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 maintain and increase their claim on industry's product. And whenever they increase industry's output a large part of the price that consumers pay goes to labour. As has been shown, capital without labour is powerless to produce. The wage-earner is thus most likely to earn good wages when there are as many capitalists as possible putting new capital into industry and competing for the services of the wage-earner as a worker, and for his custom as a consumer. If labour prefers to frighten and threaten the capitalist, the latter will be scarce and shy and his capital will be scarce and dear. Moreover the responsibilities that are attached to the ownership of wealth are not always learnt by those who gain it in their own lifetimes. Bad spending, as is particularly evident at present, is a specially prevalent vice among those who have suddenly grown rich. We might cure this disease by having no rich at all, but this cure would mean the adoption of a new economic system, with dangers that will be shown when we come to examine the suggested alternatives to Capitalism.

As it is, labour gets the whole of its product and a great deal more. If it wants to get also the share of the capitalist and the


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 adventurer, it can do so by saving capital for itself and risking it in industry, so becoming its own employer and provider. "A few shillings per head from the working class would quickly raise the capital necessary to make a trial of democratic management in any industry." So says Mr. Stirling Taylor, in the Guild State, the latest contribution to the literature of Guild Socialism.

If the wage-earners determined to make themselves masters of industry by providing their own capital, they could gain a power that would be overwhelming. The process would be gradual and slow, but if half that we are told is true about workers who stay at home instead of going to work as soon as they have earned enough to satisfy their immediate wants, steadier work would give them a big margin for this purpose of strengthening their position. The wonderful success of the co-operative movement has shown what can be done. If labour provided its own capital, the idle capitalist with no labour to work for him would find the flank of his position most effectively turned.

Concerning the proportion of the joint product that is taken by capital, it may be interesting to quote a statement made by

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 Sir Hugh Bell to the shareholders of the Horden Collieries, Ltd. Coal-mining being a speculative industry, capital invested in it may be expected to yield on the average a higher rate than most other enterprises. Sir Hugh, as reported in the Times of December 4, 1919, said:—

"While I am dealing with the position in which you find yourselves, it may interest you to know that the total amount disbursed in dividends over the whole 19 years that the company has existed is just over one million pounds—to be accurate, £1,010,000. Last year we paid in wages to men directly in our employment £1,019,000. In 19 years we have distributed £1,000,000 in dividends, and in one year we paid £1,000,000 in wages. That figure of £1,000,000 in wages corresponds exactly with the figure I have already cited on former occasions. The total amount of our outgoings last year is just under £2,000,000. The wages we have paid to our own people are, as I told you, just over a million, so that just about 50 per cent. of the total outgoing of your company goes in wages—in the form of wages, because I have to take into account the coals you supply to the men, and I also have to take into account the cottage rents,


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 which are part of the wages. If you come to examine the other items, such as stores and so on, you will find that something like the same proportionate amount has been paid in wages, so that you have paid out, directly and indirectly, for wages £1,500,000 out of £2,000,000. That is to say, you disburse 75 per cent. in wages and salaries. Out of every ton of coal you sell, one half of the selling price goes to pay wages of the men in your employment, and of the remaining half, about a like proportion is paid in wages by the persons from whom you buy your stores, etc., so that directly you pay away 50 per cent., and indirectly 25 per cent., in wages and salaries. Out of just under £2,000,000 there remains £200,000 or thereabouts as your share. You will see on how narrow a margin you are conducting your trade, and how relatively small an increase of wages would absorb all that margin and leave you with no dividend at all."


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far we have seen that the claim of the capitalist to interest on his money and profit in return for risks which he takes, is fully justified on economic grounds and in equity, and that the claim of some champions of labour that labour is entitled to the whole of its product, is more than fully satisfied,—because already and as it is labour gets out of industry a great deal more than it could provide for itself if it were not supplied by capitalists with machinery, plant and organization by which its output is enormously increased.

Capitalism, then, is not based on injustice. Let us look now at the question of its practical success. A glance at the progress of mankind since the Industrial Revolution brought modern Capitalism into being, shows at once that its achievements have been enormous, one might


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 With conversation on this and other matters they beguiled the way, Claverhouse all the, while speaking with great frankness to Morton, and treating him rather as a friend and companion than as a prisoner; so that, however uncertain of his fate, the hours he passed in the company of this remarkable man were so much lightened by the varied play of his imagination, and the depth of his knowledge of human nature, that since the period of his becoming a prisoner of war, which relieved him at once from the cares of his doubtful and dangerous station among the insurgents, and from the consequences of their suspicious resentment, his hours flowed on less anxiously than at any time since his having commenced actor in public life. He was now, with respect to his fortune, like a rider who has flung his reins on the horse's neck, and, while he abandoned himself to circumstances, was at least relieved from the task of attempting to direct them. In this mood he journey-


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 almost say miraculous. An obvious test is that of population. Dr. Shadwell, in an article on the History of Industrialism in the Encyclopædia of Industrialism, shows that while in the last century before private Capitalism became powerful—between 1651 and 1751—the population of Great Britain rose from 6,378,000 to 7,392,000, an increase of 1,014,000, in the next century—1751 to 1851—it rose to 21,185,000, an increase of 13,793,000, and in the next so years—1851 to 1911—it rose by 19,350,000 to 40,535,000. In commenting on the difference between the increase in the two centuries—1651 to 1751, and 1751 to 1851—Dr. Shadwell observes (page 304) that "the difference is not, of course, wholly due to the industrial factor; but the two go together, and the vast increase of life during the second century negatives the common assumption that Industrialism produced a state of unprecedented and increasing misery. This is emphasized by the fact that the rate of increase was highest during the first decades of the nineteenth century, when the change was proceeding at its maximum intensity. The rates of increase in England were: 1801–11, 14.50 per cent.; 1811–21, 1805 per cent.; 1821–31, 16.24 per cent.


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 1831–41, 14.58 per cent. These rates have only been approached in one subsequent decade—that of 1871–81—which included several years of the highest prosperity on record, when the rate was 14.5 per cent. The rising tide of vitality revealed by statistics is in keeping with the observations of the French traveller Louis Simond, quoted by Professor Smart, in 1810–11: 'I have found the great mass of the people richer, happier, and more respectable than any other with which I am acquainted.

Increase of population is not, of course, a wholly satisfactory test by itself. It is, in fact, maintained by some Malthusians that increase of population is a sign of a low state of civilization, and a low standard of comfort, and this contention is to some extent supported by the well-known fact that the birth-rate shows a tendency to decline among those classes whose circumstances are most comfortable and whose standard of life is highest. Nevertheless it is something for Capitalism to claim that it has enabled so enormous an increase to take place in the population of the country, in which modern Capitalism and the modern Industrial system first opened their keen young eyes,


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 and have carried out their most characteristic development. Merely to enable so large a number of people to be alive is not everything, but it is a great deal. Under Capitalism all these millions saw the light of the sun, smelt the scent of spring, knew love and friendship, made and laughed at good and bad jokes, ate and digested their meals, made their queer guesses at the secret of life, played games, read books, cherished their hobbies and their prejudices, knew a little, thought they knew much more, and went their way leaving others behind them to take up the thread of life and spin another strip of its mysterious cloth.

If life is on the whole a good thing—and most of us waste little time in sending for a doctor if we do not feel well—Capitalism has made the enjoyment of that good possible to millions. And all the time during which that huge increase in our population was growing we were pouring out a stream of emigrants to fill and till the waste places of the earth, and sending them capital to help them to increase production there. Thus Capitalism has bred millions of active, busy men and women, spread them over the world, reclaimed its waste places and increased its output so fast that, as we shall see,


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 the increased population has increased its command of goods even more rapidly than its numbers. All this has to be chalked up to Capitalism's credit and considered carefully before, just because it has not created an earthly Paradise for us, we throw it down and put an untried system in its place. Itis true that part of our population has lived and continues to live under circumstances of which our civilization has every reason to be ashamed. But even in their case the gift of life is something, and social reformers are rather apt to forget, in their eagerness to put right the evils which beset the destitute among us, that the greater part of our population leads and has led lives, which though far from being ideal from an economic or any other point of view, have taken them through the world in a state of fair contentment, and with a reasonable and growing share in the gifts which science has placed at man's disposal. Industrial and scientific progress in the control of the forces of nature, has proceeded with astonishing rapidity throughout this period of production under Capitalism.

