XXIII THE SOCIAL QUAGMIRE 429 



whole of the manufacturers of the country were in the 

 hands of associated workers. 



At the present time all the boasted division of labour and 

 economy of manufacture on a great scale, tends solely to 

 the benefit of the capitalist. It is advantageous for him 

 to have a thousand men working in one huge building, or 

 agglomeration of buildings, and all the workers are made 

 to come there, though their homes may be a long way off. 

 The gain is his, the loss theirs. It is better for him 

 that each man should do one kind of Avork only all day 

 long, and from year's end to year's end, because he thus 

 does it quicker and with less supervision. But the man 

 suffers in the monotony of his work and in the injury to 

 his health ; while, doing one thing only, he is helpless 

 when out of work. But in the future the arrangements 

 will all be made in the interest of the worker. When 

 possible, he will do his work at home, neither tied to 

 special hours nor compelled to walk long distances, and 

 thus lose precious time, besides adding so much unpaid 

 labour to his daily toil. He will then be able to work some 

 hours a day in his garden or farm, or in some occupation 

 possessing more variety and interest than being a mere 

 intelligent part of a vast machine. And when he works 

 at his own machine he will not need to keep at it more than 

 four or six hours a day. Being thus able to work, even as 

 a manufacturer, on his own account, in association with 

 his fellow-townsmen, he will not be induced to work for a 

 capitalist except for very high wages and for very moderate 

 hours of labour. He will then soon compete successfully 

 with the capitalist, and ultimately drive him out of the 

 field altogether. For it must always be remembered that, 

 once the workers get homes of their very own, with the 

 means of obtaining a considerable portion of their food 

 direct from the soil, they can save their own capital, and 

 thereafter employ their own labour; whereas the capitalists, 

 though possessing abundance of money and machinery, 

 cannot make a single piece of calico or an ingot of steel, 

 cannot raise a ton of coal or turn out a single 

 watch, unless they can induce men to work for 

 them. 



