266 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



much greater reform that we advocate, but, unlike most small 

 measures, it goes directly to the root of a shameful oppression, 

 and would do more to elevate the very poor and prepare the 

 way for real reform than many whole sessions of even "liberal" 

 legislation. 



For about ten years after I first publicly advocated land 

 nationalization I was inclined to think that no further funda- 

 mental reforms were possible or necessary. Although I had, 

 since my earliest youth, looked to some form of socialistic 

 organization of society, especially in the form advocated by 

 Robert Owen as the ideal of the future, I was yet so much 

 influenced by the individualistic teachings of Mill and 

 Spencer, and the loudly proclaimed dogma, that without the 

 constant spur of individual competition men would inevitably 

 become idle and fall back into universal poverty, that I did 

 not bestow much attention upon the subject, having, in fact, 

 as much literary work on hand as I could manage. But at 

 length, in 1889, my views were changed once for all, and I 

 have ever since been absolutely convinced, not only that 

 socialism is thoroughly practicable, but that it is the only 

 form of society worthy of civilized beings, and that it 

 alone can secure for mankind continuous mental and moral 

 advancement, together with that true happiness which 

 arises from the full exercise of all their faculties for the 

 purpose of satisfying all their rational needs, desires, and 

 aspirations. 



The book that thus changed my outlook on this question 

 was Bellamy's "Looking Backward," a work that in a few 

 years had gone through seventeen editions in America, but 

 had only just been republished in England. On a first read- 

 ing I was captivated by the wonderfully realistic style of the 

 work, the extreme ingenuity of the conception, the absorbing 

 interest of the story, and the logical power with which the 

 possibility of such a state of society as that depicted was 

 argued and its desirability enforced. Every sneer, every 

 objection, every argument I had ever read against socialism 

 was here met and shown to be absolutely trivial or altogether 



