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diff --git a/17416-8.txt b/17416-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f560245 --- /dev/null +++ b/17416-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8504 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Critical Examination of Socialism, by +William Hurrell Mallock + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Critical Examination of Socialism + + +Author: William Hurrell Mallock + + + +Release Date: December 30, 2005 [eBook #17416] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF +SOCIALISM*** + + +E-text prepared cy Bryan Ness, Paul Ereaut, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF SOCIALISM + +by + +W.H. MALLOCK + + + + + + + +London +John Murray, Albemarle Street, W. +1908 +Printed by +Hazell, Watson and Viney, Ld., +London and Aylesbury. + + + + + +PREFACE + + +The Civic Federation of New York, an influential body which aims, in +various ways, at harmonising apparently divergent industrial interests +in America, having decided on supplementing its other activities by a +campaign of political and economic education, invited me, at the +beginning of the year 1907, to initiate a scientific discussion of +socialism in a series of lectures or speeches, to be delivered under the +auspices of certain of the great Universities in the United States. This +invitation I accepted, but, the project being a new one, some difficulty +arose as to the manner in which it might best be carried out--whether +the speeches or lectures should in each case be new, dealing with some +fresh aspect of the subject, or whether they should be arranged in a +single series to be repeated without substantial alteration in each of +the cities visited by me. The latter plan was ultimately adopted, as +tending to render the discussion of the subject more generally +comprehensible to each local audience. A series of five lectures, +substantially the same, was accordingly delivered by me in New York, +Cambridge, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. But whilst this plan +secured continuity of treatment, it secured it at the expense of +comprehensiveness. Certain important points had to be passed over. In +the present volume the substance of the original lectures has been +entirely rearranged and rewritten, and more than half the matter is new. +Even in the present volume, however, it has been impossible to treat the +subject otherwise than in a general way. At almost every point a really +complete discussion would necessitate a much fuller analysis of facts +than it has been practicable to give here. Arguments here necessarily +confined to a few pages or to a chapter, would each, for their complete +elucidation, require a separate monograph. Most readers, however, will +be able to supply much of what is missing, by the light of their own +common sense; and general arguments, in which, as in block plans of +buildings, many details are suppressed, have for practical purposes the +great advantage of being generally and easily intelligible, whereas, if +stated in fuller and more complex form, they might confuse rather than +enlighten a large number of readers. + +The fact that the fundamental arguments of this volume were +disseminated throughout the United States, not only at the meetings +addressed, but also in all the leading newspapers, has had the valuable +result, by means of the mass of criticisms which they elicited, of +illustrating the manner in which socialists attempt to meet them; and +has enabled me to revise, with a view to farther clearness, certain +passages which were intentionally or unintentionally misunderstood, and +also to emphasise the curious confusions of thought into which various +critics have been driven in their efforts to controvert or get round +them. I may specially mention a small volume by Mr. G. Wilshire of New +York--a leading publisher and disseminator of socialistic +literature--which was devoted to examining my own arguments seriatim. To +the principal criticisms of this writer allusions will be found in the +following pages. Most of my socialistic opponents (though to this rule +there were amusing exceptions) wrote, according to their varying degrees +of intelligence and education, with remarkable candour, and also with +great courtesy. Mr. Wilshire, in particular, whilst seeking to refute my +arguments as a whole, admitted the force of many of them; and did his +best, in his elaborate _résumé_ of them, to state them all fairly. + +The contentions, and even the phraseology of socialists are in all +countries (with the possible exception of Russia) identical. All are +vitiated by the same distinctive errors, and it is indifferent whether, +for purposes of detail criticism, we go to speakers and writers in this +country or America. Except for the correction of a few verbal errors +which have escaped my notice in the American edition, and which obscure +the meaning of perhaps four or five sentences, for the introduction of a +few additional notes, and for the translation of dollars and cents into +pounds and shillings, the English and the American editions are the +same. + +W. H. M. + +_January, 1908._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I + + THE HISTORICAL BEGINNING OF SOCIALISM AS AN OSTENSIBLY + SCIENTIFIC THEORY + + Socialism an unrealised theory. In order to discuss it, it must + be defined. + + Being of no general interest except as a nucleus of some general + movement, we must identify it as a theory which has united large + numbers of men in a common demand for change. + + As the definite theoretical nucleus of a party or movement, + socialism dates from the middle of the nineteenth century, when + it was erected into a formal system by Karl Marx. + + We must begin our examination of it by taking it in this, its + earliest, systematic form. + + + CHAPTER II + + THE THEORY OF MARX AND THE EARLIER SOCIALISTS SUMMARISED + + The doctrine of Marx that all wealth is produced by labour. + + His recognition that the possibilities of distribution rest on + the facts of production. + + His theory of labour as the sole producer of wealth avowedly + derived from Ricardo's theory of value. + + His theory of capital as consisting of implements of production, + which are embodiments of past labour, and his theory of modern + capitalism as representing nothing but a gradual abstraction by + a wholly unproductive class, of these implements from the men + who made them, and who alone contribute anything to their + present productive use. + + His theory that wages could never rise, but must, under + capitalism, sink all over the world to the amount which would + just keep the labourers from starvation, when, driven by + necessity, they will rebel, and, repossessing themselves of + their own implements, will be rich forever afterwards by using + them for their own benefit. + + + CHAPTER III + + THE ROOT ERROR OF THE MARXIAN THEORY. + ITS OMISSION OF DIRECTIVE ABILITY. + ABILITY AND LABOUR DEFINED + + The theory of Marx analysed. It is true as applied to primitive + communities, where the amount of wealth produced is very small, + but it utterly fails to account for the increased wealth of the + modern world. + + Labour, as Marx conceived of it, can indeed increase in + productivity in two ways, but to a small degree only, neither of + which explains the vast increase of wealth during the past + hundred and fifty years. + + The cause of this is the development of a class which, not + labouring itself, concentrates exceptional knowledge and energy + on the task of directing the labour of others, as an author does + when, by means of his manuscript, he directs the labour of + compositors. + + Formal definition of the parts played respectively by the + faculties of the labouring and those of the directing classes. + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE ERRORS OF MARX, CONTINUED. + CAPITAL AS THE IMPLEMENT OF ABILITY + + Two kinds of human effort being thus involved in modern + production, it is necessary for all purposes of intelligible + discussion to distinguish them by different names. + + The word "labour" being appropriated by common custom to the + manual task-work of the majority, some other technical word must + be found to designate the directive faculties as applied to + productive industry. The word here chosen, in default of a + better, is "ability." + + Ability, then, being the faculty which directs labour, by what + means does it give effect to its directions? + + It gives effect to its directions by means of its control of + capital, in the form of wage-capital. + + Ability, using wage-capital as its implement of direction, gives + rise to fixed capital, in the form of the elaborate implements + of modern production, which are the material embodiments of the + knowledge, ingenuity, and energy of the highest minds. + + + CHAPTER V + + REPUDIATION OF MARX BY MODERN SOCIALISTS. + THEIR RECOGNITION OF DIRECTIVE ABILITY + + The more educated socialists of to-day, when the matter is put + plainly before them, admit that the argument of the preceding + chapters is correct, and repudiate the doctrine of Marx that + "labour" is the sole producer. + + Examples of this admission on the part of American socialists. + + The socialism of Marx, however, still remains the socialism of + the more ignorant classes, and also of the popular agitator. + + It is, moreover, still used as an instrument of agitation by + many who personally repudiate it. The case of Mr. Hillquit. + + The doctrine of Marx, therefore, still requires exposure. + + Further, it is necessary to understand this earlier form of + socialistic theory in order to understand the later. + + + CHAPTER VI + + REPUDIATION OF MARX BY MODERN SOCIALISTS, CONTINUED. + THEIR RECOGNITION OF CAPITAL AS THE IMPLEMENT OF DIRECTIVE + ABILITY. + THEIR NEW POSITION, AND THEIR NEW THEORETICAL DIFFICULTIES + + The more educated socialists of to-day, besides virtually + accepting the argument of the preceding chapters with regard to + labour, virtually accept the argument set forth in them with + regard to capital. + + Mr. Sidney Webb, for example, recognises it as an implement of + direction, the only alternative to which is a system of legal + coercion. + + Other socialists advocate the continued use of wage-capital as + the implement of direction, but they imagine that the situation + would be radically changed by making the "state" the sole + capitalist. + + But the "state," as some of them are beginning to realise, would + be merely the private men of ability--the existing + employers--turned into state officials, and deprived of most of + their present inducements to exert themselves. + + A socialistic state theoretically could always command labour, + for labour can be exacted by force; but the exercise of ability + must be voluntary, and can only be secured by a system of + adequate rewards and inducements. + + Two problems with which modern socialism is confronted: How + would it test its able men so as to select the best of them for + places of power? What rewards could it offer them which would + induce them systematically to develop, and be willing to + exercise, their exceptional faculties? + + + CHAPTER VII + + PROXIMATE DIFFICULTIES. + ABLE MEN AS A CORPORATION OF STATE OFFICIALS + + How are the men fittest for posts of industrial power to be + selected from the less fit? + + This problem solved automatically by the existing system of + private and separate capitals. + + The fusion of all private capitals into a single state capital + would make this solution impossible, and would provide no other. + The only machinery by which the more efficient directors of + labour could be discriminated from the less efficient would be + broken. Case of the London County Council's steamboats. + + Two forms which the industrial state under socialism might + conceivably take: The official directors of industry might be + either an autocratic bureaucracy, or they might else be subject + to elected politicians representing the knowledge and opinions + prevalent among the majority. + + Estimate of the results which would arise in the former case. + Illustrations from actual bureaucratic enterprise. + + Estimate of the results which would arise in the latter case. + The state, as representing the average opinion of the masses, + brought to bear on scientific industrial enterprise. + Illustrations. + + The state as sole printer and publisher. State capitalism would + destroy the machinery of industrial progress just as it would + destroy the machinery by which thought and knowledge develop. + + But behind the question of whether socialism could provide + ability with the conditions or the machinery requisite for its + exercise is the question of whether it could provide it with any + adequate stimulus. + + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE ULTIMATE DIFFICULTY. + SPECULATIVE ATTEMPTS TO MINIMISE IT + + Mr. Sidney Webb, and most modern socialists of the higher kind, + recognise that this problem of motive underlies all others. + + They approach it indirectly by sociological arguments borrowed + from other philosophers, and directly by a psychology peculiar + to themselves. + + The sociological arguments by which socialists seek to minimise + the claims of the able man. + + These founded on a specific confusion of thought, which vitiated + the evolutionary sociology of that second half of the nineteenth + century. Illustrations from Herbert Spencer, Macaulay, Mr. Kidd, + and recent socialists. + + The confusion in question a confusion between speculative truth + and practical. + + The individual importance of the able man, untouched by the + speculative conclusions of the sociological evolutionists, as + may be seen by the examples adduced in a contrary sense by + Herbert Spencer. This is partially perceived by Spencer himself. + Illustrations from his works. + + Ludicrous attempts, on the part of socialistic writers, to apply + the speculative generalisations of sociology to the practical + position of individual men. + + The climax of absurdity reached by Mr. Sidney Webb. + + + CHAPTER IX + + THE ULTIMATE DIFFICULTY, CONTINUED. + ABILITY AND INDIVIDUAL MOTIVE + + The individual motives of the able man as dealt with directly by + modern socialists. + + They abandon their sociological ineptitudes altogether, and + betake themselves to a psychology which they declare to be + scientific, but which is based on no analysis of facts, and + consists really of loose assumptions and false analogies. + + Their treatment of the motives of the artist, the thinker, the + religious enthusiast, and the soldier. + + Their unscientific treatment of the soldier's motive, and their + fantastic proposal based on it to transfer this motive from the + domain of war to that of industry. + + The socialists as their own critics when they denounce the + actual motives of the able man as he is and as they say he + always has been. They attack the typically able man of all + periods as a monster of congenital selfishness, and it is men of + this special type whom they propose to transform suddenly into + monsters of self-abnegation. + + Their want of faith in the efficacy of their own moral suasion + and their proposal to supplement this by the ballot. + + + CHAPTER X + + INDIVIDUAL MOTIVE AND DEMOCRACY + + Exaggerated powers ascribed to democracy by inaccurate thinkers. + + An example from an essay by a recent philosophic thinker, with + special reference to the rewards of exceptional ability. + + This writer maintains that the money rewards of ability can be + determined by the opinion of the majority expressing itself + through votes and statutes. + + The writer's typical error. A governing body might enact any + laws, but they would not be obeyed unless consonant with human + nature. + + Laws are obliged to conform to the propensities of human nature + which it is their office to regulate. + + Elaborate but unconscious admission of this fact by the writer + here quoted himself. + + The power of democracy in the economic sphere, its magnitude and + its limits. The demands of the minority a counterpart of those + of the majority. + + The demand of the great wealth-producer mainly a demand for + power. + + Testimony of a well-known socialist to the impossibility of + altering the character of individual demand by outside + influence. + + + CHAPTER XI + + CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR SECULAR DEMOCRACY + + The meaning of Christian socialism, as restated to-day by a + typical writer. + + His just criticism of the fallacy underlying modern ideas of + democracy. The impossibility of equalising unequal men by + political means. + + Christian socialism teaches, he says, that the abler men should + make themselves equal to ordinary men by surrendering to them + the products of their own ability, or else by abstaining from + its exercise. + + The author's ignorance of the nature of the modern industrial + process. His idea of steel. + + He confuses the production of wealth on a great scale with the + acquisition of wealth when produced. + + The only really productive ability which he distinctly + recognises is that of the speculative inventor. + + He declares that inventors never wish to profit personally by + their inventions. Let the great capitalists, he says, who merely + monopolise inventions, imitate the self-abnegation of the + inventors, and Christian socialism will become a fact. + + The confusion which reigns in the minds of sentimentalists like + the author here quoted. Their inability to see complex facts and + principles, in their connected integrity, as they are. Such + persons herein similar to devisers of perpetual motions and + systems for defeating the laws of chance at a roulette-table. + + All logical socialistic conclusions drawn from premises in which + some vital truth or principle is omitted. Omission in the + premises of the earlier socialists. Corresponding omission in + the premises of the socialists of to-day. + + Origin of the confusion of thought characteristic of Christian + as of all other socialists. Temperamental inability to + understand the complexities of economic life. This inability + further evidenced by the fact that, with few exceptions, + socialists themselves are absolutely incompetent as producers. + Certain popular contentions with regard to modern economic life, + urged by socialists, but not peculiar to socialism, still remain + to be considered in the following chapters. + + + CHAPTER XII + + THE JUST REWARD OF LABOUR AS ESTIMATED BY ITS ACTUAL PRODUCTS + + Modern socialists admit that of the wealth produced to-day + labour does not produce the whole, but that some part is + produced by directive ability. But they contend that labour + produces more than it gets. We can only ascertain if such an + assertion is correct by discovering how to estimate with some + precision the amount produced by labour and ability + respectively. + + But since for the production of the total product labour and + ability are both alike necessary, how can we say that any + special proportion of it is produced by one or the other? + + J.S. Mill's answer to this question. + + The profound error of Mill's argument. + + Practically so much of any effect is due to any one of its + causes as would be absent from this effect were the cause in + question taken away. Illustrations. + + Labour itself produces as much as it would produce were there no + ability to direct it. + + The argument which might be drawn from the case of a community + in which there was no labour. + + Such an argument illusory; for a community in which there was no + labour would be impossible; but the paralysis of ability, or its + practical non-existence possible. + + Practical reasoning of all kinds always confines itself to the + contemplation of possibilities. Illustrations. + + Restatement of proposition as to the amount of the product of + labour. + + The product of ability only partially described by assimilating + it to rent. + + Ability produces everything which would not be produced if its + operation were hampered or suspended. + + Increased reward of labour in Great Britain since the year 1800. + The reward now received by labour far in excess of what labour + itself produces. + + In capitalistic countries generally labour gets, not less, but + far more than its due, if its due is to be measured by its own + products. + + It is necessary to remember this; but its due is not to be + measured exclusively by its own products. + + As will be seen in the concluding chapter. + + + CHAPTER XIII + + INTEREST AND ABSTRACT JUSTICE + + The proposal to confiscate interest for the public benefit, on + the ground that it is income unconnected with any corresponding + effort. + + Is the proposal practicable? Is it defensible on grounds of + abstract justice? + + The abstract moral argument plays a large part in the + discussion. + + It assumes that a man has a moral right to what he produces, + interest being here contrasted with this, as a something which + he does not produce. + + Defects of this argument. It ignores the element of time. Some + forms of effort are productive long after the effort itself has + ceased. + + For examples, royalties on an acted play. Such royalties herein + typical of interest generally. + + Industrial interest as a product of the forces of organic + nature. Henry George's defence of interest as having this + origin. + + His argument true, but imperfect. His superficial criticism of + Bastiat. + + Nature works through machine-capital just as truly as it does in + agriculture. + + Machines are natural forces captured by men of genius, and set + to work for the benefit of human beings. + + Interest on machine-capital is part of an extra product which + nature is made to yield by those men who are exceptionally + capable of controlling her. + + By capturing natural forces, one man of genius may add more to + the wealth of the world in a year than an ordinary man could add + to it in a hundred lifetimes. + + The claim of any such man on the products of his genius is + limited by a variety of circumstances; but, as a mere matter of + abstract justice, the whole of it belongs to him. + + Abstract justice, however, in a case like this, gives us no + practical guidance, until we interpret it in connection with + concrete facts, and translate the just into terms of the + practicable. + + + CHAPTER XIV + + THE SOCIALISTIC ATTACK ON INTEREST AND THE NATURE OF ITS SEVERAL + ERRORS + + The practical outcome of the moral attack on interest is + logically an attack on bequest. + + Modern socialism would logically allow a man to inherit + accumulations, and to spend the principal, but not to receive + interest on his money as an investment. + + What would be the result if all who inherited capital spent it + as income, instead of living on the interest of it? + + Two typical illustrations of these ways of treating capital. + + The ultimate difference between the two results. + + What the treatment of capital as income would mean, if the + practice were made universal. It would mean the gradual loss of + all the added productive forces with which individual genius has + enriched the world. + + Practical condemnation of proposed attack on interest. + + Another aspect of the matter. + + Those who attack interest, as distinct from other kinds of + money-reward, admit that the possession of wealth is necessary + as a stimulus to production. + + But the possession of wealth is desired mainly for its social + results far more than for its purely individual results. + + Interest as connected with the sustentation of a certain mode of + social life. + + Further consideration of the manner in which those who attack + interest ignore the element of time, and contemplate the present + moment only. + + The economic functions of a class which is not, at a given + moment, economically productive. + + Systematic failure of those who attack interest to consider + society as a whole, continually emerging from the past, and + dependent for its various energies on the prospects of the + future. + + Consequent futility of the general attack on interest, though + interest in certain cases may be justly subjected to special but + not exaggerated burdens. + + + CHAPTER XV + + EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY + + Equality of opportunity, as an abstract demand, is in an + abstract sense just; but it changes its character when applied + to a world of unequal individuals. + + Equality of opportunity in the human race-course. To multiply + competitors is to multiply failures. + + Educational opportunity. Unequal students soon make + opportunities unequal. + + Opportunity in industrial life. Socialistic promises of equal + industrial opportunities for all. Each "to paddle his own + canoe." + + These absurd promises inconsistent with the arguments of + socialists themselves. + + A socialist's attempt to defend these promises by reference to + employés of the state post-office. + + Equality of industrial opportunity for those who believe + themselves possessed of exceptional talent and aspire "to rise." + + Opportunities for such men involve costly experiment, and are + necessarily limited. + + Claimants who would waste them indefinitely more numerous than + those who could use them profitably. + + Such opportunities mean the granting to one man the control of + other men by means of wage-capital. + + Disastrous effects of granting such opportunities to all or even + most of those who would believe themselves entitled to them. + + True remedy for the difficulties besetting the problem of + opportunity. + + Ruskin on human demands. Needs and "romantic wishes." The former + not largely alterable. The latter depend mainly on education. + + The problem practically soluble by a wise moral education only, + which will correlate demand and expectation with the personal + capacities of the individual. + + Relative equality of opportunity, not absolute equality, the + true formula. + + Equality of opportunity, though much talked about by socialists, + is essentially a formula of competition, and opposed to the + principles of socialism. + + + CHAPTER XVI + + THE SOCIAL POLICY OF THE FUTURE + + THE MORAL OF THIS BOOK + + This book, though consisting of negative criticism and analysis + of facts, and not trenching on the domain of practical policy + and constructive suggestion, aims at facilitating a rational + social policy by placing in their true perspective the main + statical facts and dynamic forces of the modern economic world, + which socialism merely confuses. + + In pointing out the limitations of labour as a productive + agency, and the dependence of the labourers on a class other + than their own, it does not seek to represent the aspirations of + the former to participate in the benefits of progress as + illusory, but rather to place such aspirations on a scientific + basis, and so to remove what is at present the principal + obstacle that stands in the way of a rational and scientific + social policy. + + + + +A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF SOCIALISM + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE HISTORICAL BEGINNING OF SOCIALISM AS AN OSTENSIBLY SCIENTIFIC THEORY + + +Socialism, whatever may be its more exact definition, stands for an +organisation of society, and more especially for an economic +organisation, radically opposed to, and differing from, the organisation +which prevails to-day. So much we may take for granted; but here, before +going further, it is necessary to free ourselves from a very common +confusion. When socialism, as thus defined, is spoken of as a thing that +exists--as a thing that has risen and is spreading--two ideas are apt to +suggest themselves to the minds of all parties equally, of which one +coincides with facts, while the other does not, having, indeed, thus far +at all events, no appreciable connection with them; and it is necessary +to get rid of the false idea, and concern ourselves only with the true. + +The best way in which I can make my meaning clear will be by referring +to a point with regard to which the earlier socialistic thinkers may be +fairly regarded as accurate and original critics. The so-called orthodox +economists of the school of Mill and Ricardo accepted the capitalistic +system as part of the order of nature, and their object was mainly to +analyse the peculiar operations incident to it. The abler among the +socialists were foremost in pointing out, on the contrary, a fact which +now would not be denied by anybody: that capitalism in its present form +is a comparatively modern phenomenon, owing its origin historically to +the dissolution of the feudal system, and not having entered on its +adolescence, or even on its independent childhood, till a time which may +be roughly indicated as the middle of the eighteenth century. The +immediate causes of its then accelerated development were, as the +socialists insist, the rapid invention of new kinds of machinery, and +more especially that of steam as a motor power, which together +inaugurated a revolution in the methods of production generally. +Production on a small scale gave way to production on a large. The +independent weavers, for example, each with his own loom, were wholly +unable to compete with the mechanisms of the new factory; their looms, +by being superseded, were virtually taken away from them; and these men, +formerly their own masters, working with their own implements, and +living by the sale of their own individual products, were compelled to +pass under the sway of a novel class, the capitalists; to work with +implements owned by the capitalists, not themselves; and to live by the +wages of their labour, not by their sale of the products of it. + +Such, as the socialists insist, was the rise of the capitalistic system; +and when once it had been adequately organised, as it first was, in +England, it proceeded, they go on to observe, to spread itself with +astonishing rapidity, all other methods disappearing before it, through +their own comparative inefficiency. But when socialists or their +opponents turn from capitalism to socialism, and speak of how socialism +has risen and spread likewise, their language, as thus applied, has no +meaning whatever unless it is interpreted in a totally new sense. For in +the sense in which socialists speak of the rise and spread of +capitalism, socialism has, up to the present time, if we except a number +of small and unsuccessful experiments, never risen or spread or had any +existence at all. Capitalism rose and spread as an actual working +system, which multiplied and improved the material appliances of life in +a manner beyond the reach of the older system displaced by it. It +realised results of which previously mankind had hardly dreamed. +Socialism, on the other hand, has risen and spread thus far, not as a +system which is threatening to supersede capitalism by its actual +success as an alternative system of production, but merely as a theory +or belief that such an alternative is possible. Let us take any country +or any city we please--for example, let us say Chicago, in which +socialism is said to be achieving its most hopeful or most formidable +triumphs--and we shall look in vain for a sign that the general +productive process has been modified by socialistic principles in any +particular whatsoever. Socialism has produced resolutions at endless +public meetings; it has produced discontent and strikes; it has hampered +production constantly. But socialism has never inaugurated an improved +chemical process; it has never bridged an estuary or built an ocean +liner; it has never produced or cheapened so much as a lamp or a +frying-pan. It is a theory that such things could be accomplished by the +practical application of its principles; but, except for the abortive +experiments to which I have referred already, it is thus far a theory +only, and it is as a theory only that we can examine it. + +What, then, as a theory, are the distinctive features of socialism? Here +is a question which, if we address it indiscriminately to all the types +of people who now call themselves socialists, seems daily more +impossible to answer; for every day the number of those is increasing +who claim for their own opinions the title of socialistic, but whose +quarrel with the existing system is very far from apparent, while less +apparent still is the manner in which they propose to alter it. The +persons to whom I refer consist mainly of academic students, professors, +clergymen, and also of emotional ladies, who enjoy the attention of +footmen in faultless liveries, and say their prayers out of +prayer-books with jewelled clasps. All these persons unite in the +general assertion that, whatever may be amiss with the world, the +capitalistic system is responsible for it, and that somehow or other +this system ought to be altered. But when we ask them to specify the +details as to which alteration is necessary--what precisely are the +parts of it which they wish to abolish and what, if these were +abolished, they would introduce as a substitute--one of them says one +thing, another of them says another, and nobody says anything on which +three of them could act in concert. + +Now, if socialism were confined to such persons as these, who are in +America spoken of as the "parlour socialists," it would not only be +impossible to tell what socialism actually was, but what it was or was +not would be immaterial to any practical man. As a matter of fact, +however, between socialism of this negligible kind--this sheet-lightning +of sentiment reflected from a storm elsewhere--and the socialism which +is really a factor to be reckoned with in the life of nations, we can +start with drawing a line which, when once drawn, is unmistakable. +Socialism being avowedly a theory which, in the first instance at all +events, addresses itself to the many as distinct from and opposed to the +few, it is only or mainly the fact of its adoption by the many which +threatens to render it a practical force in politics. Its practical +importance accordingly depends upon two things--firstly, on its +possessing a form sufficiently definite to unite what would otherwise be +a mass of heterogeneous units, by developing in all of them a common +temper and purpose; and, secondly, on the number of those who can be +taught to adopt and welcome it. The theory of socialism is, therefore, +as a practical force, primarily that form of it which is operative among +the mass of socialists; and when once we realise this, we shall have no +further difficulty in discovering what the doctrines are with which, at +all events, we must begin our examination. We are guided to our +starting-point by the broad facts of history. + +The rights of the many as opposed to the actual position of the few--a +society in which all should be equal, not only in political status, but +also in social circumstances; ideas such as these are as old as the days +of Plato, and they have, from time to time in the ancient and the modern +world, resulted in isolated and abortive attempts to realise them. In +Europe such ideas were rife during the sixty or seventy years which +followed the great political revolution in France. Schemes of society +were formulated which were to carry this revolution further, and +concentrate effort on industrial rather than political change. Pictures +were presented to the imagination, and the world was invited to realise +them, of societies in which all were workers on equal terms, and groups +of fraternal citizens, separated no longer by the egoisms of the private +home, dwelt together in palaces called "phalansteries," which appear to +have been imaginary anticipations of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Here +lapped in luxury, they were to feast at common tables; and between meals +the men were to work in the fields singing, while a lady accompanied +their voices on a grand piano under a hedge. These pictures, however, +agreeable as they were to the fancy, failed to produce any great effect +on the multitudes; for the multitudes felt instinctively that they were +too good to be true. That such was the case is admitted by socialistic +historians themselves. Socialism during this period was, they say, in +its "Utopian stage." It was not even sufficiently coherent to have +acquired a distinctive name till the word "socialism" was coined in +connection with the views of Owen, which suffered discredit from the +failure of his attempts to put them into practice. Socialism in those +days was a dream, but it was not science; and in a world which was +rapidly coming to look upon science as supreme, nothing could convince +men generally--not even the most ignorant--which had not, or was not +supposed to have, the authority of science at the back of it. + +Such being the situation, as the socialists accurately describe it, an +eminent thinker arose who at last supplied what was wanting. He provided +the unorganised aspirations, which by this time were known as socialism, +with a formula which was at once definite, intelligible, and +comprehensive, and had all the air of being rigidly scientific also. By +this means thoughts and feelings, previously vague and fluid, like salts +held in solution, were crystallised into a clear-cut theory which was +absolutely the same for all; which all who accepted it could accept with +the same intellectual confidence; and which thus became a moral and +mental nucleus around which the efforts and hopes of a coherent party +could group themselves. + +Such was the feat accomplished by Karl Marx, through his celebrated +treatise on Capital, which was published between fifty and sixty years +ago, and which has, since then, throughout all Europe and America, been +acclaimed as the Magna Charta, or the Bible, of "scientific socialism." + +Whatever may be the change which, as a theory, socialism has +subsequently undergone--and changes there have been which will presently +occupy our attention--it is with the theory of Marx, and the temper of +mind resulting from it, that socialism, regarded as a practical force, +begins; and among the majority of socialists this theory is predominant +still. In view, therefore, of the requirements of logic, of history, and +of contemporary facts, our own examination must begin with the theory of +Marx likewise. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE THEORY OF MARX AND THE EARLIER SOCIALISTS SUMMARISED + + +All radical revolutions which are advocated in the interests of the +people are commended to the people, and the people are invited to +accomplish them, on the ground that majorities are, if they would only +realise it, capable of moulding society in any manner they please. As +applied to matters of legislation and government, this theory is +sufficiently familiar to everybody. It has been elaborated in endless +detail, and has expressed itself in the constitutions of all modern +democracies. What Karl Marx did, and did for the first time, was to +invest this theory of the all-efficiency of the majority with a +definiteness, in respect of distribution of wealth, similar to that with +which it had been invested already in respect of the making of laws and +the dictation of national policies. + +The practical outcome of the scientific reasoning of Marx is summed up +in the formula which has figured as the premise and conclusion of every +congress of his followers, of every book or manifesto published by +them, and of every propagandist oration uttered by them at +street-corners, namely, "All wealth is produced by labour, therefore to +the labourers all wealth is due"--a doctrine in itself not novel if +taken as a pious generality, but presented by Marx as the outcome of an +elaborate system of economics. + +The efficiency of this doctrine as an instrument of agitation is +obvious. It appeals at once to two universal instincts: the instinct of +cupidity and the instinct of universal justice. It stimulates the +labourers to demand more than they receive already, and it stimulates to +demand the more on the ground that they themselves have produced it. It +teaches them that the wealth of every man who is not a manual labourer +is something stolen from themselves which ought to be and which can be +restored to them. + +Now, whatever may be the value of such teaching as a contribution to +economic science, it illustrates by its success one cardinal truth, and +by implication it bears witness to another. The first truth is that, no +matter how desirable any object may be which is obtruded on the +imagination of anybody, nobody will bestir himself in a practical way to +demand it until he can be persuaded to believe that its attainment is +practically possible. The other is this: that the possibilities of +redistributing wealth depend on the causes by which wealth is produced. +All wealth, says Marx, can practically be appropriated by the +labourers. But why? Because the labourers themselves comprise in their +own labour all the forces that produce it. If its production +necessitated the activity of any persons other than themselves, these +other persons would inevitably have some control over its distribution; +since if it were distributed in a manner of which these other persons +disapproved, it would be open to them to refuse to take part in its +production any longer; and there would, in consequence, be no wealth, or +less wealth, to distribute. + +Let us, then, examine the precise sense and manner in which this theory +of labour as the sole producer of wealth is elaborated and defended by +Marx in his Bible of Scientific Socialism. His argument, though the +expression of it is very often pedantic and encumbered with superfluous +mathematical formulæ, is ingenious and interesting, and is associated +with historical criticism which, in spite of its defects, is valuable. +Marx was, indeed, foremost among those thinkers already referred to who +first insisted on the fact that the economic conditions of to-day are +mainly a novel development of others which went before them, and that, +having their roots in history, they must be studied by the historical +method. He recognised, however, that for practical purposes each age +must concern itself with its own environment; and his logical +starting-point is an analysis of wealth-production as it exists to-day. +He begins by insisting on the fact that labour in the modern world is +divided with such a general and such an increasing minuteness that each +labour produces one kind of product only, of which he himself can +consume but a small fraction, and often consumes nothing. His own +product, therefore, has for him the character of wealth only because he +is able to exchange it for commodities of other kinds; and the amount of +wealth represented by it depends upon what the quantity of other +assorted commodities, which he can get in exchange for it, is. What, +then, is the common measure, in accordance with which, as a fact, one +kind of commodity will exchange for any other, or any others? For his +answer to this question Marx goes to the orthodox economists of his +time--the recognised exponents of the system against which his own +arguments were directed--and notably, among these, to Ricardo; and, +adopting Ricardo's conclusions, as though they were axiomatic, he +asserts that the measure of exchange between one class of commodities +and another--such, for example, as cigars, printed books, and +chronometers--is the amount of manual labour, estimated in terms of +time, which is on an average necessary to the production of each of +them. His meaning in this respect is illustrated with pictorial +vividness by his teaching with regard to the form in which the measure +of exchange should embody itself. This, he said, ought not to be gold or +silver, but "labour-certificates," which would indicate that whoever +possessed them had laboured for so many hours in producing no matter +what, and which would purchase anything else, or any quantity of +anything else, representing an equal expenditure of labour of any other +kind. + +Having thus settled, as it seemed to him beyond dispute, that manual +labour, estimated in terms of time, is the sole source and measure of +economic values or of wealth, Marx goes on to point out that, by the +improvement of industrial methods, labour in the modern world has been +growing more and more productive, so that each labour-hour results in an +increased yield of commodities. Thus a man who a couple of centuries ago +could have only just kept himself alive by the products of his entire +labour-day, can now keep himself alive by the products of half or a +quarter of it. The products of the remainder of his labour-day are what +Marx called a "surplus value," meaning by this phrase all that output of +wealth which is beyond what is practically necessary to keep the +labourer alive. But what, he asks, becomes of this surplus? Does it go +to the labourers who have produced it? No, he replies. On the contrary, +as fast as it is produced, it is abstracted from the labourer in a +manner, which he goes on to analyse, by the capitalist. + +Marx here advances to the second stage of his argument. Capital, as he +conceives of it, is the tools or instruments of production; and modern +capital for him means those vast aggregates of machinery by the use of +which in most industries the earlier implements have been displaced. +Now, here, says Marx, the capitalist is sure to interpose with the +objection that the increased output of wealth is due, not to labour, but +to the machinery, and that the labourer, as such, has consequently no +claim on it. But to this objection Marx is ready with the following +answer--that the machinery itself is nothing but past labour in +disguise. It is past labour crystallised, or embodied in an external +form, and used by present labour to assist itself in its own operations. +Every wheel, crank, and connecting-rod, every rivet in every boiler, +owes its shape and its place to labour, and labour only. Labour, +therefore--the labour of the average multitude--remains the sole agent +in the production of wealth, after all. + +Capital, however, as thus understood, has, he says, this +peculiarity--that, being labour in an externalised and also in a +permanent form, it is capable of being detached from the labourers and +appropriated by other people; and the essence of modern capitalism is +neither more nor less than this--the appropriation of the instruments of +production by a minority who are not producers. So long as the +implements of production were small and simple, and such that each could +be used by one man or family, the divorce between the labourer and his +implements was not easy to accomplish; but in proportion as these simple +implements were developed into the aggregated mechanisms of the factory, +each of which aggregates was used in common by hundreds and even by +thousands of labourers, the link between the implement and the user was +broken by an automatic process; for a single organised mechanism used by +a thousand men could not, in the nature of things, be owned by each one +of the thousand individually, and collective ownership by all of them +was an idea as yet unborn. Under these circumstances, with the growth of +modern machinery, the ownership of the implements of production passed, +by what Marx looked upon as a kind of historical fatality, into the +hands of a class whose activities were purely acquisitive, and had no +true connection with the process of production at all; and this class, +he said, constitutes the capitalists of the modern world. + +The results of this process have, according to him, been as follows: +Society has become divided into two contrasted groups--an enormous +group, and a small one. The enormous group--the great body of every +nation--the people--the labouring mass--the one true producing +power--has been left without any implements by means of which its labour +can exert itself, and these implements have been monopolised by the +small group alone. The people at large, in fact, have become like the +employés of a single mill-owner, who have no choice but to work within +the walls of that mill or starve; and the possessing class at large has +become like the owner of such a single mill, who, holding the keys of +life and death in his hands, is able to impose on the mill-workers +almost any terms he pleases as the price of admission to his premises +and to the privilege of using his machinery; and the price which such an +owner, so situated, will exact (such was the contention of Marx) +inevitably must come, and historically has come, to this--namely, the +entire amount of goods which the labouring class produces, except such a +minimum as will just enable its members to keep themselves in working +order, and to reproduce their kind. Thus all capital, as at present +owned, all profits, and all interest on capital, are neither more nor +less than thefts from the labouring class of commodities which are +produced by the labouring class alone. + +The argument of Marx is not, however, finished yet. There remains a +third part of it which we still have to consider. Writing as he did, +almost half a century ago, he said that the process of capitalistic +appropriation had not--yet completed itself. A remnant of producers on a +restricted scale survived, still forming a middle class, which was +neither rich nor poor. But, he continued, in all capitalistic countries, +a new movement, inevitable from the first, had set in, and its pace was +daily accelerating. Just as the earlier capitalists swallowed up most of +the small producers, so were the great capitalists swallowing up the +smaller, and the middle class which survived was disappearing day by +day. Wages, meanwhile, were regulated by an iron law. Under the system +of capitalism it was an absolute impossibility that they could rise. As +he put it, in language which has since become proverbial, "The rich are +getting richer, the poor poorer, the middle class is being crushed out," +and the time, he continued, was in sight already--it would arrive, +according to him, before the end of the nineteenth century--when nothing +would be left but a handful of idle and preposterous millionaires on the +one hand, and a mass of miserable ragamuffins who provided all the +millions on the other, having for themselves only enough food and +clothing to enable them to move their muscles and protect their +nakedness from the frost. Then, said Marx, when this contrast has +completed itself, the situation will be no longer tolerable. "Then the +knell of the capitalistic system will have sounded." The producers will +assert themselves under the pressure of an irresistible impulse; they +will repossess themselves of the implements of production of which they +have been so long deprived. "The expropriators will in their turn be +expropriated," and the labourers thenceforth owning the implements of +production collectively, all the wealth of the world will forever +afterwards be theirs. + +This concluding portion of the gospel of Marx--its prophecies--has been +in many of its details so completely falsified by events that even his +most ardent disciples no longer insist on it. I have only mentioned it +here because of the further light which it throws on what alone, in +this discussion, concerns us--namely, the Marxian theory of labour as +the sole producer of wealth, and the absolute nullity, so far as +production goes, of every form of activity associated with the +possession of capital, or with any class but the labouring. + +This theory of production, then, which has been the foundation of +socialism as a party--or, as Gronlünd, a disciple of Marx, calls it, +"its _idée mère_"--and which is still its foundation for the great +majority of socialists, we will now examine in detail, and, considering +how complex are the processes of production in the modern world, ask how +far it gives us, or fails to give us, even an approximately complete +account of them. + +We shall find that, in spite of the plausibility with which the talent +of Marx invested it, this basic doctrine of so-called scientific +socialism is the greatest intellectual mare's-nest of the century which +has just ended; and when once we have realised with precision on what, +in the modern world, the actual efficiency of the productive process +depends, we shall see that the analysis of Marx bears about the same +relation to the economic facts of to-day that the child's analysis of +matter into the four traditional elements, or the doctrine of Thales +that everything is made of water, bears to the facts of chemistry as +modern science has revealed them to us. