FRENCH enthusiasts who regard the confinement of in the prison of Mazas as the most practical method of placing the social question on a thoroughly sound footing, and of giving to an effete Republic a new lease of life, have many sympathisers on this side of the . Gesture and passion, no less than the records of modern history, impart to the Socialistic propaganda of the impulsive Gaul a grace that is absent from the burglarious teachings of phlegmatic and half-educated Saxons. English Socialism, nevertheless, under great disadvantages, has made rapid strides since . , with

The effects of civilization on the poorest classes in great cities, excite the liveliest sympathy of all sorts and conditions of men. arrogate to themselves, however, the virtue of being the only people who have discovered what is, wrong, and know what is required to put it

They think of the inexorable destiny of all; how

Some gust of jungle wind, A stumble on the path, a taint in the tank, A snake's nip, half a span of angry steel, A chill, a fishbone, or a falling tile, And life was over and the man is dead !

It is important to distinguish between the ultimate purposes and the preliminary measures of the leaders of the . Thousands of stronghearted, weak-headed men join eagerly in measures for the insertion of the thin end of

The thin end of the wedge is summarised by the late as follows:-

" After having carefully examined the proposals of the leading German Socialists, and after having read the proceedings of the various Socialistic Congresses which have been held in recent years, I think it will be admitted that the following is a full and fair statement of the programme of modern Socialism:-

" 1. That there should be no private property, and that no one should be permitted to acquire property by inheritance. That all should be compelled to labour, no one having a right to live without labour.

"2. The nationalization of the land, and of the other instruments of production; or, in other words, the State should own all the land, capital, and machinery, in fact, everything which constitutes the industrial plant, of a country-in order that every industry may be carried on by the State.

" These proposals to prohibit inheritance,

"1. The establishment of co-operative agricultural and manufacturing associations supported by the State.

"2. Universal, compulsory, and free education.

"3. A progressive income-tax and the abolition of indirect taxation.

"4. The limitation by the State of the length of the day's work.

"5. The sanitary inspection of mines, factories, and workmen's dwellings.

"6. The State should find work for the unemployed by constructing public works, the necessary funds being supplied by an unlimited issue of paper money." The ultimate purposes of Socialistic policy are:-

1. Abolition of inheritance.

2. Abolition of private property.

3. Abolition of the wages system.

4. Abolition of the competitive system.

5. Government aid to co-operative associations.

6. The institution of paper currency.

7. Abolition of marriage and the family.

8. Abolition of religion.

As, however, any statement of the immediate or ulterior aims of social democracy is not unlikely to be repudiated by some section or other of the party, I have asked to state briefly his views on the Socialistic panacea of which he is so courageous and, it must be added, so unselfish an advocate.

"I am asked to briefly state, as one of the

Social Democrats

in England, my views on these problems. I will not waste words in describing the horrors of our existing society. Where I shall differ from the readers of this

book is in ascribing our social ills almost entirely to economical causes over which man has control, and to the consequent material degradation in which the workers have to live. This engenders the disease, folly, and vice which, surely enough, react on the environment and increase the almost hopeless misery. But the first point of the infernal circle is the poverty to which five-sixths of the population are condemned. In other words, uncertainty of employment and low wages for long hours when in work are the main causes of the evils we all profess to deplore. Let any doubting reader think for a moment whether a thousand infants taken from the slums of a great town, and brought up in wholesome physical surroundings, would show, notwithstanding inherited tendencies, such stunted frames, dwarfed intelligences, and warped sympathies as a thousand others who had been left in the slums to be suckled on gin, poisoned by foul air, corrupted by filth and bad food, and crippled by premature toil. No one who clears his mind of illusions can deny that physical health is the basis of moral and mental health, and that all talk of improvement for the masses is the cruellest hypocrisy until their material conditions are altered. "Why, then, are the workers poor ? Social Democracy says, because they have to provide the rent, profits, and interest on which the idlers live; because the modern capitalist form of production forces them to maintain large numbers of useless middlemen; and, because laboursaving machinery, improvements in industry, and gluts due to mad competition throw thousands out of work. For instance, why are the railway and tramway servants

