Ks-o~ e. o Fabian Tract No. 5· FACTS FOR SOCIALISTS FROM THE POLITICAL ECONOMISTS AND STATISTICIANS. PuBLISHED AND SoLD BY THE FABIAN SOCIETY. "Xo one can contemplate the present condhion o[ the masses of the peoplewithout desiring something like a revolution [or the better" (Sir R. GIFFEN, "Essays in Finance," YO!. ii., p. 393). N1:-.:TH EDITION (REnSED). NrNETY·FIRST THOUSA:\ID. PRICE ONE PENNY. LONDON: THE FABIAN SoctETY, 3 CLEMENT's INN, STRAND W.C. ]wm, 190+ FOR SOCIALISTS FROM THE POLITICAL ECONOMISTS AND TATISTICIAN . I.-The Nation's Income. THE annual income of the United Kingdom has been estimated by the following authorities :Sir Louis Mallet, K.C.S.I. (India Office), 1883-4, l'{att"rmal Iucomc and Taxall"ou (Cobden Club), p. 23 } Professor Leone Levi (King's College, London), Times, January 13th, r885 ··· Professor A. Marshall (Cambridge University), Report of Industrial Remuneration Conference, p. 194 (January, r885), upwards of Mr. Mulhall (1892), Dictzonar)' of Statzshcs, p. 320, Income for r889 Sir R. Giffen, The liVealth of tl1e Empzl·e, ]ournal of Royal Statistical Society, vol. lxvi., part iii. 1903 Mr. A. L. Bowley, M.A. (Appointed Teacher of Statistics, University of London), Natzonal Progress in lVealth and Tt·arle, p. I 7 ; Income for I 903 £ r,2 89,ooo,ooo r,274,ooo,ooo r,r2 s,ooo,ooo r,28s,ooo,ooo r,75o,ooo,ooo 2 ,ooo,ooo,ooo The gross assessments to income tax have risen (r 88 r-2 to 1901-2) by £265,542,486 (Inland Revenue Report, 1897-8, C.-4,474 and Cd.-1,717)-Allowing for a corresponding rise in the incomes not assessed and in the wages of manual labor, we may estimate the income for 1901-2 at not less than £1,800,000,000. The populationin 1901 being nearly 4r,soo,ooo (Cd.-1,727), the average annual income is about£43~ per head, or £!74 per adult man.* In r84o it was about £2ot, and in r86o £26~ per head (Mr. Mulhall, Diet. of Stat/sties, p. 245). These figures (which are mainly computed from income-tax returns and estimated aYerage rates of wages) mean that the pricein money of the commodities and services produced in the country • It has been a umed throughout that one person in e1 ery four is an adult male, and that there are, on an :11 erage, fiye persons to earh family group. 3 during the whole course of a year was about £174 per adult man.':' Most of these commodities and services were used up within that period in maintaining the 41 ,soo,ooo inhabitants, and Sir R. Giffen estimates that about £zoo,ooo,ooo is "saved" annually (Essays iu Finance, vol. ii., p. 407). The bulk of this "saving" consists of new houses and of new railways, steamers, machinery, and other aids to future labor. For subsequent comparison the total is represented by the annexed figure : 11.-Who Produces It. The desirable commodities and useful services measured by this vast sum are produced solely by the " efforts and sacrifices" (Cairnes), whether of muscle or of brain, of the working portion of the community, employed upon the gifts of Nature. Adam Smith "showed that labor is the only source of wealth, It is to labor, therefore, and to labor only, that man owes everything possessed of exchangeable value " (McCulloch's Przizciples of Polzlical Economy, part ii., sec. 1). "No wealth whatever can be produced without labor" (Professor Henry Fawcett (Cambridge), Mmmal of P ohtzcal E conomJ', p. 13). "That useful function, therefore, which some profound writers fancy they discover in the abundant expenditure of the idle rich turns out to be a sheer illusion. Political economy furnishes no such palliation of unmitigated selfishness. Not that I would breathe a word against the sacredness of contracts. But I think it is important, on moral no less than on economic grounds, to insist upon this, that no public benefit of any kind arises from the existence of an idle rich class. The wealth accumulated by their ancestors and others on their behalf, where it is employed as capital, no doubt helps to sustain industry; but what they consume in luxury and idleness is not capital, and helps to sustain nothing but their unprofitable lives. By all means they must have their rents and interest, as it is written in the bond ; but let them take their *It may be observed that the estimated amount of·' money" or currency in the country is about £r 3o,ooo,ooo, or under £4 per head, including bank notes. Gold coin and bullion. between £ 8o,ooo,ooo and £roo,ooo,ooo ; silver and bronze, £rs,ooo,ooo; bank notes, beyond gold resen·es, £24,ooo,ooo (W. S. Jevons, I nvestigations in Currency and Finance, p. 272; Report of Deputy-Master of the Mint, r88g; Mr. Goschen's Speech on Second Reading of the Coinage Act, r8gr). 4 proper place as drones in the hive, gorging at a feast to which they have contributed nothing" (Some leading Prwciples Of Pohtical Ecouomy, p. 32, by the late John Elliott Cairnes, M.A., EmeriLus Professor of Political Economy at UniversityCollege, London ; 1874). III.-Who the Workers Are. Those who profess to be taking part in the work of the com munity were divided, at the census of I 901, into the following classes: Males. Females. Total. Industrial 8,884, I I 6 2,594,684 II1478,8oo Agricultural 2,o58,oq6 183,88I 2,241,977 Commercial il45,I27 89,106 934,233Domestic 357,037 2,o58,528 2,4I5,56sProfessional 8I7.73I 387,050 I,204,78I I 2,962,107 5,313,249 I 8,2 7 5,356 Unoccupied, under 20... 6,476,645 7,202,149 I3,678,794Unoccupied, over 20 ... 663.656 8,84o,9r5,·, 9,504,57I 20,102,+08 21,356,313 41,458,721 (Compiled from Reports of the 1901 Census for England and Wales, Scotland} and Ireland.) Among the professed workers there are, of course, many whose occupation is merely nominal. The number is swelled by the "sleeping'' partners, the briefless barristers, the invalids, and the paupers, prisoners, and sinecurists of every description. Manythousands more have occupations useless or hurtful to the com· munity ; and others, as for example many domestic servants, labor honestly, but for the personal comfort of the idlers, and they might, therefore, as far as production is concerned, as well be themselves idle. Nevertheless, there were, in 1901, 663,656 adult men (one in twenty) who did not even profess to have the shadow of an occupation. Most of these form the main body of the idle rich, " the greatsocial evil of .... a non-laboring class" (]. S. Mill, Polztical E co11omy, Popular Edition, p. 455). It is clear that the labor of the workers is much increased by the presence among them of so large a proportion of persons who take no useful part in the business of life. The possible reduction of the daily hours of work has, however, been much exaggerated. Thus Mr. William Hoyle, writing in 1871, committed himself to the assertion that, "assuming every person did his share, a total of r;f hours' daily labor would suffice to supply us in abundance with all the comforts of life" (Ott1' Natiollal R esources, p. 56). It appears from the context that his calculation refers to a communitycomposed exclusively of actual workers in the production o! material necessaries, whereas in ordinary human societies about half the population is under the age of twenty, and more than half the adults are women mostly occupied in domestic duties. The rt hours daily have, therefore, at once to be multiplied fourfold, and account * Most of these are married women engaged in domestic work, although not so described. 