Fabian Tract No. 5· 


FACTS FOR SOCIALISTS 


FROM THE 

POLITICAL ECONOMISTS AND STATISTICIANS. 


P UBLISH ED BY 

THE FABIAN SOCIETY. 


"No one can contemplate the present condition of the masses of the peoplewithout desiring something like a revolution for the better " (Mr. R. GIFFEN, 
"Essays in Finance," vol. ii., p. 393). 

SIXTH EDITION (REVISED). FIFTY-FIFTH THOUSAND. 

PRICE ONE PENNY. 

LONDON: 

T o BE OBTAINED oF THE FABIA:-~ Soc iETY, 276 STRAND, W .C. 

]UNE1 1893. 


\1 

dt 

Ill 

Ill: 

s FOR SOCIALISTS 

FROM Tilt•: 

1<. ON MISTS AND ST T[ST[CfANS. 

I. Ttr~-: NATIO\''s hco~tF. 
T11v .tttttual ittl'<HtH,; of tit· nit ·d Kingdo111 was · timatt.:d by the 
f<•llolling authoriti ·· at from twehe to thirteen hundred million 
]HllltHb !>t ·ding; or th · populati n in 1HH 1 b ·ing nearly 35,ooo,ooo, 
about [33 p 'I h ·ad, or .lqo p T adult man. •:• ln 1840 it was about 
[2.0~, .tnd itt til(JO .l-()1, per head (Mr. Mulhall, "Dictionary o[ 
Statisl i ·s," p. 245). 

Sir Lou is Mallet, K. .S.I. (Jn Ii.1 OOicl:), £ 

tX·".'\ 4, "National lncona: and T.txa


tion " ( 'obden lub), p. 23 ............ r ,2/lq,ooo,ooo


Professor r. ·on· [,•\ i (King' · olkge, Lon


don), 7ilncs, January 13th, t88~ t ,27.J.,ooo,ooo 

~lr. H. ,if]' ·n (Board of Trade), "Es ay itt 

Finance," YOI. ii., pp. 460, 472 (t 81\6) t,27o,ooo.ooo 

;\!r.Mulhall, tl\83, "DictionaryofStati ·tic·," 

p. 243, Incom• for 1882 .................. r,247,ooo,ooo 
Prof ·ss01· A. Marshall ( ambridge ni\ ·r·
it ·), "Re1ort of In lustrial H.emuneration 
nf •r•nce,"p. 194(January, IS ~), 
"upward · of" ................................. I 112510oo,ooo 

ince the ·t.: e ·timate · were mad· the net a " Cssm •nts to income-
tax ha\ · ri ·en ( t88t-2 to 1890-I) by £ 3,09-,622 ( tati·tical 
Ab tract," -6718). II wing for a c rre·p nding rise in the 
incom •t; not a ·e · ed an I in the wage · of manual lab r, we may 

•·timate the income for 189 r at n t less than £1 ,35o,ooo,ooo. The 
p pulation ha ri ·en fr m 34,884, 4 in 1 I t 37,74012 3 in I 91. 
The e figur ' (which are mainly c mput d fr m income-tax 
return · ami e ti mated a\'l!rag..: rate · f wages) mean that the price 
in mon ·y of the comm ditie · and ··n ·ices pr duced in the country 
during th · who! · <.:OUt"l! fa year \ a · about £q5 per adult man. ~ 
Mo ·t of th · ·e commoditi • · aud service· w •re u ·ed up within that 
period iu maintaining thl.! 37,ooo,ooo inhabitants, and Mr. Giffen 

* It h;~s he •n ""umcd throughont th;~ t one p ''son in e1•ery four i · an adult male, 
and that th •r' .IIC, Ill\ .Ill .l\Ci;li(C, ti1 e pet son to e"rh f.rmi]y group. 
I ltm.l) he ol sC11 ed th.rt the estim;~tcd .rmount of" money " or l'llll'enry in the 
cnuntry is .rhout .{t.;o,ooo,ooo, <lf unde• £+ per hc"d, induding b;~nk notes. old 
1'11in """ hulli,rn, ht'liiCCn ,t'xo,ooo,ooo ;~ml .6' too,ooo,ooo: si her anti bronze, 
,t'ts,ooo,ooo; bnnl.. lHrt•s, beyond g-old reseii'Cs, 1·~~.ooo.ooo (\\'.. je1·ons," ltll'e.>tig.
llinns in 'tll lell<') ,tnd l.'in.IIH'C," p. 272; Report or Deputy-;\laster f the ~lint, 
I .'<); "'· t;LlS\'hcn's !:\peel'h on s,xond Re;tding tlf the \llll;tge Art, 1 r). 


.Facts for Sr,n(zb"sts. 

estimates that about £zoo,ooo,ooo is" saved" annually ("Essays iN. 
Finance," vol. ii., p. 407). The bulk of this "saving '' exists in the 
form of new railways, houses, roads, machinery, and other aids to 
future labor. 

