THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 T)r . o r d o n '" g s t ki n s
 
 V 
 
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE 
 
 AND 
 
 SOCIAL SCHEMES 
 

 
 V 
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE 
 
 AND 
 
 SOCIAL SCHEMES 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES M C CLELLAND 
 
 LONDON 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. 
 
 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 
 1894
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THE opinions expressed in the following pages 
 are not intended to flatter any class of the 
 community. Nothing seems more certain than 
 that each class is identified with interests 
 which render it more or less insensible to 
 the claims of the others, and that as a con- 
 sequence the true facts of questions pertain- 
 ing to social intercourse may and often are 
 distorted by these class biases. If there are 
 a few fundamental principles to which all 
 action can be ascribed, any inquiry, however 
 imperfect or incomplete, which contributes to 
 elucidate them, must be advantageous. Iden- 
 tity of conclusions is not to be expected, and 
 mine are scarcely destined for popularity with
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 the masses, yet I believe they conform to 
 the absolute factors of the case, and that 
 the more they are realised and acted upon, 
 with such modifications as more exhaustive 
 investigations may suggest, the nearer shall 
 we approach that time when "earth shall 
 reach its earthly best." 
 
 JAMES M C CLELLAND. 
 
 BELFAST, September, 1894.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE . ... I 
 
 THE UNITS . . . . . .21 
 
 THE COMBINATIONS . . . . -41 
 
 LABOUR . . . . . -57 
 
 CAPITAL . . . . . -79 
 
 EQUALITY . . . . . .107 
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE . . . .125 
 
 PROGRESS AND POVERTY . . . -149 
 
 DREAMLANDS . . . . . .169 
 
 LOOKING FORWARD . . . . 199
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE.
 
 Every science begins by accumulating observations, and pres- 
 ently generalises these empirically ; but only when it reaches 
 the stage at which its emperical generalisations are included in 
 a rational generalisation, does it become developed science. 
 Astronomy has already passed through its successive stages ; 
 first, collections of facts ; then inductions from them ; and 
 lastly, deductive interpretations of these, as corollaries from a 
 universal principle of action among masses in space. Accounts 
 of structures and tabulations of strata grouped and compared 
 have led gradually to the assigning of various classes of geological 
 changes to igneous and aqueous actions ; and it is now tacitly 
 admitted that geology becomes a science-proper, only as fast as 
 such changes are explained in terms of those natural processes 
 which have arisen in the cooling and solidifying Earth, ex- 
 posed to the Sun's heat and the action of the Moon upon its 
 ocean. The science of life has been, and is still exhibiting a 
 like series of steps ; the evolutions of organic forms at large, is 
 being affiliated on physical actions in operation from the be- 
 ginning ; and the vital phenomena each organism presents are 
 coming to be understood as connected sets of changes, in parts 
 formed of matters that are affected by certain forces and disen- 
 gage other forces. So is it with wind Sociology, too, 
 
 represented down to recent times only by stray ideas about 
 social organisation scattered through the masses of worthless 
 gossip furnished us by historians, is coming to be recognised by 
 some as also a science. 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER'S Data of Ethics. 
 
 The mistake of the writers on the science of society is to re- 
 gard existing social and sociological laws, the existing constitu- 
 tion of society, as either unchangeable, or not to be changed 
 except extremely slowly. True, there could not well be a science 
 on any other assumption, though there might be a history, a de- 
 scription of the phases and stages through which societies have 
 passed ; and therefore the still greater mistake of those writers is, 
 perhaps, the notion that there is any sociology at all, when the 
 past career of nations and course of civilisation is so capricious, 
 and the future course of social as of general evolution admittedly 
 so little predictable. 
 
 WILLIAM GRAHAM, M.A. Creed of Science.
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE. 
 
 PHILOSOPHERS and thinkers are divided in opinion as to 
 the possibility of there being a science of society with laws 
 at once definite, consistent, and as capable of prevision in 
 regard to men's actions in association with each other and 
 their sequences, as the laws which have been laid down as 
 governing the world of nature. By those who look with 
 distrust upon the attempt which has been made by such 
 master minds as Herbert Spencer's to establish such a con- 
 nection between human nature and conduct and its natural 
 consequences as shall justify the enunciation of laws to 
 which they, to all appearance, respond, it is contended that 
 science, depending as it does for the validity of its laws on 
 the constant recurrence of a series of identical facts and 
 their so far as ascertained unchanging sequences, can have 
 no validity or reality in a sphere where these conditions are 
 admittedly impossible of realisation. The facts of human
 
 4 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 history, be they ever so faithfully recorded, are valueless for 
 the purpose of guiding us in the constructing of such laws, 
 because they can never repeat themselves. The individuals 
 who compose society can furnish no clue, because no two 
 of them are identical with each other or with any of the 
 units that have contributed to form the society of preced- 
 ing ages, for nature with progressive and unceasing change 
 renders duplication unknown. Even a parallel they assert 
 between two periods cannot be instituted with any reliance 
 on its being approximately accurate, for with mankind 
 knowledge has so rapidly increased in range and precision 
 that occasionally a decade is sufficient to revolutionise our 
 conceptions of the possibilities of human destiny, and 
 entirely modify and enlarge the ideas of morality and duty, 
 so that while we are deducing laws from our present know- 
 ledge, a new regime is ushered in ; old influences lose their 
 power, and old conceptions are for ever supplanted by the 
 more extended volume of knowledge, and the higher ideals 
 evolved. Identity, therefore, being non-existent, and simi- 
 larities between our units so close as to be valuable being 
 also lacking, where, they triumphantly ask, is the data which 
 will form a stable basis for a social science ? There is much
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE. 5 
 
 appearance of reason in this view of the case, but it is prob- 
 able that it originates in, and owes its continuance to, a 
 misconception of the true meaning of the term law when 
 used in connection with science. There are really no 
 absolute and final laws in any branch of science. What, by 
 common consent, we designate laws, are merely formulas 
 expressive of the sequences and relationships of the facts 
 which have been accumulated by the most careful and 
 extended observation. We cannot demonstrate scientifically 
 that there is any inherent necessity in, nor any power com- 
 pelling, the continuance of the particular order which has, so 
 far as our observation goes, prevailed up till the present ; it 
 is quite impossible for us to prove, as Karl Pearson demon- 
 strates in his " Grammar of Science," that a cataclasm may 
 not engulf the universe to-morrow, though our past experi- 
 ence gives an overwhelming probability against such a cata- 
 clasm. It is well, therefore, to clearly understand that our 
 capacity to construct laws for any branch of science is limited 
 strictly by our observation of the particular order of events 
 in the past, and the frequency with which they have 
 occurred without variation, and from that we proceed to an 
 inference, strong in proportion to the period over which the
 
 6 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 recurrence has been observed, that it is an invariable routine 
 such, however, is never provable. We may even proceed 
 from what we have observed to recur with unvarying regu- 
 larity to deduce laws to explain other observed phenomena 
 which will so harmonise with the phenomena as to be 
 accepted as a satisfactory explanation by the normal mind; 
 but it must always be remembered that these theories are 
 liable at any moment to be disproved by the addition of 
 fresh factors, which, though slight, and, at first sight, unim- 
 portant, may change the whole conception of the subject. 
 Examples are numerous of practical experience demonstrat- 
 ing the fallacy of theories sustained by the strongest 
 analogies, and illustrations are common of the important 
 results which have accrued from the more minute and 
 critical examination of the facts. The well-known instance 
 of the difficulty with which the mechanical theory of heat 
 superseded the caloric theory, and the great development of 
 the steam engine which immediately became practicable, 
 may be cited as an example. 
 
 In the region of science, therefore, we may confidently 
 assert that no positive and final laws are possible, and as 
 our means of acquiring and recording exact information
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE. 
 
 become more perfected, the increased volume of knowledge 
 will enable more comprehensive formulas or laws to be 
 framed, so that assurance of finality cannot be given at any 
 time ; there is no " fatal necessity " in the physical laws no 
 more than in social laws. Their validity and permanence 
 are commensurate only with the extent and accuracy 
 which has characterised the collection of the data, and 
 in no branch can it be asserted that investigation has 
 been so exhaustive and exact, that we cannot hope for 
 more light. Absolute prevision being beyond the claim 
 made for the laws of any science by the true scientist, it is 
 difficult to understand upon what rational basis a place in 
 science can be denied to those conditional laws of society 
 which are formulated from the data collected regarding the 
 history of man his physical, psychological and sociologi- 
 cal development. In each of these three aspects we 
 possess, undoubtedly, authentic information of the progress 
 which man has made, and from them we who believe in a 
 social science deduce not only the order of evolution, 
 but the causes which have contributed to make modifica- 
 tions imperative to existence. That physical improvement 
 and specialisation of organism was a necessary precedent to
 
 8 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 mental elevation which would make possible a social 
 system, and that this system would, with every increase of 
 mental which would be accompanied by moral improve- 
 ment, become more nearly perfect, only needs to be stated 
 to be accepted as an axiom. It is impossible for us ever 
 to know the gulf which separates barbarism from civilisa- 
 tion, for while we might, by transplanting existing barbaric 
 nations to the conditions necessary to hasten their 
 evolution, and thus in a comparatively short time force 
 their development to higher types, it would not aid us in 
 deciding the question. 
 
 Primitive man had to win every step of his advancement, 
 and the necessity of advancing was forced on him by the 
 altering conditions of life. It would only be when the 
 niggardliness of uncultivated nature no longer sufficed for 
 the sustenance of all the organic life on the globe, and 
 man had to prove his supremacy over other animals if he 
 was to retain dominion, that his mental resources would be 
 exerted, and by their exercise strengthened and developed, 
 until the possibilities of modern civilisation would be 
 reached. It may, however, be asserted that while the 
 general course of progress is easily traced in the footprints
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE. 
 
 that have been made by our race in the sands of time, yet 
 particulars of the details of their actions is not so easily 
 ascertained, and by reason of this want of precision no 
 definite forecast for the future can be made. What do we 
 really know, it may be said, of the facts underlying 
 historical records ; these too frequently are ignored in 
 the desire to give exact biographical details of the leading 
 personages, which enable us to form about as correct an 
 estimate of the real life of the period as the inflated and 
 exaggerated utterances of the popular demagogue would 
 give us a true picture of the condition of the masses. 
 This is largely true, but there is still in our historical 
 records and in our personal experience indications of 
 one fundamental principle underlying all human conduct, 
 a principle engrafted in our nature, essential to our 
 existence, and while occasionally distorted to an extent 
 which makes us shrink from acknowledging its power, 
 is not only the main spring of our progress, but the 
 salvation of our race. That principle is self-preservation. 
 In civilised society its action is greatly modified from 
 that current under primitive conditions, but it is the 
 real power which rules the world of men. No longer
 
 10 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 in the original sense is it self-preservation, for the danger 
 is not now to life but to fortune, and it is in fostering 
 the conditions which will contribute to our own ag- 
 grandisement, careless of how our neighbours may fare, 
 that we now carry on the unending struggle. 
 
 A great amount of spurious sentiment is indulged in 
 over this what reformers call the selfishness of man. To 
 it is attributed most of the misery and suffering in the 
 world, but, notwithstanding its unarhiable aspect when 
 viewed cursorily and designated self-love and selfishness, 
 there is no more important principle implanted in the 
 human breast. From it, pure and unmixed, there are 
 more advantages than ever could accrue from love of 
 your neighbour which looks so much better to profess. 
 Every step of human progress may be placed to its credit, 
 and with its disappearance enterprise would die and 
 mankind become stagnant. The basis of all the manu- 
 facturing trade and commerce in the country is self-love 
 men do not invest their capital in mills for the sake of 
 giving the people an opportunity of earning a livelihood ; 
 they do not put down plant for the building of ships 
 and the constructing of engines for the love of giving
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE. I I 
 
 employment ; they do not import the products of other 
 countries simply for the pleasure of seeing the natives 
 of their own enjoying them, nor do they export the 
 products of our own for the gratification of their love for 
 the foreigners, and their desire that they should be happy ; 
 all these undertakings, all the works in the world, are 
 prompted not by love of neighbour but by love of self, 
 and the conviction that the path selected is the shortest 
 way to the increasing of their portion of the root of all 
 evil. The result to the community is the same as if it were 
 done solely for their benefit, as no man can further his 
 individual interests in a lawful manner without benefiting 
 society at large. Nothing but our desire to further our 
 own fortunes would induce us to take the trouble to bring 
 the necessaries of life to our neighbours' doors, and the 
 distributing of the provisions through a city is surely more 
 satisfactorily accomplished when inspired by desire of gain 
 than by any considerations for the happiness and comfort 
 of our neighbour. In actual life there is no room for 
 sentimental considerations, and there is little necessity for 
 them either in the present age. At no previous period in 
 the history of the world have the conveniences and com-
 
 12 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 forts of life been so great and so extensively diffused. The 
 labourer of to-day enjoys comforts which were unknown to 
 kings a few centuries ago, and with the facilities for educa- 
 tion, free libraries, and art galleries, the road to learning 
 has become to all, as nearly as possible, a royal one, and 
 there being no caste distinctions in our country, there is 
 no position which the humblest born may not aspire to. 
 The guerilla warfare of primitivism, it is true, is superseded, 
 and civilisation places all in pleasanter conditions, but a 
 contest none the less real because more refined con- 
 tinues, and under its domination men are compelled to 
 attend to their own self-interest to the exclusion 'of all 
 others with the same fidelity as in the earliest ages. 
 That in the course of evolution self-sacrificing personal- 
 ities have flashed across the social sky is admitted, but 
 they are classed as meteors whose erratic course cannot 
 be predicted nor their recurrence counted on with cer- 
 tainty, so that they may be conveniently eliminated 
 from our data without vitiating the result. No doubt 
 their influence will have a certain effect upon the 
 surrounding phenomena, and their track may threaten 
 destruction to many a time-honoured custom, but as
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE. 13 
 
 nothing for long prevails which is not established in 
 reason and confirmed in equity, we can look with com- 
 placency alike upon the philanthropic but mistaken attacks 
 of the benevolent, and the mercenary and misleading 
 assaults of the charlatan. For there is no subject in 
 which quackery and spurious sentiment is more common, 
 because, being one of universal interest, in which 
 prince and peasant alike have an every-day experience, 
 a premium is placed on its practices, and there are no 
 end of Joseph Surfaces who seek to maintain a "reputa- 
 tion of benevolence without incurring the expense." The 
 time also is particularly favourable for its prosecution, 
 as the schoolmaster has got abroad, and each has ob- 
 tained just that amount of knowledge which enables 
 him to give an unhesitating opinion on its every 
 problem. Had they drunk more deeply of the Pierian 
 Spring, the force and freshness of their decisions would 
 have been destroyed, and they would have been landed 
 into that abyss of doubt and indecision which is char- 
 acteristic of those whose acquirements enable them to 
 take cognisance not only of the proximate effects but 
 of the most distant consequences of proposed reforms.
 
 14 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 This is the difference between the bar-parlour orator 
 who will tell you most positively what ought to be done, 
 and the statesman who has considered the question in 
 all its bearings, and in relationship to the entire scheme 
 of policy, and is still undecided as to the most advisable 
 course to pursue. No dogmatic opinion is possible to 
 him who, with a trained understanding and an apprecia- 
 tion of the daily accretions which our knowledge is 
 receiving, approaches a subject, not as a special pleader, 
 but with the sole desire of ascertaining the truth and 
 following wheresoever it leads. This, unfortunately, is too 
 often not the spirit in which those who desire to 
 renovate society approach the task. However honest 
 their intentions in general may be, and of that I have 
 no desire to offer any opinion,, they usually start from 
 a priori grounds and immediately proceed to demon- 
 strate how a proposed reform, usually a most superficial 
 one, would eliminate all injustice out of the universe 
 and herald the Golden Age. They as a rule have an 
 exaggerated conception of the evils to be remedied, a 
 very slight acquaintance with the subject, and a positive 
 conviction that some single panacea which they advocate
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE. 15 
 
 will be all the reform that is required. Considering 
 that there are before the world at present at least a 
 dozen schemes for its remodelling and the establishment 
 of perfect justice, happiness, and contentment, and that 
 the disciples of each scheme have no great confidence 
 in the efficacy of any but their own, or conviction of 
 the honesty of the advocates of the most of the others, 
 we may be well pardoned for subjecting all the plans 
 to the most rigid criticism before identifying ourselves 
 with any of them. In fact we are tempted to dub as 
 empirics those who dilate on the diseases of the body 
 social, and the simplicity of its cure by their patent 
 decoction. If it is diseased, no single remedy will 
 suffice for its cure, but those who have most carefully 
 diagnosed the symptoms assert that they but indicate 
 infantile complaints which it will outgrow in the natural 
 course of events without the aid of noxious draughts or 
 dangerous operations. They are strengthened in this 
 opinion by the well-known fact that since men first 
 began to live in association the progress has been 
 enormous, and the constant tendency is to establish 
 higher standards of comfort. This, they are convinced,
 
 16 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 shows that the organism is healthy, that its development 
 is satisfactory, and that such changes as the anarchist, 
 the socialist, the communist, the land nationaliser, and 
 the co-operator, in its modern acceptation, would bring 
 us are neither necessary nor desirable. 
 
 In the following pages I shall endeavour to show briefly 
 the natural laws which govern men in association, how 
 they act and react on each other in such a way that in- 
 terference, so far from being beneficial to all, would 
 frequently be unjust to the most deserving for the least 
 valuable portion of humanity, and I shall review and de- 
 monstrate the fallacy of the leading reforms that have 
 been proposed and advocated with all the fervour of those 
 who aggrandise themselves by discovering for the masses 
 the injustices which they suffer and which they are wholly 
 unaware of, until pressed home by the brave-sounding, but 
 usually nonsensical words of the democratic orator. There 
 is no subject in which cheap popularity is more easily 
 attainable than by playing courtier to the democracy, 
 but it is surely advisable that we should occasionally let 
 the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth 
 have an airing. However unpleasant this may be, I am
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE. I/ 
 
 certain it is a more substantial proof of friendship to in- 
 dicate errors than to disguise them. The statement of 
 the facts of the case and their inevitable consequences, 
 the demonstration of the destructive tendency of the un- 
 natural interference with private rights which is urgently 
 demanded by those whose minds have become so per- 
 meated with the conceived advantage of a certain plan 
 that honour and honesty appear as if ready to be laid 
 as a sacrifice on the altar, is necessary; and, if in pursuance 
 of this purpose we find it impossible to avoid enunciating 
 doctrines which must appear hard-hearted and unsym- 
 pathetic, it must not be forgotten that in deducing con- 
 clusions from ascertained facts we are unable to control 
 them. However much we might deplore certain laws, 
 we should never allow our individual feeling to find 
 expression, but carefully repressing sentiment, and de- 
 pending solely on our data, without fear or favour 
 indicate the true and expose the false conception of the 
 subject. While doing so we may be careful to state 
 exactly the data upon which our laws are based, so that 
 in the event of an extension of this, its influence could 
 
 be at once assimilated to the system. There is no subject 
 
 B
 
 1 8 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 in which more possibilities of extension exist, both on 
 account of its comparative modernness as a science and 
 the plasticity of the units, and there is certainly none in 
 which constant introspection is more necessary for getting 
 at the actual truth. We must always keep before us the 
 indubitable fact that while in all sciences the errors due to 
 the position of the observer must be taken into account, and 
 frequently indeed, like in astronomy, the same facts must 
 be noted by observers thousands of miles apart, so that 
 from the results of the two independent observations 
 the inaccuracy may be reduced to the minimum, in none 
 is it more important that we should strenuously endeavour 
 to eliminate our own personalities, and in none is it so 
 difficult to take the result of the observations of others, 
 and placing them side by side with our own, arrive at 
 the true state of the case. 
 
 This is, of course, due to the fact that our own interests 
 are usually involved in the answers we give, and that 
 we have also inherited traditions which contribute to 
 our mental attitudes and determine the positions we 
 shall assume in respect to every question. There is 
 also the complementary source of error in the inaccuracy
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE. 19 
 
 of our judgments of our fellowmen. Just as we are 
 rarely all that we in our partiality consider ourselves, 
 so others are as often a great amount better than we 
 give them credit for ; unless, indeed, when they happen 
 to be particularly in accord with our opinions and 
 sentiments, when we extend to them a part of the charity 
 which we give to ourselves. By making an allowance 
 for these factors the impartial and educated man can 
 approach accuracy in the laws which govern social life. 
 At any rate he will have all the elements necessary for 
 formulating such laws, and pronouncing a valuable opinion 
 upon all proposed reforms ; and whilst he will probably 
 arrive at conclusions which will ill harmonise with the 
 hopes of the enthusiast or the expectations roused by 
 the agitator, he will be able to indicate the direction that 
 improvement must be in to be permanent, and so render 
 a service to the best interests of society, which, though 
 less appreciated by the majority, will be much more 
 valuable than all the vapourings of would-be reformers.
 
 THE UNITS.
 
 " Flower in the crannied wall, 
 I pluck you out of the crannies ; 
 I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
 Little flower but if I could understand 
 'What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
 I should know what God and Man is." 
 
 TENNYSON.
 
 THE UNITS. 
 
 IF you ask a chemist to describe the nature of a certain 
 substance, he proceeds to reduce it to its component parts, 
 and to give you the exact proportion in which these enter 
 into its total ; there is usually a residuum which defies his 
 analysis, and which is represented by the percentage neces- 
 sary to complete his assumed total parts. In like manner, 
 when we undertake to describe society, we must also reduce 
 it to its component parts, which are the individuals or units of 
 which it is composed; we shall also find a residuum which 
 will not be so distinct as to be included under a definite 
 head in our analysis, but which will require to be indicated 
 to make up the total. The units of society, though char- 
 acterised by a certain amount of sameness, are in reality 
 very varied, but like other elements they have exact com- 
 bining affinities which they have unconsciously conformed 
 to, since they first began to live in association, and which 
 
 are the essence of its continuance. 
 
 23
 
 24 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 It is conceivable that as originally constituted, the 
 possibility of identity amongst the units was present, but 
 the different circumstances by which they were surrounded, 
 facilitating in the one case growth and development, and in 
 the other stunting and dwarfing the natural possibilities, 
 early introduced varieties which would be intensified with 
 the flight of time, and the continuance of the more diversi- 
 fied environments which would necessarily ensue from the 
 progression of the one, and the stagnation of the other. 
 Even where the rates of development were not so far apart, 
 there would be sufficient diversity amongst the surroundings 
 to produce the distinct and irreconcilable personalities 
 which we find amongst the inhabitants of the most limited 
 areas, and who have, to all outward appearance, been sub- 
 jected to the same influences. Our conceptions of right 
 and wrong are largely the result of the country in which we 
 are born, and our conduct in the minor affairs of life will be 
 decided in the main by our position in the social scale, 
 which gives the boundaries to our knowledge, and regulates 
 the canons to which we submit our actions. Antecedents, 
 training and environment, form indeed the triple cord which 
 binds men; they are the factors which mould their lives and
 
 THE UNITS. 25 
 
 colour their characters, and they are connected in such in- 
 dissoluble bonds, that when we know the first, we can with 
 a great amount of certainty foretell the other two. Not 
 only so, but if we knew the complete history of any one in- 
 dividual, we would know the complete history of the 
 universe. The complete history would involve of course 
 not the record of his life since birth, but all the causes 
 which have since the earliest time contributed to his pro- 
 duction. Each is but the resultant of a long series of 
 causes, linked inextricably with the causes which have 
 been moulding the other entities, and extending into a 
 complete chain, embracing all the creation : a change 
 in any part of which would have been represented by 
 an entirely different present. If effect follows upon 
 cause, the present is the only possible outcome of 
 the past, and the future is already decided by the 
 present. Individually and collectively, therefore, we 
 are indissolubly linked to the past, inheriting in 
 the aggregate the whole of its virtues and its vices ; its 
 material, and physical, and mental progress. Each, how- 
 ever, possesses distinct traits, having been subjected only 
 to a small portion of the entire circumstances which re-
 
 26 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 present human experience, and their conclusions being 
 entirely dependent upon this, they are of course far from 
 being comprehensive. It is not difficult to understand, 
 either, how there happens to be such dissimilar views 
 arrived at on the same subject, and with apparently equally 
 educated, and equally intelligent, and fair-minded men. It 
 is owing to the mental or social bias from which even 
 those desirous of being impartial, cannot entirely eman- 
 cipate themselves ; this is possibly inherited, and is 
 strengthened by class prejudices which prevent them being 
 able to dissociate themselves from their immediate in- 
 terests, and obtain an impersonal view of the subject. 
 Thus, when a certain subject recommends itself primarily to 
 any mind for study, it is apt to assume to that mind pro- 
 portions entirely at variance with its intrinsic importance. 
 The mental equilibrium is disturbed ; the subject becomes 
 a sort of Aaron's rod, and gradually swallows up all others ; 
 and to the mind thus distorted, it seems the one important 
 factor to the proper understanding of life ; its promulgation 
 becomes a solemn duty, and it is confidently expected that 
 its acceptance by humanity at large, as a cardinal article of 
 faith, will be the precursor of the Golden Age. Nearly
 
 THE UNITS. 27 
 
 all proposed social reforms emanate from martyrs to 
 single ideas ; the undue preponderance of the one train of 
 thought preventing the other factors receiving such con- 
 sideration as their importance demands, and thus the whole 
 renovation of society is made to appear to depend upon the 
 alteration of some relatively unimportant detail. The ex- 
 ponents of these marvellous theories for not only the pre- 
 servation of life, but for the amelioration of its least desir- 
 able features, are the residuum which defy our analysis of 
 society. They are not amenable to the ordinary rules of 
 logic, and their enthusiasm over their pet project blinds 
 them when honest to the counteracting disadvantage which 
 would accompany the change, which too often could only 
 be brought about by the violation of every principle upon 
 which we depend for the permanency of combination. As 
 each new theory is propounded, the injustices of present 
 conditions exemplified, and the efficiency of the proposed 
 remedy demonstrated, we can only marvel how our poor 
 forefathers survived in ignorance of their hard lots, and 
 assume that their contented and happy existence was owing 
 to the absence of those bright philanthropic geniuses in 
 modern days called social reformers.
 
