PARTY GOVERNMENT 199

wealth and undeserved poverty are the rule rather than the
exception. While admitting the growth of wealth under Capitalism
they point out that the proportions in which it is shared do not
greatly alter; the working man is better off than his grandfather
but feels himself poor in comparison with the more fortunate
members of the community to-day. They further contend that
the growth of wealth will not continue; that the pursuit of
private profit has led to monopolies and other schemes to restrict
production by which each group of capitalists hopes to win
something for itself. By this reasoning, private ownership is no
longer a stimulus but a hindrance to production. Meanwhile
the management of industry passes into the hands of salaried
employees; might not these serve the community at least as
willingly as they now serve private persons, the effect of whose
ownership is to prevent the abilities of managers and other
workers from being fully used?* Thus, in the Socialist view,
the production of wealth becomes a disorderly scramble, the
fruits of which are restriction of production, unemployment,
slumps, and—when capitalists try to solve their difficulties by
acquiring and protecting overseas markets—wars. Does it
not therefore appear that Capitalism has done its work in showing
the possibilities of wealth production, but handles these possi-
bilities so clumsily that it should now give place to a planned
Socialist Commonwealth?

Whichever of these views is-correct, the merits of Capitalism
will be plainest to those now enjoying tolerable comfort, and
Socialism will appear especially desirable to those with the
closest experience of Capitalism's defects. The argument becomes
not an academic discussion but a conflict between classes.
Consequently it is clouded with abuse, Socialists accusing
their opponents of callousness and ignorance of the lives of
the poor, and being in their turn attacked as unpractical dreamers
or discontented revolutionaries, anxious to share the wealth
that others have created. The reader, if he wishes to form his
own judgment, must pierce this cloud and endeavour to decide*