Labour and the Popular Welfare

by W. H. Mallock

◆1 All men ask of a Government either the increase or the maintenance of their incomes.

◆¹ Let me then repeat that we start with assuming cupidity as not only the general foundation, but also as the inevitable, the natural, and the right foundation, of the interest which ordinary men of all classes take in politics. We assume that where the ordinary man, of whatever class or party, votes for a member of Parliament, or supports any political measure, he is primarily actuated by one of two hopes, or both of them—the first being the hope of securing the continuance of his present income, the second being the hope of increasing it. Now, to secure what they have already got is the hope of all classes; but to increase it by legislation is the hope of the poorer only. It is of course perfectly true that the rich as well as the poor are anxious, as a rule, to increase their incomes when they can; but they expect to do so by their own ability and enterprise, and they look to legislation for merely such negative help as may be given by affording their abilities fair play.

◆1 The poor alone look for an increase of income by direct legislative means. They are right in doing this.

◆2 The cupidity which this book chiefly deals with is the cupidity of the poorer classes.

◆¹ But with the poorer classes the case is entirely different. They look to legislation for help of a direct and positive kind, which may tend to increase their incomes, without any new effort of their own: and not only do they do this themselves, but the richer classes sympathise with the desire that makes them do so. It is, for instance, by no means amongst the poorer classes only that the idea of seizing on the land, without compensating the owners, has found favour as a remedy for distress and poverty generally. Owners of every kind of property, except land, have been found to advocate it; whilst as to such vaguer and less startling proposals, as the “restoration of the labourer to the soil,” the limitation of the hours of labour, or the gradual acquirement by the State of many of our larger industries—the persistent way in which these are being kept before the public, is due quite as much to men of means as to poor men. ◆² It is then with the cupidity of the poorer classes that we are chiefly concerned to deal; and the great question before us may briefly be put thus: By what sort of social legislation may the incomes of the poorer classes—or, in other words, the incomes of the great mass of the community—be, in the first place, made more constant; and, in the second place, increased?

◆1 The first question to ask is: What is the maximum amount which it would be theoretically possible for them to obtain? For this is much exaggerated.

◆¹ But before proceeding to this inquiry, there is a preliminary question to be disposed of. What is the maximum increase which any conceivable legislation could conceivably secure for them out of the existing resources of the country? Not only unscrupulous agitators, but many conscientious reformers, speak of the results to be hoped for from a better distribution of riches, in terms so exaggerated as to have no relation to facts; and ideas of the wildest kind are very widely diffused as to the degree of opulence which it would be possible to secure for all. The consequence is that at the present moment popular cupidity has no rational standard. It will therefore be well, before we go further, to reduce these ideas—I do not say to the limits which facts will warrant—but to the limits which facts set on what is theoretically and conceivably possible.

◆1 An ascertainable limit is placed to this amount by circumstances.

◆2 And this amount would be obtainable only under certain conditions,

◆¹ Let me then call attention to the self-evident truth, that the largest income which could possibly be secured for everybody, could not be more than an equal share of the actual gross income enjoyed by the entire nation. Now it happens that we know with substantial accuracy what the gross amount of the income of the nation now is, and I will presently show what is the utmost which each individual could hope for from the most successful attempt at a redistribution of everything. ◆² But the mere pecuniary results of a revolution of this kind are not the only results of which we must take account. There are others which it will be well to glance at before proceeding to our figures.