A bold statement! The people _cannot_ manage their own business: it is _impossible_. They cannot farm the land, and build the factories, and weave the cloth, and feed and clothe and house themselves; they are not able to do it. They must have landlords and masters to do it for them. But the joke is that these landlords and masters do _not_ do it for the people. The people do it for the landlords and masters; and the latter gentlemen make the people pay them for allowing the people to work. But the people can only produce wealth under supervision; they must have superior persons to direct them. So the non-Socialist declares. Another bold assertion, which is not true. For nearly all those things which the non-Socialist tells us are impossible _are being done_. Nearly all those matters of management, of which the people are said to be incapable, are being accomplished by the people _now_. For if the nation can build warships, why can they not build cargo ships? If they can make rifles, why not sewing machines or ploughs? If they can build forts, why not houses? If they can make policemen's boots and soldiers' coats, why not make ladies' hats and mechanics' trousers? If they can pickle beef for the navy, why should they not make jam for the household? If they can run a railway across the African desert, why should they not run one from London to York? Look at the Co-operative Societies. They own and run cargo ships. They import and export goods. They make boots and foods. They build their own shops and factories. They buy and sell vast quantities of useful things. Well, these places were started by working men, and are owned by working men. Look at the post office. If the nation can carry its own letters, why not its own coals? If it can manage its telegraphs, why not its railways, its trams, its cabs, its factories? Look at the London County Council and the Glasgow and Manchester Corporations. If these bodies of public servants can build dwelling-houses, make roads, tunnels, and sewers, carry water from Thirlmere to Manchester, manage the Ship Canal, make and supply gas, own and work tramways, and take charge of art galleries, baths, wash-houses, and technical schools, what is there that landlords or masters do, or get done, which the cities and towns cannot do better and more cheaply for themselves? What sense is there in pretending that the colliers could not get coal unless they paid rent to a lord, or that the railways could not carry coal unless they paid dividends to a company, or that the weaver could not make shirtings, nor the milliners bonnets, nor the cutlers blades, just as well for the nation as for Mr. Bounderby or my Lord Tomnoddy? "But," the "Impossibles" will say, "you have not got the capital." Do not believe them. You _have_ got the capital. Where? In your brains and in your arms, where _all_ the capital comes from.