the nature of all of us would be wrought in the twinkling of an eye because we found ourselves members of a Socialist State, those details might not lead to disaster. But natura nihil facit per saltum—nature does nothing with a jump. For some time to come we should continue to be human beings—"most remarkable like you" and me—and it is only too probable that the jealousy between one Trade Union and another, which is so often a cause of industrial strife and discord, might be renewed, under Socialism, in the shape of acute differences between the workers on the question of the wages paid to themselves and others. With the best goodwill in the world of all parties the problem of social utility as between the work of a coal-miner, a bootmaker and a—platelayer, would be hard to settle; and if instead of a universal smile of goodwill there were the old natural desire on the part of each man to do the best for himself, the industrial strife of to-day might be reproduced on an extended and much more uncomfortable scale.
Because under Socialism there would be no mediator in the shape of the State or public opinion. The State would be the employer and a party in the quarrel, and nearly all the
