TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 761 



No doubt mucli expenditure of public funds in modern states has apparently 

 this latter object — e.g. on education and poor relief. 



III. Here, however, the distinction is important between 



(1) Taking A's products to supply B's needs ; 



(2) Equalising opportunities of productive labour — e.g. by State-aided 



education. 

 This latter is defensible on individualistic principles as rather increasing than 

 diminishing stimulus to self-help. Still, it is urged, this equalisation costs money. 

 A's products have to be taken to enable B to produce more, and this is contrary to- 

 natural justice. But it is fair to answer that on the principle of individualism,, 

 it is only the appropriation of the results of labour, not of natural resources, that 

 is absolutely justifiable ; and that, by the actual appropriation of natural resources — 

 however practically inevitable — the propertied classes have diminished the oppor- 

 tunities of the impropertied to an extent that justifies a demand for compensation; 

 and that State-aid to education, emigration, &c., regarded as an attempt to give 

 this compensation, is not anti-individualistic if the taxation it involves does not 

 seriously diminish the inducements to labour and thrift of the persons taxed. 



IV. Public poor relief must be admitted to be socialistic in case (1), though 

 its bad effects are materially reduced by the workhouse system. 



Here, again, a distinction seems needed in comparing compulsory poor rates 

 with compulsory insurance. It is disputed which interferes most with the liberty 

 of the individual. Perhaps we may say that the latter involves greater political 

 interference, the former greater economic interference. 



2. The Transition to Social Democracy. Bij G. Bernard Shaw. 



Inteoductoet. 



The Mediaeval Order of custom and rule. Its disablement by the growth of 

 commerce and by the industrial revolution. Modern Political Economy and the 

 abandonment of industry to competition. Discovery of the nature of economic 

 rent. Modern Socialism. The practical transition involved in its adoption. The 

 political conditions of that transition. Democracy the complement of Socialism. 

 Social Democracy. Agitation for eflecting a change at once by violence. Practical 

 necessity for a gradual transition. 



PfiOGEESS OF THE TeANSITION TTP TO THE PRESENT TiME. 



Starting-point— the Reform Bill of 1832 and the abolition of the old Poor Law. 

 The resultant social pressure. Its efl:ects — the Income Tax and the Factory Acts. 

 Free Trade and Emigration. The gold discoveries and the period of prosperity. 

 The pressure relieved. Apparent successes of ' self-help,' and collapse of Social- 

 Democratic agitation. The Reform BiU of 1867. Successes of State enterprise — 

 the Post Office and the Education Act. End of the period of prosperity and 

 return of the pressure. Revival of Socialism. 



The Future. 



Completion of the Transition. 



Starting-point — the Reform Bill of 1884. The remaining practical steps to the 

 consummation of Democracy — (1) to perfect the constitution of the Democratic 

 State ; (2) to adapt its machinery to the organisation of industry. Why these steps 

 will be taken. The agitation for the municipalisation of urban rents. Impossi- 

 bility of permanently resisting it. Its reinforcement by the Land Nationalisation 

 movement and the demand for a Progressive Income Tax. The weak point in 

 these schemes. State organisation of industry inseparable from State custody of 

 rent. The point at which this will begin — the Jighting-point of the transition. 

 Effect of exportation of capital on the labour market. The unemployed and the 

 local authorities. The extension of municipal enterprise to general industry. Its 