 28 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 Leaving this residuum we find that although we cannot 
 proclaim identity amongst our units, there are very close 
 similarities, and very cogent reasons for supposing that in 
 the primal instincts and impulses, and in the ultimate desires 
 all men are equal. That their actions are so dissimilar in 
 apparently similar circumstances is due solely to the 
 difference of inherited qualities, modified or intensified, as 
 the case may be, by their environments. The importance 
 of these two factors cannot be over-estimated, and yet they 
 can scarcely be correctly ascertained. Notwithstanding the 
 painstaking and exhaustive researches of the great German 
 scientist, Wiesmann, into the question of heredity, the 
 subject is still beset with difficulties, and scarcely capable 
 of definiteness. His investigations have resulted in the 
 germ plasm theory, from which it would appear that the 
 germ is continuous and unmodifiable, and is transmitted 
 with all its racial distinctions from sire to son, and that it is 
 impossible for variations due to environments to be so 
 assimilated as to be transmitted. There is of course the 
 recognition of the possibility of the fusion of the two germ 
 plasms, and a consequent modification resulting; but it 
 must surely be granted that if the environments through
 
 THE UNITS. 29 
 
 successive generations have not called for the exercise of 
 qualities which might exist in the original plasm, while 
 other requirements induced in the individuals the exercise 
 of different powers, the dormancy in the one case, and the 
 activity in the other would lead ultimately to a modification 
 in the inherited proclivities. On no other assumption can we 
 account for the aptitude which is frequently shown by 
 children for the class of work to which their immediate 
 ancestors have been accustomed, as certainly it has not 
 been transmitted from a long past, when the very condi- 
 tions of life were incompatible with the possession of such 
 qualities. If such is not the case, and, as the law of 
 heredity seems to establish, out of a bad and improvident 
 stock no amount of training, no duration of time, will ever 
 eradicate the undesirable and unamiable qualities, how can 
 we explain the prodigious changes which have taken place 
 in man's nature, how can we account for progression at all 
 if with each generation we start precisely with the same 
 original conditions and tendencies, and have to undergo 
 the same slow course of elimination and improvement? If 
 permanent improvement is impossible, and our task, 
 Tantalus-like, a never ending and ever beginning one, are
 
 3O SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 we justified in making the conditions of present life such 
 as shall ensure our successors having to grapple with the 
 same never-ending problem ? The truth seems to be that 
 the environment which has led to modifications in indivi- 
 dual cases is likely to be experienced by the succeeding 
 generations to an equal, if not greater, extent; so that if 
 while the environments and conditions of life were un- 
 altered, men would necessarily remain identical and 
 stationary with the slowly evolving conditions, a correspond- 
 ing evolution in character takes place. It is the growth of 
 population which is the principal incentive to progress, 
 because as the world is called on to support the increasing 
 numbers, man is forced to consider how he can best aid 
 nature in responding to the demand ; and the knowledge 
 thus acquired is the origin of all advancement. Once 
 started on the road of progress, their wants increase in 
 volume and in refinement, and men's mental powers are 
 developed, for there is nothing so effective as necessity for 
 ensuring invention and improvement. That we in this age 
 occupy a position so much in advance of preceding ages is 
 not due to any mental superiority amongst the existing 
 units of society, but is the consequence of the very rich
 
 THE UNITS. 31 
 
 legacies which we have inherited from the former inhabitants 
 of the earth legacies which have been gradually growing 
 in volume and value throughout the centuries, and which 
 we will pass on to posterity with our added experience. 
 These legacies consist of accumulated data, extended obser- 
 vation, careful experiment, and where not actually established 
 beyond doubt, suggestive theories which may be confirmed 
 or corrected by us in our subsequent investigations. We 
 take up the skein where the most advanced of our 
 predecessors have left it, with the task of unravelling it 
 greatly simplified by their efforts. If we for a moment con- 
 sider what our position would be, were it possible for each 
 generation, as it passed away, to, with miserly penurious- 
 ness, carry with it the knowledge it had acquired, and leave 
 its successors to collect for themselves all data, make all 
 the necessary experiments, and undertake all investigations 
 de novo, we would at once realise that notwithstanding man's 
 mental superiority, he would never progress beyond the 
 rudest state of barbarism. It is in the power to transmit 
 to posterity the accumulated experience that the continuity 
 of development depends, and if our present knowledge 
 were destroyed by a vandalic incursion, to restore it would
 
 32 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 take centuries, even with the power of transmission. Our 
 vantage ground is inheritance, and it therefore is impossible 
 to over-estimate the importance of mental and moral 
 characteristics in connection with social science. These 
 being the product of centuries of growth, and being con- 
 cerned with all the questions pertaining to human life and 
 destiny, naturally form a mental boundary for each which it 
 is highly probable he personally has very little power to 
 control or alter. The conclusions which each will arrive at 
 on the same subject and with apparently the same in- 
 formation, are usually very different, but an approximation 
 can be made by taking into account the country inhabited, 
 its moral standard and mental attainments, together with 
 the position of the individual, which will indicate his general 
 conformity, or otherwise, to the leading canons of the 
 society in which he exists, and the minor circle within 
 which his personal interests are confined. 
 
 One primal instinct we can always rely on with absolute 
 certainty as being present in all men, and that is self- 
 preservation. This might now-a-days be called more cor- 
 rectly almost self-interest, because it is usually our material 
 welfare which has to be conserved instead of the preserva-
 
 THE UNITS. 33 
 
 tion of our existence. This principle gives the colour to all 
 human action, and that the results are so varied, is due to 
 the different answers which each gives to the question of 
 what will best serve their interests. All our actions, let 
 them appear involuntary or otherwise, are in reality the 
 natural outcome of our experiences. In some cases the 
 frequency with which like circumstances have occurred gives 
 an appearance of spontaneity to conduct, while in others 
 the rarity makes reflection imperative, but in all com- 
 parisons and conclusion precede action, however involuntary 
 they may seem. 
 
 Practically, therefore, the question which each answers 
 before taking action, is the most advisable method of 
 conserving his own best interest ; and the different methods 
 adopted for accomplishing this, the first end of civilised man, 
 will depend entirely on inheritance, training and experience, 
 although the latter is probably a necessary accompaniment 
 of the two former. There are, however, many cases in which 
 we might, without great risk to our reputation, hazard a 
 definite prediction as to how, in given circumstances, men 
 would act. For instance, if we saw a man passing along a 
 
 railway track, and a locomotive coming from the opposite 
 
 c
 
 34 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 direction on the same line, we might, with safety, predict 
 that the law of self-preservation would ensure him immedi- 
 ately leaving the line. In one case out often thousand we 
 might find our prediction falsified, but we should on 
 investigation discover that there was a factor in that 
 particular case not normal in all human beings, and which 
 therefore our generalisation did not cover. It might be 
 due to a physical defect, such as the loss of sight ; it might 
 be a mental defect which occasionally manifests itself 
 by a very erroneous conception of the nature of things, or it 
 might be a sociological one, such as a feeling of being out 
 of harmony with the rest of society, or a sense of unjust 
 treatment or unmerited obloquy. In whatever way, how- 
 ever, the abnormality was explained, it would not affect the 
 general validity of our statement as to the impulses and 
 consequent actions which in ordinary circumstances would 
 follow from such an approaching train. It is therefore our 
 power of ascertaining all the factors of the case that will 
 determine the measure of our accuracy, as the primal motive 
 is identical, and only modified by the evolution of the 
 social instincts. Those in whom it is least apparent are 
 usually the most cultured and refined, and its dormancy in
 
 THE UNITS. 35 
 
 their case is due to the substitution of a higher ideal than the 
 merely personal. As civilisation reaches higher and still 
 higher levels, it ceases to be evidenced at all in the grosser 
 forms, because the conditions are so changed, and so far 
 from the struggle with many being for existence,, it becomes 
 only for the obtaining of the greatest pleasure and happi- 
 ness which life can afford. This becomes the one end of 
 existence, how different soever the means for effecting it may 
 be. Examples, apparently irreconcilable with this dictum, 
 may easily be given, but they are only apparently so, for in 
 reality their seeming incompatibility is due to our limited 
 knowledge of the whole facts of the case. Many sensitive 
 and heroic men there are who would suffer less by immola- 
 ting themselves for the benefit of a number, than what they 
 would suffer by allowing all that might be saved by their 
 self-sacrifice to perish ; enthusiasm and the strong con- 
 sciousness of the rectitude of their cause and the importance 
 of its teaching to humanity may inspire martyrs to bear 
 the most exquisite refinements of torture which the perverted 
 ingenuity of man can invent, and generous and noble 
 natures may act in a manner which cannot be reconciled 
 by the more phlegmatic as in keeping with this rule. The
 
 36 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 explanation is that it is the different conceptions of what 
 constitutes happiness that is animating them. In many the 
 respect and esteem of their fellowmen is more essential to 
 their happiness and enjoyment than any acquirement of 
 fortune, or any escaping of personal danger, or even any 
 consistency in action. Others there are who pursue their 
 own career uninfluenced by praise ; undeterred by blame ; 
 only gratified by accomplishing their own end, and careless 
 who suffers so that they succeed. 
 
 The social units, therefore, although identical in primal 
 instincts and motives, and in the ends which they have in 
 view, vary in their actions, owing to different conceptions of 
 the best means of furthering these identical objects. The 
 different conceptions originate not in any original inherent 
 variety, but in the different experiences of the units, owing 
 to their infinitely varied surroundings through all time. 
 The difference of environment has divided men so widely 
 that they have appeared to naturalists not varieties of a 
 single species but distinct species, different in colour, in 
 stature, in general contour, in mental power, and in moral 
 capability ; and while in its extremes it has done this, in its 
 more limited operation it has established classes inside the
 
 THE UNITS. 37 
 
 one community sharply divided from each other with 
 different traditions, different and irreconcilable interests, 
 and a different standard for guiding their actions. Each 
 with a jealous eye watching the other, envying everything 
 which appears to give them a precedence or an advantage 
 to such an extent, that, leaving the residuum out of our 
 consideration, we can, with a fair claim to accuracy, foretell 
 what course will be pursued under given circumstances by 
 individuals if we possess some particulars of their ante- 
 cedents. This does not mean that the characteristics and 
 tendencies accompanying any station are invariable, but 
 that they are so generally consistent that the exception 
 may be taken as proving the rule. Temperance could 
 not long continue in brothels, nor healthy views of life 
 in the harem. 
 
 There is another aspect of the question of antecedents 
 and inheritance which in civilised life is most important 
 and lends itself to little speculation. That is the accumula- 
 tion of material goods which ancestors may have acquired 
 in fierce competition and bequeathed to their immediate 
 successors. This gives them such an advantage in the 
 social state that they may almost be considered to have it
 
 3 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 in their power to give the less fortunate permission to exist. 
 Indeed to such an extent is this the case that it sometimes 
 appears as if by some right divine they were put in 
 possession of the indispensable necessaries of life to the 
 many to be used rightly or wrongly at their pleasure. 
 Without the recognition of such a right of transfer there 
 would be no stimulant to the exercise of our best powers. 
 It is therefore clearly and indispensably necessary that such 
 should be recognised, as its absence would destroy progress; 
 investigation and experiments would cease, and men would 
 languish and approximate to that existence which has 
 always characterised Eastern nations who so early reached 
 a high point in civilisation and refinement, but, owing to the 
 want of incentive and security, lacked the power requisite 
 to carry them over the dead centre, and have ever since 
 remained stationary. 
 
 The present inheritance of our race is a developed, 
 physical, mental and moral power, a vast accumulation of 
 knowledge, and its practical application to the affairs of 
 daily life which places the necessaries of life within the 
 reach of all, and the luxuries and refinements to most. 
 This to all, but to some it gives as a start and a precedence
 
 THE UNITS. 39 
 
 the results of the superiority of their stock, and thus 
 accentuates the natural inequality of man, and arouses in 
 the breasts of the superficial a keen sense of injustice and 
 a desire to renovate society and evolve a juster social order. 
 The natural factors of the case are overlooked, and pro- 
 posals subversive of the best interests of society are freely 
 advocated. Impossible Utopias are constructed in which 
 human nature is assumed divine, and the natural discon- 
 tent of man is intensified and direction given to it. Reason 
 may cry from the house-tops to these would-be reformers, 
 and they will be deaf to her voice, as likewise will be 
 their dupes. They will not recognise that not only is 
 the struggle for existence a necessary one, but that to it is 
 to be accredited the rapidity of human progress, and that 
 its cessation would produce an apathy and indifference 
 to the affairs of life which would be much worse than 
 the struggle where men meet each other with their talents 
 sharpened and their activities alert for the slightest advan- 
 tage which they can obtain. 
 
 The reforms which would eliminate this struggle would 
 arrest mental development, destroy self-reliance, and reduce 
 men to the merest automatons. Surely no great desidera-
 
 4O SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 turns, especially as in their achievement every sentiment 
 of honour and honesty would first require to be eliminated, 
 and might, not right, prevail.
 
 THE COMBINATIONS.
 
 Each so-called element, each combination of elements, each 
 re-combination of the compounds has a form of crystallization ; 
 though its crystals differ in their sizes, and are likely to be 
 modified by truncations of angles and apices, as well as by 
 partial mergmgs into one another ; yet the type of structure as 
 shown by cleavage is constant. Particular kinds of molecules 
 generally have particular shapes into which they settle them- 
 selves as they aggregate. In brief, it may be unhesitatingly 
 affirmed, as an outcome of physics and chemistry, that through- 
 out all phenomena presented by dead matter the natures of the 
 units necessitate certain traits in the aggregates. 
 
 Their truth is again exemplified by aggregates of living 
 matter. 
 
 Given the structures and consequent instincts of the 
 individuals as we find them, and the community they form 
 will inevitably present certain traits ; and no community hav- 
 ing such traits can be formed out of individuals having other 
 structures and instincts. 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER.
 
 THE COMBINATIONS. 
 
 NEARLY all writers assume a pre-social state, but while 
 this may be a convenient figment for the basing of an 
 argument as to what man's rights would be under such 
 conditions,, it is scarcely conceivable that such a state 
 ever really existed, except in the imagination. Let us 
 accept the Biblical or scientific explanation of our origin, 
 and we will alike conclude that man was never the 
 solitary being which this state would imply. At first, of 
 course, his social instincts would be confined by a very 
 narrow area, but yet both by duration and nature they 
 would be different from mere animal association, and 
 entitled to be considered social. The grouping of dif- 
 ferent families into a confederacy would be in the early 
 ages of the world a natural consequence of the realisation 
 of the fact that their united strength would present a 
 more effective protection against the powerful " beasts of 
 
 the field," and also the recognition by comparatively 
 
 43
 
 44 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 weak companies of shepherds that their flocks and herds 
 were not too secure unless they increased their numerical 
 strength. This co-operation for protection against ex- 
 ternal foes could only exist by an agreement amongst 
 the individuals associating to respect the rights of the 
 members, so that from the very earliest time a few of the 
 most fundamental principles of all government would be 
 practised. The first and most important of these would 
 be the granting of equal freedom to all members of the 
 combination. This freedom would, of course, be different 
 from the freedom possible in any assumed state of nature. 
 In a state of nature man would be absolutely free ; not 
 bound by any ties to recognise the effects of his conduct 
 on others, and having in his own person an inalienable 
 claim to all the produce of the earth that he was strong 
 enough to possess himself of; and as each would have 
 equal rights, constant collisions and warfare would prevail. 
 Men would have been Ishmaels with their hands against 
 every man's, and every man's against theirs ; the only 
 duty being to sustain their own existence at all costs, 
 and against all creatures. When they associate, however, 
 for mutual advantage, they can only do so by foregoing
 
 THE COMBINATIONS. 45 
 
 some of their natural rights. I do not suppose that at 
 first they met and made a definite contract as to what 
 they should give up and what retain; this would be 
 gradually agreed to as the necessities of the case arose, 
 and more complex relationships ensued ; but they 
 certainly would have to agree to recognise their 
 neighbour's rights as being equal to their own, and their 
 own as being perfect freedom so far as it did not 
 conflict with the rights of others. Very early, too, a 
 central power would exist upon which would devolve 
 the duty of seeing that the weaker members of the 
 federation obtained their just rights, and laws would soon 
 be enacted laws in their legal sense, and with means 
 of enforcing conformity to them, and punishing infringe- 
 ments. These laws restricting the natural when erratic 
 tendencies of the members give greater definiteness to 
 social laws by ensuring the operation of personal 
 peculiarities being repressed, as the great bulk of the 
 inhabitants of any given society may be depended on to 
 conform generally to the legal enactments, even to the 
 abandonment of undesirable traits. 1 
 
 1 Another and scarcely less powerful restraining influence is that
 
 46 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 Association being accompanied by the right to freedom, 
 would also require the recognition of the inviolability of 
 property. The articles so considered in early times might 
 be inconsiderable, such as articles of adornment and 
 weapons, but when men began to be tillers of the soil as 
 well as keepers of flocks and herds it would become of 
 greater importance. Having settled on a certain plot, if 
 the right to continue in occupancy had been in any way 
 arbitrary, so far as the society in possession of the district 
 was concerned, cultivation would have been impossible, 
 because what one sowed another might have reaped. 
 Fixity of tenure may be assumed, therefore, as character- 
 ising this state with certain duties to the head of it for 
 protection. The right also to labour in whatever manner 
 might be congenial would be permitted, and neces- 
 sarily there would be joined to the right protection in 
 the enjoyment of the fruits thereof. This enjoyment 
 might consist in an immediate consumption of the 
 
 which religion exercises, as in whatever form it is professed no race of 
 men has ever been exempt from its control. To correctly understand 
 the dogmas professed, and the amount of conformity to them, which 
 is a more important consideration, is to be in possession of the key to 
 the most hidden recesses of men's natures.
 
 THE COMBINATIONS. 47 
 
 results, or in their preservation, or in their transfer to 
 others ; but in no matter what form the individual 
 elected to use them, his right to do so, so long as 
 not inimical to the general interests, would have to be 
 held inviolate, and progress would be exactly proportional 
 to the sacredness with which these absolute rights 
 were observed. From these principles of what must 
 be admitted simple justice has flowed all our progress ; 
 and had mankind, in general, not concurred in main- 
 taining them, our bridges would not have been built, 
 our canals would not have been excavated, our rail- 
 roads would not have been laid, our steamboats would 
 not have been built, our manufactories would not have 
 been established, nor would our colleges have been 
 endowed. On the other hand, their continuance gives 
 such a precedence to those who have had the effective 
 desire of accumulation developed as to give them the 
 control of the essentials of existence, and establish 
 that form of poverty which peculiarly distinguishes 
 civilisation, and which makes life itself, to a large 
 majority of mankind, depend upon the consent of a 
 few. That this characteristic of civilisation is an n-
 
 48 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 evitable consequence of the first and most indispensable 
 condition of its permanency, a very slight review of 
 the circumstances will demonstrate. The differentiations 
 of employments, which would occur immediately after 
 association, would follow from an intuitive perception 
 of the fact that the exertion of an individual when confined 
 to a special work would be more productive than if a turn 
 was taken at all the occupations necessary to a social 
 existence. As human wants, however, are not in one 
 direction, this could only be taken advantage of by a 
 mutual understanding to exchange the products in 
 proportion to their values. Their values would neces- 
 sarily at first be the time required to produce them, 
 for, as all the varioas labours engaged in would be 
 equally essential to the existence of the community, 
 each would have to be paid in the quantity of goods 
 desired, that could be produced in an equal time to 
 those offered in exchange, or he would not confine 
 himself to a single relatively unremunerative employ- 
 ment. The work each would engage in, when all was 
 of equal importance, would depend upon immediate 
 surroundings, but it would not be long before tastes
 
 THE COMBINATIONS. 
 
 and aptitudes would make their appearance, and lead 
 to modifications of the primal equality. Two occupied 
 at the same work would be discovered to produce 
 different quantities in the same time, so that the most 
 expert would be able to command for a portion of 
 his time as much as the other for his whole time, 
 and thus he could either enjoy much leisure, or acquire 
 a surplus of goods for future necessities. The intro- 
 duction of a system of exchange other than the barter 
 of the actual products of labour, would encourage 
 labourers to occupy their time in the accumulation 
 of reserves rather than in the enjoying of the leisure 
 which their superiority entitled them to ; and these 
 reserves, as civilisation became more complex, would 
 assume ever-increasing importance, but they would not 
 alter the fact that in social life the natural tendency 
 is for all labour to exchange on the basis of the pro- 
 duction of the least effective worker at each employ- 
 ment and every degree of superiority above this mini- 
 mum receives its proportional return. 
 
 Not only does the exchange value of all employments 
 
 tend to the minimum of the least productive, but it 
 
 D
 
 50 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 also tends to equality in each. The mere statement of 
 the first fact assures its acceptance, but the second is 
 not so self-evident, and will require some illustration. 
 There does not, at first sight, appear much equality or 
 tendency to equality between the fee of a specialist in 
 any profession, and the wages of an unskilled labourer ; 
 but this is owing to the factors of the problem being 
 obscured by the complex conditions of modern life, so 
 that an analysis of the causes of one man's labour ex- 
 changing for the products of the labours of a number 
 becomes indispensable. In the first place then, we will 
 find the labour commanding the least value is that which 
 can be most readily engaged in. Thus the unskilled 
 labourer requires no expensive training to qualify him 
 for his task, he is self-supporting from a very early age, 
 and his relative success, in comparison with those in his 
 own sphere, is assured, for, as there are no heights to 
 which he is likely to attain, so there are few depths to 
 which he can descend. Now, if there are two unskilled 
 employments rated at different values, we shall find the 
 higher rated is unpleasant, and disagreeable or dangerous, 
 and the increased premium just balances its nndesira-
 
 THE COMBINATIONS. 51 
 
 bility. Were it otherwise, more would compete for em- 
 ployment in it, and so reduce the wages to the normal 
 standard. The skilled artisan is rated on a higher basis, 
 because his labour requires a lengthened apprenticeship, 
 and a more skilful treatment, and did it not hold out the 
 prospect of future compensatory benefits, no one would 
 go to the trouble and expense of acquiring the necessary 
 skill, or consent to the lengthened dependence on the 
 kindness of others which it entails. In the professional 
 man's case the probationary period is still greater, the 
 expense of education more, and the natural qualities, if 
 success is to be obtained, must be of a much higher 
 order, for it cannot be denied that the number of 
 genuine successes in the higher callings are few in com- 
 parison to the entries, and those who are destined for 
 the rank and file are in a much worse position than the 
 tradesman. A fortune has been spent in their education 
 and training, they are expected to maintain a very 
 expensive position, and the returns for their services are 
 not greater than, sometimes not equal to, those of the 
 best in the cheaper rated employments. The importance 
 of these considerations will be admitted, and when the
 
 52 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 difficulty experienced in entering particular employments 
 is recognised, the special qualities necessary for ex- 
 ceptional success taken into account, and the inherent 
 agreeableness, unpleasantness or risk discounted, we shall 
 arrive at the conclusion that the varying returns are in 
 reality more nearly equal than what they are generally 
 accounted. 
 
