A Critical Examination of Socialism | Page 4

be
determined by the opinion of the majority expressing itself through
votes and statutes.
The writer's typical error. A governing body might enact any laws, but
they would not be obeyed unless consonant with human nature.
Laws are obliged to conform to the propensities of human nature which
it is their office to regulate.
Elaborate but unconscious admission of this fact by the writer here
quoted himself.
The power of democracy in the economic sphere, its magnitude and its
limits. The demands of the minority a counterpart of those of the
majority.
The demand of the great wealth-producer mainly a demand for power.
Testimony of a well-known socialist to the impossibility of altering the
character of individual demand by outside influence.
CHAPTER XI
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR SECULAR
DEMOCRACY
The meaning of Christian socialism, as restated to-day by a typical
writer.
His just criticism of the fallacy underlying modern ideas of democracy.
The impossibility of equalising unequal men by political means.
Christian socialism teaches, he says, that the abler men should make
themselves equal to ordinary men by surrendering to them the products
of their own ability, or else by abstaining from its exercise.

The author's ignorance of the nature of the modern industrial process.
His idea of steel.
He confuses the production of wealth on a great scale with the
acquisition of wealth when produced.
The only really productive ability which he distinctly recognises is that
of the speculative inventor.
He declares that inventors never wish to profit personally by their
inventions. Let the great capitalists, he says, who merely monopolise
inventions, imitate the self-abnegation of the inventors, and Christian
socialism will become a fact.
The confusion which reigns in the minds of sentimentalists like the
author here quoted. Their inability to see complex facts and principles,
in their connected integrity, as they are. Such persons herein similar to
devisers of perpetual motions and systems for defeating the laws of
chance at a roulette-table.
All logical socialistic conclusions drawn from premises in which some
vital truth or principle is omitted. Omission in the premises of the
earlier socialists. Corresponding omission in the premises of the
socialists of to-day.
Origin of the confusion of thought characteristic of Christian as of all
other socialists. Temperamental inability to understand the
complexities of economic life. This inability further evidenced by the
fact that, with few exceptions, socialists themselves are absolutely
incompetent as producers. Certain popular contentions with regard to
modern economic life, urged by socialists, but not peculiar to socialism,
still remain to be considered in the following chapters.
CHAPTER XII
THE JUST REWARD OF LABOUR AS ESTIMATED BY ITS
ACTUAL PRODUCTS

Modern socialists admit that of the wealth produced to-day labour does
not produce the whole, but that some part is produced by directive
ability. But they contend that labour produces more than it gets. We can
only ascertain if such an assertion is correct by discovering how to
estimate with some precision the amount produced by labour and
ability respectively.
But since for the production of the total product labour and ability are
both alike necessary, how can we say that any special proportion of it is
produced by one or the other?
J.S. Mill's answer to this question.
The profound error of Mill's argument.
Practically so much of any effect is due to any one of its causes as
would be absent from this effect were the cause in question taken away.
Illustrations.
Labour itself produces as much as it would produce were there no
ability to direct it.
The argument which might be drawn from the case of a community in
which there was no labour.
Such an argument illusory; for a community in which there was no
labour would be impossible; but the paralysis of ability, or its practical
non-existence possible.
Practical reasoning of all kinds always confines itself to the
contemplation of possibilities. Illustrations.
Restatement of proposition as to the amount of the product of labour.
The product of ability only partially described by assimilating it to rent.
Ability produces everything which would not be produced if its
operation were hampered or suspended.

Increased reward of labour in Great Britain since the year 1800. The
reward now received by labour far in excess of what labour itself
produces.
In capitalistic countries generally labour gets, not less, but far more
than its due, if its due is to be measured by its own products.
It is necessary to remember this; but its due is not to be measured
exclusively by its own products.
As will be seen in the concluding chapter.
CHAPTER XIII
INTEREST AND ABSTRACT JUSTICE
The proposal to confiscate interest for the public benefit, on the ground
that it is income unconnected with any corresponding effort.
Is the proposal practicable? Is it defensible on grounds of abstract