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE ROOT ERROR OF THE MARXIAN THEORY. +ITS OMISSION OF DIRECTIVE ABILITY. +ABILITY AND LABOUR DEFINED + +In approaching the opinions of another, from whom we are about to +differ, we gain much in clearness if at starting we can find some point +of agreement with him. In the case of Marx we can find this without +difficulty, for the first observation which our subject will naturally +suggest to us is an admission that, within limits, his theory of +production is true. Whatever may be the agencies which are required to +produce wealth, human effort is one of them; and into whatever kinds +this necessary agency may divide itself, one kind must always be labour, +in the sense in which Marx understood it--in other words, that use of +the hands and muscles by which the majority of mankind have always +gained their livelihood. + +It is, moreover, easy to point out actual cases in which all the wealth +that is produced is produced by labour only. The simplest of such cases +are supplied us by the lowest savages, who manage, by their utmost +exertions, to provide themselves with the barest necessaries. Such +cases show that labour, wherever it exists, produces at least a minimum +of what men require; for if it were not so there would be no men to +labour. Such cases show also another thing. The most primitive races +possess rude implements of some kind, which any pair of hands can +fashion, just as any pair of hands can use them. These rude implements +are capital in its embryonic form; and so far as they go, they verify +the Marxian theory that capital is nothing but past labour crystallised. + +But we need not, in order to see labour, past and present, operating and +producing in a practically unalloyed condition, go to savage or even +semi-civilised countries. The same thing may be seen among groups of +peasant proprietors, which still survive here and there in the remoter +parts of Europe. These men and their families, by their own unaided +labour, produce nearly everything which they eat and wear and use. Mill, +in his treatise on _Political Economy_, gives us an account of this +condition of things, as prevailing among the peasants in certain +districts of Germany. "They labour early and late," he says, quoting +from a German eulogist. "They plod on from day to day and from year to +year, the most untirable of human animals." The German writer admires +them as men who are their own masters. Mill holds them up as a shining +and instructive example of the magic effect of ownership in intensifying +human labour. In any case such men are examples of two things--of +labour operating as the sole productive agency, and also of such labour +self-intensified to its utmost pitch. And what does the labour of these +men produce? According to the authority from which Mill quotes, it +produces just enough to keep them above the level of actual want. Here, +then, we have an unexceptionable example of the wealth-producing power +of labour pure and simple; and if we imagine an entire nation of men +who, as their own masters, worked under liked conditions, we should have +an example of the same thing on a larger and more instructive scale. We +should have a whole nation which produced only just enough to keep it +above the level of actual bodily want. + +And now let us turn from production in an imaginary nation such as this, +and compare it with production at large among the civilised nations of +to-day. Nobody could insist on the contrast between the efficiency of +the two processes more strongly than do the socialists themselves. The +aggregate wealth of the civilised nations to-day is, they say, so +enormous--it consists of such a multitude of daily renewed goods and +services--that luxuries undreamed of by the labourer of earlier times +might easily be made as abundant for every household as water. In other +words, if we take a million men, admittedly consisting of labourers pure +and simple in the first place, and the same number of men exerting +themselves under modern conditions in the second place, the industrial +efforts of the second million are, hour for hour, infinitely more +productive than the industrial efforts of the first. If, for example, we +take the case of England, and compare the product produced per head of +the industrial population towards the close of the seventeenth century, +with the product produced less than two centuries afterwards, at the +time when Marx was writing his work on _Capital_, the later product +will, according to the estimate of statisticians, stand to the earlier +in the proportion of thirty-three to seven. + +Now, if we adopt the scientific theory of Marx that labour pure and +simple is the sole producer of wealth, and that labour is productive in +proportion to the hours devoted to it, how has it happened--this is our +crucial question--that the amount of labour which produced seven at one +period should produce thirty-three at another? How are we to explain the +presence of the additional twenty-six? + +The answer of Marx, and of those who reason like him, is that, owing to +the development of knowledge, mechanical and chemical especially, and +the consequent development of industrial methods and machinery, labour +as a whole has itself become more productive. But to say this is merely +begging the question. To what is this development of knowledge, of +methods, and of machinery due? Is it due to such labour as that of the +"untirable human animals," to which Mill refers as an example of labour +in its intensest form? In a word, does ordinary labour, or the +industrial effort of the majority, contain in itself any principle of +advance at all? + +We must, in order to do justice to any theory, consider not only the +points on which its exponents lay the greatest stress, but also those +which they recognise as implied in it, or which we may see to be implied +in it ourselves. And if we consider the theory of Marx in this way, we +shall see that labour, in the sense in which he understands the word, +does contain principles of advance which are of two distinguishable +kinds. + +One of these is recognised by Marx himself. Just as, when he says that +labour is the sole productive agency, he assumes the gifts of nature, +which provide it with something to work upon, so, when he conceives of +labour as the effort of hand and muscle, he assumes a human mind behind +these by which hand and muscle are directed. Such being the case, he +expressly admits also that mind is in some cases a more efficient +director than in others, and is able to train the hands and muscles of +the labourer, so that these acquire the quality which is commonly called +skill. Ruskin, who asserted, like Marx, that labour is the sole +producer, used in this respect a precisely similar argument. He defined +skill as faculty which exceptional powers of mind impart to the hands of +those by whom such powers are possessed, from the bricklayer who, in +virtue of mere alertness and patience, can lay in an hour more bricks +than his fellows, up to a Raphael, whose hands can paint a Madonna, +while another man's could hardly be trusted to distemper a wall evenly. + +Now, in skill, as thus defined, we have doubtless a correct explanation +of how mere labour--the manual effort of the individual--may produce, in +the case of some men, goods whose value is great, and goods, in the case +of other men, whose value is comparatively small; and since some epochs +are more fertile in developed skill than others, an equal amount of +labour on the part of the same community may produce, in one century, +goods of greater aggregate value than it was able to produce in the +century that went before it. But these goods, whose superior value is +due to exceptional skill--or, as would commonly be said, to qualities of +superior craftsmanship--though they form some of the most coveted +articles of the wealth of the modern world, are not typical of it; and +from the point of view of the majority, they are the part of it which is +least important. The goods whose value is due to exceptional +craftsmanship--such as an illuminated manuscript, for example, or a vase +by Benvenuto Cellini--are always few in number, and can be possessed by +the few only. The distinctive feature of wealth-production in the modern +world, on the contrary, is the multiplication of goods relatively to the +number of the producers of them, and the consequent cheapening of each +article individually. The skill of the craftsman gives an exceptional +value to the particular articles on which his own hands are engaged. It +does not communicate itself to the labour of the ordinary men around +him. The agency which causes the increasing and sustains the increased +output of necessaries, comforts, and conveniences in the progressive +nations of to-day must necessarily be an agency of some kind or other +which raises the productivity of industrial exertion as a whole. Those, +therefore, who, in spite of the fact that the productivity of modern +communities has, relatively to their numbers, undergone an increase +which is general, still maintain that the sole productive agency is +labour, must seek for an explanation of this increase in some other fact +than skill. + +And without transgressing the limits which the theory of Marx imposes on +us, such a further fact is very easy to find. Adam Smith opens his +_Wealth of Nations_ with a discussion of it. The chief cause, he says, +which in all progressive countries increases the productive power of the +individual labourer, is not the development among a few of +potentialities which are above the average, but a more effective +development of potentialities common to all, in consequence of labour +being divided, so that each man devotes his life to the doing of some +one thing. Thus if ten ordinary men were to engage in the business of +pin-making, each making every part of every pin for himself, each man +would probably complete but one pin in a day. But if each man makes one +part, and nothing else but that, thus repeating incessantly a single +series of motions, each will acquire the knack of working with such +rapidity that the ten together will make daily, not ten pins, but some +thousands. Here we have labour divided by its different applications, +but not requiring different degrees of capacity. We have the average +labour of the average man still. And here we have a fact which, unlike +the fact of skill--a thing in its nature confined to the few +only--affords a real explanation, up to a certain point, of how ordinary +labour as a whole, without ceasing to be ordinary labour, may rise from +a lower to a higher grade of efficiency. + +But such simple divisions of labour as those which are here in question +fail, for a reason which will be specified in another moment, to carry +us far in the history of industrial progress. They do but bring us to +the starting-point of production as it exists to-day. The efficiency of +productive effort has made all its most astounding advances since the +precise time at which the _Wealth of Nations_ was written; and these +advances we shall find that it is quite impossible to explain merely by +a further division of average and equal labour. Such a further division +has no doubt been an element of the process; but it is an explanation +which itself requires explaining. Even in Adam Smith's time two other +factors were at work, which have ever since been growing in magnitude +and importance; and the secret of modern production lies, we shall find, +in these. I call them two, but fundamentally there is only one, for +that which is most obvious, and of which I shall speak first, is +explainable only as the direct result of the second. This, the most +obvious factor, is the modern development of machinery. The other is the +growing application of exceptional mental powers, not to the _manual +labour of the men by whom these powers are possessed_, but to the +_process of directing and co-ordinating the divided labours of others_. + +Now, as to machinery, Marx and his followers, as we have seen, maintain +that it represents nothing but the average labour of the past; and so +long as it exists only in its smaller and simpler forms, the devising +and constructing of which are not referable to any faculties which we +are able to distinguish from those of the average labourer, we have +further seen that the theory of Marx holds good. Labour produces alike +both the finished goods and its implements. But in proportion as +machines or other contrivances, such as vessels, grow in size or +complexity, and embody, as they do in their more modern developments, +ingenuity of the highest and knowledge of the most abstruse kinds, the +situation changes; and we are able to identify certain faculties as +essential to the ultimate result, which affect the work of the +labourers, but which do not emanate from themselves. Any three men of +average strength and intelligence might make a potter's wheel together, +or build a small boat together, as they frequently do now, their +several tasks being interchangeable, or assigned to each of them by easy +mutual agreement. The business of directing labour has not separated +itself from the actual business of labouring. Each man knows the object +of what he does, and can co-ordinate that object with the object of what +is done by his fellows. But when the ultimate result is something so +vast and complicated that a thousand men instead of three have to +co-operate in the production of it, when a million pieces of metal, some +large and some minute, have to be cast, filed, turned, rolled, or bent, +so that finally they may all coalesce into a single mechanical organism, +no one labourer sees further than the task which he performs himself. He +cannot adjust his work to that of another man, who is probably working a +quarter of a mile away from him, and he has in most cases no idea +whatever of how the two pieces of work are related to each other. Each +labourer has simply to perform his work in accordance with directions +which emanate from some mind other than his own, and the whole practical +value of what the labourers do depends on the quality of the directions +which are thus given to each. + +In other words, in proportion as the industrial process is enhanced in +productivity by the concentration on it of the higher faculties of +mankind, there is an increasing fission of this process as a whole into +two kinds of activity represented by two different groups. We have no +longer _merely_--although we have this _still_--an increasing division +of labour; but we have the labourers of all kinds and grades separating +themselves into one group on the one hand, and the men who direct their +labour, as a separate group, on the other hand. + +The function of the directive faculties, as applied thus to the +operations of modern labour, can perhaps be most easily illustrated by +the case of a printed book. Let us take two editions of ten thousand +copies each, similarly printed, and priced at six shillings a copy; the +one being an edition of a book so dull that but twenty copies can be +sold of it, the other of a book so interesting that the public buys the +whole ten thousand. Now, apart from its negligible value as so many tons +of waste paper, each pile of books represents economic wealth only in +proportion to the quantity of it for which the vendors can find +purchasers. Hence we have in the present case two piles of printed paper +which, regarded as paper patterned with printer's ink, are similar, but +one of which is wealth to the extent of three thousand pounds, while the +other is wealth to the extent of no more than six pounds. And to what is +the difference between these two values due? It obviously cannot be due +to the manual labour of the compositors, for this, both in kind and +quantity, is in each case the same. It is due to the special directions +under which the labour of the compositors is performed. But these +directions do not emanate from the men by whose hands the types are +arranged in a given order. + +They come from the author, who conveys them to the compositors through +his manuscript; which manuscript, considered under its economic aspect, +is neither more nor less than a series of minute orders, which modify +from second to second every movement of the compositors' hands, and +determine the subsequent results of every impress of the type on paper; +one mind thus, by directing the labour of others, imparting the quality +of much wealth or of little or of none, to every one of the ten thousand +copies of which the edition is composed. + +Similarly when a man invents, and brings into practical use, some new +and successful apparatus such, let us say, as the telephone, the same +situation repeats itself. The new apparatus is an addition to the +world's wealth, not because so many scraps of wood, brass, nickel, +vulcanite, and such and such lengths of wire are shaped, stretched, and +connected with sufficient manual dexterity--for the highest dexterity is +very often employed in the making of contrivances which turn out to be +futile--but because each of its parts is fashioned in obedience to +certain designs with which this dexterity, as such, has nothing at all +to do. The apparatus is successful, and an addition to the world's +wealth, because the designs of the inventor, just like the author's +manuscript, constitute a multitude of injunctions proceeding from a +master-mind, which is not the mind of those by whose hands they are +carried into execution. + +And with the direction of labour generally, whether in the production of +machinery or the use of the machinery in the production of goods for the +public, the case is again the same. We have manual labour of a given +kind and quality, which assists in producing what is wanted or not +wanted--what is so much wealth or simply so much refuse, in accordance +with the manner in which all this labour is directed by faculties +specifically different from those exercised by the manual labourers +themselves. + +And now we are in a position to sum up in a brief and decisive formula +what the difference between the sets of faculties thus contrasted is. It +is not essentially a difference between lower and higher, for some forms +of labour, such as that of the great painter, may be morally higher than +some forms of direction. The difference is one not of degree, but of +kind, and includes two different psycho-physical processes. Labour, from +the most ordinary up to the rarest kind, _is the mind or the brain of +one man affecting that man's own hands_, and the single task on which +his hands happen to be engaged. The directive faculties are _the mind or +the brain of one man simultaneously affecting the hands of any number of +other men_, and through their hands the simultaneous tasks of all of +them, no matter how various these tasks may be. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ERRORS OF MARX, CONTINUED. +CAPITAL AS THE IMPLEMENT OF ABILITY + +The human activities and faculties, then, which are involved in the +production of modern wealth, are not, as Marx says--and as the orthodox +economists said, whom he rightly calls his masters, and as their +followers still say--of one kind--namely, those embodied in the +individual task-work of the individual, to which Marx, Ricardo, and Mill +alike give the name of "labour"; they are of two kinds. And this, +indeed, the earlier economists recognised, as we may see by Mill's +casual admission that the progress of industrial effort depends before +all things on thought and the advance of knowledge. But they recognised +the fact in a general way only. How thought and knowledge affected the +industrial process they made no attempt to explain, otherwise than by +comprehending them on occasion under the common name of labour, which +they assigned throughout most of their arguments to manual task-work +only. + +Now, it is doubtless true that, as a mere matter of verbal propriety, +this general sense may be given to the word "labour," if we please; but +if in discussing the efforts which produce wealth we admit that these +efforts are not of one kind but two, and if the word "labour" is, in +nine cases out of ten, employed with the definite intention of +designating only one of them, it is impossible to reason about the +industrial process intelligibly, so long as we apply also the same name +to the other. We might as well use the word "man"--as with reference to +some problems we are perfectly right in doing--to designate both men and +women, and then attempt to discuss the relations between the two sexes. + +For the directive faculties, so essentially distinct from those to which +universal custom has allocated the name of labour, it is difficult to +find a name equally convenient and satisfying. In default of a better, I +have, on former occasions, applied to it the name of Ability; and this +will serve our purpose here--especially as it is a name which has been, +of recent years, applied by many of the more thoughtful socialists +themselves to certain activities of a mental and moral kind, which their +conception of labour cannot be made to include, but which they are +beginning to recognise as playing some part in production. We must +remember, however, that we are using it in a strictly technical sense, +which will in some respects be narrower than the ordinary, and in some +more comprehensive. It will exclude all kinds of cleverness unapplied +to economic production; and will include many powers, in so far as such +production is affected by them, to the expression of whose scope and +character it may sometimes appear inadequate.[1] + +And now when we have come thus far, a quite new question arises. We have +seen how ability is, by its direction of labour, the chief agency in +that process which produces wealth to-day, and how it makes the amount +produced, relatively to the number of the producers, so incomparably +greater than it ever was under any previous system. We have now to +consider the means by which this faculty of direction is exercised. + +In order to understand this, we must turn our attention again to +capital, as something distinct and detached from the human efforts that +have produced it; and we shall find that the conception of it which +dominated the thought of Marx, and that which dominates the thought of +the orthodox school of economists, either excludes altogether, or fails +to reveal the nature of, that particular force and function of it which, +in the modern world, are fundamental. + +Capital is divided traditionally into two kinds, technically called +"fixed" and "circulating." By fixed capital, which is what Marx had +mainly in view, is meant machinery, and the works and structures +connected with it; and it is called "fixed" on account of its +comparative permanence. By circulating capital is meant, as Adam Smith +puts it, any stock of those consumable commodities which, produced by +the aid of machinery, the merchant or the store-keeper buys in order to +sell them at a profit; and it is called "circulating" because the +commodities which are sold to-day are replaced by new ones of an +equivalent kind to-morrow. + +Now, as to fixed capital, or the endlessly elaborated machinery of the +modern world, we have seen already that this is, in its distinctive +features, not, as Marx declared it to be, a crystallisation of labour, +but a crystallisation of the ability by which labour has been directed; +but this revised explanation tells us nothing of the means by which the +direction is accomplished. Still less is any light thrown on the +question by the nature of circulating capital, as Adam Smith understands +it. + +The kind of capital which alone concerns us here is a kind which +resembles circulating capital in respect of its material form, and is +often indeed in this respect identical with it; but it differs from +circulating capital in respect of the use made of it. Such capital we +may call wage-capital. Wage-capital, although in practice it disguises +itself under the form of money, is essentially a stock of goods which +are the daily necessaries of life, but which, instead of being sold to +the public, like the goods of the store-keeper, at a profit, are +distributed by their possessor among a special group of labourers on +conditions. The first of these is naturally that the labourers do work +of some sort. The second condition, and the one that concerns us here, +is that, besides doing work of some sort, each labourer shall do the +work which the distributer of the goods prescribes to him. + +Here we have before us the means by which, in the modern world, the +ability of the few directs the labour of the many; and, in proportion to +the quality and intensity of the directive powers that are exercised, +adds to the value of the results which this labour would have produced +otherwise. Thus in wage-capital we have the capital of the modern world +in what dynamically is its primary and parent form--a kind of capital +which improved machinery is always tending to augment, but of whose use +the machinery itself, its renewal, and its continued improvement, are +the consequences. + +That such is the case might be illustrated by any number of familiar +examples. A man invents a new machine having some useful purpose--let us +say the production of some new kind of manure, which will double the +fertility of every field in the country. In order to put this machine on +the market, and make it a fact instead of a mere conception, the first +thing necessary is, as every human being knows, that the inventor shall +possess, or acquire, the control of capital. And what is the next step? +When the capital is provided, how will it first be used? It will be used +in the form of wages, or articles of daily consumption, which will be +distributed among a certain number of mechanics and other labourers, on +condition that they set about fashioning, in certain prescribed groups, +so much metal into so many prescribed shapes--some of them shaping it +into wheels, some into knives and rollers, some into sieves, rods, +cranks, cams, and eccentrics, in accordance with patterns which have +never been followed previously; and of all these individual operations +the new machine, as a practical implement, is the result. The machine is +new, and it is an addition to the wealth-producing powers of the world, +not because it embodies so much labour, but because it embodies so much +labour directed in a new way; and it is only by means of the conditions +which the possession of wage-capital enables the inventor or his +partners to impose upon every one of the labourers that the machine, as +a practical implement, comes into existence at all. + +Hence we see that Marx was at once right and wrong when he said that +modern capitalism is, in its essence, monopoly. It is monopoly; but it +is not primarily, as Marx thought, a passive monopoly of improved +instruments of production. It is primarily a monopoly of products which +are essential to the life of the labourer; and it is a monopoly of +these, not in the invidious sense that the monopolists retain them for +their own personal consumption, as they do in the case of rare wines and +fabrics, which can, from the nature of the case, be enjoyed by a few +only. It is a monopoly of them in the sense that the monopolists have +such a control over their distribution as enables them to control the +purely technical actions of those persons who ultimately own and consume +the whole of them.[2] + +Modern capital, then, I repeat, is primarily wage-capital, such capital +as modern machinery being the direct result of its application; and +wage-capital is productive, not in virtue of any quality inherent in +itself, but merely because as a fact, under the modern system, it +constitutes the reins by which the exceptional ability of a few guides +the labour, skilled or unskilled, of the many. It is the means by which +the commonest labourer, who hardly knows the rule of three, is made to +work as though he were master of the abstruest branches of mathematics; +by which the artisan who only has a smattering--if he has as much as +that--of mechanics, metallurgy, chemistry, is made to work as though all +the sciences had been assimilated by his single brain. + +Let any one consider, for example, one of the great steel bridges which +now throw their single spans over waters such as the Firth of Forth. +These structures are crystallised labour, doubtless, but they are, in +their distinctive features, not crystallised labour as such. They are +crystallised mechanics, crystallised chemistry, crystallised +mathematics--in short, crystallised intellect, knowledge, imagination, +and executive capacity, of kinds which hardly exist in a dozen minds out +of a million; and labour conduces to the production of such astonishing +structures only because it submits itself to the guidance of these +intellectual leaders. And the same is the case with modern production +generally. Though labour is essential to the production of wealth even +in the smallest quantities, the distinguishing productivity of industry +in the modern world depends not on the labour, but on the ability with +which the labour is directed; and in the modern world the primary +function of capital is that of providing ability with its necessary +instrument of direction. + +No unprejudiced person, who is capable of coherent thought, can, when +the matter is thus plainly stated, possibly deny this. That it cannot be +denied will be shown in the two following chapters by recent admissions +on the part of socialists themselves, the more thoughtful of whom have +now virtually abandoned the earlier theoretical framework of socialism +altogether, and are trying to substitute a new one, with which we will +deal later, and which will indeed prove the main subject of our +inquiry. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] When I insisted on this distinction between "labour" and "ability" +in America, innumerable critics met me with two objections. One of +these, as stated by a writer who confessed himself otherwise in entire +agreement with me, was this: "It is impossible, as Mr. Mallock attempts +to do, to draw a hard-and-fast line between mental effort and muscular." +No such attempt is made. As I pointed out in one of my speeches, many +kinds of "labour" (_e.g._ that of the great painter) exhibit higher +mentality than do many kinds of ability. Further, I pointed out that, in +a technical sense, the same effort may be either an effort of labour or +ability, according to its application. Thus, if a singer sings to an +audience, his effort is technically "labour," because it ends with the +single task; but if he sings so as to produce a gramophone record, his +effort is an act of "ability," for he influences the products of other +men, by whom the records are multiplied. The second objection was +expressed by one of my critics thus: "I say that all productive effort +is labour.... I dare you to tell any one of these genii that they are +not labourers." Another critic said: "Just as 'land' in economics means +all the forces of nature, so does 'labour' mean all the forces of man. +Why, then, speak of ability?" These criticisms are purely verbal. If we +like to take "labour" as a collective name for all forms of human +effort, we can of course do so; but in that case we must find other +differential names for the different forces of effort individually. To +give them all the same name is not to explain them. It is to tie them +all up in a parcel. + +[2] If this fact requires any further exemplification, we can find one +on a large scale in the pages of Marx himself. According to him the +first appreciable capitalistic movement--the first leaping of the modern +system in the womb--took place in the English cloth trade about four +hundred years ago. Now, if capitalism were merely, as according to Marx +it is, a passive monopoly by some men of implements which have been +produced by others, the pioneers of capitalism in the reign of Henry +VIII. would have got into their possession all the hand-looms then in +use; they would have taken their toll in kind from all whom they allowed +to use them; and there the matter would have ended. The looms of to-day +would be the looms of four hundred years ago. The passive ownership of +machines does nothing to improve their construction. If a gang of +ignorant thieves could steal all the watches in America, and then let +them out to the public at so much a month or year, this would not +convert the three-dollar watches into chronometers. And how little mere +labour, or the experience gained by labour, tends to improve the +implements which the labourer uses is shown by the fact that the looms +which wove Anne Boleyn's petticoats were practically the same as the +looms which wove those of Semiramis. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +REPUDIATION OF MARX BY MODERN SOCIALISTS. +THEIR RECOGNITION OF DIRECTIVE ABILITY + +In saying that, up to the point which our argument has thus far reached, +the more thoughtful among the socialists to-day concede and even assert +its truth, I have evidence in view of a very opposite kind. When I +delivered, as I did recently, a series of addresses on socialism to +various meetings in America, I approached the subject in the manner in +which I have approached it here. I began with the process of production +pure and simple, and I showed how crude and childish, as applied to +production in modern times, was the analysis of Marx and all the earlier +socialists. I showed, as I have shown here, that, the amount of labour +being given, the quantity and quality of wealth that will result from +its exercise depend on the ability with which by means of wage-capital +this labour is directed. + +The two addresses in which these points were elaborated had no sooner +been delivered than, from all parts of the country, through newspapers +and private letters, and sometimes by word of mouth, socialists of +various types addressed themselves to the business of replying to me. +These replies, whatever may have been their differences otherwise, all +took the form of a declaration that I was only wasting my time in +exposing the doctrine that labour is the sole producer of wealth, and in +laying such stress on the part played by directive ability; for no +serious socialist of the present day any longer believed the one, or +failed to recognise the other. Thus one of my critics told me that what +I ought to do was "to discuss the principles of socialism as understood +and accepted by the intelligent disciples, and not the worn-out and +discredited theories of Marx." Another was good enough to tell me that I +had "cleverly accomplished the task of exposing the errors of Marx, both +of premise and of logic"; but the leaders of socialistic thought "in its +later developments" had, he proceeded to say, long ago outgrown these. A +third wrote me a letter bristling with all kinds of challenges, and +asked me if I thought, for example, that socialists were such fools as +not to recognise that the talents of an inventor like Mr. Edison +increased the productivity of labour by the new direction which they +gave to it. I might multiply similar quotations, but one more will be +enough here. It is taken from a long article directed against myself by +Mr. Hillquit--a writer to whom my special attention was called as by far +the most accomplished exponent, among the militant socialists of +America, of socialism in its most logical and most highly developed +form. "It requires," said Mr. Hillquit, "no special genius to +demonstrate that all labour is not alike, nor equally productive. It is +still more obvious that common manual labour is impotent to produce the +wealth of modern nations--that organisation, direction, and control are +essential to productive work in the field of modern production, and are +just as much a factor in it as mere physical effort."[3] + +But we need not confine ourselves to my own late critics in America. The +general history of socialism as a reasoned theory is practically the +same in one country as in another. The intellectual socialists in +England, among whom Mr. Bernard Shaw and Mr. Sidney Webb are prominent, +express themselves in even plainer terms with regard to the part which +directive ability, as opposed to labour, plays in the modern world. +"Ability," says Mr. Shaw, employing the very word, is often the factor +which determines whether a given industry shall make a loss of five per +cent. or else a profit of twenty; and Mr. Webb, as we shall have +occasion to see presently, carries the argument further, and states it +in greater detail. + +Why, then, it may be asked, should a critic of contemporary socialism +think it worth while to expose with so much minuteness a fallacy which +intellectual socialists now all agree in repudiating, and to insist with +such emphasis on facts which they profess to recognise as self-evident? +To this question there are two answers. + +One of these I indicated at the close of our opening chapter; and this +at the cost of what in logic is a mere digression, it will be desirable, +for practical purposes, to state it with greater fulness. + +Admissions and assertions, such as those which I have just now quoted, +do, no doubt, represent a definite intellectual advance which has taken +place in the theory of socialism, among those who are its most +thoughtful exponents, and in a certain sense its leaders. They represent +what these leaders think and say among themselves, and what they put +forward when disputing with opponents who are competent to criticise +them. But what they do not represent is socialism as still preached to +the populace, or the doctrine which is still vital for socialists as a +popular party. This is still, just as it was originally, the socialism +of Marx in an absolutely unamended form. It is the doctrine that the +manual efforts of the vast multitude of labourers, directed only by the +minds of the individual labourers themselves, produce all the wealth of +the world; that the holding of any of this wealth by any other class +whatever stands for nothing but a system of legalised plunder; and that +the labourers need only inaugurate a legislation of a new kind in order +to secure and enjoy what always was by rights their own. Let me +illustrate this assertion by two examples, one supplied to us by +England, the other by America. + +In England the body which calls itself the Social Democratic Federation, +and represents at this moment socialism of the more popular kind, began +its campaign with a manifesto which was headed with the familiar words, +"All wealth is due to labour; therefore to the labourer all wealth is +due." This text or motto was followed by certain figures, with regard to +the total income of Great Britain, and the manner in which it is at +present distributed. Labour was represented as getting less than +one-fourth of the whole, and the labourers were informed that if they +would but "educate themselves, agitate, and organise," the remaining +three-fourths would automatically pass into their possession. This +document, it is true, was issued some twenty years ago;[4] but that the +form which socialism takes, when addressed to the masses of the +population, has not appreciably altered from that day to this, will be +made sufficiently clear by the following pertinent fact. Shortly after +my arrival in America, in the winter of 1907, the most active +disseminator of socialistic literature in New York sent me, by way of a +challenge, a new and very spruce volume, which contained the most +important of his previous leaflets and articles, collected and +republished, and claiming renewed attention. The first of these--and it +was signalised by an accompanying advertisement as fundamental--bore the +impressive title of, "Why the Working Man should be a Socialist," and +the answer to this question is given in the writer's opening words. "You +know," he says, addressing any labourer and the street-worker, "or you +ought to know, that you alone produce all the good things of life; and +you know, or you ought to know, that by so simple a process as that of +casting your ballot intelligently you will be able"--to do what? The +writer explains himself in language which, except for a difference in +his statistics, is almost a verbal repetition of that of his English +predecessors. He specifies two sums, one representing the income which +each working-man in America would receive were the entire wealth of the +country divided equally among the manual labourers; the other +representing the income which, on an average, he actually receives as +wages; and the writer tells every working man that, by "merely casting +his ballot intelligently," he can secure for himself the whole +difference between the larger sum and the less.[5] + +But the fact that the Marxian doctrine of the all-productivity of +labour, and the consequent economic nullity of all other forms of +effort, still supplies the main ideas by which popular socialism is +vitalised, is shown perhaps even more distinctly by the popular hopes +and demands which result from this doctrine indirectly than it is by the +direct reassertion of the formal doctrine itself. One of the members of +the Parliamentary Labour party in England celebrated his success at the +polls by a letter to the _Times_, proclaiming that socialism was a +moral quite as much as an economic movement, and that an object which to +socialists was dearer even than the seizure of the riches of the rich, +was the achievement of "economic freedom," or, in other words, the +"emancipation of labour," or, in other words again, the abolition of the +system which he described as "wagedom." I merely mention the particular +letter in question in order to remind the reader of these familiar +phrases, which are current in every country where the theory of +socialism has spread itself. + +Now, what does all this talk about the emancipation of labour mean? It +can only mean one or other of two things: either that the economic +prosperity of every nation in the future will depend on the emancipation +of every average mind from the guidance of any minds that are in any way +superior to itself, or are able to enhance the productivity of an +average pair of hands--a proposition so ludicrous that nobody would +consciously assent to it; or else it means a continued assent to the +theory which fails to correlate labour with directive ability at all, +and so never raises the question of whether the latter is necessary or +no. + +What, then, becomes of that chorus of vehement protestations, with which +my critics in America were all so eager to overwhelm me, to the effect +that socialists to-day recognise as clearly as I do that "common manual +labour," as Mr. Hillquit puts it, "is impotent to produce the wealth of +modern nations," apart from the "organisation and control" of the minds +most competent to direct it? That the more intellectual socialists of +to-day do recognise this fact--some with greater and some with less +distinctness--is the very point on which I am anxious to insist. We +shall have abundant opportunities for considering it later on. For the +moment, however, I pause to ask them the following question. +Recognising, as they do, and eagerly proclaiming as they do, whenever +they address themselves to those who are capable of serious dispute with +them, that the original theory of socialism, which was the creed of such +bodies as the International, is absolutely false in itself, and in many +of the expectations which it stimulates, why do not they set themselves, +whenever they address the multitude, to expose and repudiate a fallacy +in which they no longer believe? Do they do this? Do they make an +attempt to do this? On the contrary, as a rule, though there are +doubtless many honourable exceptions, they endeavour to hide from the +multitude their intellectual change of front altogether; and, instead of +insisting that the undirected labour of the many is, in the modern +world, impotent to produce anything, they continue to speak of it as +though it produced everything, and as though no class other than the +labouring fulfilled any economic function or had any right to exist.[6] + + +Let me give the reader an example, which is curiously apt here. It is +taken from Mr. Hillquit's own attack on myself, which filled the front +sheet of a newspaper, and was distributed to the public at the door of +one of the buildings in which I spoke. Of the short passages, amounting +to some twenty lines out of six hundred, in which alone he condescended +to detailed argument, the first is that in which, as we have already +seen, he declares that all socialists know, without any instruction on +my part, that common manual labour, unless it is directed by ability, is +"impotent to produce the wealth of modern nations." But having made this +admission with much blowing of trumpets, he immediately drops it, and +instead of developing its consequences, he diverts the attention of his +readers from it by a long series of irrelevancies; nor does he return to +the question of directive ability at all till he is nearing the end of +his discourse, when he suddenly takes it up again, declaring that he +will meet and refute me on ground which I myself have chosen, and show +that wealth--at all events in the commercial sense--is still produced by +manual labour alone. He refers to my selection of the case of a printed +book, as illustrating, in the manner explained in an earlier chapter, +the part which directive ability plays in modern production. The +economic value of an edition of a printed book, I said, as the reader +will remember, depends in the most obvious way, not on the labour of +compositors, but on the quality of the directions which the author +imposes on this labour through his manuscript--the author's mind being +typical of directive ability generally. And what has Mr. Hillquit--the +intellectual Ajax of the socialists--got to say about this? "Whether a +book," he says, "is a work of genius or mere rubbish will largely affect +its literary or artistic value; but it will have very little bearing on +its economic or commercial value." This, he goes on to argue, will, +despite all my objections, be found to depend on ordinary manual labour, +of which the labour of the hands of the compositors is that which +concerns us most. Nothing, according to him, can be more evident than +this. "For the market price," he says, "of a wretched detective story, +of the same length as Hamlet, and printed in the same way, will be +exactly the same as that of a copy of Hamlet itself." + +Now, if we consider Mr. Hillquit as a purely literary critic, we can but +admire his subtlety in discovering that the literary value of a book is +largely affected by the fact of the book's not being rubbish; but when +he descends from pure criticism to economics, it is difficult, unless we +suppose him to have taken leave of his senses, to imagine that he can +himself believe in the medley of nonsense propounded by him. For what +he is here doing--or more probably pretending to do--is to confuse the +cost of producing an edition of a book with the commercial value of that +edition when produced. The labour in question no doubt determines the +price at which the printed paper can be sold at a profit, or without +loss; but the number of copies which the public will be willing to buy, +or, in other words, the value of the edition commercially, depends on +qualities resident in the mind of the author, which render the book +attractive to but few readers, or to many. Whether these qualities +amount to genius in the higher sense of the word, or to nothing more +than a knack of titillating the curiosity of the vulgar, does not affect +the question. In either case--and this is the sole important fact--they +are qualities of the author's mind, and of the author's mind alone; and +the labour of the compositors conduces to the production of a pile of +volumes which is of large, of little, or of no value commercially, not +according to the dexterity with which this labour is performed, but +according to the manner in which the author's mind directs it. + +Than any human being who is capable of perceiving that the literary +quality of a book is largely affected by the fact of the book's not +being rubbish, should seriously suppose that the saleable value of +editions--whether they are editions of a popular novel, or of a treatise +on the conchology of Kamchatka, is proportionate to the number of +letters in them arranged in parallel lines--for Mr. Hillquit's argument +means neither more nor less than this--is, let me repeat, incredible. +What, then, is the explanation of his indulging in a performance of this +degrading kind? The explanation is that he, like so many of his +colleagues, though recognising personally that labour among "modern +nations" depends for its higher productivity on the picked men who +direct it, cannot bring himself to renounce, when he is making his +appeal to the masses, the old doctrine that they are the sole producers; +and accordingly having started with the ostentatious admission that +directive ability is as essential to production as labour is, he +endeavours by his verbal jugglery with the case of a printed book to +convey the impression that labour produces all values after all; and he +actually manages to wind up with a repetition of the old Marxian moral +that the profits of ability mean nothing but labour which has not been +paid for.[7] + +One of my reasons, then, for beginning the present examination of +socialism with exposing the fallacy of principles which the intellectual +socialists of to-day are so eager to proclaim that they have long since +abandoned, is the fact that these principles are still the principles of +the multitude; that for practical purposes they are those which most +urgently require refutation; and that the intellectual socialists who +have doubtless repudiated them personally, not only do not attempt to +discredit them in the eyes of the ignorant, but themselves continue to +appeal to them as instruments of popular agitation. + +My other reason for following the course in question is that the theory +of socialism in its higher and more recent forms, which recognises +directive intellect in addition to manual effort as one of the forces +essential to the production of modern wealth, cannot be understood and +estimated in any profitable way, without a previous examination of those +earlier doctrines and ideas, some of which it still retains, while it +modifies and rejects others. + +And now let us take up again the thread of our main argument. We laid +this down early in the present chapter, having emphasised the fact that, +the intellectual socialists of to-day agree, on their own admission, +with one proposition at all events which has been elucidated in this +volume--namely, that labour alone, as one of their spokesmen puts it, +"is impotent to produce the wealth of modern nations," the faculties and +the functions of the minority by whom labour is directed and organised +being no less essential to the result than the labour of the majority +itself. In the following chapter we shall see that this agreement +extends yet further. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Mr. Hillquit--a lawyer, who has adopted the business of propagating +socialism in America--is unknown in England; but his name, not long ago, +was to be found in the English papers, as that of one of the +representatives sent from America to a recent Socialistic Congress in +Europe. Amongst the socialists of the United States he holds a position +analogous to that enjoyed by Mr. Shaw, Mr. Webb, and Mr. Ramsey +Macdonald in England. + +[4] Whilst this work was in the press a "Catechism," lately published in +England, for use of children, was sent me. It was proposed to use this +Catechism on Sundays in the London County Council Schools. The first +economic "lesson" in it begins thus: "Who creates all wealth? The +working-class. Who are the workers? Men who work for wages." All who are +not wage-workers are declared in this catechism to be absolutely idle +and not productive. + +[5] The writer of this leaflet, Mr. Wilshire, has subsequently declared +in his published criticisms of myself, that I impute to socialists what +no socialists really say, and contends that, when he thus speaks of +"working-men" and "labourers," he includes all men who contribute +anything to the productive forces of a country--inventors like Mr. +Edison, and millionaire captains of industry, in so far as they are +active agents, and not mere recipients of interest. But that such is not +the meaning which he conveys, or desires to convey, to those to whom his +leaflet addresses itself, is plainly shown by his statistics, if by +nothing else; for the share of the national income, which goes, as he +asserts, to "labour," is avowedly the amount which, according to his +estimate, is paid to-day in America, as weekly wages to the mass of +manual labourers. To say that labour _in its more extended sense_ is the +producer of all wealth, is a mere meaningless platitude. It is to say +that there would be no wealth without effort of some kind. Does Mr. +Wilshire seriously wish us to believe that he is telling Mr. Edison that +"if he will only cast his ballot intelligently" he will be able to +treble his income at the expense of richer men? + +[6] This applies to England no less than to America. Whenever any one of +the more educated amongst the socialistic agitators is taxed with +maintaining the popular doctrines of socialism with regard to labour, he +at once repudiates them, and accuses his opponents of imputing to him +and his fellows childish fallacies which no one in his senses would +maintain; but the propagation of these fallacies amongst the more +ignorant sections of the population continues just the same. + +[7] According to Mr. Hillquit, Dickens, for example, made his whole +fortune by robbing his compositors. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +REPUDIATION OF MARX BY MODERN SOCIALISTS, CONTINUED. +THEIR RECOGNITION OF CAPITAL AS THE IMPLEMENT OF DIRECTIVE ABILITY. +THEIR NEW POSITION, AND THEIR NEW THEORETICAL DIFFICULTIES + +The reader will remember how, having first elucidated the part which +exceptional mental faculties, concentrated on the direction of labour, +and here called ability, play in modern production, I proceeded to +the question of the means by which this direction is accomplished, +and showed that these were supplied by the possession of +wage-capital--capitalism thus representing no mere passive monopoly, but +a system of reins which are attached to innumerable horses, and are +useless except as vehicles of the skill with which the coachmen handle +them. We shall find that by implication, if not always by direct +admission, the intellectual socialists of to-day are in virtual but +unacknowledged agreement with this further portion of the present +argument also. + +In order to demonstrate that such is the case, let me briefly call +attention to a point on which we shall have to dwell at much greater +length presently--namely, that these socialists, though they reject the +theory of production on which morally and intellectually the earlier +socialism based itself, persist in making promises to the labourers +precisely of the same kind as those with which the earlier socialism +first whetted their appetites. In especial besides promising them +indefinitely augmented wealth, they continue to promise them also some +sort of _economic emancipation_; and many of these socialists, in +explicit accord with their predecessors, declare that what they mean by +emancipation is the entire abolition of the wage-system. + +Prominent among this number are Mr. Sidney Webb and his colleagues, who +are certainly the best educated group of socialistic thinkers in +England. Mr. Webb, in particular, is a man of conspicuous talent, and +few writers can afford a more favourable illustration than he does of +the lines along which the socialistic theory of society is compelled, by +the exigencies of logical thought, to develop itself. Now, in proposing +to abolish the wage-system, Mr. Webb and his fellow-theorists do not do +so without specifying a definite substitute; and when we come to +consider what their substitute is, we shall find that it implies, on +their part, a full recognition of the function which wage-capital, as +the instrument of ability, performs in modern production. + +Now, the reader must observe that, in indicating the nature of the +function in question--namely, that of providing a means by which the +process of direction may be accomplished--and in showing how under the +existing system wage-capital is what actually performs it, I never for a +moment implied that wage-capital was the only means by which the same +result might be accomplished. Indeed, if we look back into the past +history of mankind, we shall find that there are two systems other than +that of wages, by which the conformity of labour to the requisite +directions of ability, not only might be, but actually has been secured. +One of these is the corvée system prevalent in the Middle Ages. The +other system is that of slavery. Under the corvée system, peasants were +the proprietors of the plots of ground on which they lived, and were +thus able to maintain themselves by working at their own discretion; but +they were compelled by their tenure to place a certain part of their +time at the disposal of their feudal superior, and to work according to +his orders. If only a number of otherwise independent peasants could be +forced to give enough of their time to the proprietor of a factory +to-day, the entire use of wage-capital would in his case be gone. The +same thing is true of slavery. Like the peasant proprietor, who gives +part of his time to his overlord, the slave is provided with the +necessaries of life independently of his obedience to the detailed +orders of his master. His master feeds him just as he would feed an +animal; the industrial obedience is insured by the subsequent +application of force. + +These two coercive systems are the only alternatives to the wage-system +that have ever been found workable in the past history of the world. We +will now consider the system which some of the most thoughtful +socialists of to-day are proposing as a substitute for it in the +hoped-for socialistic future. The school of English socialists, of which +Mr. Webb is the best-known member, have given to the world a volume +called _Fabian Essays_. This volume was republished in America, and to +the American edition a special preface was prefixed with a view to +emphasising the essentials of a socialistic conception of society, and +bringing the details of the socialistic theory up to date. In this +preface it is stated, with regard to the apportionment of material +wealth generally, that "the only truly socialistic scheme" is one which +"will absolutely abolish all economic distinctions, and prevent the +possibility of their ever again arising." And how would it accomplish +this end? "By making," says the writer, "an equal provision for all an +indefeasible condition of citizenship, without any regard whatever to +the relative specific services of the different citizens. The rendering +of such services on the other hand," the writer goes on, "instead of +being left to the option of the citizen, with the alternative of +starvation (as is the case under the wage-system) would be secured +under one uniform law of civic duty, precisely like other forms of +taxation or military service." + +Such, then, is the system which is put forward by educated socialists +to-day as the only means of escape from the existing system of wages. +And an escape from the wage-system--and one not theoretically +impracticable--it no doubt is; but an escape into what? It is an escape +into one of those systems which I have just now mentioned. That is to +say, it is an escape into economic slavery. For the very essence of the +position of the slave, as contrasted with the wage-paid labourer, is, so +far as the direction of his industrial actions is concerned, that he has +not to work as he is bidden in order to gain a livelihood, but that, his +livelihood being assured him no matter how he behaves himself, he is +obliged to work as he is bidden in order to avoid the lash, or some +other form of equally effective punishment.[8] + +Now, I am not attempting here to find any fault with socialism on the +ground that it would, on the admission of some of its most thoughtful +exponents, be obliged to re-establish slavery as the price of +emancipation from "wagedom." I have commented on this fact solely with +the view to showing that the nature of the alternative to the +wage-system thus proposed indicates a full recognition, on the part of +those proposing it, of the nature and necessity of the functions which +the wage-system performs at present--namely, that of supplying the means +by which the ablest minds in the community secure from the mass of the +citizens the punctual performance of the industrial tasks required of +them. I am not even insisting that such a slave-system as Mr. Webb +contemplates is logically essential to the theory of intellectual +socialism at all. On the contrary, as may be seen from a letter +addressed to myself by a member of a socialistic body at Chicago, many +socialists, as to this matter, are opposed to Mr. Webb altogether. +Socialists, says my correspondent, speaking for himself and his +associates, have no objection whatever to the system of "wagedom" as +such; nor do they wish to see the direction of labour "enforced by the +power of the law." They recognise, he says, quoting my own words, that +production under socialism, just as under the present system, will be +efficient in proportion as labour is directed by the best minds "which +can enhance the productivity of an average pair of hands." They object +to the wage-system only in so far as it is a means by "which the +employing class can make a profit out of the labourers"; and the only +change which in this respect socialists desire to introduce is to +transfer the business of wage-paying from the private capitalist to the +state--the state which will have no "private interests to serve," and +consequently no temptation to appropriate any profits for itself. +Socialists, he continues, subject to this proviso, would leave the +wage-system just as it is now. The state would pay those who worked, and +in accordance with the work they did; but the idle or refractory it +would "leave to starve to death, if they so elected, unless somebody +wished to keep them alive, as happens at the present time." + +The difference between socialists with regard to this question, however, +does nothing in itself to discredit the socialistic theory as a whole. +It has merely the effect of providing us with two sets of witnesses +instead of one to the truth of a common principle, which is recognised +by both equally. One set declares that the ability of the most competent +men must direct the labours of the majority by means of an appeal to +their fears; the other declares that the same result must be +accomplished, as it is at the present time, by an appeal to their choice +and prudence. In either case it is admitted that the separate manual +tasks performed by the majority of the citizens must be directed and +co-ordinated by the most competent minds somehow; and that the process +of direction must have some system at the back of it, by means of which +the orders issued to each labourer can be enforced--this system being +either a continuation of that which is in existence now, or another +which would to most people be in many ways more distasteful. + +The socialists of to-day, in admitting that such is the case, have at +last placed themselves in a line with the sober realities of life, and +in doing so have assimilated their own analysis of production to the +analysis set forth in the beginning of the present volume. + +Apart from the fact that, according to their constructive programme, +private capitalism would be abolished, and the sole capitalist would be +the state, the socialistic system of production, as they have now come +to conceive of it, would, in respect of the vital forces involved, be +merely the existing system continued under another name, with a +directing minority composed of exceptional men on the one hand, and a +majority composed of directed men on the other. But in the minds of many +socialistic thinkers the simplicity of the situation is obscured by the +vagueness of the ideas which they associate with the phrase "the state." +For them these ideas are like a fog, into which private capitalism +disappears, and in which the forces represented by it lose all definite +character. The state, however, is in reality nothing but a collection of +individuals; and if the state, besides being a political body, is to +become the sole industrial capitalist also, state capitalism, just like +private capitalism, will succeed or fail in proportion to the talents of +those to whom capital is intrusted as a means of directing the +labourers. + +If, then, in any capitalistic country, such as Great Britain or America, +the business of production could become socialised to-morrow, the best +that could possibly happen would be the transformation of the present +employers into so many state officials, who industrially would be the +state itself. The only difference would be that they would have lost all +personal interest in the pecuniary results of the talents which they +would still be expected to exercise.