 ^ No argument will be required to convince you that, 
 if the expenses of training for all businesses were identical, 
 the same qualities necessary in all, and the chances of 
 success equal in all, the rewards would be equal ; and 
 the equally cogent corollary is, when the differences 
 indicated are allowed for, the rewards are in all cases 
 practically equal. The third-rate professional man earns 
 no more than, if as much as, the first-class artisan, and 
 the extra emoluments of those who secure the leading 
 positions in the profession are simply the returns for extra 
 skill, and compensation for extra expenses, with perhaps 
 a small percentage for the confidence in their own powers 
 which induced them to enter upon a profession which 
 numbered considerably more failures than successes 
 amongst its members. This, it may be said, does not
 
 THE COMBINATIONS. 53 
 
 take sufficient cognisance of the chances to which many 
 apparently owe their success, rather than to any intrinsic 
 merit ; but in an advanced civilisation it is impossible to 
 deprive individuals of the accidental advantages of position 
 and claims resting more on the merits of friends than 
 on their own. 
 
 The man of no ability, however, no matter what his 
 original opportunities may have been, will not for long 
 remain ahead of the better qualified, and in a country 
 where there is a constant blending of classes, the high- 
 est positions being alike open to all, and the performance 
 of duty with fidelity and capacity being the sole requisite, 
 he who possesses genuine qualifications will find a 
 market for them. The discernment of the world is 
 generally fairly correct, and progress is not due to a 
 systematic selection of those least adapted for the places 
 of power. 
 
 The units of any society, therefore, combine under 
 certain definite and well understood legal laws, which 
 restrict natural tendencies that would be inimical to 
 the general welfare of the combination. These restric- 
 tions at first confine themselves exclusively to the most
 
 54 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 palpably necessary conditions of the permanency of 
 association, such as individual liberty, only limited by 
 recognition of equal liberty in the other members ; the 
 inviolability of personal property, and, from an early 
 date, the agreement to concede a right to continuation 
 of occupancy in land. The units start equal, but, being 
 placed in different situations, develop in unequal degrees; 
 some, being careless and improvident, become dependent 
 upon the more thrifty members of the community, and 
 by necessity sell their birthright for the metaphorical 
 mess of pottage. While, as a whole, the entire com- 
 bination would be animated by a single purpose on 
 questions concerning their rights in opposition to the 
 rights of other combinations, there would be questions of 
 internal policy upon which they would take the most 
 diverse views. The community, in short, would be split 
 up into separate parts, and the rights of the part to which 
 the individual belonged, in contradistinction to the rights 
 of other parts, would appear to him the most essential 
 consideration. These class distinctions would distort 
 judgment, and the apparent inequity of lots would 
 foster discontent. The inexorable laws, owing to which
 
 THE COMBINATIONS. 55 
 
 they exist, being little understood, attempts in the nature 
 of them ineffectual would be made to minimise their 
 seemingly harsh effects. So long as man remains essenti- 
 ally the creature he is, failure must follow all such 
 efforts, as material affairs move in such a cycle that the 
 reduction of pressure in one direction but increases it 
 in another, and nothing really beneficial can be secured 
 except by a revolution in the moral nature of man, for 
 with his present distinctive traits no essentially different 
 form of aggregation is possible. It is, indeed, in the 
 moral improvement of men that we can alone look for 
 regeneration, and if a time should dawn when all should 
 realise that they were their brothers' keepers, the effect 
 on life would be incalculable. No longer would they 
 pursue their own careers in entire oblivion to the con- 
 sequences upon others, but a new spirit, grander than 
 anything conceived of by the loftiest chivalry, would 
 prevail ; the most austere features of life would be 
 softened, and the lime would probably not be far dis- 
 tant when " earth would reach its earthly best."
 
 LABOUR.
 
 I speak without prejudice, for I am still an honorary mem- 
 ber of the Union, which, while working at my trade, I always 
 supported. But, see : The methods by which a Trade Union 
 can alone act, are necessarily destructive : its organisation is 
 necessarily tyrannical. A strike, which is the only recourse by 
 which a Trade Union can enforce its demands, is a destructive 
 contest. 
 
 These combinations, therefore, are necessarily destructive of 
 the very things which workmen seek to gain through them 
 wealth and freedom. 
 
 HENRY GEORGE.
 
 LABOUR. 
 
 LABOUR is the precursor and producer of all we call 
 wealth, the accumulation and distribution of which is a con- 
 dition of civilisation. Communities of men co-operating 
 for protection by the necessarily limited area to which 
 they would confine themselves, would not long be able 
 to exist on the spontaneous offerings of Nature, but 
 would have forced upon them the problem of increasing 
 her gifts by judicious methods of cultivation, and for this 
 purpose would quickly discover the importance of pre- 
 paring suitable appliances for facilitating their labour. 
 Naturally, therefore, a differentiation of employment would 
 early take place, and its increasing minutiae would be 
 suggested by every demand for increased production 
 which would follow the growth in numbers of the 
 community. As men became more cosmopolitan, an 
 interchange of the products of different areas would 
 
 ensue, and the means of transit would give rise to 
 
 59
 
 60 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 another kind of labour, while the management of the 
 internal and external commerce of the community would 
 gradually devolve upon a certain class, who, while not 
 actually producers, yet rendered such indispensable 
 services to producers, as to fully compensate for the 
 profit they made, and left the producers in reality safer 
 than they would have been, had they attended to the 
 duty of exchange themselves. In the early stages, all 
 would receive only that which their services were valued 
 at by the community, and each would be recognised 
 as having an indubitable right to this. The same principle 
 still prevails, but as population is in old countries very 
 dense, the services of many could be dispensed with, 
 but they have to be supported out of the joint-pro- 
 duction of the community ; and as most of them consider 
 it degrading to accept charity when they are willing 
 and able to give labour for their maintenance, we have 
 a keen competition for the productive employments, 
 and a consequent willingness to undersell each others 
 labour. This means simply that in a highly civilised 
 country, labour by the aid of mechanism is rendered 
 so effective, that there are great numbers whose services,
 
 LABOUR. 6 1 
 
 be they ever so efficient tradesmen, are practically 
 valueless to the community, owing to the fact that the 
 whole of the wants could be supplied with less workers, 
 and the surplus merely diminishes the return of labour, 
 either actively or passively ; actively by competing so 
 keenly amongst themselves for obtaining employment : 
 passively by living on the voluntary or enforced charity 
 of the other citizens. This competition, it may be urged, 
 so reduces the cost of goods, as to bring them more with- 
 in the reach of all classes ; but this is only the case so 
 long as an export trade is engaged in ; for if the country 
 was isolated, the reduced value would be of no con- 
 sequence, as it would be of universal application, and 
 the cheaper goods would be accompanied by the lessened 
 value of labour and greatly restricted demand, which 
 indeed it would indicate. It is in this way that the 
 natural value of labour ceases to exist, and a point 
 is reached where every increase of workers is disadvan- 
 tageous, unless as in our own country, where they can 
 be occupied in producing manufactured goods for 
 the more recently settled countries. Were it not for 
 this factor in the problem, the full effects of the Mai-
 
 62 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 thusian doctrine would long since have been ex- 
 perienced by all the old countries, who, undoubtedly, by 
 no system of husbandry, could sustain the increasing 
 numbers which their favouring conditions have called 
 into being. 
 
 The natural value of labour is, of course, the increased 
 usefulness for human needs impressed on the material 
 on which it is expended, but its limit is the effective 
 demand, and where this does not exist, labour may be 
 plentiful, but it is not valuable, and the point may be 
 reached where in a particular direction it is valueless. 
 In the early stages of society, and where there was no 
 necessity for man to confine himself to one department 
 of labour, but where it was possible for him to provide 
 for all the wants of his life, with its Arcadian simplicity, 
 labour could only become differentiated by an agree- 
 ment, tacit or otherwise, to exchange results of labour, and 
 the natural standard of exchange would be the time 
 occupied in production. When specialisation, however, 
 had continued for a length of time, and aptitudes for 
 special tasks were discovered, and the different rates of 
 efficiency of men at the same employments realised,
 
 LABOUR. 63 
 
 this would gradually change, and the standard of exchange 
 would become the time occupied by the least effective 
 worker, every degree of superiority receiving by the 
 effect of its greater productiveness an enhanced value. 
 This would enable the more expert to accumulate 
 reserves where the desire of doing so existed, and after 
 a time, those of less ability in their avocations would 
 probably, through some misfortune, be obliged to apply 
 to them for the use of a portion of these reserves, for 
 which, naturally, they would be prepared to give some 
 compensation. This compensation, with their higher 
 efficiency, and possibly greater frugality, would soon 
 place them in a position in which they could exist with- 
 out the necessity of making any exertion, and as soon 
 as the method of production under civilisation demanded 
 the use of improved appliances, it is to them we would 
 be indebted for the means of responding. This 
 service they would only undertake if there was a suffi- 
 cient likelihood of their being able to secure a favour- 
 able return for the risk and trouble ; and the conditions 
 would rapidly alter from every man being his own em- 
 ployer, to one undertaking to provide ''the machinery
 
 64 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 necessary for the new requirements, take the risk of 
 the work being satisfactory, and guarantee a certain 
 rate of wages to those who worked for him, no matter 
 how the venture terminated. The wages he could pay 
 would be determined by the value to the community 
 of the labour expended, and generally he would be 
 able to pretty accurately forecast what this would be. 
 In fact, in his ability to do so his success would largely 
 depend ; but no matter what miscalculations he might 
 make, he, and not his workers, would have to bear 
 the consequences. The great increase of production 
 which would follow upon the adoption of mechanism 
 driven by power, would reduce the value of the pro- 
 ducts, but so increase the quantity that a relatively 
 high rate of wages would still be possible. Now, the 
 differentiation of employments depending upon a tacit 
 agreement to exchange products in their marketable 
 ratios, it is apparent that every invention of labour- 
 saving machinery everywhere benefits labourers by re- 
 ducing the marketable values, and so placing a much 
 larger supply within the reach of all. It is also clear 
 that the greatly increased efficiency of labour by
 
 LABOUR. 65 
 
 machinery, with an increasing population, may lead to 
 over-production, for this starts when the effective de- 
 mand ceases, which it is quite as likely to do through 
 production taking plaee on such a large and effective 
 scale as to cause comparatively little employment for 
 men, as through the absence of actual consumers. Up 
 till this time the equity of conditions is admitted, but 
 with its arrival labour troubles begin, and in the din 
 of industrial warfare, all the harmony which used to 
 exist between master and man is destroyed. Interested 
 demagogues, incapable of understanding the factors of 
 the problem, fan to fury the feelings of the men, by the 
 sweat of whose brow these " lilies of the field, who toil 
 not, neither do they spin," are supported. The con- 
 ception of some irreconcilable enmity between capital 
 and labour is instilled into their minds, which a fair 
 consideration of the case will prove fallacious, and un- 
 natural interference with the freedom of labour is re- 
 sorted to, but they are vain and impotent of good 
 results. 
 
 The first attempt, I believe, in England, at dealing 
 
 with the labour problem, was a governmental one, and 
 
 E
 
 66 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 was inspired by the decimation of the population which 
 took place at the great plague. This rendered labour 
 so scarce that it was considered that a legal restriction 
 must be fixed to prevent capitalists being ruined by 
 the exorbitant demand of the labourers. As might have 
 been expected, its action was inoperative owing to the 
 fact that when a man wanted work done, although a 
 legal limit to what he might openly pay was fixed, he 
 did not hesitate to make a present, if doing so accom- 
 plished his object, and a specially good man was al- 
 ways certain of getting his superiority compensated for by 
 the same means. The futility of the act being thus 
 demonstrated, it was repealed, to the general satisfac- 
 tion, and since then until comparatively recent days, 
 the private right of contract has been recognised in 
 respect of labour as in other matters; but we seem 
 again on the verge of most extensive governmental inter- 
 ference. Absolute freedom between labour and capital 
 in an advanced state of civilisation is conceived by 
 labourers to be unbearable ; and long before the full 
 effects of the inexorable struggle for survival is ex- 
 perienced, they combine amongst themselves to extort
 
 LABOUR. 67 
 
 more favourable terms from capital. In so far as these 
 trades' organisations are concerned, they adopt the 
 Malthusian doctrine, and by limiting the number per- 
 mitted to enter the given trade, ensure, by reason of the 
 lessened competition, the maintenance of a relatively 
 high standard of wages. To this, those who are ad- 
 mitted to the trades can have no objection, but it presses 
 hardly upon the equally deserving members of society, 
 who are excluded and forced into other callings for 
 which they may have less aptitude and less inclination. 
 Many, indeed, are by these restrictive measures forced 
 into the ranks of the unskilled labourers, although they 
 may inherently be of very superior parts to those who 
 become tradesmen, and the time may come when they 
 will impinge upon the restrictive barrier with such force 
 as to destroy it. The tactics of Trade Unions are 
 such as must finally conduce to their overthrow ; their 
 rules being unelastic in regard to the merits of the 
 workers, the tendency is to deteriorate all to the level 
 of the least efficient that has secured admission to their 
 ranks. This is a natural consequence of their rules 
 fixing the minimum rate of wages for the trade which
 
 68 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 necessitates the fixing of the standard day's work, and 
 this cannot exceed the capacity of the most inferior work- 
 men. A man having special facility in executing the 
 work, is prohibited from its exercise, lest his neighbours 
 should be slaved, that is, forced to try to equal him. 
 The putting forth of his best powers, so far from bring- 
 ing reward, would then subject him to contumely, so 
 they are not called into play, the man degenerates, the 
 incentive to excel is withdrawn, and all are reduced to 
 a dead level of inferiority. 
 
 The important point to the tradesman is that he gains 
 admission to the Union, for without this he will not, 
 no matter how capable, be permitted to exercise his 
 calling. This compels him to contribute a certain per- 
 centage of his wages weekly to sustain those drones, who, 
 when trade is at all dull, cannot obtain employment 
 anywhere ; it also aids in supporting a staff of officials 
 who find it much more remunerative to manage the 
 Union than to follow their legitimate occupation. Occa- 
 sionally these officials, to justify their existence, command 
 a strike which all, no matter how reluctant, have to 
 obey. For a few weeks the men receive about half
 
 LABOUR. 69 
 
 pay for walking about idle; the funds which should 
 have been preserved for their maintenance in illness, 
 or benefit to their families after death, being wasted, 
 additional levies being called for when they return to 
 employment after what their officials will be prepared 
 to assure them is a substantial victory, but two of such 
 victories in immediate succession would be destruction. 
 The appearance of success attending strikes is entirely 
 illusionary. There is no inherent enmity between 
 capital and labour, though the rules of unions have 
 contributed greatly to friction and done much to destroy 
 the friendly feeling which we are assured did prevail 
 before their formation. The rate that can be paid for 
 work is determined by the effective demand for the 
 products of that work, and when this for a time has 
 been specially brisk, the competition for workers to 
 increase the output left to its natural action would 
 ensure high wages being paid exactly in proportion to 
 the increased price which could be obtained for the 
 goods, as every addition to the productive capacity 
 would add to the profit. A reaction setting in owing 
 to many preferring to do without the goods, or where
 
 70 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 they are absolute necessaries, with a decreased quantity, 
 cheaper rates would necessarily ensue that orders might 
 be secured, and these cheaper rates could only be 
 conceded by reducing cost of production. No matter 
 what price is obtained for any article, it must be more 
 than the cost of production, or its manufacture will cease ; 
 this is an absolute condition of production, as capital 
 will not be risked unless there is this prospect of 
 compensation. 
 
 A special part of the cost of production is wages, and 
 any reduction in the value of goods must affect them, 
 and the object of Trade Unions is to arrest this natural 
 action. This can only be accomplished by a strike 
 against the employers' proposals, and occasionally this 
 appears to be crowned with success, and after work 
 has ceased for a certain time, a compromise is arrived 
 at or the proposal altogether abandoned. 
 
 A great triumph is declared to have been achieved, and 
 the usefulness of unions and their necessity to counteract 
 the power of capital is considered as established. The 
 real fact, however, is that the cessation of work having 
 reduced the stock of goods in the market, a renewed
 
 LABOUR. 71 
 
 demand at better prices springs up, and just in proper 
 tion to the duration of the strike can the manufacturer 
 afford to forego the reduction that was proposed. He 
 then appears by abandoning his first position to have 
 originally been making an excessive claim, but in reality 
 it is always immaterial to him what he pays so long as 
 he knows, when entering on his engagements, what 
 will be expected of him. It is this want of security in 
 rates which really harasses him and embarrasses his 
 movements, and makes him on all occasions oppose the 
 actions of the unions. The minimum of profits on 
 capital in ordinary business has long since been reached, 
 and where excessive profits are realised it is owing to 
 monopolies, or special knowledge, or perhaps the business 
 being of a character which requires such immense capital 
 as makes its undertaking so prohibitive as to establish a 
 sort of monopoly. 
 
 There is yet another factor in the question of wages in 
 the closed trades or professions. It will be at once ap- 
 parent that there cannot be such a thing as an all round 
 increase of wages. These can only be increased in 
 relation to each other, as a universal increase would be
 
 ?2 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 destructive of advantage to anyone, and, in fact, in the 
 nature of things is impracticable. The cost of all products 
 depending, as we have seen, most largely on wages, their 
 increase means increased market prices, which, if there 
 are only two or three trades affected, ensure the labour 
 of its members exchanging for the labour of other 
 members in a higher ratio ; but if the advance is partic- 
 ipated in all round it is clear that an all round increase 
 in market prices follows, and the ratios of exchange would 
 be unaffected. Increase of wages therefore is a relative 
 term, and can only be experienced by a few trades 
 at the expense of the remainder of society to a greater 
 extent than the increase, because the additional capital 
 would carry greater interest and so far injuriously 
 affect other trades in more than its apparent advantages 
 to the employees. 
 
 The recent attempt to federate all trades into one 
 inclusive combination is deserving of the highest com- 
 mendation, in so far as the actuating motive is concerned, 
 and it also indicates an awakening on the part of the 
 unions to the fact that the advantages which indivi- 
 dual trades gain by organisation is at the expense of
 
 LABOUR. 73 
 
 their fellow-workers. The idea of federating all trades 
 is an attempt at conserving their own interests without 
 other trades suffering ; but if the advocates of the plan 
 gave it their full consideration, they would see that 
 while by combination they may raise the nominal rates 
 of wages to anything they please that its members may 
 work for, yet as it will apply to all trades, the market 
 price of all products would be proportionately enhanced, 
 and so the only advantage would be in dealing with larger 
 sums of money. 
 
 The greatest difficulty in the labour problem is the 
 numbers of willing workers who are from time to time 
 unable to find employment, and many have been the 
 suggestions for remedying this state of things. There can 
 be no doubt that there is nothing more melancholy in the 
 whole of civilised life than the appearance of men who 
 can find no work to do, but it is difficult to see how this 
 can be remedied. In our country the first principle 
 recognised by Government is that all the inhabitants shall 
 be fed and clothed, and to accomplish this end the right 
 is reserved of forcing the more fortunate to contribute to 
 their less fortunate brethren's support. Of course there
 
 74 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 are many whose spirits recoil from the idea of living on 
 charity enforced or otherwise, and for their especial benefit 
 it is urged that the Government should undertake manu- 
 facturing work, and so guarantee employment. Those 
 who advocate this plan reply to the objection of Govern- 
 ment competing with private enterprise that they might 
 pay less than the customary wages of the trade, so that 
 men would only come to them under the stress of circum- 
 stances. This might be less charity in appearance, but 
 would not be so in reality, as such works could only be 
 continued by abstracting from the pockets of the other 
 members of the community the requisite financial assist- 
 ance to keep them going ; they would constantly be 
 taken advantage of by the poorest class of workmen 
 whom a private employer would not keep, and as the only 
 reason why a given trade declines is because of lessened 
 demand for its products, there never being any insuffi- 
 ciency of capital if a profit is to be made, it is clear Govern- 
 ment could not create a demand unless by placing the 
 articles on the market at a price which would destroy the 
 business of those who still continued in it. The only 
 work which Government can properly undertake would
 
 LABOUR. 75 
 
 be improvement of roads, harbours, or the constructing 
 of the appliances for national defence where they would 
 not be competing with private enterprise, and these they 
 can only undertake by raising the necessary funds 
 amongst the members of the community. x 
 
 Within the last few years a demand has gone forth 
 for legalising the number of working hours, and probably 
 we shall ere long have a Government in power with a 
 mandate from the people to enact an eight hours day. 
 Such, it is argued, would, by reducing the individual 
 production, increase the numbers required to supply the 
 existing demand, and so remove a great number of the 
 unemployed from our midst ; while quite recently the 
 paradox has been started that it would not decrease 
 production, as quite as much work would be done in 
 eight hours as in nine hours. If it decreased production, 
 wages would have to be decreased in proportion if the 
 demand was to continue, and if it did not decrease 
 production it would not afford additional employment, 
 which is a principal argument for its adoption. The 
 
 1 If undertaken on a large scale in a limited time, these would so 
 increase the burden of taxation as to cause great and general hardship.
 
 76 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 natural tendency would be a decreased quantity of work, 
 and in the absence of some mechanical improvements, 
 the price of goods on the market would inevitably 
 advance, and probably a restricted demand follow. If 
 it did not do so, and wages remained intact, as it is the 
 producers who are the largest consumers, they would 
 have to pay a greater price for their requirements, which 
 would mean an actual loss. The recent experiment 
 of Messrs. Mather & Platt with the eight hours day has 
 greatly strengthened the position of those who advocate 
 it, but in reality it is little to the point. The experiment 
 was admittedly undertaken as a test with the co-operation 
 of the Trades Societies, and it is not difficult to under- 
 stand that the men would one and all be animated with 
 the desire of bringing it to a successful issue. There 
 would also be active in this case the feelings of gratitude 
 to the employers who were sufficiently spirited to make 
 the test in face of their other competitors adhering to 
 the old rules, and if under such circumstances good 
 results were not obtained, they never would be. The 
 whole case would be different, however, in an enforced 
 experiment, and where competition was against con-
 
 LABOUR. 77 
 
 tinental nations who already work much longer hours 
 at less money. 
 
 Reduced working hours means reduced wages or 
 increased prices of goods, which would have identical 
 effects so far as home trade is concerned, but would 
 tend to restrict foreign trade ; and if in their desire to 
 obviate this natural result an act was passed making it 
 illegal to increase price of goods or reduce wages, it 
 would be impossible to compel capitalists to continue 
 in the business and incur all the attendant risks, and 
 hence trade would leave our shores and settle where a 
 more practical, if less benevolently inclined, Government 
 prevailed. Legislative interference with the private 
 concerns of the people can be productive of no advan- 
 tages, and when pushed to its logical limits is sure to 
 result disastrously, no matter how well intended. 
 
 Trades Unionism therefore appears to be but an abor- 
 tion of economics, powerless to improve the position of 
 any trade except at the expense of the rest of the com- 
 munity, and absolutely valueless if generally adopted. 
 As at present advocated, it is destructive of the 
 best interests of the rising generation, repressing much
 
 78 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 talent that would be highly advantageous to the com- 
 munity if allowed to find its proper level. It dimin- 
 ishes the income of the members, and elects some 
 to positions which can only be retained by the 
 manufacture of grievances, in which, indeed, they show 
 fair facility. Chimeras are created and discussed by the 
 councils, and in an elective Government like our own 
 the necessity of public men to conform to the opinion 
 of these organisations leads to some wonderfully illogical 
 schemes being publicly advocated. In fact so little in- 
 dependent thought is there on the subjects, that the 
 resolution of a Trades Society is taken as fixing for all 
 time the fundamental rules. This may be a proof of 
 power and influence which its members may well be 
 proud of; but the fanciful grievances, and absurd resolu- 
 tions which are carried out in their names are powerless 
 to affect permanently the natural laws upon which alone 
 intercourse can continue.
 
 CAPITAL.
 
 This is a free country. The labourer's son may become 
 President ; poor boys of to-day will be millionaires thirty or 
 forty years from now, and millionaires' grandchildren will 
 probably be poor. What more can be asked ? If a man has 
 energy, industry, prudence and foresight, he may win his way 
 to great wealth. If he has not the ability to do this he must 
 not complain of those who have. 
 
 HENRY GEORGE Social Problems.
 
 CAPITAL. 
 
 Capital does not supply or advance wages, as is erroneously 
 taught. Capital does not maintain labourers during the pro- 
 gress of their work, as is erroneously taught. Capital therefore 
 does not limit industry, as is erroneously taught. 
 
 HENRY GEORGE. 
 
