CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIALISM. 



77 



management of the teleplione and telegraph service, and the 

 municipalisation of electric lighting and power, and tramways ; 

 it is a form of tlie competitive process through which a great 

 many experiments in collectivism may demonstrate their 

 superiority, and survive and flourisli. There are some people 

 who believe it is going on too fast, and that some of the alleged 

 savings are unreal ; but the two alternatives of public manage- 

 ment and private enterprise are to be tested by economic consider- 

 ations, and it is probable that one may be preferable or the other 

 in communities of different types, according to the habits and 

 degrees of education which are current among the people. 



When, however, we pass from the criticism of the existing 

 order to approval of plans for the reconstruction of society, it 

 is impossible to appeal to Economic Science with any confidence. 

 The underlying principles; which have been put forward by the 

 advocates of Free Trade, and which are adopted by Christian 

 Socialists, are not matters on which Economic Science speaks 

 decidedly or on which it can claim to say the last word. 



1. Free Traders are inclined to look entirely to the consumer 

 as the person to be considered, in considering the success of 

 our trade policy. It is clear that all the inhabitants of tlie 

 realm are consumers, though not all are producers of material 

 goods, and therefore this standpoint seems to take account of 

 the requirements of all members of the community, and not of 

 any particular section. The advocates of Free Trade assumed 

 that in the present constitution of society, with individual 

 enterprise and competition, production was sure to go on 

 somehow, and that under a Free Trade system every kind of 

 production would be carried on in the place to which it was 

 best adapted. But it is a somewhat different thing to look 

 principally at consumption and the distribution of the wealth 

 already acquired, when we are discussing the reconstitution of 

 society ; we are not justified in taking for granted that efficient 

 production is sure to go on under all social conditions. Pro- 

 duction and consumption are both phases in the process of 

 economic life ; but the primary thing economically, for the 

 maintenance of society and for its progress in the future, is that 

 there should be favourable conditions for production. The 

 more distribution is improved, so as to be as little unequal as 

 maybe, or so that whatever inequalities exist can be justified as 

 reasonable and right, the better ; but if production is injuriously 

 affected, there will be less material wealth available, and a 

 diminution of average material well-being. If we lay undue 

 stress on consumption we are in danger of giving exclusive 



