Chapter 8

Social and Political Views

"When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honour are things to be ashamed of."--CONFUCIUS.

In the above sentences, written long before the dawn of Christian civilisation, we have an apt summary of the social and political views of Alfred Russel Wallace.

As we have stated in a previous chapter, it was during his short stay in London as a boy, when he was led to study the writings and methods of Robert Owen, of New Lanark, that his mind first opened to the consideration of the inequalities of our social life.

During the six years which he spent in land-surveying he obtained a more practical knowledge of the laws pertaining to public and private property as they affected the lives and habits of both squire and peasant.

The village inn, or public-house, was then the only place where men could meet to discuss topics of mutual interest, and it was there that young Wallace and his brother spent some of their own leisure hours listening to and conversing with the village rustics. The conversation was not ordinarily of an educational character, but occasionally experienced farmers would discuss agricultural and land problems which were beginning to interest Wallace.

In reading his books and essays written more than seventy years later, we are struck with the exceptional opportunities which he had of comparing social conditions, and commercial and individual prosperity during that long period, and of witnessing the introduction of many inventions. He used to enjoy recalling many of the discussions between intelligent mechanics which he heard of in his early days regarding the introduction of the steam-engine. One and another declared that the grip of the engine on the rails would not be sufficient to draw heavy trucks or carriages; that the wheels, in fact, would whiz round instead of going on, and that it would be necessary to sprinkle sand in front of the wheels, or make the tyres rough like files. About this time, too, there arose a keen debate upon the relative merits of the new railroads and the old canals. Many thought that the former could never compete with the latter in carrying heavy goods; but facts soon proved otherwise, for in one district alone the traffic of the canal, within two years of the coming of the railway, decreased by 1,000,000 tons.

It was during these years, and when he and his brother were making a survey for the enclosure of some common lands near Llandrindod Wells, that Wallace finally became aware of the injustice towards the labouring classes of the General Enclosure Act.

In this particular locality the land to be enclosed consisted of a large extent of moor, and mountain which, with other common rights, had for many years enabled the occupants of the scattered cottages around to keep a horse, cow, or a few sheep, and thus make a fairly comfortable living. Under the Act, the whole of this open land was divided among the adjacent landowners of the parish or manor, in proportion to the size or value of their estates. Thus, to those who actually possessed much, much was given; whilst to those who only nominally owned a little land, even that was taken away in return for a small compensation which was by no means as valuable to them as the right to graze their cattle. In spite of the statement set forth in the General Enclosure Act--"Whereas it is expedient to facilitate the enclosure and improvement of common and other lands now subject to the rights of property which obstruct cultivation and the productive employment of labour," Wallace ascertained many years later that no single part of the land so enclosed had been cultivated by those to whom it was given, though certain portions had been let or sold at fabulous prices for building purposes, to accommodate summer visitors to the neighbourhood. Thus the unfortunate people who had formerly enjoyed home, health, and comparative prosperity in the cottages scattered over this common land had been obliged to migrate to the large towns, seeking for fresh employment and means of subsistence, or had become "law-created paupers"; whilst to crown all, the piece of common originally "reserved" for the benefit of the inhabitants had been turned into golf-links!

Again and again Wallace drew attention to the fundamental duties of landownership, maintaining that the public, as a whole, had become so blinded by custom that no effectual social reform would ever be established unless some strenuous and unremitting effort was made to recover the land by law from those who had made the land laws and who had niched the common heritage of humanity for their own private aggrandisement.

With regard to the actual value of land, Wallace pointed out that the last valuation was made in the year 1692, and therefore, with the increase of value through minerals and other products since then, the arrears of land tax due up to 1905 would amount to more than the value of all the agricultural land of our country at the present time; therefore existing landlords, in clamouring for their alleged rights of property, might find out that those "rights" no longer exist.

Yet another point on which he insisted was the right of way through fields or woodlands, and especially beside the sea. With the advent of the motor-car and other swift means of locomotion, the public roads are no longer safe and pleasurable for pedestrians; besides the iniquitous fact that hundreds are kept from enjoying the beauties of nature by the utterly selfish and useless reservations of such by-paths by the landowner.

"This all-embracing system of land-robbery," again he writes, "for which nothing is too great or too small; which has absorbed meadow and forest, moor and mountain, which has appropriated most of our rivers and lakes and the fish that live in them; making the agriculturist pay for his seaweed manure and the fisherman for his bait of shell-fish; which has desolated whole counties to replace men by sheep or cattle, and has destroyed fields and cottages to make a wilderness for deer and grouse; which has stolen the commons and filched the roadside wastes; which has driven the labouring poor into the cities, and thus been the chief cause of the misery, disease, and early death of thousands ... it is the advocates of this inhuman system who, when a partial restitution of their unholy gains is proposed, are the loudest in their cries of 'robbery'!

