414 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



as appalling, as hopeless, as degrading, as exists in any civilized 

 community on earth." (Arena, December, 1892, p. 49.) 



Let it be clearly understood that I do not in any way 

 imply that republicanism is itself the cause of this state of 

 things. It simply exists in spite of republicanism, and 

 serves to demonstrate the great truth that systems of 

 government are in themselves powerless to abolish poverty. 

 The startling, and at first sight depressing, fact that 

 grinding poverty dogs the footsteps of civilization under all 

 forms of government alike, is really, from one point of view, 

 a hopeful circumstance, since it assures us that the source 

 of the evil is one that is common alike to republic, consti- 

 tutional monarchy, and despotism, and we are thus taught 

 where not to look for the remedy. We find it prevailing where 

 militarism is at a maximum, as in France, Italy, and 

 Germany, and where it is at a minimum, as in the United 

 States. It is quite as bad in thinly as in thickly popu- 

 lated countries ; but the one thing that it always 

 accompanies is CAPITALISM. Wherever wealth accumulates 

 most rapidly in the hands of private capitalists, there 

 notwithstanding the most favourable conditions, such as 

 general education, free institutions, a fertile soil, and 

 the fullest use of labour-saving machinery poverty 

 not only persists but increases. We must therefore 

 look for the source of the evil in something that favours 

 the accumulation of individual wealth. 



Capitalism the Cause of Poverty. 



Now, great wealth is obtained by individuals in two 

 ways: either by speculation, which is but a form of 

 gambling and perhaps the very worst form, since it 

 impoverishes, not a few fellow -gamblers only but the 

 whole community ; or by large industrial enterprises, and 

 these depend for their success on the existence of great 

 bodies of labourers who have no means of living except by 

 wage-labour, and are thus absolutely dependent on employ- 

 ment by capitalists in order to sustain life, and are com- 

 pelled in the last resort to accept such wages as the 

 capitalists choose to give. The result of these conditions 



