What is Distributism? So many definitions have been given that the question ought to be a party game, and I myself have been guilty. But I’ve just found that Chesterton published a marvelously succinct definition himself in the pages of his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly. The paper had as a recurring feature a page devoted to the business of the “Distributist League,” and a major portion of that page was given to certain concise definitions.
Distributism Defined
There are many readers of this Paper who are not members of the League. All who believe that ownership in the means of livelihood is normal to man, and necessary to liberty, and all who dislike and distrust the concentration of control advocated by Socialists and practiced by Monopolists, should join the League. There is no other tenet for membership, and no other obligation tha[n the] 1/- subscription, although active work is welcomed from all who can give it.
Elsewhere on the page, one could find this sidebar:
THE LEAGUE offers the only practical alternative to the twin evils of Capitalism and Socialism. It is equally opposed to both; they both result in the concentration of property and power in a few hands to the enslavement of the majority.
THE LEAGUE stands
For the Liberty of the Individual and the Family Against interference by busybodies, monopolies, or the State.
Personal Liberty will be restored mainly by the better Distribution of Property (i.e. ownership of land, houses, workshops, gardens, means of production, etc.).
The Better Distribution of Property will be achieved by protecting and facilitating the ownership of individual enterprises in land, shops, and factories.
Thus THE LEAGUE fights for:
Small Shops and Shopkeepers against multiple shops and trusts.
Individual Craftmanship and Cooperation in industrial enterprises. (Every worker should own a share in the Assets and Control of the business in which he works).
The Small Holder and the Yeoman Farmer against monopolists of large inadequately farmed estates.
And the Maximum, instead of the minimum initiative on the part of the citizen.
Short and sweet.
This issue, March 29, 1929, also has minutes from recent meetings of the Central, Liverpool, and Birmingham branches, as well as contact information for the remaining branches, of which there were then 14.
A Distributist Reading List
Finally, another sidebar suggests (all in bold):
BOOKS TO READ.
The Servile State, by Hilaire Belloc (4/-).
The Outline of Sanity, by G. K. Chesterton (6/-).
Economics for Helen, by H. Belloc (5/-).
Liberty and Property, by H. E. Humphries (1/3).
Guilds, Trade, and Agriculture, by A. J. Penty (5/-).
Fields, Factories and Workshops, by P. Kropotkin (2/6).
The Acquisitive Society, by R. H. Tawney (4/6).
Primer of Social Science, by H. Parkinson (3/6).
The Church and the Land, by Vincent McNabb, O.P. (2/6)
The Change, by G. C. Heseltine (2/6).
Do We Agree? by G. B. Shaw and G. K. Chesterton (1/6)
The above may be obtained through booksellers or direct from the Secretary of the Distributist League, 22, Essex Street, W.C.2.
Taken from G.K.’s Weekly; A Sampler, edited with an introduction by Lyle W. Dorsett. (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1986), p. 269. This issue appeared on March 29, 1929.
Watch out for the Tawney and Belloc links, they’re those unholy PDFs at archive.org where each page is a scan. On my computer, at least, you need to time yourself so you’re hitting the “next page” button a paragraph or two before you’re really at the bottom of the page. I highly recommend the “B&W” PDF, if available, rather than color. You can always try their messy text version if you’re feeling brave (and impatient).
You can find more Chesterton books at the amazing G. K. Chesterton’s Works on the Web, and paper copies of Outline of Sanity as well as both Belloc titles, the McNabb title, and other work by Penty at IHS Press. Belloc has his own online works page too, though it doesn’t include either of his titles above, as well as nearly 100 items on archive.org. The Kropotkin title, as you’ll see, is on an anarchy web site, which might amuse the author of The Man Who Was Thursday. You can get it, as well as other Kropotkin titles, on archive.org if you’re squeamish. Penty has at least one work online in HTML, Post-Industrialism, with a preface by Chesterton, as well as several others on archive.org.
So all that ought to last you a couple days, anyhow. If you find any links to the remaining titles, please let me know!