For sub equent comparison the total is represented by the annexed 
figure: 

P. 
II.-WHo PRODuCES h. 

The desirable commodities and useful services measured by this 
yast sum are produced solely by the "efforts and sacrifices" (Cairnes), 
whether of muscle or of brain, of the working portion of the community, 
employed upon the gifts of Nature. 

Adam Smith "showed that labor is the only source of wealth. 
. . . . It is to labor, therefore, and to labor only, that man owes 
everything possessed of exchangeable value " (McCulloch's "Principles 
of Political Economy," part ii., sec. 1).

"No wealth whatever can be produced without labor" (Professor 
Henry Fawcett (Cambridge)," Manual of Political Economy," p. 13).

"That useful function, therefore, which some profound writers 
fancy they discover in the abundant expenditure of the idle rich, turns 
out to be a sheer illusion. Political economy furnishes no such palliation 
of unmitigated selfishness. Not that I would breathe a word 
against the sacredness of contracts. But I think it is important, on 
moral no less than on economic grounds, to insist upon this, that no 
public benefit of any kind arises from the existence of an idle rich 
class. The wealth accumulated by their ancestors and others on 
their behalf, where it is employed as capital, no doubt helps to sustain 
industry; but what they consume in luxury and idleness is not 
capital, and helps to sustain nothing but their unprofitable lives. Byall means they must have their rents and interest, as it is written in 
the bond; but let t.hem take their proper place as drones in the hive, 
gorging at a feast to which they have contributed nothing" (" Some 
Leading Principles of Political Economy," p. 32, by the late John 
Elliott Cairnes, M.A., Emeritus Profe.sor of Political Economy at 
Uni\·ersity College, London; 1874). 


Facts for Soczahsts. 

Ill.-WHO THE WORKERS ARE. 

Those who profess to be taking part in the work of the community 
were divided, at the census of I 88 I, into the following classes : 

Males. Females. Total. 
Industrial ..................... 5,899,720 2,097,809 7,997,529 
Agricultural .................. 2,435,569 2 I 51I08 216 50,677 
Commercial .................. 11158,155 26,344 1,184,499
Domestic ..................... 317,868 2,088,668 2,406,536 
Professional .................. 652,943 288,919 94I,862 


10,464,255 4,716,848 151I81 1I03 
Unoccupied, under 20 .. . 6,IOI 1230 6,6I 11213 12,712,443 
Unoccupied, over 20 ...... 407,169 6,584,133" 6,991,302 

r6,972,654 !7,912,I94 34,884,848 
(Compiled from Reports of the I88r Census for England and Wales, 
C-3,797; Scotland, C-3,657; and Ireland, C-3,365). The subsequent 
addition of nearly three millions to the total will have left 
this distribution substantially unchanged in proportion.
Among the professed workers there are, of course, many whose 
occupation is merely nominal. The number is swelled by the "sleeping" 
partners, the briefless barristers, the invalids, and the paupers,
prisoners, and sinecurists of every description. Many thousands 
more have occupations useless or hurtful to the community ; and 
others, as for example domestic servants, labor honestly, but for the 
personal comfort of the idlers, and they might therefore, as far as 
production is concerned, as well be themselves idle. 
Nevertheless there were, in I88r, 407,I69 adult men (one in 
ll1 twenty-one) who did not even profess to have the shadow of an 
occupation. Most of these form the main body of the idle rich, " the 
great social evil of .... a non-laboring class" (J. S. Mill, " Political 
Economy," Popular Edition, p. 455). 
It is clear that the labor of the workers is much increased by the 
presence among them of so large a proportion of persons who take 
no useful part in the business of life. The possible reduction of the 
daily hours of work has, however, been much exaggerated. Thus 
Mr. William Hoyle, writing in r871, committed himself to the 
assertion that, " assuming every person did their share, a total ofrf hours' daily labor would suffice to supply us in abundance with 
all the comforts of life" ("Our National Resources," p. 56). It 
appears from the context that his calculation refers to a communitycomposed exclusively of actual workers in the production of material 
necessaries, whereas in ordinary human societies about half the 
population is under the age of twenty, and more than half the adults 
are women mostly occupied in domestic duties. The rt hours dailyhave, therefore, at once to be multiplied fourfold, and account is even 
then taken only of food, clothing, houses, and furniture. The whole 
calculation is indeed of little value, and has never been accepted byother authorities. 

• ~ost of these are married women engaged in dom•stic work, although not so 
described. 

.Facts for Soczcdzsts. 

IV.-How THE InLE RrcH Ln·E. 

" Whence is their purchasing power derived ? It does not descend 
to them from the skies; nor is it obtained by submarine telegraphdirect from California or Australia; nor is its presence exhaustivelyaccounted for by the presence of certain figures on the credit side of 
their accounts in their bankers' books" (Prof. ]. E. Cairnes, "Some 
Leading Principles of Political Economy," p. 31). 

They live, in the main, upon the portions of the national productwhich are called rent and interest, by the legal "guarantee to them 
of the fruits of the labor and abstinence of others, transmitted to them 
without any merit or exertion of their own" (J. S. Mill, "Political 
Economy," Popular Edition, p. 129). 

