of
the actual, would begin to fall to pieces, defeating its own purpose;
and there is nothing in socialism, were socialism otherwise practicable,
any more than there is the existing system, which would obviate this
result.

Indeed, it may be observed further that, though the idea of equality of
opportunity in general is not inconsistent with a socialistic scheme of
society, as socialists of the more thoughtful kind have now come to
conceive of it, it belongs distinctively to the domain of the fiercest
individual competition. For in so far as socialism differs from ordinary
individualism, it differs from it in this--that, instead of encouraging
each man to do his utmost because what he gets will be proportionate to
what he does, it aims at establishing a greater equality in what men get
by making this independent of whether they do much or little; in which
case the main concern of the individual would be the certainty of
getting what he wanted, not the opportunity of producing it.

The three ideas or conceptions, then, which have engaged our attention
in this and the three preceding chapters--namely, the idea that labour
does, as a statistical fact, produce far more in values than it at
present gets back in wages; the idea that the mass of the population
could permanently augment its resources by confiscating all dividends as
fast as they became due, and the idea that it is possible to provide for
unequal men, for more than a moment of their lives, equal opportunities
of experimenting with their real or imaginary powers, are ideas, indeed,
which have all the vices characteristic of socialistic thought; but the
first and the third have no necessary connection with socialism, and the
second is not peculiar to it. We will now return to it as a system of
exclusive and distinctive doctrines, and sum up, in general terms, the
conclusions to which our examination of it is calculated to lead
far-seeing and practical men, and more especially active politicians.

FOOTNOTES:

[25] The Christian Socialist author of _The Gospel for To-day_. See
chapter on Christian Socialism.

[26] Mr. Wilshire, in his volume of criticism on my American speeches.

[27] _Socialism: the Mallock-Wilshire Argument._ By Gaylord Wilshire.
New York, 1907.

[28] While this work was in the press, one of the English Labour
members, Mr. Curran, at a public meeting, gave his views, as a
socialist, about this very question--equality of industrial
opportu