It may be argued that science and invention have done the real work, and that Capitalism has only picked their brains, applying their


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 lessons purely with the view to making profit out of them, and so has wrested the gifts of science from their true use and prevented their being enjoyed in full freedom by the whole of mankind. This may be so, but, on the other hand, science could never have wrought its miracles if there had not been a vast store of accumulated wealth to apply to the development of its discoveries. This accumulated wealth might perhaps have been produced by a system of society organized collectively, under which the Government would have seen the goals towards which science was struggling, and placed at its disposal an army of workers who were capable of carrying out its objects. But it is at least as likely that no Government which the world has yet known would have made use of the services of science with the readiness, adaptability and courage in taking risks, that have been shown by the organizers of industry spurred by the incentive of profit-making.

Whatever those people may think who like to amuse themselves with the pleasant science of hypothetics, that is to say, of wondering what might have happened if things had been otherwise, the fact remains that the material


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 ed on, the number of his companions.being continually augmented by detached parties of horse who came in from every quarter of the country, bringing with them, for the most part, the unfortunate persons who had fallen into their power. At length they approached Edinburgh.

"Our council," said Claverhouse, "being resolved, I suppose, to testify, by their present exultation, the extent of their former terror, have decreed a kind of triumphal entry to us victors and our captives; but as I do not quite approve the taste of it, I am willing to avoid my own part in the shew, and, at the same time, to save you from yours."

So saying, he gave up the command of the forces to Allan, (now a Lieutenant-colonel,) and, turning his horse into a by-lane, rode into the city privately, accompanied by Morton and two or three servants. When Claverhouse arrived at the quarters which he usually occupied in the Canongate, he assigned to his prisoner a small


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 achievements under Capitalism have been enormous, and promise still greater miracles if we follow the same line. The world has been covered with a network of railways, and the shores of its various continents have been linked together by steamships of enormous power. Factories and machinery have been developed and improved with incredible speed. Telegraphs and telephones have made the whole world into one great listening gallery, and the exchange of goods and the communication of thought between one country and another are being continually developed in a manner which only shows what great possibilities still lie before us. The material output has grown at a staggering pace, and the British workman of to-day has his life embellished and made comfortable by the products of all the climates of the world, from tea to tobacco, with a freedom which would have been envied by many a mediaeval monarch. At the same time if there are terrible inequalities in the distribution of this wealth, if many at the bottom of the economic ladder lead lives of misery, owing to a lack of the good things of the earth, and many at the top lead lives of boredom owing to a surplus of luxurious enjoyment, it is possible to climb


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 from the lowest rung of the ladder to the highest. We cannot claim that the "career is open to talent," or that there is anything like a fair chance for all in the race for the good things of life; this is an ideal for which we have to work by improving and cheapening education. Talent backed by individual enterprise in any case seems likely to have a better chance under Capitalism than under bureaucratic red-tape or Guild monopoly; and any one with exceptional ability and exceptional luck, or both, can already make his way through from the bottom to the top early enough in life to give him many years of enjoyment of his success.

Our output of goods is still not nearly great enough, being estimated before the war at about £42 per head of the population. Even if it were equally distributed, £42 worth of goods and services would not, even at pre-war prices, ensure a really high standard of comfort for the population as a whole. This need for an improvement in output we saw at the outset to be essential in order to secure that world in which it will be really pleasant to live. But because Capitalism has not yet produced as much as we want, is a bad reason for overturning it in favour of a system that might produce still


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 less, when it is clear that capitalistic production can, if it is given a fair chance, do much better for us in the future as it learns and applies its lessons.

Industrial and agricultural development had also been assisted by an extremely ingenious financial machinery, and a great growth and improvement in banking, which provided credit and currency for the community with remarkable success; during the last half century before the war, the financial machinery was perfecting itself into a state of extraordinary elasticity and adaptability, and meeting with steadily growing composure the industrial crises which the speculative habits of man, and the risks inevitable from our present industrial system, necessarily produced. A machinery of investment and a market in the debts and securities of public bodies and public companies, had also been developed with great ingenuity by the Stock Exchanges of the world. Whoever wanted to borrow money and invest it in industry found ready listeners—only too ready in some cases—whether they applied to the banks for short credits, or to the investing public for permanent investments, or invited speculators to try their luck. Capital flowed with wonderful


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 readiness from one country to another, and wherever there was a chance of devoting the proceeds of the labour and work of old countries to the development of new ones, in the hope of increasing mankind's output, and so gaining fresh profits, there was no lack of those who would risk their past and present labour and work on this process of continually expanding man's conquest over nature.

All classes had shared in the benefits produced by this expansion. Mr. Philip Snowden admits on page 38 of his book on Socialism and Syndicalism, that "between 1850 and 1900 the rate of wages as shown by Board of Trade index numbers, rose by 78 per cent., and in the same period the prices of commodities fell by 11 per cent." He adds that "it is not safe to take these figures upon their face value. The increase of wages was by no means spread uniformly over the whole wage-earning class, nor does a fall in the average of wholesale prices necessarily mean a corresponding reduction in the cost of living to the working classes. The fall in prices in the last half of the nineteenth century was mainly in comforts and luxuries. Many of the articles which enter into the economy of the workers increased


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 in price. Milk, eggs, butter, coal and rent were all higher in price at the end than at the middle of the last century." On the other hand we may fairly urge that comforts and luxuries, such as tea, sugar, tobacco and meat, not to mention necessaries such as—bread, also entered largely into the economy of the workers.

When we find that during a half-century in which the population had increased rapidly, the average money wages of the workers had grown by more than three-quarters, while the average price of the goods they consumed showed a by no means negligible decline, we see what little basis there is for what Marx and other people have called the "iron law of wages," an entirely imaginary law, which is alleged to force the rate of wages always down to the level of subsistence. If there had been any real truth in this law, it would have been clearly impossible for wages to rise by 78 per cent. with a rapid increase in the number of wage-earners, while at the same time the average price of consumable goods had fallen by 11 per cent. Under the circumstances, and in view of his own figures, it is surprising to find Mr. Snowden saying on a later page (120) that


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 "like the landlord who takes in the form of rent all above the subsistence of the labourer, so the capitalist takes all above the subsistence of the workman, above sufficient to maintain the workman in the standard of life of the class to which he belongs." How Mr. Snowden's clear and logical mind reconciles this assertion with the figures that we have quoted from him, is a puzzle that would baffle the Sphinx.

It has to be admitted that the great and steady improvement that was then shown gave way to the opposite tendency in the early years of the present century. Mr. Snowden continues on page 39: "After all, the important matter is not whether the condition of the workers' improved between 1850 and 1900, but whether it is showing a tendency to improvement now." (His book was published shortly before the war.) "About the end of the century we seemed to enter upon a new cycle of tendencies. The previous slight (sic) upward movement in the condition of the workers was arrested and eventually reversed. The permanent tendency now is for the rich to grow richer at an increasingly rapid rate, and for the workers to become not only relatively but actually poorer."


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 Mr. Snowden is undoubtedly right in calling attention to a check, which showed itself at the beginning of the twentieth century, in the improvement of the position of the wage-earner. Wages rose little or not at all in money, and prices were rising. Whether he was right in assuming that the tendency was a permanent one, we shall never know, because the war intervened, upsetting the whole economic basis of society, and giving the workers a chance of sustained improvement, of which there is every reason to hope they will take full advantage; but it is at least possible that Mr. Snowden was wrong in assuming that the tendency for the buying power of wages to go back was permanent. It might have been merely the falling back of a wave in a rising tide, to have been followed by a still more rapid improvement, thanks to the determination shown by the wage-earners in the year before the war, to take drastic measures to improve their position. However this may have been, there can be no doubt that under the system of Capitalism the wage-earners did during the whole second half of the past century achieve a great and almost unbroken improvement in their lot, an improvement which was


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 apartment, with an intimation, that his parole confined him to it for the present.

After about a quarter of an hour spent, in solitary musing on the strange vicissitades of his late life, the attention of Morton was summoned to the window by a great noise in the street beneath. Trumpets, drums, and kettle drums, contended in noise with the shouts of a numerous rabble, and apprised him that the royal cavalry were passing in the triumphal attitude which Claverhouse had mentioned. The magistrates of the city, attended by their guard of halberts, had met the victors with their welcome, at the gate of the city, and now preceded them as a part of the procession. The next object was two heads borne upon pikes; and before each bloody head were carried the hands of the dismembered sufferers, which were, by the brutal mockery of those who bore them, often approached towards each other as if in the attitude of exhortation or prayer. These bloody trophies belonged


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 encouraging them to make still greater efforts for themselves in the future.

During the same period we had seen great improvements in education and sanitation, the lengthening of human life, the total extinction of the plagues which used to scourge Europe periodically, the practical abolition of certain diseases such as typhus and small-pox; and the general attention to health and the mental improvement of all classes, though it still left very much to be desired, was making progress which was perhaps as rapid as could be expected, owing to the ignorance and conservatism which are the common lot and the pride of most of us.

