FABIAN <9~AGJ11S, I1o. 13. g>ocia£is What We English have a habit of speaking of England as if it belonged -to us. We are wrong: England is now private property; and if a laboring man out of employment makes so free with " his eountry" as to lie down for a night's sleep on it without paying its owners for the accommodation, he is imprisoned as a rogue and a vagabond. The price we must pay rises as the population grows; for the more people there are, the higher they will bid against one another in hiring land in the market for houses, tenements, and places of business. In London, for instance, the price paidannually to the ground landlords goes up by over £300,000 every year, without counting the additional charge for new buildings or repairs and improvements to old ones. After payments of one sort or another to the owners of the whole country have been deducted from the produce of the workers' labor, the balance left for wages is so small, that if every working-class family got an equal share, each share would only come to £75 a year, which (bhough it would seem a fortune to some poor people) is not enough for a eomfortable living, much less for saving. Nevertheless the proprietary classes, without working at all for it, divide among them -enough to give over two hundred thousand rich families more than £1,500 a year, and still leave more than £300 a year per family fm over a million and a quarter families of moderately well-off people in addition to what they make by their professions and businesses. The Extreme Cases. The above figures, bad as they are, only represent averages, and give no idea of the extreme cases of wealth and poverty. Some of -our great landowners get upwards of £4,000 a week without ever doing a stroke of work for it; whilst the laborers on their estates, working early and late from the time they are lads until they gointo the union as aged and worn-out paupers, get from ten to thirteen shillings a week. As women get lower wages than men when they work, but receive just as large incomes from property when they are rich and idle, a comparison between the share of our yearly produce that goes to a poor working woman at the East end of London, working sixteen hours a day for a shilling, and the rich, idle lady at the West end, is still more scandalous. What Comes of Inequality. If you are a person of common sense and natural feeling, you ·must have often thought over these terrible inequalities and their .cruel injustice. If you are rich, you perhaps think that inequality • ( 2 ) is a. good thing-that it fosters a spirit of emulation, and prevents things from stagnating at a dead level. But if you are poor, you must know well that when inequality is so outrageous as the figures above shew, it fosters nothing but de pair, reckle ne sand drunkenness among the very poor; arroga.nce and wastefulness among the very rich; meanness, envy ancl nobbery among the middle clas es. Poverty means eli ea. e and crime, uglines and brutality, drink and violence, stunted bodies and unenlightened minds. Riches heaped up in idle hands mean flunkeyism and folly, insolence and servility, bad e:ample, false standard of worth, and the destruction of a.ll incentive to useful work in tho e who are best able to educate themselves for it. Poverty and riche together mean the perversion of our cap1tal and indu. try to the production of frippery and luxurywhil t the nation is rotting for want of good food, thorough instruction, and whole ome clothes and dwelling for the mo. e . hd we want in onl '1" to make true progress is more baker , more schoolmasters, moro wool-weavers and tailors, and more builders : what we got in lead i more footmen, more gamekeepers, more jockeys, and more pro titutos. That i what our newspapers call "sound machinery, railways, and by tho factory system. But the first cos' political economy." to do anything to ge\\'hat do you think of it? t it remedied? Do you intend Savin s. The produce of industry has been increased enormously by of machinery, rail way and fo.ctorie ha. to be paid for out of sa.vin s, and not out of tho money that people are living on. Now the only people who can pare money to 1we a.r tho o who have more than enough to live on: that is to y, the rich. onsequently the machinery is introduced and the factories built by the avings of the rich; and as they pay for it, the) c. p •ct to get all the advantagethat comes by using it; so that hero again the workers are left a.a badly off as ever. The worst of it is tho.t when the rich find out how en. y it is for them to get still richer by saving, they think it is a.a e sy for everybody as for them elve ; and when the worker com· plains, they ay "·wby don't you save as w do?" or "How can you expect to be well off if you are not thrifty?" They forget that though you can save plenty out of £18 a. week without stintin~ yourfe.mily, you cannot savo anything out of eighteen shillings w1thout etarving them. The Three Monopolies. Iorcover, the propertied cl s e , by gi,·ino their younger sons an exp. n ivo education, are able to put them into the le rned pro- fa 1011 , the GoYcrnment office , a.ud the hi her m nan ri 1posts in bu ine , over the heads of the on· of the wa a-worker , ho &re to? poor to get anything beyouu tho chool Doard •duca.tion for th ir ch1ldr n. o th t out of the price paid to them for the u e of the land, the propertied cl s uy the machinery ; and out of the profit. of th u1 chincry they buy the clucn.tiou which give to tb ir orkmg m mb r monopoly of th hirolJJy p id employments; whll t the \\ go-worker· are hop le ly cut out of it e.ll. ller a.re tb tigur~.: !or the United Kinguom : 3 -*1ncome of Propertied Classes (10,500,000 persons) £850,000,000 , left for Wage-workers and their families (26,500,000 persons) 500,000,000 Total National Income ... £1,350,000,000 "'l'his enables the rich to get the government of the country into their hands, because only rich men can afford to go into the House