h
Company Laws are so bad and sound investments so scarce that the small
investor who wants a higher return than 2-3/4 per cent. is almost
certain to lose his money if he buys stocks or shares. Leasehold
investments are very unsatisfactory, because the object bought
automatically reverts to the landlord, and small freehold properties
are as a rule unobtainable under the present system of land-holding.
Therefore the first and most important step to encourage thrift should
be to enable the small saver to invest his savings profitably and
securely in land and houses where it is under his own control.
Co-operation also should be encouraged. Co-operative banking, which is
highly developed in Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, but almost
unknown in Great Britain, would at the same time greatly benefit the
small investor and the small _bona-fide_ borrower.

FOOTNOTES:

[1197] _Die Neue Gesellschaft_, September 1907, p. 325.

[1198] _Die Neue Gesellschaft_, September 1907, pp. 325, 326.

[1199] Bax, _Essays in Socialism_, pp. 40, 41.

[1200] Shaw, _The Fabian Society_, p. 26.

[1201] _New Age_, November 1907, p. 23.

[1202] _Clerk_, January 1908.

CHAPTER XXXVI

IS SOCIALISM POSSIBLE?--A GLANCE INTO THE SOCIALIST STATE OF THE
FUTURE

The realisation of Socialism, the creation of a Socialistic
commonwealth in which private property does not exist, seems
impossible. Socialists entirely leave out of their calculations two
elementary factors:

NATURE, AND HUMAN NATURE

A State devoid of private property is an unthinkable proposition.
Private property is not a fortuitous creation, but a natural growth.
It is founded not merely upon law, but upon immemorial custom which
owes its rise to a fundamental human instinct, an instinct which has
been a characteristic of the human race in all countries, and which is
as old as humanity itself. The instinct of acquisition, of
accumulation, and of property is common to all men from Central Africa
to the poles. It is equally strongly developed in the most civilised
nations and among savages.

However, supposing that the instinct of acquisition, of accumulation,
and of property, which is found not only among all races of mankind
but even among the higher animals, could be overcome, would human
nature allow of the creation of a co-operative commonwealth based on
voluntary co-operation, not on compulsion? Could the brotherhood of
man be made a reality, and would men co