5 is even then taken only of food, clothing, houses and furnrture. The whole calculation is indeed of little value, and has never been accepted by other authorities. IV.-How the Idle Rich Live. ''Whence is their purchasing-power derived? It does not descend to them from the skies ; nor is it obtained by submarine telegraph direct from California or Australia ; nor is its presence exhaustively accounted for by the presence of certain figures on the credit side of their accounts in their bankers' books " (Prof. ]. E . Cairnes, Some Lead£ng Prziu;zj>les of Polz"tz"cal E conomy , p. 31). They live, in the main, upon the portions of the national productwhich are called rent and interest, by the legal "guarantee to them of the fruits of the labor and abstinence of others, transmitted to them without any merit or exertion of their own" (]. S. Mill, Pohtzcal Economy, Popular Edition, p. 129). "It is at once evident that rent is the effect of a monopoly " (]. S. Mill, Pol£tzca! Economy, p. 255). "Monopoly, in all its forms, is the taxation of the industrious for the support of indolence, if not of plunder" (Ibzd, p. 477). V.-Rent. The total profits from the ownership of lands, houses, tithes, etc., as assessed for income tax in 1901-2 was £238,231,937; the rents of mines, quarries, ironworks, gasworks, waterworks, canals, fishings, shootings, markets, tolls, etc., amounted to £ 4o,q88,572 (Inland Revenue Report, 1902-3, Cd-1,717). Many of these are notoriouslyfar from being fully assessed. The total "rent"':' of the United Kingdom must therefore amount to at least £290,000,000, or nearly one-sixth of the total produce. Total produce, £r,8oo,ooo,ooo. R.-Rent, £29o,ooo,ooo. * In I843 the total was (for Great Britain only) £95,28+,497 ; in rsss (for the United Kingdom) £ rz+,87I,885. 6 VI.-Interest on Capital. Interest is distinguished by economists from the rent of land on the one hand, and the "wages of superintendence," or other payment for services, on the other. The profits of public companies, foreign investments, railways, etc., assessed to income tax in the United Kingdom in 1901-2 amounted to £260,274,742. The interest payable from British public funds (rates and taxes) was, in addition, £22,757,1 ro, and from Indian, Colonial and Foreign Governments £28,126,796 (Inland Revenue Report, 1901-2, Cd.-1,717). That these amounts are understated may be inferred from Mr. Mulhall's estimate of the stocks, shares, bonds, etc., held in Great Britain alone, as being worth £2,65~,ooo,ooo producing an annual income of upwards of £ 122,ooo,oo0 (Dzdio11ary rif Statistzcs, p. ro6). Sir Louis Mallet estimated the English income from foreign investments alone in r883-4 at £10o,ooo,ooo annually (Natz"rmal I1tcome and Taxatio1l (Cobden Club), p. 13), and later returns show that this estimate must be considerably increased.* Nearly the whole of this vast income may be regarded as being received without any contemporary services rendered in return by the owners as such. ] We have, however, to add the interest on capital employed in private undertakings of manufacture or trade. This is included with "wages of superintendence," in business profit, both for the purposeof the income-tax returns and in ordinary speech. Sir R. Giffen estimated it, in r884, apart from any earnings of personal service, at £89,ooo,ooo (Essays tiz Fiuance, vol. II, p. 403). Allowing for the increase since then, the total amount of interest cannot therefore be less than £860,000,000. Adding hereto the rent mentioned in the preceding section, we have a total of £6;o,ooo,ooo for rent and interest together. The following diagram represents the proportion of the nation's income thus claimed from the workers, not in return for any service Total product, £I,8oo,ooo,ooo. R.-Rent, £ 29o,ooo,ooo. I.-Interest, £ 36o,ooo,ooo. *See Fabian Tract No. 7, "Capital and !.and," pp. 7 and 8. 7 rendered to the community, but merely as the payment for permission to use the land and the already accumulated capital of the country. VII.-Profits and Salaries. But those who enjoy the vast unearned income just mentioned cannot all be accurately described as the " idle rich," though they would forego none of it by refusing to work. If they are disposed to increase it by leading active lives, they can do so ; and most of them adopt this course to some extent, especially those whose share is insufficient for their desires.':' When the members of this endowed class elect to work, they are able to do so under unusually favorable conditions. Associated with them in this respect are the fortunate possessors of exceptional skill in hand or brain and the owners of literary, artistic, or commercial monopolies of every kind. These workers often render inestimable service to the community, and they are able to exact in return remuneration proportionate neither to their utility nor to the cost of their education or training, but to the relative scarcity of the faculty they possess. The numbers and total income of this large class cannot be exactly ascertained. It includes workers of all grades, from the exceptionally skilled artizan to the Prime Minister, and from the city clerk to the President of the Royal Academy. It is convenient for statistical purposes to include in it all those who do not belong to the "manual-labor class." If we take the " rent of ability " to have increased in the same proportion as the assessments to income tax, this prosperous body may be estimated to receive for its work as profits and salaries about £460,000,000 annually.t * As the unearned income is not equally distributed, some of the participants are in comparatively humble circumstances ; but it may be observed that the "manuallabor class," or the poor, possess but a small fraction of the land and capital. In 1901 The Deposits in P.O. Savings Banks ... were £qo,392,9r6 Trustee 51,966,386 Consols purchased for small holders 14,450,877 In 1900 The Capital of Building Societies... was +6,775,!