'^m 
 
 i 
 
 m 
 
 
 
OLlKi 
 \7l 
 
 HN I'. V- 
 
 To - , 
 
Cornell University Library 
 HB 171.D27 
 
 Liberty & progress, 
 
 3 1924 011 977 356 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924011977356 
 
LIBERTY AND PROGRESS 
 
LIBERTY & PROGRESS 
 
 C. Y. C. DAWBARN, M.A., 
 
 Author of '* Oneiros : oi; Some Questions of the Day^ 
 ^^ E-m flayers'' Liability^'' etc., etc. 
 
 ' Learning without thought is learning lost ; thought 
 without learning is perilous."— Confucius. 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA 
 
 igog 
 
PREFACE 
 
 To-day the air is full of reforms — well-considered 
 reforms, ill-considered reforms, and reforms not 
 considered at all. 
 
 Their variety is legion, their qualities as varied, 
 but all have one common characteristic, the spend- 
 ing more money — other people's money {a\ — and 
 as an inspiration it might be suggested that the 
 greatest and most wanted reform of all is to reflect 
 more and scatter less. 
 
 In the following pages no new gospel is preached, 
 no new suggestion made, and probably at most will 
 only be found old truths re-stated and forgotten 
 teachings re-enforced ; but apart from the freshness 
 thus imparted, no other novelty is introduced. 
 What has been attempted, possibly more difficult 
 than the weaving of new fancies or the creating of 
 new worlds, is the application of old principles to 
 
 (a) Reforms depending on our own can be initiated 
 at once. 
 
 " Exercised at a man's own expense, liberality may be or 
 may not be, according to circumstances, a virtue ; exercised 
 at the expense of the public, it never can be anything better 
 than vice. . . . Exercised at a man's own expense, it is at any 
 rate disinterestedness ; exercised at the expense of the public, 
 it is pure selfishness ; it is, in a word, depredation." — ■ 
 Bentham, ii. p. 437. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 new conditions, and the fair and impartial ascer- 
 tainment of what these new conditions are which 
 we would modify or amend. These, with an 
 inquiry into the difficulties we have to face, form 
 the bulk of what we have written. On nothing is 
 progress more completely dependent, than on our 
 taking an all-round view of things. It is so easy to 
 run any particular "'ism" to death, so difficult to 
 keep a clear course Ijetween thousands of conflicting 
 interests. Thus it is that nearly every proposal so 
 violently advocated to-day shows on its very face 
 that more than one half of the subject has been 
 overlooked. We will give but one instance — the 
 character of our race itself. As a nation we have 
 inherited an overmastering love of personal liberty. 
 Thus, whilst it is well to learn wisdom from all, it 
 by no means follows that institutions made in 
 Germany, where the people are mothered by their 
 government from the cradle to the grave, will thrive 
 when transplanted to our rougher climes. If the 
 millennium were offered on the condition of sacrific- 
 ing liberty, it would be scornfullv rejected by nine- 
 tenths of our population. So — and we respect him 
 for it — many a poor little rjamin of our great cities 
 would instantly elect to run free and wild rather 
 than be clothed and fattened and kept in restraint. 
 This love of freedom is a glorious heritage, though 
 undoubtedly it has its limitations and demands its 
 price. It is a factor that can never be lost sight of 
 in dealing with our jjeople. It is quite one thing 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 for US to make ourselves responsible for a kind of 
 lay figure, a thing of putty that yields to every 
 impression — and quite another to have to mould 
 our countryman, even if destitute, to our will. 
 Short of physical force he resents interference, and 
 fires up if we so much as dare to hint at limiting 
 his right to think for himself. Grive me, whether 
 as State or individual, control of a man's actions, 
 and then, and then only, can I be responsible for 
 his physical well-being. The lean dog of the fable 
 no more scorned the pampered dog with a chain 
 than our people — even the lowest of them — ^scorn 
 plenty without independence. But both ? That is 
 another matter. That is the very issue on which 
 the battle is now being waged. 
 
 Other instances could be readily given, where 
 half knowledge is more dangerous than total 
 ignorance. Particularly is this so as regards pro- 
 perty, where an inexact appreciation of what it is, 
 its origin and its functions, causes widespread 
 misery and disaster (i). The wanton interference 
 
 (b) " I shall conclude by a general observation. The more 
 the principle of property is respected, the stronger hold it 
 takes on the popular mind. Slight attacks upon this principle 
 prepare the way for heavier ones. A long time has been 
 necessary to carry property to the point where we now see it 
 in civilized society, but a fatal experience has shown with 
 what facility it can be shaken, and how easily the savage 
 instinct of plunder gets the better of the laws. Grovernments 
 and the people are in this respect like tamed lions ; let them 
 but taste a drop of blood and their native ferocity revives." — 
 Bentham's Theory of Legislation, p. 145. 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 with existing institutions is little short of criminal, 
 so calamitous are the results. Grood intentions no 
 more lessen the evil than the virtuous enthusiasm 
 of a Torquemada sanctified the horrors of the 
 Inquisition (c). 
 
 That all is for the best in this best of all possible 
 worlds when one has and another has not, may be 
 a matter of debate, but whilst undoubted evils do 
 exist, it is equally undoubted that they are neither 
 to be eradicated nor cured by an ill-considered 
 raging at our present social system generally. 
 Right and wrong, good and bad, are often matters 
 of degree, and to discriminate between two extremes 
 requires, not the destruction of the whole fabric, 
 but a patient inquiry into where the good ceases 
 and the evil begins. So as regards real progress ; 
 it is not to be achieved by making a clean sweep of 
 every existing institution, when we shall probably 
 have nothing but a ruin for our reward, but by 
 trying to appreciate what existing conditions really 
 are, and then proceeding by steps. An inch in the 
 way is worth a mile in the clouds ; and even sound 
 thinkers have failed in their end by attempting too 
 much. 
 
 (c) " Multis minatur, qui uni facit injuriam — He that injures 
 one threatens many." — Bacon's Essays, 192, Bohn's Library. 
 
 " If property should be overturned with the direct inten- 
 tion of establishing an equality of possession, the evil would 
 be irreparable. No more security, no more industry, no 
 more abundance. Society would return to the savage state 
 whence it emerged." — Bentham's Theory of Legislation, p. 120. 
 
PKEFACE. IX 
 
 No doubt the presence side by side of dire dis- 
 tress and superabundance of wealth does furnish 
 food for reflection. But let us reflect, that is what 
 is wanted, and not merely be led away by a cheap 
 sentimentalism. Our first question should always 
 be : What could the individual do or have done for 
 himself ?(c?). Thus, for example, let us take the 
 case of two youths starting life together, the one 
 resolved to deny himself and save the -id. a day in 
 beer which the other, not unreasonably, feels is no ' 
 more than legitimate refreshment. What will be 
 their respective positions at the age of seventy ? 
 One will have accumulated some £1,300, the other 
 will not have a penny. Is the latter a farthing the 
 worse for his fellow's savings ? Not at all. In fact 
 he is better (e). For the former, although his cake 
 
 (d) The Lord Bacon was wont to commend the advice of 
 a plain old man at Buxton that sold besoms ; a proud, lazy 
 young fellow came to him for a besom upon trust ; to whom 
 the old man snid : " Friend, hast thou no money ? Borrow 
 of thy back and borrow of thy belly, they'll ne'er ask thee 
 again, I shall be dunning thee every day." — Bacon's Essays, 
 etc., Bohn's Edition, p. 190. 
 
 (e) " But perhaps the laws of property are good for those 
 who have property, and oppressive to those who have none. 
 The laws, in creating property, have created riches only in 
 relation to poverty. Poverty is not the work of the laws ; it 
 is the primitive condition of the human race. The poor man 
 in civilized society obtains nothing except by painful labour ; 
 but in the natural state can he obtain anything except by the 
 sweat of his brow ? . . . The laws, in creating riches, are the 
 benefactors of those who remain in the poverty of nature. 
 . . . Tyrannical and sanguinary laws have been founded 
 upon the right of property, but the right itself presents only 
 ideas of pleasure, abundance and security. It is that right 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 is the sole result of his own self-denial, may yet 
 find a few pounds with which to help an old friend. 
 Had both been equally indifferent to saving, both 
 would have been destitute, and no one in the whole 
 world a penny the better (/). So what is true in 
 the unit is true in the whole — is true collectively 
 for the nation. So far from the destitute being 
 injured bv others' savings, property, wealth, capital, 
 or whatever vou may be pleased to term it, they 
 are positively benefited. Poverty is not due to 
 others' wealth — its alle%T.ation is. Let us put the 
 right pack on the right horse. The sinews of the 
 nation are the strong, the saving, the industrious, 
 and the accumulators of property (^). Let us deal 
 
 which has vanquished the natural aversion to labour ; which 
 has given to man the empire of the earth ; whioh has brought 
 to an end the migratory life of nations ; which has pro- 
 duced the love of country and a regard for posterity. Men 
 universally desire to enjoy speedily — to enjoy without labour. 
 It is that desire which is terrible ; since it arms all who have 
 not against all who have. The law which restrains that 
 desire is the noblest triumph of humanity over itself." — 
 Beniham n Theory of Legklation, p. 114. 
 
 ( /') " Those who have the resolution to sacrifice the present 
 to the future are the natural objects of envy to those who 
 have sacrificed the future to the present. The children who 
 have eaten their cake are the natural enemies of the children 
 who have theirs." — Beiit/iam's TForI;s, vol. iii., p. 17. 
 
 " Economy has as many enemies as there are dissipators — 
 men who wish to enjoy without giving themselves the trouble 
 of producing. Labour is too painful for idleness ; it is too 
 slow for impatience. Fraud and injustice secretly conspire 
 to appropriate its fruits. Insolence and audacity think to 
 ravish them by open force." — Beidham's Theory of Legislation, 
 p. 110. 
 
 ((/) ^^ilore fortunes are saved than made. 
 
PEEFACE. XI 
 
 considerately with our unfortunate by all means, 
 but let us remember there would have been no 
 dealing with them at all had the whole nation been 
 like them. Had all been improvident like the one 
 youth, there would have been little with which to 
 assist any; had all been provident like the other 
 there would have been little need. 
 
 But some wealth has surely been obtained most 
 improperly ? Certainly, but the remedy is not to 
 attack it when acquired, but to prevent its ever 
 being so acquired at all. But how about property 
 wrongly acquired in the past ?{h) .Who is the judge 
 to saj^ it has been wrongly acquired ? It is difficult 
 enough to settle the ethics of property for our own 
 time ; the difficulty is infinitely enhanced if we 
 would settle them for times that are past. And it 
 is a barren occupation. Nothing is more impossible 
 than to try and remedy a past abuse by a present 
 
 {h) " The greater part of these great fortunes, it is said, 
 have been founded upon injustice, and what has been 
 plundered from the public may as well be restored to the 
 public. To reason in this way is to open an unlimited career 
 to tyranny. It is a permission to presume crime instead of 
 proving it. According to this logic it is impossible for a rich 
 man to be innocent. Ought a punishment so severe as con- 
 fiscation to be inflicted in gross without examination, without 
 detail, without proof ? Does a procedure which would be 
 declared atrocious if employed against an individual, become 
 lawful when directed against a whole class of citizens ? . . . 
 To plunder great proprietors, under the pretext that some of 
 their ancestors have acquired their opulence by unjust means, 
 is like bombarding a city because some robbers are thought 
 to be concealed in it." — Benfharn's Theory of Legislation, 
 p. 142. 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 reform. Those who would benefit are not the same, 
 those who would suffer are not the same. We can 
 learn wisdom from the past, we can profit by the 
 experience of the past, but it is idle to try and make 
 right a wrong, when wronged and wronger are side 
 by side in their long last sleep together. Bv such 
 attempts we shall increase, not lessen, the very evils 
 we are now lamenting. 
 
 It is to be hoped this book may not be felt to 
 have been written in an unsympathetic spirit, but 
 its aim has been to be neither unsympathetic nor 
 otherwise, but simply as far as possible to see things 
 as they are, and so present them. If in some small 
 degree this has been done successfully, then exactly 
 to the same extent, but no further, will it contribute 
 to the permanent progress we all desire. 
 
 C. Y. C. DAWBARN. 
 
To THE Reader. 
 
 To facilitate the maintenance of a more or less 
 connected argument, I have put in the notes a number of 
 additions which, at some time or other, the more interested 
 reader might like to study. These are either by way of 
 amplification or illustration, or to give the views of our 
 great thinkers on the same subjects. The profound practical 
 wisdom of Bentham I have taken from his writings direct. 
 As the father of modern thought and liberty, it seemed 
 sacrilege to give his views in any words but his own. As 
 regards other writers, their opinions have been so admirably 
 collated and presented in the text -books of Political Economy 
 by the late Professor Fawcett of Cambridge and Mr. "Walker 
 of Massachusetts, that I thought it would prove convenient 
 to the reader to refer to them rather than to numerous 
 miscellaneous works. Both can be obtained at a moderate 
 cost, and those anxious to go further into the subject will 
 find them equally instructive and entertaining reading. 
 
 C. Y. C. D. 
 
C O N T E N T S 
 
 PART I. 
 The Employed. 
 
 OHAPTEK PAOE 
 
 I. Liberty ... ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 II. Liberty AND ITS I JMiTATiONS ... ... 6 
 
 III. Individualism ... ... ... ... 9 
 
 IV. Sekvices Eendeued ... ... 12 
 
 V. Value OF Services G-ENEHALLY ... ... ... 19 
 
 VI. Our Underpaid ... 24 
 
 VII. Our Fairly Paid ... ... ... ... ... 36 
 
 VIII. Value of Services as practically determined ... Ao 
 
 IX. On Price AS A Measure OF Value ... ... ... 57 
 
 X. Our Overpaid ... ... ... ... 64 
 
 XL The Eights of Joint Producers ... ... ... 76 
 
 XII. The same, FURTHER considered ... ... 100 
 
 XIII. The True Functions of Trade Unions ... ... 121 
 
 XIV. Property, ITS Nature AND Incidents ... ... 132 
 
 XV. ,, its Limitations .. . ... ... ... 146 
 
 XVI. ., its Varieties ... ... ... 154 
 
 XVII. Individualism and Compensating Forces ... ... 169 
 
PAOE 
 
 XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 The Principles of Employment. 
 
 CHAPTEB 
 XVIII. Our SUB.TECT STATED ... ... •■• ... Ii4 
 
 XIX. CoNELiCTiNG Interests ... .. •■• 1^^ 
 
 XX. Good AND Bad Times DISCUSSED ... ... ... 192 
 
 XXI. Changing the Channels of Employment . . . 207 
 
 XXII. State AS Organiser of Labour . . ... •• 213 
 
 XXIII. State AS Finder of Work ... ... 221 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Our Underpaid and Unemployed. 
 
 XXIV. General Considerations ... ... ... 226 
 
 XXV. Nature's Laws and Parental Responsibility 238 
 
 XXVI. Nature's Laws AND Thrift ... ... ... 245 
 
 XXYII. Nature's Laws AND Organisation ... ... 251 
 
 XXVIII. The Residuum ... ... ... ... ... 254 
 
 XXIX. Our Unemployed ... ... ... ... 263 
 
 XXX. The Consolidation of our Poor Laws ... ... 274 
 
 XXXI. Further CoNSiDEKATiONS ... ... ... 294 
 
 XXXII. Poverty IN RELATION TO Crime ... ... ... 303 
 
 XXXIII. The Housing Problem ... ... ... 308 
 
 XXXIV. Progress ... ... ... ... 320 
 
 XXXV. Conclusion ... ... ... ... 329 
 
LIBERTY AND PROG-RESS. 
 
 PART I. 
 The Employed. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 LIBERTY. 
 
 The love of liberty is the dominating principle of 
 the English constitution. It is engrained in the 
 race, and is its heritage from time immemorial. 
 These islands, the cradle of liberty, have ever been 
 the nursery of a people strong, valiant, and inde- 
 pendent. Whatever the form of government, in 
 essentials its children have been equally free. 
 There have been short periods when the spirit of 
 liberty has slept, but in the awakening life has been 
 sacrificed rather than this most prized possession. 
 
 Conquered by the Roman, and more completely 
 subdued by his arts than his arms, the ancient 
 Briton for a while seemed to have lost the sturdy 
 independence of his warlike fathers. But the spirit 
 was only dormant, and in his final struggle with his 
 once Saxon allies he proved he knew how to die. 
 His liberties ended with his race. 
 
 n. 1! 
 
2 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 The Saxon and Dane fought as fiercely as kins- 
 men will and with as varying fortunes, and to the 
 majority of the nation the victory of either meant 
 but a change of king. United they equally rejoiced 
 in the powers of the mighty Canute, and on his 
 decease there was little murmuring that the crown 
 was bandied about from one successful pretender to 
 another. 
 
 Harold, the last of the old order, was popular as 
 the son of the great Saxon Godwin, but had no 
 claim to the crown other than what his own powerful 
 right arm gave him. He was a great warrior, and 
 died worthy of his fame. 
 
 With the advent of William the people once more 
 only recognised another change of sovereign. To 
 many, his rights were superior to those of Harold, 
 and a nation was prepared to welcome him as their 
 rightful monarch. Hence the ease with which he 
 established his throne («). When subsequent events 
 showed their error, their fierce, prolonged and hope- 
 less struggles for freedom proved that it was their 
 vigilance and not their valour that had been asleep. 
 
 And as with them, so with their haughty con- 
 queror, the Norman, the love of liberty was the 
 passion of his life. Their king was but their 
 equal ; he was their leader, their chief, but not their 
 
 (f) " By this mixture of vigour and lenity he had so 
 soothed the minds of the English that he thought he might 
 safely revisit his native country and enjoy the triumph, and 
 congratulations of his ancient subjects." — Hume's HUtori/ 
 of England, Vol. I. p. 24 7. 
 
 A visit paid within less than three months after his 
 conquest. 
 
LIBERTY. 3 
 
 superior. Primus inter pares. First, but nothing 
 more. 
 
 As years passed by the races amalgamated to 
 rejoice in the same ti'aditions, the same rights, and 
 the same determination to be free. 
 
 Since then the forms of government may have 
 changed. In externals we may apparently have 
 seen an absolute monarchy as under the Tudors, a 
 commonwealth as under Cromwell, or a constitutional 
 government as under our present monarch ; but in 
 reality the nation has practically enjoyed an equal 
 measure of liberty at all times, and it is its proud 
 boast that now for more than a thousand years its 
 people have been free {h). 
 
 But when we speak of liberty as the passion of 
 the race we must understand what we mean by the 
 term. By liberty we do not mean a free and 
 unfettered right to do whatever one desires at the 
 moment. Such a right would instantly degenerate 
 into unbridled licence, to further degenerate into 
 a terrible tyranny — that of the strong over tlie 
 weak^c). 
 
 {b) " A hardy military nation " ; " eager for war and 
 impatient of peace." — Bacon's description of tlie people in 
 Elizabeth's time. 
 
 (c) " On the whole, notwithstanding the seeming liberty or 
 rather licentiousness of the Anglo-Saxons, the great body 
 even of the free citizens in those ages really enjoyed much 
 less true liberty than where the execution of the laws is the 
 most severe, and where subjects are reduced to the strictest 
 subordination and dependence on the civil magistrate. The 
 reason is derived from the excess itself of that liberty." — 
 Hit me' s Historu of Emjland, Vol. I. p. 215. 
 
 J) 2 
 
4 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 What we desire is that every man should have 
 the greatest possible freedom of action consistent 
 with the like right of everyone else to have the 
 same, and that each should have the utmost possible 
 liberty in ordering his life consistent with his not 
 injuring any one else. This we see involves a nice 
 balancing of rights between individuals, a con- 
 siderable amount of give and take, and no little 
 deference to the wishes of other people. Perfect 
 freedom we do not profess to claim or confer. All 
 freedom must be limited, and it is limited by law, 
 and in the main we esteem a law as good or bad 
 exactly so far as it necessarily or unnecessarily 
 curtails freedom of action [d ). 
 
 No doubt this is a thoroughly English sentiment, 
 but there is equally no doubt that it is one with the 
 genius and tradition of our race. It is quite possible 
 that it might be highly beneficial for many of us if 
 we were legislated for- — if we were the object of 
 care of a benevolent government — if what we ate 
 and what we drank, and when we worked and when 
 we played were all mapped out for us by superior 
 intelligence ; but as a people we will have none of 
 
 {d) " It is with government as with medicine ; its only 
 business is the choice of evils. Every law is an evil, for 
 every law is an infraction of liberty." — Benthani's Principles 
 of Legislation, p. 48. " By creating obligations, the law . . . 
 trenches upon liberty. It converts into offences acts which 
 would otherwise be permitted and unpunishable. The law 
 creates an offence either by a positive command or by a 
 prohibition. These retrenchments of liberty are inevitable. 
 It is impossible to create rights, to impose obligations, to 
 protect the person, life, reputation, property, subsistence, 
 liberty itself, except at the expense of liberty." — Ibid. p. 94. 
 
LIBERTY. 5 
 
 it. We claim the right to think for ourselves, to 
 act for ourselves, and are prepared to take the 
 consequences on our own shoulders. And if as 
 a humble individual I may express an opinion, I 
 think we are right. It goes to build up a hardy, 
 sturdy and independent race, and in the battle of 
 life and in the struggle for existence, generally, if 
 not always, the race is to the swift and the battle to 
 the strong. 
 
LIBERTY AXD PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 LIBERTY AXD ITS LIMITATIOXS. 
 
 Whilst thus stating what is the fundamental 
 principle of our constitution, still the doctrine of 
 liberty has to be taken with certain limitations. 
 These in themselves are not necessarily repugnant 
 to it, but rather amplifications necessary to render 
 it more generally effective. Such a limitation is 
 that in favour of young persons and those incapable 
 of protecting their own interests. We do not allow 
 these, under colour of liberty, to injure themselves 
 or do acts clearly to their own disadvantage. 
 
 When a man is wanting in that strength oi' in- 
 telligence which we take to be the portion of every 
 average citizen, we rightly regard him as one to be 
 protected against himself. So as regards parents 
 we do not recognise their unrestricted right to 
 treat their children entirely as they please. A 
 child's right to liberty may be in suspense, but 
 otherwise neither differs from nor is less than that 
 of an adult. It is deferred for its own benefit, not 
 for that of its parents, and until such time as it can 
 exercise it with advantage to itself the communitv 
 is trustee to see that it is neither abridged nor 
 abused. The question is, What would a child truly 
 desire for itself if it were of sufficient understanding- 
 to judge V and to such implied desire it is the part 
 
LIBERTY AND ITS LIMITATIONS. 7 
 
 of the State to give expression. Thus a parent who 
 neglects his child, still more a parent who ill-treats 
 or is cruel to it, or abuses it for his own ends — as 
 for example by stunting its growth — as also a parent 
 who mistakenly acts injuriously towards it, are all 
 correctly held to infringe the liberty of such child 
 and to warrant the interference of the State on its 
 behalf. This limitation of the liberty of the parent 
 is not therefore an unjustifiable infringement of 
 the liberty of the subject, but is necessary to 
 secure the more perfect liberty of the child (a) . 
 
 In the majority of cases the natural affection of 
 the parents may be safely relied on to ensure the 
 rights of the child, but where insufficient there is 
 not only the power but a very certain duty for the 
 State to interfere. 
 
 Some schools would extend the number and 
 character of people to be presumed too helpless to 
 take care of themselves. The arguments are so 
 excellent that such class might be well enlarged to 
 include the whole nation. A grandmotherly legis- 
 lature interfering in every detail of daily life has 
 much to recommend it, and as before mentioned it 
 might be difficult to say which of us would not benefit 
 by being subjected to a benevolent despotism. 
 But, as we have also before observed, it is a benefit 
 
 (a) " It is, moreover, to be remarked that the chief justifica- 
 tion for the interference between parent and child involved in 
 compulsory education is to be sought in the fact that parents 
 who incur the responsibility of bringing children into the 
 world ought to provide them with education, and that if this 
 duty is neglected the State interposes as protector of the 
 child." — Fawcett, Manual of Political Economi/, p. 299. 
 
8 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 we, as a race, are determined not to enjoy. Rather 
 will we err on the side of limiting than of extending 
 such class. As far as consistent with the rights of 
 other people we will be our own masters, order our 
 own lives, and act as we please ; and we as bitterly 
 resent the tyranny of a domestic legislative inter- 
 ference as that of any despot. We may be wrong 
 as a nation in our attitude in this matter, but it 
 finds its roots deep down in the roll of time, and 
 now, as ever, if we have to pay a price for our in- 
 dependence we will pay it and be free. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 INDIVIDUALISM. 
 
 Well in accord with this spirit of our race is the 
 principle of Individualism. The foundation of 
 individualism is payment for services rendered. 
 What Society receives, for that it makes return. 
 Each free to think and act for himself gives to 
 Society as much or as little of his services as he 
 pleases, to receive as little or as much again. Its 
 supreme merit is that it is intensely practical and 
 in the main does not offend our sense of justice. 
 In practice it largely conforms to theory, and 
 probably less exception could be taken to its prin- 
 ciples than to any other system hitherto tried or 
 proposed. It rewards industry, it encourages thrift, 
 and inculcates self-denial. It tends to a strong 
 race, and spurs each to do his best. It finds a divine 
 sanction in the command, "Whatsoever thy hand 
 findeth to do, do it with thy might," and it is in 
 accord with and gives effect to nature's law of the 
 survival of the fittest. That it is a lovable system 
 or an unselfish one its warmest admirer could not 
 contend. But it is built upon only a portion of 
 human character and motives, and its rigour, if not 
 neutralised, is largely alleviated by the benevolence 
 of mankind. To some philosophers it is an addi- 
 tional merit that it does not confound itself with 
 
10 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 altruism, and that it is and professes to be entirely 
 selfish. Individualism has no place for altruism, 
 and altruism has no part in individualism. They 
 are distinct, and the complement the one of the 
 other, and whilst in a vrell-ordered State both are 
 present and both essential, both also are more 
 vigorous and more effective when the dividing line 
 between the two is well maintained ; when there is 
 a clear demarcation between what a man is entitled 
 to of right, and that which he can only claim of 
 the charity of his neighbour. In all suggested legis- 
 lative changes this distinction is well to be remem- 
 bered. Charity does not consist in being generous 
 with other people's goods, nor is a virtuous good- 
 will to one's fellows satisfied by vicarious sacri- 
 fice {a). As a State our first duty is to be just, and 
 the first portion of our inquiry will largely be how 
 far individualism, as it finds expression in modern 
 social conditions, is consonant with such justice. 
 Remembering that individualism only recognises 
 the claims of selfishness, we are agreed that the 
 princijDle on which it is founded — payment for ser- 
 vices rendered — is on the whole unexceptionable. 
 We may go a little further and say that it appeals 
 to us as substantially just If a man works dili- 
 gently, and Society receives the benefit of his labour, 
 
 {a) " Exercised at a man's own expense, liberality may be 
 or may not be, according to circumstances, a virtae ; exercised 
 at the expense of the public, it never can be anything better 
 than vice. . . Exercised at a man's own expense, it is at any 
 rate disinterestedness ; exercised at the expense of the public, 
 it is pure selfishness ; it is, in a word, depredation." — 
 Benfham, ii. 4-i7. 
 
INDIVIDUALISM. 1 1 
 
 it seems just that he should receive as much again. 
 If he works hard and gives much, that he should 
 receive much ; if leisurely and gives little, that he 
 should receive less. So, further, where both the 
 man and Society are free agents to contract, e.g., as 
 where the man is not the slave of poverty nor the 
 State victimised by trusts, it seems just that the 
 value of such services, fixed by mutual agreement, 
 should be equally binding on both. 
 
 As a further consequence of these propositions, it 
 seems conclusive that if a man only receives from 
 Society the equivalent of what he has given to 
 Society, what he so receives should be his own to 
 consume, to use, to save, to give away or otherwise 
 dispose of. Should he save such earnings, and 
 should he exchange such savings for the savings of 
 other people, it is a necessary corollary that such 
 substituted savings should be equally his beyond 
 dispute. Nor is the underlying principle of the 
 foregoing conclusions in any way varied if at some 
 time or other he has been rewarded in kind instead 
 of currency — if for money he has received honours, 
 privileges, or other emoluments. All that can be 
 demanded is that for what he has received he shall 
 on his part have given a due equivalent in services 
 rendered. 
 
 What considerations should govern us in discus- 
 sing such services, and the rights consequent thereon, 
 we will now inquire. 
 
12 LIBERTY AND PEOGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SERVICES RENDERED. 
 
 In considering such services we ask (a) Who give 
 such services ? (b) What do such services yield ? 
 
 To the first the reply is simple. Such services 
 are rendered by everyone who does honest neces- 
 sary work. Nor is such limited to merely manual 
 labour. 
 
 The mother who nurses, the maid who tends, and 
 the teacher who educates the child, equally do the 
 work of the State. So also does the doctor who 
 guards the health and the clergy who care for the 
 spiritual welfare of the nation. Equally the writer 
 who interests, the actor who amuses, the poet who 
 elevates, and the artist who delights, are amongst 
 the workers of the community. And these, with 
 its engineers, its scientists, and its organisers, are 
 the very life and backbone of the nation. 
 
 Sad would be the lot of the mere labourer if 
 bereft of their guidance. It is they who make his 
 work profitable. Left to himself he would sink 
 into dire poverty, soon to become the easy prey of 
 starvation and disease. Mere labour without intel- 
 ligence to direct it could not even provide itself 
 with the barest necessaries of existence. 
 
 I am not suggesting that intelligence is not to be 
 found amongst our working classes as at present 
 
SERVICES RENDERED. 13 
 
 constituted. It is, and of a very high order. I am 
 referring to the theoretical condition of mere labour 
 vs^ithout intelligence to utilize it. Of course, even 
 to-day, the highest intelligence is not to be found 
 amongst the working classes. The first thing a 
 man so gifted does, is to leave them ; and that 
 society is best which gives the greatest facilities for 
 his so doing. 
 
 On the other hand, were the latter to be deprived 
 of such labour, left to fend for themselves, they 
 would speedily adapt themselves to circumstances, 
 and in a few years would be the nucleus of a proud, 
 strong, vigorous and thriving race. 
 
 For the present, however, it is enough for us to 
 understand that by workers we mean all who con- 
 tribute to the prosperity and progress of the 
 country. 
 
 What do such services yield ? 
 
 This question we need not answer very fully. 
 On every hand we see how enormously productive 
 is the labour of to-day and how immense its results. 
 Every necessary of life is turned out in teeming 
 abundance. Machinery and division of labour have 
 increased our powers to a once undreamt-of extent. 
 To particularize were to be invidious ; not a trade, 
 a business, nor an occupation but can- show its own 
 wonderful economies of labour. 
 
 The following figures showing our increase of 
 efficiency as a whole may be interesting, and may 
 well find a place here. 
 
14 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 The energy exerted in the United Kingdom has 
 been computed by Mr. M. Mulhall, and by him 
 reduced to foot pounds, the technical way of 
 measuring "work done" — also a technical expres- 
 sion. By a foot pound is understood that work 
 necessary to raise one pound avoirdupois one foot 
 in height. As the figures given are for the nation, 
 they are given per millions of foot tons — that is, 
 the work required to raise one ton one foot — and 
 are as follows : — 
 
 Daili/ Energy exerted in Millions of Foot Tons. 
 
 Hand. Horse. Steam. Total. 
 
 1840 - 2,2-20 5,100 2,400 9,720 
 
 1870 - 2,700 5,600 15,750 24,050 
 
 1895 - 3,200 6,330 51,880 61,410 
 
 In the period from 1840 — 1895 the population 
 increased roughly 50 per cent., so that, had the 
 population in 1895 only remained the same as in 
 1840, its daily energy would have been 40,940 
 millions of foot tons instead of 61,410 millions, as 
 actually was the case. That is, in 1895 every 
 worker, through the medium of machinery and the 
 oi'ganization and division of labour, was able to 
 develop an energy four times greater than he could 
 have done in 1840. That is, in 1895, for all 
 practical purposes, he was four times more efficient 
 than he would have been in 1840. In other words, 
 could we live now as our fathers did then, 250 out 
 of every 1,000 of the population could do the 
 
SERVICES RENDERED. 15 
 
 necessary work and the remaining 750 could be 
 idle (a). 
 
 The following table, also taken from Mr. Mulhall, 
 shows the progress of the United Kingdom during 
 our late Queen's reign. 
 
 The numbers are not actual, but relative only, 
 and 100 is taken as the number of reference. 
 
 To arrive at the progress per head, allowance 
 mui-t be made for the increase of population. 
 
 1837-40 1870 1897 
 
 Population 
 
 100 
 
 121 
 
 150 
 
 Wealth - 
 
 100 
 
 203 
 
 287 
 
 Revenue 
 
 100 
 
 140 
 
 195 
 
 Commerce 
 
 100 
 
 480 
 
 623 
 
 Shipping 
 
 100 
 
 ;j22 
 
 957 
 
 Agriculture 
 
 100 
 
 120 
 
 105 
 
 Mining 
 
 100 
 
 310 
 
 602 
 
 Textile trade 
 
 100 
 
 252 
 
 360 
 
 Hardware trade 
 
 • 100 
 
 430 
 
 590 
 
 Instruction 
 
 100 
 
 162 
 
 251 
 
 Our shipping progress is even more marked than 
 these figures show. Our carrying power in 1840 
 was 2,840,000 tons, or 200 tons per man employed; 
 in 1870 was 9,020,000 tons, or 460 tons per man; 
 and in 1897 was 27,350,000 tons, or 1,140 tons per 
 man employed. Again, in 1840 we did only 
 
 (a) The computation of these tables bristles with difficulties 
 and contentious matters. But so far as they are compara- 
 tive and arrived at in the same way in all cases, our inferences 
 from them will be fairly correct. 
 
16 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 27 per cent, of the carrying trade of the world ; 
 in 1897, 52 per cent. 
 
 Here for a moment let us pause and ask, what do 
 we read in these facts ? What only can we read in 
 these facts ? Hope, buoyancy and abundance. The 
 efficiency of civilised man has been more than quad- 
 rupled in seventy years. Can this be the text for a 
 gospel of despair ? 
 
 Men with their limited power of labour lived in 
 comfort seventy years ago. Men by their quad- 
 rupled power of labour must live in abundance in 
 years to come. And what does abundance mean ? 
 Properly directed it means moral education and 
 refinement, the triumph of the mind, the awakening 
 of the soul, and the exaltation of the intellect over 
 the mere corporeal and animal passions of liuman 
 nature. 
 
 What does abundance mean ? It means that 
 men, as units, ma}- live in brotherhood ; it means 
 that men, as nations, may live in fellowship and 
 goodwill. Abundance is not restricted to our 
 islands nor peculiar to them. Man's power through- 
 out the civilised world has been multiplied, and 
 every nation may be rich, prosperous and contented, 
 and the happier for knowing the world besides is 
 equall}' favoured and blessed. This is the millen- 
 nium of civilisation; the highest good of each is the 
 highest good of all. 
 
SERVICES RENDERED. 17 
 
 Note. — The World's Progress in Wealth Creation. 
 
 Particular items of progress are even more impressive than 
 the general resume of statistics. Thus, turning to Miilhall's 
 Dictionary of Statistics, published in 1892, a monumental work 
 in the history of figures, we read : "In the United States 
 9,000,000 hands raise nearly half as much grain as 66,000,000 
 in Europe. Thus it appears that for want of implements or 
 proper machinery there is a waste of labour in Europe equal 
 to 48 millions of peasants. In other words, one farm 
 labourer in the United States is worth more than three in 
 Europe. 
 
 Again, improved implements and machinery have made 
 tillage more productive and grain cheaper. In 1840 each 
 peasant produced ^3 bushels of grain. In 1860 the average 
 was 87. In 1887 it had risen to 114; that is, two men now 
 produce more grain than three did in 1840 (p. 6). Again, 
 it appears that owing to improved machinery, the product of 
 a man's labour represents, at present, double the value it did 
 in 1820. But as prices have fallen in the interval about 
 33 per cent., it follows that the average in 1888 was equal to 
 £38 per head measured by prices (p. 6) . 
 
 Thus one man now, in whatever industry, produces as 
 much as three did in 1820, or two and a half in 1840, or 
 two in 1860. 
 
 Arkwright's spinning jenny enabled one operative, in 
 1815, to produce as much yarn as 200 could a few years 
 before (p. 365). 
 
 2. The crane of Cologne Cathedral, in 1870, with two men, 
 did the same work in one hour, in lifting stone, as required 
 60 men to work 12 hours in the middle ages; that is, one 
 man now is equal to 180 of olden time. 
 
 3. The American bootmaking machine enables one man 
 
 D. ii 
 
18 LIBERTY AND PKOGRESS. 
 
 to turn out 300 pairs of boots daily ; one factory near Boston 
 makes as many boots as 32,000 bootmakers in Paris. In 
 1880 tbere were 8,100 of these machines at work, producing 
 1 50 million pairs of boots yearly. 
 
 4. Altman's American reaper cuts and binds grain at 
 45 minutes per acre. D. Glynn, of California, cuts, threshes, 
 winnows, and bags with each of his machines 60 acres of 
 grain daily. 
 
 5. The United States, in 1888, produced 600,000 sewing 
 machines, which could do the work of 7,200,000 women. 
 
 6. In the Western States of America one man can raise 
 as much wheat as will feed 1,000 persons for 12 months ; a 
 second can thresh, winnow, and bag it, and a third convey it 
 to market. 
 
 7. A girl, 12 years of age, iu a Lancashii-e mill, can turn 
 out 35 yards of printed calico daily, her work in one year 
 sufScing to clothe yearly 1,200 persons in the East." 
 
 These are figures of nearly twenty years ago. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE VALUE OP SERVICES RENDERED — THEIR VALUE 
 GENERALLY. 
 
 We have discussed by whom services are rendered, 
 and inquired into the magnificent results realised by 
 their efforts. We have now to consider the value 
 of such services, and what should be given for 
 them in return. And the very foundation of indi- 
 vidualism is that services should be appraised at 
 their true value and paid for accordingly. As far 
 as possible the community desires to so pay for 
 them, and perhaps to a large extent, we may say, 
 does so pay for them. In the majority of transac- 
 tions^ — -and national life is but made up of individual 
 transactions — the services rendered and the price to 
 be paid have been agreed on after much bargaining 
 between equally capable parties, and as such may 
 be accepted as fairly reasonable and just. In 
 settling the value of any services a community can 
 only be guided by contemporary conditions. We 
 may appreciate the value of services in the past 
 very differently from the people of those times, and 
 posterity may take as great an exception to our 
 views. But men can neither undo the past nor be 
 guided by the future, and each generation must be 
 bound by its own canons. Whatever the evil done 
 and suffered by our ancestors, we can only act for 
 
 c2 
 
20 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 our own day, and do justice between man and man 
 on the basis of things as they now are. One thing is 
 certain — nothing is more impossible than to try and 
 remedy a past abuse by a present reform. We 
 cannot recall the time that is gone. We cannot 
 alleviate the suffering caused by wicked acts. We 
 cannot give back life or health or enjoyment to the 
 innocent ones unjustly deprived of them. We 
 cannot even dry one tear, restore one smile. Each 
 moment passes by and passes for ever, and with it 
 its tale of human joys, human pleasures and human 
 ills. We cannot undo the misdoings that are past; 
 rather by our attempts we shall raise a fresh crop 
 of evils as real and as unnecessary as those over 
 which we are lamenting. We can learn -ndsdom 
 from the past; we can and should profit by experi- 
 ence ; but it is idle for us to try and make right a 
 wrong, when wronged and wronger are now side by 
 side in their long last sleep together ( a). We can 
 
 (a) " Let the dead past bury its dead ! 
 
 Act — act in the living present ! 
 Heart within, and God o'erhead ! " — Longfellow. 
 
 " The greater part of these great fortunes, it is said, have 
 been founded upon injustice, and what has been plundered 
 from the public may as well be restored to the public. To 
 reason in this way is to open an unlimited career to tyranny. 
 It is a permission to presume crime instead of proving it. 
 According to this logic, it is impossible for a rich man to be 
 innocent. Ought a punishment so severe as confiscation to 
 be inflicted in gross without examination, without detail, 
 without proof ? Does a procedure which would be declared 
 atrocious if employed against an individual become lawful 
 when directed against a whole class of citizens ? .... To 
 plunder great proprietors, under the pretext that some of 
 their ancestors have acquired their opulence by unjust means. 
 
THE VALUE OF SERVICES EENDERED — GENERALLY. 21 
 
 and must be governed by present considerations 
 alone, and particularly is this so when we would 
 determine the true value of services rendered. 
 What is the true, the intrinsic value of services; 
 that is, what is their actual value to the community 
 as distinct from their nominal money equivalent? 
 It is true that as regards the majority of our 
 business aSairs the nominal value and the com- 
 mercial value of services rendered to a large extent 
 approximate to their intrinsic value, but not invari- 
 ably, and only when taken over a period of years. 
 
 To give biit one example. If the American cotton 
 crop were to be so high, say, as 13 million bales, its 
 price might even fall so low as M. a pound ; whilst 
 if it were only a 10 million crop it might probably 
 be sold at so high a price as 6d. In other words, the 
 larger crop would only sell for 39 units of price, 
 whilst the lesser would realise as much as 60. That 
 is, the producers would receive nearly twice as much 
 for their smaller crop as for their larger one {b). 
 
 is like bombarding a city because some robbers are thought 
 to be concealed in it." — Benthain, Theory of Legidation, 142. 
 
 {b) " Tooke, in his History of Prices, Vol. I. pp. 13 — 16, 
 mentions that a falling off in the quantity of corn of a sixth 
 or a third resulted in a rise of from 100 to 200 per cent, in 
 value. If in other years farmers had combined to burn a 
 sixth of an ordinary crop, they might have got double price 
 for the remainder — that is, a sum represented by ten instead 
 of six. On the same principle, old importers of spices would 
 destroy half a crop they considered too large, and get a great 
 deal more for the remaining half than they would have done 
 for the whole." — MiWs Political Economy, Book III. c. 2, 
 sec. 5. A similar practice is not unknown now when a catch 
 of fish has been unusually great, and the cases are not rare 
 
22 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 From this it is clear that at any given moment 
 intrinsic value and market value may widely differ. 
 The intrinsic value of a loaf is the people it will 
 feed ; the intrinsic value of a house is the people it 
 will shelter ; and the intrinsic value of cotton is the 
 people it will clothe. This cannot and does not 
 vary with whether the crop is only ten or thirteen 
 million bales (c). 
 
 Thus, in considering services rendered, we should 
 have regard to intrinsic value rather than to the 
 fluctuating daily prices of the market, and that 
 system of commerce is the best in which the two 
 are most nearly identical. Particularly is this so 
 when we have to consider the value of the services 
 rendered by certain sections of society to the com- 
 munity, as for example, our poorest paid. Some of 
 
 when a too abundant fruit crop makes it almost useless to 
 gather it. 
 
 No doubt dumping may cause dislocation to our trade, but 
 a far more serious danger is the controlling and reducing 
 crops, meat, &c., and compelling us to pay famine prices. In 
 time matters would rectify themselves by new jDroducers 
 being tempted by the high prices to embark in such abnor- 
 mally profitable industries, but in the meantime we should 
 be cruelly fleeced. 
 
 (c) Further on we shall see that services and the products 
 of services have three values : " Intrinsic value," as referred 
 to, and concerning which different ages have entirely different 
 views ; " Natural value," as determined by the cost of pro- 
 duction over a number of years or under free conditions of 
 competition; and "Market price," governed by the supply 
 and demand of the hour. Intrinsic value is the special 
 province of the theorist, the politician should have regard 
 mainly to " natural values," whilst all-important to the 
 business man is the price on the market at the moment he 
 makes his bargain. 
 
THE VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED — GENERALLY. 23 
 
 these receive so small a reward for their toil that 
 there is not one but would rejoice if their position 
 could be materially improved. Is it that the 
 intrinsic value of their services is so low as to be 
 fairly represented by what they receive, or are 
 there other causes in operation keeping their wage 
 down to its present miserable level ? Into the forces 
 influencing services and their values let us now 
 inquire. 
 
24 LIBERTY AND PEOGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED OUR UNDERPAID. 
 
 And first as to the payment of our poorest for their 
 services. We concluded our last chapter with 
 reference to the small reward commanded by some 
 of our lowest class labour, and we asked the ques- 
 tion, " Is the intrinsic value of their services fairly 
 represented by what they can obtain in the market 
 for them ? If not, what are the causes keeping their 
 earnings down to such a miserable level ? " 
 
 To-day there is a glorious disregard for the 
 teaching of our old economists, but have we more 
 accurately gauged the position ? Rather, does not 
 the present condition of the worse paid workers 
 afford a sad but striking confirmation of their 
 theories ? The root difiiculty of our social con- 
 ditions is that a too fruitful nature, to ensure the 
 continuance of her various species, always provides 
 for a greater increase of progeny than she intends 
 to survive. We see this throughout the whole 
 animal kingdom. The herring, the prey of count- 
 less foes, spawns by the million, and a pair of 
 rabbits breeding unchecked (a) would in a few years 
 desolate the United Kingdom. This prolificness of 
 
 (a) Unknown in Australia a few years ago, the rabbit 
 pest is now one of the serious evils of the country. 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED — OUR UNDERPAID. 25 
 
 nature is equally striking in the vegetable and 
 insect world, and mankind is no more an exception 
 to the general rule than any other form of life 
 which has to battle for existence. In fact, in those 
 very classes where the battle for life is the keenest 
 we see the general fecundity is the greatest. 
 
 iMalthus, in a slightly difEerent form, taking this 
 fact as the basis of his reasoning, tried to demon- 
 strate that whilst the human race increased in a 
 geometrical progression, the necessaries for its sus- 
 tenance only increased in an arithmetical one. His 
 argument was anticipated and first enunciated by 
 that profound thinker, Voltaire, who was the first 
 to appreciate the fact that food and population 
 increase in different ratios (b). Perhaps his formula 
 is an attempt to apply mathematical precision to a 
 subject not susceptible of such precision, and pos- 
 sibly the amazing increase in the efficiency of man 
 as a producer might tend to disprove his statement 
 — though this cannot be shown, as we do not know 
 to what our population might have grown if un- 
 checked ; but notwithstanding this the underlying 
 truth is there, that the race tends to increase faster 
 than sustenance, and as the sustenance available is 
 the limit of those who can survive (c), the surplus 
 must die off that a balance may be maintained be- 
 tween the two. If it is left to nature to deal with 
 such surplus, nature does it very effectively, and 
 
 {b) LauKj's notcK, 2nd series, jd. 42. 
 
 (c) " There are few statistical facts better substantiated than 
 that the marriages amongst the labouring class increase with 
 the fall in the price of bread." — Faivcett, p. 78. 
 
26 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 by want and disease will keep down the population 
 to such numbers as can be sustained. Whether 
 this law is true or not, we see something very like 
 it in full operation to-day amongst our most desti- 
 tute workers. The sustenance available is the limit 
 of those who survive. Whether in fact the nation 
 as a whole could not provide more sustenance, so 
 that more might survive, is not exactly the ^Joint. 
 The point is that to-day, ever as much as in the time of 
 Malthus, the number of those who survive is limited 
 by the sustenance available, and the only check on 
 their increase is disease and actual want. And as 
 long as the amazing fecundity of this self-same 
 nature is ignored or disregarded, so long shall we 
 always have the lower strata of society on the verge 
 of starvation, and only one step removed from 
 actual destruction. We may feed them, we may 
 clothe them, we may find them houses, but only to 
 have more to feed, more to clothe, and more to 
 house ; to have more in such appalling numbers 
 that a few years Avill find us overwhelmed with our 
 difficulty. Unless we are prepared to leave nature 
 to work out her own problem, provide her own 
 check on such increase in her own way (d), we have 
 
 (rf) We see a child half naked, starving and diseased ; 
 that is the positive check in operation. We go into a den of 
 squalor, a family herding in filth and stench unspeakable, 
 the mother prostrate maybe with hunger, the father helpless 
 with drink, the children famished and neglected ; that again 
 is the positive check in full operation. Let us understand 
 what this positive check is. All too terrible, but as inevitable 
 and as much a part of nature's law as night that follows day, 
 unless we provide a humaner substitute. But is their one 
 pleasure in life, that of the animal, to be denied them ? 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED — OUR UNDERPAID. 27 
 
 only one alternative. We must act through the 
 individual. We must educate him in a sense of his 
 responsibilities, and enforce the discharge of duties 
 voluntarily incurred. We must teach him more 
 Ijrovidence, foster his independence, and above all 
 we must insist on the rights of his children being 
 respected. This done we shall then, and only then, 
 find an efficient substitute for nature's methods. 
 And we must not play with it, we must not be 
 content with mere idle philanthropic vapouring, 
 but must act strenuously, surely and effectively (e). 
 
 Then why — usually the same impractical sentimentalist — 
 deplore the all-certain results ? 
 
 (c) " It is quite evident that population must be restrained 
 by some check, for if all mamed when they arrived at 
 maturity this earth would not merely fail to feed them, but 
 would scarcely even offer standing room for the coimtless 
 millions that would be born. . . In almost every country 
 the positive checks still operate, but with much less powerful 
 effect " [than in the middle ages] . " In England, for instance, 
 there is great mortality amongst the children of the poor. . . 
 In some European countries population is restrained by law. 
 In Norway no couple is allowed to marry until it can be 
 proved that the man and wife possess jointly a certain amount 
 of money. In other countries prudential feelings which almost 
 amount to a general custom prevent early mai-riages, and in this 
 manner restrain population. In some of the Swiss cantons a 
 man rarely marries before he is thirty, nor does a woman marry 
 before she is five-and-twenty. In some exceptional cases the 
 condition of the labouring classes may for a time suffer no 
 deterioration, although neither positive nor preventive checks 
 are in very active operation. In a new colony, with a 
 healthy climate and a great breadth of fertile and unoccupied 
 land, population may for a time continue to expand with 
 scarcely any let or hindrance, but in a country like England, 
 if the population were not restrained by some checks the labour 
 market would become so redundant that the labourer would 
 be reduced to abject poverty and misery." — Fawcett, p. 143. 
 
28 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 If otherwise, we shall aggravate and not alleviate 
 the evil with which we would grapple. Some check 
 is an absolute essential to the manhood, strength, 
 and very existence of our country. As a physical 
 possibility we could possibly feed our millions and 
 so run away from our difficulty for a time, but only 
 to cultivate a vast and worthless proletariat, and to 
 find in some devastating pestilence such as cholera, 
 in some overwhelming famine such as might be 
 caused by a blockade, or in a flood of immoral 
 wickedness when life itself would lose its sanctity, 
 that nature had once more resumed her sway, had 
 once more given effect to her immutable and 
 remorseless laws. 
 
 Some philosophers argue that the fecundity of 
 man lessens as he and his environments improve. 
 The danger is that we check the increase of the 
 desirable and foster that of the lowest of our popu- 
 lation. The large increase tends to deprave the 
 parents, and if the argument is correct the converse 
 proposition must be equally true that this very 
 depravement tends to increase this fecundity (/). 
 
 (,/') " Education lessens the birth rate." '' As you improve 
 humanity you increase its self-restraint." Such is the teaching 
 of the all- will-be-well school, the leave-it-alone school. There 
 may be a modicum of truth in the proposition, but unfor- 
 tunately this humane check only approximately approaches 
 efficiency where the education is relatively very high. In 
 the meantime it passes through a maximum poiut of aggra- 
 vation of the evil. The very number born amongst the most 
 degraded to a certain extent carries its own hmitation of the 
 evil in the fewer survivals, but slightly educated ; then, and 
 without lessening the number of those brought into the world, 
 
VALUE OF SEKVICEB RENDERED — OUR UNDERPAID. 29 
 
 And in the meantime what shall we have done for 
 these unfortunates? Fed them, bid them exist, 
 and rivetted the chain of thraldom on their class 
 for ever ; for ever, or until their final extinction in 
 the general catastrophe of a deteriorated race. 
 
 And with the law of nature, that all jDrogeny are 
 not intended to survive, we have another. When 
 an undue proportion of such progeny does survive, 
 when any class does unduly increase, then in that 
 same class its wages as unduly and as certainly do 
 diminish (^). And the final limit of such diminishing 
 is that of bare subsistence. It would be lower, but 
 that death alone forbids a further decrease. This 
 is forcibly shown and the proofs of such law collected 
 and given by Buckle in his magnificent introductory 
 sketch to the " History of Civilisation in England." 
 There he shows that wherever nature has been 
 prodigal and bountiful in her gifts, wherever con- 
 ditions have been favourable to mankind, wherever 
 life has been easy and food plentiful, there the 
 densest populations are found, which are invariably 
 divided into dominant and servile classes. It is 
 there we find fabulous wealth, the maddest luxury 
 
 the only result is to ensure a greater number living to be a 
 burden to themselves and their country. 
 
 (g) " The capacity of increase is so great that, if some 
 powerful checks are not placed upon population, the condition 
 of the labourer must rapidly deteriorate, for the greatest 
 accumulation of capital that has ever occurred would entirely 
 fail to create a demand for labour in any way proportionate 
 to the supply of labour which would be forthcoming, if man's 
 power of multiplying his species were not restrained by some 
 very efficient causes." — Fawcetf, p. 146. 
 
30 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 and wildest extravagance on the one hand, and 
 direst poverty and all its concoQiitants of oppression 
 and contemptuous treatment on the other. 
 
 It seems the delight of nature that vrealth should 
 gravitate to wealth, and never was deeper truth in 
 any paradox than in Christ's teaching that "to him 
 that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not 
 shall be taken away even that which he hath." 
 
 A bitter commentary on the trend of humanity, 
 but never was truer. And it was no argument 
 against such conditions that practically the whole 
 wealth was produced by those to whom so little was 
 given. The wealth of these civilisations was almost 
 entirely due to agriculture, and to agriculture in its 
 most primitive form. There were no complicated 
 conditions of production. There was the toiler in 
 the fields, and to his sole untutored work was the 
 increase due. There were no thinkers, scientists, or 
 organisers to earn a portion by making the whole 
 more abundant, no one but the actual producer 
 himself. To him was due the whole, but to him 
 was given but the scantiest share in return. In 
 such conditions it is right to speak of everything 
 enjoyed being due to labour, and to limit such labour 
 to manual labour only, but it is wholly inaccurate 
 when applied to modern-day methods, especially as 
 found in our country. 
 
 In further detail, the author illustrates the working 
 of this law in three great civilisations of the ancient 
 world. He selects a typical case from three con- 
 tinents. From Asia he takes India, from Africa, 
 
VALUE OF SEEVICES RENDERED OUR UNDERPAID. 31 
 
 Egypt, and from America the olden kingdouis of 
 Mexico and Peru (A). 
 
 In all were to be found common features. In 
 all, for one reason or another, the slightest labour 
 yielded the most abundant results. India found a 
 vast food supply in her rice, Egypt in her dates 
 and dhourra, and the kingdoms of the new world in 
 the prolific banana. Equally the necessaries of life 
 were few. The climate in all was warm and 
 salubrious and the demands of existence were easily 
 satisfied. And the result — teeming populations 
 producing much, receiving little, and the results of 
 their labour monopolised by the favoured classes. 
 In all, their condition was misery itself. Bound to 
 the soil, slaves of custom, their only liberty was to 
 toil, to suffer and to die. From birth to death they 
 were legislated for, and woe betide the unfortunate 
 who tried to change or better his condition. They 
 were the victims of an awful despotism maintained 
 by cruelty and perpetuated by their helplessness. 
 They were under the heel of their oppressors and 
 their spirit was broken. They had neither energy 
 nor thought to rise in vengeance, nor was their least 
 degradation that they accepted their fate as in- 
 evitable and ordained. Their lot was labour, labour 
 
 (A) The ancient civilisation of the valley of the Tigris and 
 Euphrates seems, to some extent, to have escaped the cm'se. 
 They existed in such a continual vortex of war that man had 
 the further value of heing necessary as a soldier. In turn 
 we find the Turanian, Semitic and Aryan races ohtaining 
 supremacy, again sinking into servitude, to once again rise, 
 and thus for some thousands of years maintaining a high 
 level of individual excellence. 
 
32 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 quickened by the lash if their debilitated manhood 
 refused to yield a full tale of work. Their lives 
 were of no value, not that of a sheep, their sufferings 
 of no consequence. Only their aspirations evoked 
 the interest and with it the tierce vengeful ire of 
 their masters. History tells of no successful attempt 
 of such to throw off their servitude. Helpless, 
 hopeless, degraded and depraved, their lot was but 
 to endure and suffer from their cradle to their 
 grave. This is what a too abundant nature had 
 done for these unhappy people. Her very bounty, 
 the magnificent return she gave to their labour, but 
 served to make them slaves and grind them in the 
 dust. And this is what an indiscriminate feeding 
 of the lowest of our population will do for them, 
 and happy will be the nation, if in their degrada- 
 tion they do not drag down other classes with them. 
 Our science, our efficiency, our progress is enabling 
 us to reproduce the condition of these ancient 
 monarchies, with the possibility of the same terrible 
 results. 
 
 Happily, one important difference governs. Our 
 very efficiency depends on intelligence and vigour, 
 and these cannot be found in a servile race, nor 
 without good food, adequate education, and a general 
 substantial comfort. And these our first-rate trades- 
 man to-day enjoys. He is a piince amongst the 
 workers of the world. But fortunate as he is, no 
 one is severer, no one draws a harsher line than he 
 does between himself and the blackleg, as he con- 
 temptuously terms the lower class of worker who 
 would share his prosperity. He is prompted by the 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED — OUR UNDERPAID. 33 
 
 instinct of self-preservation, well for himself, but of 
 little happy augury to the ill-paid, hard-worked, 
 and most destitute of our population («). 
 
 We embarked on this inquiry to determine 
 whether the intrinsic value of such labour was so 
 small that it was fairly represented by its market 
 value, or were there other factors in operation to 
 reduce its reward beneath its true value. In the 
 light of past history, can we for one moment deny 
 that there are forces, very powerful forces, at work 
 to so depress it, so powei-ful that probably there is 
 little or no relation between the market and intrinsic 
 value of such work done ? In the civilisations we 
 have considered we have seen the intrinsic value of 
 the services was nearly the whole of the wealth 
 produced, whilst the market value paid for it — the 
 amount given to the worker — was less than a half, 
 or even a third of the product of his toil. So 
 to-day have we more reason for contending that 
 the market value of the services rendered by our 
 poorest paid fairly represents their true or intrinsic 
 worth ? As individuals, we may try to beat down 
 such market value. In business so fierce is compe- 
 tition we must so try, but our very duty as a com- 
 munity may be to see that, as individuals, we do 
 not succeed. The very foundation of individualistic 
 society is the just payment for services rendered, 
 
 (i) In a later chapter we notice that although the wage- 
 earner of £3 a week and under received in 1904 880 millions 
 out of the 1,710 millions, the then total income of the nation, 
 and more than the whole nation received forty years ago, yet 
 our problem of poverty is further from solution than ever. 
 
 D. D 
 
34 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 and our last duty as a State is to find at what 
 bottom figure some slave class can be compelled to 
 labour. Our problem is to determine what services 
 are truly worth. From the standpoint of selfish- 
 ness alone we approach the subject — in theory 
 pure selfishness, in practice moderated by altruism 
 — and we leave to idealists, moralists and philan- 
 thropists to enforce the duties owed to charity, 
 one's conscience or one's God. And from this 
 standpoint we ask. What has a man done for the 
 community, the sole question, and what should he 
 receive in return ? 
 
 And, apart from market value, do we not find 
 another guide to the worth of his labour ? To-day 
 the result of labour as a whole is a magnificent 
 abundance, and our question is " Abundance — how 
 should it be divided ? " If an honest worker does 
 honest work, should not his reward at least be a 
 su-fficiency ? His forefathers by their toil were 
 able to exist. Shall not he, with man's powers 
 quadrupled, be able to earn enough ? What if his 
 conditions be such that he can command no more ? 
 Does not the law owe it to him that such conditions 
 should be altered ? What if it be that he is the 
 victim of improvidence ? Then what steps is the 
 law taking to end such improvidence for the future ? 
 Our duty as individuals may be limited to those of 
 our own surroundings, but as legislators we owe an 
 even greater debt to generations yet unborn (k). 
 
 (k) Moral duties present themselves under three aspects, 
 which are well exemplified by the case of a hungry child. 
 The individual who sees a child hungry and does not feed it 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES BENDERED — OUR UNDERPAID. 35 
 
 As a matter of justice, not of charity, such earnings 
 should not be governed by the iron custom of 
 market value alone; but how to moderate such 
 custom is the social and economical problem of our 
 age. The difficulty is not what wants doing, but 
 how it should be done — not what^ but how. Before 
 we can even discuss such question, a further inquiry 
 as to services and their value, and employment 
 generally, demands our attention. 
 
 is either a brute or more than a man. But the philosopher, 
 before making provision to feed that child as one of hungry 
 children in general, has first to inquire will he thereby lessen 
 or augment the sum of human misery. To feed two hundred 
 in the present that a thousand may exist in wretchedness in 
 the future is neither true mercy nor sound statesmanship. 
 Then there is yet a third standpoint — that of infinite 
 Power, which permits conditions to us inexplicable, and con- 
 cerning which we are utterly incapable of expressing any 
 opinion whatever. Finite, it is altogether beyond us to 
 enter into the spirit of the infinite. All we can do is to say 
 with Abraham, " Shall not the judge of all the earth do 
 right ? " 
 
36 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED OUR FAIRLY PAID. 
 
 We will now pursue our inquiry one stage further. 
 