 No more positive statements of what capital does not do 
 is possible, and if they truly represent the case, the 
 influence which capitalists have exercised, and exercise 
 in the business of the world, is without any just founda- 
 tion, and should most certainly not be tolerated. If 
 the vast industrial undertakings which characterise our 
 time can be accomplished without capital ; if labourers 
 are not maintained by it during the progress of their 
 work, and do not even require advances from it, the 
 capitalists must be sorcerers to secure the acquiescence 
 of Society to the positions they occupy. 
 
 If capital performs none of these services which have 
 
 been considered its special function?, it is surprising that 
 
 81 F
 
 32 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 so many have been always content to be its servants, 
 seeing that they would be so much freer by becoming 
 their own masters ; and capital not being requisite, no 
 barriers would exist. Practical men know the fallacy of 
 these negative assertions, and if you ask a man why he 
 does not embark in business for himself, his reply will be 
 having no money. When carrying on business on a 
 certain scale, and you suggest an extension, the reply is 
 probably still want of capital, giving in these few words a 
 most conclusive indication of the limiting effect on 
 industry which the want of it occasions. 
 
 There is, however, enough truth, not in the statements, 
 but in the ingenious and specious arguments by which 
 they are supported to supply the propagandist of Socialism 
 with popular if unfounded declamations against the 
 existing social organisation. Capitalists are considered 
 modern " lilies of the field, who toil not, neither do they 
 spin," and yet they are arrayed in costly apparel and 
 live in the greatest luxury, while the poor drudges who 
 really produce all the wealth are content with fustian 
 and the plainest fare. This, they say, is due to the erron- 
 eous teaching of political economy which, since its first
 
 CAPITAL. 83 
 
 scientific analysis of society, has declared that capital 
 has been advancing to labour the means of subsistence, 
 which is a most palpable fallacy ; the fact being that it 
 is labour which advances to capital the results of its 
 exertions for a week or a month ere it receives any re- 
 turns. Take, say they, the stock of a manufacturer at 
 the beginning of a week, when, say, he has ^"1,000 in 
 the bank and ^"10,000 stock, and take his stock again 
 at the end of the week after he has paid ^250 in wages, 
 and is he poorer or richer? Is it not a fact that not- 
 withstanding his outlay he is really richer, for the ^250 
 he has paid has added an increased value of ,280 or 
 ,300 at least to his stock. This all looks very well, 
 and may sometimes be correct, but sometimes it may be 
 quite the reverse. Accidents may happen during the 
 week which will destroy the profits that should have 
 accrued, failures may occur, a fire may take place which 
 will sweep away occasionally the net results of a life's toil, 
 or an anarchist in the now fashionable recreation of his 
 class may throw a bomb into it, destroying the work 
 partially or entirely. In the event of any such unlooked- 
 for incidents, how about his position at the end of the
 
 84 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 week? Will the workman return the wages which he 
 received, and for which no return has been obtained by the 
 capitalist ? Verbally, of course, the contention is correct, 
 but it must be apparent to the meanest understanding 
 that the reason of the capitalist not pre-paying for the 
 work to be performed by his men is the uncertainty that 
 would in that case prevail of it being done at all. The 
 labourer knows the capitalist cannot abscond, and that his 
 wages will be a first charge on his estate, no matter what 
 misfortunes may overtake him, and so he can perform his 
 task with confidence in his wages being forthcoming ; 
 but no such security would be possible for the capitalist 
 did he advance the wages. Besides which, it must surely 
 be admitted that the operations on which capital is 
 employed are of such magnitude that the value added by 
 labour is unrealisable for weeks, or may be months, after 
 the labour has been expended on it, during the whole 
 of which time it is subjected to all risks fire, accidents, 
 water, the act of God, and the Queen's enemies, as 
 the Bills of Lading phrase it, and if overtaken by any of 
 these no reparation is possible. It will be seen, there- 
 fore, that in works of consequence at least capital is
 
 CAPITAL 85 
 
 necessary and indispensable in fact, and this particularly 
 for the maintenance of labourers during not only the 
 increasing of the value of material by labour, but up till 
 it receives a marketable form. Not only this, but the 
 subdivision of labour is now so great that a single cap- 
 italist rarely undertakes all the processes necessary for 
 producing a finished article from the raw material, but 
 only deals with it in one or two operations, and then 
 passes it on to the next specialist in the ascending scale. 
 Now it is evident that those engaged in the operations 
 approaching the final form of the material, have to find 
 not only the capital to pay their own workers while 
 engaged in their part of the production, but they have 
 also to repay the wages of the whole army of workers 
 that have been employed at it in all the preceding 
 stages, and his ability to do so is the sine qua non of 
 his continuance and success in the business, so that the 
 extent of his operations is distinctly dependent upon 
 his resources in the matter of capital. For instance, 
 the linen manufacturer buying flax, pays a proportion 
 of the wages of the machinist who made the plough 
 and other implements; he pays for the seed and the sow-
 
 86 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 ing, the cost of transit, etc., and all this with a profit 
 before he can put his own work on it. In purchasing 
 the raw material necessary for the constructing of 
 engines and machines, the engineer pays the wages of 
 the miners, the smelters and the refiners, the cost of 
 rolling or forging it into the required form, and the 
 whole host of incidental expenses involved in its ex- 
 traction from the bowels of the earth, its preparation 
 and its conveyance to the place where he is going to ex- 
 pend his labour, rather a large undertaking, and 
 certainly impossible of performance without the aid of 
 capital. Similar series of consequential expenditure of 
 capital might be given in all of what are called produc- 
 tive trades ; and in those intermediate trades that devote 
 themselves to the facilitating of exchange, and which may 
 be said to act as a sort of flywheel, absorbing within 
 themselves the produce of the others, and giving it out 
 gradually and uniformly as required. In the absence of 
 capital, these accumulations of productions could not 
 exist, and production under the conditions of civilised 
 life would be impossible. This does not limit industry 
 to the extent of saying that labour cannot be exerted
 
 CAPITAL. 87 
 
 without previous accumulations, which is Mr. Henry 
 George's conception of the proposition that the main- 
 tenance of labour is drawn from capital. All that it 
 means is that where these accumulations are not present, 
 labour is necessarily of the crudest and least specialised 
 character, possessing a very low rate of efficiency, and 
 barely sufficing to maintain life certainly incompat- 
 ible with the creation of a surplus, and inimical to 
 material progress, which entirely depends upon the in- 
 creased efficacy of labour which is secured by reserves. 
 The whole of Mr. George's misrepresentation or mis- 
 conception of the functions and importance of capital 
 originates in his assumption that " Society in its most 
 highly developed form is but an elaboration of society 
 in its rudest beginnings, and that principles obvious in 
 the simplest relations of men are merely disguised and 
 not abrogated or reversed by the more intricate relations 
 that result from the division of labour and the use of 
 complex tools and methods." It is not in any way re- 
 markable that such a conception of the permanency in 
 action of principles in all stages of society should give 
 birth to novel doctrines. It is one thing to assert that
 
 88 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 the governing principles are identical in all positions, 
 but quite another that their application is unchanging. 
 While there can be no dispute about the first assertion, 
 it is undeniable that the second the application is 
 entirely a question of the relationship existing amongst 
 the social units, and does not exist prior to association. 
 In the simplest as in the most complex relations of men 
 the principle of justice is necessary to be recognised, 
 but the requirements of justice are not the same in both 
 cases. Justice, which is the most essential requisite of 
 society, is society's own creation, and is modified by 
 every exigency in the progress of society. It consists 
 primarily in the preserving of the general welfare of 
 the community, and secondarily in the preserving of 
 the best interests of each individual, allowing to each 
 the fullest liberty consistent with these essentials. Con- 
 sequently, in its rudest beginnings, the ability to defend 
 the selected district from the incursions of equally rude 
 and less settled communities is the test of permanency 
 and the measure of security, and the compelling of each 
 to be trained for conflict is expedient and is just ; but 
 in its later developments, and when dangers of this
 
 CAPITAL. 89 
 
 character are of less frequent occurrence, and the 
 necessity of providing for the animal wants of the com- 
 munity become a most important and exacting task, 
 it is more expedient, and therefore more just, to arrange 
 for the defence to be undertaken by a part, and so 
 leave the other free to follow particular social and pro- 
 ductive avocations. As in all stages it is necessary to 
 provide for protection, so it is just when a certain 
 portion is relieved from the necessity of attending to 
 this duty, to compel them to contribute to it monetarily, 
 whatever may be their opinion as to the propriety of 
 warfare in general, or the advisability of any particular 
 engagement. It would be unjust to the rest of the com- 
 munity to allow the personal opinions of this part to 
 be urged as a reason for exclusion from taxation, or to 
 endanger the general safety in deference to their whims. 
 It is, in all cases, just to compel men to conform to 
 the laws of the society of which they are members, no 
 matter what their attitudes in regard to the constructing 
 of them may have been ; the wisdom of the majority 
 having decided that they are the most conducive to the 
 general welfare, no dissentients can be tolerated, as such
 
 90 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 would be destructive of the safety and the convenience 
 of the greatest part which must receive the first con- 
 sideration. In civilised society very many conditions 
 may exist which have been of very gradual growth, and 
 provided to meet exigencies which have arisen in the 
 life of society, which exigencies may have long since 
 passed away, but the conditions they gave birth to 
 continue, and to remove them might be more destruc- 
 tive of the true interests of society than the acquiescence 
 which is extended to them by society in general. In 
 this way we may find in the present application of 
 principles little similarity to the just considerations 
 which first decided their form ; but an abrupt alteration 
 to make them more in conformity with present ideas, 
 be they ever so correct in the abstract, would probably 
 loosen the cohesion of society by undermining the funda- 
 mental principles upon which it depends for continu- 
 ance. 
 
 In the earliest stages of society men must work that 
 they may eat ; in the most advanced the same essential 
 qualification is requisite. This is an example of identity 
 of principles, but under what vastly different conditions.
 
 CAPITAL. 91 
 
 In the first he probably builds his own house, makes his 
 own wearing apparel, tills his own bit of ground, snares 
 his own game, and feeds his own flocks and herds, and 
 makes his own implements ; all within his own family. 
 In the advanced stages his operations are of a highly 
 specialised character, he confining himself to a single 
 occupation, or, where society is very highly developed, 
 often only a single part of one occupation, in which he 
 attains wonderful facility, and with the aid of the other 
 units, who perform the different portions of the work, 
 an amount of efficiency in production is attained which 
 is marvellous. It is indeed this specialising of work 
 which makes production in an advanced civilisation de- 
 pend on the amount of surplus available by which alone 
 the differentiated units can be supported while their 
 tasks are being accomplished and an exchange of the 
 results effected. For in the exchange value of the 
 results of their labour, more than on the labour exerted, 
 does the value of their work depend, and where effi- 
 ciency is very high it will induce a decreased exchange 
 value, but if the goods are absolute necessaries it will 
 place a greater supply within the reach of all. It is
 
 92 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 this which leads to overproduction, for the point is soon 
 reached where the increased goods are not required to 
 satisfy an effective demand, and workers could then 
 only be kept producing by decreasing wages or organis- 
 ing a gigantic scheme of charity which would have for 
 its object the satisfying of every demand of man, let 
 him make to the community a corresponding return 
 in services or not. The demands of the units of society 
 are great enough to absorb all possible production, but 
 so long as numbers are unwilling or unable to produce 
 goods of exchangeable value, so long must we have sin, 
 misery, and strife the natural offspring of sloth and 
 indulgence. There is therefore no parity between an 
 early and an advanced society. Viewed from a certain 
 standpoint, which is largely sentimental, the former 
 appears to possess many and incalculable advantages. 
 We have absolute freedom, no feeling of dependence 
 upon others, and a wild healthy life which would seem 
 to make existence real, in comparison with the effete 
 condition of civilised society. The former is certainly 
 more conducive to animal enjoyment, and in leaving it 
 behind them men leave for ever much of their most
 
 CAPITAL. 93 
 
 animal properties, but under civilisation they obtain 
 compensating advantages. They have greater security 
 with lessened personal dangers and risks ; they have the 
 pleasures of intercourse with their kind, and intercom- 
 munication with other countries ; they have increased 
 means of obtaining knowledge and absolute assurance 
 against starvation, which the accumulated reserves is a 
 guarantee of, and they usually are able to cope with 
 diseases or disasters in a more effectual way. The fact, 
 however, that there is a constant endeavour on the part 
 of mankind to develope into the higher life is a proof 
 of their belief in the advantages which it offers. 
 
 The want of capital must therefore be distinctly 
 admitted to form a limit to industry in civilised society, 
 and yet in reality in practice it rarely happens that it 
 does so now-a-days. The present material wealth of 
 the world is so great that there is at all times more 
 than enough capital ready for the exploiting of any 
 undertaking which can show a reasonable prospect of 
 success. In fact so anxiously are investments for capital 
 sought for that a very critical investigation into all the 
 facts is rarely held, and we see money subscribed freely
 
 94 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 in the furtherance of schemes which require the most 
 Micawber-like spirit to see the probability of success. 
 The first essential is security under the laws, and cer- 
 tainty of action in the laws. Mr. George very forcibly 
 describes the influence the want of this element exercises 
 in restricting trades, and cites the cases of Mexico and 
 Tunis, where insecurity of property prevents the ac- 
 cumulation necessary for developing their resources, and 
 deters the influx of capital from foreign nations which 
 the natural prospects would ensure. The same facts 
 have operated in all Oriental countries to the restriction 
 of their progress, notwithstanding that natural fertility 
 and favouring circumstances, combined with the aptitude 
 of the races, would with security suffice to make them 
 the most wealthy and enlightened in the world. The pos- 
 session of capital in them is not a protection but a danger, 
 and its concealment often essential to the preservation 
 of life ; hence every incentive to exertion more than what 
 is absolutely indispensable is withdrawn, and they remain 
 stationary. Similar results would undoubtedly follow in our 
 own country should the protection of law ever be withdrawn 
 from property and an attempt at communising it be made.
 
 CAPITAL. 95 
 
 In semi-civilised countries, therefore, it is the want 
 of security which limits industry, but in highly advanced 
 states of civilisation it is the want of effective demand 
 which operates. That there is a possible demand for 
 the labours of all humanity, aided by the most perfect 
 machinery that ingenuity can devise, is nothing to the 
 point. Our desires will give no stimulus to industry 
 unless when accompanied by the power of giving ex- 
 changeable value for what we desire, when they become 
 effective and creative of industry. In old countries, with 
 a congested population and highly improved machinery, 
 the power of labour is great, and the production of all 
 commodities is on such a comprehensive scale, that all re- 
 quirements are at very low rates ; but the very improve- 
 ment which accounts for these low rates reduces the 
 number requisite to produce the goods, and of necessity 
 leaves many unable to earn money for purchasing even 
 at the low rates current. This inexorable effect of im- 
 proved methods would be felt more keenly and earlier 
 were it not that there are, even in civilised countries, 
 always some undertakings to be carried out, which will, 
 it is considered, give such greater efficiency to labour, or to
 
 96 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 the transit of the results of labour, as will justify the ex- 
 penditure, and ensure a return on the capital requisite to 
 carry them out. Of such a nature are canals, railways, 
 bridges, and even the superior tools and appliances which 
 are constantly being designed for accelerating production. 
 Were it not for these and for the outlets of capital which 
 new countries afford, the limits of industry would long 
 since have been reached, as, notwithstanding what any 
 theorist may assert, not only is capital necessary for 
 carrying out production in modern society, but of equal, 
 if not of greater, importance is the existence of a suitable 
 object upon which it can be advantageously employed. It 
 is the increasing difficulty of finding such that causes 
 hardship in the midst of plenty, and as capitalists are 
 not professional philanthropists they do not feel called on 
 to invest when there is no prospect of a return for the 
 risk and the trouble, and who will say they should? 
 
 The functions of capital, and the power which it con- 
 fers upon its possessor, are but little correctly understood. 
 Every mountebank economist has got a theory of his own, 
 which he propounds to the multitude who are easily 
 collected to hear his shallow vapourings ; but the acme
 
 CAPITAL. 97 
 
 of verbal jugglery consists in asserting that labour exists 
 independent of capital, and that labourers are in reality 
 made its slaves without receiving any services from it 
 whatever. The fact that the labourer does put an en- 
 hanced value on the material does not establish this 
 conclusion, owing to his labour not being in a con- 
 sumable form, and, did the capitalist not advance him 
 the value of his labour, he would most frequently starve 
 before it was in a marketable form. There are a few 
 minor trades where this proposition may not be neces- 
 sarily true, but, speaking of the business of the world as 
 a whole, we are right in asserting that were it not for the 
 prudential considerations which led to the accumulation 
 of capital, its performance would be impossible, or if 
 possible, only so with great hardship. This capital is 
 being constantly consumed, and constantly replaced, 
 with a slight addition called profit to repay the owners 
 for risking its possession, by venturing to employ it 
 in the furtherance of the particular trade it is applied to. 
 No abnormal profits are made on capital, and, as in 
 the case of wages, the profits of all businesses tend to 
 
 minimum, and to uniformity. If it were otherwise, and 
 
 G
 
 98 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 some special trade, easy of access and for little risk, 
 offered exceptional advantages, a great influx of capital 
 to that trade would immediately ensue, and the consequent 
 competition would restore uniformity. Now, as capital 
 is destined for the payment of labourers, it follows that 
 their united wages will be theoretically proportional to 
 the capital available, and the rate of wages have a ratio 
 to the number of labourers seeking employment. As to 
 the first, as capital is now practically unlimited, there 
 is no restrictive barrier so far as it is concerned ; but 
 population being an ever increasing factor in a social 
 state, while the possible employment of labour is an 
 ever narrowing one, an undue competition for employ- 
 ment is almost certain to follow, with a constant tendency 
 for wages to fall below the natural minimum, and reach 
 the lowest point consistent with existence and the per- 
 formance of social duties. This tendency of population 
 to exceed the means of subsistence is called the Mal- 
 thusian doctrine, and although its full effect has never 
 yet been experienced in our country, there is no doubt 
 its truth is yearly becoming more apparent. The strong- 
 est arguments in favour of the doctrine have been little
 
 CAPITAL. 99 
 
 felt by us, owing to our being, but to a limited extent, 
 an agricultural people. This is the law of the diminish- 
 ing return of labour, which simply asserts the fact 
 that, as population does increase, and the earth is called 
 on to yield its fruits in greater abundance, it is less able 
 to do so owing to the virgin properties of the soil being 
 exhausted, and, therefore, a double amount of labour 
 does not mean a double produce, but a decreasing 
 ratio to the exertion. If improved methods of cultiva- 
 tion have been adopted for a length of time, the results 
 obtainable from additional labour are inconsiderable, and 
 only by further improvements in agricultural practice, and 
 the introduction of labour-saving appliances, can this 
 tendency to a diminishing return be minimised, and that 
 only to a given extent. 
 
 Now, as the land of any country and of the entire 
 world is a finite quantity, it is not difficult to see that 
 this points inevitably to a time when the earth would 
 no longer be able to sustain its ever-increasing millions, 
 if there were no restrictions to their multiplying power, 
 and it is the approach of this time which makes the 
 struggle for existence so keen at present, and in itself
 
 IOO SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 presents a natural barrier to the tendency of over-popula- 
 tion. Were it not for the great improvements in manu- 
 facturing industries which the last two centuries have 
 witnessed, the limits of industry would long ere this have 
 been reached. These improvements, by practically anni- 
 hilating distances and placing at our doors the necessaries 
 of life which have been raised thousands of miles away, 
 at prices lower than they could be grown in our thickly 
 populated land, have for a time postponed, but are 
 powerless to permanently remove, the consequence of this 
 inexorable law ; a law which, like a harsh and cruel 
 destiny, condemns millions of our race to the worst 
 forms of slavery, the greatest penury, the deepest de- 
 gradation, and the elimination of every noble and 
 generous sentiment which nature may have implanted 
 in their breasts. No wonder this spectacle has inspired 
 the best, the truest, the most intellectual of mankind, 
 to devote their lives and fortunes to the attempt to find 
 a way out of the wilderness of poverty, sin and suffering 
 by which humanity is surrounded. No wonder visionary 
 schemes have been propounded, but none too visionary 
 to obtain earnest and enthusiastic adherents, who, with
 
 CAPITAL. IOI 
 
 the fidelity of ancient crusaders, have consecrated life 
 and fortune to the establishment of a juster social order. 
 We must respect every noble thought and every generous 
 deed, even though we are convinced of the impossible 
 nature of the tasks they seek to accomplish, and by 
 demonstrating this may perhaps secure the dedication 
 of the talent to more feasible tasks than the quixotic 
 one in which it is engaged. 
 
 The statement that other things being equal, the 
 capital invested in all businesses brings the same return, 
 may seem a paradox and inconsistent with fact. Let a 
 comparison, however, be made of the agreeableness or dis- 
 agreeableness of particular methods of investment, their 
 comparative risk or safety, their magnitudes which may 
 sometimes give almost monopoly rates to those engaged 
 in them, and all the other factors, and its substantial 
 truth will be admitted. Were it otherwise, as I have 
 already said, and any trade with little training and 
 trouble gave exceptional returns, such an influx of 
 capital to it would occur as would soon induce the 
 normal level. The fact that immense fortunes are made 
 in trading, is not inconsistent with it, the explanation
 
 102 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 being that money makes money, and that a very small 
 percentage of profit on the capital required to conduct 
 the businesses in which men become millionaires, means 
 great annual increments. Couple with this the salary 
 earned for the special knowledge required to conduct 
 these businesses, and the occasional fortunate anticipation 
 of market movements, and we surely have a sufficient ex- 
 planation of the phenomenal wealth acquired, without any 
 undue profit from labour. As a proof of this, the firms 
 who amass the greatest wealth in the shortest time, 
 are not by any means those who are least generous 
 to their men, and, whoever heard of a bankrupt firm 
 who could attribute their reverses to excessive liberality 
 to their employees? It is no advantage to a manu- 
 facturer to pay a small rate of wages, rather the reverse, 
 as he as a rule only receives for the finished article 
 the cost of production, plus a small percentage for the 
 risk of his capital called interest. Therefore it follows 
 that so long as a demand is existing, the higher the 
 rate of wages, the greater the cost of production, and 
 the greater the amount of interest. The only reason 
 for reducing wages is to induce a demand where such
 
 CAPITAL. IO3 
 
 is non-existent or deficient in volume, and if workmen 
 cease production altogether for a time, it may serve the 
 same purpose in a different way by reducing the quan- 
 tity of manufactured goods, and so securing a demand 
 for a further supply which may obviate the necessity for 
 reducing wages. The only reason why the capitalist at 
 a given time is opposed to advancing wages, is that 
 before such is demanded he is committed to contracts 
 based on the existing cost of production, and every 
 increment means a loss to him of a portion of the 
 profit he was rightfully entitled to have on the under- 
 taking ; and when wages have advanced to a certain 
 point he is unable to get \vork to keep going until 
 actual want of employment brings a reaction in 
 wages, and a fresh demand is created at the reduced 
 standard of production. This return of work evokes 
 a fresh application for additional remuneration, so 
 that he is again mulcted of the prospective advantages 
 of his contracts, and they must be completed regard- 
 less of cost. This cycle of events has occurred with 
 such regularity, that no doubt the action of workmen 
 is anticipated in making new engagements ; but it
 
 IO4 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 would greatly simplify matters, and contribute to 
 harmony between employers and employees, if the 
 standard of wages was fixed absolutely for definite 
 periods say a year so that an exact knowledge of 
 the extent to which they might without speculation 
 commit themselves, would always be in the possession 
 of manufacturers. This would give confidence in making 
 contracts for forward dates, as approaching the time 
 of revision of wages, the tendency of demand would 
 enable a certain forecast of the probable rate which 
 would be arranged, and so minimise risk and remove 
 the appearance of conflicting interests. In reality, 
 capital and labour do not conflict in interests ; they 
 are subject to identical influences, and the law which 
 compels the labourers to compete amongst each other 
 for work, compels the capitalists to compete amongst 
 each other for the sale of the produce of that work. 
 In each case the minimum point is reached, and the 
 consumers the vast majority of which are workers 
 reap in the result of the competition between employers 
 compensatory advantages to what they lost in the 
 competition amongst their fellows. This, so long as the
 
 CAPITAL. 105 
 
 normal operation of events is not subject to unnatural 
 interference which secures undue advantages to certain 
 sections of workers. Capitalists are therefore seen to 
 be as powerless to evade the effects of competition as 
 labourers, and no matter what their personal desires 
 may be, they are forced under all ordinary circum- 
 stances to pay no more than the current rate, and they 
 will not be able to secure the services of men at less. 
 The question resolves itself into one of expediency, and 
 anything that a particularly benevolent employer might 
 feel disposed to give beyond the rate fixed by the com- 
 petition of labourers, or the standard adopted by the 
 Union in trades subject to its influence, would be much 
 better given as charity, because, being so allocated 
 without disguise, no return upon it would be looked for, 
 and the chance of securing business would not therefore 
 be imperilled.
 