+3 The Funds of Trade Unions, Co-operative, Friendly and Provident Societies 72,219,991 The Funds of Industrial Life Assurance Societies 22,998,793 (see Eight Annual Report of the Labor Department of the Board of Trade, Cd.-1,124, 1902 ; Statistical Abstract, C.-1,239, 1902; and Fabian Tract No.7," Capital and Land"), or less than one thirty-fifth part of the total accumulated wealth, and under £23 per head of the adult workers in the "manual-labor class," even supposing the whole was owned by members of that class. Against this, too, must be set the debts of the laborers to pawnbrokers, shopkeepers and others, which amount, in the aggregate, to a considerable sum. t Some of this might, from another point of view, be reckoned rather as interest on the cost of education of valuable servants of the community, and accordinglydeducted from this total and added to that of interest. Sir R. Giffen: total income, less rent, interest, and wages of manual-labor class (Essays z"n F£nance, 1886, vol. ii., p. 404) £313,ooo,ooo Professor A. Marshall: earnings of all above the manual-labor class (Report of Industr£al R emuneration Co11jereuce, p. 194), 1885 3oo,ooo,ooo Mr. Mulhall : income of tradesmen class only(D£ct£onmJ' of Stakstzcs, p. 320), 1886 244,ooo,ooo Sir R. Giffen : salaries of superintendenceassessed to income tax alone (Essays z"n F£nance, 1886, vol. ii., p. 404) r8o,ooo,ooo VIII.-The Classes. The total amount of rent, interest, profits and salaries was estimated some years ago as follows :Professor Leone Levi, Tz1nes, 13th January, 188 5 £7 53,ooo,ooo Professor Alfred Marshall, Report of Industrial ] Remuneration Conference, p. 194 (I88s) ... 67 5 ,ooo,ooo Sir R. Giffen, Essa)•S £n F£uance, vol. ii., p. 467 (r886) ... 72o,ooo,ooo Mr. Mulhall, D£ct£onary of Statzstzcs, p. 246 ... 818,ooo,ooo Mr. A. L. Bowley, Statzstzcal Socz'ety's Journal, vol. !viii., part 2, p. 284 (I891) 9 I 210001000 Since these estimates were made the wealth of the country has grown greatly, and on the basis of the increase in gross assessments to income tax, we estimate that the total drawn by the legal disposers of what are sometimes called the "three rents" (of land, capital and ability) amounts at present to about £1,100,000,000 yearly, or just under two-thirds of the total produce. And the Masses. The total amount of wages was at the same time estimated bythe statisticians :Professor Leone Levi (as above) £52 I10001000 Professor A. Marshall (as above) soo,ooo,ooo':· Mr. Mulhall, Dzetz(mm')' of Statz"stzcs, p. 320 46 7 ,ooo,ooo Sir R. Giffen, Essays in Fz"uance, vol. ii., p. 467 sso,ooo,ooo Mr. J. S. Jeans, Statzstz"cal Society's Journal, vol. xlvii., p. 631 6oo,ooo,ooo Mr. A. L. Bowley (as above) 699,000,000 *These estimates, which are based on average rates of wages, multiplied by the number of workers, assume, however, reasonable regularity of employment, and take no account of the fact that much of the total amount of nominal wages is reclaimed from the workers in the shape of rent. Much must, therefore, be deducted to obtain their real net remuneration. 9 Allowing for the increase since these estimates were made we may safely say that the manual-labor class receives for all its millions of workers only some £690,000,000. Rent Interest. .. Profits and Salaries R.+L+P. & S. Total (that is the income of the legal pro- prietors of the three natural monopoliesof land, capital and ability) Income of manual-labor class Total produce ... IX.-The Two Nations. £ 29o,ooo,ooo 36o,ooo,ooo 46o,ooo,ooo I 11101000,000':' 69o,ooo,ooo £I ,8oo,ooo,ooo This unequal division of the fruits of the combined labor of the working community divides us, as Lord Beaconsfield said, into "two nations," widely different from each other in education, in comfort, and in security. There is some limited central territory between, and some luckier few escape from the large camp in which their fellows are toiling to the more comfortable fortress of the monopo- lists, from which, on the other hand, others sink into destitution from extravagance or misfortune. But for the great majority the lines between these two nations are practically impassable. It is not that this division is based on any essential differences in the industry or morality between individuals. "Since the human race has no means of enjoyable existence, or of existence at all, but what it derives from its own labor and abstinence, there would be no ground for complaint against society if every one who was willing to undergo a fair share of this labor and abstinence could attain a fair share of the fruits. But is this the fact ? Is * In this connexion it may be mentioned that the total income of the charities of the United Kingdom, including endowments, amounts to £Io,o4o,ooo, or I per cent. of the foregoing total. £2,040,000 of this, it may be added, is expended upon Bible societies alone (Mulhall, Dictionary of Stat;sties, p. I I2). The total cost of poor relief in Igor-2 was £r5,305,642 (seep. I7). 9 Allowing for the increase since these estimates were made we may safely say that the manual-labor class receives for all its millions of workers only some £690,000,000. Rent Interest. .. Profits and Salaries R.+L+P. & S. Total (that is the income of the legal pro- prietors of the three natural monopoliesof land, capital and ability) Income of manual-labor class Total produce ... IX.-The Two Nations. £ 29o,ooo,ooo 36o,ooo,ooo 46o,ooo,ooo I 11101000,000':' 69o,ooo,ooo £I ,8oo,ooo,ooo This unequal division of the fruits of the combined labor of the working community divides us, as Lord Beaconsfield said, into "two nations," widely different from each other in education, in comfort, and in security. There is some limited central territory between, and some luckier few escape from the large camp in which their fellows are toiling to the more comfortable fortress of the monopo- lists, from which, on the other hand, others sink into destitution from extravagance or misfortune. But for the great majority the lines between these two nations are practically impassable. It is not that this division is based on any essential differences in the industry or morality between individuals. "Since the human race has no means of enjoyable existence, or of existence at all, but what it derives from its own labor and abstinence, there would be no ground for complaint against society if every one who was willing to undergo a fair share of this labor and abstinence could attain a fair share of the fruits. But is this the fact ? Is * In this connexion it may be mentioned that the total income of the charities of the United Kingdom, including endowments, amounts to £Io,o4o,ooo, or I per cent. of the foregoing total. £2,040,000 of this, it may be added, is expended upon Bible societies alone (Mulhall, Dictionary of