisation, to the higher ethical and social virtue, 
 which has been as the cement that bound the citizens 
 together, and made them strong and immovable in 
 the shock of conflict. In general, too, the best and 
 most capable individuals are born and thrive only in 
 healthy and well-balanced societies. It is an extremely 
 narrow view to regard the struggle of individual 
 interests as the exclusive or even as the chief instru- 
 ment of progress. The progress of mankind has con- 
 sisted and must consist chiefly and fundamentally in 
 the growth of the social virtues, and in the development 
 of better methods and appliances of social organisation. 
 
 The advocates of the prevalent individualism have 
 not been remarkable for their knowledge of history, 
 but they ought to remember that their system is but 
 of yesterday, and that the general rule, justified by 
 the experience of mankind, has been social control of 
 private and individual interests. Such social control 
 has, indeed, been a necessity of existence. The great 
 problem of the future is to harmonise the newly won 
 idea of freedom with social unity and security. 
 
 Nor can one see that there will not be sufficient 
 room for the play of a just and honourable ambition 
 in a socialistic state. As teacher and man of science, 
 as organiser and director of industry, or as statesman, 
 the most energetic and highly gifted youth would 
 find in the public service an adequate scope for his 
 talents and a competent reward from an appreciative 
 society. Such large scope for ambition as a Gladstone 
 or a Salisbury found in the service of society will 
 assuredly be sufficient for any reasonable man. Even 
 now the most honourable and the most coveted 
 positions are to be found in the social sphere. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 Still, we need not doubt that in the best-arranged 
 society the exaggerated and degenerate forms of 
 self-interest will for a long time be very strong. In- 
 dividual self-help has been for so many generations 
 inculcated as a motive to success, especially in the 
 Anglo-Saxon world, that we cannot expect without 
 great difficulty to establish better habits and a better 
 social feeling. On the other hand, ignorance, im- 
 providence, mutual suspicion, and the helplessness 
 intensified and prolonged by the hereditary disabilities 
 of centuries have so incapacitated and demoralised 
 the mass of the workers in most countries that a 
 reasonable and effective union in pursuit of a common 
 interest cannot for many years be expected. For the 
 removal of those evils and for the establishment of a 
 higher order of things we must depend on the growing 
 intelligence of the body of the people, and on the wise 
 co-operation of all classes. Why should it be im- 
 possible so to enlighten and moralise all classes that 
 the best way for the whole may be found in a reasonable 
 solidarity of interests ; and the best endowed may 
 seek their chief good, not in materialistic rewards, but 
 in honourable social distinction, and in the conscious- 
 ness of having served their fellow-men well and 
 worthily ? Such a high ideal cannot be soon or easily 
 realised, but it may at least be possible to minimise 
 individual excess, and so to curb the anti-social ex- 
 travagance now prevailing that the best schemes of 
 human progress may not be rendered futile by egotism, 
 improvidence, and folly. 
 
 At this point we may notice Cairnes' objection : 
 
 1 See Some Leading Principles of Political Economy newly 
 expounded, p. 321.
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 165 
 
 to socialism based on the allegation that our industry 
 cannot be carried on without a large accumulated 
 capital ; that in the present system private self-interest 
 is a sufficient motive for accumulation, but that under 
 socialism no sufficient motive could be found. To 
 this it may simply be replied that innumerable societies 
 and many municipalities have already a large accu- 
 mulated capital, which no one proposes to squander. 
 Against corruption we have a safeguard in publicity. 
 Incapacity and mismanagement are checked by 
 continual criticism. For a co-operative system of 
 industry, as for a democratic system of government, 
 publicity and the watchful criticism rendered possible 
 by publicity are essential. The mass of men are 
 really not so unable to comprehend their common 
 interests as is implied in this objection. If the co- 
 operative system of industry were otherwise found to 
 work best, we can see in this point no valid reason 
 against it. 
 
 There remains another point on which human 
 improvidence as a factor in social evolution might have 
 a fatal result in a socialistic society. This refers to the 
 population question. In a socialistic arrangement of 
 society it is alleged that parental responsibility would 
 be so relaxed, there would be such an increase in the 
 number of children, and in population, that it would 
 soon outstrip the means of subsistence available in 
 any country, and eventually on the planet itself. 
 Most socialists entirely disregard this objection ; and 
 it must be said that if society were wisely organised, 
 if wealth and its natural sources were distributed with 
 a rational regard to population, and if our industry 
 were reasonably scientific, the question of population
 
 166 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 is one that affects only the remote future. We must 
 educate and train the people in rational habits, in 
 free self-control, in the knowledge of natural laws, 
 and in the recognition of our mutual duties and 
 responsibilities ; we must, above all, correct and im- 
 prove our social and economic system. A nation with 
 its soil half cultivated, with an empire consisting so 
 largely of sparsely peopled colonies, has no right to 
 appeal to the law of population as an excuse for its 
 shortcomings. Such a plea is really a confession 
 of its impotence to overcome the most elementary 
 difficulties in social organisation. We are therefore 
 justified in maintaining that the pressing question is 
 one of social reform at home and of emigration. 
 
 At the same time the problem is one not of pos- 
 sibilities, but of practicabilities. There has always 
 been relative over-population ; that is, there has been 
 an excess of population in particular countries and 
 at particular times as compared with the available 
 means of subsistence. We may sooner or later find 
 that the increase of population may make the question 
 a very practical one. How far the practice of limiting 
 families, which has become so prevalent, may solve 
 the problem we cannot say. While it is a practice 
 open to very grave objections, we must recognise its 
 influence. 
 
 If ever it be realised on a large scale, socialism 
 would have to meet the difficulties inherent in the 
 problem. While we cannot see that it has any easy 
 and conclusive solution to offer, we cannot admit that 
 it is in any essential respect worse placed than the 
 present system. Under a co-operative system of 
 industry, each man would have to do his share of
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 167 
 
 social service, and would be mainly responsible for 
 the bringing up of his children. It is to be hoped 
 that the mass of men would be so advanced as at once 
 to meet these obligations. For the residuum, who 
 might decline, some form of compulsion would be 
 necessary. The fundamental law, ' If any will not 
 work neither shall he eat,' would need to be applied 
 to them. For hopelessly improvident parents the 
 penalty might be separation and compulsory work. 
 The strength of socialism would be found in the fact 
 that laziness, improvidence, and waste would be 
 discouraged by the general consensus of feeling and 
 opinion ; that the whole community would be in- 
 terested in cultivating forethought and self-control ; 
 disregard for such virtues would be a sin against the 
 whole of society. Organised in local groups, or 
 according to their respective trades, the average 
 workman would have a sure grasp of his economic 
 and industrial position, and he would, as in the 
 mediaeval guilds, be able once more to live under toler- 
 ably clear and fixed conditions. The uncertainty and 
 haphazard of the present are assuredly not conducive 
 to habits of forethought and reasonable self-control. 
 
 If it really be the tendency of socialism seriously to 
 undermine individual responsibility in these and other 
 matters, we must at once admit that it has no case. 
 But we cannot see that the difficulty applies to any 
 rational theory of co-operative industry. 
 
 At any rate, no reasonable man will expect an 
 absolute solution of a question that has perplexed 
 statesmen in every age. All that can reasonably be 
 demanded of socialism is, that it supply a better 
 working solution than the present. And what is our
 
 i68 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 present method ? In all countries of Christendom 
 what multitudes of children are born to privation, 
 neglect, disease, vice, and premature death ! In 
 ancient times it was the practice, as it still is in China, 
 to expose children to perish in the open air, that the 
 parents might be relieved of the burden of bringing 
 them up — the recognised method of limiting population. 
 We are not so frank and rigorous in our cruelty. The 
 ranks of our children are thinned by the more gradual 
 operation of hunger, neglect, and disease. In some 
 of our large towns, out of a thousand children that are 
 born, more than two hundred die in the first year. 
 Under the present system each head of a family bears 
 the responsibility for his own children ; but how does 
 he fulfil it ? Is this condition of things a solution of 
 a great social question ? Do any of us fully realise 
 the cruelty and barbarity of the child-exposure of 
 the present time in Christian countries ? Nor is this 
 the worst. Of those who escape early death, how 
 many survive with weakened constitution, and when 
 they grow up, how many are exposed to a life of 
 degradation and infamy ! 
 
 We pride ourselves on the abolition of the old 
 heathen customs ; is our own practice so much better ? 
 Under any social system it may be long before the 
 ethical and social status of men is so raised as to place 
 the matter on a tolerable footing, but in controverting 
 socialism do not let us imagine that we have solved 
 a great question, when we have merely shut our eyes 
 to our own failures. 
 
 Second objection : socialism impossible because no 
 central authority could control interests so enormous as 
 are involved in the industrial life of modern society.
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 169 
 
 With reference to this objection it must be admitted 
 that it is the inevitable tendency of civilisation, espe- 
 cially since the great technical changes due to steam 
 and electricity, to become more delicate, complex, 
 and gigantic. The extent and variety of national 
 interests increase enormously. Would it not overtax 
 the strength and capacity of any central power to 
 control arrangements so vast and elaborate ? 
 
 It may at once be admitted that the government 
 of England as at present organised could not be 
 expected greatly to extend its control over the central 
 arrangements of industry. Though the post and 
 telegraph are well managed under state ownership 
 and control, it would, under present circumstances, 
 for obvious reasons, probably be hazardous to na- 
 tionalise the railway system. The chief reason is that 
 the government cannot overtake its present work. 
 But as regards the general question it should be 
 pointed out — 
 
 (1) That the same technical causes which have 
 produced our vast and elaborate social mechanism 
 also tend to simplicity and efficiency. The mightiest 
 steamship obeys a small helm. An army of a million 
 men is moved by a telegraph message. 
 