It may be true that Capitalism has had very little to do directly with these improve-


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 ments in education and sanitation. There is even something to be said for the view that the representatives of the property-owning classes had done a good deal to resist the progress of these improvements, which had only been carried through by social reformers and a few scientific enthusiasts, after lives of thankless effort. This may be so, but nevertheless the store of wealth which was necessary in order to carry them out had been called into being by the working of Capitalism with the incentive of profit before it. It may not have been responsible for the excellent use thus made of its wealth, but it did at least provide the wealth which was so used by those who had nobler views than it of the use to which wealth should be put.

Such were the achievements of Capitalism in the land of its birth in its modern form and in the countries into which this land poured the men and capital that it produced. Its victories, unlike those other institutions that have dominated human life, could only be won by doing what somebody else wants. Industry and investment can only earn a profit if they produce an article or a service that somebody wants and wants enough to repay the adventurer


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Rh discontented personage, too: you blame Timon because he opened his doors and let you go where you liked, and neither locked you up nor watched you jealously; whereas at other times you cry out against the rich, saying that they confine you with bolts and bars, and put seals on you, so that you never get so much as a glimpse of daylight. You used to complain to me that you were suffocated in the dark holes they kept you in; and I must say you used to look quite pale and careworn, and your fingers quite contracted from the constant habit of counting; and you often threatened to escape from such confinement the moment you had a chance.

Plutus replies to Jupiter with some sensible remarks as to there being a mean between the prodigal and the miser; but he consents to pay Timon a visit at Jupiter's command, though feeling, as he says, that he might as well get into one of the Danaids' leaky water-jars, so sure is he to filter rapidly through the hands of such a master. The god of Riches, we must remember, is blind; and Mercury, who has to escort him to Athens, recommends him to hold fast by his coat-tail all the way down. Jupiter desires his messenger to call at Ætna on his way, and send up the Cyclops to mend his broken thunderbolt.

They find Timon hard at work, in the company of Poverty. But she has brought with her a band of other companions—Labour, and Perseverance, and Wisdom, and Fortitude. This is a stronger bodyguard, as Mercury observes, than Plutus ever gathers round him. The god of Riches confesses it; he can


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 his outlay, make good the depreciation of his tools and leave him a profit. He may sometimes win his victory at the expense of those whom he has underpaid, or in some rare cases by barbarous ill-treatment of natives whom he has enslaved, overworked and even tortured. But whenever a profit was made it could only be done by providing some one with something that he wanted or thought that he wanted. Capitalism working through competition and freedom must please the consumer to prosper, and the consumer is the mass of humanity. From this point of view its achievements, smirched and blotted as they are about the hinder parts, are sweet and cleanly as compared with those of diplomacy which have drenched the world in blood, or of churches that have used the torch of God's Word to light holocausts of good earnest people who differed slightly with them concerning their belief in Him.

Capitalism incidentally was working for peace though it is commonly accused of being the ally if not the father of Militarism. Seeing that the pages of history were black with Militarism long before Capitalism in its modern form was heard of, to make the latter the father


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 to two preachers who had fallen at Bothwell Bridge. After them came a cart led by the executioner's assistant, in which were placed Macbriar, and other two prisoners, who seemed of the same profession. They were bareheaded, and strongly bound, yet looked around them with an air rather of triumph than dismay, and appeared in no respect moved either by the fate of their companions, of which the bloody evidences were carried before them, or by dread of their own approaching execution, which these preliminaries so plainly indicated.

Behind these prisoners, thus held up to public infamy and derision, came a body of horse, brandishing their broadswords, and filling the wide street with acclamations, which were answered by the tumultuous outcries and huzzas of the rabble, who, in every considerable town, are too happy in being permitted to huzza; for any thing whatever which calls them together. In the rear of these troopers came the main


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 of the former indicates an almost desperate search for a stick to lay on its back. It is true enough that Militarism could not have achieved a fraction of its destructive power if Capitalism had not provided the machinery and weapons. "What d'ye lack?" is Capitalism's cry, and when humanity said, "Weapons for killing one another, and see that they kill by heaps," Capitalism delivered the goods with a vengeance. If humanity will only ask for something more sensible, Capitalism, ever democratic and accommodating and anxious to please a customer, will oblige with equal readiness and success. Capitalism fears and dislikes war, because war means destruction, taxation, unrest and lack of confidence, and Capitalism knows that though it may seem to make big profits out of destruction it will pay heavily for them before the account is closed, and that it can only earn a good living out of prosperity and peace and progress. While some have accused it of fomenting war, others with a truer instinct have denounced International Finance as an incurable and incorrigible Pacifist.

And yet, when war came and there was no help for it, the men who had been born and bred under Capitalism turned out and fought


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Rh himself, he suffered no idleness among his subordinates. To his admirable qualities as a business man he added that of an expert mechanician. Not an inventor on the grand scale, he was constantly able to point out the one detail needful to convert a crude and costly notion into a remunerative speculation. In temper he was neither amiable nor agreeable, but no one could have suggested a more admirable occupant of the post he held.

One morning,—it was on the 6th of April, 1948,—a young assistant fitter, lately joined, entered locomoshed No. 7 on some trifling errand, when he was horrified to find this hard-headed Yankee, this sober Puritan,—Mr. Hanap, in fact,—foaming at the mouth and raving with every symptom of acute mania or rabies. But it was not this sight, painful as it was, that caused the young man to drop his tools and rush shrieking from the building. What was the spectacle of terror that could in a moment deprive one strong man of his reason, and expel all the manhood from another? In this shed—No. 7—was contained the chef d'œuvre of the Yellow Creek Works. With the view of rendering its automatism complete the agency


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 with a heroism that has never been approached by the Paladins and Knights Errant of the days before we had been turned into shopkeepers and demoralized by profit-seeking. All who had watched industrial development and its effects in making us sleek and sedentary townsmen must have wondered whether the process would not soften us into folk who could not stand the test of battle. Yet all the battles that had ever been fought before were child's play to the Hell that both sides lately rained on one another for four-and-a-half years, and the nation of shopkeepers was in her old place in the front row, wherever the fighting was hottest by sea and land.

Says the critic, "There may be some truth in all this, but what of the disgusting ugliness and squalor that Capitalism has brought with it—lovely countrysides covered with sordid filthy towns that are a blot on their beauty, and men with their hearts still more foully smirched by scamped work and the scramble of competition?" This is a criticism that cannot be altogether gainsaid, but it is possible to exaggerate it, by imagining too rosy a picture of the system that Capitalism superseded. Capitalism committed crimes in its early days


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 when it put young children to work for wickedly long hours under disgraceful conditions, and is now being punished by the natural bitterness of their descendants who see no cure for it but its destruction. But these evils have been largely cured and their remnants are being dealt with. Short-sighted Capitalism has often opposed reforming measures, but some good employers have worked for them. On the general charge of ugliness and deterioration the argument is not all on one side. Doctor A. Shadwell, an exceptionally well-informed authority on working-class conditions, published an article on this subject called "Town Life—Old and New," in the Edinburgh Review of January 1918. It is well worth study in detail and it may be hoped that Dr. Shadwell will develop the contrast on a larger scale. The following extracts will have to suffice for our present purpose:—

"The idea of a Golden Age is indestructible. Man will have his Golden Age when all the world was young and fair. He finds it by a comparison which sets the credit account of the past over against the debit account of the present. It is a false balance-sheet. The true account stands otherwise; it includes debit


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 items against the past and credit items in favour of the present, and when the net balance is struck the result is very different. And so it is with this question of town life and town labour; a distorted and one-sided account has been put forward in order to make out a case. . ..

"Mills employing a number of workmen are mentioned at the beginning of the fourteenth century; journeymen formed a standing class and used to go on strike. But the scale of employment inaugurated in the eighteenth century amounted to a difference in kind, and the development of mechanical power made a still greater innovation.

"Both changes were attended by great evils, due to three main causes: (1) the rapidity of the development; (2) general ignorance and failure to understand the conditions; (3) the abuse of power by employers. The rapid development of industry on a large scale caused a corresponding hurried accumulation of persons in particular places in a haphazard way. . . . A slower pace would have resulted in a more organic growth, but the prevailing ignorance and indifference would have produced similar conditions in the end or rather worse ones.


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 Mr. and Mrs. Hammond go so far as to admit that 'the old English towns were often over-crowded, insanitary, etc.' That does not meet the case at all. The old towns everywhere were not 'often,' but always, insanitary to a degree which it is difficult to realize now. They never were anything else, because there was no Sanitation, as we understand it. Sanitation was, in fact, the child of the new order: not because the evils were new, as is commonly supposed, but because they were recognized. The increase of population and growth of the towns presented them on a scale which compelled investigation in conformity with the advance of knowledge and the rising standard of living. It is important to understand this. . ..