 Exactly as we have found that the market value 
 is but an unreliable guide as regards much of our 
 ill-paid labour, so it may prove to be equally 
 fallacious in the case of some of our highly-paid 
 labour. That is not to say that much of such 
 labour may not be of the greatest value — possibly 
 of priceless value ; but that labour may in some 
 cases be as much over-rated as under-rated by its 
 23rice in the market. But intermediate between the 
 two is a mass of labour which is fairly paid, and 
 where the intrinsic value of the services rendered 
 and the market value, especially when averaged 
 over a series of years, are not widely different. 
 
 It does not foUoAV that services are over-paid 
 because highly paid, and the payment may justly 
 vary from the greatest possible siims to the most 
 trifling and inconsiderable amounts. 
 
 Here for an instant let us glance at the various 
 classes of such justly-paid labour. We see how 
 enormously they may differ in value. Some are 
 almost beyond value. Such were those of Pasteur, 
 who saved an industry for his countrymen, of 
 Lister, who taught us antiseptic surgery, and of 
 Darwin, who introduced a new era in thought. 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED — OUR FAIRLY PAID. 37 
 
 Such have been those of the many philosophers, 
 thinkers and scientists who have been the pioneers 
 and benefactors of mankind. How, also, shall we 
 estimate the value of a Nelson or a Marlborough, 
 who saved the libert)^ of nations, or how appreciate 
 a Chatham or a Cromwell — proud, strong, invincible, 
 the inspirers of our race ? Their and other like 
 services are beyond price ; money cannot balance 
 the account. We are and for ever must be in their 
 debt. 
 
 But the majority of services are not of such 
 exalted worth, and can well be estimated by a 
 money I'eturn. Amongst these also are to be found 
 the widest differences. If we only consider the 
 ordinary vocations of life we find some far more 
 valuable to society than others. Take the case of 
 a man of genius who enables his fellows to produce 
 four units of return where before they had only 
 produced two. Cannot we at once recognise the 
 great value of his services ? So if for his reward 
 he keep one u.nit, who shall say he is too highly 
 paid ? He becomes enormously rich, but does not 
 society equally benefit by its share being three 
 units of resiUt instead of two ? He may be over- 
 paid, that is possible, he may only have anticipated 
 others by a few months ; but the instance we are 
 considering is that of a man, possibly imaginary, 
 who has of himself made this great stride forward. 
 Our experience teaches us that it is by no means 
 the real pioneer that always benefits, but not un- 
 frequently the keen man of business who may have 
 little to recommend him but his smartness. But 
 
38 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 this remark must not be taken as ajDplicable to the 
 trading classes as a whole. To them the nation 
 owes much. Many a great merchant has built up his 
 princely fortune by the saving of threepence or six- 
 pence in the pound, savings which would easily have 
 been lost but for his foresight and organising — lost to 
 him, lost to his servants, and lost without one other 
 creature in the world being a farthing the better. 
 
 So the man who saves his country, or his county, 
 or his city, or his company, or his partners, or his 
 servants from mistakes, may well be worth the 
 largest sums. An act of folly may destroy more in 
 a week than ten wise men in their wisdom can 
 restore in a year. The man who can direct wisely 
 and save his fellows from error may be almost 
 priceless in his counsels. What country, what 
 party, what home has not suffered from ill-con- 
 sidered suggestions and ill-considered acts ? Other 
 instances will suggest themselves where services 
 are of the highest value. Who shall say the doctor 
 whom everyone would call in, the writer whom 
 everyone woidd read, the composer whom every- 
 one would hear, do not worthily receive large sums 
 for their services ? And so with the teacher, the 
 artist, the singer, the lawyer, the actor, if in 
 demand, must they not earn more than those who 
 have not gained the confidence of their fellow-men? 
 A large income rapidly mounts up if made of many 
 littles willingly paid by a numerous clientele. We 
 need not pui'sue our illustrations further through all 
 the routine relations of life, its menial labour, 
 artizan labour, or high-class labour, which go to 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED — OUR FAIRLY PAID. 39 
 
 make up our complicated civilisation, but in all of 
 which we find payments willingly made and con- 
 tracts entered into to-day which would be as gladly 
 repeated on the morrow. The test of a fair 
 contract is that if the parties were put back into 
 the same position as they were in when they made 
 it, they would once again be glad to cany it 
 through on the same terms. Happily this is the 
 case in a vast number of our transactions, and by 
 this test we can say that in the main they are 
 fairly just. When we find services freely given 
 and payments willingly made, and when at the 
 same time we find equal independence, equal in- 
 telligence, and equal power of bargaining, it is 
 then we see individualism at its best. No ad- 
 vantage is taken on either side, the value of 
 services and the amount paid for them are prac- 
 tical equivalents, and as a man contributes so he 
 receives. 
 
 As a rule the elements which go to make up the 
 value of services are : — 
 
 1. Payment for personal services. 
 
 In principle, such services are the same whether 
 rendered by a man acting as a master independently 
 or as a servant directed by another. There is no 
 magic in the name " master" to make his services 
 more valuable than the same services performed by 
 another acting as the servant of someone else. It 
 is the value of the services that has to be appre- 
 ciated, not the position of the one who renders 
 them. 
 
40 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 Nowadays, in actual life, it is rare that any man 
 works unaided ; generally servants are employed to 
 more or less extent, and this item usually breaks up 
 into two : — 
 
 1. Payment to the employer for his personal 
 services. 
 
 3. Payment to the employed for their jDersonal 
 services. 
 
 Then in every industry- capital has to be provided. 
 Its origin and nature we will consider later. It may 
 be divided into three classes : — 
 
 3 (a). Invested capital for the provision of pre- 
 mises and plant, terms to which the widest meaning 
 must be attributed. 
 
 3 (b). Floating capital necessary for the purposes 
 of finance, and 
 
 3 (c). Sunk capital for money or labour sunk in 
 originating, qualifying for, or otherwise building 
 up such business. The long and arduous education 
 of a doctor is a simple example of such sunk capital 
 for which a return is fairly demanded (a). So 
 the expense of starting and advertising a business, 
 which is often serious, is another, and in the case of 
 inventions and experiments we find instances of 
 labour and money similarly sunk in the sole hoj)e 
 of a future reward. Further, as the ultimate pay- 
 ment for such expenditure is often more than 
 2Droblen:atical, so this reward if secured is usually a 
 
 ('0 Goodwill is another example of the present sacrificed 
 for the future, and is an important example of sunk capital. 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED — OUR FAIRLY PAID. 41 
 
 very large one. The chance of getting no return 
 and making a loss is so serious that the. very risk 
 involved demands a high compensating prize if 
 successful. And this element of risk brings us to 
 our last item, which we may well term insur- 
 ance. 
 
 4. In every industry the risk of loss, not only of 
 one's labour but of one's capital as well, must be 
 taken into account and provision made for it by 
 way of insurance. When the risk is small and the 
 returns certain this item is reduced to a minimum. 
 This is well illustrated by our home railways, which 
 command more capital for less interest than has 
 ever been known in the world's history, whilst on 
 the other hand some mining concerns can attract 
 investors only by holding out the prospect of 
 fabulous dividends. In ordinary businesses the 
 item varies considerably, and usually there is much 
 difficulty in estimating what it should be. Some- 
 times the risk is actually insured with third parties, 
 though as a rule it has to be taken by the master 
 himself. Of great risk incurred and partially 
 insured with outsiders we have an example in the 
 course of business usual in the cotton-spinning 
 industry. One of the most serious risks is the 
 violent fluctuations to which the raw material is 
 subject. To minimise this the spinner, when he 
 books his orders for yarn, at the same time also 
 buys his cotton against them in advance. Those 
 willing to so sell form what is known in the cotton 
 world as the future market, and their business is to 
 insure the actual trader against the variations in the 
 
42 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 value of the crop. Sometimes they are abused as 
 an association of gamblers, but this is an excrescence 
 of their day-to-day transactions. The reason for 
 their existence is the legitimate one that they take 
 risks it is well the manufacturer should be able to 
 cover. For, apart from such special risk, the 
 cotton-spinner in common with most business men 
 has quite sufificient other risks to take himself which 
 he cannot insure against. 
 
 But in the same way as the cotton broker in the 
 future market makes his living by insuring him 
 against one class of risk, so he and every master 
 has to charge against his business the insurance of 
 those risks he has to take himself. These his 
 servants cannot or will not share, though in many 
 cases he would pay them liberally to divide with 
 them his responsibilities. Masters, like men, would 
 usually be more content with less as a certainty 
 than with larger gains accompanied with the 
 sickening anxiety of there being little margin 
 between them and ruin. 
 
 We have thus indicated the large value services 
 may have, and for which payment should fairly be 
 made. We have f ui'ther inquired into the elements 
 which go to make uj) cost, and which must be pro- 
 vided for, and recapitulating the items our position 
 is : — we wish a master to be adequately paid for his 
 services; we wish those working with him to be 
 adequately paid for theirs ; we wish him to have a 
 fair return for the use of his invested capital, his 
 floating capital, and his sunk capital ; and far be it 
 from us to object to his receiving a fair charge by 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED OUR FAIRLY PAID. 43 
 
 way of premium for his risk run ; but when he is 
 adequately paid for all of these, and yet receives 
 considerably more in addition, we begin to demur 
 and ask the i-eason why (b). 
 
 If a man is fully paid, as we have stated, for 
 services rendered and yet receives an extra amount, 
 it would prima facie appear that he receives for them 
 more than they are worth. A very large income 
 from a business is not necessarily conclusive that a 
 man is overpaid, but it reasonably suggests the 
 inquiry how any man's services can be worth so 
 much. But where every item of a transaction is 
 just, where every transaction of a mighty business 
 is just, we must be slow to impute either wrong- 
 
 {b) " The profits which a man obtains from his business are 
 composed of the three following elements : — 
 
 1. A reward for saving, or more properly a reward for 
 
 abstinence. 
 
 2. A compensation for the risk of loss. 
 
 3. Wages for the labour of superintendence. 
 
 It is very easy to ascertain the portion of the profits which 
 ought in any particular instance to be allotted as the reward 
 of saving. In every commercial country there are invest- 
 ments the security of which is regarded as perfect. The 
 interest which is obtained from capital invested in these 
 securities may be considered as entirely ttie remuneration for 
 saving. He who so invests his capital cannot receive any 
 remuneration for risk when there is none, and the investment 
 entails no labour upon him. The interest which is obtained 
 from such securities is termed the current rate of interest." 
 — FaiDcett, p. 157. Next risk and insui-ance for risk is 
 admirably discussed, as also the third item, " the labour of 
 superintendence, the remuneration of which is influenced by 
 many of the same causes which affect the wages of ordinary 
 labour." — Fawcett, p. 159. 
 
44 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 doing or selfish extortion. Some great organisers 
 of industry do from time to time appear, who are 
 none the less beneficial to the community that their 
 operations are on the vastest scale. It is not with 
 their earnings we have any ground of complaint, 
 but with those who, having received all that they 
 are entitled to, rob the public by still further 
 exactions. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 VALUE OF SEEVICES AS PRACTICALLY DETERMINED. 
 
 We have observed on the disparity in the value of 
 services even when fairly estimated. The factors 
 determining such difference afford one of the most 
 interesting inquiries in the whole range of political 
 economy. No doubt the first and foremost factor is 
 the personal one. This may be accentuated by 
 outside conditions, but the difference in the man 
 ultimately determines the difference in the value of 
 his services. Fi-om the man of little or no efficiency 
 right up to the man of unbounded genius, the earn- 
 ing power increases in a rapidly increasing i-atio. 
 From a bare subsistence dole to the riches of a 
 Croesus, the reward for services may vary. Thus, 
 we see the eminent lawyer receiving in a month 
 what has to content a labourer for fifty years of 
 arduous toil ; a queen of song receiving as much 
 for a few ballads in an evening as would keep a 
 joui-nalist for a couple of years ; or a great merchant 
 receiving in one year's profits enough to make a 
 dozen of his employes independent for life. And 
 compared with the earnings of their own particular 
 class, the difference is almost as marked. It is 
 difficult to say how many K.C.'s might not be made 
 happy with the earnings of a Russell or an Isaacs ; 
 how many proficient professionals might not be kept 
 in luxury with a few months' earning of a Harry 
 
46 LIBERTY AND PEOGKESS. 
 
 Lauder ; or how many merchants might not be 
 rich with a hundredth part of the income of a 
 Carnegie or a Rothschild (a). So many an eminent 
 consultant earns fees that would keep in comfort 
 nearly a hundred worthy practitioners. A bishop has 
 a salary that would feed a tribe of curates and their 
 little ones, and there are artists who can command 
 for one picture more than a not very inferior brother 
 can get for ten years' output from his studio. And 
 all these vast sums are earned in spite of most 
 withering competition. Some are favoured by 
 special conditions, and some have no assistance 
 whatever, but are wholly and solely dependent on 
 their own personal powers alone. It is in consider- 
 ing such cases we see the extreme difficulty of 
 putting any measure on what a man should earn. 
 We have instanced Harry Lauder, a prince of the 
 music-halls. Popular rumour attributes to him 
 earnings running into five figures for a few months' 
 tour(S). But who is to say him nay — say it is too 
 much ? Every pound is made up of shillings 
 willingly paid by his admirers, who are many and 
 devoted. Other generations may judge the intrinsic 
 value of his services by other canons, but for our- 
 selves, which of us can say it is not fairly his own ? 
 Happily, no doubt, such extreme cases are rare. If 
 
 («) Society is not unlike a racecoiixse. The winner over- 
 loaded with prizes and the outsider hardly worth his keep. 
 And perhaps not a nail's breadth diSerenee in stature. 
 
 {b) And it is said he has bought landed estates with his 
 earnings. Why equally are they not his own also ? How- 
 ever, this forms the argument of a later chapter. 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES AS PEACTICALLY DETERMINED. 47 
 
 it were not so, it might well be that individualism 
 would prove impossible as a state of society. But 
 with us the average fairly paid services so vastly 
 predominate that we must not allow our judgment 
 to be warped by dwelling too long or earnestly upon 
 what are rather the accidents of society than its 
 rule. In fact, we can easily understand the extreme 
 difference in the value of services in the case of 
 genius and in the case of direst poverty ; but why, 
 we inquire, the still great difference between the 
 earnings in the ordinary avocations of daily life ? 
 The question is a difficult one to answer really 
 satisfactorily. The broad universal law governing 
 all payments for services rendered seems to be 
 competition. The community want services, who 
 will give most for least being the overriding con- 
 dition of modern society. Thus, payment for 
 services will depend on the urgency of the demand 
 for them and the number of those qualified to 
 perform them. 
 
 In primitive society the most urgent demand was 
 for safety; hence the reward the strong man was 
 able to command. Nothing was too much for him, 
 not even a crown. In our days, when personal 
 safety is taken as a matter of course, it is difficult 
 for us to put ourselves in the position of our ances- 
 tors, with whom it was the first consideration. So, 
 when we are inclined to differ with the standard of 
 payment for services in the past, we must first ask 
 what were the conditions of life and thought then 
 prevailing. However, we do not propose to trace 
 the historical argument through its various stages. 
 
48 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 for we are dealing with things as they now are, and 
 practically, in our present condition of society, all 
 wants will call into being a supply at a price. 
 What will determine that price will be the competi- 
 tion of those available to supply such want. Thus, 
 whilst the value of services is determined by 
 competition, such competition will be regulated by 
 the number of those who can perform them. This 
 will have far more to do with the market value of 
 such services than any intrinsic merit in the services 
 themselves. In the days of Rome's luxury the 
 services of a cook were of greater worth than those 
 of a general in the days of her simplicity, and with 
 us also similar services are very differently paid for 
 to those of a curate, or even an esteemed vicar of a 
 thriving congregation (c). 
 
 If numbers govern competition, and competition 
 governs earnings, it will follow that where numbers 
 are unrestricted, either through actual increase of 
 population or through the work being such that any 
 one can do it, the competition will be extremely 
 severe, and the average earnings of the whole will 
 sink to a very low level. This class will be sub- 
 divided in itself, because there is no work all can 
 do equally well, or where conditions are the same ; 
 and it will vary between the best paid of such class, 
 who may earn even more than the worse paid of a 
 superior class, and the lowest paid of all, whose 
 
 {c) Possibly, maybe, a really fine cook has a touob of 
 genius tbat puts him out of tbe pale of ordinary competi- 
 tion. 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES AS PRACTICALLY DETERMINED. 49 
 
 earnings sink to the point of the barest subsistence. 
 This is the limit and only limit. The competition 
 of numbers forces it to this limit, and it cannot go 
 below, because numbers lessen, and with them the 
 competition. 
 
 Then we come to the next class, where special 
 training is needed to perform certain services. This 
 at once lessens the numbers available and the conse- 
 quent competition. Therefore, the average level 
 of their earnings as a whole is considerably higher 
 than that of the unrestricted class. This class is 
 again subdivided, and some of the worst paid in it 
 may well earn less than some of the best paid in the 
 lower one. But the average is higher ; the scale of 
 remuneration is better. So, again, the special train- 
 ing necessary may be longer or shorter and accom- 
 panied with more or less expense. The longer and 
 more expensive the education necessary, the more 
 the restriction of numbers, the fewer to compete and 
 the higher the scale of pay in consequence. No 
 doubt in nianv businesses demand will be smaller 
 than in others, but this supply will adjust itself, for 
 it is obvious a man will not go through a long and 
 arduous training to earn only the same as he would 
 have done without it. But in addition to the essen- 
 tial restrictions on numbers of ability and qualiiica- 
 tion, artiticial restrictions are introduced to more or 
 less arbitrarily exclude others from sacred preserves. 
 These have a twofold operation. They tend to raise 
 the average earnings of the restricted class, and to 
 depress the earnings of the unrestricted classes by 
 increasing their numbers and competition, and 
 
50 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 thereby lessening their earning capacity as a whole. 
 A man fitted to be a solicitor who has to be a clerk, 
 or a man with the training of an artizan who has to 
 be a labourer, is artificially prevented from selling 
 his services to the best advantage, and further, more 
 or less unfairly depresses the earnings of the class 
 to which he is compelled to resort. Thus, the lowest 
 class of the community is the class that suffers most. 
 It has to bear the brunt of every law, natural 
 or artificial, which reduces pay for services to a 
 minimum. 
 
 Other moderating influences also aSect all the 
 callings of life. Many a man enters the ministry 
 from a sense of duty, and many a man wastes his 
 hours writing from an impulse of vanity. So some 
 are attracted by the dignity of a profession as 
 others are scared by its risks. To some prospects 
 of great gains hold out inducements, whilst others 
 are tempted by something little but sure. But, 
 generally, it seems that any condition which lessens 
 the numbers available to do certain work lessens 
 competition, and raises the average level of the 
 remuneration of such classes (^). 
 
 And here it would seem that there is no more 
 decisive dividing line between one class and another 
 than between those who have capital and those who 
 
 (d) This influence of occupation on reward has been fully 
 and delightfully discussed by Adam Smith in his magnificent 
 tenth chapter of the first book of his " Wealth of Nations." 
 Advancing his argument one step further, the author, with 
 considerable diSidence, submits that the possession of capital 
 constitutes a similar distinction with even more far-reaching 
 effects. 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES AS PRACTICALLY DETERMINED. 51 
 
 have not. What capital is and how it is accumu- 
 lated will, as we have said, be the subject of our 
 inquiry a little further on, but here we may observe 
 that the functions of capital seem to break up into 
 two radically distinct elements, the difference 
 between which needs always to be remembered. 
 In its primary function capital as capital, regarded 
 as an item necessary for production and as one of 
 the items of cost to which we have referred, is 
 content, as we shall see, with a very modest remu- 
 neration indeed. In this form it is an unqualified 
 blessing to the worker whatever his rank, it enor- 
 mously adds to the productiveness and efficiency of 
 his labour, it is to be had for a most trifling annual 
 payment, and, above all, it serves him best when it 
 is most secure. This is the one function of capital; 
 the other, every whit as important, is the difference 
 it makes in the conditions of those who have their 
 services to sell. The possessor of capital who wants 
 to dispose of his labour to the best advantage is in 
 quite a different class from those without. The 
 man with a thousand pounds and the man without 
 are on entirely different planes as far as selling 
 their labour is concerned. Whilst this is so, it 
 must also be remembered that this power of capital 
 may be taken to be largely exhausted when once it 
 has enabled its possessor to qualify for a restricted 
 class of employment. The thousand pounds sunk 
 in education which enables a man to become a 
 solicitor, and which would have left him a mere 
 clerk had he been without it, may have finally 
 effected its function in this respect by having 
 
 E 2 
 
52 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 enabled him to qualify for the superior occupation. 
 But once a solicitor, and the difference between a 
 solicitor with a thousand pounds and a solicitor 
 without, is nothing like so marked. Similar obser- 
 vations apply to exchanges where the purchase of a 
 seat is made essential to doing business in certain 
 markets, or to the taking of certain degrees which 
 are made equally essential in some professions. 
 
 It is perhaps in these matters whei-e we find the 
 power of capital in this respect in its fullest opera- 
 tion. But whilst this is so, it is also here where we 
 see how its want is again and again made up for by 
 energy, self-denial and unremitting toil. To-day 
 thousands and thousands of our most successful men 
 are those who, having had no capital to start with, 
 have, by indomitable perseverance, forced them- 
 selves into the ranks of those who have usually been 
 able to buy their entrance. And, once there, their 
 very earnestness and self-denial so developed carries 
 them right to the very front (e). So, on the other 
 hand, the very advantage with which man^' a more 
 favoured young fellow has started, without exactly 
 being his undoing, has yet left him in the ranks of 
 mediocrity for the whole of his life (/). And this 
 
 (e) " Many employers of labour — in some parts of England 
 more than half — have risen from the ranks of labour. Every 
 artizan who has exceptional natural ahilities has a chance of 
 raising himself to a post of command." — Walker, PoL Eco}i., 
 283. And in all our professions, how many a lad is helped 
 on by scholarships from the humhlest beginnings ! This is 
 as it should be. We want our best at the top. 
 
 (/) It is an old proverb — "A moderate income, a moderate 
 curse." 
 
VALUE OP SERVICES AS PKACTICALLY DKTERMINED. 58 
 
 fact has to be particularly remembered when we 
 come to consider the advantages conferred by still 
 greater amounts of capital. Just as the man who 
 has a thousand pounds is in an entirely different 
 position for selling his labour from the man who has 
 none, so is the man with ten thousand pounds quite 
 in a different category from him who has only a 
 thousand pounds. Similarly, the man with a 
 hundred thousand pounds has fewer competitors 
 than the man with only ten, and the average 
 level of the profits of his class tends to equally 
 increase (g). 
 
 Then we come to the millionaire class, which can 
 sell its labour for fabulous amounts, and the multi- 
 millionaire, who simply absorbs the wealth of con- 
 tinents before he is sufficiently paid. Nothing is 
 truer than the universal experience of every success- 
 ful business man that his first hundred pounds cost 
 him the most effort. 
 
 And all these adventitious advantages may be 
 combined with the greater or less personal efficiency 
 to which we have refen-ed. When the greatest 
 ability is combined with the greatest capital, it 
 forms a combination that is an absolute menace to 
 the rest of us plain living men. A Gulliver among 
 the Lilliputians was no more dreadful than such a 
 stork amongst the frogs ; the rest of us only exist 
 that we may be gobbled up. 
 
 {g) When working with large capital on a large scale 
 results in higher efficiency and more economy of labour, no 
 one loses by the large rewards such masters secure for their 
 services. On the contrary, all are better off for their success. 
 
54 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 But apart from genius, for the successful handling 
 of large sums is needed exceptional ability, and, 
 fortunately for the rest of the world, the combina- 
 tion is not a universal one. On the contrary, we 
 have seen the first tendency of inherited wealth is 
 to sap that keenest effort which is necessary to the 
 greatest success {h). No doubt this potentiality of 
 capital in the hands of a strong man furnishes some 
 argument for a change in our social conditions. But 
 in life a balance of convenience must govern our 
 conclusions. The increasing ease with which large 
 earnings are made as they grow ever larger may be, 
 and probably is, the soundest argument in favour 
 of a steadily increasing graduated income tax(/). 
 But it is not a reason for pulling down an entire 
 system Avhich, as a whole, probably works far better 
 than any other by which it could be replaced. For 
 even as regards the advantage given in the choice 
 of business or profession aiforded by the smaller 
 amounts of capital, we have seen how this can be 
 
 (//) The mere possessor of capital will employ labour at 
 the risk — almost the certainty — of total or partial loss. It 
 is no longer true that a man becomes the employer of labour 
 because he is a capitalist. Men command capital because 
 they have the qualifications to employ labour. 
 
 {/) Nor would it check their industry unless very excessive 
 indeed, owing to the progressive facility with which the larger 
 sums are earned. A barrister or singer getting fees running 
 into thousands of pounds, still more patentees or other 
 business men, are not going to be retired by a tax of even 
 ten per cent, on their earnings. So, further, one who benefits 
 so largely by existing conditions may well be called upon to 
 contribute largety to their maintenance. (See also additional 
 note at the end of the chapter.) 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES AS PRACTICALLY DETERMINED. 55 
 
 replaced, and in numerous cases is replaced, by Lard 
 work and saving habits. And these qualities of 
 hard work and saving habits will not be denied in 
 any system of society (/r). The child who gives up 
 a picnic rather than risk the loss of a prize for school 
 attendance will, all the world over, prove a valued 
 citizen, whilst, on the other hand, the boy who 
 must have his game and has to be whipped through 
 his task will always be in the tail of society, how- 
 ever constituted. Parents may do much for their 
 children. Many a parent in our working classes 
 could easily raise their children out of the lowest 
 rank of unrestricted labour to a higher one if they 
 were not absolutely selfish. But rather than lose 
 their pitiful earnings for a year or two they will 
 sacrifice their future in its entirety. No doubt the 
 not doing so would involve some self-restraint — 
 some privation — on their part, but in life the law 
 of success, the law of happiness, is the law of self- 
 denial. In all the range of investments there is 
 nothing returns so huge an interest as the self- 
 denial of to-day which yields abundance for the 
 morrow. Carpe diem — and a miserable diet you 
 make of it. But lay up treasure in the future, 
 even if not in this world, and happiness is assured. 
 
 (A-) " Many other remedies for improving the condition of 
 the poor have from time to time excited public attention. 
 The question of primary importance is, will the agency 
 proposed exert an influence to make the poor rely upon self- 
 help?"— P//"w/)', p. 236. 
 
66 LIBERTY AND PEOGRESS. 
 
 Note. 
 
 On what principle taxes should be contributed by members 
 of a community is a matter on which opinions vary. The 
 different schools are not unfairly summarised by Mill as 
 follows : — " How many, again, and how irreconcileablo, are the 
 standards of justice to which reference is made in discussing 
 the repartition of taxation. One opinion is that payment to 
 the State should be in numerical proportion to pecuniary 
 means ; others think that justice dictates what they term 
 graduated taxation — taking a higher percentage from those 
 who have more to spare. In point of natural justice a 
 strong case might be made for disregarding means altogether 
 and taking the same absolute sum (whenever it could be got) 
 from every one ; as the subscribers to a mess or to a club all 
 pay the same sum for the same privileges, whether they can 
 all equally afford it or not." — J. 8. 2IiU, Utilitarianism, p. 87. 
 The true underlying principle — the converse of the one 
 under discussion — is payment for services received. A nation 
 is but an aggregate of people living together who give 
 services and receive services to and from one another, and 
 that society is most perfect where such services are most 
 justly valued. Individuals give services, and should be 
 justly paid; they receive services, and should justly pay. 
 Living together involves a certain sacrifice of individual 
 liberty, and on the whole it is not unreasonable that, so tar 
 as necessary, the minority should fall in with the wishes of 
 the majority. But this does not alter the fundamental 
 principle of contribution to the general purse to which we 
 have referred. Each should pay in full for what he receives ; 
 but, having so paid, his fellows have no further claim upon 
 his purse. How such quota should be determined demands 
 a lengthy inquiry ; but once determined, it should be im- 
 partially collected from all. It is not open on the grounds 
 of convenience to make any pay more than their just share. 
 The principle of convenience is only to give effect to, and 
 not encroach upon, the principle of just contribution. Nor 
 is it open to try to right a wrong by taxation. If a man 
 acquires wrongly, the duty is to prevent the acquisition in its 
 entirety. To take from all of a class because some are bad 
 is to make the good suffer for the evil. If the good have 
 already contributed their just share, and more is taken from 
 them, they are no less robbed because it is done by their 
 fellows acting collectively than if it had been done by a few 
 acting independently. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON PRICE AS A MEASURE OF VALUE. 
 
 The practice of measuring the value of a commodity 
 by its price is so universal that it may be well to 
 here briefly discuss their mutual interdependence. 
 
 Three different terms may be used to denominate 
 the value of services and of the products of such 
 services. There is their intrinsic value, a value only 
 discovered to the highest and more than human 
 intelligence, and founded on a perfect knowledge of 
 what in this world is alone worth striving for. Of 
 such value each age has its own and different con- 
 ceptions, and its further elucidation and discussion 
 is the part of the philosopher and idealistic teacher. 
 Enough for us to realise that perhaps some of our 
 most cherished riches are but dross, whilst other 
 despised possessions are the jewel the savage 
 spurned. Esau sold his birthright for a mess of 
 pottage ; we also may have sold an eternal in- 
 heritance for substance of as little worth. Next 
 we refer to natural value, or the value more or less 
 determined by the cost of production taken over a 
 number of years, or under free conditions of com- 
 petition. Then we have the market value, governed 
 by the supply and demand of the hour. Tims, 
 whilst intrinsic value is the special province of the 
 theorist, the politician should have regard to the 
 
58 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 natural value, and all-important to the business 
 man is the value on the market at the moment he 
 makes his bargain. 
 
 But whilst the establishment of universal intrinsic 
 values might occasion a curious re-shuffling of 
 society (a), the difference between the natural price 
 and market price is one of degree only. Violent 
 fluctuation may be more marked in the one than in 
 the other, but in both are equally existent the 
 marked dissimilarity in the value of the services 
 themselves, into which we have inquired in our 
 last chapter. It is this dissimilarity which seems 
 unsatisfactory, but the difference is innate, and is 
 independent of the medium by which it is expressed. 
 
 Our custom is, for convenience, to express the 
 value of services in money, but such expression 
 neither makes nor alters the value of services. To 
 the different members of a community, what alone 
 is important between themselves, is not the nominal 
 value of services, but their relative or proportional 
 value one to another. In England a mathematical 
 coach will charge 7.9. Gd. an hour for his services, 
 whilst a labourer only commands 6d. for the same 
 period. In other words, an hour's services of the 
 one are worth fifteen hours' work of the other. So 
 long as this relative value is maintained it is of 
 little consequence how it is expressed, and the 
 difference would be the same if one earned only a 
 grain of silver worth a small fraction of a penny, 
 
 (rt) In Japan the master carpenter ranks socially higher 
 than the merchant. 
 
ON PRICE AS A MEASURE OF VALUE. 59 
 
 and the other received fifteen. Provided the whole 
 standard of exchange is the same throughout the 
 community for purposes of interchange of services 
 and commodities, it is unimportant whether the 
 standard is high or low. Thus the Japanese, when 
 they maintained their complete isolation, had a very 
 low standard, whilst many a South American 
 Republic has now as high a one. We have spoken 
 of its being of no importance what the standard is 
 as long as peoples remain isolated. But peoples 
 nowadays are not isolated, but have the largest 
 possible transactions with one another, so that it is 
 important that not only should the standard of 
 exchange be the same for each of them separately, 
 but it should also be the same for them collectively, 
 so far as they exchange services with one another. 
 Thus, whilst it is immaterial what standard rules in 
 a self-contained and isolated community, yet 
 directly it begins to haA^e relations with other 
 countries its standard and theirs are certain to 
 approximate to each other, and this approximation 
 will become the closer the freer the interchange of 
 services between them [b). To-day all countries 
 
 (b) One of the teDdencdes of free trade is to equalise 
 prices throughout the world. This has a tendency to a low 
 standard of general prices, as each country's price of com- 
 modity will be hardly greater than the price in the country 
 itself where the comoiodity is produced. But this is no dis- 
 advantage. The country that buys all its commodities at the 
 lowest price avoids the risk of paying too much for any. On 
 the other hand, merchants who do foreign trade, and who 
 buy at home when a low scale of prices prevails, sometimes 
 make excellent profits when they sell in countries where a 
 high scale of prices is the rule. 
 
60 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 are largely connected by commerce with other 
 nations, and all are more or less influenced by the 
 standards of one another. But whilst this is the 
 case with all, it is particularly so with ourselves. 
 Our over-seas trade is over £1,000,000,000 a year, 
 with, in addition, our shipping business, which 
 runs into the largest figures. Therefore, whilst the 
 value of our services is determined by their relative 
 value inter se, which relative value is independent of 
 the standard of reference, yet the standard itself is 
 fixed not only by our home trade, which might be 
 more or less arbitrary, but by our immense business 
 relations with other nations, where we have to take 
 their standards as we find them. Having thus 
 satisfied ourselves what our standard of reference is, 
 we are able to enter on the next stage of our inquiry, 
 how are prices fixed (c). 
 
 In the first place, we see that all services have a 
 related value one to the other. If a labourer is paid 
 one unit per liour, we have seen a uaathematical 
 coach would command fifteen units for the same 
 time. A well-to-do merchant would want about 
 40 units, and a clever mechanic or foreman from 
 two to three units for an equal amount of his work. 
 This general scale of exchange, reduced to the gold 
 standard of the day, gives the nominal value of 
 
 (c) To be technical, we can sa}' that prices represent the 
 vahie of services referred to a common standard. However, 
 the definition is not more material than most definitions. If 
 a definition agrees with the popular conception it is hardly 
 requisite, and when it differs it is always misleading, and is 
 usually the source of innumerable fallacies, 
 
ON PRICE AS A MEASURE OF VALUE. 61 
 
 services in money which we call the price. Taken 
 over a sufficiently Icing period, the average (if such 
 price determines what we may call the natural price 
 of services and of the commodities those services 
 produce. The natural value of commodities is thus 
 governed by the amount of services necessary to 
 produce them, with a trifling addition for what the 
 unw^orked raw material may be worth. Thus, ' if 
 coal sell at 20s. a ton, the actual coal itself, unworked 
 and unsought, might be worth anything up to id. or 
 Qd. a ton, according to its quality and accessibility. 
 The rest of the cost is for the labour expended on it. 
 So in times past and present land has been largely 
 given for services rendered or to whoever would 
 work it, so that the rent now paid to its owner for 
 its use has to be added to the cost. In agricultural 
 land, especially where a good deal has been spent 
 on improvements, this may be a moderate percentage 
 of the cost ; but in manufactured articles, where the 
 value of the raw material is a trifle compared to the 
 ultimate work put into it, such item becomes the 
 merest bagatelle. 
 
 But having arrived at the natural price in this 
 manner, we find the day-to-day prices fluctuate 
 largely, and are governed by the supply and demand 
 of the hour. To the smart merchant the all-impor- 
 tant consideration is the market price of the day. 
 His profit or loss may turn on a fractional move- 
 ment of a penny in the price. So good and bad 
 times are largely influenced by rising or falling 
 markets, and in governing temporary conditions 
 supply and demand have far more effect than those 
 
62 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 laws which govern the natural price and which are 
 sluggish in their operation ((/). But whilst, as we 
 
 (rf) Demand and supply fix price. 
 Demand may be for — 
 
 (a) Articles which cannot be increased in number, as 
 
 some works of ait. 
 
 (b) Articles which increase in cost the greater the 
 
 demand, as agricultural products which have to 
 be grown on worse land. 
 
 (c) Articles which can be produced without limit, such 
 
 as boots. {Faiccett, p. 815.) 
 
 Two principles regulate the price of a manufactured 
 commodity : — 
 
 1st. The price of each manufactured commodity must on 
 the average approximate to its cost of production. 
 
 2nd. The demand for a commodity varies with its price, 
 and the price at any particular time must be such as to 
 equalise the demand to the supply. 
 
 The forces operating to make the first principle effective 
 are, further competitors attracted by profits being extra good 
 or above the " natural rate," and works being closed when 
 the price will not yield the natural rate. 
 
 In case of extra demand, those aheady in the business 
 have the opportunity of making large profits, for it always 
 takes some time for other competition to become effective. 
 (See Fawcett, p. 339.) 
 
 The operation of the first principle is more or less sluggish, 
 and hence the great variations in price due to variations 
 between supply and demand. These introduce the element 
 of risk whiih makes the item for insurance so vitally im- 
 portant. Thus even the cornerer of a market va&j urge that 
 the risk of loss is about the same as the chance of gain, and 
 may ask why must he hear the loss and be deprived of all 
 hope of gain ? 'l"he answer is obvious. Fortunes are now 
 so huge that it is possible for a ring to buy up a world's 
 crops of necessaries, when the risk of loss is reduced to a trifle 
 and the possibilities of gain become correspondingly certain. 
 But above all it is a form of trading that is most undesirable. 
 We want all business done at its natural profit as far as 
 possible. 
 
ON PRICK AS A MEASURE OF VALUE. 63 
 
 have said, the question of supply and demand is all- 
 iu)portant to the business man — and probably all he 
 concerns himself about, or knows anything about, 
 he is in the business and has to make it pay — yet 
 to the economist and legislator the all-important 
 laws are those which affect our business conditions 
 over considerable periods of time. Thus if we take 
 what we consider the most unsatisfactory part of 
 our present individualistic society, namely, the wide 
 divergence in the payment for different services, we 
 find there are two factors governing them. There 
 is the general level, which is unsatisfactory, and 
 there are the differences occasioned by the fluctua- 
 tion in supply and demand. These fluctuations 
 are sometimes violent, and afford opportunities of 
 making huge profits or incurring great losses. It is 
 not of vital moment to society, as a whole, how 
 these profits or losses are shared, as in the end they 
 average themselves out ; but it is of vital moment 
 that some services cannot command more than ^d. 
 an hour and others have a value of more than a 
 shilling a minute. 
 
 Thus we see our standard of value, our prices, 
 are fixed by conditions world-wide in their extent. 
 We further see that whilst this standard is not of 
 much importance to nations amongst themselves, 
 what is of supreme importance is the laws which 
 govern the relative value of services amongst 
 members of the same communities. 
 
64 LIBERTY AND PEOGEESS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 VALUE OF SEEVICES KENUEEED — OUE OVEEPAID. 
 
 The conditions of those underpaid and fairly paid 
 we have cursorily considered, and those of the 
 overpaid now demand our attention. By enu- 
 merating the items for which payment should be 
 justly made we have also indicated where there is 
 the risk of overcharges being extorted. We have 
 seen that charges may be rightly made for personal 
 services and also for the capital used and the risk 
 run. As regards these latter two items we shall 
 find tJiey are regulated by a very precisely deter- 
 mined market value, and the chance of overcharge 
 in respect of them is not a serious one. Certainly 
 both can be made the excuse for excessive 
 claims, and insurance for risk run is made the 
 cloak for man}' extortions (^<). But probably what 
 generally embraces most cases of ov'er-payment is 
 the item which directly or indirectly is allocated to 
 personal services. This, we have seen, varies 
 between the widest limits, from a bare subsistence 
 wage up to most fabulous sums. The forces causing 
 such variations are those which lessen competition 
 by restricting the class of those who can compete, 
 
 {a) It is said Mr. Rockefeller thinks his fortune only just 
 adequately compensates him for the risk he has run. 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED — OUR OVERPAID. 65 
 
 and range themselves under the three heads of 
 special training, arbitrar}- restrictions, and the 
 ownership of capital. 
 
 As regards those who have been through a long- 
 and arduous training to qualify for their employ- 
 ment, few will grudge them the extra reward they 
 thereby ultimately obtain. As regards those 
 favoured above their fellows b\' the possession of 
 capital, opinion is more divided. Taking a broad 
 view, there is no doubt that the advantages so 
 secured are, on the whole, beneficial to society. 
 The desire of parents to do their best for their 
 children, which they can only do when they have 
 some capital to spend on their education, is a most 
 powerful incentive to industry, saving, and most 
 domestic; virtues. The father who feels he has a 
 sacred duty to start his children fairly in life not only 
 will be worthy in the matters we have mentioned, but 
 will also be more prudent in undertaking parental 
 responsibilities which otherwise he might find diffi- 
 cult to discharge. Thus in every way this featui-e 
 of capital results in the increase of that class of 
 parent and citizen who is simply all-precious to the 
 community. No doubt their virtue affords a mag- 
 nificent start to their children comjoared with those 
 much-to-l)e-pitied families where the parents are 
 selfish, lazy and improvident. But to lessen the 
 reward for such self-denial and weaken such incen- 
 tives to virtue would endanger society itself, and, 
 without raising the worthless, would only result in 
 sinking all down to their degraded level. 
 
 Then, further, it has to be remembered that in 
 
 D. F 
 
66 LIBERTY AXD PROGRESS. 
 
 many cases where the individual has not been 
 fortunate in his early surroundings, he has been 
 enabled, by his own superior energy and self- 
 denial, to surmount such want of capital and the 
 other obstacles of his youth, and in so doing has 
 developed an efficiency and doggedness that has 
 ultimately carried him to the greatest heights. As 
 regards the further advantages conferred by great 
 wealth, we have seen that they are large ; but we 
 have also seen they are likely to be limited by 
 moderating influences, the chief being the incapacity 
 to use such large fortune through lack of personal 
 ability. When this is the case, such fortunes 
 speedily become lost or else 2:)ass into the fund of 
 wealth which is let out for hire, of which the 
 interest demanded is but small, and which in every 
 way is of the greatest benefit to the worker, what- 
 ever his rank or earnings. 
 
 Then, in addition, so far as such excessive 
 earnings ar? a matter of concern, they can be very 
 effectively and justly dealt with by a graduated 
 income tax, which will have the further merit of 
 applying also to those incomes not so meritoriously 
 acquired. 
 
 But we have yet a third way by which it is 
 attempted to increase the paA^nent for personal 
 services, namely, by arbitrary restriction on com- 
 petition. At this point we must enforce that no 
 unfair benefit can be secured b}^ one section of the 
 community except at the expense of another (^). 
 
 [b) " Once upon a time — in the senate house of Grotham — a 
 motion was made to impose upon everybody a tax and put 
 the whole produce of it into everybody's pocket. ' Hear 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED — OUR OVERPAID. 67 
 
 It sounds a truism, but it is not altogether acted 
 upon as if it were. Many proposals are most 
 eloquently urged as if they would be of universal 
 advantage. But just as it is impossible to increase 
 the sum of wealth by legislation, so is it impossible 
 to give privileges to some without others having to 
 suffer from corresponding disabilities. 
 
 Thus on artificial restrictions of every sort the 
 community should look with a very jealous eye 
 indeed. One class it may evidently regard with the 
 utmost disfavour. We have already seen the 
 enormous and increasing benefit the possession of 
 capital gives to its owner in enabling him to sell his 
 labour at a better price than his less fortunate 
 neighbours. Then all further advantages ought to 
 be severely denied him. He, at any rate, needs no 
 further special privileges. As regards those less 
 fortunate, who desire to restrict their numbers and 
 increase their earnings by artificial methods, more 
 is to be said in their favour, and if they could do it 
 without injuring others even less favoured than 
 themselves we might wish them success. Before 
 we can express any opinion on this aspect of arti- 
 ficial restriction we must more particularly inquire 
 into the conditions which govern the relations 
 generally between employer and employed. Here, 
 for the moment, we must limit our inquiry to 
 masters and the capitalist class only. On every 
 hand we see the tendency for masters to combine 
 
 him ! ' ' Hear him ! ' ' Hear him ! ' was the cry. The motion 
 passed by general acclamation." — Bentliain, v. 269. 
 
 f2 
 
68 LIBER I'Y AND PROGRESS. 
 
 together for the purpose of increasing their earn- 
 ings. It is true there has never been a general 
 combination of all masters any more than of all 
 servants, and as society grows larger and more com- 
 plicated there seems less probability of such a thing 
 happening. But there has hardly been a time when 
 members of a particular trade have not met and 
 discussed how they could make their own particular 
 craft more profitable (c). No doubt any undue in- 
 flation of profits always carries its own nemesis 
 with it. Profits cannot long remain above the 
 average without proving an irresistible attraction to 
 some giant of industry to rush in and take ad- 
 vantage of the inertness caused by want of vigorous 
 C(jmpetition and make a clean sweep of the whole 
 trade. 
 
 So far as such unions of masters carry in them 
 their own seeds of dissolution, they are neither the 
 subject for special fear nor yet for special legislation. 
 But at times it happens that favourable circumstances 
 unite to establish such union in an impregnable 
 position. Then its relations with the public are an 
 entirely different matter. Then it can set at defi- 
 ance every one of the theoretical safeguards which 
 alone make individualism a possible system. We 
 have seen and are agreed that for individualism to 
 prove just, there must be on the part of all con- 
 
 (c) As Adam Smith neatly puts it, " People of the same 
 trade seldom meet together even for merriment and diversion 
 but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public 
 or in some contrivance to raise prices." — Wealth of Natiom, 
 Book I., c. X. 
 
VALUE OF SEEVICES RENDERED OUE OVERPAID. &.) 
 
 tracting parties equal independence, equal intelli- 
 gence, and equal powers of bargaining. We have 
 seen how disastrously the want of these conditions 
 has afPected the underpaid, and we shall likewise 
 find how disastrous is the want of these same con- 
 ditions to society itself. When the community is 
 deprived of its independence and power of bargaining 
 it is similarly wronged, and the many are fleeced for 
 the benefit of the few. P^'or services rendered 
 workers should be paid their fair value Anything 
 they secure above unjustly deprives others of what 
 is their right Theoretically it is no reply to say 
 that it is received according to law. It only proves 
 the law defective. The law should secure to a man 
 his due and only his due. The very end of law is 
 to secure fair play between all classes of the com- 
 munity, and to neither facilitate the enrichment of 
 a nabob class on the one hand nor permit the im- 
 poverishment of a slave class on the other. It may 
 make a difference in the moral aspect of the case, 
 for no more can be demanded of any man than that 
 he should keep the law. Except so far as in their 
 character of voters and law makers it is their duty 
 to be interested in the good government of their 
 country, it is no part of people's duty to inquire 
 into a law, as to whether it is wise or foolish ; their 
 duty is not to break it. An ordinary business man 
 has enough to do to attend to his own affairs without 
 complicating them with nice ethical inquiries as to 
 their ultimate tendency. If he keep the law in the 
 spirit as well as the letter he does his part, and 
 there is a corresponding duty on the community to 
 
70 I^IBEETY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 see that what is done under the law should be 
 supported by the law. But the community should 
 learn wisdom by experience, and prevent the law 
 being used as an engine of extortion. 
 
 Particularly is this the case with the present 
 trusts and monopolies now so rampant, and in 
 dealing with some of which the community, so far 
 from being independent, is altogether helpless. 
 When traders meet together to regulate prices, but 
 at the same time more or less reserve their separate 
 independence of action, we see they can usually be 
 left to themselves. But the moment, having secured 
 this end, they go still further and more or less agree 
 to pool their profits and so effectively raise prices, 
 they become unjust combinations for the purpose of 
 blackmailing the public at large. The fact that, up 
 to a certain point, they are doing what is perQ)issible 
 makes it difficult to deal with them. Happily it is 
 not in the United Kingdom that we suffer nmch 
 from them. If we did it would seem desirable for 
 the legislature to enact the principle that it is illegal 
 to raise the price of an}- article by means of trusts 
 or combinations beyond its fair value, and what is 
 or what is not a fair value to leave to be determined 
 as a question of fact in every case. It could then 
 give a right of action to any individual injured by 
 the breaking of the law, and in suitable cases could 
 itself interfere on behalf of the community at large. 
 So if at any time the principle of a graduated income 
 tax were generally adopted, it could be made useful 
 in destroying such trusts by comi^elling income tax to 
 be paid on the gross amount of the pooled profits or 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES KENDERED — OUR OVERPAID. 71 
 
 total profits of all in the trust. But even this would 
 not compensate the public for the injury they would 
 sustain. 
 
 The evils of this system have been particularly 
 emphasised in several of the industries in the United 
 States. Take the Iron Trust, for example. After 
 paying- all concerned a fair return for the value of 
 their services, estimated on the most lavish and 
 extravagant scale possible, it has yet enabled its 
 controllers to levy blackmail on the rest of their 
 countrymen to the extent of at least £1 a ton. 
 
 Still more terrible has been the operation of the 
 Standard Oil Trust, which, in the term of a short 
 life, has been able to extract from the nation at 
 large over a hundred million pounds. And, if 
 unchecked, still more terrible is the prospect before 
 us in time to come. The vast sums in the hands of 
 individuals astute, keen, hard and grasping enable 
 them to buy up, not odd crops, but the food or 
 raw produce of the world, and, having obtained its 
 control, to sell it again to helpless communities at 
 their own price. So enormous are their operations 
 that their success becomes not a matter of specula- 
 tion but of certainty. The ravages of pirates and 
 hiohwaymen were but trifles compared with the 
 legalised plundering of these blackmailers. We say 
 legalised. They act according to law ; therefore 
 the law must be altered. If individualism does not 
 kill trusts, trusts will kill individualism. The one 
 unanswerable argument of Socialism is, if industries 
 must be managed and conducted or controlled by 
 huge trusts or syndicates, then the proprietors and 
 
72 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 managers of such trusts or syndicates must be the 
 communities themselves. Xo other conckision seems 
 possible, and to leave things as thev are is to deliver 
 ourselves bound and helpless into the hand of the 
 spoilers. In old days the reward for regrating or 
 forestalling the market — the then up-to-date methods 
 of combines — was whipping or hanging. Perhaps 
 this is a case where our ancestors wei-e wiser in 
 their darkness than we in our light. 
 
 Another artificial restriction on competition or 
 monopoly in dealing that not infrequently results 
 in overpayment is that given to patentees for inven- 
 tions. The fact that to a large extent thev are 
 beneficial makes them difficult to handle. The good 
 and bad in them is a matter of degree. The object 
 of g-rantine: exclusive rights bv the communitv is to 
 encourage individuals to devote their time, energv 
 and resources to the inventing of things which shall 
 be of service to the community. It is clear no man 
 would sacrifice his time and money to have the 
 fruits of his labour immediately gathered by other 
 people. In the interest of the community it is 
 essential he should be sufficiently protected to secure 
 him a just return for his labour and expen.-e. If 
 this is denied he will, after the manner of the middle 
 ages, keep his most precious discoveries secret, and 
 jealousl}' guard them from the zeal of his neighbour. 
 By the system of granting exclusive rights for a 
 time the greatest benefits have resulted to the com- 
 munity. Progress has been made more rapid and 
 labour economised, for each new inventor, instead 
 of having to discover for himself all the previous 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED — OUR OVERPAID. 73 
 
 steps of a process, has been able to commence where 
 others have left off. So in the interchange of ideas 
 rendered possible by this sj^stem of patents, many a 
 man has learnt from another the very step he has 
 been puzzling over, and in this way, as it were, by 
 the joint product of their brains, society as a whole 
 has much benefited. When it is further considered 
 what risks an inventor has to take, it will be seen 
 that the payments made him when successful should 
 be correspondingly large. The governing principle 
 on which the comnmnity so acts is self-interest. 
 Whether as an abstract question of justice a man 
 has an exclusive right to his own discovery might be 
 difficult to decide. There is not an invention in 
 existence but involves the knowledge and use of 
 prior research, to the appropriation of which with- 
 out their consent the owners might equally object. 
 So it is an extreme view to take that the community 
 owes a duty to the individual to prevent everyone 
 else doing actions perfectly legitimate and innocent 
 in themselves, but which may be thought to infringe 
 on his supposed rights. If he claims exclusive 
 rights he can preserve them by keeping his dis- 
 coveries to himself. If he chooses to give them to 
 the world he must do so with all the necessary 
 consequences, and it is hardly open to him to ask 
 the community to protect him against the results of 
 his own imprudence. But it is not from this aspect 
 that the community approaches the question at all. 
 Its attitude is, " Here is a man who can do me 
 service if I will ensure him a corresponding return." 
 The foundation of the whole practice is self-interest. 
 
74 LIBERTY AND PKOGEESS. 
 
 It is no part of the community's duty to be benevo- 
 lent to any, not even to inventors. Just payment 
 for services rendered is its own unalterable guid- 
 ing principle. Hence it is that in granting this 
 monopoly it ought to protect itself against the pay- 
 ment made being too excessive. Whilst it is 
 desirable that the inventor should be well paid, it 
 is not desirable that his invention should be the 
 means of driving out of the industrv every man but 
 himself. We can well imagine a chemical discovery 
 that will revolutionise a whole trade, a trade main- 
 tainiuii' sav some thirty or forty prosperous firms. 
 It would be of doubtful advantage to jrive to auv 
 one firm such exclusive rights that all the others 
 would be ruined. This is putting the community 
 far too much at the mercN of such fii-m, and is 
 gis'ing far too great a return for the invention, how- 
 ever meritorious. What is or is not too much is. as 
 we have just observed, a matter of degree, which of 
 all questions is the one most difficult to settle. And 
 having decided what is too much leaves us an even 
 more difficult question to settle — what remedy to 
 propose. Possibly the best course would be to issue 
 everv patent subject to the condition that ever\' 
 competitor should have a right to use it on pa\'ment 
 of a reasonable royalty. In case the auiount of 
 such royalty ct)uld not be agreed, it should be 
 settled bv experts appointed bv the community, 
 and on the lines which experience, and experience 
 alone, would show to be satisfactory. But the two 
 main ends to be kept in view are the reasonable 
 remuneration of the inventor so that i-esearch should 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED— OUE OVERPAID. 75 
 
 not be checked, and the protection of the public by 
 not allowing all competition to be killed. 
 
 Other instances of monopolies might be given; 
 perhaps an example of one of the most serviceable 
 is that permitted to om- home railways. Their 
 rights are strictly limited by law, their charges and 
 many of their duties. So they probably do their 
 business better, for less return on their outlay, with 
 more fairness to their employes, and with more 
 consideration for the public than any other trading 
 body in the world. The way their powers are 
 limited might perhaps well suggest the lines on 
 which other monopolies granted by patents should 
 also be restricted. 
 
 Two other great sources of possible overpayment 
 remain to be considered. The first is where the 
 payment is made for the joint services of more than 
 one worker, and where the payment is unfairly 
 divided. The second is where, bv virtue of some 
 special monopoly of opportunity or position, a man 
 is able to demand from his fellows considerable 
 amounts of the products of their labour, apparently 
 without giving anything in return. Our first opens 
 u^D the whole of the difficult question of the relations 
 existing between employers and employed, and the 
 second the equally difficult question usually asso- 
 ciated with the possession of property. Both are 
 so important that they demand a fairly lengthy 
 examination at our hands. To the discussion of 
 the rights of joint producers inter se, we will now 
 devote our attention. 
 
LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 VALUE OF SERVICES RENDERED — THE RIGHTS OF JOINT 
 PRODUCERS. 
 
 From a superficial consideration of the .subject it 
 might be inferred that the interests of employers 
 and employed are wholl}' antagonistic, that the 
 simplest wa^' for a master to get rich is to underpay 
 his men, and that it must be a continual struggle 
 between them which can most successfully outwit 
 the other. ( )n the surface this would seem to be 
 so, but where competition is free and unrestricted 
 araonyst the masters their interests, far from being 
 antagonistic, are more nearlv identical than at first 
 sight might he thought to be possible. As regards 
 third parties, this is so almost entirelv. Though 
 " partnership " would be a misleading or incorrect 
 term to applv to the relationship of master and 
 servant, still to the outside world they are virtually 
 as partners or quasi-partners, with many of the 
 incidents of a partnership applicable to them, more 
 especially that of its being to the interest of all to 
 make the undertaking as a whole as profitable as 
 possible. There may be a difference of opinion as 
 to the sharing of the profits, but little as to in- 
 creasing the total amount. l^vo partners may 
 quarrel all day over sharing their gain, and still 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES — EIGHTS OF JOINT PEODUCEBS. 77 
 
 both may desire that gain increased to the utmost 
 possible limit. A young partner with a small 
 interest may think himself miserably paid, may 
 hate his moneyed associate, but still try to improve 
 the whole to increase his share. 
 
 So with masters and men. It is by no means 
 clear that their interests are on the same lines as 
 those of partners, but it is far from being certain 
 that they are necessarily adverse. In fact, the 
 contrary is the more probable. It is far from 
 proved that a master benefits by wages being low, 
 or a workman by profits being bad. Rather the 
 reverse seems to be the rule, that profits are good 
 when wages are high, and that wages are high 
 when profits are good. Rather would it seem that 
 the same forces which contribute to raise or depress 
 the one also tend to raise or depress the other. As 
 a general experience it is found that profits and 
 wages do vary together and in sympathy with one 
 another, and as a rule masters and men are both 
 most prosperous when both are doing well. 
 
 Individual experience might suggest otherwise(a). 
 A trader paying less wages than his fellows secures 
 
 (ff) Individual experience is necessarily misleading. "We 
 are each the centre of our own world. What is the world to 
 me ? " The world, myself and a few odd millions," or, as 
 Adam Smith puts it, '• Though every man may be the world 
 to himself, to the rest of mankind he is a most insignificant 
 part of it." — Theory of Moral Sentiment, Part II. c. 2. 
 
 Without being necessarily objectionably selfish, yet the 
 one question is. How will any proposition affect me ? It by 
 no means follows that what is good for me is good for others, 
 especially where my possession is another's exclusion, and 
 vice vena. 
 
78 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 the difference as extra profit, and mav arg'ue that 
 lower wages mean higher profit. But this is not so. 
 This is not the rule, it is the exception. It is only so 
 when he alone can pay lower wages. When all 
 pav such wages, as all will speedilA' have to do if he 
 does, prices will fall and his extra profit will dis- 
 appear, and with it probably some of his ordinary 
 profits as well. As a rule a trader's profit is based 
 on his returns, and so far as lower wages mean 
 lower prices, which mean lower returns, so far they 
 also mean lower profits. On the other hand, higher 
 wages, meaning higher prices and larger returns, 
 also mean more profit. The limit is what price can 
 be commanded in the market. The buver finds his 
 interests directlv antagonistic to both, and would 
 have both wages and profits as low as possible. 
 This again tends to show the community of interest 
 there is between a servant and his employers. In 
 an isolated transaction it may be otherwise, in the 
 case of an isolated firm it mav be otherwise, but 
 not throughout an industry. Let us further 
 examine the cases where employers may be ex- 
 pected to benefit or otherwise by low wages. 
 
 In a numerous class of cases we see they are not 
 likely to benefit. Thus, let a trader be a broker, or 
 a factor, or an}' other merchant paid by commissicm ; 
 he obviously is interested in the maintenance of high 
 prices, especially as high prices are the usual con- 
 comitant of brisk business. This is still more so 
 when a trader has standing charges more or less 
 stationary, varying with the volume of the business 
 done, but independent of the prices of the da\-. 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES — EIGHTS OF JOINT PEODUCEES. 79 
 
 These necessarily bear a larger proportion to low 
 prices than to high ones(^). 
 
 Again, a trader judges his returns by value, not 
 volume. When these are increasing he feels in a 
 position to refuse au order that does not yield him 
 a fair profit. "Some one else can have it; he is 
 not going to slave for nothing," is the expression of 
 his sentiments. On the contrary, in a falling market, 
 when he should be more careful, his returns are bad, 
 and he is desperate : '' All my expenses are running 
 on, and not doing a cent; simply can't pass this 
 order." He does not ; he cuts his lowest, and finds 
 his way into the Gazette. In a few transactions he 
 may make an extra profit if he can buy in a falling 
 and sell in a stationary market ; and whilst this is 
 not an unusual incident in bad times getting worse, 
 it will not compensate him for general slackness of 
 trade. 
 
 And this further points to the fact that the same 
 causes that operate to raise wages are those ope- 
 rating to raise prices generally, of which the chief 
 is hard markets due to a good demand and limited 
 supply. 
 
 {b) Thus, we see that underwriters will practically insure 
 ships against total loss for any amount irrespective of value. 
 The premium is not based on the amount covered, but on the 
 risk run. Hence, by double insuring they do double busi- 
 ness with one set ot standard charges. Incidentally it also 
 lessens proportionately their risk of particular average. A 
 £20,000 ship insured for £40,000 only sustains damage on 
 the £20,000 scale ; the insurance is paid on £40,000 as basis. 
 The limit is the temptation to commit fraud, and as in fire 
 insurance this would be serious, such contracts are contracts 
 of indemnity only. 
 
80 LIBERTY AND PKOGRESS. 
 
 Again, when personal labour is an important 
 element in his business, a master, in common with 
 all other labourers, profits by its becoming more 
 generally valuable. One of the outcomes of our 
 present system of manufacturing on a lai'ge scale is 
 the numerous secondary trades that have arisen out 
 of it. We manufacture boots by the million. Their 
 repair finds more employment than their making 
 did originallv. We build motor cars in extensive 
 machine shops, but every village has its garage and 
 local repairer. Watches are turned out by the 
 thousand in factories, but their cleaning and repair 
 find employment for hundreds. So we could 
 multiply examples. In many of these instances 
 the work is usually done by men working for 
 themselves, masters in a small way of business. In 
 their case and all similar cases they have directly 
 an interest in a high value being set on personal 
 labour. As we have before observed, there is no 
 magic in the name of master to make his services 
 of more value than those of another man's servant 
 who does his work in every way as well. His 
 interests are identical with those of that other man's 
 servant, and the more the latter gets as wages the 
 more will his own labour command. When it 
 comes to competing with large firms, it is of much 
 importance to him and the small trader generally 
 that wages should be as high as possible. The 
 only set-off he has against their superior power of 
 buying and organising is his own personal indus- 
 try (cj. This reduced to a minimum, his indepen- 
 
 [c) Therefore a small man should choose trades where 
 
VALUE OP SERVICES RIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS. SL 
 
 dence is doomed ; but let the price of labour be 
 sufficiently high and he may even drive his 
 formidable competitor out of the market (d). 
 
