WCP2710

[1]¹

OAK TREE HOUSE.

BRANCH HILL.

HAMPSTEAD. N.W.

Aug. 11. 1898

Dear Sir

Many thanks for y^r. kind reply² and for the interesting essay. I had already read your address published in "Light".³

The question of "Equality of Opportunity" v. "Pure Socialism" is most important, and I sh^d. be glad to read any well considered scheme founded on this base if your c^d. tell me of one.

I have thought about it but cannot see how it c^d. be made to work. This probably is my fault and some better qualified man may see it, I & w^d. be willing to learn.

[2] At present it seems to me that Eq^ty of Opp^ty w^d. leave all the sources of evil untouched, if as I understand men may still trade & make profit under it. A law to prevent children inheriting the wealth of parents w^d. be difficult to enforce & very irritating. If a father of energy & business capacity made a fortune by a large concern, & living to good age was able to give his children a fine education and make them partners in his firm, he might retire and leave his sons as junior surviving partners.

How c^d. the law turn them out? and w^d. not the children of an unsuccessful man who had been able to do little for his children, and per- [3] haps died young, be at a terrible disadvantage, & sh^d. we not have all the miseries of greed & envy as now?

It has always seemed to me that the enormous success of "Looking Backward"⁴ was due to the fact that Bellamy⁵ went straight to the full logical conclusion of his economical premisses [sic], and enabled his readers to see that there was a clean issue before them and that that issue was a clean community, w^h was worth struggling for.

I am constantly meeting people now who fully accept this — often in the most unexpected quarters. The ceaseless commercial frauds are doing much to convince all the bet- [4] ter sort that individualism means corruption & that there is no cure while the system lasts.

It w^d I fear be difficult to arouse enthusiasm for a half cure wh. w^d. give Mammon a new lease of life; but perhaps those who have worked out a scheme "Equality of Opportunity" have planned something much better than this, and I sh^d. study with great interest anything that w^d. throw light on it.

It w^d. be a great pleasure to have a talk with you & I will certainly try to come to Parkstone. I shall be joining my wife & daughter next week at our country cottage on the S. Coast of Sussex, and might cycle over some day.

With kind regards | yrs very sincerely | Henry Holiday⁶ [signature]