"As to housing, we have Erasmus's description of the ordinary abode of the poorer classes in Henry the Eighth's time. It was a cabin of wood and clay, consisting of a single room, shared by all the inmates for all purposes and also by animals; no chimney; the floor of beaten earth, strewn with rushes, which were renewed every two or three years, and meantime received all the refuse and filth both


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 body of the prisoners, at the head of whom were some of their leaders, who were treated with every circumstance of inventive mockery and insult. Several were placed on horseback with their faces to the animal's tail; others were chained to long bars of iron, which they were obliged to support in their hands, like the galley-slaves in Spain when travelling to the port where they are to be put on shipboard. The heads of others who had fallen were borne in triumph before the survivors, some on pikes and halberts, some in sacks, bearing the names of the slaughtered persons labelled on the outside. Such were the objects who headed the ghastly procession, who seemed as effectually doomed to death as if they wore the sanbenitos of the condemned heretics in an auto-da-fe.

Behind them came on the nameless crowd to the number of several hundreds, some retaining under their misfortunes a sense of confidence in the cause for which they suffered captivity, and were about to give a


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 human and animal. This type of dwelling is not yet extinct. . . . In the middle ages, which are held up to our admiration, it was the only type for the working classes. . . . From 'time to time complaints' were made of overbuilding in London, and houses were pulled down; and attempts were made to clear the streams and ditches, which were blocked with filth, dead animals, offal, and every kind of refuse. . ..

"We get a glimpse into mediaeval habits from the minute inventory of Sir John Fastolf's furniture at Caister Castle, one of the most sumptuous mansions in the kingdom. Out of twenty-six bedrooms only one—my lady's chamber—had any washing utensils, to wit—'1 basyn, 1 ewer, 2 pottys.' All the world lived in a state of indescribable filth down to a much later period. False generalizations are drawn from the beautiful buildings which have come down to us from old times. They have survived because they were exceptional; the common mass have perished. People who do not remember conditions thirty or forty years ago do not know what a real slum is. . . . The plain truth is that the old towns were nothing but slums—such as one cannot find now.


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 Kings and nobles lived in a state of stench which would be thought unendurable to-day by any class, so greatly has the standard changed. . ..

"The same consideration of the prevailing standard applies to working conditions as well as to housing and sanitation under the new order. . ..

"The alliance of ignorance or stupidity with commercial greed runs through the whole story, and it is clear that the former was the greater obstacle of the two to improvement. Intelligent employers were the first to see what was wrong and to readjust their ideas. They introduced new standards, which gradually gained approval until public opinion sanctioned or demanded their compulsory application. In this process a powerful agent was combination among workmen, which was at once demanded and rendered possible by the conditions of work and the massing of large numbers together in the industrial towns. The same process has continued ever since, and is still going on with a progressively rising standard of living and working conditions, realized in a thousand ways, the mere enumeration of which would occupy pages. . ..


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 "The stranger with different ideals in his mind may see nothing but what is repellent in the modern industrial town, and wonder how any one can live there. But the inhabitants do not think so; they are attached to it, warmly maintain its claims, and resent depreciation. They do not want any one's pity, and they have reason; for the truth is that they enjoy life a great deal more than those who pity them. . . . Nor is it true that they take no pride or interest in the products of their great workshops and factories, such as the mediaeval craftsman took in his handiwork. Here again a false balance is struck. The mediaeval craftsman who took pride in his work is the one we hear of, but what of the others? Were there no idle apprentices? Was there no bad work? There was so much that one of the chief functions of the Guilds was to prevent and punish it and to maintain the standard, which was always being threatened by scamped and dishonest work. As for the theory that the men of old worked for use and beauty, not for profit, there never was a greater craftsman than Benvenuto Cellini, or one who took more pride in his work and its beauty. Nor is there a workman to-day who looks


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 more keenly after his wages and pockets them with more satisfaction than Cellini did the price of his masterpieces. On the other hand, there is to-day a great deal of pride among workmen in the products of their factory, in its good name, and in the reputation of the whole town for the quality of its manufactures. Those who do not know this have never been among them.

"In conclusion these observations must not be taken to suggest acquiescence in existing evils or denial of the need of improvement. The standard is always rising and there is no finality. But truth is not served by false balance-sheets, selected evidence, and one-sided statements."

Thus the Middle Ages give us Beauty, complicated by stench and the Black Death. Capitalism has provided an enormously greater output, better sanitation and better houses but has not yet given much thought to Beauty. It is an oversight of great importance, but it can be repaired.


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of the strongest points in the case for Capitalism is the doubt that all candid and unprejudiced inquirers must feel concerning the practical results of adopting any of the proposed alternatives. And on this subject doubt is enough. Unless we can be definitely assured that we are going to secure improvement it would be madness to upset our whole economic system, especially at a time when the whole world is lacerated and impoverished and has to work hard for its economic recovery. If and when general prosperity has been secured, we may be justified in trying fancy experiments. But there never was a time in which leaps in the dark were more untimely. Let us begin with Socialism, now commonly called State Socialism to distinguish it from the Guild Socialism which is the latest fashion. Some of us can remember the time when


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 Socialists were looked upon almost as outcasts by "respectable" folk, partly because some of them had a habit of applying the acid of their criticisms to many things besides the economic structure of society, such as the marriage laws and established forms of religion. So stuffy respectability jumped hastily to the conclusion that all Socialists were atheists and advocates of free love. After passing through this phase Socialism became quite fashionable for a time, and then having been laughed at as a discredited back-number by the Guildsmen, has come back into the limelight owing to the craving for nationalization which is cherished by many of the Labour leaders.

If we find that the form of society at which Socialists aim is somewhat hazy and not worked out in full detail, it would be very unfair therefore to criticise Socialism as mere rainbow chasing. They propose to rebuild society, and we cannot expect them to prepare for us a plan of the whole building worked out in every detail. The details will obviously have to be filled in as the building goes on. All that we can expect from them is a clear statement of the main principles which they aim at establishing, and the advantages which they


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 expect to be derived from their establishment. Luckily one of the clearest thinkers on the Socialist side published just before the war a compact handbook showing the aims of Socialism, the reasons why in his opinion it ought to be introduced, and the benefits which he expected to accrue from it. Mr. Philip Snowden's book on Socialism and Syndicalism, though there is no date upon the title-page, seems to have appeared in 1913 or later, since it contains a reference to the election of the German Reichstag in 1912. This authority tells us (page 107) that "so far as it is possible to express the aim of present-day Socialism in a formula, that has been done by Dr. Schäffle in a statement which will be accepted by all Socialists as a reasonable definition of their aims. 'The economic quintessence of the Socialistic programme, the real aim of the international movement is as follows:—To replace the system of private capital (i.e. the speculative method of production, regulated on behalf—of society only by the free competition of private enterprises) by a system of collective capital, that is, by a method of production which would introduce a unified (social or collective) organization of national labour, on


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 the basis of collective or common ownership of the means of production by all the members of the society. This collective method of production would remove the present competitive system, by placing under official administration such departments of production as can be managed collectively (socially or co-operatively), as well as the distribution among all of the common produce of all, according to the amount and social utility of the productive labour of each.

It will be noted that according to Schäffle's definition, adopted by Mr. Snowden, and accepted, according to him, by all Socialists, the common produce of all is to be distributed under official administration according to the amount and social utility of the productive labour of each. It appears from this passage that the wage-earner under Socialism is going to be paid according to the amount and social utility, whatever that may mean, of the work which he does. This very important item in the Socialist programme is also adopted and clearly expressed by Mr. Ramsay Macdonald on pages 122 and 123 of his book on The Socialist Movement, one of the volumes of the Home University series. Mr. Macdonald tells


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 us that it is a mistake to confuse Socialism with Communism.

"Communism presupposes a common store of wealth which is to be drawn upon by the individual consumer not in accordance with services rendered, but in response to 'a human right to sustenance.' It may be in accordance with Communist principles to make this right to consume depend upon the duty of helping to produce, and to exile from the economic community every one who declines to fulfil that duty. Some Communists insist that one of the certain results of their system will be the creation of so much moral robustness that in practice this question will never arise for actual answer. But be that as it may, the distributive philosophy of Communism is as I have stated, and it contains the difference between that system and Socialism. 'From all according to their ability; to each according to his needs' is a Communist, not a Socialist formula. The Socialist would insert 'services' for 'needs.' They both agree about the common stock; they disagree regarding the nature of what should be the effective claim of the individual to share in it. Socialists think of distribution through the channels of personal income;


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 Communists think of distribution through the channels of human rights to live. Hence Socialism requires some medium of exchange whether it is pounds sterling or labour notes; Communism requires no such medium of exchange. The difference can best be illustrated if we remember the difference between a customer going to a grocer and buying sugar, and the child of the family claiming a share of that sugar the next morning at the breakfast table. Or the position may be stated in this way: Socialism accepts the idea of income, subject to two safeguards. It must be adequate to afford a satisfactory standard of life, and it must represent services given and not merely a power to exploit the labour of others."