Stat;sties, p. I I2). The total cost of poor relief in Igor-2 was £r5,305,642 (seep. I7). IO it not the reverse of the fact? The reward, instead of being proportioned to the labor and abstinence of the individual, is almost in :tn inverse ratio to it; those who receive the least, labor and abstain the most." (John Stuart Mill, Fortnightly Review, 1879, p. 226, written in I86g). We have seen what the "two nations" each receive : it remains to estimate their respective numbers, and the following facts supply materials for this computation : (a) The Comparatively Rich. It has been shown that the adult males without professed occupation numbered 663,656 in 1901. This represents a population of about 2,6 so,ooo, all of whom were living on incomes not derived from any specified occupation. The landlords (of more than ten acres) number only 176,)2o,owningten-elevenths of the total area (Mulhall, Dictt"rmary of Statist£cs, } p. 341). The mortgage upon the industry of the community known as the National Debt was owned, in I88o, by only 236,514 persons,• 103,122 of whom shared in it only to the extent of less than £I5 per annum each (Mulhall, Dzdionary of Statzstics, p. 262). Only thirty-nine out of everyI ,ooo persons dying leave behind them £300 worth of property (including furniture, etc.), and only sixty-one per I,ooo leave any property worth mentioning at all. Thenumber ofestates of£10,ooo and upwards in value in I90I-2 upon which Estate Duty was paid was 3,829 ; their capital value was £I90,7IS,094· They include two- thirds of the total net capital ot the estates liable for duty. (Inland Revenue Report, C-1,717.) In 1901-2 the estates of 149 persons were proved for £62,467,800. Of these, four were more than £I ,ooo,ooo, nineteen over£ soo,ooo, forty-five over£2 so,ooo, and eighty-one between £I so,ooo and £2so,ooo. (b) The Com.paratzvely Poor. Mr. Mulhall, Diet. of Statzstics, p. 320; families... 4,774,ooo The number of persons "employed" at wages in the industries of the Kingdom is placed at thirteen to fourteen millions, and this includes over four million women. Mr. ]. S. Jeans, Statzstical Socz~ ety'sJournal,vol. xlvii., p. 631, places the num ber at about ... 14,ooo,ooo Sir R. Giffen, l?ssays ziz Jfz~ nance, vol. ii., p. 46 I (separateincomes of manual- labor class) . 13,2oo,ooo Prof. Leone Levi, Times, 13th Jan., I885 (number of workers in manual- labor class in I 88 I) ..• 1202000000 Sir R. Giffen, Labo1' Commzs sion Statzstzcs, six and a-quar ter million fami lies of wage earners, or per sons I3,0000000 Mr. A. L. Bow ley, Statzstzcal Society's Jour 1tal, June, 1895, manual laborers 13,ooo,ooo * These include many banks, insurance companies, foreign potentates, and others not to be included in the present computation. I I (a) The Comparatively R£ch. (b) The Comparatively Poor. The incomes of£I so per annurn ~nd upwards are only I! millions m number out of I6! millions of separate mcomes ~ (Giffen), Essays in Finance, vol. ii., p. 467). Mulhall estimates that there were, in I889, 222,ooo families of the gentry, 6o4,ooo families of the middle class, I ,22o,ooo families of the trading class ; in all only about two million families above the manual-labor class of less than five million families (D£ctionary of Stat/sties, p. 320). Five and a-half million families live in separate houses under £23, and of these four and a-half million in houses under £Io rental, notwithstanding that the poor in the great towns live in large tenement houses* (Giffen, Essays in Ft1zance, vol. ii., p. 348). Nine hundred and thirty-nine out of every I ,ooo persons(about half of whom are adults) die without property worth speaking of, and 96I out of every I ,ooo without furniture, investments, or effects worth £300 (Mulhall, Dt'ctionary ojStatistics, from Probate Duty Returns, p. 279). Out of 62,3I0 estates for which Probate was granted in 190I-2, 32,295 were tess than £soo each ; their aggregate capital value was £9,7I9,638 (InlandRevenue Report, C-I17I7). From returns obtained from 8,121 Private and Government Works, employing 862,365 persons, it appears that the average annual wage per head amounted to only £48. These returns include the police and other public servants, but do not take any account of agricultural and general laborers. (Annual Report of Labor Department, Board of Trade, 1893-4, C7,565.) X.-The Competitive Struggle. Disguise it as we may by feudal benevolence, or the kindly attempts of philanthropists, the material interests of the small nation privileged to exact rent for its monopolies, and of the great nation, thereby driven to receive only the remnant of the product, are permanently opposed. "The more there is allotted to labor the less there will remain to be appropriated as rent" (Fawcett, iltlmmal of Foltiical Economy, p. I23). * This includes, of course, the rural districts, where a comfortable house maygenerally be obtained below £2o annual rental ; but more than a third of the population now live in towns, where the poor are often herded together in slums yielding more than that rental per house. 12 It is therefore "the enormous share which the possessors of the instruments of industry are able to take from the produce" (]. S. Mill, quoting Feugueray, Principles of Polz"tical Economy, p. 477, Popular Edition of I86s), which is the primary cause of the small incomes of the comparatively poor. That neither class makes the best possible social use of its revenues, and that both waste much in extravagance and vice, is an apparently inevitable secondary result of the unequal division, which it intensifies and renders permanent; but it is a secondary result only, not the primary cause. Even if the whole " manual-labor class" received £ 48* per adult, which is the average income of those who are best off, and made the best possible use of it, it would still be impossible for them to live the cultured human life which the other classes demand for themselves as the minimum of the life worth living. It is practically inevitable that many of the poor, being debarred from this standard of life, should endeavor to enjoy themselves in ways not permanently advantageous to themselves or to society. The force by which this conflict of interest is maintained, without the conscious contrivance of either party, is competition, diverted, } like other forces, from its legitimate social use. The legal disposers of the great natural monopolies are able, by means of legallylicensed competition, to exact the full amount of their economic rents ; and the political economists tell us that so long as these natural monopolies are left practically unrestrained in private hands, a thorough remedy is impossible. In 1874, Professor Cairnes thought that some