THE COMING OF SOCIALISM 105 



havedone most mischief in socialjnatters. It is possible, 

 at least T that by its regulation of industries the State 

 while limiting caprice has enlarged freedom; that in 

 appropriating industrial enterprises it has liberated the 

 economic power of its citizens nay, that it has multiplied 

 owners, and increased for them the utilities of wealth, 

 which is to increase wealth itself. 



If we judged things solely by their first appearances, 

 the conclusion is inevitable that appropriation by the State 

 means the expropriation of the citizen, and nothing 

 further. Did the State not carry our letters, it is certain 

 that private enterprise would do so, and reap the profits. 

 And yet I can conceive no one, from the king to the 

 beggar, who would take the carrying of letters from the 

 hands of the State. Everyone recognises that by the 

 present method his private purposes are being realised 

 better than they could by any other. And the publicity 

 of the means in nowise militates against the privacy of 

 the communications. Nor does the use of that means by 

 all diminish their value for each. On the contrary, 

 through the combined desires of the many the desires of 

 each are met with greater facility and efficiency. 



We must, therefore, take into account not only the 

 displacement of the individual capitalist who might have 

 run the penny post, but also the productive use of the 

 capital of the vast multitude who employ the penny post. 

 The actual result of this State invention is to make us 

 all shareholders in a vast enterprise whose services and 

 utilities are greater to each because they are open to all 

 or to all who can buy stamps. The State in this under- 

 taking has indeed prevented the individual from saying 

 "Not Thine" to his neighbours ; but it has also enabled 



