صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

queathed by generations of social industry.

What does it give to the many?

Their portion is poverty. This is the inevitable outcome of their competition for wages, and none know so well as the workers the full burden of that terrible and long-continued demoralisation which is brought about, not merely by the poverty of a generation, but by generations of poverty. With the smallest of chances the poor are expected to display the greatest of virtues. On scanty and uncertain wages they must struggle to maintain the independence, self-respect, and honesty of men and women, and to put by something for the rainy day that is sure to come.

Let the least depression take place in the labor market, and the worker is pitted against his fellow. The poverty of one is underbid by the greater need of another; and the competition for work reduces the highest wage of some and the lowest wage of all occupations to a pittance just above the starvation point, at which the least failure of health or work leads to pauperism.

This happens to nearly every worker; whilst the capitalist often retires with a fortune on which he, his children, and his children's children live without useful industry. Here is one out of many instances. The son of an owner of ironworks is now in the House of Lords; he has a fine town house and two or three country mansions; his children are brought up in ease and luxury. But where are the children of those whose work made the fortune? They toil from morning to night for a bare living as did their fathers before them.

[ocr errors]

This ceaseless labor of the workers continually enriches those already rich, until extreme wealth enables a privileged minority to live in careless luxury, undisturbed by the struggle for existence that goes on beneath them.

Have laborers no right under the sun but to work when capitalists think fit, and on such terms as competition may determine? If the competitive standard of wage be the true one, why is it not applied all round? What, for instance, would be the competitive value of a Duke, a Bishop, or a Lord-in-Waiting ?

Do economists, statesmen, and sociologists stand hopeless before this problem of Poverty? Must workers continue in their misery whilst professors and politicians split straws and wrangle over trifles ?

No! for the workers must and will shake off their blind faith in the Commercial god Competition, and realise the responsibility of their unused powers.

If Capital be socialised, Labor will benefit by it fully; but while Capital is left in the hands of the few, Poverty must be the lot of the many.

Teach, preach and pray to all eternity in your schools and churches: it will avail you nothing until you have swept away this blind idol of Competition, this misuse of Capital in the hands of individuals.

You who live dainty and pleasant lives, reflect that your ease and luxury are paid for by the misery and want of others! Your superfluities are the parents of their poverty. Surely all humanity is not burnt out of you by the gold your fathers left you!

us!

Come out from your ease and superfluities and help

You who suffer, think of this also; and help forward the only cure for these evils. The time approaches when Capital can be made public property, no longer at the disposal of the few, but owned by the community for the benefit of all. You can help to do this; without you it cannot be done. The power is in your hands, and chances of using that power are constantly within your reach. Neglect those chances, and you and your children will remain the victims of Competition and Capitalism-ever struggling-ever poor!

THIS MISERY OF BOOTS. By H. G. WELLS. 3d., post free 4d. "THOSE WRETCHED RATES!" a Dialogue. By F. W. HAYES. id. FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM. (43rd Thousand.) Paper cover, 1/-; plain cloth, 2/-, post free from the Secretary. FABIAN TRACTS and LEAFLETS.

Tracts, each 16 to 52 pp., price 1d., or 9d. per dos., unless otherwise stated. Leaflets, 4pp. each, price 1d. for six copies, 1s. per 100, or 8/6 per 1000. The Set of 78, 38.; post free 3/5. Bound in Buckram, 4/6; post free for 58 I.-General Socialism in its various aspects.

