he land of the
country divided among small peasant freeholders, though this is still
the ideal professed by many statesmen of 'advanced' views."[714]
"Socialism is hostile to small properties."[715]

Socialists pretend to be opposed to the creation of peasant
proprietors either on scientific grounds or for ethical reasons. "As a
matter of economic evolution, small properties will have to go. But
viewed from an ethical standpoint, surely nothing has been more
conducive to the development of the worst side of human nature--of
'hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness' than the system of small
properties."[716] "If England were cut up into small allotments, the
general state would be harder and leaner than before."[717] "Would
Socialists take away the land from the landlords and let it out in
little plots? No. Because that would make a lot of little proprietors
as selfish as the landlords."[718] "Divide the land into small
allotments and very soon the cunning and rapacious would 'acquire' the
estates of other men, and so we should come back to the present state
of chaos. In fact, the parcelling out of the land means putting back
the clock of civilisation about one thousand years."[719]

The real reason which prompts Socialists to oppose by all means the
creation of peasant proprietors is to be found neither in the realm of
political economy nor in that of abstract ethics, but in that of party
politics. The peasant proprietor, like every sensible owner of
property, is hostile to Socialism. "The peasant has nothing else in
the world but his farm, and that is one of the reasons why it is so
very difficult to win him over to our cause. He is, indeed, one of the
last bulwarks of private property."[720] The philosopher of British
Socialism frankly confesses: "On the Continent the peasant proprietor,
who may now be reckoned as part of the _petite bourgeoisie_, just as
the large landlord with us may be reckoned as part of the big
capitalist class, is a potent factor in retarding the process of
Socialisation."[721]

The experience of Socialists in Germany, Austria-Hungary, France,
Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland shows that Socialism finds
practically no adherents among the land-owning peasants. At the German
Reichstag elections of 1903, for instance, the Social-Democrats
received almost 60 per cent. of the votes in the large towns as
compared with less than 20 per cent. of the votes in the country. Of
the latter, the