British Socialism Part 5

At first sight it seems outrageous that "the income of the legal proprietors of the three natural monopolies of land, capital, and ability" should come to _1,110,000,000l._ per annum, and the income of the manual labour cla.s.s only to _690,000,000l._ per annum, about one-third of the whole, especially as we learn on page 4 of the pamphlet that the "idle rich" are only a small fraction of the community. This statement would prove the a.s.sertion that the idle rich are causing the poverty of the poor to be correct if it were honest and fair, but it is neither the one nor the other.

In the first place the foregoing statement divides the nation into two cla.s.ses "the ma.s.ses" and "the cla.s.ses": manual labourers and "the legal proprietors of the three natural monopolies." As the pamphlet is addressed to the uncritical body of general readers, and especially to working men, these will naturally divide, owing to the artful wording of the phrase, the national income between manual labourers and capitalist monopolists. According to this pamphlet everyone who is not a labourer is a capitalist monopolist. Therefore the capitalist monopolist cla.s.s includes all lawyers and doctors, all parsons and clerks, all officers and salaried officials. Every business man, every farmer, every fisherman, every greengrocer, every baker, every butcher, every sailor, every cobbler, every chimney-sweep, every clerk, being not a wage-earning labourer, is "one of the legal proprietors of the three natural monopolies," or in plainer language, a monopolist. At least, the income of this very large cla.s.s has barefacedly been credited to the capitalist cla.s.s, whilst its members have been utilised (on page 4 of the pamphlet) to swell the ranks of the workers. This is dishonesty number one.

The income of the exceptionally skilled artisans, who also form a very large cla.s.s, is credited on page 7 to the "cla.s.ses" under the heading "profits and salaries." They also are included among the "monopolists," although their number has likewise been utilised (on page 4) to swell the number of the workers. This is dishonesty number two.

Let us now look at the result of the dishonest Fabian juggling with figures by comparing the statement regarding the national income contained in the Fabian pamphlet with a recent statement of Mr.

Chiozza Money, M.P., who is a Socialist, and who divides the national income as follows:

Income of working cla.s.s (33,000,000 people) about 650,000,000

Income of middle cla.s.s (all except manual labourers and the rich--small business men, managers, clerks, public servants, &c., with incomes up to 700--9,750,000 people) about 475,000,000

Income of rich (with incomes 700 and above) (1,250,000 people) about 600,000,000 -------------- Total about 1,725,000,000[140]

From the foregoing statement it appears that the rich draw not two-thirds, but only one-third, of the national income, and this fact should be carefully borne in mind in view of the contents of the following pages.

The pamphlet states on page 6 that _650,000,000l._ per annum are paid in the shape of rent and interest, "not in return for any service rendered to the community, but merely as the payment for permission to use the land and the already acc.u.mulated capital of the country." The national capital is invested chiefly in perishable objects such as houses, factories, railways, steamships, mines, &c., which depreciate unless kept in proper repair. There is wear and tear in capital as in everything else. Capital is lost and destroyed every day. Lastly, the national capital is growing, and must continue growing, in accordance with the growing capital requirements of the time and the growing number of its inhabitants, or the country will decay. New houses, new factories, new railways, new steamships must be built and new mines be opened to increase the comfort of all. From _200,000,000l._ to _300,000,000l._ are thus reinvested every year in Great Britain, and only by this constant process of reinvestment is it possible to maintain and increase the productive power of the country for the benefit of all. The _200,000,000l._ to _300,000,000l._ which are yearly reinvested in reproductive undertakings are found by the capitalists, the trustees, directors and managers, not the consumers, of the national industry and of the national wealth. This sum comes out of their earnings, which thus benefit not only the capitalists but the whole nation. Much irrelevant statistical matter is given in the pamphlet, but this large item is left out. That is dishonesty number three.

On page 6 the profits of public companies are treated as "Interest on capital," and interest on capital is disparagingly called "unearned income" on page 7. Most British industries are carried on by limited companies, and limited companies are as a rule formed in this way, that the partners in the former private enterprise become directors.

As directors they receive a purely nominal salary. They work as much as they did whilst the business was a private concern, and their income depends on their usually very large holding of shares. The large director-shareholders, and their number is very great, earn their dividends by hard work. Nevertheless their whole income is included in the item "interest on capital," and called "unearned income." This is dishonesty number four.

On page 7 the property of the "manual labour cla.s.s," or the poor, in land and capital is given as follows:--

In 1901 the deposits in P.O. Savings Bank were 140,392,916 The deposits in Trustee Savings Banks were 51,966,386 Consols purchased for small holders were 14,450,877

In 1900 the capital of Building Societies was 46,775,143 The funds of Trade-Unions, Co-operative, Friendly, and Provident Societies were 72,219,991 The funds of Industrial Life a.s.surance Societies were 22,998,793 ------------ Total 348,804,106[141]

In reality the property of the "manual labour cla.s.s" in land and capital amounts not to _348,804,106l._, but to at least _1,000,000,000l._[142] This is dishonesty number five.

The imports of Great Britain are larger than the exports by about _150,000,000l._ The larger part of the money paid for these imports goes in wages paid to foreigners, and is paid away by the British capitalist cla.s.s out of their earnings. British wage-earners surely cannot expect to be paid wages in respect of articles made abroad.