"But all the robbery, all the spoliation, all the legal and illegal filching, has been on _their_ side.... They made the laws to legalise their actions, and, some day, we, the people, will make laws which will not only legalise but justify our process of restitution. It will justify it, because, unlike their laws, which always took from the poor to give to the rich--to the very class which made the laws--ours will only take from the superfluity of the rich, _not_ to give to the poor or to any individuals, but to so administer as to enable every man to live by honest work, to restore to the whole people their birthright in their native soil, and to relieve all alike from a heavy burden of unnecessary and unjust taxation. _This_ will be the true statesmanship of the future, and it will be justified alike by equity, by ethics, and by religion."

These, then, are the facts and reasons upon which Dr. Wallace based his strenuous advocacy of Land Nationalisation.[48] It was only by slow degrees that he arrived at some of the conclusions propounded in his later years, but once having grasped their full importance to the social and moral well-being of the community, he held them to the last.

The first book which tended to fasten his attention upon these matters was "Social Statics," by Herbert Spencer, but in 1870 the publication of his "Malay Archipelago" brought him into personal contact with John Stuart Mill, through whose invitation he became a member of the General Committee of the Land Tenure Reform Association. On the formation of the Land Nationalisation Society in 1880 he retired from the Association, and devoted himself to the larger issues which the new Society embraced.

Soon after the latter Society was started, Henry George, the American author of "Progress and Poverty," came to England, and Wallace had many opportunities of hearing him speak in public and of discussing matters of common interest in private. In spite of the ridicule poured upon Henry George's book by many eminent social reformers, Wallace consistently upheld its general principles.

His second work on these various subjects was a small book entitled "Bad Times," issued in 1885, in which he went deeply into the root causes of the depression in trade which had lasted since 1874. The facts there given were enlarged upon and continually brought up to date in his later writings. Articles which had appeared in various magazines were gathered together and included, with those on other subjects, in "Studies, Scientific and Social." His last three books, which include his ideas on social diseases and the best method of preventing them, were "The Wonderful Century," "Social Environment and Moral Progress," and "The Revolt of Democracy"; the two last being issued, as we have seen, in 1913, the year of his death.

In "Social Environment and Moral Progress" the conclusion of his vehement survey of our moral and social conditions was startling: "_It is not too much to say that our whole system of Society is rotten from top to bottom, and that the social environment as a whole in relation to our possibilities and our claims is the worst that the world has ever seen_."

That terrible indictment was doubly underscored in his MS.

What, in his mature judgment, were the causes and remedies? He set them out in this order:

1. The evils are due, broadly and generally, to our living under a system of universal competition for the means of existence, the remedy for which is equally universal co-operation.

2. It may also be defined as a system of economic antagonism, as of enemies, the remedy being a system of economic brotherhood, as of a great family, or of friends.

3. Our system is also one of monopoly by a few of all the means of existence--the land, without access to which no life is possible; and capital, or the results of stored-up labour, which is now in the possession of a limited number of capitalists, and therefore is also a monopoly. The remedy is freedom of access to land and capital for all.

4. Also, it may be defined as social injustice, inasmuch as the few in each generation are allowed to inherit the stored-up wealth of all preceding generations, while the many inherit nothing. The remedy is to adopt the principle of equality of opportunity for all, or of universal _inheritance by the State in trust for the whole community_.

"We have," he finally concluded, "ourselves created an immoral or unmoral social environment. To undo its inevitable results we must reverse our course. We must see that _all_ our economic legislation, _all_ our social reforms, are in the very opposite direction to those hitherto adopted, and that they tend in the direction of one or other of the four fundamental remedies I have suggested. In this way only can we hope to change our existing immoral environment into a moral one, and _initiate a new era of Moral Progress._" The "Revolt of Democracy"[49] was addressed directly to the Labour Party. And once again he drew a vivid picture of how, during the whole of the nineteenth century, there was a continuous advance in the application of scientific discovery to the arts, especially to the invention and application of labour-saving machinery; and how our wealth had increased to an equally marvellous extent.