"It is at once evident that rent is the effect of a monopoly" (J. S. 
Mill," Political Economy," p. 255). 
"Monopoly, in all its forms, is the taxation of the industrious for 
the support of indolence, if not of plunder" (Ibzd, p. 477). 

V.-RENT. 

The total "gross annual value" of lands, houses, tithes, etc., as assessed 
for income-tax in 1890-1 was £199,299,608; the rents of mines, 
quarries, ironworks, gasworks, waterworks, canals, fishings, shootings, 
markets, tolls, etc., amounted to £26,734,888 ("Inland Revenue 
Report," 1892, C-6731). Many of these are far from being fullyassessed, and the total" rent"" of the United Kingdom must, therefore, 
exceed two hundred and twenty millions sterling, or nearlyone-sixth of the total produce. 

P. 
P.-Total produce, £1,35o,ooo,ooo. R.-Rent, £22o,ooo,ooo. 

VL-INTERE.ST ON CAPITAL. 
Interest i distinguished by economists from the rent of land on 
the one hand, and the "wages of superintendence," or other paymentfor services, on the other. 

• In 1843 this total was (for Great Britain only) £95,284,497; in 1855 (for thtl 
United Kingdom), £I24,87r,885. 

6 
./<acts for Socz"alzsts. 

The profits of public companies, foreign investments, railways, 
etc., assessed to income-tax in the United Kingdom in r 890-1 
amounted to £127,735,206. The interest payable from public funds 
(rates and taxes) was, in addition, £49,226,720 ("Inland Revenue 
Report," 1892, C-6731).

That these amounts are understated may be inferred from Mr. 
Mulhall's estimate of the stocks, shares, bonds, etc., held in Great 
Britain alone, as being worth £3,491,ooo,ooo, producing an annual 
income of upwards of £r ss,ooo,ooo ("Dictionary of Statistics," p.
256). And Sir Louis Mallet estimates the English income from 
foreign investments alone at £roo,ooo,ooo annually ("National Income 
and Taxation" (Cobden Club) p. 13). Nearly the whole of 
this vast income may be regarded as being received without any contemporary 
services rendered in return by the owners as such. 

We have, however, to add the interest on capital employed in

-
-
private undertakings of manufacture or trade. This is included with 
" wages of superintendence " in business profit, both for the purposeof the income-tax returns and in ordinary speech. Mr. Giffen estimated 
it in 1884, apart from any earnings of personal service, at 
£89,ooo,ooo ("Essays in Finance," Vol. II., p. 403). 

J 1 

The total amount of interest cat'lnot therefore be less than

l 

£27o,ooo,ooo. 
Adding hereto the rent mentioned in the preceding

f, 

section, we 
have a total of £ 49o,ooo,ooo for rent and interest 

n 
together. This estimate receives support from Mr. Giffen's computation 
that the amount under these heads actually assessed for 
income-tax was in I 884 £407,ooo,ooo ("Essays in Finance," Vol. II., 

p. 401 ). It has often been stated by the Commissioners of Inland 
Revenue that large amounts of interest escape assessment, and it is 
])1( 
well known that much is assessed under other heads. 
The following diagram represents the proportion of the nation's

m: 
income thus claimed from the workers, not in return for any service 
rendered to the community, but merely as the payment for permission 
to use the land and the already accumulated capital of the country. 
P. 
P.-Total product, £I,3SO,ooo,ooo. R.-Rent, £22o,ooo,ooo. 
I.-lnterest, £27o,ooo,ooo. 



Fncts for Sodnlzds. 

VJI.-PROFITS A:\'D SALALHES. 

But those who enjoy the vast unearned income just mentioned 
cannot all be accurately described as the " idle rich," though theywould forego none of it by refusing to work. If they are disposed to 
increase it by leading active lives, they can do so ; and most of them 
.adopt this course to some extent, especially those whose share is insufficient 
for their desires."' 

When the members of this endowed class elect to work, they are 
.able to do so under unusually favorable conditions. .Associated with 
them in this respect are the fortunate possessors of exceptional skill 
in hand or brain and the owners of literary or commercial monopolies 
·Of every kind. These workers often render inestimable sen·ice to 
the community, and they are able to exact in return remuneration 
proportionate neither to their utility, nor to the cost of their edu-
cation or training, but to the relative scarcity of the faculty they 
possess. (See Professor F. A. \iValker, " Principles of' Political 
Economy.")

The numbers and total income of this large class cannot be exactly 
.ascertained. It includes workers of all grades, from the exceptionallyskilled artizan to the Prime Minister, and from the city clerk to the 
President of the Royal Academy.

