SOCIALISM 287 



friendship. The only modern work I have met with that 

 advocates compulsion in initiating socialism is Mr. F. W. 

 Hayes's " Great Revolution of 1905," a very clever book, 

 but hopelessly out of tune with the socialist ideal by the ruth- 

 less compulsion and punishment of the opponents of the sup- 

 posed social revolution. 



Among books which deal rather with the evils of the present 

 system than with constructive socialism, but which neverthe- 

 less give eloquent expression to its fundamental ideas and 

 aspirations, I may mention " Darkness and Dawn, the Peace- 

 ful Birth of a New Age " — an anonymous work which, in its 

 terrible description of the horrors of the factory system in 

 all its forms and ramifications, is unsurpassed in our language ; 

 and Robert Blatchford's " Merrie England," issued first at a 

 shilling, then at fourpence, then at a penny, and of which 

 three-quarters of a million copies were sold in about a year. 



But the most complete and thoroughly reasoned exposi- 

 tion, both of the philosophy and the constructive methods of 

 socialism, is to be found in Bellamy's later work, " Equality," 

 which comparatively few, even of English socialists, are 

 acquainted with. The book is a sequel to " Looking Back- 

 ward," and contains more than twice the matter. It shows, 

 systematically, how our existing system of competition and 

 individual profit — capitalism and enormous private wealth — 

 directly lead to overwork, poverty, starvation, and crime; 

 that it is necessarily wasteful in production and cruelly un- 

 just in distribution; that it fosters every kind of adulteration 

 in manufacture, and almost necessitates lying in trade; that 

 it involves the virtual slavery of the bulk of the population, 

 and checks or destroys any real progress of the race. It also 

 shows how, even the wealthy few, and also the members of 

 each successive grade of comparative well-being, suffer from 

 it socially, by the extreme restriction in each locality of pos- 

 sible intimate associates and friends; it shows how we can 

 never attain to the maximum benefits and enjoyment of social 

 intercourse without that absolute equality of economic condi- 

 tion, educational opportunities, and social conventions, which 

 alone put us at ease with our fellow-men ; while the enormous 