It thus appears that the economic freedom which modern reformers are groping after will be under Socialism different only in kind from the economic freedom which is nowadays possessed. In this respect a difference in kind may be of the highest possible importance, because we have already recognized that complete economic freedom is impossible to anybody in a state of nature, since under natural conditions everybody must do more or less work in order to live, and is impossible to the


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 great majority under society as at present organized. As things are at present, all the workers of the world have to work in order to provide something which the consuming public wants, generally under the management of an employer who organizes the particular enterprise in which that work is done, with the exception of a few professional men who work directly for their consuming customers. The wage-earner works under an employer in a factory, mine or railway for the consuming public; the journalist works under a newspaper proprietor for a reading public. The variety entertainment artist works under a theatrical or music-hall proprietor for the public that is trying to amuse itself. The author works under a publishing employer for a public which he hopes may be going to read his books. Under Socialism, instead of working under a proprietor employer for the consuming public, the worker would work under official administrators for the consuming public.

But there would be two great differences. Under official administration the consuming public would have to take what it could get, since owing to the abolition of competition, it would have no chance of exercising choice in the


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 matter of goods and services which it would consume; and the worker, instead of working to put profit into the pockets of a proprietor employer, would be working to supply the general consumption, as organized, directed and controlled by official administrators.

He would have no more freedom, in fact he would have less, because owing to the cessation of competition and the concentration of the whole organization of industry in official hands, he would have no power of exercising choice between one employer and another. Nevertheless it is possible that the fact that he is working for the general consumer, without the intervention of a profit-making capitalist, might give him a feeling of satisfaction which would very much more than balance his loss of choice between one employer and another; while at the same time the fact that the official administration would, by a democratic organization of society, be to a certain extent based upon the wishes and ideals of himself and his fellows, might enable him to believe that he was really only working for himself, and therefore give him that sense of freedom which is nearly as good as its actual possession.

The Socialistic artisan working in a State


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 boot factory would no longer be dissatisfied because the harder he worked the more profit he was going to put into the pocket of his employer, without doing any good to himself, unless he were able to secure an increase in wages. He might feel that the harder he worked the more boots he would be turning out for the benefit of the other members of society, and that his efforts would be compensated by similar efforts being made by all his brethren who were working in other industries for the good of himself and other consumers. If he had not attained economic freedom, which is impossible for humanity until we have arrived at the point when all the needs of life can be served by automatic machinery, he might have arrived at a state of things in which the conditions of his work were so entirely different from what they are at present, that he would work hard for the joy of the thing, because he knew that he was helping everybody else, and that everybody else was working hard to help him. If such a state of things could really be brought about, it is clear that the gain would be enormous. Instead of restricting output so as not to "use up the amount of work that wants doing," every worker would work as hard as he


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 could. He would welcome the introduction of labour-saving machinery, because it would lighten his task and that of everybody else, and it might quite possibly be true that the different spirit in which industry would be managed might lead to a very great increase in output.

All this looks very nice, but would it be likely to happen? We have seen, according to Mr. Snowden, workers would be paid, under Socialism, according to the amount and social utility of the productive labour of each. This clearly implies a differential scale of wages, based on piece-work in order to gauge the amount, and on the decision of somebody, or some Committee, concerning the social utility of the labour of each. It may be that the strong prejudice against piece-work, now commonly said to be cherished by trade unionists, might not survive under Socialism, but this is by no means certain. The differential scale according to the amount of work done, would involve difficulties of measurement and would very probably produce jealousy and friction, and the question of social utility seems to open up endless possibilities of dispute and differences. If we could be sure that, as many Socialists seem to assume, a radical change in


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 the nature of all of us would be wrought in the twinkling of an eye because we found ourselves members of a Socialist State, those details might not lead to disaster. But natura nihil facit per saltum—nature does nothing with a jump. For some time to come we should continue to be human beings—"most remarkable like you" and me—and it is only too probable that the jealousy between one Trade Union and another, which is so often a cause of industrial strife and discord, might be renewed, under Socialism, in the shape of acute differences between the workers on the question of the wages paid to themselves and others. With the best goodwill in the world of all parties the problem of social utility as between the work of a coal-miner, a bootmaker and a—platelayer, would be hard to settle; and if instead of a universal smile of goodwill there were the old natural desire on the part of each man to do the best for himself, the industrial strife of to-day might be reproduced on an extended and much more uncomfortable scale.

Because under Socialism there would be no mediator in the shape of the State or public opinion. The State would be the employer and a party in the quarrel, and nearly all the


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 still more bloody testimony; others seemed pale, dispirited, dejected, questioning in their own minds their prudence in espousing a cause which Providence seemed to have disowned, and looking about for some avenue through which they might escape from the consequences of their rashness. Others there were who seemed incapable of forming an opinion on the subject, or of entertaining either hope, confidence, or fear, but who, foaming with thirst and fatigue, stumbled along like over-driven oxen, lost to every thing but their present sense of wretchedness, and without having any distinct idea whether they were driven to the shambles or to the pasture. These unfortunate men were guarded on each hand by troopers, and behind them came the main body of the cavalry, whose military music resounded back from the high houses on each side of the street, and mingled with their own songs of jubilee and triumph, and the wild shouts of the rabble.


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 public would be liable at any time to be directly interested in similar disputes and so would be unable to approach them with the detachment which is so necessary to impartiality. Mr. Snowden, following Schäffle, does not propose that all private enterprises shall be abolished under Socialism, but he does, as will be shown later, lay down conditions which seem most likely to abolish it. So that whenever there is a quarrel between any workers and the State, all the cther workers who, with their dependents, will be all the community except the ruling bureaucrats, will feel that it might be their turn next.

But even if all these difficulties were overcome and the workers worked with an enthusiasm and success that profit-making employers have so far failed to secure from their efforts, we are still faced by the very serious doubt as to the efficiency of official management. Ready work by the rank and file is of little or no use if it is ill directed, and if those responsible for leadership are not always eager to adopt new methods and to take risks by trying experiments which may cost them, or somebody else, dear in case of failure. We have to remember that in order to make the world that we want, a


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 great increase in output, as was shown in Chapter I, is necessary. If every man, woman and child in the country is to have a real chance of a real life, it is not enough to do about as well as we did, with a power of consumption measured at about £42 (pre-war) per head of the population, according to the highest estimate. We have to go ahead rapidly. Are we as likely to do so under bureaucratic management as under private enterprise, with the incentive of profit before it, tempting and spurring it to make experiments and take risks? Are we not much more likely to fall into a slough in which movement is much more difficult because those who would have to initiate new departures would get little or no reward if they succeeded, but would be liable to criticism and blame if they failed?

Those who oppose nationalization of industry on this ground, that it would be most unlikely to secure the adaptability and enterprise that are necessary to progress, are sometimes accused of "attacking Government officials." I hope that as far as I am concerned there is no truth in this charge. Having had the honour of being, for a short time, a Government official, I can testify from personal knowledge to the


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150 Archimedes, and many others. Alfonso X commissioned several Jews to co-operate with the royal secretaries in making new renderings of older Arabic works on astronomy. Long before this, in 959, the monk Nicholas joined the Jew Chasdai in translating Dioscorides. Most of the Jewish translators were, however, not Spaniards, but Provençals and Italians. It is to them that we owe the Hebrew translations of Galen and Hippocrates, on which Latin versions were based.

The preceding details, mere drops from an ocean of similar facts, show that the Jews were the mediators between Mohammedan and Christian learning in the Middle Ages. According to Lecky, “the Jews were the chief interpreters to Western Europe of Arabian learning.” When it is remembered that Arabian learning for a long time included the Greek, it will be seen that Lecky ascribes to Jewish translators a role of the first importance in the


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 great store of ability that is to be found in our Government offices—this goes without saying, seeing that the intellectual flower of our University youths used to go year by year into the Civil Service—and also to the devotion with which, at least during the war, they overworked themselves into pulp. In the matter of ability and hard work our officials are unsurpassed if not unrivalled. And yet, owing to some fault in the system, even before the war, the net result of their efforts was the subject of much criticism. And it is putting it mildly to say that the experience of Government management and control during the war does not at all encourage one to expect that any Government which it would now be possible to call into existence could deal with the tremendous task of organizing the nation's economic activities with any approach to success.

