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Is there a progressive movement towards a more equal distribution of wealth, and is the condition of the mass of the people improving, and if so, is this rate of advance such as to justify the expectation that by pursuing the present policy of social reform the existing social evils will eventually be abolished, and a state of society established in which poverty will no longer exist and equality of opportunity will be brought about? An examination of the facts relating to the present tendency of wealth distribution in the capitalist countries gives no support whatever to such a supposition. There is a strongly marked tendency for wealth to become more highly concentrated, for the share of the national income which goes in the form of rent and profit to increase in amount and in proportion, and for the wages of the manual workers to remain practically stationary, while the cost of living moves steadily upwards.

The condition of the great bulk of the wage-earning class in Great Britain is undoubtedly better than it was sixty years ago. But it is hardly fair to select such a date for the purpose of a comparison of the relative conditions of the wage-earners. As Mr J. A. Hobson says,^[5] ‘It should be remembered that a comparison between England of the present day with England in the decade 1830-40 is eminently favourable to a theory of progress. The period from 1770 to 1840 was the most miserable epoch in the history of the English working-classes. Much of the gain must be rightly regarded rather as a recovery from sickness, than as a growth in normal health. If the decade 1730-40, for example, were taken instead, the progress of the wage-earner, especially in southern England, would be by no means so obvious. The southern agricultural labourer, and the whole body of low-paid workers, were probably in most respects as well off a century and a half ago as they are to-day.’ The wages, the hours of labour, the general standard of living of the skilled artisans are better to-day than was the case two generations ago. By trade unionism and by palliative legislation a section of the workers has been raised out of that miserable condition in which all the wage-earners were sixty to eighty years ago. But it is doubtful if the great mass of unorganised, unskilled, and casual labour has improved its position in any appreciable degree.

If one had been writing at the end of the nineteenth century on this topic of the relative condition of the working-classes then and fifty years before, one would have had to deal with facts and figures which showed a tendency in the other direction from that which is indicated by the industrial and social statistics of the first twelve years of the twentieth century. Between 1850 and 1900, the rates of wages, as shown by the Board of Trade Index numbers, rose by 78 per cent., and in the same period the prices of commodities fell by 11 per cent. But it is not safe to take these figures upon their face value. The increase of wages was by no means spread uniformly over the whole wage-earning class, nor does a fall in the average of wholesale prices necessarily mean a corresponding reduction in the cost of living to the working-classes. The fall in prices in the last half of the nineteenth century was mainly in comforts and luxuries. Many of the articles which enter into the economy of the workers increased in price. Milk, eggs, butter, coal, and rent were all higher in price at the end than at the middle of the last century.

After all, the important matter is not whether the condition of the workers improved between 1850 and 1900, but whether it is showing a tendency to improvement now. About the end of the century we seemed to enter upon a new cycle of tendencies. The previous slight upward movement in the condition of the workers was arrested, and eventually reversed. The permanent tendency now is for the rich to grow richer at an increasingly rapid rate, and for the workers to become, not only relatively, but actually poorer. This reversal of tendency is due, in my opinion, to the greater power of capitalism, which is derived from the closer federation of capitalists and the larger units into which capital is massed. The last dozen years have seen an enormous increase in combinations of capital in the form of joint-stock companies and combines, and of employers’ federations of a national character to resist the demands of labour. The Board of Trade Returns on Labour Disputes show that from 1893 to 1900 the number of labour disputes which were settled in favour of the workers was 34·5 per cent., but from 1901 to 1909 the percentage was 23·5.

As has been pointed out already, the progressive advance in wages was arrested about the end of the last century, and since that time there has been no general advance. Taking the Board of Trade figures as to changes in the rates of wages, we find that since the beginning of 1901 up to the end of 1911 there were seven years in which the net result of all changes was a fall of wages, and four years in which net advances were registered. At the end of 1911, on the basis of these figures, wages were £3,000,000 a year lower than at the beginning of 1901. A period of eleven years is a sufficiently long time to take to get the true trend of a movement, and the facts in regard to wages prove that the general tendency is for wages to remain stationary. The increases of wages which have taken place have been mainly in the great, well-organised industries, and in many cases the advances have only been secured after costly labour struggles.

For the last eleven years not only has the tendency been for wages to remain stationary, but in another important respect has the condition of the wage-earning classes deteriorated. The purchasing power of wages has declined considerably. Since 1906 there has been a steady and continuous increase in the prices of commodities. Compared with 1901, the average wholesale prices of the principal commodities was 13·4 per cent. higher at the end of 1911. The retail prices show a much larger increase than this. In 1912 the Cooperative Wholesale Society published a comparison of prices between 1898 and 1912, from which it appears that for the quantity of coal which could be purchased for 15s. 3d. in 1898 £1 had to be paid in 1912, and that 17s. 10d. spent on groceries in 1898 purchased the same quantity as £1 in 1912. Taking the stationariness of wages and increase in the cost of living together, it is quite clear that there has been since 1901 a serious lowering of the standard of life of the workers in the United Kingdom, judging by the test of wages and the purchasing power of wages.

The figures in regard to pauperism give no support to the optimism which deludes itself that poverty is getting less. Taking the figures for England and Wales, we find that the mean number of indoor paupers rose from 185,862 in 1897 to 256,100 in 1911. There was a decline in the number of outdoor paupers in the same period from 530,146 to 503,181, but it is well known that this does not really mean a reduction in the number of the poor, but is the result of the Poor Law policy which has discouraged the granting of outdoor relief. The statistics in regard to able bodied pauperism afford as good a test of the state of the labour market and the condition of the poor as can be supplied by the figures of pauperism. In 1897 the number of able-bodied adult persons in receipt of poor relief was 101,829, and in 1911 the number of such had risen to 124,278.

Trade unionism, strikes, labour legislation have not been able to turn the current of economic tendencies, which are now running with such force in the direction of those who control the land and industrial capital. It must not be assumed that trade unionism and labour and social legislation are useless, and have done no good in these last twelve years. On the contrary, trade unionism has been a powerful brake on the general tendency to depress labour conditions, and if it had not been for its influence, the record would have been far less favourable to the working-class than it is. Such legislation as the Workmen’s Compensation Act, The Trades’ Boards Act, and the Old Age Pensions Act have turned into the pockets of the working-classes many millions a year which, but for these measures, would have been added to the gains of capitalism.

The answer to those who contend that there is a progressive movement going on towards a better distribution of wealth, and that the solution of the poverty problem can be solved without a revolution of our economic system, is supplied by the facts given in this chapter. The slow advance in the condition of labour which took place in the last half of the nineteenth century has been arrested,—not only arrested but reversed. The great and growing power of capitalism is making it increasingly difficult to maintain, let alone improve, the present standard of working-class life; the owners of land and capital are more and more taking an increasing share of national wealth; and if it can be shown, as Socialists claim, that it is the power given to the landlords and capitalists by the possession of land and capital, which enables them to appropriate such an enormous share of the national income, it will have been established that there can be no real and permanent improvement in the lot of the wage-earners so long as there is a monopoly of land and industrial capital.

[5]	Problems of Poverty, page 24.