[9] + +Now, if such a transformation of circumstances could be suddenly +effected to-morrow, without any corresponding change in the dispositions +of these men themselves, there is theoretically no reason for supposing +that the process of production might not continue to be as efficient as +it is now, so long as this precise situation lasted. But it could not +last. It would be transitory in its very nature. The present generation +of industrial directors would die, and in order that the efficiency of +the state as the director of labour might be maintained, other men would +have to be discovered who were possessed of equal ability in the first +place, and who in the second could be trusted or compelled to use it +unremittingly to the utmost, in the absence of the main motive which has +actuated such men hitherto. + +Apart from the problems involved in these two requirements, neither the +theory of production which is put forward, nor the productive system +which is advocated, by the intellectual socialists of to-day, contains +anything with which theoretically the most uncompromising of their +opponents could quarrel. It is on these two problems that everything +will be found to turn--one being the problem of how, under the +conditions which socialism would introduce, the ablest men could be +discovered, and invested according to their efficiency with the +requisite industrial authority; the other being the problem of how, +under the same conditions, it would be possible to secure from such men +that full exertion of their talents, on which the material prosperity of +the entire community would depend. + +For socialists these two problems may be said to be practically new. So +long as socialism based itself on the Marxian theory of production, the +selection, and the subsequent conduct of the men who would compose the +industrial state presented no appreciable difficulties. For the state +would, according to this theory, be in no sense the director of the +labourers; it would merely be their humble servant. It would be like an +old woman who sat all day long in a barn, counting, sorting, and making +up into equal shares the different products brought in to her by her +sons, who worked out of her sight in a dozen different fields; or, +to quote the words of one of my late socialistic correspondents, +the functions of the industrial state would be "simply +industrial-clerical." The industrial state would consist of clerks and +shop-boys, the former of whom added up accounts, while the latter +weighed, sorted, and handed out goods over a counter. If the industrial +state were to be nothing more than this, the selection of an adequate +personnel would doubtless present no difficulties. But as soon as the +socialistic theory recognises that the industrial state, instead of +being the mere receiver and dispenser of products produced by labour, +would represent the intellectual forces by which every process of labour +is directed, the problems of how the individuals who compose the state +are to be chosen, and of how the continuous exertion of their highest +faculties is to be secured, become the fundamental problems which +socialists are called upon to consider. + +If we assume that under the régime of socialism a nation could always +secure, as the official directors of its labour, the men whose ability +would enable them to direct it to the best advantage, and could force +these men to exert their exceptional faculties to the utmost, the +exaction of obedience to their orders from the common labouring +citizens, let me say once more, would present no theoretical difficulty. +But the task of securing the requisite ability itself is of a wholly +different kind. Let us consider why. + +Any one armed with an adequate implement of authority, whether the +control of the means of subsistence or the power of inflicting +punishment, can secure, within limits, from any ordinary man the +punctual performance of any ordinary manual task, and the performance of +it in a prescribed way; but he is able to do this for the following +reasons only: So far as ordinary labour is concerned, any one man, by +simply observing another, can tell with approximate accuracy what the +other man can do--whether he can trundle a wheel-barrow, hit a nail on +the head, file a casting, or lay brick on brick. Further, the director +of labour knows the precise nature of the result which he requires in +each case that the individual labourer shall accomplish. Hence he can +exact from each labourer conformity to the injunctions laid on him, in +respect both of the general character and the particular application of +his efforts. But in respect of the faculties distinctive of those +exceptional men by whom alone ordinary labour can be directed to the +best advantage, both these conditions are wanting. It is impossible to +tell that any man of ability possesses any exceptional faculties for +directing labour at all, unless he himself chooses to show them; and, +indeed, until circumstances supply him with some motive for showing +them, he may very well not be aware that he possesses such faculties +himself. Moreover, even if he gives the world some reason to suspect +their existence, the world at large will not know what he can do with +them, and will consequently be unable to impose on him any definite +task. A pressgang could have forced Columbus to labour as a common +seaman; but not all the population of Europe could have forced him to +discover a world beyond the Atlantic; for the mass of his +contemporaries, until his enterprise proved successful, obstinately +refused to believe that there was such a world to discover. + +The men, therefore, on the exercise of whose directive ability the +productive efficiency of a modern nation depends, would occupy, with +regard to any nation organised on socialistic principles, a position +fundamentally different from that of the ordinary labourer. The exercise +of their distinctive powers, unlike those of the labourer, could never +be secured by coercion; because neither the nation at large, nor any +body of representatives, could possibly know that these powers existed +until the possessors of them chose to reveal the secret. They could not +be made to reveal it. They could only be induced to do so; and they +could only be induced to do so by a society which was so constituted as +to offer for an exceptional performance some exceptional reward, just as +a reward is offered for evidence against an unknown murderer. The reward +at present offered them is the possession of some exceptional share of +the wealth to the production of which their efforts have exceptionally +contributed; and, hence, since it is the object of all socialistic +schemes to render the achievement of such a reward impossible, we shall +find that the ultimate problem for socialists of the modern school is +how to discover another which in practice will be equally efficacious. + +But though this is the ultimate problem, it is very far from being the +only one which the theory of socialism in its modern form raises. +Directive ability, which is a compound of many faculties, varies greatly +in degree and kind. Its value, if tested by the results of its actual +application to labour, would in some cases be immense, in other cases +very small, and in others it would be a minus quantity. Thus, even if we +suppose that the exercise of it is so far its own reward that all who +believe themselves to possess it--and these are a very large +number--will, for the mere pleasure of exercising it, be eager to gain +the positions which will make its exercise possible, the problem would +remain of how to discriminate those who would, as industrial directors, +achieve the greatest successes, from those who would bring about nothing +but relative or absolute failure. This problem of how, under a régime of +socialism, ability could be so tested that the practical means of +direction could be granted to or withheld from it, according to its +actual efficiency, is the problem which we will consider first; for +though of secondary importance as compared with the problem of motive, +it is in more immediate connection with the details of daily business. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] The economic condition of the great mass of the population, which +this "up-to-date" socialist contemplates, is precisely analogous to that +of the Helots in Sparta, whose subsistence was secured independently of +their specific services, whilst their services to the directing class +were wrung from them by a system of iron discipline. + +[9] While these pages were in the hands of the printers, a work was +published by an American socialist, in which it is asserted that the +socialisation of America would consist at first of this precise +process--namely, the conversion of all the existing active employers and +directors of labour into the salaried servants of some state department. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PROXIMATE DIFFICULTIES. ABLE MEN AS A CORPORATION OF STATE OFFICIALS + +For the moment, then, we will waive the problem of motive altogether; we +will assume that a society which denied to its able men any pecuniary +reward proportionate to the magnitude of its products could provide them +with a motive of some kind--we need not inquire what--which would prompt +them still to exert themselves as eagerly as they do now; and we will +merely consider how, a multitude of such men being given, the most +efficient of them could be constantly selected as the official directors +of labour, and the rest, in proportion to their inefficiency, be either +dismissed or excluded. In order to realise the difficulties which, in +this respect, socialism would have to face, let us consider the manner +in which the problem is solved now. + +Under the system of private capitalism it solves itself by an automatic +process. In order that any man may direct the labour of other men, he +must, under that system, be the possessor or controller of so much +wage-capital. Now this capital--this implement of direction--in +proportion as it is employed, disappears, and is reproduced only by a +subsequent sale of the products resulting from the labour in the +direction of which it has been expended. Thus a man, we will say, +invents a new engine for motor-cars, and devotes to the production of +twenty engines of the kind all the capital which he possesses--namely, +two thousand guineas. Apart from the raw material out of which the +engines are to be constructed, his whole expenditure will consist in +paying wages to certain labourers, on condition that they work up this +metal in a manner which he prescribes to them. For the raw metal he +pays, we will say, a hundred pounds, or the odd shillings of the +guineas. He pays to twenty labourers a hundred pounds apiece as wages; +and the result is twenty engines. If the engines are successful, and if +the public will give him a hundred and fifty guineas for each of them, +the man has got his entire capital back again, with a thousand guineas +added to it, and can continue his direction of labour by means of wages, +on the same lines, and on a much more extended scale. But if the +engines, when tried, develop some inherent defect, and he consequently +can sell none of them, he may still, perhaps, get back the price of the +raw metal--a petty sum, insufficient for his own needs--but his whole +wage-capital will be gone, and with it his power of directing any +further labour in the future. In other words, under the system of +private capitalism, if labour has been directed by any man in an +unsuccessful way, the resulting products being such that nobody cares to +buy them, or in exact proportion as this result is approached, the man's +implement of direction passes out of his hands altogether; and the +simple fact of his having directed labour ill deprives him of the means +of directing or of misdirecting it again. + +But under a system of state socialism the situation would be wholly +changed. Private capitalism is, in this respect, self-acting, and acts +with absolute accuracy, because wage-capital being divided into a +multitude of independent reservoirs, its waste at any one point brings +about its own remedy. Each reservoir is like a mill-pond which +automatically begins to dry up whenever its contents are employed in +actuating a useless mill; and the man who has wasted his water is able +to waste no more. But the moment the divisions between the reservoirs +are broken down, and the separate capitals contained in them become, as +would be the case under socialism, fused together like the waters of a +single lake, the director of labour who so misused any portion of this +fluid stock that the products of labour, as directed by him, failed to +replace the wages, would not thereby be incapacitated from continuing +his misdirections further; for the wage-capital dissipated by his +incompetence could, under these conditions, always be replaced, and its +loss more or less concealed, by fresh supplies which had a really +different origin. It was only in consequence of conditions resembling +these that the London County Council was enabled to continue for so long +its service of Thames steamboats, in spite of the fact that the labour +thus employed failed to reproduce, by the functions which it performed +for the public, more than a fraction of capital which was necessarily +consumed in its maintenance. Had labour been thus misdirected by any +private capitalist, his misdirection of it would have soon been checked +by his loss of the means of continuing it; but the County Council, with +the purse of the community at its back, was able, by taxing the +industrial successes of others, to refinance and prolong its own +industrial failure. + +Socialists wholly overlook the importance of these considerations. Many +of them, for example, in the case of the London County Council's +steamboats, defended that enterprise in spite of its financial failure, +on the ground that the steamboats were a convenience to certain +travellers at all events, who in all probability were persons of modest +means, while the loss would be made good out of the pockets of the +ratepayers who were presumably rich. But even if this argument were +plausible as applied to a state of society in which the incomes of some +men were greater than those of others, it would be absolutely +inapplicable to conditions such as those desired by socialists, under +which the incomes of all would be fractions, approximately equal, of a +common stock to the production of which all contributed. For it must +surely be apparent to even the meanest intelligence that whatever +diminished the aggregate amount to be divided would diminish the +fraction of it which falls to the share of each; and it ought to be +equally apparent, though to many people it is not, that the labour of +any labourer which is directed in such a way that the men consume more +articles of utility than they produce, or fail to produce as many as +they would do if directed better, has this precise effect of diminishing +the divisible total, by making it either less than it has been or less +than it would be otherwise.[10] + +Thus, in cases such as that of the London County Council's steamboats, +the efficiency of labour is so lessened by incompetent direction that +the labourers employed can only perform for society one-half of the +services which society must perform for them. For every hour which they +spend in conveying ten men on the river, twenty men must work to provide +them with food and clothing. So long as fortunes are unequal, and depend +on individual effort and enterprise, such losses may be localised and +obscured in a hundred different ways; but the moment all fortunes, as +they would be under the régime of socialism, were reduced to specific +fractions of the aggregate product of the community, any decline in the +efficiency of the labour of any single group would result in a +diminution of the income of every member of all the others. Wherever ten +men were employed to do what might have been done by nine, the +contribution to the general stock would be less by ten per cent. than it +might have been. If ten men were employed in making chairs, which might +have been made by nine had their labour been better directed, the +community would lose the cushions which in that case would have been +made by the tenth. And what holds good of labour in respect of its +productive efficiency holds good of it also in respect of the character +of the goods produced. If ten men were employed in producing forty +loaves when all that could be eaten was twenty, not only would the +remaining twenty be wasted, but the community would lose the butter +which might have been made instead of them. The importance, therefore, +to the community as a whole of having every branch of its labour +directed by those men, and by those men only, whose ability would raise +it to the highest pitch of efficiency, and cause it to produce only such +goods and such quantities of them as would satisfy from moment to moment +the needs and tastes of the population, would, under a régime of +socialism, be even more general and immediate than it is at the present +day; and yet at the same time, for reasons to which we will now return, +the difficulty of securing the requisite ability would be increased. + +It is impossible to illustrate in detail the situation which would thus +arise; for the state, as sole capitalist and sole director of labour, is +an institution which imaginably might take various forms; and +socialists, in this case exhibiting a commendable prudence, have +refrained from committing themselves to any detailed programme. The +socialistic state, however, having to perform a double +function--namely, that of political governor and universal director of +industry--would necessarily be divided into two distinct bodies. One of +these, consisting of statesmen and legislators, would, we may assume, be +elected by the votes of the people. But the other, consisting of +industrial experts--the inventors, the chemists, the electricians, the +naval engineers, the organisers of labour--might conceivably be in the +first or the second of the two following positions: They might either be +left free, as they are under the existing system, to do severally the +best they can, according to their own lights, in estimating what goods +or services the population wants, and in satisfying these wants with +such increasing economy that new goods and services might be continually +added to the old. They might be left free to promote or dismiss +subordinates, to fill up vacancies, and take new men into partnership, +very much as the heads of private firms do now. Or else they might be +liable, in greater or less degree, to removal or supersession, and +interference with their technical operations, on the part of the +political body, whose members, while representing the general ideas of +the community, would presumably not be experts in the direction of its +particular industries. + +Now, let us suppose first that the official directors of labour are left +practically free to follow their own devices. The situation which will +arise may be illustrated by the following imaginary case: The nation, +let us say, requires two sister ships. They are built in different +yards, under two different directors, and a thousand labourers are +employed in the construction of each; but while the labourers who work +under one director take a year to complete their task, those who work +under the other complete theirs within ten months. This would mean for +the community that, through the inferiority of the former of these two +officials, two months' labour of the national shipwrights had been lost; +and the public interest would require that the industrial regiment +commanded by him should as quickly as possible pass out of his control +into that of an official who could render it more efficient than he. And +under the existing system this, as we have seen already, is precisely +what sooner or later would be brought about automatically. The +inefficient director, in proportion to his relative inefficiency, loses +his customers, and can direct labour no longer, or is obliged to direct +it on a very much reduced scale. But if each director of labour owed, as +he would do under socialism, his means of directing it, not to the +results of his individual efficiency, but to a single common +source--namely, to the collective capital of the country or the forcible +authority of the law--there is nothing in the fact that one constructor +of ships wastes labour in constructing them which another constructor +would have saved, to prevent him from continuing in his post, or even to +insure that he will vacate it in favour of an abler man, whether an +official rival or otherwise, as soon as such a man is available. + +There is also this further fact to be noted. Although we are assuming +that the socialistic directors of labour will exert their talents to the +utmost without requiring the stimulus of a proportionate reward in +money, we must necessarily assume that they will value their posts for +some reason or other just as much as they would do were the largest +emoluments attached to them. Consequently we may, condescending to +vulgar language, say, as a certainty, that they will do their very best +to stick to them. All these official persons, as contrasted with the +labouring public, will occupy positions of similar and desirable +privilege; and while their latent rivalry among themselves will be +hampered in the manner just indicated, they will none of them be +inclined to welcome any further rivalry from without. If the least +efficient of our two naval constructors could not be forced by the fact +of his relative inefficiency to hand over all or any portion of his +authority to the other, and would certainly not be likely to do so of +his own free will, it is still less likely that either would be willing +to make such a sacrifice in favour of a man outside the privileged +ranks, who desired an opportunity of demonstrating his practical +superiority to both. + +Under a system, in short, like that which we are now contemplating, the +ability of the ablest directors might, in each branch of industry, raise +the efficiency of the labour directed by themselves to as high a pitch +as that to which it could be raised by the competition of to-day. But +the successes of the ablest men would have no tendency to +self-extension. The ablest men would do better than the less able, but +would have no tendency to displace them; and the ablest and the least +able members of the industrial oligarchy alike would instinctively +oppose, and would also be in a position to check, the practical +development of any competition from without. + +That this is no fanciful estimate can be shown by an appeal to facts. We +may take as an example the case of the British post-office. The +inefficient transmission of letters some twenty years ago in London +provoked an effort to supplement it by a service of private messengers. +The post-office authorities were instantly up in arms, ready to nip this +enterprise in the bud, and forcibly prevent any other human being from +doing what they were still, to all appearance, determined not to do +themselves.[11] Then, as a grudging concession, permission to transmit +letters with a promptitude which the post-office still declined to +emulate was accorded to a company on condition that for each letter +carrier the post-office should be paid as it would have been had it +carried the letter itself; and thus there was established at last the +institution of the Boy Messengers. + +Similar examples are afforded by the conduct of the state in France, +where the manufacture of tobacco and matches are both of them state +monopolies. To say that the tobacco produced by the French state is +unsmokable, and that the matches produced by it will not light a candle, +would no doubt be an exaggeration; but they are both inferior to the +products which private enterprise could, if left to itself, produce at +the same price. And private enterprise is, indeed, not wholly +suppressed. Excellent tobacco and matches, both of private manufacture, +are allowed to be sold in France; but the producers of both are +artificially handicapped by having to pay to the state, on every box or +every pound sold, either the whole or part of the profit which the state +itself would have made by selling an equal quantity of its own inferior +articles. + +The very fact, indeed, that the state, as a producer, or a renderer of +public services, such as letter-carrying, has thus to protect itself +against the competition of private enterprise, is sufficient evidence of +the difficulties which a state organisation encounters in securing +industrial ability which shall be constantly of the highest kind, and +also of its inevitable tendency to hamper, if not to stifle, the +development and the practical activity of superior ability elsewhere. +And if these difficulties and this tendency are appreciable in +state-directed industries now, when the area of direction is small and +strictly limited, the reader may easily imagine how incalculably more +formidable they would become if extended, as socialism would extend +them, to the activities of the entire community. + +We have thus far been considering the position of the directors of +socialised industry on the assumption that they would be free to follow +the dictates of their own several intelligences, without any technical +interference from officials of any other kind. Let us now consider the +alternative which, in any socialistic society, would most closely +coincide with fact. This is the assumption that the official directors +of labour would not be technical autocrats, but would be subject to the +control of their brother officials, the statesmen, who represented the +great mass of the people. + +Now, no doubt the intervention of a body of this kind might obviate some +of the difficulties on which we have just been dwelling. It might lead +to the removal of some directors of labour who were not only relatively +inefficient, but were positively and notoriously mischievous; but it +would introduce difficulties greater than those it obviated. For while +the industrial officials would, in exact proportion to their efficiency, +embody the special expertness peculiar to a gifted few, the political +officials, in proportion as they represented their electorate, would +embody the preponderating opinions and the general intelligence of the +many. The political officials, therefore, could, from the very nature +of the case, never represent any ideas or condition of knowledge which +appreciably transcended or conflicted with those of the least +intelligent; and the logical result would be that no industrial +improvements could in a socialistic community be initiated by the +highest intelligence, if they went beyond what could be apprehended and +consciously approved of by the lowest. + +And here again, though our estimate is only general and speculative--for +it deals with a state of things which at present has no existence--we +can turn to historical facts for illustrations of its substantial truth. +For example, if in the days of Columbus all the capital of Europe and +the control of its entire labour had been vested in a government which +represented the all but universal opinion of all the western nations, +the discovery of America would have obviously been beyond the limits of +possibility. It was rendered possible only because Columbus secured two +patrons who, resembling in this respect far-seeing investors of to-day, +dared to be original, and provided him with the necessary ships and +control over the necessary labour. Or let us take the case of the iron +industry of the modern world. This industry, in its vast modern +developments, depends entirely on the discovery made in England of a +method by which iron might be smelted with coal in place of wood. The +completed discovery was due to a succession of solitary men, beginning +with Dud Dudley in the reign of James I., and ending a century later +with Darby of Coalbrookdale. Practically these heroic men had all their +contemporaries against them. Public opinion attacked them through +private persecution and violence. The apathy and vacillation of +governments left them without defence; and had governments then +represented public opinion completely, and had also controlled all +labour and capital, the discovery in question, which was retarded for +three generations, would in all probability have never been made at all. +Arkwright's experience with regard to his spinning-frame was similar. +His epoch-making invention was in danger of being altogether lost, +because the general opinion of the capitalists of his day was against +it; and if all capital had been vested in a representative state, to the +exclusion of the far-seeing individuals who eventually came to his +assistance, its loss would have been almost certain. The successful +development of the automobile did not take place till yesterday--and +why? A steam-driven vehicle ran in Cornwall before the end of the +eighteenth century; but the state and public opinion both condemned it +as dangerous; and all further progress in the matter was checked for +more than twenty years. Then again private enterprise asserted itself, +but only to suffer precisely the same fate. Steam-driven omnibuses plied +between Paddington and Westminster. Steam-driven stage-coaches plied on +the Bath road. But the state and public opinion were again in obstinate +opposition; these vehicles were crushed out of existence by the +imposition of monstrous tolls; and progress was checked a second time +and for a longer period still. An instance yet more modern is that +supplied by the electric lighting of London. The electric lighting of +London was retarded for ten years solely by the attitude which the state +assumed towards private enterprise. + +It is needless to multiply illustrations of this kind further; for my +object is not to show that the state, as it exists at present, is +necessarily inimical to private enterprise as a whole. It is not, for it +has not the power to be. But the fact that even now, when its powers are +so strictly limited and its points of direct contact with industrial +enterprise are so few, tendencies of the kind develop themselves with +such marked practical consequences is enough to show the reality and +magnitude of the evils which would ensue if a body, which reflected on +the one hand the opinions of the average many, and on the other the +individual ability of a few, specially privileged and pledged to their +own methods, were the sole controller of all manual labour whatsoever, +the virtual owner of all the implements which exist at present, the sole +determiner of the forms which such implements shall assume in the +future, and also of the kinds and quantities of the consumable goods +which the implements and the labourers together shall from day to day +produce. + +But the nature and scope of the effects which would be incident to any +general absorption, such as that contemplated by socialists, of +productive enterprise by the state, will be yet more clearly seen if we +turn to a kind of production on which I have dwelt already, as affording +the simplest and most luminous example possible of the respective parts +played in the modern world by ordinary manual labour and the exceptional +ability which directs it. This is the case of books, or of other printed +publications. Many years ago the English radical Charles Bradlaugh urged +in a debate with a then prominent socialist that under socialism no +literary expression of free thought would be practicable, and I cannot +do more than accentuate his lucid and unanswerable arguments. The state, +being controller of all the implements of production, a private press +would be as illegal as the dies used by a forger. Nobody could issue a +book, a newspaper, or even a leaflet, unless the use of a state press +were allowed him by the state authorities, together with the disposal of +the labour of the requisite number of compositors. Now, it is clear that +the state could not bind itself to put presses and compositors at the +service of every one of its citizens who was anxious to see himself in +print. There would have to be selection and rejection of some drastic +kind. The state would have to act as universal publisher's reader. What +would happen under these circumstances to purely imaginative literature +we need not here inquire; but when the question was one of expressing +controversial opinions as to science, religion, morals, and especially +social politics, what would happen is evident. The state would be able +to refuse, and it could not do otherwise than refuse, to print anything +which expressed opinions out of harmony with those which were +predominant among its own members. In so far as these members reflected +the opinions of the majority, they would never publish an attack on +errors which they themselves accepted as vital truths. In so far as they +owed their positions to certain real or supposed superiorities they +would never publish any criticism of their own methods by men whom they +would necessarily regard as mischievous and mistaken inferiors. In +short, whether the state acted in this matter as the ultra-superior +person, or as the ultra-popular person, the result would be just the +same. The focalised prejudices of the majority, or the privileged +self-confidence of a certain select minority, would deprive independent +thought in any other quarter of any means of expressing itself either by +book or journal, and by thus depriving it of its voice would place it at +an artificial disadvantage more effectual as a means of repression than +the dungeons of the Inquisition itself. It would be checked as +completely as the higher criticism of the Bible would have been if the +only printer in the whole world were the Pope and the only publishing +business were managed by the College of Cardinals. + +And what, under a régime of socialism, would be true of human thought, +a-seeking to embody itself in printed books or newspapers, would be +equally true of it as applied to the methods of industry, and seeking to +embody itself in multiplied or improved commodities. + +Such, then, are the disadvantages which socialism, as contrasted with +the existing system, would introduce in connection with the problem of +how to detect, and how, having detected it, to invest with suitable +powers, the men whose ability is, at any given moment, calculated to +raise labour to the highest pitch of productiveness--how to give power +to these, and to take it away from others in exact proportion as their +talents, as exhibited in its practical results, fall short of the +maximum which is at the time obtainable. + +This problem, as we have seen already, the existing system solves by its +machinery of private competition, and of independent capitals, which +automatically increase the powers of the ablest directors of labour, and +concurrently decrease or extinguish those of the less able. Socialism, +with its collective capital, and its able men reduced or elevated to the +rank of state officials, while not obviating, but on the contrary +emphasising the necessity for placing labour under the highest directive +ability, or, in other words, the necessity for competition among able +men, would dislocate the only machinery by which such competition can be +made effective; and, if it did not destroy the efficiency of the highest +ability altogether, would reduce this to a minimum, and confine it +within the narrowest limits. + +In this chapter, however, we have been dealing with the machinery only. +We have been assuming the unabated activity of the powers by which the +machinery is to be driven. That is to say, we have been assuming that +every man who possesses, or imagines himself to possess, any exceptional +gift for directing labour--whether as an inventor, a man of science, an +organiser, or in any other capacity--would be no less eager, under the +circumstances with which socialism would surround him, to develop and +exert his faculties than he is at the present day. We will now pass on +to the question of how far this assumption is correct. The question of +machinery is secondary. It is a question of detail only; for if there is +no power in the background by which the machinery may be driven, it will +not make much difference in the result whether the machinery be bad or +good. + +And here once more we shall find that the socialists of to-day agree +with us; and in passing on to the question now before us, we shall be +quitting a region of speculations which can be only of a general kind +(for they refer to social arrangements whose details are not definitely +specified), and we shall find ourselves confronted by a variety of ideas +and principles which, however confused they may be in the minds of those +who enunciate them, we shall have no difficulty ourselves in reducing to +logical order. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] That such is the case can be seen easily enough by imagining a +socialistic community consisting of twenty men, who require and consume +only one article, bread. Each man, to keep him alive, requires one loaf +daily; but to eat two would be a comfort to him, and to eat three would +be luxury. The community is divided into two groups of ten men each, one +man in each group directing the labour of the others. We will start with +supposing that these two directors are men of equal and also of the +highest ability, and that each of the groups, under these favourable +conditions, is enabled to produce daily an output of thirty loaves. The +total output of both in this case amounts to sixty, which equally +divided yields to everybody the luxurious number of three. Let us next +suppose that the director of one group dies, that his place is taken by +a man of inferior powers, and that this group, as a consequence of his +less efficient direction, instead of producing thirty loaves can produce +no more than ten. Now, although this falling off in production has +occurred in one group only, the loss which results from it is felt by +the entire community. The total output has sunk from sixty loaves to +forty; and the members of the group which retains its old efficiency, no +less than those of the group which has lost so much of it, have to be +content, with a dividend, not of three loaves, but two. Finally, let us +suppose that, owing to a continued deterioration in management, the ten +men of whom the first group is composed are able to produce daily, not +ten loaves, but only five. That is to say, the number of loaves which +they produce comes to no more than half of the minimum they are obliged +to eat. Here it is obvious that, unless one-half of the population is to +die, it can only be kept alive by being given a supply of loaves which, +in consequence of its own inefficiency, must be taken out of the mouths +of others. + +[11] A similar drama enacted itself in London more than two centuries +ago. Private enterprise established a penny post. The state killed it, +and deprived the metropolis of this service for a hundred and fifty +years. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE ULTIMATE DIFFICULTY. +SPECULATIVE ATTEMPTS TO MINIMISE IT + +When socialism, says Mr. Sidney Webb, shall have abolished all other +monopolies, there will still remain to be dealt with the most formidable +monopoly of all--namely, "the natural monopoly of business ability," or +"the special ability and energy with which some persons are born." The +services of these monopolists, he sees and fully admits, would be as +essential to a socialistic as they are to any other community which +desires to prosper according to modern standards. He sees and admits +also that these exceptional men will not continuously exert or even +develop their talents unless society can supply them with some adequate +motive or stimulus. Accordingly, since he maintains that no scheme of +society would be socialistic in any practical sense which did not +completely, or at least approximately, eliminate the motive mainly +operative among such men at present--namely, that supplied by the +possibility of exceptional economic gain--he fairly faces the fact that +some motive of a different kind will have to be discovered by socialists +which shall take the place of this. + +I mention Mr. Webb in particular merely because he represents the views +which all intellectual socialists are coming to hold likewise. This +specific problem of how to provide the natural monopolists of business +ability with all adequate motive to develop and exercise their talents +is engaging more and more the attention of the higher socialistic +thinkers; and if we take together the passages in their writings which +deal with it, it has by this time a voluminous literature of its own. + +We shall find that the arguments brought forward by them in this +connection divide themselves broadly into two classes, one of which +deals with the problem of motive directly, while the other class aims at +preparing the way to its solution by showing in advance that its +difficulties are far less formidable than they appear to be. Without +insisting on the manner in which they are urged by individual writers, +we will take these two classes of argument in the logical order which +they assume when we consider their general character. + +These preparatory arguments, with which we will accordingly begin, while +admitting that some men are undoubtedly more able than others, aim at +showing that the superiority of such men to their fellows is not so +great as it seems to be, and that any claims made by them to exceptional +reward on account of it consequently tend to reduce themselves to very +modest proportions. + +These arguments possess a peculiar interest owing to the fact that they +have not originated with socialistic thinkers at all, but have been +drawn by them from the evolutionary philosophy of the nineteenth century +generally, in so far as it was applied to historical and sociological +questions. The dominant idea which distinguished this school of thought +was the insignificance of the individual as compared with society past +and present. Thus Herbert Spencer, who was its most systematic exponent, +opens his work on the _Study of Sociology_ with an elaborate attack on +what he calls "The Great Man Theory," according to which the explanation +of the main events of history is to be sought in the influence of +exceptional or great men--the men who, in vulgar language, are spoken of +as "historical characters." Such an explanation, said Spencer, is no +explanation at all. Great men, however great, are not isolated +phenomena. Whatever they may do as the "proximate initiators" of change, +they themselves "have their chief cause in the generations they have +descended from," and depend for the influence which is commonly +attributed to their actions, on "the multitudinous conditions" of the +generation to which they belong. Thus Laplace, he says, could not have +got far with his calculations if it had not been for the line of +mathematicians who went before him. Cæsar could not have got very far +with his conquests if a great military organisation had not been ready +to his hand; nor could Shakespeare have written his dramas if he had not +lived in a country already enriched with traditions and a highly +developed language. + +But though it was Herbert Spencer who invested these arguments with +their most systematic form, and gave them their definite place in the +theory of evolution as a whole, they were widely diffused already among +his immediate predecessors, as we may see by the following passage taken +from an unlikely quarter. "It is," says Macaulay, in his _Essay on +Dryden_, anticipating the exact phraseology of Spencer, "the age that +makes the man, not the man that makes the age.... The inequalities of +the intellect, like the inequalities of the surface of the globe, bear +so small a proportion to the mass, that in calculating its great +revolutions they may safely be neglected." And Macaulay is merely +expressing a doctrine distinctive of his time--a doctrine which, to take +one further example, dominated in a notable way the entire thought of +Buckle. This doctrine, which, to a greater or less degree, merges the +organism in its environment, or the individual, however great, in +society, has been seized on by the more recent socialists just as the +theory of Ricardo, with regard to labour and value, was seized on by +Karl Marx, and has been adapted by them to their own purposes. + +Thus Mr. Bellamy, whose book, _Looking Backward_, descriptive of a +socialistic Utopia, achieved a circulation beyond that of the most +popular novels, declares that "nine hundred and ninety-nine parts out of +the thousand of the produce of every man are the result of his social +inheritance and environment"; and Mr. Kidd, a socialist in sentiment if +not in definite theory, urges that the comparative insignificance, the +comparative commonness, and dependence for their efficiency on +contemporary social circumstances, of the talents which we are +accustomed to associate with the greatest inventions and discoveries, is +proved by the fact that some of the most important of these have been +made by persons who, "working quite independently, have arrived at like +results almost simultaneously. Thus rival and independent claims," he +proceeds, "have been made for the discovery of the differential +calculus, the invention of the steam-engine, the methods of spectrum +analysis, the telephone, the telegraph, as well as many other +discoveries." Further, to these arguments a yet more definite point has +been added by the contention that, as socialist writers put it, +"inventions and discoveries, when once made, become common property," +the mass of mankind being cut off from the use of them only by patents +or other artificial restrictions. + +The aim of socialists in pursuing this line of reasoning is obvious. It +is to demonstrate, or rather to suggest, that "the monopolists of +business ability," in spite of their comparative rarity and the +importance of the services performed by them, are far from being so +rare or so superior to the mass of their contemporaries as they seem to +be, that their achievements owe far more than appears on the surface to +the co-operation of the average members of society, and that +consequently a socialistic society could justly demand and practically +secure their services on far easier terms than those which they command +at present. + +And to such a conclusion the principles of modern evolutionary +sociology, as unanimously interpreted by the philosophers of the +nineteenth century, may be fairly said to lend the entire weight of +their prestige. Let us, then, consider more carefully what these +principles are, with a view to understanding the true scope of their +significance. We shall find that, although undoubtedly true in +themselves, the scope of their significance has been very imperfectly +understood by the great thinkers to whose talents their elucidation has +been due; that these thinkers, in their eagerness to establish a new +truth, have at the same time introduced a new confusion; and that it is +from the confusion of a truth with a falsehood, rather than from the +truth itself, that the socialists of to-day have been here drawing their +inspiration. + +The confusion in question arises from a failure to see that sociology is +concerned with two distinct sets of phenomena, or with one set regarded +from two absolutely distinct standpoints. Thus it is constantly said +that man, in the course of ages, has developed civilised societies and +the various arts of life--that, beginning as an animal only a little +higher than the monkey, he gradually became a builder of cities, a +master of the secrets of nature, a philosopher, a poet, a painter of +divine pictures. And from a certain point of view this language is +adequate. If what we desire to do is to estimate, as speculative +philosophers, the significance of the human race in relation to the +universe or its Author, by considering its origin on this planet, and +its subsequent fortunes hitherto, what interests us is man in the mass, +or societies, and not individuals. But if we are interested in any +problem of practical life--such, for example, as how to cure cancer, or +cut a navigable canal through a broad and mountainous isthmus, or +decorate a public building with a series of great frescoes--the central +point of interest is the individual and not society. How would a mother, +whose child was hovering between life and death, be comforted by the +information that man was a great physician? How would America be helped +in the construction of the Panama Canal by learning from sociologists +that man could remove mountains? How could great pictures be secured for +a public building by information to the effect that the greatest of all +great artists depended for their exceptional power on the aggregate of +conditions surrounding them, when ten millions of men whose surrounding +conditions were similar might be tried in succession without one being +found who rose in art above the level of vulgar mediocrity? It is not +that the generalisations of the evolutionary sociologists with regard +to man in the mass, or societies, are untrue philosophically. +Philosophically they are of the utmost moment. It is that they have no +bearing on the problems of contemporary life, and that they miss out the +one factor by which they are brought into connection with it. + +Let us take, for example, the way in which Herbert Spencer illustrates +the general theorem of the evolutionary sociologists by the case of +Shakespeare, and Shakespeare's debt to his times. "Given a Shakespeare," +he says, "and what dramas could he have written without the +multitudinous conditions of civilised life around him--without the +various traditions which, descending to him from the past, gave wealth +to his thought, and without the language which a hundred generations had +developed and enriched by use?" The answer to this question is to be +found in the counter-question that is provoked by it. Given the +conditions of civilised life, and the traditions of England and its +language, as they were under Queen Elizabeth, how could these have +produced the Shakespearian dramas unless England had possessed an +individual citizen whose psycho-physical organisation was equal to that +of Shakespeare? Similarly, it is true that Turner could not have painted +his sunsets if multitudinous atmospheric conditions had not given him +sunsets to paint; but at the same time every one of Turner's +contemporaries were surrounded by sunsets of precisely the same kind, +and yet only Turner was capable of producing such masterpieces as his +own. The case of the writer and the artist, indeed, illustrates with +singular lucidity the fact which the philosophy of the evolutionary +sociologists ignores that the great man does great things, not in virtue +of conditions which he shares with the dullest and the feeblest of the +men around him, but in virtue of the manner in which his exceptional +genius assimilates the data of his environment, and gives them back to +the world, recombined, refashioned, and reinterpreted. + +And with regard to practical matters, and more especially the modern +production of wealth, the case is just the same. No one has illustrated +more luminously than Herbert Spencer himself the multitudinous character +of the knowledge which modern production necessitates; and no one has +insisted with more emphasis than he that one of the rarest faculties to +be met with among human beings is the faculty, as he expresses it, of +"apprehending assembled propositions in their totality." It would be +difficult to define better in equally brief language the intellectual +aspect of that composite mental equipment which distinguishes from +ordinary men the monopolists of business ability. It is precisely by +apprehending a multitude of assembled propositions in their +totality--mathematical, chemical, geological, geographical, and so +forth--by combining them for a definite purpose, and translating them +into a series of orders which organised labour can execute, that the +intellect of the able man gives efficiency to the industrial processes +of to-day. In addition, moreover, to his purely intellectual faculties, +he requires others which, in their higher developments, are no less +rare--namely, a quick discernment of popular wants as they arise or an +imagination which enables him to anticipate them, an instinctive insight +into character which enables him to choose best men as his subordinates, +promptitude to seize on opportunities, courage which is the soul of +promptitude, and finally a driving energy by which the whole of his +moral and intellectual mechanism is actuated. As for "the aggregate of +conditions out of which he has arisen," or the aggregate of conditions +which surround him, these are common to him and to every one of his +fellow-countrymen. They are a landscape which surrounds them all. But +aggregates of conditions could no more produce the results of which, as +Herbert Spencer admits, the able man is the proximate cause, unless the +able man existed and could be induced to cause them, than a landscape +could be photographed without a lens or a camera, or a great picture of +it painted in the absence of a great artist. + +Herbert Spencer, indeed, partially perceives all this himself. That is +to say, he realises from time to time that the causal importance of the +great man varies according to the nature of the problems in connection +with which we consider him and that while he is, for purposes of +general speculation, merely a transmitter of forces beyond and greater +than himself, he is for practical purposes an ultimate cause or fact. +That such is the case is shown in a curiously vivid way by two +references to two great men in particular, which occur not far from each +other in Spencer's _Study of Sociology_. One is a reference to the last +Napoleon, the other is a reference to the first. He refers to the former +when he is emphasising his main proposition, that the importance of the +ruler, considered as an individual, is small, and almost entirely merged +in the conditions of society generally. "If you wish," he says, "to +understand the phenomena of social evolution, you will not do it should +you read yourself blind over the biographies of all the great rulers on +record, down to Frederick the greedy and Louis Napoleon the +treacherous." When he makes his reference to Louis Napoleon's ancestor, +he is pausing for a moment in the course of his philosophical argument +in order to indulge in a parenthetical denunciation of war. Of the +insane folly of war, he says, we can have no better example than that +provided by Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when +hardly a country was free from "slaughter, suffering, and devastation." +For what, he goes on to ask, was the cause of such wide-spread horrors? +Simply, he answers, the presence of one abnormal individual, "in whom +the instincts of the savage were scarcely at all qualified by what we +call moral sentiments"; and "all this slaughter, suffering, and +devastation" were, he says, "gone through because one man had a restless +desire to be despot over all men." Here we see how Spencer, as a matter +of common-sense, instinctively assigns to great men absolutely +contrasted positions, according to the point of view from which he is +himself regarding them--that of the speculative thinker and that of the +practical politician, and of this fact we will take one example more. Of +his doctrine that the great man is merely a "proximate initiator," and +in no true sense the cause of what he seems to produce or do, he gives +us an elaborate illustration taken from modern industry--that is to say, +the invention of the _Times_ printing-press. This wonderful piece of +mechanism would, he says, have been wholly impossible if it had not been +for a series of discoveries and inventions that had gone before it; and +having specified a multitude of these, winds up with a repetition of his +moral that of each invention individually the true cause is not the +so-called inventor, but "the aggregate of conditions out of which he has +arisen." But when elsewhere, in his treatise on _Social Statics_, +Spencer is dealing with the existing laws of England, he violently +attacks these, in so far as they relate to patents, because they fail, +he says, to recognise as absolute a man's "property in his own ideas," +or, in other words, "his inventions, which he has wrought, as it were, +out of the very substance of his own mind." Thus Spencer himself, at +times, as these passages clearly show, sees that while great men, when +considered philosophically, do little of what they appear to do, they +must for practical purposes be dealt with as though they did all; though +he nowhere recognises this distinction formally, or accords it a +definite place in his general sociological system.