This experience must not tempt us to be too certain about future possibilities. We may be able to create some day a bureaucracy which shall be efficient, intelligent and economical in the best sense of the word. It is not much more than a century since Adam Smith in comparing the possibilities of joint-stock enterprise with private activity, decided that joint-stock


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 enterprises owing to want of adaptability and elasticity could only compete with private enterprise in businesses such as banking and transport, which could be conducted more or less in accordance with routine. It is true that in those departments which Adam Smith marked out as the special province of joint-stock companies, joint-stock enterprise has won some of its greatest triumphs, but it is also true that it has driven the private undertaker out of many other fields of activity in which he has expected to be victorious, and that even in such matters as retail shopkeeping, the joint-stock company is rapidly establishing itself as the dominant force. As joint-stock enterprise has grown and improved itself, it is quite possible that State enterprise worked by official administration might do likewise. But when we have made the fullest allowances for what the State might or might not be able to do some day, the fact remains that at the present crisis we have no right to gamble on possibilities. As things are at present, it seems most probable that it would be economically disastrous to hand over the whole productive power of society to officials. The mere hugeness of the scale on which things would have to be done must, until


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 we have bred a race of supermen, lead to cumbersome and tardy management. It is said that some of the big industrial amalgamations, and also their smaller competitors, are beginning to find that size, after a point, brings weakness.

We are not justified in drawing too decided inferences from what has happened during the late war. Government control has unquestionably exasperated, not only the employers and organizers of industry, but the great majority of the working classes, and the great majority of the consumers, but then we must remember that Government control has had to undertake a task for which we had previously done our best to make it unfit for something more than a century, by telling the Government to do as little as possible in the matter of controlling industry. It is true that the post office, which has many years behind it of experience and practice in conducting an important enterprise, showed great lack of adaptability during the war. It took nearly two years to induce it to bring home to the nation the need for putting its money into war bonds by the use of a postmark stamp on envelopes, and the manner in which it handled the selling of War Saving


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 Certificates and the various forms of Government securities which have been issued through it was a cause of much complaint. But here again we must remember that owing to the claims of the recruiting sergeant and the conscription officer, the post office lost many of its best workers at a time when the work thrown upon it was greatly increased.

More serious in its immediate practical effect was the competition between one Government office and another for the goods and services which they required. Attention was called in the fourth year of the war to this form of extravagance in a Report of the National Expenditure Committee. It does seem astonishing that Government offices should not by that time have evolved some better system than going into the market against one another, raising the cost of their administration and impairing their efficiency. Unfortunately this fault was probably only a symptom of interdepartmental jealousy, the extent of which is almost incredible to those who have not been brought face to face with it, and caused some cynics to maintain that during the war the departments were much more eager to win victories over one another than to defeat the


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 Germans. If these things could happen at a time when the nation's existence was in jeopardy, anything like good team work between the departments for the furtherance of industry in normal times seems to be a very remote aspiration.

But when we dwell upon all the evils of Government control that have been evident during the war—extravagance, friction between one department and another, changes of policy which have involved enormous waste, and an attitude towards labour which has cost the country millions in the payment of wages, while only increasing discontent and unrest among those who thought that they were not being paid enough—we have to remember that the advocates of nationalization have a good deal to say on the other side.

There is no doubt that the Government was able, by inquiry into costs of production, and by centralizing production on a great scale, to effect most valuable economies in the price of shells and other munitions. On the other hand, the industrial problem that it had to face was a very simple one as compared with that which is before the producer in ordinary times. The Government knew that all that it had to do was


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 to turn out as much of these articles as its available resources allowed. There was no question of turning out too much or of not finding a buyer at a price that would repay the capital and energy put into the work, and so nearly all the difficulties which call for skill, experience, judgment and courage in ordinary industry were eliminated for it. Any manufacturer who was told that he had a certain market for the whole amount of any particular product that he could turn out, and could call upon the whole resources of the nation to provide him with raw material and labour, could bring down the price of it to an astonishing extent without loss.

But after all, all these arguments from what happened during the war have to be used with great caution, because the whole state of affairs was artificial. Extreme urgency was the cause and justification of much extravagance that seemed to be appalling, while on the other hand the spirit of the nation and the eagerness of all classes to meet the crisis put advantages into the hands of the Government of which it might have been expected to have made much more profitable use. Many pages could be covered with a record of the blunders and absurdities


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 Morton felt himself heart-sick while be gazed on the dismal spectacle, and recognized in the bloody heads and still more miserable and agonized features of the living sufferers, faces which had been familiar to him during the brief insurrection. He sunk down in a chair in a bewildered and stupified state, from which he was awaked by the voice of Cuddie.

"Lord forgi'e us, sir!" said the poor fellow, his teeth chattering like a pair of nut-crackers, his hair erect like boar's bristles, and his face as pale as that of a corpse—"Lord forgi'e us, sir! we maun instantly gang before the council—O, Lord, what made them send for a puir bodie like me, sae meny braw lords and gentles!—and there's my mother come on the tramp frae Glasgow to see to gar me testify, as she ca's it, that is to say, confess and be hanged; but de'il tak me if they mak sic a goose o' Cuddie, if I can do better. But here's Claverhouse himsel


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 perpetrated by Government departments during the war, but it is enough for our present purpose to observe that the war's experience has certainly increased the doubt that one feels concerning the efficiency of Government control of industry.

It is a perpetual puzzle to those who know from what a brilliant class of young men the Government officials were recruited, and have seen the untiring zeal with which they do their work, to account for the unsatisfactory results which were produced by them both before and after the war. Take a recent example arising out of the introduction of rabies into England. If there was one thing which our officials might have been expected to tackle with all the effectiveness of which they were capable, it was the protection of the citizens from the horrible death with which the outbreak of rabies menaced them. How the Board of Agriculture dealt with it is shown in the following extracts from a letter signed, "An old Soldier in Wales," published in the Times of July 1, 1919:—

"On Monday last I was bitten by a stray cur on the main road here, both its condition and behaviour being such as to arouse the gravest suspicion in any one who has, like myself, seen


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 not a few cases of rabies in dogs. I hurried off by motor to my doctor, who dressed the wound, and certified his opinion that the dog should be destroyed, and the head sent for examination, to see if it were infected with rabies. The police-station—we went to report—was empty, but late that evening the doctor motored out to me with a brochure issued by the Board of Agriculture on this subject, obtained from the police; it contained very precise rules of procedure for various subordinate officials, and very minute instructions for the proper sepulture of a rabid dog, but, on a cursory examination, revealed nothing applying to a person bitten, or a doctor treating him, or as to the means to be taken to secure a certain diagnosis.

"It did, however, say that a telegram was to be sent, by some official, to this Board, and, to avoid inordinate delay, it was decided that I had better myself telegraph to them. On Tuesday morning did this, giving the doctor's opinion, and asking where the head should be sent. On Wednesday evening, having received no reply, I wrote to the secretary of the Board, giving full details, stating that the owner of the dog consented to its destruction, and urgently asking where I could send the head. On


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 Thursday, evidently after the receipt of this letter, I got, the only reply vouched, this telegram—'If rabies suspected intimation should be given to the police.' On Friday, as a result of doing so, I was visited by a fine specimen of the thick-headed rural constable, with written instructions 'to inquire into my complaint against the owner of a savage dog'!

"To-day, Saturday, my doctor is telegraphing elsewhere for the information denied us by the Board, but it will be Monday before the head can be sent, and probably a fortnight from the date of the bite before the result can be known, and then, if unfavourable, three weeks before I could get to Paris for treatment."

Such were the methods applied by brilliant and devoted Government officials to a comparatively simple though enormously important problem. Would they have good results if applied to industry and production?

Finally before we leave the question of Government control a word has to be said concerning the contention of many Socialists that workers would work cheerfully, contentedly and well for the community, and that industrial friction would be practically abolished. This


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] workmen performing their operations in a manner very like our linen weavers. They use cotton threads of various colours; but red and blue appear to be the most in request among the natives.

About four o'clock in the afternoon we went to the village of Bouton to see the Sultan. We had not been informed that it was necessary to bring some presents with us, in order to be admitted to an audience. As we had nothing to offer him, he was not to be spoken with; but his son and nephew received us at the fort where he resides. They frequently repeated to us, with great emphasis, that the whole island was under his dominion; that he was an ally of the Dutch Company, and that their enemies were his enemies. They then told us that the natives of Ceram having lately invaded their coasts, four of them were taken and delivered up to the King, who immediately ordered them to be beheaded. They then desired us to step a few paces further, and shewed us, with an air of great satisfaction, the heads of these unfortunate islanders, exposed upon long poles planted on the walls of the fort.

