for that would destroy the coveted ideal of 

 equality in the distribution of satisfactions 

 according to needs. Shorter hours can- 

 HOt be allowed without trenching upon 

 equality of leisure. 



The unequal distribution of natural 

 capacity, and the time necessary to ac- 

 quire knowledge of more than one tech- 

 nical branch of skilled employment, make 

 it impossible to share in turn for a time 

 all possible forms of labor. In short, the 

 practical difficulty standing in the way of 

 I quality in the allocation of employme^its 

 appear to be insuperable, and would most 

 certainly, if there were no other objection, 

 destroy any social organisation on a large 

 scale which had been courageous enough 

 to attempt it. Eeference to simple com- 

 munities — as in America — following agri- 

 cultural pursuits mainly, and not 

 of themselves fulfilling for them- 

 selves the whole round of human wants, 

 are utterly misleading. Such small 

 communities are composed of a peculiar 

 select class, who voluntarily bind them- 

 selves to a more or less ascetic life, and 

 all such partial attempts tend to perish 

 from lack of internal vitality. With a 

 large mixed body of men embracing all 

 occupations and endowed with ordinary 

 passions and desires, the results would be 

 chaotic and disastrous in the extreme. 



One effect, terrible to contemplate, 

 would seem to be inevitable, viz., that the 

 indiscriminate distribution of products 

 among all men would tend to destroy the 

 major source of savings at present so 

 largely devoted to the creation and main- 

 tenance of the powerful and costly 

 auxiliary aids to human labor, which 

 would be jealously regarded as a grievous 

 tax burden. The slight individual gain 

 per head in material satisfactions at the 

 oatset would only be of a very temporary 

 character, for it would soon be lost by the 

 new impulse given to the improvident to 

 rapidly increase their numbers. 



HOW THB CONSUMABLE WEALTH OF PRO- 

 DUCTION IS DISTRIBUTED IN THE 

 UNITED KINGDOM AND IN THE COMMON- 

 WEALTH OF AUSTRALIA BY THB INDI- 

 VIDUALISTIC AND ONLY PRACTICAL 

 METHOD OF DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM. 



The difficult problem connected with all 

 ideals as to the realisation of the best 

 form of social organisation, whether 

 individualistic or communistic, should not 

 be examined without a clear idea of what 



n2 



19 



is and what promises to be conserved of 

 that which we hold most dearly under the 

 democratic system of practical Socialism 

 under which we now exist. 



It would be impossible to deal with 

 this most important consideration ade- 

 quately within the limits possible in a 

 brief address of this nature, but if it be 

 possible to show that the actual fruits of 

 production are — notwithstanding the 

 large monopoly of the auxiliary instru- 

 ments of production in the hands of pri- 

 vate capitalists — now more widely and 

 evenly distributed than is generally sup- 

 posed, 1 shall have done something to 

 aid those who have not always the time 

 to study closely the great socialistic ten- 

 dency of the present day. 



I begin this aspect of the question with 

 the following assertions : — 



(1) That no matter what may be the 

 monopoly of the Fixed histruments of 

 Production, whether in the hands of 

 private capitalists, or, as in some cases — 

 State railways, roads, and a large propor- 

 tion of the lands — under the control of the 

 State, the reward absorbed by capitahst 

 and pure wage-earner alike cannot by any 

 means exceed the actual effectual yield 

 of commodities and services of any one 

 year. 



(2) That if the whole of the fixed 

 machinery of production were now trans- 

 ferred to the State it is doubtful if the 

 yield of products in the aggregate for dis- 

 tribution, whether of commodities or 

 service, ; would be increased ; for the 

 reason that the control and efficient main- 

 tenance of the necessary instruments of 

 production would be wholly excluded from 

 individual consumption, and the cost of 

 the creation of new instruments, and 

 maintaining the existing machinery, 

 would have to be taxed oi abstracted from 

 the gross yield of the year. 



(3) That if we desire to avail ourselves 

 of the advantages hitherto gained by 

 society as a whole from intelligent, 

 directing, and inventive skill, from special 

 aptitude, from special technical training, 

 and other rarely distributed; qualities 

 engaged in various forms of production, 

 we must, as at present, be prepared to 

 bestow, from the general fund of products 

 and services, some measure of special 

 inducement to continue these advan- 

 tageous efforts on behalf of society as a 

 whole. 



