London statues do not diminish them. Here, then, is the simple formula for the public benefactor. Never give the people anything they want give them something they ought to want and dont.

Create New Needs: the Old Ones Will Take Care of Themselves.

Thus we find at the end of it all, appositely enough, that the great work of the millionaire, whose tragedy is that he has not needs enough for his means, is to create needs. The man who makes the luxury of yesterday the need of to-morrow is as great a benefactor as the man who makes two ears of wheat grow where one grew before. John Ruskin set a wise example in this respect to our rich men. He published his accounts with the public, and shewed that he had taken no more for himself than fair pay for his work of giving Sheffield a valuable museum, which it does not want and would cheerfully sell for a fortnight's holiday with free beer if it could. Was not that better than wasting it heartlessly and stupidly on beggars, on able-bodied relatives, on ratepayers, on landlords, and all the rest of our social absorbents? He has created energy instead of dissipating it, and created it in the only fundamentally possible way, by creating fresh needs. His example shows what can be done by a rich expert in fine art; and if millions could bring such expertness to their possessor, I should have discoursed above of the beautification of cities, the endowment of a standard orchestra and theatre in every centre of our population, and the building of a wholesome, sincere, decent house for Parliament to meet in (noble legislation is impossible in the present monstrosity) as an example for parish halls and town halls all through the country, with many other things of the same order. But these matters appeal only to a religious and artistic faculty which cannot be depended on in millionaires-which, indeed, have a very distinct tendency to prevent their possessor from ever becoming even a thousandaire, if I may be permitted that equally justifiable word. The typical modern millionaire knows more about life than about art; and what he should know better than anyone else, if he has any reflective power, is that men do not succeed nowadays in industrial life by sticking to the methods and views of their grandfathers. And yet not until a method or a view has attained a grandfatherly age is it possible to get it officially recognized and taught in an old country like ours. In bringing industrial education up to date, the millionaire should be on his own ground. Experiment, propaganda, exploration, discovery, political and industrial information: take care of these, and the pictures and statues, the churches and hospitals, will take care of themselves.

Conscience Money and Ransom.

I must not conclude without intimating my knowledge of the fact that most of the money given by rich people in "charity" is made up of conscience money, "ransom," political bribery, and bids for titles. The traffic in hospital subscriptions in the name of Royairy fulfils exactly the same function in modern society as Texel's trac

in indulgences in the name of the Pope did before the Reformation. One buys moral credit by signing a cheque, which is easier than turning a prayer wheel. I am aware, further, that we often give to public objects money that we should devote to raising wages among our own employees or substituting three eight-hour shifts for two twelve-hour ones. But when a millionaire does not really care whether his money does good or not, provided he finds his conscience eased and his social status improved by giving it away, it is useless for me to argue with him. I mention him only as a warning to the better sort of donors that the mere disbursement of large sums of money must be counted as a distinctly suspicious circumstance in estimating personal character. Money is worth nothing to the man who has more than enough; and the wisdom with which it is spent is the sole social justification for leaving him in possession of it.

Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, London, W.C. FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE: A Manifesto. 4d. post free. FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM. (35th 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, 4 pp. each, price 1d. for six copies, 1s. per 100, or 8/6 per 1000. The Set of 88, 3s.; post free 3.5. Bound in Buckram, 4/6; post free for 55. 1.-General Socialism in its various aspects.

