772-5 Socialist Liémry. II. Edited by I. Ramsay Macdonald, Mp. 66 J ...

T ABLE OF CONT ENT S.

P REFACE . PAGE

T he British Elec tors ’ susp ic ion of theory

ismistaken because ( I ) historica lly, grand po litical epochs co inc ide w ith grand relig ious andphilo sophical epochs

and (2 ) po litical prac tice and theory are as a

matter o f fac t inseparable .

This isparticu larly the case when po litics becomeconstruc tive xiii

asthey are to - dav

Fo r construc tive po lit ical work the organic con

c eption of so c ie ty is the mo st fruitful .As the Soc ialist a lone considers no t only theindividual bu t the soc ial unit in his work hemust have a c lear idea of wha t the nature o f

the unit is. ( v iii

This nec essitates a restatement of the Soc ialistconc eption o f historica l pro gress .

T he c ircumstances underwhich the Six th Editionisbe ing prepared .

C HAP T ER I . - T 111: PROBLEM.

T he Probl em is Poverty ,which is no t merely

physica lbu t menta l and mora l.O utward improvement may proceed along withvita l decay.

T he question does no t merelyafiec t the workman ,

bu t the capitalistand the who le o f soc iety .

Individua li ty israre under modern conditions .T he reason is that each func tion in soc iety isself- cen tred and competitivehenc e , co ordination i s the task o f the T wentie thCentury

CHAP T ER IL— SOCIE T Y AND T HE INDIVlDUAL.

Po litica l po lic ies depend upon what view one

takes of the soc ial type of unity.

Does the organ ic type correspond to fac ts ?Individual ist psycho logy exaggerates the free playo f the human w ill,

whilst the Soc ialist conception of func tionand the dependence of the individual upon soc ie tyasillustra ted in the change of individual func tionwhich fo llows soc ial re - organisation,

a re in acc ord w ith the b io logica l view of soc ia lpro gress, v iz : that it depends upon modificat ionof the soc ial struc ture .

in which the supreme effort o f individual w il lthrough force , e.g .

,Revo lution ,

counts littleT he pure ly individual func tions in progress are :I — A lterations of soc ial struc ture by industria linvention, e tc

a— Al terations of soc ial struc ture by eflec tive

moralT o the race , however, belongs the inheritanc e o f

the past , and the individual shares in thatinheritance through hiscommunal group .

“ Individualism,so - called , is therefore an unrea l

abstrac tion .

Further po ints in connec tion w ith the conceptiono f soc ie ty as an organic type are (1) its form,

and (2 ) itsself- consc iousness .Soc iety isan organisation of the bio lo gical type,

and our ideas of the individual and the c om

munity must be formed ac cording ly .

CHAP T ER l l l .— T HE ECONOMIC PER IOD .

Soc ie ty ex ists for purposes o fmu tual aid ,

therefore a soc iety who se func tions are competitiveevo lves into Soc ialism

Soc iety develops through the po litic al and the

econom ic stages to the moral one .

T he po litica l stage isgoverned by the necessitieso f a nation -makingdevelops democra tic formsand passe s into the economic stage ,which isat first competitive and individualistic .

This stage isnow complete ,because (1) sub division o f labour hasgone aboutaslfar asit can ,

asisillustrated in sho e making andtailoringco ordination Of different trades hasbegun,as isillustrated by the Stee l Trust

,e tc .

(3) the power of c apital,ow ing to fac ilities for

communica tion , etc . ,has been too much in

creased to be soc ia lly safe ,asillustrated by the use o fmachinery

,e tc .

(4) compe tition is g iving plac e to monopo lyw ithin certain areas, and(5) be tween o thers is developing into nationalwars ; and

(6) the c ompe titive state canno t meet certaindemands made upon it .

v i

So far we hav e only been so lv ing the prob lems Ofwealth produc tion,

which have no t nec essitated a very completeorganisa tion o f the organs brought into ex istenc e .

This pro cess, regardedfrom abio logic al po intOfview ,

is seen to contain safeguards againstcatac lysms ,

bu t it enc ourages paras itism,

asillustrated in the Monarchy and the House O f

LordsT he perio d also has itsethica l charac teristics , e g .

Evange lic ism ,

and itspo litical, e.g . Indiv idualismthe problems it hasgiv en us to so lve .

CHAP T ER lV .

— U T OPIAN AND SEM I - SCIENT IFI C Soc iALISM.

T he mistake of the Uto p ia builders was that theyassumed tha t Soc ie ty was an architec turalre lationship w hich cou ld be made and unmadeat the w ill O f indiv idua ls.

Sir Thomas More and Robert Owen taken as

examplesto show that the critic isms of the Utop1ansseemmodern ,

bu t they did no t understand the influenc e o f

When Owen lliv ed, Soc iety wasbeginning to so lvethe prob lems o f wealth produc t ion ,

and in do ing so had to sacrific e the interes t of itsc ells , the individuals .

Modification O f the soc ia l s truc ture necessary forprogress , and this must be done in keeping w ithSoc ie ty 's “law Of be ing ,

as shown in the histo rv of the CO - operativ emov ement.

T he func tions o f Soc iety must be co - ordina tedbefore moral results can be atta ined

,

bu t before this c ou ld be seen,bio lo gical sc ience

had to be so far advanc ed as to estab lishevo lution on a sure foundation

Ph iloso phy , espec ia lly German philo so phy, hadbeen specula ting upon the same prob lem,

and Marx approached Soc ialism through Hege lianism.

Marx s task was to we ld rival Soc ia list dogmasand me thods ,

bu t be ing a pre - Darwm1an

he acc epted Hege l 's idea o f grow thand the rational part o f hisdia lec tic ,

and so w as m isled by thoughts o f negation ,

revo lution , etc .,

which the soc ial cond ition o f Eng land a t the

time encouragedMarx 's conception o f soc ial grow th is pre

Darw in ian and U to pian

CHAP T ER V .

—T owARns SOCIALISM.

T he approach to Soc ia lism through a c lass war

assumes a simple o pposition o f two economic

c lasses,whilst the pro le taria t and the bourgeo isie are

themse lves split up into economic sub sec tions ,Interests of the same persons are comp lex

,e .g .,

influenc e o f Co - operation and Building So c ietiesC lass interests are persona l,have no construc tiv e value ,

are the bas is O f the pre - Soc ialis t labourmov ement,and canno t be merged into so c ial in terests .T he pro gress ive impulse isinte llec tua l,and So c ialism is inevitab le no t because Capitalism isto break down ,

viii

bu t because man isa rational being .

T he wage earners, how ever, are ripe for Socialistexperiment

,

because in the ir condition they are mo st easilyinfluenc ed by So c ia list thought

but the Soc ialist appeal isfor a rationa l judgmen tupon itsconceptions of the community and theindividual.

CHAP T ER VI . - ~So c iALrsM AND T HE POLI T I CAL O RGAN.

A positive view of the State isessential to Soc ialism 149

In considering the po litical po licy o f Soc ialism,

one must no t overloo k the charac teristics o fnational po litical methods, because they vary indifferent countries .

In this c ountry progress does no t advance byrevo lutionary stages

,

and parties are no t do gmatic , bu t adopt experimental me thods .

Soc ialism, developing through the Spenc erianphilanthropists,

Owenism and Chartism ,

after a period of purely po litical interests,has now reached the po int when it becomes theguiding idea of pro gress.

A new party then becomes necessary to deal w iththe new problems in the new Spirit ,

c .g . , through public contro l to cO - ordinate pub licservic es like the supply of houses and trams

T he immediate needs Of organised labour,the ripened harvest o f the teachings o f Carlyle ,Ruskin

,Spenc er, 168

and the definite So c ialist organisations, 169

have united in forming the new po litica l organ. 170

Thus , the apparent re - ac tion o f rec ent years 171

really indicates the end o f the Liberal period inpo litics,

religion,

na tional finance ,soc ial organisationand be lief in nationality .

Darwinism and Hegelianism are no t the cause ofreac tion .

This 13 shown (1) by the split - up of the Liberalparty, bu t more espec ially by (2 ) the rise of newfundamental ideas 1n po litics, and(3) the spread ofnew germinal po litical growthsMunic ipa l Soc ialism

,

and (4) the anti soc ia list campaign whichfo llowedthe Elec tion o f 190 6.

T he period o f reac tion hasin reality been a tranS1tion from demo cracy ln form to democracy inpowerThough there is no t identity

,there IS continu ity

be tween o ld and new progressive part ies .Soc ialism and the Labour Party .

T he grow th and decay of po litical parties .CONCLU SION.

Land must be nationa lised andcapital owned by the c ommunity.

It must a lso be emphasised that the soc ial organisa tion of produc tion de termines distribution ,

that Soc ia lism w ill no tbe a static industrial state ,and tha t itsviews upon distribution are b io logical

and no t mechanica l.Bu t the method o f assimilation isno t a prim!i bu t

experimental .

T he Soc ial ist mo tto is no t Szc Volo, bu t Solvitur

Ambu lando,

e .g . , the Soc ialist view o f propertyand o f the measure of va lue .

Soc ialism isno t oppo sed to machinery .

Soc ialism w ould no t de stroy spec ial groups likeTrade Unions , the Church, the Fam1ly .

Itskey idea istransforma tion .

PREFACE

T O T HE S I! T H ED I T ION .

IN a l i fe the greater part o f which has to bespent in the no i sy and dusty arena wherepo l i tics i s a hand - to - hand batt le , the re are

few Oppo rtun it ie s given for re t ir ing into thepeac e ful wilde rne s s whe re one c an think out

the mo re fundamental que st ions o f gove rnment

, and, se e party di ffe renc e s j ust ified and

explained - in the l ight o f theo r ie s o f whatSo c ie ty , the State , and po l it ic s are , o f whatthe funct ion o f Parl iament in a communityi s , o f what progre ss means , and o f what itsme thod must be .

Inde ed , it i s the habit o f plain matte r - O i

fac t Br itons to de c lare mo st sturdi ly thatthe se que st ions are o f no great impo rtanc eto the man o f affairs . Br it i sh po l itical l i fe ,it i s stated , move s by expe r ienc e and not bytheo ry ; and the Br it i sh e lecto r i s suppo sedto suspe ct any man who attempts to regulateand develop po l it ical pol icy in acc o rdanc ewith ce rtain inte l le c tual conc ept ions , such as

the evo lut ion o f the State and its re lation to

individual happine ss . That po l it ical me thod ,i t i s said , i s fore ign . I t i s the cause o f revo

xii .

lutions . I t i s impractical . The Briti sh elector glories in his di strust o f ideas . I havebeen taught since I became a member o fPar l iament that fo r a man to c laim that hi spropo sal s are logical , i s to condemn themto be smi led at by wise men and t e

jec ted by his fel low members .

The re are two repl ie s to the practicale lec to r who is inclined to be l i eve that pol it ics.i s the art o f l iving from hand to mouth— O f

muddl ing through . In the first plac e , everyt ime that Brit i sh pol it ic s has r i sen to hero icp ropo rt ions , it has be en e ither insp ired byre l igious fervour , as in Cromwel l ’s day, or

strengthened by phi lo sophical c onvic tion , as

in the epo ch O f the indiv idual i st Radical i smj ust c lo sed . Though the Brit i sh pe ople mayhave no love fo r the o re t ic al po l it ic s , the irimaginat ion must be l i t up be fore they r i seto great po l i tical effo rts . But , in the se condplac e , the most medio c re man who has evergained the c onfidence o f a re spec table c on

stituency on the ground that he has no

flig hty nonsense about him ,has, in sp ite o f

himse l f , to take side s on fundamental que st i ons .

Our happy -

g o- lucky disregard for theory

” theo ry be ing afte r all nothing mo re harmful o r dange rous than expe r ienc e systematised and the broken vis ions o f s ight c om

pleted by the exe rc ise o f reason— threatensto bec ome a calamity . Far be it from me to

x ii i .

j o in in the loud c ho rus o f approval and'

amplification which , for to o many years ,has been applauding Carlyle ’s dyspept iccharacte r i sation o f Parliament as a talking shop , bu t i f i t were cal led a jobbing shop , truth would no t be v i o lated . I ts

work i s mi sc e l laneous , scrappy , disorg ani s ed . I t fl ie s into panics , or goe s quietly tos le ep . I t treats the mo st deeply- seated dis ‘

ease s as though they were but sk in deep . I tprunes when it should uproot ; i t patches .when i t should make anew ; i t re fuses to seebeyond its no se when i t should be scanningthe ho r i zon . I t i s the re fo re the prey o f anypart i san wirepul ler who , whilst beating his

breast asa proo f o f his conv ic ti ons , i s laughing up his sleeve all the time at the credul ityof the people .

The consequenc es are serious . When itswo rk wasto l iberate , Par l iament could roamlike a Red Cro ss Kn ight , freeing any damsel

‘

he ld in duranc e v i l e whom it happened to!

c ome acro s s— from a N onc onformist who

wanted to wed and be buried in hi s faith , toan atheist o r a Jew who wanted to representa constituency in Parl iament .But this pe r iod i s over , and that o f soc ial

construction hasbegun . And how are we tobui ld ? What plans are we to execute ?

Empir ical me thods wi l l no t help us unl essthey are used astests o f ideal systems . Withwhat idea are we to experiment ? The sheerB

xiv .

p ressure o f clamour and need wi l l forc e us

.to take action . In what direction are we tom ove ? All change i s not progress ive . Whicho f the roads at present po s sible i s the rightone ? We must pas s mo re facto ry legi sl ati on . But what i s the c onstructive func tionof factory legislation ? We must ampl i fy our

!laws o f compensation to injured wo rkmen .

But what i s to be the relat i on betwe en thew orkmen , the employer and the c ommun ityin respect to the financial re sponsibi l ity im

p o sed by mo re perfect compensation laws ?We are beginn ing Old Age Pens ions . Buta re they given as a right or grantedas a favour ? We shal l p robably beasked to inter fere legislative ly withw age s . How far wil l the system o f

capital i sm bear such interfe rence ? Howfar wil l . such inte rfe rence open out theway o f further deve lopment to Soc iety ?W hat must be the nature , the l imi ts and thed irection o f thi s inte r fe rence , so as to al lowand encourage a mo re perfect system ofsoc ial relationship s than that which i s be ingbroken down ? The feeding of scho ol chi ldren i s be ing undertaken . Upon what princ iple should it be done ? I s the State tosupplant the fami ly ? I s the fami ly to bere tained asa so cial uni t in the future ? Whatought to be the extent o f i ts functions andduties ? The appeal s o f the unemployed havec ompelled us to appo int commi ttees and make

! V.

l egislat ive propo sal s . H ow far i s i t legit imatefor the State to provide wo rk for men ? Whatare the l imit s and nature of its responsibi l ity.ln this re spe ct ? What comprehens ive schemeo f treatment for the unemp loyable fo l lows asa nec essary consequence upon any Statere c ogn it ion o f the unemployed ? The pro.blems o f rating and taxat ion are fo rc ingt hemse lve s upon us unde r c ondit ions o f

which the e conomi st s and state smen o f thel ast c entury had no expe r ienc e . Do no t the

p r inc ip le s o f rat ing and taxat ion require re

vi sion ? Must we no t reconside r what i s thereal func t ion and j ust ificat ion o f bo th publ icand p r ivate p roperty ? Even the machine ryo f demo c racy is be ing que st ioned . What i st he be st fo rm o f democ rat ic o rgani sati on ?H as the passing o f the indiv idual i stic rights.O i man from the active stage o f po l iticsnecessitated a rev i s ion o f the conc eption o f

d emo c racy which the eighte enth c enturyhanded on to the n inete enth ? F or instanc e ,i s the great Shibbo leth o f e ighte enth and

n ine te enth Century demo cracy : N o Taxat ion without Representation : a sound basi sfor popular gove rnment , or was i t a me re.excuse fo r the enfranchisement o f the

M iddle C lasses ? Above all, we shal lhave to c ons ide r how far the State

.c an pro te ct its industry , and what steps a

modern industr ial community should take tose cure for i ts produc ers a fai r share o f the

xv i .

world’

s markets , and for its consumers a fai rshare o f its aggregate wealth . This question

,

crudely rai sed by the Tar iff Re fo rme rs , hasbeen as crudely answered by the “pure ands imple ” Free Traders .

The se are but a few of the que stions to thesolution o f which twentieth c entury statesmen will be cal led to contri bute . And whic ho f them can be succ ess fully dealt with bymerely yie ld ing to the pressure , the cry , thepas s ion , the fear, or the pol it ical exigencyo f the moment ? O ne and all involve a c on

s ide ration O f what i s the nature o f the o rgani s ed community , what i s its relation to theindividual , to voluntary c ombinations o findividual s , to trade and c omme rc e

, and so

on .

T he danger o f the the o rist in po l i tic s i s , o fc ourse , apparent . Theo ry may be a bl indtyrant . a wil l - O ’

- the - wisp , a seductive syren .

I t may c reate an unreal world through whichits bewitched v ictim rushe s bl indly to des

truc tion . But it i s the po l it ician’s busine ss to

bring t heory and exper iment into the closesttouch , to prevent the one separating fromthe other

,to use the first to ke ep the second

intel l igent , the second to ke ep the first sane .

Le t us learn a l esson from Cant i l lon ,

”

wro te Jevons , who , though he touche s the“depths o f theo ry in one chapte r , knows howto l imit himse l f within the possibi l it ies O f

pract ical l i fe in the*Princz

’

pl er of E conomi cs, London , 190 5, p . 175.

xvi ii .

experiments should be made without pre~

conceived ideas . That i s imposs ible . N o t

only would it make every expe riment fruitle ss , but even i f we wished to do so , i tcould not be done . Every man has his

own conc eption o f the wo rld, and thi s he

canno t so eas i ly lay as ide . We must,for

example , use language , and our languageis nec essari ly steeped in preconceivedideas . Only , they are unconscious pre c onc e iv ed ideas , which are a thousand timesthe most dange rous o f all .” This i s as

true o f so cial as o f phys ical scienc e , o f po l itic s as o f physics . Parl iament i s a labo ratory ; i ts legis lative experiments must beundertaken in pre ci sely the same scientificframe o f mind astho se o f the c hemist or thephysici st .I f any sec tion o f pol it ic ians demur to this

conception o f the i r wo rk , the So cial i st at anyrate cannot . For a distinction between theSo c ial i st po l it ic ian and all o thers i s that hethinks o f the who le o f Soc iety aswell as o fthe separate indiv idual s who c ompose it . I t

i s as impo ss ible for him to think o f Man

apart from So ciety asi t i s for the Sc ienti st tothink o f Man apart from the Animal Kingdom . T o the So cial i st , So cie ty i s 3 Unity .

But that do es no t carry us very far . Beforethe idea o f a un ited So c ie ty can help as a

guide in legi slat ion , we must make up our

m inds as to the type o f uni ty to which

xix.

Society corresponds , because obv i ously uponthat depends the relation between Soc ie tyand the individual which legislati on must express and must no t v i o late . Hav ing madeup his mind asto the type , the Soc ial is t is ina po s ition to c o - ordinate and organi se theso cial p roblems pre ss ing for solut i on ,

to c o

ordinate and o rgani se the proposal s he

makes regarding them .

I wro te thi s book hop ing to be able tostate the Soc ial i st po s ition to readers in thi scountry in a way mo re in ac co rd with Brit i shmental and polit ical condit ions than has

hithe rto be en the case . Much ye t remains tobe done be fo re the statement i s sati s fac to ry .

Marx ’s c o - o rdinat ion o f histo rical fac t and

explanat ion o f histo rical movement from thepo int o f view o f the Hegel ian le ft wing ,

brought the who le theory o f Soc ial i sm fromthe m i sty realms o f vague de sire , to the

clearly defined empire o f sc i enc e . But our

views o f individual and so cial growth havebeen pro foundly modified s ince Marx beganhis wo rk . Mo reo ver, the tr iumph o f the

dogmat ic and hard - and- fast me thodswhich have charac te r i sed Marxians far

mo re than Marx— has no t been altoge ther a gain . T he c oncept ions o f soc ialevo lut ion which Marx he ld , never havebeen accepted by the maj or i ty o f Briti shSo cial i sts . So cie ty in this country , with its

.ffree institutions and machinery which can

r espond to the least impulse o f the popularwi l l so soon as the people care to exp resst hemselve s , p rogres ses. by an assimi lation o fideas and circumstances . The pro cess o fo rgani c nutrit i on i s paral leled in the p ro cesso f social nutr it i on . Indiv idual s fo rmulateideas . So c ie ty gradual ly assimi late s them,

and gradual ly the ass imi lation shows itse ffects on the so cial struc ture— ou institu

t ions . The laws o f o rgani c ass im i lationapply in a special ly s imple way to our c on

d irions , our po l it ics and our parties ; and i tis the operat ion o f these non- catastrophica nd non - revo lut i onary laws which to - day i sc ausing so c ial unse tt lement and cal l ing for

p ol it ical readjustment .

Within the l imits o f thi s nec essari ly smal lv o lume , I have been unable to show in whatr espec t the o rgani c l ikeness o f So cietyrequires special modificati on The chie fdifferenc es , so far as they pertain to thi sstudy , are , that the social organi sm i s les srigidly fixed than the bio logical organ i sm,

a t least in i ts higher forms ; and that in so c ialexpe riments bi o logical law becomes a prin

c ipal consciously understo od and adapted toc ircumstances carefully selected and preparedin suc h a way as to p roduc e swi ft re sultst hough i t mav be wel l to say that the swi ftn e s s i s commonly exaggerated .

Thi s Edit ion i s being p repared just afterthe wild outburst o f the anti - Social i stc lamour o f the winter o f 190 7. Everyigno rant fear o f the pe ople i s beingroused by care ful ly devi sed and deliberate ly selected calumny . So cial i sm,

l ikeeve ry pionee r movement , has had i ts indisc re e t advo cate s who have hai led every othermino r ity encamped in some so l i tary spot o fits own , as a fe l low pionee r o f the c ominggo lden ag e o f l ibe rty and reason . In addit ion to that , the m inds o f some Soc ial i stshaving bec ome emanc ipated from the bondso f habit , and having wandered intothe realms o f pure idea l ike someanc ie nt co loni st who had c ro ssed the

front ie rs o f the sett led world, find

de l ight in cutt ing themse lves abso lute lyadr i ft from even the p recious inher i tances o fcivi l i sed man . The Social i st p ionee r hasbeenby no means the only man who hasdone thi s .Re l igion , the fami ly , the State itse l f— everyinher ited fo rm o f human exper ienc e imposing it sel f upon human c onduc t by r igid institurion and fo rce o f habit— have beenanalysed down to the i r uti l i tar ian and meanbeginnings and have been discarded bye ighteenth century rational i sts , whosedo ctrine s are to thi s day in fundamentalopposit ion to So cial i sm, and by nine teenthc entury scienti sts , who se only conceptiono f soc ial progress was a gr im struggle for

xx ii .

existence on the part o f individual s . But

a few Social i s t writers have j o ined them in

their revo lt , and when ,for the meane st o f

part i san purposes and the most ordinary o fc omme rc ial i st mot ive s , newspapers haverai sed the i r vo ice s against the

“Social i stmenac e , these few writers

,economi cal ly

quoted , carefully pruned , and oc cas ional lyadded to , are held up to a publ ic somewhatigno rant o f the inte l lectual hi sto ry o f their '

century , as awful warnings o f what So c ialism must lead to . I t i s the fate o f eve ry man

who p reaches un fami l iar do ctr ines to be

misunde rsto od , but the ris e o f a ye l l ow presswhic h knows ne ithe r truth nor hono ur , nowlays him open to be gro ssly and de l ibera te lymisrepre sented . The pre sentat ion o f the ideaupon which progress now appears to be mov

ing c anno t , however , be final ly condemnedor approved by the reckle ss fo l ly o f fr iendsor the bitter unsc rupulousnes s o f calumni

ators.

T he paragraphs o f the bo ok whic h wereev idently out o f date since the victo rie s o f

the Labour Party in 1906, and the change o f

Government that year , have been alte red soas to refle ct exi st ing po l it ic al condit ions , andin some instance s the argument o f the bo okhas be en fo rt ified by ful ler d iscuss ion and

new i l lustrations .

J . RAMSAY MACDONALD .

August , 190 8 .

SOCIALISM AND SOCIET Y.

CHAPT ER I .

T HE PROBLEM .

POVERT Y sti l l chal lenge s the reason and

the c onscience o f men , and instead o f be

coming le ss acute as nat i onal wealth in

creases , it becomes mo re se rious . There sults o f such invest igat ions asthose o f Mr .Charles Booth and M r . Rowntree

, and O f

the Committe e s which inquired into the prevalenc e o f chi ld labour and the extent o f

phys ical deter i oration , shatter with therudest c omple teness the complacency thatone may have acquired from figure s showingthe astounding to tals o f nat ional wealth , orthe sat i s fac tory average s o f pe rsonal income .

I t may no t be true l iteral ly that the ric li

are growing richer at a time when the poorare bec oming po o rer* ; but it i s an undeni

able fac t that the lo t o f the pove rty stricken

This depends upon the length o f the period of

comparison . I f we compare the 14th century w ith

the r9th it is true l iteral ly ; i f we compare 180 0 with

190 0 it is not true .

becomes more dep lorable as the advance o fthe well - to - do becomes mo re marked , and

that mode rn condit ions o f l i fe press withincreas ing weight upon the p ropertylessc lasses . N ever was i t mo re true than i t i sto - day that two civil i zat ions exist s ide bys ide in every industrial country— the civ i l i zat ion o f the idle or uselessly emp loyed rich ,and the civi l i zati on o f the industr ial poor .

Pauperi sm i s perhaps the l east alarmingfo rm and the mo st mi s l eading index o f poverty . Wrecks l i fting their broken spars upto heaven

~

are le s s wo ful than unseaw orthyShips toss ing helplessly on stormy waters .

Moreover , th e existence o f numerous c har i table and subsid i s ing agencie s , toge ther withthe inc reasing expenditure o f muni cipalautho r it i es upon wo rk which i s in the natureo f re l ie f , and the operation o f D i stress Committeeswo rking unde r the p rovis ions o f theUnemployed Wo rkmen’s Ac t , show that theflo od o f poverty has altogether ov erflowed

the embankments which the Poo r Law has

p rovided to contain i t .

When we survey modern condit ions in

search o f a po int from which to begin and

trac e out the tangled and to rtuous path o fpoverty , we natural ly fix upon the si lentv i l lage and the dese rted field . Our ruraldi str ic ts are depopulated ; the rural d istr i ctso f every commercial country are emptying

thus the fact i s obscured that in sp ite o f allsanitary and s imi lar improvements

,the v ital

energies , the stamina, the mental cleanl iness ,the mo ral robustness o f our race are sufter ing , not for thi s or that spe cial reason

,

but because the comp lete setting o f l i fe i sbarren, weari some and exhausting to humanbeings .I need menti on but one cause o f thi s . Thebetter organi sat ion o f the functions o f product ion has be en O f nec essity attended by a

quickening of pac e , and by a heavier draftupon the energie s o f the producers . Morel i fe i s consumed in produc t ion— in fact , s omuch li fe i s c onsumed in this , that l i ttle i sle ft to be spent in other concerns . Old ag e

and the ineffic iency o f years come so one rthan they used to do . The squeezing o f theo range i s done mo re quickly and more thoroughly now .

N or i s thi s mere ly a workman’s grievance ,for everyone afiected by the industr ialchanges which have marked the L iberal*

* I t may be advisabl e to state spec ifical l y that Iam frequently to use the word “Liberal ,” as I do

here , not in i ts pol itical bu t epoc hal sense. I t ind ic ates that period o f soc ial evolution when c apital ,free d from the pol it ica l and soc ial dominance of

Feudal ism,deve loped a pol itical , economic and soc ial

pol icy in accordance w ith its own nature . T he key

n ote o f the epoc h is ind ividual l iberty of the unreal ,a tomic kind ; its pol itical charac teristic is en franchisement, its economic is competition, and its soc ialisweal th .

e poch has suffe red in the same way . T he

wo rkman suffers from per iodic unemp loyment and from a c hronic unce rtainty o fbeing able to make ends me et . This re - ac tsupon hi s personal habit s so that he fo l l owsthe al lurements o f intemperanc e

, or seeks

p leasure in the ri sks o f gambl ing,lo se s hi s

sense O f craftsmanship and his unwill ingnes st o wo rk dishonestly , i s driven into the loafing habit thro ugh frequent unemployment ,and final ly become s a machine which turnso u t a m in imum amount o f wo rk at a maximum p r ic e . We may regret thi s asmuch as

we l ike , and blame the wo rkman asmuc h as

we care , but thi s i s the natural consequenceo f a state o f so c iety in which private intere sts control industr ial c apital , in which theland and the instruments o f p ro duc tion belong to a class d iffe rent from that whic huses them ,

in which the p redominant relat ionship be twe en the employe r and the wo rkman i s that O f a c ontrac t to do wo rk at a

p r i ce , and in which the re i s no re sponse and

no appeal to mo ral and sp iritual mo t ive s .The c apital i st al so suffe rs from inse cur ityc aused , no t always by m i stake s or

faults o f hi s own,but by the c om

p etitiv e moves o f hi s r ival s He i spart o f a machine which grinds him

j ust as remo rse lessly as i t grinds the wageearner . In Franc e ,* twenty per c ent . o f

Leroy Beaul ieu , Répartitiou d c : c hemes, chap .