 (2) The objection in itself does not apply to coun- 
 tries with a comparatively simple range of interests, 
 like Denmark and Switzerland. Compared with this 
 country, even the United States presents a moderately 
 easy problem. Its interests are home interests ; it is 
 a self-contained and self-supporting country. With 
 its enormous range of economic and political affairs, 
 involving it with almost every country of the world, 
 England is in quite an abnormal position.
 
 i 7 o INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 (3) It is to be hoped that the government of the 
 future will be less identified with the adjusting of party 
 mechanism, the artificial life of courts and of the 
 higher society, with the intrigues of place-hunters 
 and of diplomacy, with war and conquest, and foreign 
 administration ; and that it will give its chief attention 
 to the directing of the industrial life, on which the 
 welfare of a people really depends. The democracy 
 will insist that the good of the people is not promoted 
 by a form of government that gives such a dispropor- 
 tionate place to family and class interests and to 
 intermeddling with foreign nations all over the habit- 
 able globe. In this respect social progress has to aim, 
 not so much at an extension as a rearrangement of 
 central control. Government should be directed from 
 obsolete or class interests to the real and living public 
 interests. 
 
 (4) There must be an adequate development of 
 local government, giving to the people the manage- 
 ment of their own affairs in the parish, municipality, 
 etc. In England the movement is only beginning, 
 and its possibilities are practically unlimited. The 
 effect of our aristocratic government in the past has 
 been to crush local energy and initiative, and to 
 repress the free life of the people. We have at last 
 begun to understand that in countries less advanced 
 than ourselves local institutions have been much 
 better preserved and fostered than with us. It is 
 only the crassest ignorance or wilful misrepresentation 
 on the part of the opponents of socialism to object 
 to it as throwing the burden of social work on the 
 central government. Socialism demands the fullest 
 development of local energy, the free organisation of
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 171 
 
 the people in such forms as are required by the 
 exigencies of modern life, such organisation not to be 
 dictated by a central body, but to proceed out of the 
 spontaneous and natural movement of the people 
 through an intelligent appreciation of their needs. 
 
 (5) It is hardly fair to draw any inference un- 
 favourable to socialism from the comparative ineffi- 
 ciency of our present Civil Service and higher officials. 
 Our higher education has been preposterous, and 
 antiquated to a degree absolutely amazing in a people 
 that calls itself practical. Greek and Latin verse, 
 ancient mythology, and other antiquated and almost 
 useless forms of knowledge and intellectual acro- 
 batism, have occupied an altogether unjustifiable 
 amount of attention. Our governors, it should be 
 added, are drawn almost entirely from a small per- 
 centage of the population, from the upper classes. 
 If education were rendered thoroughly modern and 
 efficient, if talent were trained and welcomed wherever 
 found, and applied to the most honourable of all 
 service, the service of society, we should have a body 
 of public officers such as the world has not yet seen. 
 
 (6) At the very least the country would possess 
 the same amount of brains and business capacity as 
 before. Only, instead of each capitalist managing his 
 business at his own risk, we should have the best talent 
 of the country conducting it in the service of society ; 
 and whereas at present there is neither unity nor 
 common method, industrial operations would be 
 systematically and organically carried on. 
 
 Third objection : socialism inconsistent with freedom. 
 It is very generally assumed that socialism would 
 involve a great curtailment of individual freedom.
 
 i 7 2 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 It is not easy to understand how such an idea has 
 arisen, unless it be that men still associate socialism 
 with the life in barracks supposed to be contemplated 
 by theorists like Fourier and Owen, and which was 
 believed to necessitate a minute and vexatious inter- 
 ference with human liberty on subjects that least 
 admit of regulation. But however the idea may have 
 arisen, whether it be based like most of the prevailing 
 opinions regarding socialism on mere ignorance and 
 misrepresentation, there can be no doubt that it is 
 widespread and deep-rooted. 
 
 Now, nothing can be more certain than that under 
 the present system the freedom of the mass of men is 
 merely nominal. If attained at all, it can be attained 
 only at the expense of security, at the risk of sacrificing 
 the means of subsistence ; it is a choice of working 
 under the prescribed conditions, which are frequently 
 unhealthy, degrading and dangerous, or of starving. 
 Not seldom there is no choice at all, but compulsory 
 starvation and the wretchedness of pauperism. Of 
 course there is the alternative of emigration, but for 
 great numbers, especially of those advanced in years, 
 that too is excluded ; and in many colonies the labour 
 market is overstocked. Even in America great 
 numbers have at times been unable to find work. 
 Such freedom is a mockery and delusion. There 
 can be no substantial or desirable freedom that is not 
 based on economic security, on the possession of a 
 home, and on well-established means of subsistence 
 and of cultivation both of body and mind. 
 
 Our present system of industrial relations is in 
 theory regulated by free contract. In a country 
 where land_and capital are virtually the monopoly
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 173 
 
 of a class, there must be a vast multitude of con- 
 tracts that are only nominally free. When land is 
 required for building or industrial purposes, the land- 
 holder can exact his own terms ; the contract is not 
 free. Did the Irish peasant and the landlord negotiate 
 on equal terms ? Does the London man of business 
 meet the owner of his premises on an equal footing ? 
 He has to deal with a powerful monopolist for that 
 which is to him essential and indispensable. Scarcely 
 anywhere or at any time, even with the unrestricted 
 right of combination, does the workman meet the 
 capitalist on equal terms. 
 
 The strength of this objection against socialism, 
 indeed, consists chiefly in three gigantic fallacies : 
 
 (1) In the free competition so much belauded by 
 the opponents of socialism it is constantly assumed 
 that the contest is waged on equal terms. As we have 
 seen, such an assumption is intolerable. The truth 
 is almost precisely the reverse. For men who have 
 neither land nor capital the contest must be most 
 disadvantageous. 
 
 (2) It is very generally assumed that the contest 
 is for success, for the prizes of life. Such an idea can 
 be entertained only by those who never look below 
 the surface of society. The present competitive sys- 
 tem is one that exposes to hazard the daily bread, 
 the health and character of millions. For thousands 
 of barmaids and sempstresses entering on such a com- 
 petition in our large towns death would be infinitely 
 preferable. 
 
 (3) In the one-sided ' individualism ' that is so 
 much preached under the name of self-help, there is 
 in fact a perpetual confusion of two totally different
 
 i 7 4 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 things, individual struggle and individual success. 
 In the individual struggle hundreds of thousands are 
 utterly sacrificed. Real and substantial success is 
 attained only by the few at the expense of the many, 
 who are reduced to economic subjection. Individual- 
 ism really means the struggle of all and the success 
 of a few. For the immense majority it means the loss 
 of real manhood, and of much that constitutes the 
 glory and beauty of human personality. For most 
 men it implies the obscuration and diminution, and 
 even utter obliteration, of all that is good and noble in 
 individuality. And even for those who do succeed 
 to their heart's desire in the often ignoble contest for 
 wealth, what real good ensues ? After all, a man, 
 however huge his capacity, can eat and drink only 
 to a limited extent. A competent portion of the 
 good things of this life can be obtained with very 
 moderate means, and beyond that a Rothschild or a 
 Rockefeller can obtain no more real enjoyment. The 
 rest is vanity, labour and sorrow, cupidity and rapacity. 
 The accumulation of enormous fortunes for private 
 and selfish ends is an enormity and a monstrosity, 
 tending to the growth of parasitism, luxury, extra- 
 vagance and vice, to the demoralisation of society, 
 to civil disturbance, and to the ruin of states. In 
 such a conflict of egotisms both the successful and the 
 unsuccessful suffer. The temperate, well-balanced, 
 and healthy development of individual character can 
 no longer be maintained. Carried to its final issues 
 such an individual struggle can end only in social ruin. 
 It should also be pointed out that the ' individual ' 
 as understood in the existing society is the male head 
 of the house. It is even yet a kind of half-conscious
 
 DIFFICULTIES AND OBJECTIONS 175 
 
 assumption with many that the wife and children 
 are his property, and though the cruder forms of such 
 a theory have mostly disappeared, it still largely 
 colours our conceptions, to the extent that, in view of 
 the disproportionate claims and rights of the male 
 head, those of wife and children are very greatly 
 sacrificed. 
 
 Under a co-operative system there would, of course, 
 be an effective organisation of industry, but the 
 workers would understand that such organisation 
 must tend to the good of all, and it would not be felt 
 as a burden. It would be a free and intelligent 
 organisation, in which compulsion and restraint could 
 be reduced to a minimum. In comparison with most 
 work as at present carried on it would be a pleasure. 
 When we consider the waste of human labour arising 
 from strikes, commercial crises, from the idleness of 
 the rich, and of the vagabond and demoralised poor ; 
 when we consider the imperfections of our system 
 of distribution, and the incomplete development of 
 machinery, we can easily understand that the hours 
 of toil could be greatly reduced, and yet the work of 
 the world be ever so much better done. At present 
 the workman too frequently goes about his task as 
 an unwilling and servile drudgery, without interest 
 in its excellence and speedy completion ; from such 
 labour we can make no inference as to what true 
 artistic and thorough work might be under right 
 conditions. 
 
 Under a socialistic state it would be a natural and 
 universal duty for all men to render some useful service 
 to society. Only those who were disabled by sickness, 
 accident, or old age would be relieved from an obvious
 
 176 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 obligation. But as the hours of labour would be 
 greatly reduced, there would, after the necessary work 
 of social industry was over, remain ample leisure for 
 all men for the cultivation and enjoyment of all that 
 is good, wholesome and beautiful. Each one could 
 follow his natural bent and develop his native aptitudes 
 in mechanical invention, in gardening and the culture 
 of flowers, in athletics, music or painting, in science 
 and literature. 
 