 Thus we see the community of interest between 
 the small trader and the servant. At the same 
 time the converse proposition must be equally true. 
 So far as small traders benefit by high wages as 
 furnishing them with their most powerful weapon 
 for fighting large firms, so equally, no doubt, low 
 wages are the most powerful weapon for large firms 
 to crush out their small competitors with, and for 
 this reason their interests may be as antagonistic to 
 those of labour as those of their small rivals are 
 identical with them. Probabl}' the question of high 
 or low wages is not so material between masters 
 and their men as between masters and masters, and 
 in the same industry one set of masters may be as 
 largely interested in wages being low as another in 
 their being high. Probably the rate of wages is as 
 vital to one employer fighting another as even to 
 the employed themselves. 
 
 personal supervision is the chief essential of success. If he 
 farms, let him rather raise poultry or run a dairy than go in 
 for growing corn, etc. So the small man naturally does well 
 in the repairing trades where individual skill is necessary. 
 
 (d) Consider a small shopkeeper competing against a great 
 trader. Say his returns are so high as £1,000 a year. His 
 great rival will probably save £50 a year by his superior 
 buyiag and organising on a proportionate retm-n, and if he 
 can get a manager to do the work for £50 a year the small 
 trader wiU have no margin with which to compete. _ If he 
 has to pay £100 a year in wages, the small trader will have 
 £50 on which to exist. If he has to pay £150, the latter 
 will have a margin of £100 in his favour, and may even be 
 in a position to cut him out. 
 
82 LIBERTY AND PEOGKESS. 
 
 Other instances suggest themselves where appa- 
 rently high wages might be antagonistic to the 
 interests of the masters as a whole. Whether closer 
 investiaration would substantiate this view is doubtful. 
 Such might well be the case where markets are 
 subject to violent fluctuations. Sm-ely when prices 
 suddenly rise it is to the masters' interest as a body 
 to continue to pay the same rate of wages and keep 
 the whole benefit of the rise for themselves. This 
 is so. But against this, it is equallv to the interest 
 of the men that the same rate of waares should be 
 maintained when there has been an equallv violent 
 fall. This, on the sm-face, would seem to indicate 
 antagonism, but not if we look a little deeper. 
 What such conditions realiy indicate is that in some 
 industries, as probably in all, the current prices 
 cannot be relied on, but the average price must be 
 taken as the basis for an average wage. The men's 
 waLies may to some extent vary with the current 
 prices, but not nearly so much as the master's profits. 
 Theii' position does not admit of such extreme 
 variation. Thev must have a certain amount on 
 Avliich to live, and their employer must take the risk 
 of the extra loss or gain. It is true that in some 
 cases a considerable period may be necessary to 
 establish a satisfactory average. Apparentlv. be- 
 tween original cost or wages and the market price 
 fixed bv supply and demand there would seem to be 
 no connection whatever. But this is not so. In all 
 trades the same forces are at work to maintain an 
 average value, and to ultimately regulate the supplv. 
 ]\la>ters and men alike desire to go into trades or 
 
VALUE OF SKRVICES EIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS. 83 
 
 businesses that will pay them best. Can a clerk for 
 a time command better conditions than the artizan, 
 then boys are educated to be clerks. Let the clerical 
 market be over-stocked, and you find the prudent 
 parents determined their boys shall learn a trade 
 like themselves. 80 in other walks of life, men are 
 always on the look-out for employments that will 
 yield them most profit. There are enthusiasts in 
 every walk of life for whom destiny is too strong, 
 and who mu.st follow a certain vocation (e), but the 
 large majority are governed by the more mundane 
 question, What will pay ? So, also, there are smart 
 men of business always on the look-out for a good 
 thing, who are ready at any moment to find the 
 money for any undertaking which promises some- 
 thing better than the ordinary rate of profit (/). 
 The tendency of these forces is such that it is very 
 difficult for any industry to long remain more 
 advantageously situated than the average of the 
 industries throughout the country. Does a trade 
 have a series of a few specially prosperous years ? 
 It immediately attracts so much of the free capital 
 of the country into the business that for the time it 
 
 [e) Ill-starred writers of political economy, for example. 
 
 (./■) " The whole loan fund of the country lying in the 
 hands of bankers and bill brokers moves in an instant towards 
 a trade that is unusually profitable if only that trade can 
 produce securities which come within banking rules. Suppose 
 the corn trade to become particularly good, there are immedi- 
 ately twice the usual number of corn bills in the bill brokers' 
 cases ; and if the iron trade, then of iron bills. You could 
 almost see the change of capital if you could look into the 
 bill cases at different times." — Emay on the Postulates of 
 Politiecil Eeonomy, by Waller Bagehot. 
 
84 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 is overdone, and the once large balances are turned 
 into as great deficits. Is a new industry started, 
 like that of building motors or bicycles ? Soon so 
 much capital is invested in it that only a few firms 
 survive the certain and resultant crash. It is these 
 variations or ebb and flow of prosjoerity that 
 account largely for good and bad times (^7), but all 
 proving that no occupation or business can show a 
 prosperity a little above the average without attract- 
 ing numerous capitalists and competitors anxious to 
 share its unusual good fortune. The good I'eturns 
 of existing concerns is largely the stock-in-trade of 
 the promoter, Avho persuades the public to embark 
 in his companies by showing how well the existing 
 ones are doing. So he is ever ready to pro^dde 
 capitalists with every class of investment suitable to 
 their temperament. To the prudent investor he 
 Avill offer the moderately certain four or five per 
 cent ; the more speculative and sanguine spirits he 
 will tempt Avith hope of unlimited gain. But the 
 result is the same in all, and like the safer inA^est- 
 ments, if the hazardous ones show more than the 
 usual rate of return, riioneA' is never long not fortli- 
 coming for them(/?.). 
 
 {(j) Another factor is that when prices harden, a trader's 
 margin increases (he haAang borroAved capital) ; Avhen prices 
 Aveaken, his margin is Aviped out and Avith it his enterprise. 
 
 (/() It does not alter the fact that the cream is usually Avell 
 skimmed off before the public have a chance, and that only 
 the skimmiest of skimmed milk is usually offered by the 
 ordinary promoter. The result is the same — in one Avay or 
 another hazardous and non-hazardous risks equally attract 
 money according to their merits. 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES — RIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS. 85 
 
 It may be some time before a limited supply with 
 consequent high prices tempts more to embark in a 
 trade, or an over-supply and low prices squeeze out 
 the weaker firms ; but none the less, these forces 
 are always present to bring the average earnings of 
 any industry to the same level as the average 
 earnings throughout the country (i). Therefore, 
 we may conclude that even in the most violently 
 fluctuating industries when a sufficient time has 
 elapsed an average wage will become a steady 
 factor in maintaining an average price, and that 
 employers in such trades will be neither more nor 
 less injured than those in any other industries to 
 which we have referred, by the average being a 
 high one. 
 
 But if a correspondingly high average price 
 cannot be maintained '? If the buyer refuses to 
 pay such a high price, if a maximum price is fixed 
 by foreign competition ? Surely in these cases it 
 is to the intei'ests of masters to keep the market by 
 paying their men less ? Probably. And not by 
 reducing their own rate of profit? Certainly — if 
 they can. 
 
 Let us consider a concrete case. Let us suppose 
 there is an industry where the masters wish to meet 
 the whole of a fall of prices by reducing the men's 
 wages, and the men are willing that the fall shall 
 
 (i) " The profits of difi:ereiit trades have a constant 
 tendency to become equalised." — Fcnccetf, p. 160. 
 
 ■' The items which go to make up profits are interest on 
 capital, a constant, and payment for the risk run and for the 
 labour of superintendence." — Tumrcff, p. 159. 
 
86 LIBEKTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 be SO met. Would the masters benefit ? Tem- 
 porarily undoubtedly. Permanently ? That is not 
 so clear. It would seem otherwise. So far as the 
 men thus met them, so far they would be putting 
 their employers in a better position than the average 
 of that enjoyed by other employers throughout the 
 country, and so far the industry from a master's 
 point of view would be better than the average 
 industries of the countrj^, and would attract more 
 capital and more competitors, to once again reduce 
 the masters' earning to the usual average of the 
 country, and probably for a time to even less. 
 
 Then what is the most important factor, even if 
 not the sole factor, in determining the remuneration 
 of masters V The competition of masters amongst 
 themselves. Test this for a moment by assuming 
 wages to be a constant, and the truth is at once 
 apparent. AYhich master shall do the business, 
 other things being equal, will be decided by which 
 of them will do it most cheaply. And this will not 
 be affected by the wages constant being a low one 
 or a high one, but by how much the masters, as 
 masters, will be willing to work for, this again 
 being governed by what ordinarily the}- could 
 command in the country at large for similar 
 services. And further, this will not be affected bv 
 the wages not being a constant, provided all masters 
 are compelled to pay the same (/). That all should 
 
 (A-) This is not to prevent labour in itself being graded. 
 In the interests of the aged and otherwise second-rate workers, 
 it is imperative they should be estimated at their real value. 
 Otherwise they are not employed. 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES — EIGHTS Of JOINT PEODUCEKS. 87 
 
 SO pay the same is of the utmost importance to all, 
 and any reduced payment by one would rapidly 
 result in the necessity for a similar reduction by all. 
 And in what respect can a master cut down his 
 profits ? We have seen that the elements which go 
 to make up cost are : 1 . The wages paid to em- 
 ployers for their personal services; 2. The wages 
 paid to the employed for theirs ; 3. The charges 
 for the necessary capital — the invested capital, the 
 floating capital and the sunk capital; and 4. The 
 premiums for insurance. So far as all or any of 
 these items are constants, it is not material to the 
 masters, as between themselves, whether they are 
 high or low. What is imperative is that they shall 
 be the same for all. If a master is behind the times 
 as to one of them, unless he can make up for it in 
 the others he must speedily succumb and be driven 
 out of the market. When we thus break up the 
 elements of cost into their respective items, we 
 again see in how very few particulars the interests 
 of the masters and their men are necessarily 
 diverse. On the other hand, we also see what a 
 very cut-throat business it is between master and 
 master. Between them it is war to the knife — the 
 one largely thrives as the other fails, and none is so 
 happy as when he triumphantly soars above all his 
 rivals. The one ambition of a trader is to grow 
 ever greater, and, like Aaron's rod, to swallow up 
 all his unfortunate competitors. With continued 
 growth is continued efficiency, continued superiority 
 in economy of time and power, continued facilities 
 in buying and financing, so that, without trespassing 
 
88 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 on the men's domains, he can continually cut prices 
 ever lower, until finally his unfortunate fellows are 
 crushed out of existence. 
 
 Whether it is in the interest of the community 
 that they should be crushed out is another matter. 
 The community certainly benefits by increased 
 efficiency in production and distribution, but whether 
 this compensates for tlie smaller firms being extin- 
 guished is another matter. It is quite an arguable 
 question whether it would not be better for the 
 country to have a hundred families each earning 
 £C,OnO a year rather than one firm earning £200,000. 
 The hundred families would provide the very best 
 of the nation's workers ; its best thinkers, scientists, 
 engineei's, soldiers and sailors — the very class in- 
 valuable to a race. To multiply such might be 
 worth some sacrifice (/). 
 
 (/) A similar danger was dealt with by Henry TIL, one 
 of the " frea magi " of Bacou : — 
 
 •• Another statute was made of singular policy for the 
 population, apparently, and. if it be thoroughly considered, 
 for the soldiery and military forces of the realm. 
 
 ■' Enclosures at that time began to be more h'equent, 
 whereby arable land, which could not be manured without 
 people and families, was turned into pasture which was 
 easily rid by a few herdsmen ; and tenancies for years, lives, 
 and at will, whereupon much of the yeomanry lived, were 
 turned into demesnes. This bred a decay of people, and by 
 consequence, a decay of towns, churches, tithes and the like. 
 The king likewise knew full well, and in no T\-ise forgot, that 
 there ensued withal upon this a decay and diminution of 
 subsidies and taxes ; for the more gentlemen ever the lower 
 books of subsidies. In remedying of this inconvenience the 
 king's wisdom was admirable, and the Parliament's at that 
 time. Enclosures they would not forbid, for that had been 
 to forbid the improvement of the patrimony of the kingdom ; 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES RIGPTTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS. 89 
 
 But as regards the relations between masters and 
 men, the fact remain.s unaltered : the enemy of the 
 master is not his men, but the other masters that 
 fight him for very existence. Thus more than ever 
 is emphasised the fact that the ren\unei'ation of 
 masters is practically settled by their competition 
 amongst tliemselves. If this is so, the divergence 
 of interest between masters and men approaches the 
 vanishing point, and the only radical antagonism 
 outstanding between them is the indirect one — how 
 far wages can be used as a weapon by masters 
 fighting one another. But as such weapon they ought 
 never to be used. When, however, a large employer 
 has once destroyed his smaller rivals, and is alile to 
 establish a monopoly, he then ceases to trade under 
 
 nor tillagf! they would not compel, for that was to strive with 
 nature and utility, but they took a course to take away 
 depopulating enclosures and depopulating pasturage, and 
 yet not by that name, or hy any imperious express prohibi- 
 tion, but by consequence. The ordinance was, ' That all 
 houses of husbandry, that were used with twenty acres of 
 ground and upwards, should be maintained and kept up for 
 ever ; together with a competent proportion of land to be 
 used and occupied with them ; ' ... By this means the 
 houses being kept up did of necessity enforce a dweller, and 
 the proportion of land for occupation being kept up did of 
 necessity enforce that dweller not to be a beggar or cottager, 
 but a man nf some substance that might keep hinds and 
 servants and set the plough going." 
 
 By this means the yeomanry class was increased, the 
 military power advanced, "for good infantry required men 
 bred not in a servile or indigent fashion, but in some free 
 and plentiful manner." Countries which run to noblemen 
 and gentlemen on the one hand and to labourers on the 
 other "have much people and few soldiers." — Bacon's 
 Henri/ VII. (Bohn's Edit.), p. 359. 
 
90 LIBEETY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 free conditions so as to make his interests run on 
 lines independent of those employed as his servants. 
 With prices under his control his interest is not only 
 to exploit the public Avith inflated charges, but also 
 to increase his profits by reducing cost. This he 
 can most effectually do without fear of consequences 
 by reducing his wage bill. This we will further 
 consider a little later on. 
 
 But as between employers and employed, it may 
 be urged that the foregoing reason may be sound 
 so far as it refers to particular industries, and yet 
 not be equally sound when applied to those of the 
 country generally. In a particular industry it may 
 be sound, because the moment tou make an indus- 
 try more favourable from a master's point of view 
 than the average, you immediately attract so many 
 more competitors that you reduce the earnings of 
 such masters to their normal amount, and for a time 
 to even less (?k). But may not masters as a body be 
 interested in establishing a high average remunera- 
 
 (m) " When the profits realized in any business are just 
 sufficient to give an adequate compensation for interest on 
 capital, for risk against loss, and for labour of superintend- 
 ence, then it is said that the ' natural rate ' of profit is obtained, 
 and hence it would appear that each trade has a natural rate 
 of profit peculiar to itself, because this rate of profit raust 
 give a proper remuneration for the thi'ee elements of which 
 profits are composed ; and two of these, namely, the insur- 
 ance against risk and the wages of superintendence, vary in dif- 
 ferent industrial occupations. . . If the definition which 
 has been given of the term ' natural profits ' is borne in mind, 
 there wUl be no difiieultj' in explaining what is meant by the 
 popular expression that the profits in different trades have 
 a tendency to become equalised." — Fforcett, p. 161. 
 
VALUK OF SKRVICES — KLHHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS. 91 
 
 tion for themselves and a correspondingly low one 
 for their servants ? Possibly m theory this might 
 be so, but in practice we see that whilst employers 
 in the same industry may co-operate together, yet a 
 general combination of all masters is a thing abso- 
 lutely unheard of, and the question has but to be 
 asked to be dismissed. 
 
 So other forces would tend to prevent any such 
 division between masters and servants. Undoubtedly 
 we speak of them as distinct, and whilst it is true 
 there is a definite strong line of demarcation between 
 masters as masters, and servants as servants, yet 
 this does not prevent the two classes merging into 
 each other, and an ever continuous flux or passing 
 from one to the other taking place. The ambitious 
 servant, the moment it promises to be m(;re profit- 
 able for him to trade on his own account, becomes a 
 master, whilst by stress of circumstances many a 
 master becomes a servant. So the earnings of many 
 a servant are princely compared with the earnings 
 of many an employer. It is not the fact of being an 
 employer that enables a man to command a higher 
 rate for his services, but the being more favour- 
 ably situated compared with others, either in effi- 
 ciency or in capital, or both. 
 
 Remembering, then, that our conclusions are 
 qualified b}' the assumption we are dealing with 
 free conditions of trading only, we find no reason 
 wh}' the interests of masters should be antagonistic 
 to the interests of those in their employ. 
 
 And this brings us to the converse proposition. 
 If masters are not necessarily injured b}' a high 
 
92 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 rate of wa^es, are men injured hx a high rate of 
 proiit ? Here again we are face to face with our 
 old query. What if the buyer will onlv pay a fixed 
 sum? The answer to this again, probabh', is that 
 the same conditions — namely, hard markets — which 
 tend to give a master lar^re profits, also tend to 
 secure a high wage. But if a limited price only 
 can be obtained, surely the men would like to 
 secure more of it in high wages. But can they do 
 it '■' If thev .starve the masters fewer will enter the 
 industry, and fewer hands will be employed, until 
 once again the limited supply hardens the market 
 and makes it yield the average profit for masters as 
 well as men. 
 
 And can the men wait for such limited .supply 
 to harden the market ? If competition tends to 
 regulate the profits of masters, still more will it 
 tend to regulate the waives of men, dependent on 
 their laljour for their very living. Thus to insist 
 on a hiii'li wag-e which means closing down works is 
 hardly in their power (n). 
 
 (ii) '■ Laws which attempt to regulate wages are ah^-ays 
 either futile or mischievous . . suppose a general law that 
 all wages should be raised 20 per cent. If employers were 
 unable to repay themselves . . . hy a rise in price this 
 advance ^\-ould simply represent so much taken away from 
 profits. The immediate consequence of this would be a con- 
 traction of business. Caiiitalists would find it less profitable 
 than heretofore to invest money in home industry, and a 
 larger portion of the national capital would be exported. 
 The result . . . would be mischievous to the whole nation, 
 and especially disastrous to the labourers themselves. It is 
 also to be borne in mind that if any temporary advantage 
 which the labourers might gain by such enforced rise in 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES — EIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCEES. 93 
 
 If the industry is a decaying one, and can pay 
 no one the average return of the country as a whole, 
 it may well be closed and the workers and capital 
 absorbed into other industries which do yield an 
 average rettirn. But the process is a painful one to 
 all concerned, and is usually completed only with 
 the rise of a new generation, who avoid such ill- 
 paying- concerns. 
 
 But as with the masters, so with the men, it is 
 equally certain that the main if not only factor in 
 fixing their remtmeration is their competition 
 amongst themselves. With them, as with masters, 
 it is war to the knife. With them their deadliest 
 foes are those of their own household. What the 
 masters receive as profit is not material to them ; it 
 is what their fellow workman will work for. Masters 
 are helpless. The exigencies of competition are 
 such that if one master reduces the current rate 
 of wages all are compelled to do the same. A 
 lessened volume of business causes the keenest com- 
 petition for what is left amongst the masters, but 
 nothing so keen as the intensified competition of the 
 man whose very meal depends upon his securing a 
 job. Low or high wages are weapons for masters 
 with which to fight one another; equally low or 
 high profits may affect the workman in a job fight- 
 ing the man who is out. The man employed may 
 
 wages should stimulate an increase of population, there would 
 after a few years be an additional number of laboiu-ers com- 
 peting for employment, and thus the condition of the working 
 classes might ultimately be made considerably worse than it 
 was before." — Fanrett, p. 224. 
 
94 LIBF.RTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 be interested in high profits, restricted production, 
 the exclusion of his fellows, and the driving them 
 out of the trade, with the hoped-for high wages for 
 himself in the end ; and the man out of work may 
 equally think to benefit by low prices and low 
 profits if they result in larger production and the 
 employment of more hands, even though accom- 
 panied by low wages. His enemy is not the 
 employer, but his more fortunate fellow, who has 
 the work whicb he wants, and for which he is 
 anxious to fight him to the death . As between him 
 and the master there is no real divergence of 
 interest, and in many cases the master would be 
 more than ready to employ him if the other work- 
 men did not prevent his so doing. Exactlv as with 
 masters, it is bis fellow who would crush him out of 
 existence. 
 
 But surely it is to the workman's interest that a 
 high average wage should be maintained throughout 
 the country. Certainly. But that is not the ques- 
 tion. The question is. Can it be maintained at the 
 expense of the master? In free conditions of com- 
 petition we have seen it cannot. But if the workman 
 can establish an artificial price and can agree with 
 his fellows not to fight amongst themselves, what 
 tben ? Still, be cannot do it at the expense of his 
 masters. They must have their average remunera- 
 tion, or they will close down their works, lessen 
 23roduction, and lessen the demand for labour, when 
 the workman's position will become more diificult 
 than ever. But if the artificial price can be main- 
 tained against the buyer, then he may hope to profit. 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES— EIGHTS OF JOINT PEODUCEES. 95 
 
 But we have already seen that if v^^ages be regarded 
 as a constant and all masters have to pay the same, 
 masters are not prejudicially affected if that con- 
 stant be a high one. We have also seen that those 
 conditions which enable workmen to secure a high 
 rate of wage are usually synchronous with those 
 which enable masters to secure a high rate of profit ; 
 that is, both are usually doing well together, and 
 usually when markets are hardest. The limit is 
 that the demand shall not be killed. 
 
 But yet a further inquiry — are not masters' 
 interests and those of their men antagonistic as to 
 the amount the masters charge for their premises, 
 plant, and for interest on their capital and for the 
 risk run '? 
 
 On the contrary, the cost of these respective items 
 is determined by their market value, and masters 
 and men are equally interested in this cost being 
 reduced to a minimum. Masters and men are 
 equally interested in capital being abundant and 
 cheap (o), and in premises, plant and insurance not 
 costing overmuch. Where these are moderate it 
 would seem that the balance of the price received 
 which would go to pay for their joint labour would 
 be the greater. 
 
 (o) " Interest on capital, insurance for risk, and remunera- 
 tion for labour of superintendence are the three elements of 
 which profits are composed. The first, interest on capital, is 
 represented by the current rate of interest, and therefore 
 may be regarded as a constant quantity for all occupations 
 at the same time and in the same country. . . . Thus the 
 current rate of interest in England is now about 3 per 
 oeui:'—FmvceU, p. 159, also p. 450. 
 
96 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 AVhen an emplo5''er provides any of these items 
 himself and desires a high return for them, it is not 
 in his character of employer but in tliat of property 
 owner and insurer. This is easily tested by the 
 case of the emplover who has to borrow his capital, 
 hire his premises and plant, and pav others to 
 insure his risk. 
 
 Thus, again, there is no divergence of interest 
 between masters as masters and those they employ. 
 Nor is it by any means clear that in the long run 
 there is any great divergence between their interests 
 and the interests of those who provide such other 
 necessaries of industry. Exactly as the main ele- 
 ment, in free conditions, in fixing the profit of 
 masters is their competition amongst themselves, 
 and in fixing the men's wages is their competition 
 amongst themselves, so it will be seen, when we 
 come to discuss property and its incidents, that the 
 main factor in determining what return it shall 
 receive is equallv the competition of its owners 
 amongst themselves. Just as labour without capital 
 yields the barest return, so wealth or capital unused 
 is barren and unproductive. Labour for its eflficiency 
 is dependent on capital, but capital is mutually 
 dependent on labour for its employment that it mav 
 be used to yield a return. Hence the competition 
 amongst its owners to have it used. 
 
 In discussing the natural value of a commoditv 
 we have seen that it is ultimately governed by the 
 average cost of its production. Such average cost 
 is made up of payment to masters for their services, 
 payment to servants for theirs, and payment to 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES — RIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS. 97 
 
 capital for its services. The market price may, to 
 some extent, be independent of all or any of these 
 items, but in the long run each has its own effect in 
 determining the average level. If wages are high 
 they must be found, whether they are wages for the 
 employer or employed. So capital must be paid 
 for, and in its interest is usually included the cost 
 of insurance against its loss. But apart from the 
 risk, which is an entirely independent matter, the 
 cost of capital is a fairly well defined amount. Nor 
 does it rule high. With perfect security it can only 
 command so little as three per cent., so enormous 
 is the competition amongst its owners to have it 
 occupied. But it must be so paid for, and it very 
 definitely takes its part in the cost that goes to make 
 up the price of any article. 
 
 In times of great commercial activity it may 
 command more, but this higher rate must not be 
 confounded with that demanded by way of insurance 
 for extra risk. In fact, just as we have seen tliat 
 employers and employed usually do well together, 
 so also we find that capital acts very much in 
 sympathy with them, and that the parallel seems to 
 extend to some considerable extent further. If 
 capital is abundant it fosters enterprise ; enterprise 
 finds employment ; employment hardens wages ; 
 these again cause more demand for capital, and 
 once more give it an increasing earning power. 
 And it is when employment is brisk and trade good 
 that those in want of capital can most easily afford 
 to pay well for it. All are doing well, and all do 
 well together. On the other hand, when the cost 
 
98 LIBERTY AND PEOGEESS. 
 
 of capital is unhealtiiily increased by making it 
 insecure, it at once has to be paid an extra rate of 
 interest to cover the additional risk, and this checks 
 output until the demand is such as to cover the 
 increased cost, unless in the meantime the workers, 
 men and masters, prefer to work for less rather than 
 reduce production. Made secure, nothing has a 
 greater affection for its own home ; but confidence 
 destroyed, and it quickly makes to itself wings and 
 flies to other climes. To-day the fabulous incomes 
 made by some have led to much justifiable complain- 
 ing, but also to an unwdse because wrongly directed 
 agitation. This agitation seems to be chiefly due to 
 the fact that the twofold character of capital has 
 not been full}" appreciated. So far as the possession 
 of capital puts its owner in a superior position for 
 selling his services at an enhanced rate, so far other 
 workers may reasonably demur and, so far as they 
 are able, may try to seek compensation for advan- 
 tages they do not possess. With the rarest excep- 
 tions, there is not a doubt that the difference in the 
 intrinsic value of services is not nearly the difference 
 that there is between some five or ten shillings a 
 week and some five or fifty thousand pounds per 
 year. To amend such conditions is, if possible, 
 desirable. On the other hand, directly wealth 
 ceases to be used by its owner for so increasing the 
 value of his services, it simply becomes of the highest 
 possible value to the worker generally. In this 
 form it is the moisture that fertilises the desert ; it 
 is to be had for the smallest rate of interest, and it 
 neutralises some of the effects it has in its other 
 
VALUE OF SERVICES — RIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS. 99 
 
 form. If a young man is diligent and trustwortliy 
 he can obtain its use on loan, when the interest he 
 has to pay is as nothing to the increased earning 
 power it confers on him. In this form, where 
 it is to be let out on hire, we see there is in it 
 nothing antagonistic to the interests of either 
 masters ■ or men and that, like them, its earning 
 power is governed by independent forces. Thus, 
 our general conclusion is that we have three bodies 
 — employers, employed and capital owners — who, 
 though acting together in the same industry, yet 
 find their respective earnings determined by a 
 radically different set of forces. They work 
 together for one another, and usually the same 
 forces which contribute to the welfare of one con- 
 tribute to the welfare of all. It would therefore 
 seem that no good result is to be secured by fostering 
 ill-will between all or any, and rather that the 
 greatest good will be secured by having regard to 
 the just rights of all. 
 
 h2 
 
100 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 RIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS FURTHER CONSIDERED. 
 
 Our preceding conclusions we may summarise in 
 the somewhat technical language, that so far as the 
 natural rate of profit and wages is concerned the 
 interests of masters and men run on entirely inde- 
 pendent lines. Thus, as regards the natural rate 
 of profits, it is solely governed by the masters' 
 competition amongst themselves, and as regards the 
 natural rate of wages by the men's competition 
 amongst themselves. Further, we have seen that 
 as regards market fluctuations, though each naturally 
 desires to do the best for himself, neither can hope 
 to permanently benefit at the expense of the other, 
 and neither by temporary poaching on the other's 
 preserves can hope to raise the level of their natiu-al 
 rate of profits or wages so much as a penny. 
 
 But these conclusions were based on conditions 
 of free competition. How far are they to be modi- 
 fied by artificial restrictions on the part of the 
 masters, the men, or both ? 
 
 We have seen that the result of restricting com- 
 petition in any industry is the tendency to raise 
 the average level of earnings of that industry. 
 This restriction of competition may be due to the 
 special training required or to the possession of 
 capital. These, we have seen, afEord a considerable 
 
RIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS FURTHER CONSIDERED. 101 
 
 advantage to those who usually form the master 
 class, by enabling them to command a higher rate 
 for their services than others not as favoured. But 
 when by artificial restrictions on trading they can 
 establish an artificial price, they still further cease 
 to be influenced by competition. We have seen 
 that they probably court ultimate destruction by 
 tempting some great genius to enter their charmed 
 circle and drive them all out ; but in the meantime 
 they can make very large profits. Unless the public 
 are protected by foreign markets, such extra profits 
 may be largely at their expense, but such extra 
 profits may also be made at the expense of their 
 servants. Anything that reduces cost adds to 
 profits, especially reduced wages. In such cases it 
 is not enough that all masters should pay wages at 
 the same rate, but the rate itself should be very 
 effectually supervised. 
 
 And this is also the case in all those businesses 
 where prices are fixed by an unalterable scale, and 
 where it is felony without benefit of clergy for one 
 firm to charge less than another. Here we may 
 theoretically expect to find labour ill paid compared 
 with the profits made. And we do. The amount 
 paid in wages comes out of the profits earned, and 
 therefore all in the ring are interested in as low a 
 level of pay being maintained as possible. So the 
 evil is aggravated when the moderating influence of 
 servants passing into the master class is largely 
 wanting because of the restrictions on entering. 
 
 Thus the cotton, corn, stocks and shares, produce 
 and other markets are practically closed to all who 
 
102 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 cannot afford to buy an expensive seat. So lawyers 
 and doctors are privileged. Similarly engineers, 
 accountants, architects, surveyors and others have 
 their associations, all with the same end of estab- 
 lishing and maintaining artificial prices in which 
 their stafE have no share. Thus we see why the 
 clerk class is so badly paid. They are hit fourfold. 
 They are in employments in many of which it 
 absolutely pays the masters to grind them ; they 
 are very little protected by anything but their own 
 personal efficiency ; their ranks are crowded by 
 those excluded from the favoured industries ; and 
 lastly, a class which above all needs a union, they 
 are too superior to have one. So far as this is due 
 to their own folly, so far they deserve to suffer; but 
 as long as they have to serve privileged bodies 
 they will never do so satisfactorily until they meet 
 them on some terms of equality. And in the 
 majority of cases they hold the citadel in their 
 own hands. What great merchant could stand a 
 strike of his clerical staff for even a week? Man}- 
 a clerk is engaged on the terms of a day's notice. 
 A little engineering would bring the proudest and 
 most autocratic employer to his knees in an hour (a). 
 So, probably, the large profits commanded by the 
 possession of large capital, which we have seen puts 
 its possessors into a difierent class of competitors, is 
 
 (a) The writer many years ago saw a poor lad in the 
 dock for misappropriating money. He had the handling of 
 thousands of pounds a week, and was paid the princely salary 
 of £40 a year. Either he was worth far more, or his place 
 should have been taken by a superior clerk. 
 
RIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCEEB FURTHER CONSIDERED. 103 
 
 largely due to the clieap rate at which they can buy 
 the work of most efficient clerks. Were this rate to 
 rule higher, there is no doubt the smaller merchant 
 would largely benefit, as it would make his own 
 individual work of so much greater relative value. 
 
 How far, in the long run, it might be possible to 
 raise the wages of clerks generally is a matter of 
 some difficulty. Their wages are determined by 
 competition amongst themselves, and this competi- 
 tion is particularly fierce by reason of there being no 
 restriction whatever on becoming a clerk. But on 
 the other hand, the artificial conditions to which we 
 have referred aggravate their position by making it 
 to their employer's interest to actually reduce their 
 wages as much as possible. And this has an inten- 
 sive operation. Artificial conditions have a tendency 
 to attract more employers than otherwise would seek 
 such industry, and they meet such aggravated com- 
 petition by trying to pay still less in wages. On the 
 other hand, if no artificial prices were in existence 
 wages would become a constant of cost, the prices 
 would be fixed accordingly, and masters would soon 
 cease to be affected by such wage being a high or low 
 one, provided it was general. Clerks would then 
 fall into the same position as that of others having 
 their labour to sell, and the price they would com- 
 mand would be solely governed by their own 
 competition. 
 
 So every servant excluded from the master class 
 lessens the competition of the class from which he 
 is excluded to increase that of the class into which 
 he is driven. And equally every master qualified 
 
104 LIBERTY AND PEOGEHSS. 
 
 for one trade, but driven by restrictions to engage 
 in another, equally lessens the competition of the 
 trade from which he is excluded to increase that of 
 the one he has to resort to. No doubt many 
 arbitrary restrictions have very little further prac- 
 tical effect than the same exclusion brought about 
 by the long and arduous education necessary to 
 carry on such trade or profession satisfactorily. 
 Thus by law none but qualified medical men are 
 allowed to act as doctors. This at first sight seems 
 to give them all the privileges of a strong trade 
 union. But the advantage is more apparent than 
 real. To be a sound doctor requires years of study 
 and hard work, and the expenditure of no little 
 money upon teaching. Without this a man is not 
 in a position to act as a doctor, and without this, 
 with the best intentions in the world, he may do 
 seriou.s harm to his neighbours if he so acts. Before 
 a man tries to cure others he needs a very consider- 
 able amount of training. Without this training he 
 is not qualified to act, nor ought he to act. He can 
 only so act by trading on the ignorance of the 
 public. Hence, what eliminates others from com- 
 peting as doctors is not the enactment of the law, 
 but the long and special training required to practise 
 adequately. If the legislature interferes to prevent 
 unqualified people practising, it is not as a measure 
 of protecting the doctors, as a measure to enable 
 them to get the reward of their long training — they 
 already get that by their numbers being limited — 
 but simply to protect the public, who otherwise 
 would be the victims of those who pretend to a 
 
EIGHTS OF' JOINT PRODUCERS FURTHER CONSIDERED. 105 
 
 knowledge they have not got. Similarly there is no 
 more absolutely exclusive trade union than that of 
 the Bar. But it is doubtful if such union in any way 
 confers any valuable privilege. The training is so 
 lengthy, the period of earning so deferred, and the 
 general risk so great, that anyone anxious to prac- 
 tise, and in a position to practise, will not be kept 
 out by mere arbitrary enactments. If the abolition 
 of all restriction on trading and professions, save 
 that of doctors, were held desirable, the Bar might 
 cheerfully be the first to advocate and put in force 
 such self-denying ordinance. Probably many other 
 trade associations and unions would equally say that 
 they asked no more than that those who belonged to 
 their numbers should know their business. Thus a 
 Stock Exchange member would tell you it would be 
 impossible to get through the business they do and 
 serve the public at the present cheap rate unless all 
 their members were experts and of a given standing 
 and credit. So much is tliis the case that in many 
 exchanges where they require a certain depo.-it from 
 outsiders before admitting them as members, they 
 are willing to accept clerks trained on the market, 
 and who thoroughly know its routine, at half the 
 amount. A novice is a terror to them. 'I'hey may 
 run him and pluck him, but they would sooner be 
 without him, as he disorganises business. But, of 
 course, the answer to the argument that the 
 restrictions of such unions are only co-extensive with 
 the training necessary to qualify for doing the 
 business efficiently is obvious. Why, then, have un- 
 necessary i-estrictions ? On the other hand, if they 
 
106 LIBERTY AND PKOGEESS. 
 
 do exclude qualified people from trading in any 
 way they please, it is a serious invasion of personal 
 liberty. It is said such unions are, like those of 
 doctors, necessary to protect the public. But the 
 public needs no such protection ; any man who 
 holds himself out as practising any trade or pro- 
 fession is bound to do so proficiently, or otherwise 
 he is liable to an action for damages for negligence. 
 But however justified, and by whatever plausible 
 reasons, the fact remains that all artificial restrictions 
 on trading cause a twofold injustice. They are 
 unjust to the individual who would so trade, and 
 who is entitled to judge for himself whether he is 
 able to do so or not, and they are unjust to those 
 unrestricted employments into which they drive him, 
 thereby subjecting them to more than their due 
 proportion of competition. Further, they are un- 
 desirable, as they at once furnisli occasion for direct 
 antagonism between employers and employed ; and 
 lastly, they are unfair, inasmuch as all those 
 benefiting by such restrictions have already secured 
 the superior advantage in selling their labour which 
 is conferred by the possession of capital, and are 
 entitled to no further privilege 
 
 But how about those, usually the employed, who 
 have not the adventitious aid of capital to assist 
 them in selling their labour at a good price ? Ma}' 
 not they try to equalise matters a little by arbitrary 
 restrictions on competition ? 
 
 And first, to what extent can they do so at the 
 expense of their masters ? 
 
 Under conditions of free competition we have 
 
EIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS FURTHER CONSIDERED. 107 
 
 seen that practically they cannot do so at all. 
 DifFerent forces determine their respective earnings 
 governed by the competition of their respective 
 classes. But vp^hen free conditions are not present, 
 when arbitrary prices are fixed and a monopoly is 
 established, there is no reason why the men should 
 not try to secure their share of such inflated profit 
 instead of leaving their employers to take the whole. 
 If the public are to be fleeced, why should not the 
 employed share in the spoil ? Here efPective com- 
 bination on the part of the men should be beneficial, 
 and the universal rule would be well established, 
 that in every such industry no man should be 
 allowed to work for less than a specified minimum 
 wage. Further, the higher wages paid by such 
 monopolies would give other employers a chance of 
 competing, and their immediate tendency would be 
 to once again establish free conditions of trading so 
 desirable to the community as a whole. 
 
 And how far can men benefit at the expense of 
 their masters where such free conditions exist ? We 
 have seen not at all, the earnings of each class 
 being determined by their respective competition 
 amongst themselves. 
 
 Then, in their general relations with one another, 
 how far can they improve their position by artificial 
 restrictions? Very little, if at all. What is gained 
 by one set of workers is lost by another. We have 
 seen the average level of remuneration is determined 
 by competition, and that the more the numbers of 
 those who compete are restricted, the less will be 
 such competition and the higher the level of the 
 
108 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 earnings made. No doubt the most effectual and 
 commendable restriction is personal efficiency. To 
 this is due the high wages commanded by our fine 
 mechanics and trained operatives. But as regards 
 artificial methods, exactly to the extent that they 
 relieve one class or trade, exactly to the same 
 extent they put further pressure on others not 
 similarly protected. Thus, exactly as masters 
 acting similarly, they do a double injustice — they 
 wrong the man they exclude, and who has a right 
 to sell his labour to the best advantage, and they 
 wrong the class or trade they relegate him to by 
 unjustly aggravating the competition it is subjected 
 to. Hence the poor pay of the clerk, the unskilled 
 and the casual labourer ; hence the residuum of 
 society — the sweated generally. These, the victims 
 of want of organisation, are paid less that other 
 workers may be paid more. Hence it is that whilst 
 those earning £3 a week and under receive the 
 fabulous amount of £880,000,000 a year — ^nioi-e by 
 £80,000,000 than the whole nation received less 
 tlian fifty jears ago — yet at the same time the 
 problem of poverty is as insoluble as ever. The 
 reason given for the exivStence of trade unions is 
 that they may fight their masters. In practice they 
 are terrific engines of oppression employed by one 
 class of workman against another. So much so is 
 this that one class cannot remain unprotected whilst 
 others are privileged without suffering from the 
 extremity of competition. Fair play demands that 
 all labour should be similarly organised, and, unless 
 so organised, it is hopeless for us to try and deal 
 
RIGHTS OP JOINT PRODUCERS FURTHER CONSIDERED. 109 
 
 effectively with our ill-paid. But if unions are to 
 become genei-al, it can only be on the fundamental 
 condition of no man being unreasonably excluded 
 from any union to which he would belong. Pro- 
 bably the only condition of membership should be 
 his undertaking to neither directly nor indirectly 
 take less than the agreed scale of wages established 
 for the union. But further, if he wished to work 
 for less — wished to remain unattached — then he 
 should be protected in his absolute right to do so, 
 though, of course, those injured by his competition 
 would have an equal right to refuse to work with 
 him or for any master who gave him employ- 
 ment (6). 
 
 We have thus inquired into the artificial restric- 
 tions attempted by masters and men, independently 
 and perhaps adversely to each other. But how far 
 can they hope to benefit by acting together ? What 
 are the limits of what they can mutually accomplish 
 by organisation ? 
 
 They obviously cannot increase employment. So 
 far as they would restrict competition, they would 
 restrict working and restrict employment. But 
 we have seen that production is one thing and 
 the price paid for it another. How far could they 
 lessen production and at the same time increase their 
 profits? We have seen that whilst 10,000,000 
 
 (b) " The patrimony of a poor man lies in the strength and 
 dexterity of his hands, and to hinder him from employing 
 their strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper 
 ■without injury to his neighhour is a plain violation of this 
 most sacred property." — Wealth of Nations, Book 1., 
 Chap. X. 
 
110 LIBERTY AKD PROGRESS. 
 
 bales of cotton might sell for sixty units of price, 
 12,000,000 bales might only command forty-eight 
 units of price. Then why might they not jointly 
 attempt a manipulation of production to bring 
 about a similar result ? 
 
 We have already discussed such problem gene- 
 rally, but let us consider again the possibilities 
 of an actual case. As regards most industries, we 
 can at once realise that there are numerous forces 
 all tending to a general equilibrium of prices and 
 profits ; but here let us inquire how such an attempt 
 would operate, say, by the colliery industry. It is 
 here such experiment should succeed if anywhere, 
 as foreign competition would cause no complications. 
 And what would be the result as regards the 
 masters? In the first place, every man owning a 
 coal mine would want to share in the artificial pros- 
 perity. Collieries that had been shut up because 
 they would not pay would then show a margin of 
 profit, and would at once come into the market (c). 
 If their owners were settled with, fresh mines would 
 be opened with owners equally insistent. Thus, 
 ordinary conditions of competition would soon end 
 any special benefit the owners might hope for. 
 
 (c) A similar law to that of the margin of cultivation in 
 agriculture governs mining industries. Only those mines are 
 worked which yield a living, and the market price is fixed by 
 those which just pay. Those with superior advantages get 
 the same price but at less cost. The difference goes in rent 
 or royalty (therretically, of course). When demand increases 
 prices rise enough to make it pay to work inferior seams. 
 From this lower level royalties are once again calculable 
 (in theory). 
 
RIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS FURTHER CONSIDERED. Ill 
 
 And how about the men ? Apart from the mono- 
 poly of market which all trades enjoy for a short 
 time, owing to the inertness of labour to move from 
 one occupation to another (rf), the men could not 
 long enjoy such privilege without attracting so many 
 others to become miners that in the end the addi- 
 tion to their numbers would so increase their compe- 
 tition that their wages would speedily sink to the 
 normal rate, and possibly for a time to even less (e). 
 But suppose that by law or other favourable condi- 
 tions they could ruthlessly exclude outsiders, could 
 they then hope to permanently maintain such high 
 wages by so limiting the output ? It would seem 
 they could. If they became so exceptionally privi- 
 leged, especially if such privilege were secured to 
 them by the rest of the community, there seems no 
 
 (f/) " The labourers of each separate trade possess, so far as 
 the supply of labour is concerned, a monopoly for a limited 
 period. This will explain the benefit which is observed to 
 result to any class of labourers when their special trade 
 happens to be prosperous. Every manufacturer during such 
 times does as muoh trade as possible, id e therefore competes 
 for labour. Every operative is thus certain to be fully 
 employed at very high wages, and consequently the prosperity 
 of any particular branch of trade confers a great temporary 
 benefit upon the labourers engaged in it. We say temporary 
 benefit, because, if the good trade continued and wages 
 remained exceptionally high, an additional supply of labour 
 would at length be forthcoming." — Faiccett, p. 15o. 
 
 (e) " In all those branches of industry in which the com- 
 petition of labour and capital freely acts, there cannot be 
 secured any permanent increase in profits or wages by a 
 combination of either employers or employed. It has, how- 
 ever, been previously remarked that in some cases the 
 equalising effect of competition is neutralised through an 
 indefinite long period." — Faiccett, p. 245. 
 
112 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 reason why they should not make the rest of the 
 community pay accordingly. That they might 
 benefit, all would suffer. The general consumer 
 would suffer, and the manufacturer would suffer, 
 and the shipowner. Those doing business in com- 
 petition with the rest of the world would either 
 have to pass orders and cargoes, or have to be 
 content with less earnings. That is, in order that 
 the miners might enjoy a special privilege, other 
 workmen would either have to take less wages, or 
 suffer from slack trade. 
 
 But, of course, special privileges of any sort are 
 contrary to the spirit of individualism, and there is 
 no reason why one body of men should be favoured 
 at the expense of another more than that one class 
 should be so benefited at the expense of the rest of 
 the nation. Our first duty is to hold an even hand 
 between all workers and all classes fairly and impar- 
 tiallv. Of course other forces would tend to prevent 
 such evil in its acutest form, as our collieries do a 
 large foreign business, of which the first essential 
 is that at least thev should do it as well as their 
 neighbours (/). 
 
 Apart from such special privileges secured them 
 by the voluntary action of the rest of the com- 
 munity, their position would be untenable; and, as 
 regards other trades, the men would find it still 
 
 (,/■) If our prices were solely governed by our own com- 
 petition, it would be wise to put an export duty on coal 
 wbich, whilst adding to our national revenue, would not 
 injure individual profits. In this case the consumer would 
 bear the tax. 
 
EIGHTS OP JOINT PRODUCERS FURTHER CONSIDERED. 113 
 
 more hopeless to try and improve their position by 
 arbitrary restrictions. Of course such proceedings 
 would be obviously out of the question with our 
 cotton, shipping or engineering trades, which are in 
 direct competition with the rest of the world. So 
 these are the trades which will sufPer from any 
 special privileges which other trades may secure. 
 But, eliminating these, other home trades can only 
 artificially raise prices for a time at the cost of 
 attracting more labour or more capital to compete 
 with them, with the ultimate certainty of reduced 
 earnings in the future. For a time there is, as we 
 have observed, a certain immobility of capital and 
 labour, more so of labour even than cajiital, which 
 gives great chances to combines for a time, but it is 
 in such cases that direct legislative interference 
 should be resorted to. Why should the shipping 
 trade be penalised by a heavy artificial increase in 
 the price of steel plates, or the price of coal, or the 
 price of stores ? 
 
 But cannot masters and men generally unite to 
 raise prices for the benefit of all labour ? One large 
 section of traders we see cannot possibly do so, as 
 they have to compete with the rest of the woi-ld. 
 Thus, either any additional cost they incurred 
 would have to come out of their earnings or they 
 would have to lessen their business. In the United 
 Kingdom our foreign trade is such an important 
 item and its bulk so great that it would make it 
 nearly impossible for such arbitrary rise to take 
 place. If it did, the result would be to so lessen our 
 export trade that those thus losing their employ- 
 
114 LIBERTY AND PROGEESS. 
 
 ment would at once swell the numbers of those 
 competing in the favoured trade, and the result of 
 such extra competition would be to practically neu- 
 tralise the rise caused by artificial means. Thus, 
 the result of any such general attempt to raise prices 
 would be a general disorganisation of trade for a 
 time, which would have a strong tendency to 
 reduce employment and business generally. 
 
 But, assuming as a matter of theory that a country 
 is indifferent to its foreign trade and thinks it better 
 to raise, if possible, the general level of all earnings, 
 how would it affect society generally ? 
 
 If it raised prices universally, we have seen it 
 would have no effect on the earnings of labour 
 at all. It would not alter the relative value of 
 services, and would only result in a change of the 
 standard of reference. Xo doubt, in the meantime, 
 as between existing debtors and creditors, it would, 
 like a change in currency {g), create much injustice 
 by causing a virtual re-making of contracts ; every 
 
 {[l) " A reduction in the burden of obligations, accom- 
 plisbed by the act of a legislature in the issue of paper for 
 the purpose of enabling the debtor to pay in depreciated 
 money, has no virtue in it to promote industry or encourage 
 enterprise. It carries with it the sting of injustice and fraud. 
 It di'aws after it retributive agencies which curse the people 
 and the age. Having reference exclusively to economic 
 interests, we may confidently say that the man who advocates 
 the scaling down of debts for the sake of encouraging trade 
 and production shows himself so ignorant of history as to be 
 a wholly unfit adviser as to the present and the future." — 
 Political Economy, Walker, p. 357. 
 
 " The intrusion of the debtor class into the legislature with 
 their impudent demands for issues to scale down debts, is a 
 famniar spectacle. . . . Parties were no longer Whigs and 
 
EIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS FURTHER CONSIDERED. 115 
 
 alteration in legal i-elations does this and is a serious 
 evil. A bad commercial law is infinitely better 
 than a law that is for ever changing. By every 
 such change the inexperienced always suffer, and 
 by it some innocent is always robbed. 
 
 But assuming this general raising of prices were 
 possible, how should we find it work ? All com- 
 modities would cost moi-e ; how would the burden be 
 borne ? In the first place the worker himself would 
 have to pay more. This result he could face philo- 
 sophically, knowing his increase in earnings would at 
 least balance that account. Then employers would, 
 as consumers, have to pay moi^e. They also would 
 find more than a corresponding advantage in the 
 higher price commanded by all labour. The owner 
 of property would have to pay more, but he also 
 would have some compensating factors. All such 
 projoerty as was manufactured by work would rise 
 to a higher price. If an old building cost £10,000, 
 but could not, owing to the increased cost of labour, 
 be replaced by another at less than £11,000, there 
 would be a tendency for the old building to ap- 
 proximate in value to what the new would cost. 
 On the other hand, property the value of which is 
 not dependent on the labour expended on it would 
 not necessarily receive more for its use, and its 
 
 Tories, but creditors and debtors. . . . The same feature 
 appeared early in the history of the French Revolutionary 
 paper money. We have seen it in our own country (the 
 United States) during the present generation, an active, 
 aggressive, vehement, virulent force, engendered by the desire 
 of paying debts, wiping otf scores, raising mortgages in depre- 
 ciated money." — Ibid. p. -jo6. 
 
 i2 
 
116 LIBERTY AND PROGEESS. 
 
 owner to that extent would suffer. This would 
 probably be the case with the ownership of unim- 
 proved land. A rise in wages would not directly 
 lead to a rise in rental value, so that whilst its 
 owner would only receive the same income from it, 
 he would buy less with that income. Then there are 
 two classes of people interested in projoerty — those 
 who own it and have obtained mortgages or ad- 
 vances upon it, and those who have found the 
 money. Some such loans may be repayable, like 
 ordinary mortgages or advances by banks on pro- 
 duce, etc. ; and others may be permanent charges, 
 such as annuities, ground rents, debentures, and 
 e\'eii preference shares, if at defined and unchange- 
 able rates of interest. In all these latter cases, 
 where the income is fixed, the owners would suffer 
 by the rise in wages, as they would buv less with 
 their money without any compensating factor what- 
 ever. So there is no reason to sujjpose that mort- 
 gagees, or bankers, or other lenders of repavable 
 Icjans, could command a higher interest because thev 
 would bu}' less with what they receive. Such interest 
 is governed by the capital available for loans, and 
 not by the price of commodities in the market. 
 Then as regards the owner of the margins or equities 
 in the j^roperty. He would no doubt buy less with 
 the interest he received from such margin, but so 
 far as his propert}' could not be replaced, except at 
 increased cost, his income would probablv be 
 greater, and independently, as such owner is usually 
 the business man, as a worker he would find a com- 
 pensation in the higher value of his labour. Thus, 
 
EIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS FURTHER CONSIDERED. 117 
 
 broadly speaking, we should find those who would 
 suffer by being unable to buy as much for their money 
 would be the lender, whether annuitant, mortgagee, 
 or other owner of fixed income, and generally that 
 class of the nation who do not use their capital to 
 increase the value of their labour, but let it out on 
 hire, at what we have seen is anything but an exces- 
 sive rate, to the great and lasting benefit of the 
 worker and the nation as a whole. How far this 
 would be desirable we shall be able to decide 
 better when we have more closely inquired into 
 property generally. Here we are more concerned 
 with how far labour can improve its position by 
 artificial restrictions. Oiir general conclusion seems 
 to be that it can do very little for one class of 
 labour except at the expense of another. Thus, 
 while raising the level of all earnings might, if 
 more than a mere theoretical possibility, do some- 
 thing for the worker at the expense of the lending 
 class we have referred to, yet it would hardly 
 accomplish the result we exactly desire. It would 
 not benefit the lowest class of worker, as their wage 
 sinks to the invariable minimum of a subsistence 
 wage only. But these are exactly the one class we 
 are most concerned about. We do not want to 
 raise the average level of the value of services — 
 especially for that higher average to be made up by 
 increasing the earnings of the well-paid — and leave 
 the relative values untouched, but to do exactly the 
 o^jposite, viz., leave the level as it is, and effect a 
 change in the relative value of services. We have 
 sweated industries and underj)aid workers, the value 
 
118 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 of whose services we would see much increased, and 
 overpaid services which we should as gladly see 
 reduced. As regards the verj- poor their lot is 
 terrible, but as regards the very rich tlie inajoritr 
 of us are no worse because thev are verv rich. One 
 hundred, two hundred, three, four or five hundred 
 pounds a vear will still buv as much substantial 
 comfort as in any period of the world's history. 
 We feel poor with sums we should have felt rich 
 with a centuiy ago, but our feelings are not justified. 
 Am I any the worse because I have to walk and my 
 neighbour has his motor car '.■' Xo doubt I am 
 envious, and thereby my happiness is lessened, but 
 actually I am none the worse for his better fortune. 
 If he condescends to give me a ride I am so much 
 the lietter. His wealth so mucli in evidence uuiy 
 lessen my self-importance, feed my discontent, but 
 otherwise does me no practical harm. Xo doubt 
 my natural sentiment would be to have none richer 
 than myself, but natural sentiment is by no means 
 alwa}-s the wisest. X'o doubt it is a matter of 
 regret that there sIkjuM be such a wide divergence 
 in the amount paid for services rendered. At the 
 same time, with the tew exceptions at the two ends 
 of the scale, the va:^t proportion are fairly paid 
 according to their energy and industry, and above 
 all according to their self-denial. Where men are 
 improvident, and have had the misfortune to be born 
 of improvident parents, "tis true thev find life 
 very hard. But it is not the least merit of our 
 present system of individualism that the reward for 
 tln-ift, indu>tr\-, forL'>ioht and self-restraint i> so 
 
RIGHTS OF JOINT PRODUCERS FURTHER CONSIDERED. 119 
 
 universal, and it might almost be added, so certain. 
 There is not a boy who has once started earning 
 apprentice wages but has his chance if he will take 
 it. It may mean hard work, it may mean self- 
 sacrifice, it may' mean unflagging zeal and watch- 
 fulness, but it means no more than is within his 
 powers; and it does mean the development of a 
 fine character, the certainty of a moderate suffi- 
 ciency, and, as far as this world can give, reasonable 
 happiness. 
 
 Note. — Bimetallism. 
 
 Owing to the scarcity of gold and its consequent apprecia- 
 tion, owners of fixed incomes and the non-working class with 
 incomes generally were able to get more for their money 
 than the original contract of loan warranted. If by the 
 adoption of silver also as a standard of value more bullion 
 could be secured, there would be a corresponding depreciation 
 in its value, and its purchasing power would be less. This 
 would be to the advantage of the worker, and the corre- 
 sponding loss of the income owner. That many crises in 
 trade are caused by the variation in gold is probably true, 
 and the argument that the variation of the average of a 
 number of variants is nearly always less than that of any 
 particular variant is no doubt sound in theory, and as an 
 ordinary mathematical proposition it might be presumed that 
 the average variation of gold and silver would be less than 
 that of either of them taken separately, and to this extent 
 would benefit trade, of which the greatest desideratum is a 
 constant medium for exchange. But in this instance the 
 theoretical presumption is discounted by the fact that silver 
 
120 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 has in the last few years varied so enormously that although 
 the average variation would he considerably less than that of 
 silver itself, yet it would be considerably greater than that of 
 gold. Hence, this theoretical advantage is wanting under 
 present conditions of the bullion market. So, granting such 
 theoretical advantages were existent, still it is doubtful if 
 they would not be more than counterbalanced by the disturb- 
 ance of existing rights, the variation of contracts, and the 
 general economic upheaval that would result. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE TRUE FUNCTIONS OF TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 If, as we have concluded, when free conditions of 
 trading exist the main factor in determining the 
 masters' profits is their competition amongst them- 
 selves, as likewise the main factor in determining 
 the men's wage is their competition amongst them- 
 selves, we see at once of what inestimable advantage 
 trade unions should be to masters and men alike. 
 First and foremost, such unions will do their utmost 
 to preserve such free conditions of trading, knowing 
 that otherwise in the end the workmen they repre- 
 sent must infallibly suffer. Combinations of masters 
 may pay the same wages as other industries to escape 
 notice, but in every case their tendency is to depress 
 the rate of wages. Wherever anything in the nature 
 of a monopoly exists, trade unions ought to be very 
 insistent on their members getting their fair share 
 of the extra profit. But when conditions of trading 
 are the same for all we have observed that, as re- 
 gards the masters' competition amongst themselves, 
 the one all-essential to them as a body is that all 
 should pay the same rate of wages. This it will be 
 the first duty of a trade union to see done. So it 
 is equally to the interest of the masters that all 
 should be compelled to treat their hands with the 
 same degree of consideration. Then what better 
 
122 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 watch-dog could a just and considerate master desire 
 than a trade union in the heart of ever}- rival's 
 camp ? It will do for him surely what an army of 
 detectives would fail to accomplish. It will see 
 that rules are not evaded by sham apprenticing, 
 unfair hours, or other mischievous device, and in 
 every way will protect his interest as he could never 
 do himself. 
 
 Above all, it will ensure that the wages paid to 
 the men shall never be used as a counter in the 
 masters' game of fighting one another. "Whatever 
 the rate, it will at least make certain that it shall be 
 uniform and generallv the same. Xext, the great 
 value of a trade union would be that of a consultative 
 bodv. In times of difficulty they would be the first 
 friends for masters to resort to. With complete 
 confidence between them, as with both understanding 
 their true interests there would be, they would meet 
 and discuss in a friendly way their mutual concerns, 
 and then the general good would be promoted and 
 many a disaster averted. Let us take one important 
 example- — over-production with its consequent falling 
 markets. In such a case the evil is always aggra- 
 vated by disputes, but by joint action the loss might 
 be reduced to a minimum. Instead of strikes settling 
 the matter by stopping production until the over- 
 plus was got rid of, short time or even holidavs 
 might be arranged to effect the same end with 
 advantage to both. But no doubt strikes to-dav are 
 far more frequent than the}' otherwise would be 
 because thev are far from disadvantageous to both 
 parties. Tliev lessen production, harden markets. 
 
THE TRUE FUNCTIONS OF TRADE UNIONS. 123 
 
 get rid of old stocks, frighten away fresh capital, 
 and enable masters and men to obtain higher prices 
 very much to their mutual satisfaction (a). 
 
 So completely identified would masters and men 
 find their interests tliat the danger might even be 
 that local branches would be more loyal to the 
 respective masters than to the industry as a whole. 
 When slack times have to be faced there would be 
 the very natural desire of each locality that what 
 work was done should be done by themselves and 
 not by rival firms, and Ave well might find that 
 instead of master and delegate meeting and looking 
 askance at each other, the question would be how 
 could they best forward their mutual interests, 
 possibly to the disadvantage of other firms. This 
 might be the natural and probable result, but it 
 would be the very result which every other master 
 and local union would see was not brought about. 
 
 Equality of pay and conditions is the one para- 
 mount necessity for masters and men alike. 
 
 Again, in carrying on our foreign trade this 
 mutual confidence between masters and the unions 
 would be found to be of the greatest advantage. 
 What above all a worker does not want to do is to 
 kill demand, or refuse an order that it would pay 
 him to take. To-day he has to do so for fear that 
 
 (a) " Workmfn are generally such unskilled tacticians that 
 thev usually strike, not to secure an advance in wages when 
 trade is prosperous, but tn prevent a reduction when trade is 
 depressed. In times of de|)ression a temporary suspension of 
 business may verj'' possibly be rather an advantage than a loss 
 to employers." — Faiccett, p. 248. 
 
I'i4 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 it might establish a precedent for a lower average 
 Tvage throughout the countrv. And yet it might 
 well pay to take an order that would not permit of 
 the usual prices being given. 
 
 In isolated cases it might far better pay a master 
 to keep his works going, even if he secured only a 
 fraction of his profits, rather than to close them for 
 a time; and the men. to get only a portion of their 
 wages rather than be out of work. 
 
 Thus, in the case of a foreign order being oifered, 
 it might well be worth the while of both to abate 
 some portion of their respective profit or wages 
 rather than pass the order. We can easily imagine 
 such a case. A glass bottle manufacturer gets the 
 offer of a large order from abroad, but at a very 
 low price. He and the men's union confer together. 
 The price will not stand their usual wages, but 
 trade is slack. The trade union leaders ascertain 
 that if thev lose the order no other firm in the 
 country will get it. Accordinglv they agree to a 
 reduction in wages, and the master takes half his 
 usual profits. Bv so doing, thev secure the order, 
 are employed instead of idle, and above all retain 
 the market. 
 
