THE CALL OF THE LAND 



talent must be paid for and the remunera- 

 tion must come from the people's industry. 

 Your new system will perhaps prevent a 

 few cases of extortionate profits, but super- 

 visory agency will on the whole cost the 

 people as much under it as under the pres- 

 ent order, while at the same time being far 

 less efficient. 



I also pause when apostles of socialism 

 urge that their system would secure work 

 at fair wages for all at all times, putting an 

 end to necessity for charity. A socialist 

 government might, of course, artificially 

 provide employment through woodyards, 

 stone-breaking plants, etc., where men hav- 

 ing no other jobs could earn small sums 

 a system of disguised charity. But present 

 governments can do this as well as socialism 

 could. Socialists do not mean this. They 

 affirm that normal and lucrative employ- 

 ment will be always ready. How will so- 

 cialism guarantee this unless it can, as we 

 have seen it cannot, prevent scarcity, glut, 

 strikes, lockouts, crop failures, floods, fires 

 and epidemics? 



308 



