There is, however, a complaint against capitalism which, although it has been very largely remedied in recent years, yet in normal times, immediately prior to the war, certainly existed—that was the insufficient distribution amongst the workers of the product of the industry; capital in many cases received an undue share of the reward. This was a short-sighted policy; for good wages to the workers, provided the workers give good output, results in the workers possessing good purchasing power; and as so many workers are also consumers, this results in a good demand for commodities and so is to the benefit of manufacturers, and the community. But if some employers appropriated by way of profit an unduly large share of the product of industry, the workers did exactly the same if opportunity presented itself. One has illustrations of this in the way in which, by agreement between the building employers and the building Trade Unions, costs were forced up by wage-agreements which largely contributed to the shortage of housing and placed the unskilled builder’s labourer in a wage-position substantially higher than that of the skilled engineer tradesman, who normally stands on a higher wage-level. The Failure of Past Socialistic Experiments When we are discussing on a priori hypotheses the practical operation of the elemental motives of average men and women, it is wise to learn what experience has to teach us. There have been at least seventy attempts to carry secular Socialism into effect, of which five only survived their fourth year of life. There was the new Harmony Community of Equality, financed and founded in America in 1825 by Robert Owen. One of its articles of constitution provided that “every member shall render his or her services for the good of the whole.” It was a disastrous failure. Owen had supplied lands, houses and the use of capital, giving to some persons leases of large tracts of land for 2,000 years at a nominal rent and for moral considerations only. Addressing the settlers in 1827, he said: “I find that the habits of the individualistic system are so powerful that these leases have been, with few exceptions, applied for individual purposes and individual gain.” There was also the Brook Farm Phalanx, established in 1842, with which Emerson was associated; the Wisconsin Phalanx, established in 1844, and the North American Phalanx, a few years later.