ion, which will evolve order and harmony out
of the chaos of individualism and of competition, and which will raise
men to the highest level of perfection. The other, which is turned
towards the masses, and which is by far the more important, is purely
predatory in character. It appeals to all the passions of the
multitude. It denounces law, religion, charity, thrift, temperance,
and all existing institutions. It preaches envy, hatred, greed,
selfishness, violence, civil war, and general plunder. It sets class
against class, and creates among its supporters a frame of mind which
makes not for harmony, order, and co-operation, but for disorder,
revolution, and anarchy.

The followers of Socialism do not see in it a science. "With the
speculative side of Socialism the average man has but a small concern;
it is its common-sense which appeals to him. By inherited instinct we
are all communists at heart."[1274] The attraction of Socialism to the
masses lies in its promise of the spoliation of the rich and of the
general division of their wealth. It is true that Socialists
habitually and very emphatically protest that Socialism is not a
system of robbery and of general division. It is true that Socialists
merely propose that all private property should be transferred to the
State by expropriation--which is a euphemism for confiscation--and
that the State should manage it for the general good of the masses.
However, that is a distinction without a difference. Property is
valuable because of the income which it yields. Therefore it comes for
all practicable purposes to the same, whether the Socialist leaders
propose dividing all the private property or all the income derived
from that property. A prominent Socialist writer has asked: "Is not
honesty--the sense of right of possession in the fruits of our
labour--the very basis of Socialism?"[1275] Regretfully one must
answer that question with a very emphatic "No."

Socialism is not a system of organisation and of national
co-operation, but merely a plan of spoliation and of general division.
That may clearly be seen from the fact that the Socialist leaders have
not the slightest desire to create a Socialistic model commonwealth,
and thus demonstrate the practical value of their highly speculative
doctrines, in a new country where Socialism could be introduced
peacefully, easily, and without a revolution, where co-operation and
exchange would be comparatively simple because wa