Page:Studies in socialism 1906.djvu/36

xxx fortune." He works first, because he must work in order to live, and, second, because he wishes to add to the present comfort of himself, his wife, and his children, and perhaps to "lay by something against a rainy day." The last motive would not hold good in a Socialist State, but the other two seem a too essential part of the psychology of "the man in the street" to be disregarded. Some scale in material rewards there must be, in order to mark degrees of excellence and add somewhat to the comforts of the especially industrious or especially able man. But the difference between the average man and the exceptional man should be only just enough to spur on the latter to give his best work. And since the Socialist State is founded on the principles of justice and expediency, the community would see to it that the exceptional man did not obtain his higher reward until the return for every man's labour was large enough to guarantee him a life worthy of a man and a citizen, a life lived under conditions making for health, civilisation, and the improvement of the race.

There is also a division of opinion among Socialists as to the administrative organisation which is to manage the collectively-owned wealth. Some believe that the ownership of the means of production should be vested in the nation and