wretchedly paid for inhuman hours of work ? Simply because those concerns are run in the interest of shareholders whose object is to get dividends by exacting the maximum of work for the minimum of pay. Why are the 800,000 agricultural workers, whose labour, with the aid of sun and rain, creates £240,000,000 of produce annually, constantly "suffering from diseases due to insufficient nourishment ?" Because they only get what is left of their produce after satisfying the claims of idlers, speculators, and middlemen. Why are men by the hundred thousand now out of work ? Because every improvement in manufacture is used by the capitalist to save wages and because the modern captains of industry in their blind race for wealth overstock the markets. The workers of England can produce more wealth than would provide them with all the means for happy and healthy existence, but they cannot meet the exorbitant demands of the useless classes and have enough left to keep themselves with a sound mind in a sound body. "The awful condition of the people is recognised by many well-meaning persons, who hope that the classes who profit by long hours, low wages, and the presence of 'the reserve army of labour,' may be persuaded to use the power their property gives them in accordance with the dictates of humanity and the spirit of the Christian religion. They say, in effect, 'Then must the Jew be merciful.' Our modern Shylock answers, ' On what compulsion must I ? Tell me that,' and pauses for a reply.

Social Democrats

(alone, as I think) are ready with an effective one. The only possible conclusion after an examination of the history of class antagonisms in the past is that the workers must compel the idlers to earn

their own living by depriving them of the power of preying on others which the possession of land and capital now secures to them. Industry must be organized, not for the profit of the few on a competitive basis, but for the benefit of all by co-operation. This transformation of society-the abolition of classes, the expropriation of the property holders, and the reorganization of industry-is the social revolution we are striving to hasten. 'But the possessing classes will fight rather than surrender their privilege of profiting by the misery and overwork of others ' ? If so, the workers, thousands of whom are annually killed or mutilated by preventible accidents, who live on the average only half as long as the middle and upper classes, and who compose the army and police, cannot hesitate to choose the risk of sudden death rather than the certainty of life-long misery, when the truth about their position is clear to them and success seems probable. In these nation-cities how could a determined rising of the victims be suppressed ? Does not God fight on the side of the big battalions? It is possible, however, and certainly devoutly to be wished, that the defenders of vested rights will have the wit to calculate the odds, and surrender-as the Irish landlords have done, with bad grace possibly, but without resort to the last argument of force. "I think I am expressing the opinion of the vast majority of

Socialists

when I say that there are many practical steps-in the direction of democratising the administration of the country, in extending the control of the community over industry, in limiting the excesses of competition, and in preparing for the reorganization of society on a collectivist system-which we should rejoice

to see, while still relentlessly pressing for the complete change: such are adult suffrage, payment of members and of election expenses, the second ballot, shorter parliaments, the nationalization of railways and mines, the municipalization of gas and waterworks and of working-class dwellings, the limitation of the hours of labour, a graduated income tax, free education and the feeding of children in board schools, and the application of our principles to the relief of the unemployed-these things could be done at once, and if carried out in time without the suppression of freedom of the press and platform, might pave the way to a peaceful reconstruction of society. "Rapidly as the movement is growing in England, we are yet far behind other countries where these views are very popular. This is important, as ultimately

Socialism

must be international to succeed. Those who are interested in this necessarily curt statement can easily obtain fuller information as to the objects of the English Socialists from the authorised publications of the

Social-Democratic Federation

."

which (according to "Justice") is the organ of the "brothelfrequenting " classes, has presented from time to time with great ability the case for laissezfaire, maintaining that all things are for the best in this best of all possible worlds. While the summon the governing classes to face the inevitable downfall of a decaying civilization by a peaceful surrender

The case of Robinson Crusoe and his island has often been, and may again be, adduced as an example of the fundamental rights of property. With a nail and a stone he fashions, with infinite toil, a canoe, by which he can visit reefs and islets for crabs and turtle eggs, the wherewithal to mend his fare. Friday, naked and hungry, makes Crusoe's acquaintance, and, admiring the boat and the goatskin clothing, issues the following platform or programme, which is that of the , adapted to the circumstances of . The platform pronounces-

(1). " The establishment of a free condition

(2). "The land, with all caves, gardens, bark dwellings, goats, fowls, and other forms of property, to be declared and treated as collective or common property."

