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A PLEA FOE LIBERTY 
 
If every action wliicli is good or evil in man at ripe years were to 
 be under pittance, preacription, and compulsion, what were virtue 
 but a name, what praise could be then due to well doing, what 
 gramercy to be sober, just, or continent ? 
 
 They are not skilful considerers of human things who imagine to 
 remove sin, by removing the matter of sin ; 
 
 Suppose we could expel sin by this means ; look how much we 
 thus expel of sin, so much we expel of virtue : for the matter of 
 them both is the same : remove that, and ye remove them both 
 alike. 
 
 Milton, Areopagitica : A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing. 
 
PLEA FOE LIBERTY 
 
 AN AEGUMENT AGAINST 
 SOCIALISM AND SOCIALISTIC LEGISLATION 
 
 CONSISTING OF AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 HEEBEET SPE1^^0EE 
 
 AND ESSAYS BY VARIOUS WRITERS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 THOMAS MAOKAY 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE ENGLISH POOR" 
 
 NEW YORK 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 1891 , , 
 
 1 
 Do 
 
VHA5iHJ,l 
 
 .X) c - ^ 
 
 ■^- 
 
 Authorized Edition. 
 
ESSAYS AND CONTRIBUTOBS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction. — From Freedom to Bondage . . . i 
 By HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
 I. The Impracticability of Socialism ... 29 
 By Ed-ward Stanley Robertson. 
 
 II. The Limits of Liberty ■ ..... 6^ 
 By Wordsworth "Donisthorpe. 
 
 III. Liberty for Labour . . . . . .109 
 
 By George Howell, M.P. 
 
 IV. State Socialism in the Antipodes . . . 145 
 
 By Charles Fairfield. 
 
 V. The Discontent of the WorJdng-Classes . . aoi 
 
 By 'Edmund Vincent. 
 
 VI. Investm,ent ........ 227 
 
 By Thomas Mackay. 
 
 VII. Free Education 261 
 
 By Rev. B. H. Alford. 
 
 VIII. The Housing of the Working-Classes and of the 
 
 Poor 275 
 
 By Arthur Raffalovich. 
 
vi Essays and Contributors. 
 
 PAOE. 
 
 IX. The Evils of State Trading as illustrated by the 
 
 Post Office 5°5 
 
 By Fredbeick Millak. 
 
 X. Free Libraries ....... 329 
 
 By M. D. O'BuiEN. 
 
 XI. The State and Electrical Distribution . . S53 
 
 By F. "W. Beauchamp Gordon. 
 
 XII. The True Line of Deliverance .... 379 
 By Hon. Atjbekon Heebeet. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Essays contained in the present volume have a 
 common purpose, which is sufficiently indicated on the title- 
 page. The various writers, however, approach the subject 
 from diflferent points of view, and are responsible for their 
 own contributions and for nothing else. 
 
 As will be readily seen from a glance at the table of 
 contents, no attempt has been made to present a complete 
 survey of the controversy between Socialists and their 
 opponents. To do this many volumes would have been 
 necessary. The vast extent of the questions involved in 
 this controversy will explain the exclusion of some familiar 
 subjects of importance, and the inclusion of others which, 
 if less important, have still a bearing on the general 
 argument. All discussion of the Poor Law, for instance, the 
 most notable of our socialistic institutions, and its disastrous 
 influence on the lives of the poor, has been omitted. The 
 subject has often been dealt with, and the arguments are 
 familiar to all educated readers. It seemed superfluous to 
 include a reference to it in the present volume. 
 
 The introduction and the first and second articles deal 
 with theoretical aspects of the question. The papers 
 which follow may be described as illustrative. Mr. Howell 
 traces the gradual advance of the working-class on the 
 path of liberty. Mr. Fairfield and Mr. Vincent describe 
 socialistic influences at work in an English colony and in 
 the London streets. Mr. Mackay's paper is an endeavour 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 to point out the disadvantage of monopoly, and the advan- 
 tage of giving to free investment the largest possible sphere 
 of action. The objections to 'Free' Education are very 
 briefly set out by Mr. Alford, who takes a practical view 
 of the subjectj and declines to discuss the larger question 
 of compulsory education as being for the moment at any 
 rate beyond the range of practical politics. M. Arthur 
 Eaffalovich may be introduced to English readers as one 
 of the secretaries of the Society d'&udes ^conomiques re- 
 cently founded in Paris, a frequent contributor to the 
 Journal des ^conomistes, and author of an excellent 
 work, Le logement de I'ouvrier et du pauvre. His article 
 deals historically and from the cosmopolitan point of 
 view with the question of the Housing of the Poor. The 
 difficulty, he argues, is being overcome gradually, in the 
 same way as other difficulties in the path of human progress 
 have been overcome, by the solvent power of free human 
 initiative. The Post Office is often quoted by persons of 
 socialist proclivities as an example of the successful or- 
 ganisation of labour by the State. Mr. Millar's paper points 
 out that this department has not escaped from defects 
 inherent in all State-trading enterprises. These are tolerable 
 when they exist in a service comparatively simple and 
 unimportant like the Post Office, but if Government monopoly 
 were extended to more important and complicated industries, 
 the inherent incapacity of compulsory collectivism would, 
 it is argued, play havoc with human progress. The attempt 
 of Free Library agitators to make their own favourite form 
 of recreation a charge on the rates is criticised by Mr. O'Brien 
 as unjust to those who love other forms of amusement and 
 generally as contrary to public policy. Mr. Gordon, writing 
 from the point of view of his profession, explains how the 
 business of the electrical engineer has been let and hindered 
 by the ill-considered, but no doubt well-intentioned, inter- 
 ference of the State. Mr. Auberon Herbert's paper contains 
 
Preface. ix 
 
 a criticism on the present attitude of Trade Unionism, and 
 proposes for the consideration of working-class associations a 
 new policy of usefulness. 
 
 It will be seen from the foregoing epitome of the volume 
 that some of the illustrations chosen are in themselves of 
 comparatively small importance. But the great danger in this 
 matter lies in the fact that ' plain men ' do not appreciate the 
 enormous cumulative eflfect of these many small infractions of 
 sound principle. They do not seem to realise that all this 
 legislation means the gradual and insidious advance of a 
 dull and enervating pauperism. The terrible tale of the 
 degradation of manhood caused by the old poor law, was un- 
 folded to the country in the judicial language of the Poor Law 
 Commissioners. A similar burden of impotency is being day 
 by day laid on all classes, but more especially on our poorer 
 classes, by the perpetual forestalling of honest human en- 
 deavour in every conceivable relation of life. While this 
 weakening of the fibre of character is going on, the burden 
 of responsibility to be carried by the State grows every 
 day heavier. The difBculty of returning even a portion of 
 this burden to the healthful influence of private enterprise 
 and initiative is always increasing. 
 
 If men will grant for a moment, and for the sake of argu- 
 ment that, as some insist, our compulsory rate-supported 
 system of education is wrong; that it is injurious to the 
 domestic life of the poor; that it reduces the teacher 
 to the position of an automaton; that it provides a quality 
 of teaching utterly unsuited to the wants of a labouring 
 population which certainly requires some form of technical 
 training ; that, here, it is brought face to face with its own 
 incompetence, for some of the highest practical authorities 
 declare that the technical education given in schools is a farce ; 
 that therefore it bars the way to all free arrangements between 
 parents and employers, and to the only system of technical 
 education which deserves the name ; — if this or even a part of 
 
X Preface. 
 
 it is true, if at best our educational system is a make-shift 
 not altogether intolerable, how terrible are the difficulties 
 to be overcome before we can retrace our steps and foster into 
 vigorous life a new system, whose early beginnings have been 
 repressed and strangled by the overgrowth of Government 
 monopoly. 
 
 Those who still have an open mind should consider care- 
 fully this aspect of the question. Each addition to the 
 responsibility of the State adds to the list of ill-contrived 
 solutions of difficulty, and to the enlargement of the sphere of 
 a stereotyped regimentation of human life. Inseparable from 
 ■this obnoxious growth is the repression of private experiment 
 and of the energy and inventiveness of human character. 
 Instead thereof human character is degraded to a parasitic 
 dependence on the assistance of the State, which after all 
 proves to be but a broken reed. 
 
 If the view set out in this volume is at all correct, it is very 
 necessary that men should abandon the policy of indiflference, 
 and that they should do something to enlarge the atmosphere 
 of Liberty. This is to be accomplished not by reckless and 
 revolutionary methods, but rather by a resolute resistance to 
 new encroachments and by patient and statesmanlike en- 
 deavour to remove wherever practicable the restraints of 
 regulation, and to give full play over a larger area to the 
 creative forces of Liberty, for Libei-ty is the condition pre- 
 cedent to all solution of human difficulty. 
 
 T. M. 
 
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION.— FROM FREEDOM TO BONDAGE. 
 
 I. The Impkacticabilitt of Socialism. 
 
 Limits of the discussion. Previous 
 essential questions — Is the end de- 
 sirable ? Does justice require it ? 
 Page 29 
 
 Affirmative of both questions pro- 
 visionally conceded. Protest agalust 
 unauthorised inferences . . 29 
 
 Inequalities in Nature. Instances. 
 Varying length of days and in- 
 fluence on human af^irs. Drought 
 in tropics, rainfall in British Is- 
 lands. Varyingiufluenee of climate 
 on health {ncte) .... 36-31 
 
 Human nature and human society 
 are parts of nature. Socialists argue 
 as if they were not . . . 31-32 
 
 Schaffle's Quintessence, the most busi- 
 nesslike exponent of Socialism . 32 
 
 Inequality the basis of the Socialist 
 complaint. Fallacies relating to 
 'millionaires and proletariat' . 33 
 
 Summary of Schaffle's book . 34-35 
 
 Collective Production and Distribu- 
 tion practically tested. How would 
 demand for clothing and its supply 
 be regulated ? 3^-37 
 
 Schaffle's vagueness on this point. 
 Distribution according to ' Social 
 labour time.' How are the relative 
 values of different kinds of labour 
 to be ascertained ? . . . . 38 
 
 Fallacy of Socialism concerning Iia- 
 bour. Labour has no value in and 
 for itself 39-41 
 
 But has an accidental value which is 
 
 Inseparable, though it affords no 
 - standard of exchange . . 42-43 
 Exchange value automatically esti- 
 mated in money. Socialists would 
 abolish money, and substitute a 
 clumsy form of inconvertible paper 
 
 43-44 
 
 How could an inventor's labour be 
 estimated? Watt and Boultou . 45 
 
 How do actual Governments deal with 
 improvements and the supersession 
 of obsolete methods ? The Board of 
 Trade and Trinity House on Light- 
 house Hluminauts . . . 45-47 
 
 Is a State department a good produc- 
 ing or distributing machine ? . 47 
 
 Favourite instance — the Post Office. 
 Its success admitted, subject to 
 qualifications. Proofs given that 
 the Post Office is not successful qua 
 State department, but for other 
 reasons 47-49 
 
 Government not solely to blame. All 
 industries conducted on large scale 
 liable to routine and 'red tape' 
 
 49-50 
 Objections answered. Joint Stock 
 principle still on its trial. Its way 
 was prepared by private enterprise. 
 Large capital of Joint Stock Com- 
 panies counterbalances but does 
 not neutralise advantages of pri- 
 vate management . . . 50-51 
 Summary : State Departments are 
 neither good producers, good dis- 
 
xu 
 
 Synopsis of Contents. 
 
 tributors, nor good employers of 
 labour 52 
 
 The population question. The task 
 of collective authorities. Practical 
 tests 52 
 
 Sohaffle does not advocate restriction 
 on multiplication. Other writers 
 ignore it 62-54 
 
 Mill's views on this topic. France 
 and its population question. Prance 
 and Socialism . ... 54-56 
 
 Suggestions of English philanthro- 
 pists — their unpractical character 
 
 56 
 
 Summary, and recapitulation of test 
 questions. Socialism and the ' resi- 
 duum.' Must we imprison or flog 
 shiftless persons ? . . . 56-57 
 
 General Summary of the argument. 
 Conclusion. The Quintessence of 
 Individualism . . . 58-60 
 
 II. Thk Limits of Liberty. 
 
 Absirrdity of supposing that the power 
 of the State can' be curtailed ah 
 extra. Only by influencing the 
 will of the effective majority — the 
 ruling body. Let us avoid mean- 
 ingless abstractions. Doctrine of 
 Free-will applied to States . . 63 
 
 Reform must be gradual. State- 
 action was certainly necessary in 
 the past, is probably necessary in 
 the present, and may be necessary 
 and beneficent in the remote future 
 
 66 
 
 The State must guide its conduct by 
 more or less general principles ; 
 which, however, cannot be reached 
 a priori. Compare the rules of pri- 
 vate morality 70 
 
 Various attempts to discover an abso- 
 lute principle of government : — 
 Absolute freedom short of injuring 
 others : obedience to the will of 
 the people, of the ruling body, of 
 the numerical majority. Social 
 equality. Absolute anarchy. Lais- 
 ses faire, or non-interference with 
 acts of willing parties. The State 
 never to take the initiative, but 
 only to act at the instance of pri- i 
 vate interested individuals 7o-74nI 
 
 Conclusion that limits of liberty can- 
 not be discovered by deduction. In 
 law or State-morals we must rest 
 content (as in private morality) with 
 
 inductions from experience . 74 
 
 Necessity of the comparative method 
 of enquiry into historic tendencies. 
 State interference a diminishing 
 quantity. But while dwindling in 
 extensity, it increases in intensity 
 75-80 
 
 In the field remaining to it, it is 
 more thorough and more regular. 
 Tendency towards a Least Common 
 Bond in associations of men for a 
 common end. Survey of State 
 interference with non-aggressive 
 acts of citizens : — games, sports, 
 fine arts, gambling, betting, an- 
 aesthetics, irregular sexual indul- 
 gences, &c 80-90 
 
 But besides State despotism, we have 
 other despotisms : — Mrs. Grundy's 
 rules, the rules of social clubs, 
 cricket clubs, the Jockey Club, the 
 Stock Exchange, Lloyd's, benevo- 
 lent associations, learned societies, 
 local political organisations, and all 
 forms of voluntary combination. 
 Despotism must be combated in 
 all these little States as well as in 
 the widest. The same spirit of 
 intolerance is apt to underlie all 
 
 90-98 
 
 Difficulties in the way of government 
 on the voluntary principle. Appa- 
 rent need for some form of coercion. 
 Difiiculty of apportioning shares of 
 
Synopsis of Contents. 
 
 xiu 
 
 common benefits. On the principle 
 of justice? What is it? Practical 
 illustration. Several distinct mean- / 
 
 ings 98-105 J 
 
 To conclude, we cannot build upon 
 abstractions, but only upon more 
 and more general principles reached 
 
 by induction from the innumerable 
 experiences of mankind. These 
 middle principles are the per- 
 manent principles of the law as it 
 is, and as it increasingly tends to 
 become, and not as it appears in the 
 distorting mirror of language 105 
 
 III. LiBEBTY FOR LaBOUK. 
 
 The problem stated. What are the 
 limits of law in the world of 
 labour? 109 
 
 The question must be considered 
 historically ill 
 
 I. The Guild, originally a, voluntary 
 association within the state, its 
 usefulness, its deterioration, its 
 exclusiveness iii 
 
 II. Modem ' levelling up ' legislation 
 the consequence of earlier repres- 
 sive legislation 113 
 
 The suppression of the guilds followed 
 by class legislation . . . . 115 
 The triumph of class tyranny . 116 
 The long struggle of the working 
 class to establish its free initiative, 
 and right of voluntary combina- 
 tion J 16 
 
 III. The repression of the right of 
 combination naturally produced 
 a demand for protective legisla- 
 tion 117 
 
 The horrors of the early history of 
 factories and mines . . . . 117 
 
 The objects of past industrial legis- 
 lation — (i) protection of women 
 and children, (2) the protection of 
 life and limb, (3) the repeal of last 
 remnants of class-legislation . 118 
 
 IV. The principles which underlie 
 the Factory and Workshop Acts — 
 (i) Protection of Women and Chil- 
 dren irp 
 
 V. (2) Protection of Life and 
 Limb . , T 20 
 
 VL (3) The Public Health Acts 120 
 
 VII. Interference hitherto has aimed 
 at redressing the evil results of 
 earlier class-legislation : the liberty 
 of the adult male labourer has been 
 respected 121 
 
 VIII. Sufficient allowance must be 
 made for the classes who have 
 suffered from early legislation. 
 Liberty, the refuge for the protec- 
 tion of all, a true principle, but as 
 yet only dimly understood . 122 
 
 IX The growing demand for legisla- 
 tion with regard to — 
 (a) Protection of life and limb ; 
 (!/) Compensation for injury ; 
 {c) Public Health . , , . 123 
 
 These involve no new principle, and 
 are intended to enable the state to 
 act fairly between its citizens 123 
 (d) An extension of the Factory 
 and Workshop Acts is open to 
 more doubt 125 
 
 X. The evils of the Sweating System 
 admitted — but what is the remedy? 
 
 126 
 
 XI. The Sweating System represents 
 the evil side of domestic industry. 
 But are workers ready to welcome 
 the inspector in every home ? 127 
 
 XII. The reasonableness of the desire 
 to mitigate the strain of industrial 
 life. But the possibilities of the 
 case must be considered . . 128 
 
 XIII. Proposal for a legal Eight Hours 
 day, the objections stated . 1 29 
 
xiv Synopsis of Contents. 
 
 XIV. The same continued— to domestic industry means its 
 (i) It is impracticable ... 13a extinction. Are we prepared for 
 
 (2) It is an oppressive and incon- this? '37 
 
 venient restraint on liberty . 133 XVII. Tyranny of the new Trade 
 
 (3) The dictatorship of inspectors Unionism, its claim to a monopoly 
 insupportable I34 of labour 138 
 
 (4) It would be inoperative and XVIII. The policy of the new Union- 
 could not be enforced . . . 135 ists condemned. Liberty to act a 
 
 XV. Proposal to extend Factory and just claim, but not the power to 
 
 Workshop Acts coerce I39 ' 
 
 (i) To a regulation of men's la- XIX. The multiplication of law peri- 
 
 bour 136 lous, the demand for it indicates 
 
 (2) To all domestic industry. 136 a decadence of manhood . . 140 
 
 XVL The application of these Acts 
 
 rv. State Socialism in the Antipodes. 
 
 Eecent Colonial State policy, legis- 
 lation and results thereof, in- 
 teresting to modem legislators and 
 political students. Reasons for lack 
 of information in this country on 
 subject 145-150 
 
 Sir C DUke's 'Problems of Greater 
 Britain.' Defects in his method of 
 enquiry ; but useful indication that 
 Australian labour, fiscal, financial, 
 public works, land, educational, 
 and population problems are bound 
 up with dominant policy of State 
 Socialism and State interference. 
 Why prominence rightly given by 
 Sir C. Dilke to one particular 
 colony. His sanguine view of public 
 accounts and railway finance in 
 Australia. Observations on actual 
 position there .... 150-156 
 
 Sir Charles Dilke's omission to ex- 
 plain whether primary objections to 
 State Socialism do, or do not, hold 
 good in Australia. What he ex- 
 pected to find among dominant 
 State Socialistic party and Labour 
 there. Eeasonswhy'revolutionary' 
 methods are superfluous. Practical 
 aims and indifference to abstract 
 ideas noticed .... 15 7-1 61 
 
 The ' Eight hours ' rule in Victoria. 
 The various, essentially ' local,' 
 
 conditions which contribute to its 
 success, and at same time obscure 
 its true economic effect, examined 
 in detail. Influence of reckless 
 State and Corporate borrowing. 
 European ' investment money.' 
 Power conceded to Trade Unionists 
 and subserviency of politicians. 
 On the policy of State Socialism 
 generally, and on the fortunes of 
 'capital' and 'labour' in Australia. 
 161-173 
 
 Free, secular and compulsory educa- 
 tion in Victoria. Worth examina- 
 tion, because similar policy advo- 
 cated here. Its essentially ' social- 
 istic ' basis. Eeasons for its enor- 
 mous popularity. Main grounds of 
 objection to it by a group of public 
 men in colony considered at length. 
 Financial barriers to change or re- 
 form in the system. The ' Roman 
 Catholic grievance ' considered. 
 Why unredressed. Secular, or God- 
 less education necessary result of 
 monopoly by democratic ' State.' 
 Mr. John Morley's olive branch to 
 Catholics and Jews . . 173-190 
 
 Sketch of educational policy in 
 Victoria since 1851. Weak points 
 of existing system summarized 190 
 
 ' Early closing of shops.' Sir Charles 
 
Synopsis of Contents. 
 
 XV 
 
 Dilke's favourable report. The Act 
 of 1885, its mischievous, ludicrous, 
 and unexpected results and subse- 
 quent virtual repeal in Melbourne 
 and suburbs. Influence of State 
 
 Socialism and its concomitants 
 upon national character, industry, 
 and development in Australia 
 
 191-198 
 
 V. Woeking-Class Discontent. 
 
 Discontent not necessarily igno- 
 ble 201 
 
 The discontent of the unskilled la- 
 bourer 202 
 
 Its connection vrith Socialism . 202 
 The leaders of Loudon Socialism 202 
 
 Mr. John Burns 204 
 
 His opinions 205 
 
 The connection of the Socialists ■with 
 
 recent strikes 206 
 
 The Dock Strike 207 
 
 The Dock Labourers Union . . 208 
 An effort to obtain larger wages 209 
 A monopoly of work claimed for the 
 
 . Union 209 
 
 The Gas Strike 212 
 
 Unconnected with Socialist agita- 
 tion . . ' 212 
 
 The New Unionism adopts the con- 
 fiscatory articles of the Socialist 
 
 creed 214 
 
 But the working-man rebels as a rule 
 against legislation seeking to regu- 
 late his own conduct . . . 215 
 With regard to the legality of me- 
 thods employed on recent strikes 
 
 Illegal menaces 218 
 
 The state of the law as to illegal con- 
 spiracy . ,1 219 
 
 Monopoly of labour cannot be con- 
 ceded to Unions 219 
 
 Liberty to ' strike ' must be admitted 
 provided always current agree- 
 ments are fulfilled . . . . 220 
 
 Union of Unions, for the purpose of 
 coercing non-unionists an intoler- 
 able tyranny 220 
 
 Profit-sharing and sliding-scale com- 
 mittees offer a solution of the 
 conflict between labour and capi- 
 tal 221 
 
 Combination of labourers will be met 
 by combination of capitalists 222 
 
 The struggle if it comes will be 
 serious 222 
 
 The interest of all parties points to 
 arbitration with proper sanction 
 as a means of avoiding ruinous 
 conflict 223 
 
 In the meantime theoretical socialism 
 is no real danger 223 
 
 Men are not socialists by nature, 
 though they may use socialistic 
 shibboleths when it suits their 
 own private interest . . . 223 
 
 VI. Investment. 
 
 Shall the Tenure of Capital be Com- 
 mon or Private ? . . . . 227 
 
 Experiments made in both theories 
 to be considered, viz. 
 
 (i) Capital invested by the State ; 
 (2) Capital invested under State- 
 
 supported monopoly ; (3) Capital 
 invested privately and ' freely' 
 22S 
 Digression as to limitation of term 
 ' free ' investment. Security of 
 property and a due performanxje 
 
XVI 
 
 Synopsis of Contents. 
 
 of contract conceivable apart 
 from official enforcement. Legal 
 definition of rights of property- 
 liable to error. But men will 
 not submit to anarchy or order 
 to arrive at a true definition. 
 Change must be gradual 229-233 
 Characteristics of the three tenures 
 of capital above-mentioned. 
 I. State Capital. 
 
 Deteriorated State Capital not writ- 
 ten off 333 
 
 Inefficiency of public spending de- 
 partments 235 
 
 Chaotic book-keeping of local au- 
 thorities 235 
 
 Monopolies slow to adopt improve- 
 ments 236 
 
 Enterprising_monopolies even more 
 pernicious. Instances of Bristol 
 
 and Preston 237 
 
 The Question of Sewerage considered. 
 
 A monopoly of old date . . 238 
 
 Is the apparatus owned by this 
 monopoly approved by Science ? 
 The opinion of an expert. Sug- 
 gestion that the present system 
 bears hardly on the poor . 239 
 Obstruction caused by monopoly to 
 adventurous investment. 
 
 Suggestion that sub-ways for pipes 
 and wires might be a profitable 
 investment, but too adventurotw 
 for public bodies .... 240 
 Discredit of local government. Its 
 usurpations prevent subdivision 
 and specialisation of enterprise. 
 It monopolises some of the most 
 important services of civilised 
 life — result a disability of enter- 
 prise not meekly to be accepted 
 as inevitable 242 
 
 Members of vestries, &c., not worse 
 than their neighbours ; their 
 duties impossible , ... 243 
 The Post Office Savings Bank. 
 
 A doubt suggested as to its useful- 
 ness 243 
 
 II. Private Monopoly Capital. 
 The same arguments applicable 245 
 
 The case of Railways considered. 
 
 The importance of cheap transport. 
 
 High cost of transport a cause of 
 the congestion of population in 
 towns 247 
 
 The question of trusts as affected by 
 the railway monopoly . . 247 
 The Liquor Traffic. 
 
 Suggestion that legislation has been 
 prohibitive not of liquor, but of 
 rational amusement . . . 249 
 Two minor digressions. 
 
 (a) The employment of Philan- 
 thropic Capital, its usefulness 
 varies inversely to its philan- 
 thropy 250 
 
 (6) The gratuitous use of capital 
 an absurd idea . . . . 251 
 
 III. Private or Free Investment. 
 
 Its advantage to the consumer al- 
 ready proved beneficial . . 252 
 
 Its influence on character even 
 more Important . . . . 25,^ 
 
 Necessity for each man to regulate 
 his creation of responsibilities by 
 a reference to his property 253 
 
 Advantages to character from a 
 more widely extended owner- 
 ship of property . . . . 255 
 
 The problem of the future is the 
 application of capital to the ser- 
 vice of the poor .... 256 
 
 To be met by a larger performance 
 of the duty of private investment 
 as the complement of the duty 
 
 of labour 256 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Against confiscation, as only repeat- 
 ing on a larger scale the injustice 
 of the past 257 
 
 But above all against confiscation 
 
 which transfers capital to the 
 
 unprofitable tenure of the State 
 
 257 
 
Synopsis of Contents. 
 
 xvu 
 
 VII. Free Eduoatiost. 
 
 The question to be considered on its 
 merits, apart from the bribes offer- 
 ed by political parties . . . 261 
 
 Proposed order of discussion. The 
 arguments in favour of 'Free' 
 schools. The objections urged to 
 the arguments, llie general ob- 
 jections 262 
 
 I. The new financial burden to be 
 thrown on the rates is justified, 
 because 
 
 (i) Free Education is the logical 
 sequence of the Act of 1870 263 
 
 (2) If education is compulsory, it 
 should be free . . . . . 263 
 
 (3) Practically both political par- 
 ties have accepted the principle, 
 and resistance is useless . 264 
 
 (4) Sentimental argument based 
 on the word 'Free.' Absurd- 
 ity of the terms 'Free,' 'Na- 
 tional,' ' Voluntary,' with regard 
 to schools ...... 265 
 
 H. These arguments might prevail 
 if the principle of the new proposal 
 were sound 265 
 
 The poverty of some is made an 
 excuse to give to all . . . . 265 
 
 The proposal involves a new depar- 
 ture 266 
 
 The State has hitherto dealt only 
 with exceptional classes of chil- 
 dren . . 266 
 
 These are — pauper schools for chil- 
 dren whose parents cannot support 
 them 26S 
 
 Industrial schools for uncontrollable 
 children z66 
 
 Assisted education for children whose 
 parents cannot pay full cost . 266 
 
 The proposal now is — to pay for all 
 out of the rates, whether they re- 
 quire it or not 267 
 
 Will not this prove an injury to 
 the self-discipline of English cha- 
 racter? 267 
 
 The race wiU not improve physically 
 by declining hardship, nor morally 
 by evading duty 268 
 
 The parental tie already weak among 
 the poorer classes .... 268 
 
 The present proposal fatal to parental 
 responsibility .' 268 
 
 Free education not comparable to the 
 occasional and exceptional assist- 
 ance of endowments for educa- 
 tion , 269 
 
 A residue of duty should be left for 
 parents 269 
 
 Can this risk of deterioration of cha- 
 racter be safely incurred ? . 269 
 
 Irregular attendance at school not 
 due to fees but to 'washing day,' 
 'errands,' &c 270 
 
 The sentimental desire to give away 
 
 what we prize for nothing — ten- 
 
 4 dency of free gifts to be little 
 
 valued 271 
 
 This jproposed deposition of fathers 
 from their fatherhood is an indig- 
 nity to be resented-. . . . 271 
 
 Knowledge gained for them at the 
 cost of self-denial the best inherit- 
 ance a man can give his children. 
 Parents urged not to part with this 
 opportunity of weU-doing . . 272 
 
XVIH 
 
 Synopsis of Contents. 
 
 VIII. The Housing of the Wokkino-Classes and 
 OF THE Poor. 
 
 Universal solicitude felt at the pre- 
 sent day for the lot of the Poor. 
 Liberal economists share in this 
 feeling, but, mindful of the sinister 
 effects of legislation like the English 
 Poor Law, deprecate rash action 
 
 275 
 
 The pretensions of sanitary reformers. 
 M. Leon Say urges the necessity of 
 scrutinising their claims , . 276 
 
 A new '89 necessary to combat the 
 encroachments of sanitarians 
 
 276 {note) 
 
 This universal meddlesomeness not 
 the best way of attaining end in 
 view 277 
 
 A statement of the demands made by 
 German Socialists .... 277 
 
 Proposals made in France . . 278 
 Do. in England . . 279 
 
 A summary of the proposals of 
 would-be reformers . . . . 279 
 
 Importance of the subject . . 280 
 
 Unsatisfactory nature of present con- 
 dition 280 
 
 The difficulty not local but world- 
 wide 280 
 
 Part of social problem equally with 
 questions of food and clothing 281 
 
 The interference of the State dis- 
 courages private enterprise . 281 
 
 Sanitary regulations innumerable 
 have existed, but the indifference 
 and opposition of the inhabitants 
 have rendered them inoperative 
 
 282 
 
 The difficulty one of cost. Poor people 
 cannot pay a high rent . . 283 
 
 Improvement in ways of locomotion 
 of first-class importance . . 283 
 
 Necessity of keeping public interest 
 alert 284 
 
 Useful part played by various societies 
 
 284 
 
 Proposal for an International Society 
 for the study of the subject . 285 
 
 The increasing success of private 
 enterprise in the business of house- 
 building proof that such invest- 
 ment is remunerative . . . 286 
 
 The supply still limited, but the 
 
 ' eliU of the working-class provided 
 for; a consequent improvement 
 throughout 286 
 
 The building of industrial villages in 
 France, England, America, Prussia 
 
 287 
 
 Other forms of private enterprise 
 
 I. Building Societies. 
 
 For the purchase of a house by instal- 
 ments 288 
 
 Suggestion that the reserves of 
 Savings Banks should co-operate 
 in the building of workmen's 
 dweUings 292 
 
 II. The Joint Stock Company (for 
 
 letting or selling small 
 
 houges). 
 Successful case of MuUiouse . . 293 
 Excessive sub-letting by working- 
 class landlords . . .292 (note) 
 
 III. Societies for the building of 
 
 blocks of dweUings, 
 
 Their necessity when the building 
 has to be done in the centre of a 
 large town 296 
 
 Instance of a loan from a Savings 
 Bank 297 
 
 The system of Miss Octavia Hill 297 
 
 M. Coste's scheme of 'Tenant Thrift.' 
 Suggestion that insurance might 
 aid in helping purchase by instal- 
 ment 298 
 
 Proposals passed at the International 
 Congress of Paris at the instance of 
 the author 293 
 
 Do. at the instance of M. Picot , 300 
 
 Summary 300 
 
Synopsis of Contents. 
 
 XIX 
 
 IX. The Evils of State TBADiNa as illusteated by 
 THE Post Office. 
 
 The multifarious duties assumed by 
 the State interfere with ita efficient 
 performance of any one duty 305 
 
 The Post Office put forward as an 
 example of a successfvil State de- 
 partment 305 
 
 The Post Office not originated by the 
 State 306 
 
 The Post Office monopoly . . 307 
 
 An instance of its enforcement 308 
 
 Enormous margin of profit on the 
 penny post 309 
 
 Extension of Government monopoly 
 to other spheres would more than 
 double the cost of living in Eng- 
 land 309 
 
 Some instances of Post Office ano- 
 malies 310 
 
 Doubt as to the possibility of making 
 State postal system highly efficient 
 
 3" 
 The Book-keeping of the Post Office 
 
 3" 
 
 The discourtesy of the officials of a 
 monopoly 312 
 
 The arbitrary way in which its cus- 
 tomers are treated . . . . 313 
 
 The recent strike 314 
 
 State officials called on to surrender 
 their right of combination in ex- 
 change for a promise of pensions 
 and other advantages . . . 315 
 
 Is the English working-class prepared 
 for this surrender ? . . . . 315 
 
 Mrs. Besant represents the Post 
 Office as a model 315 
 
 The Sec. of the Union describes the 
 service as that of a task-master 
 
 worse than the vilest East End 
 
 sweater 315 
 
 The Parcel Post a financial failure 
 
 3"5 
 The Savings Bank, its irritating and 
 
 inconvenient arrangements . 316 
 Compared with the National Penny 
 
 Bank 318 
 
 Insurance Department . . . 319 
 Infinitesimal business done by thq 
 
 Post Office 319 
 
 Telegraphs another financial failure 
 
 319 
 
 The only branch of business that 
 pays is the letter-carrying . 331 
 
 The Postmaster-General's device for 
 raising the price of post-cards 321 
 
 The Post Office and the Telephone 
 
 322 
 
 Blackmail of 10 per cent, levied by 
 the Post Office on all telephonic 
 enterprise 323 
 
 The yearly Christmas break-down 
 unworthy of a great and rich cor- 
 poration — even in this point mo- 
 nopolies are inferior to private 
 enterprise 324 
 
 Danger to the public from the com- 
 plete cessation of the service fur- 
 nished by a monopoly through a 
 strike 325 
 
 Conclusion that an impartial ex- 
 amination of the Post Office sup- 
 plies an answer to those who 
 demand municipalisation or na- 
 tionalisation of other and more 
 important industries . . . 325 
 
XX 
 
 Synopsis of Contents. 
 
 X. Free Libeaeies. 
 
 The Free Library the Socialist con- 
 tinuation school 329 
 
 The logic of men taught to read at 
 public expense asking for material 
 to read from the sarae source 329 
 
 But there is a point at "which the 
 rates ■will bear no more . , 329 
 
 The forestalling of individual effort 
 inimical to self-discipline . . 330 
 
 Good books not out of the reach of 
 the working-class . . . . 331 
 
 The alleged educational value of Free 
 Libraries considered . . . 332 
 
 Absurdity of thinking that a supply 
 of books is a synonym for educa- 
 tion 333 
 
 Free Libraries principally used for 
 novel reading — a harmless pursuit, 
 but not of sufficient importance to 
 be endowed by rates . . . 333 
 
 Statistics in proof of above . . 335 
 
 The rate limited to id. in the pound 
 
 34°. 
 
 Various expedients for evading this ' 
 limitation 340 
 
 Activity of the Library Association 
 in pushing the interests of a new 
 bureaucracy 341 
 
 The class of readers in Free Libraries 
 a large proportion ' of no occupa- 
 tion.' At Wigan a fuller classifi- 
 
 cation shows a large majority of 
 well-to-do people .... 343 
 
 Reading not as a rule a working-class 
 amusement 344 
 
 If books are supplied by the rates — 
 why not theatres, cricket bats, 
 bicycles, &c. &c. ? . . . . 344 
 
 Absurdity of term 'Free.' The ac- 
 commodation provided only suffi- 
 cient for I per cent, of the popula- 
 tion. Consequent long delay in 
 getting popular novels . . . 346 
 
 Solid works not read, the rules regu- 
 lating issue of books really pro- 
 hibitive of study 347 
 
 Free Libraries a, typical example of 
 compMisorj/ co-operation . . . 348 
 
 The majority has learned the lesson 
 of tolerance in religious matters 
 and forbears to tax the minority 
 
 348 
 The lesson has still to be learnt with 
 
 regard to our amusements . 348 
 In social and political questions the 
 
 fight for Liberty only beginning 
 
 348 
 
 The tyranny of the few over the 
 
 many past, that of the many over 
 
 the few to come 34S 
 
 A bitter experience in store for us, 
 but the result not doubtful . 349 
 
 XI. The State and Electeical Disteibution. 
 
 Introductory, sketching the course 
 of events up to 1882 ; the Paris 
 Electrical Exhibition ; the Play- 
 fair Committee ; the private 
 (Corporations) Electric Lighting 
 Acts ; the Electric Lighting Bills 
 of 1882 ; the desirability shown 
 of general legislation . 353-5 
 
 The character it should assume ; 
 might reasonably be encourag- 
 
 ing ; should at least provide 
 for: — 
 
 1 . The easy acquisition of statutory 
 
 powers. 
 
 2. Non-injurious regulations for 
 
 supply. 
 
 3. Tenure sufficiently liberal to 
 
 attract investors, &c. . 355-6 
 
 Analysis of the public Bill of 1882, 
 
 showing the spirit in wliich the 
 
Synopsis of Contents. 
 
 XXI 
 
 Government approached the 
 question ; the Select Committee ; 
 the form in which the Bill 
 issued therefrom . . . 356-S 
 The Electric Lighting Act, 1882 ; its 
 provisions summarised — 
 (a) As affecting local authorities — 
 a really facilitating Act 359-60 
 (6) As affecting private enterprise, 
 ■with special reference to the 
 above-named essentials ; ac- 
 quisition of powers, and regu- 
 lations of supply, generally 
 satisfactory ; conditions of 
 tenure restrictive and impos- 
 sible ....... 360-2 
 
 Compared with the Tramways Act, 
 its precedent ; conditions shown 
 to be utterly dissimilar. The 
 Act inaugurated a new principle 
 in industrial legislation. 362-5 
 The amending Bills of 1886. (i) 
 Lord Eayleigh's Bill. (2) Lord 
 Ashford's Bill. (3) The Govern- 
 ment Bill. Their provisions 
 summarised. The Lords' Com- 
 mittee ; reasons for the failure 
 of the previous Act; the evidence 
 of scientific and financial experts 
 
 365-7 
 Analysis of the amending Act of 
 
 1888. Tenure extended, though 
 the confiscatory provisions re- 
 tained ; power of veto given to 
 local authorities . . . 367-8 
 
 Effect, so far, of these provisions (a) in 
 London, (&) in the provinces; 
 illustrating instances cited 368-9 
 
 The concession last Session (1890) 
 of the Corporations Transfer 
 clause ; its probable effect con- 
 sidered, especially in the hands 
 of gas-owning corporations. Sum- 
 mary, showing how private en- 
 terprise has been discouraged, to 
 promote the supply of electricity 
 by local authorities . . 369-71 
 
 Some reasons given for the belief 
 that in their hands the industry 
 will not be aa efficiently or as 
 economically developed as it 
 would be by the old form of 
 individual enterprise ; the policy 
 discussed of using the rates (a) 
 in speculative trading, (6) in com- 
 petition with the private purse, 
 as well as of creating a body of 
 obstructionists to the utilization 
 of any future discovery . 371-4 
 
 The probable effect of such a prece- 
 dent on industrial operations 
 generally 375 
 
 Xn. The Thus Line of Deliverance. 
 
 New XTnionism will do good by re- 
 opening the whole question of 
 Trade-XJnionism .... 379 
 Effect of the new Unionism on the 
 
 old Unionism 380 
 
 Aims of new Unionism . 381-2 
 The two methods for bettering con- 
 dition of labour : — restriction and 
 open competition .... 383 
 BestricUon : — 
 The minimum wage ; the lef t-outside ; 
 the restricted entrance . . 384-5 
 All wage artificially enhanced is war 
 upon other laboiir .... 385 
 
 The tendency of restriction to spread ; 
 its unhealthy forms . . 386-7 
 Ignoring personal differences . 388 
 Tending towards the completed sys- 
 tem of universal restriction . 389 
 Is the price worth paying ? . . 390 
 How far Trade-Unionism can affect 
 
 wages 39°-i 
 
 Open Competition : — 
 
 The true method of raising wages 392 
 
 Faults and mistakes which prevent 
 
 . the growth of capital, and the 
 
 bettering of the eondition of labour 
 
 392-3 
 
xxu 
 
 Synopsis of Contents. 
 
 Comparison of eases of prosperous 
 trade, with and without Trade- 
 Union interference . . . 394-5 
 Frightening away the iish . . 395 
 Wages raised by a monopoly in trade 
 are a, tax upon all other labour 
 
 396 
 Mr. Thornton supposed Trade-XJniou- 
 ism could raise wages ; cases ex- 
 amined 397-8 
 
 The two meanings of high wages 399 
 
 Perfect competition would assign to 
 
 each the just reward for his work 
 
 400 
 Perfect competition impossible in old 
 days ; how far possible now 401 
 Improving competition . . . 401 
 Form which the new Trade-Union 
 would take .... 401-2-3-4 
 Expansion of capital under a state of 
 
 industrial peace ; capital, instead 
 of going abroad, would undertake 
 home services for workmen ; trades 
 kept in more vigorous condition 
 
 405 
 
 New conditions that favour the work- 
 men 406 
 
 large profit of employer promotes 
 interest of workman . . . 407 
 
 With abandonment of industrial war, 
 must be abandonment of political 
 war, and other forms of monopoly 
 
 408 
 
 Note A. How the workman's share 
 increases in value .... 410 
 
 Note B. Some employers favour re- 
 stricted trades 41 2 
 
 Note C The two great ends : — 
 Eeform within the Unions ; aban- 
 donment of war with capital 412 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 FROM FREEDOM TO BONDAGE 
 
 HERBERT SPENCER. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 FROM FREEDOM TO BONDAGE. 
 
 OF the many ways in which common sense inferences 
 about social afltairs are flatly contradicted by events (as 
 when measures taken to suppress a book cause increased cir- 
 culation of it, or as when attempts to prevent usurious rates 
 of interest make the terms harder for the borrower, or as 
 when there is greater difficulty in getting things at the places 
 of production than elsewhere) one of the most curious is the 
 way in which the more things improve the louder become 
 the exclamations about their badness. 
 
 In days when the people were without any political power, 
 their subjection was rarely complained of; but after free 
 institutions had so far advanced in England that our political 
 arrangements were envied by continental peoples, the denun- 
 ciations of aristocratic rule grew gradually stronger, until 
 there came a great widening of the franchise, soon followed 
 by complaints that things were going wrong for want of still 
 further widening. If we trace up the treatment of women 
 from the days of savagedom^ when they bore all the burdens 
 and after the men had eaten received such food as remained, up 
 through the middle ages when they served the men at their 
 
2 A Plea for Liberty : 
 
 meals, to our own day when throughout our social arrange- 
 ments the claims of women are always put first, we see that 
 along with the worst treatment there went the least apparent 
 consciousness that the treatment was bad; while now that 
 they are better treated than ever before, the proclaiming of 
 their grievances daily strengthens : the loudest outcries com- 
 ing from ' the paradise of women,' America. A century ago, 
 when scarcely a man could be found who was not occasionally 
 intoxicated, and when inability to take one or two bottles of 
 wine brought contempt, no agitation arose against the vice of 
 drunkenness ; but now that, in the course of fifty years, the 
 voluntary efforts of temperance societies, joined with more 
 general causes, have produced comparative sobriety, there are 
 vociferous demands for laws to prevent the ruinous efiects of 
 the liquor traffic. Similarly again with education. A few 
 generations back, ability to read and write was practically 
 limited to the upper and middle classes, and the suggestion 
 that the rudiments of culture should be given to labourers 
 was never made, or, if made, ridiculed ; but when, in the days 
 of our grandfathers, the Sunday-school system, initiated by a 
 few philanthropists, began to spread and was followed by the 
 establishment of day-schools, with the result that among the 
 masses those who could read and write were no longer the 
 exceptions, and the demand for cheap literature rapidly 
 increased, there began the cry that the people were perishing 
 for lack of knowledge, and that the State must not simply 
 educate them but must force education upon them. 
 
 And so it is, too, with the general state of the population 
 in respect of food, clothing, shelter, and the appliances of 
 life. Leaving out of the comparison early barbaric states, 
 there has been a conspicuous progress from the time when most 
 rustics lived on barley bread, rye bread, and oatmeal, down 
 to our own time when the consumption of white wheaten 
 bread is universal — from the days when coai-se jackets 
 
Introduction. 3 
 
 reaching to the knees left the legs bare, down to the 
 present day when labouring people, like their employers, 
 have the whole body covered, by two or more layers of 
 clothing — from the old era of single-roomed huts with- 
 out chimneys, or from the 15th century when even an 
 ordinary gentleman's house was commonly without wainscot 
 or plaster on its walls, down to the present century when 
 every cottage has more rooms than one and the houses 
 of artizans usually have several, while all have fire-places, 
 chimneys^ and glazed windows, accompanied mostly by paper- 
 hangings and painted doors ; there has been, I say, a con- 
 spicuous progress in the condition of the people. And this 
 progress has been still more marked within our own time. 
 Any one who can look back sixty years, when the amount of 
 pauperism was far gi'eater than now and beggars abundant, 
 is struck by the comparative size and finish of the new houses 
 occupied by operatives — by the better dress of workmen, who 
 wear broad-cloth on Sundays, and that of servant girls, who 
 vie with their mistresses — by the higher standard of living 
 which leads to a great demand for the best qualities of food 
 by working people : all results of the double change to higher 
 wages and cheaper commodities, and a distribution of taxes 
 which has relieved the lower classes at the expense of the upper 
 classes. He is struck, too, by the contrast between the small 
 space which popular welfare then occupied in public attention, 
 and the large space it now occupies, with the result that out- 
 side and inside Parliament, plans to benefit the millions form 
 the leading topics, and everyone having means is expected to 
 join in some philanthropic effort. Yet while elevation, mental 
 and physical, of the masses is going on far more rapidly than 
 ever before — while the lowering of the death-rate proves that 
 the average life is less trying, there swells louder and louder 
 the cry that the evils are so great that nothing short of a 
 social revolution can cure them. In presence of obvious im- 
 
4 A Plea for Liberty : 
 
 provements, joined with that increase of longevity which 
 even alone yields conclusive proof of general amelioration, it 
 is proclaimed, with increasing vehemence, that things are so 
 bad that society must be pulled to pieces and re-organized on 
 another plan. In this case, then, as in the previous cases 
 instanced, in proportion as the evil decreases the denun- 
 ciation of it increases ; and as fast as natural causes are 
 shown to be powerful there grows up the belief that they 
 are powerless. 
 
 Not that the evils to be remedied are small. Let no one 
 suppose that, by emphasizing the above paradox, I wish to 
 make light of the sufferings which most men have to bear. 
 The fates of the great majority have ever been, and doubtless 
 still are, so sad that it is painful to think of them. Unques- 
 tionably the existing type of social organization is one which 
 none who care for their kind can contemplate with satisfaction ; 
 and unquestionably men's activities accompanying this type 
 are far from being admii-able. The strong divisions of rank 
 and the immense inequalities of means, are at variance with 
 that ideal of human relations on which the sympathetic 
 imagination likes to dwell ; and the average conduct, under 
 the pressure and excitement of social life as at present carried 
 on, is in sundry respects repulsive. Though the many who re- 
 vile competition strangely ignore the enormous benefits result- 
 ing from it — though they forget that most of all the appliances 
 and products distinguishing civilization from savagery, and 
 making possible the maintenance of a large population on a 
 small area, have been developed by the struggle for existence 
 — though they disregard the fact that while every man, as 
 producer, sufiers from the under-bidding of competitors, yet, 
 as consumer, he is immensely advantaged by the cheapening 
 of all he has to buy — though they persist in dwelling on the 
 evils of competition and saying nothing of its benefits ; yet it 
 is not to be denied that the evils are great, and form a large 
 
Introduction. 5 
 
 set-off from the benefits. The system under which we at 
 present live fosters dishonesty and lying. It prompts adult- 
 erations of countless kinds ; it is answerable for the cheap 
 imitations which eventually in many cases thrust the genuine 
 articles out of the market ; it leads to the use of short weights 
 and false measures ; it introduces bribery, which vitiates most 
 trading relations, from those of the manufacturer and buyer 
 down to those of the shopkeeper and servant ; it encourages 
 deception to such an extent that an assistant who cannot tell 
 a falsehood with a good face is blamed ; and often it gives the 
 conscientious trader the choice between adopting the mal- 
 practices of his competitors, or greatly injuring his creditors 
 by bankruptcy. Moreover, the extensive frauds, common 
 throughout the commercial world and daily exposed in law- 
 courts and newspapers, are largely due to the pressure under 
 which competition places the higher industrial classes ; and 
 axe otherwise due to that lavish expenditure which, as 
 implying success in the commercial struggle, brings honour. 
 With these minor evils must be joined the major one, that the 
 distribution achieved by the system, gives to those who 
 regulate and superintend, a share of the total produce which 
 bears too large a ratio to the share it gives to the actual 
 workers. Let it not be thought, then, that in saying what I 
 have said above, I under-estimate those vices of our competi- 
 tive system which, thirty years ago, I described and denounced^. 
 But it is not a question of absolute evils ; it is a question of 
 relative evils — whether the evils at present suffered are or are 
 not less than the evils which would be suffered under another 
 system — whether efforts for mitigation along the lines thus 
 far followed are not more likely to succeed than efforts along 
 utterly different lines. . 
 
 This is the question here to be considered. I must be 
 excused for first of all setting forth sundry truths which are, 
 V ' See essay on ' The Morals of Trade.' 
 
6 A Plea for Liberty : 
 
 to some at any rate, tolerably familiar, before proceeding to 
 draw inferences wbich are not so familiar. 
 
 Speaking broadly, every man works that he may avoid 
 suffering. Here, remembrance of the pangs of hunger prompts 
 him ; and there, he is prompted by the sight of the slave- 
 driver's lash. His immediate dread may be the punishment 
 which physical circumstances will inflict, or may be punish- 
 ment inflicted by human agency. He must have a master ; 
 but the master may be Nature or may be a fellow man. 
 When he is under the impersonal coercion of Nature, we say 
 that he is free ; and when he is under the personal coercion 
 of some one above him, we call him, according to the degree 
 of his dependence, a slave, a serf^ or a vassal Of course I 
 omit the small minority who inherit means : an incidental, 
 and not a necessary, social element. I speak only of the 
 vast majority, both cultured and uncultured, who maintain 
 themselves by labour, bodily or mental, and must either exert 
 themselves of their own unconstrained wills, prompted only 
 by thoughts of naturally-resulting evils or benefits, or must 
 exert themselves with constrained wills, prompted by thoughts 
 of evils and benefits artificially resulting. 
 
 Men may work together in a society under either of these 
 two forms of control: forms which, though in many cases 
 mingled, are essentially contrasted. Using the word co- 
 operation in its wide sense, and not in that restricted sense 
 now commonly given to it, we may say that social life must 
 be carried on by either voluntary co-operation or compulsory 
 co-operation j or, to use Sir Henry Maine's words, the system 
 must be that of contract or that of statiis — ^that In which the 
 individual is left to do the best he can by his spontaneous efforts 
 and get success or failure according to his efiiciency, and that 
 in which he has his appointed place, works under coercive rule, 
 and has his apportioned share of food, clothing, and shelter. 
 
Introduction. 7 
 
 The Bystem of voluntary co-operation is that by which, in /' 
 civilized societieSj industry is now everywhere carried on. 
 Under a simple form we have it on every farm, where the 
 labourers, paid by the farmer himself and taking orders 
 directly from him, are free to stay or go as they please, 
 And of its more complex form an example is yielded by 
 every manufacturing concern, in which, under partners, come 
 clerks and managers, and under these, time-keepers and over- 
 lookers, and under these operatives of different grades. In 
 each of these cases there is an obvious working together, or 
 co-operation, of employer and employed, to obtain in one 
 case a crop' and in the other case a manufactured stock. And 
 then, at the same time, there is a far more extensive, though 
 unconscious, co-operation with other workers of all grades 
 throughout the society. For while these particular employers 
 and employed are severally occupied with their special kinds 
 of work, other employers and employed are making other 
 things needed for the carrying on of their lives as well as 
 the lives of all others. This voluntary co-operation, from its 
 simplest to its most complex forms, has the common trait 
 that those concerned work together by consent. There is no 
 one to force terms or to force acceptance. It is perfectly 
 true that in many cases an employer may give, or an employ^ 
 may accept, with reluctance : circumstances he says compel 
 him. But what are the circumstances? In the one case 
 there are goods ordered, or a contract entered into, which he 
 cannot supply or execute without yielding ; and in the other 
 case he submits to a wage less than he likes because other- 
 wise he will have no money wherewith to procure food and 
 warmth. The general formula is not — ' Do this, or I will 
 make you ; ' but it is — ' Do this, or leave your place and take 
 the consequences.' 
 
 On the other hand compulsory co-operation is exemplified 
 by an army — not so much by our own army, the service in 
 
8 A Plea for Liberty : 
 
 which is under agreement for a specified period, but in a conti- 
 nental army, raised by conscription. Here, in time of peace 
 the daily duties — cleaning, parade, driU, sentry work, and the 
 rest — and in time of war the various actions of the camp and 
 the battle-field, are done under command, without room for 
 any exercise of choice. Up from the private soldier through 
 the non-commissioned officers and the half-dozen or more 
 grades of commissioned officers, the universal law is absolute 
 obedience from the grade below to the grade above. The 
 sphere of individual will is such only as is allowed by the will 
 of the superior. Breaches of subordination are, according to 
 their gravity, dealt with by deprivation of leave, extra drill, 
 imprisonment, flogging, and, in the last resort, shooting. 
 Instead of the understanding that there must be obedience in 
 respect of specified duties under pain of dismissal ; the imder- 
 \ standing now is — ' Obey in everything ordered under penalty 
 "^ of inflicted suffering and perhaps death.' 
 
 This form of co-operation, still exemplified in an army, has 
 in days gone by been the form of co-operation throughout the 
 civil population. Everywhere, and at all times, chronic war 
 generates a militant type of structure, not in the body of sol- 
 diers only but throughout the community at large. Practi- 
 cally, while the conflict between societies is actively going on, 
 and fighting is regarded as the only manly occupation, the 
 society is the quiescent ai-my and the army the mobilized 
 society : that part which does not take part in battle, com- 
 posed of slaves, serfs, women, &c., constituting the commis- 
 sariat. Naturally, therefore, throughout the mass of inferior 
 individuals constituting the commissariat, there is maintained 
 a system of discipline identical in nature if less elaborate. 
 The fighting body being, under such conditions, the ruling 
 body, and the rest of the community being incapable of resist^ 
 ance, those who control the fighting body will, of course 
 impose their control upon the non-fighting body; and the 
 
Introduction. 9 
 
 regime of coercion will be applied to it ■with such modifica- 
 tions only as the difi'erent circumstances involve. Prisoners 
 of war become slaves. Those who were free cultivators 
 before the conquest of their coimtry, become serfs attached 
 to the soil. Petty chiefs become subject to superior chiefs ; 
 these smaller lords become vassals to over-lords ; and so on up 
 to the highest: the social ranks and powers beiag of like 
 essential nature with the ranks and powers throughout the 
 military organization. And while for the slaves compulsory 
 co-operation is the unqualified system, a co-operation which is 
 in part compulsory is the system that ".pervades aU grades 
 above. Each man's oath of fealty to his suzerain takes the & 
 form — ' I am your man.' 
 
 Throughout Europe, and especially in our own country, 
 this system of compulsory co-operation gradually relaxed in 
 rigour, while the system of voluntary co-operation step by 
 step replaced it. As fast as war ceased to be the business o£ \ 
 life, the social structure produced by war and appropriate to 
 it, slowly became qualified by the social structure produced by 
 industrial life and appropriate to it. In proportion as a de- 
 creasing part of the community was devoted to ofiensive and 
 defensive activities, an increasing part became devoted to 
 production and distribution. Growing more numerous, more 
 powerful, and taking refuge in towns where it was less under 
 the power of the militant class, this industrial population 
 carried on its life under the system of voluntary co-operation^ 
 Though municipal governments and guild-regulations, partially 
 pervaded by ideas and usages derived from the militant type 
 of society, were in some degree coercive ; yet production and 
 distribution were in the main carried on under agreement — 
 alike between buyers and sellers, and between masters and 
 workmen. As fast as these social relations and forms of 
 activity became dominant in urban populations, they influ- 
 enced the whole community: compulsory co-operation lapsed 
 3 
 
J 
 
 
 lo A Plea for Liberty : 
 
 more and more, through money commutation for services, 
 military and civil ; while divisions of rank became less rigid 
 and class-power diminished. Until at length, restraints 
 exercised by incorporated trades have fallen into desuetude, 
 as well as the rule of rank over rank, voluntary co-operation 
 became the universal principle. Purchase and sale became 
 the law for all kinds of services as well as for all kinds of 
 commodities. 
 
 The restlessness generated by pressure against the conditions 
 of existence, perpetually prompts the desire to try a new 
 position. Everyone knows how long-continued rest in one 
 attitude becomes wearisome — everyone has found how even 
 the best easy chair, at first rejoiced in, becomes after many 
 hours intolerable ; and change to a hard seat, previously 
 occupied and rejected, seems for a time to be a great relief. 
 It is the same with incorporated humanity. Having by long 
 struggles emancipated itself from the hard discipline of the 
 ancient regime, and having discovered that the new regime 
 into which it has grown, though relatively easy, is not 
 without stresses and pains, its impatience with these prompts 
 the wish to try another system; which other system is, in 
 principle if not in appearance, the same as that which during 
 past generations was escaped from with much rejoicing. 
 
 For as fast as the regime of contract is discarded the regime 
 of status is of necessity adopted. As fast as voluntary co- 
 operation is abandoned compulsory co-operation must be 
 substituted. Some kind of organization labour must have ; 
 and if it is not that which arises by agreement under free 
 competition, it must be that which is imposed by authority. 
 Unlike in appearance and names as it may be to the old order 
 of slaves and serfs, working under masters, who were coerced 
 by barons, who were themselves vassals of dukes or kings, the 
 new order wished for, constituted by workers under foremen 
 
Introduction. 1 1 
 
 of small groups, overlooked by superintendents, who are 
 subject to higher local managers, who are controlled by 
 supei'iors of districts, themselves under a central government, 
 must be essentially the same in principle. In the one case, as 
 in the other, there must be established grades, and enforced 
 subordination of each grade to the grades above. This is a 
 truth which the communist or the socialist does not dwell 
 upon. Angry with the existing system under which each of 
 us takes care of himself, while all of us see that each has fair 
 play, he thinks how much better it would be for all of us to 
 take care of each of us ; and he refrains from thiuking of the 
 machinery by which this is to be done. Inevitably, if each is 
 to be cared for by all, then the embodied all must get the 
 means — the necessaries of life. What it gives to each must be 
 taken from the accumulated contributions ; and it must there- 
 fore require from each his proportion — must tell him how 
 much he has to give to the general stock in the shape of pro- 
 duction, that he may have so much in the shape of sustenta- 
 tion. Hence, before he can be provided for, he must put 
 himself under orders, and obey those who say what he shall 
 do, and at what hours, and where; and who give him his 
 share of food, clothing, and shelter. If competition is ex- 
 cluded, and with it buying and selling, there can be no 
 voluntary exchange of so much labour for so much produce ; 
 but there must be apportionment of the one to the other by 
 appointed officers. This apportionment must be enforced. 
 Without alternative the work must be done, and without 
 alternative the benefit, whatever it may be, must be accepted. 
 For the worker may not leave his place at will and ofier 
 himself elsewhere. Under such a system he cannot be ac- 
 cepted elsewhere, save by order of the authorities. And it is 
 manifest that a standing order would forbid employment in 
 one place of an insubordinate member from another place : the 
 system could not be worked if the workers were severally 
 
 / 
 
12 A Plea for Liberty : 
 
 allowed to go or come as they pleased. With corporals and 
 sergeants under them, the captains of industry must carry out 
 the orders of their colonels, and these of their generals, up to 
 the council of the commander-in-chief; and obedience must 
 be required throughout the industrial army as throughout a 
 fighting army. ' Do your prescribed duties, and take your ap- 
 portioned rations,' must be the rule of the one as of the other. 
 ' Well, be it so ; ' replies the socialist. ' The workers will 
 appoint their own officers, and these will always be subject to 
 criticisms of the mass they regulate. Being thus in fear of 
 public opinion, they will be sure to act judiciously and fairly ; 
 or when they do not, will be deposed by the popular vote, 
 local or general. Where will be the grievance of being under 
 superiors, when the superiors themselves are under democratic 
 control?' And in this attractive vision the socialist has full 
 belief. 
 
 Iron and brass axe simpler things than flesh and blood, and 
 dead wood than living nerve ; and a machine constructed of 
 the one works in more definite ways than an organism con- 
 structed of the other, — especially when the machine is worked 
 by the inorganic forces of steam or water, while the organism 
 is worked by the forces of living nerve-centres. Manifestly, 
 then, the ways in which the machine will work are much 
 more readily calculable than the ways in which the organism 
 wiU work. Yet in how few cases does the inventor foresee 
 rightly the actions of his new apparatus ! Read the patent- 
 list, and it will be found that not more than one device in 
 fifty turns out to be of any service. Plausible as his scheme 
 seemed to the inventor, one or other hitch prevents the in- 
 tended operation, and brings out a widely different result from 
 that which he wished. 
 
 What, then, shall we say of these schemes which have to do 
 not with dead matters and forces, but with complex living 
 
Introduction. 1 3 
 
 organisms ■working in ways less readily foreseen, and -which 
 involve the co-operation of multitudes of such organisms'? 
 Even the units out of which this re-arranged body politic is 
 to be formed are often incomprehensible. Everyone is from 
 time to time surprised by others' behaviour, and even by the 
 deeds of relatives who are best known to him. Seeing, then, 
 how uncertainly anyone can foresee the actions of an in- 
 dividual, how can he with any certainty foresee the operation 
 of a social structure? He proceeds on the assumption 
 that all concerned will judge rightly and act fairly — wiU 
 think as they ought to think, and act as they ought to act ; 
 and he assumes this regardless of the daily experiences 
 which show him that men do neither the one nor the other, 
 and forgetting that the complaints he makes against the 
 existing system show his belief to be that men have neither 
 the wisdom nor the rectitude which his plan requires them 
 to have. 
 
 Paper constitutions raise smiles on the faces of those who 
 have observed their results ; and paper social systems similarly 
 aflfect those who have contemplated the available evidence. 
 How little the men who wrought the French revolution and 
 were chiefly concerned in setting up the new governmental 
 apparatus, dreamt that one of the early actions of this apparatus 
 would be to behead them all I How little the men who drew 
 up the American Declaration of Independence and framed the 
 EepubHc, anticipatedTthat after some generations the legislature 
 would lapse into the hands of wire-pullers ; that its doings 
 would turn upon the contests of office-seekers ; that political 
 action would be eveiywhere vitiated by the intrusion of a 
 foreign element holding the balance between parties ; that 
 electors, instead of judging for themselves, would habitually 
 be led to the polls in thousands by their ' bosses ' ; and that 
 respectable men would be driven out of public life by the 
 insults and slanders of professional politicians. Nor were 
 
14 A Plea for Liberty : 
 
 there better previsions in those who gave constitutions to the 
 various other states of the New "World, in which unnumbered 
 revolutions have shown with wonderful persistence the con- 
 trasts between the expected results of political systems and 
 the achieved results. It has been no less thus with proposed 
 systems of social re-organization, so far as they have been tried. 
 Save where celibacy has been insisted on, their history has 
 been everywhere one of disaster ; ending with the history of 
 Cabet's Icarian colony lately given by one of its members, 
 Madame Fleury Robinson, in The Open Court— & history 
 of splittings, re-splittings, re-re-splittings, accompanied by 
 numerous individual secessions and final dissolution. And 
 for the failure of such social schemes, as for the failure of the 
 political schemes, there has been one general cause. 
 
 Metamorphosis is the universal law, exemplified throughout 
 the Heavens and on the Earth: especially throughout the 
 organic world; and above all in the animal division of it. 
 No creature, save the simplest and most minute, commences 
 its existence in a form like that which it eventually assumes ; 
 and in most cases the unlikeness is great — so great that 
 kinship between the first and the last forms would be in- 
 credible were it not daily demonstrated in every poultry-yard 
 and every garden. More than this is true. The changes of 
 form are often several: each of them being an apparently 
 complete transformation — egg, larva, pupa, imago, for example. 
 And this universal metamorphosis, displayed alike in the 
 development of a planet and of every seed which germinates 
 on its surface, holds also of societies, whether taken as wholes 
 or in their separate institutions. No one of them ends as it 
 y begins ; and the difiference between its original structure and 
 its ultimate structure is such that, at the outset, change of the 
 one into the other would have seemed incredible. In the 
 rudest tribe the chief, obeyed as leader in war, loses his 
 
Introduction. 1 5 
 
 distinctive position when the fighting is over; and even 
 where continued warfare has produced permanent chieftain- 
 ship, the chief, building his own hut, getting his own food, 
 making his own implements, differs from others only by his 
 predominant influence. There is no sign that in course of 
 time, by conquests and unions of tribes, and consolidations of 
 clusters so formed with other such clusters, until a nation has 
 been produced, there will originate from the primitive chief, 
 one who, as czar or emperor, surrounded with pomp and 
 ceremony, has despotic power over scores of millions, exercised 
 through hundreds of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of 
 thousands of officials. When the early Christian missionaries, 
 having humble externals and passing self-denying lives, 
 spread over pagan Europe, preaching forgiveness. of injuries 
 and the returning of good for evil, no one dreamt that in 
 course of time their , representatives would form a vast 
 hierarchy, possessing everywhere a large part of the land, 
 distinguished by the haughtiness of its members grade above 
 grade, ruled by military bishops who led their retainers to 
 battle, and headed by a pope exercising supreme power over 
 kings. So, too, has it been with that very industrial system \ 
 which many are now so eager to replace. In its original form ^ 
 there was no prophecy of the factory system or kindred 
 organizations of workers. DiflFering from them only as being 
 the head of his house, the master worked along with his 
 apprentices and a journeyman or two, sharing with them his 
 table and accommodation, and himself selling their joint 
 produce. Only with industrial growth did there come employ- 
 ment of a larger number of assistants and a relinquishment, 
 on th^^part of the master, of all other business than that of 
 s.uperintendence. And only in the course of recent times did 
 there evolve the organizations under which the labours of 
 hundreds and thousands of men receiving wages, are regulated 
 by various orders of paid officials under a single or multiple 
 
1 6 A Plea for Liberty : 
 
 head. These originally small, semi-socialistic, groups of pro- 
 ducers, like the compound families or house-communities of 
 early ages, slowly dissolved because they could not hold their 
 ground : the larger establishments, with better sub-division of 
 labour, succeeded because they ministered to the wants of 
 society more effectually. But we need not go back through 
 the centuries to trace transformations sufficiently great and 
 unexpected. On the day when .5^30,000 a year in aid of 
 education was voted as an experiment, the name of idiot 
 would have been given to an opponent who prophesied that 
 in fifty years the sum spent through imperial taxes and local 
 rates would amount to .^10,000,000, or who said that the aid to 
 education would be followed by aids to feeding and clothing, 
 or who said that parents and children, alike deprived of all 
 option, would, even if starving, be compelled by fine or 
 imprisonment to conform, and receive that which, with papal 
 assumption, the State calls education. No one, I say, would 
 have dreamt that out of so innocent-looking a germ would 
 have so quickly evolved this tyrannical system, tamely sub- 
 mitted to by people who fancy themselves free. 
 
 Thus in social ai-rangements, as in all other things, change 
 is inevitable. It is foolish to suppose that new institutions 
 set up, will long retain the character given them by those 
 who set them up. Kapidly or slowly they will be transformed 
 into institutions unlike those intended — so unlike as even to 
 be unrecognizable by their devisers. And what, in the case 
 before us, wiU be the metamorphosis ? The answer pointed to 
 by instances above given, and warranted by various analogies, 
 is manifest. 
 
 A cardinal trait in all advancing organization is the develop- 
 ment of the regulative apparatus. If the parts of a whole are- 
 to act together, there must be appliances by which their 
 actions are directed ; and in proportion as the whole is larg( 
 and complex, and has many requirements to be met by many 
 
Introduction. 1 7 
 
 agencies, the directive apparatus must be extensive, elaborate, ^-^ 
 and powerful. That it is thus with individual organisms 
 needs no saying ; and that it must be thus with social 
 organisms is obvious. Beyond the regulative apparatus such 
 as in our own society is required for carrying on national 
 defence and maintaining public order and personal safety, 
 there must, under the rigime of socialism, be a regulative 
 apparatus everywhere controlling all kinds of production and 
 distribution, and everywhere apportioning the shares of 
 products of each kind required for each locality, each working 
 establishment, each individual. Under our existing voluntary 
 co-operation, with its free contracts and its competition, pro- 
 duction and distribution need no official oversight. Demand 
 and supply, and the desire of each man to gain a living by 
 supplying the needs of his fellows, spontaneously evolve that 
 wonderful system whereby a great city has its food daily 
 brought round to all doors or stored at adjacent shops; has 
 clothing for its citizens everywhere at hand in multitudinous 
 varieties ; has its houses and furniture and fuel ready made 
 or stocked in each locality; and has mental pabulum from 
 halfpenny papers, hourly hawked round, to weekly shoals of 
 novels, and less abundant books of instruction, furnished 
 without stint for small payments. And throughout the 
 kingdom, production as well as distribution is similarly 
 carried on with the smallest amount of superintendence 
 which proves efficient ; while the quantities of the numerous 
 commodities required daily in each locality are adjusted with- 
 out any other agency than the pursuit of profit. Suppose 
 now that this industrial rdgmte of willinghood, acting spon- 
 taneously, is replaced by a regime of industrial obedience, 
 enforced by public officials. Imagine the vast administration 
 required for that distribution of all commodities to all people 
 in every city, town and village, which is now efiected by 
 traders ! Imagine, again, the still more vast administration 
 
1 8 A Plea for Liberty: 
 
 required for doing all that farmerSj manufacturers, and 
 merchants do ; having not only its various orders of local 
 superintendents, but its sub-centres and chief centres needed 
 for apportioning the quantities of each thing everywhere 
 needed, and the adjustment of them to the requisite times. 
 Then add the staffs wanted for working mines, railways, 
 roads, canals ; the staffs required for conducting the importing 
 and exporting businesses and the administration of mercantile 
 shipping ; the staffs required for supplying towns not only with 
 water and gas but with locomotion by tramways, omnibuses, 
 and other vehicles, and for the distribution of power, electric 
 and other. Join with these the existing postal, telegraphic, 
 and telephonic administrations ; and finally those of the 
 police and army, by which the dictates of this immense 
 consolidated regulative system are to be everywhere enforced. 
 Imagine all this and then ask what will be the position of the 
 actual workers ! Already on the continent, where governmental 
 organizations are more elaborate and coercive than here, there 
 are chronic complaints of the tyranny of bureaucracies — the 
 hauteur and brutality of their members. What will these 
 become when not only the more public actions of citizens are 
 controlled, but there is added this far more extensive control 
 of all their respective daily duties 1 What will happen when 
 the various divisions of this vast army of oflBcials, united 
 by interests common to officialism — the interests of the 
 regulators versus those of the regulated — have at their 
 command whatever force is needful to suppress insubordina- 
 tion and act as ' saviours of society ? ' Where will be the 
 actual diggers and miners and smelters and weavers, when 
 those who order and superintend, everywhere arranged class 
 above class, have come, after some generations, to inter-maiTy 
 with those of kindred grades, under feelings such as are 
 operative in existing classes ; and when there have been so 
 produced a series of castes rising in superiority; and when all 
 
Introduction. 19 
 
 these, having everything in their own power, have arranged 
 modes of living for their own advantage : eventually forming 
 a new aristocracy far more elaborate and better organized 
 than the old ? How will the individual worker fare if he is 
 dissatisfied with his treatment — thinks that he has not an 
 adequate share of the products, or has more to do than can 
 rightly be demanded, or wishes to undertake a function for 
 n)?4ich he feels himself fitted but which is not thought proper. 
 for him by his superiors, ^sr jiesires to make an independent 
 career for himself? This dissatisfied unit in the immense 
 machine will be told he must submit or go. The mildest 
 penalty for disobedience will be industrial excommunication. 
 And if an international organization of labour is formed 
 as proposed, exclusion in one country will mean exclusion 
 in all others — industrial excommunication will mean star- 
 vation. 
 
 That things must take this course is a conclusion reached not 
 by deduction only, nor only by induction from those experiences 
 of the past instanced above, nor only from consideration of 
 the analogies furnished by organisms of all orders ; but it is 
 reached also by observation of cases daily imder our eyes. 
 The truth that the regulative structure always tends to 
 increase in power, is illustrated by every established body of 
 men. The history of each learned society, or society for other 
 purpose, shows how the staff, permanent or partially permanent, 
 sways the proceedings and determines the actions of the 
 society with but little resistance, even when most members 
 of the society disapprove : the repugnance to anything like 
 a revolutionary step being ordinarily an eflScient deterrent. So 
 is it with joint-stock companies — those owning railways for 
 example. The plans of a board of directors are usually 
 authorized with little or no discussion ; and if there is any 
 considerable opposition, this is forthwith crushed by an over- 
 whelming number of proxies sent by those who always support 
 
20 A Plea for Liberty : 
 
 the existing administration. Only wlien the misconduct is 
 extreme does the resistance of shareholders suffice to displace 
 the ruling body. Nor is it otherwise with societies formed 
 of working men and having the interests of labour especially 
 at heart — the Trades Unions. In these, too, the regulative 
 agency becomes all powerful. Their members, even when 
 they dissent from the policy pursued, habitually yield to the 
 authorities they have set up. As they cannot secede without 
 making enemies of their fellow workmen, and often losing 
 all chance of employment, they succumb. We are shown, too,' 
 by the late congress, that already, in the general organization 
 of Trades Unions so recently formed, there are complaints of 
 ' wire-pullers ' and ' bosses ' and ' permanent officials.' If, then, 
 this supremacy of the regulators is seen in bodies of quite 
 modem origin, formed of men who have, in many of the 
 cases instanced, unhindered powers of asserting their in- 
 dependence, what will the supremacy of the regulators 
 become in long-established bodies, in bodies which have 
 grown vast and highly organized, and in bodies which, 
 instead of controlling only a small part of the unit's life, 
 control the whole of his life ? 
 
 Again there will come the rejoinder — 'We shall guard 
 against aU that. Everybody will be educated ; and all, with 
 their e^es constantly open to the abuse of power, will be 
 quick to prevent it.' The worth of these expectations would 
 be small even could we not identify the causes which will 
 bring disappointment ; for in human affairs the most promis- 
 ing schemes go wrong in ways which no one anticipated. 
 But in this case the going wrong will be necessitated by 
 causes which are conspicuous. The working of institutions 
 is determined by men's characters ; and the existing defects 
 in their characters will inevitably bring about the results 
 above iadicatei There is no adequate endowment of those 
 
Introduction. 2 1 
 
 sentiments required to prevent the growth of a despotic 
 bureaucracy. 
 
 "Were it needful to dwell on indirect evidence, much might 
 be made of that furnished by the behaviour of the so-called 
 Liberal party — a party which, relinquishing the original con- 
 ception of a leader as a mouthpiece for a known and accepted 
 policy, thinks itself bound to accept a policy which its leader 
 springs upon it without consent or warning — a party so 
 utterly without the feeling and idea implied by liberalism, as 
 not to resent this trampling on the right of private judgment 
 which constitutes the root of liberalism — nay, a party which 
 vilifies as renegade liberals, those of its members who refuse 
 to surrender their independence! But without, occupying 
 space with indirect proofs that the mass of men have not the 
 natures required to check the development of tyrannical 
 officialism, it will suffice to contemplate the direct proofs 
 furnished by those classes among whom the socialistic idea 
 most predominates, and who think themselves most interested 
 in propagating it — the operative classes. These would consti- 
 tute the great body of the socialistic organization, and their 
 characters would determine its nature. What, then, are their 
 characters as displayed in such organizations as they have 
 already formed? 
 
 Instead of the selfishness of the employing classes and the 
 selfishness of competition, we are to have the unselfishness of 
 a mutually-aiding system. How far is this unselfishness now 
 shown in the behaviour of working men to one another? 
 What shall we say to the rules limiting the numbers of new 
 hands admitted into each trade, or to the rules which hinder 
 ascent from inferior classes of workers to superior classes'? 
 One does not see in such regulations any of that altruism by 
 which socialism is to be pervaded. Contrariwise, one sees a 
 pursuit of private interests no less keen than among traders. 
 Hence, unless we suppose that men's natures will be suddenly 
 
22 A Plea for Liberty : 
 
 exalted, we must conclude that the pursuit of private interests 
 '^' will sway the doings of all the component classes in a social- 
 istic society. 
 
 With passive disregard of others' claims goes active en- 
 croachment on them. ' Be one of us or we will cut off your 
 means of living,' is the usual threat of each Trades Union to 
 outsiders of the same trade. While their members insist on 
 their own freedom to combine and fix the rates at which they 
 will work (as they are perfectly justified in doing), the free- 
 dom of those who disagree with them is not only denied but 
 the assertion of it is treated as a crime. Individuals who 
 maintain their rights to make their own contracts are vilified 
 as 'blackl^s' and 'traitors,' and meet with violence which 
 would be merciless were there no legal penalties and no 
 police. Along with this trampling on the liberties of men of 
 their own class, there goes peremptory dictation to the em- 
 ploying class : not prescribed terms and working arrange- 
 ments only shall be conformed to, but none save those 
 belonging to their body shall be employed — nay, in some 
 cases, there shall be a strike if the employer carries on 
 transactions with trading bodies that give work to non-union 
 men. Here, then, we are variously shown by Trades Unions, 
 or at any rate by the newer Trades Unions, a determination 
 to impose their regulations without regard to the rights of 
 those who are to be coerced. So complete is the inversion 
 of ideas and sentiments that maintenance of these rights is 
 regarded as vicious and trespass upon them as virtuous ^, 
 
 ^ Marvellous are the conclusions the right to have labour provided ; 
 
 men reach when once they desert the and there are still not a few who 
 
 simple principle, that each man think the community bound to find 
 
 should be allowed to pursue the work for each person. Compare this 
 
 objects of life, restrained only by the with the doctrine current in France 
 
 limits which the similar pursuits of at the time when the monarchical 
 
 their objects by other men impose. power culminated ; namely, that 'the 
 
 A generation ago we heard loud asser- right of working is a royal right 
 
 tions of ' the right to labour,' that is, which the prince can sell and the 
 
Introduction. 
 
 23 
 
 Along with this aggressiveness in one direction there goes 
 submissiveness in another direction. The coercion of outsiders 
 by unionists is paralleled only by their subjection to their 
 leaders. That they may conquer in the struggle they sur- 
 render their individual liberties and individual judgments, 
 and show no resentment however dictatorial may be the rule 
 exercised over them. Everywhere we see such subordination 
 that bodies of workmen unanimously leave their work or 
 return to it as their authorities order them. Nor do they 
 resist when taxed all round to support strikers whose acts 
 they may or may not approve, but instead, ill-treat recalcitrant 
 members of their body who do not subscribe. 
 
 The traits thus shown must be operative in any new social 
 organization, and the question to be asked is — What will result 
 from their operation when they are relieved from all restraints % 
 At present the separate bodies of men displaying them are in 
 the midst of a society partially passive, partially antagonistic ; 
 are subject to the criticisms and reprobations of an indepen- 
 dent press ; and are under the control of law, enforced by 
 police. If in these circumstances these bodies habitually 
 take courses which override individual freedom, what will 
 happen when, instead of being only scattered parts of the 
 community, governed by their separate sets of regulators, they 
 constitute the whole community, governed by a consolidated 
 system of such regulators ; when functionaries of all orders, 
 including those who oflBcer the press, form parts of the regu- 
 lative organization ; and when the law is both enacted and 
 administered by this regulative organization ? The fanatical 
 
 subjects must buy.' This contrast is each artisan has to pay prescribed 
 
 startling enough ; but a contrast still monies to one or another of them, 
 
 more startling is being provided for with the alternative of being a non- 
 
 us. We now see a resuscitation of unionist to whom work is denied by 
 
 the despotic doctrine, differing only force, it has come to this, that the 
 
 by the substitution of Trades Unions right to labour is a Trade Union right, 
 
 for kings. For now that Trades which the Trade Union can sell and 
 
 Unions are becoming universal, and the individual worker must buy 1 
 
/ 
 
 24 A Plea for Liberty : 
 
 adherents of a social theory are capable of taking any mea- 
 sures, no matter how extreme, for carrying out their views : 
 holding, like the merciless priesthoods of past times, that the 
 end justifies the means. And when a general socialistic organ- 
 ization has been established, the vast, ramified, and consoli- 
 dated body of those who direct its activities, using without 
 check whatever coercion seems to them, needful in the interests 
 of the system (which will practically become their own in- 
 terests) will have no hesitation in imposing their rigorous rule 
 over the entire lives of the actual workers ; until, eventually, 
 there is developed an ofiicial oligarchy, with its various 
 grades, exercising a tyranny more gigantic and more terrible 
 than any which the world has seep. 
 
 Let me again repudiate an erroneous inference. Any one 
 who supposes that the foregoing argument implies content- 
 ment with things as they are, makes a profound mistake. 
 The present social state is transitional, as past social states 
 have been transitional. There will, I hope and believe, come 
 a future social state differing as much from the present as the 
 present differs from the past with its mailed barons and 
 defenceless serfs. In Social Statics, as well as in Tft,e Stvdy 
 of Sociology and in Political Institutions, is clearly shown the 
 desire for an organization more conducive to the happiness of 
 men at large than that which exists. My opposition to social- 
 ism results from the belief that it would stop the progress 
 to such a higher state and bring back a lower state. Nothing 
 but the slow modification of human nature by the discipline 
 of social life, can produce permanently advantageous changes. 
 
 A fundamental error pervading the thinking of nearly all 
 parties, political and social, is that evils admit of immediate 
 and radical remedies. ' If you will but do this, the mischief 
 will be prevented.' 'Adopt my plan and the suffering will 
 disappear.' ' The corruption will unquestionably be cured by 
 
Introduction. 2 5 
 
 enforcing this measure.' Everywhere one meets with beliefs, 
 expressed or implied, of these kinds. They are all ill-founded. 
 It is possible to remove causes which intensify the evils ; it 
 is possible to change the evils from one form into another ; 
 and it is possible, and very common, to exacerbate the evils 
 by the efforts made to prevent them ; but anything like 
 immediate cure is impossible. In the course of thousands of 
 years mankind have, by multiplication, been forced out of 
 that original savage state in which small numbers supported 
 themselves on wild food, into the civilized state in which the 
 food required for supporting great numbers can be got only 
 by continuous labour. The nature required for this last mode 
 of life is widely different from the nature required for the 
 first ; and long-continued pains have to be passed through in 
 re-mouldiug the one into the other. Misery has necessarily to 
 be borne by a constitution out of harmony with its conditions ; 
 and a constitution inherited from primitive men is out of 
 harmony with the conditions imposed on existing men. 
 Hence it is impossible to establish forthwith a satisfactory 
 social state. No such nature as that which has filled Europe 
 with millions of armed men, here eager for conquest and there 
 for revenge — no such nature as that which prompts the nations 
 called Christian to vie with one another in filibustering expe- 
 ditions all over the world, regardless of the claims of abori- 
 gines, while their tens of thousands of priests of the religion 
 of love look on approvingly — no such nature as that which, 
 in dealing with weaker races, goes beyond the primitive 
 rule of life for life, and for one life takes many lives — no 
 such nature, I say, can, by any device, be framed into a 
 harmonious community. The root of all well-ordered social 
 action is a sentiment of justice^ which at once insists on per- 
 sonal freedom and is solicitous for the like freedom of others ; 
 and there at present exists but a very iaadequate amount 
 of this sentiment. 
 4 
 
26 A Plea for Liberty. 
 
 Hence the need for further long continuance of a social 
 discipline which requires each man to carry on his activities 
 ■with due regard to the like claims of others to carry on their 
 activities ; and -which, -while it insists that he shall have all 
 the benefits his conduct naturally brings, insists also that he 
 shall not saddle on others the evils his conduct naturally 
 brings : unless they freely undertake to bear them. And 
 hence the belief that endeavours to elude this discipline, wiU 
 not only fail, but wiU bring worse evils than those to be 
 escaped. 
 
 It is not, then, chiefly in the interests of the employing 
 classes that socialism is to be resisted, but much more in the 
 interests of the employed classes. In one way or other 
 production must be regulated ; and the regulators, in the 
 nature of things, must always be a small class as compared 
 with the actual producers. Under voluntary co-operation 
 as at present carried on, the regulators, pursuing their personal 
 interests, take as large a share of the produce as they can 
 get ; but, as we are daily shown by Trades Union successes, 
 are restrained in the selfish pursuit of their ends. Under that 
 compulsory co-operation which socialism would necessitate, 
 the regulators, pursuing their personal interests with no less 
 selfishness, could not be met by the combined resistance of 
 free workers ; and their power, unchecked as now by refusals 
 to work save on prescribed terms, would grow and ramify 
 and consolidate till it became irresistible. The ultimate 
 result, as I have before pointed out, must be a society like 
 that of ancient Peru, dreadful to contemplate, ia which the 
 mass of the people, elaborately regimented in groups of lo, 
 50, 100, 500, and 1000, ruled by officers of corresponding 
 grades, and tied to their districts, were superintended in their 
 private lives as well as in their industries, and toiled hope- 
 lessly for the support of the governmental organi2iation. 
 
I. 
 
 THE IMPBACTICABILITY 
 OF SOCIALISM. 
 
 EDWARD STANLEY BOBERTSON. 
 
THE IMPRACTICABILITY OF SOCIALISM. 
 
 I PURPOSE, in this paper, to deal almost exclusively -with 
 the question whether Socialism is practicable. I shall 
 confine myself, as much as I can, to the inquiry whether 
 the means proposed are, or are not, likely to work out the 
 end which is aimed at. I shall have to waive, in a very 
 great degree, the previous essential questions whether the 
 end is a desirable one in itself, and whether justice requii'es 
 that it shall be held in view. For the purposes of the dis- 
 cussion I shall provisionally concede the affirmative to both ; 
 but in order to avoid all misunderstanding, I think it well 
 to put on record here that I do so provisionally only. No 
 such admission is hereafter to be quoted against me, as if 
 I had accepted Socialist or CoUectivist theories upon any 
 moral, economical, or political question. Space does not 
 admit of my making a detailed confession of faith upon these 
 points ; but it is open to me to state that I am not bound by 
 any d, priori theory. What is commonly called 'abstract 
 justice' I confess I cannot discover in the history of any 
 human institution. I cannot discover equality in the dis- 
 pensations of nature itself. 
 
 This, I may be told^ proves nothing. A great deal of our 
 life consists of a conflict with nature ; a continuous effort 
 to redress inequalities in the course of nature, and to solve 
 difficult problems which nature sets before us. True; and 
 that is precisely part of my case. I affirm that social inequal- 
 ities are inequalities which may be mitigated, but cannot be 
 redressed wholly ; that social problems are problems which, 
 for the most part, only admit of a partial solution. 
 
30 A Plea for Liberty- [i. 
 
 Such problems and such inequalities exist in material 
 nature, and the difficulties they present are universally acknow- 
 ledged. The day, in the tropics, is of about equal length 
 with the night. So it is at the poles, with the difference that 
 the tropical day and night are about twelve hours each, while 
 at the poles each lasts somewhere about half the year. In 
 the sub-tropical and temperate zones, the days in summer 
 and in winter differ stiikingly in length. In the latitude of 
 London, the longest day is about a quarter of an hour shorter, 
 and the shortest day about a quarter of an hour longer, than 
 in the latitude of Edinbui^h. Such is the inequality in a 
 merely astronomical and geographical statement of fact ; and 
 when it comes to be applied to human affairs, its practical 
 effect is more startling still. It means that a working day, 
 if it were not for artificial light, may be twice as long in 
 summer as in winter, and may vary in length for the differ- 
 ence in latitude between Southampton and Carlisle, and 
 between Carlisle and Inverness. This difference in the length 
 of the day does make a real difference in aU the conditions 
 of life, and most of all in the lives of what ai-e usually called 
 the working classes ; but the difference is obscured by custom, 
 and by the feeling that it cannot be helped. It is felt to be 
 useless to agitate against 'the stars in their courses.' So 
 again, in India and in many parts of the tropics the principal 
 danger to agriculture is drought ; in the British Islands the 
 danger is excessive rainfall. If rain and sunshine could be 
 distributed in exact proportion to the wants of each region, 
 a far greater degree of prosperity would result. As it is, in 
 the one class of countries it is necessary to have recourse to 
 irrigation, and in the other to drainage, to correct, so far as 
 is practicable, the inequalities of climate. One result of this 
 is that the remedies not unfz-equently turn out to contain the 
 seeds of other diseases. In a drainage country, an unusually 
 dry summer brings on a drought for which there is no prepai-a- 
 tion, and which may even be attended by pestilence. In a 
 country of irrigation, an exceptional rainfall causes floods, 
 which may destroy life both directly and indirectly. And 
 even in ordinary seasons, there are difficulties and losses 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism. 3 1 
 
 which are great hardships to individuals and classes, but 
 ■which there is no way of obviating. All these things, and 
 many others that could be added to the list, are accepted as 
 part of the course of nature ^- Nobody thinks of agitating 
 against the weather, though we all grumble at it freely. We 
 know that there is no help for it, and there is an end of the 
 matter. Now the human race, and human society, are just as 
 much parts of nature as the heavenly bodies and the sunshine 
 and rainfall. The organisation of society is just as much a 
 matter of natural tendency (I purposely avoid the use of 
 the phrase natural law) as the rising and setting of the sun, 
 the rain in Devonshire or the hot wind of the Punjab. The 
 difference is a difference of simple and complex phenomena. 
 Every one can observe for himself or herself the discrepancy 
 in the length of the days. It is not so easy to understand 
 fully the dissimilarities of climate and their influence upon 
 human affairs, but once the facts are grasped, there is no 
 longer any room for speculation as to the possibility of things 
 being otherwise. It is perceived at once that there is no use 
 in attempting to fly in the face of nature. We can mitigate, 
 but we cannot change. We can only mitigate, moreover, by 
 playing off one tendency or set of tendencies against others. 
 It is by obeying nature that we get the mastery of nature. 
 
 Now this brings us to the points at issue between Socialists 
 and their opponents. Socialists would (I suppose) not deny 
 that the human race and human society are part of nature. 
 They would not deny that human communities are what they 
 are, and have been what they have been, in virtue of streams 
 of tendency, more difficult to observe and to co-ordinate than 
 the observed antecedents and sequences of climatic tendencies, 
 
 ' I will briefly refer to one other human suffering is inflicted, e. g. by 
 
 instance — I mean the influence of malarious fever in Africa or by lung 
 
 climate upon bodily condition. The disease in our own islands. Volumes 
 
 human race can exist in almost any have been written on nature's adapt- 
 
 elimate ; but there is no climate in ation of means to ends ; but I venture 
 
 which the average human being can to think that volumes remain to be 
 
 enjoy perfect health. Every region written on the imperfection of that 
 
 suffers from diseases peculiar to itself, adaptation, 
 and it may be doubted whether more 
 
32 A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 but not less real, and not less certain to work themselves out. 
 If we only knew history as we know astronomy, sociology 
 would be an exact science. If we even knew history as we 
 know, or guess at, meteorology, many problems would be clear 
 which are now obscure. 
 
 But although Socialists might not deny all this in terms, 
 they seem habitually to think, and speak, and try to act and 
 induce others to act, as if it were aU untrue. They deal with 
 human society as if it were that blank sheet of paper to which 
 Locke incorrectly compared the childish intellect. They 
 write and speak as if they thought that it only needed a 
 conscious effort of the wiU on the part of any given human 
 community to change all, or nearly all, the conditions in which 
 it has hitherto subsisted. They seem to think that they can 
 defeat nature by a front attack. 
 
 What, then, are the complaints of Socialists against the 
 existing constitution of society, and how is it proposed to 
 redress the alleged grievances ? 
 
 In endeavouring to answer these questions, I take as 
 my text-book Dr. Schaffle's Quintessence of Socialism ^ ; the 
 most businesslike account of the Socialist position which has 
 yet appeared. Anyone who compares its calm and judicial 
 statements with the violent, turgid, and heated rhetoric of the 
 Fabian Essays will appreciate the reasons which guided me in 
 choosing it ^. I may go so far as to say that if Dr. Schaffle's 
 style were a little more popular, the substance of his work 
 would render the writing of this paper a superfluous effort. 
 He evidently sympathises with Socialism, and is resolved to 
 make the best case he can for its proposals. Yet every page 
 displays the difficulties of the scheme to the intelligent reader, 
 even when the author is not dwelling upon those difficulties. 
 
 ' Eighth edition, translated by calm and temperate statements of 
 
 Bernard Bosanquet, M. A. Swan Son- Socialist projects, such as we find in 
 
 nenschein & Co. 1889. When I SchaiHe, with the wild rhodomontade 
 
 quote other authorities I shall specify of the Fabian Society, to say nothing 
 
 them, but most quotations will be of the still wilder oratory of Hyde 
 
 from Schaffle. Park meetings, it is not so much 
 
 ' Socialism is very commonly called More's Utopia of which one is re- 
 Utopian. But when one compares minded, as Swift's laputa. 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism. 33 
 
 In his concluding chapter he sums up calmly and judicially, 
 but very strongly, against the whole system of Democratic or 
 Collective Socialism. 
 
 What then is the Socialist complaint against the existing 
 constitution of society ? It may be summed up in the one 
 word. Inequality. Quoting from Karl Marx, Schaffle speaks 
 of ' a growing mass of misery, oppression, slavery, degradation, 
 exploitation^.' Schaffle himself speaks of 'the plutocratic 
 process of dividing the nation into an enormous proletariat on 
 the one side and a few millionaires on the other ^.' If any 
 one wants to be saturated with boiling rhetoric on this topic, 
 let him open the Fabian Essays at random, or dip into the 
 pages of Henry George's Progress and Poverty and Social 
 Problems ^. Or, if the reader is in search of quite as good 
 rhetoric, but tempered by a good deal more common sense, 
 let him carefully read through The Social Problem, by Pro- 
 fessor William Graham *, especially chapter vi, ' The Social 
 Residuum.' Mr. Graham does not hold that what he calls 
 the social residuum is an increasing mass. The Fabian essay- 
 ists and the Continental Socialists always affirm that it is, 
 and Dr. Schaffle in the quotation already given appears to 
 accept Marx's view. 
 
 Now this view is an untrue one. It is demonstrably untrue 
 as regards the United Kingdom. It is demonstrably untrue 
 as regards France. It is probably untrue of every other country 
 in Europe, with the possible exception of Kussia. Confining 
 ourselves to the United Kingdom, I affirm that there exists, 
 between the so-called ' millionaire ' and the class described as 
 the residuum, no gulf whatever, but an absolutely complete 
 gradation. I need not load these pages with statistics in piroof 
 of what I say. The burden of proof is upon those who affirm 
 the contrary. Socialist rhetoricians have no scruple in con- 
 fusing their own and other people's ideas on this subject by 
 their illogical use of the word ' proletariat.' At one time, it 
 
 1 p. 15. But on the subject of the proletariat 
 
 2 P. 12. he ■writes as if he was one. 
 
 ' I am bound to admit that Mr. ' Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 1886. 
 
 George says he is not a Socialist. 
 
34 A. Plea for Liberty. [l. 
 
 means people who have no land ; at another, it seems to 
 signify people who have no capital ; in all cases it is used 
 with a kind of tacit connotation of ' pauper.' We shall see 
 presently that in a Socialist State the entire population would 
 be one vast proletariat ; but in the meantime it may be 
 pointed out that to have no land and no capital is not neces- 
 sarily to be a pauper. A professional man may be earning a 
 very handsome and very secure income, and yet may, in that 
 sense, belong to the proletariat. But Sociahst declamation 
 about millionaires and proletariat invariably covers the in- 
 nuendo that the world actually contains a few thousand 
 millionaires and thousands of millions of paupers. When 
 this is stated, it is at once perceived to be untrue; and a very 
 little inquiry confirms the inquirer in that conclusion. So- 
 cialist declamation, such as Schaffle quotes from Mars — 
 'misery, oppression, slavery, degradation, exploitation' — ^is 
 only true, if true at aU, of the lowest residuum ; and that 
 residuum is no more than a fringe on the border of society, in 
 any country where the capitalist is free. On the other hand, 
 this is true beyond all controversy of England and of France 
 — that between the millionaire and the worker for daily or 
 weekly wage there are stages innumerable, which pass from 
 higher to lower by a gradation that is barely perceptible. If 
 there is anything that can be called a social gulf, it is the 
 interval which separates the steady and fairly well-paid 
 workers from the loafers and the criminals ; and that gulf is 
 quite as much moral as it is economic. 
 
 But even if all that is alleged were true, does Socialism 
 offer anything that can be called a remedy ? In order to 
 answer this question, we must see what the Socialist 
 remedy is. 
 
 ' The Alpha and Omega of Socialism is the transfoi-mation 
 of private and competing capitals into a united collective 
 capital ^.' ' When, instead of the system of private and com- 
 peting capitals, which drive down wages by competition, we 
 have a collective ownership of capital, pvilic organisation of 
 labour, and of the distribution of the national income — then, 
 
 ^ Schaffle, p. 20. 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism. 35 
 
 and not till then, we shall have no capitalists and no 'wage- 
 earners, but all will be alike, producers ^.' 
 
 One more quotation. ' In their places ' (i. e. in place of private 
 capital and competition) ' we should have a State-regulated 
 organisation of national labour into a social labour system, 
 equipped out of collective capital ; the State would collect, 
 warehouse, and transport all products, and finally would dis- 
 tribute them to individuals in proportion to their registered 
 amount of social labour, and according to a valuation of 
 commodities exactly corresponding to their average cost of 
 production ^.' 
 
