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too ignorant either of what individual agency in its best form , or Socialism in its best form , can accomplish , to be qualified to decide which , of the two will be the ultimate form of human society . " Co-operative Association ( the co-partnership of working capitalists , for the purpose of self-employment ) , or concert in the direction of labour and the division of produce , is by no means incompatible with , or hostile to , individual freedom or tne right of private possession ; and when properly understood and applied , it becomes a friendly and auxiliary power . The problem to
be solved by means of Co-operation is this , — "Whether it be possible to obtain the efficiency and economy of production on a large scale , and to adjust the proportional distribution of produce , without dividing the producers—the employers and the employed—into two hostile parties , with apparently conflicting interests ; the rate ' of the wages of labour being adjusted in a spirit of reckless and bitter antagonism P The solution f the liesthat the
perfect o problem imp , associate , while preserving the greatest possible amount of individual freedom , shall secure all the social advantages of union . There are two objections frequently made to the co-operative system ; first , that men would endeavour to evade their fair share of labour ; and secondly , that they would work less when they work for themselves than when they work for others .
In answer to the first objection it has been wittily remarked , that there is a kind of work , hitherto more indispensable than most others , that of fighting , which is ne \ £ r conducted on any other than the co-operative system , and neither in a rude nor civilized society has the supposed difficulty been experienced . To the second objection I reply , that as the work done by freemen is in the end cheaper than that performed by slaves , so the work executed by self-employing associates , even at a higher rate of remuneration , is more productive and profitable
than the labour of hired workmen , who have no other interest in the enterprise than to fulfil their contract and to earn their wages . The liberal reward of labour , as it is the effect of increasing wealth , so it is a cause of the increase of population ; and to complain of such a result would be to lament over the necessary cause and effect of the greatest public prosperity . But , in my opinion , the improvement—moral and social as well as physical , in the condition of the working classes , will be the most important result of the practical application of the principle of Self-JSmployment .
In another letter I shall endeavour , briefly , to trace the history of modern Socialism . I remain yours faithfully , WILLIAM CONINOHAM . Komn Town , August 5 th .
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THE DANGERS OF THE TEMPERANCE " CAUSE . " Js not Truth stronger than Error ?—then how is it that Error bo often prevails , and Truth is so often an alien ? Is not Truth omnipotent ?—then how is it that it is so often defeated ? la not Truth immortal ? •—then how is it that it hns so often perished ? Is not Truth the most bountiful of tilings?—then how is it that it is so often disliked ? Is it not the most valuable of possessions ?—then how is it that it is so commonly despised and its friends persecuted ? Ask the enthusiast . The secret dwells with him : a-s , in two or three letters , wo may bo ablo to show . Theory is comparatively useless , unless practice applies it to life . Science is a wealed casket , unless you have the Art which liberates the gem , and wears it . In a very old book , in black letter and jaundiced leaves , ( that is if you have at hand tho edition now before we , ) you may read a Spanish proverb of great shrewdness , which might often bo repeated with profit on both sides the Atlantic , —namely , that " Knowledge itself may bo an evil unless good sense take euro of it . " How much more true this may bo of zeal—which runs hither and thither , doing either good or mischief , never enquiring whieh , so long as you applaud its activity .