(3). "The State appropriation of canoes, and other means of transit, with or without compensation."

Friday presents this programme to Crusoe, and, in justification of his action, quotes the phrase of Lassalle-" To every man according to his needs." Crusoe's reply would depend on his mood. Assuming the discussion to proceed on philosophic lines, he would quote Locke in defence of the property created by the expenditure of labour on raw material. To this Friday might rejoin with Provdhon's well-known dictum, "Property is robbery." Crusoe, not absolutely convinced by Friday's reasoning, may not have the wit, as Mr. says, "to calculate the odds and surrender-as the Irish landlords have done [1] 

Substitute for Crusoe the eighteen million holders of property in the United Kingdom, and see how much pith and substance there is in Mr. 's contention.

Since the anomalous is often that which works best in practice, it is possible to admit all the horrors of the present system without assenting to projects for its total destruction. Of the two evils-(1) Mr. 's nihilistic suppression of all moral sanctions, and (2) the juxtaposition of luxury and want as it now exists-the latter seems to be immeasurably the less. But because it is the lesser, is no reason for leaving it alone. Earnest, determined, and continuous efforts by the State on the wholesome lines of the

The awful selfishness and bovine content of the comfortable classes-especially of the middle-class-are destined to some such shock as that at which Mr. hints, unless they awake out of sleep. Political economy has been employed too much as though it were an end in itself. Mr. Bright, , and the unrestricted rights of property, have had too long an innings. The premium of insurance paid by property to cover the risk of social earthquake is too low. It must be raised-and that forthwith. The right inherent in every workman to spend, save, and devise the product of his labour, is subject to two moral considerations-one of which is that the process shall not be directly or indirectly the necessary cause of misery to others ; and the other, that

Equality of opportunity does not, in this dispensation, include equality of personality. Under free Governments and by the inexorable decree of the Supreme power, inequality in personality involves inequality in social condition, wealth, knowledge, and power, and such inequalities must therefore exist and continue to exist under all systems of society. Were the to be established to-morrow morning as a Joint-Stock Company wherein everyone is a director, by noontide inequalities in position caused by inequalities in personality would have reappeared. On a level plain every ants' nest is a mountain; every thistle a forest tree. Dynamite the thistles and the ants' nests, and they disappear, only to be succeeded by new generations of ants and thistles.

That principle may be briefly stated thus:- No person or persons are vested with inherent rights to profit arising from the misery and degradation of others.

Fragmentary acceptances of this principle are scattered up and down the Statute Book. In 48 and 49 Vict., ch. 72, section 12, we have these words :-

" In any contract made after the passing of this Act

for letting for habitation by persons of the working classes a house or part of a house, there shall be implied a condition that the house is at the commencement of the holding in all respects reasonably fit for human habitation."

The missing link in the application of this admitted principle is the pecuniary inability of the poor to set in motion on their own behalf the machinery of the law, and the corruption and apathy of the local authorities who are to the poor in loco parentis. Thousands of house-owners in Great Britain are now liable to an action at common law for the insanitary condition of premises let or sublet to working-class tenants since the 14th of August, ; and it is probable that they would be cast in heavy damages for neglect of the condition implied in Section 12 of the . Restricted competition in regard to the disposal of insanitary and dilapidated house property is a palpable admission by the the State that no house-owner has the right to make profits from the letting of houses, the occupation of which is a necessary cause of injury to the occupants.

Unventilated mines, unpointed railways,

A surrender of a portion of the profits now legally made must be faced and endured.