 This, then, is . the Quintessence of Socialism. This, and 
 nothing more or less, is what is meant by the word, and is 
 proposed by its advocates. Socialism does not mean that 
 property is robbery, at least in the ordinary sense of the 
 phrase ^. Nor does it mean a periodical redistribution of 
 private property*. Nor does it mean that private capital is 
 to be confiscated, and no compensation made to owners, 
 though it does mean that all such compensation must take the 
 form of consumable goods, and must therefore be terminable ^. 
 Nor does Socialism, as understood by Dr. Schaffle, necessarily 
 conflict with individual freedom. Upon this point, however, 
 our author speaks but doubtfully, and his remarks require 
 very careful perusal ^. It does not even preclude the possession 
 of a private income ''. It has nothing to say to questions of 
 maiTiage, ' free love ^,' or religion *. In short. Socialism, or 
 Collectivism, relates to the possession of land and capital — 
 the totality of instruments of production^" — and not to 
 anything else whatsoever, whether economic, political, or 
 social. 
 
 Now, the first and most obvious criticism upon all this 
 is, that whereas Socialists denounce land-owning and capital- 
 
 ' ScMffle, p. 28 and following. The ' Ibid. ch. iii. pp. 39-45 inclu- 
 •vrhole passage will repay perusal, but sive. 
 
 it is too long to quote in externa. ' Ibid. ch. Tiii. pp. 97-110. 
 
 ' Ibid. p. 45. ° Ibid. pp. no, ni. 
 
 ' Ibid. p. 23. " Ibid. p. 116. 
 
 * Ibid. p. 30. " Ibid. p. 5. 
 
 ' Ibid. pp. 32, 33. 
 
36 A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 owning, because they tend to the creation of a proletariat,, 
 their scheme, as announced by a benevolently-neutral inter- 
 preter, proposes to turn all the world into one vast proletariat. 
 This is not mere juggling with words. It is the Socialists who 
 juggle with words, when they define a proletarian as a person 
 who does not own either land or capital, and then proceed to 
 talk of the proletariat as if the word meant ' a mass of 
 paupers.' If to be a proletarian is to be a pauper, then 
 Socialism undertakes to turn aU the world into a mass of 
 paupers, including the very persons who will be entrusted 
 with the control of that monster workhouse, the Socialist 
 State. But I am willing to admit that if all the world could 
 be freed from the curse of poverty — if the social residuum 
 could be done away with — there would be a strong temptation 
 to swallow the scheme of Socialism, proletariat and all. Quit- 
 ting verbal criticism, let us try to think out how the suggestion 
 would be likely to work. Land and Capital are to be the 
 property of the whole community. They are to be managed 
 by State officials. The produce is to be distributed in pro- 
 portion to what is described as the ' social labour-time ' of 
 every individual worker ; and this social labour-time is to be 
 divided into units of approximately equal value. In other 
 words, every Socialist community is to be one vast Joint Stock 
 Company for the manufacture and distribution of things in 
 general ! Now, the moment this is stated, the first difficulty 
 of Socialism is at once suggested. How do the directors of 
 an ordinary manufacturing firm ascertain the conditions of 
 their business ? By a series of experiments, failure in which 
 means the loss of their capital. How does Socialism solve 
 the problem % ' The amount of supply necessary in each form 
 of production would be fixed by continuous official returns 
 furnished by the managers and overseers of the selling and 
 producing departments ^.' This is very well upon paper, and 
 if we accept the hypothesis that the demand for any given object 
 always remains nearly constant. But this is evidently not 
 the case. There is no article of consumption, not even bread 
 itself, for which the demand does not so vary from day to day 
 
 ' Sehiiffle, p. 5. 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism. 2)7 
 
 that no official department could possibly provide for it in a 
 ' budget of social production.' The existing order of things 
 only provides such a ' budget ' very roughly ; and the bank- 
 ruptcy court acts as a sort of steam-governor, when mistaken 
 speculation sends a capitalist to waste. Even if it were admitted 
 that the demand for food is virtually constant, which is mani- 
 festly untrue, there are many other things for which the demand 
 could not be foreseen by any official department. Clothing 
 is a very obvious case in point. It is a necessary of life, in 
 a great part of the world, only second to food itself. Yet 
 could any public department undertake to say how many 
 suits of clothes a given population will wear out in a given 
 season 1 Eemember, it is of no use making calculations based 
 upon decades, or even upon single years, and then striking 
 averages. What is wanted is to know how many suits of 
 clothes the department ought to have on hand, in order to 
 meet the demand day by day. When clothing has to be 
 served out to soldiers, the soldiers are put under strict regula- 
 tion as to its use. It is all the same pattern, and there is no 
 personal choice about it. This is what makes the clothing of 
 an army practicable; but in civil life the conditions are 
 wholly different. When did women ever submit to a uniform, 
 unless it were for religious reasons ? I am prepared to be 
 denounced, by Fabian essayists and other enthusiasts, as a 
 cold-blooded and frivolous person, because I state such petty 
 difficulties ; but I affirm that it is very often trifles such as 
 this which cause great projects to make shipwreck. A few 
 ounces of iron in the wrong place in a ship will derange the 
 compass and baffle the calculations of the most skilful 
 navigator. 
 
 I do not know whether I am justified in surmising that the 
 more extreme advocates of State Collectivism would cut this 
 particular knot by decreeing that people should wear uniform 
 of some sort, and should be under quasi-military regulations 
 in respect of the raiment served out to them. We may come 
 to perceive, as we go on, that there is no real reason why this 
 should not be done. The principles of collective production, 
 and of distribution according to ' social labour-time,' involve 
 
38 A Plea for Liberty. [l. 
 
 mfrmgements of personal freedom considerably more formid- 
 able than the compulsion to wear a uniform. It may suffice 
 to say for the present that if Socialism does not cover this 
 contingency, then collective production breaks down over the 
 article of clothing. And, of course, to break down in one point 
 is to break down in all. A chain is no stronger than its 
 weakest link. 
 
 One of the most remarkable characteristics of Dr. Schaffle's 
 work is the odd way in which he seems to ignore all particu- 
 lars such as I have just now been calling attention to. After 
 dwelling, as he does ia chap, iii of the Quintessence, upon the 
 vital importance of freedom of demand, which he declares to 
 be a first essential of freedom in general, and the very material 
 basis of freedom, he goes on to say that a complete and offici- 
 ally organised system of collective production could undoubtedly 
 include at least as thorough a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, 
 or yearly statistical registration of the free wants of individuals 
 and families, as under the present system these effect each for 
 themselves, by their demand upon the market \ But this is 
 just what I deny, and I think I have given good reason for 
 my denial. An instance, such as that of the clothing question, 
 is worth all the a priori assumptions that any one can make. 
 The Socialist is bound to explain how he is going to organise 
 his collection and registration of statistics in every single 
 department of his State-controlled producing-agency. It will 
 be noted that Schaffle declares Socialists not to contemplate 
 an immediate conversion of all kinds of business into State 
 departments ^- But manifestly, until all capital is transformed 
 iato collective ownership, Socialism is incomplete. If the 
 State took over the supply of food, but left clothing to private 
 enterprise, all the vices now charged against private capitalism 
 would continue to inhere in the clothing trade, until it too had 
 been reduced into collective ownership. 
 
 I now pass to another branch of the Socialist scheme; 
 
 premising that the question just treated and that upon which 
 
 I am now about to enter are so inextricably mixed up that I 
 
 may have to recur now and then to topics which may seem to 
 
 » Schaffle, p. 43. a Ibid. p. 48. 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism, 39 
 
 have been already discussed. And I may add another word 
 of caution. If I seem to be abnost exclusively answering Dr. 
 Schaffle, it is simply because he is the most temperate as well 
 as the clearest exponent of Socialism. If Socialism as ex- 
 pounded by him can be shown to be unworkable, much more 
 will it be proved unworkable in the hands of its most extreme 
 projectors. 
 
 To resume then. The Socialist State is not only to produce 
 by means of land and capital owned in common and managed 
 by public officials ; it is also to distribute the wealth pro- 
 duced by this social co-operation according to the proportion 
 of work performed by each individual ^. Now here is one of 
 the crucial difficulties of the entire Socialist scheme. It is not 
 proposed to reward everybody ahke. That would be a 
 practical proposal, though not a very practicable one, because 
 it would put an end at once and for ever to aU spontaneity in 
 the workers. But this is not what is contemplated. An 
 attempt is to be made to equate the values of ' social labour- 
 time ' in different occupations, whether branches of production 
 or services not directly productive. How this is to be done 
 we are not very clearly told. It is intimated, indeed, that 
 Marx has estimated the ' labour price ' of a hectolitre of wheat 
 at five days of ' socially determined labour,' supposing every- 
 body to work eight hours a day ^. One very striking feature 
 of the scheme is that there are to be no payments in metallic 
 money or in any equivalent for coin. We shall see presently 
 that this introduces a new and enhanced difficulty ; but it is 
 declared to be an essential portion of the scheme, though there 
 is nothing even in the nature of Socialism itself to make it so. 
 Payments, under Socialism, however, are to be made wholly in 
 certificates of labour-time. Now it is abundantly manifest 
 that no such equation of labour-time could be constructed as 
 to bring out a unit of labour which should be even approxi- 
 mately uniform. In the first place, it is totally impossible, as 
 has been already shown, to fix the demand for almost any 
 given article of production at a given time. The most that 
 can be done is, in things for which the demand is in some 
 1 Schaffle, p. 5. ' Ibid. pp. 82, i%. 
 
40 A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 measure constant, such as food, to produce a daily average ; 
 and the production of such daily average may or may not 
 require an average expenditure of labour. Indeed, in the case 
 of agricultural labour, no average day could be fixed at all. 
 But it would seem that Socialists think they can establish 
 some such average, not for a single department of production, 
 but for the whole of what they call social labour. 'If we 
 imagined ^ ' — this is how Schaffle puts it — ' all the species of 
 products which are being continually produced, valued by the 
 expenditure of social labour as verified by experience, we could 
 find by addition the total of social labour-time which is 
 required for the social total production of the social total of 
 demand.' It is difficult to strip this statement of its verbiage, 
 but it seems to come to this ; that it would be possible some- 
 how to find out how many hours a day for how many 
 days in a year every working member of a given com- 
 munity would have to work, in order that every man, 
 woman, and child in such community should have exactly 
 as much of everything as he, she, or it wanted, or perhaps 
 more correctly, as the heads of the supply departments thought 
 that he, she, or it ought to want. In order to achieve this 
 it would be necessary to know the demand, which I have 
 shown to be impracticable, in some departments at aU 
 events. It would be necessary to know what is the average 
 number of hours' labour needed to produce a given quantity 
 of a given commodity. Will anyone, I care not how skilled 
 in agriculture, tell us how many days, of how many hours per 
 day, it takes to produce a ton of wheat, or potatoes, or hay, 
 or beans ? How many hours per day of ' social labour ' will 
 prepare a bullock or a sheep for the market, or a milch cow to 
 yield her daily supply of milk ? Here, again, to ask these 
 questions is to show that they are unanswerable. The fact is 
 that Socialists invariably think oi factory labour, when they 
 are speculating about labour time. The labour spent in 
 handling machinery can be timed ; but there are other kinds 
 of labour which cannot. How many hours a day ought a 
 sailor to work, for example ; and how is the value of an hour 
 ' Schaffle, pp. 82, 83. 
 
I. J The Impracticability of Socialism. 41 
 
 of his work to be ascertained in comparison with the value of 
 an hour's work of a street lamplighter, or a letter-carrier ? 
 
 Take another concrete example. How would Socialism 
 regulate the hours, or estimate the value, of domestic service ? 
 I do not mean merely the menial service of the rich — what 
 Socialists call ' house slavery ^.' The Socialist notion of 
 domestic service, indeed, is as unpractical as the whole 
 of the rest of their Laputa. I suppose they would class the 
 services of a midwife under ' free professional services.' But 
 what of the services of a nursemaid ? How many hours a day 
 ought such a person to be employed, and what is the value of 
 her services, expressed in ' social labour-time ? ' What is the 
 value of the ' social labour-time ' of a working man's wife in 
 childbirth, and during her subsequent withdrawal from the 
 working strength of the community ? Schaffle says ^ ' the 
 employment of women's labour, tiow no longer needed in the 
 family, would find its fitting place without effort.^ This 
 appears to me the strangest of all the strange utterances of 
 Socialism. No longer needed in the family ! If for ' family ' 
 we read ' factory ' there would be some sense in it, and perhaps, 
 after all, the words may have been accidentally transposed. 
 For my own part, I confess myself incapable of conceiving a 
 state of things in which woman would not be absolutely essen- 
 tial to the ' family ' as wife, mother, nurse, housekeeper, to say 
 nothing of any other function. I can easily enough conceive 
 the existence of factories without women workers ; but that 
 women should be set free from the family in order that they 
 may enter the factory strikes me as being a complete inver- 
 sion of the order of nature. 
 
 The question whether ' house slavery,' in the sense of purely 
 menial service, could be abolished by Socialism, seems to de- 
 pend upon considerations which cannot be discussed in this 
 essay. It belongs to the topic of Classes under Socialism, a 
 topic upon which Sociahst literature affords the minimum of 
 information. I pass on now to more general considerations 
 on the valuation of labour. 
 
 The fallacy of Socialism in relation to labour appears to He 
 
 > Schaffle, p. 112. » P. 113. 
 
 6 
 
42 A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 in the assumption that labour has a value of its own, in and 
 for itself. It has no such value. No material thing is valu- 
 able because of the labour expended in producing it. No 
 service is valuable because of the labour expended in rendering 
 it. Material things are valuable because they satisfy wants, 
 and therefore people will give material things which they 
 possess in exchange for things they do not possess. If 
 material things came into existence without labour, nobody 
 would talk of the value of productive labour. If a thing is 
 not wanted, there is no value attached to the labour of pro- 
 ducing it. Who now would pay for the labour of producing 
 candle-snuffers ? The things have ceased to be useful ; there 
 is no demand for them ; but it requires just as much labour to 
 produce them now as it did a hundred years ago. But if any 
 one possesses a useful article, he can always exchange it for 
 another useful article, no matter whether one or both have 
 been produced by labour or without labour. And what is 
 true of productive labour is true of the labour expended in 
 rendering services, when the necessary allowances are made. 
 Services may be bartered for material objects of utility, or for 
 other services. But in either case what is paid for is the ser- 
 vice, not the labour expended in rendering the service ; and 
 when the service is rewarded with a material object, the ser- 
 vice is rendered for the sake of getting that object, and not for 
 the sake of the labour whereby the object was produced. 
 Socialists would not, I think, deny all this in terms. Schaffle 
 shows that he is acquainted with the truth, and admits it on 
 the Socialist behalf, when he says that it is ' socially deter- 
 mined individual labour,' not actual labour expended by indi- 
 viduals, which is to be taken into account in estimating 
 labour values ^. But although the doctrine I have laid down 
 might not be disputed in terms, it is consistently ignored in 
 the entire Socialist scheme. The entire theory of surplus- 
 value rests upon the assumption that labour employed in pro- 
 duction has a sort of standard value of its own. The idea of 
 regulating exchange by labour-time rests upon a similar 
 fallacious assumption. Commodities are exchanged for other 
 ' Schaffle, p. 82. 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism. 43 
 
 commodities because some people have what other people 
 ■want, quite irrespective of how they got it. Commodities are 
 exchanged for services, because he who can spare the com- 
 modity stands in need of the service, and vice versd ; not 
 because it required labour to produce the commodity, and 
 will require labour to render the service. 
 
 In reply to all this I shall doubtless be reminded that 
 although labour may have no intrinsic value, it has an insepar- 
 able value, because no commodity can be produced, nor can any 
 service be rendered, without calling labour into requisition. 
 That is quite true, but it does not affect the argument. The 
 scheme of Socialism requires that some sort of equation should 
 be established, whereby goods, and services, should be mutually 
 interchangeable, and should possess values capable of being 
 estimated in terms of labour. Under Capitalist Individualism, 
 and under free Capitalism in general, commodities and services 
 are first of all valued in terms of money, and then paid for ia 
 money which can be used to pay for other commodities and 
 other services at the discretion of the recipient. In this way, 
 a balance is established automatically. There is no need to 
 construct elaborate calculations for the purpose of valuing one 
 kind of labour in terms of another, or of establishiag a 
 common denominator for the value of all kinds of labour. 
 The abolition of money is not necessarily part of the scheme 
 of Collective Production. It is 'tacked on' to Collective Pro- 
 duction because Socialists have taken up the idea that money 
 is conducive to free Capitalism, as it undoubtedly is. But 
 money could perfectly well co-exist with Collective Production, 
 and that plan is not made in the least degree more practicable 
 by being linked with a very clumsy form of inconvertible 
 paper currency. The Socialists themselves admit that their 
 State would want money, in so far as it had dealings with 
 other States which had not yet adopted Socialism ^. But 
 even here there is a very important omission. It does not 
 follow that even if all the world were to adopt Socialism, 
 every State and every community would adopt it on precisely 
 the same terms. For instance, one State may fix its labour 
 1 Sohftffle, p. 70. 
 
44 A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 day at ten hours, another at eight, another at six. Under 
 such ciz'cumstances, how are social labour values to be com- 
 puted and equated? Schaffle may well ask^ 'whether the 
 commonwealth of the Socialists would be able to cope with 
 the enormous Socialistic book-keeping, and to estimate hetero- 
 geneous labour correctly according to Socialistic units of 
 labour-time.' It may here be noticed that Schaffle all through 
 speaks of the Socialist State as a ' close ' economic community. 
 To me this appears to imply, among other things, a protec- 
 tionist community. It is not expressly laid down, I am aware, 
 by the Socialists, that favour ought to be shown to home 
 labour as against the labour of foreigners; but this does 
 appear to follow from the general scheme. The entire basis 
 of Socialist criticism on existing institutions is the assumption 
 that labour does not get its due. It is not complained that 
 production falls short, but only that the things produced are 
 ' unjustly ' distributed ; and the ' injustice ' is declared to lie in 
 the fact that the surplus value of labour is appropriated by 
 capitalists. Labour is assumed to have a value in and for 
 itself. These things being so, I can well understand how the 
 labourers in a Socialistic State might be induced to demand 
 that nothing should be imported into the 'close community' 
 from without which could possibly be produced within. Nay, 
 I can conceive a veto being put upon labour-saving inventions, 
 in order that ' the bread might not be taken out of the mouths 
 of the people.' The attack upon invention invariably pro- 
 ceeds from labour, or from persons posing as champions of 
 labour, and as invariably takes the form of accusing capi- 
 talists of using inventions in order to secure an unfair advan- 
 tage over labour. Some Socialists, indeed, such as the 
 Fabian essayists, attack not only patents but literary copy- 
 right as the creation of a vicious capitalist and individualist 
 system. One would have thought that if there was a moral 
 basis for private property anywhere, it would underlie that 
 form of property which is described as ' property in ideas.' 
 That an inventor should enjoy the profits of his invention — an 
 artist, of his picture or statue — a musician, of his music — an 
 
 » P. 86. 
 
I.] The Impracticabiilty of Socialism. 45 
 
 author, of Ms literaxy ideas — all this seems almost self-evident, 
 wheik we consider that these men have actually created the 
 invention, the ai'tistio work, the composition, and the litera- 
 ture. In their case, if anywhere, labour seems to have value 
 in and for itself, and the fruit of labour to belong of right to 
 its producer. Yet these ai-e just the cases which the thought- 
 ful Socialist ignores, and the rhetorical Socialist actually 
 assaUs ^. Under these circumstances, it would be futile to ask 
 how the system of Collective Production and payment by 
 social labour-time would equate the labour of an inventor 
 with that of a ploughman, or the labour of a poet with that of 
 a weaver. Still, one may suppose that mechanical invention 
 at any rate would not be absolutely excluded. I will not ask 
 what would have been the 'social labour value' of James 
 Watt's time when he sat watching the lid of his mother's tea- 
 kettle being lifted off by the steam. But it is fair to ask what 
 Boulton would have done if, instead of being a private capit- 
 alist, he had been a Socialist industrial chief, when Watt 
 proposed to him to make experiments on the condensing 
 steam-engine. Would he have had resources at his disposal ? 
 It is very doubtful. If he were paid his salary as overseer in 
 laboui--certificates, we may say certainly not. Would he have 
 felt justified in taking up the 'social labour-time' of the 
 workmen under his supervision in making experiments of a 
 costly nature, which, for all he could possibly foresee, might 
 come to nothing 1 
 
 And this raises another question. What machinery does 
 Socialism provide for ' writing off' obsolete investments ? 
 Would a Socialist State evei- have adopted the railway as its 
 carrying machinery, and if so, how would it have disposed of 
 the collective capital invested in canals and stage-coaches % 
 
 But we need not have recoui-se to any conjectures or hypo- 
 thetical cases. There are instances in abundance. I wUl 
 mention one, which fortunately refei-s to a matter conoei-ning 
 which there need b^ no dispute as to either principle or 
 method. No Individualist wiU deny that the maintenance of 
 lighthouses is one of the proper functions of (Jovernment. 
 
 > fobton £ssays, pp. 145, 146. 
 
46 A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 Every Socialist woiild, I think, earnestly maintain that 
 Government is boxmd to adopt every improvement which can 
 be sho-wn to increase the efficiency of lighthouses, and is 
 bound also to investigate and test every alleged improvement, 
 in favour of which a reasonable prvmA facie case can be made 
 out. What has been the actual conduct of our own Board of 
 Trade and Trinity House in regard to the improvement of 
 lighthouse illuminants? I have before me a Blue Book of 
 143 pages, containing correspondence on the subject of the 
 proposed supersession of oil by gas as a lighthouse illuminant ^. 
 On the part of the Board of Trade and Trinity House, the 
 entire correspondence is one prolonged effort to evade and 
 shelve the discussion. Towards the end ^ we read : ' The 
 Board of Trade were not without hope that a limit might now 
 be reached in which the whole of the lighthouse authorities 
 could agree, as being the limit of illumination beyond which 
 no practical advantage could result to navigation.' Well 
 may Professor Tyndall remark upon this ^, ' The writer of this 
 paragraph is obviously disappointed at finding himself unable 
 to say to scientific invention, " Thus far shalt thou go and no 
 farther." It would, however, be easier to reach the limit of 
 illumination in the official mind than to fix the limit possible 
 to our lighthouses.' This is the way in which the officials of 
 our own day deal with a practical problem which is undoubtedly 
 withia their province ; concerning which they are undoubtedly 
 bound to seek for the most efficient appliances ; and upon 
 which they have the evidence of a man of science of the very first 
 rank. The reason is not far to seek. Functionaries are under 
 a chronic temptation to keep on standing upon old paths. 
 They habitually defend the machinery and the methods to 
 which they have got accustomed, and treat with coolness all 
 proposals of reform or improvement. As ' I have already 
 suggested, it seems very doubtful whether Socialist institu- 
 tions could possibly admit of a Department for the Investi- 
 gation of Inventions. To draw a hard and fast rule according 
 
 * Parliamentary Papers, Lighthouse Illiiminants, 27 Jan. 1887. 
 ' Letter No. in, page 139 of Eeport. 
 ' Letter to Times, 7th April, 1888. 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism. j^j 
 
 to which all labour should be rewarded by a share in the 
 actual product of other labour would be to negative every 
 attempt at even mechanical improvement. As to art and 
 literature, the position seems to need no comment. Ex- 
 perience teaches us that everythiag new in art and literatm-e 
 requires, so to speak, to create its own market for itself. 
 Under Socialism, nothing could secure a market which could 
 not be put upon the market at once — for which, as it may be 
 said, there was not a demand ah-eady, even before the process 
 of production should have begun. 
 
 And this leads to a further consideration. Is a State depart- 
 ment really a good machine for either production or distribution ? 
 The experience of State departments under existing conditions 
 seems to answer this question in the negative. The depart- 
 ments of shipbuilding, of ordnance, of soldiers^ clothing, and 
 many others, seem to be open to the charge of inefficiency, at 
 least as compared with private establishments for producing 
 similar objects. It is remarkable that the producing depart- 
 ments are never referred to in this connexion by exponents of 
 Socialism. The defence of the efficiency of State departments 
 is always made to rest upon the distributing agencies, and 
 chief among these is the Post Office. Sehaffle mentions also 
 the State railway, which we have not in England, the tele- 
 graph, and the municipal gas and water supplies^ Now the 
 efficiency of the Post Office may be ungrudgingly admitted ; 
 but it must not be urged as proving more than it will bear. 
 
 In the first place, the Post Office has always been a 
 monopoly. There never was a time when any private agency 
 was permitted to compete with the State in the work of 
 distributing letters. There has therefore been no opportunity 
 of comparing State work in that department with private 
 work. In the second place, the work of distributing letters 
 is, after all, comparatively simple. We are accustomed, it is 
 true, to hear and read of feats of great ingenuity in discover- 
 ing obscure addresses ; but these are the exceptions. It is in 
 the department of letter-carrying, at all events, that the 
 principal successes — it might almost be said the only suc- 
 
 '■ Sehaffle, p. 53. 
 
48 A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 cesses — ^have been achieved. The telegraphic department is 
 not a success either financially or administratively. The 
 letter department largely supplements the cost of the tele- 
 graph department. In other words, people who write many 
 letters, but send few telegrams, are made to pay for the 
 accommodation afforded to the senders of many telegrams. 
 Even in the letter-carrying department, there is plenty of 
 room for improvement. It is very well managed, on the 
 whole, in country places ; but in London, and in large towns 
 generally, the delivery of letters within the town leaves much 
 to be desired. In this coimexion I cannot refrain from notic- 
 ing the breakdown of letter-delivery arrangements which has 
 taken place at Christmas every year since the Christmas card 
 came into fashion. The breakdown under the weight of 
 exceptional complimentary correspondence is not even of our 
 own day ; for Charles Lamb, in his essay on Valentine's Day, 
 writes of ' the weary and all-for-spent twopenny postman.' 
 But, of course, in the vast proportions of the Christmas crush, 
 it is necessarily modern, and the creation of the penny and 
 halfpenny postage. One would think that if, by the mere 
 fact of belonging to a department of Government, a preter- 
 natural faculty of dealing with statistics were conferred upon 
 officials, the officials of the Post Office ought, after a brief 
 experience, to have been able to foresee and provide for this 
 recurring difficulty. Yet no sooner does Christmas come 
 within measurable distance, than every Post Office is placarded 
 and every newspaper filled, with plaintive appeals from the 
 Postmaster-General to the Chi-istmas-card despatching pubHe, 
 to ' post early, so as to ensure the punctual delivery of letters I ' 
 It is worth noting, too, that the Post Office is not, strictly 
 speaking, a working man's institution. It is the upper and 
 middle classes who keep it going. The working class, or what 
 is commonly so called, sends few letters and no telegrams. If 
 what are usually called 'working' men and women corre- 
 sponded by letter to anything like the extent to which corre- 
 spondence is carried on by the commercial class alone, the 
 revenue of the Post Office would be greatly enlarged. On the 
 other hand, it is difficult to conceive how the telegraph 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism. 49 
 
 system could possibly be administered, if that ever became a 
 really popular institution. As it is, letters pay for telegrams, 
 as already stated. 
 
 The arrangement whereby the surplus of receipts for letters 
 is made to pay for the deficit in telegrams is the really 
 Socialistic feature of the working of the Post Office. It may 
 or may not be an advajitage that the people who use the 
 telegraph should do so at the expense of the larger public 
 who write letters, but this proves nothing at all as to the 
 probable success of the working of more complicated insti- 
 tutions by State machinery. As already pointed outj the 
 delivery of letters is about as simple a work as any organisa- 
 tion could undertake, and next to it in simplicity is the trans- 
 mission and delivery of telegrams. Nor should we omit to 
 note to how great an extent the task of letter-delivery has 
 been facilitated by railways and steam communication. It 
 would be safe to say that but for these aids the penny post 
 would at best have barely paid its way, if indeed it had not 
 proved a total failure. Briefly it may be said that the success 
 of the Post Office, such as it is, depends upon the circum- 
 stances which assimilate it to a private undertaking, and 
 which at the same time cause it to differ from other Govern- 
 mental institutions. 
 
 But it is not altogether fair to blame Governmental institu- 
 tionSj merely as such, for the shortcomings which they 
 undoubtedly exhibit. The truth is that they share these 
 shortcomings with aU institutions in which industrial opera- 
 tions are conducted upon a large scale. Every large joint 
 stock company, and especially every company whose business 
 is of the nature of a monopoly, displays tendencies which are, 
 after all, only carried out to an extreme in Government 
 ^monopolies and in Government manufacturing establishments. 
 Every great railway company is apt to be slow at adopting 
 improvements and new or untried methods of business. That 
 is because, in the first place, every such undertaking is upon 
 a very large scale, and requires the co-operation of a great 
 many heads and hands. Things must be done very much by 
 fixed rule. There is less scope for personal initiative than in 
 
50 A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 smaller and more elastic businesses. But in addition, the 
 business is more or less of a monopoly. The public must use 
 the railway ia question, or go without the carrying facilities 
 of which it stands in need. The only check upon the arbi- 
 trary power of the directors and other officials is the necessity 
 of finding a dividend for the shareholders, and that check 
 once taken away there is nothing to hinder the management 
 from becoming despotic. Where there is less monopoly, the 
 management is under greater inducements to strive after 
 making the business popular. But it is not until we come to 
 individual enterprise, where the merchant or shopkeeper or 
 other head of the establishment is brought into direct per- 
 sonal relation with his customers, that the conduct of business 
 becomes really elastic and automatic. It is because their per- 
 sonal gain or loss is not directly dependent upon the working of 
 the institution that Government officials are less efficient than 
 those of joint-stock companies, and the latter than those of 
 private firms ; these last themselves being inferior to the 
 partners or proprietors, when they are brought into personal 
 relations with the customers of the house. 
 
 I may be told that this is all speculation. As a matter of 
 fact, I may be reminded, small traders are even more behind- 
 hand than any big monopoly. If it were not so, how is it 
 that so many private businesses are now being turned into 
 joint-stock companies? My reply is that in all these cases 
 the business began with private enterprise, and that not until 
 private enterprise had pretty fuUy done its work did it 
 become practicable to apply the joint-stock principle. I would 
 add that this very principle is itself on its trial just now, and 
 that it is premature to pronounce any judgment until we 
 shall have had much larger experience. The analogous prin- 
 ciple of co-operation would seem to be working fairly well as, 
 regards distribution, but not so well in production. We must 
 remember also that the possession of large capital confers 
 upon joint stock enterprises an advantage which in some 
 measure counterbalances, though it does not wholly neutralise, 
 the special advantages attaching to private management. Nor 
 should it be forgotten that this capital itself has been accu- 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism. 51 
 
 mulated under private enterprise. The private businesses 
 turned into limited companies are survivals; those that fall 
 behind in the race are the failures of individualism, and no 
 one affirms that individualism makes no failures. I for my 
 part am disposed to think that the circumstances which 
 cause large joint-stock companies to resemble Government 
 undertakings are drawbacks and not advantages. It appears 
 to me that if railways could compete as omnibuses do, they 
 would perform the carrying work of the country as cheaply 
 and as efficiently as, on the whole, the omnibus services of 
 London and other great cities perform the services which they 
 render. Owing to exceptional circumstances, railway com- 
 panies have to place themselves under State patronage, and 
 therefore to submit to State control ; and in so far as this is 
 the case, it detracts from their efficiency. Owing, moreover, 
 to the scale on which work has to be carried on, these large 
 enterprises are all more or less tainted with the vice of 
 departmentalism. To use a colloquial phrase, they are tied 
 up with red tape. The terrible railway accident in June, 1889, 
 in the north of Ireland, was largely due to the want of a 
 proper system of brakes, and this want was itself due to 
 slovenly management and a blind trust in old methods. 
 There are plenty of railways still unprovided with fit ap- 
 pliances, despite Board of Trade inspection. I know of one 
 line in the vicinity of a great seaport, two of whose suburban 
 stations have no telegraph wire between them, and the rail- 
 road consists of a single line running along the face of a crag 
 overhanging the sea. A postal telegraph line passes both 
 stations, and a very trifling expenditure would connect it 
 with both, but the directors ' do not see their way ! ' 
 
 I need not go on multiplying instances. The burden of 
 proof lies upon those who assert that departmentalised manage- 
 ment is superior to private enterprise. Their crucial instance, 
 the Post Office, breaks down when it is tested. I think I 
 have shown sufficient cause for my belief that private enter- 
 prise does not gain, but loses, by assimilation to State 
 departmentalism. I may however be pardoned if I refer 
 briefly to contemporary events. The strikes of policemen 
 
52 A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 and postmen (June and July, 1890) seem to prove that a 
 Government department is not necessarily more successful 
 than a private firm or a joint-stock company in securing the 
 contentment of the people who are in its employ. 
 
 On the whole, it seems that we should be warranted in 
 drawing the conclusion that State departments are neither 
 good producers, good distributors, nor good employers of 
 labour, as compared with private producers, distributors, and 
 employers. 
 
 I now come to a part of my task which I approach with 
 some reluctance. There are ceiiain social and economic 
 matters which it is impossible to discuss without running 
 a risk of offending certain perfectly legitimate susceptibilities, 
 yet which must be discussed if a judgment of any value is 
 to be formed on the social problem. I have elsewhere 
 pointed out that the CoUectivist community is always spoken 
 of as a ' closed economic unit.' It is not easy to discover in 
 the works of Schaffle or of any other exponent of Socialism 
 whether they contemplate the exclusion of imported labour. 
 If they do not, it only remains to be said that they are not 
 honestly facing the consequences of their own system. If a 
 collective production and distribution of wealth is to be 
 carried on at all, it must be on the condition that the pro- 
 ducers know exactly how much to produce, and that the 
 distributors know exactly how much, and to whom, to dis- 
 tribute. This, as I have already shown, is a task beyond 
 human power, even if the fluctuation of numbers could be to 
 some extent foreseen. But we know that the fluctuation 
 can by no means be foreseen, and we know the reason why. 
 I have endeavoured to lead up to my maia question by re- 
 ferring in the first instance to the importation of foreign 
 labour ; but that in reality is only a very minor matter. In 
 spite of the silence of Schaffle and other recognised exponents 
 of the system, I suspect that no thoroughgoing Socialist would 
 shrink from prohibiting foreign immigration. But there is 
 an immigration which goes on day after day — an immigration 
 of mouths to be fed, without, for the time being, hands to 
 labour for food. Every child that is born is for years a 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism. 53 
 
 helpless being, dependent upon others for its support, and 
 incapable of rendering anything in return. Nay, more, every 
 child renders its mother incapable of contributing to the 
 support of the community for weeks, if not for months ^- The 
 disablement of the mother may be considered a matter of no 
 very great consequence, but it is certainly a serious matter 
 to the community to be compelled to maintain an entirely 
 unproductive consumer for a period of some fourteen years. 
 It may fairly be taken for granted that a Socialist community 
 would not exact less in the way of education than is demanded 
 by the community as at present existing. The present school 
 age does not end until thirteen. We may be pretty sure that 
 under Socialism the period would not be shorter, and might 
 be longer. Even this is not all. The young person of thir- 
 teen or fourteen would then have to be provided with a 
 vocation. How far any liberty of choice would or could be 
 left is a difficult question, but fortunately it does not require 
 a detailed answer. The liberty of choice must under any 
 circumstances be limited by the number of vocations open to 
 the candidate ; and we may safely assume that this number 
 would itself depend upon the judgment of the collective 
 authorities. So, then, these authorities would have not only 
 to provide for all the mothers who from time to time bore 
 children, and for all the children from birth till about fourteen 
 years old, but also to find employment for all the boys and 
 girls who lived to the age of fourteen. Nor is even that all. 
 They would be bound, in oflfering employment to each can- 
 didate, to hold out some reasonable expectation that such 
 employment should be a provision for life. At present, under 
 the ordinary regime of individualism and competition, the 
 father of a family is as a general rule responsible for the 
 careers of his children. The children themselves have some 
 kind of a voice in choosing a trade or a profession. If a 
 mistake is made, the consequences may, no doubt, be very 
 
 ' I am here speaking of civilised but Socialism contemplates a state of 
 
 communities. I am quite aware that civilisation not inferior to vf hat now 
 
 savage women are fit to work in a prevails, with, it may be presumed, 
 
 very short time after child-bearing ; a civilised and not a savage physiquo. 
 
54 A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 disastrous ; but as a rule, he who commits the error suffers 
 the consequences. Every now and then it happens that a 
 particular vocation is, so to speak, superseded and rendered 
 obsolete. Still more often it happens that a candidate for 
 employment adopts the wrong vocation, or that work drifts 
 away to other quarters, so that although the employment 
 itself may be prosperous enough, particular workers or classes 
 of workers are thrown out. Under individualism, there takes 
 place a survival of the fittest, which may be very cruel to 
 individuals and to classes. One of the. aims of collective 
 production and distribution is to eliminate this survival, with 
 its attendant cruelty. Can it be done ? 
 
 We have seen that the more sober exponents of Socialism 
 declare that there is no intention of interfering with family 
 life. Even the extreme fanatics avoid the question, and 
 seem to assume that it may somehow or other be expected to 
 solve itself. But there are indications, underlying all the 
 more outspoken utterances on the subject, that attempts 
 would be made to limit the increase of the population. 
 Curiously enough, the most earnest advocacy of artificial 
 restraints on multiplication is to be found in John Stuart 
 Mill's Political Economy; and Mill was not a Socialist or 
 CoUectivist. Mill, indeed, advocated a voluntary restriction 
 which to most readers has seemed a quite unpractical and 
 impracticable proposal. When we consider how other habits — 
 that of drinking, for instance — which are admitted to be 
 immoral and disgraceful, are nevertheless far too frequently 
 and freely indulged, it is difficult to read MilFs speculations 
 on this subject without a smile. But MUl, in spite of his 
 enthusiasms, was a clear-headed man. He saw what the 
 puzzle-headed latter-day fanatic does not see, that unless 
 multiplication is to be somehow restrained, no artificial devices 
 for promoting social prosperity have any chance of success. 
 Whether, under a CoUectivist rdgifne, restraints on multi- 
 plication would in the long run succeed in promoting social 
 prosperity is another question. My belief is that they would 
 not. We have seen already that the scheme of Collectivism 
 implies the regulation of employment. Every child must be 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism. 55 
 
 maintained until his or her schooldays are over. Every 
 youth and maiden, on leaving school, must be provided with 
 some kind of employment. How is this to be done ? What 
 government, central or local, is wise enough and strong 
 enough to perform such a task? If we suppose it placed in 
 the hands of a very widely ramified local organisation — ^parish 
 councils for example — ^is there not as much danger of their 
 entering upon a course of competition as if they were private 
 families ? 
 
 We have seen that Schaffle explicitly disclaims any project 
 of restrictions upon population, and that the fanatical Social- 
 ists, such as the Fabian essayists, are completely silent upon 
 the subject. It may, nevertheless, be worth while to refer to 
 the only country where such restrictions are actually in force 
 under the influence of a public opinion such as Mill hoped 
 might come into existence. France, which MiU held up as 
 an example, is now beginning to complain that her population 
 is becoming actually scanty. French statesmen are seriously 
 talking of offering rewards to the parents of large families. 
 The remedies for over-population, so eloquently advocated by 
 Mill, have done their work rather too well. But is France 
 free from complaints of the existence of a .' proletariat ? ' By 
 no means. Is France free from Socialist agitation? By no 
 means. Germany, it is true, is just at present the headquarters 
 of the movement, and it is also true that France is more free 
 than most other European countries from the evils brought 
 about by the presence of what Socialists call a proletariat. 
 But France has by no means laid aside Socialism. There are, 
 it is true, no Saint Simons, no Fouriers, no Louis Blancs ; 
 but French workmen are as fond of the phrases of Socialistic 
 agitation as ever they were. French men of letters, too, have 
 by no means left off playing the role of eloquent Aaron to 
 the inarticulate but suggestive Moses of German thought. 
 
 In spite of all this — in spite, especially, of the extremely 
 meddlesome character of public authority — France is, in two 
 respects, extremely far from being a Socialistic nation. No- 
 where is private property so jealously guarded. Nowhere is 
 what we may call the individualism of the family held so 
 
56 A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 sacred. However -willing he may be to observe self-imposed 
 restraints, no Frenchman would tolerate for a moment a law 
 prescribing a limitation on the number of his children. But 
 the more clear-headed of the English philanthropists are be- 
 ginning to see that some such law there must be if Socialism, 
 or anything akin to Socialism, is to have effect. Schaffle, it 
 is true, says the German Socialists do not demand any such 
 law. The Fabian rhetoricians give the subject the go-by. 
 But there are others who see clearly enough that it must 
 come to such a law sooner or later. A writer in the daily 
 press recently proposed that the clergy and the civil registrars 
 should have a discretionary power to refuse marriage under 
 certain circumstances to couples applying for their services. 
 We know very well that the clergy would never exercise any 
 such discretion. "We may be pretty sure that the civil regis- 
 trars would not do so, any more than the clergy. But suppose 
 they did, every one knows what the consequence would be. 
 Restraints on marriage always result in an increase of illicit 
 unions and of illegitimate births. Are we prepared to make 
 cohabitation out of wedlock a crime ? The mediaeval Church 
 tried to do that, and conspicuously failed. Indeed, it is won- 
 derful in how many instances modem Socialism is compelled, 
 as it were, to hark back to the methods of mediaeval despot- 
 ism, civil and ecclesiastical. 
 
 The situation may be summed up in a sentence : Socialism, 
 without restraints on the increase of population, would be 
 utterly inefficient. With such restraints, it would be 
 slavery. 
 
 In a word. Socialism — the scheme of collective capital and 
 collective production and distribution — breaks down the 
 moment it is subjected to any practical test. Considered 
 merely as a scheme for supplying the material wants of the 
 community, it is seen at a glance to be totally incapable of 
 adjusting the relation between supply and demand. I have 
 suggested the practical test. If any Socialist were asked, 
 ' Suppose Socialism established now, how many suits of 
 clothes, and of what qualities, will have to be in stock for 
 the township of Little Pedlington on the ist of next June ? ' 
 
J.] The Impracticability of Socialism. 57 
 
 either he could not answer the question at all, or he would 
 be compelled to fall back upon the device of a uniform. Still 
 more difficult would it be to answer the question, ' Of the 
 children bom this year, how many boys do you propose to 
 apprentice as tailors, and how many girls as dressmakers, in 
 1904?' Until Socialists can answer these questions, and 
 others of Hke nature, Socialism has simply no locus statidi as 
 a practical scheme for the supply of material wants. That 
 being so, a fortiori it is valueless as a scheme for the supply 
 of wants which are not material. To do the enthusiasts of 
 Socialism justice, none of them even pretend to include art and 
 literature in their projects. This is all the more curious, 
 because the present is a time when art and literature are 
 being cultivated for the sake of profit more, apparently, than 
 at any previous period of history ^. But inasmuch as the 
 Socialist exponents, sober or enthusiastic, shirk the topic, I am 
 entitled to say that they do not expect the Socialist community 
 to cultivate art or literature. 
 
 In addition to all this, it seems to me a very open question 
 (to say the least) whether Socialism would really promote the 
 comfort of the entire working class, supposing that it could be 
 worked without the difficulties I have noted. The energetic 
 workman, it may be conceded, would be successful under 
 Socialism ; but then, he is already successful under Individual- 
 ism. All workmen, however, are not energetic. What of the 
 man who is below the average, or barely up to it, in energy, 
 honesty, and sobriety 1 What of the man who has no vices, 
 but whose character is shiftless, irresolute, wanting in ' back- 
 bone ? ' Such a man, under Individualism, becomes a failure ; 
 what would be his fate under Socialism? I know of no in- 
 fallible prescription whereby an idle man can be rendered 
 
 ' Some very striking remarks on in that direction. But the interest 
 
 the rewards given by society to men of the reference lies in this ; that 
 
 of letters vrill be found in Professor Professor Graham emphasises very 
 
 Grraham's ■work, cited above (The strongly, though quite unconsciously, 
 
 Soekd Problem, oh. v. p. 167 et seqq., the fact that literature is a pro- 
 
 'SpiritualProducers and their Work'). fession, and is subject in the long 
 
 Professor Graham is not a Socialist, run to commercial influences like 
 
 though his opinions have some bias other professions. 
 6 
 
58 A Plea for Liberty. [r. 
 
 industrious, or an irresolute one steady of purpose, except one — 
 the sharp spur of want 1 Are Socialists prepared to suggest 
 any other ? If they are not, wherein is their system better than 
 Individualism 1 If they are, what is it % The prison, perhaps, 
 or the scourge ? If so, some one may be tempted to say con- 
 cerning the tender mercies of the philanthropist what the 
 inspired writer said concerning those of the wicked. 
 
 It remains only to sum up what I have attempted to prove, 
 and I think succeeded in proving. 
 
 Socialism would be totally inefficient as a producing and 
 distributing scheme. Society is not an army, which can be 
 fed on rations, clothed in a unifonn, and lodged in barracks. 
 Even if it were, the task would be too much for Government 
 departments, which habitually fail, or commit shortcomings, 
 in dealing with the special classes which they do undertake to 
 feed, clothe, and lodge. The army and navy are composed of 
 young men, and picked men, who are, or ought to be, in good 
 average health and vigour. Yet the supply departments of 
 both services, it is acknowledged on all hands, leave much to 
 be desired. How much more difficult would the task be of 
 maintaining women, children, the aged and the sick ! 
 
 I have dealt pretty fully with the one department of 
 Government which is always called successful, and I have 
 shown that the success which is claimed for it must, to say the 
 least, be conceded subject to large qualifications. I have 
 shown that Government departments are not more merito- 
 rious as employers of labour than they are as producers and 
 distributors. 
 
 I have suggested that the scheme of Socialism is wholly 
 incomplete unless 'it includes a power of restraining the in- 
 crease of population, which power is so unwelcome to English- 
 men that the very mention of it seems to require an apology. 
 I have showed that in France, where restraints on multiplica- 
 tion have been adopted into the popular code of morals, there 
 is discontent on the one hand at the slow rate of increase, 
 while on the other, there is stiU a ' proletariat,' and Socialism 
 is still a power in politics. 
 
 I have put the question, how Socialism would treat the 
 
I.] The Impracticability of Socialism. 59 
 
 residuum of the -working class and of all classes — the class, 
 not specially vicious, nor even necessarily idle, but below the 
 average in power of will and in steadiness of purpose. I have 
 intimated that such persons, if they belong to the upper or 
 middle classes, are kept straight by the fear of falling out of 
 class, and in the working class by positive fear of want. But 
 since Socialism purposes to eliminate the fear of want, and 
 since under Socialism the hierarchy of classes will either not 
 exist at all or be wholly transformed, there remains for such 
 persons no motive at all except physical coercion. Are we to 
 imprison or flog all the ' ne'er-do-weels ? ' 
 
 I began this paper by pointing out that there are inequali- 
 ties and anomalies in the material world, some of which, like 
 the obliquity of the ecliptic and the consequent inequality of 
 the days' length, cannot be redressed at all. Others, like the 
 caprices of sunshine and rainfall in different climates, can be 
 mitigated, but must on the whole be endured. I am very far 
 from asserting that the inequalities and anomalies of human 
 society are strictly parallel with those of material nature. I 
 fully admit that we are under an obligation to control nature 
 so far as we can. But I think I have shown that the Socialist 
 scheme cannot be relied upon to control nature, because it 
 refuses to obey her. Socialism attempts to vanquish nature 
 by a front attack. Individualism, on the contrary, is the 
 recognition, in social politics, that nature has a beneficent as 
 well as a malignant side. The struggle for life provides for 
 the various wants of the human race, in somewhat the same 
 way as the climatic struggle of the elements provides for 
 vegetable and animal life — imperfectly, that is, and in a 
 manner strongly marked by inequalities and anomalies. By 
 taking advantage of prevalent tendencies, it is possible to 
 mitigate these anomalies and inequalities, but all experience 
 shows that it is impossible to do away with them. All history, 
 moreover, is the record of the triumph of Individualism over 
 something which was virtually Socialism or Collectivism, though 
 not called by that name. In early days, and even at this day 
 under archaic civilisations, the note of social life is the absence 
 of freedom. But under every progi-essive civilisation, freedom 
 
6o A Plea for Liberty. [i. 
 
 has made decisive strides — broadened down, as the poet says, 
 from precedent to precedent. And it has been rightly and 
 naturally so. 
 
 Freedom is the most valuable of all human possessions„next 
 after life itself. It is more valuable, in a manner, than even 
 health. No human agency can secure health ; but good laws, 
 justly administered, can and do secure freedom. Freedom, 
 indeed, is almost the only thing that law can secure. Law 
 cannot secure equality, nor can it secure prosperity. In the 
 direction of equality, all that law can do is to secui-e fair play, 
 which is equality of rights but is not equality of conditions. 
 In the direction of prosperity, all that law can do is to keep 
 the road open. That is the Quintessence of Individualism, 
 and it may fairly challenge comparison with that Quintessence 
 of Socialism we have been discussing. Socialism, disguise it 
 how we may, is the negation of Freedom. That it is so, and 
 that it is also a scheme not capable of producing even material 
 comfort in exchange for the abnegation of Freedom, I think 
 the foregoing considerations amply prove. 
 
 Edward Stanley Robertson. 
 
II. 
 
 THE LIMITS OF LIBEBTY. 
 
 WORDSWORTH DONISTHOEPE, 
 
n. 
 
 THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY. 
 
 Thk power of the State may be defined as the resultant 
 of all the social forces operating within a definite area. 
 ' It follows,' says Professor Huxley, with characteristic 
 logical thoroughness, 'that no limit is, or can be, theoreti- 
 cally set to State interference.' 
 
 Ah eodra — ^this is so. I have always endeavoured to show 
 that the effective majority has a right (a legal right) to do 
 just what it pleases. How can the weak set a limit to the 
 will of the strong? Of course, if the State is rotten, if it 
 does not actually represent the effective majority of the 
 country, then it is a mere sham, like some little old patriarch 
 who rules his brawny sons by the prestige of ancient thrash- 
 ings. 
 
 The time comes in the life of every government when it 
 becomes effete, when it rules the stronger by sheer force of 
 prestige ; when the bubble waits to be pricked, and when the 
 first determined act of resistance brings the whole card-castle 
 down with a crash. The bouleversement is usually called a 
 revolution. On the contrary, it is merely the outward and 
 visible expression of a death which may have taken place 
 years before. In such cases a limit can be set to State inter- 
 ference by the simple process of exploding the State. But 
 when a State is (as Hobbes assumes) the embodiment of the 
 will of the effective majority — -force Tnajeure — of the country, 
 then clearly no limit can be set to its interference — ab extra. 
 And this is why Hobbes (who always built on fact) describes 
 the power of the State as absolute. This is why he says that 
 
64 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 each citizen has conveyed all his strength and power to the 
 State. 
 
 I fail to see any a, ■priori assumption here. It is the 
 plain truth of his time and of our own. We may agree with 
 John Locke that there ought to be some limit to despotism, 
 and we may keep on shifting the concentrated force from 
 the hands of the One to those of the Few ; from the hands 
 of the Few to those of the Many ; and from the hands of 
 the Many to those of the Most — the numerical majority. But 
 this handing about of the power cannot alter its nature ; it 
 stm remains unlimited despotism, as Hobbes rightly assumes. 
 Locke's pretence that the individual citizens reserved certain 
 liberties when the State was formed is of course the merest 
 allegory, without any more foundation in fact than Rousseau's 
 Contrat Social. It is on a par with the 'natural right' of 
 every citizen born into the world to an acre of land and a 
 good education. We may consider that nation wise which 
 should guarantee these advantages to all its children, or 
 we may not ; but we must never forget that the rights, when 
 created, are created by the will of the strong for its own 
 good pleasure, and not carved out of the absolute domain of 
 despotism by any High Court of Eternal Justice. 
 
 Surely it is the absence of all these d, priori vapourings, 
 common to Locke, Eousseau, and Henry George, which 
 renders the writings of Hobbes so fascinating and so in- 
 structive. 
 
 Shall we then sit down like bliud fatalists in presence 
 of the doctrine 'no limit can be set to State-interference?' 
 Certainly not. I have admitted that no limit can be set 
 from, witJiout. But just as we can influence the actions of 
 a man by appeals to his understanding, so that it may 
 be fairly said of such an one, 'he cannot lie,' and of 
 another that it is easier to turn the sun from its course 
 than Fabricius from the path of duty: so we may imbue 
 the hearts of our own countrymen with the docti-ine of in- 
 dividualism in suchwise that it may sometime be said of 
 England 'Behold a free country.' It is to this end that 
 individualists are working. Just as a virtuous man im- 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 65 
 
 poses restrictions on the gratification of his own appetites, 
 apparently setting a limit to his present will, and compelling 
 a body to move in a direction other than that of least re- 
 sistance, so, it is hoped, will the wise State of the future 
 lay down a general principle of State-action for its own 
 voluntary guidance, which principle is briefly expressed in 
 the words Let he ' 
 
 In his effort to supply destructive criticism of d priori 
 political philosophy, which is the task Professor Huxley set 
 before him, it seems to me he has been a little imjust to 
 Individualism. He has taken for granted that it is based 
 on db priori assumptions and arguments which are as foreign 
 to the reasoning of some of its supporters as to his own. 
 The individualist claims that under a system of increasing 
 political liberty, many evils, of which all alike complain, 
 would disappear more rapidly and more surely before the 
 forces of co-operation than they will ever do before the dis- 
 tracted eflbrts of democratic ' regimentation.'' 
 
 Of course there are individualists as there are socialists, 
 and, we may add, artists and moralists and most other -ists 
 who hang most of their conclusions on capital letters. We 
 have Liberty and Justice and Beauty and Virtue and all the 
 rest of the family; but it is not fair to assert or even to 
 insinuate that Individualism as a practical working doctrine 
 in this country and in the United States is based on 
 reasoning from a'bstractions. Professor Huxley refers to 
 • modems who make to themselves metaphysical teraphim 
 out of the Absolute, the Unknowable, the Unconscious, and 
 the other verbal abstractions whose apotheosis is indicated 
 by initial capitals.' And he adds, ' So far as this method of 
 establishing their claims is concerned, socialism and indi- 
 
 • Is it not a pity to go to France for Let be, let us see whether Elias will 
 
 a term to denote a political idea so come to save him ' (Matt, xxvii. 49). 
 
 peculiarly English ? The correct and There is a barbarous ring about Let act, 
 
 idiomatic English for laissez-faire is which is calculated to reflect on the 
 
 Ut-ie. ' Let me be,' says the boy in doctrine conveyed. For the last 
 
 the street, protesting against inter- seventeen years I have always found 
 
 ference. Moreover, it is not only col- it convenient to speak of the Let-be 
 
 loquial but classical. ' The rest said, School. 
 
66 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 vidualism are alike out of court.' Granted — but so is morality. 
 Honesty, Truth, Justice, Liberty, and Eight are teraphim 
 ■when treated as such, every whit as ridiculous as the Un- 
 knowable or the Unconditioned. Nevertheless it is surely 
 possible to label general ideas with general names, after the 
 discovery of their coimotation, without being charged with 
 the worship of abstractions. And unless Professor Huxley is 
 prepared to dispense with such general ideas as Eight and 
 Wrong, True, Beautiful and Free, I fail to see what objection 
 he can have to the Unknowable when employed to denote 
 what has been so carefully and clearly defined under that 
 term by Mr. Spencer. 
 
 At the same time I admit that we have reason to thank 
 Professor Huxley for his onslaught on Absolutism in politics, 
 whereby he has done more good to the cause of progress 
 than he could ever hope to do by merely dubbing himself 
 either individualist or socialist. When the Majority learns 
 that its -acts can be criticised, just as other people's acts 
 are criticised; that it can behave in an ' ungentlemanly ' 
 manner, as well as in a wrongful manner ; that it should 
 be guided in its treatment of the minority by its conscience, 
 and not solely by laws of its own making; then there 
 will be no scope for any other form of government than 
 that which is based on individualism ; and the Eights of 
 Man will exist as realities, and not as a mere expression 
 denoting each man's private notions of what his rights ov^lit 
 to be. 
 
 No one with the smallest claim to attention has been 
 known to affirm that this or any other nation is yet ripe 
 for the abolition of the State. Some of the more advanced 
 individualists and philosophical anarchists express the view 
 that absolute freedom from State-interference is the goal 
 towards which civilisation is making, and, as is usual in the 
 ranks of all political parties, there are not wanting impatient 
 persons who contend that now is the time for every great 
 reform. 
 
 Such are the people who would grant representative in- 
 stitutions to the Fijians, and who would model the Govern- 
 
II.J The Limits of Liberty. 67 
 
 menfc of India on that of the United States of America. 
 They may safely be left out of account. I suppose no one 
 acquainted with his political writings will accuse Victor Yarros 
 of backwardness or even of opportunism. Yet, says he : — 
 
 The abolition of the external State must be preceded by the decay of the 
 notions which breathe life and vigour into that clumsy monster : in other 
 words, it is only when the people learn to value liberty, and to understand 
 the truths of the anarchistic philosophy, that the question of practically abol- 
 ishing the State looms up and acquires significance. 
 
 Again, Mr. Benjamin Tucker, the high priest of anarchy in 
 America, claims that it is precisely what is known in England 
 as individualism. So far is he from claiming any natural 
 right to liberty, that he expressly repudiates all such d 'priori 
 postulates, and bases his political doctrine on the evidence (of 
 which there is abundance) that liberty would be the mother 
 of order. Referring to Professor Huxley's attack on anar- 
 chists as persons who build on baseless assumptions and 
 fanciful suppositions, he says: — 
 
 If all anarchists were guUty of such folly, scientific men like Professor 
 Huxley could never be expected to have respect for them : but the professor 
 has yet to learn that there are anarchists who proceed in a way that he him- 
 self would enthusiastically approve ; who take nothing for granted ; who 
 vitiate their arguments by no assumptions ; but who study the facts of social 
 life, and from them derive the lesson that liberty would be the mother of 
 order. 
 
 The truth is that the science of society has met with 
 general acceptance of late years, and (thanks chiefly to Mr. 
 Spencer) even the most impatient reformers now recognise 
 the fact that a State is an organism and not an artificial 
 structure to be pulled to pieces and put together on a new 
 model whenever it pleases the effective majoritj' to do so. 
 Advice which is good to a philosopher may be bad to a 
 savage and worse to an ape. Similarly institutions which 
 are weU suited to one people may be altogether unsuited to 
 another, and the best institutions conceivable for a perfect 
 people would probably turn out utterly unworkable even in 
 the most civilised country of this age. The most ardent 
 constitution-framer now sees that the chances are very many 
 against the Anglo-Saxon people having reached the zenith 
 
68 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 of progress exactly at the moment when Nature has been 
 pleased to evolve hvm as its guide. And if it must be 
 admitted that we are not yet ripe for that unconditioned 
 individual liberty which may be the type of the society of 
 the future, it follows that for the present we must recognise 
 some form of State-interference as necessary and beneficent. 
 The problem is, What are the proper limits of liberty? and 
 if these cannot be theoretically defined, what rules should 
 be adopted for our practical guidance? With those who 
 answer No limits, I will not quaiTel. Such answer implies 
 the belief that we have as a nation already reached the top 
 rung of the ladder — that we are ripe for perfect anarchy. 
 This is a question of fact which each can answer for himself. 
 I myself do not believe that we have attained to this degree 
 of perfection, and furthermore those who do believe it cannot 
 evade the task of fixing the limits of liberty in a lower plane 
 of social development. We can force them to co-operate with 
 us by admitting their contention for the sake of argument, 
 and then asking whether the Russians are ready for absolute 
 freedom, and if so, whether the Hindoos are ready, or the 
 Chinese, or the Arabs, or the Hottentots, or the tree-dwarfs ? 
 The absolutist is compelled to draw the line sooner or later, 
 and then he is likewise compelled to admit that the State has 
 legitimate functions on the other side of that line. 
 
 And he must also admit that in practice people have to 
 settle where private freedom and State-action shall mutually 
 limit each other. Benjamin Tucker's last word still leaves us 
 in perplexity as to the practical rule to be adopted tww. Let 
 me quote his words and readily endorse them, — as far as they 
 go:— 
 
 Then liberty always, say the anarchists. No use of force, except against 
 the invader ; and in those cases where it is difficult to tell whether the alleged 
 offender is an invader or not, still no use of force except where the necessity 
 of immediate solution is so imperative that we must use it to save ourselves. 
 And in these few cases where we must use it, let us do so frankly and squarely, 
 acknowledging it as a matter of necessity, without seeking to harmonise our 
 action with any political ideal or constructing any far-fetched theory of a 
 State or collectivity having prerogatives and rights superior to those of indi- 
 viduals and aggregations of individuals and exempted from the operation of 
 the ethical principles which individuals are expected to observe. This is the 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 69 
 
 best rule that I ean frame as a guide to voluntary eo-operators. To apply to 
 it only one case, I think that under a system of anarchy, even if it were 
 admitted that there was some ground for considering an unvaccinated 
 person an invader, it would be generally recognised that such invasion was 
 not of a character to require treatment by force, and that any attempt to treat 
 it by force would be regarded as itself an invasion of a less doubtful and more 
 immediate nature, requiring as such to be resisted. 
 
 But how far does this ' best rule ' carry us % Let us test it 
 by the case selected. Mr. Tucker thinks that under a regime 
 of liberty it would be generally recognised that such an 
 invasion of the individual's freedom of action as is implied by 
 compulsory vaccination is a greater and a worse invasion than 
 the converse invasion of the general freedom by walking 
 about in public ' a focus of infection.' Perhaps it would be so 
 recognised in some future state of anarchy, but is it so 
 recognised tiow? I think not. The majority of persons, in 
 this country at least, treat it, and consider that it ought to be 
 treated, as an offence; just as travelling in a public con- 
 veyance with the scarletina-rash is treated. And the question 
 is, What, in face of actual public opinion, ought we to do 
 to-day ? The rule gives us no help. Even the most avowed 
 State-socialist is ready to say that compulsion in such matters 
 is justifiable only when it is ' so imperative that we mwsf use 
 it to save ourselves.' He is ready to do so, if need be, ' fairly 
 and squarely, acknowledging it as a matter of necessity.' But 
 so is the protectionist; so is the religious persecutor. Mr. 
 Tucker continues : — 
 
 The question before us is not what measures and means of interference we 
 are justified in instituting, but which of those already existing we should first 
 lop off And to this the anarchists answer that unquestionably the first to 
 go should be those that interfere most fundamentally with a free market, and 
 that the economic and moral changes that would result from this would act 
 as a solvent upon all the remaining forms of interference. 
 
 Good again, but why ? There must be some middle prin- 
 ciple upon which this conclusion is based. And it is for this 
 middle principle, this practical rule for the guidance of those 
 who must act at once, that a search must be made. To restate 
 the question : — 
 
 Can any guiding principle be formulated whereby we may 
 know where the State should interfere with the liberties of its 
 
70 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 citLzens and where it should not % Can any definite limits be 
 assigned to State action ? Where in theory shall we draw the 
 line, which ia practice we have to draw somewhere 1 
 
 Surely an unprincipled State is as bad as an unprincipled 
 man. Yet what should we think of a man who, in moral 
 questions, decided each case on its merits as a question of 
 immediate expediency 1 who admitted that he told the truth 
 or told lies just as it suited the object he had presently in 
 view ■? "We should say he was an unprincipled man, and we 
 should rightly distrust him. An appeal to Liberty is as futile 
 as an appeal to Justice, until we have defined Liberty. 
 
 Yarious suggestions have been made in order to get over 
 
 this difficulty. Some people say, Let every man do what is 
 
 right in his own eyes, provided he does not thereby injure 
 
 others. To quote Mill: — 
 
 The principle is that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, indi- 
 ■vidually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of 
 their number, is self-proteotion : that the only pnipose for which power can 
 be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community against his 
 will is to prevent harm to others. 
 
 To this Lord Pembroke shrewdly replies : — 
 
 But how far does this take us ? The very kernel of our difficulty is the 
 fact that hardly any actions are purely self-regarding. The greater part of 
 them bear a double aspect — one which concerns self, another which concerns 
 others. 
 
 We might even go further ; we might plausibly maintain 
 that every act performed by a citizen from his birth to his 
 death injures his neighbours more or less indirectly. If he 
 eats his dinner he diminishes the supply of food and raises the 
 price. His very existence causes an enhanced demand for the 
 necessaries of life; hence the cry against over-population. 
 One who votes on the wrong side in a Parliamentary election 
 injures all his fellow-countrymen. One who marries a girl 
 loved by another injures that other. One who preaches 
 Christianity or Agnosticism (if untrue) injures his hearers and 
 their relatives and posterity. One who wins a game pains 
 the loser. One who sells a horse for more than it is worth 
 injures the purchaser, and one who sells it for less than it is 
 worth injures his own family. 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty, 71 
 
 Taking practical questions concerning which there is much 
 dispute ; there are advocates of State-interference with the 
 citizen's freedom to drink what he likes, who base their action 
 not on the ground that the State should protect a fool against 
 the effects of his folly, but on the ground that drink fills the 
 workhouses and the prisons, which have to be maintained 
 out of the earnings of the sober ; and, furthermore, that drink 
 leaves legacies of disease and immorality to the third and the 
 fourth generation. Advocates of compulsory vaccination 
 have been heard to say that they would willingly leave those 
 who refuse the boon to perish of small-pox, but that unvac- 
 cinated persons are foci of infection, and must be suppressed 
 in the common interest. Many people defend the Factory 
 Acts, not for the sake of the apathetic workers who will not 
 take the trouble to organise and to defend themselves, but for 
 the sake of the physique of the next generation. The sup- 
 pression of gambling-hells is favoured by many, not on account 
 of the green-horns who lose their moneyj but because they are 
 schools of cheating and fraud, and turn loose upon society 
 a number of highly-trained swindlers. On the whole, MiU's 
 test will not do. 
 
 Some say, 'We must fall back on the consensus of the 
 people ; there is nothing else for it ; we must accept the 
 arbitrary will — the caprice — of the governing class, be they 
 the many or be they the few.' Others, again, qualify that 
 contention. These say, let us loyally accept the verdict 
 of the majority. This is democracy. I have nothing 
 to urge against it. But, unfortunately, it only shoves the 
 question a step further back. How are the many to decide 
 for themselves when they ought to interfere with the minority 
 and when they ought not 1 This is just the guiding principle \/^ 
 of which we are in search ; and it is no answer to tell us 
 that certain persons must decide it for themselves. We are 
 amongst the number; what is our vote going to be? Of 
 course the stronger can do what they choose ; but what 
 ought they to choose ? What is the wisest course for their 
 own welfare, leaving the minority out of the reckoning ? 
 
 Socialists say, treat all aHke, and all will be well. But 
 
72 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 equality in slavery is not liberty. Even the fox in the fable 
 ■would not have had his own tail cut oflf for the fun of seeing 
 the other foxes in like plight. After the event, it was quite 
 another matter ; and one can forgive those who are worked to 
 death for demanding that the leisured classes shall be forced 
 to earn their living. Lock us all up in gaol, and we shall all 
 be equally moral and equally happy. 
 
 Nor is it any solution of this particular problem to abolish 
 the State, however prudent that course might or might not 
 be : the answer to the present question is not ' No Govern- 
 ment!' For this again merely throws the diiBculty a step 
 further back. We may put the State on one side and imagine 
 a purely anarchic form of society, and the same question still 
 arises. That is to say, philosophical anarchists do not pretend 
 that the anarchy of the wild beasts is conceivable among 
 sane men, still less desirable, — though they are usually 
 credited with this imbecile notion. They believe that all 
 necessary restrictions on absolute liberty can be brought 
 about by voluntary combination. Let us admit that this may 
 be so. The question then arises, for what purposes are people 
 to combine ? Thus the majority in a club can, if they choose, 
 forbid billiard-playing on Sundays. Ought they to do so? 
 Of course the majority may disapprove of and refrain from it, 
 but ought they to permit the minority to play ? If not, on 
 what grounds? The Christians in certain parts of Eussia 
 have an idea that they are outwitted and injured by their 
 Jew fellow-citizens. If unrestrained by the stronger majority 
 outside — the State — they persecute and drive oflf the Jews. 
 Ought they to do this ? If you reply, ' Leave it to the sense 
 of the people/ the answer is settled, they ought. It is, there- 
 fore, no answer to our question to say, Away with the State. 
 It may be a good cry, but it is no solution of our problem, 
 Because you cannot do away with the effective majority. 
 
 To reply that out of one hundred persons, the seventy-five 
 weak and therefore orderly persons can combine against the 
 twenty-five advocates of brute-force, is merely to beg the 
 whole question. Ought they to combine for this purpose? 
 And if so, why not for various other purposes ? Why not for 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 73 
 
 the very purposes for which they are now banded together in 
 an association called the State ? 
 
 You rejoin, "True, but it would be a voluntary State, and 
 that makes all the difference ; no one need join it against his 
 will.' My answer is, he need not join it now. The existence 
 of the burglar in our midst is sufficient evidence of this. But 
 since the anarchy of the wild beasts is out of the question, it 
 is clear that certain arbitrary and aggressive acts on the part 
 of individuals must be met and resisted by voluntary com- 
 bination — by the voluntary combination of a sufficient number 
 of others to overpower them by fear, or, if necessary, by brute 
 force. Again I ask, for what purposes are these combinations 
 to be made ? 
 
 Whether we adopt despotism or democracy, socialism or 
 anarchy, we are always brought back to this unanswered 
 question. What are the limits of group-action in relation to 
 its units 1 Shall we say that the State should never interfere 
 with the mutual acts of willing parties % (And by the State I 
 wish to be understood as here meaning the effective majority 
 of a group, be it a' club or be it a nation.) This looks 
 plausible, but alas ! who are the parties 1 The parties acting, 
 or the parties affected % Clearly the latter, for otherwise, two 
 persons could agree to kill a third. Eut who then are the 
 persons affected? Suppose a print-seller, with a view to 
 business, exposes in his shop- window a number of objection- 
 able pictures, for the attraction of those only who choose to 
 look at them and possibly to buy them. I have occasion to 
 walk through that street ; am I a party ? How am I injured ? 
 Is my sense of decency shocked and hurt? But if this is 
 sufficient ground for public interference, then I have a right 
 to call for its assistance when my taste is hurt and shocked 
 by a piece of architecture which violates the laws of high art. 
 I have similar ground of complaint when a speaker gets up in 
 a public place and preaches doctrines which are positively 
 loathsome to me. I ha've a right of action against a man 
 clothed in dirty rags, or with pomaded hair or a scented 
 pocket-handerchief. 
 
 If you reply that in these cases my hurt is not painful 
 
 r 
 
74 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 enough to justify any interference with another's freedom, 
 I have only to cite the old and almost forgotten arguments 
 for the inquisition. The possible eternal damnation of my 
 children, who are exposed to heretical teaching, is surely 
 a sufficiently painful invasion of my happiness to warrant 
 the most strenuous resistance. And even to modem ears, 
 it will seem reasonable that I should have grounds of action 
 against a music-hall proprietor who should offend the moral 
 sense of my children with songs of a pernicious character. 
 This test then will not do. 
 
 It has been suggested that the State should not meddle 
 except on the motion of an individual alleging injury to 
 himself. In other words, that the State must never act as 
 prosecutor, but leave all such matters entirely to private 
 initiative ; and that no person should be permitted to com- 
 plain that some other person is injured or likely to be injured 
 by the act complained of. But there are two valid objections 
 to this rule: firstly, it provides no test of injury or hurt; 
 secondly, it would not meet the case of cruelty to animals or 
 young children, or imbeciles or persons too poor or too ill to 
 take action. It would permit of the murder of a friendless 
 man. This will not do. 
 
 May I now venture to present my own view? I feel 
 convinced that there is no a 'priori solution of the problem. 
 / We cannot draw a hard and fast line between the proper 
 field of State-interference and the field sacred to individual 
 freedom. There is no general principle whereby the effective 
 majority can decide whether to interfere or not. And yet we 
 are by no means left without guidance. Take the parallel 
 region of morals: no man has ever yet succeeded in de- 
 >y fining virtue d 'priori. All we can say is that those acts 
 which eventually conduce to the permanent welfare of 
 the agent are moral acts, and those which lead in the 
 opposite direction are immoral. But if any one asks for 
 guidance beforehand, he has to go away empty. It is 
 true, certain preachers tell him to stick to the path of 
 virtue, but when it comes to casuistry they no more know 
 which is the path of virtue than he does himself. 'Which 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 75 
 
 is the way to York ? ' asks a traveller. ' Oh, stick to 
 the York Eoad, and you can't go wrong.' That is the sum 
 and substance of what the moralists have to tell us. And 
 yet we do not consider that we are altogether without 
 guidance in these matters. Middle principles, reached by 
 induction from the experience of countless generations, have 
 been formulated, which cannot be shown to be true by any 
 process of deduction from higher truths, but which we trust, 
 simply because we have found them trustworthy a thousand 
 times, and our parents and friends have safely trusted them 
 too. Do not lie. Do not steal. Do not hurt your neighbour's 
 feelings without cause. And why not ? Because, as a general 
 rule, it wiU not pay. 
 
 Where is the harm in saying two and two make five? 
 Either you are believed or you are disbelieved. If dis- 
 believed, you are a failure. One does not talk for the music 
 of the thing, but to convey a belief. If you are believed, 
 you have given away false coin or a sham article. The 
 recipient thinks he can buy with it or work with it, 
 and lol it breaks in his hand. He hates the cause of his 
 disappointment. ' Well, what of that % ' you say ; ' if I had 
 teen strong enough or plucky enough, I would have broken 
 his head, and he would have hated me for that. Then why 
 should I be ashamed to tell a lie to a man whom I de- 
 liberately wist to hurt ? ' Here we come nearly to the end 
 of our tether. Experience teUs us that it is mean and 
 self-wounding to lie, and we believe it. Those who try find 
 it out in the end. 
 
 And if this is the true view of individual morals, it should 
 also be found true of what may be called Group-morals or 
 State-laws. We must give up all hope of deducing good laws 
 from high general principles^ and rest content with those 
 middle principles which originate in expedience and are 
 verified by experience. And we must search for these 
 middle principles by observing the tendency of civilisation. 
 In morals they have long been stated with more or less 
 precision, but in politics they are still unformulated. By 
 induction from the cases presented to us in the long history 
 
76 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 of mankind, we can, I believe, find a sound working answer 
 to the question we set out with. All history teaches us that 
 there has been an increasing tendency to remove the re- 
 strictions placed by the State on the absolute liberty of its 
 citizens. That is an observed fact which brooks no contra,- 
 diction. In the dawn of civilisatioUj we find the bulk of the 
 people in a state of absolute bondage, and even those who 
 supposed themselves to be the independent classes, subject to 
 a most rigorous despotism. Every act from the cradle to the 
 grave must conform to the most savage and exacting laws. 
 Nothing was too sacred or too private for the eye of the 
 State. Take the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, 
 the Persians ; we find them all in a state of the most complete 
 subjection to central authority. Probably the code of law 
 best known to us, owing to its adoption as the canvas on 
 which European religion is painted, is the code of the Jewish 
 theocracy. Most of us know something of the drastic and 
 searching rules laid down in the books of Moses. Therein we 
 find every concern of daily life ruled and regulated by the 
 legislature ; how and when people shall wash themselves, what 
 they may eat and what they must avoid, how the food is to 
 be cooked, what clothes may be worn, whom they may marry, 
 and with what rites ; while, in addition to this, their religious 
 views are carefully provided for them and also their morals, 
 and in case of transgression, intentional or accidental, the 
 form of expiation to be made. Nor were these laws at aU 
 peculiar to the Jews. On the contrary, the laws of some of 
 the contemporary civilisations seem to have been, if possible, 
 even more exacting and frivolously meddlesome. The Greek 
 and Koman laws were nothing like the Oriental codes, but 
 still they were far more meddlesome and despotic than 
 anything we have known in our day. And even in free 
 and merry England we have in the olden times put up with 
 an amount of fussy State-interference which would not be 
 tolerated for a week now-a-days. One or two specimens of 
 earfy law in this country may be cited in order to recall the 
 extent and severity of this kind of legislation. 
 
n.] The Limits of Liberty, 77 
 
 They shall have bows and arrows, and use the same of Sundays and holi- 
 days ; and leave all playing at tennis or football and other games called 
 quoits, dice, casting of the stone, kailes, and other such importune games. 
 
 Forasmuch as labourers and grooms keep greyhounds and other dogs, and 
 on the holidays when good Christians be at church hearing divine service, 
 they go hunting in parks, warrens, and connigries, it is ordained that no 
 manner of layman which hath not lands to the value of forty shillings a year 
 shall from henceforth keep any greyhound or other dog to hunt, nor shall he 
 use ferrets, nets, heys, harepipes nor cords, nor other engines for to take or 
 destroy deer, hares, nor conies, nor other gentlemen's game, under pain of 
 twelve months' imprisonment. 
 
 For the great dearth that is in many places of the realm of poultry, it is 
 ordained that the price of a young capon shall not pass threepence, and of an 
 old fourpence, of a hen twopence, of a pullet a penny, of a goose fourpence. 
 
 Esquires and gentlemen under the estate of a knight shall not wear cloth 
 of a higher price than four and a-half marks, they shall wear no cloth of gold 
 nor silk nor silver, nor no manner of clothing embroidered, ring, button, nor 
 brooch of gold nor of silver, nor nothing of stone, nor no manner of fur ; and 
 their wives and daughters shall be of the same condition as to their vesture 
 and apparel, without any tuming-up or purfle or apparel of gold silver nor of 
 stone. 
 
 Because that servants and labourers vrill not, nor by a long season would, 
 serve and labour without outrageous and excessive hire, and much more than 
 hath been given to such servants and labourers in any time past, so that for 
 scarcity of the said servants and labourers the husbands and land-tenants 
 may not pay their rents nor live upon their lands, to the great damage and 
 loss as well of the Lords as of the Commons, it is accorded and assented that 
 the bailiff for husbandry shall take by the year 13s. 3^. and his clothing once 
 by the year at most ; the master hind los., the carter los., the shepherd los., 
 the oxherd 6s. 8d., the swineherd 6s., a woman labourer 6s., a dey 6s., a driver 
 of the plough 7s. at the most, and every other labourer and^servant according 
 to his degree ; and less in the country where less was wont to be given, 
 without clothing, courtesy or other reward by covenant. And if any give or 
 take by covenant more than is above specified, at the first that they shall be 
 thereof attainted, as well the givers as the takers, shall pay the value of the 
 excess so taken, and at the second time of their attainder the double value of 
 such excess, and at the third time the treble value of such excess, and if the 
 taker so attainted have nothing whereof to pay the said excess, he shall have 
 forty days' imprisonment. 
 
 One can cite these extraordinary enactments by the score, 
 with the satisfactory result of raising a laugh at the expense 
 of our ancestors ; but before making too merry, let us examine 
 the beam in our own eye. Some of the provisions of our 
 modern Acts of Parliament, when looked at from a proper 
 distance, are quite as ludicrous as any of the little tyrannies 
 of our ancestors. I do not wish to tread on delicate ground, 
 
78 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 or to raise party bias, and therefore I will resist the tempta- 
 tion of citing modern instances of legislative drollery i. 
 Doubtless the permanent tendency in this country, as all 
 through history, is in a direction opposed to this sort of 
 grandmotherly government ; but the reason is not, I fear, 
 our superior wisdom; it is the increasing number of con- 
 flicting interests, all armed with democratic power, which 
 renders it difficult. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is 
 weak. 
 
 I can imagine no healthier task for our new school of social 
 reformers than a careful enquiry into the effects of all State 
 attempts to improve humanity. It would take too long to go 
 through even a few of them now. There are all the statutes 
 of Plantagenet days against forestalling and regrating and 
 usury ; there are the old sumptuary laws, the fish laws, the 
 cloth laws, the Tippling Acts, the Lord's Day Observance Act, 
 the Act against making cloth by machinery, which, by, its 
 prohibition of the ' divers devilish contrivances,' drove trade 
 to Holland and to Ireland, and thus made it needful to 
 suppress the Irish woollen trade. Still, on the whole, as 
 I have said. State interference shows signs of becoming 
 weaker and weaker as civilisation progresses. And this 
 brings us back to our original question, What is the rule 
 whereby the majority is to guide itself as to where it should 
 interfere with the freedom of individuals and where it should 
 not ? It is this : while according the same worship to Liberty 
 in politics that we accord to Honesty in private dealings, 
 hardly permitting ourselves to believe that its violation can 
 in any case be wise or permanently expedient, — while leaning 
 to Liberty as we lean to Truth, and deviating from it only 
 when the arguments in favour of despotism are absolutely 
 overwhelming, our aim should be to find out by study of 
 history what those classes of acts are, in which State- 
 
 ' I may, however, refer to a quaint the name of our forefathers and fling 
 tract entitled ' Municipal Socialism,' at the heads of those pharisaical re- 
 published by the Liberty and Property formers of to-day who never weary 
 Defence League. This capital satire on of tittering at 'the wisdom of our 
 modern local legislation I take up in ancestors,' 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty, 79 
 
 interference shows signs of becoming weakened, and as far as 
 possible to. hasten on the day of complete freedom in such 
 matters. 
 
 When the student of history sees how the Statute of 
 Labourers broke down in its effort to regulate freedom of 
 contract between employer and employed, in the interest of 
 the employer, he will admit the futility of renewing the 
 attempt, this time in the interest of the employed. When 
 he reads the preamble ^ (or pre-ramble as it is aptly styled 
 in working-men's clubs) to James's seventh Tippling Act, he 
 will be less sanguine in embarking on modem temperance 
 legislation. 
 
 We find the same record of failure and accompanying 
 mischiefs all along the line, and it is mainly our ignorance 
 of history that blinds us to the truth. By this process of 
 induction, the earnest and honest reformer is led to discover 
 what those individual acts are which are really compatible 
 with social cohesion. He finds that while the State tends to 
 suppress violence and fraud and stealth with ever-increasing 
 severity, it is at the same time more and more tolerant, not 
 from sympathy, but from necessity, of the results, good, bad, 
 and indifferent, of free contract between fuU-grown sane men 
 and women. 
 
 And when a well-wisher to mankind has once thoroughly 
 appreciated and digested this general principle, based as it 
 is on a survey of facts and history, and not woven out of 
 the dream-stuff of db priori philosophy, he will be content 
 to remove aU artificial hindrances to progress, and to watch 
 the evolution of society, instead of trying to model it accord- 
 ing to his own vague ideas of the Just, and the Good, and the 
 Beautiful. 
 
 I wish to show that the only available method of discover- 
 ing the true Umits of liberty at any given period is the 
 historic. History teaches us that there has been a marked 
 
 1 ' Whereas, notwithstanding all enness doth more and more abound, 
 
 former laws and provisions already to the great offence of Almighty God 
 
 made, the inordinate and extreme and the wasteful destruction of God's 
 
 vice of excessive drinking and drunk- good creatures . . .' 
 
8o A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 tendency (in the main continuous) to reduce the number of 
 State-restrictions on the absolute freedom of the citizens. 
 State-prohibitions are becoming fewer and more definite, 
 while, on the other hand, some of them are at the same time 
 more rigorously enforced. Freedom to murder and rob is 
 more firmly denied to the individual, while in the meantime 
 he has won the liberty to think as he pleases, to say a good 
 deal more of what he pleases, to dress in accordance with 
 his own taste, to eat when and what he likes, and to do, 
 without let or hindrance, a thousand things which, in the 
 olden times, he was not allowed to do without State-super- 
 vision. The proper aim of the reformer, therefore, is to find 
 out, by a study of history, exactly what those classes of acts 
 are in which State-interference shows signs of becoming 
 weaker and weaker, and what those other classes of acts are 
 in which such interference tends to be more rigorous and 
 regular. He will find that these two classes are becoming 
 more and more differentiated. And he will then, to the 
 utmost of his ability, hasten on the day of absolute freedom 
 in the former class of cases, and insist on the most determined 
 enforcement of the law in the latter class. Whether this duty 
 will in time pass into other hands, that is to say, whether 
 private enterprise will ever supplant the State in the 
 performance of this function, and whether that time is 
 near or remote, are questions of the greatest interest. 
 What we are mainly concerned to note is that the organisa- 
 tion or department upon which this duty rests incurs a re- 
 sponsibility which must, if society is to maintain its vitahty, 
 be faithfully borne. The business of carrying out the funda- 
 mental laws directed against the lower forms of competition, 
 — murder, robbery, fraud, &c. — must, by whomsoever under- 
 taken, be unflinchingly performed, or the entire edifice of 
 modern civilisation will fall to pieces. 
 
 It is enough to make a rough survey of the acts of citizens 
 in which the State claims, or has at one time claimed, to 
 exercise control ; to track those claims through the ages ; and 
 to note the changes which have taken place in those claims. 
 It remains to follow up the tendency into the future. Anyone 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 8i 
 
 undertaking this task will, I repeat, find himself in the presence 
 of two large and fairly well-defined classes of State-restrictions 
 on private liberty ; those which tend to become more thorough 
 and invariable, and those which tend to become weaker, more 
 spasmodic and variable. And he will try to abolish these 
 unpriTicipled interferences altogether, in the belief, based on 
 history, that, though some harm will result from the change, 
 a far more than compensating advantage will accrue to the 
 race. In short, what we have to do is to find the Least 
 Common Bond in politics, as a mathematician finds the Least 
 Common Multiple in the field of numbers. 
 
 Take these two joint-stock companies, and consider their 
 prospects. The first is formed for the purpose of purchasing 
 a square mile of land, for getting the coal from under the 
 surface, for erecting furnaces on the land, for making pig-iron 
 and converting it into wrought iron and steel, for building 
 houses, churches, and schools for the workpeople, and for 
 converting them and their neighbours to the Catholic faith, 
 and for doing all such other matters and things as shall from 
 time to time appear good to the Board of Directors. The 
 second company is formed for the purpose of leasing a square 
 mile of land, for getting the coal from under the surface, and 
 selling it to the coal-merchants. Now that is just the diflfer- 
 ence between the State of the past and the State of the future. 
 The shareholders in the second company are not banded 
 together or mutually pledged and bound by a multitude of 
 obligations, but by the fewest compatible with the joint aim. 
 The company with the Least Common Bond is usually the 
 most prosperous. A State held together by too many com- 
 pacts will perform all or most of its functions ill. What we 
 have to find is this Least Common Bond. Surely it would be 
 absurd to argue that because the shareholders should not be 
 bound by too many compacts, therefore they should not 
 be bound by any. It is folly to pretend that each should 
 be free to withdraw when and how he chooses ; that he 
 should be free to go down into the pits, and help himself 
 to the common coal, in any fashion agreeable to himself, so 
 long as he takes no more than his own portion. By taking 
 
82 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 shares in the Midland Railway Company, I have not bouglit 
 the right to grow primroses on the line, or to camp out on the 
 St. Pancras Station platform. My liberty to do what I choose 
 with my share of the joint-stock is suspended. I am to that 
 extent in subjection. My fellow-shareholders, or the majority 
 of them, are my masters. They can compel me to spend my 
 own money in making a line of rails which I am sure will 
 never pay. Yet I do not grumble. But if they had the 
 power (by our compact) to declare war on the Great Northern, 
 or to import Dutch cheeses and Indian carpets, I should not 
 care to be a citizen or shareholder of that particular company 
 or state. 
 
 What we have got to do, then, is to purge the great 
 company which has long ago been formed for the purpose of 
 utilising the soil of this country to the best eiFect, from the 
 multifarious functions with which it has overburdened itself. 
 We, the shareholders, have agreed that the Red-Indian system 
 is not suited to this end; and we have therefore agreed to 
 forego our rights (otherwise admitted) of taking what we 
 want from each other by force or fraud. This seems to be a 
 necessary article of association. There is nothing to prevent 
 us from agreeing to forego other rights and liberties if we 
 choose; and possibly there may be some other restraints on 
 our individual liberty which can bo shown to be desirable, if 
 not essential, to the success of the undertaking. If so, let 
 them be stated, and the reason for their adoption given. If, 
 on the other hand, it can be shown that a large and happy 
 population can be supported on this soil without any other 
 mutual restriction on personal freedom than that which is 
 involved in the main article of association, would it not be as 
 well for all if each kept charge of bis own conscience and his 
 own actions ? 
 
 And here I should like to guard myself against misappre- 
 hension. Individualists are usually supposed to regaxd the 
 State as a kind of malevolent ogre. Maleficent it is ; but by 
 no means malevolent. The State never intervenes without 
 a reason, whether we deem that reason valid or invalid. The 
 reasons alleged are very numerous and detailed, but they all 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 83 
 
 fall under one of two heads. The State interferes either to 
 defend some of the parties concerned against the others, or to 
 defend itself against all the parties concerned. This has 
 nothing to do with the distinction between crimes and civil 
 injuries ; it is more in line with the ethical distinction 
 between self-regai'ding and other-regarding vices. Thus when 
 a State punishes prize-fighters, it is not because one of them 
 injures the other, but because the sport is demoralising : the 
 State is itself injured, and not any determinate person. 
 Similarly, there are many laws punishing drunkenness, quite 
 apart from the violence and nuisance due to it. In these 
 cases the State alleges that, though no determinate citizen 
 is injured, yet the race suffers, and rightly punishes the 
 offence with a view to eliminating the habit. 
 
 Putting on one side all those acts which injure determinate 
 persons, whether crimes or civil injuries, let us see what the 
 State has done and is doing in this country with regard to 
 acts against which no particular citizen has any good ground 
 of complaint. We may classify the subjects of these laws 
 either according to the object affected, or according to the vice 
 aimed at. 
 
 Taking some of the minor objects of the State's solicitude 
 by way of illustration, we find that at one time or another 
 it has interfered more or less with nearly all popular games, 
 many sports, nearly the whole of the fine arts, and many 
 harmless and harmful pleasures which cannot be brought 
 under any of those three heads. 
 
 In looking for the motive which prompted the State to 
 meddle with these matters, let us give our fathers credit for 
 the best motive, and not, as is usually done, the worst. 
 Football, tennis, nine-pins, and quoits were forbidden, as I 
 have pointed out, because the State thought that the time 
 wasted over them might more advantageously be spent in 
 archery, which was quite as entertaining and far more 
 useful. That was a good reason, but it was not a sufficient 
 reason to modem minds ; and moreover the law failed in its 
 object. Some other games, such as baccarat, dice, trump, and 
 primero, were put down because they led to gambling. And 
 
84 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 gambling was objected to for the good and ample reason that 
 those who indulge in it are morally incapacitated for steady- 
 work. Lotteries and betting come under this censure. One 
 who thinks he sees his way to make a thousand per cent, on 
 his capital in a single evening without hard work cannot be 
 expected to devote himself with zeal to the minute economies 
 of his trade, for the pui-pose of making six per cent, instead of 
 five on the capital invested. Wealth-production is on the 
 average a slow process, and all attempts to huiTy up nature 
 and take short cuts to opulence are intoxicating, enervating, 
 disappointing, and injurious, not only to those who make 
 them, but to all those who witness the triumph of the lucky, 
 without fixing their attention on the unsuccessful. Gambling, 
 in short, is wrong ; but this does not necessarily warrant the 
 State in forbidding it. Another reason alleged on behalf of 
 interference was, and still is, that the simple are outwitted by 
 the cunning. But as this is true of all competition, even the 
 healthiest, it does not seem to be a valid reason for State- 
 action. It is also said that games of chance lead t.o cheating 
 and fraud. But this is by no means a necessary consequence. 
 Indeed, some of the most inveterate gamblers are the most 
 honourable of men. Again, the State refuses to sanction 
 betting contracts for the same reason that under the Statute 
 of Frauds it requires certain agreements to be in writing; 
 namely, to ensure deliberateness and sufficient evidence of the 
 transaction. I think Barbeyrac overlooks this aspect of the 
 case in his TraiU de Jeu, in which he defends the lawfulness 
 of chance-games. He says : — 
 
 If I am at liberty to promise and give my property, absolutely and uncon- 
 ditionally, to whomsoever I please, why may I not promise and give a certain 
 sum, in the event of a person proving more fortunate or more skilful than I, 
 with respect to the result of certain contingencies, movements, or combina- 
 tions, on which we had previously agreed ? . . . GTaming is a contract, and 
 in every contract the mutual consent of the parties is the supreme law ; this 
 is an incontestabje maxim of natural equity. 
 
 But, as matter of fact, the State does not prohibit, or even 
 refuse to sanction, all contracts based on chance. It merely 
 requires all or some of the usual guarantees against impulse, 
 together with sufficient evidence and notification. It is true. 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 85 
 
 you are not allowed to bet sixpence with a friend in a public- 
 house that one horse will beat another in a race ; you are 
 allowed to bet a thousand pounds on the same event in your 
 own house or at Tattersall's ; but if you win and do not get 
 paid you have no redress in a Court of law. But if you bet 
 that your baby will die within twelve months, you are not 
 only permitted to make the bet, but, in case the contingency 
 arises, you can recover the stakes in a Court, provided always 
 the gentlemen you bet with have taken the precaution to dub 
 themselves Life Assurance Society. You may also send a 
 ship to sea, and bet that it will go to the bottom before it 
 reaches its destination. You will recover your odds in a 
 Court, provided the other parties are called underwriters, or 
 some other suitable name. You may bet that some one will 
 set fire to your house before next Christmas, and, if this 
 happens, the Court will compel the other party to pay, though 
 the odds are about 1000 to i — provided such other party is 
 called a Fire Insurance Office. Again, if twenty men put a 
 shilling each into a pool, buy a goose, a surloin of beef, and 
 a plum-pudding, and then spin a teetotum to see who shall 
 take the lot, that is a lottery, and the twenty men are all 
 punished for the sin by the State. But if a lady buys a 
 fire-screen for ^■'3, and the same twenty men put a sovereign 
 each into the pool, and spin the teetotum to see who shall 
 have the screen, and the ,^ao goes to the Missionary Society, 
 that is called a bazaar raffle, and no one is punished by the 
 State. If a dozen men put a hundred pounds apiece into a 
 pool, to be the property of him who outlives the rest, that is 
 called tontine, and is not only permitted but guaranteed by the 
 State. If you bet with another man that the Eureka Mine 
 Stocks will be dearer in three months than they are now, 
 that is called speculation on the Stock Exchange, and the 
 State wiU enforce the payment of the bet. But if you bet 
 that the next throw of the dice will be higher than the last, 
 that is called gambling, and the State will not enforce the 
 payment of the bet. If you sell boxes of toffee for a penny 
 each, on the understanding that one box out of every twenty 
 contains a bright new threepenny-bit, that again is called a 
 
86 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 lotteiy, and you go to prison for the crime. But if you sell 
 newspapers for a penny each, on the understanding that in a 
 certain contingency the buyer may net ^loo, that is called 
 advertisement, and you go not to prison, but possibly (if you 
 sell plenty) to Parliament. If you bet that somebody will 
 redeem his written promise to pay a certain sum of money 
 at a certain date, that is called bill-discounting, and the State 
 sanctions the transaction ; but if you bet that the same person 
 will defeat his opponent in a chess-match (though similarly 
 based on a calculation of probabilities and knowledge of his 
 character and record)^ it is a transaction which the State 
 frowns at, and certainly wUl not sanction. Who now will say 
 that the State refuses to sanction bets ? Gambling, speculation, 
 raffles, lotteries, bill-discounting, life-assurance, fire-insurance, 
 underwiiting, tontine, sweepstakes — what are these but differ- 
 ent names for the same kind of bargain, — a contract based on 
 an unforeseen contingency, — a bet ? And yet how differently 
 they are treated by the State I Neither is it fair to charge the 
 State with a puritanical bias against gambling. Religion had 
 nothing to do with anti-gaming legislation; for the State 
 both tolerates and enforces wager-contracts, when they are 
 the result of mature deliberation, sufficiently evidenced, and, 
 as in the case of life-assurance, insurance against fire, and 
 shipwreck, &c., free from the suspicion of wild intoxication. 
 
 The State has prohibited certain sports because they are 
 demoralising, e.g. prize-fighting; and others because they 
 are cruel without being useful, e.g. cock-fighting, bear-bait- 
 ing, bull -fights, &e. Angling it regards as useful, and 
 therefore does not condemn it, although it combines cruelty 
 with the lowest form of lying. Agitations are from time 
 to time set on foot for the purpose of putting down fox- 
 hunting on similar grounds. But, fortunately, the magni- 
 ficent effects of this manly sport on the physique of the race 
 are too palpable to admit of its suppression. Pigeon-shooting 
 is a very different matter. Chess never seems to have fallen 
 under the ban of the law; but billiards, for some reason 
 which I cannot discover, has always been carefully super- 
 vised by the State. 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty, 87 
 
 Coming to the fine arts, they all of them seem to be re- 
 garded by the legislature as probable incentives to low sen- 
 suality. Architecture is the solitary exception. Even music, 
 which would seem to approach nearer to divine perfection 
 and purity than any other earthly thing, is carefully hedged 
 about by law ; possibly, however, this is on account of its 
 dangerous relation to poetry, when the two are wedded in 
 song. When we come to the arts of sculpture, of painting 
 (and its allies, printing, drawing, photography, &c.), of lite- 
 rature (poetry and prose), of the drama, and of dancing, 
 we are bound to admit that in the absence of State-control 
 they are apt to run to licentiousness. But whether it is wise 
 of society, which has been compelled to abstain from inter- 
 ference with sexual irregularity, to penalise that which is 
 suspected of leading to it, is an interesting point. Fornica- 
 tion in itself is no longer even a misdemeanour in this 
 country. The Act 23 & 24 Vict. c. 3a applies only to con- 
 spiracy to induce a woman to commit fornication ; ' provided,' 
 as Mr. Justice Stephen surmises, ' that an agreement between 
 a man and a woman to commit fornication is not a con- 
 spiracy.' At the same time, whatever we may think of these 
 State efforts to encourage and bolster up chastity by legis- 
 lation, it is not quite honest to ignore or misrepresent the 
 State motive. Monogamy is not the outcome of religious asce- 
 ticism. We have only to read the Koran or the Old Testament 
 to see that polygamy and religion can be on very good terms. 
 The highest civilisations yet known are based on the mono- 
 gamic principle ; and anyone who realises the effect of the 
 system on the childi'en of the community must admit that it 
 is a most beneficial one, quite apart from the religious aspect. 
 Whether the action of the State conduces to this result is quite 
 another question. All I assert is that the State is actuated by 
 a most excellent motive. 
 
