Whereas in a Socialistic State there would be no inducement to labour, no inducement to thrift, no individual savings, no accumulation, no cheek upon waste, no incentive to effort or industry; but a paralysis and neutralization of endeavours; in fact, you would simply go back to barbarism you could not go forward. Men would do enough to enable them to live-no more. Individual effort is spurred to action by the hope of private gain; it may be gain of money, it may be gain of other kinds; only the few would labour as earnestly for society as for themselves. You must have individual motive; it is that which prompts and spurs the individual to action; and it is the competition between individuals for gain, power, or praise, that keeps a nation in the front rank. The idea of "property being held collectively" by the State for all, is absurd. When the State interferes to direct, it but crushes that individual effort, which, actuated by the desire of gain and by the fear of coin-petition, will do the work best for all.

We want progress, not destruction. It is perfectly true that everything which benefits the human race by saving labour, injures some, temporarily, at the time this benefit first comes; but those who judge worthily and broadly, judge by the general benefit of the human race; and there are no worse advisers of the working class than those who try to excite a feeling of discontent amongst those who may be driven out of employ by machinery. Such men may be agitators, but their hearts are not in the welfare of the people; their mental vision is too narrow for such deep social problems. We must try and cure gradually. We have to deal with ills caused by generations of bad habits, and these cannot be swept away by the stroke of a magic wand. The