IN bringing this small volume before the public, I do so only after several years of constant meditation on the subject treated, and after diligent research in nearly all the schools of thought, economic and philosophic. Those who have given the question of value even the least attention will readily grant that there is room for discussion; and those to whom this work will for the first time introduce its importance, may, I hope, find in it sufficient to, at least, whet their appetite for a further and more extensive research.
Economists, too, I venture to think, will find some- thing worthy of their consideration; for it will bring under their notice a Philosophy which is only too much neglected; while, in the aggregate, it will give a new aspect to many of the pressing questions of the day, and point a way of escape from that which is, by some, looked upon as an evil, but accepted as inevitable; indeed, is inevitable unless its general idea is satisfied I mean Socialism. In evidence of this, I quote from George Bernard Shaw, one of the leading exponents of Socialism. In answer to Auberon Herbert, he says; I prefer the justifiable physical force of Social Democracy to the unjustifiable physical force of to-day. I understand that you would prefer no force at all, despotic or democratic. So would I; and when the alternative between Social Democracy and perfect freedom presents itself, I shall vote for perfect freedom. At present the choice is between Social Democracy and the despotism of a small minority which extorts from the vast majority half the produce of their toil by deliberately organised coercion. Consequently I am a Social Democrat.... You have not the slightest warrant for assuming that I worship physical force a bit more than you do. As a matter of fact, my objection to what you call a free life is that it offers no solution whatever of economic problems, which if left unsolved, would produce, not a free life, but a free fight, ending in the enslavement of the vanquished.
This expresses the thoughts of many Socialists; and the main strength of Socialism lies in the truth of its criticisms of present societary relations, being at the same time (as a constructive theory) very presentable to a hungry man, or one struggling against the huge monopolies he has to encounter on every hand. Come, it says, I will feed you, and lift you from that harrowing anxiety and uncertainty which is your lot, and place you in a position of security and comfort.
Everywhere men are succumbing to the temptation, the master delusion. This must be, since, whatever may be said of our general advancement, the evils of to-day are getting more and more unbearable. And men will rid themselves of evils, though they fly to others they know not of. On the other hand, it is difficult to portray the errors and more distant evil results of Socialism, since they, at present, can only be seen with the mental eye, and long dissertations on the matter of individual rights, and Liberty, to come, some day, perhaps, is altogether insufficient to overcome the form which the instinct of self-preservation now presents....