[12] + +The absurdity of confounding speculative sociology with practical is +shown with equal clearness by Macaulay in the passage that was just now +quoted from him. "The inequalities of the intellect," he says, "like the +inequalities of the surface of the globe, bear so small a proportion to +the mass" that the sociologist may neglect the one just as safely as the +astronomer neglects the other. Now, this may be quite true if our +interest in human events is that of social astronomers who are watching +them from another planet. But because the inequalities of the earth are +nothing to the astronomer, it does not follow that they are nothing to +the engineer and the geographer. The Alps for the astronomer may be an +infinitesimal and negligible excrescence; but they were not this to +Hannibal or the makers of the Mont Cenis tunnel. What to the astronomer +are all the dykes of Holland? But they are everything to the Dutch +between a dead nation and a living one. And the same thing holds good of +the inequalities of the human intellect. For the social astronomer they +are nothing. For the practical man they are everything. + +It is in the astonishing confusion between speculative and practical +truth which characterised the evolutionary sociologists of the +nineteenth century that the socialists of to-day are seeking for a new +support to their system. And now let us consider the way in which they +themselves have improved the occasion, and apply the moral which they +have drawn from such a singularly deceptive source. The three points +which they aim at emphasising are the smallness of the products which +the able man can really claim as his own, the consequent diminution of +his claims to any exceptional reward on account of them, and the fact +that even the highest ability, however rare it may be, is very much +commoner than it seems to be, and will, for this reason in addition to +those just mentioned, be obtainable in the future at a very much reduced +price. + +Of these three points the last is the most definite. Let us take it +first; and let us take it as stated, not by a professed socialist, but +by an independent and highly educated thinker such as Mr. Kidd. Mr. +Kidd's argument is, as we have seen already, that the comparative +commonness of ability of the highest kind is shown by the fact that, of +the greatest inventions and discoveries, a number have been notoriously +made at almost the same time by a number of thinkers who have all worked +in isolation. This argument would not be worth discussing if it were not +used so constantly by a variety of serious writers. The fact on which it +bases itself is no doubt true enough; but what is the utmost that it +proves? That more men than one should reach at the same time the same +discovery independently is precisely what we should be led to expect, +when we consider what the character of scientific discovery is. The +facts of nature which form its subject-matter are in themselves as +independent of the men who discover them as an Alpine peak is of the men +who attempt to climb it. They are, indeed, precisely analogous to such a +peak which all discoverers are attempting to scale at once; and the fact +that three men make at once the same discovery does no more to show that +it could have been made by the majority of their fellow-workers, and +that it was in reality made not by themselves but by their generation, +than the fact that three men of exceptional nerve and endurance meet at +last on some previously virgin summit proves the feat to have been +accomplished less by these men themselves than by the mass of tourists +who thronged the hotel below and whose climbing exploits were limited to +an ascent by the Rigi Railway. + +Other writers, however, try to reach Mr. Kidd's conclusion by a +somewhat different route. Whether the great man is or is not a more +common phenomenon than he seems to be, they maintain that his conquests +in the realms of invention and discovery, when once made, really "become +common property," of which all men could take advantage if it were not +for artificial monopolies. All men, therefore, though not equal as +discoverers, are practically equalised by whatever the discoverers +accomplish. Now, of the simpler inventions and discoveries, such as that +of fire for example, this is perfectly true; but it is true of these +only. As inventions and discoveries grow more and more complex, they no +more become common property, as soon as certain men have made them, than +encyclopædic knowledge becomes the property of every one who buys or +happens to inherit an edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_. It is +perfectly true that the discovery of each new portion of knowledge +enables men to acquire it who might never have acquired it otherwise; +but as the acquisition of the details of knowledge becomes facilitated, +the number of details to be acquired increases at the same time; and the +increased ease of acquiring each is accompanied by an increased +difficulty in assimilating even those which are connected most closely +with each other. We may safely say that a knowledge of the simple rules +of arithmetic is common to all the members of the English University of +Cambridge; but out of some thousands of students only a few become great +mathematicians. And the same thing holds good of scientific knowledge +in general, and especially of such knowledge as applied to the purposes +of practical industry. Knowledge and inventions, once made, are like a +river which flows by everybody; but the water of the river becomes the +property of individuals only in proportion to the quantity of it which +their brains can, as it were, dip up; and the knowledge dipped up by the +small brains is no more equal to that dipped up by the large than a +tumbler of water is made equal to a hogshead by the fact that both +vessels have been filled from the same stream. + +Let us now pass on to the argument which, differing essentially from the +preceding in that it does not aim at proving that the great men are +commoner than they seem to be, or their knowledge more diffused, insists +that of what the great men seem to do very little is really their +own--or that, as Mr. Bellamy puts it, in words which we have already +quoted, "nine hundred and ninety-nine parts out of a thousand of their +produce is really the result of their social inheritance and +environment." Here, again, we have a statement, which from one point of +view is true. It is merely a specialised expression of the far more +general doctrine that the whole process of the universe, man included, +is one, and that all individual causes are only partial and proximate. +No man at any period could do the precise things that he does if the +country in which he lives had had a different past or present, any more +than he could do anything if it were not for his own previous life, for +the fact that he had been born, that his mind and body had matured, and +that he had acquired, as he went along, such and such knowledge and +experience. How could a man do anything unless he had some environment? +Unless he had some past, how could he exist at all? Mr. Bellamy and his +friends, when considering matters in this light, are not too extreme in +their conclusions. On the contrary, they are too modest. For men, if +they were really isolated from their social inheritance and environment, +could not only do but little; they could do absolutely nothing. The +admission, therefore, that for practical purposes they must be held to +do something at all events, is an admission wrung from our philosophers +by the exigencies of common-sense. As such, then, let us accept it; and +what will our conclusion be? It will be this: that whatever it may be +which the ordinary man produces, and in whatever sense he produces it, +the great man, in the same sense, produces a great deal more. The +difference between them in efficiency will be no more lessened by the +fact that both are standing on the pedestal of a common past, than the +difference in stature will be lessened between a dwarf and a giant +because they are both standing on the top of a New York skyscraper, or +because they have both been nourished on the same species of food. + +But the practical absurdity of the whole set of arguments urged in a +contrary sense by Herbert Spencer, Mr. Kidd, and the speculative +sociologists generally, is brought to its climax by those modern +exponents of socialism who attempt to invest them with a moral as well +as an industrial significance. Thus Mr. Webb, who himself frankly +recognises that the monopolists of business ability are industrially +more efficient than the great mass of their fellows, and that man for +man they produce incomparably more wealth, endeavours, by means of the +arguments which we have been just considering, to show that though they +produce it they have no moral right to keep it. The proposal, he says, +that, though men are vastly unequal in productivity, they should all of +them be awarded an equal share of the product--that if one man produces +only one shilling, while another man produces ninety-nine, the resulting +hundred should be halved and each of the men take fifty--this proposal +"has," he says, "an abstract justification, as the special energy and +ability with which some persons are born is an unearned increment due to +the effect of the struggle for existence upon their ancestors, and +consequently, having been produced by society, is as much due to society +as the unearned increment of rent." + +Now, if this argument has any practical meaning at all, it can only mean +that the men who have been born with such special powers will, as soon +as they recognise what the origin of these powers is, realise that they +have, as individuals, no special claims on the results of them, and will +consequently become more willing than they are at the present time to +continue to produce the results, though they will not be allowed to +keep them. We will not insist, as we might do, on the curious want of +knowledge of human nature which the argument thus put forward by Mr. +Webb and other socialists betrays. It will be enough to point out that, +if it applies to the monopolists of business ability, it applies with +equal force to all other sorts of men whatever. If it is to society as a +whole that the able man owes his energy, his talents, and the products +of them, it is to society as a whole that the idle man owes his +idleness, the stupid man his stupidity, and the dishonest man his +dishonesty; and if the able man, who produces an exceptional amount of +wealth, can with justice claim no more than the average man who produces +little, the man who is so idle that he shirks producing anything may +with equal justice claim as much wealth as either. His constitutional +fault, and his constitutional disinclination to mend it, are both of +them due to society, and society, not he, must suffer. + +If we attempted to organise a community in accordance with such a +conclusion as this, we should be getting rid of all connection between +conduct and the natural results of it, and divorcing action from motive +altogether. Such is the conclusion to which Mr. Webb's argument would +lead us; and the absurdity of the argument, as applied by him to moral +claims and merits, though more self-evident, is not any more complete +than the absurdity of similar arguments as applied to the individual +generally in respect of his productive powers, and the amount of +produce produced by them. The whole conception, in short, of the +individual as merged in the aggregate has no relation to practical life +whatever. For the practical man the individual is always a unit; and it +is only as a unit that it is possible practically to deal with him. We +may change him in some respects by changing his general conditions, as +we hope to do by legislation which aims at the diminution of +drunkenness; but a change in general conditions, if it diminished +drunkenness generally, would do so only because it affected at the same +time the isolated minds and organisms of a number of individual +drunkards. + +And to do Mr. Webb and his brother socialists justice, they +unconsciously admit all this themselves; for, as soon as they set +themselves to discuss the motives of the able man in detail, they +altogether abandon the irrelevancies of speculative sociology with which +they manage at other times to bemuse themselves. That such is the case +we shall see in the following chapter. I will, however, anticipate what +we shall see there by mentioning that among the motives which are in the +socialistic future to replace, among able men, the desire of economic +gain, one of the chief is to be the desire of moral approbation. Unless +a man's actions, whether industrial or moral, are to be treated as his +own, instead of being attributed to his conditions, he would have as +little right to the praise which it is proposed to give him as he would +have to the dollars which it is proposed to take away. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] I first made this criticism of Spencer in my work _Aristocracy and +Evolution_. On that occasion Mr. Spencer wrote to me, complaining with +much vehemence that I had misrepresented him; and he repeated the +substance of his letter in a subsequent published essay. My criticism +dealt, and could have dealt only, not with what he meant, but what he +said; and certainly in his language--and, as I think, in his own +mind--there was a constant confusion between the two truths in question. +Apart, however, from what he considered to be my own misrepresentation +of himself, he declared that he entirely agreed with me; and that "great +men" must, for practical purposes, be regarded as the true causes of +such changes as they initiate. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE ULTIMATE DIFFICULTY, CONTINUED. +ABILITY AND INDIVIDUAL MOTIVE + +The fact that the speculative arguments which we have just now been +discussing are not only irrelevant to the problem of the able man and +his motives, but are tacitly abandoned as being so by the very men who +have urged them, when they come to deal specifically with that problem +themselves, may suggest to some readers that so long a discussion of +them was superfluous. But though the socialists abandon them at the very +moment when, if ever, they ought to be susceptible of some definite +application, they abandon them quite unconsciously, and still continue +to attach to them some solemn importance. Such being the case, then, the +more futile these arguments are the stronger is the light thrown by them +on the peculiar intellectual weakness which distinguishes even the most +capable of those who think it worth their while to employ them. For this +reason, therefore, if for no other, our examination of them will have +proved useful, for it will have prepared us to encounter a weakness of +precisely the same kind in the reasonings of the socialists when they +deal with motive directly. + +Let us once more state this direct problem of motive, as with perfect +accuracy, stated by the socialists themselves. Under existing conditions +the monopolists of business ability are mainly induced to add to the +national store of wealth by the prospect, whose fulfilment existing +conditions make possible, of retaining shares of it as their own which +are proportionate to the amounts produced by them. The question is, +therefore, whether, if this prospect is taken away from them, socialism +could provide another which men of this special type would find equally +stimulating. Is human nature in general, and the nature of the +monopolists in particular, sufficiently adaptable to admit of such a +change as this? The socialists answer that it is, and in making such an +assertion they declare that they have all the facts of scientific +sociology at the back of them. The unscientific thing is, they say, to +assume the contrary; and here, they proceed, we have the fundamental +error which renders most of the conclusions of the ordinary economists +valueless. Economic science, in its generally accepted form, bases all +its reasonings on the behaviour of the so-called "economic man"--that is +to say, a being from whom those who reason about him exclude all +operative desires except that of economic gain. But such a being, say +the socialists, is a mere abstraction. He has no counterpart among +living, loving, idealising, aspiring men. Real men are susceptible of +the desire of gain, no doubt; but this provides them only with one +motive out of many; and there are others which, as experience amply +shows us, are, when they are given unimpeded play, far stronger. I do +not know whether socialists have ever used the following parallel; but +if they have not it expresses their position better than they have +expressed it themselves. They argue virtually that, in respect of the +desire for exceptional gain, able men are comparable to victims of the +desire for alcohol. If alcohol is obtainable, such men will insist on +obtaining it. They will constantly fix their thoughts on it; no other +fluid will satisfy them. But if it is placed altogether beyond their +reach, they will be compelled by the force of circumstances to drink +lemonade, tea, or even plain water instead. In time they will come to +drink them with the same avidity; and their health and their powers of +enjoyment will be indefinitely improved in consequence. In the same way, +it is argued, the monopolists of business ability, though, so long as it +is possible for them to appropriate a considerable share of their +products, they will insist on getting this share, and will not exert +themselves otherwise, need only be placed under conditions which will +render such gain impossible, and at once they will find out that there +exist other inducements which will prove before long to be no less +efficacious. + +Such is the general argument of the modern school of socialists; but +they do not leave it in this indeterminate form. They have, to their own +satisfaction, worked it out in detail, and claim that they are able to +demonstrate from the actual facts of human nature precisely what the +character of the new inducements will be. + +It may be looked upon as evidence of the methodical and quasi-scientific +accuracy with which modern socialists have set themselves to discuss +this question of motive that the thought of all of them has moved along +the same lines, and that what all of them fix upon as a substitute for +the desire of exceptional pecuniary gain is one or other, or all, of a +few motives actually in operation, and notoriously effective in certain +spheres of activity. + +These motives practically resolve themselves into four, which have been +classified as follows by Mr. Webb or one of his coadjutors: + +"The mere pleasure of excelling," or the joy of the most powerful in +exercising their powers to the utmost. + +"The joy in creative work," such as that which the artist feels in +producing a great work of art. + +The satisfaction which ministering to others "brings to the instincts of +benevolence," such as that which is felt by those who give themselves to +the sick and helpless. + +And, lastly, the desire for approval, or the homage which is called +"honour," the efficiency of which is shown by the conduct of the +soldier--often a man of very ordinary education and character--who will +risk death in order that he may be decorated with some intrinsically +worthless medal, which merely proclaims his valour or his unselfish +devotion to his country. + +Now, that the motives here in question are motives of extraordinary +power, all history shows us. The most impressive things accomplished by +human nature have been due to them. But let us consider what these +things are. The first motive--namely, that supplied by the mere +"pleasure in excelling"--we need hardly consider by itself, for, in so +far as socialists can look upon its objects as legitimate, it is +included in the struggle for approbation or honour. We will merely +remark that the emphasis which the socialists lay on it is not very +consonant with the principles of those persons who propose to abolish +competition as the root of all social evils; and we will content +ourselves with examining in detail the three other motives only, and the +scope of their efficiency, as actual experience reveals it to us. + +We shall find that the activities which these three motives stimulate +are confined, so far as experience is able to teach us anything, to the +following well-marked kinds, which have been already indicated: those of +the artist, of the speculative thinker, of the religious and +philanthropic enthusiast, and, lastly, those of the soldier. This list, +if understood in its full sense, is exhaustive. + +Such being the case, then, the argument of the socialists is as follows: +Because a Fra Angelico will paint a Christ or a Virgin, because a Kant +will immolate all his years to philosophy, because a monk and a sister +of mercy will devote themselves to the victims of pestilence, because a +soldier in action will eagerly face death--all without hope of any +exceptional pecuniary reward--the monopolists of business ability, if +only such rewards are made impossible for them, will at once become +amenable to the motives of the soldier, the artist, the philosopher, the +inspired philanthropist, and the saint. This is the assertion of the +socialists when reduced to a precise form; and what we have to do is to +inquire whether this assertion is true. Does human nature, as history, +as psychology, and as physiology reveal it to us, give us any grounds, +in fact, for taking such an assertion seriously? Any one who has studied +human conduct historically, who has observed it in the life around him, +and examined scientifically the diversities of temperament and motive +that go with diversities of capacity, will dismiss such an assertion as +at once groundless and ludicrous. + +Let us, to go into detail, take the case of the artist. What reason is +there to suppose that the impassioned emotion which stimulates the +adoring monk to lavish all his genius on an altar-piece will stimulate +another man to devise, and to organise the production of, some new kind +of liquid enamel for the decoration of cheap furniture?[13] Or let us +turn to an impulse closely allied to the artistic--namely, the desire +for speculative truth, as manifested in the lives of scientific and +philosophic thinkers. These men--such as Kant and Hegel, for +example--have been proverbially, and often ludicrously, indifferent to +the material details of their existence. Who can suppose that the +disinterested passion for truth, which had the effect of making these +men forget their dinners, will stimulate others to devote themselves to +the improvement of stoves and saucepans? + +Yet again, let us consider the area of the industrial influence of the +motives originating in religious fervour or benevolence. The most +important illustration of this is to be found in the monastic orders. +The monastic orders constructed great buildings; they successfully +practised agriculture and other industrial arts: and those of them who +were faithful to their vows aimed at no personal luxuries. On the +contrary, their superfluous possessions were applied by them to the +relief of indigence. But this industrial asceticism was made possible +only by its association with another asceticism--the renunciation of +women, the private home, the family. Even so, in the days when Christian +piety was at its highest, those who were capable of responding to the +industrial motives of the cloister formed but a fraction of the general +population of Christendom, while even among them these motives +constantly ceased to operate; and, as St. Francis declared with regard +to his own disciples, the desire for personal gain continually insisted +on reasserting itself. What ground have we here for supposing that +motives, whose action hitherto has always been strictly limited to +passionate and seclusive idealists turning their backs on the world, +will ever become general among the monopolists of that business ability, +the object of whom is to fill the world with increasing comforts and +luxuries. One might as well argue that, because the monastic orders were +celibate, and formed at one time a very numerous body, all men will +probably soon turn celibate also, and yet at the same time continue to +reproduce their species. + +But the scientific quality of the psychological reasoning of the +socialists is best illustrated by their treatment of another class of +facts--that on which they themselves unanimously lay the greatest +stress--namely, the heroisms of the soldier, and other men of a kindred +type. The soldier, they say, is not only willing but eager to perform +duties of the most painful and dangerous kind, without any thought of +receiving any higher pay than his fellows. If, then, human nature is +such, they continue, that we can get from it on these terms work such as +that of the soldier's, which is work in its most terrifying form, it +stands to reason that we can, on the same terms, get out of it work of a +much easier kind, such as that of exceptional business ability applied +to the safe and peaceful direction of labour. Nor is this argument urged +by socialists only. Other thinkers who, though resembling them somewhat +in sentiment, are wholly opposed to socialism as a formal creed, have +likewise pitched upon the soldier's conduct in war as a signal +illustration of the potentialities of human nature in peace. Thus Ruskin +says that his whole scheme of political economy is based on the moral +assimilation of industrial action to military. "Soldiers of the +ploughshare," he exclaims in one of his works, "as well as soldiers of +the sword! All my political economy is comprehended in that phrase." So, +too, Mr. Frederic Harrison, the English prophet of Positivism, following +out the same train of thought, has declared that the soldier's readiness +to die in battle for his country is a realised example of a readiness, +always latent in men, to spend themselves and be spent in the service of +humanity generally. Again in the same sense, another writer observes, +"The soldier's subsistence is certain. It does not depend on his +exertions. At once he becomes susceptible to appeals to his patriotism, +and he will value a bit of bronze, which is the reward of valour, far +more than a hundred times its weight in gold"--a passage to which one of +Mr. Sidney Webb's collaborators refers with special delight, exclaiming, +"Let those take notice of this last fact who fancy we must wait till men +are angels before socialism is practical." + +Now, the arguments thus drawn from the facts of military activity throw +a special light on the methods and mental condition of those who so +solemnly urge them; for the error by which these arguments are vitiated +is of a peculiarly glaring kind. It consists of a failure to perceive +that military activity is, in many respects, a thing altogether apart, +and depends on psychological and physiological conditions which have no +analogies in the domain of ordinary economic effort. + +That such must necessarily be the case can be very easily seen by +following out the train of reasoning suggested by Mr. Frederic Harrison. +Mr. Harrison correctly assumes that no man, in ordinary life, will run +the risk of being killed or mutilated except for the sake of some object +the achievement of which is profoundly desired by him. If a man, for +instance, puts his hand into the fire in order to pick out something +that has dropped among the burning coals, we naturally assume that this +something is of the utmost value and importance to him. We measure the +value which a man places on the object by the desperate character of the +means which he will take to gain it; and Mr. Harrison jumps to the +conclusion that what holds good in ordinary life will hold equally good +on the field of battle also. Hence he argues--for this is his special +point--that the willingness of the soldier to die fighting on behalf of +his country shows how individuals of no unusual kind value their +country's welfare more than their own lives, and how readily, such being +the case, devotion to a particular country may be enlarged into a +religious devotion to Humanity taken as a whole. Now, there are +occasions, no doubt, in which, a country being in desperate straits, the +soldier's valour is heightened by devotion to the cause he fights for; +but that ideal devotion like this affords no sufficient explanation of +the peculiar character of military activity generally; and that there +must be some deeper and more general cause at the back of it, is shown +by the fact that some of the most reckless soldiers known to us have +been mercenaries who would fight as willingly for one country as for +another. And this deeper and more general cause, when we look for it, is +sufficiently obvious. It consists of the fact that, owing to the +millions of years of struggle to which was due, in the first place, the +evolution of man as a species, and, in the second place, the races of +men in their existing stages of civilisation, the fighting instinct is, +in the strongest of these races, inherent after a fashion in which the +industrial instincts are not; and will always prompt numbers to do, for +the smallest wage or none, what they could hardly, in its absence, be +induced to do for the highest. This instinct, no doubt, is more +controlled than formerly, and is not so often roused; but it is still +there. It is ready to quicken at the mere sound of military music; and +the sight of regiments marching stirs the most apathetic crowd. +High-spirited boys will, for the mere pleasure of fighting, run the risk +of having their noses broken, while they will wince at getting up in the +cold for the sake of learning their lessons, and would certainly rebel +against being set to work as wage-earners at a task which involved so +much as a daily pricking of their fingers. + +Here we have the reason, embodied in the very organism of the human +being, why military activity is something essentially distinct from +industrial, and why any inference drawn from the one to the other is +valueless. And to this primary fact it is necessary to add another. Not +only is the fighting instinct an exceptional phenomenon in man, but the +circumstances which call it into being are in these days exceptional +also. Socialists frequently, when referring to the soldier's conduct, +refer also to conduct of a closely allied kind, such as that of the +members of fire-brigades and the crews of life-boats, and repeat their +previous question of why, since men like these will, without demanding +any exceptional reward, make such exceptional efforts to save the lives +of others, the monopolists of business ability may not be reasonably +expected to forgo all exceptional claims on their own exceptional +products, and distribute among all the superfluous wealth produced by +them just as freely as the fireman climbs his ladder, or as life-belts +are distributed by the boatmen in their work of rescue. And if human +life were nothing but a chronic conflagration or shipwreck, in which all +alike were fighting for bare existence, all alike being menaced by some +terrible and instant death, this argument of the socialists might +doubtless have some truth in it. The men of exceptional ability, by a +variety of ingenious devices, might seek to save others no less +assiduously than themselves, without expecting anything like exceptional +wealth as a reward; for there would, in a case like this, be no question +of wealth for anybody. But as soon as the stress of such a situation was +relaxed, and the abilities of the ablest, liberated from the task of +contending with death, were left free to devote themselves to the +superfluous decoration of life, the artificial tension of the moral +motives would be relaxed. The swimmer who had plunged into the sea to +save a woman from drowning would not take a second plunge to rescue her +silk petticoat. The socialists, in short, when dealing with military and +other cognate heroisms, ignore both of the causes which alone make such +heroisms possible. They ignore the fact that the internal motive is +essentially isolated and exceptional. They ignore the further fact that +the circumstances which alone give this motive play are essentially +exceptional also, and could never be reproduced in social life at large, +except at the cost of making all human life intolerable. + +I have called special attention to this particular socialistic argument, +partly because socialists, and other sentimental thinkers, like Ruskin, +attach such extreme importance to it; but mainly because it affords us +an exceptionally striking illustration of the manner in which they are +accustomed to reason about matters with regard to which they +ostentatiously profess themselves to be the pioneers of accurate +science. One of the principal grounds--to repeat what has been said +already--on which they attack what they call the Economics of +Capitalism, is that it deals exclusively with the actions of "the +economic man," or the man whose one motive is the appropriation of +wealth. Such a man, they say, is an abstraction. He does not exist in +reality; and if economics is to have any scientific value it must deal +with man as a whole, in all his living complexity. As applied to the +orthodox economists this criticism has an element of truth in it; but +when the socialists attempt to act on their own loudly boasted +principles, and deal with human nature as a whole instead of only one of +its elements, they do nothing but travesty the error which they set out +with denouncing. The one-motived economic man who cares only for +personal gain is, no doubt, an abstraction, like the lines and points of +Euclid. Still the motive ascribed to him is one which has a real +existence and produces real effects. It has been defined with accuracy; +and by studying its effects in isolation we reach many true conclusions. +But the other motives, with which socialists declare that we must +supplement this, are treated by them in a manner so crude, so childish, +so incomplete, so deficient in the mere rudiments of scientific +analysis, that they do not correspond to anything. Instead of forming +any true addition to the data of economic science, they are like images +belonging to the dream of a maudlin school-girl. They have only the +effect of obscuring, not completing, the facts to which the orthodox +economists too closely confined themselves, but which, though +incomplete, are so far as they go actual. + +Now, however, without getting out of touch with the socialists, let us +return to firmer ground, and having seen the futility of their attempts +to indicate any motive calculated to operate on the monopolists of +business ability, other than that supplied under the existing system by +the prospect of possessing wealth proportionate to the amount produced +by them, let us consider this motive in itself, as history and +observation reveal it to us. + +And here in the presence of facts which no one seeks to deny, we shall +find that the socialists themselves are among our most interesting +witnesses, affording in what they assert a solitary and signal exception +to that looseness of thought and observation which is otherwise their +distinguishing characteristic. The motive here in question as ascribed +to the exceptional wealth-producer, the director, the man of business +ability--the motive which in his case the socialists propose to +supersede, but which is at present in possession of the field--commonly +receives from them the vituperative name of "greed." What they mean by +greed is simply the desire of the great wealth-producer to retain for +himself a share of wealth, not necessarily equal, but proportionate, to +the amount produced by him. And what have the socialists got to tell us +about greed, when they turn from their plans for superseding it in the +socialistic future to consider its operations in the actual past and +present? + +They tell us a great deal. For what is, and always has been, their stock +moral indictment against the typical men of ability, the pioneers of +commerce, the capitalistic directors of labour, the introducers of new +inventions, the amplifiers of the world's wealth? Their chief indictment +against such men has been this--that their exceptional ability, instead +of being roused into action solely by the pleasure of benefiting their +fellow-men, has been utterly dead and irresponsive to every stimulus but +one; and that this has been personal greed, and personal greed alone. +Its influence, they say, is as old as civilisation itself, and was as +operative in the days when the prows of the Tyrian traders first +ploughed their way beyond the pillars of Hercules, as it is to-day under +the smoke-clouds of Manchester, of Pittsburg, and Chicago. Karl Marx +for example, in a very interesting passage written in England about the +time of the abolition of the Corn-laws, declared that the radical +manufacturers, who professed to support that measure on the ground that +it would secure cheap food for the people, were not moved in reality, +and were not capable of being moved, by any desire but that of lowering +the rate of wages, and thus increasing the surplus which they raked into +their own pockets. In other words, the psychologists of socialism +declare that, so far as the facts of human nature in the present and the +past can teach us anything, the desire of exceptional wealth is just as +inseparable from the temperament which, by some physiological law, +accompanies the power of producing it, as "the joy in creation" is from +the temperament of the great painter, or the love of a woman is from the +lover's efforts to win her. + +We thus see that those thinkers who, when they are dealing with an +imaginary future, base all their hopes on the possibility of a complete +elimination of a certain motive from a certain special class of persons, +are the very men who are most vehement in declaring that in this special +class of persons the motive in question is something so ingrained and +inveterate that in no age or country has it ever been so much as +modified. + +Nor does the matter end here; for the amusing contradiction in which +socialistic thought thus lauds itself, is emphasised by the fact that +the socialists, when they turn from the few to the many, assume in the +many, as an instinct of eternal justice, that precise desire for gain +which, in the case of the few, they first denounce as a hideous and +incurable disease, and then propose to cure as though it were the +passing cough of a baby. For what is the bait with which, from its first +beginnings till to-day, socialism has sought to secure the support of +the general multitude? It is mainly, if not solely, the promise of +increased personal gain, without any increased effort on the part of the +happy recipients. With Marx and the earlier socialists, this promise +took the form of declaring that every man has a sacred right to whatever +he has himself produced, and that, all the wealth of the world being +produced by manual labour, the labourers must never be satisfied until +they have secured all of it. The more educated socialists of to-day, +having gradually come to perceive that labour itself produces but a +fraction of this wealth only, have had to alter the form of their +promise, but they still adhere to its substance; and the altered form of +the promise does but bring out more clearly the fact that they appeal to +the desire of personal gain as the primary economic motive of the great +majority of mankind. For, whereas the earlier socialists contented +themselves with promising the labourer the whole of what he produced, +and promising it on the ground that he had himself produced it, what the +labourer is promised by the intellectual socialists of to-day is not +only all that he has produced--which in most cases he gets +already[14]--but a great deal more besides, which is admittedly produced +by others. + +We thus see that, according to these theorists, the kind of moral +conversion which is to make socialism practicable is to be rigidly +confined to one particular class; for, on the part of the majority, no +change at all is required in order to make the socialistic evangel +welcome. So far as they are concerned, the Old Adam is quite sufficient. +None of us need much converting in order to welcome the prospect of an +indefinite addition to our incomes, which will cost us nothing but the +trouble of stretching out our hands to take it. Socialists often +complain that, under the existing dispensation, there is one law for the +rich and another law for the poor. They propose themselves to introduce +a difference which goes still deeper, and to provide the few and the +many, not only with two laws, but with two different natures, and two +antithetic moralities. The morality of the many is to remain, as it +always has been, comfortably based on the familiar desire for dollars. +The morality of the few is to be based on some hitherto unknown contempt +for them; and the class which the socialists fix upon as the subjects of +this moral transformation, is precisely the class which they denounce as +being, and as always having been, in respect of its devotion to dollars, +the most notorious, and the most notoriously incorrigible. + +That arguments such as these, culminating in an absurdity like this, and +starting with the assumption that it is possible to animate a +manufacturer's office with the spirit of soldiers facing an enemy's +guns, should actually emanate from sane men would be unbelievable, if +the arguments were not being repeated from day to day by men who, in +some respects, are far from being incompetent reasoners. Indeed, many of +them themselves would, it seems, be extremely doubtful with regard to +the plasticity imputed by them to human nature, if it were not for a +theory of society which is not peculiar to socialism. This is the theory +that, in any community or nation in which each citizen is completely +free to express his will by his vote, and realises the extent of the +power which thus resides in him, the will of the majority has +practically no limits to its efficiency, and will be able in the future +to bring about moral changes, which are at present, perhaps, beyond the +limits of possibility, but are only so because the means of effecting +them have never yet been fully utilised. This theory of democracy we +will consider in the following chapter. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[13] Mr. G. Wilshire, in criticising this argument as stated in one of +my American addresses, declares that there would be nothing in socialism +to prevent any great artist (such as a singer) from making an even +larger fortune than he or she does now. But though a Melba, under the +existing system, demands a large price for her services, under socialism +all would be changed. Though she _could_ get it, she would no longer +want it. She would then want no reward but the mere joy of using her +voice. And he infers that this change which would take place in the +bosoms of great singers would repeat itself under the breast-pocket of +every leader and organiser of commercial enterprise. It would be hard to +find a better illustration of the purely fanciful reasoning commented on +in the text. + +[14] The question of how much labour, _as such_, produces in modern +societies is discussed in a later chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +INDIVIDUAL MOTIVE AND DEMOCRACY + +The ascription of imaginary powers to the so-called "sovereign" +democracy, which are really beyond the reach of any kind of government +whatsoever, is, as I have said, a fallacy by no means peculiar to +Socialists. Socialists merely push it to its full logical consequences; +and I will begin with illustrating it by the arguments of a recent +writer who, professedly as a social conservative, has dealt in detail +with this precise question of the motives of the exceptional +wealth-producer, which has just now been engaging us. I refer to the +author of an essay in _The North American Review_, who hides his +personality under the cryptic initial "X," but who is said to be one of +the most cultivated and best-known thinkers now living in the United +States. + +The subject of his essay is the growth, almost peculiar to that country, +not of large, but of those colossal fortunes, which have certainly had +no parallel in the past history of the world. The position of "X" is +that the growth of such fortunes is deplorable, partly because they are +possible instruments of judicial and political corruption, and partly +because they excite antagonism against private wealth in general by +exhibiting it to the gaze of the multitude in such monstrous and +grotesque proportions. In any case, says "X," "it is to the true +interest of the multimillionaires themselves to join those who are free +from envy in trying to remove the rapidly growing dissatisfaction with +their continued possession of these vast sums of money." + +Now, though "X" hints that some of the fortunes in question may be open +to further reprehension, on the ground that they have been acquired +dishonestly, he by no means maintains that this opprobrium attaches +itself to the great majority of them. On the contrary, he admits that +the typical huge fortunes of America are based on the productive +activities of the remarkable men who have amassed them. The talents of +such men, he says, are essential to the prosperity of the country, and +it is necessary to stimulate such men to develop their talents to the +utmost by allowing them to derive for themselves some special reward for +their use of them; but he contends that the rewards which they are at +present permitted to appropriate are needlessly and dangerously +excessive, and ought therefore to be limited. But limited by what means? +It is his answer to this question that here alone concerns us. + +The means, he says, by which these rewards may be limited are ready to +hand, and can be applied with the utmost ease. They are provided by the +democratic Constitution of the United States of America. "No one can +doubt, for example," he goes on to observe, "that, if the majority of +the voters of the State of New York chose to elect a governor of their +own way of thinking, they could readily enact a progressive taxation of +incomes which would limit every citizen of New York State to such income +as the majority of voters considers sufficient for him. And it would be +particularly easy," adds the writer, "to alienate the property of every +man at death, for it is only necessary to repeal the statutes now +authorising the descent of such property to the heirs and legatees of +the decedent." Here, then, according to "X," is an obvious way out of +the difficulty, the feasibility of which no one can doubt. A certain +minority of the citizens render services essential to the majority; but +these advantages are accompanied by a corresponding drawback. The +majority, by the simple use of their sovereign power as legislators, can +retain the former and get rid of the latter. The remedy is in their own +hands. + +It would be difficult to imagine an illustration more vivid than this of +the error to which I am now referring--the common error of ascribing to +majorities in democratic communities powers which they do not possess, +and which, as I said before, no kind of government possesses, whether it +be that of a democracy or of an autocrat. That a majority of the voters +in any democratic country can enact any laws they please at any given +moment which happen to be in accordance with what "X" calls their then +"way of thinking," and perhaps enforce them for a moment, is no doubt +perfectly true. But life is not made up of isolated moments or periods. +It is a continuous process, in which each moment is affected by the +moments that have gone before, and by the prospective character of the +moments that are to come after. If it were not for this fact, the +majority of the voters of New York State, "by electing a governor of +their own way of thinking," might not only put a limit to the income +which any citizen might possess. It might do a great deal more besides. +It might enact a law which limited the amount which any citizen might +eat. It might limit everybody to two ounces a day. Besides enacting that +no father should bequeath his wealth to his children, it might enact +just as readily that no father should have the custody of his children. +It might enact, in obedience to the persuasions of some plausible quack, +that no one should take any medicines but a single all-curing pill. +There is nothing in the principles so solemnly laid down by "X" which +would render any of these enactments more impossible than those which he +himself contemplates. But if such enactments were made by the so-called +all-powerful majority, through a governor of their own way of thinking, +what would be the result? If a law forbade the citizens to eat enough +to keep themselves alive, it might perhaps be obeyed throughout Monday, +but it would be broken by Tuesday morning. A law which deprived fathers +of the care of their own children might just as well be a law which +decreed that no children should be born. A law which decreed that no +remedy but the same quack pill should be applied to any disease, whether +cholera, appendicitis, or small-pox, would be either disregarded from +the beginning, or would soon be repealed by a pestilence. In short, if +any one of these ridiculous laws were enacted, the very voters who voted +for it would disregard it as soon as they realised its consequences; and +the work which they did as legislators they would tear to pieces as men. +In other words, if we mean, by legislation, legislation which can be +permanently obeyed, the legislative sovereignty of democracies, which is +so commonly spoken of as supreme, is limited in every direction by +another power greater than itself; and this is the double power of +nature and of human nature. Just as all laws relating to the food which +men are to eat, and the drugs by which their maladies are to be cured, +must depend on the natural qualities of such and such physical +substances, so do the constitution and propensities of the concrete +human character limit legislation generally, and confine it within +certain channels. + +This is what "X" and similar thinkers forget; and the nature of their +error is very pertinently illustrated by an observation of the English +jurist, Lord Coleridge, to which "X" solemnly refers, as corroborating +him in his own wisdom. "The same power," says Lord Coleridge, "which +prescribes rules for the possession of property can of course alter +them"; this power being the legislative body of whatever country may be +in question. It is easy to see the manner in which Lord Coleridge +reasons. Because, in any country, the formulation and enforcement of +laws have the will of the governing body as the proximate cause which +determines them, it seems to Lord Coleridge that, in this contemporary +will, the laws thus formulated and enforced have their ultimate cause +also. For example, according to him, the entire institution of property +in the State of New York is virtually a fresh creation of the voters +from year to year, and has nothing else behind it. But, in reality, all +this business of formulation and enforcement is a secondary process, not +a primary process at all. Lord Coleridge is simply inverting the actual +order of things. Half the existing "rules prescribed as to the +possession of property" have, for their ultimate object, the protection +of family life, the privacy of the private home, and the provision made +by parents for their children. But family life is not primarily the +creation of prescribed rules. It is the creation of instincts and +affections which have developed themselves in the course of ages. +Instead of the law creating family life, it is family life which has +gradually called into being--which has created and dictated--the rules +and sanctions protecting it. The same is the case with bequest, +marriage, and so forth. The conduct of civilised men is bound to conform +to laws, but the laws must first conform to general human practice. They +merely give precision to conduct which has a deeper origin than +legislation. Laws, in fact, may be compared to soldiers' uniforms. +These, within certain limits, may be varied indefinitely by a +war-office; but they all must be such as will adapt themselves to the +human body and its movements. The will of a government may prescribe +that the trousers shall be tight or loose, that they shall be black or +brown or bright green or vermilion. But no government can prescribe that +they shall be only three inches round the waist, or that the soldier's +sleeves shall start, not from the shoulders, but from the pockets of the +coat-tails. The human body is here a legislator which is supreme over +all governments; and just the same thing is true with regard to the +human character. + +Now, the curious thing with regard to "X" is that he is all along +assuming this fundamental fact himself; though he utterly fails to put +two and two together, and see how this fact conflicts with the +omnipotence which he ascribes to legislation. Let us go back to the +assertion, which embodies his whole practical argument, that the +majority of the voters in New York State could, without interfering with +the activity of any one of its citizens, limit incomes in any manner +they pleased, and alienate with even greater ease the property of every +man at his death; and let us see what he hastens to say as the sequel to +this oracular utterance. + +These powers of the sovereign majority, which he is apparently so +anxious to invoke, would, he says, be practically much less formidable +in their action than timid persons might anticipate. And why should they +be less formidable? "Because," says "X," "although each man, by reason +of his manhood alone, has an equal voice with every other man in making +the laws governing their common country, and regulating the distribution +of the common property ... yet immense and incalculable differences +exist in men's natural capacities for rendering honest service to +society. Encouragement should, therefore, be given to every man to use +all the gifts which he possesses to the fullest extent possible; and, +accordingly, reasonable accumulations and the descent of these should be +respected." They should, he says, be respected. Yes--but for what +reason? Because they encourage exceptional men, whose services are +essential to society, to develop and use their capacities to "the +fullest extent possible"; and this is merely another way of saying that, +without the motive provided by the possibility of accumulation and +bequest, the exceptional faculties would not be developed or used at +all. Moreover, the amounts which may be accumulated and bequeathed, +although they will be strictly limited, must, "X" says, be +considerable. He suggests that incomes should be allowed up to £8,000, +and bequeathable property up to £200,000. And here we come to a question +which is still more pertinent than the preceding. Why must the +permissible amounts of income and of bequeathable property be of +proportions such as those which he contemplates? Why does he not take +his bill and write down quickly £200 of income instead of £8,000, and +limit bequeathable property to £2,000 instead of £200,000? Because he +evidently recognises that the men whose possible services to society are +"immensely and incalculably greater" than those of the majority of their +fellow citizens would not be tempted by a reward which, reduced to its +smallest proportions, would not be very largely in excess of what was +attainable by more ordinary exertions. In his formal statement of his +case, he says that the amount of the reward would be entirely determined +by what _ought_ to be sufficient for the purpose in the estimation of +the voting majority; and he mentions the sums in question as those on +which they would probably fix. And it is, of course, quite imaginable +that the majority, in making either these or any other estimates, might +be right. But what "X" fails altogether to see is that, if the majority +of the citizens _were_ right, such sums would not be sufficient because +the majority of citizens happened to think that they ought to be. They +would be sufficient because they were felt to be sufficient by the +minority who were invited to earn them, at whose feelings the majority +would have made a shrewd or a lucky guess. A thousand men with +fishing-rods might meet in an inn parlour and vote that such and such +flies were sufficient to attract trout. But it lies with the trout to +determine whether or no he will rise to them. It is a question, not of +what the fishermen think, but of what the trout thinks; and the +fishermen's thoughts are effective only when they coincide with the +trout's. + +So long, then, as society desires to get the best work out of its +citizens, and so long as some men are, in the words of "X," "immensely +and incalculably" more efficient than the great mass of their fellows, +and so long as their efficiency requires, as "X" admits that it does, +some exceptional reward to induce these men to develop it, these men +themselves, in virtue of their inherent characters, must primarily +determine what the reward shall be; and not all the majorities in the +world, however unanimous, could make a reward sufficient if the +particular minority in question did not feel it to be so. The majority +might, by making a sufficient reward unattainable, easily prevent the +services from being rendered at all; but, unless they are to forgo the +services, the majority can only obtain them on terms which will, in the +last resort, depend on the men who are to render them. + +Now, in what I have been urging thus far--which practically comes to +this, that the sovereignty popularly ascribed to democratic majorities +is an illusion--not socialists only, but other advocates of popular +government also, will alike be against me, as the promulgator of some +blasphemous paradox. It will be easy, however, to show them that their +objections are quite mistaken, and that the exceptional powers of +dictation which have just been ascribed to a minority are so far from +being inconsistent with the real powers of the majority that the latter, +when properly understood, are seen to be their complement and their +counterpart. For, though socialists and thinkers like "X" ascribe to +majorities powers which they do _not_ possess, we shall find that +majorities do actually possess others, in some ways very much greater, +of which such thinkers have thus far taken no cognisance at all. I have +said that minorities can dictate their own terms to majorities which +desire to secure their services, the reason being that the former are +alone competent to determine what treatment will supply them with a +motive to exert themselves. What holds good of minorities as opposed to +majorities holds good in essentials, though in a somewhat different +form, of majorities as opposed to such minorities. + +Let us turn again to a matter to which I have referred already--namely, +the family life of the citizens of any race or nation. This results from +propensities in a vast number of human beings which, although they are +similar, are in each case independent. These propensities give rise to +legislation, the object of which is to prescribe rules by which their +satisfaction may be made secure; but the propensities are so far from +originating in legislation that no legislation which seriously +interfered with them would be tolerated. Socialists themselves have +continually admitted this very thing. The Italian socialist, Giovanni +Rossi, for instance, who attempted about fifteen years ago to found a +socialistic colony in Brazil--an attempt which completely +failed--attributed its failure largely to this particular cause--namely, +the impossibility of inducing the colonists to conform to any rules of +the community by which family life was interfered with. Here we have an +example of democracy in its genuine form, rendering powerless what +affected to be democratic legislation. We have the cumulative power of +similar human characters compelling legislation to limit itself to what +these characters spontaneously demand. And now let us go a step--a very +short step--further. The family propensities in question show their +dictatorial power, not only in the limitations which they impose on +positive laws, but also in the character which they impose on the +material surroundings of existence, especially in the material structure +of the dwellings of all classes except the lowest. All are constructed +with a view to keeping the family group united, and each family group +separate from all others. Further, if the natural family propensities +thus affect the structure of the dwelling, other propensities, more +various in detail, but in each case equally spontaneous, determine what +commodities shall be put into it. + +And this fact brings us back to our own more immediate subject--namely, +the power of the few and of the many in the sphere of economic +production. The man of exceptional industrial capacity becomes rich in +the modern world by producing goods, or by rendering services, which +others consume or profit by, and for which they render him a return. +But, in order that they may take, and render him this return for what he +offers them, the goods and the services must be such that the many +desire to have them. All the highest productive ability that has ever +been devoted to the business of cheapening and multiplying commodities, +or rendering social services, would be absolutely futile unless these +commodities and services satisfied tastes or wants existing in various +sections of the community. The eliciting of such wants or tastes depends +very often, and in progressive communities usually, on a previous supply +of the commodities or services that minister to them--as we see, for +example, in the case of tobacco, of the telegraph, and of the bicycle; +but, when once the demands have been elicited, they are essentially +democratic in their nature. Each customer is like a voter who +practically gives his vote for the kind of goods which he desires to +have supplied to him. He gives his vote under no compulsion. He is under +the manipulation of no party or wire-puller; and the men by whose +ability the goods are cheapened and multiplied are bound to determine +their character by the number of votes cast for them.[15] + +Thus, while--so long as the productivity of labour is intensified, as it +is in the modern world, by the ability of the few who direct labour--the +labouring majority can never be free in their technical capacity of +producers, they are free, and must always remain free, in respect of +their tastes as consumers. In other words, demand is essentially +democratic, while supply, in proportion to its sustained and enhanced +abundance, is essentially oligarchic. + +Now, that demand is essentially democratic, and depends on the tastes +and characters of those by whom the demands are made, nobody will be +inclined to deny. But if we turn our attention from society, taken as a +whole, to the exceptionally able minority on whom the business of supply +depends, we shall find that these men, in their turn, form similarly a +small democracy in themselves, and make, as suppliers, their own demands +also--a demand for an economic reward, or an amount of personal wealth, +not, indeed, necessarily equal to the amount of wealth produced by them, +but bearing a proportion to it which is, in their own estimation, +sufficient. This demand made by the exceptional producer rests on +exactly the same basis as does that of the average customer. It rests on +the tastes and characters of the men who make it; and it is just as +impossible for the many to decide by legislation that the few shall put +forth the whole of their exceptional powers for the sake of one reward, +when what they want is another, as it is for the few to make the many +buy snuff when they want tobacco, or buy green coats when they want +black.