ilt or posture of our modern state,
we shall simply see this fact: that those classes who have on the whole
governed, have on the whole failed. If you go to a factory you will
see some very wonderful wheels going round; you will be told that the
employer often comes there early in the morning; that he has great
organising power; that if he works over the colossal accumulation of
wealth he also works over its wise distribution. All this may be true of
many employers, and it is practically said of all.

But if we shade our eyes from all this dazzle of detail; if we simply
ask what has been the main feature, the upshot, the final fruit of the
capitalist system, there is no doubt about the answer. The special and
solid result of the reign of the employers has been—unemployment.
Unemployment not only increasing, but becoming at last the very pivot
upon which the whole process turns.

Or, again, if you visit the villages that depend on one of the great
squires, you will hear praises, often just, of the landlord's good sense
or good nature; you will hear of whole systems of pensions or of care
for the sick, like those of a small and separate nation; you will see
much cleanliness, order, and business habits in the offices and accounts
of the estate. But if you ask again what has been the upshot, what has
been the actual result of the reign of landlords, again the answer is
plain. At the end of the reign of landlords men will not live on the
land. The practical effect of having landlords is not having tenants.
The practical effect of having employers is that men are not employed.
The unrest of the populace is therefore more than a murmur against
tyranny; it is against a sort of treason. It is the suspicion that
even at the top of the tree, even in the seats of the mighty, our very
success is unsuccessful.

THE OTHER KIND OF MAN

There are some who are conciliated by Conciliation Boards. There are
some who, when they hear of Royal Commissions, breathe again—or
snore again. There are those who look forward to Compulsory Arbitration
Courts as to the islands of the blest. These men do not understand the
day that they look upon or the sights that their eyes have seen.

The almost sacramental idea of representation, by which the few may
incarnate the many, arose in the Middle Ages, and has done great things
for justice and liberty. It has had its real hours of triumph, as when
the States General met to renew Fra