FROM FREEDOM TO BONDAGE. 723 



distribution of taxes which, has relieved the lower classes at the 

 expense of the upper classes. He is struck, too, by the contrast 

 between the small space which popular welfare then occupied in 

 public attention, and the large space it now occupies, with the 

 result that outside and inside Parliament, plans to benefit the 

 millions form the leading topics, and every one having means is 

 expected to join in some philanthropic effort. Yet while eleva- 

 tion, mental and physical, of the masses is going on far more rap- 

 idly than ever before while the lowering of the death-rate proves 

 that the average life is less trying, there swells louder and louder 

 the cry that the evils are so great that nothing short of a social 

 revolution can cure them. In presence of obvious improvements, 

 joined with that increase of longevity which even alone yields 

 conclusive proof of general amelioration, it is proclaimed, with 

 increasing vehemence, that things are so bad that society must be 

 pulled to pieces and reorganized on another plan. In this case, 

 then, as in the previous cases instanced, in proportion as the evil 

 decreases the denunciation of it increases ; and as fast as natural 

 causes are shown to be powerful there grows up the belief that 

 they are powerless. 



Not that the evils to be remedied are small. Let no one sup- 

 pose that, by emphasizing the above paradox, I wish to make 

 light o^ the sufferings which most men have to bear. The fates of 

 the great majority have ever been, and doubtless still are, so sad 

 that it is painful to think of them. Unquestionably the existing 

 type of social organization is one which none who care for their 

 kind can contemplate with satisfaction ; and unquestionably 

 men's activities accompanying this type are far from being ad- 

 mirable. The strong divisions of rank and the immense inequali- 

 ties of means, are at variance with that ideal of human relations 

 on which the sympathetic imagination likes to dwell ; and the 

 average conduct, under the pressure and excitement of social life 

 as at present carried on, is in sundry respects repulsive. Though 

 the many who revile competition strangely ignore the enormous 

 benefits resulting from it though they forget that most of all 

 the appliances and products distinguishing civilization from sav- 

 agery, and making possible the maintenance of a large popula- 

 tion on a small area, have been developed by the struggle for 

 existence though they disregard the fact that while every man, 

 as producer, suffers from the under-bidding of competitors, yet, as 

 consumer, he is immensely advantaged by the cheapening of all 

 he has to buy though they persist in dwelling on the evils of 

 competition and saying nothing of its benefits ; yet it is not to be 

 denied that the evils are great, and form a large set-off from the 

 benefits. The system under which we at present live fosters dis- 

 honesty and lying. It prompts adulterations of countless kinds ; 