The village of Bouton is built upon an eminence with a very steep declivity to the northwest, and surrounded with thick walls which secure the inhabitants from the incursions of their


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 theory has been blown into bits by the railway strike of last September. The railways were in the hands of the Government, which was paying a fixed rate for their use to their proprietors, and yet the railwaymen declared a lightning strike which inflicted untold hardship almost entirely upon the poorer classes. They had, in my opinion, a very genuine grievance, but it could not affect them for six months, yet such was the action that they thought fit to take when working for the Government.

It will also be remembered that the Prime Minister when he announced that the Government did not intend to adopt Mr. Justice Sankey's recommendation that the coal-mining industry should be nationalized laid stress on this aspect of the question. Mr. Justice Sankey's recommendation had been based upon the hope that nationalization would tend to smooth the relations between the workers and their employer, but Mr. Duncan Graham, M.P., a mining leader, had declared at a conference of the National Union of the Scottish Mine-Workers, "that if the mines became the property of the nation the miners would need to be more determined than ever in their policy and more vigorous in the Trade Union organization because instead of


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 fighting local employers they would be fighting the Government."

If Government control is only to mean harder fighting between Labour and its employer, there is a sweet prospect ahead of the Socialistic State.

A similar lesson can be learnt from the experience of municipal enterprise in the report of the conference between the Prime Minister and the miners' leaders on the subject of the nationalization of coal-mines. The Prime Minister was reported as saying:—

"Municipalities in their communal ownership own gigantic industries, but I do not think you can point to a single case where it can be said that workmen working for the commune, either the local commune or the national one, work more heartily, work harder, or increase the output in comparison with their fellows who are working for a syndicate—not one."

Whereupon Mr. Smillie replied, "Yes, the Glasgow trams are. They work more loyally." Mr. W. E. Treir, editor of the Electric Railway and Tramway Journal, wrote a letter that was printed in the Times of October 17, 1919, in which he stated that the above-quoted passage


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 the Lord preserve and forgi'e us, I say anes mair!"

"You must immediately attend the council, Mr Morton," said Claverhouse, who entered while Cuddie spoke, "and your servant must go with you. You need be under no apprehension for the consequences to yourself personally. But I warn you that you will see something that will give you much pain, and from which I would willingly have saved you, if I had possessed the power. My carriage waits us—shall we go?"

It will be readily supposed that Morton did not venture to dispute this invitation however unpleasant. He rose and accompanied Claverhouse.

"I must apprise you," said the latter, as he led the way down stairs, "that you will get off cheap, and so will your servant, providing he can keep his tongue quiet."

Cuddie caught these last words to his exceeding joy.


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 had led him to analyse the records of strikes published in his journal during the twelve months ended June 30, 1919, in order to ascertain whether there were more strikes or fewer on British municipal or on company-operated tramways during that period, and that he had found that there had been twelve on municipally-owned and operated tramways, including Glasgow, and on company operated tramways four. He added, however, that "the fact that in the United Kingdom municipally-operated tramways are much more numerous than company tramways has some bearing on the figures, but does not affect the argument put forward by Mr. Smillie."

As to the method by which Socialism is to be arrived at, Mr. Snowden tells us that there is no dispute. "All Socialists," he tells us on page 138 of his book, "are now agreed that the economic changes which are aimed at must be brought about by political action. Mr. Sidney Webb says there can be no doubt that the progress towards Socialism will be, (1) Democratic—that is, prepared for in the minds of people and accepted by them; (2) Gradual—causing no dislocation of industry however rapid the progress may be; (3) Moral—that


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 is, not regarded by the sense of the community as being immoral; (4) Constitutional—that is, by legal enactment sanctioned by a democratic Parliament."

He then quotes, with disapproval, Mr. Arthur Balfour, who had stated in a speech at Birmingham in 1907 that "Socialism has one meaning only. Socialism means, and can mean nothing else than that the community or State is to take all the means of production into its own hands, that private enterprise and private property are to come to an end, and all that private enterprise and private property carry with them."

Mr. Snowden thinks that this definition "is not an accurate and precise statement of the aims of present-day Socialism. . . . Socialism only proposes to make such of the means of production into public property as can be conveniently and advantageously owned and controlled by the community. . . . If private enterprise can carry on any productive works, or conduct any public service better than the community can do it, a Socialist State might certainly be trusted to encourage that form of enterprise which would bring the best results to the community. . . . But whatever private


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 production or voluntary enterprise does exist in the Socialist State will not be private capitalism. Capitalism means capital employed for the purpose of appropriating profit or surplus value. There can be no Socialist State in which the exploitation of labour for the profit of others is allowed. There can be no Socialist State where economic rent is appropriated by monopolists. The reason why Socialists aim at the control and ownership of land and capital is because, generally speaking, that is the only way in which rent, interest and profit can be secured for the community, and also because, generally speaking, the community can work a concern or public service more economically and efficiently than private enterprise can do it."

This latter assumption is by no means borne out by such examples as the management by the post office of the telegraphs and telephones. And if, as Mr. Snowden seems to indicate, no private production or voluntary enterprise in the Socialist State would be allowed to earn a profit, it would seem that all the means of production are likely to be transferred to the State, unless human nature were radically altered, since no one else would have any incentive for making


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 use of them. And in that case, Mr. Balfour's view that private enterprise and private property would necessarily come to an end, would clearly be correct. And Mr. Balfour's reading of the meaning of Socialism, rather than Mr. Snowden's, is borne out by a speech made by Mr. Tom Shaw, M.P., at the Trade Union Congress of September 1919. "If," he said, "Socialism means anything, it means the nationalization of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and their administration by the whole nation for the good of the whole nation." He seemed to recognize no exceptions.

Among practical steps to be taken towards the establishment of Socialism Mr. Snowden enumerated an eight-hour working day, a minimum wage for all adult workers, complete provision against sickness, free education for all children at the primary, secondary and technical schools, adequate provision for all aged and infirm persons, and other reforms aimed at the raising of the general standard of the workers' life. Also "demands for the abolition of indirect taxation and the gradual transference of all public burdens on to unearned incomes, with the view to their ultimate extinction." He further advocated the organization of schemes


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 for the unemployed or the maintenance of the unemployed by the taxation of surplus value, so that workmen may be relieved from vieing against each other for employment, and as a means to that end he tells us that "Socialists demand that the State shall embark upon schemes of national development, such as the improvement of roads, harbours, waterways, and the afforestation of suitable wastes. They also suggest that the policy of agricultural holdings for the labourers shall be extended, and that help shall be given by the State in the form of encouraging co-operative effort among these State tenants, with the assistance of State capital."

Municipal enterprise might "start competitive enterprises in house building, fire insurance, coal supply, milk supply, bakeries, refreshment houses, stores and the like," and "the nationalization of land, mines, railways and other means of transport would be a tremendous step towards Socialism."

The question of finding money for this programme is a difficulty which, as Mr. Snowden says, is "felt only by those persons who give Socialists credit for sufficient honesty as to believe that compensation will be paid." And he


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 points out that these difficulties vanish when it is remembered that the railways have been nationalized in many other countries without confiscation, and that "in this country we have transferred from private to public ownership such great concerns as the telephone system, the London Docks, the Metropolitan Water Companies and tens of millions of property in tramways and gas and electricity works."

It is quite true that the transfer of property from private to public hands can be carried through quite equitably without raising any money for the actual process of transfer. The State takes over the capital and debts of the enterprise, and creates national securities with which to buy out the holders. The State debt is enormously increased, but it is only increased by the cancellation of the capital and debts of the enterprise acquired. The charge upon the country's wealth and productive power is not necessarily increased at all, and is only increased if the State or municipality pays extravagant prices. But there is a danger which past experience shows to be a very real one, that State administration, being at present inefficient and extravagant, will not provide a better service to the community, will not be able to treat its


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 workers any better, or to get a more willing and loyal service from them; and, owing to its inefficiency and extravagance, will not be able to earn a sufficient sum to meet the interest and redemption of the debt created in order to buy out the private owners. In that case, every enterprise which the State takes over would increase its charges and diminish the income out of which it has to meet these charges. If these things are so, any attempt to introduce Socialism prematurely before collective authorities had learnt to conduct enterprise on business lines, might, instead of opening the way to the Promised Land, only lead to economic disaster. Is it worth while to gamble on such a risk?