However, no allowance for this large item has been made in comparing the appropriation of the national income between capital and labour.

This is dishonesty number six.

Between one hundred and two hundred million pounds of the national income is derived from foreign investments. The income derived from foreign investments should in fairness either be left out of the account or the income of foreign labour, received in respect of these investments, be added to the British labour income. In comparing the income of capital and labour, the pamphlet takes note of the earnings of British capital on all five continents and on the sea, and compares with it only the income of British labour--although foreign, not British labour, produces the foreign income of British capital.

Giving as authority an ancient Board of Trade Return, and wishing to magnify the difference in the earnings of the idle rich and the industrious poor, the average yearly income of "those of the manual labour cla.s.s who are best off" is given at _48l._ per adult. This means _18s._ per week. In view of the fact that most British workers earn between _1l._ and _2l._ per week, that in many Trade-Unions the _average_ wage is about _35s._ per week, the figures given are palpably wrong unless the female workers are included. Whether this is the case or no is not stated, but even if the wages of both s.e.xes should be joined together they appear to be very considerably understated. This is dishonesty number seven.

There are many more unfair, misleading, and dishonest statements in this pamphlet which it would lead too far to enumerate.

Most of the important pamphlets issued by the Fabian Society are signed by their authors. The fact that the most effective, "Facts for Socialists," is unsigned seems to indicate that the author--apparently a well-known leader of the Fabians--had some sense of shame, and it is to be hoped that the Fabian Society will immediately, and publicly, repudiate this dishonest pamphlet.

The statements contained in the pamphlet "Facts for Socialists," may be misleading and utterly dishonest, but they are very useful for propaganda purposes. Nothing is more likely to inflame the ma.s.ses than to be told that the "idle rich" take more than two-thirds of the national income. The practical effect of this pamphlet may be seen in utterances such as the following: "It has been estimated that in our country of the wealth produced, one-third is enjoyed by those who earn it and two-thirds by those who have not laboured for it. To put it in other words, of every three pounds earned by labour, one pound goes to him who earned it and two pounds to others who have done nothing towards its production."[143] "For two-thirds of his time the worker is a slave, labouring not for himself but for others."[144] "On the average at the present time the workers produce nearly four times as much as they consume."[145] "Nearly two-thirds of the wealth produced is retained by an eighth of the population."[146] "The great ma.s.s of the people, the weekly wage-earners, four out of five of the whole population, toil perpetually for less than a third of the aggregate product of labour, at an annual wage averaging at most _40l._ per adult, and are hurried into unnecessarily early graves by the severity of their lives."[147] "Out of the wealth which his labour creates, the worker receives but one-third. He is paid one-third the value of his labour, and when he seeks to lay it out he is robbed of one-half its purchasing power, and all this is done by a Christian people."[148]

"Q. How does the capitalist act? A. He extorts from those labourers who are excluded from the land a share of all that they produce, under threat of withholding from them the implements of production and thus refusing to let them work at all.--Q. On what terms does the capitalist allow the labourers to work? A. The capitalist agrees to return to them as wages about a quarter of what they have produced by their work, keeping the remaining three-quarters for himself and his cla.s.s.--Q. What is this system called? A. The capitalist system."[149]

"By a.n.a.lysing the returns of the income-tax, various economists show that the value received by the working cla.s.s and the superintendents of labour amount to a third or less of the wealth produced. The income-tax returns, however, are not a very reliable test of the degree of exploitation, though, of course, they afford us valuable and incontestable evidence that the worker does not receive more than a third of what he produces. One to four, or one to five, in my opinion, expresses more accurately the rate of exploitation."[150]

I am not prepared to give an estimate how the national income is distributed between hand workers, brain workers, and men who live on their income without doing any useful work, because such an estimate could be arrived at only by guesswork. However, it is quite clear that it is untrue that the wage-earners receive only one-third, one-fourth, or one-fifth of the wages which they ought to receive, as is constantly stated.

FOOTNOTES:

[95] _Justice_, October 19, 1907.

[96] _Social-Democratic Federation Song Book_, p. 13.

[97] _The Worker's Burden_, p. 1.

[98] Hyndman, _Social Democracy_, p. 9.

[99] Macdonald, _Socialism_, p. 12.

[100] _Protect the Home_, p. 1.

[101] _John Ball_, p. 10.

[102] _Facts for Socialists_, p. 12.

[103] Sidney Webb, _The Difficulties of Individualism_, p. 15.

[104] _Ibid._ p. 7.

[105] _Ibid._ p. 12.

[106] Keir Hardie, _Can a Man be a Christian on a Pound a Week?_ p.

12.

[107] McClure, _Socialism_, p. 27.

[108] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 11.

[109] Joynes, _The Socialist Catechism_, p. 5.

[110] _To the Man in the Street_, Social-Democratic Federation Leaflet.

[111] Hyndman in Debate, _Will Socialism Benefit the English People?_ p. 5.

[112] Leatham, _The Cla.s.s War_, p. 4.

[113] _Socialism, For and Against_, p. 6.

[114] Snowden, _Socialists' Budget_, p. 11.

[115] Debs, _Industrial Unionism_, p. 5.

[116] Kautsky, _Cla.s.s Struggle_, p. 10.

[117] Hall, _The Old and New Unionism_, p. 4.

[118] Lister, _Riches and Poverty_, pp. 13, 14.