XXIII THE SOCIAL QUAGMIRE 411 



those founded on land-speculation and land-monopoly ; 

 while the land itself would be acquired by means involving 

 the minimum of interference with the property or welfare 

 of any living persons. But, unless by these or some 

 analogous measures farmers are relieved from the competi- 

 tion of great capitalists, while competition among them- 

 selves is rendered fair and equal by a differential rent or 

 land-tax, no other kind of legislation can possibly relieve 

 the majority of them from the state of poverty and 

 continuous labour in which they now exist. In an unfair 

 and unequal competition the less favoured must always be 

 beaten. 



II. Wage-Workers. 



The once familiar term " republican simplicit}- " is now 

 an unmeaning one, since both in France and in America 

 there is an amount of wealth and luxury not surpassed in 

 any of the old monarchies. Yet it serves to show us the 

 ideal which the founders of republics fondly hoped to 

 attain. They aimed at abolishing for ever, not only the 

 rank and titles of hereditary nobility, but also those vast 

 differences of wealth and social grade which were supposed 

 to depend upon monarchical government. Their objects 

 were to secure, not only political and religious freedom, 

 but also an approximate equality of social conditions ; or, 

 at the very least, an adequate share of the comforts and 

 enjoyments of life for every industrious citizen. Yet after 

 a century of unprecedented growth, and the utilization of 

 the natural riches of a great continent, we find to-day, in 

 all the great cities of the United States, thousands and 

 tens of thousands who by constant toil cannot secure 

 necessaries and comforts for their children or make any 

 provision for an old age of peaceful repose. One great 

 object of republican institutions has, it is clear, not been 

 attained. Let us now endeavour to form some idea of the 

 extent and nature of the disease of the social organism, 

 so as more effectually to provide the true remedy. 



In his Social Problems (written in 1883) Henry 



