WCP2710

[1]^1,2

OAK TREE HOUSE

BRANCH HILL

HAMPSTEAD N.W.

Aug[ust]. 11. 1898

Dear Sir

Many thanks for y[ou]^r. kind reply and for the interesting essay. I had already read your address published in "Light".

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

I have thought about it but cannot see how it c[oul]^d. be made to work. This probably is my fault and some better qualified man may see it, I & w[oul]^d. be willing to learn. [2]

At present it seems to me that Eq[uali]^ty of Opp[ortuni]^ty w[oul]^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[oul]^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[oul]^d. the law turn them out? and w[oul]^d. not the children of an unsuccessful man who had been able to do little for his children, and per- [3]³ haps died young, be at a terrible advantage, and sh[oul]^d. we not have all the miseries of of greed & envy as now?

It has alway's [sic] seemed to me that the enormous success of "Looking Backward"⁴ was due to the fact that Bellamy⁵ went straight to the 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, and w[a]s 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[oul]^d.if fear be difficult to arrange enthusiasm for a half cure w[hic]h. w[oul]^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[oul]^d. study with great interest anything that w[oul]^d. throw light on it.

It w[oul]^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[outh]. Coast of Sussex, and might cycle over some day.

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