INTRODUCTION.

XXXIX

this  country,  the  tendency  of  industrial  progress,  on  the  supposition ­
  that  the  present  separation  between  individual  classes
is  maintained,  is  toward  an  inequality  greater  still.”  *
When,  viewing  from  a  distance  and  without  bias  the  distribution ­
  of  the  good  things  of  this  world,  one  sees,  on  the  one
side,  the  workers  reduced  to  the  bare  necessaries  of  life—not
obtaining  even  them  at  the  least  crisis—and,  on  the  other,  the
Idle  and  independent  classes,  in  increasing  numbers,  enjoying
more  and  more  refined  comfort,  it  is  impossible  to  pronounce
this  state  of  things  conformable  to  justice,  and  we  are  forced  to
eimlaim  with  Bossuet,  “The  murmurs  of  the  poor  are  just.
Tierefore,  O  Lord,  this  inequality  of  conditions  ?  ”  Doubtless
It  may  be  answered  that  it  has  always  been  so,  and  cannot  be
otherwise  ;  but  this  argument  satisfies  those  only  whose  privileges
are  thus  confirmed.  ^
SodaHsm  demands  that  the  labourer  should  reap  the  whole
ru.ts  of  his  labour,  and  nothing  seems  more  just.  Still,  if  the
ranhT  '7'?f  help  of  two  other  factors,  land  and
Jital,  and  if  these  do  not  belong  to  the  labourer,  he  cannot
retoin  the  entire  product.  Each  factor  must  be  rewarded,
othemise  it  will  refuse  its  aid.  The  solution  consists  in  uniting
he  three  factors  m  the  same  person
mm
"  of  Poliliral  Economy  "  (1874),  p.  340.