He pointed out that various estimates which had been made of the increase in our wealth-producing capacity showed that, roughly speaking, the use of mechanical power had increased it more than a hundredfold during the century; yet the result had been to create a limited upper class, living in unexampled luxury, while about one-fourth of the whole population existed in a state of fluctuating penury, often sinking below the margin of poverty. Many thousands were annually drawn into this gulf of destitution, and died from direct starvation and premature exhaustion or from diseases produced by unhealthy employment.

During this long period, however, although wealth and want had alike increased side by side, public opinion had not been sufficiently educated to permit of any effectual remedy being applied. The workers themselves had failed to visualise its fundamental causes, land monopoly and the competitive system of industry giving rise to an ever-increasing private capitalism which, to a very large extent, had controlled the Legislature. All through the last century this rapid accumulation of wealth due to extensive manufacturing industries led to a still greater increase of middlemen engaged in the distribution of the products, from the wealthy merchant to the various grades of tradesmen and small shop-keepers who supplied the daily wants of the community.

To those who lived in the midst of this vast industrial system, or were a part of it, it seemed natural and inevitable that there should be rich and poor; and this belief was enforced on the one hand by the clergy, and on the other by political economists, so that religion and science agreed in upholding the competitive and capitalistic system of society as the only rational and possible one. Hence it came to be believed that the true sphere of governmental action did not include the abolition of poverty. It was even declared that poverty was due to economic causes over which governments had no power; that wages were kept down by the "iron law" of supply and demand; and that any attempt to find a remedy by Acts of Parliament only aggravated the disease. During the Premiership of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman this attitude was, for the first time, changed. On numerous occasions Sir Henry declared that he held it to be the duty of a government to deal with problems of unemployment and poverty.

In 1908 three great strikes, coming in rapid succession--those of the Railway and other Transport Unions, the Miners, and the London Dock Labourers--brought home to the middle and upper classes, and to the Government, how completely all are dependent on the "working classes." This and similar experiences showed us that when the organisation of the trade unions was more complete, and the accumulated funds of several years were devoted to this purpose, the bulk of the inhabitants of London, and of other great cities, could be made to suffer a degree of famine comparable with that of Paris when besieged by the German army in 1870.

Wallace's watchword throughout these social agitations was "Equality of Opportunity for All," and the ideal method by which he hoped to achieve this end was a system of industrial colonisation in our own country whereby _all_ would have a fair, if not an absolutely equal, share in the benefits arising from the production of their own labour, whether physical or mental.[50]

With regard to the education of the people, especially as a stepping-stone to moral and intellectual reform, Wallace believed in the training of individual natural talent, rather than the present system of general education thrust upon every boy or girl regardless of their varying mental capacities. He also urged that the building-up of the mind should be alternated with physical training in one or more useful trades, so that there might be, not only at the outset, but also in later life, a choice of occupation in order to avoid the excess of unemployment in any one direction.

In his opinion, one of the injurious results of our competitive system, having its roots, however, in the valuable "guilds" of a past epoch, was the almost universal restriction of our workers to only one kind of labour. The result was a dreadful monotony in almost all spheres of work, the extreme unhealthiness of many, and a much larger amount of unemployment than if each man or woman were regularly trained in two or more occupations. In addition to two of what are commonly called trades, every youth should be trained for one day a week or one week in a month, according to the demand for labour, in some of the various operations of farming or gardening. Not only would this improve the general health of the workers, but it would also add much to the interest and enjoyment of their lives.

"There is one point," he wrote, "in connection with this problem which I do not think has ever been much considered or discussed. It is the undoubted benefit to all the members of a society of _the greatest possible diversity of character_, as a means both towards the greatest enjoyment and interest of association, and to the highest ultimate development of the race. If we are to suppose that man might have been created or developed with none of those extremes of character which now often result in what we call wickedness, vice, or crime, there would certainly have been a greater monotony in human nature, which would, perhaps, have led to less beneficial results than the variety which actually exists may lead to. We are more and more getting to see that very much, perhaps all, the vice, crime, and misery that exists in the world is the result, not of the wickedness of individuals, but of the entire absence of sympathetic training from infancy onwards. So far as I have heard, the only example of the effects of such a training on a large scale was that initiated by Robert Owen at New Lanark, which, with most unpromising materials, produced such marvellous results on the character and conduct of the children as to seem almost incredible to the numerous persons who came to see and often critically to examine them. There must have been all kinds of characters in his schools, yet _none_ were found to be incorrigible, _none_ beyond control, _none_ who did not respond to the love and sympathetic instruction of their teachers. It is therefore quite possible that _all_ the evil in the world is directly due to man, not to God, and that when we once realise this to its full extent we shall be able, not only to eliminate almost completely what we now term evil, but shall then clearly perceive that all those propensities and passions that under bad conditions of society inevitably led to it, will under good conditions add to the variety and the capacities of human nature, the enjoyment of life by all, and at the same time greatly increase the possibilities of development of the whole race. I myself feel confident that this is really the case, and that such considerations, when followed out to their ultimate issues, afford a complete solution of the great problem of the ages--the origin of evil."[51]

Closely allied with the welfare of the child is another "reform" with which Wallace's name will long be associated. That is his strong denunciation of Vaccination. For seven years he laboured to show medical and scientific men that statistics proved beyond doubt the futility of this measure to prevent disease. A few were converted, but public opinion is hard to move.

