whatever stands for nothing but a system of legalised plunder; and that
the labourers need only inaugurate a legislation of a new kind in order
to secure and enjoy what always was by rights their own. Let me
illustrate this assertion by two examples, one supplied to us by
England, the other by America.

In England the body which calls itself the Social Democratic Federation,
and represents at this moment socialism of the more popular kind, began
its campaign with a manifesto which was headed with the familiar words,
"All wealth is due to labour; therefore to the labourer all wealth is
due." This text or motto was followed by certain figures, with regard to
the total income of Great Britain, and the manner in which it is at
present distributed. Labour was represented as getting less than
one-fourth of the whole, and the labourers were informed that if they
would but "educate themselves, agitate, and organise," the remaining
three-fourths would automatically pass into their possession. This
document, it is true, was issued some twenty years ago;[4] but that the
form which socialism takes, when addressed to the masses of the
population, has not appreciably altered from that day to this, will be
made sufficiently clear by the following pertinent fact. Shortly after
my arrival in America, in the winter of 1907, the most active
disseminator of socialistic literature in New York sent me, by way of a
challenge, a new and very spruce volume, which contained the most
important of his previous leaflets and articles, collected and
republished, and claiming renewed attention. The first of these--and it
was signalised by an accompanying advertisement as fundamental--bore the
impressive title of, "Why the Working Man should be a Socialist," and
the answer to this question is given in the writer's opening words. "You
know," he says, addressing any labourer and the street-worker, "or you
ought to know, that you alone produce all the good things of life; and