Any rigid system would involve this evil.  It is very necessary that there should be diversity and lack of complete systematization.  Minorities must be able to live and develop their opinions freely.  If this is not secured, the instinct of persecution and conformity will force all men into one mold and make all vital progress impossible.

For these reasons, no one ought to be allowed to suffer destitution so long as he or she is willing to work.  And no kind of inquiry ought to be made into opinion or private life.  It is only on this basis that it is possible to build up an economic system not founded upon tyranny and terror.

II

The power of the economic reformer is limited by the technical productivity of labor.  So long as it was necessary to the bare subsistence of the human race that most men should work very long hours for a pittance, so long no civilization was possible except an aristocratic one; if there were to be men with sufficient leisure for any mental life, there had to be others who were sacrificed for the good of the few.  But the time when such a system was necessary has passed away with the progress of machinery.  It would be possible now, if we had a wise economic system, for all who have mental needs to find satisfaction for them.  By a few hours a day of manual work, a man can produce as much as is necessary for his own subsistence; and if he is willing to forgo luxuries, that is all that the community has a right to demand of him.  It ought to be open to all who so desire to do short hours of work for little pay, and devote their leisure to whatever pursuit happens to attract them.  No doubt the great majority of those who chose this course would spend their time in mere amusement, as most of the rich do at present.  But it could not be said, in such a society, that they were parasites upon the labor of others.  And there would be a minority who would give their hours of nominal idleness to science or art or literature, or some other pursuit out of which fundamental progress may come.  In all such matters, organization and system can only do harm.  The one thing that can be done is to provide opportunity, without repining at the waste that results from most men failing to make good use of the opportunity.

But except in cases of unusual laziness or eccentric ambition, most men would elect to do a full day’s work for a full day’s pay.  For these, who would form the immense majority, the important thing is that ordinary work should, as far as possible, afford interest and independence and scope for initiative.  These things are more important than income, as soon as a certain minimum has been reached.  They can be secured by gild socialism, by industrial self-government subject to state control as regards the relations of a trade to the rest of the community.  So far as I know, they cannot be secured in any other way.