In his ideal of the future, Dr. Wallace gave a large and honoured sphere to women. He considered that it was in the highest degree presumptuous and irrational to attempt to deal by compulsory enactments with the most vital and most sacred of all human relationships, regardless of the fact that our present phase of social development is not only extremely imperfect, but, as already shown, vicious and rotten to the core. How could it be possible to determine by legislation those relations of the sexes which shall be best alike for individuals and for the race in a society in which a large proportion of our women are forced to work long hours daily for the barest subsistence, with an almost total absence of the rational pleasures of life, for the want of which thousands are driven into uncongenial marriages in order to secure some amount of personal independence or physical well-being. He believed that when men and women are, for the first time in the course of civilisation, equally free to follow their best impulses; when idleness and vicious and hurtful luxury on the one hand, and oppressive labour and the dread of starvation on the other, are alike unknown; when _all_ receive the best and broadest education that the state of civilisation and knowledge will admit; when the standard of public opinion is set by the wisest and the best among us, and that standard is systematically inculcated in the young--then we shall find that a system of truly "Natural Selection" (a term that Wallace preferred to "Eugenics," which he utterly disliked) will come spontaneously into action which will tend steadily to eliminate the lower, the less developed, or in any way defective types of men, and will thus continuously raise the physical, moral, and intellectual standard of the race.

He further held that "although many women now remain unmarried from necessity rather than from choice, there are always considerable numbers who feel no strong impulse to marriage, and accept husbands to secure subsistence and a home of their own rather than from personal affection or sexual emotion. In a state of society in which all women were economically independent, where all were fully occupied with public duties and social or intellectual pleasures, and had nothing to gain by marriage as regards material well-being or social position, it is highly probable that the numbers of unmarried from choice would increase. It would probably come to be considered a degradation for any woman to marry a man whom she could not love and esteem, and this reason would tend at least to delay marriage till a worthy and sympathetic partner was encountered." But this choice, he considered, would be further strengthened by the fact that, with the ever-increasing approach to equality of opportunity for every child born in our country, that terrible excess of male deaths, in boyhood and early manhood especially, due to various preventable causes, would disappear, and change the present majority of women to a majority of men. This would lead to a greater rivalry for wives, and give to women the power of rejecting all the lower types of character among their suitors.

"It will be their special duty so to mould public opinion, through home training and social influence, as to render the women of the future the regenerators of the entire human race." He fully hoped and believed that they would prove equal to the high and responsible position which, in accordance with natural laws, they will be called upon to fulfil.

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Mr. D.A. Wilson, who visited him in 1912, writes:

He surprised me by saying he was a Socialist--one does not expect a man like him to label himself in any way. It appeared to be unconscious modesty, like a school-boy's, which made him willing to be labelled; but no label could describe him, and his mental sweep was unlimited. Although in his ninetieth year, he seemed to be in his prime. There was no sign of age but physical weakness, and you had to make an effort at times to remember even that. His eye kindled as he spoke, and more than once he walked about and chuckled, like a schoolboy pleased.

An earnest expression like Carlyle's came over his countenance as he reprobated the selfish, wild-cat competition which made life harder and more horrible to-day for a well-doing poor man in England than among the Malays or Burmese before they had any modern inventions. Co-operation was the upward road for humanity. Men grew out of beasthood by it, and by it civilisation began. Forgetting it, men retrograded, subsiding swiftly, so that there were many individuals among us to-day who were in body, mind, and character below the level of our barbarian ancestors or contemporary "savages," to say nothing of civilised Burmese or Malays. What he meant by Socialism can be seen from his books. Nothing in them surprised me after our talk. His appreciation of Confucius, when I quoted some things of the Chinese sage's which confirmed what he was saying, was emphatic, and that and many other things showed that Socialism to him implied the upward evolution of humanity. It was because of the degradation of men involved that he objected to letting individuals grab the public property--earth, air and water. Monopolies, he thought, should at once revert to the public, and we had an argument which showed that he had no objection to even artificial monopolies if they were public property. He defended the old Dutch Government monopolies of spices, and declared them better than to-day's free trade, when cultivation is exploited by men who always tended to be mere money-grabbers, selfish savages let loose. In answer I mentioned the abuses of officialdom, as seen by me from the inside in Burma, and he agreed that the mental and moral superiority of many kinds of Asiatics to the Europeans who want to boss them made detailed European administration an absurdity. We should leave these peoples to develop in their own way. Having conquered Burma and India, he proceeded, the English should take warning from history and restrict themselves to keeping the peace, and protecting the countries they had taken. They should give every province as much home rule as possible and as soon as possible, and study to avoid becoming parasites.--D.A.W.