How nine can you account for the failure of so many cxcolloiit movements ? Some reformations , now languishing out their last hours , aro , in themselves , ho od ~ numhlo , that they have required an unusual degreo of talent and perseverance , on the part of their advocates " - to kill them . Tho temperance movement would now bo half as strong again , had its friends been only ha {/ us earnest . You admire their enthusiaum , and deplore >< s elleetN . They have converted tho iiiuno of tho honest virtue of temperance into that disngreeablo do « igimtion "ioototnliain . " " Moderation , " saya Bishop
Hall , with a simile certainly difficult to explain— " Moderation , " says the Bishop , prettily , "is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all our virtues . " Moderation , by our Temperance teachers , is described in the extremest of language , and by the grimmest of figures . It is in their most forbearing and tolerant mood that they liken it only to " an inclined plane , polished as marble , and slippery as ice , upon which , if the foot be once placed , you . inevitably glide down to perdition . " This is false , as a rule , —it may be false in nine cases out of ten , in nineteen out of twenty , but the user of the simile will cling to it all
the same for that . The temperance societies were called upon to subscribe a testimonial to Mr . George Cruikshank , in reward for that extraordinary series of designs entitled the "Bottle , " which commenced with the delineation of a respectable artisan pouring out a glass of wine for his young wife , after dinner : —a glass represented as the first step on the aforesaid " inclined plane . " The " perdition , " you may be sure , is provided for in the end . The infamous moral of this series of designs is , that the man comes to kill his wife ; he dies himself in a mad-house ; his daughter finds her way to the brothel , and bis son to the hulks . And you are
gravely requested to believe , or submit to be told , that this will be the end of every , family , where a glass of wine is conscientiously poured out at the table between husband and wife . The consequence is that thousands of families , disgusted at this intolerant and calumnious advocacy , turn away from the noble cause of Temperance , to which , otherwise , they would lend useful countenance and valuable support . "We have lately seen the Reverend Mr . Gale , of Birmingham , outrage an , audience of ladies and clergymen by proposing that every missionary should sign the pledge , or something to that suspicious effect . "We have no sympathy with the rudeness with which Mr . Gale was treated by Mr .
Beilby , who knocked his spectacles off , but we can very well understand how a body of educated gentlemen might well feel outraged , at this gratuitous imputation put upon their powers of self-conduct . In another series of engravings , the " teetotaller" will show you that Moderation is the transition step to destitution , and , vice versa , that if you abstain entirely , instead of being " moderate , " you are " certain sure" to have a parlour , a parrot , a side-board , and a fortune . It is this intemperate extravagance that brings the honest dogma of temperance into contempt . You know that thousands of gentlemen throughout our land every
day set before their guests tVie most agreeable varieties of wines , without caring to taste them themselves . You know that thousands of gentlemen who have wellstocked cellars never were inebriated , and never will be . You know that thousands of people are hopelessly poor , and rigidly temperate at the same time ; and you despise the tactics which impute to every man the incapacity of self-control , and pretend that intemperance is the sole cause of distress : which ignore the other thousand evils and oppressions t o which civilized flesh is heir—each in its turn a cause of social destitution . The politician who ascribes all human evil to " class
legislation "—tho social reformer who ascribes it all to " competition "—the orator of the tub in the neighbourhood of Bethel , who ascribes it all to the non-acceptance of the last new c reed ho has adopted , we pass by , by common consent , as ill-informed fanatics . But this kind of doctrine on Temperance platforms , or in teetotal publications , is applauded as t ho essence of non-alcoholic philanthropy . Influential friends of rational temperance among tho people , have often asked why tho Leader did not join this advocacy in a formal manner . Our answer has always been , that to advocate Temperance in tho usual way was to bring it into
further contempt . To advocate it as wo should think rationally , would bo to exposo ourselves to certain harshness of imputation . If wo said one word in favour of a rational temperance , ( if such a conjunction of phrase , now made necensary . ean bo allowed ) wo should very likely bo met by an accusation of being tho apologists of intoxication . Such being tho courtesy with which any approximate advocacy is commonly met . If a man is absolutely a drunkard , he will find himself tho object of sympathy and kind attention * on tho part of innumerable teetotal orators , and tract distributors—but if ho is simply a sensible , virtuous man , who avoids all
excess , and is master of his own impulses , he will bo sure to 1 ) O denounced by a hundred tongues and pens as tho cause of all tho drunkenness , vieo , crime , and murder in tho world . Your moderate man is tho object of tho special and unrelenting antipathy of your teetotaller . . Fust > is tho politician of " six-points" hates tho man of " four" more than ho hates the Tory who Will refuse him oven one— -just as tho bigot hates tho nationalist ( who would purify his religion ) more than ho hates tho fat eorruptionists who will destnoy it—so tho teetotaller abhors the friend who sheds a manly charm over a salutary dogma . Touching tho Birmingham meeting to which reference has boon made , Mr . George Dawson
alluding to Mr . Gale ' s display , said , with that quaint courage for which Mr . Dawson is remarkable , that " he had tried teetotalism for several years , and now he was giving the other thing a turn . " We have been looking in the print-sellers windows ever since , expecting to see another series of plates by Mr . Cruikshank , in which the celebrated young preacher of St . Saviour ' s will be traced through well-marked declensions down to abject destitution , if not to a more significant end . Such are the immoralities of advocacy which disfigure a cause , that might , by wiser management , gather unto itself the widest honour , as it might be the fruitful source of rational blessings .