6

the bus inesses started disappear at once :in America ,1

'

ninety per cent . o f bus inessmen fai l either abso lutely or relat ively ; andthough Marshal l c ontendst that bus ines sri sks are de creasing in thi s country

,the

probable truth i s that they are only changing their character , as financial c ases in the

Law Courts appear to show . Moreover,

the improvements in me thods o f production ,

the concentration o f capital , the deve lopmento f means o f commun i cation

,the opening up

o f the world ’s markets , and the increas ingnumber o f nations tak ing part in inte rnational compe tition , put an ever t ighteningpressure upon the cap ital i st , and demand thatmore and more o f hi s l i fe

’s energies shal l bespent in business . Although the statutebook teaches him busine s s mo ral ity and protec ts him against ce rtain fo rms o f unprin

c ipled and anti - s oc ial compe tit i on ( l ikeadulterated goods and l ong hours) , he i scompell ed to drive the sharpest bargains , toadopt methods o f busines s which he couldnot employ honourably in personal relat i ons ,and to cro ss far to o frequently the l ine o f

dishonesty . He can indulge in few sentiments ; he cannot enj oy very much o f theluxury o f mo ral ity . Busines s i s a war in

1' We l l s , Recent E conomi c Chang er, London . 189 1 ,

p . 351 .

I Marshal l , Principl es of E conomi cs, London ,1898,

i . , p . 70 3 .

w hich he whose nerves are not always well“

strung , who se eye i s not always fixed uponthe vigi lant enemy , and whose heart i s notalways prepared to drive home every advantage , i s l ike ly to be ove rborne . The purposewhich must dominate the mo ral ity and the

thought o f the bus iness man i s a favourablebalance sheet , and only in so far asan ex er

c i se O f the finer sent iments does not

adve rsely influenc e that summary o f tradingOpe rat i ons , c an he give way to them .

The result i s inevitable . The arts languish , .

the vulgar empire o f pluto cracy extends itsgilded borders , luxurious indulgence takesthe place o f c omfort , se lfish pursuits that ofpublic spirit , philanthropic effo rt that O f justdeal ing .

We are accustomed to regard the presentas a state o f individual i sm , but no delusionc ould be mo re gro tesque . N o thing is rarerin Soc iet y to - day than individual ity . I ti s doubtful i f eve r there was le ss individual ityamongst us than there i s at the presentmoment . One has only to look on whilst the '

sons o f the nouv eaux riches spend theirmoney , or whilst the crowds which our in

dustrial quarters have disgo rged enj oy themselves

, to appreciate the meaningless monotony O f our pleasure . From our furni ture ,made by the thousand pieces by machines , toour rel igion, stereotyped in set formulae and

p ursued by clock - work methods , individuality i s an exceptional character i st ic . In thep roduct ion o f wealth , owing to the difier

entiation o f processes , there is le ss and les splay for individual ity , and as thi s more ex

e lus ively occupies the t ime and thought o fboth employers and employed , uni fo rmityspreads its deaden ing hand over So cie ty

,

the sense o f proper di sc riminati on i s lo st ,and at the same t ime im itat ion becomesa soc ial factor o f inc reasing power

,

re spectabi l ity becomes more securely en

t hroned as the mentor o f conduct , and a

d rab level o f fairly comfo rtable mediocrityisthe standard to which we confo rm . CNothing i s , indeed , more absurd than an argument in suppo rt o f the pre sent state o fS o c i ety , based on the assumption that aswemove away from it in the direction o f Soc ialism we are l eav ing individual i ty and indiv idual l iberty behind ?L iberty and regular employment— the fit

t ing of men to the work which they can dobest— can be secured only when the variousfunct ions O f the so c ial organi sm— the capitalistic and labouring , the consuming and produc ing

— are all c o - o rdinated . At presente ach function i s sel f - centred . I t i s asthoughthe appetite , the head or the muscles o f thehuman body wo rked each for it sel f— as in

d eed some times happens in the case o f

g luttons , hai r spl itters , or slaves . But then

9

we know the consequences . There i s an

interruption in the general health and

g rowth . There i s a dwarfing of some part sand an abnormal development o f others ..The body rebe l s pe r iodic ally, and teache s thefunctions that only when they take their

prope r p lace s in the who le , and ac t Obedient ly, no t to their own appe tites , but to the

needs o f the c omplete o rgani sm, do they emjoy an unbroken and a ful l sat i s fact ion .

W e can best expre ss thi s fai lure o f presentday Soc iety to enrich all i ts c lasse s not

merely with worldly po sse ss ions but withcharac ter and c apacity to employ le i suret ime , by descr ibing modern c ondit ions as

being poverty - str icken . For to j udge the

prevalenc e o f poverty merely by returns o finc ome o r depo sits in savings banks , i s l ikejudging a piec e o f architec ture by the sizeo f the stones used in the building .

We have a vast ac cumulat ion o f actualphysical want . Mr . Bo o th says that about

30 per c ent . o f the London populat ion mustbe c lassified amongst that accumulat ion ;and i f i t i s not re lative ly growing , i t i s no tactual ly dec reas ing . .We se em to havereached the maximum O f improvement whichthe existing soc ial o rgani sat i on can yield .

Furthe r ame l io rat ive efforts o f a purely refo rming charac ter can produce litt le fruit .Our soc ial machinery apparent ly cannot emp loy more than 97} per cent . of the wil l ing

10

workers at best , and it cannot rai se morethan from 70 to .

8o per cent . o f our peopleabove the poverty line .

”In addition to

that , our So ciety bears a sti l l greater accumulation o f mental and moral poverty

, and

apparent ly this i s increasing rather than decreas ing .

Such are the conditions which chal lengethe so cial reformer . They cannot be thefinal state o f social evo lut ion . The re mustbe another state ahead o f us le ss markedby fai lure , le s s chao tic , better o rgani sed ,and the question i s , how are we to moveinto i t I t appears to be the special tasko f the twentieth century to disc over a meansO f c O - ordinating the various so cial functionsso that the who le community may enj oyro bust health , and its various organs shareadequately in that health . But this is

nothing else than the aim of Social i sm .

and i s a thing“

of quantity , every l imit imposed on its extent— asfor instance the legalcommand ,

“Tho u shalt no t kil l”— be ing a

curtai lment o f i t .I f , however , So c i ety i s a unity o f the

o rgani c k ind , to tal ly diffe rent c onc lus ionsfo l low . T he individual s c ompo s ing it are

st i l l separate and c onsc ious , but they dependve ry large ly upon the So ciety in which theyl ive for their thoughts , their tastes , the irl ibertie s , their opportun it ie s o f ac t ion , theirc harac te r— in brie f , for eve rything summedup in the word c ivi l i sation . I t i s in So cie ty ,and no t in the indiv idual , that the ac cumulation O f the race experienc e i s found . Libertyi s a matter O f qual ity and no t o f quant ity ,and curtai lment o f its l imits do e s no t nec essarily le ssen its amplitude . T he communi tyente rs at every po int into the l i fe o f the indiv idual , and the State func tion i s not merelyto secure l i fe , but to p romo te go od life fIndiv idual deve lopment i s c ondit ioned byState o rgani sation and effic iency .

H ow far do the se theo retical d i stinctionsagree with the ac tual fac ts ? H ow far, to

begin with , i s the l i fe o f the individual o rganically connected with that o f hi s So cie ty

?

Put an indiv idual from a wel l deve l opedSoc iety into the midst o f a diffe rent c ivi l isa

13

t ion, or place him in wi ld nature , and he is,

helpless in propo rtion asthe Soc iety to whichhe belongs i s advanc ed .

* Paralyse in a welldeve loped Society all the l i fe which it hasinhe r ited from the past— its ec onomicmachinery , its legal proc esse s , its institutions o f eve ry k ind— and the individual i s le ftmo re helpless than the p r imit ive savagecatching fish with his shel l hooks . T he

present i s rooted in the past ; the future canbe dragged away from ne ither .

An indiv idual ist psychology exaggeratesthe fre e p lay o f the human will and denie sthe o rgani c type o f Soc ie ty mainly on the

ground that each indiv idual in So c ie ty hasanindependent wi l l and c onsc iousness o f hi sown . In the o rgani sm, c onsciousne ss is c onc entrated in a smal l part o f the who le— the

brain or nervous system ; in So cie ty c on

sc iousness i s d iffused througho ut , and no

spec ial ised funct ion o f fe e l ing can be c reated .

This,Spence r cal l s a cardinal diffe renc e .

But upon exam inat ion the diffe renceappears to be no t near ly so great as i t se emsat first ?

T he reason why the sai lor is a handy man is

that a ship’s crew is a type o f a primitive form of

Soc iety .

1 I t is not within the scope of this po l itica l studyto d iscuss th is po int ful ly , bu t I cannot he lp th inkingthat at this point Spencer sacrificed his ph ilosophy

14

The cel l s that are ultimately difierentiatedt o become the nerve systems o f organi smsare the ordinary cell s which g o to make up«o rgani c ti ssue , and they differ from muscularc el ls no more than a do cto r physio logical lydiffers from an agr icultural labourer .More over , the work of organi c nerve sys

t ems i s paral le led in Society by pol it ical functions as the Social i st c onceive s them . Thefunction O f the nervous system i s to c o

o rd inate the body to which it belongs, and

enable i t to re spond to imp re ssions and ex

p erienc es received at every po int . I t can

a l so originate movement itsel f . Ev identlythe individual i st cannot admit any suchd ifferentiated organ in Society . But theS ocial i st , on the o ther hand , sees i ts nec essity . Some organ must enable o ther organsand the mass o f So ciety to c ommunicate im

p ressions and experiences to a receiv ingc entre , must carry from that centre impulses leading to action , must originate on

i ts own init iative organi c movements calculated to bring some benefit or pleasure tothe o rgan i sm . This i s the Social i st vi ewo f the po l it ical o rgan on it s legi slative and

admin i strative s ides . I t gathers up ex

perienc e , c arr ies it to a centre which de cides

to his ind ividual ism,and Huxl ey’s lamentable

surrender in the Romanes Lecture of his previouspo sition was owin g to his fai lure to estimate accura te ly how smal l this d ifference is.

15

c orresponding movements , and then carriesback to the parts afiected the impulse o faction .

Upon thi s point the psyc ho l ogical socio lo g ists do no t face facts .

“Within aggrega“ti ons o f men, mental activities are c on

tinually asserting themselves , and wo rkingthemselve s out in confo rmity to psychological law . In thi s pro cess the humanm ind , aware o f i tself, del iberately forms

“and carr ie s out po l i cies for the o rgani sat ion and perfec tion of soc ia l l i fe, in o rderthat the great end of Soc ie ty, the perfec

“tion o f the indiv idual pe rsonal ity , may becompletely The distinction

he re set up between thought and nature bythe expre ssion “

in c onfo rmity to psycho“l ogical law ,

”in spite o f the wr ite r ’s pro tests

t o the contrary , leaves the problem at itsmo st intere st ing po int . What i s the re lat ion between psychological and bio logicallaw as fac to rs in human evo lut ion Whati s the sc ope o f bio logical law D id the

p sycho l ogical pro ce ss o f evo lution appearo nly with man ? Undoubtedly the mind o f

man moulds so c iety , but only just as themind o f the an imal ass i sts its bio logicalevo lut ion . The di fferenc e i s O f degree , no to f kind . SO that , i f we begin to assume the

Gidd ings , T he El ement: of Socioi og y , London ,

1897, p . 150 .

16

ai rs o f the psychological so cio log i st , wemust regard the evo lution o f the who leuniverse aspsychological , and when we re ferto bio logy we inc lude psycho logy in our

idea all the time . The truth is that man’s .power to influenc e the so cial organi sati on inwhich he i s p lac ed i s l imited to the bio lo

g ical me tho d O f influenc ing and changing“

funct ions . T he simple fac t that the changing impact i s a human will , do es no t makethe change or its me tho d psycho logical .T he view taken o f Soc iety by the indiv idu

al i st psycho logist i s that which the c e l l inthe o rgani c body might be expected to takeo f i t s own l iberty and impo rtance . We now

know that the c el l has an indiv idual ity o fi ts own, and we can imagine the strenuouseflo rts made by ce l l phi lo sophe rs to provethat the body exi sted for them , and that the ;

mo di fying and moving force in the o rgani smwas the individual cel l .*

We over - rate our individual impo rtance inthe se matte rs . When w e bui ld our house s ,There is l ess o f the purely fanc i ful in these

cons iderations than we may be inc l ined to think at“

first . Rec ent inve stigat ions into the nature of ce l l s ,.and recent speculations , based upon sc ientifical l yObserved fac ts as to the mean ing o f ce l l ac tiv ityas, for instance , B inet’s Psy chi c Life of Mi cro - O rg um

isms— po int to a fulness of ce l l l ifeflwhich foreshadows many o f the charac teristic s o f the higheranimal s—such asmemory , wil l , fear, &c .

17

use the faci l ities o f modern town l i fe , become enraptured with our rel igious consolations, contemplate the produc tions o f ourart , or plunge into the speculations

‘

Of our

divine phi losophies , we seldom think thatall these precious po ssessi ons and exe rcisesbelong to So ciety and no t to the individual ,and that when the indiv idual employs themhe is in real ity putt ing to use po ssessionswhich he canno t keep for himsel f, which hedid almost no thing to acquire , which hecan do l ittle mo re than pro tec t from rustingand c o rrupting , and which he s imply hasthepriv i lege o f bo rrowing for usury . Throughout our l ives we are but asmen feasting at

the common table O f a bount i ful lord , and

when we bear in the dishes o f the feast o rgather up the crumbs which have fal lenfrom the boards , we pride ourselves on our

wealth and the magnificent reward which ourlabour has brought to us . When ,

in

time ,we die ,

however , our vacant p lac e i so f l ittle consequenc e . Eve rything we havedone , everything we we re , be c omes soc ialp rope rty , and our l i fe i s o f value main ly inso far as i t has c ontributed to the fulne ss o fsoc ial l i fe and the development o f socialo rgan i sat ion and effic iency . This is bo rne inupon us with irresist ible fo rce when we thinkof the few indiv idual s who se memo r ie s arerescued from the grave . O ur D ictionaryof N ational Biog raphy makes a grand dis

18

play on our library shelves,but when we

think o f its great array o f volumes whi lstwe are in the midst o f the c rowded marketp lace Or in the streaming tho roughfareswhere humani ty flows like a tide , what a

puny co l lection i t seems ! What vast echoless generations does i t suggest ! Whatmil l i ons o f nameless ghost s gather roundi ts few pages o f imper i shable names !

The being that l ives , that pers i sts , thatdevelops , i s Soc iety ; the l i fe upon which theindividual draws that he himse l f may havel i fe , l iberty and happ iness i s the social l i fe .T he l ikeness be tween So cie ty and an organism l ike the human body i s comple te in s ofar as So ciety i s the to tal l i fe from whichthe separate c e l l s draw their indiv idual l i fe .

Man i s man only in So ciety .

The re appears to be a c e l l consci ousnessd ifferent from the consc iousne ss o f the

o rgani sed body with its special i sed brain and

ne rvous system : there i s a so c ial consciousness with its sensory and moto r systemsuper impo sed on the indiv idual c onsciousne s s : bo th toge ther make up the real ind ividual c onsciousne s s .

This dependence o f the indiv idual upon theform and nature o f the social organi sati on

his funct ion in so cie ty altered with everymachine that i s invented . The bo o t and

sho e operative o f to - day i s almo st as diffe r;

ent from the bo o t and sho e Ope rative o f

fi fty years ag o as the stomach o f the be l lan imalcule i s from that o f man . Everyimprovement in l oc omo tion

,everything

which breaks down international barr iers.and o pens up the wo r ld , every extension o f

markets , eve ry attempt to re o rgani s e ind ustry by the mo re effective use o f c apital ,eve ry v ital impulse given to the c ountry toempty itse l f into the town , changes men

’sfunc tions , alte rs their re lations to each o the rand to So c iety , implants new habits , new

virtue s and new v ic e s in them , _g iv es themn ew ideal s to guide c onduc t , modifie s the irbo dy ,

‘

and impre sse s itse l f gene ral ly upont he race .

Al l thi s change has c ome no t because anyindividual or combination

'

O f indiv idual s hassought it , but because someone , impe l led bythe po ss ibi l itie s which the so cial o rgani smo ffered fo r a modification O f its functions ,and by the c reat ive opportuni ties which c ir

'

cumstances gave'

to thought and will ,a ltered the o rgani sation of So ciety— forinstance , by labour sav ing machinery— at

thi s po int or that , with the re sult that thewho le Org ani sm had to re - adjust itsel f to

'

t he change .

2 1

When Stephenson made his steam engineh e had no thought of the soc ial result s o f

h is action , exc ept in its immediate c onse

quenc es as an improvement in haulingmachinery , and ye t how fundamental ly hasStephenson’s engine changed men . A studyo f histo ry shows , not the free play o f the

individual wi l l in de te rmining the characterand direct ion o f human ac tiv it ie s , but thea lmo st abso lute c ontro l o f the so c ial o rganism . T he Great Man has undoubtedly modih ed that o rgani sm now and again— the

so ldie r , the preache r , the thinke r,the in

v entor, the o rgani se r o f industry,— but there sults o f the se men

’s wo rk have no t beengained asa direc t influenc e on the ir fe l lows ,but through a modificat ion Of the struc tureo f soc iety , and by the c onsequent c hange o f

the functions which individual s are cal ledupon to perfo rm . T o the sum to tal o f the semodifications many smal l change s have c on

tr ibute d much mo re than a few great alterat ions .

War, the mo st revolut ionary fo rc e o f all,

has had to lower its flags to the pe rsi stentdoggedness o f So c ie ty ( i f the expre ss ionmay be used) in go ing its own way . Theinroads o f Rome upon the re st O f Europele ft le ss permanent results than was at one

time suppo sed . T he incurs ion o f the barbar icarmi es from the N orth upon Italy had no

g reater effect than a v i olent storm hasupon

2 2

a vigorous sapling ; l ittle that was permanent fol lowed the partition treat ies and edictswhic h marked the triumph and sealed the

downfal l o f N apoleon ; few real organi cchanges were effected by the destructivehurricanes o f the French Revo lution . After .

the war which wasto do so much to rev o lu

tionise the so cial and po l itic al l i fe o f SouthAfrica, the country began to develop fromthe po int i t had reached before the war

broke out , and upon l ines but l ittle diflerent from tho se laid down before war wasthought about , and the recent Transvaal election ( 190 7) created a po s it ion practical lys imilar to that which was evo lv ing months .be fo re war was dec lared . Vio lenc e in dealing with things ro o ted in history , or organically related to Society , i s a waste o f time .

Effe ct , of course , all these revo lutions had ,

but how l ittle compared with the furies thatac companied them and the tremendous.

efiortswhic h were consumed by them . And

as the pre - revo lution and po st - revo lutiontimes are minutely examined , althoughchange may have been rapid (as indeedchange from one variety o f a species toanother , as in flower culture for instance ,o ften i s) , the continuity be tween the old and

‘

the new i s we l l marked .

*

This Opinion, so contrary to the v iews of the

Radical writers of the last two or three generations,is becoming a commonplace in sober history—the

2 3

Or, to approach my argument from

the po int O f view o f ano the r c lass o f

c onside rat ions , we may c ons ider how

ve ry l itt le diffe renc e there i s betweenthe Republican United State s and the

Monarchical Great Br itain , and that whatdiffe renc e exists is owing no t to Dec

larations o f Independenc e , bu t to the

diffe renc e s in so c ial o rgani sat ion , which are

caused by the fac t that one i s a new c ountryand the o the r an O ld one , and that one had

'

a p rair ie up to ye ste rday , and the o the r has,

had none fo r many a gene rat ion .

Just in propo rt ion as an o rgani sm has

h istory where c o lour and movement are subord inatedto the ac tual fac ts . The se re vo lut ionary epochs , thesed itche s supposed to be dug across h istory , do not

bear examination . Even what w e Westerns havebeen taugh t to regard as the grea test of all thes editches, that dividing Paganism from Christianity ,hard ly ex ists . In the chapter , S ome thoug hts on the

T ransi tion from P ag anism to Christiani ty , in Pro

fessor B ernard Bosanqu et’s T he Civ i l i z ation of

Christendom , the subj ec t is dealt w ith in ac cordanceboth w ith what I hav e wr itten above and al so o f the

views I expre ss later on regarding the growth of

po l itical parties . Mr. Bryce in his H oly Roman

Empire (chap . ii i . ) summarises the e ffec t o f the bar

baric invas ion in these words “I t is hard ly too

much to say that the thought Of antagon ism to the‘

Emp ire and the w ish to ext ingu ish it never crossed’

the minds o f the barbarians .” Sure ly no one who

knows European h istory w il l d ispute the view thatthe partit ion of Eu rop e bv the representat ives o f the

D

2 4

g rown s lowly and developed through manyg enerations do e s it O ffer resi stanc e to

c hange and are revo lutions within it in

e ffec t ive . I t i s stable : fo rced growths areunstable . Every gardener knows that . TheRevo lut ionary e lements in Europe have notbeen supp ressed me re ly by the perfe c tion o f

the sc ientific p reci sion o f armament s— c er

tainly an impo rtant fac to r— but by the re

e stabl ishment o f national i ties and systemso f government on the same fo o t ing as theyexi sted , or were beginning to exist , be fo reEurope was upse t by the impac t o f theFrench Revo luti on and the wars which fo l

‘

Powers at Vienna re sul ted in the wars which Ger

many , Italy, Austria and France have undergone to

break down the artific ial arrangements o f Me tternichand his masters . Radical writers have al to gethere xaggerated the rea l influence of the French Re v o lution . I ts efiec t upon law was supposed to be one of

its most ble ssed c ontribut ions to European history ,bu t according to Pro fe ssor Vil let , corroboratedby Pro fe ssor Maitland (Cambridg e Mod ern

H istory ,vo l . viii . , p .

“the Revo lution

ary Epoch mani fe sts a truth , which no h istorian o f

whatsoever schoo l ev er expressed more fe l ic itous lyand c learly than Portal is in the pre l iminary d is

course of the Civi l Code :‘T he Code s o f nations

‘are the work of time ; properly speaking , they are

‘no t made .

’ French l eg islation in the

c entury j ust passed is the re su l t o f histori~cal forces , and no mere invention or artific ia lc reation .

” Exactly the same is true of soc ial and

po l itical France . In our own history, the Norman

2 5

~lowed it . European Governments havebec ome mo re stable than they were becausethey have c eased to be the art ific ial c reat i onso f c onque sts and have become the productso f histo r ical evolut ion .

T he cause O f progre ss i s , that the individual , endowed with po ssibi l it ies o f ac t ionby his anc e sto rs , i s launched into Soc ie tythe race— to rece ive from it the impress andthe impact o f its inher ited qual it ie s , and

thus by the play and inte rplay o f the individual and soc ial inher itanc e , o f the indiv idual and soc ial dynamic , change in a

sy stematic sequence o f stage s i s carried on ,

the bio logical law o f natural select ion beingmodified by the confl i cting requirements o fhuman reason .

The influence o f the individual uponSoc iety is o f two kinds . There are in the

first plac e , the rearrangements in soc ialConque st is general ly supposed to have made “

al l

thing s new,

” bu t the study of h istorical de tail s robsi t o f much o f its dramatic e ffec t . For instance

, it

used to be credited w ith the s impl ification o f ou r

Engl ish Grammar, bu t asMr. Badley , writing in the

Cambridg e H istory of Eng l ish Literatu re , shows ,this v iew “ isnow abandoned by al l scholars .In the main [ this grammatical change! is tobe ascribed to internal agenc ie s .”

26

func tions which result from a reo rgani sat iono f industr ial struc ture c onsequent upon in!

v ention ,

— e .g . the app licat ion O f steampo wer to pro c e sse s O f pro duc t ion and exc hange . Then the re i s the bombardmento f so c ial struc ture carr ied on by the disquie tude and disc ontent o f indiv idual s whodemand from Soc ie ty be tte r mo ral re sultsthan So c ie ty in i ts existing c onst itut ioncan give . T he wo rk o f the Utopians be longsto this sec ond c las s o f effo rt .

This se c ond moulding fo rc e i s to be muchstronge r in the future than it has been in

the past , because it canno t c ome into fullplay unt i l po l it ical democ rac y i s e stabli shed .

*

The pe ople must gain po sse ssion o f the

State be fo re the mo ral sho rtc om ings in the

wo rking o f So c iety be c ome d isso c iated fromo the r que st ions , and pre sent c lear po l it icaland so c ial i s sue s . T he first c omprehens ivep roblem which fac e s an indus tr ial and en

franchised demo c racy is how to makeSoc ie ty c on fo rm in its func t ioning to themo ral standards o f the individual . T he

mo ral sense o f the individual , c onsequently,i s c onstant ly attacking a mo ral ly ine ffic ientstate o f So c iety , and ac ts as a modi fy ing

A fter pol itical democracy has been establ ished iaa few countrie s , others more bac kward pol itical lymay , howev er, c arry on the ir soc io -moral ag itationsat the same t ime as they carry on the ir pol it ical Ones .Russ ia is a c ase in po int.

28

pol itics , barren and dusty because o f sel finterest , show that . Majo rities are determined by hopes and fears far more than bygratitude for things done . In a senseJerichos are not taken by assault ; theirwal l s fal l down at the blast o f trumpets .

Moral truth comes l ike the dawn, no t l ikean army o f conquest . I t cannot be ener

g etically oppo sed after i t has been disc ov

ered . Thri ce i s he armed who hath hisquarrel j ust” i f the fact that justice i s on

his s ide be re cogni sed by his opponent .

SO , when the time comes for a furtherefio rt on the part o f So ciety to pro tec t itsel f ,the step to be taken must be one which no t

only unifies the organi sm more comple tely ,and which makes its organs wo rk more inc o - operati on and less in c ompet ition witheach o ther , but al so one which promi ses tosati s fy mo re ful ly the demand that socialaction and indiv idual action should approx i

mate to the same standards o f mo ral i ty .

The sati s fying o f the moral sense o f theindiv idual and the economi s ing of effo rtin Society must proceed hand in hand inprogress ive social evo lution .

The development o f s ocial structure moreaccurately embodies and sati sfies the moraldemands O f the indiv idual aswe approachthe time when Socie ty i s prepared to bemodified in accordance with the dreams o f

3 9

the Utopians . Education l iberates the

individual wi l l and intell igence so that theyare inc reasingly e ffec t ive in producing themachinery nece ssary for economy of socialefiort ; this reac ts upon individual moral ity ,and make s it more exac t ing in i ts demandsupon So ciety , because the indiv idual himse l fi s then surrounded by so cial c ircumstanc eswhich press c lo se r and c lo ser upon him thenecessity o f unde rgo ing the disc ipl ine o f

will and intel l igenc e which makes character— the nece ss ity which justifie s the thousandand one movement s aimed at improv inghuman qual it i es . This play and interplayo f soc ial o rgani sat ion and indiv idual wi l land characte r , seem to me to indicate to us

the acc urate view o f the scope and methodo f individual act ion in So ciety .

But the great re se rvo ir o f inhe ritanc e isthe race and no t the individual . When one

c onside rs in detai l how much the soc ial eg oc ontro l s individual ac t ion , the mouldingpower o f the rac e se ems to be l imit less .The gene ration into which a man happenst o have been bo rn , the so cial circ les inwhich he move s , the character o f the v italmoulding fo rc e s which play upon him in

ac c o rdanc e as he l ive s in a suburb or”

in the

centre o f a c i ty , the et iquette (settled genera~

30

t i ons befo re and now largely irrat i onal)o f the pro fession to which he belongs

,

t he tenure o f an O ffice round which traditionshave grown up , the very language he uses ,

.are influences which haunt him as persistent ly as hi s shadow , and do mo re than anything else to dete rmine the teno r o f his l i fea nd thought . But they are all drawn , no t!

from the reservo ir o f individual , but o f

soc ial ,'

inher itance .

This e rro r o f under - estimat ing the in

fluenc e o f social inher i tanc e upon individuall i fe has l ed to the very grave pract ical mist akes o i po l itical and mo ral individual i sm .

I t has be en character i st i c o f the L iberalepoch . to regard the indiv idual asa separate ,sel f - contained . creat ive being , bedecked inthe regal garments o f po sse ss ions and

r ights . This individual i sm has rec e ived thehomage o f a c entury who se interest s , pursuits and pro blems p revented it from se e

ing indiv idual ity in all its relati ons . N o ag e

has been l ess fitted than the n ineteenthc entury to value the c ommon li fe , to find

c ontentment in work ing in s ingleness o f

heart for the good o f the whole , to be at

peace in a pro sperous organ i sm . But at

last the fal seness Of thi s indiv idual i sti cemphas i s isbeing recogni sed . On it s morals ide it i s no t br inging peace , it i s no t advancing the frontiers o f the k ingdom of right

3!