 The first observation on the whole history of this kind of 
 legislation is that it has been a gigantic failure. That is to 
 say, it has not diminished the evils aimed at in the smallest 
 degree. It has rather increased them. It has crabbed and 
 stunted the fine arts, and thereby vulgarised them. By its 
 
88 A Plea for Liberty. [ir. 
 
 rough and clumsy classifications it has crushed out the appeals 
 of Art to the best feelings of human nature, and it has diverted 
 ■what would have been pure and wholesome into other chan- 
 nels. The man who does not see every emotion of the human 
 soul reflected and glorified in nature's drama around him must 
 be a poor prosaic thing indeed. But we need not go to nature 
 for what has lately been termed suggestiveness. We need not 
 stray beyond the decorative art of dress, which seems to have 
 exercised a special fascination over the sentimental Herrick. 
 The logical outcome of systematic repression of sensual sug- 
 gestiveness is State-regulated dress. Something like this has 
 often been attempted. In England, during the thirteenth and 
 two following centuries, dress was ' both regulated by Act of 
 Parliament and cursed from the pulpit. Eccleston mentions 
 how Serlo d'Abon, after preaching before Henry I on the sin- 
 fulness of beards and long hair, coolly drew a huge pair of 
 scissors from his pocket after the sermon, and, taking ad- 
 vantage of the effect he had produced, went from seat to seat, 
 mercilessly cropping the king himself and the whole congre- 
 gation. The same writer, speaking of the Early English 
 period, tells us that ' long toes were not entirely abandoned 
 till Henry VII, notwithstanding many a cursing by the clergy, 
 as well as severe legal penalties upon their makers.' I am 
 afraid neither the cursing of the clergy nor the penalties of 
 the law have had the desired effect, for we must remember 
 that it was not the gold nets and curled ringlets and gauze 
 wings worn at each side of the female head, nor the jewelled 
 stomachers, which were the peculiar objects of the aversion of 
 State and Church, but the sensualising effect of all over-re- 
 finement in the decoration of the body. 
 
 If there is one thing more difficult than another, it is to say 
 where the line should be drawn between legitimate body- 
 decoration and meretricious adornment. When art-critics like 
 Schlegel are of opinion that the nude figure is far less allec- 
 tive than carefully arranged drapery, it is surely the height of 
 blind faith to entrust the State and its blundering machinery 
 to lay down the laws of propriety in the matter of dress. 
 What we should think indecent in this country is not thought . 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty, 89 
 
 indecent among the Zulus, and since the whole question is as 
 to the effect of certain costumes on certain persons, and since 
 those persons are the general public in any particular country, 
 one would imagine that the proper course to adopt would be 
 to leave the decision upon particular cases, as they crop up, to 
 that public. The public may be a bad judge or a biassed 
 judge, but at least it is a more suitable judge than a lumbering 
 State, working on general principles vaguer than a London 
 fog- 
 Again, recent modern attempts to 'purify' literature have 
 brought the whole crusade into derision, and made us the 
 laughing-stock of Europe. Yet all has been done with the 
 best intentions — even the prosecution of the sellers of Boc- 
 caccio's Decameron. 
 
 But there are moral questions in which the State concerns 
 itself, which do not fall under the heads of games, sports, nor 
 fine arts, such as drinking, opium-eating, tobacco-smoking, 
 and the use of other stimulants. These indulgences and arti- 
 ficial aids to sensual gratification have been and still are re- 
 gulated and harassed by the State. Nor is it so long ago that 
 the memory of man runneth not, since our own Government 
 made stringent rules as to the number of meals to be eaten by 
 the several grades of society. The Roman law actually speci- 
 fied the number of courses at each meal. An ancient English 
 writer refers with disgust to the then new-fangled cookery 
 which was coming into vogue in his day, ' all brenning like 
 wild-fire.' But I have yet to learn that gluttony is on the 
 decrease. And we have it on the highest medical authority 
 that more deaths and more diseases can be traced to over- 
 eating than to over-drinking, even in this tipphng country. 
 Nor have the laws enacted against sexual irregularities from 
 time immemorial up to this day diminished, much less stamped 
 out, the evil. We empty the casinos only to fill the streets, 
 and we clear the streets only to increase the number and de- 
 teriorate the quality of houses of ill-fame. And during both 
 processes we open the door to official black-mailing. The 
 good old saying that you cannot make people moral by Act of 
 Parliament has been, and still is, disregarded, but not with 
 8 
 
90 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 impunity. Surely the State, whicli has conspicuously failed 
 in every single department of moralisation by force, may be 
 wisely asked in future to mind its own business. 
 
 But is it not possible to fix our eyes too persistently and 
 fanatically on the State % Do we not sufier from other inter- 
 ferences quite as odious as the tyrannies of the Effective 
 Majority? Here is what Mr. Pickard said on the Eight- 
 hours question at the Miners' Conference at Birmingham 
 some months since. Somebody had pointed out that the 
 Union could themselves force short hours upon the em- 
 ployers, if need be, without calling upon the legislature. 
 ' If,' he replied, ' no bad result is to follow trade-union effort, 
 how is it possible for a bad result to follow the same arrange- 
 ment brought about by legislation ? ' Commenting on this 
 with approval. Justice, the organ of the Social Democratic 
 Federation, says : — 
 
 This is a question which Mr. John Morley and the rest of the politicians who 
 prate about the need for shorter working hours, while opposing the penal- 
 ising of over-work, should set themselves to answer. Obviously there is no 
 answer that will justify their position. If the limitation of the hours of 
 labour is wrong in principle, and mischievous, harmful, and destructive of 
 our national prosperity, it is just as much so whether effected by trade-union 
 effort or by legislation. 
 
 There is a soul of truth in this. Of course we may point 
 out firstly that the passing of a Bill for the purpose is no 
 proof that the majority of the persons primarily affected 
 really desire it, whereas the enforcement of the system by 
 trade-unionism is strong evidence that they do : and secondly, 
 that the legislature cannot effect these objects without simul- 
 taneously creating greater evils owing to the necessary opera- 
 tion of State machinery. But I venture to say that the 
 central truth of Mr. Pickard's remark lies a good deal deeper 
 than this. I think we individualists are apt to fix our eyes 
 too exclusively upon the State. Doubtless it is the greatest 
 transgressor. But after all, when analysed, it is only a com- 
 bination of numerous persons in a certain area claiming to 
 dictate to others in the same area what they shall do, and 
 what they shall not do. These numerous persons we call the 
 effective majority. It is precisely in the position of a cricket- 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 9 1 
 
 club, or a religious corporation, or any other combination of 
 men bound together by rules. At the present moment in this 
 country a bishop is being persecuted by the majority of his 
 co-religionists because he performs certain trifling rites. I 
 would ask the Church of England whether, in its own, in- 
 terest, — in the interest of the majority of its own members, — it 
 would not be wiser to repeal these socialistic rules against 
 practices perfectly harmless in themselves. Last year there 
 was a cause cilebre tried before the Jockey Club. Quite 
 apart from the outside interference of the State, this club can 
 and does sanction its own laws most effectively. It can ruin 
 any trainer or jockey whenever it chooses, that is to say, 
 whenever he violates the laws it has made. These laws, for- 
 tunately, are about as good as human nature is capable of, and 
 those who suffer under them richly deserve their fate. But it 
 might be otherwise. And even in this exemplary code there 
 is an element of despotism which might be dispensed with. 
 A jockey must not be an owner. Very good: the object is 
 clear, and the intention is excellent. Of course a jockey 
 ought not to expose himself to the temptation of riding an- 
 other man's horse so as to conduce to the success of his own. 
 No honourable man would yield to the temptation. On the 
 other hand, few owners would trust a jockey whose own 
 horse was entered for the same race. Now I venture to 
 submit that it would be better to leave the matter entirely 
 to the jockey's own choice, and to reserve the penalty for the 
 occasion where there is convincing evidence that the jockey 
 has abused his trust. A jockey charged with puUing, and 
 afterwards found interested as owner or part-owner or backer 
 of another horse in the same race, would then be dealt with 
 under the Jockey Club law, not before. I would strongly 
 advise a jockey to keep clear of ownership, and even of 
 betting (on any race ia which his services are engaged), but 
 I would not make an offence out of that which in itself is not 
 an offence, but which merely opens the door to temptation. 
 This has nothing whatever to do with the State or with 
 State law. It is entirely a question of what may, broadly 
 speaking, be called Lynch law. I have recently examined 
 
92 A Plea for Liberty. [ir. 
 
 the rules of some of the principal London clubs, and I find 
 that they are, many of them, largely socialistic. Unless I 
 am a member, I do not complain. I merely ask whether the 
 members themselves would not do wisely to widen their 
 liberties. The committee of a certain club had recently a 
 long and stormy discussion as to whether billiards should be 
 permitted on Sundays. In nineteen out of twenty clubs the 
 game is disallowed. The individualists predominated, and 
 the result is that those who do not want to play can refrain : 
 they are not compelled to play. Those who wish to play are 
 not compelled to refrain. 
 
 I can imagine a people with the State reduced to a shadow, — 
 a government attenuated to the administration of a very 
 tolerant criminal code,— and yet so deeply imbued with 
 socialism in all their minor combinations as to be a nation 
 of petty despots : a country where every social clique enforces 
 its own notions of Mrs. Grundy's laws, and where every club 
 tyrannises over its own members, fixing their politics and 
 religion, the limits of stakes, the hours of closing, and a count- 
 less variety of other matters. There is or was a club in 
 London where no meat is served on Fridays. There are 
 several in which card-players are limited to half-crown 
 points. There are many more where one card game is: per- 
 mitted and another prohibited. Whist is allowed at the 
 Carlton, but not poker. Then again the etiquette of the 
 professions is in many cases more irksome and despotic than 
 the law of the land. Medical men have been boycotted for 
 accepting small fees from impecunious patients. A barrister 
 who should accept a brief from a client without the inter- 
 mediary expense of a solicitor would sink to swim no more : 
 although the solicitor's services might be absolutely worthless. 
 Consider also the rules of the new Trade-unionism. I need not 
 go into these. The freedom, not only of voluntary members, 
 but of citizens outside the ring, is utterly trampled under foot. 
 And this brings us back to Mr. Pickard and the soul of truth in 
 his argument. I aflSrm that a people might utterly abolish 
 and extirpate the State, and yet remain steeped to the lips in 
 socialism of the most revolting type. And I think, as I have 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 93 
 
 said, it is time for those of us who value freedom and detest 
 despotism, from whatever quarter it emanates, to ask ourselves 
 what are the true principles of Lynch law. Suppose, for 
 example, there was no State to appeal to for protection 
 against a powerful ruffian, what should I do ? Most certainly 
 I should combine with others no stronger than myself, and 
 overpower the ruffian by superior brute-force. Ought I to do 
 this ? Ought I not rather to allow the survival of the fittest 
 to improve the physique of the race — even at my expense? 
 If not, then ought I to combine with others against the free- 
 dom of the sly pick-pocket, who through his superior dex- 
 terity and agility and cool courage prevails over me, and 
 appropriates my watch, without any exercise of brute force 1 
 Ai-e not these qualities useful to the race ? Then why should 
 I conspire with others against the harmless sneak who puts 
 chicory in his coffee ? If I do not like his coffee, I can go 
 and buy somebody else's? If he chooses to offer me stone 
 for bread at fourpence a pound, and if I am foolish enough to 
 take it at the price, I shall learn to be wiser in future, or else 
 perish of starvation and rid the race of a fool. Then again 
 why should I not conspire ? Or are there some sorts of com- 
 bination which are good, and properly called co-operation, 
 while others are bad, and properly called conspiracy? Let us 
 look a little into this matter of combination, — this arraying of 
 Quantity against Quality. 
 
 Hooks and eyes are very useful. Hooks are useless ; eyes 
 are useless. Yet in combination they are useful. This is 
 co-operation. Where you have division of labour, and con- 
 sequent differentiation of function, and eventually of struc- 
 ture, there is co-operation. Certain tribes of ants have 
 working members and fighting members. The military caste 
 are unable to collect food, which is provided for them by the 
 other members of the community, in return for which they 
 devote themselves to the defence of the whole society. But 
 for these soldiers the society would perish. If either class 
 perished, the other class would perish with it. It is the old 
 fable of the belly and the limbs. 
 
 Division of labour does not always result in differentiation 
 
94 A Plea for Liberty. [it. 
 
 of structure. In the case of bees and many other insects -we 
 know that it does. Among mammals beyond the well- 
 marked structural division into male and female, the ten- 
 dency to fixed structural changes is very slight. In races 
 where caste prevails, the tendency is more marked. Even 
 in England, where caste is extinct, it has been observed 
 among the mining population of Northumbria. And the 
 notorious short-sightedness of Germans has been set down to 
 compulsory book-study. As a general rule, we may neglect 
 this effect of co-operation among human beings. The fact 
 remains that the organised effort of loo individuals is a very 
 great deal more effective than the sum of the efforts of loo 
 unorganised individuals. Co-operation is an unmixed good. 
 And the Ishmaelitic anarchy of the bumble-bee is uneconomic. 
 Hostility to the principle of co-operation (upon which society is 
 founded) is usually attributed by the ignorant to philosophical 
 anarchists, while socialists never weary of pointing to the 
 glorious triumphs of co-operation, and claiming them for 
 socialism. Whenever a number of persons join hands with 
 the object of effecting a purpose otherwise unattainable, we 
 have what is tantamount to a new force, — the force of com- 
 bination ; and the persons so combining, regarded as a single 
 body, may be called by a name, — any name : a Union, an 
 Association, a Club, a Company, a Corporation, a State. I do 
 not say all these terms denote precisely the same thing, but 
 they all connote co-operation. 
 
 Let the State be now abolished for the purposes of this 
 discussion. How do we stand? We have by no means 
 abolished all the clubs and companies in which citizens find 
 themselves grouped and inter banded. There they all are, just 
 as before, — nay, there are a number of new ones, suddenly 
 sprung up out of the debris of the old State. Here are some 
 eighty men organised in the form of a cricket-club. They 
 may not pitch the ball as they like, but only in accordance 
 with rigid laws. They elect a king or captain, and they bind 
 themselves to obey him in the field. A member is told off 
 to field at long-on, although he may wish to field at point. 
 He must obey the despot. 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 95 
 
 Here is a ring of horsemen. They ride races. They back 
 their own horses. Disputes arise about fouling, or perhaps 
 the course is a curve and some rider takes a short cut ; or 
 the weights of the riders are unequal, and the heavier rider 
 claims to equalise the weights. All such matters are laid 
 before a committee, and rules are drawn up by which all the 
 members of the little racing club pledge themselves to be 
 bound. The club grows : other riding or racing men join it 
 or adopt its rules. At last, so good are its laws that they are 
 accepted by all the racing fraternity ia the island, and all 
 racing disputes are settled by the rules of the Jockey Club. 
 And even the judges of the land defer to them, and refer 
 points of racing law to the club. 
 
 Here again is a knot of whalers on the beach of a stormy 
 sea. Each trembles for the safety of his own vessel. He 
 would give something to be rid of his own uneasiness. All 
 his eggs are in one basket. He would willingly distribute 
 them over many baskets. He offers to take long odds that 
 his own vessel is lost. He repeats the offer till the long odds 
 cover the value of his ship and cargo, and perhaps profits and 
 time. ' Now/ says he, ' I am comfortable : it is true, I forfeit 
 a small percentage ; but if my whole craft goes to the bottom 
 I lose nothing.' He laughs and sings, while the others go 
 croaking about the sands, shaking their heads and looking 
 fearfully at the breakers. At last they all follow his example, 
 and the nett result is a Mutual Marine Insurance Society. 
 After a while they lay the odds, not with their own members 
 only, but with others ; and the risk being over-estimated 
 (naturally at first), they make large dividends. But now 
 difficulties arise. The captain of a whaler has thrown cargo 
 overboard in a heavy sea. The owner claims for the loss. 
 The company declines to pay, on the ground that the loss was 
 voluntarily caused by the captain and not by the hand of 
 God or the king's enemies ; and that there would be no limit 
 to jettison if the claim were allowed. Other members meet 
 with similar difficulties, and finally rules are made which 
 provide for all known contingencies. And when any dispute 
 arises, the chosen umpire (whether it be a mutual friend, or 
 
96 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 an agora-full of citizens, or a department of State, or any other 
 person or body of persons) refers to the common practice and 
 precedents so far as they apply. In other words, the rules of 
 the Insurance Society are the law of the land. In spite of the 
 State, this is so to-day to a considerable extent ; I may say, in 
 all matters which have not been botched and cobbled by statute. 
 
 There is another class of club springing out of the altruistic 
 sentiment. An old lady takes compassion on a starving cat 
 (no uncommon sight in the West End of London after the 
 Season). She puts a saucer of milk and some liver on the 
 door-step. She is soon recognised as a benefactress, and 
 the cats for a mile round swarm to her threshold. The 
 saucers increase and multiply, and the liver is an item in her 
 butcher's biU. The strain is too great to be borne single- 
 handed. She issues a circular appeal, and she is surprised to 
 find how many are wiUing to contribute a fair share, although 
 their sympathy shrivels up before an unfair demand. They 
 are willing to be taxed pro rata, but they will not bear the 
 burden of other people's stinginess. ' Let the poor cats bear 
 it rather,' they say ; ' what is everybody's business is nobody's 
 business. It is very sad, but it cannot be helped. If we keep 
 one cat, hundreds will starve ; so what is the use "i ' But 
 when once the club is started, nobody feels the burden ; the 
 Cats' Home is built and endowed, and all goes weU. Hospitals, 
 infirmaries, alms-houses, orphanages, spring up aU round. At 
 first they are reckless and indiscriminate, and become the 
 prey of impostors and able-bodied vagrants. Then rules are 
 framed; the Charity Organisation Society co-ordinates and 
 directs public benevolence. And these rules of prudence and 
 economy are copied and adopted, in many respects, by those 
 who administer the State Poor Law. 
 
 Then we have associations of persons who agree on im- 
 portant points of science or politics. They wish to make 
 others think with them, in order that society may be 
 pleasanter and more congenial for themselves. They would 
 button-hole every man in the street and argue the question 
 out with him, but the process is too lengthy and wearisome. 
 They club together, and form such institutions as the British 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 97 
 
 and Foreign Bible Society, which has spent ^7,000,000 
 in disseminating its literature all over the world. We have 
 the Cohden Club, which is slowly and sadly dying of incon- 
 sistency after a career of merited success. We have scientific 
 societies of all descriptions that never ask or expect a penny 
 reward for all their outlay, beyond making other people 
 wiser and pleasanter neighbours. 
 
 Finally, we have societies banded together to do battle 
 against rivals on the principle of 'Union is strength.' These 
 clubs are defensive or aggressive. The latter class includes 
 all trading associations, the object of which is to make profits 
 by out-manceuvering competitors. The former or defensive 
 class includes all the political societies formed for the purpose 
 of resisting the State, — the most aggressive club in existence. 
 Over one hundred of these ' protection societies ' of one sort 
 and another are now federated under the hegemony of the 
 Liberty and Property Defence League. 
 
 Now we have agreed, for the sake of argument, that the 
 State is to be abolished. What is the result? Here are 
 Watch Committees formed in the great towns to prevent and 
 to ensure against burglars, thieves, and like marauders. How 
 they are to be constituted I do not clearly know ; neither do' 
 I know the limits of their functions. Here, again, is a 
 Mutual Liquest Society to provide for the examination of 
 dead persons before burial or cremation, in order to make 
 murder as unprofitable a business as possible. Here is a 
 Vigilance Association sending out detectives for the purpose 
 of discovering and lynching the unsocial wretches who know- 
 ingly travel in public conveyances with infectious diseases on 
 them. Here is a journal supported by consumers for the 
 advertisement of adulterating dealers. And here again is a 
 filibustering company got up by adventurous traders, of the 
 old East Lidia Company stamp, for the purpose of carrying 
 trade into foreign countries with or without the consent of 
 the invaded parties. Here is a Statistical Society devising 
 rules to make it unpleasant for those who evade registration 
 and the census, and offering inducement to all who furnish 
 the required information. What sort of organisation (if any) 
 
98 A Plea for Liberty. [11. 
 
 will be formed for the enforcement (not necessarily by brute 
 force) of contract ? Or will there be many such organisatiors 
 dealing with different classes of contract? Will there be 
 a Wom.an's League to boycott any man who has abused the 
 confidence of a woman and violated his pledges ? How will 
 it try and sanction cases of breach of promise % 
 
 Above all, how is this powerful company for the defence of 
 the country against foreign invaders to be constituted ? And 
 what safeguards will its members provide against the tyranny 
 of the officials? When a Senator proposed to limit the 
 standing army of the United States to three thousand, George 
 Washington agreed, on condition that the honourable member 
 would arrange that the country should never be invaded by 
 more than two thousand. Frankenstein .created a monster 
 he could not lay. This will be a nut for anarchists of the 
 future to crack. 
 
 And now, to revert to the Vigilance Society formed for 
 lynching persons who travel about in public places with 
 small-pox and scarlatina, what rules will they make for their 
 guidance? Suppose they dub every unvaccinated person a 
 ' focus of infection/ shall we witness the establishment of a 
 'Vigilance Society to punch the heads of the detectives who 
 punch the heads of the 'foci of infection?' Remember we 
 have both those societies in full working order to-day. One 
 is called the State, and the other is the Anti- Vaccination 
 Society. 
 
 The questions which I should wish to ask are chiefly these 
 two: — (1) How far may voluntary co-operators invade the 
 liberty of others? And what* is to prevent such invasion 
 under a system of anarchy? (2) Is compulsory co-operation 
 ever desirable? And what form (if any) should such com- 
 pulsion take ? 
 
 The existing State is obviously only a conglomeration 
 of several large societies which would exist separately or 
 collectively in its absence ; if the State were abolished, these 
 associations would necessarily spring up out of its ruins, just 
 as the nations of Europe sprang out of the ruins of the Roman 
 Empire. They would apparently lack the power of com- 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 99 
 
 pulsion. No one would be compelled to join against his will. 
 Take the ordinary case of a gas-lit street. Would a voluntary 
 gas-committee be willing to light the street without somehow 
 taxing all the dwellers in the street ? If yes, then there is 
 inequity. The generous and public-spirited pay for the stingy 
 and mean. But if no, then how is the taxing to be accom- 
 plished ? And where is the line to be drawn % If you compel 
 a man to pay for lighting the street, when he swears he 
 prefers it dark (a householder may really prefer a dark street 
 to a light one, if he goes to bed at sunset, and wants the 
 traffic to be diverted into other streets to ensure his peace) ; 
 then you will compel him to subscribe to the Watch fund, 
 though his house is burglar-proof; and to the fire-brigade, 
 though his house is fire-proof ; and to the prisons as part of 
 the plant and tools of the Watch Committee ; and, it may 
 logically be urged, to the churches and schools as part also of 
 such plant and tools for the prevention of certain crimes. 
 
 Moreover, if you compel him to subscribe for the gas in the 
 street, you must make him pay his share of the street itself — 
 paving, repairing, and cleansing, and if the street, then the 
 highway ; and if the highway, then the railway, and the 
 canal, and the bridges, and even the harbours and light- 
 houses, and other common apparatus of transport and loco- 
 motion. 
 
 If we are not going to compel a citizen to subscribe to 
 coniTnon benefits, even though he necessarily shares them, 
 how are we to remove the injustice of allowing one man to 
 enjoy what another has earned 1 Some writers ^ are of opinion 
 that this and all similar questions can be settled by an appeal 
 to Justice, and that the justice of any particular case can be 
 extracted by a dozen jurymen. Now, in all sincerity, I have no 
 conception of what is commonly meant by Justice. Happiness 
 I know ; welfare I know ; expediency I know. They all mean 
 the same thing. We can call it pleasure, or felicity, or by any 
 other name. We never ask why it is better to be happy 
 than unhappy. We understand pleasure and pain by faculties 
 
 ' See Mr. Spence's contribution to the Symposium on the Lcmd Question, p. 42, 
 1890 (T. Fisher TJnwin). 
 
lOO A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 •which underlie reason, itself. A child knows the meaning 
 of stomach-ache long before it knows the meaning of stomach. 
 And no philosopher knows it better. Expediency, in the 
 sense in which I use the term, has a meaning. Justice has no 
 meaning at all : that is to say, it conveys no definite meaning 
 to the general understanding. Here is a flat-race about to be 
 run between a strong, healthy boy of sixteen and a delicate 
 lad of twelve? What says Justice? Are we to handicap 
 them ; or are we not ? It is a very simple question, and the 
 absolutist ought to furnish us with a simple answer. If he 
 says Yes, he will have half the world down upon him as a 
 socialist leveller. If he says No, he will have the other half 
 down upon him as a selfish brute. But he must choose. 
 Lower yet ; — even supposing that Justice has a distinct con- 
 no£ation, and furthermore that it connotes something sublime, 
 even then, why should I conform to its dictates ? Because it 
 is a virtue ? Nonsense : because it is expedient. Why should 
 I tell the truth ? There is no reason why, except that it is 
 expedient for me, as I know from experience. There is no 
 baser form of lying than fiy -fishing. Is it wrong ? No. .Why 
 not? Because I do not ask the fishes to trust me in the 
 future. That is why. 
 
 I have said that Justice is too vague a guide to the solution 
 of political questions. We are told that, when the question is 
 asked. What is fair and just between man and man? 'you 
 can get a jury of twelve men to give a unanimous verdict.' 
 And ' that by reasoning from what is fair between man and 
 man we can pass to what is fair between one man and several, 
 and from several, to aU : and that this method, which is the 
 method of all science, of reasoning from the particular to the 
 general, from the simple to the complex, does gives us reliable 
 information as to what should be law^.' 
 
 The flaw in this chain of reasoning is in the assumption 
 that, because you can get a unanimous verdict in the majority 
 of cases as to what is fair between man and man, therefore 
 you can get a true verdict. Twelve sheep will unanimously 
 
 ' SymposiiAm on the Land Question. 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. loi 
 
 jump through a gap in the hedge round an old quarry, if one 
 of them will but give the lead. I do not believe that a jury 
 of twelve philosophers, or of twelve members of Parliament, 
 or of twelve judges of the realm, or of twelve anybodies, could 
 decide correctly what is just and right between man and man 
 in any one of a thousand cases which could be stated without 
 deviating from the path of everyday life. And the more they 
 knew, the less likely they would be to agree. 
 
 The same writer thinks the intelligence of the 'ordinary 
 elector' quite sufficient to tell him that ' it would be unjust to 
 take from a man by force and without compensation a farm 
 which he had legally and honestly bought.' Well, this is not 
 a very complex case : and yet I doubt whether ' the ordinary 
 elector' could be trusted even here to see justice, and to do it. 
 This recipe for making good laws forcibly reminds me of an 
 old recipe for catching a bird : ' Put a pinch of salt on its tail.' 
 I remember trying it, — but that is some years ago. I grant 
 that, having once got at a sound method of deciding what is 
 fair and right between man and man, you can easily proceed 
 from the particular to the general, and so learn how to make 
 good laws. Tes, but first catch your hare. First show us what 
 is fair between man and man. That is the whole problem. 
 That is my difficulty, and it is not removed by telling me you 
 can get a dozen fellows together who will agree about the 
 answer. 
 
 Take a very simple case. X and Y appoint me arbitrator 
 in their dispute. There is no allegation of malfeasance on 
 either side. Both ask for justice, and are ready to accord it, 
 but they cannot agree as to what is justice in the case. It 
 appears that X bought a pony bona fide and paid for it. That 
 is admitted. It further appears that the pony was stolen the 
 night before out of Y's paddock. It is hard on Y to lose his 
 pony — ^it is hard on X to lose his money. To divide the loss 
 is hard on both. Now how can Justice tell me the true solu- 
 tion ? I must fall back on expediency. As a rule, I argue, 
 the title to goods should be valid only when derived from the 
 owner. But surely an exception should be made in the case 
 of a bona fide purchaser : ' for it is expedient that the buyer, 
 
I02 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 by taking proper precautions, may at all events be secure 
 of bis purchase: otherwise all commerce between man and 
 man would soon be at an end.' These are the words of Sir 
 William Blackstone, but they are good enough for me. There- 
 fore (and not for any reason based on justice) I should feel 
 disposed to decide that the pony should remain the property 
 of the purchaser. Eut on further reflection, I should bethink 
 me how extremely easy it would be for two men to conspire 
 together to steal a pony under such a law. One of them leads 
 the pony out of the field by night, sells it to his colleague, 
 gives ViiTTi a receipt for the money, and disappears. Is this 
 farce to destroy the owner's title ? What am I to do ? Jus- 
 tice entirely deserts me. I reflect again. There seems to be 
 something ' fishy' about a night sale in a lane. Now had the 
 purchaser bought the pony at some public place at a reason- 
 able hour when people are about, there would have been less 
 ground for suspicion of foul play. How would it be then, I 
 ask myself, to lay down the general rule that, when the deal 
 takes place at any regular public place and during specified 
 hours, the purchaser's title should hold good : but when the 
 deal takes place under other circumstances, the original owner's 
 title should stand ? This would probably be something like 
 the outcome of the reflections of a simple untutored mind ac- 
 tuated by common sense. But it is also very like the law of 
 England. 
 
 If I appeal for guidance to the wise, the best they can do is 
 to refer me to the writings of the lawyers, where I shall find 
 out all about market overt and a good many other ' wise re- 
 gulations by which the law hath secured the right of the pro- 
 prietor of personal chattels from being divested, so far as is 
 consistent with that other necessary policy that honajide pur- 
 chasers in a fair, open, and regular manner should not be 
 afterwards put to difficulties by reason of the previous knavery 
 of the seller ^' But we have not got to the bottom of the 
 problem yet. There are chattels atid chattels. Tables have 
 legs, but cannot walk: horses can. Thereby hangs a tale. 
 Consequently when I think I have mastered all these ' wise 
 
 ' Blackstone. 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 103 
 
 regulations,' I am suddenly knocked ofiF my stool of superior 
 knowledge by a couple of elderly statutes — 3 P. & M. c. 7 
 and 31 Eliz. c. 1% — whereby special provision is made for 
 horse-deaJing. It is enacted that — 
 
 The horses shall be openly exposed in the tune of such fair or market for 
 one whole hour together, between ten in the morning and sunset, in the 
 public place used for such sales, and not in any private yard or stable ; and 
 shall afterwards be brought by both the vendor and vendee to the book- 
 keeper of such fair or market, who shall enter down the price, colour, and 
 marks of such horse, with the name, additions, and abode of such vendee and 
 vendor, the latter being properly attested. And even such sale shall not take 
 away the property of the owner, if within six months after the horse is stolen, 
 he put in his claim before some magistrate where the horse shall be found ; 
 and within forty days more prove such his property, by the oath of two wit- 
 nesses, and tender to the person in possession such price as he }xma fide paid 
 for the horse in market overt. And in case any of the points before men- 
 tioned be not observed, such sale is to be utterly void, and the owner shall 
 not lose his property ; and at any distance of time may seize or bring an 
 action for his horse, wherever he happens to find him. 
 
 And further refinements on these precautions have since 
 been made. 
 
 I do not say that we need approve of all these safeguards 
 and rules, but I do say that they testify to a perception by 
 the legislature of the complexity and difiiculty of the 
 question. And furthermore, if anybody offers to decide such 
 cases off-hand on general principles, and at the same time 
 to do justice, he must be a bold man. For my part, the 
 more I look into the law as it is, the more do I see in it of 
 wisdom (not unadulterated of course) drawn from experience. 
 The little obstacles which have from time to time shadowed 
 themselves upon my mind as difficulties in the way of apply- 
 ing clear and unqualified general rules to the solution of all 
 social disputes, are brought into fuller light, and I perceive 
 more and more clearly how hopeless, nay, how impossible it 
 is to deduce the laws of social morality from broad general 
 principles ; and how absolutely necessary it is to obtain them 
 by induction from the myriads of actual cases which the race 
 has had to solve somehow or other during the last half-dozen 
 millenniums. 
 
 I regard law-making as by no means an easy task wheny 
 based on expediency. On the contrary, I think it difficult, 
 
I04 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 but practicable : whereas to deduce good laws from the prin- 
 ciple of Justice is impossible. 
 
 One word more about Justice. I have said that to most 
 people the term is absolutely meaningless. To those who 
 have occasional glimmerings, it conveys two distinct and 
 even opposed meanings — sometimes one, sometimes the other. 
 And it has a third meaning, which is definite enough, but 
 merely negative ; in which sense it connotes the elimination 
 of partiality. I fail to see how any political question can be 
 settled by that. That the State should be no respecter of 
 persons, that it should decide any given case in precisely the 
 same way, whether the litigants happen to be A and B or 
 G and -D, may be a valuable truth, without casting a ray of 
 light on the right and wrong of the question. 
 
 In this negative sense of the term I will venture to define 
 Justice as the Algebra of Judgments. It deals in terms not 
 of Dick, Tom, and Harry, but of X, Y, and Z. Eegarded in 
 this light, Justice may properly be described as blind, a 
 quality which certainly cannot be predicated of that Justice 
 which carefully examines the competitors in life's arena and 
 handicaps them accordingly. Consider the countless ques- 
 tions which Impartiality is incompetent to answer. Ought a 
 father to be coinpelled to contribute to the maintenance of 
 his natural children ? The only answer we can get from 
 Impartiality is that, if one man is forced, all men should 
 be forced. Should a man be permitted to sell himself into 
 slavery for life ? Should the creditors of an insolvent rank 
 in order of priority, or pro rata'i Suppose a notorious 
 card-sharper and a gentleman of unblemished character are 
 publicly accused, untruly accused, of conspiring together to 
 -^ cheat, should they obtain equal damages for the libel? 
 
 To all these questions Impartiality is dumb, or replies 
 oracularly, 'What is right for one is right for all.' And 
 that throws no light on the subject. 
 
 In short, it is easy to undeiTate the difficulty of finding 
 out what is fair and right between man and man. To me 
 it seems that this is the whole of the difficulty. And 
 although I think that this can best be overcome by an 
 
II.] The Limits of Liberty. 105 
 
 appeal to expediency, I must not be understood as con- 
 tending that each particular case must be decided on its 
 merits. We must be guided, as we are guided in our own 
 personal conduct, by middle principles which have stood the 
 test of time and experience. Lo not steal. Do not lie. It 
 is by the gradual discovery of similar middle principles by 
 induction from the disputes of everyday life that we shall 
 some day find ourselves in possession of true and useful 
 guides through the labyrinth of legislation and politics. 
 
 To sum up ; I have tried to show that the right course for the 
 State to adopt towards its own citizens — Group-morals — 
 cannot be discovered by deduction from any abstract prin- 
 ciples, such as Justice or Liberty ; any more than individual 
 morals can be deduced from some underlying law of Virtue. 
 The rules of conduct by which States should be guided are 
 intelligible canons based on centuries of experience, very 
 much Eke the rules by which our own private lives are 
 guided ; not absolutely trustworthy, but better than no 
 general rules at all. They are usually described as the laws 
 of the land, and in so far as the expressed laws really do reflect 
 the nomological laws actually at work, these laws stand in the 
 same relation to the State as private resolutions stand to the 
 individual citizen. In law, as in all other inductive sciences, 
 we proceed from the particular to the general. The judge 
 decides a new case on its merits, the decision serves as a guide 
 when a similar case arises ; the ratio decidendi is extracted, 
 and we have a general statement ; these generalisations are 
 themselves brought under higher generalisations by jurists 
 and judges, and perhaps Parliament ; and finally we find our- 
 selves in the presence of laws or State-morals as general as 
 those cardinal virtues by which most of us try to arrange our 
 lives. That the generalisations made by the legislature are 
 usually false generalisations is a proposition which, I submit, 
 is capable of proof and of explanation. It is wise to obey the 
 laws, firstly, because otherwise we come into conflict with a 
 stronger power than ourselves ; secondly, because in the great -J 
 majority of cases, it is our enlightened interest to do so ; the 
 welfare of individual citizens coinciding as a rule with the 
 
io6 A Plea for Liberty. [ii. 
 
 welfare of the race, and tending to do so more and more. 
 History shows that (probably as a means to that end ; though 
 of this we cannot speak positively) the State's sphere of action 
 is a diminishing one — that as it moves forward, it tends to shed 
 function after function, until only a few are left. Whether 
 these duties will pass into the hands of voluntary corporations 
 at any time is a question of the greatest interest; but it is 
 observable that the latest functions remaining to the State 
 are those which are most rigorously performed. And this 
 seems to point to the future identity of the State (in the 
 sense of the sovereign power) with the widest voluntary 
 association of citizens — an association based on some common 
 interest of the widest extent. Thus it is probable that even 
 now an enormous majority of persons in this country would 
 voluntarily forego the right of killing or robbing their neigh- 
 tours on condition of being guaranteed against similar treat- 
 ment by others. If so, the voluntary society which Anarchy 
 would evolve and the State which ancient Socialism has 
 evolved, tend in the long run to be one and the same thing. 
 The State will cease to coerce, because coercion will no longer 
 be required. 
 
 WOEDSWOBTH DONISTHOEPE. 
 
III. 
 
 LIBEBTY FOB LABOUB, 
 
 GEORGE HOWELL. 
 
III. 
 
 LIBERTY FOR. LABOUR. 
 
 Few subjects have more profoundly exercised the minds of 
 philosophic thinkers than the question as to the rightful sphere 
 of law, in its application to daily life and labour. It is, 
 indeed, an old, old tale, the threads of which are to be found 
 running through all the centuries of British history, from 
 Saxon times to our own days, in this year of grace, 1890. The 
 warp of legal enactment was laid in the Ordinances of the 
 Guilds, the weft being skilfully woven in by the shuttle of 
 legislation in various reigns, until it produced the fabric 
 known as ' Statute Law.' The earlier conception of the sphere 
 of law was the restraint of lawlessness and brute force. Its 
 second development was the limitation of power and authority, 
 which had been used to limit liberty, and restrain individual 
 freedom. It has taken long ages to repeal the Acts passed for 
 the suppression of personal liberty, and to restrict within 
 reasonable limits the exercise of authority created by statute. 
 But liberty and lawlessness should not be confounded, one 
 with the other; they are separate and distinct, legally and 
 morally. Individual liberty is consistent with law and order, 
 and the ideal of a State is reached in proportion to the in- 
 dividual libei-ty attained, and the order which is maintained, 
 in the commonwealth of a free people. State regulation was 
 the third step in legislative achievement, but it developed 
 early, and ran concurrently with the attempts to restrain 
 individual liberty ; with this difference, however, that the con- 
 ception of regulation originated with the governed rather than 
 with the governors, as the Ordinances of the Guilds testify. 
 The work of succeeding generations has been to undo the 
 
no A Plea for Liberty. [m. 
 
 mischief of State regulation ; but the present century has been 
 distinguished also by the substitution of other kinds of regu- 
 lation in the place of that repealed. 
 
 It cannot be denied that individual liberty necessitates 
 regulation, which, after all, means restraint. Each person in 
 the State must be restrained from infringing upon^ or inter- 
 fering with, the hberty of another, all being equally protected 
 in the exercise of their undoubted rights, constitutional and 
 moral. But State Law,^ or legislation, cannot reach, nor should 
 it reachj all the details, trivialities, or incidents of private life. 
 Above and beyond law, there exist mutual restraints, for 
 mutual protection, developed by civilised communities, and 
 embodied in what may be called a code of Social Laws, all the 
 more powerful and exacting, perhaps, by reason of the fact 
 that they are unwritten laws, similar in one respect to what is 
 termed the Common Law. ' Society ' is a law unto itself, as 
 the ' family ' is a law unto itself. There are, however, breaches 
 of the law which neither the family nor society can reach and 
 adequately punish. The Common Law, and the Statute law, 
 are designed to reach and punish offences not effectually dealt 
 with in any other way. How far these should operate and 
 extend, is a matter of opinion, upon which there is great 
 divergence among all classes. There is, however, a general 
 consensus of opinion that law, properly so called, should enter 
 ^s little as possible into the domain of every-day life. In the 
 privacies of ordinary life there is a limit which instiact seems 
 to indicate as a kind of boundary line, beyond which legis- 
 lation should not extend. The tendency has hitherto been to 
 stop short at such point, or to deal cautiously with any and 
 every proposal to go beyond it. Recently, the tendency to 
 extend the boundary has developed enormously, to such a 
 degree, in fact, that ;t is doubtful whether, in the opinion 
 of many, there should be any boundary line at all. The efface- 
 ment of the individual seems to be their aim, the merging of 
 the man into the mass ; the fusion of atoms into a solid con- 
 crete body, moved and movable only by the State. 
 
 The principal object of the following pages is to deal with 
 law as applied to labour, or the interference by the State with 
 
III.] Liberty for Labour. 1 1 1 
 
 the individual man in the exercise of his skill, intelligence, 
 faculties, and strength, for the purpose of getting his living, 
 increasing his store, and promoting his own and his family's 
 prosperity and happiness in his own way, so long as he does 
 not interfere, de facto, with his neighbour. To the latter, as a 
 matter of fact and of argument, reference will be more specifi- 
 cally made further on. In order to understand the question in 
 all its bearings, it is essential to trace the origin and growth 
 of legislative interference, the roots of which lie deeply buried 
 in the past. The tree has been lopped here and there, but 
 while its branches have been cut, the roots have expanded, 
 and these have sprung up, with even greater luxuriance, bearing 
 fruit after its kind, and sometimes of a kind which seemed 
 foreign to its nature and the character of the soil out of which 
 it grew. 
 
 I. The earlier interference with labour was by mutual 
 consent and arrangement in the old guilds, for the mutual 
 protection of its members, each being responsible for each, and 
 all for all, as regards conduct, support, protection, and advance- 
 ment. The guild was also responsible to the State, the frank- 
 pledge being accepted in all cases. As society expanded, and 
 newer developments arose which could not bo dealt with by 
 the associated members in the guild, ordinances were enacted, 
 by which the members were bound to abide, whether or not 
 they were within the district in which the guild existed and 
 exercised jurisdiction. Those earlier guilds subsequently 
 expanded into fraternities, generally composed of similar 
 classes, each class or fraternity having objects in common, for 
 the benefit of aU. These again extended in their turn, until 
 we find associated guilds, or fraternities of the same class or 
 classes, with ramifications in various parts of the country, and 
 sometimes even in other countries, in different parts of the 
 world. As time wore on there arose separate guilds of 
 distinctive classes, the political element finding a place in their 
 deliberations and determinations. The earlier social guild 
 was not restricted to a class, or to a section. The Merchants' 
 Guild was an off-shoot, sectional and restrictive. The 
 Burghers' Guild contested for political rights ; they sought for 
 
112 A Plea for Liberty. [in. 
 
 equal privileges with the feudal barons in the government 
 of the townships. From these sprang into existence the 
 Craft-Guilds, in which the workmen sought equal rights with 
 the merchants and burghers of the towns. 
 
 Those guilds were essentially protective. They sought the 
 welfare of the particular individuals of which the guild was 
 composed, or of the section or class to which they belonged ; 
 and they sought to perpetuate their advantages, their craft- 
 rights, and their privileges as distinctively as the peerage does 
 by descent of title, of lands, and of other entailed or devised- 
 property incident thereto. The guilds were a law unto them- 
 selves, but they enforced their ordinances and guild statutes 
 upon others not in their own circle. Many of their objects 
 were good, and were excellently administered ; but they had 
 in them the seeds of decay, even at tlieir birth. The very life- 
 germ of their existence was exclusion ; and they grew more and 
 more exclusive as time went on, until they became little less 
 than mere corporate trading associations, whose object was the 
 monopoly of power and authority over all the crafts of the 
 time, and the enjoyment of all the privileges and immunities 
 which that power and authority gave, quite irrespective of all 
 and sundry outside the guild. Socialistic in their origin and 
 birth, these fraternities degenerated into intolerable monopolies, 
 cliques, and factions, even to the defiance of law, order, and 
 custom, being often their own avengers in case of wrong, or 
 supposed wrong, wresting privileges where they could, and 
 purchasing them when they could not, until their final sup- 
 pression in the reign of the Tudors. 
 
 By such institutions, under what may be described as 
 primeval conditions, in the very infancy of society and of 
 industry in this country, the ordinances and statutes respect- 
 ing labour were first formulated and promulgated. As time 
 wore on, and the conditions of society and of life changed, 
 those ordinances did not fit the circumstances of the times. 
 They were not expansive enough; there was no elasticity in 
 them. It is, indeed, extremely doubtful whether the industry 
 of modern England could have developed to any large extent 
 under the guUd system. The guilds were too clannish to be 
 
III.] Liberty for Labour. 113 
 
 national, and too limited in their scope to be cosmopolitan. 
 When they were instituted they doubtless fulfilled their 
 mission. They enlarged the family and its responsibilities to 
 groups of families, then to a class. But diversified interests 
 arose as soon as the expansion began; and those diversified 
 interests became more and more distinctive and accentuated 
 with each inclusion, until the original guild split into frag- 
 ments, which fragments established their own guild. The 
 formulas and regulations which were accepted by the initial 
 guilds did not completely satisfy the needs and aspirations of 
 the coteries which the extended family embraced, and they 
 became irksome whenever they were applied to, and were 
 enforced upon, persons and families beyond the range of the 
 exclusive circle by which they were instituted and promulgated. 
 Secession followed ; new combinations arose ; other guilds 
 were established, and contentions were rife, as to the incidence of 
 power and authority, in a variety of forms. The battles of the 
 guilds form an instructive chapter in the history of association, 
 and especially as identified with labour, compared with which 
 the contentions of trade-unions sink into insignificance, bitter 
 as some of the feuds have been among the unions of modern 
 times. 
 
 II. The ordinances of the guilds ultimately gave birth to 
 statute laws pertaining to labour. The earlier Labour Laws, 
 such as the Statutes of Labourers, directly resulted from their 
 action. It was but the natural outcome of regulation, the 
 fruit after its kind. Figs do not gi-ow on thorns, nor grapes 
 on thistles — thorns grow thorns, and thistles, thistles. The 
 attempts to fix the price of labour, to limit the number of 
 labourers in a particular industry, to regulate by ordinance or 
 ofiicial sanction the hours of work, and to restrict the indi- 
 vidual rights of the labourers, produced a reaction, which re- 
 action found vent in counter-statutory enactment, the results 
 of which continued to operate for centuries. For a long 
 period, the ordinances of the guilds and legal statutory 
 enactments ran side by side. Sometimes they had the same 
 objects, and operated concurrently ; at other times they were 
 opposed to each other, the one being a check upon the other. 
 
114 A Plea for Liberty. [iii. 
 
 One effect of their operation was to establish customs which 
 had the force of law. Those dual forms of regulation con- 
 tinued in various, and often diversified forms, until the ' disso- 
 lution of the monasteries,' and the final suppression of the 
 guilds. It was not until after that date that legislative 
 enactment supplanted the ordinances of the guilds, and 
 usurped their functions. If the legislature of that period had 
 resisted the prompted inducements to an interference with 
 labour, and had restricted its action to such provisions as would 
 have ensured freedom to all, and protection to each, in the 
 exercise of that freedom, many of the evils of what is termed 
 grandmotherly legislation would have been averted. The 
 modem forms of interference are the direct result, the natural 
 and inevitable result, of conditions which were created by 
 State regulation, following upon the failure of corporate regu- 
 lation as imposed by the craft-guilds of the middle ages. 
 
 Legal enactment took two distinct forms ; there were (i) the 
 Statute Law, as embodied in the Statutes of Labourers, com- 
 mencing with the 33 Edw. Ill, and continued throughout the 
 thirteenth century by various statutes, and in the fourteenth 
 century by further regulations, as to wages and prices and 
 hours of labour. Those enactments reached their fullest de- 
 velopment in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the laws 
 were consolidated into what might be termed a code, and were 
 made binding upon all the trades and industries of that time. 
 And (a) charters, which were granted in some of the eaarly 
 reigns, and were continued down to very recent times, many of 
 which were obtained by purchase, as in the case of the com- 
 panies of the city of London, and some other corporate towns. 
 The rage for legislative regulation is an outgrowth of those 
 earlier conditions, a reverting back to the infancy of civiUsed 
 society. This tendency is always strong in proportion to the 
 lack of intelligence among the masses to perceive the true rela- 
 tion between cause and effect, and the inevitable results of a 
 given policy, whatever that policy may be. The history of 
 that interference seems to be but a hazy dream to most men, 
 even to those tolerably educated, or we should find greater 
 hesitancy to embark on the same treacherous stream. 
 
III.] Liberty for Labour. 1 1 5 
 
 Legislation was inaugurated by two distinct parties : (a) By 
 that portion of the community opposed to the restrictive 
 action of the guilds ; and (6) by the guild fraternities, in order 
 to maintain their power, privileges, and immunities. The 
 former contended that guild law, by ordinance or statute, 
 was opposed to public policy, and they sought to suppress all 
 kinds of associative effort, as mischievous and dangerous to the 
 State. The latter desired to perpetuate monopoly by law. 
 As the Israelites sighed for the flesh-pots of Egypt, during 
 their journey through the wilderness, so the guild-brothers 
 sighed for the continuance and maintenance of their power and 
 authority over the trades and industries represented by their 
 crafts. The demand for protective law by the guilds marks 
 the period of their decay. They had recourse to legislation by 
 statute, or regulation by charter, because they had failed, or 
 were failing, to enforce their ordinances as theretofore. But 
 this very failure of mutual control, by guild-law, is proof posi- 
 tive that it was bad law in actual practice, either because it 
 was ill-timed and unsuited to circumstances, not embodying 
 enactments such as those for whose special benefit they were 
 framed desired, or because the provisions were in themselves 
 vicious. In either case the law was ineffective, and in the end 
 it was disabling in its operation and results. 
 
 With the suppression of the guilds, legislation took the 
 place of guild ordinances and regulations. As the legislature 
 at that period was non-representative, the legislation initiated 
 was prompted by a class, for a class, as it was natural that it 
 should be under the circumstances. Act was piled upon Act. 
 One trade after another was brought within the sphere of the 
 statute law, until all handicrafts, and nearly all kinds of 
 labour, were subject either to statute or to ordinances under 
 charter. As population increased, as society progressed, and 
 as industries grew and expanded, there arose a revolt against 
 those statutes and charters. The misfortune was, however, 
 that instead of merely repealing restrictive laws, the employers, 
 then all-powerful in Parliament, sought to substitute, and did 
 substitute very often, other restrictive laws generally adverse 
 to labour. The masters desired, by law, to inflict disabilities 
 
1 1 6 A Plea for Liberty. [iii. 
 
 upon workmen, and the -workmen similarly desired to impose 
 conditions upon masters which were intolerable. This contest 
 was continued for centuries, sometimes one and sometimes the 
 other gaining ascendancy. 
 
 The victory ultimately remained with the masters. Statute 
 after statute was repealed, in so far as they were favourable 
 to the workman, with the result that the latter were left 
 wholly unprotected by law, and were unable to protect them- 
 Eclves by mutual association, because of the Combination Laws 
 and other statutes. On the other hand, most of the laws 
 which were in the interest of the masters remained unre- 
 pealed, thus leaving the workman in a hopeless state of de- 
 pendence and disability. A period of transition is nearly 
 always a desperate time for the weak and unprotected. So it 
 was under the repealed laws referred to, ere association by the 
 workman was possible, to mitigate the evils consequent upon 
 the industrial changes then taking place in this country. For 
 a long time the workpeople tried to defend the law and the 
 institution, as their sole means of protection. The masters 
 wanted freedom from the law — for themselves, but with the 
 power to prevent combinations among the men. This unequal 
 struggle continued up to the end of the first quarter of the 
 present century, when, in 1825, the Combination Laws were 
 repealed. Even then, however, the Master and Servant Acts 
 were still in force and were administered with unwonted seve- 
 rity. These were not finally dealt with, in any liberal spirit, 
 until 1867. 
 
 The movement amongst the workpeople for freedom to com- 
 bine began after all efforts to keep in force the old protective 
 laws had failed, which was towards the close of the last cen- 
 tury. At first, and for a very long period, the tendency was 
 to repeal disabling laws. The Statutes of Apprentices, the 
 particular Acts relating to special trades, the old Combination 
 Laws, Acts relating to Corresponding Societies, and subse- 
 quently the Master and Servant Acts, were either partially, 
 some wholly, others temporarily repealed, until, in 1875, after 
 persistent efforts for nearly one hundred years, the remnant of 
 the old Labour Laws, together with the Master and Servant 
 
III.J Liberty for Labour. 1 1 7 
 
 Acts, till that date suspended, were wholly repealed. At the 
 same date the Conspiracy Laws were abolished, in so far as 
 they applied to labour disputes. Ere this had been accom- 
 plishedj trade-unions were accorded the protection of the law 
 by the Trade Union Act, 1871, and further, as regards their 
 funds, by the Amending Act of 1876. Some other obsolete 
 statutes were repealed last session, by the Master and Servant 
 Act, 1890. All through this long struggle one sentiment was 
 predominant ; the healthy sentiment of freedom was paramount. 
 The workmen in effect said: We want no favour; we only 
 want fair play ; and by their attitude they declared — we will 
 have it. The demand was simply for the repeal of restraining 
 and disabling laws, with liberty to act, either individually or 
 collectively, for their mutual advantage, whichever was deemed 
 to be best. 
 
 III. But long ere the freedom to combine was granted there 
 arose a demand for protective law. And protective law, as 
 then conceded, appears to have been an absolute necessity, 
 remembering the state in which industry was left by the action 
 of the legislature, as before recorded. The system of domestic 
 manufacture, which had been the universal practice for cen- 
 turies, under the guild system, and under legislation by statute 
 and charter, had almost suddenly changed to a form of factory 
 life, in which women and young children were largely em- 
 ployed in several important industries. These chan^'es were 
 due mainly to the discoveries and inventions, and the applica- 
 tion of mechanical powers and means to productive labour in 
 the eighteenth century, whereby motive power, first by water, 
 and subsequently by steam, was utilised to extend and increase 
 production. The newer processes had the effect of bringing 
 together young and old, of both sexes, to work under the new 
 industrial system. These were aggregated together in out-of- 
 the-way places, where they were often brutally treated, worse 
 frequently than slaves in American plantations, and were abso- 
 lutely without power of redress. The vivid pictures of that 
 period, as portrayed in the pages of Michael Armstrong, tell 
 the tale of their woes ; it is further told in the Keports of the 
 Eoyal Commissions and of Select Committees, appointed by 
 
ii8 A Plea for Liberty. [m. 
 
 Parliament to iaquire into these matters, not in the glowing 
 language and glaring colours of Mrs. Trollope, but in the sober 
 blue-book langua.ge and truth, usual in such publications of 
 the Government. The scenes there depicted were common in 
 many industries nearly to the middle of the present century. 
 
 "With the dawn of the nineteenth century came the first 
 Factory Act, ' for the Preservation of the Health and Morals 
 of Apprentices and others employed in Cotton and other In- 
 dustries.' The necessity for this Act had deeply impressed Sir 
 Eobert Peel, himself a manufacturer, who had made a careful 
 study of the subject. From that date, i8oi-a to 1878^ when 
 the long series of Acts were consolidated and amended, the 
 provisions of the earlier Act were extended and amended until 
 they embraced all factories and workshops in which women, 
 young persons of both sexes, and children were employed. 
 They are no longer confined to the textile trades, but extend 
 to all classes and kinds of manufacture. The Mines Regula- 
 tion Acts, in their earlier conception and application, were 
 similar in character, and had almost precisely the same objects. 
 For a period of ninety years there has been three concurrent 
 movements — one for the protection of women and children ; 
 another for the protection of life and limb, and health of all 
 engaged in industry ; and the other for the repeal of old re- 
 strictive laws, in so far as they pertained to adult males in 
 their daily avocations in life. These have progressed side by 
 side, all through the present century, and are still operating 
 without cessation in nearly all trades. 
 
 Those movements were not and are not inconsistent or in- 
 compatible one with the other. A politician or statesman 
 might support each without violating his principles or en- 
 dangering his reputation for consistency. But two opposing 
 forces have arisen in this connection ; the one would undo the 
 legislation of the past, as vicious and mischievous, the other 
 would so extend it as to embrace within the sphere of its influ- 
 ence not only women and childen but adult males, in substi- 
 tution for, or as going back to, the ordinances and statutes of 
 earlier times. The action of both parties is provocative of 
 diversified antagonism. In the struggle for ascendancy, the 
 
in.] Liberty for Labour. 119 
 
 chances are either that the good accomplished will be rendered 
 nugatory by repeals of useful statutes, or that the principles 
 underlying them will be so enlarged and applied as to become 
 harmful to the mass of the people. This is the danger to be 
 apprehended, and to be guarded against. 
 
 IV. The principles which underlie the Factory and Work- 
 shop Acts, and all similar Acts, are clear, definite, and dis- 
 tinct. Generally, they have for their object the protection of 
 women and children, who were, and still are, to a great extent, 
 the latter wholly, and the former partially, unable to protect 
 themselves. If the Acts, instead of protecting, disable, or if 
 they are no longer needed for protection, then they become 
 vicious and mischievous. But it must be remembered that the 
 whole tenor of public law has been adverse, in several impor- 
 tant respects, to women. The conditions under which they 
 laboured were altogether different to those of men. Combina- 
 tion by women was almost totally unattainable. Isolation 
 and weakness were their lot, until marriage gave them a ' pro- 
 tector.' Even then the protection was nearly nil, especially 
 when engaged in any occupation. Often indeed they supplanted 
 their husbands, and became the bread-winners for the family. 
 The extent to which this operated is now scarcely conceivable, 
 certainly it is not realised or appreciated by those who oppose 
 all sxich legislation. The Reports of the Eoyal Commission, 
 1840-43, give an inkling of the extent, baneful influences and 
 effect, of child labour and women labour, in various indus- 
 tries of that time, in so far as the conditions of employment 
 were concerned, while the reports on the sanitary condition of 
 the labouring population, at the same date, show the direful 
 results in the home-life of the people. These reports are seldom 
 perused now, but no one can understand to what fearful depths 
 of degradation greed and need pressed down the workers 
 in factories and workshops, in collieries and mines, and in 
 other occupations in the industrial centres of Great Britain. 
 Health and morals were the chief objects of the series of 
 statutes to which reference is made, including sanitation, meal 
 times, separation of the sexes, number of hours worked, night 
 work, overcrowding, &o., &c. 
 
1 20 A Plea for Liberty. [iii. 
 
 V. The other object sought by protective law was the 
 safety of the workers. Sometimes health, morals, and safety 
 were sought in one and the same measure ; as, for example, 
 where fencing of machinery and ventilation of mines were 
 provided for in the same Act which prohibited the employ- 
 ment of women and children in mines ; or where regulations 
 were enforced as to the employment of men and women, boys 
 and girls in the miae or factory, under conditions provocative 
 of immorality, and where common decency could scarcely be 
 said to possibly exist. In addition to personal safety of life 
 and limb, responsibility in cases of injury while engaged in 
 the ordinary occupation for which the workers were hired, 
 was added. This, however, was not a new law; it was 
 rather statutory limitation and application of the principles 
 of Common Law, derived from the Roman Law, which were 
 general throughout Europe and America. Thus protective 
 law, in this instance, was desigped to prevent fatal accidents 
 or injury, or to punish under civil process those who were 
 responsible, but who neglected proper safeguards for the em- 
 ployes' safety. 
 
 VI. The Public Health Acts are of a different class, but their 
 aim was in the same direction, their provisions being on the 
 general lines. Instead, however, of being solely, or even mainly, 
 instituted for the protection of workers engaged in a par- 
 ticular employment, they were designed for the benefit of the 
 whole community, of which the workpeople form but a section. 
 Nevertheless, under the Public Health Acts, the Nuisances 
 Removal Acts, and numerous other general Acts, all classes 
 of workers are directly, as well as indirectly, benefited, in 
 addition to the special protection given to them under the 
 Factory and Workshop Acts, and other specific Acts. To this 
 category might be added many groups of Acts of a general 
 character, such as the Railway Acts, Building Acts, Drainage 
 Acts, Housing of the Working Classes Acts, and others, all 
 of which extend protection to workers, as part of the whole 
 community, while some contain clauses for their especial benefit. 
 
 Vn. The motives which actuated those by whom all such 
 legislation was inaugurated and extended in various direc- 
 
III.] Liberty for Labour. 1 2 1 
 
 tions, were good, and the objects sought were definite and 
 generally commendable. The promoters assumed, as a matter 
 of course, that the individual could not protect himself in 
 such cases ; that many of the circumstances which had arisen, 
 necessitating interference by law, had been created by law, 
 or were the direct or indirect results of law. The argument 
 was, and is, that inasmuch as the conditions of modern society 
 are mainly the outcome of legislation, in one form or another, 
 those least benefited by such legislation should be protected 
 against encroachments on their liberty of action, and of mutual 
 association, by those who had reaped- the greatest advantages 
 from enactments by positive law. How far, and to what 
 extent, the position thus taken up is a right one may be open 
 to argument ; and some of the facts alleged in support of either 
 side or view may be challenged. In any case no one will 
 contend that all such interference by statutory enactment is 
 vicious. The questions in dispute mainly are : when, where, 
 and how the interference shall take place ; and under what 
 conditions and to what extent ? The general view is that, in 
 matters relating to labour, the line shall be drawn at adult 
 males ; that legislation for the protection of women and 
 children is justifiable, and quite vsdthin the sphere of legiti- 
 mate and positive law ; but that interference with the rights 
 and liberties of grown men is an impertinence and a danger 
 which ought to be resented and resisted. Such legislation is 
 undoubtedly an innovation in the strict sense of the term. 
 Indirectly adult males have been protected by Factory and 
 Workshop Acts, and by Mines Eegulation Acts, Truck Acts, 
 and similar Acts. For the most part such Acts were not 
 passed ostensibly for the protection of men, except in so far 
 as health and safety are concerned, the one exception being 
 the Truck Acts. In all such legislation the whole community 
 is concerned, as well as the workers. In this respect it was 
 not class law for a section, but general law for the mass. The 
 Truck Acts are of a difierent class, but they really aimed a 
 blow at a system of fraud, perpetrated by those who had 
 supreme control over the labour market, and against whom 
 the workers were powerless to compete. Many of these con- 
 10 
 
122 A Plea for Liberty. [iii, 
 
 ditions were manifestly created by, or were the outcome of 
 law, by which masters were free to combine, and under which 
 workmen were refused the right of combination, and conse- 
 quently of resistance. 
 
 VIII. The demand for an extension of the provisions of 
 positive la,w to cases not heretofore within its pale, or domain, 
 is, it is to be feared, as much due to imwise attempts in the 
 direction of limitation as to unwise attempts to run in 
 advance of public opiaion by its extension. For instance, 
 there was an outcry against what is called 'grandmotherly 
 legislation ' by the Laii^ez-faire school of political economists, 
 as they are termed, with the object of restricting such legis- 
 lation. The Liberty and Property Defence League of to-day 
 is regarded by many as carrying to the very extreme the 
 principle of non-interference by law in matters of ' contracts 
 of service' in the realm of labour. The adherents of this 
 school appear to be inclined to appeal to philosophical prin- 
 ciples only in so far as they are protective of their own 
 interests. This is not perhaps intentional, but proceeds from 
 forgetfulness of what they owe to earlier legislation and regu- 
 lation. They protest, and in many cases rightly, against the 
 enactment of fresh restraints on individual liberty, but they 
 are not enthusiastically eager to part with advantages which 
 earlier legislation has conferred upon the class from which 
 the members of that school are drawn. For example, the 
 State undertakes to maintain entails and settlements, and 
 provides facilities for the collection of debts, therein con- 
 ferring advantages on the landowning, trading, and capitalist 
 class. If progress is to bring with it a gradual diminution in 
 the use of legal machinery in the affairs of every -day life, it 
 is obvious that these and similar agencies provided by the 
 State must be modified, as being harmful to the development 
 of human character, and be excluded just as much as enact- 
 ments which seek to confer advantages upon, and to protect 
 and advance the interests and status of, the labourer. There 
 should be some reciprocity among aU classes, thus showing 
 confidence in the expanding tree of liberty as a refuge for the 
 protection of all. Such dogged resistance to any extension of 
 
III.] Liberty for Labour. 123 
 
 the domain of law leads the advocates of extension to discard 
 all notions of limit, and in reality it re-acts in favour of the 
 ■wildest conceivable schemes of Municipal and General Law, for 
 all kinds of purposes, and for all sections of the people. Both 
 parties seem to have a very confused notion as to the true 
 basis of law, and of the issues involved therein. They are 
 divided into two armies, for attack and defence; they aim 
 wildly at each other, neither having a very clear idea where 
 the other is in the fray. They have no conception of a golden 
 mean in matters of State policy, or that there is a plateau 
 of debateable land on either side of the imaginary boundary 
 line of legislative interference, which may still be open for 
 demarcation and delimitation. The political philosopher, and 
 the social statist or political economist, must attempt to trace 
 the exact line, if an exact line can be traced, where the State 
 shall act or interfere, and where it shall be neutral, resisting 
 alike those who seek to pass the boundary in whatever 
 direction, whether by further extension of legislation, or by 
 the repeal of legislation in force. This is now all the more 
 necessary, seeing that ' statesmen ' and those who seek 
 'parliamentary honours' are subject to continuous external 
 pressure for new legislation, on old or new lines, as the case 
 may be. Every member of the popular branch of the legis- 
 lature is being forced, almost against his will, to support this 
 or that measure, the exact bearing of which, beyond its more 
 immediate objects, he does not see, or in the least degree per- 
 ceive. Such pressure is exercised quite irrespective of other 
 pressure in a contrary direction, by another set of enthusiasts. 
 
 The requisition for legislation during the last six years 
 has been enormous, it is becoming more and more irresistible 
 and dictatorial each year, and it will be perpetual and 
 growing, until some principle of policy is formulated by 
 which thoughtful men can stand. Whether or not this be 
 possible is a question for debate ; but the absence of a policy 
 is dangerous to all concerned — to the State, as a living or- 
 ganism, and to the various sections of the community of 
 which it is made up. 
 
 IX. The sphere of legislation is now sought to be extended 
 
124 ^ Plea for Liberty. [in, 
 
 in various directionB, coveriag a wide field. Some of the 
 measures demanded belong to a class which has had the 
 sanction of all parties in the State, and also of the majority 
 of economistsj to whichever school they may belong. There 
 have been differences of opinion as to the degree and exact 
 extent of the legislative interference to be conceded; and 
 some few have protested against the kinds, and the methods 
 adopted; but actual resistance to its principles has been 
 small. The particular branches of subjects embraced in the 
 new demands may be classified and summarised as follows : — 
 
 (a) Acts for extending existing provisions relating to the 
 safety of persons engaged in more or less dangerous occupa- 
 tions. This series of enactments is based upon principles 
 which are not generally called in question, as being in any 
 sense an infringement of legitimate law. It is universally ad- 
 mitted that no man has a right to contribute to the injury 
 of another, whether the person injured is in the employ of 
 such other person, or is a ' stranger,' not in his employ. This 
 personal protection is indeed the essence of all law. The State 
 exists for no other rightful purpose ; all else is usurpation, no 
 matter what euphonious name may be applied to the condition 
 of things in which such protection is denied. 
 
 (6) Compensation for injury is of the same class, and is the 
 natural sequence of the foregoing. The Common Law has 
 always held the person causing the injury responsible, and 
 liable to pay compensation. The Employers' Liability Act 
 does not extend the responsibility ; on the contrary, it rather 
 limits its application, and also the amount of compensation 
 to be awarded. As a set-off to this limitation, it gives an 
 easy remedy by summary process for the amount claimed. 
 Instead of expensive litigation in the Superior Courts, the 
 County Court may assess damages up to a certain restricted 
 amount. Against measures of this sort there can be no legiti- 
 mate objection, provided they are framed and administered 
 with equity. The limitation of responsibility and liability 
 only dates back some five and forty years, and was not even 
 then the subject of positive law, but of interpretation by the 
 highest legal tribunal, the House of Lords. 
 
III.] Liberty for Labour. 125 
 
 (c) The Public Health Acts endeavour to ensure, as far as 
 practicable, immunity from dangerous conditions arising from 
 unhealthy occupations, carried on in unsanitary dwellings, or 
 premises, where the work has to be performed ; and also pro- 
 tection to the inhabitants from the effects of unhealthy areas, 
 bad drainage, or other defects dangerous or injurious to 
 health. When a person undertakes to do certain work he 
 runs the risks usually incidental to such employment. But 
 it is always understood that such risks are limited to those 
 that are not preventible. To endanger a man's life needlessly 
 is upon a par with manslaughter. The worker has a right 
 to expect that all reasonable care shall be taken to lessen 
 the danger, and prevent accidents wherever possible. In ac- 
 cepting a tenancy, the tenant has the same rights as against 
 his landlord. AE this is old law, and is good law ; nor can 
 it be abrogated without danger to the community, and to 
 the State. 
 
 (d) The Factory and Workshop Acts constitute the special 
 group to which exception is mainJy taken. In this class of 
 legislation there is a growing tendency towards expansion 
 and extension, and of including objects and purposes not 
 within the purview of existing law. Many regard this ten- 
 dency with strong disfavour ; even those most favourable see 
 in it a great danger. Demands are being daily made for the 
 extension of these Acts. The advocates thereof urge that such 
 legislation shall be logical, and face the full consequences of 
 recognised principles, in enactments already in force. It is 
 not always clear that the proposals made are the logical 
 outcome of legislation now in force. And even were it so, 
 there may be, and often are modifying circumstances or con- 
 ditions that prevent the application of the specific ' principle ' 
 alluded to ; while there are many cases to which such prin- 
 ciple does not logically apply. Each case must be taken on 
 its merits, and no man need feel any obligation, moral or 
 otherwise, to support new proposals because he has felt it 
 incumbent upon him to support similar legislation in other 
 cases to which such Acts apply. Circumstances alter cases in 
 numberless instances and ways, certainly not less in matters 
 
126 A Plea for Liberty. [m. 
 
 of legislation than in affairs relating to conduct, and of every- 
 day life. Those who urge legislation on the ground of logic, 
 must be prepared to face the logical sequence of their own 
 proposals, both in life and conduct, and in Statute Law. 
 We shall presently see where such proposals will land us, and 
 shall ask those who seek to discredit the action of reformers 
 who do not see eye to eye with them, whether they are pre- 
 pared to accept the full consequences of the legislation de- 
 manded, not only in the realm of labour, but in the domain 
 of social and private life. The question must be faced, for the 
 nation is verging to the point of danger in this connection. 
 
 X. The recent inquiry by the Lords' Committee into the 
 Sweating System, as it is called, has opened up a wider field. 
 Not that there is anything absolutely new in connection with 
 it, except perhaps that it has developed more vndely, and 
 evoked a deeper interest on the part of the public. Those 
 who will turn to the pages of Alton Locke, published forty 
 years ago, wiU find that the Eev. Charles Kingsley laid bare 
 the chief features of the Sweating System. Mr. Henry Mayhew 
 also, in his 'London Labour and London Poor,' showed to 
 what extent it had crept into the furnishing trades, especially 
 in all that pertained to cabinet-making and fancy work con- 
 nected therewith ; and also into the tailoring trades and some 
 other industries. Those men preached to deaf ears. The 
 public conscience was not touched. There was no response 
 to the earnest appeals then made, which were treated either 
 as the appeals of fana.tics, or were regarded as of so senti- 
 mental a character as not to come within the pale of practical 
 politics. The ' Sweating System ' in itself is hard to define ; 
 even the Select Committee of the Lords hesitated to commit 
 themselves to any definition. Mr. Arnold White gave the 
 highly philosophical description of ' grinding the faces of the 
 poor;' but the Committee felt that this definition was not 
 sufficiently precise for legislative purposes. All the witnesses 
 were able to adduce evidence as to the evils of the system. 
 The Lords' Committee were deeply impressed by the volu- 
 minous evidence given before them, as to the extent of the 
 evils, and the baneful effects, in various ways. But they 
 
III.] Liberty for Labour. 127 
 
 were not able to formulate any plan for dealing with them 
 by enactment. They advised combination, co-operative pro- 
 duction, and sanitary inspection, the latter only being in the di- 
 rection of positive law. But to be able to deal with any subject 
 of statutory enactment, the promoters thereof should be in a po- 
 sition to define the objects aimed at, and the precise extent of the 
 contemplated iuterference. It is not sufficient to state the evils to 
 be remedied, because these may arise from various causes, some 
 of which are scarcely within the sphere of practical legislation, 
 and some remedies might intensify rather than cure the disease. 
 XI. The Sweating System is mainly the outgrowth of a 
 domestic system of industry, but apparently not whoUy so. 
 At any rate, it attains its highest development in those trades 
 in which the family can perform the work independently at 
 home. This is seen in the tailoiing trades, the boot and shoe 
 trades, and in the cabinet-making trades; and also in the 
 chain-making, nut and bolt-making industries, in Staffordshii-e 
 and parts of Worcestershire. It is almost universal in con- 
 nection with women's work, of all kinds, especially so where 
 they are able to do the work at home. The ' sweater' is the 
 outcome of many elements, the result of many causes ; some 
 of these might come within the domain of legitimate law, 
 but many are beyond the province of positive enactment. The 
 head of the famUy, the responsible bread-winner, has been the 
 chief promoter of sweating. He has preferred independence 
 and isolation as a home worker, where he has the freedom 
 to work when he likes, and to idle when he pleases. He has 
 utilised the skill of his wife, and then of his children, to 
 enable him to produce quickly, while the competition of other 
 men, similarly placed, has compelled him to produce cheaply — 
 too cheaply perhaps to enable him to live decently, as a skilled 
 workman should live. This system of domestic manufacture, 
 has in recent times been carried on under such conditions 
 as to become a positive danger to health, not only to those 
 who live immediately under such conditions, but to the 
 locality in which they dwell, and often to the whole suiTound- 
 ing district. This has led to the demand for sanitary inspection, 
 with power to ' invade the sanctuary of the home,' even when 
 
128 . A Plea for Liberty. [iii. 
 
 the family only are employed. "Workers, in very despair, 
 invoke this power, and sanitary reformers seek it as a means, 
 in their opinion the only means, of abating a widespread evil, 
 the consequences of which might become dangerous, or at least 
 very injurious to the whole community. 
 
 Xn. The desire for legislative interference has of late 
 been growing to such a degree that it has become a passion, 
 in many breasts an all-pervading passion, which is apparently 
 insatiable. It is with many a mere dilettante longing for some 
 change, which shall bridge the gulf of classes, now separated 
 by an almost impassable chasm. With others it is the cry of 
 despair. They feel the terrible struggle for existence so acutely, 
 and see no possible means of escape from the intensified and 
 continuous strain, mentally and physically, that they look to 
 the State to interfere, for protection and support. If it be not 
 despair, it is decadence, true manhood being crushed out, in so 
 far as its higher attributes are concerned. Others, again, seek 
 the aid of ' the State out of utter idleness, and ingrained 
 laziness ; their idea of life seems to be not to do anything 
 for themselves, except that which they are compelled to do 
 from sheer necessity. The most serious proposal in recent 
 times, is the application of the principle of State interference 
 with the labour of adult males, and the fixing of their hours 
 of labour by law. The proposals at present before the country 
 are various ; some propose to go only a little way, others go 
 the 'whole hog.' Of the two the whole hog people are the 
 most logical and consistent. They seek a universal law of 
 Eight Hours, for all sections of the people, without distinction 
 of class or industry. The possibility of its application is quite 
 another matter. The advocates of this 'principle' do not 
 trouble themselves with such trifling questions as possibilities ; 
 what they demand is the principle of a uniform day of Eight 
 Hours ; it is for the legislature to find out the way, and the 
 methods of its application. If, they say, the thing is right, 
 ParHament can formulate the provisions and the means. It 
 is the duty of Parliament to put into language, and give 
 expression to the aspirations of the people. The conclusion 
 is simple, and, may we say, profound. 
 
iii.J Liberty for Labour. 129 
 
 XIII. The definite formulated proposals now before the 
 country are limited to certain employments ; but the ad- 
 vocates, for the most part, regard those as only initial steps 
 towards the grand consummation, by them devoutly wished 
 for. The first measures suggested are : 
 
 (a) An Eight Hour day for all Government employes. It 
 is not quite clear whether the advocates of this policy seek to 
 enforce eight hours' continuous work upon all Government 
 employ^, or whether they only desire that those who work 
 longer than eight hours shall be brought within that limit, 
 leaving those who work less than eight hours, the full enjoy- 
 ment of present privileges. This is a point upon which they 
 are discreetly silent. 
 
 (6) There is a further demand that all persons employed by 
 Municipal Corporations, and all Local bodies and Authorities, 
 shall be employed for eight hours only. Here, again, it is not 
 quite clear whether the rule shall be universal, or only partial, 
 in its application. The demand is general, the advocates 
 disdaining to descend to particulars, either as to the appli- 
 cation of the regulations, or the limitation (if any) of their 
 operation. 
 
 With regard to these two classes of employes, there is no 
 kind of pretension that they are over-worked, or that their 
 labour is exhausting or dangerous. The contention merely is 
 that the State, or the Municipal Institution or Local Body, 
 should show an example to other employers, by working the 
 men fewer hours, and paying them at the highest rates of 
 remuneration. No one wiU contend that the State should 
 under-pay, or over- work, its employes. But, on the other 
 hand, few will assert that the State should so deal with labour, 
 as practically to regulate the hours of labour, and fix its price. 
 Yet the contention of those who seek such interference in- 
 volves these conditions, in its operation and results. Custoni 
 has the force of law ; and a State-regulated day, and a fixed 
 rate of wages for such working day, would in efiect govern the 
 labour market generally, certainly for the same kind of labour, 
 in all parts of the country. 
 
 (c) A section, and it must be admitted that they constitute 
 
1 30 A Plea for Liberty. [iii. 
 
 a very considerable Bection, of the miners, seek for a State- 
 regulated day of Eight Hours. Their various Associations 
 have prepared a BiU for that purpose, -which Bill has been 
 introduced into Parliament. The representatives of the counties 
 of Durham and Northumberland have, with the general assent 
 of their mining constituents, withheld their sanction to the 
 measure; but the representatives of other mining districts 
 support it, and they denounce all those who withhold their 
 support. The supporters of the Bill contend that the minin* 
 industry is a dangerous occupation, and that labour in the 
 mine is exhaustive, and, therefore, that the hours of work in 
 the mine should be limited. With regard to the question of 
 danger, the law is pretty severe at present, and any plea on 
 the score of danger will command attention and respect. But 
 legislation in this direction comes under a totally different 
 head, and ought not to be pleaded on behalf of State regu- 
 lation of the hours of labour. The exhaustive nature of the 
 work is admitted, but the plea holds good in other industries. 
 Yet the supporters of the Bill declare that the measure is 
 limited to mining, and is not intended to apply to other trades. 
 Leaving the question of danger out of the calculation, it might 
 be asked whether iron-workers and steel-workers, blast- 
 fumacemen, and some others, could not put in as reasonable 
 a plea on the score of exhaustion, and the laboriousness of 
 their occupation. Some of those employed on railways could 
 also plead both danger and exhaustion, and therefore the limit- 
 ation proposed, for miners only, will scarcely hold good. 
 Besides, no class of men in this country have done so much 
 for themselves, by themselves, as the miners. To their credit 
 be it said, they have shown an example, worthy of all praise, 
 of self-help, and mutual help by associative effort, such as 
 might be advantageously followed by the workmen of aU 
 classes in the country. 
 
 (cZ) The Shop Assistants of the country, especially those in 
 the metropolis, have formulated demands for the early closing 
 of shops, either generally, on all days of the week, or specifi- 
 cally, on certain days, with half-holidays, because, as they 
 assert, they have found it impossible to adequately curtail 
 
III.] Liberty for Labour. 131 
 
 their hours of labour otherwise. The fact is that the pressure 
 of long hours has not been felt sufficiently to induce them to 
 combine for shoi-ter hours, or they -would ere this have gained 
 their ends. In many houses the hours of labour have been 
 reduced considerably, without State interference, and the ten- 
 dency is still further to reduce the working hours of this class 
 of employes. Where women and young persons are employed, 
 the law operates as it stands, under existing legislation. 
 
 (e) But the most curious requisition of all is the demand, 
 by a large number of Shopkeepers, that shops shall be closed 
 at a cei'taia hour by Act of Parliament, under Municipal or 
 Local regulation, by the majority of the votes of those engaged 
 in the particular busiaesses to be regulated. Sir John Lubbock's 
 measure admits the difficulty by omitting certain establish- 
 ments, and shops, from its operation. Those omitted are, in 
 point of fact, the very places in which the hours are the 
 longest, such as pubhc-houses, hotels, restaurants, eating- 
 houses of aU sorts, tobacconists, newsagents, and some others. 
 The exceptions prove that State regulation is difficult and 
 dangerous. Many of those who clamour for the interference 
 would resent any attempt to put in force a law prohibiting 
 Sunday trading, yet this would give one whole day's rest in 
 seven. All these proposals practically admit that voluntary 
 regulation is not possible to the extent demanded. Does not 
 this imply that State regulation is impracticable ? Is it not 
 an admission that statutory enactment is not required by 
 those for whose benefit it is ostensibly intended % The power 
 to close at a given hour exists in all places. 
 
 (/) Another of the proposals made is to insist that in all 
 Eailway Bills and Tramway Bills, and of course, naturally, 
 in all Bills involving the employment of labour, and requiring 
 Parliamentary sanction, provisions shall be insei-ted fixing the 
 hours of labour at eight hours per day, as a condition prece- 
 dent to the passing of such measures. Notice to that effect 
 was given in the session of 1890, but the question was not 
 the subject of debate upon any Bill, nor was any attempt 
 made to raise it. This mode of Parliamentary interference 
 and regulation is perhaps the most extraordinary ever sub- 
 
132 A Plea for Liberty. [iii. 
 
 mitted to tlie House of Commons. The proposal bears no 
 resemblance to the provisions inserted in Railway and Street 
 Improvement Bills relating to the housing of the workiag- 
 classes, as powers are given in such Bills to compel the 
 vacating of dwellings within the area taken compulsorily, and 
 that too without any compensation or consideration to the 
 poor families evicted under the Acts. By the Housing of 
 the Working Classes Act, 1890, some provision is made for 
 the costs of removal, when the dwellings are required for de- 
 molition, in order to clear the area ; but even this proviso 
 does not really amount to compensation. There is, however, 
 no analogy whatever between the two sets of cases ; nor can 
 that enactment be quoted in support of the former demand, 
 upon any logical or reasonable grounds. If Parliament is to 
 be called upon to interfere in matters relating to labour in all 
 Bills brought before the Legislature for Parliamentary sanction, 
 there is an end to the respective ' rights,' whatever these may 
 be, of capital and labour. It would be better at once to fix 
 the hours of labour, and its wages or price, by legal pro- 
 visions which shall be binding upon all classes, employers 
 and workmen alike, in all departments of industry, all over 
 the kingdom. 
 
 XIV. There are four very serious objections to this kind of 
 legislation, all of which must be removed before it can be in- 
 itiated and carried into effect. These are : 
 
 (i) The impracticability, nay impossibility, of its universal 
 adoption and application. All laws which are partial in ope- 
 ration are made by a class, for a class ; and class legislation is 
 generally condemned, most of all by the working-classes, and 
 rightly so. For more than a century we have been busily 
 engaged in undoing the class legislation of previous centuries — 
 in repealing the statutes, and in removing the obstacles they 
 had created. The work is not yet completed, for the effects 
 remain long after the statutes are repealed. Everybody who 
 may be at all acquainted with the history of past legislation, 
 admits that the earlier legislation in this direction hampered 
 trade, hindered the advancement of the people, and operated 
 adversely to labour. It took an entire century to repeal the 
 
III.] Liberty for Labour. 133 
 
 Labour Laws, and some of them are not even now repealed. 
 We are asked to revert back to similar legislation ; to fix the 
 number of hours of the working-day, and to practically set up 
 a standard of wages. Can this be done efiectually for all 
 trades? One would like to see the draft of a measure, setting 
 forth in detail, in a schedule, all the industries of the country, 
 with the number of hours to be worked as the normal working 
 day for each trade, and the minimum rates of wages to be paid. 
 Li such schedule, what should govern the length of the day, or 
 the rate of wages'? Should it be skill, the exhaustive cha- 
 racter of the labour, the cleanliness or dirtiness of the occupa- 
 tion, the insanitary conditions under which it is carried on, 
 or what? It would be an interesting session in which all 
 these questions were discussed and settled, if settled they ever 
 could be. Each class and section would have its accredited 
 experts, whose duty it would be to show that his clients de- 
 served to be put in this or that class, or to be exempt from 
 this or that regulation. That time is not yet come. 
 
 (2) The inelasticity of positive law is adverse to the de- 
 velopment of human intelligence and skill. An Act of Par- 
 liament is necessarily directed more to the restraint of liberty 
 than to its expansion. Hence the principle upon which it is, 
 or ought to be, conceived, is that caution is better than reck- 
 lessness, and that it is above aU things advisable to hasten 
 slowly in matters of legislation. The great majority of 
 people do not at all understand the nature and character of 
 an Act of Parliament. Working-men especially seem to re- 
 gard it merely as an ordinary resolution, registered by both 
 Houses of Parliament, and capable of being as easily and 
 readily rescinded or amended as any resolution passed at a 
 public meeting, or by the committee or council of the body 
 with which they are associated, and with whose acts and re- 
 solves they are more or less familiar. An Act of Parliament 
 is certainly not like a law of the Medes and Persians ; it is 
 not an enactment which cannot be abrogated or set aside. 
 But it frequently takes a longer time, and involves more agi- 
 tation and expense, to repeal an Act, even when its effects 
 have admittedly been pernicious, than it did to place it on the 
 
134 ^ Plea for Liberty.' [iii. 
 
 statute book originally. It is no light matter either to enact 
 or repeal a statute ; even to amend it often requires years of 
 earnest and persistent effort. Of legislation generally it might 
 with truth be said that fools rush in where angels fear to 
 tread. The House of Commons is slow, frequently very slow, 
 to embark on new experimental legislation ; and when such 
 is initiated the expedient of ' temporary law ' is often resorted 
 to, requiring that its assent shall be renewed year after year, 
 in order to see how it works before it is made a permanent 
 statute. Many such laws are renewed session after session by 
 an Expiring Laws Continuance Bill, at the close of each 
 session ; an indication of the extreme caution of the Legislature 
 in any new departure in positive enactment. 
 
 (3) Supposing there was no question as to the ' priaciple ' 
 of such legislation, the administration of the law would fre- 
 quently involve hardships more intolerable than the evils they 
 were meant to cure. The inspection required, to see that the 
 laws were enforced, would necessitate an army of inspectors, 
 all of whom would, in the very nature of things, become more 
 and more dictatorial, inasmuch as they would be the masters 
 of employers and employed alike. Labour would have to 
 cease at the sound of the State gong, and any work performed 
 beyond the legislative limit would be an infraction of the 
 statute. If the necessities 'of the hour required that work 
 should be continued after the fixed point of time, a permit 
 would have to be granted by the inspector, magistrate, town 
 council, or some other recognised authority constituted for the 
 purpose. Overtime would have to be abolished in all cases, 
 except in instances of great emergency. Overtime, with a 
 fixed legal day, would be impossible, or the legislation itself 
 would be a farce. Those workmen who chuckle in their sleeve 
 at the prospect of putting in more overtime, at higher rates of 
 pay, would find that an Eight Hour Law was a law to be 
 administered and enforced ; not an elastic regulation, capable 
 of indefinite interpretation and modified application. Besides 
 which, an Eight Hour Law would be a hollow sham which 
 permitted working beyond the normal fixed day. Eight hours, 
 and no more, must be the motto of those who seek it, if they 
 
III.] Liberty for Z-abour. 135 
 
 are honest in their contention that such an enactment is 
 needed as a means of providing work for the workless. This 
 aspect of the case is kept back by the advocates of the ' legal 
 day ' of eight hours, but it must be insisted on, as part of the 
 bargain. One month's experience of the administration of 
 such a law would cure many of its advocates of their phrensy 
 for State regulation, by a State oificial, in the ordinary affairs 
 and conduct of every-day working life. 
 
 (4) Such legislation would fail, as all similar legislation 
 has failed in the past. It is useless to say that the conditions 
 are changed — human nature is not changed — certainly not for 
 the better in these respects. The greed of gain is as rife to-day 
 as when Christ drove the money-changers out of the Temple, 
 or as it was in the Middle Ages, when the Guilds regulated, or 
 sought to regulate, labour and wages. The history of the 
 Guilds discloses the fact that for centuries there was an in- 
 tensely bitter contest between the Guild members of the various 
 fraternities for the supreme control and for ascendancy. The 
 feuds only ended with their suppression. The contests did 
 not subside, but were continued under the enactments which 
 were substituted for the earlier ordinances, until those were, 
 in their turn, repealed. The charters from time to time 
 granted were but abuses of power, by the creation of monopo- 
 lies and privileges, and these for the most part had either to 
 be abrogated, or so abridged as to be incapable of doing much 
 mischief. Where they still partially exist the abuses linger 
 and continue ; and even the advocates of legislative inter- 
 ference apparently desire the final extinction of chartered 
 monopolies and of power. In what way have the conditions 
 of labour changed, or the character of workmen, to lead us to 
 believe that legal enactment will be more fruitful of benefits 
 now than of yore 1 Even the conduct of many of the advo- 
 cates of such legislation belie the contention, for they are more 
 bitter in their attacks, more unscrupulous in theii- action, and 
 more offensive in their conduct, than were the antagonists of 
 a bygone age, when such labour legislation was in force, and 
 in the struggle^ when it was sought to be abrogated. Fitness 
 for restraint is a condition precedent to legal enactment ; that 
 
136 A Plea for Liberty. [in, 
 
 fitness is not discoverable in the language and conduct of the 
 chief advocates of Acts of Parliament for the regulation of 
 labour, and for determining how long a man, in the plenitude 
 of his strength, shall work at his trade, or what he shall earn 
 by his iudustry, 
 
 XV. The advocates of further legislative interference in 
 labour questions urge, above all things, as previously iadi- 
 cated, that we shall be logical in the matter of positive law. 
 They quote Acts, and parts of Acts, in order to show that the 
 ' principle ' of interference has been adopted and applied ; and 
 they accuse all who hesitate to extend the ' principle,' on the 
 lines they indicate, of cowardice in withholding assent to the 
 newer forms of legislative action which they suggest. 'We 
 are all socialists now,' said an eminent Parliamentary hand. 
 Yes ; in a sense that is so. Some are socialists by conviction, 
 no matter upon what inadequate grounds ; others may be re- 
 garded as socialists by their silence, and an attitude of non- 
 committal, because they shriak from combating socialistic 
 views and tendencies ; and many are socialists from lack of 
 knowledge, lack of energy, and the absence of self-sustaining 
 power. The growth of socialism is due to the enormous ex- 
 pansion of our wealth resources, the advantages and benefits 
 of which are only shared by the comparatively few, instead of 
 the many,and by the consequent contrast of poverty and riches, 
 which may be seen on every hand. This state of things is to be 
 deplored, and as far as practicable to be remedied; the only 
 question is— how ? The two distinctive proposals put forward 
 by the Fabians and the Socialists are, firstly, the extension of 
 the provisions of the Factory and Workshop Acts to all the 
 trades of the country, where only adult males are employed, 
 as well as where women and children are employed ; and they 
 seek to apply the provisions of those Acts to domestic manu- 
 factui-e of all kinds, where the family only are engaged in pro- 
 ductive labour, as well as to industry where persons are hired 
 by an employer. And, secondly, they seek the regulation of 
 the hours of labour by statute-law, generally and uniformly, or 
 partially, as the case may be, as before stated. Those two points 
 may be said to cover the present demands relating to labour. 
 
in.] Liberty for Labour. 137 
 
 XVI. The extension of the provisions of the Factory and 
 Workshop Acts to domestic industries, where the members of 
 the family only are employed, will inevitably destroy do- 
 mestic manufacture in aU trades. Some affect to deny this, 
 but all the better informed advocates of such extension 
 acknowledge that such will be its effects and results ; and 
 they even rejoice at the prospect. It is not necessary for 
 present purposes either to attack or defend the system of 
 domestic industry. Great evils are connected with the system, 
 many are the natural outcome of it. It is, however, essential 
 that all classes and sections of the community should know 
 what is sought, and what is inevitable, if the legislation pro- 
 posed is carried into effect. If all places and premises where 
 work is carried on are to be inspected; if a certain cubical 
 space is to be insisted upon in all such rooms ; if the hours of 
 labour, of meal-times, and the provision especially that meals 
 are not to be taken in the same room, are enforced, how is it 
 possible for any kind of work to be done at home? The 
 thing is impossible. This fact must be clearly understood by 
 all who are likely to be affected by such legislation. The 
 sleeping room of the family wiU have to be as open to the in- 
 spector as an ordinary workshop, for it is well known that in 
 numberless- instances one room serves for all the purposes of 
 living, working, cooking, and sleeping. Are the mass of the 
 people prepared for so drastic a measure — will they submit to 
 it ? And not only will the domestic ' workshop ' be absolutely 
 abolished, but the small masters will have to go, just as the 
 small private schools practically ceased to exist with the insti- 
 tution of School Boards. The effect will be that industry of 
 all sorts will be concentrated, centred in fewer hands ; huge 
 establishments will monopolise trade, and the workers will, in 
 consequence of their own action, be at the mercy of a few 
 large firms, or great trading companies, with the result that 
 in the event of being discharged, for certain reasons, no other 
 establishment will be open to them. 
 
 XVII. It might be thought that the demands of the new 
 school of labour advocates have been exaggerated, and that the 
 possible evils resulting from such demands have been maxi- 
 
 11 
 
138 A Plea for Liberty. [in. 
 
 mised. One fact alone "will disabuse either notion, if it exists. 
 Recently, as late as August, 1890, the newly formed Dockers' 
 Union, led by the men who claim to be the originators of 
 what they are pleased to describe as the ' New Trade Unionism,' 
 decreed that their books should be closed ; that no new mem- 
 bers were to be enrolled; that they were now sufficient in 
 numbers to perform the work at the docks, and that any addi- 
 tion would but impede their progress, by being brought into 
 competition with the accredited members of the Union. Any 
 departure from this decree was to be left in the hands of the 
 Executive of the Union. This autocratic ukase is worthy of 
 the most unscrupulous despotic tyrant that ever disgraced the 
 pages of history ; no parallel for it can be found in the annals 
 of labour, except, perhaps, in the more degenerate days of the 
 trading corporations of the Middle Ages, or possibly in some of 
 the commercial ' rings ' of modem times. It says, in effect : 
 We, the members of the Dockers' Union, are quite sufficient 
 in numbers to do all the dock-work of the port of London, or 
 other ports ; we only are to be employed ; no other men shall 
 come into competition with our labour, and we wiU dictate the 
 terms and conditions upon which we shall be employed. If 
 you don't like it, we will stop all industry until you cave in. 
 Supposing all other Unions adopted the same policy, and shut 
 out all labour except that which had been enrolled in the 
 books of the Union — what is to become of the unemployed % 
 Beggary, or the workhouse, is to be the lot of all new comers 
 into the field of industry,, unless they can be banished into 
 other lands. If any doctrine so abominable had been pro- 
 pounded by employers the world of labour would have been 
 up in arms. The monopoly of the land, or of the Upper 
 Chamber of the Legislature, sinks into insignificance by the 
 side of this unexampled piece of wicked stupidity on the part 
 of the new leaders, the apostles of the new trade unionism. 
 
 The mere fact that such a piece of stupendous folly could 
 be seriously entertained by any body of sane persons is bad 
 enough ; but that it should be promulgated, and be treated by 
 any portion of the press otherwise than as the ravings of fana- 
 tics, shows to what depths of utter imbecility, ignorance, and 
 
III.] Liberty for Labour. 139 
 
 presumption men can be found to descend when blinded by- 
 passion, led by bigotry, and actuated by mere selfishness ia 
 the attainment of their objects. Men of this stamp, if once 
 they had supreme control over the legislative machine, would 
 annihilate individual hberty, and reduce God's image to a 
 mere photograph of one human pattern, as lifeless as clay, to 
 be reproduced mechanically, as the sole type of manhood in 
 the world. They seem not to know that the Great Creator 
 has impressed upon the human soul an individuahty as com- 
 plete, and as multifarious, as is to be found in the forms and 
 features of the myriads of men and women which constitute 
 the mass of humanity j and they appear not to be aware of 
 the fact that it is as impossible to mould the human mind to 
 one stereotyped pattern, as it would be to shape the form and 
 features in one iron mould, to the same model. It is not only 
 impossible ; it is undesirable, even were it possible. In all 
 nature variety is charming ; certainly it is not less so in 
 human character than in other animate, and in all inanimate 
 objects. Dull uniformity realises the highest conception of 
 life, conduct, and character in the breasts of those who have 
 no distinct individuality of their own. When Pope said of 
 the female sex, ' Most women have no character at all,' he was 
 regarded as having libelled the sex ; but absence of character 
 would seem to be the acme of perfection, according to the new 
 gospel of socialism, in which manhood is to be crushed out of 
 humanity, and the State is to regulate the desires, attain- 
 ments, and needs of all, individually and in the concrete. To 
 rise at mom to the sound of a State gong, breakfast off State 
 viands, labour by time, according to a State clock, dine at a 
 State table, suppKed at the State's expense, and to be regu- 
 lated as to rest and recreation, do not realise a very high con- 
 ception either of life or conduct. Yet this is the di-eam of the 
 new social innovators, whose aim is to suppress individuahty, 
 and substitute therefor State control and Municipal regulation 
 in all that concerns private life. 
 
 XVm. Lest it should be thought that the foregoing re- 
 marks are somewhat strong, as regards the leaders of the new 
 labour movement, it is only necessary to refer to the action of 
 
140 A Plea for Liberty. [in. 
 
 the Unionists towards those who abstain from joining the 
 Union, or refuse to be bound by its rules and regulations. 
 The claim of the pioneers in the cause of labour hitherto 
 has been that no man shall be tabood socially, or be placed 
 imder the ban of the law, because of his belonging to a trade 
 union. This was always the plea of those who sought the re- 
 peal of the Combination Laws. That plea was for liberty to 
 act, not for the power to coerce. Unionism is being used for 
 the latter purpose of late, to a degree which is dangerous and 
 wicked. To what extent it might be used if the unions, con- 
 trolled by such men, were powerful enough to exercise their 
 authority, especially if they had behind them the sanction of 
 statute law, which the new leaders invoke, it is not pos- 
 sible to conjecture, but we can have some faint idea from what 
 has taken place, and is taking place, in various parts of the 
 country. Law and liberty ought to exist side by side, the 
 former protecting and guaranteeing the latter. When the 
 two are divorced, law degenerates into tyranny, and liberty 
 into license. Progress without order is impossible, and law is 
 simply regulation, order being its essence. The endeavour 
 should therefore be so to regulate, that the highest and noblest 
 instincts and aspirations of man shall have full scope for their 
 development and exercise, in every department and condition 
 of life. This is always difficult enough, for society is in con- 
 spiracy against non-conformity ; how much more difficult then 
 will it be when positive law is invoked to enforce and main- 
 tain uniformity in the domain of labour, and in the affairs of 
 social life % It might be urged that the regulation of the hours 
 of labour will not necessarily involve the abnegation of indi- 
 vidual rights in the manner described. But we reply that as 
 the logical outcome of the regulation sought it would be 
 inevitable. 
 
 XIX. The domain of law as applied to labour may be 
 generally described under two heads : (i) Protective law, the 
 object an,d purposes of which are to protect the weak against 
 the strong, as exemplified in the Factory and Workshop Acts, 
 for the protection of women and children ; and all extensions 
 of such law to cases where life and limb are concerned. 
 
