xxvin TRUE INDIVIDUALISM ;,!;; 



But although I feel sure that some such system as this 

 will be adopted in the future, yet it may be only in a 

 ><>ni('\vh;it. distant future, and the coming century may only 

 witness a step towards it; it is important that this step 

 should be one in the right direction. The majority of 

 our people dislike the very idea of socialism, because they 

 think it can only be founded by compulsion. If that 

 were the case it would be equally repulsive to myself, I 

 believe only in voluntary organization for the common 

 good, and I think it quite possible that we require a 

 period of true individualism of competition under strictly 

 equal conditions to develop all the forces and all the 

 best qualities of humanity, in order to prepare us for that 

 voluntary organization which will be adopted when we are 

 ready for it, but which cannot be profitably forced on before 

 we are thus prepared. 



In our present society the bulk of the people have no op- 

 portunity for the full development of all their powers and 

 capacities, while others who have the opportunity have no 

 sufficient inducement to do so. The accumulation of 

 wealth is now mainly effected by the misdirected energy 

 of competing individuals ; and the power that wealth so 

 obtained gives them is often used for purposes which are 

 hurtful to the nation. There can be no true individualism, 

 no fair competition, without equality of opportunity for all. 

 This alone is social justice, and by this alone can the best 

 that is in each nation be developed and utilized for the 

 benefit of all its citizens. I propose, therefore, to state 

 briefly what is the ethical foundation for this principle, 

 and what its practical application implies. 



The Law of Social Justice. 



In Herbert Spencer's volume on " Justice," forming 

 Part IV. of his Principles of Ethics, he gives as the found- 

 ation of social justice the following : 



" Of man, as of all inferior creatures, the law by conformity to 

 which the species is preserved, is that among adults the indivi- 

 duals best adapted to the conditions of their existence shall prosper 

 most, and that the individuals least adapted to the conditions of their 



VOL. II. L L 