It is convenient, for statistical purposes, to include in it all those 
who do not belong to the" manual-labor class." So defined, this prosperous 
body may be estimated to receive for its work about.£36o,ooo,ooo annually.t 

Mr. R. Giffen : total income less rent, interest, £ 

and wages of manual-labor class (" Essays 

in Finance," Vol. II., p 404) 0000 00 000000000 313,ooo,ooo 

Mr. Mulhall : ditto ("Dictionary of Statistics," 

p. 28).00. 00. oo• 00.00 .... oooo••· •• oo• oo• ••• 00. oo•. 00.. 35o,ooo,ooo 
Professor A. Marshall : earnings of all above 

the manual-l!ibor class (" Report of Indus


trial Remuneration Conference," p. 194) 3oo,ooo,ooo 

Mr. Mulhall: income of tradesmen class only 

("Dictionary of Statistics,"' p. 246) ... 00. 244,ooo,ooo 

Mr. R. Giffen : salaries of superintendence 

assessed to income-tax alone (" Essays in 

Finance," Vol. II., p. 404) ..... ooooOOOOOooOO 18o,ooo,ooo 

• As the unearned income is not equally distributed, some of the participants are 
in comparatively humble circumstances; but it may be observed that the "manu3llabor 
class," or the poor, possess practically none of it, the total capital of savingsbanks, trade unions, benefit, building, co-operative, and mutual societies of every sort 
being only £r8s,o36,591 in 1889 according to the Blue Book Report (see Fabian 
Tract 1'\o. 7, "Capital and Land," p. 8, where particulars are given), or less than 2 
per cent. of the total accumulated wealth, and about £14 per head of the adult 
workers in the" manual-labor class," even supposing the whole was owned by members 
of that class. Against this, too, must be set the debts of the laborers to shopkeepers 
and others, which amount, in the aggregate, to a considerable sum. 
t Some of this might, from another point of view, be reckoned rather as interest 
·On the cost of education of valuable servants of the community, and accordingly deducted 
from this total and added to that of interest. In forming this estimate 
:allowance has been made, as in the previous computations, for the increase during the 

seven or eight years since the estimates quoted \\'t_re formed. 


8 Facts for Sodalt'sts. 

VIIL-THE CLASSES A:\'D THE MASSES. 
The total drawn by the legal disposers of what are sometimes 
called the "three rents" (on land, capital, and ability), amounts, 
therefore, at present to about eight hundred and fifty million pounds 
sterling yearly, or nearly two-thirds of the total produce. The following 
estimates, framed some years ago, support this view : 
Mr. Giffen," Essays in Finance," Vol. II., p. 467 £72o,ooo,ooo 
Mr. Mulhall, "Dictionary of Statistics," p. 246 8r8,ooo,ooo 
Professor Leone Levi (King's College, London),
Ttmes, 13th January, r88s ........................ 7 53,ooo,ooo 
Professor Alfred Marshall (Camb.), "Report on 
Industrial Remuneration Conference," p. 194 67 S,ooo,ooo 
The manual-labor class receives, on the other hand, for all it 
millions of workers, only some five hundred millions sterling : 
Mr. Giffen, "Essays in Finance," Vol. II., p. 467 5 so,ooo,ooo 
Mr. Mulhall, "Dictionary of Statistics," p. 246 447,ooo,ooo 
Mr. J. S. Jeans," Statistical Society's Journal," 
Vol. XLVII., p. 631 .............................. 6oo,ooo,ooo 
Prof. Leone Levi (as above) ........................ 52I,ooo,ooo} Prof. A. Marshall (as above) ........................ soo,ooo,ooo* 

I 
f 


ll 

" 

• ~ 11 
di 

])1t P. 

111( 

w. 
P.-Total produce ............................... .... . £I,350,0001000 
vV.-Income of manual-labor class ............. . _soo,ooo,ooo 


Income of the legal proprietors of the three 
natural monopolies of land, capital, and ability £8so,ooo,ooot 

* These estimates, which are based on average rates of wages, multiplied by the-
number of workers, assume, however, reasonable regularity of employment, and take-
no account of the fact that much of the total amount of nominal wages is reclaimed 
from the workers in the shape of ground rent. Much must, therefore, be deducted to 
obtain their real net remuneration. 
t In this connexion it may be mentioned that the total income of the charities of 
the United Kingdom, including endowments, amounts to £I0,04o,ooo, or little over 
I per cent. of the foregoing total. £2,o4o,oJO of this, it may be added, is expended 
upon Bible societies alone (Mulhall, "Dictionary of Statistics," p. 78). The total 
cost of poor relief in 1890-r .was £ro,565,756 (Statistical Abstract-C. 6718). 


.Facts for Soczahsts. 

IX.-THE T"·o NATIONS. 

This unequal diYision of the fruits of the combined labor of the 
working community diYides us, as Lord Beaconsfield said, into " two 
nations," widely different from each other in education, in comfort, 
and in security. There is some limited central territory between, 
and some luckier few escape from the large camp in which their 
fellows are toiling to the more comfortable fortress of the monopo


. lists. from which, on the other hand, others sink into destitution from 
extrayagance or misfortune. But for the great majority the lines. 
between these two nations are practically impassable. 

It is not that this diYision is based on any essential differences in 
the industry or morality between indiYiduals. 