 Under these circumstances there would be a rich 
 and varied development of natural capacity in both 
 sexes, such as we cannot even at present conceive. 
 At present how many a fair and noble endowment is 
 suffered to go to waste in country villages and in the 
 streets of our large towns ! How many a finely con- 
 stituted temperament utterly wasted and done to 
 death under the hard and cruel pressure of uncongenial 
 and adverse conditions ! How many a Raphael and 
 Beethoven, how many a poet and statesman have 
 passed away in village and street without rendering 
 any worthy service to mankind ! Here, indeed, is 
 a new field of development for the human race. 
 
 Through the development of mechanical invention 
 to ever greater degrees of power and efficiency, and 
 especially through the perfecting of our social organi- 
 sation, the labour and skill of each would more and 
 more be made directly subservient to the good of all. 
 Man's victory over nature, and over the unregenerate 
 residuum within himself, would be rendered more and 
 more complete. It would be a real dominion of the 
 world, a true ethical freedom.
 
 177 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 
 
 We have in the last chapter reviewed some of the 
 leading difficulties and objections that stand in the 
 way of the general realisation of a co-operative form 
 of industry. It will be seen that we have been dealing 
 with an economic theory which has been only partially 
 realised, with a theory of industrial organisation 
 towards which, even in the opinion of its adherents, 
 only the tendencies are growing and the conditions 
 preparing. Much of the discussion, therefore, is 
 merely conjectural and speculative. While inquiry 
 may and does prepare the way for action, theories 
 of social progress can be duly tested by experience 
 alone. 
 
 We believe that the co-operative form of industry 
 encourages the brightest hopes of social improvement ; 
 but when we consider the fatal prevalence of egotism, 
 improvidence, and folly in human nature and in 
 human history, doubt as to the general realisation of 
 the system is only too legitimate. Without a great 
 moral advance socialism may be regarded as imprac- 
 ticable. Without a great increase of enlightened self- 
 control, and of regard for our fellow-men, a true 
 freedom cannot be generally realised. Freedom must 
 be associated with willing loyalty to law, especially 
 
 N
 
 178 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 moral law. It must be wedded to law and order, to 
 truth and knowledge. The growth of free self-control 
 and of an enlightened regard for the common good 
 is indispensable to the development of socialism. 
 
 Thus, according to the point of view, and in pro- 
 portion to the hopefulness of the inquirer, it may be 
 regarded as the strength or weakness of socialism that 
 it implies such a great moral advance in the develop- 
 ment of mankind. Moral improvement is what all 
 good men desire for themselves and others. Socialism 
 proposes a method of industry fitted to serve both as 
 a basis and as a framework for such moral improve- 
 ment. Is it to be condemned because it is too exact- 
 ing ? Or is it to be commended because it supplies 
 the economic conditions for a better moral order ? 
 Whether the theory be too high for human nature the 
 future alone can decide. Let us hope that it is not. 
 Let us also remember that, in any case, its realisation 
 cannot be accomplished in a day, and that it must first 
 take root among the most advanced of our indus- 
 trial population if it is to succeed at all. Moreover, 
 the ethical progress of men must go hand in hand 
 with the industrial and political ; progress must be 
 mutual and solid ; advance in one department of social 
 life presupposes and necessitates advance in every 
 other. 
 
 But it is the main contention of socialists that 
 their theory of economic progress does not depend 
 for its realisation on hopes more or less tainted with 
 Utopianism. They are aware also that the evolution 
 of society does not turn merely on the results of theo- 
 retical controversy and discussion. It is determined 
 by the general tendency of the strongest forces. If
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 179 
 
 socialism come at all, it must come as the consum- 
 mation of the dominant forces of the existing society. 
 The wishes and likings of men, the schemes of theo- 
 rists, the arguments of debaters and controversialists, 
 the efforts of agitators and revolutionary parties are 
 important enough in their respective spheres, but they 
 cannot always be accepted even as indicating the 
 direction of the social current. The arbitrary acts 
 of the most powerful ruler can avail little against 
 the solid and massive sweep of great historic move- 
 ments. Compared with the potent forces embodied 
 and set in motion by the printing-press and the 
 steam-engine, the achievements of the subtlest poli- 
 ticians and the greatest conquerors are vanity and 
 idleness. 
 
 Such a contention is substantially true. History is 
 a development of real forces, compared with which the 
 doings of the noisiest and most prominent men are 
 often only as the bubbles that rise and disappear on 
 the top of the waves. Let us not, however, make 
 any mistake as to what these real forces are. History 
 narrates the movement of the great human society, 
 and society is a most complex thing, in which we must 
 recognise the operation of the most catholic variety 
 of forces, technical, industrial, political, and moral. 
 But the active and decisive elements in the whole 
 process are the will and intelligence of men. Social 
 forces are the many-sided expression of the will and 
 intelligence of men acting on their environment, 
 phases of the common activity of man adapting to his 
 needs the resources of nature. The laws which regulate 
 social development are the laws of the joint action 
 of man on nature. What we have chiefly to study
 
 1S0 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 in social evolution are the laws of the development 
 of human character. 
 
 In the study of the social movement, therefore, 
 discussion as to the possibilities of human nature has 
 its value. Our great difficulty is that we so little 
 know how a complex mass of human beings will 
 act under new conditions. Moreover, the doings of 
 individual men may be of supreme importance, pro- 
 vided they are favoured by great historic tendencies. 
 When the fulness of the time has come, the individual, 
 whether he be autocrat, statesman, or popular leader, 
 may most powerfully contribute towards the making 
 of history. The likings and aspirations of men are, 
 indeed, circumscribed by fixed natural conditions, but 
 they are potent enough when organised into a vast 
 force like the modern democracy. The democracy is 
 the greatest power of modern times, and it is only an 
 abstract name for the people educated and organised 
 for the assertion of their political and economic rights. 
 It is only a general name for the human beings most 
 directly concerned in the social movement, with 
 their wide diversity of capacity, interests, and aspira- 
 tions. 
 
 In human society, as in everything else, we see 
 a continual process of change going on. When the 
 process of change grows rapid, intense, or contra- 
 dictory, when the forces that make for change fall 
 into conflict, or lead to an abrupt and sudden altera- 
 tion in the course of development, we call it a revolution. 
 A revolution is merely an abrupt or violent form of 
 evolution. The order of the world is being continually 
 renewed. The new is continually issuing out of the 
 old. Centuries may elapse before an era runs its
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 181 
 
 course, yet the change goes on from day to day. When 
 a new time is born the seeds of decay are born with it, 
 and they gradually develop with it, though the date 
 of their large and visible operation may be far off. 
 But with the decay of the old the formation of another 
 order begins, so that the process of development 
 is incessant. Thus the tendency towards transforma- 
 tion in society is made up of two phases, which it is 
 not always easy to distinguish — of dissolution and 
 reconstruction — which go on simultaneously. Before 
 the old order is broken up — in the very process of 
 breaking up — a new order is produced. 
 
 The name of revolution is generally applied to 
 the rapid, abrupt, or violent transformations which 
 signalise the breaking up of an old historic order. In 
 the development of society there are successive epochs, 
 marked by characteristic features, economic, social, 
 and religious, more or less suited to each other. But 
 a time comes in the progress of mankind when these 
 become antiquated, useless, superfluous, and finally 
 hurtful. The institutions and social forms which in 
 one century are the progressive and even adequate 
 expression of the life of the people may in the next 
 century become an obstacle to progress. Thus the 
 ideal of one period is the real of the next, and in the 
 third probably is an abuse and a hindrance to further 
 improvement. The new opinion is at first suspected, 
 misrepresented, and condemned, and its adherents 
 are boycotted, imprisoned, banished, or put to death. 
 By and by it wins its way till it takes its place in the 
 established order of things, or it is itself a new order 
 of things. Once established, it becomes the centre 
 and consolidating point of all human feelings and
 
 182 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 concerns — sentiments of loyalty and reverence, selfish 
 interests, and generally of all that inertia which 
 disposes men to accept things as they are, so long 
 as they are fairly tolerable. But there are always 
 forward and inquiring intellects on the quest for things 
 new ; and the mere progress of events disturbs that 
 adaptation of institutions to the needs of the time 
 which was once so satisfying. Innovating and even 
 revolutionary ideas gradually gather head against 
 established interests and the inertia of a settled 
 society. If wise, timely, and energetic reform does 
 not intervene to enforce a working compromise between 
 old and new, a revolution is possible. In any case 
 the old order cannot indefinitely survive. The process 
 of change therefore must go forward, yet it is obviously 
 better when the progress of the world can be secured 
 without the catastrophe called a revolution. The 
 most durable and beneficent progress is that of wise, 
 gradual, and energetic adaptation of our institutions 
 to the needs of the time. It is one of the exaggerations 
 of many recent and contemporary socialists that they 
 insist too much on the function and value of revolu- 
 tions in the development of society. 
 
