much so,
that they consider stealing a crime."[295] Mr. Blatchford informs us,
"We do not propose to seize anything. We do propose to get some things
and to make them the property of the whole nation by Act of Parliament
or by purchase."[296]

As regards the question whether compensation or no compensation will be
given, our Socialist leaders give us very vague and unsatisfactory
replies, which rather contain highly respectable but perfectly
irrelevant commonplaces than definite proposals. Most Socialists will
answer the plain question of confiscation or no confiscation with a
quibble or a conundrum, as the following examples will show: "One view
of Socialism is that it is a scheme of confiscation of property from
one class to give it to another class--that Socialists are Dick Turpins
made respectable by using Acts of Parliament instead of pistols. Now
the real fact is that the Socialist has come to put an end to Dick
Turpin methods. Socialism is a rational criticism of our present
methods of production and distribution. It desires to say to the
possessors: Show us by what title you possess; and it proposes to pass
its judgments upon the axiom that whoever renders service to society
should be able to have some appropriate share in the national
wealth."[297] In other words, an inquisitorial tribunal with arbitrary
powers would be empowered to confiscate at will. "Socialism is not a
plan to despoil the rich: it is a plan to stop the rich from despoiling
the poor. Socialism is not a thief; it is a policeman."[298] "Do any
say we attack private property? We deny it. We attack only that private
property for a few thousand loiterers and slave-drivers which renders
all property in the fruits of their own labour impossible for millions.
We challenge that private property which renders poverty at once a
necessity and a crime."[299] "Socialism would not rob anyone. It would
distinguish between the lawful possessor and the rightful possessor,
and it would compel the 'lawful' possessor to restore to the rightful
possessor the property of which he had robbed him."[300] "We do not
propose to rob the rich man of his wealth; we deny that it is his
wealth. Wealth is a social product, and therefore belongs to society.
It is not an act of brigandage to demand that society shall own and use
what society has created."[301]

Some Socialists consider the question of compensation or no
compensation as one of very minor importance. "The ques