of Commons, or to sit upon the County Councils and Municipal Corpo- Tations ; and the whole country is governed by these bodies. The workman's vote enables him to choose between one rich man and another, but not to fill the Councils and Parliament with men of his .own class. What Socialism Is. Socialism means equal rights and opportunities for all. The 'Socialists are trying to have the land and machinery "socialized," or made the property of thP. whole people, in order to do away with idle owners, and to keep the whole product for those whose labor produces it. The establishment of Socialism, when once the people are resolved upon it, is not so difficult as might be supposed. If a man wishes to work on his own account, the rent of his place of business, and the interest on the capital needed to start him, can be paid to the County Council of his district just as easily as to the private landlord and capitalist. Factories are already largely regu· lated by public inspectors, and could be conducted by the local authorities just as gas-works, water-works and tramways are now conducted by them in various towns. Railways and mines, instead of being left to private companies, could be carried on by a departmentunder the central government, as the postal and telegraph services are carried on now. The Income Tax collector who to-day calls for a tax of a few pence in the pound on the income of the idle millionaire, can collect a tax of twenty shillings in the pound on every ·unearned income in the country if the Government so orders. No Remedy without Political Change. But the Government never will give such orders until the workers, by their votes, banish the propertied classes from the House of Commons. Remember that Parliament, with all its faults, has always governed the country in the interest of the class to which the majority of its members belonged. It governed in the interest d the country gentlemen in the old days when they were in a majority in the House of Commons ; it has governed in the interest ·Of the capitalists and employers since they won a majority by the Reform Bill of 1832; and it will govern in the interest of the peoplewhen the members are selected from the wage-earning class. In· quirers will find that Socialism can be brought about in a perfectly .constitutional manner through Democratic institutions, and that none of the practical difficulties which occur to everyone in his first nve minutes' consideration of the subject have escaped the attention '?f those who have worked at it for years. Few now believe Socia.llsm to be impracticable except those with whom the wish is father to the thought. : This item is made up of four hundred and ninety millions (£490,000,000) ~h1eh ~o as Rent and Interest absolutely for nothing, and of three hundred and ~aty m1llions (£360,000,000) incomes of professional men and profits of business management. (See Fabian Tract No. 5, "Facts for Socialists.") I~ABlA SOClt 1'¥. TIE FABIAN SOCIETY cons1sts of Socialists. .\ statement of its Principles, Rules, Conditions of Membership, etc., a li t of lecturers, with their lectures and terms, and the following publications, can be obtained from The Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 276 trand, London, W.C. "FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM." (26th Thousand.) A full exposition of modern Engh h o< tall m m Its latest and mature t phase. • • Library Edition, 6s.; or, direct from tht Svrctaryfor Oa.3h, 4 6 (J-o&tage 4td.J Cheap Edition, Paper COHr, 1s. ; ditto, rlam cloth, 2s. At all book ellers or po t free from the . ecrctary for 1s. and 2 . re,(•cctlvely. FABIAN TRACTS. No. 1.-Why are the Many Poor P l'n t: 6 for 1d.; IS. per 100. No. 6.-Fa.cts for Bocta.lists. A un cy of the tli tribution of income and the condition of cia c in l.ngland 401h thou and. 16 pp., 1d.; or 9<1. per doz. No. 7.-Ca.pltal and Land. A inular ur.ey or the di tribution of property, witil a critic• r.t ol the dt,lmCllon Clmettmc, et up b twe n Land ar:d Capual as in trument of production. Jr. Jn ; 15 h thou :1nd. 16 pp., 1d.; or 9d. per dor. No. 8.-Fa.cts for Londoners. -6 pp., 6d.; or 4 6 per doz. No. 9.-An Eight Hours Bill. l•ull notes e pl:~in the Trade Option clau e and 1recctl nt on "luch the lhllt loun,(ed. II. li t of literature deal in~; with the hour of lalJor ., appended. 20th thou and. 16 pp., I d. ; or 9<1. per doz. No. 10.-Ftgures for Londoners. 40th thou . 4 pp.,6 for 1d. ; 1 . per 100. No. 11.-The Workers' Political Programme fully explains the politic of to-r 1d.; or 1 per1oo. No. 22.-The Truth about L easehold Enfranchisement. Why ociali t and Radical oppo c it. 4 pp., 6 f .. r Jd ; or 1 pu 100. No. 28.-The Ca e for an Eight Hours Bill. 11\ pp., td. each; '/(1 . a dozen, No. 24.-Questlon for Parliamentary Candidate&. 6 for 1d. ; 1 . per 100 No. 26.-Questions for School Board Candidates. , No. 26.-Qu~:stions for London County Councillors. , No. 27. Questions for Town Councillors. No. 28. Questions for County Councillors. , , No. 29. What to Read. A l.1 t of Bo k for Soctal I' forme r . Includ all the be t Look on Lconomic , . ocblt m, Labor !lloH111ent , Po\'erty, ·c., ith u~:gc t~-<1 cour,e of n:admg. 32 pp., Jtl ea~h, or 2 3 per do1. No. 30.-The Unearned l ncr m~nt. No. 81 London's Herita~-:to in the Ctty Guilds. No. 32. Municipahsatton of lhe Gas Supply. No. 88 Munictpali at10n of Tr mwo.ys. No. 84. London's W at r Tribute No. 86. Muntcipalteation of tht> Docks. No. 86. The Scandal of London'" M rkets. No. 87.-A L bor Policy for Public Authorities. -'os. 30 to 37 fonn thl-I ab1 m lunictpal J•,ogr m. 7'he for ld., or l 1.p r 100 No. 88.-A W lab Tru.n 1 t10n of Tr ct 1. 4 pp., 6 for td.; 1 per 100. No. 39.-A D mOCI tic Budget. I r :J or •}d. per do~en. No. 40.-Th e F bi n Manifesto for the Gen6.,1 Election of 189~. 6 pp, ld. e , • r 9<1· 1 r •loun. No. 41.-The History and Preel'nt Attitude of the Fabian Society. 3d. ch, or :z • tl, pu doz n.-(In th 1 .) Th 11 I fr jc1r t