[16] + +That such is the case will, to those who may be inclined to doubt it, +become more evident if they consider with more attention than they are +generally accustomed to exercise what the main attraction of great +wealth is for the men who in the modern world are the producers of it on +the greatest scale. Socialists and similar reformers--the people who +principally busy themselves with discussing what this attraction is--are +the people who are least capable of forming any true opinion about it. +They not only have, as a rule, no experience of wealth themselves, but +they are further generically distinguished by a deficiency of those +powers that create it. They are like men with no muscles, who reason +about the temperament of a prize-fighter; and their conception of what +wealth means for those who produce and possess it is apt, in +consequence, to be of the most puerile kind. It is founded, apparently, +on their conception of what a greedy boy, without pocket-money, feels +when he stares at the tarts lying in a pastry-cook's window. To them it +seems that the desire for great wealth means simply the desire for +purely sensual self-indulgence--especially for the eating and drinking +of expensive food and wine. Consequently, whenever they wish to +caricature a capitalist they invariably represent him as a man with a +huge, protuberant stomach. The folly of this conception is sufficiently +shown by the fact that many of the greatest of fortune-makers have, in +their personal habits, been abstemious and even niggardly to a degree +which has made them proverbial; and that, even in the case of those who +value personal luxury, the maximum of self-indulgence which any single +human organism can appreciate, is obtainable by a hundredth part of the +fortunes for the production of which such men work. The real secret of +the attraction which wealth has for those who create it lies in the fact +that wealth is simply a form of power. These men are made conscious by +experience, as less gifted men are not, that they can, by the exercise +of their own mental energies, add indefinitely to the wealth-producing +forces of the community. They feel the machine respond to their own +exceptional management of it; they see the output of wealth varied and +multiplied at their will; and thus the results of their specialised +power as producers are neither more nor less than this same internal +power converted into an external, an indeterminate and universalised +form; and the reason why they will never produce wealth merely in order +to be deprived of it is that no one will exercise power merely in order +to lose it, and allow it to pass into the hands of other people. These +men, as experience, especially in America, shows us, are constantly +willing to use this power for the benefit of their kind generally; but +this is no more a sign that they would be willing to allow it to be +forcibly taken from them than the fact that a man is willing to give a +shilling to a beggar in the street is a sign that he would allow the +beggar to steal it out of his waistcoat-pocket. + +So long as differences in personal power exist, especially in such power +as affects the material circumstances of mankind, these differences in +power, let governments take what form they please, will necessarily +assert and embody themselves in the very structure of human society; +and socialists are only able to obscure this fact from anybody either by +a childish theory of modern production which they themselves are now +repudiating, or else by a psychology even more laboriously childish, +which would at once be exposed were it tested by so much as six months' +experience. An interesting admission of the truth of this may be found +in an unlikely place--namely, a work written some years ago by a +socialist of considerable talent, which shows how the errors of at least +a number of socialists are due, not to any defect in their reasoning +powers, as such, but to a want of balanced knowledge of human nature in +general, a want which in certain respects renders their reasoning +futile. The work to which I refer is a work by a socialistic novelist, +who was also an accomplished naturalist--the late Mr. Grant Allen. It is +called _The Woman Who Did_. + +The immediate object of the writer was to exhibit the institution of +marriage as the cause of what he was pleased to regard as woman's +degradation and slavery; and his heroine is a young lady of highly +respectable parentage, who proposes to regenerate womanhood by living +with, and having children by, a man, without submitting to the +humiliation of any legal bond. She accomplishes her purpose, and has a +daughter, whose position, under our false civilisation, becomes so +disagreeable in consequence of her illegitimate birth, that the mother +at last commits suicide, in order to deliver her from the presence of +such an embarrassing parent. In the author's view she is a martyr, and a +model for immediate imitation. Ludicrous, however, as the book is in its +main scheme and in its object, the author shows great acuteness in a +number of his incidental observations. He is, for example, constantly +insisting on the fact that the institution of private property, which +socialism aims at revolutionising, is merely one embodiment of a general +principle of individualism of which marriage and the family are another, +and that the two stand and fall together. But an admission yet more +important than this is as follows: So that nothing may be wanting to the +bitterness of the heroine's sublime martyrdom, the author represents her +daughter--and he does this with considerable skill--as developing from +her earliest childhood all those tastes and prejudices (an instinctive +sympathy with those ordinary motives and standards) against which the +mother's whole life, and her education of her daughter, had been at war. +"Herminia," says Mr. Allen, "had done her best" to indoctrinate the +child with the pure milk of the emancipating social gospel; "but the +child herself seemed to hark back, of internal congruity, to the lower +and vulgarer moral plane of her remoter ancestry. There is," he +proceeds, "no more silly and persistent error than the belief of parents +that they can influence to any appreciable degree the moral ideas and +impulses of their children. These things have their springs in the +bases of character; they are the flower of individuality; and they +cannot be altered after birth by the foolishness of preaching." Let us +read this passage, with the alteration of only a word or two, and it +forms an admirable criticism of the more recent speculations of the +party to which Mr. Allen belonged. There is no more silly and persistent +error on the part of socialists than the belief that they can influence +to any appreciable degree the moral ideas and impulses of the citizens +of any community, or that these things, which are the flower of +congenital individuality, can be altered after birth by the foolishness +of socialism. + +But the arguments at the service of socialism are not exhausted yet. +Even if voting majorities should be unable to transform human nature, +that men of power shall become willing to exert their power only in +order that they may be deprived of it, there is a class of socialists +who declare that what is impossible with mere human democracy, will be +rendered possible by the divine influence of a rightly preached +Christianity. To Christian socialists, as such, I have as yet made no +special reference; nor will it be necessary now to be very prolix in our +dealings with them; but in their attitude and their equipment for the +task of effecting an economic revolution, they throw so strong a light +on the character of contemporary socialism generally that a brief +consideration of their gospel will be interesting and highly +instructive, and will fitly lead us to the conclusion of this part of +our argument. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] Mr. G. Wilshire, in his criticism of the argument, as stated by me +in America, says that, under the existing system, the consumer is _not_ +free to choose what goods he will buy, but has them thrust on him by the +capitalist producer. Yet he, and socialists in general, complain at the +same time of the competition between capitalists, which is simply a +competition to supply what consumers most desire. Here and there, when +no competition exists, one firm can force its goods, if they are of the +nature of necessaries, on the local public. But under the existing +system this is only an occasional incident. Under socialism it would be +universal. When tobacco is a state monopoly, state tobacco is forced on +the great mass of the people. + +[16] Mr. G. Wilshire admits, on behalf of socialists, that the argument +of this chapter is so far correct that no democracy can make men of +ability exercise their ability if they do not wish to do so; and that if +they wish for exceptional rewards they will be able to demand them. A +Melba, he says, under socialism, would be able, if she wished for it, to +get probably even higher remuneration than she does to-day. But, he +continues, under socialism, such men and women, though they could get +such rewards, will be so changed that they will not wish for them. A +Melba will then sing for the mere pleasure of singing. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR SECULAR DEMOCRACY. + +Christian socialism, as a doctrine which is preached to-day, might, for +anything that its name can tell us to the contrary, be as different from +ordinary socialism as is Christian Science from secular--as the science +of Mrs. Eddy is from the science of Mr. Edison. We can judge of it only +by examining the utterances of its leading exponents. For this reason, +although I had long been familiar with the utterances of persons who +call themselves Christian socialists in England, I felt bound to decline +an invitation to discuss the subject in America, unless I could be +furnished with some recent and formal version of the gospel as it is +preached there. Accordingly there was sent to me the precise kind of +document I desired. It formed the principal article in a journal called +_The Christian Socialist_. Its author was a clergyman,[17] and it was +entitled "The Gospel for To-day." It was what I expected that it would +be. It reproduced in almost every particular the thoughts and moods +distinctive of Christian socialists in England; and this article I will +here take as a text. + +The writer, exhibiting a candour which many of his secular brethren +would do well to imitate, starts with an attack on all existing forms of +democracy, which are all, he says, based on a profound and fatal +fallacy. This is the assumption that all men are born equal, from which +assumption the practical conclusion is deduced that the best state of +society is one which will allow each of these so-called equal beings to +work out his own happiness as best he can for himself, with the minimum +of interference from his fellow-citizens or from the law. Now if, says +our author, men were born equal in reality, such an individualistic +democracy might perhaps work well enough. But men are not born equal. +The root of the difficulty lies here. In the economic sense, as in all +others, some men are incomparably more able than the great majority of +their fellows, and even among the exceptionally able some are much abler +than the others. Consequently, if the principles of modern +individualistic democracy and modern individualistic economics are +right, according to which the main motive of each should be to do the +best for himself with his own powers that he can--"if it is duty to +compete if competition is the life of trade, then the battle for self +must ever go grimly on. The strong must subdue the weak, the rich the +poor, the able the unable. Upon this basis the millionaire and the +multi-millionaire have a perfect right to roll up their untold millions, +even as the working-man has a right to seek the highest wages that he +can get. All in different ways are seeking their own; and the keenest +competitors are the best men. The prizes must go to the strongest and +the shrewdest. It is the survival of the fittest." + +Such being the case, then, asks the writer, what does Christian +socialism aim at? It does not aim at making men equal in respect of +their ability, for to do this would be quite impossible; but it aims at +producing an equality of a practical kind, by inducing the men whose +ability is most efficient to forgo all personal claims which are founded +on their own exceptional powers, so that the wealth which is at present +secured by these powers for themselves may in the future be divided +among the mass of their less able brethren. + +Thus the crucial change which the Christian socialists would accomplish +is identical with that contemplated by their secular allies or rivals. +But the more completely it is invested with a definitely religious +quality, the more lopsided, unstable, and self-stultifying is this +change seen to be; the more obvious becomes the absurdity of proposing +to reorganise the entire business of the world on the basis of a +conversion _de luxe_ which is to be the privilege of the few only, +while the many are not only debarred, from the very nature of the case, +from practising the renunciation in which the few are to find eternal +life, but are actually urged to cherish their existing economic +concupiscence, and raise it to a pitch of intensity which it never has +reached before. The competent, to whose energies the riches of the world +are due, are to put these riches away from them as though they were food +offered by the devil. The incompetent, with thankless but perpetually +open mouths, are to swallow this same food as though it were the bread +from heaven. In other words, according to our Christian socialist, the +sin against the Holy Ghost, which is involved in the enjoyment of +riches, is not the enjoyment of material superfluities itself, but only +the enjoyment of them by men who have been at the trouble of producing +them. + +That this is what the message of Christian socialism comes to, little as +those who deliver it realise the fact themselves, is shown by an +illustration obtruded on us by the author of "The Gospel for To-day." +The evils of the existing situation, and its remoteness from the Kingdom +of Christ, are, he says, exemplified in a very special way by the +present position of the clergy. "If we churchmen," he says, "want money +for our own purposes, we have to go to the trust magnates and kneel. We +have to kneel to 'the steel kings and the oil kings,' merely because +they are rich men." Now, how would Christian socialism alter a state of +things like this? Let us consider precisely what it is that our +Christian socialist complains about. He obviously does not mean that he +and his brother clergymen have to approach the trust magnates on their +knees. The utmost he can mean is that, if they want these men to give +them money, they have to ask for it as a gift, and presumably make, when +it is given, some acknowledgment to the donors. This it is which +evidently sticks in the stomach of the humble follower of Christ whose +self-portraiture we are now considering; for, if we confine ourselves to +the Christian element in his teaching, he proposes to alter the existing +situation only by kindling in the "trust magnates" such a fire of +Christian philanthropy that they will have given him all he wants before +he has had time to ask for it, thus exonerating him from the duty of +saying "Thank you" for what he owes to another's goodness, and enabling +him to offer to the Lord that which has cost him nothing. + +And what the author of "The Gospel for To-day" urges on behalf of +himself and his clerical brethren is precisely what he urges on behalf +of the less competent majority generally. Neither on them nor on the +Christian clergy does the gospel of Christian socialism urge the duty of +making any new sacrifice, or any new exertion, moral or physical, for +themselves. Just as the clergy are to learn no more of business than +they know now, but are to be relieved of the necessity for all prudence +as to ways and means, so is the ordinary labourer to work no longer, no +harder, and no better than he does now. On the contrary, his hours of +labour are to become ever less and less, and at the same time he is to +receive ever greater and greater wages. These are to be drawn from the +products, not of himself but of his neighbour: and although he will owe +them solely to the virtue which his neighbour exercises, he is, +according to the Christian socialist programme, to demand them as though +his own incompetence gave him a sacred right to them. + +Now, apart from the fact that this gospel does resemble the Christian in +declaring that, while salvation can be achieved only by sacrifice, and +that so far as the majority are concerned their sacrifice must be +strictly vicarious, we might well pause to inquire how either of its two +messages--that of economic asceticism for the few, and of economic +concupiscence for the many--has any relation to the gospel of Christ at +all. According to any reasonable interpretation of the words and spirit +of Christ, a labourer's desire to enjoy the utmost that he himself +produces is no less legitimate than natural; but it hardly ranks as one +of the highest Christian virtues. How, we might ask, is it to acquire +this latter character by being turned into a desire for what is produced +by other people? Again, on the other hand, though according to most of +the churches Christ did not condemn the possession of superfluous wealth +as such, he certainly did not teach that the possession of it was +generally necessary to salvation. It might therefore be justly urged, +from the point of view of the few, that in proportion as Christ's +valuation of this transitory life was accepted by them, the duty of +melting down their own vases and candelabra in order that every +workman's spoon might have a thin plating of silver on it, would +constantly seem less and less, instead of more and more imperative. All +this might be urged, and more to the same effect; but we will content +ourselves with considering the matter under its purely practical aspect, +and asking how any Christian clergymen--men presumably sane and +educated--can propose, whether their programme be really Christian or +no, to reorganise society on the basis of a moral conversion which is +confined to the few only--which would exact from the able minority the +maximum of effort and mortification, and secure the maximum of idleness +and self-indulgence for the rest of the human race? + +To this question it may be said that there are two answers. Admirable in +character as are multitudes of the Christian clergy, nobody will contend +that all of them are beyond reproach; nor will any such claim be made +for all those of them who profess socialism. And for some of this body +it is hardly open to doubt that the preaching of socialism is nothing +better than a species of ecclesiastical electioneering. In the language +of the political wire-puller, it affords them a good "cry" with which to +go to the people. Why, they say in effect, should you listen to the +agitator in the street, when we can give you something just as good from +the pulpit? What the message really means which they thus undertake to +deliver, they make no effort to understand. It will attract, or at least +they think so; and for the moment this is enough for them. Having +probably emptied their churches by talking traditional nonsense, they +are willing to fill them by talking nonsense that has not even the merit +of being traditional. We will not linger, however, over the case of men +like these. We will turn to that of others who are morally very much +more respectable, and whose condition of mind, moreover, is very much +more instructive. Of these we may take the author of "The Gospel for +To-day" as a type. He, we may assume, advocates his socialistic +programme, not because he thinks that to do so is a shrewd clerical +manoeuvre, but because he honestly believes that his programme is at +once Christian and practicable. How does it come about, then, that an +educated man like himself can believe in, and devote himself to +preaching, doctrines so visionary and preposterous? Let us examine his +arguments more minutely, and we shall presently find our answer. + +By his vigorous denunciation of the doctrine that all men are born +equal, he shows us that he is capable to a certain extent of seeing +things as they are. But he sees them from a distance only, as though +they were a range of distant mountains whose aspect is falsely +simplified and constantly changed by clouds, and of whose actual +configuration he has no idea whatever. Thus when he contemplates the +inequalities of men's economic powers, these appear to him alternately +in two different forms--as genuine powers of production and as powers of +mere seizure--without his discerning where in actual life the operation +of the one ends and the operation of the other begins: and, though for a +certain special purpose he admits, as we shall see presently, that some +able men are able in the sense of being exceptionally productive, his +thoughts and his feelings alike through the larger part of his argument +are dominated by the idea that ability is merely acquisitive. This is +shown by the fact that the two great productive enterprises which he +singles out as typical of modern wealth-getting generally are held up by +him as examples of acquisition pure and simple. "The steel kings," he +says, "did not invent steel. The oil kings did not invent oil." These +are the gifts of nature, which nature offers to all; but the strong men +abuse their strength by pushing forward and seizing them, and compelling +their weaker brethren to pay them a tribute for their use. Steel and +refined oil he evidently looks upon as two natural products. He has no +suspicion that, as any school-boy could have told him, steel is an +artificial metal which, as manufactured to-day, is one of the most +elaborate triumphs of modern industrial genius. As to the oil by the +light of which he doubtless writes his sermons, he apparently thinks of +it as existing fit for use in a lake, and ready to be dipped up by +everybody in nice little tin cans, if only the oil kings having got to +the lake first, did not by their superior strength frighten other people +away. Of the actual history of the production of usable oil, of the vast +and marvellous system by which it is brought within reach of the +consumers, of the by-products which reduce its price--all of them the +results of concentrated economic ability, and requiring from week to +week its constant and renewed application--the author of "The Gospel for +To-day" apparently knows nothing. The oil kings and the steel kings, +according to his conception of them, need merely refrain from the +exercise of their only distinctive power--that is to say, an exceptional +power of seizing; and every Christian socialist in New York and +elsewhere will have the same oil in his lamps that he has now, and a +constant supply of cutlery and all other forms of hardware, the sole +difference being that he will get them at half-price or for nothing, and +have the money thus saved to spend upon new enjoyments. And his +conception of ability, as connected with the output of steel and oil, is +his conception of ability as applied to the production of goods +generally. + +He makes, however, one exception. There is, he admits, one form of +ability which does actually add to the wealth of the modern world, and +may possibly be credited with producing the largest part of it. This is +the faculty of invention. Here, at last, we seem to be listening to the +language of sober sense. But let us see what follows. Inventors, our +author proceeds, being the types of exceptional ability which is really +beneficent and productive, are precisely the men who afford us our +surest grounds for believing in the possibility of that moral conversion +which socialism proposes to effect among able men at large. For what, he +says, as a fact do we find the inventors doing? They invent, he says, +for the pure love of inventing, or else from a desire to do good to +their fellow creatures. The thought of money for themselves never enters +into their minds. The selfish desire for money makes its appearance only +when the strong man whose ability is merely acquisitive thrusts himself +on the scene, buys the inventors' inventions up, and then proceeds "to +work them for all they are worth." These mere seizers of wealth, these +appropriators of the inventions of others, need but to learn a lesson of +abnegation which the inventors have learned already, or rather a lesson +which is easier; for while these noble men, the inventors, have no wish +to take what they produce, the majority of able men, such as the steel +kings and the oil kings, need merely forbear to take. Competition, in +short, as it actually exists to-day--the competition which Christian +socialism will abolish--is simply a competition in taking; and in order +to abolish it, the strong men, when they have taken a fair share, have +but to stand aside, to become as though they were weak, and so give +others a chance equal to their own. + +Here, indeed, we have a conception, or rather a vague picture, of the +facts of modern industry, and of human nature as connected with it, +which is worthy of a man from dreamland. Every detail mentioned is +false. Every essential detail is omitted. In the first place, the +disinterested inventor, from whose behaviour our author reasons, is +purely a figment of his own clerical brain. Inventors in actual life, as +every one knows who has had occasion to deal with them, are generally +distinguished by an insane desire for money, by the wildest +over-estimates of the wealth which their inventions will ultimately +bring them, or by a greed which will sell them for a trifle, provided +this be paid immediately. In the second place, inventions, even the +greatest, so long as they represent the power of invention merely, are +utterly deficient in all practical value. So long as they exist nowhere +except in the author's brain, or drawings, or in descriptions, or even +in the form of models, they might, so far as the world is concerned, +have never existed at all. In the former cases they are dreams; in the +last case they are toys. They are brought down into the arena of actual +life only when, like souls provided with bodies, they cease to be ideas +or toys, and become machines or contrivances manufactured on a +commercial basis; and in order to effect successfully this practical +transformation, countless processes and countless faculties are involved +other than those comprised in intellectual invention itself. + +There are cases, no doubt, in which the practical talents necessary for +realising an invention and the faculty of invention itself coexist in +the same man; but the inventor, when this happens, is not an inventor +only. He is not only a master of ideas; he is a master of things and +men. Such a combination is, however, far from common. As a rule, if his +inventions are to be of any use to the world, the inventor must ally +himself with men of another type, and these are the very men whom the +author of "The Gospel for To-day" conceives of as simply monopolising +and "working for all they are worth" contrivances which would otherwise +have been given to the world gratis. He does not see that, if men such +as the steel kings and the oil kings did not work inventions for all +they are worth, the inventions themselves would be practically worth +nothing. + +Let the reader reflect on the astounding ignorance of the world, and +especially of the world of industry, which is betrayed with so much +naïveté by this socialist of the Christian pulpit. He knows so little of +the commonest facts of history that he looks upon steel as a ready-made +product of nature, and all the mills of the steel trust as merely a +means of monopolising knives, bridges, rails, and locomotive-engines, +which the citizens of America would otherwise be able to take at will, +like a bevy of school-children helping themselves from a heap of apples. +He imagines that inventions, as they form themselves in the head of the +inventor, leap direct into use, without any intervening process; while +the inventor himself is a being so superior to the world he works in, +that the rapture of being allowed to work for it is the only reward he +covets, that he has never dreamed of such selfish things as profits, and +does not even know the meaning of a patent or a founder's share; and +that the oil kings and the steel kings and all other able men, will save +society by following in the footsteps of this chimera. + +Such are the wild, childish, and disconnected ideas entertained by our +clerical author of the world which he proposes to reform; and he is in +this respect not peculiar. On the contrary he is a most favourable type +of Christian socialists generally; and Christian socialists, in respect +of their mental and moral equipment, are simply secular socialists of +the more modern and educated type, with their ignorances and credulities +accentuated, but not otherwise altered, by the solemnities of religious +language, and a vague religious sentiment which achieves a facile +intensity because it is never restrained by fact. + +Socialists, in short, of all schools, are socialists because they are +ignorant of, or fail to apprehend, certain facts or principles of nature +and of human nature which are essential to the complicated process of +modern productive industry; or it is perhaps a truer way of putting the +case to say that they could not be socialists unless they were thus +ignorant. In this they resemble the devisers of perpetual motions, or +scientific and infallible systems for breaking the bank at a +roulette-table. In so far as they are socialists--that is to say, in so +far as they differ from other reformers--they are men aiming at +something which is in its nature impracticable; and in order to +represent it to themselves and others as practicable, they must +necessarily ignore or fail to understand something which, in actual +life, stands in the way of its being so. The perpetual-motionist +believes that a perpetual motion is practicable, because he fails to see +that out of no machine whatever is it possible to get more force than is +put into it, and that one pound-weight will not wind up another. The +system-monger sees that if a succession of similar stakes are placed on +red or black, or any one of the thirty-six numbers, the bank always has +zero in its favour; but by placing a number of stakes simultaneously in +intricate combinations, or by graduating them according to results, he +imagines that he can invert the situation, when all he can do is to +disguise it. He often disguises it most effectually; but in the long run +he does no more. Like a protuberance in an air cushion, which if pushed +down in one place reappears in another, the original advantage of the +bank infallibly ends in reasserting itself. The system-monger fails to +see this for one reason only--that, having disguised, he thinks that he +has eliminated, a fundamental fact of the situation. Socialists, in so +far as they are socialists, reason in the same way. Though most of them +now recognise, like the author of "The Gospel for To-day," that the +economic efficiencies of men are in the highest degree unequal, they +propose out of an inequality of functions to produce an equality of +conditions. The details of the changes by which they propose to effect +this result, or the grounds on which they seek to represent this result +as possible, vary like the details of the systems of ingenious gamblers. +But whatever these details may be, whether they are details of scheme or +argument, the essential element of each is the omission of some +fundamental fact--or, rather, of one protean fact--by which socialistic +thinkers are often honestly confused, because it assumes, as they shift +their positions, any number of different aspects. This is the fact that +out of unequal men it is absolutely impossible to construct a society of +equals. + +Two illustrations, taken from the history of socialistic thought, will +show how socialists hide this fact from themselves, first by a fallacy +of one kind, then by a fallacy of another kind; and how, wherever it is +located, it is the essential factor in their argument. + +In their endeavour to prove the possibility of an equalisation, absolute +or approximate, of economic conditions, Karl Marx and the earlier +socialists started with two main doctrines. The one was a moral +doctrine; the other was an economic. The moral doctrine was that, as a +matter of eternal justice, every man has a right to the whole of what is +produced by him. The economic doctrine was that, as a matter of fact, +the only producers of wealth are the mass of manual labourers, and +that, with certain unimportant exceptions, the economic values produced +by all labourers are equal. Hence he argued that all wealth ought to go +to the labourers, and that all labourers were entitled to approximately +equal shares of it. The later socialists aim at reaching the same +conclusion, and they start with two doctrines, a moral and an economic, +likewise. Having arrived, however, at a truer theory of +production--having recognised that labour is not the sole producer, and +that some men produce incalculably more than others--they have, in order +to support their demand for an equality of possession, been obliged to +supplement their repudiation of the economic theory of their +predecessors, by repudiating their theory of eternal justice also, and +introducing another of a wholly opposite character. While Karl Marx +contended that, in justice, production and possession were inseparable, +the later socialists contend that there is no connection between them, +and that it is perfectly easy to convert to this moral view every human +being who is likely to suffer by its adoption. Thus the difference +between the earlier and the later socialists is as follows: The earlier +socialists started with a theory of justice which is in harmony with +common-sense and the general instincts of mankind; and this theory was +pressed into the service of socialism only by being associated with a +false theory of production. The later socialists start with a truer +theory of production; and they reconcile this with their own practical +programme, only by associating it with a false moral psychology. In each +case a fallacy is the basis of the socialistic conclusion; and without a +fallacy somewhere--a fallacy which is pushed about, like a mouse under a +table-cloth--no socialistic conclusion even tends to develop itself from +the premises. + +And what is true of the main arguments of the later, as of the earlier +socialists, is equally true of their subsidiary arguments also, from +those which refer to the generalisations of the sociologists of the +nineteenth century, and base themselves on the confusion between +speculative truth and practical, down to those which are drawn from the +absurd psychological supposition that all motives are interchangeable, +and that those which actuate the artist, the anchorite, and the soldier +can be made to replace by means of a vote or a sermon those which at +present actuate the masters of industrial enterprise. On whatever +argumentative point the socialists, as socialists, lay stress, there, +under one form or another, their root-fallacy reappears. In short, their +arguments are illusionary in proportion as they themselves value them. +And in this there is nothing wonderful. The more logically and +ingeniously men reason from premises, of which the one most essential to +their conclusions is radically false to fact, the more punctually on +every critical occasion is this fallacy bound to reassert itself as the +logical basis of that which they desire to prove. + +The question, however, still remains to be answered of why a large body +of men, like the educated apostles of socialism, who exhibit as a class +no typical inferiority of intellect, unite in accepting, as though drawn +to it by some chemical affinity, one particular error which +dispassionate common-sense disdains, and which the actual history of the +whole human race refutes? In the case of some preachers of socialism the +answer lies on the surface. Socialism is of all creeds that which it is +easiest to present to the ignorant; and in these days, like "patriotism" +in the days of Dr. Johnson, it is often "the last refuge of a +scoundrel," or of a desperate and ambitious fool. But I here put such +cases altogether aside. What I here have in view are men who are morally +and intellectually honest, and many of whom, indeed, are intellectually +above the average. How is the affinity for one common error, and the +passionate promulgation of it in forms, many of which are conflicting, +to be accounted for in the case of men like these? + +The answer to this is to be found, not in their intellect, but in their +temperament. It is a well-known fact that men, otherwise of high +capacity, are incapable of mastering any but the humblest branches of +mathematics. With the men who become socialists the case is closely +similar. Just as certain men are incapable of dealing with the +abstractions of mathematics, so are the socialists men who, in virtue of +their constitutions or temperaments, are incapable of comprehending +accurately the concrete facts of life, and are consequently as unable +with any practical accuracy, to reason about them as a professor of +mathematics would be to reason about the value of strawberries, if he +knew only their weights or numbers, but had no expert judgment with +regard to their condition or quality. + +To ascertain how the socialistic temperament thus debilitates the +faculties, it will be enough to note certain characteristics distinctive +of those possessing it. Such persons are all distinguished, though +naturally in various degrees, by an undue preponderance of the emotional +over the critical faculties, whence there arises in them what, to borrow +a phrase of President Roosevelt's, we may aptly call an _inflammation_ +of the social sympathies. This makes such persons magnify into +intolerable wrongs all sorts of pains and inconveniences which most men +accept as part of the "rough and tumble" of life; and it thus renders +them abnormally impatient of the actual, and abnormally preoccupied with +the ideal. The ideal vision which they see arising out of the actual is +for them so illuminated, as though by a kind of limelight, that the +details of the actual, thrown into comparative obscurity, either cannot +be minutely distinguished by them, or, like the words of an unwelcome +talker, cannot fix their attention. Without habitual concentration of +the attention on the subject-matter with which reason deals, no +reasoning can deal with it to any practical purpose; and men of that +class from which socialists of the higher kind are recruited, are men +who fail to understand the modern industrial process, because they are +hindered by their temperament from giving a sufficient attention to its +details. They derive from them vivid impressions, but no practical +knowledge, like Turner when he painted a train swathed in its own +vapour, and flushing the wet air with the fires of its lamps and +furnace. From a study of Turner's picture of "Rain, Steam, and Speed," +it would be impossible for any human being to conjecture how a +locomotive was constructed. It would be still more impossible to form +any judgment as to how its slide-valves, or its blast, or the tubes of +its boiler might be improved. It is similarly impossible for men of the +socialistic temperament to understand the general process of industry, +or to judge how it can and how it can not be altered, from the purely +spectacular impressions which its intricate parts produce on them. + +But the ingrained inability of such men to understand that which they +would revolutionise does not reveal itself in their errors of theory +only. It reveals itself still more strikingly in their own relations to +life. If we allow for exceptional cases, such as that of Robert Owen, +who was in his earlier days a competent man of business, we shall find +that the theorists who desire to socialise wealth are generically +deficient in the higher energies that produce it. Though they doubtless +could, like most men who are not cripples or idiots, make a living by +some form of manual labour, they have none of them done anything to +enlarge the powers of industry, or even to sustain them at their present +pitch of efficiency. They have never made two blades of grass grow where +one blade grew before. They have never applied chemistry to the +commercial manufacture of chemicals. They have never organised the +systems or improved the ships and engines by which food finds its way +from the prairies to the cities which would else be starving. If in some +city or district an old industry declines they demand with tears that +the thousands thus thrown out of employment shall be set by the state to +do or produce something, even though this be a something which is not +wanted by anybody. They never set themselves to devise, as was done in +the English Midlands, some new commodity, such as the modern bicycle, +which was not only a means of providing the labourers with a +maintenance, but was also a notable addition to the wealth of the world +at large. They fail to do these things for the simple reason that they +cannot do them; and they cannot do them because they are deficient alike +in the interest requisite for understanding how they are done, and in +the concentrated practical energy which is no less requisite for the +doing of them. + +At the end of an address in which I had been dealing with this subject +at New York, a young man, one of my hearers, told me that I had been +putting into words what had long been borne in on himself by his own +studies and observations--the fact, namely, that the social leaders of +men are divided into two classes, _those who dream about reforming the +industrial business of the world, and those, an opposite type, who alone +advance and accomplish it_. Here we have the conclusion of the whole +matter. These two classes are contrasted, not because in mere intellect +one is inferior to the other, but because when they are dealing with the +industrial affairs of life these affairs appeal to them in two +contrasted ways. One of these classes takes men and nature as they are. +With the utmost minuteness it masters the secrets of the latter, with +the utmost minuteness it directs the actions of the former; and in +seeking wealth for itself it brings about those conditions which alone +can make added wealth a practical possibility for all. The other class, +occupied not with what is but what ought to be, fails to understand what +can be, because it does not understand what is. The men of whom this +class is composed--the men whose temperamental deficiency now finds its +fullest expression in socialism, as it did formerly in theories of +ultra-democratic individualism, are like amateur architects, and amateur +sanitary engineers, who, thinking in pictures, and having no knowledge +of structure, condemn existing houses and existing systems of drainage, +and would replace them with palaces which no builder could build, with +arches which would collapse from the weight of their own materials, and +magnificent cloacæ the waters in which would have to run uphill. + +The theory, then, of socialism, let it take what form it will--the +theory which represents as practicable by one device or another the +social equalisation of economically unequal men--is a theory which, in +minds which are intellectually honest, can develop itself only in +proportion as these minds are incapable of grasping in their connected +completeness the actual facts of life; and that such is the case has +been illustrated in the preceding chapters by a systematic analysis of +all the crucial arguments on which socialists have rested their case +from the earliest day of socialistic thought to the latest. + +The reader, however, must observe the manner in which this statement is +qualified. In speaking of the arguments of the socialists, I speak of +those that are crucial only--that is to say, of those arguments used by +socialistic thinkers in support of their programme in so far as that +programme is peculiar. It is necessary to note this because, as a matter +of fact, with such of their arguments as are proper to socialism only, +the philosophers of socialism and their disciples frequently associate +others which are not peculiar to the socialistic scheme at all, but +which nevertheless multitudes of men who call themselves socialists +regard as being at once the most important and practicable parts of it; +and these I have in consequence reserved for separate treatment. They +are three in number, and are as follows: + +The first relates to the remuneration of the ordinary manual labourer, +and deals with the question of what his just remuneration is. According +to Marx this question is easily settled. Of every thousand labourers +associated in any given industry, each produces, with few and +unimportant exceptions, a thousandth part of the whole exchangeable +product; and his just remuneration is a thousandth part of the value of +it. The intellectual socialists of to-day, while repudiating as we have +seen the doctrine that the labourer's claim to remuneration is limited +to the values produced by him, and contending that he has a further +right to the product of the ability of others, constantly declare that, +even according to the moral standard of Marx, he is usually defrauded at +present of a large part of his due; or that, in most if not all +industries, his wages represent but a part of the full value produced by +him. Whether this is so or not is a question not of theory but of fact, +and one which can only be answered by discovering some intelligible +basis on which the values produced by labour in a general way may be +estimated, as distinct from those produced by effort of other kinds. +With this question I shall deal in the following chapter. + +The second relates to those forms of individual income which are covered +by the word interest, when used in a comprehensive sense. It being +admitted by the later socialists, in opposition to the earlier, that the +directive ability of the few is, in the modern world, a productive +agency no less truly than labour is, many of these socialists are now +anxious to concede that the man of ability is entitled to such values, +no matter how large, as are due to the active exercise of his own +exceptional powers; but they contend that, as soon as his personal +activity ceases, his claim to any influx of further wealth should +therewith cease also. Let him spend his accumulations, they say, on his +own gratifications as he will; but neither he nor his descendants can be +suffered in moral justice to hold or apply them in such a manner that +they will renew themselves, and yield an income to recipients who do +nothing to make them fructify. To numbers of people who repudiate most +of the socialistic programme, this doctrine as to interest appeals as at +once just and practicable. If the state could appropriate all incomes +due to interest, as distinct from those which represent the product of +active ability, an enormous fund would, they think, be available for +general distribution, and the ideals of socialism, in so far as they are +practicable or desirable, might thus be realised by other than +socialistic means. This argument, likewise, will have its own +chapter--or rather two chapters--allotted to it. + +The third of these arguments or proposals which, though not in +themselves socialistic, are popularly associated with socialism, relates +to equality of opportunity. To this also I will devote a separate +chapter. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] While these pages were being corrected for the press, a number of +utterances have been made by English clerics--Episcopalian and +Nonconformist--precisely similar in purpose and spirit to those of the +author here quoted. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE JUST REWARD OF LABOUR AS ESTIMATED BY ITS ACTUAL PRODUCTS + +Since the educated socialists of to-day admit that in the modern world +wealth is produced by two functionally different classes--a majority who +labour and a minority by whom this labour is directed; or by two +different faculties--namely, labour and directive ability--the question +of how much of the total product or its value is produced by one class +or agency, and how much by the other, is, for all social reformers, and +not for socialists only, a question of the first importance; for in the +minds of numbers, who care little about ideal transfigurations of +society, the doctrines of socialism leave one vivid conviction, which is +this--that, though the labourers in the modern world do not produce +everything, though the ability of those directing them is a productive +agent also, and though part of the wealth of modern nations is +undoubtedly produced by this, yet the men of ability produce much less +than they manage to keep, while the labourers produce much more than is +represented by the wages which they get; that labour in this way, even +if in no other, is suffering at present a general and intolerable wrong; +and that socialism is simply a system by which this wrong will be +righted.[18] + +Now, this alleged wrong is essentially an affair of quantity. If the +products of any typical firm--one, let us say, which produces +chemicals--are represented by the number a hundred, and if fifty +represents the amount which at present is the share of labour, the rest +being taken by men of directive ability--a picked body of organisers, +chemists, and inventors--labour, it is contended, produces more than the +fifty, which is all that it at present gets. Yes; but how much more? It +is not contended that it produces the entire hundred. Does it produce, +then, sixty, or sixty-five, or seventy, or eighty-three, or what? Unless +such a wrong as this can have some extent assigned to it--unless it can +be measured approximately by reference to some intelligible standard--it +is not only difficult to deal with it; it is impossible to be sure that +it exists. Of course we are here not contemplating individual cases. +That some employés may, under existing conditions, get less than their +work is worth, is possible and likely enough. It is equally likely or +possible that others may get more. We must confine ourselves to what +happens generally. We must take labour as a whole, on the one hand, and +directive ability on the other, and ask how we may estimate, with rough +but substantial accuracy, the proportion of the joint product +respectively produced by each. + +At first sight it may seem that this problem is incapable of any +definite solution; and some socialistic writers have done their best to +obscure it. The efficiency of labour, they say, is in the modern world +largely due, no doubt, to the action of directive ability; but ability +could produce nothing unless it had labour to direct; whence it is +inferred that the claim of labour on the product may in justice be +almost anything short of the absolute total. To this abstract argument +we will presently come back; but we will first examine another urged by +a celebrated thinker, which, though less extreme in its implications, +would, were it only sound, be even more fatal to our chances of arriving +at the conclusion sought for. The thinker to whom I refer is Mill, who +assigns to this argument a very prominent place in the opening chapter +of his _Principles of Political Economy_. + +Certain economists have, so he says, debated "whether nature gives more +assistance to labour in one kind of industry than in another"; and he +endeavours to show that the question is in its very essence +unanswerable. "When two conditions," he proceeds, "are equally necessary +for producing the effect at all, it is unmeaning to say that so much is +produced by one, and so much by the other. It is like attempting to +decide which of the factors five and six contributes most to the +production of thirty." And if this argument is true of nature and +labour, it is equally true of labour and the ability by which labour is +directed. Thus a great ocean liner which, in Mill's language, would be +"the effect," could not be produced at all without the labour of several +thousand labourers; and it is equally true that it could not be produced +at all unless the masters of various sciences, designers, inventors, and +organisers, directed the labour of the labourers in certain specific +ways. Both conditions, then, being "necessary for producing the effect +at all," the portions of it due to each would, according to Mill's +argument, be indeterminable. Let us consider, therefore, if Mill's +argument is sound. We shall find that it is vitiated by a fallacy which +will, as soon as we have perceived it, show us the way to the truth of +which we are now in search. Let us begin with taking the argument as he +himself applies it. + +He brings it forward with special reference to agriculture, and aims it +at the contention of a certain school of economists that nature in +agriculture did more than in other industries. To urge this, says Mill, +is nonsense, for the simple reason that though nature in agriculture +does something, it is impossible to determine whether the something is +relatively much or little. Let us, he says in effect, take the products +of any farm, which we may for convenience' sake symbolise as so many +loaves; and it is obviously absurd to inquire which produces most of +them--the soil or the farm labourers. The soil without the labourers +would produce no loaves at all. The labourers would produce no loaves if +they had not the soil to work upon. + +Now, if there were only one farm in the world, and one grade of labour, +and if every acre of this farm, when the same labour was applied to it, +would always yield the same amount of produce--let us say one +loaf--Mill's argument would be true. The actual state of the case is, +however, very different. Acres vary very greatly in quality; and if we +take four acres of varying degrees of fertility, to all of which is +applied the same amount of labour, then, while from the worst of the +acres this labour will elicit one loaf, it will elicit from the others, +let us say, according to their degrees of fertility, two loaves, three +loaves, and four loaves respectively. Here the labour being in each of +the four cases the same, and the additional loaves resulting in three +cases only, it is obvious that the difference between the larger +products and the less is not due to the labour, but to certain +additional qualities present, in the three superior acres and not +present in the worst one. In other words, although in producing +loaves--or, as Mill describes it, "the effect"--the parts played by +labour and nature are indefinite and incommensurable so long as the +land, the labour, and the effect remain all three the same, the parts +become immediately measurable when the effect begins to vary, and one of +the causes, and only one of them, at the same time varies also. + +This truth can be yet further elucidated by the very illustration which +Mill cities in disproof of it. It is absurd to ask, he says, whether the +number five or six does most, when they are multiplied together, to +produce "the effect" thirty. This is true so long as "the effect" thirty +is constant; but if on occasions the thirty is increased to forty, and +if whenever this happens the six has increased to eight, we know that +the extra ten which our multiplication yields us is not due to the five, +the number which remains unchanged, but to an extra two now present in +the number that was once six. Or again let us take as "the effect" the +speed of a motor-car which is raced over a mile of road. Unless two +conditions were present--the engine and some ground to run upon--the car +could not run at all; and if there were only one road and one car in +the world, it would be absurd to inquire how much of the speed was due +to the merits of the engine, and how much to the character of the road's +surface. But if, the car remaining unchanged, the surface of the road +was improved, and a speed was thereupon developed of thirty miles an +hour instead of twenty, we should, with regard to the increment, at once +be able to say that it was due to the surface of the road, and was not +due to the engine. Conversely, if the road were unchanged, but the car +had a new engine, and the speed under these conditions increased in the +same way, the increment would be evidently attributable to the engine +and not the road. + +And the same observations apply to labour and directive ability, +whenever the operations of both are essential to a given product. If the +ability and the labour were always inevitably constant, and the product +as to quality and amount were similarly constant also, we could not say +that so much or so little of the effect was due to one cause, and so +much or so little to the other. If there were in the world only a +thousand shipwrights, and these men, working always under the same +director, always produced in a year one ship of an unchanging kind, we +could not say which of its parts or how much of its value were due to +the man directing, and which or how much were due to the men directed. +But if for one year this director were to retire and another was to take +his place, and, the same labourers being directed by this new master, +the result was the production not of one ship but of two; and if, when +the year was ended, and the old master came back again, the annual +product once more was not the two ships but one, we could then say, as a +matter of common-sense with regard to the year during which the two +vessels were built, that the second vessel, whatever might be the case +with the first, was due wholly to the ability of the master, and not to +the labour of the men. In other words, the ability of the director of +labour produces so much of the product, or of that product's value as +exceeds what was produced by the labourers before their labour was +directed by him, and would cease to be produced any longer as soon as +his direction was withdrawn. + +That in the case of any result which requires separable causes for its +production, this method of allocating to these causes respectively so +much of the result and so much of it only, is a method always adopted in +all practical reasoning, may be seen by taking a result which is not +beneficial but criminal. Twenty Russian labourers, all loyal to the +Czar, are, let us say, employed to dig out a cellar under a certain +street, and to fill it with cases which ostensibly contain wine. +Subsequently, as the Czar is passing, he is