XXXIV] SOCIALISM 271 



go on purchasing the adulterated and costly products of 

 private competition and capitalism as before. 



Is it not a fair supposition which Bellamy makes, that at 

 this stage of progress all the workers, all the wage-earners 

 and employees of the private capitalists would beg to be taken 

 into Government employment so as to share in the well-being 

 of their socialist fellow-workmen ? The result would be 

 that, gradually and successively, all industry would become 

 organized under the local authorities in co-operation with the 

 various central stores and manufactories. During this pro- 

 cess of extension private capitalists would find it more and 

 more difficult to obtain skilled labour of any kind. They 

 would then find that their former boasted " capital " was 

 not the chief factor in the production of wealth ; that though 

 they might have money ^ they would not possess wealth. The 

 Government stores would, of course, be used by socialists only, 

 by means of a system of tickets or paper money, as described 

 by Bellamy ; capitalists and their managers would gradually 

 have to join the socialist ranks as organizers or superinten- 

 dents if they had the capacity, or if they preferred to live 

 idle lives they might go to other countries where the com- 

 petitive regime still prevailed. It may, of course, be said 

 that this would not succeed ; that the Government could not 

 compete with private capitalists, manufacturers, and shop- 

 keepers. But few people who really think of the matter will 

 believe this. The American Trusts do succeed in competition 

 with the whole world, because they possess some of the 

 advantages a Government would possess in a still greater 

 degree. But they result in small traders beggared and 

 workers no longer wanted, and in the production of a hun- 

 dred or more of multi-millionaires. If a socialist regime 

 cannot, in the nature of things, succeed, why are all the great 

 capitalists so dreadfully afraid of allowing any approach to 

 a fair trial of it by municipalities or other local authorities ? 



After much consideration, however, I have come to the 

 conclusion that this will not (probably) be the way in which 

 socialism will come about in England, and that it would not 

 be the easiest or the best way. I think it more likely that 