help might be found (at any rate by the better-paid laborers) by means of cooperation in production. He then wrote : " If workmen do not rise from dependence upon capital by the path of cooperation, then they must remain in dependence upon capital ; the margin for the possible improvement of their lot is confined within narrow barriers, which cannot be passed, and the probiem of their elevation is hopeless. As a body, they will not rise at all. A few, more energetic or more fortunate than the rest, will from time to time escape, as they do now, from the ranks of their fellows to the higher walks of industrial life, but the great majority will remain substantially where they are. The remuneration of labor, as such, skilled or unskilled, can ne,·er rise much above its present levei." (Prof. J. E. Cairnes, Some Leadiug Priuciples of Political Ecouomy, P· 348; I 874). Thirty years have passed away since these words were written, and it must now be apparent, even to the most sanguine of individualists, that the chance of the great bulk of the laborers ever coming to work upon their own land and capital in associations for co-operative production, has become even less hopeful than it ever was; and Dr. ]. K. Ingram tells us that modern economists, such as Professors T. E. Cliffe Leslie and F. A. Walker, regard the idea as "chimerical" (Article on " Political Economy '' in E1lc)'Clopa!diaBn"tannica, vol. xix., p. 382). Even so friendly an economist as Mr. Leonard Courtney agrees in this view. Yet this, according to authorities so eminent, is the only hope for the laborer under the present arrangements of society, or any other that the Professor could suggest. • See Annual Report of Labor Department, Board of Trade, r8g3-+, C-7,565. · I3 XI.-Some Victims of the Struggle. The statistics hitherto quoted have been mainly based on the assumption of reasonable regularity of employment. But of the great permanent army of the "unemployed," no reliable statistics can be obtained. From returns rendered to the Labor Departmentof the Board of Trade by Trade Unions, it appears that in the seven years, I896-I902, the mean percentage of members unemployed was 3·3 (Annual Report of Labor Department, Board of Trade, I90I -2 , Cd-I,755). The average number of persons in London whose home is the" common lodging-house " is over 30,000; over I, IOo are everynight found in the " casual wards.'' As regards the four millions of persons in the metropolis, Mr. Charles Booth tells us that 37,610, or o·9 per cent., are in the lowest class (occasional laborers, loafers, and semi-criminals) ; 3 I 6,834, or T5 per cent., in the next (casual labor, hand-to-mouth existence, chronic want); 938,293, or 22·3 per cent., form" the poor" (includingalike those whose earnings are small, because of irregularity ot employment, and those whose work, though regular, is ill-paid). These classes, on or below the "poverty line '' of earni11gs not exceeding a guz1zt'a a week per family, number together I,292,737, or 30·7 per cent. of the whole population. To these must be added 99,830 inmates of workhouses, hospitals, prisons, industrial schools, etc., making altogether nearly 1,4oo,ooo persons in this one city alone whose condition even the most optimistic social student can hardly deem satisfactory (Labor and Lzfe of the People, edited by Charles Booth, I891. Vol. ii., pp. 20-2I). The ultimate fate of these victims it is not easy adequately to realize. In London alone, in 1902, no less than 34 persons, of whom 24 were fifty years old and upwards, were certified by the verdicts of coroners' juries to have died of starvation, or accelerated by privation (H.C.-279). Actual starvation is, however, returned as the cause of death in but a few cases annually; and it is well known that many thousands of deaths are directly due to long-continued under-feedingand exposure. Young children especially suffer. The infantile death-rate at Bethnal Green is twice that of Belgravia. Hoiborn (I 5 I ,835) and St. George's, Hanover Square (I49,748), have almost equal populations; yet, in the former, I,6r4, in the latter, only I,oo7 children under five died in I884':' (RegistrarGeneral's Report, I886, pp. 32, I26, C-4,722). In England and Wales 111 I900, 85,722 deaths were registered as having taken place in workhouses, infirmaries, hospitals, and asylums, or I4·6 per cent. of the total deaths. Of these, .+7,o2q occurred in workhouses, 29,849 in hospitals, and 8,844 in lunatic asylums. In London one person at least in every four will die in the workhouse, hospital, or lunatic asylum. In 1900, out of 84,534 deaths, 48,955 being twenty years of age and upwards, 13,542 were in workhouses, 10,572 in hospitals, and 345 in lunatic asylums, or, altogether, 24,459 in public institutions· (Registrar-General's * No ligures for a comparison of this kind are given in the Registrar-General's Reports for years subsequent to 1 88+. } Report, Jooz, Cd-761). The percentage of the total deaths fro~ 1861-5 was r6·2; in 187 1-S it was 17"4 ; in r88r-s it was 21·1; 111 1886-90 it was 23·4. It is worth notice that a large number of those compelled 111 their old age to resort to the workhouse have made ineffectual efforts at thrifty provision for their declining years. In r89o-9r, out of 175,852 inmates of workhouses (one-third being children, and another third women), no fewer than 14,808 have been members of benefit societies. In 4,503 cases the society had broken up, usually from insolvency (House of Commons Return, 1891, Nos. 366 and 130-B). It is probable that one in every three London adults will be driven into these refuges to die, and the proportion in the case of the "manual-labor class" must of course be still larger. And the number of persons who die while in receipt of out-door relief is not included in this calculation. As in 1902-3 the mean number of outdoor paupers in the metropolis was -!