killed by a huge explosion. +It then becomes apparent that the so-called cellar was a mine, and the +harmless-looking cases had really been filled with dynamite. Now, if all +those concerned in the consummation of this catastrophe were tried, it +is perfectly evident that the part played by the labourers would be +sharply discriminated from that played by the man employing them; and, +although they contributed something which was necessary to the +production of the result, it would certainly have been admitted by +General Trepoff himself that they had contributed nothing to its +essential and criminal elements. It is equally evident that the +increment of wealth which results from the obedience of labourers to +injunctions which do not emanate from themselves, is produced by the man +who gives the injunctions, and not by the men who obey them. + +But here we must return to the argument, already mentioned in passing, +which may be restated thus: A thousand labourers, directed by their own +intelligence only, produce a product whose amount we will call a +thousand. The same labourers are directed by a man of ability, and the +product rises from one thousand to two. But if the production of this +second thousand is to be credited to the man of ability on the ground +that, were the ability absent, no second thousand would be produced, we +may reach by the same reasoning a conclusion precisely opposite, and +credit not only the first, but both the thousands to labour, on the +ground that, if the labour were absent, nothing would be produced at +all. The argument is plausible; and in order to understand its fallacy +we must give our attention to a fact, not generally realised, which is +involved in all practical reasoning about all causes whatsoever. + +If we use the word "cause" in its strict speculative sense, the number +of causes involved in the simplest effect is infinite. Let us take, for +example, the speed of a horse which wins a race. Why does the speed of +this horse exceed that of the others? We may in answer point to +qualities of its individual organism. But these will carry us back to +all its recorded ancestors--sires and dams for a large number of +generations: and even so we shall have been taken but a small part of +our way. The remotest of these ancestors--why were they horses at all? +For our answer we must travel through the stages of organic evolution, +till we reach the point at which animal and vegetable life were one. Had +any of these antecedents been missing, the winning race-horse would not +have won the race. Nor is this all. We have to include in our causes +air, gravitation, and the fact that the earth is solid. No horse could +win on turf which was based on vapour. But by all the thousands who +witness a great race this whole mass of ulterior, though necessary, +causes is ignored. The only causes which for them have any practical +interest are those comprised in the organism of the winning horse +itself. Who would contend that this horse had not won its own victory, +on the ground that part of its own speed--a part which could not be +calculated--was contributed by the crust of the earth, or the general +constitution of the universe? Any one arguing thus would be howled down +as a madman. Now, why is this? Why would the common-sense of mankind, in +a practical matter like a race, instinctively exercise this kind of +eclecticism, concentrating itself on certain causes and absolutely +ignoring others? Such behaviour is not arbitrary. It depends on a +principle inherent in all practical reasoning whatsoever. Let us see +what this principle is. + +When, with any practical purpose in view, we insist that anything is the +cause of anything else, or produces anything else, we are always +selecting, out of an incalculable number of causes, one cause or agency +which, under the circumstances in view, may or may not be present; which +a careless person may neglect to introduce; which an ignorant person may +be persuaded to take away; or a recognition of which will influence +human conduct somehow; while all other causes, which no one proposes to +take away, or which no one is able to take away, are assumed by all +parties, but they are not considered by anybody. Why should they be +considered? Not only are they so numerous that no intellect could deal +with them, but they have, since with regard to them there is no +difference of opinion, no place in any practical discussion at all. If a +ton of stone is to be placed on a piece of framework, men may reasonably +discuss whether the framework is strong enough to bear it, or whether +material is not being wasted in making it stronger than necessary. What +will happen without an additional girder? Or what will happen if we take +two girders away? Will the stone fall or not? These questions belong to +the domain of practical reasoning because to take a girder away, or else +introduce fresh ones, lies within the power of the disputants. But no +practical men would think of complicating the discussion by calculating +what would happen if they suspended the action of gravitation, in which +case the stone would need no support whatever; for to suspend the action +of gravitation is within the power of nobody. If two men are debating in +the middle of the night at midsummer whether there is enough oil in the +lamp to keep it alight till sunrise, they are debating a question of a +strictly practical kind: for it rests with them to put in more oil or +not. What will happen if they do not? That is the point at issue. But +they neither of them would debate what would happen if the movement of +the earth were retarded, and the midsummer morning were delayed till the +hour at which it dawns in winter. They do not discuss this contingency, +for they rightly assume it to be impossible, and consequently the +discussion of it would have no practical meaning. + +And now let us go back to the question of labour and ability; and we +shall see, in the case of products to the production of which both are +essential, that, while ability is the practical cause of all such +amounts or values as exceed what would have been produced by labour if +there were no ability to direct it, it cannot be claimed in any similar +sense that all amounts and values are conversely produced by labour, +which exceed what would have been produced by the action of directive +ability, if no labour existed for such ability to direct. + +The reason why labour, in this respect, differs from ability is as +follows: Whether directive ability shall or shall not exert itself +depends upon human volitions which, according to circumstances, are +alterable, just as it depends upon alterable human volitions whether a +framework of steel be constructed in this way or in that; or whether a +lamp be replenished with oil or no. But whether ordinary manual labour +shall or shall not exert itself, is not similarly dependent on human +volition at all. Let a nation be organised, no matter on what +principles, the majority of the citizens will have to labour in any +case. The supposition of their labouring is bound up with the +supposition of their existence. To suppose that the labourers as a whole +could permanently cease to labour, is like supposing that they could +exist and yet permanently cease to breathe. They can cease to labour for +moments, just as for moments a man can hold his breath, as they do on +the occasion of a strike; but they can do so for moments only. Except in +a region where climatic conditions are exceptional, what makes men +labour is not an employing class, but nature. Directive ability does not +_make_ them labour; it finds them labouring. It finds them like wheels +which are driven by an eternal stream, and which must turn and turn for +ever, until they fall to pieces. To inquire, then, what would happen if +labour ceased to exert itself is like inquiring what would happen if the +earth were to retard its diurnal motion, or if some natural force--for +example, that of gravitation--were to strike work for the sake of +intimidating the cause of all things. Such suppositions are for +practical purposes meaningless. But with the directive ability of the +few, as opposed to the directed labour of the many, the case is +dramatically different. For while there never can be any question of the +directive faculties of the few being left alone in a world where there +is no labour--for in the case of the majority, nature, the eternal +taskmaster, will always make labour compulsory, so long as stomachs want +food and naked backs want clothing--there constantly has been, and there +may be again, a question of whether this mass of ordinary human labour +shall find any exceptional ability so developed and so organised as to +direct it. In the earlier states of society no such ability was +operative. In savage communities it is not operative now; and there is +constantly a question, among modern civilised nations, whenever the +security of social institutions is threatened, of the action of this +faculty being temporarily suspended altogether, either because those +persons possessing it are deprived of the motives without which they +will not exert it, or else because the labourers individually, on one +ground or another, are impatient of submitting themselves to the +direction of any intelligences but their own. + +In other words, when we are seeking to measure the products due +respectively to directive ability and to labour, by computing what would +happen if either of these agencies were withdrawn, the withdrawal of one +of them--that is to say, of ability--can alone be taken as possible by +any practical reasoner. We have before us practically two alternatives +only. One is a condition of things under which the exceptional ability +of the few directs and co-ordinates the labour of the average many. The +other is a condition of things under which the labour of the average +many has to exert itself with the same severe continuity, but is guided, +co-ordinated, and stimulated by none of those special faculties which +raise a few men above the general level of efficiency. When these +special faculties are applied to the direction of average labour, the +output of wealth increases. When their application is interfered with or +ceases, the output of wealth declines; and in the only practical sense +of the words "cause" or "producer," these faculties of direction, or the +exceptional persons who exercise them, are the true causes or producers +of the whole of that portion of wealth which comes into being with their +activity, and disappears or dwindles with their inaction. + +The practical validity of this method of computation has been formally +recognised, though not completely understood, by some of the later +socialists themselves. Mr. Webb, for example, and his associates, have +admitted that, of the wealth of the modern world a considerable part +consists of "the rent of business ability."[19] This way of expressing +the matter is true so far as it goes. It expresses, however, one-half of +the truth only. Mr. Webb and his friends mean that, if we take the world +as it is, the products due to ability in any given industry consist of +the quantity by which the products of one firm, because it is managed by +a man of superior talent, exceed the products of another firm which +differs from the first only in the fact that it is managed by another +man whose talent is not so great. They assume as their starting-point, +in every case, the presence of directive ability sufficient to organise +the labourers in such a way that the products of the entire group shall +provide the labourers with wages which are up to a certain standard, and +a minimum of profit or of surplus values besides. This lowest grade of +ability is one of the postulates of their argument, just as in +calculating agricultural rent the first postulate of our argument is a +lowest grade of land. + +Now, in connection with many questions of a more or less limited kind, +this assimilation of the products of superior ability to rent, and of +ability of a lower grade to land which is practically rentless, will +serve our purpose well enough. Between the two cases, however, there is +a vast and underlying difference; and when we consider our present +problem under its widest and most vital aspect, it is the difference, +not the likeness, between them, which constitutes our main concern. The +nature of this difference has been pointed out already. When we are +discussing rent and agriculture, land is a necessary assumption, for +unless there were land, there could be no agriculture at all; but there +can be, has been, and still is in the world, abundance of labour without +directive ability; and while it would be meaningless to ask what would +happen to rent if all land disappeared, the question of what would +happen to labour if all ability were in abeyance is precisely the +question raised by all schemes of economic revolution, and one which has +been constantly illustrated by the facts of economic history. + +Of such facts we may take the following, picturesque example: In the +eighteenth century the Jesuit Fathers in Uruguay succeeded in teaching +the natives a variety of Western arts, among others that of +watch-making, and so long as the Jesuits were on the spot to direct them +the natives exhibited much manual skill. But when, owing to political +causes, the Jesuits were driven from the country, the natives sank back +into their previous industrial helplessness. The temporary efficiency of +their labour had been due to the ability that directed it; and as soon +as that ability was withdrawn, the labour, left to itself, shrank again +to its old relative inefficiency. Now, here we have a case precisely +analogous to that which we have to deal with when considering at the +present day how much of the products of any civilised nation is produced +by the labour of the average units of the population, and how much by +the ability of the exceptional men directing them. It is not a question +of how much this or that group of labourers, which is directed by a man +of the highest grade of ability, produces in excess of the products of +some similar group which is directed by another man whose ability is +somewhat inferior; it is a question of how much the same nation would +produce, if every director of other men's labour were withdrawn, and the +present labouring units left to their own devices. + +These two questions, though not mutually exclusive, differ as much as +the question of why one of two balloons rises above the earth to a +height of three miles and a furlong, while a second balloon reaches the +height of three miles only, differs from the question of why either of +them rises in the air at all. Mr. Webb and his friends, with their +theory of the rent of ability, confine themselves to the first of +these--namely, the question of why one balloon rises a furlong higher +than the other. The real question which we have to deal with here is why +both balloons lift their aeronauts at least three miles into the clouds, +while other men who have no balloon to lift them can get no higher than +the top of the church steeple. Or to come back to literal fact, our +problem must be expressed thus: Let us take the present population of +Great Britain or America, and, having noted the wealth at present +annually produced by it, ask ourselves what would happen if some duly +qualified angel were to pick out and kill, or otherwise make away with, +every man, who, in virtue of his assimilated scientific knowledge, his +inventive gifts, his constructive and practical imagination, his energy, +his initiative, and his natural powers of leadership, was better able to +direct others than the other nine were to direct themselves? + +We cannot make this experiment in precisely the way described; but +history will provide us with equivalents which are sufficiently accurate +for our purpose. There are, for example, in the case of Great Britain, +data which have enabled statisticians with a considerable degree of +unanimity to estimate the values produced per head of the industrial +population at various periods from the reign of Charles II. till to-day, +and to reduce these values to comparable terms of money. Now, we need +not insist too much on the accuracy of the figures in question; but one +broad fact is unmistakably shown by them--that the product per head +towards the close of the nineteenth century was, to say the least of it, +from four to five times as great as it was towards the close of the +sixteenth. To what, then, was this increase in industrial productivity +due? It was not due to any change in the spontaneous workings of nature. +It can only have been due to some change in the character of human +effort--either in that of the effort of each separate manual labourer, +or else in that of the men by whom the labour of others is directed. The +average labourer, however, at the close of the nineteenth century did +not differ, as an isolated labouring unit, from the average labourer as +he was at the time of the fire of London. The increase in industrial +productivity must therefore be necessarily due to a change in the +ability of those by whom the labourers are organised and directed. And +here _a priori_ reasoning is confirmed by actual facts, for the change +which has taken place in the class which directs the labour of others +has been, during the period in question, of the most notorious and +astonishing kind. That class had been progressively absorbing into +itself, and concentrating on the conduct of industry, ambitions, +intelligences, and strong practical wills, which formerly found their +outlets in very different channels--ecclesiastical, political, and more +especially military. Man for man, then, industry became more productive, +because to an increasing degree the ablest men of the nation +concentrated their exceptional powers on directing the business of +production; and any one who wished to push things to an extreme +conclusion might contend that the entire amount--some four or five +hundred per cent.--by which the product per head in the year 1880 +exceeded the product per head some two hundred years before, was due to +directive ability, and directive ability only; and that the labourers, +in their capacity of labourers, had no claim whatsoever to it. We will, +however, put the case in a much more moderate form. We will, for +argument's sake, concede to self-directed labour all that increase in +the values produced per head, which took place between the time of +Charles II. and the general establishment in Great Britain of the modern +industrial system, with its huge mills and factories, and its +concomitant differentiation of the directing class from the directed--an +event which had been securely accomplished at the beginning of the +nineteenth century. In making this concession, we shall, indeed, be +defying fact, and ignoring the improvements, alike in manufacture and +agriculture, which had taken place during the hundred years preceding, +especially during the last fifty of them, and which were solely due to +a minority of exceptionally able men.[20] We shall thus be conceding to +the labourer far more than his due. Certainly no one can contend that we +concede too little. + +Let us take, then, the beginning of the nineteenth century as our +standing-point; and, assuming that labour was the sole producer then, +compare its productivity per head with the productivity of industrial +effort--of labour and ability combined--some eight or nine decades +later. The labourers of Great Britain as a body, to the exclusion of all +other classes, actually divided among themselves, about the year 1880, +more wealth per head--something like forty-five per cent.--than would +have been theirs if they had lived in the days of their own +grandfathers, and been able to appropriate as wages the income of the +entire country. + +Let us, then, repeat the question which we asked just now. Where has +this addition to the income of labour come from? That part of it is +attributable to ability--the ability of the Watts, the Stephensons, the +Arkwrights, the Bessemers, the Edisons, and so forth--nobody in his +senses will deny. Can it be said that any of it is attributable to +labour? The period now under consideration is so brief that this +question is not hard to answer. It can easily be shown that man, as a +labourer skilled or unskilled, has acquired individually no new +efficiencies since--to say the least of it--the days of the Greeks and +Romans. An ancient gem-engraver would to-day be eminent among modern +craftsmen. The implements of the Roman surgeons, the proportional +compasses used by the Roman architects, the force-pumps and taps used in +the Roman houses--all things that could be produced by a man directing +his own muscles--were produced in the Rome of Nero as perfectly as they +could be produced to-day. To this fact our museums bear ample and minute +witness; while the Colosseum and the Parthenon are quite enough to show +that the masons of the ancient world were at least the equals of our +own. If no advance, then, in the quality of manual labour as such has +taken place in the course of two thousand years, it is idle to contend +that its powers have increased in the course of eighty. But a still more +remarkable proof that they actually have not done so, and that no such +increase has contributed to the increase of modern wealth, is supplied +by events belonging to these eighty years themselves. I refer to the +policy pursued by the trade-unions of reducing the practical efficiency +of all their members alike to the level which can be reached by those of +them who are least active and dexterous. Bricklayers, for example, are +forbidden by the English unions to lay, in a given time, more than a +certain number of bricks, though by many of them this number could be +doubled, and by some trebled, with ease. Now, although, from the point +of view of those bodies who adopt it, such a policy has many advantages, +and is perhaps a tactical necessity, this levelling down of labour to +the minimum of individual efficiency is denounced by many critics as a +prelude to industrial suicide, and the alarm which these persons feel is +doubtless intelligible enough. It is, however, largely superfluous. The +levelling process in question must of course involve a certain amount of +waste; but its effect on production as a whole is under most +circumstances inappreciable. Building as a whole is not checked by the +fact that the best bricklayers may do no more than the worst. All kinds +of commodities are multiplied, improved, and cheapened, while thousands +of the operatives whose labour is involved in their production are +allowed to attend to but one machine, when they might easily attend to +three. In a word, while the unions have been doing their effective best +to keep labour, as a productive agent, stationary, or even to diminish +its efficiency, the product of industry as a whole exhibits an unchecked +increase. And what is the explanation of this? Little as the +trade-unions realise the fact themselves, their own policy is an +object-lesson which supplies us with the simple answer. The answer is +that the increase of modern wealth--certainly its increase during the +past eighty years--has not been due to any change in the efficiency of +labour at all; that labour is merely a unit which directive ability +multiplies; that if in the year 1800 labour produced everything, and +its total products then be expressed by the number five, the products of +the industrial population would be five per head still, if ability, as a +multiplying number, successively expressible by two and three and four, +had not increased the quotient to ten, fifteen, and twenty; ability thus +being the producer, not indeed of the five with which we start, but of +all the increasing differences between this and the larger numbers. + +To return then to definite facts, since in the year 1800 an equal +division of all the wealth of Great Britain would have yielded to each +family an income of eighty pounds, and since eighty years later an equal +division of the total which was actually appropriated as wages by +wage-paid labour alone, would have yielded to each labourer's family +some twenty-five pounds in addition, the labouring class as a whole in +Great Britain to-day, instead of receiving less than its labour +produces, receives on the lowest computation from thirty to thirty-three +per cent. more. Or, to put the matter otherwise, more than a fourth of +its present income is drawn from a fund which would cease to have any +existence if it were not for the continued activity of a specially +gifted class, by whose brains the data of science are being constantly +remastered and re-assimilated, and by whose energy they are applied to +the minds and muscles of the many from the earliest hour of each working +day to the latest. And what is true labour, its products, and receipts +in Great Britain, is broadly true of them in America and all other +countries also, where modern capitalism has arrived at the same stage of +development. + +We are, let me say once more, not here contemplating individual cases. +Of the total wage-fund divided among the labourers in any given country, +too much may be given to some men, and too little to others; but of +every million pounds which a million of such men receive, some two +hundred and fifty thousand are distributed well or ill, which have not +been produced by the efforts of these men themselves, but are due to the +efforts of a class which is definitely outside their own.[21] If, then, +it is contended that the just reward of labour is that total of wealth +which labour itself produces, the idea that labour, in respect of its +pecuniary remuneration, is, under present conditions, the victim of any +general wrong, is so far from having any justification in fact that it +only touches fact at all by representing a direct inversion of it. +Labour, as a whole, does not, under existing conditions, get less than +it produces.[22] It gets a very great deal more. If, therefore, the +claims of labour are based on, and limited to, the amount of wealth +which is produced by labour itself--that is to say, the total which it +would now produce were the faculties of the directing and organising +minority paralysed--what labour, thus appropriating the entire product, +would receive, would be far less, not more, than what it actually +receives to-day. Instead of defrauding it of any part of its due, the +existing system is treating it with an extreme and even wanton +generosity. + +Is it, then, here contended, many readers will ask, that if matters are +determined by ideal justice, or anything like practical wisdom, the +remuneration of labour in general ought henceforth to be lessened, or at +all events precluded from any possibility of increase? Is it contended +that the employing and directing class should attempt or even desire to +take back from those directed by it every increment of wealth possessed +by them which is not produced by themselves? If any one thinks that such +is the conclusion which is here suggested, let him suspend his opinion +until, as we shall do in another chapter, we return to the subject and +deal with it in a more comprehensive way. Our conclusion, as for the +moment we must now be content to leave it, is not that the labourers +have not a claim, practically valid, to the only portion of their income +which has any tendency to grow, but merely that they should understand +the source from which this portion is drawn--a source which consists of +the efforts of other men, not of their own. + +And now, before we return to this particular question, we will go on to +deal with another which to a certain extent overlaps it, but is narrower +in its compass, and seems, for that very reason, to many minds of +greater practical moment. I mean the question of interest, or the income +which comes to its recipients without any necessary effort on their own +part to correspond to it. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] I met an interesting embodiment of this mood of mind in America, in +the person of a slim young man, well-dressed, well-educated, refined in +his speech and manners, who worked as a clerk or accountant in some +large financial house. To my great astonishment he introduced himself to +me as a socialist. "I don't believe like Marx," he said, "that labour +produces everything, but I maintain that the task-work of the employed +and directed labourer, of whatever grade--whether he uses a pen or a +chisel--is always worth more than the wages which the employers pay him +for performing it. I feel this myself with regard to my own firm. Month +by month I am worth to it more than the sums it gives me. This," he went +on, with an odd gleam in his eyes, "is what I may not endure to think +of--that others should be always appropriating values which I have +produced myself; and nine out of ten of the men who become socialists, +do so because they feel as I do about this particular point." + +[19] General Walker also seeks to assimilate the product of ability to +rent; and my criticism of Mr. Webb in this respect applies to him also. +General Walker's book was mentioned frequently in connection with my +late addresses in America; and it was said by one or two critics that I +had borrowed from, and ought to have acknowledged my debt to, him. As a +matter of fact, I never saw his book till after my return to England, +when I read it with interest and admiration. His doctrines with regard +to the _entrepreneur_ is, so far as it goes, fundamentally identical +with the main argument of this volume. My criticism of him would be that +he does not give to this particular part of his doctrine the foremost +place which logically belongs to it; and that though attributing to the +_entrepreneur_ some special productive faculty distinct from labour, he +starts his work with re-enumerating the old doctrine that labour, +capital, and law are the only factors in production. + +[20] For example, the silk factory at Derby, erected by Lombe, in the +reign of George II., the machinery of which comprised 26,000 wheels. + +[21] These figures represent less than the truth. They are merely given +in order to indicate the general character of the situation to-day, as +compared with that of an earlier, but still comparatively recent period. +To go into details minutely would involve extensive and here needless +discussion. + +[22] A letter was sent me by a friend in America, from a writer who, +commenting on my late addresses in that country, said that in the main +he entirely agreed with my arguments, as against socialism; but that he +could not divest himself of the belief that labour as a whole got less +than it produced, and was thus as a whole suffering a chronic wrong. He +suggested, however, a method, fundamentally analogous to that set forth +in the text, of computing what labour, as such, does produce in reality. +He gave his own opinion as to actual facts, as an impression merely; but +how misleading impressions may be can be seen from his statements "that +all _very great_ fortunes, at all events, must be derived from the +underpayment of labour." Had he only considered the case in detail, he +would have seen that labour received the highest wages from some of the +richest employers. According to his theory the wages of labour, in such +cases, would touch the minimum. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +INTEREST AND ABSTRACT JUSTICE + +The essential feature of interest, as distinct from the income due to +active ability, is that while the latter ceases as soon as the able man +ceases to exert himself, the former continues to replenish the +recipient's pockets, though for his part he does nothing, or need do +nothing, in return for it. Since, then, the possession of this +particular form of income is admittedly unconnected with any concurrent +exertion on the part of those possessing it (such is the argument of the +objectors) the whole portion of the national wealth which, in the form +of interest, is at present appropriated by the presumably or the +possibly idle, might obviously be appropriated by the state, and applied +to public purposes, without lessening in any way even the highest of +those rewards which are due to, and are needed to stimulate any active +ability whatsoever, and hence without lessening the efficiency of the +wealth-producing process as a whole. If we adopt the programme which +this argument suggests, it will be possible, so its advocates say, to +satisfy the demands of labour by a shorter and more direct method than +that of committing ourselves to an estimate of what labour actually +produces, and endeavouring to secure that the total which is paid to +labour shall accord with it. + +Now, this programme raises two separate questions. One question is +whether the proposed confiscation of interest is in reality, as its +advocates maintain it to be, practicable in the sense that the +disturbances which it would necessarily cause would not interfere with +the production of the fund which it is desired to distribute, and so +perhaps leave all classes poorer and not richer than they are. The other +question is whether such a confiscation would be just. To some people +this second question will possibly seem superfluous. If it can be shown, +they will say, that a policy, the avowed object of which is the +enrichment of the many at the expense of the relatively few, could be +really carried out successfully, and if the many had the power of +insisting on it, an inquiry into its abstract justice is merely a waste +of time; for whenever the wolf is face to face with the lamb, it will +eat up the lamb first and justify its conduct afterwards. And in this +argument there is a certain amount of truth; but those who take it for +the whole truth allow their own cynicism to overreach them. The fact +remains that even the wolves of the human world are obliged to assume, +as a kind of necessary armour, and often as their principal weapon, a +semblance of justice, however they may despise the reality. The brigand +chief justifies his war on society by declaring that society has +unjustly made war on him. The wildest demagogues, in their appeals to +popular passion, as the history of the French Revolution and of all +revolutions shows us, have always been obliged to exhibit the demands of +mere self-interest as based on some general theory of what is morally +just or right; and however much the theory may accommodate itself to the +hope of private advantage, there are few demands made for any great +social change which do not derive a large part of their force from +persons with whom a belief in the justice of the demands stands first, +while--so far at least as their own consciousness is concerned--the +prospect of personal advantage stands second or nowhere. This is +certainly so in the case which we are now considering. We will, +therefore, begin with the question of abstract justice. + +Let us begin, then, with reminding ourselves that when interest is +attacked as such, on the ground that its recipients have themselves done +nothing to produce it, whereas other incomes, no matter how large, are +presumably the equivalents of some personal effort which corresponds to +them, it is assumed that every man has, in natural justice, a right to +such wealth as he actually himself produces; and what he produces, as we +saw in the last chapter, is that amount of wealth which would not have +been produced at all had his efforts not been made, or been other or +less intense than they have been. + +Thus far, then, for the purposes of the present discussion, all parties +are agreed; but the moment the assailants of interest take the next step +in their argument, we shall find that their errors begin--errors +resulting, as we shall see, from an imperfect analysis of facts. For +them the two types of correspondence between productive effort and +product are, firstly, the manual labourer, who performs some daily task +such as riveting plates or bricklaying, and receives an equivalent in +wages at the end of each day or week; and, secondly, the manager of some +great industrial enterprise, who spends each day so many hours in his +office, issuing minute directions with regard to the conduct of his +subordinates, and sending his receipts to the bank as they come in from +his customers. But these types, though accurate so far as they go, do +but cover a part of the actual field of fact. Practically, though of +course not absolutely, they ignore the element of time. They represent +effort and product as being always so nearly simultaneous that, although +the former must literally precede the latter, yet, if we estimate life +in terms of years, or even months, or weeks, a man has ceased to produce +as soon as he has ceased to work. + +Now, of certain forms of effort this may be true enough. A bricklayer, +for example, as soon as he ceases to lay bricks, ceases to produce +anything. His wall-building closes its effects with the walls which he +himself has built. It does nothing to facilitate the building of other +walls in the future. Similarly such ability as consists in a gift for +personal management often ends its effects, and leaves no trace behind +it, as soon as the manager possessing these gifts retires. + +But with many forms of ability the case is precisely opposite. The +products of their exercise do not even begin to appear till after--often +till long after--the exercise of the ability itself has altogether come +to an end. Let us, for example, take the case of a play; and since +socialists are still included among the objectors whom we have in view, +let us take one of the popular plays written by Mr. Bernard Shaw. Such a +play, as Mr. Shaw has publicly boasted--for otherwise I should not +mention, and should know nothing of his private affairs--brings to its +author wealth in the form of amazing royalties; but until it is acted it +brings him no royalties at all, and the actors begin with it only when +his own efforts are ended. Moreover, not only do these royalties only +begin then, but having once begun, they have no tendency to exhaust +themselves. On the contrary the chances are that they will go on +increasing till the time arrives, if it ever does, when Mr. Shaw is no +longer appreciated. Mr. Shaw, in fact, if he had written one of his most +successful plays at twenty, might, so far as that play is concerned, be +idle for ever afterwards, even if he lived to the age of Methuselah, and +still be enjoying in royalties the product of his own exertions, though +he had not exerted himself productively for some seven or eight hundred +years. + +There is no question here of whether, under these conditions, a person +like Mr. Shaw might not feel himself constrained on some ground or other +to surrender his copyright at some period prior to his own demise. The +one point here insisted on is that he could not renounce it on the +ground that the wealth protected by it was no longer produced by +himself. If he is entitled to the royalties resulting from the +performance of his play at any time, on the ground that every man has a +right to the products of his own exertions, his right to the royalties +resulting from its ten-thousandth performance is, on this ground, as +good as his right to the royalties resulting from the first. The +royalties on a play, in short, show how certain forms of effort, though +not all, continue to yield a product for an indefinite period, though +the original effort itself may be never again repeated; and herein these +royalties are typical of modern interest generally. They do not, +however, constitute in themselves more than a small part of it. We will +therefore turn to interest of other kinds, the details of whose genesis +are indeed widely different, but which consist similarly of a constant +repetition of values, without any corresponding repetition of the effort +in which the series originated. + +Those which we will consider first are the products of organic nature, +which have been dwelt upon by a well-known writer as showing us the +ultimate source of industrial interest generally, and also at the same +time its natural and essential justice. It may be a surprise to some to +learn who this writer is. He is Henry George, who is best known to the +public as the advocate of a measure of confiscation so crude and so +arbitrary, that even socialists have condemned it as impracticable +without serious modifications. Henry George, however, although he outdid +most socialists in his attack on private wealth of one particular +kind--that is to say, the rent of land--was equally vehement in his +defence of the interest of industrial capital. Socialists say--and the +aphorism is constantly repeated--"A man can get an income only by +working or stealing; there is no third way." In answer to this, it was +pointed out by George that one kind of wealth, at all events--and we may +add that here we have wealth in its oldest form--consists of possessions +yielding a natural increase, which has been neither made by the +possessors, nor yet stolen by them from anybody else. That is to say, it +consists of flocks and herds. A shepherd or herdsman starts with a +single pair of animals, from which parents there arises a large progeny. +This living increment has not been produced by the man, but it is still +more obvious that it has not been produced by his neighbours, and it +therefore belongs in justice to the man who owns the parents. George +pointed out also that whole classes of possessions besides are, for by +far the larger part of their value, equally independent either of +corresponding work or of theft. Among such possessions are wines, whose +quality improves with time, and which, if sold to-day, may be worth +tenpence a bottle, but which four years hence may be worth perhaps +half-a-crown. In all such cases--this was George's contention--we have +some possession originally small to start with, which year by year is +increased in amount or at least in value, not by the efforts of the +possessor, but by the secret operations of nature. Here, he argued, we +have capital in its typical form; and interest is the gift of nature to +the man by whom the capital is owned. + +George, however, is constrained to supplement this proposition by +another. Though he assumes that of the products which are, in the modern +world, actually paid as interest by the borrower of capital to the +owners of it, the larger part consists of gifts of unaided nature, he +admits that they are not the whole. He admits that a part of it is paid +for the use of machinery. Now, such interest, he says, has a definitely +different origin, and cannot intrinsically be justified in the same way; +and if all wealth consisted of such commodities as are due to the +efforts of man, and to the man-made machinery which assists him, all +interest would be really, as it is said to be by some, indefensible. +But, he continues, since interest on capital such as machinery is not +the whole of the interest paid in the modern world, but is only a minor +part of it, and since in the modern world all forms of capital are +interchangeable, the laws which govern us in our dealings with the +lesser quantity must necessarily be assimilated to those which govern us +in our dealings with the greater. If a ram and a sheep are capital which +yields just interest, because their wool and their progeny are +increments due to nature, and if a ram and a sheep are exchangeable for +some kind of machine, the possession of the one must be placed on a par +with the possession of the other. The machine must be treated, though it +is not so in strictness, as if it were prolific in the same sense as the +beasts are; and a part of what it is used to produce must be paid by the +user to the owner of it. + +Now, both these arguments--that which deals with the fact of natural +increase, and that which deals with the assimilation of all such +possessions as are interchangeable--are in principle sound. The first, +indeed, touches the very root of the whole matter; but the first is +exaggerated in his statement of it, and unduly limited in his +application, and the second is wholly unnecessary for proving what he +desires to prove. The first is exaggerated in his statement of it +because, as a matter of fact, the kind of capital whose interest is +described by him as the gift of nature is not the major, it is only a +minor part of the capital yielding interest under the conditions which +obtain to-day. A part far larger is capital in the form of machinery; +and if the distinction which George draws between the two is a true one, +the case of the flocks and herds should be assimilated to that of the +machines, not the case of the machines to that of the flocks and herds. +Interest should be denied to both kinds of capital because machines are +not naturally prolific, instead of being conceded to both because flocks +and herds are so. We shall find, however, that the distinction which +George seeks to establish is illusory, that both kinds of capital yield +interest in the same way, and that his justification of it in the one +case is equally applicable to it in the other. + +His attempt to distinguish between the two takes the form of a criticism +of Bastiat, according to whom the typical source of interest is the +added productivity which a given amount of human effort acquires by the +use of certain lendable implements. As a type of such implements or +machines, Bastiat takes a plane. The maker of a plane lends this plane +to another man, who is thus enabled to finish off in a week four more +planks than he could have done had he used an adze. If, at the end of +the week, the borrower does nothing more than return the plane in good +repair to the lender, the borrower gains by the transaction; but the +maker and lender not only gains nothing, he loses. For a week he loses +his implement which he otherwise might have used himself, and the extra +planks which, by the use of it, he could have produced just as easily +as his fellow. Such an arrangement would be obviously and absurdly +unjust. Justice demands--and practice here follows justice--that he get +at the end of the week, not only his own plane back again, but two of +the extra planks due to its use besides. A plane, in short--such is +Bastiat's meaning, though he does not put it in this precise way--is a +possession which is fruitful no less than a sheep and a ram are, or a +wine which adds to its value by the mere process of being kept, and it, +therefore, yields interest for a virtually similar reason. George, +however, seeks to dispose of Bastiat's argument thus: If the maker of +the plane lends it, he says, instead of himself using it, and the +borrower borrows a plane, instead of himself making one, such an +arrangement is simply due to the fact that both parties for the moment +happen to find it convenient. For, George observes, it is no part of +Bastiat's contention that the plane is due to the exertion of any +faculties possessed by the maker only. Either man could make it, just as +either man could use it. Why, then, should A pay a tribute to B for the +use of something which, to-morrow, if not to-day, he could make for +himself without paying anything to anybody? + +Now, if Bastiat's plane is to be taken as signifying a plane only, the +criticism of George is just. But what George forgets is that, if the +plane means a plane only--an implement which any man could make just as +well as the lender--interest on planes, besides being morally +indefensible, would as a matter of fact never be paid at all. Bastiat's +plane, however, stands for a kind of capital, the borrowing of which and +the paying of interest on which, form one of the most constant features +of the modern industrial world; and he evidently assumes, even if he +does not say so, that for all this borrowing and paying there is some +constant and sufficient reason. Now, the only reason can be--and +George's own criticism implies this--that in order to produce the +machine-capital borrowed certain faculties are needed which are not +possessed by the borrowers; and though this may not be true of a simple +hand-plane itself, it is emphatically true of the elaborate modern +machinery of which Bastiat merely uses his hand-plane as a symbol. In +order to produce such implements of production as these, the exertion of +faculties is required which are altogether exceptional, such as high +scientific knowledge, invention, and many others. Let invention--the +most obvious of these--here do duty for all, and let us consider, for +example, the mechanism of a modern cotton mill, or of a boot factory, or +a Hoe printing press, or a plant for electric lighting. All these would +be impossible if it had not been for inventive faculties as rare in +their way as those of a playwright like Mr. Shaw. + +No one will deny that when a play like "Man and Superman" first acquires +a vogue which renders its performance profitable, the royalties paid to +the author are values which he has himself created, not indeed by his +faculties used directly, but by his faculties embodied in a work which +he has accomplished once for all in the past, and which has +thenceforward become a secondary and indefinitely enduring self; and if +this is true of the royalties resulting from its first profitable +performance, it would be equally true of those resulting from the last, +even though this should take place on the eve of the Day of Judgment. +With productive machinery the case is just the same. If Mr. Shaw, +instead of writing "Man and Superman," had been the sole inventor of the +steam-engine, and the only man capable of inventing it, every one will +admit that he would, by this one inventive effort, have personally +co-operated for a time with all users of steam-power, and been +part-producer of the increment in which its use resulted. And if this +would have been true of his invention when it was only two years old, it +would be equally true now. He would still be co-operating with the users +of every steam-engine in the world to-day, and adding to their products +something which they could not have produced alone. + +Here, then, we see that in one respect at all events the two kinds of +capital, which George attempts to contrast, yield interest for a +precisely similar reason. Both consist of a productive power or agency +which is external to the borrower himself; and it makes no difference to +him whether the auxiliary power borrowed inheres in living tissue, or in +a mechanism of brass or iron. + +But the resemblance between these two forms of capital, and the identity +of the reasons why both of them bear interest, do not end here. I quoted +in a former chapter an observation of Mr. Sidney Webb's, which he +himself applies in a very foolish way, but which is obviously true in +itself, and in the present connection is pertinent. Some men he admits +are incomparably more productive than others, because they happen to be +born with a special kind of ability. But what is this ability itself? It +is simply the result, he says, of a process which lies behind +them--namely, the natural process of animal and human evolution; and its +special products are like those of exceptionally fertile land. That is +to say, the ability which produces modern machines is in reality just as +much a force of nature as that which makes live-stock fertile, and +brings raw wine to maturity. But the same line of argument will carry us +much farther than this. As Dr. Beattie Crozier has shown in his work, +_The Wheel of Wealth_, the part which nature plays in productive +machinery is not confined to the brains of the gifted inventors and +their colleagues. It is incorporated in, and identified with, the actual +machines themselves. The lever, the cam, the eccentric, the crank, the +piston, the turbine, the boiler with the vapour imprisoned in +it--devices which it has taxed the brains of the greatest men to +elaborate and to co-ordinate--were all latent in nature before these men +made them actual; and when once such devices are actualised it is +nature that makes them go. There is not merely a transformation of so +much human energy into the same amount of natural energy; but nature +adds to the former a non-human energy of her own; as--to take a good +illustration of Dr. Crozier's--obviously happens in the case of a charge +of gunpowder, which, "when used for purposes of blasting, has," he +observes, "in itself a thousand times the quantity of pure economic +power that is bought in the work of the labourers who supply and mix the +ingredients." That is to say, whenever human talent invents and produces +a machine which adds to the productivity of any one who uses it with +sufficient intelligence, the inventor has shut up in his machine some +part of the forces of nature, as though it were an efreet whom a +magician has shut up in a bottle, and whose services he can keep for +himself, or hand over to others. The efreets shut up in machinery will +not work for human beings at all, unless there are human magicians who +manage thus to imprison them. They therefore belong to the men who, in +virtue of their special capacities, are alone capable of the effort +requisite to perform this feat; and it matters nothing to others, by +whom the efreets' services are borrowed, whether the effort in question +occupied a year or a day, or whether it took place yesterday or fifty +years ago. + +The borrowed efreet produces the same surplus in either case, and +interest is a part of this surplus which goes, not to the efreet himself +(for this is not possible), but to his master, just as a cab-fare is +paid to the cabman and not his horse. + +Machine-capital, then--or capital in its typical modern form--consists +of productive forces which are usable by, and which indeed exist for, +the human race at large, because, and only because, they have been +captured and imprisoned in implements by the efforts of exceptional men, +whose energy thus exercised is perpetuated, and can be lent to others; +and what these men receive as interest from those by whom their energy +is borrowed, is a something ultimately due to the energy of the lenders +themselves--nor is this fact in any way altered by lapse of time. Thus, +so far as these special men are concerned, the alleged difference +between earned income and unearned altogether disappears; and if one man +lives in luxury for sixty years on the interest of an invention which it +took him but a month to perfect, while another man every day has to toil +for his daily bread, the difference between the two consists not in the +fact that the one man works for his bread and the other man does nothing +for it, but in the fact that the work of one produces more in a day than +that of the other would do in a hundred lifetimes. + +Here, however, we shall be met with two important objections. In the +first place, it will no doubt have occurred to many readers that +throughout the foregoing discussion we have assumed that the persons who +receive interest on machinery are in all cases the persons by whom the +machinery was invented and produced. To the actual inventors and +producers it may, indeed, be conceded that the interest which they +themselves receive has been earned by their own exertions; but no such +concession, it will be said, can be made to these men's heirs. An Edison +or a Bessemer may have produced whatever income has come to him in his +latest years from the inventive efforts of his earliest; but if such a +man has a son to whom this income descends--a half-witted degenerate who +squanders it on wine and women, who will not work with his hands and who +cannot work with his head--no one can pretend that, in any sense of the +word, a fool like this produces any fraction of the thousands that he +consumes. And though all of those who live on the interest of inherited +capital are not foolish nor vicious, yet in this respect they are all of +them in the same position--they have not produced their incomes, and so +have no moral right to them. + +In the second place, the following argument, which was discussed in an +earlier chapter, will also be brought forward, refurbished for the +present occasion. Let us grant, it will be said, that the inventions +which have enriched the world were originally due to the talents of +exceptional men, and that without these exceptional men the world would +never have possessed them; but when once they have been made, and their +powers seen in operation, the human race at large can, if left to +itself, take over these powers from the inventors just as the inventors +took them over from nature. Indeed, this constantly happens. Any boy +with a turning-lathe can to-day make a model steam-engine, and no one +will contend that such a model was not made by himself, on the ground +that it could not have been made either by him or by anybody unless +Watt, with his exceptional genius, had invented steam as a motive-power. +One might as well contend that a savage does not really light his own +fire, on the ground that the art of kindling wood was found out by +Prometheus, and that no one, except for him, would have had any fires at +all. The truth is, it will be said, that in such cases as these the +powers of the exceptional man, originally confined to himself, are, when +his invention is once in practical operation, naturally shared by his +fellows, who can only be restrained from using them by artificial +devices such as patents--these devices being at best, from a moral point +of view, devices by which one man who has given a cheque to another man +steals back half the money as soon as the cheque is cashed. + +Now, both these arguments, so far as they go, are true; but neither has +any bearing on the problem which is now before us. That problem +arises--let me observe once more--out of the assumption that, as a +matter of justice, every man has a right to the products of all such +forces as are his own; whence it follows that nobody has a right to the +products of any forces which are not definitely in himself. Let us +take, then, the latter of the above arguments first. It would doubtless +be absurd to contend, were Prometheus alive to-day, that because he +invented the art of striking fire from flints he ought to be paid a +tribute by every savage who boiled a kettle; for the savage can strike a +flint as well as Prometheus himself could. But if fire could be kindled +only by a particular sort of match which Prometheus alone could make, +the fact that he was really the lighter of all fires would be obvious, +and his claim to a payment in respect of the lighting of every one of +them would be as sound as the claim of the lighter of street-lamps to +his wages. If "Man and Superman" were not a play, but a hoot, which Mr. +Shaw had invented in order to call attention to himself, and which any +street boy could imitate with the same results, it would be idle for Mr. +Shaw to claim a right to royalties from the street boys; but it would be +idle only because it would not be possible to collect them. He is able +to collect them on his play because, and only because, his play exists +in a form which is susceptible of legal protection. If in justice he has +a right to these, as he no doubt has, he would, if abstract justice were +the sole determining factor, have an equal right to royalties on the use +of his peculiar hoot. He fails to have any such right because, as a +matter of fact, the principle of abstract justice with which we are here +concerned--that every one has a right to everything that he himself +produces--has, in common with all abstract moral principles whatsoever, +no application to cases in which, from the nature of things, it is +wholly impossible to enforce it. + +And the