III.] Liberty for Labour. 141 
 
 (3) Enabling law, the aim and purposes of which are to re- 
 move obstacles to, and provide facilities for, the promotion of 
 the well-being and happiness of the individual and of the 
 mass of the people. To these might be added preventive law, 
 whose province it is to interpose when any citizen, or any 
 number of citizens, attempt to interfere with the legitimate 
 rights of others. Herein is the rightful province of law ; 
 beyond is always doubtful, mostly dangerous. The multipli- 
 cation of laws is perilous ; each new Act, almost of necessity, 
 creates the need for further legislation ; it propagates itself, 
 until newer circumstances arise to render it obsolete or useless. 
 We have too much law, and too little justice. Additional law 
 wiU scarcely tend to augment equity, in the true sense of the 
 term. Therefore, instead of increasing the bulk of statute 
 law, or extendiug it in newer directions, of bringing it to bear 
 upon labour, in the manner proposed by its recent advocates, 
 the object rather should be to curtail it, to simplify it ; to 
 codify that which is useful and approved ; to repeal what is 
 bad and mischievous, and to give a fuller freedom to the 
 faculties of man in all that is noble and good. The demand 
 for more law indicates a decadence of manhood, an absence of 
 self-reliant, self-sustaining power. It marks an epoch of de- 
 pendence, the sure precursor of decay in men and in nations. 
 Labour has been strong under persecution, has won great vic- 
 tories in the conflict of industrial war. Its successes seem to 
 have bewildered many, and they seek repose under the baneful 
 fungi of legislative protection and regulation. 
 
 Geobge Howell. 
 
STATE SOCIALISM IN THE 
 ANTIPODES. 
 
 CHAELES FAIBFIELD. 
 
IV. 
 
 STATE SOCIALISM IN THE ANTIPODES. 
 
 Knowledge, most serviceable.to students and investigators 
 of political, social, and economical growth, change, and decay, 
 as well as to all those who practise the art or science of 
 government, is to be gathered from our great self-governing 
 colonies. In Australasia and in Canada alone have demo- 
 cracies already given several years' fair trial to certain 
 measures, of a socialistic character, recommended in these 
 days to our legislators at home, but, up to the present, 
 almost solely on theoretical or abstract grounds. Although 
 much laborious, minute, honest, and ingenious consideration 
 has recently been given by thinkers in Great Britain, for 
 example, to such ' socialistic ' remedies as a compulsory Eight 
 Hours' Law for all industries (or for government and muni- 
 cipal undertakings only). Free State Education (at the expense 
 of the general tax-payer). Early Closing of Shops, and Local 
 Option, the most convinced advocates of those experiments 
 cannot do more than guess how they would work in the 
 United Kingdom. It is to be regretted that the public in 
 this country have as yet no complete, careful, and unbiassed 
 account of important legislative acts adopted by the colonies, 
 which are in advance — or perhaps rather in excess — of cor- 
 related Imperial Acts and of the results, already manifest in 
 corpore vili beyond sea ^. For purposes of enquiry and com- 
 
 ' Eetums relating to colonial legis- • in Canada and the tTnited States ;' 
 lation — Canadian liquor legislation but as Acts of Congress are often 
 chiefly — have been oocasionaUy pre- loosely carried out, or allowed to re- 
 sented to Parliament. In 1889 Mr. main dormant, American 'results' 
 Bradlaugh obtained one return show- are not very instructive. When Sir 
 ing the limitations of hours of labour John Lubbock's Early Closing of 
 
146 A Plea! for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 parison men and women in Australia are still very like Britons 
 at home. Special forces there are, slowly fashioning out of 
 populations of British origin a new and distinct type of citizen, 
 with special ideas. But deep speculations on the future 
 evolution of races and nationalities are not requisite in order 
 to understand the effect either of specific laws or of State 
 Socialism grafted on to a community, transplanted it is true, 
 yet hearing with it institutions copied closely from our own 
 and based upon ideas and traditions with respect to civil and 
 religious liberty, property, order, law, commerce, and economic 
 conditions generally which have been the common property 
 of all liberal thinkers and legislators in this country for the 
 last fifty or sixty years. 
 
 What Australasian colonists have done is specially instruc- 
 tive, because they have been specially privileged — enjoying 
 indeed from the start a free hand. Their reforms or ex- 
 periments have not been thwarted by the lack of money 
 wherewith to give beneficence a fair trial. So vast has been 
 the extension of credit to the Australasian colonies during the 
 last thirty years, that private investors in Europe now enable 
 Australasian governments, financial institutions, and private 
 firms to dispose of some ,^300,000,000 sterling of foreign 
 capital. Colonial statesmen have indeed been as happy as 
 the heir to a great fortune in a novel, who is able to indulge 
 
 Shops Bill was discussed, in 1888, State Socialistic enactments in Aus- 
 some reference was made to the Vic- tralia ; and added, rightly enough, 
 torian Factory Act of 1885. In 1890, that the British public, through ' Con- 
 when Mr. Goschen's local Taxation sularEeports,' knew a good deal more 
 Bill was reviewed, it was not noticed about American, or Portuguese, legis- 
 at all that the whole question of lation than about colonial. Of course 
 ' compensation ' to owners and lessees the official etiquette in such matters 
 of licensed premises had been fully is to refer to the Agents Greneral for 
 thrashed out and dealt with in Vic- the Colonies. But although these 
 toria in 1884, under conditions al- gentlemen are always most wiUing 
 most exactly similar to our own. A to give information, the majority of 
 Glasgow newspaper (Aug. 1 890) stated them have now been absent from 
 that Mr. Bradlaugh next session their own colonies for years; they 
 might raise the question of obtaining may also, while members of Colonial 
 — either through colonial governors, Parliaments, have been zealous par- 
 or by small commissions sitting in tisans — or opponents — of the very 
 the colonies — independent evidence legislation on which an unbiassed 
 as to the scope and results of certain opinion is required. 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 147 
 
 the author's brightest dreams of how to better things in general. 
 Money borrowed in Europe has been, as a rule, laid out by- 
 colonial governments honestly, even if recklessly or unwisely. 
 The honourable traditions of modem official administration in 
 the United Kingdom have been transplanted in principle to 
 the Antipodes, and no prominent public man there has en- 
 riched himself by the shameful means common in the American 
 Republics. Opportunist statesmen, willing to go great lengths 
 in order to retain power and salary and to win the favour of 
 the ruling classes, have held office, and now hold office, in 
 Australia; but as far as corruption or official peculation is 
 concerned, ministers, legislators, and government servants 
 have stood the rough assay of criticism and publicity well. 
 Beneficent legislation has had a fair trial in the colonies, for 
 the additional reasons that there is much less of that tangled 
 undergrowth of private interests and acquired rights which 
 confronts reformers and legislators in this country to clear 
 away, while colonial democracies have no real knowledge of 
 those historical, religious, or class grievances and animosities 
 which warp and distort questions here. Except during an era 
 of artificial and grotesque political rancour, subsequent to the 
 nth May, 1877, party bitterness has never flourished. It has 
 no tap-root in the colonies, and quickly withers under the 
 sun- rays of material prosperity. Nobody, it has been asserted, 
 is ever really very angry with anybody else for more than a 
 week together in the Australasian colonies. 
 
 The public in this country could have obtained fuller evi- 
 dence with respect to the success or failure of legislation 
 based on State Socialism, in the only part of the world where 
 it has really had an extensive trial, were it not that, in the 
 first place, colonists dare not now do much to dissipate the 
 haze which discreetly veils their affairs ^. Year by year the 
 
 ' Athenmemberof the opposition in his return to Australia he assured a 
 
 one of the colonial legislatures — him- newspaper interviewer that he had 
 
 self an acute observer, able thinker, been careful, in conversation with 
 
 and scathing critic in the Local As- public men in London, to refrain 
 
 sembly of the financial, economical, from mentioning any awkward facts 
 
 and moral results of State Socialism — which might tend to alarm investors 
 
 visit«d London early in 1890. On in the United Kingdom. This reti- 
 
148 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 private and personal interests of classes and masses alike are 
 becoming more and more bound up with the borrowing policy 
 of their governments, and with the enormous extension of 
 commercial credit and nominal transfer of investment money 
 from this country to the banks and financial institutions in 
 the large colonial cities. The success of the periodical and 
 now absolutely indispensable loans floated on the London 
 market being at present the first and most vital of Australian 
 interests, it is considered unpatriotic as well as suicidal to 
 circulate widely any statements prejudicial to governmental 
 or joint- stock credits- 
 Many returned colonists residing in this country might 
 furnish independent and valuable testimony on the new 
 experiments and their results ; but, by a curious natural 
 coincidence, the man who is capable of making and keeping 
 a fortune can seldom describe instructively, in print or in 
 speech, the country, the people, or the institutions which have 
 contributed to his success. There is, for instance, the typical 
 returned colonist, possibly a wool-grower, professional man, 
 or employer of labour on a large scale, and possibly a man of 
 standing, experience, and powers of observation. When he 
 first settles in South Kensington he may patriotically resolve 
 to give the British public his particular views about protective 
 tariffs, political financing, or the latest vagaries of Trade Union 
 absolutism, in his particular colony, through the medium of 
 the London Press. But, even supposing that he is neither a 
 bore, a crotchet-monger, nor a mere partisan, when he settles 
 
 cence is significant. Yet, it is not ties on the London Stock Exchange, 
 the business of Australian colonists and although no large account in 
 to warn investors here ag^nst lend- them is ever open ' for the fall' there, 
 ing them that money without which an uneasy superstition prevaOs in the 
 State Socialism — including protected colonies that ' the Stock Exchange 
 industries, fancy wages, short hours, bears ' are, somehow, habitually in- 
 extravagant educational privileges, terested in depressing those securities, 
 and other ' collective ' luxuries — As far as that institution is concerned, 
 would long since have collapsed. colonial bonds are taken up and held 
 Caveat emptor is a principle discreetly in large blocks, byafewveryrioh 'job- 
 inculcated by colonists of all classes. bers, ' who try to retail them gradually 
 ' Although there is not, and never to the investing public. Practically 
 has been, any speculation — in the the Stock Exchange must always be a 
 gambler's sense — in colonial securi- ' bull ' of colonial securities. 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 149 
 
 in South Kensington our typical squatter, merchant, or man 
 of culture is apt to become so delighted with the ways of the 
 up-to-date Londoner, the cheapness of art-furniture, overcoats, 
 stationery and umbrellas in the shops, and the solemn luxury 
 of West-end clubs, that he grows pleasantly confused and 
 ultimately dumb, as far as Britons anxious for information 
 about State Socialism in the Antipodes are concerned. We 
 have heard of late years something about the evils of Free 
 Trade in New South Wales from furious protectionist partisans, 
 hitherto in a minority in that colony ; we have had some notes 
 from gentlemen with a tiny Home Eule axe to grind. In the 
 year 1886 the Sydney Protectionists, Trade Unionists, and 
 Socialists paid the expenses of a special envoy to London, 
 partly accredited by the Melbourne Trades' Hall Council, whose 
 business it was to enlighten the British public, and to dissuade 
 British wage-earners from emigrating to the Antipodes or spoil- 
 ing the labour-market there. The British public learns some- 
 thing, but not much, from the third-rate literary man who 
 occasionally voyages as far as New Zealand and back, then 
 determines to make a book. The few journalists of ability 
 who have made flying visits to the colonies of recent years 
 refrain from saying much about graver colonial questions, 
 chiefly because they recognise that it is extremely difiicult 
 to obtain trustworthy information, off-hand, on political, 
 economic, industrial, or financial matters even on the spot. 
 Australians are not demonstrative nor communicative to 
 strangers, while local discussion of the serious and sinister 
 problems accumulating behind the dominant policy of State 
 Socialism is for various good reasons economised as much as 
 possible at present. There is practically no magazine or 
 review literature in Australasia. Two or three of the great 
 newspapers published in Melbourne and Sydney contain of 
 course a mine of undigested facts and information about State 
 Socialism in the colonies, but they are virtually unread in 
 this country. 
 
 The notes collected by Mr. Froude during his trip to the 
 Antipodes in the early part of 1885 contain, like all his work, 
 profound, brilliant, and suggestive passages. But 'Oceana' 
 
1 50 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 does not profess to be jnore than a sketch. Baron von 
 Hubner's ' Voyage through the British Empire ' is a shrewd 
 and sympathetic survey, by an historical friend of England, 
 of the self-sown Englands beyond sea. He does not offer 
 to di-aw broad deductions for us. Lately some clerical 
 tourists of more or less eminence have described for home 
 readers what they saw in the colonies. It is well to 
 remember that the various unestablished religious bodies 
 there have from time to time received valuable grants of 
 land from the State; the Scots Church in Melbourne, and 
 the First Presbyterian Church in Dunedin, for example, 
 possess real estate of enormous value at current rates. The 
 principal ministers of religion are therefore weU paid, pros- 
 perous, and enabled to maintain an informal standing re- 
 ception committee, which takes travelling clerical celebrities 
 from this country in hand, and in the true spirit of Oriental 
 hospitality supplies them with that kind of information as to 
 Free State Education and crypto -socialism which is likely to 
 gratify them. Persons with mines to sell, bi-metalists, and 
 imperial federationists from beyond sea merely darken 
 counsel. 
 
 This year Sir Charles Dilke has caused to be published a 
 handsome book, in two volumes, wherein some of the problems 
 confronting rudderless democracy in the great self-governing 
 colonies are noticed. The opinions on such matters of one 
 of the most industrious and conspicuous of our political 
 recluses were awaited with curiosity. Some persons even 
 hoped that Sir Charles Dilke might, after many years of 
 intermittent interest in the affairs of the colonies, make 
 democracy in Australia as instructive a text for, at all events, 
 at brief homily, as De Tocqueville made of democracy in 
 America. But his new book leaves the impression that Sir 
 Charles Dilke lacks, among other things, the critical insight, 
 as well as the mental equipment generally, required in order 
 to examine and explain for English readers those profoundly 
 interesting problems of which he has heard. He has perhaps 
 no political philosophy of his own, or if he has he economises 
 it. Possibly the domination of a political philosophy, which 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 151 
 
 adds so much to the symmetry and penetrating effect of 
 French criticism, would have been inconvenient in this case. 
 Its absence in an ambitious writer, proposing to deal in- 
 structively with problems which take us down to the very 
 bed-rock of civil society, is in these days a defect. Sir Charles 
 Dilke, it appears, has not visited the .Australasian colonies for 
 over twenty years. That is another defect. He rightly pays 
 most attention to the colony of Victoria, but has virtually 
 made himself the conduit-pipe through which to distribute 
 the views of a group of cultured and interested Victorian 
 protectionists and half-fledged socialists to the British public. 
 A thriving and contented political party, generally describing 
 themselves as Kadicals, exists in Victoria. The impression 
 remains that Sir Charles Dilke pined to call the radicalism 
 of the New World into existence to redress the balance of the 
 Old. Accordingly he wrote for information about problems 
 to some worthy Radical gentlemen in Victoria. And they 
 wrote back to him in a cordial spirit, being delighted to 
 find that a politician who was very much thought about 
 in England, and had once been a minister of the Crown, was 
 prepared to accept a brief from them. 
 
 Yet a man will hardly travel right round the world with- 
 out learning that there is something to learn, and Sir Charles 
 Dilke has done one service to the reading and thinking public 
 here by discovering, and then frankly and clearly pointing out 
 that State Socialism entirely permeates the ruling classes in 
 Australia, and inspires the policy of ministries and legislatures 
 there. 'In Victoria,' he says (i. 185), 'State Socialism has 
 completely triumphed.' Nearly all previous writers on Aus- 
 tralasia have failed to see that, and have discussed colonial 
 borrowing. Protective Tariffs, hindrances to immigration and 
 to the growth of population, the Labour question, Free State 
 Education, &c. as though they were so many isolated or detach- 
 able phenomena. They are not isolated or accidental, but 
 have all the same origin, being in their later phases merely 
 the necessary product of half-digested socialistic ideas and 
 theories. Sir Charles Dilke makes Victoria his principal 
 text, no doubt because it is easier to get information, good or 
 
152 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 bad, about the finances, administration and general condition 
 of that colony than of the others. Such facilities are mainly 
 due to what might be called accident, that is to say, to the 
 superior status and activity of the newspaper' Press, in a 
 country where newspapers may exercise immense influence. 
 In New South Wales the daily Press is virtually represented 
 by one enormously wealthy journal, 'The Sydney Morning 
 Herald,' which now prudently expounds a dull opportunism, 
 as far as colonial problems are concerned. It would be 
 harsh and almost inhuman to criticise seriously the Adelaide 
 (South Australian) newspapers. There is a true saying 
 in the Antipodes that ' nothing ever happens in South 
 Australia,' although Mr. Henry George announces frequently 
 that his views are making great progress there. The 
 Brisbane newspapers perhaps cannot — they certainly do not 
 — lead or direct public opinion intelligently. In New Zealand 
 there is no single town population wealthy enough to 
 support a really great newspaper, and the Press is poverty- 
 stricken and uninfluential. In contrast to all this, during the 
 last twenty years the people of Victoria have chanced to be 
 served by two daily newspapers, as ably conducted, wealthy, 
 and powerful as any printed in the English language. 
 Englishmen are beginning to forget that it was once asserted, 
 with some truth, that the London newspapers 'governed- 
 England.' While our innumerable London newspapers are, 
 perhaps, wisely abandoning the attempt to steer English 
 opinion, the Melbourne 'Argus' and the Melbourne 'Age' 
 still conscientiously keep up the old fiction, and between 
 them do govern and misgovern the colony. Their rivalry 
 has been in many ways profitable to the colony. They make 
 certain blunders and abuses — allowed to pass in the neigh- 
 bouring colonies — impossible, and try to keep a search-light 
 turned on to the administration. They do not quite succeed. 
 Sir Charles Dilke, adopting views put forward by masters of 
 ' bounce ' and reclame here, who have done so much to finance 
 colonial State Socialism, asserts (i. 243) that we in England 
 'understand the way in which they float their loans' (in 
 Victoria), ' and their system of book-keeping ; . . . . and we are 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 153 
 
 ■well informed as to the objects on which their debts [sic) are 
 spent ; ' adding (ii. 230), ' that no one who knows the public 
 offices of South Australia, Victoria, or Tasmania, can accuse 
 them of more laxity in the management of public business 
 than is to be found in Downing Street itself.' 
 
 I fear that our author has here yielded to the temptation to 
 'sit down quickly and write fifty,' in order to make unto 
 himself friends, at any rate among our socialistic kin beyond 
 sea. The truth is that nothing definite can be known about 
 the finances of the Australasian colonies. State Socialism 
 there dares not present a genuine balance sheet. As may 
 also be said of the French Republic at this day, there is in 
 Australasia no system of public accounts similar to that which 
 prevails in Downing Street. In Victoria, New South Wales, 
 Queensland, South Australia, and New Zealand, the control 
 of expenditui-e by local Parliaments is really very weak. No 
 attempt has been made to introduce the imperial system of 
 simple, methodical, and exact account-keeping. Audit or 
 check upon public expenditure is loose and ineffective in all 
 the colonies. If we in England really understand ' the system 
 of book-keeping, and the object on which debts are spent ' in 
 Victoria, we know more than colonists themselves know. 
 Meanwhile, for years past reports of imaginary surpluses, as 
 well as misleading and worthless ' official ' statistics, have 
 been circulated in the Australasian colonies, and have been 
 carelessly reproduced here ^. The statement is constantly put 
 
 ' A Colonial Office Eeturn, 8i of 'not final.' They certainly were not ; 
 
 1890, ' Statistics of the Colony of Vic- for by the close of the Parliamentary 
 
 toria,' gives (p. 50) the 'net earnings' session, on the 21st November, 1889, 
 
 of the State Railways since 1 884 at a it was discovered that the huge sur- 
 
 fractionoverfourpercent. The reality plus — which the hqn. the treasurer 
 
 of these ' net earnings ' is extremely in August had generously distributed 
 
 doubtful. The ' Finance Account ' on in doles, such as £60,000 a year extra, 
 
 p. 32 will not bear examination. Anote to railway labourers ; £i40,oooayear 
 
 onthesamepagegivesthe'statement' to municipalities; £250,000 bounties 
 
 (really an ofiSeial precis of that year's on exports, to already ' protected ' 
 
 budget) ' distributed to members of industries, cottage asylums, wire net- 
 
 the Legislative Assembly in July, ting for the State rabbits, public 
 
 1889,' which showed a credit balance, buildings, &c. — had no existence. 
 
 or surplus, of £1,607,559. These The whole story of this bogus sur- 
 
 figures, it is cautiously added, were plus had already been told in the 
 
 12 
 
154 
 
 A Plea for Liberty. 
 
 [IV. 
 
 forward, for example, that the Victorian State railways, which 
 are supposed to represent an expenditure on productive public 
 
 Melbourne Press two months before 
 the Colonial Office Return in ques- 
 tion (which reproduces it as genuine 
 with the endorsement of the then 
 goTernor of the colony, Sir Henry 
 Loch), was ' presented to both Houses 
 of Parliament, by command of her 
 Majesty.' In the last hours of the 
 session of 1889, the hon. the trea- 
 surer announced that the govern- 
 ment balance in the hands of the as- 
 sociated banks had fallen to £142,000, 
 that he had been compelled liie all his 
 predecessors to borrow from 'Trust 
 Funds/ buttothe extent of £1 ,230,000, 
 and that he would require to float at 
 once on the London market a loan 
 for £1,600,000 (formally devoted by 
 Parliament to railway construction 
 in 1885) as well as a ftirther loan of 
 £4,000,000 to square his accounts 
 It was subsequently admitted by 
 ministers that the surpluses of that 
 and previous years had been mainly 
 arrived at by the strange but, it ap- 
 pears, time-honoured book-keeping 
 expedient of crediting the revenue 
 with all money received during the 
 financial year and ' carrying forward ' 
 certain expenditure, or debits, to 
 futurity. A memorandum to the 
 Premier from Mr. Edward Langton 
 (an old Victorian public servant and 
 financier of ability, who is banished 
 from political life because he is a free 
 trader), was published in the princi- 
 pal Melbourne newspaper, Dec. 4, 
 1889, and showed that, according to 
 the Victorian audit conmiissioners, 
 for years past, large sums had been 
 expended without the sanction of 
 Parliament, improperly withdrawn 
 from the debit side of the public ac- 
 counts and carried forward for sub- 
 sequent adjustment. Since 18S5-6 
 this ' charging forward ' amounted to 
 
 £3,500,000. The audit commissioners, 
 it further appeared, are powerless to 
 interfere with this ' system of book- 
 keeping.' It transpired at the same 
 time that no separate or distinct 
 Railway departmental account or 
 budget existed ; the audit commis- 
 sioners and the railway department 
 did not even agree as to the real 
 amount of the railway capital ac- 
 count ; no railway ' sinking fund,' or 
 reserve, to meet losses, such as com- 
 pensation to passengers for railway 
 accidents, existed ; while expendi- 
 ture which, by the General Post 
 Office, or by any solvent railway, in 
 this country, would be charged to 
 revenue, was habitually charged to a 
 floating capital account, to be re- 
 couped out of future loans. The fic- 
 tion of 'non-political control' of the 
 Victorian railways Is reproduced by 
 Sir Charles Dilke. It is true that 
 (chiefly owing to the efforts of the 
 'Argus') since 1884, Mr. Speight, a 
 railway authority of great experience 
 from the Midland Company, a born 
 judge of work and possessed of singu- 
 lar energy, ability and tact, has been 
 ' at the head ' of the Victorian Rail- 
 way department. But in matters 
 of high State Socialistic finance 
 the ' Minister for Railways' was, until 
 the attempt to create a new Parlia- 
 mentary Committee ad hoc in 1890, 
 supreme. Mr. Speight has been con- 
 stantly attacked and thwarted by the 
 labour party and their political satel- 
 lites, but now shows some signs of 
 having become a, convert to their 
 ideas. Chaotic as is the condition of 
 Victorian ' book-keeping,' matters are 
 still more confused in New South 
 Wales. Prom February, 1886 to Jan- 
 uary, 1887 an Irish gentleman, who 
 in the romantic garb of a disguised 
 
IV. j State Socialism in the Antipodes. 155 
 
 works of the bulk of the money borrowed by that colony 
 since 1865, honestly earn a surplus in excess of the interest on 
 their cost. That statement is not, and never has been, true. 
 The memorandum from the Railway Commissioners, read 
 with the budget statement in the Victorian Assembly on the 
 31st July, 1890, at last frankly admits that the earnings of the 
 State Railways fell short of the accruing interest for the year 
 by more than .^320,000. 
 
 Yet religions, or dogmas, which nobody can possibly 
 comprehend do frequently make converts ; perhaps because 
 of the haze obscuring the financial basis of Colonial State 
 Socialism, Sir Charles Dilke (i. 195) judges that 'Lord 
 Bramwell himself would ' find salvation, and ' become a state 
 socialist if he inhabited Victoria.' Here we have the testimony 
 of an absentee ' inhabitant,' who has not set foot in the colony 
 for more than twenty years. Sir Charles Dilke, while vaguely 
 civil to socialists in general, hardly understands that socialism 
 is always a most logical, consistent and imperative creed. He 
 has indeed a hazy notion that there are ' moderate European 
 Socialists ' with ' practical programmes ' — set to stop as soon 
 
 troubadour had won the heart of a management in the public accounts 
 
 charming colonial heiress, and thus of Victoria and New South Wales 
 
 laid the foundation of political emin- might no doubt be remedied in time, 
 
 ence, was premier of the colony. He were it not that the prosperity of the 
 
 managed, before stumbling out of dominant class and their dependents 
 
 office, to associate himselfwith a deficit is now inextricably bound up with 
 
 of £2,000,000, which has since been the continuance and extension of 
 
 stated in the local Parliament, Feb. reckless financing. In order to ap- 
 
 i88g, tohavegrowntOi64,o64,844. The preciate the State Socialistic 'system 
 
 truth is that no one in the colony of book-keeping' in Victoria, we 
 
 knows how the matter stands. In ought to imagine Mr. Goschen dimly 
 
 South Australia and Queensland the suspecting a deficit, drawing freely 
 
 'system of book-keeping' and 'the ob- on funds in the hands of the Receiver 
 
 jects on which their debts are spent,' General of the Court of Chancery in 
 
 axe, as Mr. Herbert Spencer would order to pay off incoherent issues of 
 
 say, 'unthinkable.' New Zealand, Exchequer bills; and squaring one 
 
 the colony whose credit has stood year's public accounts by council 
 
 lowest of recent years, alone has what drafts on India — in the following 
 
 may perhaps be called a sinking year. Meantime distributing ' sur- 
 
 fund, and managed, at least on paper, pluses ' thus obtained in bribes to 
 
 to reduce her debt by £1,383,432 various political groups, suggested by 
 
 in 1889-90. Irregularities and bad the Social Democratic Federation. 
 
156 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 as mischief tlireateiis. Although he finds that Ne-w South 
 Wales has built and managed her railways ii^. accordance -with 
 socialistic teaching, he seems to look forward (i. 374) to their 
 being worked ' upon strictly commercial principles ' some day. 
 In that case, he thinks, they could pay interest on their cost. 
 He apparently does not understand how State Socialism 
 works, why it is popular, seductive, and under favourable 
 financial conditions, cumulative in its action, nor why it is 
 combated and denounced by Lord Bramwell and other 
 people. I take it the rough objections to State Socialism 
 everywhere are, that it does not profess to 'pay,' in the 
 busiaess or commercial sense ; that, as regards Great Britain, 
 therefore, funds to meet deficits and to keep the system going 
 could only be obtained by levying novel and penal taxes 
 upon industrious and thrifty people, and by plundering 
 owners of fixed capital, either by sheer violence or by violence 
 cloaked in hypocrisy ; that even if placed, somehow, on a 
 paying basis State Socialism weakens and demoralizes the 
 national character, by striking at the whole conception of 
 patient, courageous and orderly toil, struggle and endeavour — 
 the most wholesome and ennobling conception human beings 
 have as yet thought out for themselves. 
 
 With a splendid subject and a splendid opportunity before 
 him Sir Charles Dilke might have told us by what agencies 
 the primary financial difficulty has been got over in Australia. 
 He shirks all that, but says there is now ' no objection or 
 resistance to state ownership of railways ' or to ' state inter- 
 ference ' generally ; that ' state socialistic movements render 
 Australia a pioneer for England's good,' and hints that ' the 
 Australian colonies as regards State Socialism present us with 
 a picture of what England will become.' He is not able to 
 teU us how State Socialism is affecting the national character, 
 whether it is producing a nobler or baser type of man and 
 woman in Australia. Our author has not however emancipated 
 himself from the old-fashioned prejudice that triumphant 
 socialism implies, sooner or later, the proclamation of the 
 cotnmAx/rie, the burning of public buildings and the shooting of 
 hostages ; he is delighted to be able to report that the sky has 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 157 
 
 not fallen, that hens still lay, and that tradesmen still come round 
 regularly with provisions in the morning, in a country where 
 State Socialism is supreme. To him it is ' an amazing fact ' 
 that Socialism ' in the French or English sense,' and ' Revolu- 
 tionary, European or Democratic ' socialism absolutely do not 
 exist among the all-powerful working class in the colonies ; 
 he is so pleased with this aphorism that he repeats it in at 
 least eleven different places ^- But whether State Socialism be 
 installed by a revolutionary mob, by a dictator or by a 
 Parliament, is not the main point. The real questions are : — 
 can the thing itself be honestly made to pay, and will it give 
 to a nation healthier, wealthier, and wiser men and women ? 
 In Europe and the United States socialism does usually suggest 
 the idea of revolutionary, violent or terrorist methods, simply 
 because state treasuries are not easily lootable and because 
 tax-payers and owners of fixed capital there still resolutely 
 offer all the resistance in their power to the very practical, 
 and almost the first, demand made by modern socialists, for 
 money to carry out beneficent plans which cannot possibly 
 pay on their merits. Probably nobody is a Revolutionary 
 Socialist ' in the French or English sense ' from choice. 
 
 Victorian Trade Unionists concentrated in one or two large 
 towns have of late years been allowed by the cowardice 
 or apathy of all other classes in the colony to monopolize 
 political power. Although Trade Unionists still jealously 
 dislike to see men belonging to their special class in Parliament 
 they have long ' owned ' ministers and legislators, and thus 
 obtained peaceable but complete control over the public purse ^. 
 
 ' Pp. i. 185, ii. 264, 265, 267, 268, persistence in imbuing the colony 
 
 269, 272, 279, 288, 296, 357. with the notion that they constitute 
 
 " Mr. Mathew Macfie, in a paper the party which controls voting 
 read before the Colonial Institute, power at elections. So widely is this 
 Deo. 10, 1889, designed to show assumption believed that candidates 
 that the Australian colonies were at a Parliamentary Election, to whom 
 crippled and restricted by lack of salary or political influence is a con- 
 population, and efficient labour, says, sideration, defer with real or affected 
 ' The operatives in Victoria are or- humility to the wishes of the Trades 
 ganized into a compact phalanx under Hall Council in Melbourne. The in- 
 leaders who have succeeded by dogged evitable outcome of this state of po- 
 
158 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 They can pledge the credit of the colony in order to financo 
 railways and public works which provide them, on their own 
 terms, with ' State ' employment and set the market rate of 
 wages. In the course of a debate on Protection versus Free 
 Trade held in the Concert Hall of the Melbourne Exhibition 
 building before a,ooo people on the 8th April, 1890, between 
 Mr. Henry George and Mr. Trenwith, the latter — a member of 
 the Legislative Assembly for one of the Melbourne divisions 
 and President of the Trades HaU Council — boasted, with 
 truth, that ' The Trade Unionists, wanting respectable houses, 
 with a carpet on the floor and a piano, as well as good clothes 
 and education for their children, told the legislators — their 
 servants : — " Put a duty on such and such goods for us." ' 
 Sir Charles Dilke notices (ii. 275), that ' there is no timidity 
 in the South Sea Colonies with regard to taxation upon land,' 
 and intimates (i. 193), that the Victorian land tax — turned 
 into a penal enactment by the radical party after their triumph 
 in 1877 as an act of vengeance on their opponents— ' is certain 
 to be extended whenever the colony is in want of money.' 
 This tax, our author truly says (ii. 275), has caused ' a certain 
 depression '■ — subjective timidity perhaps. Colonial ministries 
 now find easier ways of raising money than by a land tax ; 
 
 litical subjection on the part of mem- (ii. 272) ' the Founder of Australian 
 bers of the House, and in many cases Protection,' adding that ' he might 
 of the Government also, is the injus- easily, had chance so willed it, have 
 tice of class legislation.' Sir Charles made in the vporld the same name 
 Dilke, vfriting perhaps from the point that has been made in later days by 
 ofview of an 'inhabitant' of a quarter Mr. Henry George, having put for- 
 of a century ago, describes (ii. 316), vfard in most eloquent and powerful 
 the great respect felt for the Trades language the same principles at a 
 Councils, and their almost invariable much earlier date.' In the Antipodes 
 wisdom, moderation, sense of respon- Evolution, of course, proceeds d re- 
 sibility, and marked spirit of justice. ftoura, and the Founder of Protection 
 Mr. Macfie, who spent several years in question, who might, had chance 
 in Victoria, and only returned in so willed it, have become the rival of 
 1S89, is however a specially valu- Mr. Henry George, although he still 
 able vritness, because he lived right diverts his admirers, whose pennies 
 in the centre of the Protectionist and and patronage are making him a mil- 
 State Socialist camp, having been lionaire, with cheap denunciation of 
 editor of a powerful weekly journal, capitalism and landlordism, is to-day 
 mainly owned by the same gentle- the wealthiest landowner in the 
 man whom Sir Charles Dilke styles colony. 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes, 159 
 
 but as long as the power remaiais of imposing taxes on large 
 landowners, in order to pay off loans contracted and expended 
 without the latter's consent or approval, the setting up of 
 barricades, burning cities, and shooting hostages wiU always 
 be, for Australian State Socialists, works of supererogation. 
 
 If our domestic socialists ' in the French and English sense,' 
 effectually controlled the Imperial Treasury, they might re- 
 nounce felonious talk, cease to foment mutiny in the British 
 Army and become Conservatives — in the best sense oT the term. 
 Sir Charles Dilke seems at one moment to realise how thoroughly 
 practical are the aims and aspirations of the ruling class in 
 Victoria, for he says (ii. 303), ' The Christianity that they under- 
 stand is an assertion of the claim of the masses to rise in the 
 scale of humanity.' This kind of Christianity has been under- 
 stood ija the same sense by the dominant classes in all ages and 
 countries — from landowners, lay and clerical, in mediaeval 
 times, down to British middle-class employers and capitalists 
 of a couple of generations ago — who controlled the national 
 purse strings. All those people honestly believed in turn that 
 they were ' the masses ' — in the best sense of the term — and 
 they raised themselves in the scale of humanity, at the public 
 expense, accordingly. Meanwhile our author fails to see that 
 Colonial Federated Labour or Trade Unionism cares little for 
 abstract ideas. It is doubtful whether British artisans any- 
 where have hitherto cared much about them ; the founders of 
 the International and the leaders of the Comteist movement in 
 this country at all events considered it doubtful after years 
 of experiment. Australian Trade Unionists — if occasionally 
 given to violence and prone to break their engagements — are 
 as good-natured, friendly, affable and well-conducted as the 
 representatives of any dominant class of Britons that history 
 tells of. They are fond of amusement, manly sports, and 
 betting on horse races. The same might have been said of 
 that large class who at the end of the last century lived and 
 thrived on the Irish Pension List. Sir Charles Dilke seems 
 further to have imagined that even if Australian working- 
 class democrats abjured ' Eevolutionary ' Socialism ' in the 
 French and English sense,' they must at least hanker after 
 
1 6o A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 land nationalization. He is pleased to find that they do not. 
 Yet why should they ? Unless the Australian Trade Unionist 
 sees 30s. a week extra for himself in any State Socialistic 
 movement he takes no interest whatsoever in it. There 
 is no profit, direct or indirect, for any human being in 
 nationalization of the land, hence in Australasia land 
 nationalizers, or single tax leaguers, are, politically, about 
 as influential and important a body as, let us say, the 
 Swedenborgians in this country^. In March 1890, Mr. 
 Henry George visited Australasia. He became an object 
 of curiosity and attention there, partly because of recent 
 years many colonial politicians, especially in Queensland 
 and New Zealand, have suffered from a chronic indigestion of 
 his theories. Sir Robert Stout, Mr. Ballance, Mr. Button and 
 Sir S. Griffith have each tinkered, in fragmentary, mischievous 
 and futile fashion, with the Land Legislation of their colonies 
 on Mr. George's lines. Colonists however insisted, in 1890, 
 on studying Mr. George as a Free Trader, and the local 
 socialists, who are perhaps more logical than Mr. George is, 
 refused to believe that Free Trade — which is so wrapped up 
 with equal liberty to make contracts, unrestricted competi- 
 tion, self-help, cheap necessaries and other 'individuahst' 
 delusions — could work in with Nationalization of the Land, 
 one of the most extreme developments of State Interference 
 and State Socialism. Mr. Henry George, as an incoherent 
 Free Trader, managed to puzzle and offend, instead of convert- 
 ing, Australian socialists who, quite logically, are Protectionists 
 
 ' Mr. William Webster of Aberdeen folk, who imagine that the mystic 
 once described to me, as evidence of ' State ' can, somehow, invent money 
 the spread of the light in the colo- wherewith honestly to buy up all 
 nies, an ardent land nationalizer the freehold land in the world before 
 from the Colonial Little Peddlington, nationalizing it. The Little Pedd- 
 South Australia, who owned much lington landowner, it seems, had 
 land himself. It was, I gathered, joined the anti-ooufiscationist sec- 
 mortgaged, beyond its then value to tion, and as his land was quite 
 local banks. Now there are two sec- unsaleable and a burthen to him, I 
 tions of land nationalizers, confisca- was not surprised to hear that he 
 tionists and anti-confiscationists, the had high hopes from ' the State,' and 
 former being, of course, mere bri- was very enthusiastic, 
 gands, the latter honest, but ignorant 
 
IV.] 
 
 State Socialism in the Antipodes. 
 
 i6i 
 
 also. The fact, noticed by Sir Charles Dilke, that masses and 
 classes in the colonies are now alike deeply interested in land 
 ' booms ' and in keeping up the value of freeholds, further 
 explains Mr. Henry George's recent decisive rebuflf there. 
 
 High wageSj in exchange for short hours of labour, do not 
 come under the heading of id&es, but are practical things. 
 The prevalence of the eight hours' rule in so many colonial 
 industries is indirect, but strong, proof of the irresistible power 
 conceded to Federated Labour. Although political depen- 
 dents of the dominant class in Victoria at one time thought it 
 worth their while to embody ' the eight hours ' in one or two 
 Mining and Tramway Acts ^, Trade Unionists have been of late 
 years strong enough to get what they want without help of the 
 law ^. Indeed owing to the non-repeal of old British Statutes 
 against 'combination,' Trade Unions were technically illegal in 
 Victoria as late as 1885. Sir Charles Dilke says little about 
 the Australian ' eight hours ' system. He seems puzzled 
 
 ' The Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus 
 Act (765) of 1883, Sect. 62. says : — 
 ' The days of labour (sic) of any person 
 employed by the Company . . . shall 
 be eight hours, ' but permits overtime, 
 ' for special payment, ' to the amount of 
 sixty hours' work per week. 'The Com- 
 pany shall be liable to a penalty not 
 exceeding £5 for every breach of this 
 section.' It has never been necessary 
 to enforce this penalty. The Begula- 
 tian of Mines Act (783) of 1883, Sect. .5. 
 says : — ' No person shall be employed 
 . . . for more than eight hours in 
 any day, except in case of emergency.' 
 The penalty for a breach of this 
 section by a 'mine owner' is £50 
 fine ; by ' any other person ' a fine of 
 £10, recoverable by summary process 
 before two justices. Although I can 
 find no cases of prosecutions under 
 this section, it seems to have been 
 evaded, for an Amending Act ad hoc 
 (883) of 1886 enacts, solely, that ; 
 ' no person shall be employed below 
 ground in any mine for more than 
 eight consecutive hours . . . from the 
 
 time he commences to descend the 
 mine until he is relieved of his work.' 
 . . . The burthen of proving inno- 
 cence of charges under these sections 
 is thrown upon the mine owner or 
 'other person.' 
 
 ' A familiar argument for an eight 
 hours' statute in Great Britain is that 
 Trade Unions cannot enforce the rule 
 themselves. Legal agencies are some- 
 times superfluous. In the grim days 
 when landlords were absolute in 
 Ireland the legal machinery for col- 
 lecting rents was very imperfect, 
 actually far behind that existing in 
 England ; the Act of i860 first gave 
 large powers in that respect to Irish 
 landowners. Aware of this, I once 
 asked a venerable Irish farmer how 
 landlords managed to collect rent 
 in his youth ? ' Well, you see,' he 
 said, ' landlords 'didn't want much 
 lawyer's law in thim times. The 
 mashther's rint-wamer just wint 
 round wid' a big cart-whip, and he 
 found no pettyfoggin' impidimints 
 at all.' 
 
1 62 A Plea for Liberty. [iv^ 
 
 (i. 350) to understand how Victorian manufacturers manage 
 to compete with foreign rivals, although 'paying double 
 wages for 20 per cent, less time than at home.' But he 
 entirely underestimates the ' protection ' of the tariff, as well 
 as the other advantages enjoyed by the local manufacturer, 
 and increases his confusion by taking 'an average duty of 
 II per cent.' on the total Victorian imports^- He says 
 (ii. 286) that the eight hours' day ' according to general ad- 
 mission has been found as satisfactory throughout Austraha 
 as in Victoria,' a generalization which omits much one would 
 like to know. ' We might gradually/ he thinks, ' introduce 
 it into the contracts of the State and the municipalities in 
 this country, and give it the force of a general law in the case 
 of those trades to which it would be most easily apphed,' but 
 does not tell us by what devices the inconveniences of 
 diminished ' supply ' or production — as ■ well as the waste 
 and loss due to reduced efficiency of labour — are met and 
 counterbalanced ; nor whether the conditions which make the 
 eight hours' rule possible in Australia are to be found in 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Short hours of labour and high wages seem to me largely 
 convertible terms. Both are good things. The leisure enjoyed 
 by colonial workmen, their brisk, cheerful and robust 
 
 * The bare, or 'face,' duty on the enjoyed by the local manufacturer, 
 
 principal imported articles, which Victorian importers must provide 
 
 really compete with local manufac- two separate capitals, and pay an 
 
 tures, will be found over a course of average of 6 per cent, interest on at 
 
 years to average from 30 to 50 per least one of them ; one is locked up, 
 
 cent. oA valorem. On some kinds of perhaps for many months, in the 
 
 paper, matches, earthenware porce- Custom House ; the other is required 
 
 lain, china and glass and on wearing partly in Europe to pay for goods and 
 
 apparel, it has worked out of recent partly to work with in Melbourne, 
 
 years at from 75 to 150 per cent, ad We must add freight, insurance, and 
 
 valorem. In order to arrive at the heavy port and landing charges, at 
 
 total advantage or ' pull ' which the a port where wharf labourers get 
 
 Victorian maniifacturer enjoys, we Is. 3d. per hour for seven and a-half 
 
 may safely treble the nominal or hours of work, and difScuIty, loss of 
 
 ' face ' amount given in the tariff time and interest involved in exe- 
 
 list. Thus, a nominal duty of 25 cuting orders in a market 13,000 
 
 per cent, ad valorem means that miles distant, 
 at least 75 per cent, protection is 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 163 
 
 appearance, and the activity and ' go ' displayed by one or 
 two out-door trades (such as masons and house carpenters) 
 ■who work under the eight hours' system, are pleasant to 
 behold. A very high ' standard of comfort ' prevails amongst 
 Australian workers, and no doubt, as Fleeming Jenkin argued 1, 
 the standard or expectation of comfort, and the ideal scale of 
 living for the family maintained by wage-earners, do deter- 
 mine the amount of effort which they will put forth to raise 
 wages or reduce hours of labour. It is well to remember 
 that the success of such efforts depends upon very variable 
 conditions, political, social, &c. The 'standard of comfort' 
 firmly believed in by Australian alluvial gold diggers in 
 1851-3 'embraced' champagne at five guineas a bottle for 
 themselves, gold horse-shoes, now and then, for their horses, 
 and silk dresses at five guineas a yard, for the partners of 
 their joys. What made that lofty standard of comfort possible 
 in 1851-3 was the easily won gold on Bendigo flats and other 
 alluvial diggings. What are the conditions which have 
 enabled Australian Trade Unionists of late years to maintain 
 a particular standard of comfort, wages, and hours % Sir 
 Charles Dilke does not tell us. I believe they are entirely 
 exceptional and artificial. 
 
 The first local circumstance, or condition, favourable to 
 the success and permanence of ' The Eight Hours ' rule 
 in Victoria is the protective tariff. The second condition 
 is the absence of keen competition among workers of all 
 grades themselves. The third is the settled policy which 
 regularly provides ateliers nationaux, or employment for 
 that class which is supposed to be all-powerful at election 
 time on state railways and so-called productive pubKc works, 
 thus ' keeping a market ' for labour and creating a standard 
 of hours and wages which private employers cannot compete 
 against or vary. The fourth, correlated of course to the last, 
 is the now inevitable, financial, or borrowing, policy of the 
 various colonial governments ; which re-acts upon local banks 
 and credit institutions. Colonial land legislation and the 
 concentration of population in large cities are also favourable 
 
 ' Recess Studies, Ediub., Edmonstons, 1870. 
 
164 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 conditions. How many of tKese, it may be aBked, exist in 
 Great Britain ? 
 
 With slight exceptions the above conditions are in Australia 
 all within the control of the very class which benefits 
 directly by the eight hours' rule. The absence of competition 
 is indeed mainly due to the fact that Australia is remote from 
 the European labour market. A voyage thither means, for 
 an artisan or labourer in search of work, ^£''18 at least, if he 
 be a single man, and far more of course if he be married and 
 have a family. These are, to millions of European workers, 
 prohibitive rates, and constitute a natural or geographical 
 protective duty upon human beings, i.e. upon competing 
 ' labour.' We have only to compare steerage fares from 
 Europe to United States ports — as well as from Continental 
 ports to the United Kingdom — with passage rates to Austraha 
 to understand, firstly, why the eight hours' movement has 
 failed hitherto in America and, next, how necessary it will 
 be to stave oflf, somehow, the competition of Continental 
 labour in many of our home industries if one of the principal 
 elements of the success of the Australian ' eight hours ' is 
 to be secured here. Except in Queensland, colonial labour 
 leaders have compelled their political dependents to do away 
 with that really socialistic measure. State-aided immigration. 
 The various colonial governments have been similai'ly com- 
 pelled to protest against any large immigration schemes, 
 promoted from this side, even to remote West Australia. Every 
 now and then Trade and Labour Councils urge governments 
 to represent through the Agents General at home that there is 
 really no field for labour in the colonies, and they take the 
 most elaborate means to circulate the same fable in this 
 country. Where land is abundant and nature propitious 
 workmen make work for workmen. There is an absolutely 
 illimitable field for free laboui- as applied to the resources of 
 nature in the Australasian colonies. The development of 
 that field would of course benefit every man, woman and 
 child now living in Australia. But the arguments used by 
 the old school of American Protectionists (who were indi^ 
 vidualists, perhaps without knowing it) that growing popula- 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 165 
 
 tion and immigration make the surest market for native 
 industries, or home manufactures, cannot be used by State 
 Socialists in Australia. The horrors of competition and the 
 necessity for quelling it are their main texts. This was the 
 lesson which Mr. Benjamia Douglas, President of the Trades 
 Hall Council, inculcated upon Lord Eosebery in Melbourne in 
 1884, and the virtual teaching of Australian labour leaders 
 to-day is that every additional worker who lands, or is born 
 and reared, in the colony is an additional competitor and 
 therefore an enemy. While the ' goal ' or ' ideal ' of the 
 economist and Free Trader, who finds before him boundless 
 natural resources, may be roughly described as an ' infinite ' 
 increase in the number of workers — ^never quite overtaking 
 'infinite' increases in the demand for labour, production of 
 exchangeable utilities and rise in wages — the goal or ideal of 
 State Socialists and Protectionists, so far as it can be 
 ascertained from the speeches, writings, and actions of such 
 persons in Australia, is one single worker^ earning all the 
 wages paid in his own, rigidly protected and stationary, trade 
 and producing an infinitesimal amount of exchangeable 
 utilities ^. This astounding but of course unacknowledged 
 ' principle ' underlies the whole policy of the dominant labour 
 party and their political satellites in Victoria. They therefore 
 remain consistently indifferent to the slow growth of popula- 
 tion and its actual decline in the mining and agricultural 
 districts, to steadily diminishing exports and the neglect or 
 decay of innumerable profitable employments for labour, such 
 
 ' The Victorian Tariff Commission Trade Union Congress in 1884 for 
 
 of 1883-4 elicited the curious fact having suggested that a market might 
 
 that one lonely human being earned be found in British India for some 
 
 his living by cutting corks in the Victorian manufactures. They were 
 
 colony. Thus, for the benefit of this accused of a design to reduce Victo- 
 
 cherished unit, a duty of 4^. per lb. rian wages to the Indian level. Ee- 
 
 on cut corks had been maintained, presentative Trade Unionists have 
 
 which was extremely irksome and recently protested against the State 
 
 injurious to the Colonial wine in- Technical Colleges because young Vic- 
 
 dustry generally. torians learn to become 'fitters,' lathe 
 
 ^ The Victorian Commissioners to hands, &c., there, and thus compete 
 
 the last Calcutta Exhibition were de- with ' Labour.' 
 nounced at the succeeding Annual 
 
1 66 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 as the production of frozen salted and tinned meat, fresh and 
 preserved fruit, wine, oil, tobacco, dried fish, hides, pelta, 
 butter, cheese, condensed milk, &c., for export. As long as 
 their political dependents will borrow money incessantly in 
 London, spend it on so-called useful public works in and 
 around Melbourne and increase the tariff at regular intervals, 
 the labour party are well satisfied. Deputations representing 
 various trades have constantly and successfully urged govern- 
 ment to increase the duty on the article tjiey were interested 
 in, on the general ground that unless it were raised above 
 35 per cent, ad valorem they would have to sacrifice the eight ' 
 hours' principle and reduce wages ^. 
 
 Colonial State Socialism revolves in a sort of circle, and 
 the same sequence appears to present itself at whatever point 
 we inspect it. Politicians sanction and float loans, to provide 
 employment for their patrons on pleasant terms ; local banks 
 and credit institutions make use of the proceeds of State 
 borrowing to ' finance ' building societies, importers, manu- 
 facturers, tradesmen and private speculators, who in turn 
 
 ' Victorian Free Traders have come found that the high tariff, by increas- 
 to use arguments really borrowed ing enormously the cost of living, has 
 from American Free Traders, from a frightened away transient or casual 
 country where ' Protection ' is merely workers, has deterred others from 
 a patch of a strange colour on a gar- marrying early or rearing large fami- 
 ment woven throughout of ' Indivi- lies, and has thus diminished 'compe-. 
 dualistic ' materials ; contending, for tition ' generally. Except among Jews 
 example, that Protection in no way and Roman Catholics, the birth and 
 benefits the material interests and marriage rates in the colony are omi- 
 pocket of the Victorian working-man. nously low. Married women born 
 Mr. E. Jowett, of the newly-formed there and living under artificial, and 
 Democratic Free Trade League, in a in many respects unhealthy social 
 public debate with Mr. Hancock of conditions, shirk more and more of 
 the Trades Hall Council, on June recent years the duties and exertions 
 II, 1 890, took this ground. In the of maternity and rearing children. 
 United States Mr. Jowett's conten- Already the most lucrative branch of 
 tion is a truism, and, if we consider medical practice in the colony de- 
 wage-earners as a class, and connote pends on this sinister fact. The 
 free trade in labour, no doubt it is enervating effect of the climate upon 
 equally true everywhere. But if we women and young children, cost of 
 consider merely those Trade Unionists house-rent, necessaries of life, ser- 
 now alive in Victoria, and the cir- vants, and even milk, in Melbourne, 
 cumstances determining ' eompeti- explain if they do not excuse ' civic 
 tion ' among them, I think it will be cowardice ' of this type. 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 167 
 
 give credit to working men for goods, or for land and houses 
 bought by them at inflation prices out of their savings. 
 Neither shop debts, interest, nor instalments on purchases 
 of land and houses, can be paid unless wages are good, 
 and work on political railways and 'useful public works' 
 plenty. These pleasant practices grow upon the community 
 like opium eating. Ministers therefore dare not now hold 
 their hand, calculate ways and means closely, or stop bor- 
 rowing, lest the whole top-heavy fabric of State Socialism 
 should come toppling down about their ears. The expen- 
 diture for all purposes by the Victorian government for the 
 last two or three years has been at the rate of about 
 a^i4,ooo,ooo per annum ^. Part of this sum has been ob- 
 tained by issuing bonds on the London Market, part from 
 revenue. Under the existing hand-to-mouth financial policy 
 it looks very much as though recent loans have been regularly 
 floated to meet accruing interest on old loans ; that is, on 
 the total bonded debt of the colony. When those Melbourne 
 banks, which keep the government account, require to remit 
 money to London to cash half-yearly coupons coming oiF the 
 Bonds, they can draw upon London against the proceeds of 
 each fresh loan, instead of having to buy wool or wheat drafts 
 in the local market, and remit them. This agreeable system 
 appears to be never ending ; as the local phrase goes, it ' re- 
 lieves the banks,' and largely enables them to use their de- 
 posits to ' carry' land speculators, and to expand local credit 
 generally. The other half of the State expenditure in Vic- 
 toria is derived from revenue, i.e. from Customs duties 
 mainly. Neither coin nor bullion are in these days sent to 
 Australia. Transfers of ' money' from Europe to the colony 
 therefore invariably take the shape of bankers' drafts, against 
 goods exported to the colonies ; a fact which explains the ab- 
 normally large imports into Victoria of recent years. Govern- 
 ment, through the Custom House, thus takes a heavy toll upon 
 
 ■ During the last seven years Go- lie and corporate debts have increased 
 
 vernment expenditure has increased by £32,000,000, and annual exports 
 
 by 41 per cent., while population has of ' produce and manufactures ' fallen 
 
 increased by 15 per cent. only. Pub- from twelve to nine millions. 
 
1 68 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 all foreign 'money' sent on private account for employment 
 in Victoria. In addition, it levies a second toll upon any 
 balance of new loans — left over after paying half-yearly 
 coupons, or interest charges in London — which ultimately 
 finds its -way (in the shape of goods) to the colony. Thus 
 the very same 'money' may figure twice over in the public 
 accounts ; once as the proceeds of Railway or Irrigation 
 loans sanctioned by Parliament, a second time as ' revenue' 
 intercepted in the Custom House. 
 
 This methodical system of inflation, this recurring Milion 
 Segen from Lombard St., is locally so convenient and popular, 
 that no class frets itself over such minutiae as the efiect of the 
 eight hours' rule in diminishing the efficiency of labour and 
 restricting production. There is great latitude in regard to 
 public works. The generous policy of government is con- 
 tagious. If the estimated cost of a new railway or public 
 building be exceeded, in practice, a supplementary vote is 
 hustled through Parliament late in the session ; the whole 
 -thing is finally shaken up, shuffled, and discrepancies righted 
 out of the next loan. No doubt the net effect of short hours, 
 high wages and dishonest or slovenly 'labour' in Victoria 
 is represented ultimately in diminished production of utiUties 
 for export^. But the Trade Unionist who has just wrung 
 
 ^ Anyone who attempts to estimate overt ' for the ■world's custom, where 
 the economic effect of the reduced withdrawal of capital or diminished 
 hours and fancy wages enjoyed by efficiency of labour would at once 
 Labour in Victoria, is at once con- tell upon the nation's home trade, 
 fronted by the fact that the whole exports and imports. But in Vic- 
 industrial or manufacturing system toria, where every £1 worth of local 
 there is very much a system pour manufactures which figures in offl- 
 rire. While economists in Europe cial returns has cost at least £x los. 
 dispute the existence of a 'wage to produce, and is nevertheless en- 
 fund,' one becomes aware in Victoria sured a forced consumption in the 
 of three such ' funds,' a fictitious colony by the protective tariff, close 
 'wage fund,' an equally fictitious calculations as to the effect of reduced 
 ' capital fund,' and finally a ' con- hours of labour, wages, &c., are 
 sumers' fund,' all miraculously sup- almost impossible, 
 plied by the State and the foreign The population of Victoria in 1883, 
 investor. The ' efficiency of labour ' when resistance to State Socialism 
 means something definite in the virtually ceased, was 921,743, and 
 United Kingdom, where labour and the exports of home produce were 
 capital jointly compete in 'market £13,300,000. In 1887 the population 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 169 
 
 from his employer a good rise in wages, or the average citizen, 
 the 'consumer/ who has just been told by a kite-flying land 
 syndicate that his back yard is worth .^30,000, does not fret 
 himself about dwindling production or exports. In Austra- 
 lasia there have been no means either of judging whether 
 successive reductions in the hours of labour have created em- 
 ployment for ' the unemployed,' because in the first place no 
 efficient workers are ' unemployed,' in the sense sometimes 
 legitimately used here, in any of the colonies ; and in the 
 second place the Federated Trade Unions prevent 'outsiders' 
 from obtaining employment, or even appearing in the labour 
 market at all. Nor is any light thrown upon the argu- 
 ment that reducing the hours of labour in this country alone 
 to eight would 'kill' certain trades. What is meant by 
 the latter phrase in Great Britain, of course, is that our manu- 
 facturers could not compete either in the Home, or in neutral 
 markets, with foreign manufacturers. Victorian manufacturers 
 do not care about the great neutral markets ; they export 
 goods (in steadily diminishing quantities, by the way) to 
 the adjacent colonies, but manage to do that partly because 
 of the subsidiary advantages mentioned above, and partly by 
 selling goods there at a reduction — as compared with prices 
 charged to Victorian consumers — equal to the amount of the 
 Victorian duty on such goods. The tariff, of course, protects 
 the flank of capital and labour alike against the competition 
 of foreign goods in the home market. 
 
 Australian State Socialists have for many years past op- 
 posed and thwarted sales of the freehold of ' Crown ' land, — 
 ' the national patrimony ' they call it — and shilly-shallying 
 
 was 1,036,119 (estimated), and the be largely due to the action of 'the 
 
 exports (which have since risen and amalgamated miner,' who has long 
 
 then declined again) £8,502,979. enforced 'the eight hours.' Indi- 
 
 Thus, while population had increased rectly, too, short hours and high 
 
 some 27 per cent., exports had de- wages in Melbourne affect the supply 
 
 creased nearly 40 per cent. All the as well as the efficiency of labour and 
 
 while the class (farmers, graziers, &o.) production generally in the colony, 
 
 who do produce utilities for export, workers being tempted to despise 
 
 actually work far more than eight the slow process of developing the 
 
 hours per diem. The diminution in natural resources of the colony by 
 
 the yield of gold appears however to hard toil, 
 13 
 
lyo A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 attempts have been made to force the State ' leasehold 
 system ^ ' upon farmers and settlers. They have failed disas- 
 trously ; but one indirect result has been curious. The land 
 already ' alienated,' or granted in freehold, in the colonies, is 
 now the only land which can be freely dealt in. There has 
 been, in fact, an artificial scarcity, or ofl&cial land ' corner' in 
 Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales. The quan- 
 tity in the market being thus artificially limited, and land 
 speculation being, with the exception of the turf, the only 
 one not liable to be suddenly upset by strikes and legislation 
 'in the interests of labour,' the most reckless real estate 
 gambling goes on from time to time in Melbourne, Adelaide, 
 and Sydney. A dangerously large proportion of the invest- 
 ment money remitted from this country of recent years, for 
 employment in Melbourne, has gone to sustain land ' booms,' 
 and is now represented by the 'paper' of land gamblers, held 
 at fabulously inflated prices, by banks, building societies, 
 mortgage, finance, and trust companies. Meantime enormous 
 profits have been made by those persons who ' got out at the 
 top' of the rise in land and house values in and near Mel- 
 bourne. The phenomenal and ever-increasing concentration 
 of population in a few large towns such as Melbourne, Sydney, 
 Adelaide, Brisbane, and Newcastle of course stimulates the 
 building and allied trades. It also swells the earnings of 
 suburban railways and tramway companies, which depend 
 for revenue on pleasure traffic. In Melbourne the heavy 
 suburban railway traffic partly obscures the deficit which has 
 to be faced on the interest account of the railway loans". 
 
 ' An unfortunate expression of the ally for wire fencing, &o., and, as far 
 
 late Professor Faweett's to the effect as production ofutilities is concerned, 
 
 that he 'viewed with alarm the useless. 
 
 rapid alienation of the public domain "Mr. Andrew Harper, M.L.A, 
 in Australasia,' is constantly quoted estimates the loss — after deducting 
 by the advocates of ' bottling up ' the net earnings from interest payable- 
 nation's patrimony. The net result on the State railways (excluding the 
 is that while the land's departments Hobson Bay system, the most re- 
 may not sell freeholds to willing munerative of the suburban lines) at 
 purchasers, the ' nation's patrimony ' £258,000 for 1888-9, "■'^^ ^^ ^^ 
 is a huge breeding ground for rabbits, houme Argus, in July, 1890, estimated 
 costing thousands of pounds annu- this loss, for 1889-90, at £500,000. 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 171 
 
 The concentration of population also gives to the Federated 
 Trade Unions immense strategical advantages. Nevertheless 
 peaceable combination among wage-earners, even when rein- 
 forced by perhaps the most efficient, rapacious, and unscrupu- 
 lous organization now existing anywhere, does not seem' to 
 diminish the profits of the large capitalist — or, in other words, 
 the market rate of earnings — apportioned to capital in Aus- 
 tralia by economic circumstances, which in the long run are 
 really more powerful than socialistic legislators and labour 
 organizations combined 1. 
 
 Possibly Mill's earlier opinions on that matter were shaken 
 by a succession of notable Trade Union victories about 
 twenty years ago. The mountebank economists of our own 
 day assert that as State Socialism progresses, even unskilled 
 labour in this country will henceforward secure an ever-in- 
 creasing and permanent benefit, at the expense of capital. 
 We have had, among other events, the London Dock Strike of 
 1 889, in which the police observed an attitude of neutrality ; 
 also the triumph of a riotous and violent mob of municipal 
 gas workers at Leeds. No doubt Irish farmers have in recent 
 years secured for themselves a vastly increased share of the 
 profits derived from Lrish land ; but that latter triumph, espe- 
 cially, was brought about by extra-legal, barbarous, or terrorist 
 methods. To such methods any conceivable re-adjustment of 
 proportionate profits, at the cost of the weakest class, is pos- 
 sible. As long however as the struggle between capital and 
 labour proceeds peaceably according to the recognised ' rules 
 of the ring ;' in other words, wherever civil order and civil 
 
 ' Working expenses ' alone, it seems, possibly be retrenched from his per- 
 
 having risen from 52^ per cent, in sonal expenditure . . . there is no 
 
 1879 to 68 per cent, in 1889-90. law of nature making it inherently 
 
 ' I saw nothing in Victoria to jus- impossible for wages to rise to the 
 
 tify the opinion expressed by J. S. point of absorbing not only the funds 
 
 Mill in his latter years {Fartmigktly which the capitalist has intended to 
 
 Review, May, 1869) that 'There is devote to carrying on his business, 
 
 absolutely available for the payment but the whole of what he allows for 
 
 of wages, before an absolute limit is his private expenses beyond the ne- 
 
 reached, not only the employer's cessaries of life.' 
 capital but the whole of what can 
 
172 A Plea for Liberty. [iv, 
 
 rights are upheld by the executive, as they have been, with 
 few exceptions in the colonies, coinbinationj Trade Unionism, 
 and incessant strikes do not seem to alter permanently the 
 value of what might, at any given epoch, be called the normal 
 fraction representing the proportionate shares of capital and 
 labour. What we shall probably see from time to time, and 
 under exceptional conditions of the market, will be merely 
 numerator and denominator multiplied by a higher figure, the 
 value of the fraction remaining unchanged. Employers and 
 industrial firms in the colonies have been now and then 
 crippled, impoverished, and driven from business by sudden 
 and vigorously conducted strikes. Frequently Trade Unions in 
 Melbourne and Sydney have without any warning 'gone for' 
 an employer, tied by the terms of a large contract, and, as in 
 the case of the original contractor for the Melbourne Parliament 
 buildings, ruined him completely. In order to remedy such 
 wrongs, the Melbourne Harbour Trust in 1886 proposed to 
 insert a ' strike clause ' in future contracts. The Trades Hall 
 Council thereupon appealed to Government to withdraw the 
 contributions from the Treasury to the Trust as a punishment 
 As far back as 1885 an Australian Steam Navigation Com- 
 pany was driven out of business by the action of the Federated 
 Seamen's, Firemen's, Cooks' and Stewards' Union, and this 
 latter, helped by allied bodies, has effectually strangled the 
 development of the coasting trade, or of anything like an 
 Australian ' merchant navy.' The result is that the monopoly 
 of a few old-established firms in the steam coasting trade is 
 not challenged ; they charge high freight and passenger rates; 
 life is extremely insecure on these routes, and sea-borne 
 trade is crippled and paralyzed. It is clearly seen in the 
 United States that a high protective tariff alone wiU not 
 keep up the prices of certain staple articles of manufacture, 
 in face of keen local competition among capitalists themselves. 
 Cutting rates, discounts, &c., help considerably in reducing 
 from time to time the prices of manufactured goods in Europe 
 and the United States. But in the United States, Factory Acts 
 are not enforced, while ' labour,' although restless and irrecon- 
 cilable, is utterly disorganized, and, as compared with labour 
 
iv.J State Socialism in the Antipodes. 173 
 
 in Australasia, impotent. The latter country, under State 
 Socialism, seems to me to present the ' ideal' conditions for 
 very rich capitalists : (i) a protective tariff; (2) vexatious and 
 inquisitorial Factory Acts, based on the principle that the first 
 duty of the State and the Legislature is to favour the Trade 
 Unionist ; (3) an all-powerful Trade Union organization, mani- 
 pulated by unscrupulous, narrow-minded, selfish, and ignorant 
 men. The irresponsible despotism of the latter implies per- 
 haps even more than the tariff, for it reduces competition among 
 capitalists themselves to a minimum. The dread of facing the 
 insatiable demands and exactions of Federated Labour, and 
 the costly and harassing provisions of Colonial Factory Acts, 
 more and more deter small capitalists, beginners, or ' small 
 masters ' as they would be called here^ from rivalling old-esta- 
 blished firms and starting new competitive enterprises ; while 
 co-operative manufacturing does not of course commend itself 
 to the thriftless and light-hearted Australian working-man 1. 
 
 ' Free, Secular and Compulsory ' State Education in Victoria 
 is noticed by Sir Charles Dilke among his problems. The 
 
 ' A partner in one of the two great your composing-room you -will see a 
 Melbourne newspapers mentioned to strange thing ; your type-setters, in- 
 a friend one day that the Union to stead of being mostly young men, as 
 which his compositors belonged was in London, New York, or San Pran- 
 about to decree some increase of cisco, are mostly grey-haired men. 
 wages or fresh advantages for its Were Melbourne in " the States " the 
 members. The friend replied that most intelligent and ambitious of 
 he was not surprised to hear it ; and your "hands " would long since hav« 
 further counselled the employer to re- got credit and help somewhere and 
 eeive a deputation from the Unionists started newspapers for themselves ; 
 in question ; to grant their demands there would have been at least six 
 gracefully; in addition, to present Melbourne daily morning papers — 
 each of them with a gold watch. four of them making money, and 
 'But,' objectedthe first speaker, 'why thereby reducing your profits. As it 
 the gold watch ? ' ' Because,' said is you have one serious rival, if you 
 the other, ' the consistent tyranny have even that. Certainly as long as 
 and the never-ending exactions of the Compositors' Union absolutely 
 this same Union, which is ever with holds the field here, you will never 
 you, are rapidly making your fortune, have another. Meanwhile your type- 
 by effectually keeping out of the setters expect to die type-setters, 
 business every new man with capital while you and your partners will die 
 enough to think of starting a news- millionaires.' 
 paper in this city. If you go into 
 
1 74 -A Plea for Liberty. [rv. 
 
 Victorian system is described in the ' Official Year Books ' as 
 ' secular instruction without payment for all children whose 
 parents are willing to accept it.' It is compulsory and 
 truancy is punishable by fine. Sir Charles Dilke (pp. 366-383 
 of his second volume) does no more than translate the opinions 
 of two of the best-known Melbourne partisans of the Act into 
 guarded language, yet the history of this experiment in State 
 Sociahsm and the result after eighteen years' trial, ought to 
 be carefully studied by legislators and by educators in Great 
 Britain, seeing that it is now proposed, by various groups 
 of politicians here, either to copy the main principles of the 
 Victorian Education Act, No. 447 of 1 873, or to embark on 
 the very policy which made that Act logically inevitable. 
 Sir Charles Dilke truly says that 'Victorians are strongly 
 attached to their free system ; ' that it has ' a marvellously strong 
 hold upon their affections ; ' that ' centralization is not un- 
 popular,' and that Dr. Pearson, the Minister for Education, 
 seems to be well content with the education policy of Ms 
 colony as compared to other colonies. Of all State Socialistic 
 measures Free Education seems to be the most enticing. A 
 political party could hardly choose a more attractive dole or 
 bribe for the electorate. Its success, however, is cumulative, 
 and it is only after some years' experience that parents 
 appreciate thoroughly what it does for them. Cash outlay to 
 pay for the feeding, clothing, and education of children is, to 
 selfish and self-indulgent parents, a constant source of irrita- 
 tion. The small sums which should go to buy bread and 
 butter, boots or bonnets, for youngsters, or to pay for their 
 schooling, may be much needed by the male parent for 
 tobacco, drink, and perhaps ' backing horses,' while the mother 
 constantly needs new articles of dress and amusements. Free 
 Education, at the expense of that pillageable abstraction ' the 
 general taxpayer,' thus appeals to some of the strongest of 
 modern instincts. In Victoria it would now be absolutely 
 impossible for any Ministry, or political party, to withdraw 
 or curtail the privileges and advantages given under the 
 Education Act. The tendency is to increase them and to add 
 
IV.] 
 
 State Socialism in the Antipodes. 
 
 175 
 
 to the cost of the system year by year ^. No candidate for 
 Parliament in Victoria now ventures even to criticise the 
 system lest the cry of the ' Education Act in danger ' should 
 be raised against him, In Victoria, as in England, and more 
 often in Scotland, rich parents do not scruple to throw the 
 burthen of the primary education of their children upon their 
 less prosperous neighbours ^. The excuse sometimes offered 
 in the Colonies is that amalgamation of all classes of society 
 in the State Schools is a democratic idea. The actual result, 
 however, is that, where classes and masses do live in juxta- 
 position, many State School teachers try to make their 
 schools select and quasi-aristocratic. In Melbourne gutter- 
 children are edged out on any pretext, and a special school 
 had to be set apart there for this class — the very class on 
 whose behalf the ' free ' element in the system was originally 
 advocated. Popular as the Act is with Victorian town popula- 
 tions, it is in the remote and sparsely -settled agricultural and 
 
 ' During the debates on the present 
 Act the late Mr. J. W. Stephen, At- 
 torney-General in the Francis Min- 
 istry, in charge of the Bill, declared 
 that the cost per scholar in average 
 attendance ■would never exceed £2 
 per head. It is now close upon £5. 
 The Elementary education vote has 
 grown from £217,704 in 1872-3 to 
 over £600,000 in 1887-8. One official 
 excuse for lavish expenditure is that 
 in rural or remote districts the cost 
 of giving education of a high quality 
 to all children must be far greater 
 than in the towns. All the time the 
 rural population steadily decreases, 
 while the town, i. e. the Melbourne, 
 population is now over 40 per cent. 
 of the total for the colony. In 186 1 
 it was 25-89, in 1871 28-87, and 
 in 1881 32-81. The school attend- 
 ance has only grown from 184,000 in 
 1874 to 192,000 in 1887. Apparently 
 interest on some £1,120,000, cost of 
 State school buildings, wear and tear, 
 depreciation, &c. , do not figure in the 
 Education vote, and seem to be paid 
 
 out of the imaginary net surplus &om 
 the State railways. 
 
 " In 1888 a Board School teacher in 
 Glasgow puzzled me not a little by 
 complaining bitterly of some charge 
 of trifling misbehaviour against his 
 pupils (out of school hours), which 
 had appeared in a newspaper for 
 which I was at the moment respon- 
 sible. He feared, I discevered, that 
 his school might lose the genteel 
 cathet which it enjoyed. Some of the 
 best people in Buchanan Street, he 
 said, sent their children to him. 
 There is, however, historical excuse 
 for this trait among the best people, 
 seeing that the Scottish Board School 
 system is in some way ' sib ' to the 
 noble old parochial, burgh, and gram- 
 mar school system, which for nigh 
 two centuries did so much, in the 
 Scottish Lowlands, to keep alive the 
 true spirit of local self-government, 
 and to develop, brace, and stimulate 
 the best points in the national cha- 
 racter. 
 
176 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 mining districts W. of long. 143, E. of long. 146, and, excluding 
 Bendigo, N. of lat. 37, that the Act has the strongest hold. 
 Farmers and 'selectors' who have little money to spare, 
 amalgamated miners, "who have killed ' the golden goose ' of 
 investment in mining properties by their organized idleness 
 and short-sighted rapacity, are conscious that they could not 
 possibly provide by co-operation, or local rating, anything 
 approaching the educational privileges and luxuries bestowed 
 by the central department in Melbourne. Meantime, ' the 
 general taxpayer ' has indeed become a mere mathematical, 
 or algebraic^ expression in Victoria ; he has apparently neither 
 body, parts, nor passions, does not cry out when he is squeezed, 
 and is not represented in the Legislature. Sir Charles Dilke 
 is right in saying that educational State Socialism is popular 
 in Victoria and that the Minister for Education is well 
 content ^. 
 
 On the other hand, it is alleged that the Victorian Act has 
 produced the evils of centralization in their worst form ; that 
 as soon as the State took over the entire cost of the system 
 local control and responsibility at once became illogical and 
 have now completely disappeared ; that the cost of the system 
 tends to increase indefinitely, owing largely to the fact that 
 the State School teachers are banded together in a powerful 
 
 ' This philanthropic and cultured Pearson (anticipating the Duke in The 
 
 gentleman, formerly a Fellow of Oriel Gondoliers) became a Royal Commission 
 
 College, Oxford, and, according to (limited). He however contented 
 
 the testimony of Mr. David Gaunson, himself with vpriting a thin but in- 
 
 ex-M.L.A,, one of the greatest living teresting Essay on the education 
 
 authorities on the history of the question in the colony, in which, 
 
 middle ages, may be i-egarded as the with rare prescience, he condemned 
 
 Prosper M^rimfie of the State Social- the evils of ' payment by results.' 
 
 istic Empire in Victoria. He entered His suggestions were entirely ignored 
 
 politics as a Free Trader, but was by his political patrons, but a fee of 
 
 speedily reconciled and received into iCiooo was paid to him for his lite- 
 
 the Protectionist and State Socialistic rary labours upon the thin Essay. 
 
 fold. In the latter interest he stood Afterwards he was provided with a 
 
 unsuccessfully for a constituency in seat in the Legislative Assembly, a 
 
 1877. On the accession of the Pro- gentleman, whose original avocation 
 
 tectionist party to power in that year was that of a brewer's traveller, 
 
 the Ministry declared a Royal Com- having resigned his seat in order to 
 
 mission on the Education Act to be become Librarian to Parliament, 
 urgently required, and Professor 
 
IV. J State Socialism in the Antipodes. 177 
 
 Trade Union, the avowed object of -which is to increase their 
 salaries and privileges by political pressure ; finally, that a 
 distinct religious grievance, or disability, has been created by 
 the Act of 1873. Protests against some or all of these evils 
 and abuses have been made by colonists of high character 
 and ability — all of them, except Mr. Archer, Protestants — in 
 recent years ; by the late Dr. Hearn, LL.D., Chancellor of 
 Melbourne University, Mr. Andrew Harper, M.L.A., Judge 
 "Warrington Rogers, the present Bishop of Manchester, the Rev. 
 W. H. Fitchett, Professor M^Coy ; and by critics as far apart 
 in their Educational views as Sir Archibald Michie, Mr. 
 "W. H. Archer, and the present Bishop of Melbourne. No 
 reply is made to these gentlemen by the apostles of Victorian 
 State Socialism, because, from the point of view of practical 
 politics, none is needed. 
 
 The whole patronage, finance^ and administration of the 
 State schools, down to the most minute details, are centred 
 in one large department in Melbourne. The promoters of 
 the present Act did their work thoroughly in 1873 ^- The late 
 Mr. Stephen and Mr. Francis sincerely believed that it was 
 their mission to create a benevolent Educational despotism, 
 a Miuisterial department which would mould the youth of the 
 colony into one admirable form, and, among other things, ' con- 
 trol the evil of denominational! sm which had raised its head 
 there to such a fearful extent.' Accordingly, when during the 
 discussion of the Bill the principle of ' free ' schooling — at 
 the expense of the State alone — was accepted, the majority in 
 Parliament, logically enough, rejected Local Option, or any 
 claim by districts and localities to interfere with Elementary 
 school patronage, finance, or administration. Boards of Advice 
 were created, feeble parodies of the School Boards in this 
 country ; but they represent no fee or ratepayers, were given 
 no power in 187a, and exercise none now. The only basis of 
 local responsibility and control, as well as of authority, which 
 
 ' The educational policy of 1872 victories over the French to superior 
 
 received an impetus from the Franco- ' book-learning, ' did duty in Australia 
 
 German vear I The classic fiction, at the time, and is repeated there to 
 
 that the German forces owed their this day. 
 
178 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 can be claimed by local boards over the elementary educa- 
 tion of the people, is local contributions, either in rates or 
 school fees. On the other hand, if the State Treasurer be sole 
 paymaster. Parliament insists, sooner or later, that the State 
 shall be 'master' in every sense. Had the original promoters 
 of the Victorian Act realised how completely it involved 
 centralization, they might have shrunk from the prospect 
 of responsibility for details since forced upon the Minister in 
 Melbourne. The action, the inevitable action, of members of 
 the Legislature has gradually brought about this latter state 
 of things. Questions are asked in the Legislative Assembly, 
 almost daily, as to the salaries of teachers, perhaps in remote 
 districts, price of school books, supply of drinking -water to 
 children, x-epair of school buildings, &c. There is no one else 
 in the colony — save the Minister of Education, who pays for 
 all these things — to ask. It is quite useless for either Minister 
 or Members of Parliament to refer back to local bodies ; the 
 latter pay nothing and manifestly have no status, and no 
 right whatsoever to interfere. Naturally, therefore, the living 
 interest and the stimulus given to education by the School 
 Board system in Great Britain (outside the metropolis) are 
 wanting in Australia. Victorian children are passed through 
 the State machine, that is all the parents know. The majority 
 of the latter may not approve of State school influences upon 
 the morals, character, and behaviour of their children, but the 
 whole thing, school books and materials included, costs 
 nothing. Evils, abuses, and blunders, similar to those which 
 have grown up under the London School Board, abound, but 
 in aggravated form, under the Central Educational Department 
 in Melbourne — official' supervision, discipline, and methods 
 being of course defective in a colony where the supply of 
 first-class civil servants is limited, where petty office-seeking 
 is a growing vice, where the schools to be looked after are, in 
 many cases, practically as remote from Melbourne as London 
 is from the Shetland Isles. The tangle of red tape, the 
 unmanageable accumulation of returns, correspondence, and 
 official documents, the delay, waste, and paralysis at the 
 centralized Melbourne office, have been often described by 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 179 
 
 responsible colonists'. The Ministry, however, do not require 
 to make any reply to such charges as these. They can 
 always borrow their way out of such difficulties, and they 
 know that as long as electors do not pay, electors do not care. 
 In a limited electorate such as that of Victoria, the State 
 school teachers' vote is a serious consideration. Although 
 they have been, since 1885, under the Public Service Act, 
 which was supposed to do away with political patronage, they 
 have formed a powerful Trade Union, which meets regularly 
 in conference, like the railway servants or any other labour 
 Junta in the Colony, and threatens ministers and legislators. 
 The principle that political influence should be used to extort 
 money and other benefits for themselves from the Treasury is 
 as frankly accepted and acted upon by these Victorian public 
 servants as it was by Irish borough -mongers and Scottish 
 ' controulers ' at the close of the last century. It is said that 
 in London the teachers' vote and influence are potent at 
 School Board elections, and fatal to the chances of candidates 
 suspected of a desire to check extravagance and waste. In 
 the United Kingdom, however, it may be anticipated that 
 imder Free State Education the teachers' political vote and 
 influence would be swamped by other, and far more numerous, 
 political groups who have miscellaneous designs upon the 
 Imperial Treasury. Theoretically such defects as exaggerated 
 centralization at head-quarters, decay of local interest and 
 of ' local ' control over extravagant expenditure, are not incur- 
 able. They might disappear in time were it not that any 
 reformers are at once met by the money barrier. Reform 
 would mean increase to local burthens, and Victorian colonists, 
 used to having their children educate(f ' for nothing,' or rather, 
 at the cost of some person or persons unknown, by means of 
 a financial legerdemain which has enabled the State Treasurer 
 to borrow surpluses regularly in London, are less disposed 
 
 ' After eleven years' working of number of children in average at- 
 
 the Act it was admitted before the tendance was still a matter of guess- 
 
 Eoyal Commission of 1882-4, by offi- work. Professor Pearson, in 1882, 
 
 cials of the department, that they described the whole school census 
 
 had never yet been able to compile system as ' confused and disorderly.' 
 a trustworthy school census, and the 
 
1 8o A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 every year to relieve the State Treasury of its tribute. Even the 
 perpetuation of the religious grievance, which Roman Catholics 
 complain of so bitterly, seems to me mainly due to financial con- 
 siderations. I came to the conclusion in Victoria that Roman 
 Catholics are subjected to a wrong more galling, but not 
 unlike that which compulsory payment of church rates 
 inflicted upon Dissenters in this country. A strange state of 
 things in a self-governing community, the vast majority of 
 whom are of English, Scotch, or Welsh birth or parentage. 
 I found a partial explanation in the action and language 
 of certain Victorian politicians who supported the Roman 
 Catholic educational claims in the past. The late Sir John 
 O'Shanassy, one of the Conscript Fathers of the colony, and 
 a splendid specimen of the old Tipperary yeoman stock, 
 managed this delicate matter, and managed it badly, for 
 years. Sir C. G. Duffy managed it so much worse that 
 colonists finally refused doggedly to even discuss the Roman 
 Catholic grievance. Verily much can be forgiven to a colony 
 which has reckoned Sir Charles Gavan Duffy among its leading 
 politicians, which has learnt to know him, which indeed can 
 never forget him^. But unless the action, language, and 
 opinions of those who complain of wrong and ask for conces- 
 sions afford clear proof that granting their demands would 
 imperil the lives, liberty, and property of their fellow-subjects, 
 no enlightened community should be influenced by the blun- 
 
 ' Mr. W. H. Archer, the gentlest of mail, oddly enough, Mr. C. G, Duffy 
 
 men and the most earnest advocate arrived in Melbourne. Then he was 
 
 of the Eoman Catholic claims in Vic- presented with £5000. Afterwards, ac- 
 
 toria, in a memoir of his friend, Sir cordingtoMr. Archer, Mr. Duffy 'used 
 
 John O'Shanassy {Me,Vb. B,m. xxxi. an unlucky expression as to his being 
 
 243), mildly, but firmly, repudiates " an Irish rebel to the backbone and 
 
 the insinuation that he himself was spinal marrow ; " ' this, it seems, 
 
 responsible for bringing Sir C. G. made the English, Scotch, and Welsh 
 
 Duffy to the colony. It appears that colonists angry. They did not then 
 
 Mr. Archer wrote to the late Fre- comprehend their Mr. 0. G. Du%, 
 
 derick Lucas, editor of The Tablet, ask- nor foresee that he would continue 
 
 ing him to come out to Australia to for many yeara to draw the only 
 
 champion the Roman Catholic cause. pension accepted by an ex-minister 
 
 When the letter reached England in the colony, quite in a loyal 
 
 Lucas was dead, but it was published manner, 
 in the London press. By the next 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. i8i 
 
 ders, follies, and excesses of the spokesmen. In Victoria it 
 seemed to me the noxious virus secreted by State Socialism, 
 State bribes, and State doles has already penetrated so far that 
 colonists deliberately inflict a wrong in educational matters 
 mainly because they have been persuaded that justice would 
 cost a great deal of money. 
 
 Koman Catholic ecclesiastics and laymen in Victoria 
 submit that although the State professes to provide money 
 out of the taxes for the elementary education of all Victorian 
 children this money is now so distributed that they, as con- 
 scientious Catholics, cannot possibly benefit by it in any way. 
 As proof of their earnestness they have since 187a expended 
 nearly .^^300,000 in providing school buildings in which the 
 children of conscientious Eoman Catholic parents are now in- 
 structed in religious as well as secular subjects. Some twenty 
 or thirty thousand children are thus provided for at no expense 
 whatsoever to the colony, the secular education given being 
 quite equal to that in the State schools. The Roman Catholic 
 party now propose to continue to build their own schools, to 
 appoint their own teachers, subject to Government examina- 
 tion as to efficiency in secular subjects, and ask for a 'per 
 capita grant or share of the free education vote, based, as far 
 as I understand, not on the departmental rate, but rather on the 
 actual cost per child under their system of instruction (about 
 one-half the departmental rate) for all children who pass the 
 Government Inspectors' examination in secular, or non- 
 religious subjects, according to the official standard for age, 
 &c. This demand is refused. The replies vouchsafed to calm 
 and moderate protests from both Protestant and Catholic 
 colonists differ in no way from the stock apologies put forward 
 for the religious disabilities of Protestants, Eoman Catholics, 
 Quakers, and other dissenters elsewhere in the past. The 
 ' thin edge of the wedge ' argument is used. It is said that if 
 Victorian Roman Catholics were given a per capita grant for 
 each child duly educated in secular subjects they would soon 
 demand a grant for new school buildings also. It is said 
 that the Roman Catholic religion is a bad religion and inimical 
 to civil and religious freedom ; indeed, Sir Archibald Michie, 
 
i82 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 whose sensitive conscience prompted him to write one of the 
 few existing pamphlets on this question, mentions the massacre 
 xif St. Bartholomew and the horrors of the Inquisition, and 
 also quotes largely from Macaulay to prove this latter state- 
 ment. What Macaulay 'says, and what all history teaches, 
 about the effect of Roman Catholic ascendency upon human 
 societies would be much to the point if it were proposed to 
 give the hierarchy of that religion virtual control over the 
 civil and religious liberties of citizens anywhere, but hardly 
 answers the complaint that conscientious Victorian Catholics 
 cannot possibly benefit from the annual education grant. 
 It is said further that Eoman Catholic Governments do not 
 give money to Protestant schools ; also that a portion of any 
 grant given to Catholics in Victoria might be sent as a present 
 to the Pope, instead of being used for education ; also, that 
 the alleged • Catholic conscience ' in this matter is really a 
 'breeches -pocket conscience;' also, as has been said to 
 Protestants who sought to establish schools of their own in 
 Eoman Catholic countries, that the teaching sanctioned by the 
 State is very good teaching — if the dissatisfied ones would only 
 think so. It is also alleged that the majority of Victorian 
 Catholic parents now cheerfully send their children to the 
 State schools. But that to my mind merely proved, in some 
 instances, that such parents are lukewarm Catholics. The 
 fact remains that a certain percentage of Victorian parents, 
 rightly or wrongly, consider the anti-Christian education 
 given in the State schools pernicious. If there were only fifty 
 such parents in the colony a grievance would still exist under 
 the Act. Apparently, also, Roman Catholic priests sometimes 
 sanction the sending of children to the State schools, if no 
 Roman Catholic school exists in the neighbourhood, possibly 
 as a general indulgence to eat meat on Fridays is extended 
 to sick or shipwrecked people, the inhabitants of beleagured 
 cities, &c., but those, I think, are matters for Catholics to settle 
 among themselves. Mr. Sutherland, a cultured member of the 
 Unitarian body in Melbourne, has disclosed what seems to me 
 the most effective argument against the Catholic claims. In a 
 long letter to the Melbourne Argus, of April, 1885, he states 
 
rv.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 183 
 
 that among sensible men and women in the colony there is a 
 strong but vague hostility to the Catholic claim. 'The 
 object of my letter,' he says, ' is to give that consciousness a 
 basis of figures and a more definite form, so that the nation at 
 large may be fortified in its refusal to entertain the Catholic 
 claim.' He then declares that ' if the Catholics ever succeed 
 in obtaining a separate grant it would imply the closing of 
 several hundreds of the smaller State schools.' I do not think 
 Mr. Sutherland proved his case at all, but the vague impression 
 that he might be correct in his view had a great influence 
 with the colonists at the time, and has still. 
 
 I followed this controversy closely when in the colony, 
 because I marvelled to see a so-called free, enlightened, and 
 progressive democracy sheepishly furbishing up at the end 
 of the nineteenth century rusty weapons and rusty arguments 
 of religious intolerance. After a while it seemed to me 
 still more significant and instructive that the desire of the 
 majority to grab all the State money going should be the 
 chief reason for this rare intolerance. Shabby selfishness and 
 chronic mendicancy are imperceptibly, but surely, developed 
 by State Socialism. Later, there follows incapacity to do a 
 single just or liberal act. It is not denied by the partisans of 
 the Victorian Education Act that if Roman Catholics should 
 ever ' pocket their conscience,' as they are invited to do, and 
 abandon their separate schools, an enormous sum would have 
 to be at once spent on school-buildings for the children thus 
 thrown upon the State, while the educational vote would be 
 at least .^''100,000 a year higher. Roman Catholics thus vir- 
 tually take a large amount of expenditure on their own 
 shoulders, and colonists accept an alms from the denomina- 
 tion whose conscientious scruples they deride. I judged that 
 men and women, degraded by State and Municipal borrow- 
 ing and begging, lose national self-respect altogether after 
 a while ^- 
 
 ' The Eeport and evidence furnished mine of information on the working 
 
 by the Koyal Commission on Educa- of free, secular, and compulsory State 
 
 tion which sat in Victoria from early education. I do not suppose that so 
 
 in 1882 to the middle of 1884, are a much could be learnt on this impor- 
 
184 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 The complaints of Eoman Catholic Educators in Victoria 
 are worth noting, because the Education Act of 1873 placed 
 them under much the same disabilities as Church of England, 
 Wesleyan and other Protestant Nonconformist Educators 
 in the United Kingdom would endure if Mr. Morley's decla- 
 ration of the 21st of February, 1890^ were embodied in an 
 Imperial Education Act. But while Mr. Morley offered, 'on 
 behalf of the Liberal party,' special privileges to Koman 
 Catholics and Jews in the United Kingdom, the Victorian 
 Act imposes equal disabilities upon all citizens who believe 
 that the teaching of the Christian religion ought to be en- 
 couraged in elementary schools. 
 
 That which some regarded as merely a graceful philopena- 
 present from Mr. Morley to Mr. Sexton raised certain hopes and 
 gave a certain amount of satisfaction in other directions. Pos- 
 sibly the Eoman Catholic hierarchy, who are well informed on 
 these matters, did see the pitfall lying behind the oifer from the 
 so-called 'Liberal party,' but some of the Roman Catholic clergy 
 and laity in the United Kingdom must have been pleased at the 
 recognition by so distinguished a catechumen as Mr. Morley 
 of the claim of 'one of the great hierarchies of obscurant- 
 ism ^ ' to dispose of an educational grant from the Consolidated 
 Fund as they pleased. Mr. John Morley has declared, too, 
 
 tant subject from any other source. would amount to endowment of one 
 
 It is unpleasant reading for Tictorian particular form of religion. 
 
 State Socialists, and after adopting a ' Mr. Morley, speaking to Mr. 
 
 few trifling recommendations con- Acland's amendment in favour of 
 
 tained in the report they have quietly free education, said : — 'Our position 
 
 ignored it. A prids or synopsis of I think is this, that when a school is 
 
 the minute and exhaustive evidence intended for all it should he managed 
 
 procured by the Commissioners as by the representatives of the whole 
 
 well as the final 'majority' and 'mi- community. When on the other 
 
 nority ' reports, which are not very hand the school claims to be for the 
 
 lengthy, ought to be available for use of a section of the community, 
 
 members of the Imperial Parliament as for example the Catholics or the 
 
 before ' Free Education ' is seriously Jews, it may continue to receive 
 
 debated in this country. The Com- public support as long as it is under 
 
 missioners by a majority of one, out the management of that sect.' 
 
 of eleven, decided against the Catholic '^ ' The Struggle for National Educa- 
 
 claims on the general grounds that a tion,' reprinted from the 'Fortnightly 
 
 grant to Roman Catholic schools Ileview,'iS72-73, secondedition,p.97. _ 
 
iv.J State Socialism in the Antipodes, 185 
 
 that the educational claims of the Roman Catholic bishops 
 and priests represent ' the black and anti-social aggression of 
 the syllabus and the encyclical^,' and that 'the supposed 
 eagerness of the parent to send his child to a school of a 
 special denomination is a mere invention ^ .... of the priests.' 
 Some Nonconformists, as well as the whole of the secularist 
 or anti-Christian body in the United Kingdom, may also have 
 rejoiced at the prospect of financial vengeance upon the Church 
 of England held out by an ex-Minister. 
 
 What has happened in Victoria shows how many of these 
 hopes and anticipations are likely to be realised. I think 
 there is conclusive proof that a free grant from the Con- 
 solidated Fund, or from ' the State,' implies secular or anti- 
 Christian teaching, and no other kind, in ' State ' schools ; 
 that it would be impossible permanently to single out one 
 or two denominations and give to them a portion of such 
 grant to dispose of as they please ; finally, that the secularist 
 or anti-Christian party, although actually in a minority — as 
 they always have been and still are in Victoria — will manage, 
 sooner or la,ter, to drive a wedge between the rival Christian 
 denominations and to impose their own educational, or may we 
 say atheological, ideas upon the State. 
 
 Up to the nth July, 1851, 'the Port Philip District,' now 
 the colony of Victoria, was a portion of New South Wales. 
 For eleven years after ' separation ' or the grant of Autonomy, 
 the educational system inherited from the parent colony was 
 administered fairly well by a National Board and a De- 
 nominational Board, disposing between them of the Govern- 
 ment grant ^- In August i86a the Common Schools Act, 
 promoted by Mr. Richard Heales, came into operation. It 
 was administered by five quasi-independent Commissioners 
 of Education. The principle of the Act is alleged to have 
 
 ' lb. p. 63. ^ lb. p. 87. per cent.; Roman Catholics, 22 per 
 
 ' In 1851 the grant for denomina- cent. In the following year he says, 
 
 tional schools was, according to Mr. the latter 'obtained a grant in pro- 
 
 W. H. Archer, thus divided. Church portion to their real numerical 
 
 of England, 48 per cent. ; Presby- strength.' 
 
 terians, 33 per cent. ; Wesleyans, 6 
 14 
 
i86 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 been secular education, pure and simple, but the Com- 
 missioners at first made regulations which sanctioned the 
 blending of religious with secular instruction in voluntary 
 or denominational schools. The latter increased slowly under 
 the Common Schools Act. In 1873, when it was repealed, 
 there were 408 of them in the Colony altogether, which had 
 cost some .^185,000 to erect. Of this sum the State had 
 contributed ^104,000. From the first there were conflicts 
 and jealousies between the Ministry of the day and the 
 Educational Commissioners, who insisted on exercising in- 
 dependent patronage and control. Among the community 
 generally the discussion of educational problems between 
 1 86a and 187a, as well as the investigations by the Eoyal 
 Commission on Public Education in 1866, brought out Hke 
 views to those common in this country at the time. There 
 was the same jealousy of the ascendency of ' the creeds ' and 
 ' the parsons ' on the part of the Victorian average ratepayer, 
 and the same want of cohesion and unanimity — or positive 
 antagonism — among 'the creeds ' themselves who were expected 
 to champion the cause of religious instruction in Elementary 
 State schools. The existing Act, JSTo. 447, of 1873, "^ chiefly 
 due to Mr. (afterwards Mr. Justice) Wilberforce Stephen, a 
 doctrinaire liberal, possessed of much industry, sincerity, and 
 erudition, now deceased. When Mr. J. G. Francis formed a 
 Liberal-Conservative Ministry on the loth June, 187a, in suc- 
 cession to Mr. C. G. Duffy, Mr. Stephen became his Attorney- 
 General, and an Education Bill, reforming the abuses 
 alleged to have sprang up under the Common Schools Act 
 of 1862, was part of the Ministerial programme. The Pro- 
 testant clergy of all denominations thereupon held a series of 
 conferences, beginning in July 1873, under the presidency 
 of the late Bishop Perry^ to discuss the situation. The par- 
 tisans of secular instruction, pure and simple, consisting mainly 
 of free-thinkers but reinforced by a few clergymen and sin- 
 cerely religious laymen, had formed a Victorian Education 
 League. It cannot be said that colonists generally were 
 seriously discontented with the Common Schools Act; but 
 they shared the educational enthusiasm among Britons gener- 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 187 
 
 ally at that epoch, and hoped also to get from a department of 
 State a better and a cheaper system than ' the parsons ' had 
 given them. The Eoman Catholic body in Victoria, who had 
 even hesitated to accept State aid under the limitations em- 
 bodied in the Common Schools Act, at once suspected serious 
 mischief from Mr. Stephen's policy, and prepared, in secret 
 as their way is, to offer what resistance they could to the 
 forthcoming Bill. As happened in this country when Free 
 State Education was mentioned at the beginning of 1 890, the 
 Protestant denominations, clergy and laymen^ were by no 
 means irreconcilable towards what they believed to be the 
 Free State Educational ideas of Government. In 187a it was 
 not understood how thoroughly Mr. Stephen intended to 
 secularize Victorian education. Actuated by that spirit of 
 futile opportunism, which to this day inspires the high 
 strategy of so many Anglican Churchmen in the United 
 Kingdom, the members of the conference of 187a contented 
 themselves with a series of moderate, neutral, and, as it looks 
 now, entirely reasonable resolutions. They were unanimously 
 in favour of what Mr. Morley has called ' the organic prin- 
 ciple of our constitution,' local control of some sort over 
 elementary education. Parents they thought should have 
 something to say in the choice of teachers ; the latter being 
 permitted also to give religious instruction in State school 
 buildings out of school hours ; while Government would 
 perhaps be able to draw up a Scripture lectionary, containing 
 selected passages agreeable to all Protestant denominations. 
 They were willing that thenceforth no new 'voluntary ' schools 
 should be established in the colony, a self-denying ordinance 
 which, by the way, struck directly at the Roman Catholics. 
 Two or three members of the Protestant Conference declared 
 for free, secular, and compulsory State education in principle, 
 arguing that religious teaching could, and ought to be, carried 
 on quite apart from secular teaching, by the clergy or by lay 
 helpers, instead of by State school teachers. The late Professor 
 Hearn, the most profound and brilliant thinker who has 
 served the colony, appears to have foreseen most clearly the 
 economical objections to Free State Education, and he indeed 
 
1 88 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 predicted, in a pamphlet issued at the time, the very evils of 
 over-centralization, extravagance, and abuse of patronage at 
 the Central Department which the Royal Commissioners un- 
 earthed ten or twelve years afterwards. The Education Bill 
 was introduced into the Legislative Assembly by Mr. Stephen 
 on the i2th September, 187a, in a speech of mammoth dimen- 
 sions, yet not uninteresting reading even now, for it sets forth 
 most of the sophistries and illusions which charmed educational 
 enthusiasts twenty years ago. In those days Buckle was not 
 yet regarded by advanced Liberals as a fossilized thinker, and 
 traces of his influence crop up in Mr. Stephen's interesting 
 comparisons between enlightened and well-educated French 
 youth, since the Revolution, and British youth, still in the 
 trammels of 'the creeds.' Mr. Hepworth Dixon's and Mr. 
 Matthew Arnold's rococo opinions about Swiss and Prussian 
 education all figured at immense length in this speech and 
 helped to benumb the intellects of worthy colonists, at that 
 period hovering at the summit of the well-greased slide which 
 was to carry them towards complete State Socialism. Mr. 
 Stephen convinced the Legislative Assembly that elementary 
 education directed by a central State authority would 
 effectually purge the colony of clericalism and religious 
 animosities. It was his belief that in a couple of generations, 
 through the missionary influence of the State schools, a new 
 body of State doctrine and theology would grow up, and 
 that the cultured and intellectual Victorians of the future 
 would discreetly worship in common at the shrine of one 
 neutral-tinted deity, sanctioned by the State department. 
 Noticing the objection that patronage would be abused under 
 his Bin, Mr. Stephen declared that nO minister would ever 
 'dare' to appoint teachers from political motives. A few 
 years later, when Victorian protectionists and State socialists 
 had made an end of Conservative ministries, this Conserva- 
 tive Education Act was used by Mr. Stephen's opponents to 
 pension and reward their followers, and teachers of the worst 
 character and antecedents were pitch-forked wholesale into 
 the State schools. 
 