38 0 11511655 . O n its po l it ical s ide , whence it

has y ie lded the greatest amount o f gain , i t.now stands baffled by the problems o f Statea utho r ity . O n its industr ial s ide i t hasd ivo rc ed e c onomic s from l i fe and has fai leda bso lute ly to so lve the problem o f distribu

t ion . T he c o de o f law s impo sing with eve rinc reasing str ingenc y upon trade rs and

manu fac ture rs the e lementary p r inc ip le s o f

hone sty and fair dealing , grows steadily,.and eve ry addit ion i s a fre sh impeachment~o i se l f - regarding individual i sm as the bas i s.o i c onduc t . T he gul f betwe en r ich and

p o o r , the pe r io dical breakdown o f the

mode rn industrial machine c ausing wide.spread de st itut ion ,

the sin i ste r e c onomicm echani sm by which the owne rs o f mono

p o lie s— e spe c ial ly o f land— can c laim an

e xtra to ll eve ry t ime that c ommunal wisd om and c onsc ienc e adopt some scheme to

alleviate the lo t O f the mo st hardly pre ssed.c lasse s , c onc lu sive ly show that So c ie ty doe sno t ye t me e t the requ irements O f humanstandards o f use and value .

On the o the r hand eve ry attempt to

c o rre c t the sho rtc om ings o f what has beenthe dom inant type o f individuali sm —exc eptt he attempts o f char ity e ithe r o rgan i sed o r

diso rgani sed —tends to supplant the type .

‘

T he individual in search o f l ibe rty finds thatt he ideas and the claims c ontained in them odern exp ression “individual i sm only

32

mislead him . The indiv idual ism o f the

Fac tory Laws , o f the Prevention o f Crueltyto Children Acts , o f Weights and M easuresand Adulteration Statutes , i s an indiv idualism taught to find out lets for i ts energy inso cial d irections , an individual i sm disc iplin

ed by and c o - o rdinated with the requirements o f man

’s social nature . In such.

admin i strat ive rules , as tho se o f publicautho riti es to prov ide in contract s that fairwage s must be paid for work done , weObse rve the same movement in operation ,

laying down c ondit ions under which the

individual must be , not a wild buc caneer ,but a humble c o - operato r in so c iety , seekingpeace in se rvic e and wealth in sharing . T he

acquiring se l f- regarding I i s an altoge therimperfect real i sat ion o f the human ego .

In fact , disguise it from ourselves as we

may , in our so - cal led “prac t ical” moments ,eve ry c onception o f what mo ral ity i s— exceptneuro t ic and e ro t i c whims l ike those o f

N ie tz sche or ant iquated pre - sc ientific notionsl ike tho se o f the Charity Organi sati onSo ciety— assumes that the individual i s embedded organical ly in his so c ial medium ,

and that , therefo re , the individual end can

be gained only by p romo ting the so cialend ; that the individual i s primari ly a ce l lin the organ i sm o f hi s So cie ty ;* that he i s

I am not d iscuss ing here what the sc ope of indiv idual ism is. T he ind iv idual is by no means

33

no t an absolute being , but one who developsbest in relat ion to other beings and who discovers the true meaning o f his eg o onlywhen he has discovered the o rgani c onenesso f Soc i ety . Man rises from the l i fe o f his“petty sel f to that o f his fami ly , his tribe ,and his rac e ,

mankind , finding his greatersel f eac h time in these T

T wo difli cu lties sti l l rema in, having a

bearing on the purpo se o f this study . T he

fo rm o f an o rgani sm i s the re sult o f its

past rac ial expe r ienc e in the struggle for

l i fe , and has be en moulded by the samefo rc e s which have dete rmined the functionsto be pe rfo rmed by its o rgans .

Has So ciety a form ? Unl es s i t has, i t is

quie scent ce l l .” H e h’

as a law o f his own be ing , an

ev o lut ion o f h is own , and an indiv idual as we l l as a

soc ial end . A fear l e st I am denying al l this c an ariseonly from an imperfec t v iew of what the l i fe o f a

ce l l in an organism is. Al l I am ins isting upon hefeis, that in any adequate system of ind iv idual ism, the

fac t that l iberty and freedom o f ac tion (invo lvingright to possess and so on ) must be cond itioned bysoc ial considerat ions in the interests of the indiv idualhimself, has to be recognised , and the system con

struc ted accordingly.

1 Carpenter . T he Art of Creation,London , 190 4 ,

p . 19 2 .

34

impo ss ible to conc e ive o f o rgani c funct ionsbe ing pe rfo rmed by the individual and

g roups o f individual s .

Soc ie ty hasno bodil y fo rm l ike a plant , oran e lephant , o r man himsel f . But here againit i s mo re the appearanc e than the real itythat i s want ing . Fo r, afte r all, o rganicfo rm i s on ly useful fo r ho lding toge therthe re lat ionship o f o rgans . The humanbo dy , for instanc e , i s no t essent ial ly a fo rmc ompo sed o f head , trunk , and legs : i t i se ssent ially a relat ionship o f var ious o rganswhich ,

in c o - o peration ,c ompo se a l iving

unity o f the human type I f we piec e to

g ethe r two l egs , two arms , a head , and a

t runk ,with the ir o rgans , we have a bo dily

fo rm,but no o rgan ic unity . But i f the se

o rgan s are j o ined in that re lat ionship whichWe c al l l iving ,

it would no t matte r whe the rthey we re in actual contact o r no t— whe therthey had fo rm o r no t . I f the charac teristic vital relat ionship were sti l l po ssible ,they , in that relat ionship , would be an

o rgan i sm . A vital re lat ionship betweeno rgans , no t a bodi ly form containing theseorgans , const itute s an o rgan i sm .

Soc ie ty i s o f such a type . I ts o rgansare c onnec ted by a l iving t i s sue O f law , o f

habit and custom , O f ec onomic inter - dependenc e , o f public opin ion , o f po l itical unityand the se l iv ing connecti ons maintain the

stabi li ty o f relati onship between o rgans

30

o rgan ic relat ionships , its se l f - c onscio usne ssw i l l bec ome mo re accurate and pas s mo reu nder its c ontro l .

H enc e it i s that the laws governing the

e xistenc e and growth o f human Soc ie tyco uld no t be unde rsto o d unt i l bio logicalsc ienc e was sufficient ly far advanced to ex

p lain with to le rable fulne ss o f de tai l , thelaw s which regulate l i fe and i ts evo lut i on .

For Soc ie ty be longs to the bio logical typeo f exi stenc e be cause it i s no mere c o l l ectiono f separate individual s , l ike a heap o f sand ,bu t a un ified and o rgani sed sy stem o f relationships in which c e rtain pe ople and c lasse s

p e r fo rm c e rtain func tions and o the rs perfo rm o the r func tions , and in which individnals find an existenc e appropriate to their‘be ing by bec oming part s O f the func t ioningo rgans , and by adopt ing a mode o f l i fe and

se eking condit ions o f l iberty , no t as separa te and independent individual s , but as

members o f the ir c ommunit ie s .

T he chie f p roblems o f so c ial l i fe re late to

the o rgani sation and development o f c o de so f law , institutions , economic re lati onships ,so c ial ethics , public Op in ion ; they include the

g rowth and de cay o f functions , the developm ent and dete rio ration o f o rgans and theirr elationship to the total l i fe o f the organ

37

ism , the gradat ion from one stage o f o rganisation to ano the r by inte rnal mo dificat ions

from pr imi tive to mediaeval and on

to mo de rn So c ie ty , and the pe rs istenc e o f

a soc ial individual ity after the compo s ingpe rsonal units have passed out o f existenc e .

T he chie f diffe renc e betwe en the soc ialo rgan i sm and the an imal o rgani sm i s , thatwhil st the latte r , in the main , i s subj ec t tothe slowly ac t ing fo rc e s expre ssed in the

laws o f natural evo lut ion , the fo rme r i smuch mo re large ly— though no t near ly so

large ly as some people imagine , and in a

l ess and le ss degree as it bec omes matured( ano the r o rgan i c charac te r i stic ) —unde r thesway o f the c omparat ively rapidly movingand ac ting human will . This give s thefo rme r an e last ic ity for change which the

o the r do es no t po sse ss . But the type o f its

o rgan i sat ion , the relations be tween its

var ious o rgans and the mode o f their functioning

— and it i s with these alone that Ihave to deal in thi s bo ok— are bio logical .

CHAPT ER I I I .

T HE ECO NOM IC PER IOD .

I F we are to c ons ide r , wi th any p ro fit , whatare the imperfec tions of exist ing Soc ie tyand what i s the law o f its furthe r evo lut ion ,

w e must begin by rem inding o u rse lve s that“

the re i s a law O f mutual aid in l i fe aswe l l asone o f a struggle for existenc e , and that thefo rme r i s predominant in human So c ie ty .

T he struggle fo r l i fe ,fought on the indi

v idualistic p lane at fi rst,i s ult imately trans

fe rred to ! the so c ial . O ne o f the ve ryfi rst re sults o f the individual struggle withnature and with o ther individuals

,i s to

c reate groups O f individual s fo r mutual prote

‘

c t ion . This i s a law O f l i fe from the c e l lto the mammal . Mutual aid thus bec omes

as impo rtant a fac to r in evo lut ion as the

struggle for l i fe . T he law o f group existenc eand deve lopment blends

‘

with that of indi

vidual exi stenc e and deve lopment t o w eavethe patte rn o f progre ss .

T he study o f mutual aid there fo re leads usto examine group o rgani sat ion with a V iewto asc ertaining what i s the po sit ion O f the

38

39

individual within the group , how its organisation affec ts hi s l iberty, and how far everymembe r within i t contr ibute s to i ts effic iency .

So cial i sm in one o f itsaspec ts , i s a crit ici smo f So c ie ty from the po int o f view o f mutual!

aid, and the fo rmation o f a policy in accordanc e with the laws o f mutual aid .

One o f the chief charac te rist ics o f existingSocie ty i s the inc oherenc e o f its func tions .I t i s a machine which is always g ett ing o ut

o f gear , as i s shown by alte rnating per iodso f ove rwo rk and unemployment

,exc essive

riches and de spai ring poverty , enormousgro ss income and appal l ing rec o rds o f destitution and paupe rism . I ts produc tive and

distribut ive func t ions are no t o rgani sed so

as to se rve the c ommon we l lbe ing , but arewo rking for their own spe cialThey are , there fo re , compet itive . I t i s asthough a stomach pe rfo rmed its func t ions ,

I t is interesting to note , as an addendum to the

d iscuss ion on how the ind ividual is organic al ly c on

nec ted with his soc iety , that in fulfil l ing the part icu lar end which contemporary soc ie ty is striving toattain (in the present day , the production of weal th) ,the indiv idual is v alued j ust ashe succ eeds in makingthat end his own (in the pre sent day, amass ingweal th ) , and he manages to square his consc ience

‘

to

any immoral ac ts which may promote his successin this d irec tion .

E

43

n ot aspart o f a body , but as an o rgan c on

sc ious only o f its separate existence , and

think ing primari ly o f that exi stenc e .

At present each separate organ p reys upona ll the o thers . True , i t must to some extent ,a nd in some indirect way, serve the c ommunity , for preying must no t be to o rapacio usor the o rgan p reyed upon wil l die . Thelandlo rd cannot exact to o much rent , o r

industry wil l move el sewhere : the employerc annot cut wages to o l ow or he wil l be una ble to command sk i l l and physique . Theworkman cannot demand too high wages orhe wil l give an incentive to capital to breakup labour combinations , intro duce machinerya nd otherwi se rearrange industrial pro cesses .But in all thi s there i s no wo rking o f a

social o rgani sm balancing serv ices and dist ributing awards . There i s an exerci se o f

j udgment in de termining how far one o rganc an safely g o in preying ' upon ano ther ;t here i s a cal l for diplomati c ski l l . But thati s all . The laws which govern thi s relationship are o f the same k ind as tho se wh ich

g overn the relationship between the shearerand the sheep .

T o establ i sh an o rgani c relationship ,— a

r elationship by which each , contribut ing c o

ope ratively to the l i fe o f the who l e , mayshare in that l i fe ,— hasnow become the tasko f Society . This task, become the subject

41

o f a po l it i cal propaganda and the guide ofso c ial change , i s known as So c ial i sm.

Soc ial i sm i s there fo re not an abstrac t idea,

nor a scheme o f logical perfect ion , nor an

acutely designed new so cial mechan i sm,nor

a tour de forc e o f the creative inte l l igence .

I t i s the next stage in so cial grow th . I t i s apropo sal for the se ttlement o f the p roblemswhich the present stage has rai sed in c on

sequenc e o f its success in sett l ing thosewhich met it at i ts beginn ing . The vital forc esto which the present stage has given birth ,but which it canno t nour i sh , must nev erthele ss real i se themse lve s , and will createso c ial condit ions to enable them to do so .

Histo ry i s a progre ssion of soc ial stageswhich have prec eded and suc c eeded eacho ther l ike the unfo lding o f l i fe from th

amoeba to the mammal,or from the bud to

the fruit . T o - day we are in the e c onomi cstage . Ye ste rday , we we re in the po lit icalstage . T o - mo rrow , we shal l be in the mo ral !stage . T O - day individual p rope rty and

economic inte re st are the predominat inginfluenc e s upon so cie ty ; ye sterday , the - predominating influenc e was nat ional o rganisation— the nec e ssity o f nat ional so l idar ity ;

I use the words to charac terise man’s responsibility to both his intel l igence and his c onsc ience .

4 2

to mo rrow it wi l l be justice , tempered by thevirtues O f sympathy . In o the r wo rds , thecourse o f evo lut i on has been , the making o f

communiti es , the explo itation o f nature,the

cult ivat ion o f men .

* At no time,howeve r ,

are the se epo chs d ivided from each o therby hard and fast l ine s . At any momenta war may throw a nation back upon the firstepo ch when national se l f defenc e wouldsubo rdinate eve ry other c ons ide ration ,

whilstwe have frequent reminders that economicsuc c ess c anno t be pursued abso lutely with?

out regard to mo ral c ons ide rations .

T he po l it ical epo ch is marked by the subo rdinat ion o f the individual and his right to

There are two remarkable incons istenc ies betweenthe general soc iological position taken up by Marxand Engel s , and the ir pers istent assertion o f the econ

omic basis o f h istory, which should be pointed ou t

here . In the first p lace they agreed that H ege l ’sgreatest c laim to fame was his demonstration thatthe whole worl d ,” as Enge l s expresse s it in Social

ism : U topian and S cientific (p .

“natural , his

“torical , inte l lectual , is represented as a process , i .e . ,

as in c onstant motion, change , trans formation , de

v e lopment .” I f that be true , is it c once ivable thatevery department o f l i fe natural , h istorical , in

te l lec tual ,” (by - the -by a very s l ipshod d iv is ion )— ischained to economics and cannot attain an indepen

dent dev e lopment and existence of its own ? In the

second p lace Marx ’s ins istenc e that each epoch has

its own charac teristic law Of deve lopment is inconsistent with the assertion that economic considerationsare the prime movers in h istoric ev o lution .

44

between central ‘ and l ocal authorit ies , between the integrating and dis integratingforces— the King and the Barons , the nationand the shire or muni cipal ity , Parl iamentand the gui ld— during which the law

Of integration assert s itsel f because thecommuniti es which embody it surv ive . Thisi s the first chapter .The next chapte r i s marked by the o rgan

isation o f the masse s into a political unity ,and their in itiat ion into the rights o f

cit i zenship . The oppo rtuni ty for progressthrough thi s se cond stage come s fi rst o f allfrom the needs o f the central autho rity ,

*

the sovereign— to maintain i ts pos itiona ga inst the local and c lan dis integratingfo rc es , o r against r ival sovere igns . Thisleads to the e stablishment o f some measureo f polit ical and ec onomic freedom for theplebeians - in o ther wo rds , a ne rve connection be tween the central nucleus and the surrounding mass .

This connec tion between soc ial need and pol iticalpower is brought into great prominence by the studyo f anc ient and med iaeval democrac ies , espec ial ly Of

the c ity republ ic s . In Carthage , democ racy increasedits powers with Hannibal ’s mil itary explo its ; in

Rome , the power of the commons increased as the

armies of the commons became nec essary to rivalrul ers . T he struggl e between Emperor and Popestarted the I tal ian c ities upon the ir careers as independent republ ic s . T he po l itical mov ement in Russ iasince the war with j apan is an interesting il lustration of the same princ ip le .

45

Meanwhile , the mass itsel f ceases to beamo rphous and becomes differentiated intofunc tions , i .e . , trades and c lasses . T he

ec onomic stage is beginning ; the pol it icalone i s fading away into the acc ompli shedpast . But the process of polit ical integrati oncont inue s .The muni cip ium, at first me rely the wat

tled place o f refuge for the people scatteredon the soi l , bec omes a market , a centre o f

industry , a depot , a charte red commun ity, aso c iety, enjoying widening powe rs o f selfgovernment . The individual s composing itare divided into thi s trade or that . Somemen , and final ly a c lass o f men , acquire c ontro l o f the means o f produc tion— the toolsand e c onomi c oppo rtun it ie s nec e ssary to an

industrial c ommunity ; they g e t c redit or

acquire capital ; and from the time that theproduc er has to depend upon a distantmarket e ithe r for his raw material or for thesale O f his produc e , a separate class bec omes

the owners o f tho se industrial nec e ss itie s ,the o rgani se rs o f trade and the employersO f labour . Oppo sit ion i s at first shown.

be tween the O ld ar i sto cracy o f title and land ,and the new plutoc racy of wealth and manufac ture s , but again , the laws o f integration ,

o f c onse rvat i on and imitat i on , c ome intooperat i on . Assimi lat i on and c o - o rdinati ontake plac e . Production has become the

grand soc ial function, and those organi s ing

46

it are in a po sit i on to demand citi zen rights .T he owners o f capital and prope rty are firsto f all received into rthe fold o f the sovereignlawmak ing authority .

* When socie ty hasd eveloped so far, i t sti l l contains a vastamorphous mass o f proletariat unc onnectedwith its controll ing c entral autho rity , al

though Of'

importance as food providers ;and they are , when roused , the inv inciblemajo r i ty .

Meanwhile , State activity touche s moreand mo re int imately the eve ry- day l i fe o f the

p eople , and i t become s mo re and moree ssential that the people themse lves shouldbe able to say what they think about thelaws . T he impe r fec t way in which anysingle indiv idual , fami ly or c lass can repres

e nt the national un ity or expre ss thenati onal wi l l , ne ce ss itates the c reation o f an

o rgan in which all inte rests and classe s arerepresented , and Repre sentative Demo cracy

In their e fforts to gain an entrance into this foldthey have to make it easier for the lower c lasses togain an entrance al so, because when the middle c lass

agitate for the franchise . they have to base the irc la ims partly on human right, in which the wageearners share , and they have al so to enl iven the inter

est o f the people as was done be fore 1832 in orderthat the aristocracy may be compe l led to grant a

l imited franchise . This is the explanation of the ad'

vo’

cacy o f a democratic .franch ise by midd le - c lass

L iberals.

47

i s establ ished . The stage o f polit ical constru

‘

ction then ends .

T he economic period , at the end of whichwe stand and from the matur ity o f whichSo cial i sm springs into l i fe , i s marked by theo rgani sati on o f product ion and exchangeo f wealth . Produc t ion and exchange are

best begun in a Soc ie ty o f the individuali stle type . The scramble o f c ompetito rs andthe struggle for pr i zes , p romo te the explo i tat ion o f nature and c reate , to begin with , thebest machine ry for p roduc tion and the bestfac i l ities for market ing .

We therefo re find that the first chaptersin the economic epo ch deal with the o rganisation of marke ts , the separation of thetrading from the p roducing classes , the

diffe rent iat ion O f c apital from labour , and

the sett ing O f the producing func tionsove r all o the r funct ions— in a wo rd , theydeal w ith the e stabli shment o f the bour

g eo isie , the middle c lass , the plutoc racy . Asthe epo ch deve lops , frequent dislocations o findustry take plac e , po l it ical and industrialagitations o f a demo cratic and Soc ial i stcharac te r disturb soc iety , as the l i fe o f thecoming epoch germinate s in the bosom ofthe order which i s maturing , and glimpses

48

of a be tter o rgani sation are caught throughthe suffering o f the v ic tims . Utopias are

dreamt of . But Society goe s on evo lvingin i ts cumbrous way . Organi c things areno t created or re - created in a day . Thevarious phases in industrial evolution , theho rrors o f child labour aswell as the benefic ent effec t o f a wo rld c ommerce , are as

much a“nece ss ity” in the nature of things*

as the proce s s o f organi c evo lution revealedin the ponderous books o f stone from the

Cambrian schists to the river grave l s . T o

indulge in dreamy imaginings upon howmuch mo re blessed we should have been hadno t thi s movement or that been c rushed out

by force o r starved out by igno ranc e , i s oneo f the vaine st and least p ro fitable o f all

* I am aware o f the ob jec tions that have been madeto the use of the se words . Bu t they sti l l expressbe tter than any others the be l ie f that every l iv ingth ing dev elops in accordance with the law o f its own

be ing w ithin the commun ity of which it is a. part ,and that every func tion o f soc iety is ul timate lylimited in its Operations by the who le soc ial life . T he

l iv ing consc ious ind ividual partly obeys that law in

ac cordance with the views o f Determinists , bu t he isal so partly obed ient to his conceptions of that lawoperating in a higher stage o f perfection, and in a

changed re lationsh ip .

“Man partly is, and whol lyhope s to be .

” H e can there fore move from the fixedpresent, and sec ure some o f the better possibil ities o fthe future . We might say that the warp and the

woo f o f l i fe are given to us , bu t that we can mod i fythe pattern that is to be woven .

49

serious rec reat i ons . The past was“necessary” ; the future is ours to make orto mar. Unt i l the individual istic and

compet it ive phase o f our economic ev o lu

tion had wo rked itsel f out , after buildingup an effic ient me chan i sm o f productionand exchange , we were no t ready to dealwith the problem O f distribution , or withthat o f use and consumption .

But the ne cessity o f deal ing with theproblem O f c onsumpt ion— which is real lythe p roblem o f endowing the indiv idual withe conomic fre edom, because freedom to c on

sume is the last and most comprehens iveo f all e conomic freedoms— s lowly eme rgesfrom the condit ions establ ished unde r thephase o f produc t ive effort . I t i s not onlythat the sense o f just ice i s v i o lated with increasing harshness as the c ontrast be tweenthe poverty- stricken and the luxur i ousclasses bec omes mo re marked in a nationwho se aggregate inc ome mounts up by leapsand bounds , but the very machinery o fproduc tion tends to be trans fo rmed in sucha way as to c ompel the publ ic to guardtheir inte rests by gaining contro l o f thismachinery . Competit ion tends to pas saway and monopo ly takes its plac e P Thecommon needs , sacrific ed by private interestin profit

-making , assert themselves moreand more through Factory Laws , experi

50

ment s in municipal i sat i on , Sani tary Laws andso on . In o ther words , the vari ous functionsin So ciety , acting o r iginal ly independent lyo f each o ther , tend to bec ome grouped and

to be subject to a will and an interestcommon to the whole group ; and in time thegroups themse lves tend to become c om

pletely merged in the whole o rgan i sm and

to act in accordance with its will and‘

inte rest .

At what po int o f t hi s evo luti on are wenow ? H ow far has the effici ent organi sat ion O f labour gone ? H ow far has themachinery O f p roduct i on been t rans formed ?In attempt ing to answer tho se questions ,

we must remember that one O f the chie f testsO f efli c ient o rgani sat ion in industry is

‘

sub

divi s ion , ac c ompan ied by c o - o rdinat ion,of

labour .

* In thi s re spe ct we have attaineda per fec tion which must be approaching itsl imits . Even in Our domestic arrangements—general ly the last to respond to change inso cial o rgan isat ion— thi s sub - divi si on and co

Ordinat ion have gone far . I t i s a long t ime

Adam Smith’s expre ssion “the sub - divis ion of

l abour ” is inadequate as a description of whathappens under the Fac tory System,

because the co

ord ination o f the work o f those employed in the sub

d iv ided proce sses is as necessary a charac teristic of

the system as the sub - d iv ision dtsel f .

52

to different operati ons , l ike sp inning and

weaving in the co tton trade , we re - created .

T he chie f so ci ological effect o f me chani calinvent ion has been to aid thi s pro cess o f

sub - divi sion and c o—ordination o f funct ion .

Adam Smith’s reference at the opening ofthe Wealth ofN ations, to the sub - divi s ion o f

labour in pin - making owing to the employment o f machinery has be c ome classical .But s inc e Adam Sm ith ’s day , sub - div i s i onhasgone bo th far and fast . I may i l lustratethi s from the boo t and sho e and tai lo r ingt rade s .

In 1859* men’s o rdinary cheap boo ts were

made by 83 diffe rent ope rations done bytwo men ; in 1895 they we re made by 12 2

d i ffe rent ope rat ions perfo rmed by 113 workers, some o f whom we re women . In 1863 ,men

’s medium grade cal f sho e s , fini shed instyle , were made by 73 ope rations done byone man ; in 1895, by 173 o pe rations pe rfo rmed by 371 wo rkpe ople . Equal ly str iking i s the change in the names by whic h theworkpeop le describe themselve s . In 1863 ,the men were sho emakers in 1895, the wo rdhas bec ome l i ttle better than an abstrac tion,

and no s ingle wo rkman i s indicated by it . In

stead o f sho emakers we have vamp cutters

Report of the Commissioner of Labour on H and

and Machine Labour, Washington, 1898. T he unit ofproduc tion for the figures quoted is 10 0 pairs ofshoes and _xoo v icuna coats .

53

tip marke rs , second row stitchers , eye letters,feathe r edge rs , inso le so rte rs , counte rbuffe rs , pullers - o ve r , welt strippers outso lelaye rs , he e l nai lers , st itch div iders , bo ttomstaine rs , shank burni shers , tre ers, edgepo l i she rs and such l ike .

T he e ffec t o f me chanical appliance s uponthe c lo thing industry i s equal ly marked .

When men’s o rdinary vicuna c oats weremade by hand , 2 2 operations had to be perfo rmed and four men we re employed uponthem ; in 1895 the se c oats we re made up by2 8 op erat ions upon which 2 54 wo rke rs we reemplo yed . T he hand wo rke rs we re knownastai lo rs , tr imme rs and cutte rs ; the de signat ion tai lo r has no t survived the use o f

machinery , the tr immer bare ly survives ,whilst the t it le s o f fitters , baste rs , sewingmachine ope ratives , button ho l e cutte rs ,fini she rs , pre sse rs and button sewers atte stto the minute sub - divi sion o f the trade .

Eve ry industry shows the same p ro c e ss .Every minute operation in the manufactureo f any art ic le bec ome s separated , a staff i semployed to pe rfo rm it alone , and the ag g regate number o f hands required to pro duc eany one c omplete article i s on the increase .

T he individual workman i s no longer theproduc ing unit . He do es no t make a

thing but on ly part o f a thing A bodyo f from 10 0 to 40 0 persons as in shoemaking and tai lo ring , i s now the producing unit .

54

The same pro c es s has al s o affe cted therelat ion be tween trades . One trade dovetai l sinto ano ther , either because one suppl ies rawmate rial for the o ther or in some othe r wayi s a complement to i t . For instanc e , a mun ic ipality do ing its own stre et sweep ing findsit to be advantageous to make and mend itsbro oms ; i f i t employs ho rses it finds thatdo ing its own saddle ry i s e c onomical ; i f itsstable i s large , it may employ its own vete rinary surge on and start its own fo rge withp ro fit . T he nec e ss ity to destroy its dust andre fuse may c ompe l it to gene rate its own

e lec tric ity , and fo r l ike reasons it may bedr iven into br ickmaking , the supplying o f

e lectric l ighting apparatus , p r inting , and so

on .

I have been to ld that a certain we l l - knowns laughte r and pack ing house found itsbyeproduc ts so embarrass ing to dispo se o f that ithad to start the manufac ture o f sausage s ,bri stle s , glue , fe lt , candle s , soap , tabl e c ondiments, manure ; i t owns the ro l l ing sto ckwhich it use s ; in order to p ro te ct itse l f fromc ompetition , i t hasacquired rai lroads and haso rgani sed transpo rt in several c itie s ; it hasopened retai l shops ; i t insures itsel f , and ,

through a bank o f i ts own , c onducts'

its

financ ial business .

T he ac t ivit ies o f the American Ste el Trustaffo rd ano ther example o f this c o - o rdinat ion o f industry . As a manufacturing c on

55

cern i t inc lude s ope rations l ike the making ;o f tin- plate s , tube s , bridges , wire and nai l s ,which used to be separate businesses . But

it has carr ied o rgani sation and c o - ordinatiorr

much furthe r than that . I t has acquired‘

ac re s o f the best c oking coal landsin the Conne l svi lle region , and hasbuilt over '

c oke ovens . I t ho lds 10 6 iron ore

mine s in the Lake Superio r region, and largel ime stone p rop ertie s in Pennsy lvania . I tpo sse sses 132 we l l s o f natural g as, which'

yie ld on the aggregate cubic '

feet per annum . I t owns mi les o f rai lway , and has a contro l l ing inte rest in fiv e

othe r l ine s . I t has a flee t o f 112 ore - carrying steame rs , toge the r with docks and landing stage s and the machinery nec essary forhandling the iron o re .

*

With this sub - divi sion and c o - o rdinat ion o f'

labour and industry , has pro ceeded an eno rmous impro vement in the means o f c ommunication . Fi fty years ag o i f one sent amessage from London to Edinburgh , i t to okabout a we ek to rec e ive an answe r

,whi lst“

from London to N ew Yo rk i t took a month .