same criticism is applicable to the other argument before us, +which admits that a man who invents a productive machine, or who writes +a remunerative play, is, so long as he lives, entitled, because he is +the true producer of them, to certain profits arising from the use of +either; but adds that his rights to such profits end with his own life, +and lose all sanction in justice the moment they are transferred to an +heir. In the heir's hands, it is urged, they entirely change their +character, and, instead of enabling a man to secure what is honestly his +own, become means by which he is enabled to steal what morally belongs +to others. + +Now, if it is seriously contended that nobody has a right to anything +which at some time or other he has not personally produced, the interest +on machinery, as soon as the inventor dies, not only ought not to belong +to the inventor's heir, but it ought not to belong to anybody; for if +this interest is not produced by the heir, it is certainly not produced +by any of the heir's contemporaries. A contention like this is absurd; +there must therefore be something amiss with the premises which lead up +to it. Socialists who admit that an inventor during his lifetime has a +right to the interest resulting from the use of his own inventions, +endeavour to solve the difficulty by maintaining that after his death +both invention and interest should pass into the hands of the state; but +this doctrine, on whatever grounds it may be defended, cannot be +defended as based on the principle now in question, that the sole valid +title to possession is personal production. It must, if it is based on +any abstract moral principle at all, be based on one of a much more +general kind, according to which the ultimate standard of justice is not +the deeds of the individual, but the general welfare of society. + +Here it is true that the appeal is still to abstract justice, but it is +not an appeal to abstract justice only. In order to condemn interest on +any such ground as this, it is necessary to assume or prove that to make +interest illegal, or to confiscate it by taxation when it arises, or by +any other means to render its enjoyment impossible, will as a matter of +fact have the result desired--namely, a permanent rise in the general +level of prosperity. It is only by means of an assumption of this purely +practical kind that the abstract moral principle can be applied to the +case at all; and thus let us approach the problem from whatever side we +will, we are brought from the region of theory down into that of +practice, not, indeed, by an abrupt leap, but by a gradual and necessary +transition. We are not abandoning our considerations of what, in +abstract justice, ought to be; but we are compelled to interpret what +ought to be by considerations of what, as the result of such and such +arrangements, will be. + +To sum up, then, the conclusions which we have reached thus far--if we +confine our attention to those recipients of interest who have +themselves produced the capital from which the interest is derived, and +compare such incomes with those which renew themselves only as the +result of continued effort, it is absolutely impossible, on any general +theory of justice, to sanction the latter as earned, and condemn the +former as unearned. If, on the other hand, we turn to those whose +incomes consist of interest on capital produced by, and inherited from, +their fathers, and if we argue that here at all events we come to a +class of interest on which its living recipients can have no justifiable +claim, since we start with admitting that it originates in the efforts +of the dead, our argument, though plausible in its premises, is +stultified by its logical consequence; since the same principle on which +we are urged as a sacred duty to take the income in question away from +its present possessors, would forbid our allowing it to pass into the +possession of anybody else. In short, if continued daily labour, or else +the exercise of invention, or some other form of ability, at some period +of their lives by persons actually living, constitutes in justice the +sole right to possession, the human race as a whole has no right to +profit by any productive effort on the part of past generations; but +each generation ought, so far as is practicable, to start afresh in the +position of naked savages. The fact that nobody would maintain a +fantastic proposition like this is sufficient to show that, on the tacit +admission of everybody, it is impossible to attack interest by insisting +on any abstract distinction between incomes that are earned and +unearned, and treating the latter as felonious, while holding the former +sacred. It is equally true, however, that on such grounds alone it is no +less impossible to defend interest than to attack it; and here we arrive +at what is the real truth of the matter--namely, that in cases like the +present the principles of ideal justice do not, indeed, give us false +guidance, but give us no guidance at all, unless we take them in +connection with the concrete facts of society, and estimate social +arrangements as being either right or wrong by reference to the +practical consequences which do, or which would result from them. + +The practical aspects of the question we will discuss in the following +chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE SOCIALISTIC ATTACK ON INTEREST AND THE NATURE OF ITS SEVERAL ERRORS + +If we reconsider what we have seen in the last chapter, we shall realise +that the moral or theoretical attack on interest, as income which is +unjustifiable because it has not been personally earned, is, when tested +by the logic of those who make it, an attack, not on interest itself, +but on bequest; and that such is the case will become even more evident +when we see what the theory comes to, as translated into a practical +programme. + +The majority of those who attack interest to-day, no matter whether in +other respects they are advocates of socialism or opponents of it, agree +in declaring that what a man has personally produced he has a perfect +right to enjoy and spend as he pleases. The only right they deny to him +is the right to any further products which, before the capital has been +spent by him, may result from the productive use of it. Now, the +practical object with which this restriction is advocated is to render +impossible, not accumulations of wealth (for these are recognised as +legitimate when the reward of personal talent), but merely their +perpetuation in the hands of others who are economically idle. So far, +therefore, as this practical object is concerned, it would matter little +whether the man by whom the accumulation was made were allowed to +receive interest on it during his own lifetime or no, provided that this +right to interest were not transmissible to his heir; or even whether he +were allowed or were not allowed to leave anything to an heir at all. +For the heir at best would merely receive a sum which, since it could +not be used by him so as to bring about its own renewal, would be bound +soon to exhaust itself; and the general effect of permitting bequests of +this sterilised kind would differ from the effect of prohibiting +bequests altogether, not because it would tend to render accumulated +fortunes permanent, but only because it would protract for a decade or +two the process of their inevitable dissipation. + +We may, therefore, say that, for the purposes of the present discussion, +the modern attack on interest, considered apart from any otherwise +socialistic programme, practically translates itself into this--namely, +the advocacy of a scheme which, as regards the actual producers of +capital, leaves their existing rights both to principal and interest +untouched, and would not even extinguish altogether their existing +powers of bequest, but would limit the exercise of these to the +principal sum only,[23] and prohibit the transmission to any private +person of any right whatever to the usufruct of its productive +employment. + +Here, then, at last, we have something definite to discuss--a single +proposed alteration in certain existing arrangements; and by comparing +the situation which actually exists to-day with that which the proposed +alteration, if carried into effect, would produce, we shall see whether +the alteration is workable and practically defensible or no. Let us +begin with the situation which actually exists to-day, confining +ourselves to those features of it which are vital to the present issue. + +Let us take two men of practically contrasted types, each of whom has +inherited a capital of fifty thousand pounds. The ultimate object of +each is, in one way or another, to make his capital provide him with the +life that he most desires; but the first man is thoughtful, far-seeing, +and shrewd, while the second cares for nothing but the gaiety and +pleasure of the moment; and they deal with their capitals in accordance +with their respective characters. The first meets, let us say, with the +inventor of an agricultural machine, which will, if successfully +manufactured, double the wheat crop of every acre to the cultivation of +which it is applied. He places his capital, as a loan, in this +inventor's hands. The machine is constructed, and used with the results +desired; and the man who has lent the capital receives each year a +proportion of the new loaves which are due to the machine's efficiency, +and would not have existed otherwise. The second man invests his fortune +in any kind of security which has the advantage of being turned easily +into cash, and draws out month by month so many hundred pounds, without +reference to anything but the pleasures he desires to purchase; and by +the end of a few years both his capital and his income have disappeared. + +Now, any one judging these men by the current standards of common-sense +would, while praising the first as a model of moral prudence, condemn +the second as a fool who had brought his ruin upon himself, and curtly +dismiss him, if a bachelor, as being nobody's enemy but his own. But +before we indorse either of these judgments as adequate, let us consider +more minutely what in each case has been really done. + +Let us start, then, with noting this. Whether a man invests his capital +in any productive machine and then lives on the interest, or else spends +it as income on his own personal pleasures, he is doing in one respect +precisely the same thing. He is giving something to other men in order +that they in return may make certain efforts for his benefit, of a kind +which he himself prescribes. This is obviously true when, spending his +capital as income, what he pays for is personal service, such as that of +a butler or footman who polishes his silver plate. It is equally true +when he pays for the plate itself. He is paying the silversmith so to +exert his muscles that an ounce or a pound of silver may be wrought into +a specific form. If he pays a toy-maker to make him a dancing-doll, he +is virtually paying him to dance in his own person. He is paying him to +go through a series of prescribed muscular movements. Similarly when he +pays a large number of men to construct a productive machine instead of +a doll or an ornament, he is paying for the muscular movements from +which the machine results. Here we come back to one of the main economic +truths to the elucidation of which our earlier chapters were devoted. It +was there pointed out that the machinery of the modern world owes its +existence to the fact that men of exceptional talent, by possessing the +control of goods which a number of other men require, are able in return +for the goods to make these other men exert themselves in a variety of +minutely prescribed and elaborately co-ordinated ways. In short, all +spending is, on the part of those who spend, a determination of the +efforts of others in such ways as the spender pleases. Further, as was +pointed out in an earlier chapter also, the only goods thus generally +exchangeable for effort are those common necessaries of existence for +which most men must always work, and which may here be represented by +food, the first and the most important of them. Hence, whenever the +question arises of how any given capital shall be treated--of whether it +shall be invested or else spent as income--this capital must be regarded +as existing in the indeterminate form of food, which is equally capable +of being treated in one way or the other. And any man's capital +represents for him, according to its amount, the power of feeding, and +so determining the actions of a definite number of other men for some +definite period. Since, therefore, the two capitalists whose conduct we +have been taking as an illustration have been supposed by us to possess +fifty thousand pounds apiece, we shall give precision to the situation +if we say that each, at starting, has the power of feeding, and so +determining the actions of, two hundred other men for a period of two +years. + +So much, then, being settled, let us consider these further facts. Both +the capitalists, as we set out with observing, have in employing their +capital the same ultimate object--namely, that of securing through the +purchased efforts of others a continuous supply of things which will +render their lives agreeable. And now in connection with this fact let +us go back to another, which has also been pointed out before, that all +efforts, the sole object of which is to please from moment to moment the +man who directs and pays for them, are, whether embodied in the form of +commodities or no, really reducible to some kind of personal service, +if a toy-maker, in return for food, makes a dancing-doll for another +man, he might just as well have pirouetted for so many hours himself; +and if the purchaser would be more amused by a man's antics than by a +puppet's, this is precisely what the toy-maker would have been set to +do. In short, if we consider only the economic side of the matter, +without reference to the moral, whenever a man spends anything on his +own personal pleasure, he is virtually paying some other man, or a +number of other men to dance for him.[24] What, therefore, both our +capitalists desire as their ultimate object, is to keep as many men as +they are able to provide with food always dancing for their pleasure, or +in readiness to do so when wanted; but in setting themselves to achieve +this object in their two different ways, what happens is as follows. + +Both use their capital by dispensing it in the form of daily rations to +two hundred other men, on condition that these men do something; but the +first feeds the other men, not on condition that they dance for him, or +do anything that ministers to his own immediate pleasure, but on +condition that they construct a machine which will enable, as soon as it +is finished, a given amount of human effort to double the amount of food +which such effort would have produced otherwise. Thus, by the end of two +years--the time which we suppose to be required for the machine's +completion--though the original food-supply of the capitalist will all +have been taken up and disappeared, its place will have been taken by a +machine which will enable forever afterwards one-half of the two hundred +men to produce food for the whole. A hundred men, therefore, are left +for whom food can be permanently provided, without any effort to produce +it being made by these men themselves; and since of this annual surplus +a part--let us call it half--will be taken as interest on the machine by +the man with whose capital it was constructed, he will now have the +means of making fifty men dance for his pleasure in perpetuity; for as +often as they have eaten up one supply of food, this, through the agency +of the machine, will have been replaced by another. + +Our second capitalist, meanwhile, who deals with his capital as income, +starts with setting the dancers to dance for his behoof at once; and he +keeps the whole two hundred dancing and doing nothing else, so long as +he has food with which to feed them. This life is charming so long as it +lasts, but in two years' time it abruptly comes to an end. The +capitalist's cupboard is bare. He has no means of refilling it. The +dancers will dance no more for him, for he cannot keep them alive; and +the efforts for two years of two hundred men, as directed by a man who +treats his capital as income, will now have resulted in nothing but the +destruction of that capital itself, and a memory of muscular movements +which, so far as the future is concerned, might just as well have been +those of monkeys before the deluge. + +Now, if we take the careers of our two capitalists as standing for the +careers of two individuals only, and estimate them only as related to +these men themselves, we might content ourselves with indorsing the +judgment which conventional critics would pass on them, and say of the +one that he had acted as his own best friend, and dismiss the other as +nobody's enemy but his own. But we are, in our present inquiry, only +concerned with individuals as illustrating kinds of conduct which are, +or which might be, general; and the effects of their conduct, which we +here desire to estimate, are its effects of it, not on themselves, but +on society taken as a whole. If we look at the matter in this +comprehensive way, we shall find that the facile judgments to which we +have just alluded leave the deeper elements of our problem altogether +untouched. + +The difference between the ultimate results of the two ways of treating +capital will, to the conventional critic, seem to have been sufficiently +explained, by saying that the energy stored up in a given accumulation +of food reappears when employed in one way, in the efficiency of a +permanent machine; and is, when employed in the other, so far as human +purposes are concerned, as completely lost as it would have been had it +never existed. But if we reconsider a fact which was dwelt upon in our +last chapter, we shall see that the difference is really much greater +than this. + +When the potential energy residing in so much food has been converted +into the energy of so much human labour, and when this is so directed +that a productive machine results from it, there is in the machine, as +Dr. Crozier puts it, an indefinitely larger amount of "pure economic +power," than that which has been expended in the work of the labourers' +muscles. While the energy of the labourers has merely resulted in a +bottle, or a cage, we may say, of sufficient strength, the genius of the +man who directed them has captured and imprisoned an elemental slave in +it, who, so long as the cage confines him, will supplement the efforts +of human muscle with his own. But when the energy latent in food is +converted into such efforts as dancing, the result produced is the +equivalent of the human effort only. Thus in the modern world of +scientific enterprise and invention, to invest capital in machinery and +then live on the interest from it, means to press into the service of +mankind an indefinite number of non-human auxiliaries, and year by year +to live on a part of the products which these deathless captives are +never tired of producing. + +To spend capital as income on securing immediate pleasures means either +to forgo the chance of adding any new auxiliaries to those that we +possess already, or else to let those who are at our service already, +one after one, escape us--or, in other words, to make the productive +force now at the disposal of any prosperous modern country decline +towards that zero of efficiency from which industrial progress starts, +and which marks off helpless savagery from the first beginnings of +civilisation. + +It is no doubt inconceivable, in the case of any modern nation, that a +climax of the kind just indicated could never reach its completion. If +all the capitalists, for example, of Great Britain or America, were +suddenly determined to live on their capital itself, they could do so +only by continuing for a considerable time to employ a great deal of it +precisely as it is employed at present. Indeed, so long as they +continued to demand the luxuries which machines produce, it might seem +that it was hardly possible for them to get rid of their capital at all. +But what would really happen may be briefly explained thus:-- + +If we take the case of any modern country, the amount of its income at +any given time depends for its sustentation on machines already in +existence; and its increase is dependent on the gradual supersession of +these by new ones yet more efficient. But the efficiency of the former +would soon begin to decrease, and would ultimately disappear altogether, +unless they were constantly repaired and their lost substance was +renewed; while the latter would never exist unless there were men to +make them. Hence, under modern conditions, in any prosperous and +progressive country, a large portion of what is called the manufacturing +class is always engaged, not in producing articles of consumption, +comfort, or luxury, but in repairing and renewing the machines by which +such articles are at present multiplied, or else in constructing new +machines which shall supplement or replace the old. Thus, in Great +Britain, towards the close of the nineteenth century, these makers and +repairers of machinery were, with the exception of coal-miners, the +industrial body whose proportional increase was greatest. In the modern +world the spending of capital as income is a process which, in +proportion as it became general, would accomplish itself by affecting +the position of men like these. It would consist of a withdrawal of men +who are at present occupied in maintaining existing machines, or else in +constructing new ones from their anvils, hammers, files, lathes, and +furnaces, and making them dance instead. This withdrawal would, in +proportion as it became general, render the construction of new machines +impossible, and would leave the efficiency of those now in use to +exhaust itself. + +That such is the case is illustrated on a small scale by the conduct of +individuals who live on their capital now. If a farmer, whose capital +consists largely of an agricultural plant, desires to spend more than +his proceeds of his farm are worth, he virtually takes the men who have +been mending his barns and reapers, and sets them to build a buggy which +will take him to the neighbouring races. The varnish on the buggy is +bought with the rust on the reaper's blades; the smart, weather-proof +apron with the barn's unmended roof. If the managing body of a railroad +pays a higher dividend to the shareholders than can be got out of its +net earnings, the results are presently seen in cars that are growing +dirty, in engines that break down, in rotten sleepers, and in trains +that run off the track. The men who were once fed out of a certain +portion of the traffic receipts to keep these things in repair, are now +fed to dance for the shareholders, thus supplying them with spurious +dividends. A farm or a railroad which was managed on these principles +would ultimately cease to produce or to do anything for anybody; and if +all modern capital were managed in a similar way, all the multiplied +luxuries distinctive of modern civilisation would, one by one, disappear +like crops which were left to rot for lack of machines to reap them +with, and train services which had ceased because the engines were all +burned out. + +That such a climax should ever, in any modern country, complete itself +cannot, let me say once more, be apprehended as a practical possibility; +but it is practically impossible only because the earlier stages of the +approach to it would lead to a situation that was intolerable long +before it ceased to be irreparable. And here we reach the point to +which the foregoing examination has been leading us. It is precisely +this course of conduct, the end of which would be general ruin, that any +attack on interest, by means of special taxation or otherwise, would, so +long as it lasted, stimulate and render inevitable. Let me point +out--though it ought in a general way to be self-evident--precisely how +this is. + +We start with assuming--for, as we have seen already, so much is +conceded by those who attack interest to-day--that the owners of +capital, however their rights may be restricted, still have rights to it +of some kind. But a man's rights to his capital will not be rights at +all unless they empower him to use it in one way or another as a means +of ministering to his own personal desires; and it is possible for him +so to use it in one or other of two ways only--either by keeping it in +the form of some productive machine or plant, and living on a part of +the values which this produces, or by trenching on the substance of the +machine or the plant itself in the manner, and with the results, which +have just been explained and analysed. If, therefore, capitalists are to +be virtually deprived of their interest, either by means of a special +tax on "unearned incomes" or otherwise, but are yet permitted to enjoy +their capital somehow, no course is open to them but to employ for their +private pleasures the men by whom this capital, in such forms as +machines or railroads, is at present maintained, renewed, and kept from +lapsing into a state in which it would be unable to do or to produce +anything. And if any one still thinks that, by such a course of conduct, +if ever it became general, as it would do under these conditions, the +owners of capital would be injuring themselves alone, he need only +reflect a little longer on one of our suggested illustrations, and ask +himself whether the gradual deterioration of railroads would have no +effect on the world beyond that of impoverishing the shareholders. It +would obviously affect the many as much as it affected the few, and the +kind of catastrophe that would result from the deterioration of +railroads is typical of that which would result from the deterioration +of capital generally. + +It would, then, be a sufficient answer to those who attack interest, and +propose to transfer it from its present recipients to the state, to +elucidate, as has here been done, the two following points: firstly, +that to interest as a means of enjoying wealth--the right to such +enjoyment itself not being here disputed--the only alternative is a +system which would thus prove fatal to everybody; and, further, that, +conversely, the enjoyment of wealth through interest not only possesses +this negative advantage, but is actively implicated in, and is the +natural corollary of, that progressive accumulation of force in the form +of productive machinery to which all the augmented wealth of the modern +world is due. By the identification of the enjoyment of capital with +the enjoyment of some portion of the products of it, the good of the +individual capitalist is identified with the good of the community; for +it will, in that case, be the object of all capitalists to raise the +productivity of all capital to a maximum; while a system which would +compel the possessor, if he is to enjoy his capital at all, to do so by +diminishing its substance and allowing its powers to dwindle, would +identify the only advantage he could possibly get for himself with the +impoverishment of everybody else, and ultimately of himself also. + +But the crucial facts of the case have not been exhausted yet. There are +few phenomena of any complex society which are not traceable to more +causes than one, or at least to one cause which presents itself under +different aspects. Such is the case with interest. Its origin, its +functions, and its justification, in the modern world, must be +considered under an aspect, at which hitherto we have only glanced. + +Throughout the present discussion we have been assuming that the +questions at issue turn ultimately on the character of human motive. On +both sides it has been assumed that men of exceptional powers will not +produce exceptional amounts of wealth, unless they are allowed the right +of enjoying some substantial proportion of it. This is a psychological +truth which, together with its social consequences, has been dealt with +elaborately in two of our earlier chapters. It was there shown that the +production of exceptional wealth by those men whose peculiar powers +alone enable them to produce it, involves efforts on their part which, +unlike labour, cannot be exacted of them by any outside compulsion, but +can only be educed by the prospect of a secured reward; and that this +reward consists, as has just been said, of the enjoyment of a part of +the product proportionate to the magnitude of the whole. But what the +proportion should be, and in what manner it should be enjoyed, were +questions which were then passed over. They were passed over in order +that they might be discussed separately. It was pointed out, however, +that the reward, in order to be operative, must be such as will be felt +to be sufficient by these men themselves, and that its precise amount +and quality can be determined by them alone--just as, if what we desire +is to coax an invalid to eat, we can coax him only with food which he +himself finds appetising. Let us now take these questions up again, and +examine them more minutely, and we shall find that interest is justified +from a practical point of view by the fact that the enjoyment of capital +by this particular means is not only the sole manner of enjoying it +which is consistent with the general welfare, but also constitutes the +advantage which, in the eyes of most great producers, gives to capital +the larger part of its value, and renders the desire of producing it +efficient as a social motive. + +The reasons why the right to interest forms, in the eyes of the active +producers of capital, the main object of their activity are to be found, +firstly, in the facts of family affection, and, secondarily, in those of +general social intercourse, which together form the medium of by far the +larger part of our satisfactions. In spite of the selfishness which +distinguishes so much of human action, a man's desire to secure for his +family such wealth as he can is one of the strongest motives of human +activity known; and the fact that it operates in the case of many who +are notoriously selfish otherwise, shows how deeply it is ingrained in +the human character. One of the first uses to which a man who has +produced great wealth puts it is in most cases to build a house more or +less proportionate to his means; and it is his pride and pleasure to see +his wife and children acclimatise themselves to their new environment. +But such a house would lose most of its charm and meaning for him if the +fortune which enabled him to live in it were to dwindle with each day's +expenditure, and his family after his death were to be turned into the +street, beggars. If each individual were a unit whose interests ended +with himself; if generations were like stratified rocks, superposed one +on another but not interconnected; if--to quote a pithy phrase, I do not +know from whom--"if all men were born orphans and died bachelors," then +the right to draw income from the products of permanently productive +capital would for most men lose much of what now makes it desirable. + +But since individuals and generations are not thus separated actually, +but are, on the contrary, not merely as a scientific fact, but as a fact +which is vivid to every one within the limits of his daily consciousness +dovetailed into one another, and could not exist otherwise, a man's own +fortune, with the kind of life that is dependent on it, is similarly +dovetailed into fortunes of other people, and his present and theirs is +dovetailed into a general future. + +We have seen how this is the case with regard to his own family; but the +matter does not end there. Individual households do not live in +isolation; and there are for this fact two closely allied reasons. If +they did there could be no marriage; there could also be nothing like +social intercourse. It is social intercourse of a more or less extended +kind that alone makes possible, not only love and marriage, but most of +the pleasures that give colour to life. We see this in all ranks and in +all stages of civilisation. Savages meet together in numerous groups to +dance, like civilised men and women in New York or in London. The feast, +or the meal eaten by a large gathering, is one of the most universal of +all human enjoyments. But in all such cases the enjoyment involves one +thing--namely, a certain similarity, underlying individual differences, +between those persons who take part in it. Intimate social intercourse +is, as a rule, possible only between those who are similar in their +tastes and ideas with regard to the minute details which for most of us +make up the tesseræ of life's daily mosaic--similar in their manners, +in their standards of beauty and comfort, in their memories, their +prospects, or (to be brief) in what we may call their class +habituations. This is true of all men, be their social position what it +may. It is true, of course, that the quality of a man's life, as a +whole, depends on other things also, of a wider kind than these. It +depends not only on the fact, but also on his consciousness of the fact, +that he is a citizen of a certain state or country, though with most of +its inhabitants he will never exchange a word; or that he is a member of +a certain church; or that, being a man and not a monkey, his destiny is +identified with that of the human species. But, so far as his enjoyment +of private wealth is concerned, each man as a rule, though to this there +are individual exceptions, enjoys it mainly through the life of his own +_de facto_ class--the people whose manners and habits are more or less +similar to his own, because they result from the possession of more or +less similar means. He is, therefore, not interested in the permanence +of his own wealth only. He is equally interested in the permanence of +the wealth of a body of men, the life of which must, like that of all +corporations, be continuous. + +There is in this fact much more than at first appears. Let us go back to +a point insisted on in the previous chapter. It was there shown, in +connection with the question of abstract justice, that those who attack +interest on the ground that it is essentially income for which its +recipients give nothing in return, fall into the error of ignoring the +element of time, without reference to which the whole process of life is +unintelligible. It was shown, by various examples, that in a large +number of cases the efforts which ultimately result in the production of +great wealth do not produce it till after, often till long after, the +original effort has come altogether to an end. Let us now take this +point in connection, not with abstract theories, but with the concrete +facts of conduct. Here again those who attack interest fall into the +same error. For example, in answer to arguments used by me when speaking +in America, one socialistic critic eagerly following another called my +attention by name to persons notoriously wealthy, some of whom had never +engaged in active business at all, while others had ceased to do so for +many years; and demanded of me whether I contended that idlers such as +these are doing anything whatever to produce the incomes which they are +now enjoying. If they are, said the critics, let this wonderful fact be +demonstrated. If they are not, then it must stand to reason that the +community will gain, and cannot possibly suffer, by gradually taking the +incomes of these persons away from them, and rendering it impossible +that incomes of a similar kind shall in the future be ever enjoyed by +anybody. + +The general nature of the error involved in this class of argument can +be shown by a very simple illustration. In many countries the +government year by year makes a large sum by state lotteries. This may +be a vicious procedure, but let us assume for the moment that it is +legitimate, and that everybody is interested in its perpetuation. The +largest of the prizes drawn in such lotteries is considerable--often +amounting to more than twenty thousand pounds. Now, as soon as the +drawing on any one occasion had been accomplished, it might be argued +with perfect truth, in respect of that occasion only, that, the man who +had won such fortune having done nothing to produce it, the community +would be so much richer if the government, having paid the money to him, +were to take it all back again by a special tax on winnings. This would +be true with respect to that one occasion; but if any government were to +follow such a procedure systematically, no one would ever buy a lottery +ticket again, and the whole lottery system would thenceforth come to an +end. + +What is true of wealth won in lotteries is true of wealth in general. If +the desire of possessing wealth is in any way a stimulus to the +production of it, those who are motived to produce it by this desire +to-day are motived by the desire of a something which they see to be +desirable and attainable because they see it around them, embodied in +the position of others, as the final result of the efforts of a +long-past yesterday. If this result were never to be seen realised, no +human being would make any effort to achieve it. + +Let us--to go into particulars--suppose that the sole desire which moves +exceptional men to devote their capacities to the augmentation of their +country's wealth is the desire to join a class which, whether idle or +active otherwise--whether devoted to mere pleasure or to philanthropy, +or an enlightened patronage of the arts, or to speculative thought and +study--is itself in an economic sense altogether unproductive. In order +to join such a class, and to work with a view of joining it, society +must be so organised that such a class can exist; and the fact of its +existence constitutes the main moral magnet which, on our present +hypotheses, is permanently essential to the development of the highest +economic activity. Such being the case, then, the following conclusion +reveals itself, which, although it may seem paradoxical, will be found +on reflection to be self-evident--the conclusion namely, that a class +which, if considered by itself, is absolutely non-productive, may, when +taken in connection with the social system as a whole, be an essential +and cardinal factor in the working machinery of production, +constituting, as it would do by the mere fact of its existence, the +charged electric accumulator by which the machinery is kept in motion; +just as the mere existence of men, seen to be secure in their possession +of the prizes of past lotteries, is the magnet which alone can make +other men buy tickets for the lotteries of the future. + +I have given this case as an assumption; but it is not an assumption +only. The desire for wealth as a means of living in absolute idleness is +probably confined, as a fact, in all countries to a few. In America +especially it is a matter for surprise to strangers that men who have +made fortune beyond the possibilities of pleasurable expenditure so +rarely retire on them to cultivate the pursuits of leisure. But even in +America, if they do not value leisure for themselves, they value it for +their women, to whom, there as in all countries, four-fifths of the +charm and excitement of private life are due; and the sustained +possibility of leisure, even if not the enjoyment of it--a possibility +which can rest only on a basis of sustained fortunes--is the main +advantage which, in all civilised countries, gives wealth its meaning +for those who already possess it, and its charm for those who are, in +order to possess it, exerting at any given moment their energies and +their intellect in producing it. + +The source of such sustained fortunes, in their distinctively modern +form, is, as we have seen already, such and such forces of nature, +which, captured and embodied in machines and other appliances by the +masters of science and men of executive energy, and subsequently +directed by other men of cognate talents, supplement the efficiency of +ordinary human labour, thus yielding the surplus of which modern +fortunes are a part, the remainder forming a fund which diffuses itself +throughout the mass of the community. That part of the surplus which +constitutes such fortunes is interest; and now let us sum up what in +this and the previous chapter our examination of the criticisms directed +against interest has shown us. + +In the first place, then, we saw that the theoretical attack on +interest, on the ground that it is income which is not earned by the +recipients, but is virtually taken by the few from the products of the +labour of the many, is chimerical in its moral and false in its economic +implications. + +We saw, in the second place, coming down to the practical aspects of the +question, that interest is the only form in which the owners of capital +can enjoy their wealth at all, without drying up the sources from which +most modern wealth springs, thus bringing ruin to the community no less +than to themselves. + +We saw, in the third place, that, quite apart from the welfare of the +community, interest constitutes, for the owners of wealth themselves, +the means of enjoying it which mainly makes it desirable, and the object +for the sake of which, at any given moment, the master spirits of +industry are engaged in producing and increasing it. + +The reader must observe, however, that this conclusion is here stated in +general terms only. It has not been contended--for this question has not +been touched upon--that interest may not, when received in certain +amounts, be justifiably made the subject of some special taxation. Any +such question must be decided by reference to special circumstances, +and cannot be discussed apart from them. Nor has it been contended that, +within certain limits, the power of bequest is not susceptible of +modification without impairing the energies of the few or the general +prosperity of the many. The sole point insisted on here is this: that +any special tax on interest, or any tampering with the powers of +bequest, begins to be disastrous to all classes alike, if it renders, +and in proportion as it renders to any appreciable degree, the natural +rewards of the great producers of wealth less desirable in their own +eyes than they are and otherwise would be. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] Mr. G. Wilshire, in his detailed criticism of my American speeches, +states twice over the modern socialistic doctrine as to this point. The +maker or inheritor of capital, he says, could, under socialism, "buy all +the automobiles he wanted, all the diamonds, all the champagne; or he +could build a palace. In other words, he could spend his income in +consumable goods, but he could not invest either in productive machinery +or in land." + +[24] This is merely saying that all economic effort has, for its +ultimate aim, a desirable state of consciousness, which might be +contemptible if it really depended on looking on at dances, or refined +if it depended on the cultivation of flowers, or listening to great +singers, or witnessing the performance of great plays, or on the +enlargement of the mind by travel. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY + +Having now dealt with two of those three ideas or conceptions which, +though not necessarily connected with the specific doctrines of +socialism, owe much of their present diffusion to the activity of +socialistic preachers--that is to say, the idea, purely statistical, +that labour, as contrasted with the directive ability of it, actually +produces much more than it gets, and the further idea that the many +could ameliorate their own position by appropriating the interest now +received by the few; having dealt with these two ideas, it remains for +us to consider the third--namely, that which is generally suggested by +the formula Equality of Opportunity, or, more particularly (for this is +what concerns us here), equality of opportunity in the domain of +economic production. + +We must start with recollecting that if the wealth of a country depends +mainly, as we have here seen that it does, on the efforts of those of +its citizens whose industrial talent is the greatest, the more +effectively all such talent is provided with an opportunity of exerting +itself the greater will the wealth and prosperity of that country be. In +other words, if potential talent is to be actualised, opportunity is as +needful for its exercise as is the stimulus of a proportionate reward. +That economic opportunity ought, therefore, to be equalised, so far as +possible, is, as an abstract principle, too obvious to need +demonstration. But abstract principles are useless till we apply them to +a concrete world; and when we apply our abstract doctrine of opportunity +to the complex facts of society and human nature, a principle so simple +in theory will undergo as many modifications as a film of level water +will if we spill it over an uneven surface. + +The first fact which will confront us, when we come down from theory to +facts, is one which could not be more forcibly emphasised than it has +been by a socialistic writer,[25] whose utterances were quoted in one of +our previous chapters. This is the fact that, in respect of their powers +of production, just as of most others, human beings are in the highest +degree unequal. They are unequal in intellect and imagination. More +especially they are unequal in energy, alertness, executive capacity, +initiative and in what we may describe generally as practical driving +force. Such being the case, then, if it could actually be brought about +that every individual at a given period of his life should start with +economic opportunities identical with those of his contemporaries, each +generation would be like horses chosen at haphazard, and started at the +same instant to struggle over the same course in the direction of a +common winning-post. And what would be the result? A few individuals +would be out of sight in a moment; the mass at various distances would +be struggling far behind them, and a large residuum would have been +blown before it had advanced a furlong. Thus, by making men's +adventitious opportunities equal, we should no more equalise the result +for the sake of which the opportunities were demanded than we should +give every cab-horse in London a chance of winning the Derby by allowing +it on Derby Day to go plodding over the course at Epsom. On the +contrary, by inducing all to contemplate the same kind of success, we +should be multiplying the sense of failure and dooming the majority to a +gratuitous discontent with positions in which they might have taken a +pride had they not learned to look beyond them. + +And now, from this fact, to which we shall come back presently, let us +turn to the question of how, and in what respects, equality of +opportunity is in practical life attainable. + +The most obvious manner in which an approach to such equality can be +made is by an equalisation of opportunities for education in early life, +or, in other words, by a similar course of schooling, a similar access +to books, and similar leisure for studying them. But even here, at this +preliminary stage, we shall find that the equality of opportunity is to +a large extent illusory. Let us suppose that there are two boys, equal +in general intelligence, and unequal only in their powers of mental +concentration, who start their study of German side by side in the same +class-room. One boy, in the course of a year or so, will be able to read +German books almost as easily as books in his own language, while the +other will hardly be able to guess the drift of a sentence without +laborious reference to his hated grammar and dictionary. Now, when once +a situation such as this has arisen, the opportunities of the two boys +have ceased to be equal any longer. The one has placed himself at an +indefinite advantage over the other, which is quite distinct from the +superiority originally inherent in himself. Among the educational +opportunities which reformers desire to equalise, one of the chief is +that of access to adequate libraries; and it is, they say, in this +respect more perhaps than any other that the rich man has at present an +unfair advantage over the poor. It is virtually this precise advantage +that will now be in possession of the boy who has thus far outstripped +his classmate. In his mastery of German he has a key to a vast +literature--a key which the other has not. He is now like a rich man +with an illimitable library of his own, while the other by comparison is +like a poor man who can get at no books at all. Thus if opportunity, in +its most fundamental form, were equalised for all boys, no matter how +completely, the equality would be only momentary. It would begin to +disappear by the end of the first few months, not because the boys would +still, as they did at starting, be bringing to their tasks intrinsically +unequal faculties, but because some of them would have already +monopolised the aid of an adventitious knowledge by which the practical +efficiency of their natural faculties would be multiplied. + +But education is merely a preliminary to the actual business of life. +Let us pass on to the case of our equally educated youths when they +enter on the practical business of making their own fortunes. What kind +of equal opportunity can be possibly provided for them now? + +Since socialists are the reformers who, in dealing with objects aimed +at, are least apt to be daunted by practical difficulties, let us see +how equality of opportunity in business life is conceived of and +described by them. The general contention of socialists in this respect +is, says one of their best-known American spokesmen,[26] "that the fact +that capital is now in the hands of private persons gives them an unfair +advantage over those who own nothing," for capital consists of the +implements of advantageous production; and socialists, he says, would +secure an equality of industrial opportunity for all by "vesting the +ownership of the means of production in the state"; the result of which +procedure would, he goes on, be this: "that every one would have his own +canoe, and it would be up to each to do his own paddling." + +Now, purists in thought and argument might make it a subject of +complaint, perhaps, that the writer, as soon as he reaches a vital part +of his argument, should lapse into the imagery of an old music-hall +song. But such an objection would be very much misplaced, for the ideas +entertained by socialists as to this particular point closely resemble +those which make music-hall songs popular. They consist of familiar +images which are accepted without being analysed; and the image of man +seated in an industrial canoe of his own, and paddling it just as he +pleases without reference to anybody else, very admirably represents the +lot which socialists promise to everybody, and which dwells as a +possibility in the imagination of even their serious thinkers. But let +us take this dream in connection with facts of the modern world, which +these men, in much of their reasoning, themselves recognise as +unalterable, and we shall see it give place to realities of a very +different aspect. + +To judge from our author's language, one would suppose that modern +capital was made up entirely of separate little implements like +sewing-machines, and that every one would, if the state were the sole +capitalist, receive on application a machine of the same grade, which he +might take away with him, and use or break in a corner. Now, if modern +capital were really of this nature, the state no doubt might conceivably +do something like what the writer suggests, in the way of dealing out +similar industrial opportunities to everybody. But, as he himself is +perfectly well aware, the distinctive feature of capital in the modern +world is one which renders any such course impossible. Modern capital, +as a whole, in so far as it consists of implements, consists not of +implements which can be used by each user separately. It consists of +enormous mechanisms, with the works and structures pertaining to them, +which severally require to be used by thousands of men at once, and +which no one of the number can use without reference to the operations +of the others. If the state were to acquire the ownership of all the +steel-mills at Pittsburg, how could it do more than is done by their +present owners, to confer on each of the employés any kind of position +analogous to that of a man "who has his own canoe"? The state could just +as easily perform the literal feat of cutting up the _Lusitania_ into a +hundred thousand dinghys, in each of which somebody would enjoy the +equal opportunity of paddling a passenger from Sandy Hook to +Southampton. + +But we will not tie our author too closely to the terms of his own +metaphor. The work from which I have just quoted is a booklet[27] in +which he devoted himself to the task of refuting in detail the +arguments urged by myself in the course of my American speeches. We +will, therefore, turn to his criticism of what, in one of my speeches, I +said about the state post-office, and we shall there get further light +with regard to his real meaning. I asked how any sorter or +letter-carrier employed in the post-office by the state was any more his +own master, or had any more opportunities of freedom, than a messenger +or other person employed by a private firm. Our author's answer is this: +"That the public can determine what the wages of a postman shall +be--that is, they can, if they so choose (by their votes), double the +wages now prevailing." Therefore, our author proceeds, "the postal +employé, in a manner, may be considered as a man employing himself." +Now, first let me observe that, as was shown in our seventh chapter, +wages under socialism, just as under the present system, could be no +more than a share of the total product of the community; and the claims +advanced to a share of this by any one group of workers would be +consequently limited by the claims of all the others. The question, +therefore, of whether the postmen's wages should be doubled at any time, +or whether they might not have to be halved, would not depend only on +votes, but, also and primarily, on the extent of the funds available; +and in so far as it depended on votes at all, the votes would not be +those of the postmen. They would be the votes of the general public, +and any special demand on the part of one body of workers would be +neutralised by similar demands on the part of all the others. Further, +if these "employers of themselves" could not determine their own wages, +still less would they determine the details of the work required of +them. A postman, like a private messenger, is bound to do certain +things, not one of which he prescribes personally to himself. At stated +hours he must daily be present at an office, receive a bundle of +letters, and then set out to deliver them at private doors, in +accordance with orders which he finds written on the envelopes. Such is +the case at present, and socialism would do nothing to modify it. If our +author thinks that a man, under these conditions, is his own employer, +our author must be easily satisfied, and we will not quarrel with his +opinion. It will be enough to point out that the moment he descends to +details his promise that socialism would equalise economic opportunity +for all reduces itself to the contention that the ordinary labourer or +worker would, if the state employed him, have a better chance of +promotion and increased wages than he has to-day, when employed by a +private firm, and (we may add, though our author does not here say so) +that some sort of useful work would be devised by the state for +everybody. + +Now, although every item of this contention, and especially the last, is +disputable, let us suppose, for argument's sake, that it is, on the +whole, well founded. Even so, we have not touched the real crux of the +question. We have dealt only with the case of the ordinary worker, who +fulfils the ordinary functions which must always be those of nine men +out of every ten, let society be constituted in what way we will. It +remains for us to consider the case of those who are fitted, or believe +themselves to be fitted, for work of a wider kind, and who aspire to +gain, by performing this, an indefinitely ampler remuneration. This +ambitious and exceptionally active class is the class for which the +promise of equal opportunities possesses its main significance, and in +its relation to which it mainly requires to be examined. Indeed, the +writer from whom we are quoting recognises this himself; for he gives +his special attention to the economic position of those who, in greater +or less degree, are endowed with what he calls "genius"; and in order to +illustrate how socialism would deal with these, he cites two cases from +the annals of electrical engineering, in which opportunities, not +forthcoming otherwise, were given by the state to inventors of realising +successful inventions. + +Now, what our author and others who reason like him forget, is that the +opportunities with which we are here concerned differ in one +all-important particular from those which concern us in the case either +of education or of ordinary employment. If one boy uses his educational +opportunities ill, he does nothing to prejudice the opportunities of +others who use them well. Should a sorter of letters, who, if he had +been sharp and trustworthy, might have risen to the highest and +best-paid post in his department, throw his opportunities away by +inattention or otherwise, the loss resulting is confined to the man +himself. The opportunities open to his fellows remain what they were +before. But when we come to industrial activity of those higher and +rarer kinds, on which the sustained and progressive welfare of the +entire community depends, such as invention, or any form of far-reaching +and original enterprise, the kind of opportunity which a man requires is +not an opportunity of exerting his own faculties in isolation, like a +sorter who is specially expert in deciphering illegible addresses. It is +an opportunity of directing the efforts of a large number of other men. +Apart from the case of craftsmanship and artistic production, all the +higher industrial efforts are reducible to a control of others, and can +be made only by men who have the means of controlling them. Since this +is one of the principal truths that have been elucidated in the present +volume, it is sufficient to reassert it here, without further comment. +If, therefore, a man is to be given the opportunity of embodying and +trying an invention in a really practical form, it will be necessary to +put at his disposal, let us disguise the fact as we may, the services of +a number of other men who will work in accordance with his orders. This, +as we have seen already, is what is done by the ordinary investor +whenever he lends capital to an inventor. He supplies him with the food +by which the requisite subordinates must be fed; and the state, were +the state the capitalist, would do virtually the same thing. It could +give him his opportunity in no other way. + +Further, if the invention in question turns out to be successful--here +is another point which has already been explained and emphasised--the +wage-capital which has been consumed by the labourers is replaced by +some productive implement, which is more than the equivalent of the +labour force spent in constructing it. If, on the other hand, the +invention turns out to be a failure, the wage-capital is wasted, and, so +far as the general welfare is concerned, the state might just as well +have thrown the whole of it into the sea. Since, then, the opportunities +which the state would have at its disposal, would consist at any moment +of a given amount of capital, and since any portion of this which was +used unsuccessfully would be lost, the number of opportunities which the +state could allocate to individuals would be limited, and each +opportunity which was wasted by one man would diminish the number that +could be placed at the disposal of others. + +Now, any one who knows anything of human nature and actual life knows +this--that the number of men who firmly and passionately believe in the +value of their own inventions, or other industrial projects, is far in +excess of those whose ideas and projects have actually any value +whatsoever. When the _Great Eastern_, the largest ship of its time, had +been built on the Thames by the celebrated engineer Brunel, its +launching was attended with unforeseen and what seemed to be insuperable +difficulties. Mr. Brunel's descendants have, I believe, still in their +possession, a collection of drawings, sent him by a variety of +inventors, and representing all sorts of devices by which the launching +might be accomplished. All were, as the draughtsmanship was enough to +show, the work of men of high technical training; but the practical +suggestions embodied in one and all of them could not have been more +grotesque had they emanated from a home for madmen. To have given an +equality of opportunity to all this tribe of inventors of putting their +devices to the test would have probably cost more than the building of +the ship itself, and the ship at the end would have been stranded in the +dock still. This curious case is representative, and is sufficiently +illustrative of the fact that opportunity of this costly kind could be +conceded to a few only of those who would demand, and believe themselves +to deserve it; and the state, as the trustee of the public, would have, +unless it were prepared to ruin the nation, to be incomparably more +cautious than any private investor.