Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/133

 Rh never acquire enough private property to give them much liberty of action and choice in consumption, and that is one of the gravest charges brought against it by Socialism. The reward for which men work to-day, is not private property, but a week's wages.

Now, what is the Socialist view?

The Socialist assumes that individuality requires private property through which to express itself. Man must control and own something, otherwise he does not control and own himself. And as Socialism is not a cut-and-dried set of dogmas to be pieced into a system like one of those puzzles made by cutting up a picture into many confusing fragments, but an idea which is to be realized by a continuation of experimental change, we may rest assured that none of the incidents which are to be met with on the way will abolish private property. The ownership of things will always be a means of expressing personality, and this fact will not be forgotten in the evolution of Socialism. Indeed some Socialists—for instance Kautsky, the most uncompromising of Marxists—have stated that people might own their own houses and their own gardens under Socialism, and provided there is a proper system of taxation intercepting unearned income in the shape of economic rent there is nothing in this concession contrary to Socialist theory.

It also follows from this that objection to inheritance is not an essential part of the Socialist system. The Socialist need not object to the bequeathing of private property