102 THE COMING OF SOCIALISM 



. . . public baths, wash-houses . . . cow meadows, etc., 

 etc. 



"Besides its direct supersession of private enterprise, 

 the State now registers, inspects, and controls nearly all 

 the industrial functions which it has not yet absorbed." l 



Then follows another significant list, concluding with 

 the words : ' ' Even the kind of package in which some 

 articles shall be sold is duly prescribed, so that the indi- 

 vidual capitalist shall take no advantage of his position. 

 On every side he is being registered, inspected, controlled, 

 and eventually superseded by the community ; and in the 

 meantime he is compelled to cede for public purposes an 

 ever-increasing share of his rent and interest. Even in 

 the fields still abandoned to private enterprise, its opera- 

 tions are thus every day more closely limited, in order 

 that the anarchic competition of private greed . . . may 

 not utterly destroy the State. All this has been done by 

 ' practical ' men, ignorant, that is to say, of any scientific 

 sociology, believing Socialism to be the most foolish of 

 dreams." 2 



Now what are we to say of this picture? That it is 

 partly the effect of rhetorical grouping ? And that where 

 operations are so various and so extensive in scale as they 

 are in a great State, skilful grouping may bring out almost 

 any result ? Not merely so, I believe. The facts are in the 

 main accurately set forth, and the general tendency of the 

 times is not in the least doubtful. The manifold industries 

 now conducted by public bodies were all ' ' at one time 

 left to private individuals, and were a source of legitimate 

 investment and capital." Social industrial functions have 



1 See Fabian Essays, pp. 4748. 

 pp. 49, 50. 