[28] + +Of the general doctrine, then, that the opportunities of all should be +equal, we may repeat that, as an abstract proposition, it is one which +could be contested by nobody; but we have seen that, when applied to +societies of unequal men, and to the various tasks of life, its original +simplicity is lost, and it does not become even intelligible until we +divest it of a large part of its implications. Economic or industrial +opportunity is, we have seen, of three kinds: firstly, educational +opportunity; secondly, the opportunity of performing and receiving the +full equivalent of an ordinary task or service, such as that of a +postman, the value of which depends on its conformity to a prescribed +pattern or schedule; and thirdly, opportunity of directing the work of +others, thereby initiating new enterprises or realising new +inventions--a kind of opportunity requiring the control of capital, +which capital, whether provided by the state or otherwise, would be lost +to the community unless it were used efficiently. + +With regard to educational opportunity--it has been seen that it is +possible to equalise this, approximately if not entirely, at a given +time in the early lives of all, but that it would be possible to +maintain the equality for a short time only. + +With regard to opportunities of earning a livelihood subsequently by +performing one or other of those ordinary and innumerable tasks which +must always fall to the lot of four men out of every five, we may say +that an equalisation of opportunities of this kind is the admitted +object of every reformer and statesman who believes that the prosperity +of a country is synonymous with the welfare of its inhabitants. In +achieving this object there are, however, two difficulties--one being +the difficulty, occasional and often frequent in any complex society, of +devising work which has any practical value, and replaces its own cost, +for all those who are able and willing to perform it; the other being +the difficulty which arises from the existence of persons who are +incapacitated, by some species of vice, from performing, or from +performing adequately, any useful work whatever. We must here content +ourselves with observing that the official directors of industry, who +would constitute the state under socialism, would be no more competent +to solve the first than are the private employers of to-day, while there +is nothing in the scheme of society put forward by socialists, which +even purports to supply any solution of the second, other than a more +drastic application of the methods applied to-day. + +Thirdly, with regard to equality of opportunity for those whose main +ambition is not to be provided with some task-work performable by their +own hand, but to achieve some position which will enable them to +prescribe tasks to others, and thus do justice to their real or supposed +talents by the construction of great machines, or the organisation of +great enterprises--in other words, with regard to those persons whose +ambition is to obtain what are called the prizes of life, and who think +themselves treated unjustly if they find themselves unable to gain +them--we have seen that to provide equal opportunities for all or even +for most of these, is in the very nature of things impossible. The +fundamental reason of this, let me say once more, is the fact that the +number of men possessing sufficient talent to conceive ambitious schemes +of one kind or another far exceeds the number of those whose talents are +capable of producing any useful results; and to give to this majority +opportunities of testing their projects by experiment would be merely to +deplete the resources of the entire nation for the sake of demonstrating +to one particular class that abortive talents are worse than no talents +at all. + +Here we are in the presence of a fact far wider than this special +manifestation of it. In the animal and the vegetable world, no less than +in the human, the successes of nature are the siftings of its partial +failures; and in order to secure such services as are really productive +it must always be necessary to squander opportunities to a certain +extent in the testing of talents which ultimately turn out to be barren. +But cases of this kind may, at all events, be reduced to a minimum; and +the reduction of their number is possible, because they are largely an +artificial product. In order to understand how this is, we must go back +again to the question of equality of opportunity in education, and +consider it under an aspect which has not yet engaged our attention. + +We started with supposing the establishment of a system of education +which would offer to all the same books and teachers, and also--for this +was part of our assumption--equal leisure to profit by them; and we +noted how soon opportunities would cease to be equal on account of the +different uses which would be made of them by different students. What +must now be noted is that as matters have been conducted hitherto, +attempts to make educational opportunities equal do tend to produce an +equality of a certain kind. Though they have no tendency to equalise +powers of achievement, they tend to produce an artificial equality of +expectation. In order to elucidate the nature of this fact, and its +significance, I cannot do better than quote a passage from Ruskin, +admirable for its trenchant felicity, which, since it occurs in a book +much admired by socialists, may be commended to their special +attention.[29] Economic demand, Ruskin says, is the expression of +economic desires; but the constitution of human nature is such that +these desires are divisible into two distinct kinds--desires for the +commodities which men "need," and desires for commodities which they +"wish for." The former arise from those appetites and appetencies in +respect of which all are equal. They are virtually a fixed quantity, and +the economic commodities requisite for their healthy satisfaction +constitute a minimum which is virtually the same for all men. The +latter, instead of being fixed, are capable of indefinite variation, and +in these--the desires for what men "wish for" but do not "need"--we have +the origin "of three-fourths of the demands existing in the world." +"These demands are," he proceeds, "romantic. They are founded on +visions, idealisms, hopes, and affections, and the regulation of the +purse is, in its essence, regulation of the imagination and the heart." + +With the demands which originate in men's equal needs we are not +concerned here. It is impossible to modify them appreciably either by +education or otherwise; but the desires or wishes which Ruskin so +happily calls "romantic" vary in intensity and character to an almost +indefinite degree, not only in different individuals, but also in the +same individuals when submitted to different circumstances. Those of +them, indeed, which are most generally felt are often, to speak +strictly, not so much desires as fancies; and while the image of their +fulfilment may please or amuse the imagination, their non-fulfilment +produces no sense of want. So long as they are merely fancies, they +raise no practical question. They raise a practical question only when +their insistence is such that their non-fulfilment produces an active +sense of privation; and whether in the case of any given individual +they reach or do not reach this pitch of intensity depends upon two +things. One of these is the individual's congenital temperament, his +talents, his strength of will, and the vividness or vagueness of his +imagination. Education, understood in its more general sense, is the +other. Now, men varying as they do in respect of their congenital +characters, the strength of their romantic wishes bears naturally some +proportion to their own capacities for attempting to satisfy these +wishes for themselves. Few men, for example, have naturally a strong +wish for conditions which will enable them to exercise exceptional +power, unless they are conscious of possessing exceptional powers to +exercise. Hence, though this consciousness is in many cases deceptive, +the struggle of men for power is confined within narrow limits, and the +disappointments which embitter those who fail to attain it are naturally +confined within narrow limits also. So long as matters stand thus, the +majority of men are unaffected. But wishes which are naturally confined +to exceptional men, who are more or less capable of realising them, are +susceptible by education of indefinite extension to others who are not +so qualified; and in the case of these last, the results which they +produce are different. They multiply the number of those who demand +preferential opportunities, in order that they may enter on a struggle +in which they must ultimately fail. + +They multiply the number of those, to a still greater extent, who demand +that positions or possessions shall be somehow provided for them by +society, without reference to any struggle on their own part at all. The +artificial diffusion of "wish" among these two distinguishable classes +is thus accomplished by education in somewhat different ways; but the +_modus operandi_ is in one respect the same in both. It consists of an +artificial enlarging, in the case of all individuals alike, of the ideas +entertained by them of their natural social rights; and an active +craving is thus generalised for possessions and modes of life, which +nine men out of ten would otherwise have never wasted a thought upon, +and which not one out of ten can possibly make his own. How easily this +idea of rights is susceptible of enlargement by teaching, and how +efficient it is in creating a desire where none would have existed +otherwise, is vividly illustrated by those not infrequent cases in which +men, who for half their lives have considered themselves fortunate in +the possession of moderate affluence, have suddenly been led to suppose +themselves the heirs of peerages or great estates, and have died insane +or bankrupt in consequence of their vain endeavours to secure rank or +property which, had it not been for a purely adventitious idea, would +have affected their hopes and wishes no more than the moon did. It is +precisely in this manner that much of the education of to-day operates +in consequence of current attempts to equalise it[30]; and since +education is the cause of the evils here in question, it is in some +reform of education that we must hope to find a cure. What the general +nature of this reform would be can be indicated in a few words. It would +not involve a reversal, it would involve a modification only, of the +principle now in vogue, and can, indeed, best be expressed by means of +the same formula, if we do but add to it a single qualifying word--that +is to say, the word "relative" prefixed to the word "equality," when we +speak of equality of opportunity as the end at which we ought to aim. +Let me explain my meaning. + +The logical end of all action is happiness; and happiness, so far as it +depends on economic conditions at all, is an equation between desire and +attainment. The capacities of men being unequal, and the objects of +desire which they could, under the most favourable circumstances, make +their own, being unequal likewise, the ideal object of education, as a +means to happiness, is twofold. It is, on the one hand, so to develop +each man's congenital faculties as to raise them to their maximum power +of providing him with what he desires; and on the other hand to limit +his desires, by a due regulation of his expectations, to such objects +as his faculties, when thus developed, render approximately if not +completely attainable. Thus, relatively to the individual, the ideal +object of education is in all cases the same; but since individuals are +not equal to one another, education, if it is to perform an equal +service for each, must be in its absolute character to an indefinite +extent various; just as a tailor, if he is to give to all his customers +equal opportunities of being well dressed, will not offer them coats of +the same size and pattern. He will offer them coats which are equal only +in this--namely, their equally successful adaptation to the figures of +their respective wearers. + +Of course, so to graduate any actual course of education that in the +case of each individual it is the best which it is possible to conceive +for him--that it should at once enable him to make the most of his +powers, and "regulate," as Ruskin says, "his imagination and his hopes" +in accordance with them, would require a clairvoyance and prevision not +given to man; but the end here specified--namely, an equality of +opportunity which is relative--is the only kind of equality which is +even theoretically possible; and it is one, moreover, to which a +constant approximation can be made. The absolute equality which is +contemplated by socialists, and by others who are more or less vaguely +influenced by socialistic sentiment, is, on the contrary, an ideal which +either could not be realised at all, or which, in proportion as it was +realised, would be ruinous to the nation which provided it, and would +bring nothing but disappointment to those who were most importunate in +demanding it. The only conceivable means, indeed, by which it could be +extended beyond the first few years of life, would be by a constant +process of handicapping--that is to say, by applying to education the +same policy that trade-unions apply to ordinary labour. If one +bricklayer has laid more bricks than his fellows, he virtually has to +wait until the others have caught him up. Similarly, if equality of +opportunity, other than an equality that is relative, were to be +maintained in the sphere of education, a clever boy who had learned to +speak German in a year would have to be coerced into idleness until +every dunce among his classmates could speak it as well as he; and a +similar process would be repeated in after-life. This policy, as has +been pointed out already, is, even if wasteful, not ruinous in the +sphere of ordinary labour--a fact which shows how wide the difference is +between the ordinary faculties, as applied to industry, and the +exceptional; but no one in his senses, not even the most ardent apostle +of equality, would dream of recommending its application to efforts of a +higher kind, and demand that the clever boys should periodically be made +to wait for the stupid, or that the best doctor in the presence of a +great pestilence should not be allowed to cure more patients than the +worst one. + +If, then, it is, as it must be, the ideal aim of social arrangements +generally to enable each to raise his capacities to their practical +maximum, and adjust his desires and his expectations to the practical +possibilities of attainment, "relative equality of opportunity," firstly +in education and secondly in practical life, is a formula which +accurately expresses the means by which this end is to be secured; but +the absolute equality which is contemplated by socialists and others is +an ideal which, the moment we attempted to translate it into terms of +the actual, would begin to fall to pieces, defeating its own purpose; +and there is nothing in socialism, were socialism otherwise practicable, +any more than there is the existing system, which would obviate this +result. + +Indeed, it may be observed further that, though the idea of equality of +opportunity in general is not inconsistent with a socialistic scheme of +society, as socialists of the more thoughtful kind have now come to +conceive of it, it belongs distinctively to the domain of the fiercest +individual competition. For in so far as socialism differs from ordinary +individualism, it differs from it in this--that, instead of encouraging +each man to do his utmost because what he gets will be proportionate to +what he does, it aims at establishing a greater equality in what men get +by making this independent of whether they do much or little; in which +case the main concern of the individual would be the certainty of +getting what he wanted, not the opportunity of producing it. + +The three ideas or conceptions, then, which have engaged our attention +in this and the three preceding chapters--namely, the idea that labour +does, as a statistical fact, produce far more in values than it at +present gets back in wages; the idea that the mass of the population +could permanently augment its resources by confiscating all dividends as +fast as they became due, and the idea that it is possible to provide for +unequal men, for more than a moment of their lives, equal opportunities +of experimenting with their real or imaginary powers, are ideas, indeed, +which have all the vices characteristic of socialistic thought; but the +first and the third have no necessary connection with socialism, and the +second is not peculiar to it. We will now return to it as a system of +exclusive and distinctive doctrines, and sum up, in general terms, the +conclusions to which our examination of it is calculated to lead +far-seeing and practical men, and more especially active politicians. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[25] The Christian Socialist author of _The Gospel for To-day_. See +chapter on Christian Socialism. + +[26] Mr. Wilshire, in his volume of criticism on my American speeches. + +[27] _Socialism: the Mallock-Wilshire Argument._ By Gaylord Wilshire. +New York, 1907. + +[28] While this work was in the press, one of the English Labour +members, Mr. Curran, at a public meeting, gave his views, as a +socialist, about this very question--equality of industrial +opportunity--and as an example of such opportunity already in existence, +he mentioned the cash-credit system, which prevails in banks in +Scotland. He seemed unaware that such advances of capital made in this +system are made to picked men only. These men, moreover, have the +strongest stimulus to effect in the face that they will keep all their +profits. If a socialistic state gave cash-credits to everybody, it would +confiscate all the profits if the workers were successful, and have no +remedy against them if they failed. + +[29] _Unto This Last._ + +[30] See note to previous chapter, referring to the recent _Red +Catechism_ for socialist Sunday schools, in which children are taught, +as the primary article of faith, that the wage-earners produce +everything, that the productivity of all is practically equal, and that +all are entitled to expect precisely the same kind of life. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE SOCIAL POLICY OF THE FUTURE + +I was constantly asked by socialists in America whether I really +believed that society, as it is, is perfect, and that there are no evils +and defects in it which are crying aloud for remedy. Unless I believed +this--and that I could do so was hardly credible--I ought, they said, if +I endeavoured to discredit the remedy proposed by themselves, to suggest +another, which would be better and equally general, of my own. + +Now, such an objection, as it stands, I might dismiss by curtly +observing that I did not, and could not, suggest any remedy other than +socialism, partly because the purport of my entire argument was that +socialism, if realised, would not be a remedy at all; and partly +because, for the evils that afflict society, no general remedy of any +kind is possible. The diseases of society are various, and of various +origin, and there is no one drug in the pharmacopoeia of social reform +which will cure or even touch them all, just as there is no one drug in +the pharmacopoeia of doctors which will cure appendicitis, mumps, +sea-sickness, and pneumonia indifferently--which will stop a hollow +tooth and allay the pains of childbirth. + +But though such an answer would be at once fair and sufficient, if we +take the objection in the spirit in which my critics urged it, the +objection has more significance than they themselves suspected, and it +requires to be answered in a very different way. Socialism may be +worthless as a scheme, but it is not meaningless as a symptom. +Rousseau's theory of the origin of society, of the social contract, and +of a cure for all social evils by a return to a state of nature, had, as +we all know now, no more relation to fact than the dreams of an +illiterate drunkard; but they were not without value as a vague and +symbolical expression of certain evils from which the France of his day +was suffering. As a child, I was told a story of an old woman in +Devonshire who, describing what was apparently some form of dyspepsia, +said that "her inside had been coming up for a fortnight," and still +continued to do so, although during the last few days "she had swallowed +a pint of shot in order to keep her liver down." The old woman's +diagnosis of her own case was ridiculous; her treatment of it, if +continued, would have killed her; but both were suggestive, as +indications that something was really amiss. The reasoning of Rousseau, +who contended that the evils of the modern world were due to a departure +from primeval conditions which were perfect, and that a cure for them +must be sought in a return to the manner of life which prevailed among +the contemporaries of the mammoth, and the immediate descendants of the +pithekanthropos, was identical in kind with the reasoning of the old +woman. The reasoning of the socialists is identical in kind with both. +It consists of a poisonous prescription founded on a false diagnosis. +But just as the diagnosis, no matter how grotesque, which a patient +makes of his or of her own sufferings, and even the remedies which his +or her fancy suggests, often assist doctors to discover what the ailment +really is, so does socialism, alike in its diagnosis and its proposed +cure, call attention to the existence of ailments in the body politic, +and may even afford some clue to the treatment which the case requires, +though this will be widely different from what the sufferer fancies. + +Such being the case, then, in order that a true treatment may be +adopted, the first thing to be done is to show the corporate patient +precisely how and why the socialistic diagnosis is erroneous, and the +proposed socialistic remedies incomparably worse than the disease. To +this preparatory work the present volume has been devoted. Let us +reconsider the outline of its general argument. As thoughtful socialists +to-day are themselves coming to admit, the augmented wealth distinctive +of the modern world is produced and sustained by the ability of the few, +not by the labour of the many. The ability of the few is thus productive +in the modern world in a manner in which it never was productive in any +previous period, because, whereas in earlier ages the strongest wills +and the keenest practical intellects were devoted to military conquest +and the necessities of military defence, they have, in the modern world, +to a constantly increasing degree, been deflected from the pursuits of +war and concentrated on those of industry. But the old principle remains +in operation still, of which military leadership was only one special +exemplification. Nations now grow rich through industry as they once +grew rich through conquest, because new commanders, with a precision +unknown on battle-fields, direct the minutest operations of armies of a +new kind; and the only terms on which any modern nation can maintain its +present productivity, or hope to increase it in the future, consist in +the technical submission of the majority of men to the guidance of an +exceptional minority. As for the majority--the mass of average +workers--they produce to-day just as much as, and no more than, they +would produce if the angel of some industrial Passover were henceforward +to kill, each year on a particular day, every human being who had risen +above the level of his fellows, and, in virtue of his knowledge, +ingenuity, genius, energy, and initiative, was capable of directing his +fellows better than they could direct themselves. If such an annual +decimation were inaugurated to-morrow in civilised countries such as +Great Britain and America, the mass of the population would soon sink +into a poverty deeper and more helpless than that which was their lot +before the ability of the few, operating through modern capital, began +to lend to the many an efficiency not their own. In other words, the +entire "surplus values"--to adopt the phrase of Marx--which have been +produced during the last hundred and fifty years, have been produced by +the ability of the few, and the ability of the few only;[31] and every +advance in wages, and every addition to the general conveniences of +life, which the labourers now enjoy, is a something over and above what +they produce by their own exertions. It is a gift to the many from the +few, or, at all events, it has its origin in the sustentation and the +multiplication of their efforts, and would shrink in proportion as these +efforts were impeded. If, then, the claims which socialists put forward +on behalf of labour are really to be based, as the earlier socialists +based them, on the ground that production alone gives a valid right to +possession, labour to-day, instead of getting less than its due, is, if +we take it in the aggregate, getting incomparably more, and justice in +that case would require that the vast majority of mankind should have +its standards of living not raised but lowered. + +Is it, then, the reader will here ask, the object of the present volume +to suggest that the true course of social reform in the future would be +gradually to take away from the majority some portion of what they at +present possess, and bind them down, in accordance with the teaching of +socialists in the past, to the little maximum which they could produce +by their own unaided efforts? The moral of the present volume is the +precise reverse of this. Its object is not to suggest that they should +possess no more than they produce. It is to place their claim to a +certain surplus not produced by themselves on a true instead of a +fantastic basis. + +Socialists seek to base the claim in question, alternately and sometimes +simultaneously, on two grounds--one moral, the other practical--which +are alike futile and fallacious, and are also incompatible with each +other. The former consists of the _a priori_ moral doctrine that every +one has a right to what he produces, and consequently to no more. The +latter consists of an assumption that those who produce most will, in +deference to a standard of right of a wholly different kind, surrender +their own products to those who produce least. The practical assumption +is childish; and the abstract moral doctrine can only lead to a +conclusion the opposite of that which those who appeal to it desire. But +the claim in question may, when reduced to reasonable proportions, be +defended on grounds both moral and practical, nevertheless, and the +present volume aims at rendering these intelligible. Let us return for a +moment to Rousseau and his theory of the social contract. We know to-day +that never in the entire history of mankind did any such conscious +contract as Rousseau imagined take place; but it is nevertheless true +that virtually, and by ultimate implication, something like a contract +or bargain underlies the relation between classes in all states of +society. + +When one man contracts to sell a horse for a certain price, and another +man to pay that price for it, the price in question is agreed to because +the buyer says to himself on the one hand, "If I do not consent to pay +so much, I shall lose the horse, which is to me worth more than the +money"; and the seller says to himself on the other hand, "If I do not +consent to accept so little, I shall lose the money, which is to me +worth more than the horse." Each bases his argument on a conscious or +subconscious reference to the situation which will arise if the bargain +is not concluded. Similarly, when any nation submits to a foreign rule, +and forbears to revolt though it feels that rule distasteful, it +forbears because, either consciously or subconsciously, it feels that +the existing situation, whatever its drawbacks, is preferable to that +which would arise from any violent attempt to change it. The same thing +holds good of the labouring classes as a whole, as related to those +classes who, in the modern world, direct them. By implication, if not +consciously, they are partners to a certain bargain. They are not +partners to a bargain because they consent to labour, for there is no +bargaining with necessity; and they would have to labour in any case, if +they wished to remain alive. They are partners to a bargain because they +consent to labour under the direction of other people. It is true that, +as regards the present and the near future, they are confronted by +necessity even here. This is obviously true of countries such as Great +Britain, in which, if the labour of the many were not elaborately +organised by the few, three-fourths of the present population would be +unable to obtain bread. Nevertheless, if we take a wider view of +affairs, and consider what, without violating possibility, might +conceivably take place in the course of a few disastrous centuries, the +mass of modern labourers might gradually secede from the position which +they at present occupy, and, spreading themselves in families or small +industrial groups over the vast agricultural areas which still remain +unoccupied, might keep themselves alive by labouring under their own +direction, as men have done in earlier ages, and as savages do still. +They would have, on the whole, to labour far harder than they do now, +and to labour for a reward which, on the whole, would be incomparably +less than that which is attainable to-day by all labour except the +lowest. Moreover, their condition would have all the "instability" +which, as Spencer rightly says, is inseparable from "the homogeneous." +It could not last. Still, while it lasted, they could live; and, in +theory, at all events, the mass of the human race must be recognised as +capable of keeping themselves alive by the labour of pairs of hands +which, in each case, are undirected by any intelligence superior to, or +other than, the labourer's own. In theory, at all events, therefore, +this self-supporting multitude would be capable of choosing whether they +would continue in this condition of industrial autonomy, with all its +hardships, its scant results, and its unceasing toil, or would submit +their labour to the guidance of a minority more capable than themselves. +Such being the case, then, if by submitting themselves to the guidance +of others they were to get nothing more than they could produce when +left to their own devices, they would, in surrendering their autonomy, +be giving something for nothing--a transaction which could not be +voluntary, and would be not the less unjust because, as all history +shows us, they would be ultimately unable to resist it. Justice demands +that a surrender of one kind, made by one party, should be paid for by a +corresponding surrender of another kind, made by the other party; which +last can only take the form of a concession to labour, as a right, of +some portion of a product which labour does not produce. Labour can, on +grounds of general moral justice, claim this as compensation for +acquiescence, even though the acquiescence may, as a matter of fact, be +involuntary. + +Human nature, however, being what it is, these purely moral +considerations would probably have little significance if they were not +reinforced by others of a more immediately practical kind. Let us now +turn to these. The motive which prompts labour to demand more than it +produces is itself primarily not moral, but practical, and is so obvious +as to need no comment. What concerns us here is the practical, as +distinct from any moral, motive, which must, when the situation is +understood, make ability anxious to concede it. For argument's sake we +must assume that the great producers of wealth are men who have no other +motive ultimately than ambition for themselves and their families, and +would allow nothing of what they produce to be taken from them by any +other human being except under the pressure of some incidental +necessity. There is one broad feature, however, which even men such as +these understand--the fact, namely, that for successful wealth +production one of the most essential conditions is a condition of social +stability, or a general acquiescence, at all events, in the broad +features of the industrial system, by means of which the production in +question takes place. But if the labourers have no stake in the surplus +for the production of which such a system is requisite, it may be +perfectly true that by escaping from it they would on the whole be no +better off than they are, yet there is no reason which can be brought +home to their own minds why they should not seek to disturb it as often +and as recklessly as they can. There is, at best, no structural +connection, but only a fractional one, between their own welfare and the +welfare of those who direct them; and a structural connection between +the two--a dovetailing of the one into the other--is what ability, no +matter how selfish, is in its own interests concerned before all things +to secure. In other words, it is concerned in its own interests so to +arrange matters that the share of its own products which is made over to +the labourers shall be large enough, and obvious enough, and +sufficiently free from accessory disadvantages, to be appreciated by the +labourers themselves; and the ideal state of social equilibrium would be +reached when this share was such that any further augmentation of it +would enfeeble the action of ability by depriving it of its necessary +stimulus, and, by thus diminishing the amount of the total product, +would make the share of the labourers less than it was before. + +Though an ideal equilibrium of this kind may be never attainable +absolutely, it is a condition to which practical wisdom may be always +making approximations; but in order that it may be an equilibrium in +fact as well as in theory, one thing further is necessary--namely, that +both parties should understand clearly the fundamental character of the +situation. And here labour has more to learn than ability; or perhaps +it may be truer to say that socialism has given it more to unlearn. If +any exchange takes place between two people, which by anybody who knew +all the circumstances would be recognised as entirely just, but is not +felt to be just by one of the contracting parties, he, though he may +assent to the terms because he can get none better, will be as much +dissatisfied as he would have been had he been actually overreached by +the other. If, for example, he believed himself to be entitled to an +estate of which the other was in reality not only the _de facto_, but +also the true legal possessor, and if the other, out of kindness (let us +say) towards a distant kinsman, agreed to pay him a pension, he would +doubtless accept the pension as a something that was better than +nothing; but he would not be satisfied with a part when he conceived +himself to be entitled to the whole, and as soon as occasion offered +would go to law to obtain it. In other words, if two persons are to make +a bargain or contract which can possibly satisfy both, each must start +with recognising that the other has some valid right, and what the +nature of this right is, to the property or position which is held by +him and which is the subject of the projected exchange. Unless this be +the case, any exchange that may be effected will, for one of the parties +at least, not be a true bargain or contract, but an enforced and +temporary compromise. There will be no finality in it, and it will +produce no content. + +Now, in the case of the bargain or contract between labour and ability, +this last situation is precisely that which the teachings of socialism +are at present tending to generalise. They are encouraging the +representatives of labour to regard the representatives of ability as a +class which possesses much, but has no valid right to anything, and with +whom in consequence no true bargain is possible; since, whatever this +class concedes short of its whole possessions will merely be accepted by +labour as a surrender of stolen goods, which merits resentment rather +than thanks, because it is only partial. + +The intellectual socialists of to-day, and many of their less educated +followers, will strenuously deny this. They will declare that they, +unlike their predecessors, recognise that directive ability is a true +productive agent no less than ordinary labour is; and that able men, no +less than the labourers, have rights which they may, if they choose, +enforce with equal justice. And if we confine our attention to certain +of their theoretical admissions, we need not go further than the pages +of the present volume to remind ourselves that for this assertion there +are ample, if disjointed, foundations. But the doctrine of modern +socialism must be judged, not only by its separate parts, but also by +the emphasis with which they are respectively enunciated, and by the +mood of mind which, on the whole, it engenders among the majority of +those who are affected by it; and, whatever its leading exponents may, +on occasion, protest to the contrary, the main practical result which +it has thus far produced among the masses has been to foment the +impression, which is not the less efficacious because it is not +explicitly formulated, that when labour and ability are disputing over +their respective rights, ability comes into court with no genuine rights +at all; and that, instead of representing (as it does) the knowledge, +intellect, and energy to which the whole surplus values of the modern +world are due, it represents merely a system of decently legalised theft +from an output of wealth which would lose nothing of its amplitude, but +would on the contrary still continue to increase were all exceptional +energy, knowledge, and intellect deprived of all authority and starved +out of existence to-morrow. + +So long as such an impression prevails, and indeed until it is +definitely superseded by one more in consonance with facts, no +satisfactory social policy is practicable. Labour, as opposed to +ability, may be compared to a man who believes that his tailor has +overcharged him for a coat, and who disputes the account in a law court +with a view to its reasonable reduction. In such a case it will be +possible for him to obtain justice. The tailor's claim for £12 may be +reduced to a claim for £10, or £8 5_s._, or £6 15_s._ 6_d._ But if the +customer's contention is that he ought to get the coat for nothing, and +that he does not in justice owe the tailor anything at all, he is making +a demand that no law court could satisfy, and by a gratuitous +misconception of his rights is doing all he can to preclude himself from +any chance of obtaining them. The mood which socialism foments among the +labouring classes is precisely analogous to the mood of such a man as +this, and its results are analogous likewise. Its origin, however, being +artificial and also obvious in its minutest particulars, the remedy for +it, however difficult to apply, is not obscure in its nature. The mood +in question results from a definite, a systematic, and an artificially +produced misconception of the structure and the main phenomena, good and +evil, of society as it exists to-day, and the different parts played by +the different classes composing it. It has been the object of the +present volume to expose, one after another, the individual fallacies of +which this general misconception is the result, not with a view to +suggesting that in society as it exists to-day there are no grave evils +which a true social policy may alleviate, but with a view to promoting +between classes, who are at present in needless antagonism, that sane +and sober understanding with regard to their respective positions which +alone can form the basis of any sound social policy in the future. + +Of the individual demands or proposals now put forward by socialists, +many point to objects which are individually desirable and are within +limits practicable; but what hinders, more than anything else, any +successful attempt to realise them is the fact that they are at present +placed in a false setting. They resemble a demand for candles on the +part of visitors at an hotel, who would have, if they did not get them, +to go to bed in the dark--a demand which would be contested by nobody if +it were not that those who made it demanded the candles only as a means +of setting fire to the bed-curtains. The demands for old-age pensions, +and for government action on behalf of the unemployed, for example, as +now put forward in Great Britain, by labour Members who identify the +interests of labour with socialism, are demands of this precise kind. +The care of the aged, the care of the unwillingly and the discipline of +the willingly idle, are among the most important objects to which social +statesmanship can address itself; but the doctrines of socialism hinder +instead of facilitate the accomplishment of them, because they identify +the cure of certain diseased parts of the social organism with a +treatment that would be ruinous to the health and ultimately to the life +of the whole. + +We may, however, look forward to a time, and may do our best to hasten +it, when, the fallacies of socialism being discredited and the mischief +which they produce having exhausted itself, we may be able to recognise +that they have done permanent good as well as temporary evil--partly +because their very perverseness and their varying and accumulating +absurdities will have compelled men to recognise, and accept as +self-evident, the countervailing truths which to many of the sanest +thinkers have hitherto remained obscure; and partly because socialism, +no matter how false as a theory of society, and no matter how +impracticable as a social programme, will have called attention to evils +which might otherwise have escaped attention, or been relegated to the +class of evils for which no alleviation is possible. + +Even to suggest the manner in which these evils would be treated by a +sound and scientific statesmanship would be wholly beyond the scope of a +volume such as the present, for this reason, if for no other, that, as +has been said already, the evils in question are not one but many, each +demanding special and separate treatment, just as ophthalmia demands a +treatment other than that demanded by whooping-cough. But one general +observation may be fitly made, in conclusion, which will apply to all of +them. These remedies cannot be included under the heading of any mere +general augmentation of the pecuniary reward of labour taken in the +aggregate. The portion of the national dividend which goes to labour +now, in progressive countries such as Great Britain, Germany, and +America, is immensely greater than it was a hundred years ago, and +unless industrial progress is arrested its tendency is to rise still +further. The main evils to which a scientific statesmanship should +address itself arise from the incidental conditions under which this +dividend is spent--conditions, largely improvable, which at present +deprive it of its full purchasing power. Of this I will give one +example--the present structure of great industrial towns. It cannot be +doubted that, if the sums now spent on the construction and maintenance +of insanitary slums and alleys were employed in a scientific manner, a +rent which has now to be paid for accommodation of the most degrading +kind would suffice to command, on the strictest business principles, +homes superior to those which, if its amount were doubled, would hardly +be forthcoming for the labourer in most of our existing streets; while +the purchasing power of the existing income of labour would be increased +concurrently, and perhaps to a yet greater extent if much of the +education, which now has no other effect than of generating +impracticable ideas as to the abstract rights of man, were devoted to +developing in men and women alike a greater mastery of the mere arts of +household management. + +But in merely mentioning these subjects I am transgressing my proper +limits. I mention them only with a view to reminding the reader once +more that the object of this volume is not to suggest, or supply +arguments for maintaining that existing conditions are perfect, or that +socialists are visionaries in declaring that they are capable of +improvement. Its object has been to expose that radical misconception of +facts which renders demands visionary that would not be visionary +otherwise, and to stimulate all sane and statesmanlike reformers by +helping them to see, and also to explain to others, that the improved +conditions which socialism blindly clamours for are practicable only in +proportion as they are dissociated from the theories of socialism. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] Like all generalisation dealing with complex matters, this must be +qualified by individual exceptions. For example, men who have made +fortunes for themselves, and have added to the world's stock, by work in +the gold-fields, have been in many cases _labourers_, directing their +own efforts by their own intelligence. But some men have been +exceptional in one or other of two ways--either in propinquity to the +scene of action, or (and this is the more common case) in handihood, +determination, and courage. It is not every one who has it in him to go +in search of gold to Alaska. + + + + +INDEX + + +Ability, and labour defined, 19; + labour as opposed to, 29; + capital as the implement of, 32; + a name for the directive faculties, 33; + value of directive, 68; + monopoly of business, 89, 93; + and individual motive, 110; + modern socialists' recognition of products due to, 191; + rent of business, 191, 194 + +Abstract justice, interest and, 204, 206, 208, 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, + 220, 222, 224, 226 + +Activity, two kinds represented by two groups of, 28; + military distinct from industrial, 121 + +Agriculture, Mill on nature in, 181; + and rent, 192 + +Allen, Grant, _The Woman Who Did_, 147 + +Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning-frame, 83, 197 + +Artist, the case of an, 115 + + +Bastiat, his plane, 213, 214 + +Bellamy, _Looking Backward_, 92; + his description of a socialistic Utopia, 92; + his argument, 105 + +Bessemer, 197, 220 + +Boy messengers, 80 + +Bradlaugh, Charles, 85 + +Brazil, Rossi fails to found a socialistic colony in, 141 + +Brigand chief, his justification, 206 + + +Capital, is labour in an externalised and permanent form, 14; + is past labour crystallised, 14, 20; + as the implement of ability, 32; + fixed and circulating, 35; + the primary function of, 40; + its interest described by George as the gift of nature, 212 + +Capitalism (a comparatively modern phenomenon), causes of its + accelerated development, 2; + as a working system, 3; + essence of modern, 14; + and wages, 16; + state and private, 62, 71; + economics of: the "economic man" and economic science, 123, 124 + +Cause and effect, 185 + +Cellini, Benvenuto, 24 + +Christian socialism as a substitute for secular democracy, + _see_ Democracy; the message of, 153; + its view of the steel-kings and the oil-kings, 153, 158, 160; + its preaching a species of ecclesiastical electioneering, 156; + and the faculty of invention, 159; + abolishes competition, 160; + on the moral conversion of able men, 160 + +_Christian Socialist, The,_ 150 + +Christian socialists, are simply secular socialists of the more modern + and educated type, 163; + their temperamental deficiency finds its fullest expression in + socialism, 172 + +Coleridge, Lord, 135 + +Colossal fortunes, growth of, 130, 131 + +Competition, 160 + +Corvée system, and slavery, 57, 58 + +Crozier, Dr. Beattie, _Wheel of Wealth_, 217, 218, 236 + + +Darby of Coalbrookdale, 83 + +Demand and supply, 143 + +Democracy, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 146, 148; + Christian socialism as a substitute for secular, 150, 152, 154, 156, + 158, 160, 162, 164, 166, 168, 170, 172, 174 + +Direction, wage-capital an implement of, 70 + +Directive ability, 191; + its value, 68; + and socialism, 87; + and labour, 182, 187, 189-93 + +---- faculties, 31; + function of the, as applied to the operations of modern labour, 29; + their function, illustrated by the case of a printed book, 29; + name for the, 33 + +Dudley, 82 + + +Eclecticism, 186 + +Economic distinction, abolished by the truly socialistic scheme, 58 + +Economic emancipation, is entire abolition of the wage-system, 56 + +---- man, the, 111, 123 + +---- motive, personal gain the primary, 127 + +---- opportunity, 254 + +---- science, capitalism and, 124; + its reasonings, 177 + +---- values, 166 + +Economics of capitalism, 123 + +Eddy, Mrs., her Christian science, 150 + +Edison, 47, 150, 197, 220 + +Education, its ideal object as a means of happiness, 273 + +Electric lighting of London, 84 + +Equality of opportunity, 253, 254, 256, 258, 260, 262, 264, 266, 268, + 270, 272, 274, 276 + +Equilibrium an ideal, 288 + +Evolution, organic, 85 + +Evolutionary socialists, 102 + +---- sociology, 94 + + +_Fabian Essays_, 58 + +Family life, 135, 140, 141 + +Fighting instinct, the, 121 + +France, state monopolies in, 80 + +Frederick the Great, 99 + +French revolution, 206 + + +George, Henry, 210, 211 + +"Gospel for To-day, The," 151, 153, 157, 159 + +_Great Eastern, The,_ 264 + +Greed, 125 + +Gronlünd, a disciple of Marx, 18 + + +Happiness, an equation between desire and attainment, 273 + +Harrison, Frederic, the English prophet of Positivism, 118; + on the soldier's willing service, 120 + +Helots in Sparta, 59 + +Heroism, socialists' view of, 118, 122 + +Hillquit, Mr., the American socialist, 42, 43, 50; + and "common manual labour," 48, 50; + his irrelevancies, 50; + his argument, 51, 53; + verbal jugglery of, 53 + + +Ideal equilibrium, an, 288 + +Income, of labour, 197; + earned and unearned, 226 + +Individual motive and democracy, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, + 146, 148 + +Industrial effort, its progress depends on thought and the advance of + knowledge, 32; + productivity of, 157 + +---- productivity, 195 + +---- towns, present structure of great, 294 + +Industry, state-directed, 81; + the iron, 82 + +Intellect, inequalities of the human, 102, 107 + +Interest, and abstract justice, 204, 206, 208, 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, + 220, 222, 224, 226; + socialistic attack on, 227, 228, 230, 232, 234, 236, 238, 240, 242, + 244, 246, 248, 250, 252 + +Invention, Christian socialists on the faculty of, 159 + +Inventors, 160-62 + +Iron industry, the, 82 + + +Jesuit Fathers in Uruguay, 193 + +Just reward of labour, 176, 178, 180, 182, 184, 186, 188, 190, 192, 194, + 196, 198, 200, 202 + +Justice, interest and abstract, 204, 206, 208, 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, + 220, 222, 224, 226 + + +Kidd, on rival and independent claims, 93; + his argument, 103, 106 + + +Labour, as a wealth-producer, 11, 21, 42; + definition of ability and, 19; + two distinguishable kinds of, 23; + a productive agent, 25, 199; + directive, 31, 71, 75, 77, 78; + emancipation of, 47; + the Marxian doctrine of the all-productivity of, 47; + by itself, impotent to produce the wealth of modern nations, 54; + and the socialistic promise, 127; + as estimated by its actual products--the just reward of, 176, 178, + 180, 182, 184, 186, 188, 190, 192, 194, 196, 198, 200, 202; + income of, 197, 295; + as opposed to ability, 291 + +Labour-certificates, 12 + +Labourer, the ordinary manual, 66, 67, 174 + +Laplace, 91 + +Legislation, 134, 135; + and the Government's will, 136 + +Lombe, the great silk-factory erected at Derby by, 197 + +L.C.C. steamboats, 73 + + +Macaulay, _Essay on Dryden_, 92; + on the absurdity of confounding speculative sociology with practical, + 101 + +Machine-capital, 219 + +Machinery, a development of capitalism, 2; + Marx on, 27; + embodies labour directed in a new way, 38; + the question of, 88 + +Majority, will of the, 129, 139, 140; + powers of the "sovereign," 137 + +Marx, Karl, his formula, 7; + his treatise on capital, 8; + his theory summarised, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20; + his doctrine of scientific socialism, 11, 18; + his falsified prophecies, 17; + errors of, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40; + on machinery, 27; + repudiated by modern socialists, 41, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, + 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68 + +Melba, 116, 144 + +Military, distinct from industrial, activity, 121 + +Mill, J.S., 2, 32; _Political Economy_, 20, 21, 179; + on nature in agriculture, 180, 181 + +Modern socialists, their repudiation of Marx, _q.v._; + and the question of motive, 90, 111, 113; + their assertion, 115 + +Monastic orders, 117 + +Monopolists, 93 + +Monopoly, modern capital is, 38; + of business-ability, 89, 93 + +Motive, ability, and individual, 110 + +---- individual, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 146, 148 + +---- practical as distinct from moral, 287 + +---- socialists and, 90, 111, 113 + +Motives, discussion of various, 113-5 + +Multi-millionaires, 131-3; + a suggested limit, 138 + + +Napoleon III., 99 + +_North American Review,_ 130 + + +Opportunity, equality of, 253, 254, 256, 258, 260, 262, 264, 266, 268, + 270, 272, 274, 276 + +Orders, monastic, 117 + +Organic evolution, 185 + +---- nature, products of, 210 + +Owen, Robert, 170; + his views on socialism, 7 + + +Peasant proprietors, 20, 57 + +Penny post, 79 + +Plane, Bastiat's, 213, 214 + +Positivism, Frederic Harrison, the English prophet of, 118-20 + +Post Office, British, 79 + +Postal employé, the, 260, 261 + +Press, a state, 85 + +Problems of practical life, 95 + +Product, correspondence between productive effort and, 207 + +Production, unequal powers of, 142, 254; + labour, capital, and law the only factors in, 191 + +Productive agent, labour as a, 25, 199 + +---- effort, the astounding advances of the efficiency of, 26 + +Productivity, industrial, 195 + + +Rent, of business-ability, the, 191, 194; + and agriculture, 192 + +Reward of labour, as estimated by its actual products, just, 176, 178, + 180, 182, 184, 186, 188, 190, 192, 194, 196, 198, 200, 202 + +Ricardo, 2, 12, 32, 92 + +Roosevelt, President, 169 + +Rossi, Govanni, the Italian socialist, his failure to found a + socialistic colony in Brazil, 141 + +Rousseau, his theory of the social contract, 283, 284 + +Ruskin, John, 23; + his scheme of political economy, 118 + + +Sentimental thinkers, 123 + +Shakespeare, 92, 96 + +Shaw, Bernard, 43, 208, 209; + _Man and Superman_, 215, 216, 222 + +Slave, contrasted with wage-paid labourer, 59 + +Slavery, 57 + +Smith, Adam, _Wealth of Nations_, 25, 26, 36 + +Social Democratic Federation, its campaign and its catechism, 45 + +Social policy of the future, 278, 280, 282, 284, 286, 288, 290, 292, 294 + +Socialism, Christian. _See_ Christian socialism + +---- historical beginning of, 1, _et seq._; + two ideas of, 1; + and capitalism, 3; + a theory, 5; + regarded as a practical force, 8; + basic doctrine of so-called scientific, 18; + a fallacy, 49, 167; + proximate difficulties of, 69, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88; + its ultimate difficulty, 89, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106, + 108, 110, 112, 114, 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126, 128; + "the Great Man theory," 91 + +Socialistic attack on interest, and the nature of its error, 227, 228, + 230, 232, 234, 236, 238, 240, 242, 244, 246, 248, 250, 252 + +Socialistic temperament, debilitates the faculties, 169 + +---- theory of society, a, 56, 58 + +Socialists, on heroism, 118, 122; + their two main doctrines, moral and economic, 165; + their false and true theories of production, 166; + their fallacy, 167 + +---- evolutionary, 102 + +Society, two contrasted groups of, 15 + +Sociology, scientific, 111 + +---- speculative, 109 + +Spencer, Herbert, 106; + causal importance of the great man, 89-101; + on modern production, 97, 98; + _Study of Sociology_, 99; + on the invention of the _Times_ printing-press, 100; + _Social Statics_, _ibid._; + criticised by Author's _Aristocracy and Evolution_, 101 + +State officials, 69 + +Steel and oil, 153, 158, 159, 160, 162 + +Supply and demand, 143 + + +Utopia, Bellamy's description of a socialistic, 92 + + +Value, surplus, 13 + + +Wage-capital, 36, 37, 39, 41, 57, 58, 264; + an implement of direction, 70; + its waste brings about its own remedy, 71 + +Wagedom, socialists and, 59, 60 + +Wage-fund, division of total, 201 + +Wage-system, alternatives to, 57, 60; + an escape from, 59 + +Watt, 221 + +Wealth, socialists' conception of, 145; + a form of power, 146; + superfluous, 155; + produced by two functionally different classes, 176 + +---- of modern nations, "common manual labour" impotent to produce the, + 48, 50, 54 + +Wealth-producer, the greed of the, 125 + +Wealth-producing power, labour's, 11, 21, 42 + +Webb, Sidney, 43, 58-60, 89, 90, 119, 191, 194, 197; + his argument, 107, 108 + +Wilshire, Gayford, his leaflet, 47, 143, 257 + + + + +Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF +SOCIALISM*** + + +******* This file should be named 17416-8.txt or 17416-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/4/1/17416 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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