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We may fittingly conclude this brief summary of Wallace's social views and ideals by citing his own reply to the question: "Why am I a Socialist?" "I am a Socialist because I believe that the highest law for mankind is justice. I therefore take for my motto, 'Fiat Justitia, Ruat Coelum'; and my definition of Socialism is, 'The use, by everyone, of his faculties for the common good, and the voluntary organisation of labour for the equal benefit of all.' That is absolute social justice; that is ideal Socialism. It is, therefore, the guiding star for all true social reform."

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He corresponded with Miss Buckley not only on scientific but also on public questions and social problems:

TO MISS BUCKLEY

_Rosehill, Dorking. Sunday, [? December, 1878]._

Dear Miss Buckley,-- ... How wonderfully the Russians have got on since you left! A very little more and the Turkish Government might be turned out of Europe--even now it might be with the greatest ease if our Government would join in giving them the last kick. Whatever power they retain in Europe will most certainly involve another war before twenty years are over.--Yours very faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

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TO MISS BUCKLEY

_Waldron Edge, Croydon. May 2, 1879._

Dear Miss Buckley,-- ... My "Reciprocity" article seems to have produced a slight effect on the _Spectator_, though it did snub me at first, but it is perfectly sickening to read the stuff spoken and written, in Parliament and in all the newspapers, about the subject, all treating our present practice as something holy and immutable, whatever bad effects it may produce, and though it is not in any way "free trade" and would I believe have been given up both by Adam Smith and Cobden.--Yours very faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

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He was always ready, even eager, to discuss his social and land nationalisation principles with his scientific friends, with members of his own family, and indeed with anyone who would lend a willing ear.

HERBERT SPENCER TO A.R. WALLACE

_38 Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, W. April 25, 1881._

Dear Mr. Wallace,--As you may suppose, I fully sympathise with the general aims of your proposed Land Nationalisation Society; but for sundry reasons I hesitate to commit myself, at the present stage of the question, to a programme so definite as that which you send me. It seems to me that before formulating the idea in a specific shape it is needful to generate a body of public opinion on the general issue, and that it must be some time before there can be produced such recognition of the general principle involved as is needful before definite plans can be set forth to any purpose....--Truly yours,

HERBERT SPENCER.

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HERBERT SPENCER TO A.R. WALLACE

_38 Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, W. July 6, 1881._

Dear Mr. Wallace,--I have already seen the work you name, "Progress and Poverty," having had a copy, or rather two copies, sent me. I gathered from what little I glanced at that I should fundamentally disagree with the writer, and have not read more.

I demur entirely to the supposition, which is implied in the book, that by any possible social arrangements whatever the distress which humanity has to suffer in the course of civilisation could have been prevented. The whole process, with all its horrors and tyrannies, and slaveries, and wars, and abominations of all kinds, has been an inevitable one accompanying the survival and spread of the strongest, and the consolidation of small tribes into large societies; and among other things the lapse of land into private ownership has been, like the lapse of individuals into slavery, at one period of the process altogether indispensable. I do not in the least believe that from the primitive system of communistic ownership to a high and finished system of State ownership, such as we may look for in the future, there could be any transition without passing through such stages as we have seen and which exist now. Argument aside, however, I should be disinclined to commit myself to any scheme of immediate action, which, as I have indicated to you, I believe at present premature. For myself I feel that I have to consider not only what I may do on special questions, but also how the action I take on special questions may affect my general influence; and I am disinclined to give more handles against me than are needful. Already, as you will see by the enclosed circular, I am doing in the way of positive action more than may be altogether prudent.--Sincerely yours,

HERBERT SPENCER.