 Thus, in the evolution of society, the continuity 
 is preserved through an incessant process of change, 
 which is generally gradual, but sometimes becomes 
 rapid and even violent, breaking out in sudden cata- 
 strophes and great cataclysms. But whether the 
 change be sudden or gradual, whether it be a slow 
 and steady progress through a settled epoch or the 
 abrupt transition from an old into a new order of 
 things, it must be in harmony with law. In accord- 
 ance with this, the only correct view of the matter,
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 183 
 
 the beginnings of great changes can be observed long 
 before their actual realisation. Centuries before a 
 great historic change makes its real and substantial — 
 its large and visible — entrance in the affairs of the 
 world the seeds of the coming time are sown, the 
 conditions necessary for its growth are established. 
 Its progress may be at one point promoted, and at 
 another retarded, by a variety of causes, yet it ever 
 advances towards the fulfilment of its time. The eye 
 that is open to the facts can even form to itself some 
 kind of forecast of the approaching era. It may 
 only be a conjecture, but if the observer have any real 
 gift of insight he may have a vision, and not an 
 altogether false or obscure one, of the coming time. 
 Thus, in the study of social phenomena, insight is 
 foresight. The main condition of success is that we 
 have our eyes open to the facts of the time in which 
 we live. The chief reason why great changes take 
 men by surprise is that they are engrossed with the 
 pedantries of the past or are absorbed in some narrow 
 interest of the present, while the great movement 
 goes forward beyond the range of their spiritual 
 vision. Indeed, it requires no particular sagacity to 
 see the signs of a great historic change, provided we 
 keep our eyes open, and are humble enough to learn 
 and to submit our understanding to the objective 
 truth of things. The religious revolt of the sixteenth 
 century was announced long before it came. The 
 revolution of the eighteenth was spreading all over 
 Europe before it exploded at Paris in 1789. At the 
 present time every country of the civilised world 
 shows symptoms that the new democracy is in action. 
 Every daily newspaper speaks of it ; and while the
 
 184 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 details are of the most unexpected and incalculable 
 nature, the general direction of the movement is 
 apparent enough to all who are ready to see. 
 
 Now, socialism claims to be the next stage in 
 social evolution. Under the conditions which prevail 
 or tend to prevail in the development of society, it 
 professes to be the fittest type of economic structure ; 
 it claims to be that form of industry which is fittest to 
 carry on the progress of the world. In accordance 
 with what we have been saying, if tfiere is any founda- 
 tion for such a claim, the tendencies which make for 
 socialism must be already visible. Forces strong 
 enough to establish it as a new social order must be 
 already in action. Great changes do not come by 
 magic, but are a slow growth out of facts and con- 
 ditions already existing. In the existing society do 
 we see any symptoms of that double process of dissolu- 
 tion and reconstruction which mark the rise of a new 
 order of things, and do these symptoms point towards 
 socialism ? 
 
 We shall now, therefore, proceed to discuss those 
 symptoms and tendencies in the existing society which 
 may be supposed to make for socialism. 
 
 Tendencies towards Socialism 
 
 i. It is no exaggeration to say that the prevailing 
 system of individualism shows clear signs of breaking 
 down. We have already discussed the shortcomings 
 of the competitive order of society, and we need here 
 only review a few of the leading points. As we have 
 seen, the general theory of this system is that human 
 interests can be best promoted by each man attending
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 185 
 
 to his own. Considered as a system of industry and 
 of government it cannot bear examination in point of 
 principle, and experience has found it wanting. No 
 sooner had the free struggle of individual energy and 
 self-interest succeeded in breaking the bonds of the 
 past than the necessity of new restrictions for the 
 protection of human beings threatened with moral 
 and physical ruin by the excesses of the new indus- 
 trialism became apparent. The theory of laissez- 
 faire broke down in all directions ; and the enormities 
 of private selfishness had to be controlled by a multi- 
 tude of public enactments, such as Factory Acts. As 
 a theory of economics and of industry, individualism 
 is now either given up or held with such a variety of 
 limitations and qualifications as largely to deprive 
 it of force and meaning. It is the theory of a genera- 
 tion that is passing away, and, as with all old theories, 
 we are beginning to wonder how reasonable men 
 could entertain it at all. 
 
 The present economic order must be condemned 
 because involving a new form of subjection incon- 
 sistent with a free and educated democracy, and 
 because tending to a competitive anarchy hurtful to 
 all classes ; in short, it is inconsistent with the prevail- 
 ing moral and political ideas and convictions of our 
 time. It is adverse to order and security, to a real and 
 durable freedom, and to the true moral development 
 of men. But for the action of many countervailing 
 influences the real nature and tendency of the com- 
 petitive system would have been much sooner and 
 much more clearly revealed. The principle of laissez- 
 faire is sound and good so far, but it is only part of the 
 truth. The time has come when it should take its
 
 186 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 place as an item in a wider and more comprehensive 
 body of truth. 
 
 2. As we have seen, one of the first symptoms 
 of the industrial revolution was the organisation and 
 concentration of production in large factories, with 
 an improved mechanical power and a large number 
 of wage labourers. The small industry of the cottage 
 weaver and of the village artisan, working with their 
 own capital, was in this way superseded. This 
 process of concentration still continues, more and 
 more affecting every department of industry and 
 attaining to ever larger dimensions. It is a patent 
 fact, which marks the advance of capitalism and of the 
 new industrialism all over the world. The process is 
 an inevitable one, for with his inferior appliances 
 and his imperfect organisation the small capitalist 
 cannot hold his own against his larger rival. The 
 margin of profit is now so extremely small that it 
 is only from operations conducted on an enormous 
 scale that a sufficient remuneration can be obtained. 
 Even the large capitalist is giving place to the com- 
 pany ; a growing proportion of business can be managed 
 only by gigantic companies with an immense capital, 
 an elaborate organisation, and an army of work- 
 people. Success depends most of all on skilful, 
 energetic organisation, and on the magnitude and 
 efficiency of the industrial mechanism. In keeping 
 with the general expansion the market also widens, until 
 it embraces entire countries and the whole world ; 
 and in this world-market it is only the most powerful 
 competitor, fighting with enormous capital and with 
 the best natural advantages, that has any chance of 
 prosperity or even of self-preservation.
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 187 
 
 Obviously this vast process of concentration cannot 
 be brought about without creating disturbance and 
 confusion over wide areas, involving in ruin thousands 
 of luckless competitors. The variations of fortune, 
 the alternations of success, are many ; but it is the 
 largest, the most energetic, the best organised com- 
 petitor, working with the best natural resources, that 
 emerges triumphant. Success leads to an enlarged 
 business, and enlarged business on the whole leads to 
 greater efficiency in the competitive struggle. 
 
 One of the most conspicuous signs of this process 
 at the present day is the frequent transformation of 
 private firms into limited liability companies. As 
 businesses increase, the cares and responsibilities of 
 ownership and management become too great for any 
 single man. The further tendency towards the fusion 
 or combination of companies is in various forms and 
 under various names observable in Germany, Great 
 Britain, and other countries. 
 
 But the most notable examples of the enormous 
 scale on which business is now conducted must be found 
 in the great industrial corporations of America. These 
 companies control the production and exchange of a 
 continent, and they show a capacity for the combina- 
 tion of interests and for fighting each other which we 
 have not attained in this country. Combination in 
 order to ruin their competitors, so as to secure an 
 effective monopoly of the market — this is the aim and 
 tendency of the great industrial struggle, carried 
 out with an energy and on a scale elsewhere un- 
 exampled. The result is to put economic power in 
 the hands of the combined corporations, to place at 
 their mercy the sources and means of subsistence of
 
 188 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 the people, and from this point of vantage to gain 
 control of American society generally — to establish 
 an industrial oligarchy such as the world has never seen. 
 
 Hitherto we have witnessed the struggle of the 
 democracy with the territorial aristocracy ; in America, 
 as elsewhere, we now see the opening stages of a 
 greater struggle, of the democracy against the indus- 
 trial corporations, against the industrial feudal power, 
 the fully developed capitalism. Either it must control 
 the American people or the American people must 
 control it. The issue must either be a new indus- 
 trial oligarchy served by wage-labour, or the control 
 of American industry for the good of the people. 
 
 At any rate, socialists regard these colossal corpora- 
 tions and the wealthy capitalists that direct them as 
 the greatest pioneers of their cause. By concentrating 
 the economic functions of the country into large masses 
 they are simply helping forward the socialistic move- 
 ment. Their mission is to displace the smaller 
 capitalists, but they will thereby eventually under- 
 mine capitalism altogether. In proportion as the 
 centralisation of industry is pushed forward, the 
 easier will it be for the democratic people to displace 
 its capitalistic chiefs, and assume the control of it 
 for the general good. They are only hastening the 
 time when a vast educated and organised democracy, 
 subsisting on precarious wage-labour, will find itself 
 face to face with a limited number of mammoth 
 capitalists. Such a crisis can have only one result. 
 The swifter, the more complete the success of the 
 most powerful organisers of capital, the quicker will 
 be their overthrow by a democratic society. Such is 
 the belief of socialists.
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 189 
 
 The future course of the struggle is uncertain. Its 
 normal development to the present time is apparent 
 enough. The general march of social evolution has 
 been, displacement of the small village or rural pro- 
 ducer by the individual capitalist, transformation 
 of the individual capitalist into the company, and 
 now the company itself is being merged into the trust 
 or combination of companies. It has been a continual 
 process of expansion and centralisation, which now 
 tends to monopoly. And this tendency to monopoly 
 is only another proof that the system of free competi- 
 tion is inadequate and has broken down. 
 
 It should also be sufficiently clear that under the 
 prevailing conditions of concentration and centralisa- 
 tion individual industry has not only ceased to be the 
 normal and prevalent form, but tends more and more 
 to disappear. Industry tends more and more to be 
 a large operation conducted by the collective labour 
 of many men and women. It is a social operation 
 depending on the combined and organised exertion 
 of thousands of workers. In fact, it depends on the 
 useful work and service of the entire society, and it is 
 impossible to discriminate the part performed in it 
 by any single individual. In the earlier stages of the 
 industrial revolution the capitalist was often origin- 
 ally a workman, and he continued effectively to 
 initiate and manage the entire business in all its 
 branches. He made his way, by superior energy, 
 sagacity, and industry, to the head of a large establish- 
 ment. It is very different now. With him still rest 
 the ownership of the capital and the appropriation 
 of the results of industry ; but the actual work is done 
 by thousands of toilers, all of them rendering their
 
 igo INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 special services, and contributing a quota of their 
 own to the collective product. Industry is no longer 
 an individual function, as on the whole it was under 
 the old and more primitive systems. Individual pro- 
 perty and individual appropriation of the fruits of 
 industry rigorously continue, but individual industry 
 is growing to be a thing of the past. Industry is a 
 social operation, a function of society, a collective 
 process. The fact that industry has thus become 
 social naturally suggests that distribution should be 
 social and equitable. 
 
