[458] But note Boyle and Sir Wm. Hamilton as conspicuous scientific men who were Irishmen.
[459] It is worth noting that nearly all the great inventors in England during the eighteenth century were working men, that inventions proceeded from the workshop, and not from the laboratory. It is also worth noting that only two of these inventors accumulated fortunes and founded families.—E. B.
[460] Here America led the old world.
[461] In Northumberland and Durham in the early days of coal mining they were so cheaply esteemed that it was unusual to hold inquests on the bodies of men killed in mine disasters.
[462] It is sometimes argued against Marx that the proportion of people who have savings invested has increased in many modern communities. These savings are technically “capital” and their owners “capitalists” to that extent, and this is supposed to contradict the statement of Marx that property concentrates into few and fewer hands. Marx used many of his terms carelessly and chose them ill, and his ideas were better than his words. When he wrote property he meant “property so far as it is power.” The small investor has remarkably little power over his invested capital.
[463] See J. H. Noyes, History of American Socialisms, and Eastlake, The Oneida Community.
[464] See his A New View of Society, or Essays on the Principles of the Formation of the Human Character.
[465] See F. Podmore, Life of Robert Owen, or his own Life of Robert Owen, Written by Himself.
[466] Increases or diminutions of the passive shareholding class would not affect this concentration very materially. A shareholder has very little power over his property.
[467] I find in a book of essays and addresses by Professor Soddy an interesting and compact statement of certain resemblances in spirit between scientific research and modern socialism. I venture to quote a passage here because of its great significance at the present time.