RECKONING WITHOUT THE HOST 281 



come to judgment. He recognises in the fact that Book iv 

 the few have a natural monopoly of faculties, the 

 exercise of which is required for the progressive and they 

 well-being of all, a genuine and a formidable diffi- equalise 



culty in the way of the realisation of socialism ; but 

 now comes the passage for the sake of which these 

 others have been quoted. Great as this difficulty reward - 

 is, he tells us, " the more recent socialists " have 

 devised a way for getting over it. And what does 

 the reader think this way is ? It has at all events 

 the merit of being very simple. "The more recent 

 socialists" says Mr. Webb, "attack this third mono- 

 poly also by allotting to every worker an equal wage, 

 whatever may be the nature of his work." 



It has been thought worth while to quote Mr. They forget to 



cisk whether 



Sidney Webb because he is an exceptionally favour- under these ' 



able specimen of the modern socialistic theoriser. It 

 is therefore interesting to notice the hiatus that here 

 yawns in his argument. The entire question which their , exce P- 



* . - . ... tional powers 



is really at issue is begged by him. His allies, heataii. 

 tells us, though they cannot destroy the monopoly 

 which the few possess of exceptional business 

 powers, will destroy the effects of this monopoly by 

 taking away from the few nearly all the wealth that 

 their exceptional powers produce. It never seems to 

 occur to him to ask whether, under these circum- 

 stances, the few would develop or exercise their 

 exceptional powers at all. And yet the whole 

 problem for him, as a socialist, lies here, and lies 

 nowhere else. For from the very fact that these 

 powers are admittedly a monopoly of the few, it is 



