IX. Socialism and History
The struggle of socialism against capitalism is part of the historic rhythm
in the concentration and dispersion of wealth. The capitalist, of course, has
fulfilled a creative function in history: he has gathered the savings of the
people into productive capital by the promise of dividends or interest; he
has financed the mechanization of industry and agriculture, and the
rationalization of distribution; and the result has been such a flow of goods
from producer to consumer as history has never seen before. He has put the
liberal gospel of liberty to his use by arguing that businessmen left
relatively free from transportation tolls and legislative regulation can give
the public a greater abundance of food, homes, comfort, and leisure than
has ever come from industries managed by politicians, manned by
governmental employees, and supposedly immune to the laws of supply
and demand. In free enterprise the spur of competition and the zeal and zest
of ownership arouse the productiveness and inventiveness of men; nearly
every economic ability sooner or later finds its niche and reward in the
shuffle of talents and the natural selection of skills; and a basic democracy
rules the process insofar as most of the articles to be produced, and the
services to be rendered, are determined by public demand rather than by
governmental decree. Meanwhile competition compels the capitalist to
exhaustive labor, and his products to ever-rising excellence.
There is much truth in such claims today, but they do not explain why
history so resounds with protests and revolts against the abuses of industrial
mastery, price manipulation, business chicanery, and irresponsible wealth.
These abuses must be hoary with age, for there have been socialistic
experiments in a dozen countries and centuries. We read that in Sumeria,
about 2100 B.C.,
the economy was organized by the state. Most of the arable land was
the property of the crown; labourers received rations from the crops
delivered to the royal storehouses. For the administration of this vast
state economy a very differentiated hierarchy was developed, and
