of supplying the means
by which the ablest minds in the community secure from the mass of the
citizens the punctual performance of the industrial tasks required of
them. I am not even insisting that such a slave-system as Mr. Webb
contemplates is logically essential to the theory of intellectual
socialism at all. On the contrary, as may be seen from a letter
addressed to myself by a member of a socialistic body at Chicago, many
socialists, as to this matter, are opposed to Mr. Webb altogether.
Socialists, says my correspondent, speaking for himself and his
associates, have no objection whatever to the system of "wagedom" as
such; nor do they wish to see the direction of labour "enforced by the
power of the law." They recognise, he says, quoting my own words, that
production under socialism, just as under the present system, will be
efficient in proportion as labour is directed by the best minds "which
can enhance the productivity of an average pair of hands." They object
to the wage-system only in so far as it is a means by "which the
employing class can make a profit out of the labourers"; and the only
change which in this respect socialists desire to introduce is to
transfer the business of wage-paying from the private capitalist to the
state--the state which will have no "private interests to serve," and
consequently no temptation to appropriate any profits for itself.
Socialists, he continues, subject to this proviso, would leave the
wage-system just as it is now. The state would pay those who worked, and
in accordance with the work they did; but the idle or refractory it
would "leave to starve to death, if they so elected, unless somebody
wished to keep them alive, as happens at the present time."

The difference between socialists with regard to this question, however,
does nothing in itself to discredit the socialistic theory as a whole.
It has merely the effect of providing us with two sets of witnesses
instead of one to the truth of a common principle, which is recognised
by both equally. One set declares that the ability of the most competent
men must direct the labours of the majority by means of an appeal to
their fears; the other declares that the same result must be
accomplished, as it is at the present time, by an appeal to their choice
and prudence. In either case it is admitted that the separate manual
tasks performed by the majority of the citizens must be directed and
co-ordinated by the most compete