"Since the human race ha no means of enjoyable existence, or of 
existence at all, but what it deriyes from its own labor and abstinence, 
there would be no ground for complaint against society if every one 
who was willing to undergo a fair share of this labor and abstinence 
could attain a fair share of the fruits. But is this the fact ? Is it not 
the reyerse of the fact ? The reward, instead of being proportioned 
to the labor and abstinence of the individual, is almost in an inverse 
ratio to it; those who receive the least, labor and abstain the most '" 
(John Stuart Mill, Jiortnightfy Revzew, 1879, p. 226, written in 1869).

We have seen what the " two nations" each receive : it remains 
to estimate their respective numbers, and the following facts supplymaterials for this computation :


(a) The Comparative!;• Rich. (b) The Comparatt'vely Poor. 
It has been shown that the The manual-labor class number 
adult males without professed about ~,ooo,ooo families. 
occupation numbered 407,169 in Mr. Mulhall, "Diet. 
1881. This represents a popula-of Statistics," p. 
tion ofabout r,63o,ooo, all of whom 246; families ...... 4,629,ooo· 
were living on incomes not deriYed Prof. Leone LeYi, 
from any speeified occupation. Times, 13th Jan., 

The landlords (of more than a I 88 3; families ... 5 ,6oo,ooo 
field or a cottage each) number Mr. Giffen, "Essays 
only 180,524, owning ten-eJeyenths in Finance," Vol. 
of the total area (Mulhall, " Dic-II., p. 461 ; sepationary 
of Statistics," p. 266). rate incomes ...... I 3,2oo,ooo 

The mortgage upon the industry FiYe and a-half million familie 
of the community known as the liYe in separate houses under£20, 
N a tiona! Debt was owned, in 188o, and of these four and a-half million 
by only 236,314 persons, .. I031I22 in houses under £Io rental, not-
of whom shared in it only to the withstanding that the poor in the 
extent ofless than£I 3 per annum great towns liYe in large teneeach 
(Mulhall," Dictionary of Sta-ment housest (Giffen, " Essays in 
tistics," p. 109). Finance," Vol. II., p. 348). 

* These include many banks, insurance companie , foreign potentates, and others 
not to be included in the present computation. 
t This include , of course, the rural districts, where a comfortable house maygenerally be obtained below £2o annual renta.l, but more than a third of the population 
now li\·e in town , where the poor are often herded together in slums, yielding 
more than that rental per house. 


IO Facts Jar 

(a) Tlze Comparatively Rich. 
Only thirty-nine out of every 
r,ooo persons dying, leave behind 
them £300 worth of property (in-
duding furniture, etc.), and only 
sixty-one per I ,ooo leave any property 
worth mentioning at all. 
" It appears .. , that one-half 
-of the wealth of the United Kingdom 
is held by persons who leave 
at least £ 2o,ooo (personalty) at 
death " Mulhall, " Dictionary of 
Statistics," pp. 278, 279, from Probate 
and Legacy Duty Returns). 
· The number of these is given 
by the Commissioners of Inland 
Revenue, as I,I29 in 1877 : as 
property is ascertained to pass by 
-death about every twenty years,) this gives a class of about 25,000 
I persons. 
f 


The incomesof £ISO per annum 
ll .and upwards are only 1i millions 

in number out of r6i millions" -of separate incomes (Giffen,
ll " Essays in Finance," Vol. II., 
di P· 467). 
lllt Mulhall estimates that there 

were, in r88r , 222,000 families of 
the very rich, 6o4,ooo families of 
the rich, r,22o,ooo families of the 
middle and trading tlass : in all 
-only about two million families 
.above the manual-labor class of 
nearly five million families 
{"Dictionary of Statistics," p. 
246). 

It may, therefore, safely be con-
duded that the whole of the 
£8so,ooo,ooo annually is now re-
ceived by about I I ,ooo,ooo of the 
population, giving an average in-
comeof£305 per adult man: about 
two-fifths (£33o,ooo,ooo; Mulhall, 
" Dictionary of Statistics," p. 246) 
is enjoyed by a small class of less 
than I ,ooo,ooo persons who have 
-on an average £r,r89 per adult 
man whether they contribute any-
t hing to the product or not. 

Socz"alzsts. 

(b) The Comparatively P oor. 
Nine hundred and thirty-nine 
out of every I ,ooo persons (about 
half of whom are adults) die without 
property worth speaking of, 
and 96 I out of every I ,ooo without 
furniture, investments, or. 
effects worth £300 (Mulhall, 
" Dictionary of Statistics," from 
Probate Duty Returns-p. 279).

The number of persons "employed 
" at wages in the industries 
of the Kingdom is placed at thirteen 
to fourteen millions, and this 
includes over four million women. 

Mr. J. S. Jeans, 

Statistical Socz~ 
ety'sJ ournal,Vol. 


XLVII., p. 631, 
places the number 
at about...... 14,ooo,ooo 

Mr. Giffen," Essays 
in Finance," Vol. 
II,p-461(separate 
incomes of manual 
labor class)... I3,20o,ooo 

Mr. Mulhall, " Dictionary 
of Statistics," 
p. 246 
(separate families 
of manual-labor 


·class)............... 4,629,000 


Prof. Leone Levi, 
Tz'mes, 13th Jan., 
r88s, (number of 


workers in manual 
laborclassin r88r) I212oo,ooo 

Out of ro,464,255 males with 
any occupation at all (see p. -1-)
8,I 8o,ooowere in receipt of wages,
and belonged to the manual-labor 
class (Prof. Leone Levi, Tzmes, 
13th January, r885). 

