economizing, but in spending wisely and honestly and well, getting the most they can for your money, and looking out for improvements and for good schemes worthy of encouragement. And when they do this well, be ready to trust them with more; see that not only the municipal but the national purse also is properly supplied. Our National Government is for all good purposes miserably poor. I fear there is sad waste somewhere, and that before the taxes can be judiciously raised the sources of the waste must be discovered and checked. I trust that already this labor is being put in hand. You have fine public servants who are trying to do their best with an ancient and very cumbrous and over-centralized machine; much revenue has to be spent in various unprofitable ways, wars and other, but in every good and noble direction of expenditure the country is miserably poor. Where it is economical it should be lavish; and where it is lavish it should be economical; that is an exaggeration, but there is a kind of truth underlying it. Our national economy in higher education is having disastrous results, it is a real danger to the Nation. While other nations are investing millions of public money on higher education and research we prefer to keep the money in our pockets in order to spend it privately; and the result is that while the State is poor the individual is rich. Individuals are over rich in this country; money breeds money on our present system with very little work, and it is apt to roll itself up into portentous and top-heavy fortunes. The result is, I fear, a state of things that some people say is becoming a scandal. I do not know. But however that may be I should like to see this wealth owned by communities; I should like to see it in corporate hands and expended for the general good.

Unearned Incomes.

Do not think that the original making of a fortune is easy. Most fortunes began by thrift and enterprise; it is not the making of a fortune that is easy: it is the transferring and the inheriting of it that are so fatally easy and so dangerous. If the maker of the fortune himself had the disbursing of it, there would be but little harm done, and there might be much good. No fortune can be

honestly made without strenuous industry and character. But a fortune can be inherited, can be inherited I say, though I hope it seldom is, by a personification of laziness and folly and vice.

That however is not my point. My point is that selfdenial is the beginning of capital and the essence of thrift-present self-denial for future good. This selfdenial for future good you of this and kindred societies are already exercising in a small way, but it is possible and indeed likely that it will come to be exercised in a larger way, and so gradually a considerable fraction of the property of the world may ultimately pass into your hands. Wake up to this possibility, and do not abuse capital or capitalists, for some day you will be capitalists yourselves. Then it will strain your energies to know what to do with it, and how to use it for the best and highest good of humanity-the ascertainment of which is a noble aspect of human endeavor.

I do not expect agreement in all that I have to say, nor do I speak with authority; I am anxious to admit that I may be mistaken; I only ask you to consider and weigh my message, the more so if you disagree; as I know many will, especially in what follows:

The Cheapness of High Salaries.

The tendency of public bodies is to economize in salaries. People look askance at highly paid public servants; whereas it is just from those that you do get something for your money. your money. You don't get much service as a rule from dividend shareholders, but you do as a rule from salaried officers. That is the danger of municipalities and other democratic corporations: they will not realize with sufficient clearness that the manager and administrator is worthy of large remuneration, that to get the best man you must pay him well, and that to put up with a second rate article when you can get the best is but a poor policy, and in the long run bad economy. Cheap men are seldom any good. In a large concern they may waste more than their annual salary in a week. Some people want to pay all men alike. It will not work. It is a subject full of controversy, I know, and I do not wish to dogmatize, but so far as I can see, and I have no

personal interest in the matter, I say that the principle of inequality of payment must be recognized, that it is & necessary consequence of inequality of ability.

Some organizations seem to think, too, that the available work of the world is limited, and that you must each be careful not to do too much of it lest work become scarce. The truth is that the work potentially required by mankind is essentially unlimited; and if we could only get better social conditions there would be work and opportunity and scope for all, each according to his grade and power and ability.

Stand shoulder to shoulder and help each other, and form a banded community for mutual help, by all means; let all co-operate together, and let not one human being be idle except the sick and insane; but allow for different kinds of work, and put the false glamor of the idea of artificial equality out of your minds. In any organization, as in any human body, there must be head and there must be hands, there must be trunk and limbs: the good of the whole is secured by each doing his apportioned task and obtaining his appropriate nourishment: not every part alike, though each sufficient for his need: each brought up to his maximum efficiency.

It

And what is true of property is true of personal service also. That which is spent for the individual is of small value compared with service done for the race. is on the pains and sacrifice of individuals that a community is founded. "The pleasures of each generation evaporate in air; it is their pains that increase the spiritual momentum of the world." (J. R. Illingworth, in Lux Mundi.) The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church; it is by heroism and unselfish devotion that a country rises and becomes great.

The Results of Public Spirit.

Witness the magnificent spectacle of Japan to-day: the State above the individual; common good above personal good; sacrifice of self and devotion to the community; these great qualities, on which every nation has risen to glory, were never displayed more brightly in the history of the world than now before our eyes. It is a nation which is saturated and infused with public spirit,

the spirit of the race, enthusiasm for the community and for the welfare of humanity. This is the spirit which elevates cities; it is this which makes a nationality; it is this which some day will renovate mankind.

A splendid article in the Times of last Tuesday calls it "the soul of a nation," a translation of the Japanese term Bushido. It is a sort of chivalry, but the term "chivalry" does not convey it; our nearest approach to it is "public spirit," public spirit in a glorified form, the spirit which animated the early Christian Church, so that prison, suffering, death itself, were gladly endured so that the gospel might be preached and humanity might be saved-a spirit which must be near akin to the divine idea of Sacrifice for the salvation of the world. To lose your life as the highest mode of saving it; to lose the world but retain the honor and dignity of your own soul; that spirit which animated the apostles, prophets, martyrs, is alive in Japan to-day. Is it alive in us as a nation? If not, if we have replaced it to any extent by some selfish opposite, by any such diabolically careless sentiment as "after me the deluge," then we as a nation have lost our soul, sold it for mere individual prosperity, sold it in some poor cases for not even that, for mere liquid refreshment, and we are on the down grade.

I trust it is not so, but sometimes I greatly fear it. It is surely not too late to arrest the process of decay; the heart of the Nation is sound enough: the men, as they said in South Africa, the men are splendid. Give them a fair chance, introduce better conditions, set forth high ideals, and be not ashamed to speak of these ideals and to follow them: then we shall find that there is plenty of the spirit of unselfishness still, the spirit which calls men to harder tasks than momentary spurts of bravery, calls us all to the long and persistent effort of educating ourselves in the facts of the universe, grasping the real truth of things, and, then with patience and selfcontrol, applying our energies to the material betterment and spiritual elevation of the world.

SOCIETY.-The Fabian Society consists of Socialists.

ite Rules and the following publications can be obtained from the Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, London, W.O.

THIS MISERY OF BOOTS. By H. G. WELLS. Paper cover, design by A. G. Watts. 3d., post free 4d.; 2/3 per doz., post free, 2/7. FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE: A Manifesto. Is. net. 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, 4 pp. each, price 1d. for six copies, 1s. per 100, or 8/6 per 1000. The Set of 81, 38.; 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. 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 (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.-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.-117. The London Education Act, 1903: how to make the best of it. 109. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. By RAYMOND UNWIN. 103. Overcrowding in London and its Remedy. By W. C. STEADMAN. 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.-68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 71. Same for London. 63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 134. Small Holdings, Allotments and Common Pastures: 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. A Labor Policy for Public Authorities. SECOND SERIES (Nos. 90 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. 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 Guardians. 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 Soniato

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