Distributionism

Organizing a movement which promotes the personal ownership of property by the most widespread body of private owners possible. The economic, social and moral issues underlying high unemployment can be solved by a revival of small-scale family farming and small craftsman-oriented units in trade and industry.

The writings of William Cobbett, Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc promoted the movement popular among English Catholics in response to the high unemployment of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The main objects of the distributionist attack are large concentrations of wealth; capitalism, which is seen as the rule of the moneylender; and industrialism, seen as the rule of the machine. To combat these evils, distributionists urge the revival of the small-scale family farm, small units in trade and industry, and the encouragement of the craftsman. They attract many who are shocked by mass unemployment, alarmed at the growth of monopoly, or fearful of the depersonalizing influence of the modern factory.