-4,899 (Cd-r,7oo), and the average death-rate in London was 18·7 per I ,ooo, it may be assumed that upwards of I ,ooo persons dieci while in receipt of out-door relief- often from its being insufficient. The deaths by suicide in England and Wales per million living were I 1347 in 11:\61 ; in I893 they were 2,796; in 1900 they were 2,896. Dr. Playfair says that 18 per cent. of the children of the upperclass, 36 per cent. of those of the tradesmen class, and 55 per cent. of those of the workmen, die before they reach five years of age(quoted at p. 133 of Dtdionary of Statistics, by Mr. Mulhall, who, however, thinks it " too high an estimate"). I 7,967 persons died by fatal accidents in I 900 (Registrar-General's , Report, C-76I), 994 losing their lives in mines, 992 on railways, q 6 in working machinery, 738 by poisoning and poisonous vapors, and 249 by falls from scaffolding, etc., in building operations. These are figures for England and W ales alone, and would be much increased by including the accidents in Scotland and Ireland. The Board of Trade Report on " Railway Accidents" during the year 1900 shows that 583 railway servants were killed, and 4,585 injured, by accidents on the lines. Of these 25 were killed and 565 injured whilst coupling or uncoupling vehicles. (Cd-~57.) "At pre·ent the :tverage age at death among the nobility, gentry, and professional classeo in England and \Vales was 55 years ; but among the artizan classes of Lambeth it only amounted to 29 years; and whilst the infantile death-rate among the well-to-do cia ·ses was such that only eight children died in the first year of life out of I O:J born , as many as 30 per cent. succumbed at that age among the children of the poor in some districts of our large cities. The only real causes of this enormous difference in the position of the rich and poor with respect to their chances of existence lay in the fact that at the bottom of society wages were so low that food and other requisites of health were obtained with too great difficulty" (Dr. C. R. Drysdale, Report of Industrial Remuneration Conference, p. I 30). ".\nyone who is acquainted with the state of the population of all great int!usuial centres, whether in this or other countries, is aware that amidot a large and incre:1sing body of th:lt population there reigns supreme . ... that condition which the French call/a mish·e, a word for which I do not think there is any exact Englishequivalent. It is a condition in which the food, warmth, and clothing, which are necessary for the mere m:1.intenan~e of the functions of the body in their normal state, cannot be obtained; in which men, women, ant! chi ldren are forced to crowd into I ) dens wherein decency is abolisheJ, and the mo·t ordinary conditions of healthful existence are impossible of attainment : in which the pleasures within reach are reduced to brutality and drunkenness; in which the pains accumulate at compound interest in the shape of starvation, dise3se, stunted development, and moral degradation; in which the prospect of even steady and honest industry is a life of unsuccessful battling with hunger, rounded by a pauper's grave . ... \Vhen the organization of society, instead of mitigating this tendency, tends to continue and intensify it ; when a given social order plainly makes for evil and not for good, men naturally enoughbegin to think it high time to try a fresh experiment. 1 take it to be a mere plain truth that throughout industrial Europe there is not a single large manufacturingcity which is free from a vast mass of people whose condition is exactly that described, and from a still greater mass, who, living just on the edge of the social swamp, are liable to be precipitated into it." Professor Huxley, .Vinetemth Cmtury, February r888). B. S. Rowntree estimated that the average income from all sources of the II,56o working class families in York in 1899 was 32s. 8fd. per week, or £85 a year. But I ,{6 5 families, comprising7,230 persons, that is, 15·46 per cent. of the wage-earning class and 9"9 I per cent. of the population of York, were living in "primarypoverty," that is, on less than enough to provide the minimum of food, clothing and shelter. And, in addition, 13,072 persons, or 17"93 per cent. of the population. were living in "secondary poverty," that is, on earnings which would be sufficient if spent with rigid economy and perfect wisdom, but were insufficient because in part misspent on drink and betting or through ignorant housekeeping. "' The wages paid for unskilled labor in York are insufficient to provide food, shelter and clothing adequate to maintain a family of moderate size in a state of bare physical efficiency.'' No less than 52 per cent. of " primary " poverty was due to low wages alone (Poverty, 2nd ed., pp. 83, 120, 133). One great cause of the short and miserable lives of the poor is the insanitary condition of the slums in which many of them are -compelled to dwell. The strongest testimony to the evil effects of such surroundings comes from the insurance companies. The industrial friendly societies have in each large town their "proscribed streets." The Liverpool Victoria Legal Friendly Society proscribes, for Liverpool alone, on accc1unt of their insanitary character, 167 "'streets wherein no members of the Society may be entered" (Circular of the 13th October, 1886). Yet these unhealthy streets are not too bad to be the only homes of thousands of the poorer dtizens of that commercial centre. INFANT MoRTALITY. "The best indication probably as to whether the conditions ot life in any locality are healthy or the reverse is the infant mortality" (Tite Dwelli~tg House, by G. V. Poore). "In the decennial supplement of the Registrar-General, published in 1896, Dr. Tatham gives a table (Table II., p. lxxxii. et seq.) of the "annual death-rate per thousand living among children under five years of age, from all causes, and from several causes, r881-90.'" "We find that the death-rate of children under five from all <:auses in England was 56·825 per thousand ; that the highest death- rate among children was in Lancashire (72"79.:;), and the next highest r6 was in the county of London (68·r64). The lowest death-rate was in the county of Dorset." The highest death-rates were : Liverpool... . .. II4"253} Child Mortalit . Strand ... 109·596 y "To Liverpool, therefore, belongs the distinction of being the most unwholesome place for little children in the whole country, and the ' Strand,' which constitutes the very centre of London, comes next." " The deaths of children under one year of age per I ,ooo births is a safe criterion of the health conditions of a locality. The figures for the ten years I 88 I -90 were, for the whole of England and Wales, 142. In Liverpool it was 219, in Preston 203, in the Strand 226.'' OvERCROWDlNG STATISTICS. From Censuses I89r and 1901, General Report.':' ENGLAND AND WALES.-0VERCROWD!NG. No. of I to 4 roomed } Tenement tenements with more than No. of occupiers of Percentage of populawith two occupants per room. such tenements. tion in such tenements. r8gr rgor r8gr rgor r8gr rgor I room 92,259 66,669 357,707 245,576 1"23 0"76 2 rooms 184,231 147,527 I 1I24,056 884,672 3"88 2"72 3 rooms 120,031 roz,ss6 951,877 807,566 3"28 2"48 4 rooms 85,132 74,662 824,404 729,652 2"84 2"24 II"23 8·2o The total number of tenements in England and Wales was, in 190I1 according to the returns, 7,036,868, which gives, with a population of 32,527,843, an average of 4·6 persons to each tenement. The six great towns in which the percentage of overcrowded persons was the highest were as follows :- Gateshead 34·53 Plymouth 20·25 Newcastle-on-Tyne ... 