PROBLEMS OF PROPERTY. 341 



tenure. In Java the Dutch Government leases plantations to a vast 

 extent, and the plan works well there. 



In Germany, the agitation against the existing laws and privileges 

 of property has taken the form of socialism ; the schemes of thinkers 

 and closet-students have been popularized by press and platform until 

 now the Socialistic party sends a large representation to the Reichstag, 

 pressing measures upon the Government which a generation ago would 

 have been deemed revolutionary. Much heated discussion has recently 

 taken place in the national Legislature on the proposal that the Gov- 

 ernment should undertake the manufacture of tobacco ; and if the state 

 should manufacture tobacco acceptably and economically, why not 

 cotton and wool ? The beaucracy and strong paternal Government of 

 Germany perform so many functions left in England and the United 

 States to private enterprise, that the people in times of business de- 

 pression look to the Administration for measures of relief instead of 

 to their own efforts. 



It seems to me that socialism is an evidence of the constantly rising 

 dislike among the masses to the main advantages of competition and 

 new business economies being enjoyed by the small class of capitalists. 

 How far state control may allowably be invoked as a remedy in fields 

 wherein individual exertions have been employed is a question warmly 

 debated. One school of thinkers, led by Spencer and Bastiat, hold to 

 laissez /aire, and wish the operations of government confined to the 

 narrowest limits the maintenance of order and the enforcing of con- 

 tracts leaving individuals the utmost scope to think, express them- 

 selves, and act ; the opposite school, among whom as an able exponent 

 may be named Mr. Cairnes, hold that individuals, while following what 

 they believe to be their interests, may not conceive their interests truly 

 or in relations harmonizing with the general good, and that therefore 

 some general control by the community of the actions of its several 

 classes and members is most desirable for the correction of such prac- 

 tices and pursuits as are inimical to the whole body of the people, 

 though pleasant or profitable to a few. This is said by Mr. Cairnes 

 and others, not in advocacy of the general state direction of industry, 

 but only in qualification of the sweeping theory that individuals, each 

 doing his own work for its own reward, or seeking his pleasure in his 

 own way, unconsciously contributes to the highest well-being of the 

 community. Mr. Cairnes thinks the individual in society should be 

 like a musician, who, in playing his part, looks chiefly to his own score, 

 but occasionally glances at the central conductor so as to keep proper 

 time with his fellows. 



State socialism is not a living question in Great Britain or America; 

 in Great Britain, however, the Government has notably added to its 

 functions of late years : it has absorbed the telegraph service and the 

 savings-banks into x the post-office, and there is some expectation that 

 the railways may also come under Government control. Mr. Brassey 



