78o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



waste, incompetence, and a tendency to retain old methods wliere 

 new and better ones should be tried. The reasons for this are not 

 far to seek. Lacking the normal and powerful stimulus of self- 

 interest, as well as the energy which is the outgrowth of compe- 

 tition, the state, as an industrial agent, can never be relied upon 

 to equal in productive results the present system of individual 

 management. But this of itself would not necessarily condemn 

 it, if it can be shown that socialism, by raising the moral tone of 

 society and more equitably distributing its economic product, gets 

 rid of those evils which, it is claimed, are caused by individual- 

 ism, and, thus elevating the standard of social well-being, more 

 than balances the loss in production. It is indeed conceivable that 

 men might live happier and better than they do at present by 

 restoring the ancient ideal, and limiting their wants to those 

 things only which are essential to human welfare ; and that pro- 

 duction might, as a whole, be less than it now is, and yet society 

 be better off, if work were so guided that there should be no such 

 thing as overproduction of some articles and underproduction 

 of others ; or that such a ratio should be preserved that the pur- 

 chasing power of the masses would keep pace with their product- 

 ive power. 



To this, however, it may be replied that there is no good rea- 

 son for thinking that the state will be a better judge of what is 

 essential for human welfare than the individuals who compose it, 

 and it would not be as sure a check upon " overjDroduction " as 

 the self-interest of the individual producers ; for this will keep 

 them alert and watchful of the conditions affecting demand and 

 supply. 



Moreover, the interests of society are advanced in several ways 

 by the unequal distribution of wealth. If all existing wealth were 

 equally distributed, it would not raise any one to affluence, or 

 make unnecessary hard and continuous labor. A certain amount 

 of leisure is absolutely necessary to the cultivation of those tastes 

 and talents upon which the general culture and special knowledge 

 of mankind depend. It is obvious that, where men have no time 

 to devote to such matters, in consequence of the necessity of giv- 

 ing all their hours of labor to the production of the essential 

 means of existence, the higher and particularly those immaterial 

 forms of wealth out of which many of the greatest social gratifica- 

 tions are obtained will either not be produced at all, or produced 

 to only a limited extent. Hence, the general culture of the com- 

 munity will suffer from this lack, and a lower type of organism 

 will be developed. 



To a certain extent the cultivation of science might, in such a 

 community, be made a means of bread-winning, as its usefulness 

 could be made more apparent, but the pursuit of knowledge would 



