SOCIALISM ESSENTIALLY A SLAVE-SYSTEM 165 



it. This proof is afforded us by the schemes which, Book n 

 with ever-increasing clearness, have of recent years 

 been put forward by all the more thoughtful 

 socialists. 



These enthusiasts, who are still careful to tell as we sha11 



find by con- 



US that they regard the wage-system as the source sidering how 



of all social evils, have been slowly coming tO 

 perceive that the ability with which the labour is 

 directed is as important a factor in production as b 7 substitutin g 



* slavery. 



the labour itself, which is directed by it. They pro- 

 pose accordingly to regenerate the human race by 

 transferring the ownership of capital from private 

 employers, not to groups of factory-hands, as the 

 " co-operators " propose, but to the State ; and by 

 substituting for the private employers a hierarchy of 

 State officials. Now these officials, so far as the 

 wage-system is concerned, if they differed at all from 

 private employers of to-day, would and could differ 

 from them in the following way only. The present 

 dispensers of wages assign the means of sub- 

 sistence to each worker in proportion to the 

 exactness, intelligence, and efficiency with which he 

 obeys orders. The dispensers of wages under 

 socialism would dispense these means daily to every 

 worker alike, with no immediate reference to his in- 

 dustrial actions whatsoever ; and the direction of 

 his actions would be a second, and wholly distinct 

 process. 



That such is the case is shown, and indeed 

 distinctly admitted, in a preface to the American 

 edition of Fabian Essays. It is there stated that 