 A further condition of our preserving our foreign 
 trade is that we should maintain our efficiency at 
 the highest possible level. It is essential all should 
 do their utmost, masters and men alike, ^^liilst 
 masters are driven by the whip of necessity', the 
 unions acting for the men collectively will ensure 
 that individuals do not shirk their work. In tliis 
 most difficult of subjects it is hard to put one's 
 
THE TRUE FUNCTIONS OF TEADE UNIONS. 125 
 
 finger on anything and say it is a positive good. 
 But one thing is certainly a positive evil, and that 
 is slackness and inefficiency when at work, or for 
 that matter when at play. " Whatsoever thy hand 
 findeth to do, do it with thy might," is as grand a 
 command for communities as individuals. If work 
 at less pressure is sometimes desirable, let it take 
 the form of alternative occupations and shorter 
 hours, but above all let us not ruin the individual 
 by teaching him habits of laziness and inattention. 
 Hard at it at work and hard at it at play, hard at it 
 at whatever we do, should be the watchword of the 
 nation. Let us maintain our efficiency as a race, and 
 we shall establish its permanence and prosperity on 
 a foundation never to be shaken. Individual 
 decadence has invariably preceded national catas- 
 trophe. If, then, unions contribute their part to 
 maintaining this efficiency they will do not a little 
 to ensure the permanence and glory of the race. 
 Fortunately to-daj? we have some of the most 
 magnificent tradesmen the world has ever known. 
 Their value to the nation is incalculable. 
 
 But the necessity is not limited to the workman. 
 Even more essential to successful foreign trade are 
 energetic and able masters. It is difficult to say 
 what is the real value of a thoroughly capable 
 master. It must be very high, as is proved by 
 what some companies will pay their managers. 
 They do not pay them thousands and thousands a 
 year out of benevolence, but because in their 
 opinion — and their opinion is often that of the 
 shrewdest directors, and of those who have to pay 
 
126 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 — their services are worth the money. So where 
 one partner takes in another partner, he gives that 
 other as little as he can, but that little may often 
 run into four figures. 
 
 Their gifts may be varied, but in the long run 
 all are reduced to the stern reality of market value. 
 One may be able to influence capital or customers, 
 another may be able to make business, and have 
 the rare faculty of bringing men together, of in- 
 stinctively realising what is feasible and what is not. 
 So there may be the plain, simple, honourable man 
 whom everyone trusts, and who proves what a 
 valuable asset is reputation and honesty. Then, 
 above all, there is the good organiser. He is 
 invaluable, and to none more than to the men 
 themselves. Again and again we see businesses 
 apparentlv the same, vet where one master makes 
 his fortune and the other gravitates to the Bank- 
 ruptcy Court. And as probably the one, being 
 prosperous, will treat his men well and pav them 
 liberally, so the other will be continuously trying to 
 reduce expenses, and usually by cutting down 
 wages. And, apart from foreign trade, nothing is 
 really more to the interest of a man than to work 
 under a smart and clever master. Evervthing goes 
 smoothly ; there is no hurry. All is thought out ; 
 things do not need to be undone, or done twice. 
 The utmost result is got with the minimum of 
 exertion ; and to see the ease and order with which 
 the work is done, none would realise that perhaps a 
 record output was being accomplished. There is no 
 driving and no disturbance over things gone wrong, 
 
THE TRUE FTJNCTIONS OF TRADE UNIONS. 127 
 
 for with him things do not go wrong. So, in ordinary 
 times, all is pleasantness, and each is happy to meet 
 the other, and each works his best for the good 
 work done by all. But it is in times of stress and 
 storm that the workman has most reason to rejoice 
 that he has a good helmsman at the wheel. It is 
 when times are bad and demand slack, or when a 
 crisis comes, that he can congratulate himself that 
 it is not his works that are closed, but another's, 
 and that whilst he retains his job it is his fellow- 
 workman who is relegated to the ranks of the un- 
 employed. In good times he may quarrel with 
 what his master makes ; but when difficulties abound, 
 when trade is changing its channels, when danger 
 threatens, he will be glad that after all he has got 
 such a first-rate administrator at the head of 
 affairs (i^). 
 
 At present it might seem, though not so exten- 
 sively as is imagined, that trade unions exist for 
 the very purpose of pi-omoting ends diametrically 
 opposed to those we have just discussed. But we 
 must not condemn them too sweepingly. To-day 
 there is the prevailing view that labour is a com- 
 modity to be bought and sold in the market like 
 any other commodity, and that the master does best 
 who buys the cheapest. If this is the true view of 
 
 (h) " There is many a thriving town in New England whose 
 only reason for growth, through fifty years, from small 
 heginnings has heen found in the accident of the birth there, 
 and the long life of a single energetic, able, careful man of 
 business. There is many a ' deserted village ' whose decay 
 dates from the sickness or death of one man out of many 
 hundreds who thronged its streets." — Pol. Ec. ( Walker), p. 74. 
 
128 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 the relations between employers and employed the 
 unions logicallv say, " If labour is a commodity of 
 which the value is the market value, then we must 
 harden that market in the way every other market 
 is hardened, that is by limiting the supply." And 
 this they do by short hours, inefficient work, and 
 curtailed energy, all in their way very effective for 
 the purpose to be attained, but disastrous in the end 
 to their masters, the nation, and themselves. But 
 let it be understood that masters do not profit by 
 cheapening labour, but are only concerned in all 
 paying the same, and the cause for much of this 
 apparent hostility would disappear, and with every 
 confidence we might look forward to the time when 
 trade unions would take the position of advisers 
 and friends instead of that of hard bargainers, only 
 concerned to get the utmost for themselves and those 
 thev represent. And it is on such lines we might 
 hope to see every trade and industry organised. 
 Then with uniform pay and conditions inflexibly 
 established we might hope to find in the consequent 
 goodwill between emploj-ers and emploved a first 
 but very practical step towards ameliorating the 
 conditions of some of our underpaid. Whether lesis- 
 lature should not establish unions on these lines 
 where the individuals are too helpless to do any- 
 thing for themselves is a matter we must discuss 
 later on. At present we only repeat that for some 
 trades to be organised and others not is simply 
 courting disaster itself by those so unfortunately 
 situated. 
 
 So much for the true functions of trade unions 
 
THE TRUE FUNCTIONS OF TRADE UNIONS. 129 
 
 as regards their relations between employers and 
 employed. But equally important and as wide in 
 range are their functions as regards the relations 
 between the employed themselves. Every trade 
 has to face the same ever present difficulty, the 
 pressure of numbers. In every dispute with their 
 masters the great force against them has been the 
 availability of other labour. Their hostility to such 
 labour has usually been most in evidence in such 
 disputes, but in times of peace or tiuies of stress it 
 has never been relaxed one instant. As w'e have 
 more than once observed, we cannot for one instant 
 admit the right of any man or any body of men 
 to prevent another man from selling his labour in 
 any market he can. Therefore we think the law is 
 right which regards as illegal combinations those that 
 unjustly prevent a man from working exactly as lie 
 pleases. We have already stated how far we think 
 trade unions may go in this matter. We think 
 that anyone should be entitled to enter them 
 who will subscribe their conditions, and we think 
 those conditions governing their relations with the 
 masters should be much as on the lines indicated in 
 our last section. But with harmionious relations 
 established between them and the masters, the 
 necessity for stringent provisions would be much 
 lessened. Fii-st, the old hands who had lost their 
 job through diminished trade could rely on the 
 first refusal of work when times became brisker. 
 So by such friendly relations being established the 
 great cause for the importation of foreign hands 
 would be ended, as there should be no occasion for 
 
 U. K 
 
180 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 masters wantino: to fight the men. Then every 
 calling demands more or less proficiency, and this 
 to a large extent would prevent outsiders being 
 readily taken on in preference to those brought up 
 in the trade (e). Then, further, trade unions could 
 strengthen their position by encouraging the organi- 
 sation of other trades, so that those in want of work 
 might natui'ally gravitate to their own callings. But, 
 finally, the greatest good trade unions could do 
 would be to enforce the absolute necessity of 
 providence and self-control. The strength of the 
 middle class to-day is that they do not marry until 
 they are in a position to keep their family respect- 
 ably. If a man will marry when a boy, and have 
 children before he has really finished his own 
 mental and bodily development, then he will and 
 always must be in a state of dependence more or 
 less abject for the rest of his life, all doctrinaire 
 teaching to the contrary notwithstanding. So also 
 he will be a menace to his more prudent fellows, bv 
 always being compelled to seek and take a job at 
 the lowest possible figure. His power to do harm 
 in this direction may be lessened if a uniform rate 
 of wage is made general in a trade, but if his fault 
 is that of his class, the competition will be such that 
 the average wage will sink to the lowest possible 
 level. No doubt some trade unions are terribly 
 cruel in the ruthless way they exclude outsiders 
 from their preserves. But, on the other hand, there 
 
 ((-•) How many a master will pay overtime rather than 
 take on strangers ! 
 
THE TRUE FUNCTIONS OF TRADE UNIONS. 131 
 
 is quite the other side of the question. Why should 
 the provident suffer for the improvident ? And no 
 doubt in many of our better trades we find the 
 individual men are becoming every whit as prudent 
 and self-denying as the other classes in the country 
 who owe so much to their similar thought for the 
 future.. The man who only thinks for the day must 
 not be surprised if he can earn nothing more than 
 the food for the day, and if that food is not of the 
 worst description, it is because he has to thank his 
 fellows for their greater prudence and self-denial. 
 Apart from individual effort the most perfect organi- 
 sations are helpless, with it they may prove an 
 unbounded success. 
 
 k2 
 
132 LIBERTY AND PEOORESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PROPERTY : ITS NATURE AND INCIDENTS. 
 
 Our foregoing conclusions to some extent fore- 
 shadowed that there was little real antagonism of 
 interest between masters and men, but that there 
 might be more between those who lived on the 
 proceeds of their current labour and those who took 
 toll of their increase without giving any current 
 labour of their own in return. In other words, 
 lived, as it is popularly expressed, on their income, 
 such income being independent of anything they 
 might do for it. 
 
 Their right to such income we will now inquire 
 into. Here we may premise that, so far as the 
 worker is concerned, the source of such income is 
 imniaterial. What alone is material to him is that, 
 without giving any products of their own current 
 labour, they are in a position to call for those of 
 other people. Whether they do so by virtue of 
 custom, contract or I'is major, makes little difference 
 to him. The convict working in the mines, the 
 farmer compelled by custom to keep a highway in 
 order, or the neighbour bound by contract to keep 
 another's fishpond clean, may all with equal reason 
 ask: "Why must I give something for nothing?" 
 Each, no doubt, can and does receive a satisfactory 
 reply, but none the less their query is a justifiable 
 
PEOPERTY : ITS NATURE AND INCIDENTS. 183 
 
 one. And so with property. Through the medium 
 of property, without so much as stirring a finger 
 themselves, its owners are enabled to claim from 
 the actual worker a more or less considerable portion 
 of the proceeds of his toil, and with reason once 
 again the worker is entitled to ask : " Why ? What 
 is the justification for their being so entitled ? " We 
 are agreed that individualism is based on the 
 principle of services rendered, not on services not 
 rendered. That is so ; but as-suniing a man is no 
 more than justly paid for services rendered, we are 
 agreed that what he receives is his own to do what 
 he pleases with In his turn he may have to pay 
 the community rates and taxes for services rendered 
 him in the way of security and conveniences, but 
 this does not affect his right to receive the equivalent 
 of what he gives and to dispose of it as he thinks 
 desirable. If he chooses to save it, who shall say 
 him nay ? Who will wish to ? The man who is 
 prudent and saves is one of the most precious assets 
 a country can possess (a). He produces more than 
 he consumes, and not only adds to the wealth of 
 the country, but increases its potentialities for pro- 
 ducing more. Instead of his savings being at once 
 expended on his own wants, they are put into a form 
 which will assist in creating still more wealth (b). 
 
 (a) " As civilisation advances the desire to accumulate 
 wealth increases and foresight for the future becomes more 
 general. The more men's intellectual and moral faculties 
 are developed, the more careful will they be to make a 
 reasonable provision for the future." — Faurett, p. 82. 
 
 {b) " Capital is the result of saving." — Faiccctt, p. 11. 
 
 " There is no law against my flying to the moon. Yet I 
 
134 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 Some such savings, especially in years gone by, 
 have been extensively invested in improving the 
 land, in changing it from an unproductive into a 
 highly cultivated condition. Land, once of little or 
 no value, is now, thanks to the savings of our fore- 
 fathers, a source of considerable wealth. But to-day 
 there is wider scope for the investment of savings, 
 liluch is put into machinery to make labour ten-fold 
 more productive; much into shipping to facilitate 
 the exchange of products, to again largely increase 
 the return for labour. So a large part of the savings 
 of one portion of the nation has been invested in 
 adding largely to the convenience of the whole, 
 whilst an equally great amount has been used in 
 rebuilding our cities and improving the condition of 
 our people. 
 
 In fact, on every hand we see the evidence of 
 the savings of the past used for the advancement 
 of the present. For in what does the wealth of 
 the country really consist ? Of course, its greatest 
 wealth is its army of strong, virile, well-educated 
 workers and thinkers, with next in importance the 
 country itself, with its favoured position, its excel- 
 lent soil, its splendid harbours and its other natural 
 advantages. But apart from these, in what is it to 
 be found ? On every hand we see evidences of 
 our wealth. Our roads, our railways, our water- 
 ways and tramways, our bridges and our canals are 
 all invaluable assets ; our telegraphs and telephones, 
 
 cannot get there. Why ? Because I have no wings. What 
 wings are to flying, capital is to trade." — Beiitham, vol. ii. 
 p. 557. 
 
PROPKETY : ITS NATURE AND INCIDENTS. 135 
 
 our wharves, our docks, our mighty navies and ship- 
 ping, our vast factories and warehouses, our machine 
 shops and equipments, our mines and our quarries 
 are all vast items of our wealth. Then assets as 
 vast we find in our drainage and our sewerage, our 
 gas and our electric lighting systems, in our build- 
 ings and in our houses, in our palaces and mansions, 
 and in our treasures of art, our treasures of antiquity, 
 in our libraries and museums, and in the vast sums 
 owed us by the other nations of the world. This is 
 the wealth with which our ancestors have endowed 
 us (c). How it is appropriated amongst individuals 
 does not affect its reality. Were every deed, every 
 writing, every ledger item of debit and credit 
 erased, it would be none the less in existence — the 
 gift to us from the past. The indebtedness handed 
 down is but a matter of book-keeping ; the assets 
 real, tangible and concrete. Were our national 
 debt, our municipal loans wiped out, the nation 
 would be neither richer nor poorer. There would 
 be a transfer of rights, but our assets would still 
 be there. Whether they had a currency value or 
 no would be immaterial ; their intrinsic value to 
 the community would be unchanged. 
 
 And what is the feature common to all these 
 assets of wealth ? All are the products of labour, 
 not consumed at the time, but saved. By these 
 
 (c) Economists sometimes limit wealth to these latter forms 
 only. " Wealth may be defined to consist of every com- 
 modity which has an exchange value " [Faiiceit, p. 6) ; but 
 as the popular meaning is equally correct, it seems better to 
 avoid technicalities as far as possible. 
 
136 LIBERTY AND PKOGRESS. 
 
 savings in the past we, of the present, benefit. If 
 we had taken our country as the Saxon or ancient 
 Briton had left it, we should have found it little 
 better than a wilderness of forests, marshes and 
 swamps. That it is otherwise is due to the savings 
 and energy of our predecessors, who — instead of 
 limiting their energies and consuming the whole 
 of the products of their own labou.r and putting 
 it into forms the}' could themselves enjoy — devoted 
 much to permanently improving the country and 
 creating the wealth we have described, and we 
 fortunate inheritors have entered into the fruit 
 of their labour. 
 
 We see the results as a whole, we comment on 
 them as a whole ; and yet ever to be remembered 
 is that these savings have been the many mickles 
 that make a muckle, the savings of individuals who 
 have been mainly animated by the desire to provide 
 for their own wants and to leave their children a 
 little better ofE than themselves [d]. Thus has 
 wealth been created, and not the least reason that 
 its ownership should be approved is that individuals, 
 in thus saving for themselves and their families, 
 have enormously benefited the community as well. 
 Where would our country have been to-day if no 
 rights in property had been recognised? Where 
 
 {d) " At every step of its progress, capital follows one law. 
 It arises solely out of saving. It stands always for self- 
 denial and abstinence. At the first beginning savings are 
 made slowly and painfully. . . . Subsequent increments of 
 capital are gained at a constantly diminishing sacrifice, and 
 receive a constantly diminishing remuneration." — Walker's 
 Political Economy, p. h6. 
 
PROPERTY : ITS NATURE AND INCIDENTS. 137 
 
 would have been the industry, the accumulations, 
 the progress of the past ? What greater misfortune 
 could have overwhelmed the race than to have 
 denied to them, such rights in the products of their 
 toil and self-denial ? (e) For what reason shall they 
 be denied some voice in the disposition of their 
 property or some payment for its use ? And, above 
 all, why cannot current labour afford to give them 
 a substantial portion of the products of its work 
 when its share that remains will far exceed the 
 whole of what it could have produced by its own 
 unaided efforts? And this is what labour does secure 
 to-day. After paying property all its claims, it 
 has still a considerable balance in hand above what 
 it would have earned without its help(/). Look 
 
 (f) " If industry creates, it is the law which preserves ; 
 if at the first moment we owe all to labour, at the second 
 moment and every other we are indebted for everj'thing to 
 law." — Bent/miii's Theory of Legislation, p. 110. 
 
 (./■) " The wealth so used is by some economists termed 
 ' capital,' which is somewhat technically defined as ' all that 
 wealth, in whatever shape or form it may exist, which is set 
 aside to assist future production.' " — Fmrcett, p. 18. 
 
 This definition, limiting capital to that wealth set aside, is 
 in danger of being somewhat misleading. Wealth we have 
 seen defined by the same economists as consisting of every 
 commodity which has an exchange value. Thus, practically, 
 there is very little wealth that cannot be used as capital if 
 necessity demands. Even a valuable picture can be made 
 the medium for raising money to be used as capital for the 
 very reason it has an exchange value. Thus, wherever there 
 is wealth — as defined — there can rapidly be found capital. 
 
 Again, both words, capital and wealth, are as safely used 
 with their popular signification as more precisely defined. 
 
 In case of a disastrous war, if we had to pay a large 
 indemnity, it would be found that wealth now not used for 
 
138 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 at the substantial comfort the artizan of to-day can 
 command. He lives better, works less, and enjoys 
 luxuries unknown to the middle class of two 
 hundred years ago. So does the worker of the middle 
 classes. He enjoys a comfort and refinement once 
 the exclusive possession of the highest in the land. 
 And are they the worse that a certain portion of 
 their labour goes in paying for the use of savings, 
 the use of which benefits them so much ? We are 
 not here inquiring as to how far we should have 
 approved of the pavment for some of the services 
 out of which the savings were made. To us some 
 of the services seem to have been very trifling and 
 the payments very great. But of this Ave cannot 
 judge. Probably posterity will take the same view 
 of our transactions, but this we cannot help. The 
 most we can do is to act according to our light, even 
 if our light be no more than that of a glimmering 
 taper. And so with the past, we have to equally 
 dismiss it, knowing that we sliould have done no 
 better ourselves, and also knowing that so far as it is 
 past we can neither remedy nor undo its mistakes. 
 For us, let us rather rejoice that we have had such 
 a magnificent heritage handed down to us. It is 
 far more important how we use it now than how 
 far we can demonstrate that it might have been 
 improved. And here let us test what these savings 
 have actually done for us as a people. V\e will 
 repeat some of the figures we have already given 
 
 producing other wealth, would be turned into capital, and so 
 possibly we might escape the full calamity of not having 
 money to conduct our business. 
 

 Hand. 
 
 Horse. 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1840 • 
 
 - 2,220 . 
 
 - 5,100 
 
 - 2,400 
 
 - 9,720 
 
 1870 
 
 2,700 ■ 
 
 • 5,600 
 
 - 15,750 
 
 - 24,050 
 
 1895 • 
 
 ■ 3,2()0 
 
 H,330 
 
 - 51,880 
 
 61,410 
 
 PROPERTY : ITS NATURE AND INCIDENTS. 139 
 
 in showing the enormous development of our 
 resources. These will as conclusively prove how 
 the labour of the present benefits by the industry 
 and savings of the past. The following table 
 represents the energy developed in the United 
 Kingdom at the periods stated. It is given by 
 Mr. Mulhall in his review of the progress made 
 during our late Queen's reign, and he takes as his 
 unit one million of foot tons daily. 
 
 Dailj' cost 
 per unit. 
 
 ■ 28-7r/. 
 
 - lb-id. 
 
 - 8-9d. 
 
 The most cursory examination of these figures 
 shows how enormously labour has benefited in 
 efficiency by the use of savings. The cost per unit 
 has decreased from 2S'7d. to 8'9iJ. in less than sixty 
 years. That is, there is a reduction due to the use 
 of savings of nearly 20d. per unit ; that is, if pro- 
 perty took the whole of this 20d. there would still 
 be left for labour as much as unassisted labour 
 earned in 1840. But property takes nothing like 
 20d. Mr. Chiozza Money estimated the total 
 national income for the year 1904 at somewhere 
 near £1,710,000,000. If property took Jfths of this 
 its share would be something over £1,260,000,000, 
 leaving as a balance for the same labour unassisted 
 by it £450,000,000. That is, labour without such 
 savings as are represented by property would only 
 earn this lesser amount. 
 
140 LIBEKTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 Still following Mr. Money's calculations, we find 
 for the same period the following gross amount of 
 income tax was brought under review by the Com- 
 missioners of Income Tax. As taxes on property 
 are collected at the source, the figures will probably 
 be correct, whether an abatement was subsequently 
 obtained or not. So here we may remark that as 
 we are using such figures for comparative purposes 
 only we think it will be more satisfactory to use 
 those of Mr. Money, though somewhat out of date, 
 than such as we might arrive at ourselves. 
 
 Sched. £ 
 
 A. Profits from the ownership of 
 
 lands, houses, mines, &c. 251,700,000 
 
 B. Profits from occupation of lands 17,500,000 
 
 C. Profits from British, Indian, Colo- 
 
 nial and Foreign Grovernment 
 
 Securities 44,900,000 
 
 D. Profits from business, professions, 
 
 employments, &c. (including 
 
 certain profits made abroad) 500,500,000 
 
 E. Salaries of Government, corpora- 
 
 tion, and public company officials 86,000,000 
 
 £900,600,000 
 
 On this total Mr. Money remarks : " But this 
 figure, large as it is, is certainly not large enough. 
 There is unquestionably a very considerable amount 
 of evasion under Schedule D of the income tax. 
 The landlords of Schedule A cannot escape assess- 
 ment, because the tax is paid by occupiers and 
 deducted from rent, although there may be a certain 
 
PROPERTY : ITS NATURE AND INCIDENTS. 141 
 
 amount of under-assessment. Under Schedules B, 
 C and E, evasion is, for the most part, difficult or 
 impossible. . . . Schedule D depends on the con- 
 science of the taxpayer, who often, it is to be feared, 
 returns hundreds instead of thousands, and who is 
 certain to decide any question that he can persuade 
 himself to think doubtful in his own favour." (g) 
 
 We may look at these figures in three different 
 waj's. First, we may assume that the whole of 
 these sums are earned or received by people who 
 directly or indirectly are indebted to capital. We 
 have seen that capital has two distinct functions. 
 One is for it to earn interest by being let out on 
 hire ; the other to enable its owner to sell his labour 
 to much greater advantage than otherwise he could 
 have done. 
 
 But even then, as between those who have capital 
 and those who have not, we see that the latter by 
 no means suffer from the former. Apart from 
 capital, the earnings of all workers, including 
 those who now have the capital, would be as little 
 as £450,000,000, whereas the non-capital-owning 
 workers receive well over £800,000,000 under pre- 
 sent conditions. Even after giving the favoured 
 worker all the benefits we have enumerated in our 
 past chapters, still the imfavoured worker is twice 
 as well off as he would have been, apart from pro- 
 perty or under conditions ruling a hundred years 
 ago. 
 
 But here we are more concerned with what should 
 
 {g) Riches and Poverty, p. 12. 
 
142 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 be directly attributed to property. Again, looking 
 at our figures, we see that the whole of the amounts 
 under Schedules A and C, as well as part of that 
 under Schedule D, should be so allocated. We can 
 arrive at how much of the amount under Schedule D 
 should be given to labour and how much to interest 
 on property by assuming that in every case each of 
 those assessed had to hire his capital instead of 
 owning it himself. If, then, we assume that one- 
 third of what they received as income they had to 
 pay over for interest on such borrowed capital {h), 
 it would seem that it should be more than sufficient. 
 By adding these items together we arrive at a closer 
 approximation of what property, as popularly 
 understood, may be taken to receive. They amount 
 to about £451,000,000. Thus, out of the total in- 
 come of £1,710,000,000 property receives this sum 
 instead of the £1,260,000,000, the theoretical amount 
 its share might be estimated at. On the other hand, 
 the workers receive the twelve hundred odd millions 
 instead of the foiu- hundred and fifty millions they 
 could have got, apart from property. But even 
 these figures are too favourable to home labour. 
 In arriving at them we really ought to disregard 
 the item under Schedule C, as being from invest- 
 ments made abroad, and base our calculation on a 
 
 {h) Mr. Money roughly estimates the capital so employed 
 at somewhere under £3,5u0,0u0,000. We remember that 
 lenders want paying, not only for interest of money, but also 
 for their risk run. The piu-e interest or actual hire paid for 
 the use of money in the United Kingdom is three per cent., 
 and such amount would be £105,000,000, or not a fourth, 
 and hardly a fifth, of the scheduled earnings. 
 
PROPERTY : ITS NATURE AND INCIDENTS. 143 
 
 total income of £1,654,000,000, instead of the larger 
 amount. Further, to allow a third under Schedule D 
 is too much, and a fourth or a fifth would be more 
 correct. Taking one-fourth, these amended figures 
 showthat out of a total income of such £1,654,000,000 
 the total receipts of property are only about 
 £364,000.000, and this notwithstanding it has 
 raised the earning power of the community from 
 less than five hundred to over eighteen hundred 
 million pounds per year. These figures show that 
 the forces regulating the profits of capital let out for 
 hire are by no means too favourable to its owners. 
 In fact they prove conclusively what we have already 
 pointed out, that in this form capital is nothing but 
 an unmixed good to the worker. We are not dealing 
 with the functions of capital in its other respect, of 
 enabling its owner to sell his labour at such high 
 rates, nor do we think it needs a radical change of 
 social conditions to effectively deal with it. A 
 simple graduation of existing taxes is all that is 
 denianded. Nor is it necessary that this should be 
 accompanied by any violent denunciation of social 
 conditions, in the light of the facts we have just 
 given distinguishing between the earnings of those 
 with and those without capital. Again, looking at 
 the same question as between those with incomes 
 above £-3 a week and those below such amount, we 
 find, as Mr. Money points out, that in 1867 the 
 whole income of the country was £814,000,000. In 
 1904, also taking his estimate, the workers earning 
 £3 a week and less received as their share of the 
 
144 LIBERTY AND PEOGEESS. 
 
 national earnings no less than £880,000,000. That 
 is, thanks to the increased efficiency of labour, due 
 to property, such labour in 1 903 received more than 
 the whole nation of workers and property owners 
 combined did forty years before. After making all 
 allowances for the increase of population, these 
 figures are simply stupendous, and as satisfactory as 
 stupendous. Equally satisfactory are the figures 
 Mr. Mulhall gives of comparative efficiency. Con- 
 clusively, the}' show how much of our prosperity as 
 a nation is due to our superiority as producers, 
 again due to the magnificent way our shops are 
 equipped, again due to our savings as a nation, 
 again due to the energy and self-denial of those who 
 preferred to accumulate, rather than dissipate, their 
 earnings in the past. The daily cost in pence per 
 million of foot tons of energy is — Scotland, 6'9 ; 
 England, 87 ; Ireland (alas I), 16- 1, with an average 
 for the United Kingdom of 8'9 ; France, 1"2'8 ; 
 Germany, O'U ; Austria, 14-4 ; and Italy, 19. {i) 
 
 The most cursory glance at these figures gives an 
 insight into the true road to prosperity as simple as 
 convincing. It is by welcoming and making safe 
 the capital which so enormously adds to the 
 efficiency of labour, and which yet, as we have seen, 
 is content to leave to labour such a large proportion 
 of the products produced. But we need not carrv 
 the subject further. With these figures it is not 
 
 (/) We must here repeat ttiat all such tables bristle mth 
 difficulties. But so far as they are comparative, and arrived 
 at in the same way in all eases, our inferences will be fairly 
 correct. 
 
PROPERTY : ITS NATURE AND INCIDENTS. 145- 
 
 necessary to demonstrate the riglits of property to 
 some adequate share of products, to tlie increase of 
 which it has so largely contributed. It is not a case 
 of property depriving labour of anything, but of 
 property making labour far more productive, and 
 then taking for its portion a sliare of the surplus [k). 
 
 (A) " But perhaps the laws of property are good for those- 
 who have property, and oppressive to those who have none. 
 The laws in creating property have created riches only in 
 relation to poverty. Poverty is not the work of the laws ; it 
 is the primitive condition of the human race. The poor 
 man in civilised society obtains nothing except by painful 
 labour; but in the natiiral state can he obtain anything 
 except by the sweat of his brow ? . . . The laws, in creating 
 riches, are the benefactors of those who remain in the poverty 
 
 of nature Tyrannical and sanguinary laws have been 
 
 founded upon the right of property, but the right itself' 
 presents only ideas of pleasure, abundance and security. It 
 is that right which has vanquished the natural aversion to 
 labour, which has given to man the empire of the earth, 
 which has brought to an end the migratory life of nations, 
 whii^h has produced the love of country and a regard for 
 posterity. Men universally desire to enjoy speedily — to 
 enjoy without labour. It is that desire which is terrible; 
 since it arms all who have not against all who have. The 
 law which restrains th.'it desire is the noblest triumph of 
 humanity over itself." — Benflidm, Theory of Legislation, 
 p. 114. 
 
 In fine passages he shows how, from want of security under 
 the Turkish rule, some of the richest parts of the world have 
 sunk into beggary, and then contrasts what security has done 
 for the American colony when seen side by side with savage- 
 nature. 
 
 D. 
 
146 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PROPERTY FURTHER CONSIDERED ITS LIMITATIONS. 
 
 The foundation of the rights of property is, as we 
 are agreed, that it makes labour more productive, 
 and asks for its reward only a share of the surplus. 
 If the institution of property is an evil, we can only 
 rejoice that so much good should be the outcome of 
 what is an evil. And so if individualism be an evil 
 system, we can only rejoice that it is instrumental 
 in developing so many sterling qualities of industry, 
 foresight, self-denial and economy. 
 
 It may accentuate the accidents of birth and 
 fortune, but it is doubtful if these could be elimi- 
 nated by the most perfect theoretical system human 
 genius could devise. We have before observed, 
 there is no grander gift of God to any man than 
 good parents, and by it every other advantage 
 fades into insignificance. So, in criticising our 
 present conditions, the man who has bad ones may 
 well ask not only why he should be so cursed, but 
 why the fortunate children of good ones should 
 enjoy both the inestimable advantage of their love 
 and guidance when aKve, and the added advantage 
 of their property when dead. Sureh' such a one 
 may despairingly complain, '' Is every good denied 
 me"? " 
 
 Again, individualistic society laconically replies : 
 
PROPERTY FURTHER CONSIDERED — ITS LIMITATIONS. 147 
 
 " As we receive so will we measure again, and we 
 liave received nothing from your drunken, good- 
 for-nothing, self-indulgent parents. Had all parents 
 been like your parents, then all children had been 
 like their children. That your lot is not worse is 
 due to there having been good parents. The ones 
 who have wronged you have not been the good 
 parents, but your own bad ones. If you are not 
 pleased with the result, see that you do better for 
 your own progeny. Bad as your luck may have 
 been, you will have your chances if you only take 
 them." 
 
 " But, thanks to my parents, I am wicked, 
 vicious and feeble. How can I hope to redeem either 
 myself or my children ? " 
 
 " Then have no children to perpetuate the curse, 
 and so solve one problem of existence. You do not 
 approve our conclusion ? Well, you are a free 
 agent, draw your own ; but we are an individualistic 
 society, and if neither you nor your parents have 
 done us service, what just demand can you possibly 
 make ? " 
 
 Well, let us pursue this rather brutal position to 
 its logical conclusion, of course remembering that 
 we are not here taking into account the altruistic 
 forces of society, which happily are powerful, to 
 mitigate the harshness of an evil fortune. 
 
 What are our premises ? A man has rendered 
 services — he has earned money. And what is our 
 conclusion ? It is his. His to use, consume, to 
 give, bequeath, or otherwise dispose of. 
 
 Is any modification necessary ? 
 
 l2 
 
148 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 As to his rights in it when alive, is there any 
 reason for any limitation ? He has earned it fairly, 
 and it belongs to him. If he has not earned it 
 fairly, the remedy is not to limit his rights, but to 
 prevent his acquiring any rights whatever. 
 
 But how about his rights in its disposal after his 
 death ? That is another matter. After his death 
 it is his no longer. Were it, many a one would 
 take it with him. A life interest is the utmost 
 interest any man can possess. How, then, does 
 this affect his rights to dispose of it after his death ? 
 When he is alive he does as he pleases with it. 
 But when dead ? Then, if his wishes are to be 
 respected, it can only be by the community giving 
 effect to them. That one man should take estates 
 on the death of their once owner, to the exclusion 
 of everyone else, is pureh' conventional. The dead 
 man may wish it, but why should the community 
 respect his wishes ? The dead render no services ; 
 they are neither objects of hope nor fear. Why 
 (should they be regarded ? He mav have given 
 services when alive. True ; and he has had his 
 return. But he has certain wishes as regards his 
 property. Well, let him see to their being carried 
 out. 13ut, being dead, he cannot ; he desires the 
 community to act for him. But why should it ? 
 Individualism is founded on pure unadulterated 
 selfishness. Why should the community so act ? 
 Simply and solely because it benefits itself by so 
 acting, and for no other reason. Exactly so far as 
 it benefits by interfering, so far it interferes, and 
 the chief of all benefits is that the savings of the 
 
PROPERTY FURTHER CONSIDERED — ITS LIMITATIONS, 149 
 
 units are of enormous advantage to the whole. Its 
 interest is to encourage savings, it is wise to 
 encourage savings, and in no way can it do it 
 better than by regarding to a certain extent the 
 wishes of their once possessor when he is dead. 
 Thus, whilst a man's rights in his own earnings, 
 when alive, are founded on one set of principles, 
 his privilege of disposing of such as he has not 
 himself consumed is governed by an entirely 
 different set of considerations. But in both the 
 communit)' is influenced only by the same motive — 
 its own interests. 
 
 We have banished altruism from our counsels, we 
 have agreed to be governed by pure selfishness, and 
 so may well inquire how far the community benefits 
 b}^ vast sums being handed down from generation to 
 generation to perpetuate families living in luxury, 
 wl)o always take and never give, and who receive 
 the benefit of others' services without giving the 
 smallest services of their own in return. It is 
 clearly to the interest of the community to have 
 each doing his utmost on its behalf ; but how is it 
 affected if some will do double work — give double 
 services — that others may be free ? Individualism 
 can but cvnically say that is their business, and has 
 no further right to interfere or complain. It receives 
 as much as it gives, and can justly claim no more. 
 But we have dealt with the nature of services and 
 the payment made for them. We are agreed that 
 our standard of value and that of our ancestors 
 widely differ, and we are equally prepared for 
 posterity to condemn us as even more foolish. To 
 
150 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 allow a few individuals to appropriate the wealth of 
 continents may seem the depth of outrageous folly, 
 but yet we are agreed that each generation must 
 judge for itself as to the value of services rendered 
 it. And in practice this principle works out fairly 
 well on the whole, pro\'ided that an error of judg- 
 ment, if made by one generation, is not necessarily 
 perpetuated through many others. It is one thing, 
 under a mistaken notion of value, to pay a man 
 fabulously for his services — as, for example, dis- 
 covering new diamond fields, which must soon have 
 become known — and for the mistake to end with 
 him, and quite another that it should be perpetuated 
 from father to son in a long line of descendants. 
 Laws may be intolerable that allow an oil king to 
 extort a hundred millions for his services, but they 
 are absolutely disastrous to the nation that permits 
 the money to go to found an oil-king clan, to live 
 for centuries on the fat of the land, and probably to 
 become so many centres of luxury, laziness and 
 indulgence, even if not the forcing -houses of 
 immorality and vice. 
 
 But to cure this excrescence, is it necessary to 
 destroy a whole system which has hitherto been 
 productive of excellent results ? On the contrary, 
 it is an evil, a growing evil, but one which seems 
 capable of being effectively dealt with when on 
 death the community has to be resorted to, to give 
 effect to the wishes of its once owner. Then, apart 
 from its right to make a fair charge for its services 
 in so acting for him, it is entitled to review the 
 whole situation, and inquire how far it will benefit 
 
PROPERTY FURTHER CONSIDERED — ITS LIMITATIONS. 151 
 
 by allowing his fortune to be passed on to others. 
 It is a nice and delicate question. It does not 
 wish to so disturb property as to interfere with the 
 industry and saving habits of individuals, it does 
 not wish to jeopardise a system proved to be 
 beneficial, it does not wish to be so injudicious as 
 to drive property by which it so much benefits out 
 of the country ; but at the same time it is an evil 
 that positively cannot be left to grow unchecked. 
 Probabl)' the solution of the problem in England is 
 not unwise. It rather assumes that the benefit of 
 property to the community varies inversely with the 
 amount held by individuals. In other words, that 
 the larger the number of owners, and the more 
 equal the amount held by each, the more the 
 benefit, whilst on the other hand the fewer the 
 owners and the larger the amounts held the less the 
 benefit. To this principle effect has been given by 
 a system of graduated death duties {a). It is not 
 
 (a) " Is it necessary that between these two rivals, seeuriti/ 
 and equality, there should be an opposition, an eternal war Y 
 With a little patience they may in a great measure be 
 reconciled. 
 
 " The only mediator between these contrary interests _ is 
 time. Do you wish to follow the counsels of equality 
 without contravening those of security ? Await the natural 
 epoch which puts an end to hopes and fears, the epoch of 
 death. 
 
 " When property, by the death of the proprietor, ceases to 
 have an owner, the law can interfere in its distribution, either 
 by limiting in certain respects the testamentary power, to 
 prevent too great an accumulation of wealth in the hands of 
 an individual, or by regulating the succession in favour of 
 equality in cases where the deceased has left no consort, nor 
 
152 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 based on ability to pay, otherwise the duty would 
 have to be determined by the amount received by 
 the individual rather than by the size of the estate 
 as a whole. Possibly a defect in practice may be 
 that it makes no distinction between property 
 acquired by methods of which we approve, and by 
 methods of which we do not. But in theory this 
 defect does not exist, for, here we must again 
 observe, if property is wrongly acquired it is the 
 acquisition and not the disposition that should be 
 prevented. Griljes at lawyers are the standing jests 
 for all time, but the remedy is not to charge their 
 estates more, but to make them honest. So practi- 
 cally, so long as not overdone, the system of death 
 duties seems to work satisfactorily. They may not 
 prove a wholly logical solution of the problem ; but, 
 after all, logic is not an essential in life. In fact, 
 one of the distinguishing features of our race is the 
 deficiency of our logic, and the satisfactoriness of 
 our conclusions. No other nation can furnish such 
 a role of correct action defended bv so much 
 unsound reasoning as ourselves. The maddest pro- 
 posals and wildest theorising yield some small 
 modicum of good when thrown. into the melting pot 
 
 relation in the direct line, and has made no will." — Bentham, 
 Theory of Legislation , p. 122. 
 
 " The system of progressive taxation prevailed at Athens. 
 There were four Solonian classes of citizens, arranged accord- 
 ing to wealth. Of these the first paid no taxes. The class 
 next above them were entered on the tax books at a sum 
 ■equal to five times their income, the next class at ten times 
 their income, the richest class at twelve times their income." 
 — Walker, Political Economy, p. 498. 
 
PROPERTY FURTHKR CDNSIUERED — ITS LIMITATIONS. 153 
 
 with an abundance of that good common sense in 
 action which has made us the most practical people 
 in the world. So allowing ourselves to be neither 
 hampered by formal constitutions on the one hand, 
 nor led away by the wild talk of demagogues on 
 the other, we have adopted this method of graduated 
 death duties for solving the problem of our over- 
 paid. It seems, to some extent, to be founded on 
 sound theory as well, but if so, it is an accident, 
 and one of which I am sure we are ashamed. Our 
 whole constitution is an anomaly, our institutions 
 are an anomaly, our growth is an anomaly ; but 
 then it is a growth, and a growth founded on 
 experience. It is not the institution makes the 
 man, but the man the institution, and institutions 
 work ill or well, not according to the perfection of 
 their drafting, but according to the animating spirit, 
 the national impulse that gives them reality and 
 power. Whether the death duties will prove a 
 wholly satisfactory cure for the evils we have 
 mentioned, time alone will show If not, we can 
 relv on the common sense of the nation once again 
 to deal justly and effectively with the matter. 
 
154 LIBERTY AXD PEOGEESS. 
 
 CHAPTER X7I. 
 
 PEOPEETY FURTHEE CONSIDERED ITS VARIETIES. 
 
 There would not seem to be much necessity for this 
 chapter, but still some schools are inclined to see a 
 material difference between property in some forms 
 and in others. Perhaps in theory there ma}' be 
 distinctions, but not sufficient to materially affect 
 the two cardinal accidents of all property. 
 
 The first all-important, and to third parties 
 perhaps only important, characteristic of property in 
 every form is, that it enables its possessor to receive 
 the products of the current labour of other people 
 without giving anj" current labour of his own in 
 return. 
 
 We have seen that in 1904 home labour gave out 
 of its products of 1,710 millions of pounds some 451 
 millions at most, or only 364 millions if we take the 
 lower and probably more correct estimate, to pro- 
 perty for its use. As lal)our without property would 
 not have made even the odd seven hundred millions 
 worth of products, labour as a whole did not give 
 property an extravagant share for its use. Xor 
 does it seem to matter to labour very materially 
 how this four or five hundred millions is divided up 
 amongst property itself. 
 
 This brings us to the second chai-acteristic of 
 
PKOPERTY FURTHER CONSIDERED — ITS VARIETIES. 155 
 
 property, that the values of its different forms are 
 solely and entirely determined by their values 
 inter se. 
 
 Many factors determine such values. The amount 
 receivable, the security, its liquidity, its portability, 
 and a thousand similar considerations which need 
 not be gone into. So again one owner of property 
 ma}^ desire a large immediate return for his invest- 
 ment, such as is derived from wasting leaseholds; 
 whilst another may as strongly desire an improving 
 securitj^ with a low immediate return ; and a third 
 may seek only benefits considerably deferred, as 
 when he insures his life, purchases a reversion, or 
 brings up his children to expensive professions. 
 But whatever the investment, its value is fixed by 
 the keenest competition of the keenest men that the 
 country produces. Whatever the form of the invest- 
 ment, all want the same thing for their money — the 
 utmost return possible. 
 
 And so its form is wholly immaterial to labour. 
 What is alone material is what it must pay for its 
 use. This again is determined by property itself. 
 Property makes its own charges, but these charges 
 are fixed by the fiercest competition of its owners. 
 Exactly as labour needs property for its profitable 
 employment, so does property need labour to use it 
 to secure any return. Apart from being used 
 actually or prospectively, property has little or no 
 value. Like labour itself, property has its market 
 value determined by the amount available and the 
 demand for its use. At first sight the amount avail- 
 able might be thought the all-important factor in 
 
156 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 determining its value. This largely is so, but 
 probabl}' as important a factor in determining the 
 general level of value is security (a). Where 
 secui-ity is bad, as in some Oriental countries, not 
 even 50 per cent, will tempt the owner to part with 
 its possession, however anxious he may be to have 
 it profitably employed. Instead, he prefers to hoard 
 it unused, and in such cases its portability is its 
 greatest recommendation. On the other hand, 
 where property as property is safe and fully pro- 
 tected by the law, where its possession i.s encouraged, 
 there it is most freely put on the market at the 
 lowest rate. In this fact we find another most 
 potent reason why an individualistic society regards 
 property almost as sacred. Societv benefits as a 
 whole by the savings of individuals as units. But 
 society further benefits by these savings being used, 
 and it encourages their being put into those forms 
 where they can be used by making them secure. 
 Further, societv, being interested in activity and 
 progress, benefits by property being secure, as 
 thereby it obtains its use for the minimum of cost. 
 Thus anything which causes uneasiness, or tends to 
 unsettle property, invariably causes its charges for 
 its use to increase, with immediate expense and loss 
 to labour. 
 
 Thus, we have had examples in England of some 
 undertakings, such as our railways, which could 
 obtain all the working capital they required for 
 
 {a) Theoretically these two factors reduce to one, as want 
 of security results in property being withheld, and therefore 
 in its not being available. 
 
PROPERTY FURTHER CONSIDERED^ — ITS VARIETIES. 157 
 
 little more than 3 per cent. Now they have to pay 
 nearly 4 per cent. That is, labour could formerly 
 buy for one pound per year the use of about £3 1 ; 
 now it can only obtain about £26. Formerly, a 
 share that brought in £4 a year was worth some 
 £130, now it commands only something over £100. 
 This is a serious matter for labour. It is one thing 
 for capital, in common with labour, to have a high 
 value on account of great demand due to great 
 briskness of trade, and quite another when it is 
 withheld on account of general uneasiness, and so 
 far as it is so withheld, it will not be remedied by 
 further disturbing factors. The whole situation is 
 this — the institution of property is attended with 
 so many advantages to a community, that in the 
 present state of thought there does not seem the 
 remotest possibility of its being abolished for any 
 other system, however theoretically perfect. Then 
 in the interest of the workers the highest and wisest 
 policy is to accept the inevitable, and make pro- 
 perty as secure as possible. Stop its wrongful 
 acquirement by all means ; this should be the main 
 end of our civil law ; but, when acquired, let its 
 owner know it is his. and particularly that it is not 
 to be subject to confiscation because in any particular 
 form. If would-be reformers would make attacks 
 on capital, let them make it secure. This, above 
 all, will keep it at home and lessen its earning 
 power (^). It is marvellous how little it will be 
 
 {h) "No nation will ever accumulate a large amount of 
 capital for the purpose of applying it to productive purposes 
 until there is sufficient social order to render property secure." 
 — Faiccett, p. 175. 
 
158 LIBERTY AND PEOGRESS. 
 
 content with, if only t^ecure (c). Does labour suffer 
 b}- high capital values ? On the contrary, it profits. 
 It means that property wants so much less share of 
 the proceeds of labour for its use. High prices are 
 matters between property owners themselves. If 
 they bid up the value of what labour gives them as 
 their share, does labour suffer ? On the contrary, 
 labour benefits enormously. That is, directly. In 
 our chapter on the causes of unemployment, we 
 shall show how still more does labour benefit by 
 securities appreciating, by margins improving, and 
 by the enterprising man of business finding his 
 work and capital increasing. So, on the contrary, 
 there must be lack of enterprise, lack of employment, 
 lack of buoyancy when capital values are falling. 
 AVhen such values owe their fall to causes beyond our 
 control, thfre is nothing to be done but to regret; 
 but when such a fall is due to measures which might 
 have been avoided, it is desirable to inquire whether 
 the good purposed to be attained by such measures 
 at all approximates to the actual evil caused [d). 
 
 (c) " SufHcient capital might soon be accumulated in 
 England to reduce the current rate of interest to 2 per cent. 
 This was the current rate of interest in Holland at the end 
 of the I8th century. The Dutch at that time were therefore 
 content wdth 2 per cent., but the English are not satisfied 
 unless 3 per cent, can be obtained." — Fciiccett, p. 176. 
 
 (rf) Nothing benefits the commercial man so much as low 
 interest, and so far as Consols set the rate for gilt-edged 
 securities, which again set the rate for other securities and 
 for money generally, so far, reducing thu national debt and 
 reducing the rate of interest on Consols adds to the general 
 prosperity of the worker at the expense of the lender. Still 
 the community has absolutely no right to adopt any policy 
 to benefit one at the expense of another. Its duty is to hold 
 an even-handed justice between all. 
 
PROPERTY FURTHER CONSIDERED— ITS VARIETIES. 159 
 
 Apart from this general level of security, each 
 individual transaction has to be judged on its own 
 merits. We find varying rates paid for the use of 
 money, this variation being generally governed by 
 two considerations. First and foremost, again, is 
 security. Whatever is paid above the true level of 
 a safe security may be regarded as paid by way of 
 insurance. If for a certain class of investment 
 absolute security commands '4 per cent., and a 
 borrower has to pay 4 per cent., the additional 
 interest is the owner's charge for insuring against 
 the extra risk . involved. So investments that are 
 liquid, as bankers term it, or instantly realisable 
 with trifling loss, like our best railway shares, can 
 command only a smaller rate of interest for their use. 
 And so some class of securities, apart from the 
 deferred improvement they may be valuable for, 
 receive a portion of their interest in extraneous or 
 non-monetary advantages. Such is the case with 
 landed estates, where many an owner who receives 
 1 per cent, in consideration and 2^ per cent, in rent 
 considers himself singularly fortunate. 
 
 In individual transactions it operates in two ways. 
 If the rent is ascertained the capital value attains a 
 fancy price, and may be worth some thirty times as 
 much, and any increase of rent may mean a pro- 
 portionate increase in such capital value As, how- 
 ever, agricultural land is in competition with the 
 world's virgin soil, this increase of rents is nowadays 
 in England more or less imaginary. The second 
 aspect is that, where a man wants to become a 
 county magnate, he is willing to invest his money to 
 bring him in only this small rate of interest, and 
 
160 LIBERTY AND PEOGRESS. 
 
 by this the actual worker benefits. It pays the 
 ordinary farmer far better to rent a farm worth 
 £10,000, say, and pay £300 a year for it than to 
 buy it, even if he could borrow the whole of the 
 cost on mortgage, as the least rate of interest he 
 would have to pay would be 4 per cent., involving 
 a cost of £400 instead of £300 a year. That his 
 landlord takes out another £100 in dignity is his 
 pure gain, and cheaply purchased by greeting him 
 as squire (e). 
 
 But some schools hold that land should not be 
 the subject of private property. First, of its 
 nature, it is not a subject for property, another 
 way of repeating their conclusion (/) ; secondly, 
 it is a monopoly ; and, thirdly, it benefits by 
 unearned increment. As regards its not being a 
 legitimate subject of property (y), this is pure 
 theorising, and the answer is ob\ious : if land is not 
 the subject of property, it was very wrong for the 
 
 (p) We may state the ease in another way. Such estates 
 may be said to have two combined values — an economic value 
 and a social value. The worker has to pay a rent for the 
 first onl}'. The purchaser has to pay for both. The social 
 value may be a fancy price, determined by demand for 
 county honours; the economic value is determined by demand 
 for the commodities producible on it. 
 
 ( /■) " There is no reasoning with fanatics armed with 
 natural rights, which each one understands as he pleases and 
 applies as he sees fit ; of which nothing can be yielded nor 
 retrenched ; which are inflexible at the same time that they are 
 unintelligible ; which are consecrated as dogmas from which it 
 is a crime to vary." — Bentham, Priiiciplrs of Legislation, p. 8-5. 
 
 (r/) " One thing in the midst of all this confusion is but 
 too plain. They know not of what they are talking under 
 the name of natural rights, and yet they would have them 
 imprescriptible." — Bentham, Vol. II., p. 498. 
 
PROPERTY FURTHER CONSIDERED ITS VARIETIES. 161 
 
 community to have made it such {h). To accept 
 value for land in one generation because it is pro- 
 perty, and then confiscate it in another generation 
 because it is not, is simply subversive not only o£ 
 property in land, but of the whole of the principles 
 on which individualism is founded. The right to 
 property in land is traceable to exactly the same 
 action, motives and principles as right to property 
 in everything else. One cannot be successfully 
 assailed without similar reasoning bringing down 
 with it the whole of our social edifice. And the 
 reason why land was made, and probably always 
 will be made, the subject of property is clear (i). 
 Unused land yielded no rates or taxes. Thus, even 
 now we find countries glad to give the land to 
 anyone who will use it, so that they may receive 
 their quota in taxes. This is another instance where 
 we need very exact contemporary knowledge before 
 
 (A) "It is the true spirit of liberty which inspires the 
 English with so. much horror for what they call ex post facto 
 laws." — Bentham's Theory of Legislation, p. 156. 
 
 {i) "As a measure of political expediency, however, the 
 scheme of the assumption by the State of the increment of 
 land appears to me fatally defective. In the first place it 
 must be observed that a large part, at best, of the possible 
 mischief has already been done beyond repair in the surrender 
 of the rights of the community to individuals. As that 
 surrender is now generations, even centuries old, and as 
 much of the land has changed owners sometimes over and 
 over- again in the interval, many of the present possessors 
 having paid the full price of to-day in good faith under 
 existing arrangements which were fully sanctioned by law, it 
 would be simply robbery for the State to reassert its interest 
 in the land without fully indemnifying owners." — Walker's 
 Political Economy, p. 415. 
 
 D. M 
 
162 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 we can say our ancestors were wise or foolish. 
 It is absurd our viewing gifts of land to-day, when 
 it is in great demand, with the same eyes as in the 
 past, when it was lying waste and when the wise 
 statesman was glad to see it enclosed (k) and in the 
 hands of anyone who would lay out money on it, 
 develop it, and add to the resources of the nation. 
 And after all this is but a development of a policy 
 that has existed from the earliest times. Provisions 
 to secure the use of land are of most ancient origin. 
 Thus, in the code of Hammurabi, dating back some 
 2,000 rears B.C., it was enacted by sects. 27 — 29 
 that the land of a man summoned on the service of 
 the king should l)e worked by his son, his wife, or 
 even a stranger. Sect. 30 further enacted that if 
 he neglected his field for three years he should lose 
 it altogether, but if for one year only (sect. 31) he 
 should be entitled to reclaim it. So equally to-day 
 we have new countries like Canada glad to give land 
 for the asking to anvone competent to cultivate it. 
 
 Then as regards the unearned increment, this is 
 no more than saying that a man has bought 
 an improving security, which possibility of im- 
 
 (k) "In England, one of the greatest and best established 
 improvements is the division of commons. In passing 
 through the lands which have undergone that happy change 
 we are enchanted as by the sight of a new colony. Harvests, 
 flocks, smiling habitations have succeeded to the dull sterility 
 of a desert. Happy conquests of peaceful industry I Noble 
 aggrandisement which inspires no alarms and provokes no 
 enemies ! " — Bi'iif/irnii's Theory of Lecjidatioii, p. 19H. 
 
 We have seen this was an opinion shared hj Bacon, see 
 note, p. 88. 
 
PROPERTY FURTHER CONSIDERED — ITS VARIETIES. 163 
 
 provement has been a material factor in settling the 
 price he paid. But the value of all property is ever 
 changing, and especially in towns. Some lots im- 
 prove, but many an investor has been ruined by 
 the depreciation of others. Is he, therefore, to only 
 bear the loss of the one and to never enjo)^ the 
 benefit of the other ? (/) 
 
 (/) In addition to being indefensible in theory it is 
 unstatesmnnlike in practice. Our wise policy is to persuade 
 our property owners to invest every possible penny at home. 
 To attack one form of what in the past the nation has 
 regarded as the highest form of property, and to make it taboo, 
 is simply throwing prosperity to the winds for a whim. The 
 return from it is so trifling that none but a vote hunter 
 would upset a system for such a chimera. Mr. Money thus 
 estimates the value of all the returns from land : — 
 
 From farm lands £35,000,000 
 From lands bearing dwelling-houses, 
 
 factories, business premises, etc. 51,000,000 
 
 From sporting rents, etc. - - 1,000,000 
 
 From mines, quarries, etc. 7,000,000 
 
 From railways and other property - 6,000,000 
 
 £100,000,000 
 
 What great return is to be got from taxing the unearned 
 increment of such of these lands as increase in value ? The 
 merest bagatelle, and to get it we have to sacrifice principles 
 on which our civil contracts have been founded from time 
 immemorial. If, as some schools argue, all property should 
 be made common, let us reconstruct society on such footing. 
 Its possibilities are fascinating. They have appealed to 
 every idealist and dreamer in every age. But to single out 
 one form of property is a midsummer madness. Why attack 
 only uucitrned increment from land ? Let us again quote 
 Mr. Money, whose logic is unanswerable : " Company B. is a 
 restaurant company, and the balance-sheet is for 1903. It 
 does not publish a profit and loss account. The issued capital 
 is £18d,000, but a great deal of this is ' water,' for bonus 
 
 .M 2 
 
164 LIBERTY AND PROGEESS. 
 
 But the answer to all objections to private owner- 
 ship, including that of the unearned increment 
 theory, is, let the community buy it back (m). 
 
 shares have been issued year after year. In the year under 
 review the profits amounted to £76,000, or over 40 per cent, 
 of the amount of the watered capital. We do not know 
 what the company pays in wages, but I doubt if it reaches 
 £30,000 per annum, or one-half the amount of the year's 
 profits. The employees are chiefly young girls who are paid 
 a few pence per hour. This case is an exceedingly instructive 
 one to the student of ' unearned increment,' because the 
 restaurants are many in number, and situated on most valu- 
 able sites. After paying the ground landlords unearned 
 increment, the sleeping partners in this concern gain as they 
 sleep a hundredfold more unearned increment than the 
 ground landlords." Before we could endorse all these 
 remarks many other facts would have to be inquired into, 
 but they only show how, once start an argument, and no one 
 in this wide world can say where it will stop. 
 
 (m) " When the question is to correct a kind of ci-\-il 
 inequality, such as slavery, it is necessary to pay the same 
 attention to the right of property ; to submit it to a slow 
 operation, and to advance towards the subordinate object 
 without sacrificing the principal one." — Benthani's Theory of 
 Legislation , p. 12'i. 
 
 " If the State appropriated unearned increment, would it 
 not be bound to give compensation if land became depre- 
 ciated through no fault of its owner ? . . If the State in 
 prosperous times appropriates an increase in value, and if in 
 adverse times the falling off in value has to be borne by the 
 owner, land would have a disability attached to it which 
 belongs to no other property. If we purchase a house, a 
 manufactory, or a ship, we take the purchase with its risk of 
 loss and chances of gain ; and why, with regard to land 
 alone, should a purchaser have all the risks of loss and none 
 of the chances of gain ? If thirty years ago £100,000 bad 
 been invested in agricultural land, and if at the same time 
 another £100,000 had been invested in such first-class 
 securities as railway, banking, insurance, water, or gas 
 shares, it can scarcely be doubted that if the latter invest- 
 ment had been made with ordinary judgment there would be 
 
PROPERTY FURTHER CONSIDERED ITS VARIETIES. 165 
 
 Probably it i§ undesirable, but having elected for 
 over a thousand years to regard land as the subject 
 of property, it cannot now either honestly or v^ith 
 advantage repudiate the obligations of the past. 
 It must not be forgotten that the State is but an 
 aggregation of individuals, and if in the past 
 such individuals acting collectively have allowed 
 individuals acting singly to invest in land, 
 then they are no less bound by the rules of 
 common honesty, as generally accepted in an 
 individualistic state, because they call themselves a 
 community. The ownership of property in land is, 
 like all other ownerships, traced to individual trans- 
 actions. Some of these seem strange and unsatis- 
 factory to us to-day. As we have before observed, 
 we have taken from our fathers an enormous mass 
 of what is precious, and it is not open to us to 
 
 at the present time a very much larger unearned increment 
 of value upon the shares than u]3on the land. The increase 
 in the value of the shares would have taken place quite inde- 
 pendently of any effort or skill on the part of the owner ; 
 and therefore it may be asked, ' Why should this unearned 
 increment remain as private property if the unearned incre- 
 ment in the value of land is to he appropriated by the State ? ' " 
 — Ffiiccett, p. 286. 
 
 Mr. Fawcett next points out how the very reverse 
 policy is desirable, and that everything ought to be done to 
 promote a flow of capital to the land. Most certainly. But 
 who will put money into any property which is the cheap 
 material for every ignorant agitator to rail about ? 
 
 If land were made perfectly secure some of our surplus 
 wealth which is invested abroad might well be used to make 
 our land more productive and find employment at home. 
 But the fact is, large incomes from land are in evidence, and 
 wealthy men who are wise now prefer their income being 
 derived from less public sources. 
 
166 LIBERTY ANU PROGRESS. 
 
 criticise or re-open particular matters. We have 
 neither the learning nor the facts to do it. We 
 have to accept things a.s they are, knowing that 
 according to their light they did what they thought 
 best, xls for trving to remedy a past abuse by a 
 present remedy, nothing is more impossible. As to 
 the further objection of land being a monopoly, 
 this is well answered by the fact that if the com- 
 munity need it they now have the right to buy it 
 at a fair market value (h). 
 
 Perhaps further administrative facilities might be 
 provided for towns wanting land, but any further 
 change would hardly he beneficial. So, if the 
 country desires to resume possession of all the 
 land, it could be simply done by buying up the 
 reversion to-day, to fall into possession a hundred 
 years hence. A very small payment down would 
 be all that would be iiecessar\', and though the 
 advantage of State ownership would be doubtful, 
 still it would be only a matter of book-keeping if 
 the land were fairU' bought [o). So, further, agri- 
 
 (/() Not like stocks or shares, which if oversold may be 
 rushed to any price. 
 
