WCP3699

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset

August 24th. 1889

My dear Girdlestone¹

Baron Colin[s]² was the originator of the "Social Economy" expounded & popularised by Potter³ & Co. I forgot about the non-divisibility of trusts, as all that introductory part seemed to me quite unnecessary. I am reading "Looking Backward"⁴ for the 3rd. time, & find each time more & more to admire in it. It is so marvellously [2] realistic, so admirably reasoned, and it so beautifully combines freedom & individuality with complete equality & social unity. One of the most admirable points in the book to my mind is the government by the retired workers, who have no possible interest but to keep up the efficiency of the great and industrial machine & all the experience & knowledge [3] to enable them to do it.

All other writers ^{(that I have read)} supposed the workers themselves to elect their own overseers, managers &c. which would be fatal. Next in beauty & completeness is the way in which, after the first 3 years as a "private in the industrial army" — every one chooses his own work, yet, by the ingenious plan of proportioning the hours of work inversely to the hardness or disagreeableness of the occupation, the number of [4] volunteers always suffices for the work to be done. These two ideas seem to me the marks of genius, & make all the difference between workable and unworkable socialism; and with the many other solutions of difficulties have convinced me of the perfect possibility of a system so worked, even with human nature as it is now (of course allowing time for all to be educated from childhood in the system — one generation!) and this I never saw made clear before. I therefore am now a thorough Socialist, & care not who knows it. In America it may come about as he suggests. There I believe it must come after L.[and] nationalisation.

Yours faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Many thanks for "The Dawn"⁵. It is cheering.