T he stage c oach go ing at from seven to ten

mi le s an hour , was the substitute for the ex

p re s s train go ing seven or e ight t ime s as

fast , and the fare per passenger wasno t le ss

British Iron Trade Assoc iation Report on Ameri r

can I ndustrial Conditions, London, 190 2 , pp . 2 2 , etc .

56

than £ 10 fo r a j ourney which can now be

done for thirty shi l l ings . The ship depending upon the fitfu l winds was all that c ouldbe used instead o f the o cean steamers whichnow run so punctual ly that one can catch a

c e rtain train by them at the end o f a longvoyage . There wasno . regular cable se rv ic ebe twe en the Old and the N ew Wo rld unti l1866, and rates whic h are now a shi l l ing a

w o rd we re then £1 . Te legrams we re l itt leused unti l betwe en 1840 and 1850 , and then a

g o od machine could only send words

p er hour ,* whilst now twe lve times asmanyc an be sent , and devic e s are employed forduplicat ing and for wo rk ing severa l c le rksupon the same me ssage . And now the te lephone i s superseding bo th te legraph and ex

p re ss trainrl' There i s only the spac e o f a

few minute s separat ing the Old from the

N ew Wo r ld . The Napo leon ic capital i st s itsin his o ffice and c onduc ts hi s trade in eve ryc ountry and every c l ime as though hismarke ts we re but at the end o f his street .

With the se magical faci l it ie s unde r hi sc ontro l , the capital i st i s no longer a p r ivatepe rson operating in a l i ttle c o rner o f his

Mcc u l loch’s Di ctionary of Commerce , London ,

1882 , Art . written 1869 .

1 I have heard that owing to the adoption o f the

te lephone , one o f the expre ss trains running be tweenN ew York and Ch icago has been taken off .

57

par i sh ,who se suc c e ss o r fai lure only r ipp les

the calm sur fac e o f the l i fe o f his vi l la '

ge .

H e deal s with So c iety ; the fate o f pe 0 p1e sdepends upon him ; he rule s empire s ; legi slatures which monarchs canno t c ontro l arehis puppe ts . N ominal ly , his prope rty and

his busine ss are his own ,but the c onse

quenc es attending the way he c ontro l s themare spread ove r Soc iety . T he c rash o f a

single financ ial house in Wal l Stre et can prec ipitate an industr ial c r i s i s in Europe ; a

handful o f men c ontro l l ing the po l icy o f a

newspape r can spread panic , can depre sssto cks and c ause national di stre s s .

This e labo rate o rgani sat ion o f industryand c onc entrat ion o f industr ial powe r becomes a matte r o f se r ious and dire c t importanc e to the wage - earne r when labour - savingmachine ry i s large ly used . A machine whichl ightens labour can ve ry eas i ly be turnedinto one which take s the plac e

'

o f labour , andwhe the r that happens o r no t depends uponwhethe r the machine i s he ld by a c lass whichemplo y s labour for a profit , o r whe ther i t i sused by labour for its own benefit . So longas the re are expanding marke ts at home and

abroad , machinery c reates a demand fo r

wo rk , part ly because the machine ry itsel fmust be made , and partly because it cheape ns produc t ion and there fo re increases c onsumption .

58

But its employment enormously increasesthe powe r o f the capital ist over the wageearner . After a po int , i t increases thepro port ion o f unski l led labour in the

c ommunity ,*

and enables the capital istto cal l in to his aid the weak and

the casual wo rkers , general ly chi ldrenand women , to take the plac es o f men

and reduce their wages? N o sentiment, no

‘

tradit ion ,no so cial interest can resist the

imperat ive demand in the p resent economicstate that the mo st convenient k ind o f labour—c onvenient to the capital i st— shal l find itsway to the facto ry gates . Whilst our opponents prate , for instanc e , about the sacredne s so f the fami ly l i fe , they al low the c onvenienc eo f the machine to underm ine the e conomi cprops o f the fam i ly group . A pi l lar o f SabbatarianiSm can prove sati s facto ri ly to him

*Cf . Ameri can I ndustrial Conditions, supra, p . 317,

T he tendency in the American stee l industry is

to reduce by every poss ible means the number of

highly skil l ed men employed , and more and more to

establ ish the general wage on the basis o f common

unski l led labour . T he American Stee l'

manufac turer has succeeded in late years in largel y redu c

ing the relative numbers o f his skil led and h ighlypaid hands .”

T A workman in an industrial town in the Mid landsremarked to me the o ther day : I have elevench ildren , bu t thank God , most of them are g irl s . Theyc an eas ily g et work, bu t the boys are d ifficul t to

plac e .

”

60

owner o f the l ive s o f the peop le . H e ho ld sSoc ie ty in the ho l low o f his hand .

This i s no indic tment o f the individualcapital i st , who i s o ften trying his be st to

l i sten to ethical imperative s in his business .

I t i s an indic tment o f a system o f diso rgani sed funct ions which c anno t y ie ld mo ralresults . The se things are done no t becauseemploye rs are mo re hypocr i tic al or nu

j ust than their wo rkpeople . T he employe rhas to pe r fo rm his part in the machine . Hecanno t he lp himse l f . Like his men ,

he i s av ic tim o f the system T he Soc ial i st c om

plaint i s no t against the man , i t i s againstthe o rgani sation which ass igns to men theirfunc t ions and role in the industr ial l i fe ofthe c ommun ity .

N or can any c ombination o f labour in the

fo rm o f Trade Union i sm o r Co - operation’

break down thi s fo rm o f e conomic s lave ry .

The se combinat ions , particular ly when suppo rted by indiv idual charac te r , pro tec t thewage earners up to a po int , but capital andits inte rests can be c onc entrated much mo retho roughly than labour and i ts interests ,and ult imate ly the c onte st depends upon the

physical fac t that the battal ions o f labour arenume rous and have a l imited reserve o f

suppl ie s or none at all ; and this unwie ldi

ne s s o f numbe rs and early fight with starva

61

t ion must always be an eno rmous disadvan

tage to the wage earne rs .

Henc e w e have reached a stage when the

inte re st o f the c ommunity in the use o f some

fo rms o f prope rty i s much greate r than the

inte re st o f the legal owne rs o f that prope rty ,and when ,

in c onsequenc e , w e must se r iousl yque st ion the advisabil ity o f al lowing thisprope rty to be c ontro l led by pr ivate p e rsonsfor p r ivate ends .

Even i f it w e re phy sic al ly po ssible fo r a

person to own the l ight and air o f heaven ,

so impe rat ive ly ne c e ssary i s it fo r human

be ing s to use them that the r ight of pr ivatep rope rty in them is unthinkable . But the

diffe renc e be tw e en l ight and air on the one

hand,and land and industr ia l capital on the

o the r , i s only one o f degre e , and no t one o f

kind .

* As populat ion mult ip l ie s , as it is

depr i v ed o f fre e ac c e ss to raw materials , as

it be c ome s mo re dependent fo r li fe upon em

plo yment fo r wage s,So c ie ty be c ome s in

c reasing ly inte re sted in the use s to whichland and industria l c apital are pu t . I ts r ightto insi st upon the so c ial use o f prope rtygrow s . unt i l at last the expedienc y o f al lowing pr ivate owne rship in the se ne c e ssary c on

Th is is se en when,as a mat ter o f fac t

,priv ate

ownersh ip o f land in towns,by caus ing o v ercrowd ing

and s lum cond itions , real ly inv ol ve s a private ownersh ip o f a ir and l ight .

62

d itions o f l i fe i s destroyed . T he reasonswhich make the private ownership o f l ighta nd air unthinkable tend to make the privateowne rship o f land and industrial c apital al sounthinkable .

This inevitable growth o f the necess ityf or So ciety to ins ist upon the p rope r use o f

l and and capital i s hastened in itsfinal stagesby the ceasing o f c ompet it i on within largee conomi c and geographical areas

,and the

ruinous intens ification o f c ompe t it ion be

tween tho se areas . The c ompetit ive stage i salways one o f unstable equi l ibrium . Thesuc c ess ful compet ito r always tends toswal low up hi s rival s , and then pro ce eds tofight a cann ibal batt le - royal with tho se who ,l ike himse l f , have done some swal lowing ,and have grown mass ive in c onsequence ,and who have in due course to be fac ed byhim . O r , he may c ome to a truc e with themin a Karte l or Trust . T he law o f c ompe t it i on i s that the operations o f the indiv idualcapital i st become wider as c apital be comesc onc entrated , and that at last a monopo l i sticpeac e i s dec lared . Competition i s no t a finalc onditi on ; it i s a stage in the evo lution o f~c o~operat ion .

Thus , in this c ountry there i s l ittle c om

p eti tion in rai lway rate s ; fo r years there hasbeen l i ttle compe t i tion in the supply o f

paraffin o il ; in the i ron,mi l l ing

,shipping ,

63

t obacco ,thread and other industries we have

had in recent years combinations , createdeither after or without a competit ive war,that have been mo re o r less effective in re

duc ing c ompe tit ion to a min imum . The wal lpaper trust c ontro l s 98 per c ent . o f th e trade ,the B radfo rd Dyers , the Texti le MachineryCompany , the London Coal Combination,

and seve ral o the rs , c laim about 90 per c ent .o f the turnover in the ir respec tive industries ,and the l i st c ould be extended to somelength .

* Even when the c ombinat ions fai l ,the c ause s , howeve r difficult they may be too ve rcome

,are all se en to be vanquishable .

T he apparent fai lure s are but the backwasho f the enc roaching tide .

T he fact i s that the state o f individual i stc ompet it ion, the state o f se rving the c om

munity by making pe rsonal profits , i s no thing exc ept the chao tic inte rregnum betweentwo state s o f so c ial o rgan i sat ion— be twe enFeudal ism , when So c ie ty was o rgani sed tomaintain nat ional l i fe , and So c ial i sm ,

whenSo ciety w i l l be o rgan i sed to ma intain the in

dustrial and mo ral effic iency o f the community . I t i s inc onc e ivable that the unregulatedclash o f individual interests and the haphazard expenditure o f individual e ffo rt , whichc ompet it ion means , with all the ir ac company

For most recent in format ion on Engl ish combinations see Macrosty

’s T rust Mov ement in Eng l isk 1n

d ustry .

64

ing waste o f ec onom ic pow e r and o f human

ene rgy , should scand fo r eve r as the finalword w hic h rat iona l be ings have to say uponthe ir industr ial o rgan i sat ion .

Bu t w hi lst w i thin c erta in areas the boundso f industr ial peac e are be ing w idened , thegrowth of aggre ss ive po l it ic al nat ional i smhastrans fo rmed an e c onomic r ivalry be twe entrading fi rms into nat ional struggle s . N o

movement in re c ent years i s mo re menac ingin itsp robable re sults and mo re absurd in itsme tho ds than this . I f it i s enc ouraged , itwil l po stpone fo r gene rat i ons the suc c e ss o fthe t endenc y towards inte rnat ional peac e

,

and wi ll dive rt and arre st the grow th o f thathumanitar ian sent iment which blo ts o u t fromour m inds — if no t from o ur maps— nat iona lboundar i e s . Alread y

,unde r the m i staken

be l ie f that trade fo llow s the flag ,w e have

put an eno rmou s strain upon o ur impe r ialre so urc e s and nationa l w ealth . Comme rc e

,

which ac c o rding to the Radic al manu fac tur

ers, was to be the handmaiden o f peac e ,has

be en en l isted upon the s ide o f war . Bu t no

State c an al low its inte rnat ional re lat ionsto be de c ided by its me rchants . T he inte re sts , or suppo sed inte re sts . o f individual mer

c hants must give way to the intere sts of the

c ommunity .

T he fiscal agitat ion has. mo re ove r ,d rawn our attent ion to the depredat ions o f

65

paras it ic inte re sts and the waste o f disorg an

i sed industr ial e ffo rts . T he j eremiads whichhave had to be utte red in o rde r to give some

app earanc e o f evidenc e in suppo rt o f Tar iffchange s , have made us c onsc io us o f the

we ight o f the unne c e ssary burdens which ourindustry hasto bear , and industr ial ec onomyhas be en advo cated

,by the So c ial i st and

Labour o rgani sat ions at any rate , as the

alte rnat ive to po l it ical pro tec t ion . I t has

be en shown that our rai lways are sac r ific ingnational inte re sts fo r pr ivate p rofits , that ouriron and c oal industry i s we ighted with mining rents and royalt ie s , that o ur who leso c ial o rgani sat ion i s maintained fo r pr ivateand c lass gains . Eve ry c rack and subsidenc ewhich has be en p roved to exi st in our

nat ional c omme rc e has be en shown to be

mendable ,no t by tar iffs , but by the bette r

organi sat ion o f industry .

The re i s also ano the r c ircumstanc e whichwe must take into ac c ount in c onside r inghow far the pre sent o rgani sat ion o f So c ie tyis capable o f improvement . At the p re sentmoment we are in the m idst o f a strong tendene y in legislat ion to e stablish what i scal led a nat ional minimum o f so c ial c onditions wage s , sanitat ion , le i sure , e tc .

N ow , as a matte r o f fac t, c ompe t it ive in

dustry w i l l no t bear all this , i f the minimumi s to be w o rth striving for , and a po int must

66

soon be reacheo when the far- see ing So cial i stwi l l c ease to p ress for the se supe rficial pal l iat iv es, and exe rt increased p ressure for publ icownership . When the legi slat ive pal l iativei s inconsi stent with the system upon whichit i s to be impo sed , the awaken ing mo ralconsciousness which p rompts the demandmust see that i t real ly condemns the exi sting state fundamental ly , and no t me rely insome o f its superfic ial and alte rablefeatures .

*

Labour and industry have been sub - div idedand c o - o rdinated only in so far as has beennec essary for effic i ent p roduction . The subdivi s ion and c o—o rdination have no t beenfo r the purpo se o f increasing the health o fthe who le soc ial o rgan i sm . Land , capital

I ho ld this po int to be of the greatest importancefor the future suc c e ss o f Soc ial ism. State inter ferenceu nd er commercial i sm is stric tly confined withinl imits . I f we g o beyond these , ou r experiments wil lbe fai lure s , and l ike the Paris workshops o f 1848 w il l

become bulwarks behind which reac tionaries w il l

she l ter themselve s . Publ ic ownership , which a fter al lis Soc ial ism,

as d istingu ished from State interferencewh ich is only the path to Soc ial ism,

—and not alwaysthat— must not be al lowed to be pushed into the bac kground of Soc ial ist effort . In the interest of the

larger movement , mere pal l iatives , l ike Wages’Boards and a le gal minimum wage , must be re jec tedsometime s .

68

T he o rgans o f a healthy body po l itic are

now in existenc e . In the ir var iety and c o

o rdination they mark an advanc e upon thec ondition o f So cie ty a c entury ag o . Theyindic ate a substant ial improvement in theec onomy o f e ffo rt and p re c i s ion in gain ingre sults . But each o rgan i s se rving an intere st o f i ts own . When it i s se rving the who le ,it i s in o rde r that it may se rve i tsel f first .T he next stage in o ur so c ial evo lution mustbe marked

,no t by the deve lopment o f mo re

spec ial func t ions , but by the c o - o rdinat iono f the func tions which are already in exi ste nc e . The wel fare o f the c ommun ity must ,in ec onom ic

,po l it ical and mo ral effo rt , take

the plac e that the inte re st o f the c lasse s nowo c cupie s . Empedo c les taught that at the

c hao t ic beginnings o f l i fe the var ious partso f the body— the eye , the head , the handaro se and wande red separate ly through thewo r ld . But as time went on , a wande ringe ye me t a wander ing head , a wande ring handmet a wander ing arm , and at l ength thewonde rfu l mechan i sm o f the o rgani c bodywas brought into be ing . Fanci ful as thi smay be as a biologica l explanat i on ,

i t i sl ite ral ly true as regards the organi sation o f

the industr ial wo rld . D i sc onnected parts o fan ec onomic system have ar i sen from chaos,and on ly as they un ite toge ther wil l thee conomi c l i fe o f Soc i ety be come full .

This i s the bio logical view o f the evo lut i ono f So c iety towards So c ial i sm . T he evo lut ioni s ac c ompan ied by an oppo sit ion o f diffe rentinte re sts pro c e eding pari passu with a mo rec omplete o rgani sat ion . But the predomin

ant o r vital fact i s not that c onflic t , but rathe rthe steady subo rdination o f all func t ionaland se c t ional inte re sts to the l iving ne eds o fthe who le c ommun ity , and the c e rtain pre

dom inanc e o f tho se func t ion s which are

carry ing on what at any given t ime i s thec hie f c onc e rn o f So c i e ty . Each epo chhas its own appropriate histo r ica l basi sand mo t ive , explained no t by the assumpt ionthat the stage s o f so c ial evo lut ion are the

c reat ions o f the de sire o f individual s to l iveo r to po sse ss , but by the evo lution o f the

func t ions o f Soc ie ty , studied as though itwe re an o rganic pro c e ss .

O ne conc lusion from this v iew must bespec ial ly no t ic ed . As each stage o f enfran

chisement approache s , we find that , by theinfluenc e on the individual mind o f the pre

paredness o f Soc iety fo r change , by the

sugge st ions which the s igns and tendenc ie so f the time make to c r it ical and obse rvingminds

,inte l lec tual and mo ral movements

a r i se in harmony with the impending change ,and weaken the re sistance o f the doomed

70

inte rests . A movement towards mo re effec tive o rgani sation is, o f ne c e s sity , p rec eded bymo re c omp rehens ive v i ews o f soc ial ut i l ity ,and o f mo ral r ight and wrong . Sinc e , underdemoc racy , the fo rm o f so cial o rgan i sation isdire c tly dependent upon the c ommuni ty ’sne ed , expre sse d steadily as it grows and no t

dammed up ti l l i ts re s istanc e canno t longe rbe withsto o d , we have an increas ing secur

i ty against c atac lysmi c change , and a greater guarantee against revo lut ion . Changebec ome s o rganic in its me tho d . Conte stsbetween the o rgani sm and the func tion ,

be tween So c ie ty and a c las s ,— betwe en the

c ommun ity and vested inte re sts,

— bec ome

gradua l surrende rs o f the parts to the who le ,

to which day and date can hardly be ass igned , be cause in the c ourse o f the changethe re has be en no dramat ic cri s i s .

In thi s growth o f o rgan i sation,Soc ie ty

pre sent s a spe c ial feature owing to the c on

stant attempts made by individual s to se curefor themse lve s c e rtain advantage s , e conomicand so c ial , which can only be long to a few

and which are enjo y ed as a rule at the

expense o f So c ie ty asa who le , o r o f subord

inate c lasse s in Soc ie ty . T he oppo rtunitywhich a smal l c lass has to put i tse l f in the

po s ition o f a paras ite i s very great owing

7!

to the fac t that in social evolution certainfunc t ions bec ome from time to time predominant . T he organ— c las s or group of

persons— which fulfi l s these functions , and!

the indiv idual cel ls- persons— c omposing“

these o rgans , are held consequently in distinc t ion and acquire interests which , when;a further so cial change has ripened , are

found to be oppo sed to that change .

Meantime , they have gathered roundthemselves a group o f o rgani c relationship s which become but obstruc tive growthsin the soc ial o rgan i sm, howeve r useful theymay at one time have be en .

* That i swhat we mean by “ve sted interests . Parasitism breeds parasit i sm . The predominantfunction , with its acc esso ries , in eve ry stageo f so cial growth attempts to re tard soc ialevolution beyond the conditions which givei t predominance . I t seeks to establ ish itse l f as a v ital part o f Soc ie ty which , i f inj ured , will mean death to the who le ; i t

This can be il lustrated in other ways than bya study o f parasitism. For instance , geo logists havelong been d iscuss ing why the g igantic creatures.

which l ived during D iluv ial times became extinct .T he theory has now been propounded regarding thesabre - toothed t igers that l ived in South Americathat they evolved in relation to the huge Glyptodontso f the Pampas , which were protected by mass ive platearmour except at the nec k . T he pecul iar dentitionof these tigers was an advantage only so long as.

the country swarmed with Glyptodonts, but so soon!

G

72

c reates , a pract ice o f moral ity which servesasa foundation for it ; i t construc ts an economic system which suits its needs ; i t establ i she s by its Acts o f Par l iament a legalsystem to preserv e gits own l ordly place ;it inculcates a habit o f mind in the o thersocial functions which makes them unwill ingt o consider any o the r system o f so cialrelati onship than the exi sting one .

The plac e o f monarchy in the pol iticale volution o f the communi ty may be cited inpro o f o f this . When the t ime came fo r tribest o amalgamate into nati ons it wasne cessaryt o devi se some means by which nationalunity could express i tsel f , and thi s couldbe - done only by se lecting a nati onal head .

Except for such a head , nations subje ct tothe sto rm and stress o f invas ion and internald i sruptive fo rc e s , could not have surv ived .

But just in proportion to the stress o f thenati onal need for a k ing , the k ing was ableto set as ide every traditi on and custom whichl imi ted his tenure o f o ffice . He wasable to

as the increased kil l ing efi c iency of the tigers withthe sabre teeth reduced the number of the g lyptodonts,the dentition which formerly was advantageous inthe struggle for existence became a handicap“

, becauseit .was not fitted for general carnivorous work, and

tiger and . v ictim became extinc t together. So , the

c lasses which pu t property to anti - soc ial uses are

doomed to suffer ia the l ong run with the Soc ietyu pon which they prey through land monopoly, slums,unbridled competition, &c .

73

rai se himsel f into a c lass o f which he wasthe only member , to establish that classupon a basi s o f div ine right , to surround itwith bulwarks o f dependant classe s , to makei ts continued existenc e appear to be e ssentialto the existence o f the nation . T o - day , longafter the nat ions have o rgani sed themse lvesinto unit ies which find expre ss ion moree ffec t ive ly through repre sentati ve assemblie sand by tempo rary heads , monarchy surv ive sdepr ived o f its legal autho r ity but suppo rtedby the parasit i sm o f thought and intere stwhich it has inhe r ited from the t ime whenit

'

performed a nec e ssary funct ion in So c ie ty .

In the e conomic deve lopment o f Soc iety ,the same law ho lds good . The terr ito rial.baron ho lding land in trust for the c om

mun ity and fulfi l l ing that trust by maintaining on that land a body o f yeomen who searms we re at the di spo sal o f the c ommunityin case o f need , exp re ssed in the mo ste ffe c tive way po ssible the ne cessi ty for the

c ommunity be ing p rope r ly de fended . T he

c ircumstanc e that this al lowed pr ivate warson the part o f the barons , and personale xpedit ions on the part o f the king , wasonlyinc idental to the state o f national org anisa tion at the t ime . When , in due course , theindustr ial deve lopment o f the c ountrynec e ssitated a mo re perfe ct national organisat ion than feudal i sm, the new functions ofc apital and commerc ial i sm found the old

74

ones o f the land— feudal ism— the v italcentres o f laws and priv i leges which had tobe abo l i shed altogether or shared with thenew pluto cracy . Although feudal ism is nol onger o f any consequenc e to national l i fe ,the habit o f mind whic h it engendered and

the so c ial d istinc tions w hich it necessitated ,sti l l influence us , and we tolerate the existence o f a House o f Lo rds and make baronsand baronet s o f tho se who do party service s ,and imagine we are thus maintaining theexistenc e o f the Briti sh “

aristocracy .

Hence we see that though the diseasedfunc ti ons atrophy , they retain a sort o fparasi tic l i fe and maintain a ceremonial andsocial existenc e owing to the incapacity o fthe so c ial o rgan i sm to throw them 0 3

complete ly . Intellectual and so c ial paras itism i s one o f the mo st formidable barriersto progres s .

v 111.

The economic peri od has i ts characteristicethical and po l it ical aspects . Whilst it wasunfo ld ing , the idea o f indiv idual l ibe rty wasbecoming c leare r and was pul l ing at thepi l lars o f feudal s ociety with alarmingvio l ence Slavery was be ing abo l i shed ,evangel ici sm was crowning the meanestbeing with div ine responsibi l ity, and the“rights o f man” were being pro claimed fromthe street corners by agitators , and taught

76

almost exclusively, and i t hardly touchedconduc t— exc ept sel f- regarding conductat all . As a consequence o f thi s , evange lic ism was compelled to dwel l with praetic al exclus iveness upon the aspect o fmoral ity— so o ften merely formal— whichdeal s with the relati ons between man and

God , — other - wo rldl iness— and neglec ts thatwhich i s c onc erned with the relationsbetween man and man . I t has fa i led toinsi st upon the app licati on o f tho se parts o fthe Go spel which impose secular dutie s uponthe Chri stian, or has treated them as beingmetapho rical and po etic . I t has therefo redone l ittle dire c tly to create the moraldemand for a change in the social organi sm .

The me thod and ne ed o f pe rsonal regeneration have bounded the v i s ion of evange lic ism .

I ts second shortcoming was i ts indiv iduali st standpoint and phi losophy— necessari lyso , one has to admit . N o t only wereindividual i sm and evangel ic i sm c ontempor

ary in history but they were ak in to eachother in principle ; so much ak in , in fact ,that just as evangel ici sm fai led to conceiveo f an o rgani c church , so did it fai l to c on

ce iv e o f an o rganic state . Evangel ici smv i ewed the whole problem o f State interference mainly from the po int o f v i ew o f ardentrel igioni sts oppo sed to a State Church and

Arminianism , and misled , in consequence ,

77.

into the general i sation that the Establishment wasa go od example of all State inst itutions. I t thus started from a fal se c on

c eption o f the relationship be tween the Stateand the individual

.I t assumed that any in

c rease of State activ i ty was detrimental toindividual characte r , and it was therefo reinc apable o f dire cting the large vo lume o f

mo ral effort which Evange l ici sm itsel f hadundoubtedly created e spec ial ly amongsttho se in the humbler walks o f l i fe , into a

pre ssure direc ted by Soc i ety to readjustso cial re lationships so

“

that social re sultsmight sat i s fy mo re and mo re the requirements o f the mo ral individual . On the whole .E vange l ic i sm the refo re c ontented itsel f byenc ouraging the moral individual whom it

created , to regard the State as somethingexte r io r to his mo ral l i fe— as something o f

l i tt l e or no assi stanc e in the mo ral evolutiono f mankind .

In the se later days di st inct ions canno t bed rawn quite so clear ly as I have done in the

above sentences , for we are passing awayfrom that gene ration . T he Fre e Churchesare beginning to deal with the soc ialproblem which i s facing them . Moral i tyi s separat ing i tse lf from dogmas and

i s endeavouring to interpre t and exp la initse l f through li fe and l i fe only . T he

e xi stence o f a c ommunal mo ral personality , a communal moral wi ll , a com

.

78

munal moral consc ience , i s being made thereason for legislation . The moral movementwhich characterised evangel icism i s floatinginto the mid stream o f progress to play it s

part as an agency in the epoch o f so cialc onstruction through social action uponwhich we are entering .

The direct contribution made to political

p rogress during thi s per i od has been thed emocratic reforms o f L iberal i sm .

'

Liberahsm i s no t nece ssari ly demo cratic ; i t i sreal ly the po l itical creed o f the newly en

franchi sed middle class , but u nder our pol it ical conditions it could hardly he lp becomingmore than that . In thi s country i f it hasnot succeeded in establ ishing a puredemo cracy , i t had gone far in that directionbefo re paralysi s overto ok i t . I t had answeredin practice , by pass ing a ser ie s o f actse nding with Household Mascul ine Suffrage ,the phi losophic problem : Where do essovereignty re st ?After the struggle for pol it ical l iberty has

e nded or has spent itsel f, pol it ical interestt ends to bec ome concentrated on que stionsregarding the function of the State , and

partie s begin to range themselves , on theone hand , round the atomic individual i sts

g uided by some idea o f indiv idual right and

80

o f every indiv idual , but the communal wil l ,vo i cing the need o f all classes in theirrelation to the community , and may fitly beregarded , in spite o f the opposition o f a

minori ty , as be ing “ for the go o d o f all

concerned .

”

Consequently to speak or think , after theL ibe ral epoch , o f State action be ing

“grandmothe rly ,

”a l imitation upon l iberty, a do ing

for the individual something which he shoulddo for himsel f , i s asmeaningless asto creditL ibera l i sm with Hanover ian princ i ples and

To ryi sm with Jac obite sympathies .Whilst the antagon i sm o f interests

,classes

and functi ons sti l l exists , or its memo ry stilll ingers , and whilst such c lass legislation as i s.passed to - day pe rverts the popular mind andc o lours itsvis ion , some bitter experi ences o fdemo cratical ly dec reed legis lat ion may haveto be borne . An interest finding itse l f tem

porarily in a po sition which enables i t todic tate its own te rms may pass laws benefic ial to i tsel f and oppress ive to the rest o fthe community , but just as competition in

industry ever tends to exhaust itsel f and giveway to c o - operation ,

s o , by a similar law ,

democ racy tends to legi slate for the who lesoc ial o rgani sm and no t merely for one o f

i ts sections . D emo cratic law tends to become national law , be cause demo cracy in

wo rk ing tends to harmoni se and c o - o rdinate

the social functions . A demo cratic government expresses the wil l o f the social organism, and when i t direc ts the actions o f thepeople i t speaks to them in their own voice .

This has been the chief contribution o f

L iberal i sm to the evo lut ion o f so cial functions and their o rgani sation .

The economic period i s therefore clo s ing .

