Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/800

780 waste, incompetence, and a tendency to retain old methods where new and better ones should be tried. The reasons for this are not far to seek. Lacking the normal and powerful stimulus of self-interest, as well as the energy which is the outgrowth of competition, the state, as an industrial agent, can never be relied upon to equal in productive results the present system of individual management. But this of itself would not necessarily condemn it, if it can be shown that socialism, by raising the moral tone of society and more equitably distributing its economic product, gets rid of those evils which, it is claimed, are caused by individualism, and, thus elevating the standard of social well-being, more than balances the loss in production. It is indeed conceivable that men might live happier and better than they do at present by restoring the ancient ideal, and limiting their wants to those things only which are essential to human welfare; and that production might, as a whole, be less than it now is, and yet society be better off, if work were so guided that there should be no such thing as overproduction of some articles and underproduction of others; or that such a ratio should be preserved that the purchasing power of the masses would keep pace with their productive power.

To this, however, it may be replied that there is no good reason for thinking that the state will be a better judge of what is essential for human welfare than the individuals who compose it, and it would not be as sure a check upon "overproduction" as the self-interest of the individual producers; for this will keep them alert and watchful of the conditions affecting demand and supply.

Moreover, the interests of society are advanced in several ways by the unequal distribution of wealth. If all existing wealth were equally distributed, it would not raise any one to affluence, or make unnecessary hard and continuous labor. A certain amount of leisure is absolutely necessary to the cultivation of those tastes and talents upon which the general culture and special knowledge of mankind depend. It is obvious that, where men have no time to devote to such matters, in consequence of the necessity of giving all their hours of labor to the production of the essential means of existence, the higher and particularly those immaterial forms of wealth out of which many of the greatest social gratifications are obtained will either not be produced at all, or produced to only a limited extent. Hence, the general culture of the community will suffer from this lack, and a lower type of organism will be developed.

To a certain extent the cultivation of science might, in such a community, be made a means of bread-winning, as its usefulness could be made more apparent, but the pursuit of knowledge would