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one who wants a detailed picture of the manner in which the State might obtain control of the means of production and organize industry to the exclusion of the private capitalist, can find it in a book called The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropist, by Robert Tressall, published in April 1914 by Grant Richards. It is a tragic and very interesting book, and is said to have been written by a Socialistic house-painter, who died soon after writing it. It describes the experiences of an educated working man, with high ideals of work and life, employed by a very third-rate firm of builders and decorators among a crowd of jeering and illiterate companions, whom he tried to stimulate to accept his own views on Socialism, as being the only remedy for the evils under which he and they suffered. In the last chapter this idealist, finding himself threatened with deadly disease, decides that the


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 kindest thing to do for his wife and son is to take them with him out of a world which seems to him hopeless. It is a terrible book, and as a picture of the black side of the present economic arrangements of society, is well worth study.

The most interesting pages in it—apart from the roughly humorous descriptions of the gaiety with which these unfortunate, underpaid, and overdriven workers face the misery of their lot—are those in which the idealist worker, Frank Owen, describes to his companions, in answer to their jeering questions, the means by which their lot could be bettered. In the course of one of these orations he gives a detailed and ingenious description of the birth of the Socialistic State (page 334). He begins by dealing with the land, saying that a large part of it may be got back "in the same way as it was taken from us. The ancestors of the present holders obtained possession of it by simply passing Acts of Enclosure; the nation should regain possession of those lands by passing Acts of Resumption." As to the rest of the land, he suggested that the present holders should be allowed to keep it during their lives and that it should then revert to the State "to be used for the benefit of all." The railways,


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 of course, would be nationalized at once. All railway servants, managers and officials would continue their work, being henceforward in the employ of the State. The State would pay to shareholders the average dividends they had received during the previous three years, these payments being continued to the present shareholders for life, or for a stated number of years, and the shares would be made non-transferable.

As for the factories, shops, and other means of production and distribution, the State would "adopt the same method of doing business as the present owners." The speaker argues that even as the big Trusts and Companies are crushing by competition the individual workers and small traders, so the State should crush the Trusts by competition. "It is surely justifiable for the State to do for the benefit of the whole people that which the capitalists are already doing for the profit of a few shareholders." The first step would be the establishment of retail stores for the purpose of supplying all national and municipal employees with the necessaries of life at the lowest possible prices. The Government would buy these goods from private manufacturers in such large quantities that it would be able to get them at the very cheapest rate, and as there would be no high


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 rents to pay for showy shops, and no advertising expenses, and as the Government would not be aiming at profit, it would be able to sell much cheaper than the profit-making private stores. These National Service Retail Stores would only serve those in the public service; and coined money would not be taken by them in payment for the things sold. At first all public servants would continue to be paid in metal money, but those who wished it would be paid all or part of their wages in paper money, which would be taken in payment for their purchases at the National Stores, National Hotels, National Restaurants, and other places which would be established for the convenience of those in the State service. Owing to the cheapness of the articles that it would command, the paper money would win increasing favour, and all public servants would soon prefer to have all their wages paid in it. The Government, however, would still need metal money to pay the manufacturers who supplied the goods sold in the National Stores. But to avoid buying all these things from them the State would then begin to produce for itself.


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 Public lands would be cultivated, and public factories would be started to produce food, boots, clothing, furniture and all other necessaries and comforts of life. All who were out of employment and willing to work would be given work on these farms and in these factories, which would be "equipped with the most up-to-date and efficient labour-saving machinery." How the State is going to get the machinery is not made clear. Perhaps it could provide the necessary money by taxation, if by that time there were any one left to tax, or perhaps it would just take it. From its farms and factories so equipped it would pour out a great flood of cheap goods, and all public servants would revel in "abundance of everything." When the workers who were being "exploited and sweated" by the private capitalists saw what was happening, they would come and ask to be allowed to work for the State. "That will mean that the State army of production workers will be continually increasing in numbers. More State factories will be built, more land will be put into cultivation. Men will be given employment making bricks, woodwork, paints, glass, wall-papers and all kinds of building materials; and others will be set to work building, on State land, beautiful


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 "De'il a fear o' me," said he, "an' my mother doesna pit her finger in the pye."

At that moment his shoulder was seized by old Mause, who had contrived to thrust herself forward into the lobby of the apartment.

"O, hinny; hinny!" said she to Cuddie, hanging upon his neck, "glad and proud, and sorry and humbled am I, a' in ane and the saame instant, to see my bairn ganging to testify for the truth gloriously with his mouth in council, as he did with his weapon in the field."

"Whisht, whisht, mother," cried Cuddie impatiently. "Odd, ye daft wife, is this a time to speak o' thae things?—I tell ye I'll testify naething either ae gate or another. I hae spoken to Mr Poundtext, and I'll tak the declaration, or whate'er they ca' it, and we're a' to win free off if we do that—he's gotten life for himsel and a' his folk, and that's a minister for my siller; I like nane o' your sermons that end in a psalm at the Grassmarket."


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 houses, which will be let to those employed in the service of the State. The rent will be paid with paper money."

State fishing-fleets would be the next State enterprise, and in order to deal with the "great and continuously increasing surplus stock" in its hands, the Government would acquire or build fleets of steam trading-vessels, manned and officered by State employees, to carry the surplus stocks to foreign countries, to be sold or exchanged for foreign products, which would be brought to England and sold at the National Service Stores, at the lowest possible price, for paper money, to those in the service of the State. A detachment of the Industrial Army would be employed as actors, artists and musicians, singers and entertainers. Everyone that could be spared from producing necessaries would be set to work to create pleasure, culture and education.

Meanwhile, private employers and capitalists would find that no one would come and work for them "to be driven and bullied and sweated for a miserable trifle of metal money," and some might threaten to leave the country and take their capital with them. "As most of these persons are too lazy to work, and as we shall not need their money, we shall be very


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 glad to see them go." But their real capital, their factories, farms, mines or machinery, would be a different matter. So a law would be passed, declaring that all land not cultivated by the owner or any factory shut down for more than a specified time, would be taken possession of by the State and worked for the benefit of the community. Fair compensation would be paid in paper money to the former owners, who would be granted an income or pension either for life or for a stated period. Wholesale and retail dealers would be forced to close down their shops and warehouses, first, because they would not be able to replenish their stocks, and secondly because even if they were they would not be able to sell them. This would throw out of work a great host of people "at present engaged in useless occupations, such as managers and assistants in shops of which there are now half a dozen of the same sort in a single street, and the thousands of men and women who are slaving away their lives producing advertisements. These people are in most cases working for such a miserable pittance of metal money that they are unable to procure sufficient of the necessaries of life to secure them from starvation." (Here the writer surely his case.) But all


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 those who are willing to work would be at once employed by the State in producing or distributing the necessaries and comforts of life. The Government would build houses for the families of all those in its employment, and all other house property of all kinds would rapidly fall in value. "The slums and the wretched dwellings now occupied by the working-classes, the miserable, uncomfortable, jerry-built 'villas' occupied by the lower middle-classes and by 'business' people, will be left empty and valueless upon the hands of their rack-renting landlords, who will very soon voluntarily offer to hand them, and the ground they stand upon, to the State on those terms accorded to the other property owners, namely, in return for a pension."

By this time the nation would be the only employer, and as no one would be able to get the necessaries of life without paper money, and as the only way to get it would be by working, every mentally and physically capable person in the community would be helping in the great work of production and distribution. There would be no unemployed and no overlapping. For every one labour-saving machine in use to-day, the State would, if necessary, employ a thousand, and there would be produced


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48 be of no service to a man who has such friends about him, and he offers to begone at once. But Mercury reminds him of the will of Jove. Poverty pleads in vain that she has rescued him from his old associates, Sloth and Luxury, and is now forming him to virtue in her own more wholesome school; and though Timon asks with some roughness to be left still under her instruction, and bids Plutus begone "to make fools of other men as he has once of him," he is overruled by Mercury's appeal to his sense of gratitude to Jupiter, who has taken so much trouble to help him. Poverty reluctantly takes her leave, and with her depart Labour and Wisdom and the rest of her company.

Digging on in the earth by direction of Plutus, Timon finds an immense buried treasure, and the sight at once reawakens his love of riches. But it now takes another and more selfish form. Henceforth he will live for himself and not for others, and become the enemy of men as he had formerly been their injudicious friend. The name which he desires to be known by is that of "The Misanthrope." The companions of his former days of splendour—who had been treated by him with such munificence, and had repaid him with such ingratitude—hear of his new wealth, and flock to him to make their excuses and apologies, to tender him all kinds of services, and to offer him public honours, if he will only give them a little of his new riches. Blows from his spade, and showers of stones, are his only answer. And in this


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