TRACTS.-121. Public Service versus Private Expenditure. By Sir OLIVER LODGE. 113. Communism. By WM. MORRIS. 107. Socialism for Millionaires. By BERNARD SHAW. 78. Socialism and the Teaching of Christ. By Dr. JOHN CLIFFORD. 87. The same in Welsh. 42. Christian Socialism. By Rev. S. D. HEADLAM. 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 (6th edn. revised 1904). 5. Facts for Socialists (10th edn., revised 1906). LEAFLETS-13. What Socialism Is. 1. Why are the Many Poor? 38. The same in Welsh. II.-Applications of Socialism to Particular Problems. TRACTS.-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. 110. Problems of Indian Poverty. 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. 73. Case for State Pensions in Old Age. 67. Women and the Factory Acts. 50. Sweating: its Cause and Remedy. 48. Eight Hours by Law. 23. Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 47. The Unemployed. By JoHN BURNS, M.P. LEAFLETS.-89. Old Age Pensions at Work. 19. What the Farm Laborer Wants. 104. How Trade Unions benefit Workmen. III.-Local Government Powers: How to use them. TRACTS.-117. The London Education Act, 1903: how to make the best of it. 114. The Education Act, 1902. III. Reform of Reformatories and Industrial Schools. By H. T. HOLMES. 109. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. By RAYMOND UNWIN. 103. Overcrowding in London and its Remedy. By W. C. STEADMAN, L.C.C. 76. Houses for the People. 100. Metropolitan Borough Councils. 99. Local Government in Ireland. 82. Workmen's Compensation Act. 62. Parish and District Councils. 61. The London County Council. 54. The Humanizing of the Poor Law. By J. F. OAKESHOTT. LEAFLETS.-68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 71. Same for London. 63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 58. Allotments and how to get them. FABIAN MUNICIPAL PROGRAM, FIRST SERIES (Nos. 32, 36, 37). Municipalization of the Gas Supply. The Scandal of London's Markets. 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 Fire Insurance. Municipal Steamboats.Second Series in a red cover for 1d. (9d. per doz.); separate leaflets, 1/- per 100. IV.-Books. 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.

A

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 Guard ians. 24, Parliament. 28, County Councils, Rural. 56, Parish Councils. 57, Rural District Councils. 102, Metropolitan Borough Councils.

BOOK BOXES lent to Societies, Clubs, Trade Unions, for 68. a year, or 2/6 a quarter Printed by G. Standring, 7 Finsbury St., London, E.C., and published by the Fabian Society,

3 Clement's Inn, Strand, London W.C.

TWENTIETH CENTURY

POLITICS:

A POLICY OF NATIONAL EFFICIENCY.

By SIDNEY WEBB, L.C.C.

PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY

THE FABIAN SOCIETY.

PRICE ONE PENNY.

LONDON:

THE FABIAN SOCIETY, 3 CLEMENT'S INN, STRAND, W.C. PUBLISHED NOVEMBER, 1901. THIRD REPRINT FEBRUARY, 1908.

It is not altogether an idle fancy that associates the change of century with a change of thought. The governing ideas to which we look forward, at the beginning of the twentieth century, will, we may be sure, not be those on which we looked back at the close of the nineteenth.

What is going to be the dominant note of Twentieth Century Politics? Certainly, I venture to assert, not the note of Nineteenth Century Liberalism or Conservatism.

What then is the matter with Liberalism? For fifty years, in the middle of the last century, we may recognize it as "a great instrument of progress," wrenching away the shackles-political, fiscal, legal, theological and social-that hindered individual advancement. The shackles are by no means wholly got rid of, but the political force of this old Liberalism is spent. During the last twenty years its aspirations and its watchwords, its ideas of daily life and its conceptions of the universe, have become increasingly distasteful to the ordinary citizen as he renews his youth from generation to generation. Its worship of individual liberty evokes no enthusiasm. Its reliance on "freedom of contract" and "supply and demand," with its corresponding "voluntaryism" in religion and philanthropy, now seems to work out disastrously for the masses, who are too poor to have what the economists call an "effective demand" for even the minimum conditions of physical and mental health necessary to national well-being. Of all this the rising generations of voters are deadly tired, and Liberalism has collapsed in consequence.

The Decline of Liberalism.

I am aware that it is an amiable delusion of many good Liberals that the collapse of their party is due merely to recent, temporary causes-to the South African war, to personal quarrels among the leaders or to the Home Rule Bill. But the smashing defeat of 1895 was only the culmination of a steady alienation from Liberalism of the great centres of population, which began to be visible even in 1874. London and Lancashire have ever since persisted in this adverse verdict. The most startling feature of the election of 1885still prior to the Home Rule Bill-was the extent to which Liberalism was rejected by the boroughs. All that has happened since that date has but confirmed the great centres of population in their positive aversion to Gladstonianism. This, and not the ephemeral dispute about the war, is the bottom fact of the political situation. Thirty years ago the great boroughs were enthusiastic for Liberalism. By an uninterrupted process of conversion they have now become

A lecture to the Fabian Society, November 8th, 1901. Much of this lecture appeared, under another title, in the Nineteenth Century, September, 1901, and is here reproduced by permission of the Editor.