 EQUALITY.
 
 You can't keep a dead level long if you burn everything 
 down flat to make it. Why, bless your soul, if all the cities of 
 the world were reduced to ashes, you'd have a new set of 
 millionaires in a couple of years or so out of the trade in potash. 
 In the meantime what is the use of setting the man with the 
 silver watch against the man with the gold watch, and the man 
 without any watch against them both ? 
 
 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Were the world composed of Saint Bernards or Saint 
 Dominies it would be equally odious, and at the end of a few 
 score years would cease to exist altogether. Would you haue 
 every man with his head shaved and every woman in a cloister 
 carrying out to the full the ascetic principle ? Would you have 
 conventicle hymns twanging from every lane in every city in 
 the world ? Would you have all the birds in the forest sing 
 one note and fly with one feather ? You call me sceptic 
 because I acknowledge what is ; and in acknowledging that, 
 be it linnet or lark or priest or parson, be it, I mean, any single 
 one of the infinite varieties of the creatures of God, I say that 
 the study and acknowledgment of that variety amongst men 
 especially increases our respect and wonder for the Creator, 
 Commander, and Ordainer of all these minds, so different 
 and yet so united meeting in a common adoration and 
 offering up, each according to his degree and means of 
 approaching the Divine centre, his acknowledgment of praise 
 and worship, each singing his natural song. 
 
 WM. THACKERAY History of Pendennis.
 
 EQUALITY. 
 
 LIBERTY, fraternity, equality are the shibboleths of popular 
 democracy, and are supposed to express the three essentials 
 of happy and contented existence. Liberty is a relative 
 term, its interpretation depending upon the progress 
 which men have made in the arts of civilisation, and 
 where this is considerable, the unrestrained freedom of 
 barbarism would not be liberty, but license. In a state 
 of refinement true liberty consists quite as much in 
 respecting the rights of others as in asserting our own, 
 and a general undue preponderance of the latter practice 
 would be destructive of society, and altogether incompatible 
 with the continued belief in the brotherhood of man, 
 which is a conception of advanced ethical attainments 
 popularised by the democratic orator. That all three, 
 when viewed from a given standpoint, express incontro- 
 vertible truths must be admitted, but when the standpoint 
 
 required to be assumed is inconsistent either with the 
 
 109
 
 110 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 present position of man, or inaccurate in regard to many 
 important aspects of his life, their practical value is 
 sensibly diminished. All are entitled to the fullest liberty 
 that the well-being of the other units of society will 
 permit, and if all had attained the moral elevation necessary 
 for the acceptance in its entirety of the doctrine of 
 fraternity, with all its corresponding duties and responsi- 
 bilities, it might conceivably be advantageous, but more 
 probably would be destructive of all enterprise. We 
 need not, however, investigate what the consequence 
 would be, because its adoption would mean such a 
 revolution of human nature as we are not justified in 
 anticipating this side of the bourn. 
 
 Religion and science are at one in asserting that all 
 men are of one flesh and blood, but so, too, in the opinion 
 of the most profound scientists, is the rest of the animal 
 creation ; but it does not therefore follow that they are 
 all equal. Shylock, in declaring the equality of Jews 
 and Christians, asks, " Hath not a Jew hands, organs, 
 dimensions, senses, affections, passions, fed with the same 
 food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same 
 diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled
 
 EQUALITY. 1 1 1 
 
 by the same winter and summer ? " If these constitute 
 equality, then not only all humanity, but the higher 
 types of the animal creation, are equal both in these 
 and in all their ultimate relations to the physical laws 
 of the universe. It would, however, be a far too hasty 
 generalisation to assume that because in these very 
 important essentials they are equal, they must or can 
 be equal throughout; in fact such an assumption carries 
 with it its own refutation. We know that whatever 
 may have been the capacity for equality " at the begin- 
 ning," no two human beings ever have been, nor in 
 the decrees of nature ever can be, circumstanced 
 exactly alike, so that infinite variety is ensured not 
 only in physical, but in mental and moral capabilities 
 of men, and each is of necessity a distinct personality. 
 Too much stress cannot be laid upon the fact, which 
 is as true in regard to the peer as the peasant, that 
 the positions we to-day occupy in the world have been 
 determined by the forces to which we owe our being 
 and the limitations by which we have been surrounded, 
 and we have had just as much control over these 
 as a puppet has over the showman. None of us have
 
 112 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 had the opportunity of exercising any selection either 
 as to the country in which we should be born or 
 the position we should occupy in life. Had we been 
 consulted in the matter, and by some superhuman means 
 a knowledge of the different conditions conveyed to us, it 
 is not likely our careers would have been the same ; but 
 so long as effect follows cause, so long must we be con- 
 tent to accept our lot, however arbitrary and unjust it 
 may at first sight appear. It must, too, be admitted 
 that it does at first sight appear both arbitrary and un- 
 just that a large portion of humanity should be doomed, 
 through no fault of their own, to be hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water, while a small percentage without ex- 
 ertion or apparently any moral, mental or physical 
 superiority should be fortune's favourites and possess 
 all the luxuries and conveniences which that fickle 
 dame can confer. No wonder this aspect of the ques- 
 tion, when fixed upon by those modern dreamers of 
 dreams and seers of visions to the exclusion of the 
 other factors in the problem of life, gives them an ex- 
 aggerated and distorted view of the lots of humanity, 
 and leads them to emulate the wisdom of the grumbling
 
 EQUALITY. 1 1 3 
 
 clown, who conceived that there was something wrong 
 which he could set right. 
 
 A partial view of human life does not enable us to 
 see any harmony or equity therein, and seems to induce 
 the belief that mortal man is more just than God, or 
 else such suffering as everywhere abounds would never 
 be permitted to continue in the universe. The actions 
 of modern reformers seem to imply a conviction that if 
 they had been taken behind the scenes and consulted 
 about the creation they could have given some hints 
 which would have ensured a juster and nobler social 
 order, for there is scarcely any existing institution which 
 they do not find fault with ; and as all institutions are 
 the necessary evolutions of the laws which were ordained 
 to rule and govern the world, it follows that the imper- 
 fections now discovered are directly due to primary 
 arrangements being wrong. We would never know half 
 the reasons there are for discontent with life had we 
 not a few demagogues to make them a special study, 
 and as each is able to suggest some improvement on 
 the original design, it is evident that from their point 
 of view at any rate it was far from perfect. One remedy
 
 114 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 for the existing inequality is to level all ranks and 
 to communise all property; for Jack being as good as 
 his master, must become his equal in station and in 
 fortune. The distinction between mine and thine 
 which since the dawn of civilisation up till the present 
 has been as a principle held inviolate, is to be ruthlessly 
 swept away, and the nineteenth century is to see the 
 revival of the "good old rule, the simple plan, that they 
 shall take who have the power and they shall keep who 
 can." By this means all traces of poverty, with its con- 
 comitant misery, will be removed from the world, and as 
 by a stroke of some mighty magician's wand, all external 
 inequalities will be abolished. Were it possible to give 
 effect to these day-dreams and establish this much- 
 lauded Utopia, the succeeding few months would exceed 
 in criminality, suffering and vice all the previous records 
 of humanity ; a power would be placed in the hands of 
 those unaccustomed to its use ; the greatest abuses would 
 prevail, and earth, so far from becoming the promised 
 paradise, would be a pandemonium. The equality which 
 would result from establishing a sameness in externals 
 would of necessity be of short duration ; the natural
 
 EQUALITY. 1 1 5 
 
 powers of men would reassert themselves, and, as pro- 
 gression and development go on unceasingly, men would 
 quickly find their levels again, and in a couple of years 
 or so the fittest would be carried to the surface and 
 become supreme. 
 
 If we lived in India or some other Oriental country 
 where the accident of birth fixed for all time our posi- 
 tion and avocation in life, where the rigid distinctions of 
 caste divided the various classes from each other, and 
 precluded the possibility of advancement in life no 
 matter what the ability, we could see a substantial reason 
 for discontent, and could understand and sympathise 
 with an agitation for the removal of this " birth's invidious 
 bar." Living, however, as we do, in a country where 
 the most absolute freedom consistent with the rights of 
 others is our birthright, where every calling and employ- 
 ment, so far as our laws and customs are concerned, is 
 open to ail citizens, and the only qualification really 
 essential to success is ability, discontent with our social 
 system is inexplicable and really means the jealousy 
 which small minds experience at the success of the more 
 deserving. Under existing conditions, the highest offices
 
 Il6 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 in the country are open to the humblest born, and that 
 they are not more frequently occupied by such is due 
 not to any social barrier but to their relative capacity. 
 It is idle to grumble because another is born under con- 
 ditions more favourable to rapid advancement ; the 
 State cannot regulate such, nor can its legislation affect 
 many of the other factors of life which are the most 
 fruitful sources of complaining. Pope has said men 
 would be angels, angels would be gods, and certainly 
 the philanthropy which modern reformers teach seems 
 based upon angelic principles, and may be realised 
 when the people are as a whole translated into an 
 angelic sphere. 
 
 It may be fairly asked what real reason for discontent 
 exists at the present time. At no previous period in 
 the world's history has the conveniences and comforts 
 of life been so great and so generally diffused. There 
 is nothing to prevent the lowliest from scaling the 
 highest pinnacles of knowledge, and so acquiring the 
 most extensive power. They may, " by the jewels which 
 the exploring mind brings from the caves of knowledge, 
 buy their ransom from the twin jailors of the daring
 
 EQUALITY. 117 
 
 heart, low birth and iron fortune." And yet with all these 
 advantages, and all these possibilities, which are not 
 merely so in theory, but practical evidence of their 
 verity can be pointed to on every hand, men of the 
 present age are not more happy nor more contented 
 than those who have preceded them. It is here, in- 
 deed, that we find in all ages, in all classes, and in all 
 conditions of men, a true and indisputable equality 
 the equality of discontent and dissatisfaction, for such 
 are the feelings with which life seems to have inspired 
 mankind generally. The king on his throne, the prince 
 in his palace, the philosopher in his study, the manu- 
 facturer, the merchant, the farmer and the artizan, with- 
 out exception, has each his particular grievance. A 
 man perfectly contented with his position in life would 
 be as great a rarity as the mastodon, and the strange 
 thing is that it is those whose positions seem the most 
 enviable that are the greatest grumblers. Happiness, 
 our being's end and aim, is a sort of mirage, which, 
 while luring us on, successfully avoids our possession, 
 so that to all the rapture of pursuing is the only prize 
 that's gained. " All is vanity and vexation of spirit,"
 
 Il8 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 said the wise man of the East, and the experience of 
 mankind generally seems confirmatory of this dictum. 
 The literature of the world is replete with the pessi- 
 mistical utterances of its great men, who found the 
 prize they gained, and which at the distance looked 
 so enchanting, was but dead sea fruit. Lord Byron 
 compared his life to a sere and faded yellow leaf when 
 he was at the height of his fame. Lord Beaconsfield, 
 whose phenomenal success in life has been a beacon 
 to the ambitious, declared that youth was a blunder, 
 manhood a struggle, and old age a regret, and of the 
 rest of the men of genius or of power similar evidence 
 of discontent might invariably be given. There is some- 
 thing pitiable in such sentiments, and the man who can 
 go through life and find that its only lesson is that 
 man is "made to mourn," is deserving of our sympathy, 
 and might well envy the philosophy of Cowper's jack- 
 daw. The prevalence of such sentiments is directly 
 attributable to men's disposition to make comparisons. 
 These are always, as Mrs. Grundy wisely remarked, 
 odious things, and certainly by no means comforting. 
 Jack compares himself with his master, and his master
 
 EQUALITY. 119 
 
 with some other Jack's master, with results perfectly 
 satisfactory to themselves, but altogether irreconcilable 
 with the positions in which, by the verdict of the world, 
 they find themselves placed. The bantam cock that 
 thought the sun got up to hear him crow was 
 modest when compared with the estimate of their own 
 importance which the majority of men form. Men's 
 actual ability and worth are usually so very different to 
 their exaggerated conceptions of them, that we might 
 all well exclaim in the language of Scotland's bard, 
 "Ah, would some power the giftie gie us to see our- 
 selves as others see us." Undoubtedly others can form 
 a more correct opinion of our merits and demerits than 
 we can ourselves, and as it is impossible to assume that 
 there is a conspiracy organised to repress and under- 
 rate any particular individual, we will be tolerably safe 
 in accepting the verdict of the world as a just and a 
 true one, unbiased or uninfluenced by any personal con- 
 sideration. Each individual may therefore rest assured 
 that in this world he will receive full value for any 
 marketable qualification he may possess ; but he must 
 not be disappointed if he does not manage to get them
 
 120 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 accepted at his own valuation. This being so unre- 
 liable, owing to the activity of the " personal equation," 
 is set aside in favour of the juster estimate of his fellow- 
 men, which usually differs so widely from his own that 
 he is amazed at their obtuseness, and discredits and 
 disbelieves the accuracy of their judgment. As, how- 
 ever, he has no power of insisting on his own appraise- 
 ment being admitted, and no means of compelling con- 
 formity to his opinion on that particular subject, the 
 natural result is discontent and unhappiness, and a 
 settled conviction, in too many cases, that it is nothing 
 but the dulness of others which prevents him occupy- 
 ing a better position, unless, indeed, when he favours 
 the other absurd conclusion that it is dread of his 
 rivalry which induces his superiors to discountenance 
 his advancement. In my opinion there is no really 
 clever or capable man, who does not ultimately find 
 his proper position in the world, while there is no 
 power which can for long succeed in keeping a senseless 
 dullard from sinking to his level, and while this to 
 many may be a disagreeable doctrine, it would be 
 much better to adopt it gracefully than" go whining
 
 EQUALITY. 121 
 
 through life on the supposition that others, less deserv- 
 ing, are more lucky than ourselves ; and so live miserable 
 in the constant contemplation of how happy we might 
 have been had the world not been so slow to re- 
 cognise our worth. Had even our fondest expectations 
 become realities, it is not alone possible, but highly 
 probable that our real comfort and happiness would 
 have been no greater. We do not depend upon ex- 
 ternal conditions for the possession of these. Our mind 
 is our empire, and with contented thoughts we may 
 have that repose which is unknown to the head that 
 wears a crown ; and it is here that we may and do 
 have an equality which is indisputable. Just as the 
 various substances in nature have various capacities for 
 heat, so the various human beings have varying capacities 
 for enjoyment, due to the difference in their receptive 
 powers, and it is conceivable that a standard could be 
 formed for determining the conditions most favourable 
 to the happiness of each. This, however, would require 
 an exactitude in knowledge of antecedents and environ- 
 ment which would be difficult of attainment; but if 
 undertaken by a disinterested tribunal, with power to
 
 122 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 command the necessary data, it is highly probable that 
 the finding in the vast majority of cases would be that 
 they are in the position most conducive to their 
 happiness. In our differences, therefore, we discover 
 a truer equality than any which could be induced by 
 an annihilation of all varieties. The standard of each 
 is determined by his surroundings, and the law of 
 evolution insures man adapting himself to every change 
 of circumstances, so that all external inequalities are 
 compensated for. This enables us to understand some- 
 thing of the divine equity, and to realise that the true 
 philosophy of life is to disregard the extreme dissimilar- 
 ity of conditions, which is inseparable from social ex- 
 istence, and recognising that we may live happy and 
 useful lives where we are, and believing in that Divinity 
 which shapes our ends, we may feel convinced that if 
 our occupation of another and higher position would 
 be conducive of any good purpose, we shall find our- 
 selves gradually drifted to it without any anxious efforts 
 on our part. Above all, we must bear in mind that 
 the most successful life is not necessarily the life that 
 is one of constant advancement in wealth and power,
 
 EQUALITY. 123 
 
 but, on the contrary, the life really worth living is more 
 commonly that of him who can with sincerity adopt 
 the language of the old poet who wrote : 
 
 " My conscience is my crown, 
 Contented thoughts my rest, 
 My heart is happy in itself, 
 My bliss is in my breast."
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE.
 
 What constitutes the rightful basis of property ? What is it 
 that enables a man to justly say of a thing, it is mine ? From 
 what springs the sentiment which acknowledges his exclusive 
 right, as against all the world ? Is it not primarily the right 
 of a man to himself, to the use of his own powers, to the en- 
 joyment of the fruits of his own exertions? Is it not this 
 individual right which springs from and is testified to by the 
 natural facts of individual organisation 
 
 And for this reason that which a man makes or pi'oduces is 
 his own, as against all the world to enjoy or to destroy, to 
 use, to exchange or to give. No one else can rightfully claim 
 it, and his exclusive right involves no wrong to anyone else. 
 Thus there is to everything produced by human exertion a 
 clear and indisputable title to exclusive possession and enjoy- 
 ment, which is perfectly consistent with justice, as it descends 
 from the original producer in whom it is vested by natural law. 
 . . . Have we made the earth that we should determine the 
 rights of those who after us shall determine it in their turn ? If 
 the land belongs to the people, why continue to permit land- 
 owners to take the rent, or compensate them in any manner for 
 the loss of rent ? 
 
 HENRY GEORGE Progress and Poverty.
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE. 
 
 THE ever-increasing intensity of the struggle for existence 
 has borne fruit in the ever-multiplying theories for the 
 reformation of social life which have characterised the 
 last few decades. Not that there is in reality anything 
 very novel in the schemes which are from time to time 
 propounded with all the zeal which a new gospel could 
 inspire. Most of the reforms advocated are but old ideas 
 resurrected, and with their former rejections forgotten, 
 germinate and flourish in the unnatural atmosphere 
 induced by the distempered imagination of their advocates. 
 Effects of present social adjustments are painted in such 
 dark colours,, and the proposed remedy represented in 
 such a glowing light, that we can scarcely be surprised 
 that, as if by some subtle process of mental legerdemain, 
 we find honest, honourable, and well-intentioned people 
 constrained to give their adhesion to principles which, 
 
 if they only followed them to their logical conclusions. 
 
 127
 
 128 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 they would find were the exact parallel of the highway- 
 man's code of morals, who robbed the rich that he might 
 benefit the poor. However admirable the latter part of 
 his programme might be considered, it did not excuse 
 the former ; no more does the possibility of a more 
 uniform distribution of wealth making a greater number 
 happy in any way justify the proposal to communise 
 wealth, nor to nationalise land. That they are listened 
 to at all is due not so much to the existence of a latent 
 buccaneering tendency in mankind generally, as to the 
 fact that they are propagated with an enthusiasm which 
 leaves little doubt as to the sincerity of their sponsors; 
 and that they do contain a certain moiety of truth which, 
 emphasised to the exclusion of its complementary part, is 
 most difficult to refute. This, indeed, is the stronghold 
 of any popular reform, as were it false in all its premises, 
 and erroneous in all its conclusions, it would never secure 
 so many disciples as would serve to, even for a time, 
 rescue it from that lethe of the forgotten, which its in- 
 herent falsity would ensure. 
 
 The half truth on which the enunciation of the doctrine 
 of the land for the people is based is that the " Land
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE. 12Q 
 
 is the Lord's and the fulness thereof," and as we are all 
 His children we are all equally entitled to its possession. 
 Our equal right is supposed to be proved by the fact 
 that it being indispensable to existence, and being a 
 voluntary gift of the Creator's, it is evidently intended for 
 all. It never seems to occur to the advocates of this 
 theory, much less to their followers, that being an 
 essential of life, all that live must in reality have the use 
 of it, so that the only question that can arise is, Have all 
 the full use of it to which they are entitled ? The 
 Georgite school answer this in the negative, pointing to 
 the vast numbers in all crowded cities to whom the 
 sight of a green field is of rare occurrence; but the 
 earth does not consist alone of green fields and flowery 
 meads, it is as real in the city covered with warehouses 
 as in the country covered with vegetation. In both 
 cases, also, the labour of man is represented, although 
 in such widely different forms, and in both it is to the 
 largest extent that labour which gives the land its value. 
 Densely as the world is populated to-day, there are still 
 vast areas which can be had for the mere appropriating, 
 and yet the most enthusiastic admirers of land nationalisa-
 
 I3O SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 tion show no desire to go forth and take possession. 
 The fact is that they know that by doing so they would 
 have to undergo great hardships, and probable dangers ; 
 that they would have to submit to voluntary exile, and 
 be deprived of the benefits of civilisation, which, much 
 as they may in theory disparage, they in practice avail 
 themselves of fully. The clearing of the backwoods, 
 the fertilising of the prairies, and the overcoming of 
 all natural obstacles to cultivation are not so very 
 agreeable, and there are comparatively few who will 
 undertake these herculean tasks even when stimulated 
 by the prospective advantages which would accrue to 
 their posterity by their having been first in the virgin 
 fields. Virgin land therefore is comparatively valueless, 
 as, notwithstanding its latent possibilities, it is situated 
 at such a distance from the " busy haunts of men " as 
 to discount its fertility, so that it is not alone the labour 
 of man, indispensable as that is, which is required to 
 give it value, but the settlement of communities, and 
 the facility of intercourse with other districts. In 
 primitive times, and before labour had been expended 
 upon any land, it would not be any violation of our
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE. 131 
 
 sense of justice to conceive of all men as having equal 
 rights to its possession, and probably this was the 
 accepted maxim so long as barbaric conditions pre- 
 vailed ; but the inequality of men, and the widely 
 different positions in which they were placed, would 
 quickly produce modifications of these primal rights. 
 The man of courage and daring would not for long 
 be content to keep his flocks on the probably meagre, 
 and rapidly exhausting herbage in the immediate vicinity 
 of his birthplace, but leaving this to his more timid 
 brethren, would seek richer pasturage further afield, 
 where he w r ould settle, and aided by the natural 
 advantages of the site, would form the nucleus of a 
 whole community, increasing the value of the land by 
 labour, and still more by the numbers which congregated. 
 By the enterprise displayed, the courage evinced, the 
 dangers overcome, and the subsequent labour he under- 
 took, which rendered the land continuously fertile, there 
 was established an indefeasible right to its use, which it 
 would ill conform to our sentiments of justice to chal- 
 lenge. That he did not make the land itself would not 
 weaken the right; it was occupancy which made it what
 
 132 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 it is, and it would not be complete, it would not be 
 truly valuable, if not identified with the only right which 
 could compensate for the exceptional toil involved that 
 is, the right of transmission and transfer. 
 