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A.R. WALLACE TO MR. A.C. SWINTON

_Frith Hill, Godalming. December 23, 1885._

My dear Swinton,-- ... I have just received an invitation to go to lecture in Sydney on Sundays for three months, with an intimation that other lectures can be arranged for in Melbourne and New Zealand. It is tempting!... If I had the prospect of clearing £1,000 by a lecturing campaign I would go, though it would require a great effort.... I did not think it possible even to contemplate going so far again, but the chance of earning a lot of money which would enable me to clear off this house and leave something for my family must be seriously considered.--Yours very truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

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TO MISS VIOLET WALLACE

_Parkstone, Dorset. May_ 10, 1891.

My dear Violet,-- ... I am quite in favour of a legal eight hours' day. Overtime need not be forbidden, but every man who works overtime should have a legal claim to double wages for the extra hours. That would make it cheaper for the master to employ two sets of men working each eight hours when they had long jobs requiring them, while for the necessities of finishing contracts, etc., they could well afford to pay double for the extra hours. "It would make everything dearer!" Of course it would! How else can you produce a more equal distribution of wealth than by making the rich and idle pay more and the workers receive more? "The workers would have to pay more, too, for everything they bought!" True again, but what they paid more would not equal their extra earnings, because a large portion of the extra pay to the men will be paid by the rich, and only the remainder paid by the men themselves. The eight hours' day and double pay for overtime would not only employ thousands now out of work, but would actually raise wages per hour and per day. This is clear, because wages are kept down wholly by the surplus supply of labour in every trade. The moment the surplus is used up, or nearly so, by more men being required on account of shorter hours, competition among the men becomes less; among the employers, for men, more: hence necessarily higher wages all round. As to the bogey of foreign competition, it is a bogey only. All the political economists agree that if wages are raised in all trades, it will not in the least affect our power to export goods as profitably as now. Look and see! And, secondly, the eight hours' movement is an international one, and will affect all alike in the end.

There are some arguments for you! Poor unreasoning infant!!...

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REV. AUGUSTUS JESSOPP TO A.R. WALLACE

_Scarning Rectory, East Dereham. August 25, 1893._

My dear Mr. Wallace,--I have put off writing to thank you for your kind letter, and the book and pamphlets you were good enough to send me, because I hoped in acknowledgment to say I had read your little volumes, as I intend to. The fates have been against me, and I will delay no longer thanking you for sending them to me.

I do not believe in your theory of land nationalisation one bit! But I like to see all that such a man as you has to say on his side.

In return I send you my view of the matter, which is just as likely to convert you as your book is to convert me.

I love a man with a theory, for I learn most from such a man, and when I have thought a thing out in my own mind and forgotten the arguments while I have arrived at a firm conviction as to the conclusion, it is refreshing to be reminded of points and facts that have slipped away from me!

It was a great pleasure and privilege to make your acquaintance the other day, and I hope we may meet again some day.--Very truly yours,

AUGUSTUS JESSOPP.

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REV. H. PRICE HUGHES TO A.R. WALLACE

_8 Taviton Street, Gordon Square, W.C. September 14, 1898._

Dear Dr. Wallace,--I am always very glad when I hear from you. So far as your intensely interesting volume has compelled some very prejudiced people to read your attack on modern delusions, it is a great gain, especially to themselves. I have read your tract on "Justice, not Charity," with great pleasure and approval. The moment Mr. Benjamin Kidd invented the striking term of "equality of opportunity" I adopted it, and have often preached it in the pulpit and on the platform, just as you preach it in the tract before me. I fully agree that justice, not charity, is the fundamental principle of social reform. There is something very contemptible in the spiteful way in which many newspapers and magistrates are trying to aggravate the difficulties of conscientious men who avail themselves of the conscience clause in the new Vaccination Act. There is very much to be done yet before social justice is realised, but the astonishing manifesto of the Czar of Russia, which I have no doubt is a perfectly sincere one, is a revelation of the extent to which social truth is leavening European society. Since I last wrote to you I have been elected President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, which will give me a great deal of special work and special opportunities also, I am thankful to say, of propagating Social Christianity, which in fact, and to a great extent in form, is what you yourself are doing.--Yours very sincerely,

H. PRICE HUGHES.

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TO ALFRED RUSSELL

_Parkstone, Dorset. May 11, 1900._

Dear Sir,--I am not a vegetarian, but I believe in it as certain to be adopted in the future, and as essential to a higher social and moral state of society. My reasons are:

(1) That far less land is needed to supply vegetable than to supply animal food.

(2) That the business of a butcher is, and would be, repulsive to all refined natures.