We may, therefore, certainly 
conclude that the £ soo,ooo,ooo 
allotted to the manual-labor class 
is shared among 26,ooo,ooo persons 
and is about £38 per adult 
(or £77 per adult male) annually. 


Ji'acts for Soczahsts. 


£145 ; average annual product of the whole 
community, per adult male. 

£305; ·average annual income of the comparatively 
rich (including non-workers), 
per adult male. 

I 
I 
£77 ; average annual income of the masses, 
per adult male. 


£n89 ; average annual income, per adult 
male, of the gentry, about zzz,ooo families. 


X.-THE CLASS wAR. 

Between the two classes there is perpetual strife. Disguise it as 
we may by feudal benevolence, or the kindly attempts of philanthropists, 
the material interests of the small nation privileged to exact 
rent for its monopolies, and of the great nation, thereby driven to 
receive only the remnant of the product, are permanently opposed.
" The more there is allotted to labor the less there will remain to be 
appropriated as rent" (Fawcett, "Manual of Political Economy," 

P· 123)·
It is therefore "the enormous share which the possessors of the 
instruments of industry are able to take from the produce" (1. S. 
Mill, quoting Feugueray, "Principles of Political Economy," p. 477, 
popular edition of 1865), which is the pri!llary cause of the small 
incomes of the comparatively poor. That neither _class ~!lakes the 
best possib1e social use of its revenues, and that both waste much in 
extravagance and vice, is an apparently inevitable secondary result of 

the unequal division, which it intensifies and renders permanent; but 
it is a secondary result only, not the primary cause. Even if the 
whole" manual-labor class" made the best possible use of the £38 

per adult, which is their average income, it would still be impossiblefor them to live the cultured human life which the other classes 
demand for themselves as the minimum of the life worth living. It 
is practically inevitable that many of the poor, being debarred from 
this "Standard of Life," should endeavor to enjoy themselves in 
ways not permanently advantageous to themselves or to society.

The force by which this conflict of interest is maintained, without 
the conscious contrivance of either party, is competition, diverted, 
like other forces, from its legitimate social use. The legal disposers 
of the great natural monopolies are able, by means of legally licensed 
competition, to exact the full amount of their economic rents, and the 
political economists tell us that so long as these natural monopolies 
are left practically unrestrained in private hands, a thorough remedy 
is impossible. 


12 Facts for Soet'ahsts 

J 
l 
f, 
n 
\\ 
111 
In 1874, Professor Cairnes thought that some help might be found 
(at any rate, by the better paid laborers) by means of co-operation in 
production. He then wrote : "If workmen do not rise from dependence 
upon capital by the path of co-operation, then they must 
remain in dependence upon capital ; the margin for the possible 
improvement of their lot is confined within narrow barriers which 
cannot be passed, and the problem of their elevation is hopeless. As 
a body they will not rise at all. A few, more energetic or more fortunate 
than the rest, will from time to time escape, as they do now, 
from the ranks of their fellows to the higher walks of industrial life, 
but the great majority will remain substantially where they are. The 
remuneration of labor, as such, skilled or unskilled, can neyer rise 
much above its present level" (Prof. ]. E. Cairnes, ''Some Leading 
Principles of Political Economy," p. 348; 1874).
Nineteen years have passed away since these words were written, 
and it must now be apparent, even to the most sanguine of individualists, 
that the chance of the great bulk of the laborers ever 
coming to work upon their own land and capital in associations for 
co-operative production, has become even less hopeful than it eyer 
was; and Dr. ]. K. Jngram tells us that modern economists, such as 
Professors T. E. Cliffe Leslie and F. A. Walker, regard the idea as 
" chimerical " (Article on " Political Economy'' in Eucycloja!dz"aBrztanmca, Vol. XIX., p. 382). Even so friendly an economist as Mr_ 
Leonard Courtney agrees in this view. Yet this, according to authorities 
so eminent, is the only hope for the laborer under the present arrangements 
of society, or any other that the Professor could suggest. 
di XI.-SoME VrcTIMS OF THE STRUGGLE. 
l11l 
m~ 
The statistics hitherto quoted have been mainly based on the 
assumption of reasonable regularity of employment. But of the great 
permanent army of the " unemployed " in London, some idea maybe gained from the report of the Mansion House Relief Committee, 
which gave the average daily number of them as 2o,ooo ("Report,"
r888). The average number of persons in London whose home is 
the" common lodging-house" is over 3o,ooo; oyer r,roo are everynight found in the "casual wards." 
As regards the four millions of persons in the metropolis, Mr. 
Charles Booth tells us that 37,6ro, or o·9 per cent., are in the lowest 
class (occasional laborers, loafers, and semi-criminals); 3I 6,834, or 
7·5 per cent., in the next (casual labor, hand-to-mouth existence, 
clzromc want); 938,293, or 22·3 per cent., form "thepoor," (includingalike those whose earnings are small, because of irregularity of employment, 
and those whose work, though regular, is ill-paid). These 
classes, on or below the " poverty line " of earmizgs uot exceedzizg 
a gmizea a week je1' famzly, number together r,292,737, or 30·7 
per cent. of the whole population. To these must be added, 99,830· 
inmates of workhouses, hospitals, prisons, industrial schools, etc.,. 
making altogether nearly r,4oo,ooo persons in this one city alone 
whose condition even the most optimistic social student can hardly 
deem satisfactory ("Labor and Life of the People," edited by Charles. 
Booth, 1891. Vol. II., pp. 20-21). 