 Without this there would not be sufficient incentive 
 to lead to the exploitation of new areas, and if the 
 results were to be the inheritance not of those with 
 whom we were immediately and personally connected, 
 but to belong to all humanity, much as we may love 
 our neighbours it would not stimulate us to those tasks 
 with which the material progress of the world is in- 
 dissolubly connected. We thus see what constitutes 
 the basis of the fee-simple of land ; we recognise 
 its necessity which establishes its justice, and so are no 
 longer in danger of being deluded by those who declare 
 an equality which can only exist under those early 
 conditions which make it destitute of advantage and 
 are incompatible with the principles of equity, which are 
 a creation of society in its more developed stages. 
 Amongst the original communities there would be little 
 internecine strife regarding this appropriation as being 
 connected under a single head for mutual protection,
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE. 133 
 
 and the conditions of life being so simple, the stress 
 of circumstance would not be so acute as to cause dis- 
 satisfaction. The communities, however, who found 
 themselves in sterile places, and in whose breasts the 
 desire of something better would originate, in their 
 wanderings would come into conflict with the com- 
 munities settled in the lands flowing with milk and 
 honey, and, if they were victors, would possess themselves 
 of the more fertile districts, making the original in- 
 habitants serfs or expelling them altogether. This is 
 the claim upon which the right to much land is vested, 
 and this, as well as that of first occupancy, after the 
 lapse of time, is occasionally superseded by the right 
 of purchase ; all of which, surely, are equally valid. 
 No man is more worthy of his hire than the soldier 
 who has given faithful and unfaltering support to his 
 leader throughout the various vicissitudes of a long 
 and arduous campaign. Having in the chosen cause 
 borne privation, faced danger, and braved death, if, 
 instead of defeat, victory falls to their banner, is it to be 
 wondered at that the vanquished are spoiled of their 
 possessions, which are distributed as a reward amongst
 
 134 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 the followers of the victor ? The right to the most of 
 the land in our own country is founded upon the basis 
 of conquest, and at the time it was granted it was in 
 most cases a barren enough gift and but poorly compen- 
 sated its receivers for their services. The march of 
 civilisation has vastly increased the value of these 
 estates, so that now when it is sought to deprive the 
 descendants of these men of what their forefathers 
 fought and bled and died for, it is a really valuable 
 asset. Some of those who obtained grants immediately 
 transferred them for very trifling considerations, such 
 as even a fresh charger, but others retained them, 
 and after the lapse of time their descendants through 
 the necessities of fortune have transferred their right 
 for large sums of money to successful merchants or pro- 
 fessional men, money which they had made by honest 
 industry ; and of these fruits of their toil, the morality 
 of many is so debased by the specious arguments of 
 land nationalisers, that it would consent to dispossess 
 them. Surely so long as the sense of justice and fair play 
 remain active in the breasts of humanity in general, no such 
 scheme will ever have a serious chance of being adopted.
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE. 135 
 
 What are the arguments by which these bold reformers 
 would delude the unwary and justify their immense scheme 
 of confiscation? The first and most important, indeed, that 
 which may be considered almost the alpha and omega of 
 the whole question, is that of limiting a man's right to the 
 possession of property, to those things which he has actually 
 produced by his own labour; for a cardinal article of the 
 Georgite faith is that the only thing which can confer a 
 valid title is the production by human labour, which carries 
 with it the right of transfer. There are many things which 
 a man has not made, and in which his right to possession 
 would be unquestioned by the most ardent disciple of this 
 school of political philosophers, first amongst these is 
 the right to himself. Indeed, with unconscious incon- 
 sistency, the right of a man to himself is assumed as an 
 axiom, and placed side by side with the other irre- 
 concilable axiom which forms the foundation of the 
 whole theory that he has no right to anything which 
 he does not make. Neither does the legal enactment 
 of any country confirm Mr. George's assumption that 
 whatever a man produces is his against all the world, 
 to enjoy or to destroy, to use, to exchange, or to
 
 136 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 give. The contrary is the case, for if he produces 
 a gun he cannot use it as he pleases, and if gun- 
 powder he can only destroy it under great restrictions; and 
 there are many things which he can only produce at 
 all by the consent of society, and transfer only under 
 very definite regulations. Therefore not only is this 
 fundamental principle erroneous in fact, but it is based 
 upon a conception of things which in reality is non- 
 existent. When we speak of man as producing, we 
 use a brief and convenient method of expression, but 
 it is, of course, merely a fiction. Man produces noth- 
 ing, he only changes that which is produced by Him 
 who created not alone the land but all that therein 
 is, so that when the supposed clinching argument is 
 advanced that the land cannot belong to individuals, 
 because none of them has made a single piece, it is 
 a mere superficial statement which might be applied 
 with equal force to every article in the universe ; for 
 did Nature not produce the necessary materials for 
 man's manipulation, these would be non-existent. The 
 change wrought on the materials is not greater, in 
 many cases not so great, as the changes which man
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE. 137 
 
 has made on land. The pen of Mr. George's illus- 
 tration, to which he conceived himself as possessing 
 an indefeasible claim owing to its production through 
 successive stages, and transfer through innumerable 
 series of purchase from the original producer, was not 
 more different to the ore from which it was smelted 
 than was the city of New York in which he was 
 writing to the original site when the waves of the 
 broad Atlantic washed it in its desolateness previous 
 to its discovery by Europeans. Both are the gratuit- 
 ous offerings of Nature, and in both would it be equally 
 difficult to separate the original form from the modi- 
 fied. If, therefore, the appropriation of what Nature 
 provides is inconsistent with the decrees of justice, we 
 are necessarily forced into the conclusion that man 
 cannot in equity possess any property, because man 
 cannot create anything, but only alter the relative 
 positions of that material which has been gratuitously 
 provided by Nature. The admission of the principle 
 that all men had equal rights to Nature's bounty would 
 probably lead to very complicated results, as many 
 might be tempted to defer putting forth their claim
 
 138 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 until a certain amount of transformation had taken 
 place, and it would then be a very difficult and a very 
 delicate matter to separate what belonged to the 
 general fund from what belonged to the individual. 
 The property of the latter would, of course, be simply 
 the added value by the labour expended, and as the 
 primary matter would be supposed to be inalienable 
 from the nation, or, in short, nationalised, it would 
 be most troublesome ; in fact, we might almost say 
 it would be impracticable to define where the one 
 ended and the other began in case of a claim being 
 unexpectedly preferred against a certain mass of matter 
 with a certain amount of work expended upon it, 
 but which it might be considered was being unduly 
 and disadvantageous^ appropriated. 
 
 We may without hesitation dismiss as untenable 
 the assumption that the only valid right to property 
 is that resting on production, because it would be 
 incompatible with the continuation of any property 
 at all, as all the men since creation's hour began 
 never absolutely made any single article existing ; they 
 have but altered, and their impress is left as much
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE. 139 
 
 on land as on any commodity, so that its inclusion as 
 property rests on exactly the same basis as that of 
 chattels. So thoroughly impregnated was Mr. George 
 and his more devoted disciples with his doctrine, that 
 with all the thoroughness which has characterised them, 
 they have not flinched from accepting the logical 
 conclusions. This, of course, is that the land being 
 the people's, those who have so long been in pos- 
 session should be forced to make restitution without 
 compensation, and should indeed be duly thankful 
 for not having to make fuller reparation for the 
 wrongs they have done the community. It is only 
 when accepted in this thorough and uncompromising 
 manner that it can secure adhesion even from the most 
 unthinking. If once the old - world notions of equity 
 and right which most of the British disciples profess, 
 and which appears to require compensation in the 
 interests of justice, are admitted, the doom of his theory 
 is emphatically pronounced. If only the unearned 
 increment about which so much is said is to be 
 appropriated by the nation, no advantage would accrue 
 from thj "glorious treachery," owing to the equitable
 
 140 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 compensation involving such a large sum. A defini- 
 tion of what is meant by the unearned increment is 
 scarcely necessary, as those who have taken even a 
 cursory interest in social subjects must have heard it 
 glibly explained over and over again by land national- 
 isers. It is stated to be the increased value of land 
 due not to the exertions of its holders, but to the 
 favouring circumstances, such as adaptability for com- 
 mercial purposes, the growth of population in its 
 immediate vicinity, and such like. These being due 
 to causes which can in no way be credited to the 
 holders more than to the other members of the com- 
 munity, should not be the exclusive property of any. 
 This, at first sight, appears a reasonable proposition, 
 and is much more likely to obtain adherents than 
 that which demands that the land shall be sequestered 
 altogether from those who have been in possession for 
 so long that the mind of man runneth not to the con- 
 trary. In reality, however, it is only a less objection- 
 able manner of expressing an identical proposition, 
 and its danger lies in its plausibility. The difference 
 between the value of the desert and the city plot is
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE. 141 
 
 due principally to the fact that in the latter large 
 communities are settled. This constitutes its greatest 
 value, and, were it isolated, no amount of fertility, no 
 expenditure of labour, could appreciably affect its value, 
 and if Aladdin's genii of the ring erected therein 
 palaces, warehouses and hotels, its unearned increment 
 would be still non-existent. The conclusion, therefore, 
 is, that by appropriating the unearned increment you, 
 strictly speaking, appropriate its entire value, although 
 you appear to allow something substantial to remain. 
 It is, indeed, insidious attacks like these which are 
 most to be dreaded, because even those who would 
 scorn to be identified with a system of plunder may 
 be induced to give their adhesion to such an appar- 
 ently equitable thing as what the whole community 
 has created should be divided amongst them equally. 
 The fact that a community is settled in a given place 
 is due to those who first occupied it, making it so 
 pleasant that others are dra\vn thereto, instead of seek- 
 ing elsewhere unclaimed tracts for their own appro- 
 priation. By doing so they obtain all the advantages 
 of association which must appear to compensate for
 
 142 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 their deprivation of real property, or they would not 
 remain in the district. It is therefore difficult to 
 see why the unearned increment should be treated 
 differently from any other property. 
 
 If the question of land nationalisation ever emerges 
 from the theoretical to the domain of practical politics, 
 there will still remain a sufficient sense of justice to 
 ensure an equitable compensation being tendered to 
 those who will be dispossessed, as notwithstanding 
 the small estimation in which professional reformers 
 hold vested rights, there are too many interests in- 
 volved to permit of forcible expropriation of land- 
 lords, without the payment of their fares. The question, 
 therefore, necessarily arises, What would be a just com- 
 pensation, and, if it were paid, what would be the net 
 advantage to the nation ? According to Mr. Giffen's 
 estimate, the purchase-value of the landlords of Great 
 Britain would be about ^1,691,313,000, which would 
 mean the raising of nearly ^60,000,000, at the very 
 moderate rate of 3}% interest. The cost of collection 
 pro rata with the cost of collecting the present revenue 
 would be about ,7,000,000, or a total of ^67,000,000
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE. 143 
 
 to be raised for the funded debt. Now the total 
 rent roll at present is only ^65,000,000 in round 
 numbers, so that instead of being gainers by the 
 change, the yearly holders would be mulcted in 
 ^2,000,000, and this without conferring any advantage 
 to the community at large. The special argument upon 
 which land nationalises base their claim is that by 
 adopting the arrangement, enough would be extracted for 
 its use to pay the entire expenses of government, and 
 as this at present is about ^90,000,000 per annum, that 
 would have to be raised in addition to the ^67,000,000 
 before the scheme realised its expectations. This 
 ^"90,000,000 includes collection, so that if the whole was 
 placed upon land the cost of collection would probably 
 bs considerably decreased, and we might assume only 
 ^80,000,000 as the additional rent that would be re- 
 quired were we to compensate the present recognised 
 holders, and obtain the advantage of taxations on 
 commodities being removed. Truly the poor tiller would 
 find the little finger of the government as strong as 
 the thigh of the landlord, and while he uses whips it 
 would use scorpions.
 
 144 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 The robbery is to be disguised as much as possible, 
 and to be begun by taxing the land to such an extent 
 that it would in effect be putting up the land to 
 auction, to whoever would pay the highest rent to the 
 State, "and we are informed it would cost as much to 
 keep a row of tumble-down shanties upon valuable land 
 as though it were covered with a grand hotel, or a pile 
 of great warehouses filled with costly goods;" from 
 which it is apparent that among its other marvels it 
 would make the land in the worst districts equally 
 valuable with those in the most prominent and im- 
 portant. We are accustomed to find shanties only con- 
 tinuing on land that is by position unsuitable for hotels 
 and warehouses ; and under existing conditions, when 
 material progress has been sufficient to justify it, they 
 disappear. In what way, however, would or could it be 
 any advantage to the farmer to have the land he 
 occupies put up for auction by the State ; and we must 
 assume that it would be necessary to have this done 
 periodically, for the State being the depositor for the 
 entire people, would not be justified in allowing fixity 
 of tenure to any individuals lest they should be de-
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE. 145 
 
 priving the other partners in the ownership of the ad- 
 vantage which would accrue from the competition for its 
 possession. This would indeed appear to inaugurate a 
 worse form of rack-renting than what we have heard of 
 even in Ireland. Consider the effect upon the com- 
 munity at large; the selling price of the farmers' produce 
 is governed by the cost of production, and as in their 
 case rent is a primary and important part of this, the 
 crop must be sold, in all ordinary seasons at any rate, 
 at a price to cover this with a fair wage for the labour 
 expended and interest on capital, or they will not continue 
 the business. Once they see their way to make this 
 under normal circumstances and with a reasonable pro- 
 spect of having a fair return, their produce will be sold 
 for whatever price the demand for it creates. There is 
 nothing more self-evident that the law of supply and 
 demand operate in their case with particular certainty 
 because the vast bulk of their food are necessaries, and 
 if the crop is a meagre one, the inevitable result of high 
 prices will ensue, no matter what the cost of production 
 has been. If the harvest is plentiful, low rates prevail ; 
 so that in their case even if it were possible to reduce 
 
 K
 
 146 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 rents to the most nominal amount, if their crops were 
 scant they would have to receive famine prices. As, 
 however, the necessity would be forced upon the nation 
 of increasing rents, it would simply have the effect of 
 permanently raising the standard of prices, and perhaps 
 in a greater proportion than the enhanced rent, because 
 a greater capital would be required for entering upon 
 the business, and a greater return would then be wanted. 
 
 The rent that is paid for land does not increase the 
 relative cost of goods nor add to the difficulty of living. 
 The sum that is paid is in a certain sense for the use 
 of land, but more particularly it is for the improvements 
 that have been made, or else for its natural superiority, 
 and just counterbalances the differing degrees of fertility 
 and accessibility. Nothing is more self-evident in a 
 large city than that the very heavy rents paid for 
 favouring positions do not in reality affect the price of 
 the goods sold. The contrary is the case ; as we find that 
 in the very heart of large cities where rents are highest, 
 goods are sold cheaper than in the suburban districts 
 or country villages where the rental is, comparatively 
 speaking, infinitesimal. No maxim is more generally
 
 THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE. 147 
 
 accepted by business men than that, given the proper 
 position, the rent may be disregarded. 
 
 The desideration of land nationalisation, the payment 
 of all the expenses of the State from the ground tax, and 
 so relieving the general public of a burden, must in 
 the nature of things continue an impossibility. All that 
 is collected in this way must be repaid by the people 
 at large, in the increased prices which would prevail 
 in all products. The application of such a single tax 
 would be capable of the grossest mismanagement and 
 favouritism by the Government officials, and we have 
 not yet reached that exalted state where jobbery is un- 
 known. The scheme could only be carried out effectively 
 by disregarding the rights of the present holders, and 
 so violating every principle of good government. As a 
 consequence of its adoption, we should expect a loosen- 
 ing of the cohesion which binds society together, and 
 which depends to a very large extent upon the known 
 continuity of legal enactments. This scheme is therefore 
 destitute of expediency, destructive of confidence, and 
 devoid of any real benefit to the community.
 
 PROGRESS AND POVERTY.
 
 In every direction the direct tendency of advancing civilisa- 
 tion is to increase the power of human labour, to satisfy human 
 desires, to extirpate poverty, and to banish want, and the fear 
 of want. All the things in which progress consists, all the con- 
 ditions which progressive communities are striving for, have 
 for their direct and natural result the improvement of the material 
 and consequently the intellectual and moral condition of all 
 within their influence. The growth of population, the increase 
 and extension of exchanges, the discoveries of science, the 
 march of invention, the spread of education, the improvement of 
 government, and the amelioration of manners, considered as 
 material forces, have all a direct tendency to increase the pro- 
 ductive power of labour, not of some labour, but of all labour, 
 not in some departments of industry, but in all departments of 
 industry, for the law of the production of wealth in society is 
 each for all and all for each. . . . There are many persons who 
 still retain the comfortable belief that material progress will ul- 
 timately extirpate poverty, and there are many who look to 
 prudential restraints upon the increase of population as the most 
 efficacious means. 
 
 HENRY GEORGE Progress and Poverty.
 
 PROGRESS AND POVERTY. 
 
 MR. HENRY GEORGE'S book on Progress and Poverty 
 was deserving of all the popularity it attained. Written 
 by a warm-hearted and generous man, with all the 
 wealth of diction that unquestioning belief in the verity 
 of the new factor of social life he had discovered could 
 inspire, it is in no way surprising that it possessed 
 many remarkable features. Not the least noteworthy 
 of these was the unbounded confidence evinced in the 
 power of his panacea to revolutionise life, and the 
 scornful and unqualified condemnation of nearly all 
 previously accepted canons of political philosophy. The 
 message that he had for humanity, and which he had 
 absolutely no doubt was one of peace, was fraught with 
 doctrines decidedly original, enunciated in a decidedly 
 novel manner, and advocated with a fervour which often 
 trenches on dogmatism. The language, always ornate in 
 the extreme, is frequently a model of that vigorous ex-
 
 152 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 pression which originates in the certainty of being in the 
 right, and the enthusiasm which results from an un- 
 hesitating conviction of having solved the problem which 
 had baffled all former inquirers in the same field, and 
 found for humanity at large the narrow way out of thaf 
 labyrinth of poverty which had been the fruitful source 
 of the sin and suffering of the race. No man ever saw 
 more clearly nor painted more vividly the misery in 
 which large masses of men exist ; no man ever saw more 
 clearly through the shallowness and inefficiency which 
 characterised the remedies which other thinkers on social 
 subjects had propounded with an enthusiasm in their 
 sufficiency not inferior to his own ; no man, however, 
 ever believed more implicitly in his own remedy, nor 
 denounced more emphatically the barriers which prevented 
 its adoption, while he spurned with contempt almost 
 the remedies which had before been advocated, and de- 
 monstrated in brief but unmistakable logic their fallacies. 
 It is certainly an interesting mental study to observe 
 the keenness which is exhibited in demolishing the pet 
 projects of others, with the entire insensibility to any 
 possible factor which might weaken his own theory
 
 PROGRESS AND POVERTY. 153 
 
 or in practice invalidate it. The fact that practical results 
 seldom conform exactly to theoretical expectations, did 
 not suggest any disquieting apprehensions to his mind, 
 and the spectacle of the innumerable errors, which he 
 proved to his own satisfaction, at any rate, that even the 
 acutest intellects that have adorned our race had 
 given the sanction of their authority to, did not make 
 him doubt either the correctness of his premises or the 
 accuracy of his conclusions. 
 
 The factors of the problem of social life are, according 
 to him, increasing wealth, and increasing and intensify- 
 ing poverty, and this in despite of the fact that the 
 State within its boundary possessed more than enough 
 to satisfy all. Men, women, and children starving, or 
 forced into crime and dishonour to escape its pangs, while, 
 at the same time, the necessaries of life were abundant 
 in the community : numbers huddled together in small, 
 scantily-furnished, unsanitary garrets, while there were in 
 the district ample areas for comfortable healthy dwellings 
 unused ; wealth the most magnificent, poverty the most 
 intense, jostling each other on the highway and in the 
 street, and this, too, without apparently any inherent
 
 154 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 difference in the physical, mental or moral capacity of 
 the representatives of the two classes. The fact that 
 there is no reason for supposing that the existing differences 
 amongst humanity are inherent, but are simply the pro- 
 duct of the different environments, for which the indi- 
 viduals themselves are in the main very little responsible, 
 leads naturally to the conclusion that they do not exist 
 by any decree of the Creator, but are the result of the 
 unjust system of appropriation of natural resources, which 
 has been concurred in by humanity in general, and the 
 consequent inequitable distribution of the products of 
 labour. There is just enough truth in this representation 
 of the prevailing condition of society to form the basis 
 of a popular creed, and so we are not in any way as- 
 tonished to find it quickly out-distanced all other re- 
 forms, and won numerous converts to its standard. On 
 every hand the truth of the premises appeared to be 
 verified, and even the most implacable opponent of the 
 Georgite doctrine must admit that, in every great en- 
 lightened and progressive city of the world, we find not 
 alone that wealth, luxury, and culture, which characterises 
 civilisation, but we find also the greatest poverty, the
 
 PROGRESS AND POVERTY. 155 
 
 deepest degradation, and a distortion or perversion of 
 intelligence which is worse than the crude ignorance of 
 barbarism. The poverty, too, is of a kind unknown in 
 the barbaric state ; it is the entire exclusion from the 
 sources from which sustenance can be directly drawn, 
 and it is this which is held to constitute the peculiar 
 hardships of civilisation. The fact that under the modern 
 system of co-operative production by masses of men living 
 in association, human labour obtains a very high rate of 
 efficiency, and can without undue effort produce more 
 than enough to satisfy, in a luxurious manner, the wants 
 of all, does not confer the advantage which theoretically 
 it should, owing to a certain number having acquired a 
 right to the surplus goods, the consumption of which, 
 under the modern conditions of life, are a necessary 
 precedent to re-production. These relatively few are, 
 therefore, in the position of controlling absolutely sub- 
 sequent production, and in theory, if not in practice, 
 life itself to the majority depends upon their caprices, 
 as in civilised society it depends not so much on a 
 man's ability or desire to work, as in his being able to 
 obtain an advance of the essentials of existence from
 
 156 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 those in whom is vested the natural resources of the 
 country, and those who possess its reserve funds. In 
 short, in the language of Burns, he has to ask his 
 fellow - worm to give him leave to toil before he can 
 exercise his powers productively. 
 
 This aspect of the case, when emphasised without 
 regard to the other factors of the problem of social 
 life, has an undoubted appearance of iniquity, and any 
 doctrine which holds forth a reasonable prospect of 
 doing away with the seemingly iniquitous system is as- 
 sured of popularity. The antidote of the Georgite 
 theory is to be found in the omitted factors, which, 
 indeed, contain the essence of the whole subject. 
 Nature uncultivated is not sufficiently bountiful to sus- 
 tain the volume of human life at present on the globe, 
 and it is to man's power of realising and availing himself 
 of favouring circumstances that we are indebted for 
 the obtaining of the necessaries of life for the numbers 
 which are supported on the cultivated area. In the 
 earlier stages of human existence, when natural resources 
 are unappropriated, vast areas are populated by relatively 
 small numbers, who obtain the necessaries of life with
 
 PROGRESS AND POVERTY. 1 57 
 
 difficulty from the spontaneous productions of Nature; 
 but, as a consequence of not cultivating and assisting 
 nature, nor of making provision for future contingencies, 
 they constantly experience the greatest hardships, and, 
 for all, the starvation point is unceasingly within measur- 
 able distance. To such an extent is this the case, that 
 under primitive conditions population, which is the 
 certain index of material prosperity, is practically station- 
 ary, and the deliberate destruction of the aged and 
 infirm, and, in fact, of all incapable of preserving them- 
 selves, is frequently resorted to by barbaric peoples. 
 That such an expedient should be found necessary under 
 conditions where the purest theoretical equality un- 
 doubtedly prevails with an entire absence of the ap- 
 propriation of the material properties, is the most con- 
 clusive evidence of the inability of Nature to provide 
 without the assistance of man's labour for all possible 
 inhabitants. Even with the most rigorous system of 
 improved cultivation, her capacity to support life is 
 limited, and it is the proximity of Nature's limit which, 
 in all stages of existence, causes the struggle for survival. 
 The expansion of the limit, which is due to human devices,
 
 158 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 is not indefinite, and no matter what the wealth that 
 may be stored, as soon as population begins to press 
 on the means of subsistence, the natural and intense 
 struggle for survival begins to be specially experienced. 
 That its effects have been postponed, and the volume 
 of life so greatly increased, is due to man's improve- 
 ments and adaptation of means to ends, and a precedent 
 to all these has been that permanency of occupation 
 without which progress and invention would be non- 
 existent. This permanency of possession denies, indeed, 
 to the later comers the right of appealing directly to 
 Nature for support, but, in the absence of the restriction, 
 their presence at all would be impossible. 
 
 We are not now concerned with the much discussed 
 question as to whether existence is such a boon as to 
 be particularly grateful for ; suffice it to say that the 
 vast majority of those possessing appreciate it, much 
 as they may grumble, and few there be who willingly 
 seek to escape. Poverty is co-existent with man's being, 
 but in the primitive state it is the most grinding and 
 intense. It is not alone poverty of material goods but 
 of mental attainments. In certain directions it may be
 
 PROGRESS AND POVERTY. 159 
 
 urged that primitive people possess qualities superior 
 to those of civilised man, and it cannot be denied that, 
 so far as adaptability to their particular circumstances 
 are concerned, this is true ; but what a wealth, not alone 
 of material goods, but of accumulated knowledge and 
 experience, of mental compass and adaptability, does 
 the latter inherit. It is this wealth, which is a creation 
 of civilisation, which is its most important characteristic; 
 and it is due entirely to the appreciation of the neces- 
 sity of utilising and adopting the particular circumstances, 
 by which he is surrounded, to his needs, which is the 
 outcome of association, and reaches its highest position 
 in the most advanced stages of society. It does not, 
 indeed, eliminate poverty from the world, but it ensures 
 all being proportionately better provided for than what 
 would be possible under natural conditions. Civilisa- 
 tion progresses and is distinguished in its course, not 
 by an increase of poverty, but by its proportional diminu- 
 tion. Every improved method introduced for accomplish- 
 ing work reduces necessarily the arduousness of toil in 
 all classes, and leaves free whole classes to devote their 
 time, their energy, and their intelligence to the investiga-
 
 l6o SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 tion and extension of the sum of knowledge. The ap- 
 pearance of reason in the doctrine that poverty is only 
 increased by material progress consists in the sharp 
 contrast into which it brings the extremes of society, 
 and which to onlookers makes life to some appear not 
 worth living. It must not, however, be forgotten that 
 the standard of comfort differs in each class, and it is 
 only by applying that which is applicable to the highest 
 to the condition of those in the lowest rank that we 
 are led to believe that misery and unhappiness are the 
 constant companions of most. In reality, the good- 
 natured philanthropist gives himself a world of unneces- 
 sary trouble on the subject, and if he were practically 
 acquainted with the inmost thoughts and feelings of 
 those whom he most commiserates, he would probably 
 find their state as little to be deplored as his own. The 
 professional man glories in his successes and prominence 
 amongst his brother professionals; the merchant in the 
 extent and profitable nature of his business ; the manu- 
 facturer in the magnitude and superiority of his opera- 
 tions ; the honest workman in his work, and the satisfaction 
 of duty well done; the pests of society in the successful
 
 PROGRESS AND POVERTY. l6l 
 
 eluding of justice, and in the very impunity and guilt 
 which has characterised their depredations. 
 