 The opposition to the Education Bill in the Assembly 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 189 
 
 was half-hearted and feeble. Indeed, its various ' principles ' 
 proved themselves and each other as the discussion went on. 
 The ' compulsory ' principle was almost unanimously accepted 
 from the first, probably because of the Prussian and alleged 
 American examples. The old quibble, that education if ' com- 
 pulsory ' must be ' free,' next did service. Then, it having been 
 assumed that the State must be teacher, it became manifest 
 that the different groups who opposed the Bill, not being 
 agreed among themselves, were utterly unprepared to answer 
 the question, ' which particular religion is to be taught ? ' 
 The only logical solution was, 'no religious teaching at all.' 
 The Bill passed triumphantly through committee on the 
 19th October, and came into force on the ist January, 1873. 
 Zealous Roman Catholics at once rejected the new Act. 
 They refused to accept State aid on the official terms, and 
 •went out into the wilderness.' And there they are still. 
 But they set to work to build new schools and to provide for 
 the schooling of as many children as possible ^. The Church 
 of England, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and other Protestants 
 determined, on the contrary, to give the Act a fair trial ; as 
 some put it, they walked straight into the trap. They gave 
 up control of their schools and surrendered the buildings to 
 Government, receiving compensation for valid interests, and 
 have made no attempt to carry on ' voluntary ' elementary 
 schools since 1873. Mr. Morley, writing on the Victorian ex- 
 periment at the time, gracefully describes what was done by 
 Mr. Stephen in 1872 as 'throwing a handful of dust over the 
 raging insects,' i. e. the Christian denominations. In the same 
 work he quotes the saying of an opponent : — 'religion can only 
 
 ' Mr. J. r. Hogan, late of Mel- expenses are thereby reduced to a 
 bourne, writes to me, ' In a few of the minimum. Recently new scholar- 
 Roman £!atholic primary schools in ships, new Inspectors and a new 
 Melbourne fees are charged, but in the curriculum have been introduced . . 
 vast majority throughout the colony ... In country districts a few Protes- 
 expenses are paid by collections and tant children used formerly to attend 
 donations ... So that practically the Roman Catholic schools, retiring 
 system is as "free" as that of the during the religious instruction half- 
 State. The religious orders are now hour. But this is becoming rare.' 
 largely employed as teachers, and 
 
iQO A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 be taught in elementary schools by the lay master. If taught 
 by the clergyman it would only be regarded as an insupport- 
 able bore.' This certainly has been the experience in Victoria. 
 State school teachers are heavily fined if they give religious 
 instruction 'at any time.' During the last ten years earnest 
 efibrts have been made by Protestant ministers of religion 
 and laymen to get together classes of State school children 
 for religious instruction after school hours, the buildings 
 being always at their disposal then. These efforts have com- 
 pletely failed. Secularism, or what some call free-thought, 
 is the one creed virtually established and endowed by the 
 Victorian Education Act. It may be questioned whether 
 neutrality is possible in this matter ; children either learn 
 some form of belief or of disbelief. In the State schools, we 
 are told officially, 'lessons on morals and manners are given 
 fortnightly ; for the treatment of those apparently drowned 
 and of those bitten by snakes, periodically.' Eclectic 
 heathenism is the note of State school morality in Victoria. 
 The children are however taught English Grammar, Arith- 
 metic, and Geography very well indeed; and the way. in 
 which they will repeat the names of all mountains, capes, 
 bays, lakes — as well as of the two rivers — in Australia, 
 perhaps suggests that, after all, jin de slide heathenism 
 may be 'much misunderstood.' Meanwhile the system must 
 continue to be extravagantly costly : it is swathed in and 
 strangled by red tape ; it inflicts injustice upon conscientious 
 religious bodies ; it deposes parents from responsibility and 
 the teacher from the free exercise of his noble craft ; it pre- 
 scribes a stereotyped form of procedure on a track where 
 constant progress and free experiment are most essential. 
 
 In his survey of the colony of Victoria, Sir Charles Dilke 
 (i. 248-52) mentions the Early Closing of Shops — under the 
 45th clause of the amended Factory Act (86a) of 1885 — among 
 ' experiments tried ' not among ' problems ' of Greater Britain. 
 But it is perhaps entitled to rank among the rapidly accumu- 
 lating problems of Sillier Britain, seeing that Sir John 
 Lubbock's Bill still loiters with intent round the door of 
 the House of Commons. The readers of Sir Charles Dilke's 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 191 
 
 book are lod to understand that in Victoria the experiment 
 is a success, and that since 1886 retail shops have been 
 compulsorily closed at tlie statutory hours of 7 p.m. on week- 
 days and 10 P.M. on Saturdays, without injury to business, 
 without protest from tradesmen or customers. 
 
 The 45th clause of the Act in question ^ gave a species of 
 local option to municipal bodies, and, inter alia, the power 
 to fix the fines for soiling goods after 7 p. m. Certain munici- 
 palities at once exercised all the powers available to mitigate the 
 impending nuisance, thoroby exciting the wrath of the Socialist 
 party, who promptly threw over the principle of local option 
 and complained that a beneficent measure was being defeated 
 by a base conspiracy. Sir Charles Dilke seems to sympathise 
 with these complaints. He mentions the unfriendliness of the 
 municipalities and the lowness of the fines, and adds some- 
 what inconsequently, ' the light fines have been a success, for 
 the publication of the names of the offenders has been suffi- 
 cient.' It was sufficient in ono notable instance' to get the 
 fines paid for the offentlor by public subsci-iption ; but that of 
 course is not what Sir Charles Dilke means. 
 
 ' Tlio 45th clause permitted ' shops the powers of local option under the 
 
 of any particular class' (not schod- 45(11 clauso. On t.lvo 23rd of August 
 
 uUni lis oxompted), 'on obtaining a following, a groeor nainod John Po- 
 
 lii'i'usc,' to keop opon after 7 r.ii. '. . rogriuo, in tho subui-b of Pi-aliran, 
 
 .. on a petition c-ortifled by the rauni- was spotted and iinod £3 7s. for 
 
 oipal olork as boing signed by a lua- soiling ' small qunntities of toa and 
 
 jority of tho.sliopUoopi'rskooinngsiu'h soap' after 7 r.M. The Argus next 
 
 shops, within .... district.' It also day ooniinoiitint;, in a loader, on 
 
 gave municipalities power to llxflnoa. IVregiiue's eonvii'tion, said, 'this, 
 
 This power was taken away by an we believe, is the first instance of a 
 
 amending Act, ad hoc, 961 of 1S87, eiimo of this particular sort having 
 
 whieli imposed fines, from a mini- met with retribution in any civilized 
 
 mum of los. to a maximum of .C5. community. A medal of some iuex- 
 
 ' A Shop Assistants' Iji'ague, patron- ■ pensive substance might bo struck 
 
 izod by a few political hacks, social- to commemorate this opoch-malfing 
 
 ists, and idle approntiees, finding that event.' Tho ai'tiele wound up by 
 
 government did not eare to enforee asking, ' Aro there any public-spi- 
 
 tlio Act, employed (tj/oifeptwiirntairs to rited people who will subsci'ibo to a 
 
 'spot ' Iradospeoplo selling goods after fund for the payment of these abom- 
 
 7 P.M. in the outlying suburbs, wher- inablo fines 1' In a day or two this 
 
 over tho municipalities had lacked appeal was successful, u list of sub- 
 
 oourage to follow the example of the soribora appeared in tho papei", and 
 
 Melbouruo Town Council, and exercise Poivgrine's fine was i-epaid to him. 
 
192 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 The story of the Victoria Early Closing law is worth re- 
 calling. It has long been practically obsolete in the colony, 
 and when it was (on that very ground) proposed in 1890 to 
 enact a similar, but far more drastic, measure, the public 
 appeared to have forgotten not only the details but even the 
 date of the first experiment. 
 
 Colonial Factory Acts profess to be modelled on Imperial 
 Acts, but contain important variations and ' extras.' Labour 
 being well able to take care of itself is, generally speaking, 
 indifierent to that legislative protection which has been 
 thought necessary for European workers under their entirely 
 different conditions. Yet for years prior to 1885, the 
 Trades Hall leaders, anxious to have all operatives well 
 in hand and under discipline, had demanded, on behalf of 
 the bootmaking and clothing trades chiefly, legislation 
 which would drive all outside piece-workers into factories. 
 Female hands work at these 'light' trades, and girls of 
 «ome refinement, aged or sick people, cripples, women with 
 babies to look after, &c., who dishke factory life, take work 
 home. Male Trade Unionists in the Antipodes have always 
 objected to female labour, being anxious to get all the wages 
 paid in all trades into their own pockets. Accordingly 
 a bogus outcry was raised that 'the sweating system' pre- 
 vailed ia Melbourne boot and clothing factories, and the 
 politicians in 1882 packed a Royal Commission to solemnly 
 enquire into • the evils of the sweating system in a country 
 where the supply of well-paid labour never approaches 
 the demand. A Report containing various foolish and, futile 
 suggestions duly appeared ; some of these were embodied in 
 a Ministerial Factory Bill introduced, but dropped, in 1884. 
 In the middle of February 1885 a dispute was worked up by 
 the Trades Hall Leaders in the boot trade on this very question 
 of ' giving out' piece-work. It lasted for fourteen weeks and 
 was settled by arbitration and compromise, largely in favour 
 of the Trade Union. In the following session the Chief 
 Secretary, yearning to do something for 'the paper-collar- 
 proletariat,' introduced a modified Factory Bill which, ia 
 addition to sops thrown to the Trades Hall Council, con- 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 193 
 
 tained the Early Closing provision for the benefit of shop 
 assistants, who also considered that they ought to be raised 
 in the scale of humanity by the State. Hardly any attention 
 was paid by the outside public or the shop-keeping class to 
 the Early Closing proposal while it was before Parliament. 
 Victorian citizens, modest as M. Jourdain, are not generally 
 aware that they have developed such a grand institution as 
 State Socialism. They leave such matters to politicians and 
 geniuses. Business was not very flourishing at the end of 
 1885, and small tradesmen in Melbourne, trying theii- best 
 to make a living, and taking for granted that Members of the 
 Legislative Assembly were absorbed in their normal avocations 
 of drawing their salaries, squabbling over obscure personal 
 matters (absolutely uninteresting to outsiders), and fetching 
 and carrying for the Trades Hall Council — ^paid little attention 
 to the Factory Bill, while the one Melbourne newspaper which 
 saw what was going to happen failed to rouse the interest of 
 shop-keepers on the subject. Members of the Legislative 
 Council (who are elected under a more restricted franchise 
 than Members of the Assembly and get no salaries) insisted 
 on tacking the principle of local control on to Early Closing 
 when it came up to them and would probably have rejected 
 the clause altogether if tradesmen outside had known at first 
 what they found out subsequently and had made some vigorous 
 protest. The Bill quietly slipped through both Houses in 
 December and came into operation — after the triennial elec- 
 tions for the Assembly were over — in March, 1886. Early 
 Closing of shops got a fair trial — for a week. That was quite 
 sufficient. The powerful City Council which rules in Central 
 or 'Greater' Melbourne as it is called, worthily represents 
 many of the noble and ancient traditions of local self-govern- 
 ment. It is independent of the politicians and the dominant 
 class, too wealthy to require to sponge upon the Treasury and 
 strong enough to do its duty. A few days after the ' Silly Shops 
 Act, 1885,' came into operation the Melbourne Town Council 
 called upon tradesmen aggrieved under its provisions to peti- 
 tion. They were all aggrieved and they nearly all petitioned. 
 The hours of closing were at once extended, and to show their 
 
194 -^ Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 appreciation of this piece of legislative folly the Town 
 CoTincil fixed the fines at a nominal sum. One or two of the 
 suburban Councils quickly plucked up courage to follow the 
 example. Meanwhile the Early Closing Law remained in 
 force in many districts. The results gradually developed 
 were most remarkable and, as there was no precedent in 
 any civilised country for a similar absurdity, unexpected. 
 It was found that Early Closing did not operate alike in 
 any two districts ; even at different ends of the same street 
 it produced quite different results. It would, indeed, have 
 been as reasonable to prescribe one uniform class, style and 
 quality of goods for shops in all quarters of the city as to 
 prescribe a uniform hour for ceasing to buy goods. In the 
 fashionable parts of Melbourne, for example, the Act had no 
 direct effect whatever, for the large shops there always closed 
 at 5 o'clock; the class of customers who dealt with them, 
 living in the suburbs, all went home about that hour. It 
 was discovered that many of the assistants in fashionable shops 
 kept small shops themselves in the suburbs, which practically 
 did no business before 7 p.m. It was discovered that closing at 
 7 in some of the suburbs really meant, to large retail drapers 
 and grocers, closing at 6, because all their assistants went to tea 
 in relays at the latter hour ; six to seven was in short the 
 'off' hour. Female servants, who in Melbourne patronise 
 the shops extensively, began to find that they could not get 
 out in the evening to make their purchases; by the time 
 they had cleared away and washed up the dinner or tea 
 things the shops were closed. A large number of small 
 retail tradesmen of course kept no assistants, doing the whole 
 work themselves. 'Friends of Man' and Socialists had 
 defended the Early Closing law on the plea that the down- 
 trodden assistant wanted to improve his mind at night and to 
 attend lectures and classes ; but if there were no assistant 
 at all in the shop, hia or her mind could hardly be improved ; 
 still the shop had to close. Business men, clerks, artizans, 
 &c., at work all day in Melbourne, began to find out that 
 by the time they got to their homes or lodgings in the suburbs, 
 had their dinner or tea and stroUed out to make purchases, or 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 195 
 
 even to get their hair cut, the shops were all closed. This 
 class was obliged to lose half an hour from their work in the 
 middle of the day to do their shopping in Central Melbourne. 
 A vast amount of trade was therefore at once transferred 
 from the suburbs to the shops in the centre of the town. 
 It was discovered that a number of poor people — washer- 
 women, dressmakers, casual workers — as a rule did not bring 
 back work, or get paid for it, till late in the evening ; when 
 they had money wherewith to do their small shoppiog, they 
 found shops closed. As the Australian winter drew in, the 
 streets, unlit by the lamps in shop windows, were dismal and 
 deserted. The ' exempted ' tradesmen ^ began to find to their 
 surprise that customers would not even deal with them when 
 the streets were half dark ; one shop, it appears, in some way 
 brings business to another. It had been necessary expressly 
 to prohibit exempted tobacconists, chemists, &c., from selling 
 stationery, cutlery or groceries at night, after the stationers', 
 cutlers', and grocers' shops were shut. Mr. E. G. Fitz-Gibbon, 
 the Town Clerk of Melbourne, stated, a few months after the 
 Act came into operation, that he had received hundreds of 
 letters from small suburban tradespeople complaining that 
 they were being utterly ruined by it, and similar results 
 were described in the Legislative Assembly, without contra- 
 diction, in July 1890. Meanwhile the local municipal bodies 
 one after another put the various powers given to them by 
 the 45th clause into effect. A Shopkeepers' Union, (after the 
 mischief was done,) commenced a vigorous agitation. This 
 was met by a counter-agitation, comprising mass-meetings, 
 processions, rioting, breaking the windows of large shops, and 
 cowardly violence on the part of young loafers belonging to 
 the Political Early Closing League and the Shop Assistants' 
 League. A great meeting of the latter had been held in the 
 Town Hall just before the Act came into operation, at which 
 one of the least ' serious ' members of the discredited Govern- 
 ment of May 1877, as well as the notorious Dr. Rose, 
 
 1 Chemists, coffee-houses, oonfeo- and news agents, were exempted 
 tioners, eating-houses, restaurants, under schedule 3. 
 greengrocers, tobacconists, booksellers 
 
196 A Plea for Liberty. [iv. 
 
 M.L.A., and a popularity-hunting gentleman, who was just 
 then weaning a new religion, made soul-ful orations. Never- 
 theless Government hesitated to enforce the Early Closing 
 law, almost from the first. It gradually dropped into disuse, 
 and has long remained a dead letter in the colony. It was 
 remarkable that some few tradesmen approved of and sup- 
 ported it all through^. They devoutly held the socialistic 
 doctrine that the public might be, and ought to be, dragooned, 
 by a paternal Government, into shopping at certain hours; 
 not at the hours which suited customers but at the hours which 
 suited indolent shopkeepers. The majority of Melbourne 
 shop assistants, mostly young fellows born in the colony, 
 seemed to have grasped the root principle of State Socialism 
 thoroughly, namely that the Legislature ought to pro'vide 
 what Sir Charles Dilke calls a ' beautiful national existence ' 
 for them, and that it was to the State, rather than to their 
 own exertions, that tradesmen's assistants ought to look for 
 success, wealth, and comfort in life. 
 
 During the last twenty years professional office holders, paid 
 legislators, half-educated dreamers and enthusiasts in Austra- . 
 lasia, have attempted to satisfy these new and vague longings ; 
 to enact the part of a State socialistic ' stage uncle' towards the 
 democracy there ; but have never had sufficient thoroughness 
 or daring to carry out socialistic or coUectivist maxims and 
 theories of government and society— maxims and theories 
 which, at all events, are consistent, precise, and of logical 
 obligation, if once we grant the socialist's premises. State 
 Socialism in the Antipodes has therefore been a hybrid affair ; 
 the tentative experiment of men who hoped to do partly, and 
 without committing themselves too far, what thoughtful 
 socialists and collectivists tell us they can do completely, 
 if we will only give them a free hand. Experiments in crypto- 
 socialism, tried upon a society at base, free, commercial, 
 modern, English, would long ago have broken down on the 
 
 ' In June, 1890, the suburban mu- law. 1200 small shopkeepers had 
 
 nicipality of Hawthorn petitioned petitioned in favour of the BUI of 
 
 the Legislative Assembly to enact a 1885. 
 ' really ' compulsory Early Closing 
 
IV.] State Socialism in the Antipodes. 197 
 
 financial side had it not been that the legendary repute of those 
 lands for natural wealth, such as gold, wool, a fruitful soil and 
 a fine climate, has tempted investors in Europe to fling their 
 money at the heads of Australasian borrowers. Latterly, as 
 the frightful cost and necessarily unproductive results of State 
 Socialism became apparent to Colonial ministers, they have, to 
 prevent a collapse of the whole thing, been driven to apply for 
 ever-recurring loans in Europe — on false pretences. Sir Charles 
 Dilke does not see the pretence, or is silent about it. The tone 
 of his book, where State socialists and the despotic Colonial 
 proletariat are in question, is one of deferential subserviency, 
 seasoned with half-genuine admiration, recalling those third- 
 rate fashionable novelists of fifty or sixty years ago, who 
 afiectionately described the births, deaths, marriages, and 
 occasional foibles of our ancient aristocracy. As to the money 
 lent or the credit extended by persons in this country to 
 Australasian governments, financial institutions, and private 
 traders, it may perhaps some day be worth the while of a 
 ' Council of Colonial Bond-holders ' to enquire into the nature 
 of the 'securities' which now cover those investments. In 
 one sense it is true that Britons have lent goods, rather 
 than cash, to Australasian colonists, always on the implied 
 understanding that the latter will send us back exchange- 
 able utilities in return — as soon as the reproductive public 
 works become productive. Public works constructed on 
 State socialistic principles, unfortunately, never do become 
 productive ^ Australian colonists send to the foreigner fewer 
 and fewer goods or utilities each decade ; instead, reams of pro- 
 missory notes. Whether this system of one-sided free trade be 
 destined to last for a long time or a short time, certain it is 
 that it has already wrought profound — but, I trust, not irre- 
 parable — injury to colonists themselves. Victorians of the new 
 generation have, seemingly, come to believe that the real source 
 
 ' I know that it is the private opi- vanced by the State to local Irrigation 
 
 nion of two of the most experienced Trusts, under the vaunted State Irri- 
 
 members of the late and present Vic- gation scheme, must be ultimately re- 
 
 torian Ministries that the whole of the pudiated by the localities in question, 
 money (some £1,000,000) already ad- 
 
198 A Plea for Liberty. [rv. 
 
 of wealth is in Lombard Street, rather than in the soil and 
 climate of their superb fatherland. The subtle poison of State 
 Socialism appears to be hurtful to workers born in the colony 
 especially. Their fathers roughly held that man, standing 
 face to face with reticent Nature, is duty-bound to ask himself, 
 ' How much is in me % how much in my opportunities V and 
 thenceforward to fight his very best to vanquish difficulties, 
 perhaps in the end wrenching fame, wealth, and comfort from 
 the circumstances surrounding him. Such, as we know, was 
 the old pioneer spirit which for a while opened up a bright 
 and noble destiny for the colony. In that kind of struggle often 
 the prize won was not so good a thing as the lessons learnt 
 in trying to win it. State Socialism to-day in the Antipodes 
 seems to me to preach to willing disciples the despicable 
 gospel of shirking, laziness, mendicancy, and moral cowardice. 
 The further consciousness among all classes there, that tri- 
 umphant and popular State Socialism depends for its exist- 
 ence on absorbing money from abroad, without reasonable 
 prospect of ever being able to repay it, seems to me bad also. 
 
 Charles Fairfield. 
 
THE DISCONTENT OF THE 
 WOBKING- CLASSES. 
 
 EDMUND VINCENT. 
 
THE DISCONTENT OF TEE 
 WOBEING-CLASSES. 
 
 Children in the nursery are chidden for discontent, but 
 there is a discontent of gi'own men which has in it something 
 of the divine element. If all men were able to satisfy con- 
 science and ambition by doing their duty in that state of life 
 into which it had pleased God to call them, civilization would 
 advance with but tardy steps. It was no culpable discontent 
 which induced George Stephenson to engage his mind upon 
 things foreign to his duties in the Tyneside colliery, which 
 led the first of the Herschels to prefer the study of the stars 
 to service in the Hanoverian Guards. In truth, there are many 
 species of discontent. There is that which is the spur of 
 ambition, which leads men to strive for better things, which 
 causes them to rise in the social scale ; there is that which 
 crushes them into dull and hopeless apathy; there is that 
 which renders them prone to grumble at a fate which they 
 do not attempt to improve by making themselves too good 
 and too strong for it, which makes them prone to jealousy 
 of their neighbours, which renders them ready to suspect 
 that the inferiority of their position and the degradation of 
 their surroundings are the results of injustice and of oppres- 
 sion. In the discontent of the working-class all these 
 elements are present in varying proportions. The better and 
 more skilled workman strives to raise himself by cultivating 
 his skill ; the unskilled labourer's discontent shows a larger 
 measure of jealousy, albeit he too has his honest ambitions. 
 
 The discontent of the unskilled labourer is the material 
 15 
 
202 A Plea for Liberty. [v. 
 
 upon which the agitators, roughly described as socialists, who 
 have been largely responsible for recent disturbance^ in the 
 labour market, exercise an increasing influence, and the object 
 of this paper is to inquire in what sense of the word these 
 men are socialists. Then comes the question whether the 
 unskilled sections of working- classes follow these men because 
 they are socialists or simply because they are useful ia the 
 struggle for higher wages, and whether the working-class 
 do or do not relish socialistic legislation when it enters iato 
 their lives and sensibly curtails their liberties as individuals. 
 Last comes the question whether the methods adopted by 
 the so-called socialists are of a character which can be 
 tolerated in any well-regulated community. And here let 
 me say by way of preface that the word socialist is used not 
 in a scientific sense, but to denote a class of men who caU 
 themselves socialists, whom other people call socialists, whom 
 the writer, for his part, would much prefer to call professional 
 agitators. 
 
 The field of survey is conveniently narrow. London is the 
 centre of socialism in England ; disputes between labour and 
 capital in and about London have been, to a certain extent, 
 but to an extent more limited than is commonly supposed, 
 used by the socialists for their own purposes ; and the London 
 socialist leaders are but a few in number. They are Messrs. 
 Bums, Hyndman, Champion, Tillett, and Marm., and, perhaps, 
 Mr. Cunynghame Grahame. Of these Mr. Burns is far aad 
 away the most influential, and, in a paper which aims to be 
 practical, his character and his beliefs must be reserved for 
 particular notice. Mr. Hyndman, sometime of Trinity Col- 
 lege, Cambridge, law-student, newspaper-correspondent, aad 
 author, is a more cultivated man than Mr. Burns, and under- 
 stands better than he the theoretical principles of socialism. 
 But Mr. Hyndman is not a man of influence. Mr. Champion, 
 once an oflicer in the army, is a man of some education and of 
 considerable business ability — ^he was of great service during 
 the Dock Strike in this respect — but he is no orator, and 
 suffers in the opinion of those whom he addresses, not only 
 here but in Australia, by reason of a suspicion, not altogether 
 
v.] The Discontent of the Working-Classes. 203 
 
 ill-founded, that he is not of their class. Moreover, he has 
 a habit of giving moderate counsel, which rendered him 
 unpopular at the end of the Dock Strike, and during the Gas 
 Strike, and has produced a similar effect in Australia. Tillett 
 is the comedian of the group, a man with some capacity for 
 organisation, a speaker who can hold a popular audience. 
 But he is lacking in education and knowledge, and not a 
 man of solid weight. Mann is a ferocious orator, calling 
 himself a socialist, whose occupation consists in stirring up 
 class against class. Untiring and energetic, .ready for any 
 quantity of work, careless as to the results which his speeches 
 may produce, he is the most dangerous of them aU. Both 
 Mann and Tillett have recently, in the matter of the grain- 
 porters' dispute, shown that, in extreme cases, they recognise 
 the value of moderation. Mr. Grahame, who is nothing if he 
 is not a socialist, has no following in the East End, and is not 
 always welcomed by the leaders of agitation : for example, on 
 a certain critical Saturday during the Dock Strike, when a 
 manifesto, calling for a general cessation of labour had been 
 issued and not withdrawn, Mr. Grahame shouted to the mob, 
 ' Revolutions are not made with rose-water.' On that very 
 evening he received from the head-quarters of the strike com- 
 mittee an intimation that his services were no longer required. 
 He was a nonentity ; he was ordered to go away and to place 
 himself out of reach of doing mischief. He went off like to a 
 child which had been scolded. He had to learn early, as 
 every man who engages in active socialism must learn sooner 
 or later, the first lesson of slavish obedience. Two other 
 working socialists. Dr. and Mrs. Aveling, may be mentioned. 
 They are cultivated socialists of the revolutionary order, ready 
 at any time to make speeches, to keep accounts, to frame 
 placards and manifestoes for the agitators ; but they are not 
 persons of commanding influence. No apology is offered for 
 these brief character sketches, for, if the writer's view be 
 correct, the man's personality commands the following no 
 less than the creed. Indeed, the rude socialism of the men 
 who call themselves socialists is in itself somewhat chaotic, 
 nor, until quite a recent date, has there been clear evidence 
 
204 -A Plea for Liberty. [y. 
 
 to show how much influence was exerted by the men them- 
 selves, how little their socialistic views were accepted, how 
 easily, when the simple and unsocialistic desire for an increase 
 of wages desired free play, they and their crude socialism 
 were thrown aside. 
 
 The prominent figure of the group is that of Mr. John 
 Burns. He is the life and soul of that which, for the lack of 
 a better name, may be called the practical socialism of London, 
 the socialism of action as opposed to the socialism of the 
 library. 'If ever I cease to be a Socialist,' he said in the 
 course of the Dock Strike, ' I shall be a Conservative.' The 
 probability is that he has never been a theoretical sociahst at 
 all; that he has never analysed his creed so as to discover 
 whether one article of it is consistent with another. His 
 views are not sufficiently defined nor capable of scientific 
 definition, but for all that he is a notable and a powerful 
 personage. It has been the fashion to describe John Burns as 
 a charlatan ; but no greater mistake, no more foolish blunder, 
 has ever been made even by men who, living out of the world, 
 presume to pass judgment upon the men who live in the 
 world. Let men who, prone to pronounce impetuous judg- 
 ments, and ready to impute mean motives, describe such a man 
 as Burns by the words trickster and self-seeker, take their 
 Carlyle to heart, reading particularly his dissertation upon 
 Mahomet ; let them remember that in the autumn of 1889, 
 John Burns held 100,000 men at his beck and caU ; that when 
 he speaks in Hyde Park thousands assemble round him while 
 other orators are deserted, and they wiU refrain from charging 
 with insincerity a man who has many faults and some virtues, 
 a man who is before all things absolutely sincere. For our 
 part, using the words of one who was in his time a keen and 
 not over kindly judge of human character, ' We will leave it 
 altogether, this impostor hypothesis, as not credible; not 
 very tolerable even, worthy chiefly of dismissal by us.' 
 
 John Burns has all the faults which are natural to a man 
 of implacable zeal, imperfect education, and undisciplined sym- 
 pathies. His life has been passed among the working-classes ; 
 he knows the hardships of their life and the vices which they 
 
v.] The Discontent of the Working-Classes. 205 
 
 practise ; he is quite as prone to dilate upon their sensuality 
 as upon their grievances, to rebuke as to incite. The fault of 
 the man is that he has read too much and yet too little ; that 
 he has been taken with the notion that he has a mission to 
 fulfil ; that he has gone to work without giving due thought 
 to the methods of working, without sufficiently considering 
 the results which his acts may bring about. Trained as a 
 working engineer, imperfectly cultivated, but yet having a 
 strong taste for culture, to which he is able to give spasmodic 
 indulgence, he preaches a doctrine which is a curious mixture 
 of Socialism, Communism, Collectivism and Trade Unionism. 
 Ignoring the rule that men are by nature not equal but un- 
 equal, a rule of which he is a strong example, he believes in 
 an essentially Socialistic Trade Unionism which aims to crush 
 individuality and to equalise the earnings of strong and 
 weak, wise and foolish. His object in life is mainly to 
 improve the position of the working-classes, and the im- 
 provement at which he aims, justifying the means by the 
 end, is a real improvement. He would like, and he rarely 
 omits an opportunity of making his desires plain, to see 
 his fellows more sober, more pure, more enlightened; we 
 are all of the like opinion, but we are not all imbued, as 
 he is, with a trust in humanity which is almost touching 
 in its simplicity. He believes that a working-class with 
 more leisure would show a keen desire for self-improvement ; 
 he thinks that a working-class with higher wages would 
 spend its surplus earnings in obtaining the means of educa- 
 tion, in providing comforts for the homes in which the 
 wives and children have to live, and to be reared, would 
 altogether tend to become more divinely human and less 
 deplorably bestial. He does not know that the discipline 
 which men undergo in winning these advantages for them- 
 selves is more valuable than the things gained, is the neces- 
 sary guarantee that the advantages shall be properly used. 
 Therefore he aims to raise wages generally, and to shorten 
 hours of work by all and any means. At the same time 
 he has no fear of bringing about the destruction of trade — 
 it may be that he hardly understands how delicate a plant 
 
2o6 A Plea for Liberty. [y. 
 
 trade is, and his view may be summarised by saying that 
 he thinks the masters to be perfectly capable of taking care 
 of themselves. This is a quaint creed, unreasonable and illogi- 
 cal ; a creed which the experience of men contradicts, since it 
 is found that in times of prosperity the collier of the Midlands 
 and his neighbour the potter buy champagne and bull-dogs in 
 preference to the cheapest of literature ; that the wives of gas- 
 stokers have been heai-d to complain of the eight-hour shift, as 
 opposed to the twelve-hour shift, on the ground that it gives 
 the men more leisure for spending their earnings at the 
 public-house, and leaves them less money for domestic pur- 
 poses ; and that, as a plain matter of fact, trade is easily driven 
 away from a port, especially from a port such as London, -which 
 is not altogether conveniently situated. But the creed, chaotic 
 as it is, is held by Mr. Bums with undeviating sincerity, and 
 it explains his actions. In him we find, in these later days, a 
 man who will support legislative interference with the hours of 
 labour, and legislative regulation of the conditions and of the 
 remuneration of toil ; a man who will join in the direction of 
 any and every labour movement or strike of which the avowed 
 object is either to raise wages or to drive the labourkig com- 
 munity within the limits of a militant Trade Uniordsm; a 
 man who will join heartily and make his influence felt ia 
 promoting any and every movement, measure, or scheme, 
 which appears to be likely to lead to an improvement of 
 wages, to an amelioration of the conditions and to a diminu- 
 tion of the hours of toil. He is, in fact, a socialist with 
 variations. 
 
 In the course of the recent labour movements — in which 
 the agitation among the police is not included, since the poUce 
 laughed at the efi'orts of the social democrats to interfere in 
 afiairs outside their scope — the writer has enjoyed abundant 
 oppoi-tunities of seeing the so-called socialists at work. They 
 were the life and soul of the Dock Strike ; they were repulsed 
 by the blind leaders of the blind during the Gas Works strike ; 
 they led the men at Silvertown to their ruin ; they promoted 
 and encouraged the miserable afiair at Hay's Wharf; they 
 had a considerable share in the organisation of the Eight-hour 
 
v.] The Discontent of the Working-Classes. 207 
 
 Demonstration in Hyde Park, and they attempted to thrust 
 themselves upon the parties to the recent railway dispute at 
 Cardiff. These movements are of importance, because the 
 first of them was the beginning of a chapter in English 
 History which is not yet closed, nay, has threatened of late 
 to be written in terrible characters ; because, thi'ough them all, 
 and in spite of their differences in character, the so-called 
 socialists pursued their aim with undeviating purpose. 
 
 The Dock Strike was, at the outset, a revolt against 
 conditions of toil which were intolerable. In the year 1889 
 the Directors who were in nominal control of the mass of the 
 London Docks found themselves, not by their own faults but 
 through the mistaken policy of their predecessors, in a position 
 of great difficulty. They were weighed down by a burden of 
 debt from which no financial magic could relieve them ; they 
 were at the mercy of their creditors ; the capital value of 
 their property had been greatly reduced; they were in the 
 position of a manufacturer who, having enlarged his buildings 
 and increased his plant to meet a trade which was expected to 
 grow, has found that the trade has diminished steadily. But 
 this was not the worst feature of their position. The system 
 upon which the work at the Docks was done was, and had 
 been for many years, the worst conceivable. The permanent 
 staff of labourers was small ; the main part of the work at 
 the Docks was systematically performed by casual labourers. 
 There was little picking or choosing at the Dock gates ; there 
 was no inquiry into character as a preliminary to employment ; 
 and employment, at a small rate of pay, it is true, but still 
 at some rate, was almost always to be obtained. Discharged 
 servants, convicts released from prison, agricultural labourers 
 thrown out of work, militiamen when their training was over, 
 in brief all the men who, either from fault or misfortune, had 
 h.0 settled occupation, knew that at the Dock gates there 
 was always a fair chance of obtaining something to do. The 
 inevitable result followed. Year after year the stream of the 
 reckless, the incapable, the unfortunate men, the men who had 
 been failures, flowed steadily towards the East End of London, 
 and the condition of their lives grew worse and worse. There 
 
2o8 A Plea for Liberty. [v. 
 
 were more men to work than before and, if anything, less 
 work required to be done ; the wage-fund was spread over an 
 increasing number of mouths and bodies. Meanwhile the 
 congestion of the population caused the rents of houses and of 
 single rooms, however dilapidated, to rise rather than to fall. 
 Sanitary considerations, never held in much respect by the 
 poor, were utterly neglected. Over-crowding, squalor, poverty 
 and immorality continued to increase without check. The 
 wages, when they were obtained, were insignificant, but it 
 is not here contended that they did not amount to an adequate 
 remuneration for the work done. On the contrary, it is 
 asserted that the work done by the average dock-labourer 
 was barely worth five-pence, let alone six-pence, by the hour 
 to the dock-owners who employed him. Those who accused 
 the dock-owners of hardness of heart, because the labourers 
 could not earn enough to support life adequately, forgot 
 that it was the irregularity of the work rather than the 
 inadequacy of pay for work done which caused the misery. 
 In short, there was too little work and there were too many 
 men to do it. The fault lay in the system which had encou- 
 raged a population of men who could not earn enough to 
 support themselves in decency to assemble and to multiply in 
 the East End. 
 
 The result was that in the summer of 1889, Burns, Mana 
 and Tillett found in the waterside districts an undisciplined 
 aggregation of individuals living from hand to mouth, accus- 
 tomed to walk upon the verge of starvation, discontented with 
 a lot which could not satisfy any man, passing an existence so 
 miserable and squalid that they had nothing to lose. It was 
 no very difficult matter to stir this population into rebellion, 
 and the only troublesome part of the business was to organise 
 the mass of individuals into one body. How the Dock- 
 labourers Union was formed, how the stevedoreB and the 
 lightermen, in other words the skilled labourers and the 
 monopolists, made common cause with the 'dockers,' how, 
 eventually, the members of the Joint Committee of the Docks 
 were coerced into something near akin to total surrender, into 
 making concessions which were larger than their responsi- 
 
v.] . The Discontent of the Working-Classes. 209 
 
 bilities warranted — these and like matters are foreign to the 
 present purpose. More interesting is it to observe that the 
 leaders of the agitation, while they were careful never to advo- 
 cate and never even mention legislative socialism, were never- 
 theless compelled, not only to teach, but also to enforce the 
 first principle of communism, which may be taken to be that of 
 equality, not natural but artificial. Trade Unionism of the new, 
 that is to say of the militant species, succeeds by subordinatiag 
 the individual to the class. The foundation upon which it 
 rests is that the strong man shall earn no more than the weak ; 
 and to this principle the dock-labourers, as a clasp, ofiered no 
 opposition. They objected vehemently to piece-work, to that 
 payment by results which rewards the industrious and the 
 sturdy workers, and leaves the idle and the weak to their fate : 
 they cried out for one uniform rate for all workers. Later in 
 time, as we shall note shortly, the ' dockers ' practically 
 repudiated all the socialism underlying this principle. But 
 even here there is room for doubt whether the mass of the dock- 
 labourers accepted the principle of equality upon its merits, 
 since the contract system has one inseparable fault in London 
 and elsewhere. The foreman, gaffer, or head-man of a gang, 
 has always the opportunity of swindling his subordinates. He 
 rarely loses it. 
 
 The coercion which the members of the Union used upon 
 other labourers — and with a great deal more effect than ought 
 to have been permitted in a civilised community — was essen- 
 tial to success. The idea underlying it was only partially 
 socialistic, but it was the natural outcome of socialistic spirit. 
 ' Ex hypothesi,' the leaders would say, ' the Union represents 
 the true interests of the workers. Sequitur that it is the 
 duty of every worker to be a member of the Union. We will 
 enforce that doctrine by preventing non-Unionists from going 
 to work.' The whole doctrine and the manner in which it 
 was carried out were but amplifications of the principle that 
 the individual must be subordinated to the class; if he accepted 
 his slavery willingly, so much the better for the class ; if he 
 rebelled against it, so much the worse for him. Of intimi- 
 dation, of the open and physical kind, some instances were 
 
2IO A Plea for Liberty. [v. 
 
 detected ; but it was an open secret, and a fact thoroughly- 
 understood by both parties to the struggle, that much intimi- 
 dation existed in concealment. Men able and willing to work 
 were oppressed with a vague and mysterious terror that, if 
 they worked, they would be made to rue the day. It may 
 be answered that there was no evidence to justify this terror. 
 The answer is that the working-men, who knew their own 
 class, felt it ; that although willing to work and spurred by 
 hunger, fear stopped them from stepping into vacant places. 
 
 It was no matter for surprise that speaker after speaker 
 should institute comparisons between the lot of the rich and 
 the poor. ' The rich man rolling in his chariot,' ' the poppkig 
 of champagne corks at the Dock House' — vide the 8twr, 
 erroneously, passim — were naturally brought into contrast 
 with the lot of the starving dock-labourers. Such comparisons 
 are the weapons with which the agitator fights; but the 
 feeling to which these comparisons were addressed was nothing 
 more than that vague discontent with existing conditions, that 
 desire to become rich by acquiring the property of other 
 people, that jealous feeling of injustice which is always to be 
 found in the lowest scale of society. At ordinary times the 
 ashes of this jealous discontent do but smoulder ; but they are 
 always there, and the agitator with his windy speech blows 
 them to a white heat. It is a part of his regular business. 
 Neither, if the thing be looked at dispassionately, is the 
 permanence of this discontent a matter for wonder, nor the 
 thing itself a mere silly feeling which can be argued away. 
 The lot of him who is born in the lowest scale of society 
 is hard; it is easier to persuade him that he has been defrauded 
 of his opportunities, than to convince him that he has missed 
 them ; to those who would fain reason with him, speaking of 
 ' Laws ' of political economy, of supply and demand, and so 
 forth, he answers that he knows no laws save those which 
 man, who made them, can alter. The appalling ignorance of 
 the people, the readiness with which they accept statements 
 and arguments of glaring absurdity, renders them an easy 
 prey to the agitator. The agitator cries out for education. 
 He may be well-assured that in proportion to the knowledge 
 
v.] The Discontent of the Working-Classes. 211 
 
 of a man are his desire and determination to work out his own 
 destinies, to argue rather than to fight, and that if culture 
 ever does obtain a firm hold upon the working-classes of 
 England, the result will be diminution in the number of 
 strikes, increase and improvement of profit-sharing schemes, 
 and the extinction of the agitator's craft. Among the better 
 class of the working-men the agitator is even now a nonentity. 
 We have gone rather far from Mr. Burns, but it must be 
 remembered that he had lieutenants who were more ignorant 
 and less scrupulous than himself. In the matter of omission, 
 however, he and his lieutenants were at one. Rarely, indeed, 
 in those days did they allude to the possibility of legislative 
 interference between labour and capital. Never did they 
 suggest a limitation of the hours of labour. From time to 
 time Mr. Bums would deliver himself of a fiery exhortation 
 to the people, would allude, almost in the words of a recent 
 preacher of note, to the 'carnal, low-lying marshes of sen- 
 suality ' in which they lived, would speak to them hopefully 
 of the millennium in which they would have more leisure for 
 improvement of themselves so that they might be better 
 husbands, better parents, better citizens. But Mr. Burns and 
 his satellites were very well aware that the hope which buoyed 
 up the people was that of obtaining more money, and that 
 mere love of socialistic theories went for nothing ; so Mr. 
 Burns and his friends made a species of compromise, and 
 salved their socialistic consciences by urging that the hours of 
 work to be paid for at ordinary rates should be few, and the 
 hours of work to be paid at extra rates should be many. Given 
 a certain quantity of work to be done and a limited number 
 of men to do it, in proportion to the shortness of ordinary 
 hours and to the number of ' over-time ' hours, will be the 
 increase in the wages of the earner. With regard to other 
 socialistic measures, projected and effected, it will be con- 
 venient to speak later ; it will be enough to say here that, 
 during the Dock Strike, it would have been in the last degree 
 imprudent to enunciate the principles of an Eight-hours Bill. 
 Your casual' labourer at sixpence an hour would like the 
 legitimate day to be as short as might be, and the overtime, 
 
212 A Plea for Liberty. [v. 
 
 at eight-pence, to be long ; but the principle of the Eight-hour 
 movement eliminates overtime altogether: to advocacy of 
 that purely socialistic principle a mixed crowd in Hyde Park 
 will listen ; but the moment it is seriously threatened numer- 
 ous sections of the working-classes, as the Trade Union 
 Congress showed, are up in arms. A very recent incident 
 in the history of the Dock Labourers' Union shows how little 
 the dock labourers realise the principles of socialism. The 
 socialists helped the dock labourers to victory in August of 
 1889. Twelve months later the socialist leaders, under com- 
 pulsion from below, announced that for the future admittance 
 to the Union would be rendered more diiBcult. In short, they 
 attempted to create a monopoly of work in the London Docks 
 for the 32,400 London members of the Union. This, of course, 
 is not socialism, but its very opposite, selfishness. 
 
 The gas- workers affair, in which the London socialists were 
 not allowed to play any part, was never a strike in any accu- 
 rate sense of the word, for the simple reason that the would-be 
 strikers were replaced without much difficulty. The ener- 
 getic policy of Mr. George Livesey converted men who said 
 they were out on strike into men who were out of employ- 
 ment, and all the talk of the necessity of arbitration or the 
 possibility of it, all- the well-meaning efforts of cardinals and 
 ministers to interfere in the matter, were entirely futile. There 
 was nothing to arbitrate about, no mediation was possible; 
 the outgoing men were men who had been gas-stokers, who 
 knew how to charge a retort or to stoke a furnace, and that 
 was all. Their best chance of becoming gas-stokers again 
 was to seek employment elsewhere. It is necessary to 
 impress this point, although it is foreign to the immediate 
 purpose of this paper, because Mr. Livesey has been much 
 misrepresented. He has been spoken of as a merciless man 
 who would not yield an iota, whereas in fact he was a merci- 
 ful man, albeit strong of purpose, who having at last accepted 
 a challenge to fight, took without a moment's delay such 
 measures that, while victory was certain, retreat was im- 
 possible. The world did not know at the time what the 
 series of provocations had been ; it did not know that con- 
 
v.] The Discontent of the Working-Classes. 213 
 
 cession after concession h&,d been followed by demand after 
 demand, that the men, acting upon the orders issued by the 
 executive of a Union, which was and is by the confession 
 of the secretary (see the January number of Tirae) purely 
 militant, had embarked upon a policy of aggression ; that 
 they were asking for more than was reasonable. It has 
 learned this now. It must also be well aware that the 
 objection of the leaders of the Union to the profit-sharing 
 scheme, which, on the face of it, was a scheme of socialistic 
 tendencies, in the best sense of the words, was due not to 
 any suspicion that it would be worked unfairly, but to a 
 knowledge that it must have the effect of checking the policy 
 of restless importunity upon which the existence of the 
 Union and their prosperity as leaders depended. But it is 
 said that Mr. Livesey openly stated his intention of crushing 
 the Union and of destroying the men's right of combination. 
 As a matter of fact, Mr. Livesey made no such statement, 
 but there is not a particle of doubt that he did mean to 
 take a course that would result incidentally, but none the 
 less inevitably, in the destruction of the Union, and that 
 from the public point of view he would have been entirely 
 justified in aiming to crush the particular Union to which 
 he was opposed. He saw, he must have seen, that this 
 Gas-Workers' and General Labourers' Union was purely and 
 undisguisedly a confiscatory engine in everything but name. 
 The difierence between it and the established Unions may 
 be easily stated. The older Unions, presided over by men 
 having some knowledge of political economy and of the con- 
 ditions of trade, have a defined policy. They desire, when it 
 is possible, to improve the position of the working-man ; 
 in times of commercial prosperity they will insist, using his 
 obedience to them as a weapon, that he shall have what they 
 consider his fair share of that prosperity ; in times of com- 
 mercial depression they will help him and, in effect, they 
 perform many of the functions of a friendly society. Ad- 
 mission to such Unions is a privilege not lightly to be 
 obtained. This policy is stigmatised as degenerate by the 
 secretary of the new Union. His policy and that of his 
 
214 -^ Plea for Liberty. [v. 
 
 Union is that of the daughter of the horse-leech; it is a 
 policy of continual importunity. The new Union cares 
 not whether men are ill or well paid ; it is ever ready with 
 a fresh demand. Concession does but whet its appetite ; it 
 claims for labour the whole of the profits made by labour 
 and capital combined ; it aims to be the absolute dictator 
 of the conditions of toil, to say who shall work and how 
 much he shall receive. And this, be it observed, was the 
 Union which grew from that which Burns, Tillett, and Mann 
 created. Its development in the direction of greed shows how 
 little the socialistic theory of life affected the dock-labourers 
 and their fellow-unionists. This was the Union which Mr. 
 Livesey aimed to crush, and it is here deliberately said that 
 the endeavour so far as it succeeded — and it did succeed to 
 the extent of setting the South Metropolitan Gas Company 
 free — ^was entirely to be justified. The public were largely 
 interested in the result of the conflict inasmuch as the 
 position of the Gas Company was such that its shareholders 
 could not entirely lose their money, until the increase in the 
 cost of labour was such that men ceased to consume gas. 
 Mr. Livesey therefore was a trustee, and the public were his 
 cestuis-que-trustent. He had a duty towards his men, a duty 
 to see that they were reasonably paid; but he was under 
 an obligation no less paramount to see that the public was 
 not imposed upon, as it would have been if a firm front 
 had not been shown to the Union. The Union would have 
 coerced him, if it had been able to do so, into complete 
 neglect of the obligation to the public. 
 
 Enough has been written to prove that the New Unionism 
 which has been at the bottom of aU the recent troubles in 
 London, adopts the confiscatory articles of the socialistic creed. 
 Some of the founders are sincere and enthusiastic, if not weU- 
 informed, socialists ; but the bulk of its followers only care to 
 use the socialists as means to securing higher wages ; others, 
 it may well be, have personal objects in view ; some, while 
 they think they are sincere, do not mind combining the pursuit 
 of their own interests with that of the principle which, more 
 or less honestly, they believe to be just. That is not the poiat. 
 
v.] The Discontent of the Working-Classes. 215 
 
 It is more worthy of notice that the principle which under- 
 lies the militant Union is the principle of socialism. In 
 the first place, the individual is subordinated to the class ; 
 in the second place, the class desires to obtain the whole of 
 the profits which are derived from capital and labour com- 
 bined. In other words it desires to confiscate capital. 
 
 Meanwhile, it is to be observed that, wherever the working 
 classes are brought into contact with legislative socialism as 
 an actual fact, they invariably rebel. The greater part of 
 the socialistic statutes of recent times are simply hateful to the 
 people whom they were intended to benefit. The enforce- 
 ment of cleanliness, of sanitary regulations and such matters, 
 is attended with the greatest difficulty as the promoters of 
 'model dwellings' have found to their cost, because there 
 are no people in this world more sensitive than the working- 
 classes of this country to encroachments, real or fancied, upon 
 their liberty. The proverbial saying that the Englishman's 
 house is his castle does but emphasize the fact that there is 
 nothing more hateful to the average Englishman than inter- 
 ference. He loathes the inspector and the official, but the 
 inspector and the official are the inseparable accidents of the 
 socialistic community, and every socialistic measure which is 
 passed into law brings into birth new officials and new 
 inspectors not only of houses but of persons; It is idle for 
 Parliament to enact that children shall be vaccinated, that 
 children shall be educated, that children shall not be set to 
 work while they are of tender age, to formulate rules sup- 
 posed to prescribe the minimum number of cubic feet of 
 air allowed to each person in a house, the minimum of 
 sanitary conveniences and so forth, unless Parliament also 
 sends somebody to see whether any attention is paid to its 
 commands. Yet the people who are despatched upon these 
 errands are universally detested ; indeed, it is not more un- 
 pleasant to be a tax-collector than an inspector of nuisances. 
 It is only after socialist measures become law, or when they 
 threaten the interest of an inteEigent class, that those whom 
 they afi'ect realise the position. Of this an excellent example 
 has lately been afforded. The Bishop of Peterborough recently 
 
2i6 A Plea for Liberty. [v. 
 
 introduced a Bill affecting the liberty of the working-class 
 with regard to the insurance of their children on the ground 
 that in some instances the liberty was abused. His proposal 
 received much support from the press and the sentimental 
 public, but it created such a storm of indignation among the 
 working-class that in all probability nothing more will be 
 heard of the measure. Again, not many months have passed 
 since a meeting in support of the Eight-hours Movement 
 attracted a huge crowd of more or less enthusiastic persons 
 to Hyde Park. There need be no hesitation in saying that 
 the measure contemplated by the promoters of that meeting 
 would, if it ever became law, involve the greatest possible 
 amount of interference with the liberty of the working-man 
 and his freedom of contract. There are twenty-four hours 
 in the day; it is proposed, to put the matter plainly, that 
 no working-man should be allowed to sell to his employer 
 more than eight hours of those twenty-four ; that the re- 
 maining sixteen hours must be spent in compulsory idleness, 
 or as the enthusiast would put it, in cultivated leisure. It 
 is the firm opinion of the writer that if that measure ever 
 became a part of the law, it would, within a year, be held 
 so intolerable by the working-classes that Parliament would 
 be compelled either to depart from the practice of centuries 
 and eat its own words by an immediate Act of repeal, or to 
 stand by and see its orders ignored. The textile trades have 
 found this out, but great numbers of the people support 
 this utterly despotic movement now and will, very Ukely, 
 continue to support it until they find themselves writhing 
 under the pressure of a law which they have themselves 
 helped to create. For the present, they are reminded that 
 the hours of toil are long ; they are frightened with idle 
 tales to the effect that their lives are shortened by excessive 
 toil, whereas in truth the working-man's day is not nearly so 
 long as that of the busy lawyer, or the journalist, the doctor, 
 or the active clergyman. But they are not told, and all 
 but the more intelligent omit to remember for themselves, 
 that in a world which is hard and practical, a world in 
 which buyers, whether of work or of things manufactured, 
 
v.] The Discontent of the Working-Classes. 2 1 7 
 
 will give that which the thing bought is worth to them 
 and no more, a diminution of the hours of labour involves 
 an inevitable diminution of the earnings of labour. Nor 
 will they realise this until it comes home to them in the 
 shape of bitter experience. 
 
 In conclusion upon this head let the opinions set forth in 
 the foregoing words be summarised. The working-classes, 
 especially the lowest among them, the men who have least to 
 lose and most to gain, are not averse to the confiscatory side 
 of socialism ; nay, finding that socialism at the outset does tend 
 to improve their position, they will honestly and in good faith 
 proclaim themselves socialists. They would be glad to earn 
 more and to work less. So would every man upon whom the 
 curse of Adam has fallen : and the vision which is presented to 
 them is that of a golden age, in which the least possible amount 
 of work shall be rewarded with the greatest possible amount 
 of pay. On the other hand, they bitterly resent all laws which 
 are Bocialistic in their tendencies, that is to say, all laws 
 which interfere with their individual liberties ; but the pity 
 of it is, that they rarely perceive the socialistic tendencies of 
 a projected measure and the menace to their liberties which 
 it involves until they feel its pressure. Then, and not before, 
 they appreciate the fable of the Stork. Moreover, as soon as 
 socialism has done its work of raising their wages, they desert 
 it altogether. 
 
 With regard to the legality of the methods employed by 
 the socialist leaders in the course of strikes there has been 
 some question; concerning the facts there is none. Dock- 
 labourers have been induced to threaten that they would 
 not touch coal brought to Cardifi", for example^ from collieries 
 upon proscribed lines, and it has been announced that even 
 if coal was placed on board vessels, the seamen and firemen 
 would refuse to navigate the vessels. The same menaces, 
 futile for the most part, but significant none the less, since 
 they show the existence in outline of a vast and far- 
 reaching conspiracy, have been held out in every one of the 
 great disputes which have been mentioned. Mr. Wilson's 
 threats during the Dock Strike, the nefarious manifesto 
 16 
 
2i8 A Plea for Liberty. [y. 
 
 issued during that strike, -with the vie-w either of causia<? 
 or of terrifying the public with the apprehension of a 
 general paralysis of trade ; the threats of Mr. Wilson and of 
 an Irish agitator, representing the coal-porters, during the 
 gas-workers' affair ; the abortive manifesto issued to the 
 carmen of London by Mann and his allies during the strike 
 at Hay's Wharf; and the incidents of the recent disturbance 
 at Cardiff — all these are of such a nature that nobody, 
 remembering them, can doubt the design which these men, 
 call them socialists or not as you will, deliberately enter- 
 tain. They divide mankind roughly and inaccurately into 
 capitalists and workers, and they desire to so perfect the 
 organisation of labour, that whenever there is a dispute be- 
 tween an employer and his men, the whole force of the labour 
 of the kingdom shall be brought to bear on that dispute 
 with a view to settling it in favour of the men. 
 
 Now of these menaces, it is contended, all are distinctly 
 illegal, upon several grounds. Neither carman, nor coal- 
 porter, nor seaman, nor any man who is not engaged upon 
 piecework, has a right to say to his employer, ' I wiU not 
 touch these goods,' 'I will not navigate the ship in -whioli 
 they are conveyed,' unless he has entered into such a contract 
 with his master as will save him from the consequences of his 
 jp-rimd facie illegal refusal to perform the duty for which he 
 was hired. In the absence of such a contract, he is liable to 
 be prosecuted at the instance of his master. But it is here 
 purposed to formulate, and that without much hesitation, a 
 wider proposition, to wit that in the absence of such a con- 
 tract the recusant men are liable to be prosecuted not only 
 by their masters but by the aggrieved persons, and, in the 
 presence of such a contract, not only men but masters are 
 liable to be prosecuted by the aggrieved persons. Who are 
 the aggrieved persons ? They are the merchants and shippers 
 who, by reason of what, for the present, shall be called an 
 agreement, are prevented from having their goods carried ia a 
 lawful manner. Now all conspiracies are agreements ; in fact, 
 all agreements are conspiracies ; and of agreements or con- 
 spiracies some are criminal and some are innocent. It hap- 
 
v.] The Discontent of the Working-Classes. 2ig 
 
 pens, very fortunately, that the line between the criminal and 
 the innocent conspiracy has been recently drawn by the Court 
 of Appeal in a recent case, the result of which is that a 
 conspiracy, even though it may tend to injure the property 
 or the prospects of G, is innocent, as between A and -B, if 
 it is calculated to result in benefit to them. This doctrine 
 has been questioned, and will be tested in the House of 
 Lords, since it renders the denotation of the words ' innocent 
 conspiracy or agreement' wider than it has ever been. It will 
 certainly not be extended. The inevitable inference from 
 it, whether it be correct or too wide matters not, is that a con- 
 spiracy between^ (Coal-porters Union) and 5 (Seamen and Fire- 
 men's Union) to the injury of G (the South Metropolitan Gas 
 Company) is criminal, even though it be entered into with the 
 view of doing service to J) (the gas-stokers). In short it is 
 believed that the simple law of the matter is that, in the case 
 of a strike, a Union which is a stranger to the dispute has, 
 being an aggregation of individuals, a doubtful right to sub- 
 scribe to the strike fund, but no right whatsoever to go out of 
 its way to injure the employers concerned. 
 
 Let us go away from technicalities and look at the morality of 
 strikes. Small matters may be passed by. No human being in 
 his senses really thinks that anybody has a right to intimidate, 
 by word or deed, the man who offers to take work upon terms 
 which the intimidator has refused. No reasonable man can 
 think that the Unionist has a right to say to his master, ' You 
 shall not employ a non-Unionist,' or to make things unpleasant 
 for the no n- Unionist if he is employed. Some things must 
 be taken as postulates, and amongst them are the propositions 
 that a man has a right to take such work as may be offered to 
 him upon such terms as he can obtain, and that an employer 
 has a right to offer terms of employment at his discretion. It 
 may be that the employer may offer less than will support the 
 man, whereas he could afford to support him and still make a 
 profit. In such a case he is cruel, unjust, wicked ; but in a 
 world which becomes more and more practical, it is impossible 
 10 conceive a community the laws of which would refuse to 
 recognise and support the right of free contract in relation to 
 
220 A Plea for Liberty. [y. 
 
 adult human labour, which would deprive the working man of 
 freedom in the use of the only capital he possesses, his sturdy 
 body and muscles ; and it is needless to point out that, if 
 there existed a law regulating wages, nothing would be more 
 simple than to evade it. There have been such laws in the 
 past ; they were consistently evaded : there is neither rhyme 
 nor reason in passing laws which cannot be enforced. If a 
 law be passed to the effect that the writer shall not work more 
 than so many hours per day, and shall not receive more than 
 X nor less than y for his work, he will engage, given a demand 
 for his services, to work precisely as long as he pleases, and 
 
 to take on occasion xy or - . 
 
 y 
 
 It would be idle to deny the absolute right of the indivi- 
 dual, or of the members of a given Union, to strike when 
 they please. A strike, that is to say, a strike brought about 
 by formal giving of notice, and not by sudden refusal to 
 work, may be foolish, may even be wrong from the point of 
 view of the wives and families whom the men are bound to 
 support, but cannot in any advanced community be made 
 punishable at law. We must allow men to take their own 
 measures for the improvement of their own position so long 
 as they do so without disturbing the public peace, and, if 
 they are punished, it must be for disturbing the peace or for 
 combining to disturb it, not for combining to further their 
 own interests, whether wisely or foolishly. 
 
 This Union of Unions, indefensible as it is at 'law, is a 
 thing which cannot long be tolerated in a civilised com- 
 munity. Let us examine this chronic conspiracy of which 
 manifestoes and speeches from representatives of men not 
 concerned in this or that dispute are the only sign. It is 
 hardly an existing fact ; it is something more than an idea. 
 (Since these words were written the Federation of Labour, 
 which is the Union of Unions, has made great strides to the 
 front.) It represents in fact the determination of various 
 men, not entirely without influence among the working- 
 classes, that whenever employer and employed are at variance, 
 the whole force of the employed in the kingdom, and for aught 
 
v.] The Discontent of the Working-Classes. 221 
 
 ■we kno-w in the civilised world, is to be brought to bear upon the 
 employer ; that he is to be boycotted until he has been driven 
 iato submission; that other masters are to be coerced into 
 helping in the process of boycotting. Now this determination 
 comes, in the first place and manifestly, from a desire upon 
 the part of agitators to use the most effectual weapon at their 
 disposal, and it is based, since there is no other possible 
 foundation for it, upon the idea that Labour and Capital are 
 constantly fit war with one another, that there is a distinct 
 line and opposition of interests between the classes and the 
 masses. It is unnecessary to show in detail the errors of this 
 idea ; to point out that without the aid of the mind which 
 planned a railway, the men who' found the money to lay it, and 
 the dkectors who watched over its destinies afterwards, there 
 would have been no room for engine-drivers, stokers, plate- 
 layers, guards, brakesmen, signalmen, porters, and all the rest 
 of them, and that the case of every industry is analogous. 
 
 Nor is war between capital and labour a real or a permanent 
 thing. It may very safely be said, even in this era of agitation 
 and strikes, that in spite of the endeavours of the Tilletts, the 
 Wilsons, and the Manns to induce men to believe that they 
 are beinff ill-treated, the men who are contented with their 
 employment and with the rate of wages paid to them vastly 
 outnumber the malcontents ; but the last-named are, of course, 
 the men who make most noise. Strikes will come from time 
 to time, and they are genuine fights to which men apply, sadly 
 but with accuracy, the language of the battlefield. Men will 
 not, by wUful blindness to the truth, by blind use of inappro- 
 priate terms, hasten the coming of those halcyon days when 
 employer and employed shall have an equal interest in work 
 done upon this or that profit-sharing principle, or when every 
 dispute between man and master shall be settled by quiet 
 discussion over a council table between representatives of 
 either party. The intolerable incidents of the present state 
 of warfare are bringing those days appreciably nearer to us. 
 Numerous profit-sharing schemes have been established, and 
 of these a few, notably those of Mr. George Livesey, are emi- 
 nently successful. We hope to see more of such schemes in 
 
22 2 A Plea for Liberty. [v, 
 
 the future, and of designs, such as that which the Sliding 
 Scale Committee embodies, designs calculated to render strikes 
 impossible and founded upon principles capable of wide appli- 
 cation. 
 
 In the meanwhile, although there is nothing in the nature 
 of constant war between capital and labour, there are — and 
 there is no sort of use in shutting one's eyes to the truth — 
 frequent battles. It is urged in this connection that the ends 
 of the State are best served when the field of those battles is 
 most narrowly confined. If, to take a recent example, when 
 the proprietors of Hay's Wharf are at daggers drawn with 
 their men, all the carmen and all the dock-labourers, steve- 
 dores, lightermen, and coal-porters of London, make common 
 cause with the men of Hay's Wharf, there can be but one 
 result. Masters unite and working-men learn that their 
 maxim ' Union is strength ' is of universal application. 
 If the working-men of the kingdom or of the world are 
 to form themselves into one aggressive body, it is almost 
 a matter of necessity that employers in their turn should be 
 driven into united action for defensive purposes. The results 
 of collision between bodies so large must be serious ; even 
 now strikes in which men are supported, not only by the 
 money, but also by the threats of outsiders, in which masters 
 are encouraged by men engaged in kindred enterprises to 
 stiffen their backs, are carried to such a length as to be 
 productive of incalculable loss and to strain public patience 
 almost beyond endurance. In proportion to the increase of 
 the strength of the Union of Unions, and to the corresponding 
 development, in spite of diversities of interest, of the spirit of 
 unity among masters, is our approach to that state of warfare 
 between capital and labour in which industry and commerce 
 must necessarily languish and the public peace must, ahnost 
 inevitably, be broken myre and more often. The writer, for his 
 part, having no confidence in the medicinal art of the statesman, 
 and having a due regard for the fact that parliamentary 
 efforts to deal with questions involving the relations between 
 capital and labour have failed almost without exception, 
 ventures to think that out of all these evils good wUl, after 
 
v.] The Discontent of the Working-Classes. 223 
 
 much suffering and tribulation, surely come. Let anything 
 approaching to a general struggle between capital and |abour 
 once be fought out, and the result will not be dissimilar to that 
 of the Franco-German War. The loss and the pain to both 
 sides will be so great, whole districts and provinces will be so 
 impoverished, that without the sanction of Parliaments and 
 without the help of Governments, men and masters will 
 combiae to establish institutions, calling them Tribunals, 
 Boards, or Committees, and to provide for them such an 
 efficient sanction as shall make their awards certain of effect 
 and render impossible future conflicts of equal magnitude. 
 In short, although there are clouds in the sky now, there is 
 room for hope. There is no danger that the Armageddon of 
 capital and labour will be fought ; but there is almost a 
 certain prospect of a sharp conflict all along the line. From 
 it labour will emerge convinced that, on the whole, without 
 capital, it is helpless, and capital with the knowledge, which 
 indeed it possesses already, that labour is not to be trampled 
 upon lightly. Of anything approaching to confiscatory 
 socialism there is no real danger, for two reasons. Man is 
 not by nature socialistic. He will, as a plain matter of fact, 
 continue to love himself better than his neighbour, to seek in 
 the first place his own advantage. Moreover, those who have 
 some of this world's wealth, and those who are, or deem them- 
 selves, a little stronger, a little more skilful, a little more 
 clever than the average of their fellows, are the greater 
 number of mankind. To such men, to every man who has 
 anything to lose, to him who feels the dignity of honest work, 
 to him who loves freedom, to him who hopes to raise himself, 
 the idea of socialism, as a practical thing, is altogether odious. 
 Such men feel that to surrender their liberty of action, to 
 resign themselves to living upon one dead level, to lay aside 
 hope and ambition, would be to relinquish their humanity. 
 They will not do so, and, if they would, they cannot ; for a man 
 can only rid himself of the individual spring of action, as he 
 can relieve himself of his shadow, by going forth into outer 
 darkness. 
 
 Edmund Vincent. 
 
VI. 
 
 INVESTMENT. 
 
 T. MACKAT. 
 
yi. 
 
 INVESTMENT. 
 
 It is a commonplace of the older political economists that 
 capital is the result of abstinence from consumption. But an 
 important process of civilisation does not so readily lend itself 
 to definition in a brief sentence. Investment, that is the con- 
 version of revenue into capital, is itself a form of consumption. 
 It naturally implies abstinence from other and more obvious 
 forms of consumption. Thus by means of the process of in- 
 vestment a man consumes a part of his revenue in acquiring, 
 not food which is obviously perishable, but a machine or an 
 improvement of his land, objects which are less obviously 
 perishable. But the advantage thus acquired is by no means 
 permanent, for a machine wears out and land loses its heart, and 
 the usefulness of the expenditure, to which the name of capital 
 has been given, disappears unless fresh doses of capital are 
 from time to time administered. There is no such thing as 
 permanence in human affairs ; there are only degrees in the 
 rapidity with which things are consumed. 
 
 These considerations, though familiar enough, are of im- 
 portance in view of the socialist proposal for the nationalisation 
 or socialisation of all forms of capital. We intend, therefore, 
 to examine the operation of investment, or, as we may term it, 
 the application of revenue to this less rapid form of consump- 
 tion. The most enthusiastic socialist does not deny the use- 
 fulness of capital. His grievance is the private usefulness of 
 capital. It is not disputed that capital makes labour a thou- 
 sandfold more productive, that mere human labour is in itself 
 weak, that it only becomes powerful when allied with the 
 
2 28 A Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 mechanism of the inventive arts. This alliance is effected by 
 capital, and results in an accelerated and increased production 
 of wealth. So far there is no difference of opinion. The 
 socialist, however, argues that capital should belong to 
 mankind at large, to the nation, to the municipality, to a 
 public body or bodies, and not on any account to a private 
 capitalist. We, on the other hand, argue that capital should 
 belong to him who has earned it, that he alone can make the 
 best use of it, and that he alone should suflFer if it is allowed 
 to disappear in ill-considered ventures, or to waste away 
 more rapidly than is necessary for want of due reparation 
 and care ; further^ that the right of bequest, and inheritance 
 is at once the most economical as well as the most equitable 
 method for the devolution of property from one generation 
 to another; and that the socialist ideal of the universal 
 usefulness of capital, which is our ideal also, can be reached 
 by an ever-widening extension of private ownership and by 
 that means only. 
 
 The regime under which we live makes considerable expe- 
 riment in both these theories of the tenure of capital. There 
 are tendencies working in both directions, and the question, 
 as far as it is a practical one, is — To which side should a wise 
 man lend his influence 1 Reasonable men in both camps are 
 averse to revolutionary methods, and are agreed that change 
 must be gradual. 
 
 An examination of the principles underlying these experi- 
 ments in investment will afford matter for the consideration 
 of those whose minds are still open to conviction. 
 
 I. There is a vast amount of capital invested and being in- 
 vested under government and municipal control. The post- 
 ofEce, telegraphs, roads, sewers, and in many instances gas, 
 water, docks, and a variety of other undertakings, are carried 
 on by capital under State control. 
 
 II. Other enterprises are carried on by private capital under 
 a State-granted monopoly : e. g. railways, canals, liquor traffic, 
 gas and water, when supplied by a private company, electric 
 lighting, telephones, and, if we include those industries which 
 are more or less under Government regulation, such as shipping, 
 
VI.] Investment. 229 
 
 insurance, banking, and joint-stock enterprise generally, we 
 might very largely extend our list. 
 
 III. Capital is invested privately by private persons in 
 private enterprise. 
 
 With regard to this last division, it is necessary to remark 
 that even here freedom of action is much less than is generally 
 supposed. It is impossible to draw the line with any pre- 
 cision between private capital controlled by the State and 
 capital which is freely employed. Absolutely free employ- 
 ment of capital unencumbered by officious protection does 
 not exist. Practically this statement may appear trivial, 
 but from a philosophical point of view it has an importance 
 which warrants a passing remark in explanation of our 
 meaning. 
 
 The enforcement of mercantile and other contract, the 
 Government enforcement of settlements of land and personal 
 property, its protection of endowments, its support of con- 
 tracts lasting more than a generation, in some cases for a 
 whole century, all these, intended as they are for the protec- 
 tion of property, act in restraint of the liberty of each passing 
 generation in this matter of investment. We are not arguing 
 in favour of a repudiation of contracts. On the contrary, 
 though it may appear paradoxical to say so, we have a sus- 
 picion that contracts are observed with more regularity when 
 their observance is not a matter enforceable at law. Even in 
 the present state of society it is not difficult to adduce in- 
 stances of this. Any one acquainted with business knows 
 that in every trade a vast amount of business is done on 
 terms which are not cognisable at law. 
 
 It is notorious that a large amount of property is held by 
 Roman Catholic trustees on secret trusts which the law does 
 not recognise. We have never heard that such trusts are 
 imperfectly earned out. 
 
 The mere pressure of necessity has been sufficient to uphold 
 the desert law of hospitality. 
 
 Again, there are probably no debts more regularly paid than 
 gambling debts, debts of honour as they are called, and that 
 by a class of men who are not abnormally sensitive to moral 
 
230 A Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 considerations. Indeed the 'plunger' has little scruple in 
 cheating his money-lender and his tradesman, but as a rule he 
 pays his bets. 
 
 Under the present system, inconvenience has without doubt 
 arisen from too indiscriminate an enforcement of the so-called 
 rights of property ; from legislation which attempts to conserve 
 to a man the administration of his fortune after his death; 
 which permits a pious founder to stamp his educational ideals 
 on future generations, or to endow the professional mendicant 
 for all time ; which enables a man to attach his personal 
 debts to land which he has once owned, and so impede that ex- 
 changeability of property which is so essential to its value. 
 We suffer also from the fact that dishonest men are able to 
 defy and evade the law, and the injured, knowing the law's 
 delay, feel helpless. These remarks are made with a view of 
 showing that a superstitious respect for laws which guarantee 
 to owners too extended an authority over their property is by 
 no means a tenet in our creed. On the contrary, we beheve 
 that under a more open system human ingenuity could ulti- 
 mately devise better guarantees for appropriate social conduct 
 with regard to property than at present exist, for by the 
 cumbrous procedure of the law-court only the minimum of 
 right conduct can be enforced, and yet men presume on its 
 guarantee and enter into contracts with men of inferior 
 character, because they think that, if necessary, they can 
 enforce their contract. We hardly appreciate how much our 
 own honesty depends on the exercise of reasonable vigilance 
 by our neighbours. Under an open system more circumspec- 
 tion would be necessary before making a contract ; there 
 would be room also for a fuller development of trade, ar- 
 bitration, and protection societies, those equitable Judge 
 Lynches of mercantile life, and as a result a very great com- 
 mercial value would be added to a well-earned reputation 
 for honourable character. All these considerations would, 
 play a part in creating a weight of custom and opinion suffi- 
 cient to enforce the due observance of engagements. Such 
 a force is, we believe, ready gradually to take the place of 
 legal compulsion, if by general consent the mechanical re- 
 
VI.] Investment. 231 
 
 sponsibility of tte law was allowed to become a diminishing 
 quantity. 
 
 It cannot be denied that those who seek to uphold the 
 rights of property are under some disadvantage, because of 
 the difficulty of identifying the rights of property which are 
 necessary and beneficial. The right of property in slaves is 
 no longer recognised, the right of indefinite settlement is 
 curtailed, copyright and patentrightj forms of property 
 peculiar to a modern phase of civilisation, are limited to an 
 arbitrary term of years. Are we quite sure that the present 
 legal definition of property and its rights is adequate and 
 final ? It is not reasonable to think so. The rights of pro- 
 perty are those which the mutual forbearance of the members 
 of society finds convenient and indispensable. It cannot be 
 said that these cans, be unerringly identified by laws which 
 are for the most part the result of class legislation. The 
 complete rehabilitation of respect for the rights of property, 
 which seem to some to be at present in danger, requii-es 
 voluntary and universal recognition of the necessity of 
 property, and it might seem logical to argue that this 
 recognition wUl only be given when the principle of non- 
 intervention by the State is much more widely accepted than 
 it at present is in any existing organisation of society, and 
 this indeed is the view of philosophical anarchists like Mr. 
 Benjamin Tucker of Boston, U.S.A. But owners of property 
 who after all are the majority of the nation, are not at all 
 disposed to dispense all at once with the advantage of legal 
 protection for their rights ; and with the advantage, the value 
 of which they perhaps exaggerate, they must also have the 
 disadvantage. The disadvantage is that a certain suspicion 
 is thrown on the whole institution of private property by 
 reason of the officious protection given to it by the law, 
 and because it has before now been detected in supporting 
 rights which were contrary to public morality and public 
 policy. This admission does not imply any doubt in our 
 mind as to the justice and necessity of the institution of 
 private property, but it seems to us to explain the plausible 
 nature of the socialistic attack on a most useful and beneficent 
 
232 A Plea for Liberty. ' [vi. 
 
 aiTangement which, as far as experience at present goes, has 
 never been dispensed with in any civilised community. 
 
 It is, however, only fair to admit that those who have a 
 leaning towards the doctrine of a philosophic anarchy, but 
 who, as opportunists and practical men of the world ask for 
 slow and gradual advance, should not complain too loudly 
 because private warfare by means of legislative enactment 
 has succeeded to private warfare by force of arms, and because 
 though the weapons are changed the spirit of war is still 
 present. We may resist the attack, indeed it is our duty to 
 do so. We can also look forward to the anarchical millennium 
 when parliamentary obstruction and the organisation of 
 harassed industries and rate-payers protection societies have 
 rendered the legislative brigandage of party politics impossible. 
 The necessity of mutual forbearance which has induced men 
 to forego the practice of private warfare may some day 
 induce them to forego the practice of legislative warfare. 
 It is unwise of enthusiasts to insist too much on ideals which 
 are apt to bring ridicule on their cause. In real life we are 
 concerned with tendencies. These are coloured no doubt by 
 the ideals which we allow ourselves to cherish, but it is sheer 
 madness and contrary to the evolutionary theory on which 
 our whole argument rests, to ask for a full and immediate 
 application of principles which require centuries for their 
 development. 
 
 We desire to see each generation enjoy to the full the whole 
 resources of the country unfettered by the will of dead gener- 
 ations and by restrictions of the State placed on the free circu- 
 lation of capital. Progress lies in that direction, for in an atmo- 
 sphere of liberty human character has an adaptability which 
 will prove equal to all occasions. And in a state of civilisation 
 one aspect of this adaptation of character consists in what has 
 been well called the socialisation of the will. The sociaHst 
 looks for an automatic performance of social duties under the 
 compulsion of a force ah extra. We, on the contrary, contend 
 that individual wills which have not learnt the adaptations 
 taught by self-control, will set such compulsion at defiance, 
 and that the desired result can only come from the impulsion 
 
VI.] Investment. 233 
 
 of a force ah intra. This consists in the character saturated 
 with the motives of the free life, and in the conviction, 
 realised by experience, sanctioned by free choice and made 
 instinctive by custom, that the free interchange of mutual 
 service and mutual forbearance is the beneficent and yet 
 attainable principle on which the well-being of society de- 
 pends. If we believe the improvement of human character , 
 to be the true line of progress, we cannot aiford to neglect 
 these considerations, for they contain some of the most potent 
 factors which make for the endowment of appropriate social 
 conduct. 
 
 To return from this digression to our subject — we may 
 shortly sum up the forms of investment under three heads : 
 
 (i) State investment. 
 
 (3) Private investment under a State-given monopoly. 
 
 (3) Private investment which, subject to the foregoing 
 remarks, may be popularly described as free. 
 
 We premise that the consumption or deterioration of capital 
 may proceed from various causes. It may be in the nature of 
 things. Thus the value of manure will be exhausted by lapse 
 of time, a valuable machine wiU after a time wear out. An 
 arbitrary alteration of fashion or demand will render some 
 apparatus useless. Such a deterioration is a misfortune, out 
 of which no form of investment can entii-ely contract itself. 
 
 Again, deterioration of capital is caused by new inventions. 
 Thus capital invested in stage coaches has vanished away, 
 because of the superior convenience of railway travelling ; and 
 every one in his own experience knows how machinery becomes 
 antiquated, depreciated in value, and at length superseded by 
 new machinery. Such process of improvement brings with it 
 a distinct advantage to the community. 
 
 Now how is this question of deterioration affected by the 
 nature of the tenure of capital? Let us take a variety of 
 instances. 
 
 One of the most usual forms of a State investment of capital 
 
 is ia a war. Our judgment as to the wisdom or otherwise of 
 
 such expenditure will depend on our view of the justice and 
 
 necessity of the war, a point which, for our present purpose, 
 
 17 
 
2 34 ^ Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 we may leave out of sight. Obviously private enterprise 
 could not conduct a war for us. Whether the existence every- 
 where of bodies who are able to carry on war for us is an 
 advantage or not is another question which we need not here 
 consider. "We accept under present circumstances the occa- 
 sional necessity of war. Now expenditure on war can be 
 provided out of current revenue ; it is then consumed like our 
 food supplies, and there is an end of the matter. If however 
 the war takes dimensions too large to be paid for out of 
 current revenue, a charge is made on the revenue of the future, 
 and a loan is created. As a matter of fact our national debt 
 is mainly due to our great wars. In the event of a successful 
 war, additional national prestige is gained by means of an 
 investment guaranteed by authority, but there are no tangible 
 assets to represent the investment ; it is just as much consumed, 
 as if it had all been paid out of revenue. Now the loan is a 
 permanent charge, as long as the nation exists or till it is paid 
 off. It represents perhaps a reasonable expenditure, and we do 
 not wish to criticise adversely the conduct of our forefathers 
 in creating these loans. It is however necessary to compare 
 this form of capitalisation with the capitalisation of a private 
 man who can only derive interest and profit from his invest- 
 ment so long as it represents some present utility to his fellow- 
 men. When this utility ceases, even the principal vanishes 
 away. Pitt's wars, and shall we say the old service of mail 
 coaches, were both necessary and useful in their day. Pitt's 
 capitalisation was under the guarantee of Government, and we 
 are still liable for it, principal and interest. Mail coaches, their 
 owners and the capital and interest involved, have long since 
 disappeared without injustice to any one, and leaving no 
 burden on the present generation. 
 
 -As patriots we may not grudge the liability with which the 
 heaven-sent minister has saddled us ; but when we come to 
 consider the application of private men's revenue, under the 
 name of taxes, to payment of interest on State undertakings 
 less important than the maintenance of our national existence, 
 we are at liberty, without fear of being accused of want of 
 patriotism, to look closely into the assets which represent our 
 
VI.] Investment. 235 
 
 money. To do this we ought to have accurate and intelligible 
 accounts. Of our imperial expenditure we know something 
 mainly from commissions appointed from time to time to 
 consider the inefficiency of our spending departments. But 
 with regard to our local expenditure and indebtedness we 
 have little or no information. It is stated in every elementary 
 handbook on Local Government 'that there are difficulties 
 amounting to impossibility in the way of accurately ascer- 
 taining from published returns the present total amounts of 
 local taxation and expenditure ^.' The same authority tells 
 us that the returns are much in arrear or made up to different 
 dates. Comparison is only conjectural, as the same local 
 authorities perform different functions in different localities, 
 and the overlapping of authorities is quite chaotic. Further, 
 ' the capital expenditure on sewerage, on streets, on gas-works, 
 and on water-supply, is not distinguished from the ordinary 
 expenses of maintenance ' ; and again, ' imperial subventions 
 appearing in the returns of any one year have been made in 
 respect of the expenditure of the past year or years.' Chaos 
 is a mild term for such a system of book-keeping. 
 
 Now this inability to value its assets is inherent in a 
 monopoly. These monopolies represent absolute necessities 
 of life, and whether the service be good or bad, the public has 
 to put up with it. Competition is excluded, and the mono- 
 polist can value at any price he pleases. The service of the 
 Post-Office, for instance, is alleged by Mr. Henniker Heaton to 
 be inadequate. He conducts an agitation in Parliament ; the 
 monopolist yields to noise, reduces his terms, and charges the 
 deficit to the community at large. The most perfect system 
 of account-keeping by a State-trading monopoly can never be 
 satisfactory, for, ex hypothesi, it has entered into a conspiracy 
 to protect its capital from deterioration by prohibiting com- 
 petition. In the open market, where there is no monopoly, 
 there is a gradual deterioration of capital by reason of the 
 improvements made by neighbours. A tradesman must re- 
 
 ' 'Local Administration' by Messrs. perial Parliament Series, by S. Bux- 
 Eathbone, PeU and Montague. Im- ton, M.P. 
 
236 A Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 place his machinery by improved machinery or see his 
 antiquated apparatus gradually become valueless. His atten- 
 tion is kept fixed to this point by the sight of custom going 
 in other channels. No owner -will agi-ee to acknowledge the 
 deteriorated value of his plant unless he is obliged to do so. 
 Hence Government monopolies are very slow to adopt 
 improvements. Each ofiicial is unwilling to admit the 
 weaknesses of his own system, nor will he readily disendow 
 his own knowledge and labour by accepting improvements 
 which will oblige him to acquire fresh knowledge and which 
 wiQ render his present services antiquated. Competition 
 compels private tradesmen to improve their ways. In a 
 monopoly there is no such force making for progress, unless 
 we so term the blind sentimental agitation which is now 
 assailing the Post-Office in favour of an Anglo-Saxon penny 
 post. 
 
 It is not easy to estimate the loss of the community through 
 Government monopoly ; at best it is only a calculation of what 
 might have been, if private enterprise had not been stifled. 
 
 We can give one or two slight but suggestive instances. 
 There are stUl Government offices where all letters are copied 
 by hand and where none of the mechanical processes which 
 give an exact facsimile of the letter copied are admitted. The 
 rest of the clerical work of the establishment is presumably 
 conducted in the same way. This does not of course prevent 
 them from hiring a man in from the street to copy a con- 
 fidential document as in the celebrated Foreign Office case. 
 
 Again, Mr. Stanley Jevons gives a curious instance of the 
 slowness of Government to adopt improvement from the history 
 of the Mint. In his treatise on Money', he states that the 
 present Mint is quite inadequate for meeting the demands 
 thrown upon it. ' What should we think,' he asks, ' of a cotton- 
 spinning company which should propose to use a mill and 
 machinery originally constructed by Ai-kwright, or to drive 
 a mill by engines turned out of the Soho works in the 
 time of Boulton and Watt ? Yet the nation still depends for 
 
 ' 8th Edition, 1887, p. 120, the preface is dated 1875. 
 
^rr'W'\'.'''' 
 
 VI.] Investment. 237 
 
 its coinage upon the presses actually erected by Eoulton and 
 Watt, although much more convenient presses have since been 
 invented and employed in foreign and colonial mints.' 
 
 In such a case one is able to detect the inadequacy by 
 means of a comparison with other countries, but in the great 
 majority of instances it is only possible to conjecture the loss 
 sustained by the community by the absence of that com- 
 petition which forces owners to increase the public utility of 
 their property if they wish to maintain its value. 
 
 Nor does the State trader escape from the difficulties which 
 beset his career when he displays enterprise, as the rate- 
 payers of such towns as Bristol and Preston might realise if 
 they took any interest in the matter. 
 
 The Bristol Docks account shows that for the year ending 
 April 30, 1 890, the Corporation incurred ' a total loss on work- 
 ing Dock Estate and City Quays combined ' of £1 8,91 1 4s. 5^.^ 
 This deficiency has to be made up by a rate in aid levied on the 
 borough and city of Bristol, and accordingly .^20,360 was last 
 year taken from the rate-payers. The result is that part of the 
 expense of the shipping trade at Bristol is every year paid by 
 the rate-payers, a large number of whom derive absolutely no 
 benefit therefrom. We talk with some complacency of the 
 folly of French sugar bounties and of McKinley tariffs, but 
 the facts above given point to a state of affairs even more 
 egregious and unjust. Either the shipping of Bristol is a 
 decaying industry, and ought not to be bolstered up by 
 subsidies from people living in the suburbs of Clifton, or (and 
 this is the more probable alternative) a Corporation, even as 
 respectable as that of Bristol, is an unsuitable body to have 
 charge of such enterprise. In any case the money of the 
 ratepayers is being improperly applied. 
 
 The following particulars with regard to Preston are taken 
 from an article in the Fall Mall Gazette, 1 8 April, 1 890 : — 
 Many years ago a company called the Ribble Navigation 
 Company was formed, it paid no dividends, and its shares 
 became worthless. An agitation was got up to make the 
 
 ' Published in the Bristol Times and Mirror, 15 July, 1890. 
 
238 A Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 town council buy up the company, improve the navigation, 
 and make docks. The agitation succeeded, and ' it may be 
 assunied that some of the active promoters were not wholly 
 disinterested.' The expenditure was not to exceed ^"500,000 ; 
 at the beginning of this year .^751,000 had already been 
 borrowed, and Parliament was asked to sanction further 
 borrowing powers of .^220,000. ' The eight miles of channel 
 to the sea have yet to be provided for, and the cost may be 
 anything from ^^''300,000 to .^1,000,000, as its course lies over 
 shifting sand-banks fifteen to thirty feet deep. By the course 
 pursued this money must be spent, or all that has been 
 already sunk has been absolutely squandered". The friendly 
 societies, who feel the efifect of the abnormally high death rate 
 (Preston, according to the Registrar General, is the unhealthiest 
 town in England), have petitioned for better sanitary condi- 
 tions, but where is the money to come from with such a 
 burden on the back of the town ? ' At present the resources 
 of the rate-payers ' are being squandered on a wild goose 
 scheme to open out the river to sea-going vessels along a 
 shifting channel in sixteen to seventeen miles of sand.' 
 ' Certainly Preston has not been happy in its local rulers.' We 
 should prefer to put it, that England had not been happy in 
 allowing its municipalities to embark on such hazardous 
 enterprises. 
 
 Again, a municipality "lays down millions in a system of 
 sewerage. Science is perpetually preaching to us that sewage 
 can be utilised, yet our towns and houses are undermined 
 by inaccessible drains, which are really little better than 
 elongated cess-pools. Is it a wild conjecture to surmise that 
 if the experimental energy of private enterprise had been 
 allowed to enter the field, our practice would not lag so far 
 behind scientific knowledge on this subject? 
 
 As it is, an enormous local debt has been created, and a 
 very inadequate and unimproving service of sewerage has been 
 obtained. Now if this matter had been dealt with by private 
 enterprise (we do not say that it is possible, we are only using 
 the case as an illustration) the capitalisation necessary for 
 carrying out these works would have been made at the risk 
 
VI.] Investment. 239 
 
 of private persons, who -would have had to pay for their own 
 failures. The community could have accepted each improve- 
 ment without remorse, and the deterioration of the earlier 
 systems would have been constantly and gradually making 
 room for improved methods. As it is, the ratepayers are 
 saddled with an enormous debt, and being monopolists, served 
 not by experts but by boards whose inefficiency is notorious, 
 they hesitate at experiment, and there is no automatic pressure 
 put on them to acknowledge the deterioration of their property 
 or to incur fresh expense in its reparation or in the provision 
 of a substitute. ' 
 
 George Stephenson's locomotive was preceded by that of 
 Trevethick, Now our situation as regards sewage is as if 
 the Government had bought up the invention of Trevethick 
 and established a monopoly. The Peases would not have 
 been allowed to employ Stephenson to make engines for 
 the Darlington and Stockton Railway ; and the Government, 
 which had sunk its money in the comparatively worthless 
 invention of Trevethick, would have effectually deprived man- 
 kind of the use of the locomotive engine. 
 
 It may be suggested that in the matter of sewage munici- 
 palities have by a happy inspiration adopted an adequate and 
 absolutely efficient system. It is improbable ; and we can make 
 no better comment on the suggestion than to quote one or two 
 passages from the Presidential address of Dr. G. V. Poore, 
 M.D.J F.II.C.P., delivered in August of this year (1890), to the 
 Section of Preventive Medicine at the Sanitary Congress. 
 Dr. Poore has had an abstract made of the chief outbreaks of 
 typhoid fever in this country, which have been reported on 
 by the medical officers of the Privy Council and the Local 
 Government Brfard : — 
 
 ' One factor is common to all these outbreaks, viz. , the mixing of excremental 
 
 matters with water There is no doubt that whenever excrement is 
 
 mixed with water we are in danger of typhoid. Typhoid was not recognised 
 in this country until the water-closet became common. We doubtless manu- 
 factured typhoid in a retail fashion in old days, but with the invention of the 
 water-closet we unconsciously embarked in a wholesale business. We had 
 not been many years at this work before we recognised that the water-closet 
 poisoned all sources of water. We have had to go far a-field for drinking 
 
240 A Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 water, and the result has been that as tye have left off consuming the springs 
 ■which we have wilfully poisoned, the amount of typhoid fever has somewhat 
 abated. When the more remote sources get poisoned in their turn — as with 
 our increasing population and our methods of sanitation they inevitably 
 must — ^the present comparative abatement must, one would fear, cease.' 
 
 Such is the criticism on our present system, passed hy a 
 gentleman chosen by the Council of the Sanitary Institute to 
 preside over their meeting. Dr. Poore proposes his own 
 remedy, namely, the treatment of sewage with earth and not 
 water. We are not competent judges, and will not assume 
 that Dr. Poore's panacea is final and adequate, but it is clearly 
 a misfortune that as a nation we have embarked on costly 
 systems of sewerage condemned by so competent an authority, 
 and that the position of each member of the community is that 
 he is a part owner of this inadequate service, and that his whole 
 interest lies in patching up and not abolishing a system which 
 in all probability is inherently bad. This impotence Dr. 
 Poore refers to its proper source in the concluding paragraphs 
 of his paper ; he says : — 
 
 'Parliament has compelled us to hand over our responsibilities to public 
 authorities, With the consequence that the individual has lost his liberty and 
 independence, and is drifting into a condition of sanitary imbecility.' 
 
 A rich man who can pay to have his house drains inspected 
 yearly, and who can pay for remedying defects, can make the 
 present system tolerable, but to the poor the expense attending 
 such a course makes efficiency impossible. 
 
 We cannot therefore gauge the loss of the community 
 arising from the perhaps necessary monopoly of sewage 
 works in the hands of municipalities. 
 
 From another point of view monopoly has its inconvenience. 
 It would, for instance, be an economical, an&, under proper 
 management, a profitable expenditure of money^ to have 
 subways under our principal streets for the passage of the 
 various pipes and wires which traverse our towns. No 
 public body, burdened as they all are with the discredit of 
 years of unprofitable and incompetent management, dare 
 suggest such an enterprise to the ratepayers. It is a difficult 
 matter, and could only be effected by first-class financial and 
 
VI.] Investment. 241 
 
 engineering ability. Public bodies very properly feel that 
 they cannot experiment with rate-payers' money, or even incur 
 expense in setting great engineers to estimate the cost and 
 practicability of such schemes. 
 
 We have no wish to depreciate the public spirit which 
 undoubtedly animates many, nay perhaps all, of our 
 municipal bodies. The discredit into which after a brief 
 period of popularity they inevitably fall, is due, not to 
 personal considerations, but to far deeper causes. The in- 
 terests confided to them ai-e too large, they are a standing 
 obstruction to the subdivision of labour and investment 
 which is at the I'oot of the efficiency of the services of civi- 
 lised life. It is true that private enterprise shows a dis- 
 position to organise itself on a large scale by means of trusts 
 and ether combinations, but this new departure has been 
 preceded by a gi'eat specialisation and subdivision of energy, 
 and forms no precedent for the establishment of a great 
 monopoly ^ per saltum.' 
 
 Our most obvious and primitive wants had happily been 
 to some extent arranged for before Government had been 
 fully organised. Government has rarely interfered to help 
 the governed in the distribution of food or in the victualling 
 of great centres of population. Consider the marvellous 
 world-wide interchange of service, both of labour and capital, 
 which is involved in feeding London for a single day. This 
 goes on day after day and year after year without any 
 difficulty, and we are so accustomed to it that we rarely 
 pause to admire. All this is done without the assistance of 
 Government. 
 
 With advancing civilisation new wants became apparent ; 
 the community became anxious about sanitation, about educa- 
 tion, about gas, water, electric light, and a variety of other 
 interests, but by this time the State was fully organised. 
 Men in a hurry refused to wait for the satisfaction of their 
 wants by the system of private enterprise and competition, and 
 they obliged the heavy hand of the State to interfere. Thus 
 it comes that interests which in a civilised community are not 
 inferior in importance to our food supplies, are left as mono- 
 
242 A Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 polies in the hands of Government. To deal properly with the 
 sanitation of a large town a vast subdivision of labour and 
 management is perhaps necessary. Our public bodies are 
 composed of very worthy persons, but they cannot discharge 
 the functions which in a free state of enterprise would be per- 
 formed by perhaps hundreds of separate purveyors of service, 
 and notoriously the scientific ofiicials of our municipalities 
 are inadequately remunerated, and as a consequence the 
 highest professional talent is not at their disposal. It is only 
 by considerations such as these that we can estimate the loss 
 which the public suffers from these monopolies. They and 
 the bodies which administer them form a huge obstruction 
 to beneficent applications of capital to the service of mankind. 
 Capital is free to serve us in some of the most elementary 
 needs of life. It cannot be dispensed with in more complicated 
 matters, but it is tied about with endless restrictions and 
 impediments ; it is taken from us forcibly in taxation, not 
 freely and experimentally adventured ; it is spent timidly by 
 a conscientious board, and recklessly by a corrupt board ; if 
 badly spent it still remains a debt upon us, and we are forced 
 to make the best of the bad article supplied; we cannot 
 accept the pressing offer of ingenioiis and scientific men who 
 ask leave to try again at their own charge and risk to 
 improve these most important services of civilised life. 
 
