Britain For The British Part 9

Therefore, according to Mr. Mallock, all the extra wealth, amounting to 800,000,000 a year, is earned by the _machines_, and ought to be paid to the men who _own_ the machines.

Pretty reasoning, isn't it? And Mr. Mallock is one of those who talk about the inaccurate thinking of Socialists.

Let us see what it comes to. John Smith invents a machine which makes three yards of calico where one was made by hand. Tom Jones buys the machine, or the patent, to make calico. Which of these men is the cause of the calico output being multiplied by three? Is it the man who owns the patent, or the man who invented the machine? It is the man who invented the machine. It is the ability of John Smith which caused the increase in the calico output. It is, therefore, the ability of John Smith which earns the extra wealth. Tom Jones, who bought the machines, is no more the producer of that _extra_ wealth than are the spinners and weavers he employs.

To whom, then, should the extra wealth belong? To the man who creates it? or to the man who does not create it? Clearly the wealth should belong to the man who creates it. Therefore, the whole of the extra wealth should go to the inventor, to whose ability it is due, and _not_ to the mere capitalist, who only uses the machine.

"But," you may say, "Jones bought the patent from Smith." He did. And he also buys their labour and skill from the spinners and weavers who work for him, and in all three cases he pays less than the thing he buys is worth.

Mr. Mallock makes a great point of telling us that men are not equally clever, that cleverness produces more wealth than labour produces, and that one man is worth more than another to the nation.

Labour, he says, is common to all men, but ability is the monopoly of the few. The bulk of the wealth is produced by the few, and ought by them to be enjoyed.

But I don't think any Socialist ever claimed that all men were of equal value to the nation, nor that any one man could produce just as much wealth as any other. We know that one man is stronger than another, that one is cleverer than another, and that an inventor or thinker may design or invent some machine or process which will enable the workers to produce more wealth in one year than they could by their own methods produce in twenty.

Now, before we go into the matter of the inventor, or of the value of genius to the nation, let us test these ideas of Mr. W. H. Mallock's and see what they lead to.

A man invents a machine which does the work of ten handloom weavers. He is therefore worth more, as a weaver, than the ordinary weaver who invents nothing. How much more?

If his machine does the work of ten men, you might think he was worth ten men. But he is worth very much more.

Suppose there are 10,000 weavers, and all of them use his machine. They will produce not 10,000 men's work, but 100,000 men's work. Here, then, our inventor is equal to 90,000 weavers. That is to say, that his thought, his idea, his labour _produces_ as much wealth as could be produced by 100,000 weavers without it.

On no theory of value, and on no grounds of reason that I know, can we claim that this inventor is of no more value, as a producer, than an ordinary, average handloom weaver.

Granting the claim of the non-Socialist, that every man belongs to himself; and granting the claim of Mr. Mallock, that two-thirds of our national wealth are produced by inventors; and granting the demand of exact mathematical justice, that every man shall receive the exact value of the wealth he produces; it would follow that two-thirds of the wealth of this nation would be paid yearly to the inventors, or to their heirs or a.s.signs.

The wealth is _not_ to be paid to labour; that is Mr. Mallock's claim.

And it is not to be paid to labour because it has been earned by ability. And Mr. Mallock tells us that labour does not vary nor increase in its productive power. Good.

Neither does the landlord nor the capitalist increase his productive power. Therefore it is not the landlord nor the capitalist who earns--or produces--this extra wealth; it is the inventor.

And since the labourer is not to have the wealth, because he does not produce it, neither should the landlord or capitalist have it, because he does not produce it.

So much for the _right_ of the thing. Mr. Mallock shows that the inventor creates all this extra wealth; he shows that the inventor ought to have it. Good.

Now, how is it that the inventor does _not_ get it, and how is it that the landlord and the capitalist _do_ get it?

Just because the laws, which have been made by landlords and capitalists, enable these men to rob the inventor and the labourer with impunity.

