ries which
possess few rich capitalists, such as Ireland, Spain, Italy, Servia,
and Bulgaria, should be exceedingly well off; the workers in the
countries where the richest millionaires live, such as the United
States, should be the poorest. In reality, the American workmen are
the most prosperous, whilst the workers in Ireland and other
millionaire-less countries are the poorest. Rich men are not the
consumers, but merely the trustees and managers, of the national
wealth which is invested chiefly in reproductive undertakings--mills,
railways, mines, &c.--which supply comforts and conveniences to all.

The capitalists, the employers, British Socialists say, have become
rich by defrauding the worker of his wages. The worker must starve so
that a few rich people may live in luxury, and things will become
better for the worker only when there are no more rich men. "The gains
of the capitalist are simply the losses of labour! The partly or
wholly unearned incomes of the rich consist of the unpaid, withheld
wages of the industrious poor."[117] "Only by living off another man's
labour and denying another man the fruits of his toil can riches be
acquired. Riches are directly responsible for poverty, and the art of
being rich is the art of keeping one's neighbour poor. When there are
no rich there will be no poor. To the wealth of the few, acquired at
the expense of the many, and not to drink or want of thrift, are all
the evils of our social life to be ascribed."[118] "Production is
carried on to-day purely in the interest and for the profit of the
class which owns the instruments of production."[119]

There are ninety-and-nine who live and die
In want and hunger and cold,
That one may revel in luxury,
And be wrapped in its silken fold;
The ninety-and-nine in their hovels bare,
The one in a palace with riches rare.[120]

Ye poor of wealthy England,
Who starve and sweat and freeze
By labour sore to fill the store
Of those who live at ease;
'Tis time to know your real friends,
To face your real foe,
And to fight for your right
Till ye lay your masters low;
Small hope for you of better days
Till ye lay your masters low.[121]

The working men are, according to the Socialist agitators, "excluded"
from property by the capitalist class which owns all the land,
factories, machinery, &c. The capitalist class has thus reserved for
itself a monopoly