 The matter is not without difficulty, but the present 
 solution — the solution of granting monopolies more or less 
 complete in so many of the most important services of life 
 — is unworthy of human ingenuity and cannot be considered 
 final. This perpetual forestalling of a free-trade solution has 
 weakened the power of private initiative ; but if our super- 
 stitious reverence for Government can be shaken, we do not 
 despair of retrieving again our steps and of giving to these 
 higher services of civilised life the vigour and elasticity which 
 belong to the humbler primitive sex-vices which supply us 
 with our food and clothing. 
 
 Such, we believe, are the causes of the discredit into which 
 local government bodies are constantly falling. It is not due 
 to personal considerations. The members of municipalities 
 
VI.] Investment. 243 
 
 and vestries represent very fairly the virtues and vices of 
 their fellow-citizens. Many of them are persons of ability 
 and position; some are retired tradesmen who, when they 
 tecome too old to attend to their own business, are kind 
 enough to occupy their declining years in the management 
 of ours. Others are men still engaged in trades and pro- 
 fessions. The employment given to them by their neighbours 
 of free choice leaves them with some leisure on their hands, 
 and, if they are public spirited, their services prove useful 
 for the discharge of functions which, because of their im- 
 portance, have been withdrawn from private enterprise and 
 confided to municipal monopoly. Some, again, are well-to-do 
 persons of good will who follow no calling. Their time hangs 
 heavy on their hands, and they are sent out to get experience 
 of life by assisting in the management of public business. To 
 these of late years there has been added some admixture of 
 fii'st-class agitators. The whole is a fairly representative body 
 rather above the average in respect of public spirit, but a good 
 deal below the average in administrative ability. 
 
 It is, in our opinion, a tactical mistake on the part of those 
 who have an instinctive distrust of public bodies to abuse the 
 personnel of which they are composed. The constantly re- 
 curring scandals are due not so much to the incapacity of 
 vestrydom as to the impossible duties for which it is held 
 responsible. 
 
 Another Government enterprise which is not a monopoly 
 has been undertaken professedly in the interest of the working- 
 class. We shall be accused of temerity when we say that the 
 institution we have in our mind — the Post-OiBce Savings 
 Bank — has been a very doubtful benefit. A bank is an in- 
 stitution in which men place monies either on current account 
 or on permanent deposit. A banker is an expert in invest- 
 ment; he uses a proportion of his customers' balances in 
 financial operations and in investment. His customers 
 obtain financial assistance such as their credit warrants, and 
 a considerable portion of a banker's reserves are invested in 
 the businesses of his customers and of the class to which his 
 customers belong. 
 
244 ^ P/^« for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 The ■working-class, however, is served by a bank which 
 gives them no such assistance. The reserves of the Post-Office 
 are placed in the hands of the Commissioners for the Reduction 
 of the National Debt, who in turn invest them in Govern- 
 ment stock, or lend them for financing the various spending 
 departments of the State. It will be said that a workman has 
 no credit which would enable a banker to employ capital in. 
 his service. This, however, is a great misconception. We 
 refer the reader to the paper in this volume by M. RafFalovich, 
 and to the suggestions which he there throws out for the use of 
 savings banks' reserves for promoting the erection of working- 
 class dwellings. It is moreover the business of a hond, fide 
 banker to devise forms of security by means of which he can 
 give financial assistance to his customers. 
 
 Consider what an impulse to thrift and working-class invest- 
 ment would have been created, if the Post-Ofiice Savings Bank 
 had been debarred from investment in Government securities, 
 and been obliged to invest workmen's savings in assisting 
 schemes for their service. Tliis is the function of the banker of 
 the middle and upper classes. It is through the legitimate 
 assistance of the banker and the insurance agency that the 
 proletariate of this and other countries are to be encouraged 
 to pass from the hand-to-mouth life of wage-earning into the 
 greater security enjoyed by those who rely on investment as 
 well as on labour for their maintenance. 
 
 This Post-Office Savings Bank is therefore, in this view 
 of the matter, one of those ' short cuts ' to prosperity of which 
 the civilised world is very full. They are admirable in 
 intention, they have also their advantages in practice, but 
 they forestall and prevent the higher and more useful adjust- 
 ments of mutual service. They are part of the bondage on 
 the free development of character and energy wjiich, more 
 than anj'thing else, impedes the true progress of the working- 
 class. 
 
 It is satisfactory to know that the National Penny Bank, a 
 legitimate private enterprise, is now beginning to make great 
 progress, and to pay a dividend to its shareholders. It is to 
 be hoped that its successful competition with the Post-OfEce 
 
VI.] Investment. 245 
 
 13 only the beginning of the rescue of this industry from the 
 hands of Government. The sterilisation of -working-class 
 savings under the present system is a grave misfortune. If 
 working-class banking was conducted by persons who had to 
 conciliate the good-will of their customers, it would become 
 more the practice to invest reserves in undertakings likely 
 to benefit the working-class. It may even be possible that 
 the working-class savings bank may one day be instrumental 
 in promoting schemes of industrial partnership in well- 
 established businesses. Co-operators are fond of talking 
 of labour hiring capital, and of reversing the present plan 
 of capital hiring labour. From whom could the co-opera- 
 tive labourer borrow with more fitness than from the 
 savings bank of his own class? Loans of course cannot be 
 obtained from a bank without undeniable security, and this 
 he would have to provide, but the difficulty is superable, as 
 M. EaflTalovich has aptly shown, by a combination of insurance 
 and loan. If a beginning were made in the simpler matter of 
 house property, there can be little doubt that human ingenuity 
 would soon extend the system to other matters, more especially 
 to various forms of industrial and co-operative partnerships. 
 
 All attempts of this kind are impossible under the present 
 system of Government banks, for Government can only invest 
 in its own securities. Thus the author of the article on 
 the Post-Office of the United States in the Encydopcedia 
 Britannica points out that the United States cannot have 
 post-office savings banks, because the Americans are fast 
 paying off their national debt. ' It is plain,' he says, ' although 
 the difficulty does not seem to have occurred to many of the 
 advocates in the United States of a savings bank system, that 
 to be lasting it must be founded upon a Government debt, 
 a condition which does not and is not likely to exist in that 
 country.' 
 
 It is obvious that the same line of argument can be applied 
 in a minor degree to the monopolies granted by the State to 
 private capitalists. The risk of loss is undertaken by the 
 private adventurer, but if a success is made the public is at 
 the mercy of the monopolist, tempered only by the expensive 
 
246 A Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 and incomplete protection given by the State. The Board of 
 Trade has recently held an elaborate enquiry upon Railway 
 Rates. The expense of the enquiry has been great, and the 
 rates which the Board proposes to fix naust be to a large 
 extent arbitrary ; they have none of the cogency which rates 
 fixed by free competition would have. 
 
 It would be rash to say that greater freedom of railway- 
 making for the purpose of creating more competition is either 
 possible or impossible. We need have no hesitation in sayiDg 
 that, if it were possible, it would solve a great many, at present 
 insuperable, difiiculties. 
 
 Our argument is that the public has been deprived of the 
 full value of railway enterprise by the granting of monopohes. 
 Railway companies have been able to hold on to inferior 
 machinery and to pay fancy prices for the acquisition of land, 
 and they are unable to give increased facilities to travellers, 
 because they are too tender of shareholders' capital inflated 
 beyond its value by causes such as the above. 
 
 If there was more freedom of trade in this matter there 
 might well be ten times as much capital invested, and all of it 
 represented by more efficient machinery. The experience of 
 America in the matter of telephones and electric lighting 
 shows that tlie mere fear of competition is sufficient to make 
 monopolist companies reasonable. 
 
 Generally it may be said that we have much to learn from 
 America in this matter of monopoly. It is there that a solution 
 of a difiiculty, which all admit, is to be looked for. Protection 
 has made the United States a dear country to live in. But, 
 as has been recently pointed out, it is in. some respects not 
 such a dear country as it was. This fact is attributed, 
 probably with justice, to its cheap system of transport. A 
 railway monopoly which results in high transport charges is 
 tantamount to a form of protection. An American railway 
 is built and worked very much more cheaply than an English 
 railway, and the evils of monopoly are in this respect less 
 apparent. In England we hear constant complaint of the 
 difficulty of transporting fish, fruit, vegetables, and many 
 other articles of which the first cost is low, because the rates 
 
VI.] Investment. 247 
 
 of transport prevent their being brouglit within the reach of 
 consumers on reasonable terms. An employer of labour in 
 England and America -writing to The Times of October i, 1890, 
 compares the English and American system, and asserts that 
 we in England have done nothing since Stephenson to cheapen 
 and improve our system of inland transport. The statement 
 may be exaggerated but contains its grain of truth. 
 
 We hear numerous complaints of the congestion of popula- 
 tion in great towns. Light railways are put forward as a 
 panacea for the congested districts in Ireland. Thei-e are 
 of course many causes which contribute to the growth of large 
 towns, and undoubtedly the high price of transport is one of 
 them. Human ingenuity cannot altogether abolish space, 
 but, if price of transport is any criterion, it has brought 
 America and India nearer to English ports than London is 
 to Manchester. And why 1 mainly because sea transport is open 
 to free competition, and land transport is a monopoly. If it 
 were possible (it may be impossible, for some diiEculties are 
 insoluble), to reduce largely the cost of inland transport, there 
 are many large industries which could just as well be carried 
 on in the country as in the town, to the infinite advantage of 
 our labouring population. It is noteworthy that the country 
 factory is much more usual in America than with us. Our 
 policy of protective monopoly requires very careful examination 
 before we sit down meekly under our present disabilities. 
 
 Another curious point has arisen in the United States with 
 regard to the railway monopoly. Trusts are arrangements 
 projected by private enterprise for mitigating the evils of 
 competition, for it .is not here denied that there are evils in 
 competition. Like every other human arrangement, trusts 
 are liable to be abused, and it is alleged that some of the 
 American Trusts have become oppressive, and that, in various 
 trades, monopoly has been established to the detriment of the 
 public at large. A leading working-class member has recently 
 defended the attempt to make a Salt Trust in England, on the 
 logical and intelligible ground that it was an application of 
 the principles of Trade Unionism to the affairs of the capitalist. 
 Free combination, so long as it respects the freedom of the 
 
248 A Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 uncombined, is a necessary and legitimate method for over- 
 coming certain social inconveniences, and as a rule the free 
 community has its own remedy if the combination becomes 
 oppressive. Given a fair field and no favour, an oppressive 
 monopoly unsupported by force would not last for a week ; 
 it w^ould at once be desei-ted and routed by indignant 
 customers. 
 
 It is very noteworthy therefore, that the principal ground 
 of complaint against the Trust in the United States is based 
 on the allegation that Trusts have corrupted the railway 
 monopoly, and have secured for themselves preferential rates 
 and even induced the companies to charge extraordinary rates 
 to outside competitors. The accusation is strenuously denied 
 by the advocates of Trusts. The denial, however, appears to 
 amount to this, that the preferential rates were secured by the 
 corporations now forming various Trusts prior to their 
 amalgamation in Trusts. It follows, therefore, that if to give 
 preferential rates is corrupt on the part of a Railway Company, 
 the corruption dates from a period before the era of Trusts. 
 At any rate, it seems to be admitted by the more moderate 
 opponents of the Trust system that, but for the Railway 
 monopoly and preferential rates, an oppressive Trust would be 
 an impossibility^. 
 
 Under the present system mechanical traction has been 
 confined to unduly narrow limits. Its extension to the uses of 
 private life ought not to be beyond the power of human 
 ingenuity, and here there is room for vast applications of 
 capital M. Raffalovich has pointed out how closely the 
 question of a,n increased and cheaper service of locomotion 
 is connected with the solution of the difficulty of housing the 
 •working-class. 
 
 In the case of the electric light Government has pursued its 
 usual course. It grants a monopoly but couples it with con- 
 ditions intended to prevent private capitalists reaping too large 
 a profit. At first the conditions were too onerous, and the 
 country was deprived of the use of the electric light. We 
 have many other illuminants, and it is a question whether the 
 ' See Foreign Office Report on Trusts, No 174, p. 72. 
 
VI.] Investment. 249 
 
 public required any protection in this matter at all. The most 
 obnoxiouB clauses of Mr. Chamberlain's legislation have now, 
 at great expense and loss of capital, been repealed, and by 
 degrees the electric light is coming into household use. 
 
 The only force which can curb the pretensions of tradesmen, 
 and yet at the same time act as an incentive to enterprise, is 
 freedom of competition. Government can limit the division of 
 profits by regulations which astute financiers can easily evade. 
 But the process is apt to degrade the morals of commerce, or 
 to drive the more sensitive into other fields of labour, and in 
 this way to injure the interest of the consumer, who ia the 
 last resort has to pay for all this hampering of industry. 
 
 But the most familiar iastance of private capital doing 
 business under the support of a State monopoly is the liquor 
 traffic. 
 
 In the proper sense of the term a public house should be a 
 piihlic house, and as much a place of amusement as of refresh- 
 ment. The amount of capital employable in this trade is 
 measured by the ability and willingness of the workiug-class tc 
 reward such investment. Paternal government has by creating 
 a monopoly focussed all this capital on the sale of spirituous 
 liquor. The workman still manages to pay for his drink, but 
 his rational entertainment and his skittles can no longer be 
 provided, because he has to pay perhaps eight or ten times its 
 value for his glass of spirits or beer. This is not the act of 
 the publican but of the Government, which attempts to im- 
 prove the morals of workmen by putting a prohibitive price 
 on their liquor. The result, as in most such cases, is the reverse 
 of expectation. The taxes and the monopoly under which the 
 poor man's caterers have to labour have been prohibitive not 
 of liquor, but of rational amusement, and as a result the poor 
 man is too much bound down to the one amusement which his 
 protectors have left to him, namely the pleasures of strong 
 drink. Can we wonder that under such a system drink has 
 taken too large a share of a workman's spare time and spare 
 cash? 
 
 Every class is entitled to spend a portion of its earnings on 
 amusement. Those who are able to amuse us are at present 
 18 
 
250 A Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 as handsomely paid as any other servants of the public. The 
 public entertainer of the poor has by the inordinate taxation 
 of one necessary item been degraded to being the mere keeper 
 of a dxinking-shop, an enterprise from which many conscien- 
 tious and enterprising tradesmen stand aloof. We do not 
 assert that excessive drinking is caused by this monopoly. 
 Excessive drinking and excessive eating are animal pleasures, 
 which the civilised man soon outgrows if his opportunities of 
 rational entertainment are not unduly curtailed. The poor 
 man has suffered from this curtailment of the more refined 
 methods of amusement, which would have weaned him from 
 the coarser pleasures of appetite. The drinking habits of the 
 richer classes, where drunkenness is now comparatively speak- 
 ing rare, have passed through these same phases. 
 
 We may here, as conveniently as elsewhere, say a word on 
 the philanthropic employment of capital. The employment of 
 purely philanthropic capital to giving a supply of the neces- 
 saries of life to classes of the population at less than the 
 market price is unsatisfactory. It keeps commercial capital 
 out of the field, and attracts attention away from the cause of 
 defective supply. In London there is a great deal of semi- 
 philanthropic capital (for the most part it is now becoming 
 distinctly commercial capital) employed in providing houses 
 for working-people. It is not too much to say that its use- 
 fulness varies inversely to its philanthropy. 
 
 It is only a minority that can be housed on philanthropic 
 terms. Commercial capital, which is plentiful but timid, is 
 frightened away by philanthropic enterprise, and the majority 
 have to remain in inferior houses. 
 
 A very apposite illustration has been given to the writer by 
 a friend who is partner in a large mill business in the North. 
 Some thirty years ago his firm, being desirous of cultivating 
 friendly relations with their work-people, built one or two 
 streets of small houses. They were wealthy people, and they 
 built a class of house rather in advance of the best artisan 
 house of the day. The houses were readily let to their work- 
 people, and for a time answered the purpose intended. At 
 the present time, however, our informant states that he does 
 
VI.] Investment. 
 
 251 
 
 not think any of his own work-people live in these houses, 
 which still belong to his firm. His people have found that 
 thirty years have brought great improvements in the art of 
 house-building, and the men who formerly lived in the prize 
 philanthropic house of thirty years ago have migrated to com- 
 mercially built houses, where they get hot and cold water laid 
 on, baths, and other modern improvements. Now if artisans' 
 dwellings were widely supplied by philanthropic effort, or if, 
 with a view of serving not only a minority but the whole of 
 the working-class, philanthropic investment were made com- 
 pulsory and the matter undertaken by the municipality, it is 
 obvious that the gradual improvement above described could 
 never have taken place. The bumbles of each generation 
 would decide in what sort of houses each class should live. 
 Stagnation and discontent on the one hand, or ruinous extrava- 
 gance guided only by sentiment and without any economic 
 principle to restrain it, and ending without doubt in a violent 
 reaction, are the alternative horns of the dilemma which would 
 of necessity arise in such a state of things. 
 
 The socialists argue that Government should arrange for a 
 gratuitous use of capital to each successive generation. In 
 other words, Government is to organise industry, and to give 
 to each labourer his due ; no charge is to be made for the use 
 of capital ; superintendence and reparation of plant must of 
 course be paid for, but no one may derive any advantage 
 from investment, but only from labour. Let us consider this 
 plroposition more closely. Each year's increment will be 
 taken by the State ; each labourer will receive his wage, and 
 a portion will be retained by the State for the reparation 
 of capital and for making that increase of machinery which is 
 necessary for the support of an increasing population. 
 
 In fact it will be the duty of the State to capitalise a 
 portion of each year's revenue. Now this superintendence of 
 capital will have to be paid for. Inspectors and auditors will 
 be required far beyond what is necessary under the present 
 regime where most men are dealing with their own and not 
 , their neighbour's property. The use of capital therefore will 
 not even here be given gratuitously. Further, it would give 
 
252 A Plea for Liberty [vf. 
 
 rise to a perpetual dispute as to the amount of capital to be 
 subtracted from the due meed of the labourer. The increment 
 taken for capitalisation and for. the cost of superintendence 
 would be regarded as a tax, and would be paid as grudgingly. 
 There would be a never-ending battle between the bureaucracy 
 and the labourer. The former would naturally wish to increase 
 the capital under their charge, and the labourer would resent 
 aJI such deductions as a fraud on his claim. The fact is, that 
 a gratuitous supply of capital is an absurd idea. Capitalisation 
 or investment is essentially a form of consumption, and is in 
 the main directed to the purpose of freeing the investor from 
 the inconvenience of personal toil, in a word to labour-saving. 
 If men or bodies of men labour assiduously and apply part of 
 the revenue obtained from their exertion to this form of 
 consumption, they only do so because they derive advantage 
 therefrom. If that advantage is made to cease, this form 
 of consumption will go out of fashion; if the control and 
 resulting benefit of investment is taken away from individual 
 men ; if the benefit of capitalisation only reaches them after it 
 has filtered through the hands of a bureaucracy, — they will in- 
 evitably identify their interest with the labourers' share in the 
 division, and they will embody this view in their mandate to 
 the organising bureaucracy. Man's maintenance, therefore, wiU 
 gradually return to a dependence on labour alone, and each 
 day's revenue will be consumed by the labourer as he receives 
 it, and application of revenue to investment will cease. Can 
 one conceive a surer means of bringing about a return to 
 barbarism ? 
 
 We have now compared the value of private as against 
 State investment, but we have considered it mainly from the 
 side of the consumer. His wants, we have endeavoured to 
 show, will be best and most economically met by a free system 
 of investment wherever that is possible, and we believe 
 that it is applicable to a much larger sphere than it at 
 present covers. 
 
 This, however, is a small matter compared to the influence 
 of investment as a factor in producing the appropriate social 
 character in each individual investor, and to this aspect of the 
 
VI.] Investment. 
 
 253 
 
 question we now turn. Human happiness depends very largely 
 on two equally necessary qualities, namely, on the individual 
 energy which is able to satisfy reasonable wants ; secondly on 
 the self-control which holds in check unreasonable ambitions. 
 The operation of investment has an important influence in 
 stimulating and informing these valuable social instincts. 
 
 There is a threefold activity involved in the fuU ideal of 
 civilised life. Each man is a consumer and should be a 
 , labourer and an investor. It will be found that our social 
 troubles are caused because this threefold function is imper- 
 fectly performed by large masses of the population. We are 
 all of us of necessity consumers, and most of us have capacities 
 for consumption far beyond what our means allow us to 
 gratify. 
 
 The primitive means for gratifying consumption was labour; 
 but with the first fashioning of Adam's spade it became clear 
 that investment was a necessary complement of human labour. 
 Without it labour was a poor and feeble thing. We are 
 familiar with the principle of the subdivision of labour ; we do 
 not always remember that this subdivision of labour without 
 a corresponding subdivision of the duty of investment has 
 produced a one-sided civilisation and interfered with the three- 
 fold economic harmony above described. 
 
 The consumer who is labourer only and not investor has his 
 potentialities for consumption checked. The burden of sup- 
 plying the complement of capital necessary to an increasing 
 population of labourers falls on investors who are, by the 
 service thus rendered, enabled to subsist without labour. The 
 direction of this production remains with the investor, for he is 
 the only consumer whose consuming power is still eflective. 
 His capital and other men's labour are therefore employed in 
 the manufacture of luxuries which he only can purchase, and 
 ,this one-sided form of consumption gives employment to 
 silversmiths, painters, sculptors and other purveyors of the 
 arts and luxuries of life, while at the other end of the scale 
 the labourer has barely sufficient to eat and drink. Eich 
 men might give away their superfluity, and large benefactions 
 are from time to time given to public purposes. But ex^ 
 
254 -^ Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 perience shows that rich men caimot get rid of their respon- 
 sibility by a mere scattering of gifts. For gifts thus scattered 
 too often prove mere narcotics dulling the energy of poorer 
 mien, and obscuring the truth that in a society not yet become 
 socialistic, the duty of private investment is as paramount as 
 the duty of personal labour. The desire to consume, if it be 
 not debauched by public charity, should prompt an exercise of 
 both functions by each member of society. It is only thus 
 that a liberal interpretation can be given to the term ' reason- 
 able,' when we said above that human happiness, materially 
 at all events, depends on the ability of each man's energy to 
 satisfy his reasonable wants. A larger performance of this 
 duty of investment would lead, we argue, to a much larger 
 consumption, and hence a much larger production brought 
 about by an ever-increasing application of capital or labour- 
 saving investment, and an ever-decreasing application of the 
 less effective instrument, namely, human labour. 
 
 Let us turn to our second proposition, that happiness depends 
 on self-control as much as on the gratification of even our 
 most reasonable desires. There are ambitions which are anti- 
 social, and there is nothing which ministers more to their 
 repression than a knowledge that honest conduct, or what we 
 have termed appropriate social action, is not impracticable, 
 and in fact that it is easier than an opposite course. The 
 desire to consume will prompt an infirm will to an attack on 
 the rights of others. But a conviction of the necessity of 
 mutual forbearance, acknowledging the justice of other men's 
 defence of their own, renders the road of transgression prac- 
 tically narrow. The wonderful internexus of social life which 
 preserves automatically by mutual forbearance each man's 
 claim, has reversed for practical purposes the truth of the adage. 
 The social organisation which surrounds us gives an impetus 
 towards right against which only despair can make us rebel. 
 But here there is no ground for despair. Progress in a free 
 atmosphere will inevitably lead men to an exercise of energy 
 where such a course promises success, and to self-control 
 where the conditions of difficulty are at the moment insur- 
 mountable. This double training of character in energy and 
 
VI.] Investment. 255 
 
 self-control is the principle to which society owes all its 
 nicest adjustments. 
 
 The labourer, therefore, who wishes to improve his position 
 will be impelled to investment as the necessary complement 
 of his labour ; and, in turning to investment as a method of 
 meeting some of the struggles of life, men's minds are opened 
 to many salutary reflections. 
 
 Men realise that the power of labour, which from a point 
 of view we may term man's only inalienable capital, is 
 expended by mere effluxion of time, is rendered useless by 
 sickness, and disappears at death and old age. Men, therefore, 
 must, if they are wise, form a sinking fund by insurance or by 
 savings to replace the yearly expenditure of their labotir 
 capital. This desire to make ends meet has important con- 
 sequences. It limits the rate at which men create respon- 
 sibilities ; it promotes the application of revenue to the slower 
 processes of consumption; it postpones the age of marriage, 
 and has its influence on the birth-rate ; it keeps the growth 
 of population automatically proportionate to the growth of 
 capital. 
 
 The first exercise of the investing instinct will be in matters 
 which directly minister to the wants of the investor. Thus, 
 the investments of the working-class are placed for the most 
 part in their own institutions, such as Friendly Societies, Trade 
 Unions, Building Societies, Co-operative Societies. This is 
 the earlier stage of investment, but the full subdivision and 
 mutual service of investment is not complete till investment 
 passes beyond this stage. A makes boots and exchanges his 
 service for wages ; then, buying a coat, he pays the wages of B, 
 the tailor who made the coat, and the reward of G, the investor 
 who supplied the capital necessary to the transaction ; and, be 
 it noted, B and C are possibly the same persons. If A wishes 
 to contribute his full share to the social machine, and to draw 
 out of it something beyond his wages, he is bound to contribute 
 to the service of investment as well as to that of labour. Nor 
 is there any reason to limit the range of J.'s investment. The 
 tailor is not bound to invest in a tailoring business. So long 
 as his investment is serviceable to the rest of the community 
 
256 A Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 he ■will be entitled to draw a revenue from it, and witk this 
 revenue he can reward the investors whose capital ministers 
 more directly to his wants. This is the full subdivision of 
 investment which we affirm to be the necessary accompaniment 
 of the subdivision of labour. 
 
 How, it may be asked, will this ideal affect the status and 
 wages of labour ? 
 
 First, we urge it is the only ideal which is compatible with 
 Freedom. State regulation of labour, and State investment 
 of capital may have charms for the speculative enthusiast. 
 To those who have had any experience of it the regulation 
 of bumbledom in all its grades is simply intolerable. Liberty 
 is an essential in any elevated ideal of life. 
 
 Next, how would it affect wages, and how would it affect 
 interest and profits 1 
 
 In the first place, if there was a more general exercise of 
 investment, each man would have in his own pocket a poten-- 
 tial strike-fund and his family and class would all, more or 
 less, be in a position to help him. Wages must rule high, for 
 the only limit on their rise would be the labourer's own 
 interest as an investor. The investing labourer would not 
 be indifferent to dividends, and the labouring investor would 
 be a permanent influence in favour of liberal wages. The 
 gradual acquisition of a small revenue from investment would 
 do more to raise the economic position of the labourer than 
 all the trade unions that ever existed, useful and beneficial 
 as these have been. 
 
 Unfortunately for the country, the primitive instincts towards 
 investment in our poorer classes have been so debauched by 
 our socialistic poor-law, that vast arrears of work have to be 
 overtaken in the quickening of motive and the building 
 up of habit. 
 
 Nor do we think that the rate of interest and profit would 
 fall. Skill and success in the application of investment would 
 be more valuable functions than ever. The competition of 
 capital for employment would be greater than ever, there 
 would be therefore more demand for the service of the com- 
 petent entrepreneur, and his wages, that is profit, would not 
 
VI.] Investment. 257 
 
 fall. But while the competition of capital was keener, the 
 field of investment would be vastly enlarged. First, because 
 every man would be interested in reducing the demand 
 on human toil, and as a consequence a powerful impulse 
 would be given to the adoption of labour-saving apparatus. 
 The life of a machine would be much shorter, for none but 
 the most modern machinery would be used. An ingenious 
 and anti-socialistic writer has argued that possibly interest 
 wiU cease to be paid, and that on the contrary men would 
 be willing to pay for the luxury of deferred consumption^. 
 This view overlooks, we think, two important considerations. 
 It overlooks the willingness of men to pay for a rapid 
 succession of labour-saving inventions, and, secondly, it ovei^- 
 looks a still more important item, the increased potentialities 
 of the consumer. If consumption of necessaries and luxuries 
 was likely to stand still, there would be something to be said 
 for this view. But all this investment and all the implied 
 multiplication of the power of labour and production is with 
 a view to consumption. If we look round we see everywhere 
 restricted consumption because of the unperformed office of 
 investment. With increased investment there will come in- 
 creased consumption. There is, therefore, a vast field of profit- 
 able investment at our very doors, namely, in the application 
 of capital to the uses of the poor, but it can only become 
 profitable, as the poor learn by degrees the valuable duty of 
 investment. 
 
 We have attempted to show that the State cannot 
 successfully perform the duty of investment for its members. 
 State property is always ill-managed ; it does not disappear 
 automatically when it becomes efiete ; and its universality 
 would deprive citizens of the school of experience where, 
 more than anywhere else, their character acquires the due ad- 
 mixture of energy and self-control. 
 
 If there is to be any legislation conveying property from 
 the haves to the have nots, we sincerely trust that the con- 
 veyance will be complete and final, and that as far as possible 
 
 ' J. H. Levy, The Outcome of IndividitcUism. 
 
258 A Plea for Liberty. [vi. 
 
 nothing will be left in the unfruitful paralysing tenure of the 
 State. We are against all conjSscation, not because there is no 
 precedent for it, or because existing titles to property are 
 indisputable, but because it is utterly impossible amid the 
 larger proportions of modern life to redress the injustice of 
 earlier times without committing fresh acts of injustice on 
 a much larger scale. But even if this consideration is dis- 
 regarded it would be foolish as well as knavish to entrust any 
 more property than we can help to a tenure at once demoral- 
 ising and unprofitable. 
 
 T. Mackay. 
 
VII. 
 FBEE EDUCATION. 
 
 B. H. AlFOED. 
 
vn. 
 FBJEE EDUCATION. 
 
 As the subject allotted to me is one in wHch the point of 
 view of the writer is a serious element for the consideration 
 of the reader, it is well to state at the outset that I write as 
 a Manager of some standing in charge of a so-called Church 
 School. The position that many of the Managers of such 
 Schools have taken up, is clearly enough stated in woi'ds 
 spoken (according to the report in the Times of August 8th) 
 by the Bishop of Bath and Wells. ' He said they must look 
 at the question not merely in the light of their original 
 opiaion as to whether education was a good thing or not, but 
 they must look at the position of it outside. If they succeeded 
 in preventing Government from bringing forward their 
 scheme, in which they proposed to safeguard the interests of 
 Voluntary Schools, they might be perfectly certain that when 
 a Government of a different political constitution came into 
 power they would carry Free Schools without the safeguards.' 
 This appears a very candid confession that the authorities of 
 the Church of England (as far as one Bishop can pledge them) 
 desire to avoid discussing the principle of Free Education, 
 because, if they were forced to come to an adverse judgment, 
 they might imperil the fortunes of a certain class of schools. 
 But would it not be more patriotic to enquire into the 
 advantages or disadvantages for the nation of Free Schools, 
 and abide by the decision — rather than determine beforehand 
 upon risking any national disadvantage, in order to maintain 
 a form of education which might not finally be secured even 
 at the price of such a surrender ? 
 
 My purpose is to keep the vexed questions as between 
 school and school, government and government, out of sight, 
 and to consider — 
 
 kk..- i^.^^,' 
 
262 A Plea for Liberty. [vn. 
 
 Firstly. What can be urged in Javour of Free Education 
 on broad grounds? What answering arguments can be 
 suggested ? 
 
 Seconidly: What radical objections may be taken to the 
 ■whole proposal ? 
 
 I. And, as a preliminary, it were well to ascertain what 
 financial change would occur on the adoption of Free 
 Education in England. I take the Balance Sheet of my own 
 schools as a basis of calculation. They contain about 300 
 children, and last year (1888-1889) cost £600 to maintain- 
 or £2, a head. This sum was raised in the following propor- 
 tions: £2,50, or 1 6s. 8d. a head, reached us out of taxation in 
 the form of Government grant : ;^ 1 50, or i os. per head, were pro- 
 vided from voluntary sources : ;^20o, or 13s. 4d. a head, came 
 in the shape of pence from the parents. The proposal now is 
 to throw this last item upon the locality, to be raised there in 
 addition to any existing School Board rate. But the change 
 will involve a further displacement : the item of voluntary 
 aid, which at present meets one-fourth of the expense of cur 
 Schools, could not be relied upon to remain at that level 
 Even enthusiasts for denominational teaching will be 
 pressed by the increased rates, and lessen their subscrip- 
 tions ; the lukewarm will probably drop them altogether ; 
 so that the alteration will not merely bring about the 
 transfer to the rates of parents' payments : it wiU also bring 
 about a loss of at least a third of the subscriptions, which will 
 have to be made up out of rates. So that the probable 
 Balance Sheet of the future, in a ' freed ' Church School cost- 
 ing .:^6oo to maintain, will run as follows — ^By Government 
 grant, £2,^0: from Voluntary sources, ;£'ioo: by Rate, £2^): 
 or, in other words, the demand upon the pocket of the nation 
 in respect of denominational schools alone will be doubled. 
 This educational tax for 1888-1889 reached two milhons: 
 the addition to the School Board rate therefore threatens to 
 reach another two millions, as soon as the schools are 'freed^.' 
 
 ' Any other scheme which may be may serve to conceal the cost to the 
 proposed laying the expense on the public, it will not diminish it. 
 taxpayers rather than the ratepayers 
 
VII.] Free Education. 263 
 
 For this large increase of burden to be laid on the commu- 
 nity the following are among the principal reasons urged — 
 
 (i) That Free Education is the logical sequence of the 
 Act of 1870, and that, wherever there is compulsion, there 
 ought to be payment in respect of the things required by the 
 State. 
 
 The ai-guments which start from postulating certain un- 
 written rights of the citizen are highly effective in popular 
 oratory ; as when, for instance, Mr. Chamberlain asks, ' of the 
 two chief obligations put on parents, why should vaccination 
 be given, and education sold V but such appeals have to face 
 this historical fact, that the legislature has not recognised 
 their d priori validity: each case is considered on its own 
 merits : distinction is made between claim and claim ; which 
 would not be done, if the claims were all fundamentally and 
 equally just. As a matter of practice, the cost of the com- 
 munity being secured against small-pox has been discharged 
 by the State : but again, the cost of the community being 
 secured against insanitary drains has not, for this is an ob- 
 ligation laid on the la.ndlord. Mr. Forster provided power to 
 establish certain Free Schools for the children of parents 
 unable to pay fees — as a matter of expediency: it never 
 occurred to him that education must be free wherever it was 
 compulsory, as a matter of equity. And not only did it not 
 occur to the author of the settlement of 1870, but one of the 
 strongest supporters of compulsion, Mr. Fawcett, took issue 
 with the Birmingham League on this very point, and protested 
 , against universal Free Schools. Was he the man to commit 
 a logical injustice ? 
 
 (3) But the same argument reappears in a form of lesser 
 stringency — pleading that, if not unjust, it is at least incon- 
 sistent that parents should be forced to pay where they have 
 no option as to incurring the debt. 
 
 It may be replied that, having borne the anomaly for twenty 
 years, we might be content to let it abide as a tradition, side 
 by side with many time-honoured absurdities which the 
 Frenchman is more anxious to rectify than the Englishman. 
 There might be some reason, however, why the matter is 
 
264 A Plea for Liberty. [vii. 
 
 deemed more pressing now than at the outset of the new 
 educational scheme : so the advocate of Free Schools may be 
 asked to show cause why he presses the matter now, and 
 selects this above other apparent State anomalies as requiring 
 to be altered. And he would probably answer that the diffi- 
 culty of remitting the fees of impecunious parents has 
 increased, and that to abolish all fees is a consequent 
 necessity. 
 
 There is no doubt that it has been a crux from the be- 
 ginning, how to provide a good machinery for determining 
 cases of exemption from payment in School Board districts. 
 For some time the Guardians acted — I believe in certain 
 places they act still — but it was felt that parents incurred an 
 unnecessary stigma in applying through the Relieving Officer. 
 At present, in London at least, voluntary committees under- 
 take the investigation and remit fees. A few years ago their 
 methods were revised and put upon a basis which approved 
 itself to the Chairman of the Board. Whence then the present 
 outcry % I venture to think it does not come from parents— 
 nor even from hard-worked Committees, though they have an 
 invidious task to perform — ^but mainly from the collectors of 
 fees, the teachers, and officials of the schools. They find it 
 difficult to get in the weekly pence, and they would gladly see 
 them abolished. No doubt : but this is a very different. plea 
 from that of justice to parents, and must be met in a different 
 way. When this is used as of force to bring about free 
 schools, we are bound to point out that there is another 
 outlet from the difficulty. We can improve the machinery; 
 we can be firm, even generous with the officials. It would be 
 cheaper to pay more for collection than to abandon a large 
 source of revenue altogether in a fit of despair. 
 
 (3) There then occurs what is not so much an argument 
 addressed to the reasonable as an inducement put before the 
 indolent. It is said, ' This must come : it is in the air : it is 
 no use resisting it. Lord Salisbury has practically conceded 
 Free Schools.' But every English Premier moves with the 
 opinion of the country, and that opinion is neither so settled 
 nor so pronounced as to require present action. Even if it 
 
VII.] Free Education. 265 
 
 ■were, the evil or good of any proceeding is not determined by 
 the clamour for it. It is for those who believe there is 
 mischief in the demand to demonstrate the mischief and see 
 what resistance can effect. Nothing arises so soon, but 
 nothing subsides so fast as a popular cry. 
 
 (4) But when the advocates of Free Education have 
 exhausted their pleas, reasonable or specious, there is still an 
 arrow left in the very phrase which ' describes their proposal : 
 it is winged with the epithet ' free.' This is one of several 
 deceptive words which fly about in these educational contro- 
 versies. One class of schools is called ' National ' when in 
 truth it is distinctly representative of a religious body : the 
 came class of schools is with equal infelicity still called 
 ' Voluntary,' although compulsion applies to them (for better 
 or for worse) as much as to any. We had begun to under- 
 stand and make allowances for these fallacious epithets, and 
 now we have a third unreality set before us in the prefix 
 ' free.' It has great attraction for the easy-going : it is as if 
 the master taught for nothing ; or nobody was saddled with 
 the cost of his teaching : therefore it must be excellent, and 
 a thing to be voted for with both hands. 
 
 n. But let men who have minds and consciences pause a 
 little : for the question admits of being looked at in another 
 light, and may then possibly assume a very different com- 
 plexion. I admit that my answers to the advocates of Free 
 Education might be overruled, if there were nothing positive 
 to be urged beside — no principle at issue, no social mischief 
 underlying this attractive scheme. 
 
 It is proposed, in consideration of the poverty of some 
 parents, to make aU parents a present of the fees they have 
 been accustomed to pay for their children in primary schools. 
 This sounds a generous proposal : it is really a new and 
 hazardous step: it does not mean the extension within its 
 own sphere of a principle already at work: it means the 
 intrusion of that principle into another and an alien sphere, 
 to which, we contend, it is not applicable. For let us con- 
 sider what the State has hitherto done in the way of tutelage. 
 It has set itself to remedy — failures : children, for whom 
 19 
 
266 A Plea for Liberty. [vn. 
 
 parents can make no provision at all, it has sent into work- 
 house schools : children, over whom parents can exercise no 
 control — these it has sent into industrial schools : children, 
 for whom parents can make only part provision — findinw 
 food, but not education, these it has paid for in primary 
 schools. Some consider that the State has gone too far in 
 doing these things, but it cannot be questioned that the 
 State has proceeded cautiously, has made investigations, 
 even, in suitable cases, extracted pledges for repayment of 
 the outlay incurred. Hitherto every care has been taken by 
 the authorities not to assume any parental function which 
 the parents were able — morally and financially — to perform 
 themselves. Now it is proposed to alter this ; to make a 
 fresh and insidious departure, concealing how much it means, 
 and pretending that there is no rupture with the past. Now 
 the State is to come forward and say to parents, capable as 
 well as incapable, ' We will do for your children, without 
 reserve or enquiry, what hitherto we have done, with reserve 
 and after enquiry, only on behalf of proved failures ; for the 
 future we will accept all the children you send us, and teach 
 them at the public cost.' But this is an entire subversion of 
 the principle which has governed England hitherto. We have 
 always impressed upon parents that the children they had 
 they must also maintain until they could shift for them- 
 selves ; that nutrition of mind was necessary as well as nutri- 
 tion of body ; whereas now we are expected to turn round 
 and say, 'nutrition of mind is exempted from your duties 
 and converted into a State charge.' But is it possible to 
 make a first breach in parental responsibility which shall 
 also be the last ? It becomes increasingly evident that nutri- 
 tion of mind is correlated to nutrition of body; that the 
 payment of school-fees is a farce for the unfed, and foolish- 
 ness for the half-clothed. The example will have been set 
 that distinctions as between the solvent and insolvent poor 
 are either impossible or invidious, and the State which begins 
 to teach gratuitously must — in the name of the consistency 
 invoked at the outset — end by establishing free meals and 
 free clothing for the behoof of aU attending primary schools. 
 
vii.J Free Education. 267 
 
 Nor do the socialists conceal that this is the object aimed at 
 by them, and their idea of the logical necessities of the case. 
 So cur difference on this point from the State-socialists is 
 vital, and must be reasoned out. They see the unequal dis- 
 tribution of this life's advantages ; they perceive that superior 
 education accounts for most of these advantages ; they fancy 
 that by making education more general they shall succeed in 
 distributing these advantages, and especially vrealth, more 
 equally. So they are for freeing education at aU cost. 'At 
 all cost' — but have they really considered what the cost 
 amounts to ? They are thinking of it merely as a matter of 
 £ s.d.\ but is it only that ? Can it be so limited ? Do they 
 not seek to be generous to the pockets of some men without 
 being just to the nature of all men ? Are they not worshipping 
 the name of State, endowing it with unreal force, and fancy- 
 ing it can deal with the problems of life apart from the 
 character of individuals, which, after all, is the main factor in 
 solving the problem ? For can the State be better than 
 the persons composing the State? and can they be good 
 without discipline ? Now the discipline which has hitherto 
 gone to the training of Englishmen has been of this nature. 
 The child has been brought up as part of the small com- 
 munity called a home ; there he has learnt what submission 
 to authority means, through being subject to his parents ; 
 there he has learnt what co-operation means, through living 
 with elder and with younger members of the family. Leaving 
 home he has been thrown upon his own resources, and they 
 have developed under pressure of the necessities of life: he 
 has learnt to be prudent in foreseeing, versatile and coura- 
 geous in meeting difficulties. Thus he is prepared in his 
 turn to establish a home, to exert authority of his own, and 
 to teach obedience to others. So by successive stages of often 
 unconscious discipline a man becomes an orderly citizen; 
 through submission, and independence, and the exercise of 
 rule upon a small scale, he is fitted to combine with others 
 trained after the like fashion in the great community of the 
 State. But the present age is impatient; some of its hasty 
 counsellors would dispense with preliminary training, and 
 
268 A Plea for Liberty. [vn. 
 
 advise men that they can -worthily take their places in a 
 large society without having served any apprenticeship to 
 the smaller. Acts of Parliament are henceforth to protect 
 every citizen and labourer from many of the practical rough- 
 nesses which served to educate their forefathers; the State 
 is asked to loosen some at least of the bonds which, as a 
 child, attached him to his parents, and as a parent, bound 
 him to his children. The Englishman is to become a good 
 citizen per saltuTn, without having proved himself a good 
 son, or a man of valour in the fight for existence. State 
 socialism opposes science, and fancies it can improve the 
 species physically by sparing us hardships, and morally by 
 sparing us duties ; whereas it is more likely to aid degenera- 
 tion by encouraging the dependent character and discouraging 
 the discipline of home. 
 
 Already among those classes of the metropolis which this 
 proposal is intended to benefit, the parental tie is feeble ; there 
 is little sense of responsibility in having children ; a weak con- 
 trol is exercised over them : there is considerable readiness to 
 dispose of them to charitable institutions. The philan- 
 thropists who have most experience and who prefer radical 
 to superficial improvement, are for appealing to family life 
 and increasing the solidarity of home. Yet the proposals 
 we are considering, if adopted, would inevitably thwart their 
 efforts, and set the State to counterwork some of its wisest 
 citizens. Mr. Fawcett, for instance, foresaw and deprecated 
 this result of free schools as long ago as 1870, when the 
 Birmingham League sought to make them universal. Ac- 
 cording to Mr. Leslie Stephen, in the biography he wrote of 
 his friend, ' the fatal error, as he urged, was that the gra- 
 tuitous system would diminish the sentiment of parental 
 responsibility. To bring a child into the world was to incur 
 a grave responsibility, and no action of the State should tend 
 to obscure the fact. But to relieve a parent from the cost of 
 his children's schooling would most emphatically diminish 
 his motives for forethought.' 
 
 I might almost leave the controversy to staq.d or fall with 
 this opinion of an educationalist so friendly to the working- 
 
VII.] Free Education. 269 
 
 classes and so fearless in counselling them ; but there are 
 two or three misconceptions as to the line of argument I 
 have adopted which need notice. It is forcibly said in public, 
 when this matter comes under discussion, that educated men 
 have of long custom held exhibitions at school and the uni- 
 versities — have enjoyed in fact privileges which they now 
 seek on principle to withhold from those of a lower class, 
 who need them even more urgently. It is asked, ' has their 
 discipline been injured by the advantages they enjoyed — or 
 have the terrible things prophesied come to pass in their own 
 homes?' And I can fancy students familiar with Mr. Faw- 
 cett's biogi-aphy inclined to cry out against him when they 
 read that, in selecting his college at the University, ' he chose 
 Peterhouse deliberately on the ground that its fellowships 
 were supposed to be of more than the average value, and were 
 tenable by laymen ' ; also that ' he won a Scholarship in the 
 College Examination of May, 1 854.' But I conceive there is a 
 very complete defence for the Professor from any charge of in- 
 consistency. I can imagine him answering that this personal 
 argument ignored the difference between exceptional assisted 
 and universal gratuitous education ; that he was prepared to 
 advocate the former for all classes, and deprecate the latter 
 equally for all ; that the advantages given to Exhibitioners 
 and Scholars are on a level (not indeed in origin, but in 
 effect) with the assistance given in every primary school to 
 every parent who pays only thirteen or fourteen shillings a 
 year out of a cost of forty. In either case there is a residue 
 of duty left for the parent to discharge, and help does not 
 supersede effort. 
 
 There are indeed some who are prepared to risk the de- 
 terioration of character threatened by those whom they think 
 alarmists on account of the gain to be assured to education, 
 as if every child were certain to come to school regularly as 
 soon as there is nothing to pay. Put does this expectation 
 accord with our experience in such matters? Are gifts 
 valued equally with things paid for ? Are they not very 
 much looked in the mouth, and criticised, and frequently re- 
 jected ? In the case of children for whom we remit fees in 
 
270 A Plea for Liberty. [vii. 
 
 our schools, a rule has had to be made that remission must 
 depend on constant attendance ; before this was done the 
 irregularity was great. Let all fees be abolished and this 
 resource fails. Other things being equal, regular attendance 
 will certainly not improve but diminish with free schools. 
 Nor do I imagine that compulsion will be found easier of 
 enforcement than now, for it is not poverty which makes 
 gaps in the school classes so much as mother's washing-day, 
 and going on errands and attendance on the perambulator; 
 which things, I presume, will continue much as before, being 
 practically unavoidable. And illustrations come to us from 
 countries where free schools are in force. Statements as to 
 America have appeared in the public press, but perhaps the 
 analogy of our own recent colonies is more in point. I have 
 before me a letter from a lady who has long i-esided in New 
 Zealand, and has paid careful attention to the working of its 
 institutions, especially those which deal with the young. She 
 writes — ' Unless where compulsion is most rigidly carried out 
 (a task of immense practical difficulty) the very children for 
 whom a free education is provided do not attend the schools.' 
 ' Free schools will not necessarily ensure the education of 
 the lowest class ; indeed we see a directly contrary effect ; 
 for the middle class gladly avail themselves of the advan- 
 tages offered by primary schools, and send their children to 
 them. Such children are a credit to the teachers, who 
 naturally encourage this better class rather than the shifting, 
 ill-mannered children of the poorest and the improvident.' 
 I admit how pathetic all this is : how honourable is the pur- 
 pose in a new country of improving on the methods of the 
 old, and endeavouring that the sons should be better taught 
 than their fathers were in England ; but the failure con- 
 stitutes a lesson that State machinefy cannot bring about the 
 improvement desired — indeed, stands in the way of it, because 
 it impairs the one method of effecting slowly what it seeks 
 vainly to effect hastily. For (again quoting from my corre- 
 spondent) ' there is an increasing tendency on the part of the 
 population of the colony to look to the Government for help, 
 and such legislation in the name of progress shifts the centre 
 
VII.] Free Education, 271 
 
 of gravity in the moral world from the parent to the State — 
 slowly but surely undermining the foundation of national 
 life by the deterioration of the unit of the family.' 
 
 There will remain, I suppose, to the last a sentimental 
 desire to give away whatever we prize as an infallible method 
 of distributing it: there is also the general charm which 
 socialistic schemes have for those who are in arms against the 
 selfishness of the world, and believe that the true way of 
 combating it lies in wide schemes of regulation. The two 
 errors run up into one ; and that one is a forgetfulness of the 
 laws of virtue as laid down centuries ago in Athens and tested 
 by long experience. There is no moral improvement possible 
 without ' purpose ' : you cannot leave the will of the man 
 himself out of question : what you bestow on him does not 
 avail, unless it rouses his own determination to follow it up : 
 wherein you coerce him for his own benefit, you do him no 
 lasting benefit at all, as long as you retain the reins of 
 restraint, and are unwilling or unable to trust him with them. 
 It is the appetite for being taught which has to be created, and 
 which must precede all machinery for satisfying it. Eut what 
 creates appetite is not supply, it is exertion. There is no need 
 to increase the difficulties of learning, but there is need of 
 caution how they are diminished and education made too 
 cheap and easy. The children cannot be separated from their 
 parents in the estimate of school. What the young see the 
 elder appreciate they will appreciate, and the obligation which 
 they find them ready to transfer to any who will undertake 
 it, they wiU lightly esteem. Personal payment is a sign of 
 value attached to the thing purchased : it may be reduced to 
 a small sum quite out of proportion to the thing purchased, 
 but as soon as it is abolished altogether, the whole matter of 
 education falls to a lower level — the thing received becomes, 
 like gas or water, an article laid on by the municipality, paid 
 for out of the rates, and mental benefits assume a material 
 complexion fatal to their majesty and worth. 
 
 In conclusion, let me reiterate that what moves me against 
 Free Education is that it is a new departure ; the application 
 of an enervating doctrine to the roots of English discipline. 
 
272 A Plea for Liberty. [vii. 
 
 The State would virtually say to thousands of parents, 
 ' You have failed, and the ratepayers shall remove from you 
 the last remnant of educational duties, and undertake to 
 teach your children for you. Probably you wiU also be 
 relieved of the cost of feeding and clothing them : but this is 
 in suspense for a time, to see how you receive the earlier 
 plan — whether you resent it as an indignity to learning and 
 yourselves, or welcome it as an instalment due from the 
 selfishness of the wealthy.' 
 
 I appeal to parents to suspect what the political parties vie 
 with each other in thrusting upon them. Is it not a bribe? 
 I appeal also to thinkers, who observe life and study character. 
 Is there not a more excellent way ? Can we not imagine and 
 by determination realise an England which shall be pure 
 without the supervision of a Vigilance Society, sober— even 
 in the face of a thousand public-houses, open at all hours, and 
 fond of knowledge, although — and even because — knowledge 
 has to be won at the cost of self-denial, being the best in- 
 heritance a man can bequeath to his children as the fruit of 
 the exertions of a lifetime. 
 
 B. H. Alfoed. 
 
 Note. — ^The •writer has intentionally limited himself to criticism of the 
 recent proposal to ' free ' schools : he has declined to turn aside to discuss 
 how far the school system in present use is satisfactory, either from the 
 point of view of learning or the point of view of liberty. He has been 
 content with the endeavour to show that anx change in the way of gratuitous 
 teaching would be a change for the worse. ~ 
 
YIII. 
 
 THE MOUSING- 
 
 OF THE WOBKIKG- CLASSES 
 
 AND OF THE POOB. 
 
 ARTHUR RAFFALOVICH. 
 
VIII. 
 
 TEE HOUSING OF THE WORKING- CLASSES 
 AND OF THE POOR. 
 
 It is a distinguishing feature of the end of this nineteenth 
 century that human sentiment has become more than ever 
 anxious about the condition of the working-classes, and has 
 turned to a study of their position and to a search for ways 
 and means for improving their lot. 
 
 Economists of the liberal school form no exception. They 
 share in the universal solicitude which at the present time 
 is assuming many forms. Some of these, whether their 
 authors know it or not, are dangerous, some are actually 
 harmful. Reasonable economists refuse to be drawn into 
 accepting solutions too easily formulated. They know, thanks 
 to an industrious study of economic and financial phenomena, 
 what is the true efiiect of the incidence not only of taxes, but 
 also of the incidence of legislation. They cannot forget, for 
 example, the deplorable effects of the old Poor Law in England. 
 They fear that the plans of the socialists^ whether of the 
 study, the senate, or the street, the demands of sanitary re- 
 formers, the sentimentality of philanthropists, will infallibly 
 lead to consequences diametrically opposed to the results 
 aimed at. 
 
 By the side of the claims made in the name of the great 
 mass of labourers, in the name of the industrial proletariate 
 and of the poor, there has arisen during the last fifteen or 
 twenty years a new danger. It has its origin in a false 
 conception of the attributes and powers of the State. We 
 refer to the claims made on behalf of a system of official and 
 governmental hygiene, which pretends to abolish insanitary 
 
276 A Plea for Liberty. [viii. 
 
 conditions of life, to make healthy dwellings and workshops, 
 in a word, to take under control the private lives of the 
 citizens. In the opinion of many people at the present day, 
 the modern State should bo called on to determine the rate of 
 wages, the length of the working-day, the price of provisions 
 and other necessaries of life; to divide profits among the 
 different branches of native industry, by the aid of innumerable 
 laws, by a protective tariff, and by means of an army of 
 inspectors. The Sanitarians ('Hygienistes ' is the French term), 
 in their turn, set out a programme of requirements and dictate 
 the conditions under which houses are to be built and 
 inhabited, the nature of the materials to be used, and the 
 number of the tenants. 
 
 Hygiene, as M. Leon Say declared at the meeting of the 
 38th June, 1890, at the Academy of Moral and Political 
 Sciences, has become a science of much wider scope than 
 formerly. It is not content to advise on matters concerning 
 cleanliness, food, and the sanitation of the dwelling-house, 
 but it claims to be able to prevent the spread of epidemics by 
 carrying on an offensive warfare against the germs of disease. 
 
 Whether these pretensions are well founded or not, they 
 have rendered sanitation popular. It has also created a 
 group of Sanitarians who wish State protection to be intro- 
 duced everywhere. M. Leon Say suggests a doubt whether 
 people will be happier when the Sanitarians become master 
 and succeed in regulating our lives to the minutest detail. In 
 his opinion those who look at this matter from the scientific 
 point of view should spare no efibrt to check this new 
 protectionist movement. M. Leon Say has declared himself 
 before all things a strong advocate of private initiative, all the 
 more so because the limits of the rights of the State in the 
 matter of hygiene cannot be determined ^. 
 
 ' Hygiene has, in fact, become an the tyranny of hygiene, and to risk 
 
 official career. Those ■Hho fill the a reTolution in order to gain our 
 
 posts given by the State, seek to make liberty of eating and drinking, and 
 
 themselves indispensable. One of the to limit the busybodydom of Sani- 
 
 most distinguished of French doctors tarians in the concerns of our private 
 
 wrote to me recently that it vpill be life, 
 necessary to make a new ' 89 ' against 
 
•VIII.] Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 277 
 
 This conception of the State, as possessed of the attributes of 
 omnipotence and providence, does not find favour with every- 
 one. But even the select minority, which condemns all this 
 absorption of economic activity, this reduction of labour to a 
 state of pupilage, resists but feebly the pretensions of hygiene, 
 and so it comes that we find in an essay by the Comte 
 d'Haussonville^ the following phrase, which shows us how far 
 the error which we are discussing has advanced : — 
 
 'The State, I mean by the term the power of the public 
 which is exercised by the central or municipal authority, is 
 primarily the guardian of the public health, of public and 
 moral hygiene. As it is the duty of the State to take measures 
 to prevent the bii-th of epidemics and to arrest their progress, 
 so also it is its duty in a general way to see that the lives of 
 its citizens are passed under conditions of good hygiene.' 
 
 The reader must not suppose from our protest against the 
 meddlesomeness of official hygienists that we are indifferent to 
 the very great importance of good sanitary arrangements, but 
 we believe that there are methods of attaining our ends other 
 and better than those put forward by the prophets of universal 
 interference. 
 
 Before embarking on the discussion of the Housing of the 
 Poor, we may here interpose a statement of the elaborate 
 programme of the German socialists which will appear to 
 contain the maximum of demand of this kind. 
 
 In 1873 the German socialists considered a petition intended 
 for presentation to the Eeichstag. It contained the following 
 points : — 
 
 (i) Every commune ought to be compelled by legislation to 
 provide lodging sufficient for those within its jurisdiction, and 
 as far as possible in detached dwellings. 
 
 (2) Every commune shall be authorised to appropriate lands 
 not yet built on, whoever the proprietor may be, in order to 
 construct dwellings and school-houses ; further, it shall be at 
 hberty to exercise this right of expropriation even outside its 
 own territory. 
 
 ' Cfe. de Raussonville Socialisme d'itat et Socialisms Chretien. Revue des Deux 
 Mmdes du 1 5 Juin, iSgo, p. 859. 
 
278 A Plea for Liberty, [viii. 
 
 (3) The State shall provide sufficient capital under the form 
 of paper-money. 
 
 (4) This paper-money shall be secured as a charge on the 
 lands and buildings. Each commune shall receive the neces- 
 sary sums in the shape of an advance without interest, and 
 ■with the obligation to repay after a long period. 
 
 (5) Whoever has claim to a dwelling will pay a suitable 
 rent-premium and must himself inhabit the dwelling. 
 
 (6) The communes shall remain proprietors of the land and 
 buildings. They may not however disturb any of their 
 tenants in the enjoyment of their premises, so long as the 
 conditions of tenancy are fulfilled. As a temporary measure 
 every commune is obhged to provide shelter provisionally for 
 those who have none until dwellings are made. 
 
 These propositions, and even the idea of petitioning, were 
 strongly opposed. By a large majority it was declared that 
 these propositions were reactionary and altogether too moderate; 
 that their authors wished to deceive the people of Berlin, and 
 that the meeting rejected all such rubbish. Workmen were 
 invited to join themselves to the association of German work- 
 men in order to solve the Social question by common action on 
 the lines of Liberty ^- 
 
 To show what is asked for in France, we may state that an 
 administrative commission was appointed, in 1883, by the 
 Brdfet of the Seine in order to study the questions relative to 
 
 ' M. Engels, the fellow- worker of by the trade of agriculture alone, they 
 Marx, and the philosopher of reTolu- are content with very small wages to 
 tionary socialism, has attacked what make ends meet. This state of things 
 he calls the ' bourgeois ' solution of has its influence on the town-work- 
 making the workman the owner of his man, and contributes to keep the rateof 
 house. InGermany,accordingtohim, his wages very low. In time past the 
 the number of workmen in the small ownership of his house was perhaps 
 industries who own their houses and a benefit to the labourer ; to-day it is 
 a little bit of garden, is very consider- a cause of bondage for himself and a 
 able ; none of them, however, receive misfortune for the entire working- 
 anything but a miserable wage. It class. According to M. Engels, the 
 is only a trick to enable the infamous insanitary condition and deamess of 
 capitalist to buy his labour cheaper dwellings are the necessary aocom- 
 in proportion to the extra production paniment of our present social or- 
 of the labourer and his family on ganisation, and will only disappear 
 their own land. As they cannot live with it. 
 
viii.] Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 279 
 
 the creation in Paris of cheap dwellings. A score of projects 
 and petitions were examined by this commission, a labour 
 whicli has not yet borne fruit. Nationalisation of the soil 
 according to the gospel of Henry George, and schemes for 
 lotteries were agreeably mixed. One councillor demanded in 
 the interest of the town of Paris the confiscation of the soil 
 within the circle of fortifications, and the compensation of 
 landlords by means of communal bonds secured by mortgage 
 and redeemable. M. Lerouge proposed the construction, by 
 the town, of three-storied houses on the land adjoining the 
 fortifications within the walls by means of capital raised (i) 
 by a loan of 300 millions of francs, (3) by a tax of 1 francs per 
 head on every one coming to Paris from a distance greater than 
 twenty-five kilometres. The Federative Socialist Union of the 
 Centre demands the application of the surplus of the forthcoming 
 budget, to the construction by the town of Paris of workmen's 
 dweUings, and the establishment of a tax of 20 per cent, on 
 dwellings remaining unoccupied for a month. We meet also 
 many proposals for a lottery with a capital of a milliard of 
 francs, for the purpose of making dwellings for those members 
 of the Parisian proletariate whose income does not exceed a 
 certain figure. 
 
 In England the demand made on the State varies. At one 
 time it is for the multiplication of inspectors of nuisances and 
 an enlargement of their duties and powers ; at another it 
 adopts the language of the Social Democratic Federation, and 
 insists on 'the compulsory construction of healthy artisans' 
 and agricultural labourers' dwellings in proportion to the 
 population.' The Glasgow municipality has already made 
 some experiments in the building of artisans' dwellings, and 
 the London County Council is proposing to build common 
 lodging-houses. 
 
 To sum up the views of these reformers, some are in favour 
 of a nationalisation of dwellings ; others demand that the State 
 or the local authority shall build for its own functionaries, 
 for workmen and for the poor; others wish to combat the 
 Vi,sury of the landlord, the excessive price sought for dwellings 
 which are insanitary and too small. 
 
28o A Plea for Liberty. [viii. 
 
 Among the most important factors of development physical, 
 moral, and intellectual, the Dwelling must be placed in the 
 first rank ; it is the sphere in which the life of the indi- 
 vidual and of the family is passed. No one denies the incon- 
 veniences, physical and moral, of the insanitary dwellings 
 inhabited by a portion of the working-class and by the poor. 
 The miserable condition of their homes, the overcrowding 
 which reigns there with its following of disease of all kinds, 
 with its accompaniment of crime and vice, the permanent 
 danger which results therefrom to public health and public 
 order, all these have been oftentimes brought to light. "We 
 are not dealing with a curse purely local, for indeed it appears 
 to be universal. Everywhere we meet the same melancholy 
 phenomena, in France, in England, in the United States, in 
 Germany, in Switzerland, in Austria, in Belgium, in Holland. 
 
 Attempts have been made to remedy this by legislation, by 
 sanitary regulations, and by the assistance of charity. Progress 
 has been made ; but it has not been possible to transform the 
 dwellings of the workmen and of the poor (I speak of the 
 great mass of the wage-earning class) into proper and com- 
 fortable quarters; above all, it has not been possible, even 
 by artificial means, to increase the resources and wages of the 
 poor to any sufficient extent. 
 
 The knot of the difficulty is the poverty of those who live 
 huddled up in infectious hovels, ignorant or indiiferent to the 
 requirements of hygiene, of modesty and decency. This may 
 be the result of circumstances or may proceed from evil habits 
 of intemperance and idleness, or from mere absence of desire, 
 due to inexperience of better things. 
 
 All the haiTowing descriptions which we have read, and 
 which we have been able to verify, combine to make more 
 pressing the solution of the problem — 'How to improve the 
 housing of the working-class and of the poor %' It is admitted 
 that the present condition is deplorable as regards the health 
 not only of the inhabitants themselves, but of the whole 
 town, because these insanitary dwellings are the breeding 
 place of infectious diseases. Tlie misery which they endure in 
 this respect makes workmen and the poor an easy prey for the 
 
VIII.] Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 281 
 
 propagation of revolutionary ideas ; a social danger is thus 
 added to the physical danger. The lodging of the poor is one 
 of the most complicated subjects and most difficult of solution. ' 
 It forms one of the branches of the entire social problem 
 equally with questions of food and clothing. The same rules 
 and the same principles, with certain restrictions obvious 
 enough to common sense, apply to this whole combination of 
 problems. The part of the State and of municipalities is clearly 
 indicated — their mission is above all a mission of hygiene 
 and of police — it is to make war on insanitary dwellings ; but 
 this action must be subordinated to some indispensable 
 conditions ^. 
 
 One cannot under any circumstances ask the State to supply 
 dwellings or food gratuitously, or under cost price, without 
 doing an injustice to those who do not share in these favours, 
 and without risk of demoralising the poorer classes. Such 
 food and dwelling at a cheap rate entail a loss on the State, 
 which requires the imposition of a tax to meet it. This in- 
 crease of taxation falls on the whole nation, and faUs most 
 heavily on the poor. Such State aid has moreover a further 
 disadvantage. It discourages private enterprise and private 
 industry. If the State constructs, or causes others to con- 
 struct, houses to be let below cost price, it impedes private 
 building and produces a result the very reverse of that hoped 
 for. 
 
 Insanitary conditions proceed from the great crowding of 
 human beings in buildings which were not made for the 
 accommodation of so great a number of persons, from the entire 
 neglect of sanitary rules, and frcon the accumulation of filth. 
 
 The causes of this overcrowding are the extreme poverty 
 of the inhabitants which prevents their seeking for houses, 
 healthier, larger, and in consequence dearer, and which forbids 
 
 ' We are aware of the English laws have been applied in London andBir- 
 
 of 1875 and 1885 giving to the local mingham. In London there has been 
 
 authorities the power to improve, if spent in this way some £1,841,176. 
 
 necessary to demolish, insanitary The original estimates have always 
 
 areas in cases where the responsi- been exceeded, sometimes doubled, or 
 
 bility cannot be equitably fastened even trebled. 33,000 persons can be 
 
 on an individual owner. These laws lodged in the improved districts. 
 20 
 
282 A Plea for Liberty. [viii. 
 
 any great number of them living at a distance from the place 
 where they earn their living ; the increase of population due 
 " to natural causes and also to the constant immigration of 
 workmen drawn from the country or provincial towns towards 
 the capital; lastly, the demolition of quarters inhabited by 
 workmen, which have disappeared to give place to new 
 streets, railway stations, and niarkets, or which have been 
 swept away for reasons connected with the health or em- 
 bellishment of the town. For this extreme want there is no 
 remedy. Poverty is incurable. For the cure of bad habits, 
 in respect of cleanliness, we must arm ourselves with patience. 
 This is a matter of education. 
 
 By the aid of an active and energetic watchfulness on the 
 part of local authorities, we might, it will be said, prevent the 
 existence of insanitary dwellings, force landlords to keep their 
 property in a better state ; we might exercise a closer inspec- 
 tion of the construction of new houses and require that they 
 come up to a certain minimum of sanitation. But it must 
 not be forgotten that in many countries la,ws and poHce 
 regulations have not been wanting, that there has been no lack 
 of weapons in the administrative arsenal. We must not lose 
 sight of the fact that legislation against bad sanitation requires, 
 in order to be effective, a complicated and costly staff of in- 
 spectors perpetually on the move ; that the application of rules 
 depends less on the officials and magistrates than it does on the 
 inhabitants themselves, who are more disposed to evade than 
 to conform to regulation. If the poorer classes inhabit garrets, 
 cellars, holes and comers, without light or air in houses badly 
 built and badly kept up, it is because they cannot find better 
 at a piice which they can pay, and they prefer to lodge in these 
 hovels rather than not be lodged at all. So we are brought 
 back to our problem the solution of which, to say the least, is 
 very difficult — given a great town, to furnish the poor popula- 
 tion which accumulates there, with lodging, suitable, spacious, 
 airy, and provided with everything that is desirable. 
 
 Let ' us resolutely exclude heroic remedies, which can only 
 be worse than the disease. We mean the remedies of socialistic 
 formulas. There is no one formula or panacea. It is to the 
 
VIII. j Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 283 
 
 progress of comfort, of moral education, of the practical in- 
 struction of the industrial classes, that we must look for the 
 gradual amelioration of the hygienic conditions of populous 
 centres. Public administrators can without doubt carry out 
 useful works and improve the general state of sanitation by 
 the construction of di-ains, and by procuring water at a reason- 
 able rate; general rules also can be established for the safe 
 guard of the public health, but it is wise to think twice before 
 allowing authority to interfere in the domain of private life, 
 on the plea of the public safety. 
 
 It cannot be forgotten that every infraction of the liberty 
 of contract carries in itself the germs of retribution. Try to 
 protect the workman against the extortion of his landlord by 
 the intervention of the law and we all know the unfortunate 
 consequences which result. It is useless to waste our time 
 over projects of fixing a dwelling-house tariff by the local 
 authority. 
 
 Among the most efficacious means of influencing the homes 
 of the working-class, we must set the improvement of ways 
 of communication and facility and cheapness of transport. 
 
 Satisfactory results have been obtained by private initiative 
 by the construction of model mansions, of working-class cities. 
 The portion of the working-class who are in the easiest 
 circumstances, those who earn a regular wage, have to some 
 extent obtained their requirements from this source, and in 
 consequence there are so many the less to be brought into 
 line with the others. 
 
 It is the business of private industry, of philanthropic enter- 
 prise, of associations of workmen themselves, to supply better 
 dwellings. If the buildings set apart for the dwellings of 
 workmen brought in a fair revenue their number would at 
 once increase. But T repeat, it is only by reflex action that 
 we can hope to reach those whom the English call the residuum, 
 the dregs of destitution. The work must proceed step by step, 
 stratum by stratum. First, we must ofier houses relatively 
 comfortable and healthy, with an option to the tenants to 
 become owners. Here we shall be dealing with the dlite of 
 the working-class, and with small einploy^a (these last are as 
 
284 A Plea for Liberty. [viir. 
 
 interesting as the "workman and have much more to complain 
 of, for they are liable to more expense), but the indirect result 
 of the improvement will be felt down to the very bottom of 
 the scale. 
 
 I have insisted from the very beginning of this paper on 
 what I might call the negative side of the problem, on the 
 objections to every intervention of the local or national 
 authority, and to State trading in dwellings. I have insisted 
 on the great difficulty of the problem, on the poverty of those 
 who inhabit crowded, unhealthy, and inconvenient rooms, and 
 on the excessive price, in proportion to their resources, which 
 they have to pay. The more modest the income, the more 
 serious becomes the proportion of it absorbed by rent. In the 
 workman's budget the fifth or the foiuih part of his wages is 
 devoted to rent. 
 
 I have hastened to arrive at positive results in order to come 
 in view of the bright side of my subject, and, after having 
 displayed its difficulties, to show what private initiative has 
 been able to undertake. Progress must come from the ilite of 
 the governed acting for themselves. The weight of a sound 
 and persistent pubKc opinion is an essential factor, and we can 
 aU do something to keep it watchful and awake. We must 
 try to prevent the return of those periods of apathy and 
 indifference which follow the shock of a somewhat lively 
 agitation, the revelations made by writers, or the close of an 
 epidemic. But, even during these periods when attention 
 wanders to other objects, philanthropists or economists, re- 
 formers or capitalists , follow their voluntary mission, seek to 
 educate the rich and comfortable classes, and to call them to a 
 recognition of the social duties which they have to perform. 
 
 We may be permitted to pay a compliment to the 
 Academy of the Moral and Political Sciences, which for the 
 last forty-one years has devoted much serious attention to 
 this grave problem. The Society of Social Economy, under 
 the influence of MM. Picot and Cheysson, has devoted many 
 sittings to the question, and, taking one step further, has by 
 means of private initiative organised an enquiry and addressed 
 an appeal to men of public spirit. It carries out, in its own 
 
viilJ Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 285 
 
 organ La Riforme Sociale, the publication of the reports which 
 it has collected. 
 
 The English parliamentary enquiries are well known, as is 
 also the private enquiry made in Germany by the care of the 
 Verdnfiir Sozialpolitik. 
 
 During the Universal Exhibition of 1889, a Congress on 
 cheap dweUings was held at Paris, which voted, among other 
 resolutions, to recommend the formation of national societies. 
 It should be the object of these bodies, by means of conferences, 
 pubhcations, collection of information, to encourage the indus- 
 trial and working-class in the construction of healthy and 
 cheap houses, by the help of co-operation or local associations. 
 It recommended also the formation of an International Society 
 for the study of questions relating to the improvement, sanita- 
 tion, and construction of cheap dwellings. 
 
 At the conclusion of a conference held on the ist February 
 1890, at Paris, the French 'Association des habitations d bon 
 marchd,' was founded. It numbers more than 300 members, and 
 has control of a considerable capital. It does not itself engage in 
 building, but makes it its business to stimulate public opinion 
 by lectures and by pamphlets, and to assist with advice and 
 information, those directly interested (the wage-earning and 
 working-class), as well as the capitalist class, in the construc- 
 tion of houses to be let at low rentals. Its action has already 
 made itself felt in France. Here in truth is an example of 
 private initiative worthy of imitation outside of France. 
 
 The collection of works dealing with the housing of the 
 working-class and of the poor would already fill a library, 
 and it increases every day '. 
 
 Great successes have been achieved on a practical basis. 
 They have been gained where the matter has been treated on 
 a business footing, not as a matter of charity pure and simple. 
 It is of the highest importance to prove that the capital en- 
 gaged xa the construction of sanitary dwellings is not lost, 
 that it has obtained a fair remuneration, and that it has every 
 chance of security. Proof of this is indispensable, if other 
 
 ' A bibliography has been pub- let, chez Rongier et Cie, fiditeura. 
 lished by MM. Eaffalovich and Eouil- Paris. 
 
286 A Plea for Liberty. [viii. 
 
 capital is to be attracted. It has been proved to demonstra- 
 tion in England, in France, in the United States, in Belgium, 
 in Denmark. The capitalists, who have either turned builders 
 themselves or subscribed to joint-stock companies, or bought 
 and repaired old houses, have, it is true, limited the remunera- 
 tion of their capital to a sum lower than that which some 
 owners derive from the purely commercial development of 
 their real estate. 
 
 They content themselves with a return of 4 per cent, in 
 France, in England, and in Germany, and of 5 or 6 per cent, 
 in the United States. They have got rid of the charitable 
 character of their enterprise, which is humiliating for those 
 who profit by it. People do not appreciate a gratuitous benefit 
 equally with that which they have gained for themselves at 
 the cost of personal exertion. To be complete we must add 
 another category, namely philanthropists, like Peabody, Michel 
 and Armand Heine, who have devoted large sums of capital 
 to the inauguration of the work, leaving the rents to accu- 
 mulate for the extension of the operation. The tenant in 
 such cases enters into an ordinary contract, and, as far as he is 
 concerned, the transaction is of a purely commercial nature. 
 
 If this supply of healthy and relatively cheap dwellings 
 has not brought about a lower rate of rent it is because the 
 supply is still limited. We know, however, of places where 
 rent has decreased in the immediate neighbourhood of these 
 more comfortable houses, notably at Lyons. Even when it is 
 not possible to supply accommodation at a price appreciably 
 lower than the market rate, it still remains that new dwel- 
 lings, built in a spirit of progress and philanthropy, present 
 conditions of health and convenience far superior to anything 
 to be found by their side. In this way, the means of having 
 a real home which will keep together the members of the 
 family, and prevent them from seeking outside for unwhole- 
 some distractions, is placed within the reach of the working- 
 class, particularly of the ilite of that class. 
 
 Long' ago the question of working-class dwellings has been 
 solved, as far as concerns the part of the population which 
 works in factories established outside of the towns. For the 
 
vin.] Housing of Working-Classes ,and Poor. 287 
 
 most part in the great mining and mineral industries, as -well 
 as in the country factories for spinning and weaving, &c., 
 ■where a gi-eat number of workmen are regularly employed, the 
 dwellings necessary for the workman and his family have been 
 added as an annexe. 
 
 This creation of such vUlages as are to be seen in the indus- 
 trial regions of the north, east, and west of France, forms part 
 of the normal outlay of capital required from large employers 
 of labour. The employers have an interest in attracting and 
 retaining in the neighbourhood of their works the labourers 
 whom they require, and in settling them there under conditions 
 favourable to their health and to the moral and material 
 welfare of their families. It is this clear understanding of the 
 interest of industry which has created these groups of working- 
 class dwellings, and which makes the extension of the system 
 certaia, especially where the nature and importance of the 
 establishment render it possible. 
 
 For France we may quote the case of Anzin, le Creuzot, 
 Commentry, Blanzy, Beaucourt, Noisiel. In the coal districts 
 of the north ia 1875 eighteen jfirms out of twenty-thi'ee had 
 built 7000 houses, at a cost of eighteen million francs. The 
 rent of these was very considerably lower than the ordinary 
 rent of such houses. In England many instances of this kind 
 can be quoted ; the best known are the establishments of the 
 Salts at Saltaire, Messrs. HazeU, Watson & Viney, printers, 
 at Aylesbury, Messrs. Cadbury Eros., cocoa manufacturers, at 
 Bourneville, Messrs. Unwin Bros., printers, Chilworth, Messrs. 
 Courtauld & Co., crape manufacturers, Halstead, and the many 
 colHery villages belonging to large-minded employers of 
 labour like the Peases of Darliagton. In America the indus- 
 trial village is more familiar, and the best example is furnished 
 by the American Watch Co. in the village of Waltham, which 
 has now the largest watch factory, in the world. In Prussia 
 seventy industrial firms have built 529 houses, of which their 
 workmen may become owners; 1141 have built 8751 houses 
 for letting. Out of 4850 industrial firms 34 per cent, have 
 provided, directly or indirectly, for the lodging of their work- 
 men (1878). In the coal basin of Saarbruck 3743 houses have 
 
288 A Plea for Liberty. [viii. 
 
 been built. The miners' banks have contributed 3,063,000 
 marks, the State, the proprietor of the mines, has advanced 
 1,897,000 marks, of which, in 1874, 814,000 marks had been 
 redeemed At the Silesian mines, in 1873, 450 houses had 
 ah-eady been built, containing house-room for 1800 families. 
 The most important experiment was that of Krupp at Essen, 
 where out of a staff of 65,776 persons, 18,698 in 1 881 were living 
 in houses belonging to M. Krupp. 
 
 These few figures show that it is in their own best interests 
 that employers have been prompted to provide for' the housing 
 of their workmen. In a certain number of cases they have in 
 addition given facility to their men to become owners of their 
 houses by payment of annual sums, calculated so that the 
 purchase-money is met by payments spread over a more or less 
 extended period. 
 
 Very great importance rightly attaches to the possibility of 
 turning the workman or the petty employe, into a landed pro- 
 prietor. It is the best means of encouraging the spirit of 
 order, of economy, and of inculcating the all- valuable senti- 
 ment of personal responsibility. 
 
 Among the institutions which aim at the creation of cheap 
 dwellings we must distinguish the different objects which each 
 has in view. 
 
 (i) Those which aim at building small houses, with facility 
 given to the tenant to become owner by means of annual in- 
 stalments. Such building can be done by. associations of 
 working-men and small capitalists, by joint-stock companiies, 
 or by individual capitalists. 
 
 (3) Those which aim at building large houses with accom- 
 modation for many tenants. 
 
 (3) Those which seek to improve old houses. 
 
 These objects are pursued by a variety of organisations, viz. : 
 
 I. Building Societies. Those who attach a great value to 
 individual action, to seK-help, and to the co-operation of indi- 
 vidual effort, vsdll understand why we put Building Societies 
 in the first rank^. Their name of building societies indicates 
 
 ' According to the definition of the established for the collection of funds 
 law of 1874, Building Societies are or capital in order to make advances 
 
viii.J Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 289 
 
 the primary object of these associations, but it no longer de- 
 scribes their present mode of operation. They no longer build 
 (at most they finish the construction of houses left unfinished 
 by borrowers). They are essentially loan societies, their capital 
 comes from contributions paid as a rule month by month, but 
 their advances are only made on the security of real estate, 
 land or houses. The peculiarity of these advances is that they 
 are repayable, capital and interest, by monthly payments. It 
 foHows that as these societies receive a portion of their capital 
 at once they are able to make advances much larger in propor- 
 tion to the actual value of the mortgaged property than an 
 ordinary creditor. This mode of advance is very advantageous 
 to persons of small fortune. The workman earning a good 
 wage, the clerk, the small shopkeeper, although he has but a 
 small disposable capital, is able to buy his house, and often 
 becomes owner of it at the end of twelve or fourteen years, for 
 a total sum not much in excess of what he would have had to 
 pay in rent alone. 
 
 In the United Kingdom, on Dec. 31, 1886, there were 2079 
 societies, of which 1992 were in England, 46 in Scotland, 
 and 41 in Ireland. Their mortgage property amounts to 
 i^53,ioi,ooo. They owe 35^ millions to their shareholders 
 and .^15,837,000 to other depositors ^. 
 
 A building society often works in alliance with an estate 
 or land society, which purchases at a low price large areas 
 of land and re-sells them by lot with the extra profit which 
 the building of a city gives. 
 
 The English co-operative societies have organised build- 
 ing departments, or have affiliated themselves to building 
 societies ^- 
 
 to their members on real property by of the Leeds Permanent Building So- 
 
 way of mortgage. Some also make ciety. The average value of a house is 
 
 advances on shares, but this is the £i66. In 1886, 9400 were mortgaged, 
 
 exception. of which 3000 belonged to workmen. 
 
 ' In Leeds, a town of 320,000 in- In Newcastle, Birmingham, and Bris- 
 
 habitants, two societies account to- tol, we find the same facts as at Leeds, 
 
 gather for 11,000 members. In the " Sixty societies have spent more 
 
 last twenty years more than 18,000 than £500,000 in the building of cot- 
 houses have passed through the hands 
 
290 A 'Plea for Liberty. [viii. 
 
 The number of co-operative building and loan associations 
 spread throughout the great American republic may be fixed 
 at between 30C0 and 3500. The savings accumulated during 
 forty yeai-s in the shape of houses and land and paid by the 
 occupants and their families, must certainly exceed one 
 hundred millions, reckoned in English money, and reaches 
 perhaps one hundred and sixty millions. For the last twelve 
 years in Philadelphia alone these accumulations of capital are 
 reckoned at twenty millions sterling, and the yearly deposits 
 at more than one million. At the present time the deposited 
 savings amount to forty millions sterling for this town alone. 
 In the whole country there are six times as many building 
 societies as here. 
 
 In Philadelphia out of a population of 900,000 souls, 
 1 85,000 were workmen, and out of this number it is calculated 
 that 40,000 to 50,000 workmen were owners of their own 
 houses. It is true that at Philadelphia the land on which the 
 town is built permits an unlimited extension, and each year 
 the city surrounds itself with a new ring of neat little houses 
 of red brick, each of which forms the home of a single family. 
 The public health is better at Philadelphia than at New 
 York. From the point of view of poor-law and charitable 
 relief the comparison is equally favourable, for with its 
 900,000 inhabitants Philadelphia hardly spends more than 
 Boston, which has a population of 360,000. Workmen are 
 not afraid to go for lodging to the suburbs and to make 
 a railway journey of an hour or three-quarters of an hour 
 twice a day. The system of street railways is nowhere so 
 fully developed as at Philadelphia. In New York building 
 societies have made great and sudden progress. From 
 January to September, 1888, more than 15,000 persons be- 
 came members. 
 
 We may congratulate ourselves on this rapid development ; 
 we have here the proof that, with the aid of suitable associa- 
 tions, persons earning two shillings per day can create a capital 
 and can lend it to others. At the same time it is not neces- 
 sary to deny the dangers which may result from ignorance of 
 the most elementary rules of finance and account-keeping, and 
 
VIII.] Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 291 
 
 from a tendency to speculate among those who lead and form 
 the membership of these societies. 
 
 The system of building societies is certainly one of the 
 best contrivances to give birth to a spirit of economy among 
 persons who have but a very small income to spend. It 
 offers a great attraction to those who pay rent for house or 
 boarding-house accommodation and who wish to free them- 
 selves from it. Borrowing, which so easily demoralises a 
 workman, becomes in this case a stimulant to thrift and wise 
 household economy. 
 
 Outside of the Anglo-Saxon countries we meet with associa- 
 tions for building in Denmark. At Copenhagen an association 
 has been founded, in 1865, by the workmen of the firm of Bur- 
 meister and Wain. It numbered, in 1884, 13,500 members ; it 
 has aided in the construction of tfi% houses to the value of 
 five and a-half million francs, and inhabited by 4381 persons. 
 A quarter of the sums advanced has been repaid, and 300 new 
 houses are being built. Similar societies exist in many Danish 
 towns ; in Switzerland (notably at BMe) ; in Germany under the 
 influence of Schuke-Delitzsch, the great promoter of the co- 
 operative movement in Germany, gfeat importance has always 
 been attached to the co-operation of small capitalists for the pur- 
 pose of combined action in the construction and purchase of 
 houses ; but it does not seem that this movement, which has 
 produced such remarkable results in England and the United 
 States, has been equally fruitful on the other side of the Rhine. 
 Instances are to be found at Insterburg, Halle, Flensburg. 
 In 1886 a society of this kind was formed at Berlin (Berliner 
 Baugenossenschaft). The system adopted is that of a weekly 
 deposit, giving a right to a share of 250 francs. When anyone 
 has been member for six months and owns at least one share, 
 he may lay claim to a house when its building is finished. 
 If there are several candidates, lots are drawn. 
 
 We shall speak later of the permanent society of Orleans. 
 At Reims, the real estate union (L'Union Foncifere) was founded, 
 in 1870, by the eTnployes and workmen of the town. It is 
 a co-operative society for the construction of working-class 
 dwellings, and commenced its operations in 1873. Members 
 
292 A Plea for Liberty. [viii. 
 
 of the society are required to pay an entrance fee, which is not 
 returnable, and to contribute an annual deposit of twenty-five 
 francs at the least, bearing interest at five per cent. The 
 society possessed some years ago forty-eight houses, each of 
 which had cost from 4500 to 6000 francs. The yearly instal- 
 ment to be paid by those who mean to become- proprietors 
 in twenty years varies from 25° ^o 450 francs. 
 
 At the risk of seeming to lack method, we must here inter- 
 pose a word in passing on the co-operation of Savings Banks, 
 fed as they are by the thrift of the poorer classes. In Italy 
 and in the United States they employ a part of their funds for 
 mortgage loans, to facilitate the construction of cheap houses. 
 Men whose opinion is entitled to respect have urged the same 
 duty on the Savings Banks of France. Thanks to M. Aynard 
 of Lyons and to M. Rostand of Marseilles, a first step has been 
 taken in this direction^. 
 
 n. "We come next to the Joint-Stock Company (Soci^td 
 anonyme), whose business it is to build cheap houses and to 
 sell them by means of yearly instalments to workmen. The 
 list is happily a very long ontf, and we cannot pretend to set it 
 out in any completeness. 
 
 In the first rank, on the continent, we must mention 'Za 
 Society des Citds Ouvrihres ' of Mulhouse. With a capital of 
 some hundred thousand francs, to which are added loans 
 guaranteed by the Society, 1200 working-class houses have 
 been built in the space of thirty years ; a thousand of these 
 houses have been paid for by purchasers by means of a deduc- 
 tion from their wages, the amount of which has not been 
 much in excess of the ordinary rents paid in other parts of the 
 town^. At Paris we find ' La Society anonyme des hahitations 
 
 ' See Lea Queslions d'jSconomie sociaU 3,539,495 marks. They remain debt- 
 
 dans une grande mile populaire, par Eu- ors for 367,681 marks. Turningtothe 
 
 g6ne Rostand. cost price, which is 2,788,220, this 
 
 "At Mulhouse, the number of shows a profit of 1,118,956 marks to 
 
 hoxises built on 30 June, 1888, was meet taxes, interest, charges of trans- 
 
 1124, against 948 on 30 June, 1887. fer for this period of thirty-five years. 
 
 There have been, therefore, 1 76 houses say about 50 per cent. In the return 
 
 built in ten years, costing on an aver- for 1877, the sum due was 604,041 
 
 age 3160 marks (3950 francs). The marks; it has been reduced to 236,360 
 
 total sum paid by the purchasers is marks. The sum paid by workmen 
 
viii.] Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 293 
 
 ouvrihres de Passy-Auteuil ' founded with a capital of 300,000 
 francs. This society has limited the maximum interest pay- 
 
 in these eleTen years has reached 
 983,663 marks. 
 
 In 1877, the house with a story was 
 sold for 3400 marks ; houses with a 
 ground-floor only, were sold for 3600 
 marks. The prices have to-day risen 
 to 4480 and 2760 marks. The price 
 of the storied house had thus risen 
 33 per cent, and that of the single 
 storied house only 6 per cent. ; and 
 the rise represents the rise in the 
 price of labour, and in the value of 
 the land. This one-storied house has 
 not been built since 1886 ; w^orkmen 
 prefer the storied house, and it has 
 been found necessary to enlarge the 
 dimensions. This in part explains 
 the advance in price which is due to 
 the increased value of the ground, the 
 expense of building, and to the im- 
 provements added to the original plans. 
 
 M. de Lacroix, in a report on the 
 Institutions of Public Utility in La 
 haute Alsace from 1878 to 1888, asks 
 if this house of 4480 francs, which has 
 now taken the place of that valued 
 at 2760 francs, and which up to this 
 date had been generally built, was 
 not too dear for a working-class family 
 whose income has not increased in 
 the same proportion. 
 
 'It appears that it is not so, and 
 the cause is not that which we could 
 have wished. The ground-floor cot- 
 tage with its kitchen and two little 
 rooms could only with difficulty be 
 made to serve for more than one 
 family. It was not in fact built for 
 this purpose, and it would have been 
 desirable that it should never be 
 diverted from its original use. The 
 laws of hygiene would have been 
 better observed. But the purchasers 
 in their anxiety to discharge their 
 debt sought too often to create a 
 source of revenue by letting a room 
 or even a small tenement ; and it is 
 
 this cause which has given rise to all 
 the irregular gable ends and addi- 
 tions, which the Society cannot pre- 
 vent, and which gives to the parts of 
 the towns occupied by one-storied 
 dwellings an aspect so odd and un- 
 seemly. Once embarked on this road 
 the workman sees that the storied 
 house lends itself better to this trade, 
 and his demand is therefore for that 
 class of house. The Society supplies 
 his demand, and it is thus that the 
 new storied house of 1887 appeared. 
 But what happens ? the owner makes 
 three tenements of his house. One 
 on the ground-floor, one on the first 
 floor, and another in the attics. He 
 occupies one himself, generally the 
 ground or first floor, and lets the two 
 others — one at ten or twelve marks 
 per month, the other at four marks ; 
 and in this way he gets nearly five per 
 cent, interest on the purchase-mpney 
 remaining due after his first deposit 
 of 340 marks has been made. But at 
 the price of how much inconvenience ? 
 This house, which is intended to shel- 
 ter one family of five persons, shelters 
 three families of perhaps ten or twelve 
 persons — and all the rules of hygiene 
 are set at defiance. Too often these 
 houses, without the possibility of ob- 
 jection on the part of the Society, and 
 without, in many instances, its know- 
 ledge, pass into the hands of specu- 
 lators who do not inhabit them, and 
 who have no other object in view but 
 to crowd them as much as possible in 
 order to derive a larger revenue from 
 them.' 
 
 M. de Lacroix adds, sadly, that the 
 great idea dreamt of by the founders 
 of the Permanent City of Mulhouse, 
 has not yet borne all its fruit. ' If on 
 the one hand we have succeeded in 
 awakening in some the instinct of 
 thrift and family life, our success in 
 
294 ^ -P/^a for Liberty. [vm. 
 
 able on its capital to 4 per cent, per anmim. It has thus been 
 able to fix the rent of its houses between 438 and 480 francs 
 (all instalments of purchase-money included), in addition to a 
 sum of 500 to 1000 francs payable on entrance. 
 
 At Lille 'La GoTiipagnie vmrnobiliere de Lille,' founded in 
 1867, with a capital of loo^ooo francs, which was increased by 
 a gratuitous subvention given by Napoldon III, has built 301 
 houses, of which aoi are sold to their occupiers. The price 
 of each of these is about 3000 francs ; one-tenth is payable 
 in advance along with the cost of registration, the balance 
 by instalments, monthly or fortnightly, during a period of 
 fifteen years as a maximum, with power to pay at an 
 earlier date. Since the origin of the society the annual 
 interest of 5 per cent, has been regularly paid to its share- 
 holders. 
 
 At Saint-Quentin ' La SocidU anonyme Saint-Quentinoise' 
 has its home (price of a house 2500 francs). At Amiens 'La 
 Societe anonyvie des tnaisons Ouvrihres,' founded in 1 865, with 
 a capital of 300,000 francs, has created a new quarter, built 
 eighty-five houses, sold at a price below the usual price of the 
 neighbourhood (price of houses 3533 and 3763 francs, payable by 
 monthly instalments of 20 francs in fifteen years). Nine-tenths 
 of the capital has actually been repaid; interest at 5 per cent, 
 has throughout been earned for the shareholders, and there 
 
 solving the problem of healthy and leas encouraging quotation. It shows 
 cheap dwellings is still very imper- how difficult is the task of improving 
 feet. It is true that the Society could the dwellings of the poor. Things 
 have succeeded completely in this would not go better ifthe houses were 
 second part of its task if it had re- built at a loss by the State or by the 
 tained ownership and merely let its municipality. There are in this matter 
 houses. This is done in the country, difficulties which are inherent in all 
 and in many foreign centres of in- human affairs. English societies have 
 dustry. But the arrangement is not had the same experience ; at Shaftes- 
 without its difficulties. How is a bury Park particularly, I understand, 
 society to be financed which never There, attempt has been made to re- 
 reaHses ? What substitute can be purchase the houses from the owners 
 found for the moralising stimulus of in order to prevent the abuses de- 
 thrift which takes possession of every scribed. Itis on this account that some 
 man who possesses a comer of land well-informed persons recommend 
 or a morsel of stone ?' building for lease and not for sale. 
 We have felt obliged to make this 
 
VIII.] Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 295 
 
 remains 170,000 francs profit, -which is to be used for the 
 establishment of a school of domestic economy and apprentice- 
 ship ^. We have spoken above of the Union fonoiere of Eeims. 
 At Nancy La Bociete imviohilihre, with a capital of 300,000 
 francs, has built fifty-seven houses, costing from 4500 to 7000 
 francs, all sold to workmen. It has always paid 5 per cent, to 
 its shareholders until 1884, since then q<\ per cent., and is now 
 in liquidation. At Havre a company, 'La Socide Havraise den 
 Cites Ouvrieres' was formed in 187 1 with a capital of 300,000 
 francs under the direct influence of the Mulhouse association. It 
 has built 1 1 7 houses representing an expenditure of over 500,000 
 francs. In 1884 it had sold already fifty-six houses, of which 
 thirty-eight were entirely paid for ; conditions of sale, — first 
 deposit 300 francs, complete purchase in fifteen years by 
 monthly payments of 34 francs, in twenty years by monthly 
 payments of 30 francs. The interest is limited to 5 per cent. 
 At Bolbec there is a Societe des Cites Ouvrieres with a capital 
 of 100,000 francs. 
 
 At Orleans, in 1879, two workmen resolved to create the 
 ' Societe immohiliere' whose object it is to develop the spirit of 
 thrift by giving facilities for the acquisition of property. It 
 had built 33o houses in 1887, all of which had found buyers 
 who are paying oflf the purchase-price in periods of twenty-five 
 years. 
 
 In Belgium we may mention 'La Societe' YervUtoise' (of 
 Verviers) for the construction of working-class dwellings ; 
 'La 8oci4te lAigeoise des maisons Ouvrieres,' with 435 houses, 
 of which 337 are sold. 
 
 In England, we know the Artisans, Labourers, and General 
 Dwellings Company, whose object is to supply at a very low 
 price a house for each family ; it was instituted as a reaction 
 against the system of barracks. 
 
 Not being able to build in London itself, it has gone into 
 the country to seek for large areas. Up to t 881 it endeavoured 
 to encourage workmen to become proprietors. But at the 
 present time the company is buying back the houses in order 
 to avoid the evils of sub-letting and over-crowding. The 
 ' See Les Maisons ouvrieres d' Amiens, par Elie Fleury. 
 
296 A Plea for Liberty. [viii. 
 
 company has created regular little towns, 6000 houses. Its 
 capital is about a^i, 250,000 ; the dividend is 5 per cent. 
 
 III. We now come to our third category, to those institutions 
 whose object it is to build houses for a large number of 
 tenants, but with good sanitary airangements and a higher 
 degree of comfort. In this class we must put the various 
 societies and foundations which exist in London. These have 
 spent nearly four millions, and house 70,000 persons. We can 
 only name the Metropolitan Association, the Peabody Gift, the 
 Improved Industrial Dwelling Company, the Society for Im- 
 proving the Condition of the Labouring Classes ^. The capital 
 employed is remunerated at the rate of 3 to 5 per cent. 
 In the case of the Peabody legacy there are no shareholders 
 and the revenue is employed to extend the work. An inter- 
 esting enterprise, which is less known, is that of the Surrey 
 Lodge Estate, founded under the auspices of Miss ConS; who 
 lives in the midst of her tenants, and pays 4 per cent, to her 
 shareholders. 
 
 In Parisj thanks to the munificence of the Messieurs Heine, 
 'La, Sociit4 philanthropique' has built its first block of 
 dwellings, Bue Jeanne d'Arc, in the middle of the XIII* ar- 
 rondissement. The building contains seventy-seven rooms 
 divided among thirty-five tenancies ^. Two other blocks are 
 to be erected in different parts of Paris, in quarters where 
 healthy dwellings are most rare. A dwelling with forty-five 
 tenements has been begun in the boulevard de Crenelle. 
 
 At Eouen (December, 1885), 500,000 francs have been raised, 
 and six separate houses built containing ninety-five tenements. 
 
 ' According to a table prepared by action. If the " Sodete philanthropique" 
 Mr. GatlifFe, dviring the last forty earns 4 per cent, on the capital em- 
 years up to 1886, 26,643 famiiies, or ployed, it refutes the wild notions of 
 146,809 persons have profited from the Socialists who expect everything 
 the improved dwelling movement in from the State, and who demand that 
 London. the Communes should employ muni- 
 
 ' M. Picot delivered an eloquent cipal resources, and that the State 
 
 address on the occasion of the open- should use the budget of France for 
 
 ing of these dwellings, 18 June, 1888. the construction of houses for the 
 
 * It is a social triumph, for it shows proletariate, 
 to the irresolute the possibility of 
 
VIII.] Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 297 
 
 At Lyons, in June 1887, tenants took possession of the first 
 group of houses built by MM. Aynard, Mangini, Gillet. These 
 gentlemen have contributed from their own pocket aoo,ooo 
 iianes, and to this has been added a loan of 150,000 francs 
 from the reserves of the Savings Bank. The remuneration of 
 the capital is guaranteed at 4 per cent. The promoters of the 
 enterprise at Lyons having thus obtained a solid base of 
 operations and these definite results, founded a company with 
 a capital of a million ; aoo,ooo francs deposited by themselves, 
 300,000 francs to be raised in shares, 500,000 francs advanced 
 from the reserves of the Savings Bank. They then bought 
 7500 metres for the building of twenty houses. At Marseilles, 
 thanks to the efforts of M. Eostand, the Savings Bank of 
 the town has been authorised to give assistance to a similar 
 enterprise. It is only just to make the savings of poor 
 people flow in this direction. Since i88a, the Savings Bank 
 of Strasbourg undertook to devote 392,000 francs from its 
 reserve to the construction of working-class houses. In 
 Italy, the funds of Savings Banks and of the Soci^t^s de 
 secours mutuels, are employed in the building of small 
 houses. 
 