 3. In connection with the continual aggregation of 
 business in large companies there is an important point 
 which is worthy of special consideration. In propor- 
 tion as these companies grow, the active and effective 
 management must be intrusted to paid officials, and 
 the capitalist ceases to be the real controller of industry ; 
 he tends to become a receiver of interest and dividends. 
 Consequently the class which has hitherto been the 
 ruling and governing one in the present economic 
 order tends to become inactive and superfluous. In 
 the inevitable process of industrial evolution it is 
 being divested of the real and positive responsibilities 
 connected with the industrial control of society. This 
 transference of actual work and responsibility to 
 manager and secretary with a large staff of clerks 
 is by no means complete or general, but it is rapidly 
 going forward. 
 
 In the evolution of modern society we can see a 
 remarkable development of superfluous functionaries. 
 Royalty, which both in feudal and more recent times 
 was the active and effective head of the state, is, if 
 not abolished, a mere survival in most countries of
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 191 
 
 Europe. Bismarck was the real founder and ruler 
 of the new Germany, and he had to reckon with 
 the people. The influence exerted by the present 
 Emperor is a very exceptional thing. How long will 
 the Autocrat of All the Russias retain his position 
 against the growing revolutionary opinion among his 
 people ? In England the real ruler is the Prime 
 Minister for the time being. He is placed in that 
 position by the vote of the collective society ; to it he 
 must make appeal, and to it he must give account of 
 his stewardship. As the nominal head of England the 
 sovereign fills his anomalous post with tact, discretion, 
 and dignity ; but his effective power is extremely 
 limited. 
 
 In former times the landholding aristocracy formed 
 a power second only to that of the monarch ; often, 
 indeed, co-ordinate with it, and even controlling it. 
 In feudal times they performed the military and many 
 of the judicial functions. After the revolution of 
 1689 they practically ruled England for several genera- 
 tions, constituting the House of Lords and nominating 
 the majority of the House of Commons ; and they 
 controlled local government still more effectually. 
 Now they have greatly lost influence in the Commons, 
 and in real power the Lords hold quite an inferior 
 position. The effect of the reform of local government 
 will be still further to supersede the aristocracy — in 
 the various districts to establish the rule of society 
 or the community in place of the old rule by the land- 
 owners. The whole tendency of our social evolution 
 is to supersede the old rule of Crown and aristocracy, 
 and to set up in its stead a government by the chosen 
 leaders of the collective society. The will of the
 
 i 9 2 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 whole society with its elected chiefs asserts itself 
 against hereditary rulers representing narrow and 
 exclusive interests. 
 
 The active heads of the present industrial order 
 are the capitalists ; but we have seen that as the large 
 industry develops into great companies the effective 
 management passes into the hands of paid officials. 
 It is obvious how the development of such a tendency 
 could facilitate the transference of the great industries 
 to social control. For example, with regard to the 
 railway system of England, if it should appear ex- 
 pedient to place it under collective management, 
 the state would find a staff of officials and employe's 
 ready to its hand. The present organisation, modified 
 chiefly in the direction of further centralisation and 
 greater economy, would be sufficient. As society is 
 displacing royalty and the landholding aristocracy, 
 so will it displace the capitalist rulers of the great 
 industrial companies. 
 
 4. The decisive fact in the social development of 
 modern times is the growth of the democracy. The 
 first great phase of it was the rise of the middle classes, 
 dating in a general way from the French Revolution 
 of 1789. Behind the middle classes, however, have 
 emerged the workmen, whose consolidation as a special 
 class began with the revolutionary periods of 1830 
 and 1848. While the democracy in its widest sense 
 is simply a government by the people generally in 
 their own interests, the working class may be regarded 
 as the representatives of the democracy in the narrower 
 sense. But as they form the immense majority of the 
 people in every country, it is the entrance of the
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 193 
 
 labouring class on the political stage which has led 
 to the formation of a real democracy. 
 
 The rise of the middle class against the old aris- 
 tocracies was an important fact, but the awakening of 
 the labouring people is an event vastly more momen- 
 tous. The workers at the loom, miners, the cultivators 
 of the soil, the toilers of the sea, all these have arisen 
 out of the bondage and darkness wherein they have 
 been sunk from time immemorial, to claim their share 
 in the heritage of light and happiness. Surely their 
 claim is a just and right one, the most righteous and 
 the most momentous ever made by human beings 
 since the birth of time. 
 
 This democracy, as we are all aware, is being formed 
 and moulded under a set of conditions which are a new 
 thing in the history of the world. Since 1848 it has 
 received political power, and it has begun to pass 
 through the elementary school in all lands. Besides 
 being drilled into industrial armies in the large factory 
 and railway system, it forms tn: vast national armies 
 of the new military system. In a word, the school, 
 the press, the new industrial system, and the new 
 military system have all combined to instruct and 
 organise the modern democracy, and thus to create 
 a colossal force, which has already begun to take a 
 considerable part in the affairs of men. In the gigantic 
 electoral contests which continually recur in every 
 civilised country, in the great labour struggles which 
 never cease, this democracy is learning to know its 
 strength. A long and hard experience is impressing 
 upon it a sense of community of interest. It is con- 
 solidating into a class. Further, it must be said that 
 in many lands the leaders of the democracy have been 
 
 o
 
 i 9 4 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 serving a severe and stern apprenticeship of suffering 
 in secret conspiracy, in unsuccessful revolt, in prison 
 and exile, and on the scaffold. Though we regard it 
 not, such a course of training will some day have 
 results of which we may hear. A cause for which 
 men will die is a serious one. It is a discipline which 
 great causes, capable of a mighty future and potent 
 in moulding the destinies of men, have generally had 
 to undergo. 
 
 But the most important fact in connection with 
 the democracies is that while they are nominally, and 
 might be really, the supreme possessors of political 
 power, they are economically a mass of proletarians. 
 This contrast between their political and economical 
 position is the most significant feature of our time, 
 and supplies the key to most of the questions now 
 pending. For the most part the difficulties of our 
 time are only the expression of the discontent of the 
 democracy with its economic position. Scarcely a 
 newspaper but records some incident in the struggle of 
 the democracy to better itself. Agrarian troubles in 
 Ireland and elsewhere, strikes in the industrial centres, 
 riots, demonstrations of unemployed and discon- 
 tented workmen, special legislation for the common 
 people forced upon reluctant parliaments of land- 
 holders and capitalists — all these have been symptoms 
 of the rise of a new class to a position of power. In 
 one form or other these symptoms have been declaring 
 themselves in every part of the civilised world. 
 
 Perhaps the most notable result of the industrial 
 revolution is that it has supplied the technical condi- 
 tions for a durable and progressive democracy ; it 
 has placed the modern democracy on a firm and solid
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 195 
 
 basis. Society" is now based on a vast mechanism, 
 of which the motive powers are steam and electricity. 
 The application of steam to printing has furnished 
 us with all the appliances of education, so that universal 
 education is an accomplished fact. It has given us 
 the cheap newspaper and provided us with cheap 
 literature, bringing within the reach of every citizen 
 facilities for reading and culture. Through the com- 
 bined agency of the telegraph and the printing-press 
 the speeches and utterances of our leading statesmen 
 and other guides of public opinion can be read by 
 every one, almost as soon as they are delivered. The 
 constant outpouring of cultivated and uncultivated 
 reflection in the press and on the platform has its 
 drawbacks, but it at least acts as a continual stimulus 
 to the intelligence of the people. The successive 
 facts of public life and of the history of the world as 
 presented in the press supply a constant process of 
 education and cultivation to the whole body of citizens. 
 The mass of the people share in an intellectual move- 
 ment which was formerly confined to a few. Know- 
 ledge and culture are no longer the monopoly of a 
 privileged minority. The democratic culture may 
 not have the refinement and distinction characteristic 
 of an exclusive and aristocratic society, but the whole 
 movement will secure a vastly higher moral and 
 intellectual life for the masses of the people. 
 
 From these considerations it will be obvious that 
 the democracy is not an accident dependent merely 
 on the acceptance of a novel set of opinions fitted to 
 have a temporary vogue, but the solid result of the 
 strongest forces of our time. It is the outcome of 
 our entire technical, industrial, social, and political
 
 196 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 development, the effect of massive causes, which are 
 operating in every civilised country. It is growing 
 to be the master-force of the world ; and as the years 
 proceed its influence will more and more develop itself. 
 
 5. The growth of state and municipal socialism 
 is simply a phase of the development of the democracy. 
 It is unnecessary here to enlarge upon the fact that in 
 the past the state has been the organ of a narrow class. 
 It is only since 1832 that in this country it has really 
 begun to represent the masses of the people. Even 
 yet the effective representation of the lower middle 
 class and of the working classes in the Government is 
 very slight. The possession of considerable means 
 is still almost essential for becoming a member of 
 Parliament. We have not yet an effective democracy. 
 But it is growing, and as compared with the slow 
 progress of the past it is growing rapidly. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that the most eminent 
 examples of state socialism are to be found in countries 
 so different as Germany and New Zealand. The 
 menacing growth of social democracy in Germany 
 led not only to repressive legislation, but also to 
 positive and remedial measures of insurance for working 
 men against accident, sickness, and old age. From 
 1 881, when these measures were announced, till the 
 end of 1903 the sums spent on insurance against 
 illness amounted to 100,000,000/., on insurance against 
 accidents to 45,000,000/., and on old-age pensions to 
 42,500,000/. The persons who benefited by the 
 measures numbered 60,000,000. Under the direct 
 inspiration of the democracy in New Zealand state 
 socialism has taken the form of banking, land legisla- 
 tion, compulsory arbitration, and old-age pensions
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 197 
 
 of 10s. a week for persons over sixty-five years of age. 
 Similar legislation of a notable character is at work 
 in Denmark and Australia. 
 
