Ever since men began to live in societies and to leave records, you will find the poorer people, when their poverty became intolerable, clamouring for a division of the wealth which the more fortunate enjoy. That is the main, obvious remedy to inequality of wealth; to divide it up again. But such a scheme has nothing to do with Socialism, and must not be mistaken for Socialism. The Socialist theory was invented, or at any rate was first put clearly, by a man of genius, Louis Blanc, who was Scotch on his father’s side and French on his mother’s. He lived rather less than a hundred years ago and the scheme which he and those around him started was this:-- The Officers of the State were to own all the Means of Production--machinery and land and stores of food, etc.--and they alone should be allowed to own it. Individuals and families and corporations might consume that portion of produced wealth allotted them by the State after it had been produced, _but they might not use it for making future wealth_. ANY WEALTH USED FOR THE MAKING OF FUTURE WEALTH, THAT IS, CAPITAL IN ANY FORM, WAS TO BE HANDED OVER TO THE OFFICERS OF THE STATE; AND ALL LAND AND NATURAL FORCES WERE TO BE OWNED FOR EVER BY THE STATE. That scheme is Socialism, and from that principle all Socialist ideas flow. In this way, it was claimed, there would be no division of society into Capitalists and Proletarians, no chaos of competition with its alternating riches and ruin; insecurity would be done away with, and insufficiency as well. Everyone in the country would be a worker, the State itself would be the Universal Capitalist. So there would be no struggle of capitalists going up and down one against the other, and no unemployment or lack of necessaries for anyone. Among the energetic and keen set of men who surrounded Blanc in Paris was a certain Mordecai, who wrote under the name his father had assumed, that of “Marx.” He wrote (in German) a very long and detailed book describing the whole scheme, as well as describing the evils of Capitalism, and showing how this scheme would remedy those evils. His book was pushed forward by the people who were converted to the idea, and that is why the theory of Socialism is now often called “Marxism.”