482 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



satisfied, and will not be satisfied, without a complete 

 solution of the problem : which, though they are not yet 

 able to see clearly, they firmly believe can be found. 



Governments in modern times have gone on the 

 principle that they have nothing whatever to do with the 

 employment or want of employment of the people, with 

 high wages or low wages, with luxury or starvation, 

 except inasmuch as the latter calamity may be prevented 

 by the poor-law guardians. A great change has, however, 

 occurred in the last few years. Both the local and 

 imperial Governments have admitted the principle of a 

 reasonable subsistence wage, and are acting upon it, in 

 flagrant opposition to the principles of the old political 

 economy. Now too, I observe, the buying of Government 

 stores abroad because they can be obtained a fraction per 

 cent, cheaper than at home, is being given up, though 

 only three or four years ago the practice was defended as 

 being in accordance with true economical principles, and 

 also because it was the duty of the Government to buy as 

 cheaply as possible in the interest of the tax-payer. I 

 only mention these facts to show that new ideas are 

 permeating modern society and are compelling Govern- 

 ments, however reluctantly, to act upon them. We may, 

 therefore, hope to compel our rulers to acknowledge, that 

 it is their duty also to provide the conditions necessary to 

 enable those who are idle and destitute from no fault of 

 their own, but solely through the failure of our compet- 

 itive and monopolist system to support themselves by 

 their own labour. Hitherto they have told us that it 

 cannot be done, that it would disorganise society, that it 

 would injure other workers. We must, therefore, show 

 them how it can be done, and insist that at all events the 

 experiment shall be tried. I will now give my ideas of 

 how this great result can be brought about, and the 

 reasons which I believe demonstrate that the method 

 will be successful. 



Hitherto there has been no organisation of communities 

 or of society at large for purposes of production, except so 

 far as it has arisen incidentally in the interest of the 

 capitalist employers and the monopolist land-owners. 



