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THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

lodging  with  innocent  amusement  for  a  half  or  a  third  of  wha
they  earn  per  day.  It  follows  that  they  would  enjoy  greater  ease
and  comfort  than  their  comrades  in  the  same  category,  that
they  would  acquire  better  habits,  would  lay  up  a  small  capital,
and  thus  would  not  be  in  such  haste  to  throw  themselves  into
the  miseries  of  a  too  early  marriage.  In  drawing  nearer  to
the  middle  classes,  they  would  acquire  their  instincts  of  order
and  prudence.
As  those  Economists  have  seen  who  have  best  analyzed
this  difficult  problem.  Mill  in  England  and  Joseph  Gamier  in
France,  it  all  comes  back  to  the  question  whether  it  is  want
or  plenty  which  urges  on  the  increase  of  population.  If
greater  comfort  leads  necessarily  to  a  corresponding  increase
in  the  number  of  labourers,  then  there  is  no  salvation.  The
“  iron  law  ”  will  act  in  all  its  rigour.  The  minimum  of  subsistence ­
  will  be  the  eternal  destiny  of  the  greater  number.
For,  as  Mill  puts  it,  you  may  adopt  institutions,  the  most
favourable  to  the  labourer;  you  may  devise  whatever  division
you  please  of  wealth  and  products,  the  time  will  come  when
the  earth  will  be  no  longer  able  to  support  all  those  upon  it.
If,  on  the  contrary,  the  acquisition  of  property,  and  the  greater
degree  of  comfort  resulting  therefrom,  retard  marriages  and
diminish  the  number  of  births,  then  it  may  be  affirmed  that
the  measures  taken  in  favour  of  the  labouring  classes  will  end
in  the  permanent  improvement  of  their  condition,  and  will

the  good  results  of  which  I  can  closely  observe,  obtained  the  medal  of
honour  at  the  Universal  Exhibition  of  Vienna  in  1873.  For  i  fr.  50  c.
a  day,  the  labourer  can  have  two  breakfasts,  a  dinner,  and  a  supper  ;  he
gets  his  lodging,  heating,  and  lighting,  and  has  his  washing  done  for  him.
In  the  hotel  he  has  a  café,  a  reading-room,  and  a  casino  where  there  is
music,  and  where  the  evenings  may  be  spent.  He  can  take  whatever
meal  he  likes  at  a  separate  table,  there  being  no  common  board.  The
labourer  thus  preserves  a  complete  independence,  and  is  in  no  wise  treated
as  if  in  barracks.  The  collier  gets  from  four  to  five  francs  for  a  day  of  eight
hours,  even  more  if  trade  is  brisk.  Thus  he  has  two-thirds  of  his  wages  at
his  disposal  for  his  accessory  needs.  He  is  consequently  not  reduced  to
the  minimum  necessary  for  existence.  See  Philanthropie  sociale  à  I  Exposition ­
  de  Vienne,  hy  Léon  d’Andrimont.  [As  to  “the  Familistère  at
Guise,”  see  a  lecture  by  M.  Godin,  translated  into  English  by  Mr.  E.  V.
Neale,  and  issued  as  a  pamphlet  by  the  Central  Co-operative  Board,
M  anchester.—Tr.]