(3) That with proper arrangements for variety and good cookery, vegetable food is better for health of body and mind.--Yours very truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

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TO MR. JOHN (LORD) MORLEY

_Parkstone, Dorset, October 20, 1900._

Dear Sir,--I look upon you as the one politician left to us, who, by his ability and integrity, his eloquence and love of truth, his high standing as a thinker and writer, and his openness of mind, is able to become the leader of the English people in their struggle for freedom against the monopolists of land, capital, and political power. I therefore take the liberty of sending you herewith a book of mine containing a number of miscellaneous essays, a few of which, I venture to think, are worthy of your serious attention.

Some time since you intimated in one of your speeches that, if the choice for this country were between Imperialism and Socialism, you were inclined to consider the latter the less evil of the two. You added, I think, your conviction that the dangers of Socialism to human character were what most influenced you against it. I trust that my impression of what you said is substantially correct. Now I myself believe, after a study of the subject extending over twenty years, that this danger is non-existent, and certainly does not in any way apply to the fundamental principles of Socialism, which is, simply, _the voluntary organisation of labour for the good of all_....--With great esteem, I am yours very faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

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MR. JOHN (LORD) MORLEY TO A.R. WALLACE

_57 Elm Park Gardens, S.W. October 31, 1900._

My dear Sir,--For some reason, though your letter is dated the 20th, it has only reached me, along with the two volumes, to-day. I feel myself greatly indebted to you for both. In older days I often mused upon a passage of yours in the "Malay Archipelago" contrasting the condition of certain types of savage life with that of life in a modern industrial city. And I shall gladly turn again to the subject in these pages, new to me, where you come to close quarters with the problem.

But my time and my mind are at present neither of them free for the effective consideration of this mighty case. Nor can I promise myself the requisite leisure for at least several months to come. What I can do is to set your arguments a-simmering in my brain, and perhaps when the time of liberation arrives I may be in a state to make something of it. I don't suppose that I shall be a convert, but I always remember J.S. Mill's observation, after recapitulating the evils to be apprehended from Socialism, that he would face them in spite of all, if the only alternative to Socialism were our present state.--With sincere thanks and regard, believe me yours faithfully

JOHN MORLEY.

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TO MR. C.G. STUART-MENTEITH

_Parkstone, Dorset. June 6, 1901._

Dear Sir,--I have no time to discuss your letter[52] at any length. You seem to assume that we can say definitely who are the "fit" and who the "unfit."

I deny this, except in the most extreme cases.

I believe that, even now, the race is mostly recruited by the _more fit_--that is the upper working classes and the lower middle classes.

Both the very rich and the very poor are probably--as classes--below these. The former increase less rapidly through immorality and late marriage; the latter through excessive infant mortality. If that is the case, no legislative interference is needed, and would probably do harm.

I see nothing in your letter which is really opposed to my contention--that under rational social conditions the healthy instincts of men and women will solve the population problem far better than any tinkering interference either by law or by any other means.

And in the meantime the condition of things is not so bad as you suppose.--Yours very truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

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TO MR. SYDNEY COCKERELL

_Broadstone, Wimborne. January 15, 1906._

Dear Mr. Cockerell,--I have now finished reading Kropotkin's Life with very great interest, especially for the light it throws on the present condition of Russia. It also brings out clearly some very fine aspects of the Russian character, and the horrible despotism to which they are still subject, equivalent to that of the days of the Bastille and the system of _Lettres de cachet_ before the great Revolution in France. It seems to me probable that under happier conditions--perhaps in the not distant future--Russia may become the most advanced instead of the most backward in civilisation--a real leader among nations, not in war and conquest but in social reform.--Yours faithfully,

A.R. WALLACE.

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TO MR. J. HYDER (Of THE LAND NATIONALISATION SOCIETY)

_Broadstone, Wimborne. May 13, 1907._

Dear Mr. Hyder,--Although it is not safe to hallo before one is out of the wood, I think I may congratulate the Society upon the prospect it now has of obtaining the first-fruits of its persistent efforts, for a quarter of a century, to form an enlightened public opinion in favour of our views. If the Government adequately fulfils its promises, we shall have, in the Bill for a fair valuation of land apart from improvements, as a basis of taxation and for purchase, and that giving local authorities full powers to acquire land so valued, the first real and definite steps towards complete nationalisation....