The considerations leading many of the working classes to throw in their lot with the Social Democrats are stated in the following paper, which is being circulated throughout the length and breadth of the kingdom.

If not, you ought to be, for the following reasons:- Because in this wealthiest country the world has ever seen, vice and misery, ignorance and crime, drunkenness and prostitution, disease and degradation are for the most part the results of want and the fear of want. Because the average death-rate in the district of

St. George's, Hanover Square

, and other rich parts of London, is 11 per 1,000, while in poor, overcrowded districts the average death-rate is from 35 to 66 per 1,000. Because in Manchester and other industrial centres the working classes, on the average, live only half as long as the idle classes. Because thousands of men in the United Kingdom are killed every year in mines, on railways, and in manufactories

by " accidents " which could be prevented if money was spent on improved methods of working. Because the useful classes in England are forced to work from 60 to 120 hours a week for a bare living, while black slaves were usually only employed 45 hours a week by their masters and were well fed. Because official Government reports prove that the 800,000 agricultural labourers, who produce more than £240,000,000 worth of food in a year even in these bad times, rarely escape from "diseases due to insufficient nourishment." Because the

Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes

found that the children of the poor are brought up under conditions that make health, decency, and morality impossible for them. Because we have the evidence of

John Bright

that in

Glasgow

70 per cent. of the families have two rooms or less to live, eat, drink, and sleep in. Because women who work are habitually paid wages on which they cannot live, and there are at least 100,000 prostitutes on the streets of London alone. Because in every great industry the amount produced per head of those employed has greatly increased, though the number of men in work at these trades has in many cases diminished. Because it is admitted that children in Board Schools are too badly fed to be well taught without breaking down; and that in one of the poorer districts of London last winter one child out of every three came to school without having had any breakfast. Because everything that the worker gets to eat, drink, and

wear is made unwholesome by the adulteration for profit, which

John Bright

says is " a legitimate form of competition." Because

Professor Huxley

says that the chief diseases in our great cities are due to slow starvation; and that he would sooner be a savage in the backwoods than an English labourer. Because

Mr. Gladstone

says that human life is still for the many a mere struggle for existence.

Science has immensely strengthened the arm of the individual when raised against society. Explosives, easily manufactured, manipulated by one determined man may at any time change the history of Europe. Fear is no reason for hastening the action of justice. Still, there is every advantage in depriving the dynamitards of the

Again and again the leaders of Socialism have announced their intention of confiscating, in whole or in part, property in land and in all the means of production. Among all their schemes of forced loans, graduated taxes, irredeemable currency, confiscation, and collectivism, there is never found a solitary appeal to the higher sense of the working classes. That much of the misery which appals every thoughtful man arises from idleness as well as from overwork; from too short hours as well as from too prolonged a period of labour; from gluttony and guzzling, as well as from ascetic abstinence;

What is to be done with criminals under the new Co-operative Commonwealth is thus good-humouredly pointed out by Gronlund:

"We may now add that not only crimes against property, but all forms of crime will probably be practically unknown."

While human nature is what it is the punishment of idleness ought to consist in allowing free play to the consequences of idleness. A great impulse to the sterilization of the unfit would be given if the idle man were allowed to die unpitied in the street. The crapulous tenderness extended by the nineteenth century

State-help may be poured into the Socialistic sack until the State is bankrupt, but without self-help and the stimulus of need the pouring out of State aid is done to waste. Self-help gives industrial partnerships, trades'-unions, co-operative and building societies. The demagogues who undermine the self-help which produces these results cannot be counted friendly to the poor man when he offers him as an alternative the million bayonets that will infallibly be raised in defence of family life and the rights of property. Legislation that impairs the spirit of self-help is hostile to social progress. Legislation that restricts the energies of competition so as to allow free play to all competitors develops wholesomely the spirit of self-help.

Whatsoever things are of good report, the greatest deeds in our eight centuries of island-story, the stirring record of many noble lives, and the firm resolve that fills the minds

[1] By the way, the Irish landlords have done nothing of the sort.