Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/82

 78 a standard of life which is but moderately comfortable, precarious in the extreme; it secures incomes to those who do no service and by allowing the growth of monopolies it tends to increase the power of those enjoying economic advantages and so it encourages exploitation.

The present system bears neither of the two tests which were proposed for it at the beginning of this chapter. In a sentence, taking my last chapter with this, the Socialist charge against capitalism is that it is a method of exploitation, and in its development produces conditions which forbid and render impossible its continued existence.

revolt against capitalism and the dominance of property over men has moved intellectual and artistic as well as economic sentiments. Sir Thomas More wrote not as a victim, but as a sensitive onlooker; the pioneers of modern Socialism were as a rule men of substance, troubled in spirit rather than in pocket. That there should be such protests is no cause for wonder, for commercialism has coarsened everything it has touched. It is frankly materialist in its