30·57 Halifax I4·67 Sunderland . . . 30"IO Bradford I4" s8 The five registration counties with most overcrowding (Londonomitted) were :Northumberland 31"31 Yorkshire Durham 29"48 Cumberland Pembroke 9·94 Speaking generally, it would appear that the coal-bearingcounties are those where the crowding of dwellings is most severe. OvERCROWD! 'G IN LoNDON REGIST~ATION CouNTY. 83o,r82 persons living more than two in a room = I9"7I per cent. to total population. (General Report, r89I Census, p. I I8.) * The figures for rgor ha,·e been calculated from the material given in the Preliminary Report, and though approximately correct, must not be taken as exactly accurate. 17 "This figure of nearly 20 per cent., however, is based on the population of the whole town, which in 1891 was 4,211,743· To ascertain the real nature of the overcrowding problem, it is essential to look more closely into the details of the different districts of London. It will then be found that in such central parts as Holborn, Clerkenwell, St. Luke's, Whitechapel and St. George-inthe- East, the overcrowding exceeds 35 per cent. Look more closelyinto selected areas in these districts and the problem appears even more serious. The average number of persons per acre for all London is 56. In the Old Artillery Ground it is 427, in Spitalfieldsit is 322, in Mile End Old Town it is 269. These three districts are in Whitechapel" (London Govermnent, by Frederick Whelen, p. 67). In 1901 the figures were about 719,293 persons, or 15·88 per cent. MoRTALITY AND OvERCROWDING (LoNDo")· Proportion of Total Population living Death-rate, more than two in a room (in Tene-'' All Causes," ments of less than five rooms). r885-92. Districts with under 15 per cent. IT5I , , 15 to 20 per cent. 19')I , , 20 to 2 5 , 20'27 , 25 to 30 21'76 " " " 30 to 35 23'92 " over 35 ,," 25'07" london Government, p. 68. We clog our public poor relief with irksome and degrading conditions, so that the honest poor often die lingering deaths rather than accept it. Mr. Charles Booth states that " as regards entering the workhouse, it is the one point on which no difference of opinionexists among the poor. The aversion to the 'house' is absolutely universal, and almost any suffering and privation will be endured bypeople rather than go into it" (The Aged Poor z'n England and Wales). Yet the paupers in actual receipt of public relief on one day number more than a million: England and \iVales, rst January, 1902 811,449 cost £r2,890,714 Scotland, 15th January, 1902 102,499 , ! 1 193,6)1Ireland, 8th January, 1902 ... J02,77I , 1 122! 1277 I 10I6,719 £15,305,642 (Report of Local Government Board, England and Wales; Report of Board for Supervision of Poor, Scotland; Report of Local Government Board, Ireland, and Statistical Abstract, Cd-1,727). But the relief is not usually given permanently ; to obtain the number of different individuals who receive relief during a year, we must multiply the daily number by 2'3· (This is the computationgiven in Mr. Charles Booth's paper before the Statistical Society, December, 189 I. See also his Paupensm, a PtCturc / and the Eudowmeut of Old Age, an Argument.) This gi\·es a pauper class during any one year of about 2,36o,ooo persons, or I in 1I of the manual-labor class. In some rural districts evCIJ' aged laborer is a pauper. ] 18 The maintenance of these paupers cost £15,305,642 per annum. But in addition to this public expenditure, the various charitable societies spend £Io,o4o,ooo annually (Mr. Mulhall, Dzctioua1y of Statzstics, p. I 12), and the charity of individuals is known to be enormous. The numbers of the destitute class must therefore be largely increased. Sir R. Giffen talks of the class of five millions "whose existence is a stain on our civilization" (Essays £11 Fi11ancc, vol. ii., p. 350). It is the lot of at least one in five of the manual- labor class-of 16 in every 100 of the whole population-to belong to this class. "To me, at least, il would be enough to condemn modern society as hardly an advance on slavery or serfdom, if the permanent condition of industry were to be that whi h we behold, that go per cent. of the actual producers of wealth have no home that they can call their own beyond the end of the week; have no bit of soil, or of so much as a room that belongs to them ; have nothing of value of any kind except as much old furniture as will go in a cart; ha,·e the precarious chance of weekly wages which barely suffice to keep them in health; are housed for the most part in places that no man thinks fit for his horse ; are separated by so narrow a margin from destitution, that a month of bad trade, sickness, or unexpected loss brings them face to face "1th hunger and pauperism. . . . . This is the normal state of the average workman in town or country" (Mr. Frederick Harrison, p. 429, Report of Industrial Remuneration Conference, 1886). The normal state of the "average workman" is the average normal state of four out of five of the whole population (Prof. Leone Levi Tzines, 13th January, 1885). XII.-The Evil and the Remedy. "The deepest root of the evils and iniquities which fill the industrial world is not competition, but the subjection of labor to capital, and the enormous share which the possessors of the instruments of industry are able to take from the produce." (]. S. Mill quotingFeugueray, Priuciplcs of P ohtzcnl Eco1tomy, p. 447, edition of r86s). ' 1 We have been uffering for a century from an acute outbreak of individualism, unchecked by the old restraints, and invested with almost a religious sanction by a certain soul-less school of writers" (Prof. H. S. Foxwell, University College, London, p. 249 of essay in Tlu• Clnz'ms oj Labor, r886). " It is indeed, certain that industrial society will not permanentlyremain without a systematic organization. The mere conflict of private interests will never produce a well-ordered commonwealth of labor " (article on '' Political Economy " in E1lCJICZOJ(Edia Brztaumca, vol. xix., r886, p. 382, since published as the History of .Tolitica/ Eco11omy, by ]. K. Ingram, LL.D., Trinity College, Dublin). Socialists affirm that the evil can never be remedied until the "two nations" are united by the restitution to public purposes of rent and interest of every kind, and by the growth of social sympathy promoted by the accompanying cessation of class distinctions. It will be seen by the above quotations that this position is based on the facts of the case as ascertained and declared by the recognizedauthorities in statistics, and is in entire harmony with the doctrines of Political Economy. 19 XIII.