Labour and the Popular Welfare

by W. H. Mallock

PREFACE TO NEW EDITION

In republishing this work at a low price, I wish to reiterate emphatically what is said of it in the opening chapter,—namely, that any clearheaded Radical, as distinct from the New Unionist, the Socialistic dreamer, and the Agitator, will find nothing in it to jar against his sympathies, or to conflict with his opinions, any more than the most strenuous Conservative will. If the word “party” is used in its usual sense, this is a volume absolutely free from any party bias.

It has, however, since its first publication, some nine months ago, been attacked continually, not by Socialistic writers only (whose attack was natural), but by Radicals also, who, apparently quite mistaking the drift of it, have done their best to detect in it flaws, fallacies, and inaccuracies. As any work like the present, whose aim is essentially practical, is worse than useless unless the reader is able to feel confidence in it, let me say a few words as to the degree of confidence which is claimed, after nine months of criticism, for the facts and arguments set forth in the following pages.

Let the reader emphasise in his mind the division between facts and arguments, for they stand on a different footing. In estimating the truth of any general arguments, the final appeal is to the common sense of the reader. The reader is himself the judge of them; and the moment he understands and assents to them, they belong to himself as much as they ever did to the writer. On the other hand, the historical facts, or statistics, by which arguments are illustrated, or on which they are based, claim acceptance on the authority, not of our internal common sense, but of external evidence. Let me speak separately, then, of the arguments of this book, and of the facts quoted in it.

Of the arguments, whether taken individually or as a whole, it will be enough here to say that no hostile critic of these has been able in any way to meet them. The only writers who have affected to do so have, either intentionally or unintentionally, entirely failed to understand them; and when they have seemed to be refuting anything, they have been refuting only their own misconceptions or misrepresentations. It is impossible in a short preface to say more than this; but in order to illustrate the truth of the foregoing statement, a paper published by me in the Fortnightly Review is (by kind permission of Messrs. Chapman and Hall) reprinted as an Appendix to the present volume. That paper consists of an examination of the criticisms made, on behalf of the Fabian Society, by Mr. Bernard Shaw on two previous papers of my own published (also in the Fortnightly Review) under the title of “Fabian Economics,” in which the main arguments of this book were condensed. It is true that many of these arguments are here stated merely in outline, and in a popular rather than in a philosophical form, as is explained more fully in the Preface to the First Edition. But it may be safely asserted that there is hardly a single Socialistic argument used by the Socialistic party in this country to which this present book does not contain a reply, or at all events a clear indication of the grounds on which a reply is to be founded.

With regard to the historical facts, and especially the statistics here brought forward, it is necessary to speak more particularly. The broad historical facts—facts connected with the development of wealth in this country—are incapable of contradiction, and have never been contradicted. Hostile critics have directed their principal attacks against the statistics, endeavouring to show that certain of the figures were inaccurate, and arguing that, this being so, the whole contents of the book were unreliable.

The most minute attack of this kind which has been brought to my notice dealt with certain figures which were no doubt erroneous, and indeed unmeaning; but had the critic examined the volume with more care, he would have seen that every one of these figures was a misprint, and was corrected in a list of errata which accompanied the first edition.

Other critics have confined themselves almost entirely to the figures given by me with regard to two questions—the landed rental of this country, as distinct from the rent of houses; and the growth of the national income during the past hundred years.

With regard to both of these questions it should be distinctly understood that absolute accuracy is impossible; and I have given the statistics in round numbers only. But, for the purpose for which the figures are quoted, approximate accuracy is as useful as absolute accuracy, even were the latter attainable; and every attempt to correct the figures as given in this volume has only served to show how substantially accurate these figures are, and how totally unaffected would be the argument, even were any of the suggested corrections accepted.

The landed rental of the country is given by me as something under a hundred million pounds. It has been asserted that were the ground-rents in towns properly estimated, the true rental would be found to be a hundred and fifty million pounds or a hundred and eighty million pounds. It is no doubt difficult to differentiate in town properties the total rental from the ground rental; but the most recent investigations made into this question, so far as it affects London, will throw light on the question as a whole. The highest estimate of the present ground-rental of London as related to the total rental gives the proportion of the former to the latter as fifteen to forty. Now house rent in London is higher than in any other town in the kingdom; therefore, if we assume the same proportion to obtain in all other towns, we shall be over-estimating the ground-rent of the country as a whole, instead of underestimating it. If we take this extreme calculation—which is obviously too great—it will be found to yield a result as to the total landed rental exceeding only by ten per cent that given in this volume. It will therefore be easily seen that the figures given by me are substantially accurate, and sufficiently accurate for all purposes of political and social argument.