st as much the result of thrift,
inventiveness, enterprise, and wise direction as of manual labour.

The foregoing shows that, to say the least, the grievances of the
Socialists are greatly--one might almost say grotesquely--exaggerated,
and that they are largely founded on a perversion of facts; a
perversion which can be easily explained by the desire of the
Socialist leaders to arouse the blind passions of the discontented
wage-earners in accordance with Gronlund's advice, quoted on page 10.

The next doctrine which should be considered may be summed up in the
words:

"THE EXISTING MISERY CAN BE ABOLISHED, NOT BY INCREASING PRODUCTION,
BUT BY ALTERING THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE WEALTH PRODUCED"

"The Socialist emphatically denies the assertion that the poor must
always be with us. The productive capacity of society is now so great
that none need want, and all are able to earn their livelihood, and
more, except where they are prevented from doing so by sickness,
infirmity, or by the existence of laws and customs which the individual
cannot himself, acting alone, remove."[196] "There is a demand for the
labour of every man under any well-ordered social system. If there is a
waste of men now, it is the fault of the wage system."[197] "Sufficient
wealth is produced in this country to-day which would, under a
well-ordered state of society, enable every man, woman, and child to
have a sufficiency of all things essential to a healthy human life.
To-day the people produce this wealth, and, after they have produced
it, quite two-thirds of it is taken from them by a very small section
of the people. Consequently we have a very few rich, and many that are
poor."[198] "We may claim to have solved the problem of how to produce
enough, and the question which confronts us is how to bring
distribution into line with the productive capacity of our
people."[199] "The old argument that there is not enough work to do
cannot be seriously listened to by anyone who has walked through a
London or Manchester slum. There is work in the world for all, just as
there is wealth in the world for all, and every man has a right to
work, just as he has a right to wealth."[200] "The chief problem is not
the production of more wealth, but its equitable distribution."[201]

The increase of production and therefore of reproductive capital in
the form of machinery, mines, railways, ships, &c., in which most of
the "Surplus-Value" is invested, is explai