5ixv RALAHINE AND ITS TEACHINGS 469 



the incitement of individual gain. The common good, the 

 well-being of the community of which they form a part, 

 and on the economical success of which their own well- 

 being depends, it is said, is not sufficient. There will 

 be numbers of men and women who are constitutionally 

 lazy, and there will always be more or less of loafers, who 

 will thus live upon the labour of their fellows. 



The answer to this general proposition is, that such 

 persons, who are perhaps not really numerous, do as little 

 work as they can noio, while great numbers do none at all 

 but live by the plunder of society in various ways, some 

 criminal, some quite respectable ; whereas, in a co-operative 

 or socialistic community of any kind, all these people 

 would do some work, or they would be expelled from the 

 community or treated in some way that would be far 

 more disagreeable to them than working. It is further 

 urged that the influences impelling them to work would 

 be far stronger than now. At present the working classes 

 of all grades, from the common labourer up to the engineer, 

 architect, parson, or doctor, do not in any way look doivn 

 upon the person who does no work whatever, and only 

 lives to enjoy his life as best he can on inherited property. 

 They do not for the most part see that such a person lives 

 upon their labour just as much as the most thorough 

 loafer among themselves, and with just as little real right 

 or justice.^ But in a co-operative state of society the very 

 reverse would be the case. The lazy man who shirked 

 his work in any degree, who did not do that fair share of 

 work which he had both strength and ability to do, would 

 be despised as a mean and dishonest individual, and if he 

 persisted in his idleness would be so treated that he would 

 feel like a detected cheat, liar, or thief, in a society of 

 gentlemen; and, it is alleged, that under this moral 

 compulsion every man would do a fair share of work. 



But both these arguments are purely academic, and 

 they may continue to be urged by each side, to their own 

 satisfaction but without convincing the other, till dooms- 

 day. An experimental test, on however small a scale, is 



^ This point has been elaborated and demonstrated in Chapters XV. 

 and XXIV. of this volume. 