 The different classes, as a rule, have no real sym- 
 pathy or appreciation of the standard to which the 
 others tacitly subscribe ; and while the denizens of the 
 slums may compare their material circumstances 
 disadvantageously with those of the affluent, they are 
 utterly incapable of understanding the different mental 
 attitudes that counteract the effects of the more favour- 
 able surroundings ; and just as little can the affluent 
 realise the attitude of the outcasts of society which 
 enables them to extract a full measure of happiness 
 from what to them appears to be intolerable circum- 
 stances. The question is altogether one of adaptability, 
 and no beneficial results can ever accrue from com- 
 paring the lots of those whose environments educe 
 irreconcilable qualities, and consequently whose comfort, 
 so far from being conserved, would be irretrievably 
 destroyed by establishing a sameness of externals. The 
 most of the unhappiness and discomfort in the world 
 exists not on account of dissimilarity of fortune, nor 
 
 among any particular class of the community, but is 
 
 L
 
 162 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 originated and perpetuated by the jealousy of those 
 possessing an average amount of knowledge and a 
 great amount of sensitiveness, of others whom they con- 
 sider more particularly favoured by fortune while in 
 reality less deserving than themselves. The consequence 
 is that there is less real misery amongst the lowest 
 class of society than any other, because there is more 
 of the pachydermata in their nature, and so they are 
 more invulnerable to the caprices of the fickle jade 
 fortune. 
 
 It is interesting to note the arguments which the 
 author of " Progress and Poverty" depends on for estab- 
 lishing his theory and destroying the teaching of the 
 classical economists on the subject. " High wages 
 (the mark of the relative scarcity of labour) must be 
 accompanied by low interest (the mark of the relative 
 abundance of capital), and reversely low wages must be 
 accompanied by high interest ... if the current teach- 
 ing of political economy is accurate." This is not the 
 case, however, he informs us, but on the contrary 
 interest is high where wages are high, and low where 
 wages are low. In impartially considering the case with
 
 PROGRESS AND POVERTY. l6' 
 
 the view of getting at the truth rather than of buttress- 
 ing a theory, the first point to be considered is the state 
 of the society to which the arguments are to be applied ; 
 for it must be self-evident that what will be true in 
 regard to a congested state, and one which has at- 
 tained to a high standard of attainments, will not 
 necessarily be equally valid for one just emerging 
 from barbarism and having still to perform those 
 works of improvement which change the face of Nature 
 but which are now the necessaries of civilised society. 
 Such a state, with its sparse population and -crude 
 appliances, if it can obtain the advantages of the use 
 of the accumulated capital of previously settled districts,, 
 will be able to pay for it a high rate of interest, while 
 at the same time labour will also receive a high return 
 owing to the number of those available being scanty, 
 and the discomfort and inconvenience attendant upon 
 life in that state being so great as to restrict immigra- 
 tion unless at a vastly enhanced rate of remuneration. 
 The factors there are not alone scarcity of labourers, 
 but suitable objects for the employment of capital, which 
 are the two factors wanting in older countries where
 
 164 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 the modification of Nature to the requirements of 
 humanity has continued for so long that there remains 
 but little outlet for the expenditure of capital. So 
 much is this the case in long - settled countries that 
 the limits of industry would be reached were it not 
 for the intercourse with the more recently exploited to 
 whom they send mechanism and finished products in 
 exchange for the natural produce which they can so 
 abundantly provide. In old countries, therefore, the 
 relatively low rate of wages prevails, not on account of 
 scarcity of capital, but by reason of the few suitable 
 openings for its employment, which also makes the rate 
 of interest low. The value of labour is also depreciated 
 by the fact that the numbers seeking employment are 
 disproportionate to the work to be done, and the con- 
 sequent competition depreciates the rate of labour 
 beyond, the natural value; and though there is still open 
 to humanity vast tracts of territory to be brought under 
 the influence of civilisation and cultivation, there are 
 comparatively few who have been accustomed to the 
 conveniences of modem society who will voluntarily 
 exile themselves, and undergo the privation and danger
 
 PROGRESS AND POVERTY. 165 
 
 of being the pioneers of new colonies. The high rate 
 of interest paid by new countries for capital therefore is 
 seen to be the natural concomitant of a high rate of 
 wages, just as low wages and low interest distinguish and 
 are inseparably connected with long-established com- 
 munities. New countries are now-a-days always exploited 
 by the capital drawn from the old where it has no outlet, 
 and those who have the courage and energy to leave 
 their home and friends can there secure a better re- 
 muneration at the expense of the many disadvantages 
 which attend life in a young country. 
 
 We are told that London is no poorer to-day owing 
 to the great fire of 1666, nor Chicago because of that 
 of 1870, both of which statements are probably accurate. 
 The effects of these disasters were immediate, and they 
 were repaired by the immediate hardships, privations 
 and suffering of the people then living. During the 
 replacing of the material wealth which had been de- 
 stroyed there were less goods available for consumption, 
 and consequently for a year or two a lessened standard 
 of comfort and convenience ; but this, of course, natur- 
 ally and quickly disappeared. It is interesting to note,
 
 l66 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 however, that these catastrophes which destroyed for 
 a time the material inequality of men did not do so 
 permanently, and that out of them men of enterprise 
 and capacity made fortunes rapidly, and soon left the 
 less capable far behind. 
 
 The poverty, sin, and misery which prevails is suffi- 
 ciently intense to arouse in the breasts of all a sincere 
 desire to alleviate them, but this can never be done by 
 a carping criticism of existing institutions. Let us look 
 at the real facts of the case, and, discarding senti- 
 mental considerations, endeavour to see in what 
 direction the regeneration of mankind may be looked 
 for. This will be a much more useful employment of 
 our time than in drawing doleful comparisons of the 
 extremes to which civilised society gravitates, and assert- 
 ing an equality of rights and powers which exists but 
 in the imagination. We shall then realise that, con- 
 sidering the origin of our race, the basis upon which 
 just social institutions are possible to be erected, and 
 the gradual and natural evolution of existing conditions, 
 it is to the superficial alone that inequity will be 
 apparent. Mankind has evolved very slowly and
 
 PROGRESS AND POVERTY. 1 67 
 
 extended over the whole cultivable portion of the globe. 
 In its course of development new difficulties have con- 
 stantly had to be overcome and new dangers faced, 
 and with each additional experience a modifying con- 
 ception of life and duty was introduced. It is to the 
 extension of the finer conception of human destiny that 
 we must ever look for any permanent improvement in 
 the lots of humanity in general ; but its rapid extension 
 is impeded by the increasing density of population more 
 than keeping pace with the food supply in old countries, 
 and so compelling that strenuous competition for ex- 
 istence which is incompatible with the practical accept- 
 ance of the highest teaching. The salvation of the race, 
 therefore, appears to consist in the restricting of popula- 
 tion, which can be done in several ways, but must be 
 done in some, and every year as it rolls along brings 
 the question more within the practical limit. Intense 
 competition, with the relentless crush of those least 
 equipped for the struggle, will check the numbers while 
 it contributes to progress, but the same end may be 
 attained in a more desirable manner by elevating the 
 standard of comfort amongst mankind, so that a natural
 
 168 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 barrier to undue increase will be established. The 
 tendency seems to be towards a voluntary acceptance 
 of this method, and improvement in the general material 
 welfare of mankind will be in exact proportion to its 
 adoption, which is the only panacea for poverty.
 
 DREAMLANDS.
 
 I had but dreamed of that enlightened and care-free race 
 of men and their ingeniously simple institutions ; of the 
 glorious New Boston with its domes and pinnacles, its 
 gardens and fountains, and its universal reign of comfort. 
 
 EDWARD BELLAMY Z^/bVz Backward. 
 
 Competition means secrecy and over-reachingness, while in 
 co-operation none seek advantages for themselves save such 
 as are compatible with the equal interests of others. To do 
 this, the co-operators must have knowledge of the art of asso- 
 ciation, which has no professors and no literature. 
 
 G. J. HOLYOAKE The Co-operative Movement To-day.
 
 DREAMLANDS. 
 
 THE human race has never been left without its 
 prophets, priests and kings. To every age and in every 
 clime there has come the voice, as of one crying in the 
 wilderness. Prepare ye the way, make straight the path 
 for the perfect state which we foresee. Long before the 
 Christian era, discontent with social arrangements pre- 
 vailed, their imperfections and inequities were discussed, 
 and the conditions of an ideal and perfectly happy 
 state were outlined. The republic of Plato equals 
 and probably transcends the most elevated thought 
 of modern times on world reform, and indeed it is 
 possible that all our most valuable ideas on the 
 subject have their source in that old pagan philo- 
 sopher. No doubt the standard which the idealists 
 have persistently kept before the world has contri- 
 buted somewhat to the continued progress of mankind 
 
 and the continued amelioration of the lots of humanity 
 
 171
 
 1/2 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 in general ; but it must not be forgotten nor underrated 
 that changing environments, changing the necessities of 
 existence, would be inconsistent with the permanency 
 of conditions, and the amount of improvement would 
 be determined by the actual requirements of the circum- 
 stances rather than by the teaching of the schoolmen. 
 The lofty conceptions of the virtuous few might season 
 humankind, but it would be the actual wants of practi- 
 cal life which would give the tone to the age, and nothing 
 that is widely different from the thought of the people 
 at large is likely to influence the immediate remodelling 
 of society. 
 
 The dreamlands of world improvers are always occu- 
 pied by "enlightened and care-free men," and so have 
 no parallel in actual life. We can only imagine the 
 conditions and theorise on how they might be attained ; 
 and consequently it is not wonderful that the visions 
 of the various dreamers should be widely different. 
 Some have seen, as in a glass darkly, a state in which 
 all things have been held in common, and to require is 
 to stretch forth the hand and possess. The practical 
 difficulties in the way of the adoption of such a scheme
 
 DREAMLANDS. 173 
 
 seem insurmountable, and in the highest degree undesir- 
 able. Painted by an enthusiast, nothing but universal 
 happiness and content are shown the former capital- 
 ist, relieved of the care which his wealth gave rise to, 
 and the worker for ever exempt from the anxiety as 
 to what he shall eat on the morrow, or wherewithal 
 be clothed with, knowing that the State attendeth to 
 these things, are left free to put forth their best efforts 
 for the general weal. Is it, however, consonant with 
 our experience, that in the absence of all incentives to 
 labour, men in general attain their highest rate of effi- 
 ciency? Is it not, on the contrary, the almost universal 
 consequence of having no necessity to work, that in- 
 dolence is generated and discreditable habits acquired ? 
 The socialistic scheme is evolved naturally from this 
 communistic one, and is in many respects its superior. 
 It recognises fairly accurately the main factors of the 
 problem, admits the inequality of man, and does not 
 advocate equality of rewards nor community of goods, 
 but on the contrary desires desert to be the deciding 
 factor in the apportionment of recompense. It is thus a 
 much less objectionable scheme, and has succeeded in
 
 174 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 enlisting under its banner many of the purest and best 
 of mankind, who, with all the fidelity of ancient Crusaders, 
 have girded on their armour and dedicated their lives, 
 their honours and their fortunes to the destruction of 
 the gross wrongs which they have convinced themselves 
 prevail. The fundamental error in both cases is identi- 
 cal, and consists of the belief that Government can 
 attend to the interests of individuals better than the 
 individuals themselves ; and so far does this fallacy 
 permeate the opinions of those desirous of reform, that 
 it is almost assumed, though not stated in so many words, 
 that a governmental enactment could create the wealth 
 necessary for all to live in affluence. How different 
 the actual facts are, it is scarcely necessary to stop to 
 indicate ; but there can be nothing more apparent to 
 anyone who will for a moment reflect on the subject 
 than that Government can only spend the money it 
 collects out of the pockets of the people, minus the 
 salaries of the immense staff of officials who are usually 
 irresponsible, and frequently inefficient and wasteful. 
 Any money to be raised for a given purpose must come 
 from the people, and its collection is likely to press
 
 DREAMLANDS. 175 
 
 most hardly upon those least able to bear it. There is in 
 this direction no creative power possible to be vested 
 in the Government, and the experience most common 
 is not that it is guided by any superior wisdom in its 
 action. The ordinary and sometimes more than ordin- 
 ary amount of human fallibility is evinced, and there is, 
 as a rule, not any very striking approximation to what 
 is called divine justice and equity in their general prac- 
 tices, and economy in management is not usually con- 
 spicuous except by its absence. This being the case, it 
 is difficult to see what advantage could be secured by 
 State intervention in the managing of affairs, but we 
 shall deal with this point more exhaustively when we 
 come to discuss the provisions of Bellamy's dreamland 
 " Looking Backward." 
 
 The pertinent question at present is, What benefits 
 could be obtained by the adoption of the socialist 
 scheme ? Are we not under existing conditions re- 
 warded in general according to our deserts ? True, it 
 may not always be in accordance with our own opinions 
 of our merits, but may that not be quite as much due 
 to our over-estimating these as to others under-estimat-
 
 1/6 aOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 ing them? Having given services to the community, 
 valued by it in proportion to the services of others, at 
 a rate which enables us to acquire a surplus, how could 
 it possibly conform even to the crudest conceptions 
 of justice, to have that surplus trammelled by govern- 
 mental restrictions, either in our method of expending, 
 hoarding or transferring ? Would such enactment be 
 conducive to the obtaining of that superior service 
 which most contributes to material progress ? Let us 
 face the facts and admit that such unnatural restraints 
 would sap industry, destroy the inventive faculty, and 
 restrict scientific investigation ; for the numbers who 
 pursue any work, manual or mental, for the sole love 
 of it, are infinitesimal compared with those who are 
 animated by the desire of attaining the rewards which 
 await pre-eminence. 
 
 A co-operative commonwealth, in the modern accepta- 
 tion of the term, is now very generally advocated, and 
 is looked upon as the most feasible solution of the 
 problem of practical life. Co-operation is, of course, 
 co-existent with association ; it is the cohesion which 
 binds society together, and consent to it, tacit or other-
 
 DREAMLANDS. 
 
 wise, is a condition indispensable to the continuance of 
 social life. Under its original meaning, men co-operated 
 for the furthering of the interests of their own community; 
 but their individual interests were always the primary 
 object. Their individual interests, however, never are or 
 can be inimical to the general interests, so long as 
 not actively aggressive of the rights of the other mem- 
 bers of the community. It is now endeavoured to 
 extend the meaning of the term, and to make it in- 
 clude the recognition of an identity in individual interests, 
 hitherto unknown in fact, to abolish individual interests, 
 and admit of nothing but the general well-being as 
 a sufficient justification of action. The State is to pro- 
 duce and to distribute all goods under a central power 
 controlled by the people themselves, instead of by in- 
 dividual capitalists, as at present. The advantages are 
 represented as being enormous, but if allowance is made 
 for the interest necessary for the use of the funds, and 
 the expenses of management provided for, the difference 
 to the people at large would be inconsiderable. The 
 scheme is by no means an untried one, as many years 
 have elapsed since practical form was given to it by
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 the English reformer, Robert Owen, and since his time 
 it has been in operation in several districts, but does not 
 seem to rapidly gain ground. The inherent defects 
 of the system are easily realised. Each having an 
 interest in the business, so far from reducing, increases 
 friction ; envy is stronger, and none can see either the 
 necessity or justice of their occupying the places of 
 drudgery and ordinary work. After the disbanding 
 of the American army, the country was filled with its 
 former generals, colonels, majors and lieutenants, but 
 there were none who admitted they had served in the 
 ranks ; the same feelings of self-glorification would make 
 a co-operative workshop all masters and no men. Wages 
 could not be increased, as if nominally higher, the 
 purchasing power would be no greater indeed, it might 
 be less, owing to the increased cost of production in- 
 volving a larger capital on which interest would be 
 no greater. The recognised management of such a 
 concern would have a difficult task to perform, which 
 the most consummate tact could scarcely discharge 
 satisfactorily. No man can serve two masters ; but 
 under these conditions an effort would have to be made
 
 DREAMLANDS. 1/9 
 
 to serve two or three dozen masters, and the result 
 would hardly be conducive to even temper or high 
 moral conduct. In productive employments the plan 
 has always been found destitute of advantage to work- 
 men ; but ardent co-operators, such as Mr Holyoake, 
 attribute this more to the seemingly benevolent capita- 
 list hampering the boon with such conditions as 
 destroy its efficacy, when, indeed, they can be accepted 
 at all with credit. 
 
 In the case of distribution o/ products there does not 
 seem to be necessarily the same inherent defects, but 
 it is a matter of notoriety that private enterprise can 
 successfully compete against any co-operative store. 
 The latter are rarely managed with the same strict care 
 and economy as characterise the former ; they are also 
 frequently subject to the peculation of unfaithful servants, 
 or their bribery by interested competitors. The share- 
 holders are usually so little conversant with business 
 as to be able to control effectively the official in charge, 
 and if he is a first-class and faithful man, he may be 
 so harassed with their interference as to retire in disgust. 
 The consequence is that permanent success rarely attends
 
 l8o SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 such ventures, and at the best, the possible advantage 
 to shareholders is the proportion of the profit made 
 by the store, which is never so great as to counter- 
 balance the risk and trouble incurred. The same money 
 placed in almost any other bona, fide business would 
 yield an equal return with greater immunity from risk 
 and an entire absence of the trouble and worry and 
 uncertainty which are the inseparable concomitants 
 of the scheme. 
 
 Probably no more effective attempt at depicting 
 actual life in the ideal state has ever been made than 
 that of Bellamy in " Looking Backward." 1 He therein 
 conceives the conditions which would exist, did the 
 dreams of the purest and most disinterested of mankind 
 become realities, and demonstrates to the satisfaction 
 of Julian West how the national plan would eliminate 
 entirely all the unamiable traits of life in the nineteenth 
 century. For the purpose of considering the details 
 of the scheme he formulates, it is almost unnecessary 
 to remark on the brief siesta which Julian West enjoyed 
 
 1 The remainder of this chapter will be best understood by those who 
 have read Bellamy's " Looking Backward."
 
 DREAMLANDS. l8l 
 
 compared with the amazing transformation scene which 
 took place. Certainly it is one of the most remarkable 
 scenic conceptions. If his dreamland is a possible 
 reality it is immaterial whether, for illustrating the details 
 of its working, he assumes one or ten centuries to elapse. 
 We may, however, in passing, be pardoned for ex- 
 pressing surprise that considering the brief period that 
 is supposed to have passed, the records of the nineteenth 
 century and the manners and customs of the people 
 are so little preserved, that the elucidation of them is 
 elevated to something like an antiquarian research. No 
 doubt it is considered the padding necessary for the 
 easy running of the story, and also to form a sort of 
 peg on which to hang those sapient criticisms on our 
 system which were so freely indulged in by the benevolent 
 Dr. Leete. The wealthy, learned clown, when he visited 
 Lady Friendly, was delighted to find Sir Thomas such 
 a well-read gentleman that their opinions on classical 
 subjects were identical, but the value of Sir Thomas's 
 confirmation of his views was considerably depreciated 
 by that unfortunate edition of " Xenophon " in the 
 library, which proved only a board with leather and
 
 1 82 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 gilding made to represent the works of that classic. 
 In the same way we are led to suspect that Dr. Leete's 
 triumph in argument over Mr. West is due, not so 
 much to either the soundness or unassailability of his 
 theories as to the latter's entire ignorance of the whole 
 questions brought up for discussion at the dinner-table. 
 The strong room with its securities and gold are the 
 mountings of the piece, and lend reality to the assumption 
 that if the new order of things were established, the 
 present capitalists would be its most ardent converts, al- 
 though they are the ones that would be most injuriously 
 affected. 
 
 We say most injuriously affected, but all would 
 suffer by the change, which would destroy man's 
 noblest feature, self-reliance, and ensure all being drilled 
 into being mere automatons to dance to whatever tune 
 the State elected to play. The industrial army, into 
 whose ranks all are pressed regardless of their tastes, 
 is a bold conception, and we can only regret that after 
 having its formation so elaborately described, we are 
 not treated to a glimpse of its practical work. 
 
 This is a most significant omission, which leads
 
 DREAMLANDS. 183 
 
 us to the conclusion that its actual operation defied 
 even the genius of Bellamy to paint. The only 
 operator, indeed, to whom we are introduced is that 
 exemplary waiter wbo conducted himself in such a 
 dignified manner at the doctor's dining - table, and that 
 leads to the remark that attending to the wants of 
 the inner man seemed the main work of that ideal 
 State. One cannot but sympathise with the worthy 
 doctor in his eulogy on the perfection to which they 
 had brought the culinary art ; but at the same time 
 he showed a wise discretion in not introducing his 
 guests to the kitchen where the feast was prepared, 
 as, considering the magnitude of the task, a perfect 
 bedlam of confusion must have prevailed. Even in 
 an ordinary restaurant, the preparation of dinner for 
 a few dozens is not accomplished without taxing the 
 tempers and patience of the attendants ; but what would 
 it be in such a gigantic establishment as is repre- 
 sented, and in which the whole district dines, not 
 table-<F hott) but each according to his own taste, and 
 in his own private apartment ? The imagination fails 
 us in trying to conceive the feat ; and while we may
 
 1 84 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 admire its comprehensiveness, we deny the possibility 
 of its accomplishment. Each member of the State is 
 possessed of exactly the same income, man, woman 
 and child, no matter what contribution to the general 
 well-being of the State may be made, and an entirely 
 novel standard by which to judge their worth is 
 erected. No longer are we to estimate the value of 
 conduct by the effect on the community at large ; but 
 henceforth the only claim to merit is the intention or 
 inclination of the performer. 1 A man may undertake 
 a task for which he is altogether incompetent, but if 
 he conscientiously endeavours to perform it, he is more 
 deserving of credit than him who, with an aptitude for 
 it, gives greater results, but does not exercise himself 
 so faithfully. 
 
 No autocrat ever exercised the arbitrary power which is 
 vested in this ideal State with its necessarily hydra-headed 
 management. The child is removed from the parents' 
 control, and rendered independent of them from the 
 earliest time. Its education is conducted by the State, 
 
 i In such a state, killing would frequently be no murder, and an 
 effective justification of persecution would be forthcoming.
 