Facts for Socz"ahsts. 

The ultimate fate of these victims it is not easy adequately to 
realise. Actual starvation is returned as the cause of death in but a 
few cases annually; but it is well-known that many thousands of 
deaths are directly due to long-continued under-feeding and exposure. 
Young children especially suffer. 

The infantile death-rate at Bethnal Green is twice that of Belgravia. 
Holborn (151,835) and St. George's, Hanover Square(I49,748), have almost equal populations; yet in the former 1,6I4, 
in the latter only I,oo7, children under five died in I884'" (RegistrarGeneral's 
Report, I886, pp. 32, 126, C-4722).

In London one person in every five will die in the workhouse, 
hospital, or lunatic asylum. In 189I, out of 89,122 deaths in London, 
5I 117I being over 20, I3,244 were in workhouses, 8,054 in hospitals, 
and 405 in lunatic asylums, or altogether 21,703 in public institutions 
(Registrar-General's Report, r89I, C-684I, pp. 2, 72, and 94).
Moreover, the percentage is increasing. In 1887 it was 20·7 of the 
total deaths; in 1888 it rose to 22·2, and in 1891 to 24·2. The increase 
was mainly in the deaths in workhouses and workhouse 
infirmaries. It is worth notice that a large number of those compelledin their old age to resort to the workhouse have made ineffectual 
efforts at thrifty provision for their declining years. In 1890-9I, out 
of 175,852 inmates of workhouses (one-third being children, and 
another third women) no fewer than I4,8o8 have been members of 
benefit societies. In 4593 cases the society had broken up, usually 
from insolvency (House of Commons Return, 1891, Nos. 366 and 
13o-B). Considering that comparatively few of the inmates are 
children, it is probable that one in every three London adults will be 
driven into these refuges to die, and the proportion in the case of the 
" manual-labor class " must of course be still larger. And the number 
of persons who die while in receipt of out-door relief is not included 
in this calculation. As in I89I-2 the mean number of out-door 
paupers in the metropolis was 45,792 (C-6745, p. 38o), and the 
average death-rate in London in 189I was 2o·I per 1,ooo, it may be 
assumed that at least 900 persons died while in receipt of out-door 
relief-often from its being insufficient. 

Dr. Playfair says that I8 per cent. of the children of the upperclass, 36 per cent. of those of the tradesmen class, and 55 per cent. of 
those of the workmen die before they reach five years of age (quoted 
at p. I 33 of" Dictionary of Statistics," by Mr. Mulhall, who, however, 
thinks it "too high an estimate.")

I 6,688 persons died by fatal accidents in I89 I (RegistrarGeneral's 
Report, C-6841, p. 193-I97), 920 losing their lives in mines, 
993 on railways, 220 in working machinery, 132 by lead poisoning, 
and I 5 I by falls from scaffolding, &c., in building operations (C-6770, 

p. 3; C-6841, pp. 193-I98). These are the figures for England and 
Wales alone, and would be much increased by including the accidents 
in Scotland and Ireland. 
The Board of Trade Report on "Railway Accidents " during the 
year I 82 I shows that j12.____failway servants were killed, and 3, I 6 r 

* No figures for a comparison of this kind are given in the Registrar-General'sReports for years subsequent to I 884. 

Facts j o1' Socz'ahsts. 

injured, by accidents on the lines, being about I in 69 5 and 1 in 12 r 
respectively, of the persons employed. (C-6770 pp. 2 and 19.)

" At present the ayerage age at death among the nobility, gentry, 
and professional classes in England and Wales was 53 years; but 
among the artisan classes of Lambeth it only amounted to 29 years; 
and whilst the infantile death-rate among the well-to-do classes was 
such that only 8 children died in the first year of life out of roo 
born, a many as 30 per cent. succumbed at that age among the 
children of the poor in some districts of our large cities. The only 
real causes of this enormous difference in the position of the rich and 
poor with respect to their chances of existence lay in the fact that at 
the bottom of society wages were so low that food and other req ui ites 
of health were obtained with too great difficulty" (Dr. C. R. Drysdale, 
" R eport of Industrial Remuneration Conference," p. I 30).