 (o) " If the nationalisation of the land without compensa- 
 tion is flagrantly unjust, it can, we think, be shown that 
 nationalisation with compensation, though not so unjust, 
 would prove incalculably mischievous. . . . And when the 
 State had become the possessor of all the land, what is goiag 
 to be done with it ? What principles are to regidate the 
 rents to be charged ? Who is to decide the particular plots 
 of land that should be allotted to those who apply for them ? 
 If the rent charged is to be determined by the competition of 
 the open market, in what respect would a cultivator be better 
 off if he paid a competition rent to the State instead of to a 
 
PROPERTY FURTHER CONSIDERED — ITS VARIETIES. ] 67 
 
 cultural land, at any rate, is at a very low price, 
 and ought to be an improving investment. 
 
 But in considering the question one thing must 
 not be forgotten — that land is exactly no worse 
 and no better than every other form of property {p\ 
 
 private individual? And if the market price is not to be 
 charged, who is to bear the loss ? From what fund is the 
 defioienoy to be made good? If the Grovernment owned the 
 land, and once began letting it on any other terms than those 
 which regulate the transactions of ordinary commercial life, 
 there would be opened indefinite opportunities for State 
 patronage and favouritism, and the demoralising corruption 
 that would ensue would be more far-reaching and more 
 baneful in its consequences than even the pecuniary loss 
 which the scheme would involve. If land was to be allotted 
 as a matter of patronage, who would have the fertile plots 
 and who would be relegated to those barren soils which, 
 under most favourable conditions, will scarcely pay for 
 cultivation ? "—Fawcett, p. 288. 
 
 ( p) " There is no such thing as natural property, it is 
 entirely the work of law." — Bentham's Theori/ of Legislation, 
 p. 111. 
 
 And land can equally be made the subject of property as 
 anything else and with as great advantage. 
 
 Aiter inquiring into the basis of a law of property, he asks : 
 " Has not man in a primitive state a natural expectation of 
 enjoying certain things — an expectation drawn from sources 
 anterior to law ? The catalogue of these cases is very 
 limited. The savage who has killed a deer may hope to keep 
 it for himself so long as his cave is undiscovered, so long as 
 he watches to defend it, and is stronger than his rivals. 
 How miserable and how precarious is such a possession ! If 
 we suppose the least agreement among savages to respect the 
 acquisitions of each other, we see the introduction of a principle 
 to which no name can be given but that of law. A feeble 
 and momentary expectation may result from time to time 
 from circumstances purely physical ; but a strong and per- 
 manent expectation can result only from lavi^. That which 
 in the natural state was an almost invisible thread, iu the 
 social state becomes a cable. Property and law are born 
 
168 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 Its value has been determined by tieroe competition 
 with other investments, and in common with other 
 investments it carries the right of all property to 
 receive the products of current labour without its 
 owner having to give any j^roducts of his own 
 current labour in return [q). 
 
 together, and die together. Before laws were made there 
 was no property ; take away law and property ceases. 
 
 " As regards property, security consists in receiving no 
 cheek, . . no derangement to the expectation founded on 
 the laws. The legislator owes the greatest respect to this 
 expectation which he has himself produced. When he does 
 not contradict it, he does what is essential to the happiness of 
 society ; when he disturhs it, he always produces a propor- 
 tionate sum of evil." — Ibid. 
 
 (q) ■' One of the seven was wont to say, that laws were 
 like cobwebs, where the small flies were caught and the great 
 breakthrough."— ^rtfoyr-s- Eamijs, tic, Bohn's edition, p. 1^2. 
 
 Especially is this so -nith attacks on land. It is the small 
 man will sutier. It will be the small man who cannot find 
 margin to reduce his mortgage ; it ^"ill be the small man who 
 will be wiped out. But it is said the small man is not touched. 
 Is not projDerty held bj' every class in every manner, and in 
 every amount':' And e-sen if not directl}- injured, the small 
 man will be injured by the sympathetic depreciation that 
 results, and charges, trifling to a rich man, will be serious to 
 him. But the rich man will easily weather the storm, will 
 have cash to buy up depreciated lots, and what he loses by 
 attacks he ■uill make up by investment. 
 
 So attacks on land will be fatal to the development of 
 towns. To buy fields, money is needed. To lay out roads, 
 money is needed. For finance, for mortgages, for the purchase 
 of ground rents, mone}" is needed. For investment in houses 
 when built, money is needed ; but when and how will money 
 be found if land is not the subject of property — if the investor 
 has to bear his loss and give up his gain 't ' 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 INDIVIDUALISM AND COMPENSATING FORCES. 
 
 Perhaps it may not be inopportune to here briefly 
 refer to some of the moderating influences which so 
 largel)^ contribute to mitigate the harshness of 
 individualism, and, above all, we must remember 
 that not the least merit of individualism is that it 
 gives such free play to all the nobler sentiments of 
 mankind. One great leader of men, Lord Beacons- 
 field, went so far as to declare that " the tenure of 
 property was the fulfilment of duty." Nor was this 
 an idle aphorism on his part. To-day the power of 
 many of our great families is that they regard the 
 possession of property as a sacred responsibility, 
 involving the obligation to use it for the good of 
 their fellow-men ; and, similarly, men in possession 
 of great mental acquirements are often found 
 equally sensible of their duties to their neighbour. 
 
 The whole tendency of to-day is to democracy — 
 to equality of opportunity. Particularly is this the 
 creed of the strong. Whether it is equally satis- 
 factory for the weak is another matter. The very 
 equality so insistently demanded soon finds them 
 left far behind in the race of life. For such, 
 equality is not a boon and democracy is a curse. 
 Far better for them to be the retainers — even the 
 humble retainers — of some great house, which will 
 
170 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 advise, strengthen, assist and identify itself with 
 them. It may not afford them any grand outlook 
 for gratifying a vaulting ambition, but it may secure 
 them freedom from anxiety and a peaceful and 
 tranquil existence far more satisfying to those of 
 their temperament. If any idealistic societ}' were 
 to command support on account of a reasonable 
 promise of general happiness, it would be that of 
 an ideal conservatism where rich and poor, strong 
 and weak, should live together in harmony, but 
 where the rich and strong would be governed by 
 the one principle and rule of conduct that " the 
 tenure of property is the fulfilment of duty." And 
 to-day what makes property and individualism so 
 tolerable and beneficial in our land is that there is 
 so much of this spirit animating the best of our 
 people. Thus, we find that many of those who are 
 most insistent on their rights are the very ones who 
 exercise these rights for the best good of their 
 fellow-men. 
 
 But in practice still further do we find moderating 
 influences at work to make individualism work well. 
 The vei-}' purchases of the rich enable those less 
 favoured to obtain better value for their money. The 
 rich man demands for his enjoyment a cigar made of 
 the finest leaf of the plant. Such may cost him as 
 much as 25. 6c?., but the planter is well satisfied if he 
 receives a fair price for his plant as a whole, and 
 if the choice leaves secure him so much, he is able 
 to sell the coarser ones at a far less rate. Thus, a 
 cigar, not quite the best, is put on the market at a 
 much lower price than otherwise would be possible. 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND COMPENSATING FOltCES. 171 
 
 But to the man of ordinary healthy taste and tem- 
 perament the one is virtually as enjoyable as the 
 other. So with the tea, the fruit, the vegetables, 
 and the food of the masses generally. Owing to 
 the extra high prices paid for the finest qualities, 
 the good and moderate ones can be sold at far 
 less amounts than otherwise would be possible ; and, 
 similarly, many an expensive luxury, after being 
 only slightly used by the rich, finds its way into the 
 hands of the less favoured at a fraction of its original 
 price. Thus, the man of most moderate means can 
 gratify a taste for articles which would never even 
 have been brought into existence had there been no 
 wealthy class to bear the bulk of their first cost. 
 Then, again, with professional services : it is the 
 universal rule for doctors to make graduated charges 
 for their services, and it is rare indeed that cases of 
 need cannot command the utmost skill available. 
 So, also, the humblest of students may rise to the 
 highest honours, and enjoy the best education that 
 money can command, if onl}' he has the ability and 
 desire to avail himself of them. 
 
 And here we may also mention one of the com- 
 pensating forces of nature itself. The greater the 
 desire, the greater the delight on its being gratified. 
 Pain must be equally terrible to every class if equal 
 in intensity ; pleasure is dependent on the indi- 
 vidual temperament itself. Some schools speak of 
 our life here as a weary pilgrimage of want and 
 longing, forgetting that in the very satisfying of 
 such want and longing the pleasure and enjoyment 
 of life is found. 
 
172 LIBERTY AXD PROGRESS. 
 
 We have thus briefly indicated some of the leading 
 characteristics of individualism. It is essentially a 
 system for the strong, and otherwise has its defects. 
 It also has its innumerable advantages, and, above 
 all, it is in existence. At this stage of the world's 
 history it is not worth our while to discuss whether 
 other systems might not be theoretically better ; 
 but none are possible, and as wise men we shall 
 do better to consider how we can correct the faults 
 of individualism, rather than attempt the impos- 
 sible, and probablv aggravate existing evils. If 
 mankind were perfect, every system would act 
 perfectly ; but as long as human nature is what 
 it is, every system, however perfect in theory, will 
 prove wanting when reduced to practice. 
 
 We will conclude this portion of our subject with 
 what we have before observed — that a community 
 does not exist as an entity in itself, but is made up 
 of an aggregation of individuals. There is no royal 
 road to happiness, and no community can ever get 
 rid of the necessity for individual responsibility. 
 A nation will be strong or weak according as its 
 individuals are strong or weak, and nothing will be 
 more fatal to the stability of our race than if for 
 this sense of individual duty we try to substitute 
 that of the community at large. 
 
 The foundation of liberty, progress and improve- 
 ment must be the enforcement of individual respon- 
 sibility. On one condition only can a man be 
 allowed to divest himself of such responsibility — 
 that he becomes a slave. 
 
 It may be well that the foolish should be the 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND COMPENSATING FORCES. 173 
 
 slave of the wise, that his liberty should be 
 curtailed ; but is it necessary to-day — is it desir- 
 able — that this should be so ? 
 
 Give me — whether as State or owner — give me 
 the disposal of a man's actions, and then, and only 
 then, can I be responsible for his welfare. The 
 conditions are inseparable. 
 
174 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 The Principles of Employment. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 OUR SUBJECT STATED. 
 
 Before inquiring further into the conditions of the 
 underpaid and unemployed, it would be well to 
 engage in a preliminar}' investigation into the 
 principles of employment itself. 
 
 And first let us understand what we mean by 
 employment. 
 
 The expressions so much to the fore to-day — "We 
 want work," "The right to work," " Find work," 
 etc. — are somewhat misleading. We do not want 
 work. What we want is the profit of our work, 
 the pay for our work ; and we want work more or 
 less according as the pay is good or bad. This 
 sounds a truism, but it is not. Politicians and the 
 people, and even economists, equally confound the 
 two, with equally illogical results. 
 
 Were work alone the want of our population, it 
 were easy to gratify them. 
 
 Send them to our gaols, our casual wards, or our 
 sweating shops and find them work in abundance. 
 Transfer them to other countries like Russia and 
 
OUR SUBJECT STATED. 175 
 
 find them work, work till they are weary to death 
 with work. But profit for work — that is anothe^r 
 matter ; to the millions whose only asset in life is 
 the labom- they have to sell, the all-important 
 matter. All-important to them is not giving more 
 labom", getting more work, but getting more profit 
 and receiving higher pay for the work they give. 
 Therefore, in discussing the principles of employ- 
 ment, it is idle to show how we can increase work. 
 What we want to consider is how we can increase 
 the profits or returns from work. 
 
 And here let us emphasize the fact that it is not 
 necessary to find work to be done. For all practical 
 and theoretical purposes the work to be done is 
 virtually unlimited — certainly for our time. On 
 every hand we see mountains of work to be done 
 — crying out to be done. Sanitary houses for our 
 millions ; parks and open spaces and public halls 
 for our millions ; to say nothing of better clothes, 
 better food and better education for our millions(a). 
 
 And if we proposed to accomplish all these things, 
 where should we commence ? Where are the 
 factories to turn out the millions of boots and shoes 
 required ? Where is the army of tailors and dress- 
 makers to clothe our people ? Where are the 
 bricklayers, the plasterers, the joiners and trades- 
 men to build houses for our population ; and as for 
 our food, who could organise an adequate supply ? 
 To but satisfy the reasonable needs of our people 
 
 (ff) Hence the distinction of economists' between demand 
 and effectual demand, i.e., demand by those who not only 
 want, but can pay for what they want. 
 
176 LIBERTY AND PEOGEESS. 
 
 no shuttle could fly so fast, no needle ply so 
 quickly, no tool be so speedy as to produce too 
 much. 
 
 Then, if we sought to gratify a reasonable demand 
 for reasonable luxuries, ^vhat possible limit could 
 there be to the labour employed ? To mention but 
 one article — watches. If wanting were the only 
 limit to production, there would be wanted ten or 
 twelve millions, and all of the best description. 
 
 There is as yet no human limit to demand. 
 
 What, then, is the limit for us who desire all these 
 things ? The popular idea is the correct idea — 
 money — money with which to buy. So long as our 
 money lasts we can buy ; but spent and we can huj 
 no more. The slave alone is compelled to give his 
 labour for nothing ; for the good things we desire, 
 the free man demands money in exchange. The 
 work he will do he limits by the money to be 
 received. This is true in the unit, it is true collec- 
 tivelv in the whole ; and therefore the free work to 
 be done by a nation, the nation limits to the money 
 it will receive in return. The work to be done in 
 itself is unlimited. It is tlie money available to 
 pay for it which is insufficient (b). 
 
 And what is money ? It is immaterial that it is 
 of gold or silver or copper. In itself it has no 
 practical use. It will not feed, nor clothe, nor 
 
 [b) "It is possible as an hypothesis to suppose that a greater 
 quantity of all commodities may be produced than people 
 really want. It wlLL be proved that such an over-production 
 has never taken place in the past, and is never likely to occur 
 in the future." — Fawcetf, p. 473. 
 
OUR SUBJECT STATED. 177 
 
 house us. It is of value only so far as it enables us 
 to buy the work of those who can. It is accepted 
 as a token by virtue of which we can obtain the 
 labour or products of labour of other people. Its 
 limited and expensive character is because man is 
 unbelieving in his fellow-man, and likes his gold to 
 be not merely the token of so much labour, but the 
 actual or approximate result of so much labour. 
 This is not essential to its character as money, but 
 is a matter of credit. Witness, for example, a five- 
 pound Bank of England note, which, though it does 
 not cost a penny to produce, will in some places 
 sell for more than five sovereigns in gold itself. It 
 is accepted because it carries the assurance it can 
 at any time be exchanged for the products of labour 
 of five pounds, and in the meantime is more 
 portable. 
 
 A.nd this is what all money does. It carries the 
 assurance it can be exchanged for the actual pro- 
 ducts of labour for which it is the nominal equiva- 
 lent (c). As a voucher for work done, as a ready 
 standard for the relative value of commodities and 
 services amongst themselves, its utility is beyond 
 argument ; but theoretically there is nothing impos- 
 sible m the products of labour being exchanged with- 
 out using money as the medium, though the practice 
 would be neither easy nor convenient. We receive 
 money for our work, but only to part with it again 
 
 (c) In a debased currency this assurance is wanting, with 
 the result that coins will not realise their nominal but only 
 their actual value. 
 
 D. N 
 
178 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 for the work of other people. Do away with the 
 money, but leave the assurance we shall otherwise 
 be able to obtain the work of other people in return 
 for our own, and as far as we are concerned our 
 position is unchanged. 
 
 Beyond carrying this assurance, and furnishing 
 the standard of value, we see how largely money can 
 be eliminated from the small as well as the great 
 transactions of life. 
 
 Thus, we see the same money doing service again 
 and again. The master draws money from the bank. 
 We follow it into the hands of his workmen, their 
 wives, the tradespeople, their servants, &c., to find 
 it, its round finished, probably once more in the 
 same bank from which it was originally drawn. 
 Apparently the all-important part of each transac- 
 tion, it has not even been essential, it has but served 
 its purpose, that of effecting the interchange of one 
 class of goods or services for another ((/). 
 
 So in the largest commercial transactions we find 
 money almost entirely eliminated. In our mar- 
 vellous clearing-house system we see bankers trans- 
 ferring to one another thousands of millions of 
 money, and hardly a coin changing hands. With 
 them their money is their credit. Behind all these 
 transactions is the assurance that every money 
 entry is equivalent to money, and, above all, the 
 warranty that every such entry can command 
 
 (d) The wife of the artizan would be in the same position 
 who received, in place of so many pennies, so much bread. 
 But not the least advantage of money is its enabling all to 
 grSitiij their own fancies. 
 
OUR SUBJECT STATED. 179 
 
 its actual equivalent in actual proceeds of actual 
 labour (e). 
 
 Money is but a symbolic form of the products of 
 labour. It may be token money, like our silver and 
 copper ; it may be voucher for actual value, like our 
 gold ; or it may involve credit, like our cheques, our 
 notes, or other money acknowledgments generally ; 
 but its one essential is that at any moment it can 
 instantly be turned into a concrete form, into the 
 actual products of labour itself (/). 
 
 (c) In nothing is this more marked than where stocks and 
 shares are sppculatively dealt in. Let the amount sold 
 «sceed by a small fraction the actual amount in existence, 
 and instantly the market for it will be in a convulsion. Any 
 price may rule quite irrespective of the true value. 
 
 (,/■) In panics the one product of labour demanded is gold 
 itself, therefore sound currency always demands that gold 
 shall be so given if required. For years this has been the 
 practice in England, with the result that London to-day is 
 the great settling house of European exchange. The one 
 overwlieloiing objection to the issue of inconvertible paper is, 
 it practically means re-making contracts, and in the scramble 
 that results to avoid individual loss, the disorders that follow 
 are such as to jDrove a grave national disaster. Whether 
 the standard be gold, silver, or bronze, or any combination of 
 the three, the essential is that the nominal value should not 
 be greater than the merchandise value. Paper to save wear 
 and tear of bullion may effect a wise economy ; but paper 
 issued as money in commercial crises is simply a pledge of 
 national credit when national credit is shaken. But so far 
 as national credit is superior to individual credit, it might 
 do something to lessen strained conditions for a time, although 
 there would always be a day of reckoning to be faced when 
 soiind currency was restored. Once again the re-making of 
 contracts would cause much injustice, and would mean much 
 change of money from one pocket to another — usually from 
 that of the humble and confiding to that of the rich and 
 astute financier. 
 
 As a practical example, the suffering caused by the change 
 
 n2 
 
180 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 But we have seen that what is the limit to the 
 work (free work for pay) to be done by the nation 
 is the money to be given in return. And we have 
 seen what money really is — the voucher for the 
 actual products of labour. Hence the limit to the 
 work to be done is the products of labour available 
 to be given in return (^). Increase such products 
 and you increase the money to pay for labour ; you 
 increase the work to be done. Lessen such pro- 
 ducts you lessen money, and as certainly diminish 
 employment. 
 
 And how are we to increase such products ? By 
 industry, temperance, and frugality ; that is, the 
 more industrious we are, the more we shall find scope 
 for the industry of other people. And the converse 
 is true. The more industrious other people are, the 
 more will they find scope for our industr)' Indus- 
 try acts and re-acts, and ever as man increases the 
 products of his own labour he is promoting the 
 employment (profitable employment) of other 
 people. 
 
 in the value of the rupee, which as effectually re- made every 
 contract as if they had been re-Avritten, was very severe indeed. 
 Of course some equally gained, but the suffering caused by 
 unexpected loss and the pleasure caused by unexpected gain 
 by no means balance. 
 
 {g) " This result has been similarly stated by all economists ; 
 but, in more technical language, employment varies with 
 demand. But by demand is not meant 'merely desire — the 
 want of things we have referred to. By demand is meant 
 ' effectual ' demand — that is, desire by those able to pay for 
 what they demand. In other words, by those able to give 
 something in return for what they desire." (See the question 
 of demand fully discussed in Fawcetfs Manual of Political 
 Economy, 6th ed., p. 316.) 
 
OUK SUBJECT STATED, 181 
 
 That is, assuming the products of his labour are 
 of value. If not, he may as well be idle as far as 
 promoting other people's labour is concerned. When 
 the products of his labour might be of value, and 
 are not, it is a double loss. The nation not only 
 loses the actual products of his labour, but also those 
 of other people whose employment they would 
 increase. 
 
 And this is the curse of unproductive labour. 
 Useless itself, it kills the industry of others in 
 addition. 
 
 And if the nation does not benefit by the extra 
 employment which would result were none idle, it 
 is actually injured by waste, luxury, extravagance, 
 and vice (A), Just so far as they consume the pro- 
 
 {/)) A man spends £100 on a supper of larks' tongues. 
 What would be the economio result of his getting a dinner of 
 roast beef for a shilling instead ? Those who worked col- 
 lecting larks' tongues would lose such employment, but there 
 would be the same iilOO to provide them with wages for 
 doing something else. If that something else were useful, 
 their employer and the world would be that much the richer ; 
 but the work found would be the same. But if their employer 
 wanted no such other utilities he would bank his £100. anH 
 it would again get into the hands of those who would produce 
 utilities. If he were seized with a fit of benevolence and, 
 instead of enjoying a supper \)j himself, provided 2,000 
 peojjle with a dinner each for a shilling, the employment 
 found would be the same, but 2,000 would enjoy its products 
 instead of one. Thus, a man of great wealth is only 
 able to spend it on himself if he indulges in the most out- 
 rageous forms of luxury. But he does not increase employ- 
 ment by such wild extravagance. The same amount of 
 employment will be found if he spends it on something of 
 permanent value, if he spends it and lets others enjoy the 
 fruit of his spending, or if he banks it and leaves to others 
 the using of his money. But in no case is the world or the 
 
182 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 ducts of labour without producing, so exactly to that 
 extent do they lessen employment («'). And just as 
 war is the concentrated essence of all these evils, so 
 after a war is a country bound to suffer from depres- 
 sion in industries and paralysis of enterprise. 
 
 To summarise our conclusion. It is not work we 
 want, but the profit of our work. Work to be done 
 is unlimited ; not so the money with which to pay 
 for it, not so the products of labour to be given in 
 
 worker the poorer because he uses his money wisely instead 
 of wasting it. By saving it he increases the wealth of the 
 country. But the greater the amount of wealth in the 
 country the more anxious are its possessors to have it used as 
 capital, the more anxious are they to find further employ- 
 ment in ^^"hich it can be usefullj' used. But it may be that 
 money pours into banks to lie dormant there. This may be 
 the result if insecurity rules at home. Then banks ship it 
 abroad to find employment in other countries. Under 
 ordinary conditions great additions are made to railways in 
 this country. Such additions are needed. Then money which 
 would have found work building railways at home goes to 
 building railways abroad. Man wants but little here below, 
 but likes that little strong, is itself well parodied. Wealth 
 wants but little here below (in the way of interest), but 
 wants that little safe. 
 
 (/) "We must alwaj-s, however, carefully distinguish what 
 is only blameable, or the proper object of disapprobation, 
 from what force may be employed either to punish or to 
 prevent." — Adam Smif/i, Theory of Moral Sentiment, Part II. 
 sect. 2, Chap. I. 
 
 The education of public opinion to regard those as in- 
 famous who use their wealth wrongly, seems the only 
 resource we have for dealing with the rich unworthy. At 
 present we do not seem to make much progress in this 
 direction, as any particular act of particularly gross extrava- 
 gance usually affords " copy " for a week. As long as we 
 delight in reading about such extravagance, those with the 
 means will always delight in the notoriety such extravagances 
 bring. 
 
OUR SUBJECT STATED, 183 
 
 exchange for it. Increase these — that is, increase 
 one form of productive employment — and you 
 thereby promote other forms. In other words, the 
 products of one form of labour constitute the very 
 fund with which to pay for other products of other 
 labour. Increase the one and the other will grow, 
 and all will benefit together. This is no digging a 
 hole to fill it up again. This is no unproductive 
 labour that is its own result and its own reward. 
 This is a beneficial, profitable, productive labour — 
 labour from which there are the happiest results, 
 labour the source and cause of employment for other 
 people {k). Possibly it may not take the form of 
 our having larger nominal incomes. But this is 
 
 [k) " Productive labour is that which directly or indirectly 
 produces utilities, fixed and embodied in material objects." — 
 Fawcetf, p. 15. If more is produced than consumed — in other 
 words, if there is saving — this will result in the creation of 
 wealth. Wealth created has the further value that it 
 facilitates the production of still more utilities. Such 
 utilities may be produced for the purpose of being consumed 
 or for the purpose of still further facilitating the production 
 of more utilities. Such distinction was considered material 
 when it was argued that the amount paid in wages was 
 limited by the wage fund available to pay them. The 
 simpler view seems to be that the amount paid in wages 
 varies with demand, which itself varies with the wealth, 
 capital or money available to make such demand "effectual." 
 Effectual demand is well said to denote " The demand 
 which is exerted by those who are not merely desirous to 
 possess some commodity, but who have also the requisite 
 means to purchase it." — Faweett, p. 317. But where wealth 
 is created its owners will want it profitably employed. Thus, 
 the more the wealth, the more the savings of the people, the 
 more it is used in the further production of utilities, i.e., in 
 the finding of employment. If wealth is put aside, say in 
 the form of furniture or pictures, it is not used for the pro- 
 duction of more utilities, and does not increase employment. 
 
184 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 immaterial. It is the products of labour we desire 
 in abundance, and our enjoyment of such is inde- 
 pendent of their nominal value (/). Probably both 
 will increase together — our income as a nation and 
 the products which that income will buy. But in 
 substance we desire the products of labour we receive 
 to be increased, and this being so, it is immaterial 
 whether they are represented by large or small 
 money equivalents (w?). 
 
 Again let us consider the matter for a moment 
 from another standpoint, imagining money for the 
 time being as non-existent. 
 
 Let us look at a community where all are busily 
 engaged in manufacturing, and labouring at things 
 in general demand. Surely the more each produces 
 the more there will be to exchange. Surely with .so 
 much work to be done in this world of ours it must 
 only be a matter of thought to so arrange our brain 
 
 Hence the use of the word "capital" by economists to denote 
 that part of wealth which is not set aside but is used in the 
 production of further utilities. In the production of such 
 utilities such capital may be used up. The transaction will 
 be profitable or otherwise, according as the new utilities 
 produced are greater or less than the capital consumed. If 
 greater, there is an addition to wealth to again promote 
 employment according as it is used as capital or not ; if less 
 there is a loss of capital with a consequent diminution of 
 employment. 
 
 (/) A bicycle is equally enjoyable whether it cost £lr> or 
 £7 if equally good. But the latter price means more may 
 possess one. 
 
 {»>) The only way to compare the prosperity of countries, 
 especially at different epochs, is to compare the hours of 
 labour, the food, the amusements, and the life of the people 
 generally. The money changing hands may be entirely 
 misleading. 
 
OUR SUBJECT STATED. 185 
 
 workers, our teachers, our organisers, our manual 
 labourers, that all may be busy, and busy for the 
 good of themselves and of each other (ra). In a 
 family we all suffer by the laziness of a vicious 
 member. Why in the family of the nation can 
 laziness or unemployment be less disastrous to the 
 whole ? And one step further. Why in the family 
 of the world can we benefit by the laziness of other 
 nations ? We do not. Their increased prosperity 
 is our increased prosperity, and in their progress 
 our advancement is assured. Also our destiny and 
 the destiny of all nations is in our and their own 
 hands. Our destiny is not in our possessions, our 
 commerce, or our wealth, but in our race itself. 
 Let the race improve in physical, mental and moral 
 power, and its future is assured. Let it become 
 decadent, and its sun is set. Wealth has never 
 yet saved a nation, but it has destroyed many. 
 Every argument, every conclusion dealing with any 
 head of our subject always brings us to the same 
 goal — the man who would undermine the indepen- 
 dence of the individual is the enemy of his country. 
 As regards outside foes we must also remember that 
 what may be, and probably what will be, is not 
 what is. In the meantime, therefore, we do well to 
 keep our powder dry. 
 
 (ii) We would not, of course, make a crusade against 
 innocent recreation. 
 
 " No doubt waste of any kind is to be deplored, but we 
 should not be too prone to regret that so much labour is 
 devoted to provide the pleasures of life, for the happiness of 
 a nation may in some degree be estimated by the time and 
 labour which can be spared for enjoyment." — Fawcett, p. 15. 
 
186 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 CONFLICTING INTERESTS. 
 
 As regards freedom of trade, increased productive- 
 ness, and improved methods generally, it is not an 
 unreasonable inquiry to make : Is the interest of the 
 whole, as a whole, necessarily the interest of the 
 various classes forming such whole ? 
 
 May not the whole system of society be such as 
 to accentuate difEerences, to make life and money- 
 getting easier and easier for the rich and harder 
 and harder for the poor ? So far as this question 
 goes to the root of society, we can only say we have 
 never contended that individualism is a perfect 
 system. All we have contended is that it has 
 invaluable features, that it is probably better than 
 any other system either tried or imagined, and, 
 above all, that it is in existence ; and as wise men 
 it is better for us to try and make the best of it 
 rather than run after every mad scheme of idealism 
 that fertile brains produce. But apart from the 
 wholesale subversion of society, we may well inquire 
 how far the interests of all, irrespective of wealth 
 or position, run along the same lines. 
 
 And what is it every class desires ? Of course, 
 special privileges. To these we do not refer. These 
 are exactly what the rest of the community decline 
 
CONFLICTING INTERESTS. 187 
 
 to concede. Far from granting further special 
 privileges, the tendency is to inquire into existing 
 ones, with a view to their being abolished. In 
 fact, so prevalent is this tendency that the danger 
 is to consider only the privileges without paying 
 much attention to the services for which they were 
 granted. Land once given that it might be im- 
 proved and drained and made productive, and find 
 employment and contribute to the taxes of the 
 country, we would now like to resume — or some 
 would — without making any payment for it in 
 return. However we may cherish our own little 
 privileges — say the exclusive right of audience as 
 lawyers — we detest those of other people. Against 
 these we fight and protest. We desire that others 
 shall be paid only for services rendered — not for 
 services not rendered. We consider, and are entitled 
 to consider, that every abuse is levelled against us 
 personally and injures us personally and directly. 
 One has a right to kick against abuses, and the 
 merit of an Englishman is that he can kick hard. 
 
 Further, this right of kicking is to be encouraged. 
 In fact, to whatever other causes civilisation may be 
 attributed, progress is largely due to our trying to 
 set other people's houses in order and other people 
 trying to do the like good office for us. They do 
 not like it, we do not like it, but it is beneficial and 
 develops the race in a right direction. The only 
 danger is lest, in our enthusiasm for virtue — other 
 people's virtue — we run into the other extreme and 
 do serious injustice ; and it is well that, before a 
 man attempts to be a reformer, he should first 
 
188 LIBEKTY AND PROGKESS. 
 
 acquire an elementary knowledge of what is just. 
 But putting aside this craving for special privilege, 
 what everyone desires is to give as little as possible 
 of his own labour and receive in return as much us 
 possible of that of other people. Thus, again, his 
 interest is in direct conflict with that of everyone 
 else, all of whom desire identically the same thing — 
 to receive much and give little. In the end, each 
 has to be content with getting the utmost he can 
 consistent with the like right of other people to 
 receive the same ('<). 
 
 And there are two ways in which we can receive 
 an increasing amount of the products of other 
 people's labour in return for our own. We may 
 get more by others being squeezed and sweated, 
 and benefit by their suffering, or we may benefit 
 by the increased productiveness of our fellow-man. 
 When by machinery, organisation or the division of 
 labour he can give more for the same labour, we 
 immeasurably benefit, without prejudice to him or 
 anyone else. So, if for the same labour we can 
 give more, others will benefit and we shall not be 
 injured. 
 
 Since, then, aa'c all so enormously benefit by the 
 increased productiveness of one another — since none 
 of us have the slightest desire to receive less from 
 others than we do now — the utmost we can wish 
 is that, in the progress of the whole, we may have 
 
 (ff) One of the supposed trading proclivities of the Dutch : 
 " The giving too little and asking too much." 
 Not tariff reformers, evidently. 
 
CONFLICTING INTERESTS. 18^ 
 
 the special privilege of being the one particular 
 industry not to progress, and so secure, as we think, 
 the high prices due to short production. However 
 natural the desire, the answer is equally conclusive. 
 No industry can claim any special privilege — not 
 even that of lagging behind. 
 
 And if we could lag behind we should not benefit. 
 Nothing is truer than that cheap prices make large 
 sales. Every reduction in cost opens up new 
 markets and secures new customers to whom former 
 high charges were prohibitive. It is true from 
 motor-cars and bicycles to fancy stationery. It is 
 as true of cheap fares as of a cheap post. Reduction 
 in prices attracts new customers neither known nor 
 thought of. It is true of necessities and true of 
 luxuries. The purchases of those who always 
 bought all they desired may possibly fall off, but 
 they will be more than made up for by the new 
 markets opened up. For example, boots. A maker 
 may not take quite so much from his original 
 customers — though this is doubtful, as with lessened 
 cost their desires will increase — but he will take the 
 same from those who spent all they could afford, 
 only they will get better value, whilst from those 
 who formerly had to go without, whatever he takes 
 through reduced cost will be entire gain. 
 
 And if he should take less from his original 
 customers, yet the less they pay for their boots the 
 more they will have to spend on other products of 
 labour. This, he may complain, will not exactly 
 benefit him. Quite so. But as the same progress 
 is going on everywhere, he may expect a similar 
 
190 LIBERTY AND PKOGRBSS. 
 
 benefit from increased cheapness in other trades. 
 As, then, no one suffers loss in his own business, 
 and all benefit by its growing volume and the 
 increasing productiveness of one another, the 
 interest of each is the same as the interest of all — 
 progress, efficiency and healthy growth (5). 
 
 But out of this healthy growth one very serious 
 problem arises, namely, the displacement of labour 
 by machinery and improved methods of production. 
 Xo doubt the results of their first introduction are 
 not a little sad. i^ut it is not lessened employ- 
 ment, there is no diminution of employment — that, 
 we see, depends on other causes — but simple dis- 
 placement, and the cure is not to stop progress but 
 to deal sensibly with those for the time being dis- 
 j)laced. 
 
 Take one labour-saving device as an instance. 
 A ship that, before its introduction, would require 
 100 men to unload it could after its introduction 
 be easily discharged by 50. The wages of these 
 50 men displaced the shipowner saves. Part of 
 the saving may go to pay for the hire of the 
 machinery and the remainder is clear gain. But 
 that remainder he does not throw into the sea. He 
 uses it. That is, with it finds employment. If he 
 employed the same men, say, to build him a shed, 
 
 (h) The rivalry really is between the respective trades 
 themselves ; and those trades which give best value attract 
 most of the surplus cash available for luxuries. What lady, 
 equally anxious for a new carpet or a new lavatory basin in 
 her dressing room, but would instantly hasten to a shop for 
 the first, whilst nothing would persuade her to have a plumber 
 in her house unless absolutely necessary. 
 
CONFLICTING INTERESTS. 191 
 
 we could see that, owing to the Bew machinery, he 
 would obtain from the same labour, not merely a 
 ship unloaded but a shed in addition. To the 
 extent of the shed he and the community would be 
 the richer. 
 
 And on a large general scale this displacement 
 of labour is going on throughout the industries of 
 the world, but we must note that with it is always 
 present the moderating influence that more demand 
 for employment is created at the same time. Just 
 as the shed is an extra product of labour in exist- 
 ence, which, if sold, would find the money to 
 pay for other labour, so with every improved 
 method increased employment is the result, as the 
 money to pay for labour is not lessened, and if the 
 temporarily displaced soon find employment, the 
 employment is proportionately increased. Thus 
 dealing with those displaced should not and pro- 
 bably does not cause serious difliculties. For a man 
 it may mean temporary want of work, but all the 
 economic forces are in his favour to prevent his 
 being permanently injured. Naturally those first 
 dispensed with are the more inefficient, but their 
 case is not so serious as where they are dismissed 
 through bad times and a shrinkage of business 
 generally. So far as progress promotes employ- 
 ment and increases its volume, so far it is providing 
 the remedy for the temporary evil with which it is 
 also accompanied. 
 
192 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 GOOD AND BAD TIMES DISCUSSED. 
 
 If employment begets employment, we see one 
 reason why good and bad times are so accentuated 
 in their phases. Times are good. The manufac- 
 turer is busy. The importer is busy providing him 
 with raw material. The shipowner is doing well 
 with much to carry. The merchant prospers with 
 much to distribute. The wage earner is well-to-do 
 and makes "good money." And all have a surplus, 
 so that those who minister to their amusements or 
 luxuries equally enjoy the wave of prosperity. 
 
 We say wave of prosperity. The simile seems 
 appropi-iate. For like the never-dying circles that 
 a stone thrown in water originates, so the waves of 
 prosperity spread in never-ending circles to the 
 remotest verges of society. 
 
 In other words, in good times all are busy, all 
 have large products of labour to give, receive and 
 exchange. 
 
 And again the converse is true, times may be 
 bad and the one may be the necessary sequence of 
 the other. The very good times may have resulted 
 in an over-production for the time being of com- 
 modities for which the demand has already begun 
 to lessen [a). 
 
 (ff) Fortunately this sequence of good and bad times is not 
 
GOOD AND BAD TIMES DISCUSSED. 19-5 
 
 More houses may have been built, not more than 
 the nation really wants — it wants half its towns 
 rebuilt — but more than are adequate to supply 
 the wants of those who have money to pay for 
 them. More cotton goods may have been manu- 
 factured, not more than the world wants, but more 
 than the world has available cash to give for in 
 return. Then reduction of output is the order of 
 the day. The manufacturer does less. He employs 
 fewer hands. He and they have less to sjDond, and 
 some classes of work dependent on them come to a 
 standstill. 
 
 We need not repeat our chain of reasoning. The 
 result is the same. Many through enforced idleness 
 produce less, and the interchange of commodities 
 for the time practically ceases. So far as this is the 
 cause of bad times, it would seem its remedy should 
 not be impossible. If good times depend on the 
 interchange of commodities, why not foster an 
 artificial exchange of commodities in bad times ? 
 Why not put a job here, give employment there? 
 It sounds so simple. All want to be busy. AIL 
 want to be exchanging the products of labour. 
 Cannot the Legislature accomplish a trifle like this ? 
 ICvery amateur statesman thinks it can, though 
 hitherto it has only proved its ability to kill em- 
 ployment. On the contrary, every interference 
 
 the same for all descriptions of trade. Thus, in the building 
 trade, as other trades usually embark in fresh building after 
 some time of prosperity, good times in building begiu a little 
 later than in other oases, and the bad times are equally 
 deferred. 
 
 D. o 
 
194 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 usually results in aggravation of the evil. As in all 
 other matters, national trade is but the aggregate 
 of individual transactions, and neither the man nor 
 body of men exists who can carry the vs^hole in his 
 head so completely that he can interfere in one 
 department of life without doing serious injury in 
 twenty other directions neither thought of nor 
 imagined (b). 
 
 No doubt the causes of good and bad times are 
 involved in much complexity. A complete theory 
 or explanation has never been satisfactorily pro- 
 pounded. Why in ordinary affairs of life there 
 should be such differences has never been adequately 
 explained. It may be, perhaps must be, that good 
 and bad times are the resultant of innumerable 
 forces which by coincidence act in the same 
 direction, and which separately would be inadequate 
 to produce a noticeable result. Hence, any one of 
 them may be lost sight of and leave us in doubt 
 as to why such results happen We know definitely 
 of certain causes which powerfully contribute to 
 good times and the reverse, and perhaps we might 
 obtain a more exact knowledge of the subject by 
 
 (b) " The coincidence of wisdom to conceive and power to 
 carry into effect is one of the rarest phenomena in politics. 
 This was peculiarly exemplified in Mr. Gladstone, as great in 
 his performances as his conceptions. It was this phase in 
 life particularly struck Goethe in his estimate of Napoleon : 
 ' Napoleon was the man ! Always enlightened. Always 
 clear and decided, and endowed at every hour with sufEoient 
 energy to carry into effect whatever he considered advanta- 
 geous and necessary.' " — Conversations of Goethe (Eckermann, 
 Oxenford's translation, 1874), p. 304. 
 
GOOD AND BAD TIMES DISCUSSED. 195 
 
 an analysis of the various forces in society which 
 have a good or bad tendency in this matter. 
 Thus, one cause which tends to good times is an 
 exceptionally good harvest, which adds so many 
 clear millions to our wealth and may make itself 
 felt throughout our home trade. It saves so many 
 solid milli(ms being sent abroad to pay for the food, 
 of which kindly nature has made us a generous gift 
 instead. Its effects may not always be traceable 
 in statistics. Some of its results may even indicate 
 the reverse of prosperity. Our carrying trade may 
 show some slight decrease, as we have grown at 
 home what in other years we have had to import. 
 So even our foreign trade may fall off. When 
 home trade is brisk our manufacturers may have 
 neither leisure nor inclination to seek foreign 
 orders. Foreign orders are sought only when home 
 orders fail to absorb the whole of the production. 
 Thus it is our over-sea trade returns are by no 
 means infallible indicia of our home prosperity. 
 
 A war also may for a while be accompanied 
 by the outward appearances of good times. An 
 enormous artificial demand is created which has to 
 be supplied immediately, and in the most wasteful 
 and extravagant fashion. But the reaction is in- 
 evitable. The demands of war are for supplies soon 
 to be destroyed, and to that extent money, i.e., the 
 products of labour which would in the ordinary 
 routine of life have been accumulated to foster 
 employment, is for ever lost to the nation and 
 mankind. 
 
 Those that have in the end to find the money for 
 
 o2 
 
196 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 such "war stores have that much less to spend in 
 their usual direction. The man who spends five 
 pounds to appi'opriately celebrate the fifth of 
 November finds lie cannot also spend the same five 
 pounds to buy a watch, say, for the son who so 
 enjoyed the smoke and fire of the substituted 
 entertainment. So the nation that spends a few 
 hundred millions on even a successful war must for 
 years feel the loss, not only of valuable lives, 
 valuable as producers, valuable as the pick of the 
 nation's manhood, but of much absolute property as 
 well ; and the evil resulting from the loss is 
 cumulative and accentuated. First, as an extra good 
 harvest increases employment, so the destruction of 
 property diminishes it. From the former the 
 farmer directl}- and immediately benefits. With 
 Ms extra profit he purchases, say, more agricultural 
 implements. This at once finds employment for 
 others, and the machine maker, to follow our 
 instance a further stage, does more work, has more 
 income and again spends it, say, in enlarging his 
 premises. Again another healthy example of 
 increasing employment. And so the builder and 
 the workmen do well, and it is difiicult to say 
 where the benefit ends ; all find additional employ- 
 ment, and above all for good pay. The gift of 
 Nature of some twenty million pounds in the form 
 of an extra good harvest may, before the year closes, 
 have passed through three or four hands, in each 
 case finding additional employment for satisfactory 
 remuneration. 
 
 And so the feverish and unhealthy outburst of 
 
GOOD AND BAD TIMES DISCUSSED. 197 
 
 eQiploymerit ends with the war itself, reaction sets 
 in, and then the loss of the two or three hundred 
 millions of property destroyed begins to tell its tale. 
 If a twenty million extra harvest is sufficient to 
 cause a wave of prosperity, the deplorable results of 
 a loss of ten or fifteen times that amount can well be 
 realised. 
 
 In every home the taxpayer, mulcted of some of 
 his income, has to curtail his expenditure. 
 
 The money originally spent on nmnitions of war 
 found work, but those munitions made to be de- 
 stroyed are no longer available to find further 
 employment. And the taxpayer's money, going to 
 pay for them, is no longer available to find employ- 
 ment. In their former ordinary channels the money 
 so taken from the taxpayer would have been spent 
 in finding profitable employment for other people, 
 to again find profitable employment for others, to 
 again find profitable employment for others in a 
 never-ending series. The money thus saved would 
 have gone to promote a series of exchanges of 
 services and commodities which would have resulted 
 in the healthy employment of a nation. 
 
 Instead, it went to promote services which at 
 once ended in smoke. By the artificial activity 
 during actual war some benefit, but another un- 
 fortunate incident of war is, that the section of the 
 community that benefits by the inflation it causes 
 is by no means the same as those who subsequently 
 suffer from the resulting depression. 
 
 So, in a lesser degree, the money spent on our 
 defences in a time of peace equally kills employ- 
 
198 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 ment. It maA- be absolutely essential — the premium 
 paid for national insurance — but none the less it is 
 loss as a whole. At present the money is spent 
 in maintaining a certain class of the nation in a 
 state of efficiency for our protection, but who other- 
 wise are only consumers and not producers. But if 
 the taxpayer were relieved of the burden of keeping 
 them, he would have the same money with which to 
 purchase other goods of more permanent utility. He 
 might prefer a better house, better furniture, better 
 clothes, more artistic decorations or pictures, or a 
 new bicycle, or a superior education for his children. 
 Instead of his money going to keep his fellow-man 
 walking about shouldering a rifle, his same money 
 might go to keeping the same man producing some- 
 thing he wanted and something he would buy if 
 only he had the money to pay for it (c). His money, 
 whether spent in taxes or on articles of utility, no 
 doubt equally finds work, as the saying is ; but we 
 must go a step further, and ask: What products of 
 labour result from that same work ? 
 
 If there are none the money is lost, so far as 
 creating further emjDloyment is concerned ; on the 
 other hand, if objects of value are produced, these 
 add to the sum of the nation's wealth, and to the 
 fund to promote further profitable emplovment. 
 
 (c) A merchant's quota of taxation is enough, say, to 
 maintain one soldier in the effective ranks. Suppose instead 
 he spent the money in employing a joiner to build him a 
 greenhouse. In each case he would equally have found 
 labour, but in the one case there would be nothing to show 
 for his monej' ; in the other, the world and he would be 
 richer by a greenhouse. 
 
GOOD AND BAD TIMES DISCUSSED. 199 
 
 So loss of cniployinent usually follows whenever 
 the ordinary affairs of life are disturbed or inter- 
 fered with uj some extraneous force. Left to 
 themselves, different interests ultimately tend to 
 balance, and as years pass by supply and demand 
 establish equilibrium between the different wants 
 and resources of the community. We speak of 
 our national business in hundreds of millions ; but, 
 none the less, we must never forget that it is the 
 aggregate of units, and that each of those units 
 has been the subject of much individual thought 
 and discussion. Therefore, for any outside power 
 to enter in and vary the terms of contract {d) 
 so made, even if a well-meaning Legislature, is 
 simply courting disaster, and rushing headlong on 
 to tlie destruction of that confidence which is the 
 first essential of successful trade. As a cause pro- 
 ductive of bad times, nothing is more fatal than 
 wanton interference with the affairs of everyda}' 
 life. The greatest benefit a community can secure 
 
 (d) The general disastrous results of such changes is 
 eloquently described by Mr. F. A. Walker in his " Political 
 Economy " : — 
 
 " It is true that, in one sense, what one merchant in an 
 individual case loses, some other merchant or some banker or 
 some speculator may gain ; but it is not true that unearned 
 gains encourage industry to the extent to which undeserved 
 losses discourage it. On the contrary, not only does the 
 good done almost always fall far short of compensating for 
 the evil wrought, but it often happens that, as mercy between 
 man and man blesses both him that gives and him that 
 takes, so the sums of wealth transformed by speculation or 
 accident not only leave the loser grieved and crippled, but 
 curse and blight him whom they seemingly enrich." — 
 TFalker's Political Economy, p. 468. 
 
200 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 itself is a certainty of law, obedience to law, and 
 the knowledge that the law is not to be lightly- 
 changed. Even bad laws well ascertained do less 
 harm than good laws when one never knows for 
 how long they are to be in force. A strong 
 nation readily adapts itself to bad laws, or rather 
 administers them to get the utmost good out of 
 them, but is always seriously incommoded by laws 
 in a continual state of change. 
 
 Still more accentuated are the evils which result 
 from attacks on property, notwithstanding that such 
 attacks usually defeat their own end, and proposals 
 intended to operate for the benefit of the worker 
 result in doing him injury and in necessitating 
 his paying more, instead of less, for the use 
 of the monev he requires. The loss of confidence 
 is an irreparable evil (e), and irresponsible and 
 
 [e) " Would not the nation be the poorer if a sponge were 
 passed over the National Debt ? . . . Would not there be so 
 much property destroyed ? Not an atom more than would 
 be produced at the same instant. Would not the nation be 
 less wealthy 'f No, not at least at the instant ot change. 
 Would it be less happy? Yes, wretched in the extreme. 
 Soon after, would it be less wealthy ? Yes, to a frightful 
 ■degree, by reason of the shock given to security in respect to 
 property, and the confusion that would ensue. Thirty millions 
 a year that used to be received by annuitants, no longer 
 received ; thirty millions a yt^ar that used to be paid in taxes 
 by all classes and all individuals together for the payment 
 of those annuitants, no longer paid. National wealth would 
 no more be diminished by the sponge than it is when a 
 handkerchief is transferred from the pocket of a passenger to 
 the pocket of a thief. Sum for sum, however, the enjoyment 
 produced by gain is not equal to the suffering produced by 
 loss. In this difference, traced through all its consequences, 
 
GOOD AND BAD TIMES DISCUSSED. 201 
 
 unnecessary interference with property is little 
 short of criminal because of the misery it causes. 
 Nor is it the less culpable that it is the outcome 
 of the best intentions (/). Grood intentions may 
 possibly excuse a man who has done his utmost to 
 master all that is known on a subject, but the 
 ignorant fanatic, content to remain ignoi'ant and 
 fanatic, is one of Grod's scourges on earth (_9'). 
 
 But it may be that new necessities demand new 
 sources of income. In finding such sources is the 
 highest genius of the financier shown. The funda- 
 mental law of all taxation is, that the loss occa- 
 sioned to the individual should never exceed the 
 benefit received by the State. Any taxation which 
 infracts this law is bad in principle and serious in 
 practice. This danger is to be particularly feared 
 when any new taxation is proposed on property in 
 
 lies tbe mischief, and sole mischief, of bankruptcy or theft." — 
 BenfJiam's Works, Vol. III. p. 81. 
 
 (./') '■ If property should be overturned with the direct 
 intention of establishing an equality of possession, the evil 
 would be irreparable. No more security, no more industry, 
 no more abundance. Society would return to the savage 
 state whence it emerged." — Bentham's Theory of LKjidation, 
 p. 120. 
 
 " Thus we may conclude that security, while preserving its 
 place as the supreme principle, leads indirectly to equality ; 
 while equality, if taken as the basis of tbe social arrangement, 
 will destroy both itself and security at the same time." — 
 ■Bentham'' s Theory of Legislation, p. 123. 
 
 [g) The more frequent the trumpeter of any fallacy is in 
 its performance, the greater the progress which his mind is 
 apt to make from tbe state of evil consciousness to the state 
 of sincerity — from the state of improbity to the state of 
 imbecility ; that is, imbecility with respect to the subject 
 ma,tter."—BeHtham, Vol. II. p. 483. 
 
202 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 any particular form [h). Then there is the sei'ious 
 risk that its owner may not only find himself liable 
 to an annual charge which he can meet, but to an 
 immediate fall in capital value which he cannot. 
 Let us make our meaning clear by an example. 
 
 Suppose the proposal to be to levy a tax of one 
 shilling on every pound received as interest from 
 Consols, then every holder of £100 (nominal) 
 worth of stock would i-eceive some 2s. 'dd. less on 
 interest than at present. Not a serious matter, is 
 one's first impression. But that would not be the 
 limit of his loss. If Consols were alone singled out 
 for this special tax, immediately there would be a 
 fall in the capital value of the stock of some thirty 
 times the amount of the deducted interest ; that is, 
 his loss would be, not merely the annual charge of 
 2s. ^d. to be paid from time to time, but an imme- 
 diate capital loss of what 25. 9f/. per annum would 
 sell for on the market. As Is. is one-twentieth of 
 the income, so the capital loss would straightway 
 be one-twentieth of the capital value of the stock. 
 Thus, if Consols were at 84, the immediate fall 
 
 (/?) At the moment there is a talk of putting a tax of \d. 
 on the capital value of unused land. Though indefensible 
 as an attack on property, it may be justified as the equivalent 
 of a i-s. income tax on income. There is no reason unused 
 land should escape income tax any more than any other 
 form of property. So where for years property increases in 
 value, as with reversions, and no income tax has been paid 
 on the annual accretions, a lump sum may well be demanded 
 as its equivalent when leases finally fall in or fines are paid 
 for their renewal. Municipalities now have to credit such 
 fines as income in their accounts and on it pay income tax, 
 and so also ought the private owner. 
 
GOOD AND BAD TIMES DISCUSSED. 203 
 
 would be £4 :4s., and the value of his £100 (nominal) 
 worth of stock would at once fall to under £80. Nor 
 would this be the limit of his loss. In every case 
 where the owner has borrowed on his stock, the 
 lender will want further margin to make himself 
 secure. If the lender has previously lent £76 on 
 every £100 (nominal) worth of stock, he will, on its 
 fall in value, be disinclined to lend more than £72, 
 and will want his security reduced accordingly. 
 But when a stock has fallen in value, is the very 
 last time the borrower is in funds to find money to 
 reduce his loan. The consequence is the lender will 
 have to realise his security, with the result it will fall 
 still further through so much stock being thrown on 
 the market. 
 
 Thus, the result to the owner of £100 (nominal) 
 worth of stock, who had in it possibly some £8 of 
 margin, would be not merely a loss of one-twentieth 
 of his £8, but possibly the total loss of the whole 
 amount. So great a disaster from so small an origi- 
 nating cause ! But his loss on Consols, where there 
 is always a market at close prices, would be small 
 compared with his loss as owner of other property 
 when purchasers are few and values difficult to ascer- 
 tain, and when with margin two or three times as 
 great he would find it equally swallowed up. Nor, 
 again, is this the limit of the loss. As a rule, the 
 borrower is the merchant, the trader, the business 
 man, the worker generally ; the man who uses his 
 capital in his ventures, who organises and promotes 
 industry according to the amount of capital he has 
 available, and who controls employment generally. 
 
204 LIBEETY AND PROGEESS. 
 
 To him the shrinkage of margin is a serious matter 
 indeed, and through him to all dependent on him for 
 work. The loss of margin is the loss of capital, with 
 the consequent killing of business and enterprise. 
 Thus, with a fall in value, his property passes into 
 the hands of lenders content to sit still and merely 
 get back the money they have lent, with the conse- 
 quence times are bad and employment scarce (^). 
 
 When this is the result of ill-advised attacks on 
 property it is indeed to be deplored, as there are 
 sufficient forces to cause bad trade without our 
 inventing new ones on our own account [k). 
 
 And equalh' this example shows how good times 
 operate to produce good times. With falling values, 
 whatever the cause, margins grow less ; the capital 
 of the business man, of the worker, diminishes, and 
 
 (0 " Quite as prejudicial to expanding production is the 
 coutiuuous apprehension of hostile or meddlesome legislation. 
 When the whole body of business men are sore from dis- 
 asters ; when much of the industrial and commercial structure 
 still lies in ruins, it takes but little to check the disposition 
 again to adventure capital. That little is abundantly sup- 
 plied by popular apprehension of legislation unfavourably 
 affecting money and credit. It need not be a great thing 
 under a man's arms which will so increase his margin of 
 buoyancy as as to enable him to float for hours. It is a very 
 small thing around a man's neck which will so diminish his 
 margin of buoyancy — narrow at the best — as to drag him to 
 the bottom."— JFrt//Tr'.s Political Economy, p. 186. 
 
 To attack any form of property, even " land," is simply to 
 invite owners to invest abroad instead of at home — a policy 
 fatal to the worker. 
 
 {k) " Multis minatur, qui uui facit injuriam — He that 
 injures one threatens many." — Bacon's Ensays, 192 (Bohn's 
 Library) . 
 
GOOD AND BAD TIMES DISCUSSED. 205 
 
 his enterprise is checked. But, on the other hand, 
 with busy times values rise ; margins increase to 
 still further increase as values still further rise, and 
 the man who uses capital finds himself in good 
 credit and able to command and use still more 
 capital, to find new outlets for enterprise, and to 
 promote employment generally. 
 
 Nor is there need for the lenders, the owners of 
 capital, not in a position to use it themselves, to 
 send it abroad for its profitable investment. With 
 times good in one's own country there is usually 
 little desire to incur the additional risk attendant on 
 having one's property in a far-off country. We 
 have seen how valuable property is to the worker. 
 We have seen that the cost of labour, assisted and 
 unassisted by capital, is something like the difference 
 between 8d. and 28d. per unit developed ; and 
 hence the man who either drives capital out of his 
 own country or makes his own country undesirable 
 for others to invest their savings in, inflicts on his 
 country the greatest possible injury. In every way 
 it benefits the worker for capital to inci'ease in the 
 country. As we have before observed, capital or 
 property only makes a return to its possessor when 
 used. Hence the more abundant it is the greater 
 the competition amongst its owners for it to be used 
 by the worker, and the greater the competition the 
 less the charge they can make for its loan. 
 
 Not the least merit of individualism, carried to its 
 logical conclusion, is that the very recognition of 
 the rights of property reduces its return - giving 
 
206 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 power (^) to the very minimum figure. This in itself 
 is an advantage not to be ignored by all who have 
 to make their living by the labour they have to sell. 
 
 [I) Had there been no war and no agitation, it is probable 
 that to-day in England the worker in good credit could have 
 got all the money he wanted for 2^ per cent, or even less. 
 Not an unreasonable rate to pay for the use of the savings of 
 the past. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 CHANGING THfc: CHANNELS OF EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 To increase remunerative employment we have seen 
 that we must increase the money — that is the pro- 
 duct of labour- — ^with which to pay for it. This at 
 once shows that it does not in any way increase 
 employment to merely change its channels. If 
 money which is spent in finding employment in 
 one direction is taken away from the owner and 
 spent on other employment the volume of work is 
 not increased, for what is fostered in one direction 
 is killed in the other. 
 
 A pound in money will pay for a pound's worth 
 of work, however and by whoever expended. 
 
 If spent in the ordinary channels of daily life, 
 the value of the v^ork done in one direction will 
 equate what is done in another. 
 
 The labour given in making a watch, tilling a 
 field, making an engine, cutting out a dress, referred 
 to this common money standard of commanding a 
 price of a pound, may all be taken as of equal 
 value. 
 
 A pound has been spent, work has been given 
 
 for it. 
 
 But the class of work bought may be very 
 different. The man who spends a hundred pounds 
 that he may sup on a dish of larks' tongues finds 
 
208 LIBERTY AND PKOGRESS. 
 
 work represented by the £100, but the dish eaten, 
 and there is nothing to show for the labour consumed 
 in producing it. So the nation which spends 
 millions on drink may find work, no doubt, but for 
 such work there is nothing to show. On the other 
 hand, a pound spent on a watch, say, tinds both 
 watch and pound in existence. The watchmaker 
 who gives the pound to a joiner for a table is 
 instrumental in this pound, watch and table being 
 all additions to the nation's wealth. If the watch 
 is given to a tailor for a coat, the coat again is 
 added to the general stock, and thus we see how a 
 pound spent on productive laboui- increases the 
 wealth of the country. But, of course, such example 
 is only theoretically possible. Most of our income 
 must be spent on replacing wear and tear and in 
 feeding our population. 
 
 But what we want to note is that with every 
 pound we spend we equally find work, and in life 
 the pleasure is finding, not doing the work. Give 
 any of us the income and we all are delighted to 
 find the work, in fact the great merit of money in 
 our eves is that it enables us to find work for other 
 people, work of which we enjoy the fruits. 
 
 Therefore, if the Government takes a pound from 
 me to find employment for certain people, it does 
 not mean it increases the volume of employment, 
 it only means that the Government will find the 
 work instead of myself. Whether it is an advantage 
 to the community at large to so find work is more 
 than doubtful. The work found by the individual 
 is done in the ordinary channels, and is of full 
 
CHANGING THE CHANNELS OF EMPLOYMENT. 209 
 
 value. It supplies ascertained wants, and for the 
 pound paid a fair equivalent is given. Work done 
 for the community is usually wasteful and generally 
 unsatisfactory. 
 
 Thus, if it is a case of reclaiming land, done 
 through the ordinary channels of employment, the 
 contractor would probably reclaim three acres where 
 the Government worker would fail to reclaim one. 
 By such works of reclaiming no extra employment 
 has been found. All that has been done is that the 
 money has been spent in different channels with 
 very different and unfortunate results. That those 
 not in the trade may have a job, those in the trade 
 have lost one, and with the further loss to the com- 
 nmnity that instead of the three acres of reclaimed 
 land which it could have got, by trying to find 
 employment, which it does not, it has only got one. 
 In other words, there are two acres less of reclaimed 
 land with which to pay for other work. That is, 
 instead of increasing employment they have killed 
 it to the extent represented by those two acres. 
 And this is obvious. For were the two acres re- 
 claimed they could sell them for cash, and with 
 that cash could pay others for their work (a). 
 
 («) Works of afforestation, good as it may be, if it is only 
 going to be done with the taxpayers' money, will simply find 
 employment in one direction to lessen it in others. So as 
 regards taking land for the same purpose. The difficulty to 
 be faced is that labour applied to land on a restricted scale 
 yields but a poor return, as there is so little chance of 
 utilising machinery. It must never be forgotten that nothing 
 but a most complicated system of industry could enable forty 
 millions to live in these small islands, and it is only by the 
 
210 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 And liow far are these conclusions affected by 
 the fact that there are some who do not spend all 
 their income and who would spend just the same 
 whether their taxes were high or low? This inquiry 
 is not of great importance to most of us, who for 
 every pound we have to spend in taxes have a 
 pound less to spend in other ways which we should 
 like much better. Leave us the money and we are 
 quite willing to find the employment. Some rich 
 men cry also: "Leave us the money and we will 
 find the employment, or take it away and we cannot 
 do so." But if the}' pay more and thereby I pay 
 less, to the extent they fail to find employment, to 
 that extent I will find more. The question is not 
 one of finding work at all. The question is one of 
 justice; what we ought respectively to contribute 
 to the necessities of the nation. If the rich man 
 ought to pay, his paying will not alter the employ- 
 ment found. Its quantum will remain unchanged, 
 only the many will have the pleasure of finding it 
 instead of the one. 
 
