CONCLUSION 421 



" is an affair of tlie stomach." The key of the social 

 riddle is the providing of good, continuous, well-paid 

 employment. In this direction alone can the curative 

 principle be found, for the circumstances of good em- 

 ployment are such as bar the advance of Socialism. 



The sociologist, as he pursues his study, will more 

 and more find that poverty is the main cause of all the 

 evils, physical and moral, that exist in our midst. 

 Poverty, without doubt, in its true meaning, and in its 

 actual working, has a degrading effect on the individual 

 of any class, as well as on the people generally. It 

 lowers character, saps independence, destroys energy, 

 tries friendships, and hampers careers. '* Poverty," the 

 Russian proverb says, "is not a crime, it is ten times 

 worse." Socialism, however, is not the remedy for the 

 evils that confront us. If adopted it would, in its course, 

 break down in every way. National workshops, where 

 established, have turned out to be failures. Co-opera- 

 tive industrial societies have to a large extent abandoned 

 the communistic principle laid down by Robert Owen, 

 who may be regarded as the father of co-operative 

 effort. Speaking generally, the marvellous progress 

 and success of co-operative societies have not been 

 achieved by the principle of collective ownership. 

 Many of them are simply trading societies, joint-stock 

 companies, with modifications favourable to the share- 

 holders.^ 



Socialism wars against " individualism," which is 

 the chief motive power of human action. It sets at 

 naught the desire "to own" something, which is an 



^ One of the principal of the trade unions, the council of which is 

 composed of men favourable to Socialism, has wisely but inconsistently 

 adopted a scheme which enables members to become on easy terms 

 private owners of their dwellings. 



