SOCIALISM AND THE FARMING INTEREST 



Frequently the occasion of a man's being 

 out of work is not that there isn't any work, 

 but that there is none of his exact sort, or 

 none of this without search and travel, or 

 that the wages or other conditions do not 

 suit. I am wholly unable to see how gen- 

 eral public ownership could much, if any, 

 limit these possibilities of hitch. 



As for charity, the occasions for it orig- 

 inate partly in misfortunes which are 

 inevitable, utterly unpreventable by govern- 

 ment or otherwise, and partly in men's 

 laziness and unthrift. That these bad qual- 

 ities are ineradicable in human nature I will 

 not allege, but I cannot see what socialism 

 could do to abate them. I believe that it 

 would insufferably increase them. 



To minify these criticisms, to make a 

 system that shall actually improve on our 

 present one, socialists should go back and 

 try to amend the proposals which Rodbertus 

 has made into workableness. His plan, if 

 it could be executed, would, at many of the 

 points touched upon, bring real remedy. 

 Of up-to-date socialism this cannot be said. 



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