 But this is not exactly the inquiry we are prose- 
 cuting. Will it find employment to take money 
 from those who do not sj)end all their income to 
 use it in paying for work ? 
 
 But, theoretically, does the case exist of the man 
 who does not spend all his income ? It seems not. 
 
 If a man with a thousand a year only spends £80O 
 
 general use of machinery that such abundance results from 
 iaboar as a whole. To try to return to individual labour in 
 iiidi\T.dual fields is to try to return to a primeval form of 
 society just emerging from barbarism. 
 
CHANGING THE CHANNELS OF EMPLOYMENT. 211 
 
 Oil his current expenses, in popular parlance we 
 speak of his saving the remaining £200. But in 
 fact does he so save it ? To-day not one in a 
 thousand saves it. He does not keep it in his office, 
 or his safe, or his stocking (S). He invests it ; and 
 if he invests it, he spends it to buy a right. Even 
 if lie leave it at his banker's he as completely parts 
 with it, and once again spends it to buy a right to 
 call for it in the future. The moment it is in the 
 banker's hands it is his no longer. An entry in a 
 pass book is all that he has obtained. Thus his 
 surplus £200, with which he himself does not find 
 employment, he has parted with to the business 
 man who does (c). But if the Government take 
 £100 in taxes to find work, then he will only have 
 £100 to give his bankers for them to use in finding 
 employment. Practicalh' the rule is universal, and 
 without exception ; you cannot increase work by 
 
 (/') The French peasants were great hoarders. Hence the 
 ease with which they paid the Grerman indemnity. Our 
 masses unfortunately do not hoard, and notwithstanding our 
 vast wealth, our having to find a similar amount would 
 probably so smash capital value that we should be ruined. 
 Better pay the extra insurance necessitated by a few addi- 
 tional Dreadnoughts. The " mercantile system " is much 
 condemned by old economists. But it dates from a time 
 when wars were more frequent than now, and when actual 
 gold in a country had a fictitious value quite disproportionate 
 to its commercial value. Crises might easily arise when gold 
 alone would have any real exchangeable value. 
 
 (c) If times are bad, such banks may buy foreign invest- 
 ments and find the work in other countries, which is not 
 very satisfactory to those wanting work at home ; but to-day 
 the balancH is all the other way, and we receive an enormous 
 income from abroad which is spent in finding work at home. 
 
 p2 
 
212 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 changing the channel of its employment, and so far 
 as you take money to pay for work in one direction 
 you are lessening the money to pay for work in 
 others. 
 
 Whether owners spend their money as they ought 
 to do is another matter. Whether money spent in 
 riot, luxury, wantonness and extravagance might 
 not be better spent in other directions is not our 
 question. Our question is : Do we increase employ- 
 ment by raising taxes to pay for artificial works ? 
 And to this the answer is, we do not {d). 
 
 {d) Money taken in taxes to provide old-age pensions 
 neither increases nor lessens employment. It simply means 
 that instead of the taxpayer finding the work, the aged have 
 the pleasure of doing so instead. As an economic measure it 
 is absolutely sound. Quite different to finding work. The 
 morality of the transaction or its expedience is another 
 matter. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 STATE AS OEGANISER OF LABOUR. 
 
 If the community cannot with advantage find work 
 or change its channels, can it not, at least, organise 
 labour and so to this extent increase employment ? 
 Thus, where there is a great demand for workers in 
 one part of the country, and a large number of the 
 same class of workers unemployed in other parts of 
 the country, will not the community do well for 
 itself as well as for the parties by bringing the two 
 together ? But here it is doubtful if the community 
 would do as well as individual effort ; and the man 
 persistently seeking for a job himself, and a master 
 as energetically trying to find hands, will probably 
 sooner come together without rather than with the 
 help of officialism. Still bureaux of information 
 would cost but little, though it is probable nmch 
 of the work that would be assigned to them is 
 already done unostentatiously by other bodies 
 already in existence. One of the great difficulties 
 is that as a rule the various trades throughout the 
 country are usually busy or slack as a whole. 
 Therefore, if they are busy, a master who wants extra 
 men to help him finds that his position is that of 
 most other masters in his line throughout the 
 kingdom. Hence in his particular branch when he 
 is busy it is only in very exceptional cases that 
 
214 LI BEET Y AND PROGRESS. 
 
 there are a number of his class of workers un- 
 employed at the same time. There may be a large 
 number of unemployed of other trades, but these 
 do not know his work and are useless to him. So, 
 if he is slack, as a rule his brother masters in the 
 same trade are equally slack and a large number of 
 their hands may easily be out of a job. But for 
 the same reason those out of a job in his trade are 
 in little demand with masters in other branches of 
 industry, even if they be pressed for want of 
 workers. It is not much use to a bootmaker 
 wanting extra hands for repairs that business is 
 slack in the joinery trade. So, further, there is 
 always the difficult}- that masters when exceptionally 
 busy prefer to pay extra for overtime rather than 
 import new hands. The responsibility thrown on 
 masters for accidents to their men has tended to 
 increase their objection to bringing in new hands 
 for short periods owing to the increased liability 
 thereby incurred. Another difficulty in finding 
 such unemployed work is the cast-iron rule in some 
 trades preventing less than a fixed wage being 
 given or received. This acts oppressively on the 
 aged, the injured, and the second-rate generally, 
 but the effect and necessity for this we have dis- 
 cussed in our former book, and only mention it 
 here as occasioning another difficulty in bringing 
 together those who want work and those who want 
 workers. So a similar difficulty has to be faced 
 when we would find employment by excluding 
 articles of foreign manufacture. The serious prac- 
 tical trouble is that it by no means follows that 
 
STATE AS ORGANISElt OF LABOUR. 215 
 
 those at the time' unemployed would be the ones 
 able to make the articles we would exclude. The 
 theory is, no doubt, absolutely correct that if we 
 could make instead of buying- such goods, we should 
 save the money or goods we now have to send out 
 of the country in return. But in practice there is 
 little reason to think that those unemployed could 
 so make the goods we thus receive. So a further 
 practical difficulty might be very real, though 
 theoretically it should not exist, namely, that tliose 
 people actuall}' employed in making the goods sent 
 in payment for the goods received might find their 
 goods thrown on their hands, so that the only 
 result of this policy of exclusion would be to find 
 work for one set of people, to throw out of employ- 
 ment others who were previously engaged. 
 
 So, no doubt, the whole volume of employment 
 in the country would be lessened. The practice of 
 exchanging what we make with facility for what 
 we make with difficulty adds to the wealth of all 
 nations. We want food. The Argentines want 
 engines, say. We mutually exchange, with the 
 result that we get more food and they get more 
 engines for the same expenditure of labour than if 
 we had both determined to be independent of the 
 other — we to grow our food, they to make their 
 engines. We admit the question is not quite so 
 simple as this in all its ramifications, but by 
 exchange we each make our labour more productive, 
 and we increase the nation's products of labour — 
 that is, we increase the nation's money, by which it 
 can pay for profitable employment. It is possible 
 
216 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 the benefit niight not take the "form of increased 
 earnings, but that of cheaper goods. The very evil 
 of restraining trade is that it excludes cheap goods. 
 The dear the individual himself rejects. Excluding 
 goods is a policy of restriction, of interference with. 
 others' liberty. As a policy it means, not that I 
 will not buy, but that you shall not buy, cheap goods. 
 If I want to buy dear goods, who is to deny me ? 
 But cheap goods mean receiving much and giving 
 little, so that this very exclusion of cheap goods 
 means lessening the surplus between what we 
 receive and what we give, means lessening the fund 
 by which employment is increased (a). 
 
 Further, connected with all restriction on trade 
 the secondary evils are very real. The waste on 
 additional officialism. The delay and red tape 
 involved, to say nothing of the lobbying and jobbery 
 
 (a) " Attempts have been made to reduce by law the price 
 of merchandise, and particularly the interest of money. It 
 is true that high prices are an evil only in comparison with 
 some good of which they prevent the enjoyment ; but such 
 an evil as they are, there is reason for seeking to diminish 
 it. To effect that purpose a multitude of restrictive laws 
 have been devised, a fixed tariff of prices, a legal rate of 
 interest. And what has been the consequence ? These 
 regulations have always been eluded, punishments have been 
 multiplied, and the evil, instead of being diminished, has 
 become greater. The only efficacious means is an indirect 
 one, which few governments have had the wisdom to employ. 
 To grant all merchants and capitalists a free right of com- 
 petition, to intrust to them the business of making war 
 upon each other, of underbidding each other, and of attract- 
 ing purchasers by the offer of more advantageous terms. 
 Free competition amounts to the same thing as the grant 
 of a reward to him who furnishes merchandise of the best 
 kind at the lowest price." — Beniham. 
 
STATE AS ORGANISER OF LABOUR. 217 
 
 that inevitably result. So the facilities it gives to 
 trusts, syndicates, and other undesirable combina- 
 tions, to further rob the public are very serious 
 matters. Perhaps the most serious objection of all 
 is, it increases instead of lessens the interference 
 of the State in the everyday affairs of the nation. 
 On the other hand, the policy of the open door is a 
 great preserver of peace, and in our own particular 
 case ensures to us the " second vote of the world " 
 whenever the possession of colonies or dependencies 
 comes into the realms of practical politics. 
 
 These secondary reasons are very serious indeed 
 and are probably more vital than the primary ones 
 usually advanced in favour of free trade (b). So 
 long as vast sums have to be raised by way of 
 taxation for revenue purposes, a large number of 
 
 (h) Even the advantage of cheap food may be pressed to 
 undue lengths. Thus, " in describing the advantage which 
 cheap food confers upon the employer and the employed we 
 have been careful to denote that the benefit enjoyed by the 
 labourers may only be a temporary one. It has already been 
 stated that a considerable portion of our population is in so 
 low a condition, both socially and morally, that even a 
 slight addition to their means of livelihood immediately 
 causes an increase in the number of marriages. In a few 
 years there is, consequently, an increase in the supply of 
 labour which will probably more than absorb the advantage 
 the labourers might have derived either from the cheapening 
 of food or from any other circumstance calculated to improve 
 their material condition. This affords an explanation of the 
 comparatively small effect which free trade has produced 
 upon the condition of our worst-paid labourers. It was 
 supposed that when the Corn Laws were repealed pauperism 
 would become almost extinct. The country has enjoyed 
 free trade for more than thirty years and pauperism still 
 assumes most serious proportions." — Fawcetf, p. 177. 
 
218 LIBERTY AND PROGKE?iy. 
 
 such primary reasons cease to have importance for 
 either side. All taxes spent on unproductive labour 
 equally lessen employment, whether they are col- 
 lected via commodities or via income. Thus, as 
 regards our foreign trade, many of the arguments 
 reduce themselves to a matter of bookkeeping. If 
 a uniform tax of, say, five per cent, vrere imposed 
 on every article (c) imported into the country, so as 
 to avoid those secondary evils to which we have 
 referred, it is difficult to see that the twenty or 
 thirty millions so raised would more kill employ- 
 ment than the same twenty or thirty millions 
 collected from other sources (c?). For a time it 
 might mean their being paid through different 
 channels, but providing there were no continued 
 alteration of the tarifi^, such payments would ulti- 
 mately adjust themselves. What has to be remem- 
 bered is, every national expenditure of money, 
 whether wise m- extravagant, lessens the people's 
 
 (c) Even including raw material, such as i cotton. Five 
 per cent, on raw cotton would only mean a very trifling per- 
 centage on the manufactured article. 
 
 ((/ ) The argument that the foreigner, i.e. , the producer, would 
 pay the tax is only true to a very limited extent. On a new 
 duty being for the first time imposed a restriction of demand 
 at once results. But the supply haviug already been pro- 
 vided for on the basis of past transactions, the producer finds 
 himself faced "ith an overstock of the articles in question. 
 These he must dispose of, and he must reduce his price until 
 the demand once again equals the supply. Thus at first he 
 probably has to reduce his price by exactly the amount of 
 duty freshly imposed. But such conditions will not prevail 
 for any continued length of time, and ultimately the produc- 
 tion will fall off until the producer can secure his normal 
 price and his normal profit. 
 
STATE AS ORGANISER OF LABOUR. 219 
 
 buying powers, and to that extent lessens employ- 
 ment. But what business requires for its profitable 
 expansion is for contracts to be respected and indi- 
 viduals largely left to take care of themselves. 
 But is it not possible for something in the way of 
 organisation to be done for casual labour, i.e., for 
 labour engaged by the day and not by the week ? 
 This class of labour is mostly peculiar to our shipping 
 industry, where, from the nature of the work to be 
 done, it is more or less intermittent in character. 
 The bulk of work, as a whole, is enormous ; and it 
 would at first sight be thought that it could be 
 averaged out over regular weekly jobs. Apparently 
 it cannot. In the first place, the dock charges and 
 the interest of capital involved are so serious that 
 directly a steamer is berthed she has to be unloaded 
 and again loaded as fast as hands can do it. The 
 work has to be done at high pressure till ended, and 
 then the men are slack again till the next ship has 
 to be dealt with. 
 
 It is not possibly the most desirable way of 
 working, bursts of energy and spells of idleness ; 
 but such conditions point to the essential factor, viz., 
 that the men must learn to think for themselves, 
 and as they cannot average out their hours per 
 week, they must average out their wages. 
 
 And many do. Whatever the system, there is 
 always the sober, reliable man who will have first 
 call on any job that is going. Then there is the 
 next class, which can generally get a job, and a 
 third, which is taken on when there is a press of 
 business. Then there is a fourth class, those out of 
 
220 LIBERTY AND PEOGRESS. 
 
 work, usually more or less unfit, who try to get 
 taken on as casual labourers at the dock when they 
 are not wanted. No doubt abundance of labour at 
 a given moment is desirable from a shipowner's 
 point of view, but such abundance often proves to 
 be more imaginary than real at the very times it is 
 most wanted. 
 
 We English are not utter fools in the way we 
 manage our business, not even our shipping business. 
 We may take it a great many of the evils from 
 which it suffers are evils inherent in the industry 
 itself, and it probably seems worse than it is because 
 it attracts the unemployed of all classes, and so 
 suggests worse conditions than really exist. To 
 nationally organise the shipping trade to get rid of 
 such disturbing factors certainly sounds well, but 
 how about those excluded ? Have the}^ no claims ? 
 If a shipowner wants their work and they want his 
 pay, why are they to be organised out of their just 
 rights to sell their labour to any willing to buy ? 
 The suggestion only once more proves that no 
 special privilege can be given to one body of 
 men except at the expense of others even worse 
 favoured. 
 
CHAPTER XXIIl. 
 
 STATE AS FINDER OF WORK. 
 
 Whilst changing the channels of employment may 
 be a failure so far as increasing work is concerned, 
 still may it not be theoretically possible for a com- 
 munity to yet find work and serve its own interests 
 at the same time ? Theoretically it ma}' be possible. 
 We start with the premises that any man able and 
 willing to work is a loss to the community if left 
 unemployed, and a still greater loss if he becomes 
 unemployable. But if the community seeks its own 
 advantage only, it will face these possibilities rather 
 than face the certain evils that have always accom- 
 panied the finding employment by the State. First 
 there is the great moral evil that results. If under 
 any circumstances the State undertakes to find work, 
 it at once lessens the energy of the individual in 
 trying to find it for himself. It encourages dis- 
 content with existing conditions, and with alternative 
 work found for him the worker, instead of doing 
 his utmost in any situation and trying to make the 
 best of it, is encouraged to be foolish and disloyal. 
 
 In every respect a State n)akes a bad employer. 
 The keen personal interest is wanting that makes 
 so much for success, and the temptation for officials 
 to take -secret profits is almost overwhelming. Then 
 the leakage is very great and is good for no one, 
 
222 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 and the slack habits cultivated are ecjually bad for 
 all. These, with inefBcieticv, ure the usual con- 
 comitants of State enterprise, and undermine the 
 very character of the race. Our ideal is that what- 
 ever we do, we should do it with our might. There- 
 fore the evils attending want of employment may 
 be easily exceeded by the evils of finding work. 
 
 No doubt there are certain things which must be 
 done by the State as a State. The administration of 
 justice, the security of our country, our relations 
 with other lands, our postal, civil, and diplomatic 
 services are all matters which must be dealt with 
 by the nation in its collective capacity, but individ- 
 ualism is seen at its best when the State interferes 
 as little as possible either in the life or business of 
 the people, and limits its functions to enforcing the 
 law (a). But who shall check the community which 
 itself indulges in undesirable practices {h) ? 
 
 («) As regards all who only trade to entrap, no words 
 are too strong. Nothing more demands being put down 
 with a strong hand than the palming off of inferior articles 
 instead of genuine ones. Why should the man most inge- 
 nious in telling untruths make the most money ? The law 
 of trade should be, sell what you like but tell no lies. Why 
 should honest traders suffer hecause their conscience will not 
 permit them to stoop to the artifices of their competitors ? 
 If a man makes a better article let him be paid for it, hut 
 not hecause he is more of an adept in giving a glowing 
 description of a bad one. Why should unscrupulous cotton 
 manufacturers trade on the good name of England and 
 
 (&) To overcrowd trams was a punishable ott'ence when 
 they were run by individuals. Enn by corporations it is a 
 commendable practice. 
 
STATE AS FINDEIJ OF WORK. 223 
 
 These considerations lead us to feel that the 
 moral advantage secured by preventing the un- 
 employed drifting into unemployable Vi^ill be more 
 than counterbalanced by the imdoubted evils which 
 will result from such proposed remedies (c). 
 
 make a special profit ? Why should they put china clay in 
 their calico when honest men will not ? Why should they 
 ruin our foreign markets for their private gain ? Why 
 should honest men have to compete against roguery, and 
 either cease to be honest or be ruined ? 
 
 In the matter of both insolvency and quality we might 
 learn much from the Florentine customs. Florence of ttie 
 thirteenth century was a miniature England of the nineteenth. 
 Our most up-to-date speculation in stocks, " contango deals," 
 was legislated against in their statutes. 
 
 With them, honesty in trading and excellence in the 
 manufacture of their cloth were national matters. Traders 
 who sold inferior cloth were heavilj^ fined. Not a vard left 
 their country until it had passed the public official. Rightly 
 they asked, why should one ruin the foreign trade and 
 good name of all to steal an unfair advantage and profit 
 for himself alone ? The result was, Florentine cloth was the 
 synonym for excellence all the world over, and her citizens 
 still found their prosperity in their integrity when their 
 liberties were levelled in the dust. 
 
 (c) " It therefore appears that if a great number of labourers 
 were thrown out of work by some sudden and unavoidable 
 cause a Government may be justified, as a temporary ex- 
 pedient, in finding work for the unemployed. . . The most 
 disastrous consequences, however, would ensue if the Grovern- 
 ment continued to give employment to all applicants, for 
 population has an indefinite power to increase, and therefore 
 no limit could be assigned to the numbers which the Grovern- 
 ment would be compelled to employ, . . and there can be no 
 doubt that in the present state of society an increase in 
 population would be so powerfully stimulated that the 
 number of those seeking employment would be constantly 
 augmented ; at last the resources of the nation would be 
 straiued to the utmost to provide the wages which the 
 Oovernment would be called upon to pay. This is no 
 
224 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 Then as regards the material gain. A man able 
 to work and unemployed is a loss to the community. 
 True ; but hitherto all measures taken to find him 
 employment artificiall} have resulted in greater 
 los.s. As a matter of pounds, shillings and pence, 
 the community will be ill-advised to think of finding 
 employment for any profit it may get out of it. 
 The first loss will be the least loss. 
 
 As regards finding work, there can be only one 
 conclusion when viewed from the point of view of 
 the community — it is undesirable. 
 
 If, then, the community cannot increase employ- 
 ment by changing its channels, nor by organising, 
 nor by finding work, if its powers for working ill 
 are very great and its opportunities for doing good 
 A^ery rare, what can it do to promote its own 
 prosperity as an individualistic state ? 
 
 First, let it secure as far as possible those things 
 which we are agreed are desirable, and the chiefest 
 of which is libert\ . Let it hold an even hand 
 between all, and see fair play by and to all. 
 Let it discharge its sacred duty as trustee for 
 children, to see their liberties are not infringed, 
 and compel all to discharge those duties to them 
 theA" have voluntarilj' incurred. Next, let it make 
 wise laws to determine what is just payment for 
 services rendered, and see they are made equally 
 effective in ending overpaA' as in increasing under- 
 
 imagiDary supposition, for statistics have demonstrated that 
 many among the lower classes of society married with utter 
 recklessness." — Finmtf, ]>. 228. And a glorious nation of 
 the unfit we should have cultivated at the same time. 
 
STATE AS FINDER OF WORK. 225 
 
 pay. Lastly, let it rigorously enforce the law, 
 and not allow the strong to oppress the weak, the 
 knave to cajole the fool, nor the cunning to take in 
 the innocent. Whatever is done under the flag let 
 the flag support, and let it make secure a man's life, 
 limb and property, and as much scorn a lie for 
 public as for private gain. 
 
 To-day in many an Oriental bazaar " Kalimat 
 Inglizi" ("on the word of an Englishman") has 
 passed into an oath. Let it be ever our proud 
 boast, both as a nation and as individuals, that our 
 word is our bond, that we are as he who sweareth 
 to his hurt and changeth not. 
 
 On this are empires built, and by it are the 
 foundations thereof made sure. 
 
 D. 
 
226 LIBEETY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 PART III. 
 Our Underpaid and Unemployed. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 In discussing the case of our poor and unfortunate, 
 we must distintruish between our underpaid, and 
 unemployed. As a matter of theory their position 
 is radically difPerent. In practice the classes inter- 
 mingle, and not the least reason why some are 
 underpaid is because others are unemployed. 
 Therefore, before inquiring with more particularity 
 into the rights of either, we will briefly inquire into 
 those general conditions which so largely affect 
 both. 
 
 Here let us enumerate those causes which, in the 
 course of the preceding pages, we have found to 
 have such a maleficent influence on the fortunes of 
 our poorest. 
 
 First and foremost is Nature's universal law that 
 more progeny are born than she ever intends to 
 exist. As a corollary to this, we hare seen that the 
 tendency of all unrestrained propagation of any 
 species is to increase right i\p to what the barest 
 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 227 
 
 subsistence will just keep alive. Thus, with our 
 poorest we find that any improvement in their con- 
 dition, any increase in wages, any cheapening of 
 food, always takes the one invariable form — increase 
 of numbers («). 
 
 Probably this law dominates and is the origin of 
 all the succeeding forces which work so oppressively 
 on our poorest. Out of it springs a fight for existence, 
 in which the weakest are trampled under foot. 
 
 In modern conditions this fight takes the form of 
 fierce competition, in which every individual does his 
 utmost to increase the reward for his own services. 
 And we have seen that this is brought about by a 
 policy of exclusion, which is given effect to by 
 training, capital, or arbitrary conditions. Tiien we 
 have seen that the more successfullj^ this is done in 
 one class the more oppressively it acts, not only on 
 those excluded, but on all those classes to which the 
 excluded are relegated and who have to bear not 
 only their own competition, but the aggravated com- 
 petition thus caused as well, until we come to the 
 
 («) " There is no fact more clearly demonstrated by the 
 returns of the Registrar-Greneral than that an increase in the 
 number of marriages is the inevitable result of an advance in 
 wages." — F((irretf, p. 136. 
 
 " The population engaged in the production of coal and 
 iron are recovering from depression and are again marrying 
 and giving in marriage at their usual pace." — Ibid. 
 
 " In the quarterly report, issued in October, 187-^, it was 
 stated that the prosperity of the country was proved by the 
 high marriage rate prevailing. It therefore appears to be 
 distinctly proved that directly the labourers obtain any 
 advance in wages they call into operation an influence which 
 sooner or later must exert a tendency to again reduce wages." 
 — Fmocett, p. 137. 
 
228 LIBERTY AND PEOGKESS. 
 
 lowest of all — the residuum of the people — which 
 has to bear the concentrated pressure of competition 
 of the whole of society. 
 
 To further aggravate the evil of those just above 
 the starvation line, just able to subsist by work, 
 another powerful engine for evil is well-intentioned 
 but ill-placed charity. This, by enabling some to 
 work for less than a living wage, makes life abso- 
 lutely and altogether intolerable for those who have 
 to depend solely on their labour. So, similar to 
 charity, is the immense sum spent on out-door relief. 
 This is either conditioned on the recipient not earn- 
 ing other money — when it becomes an incentive to 
 malingering and idleness — or else, if work is per- 
 mitted or winked at, it at once has all the bad effects 
 of charity itself. Combined with the operation of 
 Nature's law, the result seems to make the problem 
 of our poorest almost an impossible one to solve. 
 And to solve by charity it certainly is. If every 
 one to-day were pi'ovided with relief, the increase 
 in population would be such that the solution of the 
 problem would be impossible to-morrow. It is worse 
 than negative, it aggravates the evil, to cry " Peace, 
 peace," when there is no peace. Ignoring facts never 
 was and never will be the basis for ameliorating the 
 condition of anything. 
 
 For practical reform the first essential is to master 
 the realities governing the situation. It by no 
 means follows that the prevailing conditions in the 
 United Kingdom are the same as the prevailing con- 
 ditions in other countries. The underlying prin- 
 ciples will be the same, but social entity in every 
 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 229 
 
 country is the resultant of innumerable forces, and 
 which for the time will be the most powerful operat- 
 ing force will vary with the character and soil of 
 every people. 
 
 Thus some nations have vast tracts of virgin land. 
 We, next to Belgium, have the densest population in 
 the world, and are simply becoming too crowded 
 for individual development or comfort. Nothing 
 but a complicated form of civilisation would enable 
 us to sustain forty millions of people in these 
 islands (a), and it is only by a most elaborate 
 system of division of labour and a most magnificent 
 efficiency that we are able to secure for our labour, 
 as a whole, such vast returns. 
 
 It seems strange at first that any of our land 
 should go out of cultivation, but it is because our 
 
 (a) " There is, as it were, a tacit compact between each in- 
 dividual and society in general that the commodities which 
 he consumes will he produced for him by other classes of 
 labourers. If there were not confidence that such a compact 
 would be realised, society would return to its primitive type, 
 for each man would have to live on his own plot of land, 
 and every commodity he consumed would have to be pro- 
 duced by himself. If this is done in any country to a large 
 extent the country must be poor and backward." — Fawcett, 
 p. 59. 
 
 " The Foundation of Society is Mutual Helpfulness. 
 
 " All the members of human society stand in need of each 
 other's assistance and are likewise exposed to mutual injuries. 
 When the necessary assistance is reciprocally afforded from 
 love, from gratitude, from friendship and esteem, the society 
 flourishes and is happy. . . . Society, however, cannot 
 subsist among those who are at all times ready to hurt and 
 injure one another." — Ad. Smith, Th. Moral Sent., Part II., 
 sect. 2, Chap. III. 
 
280 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 agricultural land is tlie land of the whole world, 
 and other occupations pay better than to cultivate 
 it. We get better results by exchange than Ijy direct 
 cultivation. As long as we can manufacture other 
 articles in exchange for which we can get more 
 food than we can get by working siinply on our 
 own fields, for all practical purposes of supply our 
 farms are the vast tracts to be found in every con- 
 tinent. Thus it is at home that our less profitable 
 lands go out of cultivation, and as is technically 
 said, thf margin of cultivation (/>) is steadily rising ; 
 
 (i) Ricardo's theory of rent seems generally accepted. 
 Land will only be cultivated that yields the cultivator at 
 least a living. If it does not do this it must go out 
 of cultivation. This is termed the margin of cultivation. 
 But owing to convenience of situation, facilities of transport, 
 or superiority of soil, some land may make the cultivator a 
 better return than such bare living. Thus, if he were willing 
 to work the former land for a bare living he would be 
 willing to pay a rental for the superior land. Where com- 
 petition was very keen this rent would rapidly approximate to 
 the diiierence in return to be obtained from the two respective 
 classes of land. Thus, in other words, the economic rent of 
 agricultural land would be the difference between what such 
 land would yield and what the worst land just in cultivation 
 would yield for the same labour. (Discussed in Fcuvceft, 
 p. 113.) Where the theory seems to need modification to 
 meet modern conditions is that to work land on a large 
 scale demands a considerable amount of capital. But sup- 
 pose a farmer has a capital of £5,00(», his standard of li\'ing 
 will be that of a man with £o,00U, and he is not going to 
 ■pay his landlord in rent the difference between what his farm 
 yields and the bare living he could get out of the poorest 
 land for the same expenditure of labour. He will want at 
 least to do as well with his £5,000 as he would in any other 
 business. Hence a landowner who wants a good tenant with 
 plenty of capital cannot possibly obtain as rent the difference 
 between the two classes of land. A man content with a 
 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 231 
 
 that is, only those lands pay for cultivation which, 
 year by year, are relatively of superior quality. 
 So for securing the best results per man employed 
 it does not pay to cultivate land too intensively, 
 and our conditions are further governed by what is 
 known as the law of diminishing returns (c). If ten 
 men working a farm are the exact number to get 
 the maximum results for their labour, then it is 
 found that whilst eleven or more would get a 
 greater total return, yet the proportionate return 
 secured by each would be less than for ten only. 
 Hence, though we might get more return from our 
 
 much lower standard of living, and closely approximating to 
 tlie labourer, wiU. work poor land and make a bare subsistence 
 out of it when the rich farmer would not work it at a gift. 
 
 " It may be stated generally that in England each class of 
 society has a recognised standard of living which involves a 
 certain expenditure." — Faiccett, p. 83. 
 
 {c) The law of " diminishing returns " is admirably dis- 
 cussed by Francis A. Walker in his " Political Economy," 
 p. 35 et seq., showing how, after a certain limit, proportionate 
 effectiveness is lessened. The following is an interesting 
 tabular example as applied to agriculture : — 
 
 Numter of 
 Labourers. 
 
 Number of 
 Bushels per Acre. 
 
 Total for 
 whole Area. 
 
 Each Labourer's 
 Proportion. 
 
 10 
 12 
 15 
 20 
 
 20 
 
 22-8 
 
 27 
 
 32 
 
 2,000 
 2,280 
 2,700 
 3,200 
 
 200 
 190 
 180 
 160 
 
 Of course a similar table could be given showing pro- 
 portionate increase until maximum efficiency reached. As 
 regards the production of raw material the law is almost 
 universal. As regards manufactured products the above is 
 more illustrative than exact. 
 
232 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 land, cultivate it more closely, and get more total 
 results by crowding labour on to it, yet we could do 
 so only at the cost of getting steadily diminishing 
 proportionate results. And as a nation we simply 
 do not do it because, as a whole, we have more 
 profitable outlets for our industry. This indicates 
 that we shall not find a solution for the problem 
 of our underpaid by driving them to less profitable 
 work, but by regulating their present occupations. 
 For a time the alternative occupation offered by 
 unlimited tracts of virgin soil has a decided ten- 
 dency to harden wages ; but that is different to our 
 taking our people from more and putting them to 
 less profitable employment. And even were there 
 unlimited access to land, with our land limited as it 
 is, we should only find that in a few years our 
 poorest, taking with them their same improvident 
 habits, would so increase in numbers that very 
 shortly the sole result v/ould be we should not only 
 have a poverty as deep as ever, but a still greater 
 population of the unfit to be a millstone round the 
 neck of the energetic and prudent. On the other 
 hand, if they ceased to be improvident, they could 
 secure a far higher standard of comfort under 
 present conditions than under others artificially 
 introduced. What we want is that all our labour 
 should be used in those wavs in which there is 
 greatest scope for organisation and machinery and 
 consequent eflSciency. No doubt it would seem 
 that any one in full work can produce more than 
 he consumes ; in other words, that as far as 
 work is concerned, it can produce the fund out of 
 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 233 
 
 which its wages are found. This is a technical 
 expression, and possibly carries us no further, and 
 is only of interest because of the polemics that have 
 warred round the unhappy subject of the wage 
 fund (d). But granting that work produces its 
 
 (rf) In its crude form we should probably hardly agree 
 with the old wage fund theory, viz. : — " That capital is the 
 fund from which labour is remunerated, and it has been 
 customary ... to describe that portion of the capital of a 
 countrj' which is devoted to the payment of wages as the 
 wages fund " {Faivcett, p. 128). Thus stated it has been 
 combated by Mr. Thornton and Mr. Mill, and forms the 
 subject of an eloquent tirade by Mr. Henry George, follow- 
 ing their lead. No doubt, under present conditions, our 
 capital and credit is so enormous, that to the necessary wage 
 fund will be easily allocated exactly so much capital as is 
 required week by week and no more. As for the existence of 
 such wage fund as a fund all would agree it is more or less 
 mythical. But the underlying thought, when stated not as a 
 mathematical formula but as part of general reasoning, far 
 more appeals to us. Then, if we follow Mr. Fawcett a little 
 further, we find we have not much desire to quarrel with his 
 argum^'nts or conclusions. Dealing with capital " as that 
 portion of wealth which is set aside to assist in the pro- 
 duction of more wealth," he goes on to say that wages are 
 governed by supply and demand — that is, by effectual 
 demand ; that is, by demand by those who not only want to 
 employ labour but can pay its price. But those who thus 
 want to employ labour are those who, having wealth, want to 
 employ such wealth as capital, want to use it in business, in 
 fact. Unless so used capital is barren, but to be used involves 
 the employment of labour. Therefore, the greater the 
 capital wanting employment the greater the demand for 
 labour, and if the supply remains the same the greater the 
 price it can command. Thus the more capital wauting em- 
 ployment the more labour that will be profitably employed. 
 {FfiH-rctt, p. 1'j2.) In our text we have arrived at ttie same 
 result in another way. When times are good the more and 
 more available wealth is set aside to be used as capital, with 
 the result that usually employers and employed and owners 
 
■2'-ii LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 wage, still the wage of unorganised work is an 
 utterly miserable one, and we must never forget 
 that in the unaided fight with Nature life is very 
 hard indeed (e). Xo doubt in the past, when we 
 were dependent on our own land for our food 
 supply, and when an increasing demand necessi- 
 tated inferior land being brought under cultivation, 
 and what its produce sold for set the level of prices, 
 rents steadilv and proportionately increased as this 
 so-termed margin of cultivation steadily fell. 6u, 
 further, a* the profits of both farmer and owner 
 were dependent on the difEerence between selling 
 price and co>t. and as we have seen that the selling 
 j)rice was arbitrarily fixed, we have got. as we can 
 see. the very ideal conditions to which we have 
 referred, where it pavs the emploj^er to sweat the 
 employed. The le>s paid in wages the more the 
 profit. And they did it in every possible way. If 
 fewness of numbers threatened to harden the labour 
 market and raise wages, they made it illegal for 
 labourers to receive more than a certain amount : 
 and when, in the early part of last century, a 
 relaxation of the poor law and an indiscriminate 
 doling out of relief had su increased the labourers 
 as to put them entirely at their mercy, it paid them 
 to grind them down to the lowest possible subsist- 
 
 of wealth all find the greatest demand for thf-ir different 
 services at the same time and all do well together. When 
 conditions are the reverse all do badly together. Probably 
 for practical purposes we get all the information we can use 
 by observation of the facts themselves without trying to 
 bring them within the compass of a definite law. 
 (r) Proved by the few who survived. 
 
GENERAL COKSIUEKATIONS. 235 
 
 ence wage. It is not surprising, then, that kind- 
 hearted men should find in our tiien land laws the 
 cause of all poverty. That the greed of one class 
 with the helplessness of the other was a very distinct 
 cause at the time is undoubted ; but unhappily 
 it was not the only cause, as many a sympathetic 
 philanthropist then contended as he demanded 
 reform. Had it been the sole cause of poverty, 
 with changing conditions in land we might have 
 hoped for changing conditions in our poor. In 
 those days, with the margin of cultivation falling 
 and the nation at the mercy of its landlords, it did 
 seem we had only to change the tenure and owner- 
 ship of land to at once end poverty in all its most 
 aggressive forms. On this hypothesis one of the 
 most eloquent and impressive works dealing with 
 human prcjblems was constructed. But unfortunately 
 its diagnosis of existing evils was not exhaustive, for 
 otherwise, with a complete revolution in our land 
 system, we might have hoped to have found our 
 problem of poverty settled instead of being as 
 serious as ever ( /). As long as land was a monopoly 
 
 (/) Mr. Henry George attributed poverty almost sulely to 
 the evils of the land system and the rapacity of landlords. 
 His arguments were based on a hardening market, on a 
 steadily descending margin of cultivation, and a proportion- 
 ately steadily increasing rise in rents. [Prognss and Povevtij, 
 p. 153.) Since his day we have had a weakening market, a 
 margin of cultivation steadily rising and rents as proportion- 
 ately falling, and yet none of the happy improvements he 
 prophesied as likely to result from such alteration have come 
 about. 
 
 In another respect his argument seems inconclusive. 
 After writing chapters to establish his law of rent on facts 
 
236 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 the margin of cultivation steadily fell, and the grip 
 of the lando^vner became harder than ever. But 
 then came the mighty developments of steam, and 
 in a few decades, from being dependent on our own 
 lands only for our food, we had the whole world 
 foi' our cornfields. Thereupon the margin of 
 cultivation steadily rose, and once and for ever 
 the power of the landlord was ended. Steam had 
 brought about in a few years what the most san- 
 guine land reformer had not hoped to accomplish 
 under several generations [g). But, with condi- 
 
 based on agriculture, he practically assumes its universality, 
 without anything but most cursory investigation. Unfortu- 
 nately there is no one cause of either prosperity or poverty, 
 and it is only a patient inquiry into all causes that can result 
 in any good being done. 
 
 If any oiu' thing is to be saddled with responsibility it is 
 " human nature." But this helps us but little, as this one 
 thing admits of thousands of different methods of treatment. 
 
 {g) " Land, labour, and capital, are the three requisites of 
 production." [Fmcvcit, p. 44.) In a country where the 
 staple industry is agriculture, the fact of land being limited 
 in quantity is so important that land is well considered as a 
 factor in all economic questions dealing with wealth produc- 
 tion. But in England the importance of land as a special 
 factor is continually lessening as our people increase in 
 numbers, and have more and more to live by manufacturing, 
 and not by agriculture. A century ago the question of the 
 land was all-important, it was so limited in amount. To-day 
 otAy a few shillings for carriage separate us from the land of 
 the whole world. A century ago the country was at the 
 mercy of its landowners. To-daj- our harvests are gathered in 
 everj' quarter of the globe. So as regards the manufactured 
 wares we send in exchange for our food. In their case the 
 value of the land required, as an element of cost, is so trifling 
 as to be absolutely neghgible as an economic factor. Thus, 
 really, we arrive at sounder conclusions by neglecting land 
 altogether as an economic factor than by giving it a con- 
 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 237 
 
 tions absolutely reversed, we have still the same 
 problem to solve, and alvi^ays will have as long as 
 human nature is what it is, and improvidence breeds 
 improvidence ; and it is easier to succumb than to 
 rise triumphant over temptation. 
 
 How can the nation help to protect others and 
 the unborn against the effects of improvidence ? 
 is the question we have to solve. 
 
 sideration which it no longer demands. Of course, if we again 
 cut ourselves off from the rest of the world, land will onoe 
 more resume its former importance. 
 
238 LIBERTY AND PEOGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 nature's laws and parental responsibility. 
 
 Whether it is to moderate the rigour of Nature's 
 law — which may perhaps be put in the simpler form, 
 that the improvident will have more children than 
 they can fairly provide for — or whether it is to give 
 effect to the dictates of common sense, first and fore- 
 most in any scheme for ameliorating the conditions 
 of our poorest must be the enforcing of parental 
 responsibility. Anything which lessens parental 
 responsibility is an unmixed, unadulterated evil. It 
 may be defended by the most plausible sophistries 
 or most eloquent appeal to our symjDathies ; it may 
 even try to enlist our sense of justice and fair play, 
 and yet in its results prove none the less disastrous(a). 
 For one we relieve, two will have to suffer ; and 
 that we may evade our duty we increase the burden 
 of suffering humanity. 
 
 And how is parental responsibility to be enforced ? 
 
 Certainly not by the State undertaking duties 
 which ought to be discharged by the parent himself. 
 
 (ff) " The conclusion above all others which we desire to 
 enforce is that any scheme, however well-intentioned it raay 
 be, will indefinitely increase every exH it seeks to alleviate if 
 it lessens individual responsibility by encouraging the people 
 to rely less upon themselves and more upon the State.'" — 
 Faaciit, p. .'JOO. 
 
nature's laws and parental responsibility. 239 
 
 Does the worker think he benefits when the State 
 educates the child he should educate himself? 
 Does he think it is so much added money to his 
 •weekly earnings ? And how about the increasing 
 population that will result, and which will fight him 
 to the death for his wages ? What determines the 
 level of the men's wages ? Their competition with 
 themselves. Do they think it will pay them to 
 have the country turned into a forcing house of 
 wastrels and the unfit, to ever battle with them the 
 more fiercely? No man is more interested in the 
 enforcement of parental responsibility than the 
 worker himself, and doubly so if he be a hard- 
 working, self-respecting man himself. Does he 
 want the millions increased to snatch the bread out 
 of his mouth and that of his child ? How can he 
 hope to maintain any permanent improvement when 
 he has this ever-growing evil and power to contend 
 with ? 
 
 Then how are we to enforce parental responsi- 
 bility ? Not by telling the thriftless, feckless 
 parent who has children he cannot provide for, 
 that he is the miserable unfortunate victim of a 
 wicked system which robs him that others may 
 fatten on unholy wealth. Then how are we to 
 enforce parental responsibility ? Not by preaching 
 that if he has the children the State will do the rest, 
 and encouraging him to neglect them and starve 
 them until they are of an age to earn a little money, 
 and then giving him power to use them more vilely 
 than a slave driver. 
 
 No, not one of these ways is likely to increase in 
 
240 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 the country a sense of parental responsibility, and 
 the first thing we ought to do is to change the law 
 as to the rights of worthless parents in their 
 children's labour, and to put them on the proper 
 basis of the child's interests alone ; and the next 
 thing we ought to do is to reduce to practice what 
 we are agreed on in theory — that for people to 
 have children the}' cannot provide for is a crime 
 against the children and a crime against society (b). 
 
 When once the children are in existence, who 
 that is not an absolute brute can leave the poor 
 little mites to suffer and to starve ? But merely to 
 relieve them and ignore the wickedness of their 
 parents is to increase the evil. 
 
 As regards coming into this world, we have never 
 
 (b) The enormous improvement that might be secured hy 
 the steady pressure of pubUc opinion is well shown by 
 Mr. F. A. Walker in his " Political Economy," where he 
 demonstrates how much might result not from violent but 
 partial changes if all in the same direction : " Any economic 
 want may act in restraint of population in one or more of 
 three ways — first, by diminishing the numbers of the marry- 
 ing class, inducing celibacy amongst those who do not find 
 their way to obtain an income adequate to the support of a 
 family ; secondly, by procrastinating marriage ; and, thirdly, 
 by diminishing the bu'th rate within the married state. The 
 forces which operate in restraint of population may take any 
 one of these three ways, or take them all, in which latter case 
 the reduction of the ratio of increase will be very marked. 
 If, for example, the number of married pairs in a given 
 community were brought down from luO to 80 by the spread 
 of celibacy, if through later marriages the child-bearing 
 period for each married pair were reduced from twenty years 
 to fifteen, and if the interval between births were extended 
 from two years to three, the number of children born under 
 the latter state of things would be to the number born under 
 the former state as 40 to lOU." — Pol. Econ.. Walkev, p. 3o7. 
 
natuee's laws and parental responsibility. 241 
 
 been consulted, and so far we may feel ourselves 
 bound by no social contract; but — unless we are 
 mere animals, when we should be treated as such — 
 when by our voluntary act we take to ourselves a 
 wife and beget children, we undertake obligations 
 which the rest of the community have a right to see 
 we discharge. If we do not discharge these obliga- 
 tions, others have to do our duty for us, and if we 
 throw this burden upon them they have the right 
 to make things exceedingly unpleasant for us. 
 But how is the State to enforce such obligations ? 
 Seeing that compared with the individual the State 
 is all-powerful, even to the extent of life itself, it is 
 absurd to ask how. The State has many ways of 
 making itself disagreeable, and if one method is 
 not a success something severer must be tried. 
 
 And the first step in this direction is clear. If a 
 parent is disgracefully indifferent to the welfare of 
 his offspring, when it costs him some self-denial to 
 see to its wants, and others have to provide for its 
 necessaries, then never again ought such parent to 
 be allowed any rights whatever in it, and especially 
 not when it becomes of an age when it can earn 
 money to be stolen from it (c). 
 
 Again, if a parent is an habitual drunkard and 
 lets his children sink into a state of destitution, then 
 such self-indulgence ought to be treated as a very 
 serious offence indeed. 
 
 In fact, there is no reason why it should not be 
 regarded as an offence for a man to indulge in 
 
 (c) This was the old Chaldean law, and one we ought to 
 adopt. 
 
 D. R 
 
242 LIBERTY AND PEOGEESS. 
 
 strong liquor at all when he has dependents at 
 home in want and starving. 
 
 Why should he be allowed to waste money in 
 self-indulgence before he first discharges his duty ? 
 Some speak of such as "poor fellow," but a man 
 who gets drunk, wastes his money on himself and 
 leaves his family to starve, is not a poor fellow — he 
 is a selfish beast ; and if he will not voluntarily dis- 
 charge his responsibilities, the community ought 
 never to rest until they make him do so by com- 
 pulsion. No doubt drunkenness in itself gives no 
 right of interference. It is only drunkenness that 
 makes itself publicly offensive or which is accom- 
 panied by a failure to discharge one's duties that 
 does. When, in addition, neglect is accompanied by 
 cruelty, the punishment should be made short and 
 sharp, and it would be none the less effective that it 
 would not be a bar to his earning his living in the 
 future. 
 
 So there is a class of woman who at regular 
 intervals seeks our maternity hospitals and imposes 
 on the public the responsibility of providing for 
 children she has not the remotest intention of caring 
 for herself. A single offence might be forgiven her, 
 a second might be condemned, but a third should 
 be made impossible. The multiplication of children 
 is far too serious a question for the nation, to be 
 allowed to continue unchecked. The taking of life 
 is too serious to be even contemplated, but in the 
 present state of medical science it is not necessary, 
 and no moral law will be broken by prevention. 
 
 But here is our difficulty. Is public opinion pre- 
 
nature's laws and parental responsibility. 243 
 
 pared to regard callous selfishness and neglect of 
 duty tis a punishable offence, and to treat it as 
 such ? We pride ourselves on our superiority over 
 our' ancestors, we pride ourselves on our humane 
 punishments ; but the only humane punishment is 
 the punishment that is effective. The law which 
 allows a man to inflict unmeasured suffering on 
 the weak and helpless is not humane. Such 
 humanity is but a veneer at best, and it is 
 humanity that would not be countenanced for 
 one minute if we had to suffer in our own persons 
 what we permit to be inflicted on helpless children. 
 It may be said we advocate severity bordering 
 on the cruel. We reply, the mistaken sentimental 
 kindness of the past has been the real cruelty. As 
 before noticed, Mr. Chiozza Money points out that 
 the wage-earner of £3 and under received in 1904 
 880 millions out of the 1,710 millions estimated 
 income of the whole country — more by 80 millions 
 than the whole earnings of the country of rich and 
 poor alike not fifty years ago — and yet our problem 
 of poverty and wretchedness is more serious than 
 ever. Nothing more conclusively proves we are on 
 wrong lines. We know what is right, but we will 
 not do it. We know parents who have children 
 and neglect them are guilty of a grievous sin, and 
 instead of resolutely facing our problem and saying 
 it shall not be, with a sickly sentimentalism allow 
 it to pass unpunished, and are utterly regardless of 
 the untold misery it brings on millions of helpless 
 creatures ; but at the same time, instead of being 
 ashamed of ourselves, pride ourselves on our tender 
 
 r2 
 
244 LIBERTY AND PKOGEESS. 
 
 hearts. So, instead of putting the blame on the 
 right shoulders, we make an attack on others — the 
 rich and the strong — without whom the nation 
 would go under entirely. 
 
 These ne'er-do-wells may be very unfortunate in 
 life, very ignorant, very much to be pitied ; but 
 that is no reason for their being allowed to continue 
 in wrong-doing. It does not even promote their 
 happiness. We may as well face the inevitable at 
 once. The problem will only be twice as bad 
 twenty years hence if allowed to develop on its 
 present lines. Then let us beware now, for the 
 first disaster in battle will overwhelm the nation 
 in one general ruin. The horror and madness 
 and awful hell that will follow the cry, " Give us 
 bread!" is too terrible to contemplate. If we are 
 to support the population we have in these islands, 
 we can do so only by their being vigorous, self- 
 reliant and independent. 
 
 All history warns us. As we sow so shall we 
 reap. If we deliberately cultivate a weak and 
 worthless population, such is the harvest we shall 
 gather, and it will be none the less disastrous 
 because in the fulness of our hearts we deny the 
 evidence of our senses. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 nature's laws and thrift. 
 
 Akin to the necessity of enforcing parental responsi- 
 bility is the importance of inculcating thrift, and 
 the accumulative power or virtue of " littles." 
 That this is accomplished by the State doing for a 
 man what he ought to do for himself is obviously 
 absurd. With wealth such as ours we feel it 
 delightful to provide for the aged and the needy. 
 Probably it is the one thing we are all pleased to 
 contribute our quota to, but there is a wise way and 
 an unwise way of doing it. If provision for old 
 age is a reward for self-denial in youth, if it is a 
 liberal return for money saved instead of being 
 expended in beer, if it is given to those who have 
 strenuously done their best to help themselves, then 
 it is a good and a blessing which will repay the 
 country fourfold for every penny expended. If, 
 however, it is given as a kind of extra dole in 
 wages, a kind of makeweight for the inequalities of 
 fortune ; if it is given so that children need no 
 longer provide for parents, and that youth need no 
 longer save against age ; if it be a kind of tribute 
 that envy demands of wealth, then it only proves 
 that out of the most excellent of institutions it is 
 possible to extract the utmost amount of evil results. 
 The test of suoh measures is, do they promote thrift ? 
 
246 LIBEKTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 There is no more excellent form of thrift than that 
 of life insurance. So excellent is it we would have 
 it universal. So excellent is it we Avould have it — 
 compulsory. But would we ? The moment we 
 make it compulsory, good-bj-e to it as an agent for 
 promoting thrift. As a convenient way of levying 
 a new poor rate, as a simple way of imposing a 
 new tax it may be verv excellent, but immediately 
 the voluntary part of the act is done away with, 
 that moment it is of no further value as an 
 educational agency. Good and bad, drunk and 
 sober, willing and unwilling, all have to pay the 
 tax, for which, it is true, they get a most magnificent 
 return. Once again it is but an attempt to increase 
 wages in a way which is economically unsound. 
 If in return for a nominal pavment in pi'emium the 
 nation undertakes to keep each worker in comfort 
 when '' at plav," it will be faced with the trade 
 unions' difficulties without the trade unions' re- 
 sources in dealing with the idler and incompetent. 
 If, then, to protect itself — and, as will be said, to also 
 benefit the man — it insists on his doing work, it will 
 soon be equally insisted that current wages should 
 be paid, and thus, under cover of a most specious 
 proposal — that of compulsory insurance — there will 
 be introduced the fatal doctrine of the riaht to 
 work. 
 
 To promote thrift — and for anything else it is 
 not worth the trouble— we must preserve the volun- 
 tary character of insurance. Possibly it may be 
 beneficial to tempt the worker with higher benefits 
 than he could commercially command, but this 
 
nature's laws and thrift. 247 
 
 would have to be very carefully tested step by step, 
 for somehow w^hen we depart from sound business 
 principles things have generally a disagreeable 
 knack of going wrong. Still, insurance is based on 
 an average of good and bad risks. If by encourag- 
 ing insurance we can promote thrift, we might do 
 it on the basis of all the risks being regarded as 
 good. A "good risk" always objects that he has 
 to pay for the bad ones as well, and to this extent 
 the State might help him so that he should not be 
 frightened away. It is not necessary that the State 
 should make such insurance pay, and could regard 
 it as part of its altruistic machinery, designed to 
 elevate the individual and-teach him habits of thrift. 
 But at best it is little good the State can thus do. 
 Virtue is from within, and not to be imposed like a 
 cloak from without. And as with pensions so with 
 insurance, the very condition of receiving money as 
 a right from the State ought to depend on each 
 having voluntarily done his best to put by some- 
 thing when in health and able to work. 
 
 If a man has never saved, never exercised self- 
 denial, and comes to want, then let him be branded 
 as a pauper as he deserves. If he wants to preserve 
 his civil rights, let him act so as to deserve them. 
 
 It may be urged that it is cruel to expect any 
 man to save out of a miserable wage, that it is 
 taking from his wife and children to deprive him of 
 any part of his little. When our working men as a 
 whole are teetotallers, and waste nothing in drink, 
 we will consider this objection further. In the 
 meantime we say the greater good has to be con- 
 
248 LIBERTY AND PEOGEESS. 
 
 sidered, and the greater good is to teach him 
 thidft and to depend on himself. The nation does 
 not realise the tremendous importance of littles. 
 Suppose the working man saved even the '^d. a day 
 spent on beer, and this saving vpas carried on 
 through a couple of generations — and here remem- 
 ber that most of our prosperous families owe their 
 wealth and position to a self-denial extending over 
 more than two generations — what would be the 
 result ? First, suppose two brothers starting life 
 together, the one determined to save, the other 
 spending the not unreasonable amount we have 
 mentioned in beer. Suppose both lived to severity 
 and the one had steadih' saved from fifteen. At 
 the time when he would have otherwise qualified 
 for an old-age pension he would have saved a sum 
 represented by the series 
 
 XM 11 q; (W)"' Tv^'"^ 105 ,) 
 
 £4 lis. M.X 1 + -t . . . + -I- I)- 
 
 (lOOl 100 100 ) 
 
 or a sum rather over £1,300 [a). 
 
 Thus, at seventy he would have saved £1,300, 
 and his brother would have nothing, and would, 
 therefore, be well qualified to receive his old-age 
 pension. And is his brother a bit worse off for his 
 savings ? Not in the least. On the contrary, after 
 
 [a) We have estimated the interest at five per cent., for if 
 he only bought his house instead of paying rent for it, it 
 would at least yield him this amount. So, if as his capital 
 accumulated he bought other similar houses, he would be 
 able to equally well invest his further savings, for, as a matter 
 of fact, it is this sort of owner who can get the best results 
 out of cottage property. 
 
nature's laws and thrift. 249 
 
 having eaten all his own cake, his brother would 
 perhaps get some of his as well. In ninety-nine 
 cases out of a hundred ' he would probably get help 
 from him. His brother's poverty is not due to his 
 wealth, but its alleviation would be. 
 
 And how will the next generation be affected ? 
 
 Supposing the brother who had saved were to die, 
 leaving a son who had been equally thrifty to come 
 into his fortune. Then, when such son reached 
 seventy, he would have his own £1,300 he had 
 saved, and in addition the accumulations of the 
 £1,300 left him by his father, 
 
 that is, £1,300 x — 
 100 
 
 or some £5,000 more. That is, by the mere saving 
 of beer money for two generations he would be 
 worth a fortune over £6,000. Surely such possibi- 
 lities should make us pause before we indulge in 
 wholesale condemnation of wealth owners. 
 
 His £6,000 would be pure gain to himself and 
 the whole community. No one would have lost a 
 penny by it, and its being used, say, as we have 
 suggested, in property, would have been of advan- 
 tage to the rest of the nation. Such facts are not 
 probable, you say. Quite so. But in the excep- 
 tional cases where they do occur the families become 
 affluent and important. The same progression carried 
 on through a third generation would mean a fortune 
 of over twenty thousand pounds. These figures are 
 not probable ? Quite so. But many of our noble 
 families owe their continued wealth and existence to 
 as rigid a self-denial. In their case the temptation 
 
250 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 to spend every penny is as great, but it is a tempta- 
 tion that in the case of old families of long standing 
 has been resolutely resisted. 
 
 Surely it would be more beneficial to inculcate 
 truths such as these than to teach the working man 
 to spend every penny on himself when times are 
 good and then cry to his saving brothers — for that is 
 what it amounts to — when he finds employment slack. 
 And let us again reiterate that the £6,000 that 
 might have been saved by such simple self-denial, 
 the giving up of his daily beer — which he probably 
 would be better without — is money lost, not only 
 to himself but to the whole country. He might 
 have been that amount in hand without any other 
 being a penny the poorer. Even the work he found 
 his brewer in providing him the beer he would have 
 equally found for others bv his buying the invest- 
 ments in which he put his savings. 
 
 If, then, we enforce parental responsibility and 
 inculcate thrift, we may ho]3e to do something effec- 
 tual for the good of our general population. We 
 may even make it possible to indulge our altruistic 
 emotions without the certainty of our doing more 
 evil than good. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 nature's laws and organisation. 
 
 In our earlier chapters we have traced the effect of 
 competition on wages. We have seen how such 
 competition is limited by lessening the number of 
 those who can compete, and, further, that this 
 number may be lessened by trade unions by a 
 policy of exclusion enforced by arbitrary restric- 
 tions. And we have seen that the more effectively 
 this is done in one class, the more oppressively it 
 acts, not only on those excluded, but on all those 
 classes to which the excluded are relegated, and 
 which thus have to bear not only their natural share 
 of competition, but the aggravated competition thus 
 caused as well. And we have seen how this pressure 
 bears on each descending class until we come to the 
 lowest of all, the residuum of the people, which has 
 to bear the concentrated pressure of the competition 
 of all society. So far, then, as we find trade unions 
 favourable to the worker, their benefit ought to be 
 extended to every worker who desires it. The 
 pre-eminent advantage such unions secure is estab- 
 lishing uniform conditions of work and pay 
 throughout a trade, and preventing the workers' 
 wage being used as a counter in the masters' com- 
 petition amongst themselves. Is it impossible to 
 secure such a measure of organisation in those 
 
252 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 trades where the workers are too helpless to assist 
 themselves ? It seems there should be no difficulty. 
 The masters would benefit. It is to their interest 
 that an unconscionable and unscrupulous rival should 
 have to act as fairly as themselves. It would even 
 be to their interest if they could compel such rival 
 by law to pay his hands as well as they pay theirs. 
 But the compulsion of law not being open to them, 
 it would pay them if it could be done through 
 trade delegates. As regards the benefit to the 
 worker, it would be undoubted ; and as to the com- 
 munity, if it had to pay more through their being 
 thus made, as it were, a privileged class, it would 
 cordially co-operate in effecting such beneficial 
 change. 
 
 To this extent, tlien, it would seem that it would 
 be possible for the Legislature to assist her poorest 
 bv organising them more and more coQipletely, 
 until practically we should have every worker who 
 desired it in some recognised union. Then in every 
 such union we might hope to see the most respected 
 employer in the industry as chairman, and using his 
 superior intelligence and powers to better their posi- 
 tion, knowing that thereby he would in no way 
 endanger his own (a). 
 
 Thus we might hope to establisli a new economic 
 
 (a) Jeremy Bentham, the apostle of Individualism and 
 father of modern thought, and Robert Owen, the founder of 
 Socialism, so worked together as partners. Both were too 
 practical not to make their business pay, but their first end 
 was the good of their workers whom they watched over and 
 cared for to the utmost of their powers. 
 
natuke's laws and organisation. 253 
 
 law in the desire of every master to compel all 
 other masters to rise to his standard, instead of the 
 present competitive exigencies which compel every 
 master to cut down wages to the lowest possible 
 point or else fail in his business. Thus, instead of 
 the standard being set by the worst master, it would 
 be settled by the practice of the best and most 
 considerate. 
 
254 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE RESIDUUM. 
 
 And finally we come to our residuum. We can 
 organise them, but is anything further possible on 
 their behalf ? Here again we must carefully dis- 
 tinguish between our underpaid and unemployed. 
 
 Our underpaid are of our employed. They give 
 services, and of right are entitled to demand a just 
 return. What is a just return, we have inquired 
 into in Part I. This determined, then the duty of 
 the community is to ensure that as they give so 
 shall they receive. It may not mean the pay of 
 our artizaus, perhaps not even that of our casual 
 labourers, but probably something better than they 
 can now command. To so better the condition of 
 some of our lowest paid labour is not merely a 
 matter of charity or of altruism, but a matter of 
 obligation as well. Not that there is need for us to 
 labour this argument, for hitherto the difficulty has 
 not been the theoretical, but the practical one — -how 
 to do any good. 
 
 Many attempts have been made to assist them 
 without satisfactory results. Some of the best- 
 intentioned acts have only aggravated the evil. 
 Thus the kind-hearted public who would boycott 
 the products of sweated labour only lessen the 
 
THE RESIDUUM. 255 
 
 demand, and with it the earnings of those they 
 would benefit. So we have seen that the master 
 who would pay a living wage, or find his people 
 better conditions, is hopelessly helpless, faced by 
 the conditions of modern competition. He must 
 produce as cheaply as his neighbour or succumb. 
 So supplementing their earnings by charity has no 
 beneficial result. Competition is so severe that 
 whatever is received in charity to that extent 
 enables them to take less in wages. And still more 
 prejudicial is it to those who have no extraneous 
 assistance. These, dependent on their earnings for 
 their living, have to compete with those who only 
 want to add to their income. So with out-door 
 relief. It is but another form of charity, and with 
 its defects. As to such relief we are in this dilemma 
 — either it is given to those who do no work and 
 whilst they do no work, when it becomes a direct 
 premium on indolence, or if it is given to those who 
 do work it enables them to take less wages than 
 those not so assisted, and thereby aggravates the 
 evils of competition and the conditions of our 
 poorest. Whether it is otherwise a satisfactory 
 method of giving assistance is a matter on which 
 opinions are divided ; but economically, no doubt, 
 in common with other charities, it does, either 
 directly or indirectly, seriously aggravate the condi- 
 tions of our sweated labour. As regards all receiving 
 State aid, it does seem that as far as possible they 
 should be removed outside the ordinary competitive 
 conditions of civil life. This might simplify the 
 problem of our worst paid, but would not in itself 
 
2o6 LIBERTY AND PEOGRESS. 
 
 be a cure more than the other attempts made or 
 suggested. 
 