 DREAMLANDS. 185 
 
 and its labour subject to State control. For twenty- one 
 years school is attended rigorously, and a learned 
 education acquired, but on arrival of that fateful time, 
 each is enrolled in the industrial army. No question as 
 to what task he was most competent to perform was 
 asked, but for three years he was compelled to follow 
 those menial and unskilled employments for which his 
 attainments surely would not qualify him. We are, of 
 course, assured that the word menial had no longer any 
 significance, owing to the conception being one of 
 perfect equality, and the most ordinary tasks being as 
 requisite as the more refined. Would such a training 
 qualify men better for the tasks of life than our present 
 methods? We know practically that the best way to 
 disqualify men for the following of manual or mechanical 
 employments is to defer starting until they have reached 
 something like mature years. The habits are then 
 formed, and it is impossible that anyone who has at- 
 tended a collegiate course till that time, would grace- 
 fully become a waiter or a road sweeper, and it would 
 be the most refined cruelty to insist upon them being 
 so after the very different manner in which they had
 
 1 86 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 been educated. After the expiration of the three years, 
 they were permitted to select some skilled trade to 
 which they became apprenticed at the age of twenty- 
 four. This special trade is no better paid than any 
 other, no matter what skill or talent its pursuit involves, 
 and naturally we should imagine, therefore, that the 
 most agreeable and easily acquired trades would receive 
 a surplus of volunteers, and this would be the inevitable 
 consequence if the theoretical perfect equality of reward 
 was maintained. A variety, therefore, is of necessity 
 introduced, and owing to the impossibility of this taking 
 a monetary shape, the expedient is resorted to of equal- 
 ising advantages by extending or reducing the hours of 
 labour, and so minimising the attractiveness of the one 
 avocation, and increasing that of the other naturally 
 less agreeable. This is but a clumsy substitute for 
 our own practice, which rewards in strict accordance 
 with the value of the services to the community, The 
 business of the administration, however, is to see that 
 there is always an ample supply of volunteers for each 
 employment, and consequently a close watch is kept 
 on the rate of volunteering to each, and constant modi-
 
 DREAMLANDS. 187 
 
 fications of the conditions appertaining to each takes 
 place, so as to preserve an equality. These modifica- 
 tions would seem to us unjust to those who were already 
 following the trade. They had been induced to join 
 it by its apparently greater attractiveness, and when their 
 choice was made, and no retreat possible, the con- 
 ditions of employment are so changed as to deprive 
 them of the advantages which they had reckoned on 
 receiving. An entire absence of permanency in arrange- 
 ment is foreign to our conception of a possibly happy 
 and contented State, and there would certainly be 
 greater discontent arising from the continued compul- 
 sory alterations, than what exists under our own regime, 
 where the rewards of labour are left to adjust them- 
 selves naturally, and depend entirely upon society's 
 own estimate of the worth of the services. A still 
 more remarkable thing is that in such an ideally perfect 
 State such provisions were found necessary, and does 
 not confirm Dr. Leete's somewhat inflated boast that 
 "the organisation of society no longer offers a premium 
 on baseness." Human nature had evidently not changed, 
 and the greatest care had to be exercised to prevent
 
 1 88 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 the possibility of advantages over each other being 
 taken. Where could the Board be found in such a 
 State who would use their power impartially, and how 
 would they estimate the value of their own services 
 as to time ? The doctor informs Mr. West that " if 
 any occupation was so arduous and oppressive that, 
 in order to induce volunteers, the day's work in it had 
 to be reduced to ten minutes, it would be done." 
 Nothing but a dreamer could conceive of occupations 
 being carried on under such circumstances : such a 
 relay of workers would be requisite; and there are few 
 works in which another can take up the task where left 
 by his predecessor, and carry it on towards completion. 
 Certainly if each were only to devote ten minutes 
 per day to it, we should be far from expecting accurate 
 work. 
 
 The immense industrial establishments which we are 
 asked to conceive as existing, each equalling one 
 hundred or so of our present private concerns, does 
 not seem at all feasible. We know that the greatest 
 drawback of our moderately large establishments is 
 the distance which men have to traverse before enter-
 
 DREAMLANDS. 189 
 
 ing upon their work; but under the supposed con- 
 ditions these distances would be so greatly increased, 
 that it would be scarcely practicable to have the men 
 conveyed to and from their work. 
 
 Women were entirely relieved from the burden of 
 housework, but were made to contribute in other, and 
 more effectual, as well as more agreeable ways, to the 
 common weal ; but with a convenient disregard for details 
 we are not informed how the former can be altogether 
 dispensed with, nor the latter accomplished. There is a 
 general statement that the washing is done at public 
 laundries, cooking at public kitchens, and the making 
 and repairing of wearing apparel in public shops. But 
 surely the various operations are not performed without 
 workers, and so far from such an arrangement reducing, 
 it would increase the amount of work to be accom- 
 plished. A whole army of carriers would be necessary 
 to convey the entire articles to and from the various 
 establishments, and an immense number of clerks to 
 record the particulars of the goods, etc., belonging to 
 or required by the householders. The success of the 
 general cooking at public kitchens would be some-
 
 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 what destroyed during the conveyance to the houses, 
 and possible collisions might be expected in the bustle 
 attending the operations which would take place pre- 
 sumably for all families at the same hour. 
 
 According to the ideas prevailing amongst the in- 
 habitants of this wonderful dreamland, none of our 
 present methods of conducting the work of the world 
 is right; in fact, when not morally wrong, they are 
 stupidly inefficient. The very motives by which man- 
 kind are now influenced are assumed to be base, and 
 most elaborate precautions are taken to deprive the 
 possibility of any one obtaining advantages over their 
 neighbours. Labour is not compulsory, it is inevitable, 
 says Dr. Leete, and to refuse to work is to be shut off 
 from human society. The only extra reward which 
 can be obtained is the esteem of your fellows, and 
 the measurement of worth is not results, but intentions, 
 a much less reliable standard. It is also a ladies' 
 paradise, for, being altogether independent of men, 
 they are permitted to absolutely equal rights, even 
 to popping the question. There is no moral objection 
 to the plan, but it might prove embarrassing, and is so
 
 DREAMLANDS. 
 
 foreign to our ideas of etiquette that we are appalled 
 at the prospects which it would hold in store for us. 
 It is unnecessary to follow the worthy doctor through 
 all his comparisons of the nineteenth and twentieth 
 centuries. Suffice it to say that, viewed from his stand- 
 point, the scheme he eulogised had much of what 
 was admirable in its construction. It did not, however, 
 alter the inherently unequal conditions of men and 
 their distinctively different rewards. In fact, the common 
 error of all social reforms is very pronounced, and that 
 is the belief that it is in external circumstances 
 alone that happiness is possible. Nothing, in reality, 
 has less to do with the matter, and the ploughman 
 may occasionally frequently, perhaps enjoy that com- 
 fort and contentment which is denied to him who 
 wears a crown. 
 
 The economical tenets advanced by the book are 
 not likely to become classical. It is a generally ac" 
 cepted axiom that nothing really goes to waste, but 
 we are informed that in our industrial system there 
 are four great wastes resulting from leaving the conduct 
 of industry to irresponsible individuals. To the ordinary
 
 1 92 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 mind there does not seem any consistency in this 
 assumption, as in the other portion of the book we 
 are informed it was the weight of responsibility conse- 
 quent upon the management of capital and labour, 
 that made existence in the preceding age not worth 
 having. If men did not feel responsibility when the 
 immediate effects concern themselves and their families, 
 it would scarcely be very active in a State where no 
 undesirable consequence could result from mismanage- 
 ment, so long as the bulk of the contemporaries were 
 satisfied that the intention was not blamable. 
 
 The first waste mentioned is that of mistaken under- 
 takings. The assumption is made that the projector of 
 a given enterprise had no general view of the field of 
 industry and consumption, but this is entirely unfounded. 
 No man enters upon any enterprise without having a fairly 
 accurate knowledge of the requirements of the com- 
 munity in that direction, and the fact that failure 
 occasionally attends his efforts would not be a waste 
 to the community. It would transfer his claim to a 
 given quantum of wealth from himself to the community 
 at large, but it surely would not therefore be wasted.
 
 DREAMLANDS. 193 
 
 In fact the fortunes of the individuals inside a State 
 may fluctuate very widely in relation to each other 
 at different periods, and the State itself be nothing the 
 poorer, so that the consequence of the error does not 
 poverise the State, but the individual only. The waste 
 of competition is still less consonant with the facts, 
 as any one who has considered the laws of industry 
 will realise. If all men in the same trade fraternised 
 as comrades instead of regarding each other as rivals, 
 there would simply prevail monopoly prices for their 
 products. The competition which leads to the reduc- 
 tion of prices is surely more beneficial to the community 
 as a whole, than any combination for maintaining them, 
 which would simply give the manufacturers, so combin- 
 ing, a greater relative return than what was obtained 
 in other trades not federated in the same way. It is 
 a purely romantic conception that the day-dream of the 
 nineteenth century producer is to gain absolute control 
 of the supply of some necessity of life, so that he 
 might keep the public on the verge of starvation. The 
 interest of those providing for the wants of the com- 
 munity might be to keep it on the verge of starvation, 
 
 N
 
 194 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 were it not for that competition which prevails, and 
 which ensures the conflicting personal interest always 
 bringing the prices, not alone of necessaries, but of 
 luxuries, to the lowest point at which they can be 
 produced ; and any attempt at increasing this minimum 
 rate would rectify itself by inducing further competition 
 in that particular department ; for the duty is not en- 
 trusted to a particular class, but is open to every 
 citizen who thinks lie possesses the necessary qualifica- 
 tion. The waste from periodical gluts and crises is 
 non-existent ; there is a cessation of production, but 
 this is quite distinct from waste, and only implies that 
 labour has become so effective that continuous exertion 
 is no longer requisite for supplying all human wants. 
 True, there are many who could use much more than 
 they obtain, but they are not able to give such a re- 
 turn of service to society as to enable it to produce 
 for them. The fourth waste indicated by the good 
 doctor was that of idle capital and labour. The fact 
 
 that capital is idle is simply an indication that there 
 
 
 is accumulated a greater amount of it than can be 
 
 usefully employed. The devices which have accom-
 
 DREAMLANDS. 
 
 panied civilisation have greatly increased natural pro- 
 ductiveness, and so facilitated the growth of popula- 
 tion ; but there is a limit to this, and it is a conse- 
 quence of this limit being reached that renders capital 
 inoperative, unless when new fields of enterprise are 
 opened, or valuable inventions introduced, which, for 
 a time, eases the depression which is an inevitable 
 result of a densely populated country. Capital is 
 therefore not wasted in such cases ; it is not con- 
 sumed, and so it is not necessary to be replaced, and 
 receives while in this state no interest. Labour is 
 not wasted; there is a surplus over what is required, 
 and that is practically valueless. It is immaterial 
 whether a certain number go without employment, and 
 are supported by those who are working, or whether 
 all are employed for a shorter period and receive the 
 same amount in the aggregate, but less, individually, 
 than the present workers. There is no evading the 
 relentless dictum that the poor ye shall have with 
 you alway. 
 
 A national system of co - operation would com- 
 pletely destroy individual responsibility by removing
 
 196 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 all incentive to industry; human character would 
 be dwarfed by the removal of its noblest feature, self- 
 reliance ; energy would be sapped, and men would 
 become little better than automatons, and an indolent 
 and degenerate race would succeed the present active 
 and enterprising generation. The knowledge that under 
 the new order of things all were assured of a sufficiency 
 of the good things of life, irrespective of personal effort, 
 would result in a diminution of the desire of discover- 
 ing improved methods ; scientific investigation would 
 languish, and the retrogression of humanity would be 
 inevitable. Besides this, if those for whose especial 
 benefit the scheme is devised, had it fairly explained 
 to them, they would join in its denunciation. Tell 
 those who at present earn a livelihood by casual work, 
 and the numbers in large cities are by no means in- 
 considerable, that in future they will not be permitted 
 to live this free and easy existence, but must confine 
 themselves to some certain avocation for which by 
 temperament they are usually unsuited, and will they 
 unite with you? Tell those who at present are sup- 
 ported by the enforced charity of the comfortable
 
 DREAMLANDS. 197 
 
 without any exertion, that henceforward they must re- 
 turn in work an equivalent to their maintenance, and 
 will they consider this an improvement? This indeed 
 is an essential difference between the national plan 
 and our own. The former does not intend to support 
 any but those that will be compelled to contribute 
 to the welfare of the community, while at present 
 we support vast numbers who do not labour. Economi- 
 cally, the latter is the correct method, as pauper labour 
 would quickly disturb the balance of trade, and so 
 far from elevating would reduce all to the level of 
 paupers. 
 
 The conclusion which must be arrived at, in respect 
 of all those dreamlands which philanthropic economists 
 have depicted is, that they would require so much 
 minute arrangements ; so much would have to be 
 compulsory, and so much, if harmony were to prevail, 
 or justice be maintained, would depend upon voluntary 
 action, that their successful adoption this side the mil- 
 lennium cannot be conceived as practicable.
 
 LOOKING FORWARD.
 
 I take it that the good of mankind means the attainment 
 by every man of all the happiness which he can enjoy 
 without diminishing the happiness of his fellow-men. 
 
 If we inquire what kinds of happiness come under this 
 definition, we find those derived from the sense of security or 
 peace; from wealth or commodity, obtained by commerce; 
 from Art whether it be architecture, sculpture, painting, music 
 or literature; from knowledge or science; and finally, from 
 sympathy or friendship. No man is injured, but the contrary, 
 by peace. No man is any the worse off because another 
 acquires wealth by trade, or by the exercise of a profession; on 
 the contrary, he cannot have acquired his wealth, except by 
 benefiting others to the full extent of what they considered to 
 be its value; and his wealth is no more than fairy gold, if he 
 does not go on benefiting others in the same way. 
 
 PROFESSOR HUXLEY Administrative Nihilism.
 
 f tt 
 
 LOOKING FORWARD. 
 
 HAVING now for a period roamed, with some degree of 
 freedom, through the romantic dreamlands which have 
 peopled the imagination of those disinterested philan- 
 thropists who have no doubt honestly desired to leave 
 the world better than they found it, we may again 
 descend to the region of actual life, and endeavour 
 to discover the goal to which humanity may attain. 
 It will be well, however, to briefly and succinctly 
 summarise the conclusions to which our investigation 
 has tended. The idea in view, no matter how im- 
 perfectly we may have developed it, has been, 
 that society as existing is not alone the natural, but 
 that it is the only possible at present. This opinion 
 originates in a consideration of human history and 
 development, and in a knowledge of human nature, 
 which can be verified by each inquirer. The char- 
 acteristics of our system which are apparentl y in- 
 
 201
 
 202 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 equitable, and consequently specially attacked by re- 
 formers, exist by reason of the hitherto unquestioning 
 acceptance of principles which are inseparable from 
 association. In the complexity of the civilised State 
 an analysis of the essentials of society, which few 
 popular reformers take the time to make, is necessary 
 to the recognition of what they really consist of, and 
 of their imperativeness, but in the earlier stages they 
 are realised and assented to intuitively. The principles 
 are those of individual freedom and justice, which few 
 would care knowingly to oppose ; but yet the laws 
 of social intercourse are so little appreciated, that 
 doctrines destructive of these principles find acceptance 
 and advocacy from many who would shrink from being 
 identified with an open attack on these. Freedom in 
 a social State is different from natural freedom, owing 
 to the tacit agreement, which existence in the State 
 implies, of observing the rights of your neighbour 
 with the same exactitude as you guard your own ; and 
 while Government, therefore, is not restricting freedom 
 by insisting on restraining everything inimical to the 
 general welfare of the community, where this is con-
 
 LOOKING FORWARD. 203 
 
 served individual freedom must not in any way be 
 curtailed. Bearing the saving clause in mind, we find 
 that the essential principles demand that each in- 
 dividual should be permitted to exercise their powers 
 in the way most conducive to their own welfare, and 
 that absolute protection in the enjoyment of the results 
 must be assured before they will begin to accumulate 
 those reserves which are indispensably necessary to 
 progress, or even to existence in association. Para- 
 doxical as it may seem, it is only when the reserves 
 become very extensive, that any hardship is ex- 
 perienced, and it is then due quite as much to 
 the fact that the adaptation of Nature to the wants 
 of man is approaching the limit which is fixed by 
 the discovery of improvements. A new invention may 
 for a time ease the pressure by introducing a fresh 
 outlet for capital, and the bringing of fresh territory 
 under cultivation will have the same effect, but 
 these are not illimitable possibilities, and the struggle 
 for existence becomes intensified as population con- 
 tinues to increase while they diminish. The con- 
 ferring on each of the absolute right to deal with
 
 
 204 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 the fruits of his own toil, leads to the reserves 
 becoming possessed by the comparatively few, who 
 have what has been called the effective desire of 
 accumulation largely developed, and their offspring 
 are introduced into the world under the most favour- 
 able circumstances, not only in respect of material 
 goods, but also in regard to habits of frugality and 
 thrift inherited. This transmission of the results 
 of past inequality often causes the existing conditions 
 of men to be entirely irreconcilable with their 
 apparent mental, moral or physical differences, and 
 discontent arises spontaneously out of the hardships 
 which many endure through no fault of their own, 
 and the superfluous luxury which others enjoy without 
 any special deserts. Still there is not in this any 
 inequity, as a constant intermingling of classes occurs 
 in our free country, so that anyone possessing real 
 merit is likely to find a market for it, and, like 
 Claude Melnotte, " buy his ransom from the twin 
 jailors of the daring heart low birth and iron fortune." 
 Interference with the laws of exchange of labour 
 is unnatural and destitute of advantage, as when
 
 LOOKING FORWARD, 2O5 
 
 exercised in all departments of industry, it simply 
 means a permanent increase in the price of all 
 commodities ; and if only a few are included in its 
 operation, the followers of that description of employ- 
 ment enrich themselves at the expense of the other 
 members of the community, and to be able to 
 continue to do so, must interfere with individual 
 liberty by refusing to allow the numbers which the 
 favouring conditions would draw to enter their 
 ranks, and so compel them to adopt avocations 
 for which they have less aptitude, and so inflict a 
 real wrong on the community, by depriving it of 
 services which, if left free to select work according 
 to personal inclination, would have a much higher 
 rate of efficiency. The direct tendency is to estab- 
 lish caste distinctions, owing to the unwritten law 
 observed of accepting as apprentices to given trades 
 the sons of those at present following them. This 
 at first sight seems a just arrangement, but it is 
 difficult to conceive how popular favour can be 
 extended to anything possessing to such a large 
 extent the elements of real slavery.
 
 J* 
 
 2O6 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 The proposed remedies of the assumed inequities of 
 social life, while voicing sentiments in every way credit- 
 able, originate in that dangerous thing a little know- 
 ledge of the subject and deal exclusively with the 
 most superficial aspects. Whatever advantage might be 
 obtained in a given direction by their introduction 
 would be counteracted by the evil effects in others, as 
 social forces act and react on each other in such equal 
 and opposite directions as to maintain the status quo 
 of advantage. That the conditions of existence in 
 civilised society seem improved is due to our different 
 requirements of existence, and the different standards 
 which we have erected ; but, none the less, qualities 
 have become rudimentary which made existence in the 
 earlier stages of life quite as tolerable as what ours 
 is with all its education, refinement, and power. The 
 happiness and contentment of our race, though in some 
 circumstances inseparable from surroundings, are by no 
 means indissolubly connected with them, as adaptability 
 and adjustment of means to ends enables man to 
 extract in most cases the essentials of desirable life, 
 whatever the externals.
 
 LOOKING FORWARD. 2O/ 
 
 The cause of the periodical depression in trade is 
 overproduction ; though the popular teacher of political 
 philosophy will immediately demolish this statement to 
 his own and hearers' satisfaction by demanding with 
 all theatrical rhetoric overproduction of what? Of 
 bread while men and women, aye, and little children 
 starve ? Of boots and stockings while thousands have 
 none to wear? Of clothing while many go shivering 
 along our streets for want of some to shield them from 
 the piercing blast ? We cannot deny that these in- 
 terrogatories correctly represent the facts of social life, 
 irreconcilable as they must at first sight appear to the 
 statement that it is overproduction which causes social 
 troubles. Under the at first favouring conditions of 
 civilisation the race increases in such a rapid ratio, 
 that the numbers begin to be disproportionate to the 
 sustenance possible to be raised in the immediate area. 
 Even the most careful and arduous labour will not 
 secure from the soil supplies to keep pace with the 
 multiplying population, and the consequent competition 
 for what is produced leads to the survival and propaga- 
 tion of those most fitted for the conditions of life. It
 
 208 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 does not, however, immediately eliminate those not so 
 well qualified, but reduces them to the least favourable 
 positions, and this in proportion to their adaptability. 
 The grades or stratas of society are therefore determined 
 by the qualities of those who form them, and as these 
 can never become uniform, such grades or stratas must, 
 so far as human prescience goes, continue while time 
 lasts. The competition, which is induced by the in- 
 creasing difficulty of obtaining a livelihood, is far from 
 being disadvantageous, as, being equally active in all 
 departments of life, it gives to the workers in cheapness 
 of goods what it deprives them of by cheapening their 
 labour. Besides this it sharpens the intellect and 
 makes men resourceful, active, and self-reliant, if they 
 are to be successful ; and where these qualities cannot 
 be induced it renders their existence less desirable, and 
 so tends to diminish the numbers of that class which 
 shall be produced. The evolution of the species to 
 higher and still higher levels must be through this 
 source, and, as the requirements of life become more 
 exacting, the dross of humanity finds existence increas- 
 ingly difficult, and, just in proportion to the progress of
 
 LOOKING FORWARD. 209 
 
 the most intellectual, does their comparative condition 
 become to all appearance more miserable. That 
 humanity is destined to be continuously progressive is 
 a proposition which may be advanced with the greatest 
 confidence, notwithstanding the fact that research into 
 the history of antiquity discloses a higher degree of 
 attainment amongst the inhabitants of the ancient 
 nations than what the subsequent barbaric conditions 
 into which mankind sunk would lead us to expect. 
 Reflection on this may lead to the conclusion which, 
 indeed, has been often expressed, that there is nothing 
 in our civilisation so essentially different to what pre- 
 vailed in ancient times to ensure that retrogression 
 may not take place, and after we attain a certain 
 standard disintegration ensue, and anarchy and despot- 
 ism for a time become supreme, after which the cycle 
 of improvement will again reappear and complete 
 its unvarying course. We cannot see any reason for 
 giving our adhesion to this theory, because modern 
 civilisation differs very materially from anything which 
 has preceded it. 
 
 The means of perpetuating knowledge are the most 
 
 o
 
 210 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 complete, and the portion of the world peopled by the 
 European race is of such an extent that unless a cata- 
 clasm were to engulf the universe, the continuity of 
 attainment is assured. Admitting, therefore, that we are 
 on a path of improvement from which we are not 
 likely to depart, the question naturally arises, Shall we 
 have the poor with us always? We have the very 
 highest authority for answering this in the affirmative, 
 but were this not the case, what would be the logical 
 deduction from the observed facts ? No matter what form 
 of society were established, rivalry would naturally prevail 
 owing to the disposition of each to secure for himself 
 the most elevated position. No one would voluntarily 
 perform the menial offices of social life, and they would 
 naturally devolve upon those who had failed in competi- 
 tion with their fellows to secure the more prominent 
 and honourable employment, and who would consequently 
 be forced by the exigencies of circumstances to be the 
 " hewers of wood and drawers of water," and so be the 
 poor of that society. Such poverty would not be in- 
 consistent with fairly high educational acquirements, 
 and would perhaps be more the penalty of individual
 
 LOOKING FORWARD. 211 
 
 inferiority than what is at present current. To make it 
 so would be the legitimate duty of the State, and without 
 transgressing its proper function it might take under 
 its care the education of the people. This, while not 
 attempting the impossible task of constituting an arti- 
 ficial equality, would still give to each a more nearly 
 equal start in life. No attempt at making the individuals 
 exact counterparts of each other, or restraining the natural 
 powers or aptitudes should be made, as there is nothing 
 more foreign to our ideas of justice and freedom than 
 what such an extreme system of regimentation would 
 imply. Consequently the natural result of the improved 
 arrangements would be a greatly exalted standard of 
 life, but a not appreciable reduction of those in menial 
 places, while each had a chance of qualifying for the 
 highest. A very desirable state of affairs, and as nearly 
 as possible approximated to by our Government at 
 present, which has shown itself particularly alert to the 
 interests of the people at large. To the people them- 
 selves, however, we must look for permanent improve- 
 ment, which will not take place by them seizing the 
 governmental reins and governing for their own especial
 
 212 SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SCHEMES. 
 
 benefit. If such a course were pursued it would not 
 ensure a general amelioration of lots, but simply a dis- 
 placing of the existing aristocratic body, and the establishing 
 of one from amongst the present leaders of the people, 
 who, elated by their success, would become as intolerable 
 and autocratic towards their former companions as the 
 most supercilious of the present aristocrats. The most 
 effective plan, and that to which we should strenuously 
 direct attention, is the elevation of the standard of 
 comfort amongst the masses. The more we educate, 
 the more we shall contribute to this, which is not the 
 least important advantage of education. By so doing, 
 we shall contribute to keep population within the limits 
 of luxurious subsistence, and increase the natural value 
 of all human labour by maintaining an equilibrium between 
 the work to be done and the workers. Arbitrary ex- 
 actions would then be impossible, and the giving of 
 labour would be realised to be as important a service 
 as the providing of capital. This does not imply that 
 it is not so in reality at all times, but only that the 
 numbers who are willing to offer it are so disproportionate 
 to the work as to depreciate both the market value
 
 LOOKING FORWARD. 213 
 
 and the estimation in which labour is held. To the 
 restriction of generation, and the restraining of immi- 
 gration, we look forward, therefore, as the true solution 
 of the problem of pauperism, as the State that contains 
 within itself the means of sustenance for all its inhabi- 
 tants without the necessity of importing foreign produce 
 is the only one that is not overpopulated, and conse- 
 quently none of its citizens would experience the depths 
 of degradation which, unfortunately, are too common in 
 modern States, where the congestion which is partially 
 relieved by the exploiting of new areas is likely to be even 
 more intensely felt when this outlet ceases, as it must, and 
 now is ceasing. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by Cmvan &= Co., Limited, Terth.
 
 
 
 


 
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