10 



ROOT MATTERS IN SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS. 



consists of the mere tools and instruments of production, and 

 that the real wealth, appropriated as consumable wealth or 

 primary satisfaction, is already more widely and evenly 

 distributed than is generally supposed. Even under the 

 most thorough Socialistic scheme this form of wealth would 

 be far less generally distributed than at present; for, 

 according-to such a scheme, it would be wholly reserved in 

 the hands of the Executive Government. It is utterly 

 misleading to reckon upon the existing wealth of capitalists 

 as a source for raising the quota of the real consumable and 

 primary satisfactions. The only distribution possible in this 

 respect would be the empty idea of part ownership. It is 

 the increase to necessary current productions designed for 

 actual consumption — material satisfactions — which alone 

 can raise the average standard of primary satisfactions, and 

 so dispose of material want, or poverty and distress. The 

 question therefore arises. Suppose that such a scheme were 

 practicable, would the producing energies of men be greater 

 and more effective than under the Scheme of Competition, 

 Liberty, Eight of Inheritance, Property Eight, or Indivi- 

 dualism, as it is called ? To be more effective in one 

 essential it must utterly fail in the other. The workers 

 must be trained and allocated to specific occupations in strict 

 conformity to the amount and nature of the labour actually 

 required to produce the primary satisfactions and comforts 

 desired. Training for every specific occupation requires 

 considerable time ; but for the occupations of skill a large 

 amount of time must be consumed in acquiring the necessary 

 training, irrespective of question with regard to the unequal 

 distribution of capacity. 



Now on the basis of equality it may be easy to divide 

 products ; that, according to actual needs is simple enough, 

 involving no insuperable difficulty. But what about the 

 allocation to different employment? How can the easy, the 

 refined, and the skilled occupations be allocated on any scheme 

 of equality f The majority must, as heretofore, sweat at the 

 hard and dirty forms of labour. But what power, or what 

 plan can be devised which will enable any elective executive 

 to doom once and for ever the majority of learners and 

 workers to the hard and irksome occupations, and to fix the 

 minority in the refined, the easy, and skilled services P 



Suppose it were for a time instituted, how long would the 

 unfortunate majority be content to submit to their lot before 

 an irresistible cry for redistribution of occupations arose ; and 

 if it arose, where is the force stronger than the majority of 

 freemen to prevent the breakdown of the social organisation 

 necessary to produce the supply of primary satisfactions accord- 

 ing to individual needs ? What compensation can be given to 

 the masses toiling in the more wearisome occupations ? Extra 