 The fact is our problem seems so hopeless because 
 we are now face to face in a life-and-death struggle 
 with Nature's laws themselves [a). 
 
 Nature will not have her race die out for want 
 of increase. Nature produces more than can be 
 possibly kept alive. The limit to increase is the 
 limit of sustenance only. Make that sustenance 
 more abundant and you increase the numbers, make 
 that sustenance scarcer and you diminish the evil. 
 Provide houses for such unfortunates and there vnll 
 be more for whom to provide ; insist on their 
 properly housing themselves and you will do some- 
 thing for their good. Feed them and you will have 
 the more to feed, and every penny you give in 
 charity, by that amount you will add to their suffer- 
 ings (b). Take away and care for the children they 
 
 (a) " The difBculty in nature is to see the law where it is 
 concealed from us, and not to he misled hy phenomena which 
 contradict our senses. That the sun stands still, that it does 
 not rise and set, but that the earth performs a diurnal revo- 
 lution with incredible swiftness, contradicts the senses as 
 much as anything, but yet no well-informed person doubts 
 this is the case." — Gonvermiiom of Goethe (Bokermann, Oxen- 
 ford's Translation, 1874), p. 521. Thus children fed, suffering 
 relieved, seem to be advancing the cause of humanity, and 
 yet are we not providing more victims to be sacrificed on the 
 altar of Nature's law that millions are produced, that thousands 
 may survive ? 
 
 (6) "A great portion of the advantage which the poor would 
 derive from the cheapening of food is, therefore, ultimately 
 lost to them, because the increase of population which is 
 stimulated by cheap food has a tendency to lower wages." — 
 Faivcett, p. 175. 
 
TEE RESIDUUM. 257 
 
 bring into the world and tliey will have others to 
 fill their place. We are face to face with the fact 
 that with our submerged population there is only 
 one level below which earnings cannot go — enough 
 to keep body and soul together. 
 
 If we recognise this fact we see certain lines 
 along which progress is possible. Our first step 
 must be to zealously stamp out overcrowding. And 
 shall we build houses for them ? Certainly not ; it 
 were but to aggravate the evil. But none the less 
 should we insist on a minimum accommodation for 
 every family. But more space means more cost, 
 and how are poor creatures who now can barely find 
 Is. a week for lodgings, to find Is. 6d. or even 2s. to 
 pay for the additional cubic feet of space ? They 
 cannot. "It is an impossibility," it is said. "They 
 must," is the inexorable reply. But they are already 
 on the verge of starvation. They will die if you 
 take anything further from them. Then to that 
 extent they will lessen competition, until wages rise 
 to pay for the additional cost of living thrown on 
 their class. Then for the next generation the im- 
 proved housing will be pure gain. Can the rigour 
 of such proceedings be mitigated in the meantime ? 
 Can we organise their labour and thereby secure 
 them some of the benefits of trade unions? At 
 least as far as reasonable hours are desirable they 
 might be rendered compulsory by law. Thus we 
 find that in many trades where the wages are lowest 
 the hours are longest. What are reasonable hours^ 
 might well be left to the common sense of the 
 nation to decide in each case. This decided, and 
 
 D. s 
 
-258 LIBERTY AND PKOGEESS. 
 
 the number limited accordingly, the tendency would 
 be to harden that particular labour market and 
 increase the pay of those engaged in it. Probably 
 this tendency would be neutralised by the law of nature 
 to which we have already referred, in which case the 
 only gain, but still great gain, to the worker would 
 be fewer hours of toil. Possibly the two working 
 together, better housing insisted upon and shorter 
 hours legislated for, might result in higher wages 
 becoming a permanent result. The shorter hours 
 would certainly result in their earning more, and 
 if, before the benefit of this went in increasing the 
 number to again reduce the earnings, the rigorous 
 enforcement of better housing was insisted upon 
 and a considerable reduction made in outdoor relief, 
 there might be some permanent improvement 
 effected in their condition, some permanent raising 
 of their standard of living, the first step to the 
 solution of our problem (c). 
 
 So we should hope the further benefits of organi- 
 sation would be extended to them. By establishing 
 a uniform wage and uniform conditions we might 
 expect such wages to be higher than now esta- 
 blished. Whether in the meantime it would be 
 desirable to establish a minimum wage by law 
 would need further consideration. It would be 
 essential to proceed by steps, and by small steps, 
 
 (c) " In considering any scheme for improving the condition 
 of the poor one of the chief points to keep in view is to 
 endeavour, i£ possible, to effect so marked an advance in 
 their condition that they will not willingly sacrifice the 
 higher standard of comfort they have reached." — Faircett, 
 
 p. 2ao. 
 
THE RESIDUUM. 259 
 
 SO as to have a unanimous public opinion in its 
 favour. We, of course, refer to the "sweated" 
 industries only. We have seen that many em- 
 ployers — possibly all — would willingly pay higher 
 wages if the practice were universal (d). 
 
 Would it be possible in those cases, say, where 
 OS. a week was the ruling figure, to make it 7s. 6d. ? 
 
 ' ' What a magnificent improvement ! " some would 
 sneeringly remark. Is any improvement possible ? 
 is the only matter we are concerned with. Is any 
 change possible that will do more good than harm ? 
 
 And if 7s. 6d. be not a princely income, it is fifty 
 per cent, better than 5s. An inch in the way is 
 worth a mile in the clouds any day. But here, 
 once again, the danger is that the improvement 
 may only result in such increased population that 
 the next generation may find itself as hopeless as 
 ever. 
 
 {d) " The effect of competitive pressure in reducing the 
 percentage of profits to turn-over is well seen in the extreme 
 cases in which one or more of the stages are omitted. In the 
 wholesale clothing trade, for instance, there may be, as we 
 have seen, only a single grade of capitalists between the 
 " sweated " woman trouser hand and the purchasing con- 
 sumer. This wholesale clothier, though he makes a huge 
 income for himself, extracts only the most infinitesimal sum 
 out of each pair of trousers or " juvenile " suit. His success 
 depends upon the fact that he has a colossal trade, dealing 
 every year in millions of garments, and turning over his 
 moderate capital with exceptional rapidity. Even if he were 
 sentimentally affected by the fact that the women to whom 
 his firm gives out its millions of garments earned only six to 
 ten shillings a week, he could not appreciably raise their 
 wages by foregoing his whole profit, seeing that this amounts 
 perhaps only to a penny a garment." — Industrial Democracy 
 {Sidney Webb), p. 669. 
 
 s2 
 
260 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 If we thus raise wages we might, perhaps, with 
 advantage end a great deal of our child labour. 
 Possibly its total abolition might be desirable. No 
 doubt one of the reasons why the worse kind of 
 parents are reckless in the children they have is» 
 that they prove an actual source of profit to them 
 at a very early age. This is not satisfactory, and 
 never will be until the rights of children are more 
 generally enforced. 
 
 But, granting we can raise the wages of our lowest 
 paid with advantage to themselves, may not other 
 matters have to be taken into consideration ? 
 
 First, if we so raise our minimum wage, may we 
 not make our country an attraction to all the ill- 
 paid workers of the world ? 
 
 Clearly our duty is to those of our own land. 
 Much as we may sympathise with suffering in any 
 shape and in any land, we cannot be the home for 
 the destitute of all races. We have already as large 
 a population in our islands as we can observe with 
 tranquillity, and it seems clearly our duty to at any 
 rate avoid any unnecessary increase of the undesir- 
 able element. This danger, therefore, need not be 
 further considered ; it can be simply met by a poKcy 
 of exclusion. 
 
 Secondly, can we maintain our higher wage in the 
 teeth of foreign competition ? 
 
 The conclusive answer is that ill-paid labour is 
 not the most productive labour. A half-stoked 
 engine is an economic loss, whether human or 
 mechanical, and there is not the least doubt that so 
 far as we improve the conditions of workers we 
 
THE RESIDUUM. 261 
 
 shall also improve their efficiency as producers (e). 
 And our great power as producers is our efficiency, 
 an efficiency due to the use of machinery and the 
 intelligence of our workers ; and in Scotland, where 
 the intelligence is greatest, machinery most largely 
 used, and where wages rule high, the efficiency is 
 greater than in any other country of the world. We 
 shall not lessen the efficiency of our lowest paid 
 worker, even proportionately, by paying him more. 
 
 Then wo must never forget that so far as foreign 
 trade makes labour more productive, it increases the 
 store of goods with which the volume of employ- 
 ment as a whole is increased. So far as this is a 
 factor in causing good times, its influence on the 
 poorest paid trades will be rather beneficial than 
 harmful. 
 
 A third objection is that by raising prices we may 
 possibly kill trades whose very existence depends 
 
 (e) " Up to a certain limit, then, with food, as with fuel, 
 the true economy of consumption is found in increasing the 
 supply. Niggardliness is waste, and waste of the worst sort. 
 But j ust as there is a maximum limit with fuel, so there is 
 with food. After that limit is reached, the increase of food 
 does not imply a proportional increase of force, if indeed any 
 increase at all, and after a certain still higher point is reached 
 the increase of food brings mischief." — Walker's Pol. Econ., 
 p. 48. 
 
 So also as to sanitary conditions : " Human beings con- 
 fined in small un ventilated rooms inevitably lose vigour." — 
 Ibid. 
 
 " And as better food and better conditions contribute to 
 higher intelligence, they contribute to efficiency. 
 
 " So cheerfulness and hopefulness contribute to efficiency." 
 — Walker's Pol. Econ., p. 53. 
 
 " Energy and intelligence are two of the most valuable 
 qualities which a labourer can possess." — Faivcett, p. 48. 
 
262 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 on the lowness of the wages paid. To this the 
 answer is, raising the wage ought to increase the 
 efficiency, and if this is done there should not be of 
 necessity such an increase of cost as to kill the 
 trade. 
 
 So, further, it must be remembered that such 
 minimum wage would be fixed for each particular 
 trade, and at such an amount as not to be fatal to 
 its existence. 
 
 No doubt if a wage is so low that it ought to be 
 raised, and yet it cannot be raised, it will suggest 
 the inquiry, Is such trade worth preserving ? 
 
 Here, again, we must remember that when we 
 make changes it is much easier to cause suffering 
 than to cure it. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 OUK UNEMPLOYED. 
 
 Thus far we have dealt with our underpaid em- 
 ployed. We have recognised the radical difference 
 between them and our unemployed. They give 
 services, they are entitled to receive as much again. 
 In determining their rights we cannot be said to 
 have been led away by any altruistic or other 
 sentimental reason — we have simply pursued our 
 argument to its bitter end. So, following the same 
 line of reasoning, we inquire what are the rights of 
 the unemployed, and we are at once brought up 
 hard as we find the only answer is none. They 
 give no services, they are entitled to nothing in 
 return. Services and payments are absolutely 
 correlative, and no services, no pay, no rights. A 
 bitter creed for the weak and helpless. Maybe, 
 but let us accept realities. We are so given to 
 seeing things as we would have them be, and not as 
 they are. 
 
 The foundation of individualistic society is pure 
 selfishness — to give, to receive as much again. 
 
 If this principle is recognised, then with less- 
 danger and more benefit can we give effect to the 
 altruistic emotions which so extensively govern 
 human affairs. We are prepared to temper selfish- 
 ness with charity, but let us clear the position and 
 
264 LIBERTY AND PEOGEESS. 
 
 make sure beyond reasonable doubt that what is 
 done is done of benevolence and not demanded of 
 right. 
 
 The fair remuneration of our ill-paid is a matter 
 of sternest duty; charity to our unemployed is a 
 matter between a man and his own conscience. If 
 a man declines to recognise his duty in this respect, 
 as for many good reasons he may, no other indi- 
 vidual or set of individuals is entitled to dictate to 
 him what his duty is, still less has a right to be 
 charitable at his expense. 
 
 In practice, no country has yet driven indivi- 
 dualism to this extreme logical conclusion, and some 
 provision for our worthy destitute has always met 
 with the approbation of the conmiunity at large. 
 But this is all the more reason why we should 
 thoroughly demarcate the true theoretical division 
 between what altruism mav give and right can 
 demand. Nothing is more pleasurable than the 
 indulgence of charitable emotions. It causes a glow 
 of virtuous self-approval highly pleasing, and expe- 
 rience proves that nothing more adds to the delicious 
 feeling of self-approbation than being charitable at 
 other people's expense. ■•Be not righteous over- 
 much " — the veiled satire of whicli is, that you are 
 not to be righteous for other people, and should be 
 content with practising virtue in your own person 
 — is a divine command which may well receive the 
 attention of every idealist who is not prepared to 
 first practise and then teach. 
 
 Having thus clearly stated what would appear to 
 be the governing principle in dealing with our 
 
OUR UNEMPLOYED. 265 
 
 unemployed, we are in a position to consider what 
 can be safely and best done on their behalf. 
 
 And first for them, as for the underpaid, nothing 
 would prove one-half as beneficial as enforcing the 
 doctrine of parental responsibility. The country 
 could be metamorphosed by the effective treatment 
 of one generation, and so-called cruelty to the 
 improvident of to-day might result in a chorus of 
 thanksgiving in untold years to come. Our un- 
 fortunate and often cheap sentimentalism in the 
 present is fatal to the child of the near future. If 
 we only realised this, much could be done that now 
 ought to be left severely alone. If at every stage 
 duty were enforced, other reforms might be feasible. 
 But the enforcing of duty should be the first step, 
 not the deferred one. We have not improved our 
 country by our contrary methods during the past 
 thirty years ; we have made it worse by increasing 
 the number of the submerged. It is so easy to vote 
 money — other people's — that our tendency is to 
 think, and begin, and continue always in the wrong 
 way. Neglecting tlie all-important essential, the 
 strengthening of tlie moral fibre of the unit, we 
 attempt changes which only aggravate and do not 
 alleviate the evils. It is absolutely worse than 
 useless voting any money or other help to a class of 
 whom John Stuart Mill says: " The use they com- 
 monly choose to make of any advantageous change 
 in their circumstances is to take it out in that form 
 which, by augmenting the population, deprives the 
 succeeding generation of the benefit." And par- 
 ticularly is it not to be contemplated by us. We 
 
266 LIBERTY AND PEOGEESS. 
 
 are already one of the most densely populated 
 kingdoms in the world, not even excepting China. 
 "We cannot feed ourselves, we are dependent for 
 existence on the rest of the world, and any increase 
 of our unfit is an absolute menace to the welfare of 
 all. But assuming such duty enforced, vrhat con- 
 current measures are desirable ? Can any reform 
 that is inconsistent with the principles of indivi- 
 dualism be attempted with any hope of doing more 
 good than haimi ? 
 
 What of emigration ? Certainly if we could send 
 abroad a million of our submerged it would be an 
 excellent thing, even if we had to send ten pounds 
 with each, provided their place was not immediately 
 filled by others as undesirable. A million children 
 so dealt with would simply and solely mean finding 
 room for another million to take their place. Of 
 course, emigration which takes our enterprising . 
 people and leaves us our unfit is obviously undesir- 
 able. As regards them also it promises as little, and 
 we are driven back to our original position that 
 there is only one way of improving our country as 
 a whole, viz., by making the individual a better, 
 more independent, and more responsible person. 
 
 This does suggest one possible reform. As far as 
 possible we should check the manufacture of the 
 unemployed. It is common experience in every 
 large town that many a bright lad on leaving school 
 is all eager to get into work. He commences by 
 trying vigorously for a job, but for many reasons 
 is unsuccessful. He continues his search, but as 
 weeks of failure pass his efforts grow less, until at 
 
OUR UlfEMPLOYED. 267 
 
 last he tries no more, and becomes a confirmed 
 loafer, or even worse. About six weeks is all that 
 is necessary to turn out the finished article. Now 
 no doubt there are many objections to compulsory 
 service, the chief being that it takes place at the 
 time when a youth should be learning his trade ; 
 but surely with these lads drifting into the ranks 
 of the unemployed such an objection cannot hold 
 good. Surely in their case compulsory service 
 would be a most excellent institution. Along with 
 the mere military drill, the boy ought to be kept 
 diligently at work at some trade. It does not seem 
 that .any method or technical school can ever 
 approach the practical teaching of the bang over the 
 head a boy gets when he muffs his work or dis- 
 pleases an irate master ; but still, with practical men 
 in charge of the military schools, something far 
 better could be done than leaving him to sink in 
 the mire and become a nuisance to himself and 
 society. Probably some would not like the dis- 
 cipline, but they would be the very ones for whom 
 discipline would be most needed (a). 
 
 (a) " A man of rare beneficence, the Chevalier Paulet, 
 created at Paris an institution for more than 200 children, 
 whom he took from the poorest class. His plan rested upon 
 four principles : To offer the pupils many objects of study 
 and labour, and to leave them the greatest latitude of taste ; 
 to employ them in mutual instruction, by offering the scholar 
 as the highest reward of proficiency the honour of becoming 
 in his turn a master ; to employ them in all the domestic 
 services of the establishment for the double purpose of 
 instruction and economy ; to govern them by means of them- 
 selves by putting each pupil under the inspection of an older 
 one in a way to render them securities for each other. In 
 this establishment everything breathed an appearance of 
 
268 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 Aiid what of finding work for the unemployed 
 as part of the individualistic life of the country? 
 Certainly not. With rare exceptions, such as the 
 cotton famine in Lancashire (i), it is better to face 
 the truth, unpleasant as it may be, that it is no part 
 of the community's duty to find work for any one, 
 that it cannot do so with advantage, and that when 
 it does it generally makes a mess of it. It may be 
 an unpleasant dilemma. Either a man can keep 
 himself, or he cannot. If he can, if for what he 
 receives he gives as much again, he is independent 
 and an active member of society. If he cannot, he 
 is not independent, he must appeal to the charity of 
 his fellow-man. Whether that charit}' is given by 
 his friend or the State does not alter his position. 
 For reasons good or bad, he wants commodities for 
 wliich he can give nothing his fellow-man is willing 
 to take in exchange. He may be unfortunate, he 
 maA- be worthless ; this does not alter the fact that 
 he has to appeal to the good-will of his neighbour. 
 Nor does it make anv difference that he is willing 
 to work. His work is not wanted. His only 
 appeal is to charity. He may be proud in spirit, 
 
 freedom and gaiety ; there was no punishment except com- 
 pulsive idleness and a change of dress. The most advanced 
 pupils were as much interested in the general success as tlie 
 founder himself, and the school was going on prosperously 
 when the revolution, amidst the general overthrow, swallowed 
 np also this little colony." — Benfham's Theory of Leginlation, 
 p. 448. Any instititiox approved bv Mr. Bemham 
 
 DEMA>'I)S OVR MOST EARNEST ATTENTION. 
 
 (i) Some philanthropists think that they could have been 
 found better employment in the ordinary business of life than 
 by being thus assisted. 
 
OUR UNEMPLOYED, 26& 
 
 and wish to make adequate return, but for the time 
 at any rate he cannot. 
 
 Whether such a one should be handed over to 
 the tender mercies of poor law officials is another 
 matter ; what alone we are here enforcing is that it 
 is as part of our charitable machinery that we must 
 deal with our indigent, and not as part of our 
 everyday working life. We must realise that the 
 man who has no work to do, nothing to give in 
 return for what he receives, for the time being 
 ceases to be a member of the self-providing com- 
 munity of active workers. 
 
 Looking at his case from the charitable point of 
 view, many considerations as to dealing with him 
 will suggest themselves as matter of common sense. 
 In the first place, a practical differentiation of those 
 in need of assistance is most desirable. There are 
 some we would compel to work or leave to starve, 
 whilst others command our fullest sympathy, such 
 as those thrown out of work through the introduc- 
 tion of improved methods. As regards such methods 
 we know they add to the employment of the 
 country as a whole, but in the meantime the suffer- 
 ing caused by their introduction is very real and 
 serious, and ought to be dealt with in a sympathetic 
 spirit (c). No doubt they will soon get back to 
 
 (c) We see cabs displaced by motor-ears. Eigbtly we 
 sympathise with the old driver thrown out of work. But as 
 the driver of the old borse 'bus proves in many cases to be tbe 
 best driver of tbe new power 'bus, so we can hope many of 
 the old cab-drivers will equally be absorbed by the new 
 employment. Still, cases of hardship and suffering must 
 result, and none of us would regret if such cases were 
 
270 LIBEETY AND PROGKESS. 
 
 profitable employment, but until they do we would 
 gladly give them a helping hand(c?). 
 
 Again, there is the second-rate workman, a good 
 fellow — of course, with a large family — but one 
 who has to go when times are bad. Him also it 
 may be wise to prevent sinking into the class of 
 the unemployable. 
 
 However, we need not inquire further into these 
 distinctions. What we want is such a system of 
 helping the unemployed and unfortunate generally 
 that they will automatically gravitate to that posi- 
 tion which their deserts entitle them to. This, we 
 think, can be best accomplished by a comprehensive 
 dealing with those who have to be assisted as a 
 whole, and into this branch of our subject we will 
 now inquire. 
 
 followed up and dealt with on their merits, and dealt with 
 liberally. 
 
 {d) Possibly in their case, also, it might be a reasonable 
 inquiry what bad they put by for a " raiay day." 
 
 Note. 
 
 Before giviag way to a flood of philanthropic emotion 
 readers should remember that dealing with our poor in a 
 sympathetic spirit was very much to the fore about a hundred 
 years ago. Owing to want of proper precautions it led to 
 most disastrous results, of which the following brief account 
 is extracted from Mr. Pawcett's " Manual of Political 
 Economy." Every student who would actively interest him- 
 self in the subject should read the whole in extenso, as it 
 shows how easy it is, when desiring to do well, to only ia- 
 
OUR UNEMPLOYED. 271 
 
 crease what is evil : — " Frequent reference is made by writers 
 of that period to the fact that about the middle of the last 
 (the eighteenth) century there was less pauperism in England 
 than in any other country. It appeared at that time not un- 
 likely that pauperism would in the coarse of a few years be 
 almost exterminated. Unfortunately, however, instead of 
 persevering in a policy which had produced such happy 
 results, the opinion began to prevail that as there was so 
 little pauperism there would be no danger in administering 
 parochial relief in what was supposed to be a more liberal 
 and kind-hearted spirit. The stringent provisions of the 
 Elizabethan Poor Law were gradually relinquished, outdoor 
 relief instead of being discouraged was directly fostered by 
 various Acts of Parliament, a lax administration of the law 
 became general, and the result was that pauperism assumed 
 such alarming proportions about the year 1832 as almost to 
 threaten the country with national bankruptcy and permanent 
 ruin. It is evident that the change of policy just indicated 
 was gradually glided into without the slightest appreciation 
 of the consequences involved. . . . By an Act passed in 
 1767 guardians were appointed to protect the poor against 
 the parsimony of overseers and other parish officers. Fifteen 
 years later, by what is known as Gilbert's Act, most of the 
 safeguards in the old poor law were entirely swept away. 
 The workhouse was no longer to be used as a test of 
 voluntary pauperism, for by this Act the able-bodied were 
 not obliged to enter it ; the guardiaus were ordered to find 
 work for all able-bodied applicants near their own homes, and 
 to make up out of the rates any deficiencies in wages. The 
 same fatal policy was continued, and was brought to a climax 
 in 1815, when, by a statute known as East's Act, the work- 
 house test . . . was altogether removed. After the passing 
 of this Act no one, not even an able-bodied labourer, was 
 called upon to enter the workhouse, and justices were em- 
 powered to make money grants to people at their own 
 homes. 
 
272 LIBERTY AND PE06RESS. 
 
 " The extent to which the industrial classes were demora- 
 lised by these relaxations of the poor law soon became only 
 too evident. The most pernicious influence was exerted not 
 only upon the poor but also upon their employers. Every 
 agency which could most powerfully promote pauperism had 
 been brought into operation : men were virtually told that no 
 amount of recklessness, self-indulgence, or improvidence 
 would in the slightest degree affect their claim to he main- 
 tained at other people's expense. If they married when they 
 had no reasonable chance of being ahle to maintain a family, 
 they were treated as if thej' had performed a meritorious act, 
 for the more children they had the greater was the amount 
 of relief they obtained. . . . Thus, if wages in any parish 
 were below what it was thought would provide a reasonable 
 maintenance, the local authorities were empowered to grant 
 an allowance in aid of wages. . . . By the joint operation of 
 all the baneful influences just described, a most alarming 
 demoralisation was produced . . that the necessity for some 
 radical reform became generally recognised. After having 
 to contend with much opposition from those who supposed 
 themselves to be interested in the abuses of the old system, 
 an Act was passed in l8'-i4: . . . generally known as the New 
 Poor Law. ... It will be useful to recount some facts which 
 were brought to light by the Royal Commission of 1832. 
 All the general objections which have been urged against the 
 relaxation of the general checks upon voluntary pauperism 
 were strikingly corroborated by specific facts. In some 
 districts outdoor relief was granted to the able-bodied upon 
 so liberal a scale that pauperism became a very remunerative 
 emploj'ment. One of the assistant commis^ioners who visited 
 Eastbourne found that paupers who worked were paid at the 
 rate of 16s. a week, whereas the average wages in the district 
 were only 12.5,-. The inferiority of the independent workman's 
 pecuniary position was so notorious that this commissioner 
 actually heard two women complain that their husbands 
 would not better their lot by becoming paupers. In North 
 
OUR UNEMPLOYED. 273 
 
 Devonshire and in many other parts of England so large an 
 allowance was granted for each aiiditional child that the more 
 numerous a man's family was the better his oiroumstanees 
 became, and in this way an artificial stimulus was given to 
 population. The habits of improvidence which were thus 
 fostered produced evils which could not be at once removed. 
 A father cannot be improvident without teaching a leasnn of 
 improvidence to his children. Moreover, where there is a 
 surplus population the labourer can only secure a minimum 
 rt^muneration for his labour, or, in other words, he simply 
 receives subsistence wages. It can, therefore, cause no sur- 
 prise that in many localities where the abuses of the old poor 
 law were most rife we find that the supply of labour is still 
 so MUCH IN EXCESS of the demand that agricultural labourers 
 until quite recently often received not more than 9s. or IQts. 
 a week, and now only obtain I2s. a week (a). The subject 
 presents equally melancholy aspects from whatever point it is 
 viewed. Pauperism often came to be regarded as a paying 
 profession, which was followed by successive generations of 
 the same family. Thus, the commissioners tell us of three 
 generations of the same family simultaneously receiving 
 relief, and the amount they drew from the parish exceeded 
 £100 per annum. As a natural consequence of the parish 
 authorities being enjoined to find work at remunerative rates 
 of wages for all their poor, the feeling soon became general 
 that pauperism was no disgrace, and that the allowance which 
 was obtained from the parish was just as much the rightful 
 property of those who received it as the wages of ordinary 
 
 (rt) " We can well remember when the ordinary wages of 
 agricultural labourers in Wiltshire and Dorsetshire were not 
 more than 7.s. or 8«. a week." — Fnwcett, p. 134. 
 
 So also his labour was mo»t terribly monotonous. " There 
 are many labourers still living who, during twenty years of 
 their life, spent ten hours a day during ten months of the 
 year in thrashing with a flail. . . . He passed his life as a 
 machine and it was impossible that an active intelligence 
 should be preserved through such ordeal." — Faucdt, p. 54. 
 
274 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 industry. Indolence was thus directly encouraged, and a 
 spirit of lawlessness and discontent resulted. The cost 
 
 of pauperism grew constantly greater, rates so rapidly 
 increased that it became evident they would soon absorb the 
 
 whole fund from which they were provided In some 
 
 districts the rates absorbed more than remained of the 
 produce of the toil after all the expenses of cultivation had 
 been paid. The commissioners teU. us that many farms were 
 given up, that several of the clergy relinquished their glebes, 
 and that much fertile land was thrown out of cultivation. 
 The}' mention one parish — Cholesbury, Berkshire — in which 
 the whole land was offered to the assembled paupers, but 
 they refused it, saying they would rather continue on the old 
 system." — Fawcett, p. 579. 
 
 After continuing his review, Mr. Fawcett concludes with a 
 warning which the well-to-do working man of to-day might 
 well take to heart, as he more than any, in the increased 
 competition it causes, suffers from a lax administration of the 
 poor laws. 
 
 " No greater misfortune could happen to the country than 
 if we again relapsed into a lax administration of the poor 
 law, and outdoor relief were generally freely given. Poverty 
 would be indefinitely increased, and on all sides agencies 
 would be brought into operation to depress the condition of 
 the labourer. The growing burden involved in increasing 
 pauperism would impose a serious tax on industry, and the 
 improvidence which, as we have seen, was fostered in the 
 days of the old poor law would be actively revived with the 
 inevitable result of an overstocked labour market and a 
 rapid decline of wages." 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE CONSOLIDATION OF OUR POOE LAWS. 
 
 As a nation we have for centuries so far departed 
 from the strict spirit of individualism that we have 
 accepted the position that our necessitous must not 
 be left to starve. In fact, so far have we gone in 
 this direction that the menace is, our race will 
 deteriorate, and the true principles on which our 
 obligations are founded be lost sight of. 
 
 But whatever our view may be of the social con- 
 tract, the fact remains that every year we spend on 
 our poor simply an enormous sum, and as a practical 
 people we desire to get the best return for it possible, 
 and under present conditions we are not satisfied 
 that we do. For some time there has been the 
 growing feeling that our present system of poor 
 relief is unsatisfactory. 
 
 We spend much and get little, and even those we 
 relieve get hardly more (a). In fact, on every hand 
 it is agreed reform is necessary, and it would seem 
 that what, above all, is wanted is that there shall be 
 no more patching of new cloth on an old garment, 
 but that some comprehensive national scheme should 
 be substituted for the parochial system now in 
 
 («) And by our system of outdoor relief, and the aggrava- 
 tion it causes of sweated labour, it is by no means clear we 
 do not cause as much sutiering as we cure. 
 
 t2 
 
276 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 force. The four essentials of our requirements 
 to-day are : — 
 
 1. Consolidation of our poor laws ; 
 
 2. Co-ordination of our various altruistic machinery 
 
 for the relief of distress ; 
 
 3. Effective differentiation of the assisted ; 
 
 4. And the bringing into line with our public 
 
 charities our private benevolences, which, 
 
 through indiscriminate giving, cause so 
 
 much harm. 
 
 This last head can only be grappled with indirectly 
 
 by our satisfactorily dealing with our poor generally, 
 
 and satisfying tlie public conscience that those in 
 
 need of assistance are best dealt with in the ways 
 
 provided by the nation as a whole. 
 
 The one thing above all to be desired is that we 
 deal with our poor as a whole, and the last thing to 
 be desired is the introduction of new agencies. The 
 ends proposed may be excellent, but the same evils 
 are present in all. There are too many organisa- 
 tions to do the same thing. Thev are inefficient — 
 not one nearly approaches ordinarv commercial 
 efficiency. Many are corrupt, all have extensive 
 staffs of officials, and not the least merit of consoli- 
 dation would be that we should largely cut down 
 our charges for administration. 
 
 So we are agreed one of the best ways of finding 
 work for our assisted is by labour colonies. How 
 can each of our innumerable parishes possibly run 
 its own labour colon}' ? And can it be wise for the 
 State to do part of their work, institute such colonies 
 in a very imperfect manner, and again administer 
 
THE CONSOLIDATION OF OUK POOR LAWS. 277 
 
 them with yet another set of officials ? The State 
 should be responsible for the whole from beginning 
 to end. It is not that we sweepingly condemn the 
 parochial system. When introduced it was a 
 marked improvement on the then existing methods, 
 but it has simply failed to keep pace with the 
 requirements of the nation. But its principle was 
 right. Its principle was the principle upon which 
 we want to act. Just as it unified the chaotic 
 charities of those times and consolidated them into 
 parishes, just as it effectively dealt with the vagrant, 
 mendicant, and sturdy vagabond, as he was styled, 
 so we again want to reduce to order the chaotic 
 state of the charities of our time, and deal with our 
 poor not only sympathetically, but stringently and 
 effectively (6). In its inception, and for many years, 
 the parochial system was admii-able. In those early 
 days, when London was practically as far from 
 Manchester as New York now is, local life was the 
 distinguishing feature of society, and it was essential 
 that the destitute should be dealt with locally. And 
 so, as the destitute were usually identified with their 
 locality, it was deemed well to keep down expense, 
 
 (b) " We shall get at our subject most directly by inqiiiring, 
 Why is it that the labourer works at all ? Clearly, that he 
 may eat. If he may eat without it he will not work. The 
 neglect or contempt of this very obvious truth by the British 
 Parliament during the latter part of the eighteenth and the 
 early part of the nineteenth century brought the working 
 classes of the kingdom almost to the verge of ruin, created a 
 vast body of hopeless and hereditary pauperism, and 
 engendered vices in the industrial system which have been 
 productive of evil down to the present day." — Wa/ker's Political 
 Economy, p. 358. 
 
278 UBEETT AND PROGRESS. 
 
 by making those pay for their support who had 
 knowledge of them, and could be made responsible 
 for them. But with the introduction of modern 
 facilities these conditions have passed away, and it 
 would take less time in many cases to transmit a 
 pauper from Land's End to John o' Groats to-day 
 than to send him back to his own parish in bygone 
 years. 
 
 And so exactly as consolidation was the necessity 
 of those times, even more is it the necessity of these. 
 Our medical charities overlap, our public and 
 private charities overlap, our national and parochial 
 charities overlap. Surely it is time to end this 
 confusion, and the waste and inefficiency, the in- 
 variable result of confusion (c). And just as we 
 are agreed that for a certain section of our assisted 
 labour colonies promise best, so are we equally 
 agreed that our present sj^stem of poor relief is by 
 far the worst. We do not wish to madly change 
 from one to the other at vast expense, but if we are 
 to have labour colonies at all, why should we not 
 have efficient ones ? And what are the conditions 
 we want such colonies to satisfy ? The first fact to 
 be noted is that our assisted come from every 
 class of the nation, and include those brought up to 
 every imaginable trade and handicraft, and even 
 
 (c) And, in addition, we have the unhappy feeling that 
 the idle and vagabond impose on our charity, and the worthy 
 and deserving are not properly cared for. 
 
 " In the division of voluntary contribution, the lot of the 
 honest and virtuous poor is seldom equal to that of the 
 impudent and obstreperous beggar." — Benthain\ Theory of 
 Legislation, p. 131. 
 
THE CONSOLIDATION OF OUE POOR LAWS. 
 
 279 
 
 profession (i). Therefore it is imperative, if we 
 
 {d) Workhouse Inmates (ovkr Ten Yeahs of Age) at 
 CE^stls OF 1901 (e). 
 
 Males. 
 
 Clerks .... 
 
 1,079 
 
 Coachmen and grooms - - 
 
 - 1,848 
 
 Carmen, caiTiers 
 
 1,546 
 
 Seamen ... 
 
 - 2,062 
 
 Dock labourers 
 
 2,350 
 
 Agricultural labourers 
 
 9,469 
 
 Gardeners 
 
 1,232 
 
 Coal miners - - - - 
 
 - 1,570 
 
 Blacksmiths - - - 
 
 - 1,381 
 
 Carpenters, joiners 
 
 2,274 
 
 Bricklayers 
 
 - 1,212 
 
 Bricklayers' labourers 
 
 1,397 
 
 Painters, glaziers .... 
 
 2,487 
 
 Cotton operatives - 
 
 1,218 
 
 Tailors 
 
 - 1,594 
 
 Shoemakers - - 
 
 3,061 
 
 Costermongers 
 
 - 1,521 
 
 Greneral labourers - 
 
 22,129 
 
 Other occupations - 
 
 31,287 
 
 Without specified occupation or unoccupied 
 
 - 16,151 
 
 
 106,863 
 
 Females. 
 
 
 Domestic servants - 
 
 - 15,630 
 
 Charwomen - - - - 
 
 - 8,176 
 
 Laundry and washing service - 
 
 - 4,554 
 
 Cotton operatives - - 
 
 - 2,128 
 
 Tailoresses - - - 
 
 - 1,245 
 
 Milliners and dressmakers 
 
 - 1,642 
 
 Shirtmakers, seamstresses . - - 
 
 - 2,814 
 
 Costermongers, hawkers - 
 
 1,159 
 
 Other occupations - - - 
 
 - 7,681 
 
 Without specified occupation or unoccupied 
 
 - 32,220 
 
 
 77,249 
 
 Total male and female - 
 
 - 184,112 
 
 
 
 (e) Chiozza Money, Riches and Poverty, p. 271. 
 
280 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 are to deal with them successfully, that we find each 
 and all, as far as possible, such work as he can do 
 best. This the workhouse system does not even 
 attempt, but it is a thing the nation can do with 
 ease. The larger the number dealt with collectively, 
 the simpler the problem becomes. And we can so 
 deal with large numbers. Our railway facilities 
 are such that distance in our little islands is of no 
 moment whatever. 
 
 For three reasons it is imperative to thus find each 
 the work he can do best. First, we wish to enable him 
 to maintain or regain his pi-oficiency, so that having 
 been tided over a period of distress, he may be 
 fitted to return to civil life at the earliest possible 
 moment. Second, we wish to leave as little excuse 
 as possible for continuing our present system of 
 outdoor relief to its present extent. If a man is 
 in need of aid, it is much better for us to keep him 
 under our own eye and where he can be taught 
 habits of hard work at the same time. So we have 
 also seen that, directly or indirectly, such relief is 
 prejudicial to our poorest worker who would remain 
 independent. And, third, we wish him to do some- 
 thing useful towards maintaining himself. Because 
 his labour is of a low order, that is no reason why 
 we should not try to get as much out of it as possible. 
 But this can only be done by using it to the best 
 advantage. It should be directed bv the best brains 
 and developed by the best machinery and most 
 up-to-date methods of the country. We must 
 never forget that, thanks to science and machinery, 
 the efficiency of labour has been enormously in- 
 creased. Thus we have already noted that the unit 
 
THE CONSOLIDATION OF OUR POOR LAWS. 281 
 
 cost of labour in Scotland is 6-9rf. as against the 
 28-7d. of unassisted labour. This, again, points to 
 the fatuity of continuing a system in which it 
 is impossible to take advantage of our progress. 
 We must not limit ourselves to finding employment 
 in only a few directions. For those anxious to 
 work on the land it is well that land should be 
 provided. In itself land promises the least results. 
 There is so little scope for the use of machinery. 
 Whatever is done on land worked on a small scale 
 has to be done mostly by hand, i.e., as we have 
 just seen, has to be done at a cost per unit of over 
 28d. [d), as against that of 8d. or 9(f., the average 
 cost of the machine-assisted labour of the United 
 Kingdom. No doubt spade labour gets the utmost 
 out of the land ; we want to get the utmost out of 
 the worker (e). So in the ordinary conditions of 
 life, to provide a man with a garden, which he will 
 work when otherwise he would be idle, would be 
 clear gain in money and morals to the community. 
 But here we are considering the collective employ- 
 ment of our poor, the finding them work which will 
 
 {cl) This figure even included some considerable amount 
 of machine-assisted labour. 
 
 ((?) " Under large farming labour can be made to work with 
 greater efficiency, capital can be applied with greater effect, 
 the most complete machinery can be used, less land will be 
 wasted in useless hedges, and thus large farming tends to 
 make labour and capital more efficient. The advantages 
 which have been here attributed to large farming mainly 
 refer to the cultivation of corn and the breeding of sheep. 
 In the growth of various other products, and especially in 
 dairy farming, many most important advantages are asso- 
 ciated with small farming." — -Fawcett, p. 69. 
 
282 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 give the best results. If a man could work a 
 machine it would be throwing away power to put 
 him to hoe potatoes. So afforestation schemes may 
 provide an outlet for labour which cannot be use- 
 fully applied to anything else ; but surely by a 
 little thought some more profitable occupations 
 might be found. 
 
 But though the cultivation of the land would 
 not be the sole occupation of the colony, still it 
 would be a very considerable one, and it would 
 be v(>r3' desirable that all the land required, or 
 likely to be required, should be purchased all 
 at once, not necessarily for immediate use, but to 
 prevent difficulties and complications in the future. 
 Land worth a few puunds at present would be 
 worth many times the amount when it had a popu- 
 lation running into thousands on or near it. There- 
 fore abundance of land should be acquired, and if 
 fairly bought it would be a good investment. Cer- 
 tainly it ought to be bought as a whole before 
 its being wanted for colonies had given it an added 
 value, and then its possession by the nation, used 
 or unused, would involve no loss and be but a matter 
 of book-keeping. 
 
 As regards locality, other things being equal, it 
 might be desirable that it should be by the sea. 
 An enormous, cheap, and excellent food supply is 
 to be obtained from fisheries, and the cultivation 
 of these would be both healtliy and profitable. Nor 
 would it be necessary to buy the best agricultural 
 land. Preference might well be given to much of 
 the wild and cheap land at present hardly in use. 
 
THE CONSOIJDATION UF OUR POOR LAWS. 283 
 
 For the reasons already given we do not want the 
 colony to be an agricultural one, as agriculture 
 least readily lends itself to the use of machinery, 
 and therefore to the efficiency of labour. Probably 
 market gardening, and farming on a small scale for 
 its own wants, might be a staple industry, but it 
 would be limited to such as gave the best business 
 results. 
 
 As regards the institution of such colonies, they 
 would, of course, have to be most carefully thought 
 out as a whole from the very first, but there would 
 be no need for the nation to forthwith make and 
 develop them at enormous expense. In fact, for the 
 nation to spend large sums in doing the work 
 would defeat the very end in view — that of finding 
 suitable and profitable employment for the State- 
 aided. The whole of the development of the 
 colonies should be by themselves alone, and the 
 slower it was the less poverty it would show there 
 was in the country. The transition from the work- 
 house to the consolidated system would be gradual, 
 and as the one grew the other would die out. 
 
 And by careful thought there is not a doubt tliat 
 from its first inception all the labour done on it 
 might be useful, then as it became more completely 
 developed it would become of still greater value, as 
 it would give more opportunity for the use of the 
 diversified labour to which we have referred. At 
 the outset the ver}' roughing out of the colony 
 would aft'ord exactly the woi'k our aided could best 
 do. The railway and other approaches to tlie 
 colony would have to be made sooner or later, and 
 
284 LIBERTY AND PROGKESS. 
 
 then there would be sheds to erect for the accom- 
 modation of the workers until more permanent 
 buildings could be built. So the laying-out of 
 occupation roads until more pretentious ones were 
 required, the draining the land and cleaning it, and 
 such work as might well be done in supplying some 
 of the garden produce for the workers, would lind 
 the further occupation that a low-class labour could 
 do. After its first initiation, the colony would be 
 developed by steps. Some raw materials would 
 have to be supplied by the nation ; but in the 
 selection of a site there should be an eye to good 
 strata of clay or other substitute, so that from the 
 very conmiencement the colonist might dig his own 
 clay, burn his own bricks, make his own drain- 
 pipes, and build his own houses, workshops, halls, 
 churches, and other public buildings. So he would 
 complete his own roads, make his own tramways, 
 lav his own sewers, and manufacture and distribute 
 his own electric light, fuel, gas, and water, in addi- 
 tion to carrying- on the farming and market garden- 
 ing to which we have referred. Each department 
 could be completed at such times as there was any 
 special distress in those trades in the country itself, or 
 as from time to time certain classes needed assistance. 
 Of course much of the labour of the colony would 
 be needed for providing their own food and clothes, 
 and supplying their day-to-day wants. Thus, as 
 regards the food supply, the nation might well pro- 
 vide the wheat and oats and barley, and cereals 
 generally. When these are produced on farms 
 miles in extent, where labour-saving machinery is 
 
THE CONSOLIDATION OF OUE POOK LAWS. 285 
 
 reduced to a science, it would be a heart-breaking 
 waste of power setting the colonist to produce them 
 by hand. But the work he could do, the manufac- 
 ture of them and making them ready for consump- 
 tion, would be well left to him. So the nation 
 might possibly have to supplement the meat supply 
 and other luxuries, such as tea, coffee, cocoa, etc., 
 but the bulk of his food the colonist could bene- 
 ficially find for himself. He could catch his own 
 fish, breed his own animals, cultivate his own 
 beet, make his own sugar, manage his own dairies, 
 brew his own beer, and grow his own tobacco. 
 He could run his own poultry farms, do his 
 own market gardening, and grow his own fruit. 
 Thus he could suj^ply, if not all, a very large amount 
 of his own food. So as regards his clothes, furni- 
 ture, and household necessaries generally. If the 
 nation provided the raw material — the timber, the 
 iron, the cotton, the jute, the wool, the hemp, and 
 the flax needed — the working of them up might well 
 be done in the colony itself. Much of this would 
 find work for those who would otherwise have 
 nothing suitable to do, and at the same time some 
 of it might be economically satisfactory, as there 
 are qualities of homespun cloths which ai-e simply 
 unequalled. We should not wish to lose labour 
 which could be made more productive by putting 
 it to make in ones what machinery can make better 
 by hundreds. Thus, we should not want boots 
 hand-made by the pair, though at the same time the 
 marvellous efificiency of some factories could not be 
 dreamt of. Probably a halfway result might be 
 
286 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 obtained where the simpler kind of machinery could 
 be used and more be so turned out than merely by 
 hand. But as regards this and all their work, it must 
 be remembered they would not be competing against 
 the world, but simply supplying their own wants (/). 
 
 (/) As a fighting machine, in competitive markets, a man 
 may be of little value ; as a producer he retains a high value 
 until a comparatively late period of life. Thus, at page 340 
 of his Dictionary of SiatisticH Mr. Mulhall gives the value of 
 an able-bodied man to the commonwealth, as follows : — 
 
 Age 10 
 
 £117 
 
 Age 40 - 
 
 - £212 
 
 „ 15 
 
 192 
 
 „ 50 
 
 - 168 
 
 „ 20 - 
 
 234 
 
 „ 55 - 
 
 - 138 
 
 „ 25 
 
 246 
 
 „ 60 - 
 
 97 
 
 „ 30 - 
 
 - 241 
 
 „ 65 - 
 
 - 46 
 
 „ 35 
 
 n 
 
 228 
 
 „ 7U - 
 
 1 • i 
 
 ii 
 
 These figures Mr. Mulhall gives on the authority of 
 Dr. Farr. He says they are often called in question as being 
 too high ; but, he adds, the best authorities in the United 
 States and Australia set even a higher value on an able- 
 bodied emigrant. For instance, he says (p. 246) : " The 
 great value of the emigrants is theii' work. ... In Australia 
 it is found that each emigrant, big and little, increases the 
 revenue by £4 yearly. In the Argentine Republic the infiux 
 of 800,000 emigrants in twenty years ending 1883 was 
 accompanied by a rise of £4,«00,000 in the revenue, say £6 
 a head. But it is in the United States where the value of 
 immigration is most apparent. For example, a group of 
 200 persons settled in 1858 on the territory now known as 
 the State of Colorado, and in 1880 there were 1,220 miles of 
 railway, 14 daily papers, 190,000 inhabitants, real and per- 
 sonal estate valued at nine milhons sterling, and agricultural 
 products worth £7U0, 000 a year ; in 1886 the value of pro- 
 perty in Colorado had risen to 27 milhons sterling. ... In 
 Canada the agricultural capital rose from 140 millions in 
 1861 to 343 milhons in 1887, and as immigrants formed 
 30 per cent, of the population, they are entitled to take credit 
 for that share of the increase, say 61 millions. Agriculture 
 constituting only 50 per cent, of the wealth of Canada, the 
 
THE CONSOLIDATION OP OUR POOR LAWS. 287 
 
 No doubt to get the best result would demand high 
 powers of organisation, but this the country could 
 easily .supply. 
 
 In addition to cost being reduced by raw material 
 being bought at the lowest market prices, such prices 
 could themselves be simply checked by reference to 
 the day-to-day prices given in every commercial 
 journal. This would do much to lessen opportuni- 
 ties for fraud or corrupt practices (<^). 
 
 Then much of the more expensive poor-law 
 machinery — that connected with indoor relief — ■ 
 could be entirely done away with, as well as a con- 
 siderable portion of that required for outdoor relief. 
 With proper methods for dealing with our assisted 
 generally, all other agencies would be immensely 
 relieved and simplified. To a cei^tain extent, local 
 
 total accumulation due to immigrants will be 122 millions 
 sterling." Mr. Mulhall then givt-s the following table of 
 emigrants, their nationality, and accumulation between the 
 years 1 850 and 1.^8S (p. 247) :— 
 
 Emigrants. 
 
 Mean Number 
 Abroad. 
 
 Accumulation 
 Million £. 
 
 Per Head 
 £. 
 
 English 
 
 Scotch 
 Irish 
 
 Grermans - 
 Various Nations 
 
 1,200,000 
 250,000 
 1,520,000 
 1,700,000 
 2,296,000 
 
 410 
 96 
 411 
 452 
 460 
 
 342 
 • 380 
 270 
 266 
 200 
 
 Total - 
 
 6,966,300 
 
 1,828 
 
 261 
 
 " It is a coincidence," he adds, " that each emigrant accu- 
 mulated in the last 38 years about £260, and that this is the 
 precise value set by some writers on each able-bodied adult." 
 
 {g) " The Poplar inquiry resulted in a reduction from 
 £200,000, the amount it stood at in 1906, to £143,000 in 
 1908."— i)fl?7// Mail, May 19, 1909. 
 
288 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 centres would have to be maintained for the purpose 
 of dealing with current cases of distress ; but as 
 regards many of our poor helped with outdoor relief, 
 it would be better if they were efBectively seen after 
 and taught habits of work in such colonies. So, 
 again, poverty and crime are so intimately connected 
 that it would be a question for practical considera- 
 tion whether such central relief work could not be 
 well looked after by a department of our police (h). 
 They have already all tlie facts at their disposal, and 
 it seems a waste of power having two bodies to go 
 over much of the same ground. So later on we shall 
 discuss the question of the police having power to 
 send to such colonies all mendicants and vagrants 
 and other people unable to give a satisfactory account 
 of how they earn their living (/). 
 
 Xo doubt sentimental objections may be raised 
 to sending all, good and bad, to the same colony. 
 But, as we shall see, such colonies in themselves 
 would afford the greatest possible scope for differ- 
 entiating between those who need assistance, and 
 
 [h) lu the United States, where the poor law pro- 
 visions are s-omewhat insufficient, many found relief in prison 
 which they could get nowhere else. The warden of the 
 King's County Gaol, 1899, made this statement : — " Men 
 are constantly being committed here in large numbers who 
 have been charged with no crime. Over 50 per cent, of the 
 commitments of these institutions are for vagrancy — the 
 crime (?) of being out of work and homeless. I am con- 
 vinced from seeing the efficient work of some of these men 
 while here that they never would be here could they have 
 secured employment outside."— C/Yi^rf in " UnenipJoyinent" by 
 Perry Alden, p. 6. 
 
 (i) Thus giving eifect to the suggestion of Bentham, as 
 to which see note at end of chapter. 
 
THE CONSOLIDATION OF OUR POOR LAWS. 28f) 
 
 do what we will we cannot get rid of actualities. 
 If people need assistance they do need assistance, 
 and no sophistries can change the fact. As regards 
 following up such assistance with legal disabilities, 
 that is another matter, and not necessary. Those 
 actu.ally in such colonies certainly should not have 
 a vote, but we should desire those who left them to 
 be in every way fully qualified citizens, and with 
 the same rights as other citizens. Far be it to wish 
 that any disqualification should follow them because 
 they had once been in need of aid. So as regards 
 name. It is difficult to alter realities by a mere 
 change of name, but if the stigma of pauper could 
 be so removed we might call those who needed such 
 help " State assisted" instead. 
 
 But the advantage of uniformity of treatment is 
 so great as to more than counterbalance such 
 objections, and this cannot be secured by the in- 
 numerable diversified agencies now in existence. 
 Not the least reason for the State taking over our 
 poor law administration and treating it as a whole 
 is that it is impossible to make any partial experi- 
 ments without their being at once swamped by the 
 loafers of the whole kingdom, so that we never 
 really know the extent of an evil, as in this world 
 many a loafer plays many a part. So, above aU, 
 what we have to remember is, if we once make our 
 labour colonies at all satisfactory, it will lessen every 
 other difficulty. In fact, were they run on such 
 lines as to satisfy many of our too benevolent, we 
 might possibly end much of the promiscuous private 
 charity which does so much to pauperise, and 
 
 D. u 
 
290 LIBEETY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 increase the numbers of our worthless, and acts so 
 oppressively on those who would remain indepen- 
 dent [k). Then also, if we were to reduce to system 
 the remainder of our charities, we might, whilst 
 effectively dealing with our undeserving poor, do 
 much to reduce our expenses at the same time. 
 
 (A-) One of the greatest evils of the day is the ill-judged 
 charity of well-inteiitioned but foolish people, and in the 
 records of our Charity Organisation Societies we leam the 
 disastrous results of indiscriminate giving ; it simply fosters 
 a breed of rogues and impostors. For one deserving person 
 relieved ten rascals are helped, and many a teetotal philan- 
 thropist is the pubhcan's best friend. I recall an instance 
 which is fatally instructive. In one time of distress £'5 in 
 marked shillings were distributed. Later on, to continue 
 the good (?) work, the local publican was asked to give 
 change for another five pounds in shillings. He did so, and 
 more than £4 of the original coins came back. 
 
 Note. 
 
 Our proposals are much on the lines of those of Bentham, 
 to whom we are greatly indebted. The question of the poor 
 he fully dealt with, and strongly advocated that their 
 concerns shoiild be vested in one authority, and so little 
 confidence had he in public management that he would have 
 had this authority a joint stock company — much on the 
 lines of the then East India Company — but under complete 
 national supervision. 
 
 His whole scheme is indicated with exactest minutiae, of 
 which the following will serve as an example : — 
 
 " Advantages of having the houses on a large scale, and 
 thence from having them few : (1) Saving in the matter of 
 salaries, as the instance of such officers as there must be, one 
 
THE CONSOLIDATION OF OVR POOR LAWS. 291 
 
 to each house, be the house ever so small, yet not more than 
 one, be the house ever so large, such as governor, matron, 
 medical curator, chaplain, &c. (2) Ditto in regard to 
 subordinates, where the whole of a man's time must be paid 
 for, though there is business for no more than part ; the 
 smaller the establishment the oftener this loss may come to 
 be repeated. (3) Saving in the article of building, in the in- 
 stance of such apartments, of which there must be one for 
 each of the officers. (4) Ditto in regard to such, of which 
 there must be one at any rate for each house, viz., inspector's 
 lodge or officers' common room in the centre, kitchen, 
 surgeon's room, chapel, &c. (5) Ditto in respect to a 
 walled yard attached to the strong ward. (6) Ditto in respect 
 of utensils necessary to every house, but which need not be 
 multiplied in proportion to the population of such houses, 
 such as clocks, house door lamps, ladders, &c. (7) Saving in 
 the article of vessels, the proportion of matter to capacity 
 diminishing as the vessels are enlarged, as in kitchen boilers. 
 (8) Advantage in respect of the faculty of carrying the 
 division of labour to the higher pitch, the greater the stock or 
 hands. (9), (10) Advantages by making purchases and 
 saving refuse of all kinds on a large scale. (11) Advantage 
 in respect of the securing for good management, by attract- 
 ing the greater share of public notice and attention, e.g., on 
 the part of travellers, topographers, &c." — Bentham's Works, 
 Yol. VIII. p. 374. 
 
 We might well give more than this short extract, but the 
 whole of his writings should be studied by those interested in 
 poor law reform. The principles he enforced are as true 
 to-day as when he wrote, though needing modification to meet 
 modern exigencies. Thus, as we have seen, he primarily 
 believed in a comprehensive system. "We think this 
 principle should be applied to modern conditions. In his 
 day distances were great and travelling wearisome. With 
 us distance practically does not exist. Therefore, by still 
 more largely extending the size of the labour colonies we can 
 
 u2 
 
292 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 still further benefit in the ways he has indicated ; above all, 
 in finding each the work that he can do best. In his scheme 
 he included provision for the infirm and insane as well as for 
 the poor, and also he provided for the vagrant and mendicant 
 generally. Anyone found out of work and begging he pro- 
 posed to send to such houses, to be detained there until some 
 responsible person would find them employment. On their 
 leaving such employment without satisfactory reason they 
 were to be sent back to the same house and again detained. 
 To secure the best efforts of aU. he was of opinion that if 
 the work were useful and therefore interesting a sufficient 
 sanction for enforciug the rules would be foimd by their 
 food being made dependent on their efforts. At the same 
 time he desired that they should receive practical education 
 in what they did, and more particularly so in the case of the 
 young. 
 
 As regards Bentham, two things must never be forgotten 
 which distinguished him from other theorists. He was 
 intensely practical, and his scheme for dealing with 
 the criminal class, on similar lines to that for dealing with 
 the poor — who, undealt with, he was satisfied, soon swelled 
 the criminal class, and who, properly controlled, became pro- 
 ductive members of society — had for its main feature that it 
 should be undertaken by a contractor and that he himself 
 should be such contractor. The whole matter had been 
 carried through by the Legislature, and was alone killed by 
 the stubbornness of George III., who had an inveterate dislike 
 to Bentham on account of a pamphlet he himself had 
 written under the nom de plume of " Bartizan," and which, 
 innocently, Bentham had roughly handled. 
 
 As Bentham's whole fortune had been expended in pre- 
 paration for putting his proposals into execution, on his 
 scheme being finally rejected his claims were referred to 
 arbitration, and he was awarded £'30,0u0 compensation for 
 his losses. The second reason why we must respect this 
 mighty genius is, that one cause why so much of his writiug 
 
THE CONSOLIDATION OP OUR POOR LAWS. 293 
 
 is out of date is that the abuses he attacked, and which take 
 up so much of his works, he attacked so successfully that he 
 practically destroyed them. Thus, if his remarks on kings 
 seem extravagant, it is because to-day we have only reason 
 to be grateful to an influence which has always in our time 
 been used for promoting the best ends of the nation. If his 
 scathing attack on law and procedure causes a smile, it is 
 that so much has been done to remedy evils he so forcibly 
 pointed out. So, as regards the excessive punishments of 
 the past, the substitution of a more rational system is mainly 
 due to his powerful invective. Many, no doubt, were appalled 
 by their inhumanity, but he demonstrated their futility. So, 
 generally, many of his principles as regards the treatment 
 of the criminal as well as of the poor have become part 
 of our national life, and it seems to afford the best possible 
 chance of success if we go a step further, and follow his 
 suggestions and reduce them to practice. 
 
294 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 FURTHER CONSIBERATIONS. 
 
 In addition to consolidating our system of poor 
 relief, and co-ordinating our charities, our next 
 essential is to be able to effectually differentiate 
 between the various classes to be assisted. And the 
 very merit of such comprehensive methods of deal- 
 ing with our assisted poor is that it would enable us 
 to do this also with the utmost success. In the first 
 place, one of the most valuable functions of such 
 colonies would be that they would practically 
 become the clearing house of labour for the whole 
 kingdom. One of the chief duties of the officials 
 would be to keep an eye on the labour markets of 
 the country with a view to finding the aided 
 employment as rapidly as possible. All assistance 
 rendered ought to be with the one eye to getting a 
 man back to ordinary life as rapidly as possible. 
 And it would have a further advantage. How far 
 such aided were acceptable or not to employers 
 at large would be a very fair test as to how far 
 the colonies were doing their work satisfactorily. 
 Many a contractor will tell you that men employed 
 by local boards and municipalities are no use to 
 them, they work so half-heartedly, and that it 
 takes them at least a fortnight before they can do 
 a fair day's work. We want nothing of this in the 
 
FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS. 295 
 
 colonies. We want a man to be trained to do his 
 utmost. Make the hours as short as you please, but 
 high pressure when at work. 
 
 Perhaps a special department would be that for 
 dealing with the young sent from the cities who, 
 through inability to find work, rapidly sink into the 
 unemployed and unemployable. These could be 
 detained sufficiently long to be properly taught a 
 trade and habits of hard work, and as some com- 
 pensation to the nation for having to keep them, a 
 system of compulsory military training could be 
 combined with their other duties. The colony itself 
 would afford them the exact sort of work they 
 should do, and they could be kept out of mischief 
 in their leisure hours by their military training. 
 By twenty-one they ought to be very efficient 
 citizens indeed, and such as would be welcomed 
 into any workshop in the kingdom. If the condi- 
 tions of restraint and supervision were not what 
 they exactly liked, so much the better. We do not 
 desire all our unemployed youth to flock to the 
 colony. We have mentioned twenty-one as the 
 limit of age. After twenty-one a man has a right 
 to think and act for himself. 
 
 Again, in addition to the facilities the colonies 
 would furnish for getting men back to the work 
 they could do, they would by their very size 
 and extent make it a simple matter to effectively 
 differentiate between the workers when in the 
 colony itself (a). In fact, the more satisfactory the 
 
 («) The problem is well stated by Mr. Alden : — 
 
 " In the present day it is not so much lack of sympathy as 
 
296 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 colonies the more effectually we shall be able to 
 discriminate between those wanting help. By a 
 system of promotion we could not only favour the 
 better workers, but at the same time reduce our 
 number of officials. If we made those who could 
 be relied on foremen and overseers, and as such 
 granted them additional privileges, we could not 
 only give them a legitimate object of ambition, 
 but also secure a higher standard of efficiency (b). 
 The two main forces to ensure the best work from 
 all would be hunger and the love of authority. The 
 one would be the driving power of the lower class 
 assisted, the other the spur of the better disposi- 
 tioned. In our present workhouses it is impossible 
 to get the best work out of the inmates who mostly, 
 apart from being inefficient, are incorrigibly lazy (c); 
 
 lack of knowledge that is the obstacle to reform. The great 
 complexity of the unemployed problem causes it to be 
 neglected by many of the very men who would be most 
 inclined to help if they only sa^v the way out. It is sur- 
 prisingly easy to confuse the honest unemployed with the 
 vicious vagabond and wastrel, and there are still many who 
 cannot escape from the feeling that while the best men can 
 get work, to make work for second-rate men is not only 
 extremely difficult but economically unsound." — ZTnempIoyed, 
 Percy Alden, p. 4. 
 {b) See note, p. 267. 
 
