other kind; and how, wherever it is
located, it is the essential factor in their argument.

In their endeavour to prove the possibility of an equalisation, absolute
or approximate, of economic conditions, Karl Marx and the earlier
socialists started with two main doctrines. The one was a moral
doctrine; the other was an economic. The moral doctrine was that, as a
matter of eternal justice, every man has a right to the whole of what is
produced by him. The economic doctrine was that, as a matter of fact,
the only producers of wealth are the mass of manual labourers, and
that, with certain unimportant exceptions, the economic values produced
by all labourers are equal. Hence he argued that all wealth ought to go
to the labourers, and that all labourers were entitled to approximately
equal shares of it. The later socialists aim at reaching the same
conclusion, and they start with two doctrines, a moral and an economic,
likewise. Having arrived, however, at a truer theory of
production--having recognised that labour is not the sole producer, and
that some men produce incalculably more than others--they have, in order
to support their demand for an equality of possession, been obliged to
supplement their repudiation of the economic theory of their
predecessors, by repudiating their theory of eternal justice also, and
introducing another of a wholly opposite character. While Karl Marx
contended that, in justice, production and possession were inseparable,
the later socialists contend that there is no connection between them,
and that it is perfectly easy to convert to this moral view every human
being who is likely to suffer by its adoption. Thus the difference
between the earlier and the later socialists is as follows: The earlier
socialists started with a theory of justice which is in harmony with
common-sense and the general instincts of mankind; and this theory was
pressed into the service of socialism only by being associated with a
false theory of production. The later socialists start with a truer
theory of production; and they reconcile this with their own practical
programme, only by associating it with a false moral psychology. In each
case a fallacy is the basis of the socialistic conclusion; and without a
fallacy somewhere--a fallacy which is pushed about, like a mouse under a
table-cloth--no socialistic conclusion even tends to develop itself from
the premises.

And what is true of the main arguments of the late