Political ly , mo ral ly , ec onomical ly , its fruithas ripened and i s be ing gathered . I thashanded down to us three great problemswhich have arisen owing to its suc cess inhaving so lved its own . What i s the sphe reo f the State ? What i s the relat i on betweenindiv idual and so cial mo ral ity ? H ow can

national produc t ive resourc es and accumu

lated wealth be used so that they may c on

tribute mo st to the we l fare o f the wholecommunity ? Up to this po int progress hasbrought us . Upon the po rtal s o f Soc ial ismthese three problems are written .

CHAPT ER IV .

UT OPIAN AND SEMI - SCIENT IF IC socmu su .

BEFORE the idea o f bio logical evo lutionregulated the thought and methods o f socialrefo rmers , proposal s for so cial reconstruet ion took the form of creati ons o f a new

e arth and new men , made by the flat o fsomeone whose authority was equal to thetask . The man who judged social resultsby his ideas o f right and wrong was drivent o plant hi s ideal community , wherein dweltrighteousness , on s ome undiscovered i slandin s ome unknown sea ; and when , in timesneare r to o ur own, the reformer did not

merely write o f Utopias , but tried to makethem , he bought land in the hopes o f founding a s ociety modelled on a plan dev i sedfrom his own intel l igence .

The fundamental mi stake of the Utopiabuilders was that they did no t understandthat Society develops in accordance with

82

84

needs , whilst , by the nature o f the problem ,

they should have approached it asmen whodesire . to restore to health their ai l ingbodies . They regarded So ciety as though i twere an architectural construction o f fixedparts , not as an organi sm maturing by thelaws o f variati on and growth .

Sir Thomas Mo re ’s Utopia and Robe rtOwen’s experiments , each in their own way,i l lustrate thi s error .

More wasan apo st l e o f the l iberal thoughto f his t ime , such as i t was. Guided by thehumani sm o f the N ew Learn ing , he cast hi seyes over the state o f England when theevo lution o f nat i onal industry was destroying the peasantry . T he Engli sh mano r system was being trans fo rmed into privateownership o f land inspired by commerc ialcons ide rations . T he stream from thecountry to the towns had started . The landlo rds , responding to the al lur ing temptati onso f commerce , were beginning to regardtheir lands no t as the instrument of territorial power and respons ibi l ity , but asa sourceo f income , and the demand for wool madethem turn their ti l led acre s to grazing , and

put sheep on the fields'

instead ‘ o f men .

Soc iety wasmov ing from the terri torial andagr i cultural stage to that o f world marketsand c ommerce . Capital was concentrating

85

a nd slowly o rgani s ing itsel f into a func tionseparate and apart from labo ur , and the

g uild o rdinanc e s which pro te c ted the o lderme thods o f trade we re passing into impo tenc e . The unemplo yed we re eve rywhe reso c ial c onfl ic t was eve rywhe re . Eve rywheret he rich seemed to be in conspiracy againstt he po o r . In Mo re ’s own wo rds : Ther ich are ever str iving to pare away some

thing furthe r from the dai ly wage s o f thepo o r by private fraud and even by publ iclaw , so that the wrong already existing

(for i t i s a wrong that tho se from whomthe State der ive s mo st benefit should re

c e iv e the least reward) i s made muchgreater by means o f the law o f the State .

'

T he po o r , in consequence , were leading a

l i fe so wre tched that even a beast’s l i feseemed enviable . Everything ,

evenC hr i stendom i tsel f , was power le ss to averta ll thi s wrong - do ing , he moaned .

This indictment i s wonde rfully mo de rn ,

wonde rfully l ike the last So c ial i st speech onehas heard , wonderfully l ike the p resent dayexpre ssion o f re fo rme rs who try to v iewhone st ly the fact s o f l i fe And ye t Mo re ,

*C i . for instance th is sentence of‘

j ohn StuartMil l I f, there fore , the cho ice were to be madebe tween Communism w ith al l its chanc es , and the

p resent state of soc iety w ith al l its su fferings and infinstices; if the institution of private property neces

86

the N ew Learning , Christendom , did l ittleand could do l i ttle to avert or shorten the

calami ties . The iron law o f so cial evo lutiongrinds out i ts results with magnificent callousness.

Why ? Why did More write asa modern ?Why did his crit ici sms fal l l ike seed by thewayside ? The po s ition o f Robe rt Owenmay aswell be examined befo re an answeri s attempted .

Owen’s Utopias were products o f the Industrial Revo lution . He liv ed in a systemdes igned exc lus ively for the production o fwealth , devouring bo th the physique and

the charac te r o f chi ldren,men and women .

Human beings were the raw material uponwhich the growing industry o f his t ime fed .

Revo lting from the spectacle , Owen beganto condemn it on account o f its mo ral defi

sari ly carried w ith it as a consequenc e that the

produc e o f labour shoul d be apportioned as we now

see it, almost in an inverse ratio to the labour— the

largest portions to those who have never worked at

al l , the next large st to those whose work is almostnominal , and so in a descending scale , the remuneration dwindl ing as the work grows harder and moredisagreeable , until the most fatiguing and exhaustingbod ily labour cannot count with c ertainty on be ingable to earn even the nec essaries of l i fe—if this or

Communism were the al ternative, al l the d ifficul tiesgreat or smal l of Communism would be bu t as dust inthe balance .

”— Pol itical E conomy, Book I I chap . i .

88

pushed to the fo refront o f publ ic in

terests. When Owen started his fi rst commun ity capital i sm was but beginningits triumphs . T he State had on ly just givenup its attempts to fix wage s , hav ing beenbaffled in its benevo l ent intent ions by the

v igo rous and extens ive changes in industrialconditions whic h the new ec onomic o rde rwasbringing about . Even in industr ie s l ikethe wo o l len , which had been c ontro l led bycapital i sts fo r over two centur i es , the em

ployerswe re but mode rate ly rich . The samewas true o f co tton .

* T he Pe e l s were separated by but one gene rat ion from their yeoman o r igin . In Sc otland , the first cottonmill had been e re cte d on ly twenty - two yearsbe fo re Owen acquired N ew Lanark .

‘

l' A

subscr ipt ion l i st o pened in Live rpo o l in 1798

in aid o f the funds required to carry on thewar with Franc e , contained only two

amount s o f £50 0 and one o f £40 0 , and the sewe re the large st sums subscribed t As late

T he c o tton industry had not i n the fi ft ie ssuffic iently deve loped for the not ions cu rrent to dayto emerge .

”- Chapman , Lancashire Cotton I ndustry ,

p . 2 50 .

T I nd ustri es of Glasg ow and the West of S cotland ,

British Assoc iat ion H andbook,G las gow , 190 1 , p . 141 .

I Baines ’ H istory of Liv erpool , pp . 50 3-

4 . In

180 1, J£80 , 0 0 0 was subscribed in thre e hours for bu ilding an Exchange with a Square in front (ibid . 50 6

Even that woul d not have been c onsidered a spec ialfeat a generat ion a fterwards , and the great fgssmadeabout it I S s ignificant,

39

as 1841, according to the repo rt o f theAssistant Commi ssioner for Scotland , presented to the Committee appo inted to eu

quire into the condition o f the unemployedHandloom Weavers , out o f weaverssouth o f the Firth o f C lyde , no t more than

were employed in factorie s ,1 whilst itwas quite c ommon unt i l the middle o f then ine teenth century for agriculture and weaving to be carri ed on by the same person . §As late as 1834 , i t was stated before theCommitte e on Handloom Weavers that i fa man could purchase a winding machineand a warp ing mi l l and g e t credit for a

skep o f yarn he c an g et into mo tion as a

master .

”ll Powerlo oms had no t se riously

menaced handlooms , and we re so imperfectthat their use was no t c learly e c onomical .Spinning machinery was equal ly impe r fec t .

Great as had be en the str ide s o f invent ion,

and though the“ Industr ial Revo lution

had been we l l begun, the industr ial o rganisation o f the c ountry was st i l l but rudiment

ary . The facto ry system ,charac te r i sed by

spec ial i sat ion and sub - div i s ion o f labour ,toge the r with c entral i sed town industry , wasbut beginning ; the means o f transpo rt and

lo c omo t ion were no thing be tte r than the new

Quoted by Chapman in Lancashire Cotton In.

dustry , 190 3, p . 2 4.

Ibid , pp . 10 , 11, etc ,

[1Ibid , p. 2 5.

96

canal system which had been the subject o fsuch feveri sh speculation in 1792 , and thestage c oach ; international trade was insignificant . But the characte ristic s o f the industrial e poch were apparent . The economie and politic al conditi ons o f feudal i smwere pass ing away . The nati onal exi stenceo f the country had been final ly secured , andits industrial epo ch de c i s ively begun . In thefirst stage o f that deve lopment had to besolved the problems o f how to producewealth and create markets and marke tingfac i l i tie s . There fo re , the fo rm of the socialorgani sm had to re spond to those needs o fthe social l i fe , and all the o rgans and cell s inSociety had to be subo rdinated to the organisation best fitted for sati s fying those socialends .This subo rdination entai led suffe ring and

misery . The towns became pe sti lential ,chi ldren we re done t 0 ‘

death in the mi l ls ,pauperism inc reased , the pe ople sent up toheaven angry pro tests , Utopias were bui ltfrom the mental stuff o f the just and thegenerous , Owen agitated . But protest as

the organs and the c e l l s might , Society c ontinued to o rgani se i t se l f s o that i t could produc e wealth abundantly ; and all the fine

ideas that were scattered abroad made no

difference exc ept in so far as they c ouldmodi fy the so cial struc ture within the l imit s

of the economic function impo sed upon it

95

Soc ie ty was ripe for them ; they werenatural” in the sense that they w e re produc ed by the circumstance s o f the time , andadvantageous to the vital purpose o f the

generation . And, above all, they weremodifications o f the so cial struc ture .

This c ontention i s strongly re info rc edi f we c ons ide r what at first se ems to mi l itate against i t , the deve lopment o f Co - operat ion from Owen ’s Utopian schemes . Co

operati on in Owen’s mind was as much a

tour de force as his N ew Harmony . I t wasa new o rgani sat ion o f So c ie ty bringing thewo rke rs into a new re lat ion with each o therand altering fundamental ly the condit ionsunder which p roduc tion and exchange werebeing carr ied on . Logical ly it wasan exc ellent idea . I f it were po ssible for the individual— the c el l— to create at any t ime a new

so c ial o rgan i sat ion, Owen’s scheme o f

integral c o—ope rat ion might have wo rked .

Bu t the individual l ive s in an o rgani smSo c ie ty ,— hi s wi l l exp re sses itse l f in acc o rdanc e with the l i fe o f the o rgani sm , his morality i s able to ac t effe c t ively only in so far

as i t can modi fy the so c ial o rgani sm and i sguided by the v ital act ivity o f the o rgani sm,

and hi s c onfidenc e i s given only to systemss imi lar to , o r but an easy stage removedfrom

,the organ i sation o f which he i s a part .

T herefo re , when Owen’s idea o f c o - opera

93

tion wasadopted , i ts Utopian characteristicswere gradual ly dropped , and , as i ts succ e ssbecame possible , the feature s it he ld in c om

mom with exist ing Soc ie ty became mo remarked .

When the Rochdal e p ionee rs began the i rexperiment in 1844 , the U topian feature s o fOwenite Co - operat ion we re be coming subo rdinate to p racti cal and immediate re sults .

True , the Pione ers threw out fo re shadowings o f a new earth . T he unemplo yed we reto be abso rbed , and an ident ity o f inte re stbetween p roduc er and c onsume r was to bee stabl ished— in the long run . But the o rganisation o f the movement was mode l led on

the o rgani sat ion o f exist ing So c iety . T he

re st was o rnament , and that o rnament has

had but the s lighte st influenc e in the deve lopment o f the expe riment .

There was an oppo s it ion in So cietybe tween the func t ions o f p roduct ion and ex

change , be twe en the wage - earne r and the

pe rson who so ld him his fo od and c lo thing ;and the latte r was dri ft ing mo re and mo rec omplete ly unde r the c ontro l o f the capital i stemp lo y e rs . T he que st ion was: Co uld thattendenc y be stopped without hinder ing the

e ffic iency o f the so c ial o rgani sm to p roduc ewealth , without having to c reate an o rganisation diffe rent in fo rm and idea to Soc ietyas it existed , and without impo sing uponmen a standard o f conduc t material ly higher

613

than or di fferent from that to whichthey were used ? Obv iously , dear and

adulterated food , the c redit system , an al l iance between shopke epe rs and employerswere no t only not essential , but might beharmful , to the e ffic ient production o f

wealth , and the idea o f the wo rkmen beingtheir own shopkeepers mi l itated against no

princip le upon which product ion depended ,and c al led for the exerc i s e o f no virtue not

essential to the o rdinary operations o f c apital ist business . So the se things we re alterable . But the private ownership o f c apital ,capital i st contro l o f the wo rkshop and c om

petit ion in p roduc t ion ,toge the r with the ex

istence o f the unemployed , were e ssentialto the epoch o f cap ital i st production , and

these could not be alte red .

The question upon which the succ e s s o f

the Ro chdal e expe r iment depended was:

Was there a suffic ient ly strong sense o f

sol idari ty amongst the wo rkers to secure forthe stores such a de te rmine d patronage as

to pro tect them against outside c ompe t it ion ?

As it turned out,there was. T he Co - opera

t ive Sto re waspatroni sed , no t because it wasmo re effic i ent or cheape r than the shop o f

the private trade r , but because it was the

Co - operative Sto re T he movement , in the

main, did no thing to alter the o rgani sation

go

quate theories o f the economic pe r iod is

exactly what one would expe c t . T he law o f

parasit i sm descr ibed elsewhe re* providesthat in mo vements l ike Co - ope rat ion , thetheo r ie s and assumptions he ld by the generation which made it a suc ce ss should be c omeembodied in the ti ssue o f the mo vement , and

re si st change long after less we l l o rgani sedmovements have re sponded to new ideas.

N ow we c an see why Utopias o f all age sare so simi lar in sp ir i t and seem to reproduce prac t ical ly the same human demands .They all assert the right o f man to li fe and to

human cons iderat ion against the operat ionso f so cial evo lut ion which eve ry now and

again, owing to funct ional change s , sacr ific e the pe rsonal inte re sts o f sec t ions and o f

indiv iduals. They all demand mo ral re sultsfrom So c ie ty . Men , thinking and wr i tingat tho se time s o f rapid c hange , make c laimsand utte r c rit ic i sms from an ideal ly mo ralpo int o f view . Hence , at eve ry t ime o f

so c ial change and o f ac tiv i ty in soc ial speculation ,

men dead for centurie s are de sc r ibedasbe ing “

modern men .

” They have s earchedfor and thought they have found the statewhe re in man was free and had j ust ic e done

‘

p 70-

74.

to him, and that has been the quest o f mans inc e mo ral i ty has been .

T he mo ral standards o f the builders o f

Utopias are the re sult o f the expe r ienc e o f

we l l c o - o rd inated o rgani sms , such asman i s .But the o rgan i sation o f So ciety has beenlo o se and part ial , i ts wi l l has been weak , itsfunc t ioning imp e rfe ct , i ts mo ral i ty , the refo re , rudimentary . The individual i s the refore in mo ral po ssibi l it ie s far in advanc e o f

Soc iety . But Society , s lowly and by o rgani cadaptat ion ,

has be come mo re and mo recapable o f exp re ssing the mo ral con

sc iousness o f man , under c ondit ions o f

greater fre edom . So be fore the Co

operative movement c ould fulfi l the c om

ple te intent ions o f Owen , industrial so cie tyhad to pas s into a furthe r stage o f

o rgani sation . Labour was not sufficientlysub - divided to c reate the condit ions o f, and

ne cess ity for, Co - op erat ion within wide areaso f p ro duc t ion . Co - operation c ome s after subdivis ion , and in Owen

’s day sub - divi s ion and

individual i sm , no t Co—operat ion and So c ia lism , we re the l ines upon which industry hadst i l l to be carr ied on . But he saw bo th howSo cie ty wasto deve lop and why it had s o todeve lop .

Be fo re thi s advance in so cial o rgani sationcould be reached , however, soc io logy had topass from architec tural or mechanical c onc eptions o f social organi sation to organi c

98

one s , and 50 men have le ft behindthem the standpo int from which it appearedto be po s sible to build a N ew Je rusalem byUtopian me thods . Refo rming e ffo rt i s seento be impotent unle s s i t e ffec ts variat ions inthe so cial struc ture , because it i s d isc ove redthat the defe c t giving rise to all the mi serieswhich set Utopists dreaming , i s , that everyfunc t ion in So c ie ty has no t been c omple te lyorgani sed so that each c o - operates with eachand all with the who le . T he preparation forSo cial Co - operation on a large scal ei s therefo re marked by a c hange in the

methods o f the so cial refo rmer . He beginsto se e that his ideal c i ty must grow out o fSo c i ety and no t be p lanted in i ts midst . H e

dreams no mo re o f N ew Harmonies , but o fa Go lden Ag e .

Mo ral c rit ic i sms on so cial organi sationare use ful only in s o far as the c r i ti cs bearin m ind that the o rgani sat ion hitherto has

be en nec essar i ly unable to re spond to them,

and that the chie f c onc e rn o f mo ral i stsshould be to imp rove the o rgani sat ion o f

So c i ety so as to make eve ry funct ion c on

tribute to and share in the benefi ts o f the

who le o rgani c l i fe . This i s the aim o f

Soc ial i sm .

An accurate view o f the meaning and the

method o f social progre ss c ould no t precede

10 0

embryoni c hi story man goes through stageso f l i fe which are a summary o f hi s speciesevolution from the protoplasmi c cel l to thehuman being . Scienc e was o c cupying everypo s iti on , and when in 1858 Darwin

’s Orig inof Spe ciesappeared , the revo lution wascomplete . There were sti l l gaps in the ev idenc e ,there was sti l l a possibi l ity of alternat iveexplanati ons , but evo lution, the dynami c o fl i fe , wascarried in triumph into the companyo f ac cepted bel ie fs .

I V .

The philosophe rs , however , since phi lo sophy was, had been exp loring thi s samep roblem o f evo lutionary pro c esses in i t sworld significanc e . In the seventeenthc entury , that part o f tho s

’

e p roc e sses whichi s c once rned with man l iving in c ommuni tie s ,began to receive spec ial attention . In theeighteenth c entury , national circumstancesgave the se spe culati ons a polit ical c harac te r .A conte st was raging throug hout

’

Europe

betwe en the people and the i r rulers . Thepeople were asserting the i r rights to politicalfreedom , and such an agitation nece ssari lybrought into prominenc e the separate individual endowed with natural rights Thev iew o f So cie ty which gave mo st sympathe ticc ountenance to the se demands was that o fa co l le ction o f indiv idual s bound toge therby some mythical social contract, Only

10 !

from some such assumpt ion could theadvo cate s o f po l it ical natural r ights find a

histo r ical foundat ion for their agitation . Theque st ions which we re studied in an evo lut ionary frame o f m ind we re , by po l it ic al mece ssity ,

no t the fo rms o f soc ial o rgani sationitse l f , but the chang e s which had taken placein the po l i tical re lat ionship s be tween thepart ie s to the c ontrac t

, as, for instanc e , thegrowth o f the kingly power, the deterioration o f the status o f the pe ople in the

gove rnment , the constitut ion o f representat ive assemblie s , the charac ter o f par

liaments. Thus , so c ial sc ienc e and phi losophywe re ,

fo r the time be ing , pushed aside toawait the c lo sing o f this indiv idual i sticchapte r in po l it ic s , and the l iberat ing effec to f sc ienc e up on thought in gene ral .In Ge rmany , howeve r , the po l it ical pro

blems which influenc e d inte l l ec tual speculat ion upon the nature o f the so c ial unity we rediffe rent from tho se o f Franc e and England .

In the Ge rman’

s heart the idea o f a nationalunity lay , and dire c ted his thoughts to thel i fe o f c ommunit ie s aswe l l as to the l ibe rtyo f individuals. Thus , He rde r stated ( 1767)that “The re i s the same law o f change in all

mankind and in eve ry individual nation and

t r ibe ,”

and late r on ( 1784 - 179 1) he deve loped the idea that each nat ional ity lived“out its own spir it .” Kant fo l lowed and

ampl ified the same idea, and Fichtc , smarting

10 2

asa nati onal i st unde r the heel o f“

Napo leon ,

and employing hi s inte l lec t to awaken Germany to a sense o f national pride , pro

c laimed that the perfect individual l i fe couldonly be found immersed in the c ommon l i fe .

Hegel developed the idea . T o him all thingsand all pro ce sse s were but the man i festat iono f Spir i t o r Idea, which evo lved itsel f by a

peculiar method . The ac o rn bec omes theoak through sel f - destruc tion : the animalcontinue s to l ive only so long as the ti ssue swhich c ompo se it continue to be de stroyed :death i s l i fe : l i fe i s death . Henc e , theunive rse exists by a constant change in i t se lements . But what i s the nature o f thi schange ? N o t , says H ege l , a change o f

growth in the things themse lve s , not a

natural succ ess ion o f one c ondit ion fromano ther asyouth insens ibly mature s to manho od . T he change i s real ly in the Idea, o f

which the changing phenomena are the man

ifestations.

* This , which has been cal ledone o f Hege l ’s “mo st unfo rtunate blunders ,i s the error o f the me taphys ic ian ,

o f thelogic ian

,untrained in the me tho ds o f sc ience .

I t i s natural ly fo l lowed by a p ronouncement

that the i ssue o f the mo re highly deve lopedo rgani sms from the lowe r i s a nebulousidea which think ing men o f speculat ionmust reno unc e .

” Hege l ’s phi lo sophicalc onc eption o f evo lut ion inc luded a de fenc e

with diffe rent vi ew s , and ine ffe c t ive byreason o f lo o se o rgan i sat ion and indefinite

ne s s o f purpo se . N o

'

strong p ene trat ingm ind had w e lded the d reame rs into a un itedand ag g re ss ive o rgan i sat ion o r blended the i rdreams into a c omp rehensive soc ial faith .

In Franc e , whe re Marx then was, seve ralscho o l s o f So c ial i st thoug ht and p ropagandaflour i shed , each bear ing the name o f o ne o r

o the r o f the d ist ingui shed Frenchmen who

pave d the way fo r the mo de rn movement .

First among the se wasSaint Simon , who seview s , indicated in hi s last wo rk N ouv eau

Christianism e,sought the e stabl i shment o f

a mo ral o rde r o f inte rnat ional peac e and c o

operat ive indu stry , and gave r i se to a movement which hoped to br ing abo ut the re ig no f frate rn ity by de stroying all the p r ivi lege so f birth

,o f which inhe r itanc e o f p rope rty

was c ons ide red to be the chie f the e ffe c t

o f whic h is to leave to chanc e the appo rt ionment o f soc ial advantage s and c ondemn the

large st c lass in numbe r to vic e,igno ranc e

and poverty and by br ing ing into one

so c ial fund all the instruments o f product ion and regulat ing the ir use by a hie rarchywho should appo rt ion wo rk ac c o rding to a

man’s c apac ity and ass ign wealth to him

ac c o rding to his wo rk .

*

Le tter addre sse d by the Sa int S imon ians to the

Pre s ident o f the Chamber of D e put ies , quoted in

l ’al grav e’sD i ctionary of Pol itical E conomy , London,

190 4, iii . , p . 346.

t o“

:J

Then came Four ie r , the fantast ical sp eculato r upon the w onder fu l c yc les o f o ur earth ’sevo lut ion and the archite c t o f the Phalanstory whe re m en ,

wo rking in groups ac c o rding as desire p rompted them and shar ingby c e rtain ru le s in the w ealth produc ed

,

would be led by the ir c irc umstanc e s to l iveharmon ious live s .

Louis Blanc was the first o f tho se pre

sc ientific So c ial iststo ho ld that i f the basi s o fSo c iali sm was mo ral , its me tho d

,nev erthe

less , sho u ld be po lit ic al . H e g ave up th e

e dito rship o f a newspape r be cause hi sp ropr ie to rs obj ec ted to hisop inions in favo u ro f rai lway nat ionalisat ion . Bu t he had no t

disc ove red that an id ea which isno t suppo rted by an o rg an i sat ion o f e le c to rs i s po lit ical ly imp o tent ; and his be l ie f that a membe ro f a m in istry c ould , all by himse l f

,e ffe c t

radical so c ial change by p e rsuas ion o r per

meation , tended to m isdire c t the ene rgie s o fhis fo llow e rs , and instead o f building up an

independent o rgan i sat ion the y c ontentedthemse lve s by taking part as an nu

o rgan i sed party in c urrent po l it ical c onfl ic ts .

Round him c entred the demand fo r nat ionalw o rkshops by which alone the charac te r i st ictene t o f his c re ed , the r ight to w o rk

, c ouldbe maintained and the abso rpt ion o f the

means o f produc tion by the c ommunity be

effe cted gradual ly and with ce rtainty .

* LouisBlanc lo st grip . H e could no t maste r thestrong choppy c urrents o f French po l i ti csof hi s times . He ceased to count .

But it was Proudhon who was in the

asc endant when Marx sought refuge and

oppo rtunity for study in Par i s ; and hi smutual i sm rested on the bo rde r l ine be tweenSocial i sm and Anarchi sm .

Final ly , in intimate touch with the Soc iali st movement p roper were groups o f rev

o lutionary and refo rmi st part ie s aiming at

so cial reconstructi on— from Blanqu ists toComtists .

Perhaps no soc ial experiment has been more misunderstood and misrepre sented than the ParisNational Workshops of 1848 . Louis Blane , who i ssupposed to be the ir orig inator, wrote of them — “Asthe kind of labour in these workshops was utterlyunproduc tive and absurd

,be s ides be ing such as the

greater part of them were unaccustomed to , the ac tion

o f the State was s imply squandering the publ icfunds ; its money, a premium upon id leness ; its

wages , alms in d is gu ise .

” A fter de scribing the sorto f workshops he wanted to e stabl ish , he proceeded“T he N ational Workshops as managed by M . Marie

were nothing more than a rabble o f pau pers .” Thenhe goe s on to show “

that the se workshops were or

ganised in hostil ity to me , as the offi c ial representat ive o f Soc ial ism.

” Lou is B lanc , 1848 H istorical

Rev elations, London, 1848, chap . ix .

10 8

no t assimi late with the e c onomic bas i s o f

histo ry , surplus value and a c lass struggle .

His suc c e ss was by no means immediate ,

the Frenc h w o rkmen in part icular ho ldingo u t fo r

“mutual ism ,

”and c arry ing the fi rst

Inte rnat ional W'

orkingmen’

sCongre ss whichme t in Geneva in 1866. Afte r that , howeve r ,Marxi sm dom inate d the wo rking c las smovements o f the c ont inent .

T he Commun i st Man i fe sto was the fi rstre su lt o f Marx ’s ac t ivity . I ssued whenFranc e was on the po int o f burst ing out intorevo lut ion in 1848 , the p ro le tar ian de feat in“the fi rst great batt le be twe en P ro le tar ian

and st ifled fo r a t ime the

movement o f which the man i fe sto was the

mou thpie c e , bu t it was c al led upon s ixteeny ears late r to p e rfo rm almo st the same ser

vic e asMarx o r iginally de signed fo r it , whenthe p ro le tar ian movement , divided into

“the

English Trade s ’ Un ions , the fo llow e rs o f

Proudhon in Franc e ,Be lgium ,

Italy and

Spain ,and the Lasalleans in

had to be brought toge the r and when the

aspi rations c ommon to the se sec t ions hadto be expre ssed in a set o f phrase s .

Marx re j ec ted the Utopian archite c turalp roposals o f his t ime

, and fixed his attent ion

Enge l ’s introduc tion to Commu nist Manifesto ,

London, 1888 , p . 3 .

1“ I bid , p . 4 .

10 9

on the evo lu t ion o f So c iety . H e turnedaway from the c re at ion o f Phalanste r ie s ,and so u g ht to o rg an ise the State fo r industrial pu rp oses. H e also brushed aside

,as

be ing o f se c ondary impo rtanc e in so c ia lchang e ,

in hisday at any rate ,mo ral no t ions

o f r ig ht and w rong . T he broad o utline s o fthe So c ialist state we re laid down by him ,

the passing charac te r o f exist ing so c ia l c ondit ions w e re emphasi sed by him ,

the demo

c rat ic c ontro l o f c apital by po lit ic al me thodsand no t by mu tual ist c o—ope rat ion was established fo r eve r by him as the disting u ishingmark o f So c ialist opin ion . Bu t hi s c onc ept ion o f the me thod o f so c ial chang e m isledhim as to how the So c ialist fo rc es w ere to

ac t . Darw in had to c ontr ibu te the wo rk o f

his li fe to human know ledg e be fo re So c ialism c ou ld be plac ed o u a defin ite ly sc ient ificfo ri ii dation .

*

T he influ enc e o f Darwin ism uponSo c ialism do es no t depend upon whe the rDarw in ’

s spe c ial the o ri e s o f evo lu t ion do o r

do no t l ead to So c ialism . V i rchow has saidthe y do ; Haecke l has said the y do no t : and

the c o ntrove rsy w i ll no t be se tt led unt i l theac tual evo lu t ion o f the state and So c ie ty deprives it o f real i ty . So c ialism asa c onc eption

Th is subj e c t is d iscussed in the first v o lume o f

th is Library , S o c ial ism and P ositi v e S c i en ce , byEnrico F err i

,London

,190 5.