 These, however, are only the most conspicuous 
 instances of a tendency which is visible and is more 
 or less rapidly growing over the world. In all countries 
 which have any claim to be called enlightened or 
 progressive, the duty and necessity of social legisla- 
 tion are being pressed on Governments whether they 
 be willing or reluctant. The conditions under which 
 rulers live and work are undergoing a change : the 
 atmosphere is new. 
 
 In municipal socialism we see the growth of a like 
 tendency. The reform of our municipal government 
 in 1835 was a popular measure, which has had a most 
 beneficial influence. Experience has proved that such 
 local rule may with advantage be extended in many 
 directions. Lighting, water, tramways, parks and 
 means of recreation, better housing for the poor, the in- 
 terests of public health, and to a large degree educa- 
 tion, are all now regarded as belonging to the legitimate 
 sphere of local government. By-and-by we may see 
 local control effectively extended to building sites 
 and the drink question. It is now the veriest truism 
 to maintain that the popular interests, and especially 
 the interests of the suffering classes, should be promoted 
 through the common action of local centres by all 
 wise and effectual methods. Controversy is still 
 very acute as to how far it may be carried, but there 
 can be no dispute about the general principle. 
 
 The development of state and municipal socialism 
 is due to the pressure of the democracy on our rulers 
 and on the existing institutions ; and it is likely to
 
 198 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 extend more and more as the people attain to a clearer 
 consciousness of their rights and to a more effectual 
 organisation. 
 
 6. We have already spoken of the solid tendency 
 towards a new social order observable in the inevitable 
 concentration and centralisation of industry. There 
 have, however, been more conscious efforts towards 
 a new order, which, though only partial and incom- 
 plete, clearly prove that society cannot exist on 
 negations, but must require a real and positive satis- 
 faction of its needs. As soon as this country had 
 recovered its freedom and elasticity after the con- 
 clusion of the great wars with Napoleon, as soon as our 
 antiquated and reactionary government had begun 
 to relax, a new period of social growth set in. One of 
 the first signs of new life was the rise of societies and 
 associations of every kind. They were a sufficient 
 proof that the prevalent individualism was only part 
 of the truth ; that there was a larger and far more 
 important element of the truth in the principle that 
 the individual must seek to realise himself in union 
 with his fellow-men, and that the new time and the 
 new circumstances required new forms of associated 
 life. It was a spontaneous development of social 
 life seeking new methods of satisfying real and natural 
 needs. 
 
 In the industrial sphere we have had many of these 
 efforts towards a new social order. Factory Acts 
 imposed on the capitalists by Government on grounds 
 of public necessity and in opposition to the prevailing 
 economic theory, trade unions, the co-operative 
 system, the industrial partnership system, boards of 
 conciliation, even employers' combinations, may all be
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 199 
 
 regarded as a real and effective preparation for a new 
 organisation of industry. They may all be described 
 as partial efforts to limit the violence of competition, 
 to introduce a measure of system and regularity in 
 industrial life, and in some degree at least to establish 
 a new harmon}' and stability of interests. The 
 doctrine of laissez-faire was useful in clearing the way 
 for such a reconstruction. If Government could not 
 rationally control industry except in matters so 
 imperative as Factory Acts, it could at least leave 
 industry free room to organise itself. When un- 
 reasonable and oppressive restrictions are removed, 
 the development of popular life can take a natural 
 course, and those efforts of which we have spoken 
 indicate clearly enough the natural course of social 
 development. Evidently what is needed is to carry 
 on the work to its just and reasonable issue, and by free 
 discussion and steady progress along well-tested lines 
 to find our way to a better, a solid and stable society. 
 
 It may, indeed, be maintained that our competitive 
 individualism is not an organic epoch at all, but is 
 merely the negative and transitional state of things 
 which marks the break-up of an old order and the 
 preparation and imperfect realisation of a new. 
 
 As illustrating the growth of new social forms, the 
 following statement of Mr. Ludlow, formerly Chief 
 Registrar of Friendly Societies, has a special import- 
 ance : — ' Since I have been at this office I have been 
 compelled to look at the different forms of societies in 
 their mutual relations, and see that the friendly society 
 is the common stock out of which all have sprung, and 
 without which, for instance, neither co-operation nor 
 trade unionism can really be understood. Spreading
 
 200 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 throughout the length and breadth of the country, to 
 every trade and occupation, the humdrum friendly 
 society has been the school of social self-government 
 for our working class. It has not only supplied the 
 machinery in the first instance for the building society, 
 the co-operative society, the trade union ; it has supplied 
 the free spirit and the tendency to federation. France 
 and Germany supply instances of the same influence 
 differently exerted.' ' Nothing can more clearly bring 
 out the fact that the development of social forms 
 since 1830 has arisen out of the elementary needs of 
 human life ; and it is to be hoped that they are only 
 the imperfect beginnings of a new order resting on a 
 broad and positive basis, and fitted to secure the 
 highest ends of social union. 
 
 We have already indicated our belief that the most 
 hopeful of all these forms of united effort is the co- 
 operative movement. From about 1820 to 1845 there 
 was a rapid multiplication of co-operative societies 
 under the auspices of Robert Owen and his school. 
 Most of these died out after a brief existence. The 
 success of co-operation dates from the foundation of 
 the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844. That society began 
 in the humblest way. Twenty-eight poor weavers in 
 hard times managed by subscriptions of twopence and 
 threepence a week to raise a capital of twenty-eight 
 pounds in order to open a store and supply themselves 
 and their families with cheap and wholesome food. 
 They adopted methods which could work, and they 
 succeeded ; and their society became a model and an 
 encouragement to working men in other towns. At 
 the end of twenty years the growth of the co-operative 
 
 1 See Manual for Co-operators, p. 224.
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 201 
 
 societies, though moderate, had been such as to excite 
 the admiration of men like W. E. Gladstone and 
 J. S. Mill. In 1906 there were 1,588 societies with a 
 membership of 2,332,000, a capital of 30,000,000/., 
 an annual turnover of 98,000,000/., and an annual 
 profit of 11,000,000/. English co-operation has been 
 most successful in distribution. But the important 
 matter is that with distribution as a basis, and by 
 means of the capital and experience therein acquired, 
 the societies are successfully and on a very considerable 
 scale taking up the business of production. They have 
 bakeries, corn mills, boot and other factories on a 
 large scale. They have two wholesale societies in 
 Manchester and Glasgow, doing an immense business 
 in such production, as well as in wholesale distribution, 
 with steamers of their own for the conveyance of 
 goods from the Continent. Obviously the next step 
 is to extend the co-operative system to farming — 
 a way of deliverance for English farming will probably 
 be found in this direction. At any rate the success 
 of co-operation in the past gives encouragement for 
 the widest application of its methods to industry. 
 The gist of the movement is that the workmen, by 
 means of a joint capital, equitably manage their own 
 economic interests. In England it began with distri- 
 bution, and now proceeds to occupy the other depart- 
 ments of industry. 
 
 In Germany and Italy co-operation has flourished 
 most as applied to people's banks ; but there, as in 
 England, it is occupying other fields also. The German 
 movement began in 1849 on the most insignificant 
 scale. We cannot here give the history of the 
 movement. At the beginning of 1885, there were in
 
 202 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 connection with the Schulze-Delitzsch system 3,822 
 co-operative societies, of which there were 1,965 loan 
 and credit societies, 678 co-operative store societies, 
 1,146 of a miscellaneous character, and 33 building 
 societies. The number of members was 1,500,000 
 with 15,000,000/. of their own capital and 25,000,000/. 
 of borrowed capital. Their annual business amounted 
 to 150,000,000/. 
 
 Co-operation is making notable progress in Belgium- 
 The town of Ghent has been its chief centre, and in 
 Ghent the most notable pioneer of the movement is the 
 Vooruit Society. It is doing for Belgium what the 
 Rochdale Pioneers have done for co-operation in 
 England, but in a far more revolutionary way, for the 
 Vooruit is avowedly but a means to promote the 
 realisation of the programme of the Socialist party 
 in Belgium. The Vooruit was founded by E. Anseele 
 and a few poor weavers at a time of scarcity in 1873. 
 Their capital at first was about 3/. 8s., with which they 
 started a bakery. From this very small beginning the 
 society has gone on to establish huge stores, the 
 largest cotton factory in Ghent with an eight hours' 
 day, printing works, a daily and weekly press, a system 
 of life insurance and of old-age pensions. It also 
 offers the means of education and recreation at its 
 People's Palace. It is estimated that out of a popu- 
 lation of 165,000 in Ghent the social economic life of 
 100,000 depends on the Vooruit. It has served as a 
 model for similar institutions in Belgium, as also 
 in Holland, Germany, and France. In Denmark, 
 Ireland, France, South Africa, India and many other 
 countries co-operation has been making rapid strides, 
 particularly in agriculture. Statistics now seem unable
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 203 
 
 to keep pace with it. Statesmen of all parties regard 
 it as a beneficent power with a future before it which 
 cannot be measured. 
 
