though this growing exercise of social control cannot be regarded
as "fighting against the constitution of things,"[290] it may be
considered by those who hold we have no guarantee of the future
development of the human race, as one of the lines of action in which
the advancing enfeeblement of man may express itself: the abandonment
of individual strife in commerce may be regarded as a mark of
diminishing vitality, which seeks immunity from effort and an equable
condition of material comfort, in preference to the risks and
excitement of a more eventful and arduous career. Order will be
purchased at the price of progress: the abandonment of individual
enterprise in industry is part of the decadence of humanity. This is
the interpretation which Dr. Pearson, in his _National Life and
Character_, places upon the socialistic tendencies of the age: the
suppression of competitive industry in order to cure poverty, physical
misery, and social injustice, will produce a society which is
"sensuous, genial, fibreless." The validity of such a judgment rests
upon two assumptions: first, that social control of industry
necessarily crushes the spirit of individual enterprise and checks
industrial progress; second, that extension of State control over
capitalist industry necessarily implies a diminished scope of
individual control in the production of wealth.

The first assumption is open to a number of criticisms which must be
held to greatly modify its force, and which may be summarised as
follows:--

(1) Much individual enterprise in industry does not make for
industrial progress. A larger and larger proportion of the energy
given out in trade competition is consumed in violent warfare between
trade rivals, and is not represented either in advancement of
industrial arts or in increase of material wealth.

(2) History does not show greed of gain as the motive of the great
steps in industrial progress. The love of science, the pure delight of
mechanical invention, the attainment of some slight personal
convenience in labour, and mere chance, play the largest part in the
history of industrial improvements. These motives would be as equally
operative under state-control as under private enterprise.

(3) Such personal inducements as may supply a useful stimulus to the
inventive faculty could be offered in socially-controlled industry,
not merely publicity and honour, but such direct material rewards as
were useful.

Industrial his