110

o f a desirable organi sat ion o f Soc i ety i s an

idea which sc ientific investigations have illuminated and aided , but no t c reated . The planupon which the re c onstruct i on was to be

made ,the just ification o ffe red for i t , the way

to attain to i t , have depended ve ry large lyupon the state o f scientific knowledge , and

part icularly upon the nature o f the sc ienc ewhich happened to be predominantmathematical , chemical , bio logical , or

psychological . What Darwin , then , did ,was not to lay down bio logic al laws which ,to use V irchow ’s expre ss ion ,

“lead direc tlyto So c ial i sm

,

”but to presen t a V iew o f

biological evo lution which fundamental lyaffe cted our V iew o f so c ial evo lution , and

which , in consequence , indic ated to us a

mo re commanding standpo int from which toj udge our So cial i st propo sal s , a mo re ac curate way for carrying them into effec t , and a

mo re sc ientific phraseo logy in which to

exp re s s them . Darwini sm applied to soc io lo g y i s as far in advance o f Hegel iani sm as

Hege l iani sm was in advance o f Kant ianindividual i sm . Marxian i sm, however , i s aproduc t o f Ge rman thought during the

second and third decade s o f the nine te enthc entury . I t reflec ts the method o f thatthought : i t reveal s the impe r fections o f thatthought .* “Sc ientific soc ial i sm , onc e for

C . f . Enge l s . “Readers w il l be surprised to

stumble on the cosmogony o f Kant and Laplace , on

112

final ly reache s equi l ibr ium ,and spends itse l f

in a third c ondit ion which harmon i se s in itse l f the tw o oppo s ite s o f the p revio u sc ondit ions the c om ing So c ial i st State ,

and individual advantage through c o l lec tiv ist o rgan i sat ion .

Marx and Enge l s se i zed upon the c ommon

radical V iew o f the e ighte enth c entury— the

vi ew which lay at the ro o t o f Saint Simon ianpo l it ic s— the c lass st ruggle , fru c t ified it bybr inging it in c ontac t w ith the Hege l iandiale c t ic and by subst itut ing e c onom ic c lassmo t ive s fo r ideal i sm as the moving powe r ,and c onstruc ted , by a remarkable e ffo rt ,bo th a phi lo sophy o f histo ry and a po l it icalme thod . Change p re sented itse l f to Marxno t asa p ro c e ss o f func t ional adaptat ion , butas a re sult o f c onfl ic ting e c onomic intere stsseeking equil ibr ium . Henc e , to thi s day ,

the metaphy sic al and logical faults o f the

H ege l ian diale c t ic are trac eable in the

phrasing o f the the o r ie s and dogmas , and

a l so in the expe c tat ions o f the lo yal Marxian Scho o l .T he H e g e l ian diale ct ic i s unfitted to des

e r ibe bio logical and so c ial evo lut ion . I t desc ribes supe rfic ial appearanc e s rathe r thanexplains de ep seated cause s .

* I t w ould , fo rinstanc e

,explain what go e s on in the hedge

rows in Sp r ing as an opp o s it ion be twe en

Th is is part icu larly true when it is used apartfrom Ideal ism,

as Marx and Enge l s used it .

113

the bud and the enve lop ing sheaths ; it wouldleave o u t o f ac c o unt the great st i rr ing up o f

li fe from de epe st ro o t to hig he st branch t ip ,

o f which the oppo si t ion betw e en bud and

sheath is but a small— if dramat ic and easi lyse en— inc ident . F o r this reason ,

it c anno t

be disso c iated from the idea o f c atas

trophe and revo lut ion ,o f ac cumu lat ed

ene rgy burst ing through opposit ion , o f a

simp lic ity o f opposing fo rc e s which is neve rfo und in the ac tual w o rld .

Marx himse lf , in his pre fac e to the se c ondedit ion o f Capitalfi i llustrate s thi s in the

w o rdshe has chosen to exp re ss his indebtedne ss to H eg e l . T he rat iona l Hege lian diale ct ic he say s ,

“isa scanda l and an abom inat ion

“to bourg e o isism and its do c tr inaire pro fesso rs

,be cau se it inc lude s in its c omprehen

s ion an affirmat ive re c ogn it ion o f the existing state o f thing s , at the same t ime a lsothe re co g n it ion o f the ne g ation o f tha t

state,o f its inevitable breaking up ; be cau se

it re g ards e ve ry histo r ically deve lopedso c ia l fo rm as in flu id movement , and

the re fo re take s into ac c o unt its transientnatu re no t le ss than its momentary existenc e ; be c ause it le ts no thing impose upon

it and is in its essenc e c r it ical and rev o lu

tionary .

”

O ne ho lding mode rn bio logic al vi ewswo u ld have expre ssed himse l f diffe rently .

1 D ated London , j anuary 2 4 , 1873.

114

Bio logical ly , the negation o f the exi stingstate o f things ,

” i ts “inevitable breakingup

,

” “its momentary existenc e

,

” i s imposs ible . H ere we find, aswe find eve rywhe rein the Marxian method , a lack o f a realguarantee (although there are many verbalg uarante e s) that change i s progre ss . T he

bio logical v i ew emphas i ses the po ssibi l itie so f exist ing soc ie ty as the mo the r of futuresoc ie t ie s

,and regards idea and circumstance

as the pair from which the new so cie tie s areto sp r ing . I t gives no t only an explanationo f the existing state o f things , but o f i tsgiving birth to a future state o f things . I tal so v iews eve ry fo rm o f existenc e in i t sac tual p ro c e s s o f movement and there fo reon its pe r i shing— ve ry di fferent from “

per

ishable s ide . I t lays the very s l ighte stemphas i s on i t s cr itical and revo lutionary”

s ide , because it i s mainly construc tive , and ,

the idea o f“clear ing be fo re build ing” is

al i en to i ts nature . Stree t improvement s areno t bio logical pro cesse s .

There i s a ve ry great diffe rence be twe enthe c onstruc t ive dynam i c , pe rfec ting o r

g anisation , the mo re c ohe rent c o - ope rat iono f the o rg ans o f soc ie ty . which i s the biological me thod , and the logic al movements

,

the supe rfi c ia l oppo sit ions , the catac lysmicchange s which so c ial p rogre ss appears to bewhen se en through the spe c tac le s o f the

Heg e l ian diale cti c . The phenomena which

evo lut ion , turns the next for draughts o f

intoxic at ing strength to fo rmula bo rrow edfrom Hege l through Marx . This c on fus ionbetw e en thought and ac t ion , betwe en w o rdsand deeds— this pour ing o f o ld wine intonew bo tt le s— i s the grave st dange r which at

the p re sent moment threatens from ins idethe steady advanc e o f Soc ial i sm in thi sc ountry .

*

Bio logy alone was c ompe tent to give thec lue to the p rope r unde rstanding o f the pro

c e ss o f evo lut ion , be cause it was the sc i enc ewhic h dealt with the mo de s o f change fo l lowed by o rgani sms , and bio logy when He g e ll ived was but stutte r ing its wonde r ful tale .

Bio logy alone deal s with the pro c esse s o f

vital change ,the growth o f the un l ike from

the l ike , the app earanc e o f new qual it ie s andcharac te r i st ic s , the gradual abso rpt ion and

modification o f parts,

the deve lopment

T he ex istenc e o f th is con fus ion is al so partlyow in g to the fac t that the propaganda o f Soc ial isma s c onduc ted by some sec t ions tends to become too

c lose ly assoc iated w ith the s pirit o f bravado ex

pre ssed in w il d bu t mean ingle ss word ine ss . D esc rib

ing the Soc ial ist Pre sident ial Conv en t ion he ld in

Ch ic ago in 190 8 , one o f the offic ial organs o f the

Americ an mov ement , the N ew York S o c ial ist (May

16, says— and by do ing so puts its finger upona genera l charac ter ist ic o f the propaganda o f the

sec t ion to wh ich it re fers There is a tendency forsome de le gate s to favour whatev er soundsmost revo l utionary , ev en if it is not exac tly c lear.”

i i 7

o f n ew o rg ans to fu lfi l new func t ionsand respond to new c ircumstanc e s . T ak

ing o n the one hand,

the w e l l - markedfo rms o f o ld spe c ies, bio logy had to

study the grow th o f the fi rst fromthe se c ond ,

and from the ve ry natureo f its subj e c t matte r it had to re j ec texp lanat ions which assumed r evo lut ionarychang e s o r sp ec ia l c reat ive fiats* : and it he ldit to be axiomatic that whateve r chang e it

wasstudy ing issued from the to tal li fe o f the

o rg anism and expressed the ne eds o f thatto tal l i fe . I f

, fo r instanc e , it is a stomach

that i s be ing modifi ed , the mo dific at ion is

ow ing to a change o f fo od which nature hasimposed upon the o rg an ism , o r to some

o the r readju stment o f the o rg ans and funct ions o f the o rg ani sm . Bu t Hege l was no

D r . Bastian,P i o fessor H ugo D e Vrie s

,Mr . Bate

son,

and others hav e po inted to c ert ain fac ts and

experiments wh ich appear to show that organictrans format ion take s p lac e rap id ly or by leaps .Rec ent ly , th is v iew has been brought be fore us w ithpartic ular forc e in D e Vries

’s book on

“Spe cies and

Var i e ties. T he ir O r i g in and M u tat i on . I f th isv iew shou ld succ e ed in re ce iv in g the support o f

inv e s t ig ators it c an st il l on ly partly exp l a in the orig inand v aria tion of spec ie s and is v ery far from affording a b io lo g ic al ana l ogy to the rev o lutionary conc ept ions o f stric t Marx ian ism . I t wou ld g o no furtherthan emphas ise the method o f progress by the forma

t ion o f independent po l itic al parties wh ich I d iscussin Chapter v i .

bio logist , and Hege l , no t Darwin , was 111

te llec tual father to Marx .

The re fo re , the expre ss ions revolutionand

“revo lutionary ,” which are so frequent

ly met with in the writings and speeche s o fMarxians to - day , and upon which they insistas a mark dist inguishing them from me rerefo rmers , do no t only indicate , as i s s ome

times suppo sed , and as So c ial Demo cratswhen hard pushe d try to make us be l ieve .that emphas i s must be plac ed upon fundamental change so as to make i t c lear thatSocial i sm i s no t me rely a propo sal for en

g rafting upon existing Soc iety re formi stsho o ts The wo rds mean more than that .They indicate what Marx bo rrowed fromHegel . From hi s master in philo sophy heacquired the habit o f regarding so c ial progress asmoving from one epochal charac te ristic to itsoppo s ite ove r an inte rvening sho rtrevo lutionary pe r io d . His mind dwe lt on a

“pe riodic cycle thro ugh which mode rn in

dustry runs , and who se c rown ing po int i s

C f . Ferri ’s definition of re volution T he

critic al and dec is ive moment, more or l ess prolonged ,o f an evo lution wh ich has reached its c l imax .

” Whatthis means exac tly isnot very c lear, and the biologicalexamples which might be produc ed to throw l ightupon it cannot be used as soc iological analogie s .T he c ritical stage s through which a butterfly evolve s ,for instanc e , are the reminiscenc es of a rac ial pastsummarised in each individual ; bu t there is no

analogy for that in Soc iety .

12 0

erro r Ec onomic considerations as thesp r ing o f c onduc t we re p reached fromthe mo st re spec table house tops, and the

state o f soc ie ty, absorbed as i t was

in pro du c tion and hope less ly c onfusedwhen higher and mo re permanen t endswe re thrust upon it , gave ample j ust ificat ionfo r the mo st mater ial i st ic c onc ept ion o f the

e c onomic bas i s o f hi sto ry , c lass war and

revo lut ionary methods . T he c ountry se emed to be flushed with inc ip ient revo lut i on .

T he“ant i the t ica l

” stage o f pro duc t ion was

at its he ight . T he truth o f the H ege l ian“movement

”o f thre e stage s app eared to be

about to show itse l f amidst the glow o f

flame s and clouds o f dust . Enge lsw ro te his Working Classes in Eng land in

1844 as a last chapte r in the hi sto ry o f the

pre- So c ial i st state .

“T he England o f 1840

1870 has the re fo re bec ome to the So c ialDemo c rat s what the land o f Canaan wastothe Co venante rs— the land from which all

i l lustrat ions are d rawn ,on which all the o r

ies o f what i s and what ought to be are

Bu t the England o f 1844 did not break ou t

into revo lt ; Charti sm did no t deve lop intoSo c ial i sm . T he lo g ical c onc lus ion was no t

the l ine o f advance . T he c las s war c reatedt rade union i sm ; the wo rking c lasse s be came

Bertrand Russe l l ; German Social Democracy,London , 1896, p . 9.

12 !

citi zens ; law ,moral ity , the force o f combin

at ion ,l i fted to some extent the pal l o f dark

ne ss which hung over the land . T he Marxianto - day sti l l wonde rs why England fe l l fromg rac e . England did no t fal l from grac e .

N e ithe r Marx nor Enge l s saw deep enoughto discover the po ssibi l it ie s o f peacefuladvanc e which lay hidden beneath the surfac e . The ir analogie s mi s led them . The i rGerman histo r ical evo lut ion and predomin

ant scho o l o f philo sophy , mi sled them .

T he c ontinent— part icular ly Ge rmany— um

se ttled by war and by unnatural partit i ons ,wasrevo lutionary ; England , growing slowlyand natural ly bound into a so c ial unity and

we l l o rgan i sed as a c ommunity in spite o f

the fearful soc ial d is integration c aused bythe ear l ie r stage s o f capital i st p roductionunde r fac to ry conditions , was evolut ionary .

1844 was the darke st hour befo re the dawn ,

no t the shadow o f the black c loud o f the

thunde rsto rm .

Only when we understand the mind and

the hi sto rical c ircumstanc e s o f Marx c an we

understand the phrase s and key wo rds thatpass as current c o in amongst Marxians all.

the wo rld ove r . His philo sophy be longed toan o ld gene rat ion ; his logic al view o f the

ztate was unreal ; the wo rds which he used ,toge the r with the conceptions which theyexpressed so accurate ly, are inadequate in

12 2

relation to modern thought , and misleadingfor prac ti cal c onduct ; in short , whilst fullyac c epting the c o l lec tivi st and So c ial i st c one lus ions o f Marx , we must explain and

defend them with a di ffe rent c on-ception o f

So cie ty in our minds , di fferent formulm on

our l ips , and diffe rent guiding ideas for our

ac t iv iti es .T he place which Marx o ccupies i s on the

thre sho ld o f sc ientific soc io logy , but no t

al togethe r over i t .

124

tinne to grow unti l the workers become( lass c onsc io us , se i ze po l it ic al powe r , and

e stabli sh the So c ial i st state . In the wo rds o fthe Communist Manifesto : T he p ro le tariatwil l use itspo l it ical sup remacy to wre st bydegre e s all c apital from the bourgeo i s ie ,to central i se all instruments o f p roduct i onin the hands o f the state , i . e , o f the proIe tariat o rgani sed as the rul ing

Such a view i s bo th inac curate as to the

fac ts it assume s and mi s lead ing as a guidefor ac tion .

In the first plac e , it IS no t true that the reare on ly two great e conomic c lasse s in the

c ommun ity— the as sumpt i on which i s c on

stantly made by tho se who ho ld to the c las swar explanat ion o f pro g resssl

‘ Marx wassoanxious to separate himse l f from “bour

g eo isie”

e c onom i sts that he would on no

acc ount re c ogni se the c onfl ic ting intere sts o f the re c e ivers o f rent and o f profits };Some o f his fo l lowe rs without al lowingfo r the admi s sion in the ir systems , c oncedethe antagoni sm , as fo r instanc e , whe re Mr .

Hyndman de sc r ibes the tr in ity o f laboure rs ,farme rs , and landlo rds asbe ing

“as c ompac t

Ib id,p . 2 1 .

1' T he Commu nist Manifesto, even in its day ,

admitted asmuch , bu t made no p lac e for the fac t inits theorie s .it Rodbertus made the same mistake .

125

a l itt le set o f antagon i sms as any in our

and late r on when he state s thatthe only re sults o f the c onfiscat ion o f c om

pe titiv e rents or ro ya lt ie s by the Statew ould . be the strengthen

ing o f the hands o f the c apital i stThis i s true only on c ondit ion that the re i s ane c onomic antagoni sm betwe en landlo rdsand c apital i sts asw e l l as be tw e en c ap ital i stsand wo rkmen ,

and that the “c las s war

” i scarr i ed on no t betwe en two , but at leastthre e arm ie s , betwe en any two o f whichthere may be treat ie s o f p eac e and o ffen

s ive allianc es f.Bu t furthe r , any idea which assume s that

the inte re sts o f the pro le tariat are so s implyoppo sed to tho se o f the bourge o i s ie as to

make the p ro letar iat fe e l an e c onomic one

ne ss is pure ly fo rmal and artific ial .”I t i s a

E conomi cs of S oc ial ism, London , 1896, p . 194 .

!f p . 2 0 9 .

I E .g .,when the landed in terests jo ined w ith

labour to secure fac tory laws, or when the c ap ita l ist

intere sts j o in w ith labour to ag itate for landnational isa tion or for the nat ional isation o f miningrents , e tc . Another an tagon ism o f sub - d iv is ions o f

economic se c tions is now be ing re v ea led in the caseo f certain produc ing and trading interests c ombiningagainst the intere sts o f rai lway shareho lders and

demand ing ra ilway national isat ion .

II T he c lass strugg l e is some t ime s c lothed in

b io log ica l garments and re garded as an embodimento f the law o f the strugg le for l i fe (o f . FernS ocial ism and Positiv e S c ience, v ol . I .

, Soc ial ist

unification arr ived at only by overlo okingmany diffe renc e s and oppositions,which havebeen growing for some t ime rathe r thandimini shing . T he ec onomic struc ture o f

So c ie ty i s s impl ified out o f all re c ognitionwhen i t i s de sc ribed as a contest betwe entwo e c onomi c c lasses , and the po l itic al prohlems o f democ racy are st i l l mo re di sto rtedunde r the guise o f s impl ification when theyare stated as be ing no thing mo re than an

e ffo rt to g ive po l it ical fo rm to thi s ec onomi cantagoni sm . T he bourge o i s i e i s no t

united either for e conomi c o r po l it ical purpo ses , the pro l etar iat i s in the same po s ition .

For , just as in the earl ier years o f theFac tory System , the l ine betwe en wo rkman

and employer was not c lear ly drawn ,

and men c ould reasonably hope that ,by sav ing and by p ro cur ing credit , they

Library , pp . 75, T he struggle for l i fe , how'

ever, is al so carried on by mutual c o - operation and

by the organ isation o f the group , and as this higherform o f the struggle is far better expre ssed by the

v iew that what is cal le d the c lass struggle is in

real ity the pre ssure w ithin Soc iety to reach a

more economic form o f organisation so as to affordprotection for the ind ividual w ith a le ss expend itureo f energy than at pre sent , the biolog ical analogywh ich Pro fe ssor Ferri makes , rather mi l itates againstthe sc ientific ac curac y of the c lass war view ,

becausethat analogy re late s to the struggle as carried on

in a low grade o f l i fe or re garding animal s untaughtby the co - operative spirit o f soc ial groups .

128

but guided by its permanent ones , wil l beS oc ial i st . But so al so wil l a s imi lar ly en

l ightened bourge o i s ie . H enc e the value o f

the c lass war as an unc ompromi s ing statement o f hard ec onomi c fac t bec ome s a me resemblanc e . I t i s no thing but a g randilo

quent and aggre ss ive figure o f speech .

I t i s an indisputable fact that the wageearne r and the wage paye r have intere st swhich are antagoni st ic , and in the nature o fthings canno t be rec onc i led . The suppo sedidentity o f intere st betwe en capital and

labour , which i s assumed to be p rove d bythe disc o ve ry that unle ss capi tal pays highwage s it wil l no t be able to c ommand effic i entlabo ur , i s no ident ity o f inte re st at all . T he

e ffic ient labour which high wage s p roduc e i sst i l l bought and so ld by capital , i s st i l l employed o r re j ec ted as it suits the c onven ienc eo f cap ital

,i s st i l l unde rpaid to enable capital

to ac cumulate high dividends,i s st i l l treated ,

no t as something po sse ss ing r ights o f its

own, bu t as something which mini ste rs tothe inte re st s o f o the rs . This oppo s it ion mayhe expre s sed as a class war . But it i s on lyone o f the many oppo s it ions tending to

modi fy so c ial o rgani sat ion , and it i s by no

means the mo st ac tive o r mo st c e rtain in improving that o rgani sat ion .

The re i s , for instanc e , the oppo sition between consume r and produc er . This opposi

129

tion i s peculiarly complex , because a man

i s a p ro duc er one hour and a c onsumer thenext .

* T he mo st val id objec t ion that can betaken to Trade Unioni sm ( i f it c an be substantiated) i s that it sac r ific e s the inte re stso f the c onsume r to tho se o f the p roduce r .This has be en i l lustrated in agre ements betwe en capital i sts themse lve s and al sobetwe en capital and labour . Combinat ions o fcapital to rai se pr ic e s o r to monopo l i se themarke t , and agre ements with wo rkpe opleto share in the profits o f artific ial ly highpric e s on c ondit ion that they suppo rt thepo o l by re fusing to wo rk for any firm out

s ide it , are examples o f thi s rivalry betwe enthe c onsume r and the p roduc e r . Somet ime sthe r ivalry take s the fo rm o f a war betw e encapital i sts

, aswhen the Ge rman pro duc e rs o fpig iron damage the inte re sts o f the Ge rmanste e l manufac ture rs by dumping the raw e rmate r ial in England . In o the r w o rds

, trader ivalry i s as real as, and mo re fo rc e ful asanimpulse o f the day than , c lass rivalry . Some

t ime s capital and labour in c ombinat ion fightaga inst a c lass c onsum ing c e rtain c ommodi

*Tariff as it affec ts the wage earning c lass is the

best i l lustrat ion o f th is c onfl ic t o f function in the

same person ,and the tu g

- o i -war be tween the Protec~

t ion ist and the Free Trader large ly cons ists in the

e fforts o f the one to induc e the e lec tors to th ink in the

frame of mind o f produc ers , and o f the other to

induce them to think as consumers .

i j o

ies, as in the late bedstead c ombinat ion ;some time s labour alone fights against the

consume r , as in the bui lding trade s wherethe inc reased p r ic e o f labour has influencedc o sts o f bui lding , and c onsequently diminished housing ac -c omodation .

* The latesti l lustration o f the ec onomi c opposit i on between consume r and p roduc e r belonging tothe same c las s has been the agitationc aused in industrial d i str ic ts against the

M iners ’ E ight Hours ’ Bill . Here , explo i tedengine e rs , c arpenters , labourers and wagee arners o f all k inds have ri sen to oppo se a

measure which they be l ieve wi l l increase thec o st o f c oal . They have fo rgo tten the c lasswar and have plunged with ze st into an in

te re sts ’ war .

The c onfl ic t o f e c onomi c inte re st betweenthe consumer demanding cheapne s s and

the p ro ducer desir ing to se l l the use o f

his labour o r the use o f his capital at thehighest rates , i s an e c onom ic c onfl ic t whichmust no t be over lo oked o r smo o thed awayin a fo rmal general i sat ion . And i t must beemphasi sed that the oppo s ition i s no t one

I de s ire to guard myse l f aga inst misrepresentetion here . Whil st I be l ieve that the above statementis true , I impute no b lame to the bu i lding trade s’unions . I f we have in the community a c lass so poorthat they c annot afford to dwe l l in a house madeunder proper cond itions o f labour, that prov e s theex istence of soc ial evil s whic h are no t cured bu t intensified by keeping wages at a low level .

132

trade wil l leave the Stores i f thi s or that departure in po l icy i s decided upon, inculcatethe capital ist frame o f m ind in the worker ,and though his sove reigns may be few , i t i sno t the actual po sse ssion o f r iches whichde te rmine s with what clas s a man as soc iate shimse l f . Imi tation , as we l l as identity o feconomi c intere st , determines for prac t icalpurpo se s the c las s to which a man be longs .When a Pr imro se League dame shakeshands with an e le cto r on po l l ing day , she

may or may no t leave behind the shake a

£5 no te . But she ce rtainly removes for thetime be ing the psychological props uponwhich c las s fee l ing hasbeen rest ing . Downit tumble s , and the e lec to r go es and votesfo r hi s “ clas s enemy .

” Patronage and

char ity have the same e ffect .

But the po int i s be st i l lustrated by certainrecent deve lopments o f c o—partne rship ,which as an industr ial theory i s admirable ,

but as a so c io logic al influenc e may be mo streprehensible The South Metropo l itan GasCompany a few years ag o dete rmined to putan end to the organ i sat ion o f i ts men

, and

c onsidered expedient s for do ing so . I t decided to try c o - partne rship and i t succ e eded .

I t bound its men to itse l f in p re cisely the

same way as the p rove rbial man bound hisdonkey to hi s wil l by hanging a c arrot infront o f the animal

’s no se . Hoping eve r to

’33

reach the carrot , the donkey romped home ,and the dr iver ’s end was cheap ly aecom

phshed .

I t i s inte re st ing to wo rk ou t how muchfinanc ial strain the c lass so l idar ity o f the

p ro letar iat wil l bear , and this g as c ompany’s

expe r iment throws some l ight on the que st ion . A fter the c o - partnership scheme hadbe en in ope rat ion fo r fourteen years , 40 0 0men we re affe cted , and the ir to tal ho ldingswe re H enc e ,

in fourte en yearsunde r the scheme a man had saved a l ittleove r £40 ,

o r about £3 per annum ; and as

his act ive wo rking li fe do e s no t ave ragethirty years , this scheme al lows the ave rageman to save altoge ther something under£10 0 . Fo r this the men have given up theirr ight to c ombine and the ir freedom o f act ion ,

and have c onsented to plac e themselve s abso lute ly at the dispo sal o f the employing c om

pany . Their appre c iat ion o f the ir trade inte re sts hasbeen intens ified

,whilst that o f their

c lass inte re sts has be en almo st obliterated ,

and howeve r obj ec t ionable from a c ivic po into f view a c las s bias may be , a trade bias i smuch wo rse . N o r, indeed , has thi s sac r ific eeven had the mer it o f be ing the pr ic e o f a

bette r distribut ion o f the wealth c reated bythi s c ompany for, whilst nominal ly the men

Paper by S ir George Live sey on the scheme , inMe thods of S o c ial Advance. Ed ited by C . S . Loch,

London, 190 4

are rec e iving special ly go od treatment , inreal i ty sp ecial ly good p rofi ts are being madeout o f themxj

'

By the second o f the se organi sationsBui lding So cie t ie s— the inte re sts o f theworking classe s bec ome identified with tho seo f the landown ing c lasses

, and are oppo sedto eve ry attempt o f the communi ty to enterinto po sse ss ion o f the unearned increments on land .

There 15 al so ano ther aspect to this . Theinterests inj ured by our p re sent soc ial stateare no t merely tho se o f the wage earne rs .Conside rable classes o f people dep end on thewage - earners and o f these the small shopke epe r i s a type . His ambitions and

sympathy , however, un ite him with the petitebourg eo isie and divo rce him from his e c onomic supporters— the wo rk ing c las ses— and

thus rebuke the theo r i sts who se e in so c ialmo tive l itt le mo re than e c onomic mot ive .

Then , the re are tho se who se c omfo rt and

succ e s s under exist ing c onditions are butpre carious , the bankrupts , the struggl ing

1' Th is is admitted by the manager, who , in the

paper re ferred to abov e , stated that the bonus g ivento the men is first of al l earned by them.

“ Th is ,”he says , “ is prov ed by a comparison with the wagesac counts o f companie s where the system is not in

force , the rate of wage s be ing the same , bu t the

cost per ton o f coal handled is cons iderably less ,”

36

struc tion in thi s fe e l ing . There i s the mo tiveo f a sc ramble , o r o f c las s de fenc e and pre

se rvat ion ,the mo tive to secure big wages ,

sho rt hours and favourable c onditions o f

wo rk . But that i s all . The tug o f the c lasswar i s ac ro ss no t upwards . The re i s no c on

struc t ive value in a c las s war .

T he best exp ress ion o f a c las s war i sTrade Unioni sm . I t i s c reated on the assumpt i on and experienc e that capital w i ll do itsutmo st to explo i t labour , and that labo urought to do its be st to prevent c apital fromsucc e eding . The po sit ion i s a s imple and

frank re cognit ion o f exist ing industrial fact .I t c onc e rns itse l f with no opposit ion exc eptthat be twe en c apital and labour, no union o f

inte re st s exc ept the inte re st s o f wage earning ,

no field o f ac tivity wide r than the facto ry . I t leads nowhere because it has no

ideal goal ; i ts on ly re sult can be the bondageo f one s ide or the o the r . He re i s the pureexample o f the c las s war . N ay , mo re , i t i sthe c las s war .

