New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-12-09
SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND.
ING TO MR.. WILLIAM BOOTH AND
Mr.. TOM MANN.
London, November %

sometimes called General Booth or the Sal.
walton Army, and now under NJ IIuret's micro
scope for the purposes OF an interview. The re-
suit is less valuable than with Mr.. Burns Mr..
Booth has learned caution, and his vocation in
life is not pre-eminently that Of moderator lie
consented to receive NJ Hurct on condition that
the questions to be put should first be submitted
TO him IN writing; and they We're. He had, there
fore. plenty of time to mediate on his answers
and to reduce them, also, to writing, if he cared
to, and to the strict commonplace which should
commit him to almost nothing. 1t is the social
rather than the religious question on which he
is Intercepted. How is poverty to be suppressedP
Thus, answers Mr.. William Booth:
The State ought to arrange that everybody
shah have work. It would be very easy, all that
is wanted is to cultivate the earth economically"
And he explain, that in Australia for example,
a single capitalist $4,000 acres, all in past
urc, and yielding but a small profit If they
were cultivated by 1000 men, they would pro-
duce fifty times more, and the laborers could soon
| buy tho land with the profit Of their own labor.
| In a few years, the laboring men of Australia
might thus become owners OF all Australia. IL
| is an attractive generalization; lacking one OF
two clear explanations; as, for instance, whether
| the grazing land Of Australia could, by any num-
| Der of laborers or by any outlay of capital, be
made into arabic land, and grow wheat at profit.
The late Duke of Sutherland spent some 3,O00,-
| 900 on o similar experiment in Sutherandshire;
and the whole Of that large sum remains buried
in the still sterile and 4ngrateful soil Of that
county.
1t is Mr. William Booths opinion that the soil
| of England, if properly cultivated, could be made
10 feed 100000, 900 OF men easily. There are at
present. he says, but IS, 0000 900 from which it APP
pears that when he says England he means the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
| His arithmetic is simple. There are SO many
acres; each acre can feed and support so many
men. At present. the country produces less than
half the food required for its population; who
have, moreover, in addition to agriculture some
,rifling means of livelihood in mines, manufact-
urcs, trade, and other industries; not worth Mr.
Booths notice. But arithmetic is arithmetic,
and who can deny that if 900 acres support
9 900 men. 10000 acres would support 10000
sons of toll And what has the quality OF the
land or the need of capital to do with the matter?
II is a matter Of faith; or, if you prefer, OF
| credulity.
But tie land is private properly, objected NJ.
Ilnrct. The workmen would buy out the owners,
responded Mr. Booth or, if they did not the
State would and make present Of it TO the
ters. His programme is
|. Restore the land to the laborers.
.. Teach them how 10 till it,
g. Give them the necessary capital
A. And divide with them the profits
Asked to explain some of these hard sayings,
Mr. Booth makes answer: =" believe what tell
you can say no more Why the land should
be restored 10 those 70 whom it never belonged;
who is to teach them TO till it, and to compel
them 10 till it or where the capital is TO come
and ,Xl
and upon what, taxes are to be levied to provide
tho funds. are but some of the questions 10
which Mr.. Booth thinks i" / believe a sufficient
reply. "Credo quia impossible Yet there are
in this country and l believe in America also,
largo numbers of men and women, and also OF
bovs and girls who look to Mr. William Booth,
not only as a spiritual guide and cher, out as
n safe and suitable administrator of largo funds'
and the right man TO reorgauze apd resenerae
the world
Mr.. Tom Mann is in one sense, a successor to
Mr. John Eurns: who. in another sense is still
his own successor II Mr. Burns retains his
ascrndency over audiences in Hyde Park ana
Trafalgar SIuare, and over his constituents III
Pattersca, Mr. Mann has acquired larger snare
OF confidence among the Dockers, the champon'
shin OF whose cause first conferred upon MI.
Burps his widest notorety. When IL was thoughe
advisable 10 appoint representative OF Iaoor
on the Labor Commission Mr.. Tom Mann was
selected lie has now been testifying before hlin-
self and his colleagues; having been, though
| member of the Commission, summoned by the
| Commission az a witness. His testimony took
tho form Of an elaborate written statement; foi-
lowed by q REORGANIZATION on the part OF ms
fellow commissioners. 1t is very long, very
confused, very ieiune, but is worth consider.
,,1a thArarl IL sfn
mcnt Of the present views and demands of the
very powerful class of which Mr. Tom Mann
makes himself the mouthpcce. do not hear THAI
he has been disavowed by any of his labor-com-
| rades. or by any trade union or other LABOR or
ranzation Some Of the chief points OF his testl'
mony are all that / can undertake to give.
Like Mr. Burns. Mr. Tom Mann is Socialist;
his head stuffed full OF "collectNi>m' and other
socinlistic iarron. lie has theories. and he has
proposals. sometimes runs into the other Set
ting ont with the notion that il is the duty OF
Society or Of Government, or of some collective
body. 70 provide for the we'll arc of each member
~ the community he arrives naturally enough AZ
some startling conclusions. The practical Eng
li,hman was, perhaps, most impressed by the sus.
gestion of pretty large scheme for cutting canal
through the Isle If Docs, in order TO aNoid III"
present curve of the River Thames, ana then turn.
ing this canal into landing quays ana
| wbarycs. which should supersedc the existing
| docks. What has this to do with socialism or tho
labor question, do you ask? Several Things
Il would get rid Of the existing dock system, WIN
which Mr.. Mann, as champion Of the dock-la"of'f,
| has d standing quarrel. 1t would provide greas
| supply OF work for many years to come ~ "o"''
crafty some grldges 1t might LEAD 10 soii'
| form of that confscaticn of other people pfop'
cr,y. always so dear to the social reior'r VI 'n'
PRESENT day. IL would cost vast sum OIL '"on'y'
| MFR. Mann thinks three or four millions e'e'ii's
| Others think twice or three times ''''' sun" nv
including any ALLOWANCE" for compensation 10 r m'
appropriated cXtinsuishei dock co'"pan". -r