Thus: A man owns a piece of land in a town. As the town increases its business and population, the owner of the land raises the rent. He can get double the rent because the town has doubled its trade, and the land is worth more for business purposes or for houses. Has the landlord increased the value? Not at all. He has done nothing but draw the rent.

The increase of value is due to the industry or ability of the people who live and work in the town, chiefly, as Mr. Mallock claims, to different inventors. Do these inventors get the increased rent? No. Do the workers in the town get it? No. The landlord demands this extra rent, and the law empowers him to evict if the rent is not paid.

Next, let us see how the inventor is treated. If a man invents a machine and patents it, the law allows him to charge a royalty for its use for the s.p.a.ce of fourteen years.

At the end of that time the patent lapses, and the invention may be worked by anyone.

Observe here the difference of the treatment given to the inventor and the landlord.

The landlord does not make the land, he does not till the land, he does not improve the land; he only draws the rent, and he draws that _for ever_. _His_ patent never lapses; and the harder the workers work, and the more wealth inventors and workers produce, the more rent he draws--for nothing.

The inventor _does_ make his invention. He is, upon Mr. Mallock's showing, the creator of immense wealth. And, even if he is lucky, he can only draw rent on his ability for fourteen years.

But suppose the inventor is a poor man--and a great many inventors are poor men--his chance of getting paid for his ability is very small.

Because, to begin with, he has to pay a good deal to patent his invention, and then, often enough, he needs capital to work the patent, and has none.

What is he to do? He must find a capitalist to work the patent for him, or he must find a man rich enough to buy it from him.

And it very commonly happens, either that the poor man cannot pay the renewal fees for his patent, and so loses it entirely, or that the capitalist buys it out and out for an old song, or that the capitalist obliges him to accept terms which give a huge profit to the capitalist and a small royalty to the inventor.

The patent laws are so constructed as to make the poor inventor an easy prey to the capitalist.

Many inventors die poor, many are robbed by agents or capitalists, many lose their patents because they cannot pay the renewal fees. Even when an inventor is lucky he can only draw rent for fourteen years. We see, then, that the men who make most of the wealth are hindered and robbed by the law, and we know that the law has been made by capitalists and landlords.

Apply the same law to land that is applied to patents, and the whole land of England would be public property in fourteen years.

Apply the same law to patents that is applied to land, and every article we use would be increased in price, and we should still be paying royalties to the descendants, or to their a.s.signs, of James Watt, George Stephenson, and ten thousand other inventors.

And now will some non-Socialist, Mr. Mallock or another, write a nice new book, and explain to us upon what rules of justice or of reason the present unequal treatment of the useless, idle landlord and the valuable and industrious inventor can be defended?

CHAPTER V

THE LANDLORD'S RIGHTS AND THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS

Socialists are often accused of being advocates of violence and plunder.

You will be told, no doubt, that Socialists wish to take the land from its present owners, by force, and "share it out" amongst the landless.

Socialists have no more idea of taking the land from its present holders and "sharing it out" amongst the poor than they have of taking the railways from the railway companies and sharing the carriages and engines amongst the pa.s.sengers.

When the London County Council munic.i.p.alised the tram service they did not rob the companies, nor did they share out the cars amongst the people.

_Socialism_ does not mean the "sharing out" of property; on the contrary, it means the collective ownership of property.

"Britain for the British" does not mean one acre and half a cow for each subject; it means that Britain shall be owned intact by the whole people, and shall be governed and worked by the whole people, for the benefit of the whole people.

Just as the Glasgow tram service, the Manchester gas service, and the general postal service are owned, managed, and used by the citizens of Manchester and Glasgow, or by the people of Britain, for the general advantage.

You will be told that the present holders of the land have as much right to the land as you have to your hat or your boots.

Now, as a matter of law and of right, the present holders of the land have no fixed t.i.tle to the land. But moderation, it has been well said, is the common sense of politics, and if we all got bare justice, "who,"

as Shakespeare asks, "would 'scape whipping?"

Socialists propose, then, to act moderately and to temper justice with amity. They do not suggest the "confiscation" of the land. They do suggest that the land should be taken over by the nation, at a fair price.