T he Trade Unioni sm ,moreover

,which i s

the pure st exp ress ion o f this s imp le antagonism be twe en capital and labour , - i s what i sknown in this c ountry asthe Old Unioni sm,

the Union i sm whic h was oppo sed to labourpo l it ic s , to So c ial i sm , to everything exc eptc onfe renc e s with employe rs and str ikes as

a last re so rt . I t was sc ept ical o f any re c onstruc t ion, and dec ided that i f such rec on

if?

struc tion were to be tr ied , Trade Uni oni sm,

in its op inion , was far to o wise to have any

thing to do w ith it . This state o f mind wasa l so charac te r i sed by a narrow c onc eption o f

trade inte re st as oppo sed to gene ra linte re st . I t i s only the empt ie st flat

tery to te l l the o ld Trade Union movement that its various se c t ions eve r have , or

eve r c ould have , c onside re d any thing but

the ir own immediate inte re sts when sett l ingthe i r po l icy from t ime to t ime . Each o f the

wings o f an army for c arrying on the c las swar i s bound in the nature o f things to fightits batt le s mainly fo r its own hand . Tradeso l idar ity rathe r than p ro letar ian so l idar ityi s the real outc ome o f a c lass war in prac t ic e ,

and trade inte re st i s ult imate ly individualinte re st . Afte r a t ime

— in 1899 to be pre c i seTrade Union i sm saw that this po l ic y c ouldlead to no thing pe rmanent ; it widened itso ut lo ok ; it ro se above its o ld ruts ; it be

came c ommunity c onsc ious as we l l as c lassc onsc ious . T he Labo ur Party was fo rmed ,be cause Trade Unioni sm had exper ienc edthat a class war led nowhere .

Convey it in what sp ir i t we may, an appealto c lass inte re st i s an app eal to p ersonalintere st . So c ial i st propaganda carr i ed on as

a c lass war sug ge sts none o f tho se ideal s o fmo ral c it i zenship with which So c ial i st l ite rature abounds each for all

, and all for“each ,

” “se rvice to the communi ty i s the so l e

a“right o f property , and s o on . I t is an

appeal to indiv idual i sm, and re sults in,

gett ing men to ac cept So cial i st fo rmulaew i thout bec om ing So cial i sts . I t sp r ings froma t ime in the evo lut ion o f the Labour movement when the narrow cre ed of the o ld

Trade Unioni sm was the widest reve lationthat nature had ye t made to men str iving top ro tec t themse lve s against the enc roachment

o f capital i st power . In o the r wo rds,the

c lass war idea be longs to the pre - So ciali st and pre -sc ientific phase o f the

'

Labour

Mo vement .I am aware that the Marxian argues that

thi s c lass struggle i s the last in histo ry , andthat when the pro l etar iat have been eman

c ipated, the epo chs o f struggle end . T he

argument i s but a vain assumption . T he

emanc ipation o f the p ro letariat wil l o f itsel fbe the s ignal for new struggle s o f

e c onom ic sec t ions with apparently oppo s inginte re sts

, and so long as the se oppo sit ionsare made the main reason for so cial change ,e ach tr iumph can only lead to o ther battles ,again and again renewed . I t i s not the

emanc ipation o f the numer i cal maj o r i ty , or o fa c lass so big as to be

“no c lass but the

nat ion ,

” which matte rs . What matte rs i sthe c harac te r o f the mo t ive power whiche ffected the emancipation . I f that powe r i sthe c onfl ic t o f intere sts , i t wi l l reappear in thenew regime , and i f i t finds no c omplete class

140

t ion o f inte l lec tual guidanc e and e c onomicne eds do e s histo r ic al change be c ome one

and the same thing w ith progre ss .

T he scheme upon which humanity evo lve sto hig he r and mo re humane stage s o f existenc e i s e ithe r rat ional o r it i s no t . I f it i sno t , all o rgani sed attempts to hasten re fo rmand make it e ffe c t ive— So c ial i sm inc ludedare waste effo rt . I f it i s rat ional , then progre ss be c ome s a matte r o f inte l le c tual c onv ic tion , and man , seeking inte llectual peac eas we l l as e c onomic se cur ity

,w ill

'

hav e to

cho o se which he i s to pursue . Even suppo sing he i s a wage e arne r and his pursuit o f

the means o f l i fe br ings him into c onfl ic tw ith the exist ing state o f So c ie ty , his su c c e sswi l l no t dep end upon the r ichne ss o f his ex

perienc e o f po ve rty , but upon the meaning heplac e s upon his expe r i enc e and the me tho dshe adopts to p lac e himse l f in differentc ondit ions . Ec onom ic ne eds may givevo lume and we ight to the d emand for

change , bu t reason and int e l l igenc e , the

matur ing o f the so c ial m ind , ideal s o f soc ialj ust ic e grasped so firmly that the y have.bec ome real exi stence s fo r tho se who ho ldthem

,give that demand a shape , a po licy ,

a dire c t ion . So c ial i sm must , the re fo re ,re

c ogn i se the inte lle c tual as we l l as the e c on

omi e movement . And i f it ove r - emphasi se se i the r s ide , le t it be the fo rmer For the

pre ssure o f e conomic ne ed may exert itself

141

in seve ral c onc e ivable directions , no t eve ryone o f which opens the gateway to pro g ress ive advanc e A c onsc iousne ss o f c las sdi sabil it ie s may be e ithe r a mo t ive fo r reac tionary syc ophancy , o r for rev o lutionarv

indignat ion . A man’s pove rty may make him

a Soc ial ist , but it i s as l ike ly to induc e him to

e ll his birthright fo r a me ss o f po ttage . T he

slum l i fe may blo ssom into revo lut ion , butit i s as l ike ly to de te rio rate into impe r ial ism .

T he r ich are led away from the light by the irgreat po sse ss ions , but the pre ssure o f pov

~

e t ty al so induc e s the po o r to be c ontent withthe immediate sat i s fac t ion o f appet ite , and

incapac itate s them from pat ient and strenuous str iving .

N o t only , the re fo re , i s it incumbent uponSo c ial i sm to re c ogni se the exi st enc e o f aninte l lectual mo t ive ,

it must plac e that mo t iveabove the e c onomic , be cause without it thee c onomic struggle would be devo i d o f anyc onstruc t ive value ; it would be a me re tug~o i—war ; it wo uld nev e r br ing u s to So c ialism . T he e c onom ic mo t ive must be led bythe light o f reason o r mo ral ity— as, indeed ,

it has alway s been when it i s a fac to r in

progre ss .

This l ine o f thought appears to ove rlo okthe artic le in the Marxian c ree d that Soc ialism i s inevitable . Bu t the industrial and

economi c inev itabil ity o f Social i sm isa mere

142

fancy . I t i s inevitable only i f inte l l igencemake s it so . I t i s inevitable on ly i f we are

to deve lop on rat ional l ine s ; it i s inevitable ,no t be cause men are explo i ted o r be causethe fabric o f capital i sm must c o l lapse unde ritsown weight , but bec ause men are rat ional .I t i s the ac t ion o f reason alone which make so ur ev i l s a sure cause o f p rogre ss and no t

the po ss ible beginning o f final dete r io rat ion .

Inte l l igenc e and mo ral ity indicate the goal bywhich the struggle to e scape the exist ing purg atory i s guided . Human evo lut ion i s a

stretching out , no t a be ing pushed fo rward .

Ac o rns produc e oaks , grubs grow intobeet le s , tadpo le s into frogs , but s lums , industrial cr i ses, pove rty, trust s , do no t in the

same way grow into Soc ial i sm In the

struggle fo r l i fe which hastaken plac e in thewo r ld o f nature s inc e l i fe began ,

manyspe c ie s have been exte rminated , many ev o lut ions have neve r be en c omple ted . Arre ste ddeve lopment i s as c onsp icuous in nature as

fini shed p ro c esse s .

T he wo rkmen who vo te L ibe ral and

Un ioni st to - day are p e r fec t ly c onsc ious o f

the d rawbacks o f a l i fe o f wage - earning ;they are al so quite conscious that theybe long to a separate e c onom ic and so c ialc lass— and a great many o f them would liketo be long to ano the r In sho rt , in any

natural meaning o f the wo rds , they are c las sconscious. But they are not Soc ial ists , be

144

because it o ffe rs them economic securitybut i t wi l l find o the rs in wealth , and theywi l l fo l low because i t br ings o rder whe rethe re i s now chao s , o rgani sation whe re thereis now c onfusion , law where the re i s nowanarchy , justice where there i s now injust i ce .

So cial i sm marks the growth o f So c ie ty ,no t the uprising o f a c lass . T he c onsc iousne s s which it se eks to quicken i s no t one o f

e c onomi c class so l idar ity , but one o f so cialunity and growth towards o rgan i c wholene ss . The watchwo rd o f So c ial i sm , the refo re , i s no t c lass consc iousne s s but c ommunity c onsciousness .

We can now se e to what c ombinat ion o f

inte re sts and c onvic t ions we must appeal,

and how we must di rec t that appeal , so as

to c reate the o rder o f the So c ial i st State outo f the chao s o f the pre sent day .

I re je ct what se ems to me to be the nu

sat i s fac to ry express ion o f a class war. be

cause c las s c onsc iousness leads nowhe re , anda c lass struggle may o r may not be inte lligent . A c las s war desc r ibes only a parto f the c ondit ion which Soc iety p re sents toour eye s to - day . But sti l l , we turn our hopesfi rst o f all to the wage earners . They are

the mo st c e rtainly do omed v ictims o f the

present chaos ; they suffer most from the

x45

inabi lity o f the pre sent system to p rovide em

plo yment , wage s , l i fe ; they are least buoyedup by e lus ive hope s that a lucky turn o f the

whe e l o f fo rtune may pitch them up on the

backs o f o the rs ; they are the he lp le ss sp il l sto ssing on the troubled wate rs o f pre sent daystr i fe ; the ir attempts to share in the benefitso f an eflic ient me thod o f p roduc t ion result inl ittle but turmo i l

,hunger and pove rty ; and

abo ve all , the ir ne eds have now be c ome the

chi e f c on-c e rn o f So c ie t y , because in fulne sso f t ime soc ial o rgani sat ion i s be ing t e sted byits human re sults

,and because the ec onom i c

enfranchisement o f the pe ople natural lyt reads upon the he e l s o f the ir p o l it ical eman

c ipation .

And it i s o f spe c ial no te for the momentthat the y have be en subj e c t re c ent ly to re

buffs and attacks in the Pre ss , the Courts o fLaw and Parl iament , and thus have be entaught the ne c e ssity o f po l it ical unity and

independent o rg an i sat ion . They have givenus the Labour Party in c onsequenc e . T he

po l it ic s o f an en l ightened demo c racy i s o f necessity so c ial , and i s aimed at ending experi

enc es o f unemp loyment , o ld ag e paupe ri sm ,

and so on . Henc e , as one o f the laws o f

evo lut ion i s , that ne ed c reate s o rgans,re

distribute s and o rgani ses func t ions and

change s bio logical type s , wo rking c lassp o l ic y mu st be dire c ted towardsthe o rgani satron and the deve lopment of the o rgans and

146

func t ions o f mutual aid in So c ie ty . Thepo l i tic al po l icy o f the Labour Party mightwe l l be de sc ribed asan attempt to give mutualaid shape and fo rm in our nat ional l i fe . So

so on as a se r ious attempt has be en made toframe a po l icy direc te d to such ends , it wil lbe found rnat monopo ly in land and the use o findustr ial c apital for indiv idual profit are thesource s o f the exper ienc es which Soc iety nowseeks to shun , and they must c onsequentlybe supplanted by publ ic ownership and pro

~

duction for use , be fo re labour c an enter into“

enj o yment o f the ble ssings which an effic ientmethod o f wealth p roduc tion wo uld makepo ss ible . Labour has but one inte l l igentroad o f advance— that o f e c onom ic and in

dustrial rec onstruc tionfi that o f So c ial i sm .

Among the wage earne rs , the re fo re , we

must expe c t to find in ful lest deve lopment ,and in fo rms mo st po l it ical and e ffec t ive foro rgan ic change ,

tho se vital and vital i s ingdisturbanc e s which indicate active l i fe pushing o ut to higher fo rms o f o rg an i sation . Buttho se disturbanc e s , as has be en shown ,

are

no t pure ly ec onomic , and are no t the re fo rec onfined to wage earners , and c onsequent lyin o rde r to gathe r toge the r the fo rc e s mak

ing fo r So c ial i sm , the bas is o f the movement

must be such that eve ryone shar ing in the

di sturbed p romptings must be inc luded .

A l l barrie r phrase s and se c t ional dogmasmust be removed from So c iali sm. T he ex

148

be united if a more perfect form of Societyi s to be created .

Economi c hardships are the fl ints on the

road , but these flintsmay develop on us thehoo fs o f the beast , or may comp e l us to use

our inte l l igence to find smo other paths .

So c ial i sm i s the latter alternat ive .

CHAPT ER .V I .

POLI T ICAL PART IES AND SOCIALIST T HOUGH T .

SO CIALI SM has somet imes been defined insuch broad te rms as to inc lude philanthropicendeavour and mo ral e ffo rt which re sts uponindividual w il l . Such a definit ion i s inacc urate . T he c ommunity , act ing through law ,

and o rgani sed into definite fo rms determining the l ine s o f individual ac t ion , i s an e ssent ial part o f the So cia l ist idea . T he Soc ial i stc ons ide rs that the State i s as e ssential toindividual l i fe as i s the atmo sphe re , and he

regards the evo lut ion o f po l i tical demo c racyas having be en ne cessary in o rde r to c reatea State which c ould re spond to the c ommon

w i l l . T he modern State in mo st c iv i l i sedc o untr ie s i s democ rat ic , and ,

in spite o f the

remaining anomal ie s and impe rfec t i ons , i fthe masse s o f the o rdinary pe ople are agre edupon any po l icy , ne ithe r r ich e le c to rs , pr ivileg ed pee rs , no r re igning house s c ould standin the i r way . That be ing the case , the

So c ial i st sees that so so on as the problem :

In whom does the sovereignty rest — the149

i §O

problem underlying po l i tic al democracyhas be en so lved , progre ss p resents to the

commun ity , asa seque l , the further c onundrum :What i s the sphere o f the State — theproblem unde rlying industr ial demo c racythe p ro blem which c reates the So cial i st c onc eption o f So ciety .

This involves a po sit ive v i ew o f t ie State .

*

T he Soc ial i st re fuse s to regard the S tate asa

me re atomi c c o l lec t ion o f individual s , the

maj o rity o f whom co e rce the mino r ity . H e

regards i t as the means o f exp re ss ing a wil lwhich be longs to the mino r ity aswe l l as tothe majority , because the m ino rity i s o rganically connec ted with the c ommun ity for

which the State i s ac t ing ; he , the re fo re , do e sno t c ons ider legislat ive and admini strativewo rk to be a c o erc ive limitat ion o f individuall ibe rty

,because he c anno t think o f a c om

munity as only a c rowd o f individual s, each

se l f - c entred , e ach pursuing his own ends ,

I t is true that a pos itive view of the State has

been taken in much o f ou r recent l eg is lation ,as, for

instanc e , in Fac tory Ac ts , and in everyth ing knownas soc ial istic le g is lation, bu t it has been haphaz ardand unsystematic , and has been appl ied withoutunderstand ing . State inter ferenc e has o ften beenresorted to as a quac k remedy . Soc ial ism c omes w itha c lear and sc ient ific idea o f the aim and methodo f State ac tivity

,and can, there fore , d iscriminate

between mistaken and proper methods of State ac tion .

152

have not had revolutions and revo lutionaryc hange s up ro o ting the pre sent from the past ;Napo le on did no t walk over us ; we have nothad ,

l ike France , po l it ical m ino ri t ie s , who seavowed obj e c t has be en to o ve rturn the es

tablished po l it ica l o rde r ; mi l itar i sm has not

exe rc i sed its fatal'

influenc e by separatingthe State from the people ; s inc e the days o fGeo rge IV . our Par l iament hasbeen fre e tolegislate as it haswished . We have , the refo re ,

had few c r i se s . Progre s s has be ensteady , i f s low ; the dams obstructing itsc ourse have given way to sl ight p re ssure ,

and no flo ods o f p ent - up e vil have had to

b reak down barr ie rs and rush fur iously downc ourses whe re they might o therw i se havemeande red peac e fully . O n the c ont inent i thas be en diffe rent . The re , the mode rn

p e r iod was ushe red in by Revo lut ion . Warsfo l lowed

,natural boundar ies we re des

troyed and a new c rop o f kings reared .

When peac e came,Europe did no t begin

whe re she had le ft o ff be fo re the FrenchRevo lut ion exploded in her mid st . She waspartit ioned to suit Austr ia and Me tte rn ich ;vo lcanic fo rc e s we re implanted in Italy ,N o rway , Ge rmany , Prussia , Belgium ,

H o l

land , and they began the ir pro te st ingthunde r ings almo st at onc e . Europe for

we l l nigh a c entury was ruled by po litical

U topists , by gentlemen o f individual i st bel ie fs , who thought that the individual wi ll

151

was invinc ible , and that State s and peoplesw e re but blo cks o f wo o d to be c ut into whate ve r fo rms the fancy and p r ide o f a fewrule rs dec ided . T he re sult was revo lut ion,

sudden change , catastrophic po l it i cs .

This diffe renc e in po l it ical histo ry betweeno urse lve s and our ne ighbours has had a det ermining influenc e upon the wo rk and

nature o f po l it ic al part ie s he re and in

Europe . T he diffe renc e i s tempo rary , but itis impo rtant . Cont inental c ondit ions havee nc ouraged the o r ie s and dogmas regardingthe c ourse o f p rogre ss , and have c reatedp art ie s to embody the se the o r ie s and

dogmas . Thus, w e have r igidity

‘

in partyre lat ionship , and a l inge r ing survival o ft he revo lut ionary metho d .

H e re,o ur revo lut ionary pe r iod ended with

1832 , and be fo re that its revo lut ionary chara c teristicsw e re ve ry mi ld . As on the Con

t inent , that per io d o f our po l it ic s was charac terised by po l it ical dogmas and systems o fp rogre s s built up upon assumptions o f c las swars , ec onomic mo t ive s , and o ther simpleexplanat ions o f c ompl icated p roblems .

* But,

s ince 1832 , part ieshave been in touch withl i fe and nat ional need , and , in a bio logical

F or instanc e , ph ilo soph ic Rad ical ism sprang fromou r re v o lut ionary period

,and hard ly survived the

generation wh ich fol lowed 1832 .

U

frame o f mind , have been busying themse lves with re sults , rathe r than in a logicalframe o f m ind dec l in ing to budge one degreefrom some imagined me rid ian o f sound po l itical the o ry . Spe culative po l it ic s have beenpro c eeding pari passn with experimentalpo l itics .

Parties do no t therefo re in this countrysurv ive afte r their theories have bec ome use

le s s for p ractical purpo se s . T he we ird mummies o f a byeg one generat ion , which formthe L ibe ral partie s in most Contin entalcountr ies , are unknown here except as indiv iduals c amping outs ide the bounds o f the

regular part ies . An influent ia l mino rity canfo r a time thwart the wil l o f the majority ,but when the supreme test c omes , a partyfinds its strength to lie no t in its r ich mino rit ies , nor in itsselect suppo rters who se intere sts do no t co incide with tho se o f i ts rankand fi le , but with the rank and file i tse l f , andi t i s the expe rienc e o f the rank and file whichult imately directs party po l itic s .Our po l it ical metho d no doubt cripple sintellec tual movements in po l i tics

,but i t lays

mass ive foundat i ons by patient expe riment .I t finds its chie f mo tive for action no t in theflaws o f a system which one can detect bylogical pro cesse s , but in ev i l s ac tual ly experienc ed . I t compel s the ass imilation o f all

u seless po l it ical o rgans , and do es no t al low

156

out that all attempts to draw this d i stinction’

fai l ed and were bound to fai l , because , whenone tries to base so cial re form on individualrespons ibi l ity it i s at once apparent thati t cannot be done The very fact thatSoc ial Re form i s to be impo sed on theindividual by the power o f the State destroys such a basi s . When the State compelsprivate p roperty to bear the burden o f unemployment and old ag e pensions , i t de factoc laims a r ight to d i spo se o f po ssess ionswhich upon the ant i - So cial i st hypo thesi s belong to ano ther Mo reover , as there wi llbe p r ivate p rope rty under So cial i sm , the dis

t inc tion that So c ial Refo rm i s based on

p r ivate prope rty” i s a fal se one . T he real

dist inc tion i s contained in one ’s c onc eptionas to what pr ivate p ro perty should inc lude .

I t included nigge rs a gene rat ion o r so

ag o . I s not its sc ope to be further circumscribed as t ime go es on and the o rg an i sat ion o f the State bec omes mo re defini telyd irec ted toward s pro cur ing and de fendingindividual we l lbe ing ? T he very programme

o f Soc ial Refo rm created to be a bulwarkagainst So c ial i sm, i t se l f l im it s that sc ope ;and that thi s i s so i s unde rsto od at oncewhen he said :

“Soc ial re form is when the State ,

based upon private property, recognising that the

be st produc t ive re sul t c an only be obtained by re specting private property and encourag ing private enterprise , asks them to contribute towards g reat national ,soc ial and publ ic Objec ts . That is soc ial re form.

”

157

when one knows that i t i s in the main takenfrom what the So c ial i sts for the last twentyyears o r mo re have been ask ing for as firststeps towards Soc ial i sm .

T he same idea can be i l lustrated fromano the r po int o f view ,

— that o f So c ial i stme thod . One can c onc eive o f a Soc ial Refo rm which would break down existing Soc iety , br ing a cr i s i s and stop the existingmechani sm . This i s what some c r itic s o f

So c ial ism imagine that So c ial ists are go ingto do , and they are enabled to harbour sucha be l ie f by sto r ing the i r minds with de tachedstatements lo o se ly made by a few So cial i sts .Mo re o ve r , Marxism gives some c ountenanc eto this no t ion . Catastrophic Soc ial i sm , how

eve r , be longs asmuch to the days that arepast as do e s Utop ian Soc ial i sm . In so far,

fo r instance , as some pe ople advocate a legalmin imum wage bec ause they know thatSo c ie ty asat p re sent c onstituted c anno t paysuch a thing— no t because the re i s no t

enough wealth , fo r the re i s , but be cause o ur

me chani sm o f distr ibut ion w i l l no t al low the

thing to be done— and they hope that in thisway a breakdown will be reached and thatafte r the breakdown wil l c ome Soc ial i sm ,

they are fo l low ing unsc ient ific and profitless

paths . T he only safe p rophecy to make re

garding such c ircumstance s i s , that afte r thebreakdown wil l c ome reac tion . T he So c ia lRe fo rm that i s to bring us to So cial i sm is

158

t hat which take s the oppo rtunit i es o f the present and with them embarks upon c o llec tiv

ist exper iments and makes beginn ings inc o l le ctivi st o rgani sation . Capital i sm i s togrow into So cial i sm by having its advant

ages sub - div i s ion o f labour, c o

- ordinat ion o f capital , &c .

— retained fo r Co l lec tiv i stpurpo se s and o rgani sed by a Co l lec t iv i stState . Soc iali st So c ial Re fo rm i s therefo red irec ted no t to de struction but to fulfi lment .

I t aids Capital i sm to grow into Co l le c t iv i sm ;it doe s no t knock Capital i sm on the head .

All that thi s means i s, that the So c ial i st is

an evo lutioni st and i s beginn ing to understand the po l i t ical methods which that im

po ses upon him .

Thus , when the opponents o f So c ial i sminv ite the c ountry to adopt Old Ag e

Pens ions , Unemployed Ac ts , Muni cipalH ousing Schemes , and simi lar programme so f So c ial Re fo rm in o rde r to stem the

So c ial i st t ide , sure ly the So c ial i st c an lo oko n with much c omp lacency and beho ld thefulfi lment o f hi s purpo se s as the re sult o f

his o pponent s ’ e ffo rts .

The immediate o r igin o f the pre sentSo c ial i st movement was the Industr ial Rev o lut ion . It was the vague dreams o f a

Soc ia l ist o rder whi ch men l ingere d over

160

outlook and the intere sts o f so cial refo rmersby laying down theories o f the relationbetween educat ion,

c harac te r and env ironments With him

,English experimental

Social i sm may be said to begin . He startedthe epo ch o f so c ial legislation which has

given us our Fac to ry Laws , and which ,mainly through tho se laws , has made usfami l iar with the idea that i t i s the busine sso f the State to pro te ct the weak and c reatecondit ions favourable to the ful l dev e lopment o f men and women . As a resul to f Owen’s wo rk , the tendency towardsSoc ial i sm in thi s c ountry made itse l f manifest in ce rtain dire c tions , but part icular ly inpo l it ic s through the growth o f State ac tiv i

t ie s and the po l it ical o rgan i sation o f the

wo rking c lasse s ; in ethics through theas sumpt ion

,which ever s inc e has had such

definite p rac t ical e ffec t , that man and hi s c ircumstanc es canno t be separated in any pro

gramme o f re fo rm ; in bus ine ss , through thegrowth o f the Co - operative movement , fi rstin distr ibut ion and latte r ly in p ro duction .

T he beginn ings o f a po l i tical labour movement , for which Owen wasre sponsible , soongrew into Charti sm under the nurturing careo f evi l so c ial c ondit ions and a lack o f so cialsympathy in both po l itical parties . I t i smarvel lous that thi s movement did so l itt l ee ithe r by c ontributing ideas to succ eedinggenerations or by direct influence upon legis

161

lati on . T wo explanati ons can be oflered for

thi s . In the first p lac e the country wasnotquite ready even for po l itical Chart i sm , and

was far from ready for the soc ial impl ications o f Charti sm . In the se c ond plac e ,

a l though the people were prepared to be led,

Charti sm produc ed no genuine l eade rs .

Under the po l it ical c ircumstanc e s o f the t ime ,the vo ic e o f the masse s o f the p eople couldpenetrate Parl iament on ly through sec ondaryc hanne l s , and the mo st pe rmanent e ffe c t o f

Chart i sm was to give an impe tus to the in

div idualist and vo luntary movements o f Coop e rat ion

'

and Trade Un ioni sm.

Labour then c eased to o rgani se itse l ffo r po l it ical purpo se s . The demand for

labour which fo l lowed the inaugu rat ion o f

f re e trade , the deve lopment o f rai lways andrapid transpo rt , and the c onsequent o peningup o f the wo r ld ’s marke ts , al layed so c ia lagitat ion and gave the Radical wing o f the

Liberal Party an oppo rtun ity o f inspi r ingthe imaginat ion o f the wo rking classes withv i s ions o f the ble ss ings which would fo l lowupon po l it ical refo rm and the curtai lment o far i sto c ratic p r ivi leges . Thus , the soc ialpro blem asa direc t po l it ical i s sue re ceded forthe t ime . Enthusiasm for polit i cal demo cracygrew mo re ardent . A se l f - c onfident , impat i ent , sp ir ited mass gathe red to sto rm the

last c itade l s o f the po l it ical ly pr ivi legedclasses . Labour sent iment had been diverted

162

into pure ly pol it ical channel s . All part i esac c epted the situation : the people were to

rule . I t might be the people drunk o r the

pe ople sober , the pe ople rational , o r the

pe ople c aj o led . Bu t st i l l it was to be thepeople .

This c ondit ion re info rced the nat ionalcharacte r i st i c o f trusting to expe r i ence ratherthan to theo ry . A sudden outburst o f demo~

c rat ic ideas , owing mainly to Cont inentalinfluenc e , appeared in the fourth dec ade o f

last century , and have been dying gradual lyaway ever since , because l i fe i s mo re o r l es st o le rable unde r a monarchy , a House o f

Lo rds, and an Establ ished Church . The

attacking army has“

become disp ir i ted , orc ontent with things as they are .

“T he

enemy i s not so bad afte r all . The spirito f the Labour Radical i sm o f the seventies hasgone ou t o f us .

Bu t in the meant ime legislation has be

come mo re and mo re int imate ly c onnectedw i th l i fe , adm in i strat ion wi th publ ic needs,and the State w i th the indivi dua l . In thi sp ro ce s s , part ie s have changed and haveac c epted the inevitable .

* N o thing i s mo reA fter the passing o f the Re form B il l o f 1832 ,

Pee l said during the debate on the Address that hewoul d acc ept the Re form Ac t as

“ final l y and i re

v ocably sett l ing the question o f re form.

” H is

speech was tantamount to a dec laration that the

party wh ich he l ed wou ld change I ts sp irit , and

accommodate itsel f to the new cond it ions . T he his

x64

o rganica l ly changing the structure o f so ciety ,j ust as new mode s o f thought change the

who le o f a man’s out lo ok on l i fe , o r as a

c hange in diet modifie s the digestive o rgansand the bodily struc ture .

In sp ite o f this , and in a way because o f i t ,the l i fe o f a party is finite . A party appl ie sc e rtain gene ral princ iple s in c ertain direct ionsand to c e rtain conditions , and then it i sgradual ly fac ed by c onditions very dissimi lar to tho se which o r iginated it , and

which gave r i se to i ts wo rking pr inc ip le s .

Then , whilst it struggle s val iant ly to adaptitse l f to the new c onditions , it de cayst hrough a pe r iod which i s a t ransition o r

reac t ionary pe r iod , j ust as the sabre - to o the d tige rs o f South Amer ica died out when therac e o f Armadillo es app roached ext inction .

