So long as such an impression prevails, and indeed until it is
definitely superseded by one more in consonance with facts, no
satisfactory social policy is practicable. Labour, as opposed to
ability, may be compared to a man who believes that his tailor has
overcharged him for a coat, and who disputes the account in a law court
with a view to its reasonable reduction. In such a case it will be
possible for him to obtain justice. The tailor's claim for L12 may be
reduced to a claim for L10, or L8 5_s._, or L6 15_s._ 6_d._ But if the
customer's contention is that he ought to get the coat for nothing, and
that he does not in justice owe the tailor anything at all, he is making
a demand that no law court could satisfy, and by a gratuitous
misconception of his rights is doing all he can to preclude himself from
any chance of obtaining them. The mood which socialism foments among the
labouring classes is precisely analogous to the mood of such a man as
this, and its results are analogous likewise. Its origin, however, being
artificial and also obvious in its minutest particulars, the remedy for
it, however difficult to apply, is not obscure in its nature.
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