ALFRED R. WALLACE,

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TO MR. A. WILTSHIRE[53]

_Broadstone, Wimborne. October 10, 1907._

Dear Sir,--I told Mr. Button that I do not approve of the resolution you are going to move.[54]

The workers of England have themselves returned a large majority of ordinary Liberals, including hundreds of capitalists, landowners, manufacturers, and lawyers, with only a sprinkling of Radicals and Socialists. The Government--your own elected Government--is doing more for the workers than any Liberal Government ever did before, yet you are going to pass what is practically a vote of censure on it for not being a Radical, Labour, and Socialist Government!

If this Government attempted to do what you and I think ought to be done, it would lose half its followers and be turned out, ignominiously, giving the Tories another chance. That is foolish as well as unfair.--Yours truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

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TO LORD AVEBURY

_Broadstone, Wimborne. June 23, 1908._

Dear Lord Avebury,-- ... Allow me to wish every success to your Bill for preserving beautiful birds from destruction. To stop the import is the only way--short of the still more drastic method of heavily fining everyone who wears feathers in public, with imprisonment for a second offence. But we are not yet ripe for that.--Yours very truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE. TO MR. E. SMEDLEY

_Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset. December 25, 1910._

Dear Mr. Smedley,--Thanks for your long and interesting letter.... Man is, and has been, horribly cruel, and it is indeed difficult to explain why. Yet that there is an explanation, and that it does lead to good in the end, I believe. Praying is evidently useless, and should be, as it is almost always selfish--for _our_ benefit, or our _families_, or our _nation_.--Yours very truly,

ALFRED E. WALLACE.

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TO MR. W.G. WALLACE

_Old Orchard, Broadstone, Wimborne. August 20, 1911._

My dear Will,-- ... The railway strike surpasses the Parliament Bill in excitement. On receipt of Friday's paper, I sat down and composed and sent off to Lloyd George a short but big letter, on large foolscap paper, urging him and Asquith, as the two strong men of the Government, to take over at once the management of the railways of the entire country, by Royal Proclamation--on the ground of mismanagement for seventy years, and having brought the country to the verge of starvation and civil war; to grant an amnesty to all strikers (except for acts of violence), also grant all the men's demands for one year, and devote that time to a deliberate and impartial inquiry and a complete scheme of reorganisation of the railways in the interest, first of the public, then of the men of all grades, lastly of the share and bond owners, who will become guaranteed public creditors.... It has been admitted and proved again and again, that the men are badly treated, that their grievances are real--their very unanimity and standing by each other proves it. Their demands are most moderate; and the cost in extra wages will be saved over and over in safety, regularity, economy of working, and public convenience. I have not had even an acknowledgment of receipt yet, but hope to in a day or two....

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MR. H.M. HYNDMAN TO A.R. WALLACE

_9 Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, S.W. March 14, 1912._

Dear Sir,--Everyone who knows anything of the record of modern science in this country recognises how very much we all owe to you. It was, therefore, specially gratifying to me that you should be so kind as to write such a very encouraging letter on the occasion of my seventieth birthday. I owe you sincere thanks for what you said, though I may honestly feel that you overpraised what I have done. It has been an uphill fight, but I am lucky in being allowed to see through the smoke and dust of battle a vision of the promised land. The transformation from capitalism to socialism is going on slowly under our eyes.

Again thanking you and wishing you every good wish, believe me yours sincerely,

H.M. HYNDMAN.

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TO MR. M.J. MURPHY

_Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset. August 19, 1913._

Dear Sir,--I not only think but firmly believe that Lloyd George is working for the good of the people, in all ways open to him. The wonder is that he can persuade Asquith and the Cabinet to let him go as far as he does. No doubt he is obliged to do things he does not think the best absolutely, but the best that are practicable. He does not profess to be a Socialist, and he is not infallible, but he does the best he can, under the conditions in which he finds himself. Socialists who condemn him for not doing more are most unfair. They must know, if they think, that if he tried to do much more towards Socialism he would break up the Government and let in the Tories.--Yours truly,

A.R. WALLACE.

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TO MR. A. WILTSHIRE

_Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset. September 14, 1913._

Dear Sir,--I wish you every success in your work for the amelioration of the condition of the workers, through whose exertions it may be truly said we all live and move and have our being.

Your motto is excellent. Above all things stick together.

Equally important is it to declare as a fixed principle that wages are to be and must be continuously raised, never lowered. You have too much arrears to make up--too many forces against you, to admit of their being ever lowered. Let future generations decide when that is necessary--if ever.

This is a principle worth enforcing by a general strike. Nothing less will be effective--nothing less should be accepted; and you must let the Government know it, and insist that they adopt it.

The rise must always be towards uniformity of payment for all useful and productive work.--Yours sincerely,

ALFRED E. WALLACE.