-Some Steps already taken towards Socialism. The restitution to public purposes of rent and interest of everykind cannot be effected by revolution, or by one or a dozen Acts of Parliament. Legislative reforms are needed, but they must be supplemented by a thoroughly organized exercise by all local authorities, from Parish to County Councils, of the powers they already possess. The supply of water, gas, and electric light, the establishment of markets, slaughter-houses, tramways, baths, wash-houses, cemeteries, harbors, libraries, bands, art galleries, museums, open spaces, gymnasia, allotments, the buildings of workmen's dwellings and municipal lodging-houses are being carried on by municipalauthorities for the common good. They might be extended to every urban community in the kingdom if public opinion and public enterprize were sufficiently alert to their opportunities. The following figures show the influence of socialistic principles in our municipal administration. A House of Commons Return, issued in March, I 899, gives a summary of the reproductive undertakings carried on by 265 municipal boroughs in England and \Vales ; total capital, £88,152,595; balance outstanding, 31st March, 1898, £71,883,232; average annual income for five years to 31st March, 1898, £8,898,386; average annual working expenses for the same period, £5,319,597; average annual net profit for the same period, £3,613,668 (H.C.-88, 7th March, 1899). No later returns have been made. The establishment of Works Departments and the direct employment of labor is a result of municipal development which is yearlytransforming hundreds of workers into State servants. The restitution of rent and interest to public purposes will be mainly brought about by means of progressive taxation in the shapeof graduated death duties, a graduated differentiated income tax, and the rating of land values. The budget of 1894 not only cleared the way for the application of socialist principles to taxation, but immediately brought a largely increased revenue out of accumulated capital into the national exchequer. It enacted a scale of duties varying from I per cent. on estates of £soo to 8 per cent. on those of £I,ooo,ooo and over. During the year: 1901-2 the reve.nue from the death duties was £18,513, 714, as agamst £ 9,979,691 111 1893-4 (Cd.-1,717). By these and similar means, very greatly extended, the emancipation of the workers from the burden of private monopoly wiil slowly but surely come. } ( Wt:UJll lTl Hit. n.wtm aua l.llltr lOilUWlDg Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, London, W.O. FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE: A Manifesto. 4d. post free. FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM. (36thThouse.nd.) Paper cover, I/-; plain cloth, 2/-, post free from the Secretary. FABIAN TRACTS and LEAFLETS. Tracts, each 16 to 52 pp., price 1d., or 9d. per doz., unless otherwise stated. Leaflets, 4 pp. each, price 1d. for six copws, 1s. per 100, or 8/6 per 1000. The Set of 88, 3s.; post free 315· Bound in Buckram, 4/6; post free for ss. I.-General Socialism in its various aspects. TRACTB.-II3. Communism. By WM. MoRRIS. 107. Socialism for Millionaires. By BERNARD SHAW. 79· A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich. By JOHM WooLMAN. 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. · 6g. Difficulties of Individualism. By SIDNEY WEBB. 51. Socialism: True and False. By S. WEBB. 45· The Impossibilities of Anarchism. ByBERNARD SHAW (price 2d.). 15. English Progress towards Social Democracy. By S. WEBB. 7· Capital and Land (6th edn. revised 1904). 5· Facts for Socialists (9th edn., revised Hl04). LEAFLETB-13, What Socialism Is. x. Why are the Many Poor? 38. The same iu Welsh. H.-Applications of Socialism to Particular Problems. TRACTS.-118. The Secret of Rural Depopulation. By Lieut.-Col. D. C. PEDDER. I 16. Fabianism and the Fiscal Question : an Alternative Policy. us. State Aid to Agriculture: an Example. By T. S. DYMOND. II2. Life in the Laundry. uo. Problems of Indian Poverty. By S. S. THORBURN. g8. State Railways for Ireland. 88. The Growth of Monopoly in English Industry. By H. W. MACROSTY. 86. MunicipalDrink Traffic. 85. Liquor Licensing at Home and Abroad. By E. R. PEASE. 84. Economics of Direct Employment. 83. State Arbitration and the Living Wage. 74· The State and its Functions in New Zealand. 73· Case for State Pens1ons in Old Age. By G. TURNER. 67. Women and the Factory Acts. By Mrs. WEBB. so. Sweating: its Cause and Remedy, 48. Eight Hours by Law. 23. Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 47· The Unemployed. By J . BuRNS, M.P. LEAFLETB.-8g. Old Age Pensions at Work. 19. What the Farm Laborer Wants. 104. How Trade Unions benefit Workmen. 111.-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. xog. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. By RAYMOND UNWIN. ros. Five Years' Fruits of the Parish Councils Act. 103. Overcrowding in London and its Remedy. By W. C. STEADMAN, L .C.C. rox. The House Famine and How to Relieve it. 52 pp. 76. Houses for the People. roo. Metropolitan BoroughCouncils: their powers and duties. gg. Local Government in Ireland. 82. Workmen's Compensation Act: what it means and how to make use of it. 77· Municipalization of Tramways. 62. Parish and District Councils. 6x. The London County Council. 54· The Humanizing of the Poor Law. By J. F. 0AKEBHOTT. LEAFLETB.-8x. Municipal Water. 68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 71. Same for London. 63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 58. Allotments and how to getthem. FABIAN MUNICIPAL PROGRAM, FIRST SERIES. London's Heritage in the City Guilds. Munidpalization of the Gas Supply. Municipal Tramways. The Scandal of London's Markets. A Labor Policy for Public Authorities. SECOND SERIES (Nos. go to 97)· Municipalization of the Milk Supply. Municipal Pawnshops. MunicipalSlaughterhouses. Women as Councillors. Municipal Bakeries. Municipal Hospitals. Municipal Fire Insurance. Municipal Steamboats. Eac·h Series in e. red cover for 1d. (9d. per doz.); separate leaflets, 1/-per 100. lV.-Books. 29. What to Read on social and economic subjects. 6d. net. V.-General Politics and Fabian Policy. 116. Fabtanism and the Fiscal Question : an alternative policy. 108. Twentieth Century Politics. By blDNEY WEBB. 70. Report on Fabian Pobcy. 41. The Fabian Society : its Early History. By BERNARD SHAW. VI.-Question Leaflets, containing Questions for Candidates for the following bodies :-20, Poor I;aw Guardians. 24, Parliament. 27, Town Councils. 28, County Councils, Rural. 56, Parish Councils. 57, Rural District Councils. 59. Urban District Councils. 102, Metropolitan Borough Councils. BooK Rmn