 {<■) Mr. Percy Alden well classifies the "unemployable" as — 
 " (1) Criminals, semi-criminals, vicious vagabonds, and 
 the incorrigible lazy ; in a word, all able-bodied 
 men who refuse to work or are refused work 
 owing to defect in character. 
 " (2) The physically and mentally deficient. 
 " The latter may be divided into four other classes : 
 " (a) The aged. 
 
 " (b) The physically weak and maimed, including the 
 blind, lame and deaf, and men with weak hearts. 
 
FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS. 297 
 
 but in the labour colonies it would be anothei' matter 
 altogether. A varying scale of dietary has been 
 found a sufficient goad to the industry of the most 
 indifferent, and in some American prisons has 
 proved adequate to maintain the strictest discipline 
 without any other punishment whatever. If the 
 Divine law — if a man will not work neither shall he 
 eat — be rigorously enforced, few other penalties 
 need be resorted to. To begin with, we could 
 afford to all a liberal scale of feeding, including 
 beer, tea, cocoa, coffee, etc., as well as tobacco. If 
 this were the fare a man could secure by simply 
 doing his best, whether his best were good or bad, 
 and he found, as he relapsed into idle habits, that 
 first one and then another luxury was denied him 
 until he was reduced to dry bread and water, and 
 when further he had no opportunity of bullying or 
 cadging on others to supplement his meagre fare, 
 and when his ordinary channels of supply — the aid 
 of the foolish charitable — were stopped at the source, 
 it is not improbable that before long he would 
 desire to be restored to the good graces of his fellow- 
 men. 
 
 Another powerful means of control would be the 
 absence of money, as in our present workhouses. 
 
 " (c) Epileptics. 
 
 " (d) Weak-willed inebriates and the mentally defi- 
 cient." — Unemployment, Percy Alden, p. 17. 
 
 Class (1) could probably be made productively effective. 
 As to Class (2), the aged are provided for; but where there 
 "were multitudinous requirements they could also be made 
 useful, as well as those in (b). Those in (c) and (d) are 
 dealt with by the nation independently. 
 
298 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 Everything would be provided and there would be 
 no occasion for its use. Those who behaved well 
 would not want it in the ordinary routine of their 
 daily life, whilst those who broke the law would 
 find it difficult to avoid the consequences of their 
 misdoings. They could neither beg, borrow, nor 
 steal from their more industrious fellows, nor compel 
 others to work that they might be lazy. The one 
 passport to a good meal would be their own 
 industry and their own industry alone. One of the 
 privileges attaching to the office of foreman or 
 overseer might be that it would entitle its owner to 
 receive a small sum on returning to civil life. It 
 would not be as savings ; it is illogical to speak of 
 any man making savings when the country is 
 spending anything from £10 to £20 per annum on 
 his maintenance ; it would simply be as a premium 
 to get the best work out of him, and out of all, that 
 was possible. No doubt some one will object to 
 the absence of money. They will contend that 
 those who work, especially those who work well, 
 should not only not be paid no wages, but that they 
 should be paid the trade union rate of wages. The 
 very object of providing labour colonies, they will 
 say, is that they may earn wages with which to 
 keep their wives and families. Further, it will be 
 urged that for a man to work hard and receive only 
 his keep will mean his giving more than he re- 
 ceives, and estimated at current prices will mean 
 that the country will get its colonies laid out, built, 
 and developed at less than cost. 
 
 As regards the first objection, when a man can 
 
FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS. 299 
 
 keep himself it is time to talk of his also keeping 
 his wife and family. When we have to do the 
 keeping we prefer to do it directly and make 
 certain they get all the benefits we provide, rather 
 than indirectly and pay him wages to use or misuse 
 as the case may be. So as regards the second 
 objection the answer is, we only wish it might be so; 
 but even granting it were, tlie community, as repre- 
 senting those independent of State aid, would be 
 very glad to be rid of both colonies and those they 
 have to assist as well. They may prove an asset of 
 value, but it is not an asset they ever wanted, and 
 it is one thing to pay trade prices for an article one 
 desires and another to pay it for an article one does 
 not ; and, apart from such considerations, the fact 
 remains that to maintain and run such colonies has 
 cost very many millions which could have been far 
 more en joy ably spent in other directions by those 
 compelled to contribute. However much such 
 colonies might lend themselves to the payment of 
 wages, it is the one thing to be avoided in principle 
 and also in practice. 
 
 As a community we would purely, solely, and 
 without any hope of gain, run sucli colonies entirely 
 as a matter of charity. It is no part of our duty as 
 an individualistic State to provide work or pay for 
 those who cannot provide for themselves, and we 
 would do so solely out of benevolence and not in 
 any way as conceding a right to anyone to have 
 work found him. Thus we will treat each 
 individual case solely on its merits. If a man has 
 to be relieved, we will relieve him ; but we shall 
 
300 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 expect in return as much good work as he can give. 
 If a woman has to be relieved, we will relieve her 
 on the same conditions ; and if children have to be 
 relieved, we will also see after them, and we will do 
 so quite independently of any family relationship 
 existing between them. 
 
 Note.— The Financial Aspect. 
 
 Roughly, how much per head might we expect our assisted 
 to cost us in such colony ? 
 
 The items of cost would be : Land, water, food, fuel, raw 
 material for buildings, etc., and raw material for dress, etc., 
 and for carriage and administration. 
 
 Taking our first item — land. We should not want rich 
 land, nor city plots, nor suburban sites, nor land enhanced 
 in value by proximity to large towns, but land such as has 
 been sold at £15 per acre. We could choose our site with a 
 view to cheapness, and the population would soon give a 
 respectable value. But let us allow £50 per head, and buy 
 as much as we can for the money. At 3 per cent, the annual 
 cost would be about 15,9. per head, and for this we should get 
 well over an acre or even two acres per head, as land in Kent 
 with a good road frontage has been sold within the last few 
 months at less than £30 an acre. 
 
 As to the cost of water. The Croton (New York) Water- 
 works cost £2,000,000, those of Madrid £2,300,000, Mar- 
 seilles £450,000, Glasgow £1,550,000, Liverpool (Vyrnwy) 
 £2,200,000, and Manchester £2,300,000. These work out 
 
FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS. 301 
 
 at a capital charge of well under £8 per head, or an annual 
 charge of less than 5s. Its service, of course, would be done 
 in the colony itself. 
 
 Next as to the item for food. Various estimates have been 
 made for its cost in bulk, roughly apportioned as follows : — 
 Grain, £1 5s. ; meat, £2 5.s. ; sugar, 12.s. ; dairy and 
 poultry, £1 12.s. ; potatoes, 10s. ; tea, coffee, 5.s. ; liquor, £2 ; 
 sundries, £1 5s. ; total, £9 14s. These are approximate 
 only, and where some were greater others would be less. 
 
 The colony should, by their own manufacture and pro- 
 duction, save as follows : — On grain, — ; meat, £1 ; sugar, 
 I2s. ; dairy, etc., £1 12s; potatoes, 10s.; liquor, £1 5s.; 
 sundries, 15s. ; total, £5 14s., with a further considerable 
 saving by the consumption of fish. This leaves the amount 
 to be supplied by the nation somewhere under £4 per head. 
 
 Fuel is the next important item. In a new city, pro- 
 spected and laid out on the most scientific principles, we 
 should not be guilty of our present system of wasting coal, 
 and an allowance of 20s. to 30s. per head for domestic and 
 factory purposes should be sufficient. 
 
 For the raw material for clothing, furniture, etc., an allow- 
 ance of another pound per head would seem adequate. 
 
 The raw material supplied for building purposes would be 
 in the nature of capital expenditure, and would have to be 
 provided for by a sinking fund. It might take the form of a 
 capital advance of £33 per head, the annual charge for 
 which would be £1 per annum. Then in addition there 
 might be other etceteras to be provided, such as carriage and 
 transpoi-t facilities, which we might allow at 10s. per head. 
 The total of these items, with food, amounts to somewhere 
 about £8 per head per annum. 
 
 As we have said, the only return we should get would be 
 the gradual development of the colony. It would have the 
 merit that it would avoid all complications of State-aided 
 labour competing with ordinary labour, although if it was 
 desirable to reduce cost by producing articles which could be 
 
302 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 sold it would seem that the cultivation — not manufacture — 
 of tobacco and of beet for the making of sugar could be 
 earmarked for such colonies without doing injury to any 
 existing business. 
 
 StUl, as our poor now cost anything from £13 to £14 per 
 head direct, if we could reduce their maintenance charge to 
 something about £8 we should not be wholly dissatisfied. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 POVERTY IN RELATION TO CRIME. 
 
 Were we to at once return to a purely theoretical 
 examination of our subject, we might possibly be 
 inclined to quarrel with ourselves for even con- 
 templating such an extensive departure from first 
 principles as is involved in the comprehensive 
 schemes of State aid that we have been discussing. 
 Could anything be more contrary to the true spirit 
 of individualism ? But one thing is not contrary to 
 the true spirit of individualism, and that is the 
 getting for our money the utmost return possible. 
 If we are compelled to spend vast sums every year 
 on State aid, at least let us make that State aid as 
 efficient as we can. A few months' experience of 
 State aid under present conditions is quite long 
 enough to develop the full-blown pauper in all his 
 glory. We want conditions where, in the same 
 time, we can restore vigour to a man's mental, moral 
 and physical condition, by finding him plenty of 
 suitable and useful hard work. We want the con- 
 ditions such that the man who leaves the colony 
 will be a far better man in every way than when 
 he entered it. 
 
 We would go further, and take powers to send to 
 such colonies all mendicants and vagrants, and 
 every able-bodied adult who could not give a satis- 
 
304 LIBERTY AND PEOGRESS. 
 
 factory account of how he was earning his living. 
 In this manner we would give effect to the very 
 practical suggestions of Bentham, to which we have 
 already referred in our note on page 92, where 
 we deal with his views on this subject. By 
 thus anticipating evil we might prevent a great 
 deal of crime, and it is much better for a man to be 
 sent to such colonies before he has broken the law 
 rather than to be sent to a penal settlement after so 
 doing. Probably our penal settlements would also 
 be more effective if with due provision for security 
 they were run more on the lines of such colonies. 
 But, as with our colonies, so even more with otn- 
 prisons, a man's personal comfort ought to be made 
 dependent on his efforts to do well. And this can 
 be secured through the scale of dietary more 
 effectively than in any other manner. In the 
 colonies we would commence by feeding all on the 
 most liberal scale and would only take away one 
 item of food after another, until nothing but bread 
 and water were left, for laziness or other positive 
 misbehaviour. In our prisons we would do the 
 reverse. We would commence with simple bread 
 and water, and let the prisoners by their exertions 
 add to their fare. We would also find them useful 
 and sensible work to do, and would pay them for it. 
 so that out of such pay they might purchase better 
 food for themselves. The immediate appeal to 
 their sensual appetite would be a stronger incentive 
 to good work than the deferred and, at first, hardlv 
 appreciated advantage of lessening theii' term of 
 confinement. So it is well that every punishment 
 
POVERTY IN RELATION TO CRIME. 305 
 
 should be sharpest at its beginning to inspire a just 
 dread of undergoing it. 80 much is this so that in 
 a certain limited class of cases many criminals 
 would be far more effectively dealt with if a con- 
 siderable portion of their penalty took the form of 
 corporal punishment. If this were followed up by 
 teaching them habits of work, we might hope some 
 of our prisons would justify the name of reforma- 
 tories as well. 
 
 But such punishment ought only to be inflicted 
 by tried and experienced judges of the High Court. 
 It is not a power that ought to be entrusted to any 
 less august tribunal. The infliction of corporal 
 punishment is the last outrage on a man's liberty, 
 can never be undone, and ought only to be by 
 order of the highest officials in the land — the repre- 
 sentatives of the Crown itself. We do not think 
 such disriplinary power ought even to be exercised 
 by our recorders, and most certainly not by 
 magistrates, either lay or paid. But that such 
 punishment should form a part of our criminal code 
 in some form or other seems desirable. Some 
 ruffians are absolutely undeterred by any other form 
 of punishment. So, as regards wife-beaters, and 
 those cruel to children, the}' would be far more 
 effectively deterred from a repetition of their offence 
 by a good thrashing than by anything else (a). In 
 
 ('/) So far as drunkenness is the cause of neglect or cruelty, 
 magistrates certainly ought to have p(jwer to order offenders 
 to be total abstainers from all intoxicants for a definite 
 period. Nor ought habitual drunkenness nor a previous 
 conviction be essential to the exercise of this power. 
 
306 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 fact, it would not be a bad general working principle 
 that whoever inflicted bodily suffering on others 
 should be punishable with — not necessarily punished 
 by — bodily suffering in his own person. We cer- 
 tainly do not wish to see any return to the barbarous 
 punishments of the past, but the tirst principle of 
 every punishment is that it should be dreaded and 
 effective. Laws may be good or bad ; but, good or 
 bad, they should be rigorously enforced. If they 
 are bad, change them ; but do not allow them to be 
 winked at. Nothing is more destructive of happiness 
 than a spirit of lawlessness, and the observance of 
 law alone secures all that makes life best worth 
 living (6). Thus, if it is proved that our present 
 prison discipline fails to prevent a man breaking the 
 law, vary it until it does. Whether a long jjeriod 
 
 Breaking such order might then entail the more serious 
 punishment, and aiding or abetting should be visited with 
 substantial fines. To prevent joint perjury, it would be well 
 to relieve the principal offender of some of the consequences 
 of his lapse from virtue on his proving that others had 
 assisted him in falling. The way to prevent the joint action 
 of rogues is always to make it to the interest of the one to 
 sell the other, as rogues wlU. do if it pays. Thus, with 
 secret commissions it would be far more effective to make it 
 a crime the receiving only, and to give the payer power to 
 recover his bribe back with penalties, like any other common 
 infoimer, rather than regard them as equally guilty. In 
 this case give immunity to the rogue who would most profit 
 by his treachery. 
 
 {b) These remarks equally apply to the owners of motor- 
 cars. That they should flout the law as they do is an out- 
 rage on the nation The speed limit may be foolish, possibly 
 i«, but any man who has deliberately broken the law should 
 be made to rue the day that he deliberately breaks it a 
 second time. 
 
POVERTY IN RELATION TO CRIME. 307 
 
 of penal servitude or a sharp initial punishment is 
 the better may well be left to the proved discretion 
 of our judges. 
 
 At present our police have very complete methods 
 of identifying those who ha\e passed through their 
 hands, and a quiet supervision on their part might 
 well be extended, not only to those who have fallen, 
 but to those who, from want of means or want of 
 occupation, are in danger of falling. With our 
 colonies sympathetically and effectively managed, 
 with no stigma attaching to any aided in them, we 
 might effectively grapple with our criminal class, 
 both actual and potential. And, we must remember, 
 every man saved from being a criminal is a double 
 gain to society. One more on the side of law and 
 order, instead of one more against. By thus striking 
 at the root of crime we should much diminish the 
 arduous and unpleasant duties of the police, and 
 we might find in them instead a valuable body for 
 assisting those in need of aid, and helping them 
 locally until such time as they could reach a colony 
 itself. By this means we could still further cut 
 down administrative charges. Poverty and crime 
 so overlap that both would be more effectively dealt 
 with by practically the same men. Experience has 
 satisfied us that, though not to be humbugged, no 
 one is more genuinely sympathetic in cases of real 
 necessity than our police officers. In thousands of 
 instances it will be a positive satisfaction to them 
 to know that not only can they protect society, but 
 they can also alleviate distress. 
 
 x2 
 
308 LIBERTY AND PEOGEESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 1. 
 
 THE HOUSING PEOBLEM. 
 
 Almost as important as what to do with our poor 
 when destitute is the housing of tliem in our great 
 cities when at work. But the subject is so large 
 that here we can only briefly indicate some of the 
 difficulties in the way of dealing with it. Premising 
 that our remarks are mainly limited to the housing 
 of the working classes in four or six-roomed houses, 
 or in some a little larger, we may here give a slight 
 sketch of how our towns are generally developed. 
 
 The first step is usually taken by the land 
 jobber, who, if he thinks there is sufficient demand 
 for houses in any locality, will buy his land there 
 bv the acre. This he will plan and lay out with 
 roads and sewers, and he will then sell it to builders 
 in lots, usually with advances arranged either by 
 himself, a solicitor, or some building society or 
 bank, as may be the custom of the locality But 
 before committing himself to an estate, he has to be 
 satisfied the demand is such that the rents obtain- 
 able will give him and his builders their reasonable 
 trade profits. In every estate the one all-important 
 factor is, will the houses let at a satisfactory rental ? 
 This is the great risk that has to be faced in every 
 new venture. If they will so let, it will prove 
 highly profitable ; if they will not so let, the loss 
 
THE HOUSING PROBLEM. 
 
 309 
 
 will be as serious. So important is the question of 
 letting that relatively the first cost of the land is 
 almost a secondary matter. A shilling a yard on 
 a field, or £250 an acre, is hardly more than 
 an addition of £6 per lot on the CHpital value of 
 the houses when buiit. This is a mere bagatelle 
 compared with the letting being good or bad. An 
 extra £500 per acre even will not be a serious 
 matter if the letting is good. The extra rental 
 required to pay interest on the extra £12 capital 
 cost would be less than fourteen shillings a year, or 
 a fraction over threepence per week {b). Thus it is 
 
 {b) Mr. Money points this out very clearly : The respec- 
 tive parts played by land and capital in such a scheme should 
 be carefully noted. If a municipality acquired land at £100 
 per acre, and laid out roads and sewers at a cost of £400 per 
 acre, and erected upon each acre ten houses costing £280 
 each, the total outlay per acre would he £3,300, and per 
 house £330. How little a considerable variation in the cost 
 of land affects the result will be realised from the following 
 table : — 
 
 
 Cost of Land 
 
 Costs of Roads, 
 Sewers, &c. 
 
 Cost of 
 
 Total Cost of 
 
 Cost of Land 
 
 per House, 
 
 per House 
 
 Building- 
 
 each House 
 
 per Acre. 
 
 to the Acre. 
 
 £ 
 
 (£400) 
 per Acre. 
 
 House. 
 
 and its Land. 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 280 
 
 325 
 
 100 
 
 10 
 
 40 
 
 280 
 
 330 
 
 200 
 
 20 
 
 40 
 
 280 
 
 340 
 
 300 
 
 30 
 
 40 
 
 280 
 
 350 
 
 — Riches and Poverti/, p. 213. 
 
 The insignificance of the cost of the land is still more 
 marked where some three or four times the number of houses 
 are built. Mr. Money also realises the futility of munici- 
 
310 IJBERTT AND PROGRESS. 
 
 that estates where land has been very dear in the 
 first instance, but where letting has been good, have 
 done exceedingly well ; whilst other estates, where 
 letting has proved bad, have sufficed to ruin every- 
 one connected with them, though the land has been 
 purchased at a give-away price in the first instance. 
 Of course every item of cost in the end, affects the 
 ultimate result and has to be carefully considered ; 
 but, generally speaking, the first cost of the land is 
 not the most serious item in a building estate. Where 
 it does become serious is where a jobber buys 
 land which does not prove to be ripe and he has 
 to hold it to mature. Then the interest on land 
 so held increases first cost to a terrible amount, 
 besides blocking up a very great deal of capital. 
 The next serious matter a jobber has to consider 
 when entertaining an estate is the building require- 
 ments. These largely vary in different localities, 
 according to the policy adopted, and may easily 
 mean a difference of ten or fifteen pounds in the 
 capital cost of building a house, or even more where 
 extreme views are held by the building authority. 
 This alone shows a difference equal to that between 
 dear land and cheap land. No doubt there is a 
 very proper objection to the ordinary speculatively 
 built house, and what the public and their repre- 
 sentatives would like are large roomy well-built 
 houses and very low rents. But, as a matter of 
 fact and a matter of business, such houses are only 
 
 palities rebuilding out of rates. To do any good the money 
 must be derived from other sources — by gift, as at Bourn- 
 ville, or nationally, as suggested by Mr. Money. 
 
THE HOUSING PROBLEM. 311 
 
 to be obtained in the pleasant and imaginary town 
 in the country of " Erehwon." In these islands 
 jobbers and builders no more work for philanthropy 
 than other traders, and at the same time neither 
 are their average profits greater than those of other 
 traders. Hence the question is not, Does the public 
 want large cheap well-built houses (which un- 
 doubtedly it does, like many other good things), 
 but which does it prefer — well-built houses and 
 higher rentals or worse-built houses and lower 
 rentals? Or the question may be put in another 
 form : Which is uK^st desirable, a small house well 
 built or a larger house worse built? The answer 
 to this by all with limited incomes will depend on 
 the si2e of the family to be accommodated in it. 
 
 What jobber and builder strive to provide is the 
 most attractive house they can for the money. If 
 large and cheaply-built houses are in demand, they 
 build such ; if a smaller and prettier house with 
 more up-to-date accommodation will take, they pro- 
 vide it instead. Now, provided sanitary conditions 
 are complied with, and adequate air-space provided, 
 it would seem that communities would do well to 
 large]}' allow the demand to regulate the supply, 
 more especiallj^ as the upkeep of the worse-built 
 houses falls on the owner. But unnecessary re- 
 quirements only result in adding to the cost of the 
 building, with the necessary consequence of fewer 
 houses and higher rents. 
 
 But in developing an estate by far the most 
 serious question of all is. What are the rates ? An 
 extra Sd. a week for rates, except that it does 
 
312 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 not block up capital, is as serious as an extra 
 £500 an acre in the first cost of the land. The 
 houses have to be built in competition with those 
 already in existence, and these have to fix their 
 rents solely by the demand. Thus, for a time the 
 rates may be so high that the rental return is wholly 
 unremunerative. Those already committed have, 
 of course, to face the loss as best they can ; but 
 neither jobber nor builder will build new houses until 
 a remunerative rental is obtainable. Thus build- 
 ing stops until the population becomes so congested 
 that the rentals rise sufficiently to cover the rates as 
 well. Thus, in the result there is no more potent 
 check to prevent the building of new houses 
 than high and increasing rates. This has a most 
 serious influence on the practice of communities 
 themselves trying to provide housing accommoda- 
 tion for the people. In the first place, they cannot 
 build as cheaply within fifty per cent, as the so-called 
 jeiTy-builder ; and, secondly, their rebuilding opera- 
 tions are rarely conducted under business condi- 
 tions. Hence, all such undertakings are almost 
 invariably carried out at a loss, with the result that 
 the deficiency has to be made good out of the rates. 
 But exactly to the extent to which they increase the 
 rates, they stop building until such congestion of 
 population takes place that a proportionately higher 
 rental may be secured. In other words, whilst pro- 
 viding housing acconnnodation with one hand, the}' 
 are restricting its natural development with the other. 
 Thus, as a polic}'', the general rebuilding of cities 
 by the communities does not seem desirable nor 
 
THE HOUSING PROBLEM. 313 
 
 likely to lessen the evil of overcrowding. On the 
 contrary, it promises to aggravate it and make con- 
 ditions worse. Of course, there may be exceptions 
 where other considerations demand the destruction 
 of insanitary property. Probably the most success- 
 ful course would be to insist on a minimum of cubic 
 space being required, and thus force the people out 
 to the outskirts, and leave individuals to take care 
 of themselves. We have referred to this in dealing 
 with our underpaid to show how we think it might 
 be brought about. But under present conditions 
 of raising money for local requirements, the policy 
 of communities finding housing accommodation is 
 a doubtful one. Other considerations may justify 
 improvements. A beautiful town with a high level 
 of rates and a high level of rentals mav be prefer- 
 able to a dirty ill-kept one where rates are small and 
 rentals low. On the other hand, as far as housing 
 the people is concerned, the wisest policy of com- 
 munities seems to be to keep down expenses and 
 interfere no further than absolutely necessary. Give 
 all possible freedom and security to jobbers and 
 builders, and they will overrun rather than under- 
 supply (he demand. And this will tend to solve 
 overcrowding in the heart of cities more satisfac- 
 torily than any other way. As more attractive 
 houses are built in the suburbs, as greater facilities 
 are found for getting there, so the less desirable 
 older houses will always have a tendency to become 
 less in demand, when their rentals will fall and bring 
 them within reach of a humbler class of tenant. 
 Thus the natural course is the best ; give every pos- 
 
314 LIBERTY AND PROGRKSS. 
 
 sible facility to private enterprise, aud you will do 
 much to remedy overcrowding. On the contrary, 
 harass with needless conditions aud useless require- 
 ments, and you will as certainly aggravate the evil. 
 
 So particularly should there be no remaking of 
 contracts by the Legislature. From the first step to 
 the last, from the sale of the agricultural land to the 
 letting of the finished house, every individual con- 
 nected with a building estate either is himself, or 
 has the professional assistance of, the smartest of 
 smart business men, and each and all of them know 
 exactly what they want far better than any politician 
 or agitator can tell them. 
 
 If the jobber or builder takes land cm lease, they 
 do it with their eyes perfectly wide open, and the 
 price is fixed to a penny in consequence. Freehold 
 or leasehold land is purely and solely a matter of 
 book-keeping. In many a case the jobber has 
 voluntarily elected to have leasehold land because 
 it requires less capital to work the estate. So, 
 whether he sells the land in lots to his builder for a 
 lump sum or an annual payment, it is again a matter 
 of hard bargaining between the sln'ewde.st of busi- 
 ness men. But just as consideration'^ of capital 
 often lead a joboer to prefer leasehold estates, so 
 for the same reason the builder either buys the land 
 for a ground rent, or having bought the land for a 
 lump sum, sells a ground rent to third parties. x\ 
 builder's business is to build. ^Yhat is essential to 
 him is to keep his capital free, and block up as little 
 of it as possible in every lot. Annual payments are 
 less serious to him than blocked up capital. These 
 
THE HOUSING PROBLEM. 315 
 
 are met by rentals coming in based on a consider- 
 ably higher rate of interest than what he has to pay 
 for the use of his capital, whilst blocked up capital 
 means his having to suspend building until sufficient 
 rents come in for him to start again. Thus when 
 he has built his houses, the one thing above all he 
 desires is to raise on loan upon them the utmost 
 amount possible. The more he gets the more widely 
 he can extend operations. The usual course of 
 business is for hira to borrow on mortgage of his 
 property. This he has valued, and as a rule he can 
 obtain a loan of two-thirds of the valuation. Thus 
 if the valuation be £3,000, he would obtain on 
 mortgage £2,000. But the enterprising builder 
 used to find that by first selling a ground rent to 
 issue out of the pi'operty, and then by borrowing on 
 mortgage subject to such rent, he could obtain more 
 capital. Thub, instead of simply borrowing £2,000 
 on mortgage, he would first sell a rent of £40. 
 This used to be regarded as a gilt-edged security, 
 and before agitation smashed its value, he would 
 obtain anything up to twenty-seven years' purchase 
 for it, or say in this particular example, £l,0.'iO. 
 This deducted from the £3,000 — the original value 
 of the property — would leave it worth about £1,900, 
 on which he would perhaps borrow about £1,200. 
 In tliis way he would be able to raise some £2,250 
 instead of £2,000. From the public's point of view 
 this was desirable, because the more readily he could 
 borrow the more he would push on with his building 
 operations, and the more houses would be built for 
 their accommodation. 
 
316 LIBERTY A\D PROGRESS. 
 
 But when a general air of insecurit}' affects all 
 propert}^ having connection with land, when an 
 investor never knows what form of security in land 
 may be next singled out for the attacks of envv and 
 theorising, such rents become unmarketable Make 
 the purchaser of the rent secure in his purchase, 
 and he is content to give the builder as much as 
 £2,700 for every £100 receivable as annual income; 
 but introduce an element of doubt, and you simply 
 kill the market. The builder does not care to sell 
 for £2,200 or £2,300 a rent for which he ought to 
 get £2,600 to £2,800, and a buyer does not care to 
 give £2.700 for £100 a yearto-dav when to-morrow 
 it may be cut down to £90, or even less. "Why 
 should not the owner of the ground rent bear his 
 sliare of rates'?" is asked by people ignorant of the 
 facts. Simply because he was content with so low 
 a return that it might be certain. But why should 
 he not bear his sliare of increased rates ? For the 
 same reason — it was a matter of contract he should 
 not And, further, whilst the owner will, in the 
 long run, be compensated for any additional rates 
 he may have to pay by the increase in rental that 
 must take place, the owner of the ground rent wdll 
 have no compensation whatever, and what is taken 
 from him will be pure loss. And who benefits? 
 No one benefits, and every one suffers from a feeling 
 of insecurity. The builder is hampered in his 
 finance and has to curtail his business, and his 
 workmen have fewer jobs; the investor is forced 
 abroad to find other securities, the public have fewer 
 houses built, and in consequence higher rents to 
 
THE HOUSING PROBLEM. 317 
 
 pay, and tlie natural development of cities is 
 seriously checked. 
 
 Nothing is more illustrative of the unwisdom of 
 interfering vrith individual enterprise than matters 
 connected with the development of towns. Have 
 regard to the sanctity of contract, secure landowner, 
 jobber, builder, mortgagor, ground-rent purchasers 
 in their contract rights, and capital will pour into 
 the business, and the supply of new houses will be 
 more than the most sanguine philanthropist could 
 expect or hope. Invade the principles of indivi- 
 dualism, let the community think it knows more 
 about people's business than they do themselves, 
 and ground rents become unmarketable, mortgagors 
 are chary of lending, builders are crippled for 
 capital, jobbers find their estate hang fire, and 
 instead of supply outrunning demand, it is only a 
 hard demand that can command the supply. 
 
 If we would do something effective and more 
 rapidly for the improved housing of our people, it 
 can on]}'- be done by money being provided from 
 independent sources. It is no use attacking or 
 even confiscating present propert}^, as it only kills 
 enterprise and frightens away capital for the future 
 from such plague-marked spots. But if the one 
 part of the community is prepared to make some 
 sacrifice for the sake of the other part, there is no 
 reason that a steady and gradual improvement 
 should not be effected. For, assuming that by 
 charity, or by levy on the rich trader, or even by 
 national contribution, a large sum could be main- 
 tained for the improvement of cities, we should be 
 
318 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 at once making the building trade a favoured in- 
 dustry, and therefore tempting to capitalists and 
 builders to embark in. 
 
 Thus, suppose every year a certain amount of 
 slum property were destroyed and turned into 
 gardens and playgrounds for the people, we should 
 have a pressure put on the next best houses in the 
 neighbourhood, which would be felt by those next 
 in order until in continually widening circles we 
 should come to the outskirts where building would 
 be very brisk, provided the trade was not foolishly 
 harassed. 
 
 No doubt by thus finding money at the centre, so 
 to say, unlimited good could be done. So, to pre- 
 vent similar evils of overcrowding in the future, it 
 would be a wise regulation to forbid more than 
 twenty-five houses (c) at most being built on an acre 
 of ground. Provided this principle were adhered 
 to, the greatest latitude might be allowed to 
 individual jobbers in laying out their land and 
 roads in what they considered the most attractive 
 manner. If, then, in addition, all possible facilities 
 of access were provided, we might consider we 
 were on a fair way to solving the problem of the 
 housing of our people. 
 
 (c) /.('., twenty- five four-roomed cottages. If larger, 
 fewer in proportion. 
 
 Note. 
 
 In one respect the law of real property might be amended 
 with some advantage to the public and with no loss to the 
 
THE HOUSING PROBLEM. 319 
 
 owner. To-day what are known as easements over property 
 are acquired not only by contract but by presumed contract. 
 When an easement has been enjoyed continuously for 20 
 years, the law is that a contract granting the right in 
 ptrpetuity is to be presumed. This is a most absurd pre- 
 sumption and most prejudicial to the public. Many a 
 good-natured landowner would be willing for others to share 
 in the enjoyment of his estates but for the ever-present 
 menace that if, without taking great precautions, he suffers 
 the practice to continue a few years, what he allows through 
 kindness to-day may be soon demanded as a right in years to 
 come. Without altering a single existing right in property, 
 the law well might be that no easement whatever should be 
 acquired except by deed ; and if it is the public that are to 
 acquire the right, such deed ought to be publicly enrolled to 
 make owners perfectly secure, and there will be less need for 
 them to ever jealously guard their rights. 
 
 No doubt another strong reason against giving too great 
 freedom to the public is that our country is growing sadly 
 overcrowded, and there is a tendency to abuse the privilege 
 when granted. The true lover of his fellows will, in their 
 interest, enforce the duty of respecting private property. 
 Tben further privileges might well be permitted. When, on 
 the contrary, the popular teaching is that property is an 
 invention of the evil one, and to be trampled on with all his 
 other works, naturally owners object to an invasion of their 
 premises on any terms whatever. We have shown the 
 accumulation of savings and the creation of property was due 
 to individual effort ; it would seem its preservation is to be 
 also due to the same cause — individual proprietorship. 
 
320 LIBKETY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 PKOGKESS. 
 
 Here let us briefly summarise our conclusions. 
 And, first and foremost, no reforms are practicable 
 whicli invade the fundamental condition of our life, 
 our personal liberty. As Britons, we one and all 
 demand the utmost freedom to order our lives as 
 we will, and we have no desire to surrender our 
 right of action to the despotism of an autocrat or 
 the despotism of the communitv (a). We resent 
 
 (rt) In consideriug- our institutions, we must uever forget that 
 as a people we are entirely different from all other nations of 
 the world. The origin of our institutions is to be found deep 
 down in the roll of time, and this not only influences us 
 as a nation collectively, hut finds effect in each of us as in- 
 dividuals. Whatever our nominal polities, practically we are 
 intensely conservative, and with reason. We have not 
 reached our present acme of greatness after a past of which 
 we are ashamed. On the contrary, we glory in our history 
 of liygone years. It is the history of the freedom of the 
 world. We do not want to pluck up and destroy. The 
 most we desire may he to prune excrescences and strengthen 
 the growth of the whole, and it must he along lines of 
 natural development. Our characteristics were well sum- 
 marised by Bacon. Speakiug of the fehcity of his great 
 mistress, Elizabeth, he said : " It shoiild likewise be con- 
 sidered over what kind of people she reigned. For had her 
 empire fallen among the Palmyrenians, or in soft, unwarlike 
 Asia, it had been a less wonder, since a female in the thi'one 
 would have suited an efEeminate people ; hut in England — a 
 hardy, military nation — for all things to he directed and 
 
PROGRESS. 321 
 
 any unnecessary prying into our affairs, whether 
 by the ofiBcial of a monarch or the official of our 
 neighbour. We admit such supervision may pos- 
 sibly be very good for iis, but nevertheless we 
 equally resent it. But if any class of the nation 
 demand that the community shall be answerable for 
 their welfare, it can be conceded on the one only 
 term that the commu.nity shall have the direction of 
 their actions. We repeat, " Grive me, whether as 
 State or individual, control of a man's actions, and 
 then, and then only, will I be responsible for his 
 well-being." 
 
 Let what national responsibility really means be 
 frankly and fairly stated, let it be clearly shown 
 that it must be accompanied by a limitation of 
 personal independence, and there is not a doubt it 
 would be scornfully rejected by every free man in 
 these isles. Therefore on these lines progress is 
 impossible, as contrary to the genius of our people. 
 And were it possible, it is doubtful if it were 
 desirable. What is the goal to which we would 
 progress, go forward — the true meaning of the 
 word ? To make our race a better one ; to make it 
 in each unit stronger, better, more indejDendent, 
 
 governed by a woman, is a matter of the highest admiration. 
 Yet this temper of her people, eager for war and impatient 
 of peace, did not prevent her from maintaining it all her 
 reign" {Eamyx, ^c, p. 483). And the charaoteristic of our 
 Elizabethan ancestors was the characteristic of their Norman, 
 Saxon and British forbears, and with little change is the 
 characteristic of our race to-day. We may enjoy a piping 
 peace for a time, but gradually the old Berserkar fury of our 
 forefathers comes over us and war we must and will have.. 
 Sheathe our sword for ever ? It is not in the race. 
 
 D. Y 
 
322 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 more self-reliant, more self -restrained, more self- 
 denying, more manful to fight the battle of life. 
 The one thing we do not want, the one thing to be 
 dreaded, is the increase of the unfit. It is oaks we 
 want to grow, not brambles. Therefore we say the 
 virtues that are the fruit of effort are far more 
 desirable than the same virtues secured by compul- 
 sion. And it is because our virtues, such as they 
 are, are spontaneous, that as a race we are prover- 
 bial for being at our be.«t when in a tight corner. 
 We have a doggedness and an initiative for which 
 we can find a parallel only in the ancient Roman 
 himself. We are a strong race, and if we are to 
 continue to play our part in the theatre of the 
 world we must remain a strong race. The effete 
 and played-out have no part in this strenuous age. 
 Thus, as regards progress, our first essential — an 
 essential about which every measure of improve- 
 ment circles — is the improvement of the unit, the 
 enforcing the responsibility of the individual. 
 
 The second essential of progress, the very root of 
 individualism itself, is to secure a just payment for 
 services rendered. Let this be our goal, and our 
 compass is set right however difficult it may be to 
 reach our port. 
 
 We have seen that the multitude of dailv trans- 
 actions are in the main just, and that people 
 willingly pay for the services they receive. But 
 there are at the two extremes, injustices which need 
 serious attention. At the one end of the scale are 
 those underpaid, and whom society treats unjustly ; 
 at the other those overpaid, who rob society. As 
 
PEOGRESS. 323 
 
 regards the underpaid, we have considered those 
 forces which tend to make their position so hopeless. 
 We have seen that to attempt anything on their 
 behalf involves a life and death struggle with 
 Nature's laws themselves. We have seen that 
 nothing is easier than a wild indulgence in philan- 
 thropy, but nothing more disastrous. For the 
 reasons we have given it seems possible that we 
 might do them some benefit if we limited their 
 hours of work to a reasonable number, organised 
 their labour, and made compulsory a uniform rate 
 of w^ages (b), so as to prevent their being used as a 
 counter in the competition of masters with one 
 another. Further, we also seemed to think that it 
 might be possible to fix such uniform wage at a 
 minimum which might be a shilling or two a week 
 higher than at present rules, provided that at the 
 same time we took precautions for such extra wage 
 being spent in desirable ways, such as extra housing 
 accommodation. We also saw that to increase such 
 earnings and allow it to take the hitherto invariable 
 result of merely adding to the numbers of the unfit, 
 is simply cruelty in the guise of kindness, and 
 adding to the evil and not remedying it. In thus 
 trying to raise the earnings of the underpaid we 
 have the consciousness that we are infringing no 
 principle of individualism, the very essential of 
 which is fair pay for fair work. Therefore we can 
 with more confidence devote ourselves to this reform, 
 satisfied it ought not to have any ulterior disastrous 
 
 {b) We do not mean the same wage — this is disastrous to 
 the infirm and aged — but a uniform graduated wage. 
 
324 libp:rty and progress. 
 
 results. We admit we are very near dangerous 
 ground, but there is in principle all the diffei'ence 
 in the world between trying to secure the worker 
 fair pay for his work and making ourselves respon- 
 sible for such worker entirely. We have seen there 
 are certain laws which tend to unduly depress the 
 price of certain labour. Can we effectively counter 
 .such law without doing more harm than good ? So 
 it must be remembered we do not suggest some 
 fancy rate of wage, but such rate as the whole 
 nation would unanimously agree not to be too 
 large, and secondl}", such an amount as will not 
 kill the industry itself. Then further, as we have 
 said, we suggest an advance of only one or two 
 shillings at most at first, and even this increase we 
 think should be accompanied with provisions ensur- 
 ing its being expended satisfactorily. 
 
 As regards the overpaid, we have seen that they, 
 in their way, furnish as serious a question as that 
 of the underpaid. It seems almost a law of Nature 
 that like gravitates to like, equally whether it is 
 matter or money. It is serious enough when only 
 fair practices are indulged in. But when unfair 
 practices are resorted to the}' threaten the very 
 existence of society. Such offenders ought to be 
 ruthlessly dealt with, and all extortion of money, 
 or robbery of the public by unjust inflation of 
 prices, ought to be regarded as a serious offence. 
 Our existence as an individualistic society is at stake. 
 Individualism must destroy trusts, or trusts will 
 destroy individualism. But whilst unjust inflation 
 of prices is so serious, it by no means follows that 
 
PE06EESS. 325 
 
 the largest earnings are any proof of unfair prac- 
 tices. Where every item of a transaction is just, 
 where every transaction of a mighty business is 
 just, then the whole, the result, must be just. So 
 in life exactly is the converse true, and no system 
 is other than pernicious, however laudable the goal 
 it proposes to attain, if it is only to be reached by 
 individual steps of lying, hatred, envy, malice, 
 and every appeal to all the worst passions of 
 mankind (c). 
 
 That capital, in its functions of enabling one 
 worker to sell his labour at a far higher price than 
 another, is a matter for serious consideration, and 
 that a more equal payment for equally earnest work 
 is desirable is generally admitted ; but, at the same 
 time, that such is not to be secured by any violent 
 changes has been equally demonstrated. We have 
 seen that a vast amount of the nation's income is 
 earned by joint producers, or by the conjunction of 
 masters and servants assisted by property. And we 
 have seen in free conditions of trading that 
 practically — 
 
 (a) The wages of the servants are determined by 
 their competition amongst themselves ; 
 
 (c) " Another observation is the remark so often repeated 
 that it is not just to argue against the use of a thing from its 
 abuse, and that the best instruments do the most harm when 
 misemployed. The futility of this argument is obvious : it 
 consists in calling the good effects of a thing its use, and in 
 stigmatising the bad effects as its abuse. To say that you 
 ought not to argue from the abuse of a thing against its use 
 is to say that, in making a just appreciation of the tendency 
 of a cause, you ought to consider only the good and not the 
 evil it produces." — Bentham's Theorii of Lofi'islation, p. 439. 
 
326 LIBERTY AND PKOGEESS. 
 
 (b) The profits of the masters are determined by 
 
 their competition amongst themselves ; 
 
 (c) And the charges for the use of property are 
 
 determined by the competition of its owners 
 to have it used amongst themselves. 
 That is, that fundamentally the earnings of all 
 three classes are more or less independent of those 
 of the other classes. The earnings of the servants 
 are largely governed bv the numbers of those com- 
 peting, and however the issue may be confused, 
 there is no class who will so bitterly rue any 
 measure that increases the number of the unfit as 
 the servant himself. It may be pleasant having his 
 children educated free, but it means more unfit to 
 compete with. It may be pleasant to have his 
 children fed, but it means still more unfit to reduce 
 his wages. It may be pleasant to have accidents 
 and sickness insui'ed against, but it means still more 
 competition ; and it may be pleasant ha\ing his old 
 age pro\'ided for, but it means the liberating of so 
 much money to promote still earlier marriages, to 
 still more increase the rivals to reduce his wages. 
 All such adventitious aids reduce to the practical 
 alternative ; Would the worker prefer, higher wages 
 to be received and used by himself directly, or to 
 be the recipient of benefits to be indirectly enjoyed? 
 His level of wage is determined bv competition. 
 His receipts are ultimately determined by competi- 
 tion. Whether he receives it all in a lump sum as 
 wages, or partly in wages and partly in the educa- 
 tion or feeding of his children, or in pension or 
 other relief for himself, will not affect the total. It 
 
PEOGEESS. 327 
 
 may change the channels of payment, it may 
 sacrifice the provident for the improvident, the self- 
 respecting for the worthless, but it will be no 
 permanent advantage to the worker. Exactly as 
 every good man who voluntarily keeps the law 
 benefits by every one else being compelled to do 
 the same, exactly as every fair dealer benefits by 
 every other dealer being compelled to deal fairly, 
 exactly so does every good father benefit by every 
 other father being compelled to discharge his 
 parental responsibilities faithfully and fully. As 
 individuals we are all interested in the strength and 
 honour and glory of our country, but economically 
 the one above all interested in limiting the number 
 of the unfit is the working man himself. 
 
 With his employer he has no quarrel, nor has his 
 employer any quarrel with him (J); nor have either 
 any quarrel with capital that is let on hire. Make it 
 secure and its owners will compete amongst themselves 
 for it to be used, until the worker, whether master 
 or servant, can have its use for the most trifling 
 charge per year. To the self-denial and savings of 
 others in the past, labour is enormously indebted. It 
 is such savings that have made labour productive and 
 well paid, and the claim of property is only to a 
 small proportion of that increase to which it has so 
 enormously contributed. Apart from the savings of 
 others, the reward of labour is the barest subsistence. 
 
 (d) The consumer alone may have quarrel with both. 
 Has employer or servant suffered from the price of coal being 
 forced higher and higher ? Bach trade is itself, its masters, 
 and its servants against the world. 
 
328 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 Apart from savings, forty million people could not 
 •exist in these tiny islands. Apart from savings, we 
 should be a miserable, ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed 
 community, where all would be sunk to the same 
 dead level of wretchedness, ignorance, and depravity. 
 In such a community a man earning 30s. a week 
 would be a prince, and a man with a hundred a year 
 :as rare as the black eagle in the streets of London. 
 To-day we have over £880,000,000 divided amongst 
 people earning three pounds a week and under. To- 
 day we have a degree of general prosperity and 
 comfort never before known in the world's history. 
 To-day the only limit to our progress and material 
 prosperity is the character of the individual himself. 
 Then, in the light of these facts, let us seek that pro- 
 gress we all desire — not in an uninformed attack on 
 principles and conditions which stand approved by 
 their results, but by seeing to the improvement of 
 the individual himself. And this is not to be done 
 by relieving him of responsibilities ; this is not to 
 be done by the communit}^ being his nursemaid to 
 see he never gets into mischief, but by teaching him 
 that duty has to be done, and responsibilities volun- 
 tarily undertaken have to be discharged. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 We have thus cursorily surveyed the various forces 
 which govern society, and on the true appreciation 
 of which all reforms must depend for their success. 
 And so we find that progress does not depend on 
 any brilliant new departure, still less on any violent 
 social upheaval, but on an exact knowledge of 
 existing conditions, their relations one to another, 
 and on an almost tentative advance of one step at a 
 time. Good or bad trade is the resultant of 
 innumerable forces ; far more so is progress itself. 
 It is absolutely essential to it that a just balance 
 should be held between what is good and what is 
 bad. Nor is what is good or what is bad a simple 
 matter to determine. They are more often than 
 not matters of degree. Certain evils are absolute 
 evils, as we may take laziness to be ; but it is more 
 difficult to find an instance of an absolute good. 
 Thus, to run even an apparent good to an extreme 
 usually causes a reaction which does far more evil 
 than the good advocated ever caused benefit. Pos- 
 sibly a blindness to disadvantages helps to get 
 matters through which otherwise might suffer 
 delay («), but with the result that their being bene- 
 
 («) " Boldness is blind : wherefore 'tis ill in counsel but 
 good in executioD. For in counsel it is good to see dangers, 
 
330 LIBERTY AND PRO&EESS. 
 
 ticial or otherwise becomes a matter of simple 
 chance. We have seen that even with so excellent a 
 thing as insurance, if we once depart from true 
 business principles it may become the cause of the 
 very evil we desire it to cure. Hence it is that 
 every innovation ought to be accepted only after 
 the narrowest examination of both principles and 
 details involved. " It is good also not to try experi- 
 ments in states, except the necessity be urgent or 
 the utility evident; and well to beware that it be 
 the reformation that draweth on the change, and not 
 the desire of change, that pretendeth the reforma- 
 tion" (6). Several dangers are peculiar to democratic 
 states, against which we should be on our guard. 
 One is that the desire of votes may pretend the 
 reformation, and a second that, under colour of 
 reform, one section of the nation may vote for changes 
 from which they get the benefit, and for which 
 another section has to find the money. It is easy to 
 raise expectations, but difficult to satisfy them. No 
 doubt the theory of this world is incomprehensible, 
 why some should be so highly favoured and others 
 so badly treated. It requires little teaching to 
 satisfy those who have not that they are every whit 
 as meritorious and deserving as those who have. 
 Envy needs little cultivation to become a terrific 
 
 in execution not to see them, except they be very great." — 
 Baron's Essay on Boldness. 
 
 However, there is no great fear of our reforms being much 
 delayed for want of boldness if blindness is the only essential 
 needed. 
 
 (b) Bacon's Essay on Innocotions. 
 
CONCLUSION. 331 
 
 engine of evil, and a Frankenstein monster can well 
 be made of less promising materials than men 
 thirsting for the good things denied them, as they 
 are told, by the wickedness of other people (c). In 
 running our special reforms we think we can put the 
 drag on when the pace becomes too hot, but let 
 those who so readily inflame the passions of others 
 remember that it is easy for a man to raise a storm, 
 but that it takes a Christ to rise and say : ' ' Peace, 
 be still." 
 
 Things may not be right, but things will never be 
 made better by appealing to all the worst passions 
 
 (c) " The question of progressive taxation is a nice one in 
 theory ; while in its practical application it is beset with the 
 gravest difficulty, arising out of the instincts of spoliation, 
 which are deeply rooted in the human breast — an inheritance 
 from ages of universal Wiirfare and robbery. The appetite 
 for plundering the accumulated stock of wealth, once aroused, 
 may become a formidable social and political evil." — Walker, 
 Pol. JEcon., p. 500. 
 
 " Those who have the resolution to sacrifice the present to 
 the future are the natural objects of envy to those who have 
 sacrificed the future to the present. The children who have 
 eaten their cake are the natural enemies of the children who 
 have theirs." Benthnm'-i Works, Vol. III. p. 17. 
 
 " I shall conclude by a general observation. The more 
 the principle of property is respected the stronger hold it 
 takes on the popular mind. Slight attacks upon this principle 
 prepare the way for heavier ones. A long time has been 
 necessary to carry property to the point where we now see it 
 in civilised society, but a fatal experience has shown with 
 what facility it can be shaken, and how easily this savage 
 instinct of plunder gets the better of the law. Grovernment 
 and the people are in this respect like tamed lions — let them 
 but taste a drop of blood and their native ferocity revives." — 
 Bentham's Theorij of Legislation, p. 145. 
 
332 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 of mankind. Nor is it necessary. To-day the 
 forces for good in the country are amply sufficient 
 to carry any reform that can be demonstrated to be 
 sound and likely to prove beneficial. The question 
 is not "what," but "how." Could we solve the 
 problem of our race, could we make our millions 
 healthy, energetic, prudent and strong, it would be 
 done even to the half of our fortunes. And a 
 splendid bargain for us all as well. But what we 
 want is quiet thought and not pretentious, vote- 
 getting, plausible appeals to cheap sentiment. 
 Benevolence is not the peculiar heritage of any 
 party or individual in the State, not even of the 
 demagogue. Some may cant, some may act, some 
 may give of their own substance, some of that of 
 others, but it is not those who make the most pro- 
 fession who usually make the most sacrifice. 
 
 Nor, fortunately, does reform depend upon their 
 sacrifice. Nature, in reality, is kinder than she 
 seems. Where discontent is not fostered, where 
 there is absence of actual physical pain, there is far 
 more equality of happiness between the different 
 classes of society than the apparent vast disparity of 
 fortune would seem to indicate. Not that this is to 
 be an excuse for our doing nothing — not that this 
 is to be a reason for our checking one possible real 
 reform; but simply it is a fact to be remembered 
 when we are inclined to think how much better we 
 could have made the world had we been its creator. 
 The law of happiness is the law of individual life. 
 Rightly we shall each be judged by our oppor- 
 tunities ; but rightly also each has to work out his 
 
CONCLUSION. 333 
 
 own salvation (rf). It is a law of Nature that life is 
 an individual fight, and to be satisfactory must be a 
 strenuous, personal fight after higher things. A 
 man carries his own curse or his own blessing in his 
 own person, and no other can answer for him. But 
 how about those cursed in their parents, cursed in 
 themselves, and cursed in their children ? And 
 without thought of the consequences we deliberately 
 entertain proposals to increase their number and to 
 perpetuate the evil indefinitely. The question is 
 what real, practical steps have we taken, not what 
 vain, sentimental, imaginary vapourings are we in- 
 dulging in, to prevent the inci'ease of the unfit? 
 Can any one prophet of the new order to be come 
 forward and say that, thanks to his teaching, even 
 one such unfortunate has learnt self-denial, and 
 knowing the bitterness of his own lot, has deter- 
 mined not to perpetuate it in another generation ? 
 And is their position due to the defects of 
 individualism itself ? Make the man strong and he 
 will be strong under any system. Let him be 
 worthless and he will thrive under none. And 
 whilst we speak of individualism it is only in .theory 
 it exists, for the amount given and spent in the 
 assistance of others is simply fabulous. Not the 
 least merit of individualism is that whilst it 
 develops all the stronger points of a strong people, 
 it gives such free play to altruism. And the danger 
 
 (d) This the scriptures tell us. It may have a deep and 
 spiritual meaning, but in its primary or .^urface meaning it 
 is no less imperative. We must learn to stand alone. Others 
 cannot do the fighting for us. How many a parent tries to 
 save his child from the triaJs that made his life bitter, only 
 to prove how vain the endeavour. 
 
334 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 to-day is that it is altruism and not individualism 
 that spells the decadence of our i^ace. Some are 
 full of praise for other systems, some would establish 
 a new order of things, but how many are prepared 
 to reduce theory to practice by themselves first 
 setting an example ? The blood of the martyr was 
 the seed of the Church. Why not the wealth of the 
 believer the seal of his faith (e) ? 
 
 Alas for human nature ! It is the gold of others 
 he prefers, and his cause loses the power that 
 whole-heartedness alone can give. To successfully 
 found a new religion we must, as has been pun- 
 gently remarked, not only preach but practise, and 
 follow in the footsteps of Him who loved so well, 
 even, if necessary, to the cross itself. 
 
 At least individualism is an honest system. There 
 is no humbug about it, no assumption of virtues 
 non-existent, no posing, no pretensions, nothing but 
 what it is — self pure and simple. It does not profess 
 to be actuated l)y high-mindedness. It has no 
 temptation to be charitable with other people's 
 money. It simply, truthfully, and straightforwardly 
 states its position. If assistance is demanded for 
 the needs of others, it does not hide its sentiments. 
 It unqualifiedly objects. It asks, "Why should I, 
 who have earned my money and saved my money, 
 be deprived of my money to supplement the earn- 
 ings of the improvident and unfit; and more, not 
 
 (e) " The most powerful means of jiroducing an important 
 revolution is to strike the mind of the people by some great 
 example. Thus, Catherine II. surmounted the popular pre- 
 judice against inoculation by trying it, nnt upon criminals, 
 but on herself." — Bentham's Theory of Legislation, p. 434. 
 
CONCLUSION. 335 
 
 only to supplement their earnings, but to actually 
 increase their numbers, to be a still furttier drain 
 on my resources ? " It sees in poverty only evidence 
 of imprudence. It sees that nearly every case of 
 distress is due to the improvidence of the individual 
 himself or his parents. These dealt with, and 
 the few remaining cases of genuine distress, caused 
 by misfortune, would hardly need a second thought, 
 so easily would they be coped with and relieved, 
 not as a matter of duty but by the zeal of benevo- 
 lence. Certainly it is not a lovable system nor a 
 charitable one, but at least it does not put its sup- 
 porters in the false position of preaching one thing 
 in public and practising another in private (/). If 
 I fight against another's excessive earnings, I fight 
 because I say they injure me. If privileges are 
 going I want them myself. I am selfish to the 
 backbone. I object to institutions which injure 
 me, my child, or my friend. If a man does what 
 I disapprove of, I try to compel him to change 
 because I do not wisli those I love to be con- 
 taminated. There is no humbug about why I try 
 to interfere with another. I object to a drunken 
 
 ( /') " The case was this : a bigger boy who had a little 
 coat, taking the coat off a little boy that had a larger one, 
 put on him his own coat, and put on himself the little boy's 
 coat. I therefore, giving judgment between them, decided 
 that it was best that each should keep the coat that best 
 fitted him. Upon this the master beat me, telling me that 
 when I should be constituted judge of what fitted best I 
 might determine in this manner, but that when I was to 
 judge whose coat it was I must consider what just possession 
 is . . . and that a judge ought to give his opinion in con- 
 formity with the law." — Oyropaedia, Book I. p. 16. 
 
336 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 man about the streets becauwe I am asliamed my 
 wife or daughter should see the disgusting sight or 
 hear tlie filthy language. I make no profession 
 of wanting to reform him for his sake — I want 
 to reform him for my own. 1 want mj' country 
 strong and powerful, and I hate any policy that 
 increases my responsibilities and the number of 
 the unfit. 
 
 And my hatred of others' abuses is a healthy 
 hatred, and tends to the development of the race in 
 right directions. We all wax far more violent over 
 a wrong that touches our little finger than over 
 reforms that would regenerate the age, but which 
 we might have to first put in practice ourselves. 
 And slowly but surelj^ the world has been made 
 better to live in by this continual process of object- 
 ing to all that injures ourselves. What, above all, is 
 desirable is that people should be taught what those 
 things really are which injure them, what those 
 things really are which are truly good and worth 
 the having and worth the pursuit. 
 
 All this is individualism ; but, above all, as we 
 have said, there is the other side of the shield. 
 Whatever our theories, there is a very substantial 
 amount of goodwill to one's fellow-man. Whatever 
 our theories, there are thousands who realise that 
 happiness does not consist in the abundance of the 
 things that one possesses, and whose life is one long 
 discharge of duty as God's almoners of the wealth 
 entrusted to their care. Faithful stewards, their one 
 thought is to use their property in His service. And 
 in their faithfulness they have found their reward — 
 
CONCLUSION, ■33'7 
 
 a sure, great, and imperisliable happiness. Their 
 happiness is not built on things that decay, fade, 
 change, or pass away, but on the eternal foundation 
 of the happiness they have brought to their fellow- 
 man ((/). It has been our happy experience to have 
 known some such. True missionaries of light with 
 little to say, but centres of happy households, their 
 life has been one sunny example of joy in well- 
 doing (/z). Individualism may be selfishness, but in 
 its fullest development it has every possibility of 
 being as glorious a system as any other Utopia 
 launched upon the world. Like them it demands 
 the perfection of man for its realisation, but unlike 
 them it is pregnant with excellences in the mean- 
 time. Whilst the evils of other social innovations 
 are \ery real and present, and their ultimate per- 
 fections very far off and imaginary, individualism 
 as a practical system develops some of the finest and 
 
 [g) " If the chief part of human happiness arises from the 
 consciousness o£ being beloved, as I befeve it does, these 
 sudden changes of fortune seldom contribute ,much to 
 happiness." — Adam Smith's Theory of 31oral Sentiment, 
 Part I., Sect. 2, Chap. V. ' 
 
 {h) " With what pleasure do we look upon a family through 
 the whole of which reigns mutual love ^nd esteem, where the 
 parents and children are companions for one another without 
 any difference than what is made by respeptful afieotion on 
 the one side and kind indulgence on the other, where freedom 
 and fondness, miitual raillery and mutual kindness, show that 
 no opposition of interest divides the brothers, nor any rival- 
 ship of favour sets the sisters at variance, and where every- 
 thing presents us with the idea of peace, cheerfulness, 
 harmony and contentment." — Adam Smith's Theory of Moral 
 Sentiment, Part I., Sect. 2, Chap. IV. 
 
338 LIBERTY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 most sterling qualities in the human race, and in 
 its idealistic possibilities is no whit behind more 
 pretentious imaginings. 
 
 " The tenure of property is the fulfilment of 
 duty," and by such tenure is it held by many of 
 our greatest to-day. Nor is it a far cr}' to the time 
 when the pleasure of property will be equally found 
 in using it for the best good of all. But to write 
 in the future is a libel on the present. To-day, 
 already, many of great powers accept that they are 
 so endowed for the good they may do. To-day 
 many have proved there is no joy equal to that of 
 being beloved, and to day there arc not a few who 
 have laid hold on the truth that in its highest form 
 selfishness only finds its completest and unalloyed 
 consummation in unselfishness itself. Nor is this 
 inconsistent with the principles of individualism : it 
 is individualism in its final development ; it is indi- 
 vidualism merged in and become coincident with 
 altruism, and finding in altruism its final and com- 
 pletest expression. This is idealism ; but it is not 
 of the imaginings of the di-eamer alone, for it has 
 been realised, and is being realised, in our midst 
 even now. And what makes such idealism the more 
 precious is that it is the spontaneous growth of 
 freedom itself. Free to elect between good and 
 evil, man has chosen the better part. This is the 
 end of our desires, the voluntary aspiration for 
 higher things. And freedom and individualism are 
 closely knit together, freedom and individualism 
 and progress is the child of both. Our 
 
CONCLUSION. 339 
 
 liberty we love, our progi^ess we desire, and we 
 close our inquiry with the happy consciousness that 
 the more zealously we maintain the one the more 
 effectually will the other be promoted. Liberty 
 and progress, inseparable and undivided, we blazon 
 both the legend of our race. 
 
LONDON : 
 PEIKTED BY C. r. EOWOETH, 88, FETTEK LANE, E.G. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 <\ 
 
 ) A 
 
 
 
 ,.aGP" .v-,! 
 
 >»"■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 xh^ 
 
 "■^ 
 
 s.* 
 
 
 
 w^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLOHD 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IN U S-A. 
 

 >K\ 
 
 f 1. 
 
 '/«• 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 e 
 
 4 
 
 ''^ 
 
 
 n 
 
 m