 At Brooklyn, we find the Improved Dwellings Company, 
 founded by Mr. White, which pays a dividend of 6 per cent. 
 At New York there is the Improved Dwellings Association, 
 which divides 6 per cent., and a more recent enterprise, The 
 Tenement House Building Company, which limits its dividend 
 to 4 per cent. 
 
 To Miss Octavia Hill belongs the merit of inventing a 
 system of her own, of which we cannot speak with too much 
 respect. Her aim is the improvement of the housing of the 
 poor by the purchase of insanitary houses, which are then put 
 into a good state of repair, and managed economically in such 
 fashion as to obtain a fair return upon capital, and all this 
 without a suspicion of charity or socialism. In place of a 
 dole, time and personal service is given, and the beneficial 
 influence of intercourse between the tenants and their landlords 
 or rent-collectors, who are all actuated by a spirit of well- 
 considered philanthropy. In 1885, Miss Octavia Hill and her 
 21 
 
298 A Plea for Liberty, [viii. 
 
 imitators were owners of fiffcy-seTen buildings of the value of 
 ^311,767, and affording accommodation for 11,58a persons. 
 
 Miss Octavia Hill has founded a school not only ia London 
 but even in the United States, notably at New York and 
 Boston, in Germany, at Darmstadt, and at Leipsic. At Berlin 
 a company has been formed ; its council numbers M. Gneist 
 among its members. It purchases houses, repairs them, lets 
 or sells them, and seeks to develop in them habits of order. 
 The authorised capital is one million marks, of which 348,000 
 marks are subscribed. 
 
 We must here ask permission to refer to the scheme of 
 'tenant thrift' [^pargne locative), which M. Coste has explained 
 in his admirable work Les questions sociales contemporaines, 
 1886, p. 430. It consists in a plan for the gradual acquisition 
 of mortgage bonds which confer a right of lease and a contract 
 for sale of the house occupied by the tenant, with a gradual 
 reduction of the amount of rent. Would it not be possible for 
 insurance companies to make advances to workmen for the 
 purpose of helping them to become owners of their houses? 
 Workmen desii-ous of owning their own home could easily take 
 out a policy from a life insurance company sufficient to give a 
 reasonable security for the required advance. There could be no 
 investment more secure than the loan to a workman on the 
 security of the house in which he lives. We suggest the fol- 
 lowing procedure. The workman must accumulate his savings 
 in a bank, until the sum collected amounts to a guarantee for 
 the loan which he wishes to obtain. He then withdraws his 
 deposit from the bank ; at the same time he takes out a policy 
 from the assurance company with which he also makes his de- 
 posit and obtains a loan. In this way, if he dies to-morrow, 
 it is certain that by means of the policy of insurance the debt 
 will be extinguished ^. 
 
 ' I haTe received from the kindness Rent 240 francs. 
 
 of M. Cheysson the following note. Instalment of purchase- 
 Let us take for our example the head money .... 2ol „ 
 
 of a family, aged 35, and a cottage, 
 
 value 6000 francs. The Society let it Total yearly payment 441 „ 
 
 ■with a contract for sale by instal- The Society contracts with an In- 
 
 ments, payable in twenty years with surance Company a policy stipulating 
 
 interest at 4 per cent. that, if the workman dies before 
 
VIII.] Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 299 
 
 I have now arrived at the close of my survey, and it may be 
 interesting to set down the resolutions proposed by me, and 
 adopted by the International Congress held at Paris during the 
 Universal Exhibition, 1889-: — 
 
 (i) The problem of the supply of healthy and cheap houses, 
 owing to the complexity of influences at work, does not admit 
 of an universal and absolute solution. 
 
 (3) It is for individual enterprise or for private combination 
 to find the appropriate solution in each case. 
 
 The direct interference of the State or of the local authority 
 with the market, for the purpose of competing with private 
 enterprise, or fixing the rate of rent, ought to be excluded 
 from consideration. It is only admissible when the matter in 
 hand deals with means of communication, sanitary police, and 
 the equalisation of rates. 
 
 (3) The development of the construction of cheap houses in 
 the outlying parts and suburbs of towns is ' closely connected 
 with a service of frequent and economical transport (that is, 
 reduced tariff on railways, workmen's trains, means of access 
 into towns, tramways, steamboats, &c.). 
 
 (4) Among the resources to which appeal can be made, it is 
 fit to mention the reserves of savings banks. 
 
 The intervention of savings banks in the development of the 
 housing of the poor is legitimate and useful under conditions 
 of reasonable precaution. The legislature can and ought to 
 favour such intervention, by giving more liberty of investment 
 for the deposits and trust funds of sa-vings banks, and by 
 reducing the burden of taxation. 
 
 twenty years, the assTirance company miiim is equal to 1-5 per cent, of the 
 instead of his heirs, will pay the in- price of the house. If instead of 
 stalments still due. The annual pre- availing himself of this additional 
 mium for such a policy would be security for purchase, the father of 
 88-20 francs. the family devoted this sum to the 
 Add to this the rent 441 ,, more rapid extinction of his debt, he 
 would be able to complete his pur- 
 Total 529.20 „ chase in fifteen instead of twenty 
 Under these conditions the head of years. Which is best for him, to 
 the family does not leave debt behind complete his purchase, if he lives, in 
 him if he dies. The house is free on fifteen or twenty years, or free him- 
 the day of his death, and becomes self from all fear of an interruption 
 the property of his heirs. This pre- by death of the process of purchase ? 
 
300 A Plea for Liberty. [viii. 
 
 (5) In order to reconcile the liberty of the purchaser with 
 the obligations by which he binds himself in the contract for 
 the purchase of a house, and in order to lighten, in case of 
 death, the liability which falls on his heirs, it is worth while 
 to consider carefully various combinations, e. g. clauses for the 
 cancellLng of contract and for the repayment of instalments, 
 life insurances, mortgages, &c., &c. 
 
 To the above I add the resolutions passed at the same 
 Congress on the motion of M. Picot, Member of the Insti- 
 tute : — 
 
 (1) Wherever the economic conditions permit of it, separate 
 dwellings with little gardens should be preferred in the interest 
 of the workman and his family. 
 
 (a) If the dearness of the ground or some other cause makes 
 it necessary to build in the centre of the towns houses iu 
 which many families are accommodated under one roof, all the 
 conditions of independence ought to be carefully preserved in 
 order to minimise the contact between them. 
 
 (3) The plans should be conceived with a view of avoiding 
 all occasion of meeting between the tenants. The stair land- 
 ings and the staircases should be well lighted, and ought to 
 be considered. as a prolongation of the public road. Corridors 
 and passages of all kinds should be carefully avoided. 
 
 Each tenement should have inside a w. c, receiving its light 
 from outside and provided with water. 
 
 (4) For families with children of different sexes a division 
 into three rooms is indispensable, in order to permit separation 
 of the sexes. 
 
 (5) Every restriction by which injury might be done to the 
 complete independence of the tenant and his family ought to 
 be prohibited. 
 
 I think this rapid sui"vey of facts justifies our contention 
 that although the difficulty is very great, rapid progress is 
 being made in its solution, that the main obstacles to be 
 removed are : — ■ 
 
 (1) The doubt that investment in working-class houses may 
 not prove remunerative. 
 
 (a) The oftentimes destructive habits of poor tenants. 
 I 
 
vni.] Housing of Working-Classes and Poor. 301 
 
 (3) An inconvenieiit system of land tenure prohibitive of 
 free trade and enterprise in building operations. 
 
 (4) The uncertainty caused by the threatening attitude of 
 municipal socialism. 
 
 The first three of these we have shown to be superablej 
 the last can only be cured by a healthier tone of public 
 opinion, and by a fuUer appreciation of the success which has 
 attended private initiative. 
 
 Abthub Raffalovich. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE EVILS OF STATE TRADING 
 
 AS ILLUSTBATED BY THE 
 
 POST OFFICE. 
 
 FREDERICK MILLAE. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE EVILS OF STATE TRADING AS 
 ILLUSTRATED BY THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 Out of the multiplicity of affairs with which the State 
 busies itself, not one can be instanced in which it has been 
 thoroughly successful. The reason of this is not far to seek. 
 Years ago Mr. Herbert Spencer pointed out the positive and 
 negative evils consequent upon the State frittering away 
 its time and energies in schemes with which it should have 
 no concern. Admittedly the main duty of the State is the 
 defence of citizens against aggression ; it is manifest that this 
 duty must be ill-discharged if the State undertakes other 
 functions. ' It is in the very nature of things that an agency 
 employed for two purposes must fulfil both imperfectly; 
 partly because while fulfilling the one it cannot be fulfilling 
 the other, and partly because its adaptation to both ends 
 implies incomplete fitness to either ^' It is therefore quite 
 natural to find that when the State undertakes to do those 
 things which it ought not to do, it does them badly ; and that 
 its conduct of affairs which are foreign, as well as those which 
 are germane, to the discharge of its primary duty, is character- 
 ised by bungling, extravagance, and inefficiency. 
 
 Although most people admit the superiority of private 
 enterprise and administration to State-ownership and control, 
 an exception is generally made in favour of one particular 
 department in which it is contended the State has succeeded 
 as a trader. That department is the Post Office, and social- 
 
 ' Essay on ' Over-legislation.' 
 
3o6 A Plea for Liberty. [ix. 
 
 ists, who advocate State-ownership and control of everything, 
 instance that department as showing what the State can do 
 when it takes the place of private enterprise, and they 
 contend that it could undertake the distribution of goods, 
 clothing, food, &c., just as well as it ui^dei-takes the dis- 
 tribution of correspondence. Mrs. Besant's advice to ' anyone 
 who thinks such distribution impossible' is to 'study the 
 postal system now existing ^.' From the Individualist 
 point of view nothing could be better. If people would 
 make themselves acquainted with the facts connected with 
 the general working of this socialist ideal, the Post Office, 
 the socialist bubble would soon burst. To afford them an 
 opportunity of acting upon Mrs. Besant's advice is the object 
 of the present essay, the writer being persuaded that the best 
 refutation of the specious theories of Socialism lies in the 
 fact of their utter and disastrous failure, whenever and 
 wherever they have been put into practice. 
 
 If the State had originated and developed the present 
 postal system one could readily understand the unlimited 
 praise which is frequently bestowed upon it by the average 
 member of the community, who looks merely at the surface of 
 things, and who, when he contemplates this colossal concern, 
 with its facilities for the collection, distribution, and delivery 
 of letters and telegrams and parcels, is filled with wondering 
 awe. But when we consider that not one of the many benefits 
 connected with the system originated with the State, but that 
 all have been foi'ced upon it from without, and generally after 
 long years of agitation and pressure, and that even now the 
 most important part of the work, that of conveying the mails, 
 is done by private enterprise, there is no apparent reason why 
 we should feel indebted to the State for whatever advantages 
 we happen to enjoy. Indeed, we have reason to complain 
 that in consequence of State monopoly we have not a more 
 perfect system than the one in existence. Over two hundred 
 years ago private enterprise had established a penny post in 
 London. ' To facilitate correspondence between one part of 
 London and another,' says Maeaulay, ' was not originally one 
 
 ' Modem Socialism, pp. 29-30. 
 
K.] The Evils of State Trading. 307 
 
 of the objects of the Post Office. But in the reign of Charles 
 the Second, an enterprising citizen of London, "William Dock- 
 wray, set up, at great expense, a penny post, which delivered 
 letters and parcels six or eight times a day in the busy and 
 crowded streets near the Exchange, and four times a day in 
 the outskirts of the capital. The improvement was, as usual, 
 strenuously resisted. . . . The utility of the enterprise was, 
 however, so great and obvious that all opposition proved 
 fruitless. As soon as it became clear that the speculation 
 would be lucrative, the Duke of York complained of it as an 
 infraction of his monopoly ^, and the courts of law decided in 
 his favour ^.' Mr. Herbert Spencer, commenting upon this fact, 
 says that if we judge by what has happened ia other cases 
 with private enterprises that had small beginnings, we may 
 infer that the system thus commenced would have developed 
 throughout the kingdom as fast as the needs pressed and the 
 possibilities allowed^. 
 
 The very monopoly enjoyed by the State in the carrying of 
 letters is in itself a tacit acknowledgment of its inability to 
 contend with private enterprise. By the Act i Vic. cap. 2,'?)i 
 the Post Office acquired the exclusive privilege of conveying 
 from one place to another all letters, and of performing 
 all the incidental services of receiving, collecting, sending, 
 despatching, and delivering the same. Certain exemptions 
 from this exclusive privilege are made. For instance, a 
 person may send a letter by one private friend to another, 
 or by a messenger on purpose, concerning the private affairs 
 of the sender or receiver thereof; letters of merchants, &c., 
 may be sent out by vessels of merchandise ; or letters concern- 
 ing goods or merchandise, sent by common known carriers to 
 be delivered with the goods which such letters concern, may be 
 sent, provided neither hire, nor reward, nor other profit, nor 
 
 ' At the Eestoration the proceeds been paid, were settled on the Duke 
 
 of the Post Office (' a rude and im- of York. 
 
 perfect establishment of posts for the ' Histmry of England, vol. i. pp. 385-6, 
 
 conveyance of letters ' set up by 7th edition. 
 
 Charles I, svrept avray by the Civil ' Essay on ' Specialised Adminis- 
 
 War, and resumed under the Com- tration.' 
 monwealth), after all expenses had 
 
3o8 A Plea for Liberty. [ix 
 
 advantage be received for receiving and delivering such letters. 
 Excepting these exemptions from the exclusive privilege of 
 the Post Office, it was enacted by i Vic. cap. 36, that — 
 
 E-very person who shall convey otherwise than by the post a letter .... shall 
 for every letter forfeit £5, and every person who shall be in the practice of so 
 conveying letters .... shall for every week during which the practice shall 
 be continued forfeit f 100 ; and every person who shall perform otherwise 
 than by the post any services incidental to conveying letters from place to 
 place, whether by receiving or by taking up or by collecting or by ordering 
 or by despatching or by carrying or by re-canying or by delivery, a letter .... 
 shall forfeit for every letter £5, and every person who shall be in the practice of 
 so performing any such incidental services shall for every week during which 
 the practice shall be continued forfeit £100 ; and every person who shall send 
 a letter .... otherwise than by the post, or shall cause a letter .... to be 
 sent or conveyed otherwise than by the post, or shall either tender or deliver 
 a letter in order to be sent otherwise than by the post shall forfeit for every 
 letter £5 ; and every person who shall be in the practice of committing any 
 of the acts last mentioned shall for every week during which the practice 
 shall be continued forfeit £100 ; and every person who shall make a collection 
 of exempted letters for the purpose of conveying them or sending them other- 
 wise than by the post, or by the post, shall forfeit for every letter £5 ; and 
 every person who shall be in the practice of making a collection of exempted 
 letters for either of these purposes shall forfeit for every week during which 
 such practice shall be continued £100 ; ... , and the above penalties shall be 
 incurred whether the letter shall be sent singly or with anything else, or such 
 incidental service shall be performed in respect to a letter either sent, or to be 
 sent, singly or together with some other letter or thing ; and in any prosecu- 
 tion by action or otherwise for the recovery of any such penalty the onus shall 
 lie upon the party prosecuted to prove that the act in respect of which the 
 penalty is alleged to have been incurred was done in conformity of the Post 
 Office laws. 
 
 It will be seen that under such restrictions and prohibitions 
 any attempt on the part of private enterprise to compete with 
 the State in the carrying and delivery of letters is out of the 
 question. Some time ago the Postmaster-General discovered 
 that certain of the public, dissatisfied with the facilities 
 ofiered by the Post Office, were forwarding letters as parcels 
 by the various railway companies. Many small provincial 
 newspapers, whose proprietors could not afford to pay for 
 press telegrams, were receiving ' copy ' from their London cor- 
 respondents and agents in this way. Immediately the matter 
 came to the knowledge of the Postmaster-General he addressed 
 a letter, dated Apiil ist, 1887, to the various railway com- 
 panies, pointing out to them that they were infringing upon 
 
IX.] The Evils of State Trading. 
 
 309 
 
 Ms exclusive privilege, and requesting them to discontinue 
 the practice, which, he stated, was imperilling ' the privileges 
 conferred upon him by law for the benefit of the public,' and 
 endangering the public revenue. 
 
 It is difficult to get people to realise that a thing which for 
 the most part only costs a penny is yet much dearer than it 
 need be. But such is undoubtedly the fact. It was cal- 
 culated by Sir Rowland Hill that the cost of conveying a 
 letter from one point in the United Kingdom to any other was 
 /y of a penny. Suppose, then, we assume that the cost of 
 collecting, stamping, conveying, and delivering a letter posted 
 in London and addressed to Glasgow to bo one-sixth of a penny, 
 it will be seen that an enterprising postal agency would be 
 able to carry a letter for which we now pay the State a 
 penny for a halfpenny, and even for a farthing, and realise a 
 handsome profit. We do not argue that a penny postage is a 
 colossal grievance, for many people have been heard to exclaim 
 that a reduction of the rate of postage and a consequent 
 increase of correspondence are a prospect which they cannot 
 regard with equanimity. This of course is the reason of the 
 long-suffering of the public in this matter. But our object is 
 to point out that a Government monopoly charges at leaSt 
 double what would be charged under an open system, and to 
 ask the reader to believe that the effect of enlarging the sphere 
 of Government monopoly would be to double the cost of living 
 all along the liae. As to our foreign and colonial letters, 
 Mr. Henniker Heaton, M.P., has shown that, assuming 
 one-sixth of a penny to represent the cost of conveying 
 an ordinary letter from London to Southampton, the total 
 cost of conveying a letter from London to New Zealand 
 would be a farthing, one-twelfth of a penny being allowed to 
 cover the cost of carrying from Southampton to destination, 
 which is more than twelve times the highest rate for the most 
 precious goods. Yet for this service, which could be performed 
 at a handsome profit at a penny per letter, the State has all 
 along been charging sixpence ; and it was only during the last 
 session of Parliament that the Government, in response to a 
 strong and indignant feeling in the country aroused by the 
 
3IO A Plea for Liberty. [ix. 
 
 member for Canterbury, wbose exposures of Post Office ex- 
 travagance, bungling, and inefficiency have attracted so much 
 attention, virtually confessed that the public had been over- 
 charged all along, and that henceforth a uniform rate of two- 
 pence-halfpenny for letters would be instituted between 
 England and her colonies. The average citizen will doubtless 
 bless the Post Office for the reduction, unconscious of the fact 
 that he has been overcharged throughout the past, and that the 
 overcharge will continue at the rate of three-halfpence per letter 
 until the postage is reduced to a penny. Merchants, news- 
 paper proprietors, and others who have been aware of this, 
 have evaded payment by posting their letters in France 
 or Germany, whence the rate to nearly all parts of the 
 world is loo per cent, cheaper than it is from England ; and 
 it has been stated that one London firm alone saves .^1300 
 per annum by posting its letters in France for India and 
 China, where the rate is twopence-halfpenny as against five- 
 pence charged in England. When, it is considered that a 
 letter posted in New York for Singapore, and carried there 
 via England, in one of our mail steamers, costs twopence- 
 halfpenny, whereas a letter posted in England for Singapore 
 is charged fivepence ; that the cost of letters from England to 
 Shanghai, if sent through the French or German Post Office 
 there is twopence-halfpenny, but if through the English Post 
 Office at the same place the charge is fivepence per letter, and 
 that the same is the case in Zanzibar and other places ; that 
 millions of samples of English merchandise are still being sent 
 from London to be posted in Belgium back to every town in 
 England at half the rates which are charged if posted in Eng- 
 land^ ; and that these and other facts stated above are merely 
 samples, taken at random, of the multitudinous anomalies of 
 our State postal system, some idea may be formed of the 
 enormous saving to the community, especially the commercial 
 section, to whom this matter is of serious consideration, were 
 the present State monopoly abolished and replaced by private 
 enterprise. 
 
 1 ride Mr. Henniker Heaton's Postal Reform, and his letter in Times, Sept. 
 nth, 1889. 
 
IX.] The Evils of State Trading. 311 
 
 We do not share Mr. Henniker Heaton's opinion that the Post 
 Office will ever prove an efficient machine while under State 
 management. The Postmaster-General, however, has confessed 
 to the justice of his complaint, and has yielded to criticism 
 in Parliament a reduction of rates which would lone aeo have 
 reached the public under a system of private enterprise. 
 
 What a public misfortune it would be if we were dependent 
 for all reductions of price in articles of daily consumption on 
 the successful badgering by private members of the minister 
 ia charge. The present plan seems to be to put up the rate 
 of postage and lower the rate of telegrams quite irrespective of 
 cost price, and merely according to the whim of some hard- 
 pressed Postmaster- General. 
 
 The principles upon which this State monopoly is conducted 
 are of anything but a business character, and are such as if 
 adopted by any private firm or company would result in 
 speedy ruin. Its periodical accounts, says Mr. Henniker 
 Heaton, are of such a nature that no one can find out what 
 the gross receipts and net profits are within three-quarters of a 
 million of money ; and it has been stated that they are never 
 properly audited. Its revenue is hundreds of thousands more 
 than is represented in the estimates, the amounts being paid 
 away in contracts with foreign Governments which have 
 never been submitted to or sanctioned by the House of 
 Commons. For the use of the Brindisi route it has been 
 frequently pointed out that it ought not to pay more than 
 ^31,200, yet it actually pays .^84,000, or ^53,800 more 
 than is fair and necessary. Its stationery contract with 
 Messrs. De la Rue and Co. lost the country from ^€"60,000 to 
 ^^70,000 a year, making a total loss to the British public of 
 if 500,000 on the ten years' contract ; yet the Postmaster- 
 General repeatedly stated in answer to questions in the 
 House of Commons that ' the contract was a positive boon to 
 England.' In a letter published in the Times on September 
 nth, 1889, Mr. Henniker Heaton says: — 
 
 The extraordinary method is pursued of paying out of the current revenue 
 of the Post Office the cost of land and buildings required for Post Office pur- 
 poses, and through this means the Postmaster-General owns already land to 
 
312 A Plea for Liberty. [ix. 
 
 the value of more than two and a quarter millions in London alone. No 
 business man in the world would conduct his affairs in this manner — taking 
 no account of the money he expends in landed property and buildings. Yet 
 this very department, that trifles with hundreds of thousands of pounds, 
 refuses to allow a local postmaster in my constituency to expend is. 6(i. in 
 mending a lock of a door, but insists on despatching an officer from the 
 Board of Works to the scene at a cost of £3 los. This I proved before the 
 Select Committee. 
 
 From what other cause than a systematic looseness in 
 appointing its officials is it due that the abstraction of postal 
 orders is of almost daily occurrence ? During the year 1887 
 the Postmaster-General stated that the abstraction of these 
 orders 'reached portentous dimensions.' During 1889, 335 
 dishonest letter-carriers were found guilty and dismissed 
 for irregularities, and on an average more than three officials 
 per week were convicted and sentenced to long terms of 
 imprisonment for stealing letters, and a large number 
 cautioned for suspicious conduct or carelessness ^. 
 
 Who has not suffered under the discourtesy of the officials, 
 both male and female, employed by the Post Office to attend 
 to the wants of its customers ? Who, residing in a suburb in 
 which the Post Office is inside an ordinary baker's, grocer's, or 
 chemist's shop, has not been annoyed when the shopkeeper, 
 after blandly asking them what they required, and being told it 
 was a penny stamp, abruptly turned to wait upon their own 
 customers first, keeping the State's customers waiting until they 
 had time to serve them ? During the middle of the present 
 year (1890) the relations between the young ladies of the 
 Ludgate Circus Post Office and the general public became so 
 strained that the Postmaster-General was compelled to remove 
 the whole staff and replace it by one of males. One does not 
 find such a state of affairs existing in any private establish- 
 ment. A customer enters a draper's, tailor's, or other shop, 
 and meets with courtesy and pleasantness, and is served with 
 promptitude. A spirit of discourtesy in such places would 
 drive customers away. But in the Post Office it is different : 
 the customer has no remedy ; he cannot go elsewhere to get 
 hia postal wants supplied. The officials know this, hence their 
 
 ' Mr. Henniker Heaton's Fo^al Eeform, p. 14. 
 
IX. The Evils of State Trading. 313 
 
 attitude towards the helpless public. Let the shopping public 
 contemplate what shopping would be under socialism, when 
 every article would have to be purchased in establishments 
 conducted in the same discourteous manner as the Post Office, 
 and their bias will be anything but socialist. 
 
 The arbitrary and frequently impudent manner in which the 
 Post Office treats its customers forms the subject of hundreds 
 of letters which annually appear in the public press. The 
 victims of what Mr. Herbert Spencer calls 'the stupidity, the 
 slowness, the perversity, the dishonesty of officialism ' in the 
 Post Office, finding they have no remedy for the wrongs that 
 they have been subjected to, give vent to their well-founded in- 
 dignation in the columns of the Times and other papers. Thus 
 we read of a firm of merchants in Edinburgh complaining 
 that through the admitted carelessness of a Post Office tele- 
 graphist a telegram addressed to them was never delivered, 
 and they sustained a loss of 5^100. When they sent in a 
 claim to the postal authorities they were told that ' the 
 department is not legally responsible for the delay complained 
 of,' but that it would refund to them the sum of Jid., being 
 the amount paid for the transmission of the telegram ! Com- 
 mercial men and others lose thousands of pounds every 
 year by delay and wrong delivery of letters and telegrams. 
 Valuable goods are damaged, lost, or stolen when sent through 
 the parcels post, and the complaining owners receive nothing 
 but a stereotyped expression of regret from the officials, and a 
 disclaimer of all responsibility. In the case of the parcels 
 post the public have only themselves to blame. If parcels 
 sent by private carriers — who, as will be presently shown, 
 carry them quicker and cheaper than does the State — are 
 damaged, lostj. or stolen, or even delayed, the owner receives 
 fuU satisfaction for any loss sustained. So that if people are 
 foolish enough to ' slight the good and faithful servant, and 
 promote the unprofitable one,' they must put up with the 
 consequences. We find other victims complaining that while 
 the Post Office imposes a fine in the event of the face of a 
 postcard bearing any words in addition to the address, it 
 almost invariably disregards its own part of the contract and 
 22 
 
314 -^ P/i?fl for Liberty. [ix. 
 
 defaces the letter on the back of a post-card by affixing its 
 official stamp upon it. During last August, the writer, whilst 
 staying in a little town on the Norfolk coast, received four post- 
 cards in three days, and each card was defaced in the manner 
 described, several words in two of them being completely ob- 
 literated. A protest against this breach of contract elicited 
 from the Secretary the consoling reply that he regretted the 
 cause of complaint, and that the special attention of the postal 
 
 officials at C had been called to the matter. If a private 
 
 firm repudiated responsibility for its blunders and carelessness, 
 we should regard the fact as disentitling it to our custom. Can 
 the systematic repudiation by the State be regarded in any 
 other light ? Again, others write to protest against what they 
 justly term ' the contemptible trick,' ' a breach of trust and 
 confidence,' — the opening of letters by the Post Office. What 
 could be more contemptible than the trick recently perfoimed 
 by the Post Office upon the Postmen's Union. At eleven 
 o'clock on the morning of Saturday, August i6th, 1890, one of 
 the officials of the Union posted in the Finsbury district several 
 postcards addressed to clubs in the immediate neighbourhood, 
 asking them to get volunteers to carry collection-boxes on 
 the following day (Sunday) at the dockers' demonstration, on 
 behalf of the postmen dismissed during the recent postmen's 
 strike. These postcards should have been delivered before 
 6 P.M. on the same day at the latest, but they were kept back 
 by the Post Office officials and not delivered till the Monday, 
 too late for the purpose they were intended for. 
 
 With regard to the recent strikes among the postmen, it 
 would be well that the working classes to whom the specious 
 doctrines of socialism are being preached should realise the 
 change for the worse that would take place in their position as 
 workers in the event of the present industrial system being 
 replaced by one of a socialist character. With the 'New 
 Unionism ' which seeks to enslave the labourer under a new 
 form of tyranny, we have no sympathy whatever. At the 
 same time it must be borne in mind that the right of voluntary 
 combination for the legitimate purpose of mitigating by lawful 
 means some of the evils of competition is one, of the most 
 
IX.J The Evils of State Trading. 3 1 5 
 
 cherished privileges of the English working class. It is true 
 that in asking its servants to forego this privilege the Post 
 Office offers pensions and other advantages which to some 
 might seem an adequate substitute. This, however, rightly 
 or wrongly, is not the view of many Post Office servants. And 
 even though it may be reasonable to ask the labourers in one 
 or two industries to contract themselves out of their ricrht of 
 combination, it is quite unreasonable to propose that the 
 whole of the working class should abdicate their liberty of 
 action in the way required by the Post Office officials. Eut 
 this is really the proposal of the socialists. It is very probable 
 that Mrs. Besant is right in thinking that the Post Office 
 officials have a comfortable berth, but the fact does not 
 reconcile them to the restraints imposed upon their liberty, 
 and we are not disposed to blame them. The socialist or- 
 ganisers of the strike spared no effiart of rhetoric in enlarging 
 on the servile condition, as they termed it, of the State 
 servants, and the secretary of the Union described the Post- 
 master-General ' as a task-master worse than the vilest East 
 End sweater.' Yet this is the institution which Mrs. Besant 
 quite correctly puts forward as the most ne"&rly successful 
 example of State socialism which the world has ever seen. 
 
 We pronounce no judgment on the merits of the quarrel 
 between the Postmaster-General and his servants. We point 
 out, however, the anomaly that when a labourer takes service 
 in a State monopoly he is called on to surrender his right of 
 combination with his fellows. There is, of course, justice in 
 this : the Post Office has prevented competition, and is bound 
 to protect the public against a cessation of the letter-carrying 
 service. This it can only do by introducing a species of 
 military law, a condition characteristic of all socialist institu- 
 tions, which workmen should bear in mind. 
 
 Attention will now be called to a few facts in connection 
 with certain attempts on the part of the Post Office to com- 
 pete with private enterprise. 
 
 Tie Parcel Post. This department of the Post Office 
 was established a few years ago with the object of the 
 State becoming exclusive carrier of small parcels. This 
 
2,1 6 A Plea for Liberty. [ix. 
 
 attempt to compete with railway companies and other 
 common carriers has been finanei9,lly a signal failure. In the 
 matter of rates we find those charged by the railway companies 
 and carriers about 50 per cent, less than those charged by the 
 Post Office, the former collecting and delivering the parcels 
 within ordinary limits without additional charge. Instead of 
 a person carrying his parcels to a Post Office, where he has to 
 wait and get them weighed, and where he is compelled to pre- 
 pay the carriage before they are received, a railway company 
 collects them without charge, and it is optional whether the 
 carriage is paid by the sender or the consignee. If parcels are 
 handed over to the Post Office they are sent by certain trains 
 only during the day, whereas if handed to a railway company 
 they are despatched by the first passenger-train after receipt. 
 The Post Office receives parcels up to a limited time only, 
 whereas the railway companies receive and despatch them by 
 the latest transit, including midnight service, thus ensuring a 
 very speedy delivery next morning without any extra expense. 
 In the case of parcels handed to a railway or carrying company 
 being damaged or lost the owner is entitled to full compensa- 
 tion without having to pay any charge beyond the ordinary 
 carriage, whereas if they are handed to the Post Office ' The 
 Postmaster- General wiU (not in consequence of any legal 
 liability, but voluntarily and as an act of grace) . . , give 
 compensation for loss and damage of inland parcels' not 
 exceeding £\ where no extra fee is paid, not exceeding £^ 
 where an insurance fee of a penny is paid, and not exceed- 
 ing .^10 where an insurance fee of twopence is paid. 'In 
 no case will a larger amount of compensation than £\o be 
 paid 1.' 
 
 Savings Bank. The Post Office Savings Bank was estab- 
 lished for the encouragement of thrift among the working 
 classes. With its abundant facilities for the receipt and 
 payment of money one would imagine that the Post Office 
 would be certain to meet aU the banking requirements of the 
 working classes, and make it almost impossible for private 
 
 ' Vide Postal Guide. 
 
IX.] The Evils of State Trading. 3 1 7 
 
 enterprise to compete with it in this particular field of indus- 
 try. Such, however, is not the case. Not only does the Post 
 Office fail to meet those requirements, but its business as 
 working-class banker is conducted with that lack of enter- 
 prise which is characteristic of all Government departments, 
 and in point of convenience and advantage to customers it 
 compares very unfavourably with working-class banks con- 
 ducted by private enterprise. 
 
 The Post Office Savings Bank receives deposits of one 
 shilling, or any number of shillings, but a person is not 
 allowed to deposit more than .^30 in one year, or .^150 in 
 all, exclusive of the interest of 3^ per cent, per annum for 
 each complete pound. The hours during which offices are 
 open for the receipt and payment of money are the very hours 
 during which the working classes are engaged at their work, 
 and during which the Post Office clerks are busily engaged in 
 discharging their ordinary duties. There are, however, certain 
 offices open on Friday and Saturday evenings till 7 p.m. or 
 8 P.M., but only for receiving deposits. When a depositor 
 wishes to make a withdrawal from his account he is compelled 
 to call at a Post Office and obtain a notice of withdrawal 
 form, which he must fill up and post to the office of the 
 Savings Bank Department, from which he will in the course 
 of a day or two receive a warrant upon his local Post Office 
 to pay him the sum required. He has then to pay another 
 visit to the Post Office, and after presenting his pass-book 
 and signing his name to the warrant in the presence of the 
 postmaster or other Post Office official and satisfying the 
 said postmaster or other official that he is really and truly 
 the person in whose favour it is made, he succeeds in obtain- 
 ing a withdrawal from his account. If a depositor is sick or 
 abroad, or Ijjy any cause prevented from presenting the warrant 
 in person, payment is made to ' the bearer of an order under 
 Ms hand, signed in the presence of any officer of the Post 
 Office other than the paying officer, a minister of any re- 
 ligious denomination, a justice of the peace, a commissioner to 
 administer oaths, or, in case of sickness, the medical attendant. 
 If the depositor be resident abroad, the signature must be 
 
3i8 A Plea for Liberty. [ix. 
 
 verified by some constituted authority of the place m which 
 he resides, or a notary public ^.' 
 
 It is obvious that these absurd regulations are most incon- 
 venient to working-class depositors, and a source of consider- 
 able annoyance and irritation. Many accounts have been 
 wholly withdi'awn, or transferred elsewhere in consequence. 
 
 If we compare the general working of the Post Office 
 Savings Bank with that of a banking business conducted by 
 private enterprise, the comparison will be very favourable 
 to the latter. Take the National Penny Bank for example. 
 This was established in 1875, having for its objects to 
 promote thrift by affording facilities for the exercise of thrift, 
 to establish a permanent Penny Bank, o-pen every evening, 
 and to make such Penny Bank absolutely safe, self-supporting, 
 and on a commercial basis. It has a head office at West- 
 minster, a city office, and branch offices in various parts of the 
 metropolis and the London suburbs. These offices are open 
 during each evening to receive deposits from one penny 
 upwards to any amount, and to pay withdrawals on demand. 
 Interest is paid at the rate of 3 per cent, per annum on 
 complete pounds left in the Bank for complete calendar 
 months. Depositors may withdraw money iy post by simply 
 sending a written application accompanied by pass-book, and, 
 if the depositor so desires, an amount will be sent by cheque 
 to any person named by him. The Bank also advances money 
 to working men to enable them to purchase their own houses, 
 charging interest at 5 per cent, per annum. 
 
 The growth of this National Penny Bank is most encourag- 
 ing, and its success depends on the facilities which it 
 ofiers to its customers. We could wish that the directors 
 could find it possible to 'overcome the obvious difficulty of 
 expense, and to imitate the collecting insurance companies, 
 so that these advantages and opportunities for saving could 
 be brought to the door of every working man. The Bank 
 is now paying a dividend, and has proved that working- 
 class banking can be made a profitable industry. There can 
 
 ' Post Office Guide, p .390. 
 
IX.] 
 
 The Evils of State Trading. 
 
 319 
 
 be little doubt that banks of this sort will soon supersede 
 the Post Office. 
 
 Insurance Department. The above is no mere assumption : 
 for in the allied industry of insurance the business done by- 
 private enterprise far surpasses that done by the Post Office, 
 aided though it is by its ubiquity and the undeniable nature 
 of its security. The following table will give an apt com- 
 parison of the business of the Post Office, as against the business 
 of one company, viz. the Prudential Assurance Company as 
 shown by the latest returns : — 
 
 Post OmoE. 
 
 No. of Contracts 
 in existence. 
 
 Premium Revenue. 
 
 Insurance 6310 
 Deferred 
 
 Annuities 1015 
 
 7225 
 
 Insurance 14,121 
 Annuities 19,625 
 
 Increase in the 10 
 
 years 1879-SS. 
 
 ^3,694 
 
 33.746 
 
 Pbudehtial 
 (Industrial). 
 
 8,518,619 
 
 ^3.336.742 
 
 £1,849,202 
 
 Prtjde.ntiai, 
 (Ordinary). 
 
 177,208 
 
 £904,915 
 
 £611,313 
 
 Telegraphs. When the possibility of conveying intelligence 
 instantaneously for long distances was demonstrated, and 
 when Cooke and Wheatstone patented their magnetic needle 
 telegraph in 1837, the State did not avail itself of the inven- 
 tion, but remained satisfied with the old semaphore. The 
 new invention was worked by private entei-prise for thirty- 
 three years, and ' during this period,' said Sir Charles 
 Bright in his address to the Society of Telegraph Engineers 
 and Electricians in 1887, 'those engaged in the undertaking 
 had provided the capital, incurred all the risk, and devel- 
 oped the telegraphic system into a highly lucrative business, 
 from which the profits were steadily increasing, so much 
 so that the net earnings of the two largest companies 
 ranged from 14 to 18 per cent, per annum.' When the 
 State realised that the business was a financial success, it 
 took steps to acquire all the telegraphic undertakings in the 
 kingdom, and in 1868 an Act was passed entitling it to do 
 this, and in the following year a further Act was passed 
 
320 A Plea for Liberty. [ix. 
 
 which gave to the Post OfBce the monopoly of telegraphic 
 communication. From that time till now the telegraphs 
 in the hands of the State, while they have remained very 
 stationary in respect of public utility, have been a financial 
 failure, the annual deficit frequently exceeding half a million, 
 as was the case in 1886-87, when the deficit for the year was 
 £540,527. Yet the Submarine Telegraph Company has been 
 conducting the communication between England and the 
 continent under the Channel with great efficiency, and at 
 moderate rates, and has deservedly been reaping a profit for 
 its usefulness, and paying a dividend of 15^ per cent. The 
 telegraphs' deficit is made up of various items, the principal 
 representing interest on capital, the outcome of the bad 
 bargain the State, with characteristic stupidity and short- 
 sightedness, made at the outset with the private companies, 
 and the rest representing unprofitable management of the 
 business, and squandering of money in large salaries to 
 useless ofiicials. If a private company conducted its business 
 in such a loose manner it would be classed as a dead failure, 
 and would speedily terminate its existence in bankruptcy 
 proceedings. But as the business is a State monopoly the 
 taxpayers are compelled to give it a whitewashing to the 
 tune of half a million per annum, and to allow it to pursue 
 its career of wasteful inefficiency. 
 
 For the purpose of comparison it may be stated that the 
 various railway companies in the kingdom annually receive, 
 transmit, and deliver over their own respective systems 
 hundreds of thousands of their own private telegrams at a cost 
 of a mere fraction of a penny per telegram ; while the State 
 experiences a loss upon every telegram that passes through its 
 hands, although the minimum charge for sending a telegram is 
 sixpence. The following figures, piiblished during January, 
 1887, speak for themselves. The Post Office within an area 
 of twelve miles from the General Post Office sends a weekly 
 average of 290,027 telegraphic messages over its wires at an 
 average cost of eightpence per message. The United (now the 
 National) Telephone Company, within an area of five miles 
 from the same centre, in one week of December, 1886, trans- 
 
ix.J The Evils of State Trading. 321 
 
 mitted 449,695 telephonic messages at an average cost of 
 three farthings each. It may be added that while the Post 
 Office has an annual deficit of about half a million, the National 
 Telephone Company at its meeting in July last declared a 
 dividend of 6 per cent., and reported an increase in the gross 
 revenue, a decrease in the working expenses, and a large 
 addition to the reserve fund. 
 
 The only branch of the postal service which is a financial 
 success is that of letter-carrying. As already shown, the actual 
 cost of an ordinary inland letter is ^\ of a penny : all the rest 
 is clear profit. The heavy losses sustained in every other 
 branch of the postal service have to be covered by the profits 
 realised by the penny post. It will perhaps be as well to hear 
 what the Postmaster- General has to say in reference to these 
 matters. Replying to a deputation from the Wolverhampton 
 Chamber of Commerce, which waited upon him on January 
 a7th, 1888, to call attention to several anomalies connected 
 with the postal and telegraph regulations, and to com- 
 plain that orders to manufacturers and others sent by the 
 halfpenny post were charged letter-rate if any note was 
 added, and to request that documents of a commercial 
 character — orders, invoices, shipping instructions, bills of 
 lading, &c. — should go through the halfpenny post, and to 
 seek some reduction in the charges for sending telegrams from 
 Post Ofiices through the telephone to their destination, and to 
 point out that private firms were producing and selling post- 
 cards at 6\d. per dozen, while the Post Ofiice charged 8c?. per 
 dozen, the Postmaster- General said, — 
 
 That to make arrangements for matter not enclosed to be carried for \d. 
 instead of id. could not be done. It would have an effect upon the i-evenue 
 which could not be contemplated without horror. The penny postage earned 
 an income which had to be expended on other branches of the service 
 Telegraphs were a losing business, and the deficiency was paid by the penny 
 postage. ITie carriage of newspapers also involved considerable loss, and the 
 halfpenny post was rather a losing than a paying concern. Anything which 
 largely shifted correspondence from the penny to the halfpenny rate might 
 actually disturb the equilibrium of the revenue ; therefore anything that 
 
 struck at the penny post could not be entertained As to postcards, 
 
 when they were sold at M. per dozen and private firms could produce them 
 for 6Jd. there must be some unsatisfactoiy practice. He had information on 
 
32 2 A Plea for Liberty. [ix. 
 
 that subject ■which he hoped to utilise for the public benefit '. Respecting tele- 
 phones it was wnsaiisfactory that the Government had to compete with private firms, and 
 before long the system must be taken up by the Government and telephones 
 placed on the same footing as telegraphs, and be controlled altogether by the 
 Grovemment ^. 
 
 Socialists will agree with their friend, the Postmaster- 
 General, that it is unsatisfactory that the State has to compete 
 with private enterprise. If the State could suppress private 
 enterprise, if it could eliminate the factors of human progress, 
 commercial success, and national greatness, it would enable 
 socialism to take the place of civilisation ; but while private 
 enterprise enjoys its present freedom, which will be as long 
 as men value liberty, socialism has nochance of success. 
 
 Whether or not it is the intention of the State to take 
 over the telephone, it should not be forgotten that it did its 
 best to obstruct its introduction, and prevent the use of that 
 ingenious and novel invention in this country. Although 
 the telephone was not invented and brought to this country 
 till 1877, it was found to be embraced by the wide-mean- 
 ing terms of the Telegraphs Act of 1869. The Post Office 
 declined to use it or to allow private enterprise to do so. The 
 State having become a trader in the conveyance of intelligence 
 electrically, was afraid that by allowing private enterprise 
 to use the telephone the telegraph monopoly would be seriously 
 interfered with. But this dog-in-the-manger policy was of 
 short duration. The public, fully alive to the advantages to be 
 derived by such a cheap and handy means of communication 
 &n the telephone would afford, demanded that some concession 
 should be made by the Post Office. This was eventually done, 
 the telephone companies being permitted to establish com- 
 munication in certain places, providing they handed over to the 
 
 * The manner in which the Post- firms selling at a lower rate than the 
 
 master-General has utilised his ' in- Post Office he has increased the rate 
 
 formation ' ' for the public benefit ' is for stamping private postcards from 
 
 yiOT'.'hy of notice. He has caused the is. 6d. to 2S. 6d!. per quire, thus im- 
 
 Post Office to issue postcards of a posing a fee of 200 per cent, above 
 
 similar quality to those hitherto pro- the price at which any printer would 
 
 duced and sold at a profit by private execute the work ! Vide Mr. Henniker 
 
 firms for 6|d per dozen at 6d. for Heaton's Postal iJe/onra, pp. 12,13. 
 
 ten, and in order to prevent private ' St /o7iies'sffase««, June 27th,i888. 
 
IX.] The Evils of State Trading. 323 
 
 Post OfBce one-tenth of their gross receipts. Thus the National 
 Telephone Company supplies a customer with a telephone for 
 the use of which it charges ^20 per annum, ^a, of this going 
 to the Post Office, 'simply as black-mail,' says Sir Frederick 
 Eramwell, and the public are kept out of the use of this 
 important means of communication unless they submit to this 
 monstrous tax. 
 
 It is, indeed, sad to reflect that in this England of ours, 
 which boasts of its freedom, a Government department should 
 be permitted to restrain and hamper the development of this 
 cheap means of communication, which has really become one 
 of the necessities of commercial life. The fact that we have 
 the present limited means of telephonic communication (the 
 number of instruments under rental in England being 99,000, 
 while in America at the beginning of the present year there were 
 322,430, being an increase of 16,675 over the number in 1889) 
 is due entirely to the bull-dog pertinacity, the watchful care, 
 and the courageous energy of the telephone companies in 
 resisting the Post Office in its endeavours to uphold its 
 retrograde position. 
 
 Upon the occasion refeiTed to above, the Postmaster- 
 General said that he ' should be glad of any suggestions 
 which would assist in placing the whole system of telephon- 
 ing in this country on a satisfactory basis.' But there is 
 really one way in which the State could assist in doing 
 this, and that is, by removing all the restrictions which 
 it has placed upon the development and extension of tele- 
 phonic communication in this country, in order that the public 
 may enjoy the full benefit of the telephone, which has been 
 well referred to as one of the most ingenious inventions that 
 ever was made. 
 
 Notwithstanding the very profitable nature of the letter- 
 carrying monopoly, it cannot be said that, at times of great 
 press of business, the public is served with that absence of fuss 
 and effort which ought to characterise a great and wealthy 
 corporation. At Christmas-time the Post Office is completely 
 disorganised. Its customers are pitifully implored not to 
 pay exclusive regard to their own convenience, and to 
 
324 A Plea for Liberty. [ix. 
 
 despatch their packages and letters according to a time- 
 table drawn up by the Post Office to suit its own con- 
 venience. But despite these precautions, the deliveries turn 
 out irregular or break down altogether ; and although the 
 same disorganisation reappears each succeeding year, "just 
 as if the stress of business which causes the breakdown had 
 never occurred before and was quite outside the field of human 
 prevision. This disorganisation and breakdown commences 
 a week or ten days in advance of Christmas, and even on the 
 15th of December the block and muddle have been so well 
 developed that it has taken a letter two days to travel 
 between the S. W. and E. C. districts ; a book posted in 
 London for Paris has occupied four days in transit; and 
 within the metropolitan district telegrams hav^iaiisiured along 
 at the rate of one mile in twenty minutes. |For a few days 
 previous to Christmas the first delivery of Mters falls two 
 hours in arrear, and by the a4th it has been fknown to break 
 down altogether. It may be said that private trading com- 
 panies sometimes break down under a foreseen stress of 
 business, and that the railway companies at Christmas allow 
 their train-system to get disorganised. This, no doubt, is 
 true ; but we are searching (in vain it may be) for some point 
 in which the State monopoly shows its superiority. It may, 
 however, be pointed out that private carriers do not cry to be 
 let ofl", but rise to the requirements of the occasion, provide 
 additional facilities, and all the time by prodigal advertisement 
 solicit rather than deprecate the patronage of the public. It 
 should, moreover, be borne in mind that the services most 
 liable to break down at times of pressure partake more or less 
 of the nature of monopolies. The Post Office and the railway 
 system are liable to break down, but the ordinary services 
 which are bought and sold in the open market do not break 
 down. The moral is obvious. Let us have no more monopolies 
 than are absolutely necessary. Let human ingenuity do its 
 best to make free exchange of service everywhere the rule. 
 It is difficult to see why this rule should not apply to the 
 Post Office. 
 
 Again, the cessation of postal deliveries during the recent 
 
IX.] The Evils of State Trading. 325 
 
 strike among the postmen furnishes a lesson to the commercial 
 world which should act as a warning to the public not to en- 
 courage a State monopoly in the means of carrying everything. 
 To-day, with the various private carriers and railway com- 
 panies, a strike among the servants of any particular company 
 is fraught with comparatively small inconvenience to the public. 
 All our large commercial and industrial centres are supplied 
 by several distinct railways, each competing with the others 
 for public favour and patronage. So that in the event of 
 a strike taking ^lace among the servants of one railway 
 company running between Manchester anti London, goods 
 and passengers would simply be carried by the others. But 
 if all the means of communication were in the hands of the 
 State, and its underpaid and overworked servants came out on 
 strike, the trade and commerce of the country would be para- 
 lysed, and wholesale disaster and ruin would ensue before the 
 stupidity and wooden-headedness of State officialism could be 
 brought to realise the situation and devise a remedy. 
 
 It is not in the Post Office alone that State-trading stands 
 self-condemned. Evils, direct and indirect, must result from 
 the State undertaking functions which can only be properly 
 performed under ever- varying conditions by a free initiative, 
 whose very existence depends on its ability to provide constant 
 and adequate satisfaction of public wants. And if those 
 persons who demand the municipalisation of this industry, and 
 the nationalisation of that, would only direct their attention 
 to the State monopolies with which we are pestered at present, 
 they would have demonstrated to them the inherent rottenness 
 of the principles which they so loudly advocate, and would 
 discover that after all private enterprise, stimulated by the 
 necessity and advantage of mutual service, was the principle 
 which alone could make for improvement, success, and pro- 
 gress, to all of which State-trading is essentially prohibitive. 
 
 FrEDEBICK MiLLAli. 
 
X. 
 FBEE LIBBABIES, 
 
 M. D. O'BRIEN. 
 
X. 
 
 FBBB LIBRABIES. 
 
 A Feek Libeaet may be defined as the socialists' continu- 
 ation school. While State education is manufacturing readers 
 for books, State-suppoi-ted libraries are providing books for 
 readers. The two functions are lo^cally related. If you may 
 take your education out of your neighbour's earnings, surely 
 you may get yoxir literature in the same manner. Literary 
 dependency has the same justification as educational de- 
 pendency ; and, no doubt, habituation to the one helps to 
 develop a strong desire for the other. A portion of our 
 population has by legislation acquired the right to supply 
 itself with necessaries and luxuries at the cost of the rates. 
 The art of earning such things for themselves has been 
 rendered superfluous. Progress therefore halts because this 
 all-important instinct has fallen into disuse. At a point the 
 rates will bear no more, and those who depend on them for 
 their pleasures are doomed to disappointment. They are 
 entitled to our pity for the helpless condition into which the 
 system contracts their faculties and* their character. Those 
 who have been compelled to accept a semi-gratuitous educa- 
 tion, which is not, in all probability, the sort of education 
 they would have chosen for themselves, but which is intended 
 to create a taste for reading, can hardly be expected to relish 
 paying the market value for their books and newspapers. 
 They have been taught to read at other people's expense, and 
 why should they not be provided with books in the same easy 
 way ? It is not at present proposed to supply them with fools- 
 23 
 
330 A Plea for Liberty. [x. 
 
 cap, &c., in order that they may ' keep up ' their Avriting pro- 
 ficiency, but no doubt this is a luxury reserved for the near 
 future. No doubt this ' cheap ' way of getting literature helps 
 to throw light on the fact that so many public books are 
 injured by bad usage, and defaced by marginal notes. That 
 which is got for nothing is valued at nothing.' Possibly the 
 advocates of literary pauperism will see little force in the 
 argument that if readers were left to pay for their own 
 books, not only would books be more valued, but the 
 moral discipline involved in the small personal sacrifice 
 incurred by saving for such a purpose, would do infinitely 
 more good than any amount of culture obtained at other 
 people's expense. It is true the Free Library party strongly 
 repudiate the charge of dishonesty ; but it is difiicult to see 
 any real difierence between the man who goes boldly into his 
 neighbour's house and carries off his neighbour's books, and 
 the man who joins with a majority, and on the authority of 
 the ballot-box, sends the tax-gatherer round to carry off the 
 value of those books. 
 
 We insist most strongly on the injury done to the pau- 
 perised recipients of these favours. Want is the spring of 
 human effort. Self-discipline, self-control, self-reliance, are 
 the habits which grow in men who are allowed to act for 
 themselves. The meddlesome forestalling of individual effort, 
 which is being carried into mischievous excess, is going far to 
 bind our poorer classes for another century of dependence. 
 
 Let us run, as rapidly as possible, through a few of the pleas 
 set up by the advocates of this form of municipal socialism. 
 Good books, it is said, are out of the reach of the working 
 man. Even if this were true, it is no reason for persuading 
 him to tax his neighbour for them. If the working man 
 cannot come by his books honestly, let him wait until he can. 
 But a glance down the lists of some of our publishers will show 
 anyone that the statement is not true — is the very reverse of 
 truth. When books like ' Pilgrim's Progress,' ' The Vicar of 
 Wakefield,' ' Easselas,' ' Paul and Virginia,' Byron's ' Childe 
 Harold,' ' Lady of the Lake,' ' Marmion,' and others, can be 
 purchased from Messrs. Dicks at twopence each; when all 
 
X.] Free Libraries. 331 
 
 Scott's novels can be obtained from the same publishers for 
 threepence per story; when, from the same source, any of 
 Shakespere's plays can be got for a penny each, it will not do 
 to say that the best kind of literature is unpurchasable by 
 a class that spends millions a year on alcohol, as well as 
 thousands on tobacco and other luxuries. Three or four 
 pence, which even comparatively poor people think nothing 
 now-a-days of spending on an ounce of tobacco or a pipe, will 
 buy enough of the best literature to last an ordinary reader at 
 least a week or a fortnight. And when the book is read, there 
 is the pleasure to be derived from lending or giving it to a 
 friend, and of accepting the loan or gift of his in return ; a 
 custom that largely obtains in country districts where no 
 socialistic collection of unjustly gotten books exists to hinder 
 the development of personal thrift, or poison the springs of spon- 
 taneous generosity. Lying on the table where this is written 
 is a list of the works published in Cassell's National Library. 
 How some of the old book-lovers who are gone — who lived in 
 the days when the purchase of a good book involved some 
 personal sacrifice — would have appreciated this valuable 
 library! Here are ao8 of the world's best books, each one of 
 which contains some 200 pages of clear readable type. The 
 published price is threepence each ; but a discount of twenty- 
 five per cent, is allowed when four or five or more are purchased. 
 It would be a waste of space to give the entire list ; but a few 
 typical examples may be taken. Here are the Essays of Lord 
 Macaulay; here are works by Plutarch, Herodotus, Plato, 
 Xenophon, Lucian, F^nelon, Voltaire, Boccaccio, Goethe, and 
 Lessing — in English, of course. Here is Walton's ' Complete 
 Angler,' Goldsmith's 'Plays,' Bacon's 'Wisdomof the Ancients' 
 and 'Essays.' Here are works by Burke, Swift, Steele and 
 Addison, Milton, Johnson, Pope, Sydney Smith, Coleridge, 
 Dickens, Landor, Fielding, Keats, Shelley, Defoe, Dryden, 
 Carlyle, Locke, Bolingbroke, Shakespere, and many others. All 
 Shakespere's plays are here complete, and each play is accom- 
 panied by the poem, story, or previous play on which it is 
 founded. Here, for example, is the last of the series as yet 
 published, 'All's Well that Ends Well' ; it contains a transla- 
 
332 A Plea for Liberty. [x. 
 
 tion of the story of Giletta of Narbona from Painter's 'Palace of 
 Pleasure ' : it is worth threepence to a student, if only for show- 
 ing the difference between raw material and finished product. 
 Hundreds of new novels, including some of those of Thackeray, 
 Kingsley, Dickens, Lytton, and other well- known authors, are 
 to be obtained in most 'places for ^\d., and their second- 
 hand price is less still. Considering the marvellous cheap- 
 ness of good books, it is difficult to understand how any- 
 one can either blackmail his neighbour for them, or encourage 
 working-men to do so. If a man will not deduct a few 
 coppers now and then from his outlay in other luxuries to 
 purchase literature, he cannot want literature very badly ; if 
 he does not value books sufficiently well to buy them with 
 his own earnings he does not deserve to have them bought 
 for him with other people's earnings. That poor women and 
 others, who are often the sole support of a large family of 
 children, should have their hard earnings confiscated to 
 maintain readers — many of them well-to-do — in gratuitous 
 literature, is an injustice not to be palliated by all the hollow 
 cant about culture and education so freely indulged in at the 
 present time. Some time ago there was a discussion on ' the 
 sacrifice of education to examination.' There is another question 
 quite as serious — the sacrifice of justice to so-called education. 
 But, we are told, the educational value of Free Libraries 
 is so great as to outweigh all other considerations. Some 
 estimate will shortly be given, of this value, but just now it 
 is not out of place to inquire what is meant by this mis- 
 leading term, education. What is it to be educated? I am 
 a farmer, let us say, and my fathers have been farmers for 
 generations back. Heredity has done something to fit me 
 for a farm life, as it has fitted the Eed ' Indian for his 
 hunting grounds. But I have a son whose tastes are similar 
 to my own. I was bred up on the farm, and accustomed 
 to rural work from infancy. I have thus acquired a prac- 
 tical knowledge which life-long experience alone can give. 
 Naturally I decide to give my son the same education. No, 
 no, says the State, you must send your children to this school 
 for some five or six of the best hours of every day ; we cannot 
 
X.] Free Libraries. 333 
 
 allow you to bring them up in ignorance. Now what does 
 this mean? It means that just at the time when a child 
 is beginning to form his tastes, just at the period when the 
 daily habituation to the simple duties of farm life would 
 lay the foundation, both of sound health and practical 
 knowledge, he is taken out of the parent's control, and sub- 
 jected to a mind-destroying, cramming process, which excludes 
 practical knowledge and creates a dislike for all serious 
 study — for force is always the negation of love. And this, 
 forsooth, is education 1 This is fitting men and women for 
 the practical duties of a world in which the largest proportion 
 of the work requires no book learning to do it ! The pulpit 
 and the press, the guides of popular opinion, have put it about 
 that there is nothing like books, the shoemaker has been heard 
 to make the same remark about leather, and our School Board 
 mill does its best to turn out the article ' clerk ' of a uniform 
 pattern. When shall we learn that the only useful education 
 for nineteen out of every twenty is one which develops a 
 quick ear, a sharp eye, a strong well-knit and muscular 
 frame, and that it is not to be got by repeating lessons, 
 but by continual contact with the facts of everyday life; 
 for thus only can children acquire a practical knowledge of 
 the world in which their future life has got to be lived. 
 
 It is hardly necessary for us to say that we have no objec- 
 tion, either for ourselves or for our neighbours, to novel reading. 
 On the contrary, we regard it as a legitimate form of recreation. 
 All we argue is that it is not a luxury which should be paid 
 for out of the rates. Now, to listen to the advocates of Free 
 Libraries one would imagine that these institutions were only 
 frequented by students, and that the books borrowed were for 
 the most part of a profound and scholarly character. But the 
 very reverse of this is the case. The committee of the Black- 
 pool Free Library, in their Report for the year 1887-8, say : — 
 ' Works of fiction and light literature enjoy the greatest degree 
 of popularity, each book circulating eleven times in the year, 
 whUe the more instructive books in the other classes circulate 
 only once during the same period.' The following table, taken 
 from page 5 of the Blackpool Report, shows ' the number of 
 
334 
 
 A Plea for Liberty. 
 
 [X. 
 
 works in the Library in each class, the number of issues in 
 each class, the average number of times each work in each class 
 has been issued, and the daily average issue in each class : ' — 
 
 Caassifloation of Works. 
 
 Number 
 
 of 
 Works. 
 
 Number 
 
 of 
 Iseaes. 
 
 Average Ko. of times 
 each work has circu- 
 lated during the year. 
 
 Daily 
 Average 
 Issue. 
 
 Class A. — Theology, Philosophy, &c. 
 
 „ B. — History, Biography, Travels 
 
 „ O. — Law, CoTnmerce, &c. . . 
 
 „ D. — Science, Art 
 
 „ E. — ^Fiction and Poetry, and ) 
 General Literatvire . . \ 
 
 359 
 
 141 6 
 
 144 
 
 496 
 
 3785 
 
 199 
 
 2700 
 
 100 
 
 990 
 4II99 
 
 0-5 
 1.9 
 
 0.7 
 
 2-0 
 II-O 
 
 0.7 
 9.0 
 0-3 
 3-4 
 
 137-° 
 
 Total . . 
 
 6200 
 
 45188 
 
 8-5 
 
 150.2 
 
 No wonder is it, after such results as this, that the Committee 
 should express the opinion ' that the rich stores of biography, 
 history, travels, and works of science and art which have 
 been added in recent years are deserving of greater attention 
 than has hitherto been given to them.' 
 
 It will be seen that in the above table novels, poetry and 
 general literature are all lumped together. The usual and 
 more satisfactory custom is to classify fiction by itself. The 
 following tables, taken from page 7 of the Eeport of the Cam- 
 bridge Free Libraries for 1888-9, shows the work done there 
 during something over thirty years (see Table A). A similar 
 return is given (in Table B) for the Norwich Free Library. 
 
 The aggregate yearly issue of course varies in different 
 towns. We print a table taken from page 18 of the eighth 
 annual Report of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Free Library 
 (see Table C). ' 
 
 We give also a balance-sheet which will serve to show the 
 kind of expenses attendant on these institutions (Table D). 
 
 Of course the cost of a Free Library varies with the amount 
 realised by the rate which is levied on the assessed rentals 
 of householders. Subjoined are two tables, taken from the 
 second and third annual Reports of the Yarmouth Free 
 Library^ which show both the amount paid and the work 
 done for it in a number of boroughs in different parts of 
 the country (Table E). 
 
X.] 
 
 Free Libraries. 
 
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X.] 
 
 Free Libraries. 
 
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340 A Plea for Liberty. [x. 
 
 The rate is limited by law to a penny in the pound. There 
 
 are, however, various devices by which it may be raised. The 
 
 most usual is to smuggle a clause into a ' Local Improvement 
 
 Act ' or ' Omnibus Bill.' The following letters were received 
 
 in reply to an inquiry on this point : — 
 
 WiGAN Fkee Pubuc Ltbraut, 
 
 February nth, 1890. 
 Dear Sir, — ^The clause we have obtained for increasing the rate to 2d. was 
 contained in a local Act (or omnibus Bill), which included as well many other 
 matters relating to other departments of the Corporation. The Mayor of 
 Wigan took the chair at a public meeting of the ratepayers, and the Bill was 
 approved by a majority of those present. No poll was taken or asked for. 
 Very few libraries are rated at less than id. in the £. I do not believe they 
 could work at all successfully on less except in the case of very large centres, 
 producing a large return. I do not know of individual cases of libraries on 
 less than a id. rate, 
 
 I am, yours truly, 
 M. D. O'BKiEir. H. T. Foi^kakd. 
 
 Town TT at,t,, Pkestoh, 
 Feiruary 11th, 1890, 
 There was no poll on the Bill which contained the power to increase the 
 Free Library rate to i^d. 
 
 H. TTameb, 
 M. D. O'Beten. Town Clerk. 
 
 Oldham, 
 Febnuzry 12th, 1890. 
 Sir, — ^The Council of this borough obtained power to levy a higher rate than 
 Id. in the £ through an Improvement Bill, which, I believe, passed the House 
 of Commons in 1865. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Thos. W. Haud, 
 M. D. O'Bbieh. Chief Librarian. 
 
 Preb Ltbkaet, NoTTraGHAM, 
 
 February nth, 1890. 
 Dear Sir, — Our library rate is only id. in the £, though we get a separate 
 allowance from the Council of £1500 per year for support of nine or ten 
 reading-rooms in different parts of the borough. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 M. D. O'Beieh. Thomas Deht. 
 
 Leioestee Feee Public Libbabt, 
 
 February nth, 1890. 
 Dear Sir, — A poll was not taken when the library rate was increased to 2d. 
 in the £ ^. The present levy is ijd., which is allotted by the Council to three 
 
 ' When the article on Libraries in Leicester rate was ^d. in the £. It 
 the present edition of the Encydo- is a common argument of the Free 
 Britannica was written the library agitators to tell the rate- 
 
X.] Free Libraries. 341 
 
 committees, Free Library, Museum, and Art Gallery. When the rate was in- 
 creased a clause was inserted in the local Act. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 M. D. O'BEtEir. C. KmBT. 
 
 EEItlKElfOB LlBBABY, BlEMLNQHAM, 
 
 February 2oth, 1890. 
 Dear Sir, — The Free Libraries' rate in Birmingham for last year (1889) was 
 l'2'jd. in the £. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 M. D. O'Bkiek. J. D. MmiiHS. 
 
 But although the nominal and frequently exceeded limit 
 is now one penny in the pound, there is no knowing how 
 soon it may be raised. Already the Library Association of 
 the United Kingdom, a body composed of librarians whose 
 bureaucratic instincts naturally impel them to push their 
 business by all possible means, has awarded a prize of ten 
 guineas for a draft Library Bill, which, among other things, 
 ■ permits a twopenny instead of a penny rate. ' But,' says 
 the Daily News of Oct. 4th, 1889, ' the feeling appeared to be 
 unanimous that it would be unwise to put this forward as a 
 part of the Association's programme, as it would enormously 
 increase the opposition to the adoption of the Act in new 
 localities.' No regard for the ratepayers' pockets holds them 
 back ; but only a fear of injuring business by frightening the 
 bird whose feathers are to be plucked. Were it not for this 
 the Bill would be pushed forward, and those ratepayers who 
 have voted for the adoption of the Act in the belief that no 
 more than one penny can be levied, would have the rate 
 suddenly doubled over their heads without knowing it. 
 Perhaps, after all, it would serve them right ^. 
 
 payers that the library rate will only proposed, " that in the opinion of this 
 
 be ^. in the £. This was done at association the time has come when the 
 
 Hastings, where the Acts were re- essential necessity of public libraries 
 
 cently rejected by a majority of more as an extension of the compulsory 
 
 than three to one. national education being recognised, 
 
 1 Free Life of loth Oct., 1890, illus- the question of establishing libraries 
 
 trates the greediness of officialism for be no longer left to a plebiscite, and 
 
 power in the following :— that the establishment of a suitable 
 
 • The Pall Mall Gazette reported (Sep- library in every district as defined 
 
 tember 20) that, at the Library Asso- imder the Acts be compulsory." He 
 
 elation at Beading, Mr. MaoAlister expected that the resolution would 
 
342 
 
 A Plea for Liberty. 
 
 [X. 
 
 The enormous amount of light reading indulged in by the 
 frequenters of Free Libraries leads us to expect that these 
 places are largely used by well-to-do and other idlers. And 
 this is exactly what we jBnd. Free Libraries are perfect 
 'god-sends' to the town loafer, who finds himself housed 
 and amused at the public expense, and may lounge away 
 his time among the intellectual luxuries which his neigh- 
 bom-s are taxed to provide for him. Says Mr. MuUins, the 
 Birmingham librarian, ' No delicacy seemed to deter the poor 
 tramp from using, not only the news-room, but the best seats 
 in the reference library for a snooze. Already the Committee 
 had to complain of the use of the room for betting, and for 
 the transaction of various businesses, and the exhibition of 
 samples, writing out of orders, and other pursuits more suited 
 to the commercial room of an hotel' And referring to 
 another Free Library, the same authority continues : — ' In the 
 Picton Koom of the Liverpool Library, alcoves were once pro- 
 
 te lost, as on other occaBions, but he 
 should move it year after year till it 
 was carried. Mr. Tedber said they 
 would be laughed at if they passed 
 such a resolution just now. Mr. Mac- 
 Alister said he was aware of the 
 objections and the dreadful things 
 that would be said if they passed the 
 resolution, but it seemed to him 
 absurd that libraries should be the 
 only institutions whose establish- 
 ment depended on a popular vote. It 
 seemed to him a reproach to civilisa- 
 tion and to the latter end of the 
 nineteenth century that such should 
 be the case. If he had moved such 
 a resolution before compulsory educa- 
 tion was adopted he could understand 
 that the arguments against it would 
 have been strong indeed ; but we com- 
 pelled people to read, some of whom 
 did not want to, and he considered 
 it a cruel thing to create a want the 
 country was not prepared to supply. 
 He held that to make it compulsory 
 to establish free libraries was the 
 logical outcome of the Education Act. 
 
 The resolution was negatived by four votes 
 — 33 to 29. A few more MacAlisters 
 scattered about the country, and 
 people will begin to see what a 
 weapon taxation is to put into the 
 hands of logical fanatics, starting 
 from a false premiss. In some parts 
 of the world there is a law obliging a 
 man who has a vote to record it ; 
 perhaps Mr. MacAlister will propose 
 presently that we should be obliged 
 to read the books in his libraries. 
 
 ' What is interesting to observe in 
 all these matters is that the com- 
 pulsion-fanatics have given up the 
 idea of the people choosing for them- 
 selves what is good for them. That 
 pretence is worn out and thrown on 
 one side, and whatever the busy- 
 bodies think good for body or soul, 
 that is to be established forthwith. 
 How ludicrous this reign of busy- 
 bodydom would be, if it were not for 
 the rather dismal fact that so few 
 people take the trouble to fight the 
 busy-bodies resolutely.' 
 
x.j Free Libraries. 
 
 343 
 
 yided with small tables, on which were pens, ink, &c., but it 
 was found that pupils were received in them by tutors, and 
 much private letter- writing was done therein ; so that when 
 a respectable thief took away £%o worth of books they were 
 closed ^.' 
 
 After the cant usually indulged in by the officials of 
 literary pauperism such candour as this is positively refreshing. 
 It is seldom the high priest allows us to look behind the 
 curtain in this fashion. As a rule, the admission is much less 
 direct, and can only be gathered from a careful analysis of the 
 statistics. According to the Bristol Report for last year, there 
 were 416,418 borrowers during the twelve months preceding 
 December 31, 1889: of these 148,99a are described as having 
 'no occupation.' The Eeport of the Atkinson Free Library 
 of Southport informs us that out of the 1283 new borrowers 
 who joined the library last year, 536 are written down 
 as of 'no occupation.' At the same town, in the years 
 1887-8, there were 641 who, according to the report, were with- 
 out any occupation, out of a total of 148 1. According to the 
 annual Report of the Leamington Free Public Library for 
 1888-9, 187 made a return 'no occupation,' out of a total of 
 38a applicants. In the Yarmouth Report for the same year, 
 out of a total of 3085 new borrowers, 1044 are described as of 
 ' no occupation ^ ; the report for the previous year states the 
 proportion as follows: — Total of borrowers, 3813; 'no occu- 
 pation/ 1078 ; in the year before that the total was— 3401 ; 
 ' no occupation,' 1368. 
 
 Some reports give a fuller analysis of the different classes 
 of people who use the libraries to which they refer. In the 
 Wigan Report for last year we are told that 13,336 people 
 made use of the reference library in that town during 1888-9. 
 The largest items of this amount are given as follows: — 
 Solicitors, 1314 ; clergy, 903 ; clerks and book-keepers, 1521 ; 
 colliers, 961 ; schoolmasters and teachers, 801 ; architects and 
 surveyors, 418; engineers, 490; enginemen, 438. At New- 
 
 ^ Eeport of a Conference in Bir- in the British and Colonial Stationer, 6th 
 mingham of the Library Association Oct., 1887. 
 of the United Kingdom, published 
 
344 -^ P^^<^ for Liberty. [x. 
 
 castle-on-Tyne, last year, there were ii,6ao persons used the 
 reference library, and only 3949 of these were of 'no occu- 
 pation.' Yet, notwithstanding the numerical weakness of the 
 latter, they managed to consult nearly half the books that were 
 consulted during that year. The total number consulted 
 was 36,100; and 16,800 were used by people who had 'no 
 occupation.' And this is legislation for the Working Classes ! 
 There is little doubt that at least forty-nine out of every 
 fifty working-men have no interest whatever in these insti- 
 tutions. For one penny they can buy their favourite news- 
 paper, which can be carried in the pocket and read at any 
 time ; whereas if they wanted to see a paper at a Free Library 
 they would generally have to wait half an hour or an hour in 
 a stufiy room, without being allowed to speak during the 
 time. The following sensible remarks are from the pen of one 
 who has risen to an honourable position from a very humble 
 beginning without the aid of Free Libraries or Board Schools : — 
 
 Not long ago a conference of working men was held at Salford to consider 
 the question of rational amusement, when, in reply to a series of questions, 
 it was stated that Free Libraries were not the places for poor, hard-working 
 men, who had social wants which such libraries could not gratify. It was 
 argued that people who went to work from six in the morning till six at night 
 did not want to travel a mile or so to a Free Library. Music, gymnastics, 
 smoking and conversation rooms, and other things were suggested, but in 
 summing up the majority of replies, it appeared that amusement rather than 
 intellectual improvement, or even reading, was what was most wanted by 
 men after a hard day's toil. This appears to have been realised in the erec- 
 tion, according to Mr. Besant's conception, of the Palace of Delight in the 
 east end of London. 
 
 The truth is that a Free Library favours one special section 
 of the community — the book-readers — at the expense of all the 
 rest. The injustice of such an institution is conspicuously 
 apparent when it is remembered that temperaments and tastes 
 are as various as faces. If one man may have his hobby paid 
 for by his neighbours, why not all % Are theatre-goers, lovers 
 of cricket, bicyclists, amateurs of music, and others to have 
 their earnings confiscated, and their capacities for indulging 
 in their own special hobbies curtailed, merely to satisfy 
 gluttons of gratuitous novel-reading 1 A love of books is a 
 great source of pleasure to many, but it is a crazy fancy to 
 
X.] Free Libraries. 345 
 
 suppose that it should be so to all. If logic had anything to 
 do with the matter we might expect to hear proposals for 
 compelling the attendance of working men at the Free Library. 
 But surely in this nineteenth century men might be trusted 
 to choose their own amusements, and might mutually refrain 
 from charging the cost thereof to their neighbours' account. 
 This pandering to selfishness is bad for all parties, and doubly 
 so to the class it is specially intended to benefit. 
 
 The following imaginary dialogue will perhaps serve to 
 show the inherent injustice of literary socialism. 
 
 A and B earn is. each by carrying luggage. Says J. to -B : 
 ' I am in favour of circulating books by means of a subscription 
 library; from this is. I therefore propose to deduct id. in 
 order to compass my desire. There is my friend C, who is of 
 the same opinion as myself, and he is willing to subscribe his 
 quota to the scheme. We hope you will be willing to subscribe 
 your mite, but if not, we intend to force you to do so, for, as 
 you know, all private interests must give way to the public 
 good.' 
 
 ' Perhaps so,' replies B, ' but then, you see, I have my own 
 opinions on the subject, and I do not believe that your method 
 of supplying literature is the best method. Of course I may 
 be wrong, but then I am logically entitled to the same freedom 
 of thought and action as you yourseK are. If you are entitled 
 to have your views about a " Free " Library and to act upon 
 them, I am equally entitled to the same liberty, so long as I 
 don't interfere with you. I don't compel you to pay for 
 my church, my theatre, or my club ; why should you compel 
 me to pay for your library ? For my own part I don't want 
 other people to keep me in literature, and I don't want to keep 
 other people. I refuse therefore to pay the subscription.' 
 
 'Very well,' rejoins A, 'if that is the case I shall proceed 
 to make you pay ; and as I happen to represent a numerical 
 majority the task will be an easy one.' 
 
 ' But are we not man and man,' says B, ' and have not I 
 
 the same right to spend my earnings in my own way as you 
 
 have to spend yours in your way ? Why should I be compelled 
 
 to spend as you spend ? Don't you see that you are claiming 
 
 24 
 
346 A Plea for Liberty. [x. 
 
 more for yourself than you are allowing to me, and are sup- 
 plementing your own liberty by robbing me of mine ? Is this 
 the way you promote the public good ? Is this your boasted 
 free library ? I tell you it is founded upon theft and upon the 
 violation of the most sacred thing in this world — the liberty of 
 your fellow man. It is the embodiment of a gross injustice, 
 and only realises the selfish purpose of a cowardly and dishonest 
 majority.' 
 
 ' We have heard all this before,' replies A, ' but such con- 
 siderations must aU give way before the public good. We are 
 stronger- than you are, and we have decided once and for all 
 that you shall pay for a "Free" Library; don't make un- 
 necessary resistance, or we shall have to proceed to extremities.' 
 
 And, after all, the so-called Free Library is not really free 
 — only so in name. If the penny or twopenny rate gave 
 even the shabbiest accommodation to anything like a fair 
 proportion of its compulsory subscribers, there would not 
 be standing room, and the ordinary subscription libraries 
 would disappear. According to Mr. Thos. Greenwood, who 
 in his book on 'Free Libraries' has given a table of the 
 daily average number of visitors at the difierent Free 
 Libraries distributed up and down the country, there is 
 only one per cent., on an average, of A'isitors per day of 
 the population of the town to which the library belongs 
 accommodated for a rate of one penny in the pound, — some- 
 times more, sometimes less; — but the general proportion is 
 about one per cent. Now what do these facts mean ? If it 
 costs one penny in the pound to accommodate so few, what 
 would it cost for a fair proportion to receive anything like 
 a share that would be worth having? Even now it is a 
 frequent occurrence for a reader to wait for months before he 
 can get the novel he wants ^. Says Mr. George Easter, the 
 
 ' This is not mere theory. I have it,andofteii,if youdidget it,thebook3 
 
 before me a letter from a friend in were in such a dirty condition as to 
 
 ■which he says he has ceased to borrow detract from the pleasure of reading 
 
 books from the Sheffield Library be- them.' On one occasion when the Shef- 
 
 caase 'if you wanted anypopular fie- field Central Library was opened after 
 
 tion you had great difficultyin getting a holiday, the books having all been 
 
X.] Free Libraries, 2,A^ 
 
 Norwich librarian :— 'Novels most read are those by Ainsworth, 
 Ballantyne, Besant, Braddon, Collins, Craih, Dickens, Fenn, 
 Grant, Haggard, Henty, G. Kingsley, Kingston, Edna Lyall, 
 Macdonald, Marryat, Oliphant, Payn, Eeade, Reid, Verne, 
 Warner, Wood, Worboise, and Young; of those underlined (in 
 italics) the works are nearly always out ^.' The fact is, the Free 
 Library means that the many shall work and pay and the few 
 lounge and enjoy ; theoretically it is free to all, but practically 
 it can only be used by a few. 
 
 While there is such a run on novels, solid works are at 
 a discount. At Newcastle-on-Tyne during 1 880-81 we find 
 that 2100 volumes of Miss Braddon's novels were issued (of 
 course some would be issued many times over, as the whole 
 set comprised only thirty-six volumes), while Bain's ' Mental 
 and Moral Science ' was lent out only twelve times in the 
 year. There were 1330 volumes issued of Grant's novels, and 
 fifteen issues of Butler's 'Analogy of Religion ' ; 4056 volumes 
 of Lever's novels were issued, while Kant's ' Critique of Pure 
 Reason' circulated four times; 4901 volumes of Lytton's 
 novels were issued, while Locke ' On the Understanding ' 
 went eight times. Mill's ' Logic ' stands at foui-teen issues as 
 against Scott's novels, 3300 ; Spencer's ' Synthetic Philosophy' 
 (8 vols.) had forty-three issues of separate volumes ; Dickens' 
 novels had 6810; Macaulay's 'History of England' (10 vols.) 
 had sixty-four issues of separate volumes. Ouida's novels had 
 1030 ; Darwin's ' Origin of Species ' (3 vols.) had thirty-six 
 issues; Wood's novels, 148 1. Mill's 'Political Economy' had 
 eleven issues; Worboise's novels, 1964. Smith's 'Wealth of 
 Nations' (3 vols.) had foui'fceen issues; Collins' novels, 1368. 
 
 called in for inspection, there were It was found that vast numbers of 
 about half a dozen people at the door people used the library only to get at 
 ready to rush in and get the latest the newly published novels, which 
 popular novels before the rest of the in many cases are issued at 31s. 6d. 
 public could secure them. The the set of three volumes. And it 
 diiBculty of getting any particular must be admitted that there is some- 
 novel is so great. thing very arbitrary in taxing the 
 ' A few years ago the authorities general public for a library, and then 
 had to take strong measures in the preventing them from seeing the only 
 interests of students against the novel boobs they care to read, 
 reading users of the British Museum. 
 
348 A Plea for Liberty. [x. 
 
 'No worse thau in other libraries,' it may be said; 
 ' knowledge is at a discount : sensation at a premium every- 
 where ! ' Perfectly true ; but are people to be taxed to give 
 facilities for this ? Novel reading in moderation is good : the 
 endowment of novel reading by the rates is bad — that is our 
 contention. And when it is remembered that any book requir- 
 ing serious study cannot be galloped through, like a novel, in 
 the week or fourteen days allowed for use, it becomes at once 
 evident that this gratuitous lending system is only adapted for 
 the circulation of sensation, and not for the acquirement of real 
 knowledge. It would be interesting to know what portion of 
 a book like Kant's ' Critique of Pure Reason,' or like Smith's 
 ' Wealth of Nations,' was studied, or even read, diiring the 
 year ! And this is the sort of thing people allow themselves 
 to be rated and taxed for ! This is progressive legislation, and 
 its opponents are backward and illiberal I 
 
 Free Libraries are typical examples of the compulsory 
 co-operation everywhere gaining ground in this country. 
 Like all State socialism they are the negation of that liberty 
 which is the goal of human progress. Every successful 
 opposition to them is therefore a stroke for human advance- 
 ment. This mendacious appeal to the numerical majority to 
 force a demoralising and pauperising institution upon the 
 minority, is an attempt to revive, in municipal legislation, a 
 form of coercion we have outgrown in religious matters. 
 At the present time there is a majority of Protestants in this 
 country who, if they wished, could use their numerical strength 
 to compel forced subscriptions from a minority of Catholics, 
 for the support of those religious institutions which are 
 regarded by their advocates as of quite equal importance to 
 a Free Library. Yet this is not done ; and why 1 Because 
 in inatters of religion we have learnt that liberty is better 
 than force. In political and social questions this terrible 
 lesson has yet to be learned. We deceive ourselves when we 
 imagine that the struggle for personal liberty is over — 
 probably the fiercest part has yet to arise. The tyranny 
 of the few over the many is past, that of the many over the 
 few is to come. The temptation for power — whether of one 
 
X.] Free Libraries. 349 
 
 man or a million men — to take the short cut, and attempt by 
 recourse to a forcing process to produce that which can only 
 como as the result of the slow and steady growth of ages of 
 free action, 'v, so great that probably centuries will elapse 
 before experience will have made men proof against it. 
 But, however long the conflict, the ultimate issue cannot be 
 doubted. That indispensable condition of aU human progress 
 — ^liberty — cannot be permanently suppressed by the arbitrary 
 dictates of majorities, however potent. When the socialistic 
 legislation of to-day has been tried, it wUl be found, in 
 the bitter experience of the future, that for a few temporary, 
 often imaginary, advantages we have sacrificed that personal 
 freedom and initiative without which even the longest life is 
 bat a stale and empty mockery. 
 
 M. D. O'Bbien. 
 
XI 
 
 THE STATE AND ELECTRICAL 
 DISTBIB UTION. 
 
 F W. BEAUCHAMP GORDON. 
 
XI. 
 
 THE STATE AND ELEGTEIGAL 
 DISTRIBUTION. 
 
 On the third of April, i88a, the House of Commons ordered 
 to be printed a Bill ' to facilitate and regulate the Supply of 
 Electricity for Lighting and other purposes in Great Britain 
 and Ireland.' This was the Electric Lighting Act, i88a, in 
 embryo ; the first attempt at legislative control, by a general 
 Act of Parliament, of an industry that had begun to loom large 
 in the public mind. 
 
 Some of the provisions of this Act, and of subsequent enact- 
 ments affecting electrical undertakings, constitute what is 
 admittedly a new departure in industrial legislation. Yet 
 the provisions themselves and their tendency, particular and 
 relative, may be said to be almost entii-ely unappreciated and 
 unknown, except by those immediately affected — sometimes 
 even by them. Ohms, and volts, and amperes, and other so- 
 called 'electrical jargon,' have apparently frightened men 
 away from the whole subject. It is hoped, therefore, that a 
 short review of the evolution of the provisions and enact- 
 ments above referred to, and an examination of some of the 
 more important of the questions involved, by one who has 
 been concerned in the business of electric supply from its first 
 inception in this country, who has given much thought to the 
 subject, and who engages to severely ignore anything like 
 technical jargon, may prove both interesting and useful. 
 
 The history of parliamentary connection with the subject of 
 electrical distribution dated from the Session of 1879, when 
 several Bills were promoted by local authorities and others 
 praying for powers to supply electric light. This was the 
 year of the Paris Electrical Exhibition. Multitudes of people 
 
354 ^ Plea for Liberty. [xi. 
 
 then realised for the first time the beauty of the new illumi- 
 nant, and especially its immediate availability, in the form of 
 the glow lamp, for domestic no less than for public use. A labo- 
 ratory toy, to the lay mind, had been suddenly metamorphosed 
 into something practical, something that you could 'turn on 
 in your house like gas,' and a good deal more. And the 
 gas companies, in their first startled recognition of the 
 appearance of a dangerous rival, swooped down upon it with 
 a claim to a monopoly of the streets for lighting purposes. 
 The whole subject was referred to a Select Committee of the 
 House of Commons. In the Report subsequently presented to 
 the House, the Committee, after brushing aside contemptuously 
 the monopolist claims of the gas companies, (a) recommended 
 that every facility should be given to local authorities to 
 carry out, or to procure the carrying out, of experimental 
 electric lightiag, but (6) expressed the opinion that the time 
 was not yet ripe for any general legislation upon the subject. 
 Consequent upon that recommendation, seven private Acts of 
 Parliament were granted, for a term of five years (ten years . 
 in the case of Hull), to as many local bodies, authorising them 
 to raise limited sums of money (generally .^''5000, but in the 
 case of Hull and of Liverpool .^50,000) for the purpose of 
 experimenting iu th§ supply of electric light. 
 
 During the three following years huge strides were made, at 
 any rate in the popularization of the idea of an early distribu- 
 tion of electricity from large centres. Everybody knows, 
 many but too well, the history of that short and disastrous 
 interregnum, the harvest of the patentee and the company- 
 promoter. Every difficulty was said to have been overcome, 
 and electric light as ' the light of the future ' became a common- 
 place. The House of Commons, on assembling for the Session 
 of 1883, found itself inundated with Electric Lightiag Bills. 
 Patent-owning electric companies, gas companies, gas- 
 owning corporations, and corporations unencumbered with 
 that dubious property, jostled each other in the eager race for 
 statutory powers to supply electric energy. But if the new 
 industry was to assume any more important rdle than that of 
 setting up a show-light on a town parade, if it was seriously 
 
XI.] The State and Electrical Distribution. 355 
 
 to contest, as it was trumpeted to be about to do, the whole 
 field occupied by the gas companies, some recognition was 
 essential of the duties and responsibilities no less than the 
 privileges incident to such a position. No such recognition, it 
 must be confessed, or only a very inadequate one, was dis- 
 coverable in either of the Bills before the House of Commons. 
 The Electric Light Companies sought a kind of roving com- 
 mission, to open streets, to erect posts, and to contract with 
 local authorities for the supply of electricity, in any part of 
 the kingdom. Provisions were of course inserted guarding 
 against wanton interference with gas and water mains and 
 telegraphic wires, but the promoters were before all things 
 owners of patent rights in dynamo machines and lamps, for 
 which they were eager to find a market, the more extensive 
 the better. The gas companies proposed simply to extend 
 to electric supply the provisions of the Gas Acts ; and the 
 corporations, gas-owning and other, were also generally con- 
 tent with the incorporation in their Bills of legislative enact- 
 ments already in force. The Bills differed widely in their 
 details, but there was a common want of appreciation of the 
 necessities of the case. The general legislation deferred in 
 1879, had now become, if not absolutely necessary, at any rate 
 very desirable. So much is conceded ; the interests of the 
 public and the best interests of the electrical industry itself 
 alike required it. 
 
 But legislation of what sort, within what limits? It is 
 here that we arrive at the parting of the ways. Kegulations 
 guarding against misuse of the streets ; regulations protecting 
 the public, as far as possible, from the danger of a careless 
 distribution of electric energy, and penal clauses enforcing 
 those regulations ; these were no doubt required. Provisions 
 ensuring an impartial and efficient supply of light at a 
 maximum price were perhaps also necessary, though not so 
 obviously so, at least at the first, in face of the inevitable 
 competition with gas. But these things being premised, the 
 electric light would seem to have had special claims to in- 
 dulgent treatment, (a) It was known to differ in its very 
 essence from all other forms of artificial light, simply glowing 
 
356 A Plea for Liberty. [xi. 
 
 in vacuum, consuming no oxygen, and creating no noxious 
 fumes. Its use in home life -would thus make for healthful- 
 ness as well as for beauty. (6) Its supply would provide a 
 much-needed outlet for private enterprise and the energy that 
 had long drooped under the depression of trade and com- 
 merce, (c) It would have to be begun and continued, in 
 competition with an illuminant which, however inferior as an 
 illuminant, was cheaper, and might be still further cheapened, 
 and which had the nine-point advantage of possession. For 
 these among other reasons the legislature might have been 
 expected to look with encouraging face upon the new candi- 
 date for statutory powers. 
 
 But without insisting upon these claims to a ' most-favoured' 
 treatment, any Electric Lighting Act intended really to 
 ' facilitate ' the supply of electric light had, on the face of it, 
 one would say, to recognise three essential features. 
 
 (i) It should embody full powers to enable the undertaker 
 to generate his electricity, and to distribute it along or under 
 the streets to his customers, and it must make the acquisition 
 of those powers as easy as possible. 
 
 (2) While strictly guarding the safety and the rights both 
 of the pubhc and of previously existing and interested bodies, 
 it should not enforce conditions impossible or injurious to 
 the economical working out of the problem of electrical 
 distribution. 
 
 (3) It should (therefore) give security of tenure sufficient to 
 attract the investor and to ensure the fuH development of the 
 industry ; and in this connection special regard should be had 
 to any inherent difficulties in the way of such development. 
 
 The Bill referred to at the beginning of this paper was on 
 the 17th April, i88a, read a second time in the House of 
 Commons, and committed to a Select Committee. Let us see 
 what sort of recognition it proposed to give to the principles 
 just enunciated. 
 
 Full statutory powers to supply electricity for any public 
 or private purposes might be obtained : 
 
 (i) By license ; ibo be granted by the Board of Trade to any 
 local authority, company, or person, with the consent of the 
 
XI.] The State and Electrical Distribution. 357 
 
 local authority having jurisdiction within the area to be 
 supplied. This license was to be for any period not exceeding 
 five years, to be renewable at its expiration, with the renewed 
 consent of the local authority interested. 
 
 Simple and inexpensive as the acquisition of powers under 
 this form of tenure would be, it was obviously open to the 
 objection that the persons seeking them would be entirely in 
 the hands of the local authority. And it was admitted even 
 by the Board of Trade that, from simple inertness, or from an 
 endeavour to impose unfair terms, or from an indisposition to 
 introduce a competing illuminant, where the local authorities 
 themselves supplied gas, the indispensable consent might be 
 um'easonably refused. The period, too, was so limited, and 
 its renewal so uncertain, nobody could seriously contend that 
 this met the necessities of the case. Another form of tenure 
 was therefore provided, which would, ifiier alia, be virtually 
 an appeal from the local authority to the Board of Trade and 
 to Parliament. This was to be obtained : 
 
 (2) By provisional order ; to be granted by the Board of 
 Trade, without requiring such consents as were required to 
 the grant of a license, and for such period, whether limited 
 or unlimited, as the Board of Trade might think proper. Of 
 another (at least implied) form of tenure, that by Special Act, 
 nothing need be said. 
 
 It will be shown presently how far the Board of Trade 
 afterwards fell away from this state of grace ; but, keeping in 
 mind the avowed object of the Bill, the clause just summarised 
 was, one would say, precisely what it should have been. 
 
 The same remarks, with slight modification, may be made 
 relative to the provisions contained in the Bill for the regula- 
 tion and control of the operations incidental to a system of 
 supply. 
 
 But the crucial feature of the Bill was contained in a sub- 
 section to the clause authorising the grant of provisional 
 orders. 
 
 This sub-section provided that at the expiration of seven 
 yeb,rs from the date of the legal commencement of a provisional 
 order, or of any subsequent period oifive years, any company 
 
358 A Plea for Liberty. [xi. 
 
 or person supplying electricity within any area should be 
 compelled, on requisition, to sell their undertaking to the 
 local authority, and to sell it at the then market value of the 
 works and plant suitable to the carrying on of the under- 
 taking; all other considerations that usually attach to the 
 sale of a business (goodwill, profits, compensation for com- 
 pulsory sale, &c.) being expressly excluded. 
 
 Does it not read almost like an exquisite bit of irony, the 
 description of such a measure as ' a Bill to facilitate .... the 
 supply of electricity ? ' It must, however, be stated, in fair- 
 ness to the framers of this clause, that in introducing the Bill 
 to the Select Committee the question * whether seven years 
 was the proper figure or not,' was announced as a question 
 for the consideration of the Committee. But the terms of 
 compulsory purchase were regarded as an essential feature of 
 the Bill, and the clause as it stood indicated very plainly the 
 spirit in which the Government proposed to deal with the 
 latest industrial application of scientific discovery. 
 
 A large number of witnesses appeared before the Committee 
 to give evidence relating to the provisions of this Bill — 
 witnesses on behalf of the Corporations and of the Electric 
 Light Companies. Having heard all these witnesses, the Com- 
 mittee, towards the end of May, formulated certain resolutions, 
 which were subsequently embodied in a fresh Bill. 
 
 In this Bill the tenure of supply by private undertakers 
 was extended to fifteen years. Certain other amendments, 
 and a few new clauses, one of which will demand some 
 attention by and by, were added before the Committee rose, 
 and then the Bill was reported to the House of Commons. 
 Before the close of the Session it had passed through a Lords' 
 Committee, and had become the Electric Lighting Act, 1883. 
 
 With the Act at length before us we have the materials for 
 a discussion of the ' facilities ' it gives to the supply of elec- 
 tricity, we can mark the advance it records in the direction 
 of industrial socialistic legislation. Its provisions were to 
 apply 'to every local authority, company, or person who might 
 by this Act or any license or provisional order granted under 
 this Act, or by any special Act to be hereafter passed, be 
 
XI.] The State and Electrical Distribution. 359 
 
 authorised to supply electricity within any area, and to every 
 undertaking so authorised, except so fai- as may be expressly 
 provided by any such special Act "... (Section 3). The Act 
 assurdes as a postulate the principle that every local authority 
 is within its own area the lighting authority. It is in truth 
 a Corporations' Act, with clauses, partly permissive, partly 
 prohibitive, for outsiders. It wUl be best therefore to consider 
 first its provisions as applying to local authorities. 
 
 The acquisition by them of powers to supply electricity for 
 any public or private purposes within their own area, whether 
 by license or provisional order, was, in accordance with the 
 spirit of the Act, a simple matter of procedure, the provisions 
 for which need not be detailed. For powers to supply outdde 
 their own district (as they then sometimes supplied gas, and 
 might reasonably propose to supply electricity) the consent 
 had to be obtained, in the case of a license, of the Local Board 
 having jurisdiction over such area. As in the Bill previously 
 analysed, and applicable equally to local authorities and to 
 private undertakers, the license was to run only for a limited 
 term, extended in the Act to seven years ; the difference in 
 favour of the Corporations being that, of course, no consent, 
 other than that of the Board of Trade, was necessary to its 
 renewal. The term of the provisional order might be of un- 
 limited duration. 
 
 Under either of these forms of tenure ample powers were 
 given to them, partly by fresh enactments, partly by the 
 incorporation of certain sections of the Land Clauses Acts and 
 the Gasworks Clauses Acts, (a) to levy rates for the purpose 
 of defraying any expenses incurred either in promoting a 
 license or provisional order themselves, or in opposing one 
 promoted by any other person ; (6) to borrow money on 
 security of the rates for the purposes of electric supply ; (c) to 
 acquire lands (by agreement, not compulsorily) and patent 
 rights, &c., and to construct works, or to contract with any 
 /Company or person for the construction and maintenance of 
 such works, or for the supply of electricity ; to break up the 
 streets (their power to do this without being subject to indict- 
 ment for creating a nuisance had hitherto been something 
 
360 A Plea for Liberty. [xi. 
 
 more than questionable), and, generally, ' to do all such acts 
 and things as may be necessary and incidental to such supply ' 
 (Sections 7, 8, 10, ii, la). 
 
 If to shape a perfectly clear course for the immediate 
 creation of electrical undertakings by local authorities had 
 been the same thing as to ' facilitate the supply of electricity,' 
 then the Electric Lighting Act, 1883, would have been an 
 unqualified success. But it also claimed to be an enabling 
 Act for the furtherance of private enterprise ; this in fact was 
 ostensibly its very raison d'etre. Let us see by what pro- 
 visions it proposed to justify the claim. 
 
 As by the Bill so by the Act, powers to supply electricity 
 were to be acquired by license or by provisional order ; the 
 conditions on which they might be obtained were also, with 
 mere verbal elaborations, unchanged. The objections to a 
 tenure by license have already been sufficiently stated. It 
 was a mere tentative system, avowedly for the purpose of 
 promoting experiments which no sane responsible capitalist 
 would be at all likely to undertake. It has been relegated, 
 by common consent, to the limbo of the inoperative. The 
 conditions regulating the grant of provisional orders are 
 contained in Section 4, Sub-sections 1, 2, 3. The local con- 
 sent to the appHcation was, it has been shown, unnecessary. 
 Any initial obstruction, for either of the reasons before in- 
 dicated, by an intractable Corporation was thus rendered 
 impossible. But ample notice had to be given by the promoter 
 of his intention to apply for an order ; the order when granted 
 was subject to confirmation by Parliament, and, like any 
 private Bill, might be opposed and, if valid reasons were 
 shown, defeated by the Corporation or by any person interested. 
 Such procedure seems to me to have been entirely fair to 
 everybody concerned. So far, then, the Act was favourable 
 to private enterprise ; it satisfactorily provided for the easy 
 acquisition of statutory powers. 
 