 This very slight sketch is enough to show that the 
 co-operative movement throughout the world is full 
 of vitality, and of the widest and most far-reaching 
 promise of usefulness. No one can deny that it is in 
 theory superior to the present system, and it has shown 
 its working fitness under very trying circumstances 
 in many countries. Having proved that it is the 
 fittest type of industry under the dominant conditions 
 of the present time, it must survive and prevail. In 
 the words of J. S. Mill, ' when, however, co-operative 
 societies shall have sufficiently multiplied, it is not 
 probable that any but the least valuable workpeople 
 will any longer consent to work all their lives for wages 
 merely ; and both private capitalists and associations 
 will gradually find it necessary to make the entire 
 body of labourers participants in profits. Eventually, 
 and in perhaps a less remote future than may be sup- 
 posed, we may, through the co-operative principle, 
 see our way to a change in society which would com- 
 bine the freedom and independence of the individual 
 with the moral, intellectual, and economical advan- 
 tages of aggregate production ; and which, without 
 violence or spoliation, or even any sudden disturbance 
 of existing habits and expectations, would realise, at 
 least in the industrial department, the best aspirations 
 of the democratic spirit by putting an end to the 
 division of society into the industrious and the idle, 
 and effacing all social distinctions but those fairly 
 earned by personal services and exertions.' ' 
 
 1 Political Economy, People's Edition, 476.
 
 204 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 Under the forementioned six heads, then, we have 
 enumerated the tendencies which may be regarded 
 as at present making for socialism, and which in any 
 case will have a powerful influence on the social 
 development of the future. The positive tendencies 
 which we have pointed out are all phases of the con- 
 centration of industry on the one hand, and of the rise 
 and consolidation of the democracy on the other. 
 These two, it may be said, are the cardinal and decisive 
 facts of our time — the industrial revolution and the 
 rise of the democracy. And the two are most inti- 
 mately connected with each other, both in principle 
 and historical development. 
 
 The two together have produced the theory of 
 economic and social life embodied in modern socialism, 
 and through them the movement expects to be realised. 
 Socialism depends for its realisation on the irresistible 
 momentum of two great revolutions — the industrial 
 revolution and the political revolution named the new 
 democracy. It seeks to render the mechanism of the 
 industrial revolution really subservient to human 
 welfare, and to realise a social and economic freedom 
 suited to the political freedom proclaimed in the 
 modern democracy. It is in the centralisation of 
 industrial processes that socialism finds its economic 
 basis. Like the democracy, socialism aims at the 
 realisation of freedom for the mass of mankind ; not 
 the negative freedom of laissez-faire, but a substantial, 
 well-ordered freedom ; not the one-sided and delusive 
 freedom of individualism, but one that has regard to 
 the economic and social needs of man ; freedom under 
 moral and economic conditions suited to the fuller 
 and more harmonious development of human beings ;
 
 PROSPECTS OF SOCIALISM 205 
 
 freedom wedded ] to ' "moral law, to art and know- 
 ledge. 
 
 Thus it does appear to be one of the strongest 
 points of socialism that it proposes a free organisation 
 of industry, which may serve as economic complement 
 to that political freedom which is the ideal of the 
 democracy. The theory of the democracy is that the 
 people obey laws of their own making, that they 
 choose their own servants, and conduct government 
 for their own good. The government favoured by the 
 democracy is self-government in their own interest. 
 In the economic sphere we want a corresponding form 
 of self-governing industry, a free industrial democracy. 
 Socialism claims to be industry of the people, by the 
 people, for the people. 
 
 In our review we see tendency rising into a clear 
 and deliberate purpose. Socialism and democracy 
 appear to be forming a conscious union as social 
 democracy ; but both are changed in the process. 
 We cannot too strongly insist that socialism is not a 
 stereotyped system of dogma. In the democracy we 
 see abundant life and incessant change. Since modern 
 freedom began with the granting of Magna Charta and 
 the founding of the House of Commons in the thirteenth 
 century, men have been feeling their way to a better 
 society. Every century since that time has seen 
 successes chequered by disastrous failures. How 
 well we now know that freedom has its risks and 
 responsibilities as well as its blessings ! From 1789, 
 when the democracy made its great entry on the 
 world's stage, the history of France and of Europe 
 has been an impressive illustration of the momentous 
 truth that great changes in human affairs cannot rightly
 
 206 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 be forced or improvised. They can be well and duly 
 made only when the minds and hearts of men are pre- 
 pared for them. Force is useful, and even necessary 
 sometimes, to sweep away old forms of abuse ; but it is 
 otherwise of little avail. Marx said a true word when 
 he wrote that ' the working class cannot simply take 
 possession of the ready State machine, and set it in 
 motion for its own purposes.' 
 
 But the successes of the democracy are ever be- 
 coming more frequent, the flowing tide is with it. 
 In order to shape the vague tendencies of evolution 
 into a better society it needs wisdom and nobler 
 ideals. A rich and varied experience won by painful 
 effort and at a terrible cost is already available. This 
 experience is accumulating every year. The pro- 
 gressive countries of the world now form a vast social 
 laboratory in which experiments are continually being 
 made for the common benefit of mankind. Even such 
 as have been most backward can now offer a valuable 
 lesson to the rest. England, France, Germany, Den- 
 mark, and Italy have shown the way to the world ; 
 and now Belgium may claim the foremost place. The 
 latest phase of democracy is in some respects the most 
 encouraging of all. At the General Election in Austria 
 in 1907, the first held on the basis of universal suf- 
 frage, the democracy gave promise that it will be a real 
 bond of union to a country long distracted by racial 
 animosity. If it succeed in bringing some degree of 
 peace and brotherhood to the valley of the Danube, 
 which, since the dawn of history, has been devastated 
 and drenched with blood, there is not a task in the 
 world which it may not cheerfully undertake.
 
 207 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 We have now come to the summing up of our subject. 
 And first as to the problem which socialism has under- 
 taken to solve. As we have seen, the worker was set 
 free on the downfall of Feudalism ; but his emancipa- 
 tion was accompanied or followed by his divorce from 
 the soil. The classes that had possession of the land 
 held also the reins of government, local and national ; 
 and the English labourer was in time reduced to a new 
 form of service, under which his wages were regulated 
 by those who were interested in keeping them low, his 
 personal freedom limited by laws of settlement, his 
 mind kept in ignorance, and scope for development 
 almost wholly denied him. When the industrial 
 revolution came, the men who owned the capital and 
 directed industry also gained political power. Under 
 the new regime, as under the old, the workers lost 
 control of the means of subsistence, and suffered all 
 manner of social and political disability. 
 
 In America the struggle for wealth has led to the 
 rise of the great corporations, which possess a more or 
 less effective monopoly of industry and commerce. 
 This struggle, it should be noted, has been fought 
 under the most favourable conditions by representa- 
 tives of the strongest races in the world in accordance
 
 208 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 with their most deeply cherished ideals. That is to 
 say, it is the freest individual struggle for success 
 among champions fairly matched that has thus 
 resulted in monopoly. If history teaches anything 
 clearly, it teaches that in the long run social and 
 political power goes with the economic and industrial. 
 From the vantage ground of the possession of the means 
 of subsistence and culture an oligarchy thus established 
 under such extraordinary conditions will, if unchecked, 
 control the destinies of the American people. If un- 
 checked it will control not only industry and com- 
 merce, but legislation, administration, and the press. 
 Art, literature and science, churches and universities 
 will look to the plutocracy for support. Once estab- 
 lished, the oligarchy will, like the dominant forms of 
 government in the Old World, receive the sanction of 
 custom and tradition, from which ordinary minds 
 have so much difficulty in emancipating themselves. 
 The divine right of success so imposing and so dear to 
 the average sensual man will take the place of the 
 divine right of kings, and round it will gather all the 
 sentiments and sanctions that go with possession, 
 prescription, political power, and the ascendancy of 
 wealth. To some degree the oligarchy may be ex- 
 pected to establish an order unattainable under free 
 competition. But only to some degree, for we may 
 expect also to see the fiercest and wildest struggles 
 in its own midst, in the frenzied speculation of Wall 
 Street, in the great contests for political influence, 
 and in other forms. Here we have a power which is 
 a menace to all that Americans have held dear. And 
 here we have, in its most formidable form, the problem 
 which socialism has undertaken to solve.
 
 CONCLUSION 209 
 
 We may expect that the supervision and control of 
 the trusts by the State will be beneficial as far as it 
 goes. But who can guarantee that in the future the 
 executive will not itself be nominated and controlled 
 by the trusts ? It is impossible to exaggerate the 
 gravity of the position. 
 
 America, however, merely offers us the latest, the 
 most gigantic, and the most impressive example of a 
 movement which is observable in nearly every part of 
 the world. We can for some centuries trace the 
 development of its historical forms in our own country. 
 But the origin and motive of the movement must be 
 found in human nature itself. 
 
 Every phase of the movement is coloured by human 
 nature. But it is the most serious objection to the 
 prevalent competitive system that it has given scope, 
 incitement — and also to a large degree justification — 
 for many of the worst and vilest human passions. 
 At one time it could fairly claim to be a stage in the 
 development of human freedom. It could with more 
 reason insist that it led to a notable increase in the 
 energy and efficiency of the productive forces. There 
 were moral qualities of diligence, forethought, sobriety, 
 and self-control which it could reasonably maintain 
 to have fostered. But we have now reached a higher 
 point of view from which we can see that it is no longer 
 a help, but a serious hindrance to the economic, political, 
 and moral development of the human race. The chief 
 task of the truly enlightened mind now is to find a 
 fitting type for the progressive evolution of the future. 
 The fact that the evils of competition are making 
 way for the evils of monopoly only renders the task 
 more urgent. 
 
 P
 
 210 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 The claim of socialism to hold the field as a fitting 
 system for the progressive evolution of the future 
 becomes more urgent as time goes on. We have 
 already tried to explain what the socialistic solution 
 of the problem is. But it may be well once more, 
 clearly and emphatically, to dissociate it from theories 
 which have produced so much confusion and mis- 
 understanding. Socialism has no necessary connec- 
 tion with materialism or with theories subversive of 
 religion, marriage, and the family. The abstract and 
 rigid collectivism which figures in so many socialistic 
 programmes is not consistent with a reasonable view 
 of the subject. Surplus value and other abstract 
 theories of Marx do not belong to the essence of the 
 subject. The regimental or bureaucratic socialism 
 which seems to be favoured by some writers, is abso- 
 lutely alien to any reasonable conception of socialism. 
 Pedantry and dogmatism in any form do not accord 
 with the genuine socialistic spirit, which above all 
 things demands the seeing eye and the open mind. 
 Readiness to learn both from discussion and experi- 
 ence, the freest spirit of inquiry should be the cha- 
 racteristics of all socialists. 
 