One great cause of the short and miserable lives of the poor is 
the insanitary condition of their slums in which many of them are 
compelled to dwell. The strongest testimony to the eYil effects of 
such surroundings comes from the insurance companies. The industrial 
friendly societies have in each large town their " proscribed 

} streets." The LiYerpool Victoria Legal Friendly Society proscribes, 
for Liverpool alone, on account of their insanitary character, 167 
"streets wherein no members of the society may be entered " 
(Circular of the 13th October, r886). Yet these unhealthy streets 
are not too bad to be the only homes of thousands of the poorer 
citizens of that commercial centre." W e clog our public poor relief with irksome and degrading conditions, 
so that the honest poor often die lingering deaths rather than 
accept it; yet the paupers in actual receipt of public relief on one 

l1l 

day number nearly a million : 

111: England and W ales, 1st J anuary, 1892 7 54,48 ~ C03t £ 8,643,3 I 
Scotland, 14th J anuary, 1892 87,362 " ;[ 880,458 
Ireland, 8th January, 1892 ............... 103,839 , £r,o41,98o 
945,686 £w,s6s ,756 
(Report of Local Goyernment Board, England and Wales; Report of 
Board for Supervision of Poor, Scotland; Report of Local Government 
Board, Ireland, and Statistical Abstract, 1892, C-6718. 
But the relief is not usually given permanently; to obtain the 

number of different individuals who receive relief during a year, we 
must multiply the daily number by 2"3· (This is the latest computation 
given in Mr. Charles Booth's paper before the Statistical 

Society, December, 1891. See also his" Pauperism, a Picture; and the 
Endowment of Old Age, an Argument." Mr. Mulhall," Dictionary of 
Statistics," p. 346, stated three, and Mr. Dudley Baxter's" National 
Income," p. 87, gaye 3~-) This gives a pauper class during any one 
year of about 2,2oo,ooo persons, or 1 in 12 of the manual-labor class. 
In some rural districts every aged laborer is a pauper. 

The maintenance of these paupers costs £ro,565,756 per annum. 
But in addition to this public expenditure, the various charitable 
societies spend £ w ,o4o,ooo annually (Mr. Mulhall, " Dictionary of 
£tatistics," p. 78), and the charity of indiYiduals is known to be 


}<'acts for Son'alists. 

enormous. The numbers of the destitute class must therefore be 
largely increased. Mr. R. Giffen talks of the clas~ of five million~ 
"whose existence is a stain on our ci\·ilization" ("Essays in Finance,'' 
Vol. II.,.p. 350). It is the lot of at least one of five of the manuallabor-
class-of 16 in every roo of the whole population-to belong 
to this class, 

"To me, at least, it would be enough to condemn modern society 
as hardly an advance on slavery or serfdom, if the permanent condition 
of industry were to be that which we behold, that 90 per cent. 
of the actual producers of wealth have no home that they can call 
their own beyond the end of the week; have no bit of soil, or so much 
as a room that belongs to them; have nothing of value of any kind 1 
except as much old furniture as will go in a cart; have the precarious 
chance of weekly wages which barely suffice to keep them in health; 
are housed for the most part in places that no man thinks fit for hi 
horse; are separated by so narrow a margin from destitution, that a 
month of bad trade, sickness, or unexpected loss brings them face to 
face with hunger and pauperism...·.. This is the normal state of 
the average workman in town or country" (Mr. Frederic Harrison, 

p. 429, "Report of Ihdustrial Remuneration Conference," 1886).
The normal state of the "average workman,. is the average normal 
state of four out of five of the whole population (Prof. Leone Levi, 
Tzlnes, 13th January, 1883). 
XII.-THE EnL A:-ID THE R EM£DL 

"The deepest root of the evils and iniquities which fill the industrial 
world is not competition, but the subjection of labor to capital, and 
the enormous share which the posse sors of the instruments of industry 
are able to take from the produce" (J. S. Mill quoting Feugueray, 
"Principles of Political Economy," p. 477, edition of r865).

" We have been suffering for a century from an acute outbreak 

of individualism, unchecked by the old restraints, and invested with 

almost a religious sanction by a certain soul-less school of writers" 

(Prof. H. S. Foxwell, University College, London, p. 249 of essay in 

"The Claims of Labor," 1886). 

" It is, indeed, certain that industrial society will not permanently 

remain without a systematic organisation. The mere conflict of pri


vate interests will never produce a well-ordered commonwealth of 

labor" (article on " Political Economy " in Eucyclopa!dta Brz"tamnca, 

Vol. XIX., r886, p. 382, since published as the" History of Political 

Economy," by J. K. Ingram, LL.D., Trinity College, Dublin). 

Socialists affirm that the evil can never be remedied until the 

" two nations " are united by the restitution to public purposes of 

rent and interest of every kind, and by the growth ofsocial sympathy 

promoted by the accompanying cessation of class distinctions. It 

will be seen by the above quotations that this position is based on 

the facts of the case as ascertained and declared by the recognised

authorities in statistics, and is in entire harmony with the doctrines 

of Political Economy. 

G. STANOR!:-IG, Printer, 7 & 9 Finsbury Street, London, E.C. 

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