 In the exercise of those powers the undertakers were not to 
 prescribe the use of any particular form of lamp or burner, nor 
 to show any undue preference either as to the supply of or the 
 charges for electricity ; and they were to be subj ect to any regula- 
 
XI,] The State and Electrical Distribution. 361 
 
 tions and conditions that might be inserted in their order, or 
 that the Board of Trade might at any time subsequently think it 
 desirable to issue, (cZ) for defining ' the limits within which and 
 the conditions under which a regular and efficient supply of 
 electricity was to be compulsory or permissive,' (e) ' for secur- 
 ing the safety of the public from personal injury or from fire 
 or otherwise,' (/) for ' authorising inspection and inquiry by 
 the Board of Trade and the local authority,' {g) 'for the 
 enforcement of the due performance of their duties, and for 
 the revocation of their powers, in the event of their failing to 
 properly carry them out ' (Sections 6, 18, 19, 20). 
 
 It may be said generally that the Board of Trade have freely 
 exercised the rights and obligations confen-ed upon them by the 
 Act, The provisions of the ' model order' issued in 1889, and 
 the subsequent rules and regulations made for the' protection 
 of existing interests and of the persons and property of the 
 public — all these are stringent, no doubt, and very properly so, 
 but they cannot fairly be said, except perhaps in some recent 
 attempts by the Postmaster General, to be obstructionist ; they 
 impose no burden that cannot well be borne. Except where 
 from their position as the local governing body, they were 
 obviously exempted, these regulations apply equally to local 
 authorities. And with this general statement this part of the 
 subject may be finally dismissed. 
 
 There remains the very pith and marrow of the Act— its 
 provision for ' security of tenure sufficient to attract the 
 investor and to insure the full development of the industry.' 
 This, as we have already seen, was considered by the framers 
 of the Bill to have been adequately provided for by the grant 
 of a tenure of fifteen years, to be terminated in the manner 
 and on the conditions summarised in a previous page. The 
 House of Commons tacitly acquiesced ; and it was reserved for 
 the Lords to make a further extension of the period to twenty- 
 one years. Seven years, fifteen years, twenty-one years — such is 
 the grudging gradation in the history of this facilitating Act. 
 As (assuming the continuance of the present tendency of legisla- 
 tion) the application of the terms of this compulsory purdhase 
 clause will in aU probability be indefinitely extended in the 
 25 
 
362 A Plea for Liberty. [xi. 
 
 future, it will perhaps be well to give the essential part of the 
 clause in extenso. Section 37, then, reads as follows : — 
 
 Where any undertakers are authorised by a provisional order or special Act 
 to supply electricity within any area, any local authority -within whose 
 jurisdiction such area or any part thereof is situated may, within six months 
 after the expiration of a period of twenty-one years, or such shorter period 
 as is specified in that behalf in the application for the provisional order or in 
 the special Act, from the date of the passing of the Act confirming such 
 provisional order, or of such special Act, and within six months after the 
 expiration of every subsequent period of seven years, or such shorter period 
 as is specified in that behalf in the application for the provisional order or 
 in the special Act, by notice in writing require such undertakers to sell, and 
 thereupon such undertakers shall sell to them their undertaking, or so much 
 of the same as is within such jurisdiction, upon terms of paying the then 
 value of all lands, buildings, works, materials, and plant of such undertakers 
 suitable to and used by them for the purposes of their undertaking within 
 such jurisdiction, such value to be in case of difference determined by arbi- 
 tration : Provided that the value of such lands, buildings, works, materials 
 and plant shall be deemed to be their fair market value at the time of the 
 purchase, due regard being had to the nature and then condition of such 
 buildings, works, materials and plant, and to the state of repair thereof, and 
 the suitabiUty of the same to the purpose of the undertaking, and, where a 
 part only of the undertaking is purchased, to any loss occasioned by the 
 severance ; but without any addition in respect of compulsory purchase or of 
 goodwill or of any profits which may or might have been or be made from 
 the undertaking, or of any similar considerations. 
 
 Eead with such provisions as these, the Act says in effect, 
 'Get capital, build your electric lighting stations, put down 
 your electric conductors, get customers and pay dividends if 
 you can. If you fail, all the worse for you ; if you succeed, 
 all the better for the local authorities. In other words, " heads 
 they win, tails you lose." ' 
 
 Had there been any precedent for such legislation affecting 
 any similar industry ? Yes, the Corporations said, the Tram- 
 ways Act of 1 870. And, in fact the forty-third section of that 
 Act is substantially in the same terms as this section. But 
 were the conditions attending the initiation and the working 
 of the two undertakings in any way analogous? Compare 
 them. The laying of a tramway in any street practically 
 means the suspension for the time being of the traffic of that 
 street ; and when laid the rails occupy a large portion of the 
 surface of the street, to the great detriment, and permanently 
 so, of all other traffic. Electric conductors, on the other hand, 
 
XI.] The State and Electrical Distribution. 363 
 
 would be laid in narrow trenches under or near the footways, 
 involving no interference with the traffic of the streets, and 
 little with that of the pavements, immediate or prospective. 
 The Tramway Company would enjoy during their twenty-one 
 years' tenure an unquestioned monopoly; the Electric Company 
 would have to reckon with possible competitors. Again, the 
 Tramway Company on making their road and running their 
 cars, might reasonably hope for an immediately remunerative 
 business ; no educating process is needed to induce a man to 
 try a penny ride on a tram-car. Widely different would be 
 the conditions attending the successful introduction of electric 
 lighting. The prejudice of habit, the fear of ' shock,' of fire, of 
 failure in the supply, the great initial expense and incon- 
 venience of 'installing' the necessary wires and lamps, to 
 bring into the house a light which, beautiful and pure as it 
 might be, would after all cost more than the light already in 
 possession — all these difficulties would have to be slowly and 
 painfully overcome, and would necessarily postpone to a distant 
 date anything like a general use of the new illuminant. If 
 this be so, it follows that even with an indefinite tenure the 
 profits on the necessarily large capital of an Electric Supply 
 Company would certainly be represented during, say, the first 
 two years, by o, and during a further two or three years, 
 at least, by a very modest figure indeed. But a tenure of only 
 twenty-one years, terminable by the purchase of the under- 
 taking at its mere structural value, would seriously endanger 
 the company's capacity to earn any dividend at all. This 
 point will be best illustrated by a quotation from a recent 
 article ^ in The Times) — 
 
 The amount that would be refunded to the company by the sale of their 
 undertaking must of necessity represent but an infinitesimal part of the total 
 capital that would have been spent in the building up ^f the business. This 
 deficiency must be provided for somehow. A sinking fund, large in propor- 
 tion to the shortness of the tenure, must be set aside out of income for the 
 redemption of capital. The larger the sinking fund the higher must the 
 charge be for electricity, the more disadvantageously must electric light 
 compete with its cheaper rival, gas, and the more restricted, in consequence, 
 must be the area of possible supply. . . . The injury would extend to the 
 ratepayer whose ' interests ' are to be so jealously guarded. He would suffer, 
 
 '■ The Middleman in Electric Lighting. 
 
. 364 A Plea for Liberty. [xi. 
 
 too, by paying an unnecessarily high price for the electricity he would 
 consume. 
 
 But the damaging effect of legislation of this character upon 
 the development of electrical enterprise does not stop here. 
 To quote again from the Tirnies' article — 
 
 There is another consideration and a very important one. Nobody supposes 
 that the last word has been said upon the question of dynamic machinery. 
 Electrical science will probably stride onward, to discovery, to improvement. 
 Can it be expected that a company which, on arriving at mere maturity has 
 to look only for extinction ; can it be expected that such a company would be 
 eager, especially during the last few years of its life, to adopt improved 
 methods of supply ? Who would supply the capital for the purpose ? It may 
 be answered that an arbitrator would be bound to take into his consideration, 
 in awarding the price of the undertaking, the greater suitability of the new 
 methods for the purpose of the undertaking. Possibly ; but would he award 
 anything at all for the old and discarded machinery — machinery, it must be 
 remembered, which would still have served to earn dividends ? Here would 
 be a dead loss. Thus a short tenure would have also a tendency to discourage 
 invention. 
 
 With such obvious differences in the conditions incident to 
 the development of the two industries, the legislation affecting 
 tramway entei-prise was still referred to again and again by 
 representatives of local authorities before the Committee upon 
 the Bill, as a precedent that ought to be followed in dealing 
 with the subject of electrical distribution. It was followed, 
 as we have seen. But it was followed, with a difference of 
 the highest importance, to which attention has not yet been 
 drawn. Section 19 of the Tramways Act expressly pro- 
 vided that notwithstanding the statutory right of the local 
 authority to make, or to compulsorily purchase, a tramway, 
 'nothing in this Act contained shall authorise any local 
 authority to run carriages upon such tramway, and to demand 
 and take toUs and charges in respect of the use of such 
 carriages.' They might devote it to the gratuitous use of the 
 townsfolk, they ifiight lease it to a company or an individual, 
 but they could not themselves work it for profit. It is more 
 than doubtful whether they have power to purchase the 
 rolling-stock at all. So that, as Sii- Frederick Bramwell re- 
 marked to the Committee, ' There would be nothing to prevent 
 the company who had enjoyed the tramway up to the time of 
 the compulsory purchase, from being the persons to offer 
 
XI.] The State and Electrical Distribution. 365 
 
 themselves as lessees, with the very reasonable prospect that 
 they -would be taken, knowing more about it, and having 
 everything ready,'— and this, although the tramway might 
 have been a very profitable concern. 
 
 Thus it will be plainly seen that the Electric Lighting Act 
 inaugurated a new principle in industrial legislation. It gave 
 to municipal bodies, for the first time (and with every incentive 
 to exercise it), the right to confiscate for the general profit, 
 without compensation, a business created and developed by 
 private enterprise. 
 
 Four years after, in 1886, three BiUs proposing 'to amend 
 the Electric Lighting Act, 1882,' were introduced into the 
 House of Lords. No. i (Lord Rayleigh's Bill) proposed ' to 
 place electric lighting undertakings in the same position as 
 , gas undertakings, both as regards privileges and obligations ' ; 
 thus abandoning frankly the very principle — the confiscating 
 principle, as it may fairly be called — of the previous Act. 
 By this Bill a standard price for the supply of electricity, and 
 a standard dividend, were to be fixed; these were to be 
 subject to variation on the well-known principle of the sliding 
 scale, as now applied to the prices and dividends of gas 
 companies. Any increase of capital beyond that set forth as 
 the company's authorised capital in the provisional order, was 
 to be ofiered for public tender. The undertaking could be 
 purchased only on such terms as might be agreed upon be- 
 tween the supplying company and the local authority. No. % 
 (Lord Ashford's Bill), while retaining for local authorities the 
 compulsory purchase power, extended the tenure to forty-one 
 years, and provided for the sale of the undertaking as a going 
 concern. Of these two Bills the first, as placing electric com- 
 panies on an equal footing with gas companies, was the fairest, 
 both to the new industry and to the public, and the most con- 
 sistent with all previous legislation affecting similar undertak- 
 ings. Finally, No. 3 (the Government Bill) proposed simply to 
 extend to thirty years, or perhaps longer, the tenure authorised 
 by the previous Act ; the terms of purchase, compulsory and 
 confiscatory, being retained unaltered. The three Bills were 
 committed to a Select Committee of the House of Lords, 
 
366 A Plea for Liberty. [xi. 
 
 before whom a whole crowd of witnesses again appeared, to 
 support or to oppose, as their views and interests might 
 direct, the various proposals to amend the Act of 1883. 
 
 One thing was clear and indisputable ; that Act had failed, 
 utterly failed, as we have seen it was bound to do, to facilitate 
 the supply of electricity. Of the fifty-five provisional orders 
 granted to over-sanguine Electric Light Companies in 1883, 
 only one (the Birmingham Order, under which nothing had 
 been done) remained in force. Having legislated with the 
 sole idea of preventing a possible future evil, Parliament had 
 fully , succeeded in making impossible the attainment of 
 any present good. But the Corporations to whom such 
 facilities had been granted by Parliament, who had some 
 of them also obtained provisional orders and private Acts, 
 and for whom confiscatory piirchase clauses did not exist, , 
 what had they done to help on the development of electric 
 supply ? Nothing. Why shovid they pull the chestnuts out 
 of the fibre, when the private capitalist had been ordained to 
 do it for them ? Theirs was naturally enough a policy of 
 masterly inactivity. So it was that in 1886 the only central 
 electric supply stations to be found in the whole kingdom 
 (those at Eastbourne, at Brighton — of very limited propor- 
 tions — and at the Grosvenor Gallery, in London), distributed 
 their electricity by means of overhead conductors, and without 
 statutory powers of any sort. To explain this fact the Corpora- 
 tion representatives talked vaguely, and — may it be said 1 — 
 ignorantly of the ' engineering difficulties ' which, along with 
 the reaction from the wild speculation in electrical securities, 
 had stopped the growth of the industry. To this speculation 
 and its disastrous efiect, reference has already been made in 
 a previous part of this paper. It probably would have acted 
 prejudicially upon the investing public, though only for a short 
 time ; investors soon recover their equanimity in presence of 
 even a reasonably good opening for the profitable employment 
 of their capital. But they are largely influenced by the 
 opinions of their financial advisers ; and these gentlemen said 
 unanimously, 'Don't touch anything electrical under the Act 
 of 1 883 ; it won't work.' The ' engineering difficulty ' question 
 
XI.] The State and Electrical Distribution. 367 
 
 was all moonshine. On the continent and in America, where 
 electrical distribution was no l;)etter understood than in 
 England, almost every large town had, as a matter of course, 
 its central distributing station. If there, why not here ? Sir 
 Frederick Bramwell, Professor George Forbes, and Mr. Preece, 
 all gave evidenceto this effect. They also gave evidence upon 
 another point of the greatest importance in this connexion. It 
 was this. In neither of the countries referred to had the legisla- 
 ture made any attempt to restrict the free action of private 
 enterprise. The municipal bodies prescribed regulations for the 
 placing of electric conductors, &c. ; they in no case proposed at 
 any time to confiscate to their own use the business that might 
 be created. Who could gainsay the practical illustration thus 
 afforded of the paralysing effect of the new legislation % 
 
 Well, the Act must be amended. But, again, in what direc- 
 tion ? The financial witnesses — Sir John Lubbock, Mr. Hucks 
 Gibbs, the late Mr. Lionel Cohen, and others — strongly urged 
 the abandonment of the confiscatory nature of the purchase 
 provisions. Only Bill No. i or No. 3, they said, would attract 
 capital ; a mere extension of tenure on the old lines would be 
 futile. The principle was a vicious one, and would fail again, 
 as it had already failed. The Corporations vehemently op- 
 posed this; any amendment to the Act of 1883 should, they 
 said, continue to recognise both the right of compulsory pur- 
 chase, and the sale of the business at the market value of 
 the plant. 
 
 When, in 1888, the comparative cessation of the hubbub 
 over the General Election and the Irish question again per- 
 mitted attention to electrical interests, it was found that the 
 Electric Lighting Act, 1888, did, in fact, amend the previous 
 Act in the direction clamoured for by the Corporations. 
 Section 3 extended the tenure to forty-two years, and the 
 optional period thereafter to ten years ; the purchasing condi- 
 tions, with one apparently trifling exception, remaining un- 
 altered. This exception consisted in the insertion of a 
 provision that, in valuing the buildings, works, &c., 'due 
 regard ' shall be had ' to the circumstance that they are in 
 such a position as to be ready for immediate working.' This 
 
368 A Plea for Liberty. [xi, 
 
 is certainly in favour of the seller ; to -what extent it is so, 
 time and occasion alone can show. Section 3 provided that the 
 Board of Trade might, if they thought fit, vary the terms upon 
 which an undertaker might be required to sell, 'in such 
 manner as may have been agreed upon between such local 
 authority and the undertakers.' But to balance the conces- 
 sion made by Section % to that marauder the private capitalist 
 (without whom it seemed that after all electrical distribution 
 would never come to be an accomplished fact), it was provided 
 by Section i, that no provisional order should be gi'anted by 
 the Board of Trade, except with the consent of the local 
 authority interested, unless the Board of Trade should be of 
 opinion that, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, 
 such consent ought to b)e dispensed with, in which case they 
 might dispense with it accordingly. 
 
 These provisions have been in force for two years. It is 
 somewhat early perhaps to discuss the effect they may 
 ultimately have, primarily upon the development of the ever- 
 broadening industry to which they apply, and, by reflex 
 action, upon individual enterprise generally in this country. 
 Tendencies may be noted, however, and especially we may 
 record already ascertained results. In London, provisional 
 orders for the full statutory period have been granted to 
 various confpanies in respect of by far the greater number of 
 important parishes — important, that is, from an electric light- 
 ing point of view. Capital, more or less (in some cases, the 
 majority, in fact, very much less) adequate to the requirements 
 of the districts, has been subscribed, and electric conductors 
 have been and are being laid and houses lighted in every direc- 
 tion. Here there are no gas-owning local authorities. In the 
 provinces, speaking by comparison, scarcely a start has been 
 made. Yeij during the last Session more than one hundred pro- 
 visional orders were applied for. A large number of those 
 applications were no doubt of a sufficiently dubious character 
 to court and to deserve refusal ; a great many moi'e, however, 
 were honestly made by companies prepared to properly 
 discharge the duties and responsibilities they sought. In by 
 far the greater number of instances, doubtful and good were 
 
XI.] The State and Electrical Distribution, 369 
 
 alike refused; the local body rarely taking the trouble to 
 inquire into the status of the applicant. The local authority 
 ' objected to any interference with their streets ' ; — and this in 
 face of the provisions in the model order enabling them to 
 break up the streets and to lay the mains themselves, at the 
 cost of the undertaker; — they 'intended to apply for an order 
 themselves ' ; they ' owned the gas supply, and feared the 
 danger to their securities involved in the introduction of a 
 competing light.' These ai-e actual summaries of some of the 
 reasons urged against the grant of provisional orders. In one 
 case well known to me, that of Barrow-in-Furness, the 
 Corporation opposed the grant of an order, solely on the ground 
 that there was not a demand in Barrow for electric light. 
 They are of course a gas-owning Corporation. The applying 
 company satisfied themselves by a canvass of the town, that 
 a demand did exist sufficient to justify them in investing their 
 money in a supply station; but the Corporation's objection 
 was held by the Board of Trade to be a valid one, and the 
 order was refused. There is no need to multiply examples ; it 
 is sufficient to say that in no single instance during last 
 Session was an order granted, without the production of 
 the written consent of the local governing body. The con- 
 ditional veto granted to Corporations by the Act of 1888 
 has in practice become absolute. It would thus seem that 
 the whole future of electrical distribution outside London rests 
 entirely with local authorities, a large proportion of whom, 
 from their position as owners of gas undertakings (upon the 
 security of which vast sums of money have been borrowed), 
 have the strongest possible motives for delaying, and, if it 
 may be, for preventing altogether the development of the 
 industry. 
 
 This aspect of the affair has been emphasised by a fresh 
 concession to local authorities made by the Board of Trade at 
 the beginning of last Session. Keference was made in a 
 previous page to one of a few new clauses added by the House 
 of Commons' Select Committee to the BUI which afterwards 
 became the Act of 1883. That clause (Section 1 1 in the Act), 
 after giving power to local authorities holding provisional 
 
2)']0 A Plea for Liberty. [xi. 
 
 orders to contract for the construction of works or for the 
 supply of electricity, concluded in these words : ' but no local 
 authority, company, or person shall by any contract or assign- 
 ment transfer to any other company or person, or divest them- 
 selves of any legal powers given to them, or any legal liabilities 
 imposed upon them by this Act, or by any licence, order, or 
 special Act (without the consent of the Board of Trade).' The 
 part within parentheses was added by the Lords' Committee ; 
 as the Bill left the House of Commons, the prohibition was 
 absolute and unqualified. 
 
 In deference to representations made by the Association of 
 Municipal Corporations, the Board of Trade decided a few 
 months ago to remove that prohibition altogether, so far, that 
 is, and only so far, as it affected the interests of Corporations. 
 A new clause was thereupon agreed to between the Association 
 and the Board of Trade, and was subsequently inserted in all 
 orders granted to local authorities, providing that the local 
 authority might at any time by deed, to be approved by the 
 Board of Trade, transfer to any company or person, for such 
 consideration as might be agreed upon, the whole or any part 
 of the area included in their order, with all the duties and 
 responsibilities incident thereto. 
 
 The importance of such a concession may not be immediately 
 evident to the lay reader. It means this. A Corporation — a 
 gas-supplying body, let us say, or one whose interests ai-e 
 largely controlled by directors and shareholders in a local gas 
 company — may obtain a provisional order, without having 
 the slightest intention to supply electric energy. They will 
 thus shut out effectually any inconveniently enterprising 
 individual or company. This order they have the power to 
 transfer for a consideration, to farm out on such terms as 
 they may think fit to dictate. They would stand in fact in 
 the position of middlemen. Would they be likely to offer 
 such terms as would facilitate the supply of electricity 1 
 Why, as with exquisite naiveU they have asked, should they 
 cut their own throats'? Without for one moment imputing 
 deliberate mala fides, it is fairly open to a Philistine to 
 doubt whether human nature becomes so impeccable in a 
 
XI.] The State and Electrical Distribtttion. 371 
 
 councilman that he may not by accident mistake self- 
 interests for public interests. The sound has indeed a familiar 
 ring, as if such a thing had already happened. Of course 
 there is another side to the question. There are honest 
 and well-intentioned Corporations desirous of a supply of 
 electric light, who, while fearful to trade with the rate- 
 payers' money in a comparatively untried busine'ss, are yet 
 unwilling to assent to the grant to a company of powers in 
 their towns underived from themselves. In their case the 
 new clause "may work well. Its general tendency, however, 
 seems to be in a retrograde direction, as giving to interested 
 bodies wide powers to impose terms which under the Act of 
 1 88a had proved prohibitory of electrical development. 
 
 The situation, then, created by the Electric Lighting Acts, 
 and emphasised in their administration by the Board of Trade, 
 may be thus summarised. Local authorities have a preferential 
 right to undertake the supply of electricity themselves ; they 
 may obtain statutory powers, with the right to farm them out for 
 their own profit ; they may assent to the grant of such powers 
 directly to private capitalists taking all the risks incident to 
 the business of electric supply, while they reserve to them- 
 selves, at the expiration of forty-two years, or of such shorter 
 time as they may succeed in bargaining for as the price of 
 their consent, the comfortable option of purchasing the under- 
 taking, if it should be a successful one, at something like an 
 'old metal' valuation, or of declining to purchase an un- 
 successful one at any price. And this comfortable option 
 they may exercise every ten years thereafter. 
 
 It will be obvious from the foregoing analysis that the 
 tendency, if not the intention, of such legislation is to dis- 
 courage the supply of electricity by private enterprise, and 
 thus either to arrest the development of the industry altogether, 
 or to throw it into the hands of the local authorities. But are 
 trading municipalities such unmixed blessings that we can 
 afibrd to bind down the agent that has made us the foremost 
 industrial nation of the world ? Or, to narrow the issue to 
 the special subject of this paper, is electrical distribution one 
 of those industries that ought to be in such hands ? 
 
372 A Plea for Liberty [xi. 
 
 The present writer holds anything but pessimistic views as 
 to the future of electricity ; still it must not be forgotten that 
 the business of electric supply is as yet a speculative one. 
 There is no accumulated experience to guide us. Continental 
 and American companies do not count. Gas is generally much 
 cheaper there, and in a large number of cases their electric 
 conductors have been run on poles overhead and cheaply. No- 
 body working under the statutory provisions and restrictions 
 which now obtain in this country has done so at a profit. 
 Dividend-paying data can of course be furnished, and are fur- 
 nished, in every case ; their verification has yet to be accom- 
 plished. Ought rates to be raised for speculative purposes? 
 Again, three or four different systems are employed in London 
 by different companies to distribute electric current. We have 
 high tension and low tension, alternating currents and con- 
 tinuous currents, supply with the agency of accumulators, and 
 supply without them. The fittest of these wUl survive, if either 
 survives — for already Mr. Edison is said to have announced 
 his confident hope 'to obtain electricity direct, without the 
 aid of steam-engines, or of any other motor power.' Which 
 is the fittest 1 And are municipal bodies the proper people to 
 determine such a question? Resolve them into their con- 
 stituent elements, and Mr. Smith the bootmaker shall confi- 
 dentially ask you whether 'volt' or 'ohm' is really the 
 scientific name for a dynamo machine, and Mr. Jones the 
 wine merchant shall make a virtue of the confession that he 
 can't for the life of him make out how electricity can be got 
 out of coals. Every electrical engineer who has been brought 
 into contact with such bodies has met with many Smiths and 
 Joneses. And these are the men, such are the electrical 
 qualifications of the men (aggregated to the dignity of a local 
 authority, of course), who are to determine upon the adoption 
 of a system of distribution, ' to levy rates ' (upon the rich and 
 the poor alike, upon those that will and those that will not 
 use the light for many years to come), 'and to construct 
 works,' &c. for the supply of electricity. 
 
 Not only so. They are to be the managing directors of the 
 undertaking. It may fairly enough be objected that they both 
 
XI.] The State and Electrical Distribution. 373 
 
 can and naturally will engage the services of the most com- 
 petent engineers available. No doubt. And a cockney with 
 confused ideas as to the distinction between a harrow and a 
 threshing-machine, may take a farm and engage a head man 
 to manage it. But, although he will have the all-powerful 
 gain-motive which the councilman has not, will his farming 
 operations be likely to be as well or as economically conducted 
 as they would be if he had been bom a farmer ? It is possible, 
 certainly, to lay too much stress upon this point. Public 
 spirit is also a powerful factor; but a controlling uninformed 
 public spirit, whose servant the engineer will be, may make 
 a pretty mess, with the very best intentions, of an undertaking 
 so complex as the one we ai-e discussing. Jobbery, or 
 anything of the nature of jobbery, could not, of course, 
 be respectfully predicated of an English municipality, the 
 'scandals' of Salford, and of the Metropolitan Board of 
 Works, and the jerry-built school-houses of the London 
 School Board, et hoc genus ortine, notwithstanding. But 
 the Acts apply equally to Ireland, and Englishmen have a 
 prescriptive right to say many things of the Irish. Who does 
 not see what nice little 'jobs,' under the Electric Lighting 
 Acts, wOI infallibly be perpetrated, in favour of certain well- 
 known friends of the ' friends of the ratepayers,' at Curragh- 
 macree ? 
 
 Another consideration is the unlikelihood of the employment 
 by local authorities of the necessary 'commercial traveller' 
 element in the business. Our young giant requires to be 
 dressed out to the best advantage, to be introduced and 
 praised, to be pushed into public favour. In other words, 
 electric energy, in the form of light or of power, is at present 
 expensive. It has advantages that some people think more 
 than compensate for its costliness, but they have to be made 
 known and repeated. Why should the officials or the members 
 of a municipality do this? It would be no advantage to 
 anybody in particular. An example will be eloquent. At 
 the beginning of last year the Corporation of Bolton, in 
 Lancashire, were asked for their consent to an application by 
 a Company for a provisional order. They refused to give it, 
 
374 -^ Plea for Liberty. [xi. 
 
 intimating that they intended, if there -were a sufficient 
 demand for the light, to undertake the supply themselves. 
 And they issued a circular to ascertain whether such a demand 
 did in fact exist. The following is a fair summary of this 
 precious circular: 'We propose to charge loc?. per Board of 
 Trade unit for the current we supply. This will be at least 
 double the price" of gas ; would you like to have it at the 
 price, and for how many years wiU you undertake to continue 
 the use of the light % ' With such advocacy as this, an inven- 
 tion had need be born into the world with an aureola. With 
 such sponsors, what would have been the fate, not merely of 
 electric light, but of nine-tenths of the inventions which, in 
 private hands, have transformed society % 
 
 It is one of the boasted advantages of the conduct of 
 electrical undertakings by local authorities, that, while a joint- 
 stock company must pay a dividend of 7 or 8 or even 
 10 per cent, upon its capital, they can borrow money at 3I per 
 cent. ; the difference representing so much,. profit to the rate- 
 payer. But, apart from the preceding coBsideratioHS, tending 
 to disbelief in their capacity to work the undertaking as suc- 
 cessfully or as economically as the profit-coveting capitalist 
 would do, the extensive exercise of such cheap. borrowing 
 power, this competition of the public purse with the private 
 purse, what effect will it have? Will it not drive the in- 
 vestor, who is not content with 3^ per cent., to seek more 
 remunerative channels for his money elsewhere? Capital 
 will go out of the country, to promote the success of industries 
 which compete with our industries at home. 
 
 But another principle underlies this question, larger and more 
 vital still It may be expressed and illustrated in this way. 
 The greatest obstructionists to the advance of electric lighting 
 have been and are the gas-owning Corporations. Not because 
 they are Corporations, but because they have committed 
 themselves, to the extent of very many millions of money, to 
 the supply of one particular form of light, which might be 
 superseded by the introduction of a competing illuminant. 
 In the nature of things it must be so. Municipalities after 
 all are but an aggregation of mortal men and ratepayers. 
 
XI.] The State and Electrical Distribution. 375 
 
 Now, the creation of electric supply stations will involve the 
 borrowing of one is afraid to say how many more millions 
 of money. Well, the world will not stand still to guard those 
 millions, any more than it has done in the case of gas. 
 Imagine — and for the purposes of the argument it is perfectly 
 immaterial whether the supply be undertaken and the millions 
 borrowed to-morrow or in forty years' time — imagine the 
 discovery of a new form of artificial light, as superior to 
 electric light as that is to gas, will not the same battle have 
 to be fought over again? "We are creating a standing ob- 
 struction to progress, so many lions in the path. 
 
 These, shortly stated, are some of the reasons that seem 
 to tell forcibly against the policy of placing the supply of 
 electric energy in the hands of local authorities, and in 
 favour of leaving it, with proper safeguards of the public 
 interests, to the care of private enterprise. 
 
 The Electric Lighting Acts exist, however, and a precedent 
 threatening to the old form of enterprise generally has been 
 established. It is conceded, of course, that by Parliament this 
 business of supplying light was looked upon as a special one, 
 calling for exceptional treatment. But such special precedents 
 are apt to develope into general ones ; and having seen how 
 far the legislature has already gone in fettering individual 
 effort to encourage the supply ' by the people for the people ' 
 of one particular- article (which after all is not so great a 
 necessity as bread, and no greater a necessity, at any rate, 
 than boots), we may pretty confidently hope, or dread, 
 according to our views upon such matters, for an almost 
 indefinite extension in the same direction. Municipal bake- 
 houses, municipal boot factories, every form of industrial 
 operation developed into everybody's business in general and 
 nobody's in particular — to what Utopian prosperity and 
 happiness may we not yet attain ! 
 
 F. W. Beauohamp Gordon. 
 
XII. 
 
 THE TBUE LINE OF 
 DELIVERANCE. 
 
 AUBERON HERBERT. 
 
 26 
 
XII. 
 
 THE TRUE LINE OF LELWEBANCE. 
 
 Most of the evils, even those which in the end may destroy, 
 have a remedial character in the earlier stages. They are the 
 useful, though often unpleasant, instruments of bringing us back 
 into the true path, if we have left it, or of stimulating us to new 
 endeavours, in seeking for it. Amongst these scourges, dis- 
 agreeable for the moment, but useful as regards the future, the 
 New Unionism, with its crude doctrines of sheer force, con- 
 straint of anybody and everybody who stand in the way of 
 the immediate end, limitation of numbers and excessive prices 
 built up on monopoly, ingenious dovetailing of political action 
 into unionist action, universal federation with rigid centralisa- 
 tion and strict dependence of all parts on the centre, must take 
 its place. Few people of clear insight are ready to suppose that 
 good of the truest kind is likely to come to the workmen en- 
 rolled under these principles. Centralisation, coercion and mono- 
 poly, always have been the advance guard of eventual failure 
 and suffering, and always will be ; though indirect good, by way 
 of experience and healthy reaction, may come from them. No 
 man raises, in a country that is not in decadence, the banner of 
 retrogression, without influencing others to raise the banner of 
 advance. Evil, it is true, provokes evil, but it also provokes 
 good; and perhaps the New Unionism has its own special 
 service to perform by leading workmen to reconsider the whole 
 question of trades-unions, their relation to capital, and to that 
 better future on which we all fasten our eyes. The old Trades- 
 Unionism, like many another movement, has been useful in its 
 day to the workmen, even though founded on shaky principles. 
 It came into existence in a bitter time, when probably no truer 
 
380 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 system could have lived ; it was to the men a first lesson in 
 association, developing powers of administration and responsi- 
 bility ; it has done much in the way of benefit services ; it gave 
 a spirit of independence, and yet was an anti-revolutionary 
 force ; and it has taught capital the sharp lesson which was 
 needed, at all events during one period of its history, that 
 unless, the fair claims of the men were respected, trades- 
 unionism could throw the whole thing out of gear, and majse 
 a general mess for everybody concerned. But having said so 
 much, it must be confessed that the old Trades-unionism — with 
 its many excellent points — has been, as regards great results, 
 a failure, and that the new Unionism comes to help to make 
 that failure evident. Let us see exactly what is happening 
 now. The old Trades-unionism, so far as it was restrictive, 
 represented a dam. On the one side of it was skilled labour, 
 organised and well paid ; on the other side unskilled labour, 
 unorganised and badly paid. As long as that state of things 
 lasted, Trades-unionism was in a sort of a way a success — 
 for the trades unionist. He was, as was sometimes reproach- 
 fully said, the privileged class, the aristocracy of labour ; and 
 of course the more a union could restrict the admission 
 of members into the trade by limiting the number of 
 apprentices, or in other ways, the more it could for the 
 moment (for there are always reactions in these things) 
 keep up or raise its rate of wages. But the time was sure 
 to come when the effort would be made to raise the waters 
 on the other side of the dam, and then how would it be with 
 the dam % If the unskilled labour could be organised and its 
 price raised, that would mean (employers' profits remaining 
 the same, as they are likely to do, being dependent on causes 
 very hard to fight against, and adjusted in each trade by 
 what obtains in other trades), that the skilled unionist 
 labour would get a lower reward, so far as his wage depended 
 not upon his higher skill, but on Trade-union action. The 
 effect of all restriction is to diminish production and raise 
 prices. The trade which previou&ly had a dam, when other 
 trades had not, was at an advantage ; for it was exchanging 
 its restricted production against the unrestricted production 
 
XII.] The Trite Line of Deliverance. 381 
 
 of other trades, — a state of things, -which was good for it, but 
 bad for all others. It was taking more and eivins less. For 
 this reason, as the New Unionists restrict production, the old 
 trades will suffer. To give an example, — the effect of the 
 Dockers' monopoly is to lessen for all other trades the ad- 
 vantage of Free Trade. Imported articles will be dearer in 
 price, and the labour of other trades will exchange for less. 
 
 To-day the New Unionists are bettering the teaching of the 
 Old Unionists ; and much as my sympathies go with the sober 
 part of the Old Unionists, I should be obliged to confess that 
 the New Unionists would be right, if the underlying principles 
 of Unionism itself were right. Let us see what the New 
 Unionists appear to be aiming at. All trades are to be unionised, 
 — ^the unions being sufficiently strong to disregard and coerce, 
 when necessary, the outside labour, and yet not too large so as 
 to depress the price of labour in the trade itself. Those whom 
 it is desirable to bring into the union will be brought in by 
 summary methods ; those whom it is desirable to leave out- 
 side will be left' outside. But as these outsiders are always 
 a menace to the unionist, measures will be taken to provide 
 at least for a part of them. Of course it is obvious that the 
 common rule of a minimum wage acts harshly both on old labour 
 and on second-class labour ; since both these classes lose all 
 employment where the minimum can be universally enforced. 
 It is then at this point that the action of the State is rather 
 cleverly brought in to make good the gap which Unionism 
 fails to cover. Workshops are to be provided by munici- 
 palities and County Councils for the inefficient labour, which, 
 left in the employers' hands, would only drag the union price 
 down. What is to be done with the product of such labour, 
 which would be produced irrespective of demand, and inde- 
 pendently of market price, is a problem which, as far as I 
 know, is not yet solved. At the same time the State is to be 
 made to serve another purpose. Municipalities and County 
 Councils are to pay union price in all their contracts, thus 
 giving the key-note of wage. ^ An ordinary employer might 
 not be screwed up to the true pitch. He or his customers 
 might decline the article at the union price ; but the 
 
382 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 municipality or Council which has once been captured, 
 can be made to undertake certain work, and in doing it to 
 strike almost any key-note that is desired. The body which 
 spends public funds is independent of the market rate, and is 
 therefore admirably suited for forcing the pace. 
 
 The crown of the system is the federation of the unions. 
 When once federated, the power of all will be lent to one ; and 
 the area of subscription being made co-terminous with the 
 whole country, and the boycott being duly systematised, both 
 the non-conforming employer and the non-conforming work- 
 man will be satisfactorily reduced to submission. 
 
 The dream goes still further. What is to be done in one 
 country is to be done in all countries ; and just as the trades 
 of a country are to be linked together as a whole, so are the 
 countries themselves to be linked together. When that is 
 done, then and there begins the millennium of labour. 
 
 Now it is a gi'eat advantage, in criticising separate mea- 
 sures, when we are able to see before us the perfect whole, into 
 which the separate measures are some day to be combined. 
 For example, we should never judge our socialistic future 
 rightly, if we persisted in scanning each measure, that leads 
 towards it, separately by itself. It is the same with the details 
 of Unionism. We must not simply look to the detached 
 struggles of to-day between labour and capital, as expressing 
 what Unionism is, but also to the system in its triumph, as it 
 will be when, complete in all its parts, it governs the world. 
 
 Having said so much, before reviewing what perfect Unionism 
 would mean, let us try and solve the simpler problem by 
 seeing what Unionism means in the detached and uncon- 
 solidated form in which it exists to-day. Before doing so 
 we may all start on the same road. Unionist or non-unionist, 
 we are agreed that labour has to win for itself a different and 
 a better future. The smooth places of the world are not 
 permanently reserved for some of us, and the rough places for 
 others. Enormous is the amount of insincere speech that flows 
 from the lips and pens of to-day upon this subject. -The subject 
 is a profitable one in the political market of our time, and 
 therefore, as we may be sure, receives its full homage from 
 
XII.] The True Line of Deliverance. 383 
 
 politicians and professional philanthropists ; but still no amount 
 of insincerity can alter the great truth, written in the destinies 
 of the world, that for everybody's sake the labourer has to climb 
 not only to competence and comfort, but to the knowledge, re- 
 finement and higher civilisation, which at present are so much 
 more easily reached by those who do not labour with their 
 hands. That is the work we have to accomplish; the only 
 question is, ' in what manner ? ' 
 
 There are two roads, and only two roads, which oflFer them- 
 selves to us. One is the road of resti-iction, recrulation, 
 monopoly, and absolute power entrusted to the hands which 
 have to win the successive positions, and defend them when 
 won ; the other is the road of free action, unlimited com- 
 petition, and voluntary association. Now I Tyant to contrast 
 these methods, because I believe it only wants time and full 
 discussion to convince the greater number of our workmen, 
 with their strong instincts in favour of liberty, that all the 
 methods of restriction, whether perfect or imperfect, whether 
 new or old, are wrong and will only end in disappointment 
 after a grievous loss of eflfort and time. I believe that the 
 weight of argument is strongly on the side of liberty of action 
 and unrestricted competition, and that we lovers of liberty can 
 win the battle, into which we are entering, if we only plead our 
 cause efficiently. The coercionists of every kind can offer the 
 bribe of immediate results ; but we have in our hands the 
 appeal to the truer reason and the higher motives, and the 
 battle must at last make for us, if we know how to use our 
 weapons. 
 
 Before comparing the two methods, one word as regards the 
 Unionism of the past. I have already said how much I think 
 we owe to it, and personally it is pleasant to me to recall my 
 friendship in former years with some of the old leaders, Mr. 
 Guile, Mr. Allan, Mr. Applegarth, Mr. Howell, Mr. Broadhurst 
 and others, whom it was my privilege to know, and of whom 
 I shall always think and speak with kindness ; but in forming 
 a deliberate judgment upon the subject, I can only say that the 
 past is not the present, and the circumstances that once made 
 Unionism, in the old depressed days of labour, of use to the 
 
384 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 workmen, are so wholly changed, that the time has come when 
 it is right to preach a reformation in the unions themselves, 
 and a change in the direction of the efforts and hopes of the 
 workmen. 
 
 The question to face is, can Unionism, as we know it, achieve 
 the new future of the workmen ? I answer no, because, 
 speaking of it as a whole, it is foimded on distinctly wrong 
 principles. If we examine ordinary Unionism and the full 
 development of the new Unionism as we have sketched it, we 
 shall find the same principles running through both. Unionism 
 essentially means the sacrifice of one section of the labourers 
 to another section — it means this in more than one sense; 
 it means the setting aside of the desires and the judgment of 
 the individual for the sake of a common end ; it means tempta- 
 tions to coerce ; it means regulation, restriction, and centralisa- 
 tion, with all the evils that flow from these fatal methods. 
 
 Let us take the simplest example. 100,000 workmen in a 
 trade are negotiating with their employers. Is there any reason 
 why the workmen should not act in a body as regards their 
 wages % Every lover of fair play would be inclined to say, 
 certainly not ; and if the negotiation were really for the whole 
 body, all the units of which were quite voluntarily acting 
 together, one serious part at least of the present mischief of 
 Unionism would disappear^ But the unionist only bargains 
 for a part of the 100,000. A union is formed with a certain 
 subscription in preparation for emergencies ; and from that 
 moment, although certain common interests continue to exist, 
 there begins to be a divergence of certain other interests 
 between those who are in the union and those outside the union. 
 The union, intent on raising wages, finds it must fix a minimum 
 of pay below which its members must not go. But either this 
 minimum is so low that it is of no service, or else it cuts off 
 from employment the old worker and the second-class worker. 
 These men are naturally below the minimum. Then, as a 
 minimum tends always to be a maximum, it cuts off the best 
 worker, who naturally looks for a larger return from his skill 
 and industry. These three classes, however, are not so 
 important from the unionist point of view as the class of 
 
XII.] The True Line of Deliverance. 385 
 
 ordinary workman who for many different reasons prefers 
 to be outside the Union. He is a real danger to the 
 unionist, as when any quarrel occurs, he may take his place. 
 He therefore must bo brought in, until the number outside 
 the Union is sufficiently reduced so as not to be dangerous. 
 Here begins the temptation to coerce. The quickest way 
 of securing this end is to make life uncomfortable for the 
 outsider who works in the same shop with unionists ; finally, 
 unless he joins the Union, tools may be thrown down, and the 
 employer have to choose between standing by a few men on 
 principle or finding himself involved in a strike. But whilst 
 it is necessary for the stability of the Union to bring a certain 
 proportion of the ordinary outsiders into the Union, an artificial 
 rate of wages cannot be maintained, if labour flows freely in 
 the trade. Therefore the inflow into the trade must be 
 restricted — it must be borne in mind that what I am saying 
 applies only to certain trades, and that it would be an unfair 
 description of many other trades — and this can be done by 
 declaring that only he who has served his apprenticeship, — or 
 worked for a certain number of years successively in the 
 trade, — can be admitted, whilst at the same time the number 
 of apprentices in a shop is limited^. Here — as so often happens 
 with restrictions — there arises a difficulty, not easily got over. 
 If only those who have served their apprenticeship or worked 
 so many years are admitted into the union, the man who has not 
 done so, remains as a thorn in the side of the unionist ; if he 
 who has not fulfilled such conditions is admitted, the unionist 
 has lost one important means of controlling the entrance. That 
 the New Unionism has other means we see by the action of the 
 dockers, who simply, after limiting their own numbers, refused 
 to allow any man to work who did not possess the Union ticket. 
 But then what does this control of the entrance mean ? It 
 means war on other kinds of labour. Just as the Union means 
 a kind of war upon those in the same trade whom it is im- 
 portant to bring in and yet themselves do not wish to be 
 
 1 jir. Howell — always, I think, » Labour, p. 274), states that about 10 
 fair and just writer— in his interest- per cent, of Trade Unionists have 
 ing book (.The Conflicts of Capital and served their apprenticeship. 
 
386 A Plea for Liberty. [xii, 
 
 admitted, so it also means war on outside labour. It means 
 that the labourers in other less well paid trades cannot find 
 free access to the better paid trades, that the dam is preventing 
 the true level being found, and that those inside the dam are 
 profiting by keeping others out. Now that is a bad arrange- 
 ment for all concerned. It is cei-tain that artificial privilege 
 works badly in the end for those who possess it, and carries 
 in itself the seed of its own decay ; but this arrangement works 
 badly not only remotely but also immediately and directly. 
 In a restricted trade a parent may be unable to introduce his 
 own child into the shop where he works \ The thing which 
 of aU others he would most wish to do, to^have his boy near 
 him, under his eye, learning his trade, is the thing that is made 
 difficult to him, where a system of restriction exists, — a re- 
 striction that is increased at present by the stupid interference 
 of our education laws. Never was a heavier price paid for 
 a possible improvement of wage than this sacrifice of this 
 most natural and healthy arrangement. But so it always 
 is. The restriction we forge against others is always to our 
 own grievous hurt. What I want to press upon those Trade 
 Unionists, whose minds are open in this great matter, is that 
 all systems of restriction hurt more than they advantage; 
 that even the better forms of Unionism are always lending 
 themselves to a certain amount of restxiction, if they are to be 
 effective for raising wages* We see that Unionism may mean 
 interference and coercion as regards certain outside labour in 
 the same trade ; that it tends to cut off from itself the most 
 pushing and the best men; that in some cases it dams 
 back the labour that, would fiow into the more highly paid 
 trades from less highly paid occupations ; that it puts 
 difficulties in the way of the instruction by the father of his 
 son in his own trade ; but besides these there are many other 
 forms of restriction which are apt to spring up whenever men 
 
 ' Mr. Howell states that many by the masters (who can be just as 
 
 existing restrictions about appren- restrictiTe as the men). In many 
 
 tices are not enforced. Though par- trades only trade-skill, health, &c., 
 
 tially enforced in some large trades, are insisted upon as conditions of 
 
 they are generally confined to smaller membership, which in view of the 
 
 trades, and in these cases favoured benefits to be paid is quite reasonable. 
 
XII.] The True Line of Deliverance. 387 
 
 begin regulating for each other the conditions of their labour. 
 The close delimitations of the labour of each trade, the rigid 
 boundaries between mason, bricklayer, plasterer, and carpenter, 
 often leading to much inconvenience and expense, — such as 
 ■we see in the case of the carpenter, who was fined because he 
 was seen enlarging the holes in the wall in which his joists 
 were to be placed ; the rule, that existed in one part of England, 
 that bricks laid in a district should be made in the same 
 district, a rule that has stopped work for want of bricks, 
 though bricks in abundance were to be had close by ; the rule 
 that stone dressed in the quarry must be dressed only on one 
 side ; that stone already dressed must be defaced and dressed 
 over again by the men employed at the works ; the rule that 
 an employer building in another town must take half the men 
 from his own town, even if he cannot get them ; rules 
 regulating what the bricklayer's assistant may do, and for- 
 bidding his rise, however competent, into the rank above 
 him; the rules forbidding piece-work, the rules forbidding 
 certain methods of work and payment, which are not the 
 authorised method, even if those in the factory or shop prefer 
 the method in question and are earning more money under it ; 
 the rules enforcing a rigid uniformity in the method of doing 
 work ; the rules that a man is not to run or to sweat himself 
 in his employer's time ; rules against besting his fellows ; — all 
 these are examples of how thick and fast restriction is apt to 
 grow when once men begin to employ it as their instrument. 
 It is only what we ought to expect. Restriction will always 
 breed restriction, both because the first restriction is found to 
 be incomplete without the second, and the second without 
 the third ; and because men who once lend themselves to 
 restriction acquire the temper of betaking themselves to 
 restriction in face of every difficulty. 
 
 A list of such Union sins— and let it be well understood 
 that they only apply to certain trades, and some at least, 
 I hope, are growing obsolete— is to be found in Mr. Thorn- 
 ton's interesting book on Labour (p. 336).. He himself con- 
 siders that all such restrictions are not of the essence of 
 Unionism. That may be true in the sense, that they are 
 
o 
 
 88 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 principally found in Unions which have something of the 
 nature of a monopoly. In trades, such as the cotton trade, 
 where there is keen foreign competition and intelligent appre- 
 ciation of the position amongst the workers, such restrictions are 
 likely to be at a minimum ; but the moment you have entered 
 the path of restriction, you may be sure that whatever further 
 restrictions are necessary to make your first restrictions efEcient, 
 will presently be employed. That is the danger of all restric- 
 tion ; there are so many steps waiting to succeed to the first. 
 Let us look quickly at some other faults of Trades Unions. 
 It not only surrounds a man with restrictions, which every 
 frank person will admit to be an evil, even if an evil accom- 
 panied with good, but it does much harm by disregarding 
 natural variety, by tending to throw men into one class, and 
 treating them as if they were all alike. Men are not alike 
 in strength, endurance, or character ; and it is much happier 
 and better for them when these differences find their true 
 expression. There are some men who prefer long hours and 
 slow work ; some who prefer few hours and sharp work ; 
 some who prefer long hours and shai-p work, receiving for 
 it the higher reward; and it is a wrong and cruel system 
 which ignores all these- differences and dictates the same 
 uniform work and same uniform pay to all men. If the life 
 of labour is to be a happy life, one of the principal things 
 to be done is to give every opportunity that is possible to 
 the worker to follow his own manner and hours of work. At 
 the British Association this year Professor A. Hadley men- 
 tioned an interesting fact. In America he found that in one 
 factory, where the hours were longer, less work was done 
 than in another factory where the hours were shorter. Why % 
 Because the slower workers could not live the pace of the 
 quicker workers, and preferred to work longer hours at the 
 pace that suitfed them. Thus a natural sifting took place, 
 which adjusted the work of the men according to their own 
 likings. This is what the workers have to aim at. Not 
 rigid uniformity, not an established number of hours, or one 
 orthodox method, but infinite variety, meeting the varying 
 wants of different natures. 
 
XII.] The True Line of Deliverance. 389 
 
 Let it be remembered that there is no living man who can 
 measure the full result of restrictions. They are always 
 clumsy things, and though some of their results can be foreseen, 
 they always produce some startling and unexpected results. 
 In the case of Trades Unions they interfere rudely with the 
 motives that influence a man's desire to do his best. Where 
 piece-work is forbidden, the better worker, as we have seen, 
 has to adjust himself to the pace of the slower man, he has 
 to think whether or not he will do more than his comrades 
 consider right. Most of us are more or less familiar with ex- 
 amples where difficulties with Unions have checked attempts 
 on the part of enterprising manufacturers to take a special 
 branch of trade out of the hands of competing foreign coun- 
 tries by impeding adaptations that were necessary for the pur- 
 pose ; they are apt to lead to centralised management — one 
 of the greatest curses in the world — placing the arrangements 
 of the men in a particular shop with the employer at the mercy 
 of some established system and the officers who enforce it; 
 they sometimes hang like a thundercloud over the head of the 
 best employers who desire to try new paths ; and they are 
 apt to destroy the possibility of a close alliance and part- 
 nership growing up between such employers and their men, 
 and thus to prevent the energies of the country being freely 
 given to production. 
 
 I am not bringing these charges, which for the most part 
 are very old, because I think in labour disputes the men are 
 wrong and the employers right. I only bring them because 
 these evils seem to me the necessary result of restrictive 
 methods. I think all restriction — wherever and by whom- 
 soever employed — works out badly; and I feel sure that 
 the workmen will never gain the inheritance waiting for 
 them, as long as they seek to advance along that line. 
 
 Ahead a still graver evil lurks in these restrictions. As 
 I have already said, no person who once enters the road of 
 restriction ever stands still. Either, conquering all former 
 scruples, he goes on supplementing the old restrictions with 
 new restrictions in order to make them efficient, or, disgusted 
 with the odiousness of compelling men to act against their 
 
39° A Plea for Liberty. [xii, 
 
 own wishes and of reducing them to cyphers by regulation, 
 he throws up the whole attempt and retraces his steps. We 
 are now reaching a point where unionists must make their 
 choice. If they are to persevere in the path of restriction, 
 they must be prepared to put themselves and their brother- 
 workmen under a system in which their own individual wish, 
 and even the wish of their own particular trade, can count 
 for almost nothing. You cannot form the x^Ts^h or -j^^th 
 part of a huge fighting system, and keep any real control 
 over yourself. The necessities of the system as a whole will 
 govern your action, and you will be carried forward with the 
 general movement, whether you approve or disapprove. I 
 ask Unionists to judge present Unionism, not simply by what 
 we see to-day, not simply by the restrictions and coercions 
 which they are occasionally tempted to employ towards their 
 fellow- workmen either at the moment of a strike or when it 
 is thought necessary to force men into Union, but by the 
 threatened development of Trad.e Unionism, — all trades beiug 
 federated into one body and negotiating with all employers, 
 federated into another body. I ask them if they are willing 
 to help forward such an organisation of society into these 
 two hostile camps. I ask them to think of the tremendous 
 power that must be lodged in a few hands ; of all the 
 countless struggles and intrigues to obtain that power; of 
 the worthless men who will succeed in obtaining it; of 
 the fatal mistakes that will be made even by good and 
 true men, holding this power in their hands ; and of the 
 harsh unscrupulous use that will be made of this power to 
 destroy all individual resistance that is inconvenient. I ask 
 them if this is an ideal to which they are ready to devote such 
 part of their lives and energies as still remain to them, to 
 organise society into two great armies, always watching each 
 other, and always preparing for bitter struggle; and I ask 
 them, even if, after the struggle, labour prove successful, if 
 employers and capitalists were thoroughly worsted and 
 obliged to take such terms as might be dictated to them, 
 would such a defeat be good for labour itself, would it make 
 for its progress and its happiness? Does not the sense of 
 
XII.] The Trtie Line of Deliverance. 391 
 
 absolute power in the end wi-eck all those who possess it ; 
 are there any amongst us who are not destined to be corrupted 
 by it, more surely than by any defeat or reverse that can 
 happen to us 1 
 
 Now let me turn to the economical side. Can a system of 
 restrictions really better the men's position % can it better wages ? 
 can it take from the employers and give to the men ? I venture 
 to say that the mass of evidence is distinctly against any true 
 and permanent bettering of the men's position by such means. 
 Certain things may be conceded at once. I think it was Mr. 
 Mill who summed up the power of Trades Unions in altering 
 wages, by saying that they could bring about the rise of wage 
 quicker, and delay the fall somewhat longer ; and a Midland 
 manufacturer has lately (Free Life, 24 May) pointed out then- 
 equalising and averaging effect. Under their influence small 
 masters on the one side, and some of the men on the other, do 
 not grasp at every little turn of the market tBat takes place in 
 their favour. Grant also, as Mr. Thornton points out, that if 
 tremendous battles have been lost by the men, still they have 
 led to after-concessions on the part of the masters in order 
 to avoid a recurrence of such struggles ; and that there has 
 been this good effect in certain strikes, that they have allowed 
 over-large stocks to be decreased. Grant also that where 
 a trade is in the nature of a monopoly, as in the case of the 
 London Dockers, or in a less degree the building trades, that 
 wages may be pushed up for a time considerably higher than 
 they would have gone, or than they can healthily go, as 
 regards the trade itself; grant all this, yet is this a sufBcient 
 compensation for the state of war that is established between 
 men of the same trade, between different trades, and between 
 employer and employed ; for all the individual inconvenience 
 and restriction, and the loss of individual free action; for 
 all the arbitrary things done by those in power, and the 
 temptations towards coercing others ; for all the sums that go 
 daily and hourly in war-subscriptions, for such sums as the 
 .^437,000 of wages lost in the great Preston strike, or the 
 .1^325,000 of the London building labourers in 1869, or, as 
 the Economist reckons it, the millions that have been lost, all 
 
392 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 things counted; in the late Australian strike ; for all the time 
 and energy of the men spent on the Unions ; and, last of all, for 
 the coming perfection of Unionism, when society will be split 
 into two sections, living, like France and Germany, in the 
 highest state of tension towards each other ? If it can be shown 
 that Unionism cannot permanently alter the wage of labour, 
 and that economical injury constantly results from its action, 
 would it not be wise and right for every Unionist to reconsider 
 the whole matter, and ask himself if he cannot spend the very 
 limited amount of time and energy, that each man possesses, 
 to serve the cause of labour in some other fashion % 
 
 It has been often said by economists that, as wages are paid 
 out of that part of capital called the wage-fund, the true 
 method of increasing wages is to increase the whole body of 
 capital. This doctrine has been bitterly attacked, but it has 
 never been substantially shaken. It is true that some part of 
 wages may be deferred, and not paid until the product of labour 
 has been realised, but that only means that the wages fund at 
 a given moment may be looked on as consisting in part of new 
 capital as well as old capital ; it is also true that some products 
 of labour may become capital in a few days or weeks ; it is 
 also true that at certain moments the capital that has been 
 produced may be increased from what has already gone into 
 consumption, as if everybody who had three coats determined 
 to put one of them into the market ; but the all-important 
 fact — which in reality is a mere truism — remains, that only as 
 the methods of production are improved and more is pro- 
 duced at less cost, can more be divided between employer 
 and employed. Let it be clearly seen how the worker is 
 benefited by increasing production, and by better and cheaper 
 methods of production. Wages may remain the same; em- 
 ployers' profits may remain the same ; and yet the labourer's 
 condition be wholly changed by better production. Suppose 
 that the employer and workman divide the product in the 
 proportion of three to seven, three to the employer and seven 
 to the workman, and suppose that the day's work to-day 
 produces four, where yesterday it produced one. Then both 
 the employer and workman get the advantage of seven and 
 
XII.] The True Line of Deliverance. 393 
 
 three multiplied by four instead of one. It is only necessary 
 for this improvement in production to affect all articles used 
 by the workman, and then as regards all such articles, his 
 wages remaining the same, he is better off as four to one [see 
 note A at end]. A clear perception of this method by which 
 labour is benefited, shows us several great truths ; how fatal 
 is aU. protection ; how unfair to the rest of labour are any 
 forms of restriction and monopoly in certain trades, inasmuch 
 as these trades take more and give less in the general ex- 
 change ; and how unwise are the struggles over the ratio or 
 proportion in which the product is divided, when the matter 
 of prime importance is to improve production, and thus in- 
 crease the share falling both to employer and employed. 
 
 The question will however be asked, in face of modem 
 industrial improvements. Why then are not our labourers 
 better off? Amongst other reasons, the first and foremost 
 reason must be that capital is not produced fast enough, or 
 economically enough, which itself arises from various reasons, 
 — for instance, because of the stupid struggles between labour 
 and capital ; of the far too great luxury on the part of many 
 of the rich, and their lavish expenditure on perishable articles, 
 which when destroyed leave the world no richer, — an ex- 
 penditure, which, as they do not perceive, employs but 
 wastes labour [if every rich person would religiously invest 
 in industrial concerns .^i for every j6''4 spent on himself, 
 the change would be enormous in our prosperity] ; of imperfect 
 systems of saving amongst the workmen; of imperfect free- 
 trade in several directions, especially in the matter of land ; 
 of the restrictions and jealousies of Trades Unions ; of the im- 
 perfect direction of joint-stock enterprise, which is as yet 
 only young in the world ; of considerable quantities of badly 
 trained labour, — our reformers not paying enough attention to 
 offering facilities for third-class men to improve themselves ; 
 of the present fashion of sanitary reforms, applied ofBcially 
 and compulsorily, and the neglect of the individual intelligence 
 of the people, on which far more depends ; of the imperfect 
 development of our moral qualities in every class which leads 
 to bad and untrue work of every deseriptioHi and to waste ;; 
 27 
 
394 -^ Pl^<^ for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 of the meddling and muddling of big and little Governments, 
 which sends capital abroad, hinders the workmen learning how 
 to associate for their own purposes, wastes an enormous amount 
 of energy in political struggles, and weakens the productive 
 machinery of the nation, on which everything depends ; and, 
 lastly, — though many other reasons might be given,— that 
 many of our ablest men do not go into trade, which is one of 
 the best and noblest occupations, partly because we have 
 foolish superstitions in favour of the professions, partly because 
 Government exactions and restrictions, joined to labour troubles, 
 not only lessen the reward of the employer, which is naturally 
 but small in an old country and age of sharp competition, but 
 tends to deprive the trade life of its enjoyable character. 
 
 Is it therefore worth while, I would ask of all open-minded 
 Trade Unionists, to be quarrelling about the proportion in 
 which the product is to be divided, when the great aim must 
 be to make the course of production easier and smoother, get 
 more brains and invention devoted to the work, and every- 
 where increase the points of concord and lessen the points of 
 fiction? Universal Unionism would not help matters; for 
 successful production depends upon the willingness and, so to 
 speak, good temper of capital, — its readiness to run risks and 
 try new methods, — and the theory of universal Unionism — if 
 candidly stated — is to get capital into a corner, and make a 
 mere labour's drudge of it. Partial Unionism — even if effec- 
 tive — is only the momentary (not the permanent) bettering of 
 certain trades at the expense of other trades. Of course a 
 Trade Unionist might reply that the advance of wage may be 
 taken, without raising prices, from the profits of the em- 
 ployers. But that is in itself unlikely to happen, and not 
 even permanently profitable to the men if it does happen. 
 The profits of one trade are in strict relation to the profits of 
 another trade, — capital, just as labour, always tending to an 
 equality, and every trade expanding by the inflow of capital . 
 when profits rise above the ordinary level ^- It may be replied 
 
 ' This does not mean that the centage is always balanced by dis- 
 same percentage of profit exists in advantages of various kinds, 
 all trades, but that the higher per- 
 
xii.] The True Line of Deliverance. 395 
 
 that this is true, allowing for some lapse of time, but that 
 the profits of the employer begin to rise the moment that 
 some turn in the market favours a special trade. That also 
 is true; but let us see what happens, first, if no Trade Union 
 interferes ; and secondly, if it does interfere. Let us suppose 
 that the price of pig-iron advances, that trade becomes brisker, 
 and more iron is manufactured. The fii-st result of this is that 
 unemployed men are brought in, and half-time becomes full 
 time for the employed men. Good for the men in either case, 
 even though for the moment there is no rise in wages. But 
 increased production means lower prices, and though these 
 lower prices check the employers' desire to produce, they 
 also enlarge the demand of purchasers, so that we may 
 suppose that the trade still goes on expanding. But this 
 second expansion must result in higher wages. The un- 
 filled cisterns have now been filled, and there must be an 
 overflow. The unemployed have been brought in, and the 
 competition amongst the masters for the men must caiTy the 
 wage up. And notice in this instance that the rise has come 
 about in a perfectly healthy natural manner. There have 
 been no disputes ; contracts have come in and been accepted ; 
 the trade has expanded and contracted according to natural 
 requii-ements ; whilst in the case of the men the unemployed 
 have first been brought in, and then wages have moved slowly 
 but surely up with the expanding trade '. Suppose also that 
 the men have not at first secured the whole rise that ought to 
 come to them. Are they injured % No. For if the profit of 
 the masters is at all in excess it produces the very thing that 
 is most in the interest of the men. They borrow capital and 
 enlarge their turn-out, whilst, if the upward movement seems 
 likely to last, new employers begin to enter the trade. 
 
 Now, take the other example. The same favourable move- 
 ment of trade has taken place ; but this time the Union, on 
 the alert, has insisted on a rise of wages. This rise of wages, 
 perhaps slightly in excess of what the rise in prices justifies, 
 
 ' Of course the two movements ployment of the unemployed would 
 have been taking place together, but tend to be the first movement. 
 in an unregulated condition the em- 
 
396 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 may check the -enterprise of the employer. Deprived of a part 
 of the extra profit, he is less inclined to enlarge his business ; 
 he is puzzled about the future action of the men as regards the- 
 contracts which are offered him ; at the same time the rise in 
 prices following upon both the original movement in the trade 
 and the subsequent rise in wages, is checking consumption 
 and therefore checking the expanding condition of the trade, 
 although so far as it exceeds the rise in wages it is tempting 
 the employer to enlarge his operations. 
 
 Now I think it is hardly possible to review the two 
 processes, remembering how all strain between employers and 
 employed checks production, remembering the unwise things 
 that will be done on both sides, the mistakes made on both 
 sides, the waste of time and energy on both sides, in offensive 
 and defensive preparations, and the fatal effect of a fight at 
 the moment when trade is becoming favourable, without be- 
 lieving that the workman would actually gain more in wages 
 (I do not speak of a trade where there is a monopoly, which 
 stands on a different footing) if his Union abstained from all 
 interference in the matter. The Union is so liable to make 
 mistakes ; the market, left to itseK, will not make mistakes. 
 I suspect the Union often acts like a fisherman, who snatches 
 the bait out of the fish's mouth, in his hurry to secure his 
 prize, instead of waiting for the fish to pouch it. The first rise 
 in a trade is the bait to the employer to enlarge his business, 
 put on more hands, and accept contracts. When he has once 
 taken those steps, the wage must rise ; even if the workman's 
 share in the profit does not come to him quite as quickly as, 
 strictly speaking, it ought, he has no occasion to repent it. It 
 is probably the very best investment that he could have made. 
 It is ground-bait, and with moderate patience will bring far 
 more to his basket than what he loses at the moment. 
 
 But it may be urged that all this danger may be prevented 
 by the sliding scale. The sliding scale has many virtues, as it 
 removes to a great extent that uncertainty from the mind of 
 the employer which is so fatal to successful production. But 
 the sliding scale has special difficulties of its own, as, for 
 example, where different elements are concerned in the price, 
 
XII.] The True Line of Deliverance. 397 
 
 so that a higher price may not mean a higher profit to the 
 employer. 
 
 Of course, Trades Unions have a power to raise wages 
 for a time in trades which are a monopoly, as in the Dockers' 
 Union, or in trades which are partly a monopoly, as the 
 building trades. But this power is both hurtful to others 
 and limited in its own extent. In the first place, such extra 
 wage is taken from the pockets of their fellow-labourers. It 
 is in fact nothing but war against labour. Taking advantage 
 of their position, these monopolists accept the labour of their 
 feUow-workmen at a lower price, whilst they charge a higher 
 price for their own. And does it profit them ? The trade is 
 pinched and starved by the high prices ; there is perpetual 
 war between employers and employed, wasting the extra gains 
 of labour ; capital arms itself at all points, and retaliates ; 
 quick brains begin to devise new methods of cii'cumventing the 
 monopoly and working thi-ough other trades or through other 
 channels ; whilst the men succumb to the universal fate which 
 overtakes all those, poor or rich, who are artificially protected, 
 and begin to deteriorate in their own character. There is also 
 another consideration. The men not only hurt themselves as 
 consumers, by restricting their own trade, but they may 
 throw out of gear other allied trades, and by depressing the 
 production of these other trades still further, hurt both -them- 
 selves and all other workmen by reducing the general product. 
 Under a free-trade system, it is impossible to measure the 
 amount of disturbance that may be caused by even one dam 
 being thrown across the supply of some particular labour. It 
 is the interest of all other trades, as well as of the public, to 
 discourage all such dams, and to make the free-trade footing 
 universal for all. I do not mean that A and B should accept 
 work on any terms other than those that they themselves 
 approve; but that they should throw no dam round their 
 labour by preventing C from taking a share in their work or 
 from accepting terms which they decline. That is the true 
 labour principle, universal individual choice, and no pressure 
 exerted upon others. 
 . Mr. Thornton (On Labour, p. a8i) has supposed that in 
 
398 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 several cases the pressure of Trades Unions can permanently 
 raise wages. Whilst I respect much that he has written, I 
 do not think he has thought any of these cases thoroughly 
 out. Excluding a monopoly or half-monopoly, and taking the 
 case of expanding trade, or of an increased product, it can be 
 shown that under a free system the extra profit must even- 
 tually come to the men, whilst the restriction or the pressure, 
 employed to gaia that profit, is likely in the end to destroy 
 the extra profit by lessening the vigour and expansion of the 
 trade. In the case of a universal rise of wage, he argues 
 that capital would have no choice, no power of helping itself; 
 but a universal rise in wage, without a universal rise in price — 
 which latter rise would benefit nobody, but leave us all, with 
 some momentary exceptions, as we were — is very unlikely to 
 take place. The fact that capital goes so largely abroad 
 shows that, as things are, we are near the margin of profit ; 
 and a slight unfriendly pressure exercised upon capital, a slight 
 discouragement to its investment, would probably do far more 
 in reducing wages by reducing the amount of capital employed, 
 than in raising wages by raising the proportion of the product 
 which comes to the labourer. Independently of this, the 
 truth is, that the greater becomes the pressure of Trade 
 Unions, the greater tends to be the rate of profit demanded 
 by capital, in order to recoup risks and inconveniences, 
 just as the existence of usury laws drives up instead of 
 loweiing the rate of interest ; whilst the less the pressure 
 and interference of the Unions, the lower tends to sink the 
 rate of profit. Lastly, Mr. Thornton instances the case of 
 much capital invested in buildings and plant, which could 
 be nipped safely by the union because it could not be with- 
 drawn without great loss. But that is profit for the moment 
 at the cost of sacrificing the profit for the future. ' Once 
 bit, twice shy.' The capital which is so treated avoids the 
 trade in question, like a plague-infested district, and the trade 
 sufiers grievously instead of profiting by such folly. Nor 
 is it right to say a Trades Union could permanently raise 
 wages in the case of increased product. If such increase were 
 general over the whole field of production, all the labourers 
 
xii.j The True Line of Deliverance. 
 
 399 
 
 would profit, with or without Trade Unions, for there would be 
 a larger product-fund to be divided amongst them, and 
 each man's labour would exchange for more. It should 
 however jje remarked that an increased product in one 
 trade, other trades remaining undeveloped and inactive, 
 would not directly benefit the labourers of that trade, — except 
 so far as they consumed their own product — since they would 
 receive only small quantities of the products of other trades 
 in exchange for their own larger product. It would, how- 
 ever, benefit them indirectly, for it would imply that their 
 trade was in a vigorous and expanding condition, and was 
 probably in the hands of a higher and more efficient class of 
 employer. Mr. Thornton also says {i']6) that if in an expand- 
 ing trade with rising prices, the employers were to raise wages, 
 then there would be no need for capital to come in (and thus 
 reduce prices and presently wages, by restoring the balance of 
 supply and demand) ; but that the employer would go on receiv- 
 ing only normal profits, whilst the trade remained stationary. 
 He forgets, however, that the labourer, having got the whole 
 rise, is at once placed in an abnormal position, and that other 
 labourers would be attracted to his trade. The consequence 
 would be that the labourer with the extra profit must either 
 dam back by some artifice the inflowing labour, or lose his 
 extra profit. He therefore would not be profited except at 
 the expense of other labour. 
 
 Moreover, at the same time Mr. Thornton ignores the meaning 
 of the rise in price. The rise in price almost always indicates 
 greater demand, in some form, and as all large works pay 
 better when fully employed, the production would be at 
 once increased and new capital be necessarily brought in. 
 Each employer would know that another employer would 
 begin to run fuU time ; and if he did not, it would be at the 
 expense of the whole public, who would run short of their 
 supply, and pay higher prices than they need pay. 
 
 Perhaps here it is right to say one word about high wages. 
 They may be the truest sign of national health and vigour ; 
 or they may be just the reverse. If they are the result of 
 monopoly, because in some special field labour has cornered 
 
400 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 capital, and by violence has driven other labour out of com- 
 petition, or the result of the high prices existing under a pro- 
 tective tariflf, they only indicate unhealth of the body economical, 
 and are sure to be accompanied or followed by distarbances of 
 various kinds ; if they are the result of perfectly free competi- 
 tion existing everywhere, then they are the truest sign of 
 health, for they show that capital is abundant ; that being safe 
 and unharassed, it is content with a small reward ; that the 
 labour itself is of high quality and therefore rightly commands 
 a high reward, and that the product which is being turned 
 out is sufficient to give this high reward to the labourer. 
 Blessed would be such a country; for one could safely say of 
 it, that the good sense, the self-restraint, the friendliness 
 between classes, and the intelligence of its people were as 
 fully expressed in those high wages as its adherence to that 
 perfect free-trade and perfect competition which are the only 
 equitable conditions for all. 
 
 Here however it might be urged, as it would be by some 
 economists, that all this is true, demonstrably true, that it 
 is only a truism to say that the labour of the country never 
 can obtain for itself, except at the expense of other labour, 
 more than the free and open market will yield, but that such 
 a regulation of wages belongs to a state of perfect compe- 
 tition ; that competition is still very far from perfect ; that 
 the labourer cannot take his labour to the best market and 
 make the best price of it ; that often ignorance on his part 
 and other difficulties stand in his way ; that there is amongst 
 employers that 'tacit combination' of which Adam Smith 
 spoke ; and therefore that the Union of the workman is the 
 necessary answer to the imperfections of the market [see note 
 B at end.] Granted, if you like; granted, that competition 
 is not perfect, that there are many obstacles in the way of the 
 labourer obtaining the perfectly just rate — just as declared by 
 competition — in the open market, yet what is the true course 
 to follow 1 To turn our backs on the method which must be 
 pronounced to be the true one, because it is still imperfect, 
 and plunge into an interminable morass of restriction and 
 regulation, through which we can only make our way by 
 
XII.] The True Line of Deliverance. 401 
 
 guessrwork and reckless adventure ; or, instead of this, press 
 steadily on in -what we know is the true direction, and 
 gradually remove the obstacles in our way % "What we have 
 to fear is not competition, but imperfect competition. No 
 man, whether he is street-sweeper or writer of the highest 
 philosophy, can reasonably claim more than what his work is 
 worth to his fellow-men. Suppose that every man's work 
 could be put up at a national auction, and sold with the whole 
 nation as bidder, could any man reasonably complain of the 
 result % He would have obtained the highest that his fellow- 
 countrymen were willing to give ; he has no title to more ; 
 and if by any device he succeeds in extracting more, he is 
 behaving with something that is very near to dishonesty, 
 since he is forcing this higher price at the expense of others. 
 
 Now let us see how far such perfect competition as I have" 
 sketched, a competition, under which men could realise the 
 true value of their labour according to the wants of their 
 fellow-men, is possible. In old days it was not possible. 
 When villages and country towns lay cut off from each other, 
 and ignorant of each other's doings, there could only be local 
 not general competition. Now all is changed. Now-a-days 
 we have both publicity and mobility. The spread of the press, 
 the post that penetrates everywhere, the railways that link us 
 together, all these are making it more and more possible for 
 men to know the value of their labour and to offer it iu the 
 best market. Of course there are still left many restrictions 
 and impediments, and many things still left to do to perfect 
 the free labour mart — that outcome of a very high civilisation. 
 Amongst these restrictions are the restrictions of trades-unions, 
 at which I have already glanced, which may limit the numbers 
 engaged in a trade, which may disallow the non-unionist 
 working with the unionist, and prevent a man acquiring a trade 
 at any moment of his life. Till these restrictions are done 
 away with, there can be no true labour mart. To get rid of 
 these restrictions must be the work of a reforming party within 
 the unions themselves ; whilst the employers go on ^steadily 
 with their present policy of opening registers of what is called 
 ' free-labour,' and then of organising the free-labour men into 
 
402 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 unions for theii- own protection. To be weak is miserable 
 indeed, and the non-union men will only take their proper 
 place by acting together. But when these restrictions are re- 
 moved, there is a good deal to be done. Every place should 
 weekly report the state and the wants of its labour market, — 
 one statement being made by employers, one by the men ; the 
 Gazette of the Unions might contain notice of every shop and 
 the number of men employed in it, with notes both by the men 
 and the employer as to wages offered and the class of labour 
 wanted. Unions might also probably do something in the way 
 of owning and letting lodgings for their own members in 
 search of work ; and different tirades could be combined for 
 the same purpose. Once the great mass of our workmen re- 
 cognise that the true and fair policy for all is making the 
 labour-market as free of access as possible to aU, of diffusing 
 the widest information, and leaving every class of labour in 
 the same trade to accept its own rate of pay and work its own 
 number of hours, much can be done to help this object. The 
 needful thing is to get effort into the right direction. To make 
 it clear, let me sketch what would be the attitude of the men 
 under the new state of things, and the part which their imions 
 would play. They would stand on this ground. They would 
 leave every man free to settle his own price of labour, just as 
 every shopkeeper settles his own prices, though all prices would 
 be published and some might be recommended. They would 
 let every man follow his own inclination as to the number of 
 hours he worked, or the character of his work, — the result of 
 which would be that a natural differentiation would take place, 
 some workshops running longer, some shorter hours ; some con- 
 taining the pick of the workers, some the second-class and some 
 the third-class men. They would break down every fence that 
 prevented a man acquiring a trade for which he had an apti- 
 tude, and there would be nothing to prevent clever men, as 
 happens even now in a limited way, following different trades 
 at different times. There would be no minimum of wage, 
 except such as each man chose to fix for himself, and there 
 would be no strikes, such as exist to-day. In the case of a 
 serious disagreement between an employer and his men, the 
 
xii.J The True Line of Deliverance. 403 
 
 union would remove all such men as wished to leave, giving 
 them an allowance for so many weeks whilst they were finding 
 new employment. But there would be no effort to prevent 
 the employer obtaining new hands. All that had happened 
 would be stated in the Union Gazette, and it would be left for 
 those who chose to engage themselves at the vacant shop, to 
 do so. There would be no strike, no picketing, no coercion 
 of other men, no stigmatising another fellow-workman as 
 ' scab,' or ' knobstick,' or ' blackleg,' because he was ready to 
 take & lower wage, — all this would be left perfectly free for each 
 man to do according to what was right in his own judgment. 
 If the employer had behaved badly, the true penalty would 
 fall upon him ; those who wished to leave his service would do 
 so ; and the facts of the case would be published. That would 
 be at once the true penalty and the true remedy. Further 
 than that in labour disputes has no man a right to go. He 
 can throw up his own work, but he has no right to prevent 
 others accepting that work. 
 
 Under this system there would be no unions of exactly the 
 present type, but there would be far more association amongst 
 the men. The probability is that almost every man would 
 belong to some form of union. Information would be the 
 &st great purpose. Information would not only be supplied 
 about labour and the state of the market, but about the 
 character of the shops. The employers would state their terms 
 and the quality of the labour they required. Publicity would 
 be an important agent of improvement ; those workshops in 
 which the comfort and health of the worker were specially 
 cared for would be described, and the effect of their good ex- 
 ample would be to bring others slowly up from their lower 
 level. At the same time the men, now that they had ceased to 
 pile up great funds which might at any time be dissipated in 
 war, would invest far more in remunerative undertakings. 
 The Union being no longer a war-machine would serve many 
 great pui-poses. One great object that lies before every work- 
 man is to have two sources of revenue ; his labour earnings, 
 and his return from industrial investments. If aU the money 
 wasted in labour- war had been invested in industrial concerns, 
 
404 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 wages would be higher than they are now, and the jmen 
 would be part owners of a considerable amount of the indus- 
 trial machinery of the country, having gained the increased 
 wealth, the business knowledge, and the influence, which would 
 follow from such part ownership. Investment for their mem- 
 bers will be a leading function of the new unions. By means 
 of the weekly subscriptions they will be always buying shares 
 in the industries of the district, in water, gas, omnibus, tram- 
 car, dock and railway companies, in the great industrial 
 concerns where their members work, and then passing *these 
 shares on to the individual members, as the small weekly 
 payment comes up to the required amount. So also with land 
 and houses. The Unions would act as house-building societies, 
 building or purchasing houses, and then passing them on in 
 return for small monthly payments to their members. Those 
 members who did not wish to purchase would hire direct from 
 the Union, which would itself become a large owner of house 
 property for this purpose, of a better and more convenient 
 character than those houses in which workmen now live. 
 More than this, every Union of town-workers would have its 
 farm in the country, — held in good fee-simple, and not under 
 any imperfect land-nationalisation tenure, — which would pro- 
 vide pleasant and healthful change for its members in turn. 
 Members would erect their own wooden rooms for the summer ; 
 there would be a sanatorium, and possibly certain articles, like 
 fresh eggs and milk, would be regularly supplied to those who 
 cared to make such an arrangement. The Union would also 
 offer certain training advantages. When work was slack and 
 men were unemployed, workshops would be open where men 
 would acquire a facility in the use of certain tools, and the power 
 of taking up other kinds of work. It is hardly too much to say 
 that every man would be more independent in life if he were up 
 to a certain point a carpenter. At times of depression there are 
 many simple things for his own domestic use that each man 
 might make; and just as so many Norwegian farmers work in 
 silver or make boats during the long winter evenings, so should 
 the great bulk of English workmen have other occupations to 
 fall back upon in times of non-employment. Besides the 
 
XII.] The Trtce Line of Deliverance. 405 
 
 workshops, there would be educational opportunities, so that 
 no unemployed man would let his time be wasted, as so 
 cruelly happens at present. The New Union, like some of the 
 London workmen's clubs, would have many different funds,— 
 each purpose, at which I have glanced, having its own fund, 
 to which each member would subscribe or not as he chose ; 
 the out-of-employment fund, the benefit fund, the intelligence 
 fund, the investing fund, .the house-owning fund, the land- 
 owning fund, the educational or workshop fund, and such 
 other funds as were found desirable. Those who had chosen 
 to subscribe to the educational fund, might in a serious time of 
 depression be altogether withdrawn for some months from the 
 labour-market, — a voluntary levy of the other workers being 
 added to their own fund. 
 
 I cannot follow any further, as I should like to do, the use- 
 ful operations which the New Union would perform for the 
 men. Once relieved from the miserable duty of fighting the 
 employer, its energies would be called out in many directions, 
 which are scarcely in the region of imagination at present. 
 There is no want, intellectual or physical, which they would not 
 strive to supply, often in competition with the open market,— 
 as can be seen to-day from what the best of the London clubs 
 are beginning to do for the men. Sometimes, perhaps often, 
 they would be beaten by what the trader offered, sometimes 
 they would beat the trader ; but the outcome would be for the 
 ever-increasing advantage of the men. That is the true use 
 of co-operation, to act as another competitive force, and thus to 
 improve, not to replace, the competitive forces that are already 
 in existence, whilst it is itself continually improved by them. 
 
 Such would be a part of the result of the abandonment by 
 the men of their war-organisations. The whole result I cannot 
 sketch here; I can only lay stress upon the vast, effect of 
 transferring the energy and intelligence that are spent to-day 
 upon war- purposes to the direct purpose of reconstructing the 
 circumstances of the workman's life. Now let us look in 
 another direction, — at the effect upon capital of substituting 
 peace for war. Capital relieved of all attacks and of all mis- 
 givings would become intensely active. The same wise spirit 
 
4o6 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 in the men which had led them to abandon all attacks upon it 
 through their organisations, would also lead them to put a 
 sharp curb upon the mischievous activities of the politician, 
 and to prevent his happy-go-lucky interference with it. 
 Capital would thus have that sense of complete security, which 
 is beyond all value to it. It would know that under all circum- 
 stances it would receive its full market reward, however small 
 it might be. The consequences would be that this country 
 would become the home and storehouse of capital Capital, 
 which now so largely drifts abroad into very speculative enter- 
 prises, because in so many matters it feels uncertain about the 
 future, would prefet to develop new home enterprises ; and not 
 only would wages rise, but many useful commercial undertak- 
 ings would be carried out on behalf of the workmen which now 
 are left undone. In two senses the workmen, if they so choose 
 it, may become the masters of capital. They may encourage 
 capital to such an extent, that the competition of capitalists 
 will drive the reward of labour up to the highest point, 
 and the reward of capital down to the lowest point; and 
 secondly, being the largest body of consumers, they may have 
 capital at their feet, trying to find out and discover their every 
 will and pleasure. We have had lately a significant example 
 of this new disposition of capital in railway travelling. The 
 third-class passenger is found to be of more importance to the 
 railway company than any other passenger ; henceforth his con- 
 venience and his pleasure will be more and more appreciated, 
 whilst the first and second-class passenger will sink in the 
 scale of consideration. Then the ready inflow of capital does 
 so much to keep all trades in a healthy and vigorous condition, 
 and thus to raise the general product, and thus to raise wages. 
 With capital come in new brains, new methods, new machinery. 
 The old, cramped and perhaps unwholesome factory, with its 
 obsolete machinery, cannot live alongside of its new rival, and 
 is gradually weeded out. The second-class employer and un- 
 thrifty manager is removed in the same way. Thus both effici- 
 ency is always obtaining, where capital flows freely in, and the 
 product is always tending to increase. Let it be said again 
 and again that upon the increase of this product depends 
 
xii.J The True Line of Deliverance. 407 
 
 the prosperity of the workmen, as a body. If this product is 
 small, no earthly ingenuity, no organisation, no government 
 systems, no grants in aid, no form of protection, can make the 
 general condition of the labourers good. It is altogether past 
 praying for. If, on the other hand, this product is large, and 
 goes on steadily increasing beyond the increase of population, 
 whilst all industrial processes are being improved in them- 
 selves, nothing can prevent the material prosperity of the 
 workmen. Of course, as happens with every class, we may 
 through mental and moral deficiencies throw away a large 
 part of such prosperity ; but with time will come the develop- 
 ment of the qualities that are still lacking. One thing however 
 — before alluded to — is worth repeating. A special trade may 
 be working on free-trade principles and producing largely, and 
 yet its members may not be better off than the members 
 of other trades. They are not better off, just because other 
 trades are cramped and. restricted, are repelling capital, are 
 not doing their duty in the general work of production. The 
 first trade adds bountifully to the general wealth, but receives 
 in poor proportion from the others ; these others profit by 
 its large production, whilst it itself suffers from their re- 
 stricted production. It is the workmen's interest tjierefore 
 that no trade-monopoly should exist anywhere, that every 
 trade should be free from restrictions, should be attracting 
 capital, should be producing largely and efficiently, so that in 
 every direction where each man exchanges the product of his 
 own labour, he should receive much in return. Moreover, the 
 efficient direction of labour and the efficient production which 
 take place where capital flows in freely help the workman in 
 another manner. The middleman tends to be eliminated, and 
 then there is more to be divided. He can only be safely 
 eliminated by natural processes. Sometimes he is of real 
 use and helps production ; sometimes he is not ; but this 
 cannot be decided by a blind strike, but only by allowing the 
 forces of competition to act upon him. 
 
 The point then that I urge upon Trade Unionists and aU work- 
 men is the same point I should urge upon nations. Seek to get 
 rid of war. Seek to get rid of the war-organisation, which is 
 
4o8 A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 a terrible hindrance to all developments of a higher kind. Give 
 up attacking capital. Leave capital to reduce its own reward, 
 which it will do far raore effectually than you can do, by 
 competition with itself. Create for it the most favourable 
 atmosphere. Cultivate with all the better employers friendly 
 personal relations. Disregard stories of excessive profits. Here 
 and there some men, possessing powers of a very high order, 
 and excelling in commercial judgment and aptitude for or- 
 ganisation, may build up great fortunes. Don't grudge such 
 men a single penny of their wealth. They are the true 
 servants and helpers of all. Remember that all ordinary 
 profits are tending to fall. Indeed some economists go so far 
 as to believe that in the future money -will cease to pay 
 interest. Be this true or not, let us suppose for a moment 
 that by giving up Trade Union war the workmen should see, if 
 it were only for a time, a large profit left in the hands of 
 capitalists, whilst no rise took place in their own wages ; would 
 that be an unmixed evil for them ? The answer must be ' No.' 
 Because not only, as we have seen, would such trade be 
 increasingly prosperous, but because the high profit is the 
 very stimulus that is wanted to develop the workmen's 
 co-operative and joint-stock association. The difficulty that 
 now stands in the way of these associations is that small 
 trade profits are not easily made, large trade profits with 
 difficulty. If a large profit could be made easily in any trade, 
 workmen's combinations could at once come into existence. 
 Thus, looked at in every way, the workman has the ball at 
 his feet, if only he will not kick it away from him. As the 
 wealth of the country increases, larger and larger shares of it 
 must come to him. He has only to let the natural processes go 
 on, to resist all temptation to fight, or to rely upon artificial 
 protection for his labour, and thus to shield himself from the 
 stimulus which we all want to keep our good qualities free 
 from rust, whilst he turns his spare energies in the direction 
 of carrying out the things which most affect his comfort 
 and happiness, and puts all his spare cash religiously into 
 industrial investments, to become, as he is probably entitled 
 to be, the true owner of this world and all that therein is, — 
 
 \ 
 
xii.] The True Line of Deliverance. 409 
 
 with a few spare corners perhaps left for the rest of us idlers. 
 Honestly, happily, with no hurt and no oppression of others, 
 he can obtain all that the State-Socialist vainly promises at the 
 end of useless crime and revolution,— for crime and revolution 
 will not bring it ; they are instruments that defeat themselves, 
 — and far more, for he can obtain it, whilst he preserves that 
 priceless gift of remaining the master of his own actions, and 
 not being under the regulation of other men. See note C at end. 
 A few last words. Of course this abandonment of industrial 
 war on the part of the workmen would be nearly in vain, if 
 the politician is still allowed to play his usual high antics upon 
 his own stage, if capital is to be harassed by ill-considered 
 laws, its reward filched from it, and thus the growing inclination 
 to invest is to be checked, if land is to be rated in such fashion, 
 that the tenth part or the fifth part, or more, is taken of its 
 yearly value, if it is to be tied up in a new form of settlement 
 by such stupidities as compulsory Compensation for improve- 
 ment Acts, if everybody who climbs to power is to indulge 
 his fancies and speculations at the expense of other people, if 
 public departments are to spend without any real control from 
 the public, if every new interest is to have its own department 
 and its own minister, with the special office of securing to 
 it a share of the public doles that are going, if the number of 
 officials is to mount higher every year, and the area of re- 
 gimentation is to grow larger, if municipalities and county 
 councils are to be encouraged to undertake trade on their 
 own account, and to be the instruments of preserving mono- 
 polies for certain favoured bodies of workmen, if local debts are 
 steadily to increase, with little or nothing to show of permanent 
 value in return, if splendid salaries are to be the politician's 
 dazzling reward, if huge showy reforms, aflfecting only the 
 outside of things, are to be encouraged, and aU the healthy con- 
 ditions for personal improvement to be made light of by the law- 
 makers, if free arrangements between employers and employed 
 are to be prevented, and schemes like Employers' Liability 
 (with all the mischief of uniformity about them) are to be 
 forced on the whole nation, if lawyers and doctors are to enjoy 
 monopolies, with all the vices and few of the apologies of trades- 
 
41 o A Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 unions about them, if every blessed occupation in turn, in- 
 cluding accountants, teachers, journalists, and I presume at 
 last street-sweepers, are to ask for charters and are to regulate 
 their own numbers, under the flimsy plea of saving the public 
 from incompetence, if the workmen's thoughts and energies 
 are all to be given to these worthless political methods and 
 to the barren struggle for power over each other, if the lies, 
 self-seeking and hypocrisy of party warfare are to reign 
 supreme in our hearts, — then the immense gain which would 
 come from a cessation of industrial war will be neutralised 
 both by other forms of monopoly and by the continuance of 
 political war. Both forms are equally mischievous. Both in 
 due time will destroy the nations that give themselves up to 
 them, for both are opposed to the great principle on which 
 alone happy and progressive society can be founded, — ^the 
 unflinching respect for every man's will about his own actions. 
 
 AUBEEON HeEBEBT. 
 
XII. J The True Line of Deliverance. 41 1 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Note A, p. 393. 
 
 As Professor Cairnes pointed out, whilst all improvements in 
 manufactures help the -workman, what tells against him is that his 
 special article of consumption, food, gets dearer, as population in- 
 creases, and lower-class soils are called into requisition. Against 
 this, however, a good deal has to be set off. We have probably nearly 
 as much room left for new knowledge and improvement in method, 
 as regards the growth of food, and the use and preparation of food,, 
 as there is in other directions. We have only to think of unsettled 
 questions, as regards sewage, the possibilities of certain plants storing 
 up nitrogen from the air, and the growth of vegetarianism as a diet, 
 to realise what changes the food question may undergo. Moreover, 
 the workmen's wants are now extending in so many directions. 
 Clothing, literature of all kinds, implements, better house accommo- 
 dation, materials of culture and amusement, locomotion from railways 
 to bicycles, and many other things, now begin to form a regular part 
 of his budget ; and as regards all these articles, he takes his enlarged 
 share that results from improved production. The effect of modern 
 years has been to call into existence an increasing number of articles, 
 which are of increasing importance to him. 
 
 Professor Cairnes also laid stress upon another point adverse to the 
 workman. A large quantity of capital in a manufacturing countsry 
 tends to take a fixed form, to be invested in machinery and buildings; 
 and such fixed capital represents the profits of employers, and a 
 permanent tax, therefore, that has to bo 'paid to them. It is true ; 
 and for that reason I so earnestly desire to &ee a regular organised 
 movement amongst workmen for investment, so that they might 
 gradually become the part-owners of this fixed capital. Every work- 
 man should religiously invest something, if only zrf. a week, for this 
 object; and every workman should belong to a Union that would 
 
412 A Plea for Liberty. [xir. 
 
 make the investment for him. One other point, however, of an 
 opposite tendency should be considered. As capital flows plentifully 
 into a trade, bringing with it better machinery and better buildings, 
 at first the owner of such better equipment obtains a higher profit 
 than the owner of second-rate working material. He is like the 
 owner of a better soil, and gets the difference of profit that exists 
 between the two soils. But presently in manufacture the second-rate 
 man tends to be eliminated, and the competition is then between men, 
 who once were the best men in the trade, but after a few years only 
 represent the average, — Shaving yielded the first place to later comers, 
 who in their turn bring in later improvements. The consequence of 
 this is that production is improved, the whole product is increased, 
 and all concerned — except the manufacturer, who has fallen from the 
 first to the second place — get a larger quantity as their share. The 
 workman's share of the product is not increased in proportion (as 
 regards the employer), but it is increased in actual quantity, because 
 the product itself is increased. In this way fixed capital is on the 
 side of the workman; as a tax, it is always tending to disappear; 
 always tending to drive inferior and old-fashioned industrial 
 apparatus out of existence, and thus to lessen the cost of pro- 
 duction, and to give larger amounts of the product both to 
 the employer and the employed, though the proportions that go 
 to them respectively are unchanged. Here lies the whole gist of 
 the matter. The workman has simply to care about the increase of 
 the product, leaving the market to arrange the proportions that come 
 to him. They will be increasingly in his favour. It is indeed to the 
 workman more than to any other person that free-trade is of vital 
 importance. The man who wants to be protected is the second-rate 
 employer, with backward methods, who feels that he is being squeezed 
 out by the better methods. One can only be very sorry for his 
 position, which is often a hard one ; but to protect him is to sacrifice 
 general prosperity. 
 
 Note B, p. 400. 
 
 As regards combinations of masters, it must not be forgotten that 
 it is in the interest of masters in some trades to preserve a state of 
 restriction and monopoly ; since, partly owing to the restricted numbers 
 of the men, trade secrets, &c., they are able to make it difficult for new 
 capital to enter such trades. It is in these cases that combinations of 
 
xii.J The True Line of Deliverance. 413 
 
 masters for settling wages are likely to be successfully carried out. In 
 open trades the new employer is unlikely to enter into any Buch com- 
 bination. He brings with him the advantage of all new improvements, 
 probably has considerable capital behind him, and is determined to 
 get good labour, even if he pays a slightly higher price than the market 
 price. If the men would resolutely determine in their own general 
 interest to discountenance a close or restricted trade anywhere, 
 they might depend, under the circumstances of to-day, upon the influx 
 of new capital for making any combination of masters in the long run 
 untenable. Should such combination be maintained, no better field 
 could be found for a co-operative association, or a joint-stock company, 
 run by the men. 
 
 Note C, p. 409. 
 
 It might be well to summarise here the two things which seem of 
 paramount importance to the workmen. First, the carrying out of a 
 reform within the Unions, in the direction of giving to each man 
 a much wider choice as regards his own conduct. For example, no 
 central authority should override the terms which any shop chooses 
 to make with the employer ; and only those who individually wish 
 to strike should do so. Secondly, the abandonment of struggles with 
 capital over wages. It must be remembered that everything turns 
 upon the willing temper of capital. Capital stands on this vantage 
 ground, that to set production going, or to increase it, it must be 
 attracted, eager, and filled with confidence. "We have therefore to 
 insist upon these general truths, — that all war between capital and 
 labour is fatal to the general good; that it cannot permanently 
 increase wages, seeing that higher wages can only permanently come 
 from larger and cheaper production, and that capital must be coaxed, 
 not bullied, into the perfect performance of its true service; that 
 capital should be thoroughly secure and at ease, so that on account of 
 this ease it should be content with a lower reward, itself by compe- 
 tition with itself reducing that reward ; that no violence or threat of 
 violence from any quarter should be offered it ; that employers should 
 be constantly tempted to invest their profits in their business, thus 
 enlarging their operations and increasing the fund that gives emplpy- 
 ment ; that a certain part of the capital that now goes abroad should 
 by this increased sense of security be kept at home; that the fullest 
 encouragement should be given to employers to introduce improved 
 
414 ^ Plea for Liberty. [xii. 
 
 processes and improved machinery, no employer being afraid to invest 
 the largest sums of money permanently in his business ; that by such 
 improved processes all articles should be manufactured at the lowest 
 possible price, thus ensuring to the workman the highest return from 
 his wages, and thus favouring this country as regards the exportation 
 of articles ; that in no trade should there be any restriction or 
 monopoly, seeing that the higher prices derived from such restriction 
 and monopoly are obtained at the expense of other workmen, who 
 only receive free trade prices for their labour, whilst themselves 
 paying to such monopolists protective prices ; that all labour should 
 be free to move, in such channels as best suited it, and that eiforts 
 should be directed to perfect the competition of the open market, as 
 offering both the truest and justest return for the labour of each, — 
 such return being measured by the wants of the public ; that work- 
 men should be more and more induced to invest in industrial concerns, 
 thus becoming the owners of the fixed capital of the country, and thus 
 possessing a second source of income in addition to wages ; that in- 
 vesting Unions should be formed for this purpose ; that no foolish 
 legislative steps should be taken to restrict or impede joint-stock 
 enterprise, and thus to throw fresh difficulties in the path of the 
 workman becoming possessed of capital; and that the politician 
 should not be allowed either to come between the employer and the 
 employed, in the arrangement of their affairs, or to interfere with 
 the profits of the employer, upon which the whole fabric of production 
 rests, and with it the prosperity of the workmen. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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