PREFACE TO NEW EDITION
Inrepublishing this work at a low price, I wish to reiterate emphatically what is said of it in the opening chapter,—namely, that any clearheaded Radical, as distinct from the New Unionist, the Socialistic dreamer, and the Agitator, will find nothing in it to jar against his sympathies, or to conflict with his opinions, any more than the most strenuous Conservative will. If the word “party” is used in its usual sense, this is a volume absolutely free from any party bias.
It has, however, since its first publication, some nine months ago, been attacked continually, not by Socialistic writers only (whose attack was natural), but by Radicals also,who, apparently quite mistaking the drift of it, have done their best to detect in it flaws, fallacies, and inaccuracies. As any work like the present, whose aim is essentially practical, is worse than useless unless the reader is able to feel confidence in it, let me say a few words as to the degree of confidence which is claimed, after nine months of criticism, for the facts and arguments set forth in the following pages.
Let the reader emphasise in his mind the division between facts and arguments, for they stand on a different footing. In estimating the truth of any general arguments, the final appeal is to the common sense of the reader. The reader is himself the judge of them; and the moment he understands and assents to them, they belong to himself as much as they ever did to the writer. On the other hand, the historical facts, or statistics, by which arguments are illustrated, or onwhich they are based, claim acceptance on the authority, not of our internal common sense, but of external evidence. Let me speak separately, then, of the arguments of this book, and of the facts quoted in it.
Of the arguments, whether taken individually or as a whole, it will be enough here to say that no hostile critic of these has been able in any way to meet them. The only writers who have affected to do so have, either intentionally or unintentionally, entirely failed to understand them; and when they have seemed to be refuting anything, they have been refuting only their own misconceptions or misrepresentations. It is impossible in a short preface to say more than this; but in order to illustrate the truth of the foregoing statement, a paper published by me in theFortnightly Reviewis (by kind permission of Messrs. Chapman and Hall) reprinted as an Appendix to the present volume. That paperconsists of an examination of the criticisms made, on behalf of the Fabian Society, by Mr. Bernard Shaw on two previous papers of my own published (also in theFortnightly Review) under the title of “Fabian Economics,” in which the main arguments of this book were condensed. It is true that many of these arguments are here stated merely in outline, and in a popular rather than in a philosophical form, as is explained more fully in the Preface to the First Edition. But it may be safely asserted that there is hardly a single Socialistic argument used by the Socialistic party in this country to which this present book does not contain a reply, or at all events a clear indication of the grounds on which a reply is to be founded.
With regard to the historical facts, and especially the statistics here brought forward, it is necessary to speak more particularly. The broad historical facts—facts connectedwith the development of wealth in this country—are incapable of contradiction, and have never been contradicted. Hostile critics have directed their principal attacks against the statistics, endeavouring to show that certain of the figures were inaccurate, and arguing that, this being so, the whole contents of the book were unreliable.
The most minute attack of this kind which has been brought to my notice dealt with certain figures which were no doubt erroneous, and indeed unmeaning; but had the critic examined the volume with more care, he would have seen that every one of these figures was a misprint, and was corrected in a list of errata which accompanied the first edition.
Other critics have confined themselves almost entirely to the figures given by me with regard to two questions—the landed rental of this country, as distinct from the rent ofhouses; and the growth of the national income during the past hundred years.
With regard to both of these questions it should be distinctly understood that absolute accuracy is impossible; and I have given the statistics in round numbers only. But, for the purpose for which the figures are quoted, approximate accuracy is as useful as absolute accuracy, even were the latter attainable; and every attempt to correct the figures as given in this volume has only served to show how substantially accurate these figures are, and how totally unaffected would be the argument, even were any of the suggested corrections accepted.
The landed rental of the country is given by me as something undera hundred million pounds. It has been asserted that were the ground-rents in towns properly estimated, the true rental would be found to bea hundred and fifty million poundsora hundred andeighty million pounds. It is no doubt difficult to differentiate in town properties the total rental from the ground rental; but the most recent investigations made into this question, so far as it affects London, will throw light on the question as a whole. The highest estimate of the present ground-rental of London as related to the total rental gives the proportion of the former to the latter asfifteentoforty. Now house rent in London is higher than in any other town in the kingdom; therefore, if we assume the same proportion to obtain in all other towns, we shall be over-estimating the ground-rent of the country as a whole, instead of underestimating it. If we take this extreme calculation—which is obviously too great—it will be found to yield a result as to the total landed rental exceeding only by ten per cent that given in this volume. It will therefore be easily seen that the figures given by me aresubstantially accurate, and sufficiently accurate for all purposes of political and social argument.
Precisely the same thing is to be said with regard to the figures given as to the growth of the national income and the capitalised value of the country. The estimates of various statisticians will be found to differ from one another by something like ten per cent; but these differences do not in the least affect the essential character and meaning of the great facts in question. Let us take, for instance, two facts stated in this volume—that the capital of the country during the past century has increased in the proportion oftwototen; and the income per head of the country in the proportion offourteentothirty-fourorthirty-five. We will suppose some critic to prove that these proportions should bethreetoeleven, ortwelvetothirty-three. Now, large as the error thus detected might be from some points of view, it would beabsolutely immaterial to the large and general question in connection with which the figures are quoted in this volume.
The enormous increase in our national income and our national capital is doubted or denied by no one. Now let us express the increase in income as a supposed increase in the average height of the rooms inhabited by the population. According, then, to the figures given by me, we might say in this case that at the beginning of the century the average house wasseven feethigh—only high enough for tall men to stand up in; and that now houses have been so improved that the average height of a living-room isseventeen feet. If any one, dwelling on the fact of such a change as this, were inquiring into its causes, and were basing arguments on its assumed reality, what difference would it make if some opponent were to prove triumphantly that the height of theaverage room now was notseventeen feet, butsixteen feet six inches, and that four generations ago it had beensix feetinstead ofseven? The difference in the estimates of our national income during the past ninety or a hundred years are not more important for the purpose of any general argument than the difference just supposed with regard to the height of two living-rooms; and readers may rest assured that the round numbers given by me with regard to the growth of the national income and the national capital are so near the admitted and indisputable truth of things, that no possible correction of them would substantially alter any one of the arguments which they are here quoted to illustrate.
September 1894.
September 1894.