It were too long to descant on the thousand ways in which incurable hostilities are raised up against this question . It is an old trick of the politician and the theologian to infer what they suppose will be the consequences of any given theory , and to charge those inferences as facts upon their opponents , and to declare that they intend all the crimes imputed to them . On this principle licensed victuallers are denounced by the thousands as criminals and murderers . Upon the same principle tho vegetarian denounces the butcher—the hydropath the druggist—the homoeopath the allopath —and upon the same principle everybody might
denounce everybody else . The wiser course would surely be to trace the consequences of a given habit to its own results and trust to that for reformation—at the same time carefully allowing for difference of opinion , carefully respecting conscientious conclusions the opposite of our own . Your modern temperance apostle will have none of this precaution . He seems to think moderation of manner as criminal as moderation in alcohol . He perhaps does not say right out that he is infallible , but he acts as though he were , and he refuses to believe that any one can have reasons for pursuing a conduct the reverse of his own .
Dr . Frederick Lees , the philosopher of the Teetotal ranks , may be excepted from this classification , but it is difficult to recal any other name , which commands public respect , as associated with this species of consideration . An eminent London writer lately found himself in the provinces engaged to lecture . After the lecture , he asked to be directed to some establishment where hospitality could be purchased at least for money , as it may at any Inn in the kingdom . He was directed to a Temperance Hotel , where he asked , being fatigued , for a glass of wine . He was told rudely that he could have nothing of the sort there . " But it is necessary for me , " was the reply .
" No matter . I do not believe in the necessity . It is not necessary to me and I cannot supply it to a , customer . I would not supply it to my friend or my own father , " answered the conscientious and discourteous hotel-keeper . " Is this civil philosophy of thy invention , my friend ?" said the indignant visitor . " It is my rule , and it is also tho custom approved by the Temperance Society to which I belong-. They would exclude me if I supplied wine in my house . "
" Why even Dr . Carpenter , in the essay lying there ( said the lecturer , pointing to a volume before him ) for writing which your Society gave a prize , would teach you that under tho circumstances of fatigue , just now my own , a glass of wine would be salutary . " " The rule of our society forbids it unless a medical man has ordered it , " was the tart response . " Is it come to this in a civilized town in England that a man must live on the sufferance of every accidental keeper of a pop-shop—and drink tho detestable compounds which a Teetotal Hotel may supply or go without ; or , what is as humiliating , condescend to plead the order of his physician for his least act of diet ?" exclaimed the incensed metropolitan .
" We believe alcoholic drinks to be poison , and therefore we cannot conscientiously supply them , " replied the Puritan of this Ginger-beer Church . " Who made you the authority which determines what is poison to me ? By what right do you dietato to me what I shall exist upon ?" " Wo should apply tho same ride in a private house , " answered Lemonade . " Do you mean that your brethren would refuse me , on a friendly visit , that food or beverage which I found most suitable for myself ?" " O yes , we should , " was tho assurance of this dealer in cordials that make you sick .
" Would you , " rejoined an alcholic colloqmst , " carry tho insolence of your temperance so far ? What would you say if you were subjected to the sunm odensivo rulo in life ? " You visit a Vegetarian friend expecting a wholesome mutton chop , which you <*> uld conscientiously eat . He tells you mutton is poison , ho calls you a cannibal , and sots boforo you , as at Ham-common , an unboiled cabbage or raw eanots . You visit a Hydropath in winter , and ho insists upon your mimuffling yourself , and letting the cold air brace you an it braces himself . Ho cannot conscientiously HuUer you
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August 14 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 779
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 14, 1852, page 779, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1947/page/15/
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