enlarged
navy and a more powerful army. Yet these can only be provided by
taxation, and every tax in a democratic State is a socialistic measure,
and involves collective ownership of the proceeds, whether they are
applied to making guns or swimming-baths. Every step in the regulation
of industry assumes the rights of society over individualistic
production, and is therefore socialistic. It is a question of less or
more, but except along those two lines, there is no socialism at all to
be reckoned with in the practical affairs of the world. That
revolutionary socialism of the dogmatically systematic school of Karl
Marx which desired to transfer society at a single stroke by taking over
and centralizing all the means of production may now be regarded as a
dream. It never at any time took root in the English-speaking lands,
though it was advocated with unwearying patience by men of such force of
intellect and of character as Mr. Hyndman and William Morris. Even in
Germany, the land of its origin, nearly all its old irreconcilable
leaders are dead, and it is now slowly but steadily losing influence, to
give place to a more modern and practical socialism.

As we are concerned with it to-day and in the future, Socialism is not a
rigid economic theory, nor is it the creed of a narrow sect. In its wide
sense it is a name that covers all the activities--first instinctive,
then organized--which arise out of the fundamental fact that man is a
social animal. In its more precise sense it indicates the various
orderly measures that are taken by groups of individuals--whether States
or municipalities--to provide collectively for the definite needs of the
individuals composing the group. So much for Socialism.

The individualist has a very different story to tell. From the point of
view of Individualism, however elaborate the structure of the society
you erect, it can only, after all, be built up of individuals, and its
whole worth must depend on the quality of those individuals. If they are
not fully developed and finely tempered by high responsibilities and
perpetual struggles, all social effort is fruitless, it will merely
degrade the individual to the helpless position of a parasite. The
individual is born alone; he must die alone; his deepest passions, his
most exquisite tastes, are personal; in this world, or in any other
world, all the activities of society cannot suffice to save his soul.
Thus it is that the individual must be