TRACTS.-139. Socialism and the Churches. By the Rev. JOHN CLIFFORD, D.D. 138. Municipal Trading. 121. Public Service versus Private Expenditure. By Sir OLIVER LODGE. 113. Communism. By WM. MORRIS. 107. Socialism for Millionaires. By BERNARD SHAW. 133. Socialism and Christianity. By Rev. PERCY DEARMER. 78. Socialism and the Teaching of Christ. By Dr. JOHN CLIFFORD. 87. The same in Welsh. 42. Christian Socialism. By Rev. 8. D. HEADLAM. 79. A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich. By JOHN WOOLMAN. 75. Labor in the Longest Reign. By SIDNEY WEBB. 72. The Moral Aspects of Socialism. By SIDNEY BALL. 69. Difficulties of Individualism. By SIDNEY WEBB. 51. Socialism: True and False. By S. WEBB. 45. The Impossibilities of Anarchism. By BERNARD SHAW (price 2d.). 15. English Progress towards Social Democracy. By S. WEBB. 7. Capital and Land (7th edn. revised 1908). 5. Facts for Socialists (11th edn., revised 1908). LEAFLETS-13. What Socialism Is. 1. Why are the Many Poor? 38. The same in Welsh. II.-Applications of Socialism to Particular Problems. TRACTS.-136. The Village and the Landlord. By EDWARD CARPENTER. 135. Paupers and Old Age Pensions. By SIDNEY WEBB. 131. The Decline in the Birth-Rate. By SIDNEY WEBB. 130. Home Work and Sweating. By Miss B. L. HUTCHINS. 128. The Case for a Legal Minimum Wage. 126. The Abolition of Poor Law Guardians. 122. Municipal Milk and Public Health. By Dr. F. Lawson DODD. 120. “After Bread, Education.” 125. Municipalization by Provinces. 119. Public Control of Electrical Power and Transit. 123. The Revival of Agriculture. 118. The Secret of Rural Depopulation. 115. State Aid to Agriculture: an Example. 112. Life in the Laundry. 98. State Railways for Ireland. 124. State Control of Trusts. 86. Municipal Drink Traffic. 85. Liquor Licensing at Home and Abroad. 84. Economics of Direct Employment. 83. State Arbitration and the Living Wage. 48. Eight Hours by Law. 23. Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 47. The Unemployed. By JOHN BURNS, M.P. LEAFLET.-104. How Trade Unions benefit Workmen. III.-Local Government Powers: How to use them.

TRACTS.-137. Parish Councils and Village Life. 117. The London Education Act, 1903: how to make the best of it. 109. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. By RAYMOND UNWIN. 76. Houses for the People. 99. Local Government in Ireland. 82. Workmen's Compensation Act. New edition for the Act of 1906. 62. Parish and District Councils. 54. The Humanizing of the Poor Law. By J. F. OAKESHOTT. LEAFLETS.134. Small Holdings, Allotments and Common Pastures: and how to get them. FABIAN MUNICIPAL PROGRAM, FIRST SERIES (Nos. 32, 37). Municipalization of the Gas Supply. A Labor Policy for Public Authorities. SECOND SERIES (Nos. go to 97). Municipalization of Milk Supply. Municipal Pawnshops. Municipal Slaughterhouses. Women as Councillors. Municipal Bakeries. Municipal Hospitals. Municipal Steamboats.-Second Series in a red cover for 1d. (9d. per doz.); separate leaflets, 1/- per 100.

IV. Books. 132. A Guide to Books for Socialists. 29. What to Read on social and economic subjects. 6d. net. 129. More Books to Read. Supplement to October, 1906.

V.-General Politics and Fabian Policy.

127. Socialism and Labor Policy. 116. Fabianism and the Fiscal Question: an alternative policy. 108. Twentieth Century Politics. By SIDNEY WEBB. 70. Report on Fabian Policy. 41. The Fabian Society: its Early History. By BERNARD SHAW.

VI.-Question Leaflets. Questions for Candidates: 20, Poor Law Guardlans. 28, County Councils, Rural. 102, Metropolitan Borough Councils. BOOK BOXES lent to Societies, Clubs, Trade Unions, for 10s. a year.

Printed by G. Standring, 7 Finsbury St., London, E.C., and published by the Fabian Society,

8 Clement's Inn, Strand, London W O.

Pease History of Fakian Sec. Fabian Tract No. 5.

[blocks in formation]

'No one can contemplate the present condition of the masses of the people without desiring something like a revolution for the better" (Sir R. GIFFEN, Essays in Finance," vol. ii., p. 393).

ELEVENTH EDITION (REVISED). 131ST THOUSAND.

PRICE ONE PENNY.

LONDON:

THE FABIAN SOCIETY, 3 CLEMENT'S INN, STRAND, W.C.
SEPTEMBER 1908.

FROM THE

POLITICAL ECONOMISTS AND STATISTICIANS.

I. The Nation's Income.

THE annual income of the United Kingdom has been estimated by the following authorities :

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The gross assessments to income tax have risen from £601,450,977 in 1881-2 to £925,184,556 in 1905-6 (Inland Revenue Reports, C.4,474 and Cd.-3,686). Allowing for a corresponding rise in the incomes not assessed and in the wages of manual labor, we may estimate the income for 1905-6 at not less than £1,920,000,000. The population in 1901 being nearly 41,500,000 (Cd.-1,727), the average annual income is about 46 per head, or 185 per adult man.* * In 1840 it was about £20, and in 1860 261 per head (Mr. Mulhall, Dictionary of Statistics, p. 245).

These figures (which are mainly computed from income tax returns and estimated average rates of wages) mean that the price in money of the commodities and services produced in the country * It has been assumed throughout that one person in every four is an adult male, 2. on an average, five persons to each family group.

and that

« السابقةمتابعة »