 Socialism is a new type of economic organisation. 
 It means that industry should be carried on by associ- 
 ated workers, using a joint capital with a view to an 
 equitable system of distribution. This economic 
 organisation is naturally correlated to democracy in 
 politics and to altruism in ethics. As I have said in 
 my ' History of Socialism' (p. 381), ' Socialism rests on 
 the great ideals of freedom and justice, of brotherhood 
 and mutual service. It may well claim to be the 
 heir of the great ideals of the greatest races. The
 
 CONCLUSION 211 
 
 Hebrew ideal of truth, righteousness, and mercy which 
 on its ethical side was widened and deepened into the 
 Christian ideals of love, brotherhood, and mutual 
 service, and the Greek ideal of the true, the good, and 
 the beautiful all may and should be accepted by 
 socialism, and they should be supplemented by the 
 Roman conceptions of law, order, and continuity, but 
 with far wider aims and meanings. In its law of 
 mutual service, by which it at once asserted the inter- 
 dependence of the members of the social organism 
 and a profound conception of social duty, Christi- 
 anity went deeper both in philosophy and practice 
 than the French Revolution with its watchwords of 
 liberty, equality, and fraternity.' It is the crown- 
 ing function of socialism that it offers new economic 
 forms for the moral, social, and political development 
 of mankind. In the past we have had the rule of 
 classes and nations leading to the subjection of the 
 weak. It was believed that freedom with competition 
 would do away with subjection. But it has been found 
 that the competitive struggle only leads to new forms 
 of mastery for the few and subjection for the many. 
 Class rule and competition must alike give place to a 
 freedom which can be won and secured only by asso- 
 ciation on a solid economic basis. The free develop- 
 ment of men must go hand in hand with association. 
 
 From the point of view of socialism the State must 
 be regarded as an association for the promotion of the 
 good of all its members, so far as it can be furthered 
 by the central organ. The municipality or commune 
 must, from the same point of view, be regarded as an 
 organ for the promotion of the good of the people so 
 far as it can be furthered locally. The co-operative
 
 212 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 society should be regarded as an example of the 
 new forms of association that may proceed out of the 
 free initiative of the people. 
 
 Socialism may simply be regarded as a new and 
 better conception of a very old principle or institution. 
 It will insist on a better, a transformed State. Its 
 conception is really that of Aristotle, elevated, deepened 
 and widened in accordance with the many-sided and 
 far-reaching ideal which we have set forth. We must 
 make the natural and real a basis for the attaining of 
 the ideal. But the State, as we have it in England and 
 other countries, falls lamentably short of any reason- 
 able ideal. We have a large and highly organised 
 public service. The Church, army and navy, justice 
 and police, schools and universities, the postal and 
 telegraph services, are all public functions ; and posts 
 in every one of these departments are eagerly com- 
 peted for, from the office of Prime Minister downwards. 
 What we should now see is that many of the func- 
 tions and activities of the State relating to court life 
 and diplomacy, military affairs and finance, are not 
 only superfluous and survivals of old times, but are 
 highly pernicious. The State, with its wide functions 
 and ample resources, should be organised to promote 
 the welfare and the freedom of the whole community. 
 
 In regard to the municipality or commune, we 
 should remember that it has had to rely almost entirely 
 on the rates for the means to carry out its vast and 
 much-needed tasks. Through the negligence and cor- 
 ruption of past times local bodies have been stripped 
 of the common lands which should have been used to 
 defray expenditure. Urban land should be municipal 
 property. For the solution of the land question in the
 
 CONCLUSION 213 
 
 country the ideal to keep before our eyes is the home- 
 stead large enough to employ and support a family, 
 and worked by co-operative methods. Land reform 
 in town, village, and country is urgently needed to 
 give scope for social progress. The homestead may 
 or may not, but it probably should, be associated, as of 
 old, with the village community. Occupation should 
 be permanent under the sanction and furtherance of 
 the community. 
 
 Of all great countries Germany has the most 
 efficient political system, in which State, municipality 
 and private enterprise combine for the promotion of 
 common ends. The patriotic spirit has already led 
 the nation a long way in the public ownership and use 
 of public utilities, in State and municipal socialism. 
 Even urban land is becoming urban property. But 
 there is a great gulf fixed between the governing classes 
 and the Social Democracy. While in many respects 
 Great Britain is behind Germany, we have the supreme 
 advantage of a freer system. We have it in our power 
 above all other countries to secure the free common 
 action of all the organs and members of the com- 
 munity. And we have had the supreme opportunity 
 of showing for the first time in the history of the 
 world how a great empire can be transformed into a 
 free association of States. The ideal of socialism is the 
 free service of society and the free exchange of mutual 
 service among its members. This ideal should be, 
 and is being, applied to the transformation of empire. 
 The British Empire is, and evermore should be, a 
 free association of States in which the active and 
 practical bond of union should be the free interchange 
 of services.
 
 214 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 The State has still too much the character of a 
 taxing and fighting machine ; the municipality is too 
 much an engine for the exacting of rates from the poor 
 who cannot provide daily bread and shelter for their 
 children, and so far as they remain at this stage 
 merely they have neither part nor lot in the socialistic 
 ideal. Let us not deceive ourselves with vain hopes 
 of the speedy and complete realisation of that ideal. 
 Yet we can see the solid framework of a new society 
 growing out of the old. Faith and enthusiasm, as well 
 as integrity, perseverance, and tried business capacity, 
 are working for it on a broad and firm basis of successful 
 experience. Within the wide compass of this new 
 society there will be scope, support, and encourage- 
 ment for the individual and the family, for local 
 institutions and the nation, for new forms of free 
 association, and all the factors of progressive human 
 evolution ; and it will be one of the great problems 
 of the future wisely to adjust them for the good of 
 man. But in the future as in the past, progress will 
 above all things else depend on the soundness of 
 family life and on the recognition of the rights and 
 duties of motherhood. 
 
 Generally it will be the aim of socialism to develop 
 and perfect for the service of man the mechanism of 
 the industrial revolution, and so to carry forward to 
 a higher plane the evolution of the human race. By 
 order, prevision, and the prevention of waste both of 
 force and raw material and of human effort, it must 
 show itself superior in economy and efficiency to the 
 competitive system, and on this ground alone worthy 
 to supersede it. But its chief aim will be to surpass 
 it immeasurably in the equity and mercy of its methods
 
 CONCLUSION 215 
 
 of distribution. Rightly understood, it will be a 
 discipline for the unsteady and unruly, a guide and 
 support to the weak. To men generally it will appear 
 as a type of economic organisation that may take form 
 in a thousand diverse ways, an ideal to be realised by 
 wise and strenuous effort, a goal resplendent and ever 
 visible, which men will ever strive to attain. But the 
 type will be always changing ; the ideal will always 
 grow more exacting and will never be perfectly 
 realised ; the goal, as we approach it, will recede and 
 rise higher. 
 
 The indispensable basis, as we have seen, is merely 
 an enlightened self-interest. But the ardent and 
 generous soul will always cherish a noble ideal and 
 strive for the higher goal. On a wide and firm real 
 basis to give free and effectual scope to the ideal — this 
 is the aim of a reasonable socialism. How far indi- 
 vidual initiative and how far collective action may 
 go in their relation to each other is a question that 
 must be fought out in detail. 
 
 To accomplish these great ends it must enlist on its 
 side all who hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
 all who are touched with pity for the poor and needy, 
 all who have in their hearts the love of order, comeli- 
 ness, and beauty. We may regard it partly as the 
 misfortune, but largely also as the fault of socialists 
 that the movement has so often been divorced from 
 the moral and spiritual forces which have done so 
 much to shape the history of mankind. Socialism 
 most intimately and essentially belongs to these 
 forces. It is part of the great stream of tendency 
 that makes for truth, righteousness, and mercy, for 
 peace and brotherhood, order and beauty. These
 
 216 INQUIRY INTO SOCIALISM 
 
 are all of its household ; it can help them and it can 
 claim their help. 
 
 The generous and impartial student of the socialistic 
 movement must judge all men and institutions accord- 
 ing to their conformity to this ideal. For him parties 
 and forces have no worth, except in so far as they 
 realise it in thought and action. In a happier time, 
 when the memory of old enmities and misunder- 
 standings shall have grown dim, the men and women 
 of a nobler and more catholic society will, we trust, 
 place the wreath of laurel on the tombs of Robert Owen 
 and Lord Shaftesbury, of the Emperor William I. and 
 Bismarck, as well as of Lassalle and Karl Marx, of 
 Cardinal Manning and General Booth, as well as of 
 the poor weavers of Rochdale and Ghent, who made 
 the co-operative movement live. And on the com- 
 memoration days of the future they will think gratefully 
 of all who, having fought and died in the cause of the 
 poor, sleep in graves that are nameless and forgotten, 
 whether in frost-bound Siberia, under the burning sun 
 of the tropics, or in the crowded cemeteries of our 
 great cities. 
 
 The poet had a dream that ' Time will run back and 
 fetch the Age of Gold.' We trust that Time will run 
 on to fetch the Age of Gold. We may be of good hope 
 that we shall see an era when men shall no longer 
 ' grind the face of the poor.' ' And they shall beat 
 their swords into plowshares, and their spears mto 
 pruning hooks ; nation shall not lift up sword against 
 nation, neither shall they learn war any more.' 
 
 THE END 
 
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