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.