The re i s some reason fo r regarding the

p re sent t ime as one o f the se perio ds . Capita lism has wo rked itse l f o ut ; atomi c individu alism has become barren ; our conc ep tionso f pro pe rty are be ing revi sed ; all the o ld

axioms regarding the State and the individu al are be ing swept away into re l iquaryc hambe rs ; the c entre o f gravity in soc iale c onomic s i s shi ft ing from p roblems and

m e thods o f pro duc t ion,to problems and

me tho ds o f distr ibut ion In the po l it icalarena the o ld champions o f po l i tical freedom ,

h aving fought their fight with the ir own

a ppropr iate weapons , have now no thing to

165

face l ike what they we re ac customed to fight .and are r iding o ff the l i sts , whilst the ir plac e sare be ing taken by a new gene rat ion ,

armeddi ffe rent ly and animated by new c rusadingideal s .

Final ly,a very definite and p re ssing ne ed

hasar i sen for the de v e lopment o f mo ral andsoc ial wealth , which c an br ing no dividendst o c apital, and the re fo re i s negle c te d by c ap

italism . T he charac te r and qual ity o f c it i zenship can be nurtured and enc o uraged by a

po licy o f legislat ion and admini strat ion , but

the re i s no p r ivate p ro fit in it . T he c learanc eo f slum prope rty , the maintenanc e o f parks ,the e stabli shment o f havens o f re st fo r theaged , the gene ral improvement o f the

texture o f human mate r ial by educat ion , are

c ommunal que st ions . T he de te rio rat ion o f

the phy sique o f our p e ople i s o f but remo te

inte re st to the fac to ry owne r o r the houseagent , and by them can be negle c ted , on the

gro und that it wi ll no t mate r ially affe c t

profits and rents— this gene rat ion at any

rate . Inde ed,p rofit s and rents can reall y

be made o ut o f the ve ry c ondit ions whichhasten thi s de te r io rat ion . But , from thestandpo int o f the c ommunity , eve ry depopu lated par i sh , eve ry ove rc rowded area , eve ryc lass o f unde r - fed c hi ldren , i s dead lo ss .T o mee t tho se problems do e s not always

n ece ss itate a new departure in po l ic y . I t ve ry

x66

o ften means no more than that serv ic es ,only part o f which can pay dividends , and

which are div ided into paying and non

paying businesses , should be c o - ordinated .

At pre sent , the paying parts are nursed .

and the non - paying neglec ted . But from thepo int o f v iew o f the c ommunity , bo th shouldbe deve loped . Thus , expe r ienc e teaches thatthe ful l soc ial ne ed can neve r be suppl ied byse l f - interested cap ital i sm . There are certainpublic ne eds whic h , tho ugh different and

separable in the eyes o f p r ivate enterpri se ,are inseparable from the po int o f v iew o f

public po l icy . Pr ivate enterprise , for in

stanc e , separates a hous ing from a transpo rtpo l icy . O ne inte re st bui lds house s , anotherc onstruc ts trams , and the ac t iviti es o f bo thare l imited by rents and takings . But , fromthe po int o f view o f the commun ity , house sand trams , o verc rowding and transpo rt , areinseparable , and a po l icy regarding them i sne ither j ustified nor c ondemned by financ ialgain or lo ss . I t would pay a commun ityto run

“ free trams as it now prov ide sfree roads . Further , in c onside ring its

po l icy o f building up itsstruc ture , o f gainingfo r i tse l f healthy l i fe in o rde r to supplyv igour to all i t s parts , o f increas ing its efiic iency as the condit ion

lo f individual

effic iency , a community has always to c on

side r whe the r c ertain publ ic needs— e .g .

lo como tion— have become so“ primary

x68

and'

new c onceptions o f epochal changew ould be mo re difficu lt to c reate , as Soc ietywould no t keep so young as it do e s . Con

sequent ly , when in po l it ic s a new out lo okand obj ec t ive are pre sente d with c omparat ive suddenne ss , a new po l it ical o rgan i sationis required .

Ever s inc e 1868 , when the wo rkmen in the

bo roughs we re en franchise d , the growth o f

a new po l it ical o rgan hasbe en apparent . ThisRe fo rm Bi l l led at onc e to a c onfl ic t betweeno rgani sed labour and bo th po l it ical part ie s .

A fter its lapse into a pure ly po l it ical gro ve ,the labour movement again deve loped uponits own special l ines Trade Union i smdemanded c e rtain alte rations in the law o f

c onspiracy , o f master and se rvant , o f c ombination ; the conditions o f fac to ry labo ur we resuch that no sati s facto ry improvement c ouldbe made save by furthe r Ac t s o f Parl iament ;

a mass o f que stions in so cial ec onomic s

grouped round the owne rship o f land , wage s ,unemplo yment , hours o f labour

,we re

o c cupying the attention o f the wo rk ingc lasses, _and the po l it ic ians we re no t pre

pared to fac e them . Mo re ove r , in industr ialwar fare emplo y e rs fo rgo t po l it ical differenc es

‘

and jo ined in o ppo sing labour’sdemands . Thus the ne c ess ity for a newpo l it ical departure wasmade clear

N or we re the new fo rc es being gathered

x69

me rely to the tune o f the po l itical inc ompet enc e o f the o ld . Mo ral and inte l l ectualtendenc ie s and ideas that had been movingin Soc iety for a gene rat ion and mo re ,m ingled w ith the revo lt which was c reat ingthe new movement . Car ly le and Ruskin hadtroubled c onsc ienc e and inte l le c t ; the Chr i st ian So c iali sts had struggled with the praet ical p roblems o f asso c iat ion and o rg anis

a t ion : the c raftsmen o f late r t ime s,l ike

Mo rr i s , laid down the on ly c ondit ions unde rwhich hone st wo rk c ould be done

, and whi lstt hunde r ing against the sho ddine ss o f the

p re sent system , in fused a warm ideal i sm intothe new movement by wr it ing and speakingo f it in its art i st ic and c ra ftsman aspec ts .

Even Spenc e r ’s oppo s it ion,be ing based upon

such a palpable fai lure to apply his phi lo sO phical system to So c ie ty

,r ipened into

So c ial i st fruit , and M i l l ’s late r c onfe ss ionsc ontributed to the same end . He re

,i f any

whe re , w e re the ge rms o f a new po l it icalbi rth . to o dist inc t and to o powe r ful to beme re ly a fre sh st imulus to an o ld and jaded

p o l it ic al o rgan i sat ion .

T o begin with , the y we re pe rhaps butv ague gropings rathe r than c lear ly definedvis ions , and the ir first re sult was a

flo od o f e st imable but unc ontro l led e ff o rtand de sire such as that which Marxfound in Par i s in 1847 From thi s flo o daro se the definite , at first .tiny

,but swi ft and

170

straight running current o f Social i sm whicho rgan i sed itsel f in 1884 through the SocialDemo cratic Federat i on , and in 1893 , to verymuch better purpo se , through the Independ~

ent Labour Party . In 190 0 , the Social istand Labour movements combined , and theLabour Representati on Committee, now the

Labour Party , was the result . Thus by thebio logical process o f a union betweenthought and experi ence , the study and thebench , the movement for a complete reconstruc tion and the demand for an immediatereadjustment , a real po l itical o rgani sm has

been brought into l i fe which i s capable o f

embodying all the tendenc ie s , grop ings , ex

perienc es, thoughts , ideal i sms , which to

ge the r are urging society forward to greaterperfection .

I f we rev iew our present pol itical p ositionfrom the standpo int o f thi s chapter , we disc over in i t a new meaning . For twenty years ,before the elec tion o f 1906, when L iberal ismswept the country , L iberal pol it i cians hadbeen tel l ing us that we were in the trough o freaction . In one sense that wastrue , but theidea o f reac tion did not include all that hadbeen happening .

The enfranchised people have disappointedthe ir backers . Interests that were suppo sedto be doomed thirty years ag o no t only c on

172

died away . The demand for po l i tical power ,exc ept perhaps in the spe cial case of women,wil l , for i ts own sake , st ir up to no morecrusades . The fin i shing touches wi l l no t be

'

put upon po l i ti cal democracy unti l the exi sting c onstitution i s p roved to be a barr ier tosoc ial legislation . So much for the p o l it ic als ide o f L iberal i sm .

O n i ts rel igious s ide , L iberal i sm stood forthe l iberation o f spiritual organ i sations fromthe binding patronage o f the State and for

equal i ty o f all sects in the eye s o f the law'

.

The latter for most pract ica l purpose s hasbeen se cured , and the attempt to g o backupon i t made by c ertain provis ions o f the

Educat ion A c t o f 190 2 , blew the dy ing flameo f re l igious Libe ral i sm into a blaze whichmate r ial ly c ontributed to the c hange inL iberal p rospec ts which made itself ev identin 190 6. But in thi s department o f Libera lact iv ity , no thing remains to be done exc eptto dise stabl ish the church . In this , however ,the re i s no great inte rest . T he L iberation i s targument has to be re - stated bec ause the

negat ive conception o f the state upon whichit onc e re sted is no longer held . But in the restatement o f the argument , the N onc onfo rmist must be wil l ing to c ommit himsel f todo c tr ine s o f fre edom o f thought which invo lve what he e rroneously cal l s the secularisation o f the State ,

”and that he wi ll not

173

do . H e was tested during the debates on

the Educat ion Bil l o f 190 6 and he fai led . H e

was asked to apply his Libe rationi st princ iples to

' the scho o l , but he shrank from theo rdeal . Although he has dec lared againstthe endowment by the State o f the Bible inthe Church , he c l ings to the State endowment o f the Bible in the primary schoo l s . So ,ex c ept unde r spec ial c ondit ions such asthosec reated by the Education Bil l o f 190 2 , the

re l igio - po l it ical p r inc ip le s o f Libe ral i sm havec eased to inspire enthusiasm and to providea batt le cry .

In the matter o f nat ional financ e , the re trograde p ropo sal s o f the Tar iff Re fo rm Leagueand the stupid extravaganc e and

'

maladminé

istration o f the To ry Government betwe en1895 and 190 6, rai sed into a tempo rar i lyrenew ed value the c lassical e c onomi c doc ;

t r ine s o f Libe ral i sm . But the se do c trines,whil st making exc e l lent fort ified camps forde fens ive purpo se s , are o f no use to an armyon the march . Free Trade so lve s no so c ialp roblems . I t may make pove rty le ss oppre ssiv e , unemployment l ess seve re , c o st o f l ivingcheape r , labour c ombinat ion easie r, mon

opo list c ombinat ion mo re diflicult , and so on .

But none o f the se advantages amounts tothe so lut ion o f problems . Ec onomy is good

,

but no t so go od as p rofitable expenditure ;

waste must be stopped , but with the desire

t o stop it , must no t g o an idea that 511 Stat eexpenditure i s waste ful . A campaign toe ncourage susp icion against nat iona l expenditure i s a nec e ssary and a go o d thing as a

c o rrec t ive to maladmini stration in our spending department s , but asa po sit ive pol ic y iti s fut i le . This hasbeen shown already in thehi story o f Liberal finance sinc e 190 6. In spiteo f Libe ral princ ip les o f e c onomy , expenditurehasnot been curtai l ed , the impe tus towardsm i l i tari sm c ould no t be stopped ; the demand

for further expenditure such as Old Ag e

Pensions could no t be denied .

From the po int o f view o f so c ial o rg anise.t ion , the func t ion o f Liberal i sm has beenmainly negative . Libe ral i sm has cleared theg round o f anc ient , to tte r ing fo rms o f p rope rty . I t broke the feudal relationship s whichdur ing the nat ion - making and po l it i cale po ch , kn i t the var ious c lasses in an o rgan icwho l e , and in it s attempts to so lve the problem o f wealth pro duc tion it glo rified therights o f the separate individual and subd iv ided the func t ions o f labour down to thefinest po ss ible diffe renc e ; but i t made l itt leattempt to c o - o rdinate these individualrights and sub divided func tions , exc ept inso far as i t was nec e ssary for them to c o

o pe rate fo r the pro duc tion o f wealth . A t

c e rtain po int s like educat ion,fac to ry c on

d itions, publ ic health, the p ressure demand

176

way o f peace o r that of war, L iberal i sm was

split'

in twa in, and the party which a fewyears befo re boasted o f i ts nati onal i stsympathie s has to bear a heavy share o f

re spons ibi l ity for the discreditable transaction which removed the name s o f two

Republic s— one , the best governed in the

wo r ld— from o ur maps . I f thi s critici smmust be s light ly modified by the splendidc ourage shown by the L iberal Gove rnmentin e stabli shing se l f - gove rnment in tho seconque red c o lon ie s at the very earl ie st po ssible time , i t neverthe le ss must remain as a

paragraph in the histo ry o f L iberal i sm .

In bo th vege tabl e and animal k ingdoms ,when youth is past , the hard structure s o f

the bo dy are hardened and thickened , thesaps o f l i fe flow more and mo re slowly and

suffe r greater and greater impediments ,unti l at length mo tion ceases altoge the r ,the sap r i se s no mo re in the Sp r ing , the

blo od pulse s no more through the veins .

T he weakening l i fe o f the Libe ral epo chhasbe en the mo st marked feature o f po l it icsdur ing the past quarter o f a century .

Be fo re the final s i lence come s and

shadowy memory s its where l i fe was, theforce s o f de struc t i on , the armie s o f paras ite s

,are al ready busy upon the decaying

o rgani sm ,p reying upon i ts strength and

l iv ing upon i ts substance . Even in human

177

affairs do we no t o ften see this humi l iatingspec tacle o f harpie s pounc ing upon the

treasures which the en feebled be ing c an no

longer de fend ? Do we not detec t thi sactivity o f the harpies o f decay in our po l itical l i fe to—day

? Fo r what else are tho seo rgan i sat ions o f one idea which inducee le cto rs to barter the ir vo tes and turn par

t ies into separate fragments , which hangtogether only so long as each hasa no strumwhich has no t hithe rto been rec ogni sed byAc t o f Par l iament , and which make al l ianc eswith o ther fact ions nurs ing o the r nos

trums? So long as a party is in v igo roushealth it ke eps the se sect ional inte rests in ‘

the ir places , and prevents the dominanc e o f‘

faction and the menac e o f part iculari sm ;but when i t bec ome s fe eble

,the se maggo t s

luxur iate and fatten , and national inte re stspas s under the custodianship o f groupswhich have bargained with e ach o the r fora maj o r ity , and which l ive on the de cayingl i fe o f what was once a healthy party .

But again , as in bio logy , disso lut ion hap~pens only afte r germinat ion

,and o rgani sms

die only afte r they have given l i fe to o thero rgan i sms , so , in So c ie ty , one epo ch die safte r it has nurtured the epo ch which is tosuc c eed it in the proc ess o f evo lut ion . Thenurturing p eriod is general ly one o f unc er

tainty of aim . Progre ss then rai se s manyfears . I ts goal i s unfami l iar to men, and i s

178

the subj ect o f prejudice . Every v ested interest tr ies to combine to keep back thechange which it dreads . H ow far do thecharacte r i st i cs o f the present al leged reactionc o rre spond to what we should expect to findin the condition interven ing betwe en thev ital activ i ty o f an epoch that has “l ived itl i fe ,

”and that o f ano the r which i s as yet

an infant in the womb o f Time ?

Do present po lit ical c onditions fulfi l suchan expec tat ion ? I s the reac tion throughwhich we have g one and which culminatedin the South Afr ic an “far, i t s mi smanagement , i ts waste , and i ts hyster ic s , a definiteback - sl id ing ? Or , i s it the le thargy , the stup~

o r and the unsett l ement o f a pe ople pass ingthrough a c r i s i s in its deve lopment ? Has

i t been accompan i ed by changes in v i talo rgani sat ion which are as yet rudimentary,but promi s ing ?

In a book recent ly publi shed,written for

the purpo se o f discuss ing thi s al leged re

action ,

*c omplaint i s made that the bio logi

cal the o ry o f the struggle fo r l i fe , mi s interpreted and mi sundersto od , has affo rded a

new de fenc e for ar i sto c racy and for gove rnment by c lasse s , and hasweakene d the c on

D emocra cy and Reaction, by L . T . H obhouse ,London, 190 5.

80

Spencer ’s gene ral phi lo sophy , in the handso f inte l l igent students , has, howeve r , c on

tr ibuted to the stabi l ity o f Soc ial i st thought ,mainly by hi s c lear exposition o f the fact s o fso c ial evo lut ion . The So c ial i st l ite ratureo f twenty - years ag o abounds in Spenc e r iana rguments direc ted against Spence r ian indiv idualism .

Dur ing the reac tion , l i tt le was sa id aboutsc i enc e . I t was, indeed , no t a change in

public op inion so much asa mani fe station o f

the p r ivate inte re sts which have acquire d theleading newspapers c irculating amongst thep e ople , and obtained c ontro l o f e lec to ra lmachine ry and a legi slative majo r ity . Priv ate inte re sts were enabled to do thi s owingto the tempo rary fai lure o f po l it ical pr inc iples.

T he individual i sm o f the R ights o f Man ,

asunde rsto o d in the Eighteenth centu ry— of

the“all men are bo rn fre e and equal” type

which was the foundation o f Libe ral po l it ic s , and which gave to the Libe ral epo chsuch magnific ent power fo r de stro y ing thec rumbling o rgani sat ions o f feudal i sm and for

lay ing the foundat ions o f demo cratic g ov

introduc t ion to the Engl ish trans lation . MoreCurious ly stil l Mr . Bal four, a few weeks a fter, fo llow ed Lord Bal fou r in appropriating the economic

foundat ion of early Engl ish Soc ial ism as the aim of

modern Tory ism.

18 1

e rnment , had to be supplanted by a do c tr ineo f r ights mo re accurate as to the fac ts o f

so c ial l i fe , be fo re we c ould enter upon a

c onstruc t ive epo ch . H ege l ian i sm in the

hands o f the Ge rman bureauc rats and Br itish Impe r ial i st s , i s no doubt subve rs ive to

the mo st e lementary c ondit ion o f demo

c rac y ; bio logical the o r ie s o f evo lution,in

the hands o f the threatened ar i sto c ratic and

monopo l i st inte re sts , are no doubt used tod e fend inequal ity , c las s gove rnment and the

subj e c t ion o f the many by the few . But theu ltimat e value o f ideas canno t be e st imatedby the tempo rary abuse o f tho se ideas , byt he ir part ial appl ic at ion ,

by the use made o f

t hem by inte re sted c lasse s in the ir own fav

o ur. T he German bureauc rat and the

Bri tish Impe r ial i st are no t to have the lastwo rd on the application o f Hege l iani sm and

Darw in i sm to po l it ic s , no r are the Conse rvat ive ar i sto c rac y alway s to be in the asc endant asthe y we re dur ing the last twent y yearso f the n ine te enth c entury , and when theyhad , in c onsequenc e , an oppo rtunity o f c on

c ealing by sc ient ific jargon about the surv ival o f the fitte st , o r philo sophical jargona bo ut the gove rning c lasse s , the simplefac t that the y are looking afte r themse lve s ,and are p re y ing upon the c ommun ity .

Bo th Hege l iani sm and Darwin i sm ,in some

o f“

the i r aspec t s , c ame into c onflic t w ith the

p o lit ical phi lo sophy o f the Liberal epo ch ;

183

bo th denied the principles o f atomic indiv idualism ; bo th chal lenged the inte l le ctual bas iso f Radical Democracy . Progressive pol iticshad to be re - sy stemati sed . The o ld crutcheswe re broken ; the o ld l ights blown out . TheState hasbecome a real thing and an essentialc ondit ion o f individual l ibe rty ; the socialo rgan i sm had bec ome a real exi stence sub

jec t to laws o f growth modified from t hoseo f natural se l ec tion by the fac t that select ive reason had become a fac to r in furtherchange . And that had clo sed a c hapter .But when thi s happens , reaction always

appears to fo llow . So so on as any prop isshattered or any old fai th supplanted , a proce ss o f disso lution sets in . It i s real ly not theo ld organi sations which carry on the new

l i fe . This,for instanc e ,

happened at theRe fo rmation, when Luthe r had to confess :“N o so oner did our Go spel arise and get ahearing than there fo l lowed a frightful confusion . Eve ry man at his fre e pleasurewould be and do what he l iked in the wayo f pleasure and l ic ense , so that all law ,

rule and orde r were overthrown . Thishas happened eve ry time that l iberal i s ing influences have so ftened the hard dogmas o ffai th , every time that the ethical imperativehas been modified , that greater le i sure ,greater knowledge and greater comforthave fre ed men from the contro l o f thedead hand , emancipated them from custom

Soc ie ty were luxur iating almost unchall enged in the m idst o f a fright ful“c on fusion , So cial i sm was bec oming a

defin ite fac to r in admin i strat ion and

legislat ion . Reac tion in national affairswas pro c e eding whi lst c onstruc tive polic ie sin loca l go ve rnment— Mun ic ipal So c ial i smwe re bec om ing a menac e to monopo l i sts andindividual i sts o f all kinds ; impe r ial i st wil l0

’- the - wisps we re ent ic ing the people into

muddy mo rasse s , whilst sound po l ic ie s o f

so c ial re c onstruc t ion were l ighting—warning

beac ons to blaze for a c entury ; whilst ar i stoc ratic no tions we re supply ing wizard musicto the ears o f the crowds , the people we rebeginning to hum snatche s o f their own

tune s ; whilst the nati on was applauding thegrandi loquent sent iments o f i ts p r ivi legedc lasse s , it was beginn ing to fo rmulate a few

demands o f itsown , to ask i tse l f how i t l ikedthe exe rc i se , and to gather round i t own ad

v o cates and applaud them with growingemphasi s and ardour . Whil st the po l iti ca lpart ie s o f the reac tion we re congratulatingthemse lve s that they were secure from attack ,the Labour Party wasmarshal l ing its fo rc e sand finding re c ruits from every po l it icalquarter.

T he period o f reaction hasno t been one o f

s imple relapse . In lo cal gove rnment , the

pe r iod hasbeen the mo st fruit ful o f any w ehave ever exper ienc ed . Even in l egislation

185

and in nat ional affairs , in spite o f c e rtain out

standing events , it hasbe en far from pure lyretrogre ssive , whilst , in the c ountry , harve sts o f po l it ical opin ion have ripened whicha few years ag o appeared to be st i l l rank andgre en . T he pe r iod o f so - c al led reac t ion hasbeen ,

in real ity , a p er iod o f re c onstruc t ionand re o rgani sat ion .

A t the beginn ing o f 1906, the t ide turned .

A Libe ral Go ve rnment was plac ed in o ffic eand behind it the re sat a majo r ity greate rthan had e ve r previously suppo rted a min

istry . A Labour Party al so found a c o rne ror its own in the House o f Commons . T he

pr ivate inte re st s which had manned the

reac t ion became alarme d and a fur iousattack upon the So c ial i st movement was

de l ive red . T he Government disso c iated itse l ffrom the de fende rs , and in some plac e s itso rgan i sat ion j o ined heart i ly in the attack .

I tsoffic ial speake rs laid down the ir pr inc ip le sle st the re should be any mi stake about them .

The se pr inc ip le s we re : “Individual prop“erty ,

individual ente rp r i se , individual initiativ e

” —wo rds apparent ly pre c i se in sig nific

anc e ,bu t abso lute ly mean ingle ss when

applied to the soc ial c onditions requir ingremedy . Even when the avowed Oppo sit ionlaid down the ec onomic grounds upon whichit was to oppo se the new movement , i tpledged itse l f to e stabl ish a state underwhich a man wo uld own what he earned*Mr. Bal four at Birmingham, 14th November, 190 ,

186

When the Government drafted its legisla.

t ion , and when the oppo s ition crit ic i sed it ,no one thought o f “individual property , indi“vidual ente rp r i se , and individual initiative ,

!

bu t o f c o l le c tive property , c o l le c tive enterpr i se and co l lective in it iative . So impe rativ(in p ractic e had the new o rgani sation become ,that the phrase s o f react ion we re u sed merely for plat fo rm purpo se s when the fears o f

the people had to be appeased , but the ideaso f the new progre ss ivism guided all legislation aimed at the so lution o f the pressingquest ions o f the day .

We have witnes sed during the last quartero f the nine teenth century the trans iti on fromdemoc racy clamo uring fo r pol it ical reco g nition to demo cracy experimenting how be stit can use its po l i tical power . Quest ions o f

po l it ical sovereignty have rec eded intohisto ry with tho se o f k ingly divine rights .From the pari sh to the nation , democ raticfo rms have been c onc eded , and from theparish to the nation ,

democracy i s now

busy assuming autho rity,discussing what i s

its l egitimate sphere o f ac tion ,mov ing

tentative ly out in thi s and that direction ,

mak ing incursions upon fields hitherto heldto be sac red to individual enterpri se , unde rtak ing re sponsibil it ie s which , it has hithertobeen assumed general ly

,the publ ic in the i r

co rpo rate and pol it i ca l capacity could no t

and ought not to assume .

188

unl ikene ss to the so - cal led Liberal i sm of .thepre sent H ow are we to explain this.

sp reading c on fusion o f thought which hasled i t [ Liberal i sm!, in pursuit o f whatappears to be publ ic go o d , to inve rt theme thod by which in earl ie r days it achievedpubl ic And M r . Spence r see s aninve rs ion o f metho d no t only in the Liberalparty “I f the present dri ft o f things continues, it may by

- and- bye real ly happen,that

the To ri es wil l be defenders . o f l ibertieswhich the Liberal s , in pursuit o f what theythink popular wel fare , trample under

T he facts which have induced MrSpencer to c ome to these conc lus ions are indisputable . He interp re t s them in the sp irito f the controve rs ial i st . He throws upon themthe mi s leading light o f that r ich fund o f i l lustration which i s hi s peculiar me thod . Hepe rhaps fai l s to no tic e adequately that thechange o f the To ry party i s quite as sig ni

ficant as that o f the Liberal party , and he

c ertainly fal l s into the pro found e rro r o f

assuming that any one p r incip le o f so cial

po licv wil l remain fo r ever the guide o f pro

g ressiv e change . But the fac t remains that ,whe the r to i ts prai se o r blame , the p rogressiv e idea o f the century has in the se latteryears bo rne fruit in ideal s and purpo seswhich seem to be in antagoni sm to theirparentage .

p 4-

5. 1“9 . I 7

189

I t i s , the refo re , no surface change whichhas taken place i f present tendenc ie s are toc ont inue , and give birth to a new epoch o f

legislat ion . Our c omple te c onception o fdemo c rac y , i ts fo rm , its func tions , the natureo f i ts gove rnment

,i ts metho d o f expre ss ing

itse l f , the inte rp re tat ion which it i s to putupon the o ld watchw o rds o f l ibe rty and progre ss , its re lat ion to its pione e ring heralds ,i s be ing revo lut ion i sed by the ve ry shortprac t ical expe r ienc e which w e have had o f

its asp irat ions now that i t has been ‘

e stablished as sove re ign pow e r . The irre s ist iblemo vement o f events has transpo rted us

from thoughts o f demo c ratic form to

thoughts o f demo crat ic function .

The se conc lus ions have an impo rtant bearing upon the re lation be tw een the o ld parties and the new . O ne some t ime s hears o f“the pro found gul f fixed be tween Libe ralism and Soc ial i sm , and o f the Libe ra l partybe ing c rushed out . That i s the thought o f

the logic ian who sees things in the abstract ,and no t o f the bio logist who i s accustomedto deal with l i fe . T he fac t i s , the re are no

gul fs in the c ourse o f o rgan ic evo lut ion , and

no thing in the main path o f that evo lutionhas be en c rushed out . Lowe r fo rms me rgeinto higher fo rms , one spec ie s into ano ther ,

i 9o

the vege tabl e into the an imal k ingdom ; inhuman histo ry , one epoch sl ides into another .Each new stage in evo lution retains all thatwas v ital in the o ld and sheds all that wasdead . Even when we see revo lution and

sudden change in tho ught o r habits o f

pe ople s and indiv idual s , we only beho ld theresult o f many hidden influences be comev i s ible So cial i sm , the stage which fo l lowsLiberal i sm , retains everything that was o f

pe rmanent value in Libe ral i sm,by virtue o f

i ts being the he reditary he ir o f Liberal i sm .

*

T hus we have se en in rec ent t imes that whentwo vital pr inc ip les o f Libe ral i sm we reassai led— the existenc e o f national i tie s and

the po l icy'

o f free exchange be tween nations—So cial i sm ral l ied to the ir defence evenwhen enfe ebled Liberal i sm c o uld no t

always command enough vital fo rce to do

so itsel f . The demo c rat ic wo rk o f Libera lism i s the basi s o f the So c ial i st State ; theindividual i st mo ral ity o f Evange l ic i sm i s thebasi s o f the so c ial mo ral ity o f Soc ial i sm ;the o rgani sati on o f p ro duc tion o f Capital i smis the basi s o f So cial i st economi cs and

o rgani sation o f d i str ibution .

Hence i t i s that the po l it ic ians ’ attempt topreach Soc ial Refo rm as an alternative to

I t isworth wh ile noting that th is is al so true of

modern Toryism. T he Tory ism o f the end of the

L iberal epoch is a new creation owing to the achievement o f that epoch . C .f . p . 140 f .n .

19 2

the hard problem o f how Soc ial i sm i s tobe brought about . They have fal len intothe same erro r as tho se po l itic ians who

think that Soc ial Re fo rm is an alte rnativeto So c ial i sm . T he wo rk o f the Labour Partyis to - br ing Soc ial i sm— if So c ial ists are right ;i t i s to make Soc ia l i sm impo ssib le— if they arewrong . I for one am will ing to te st mv faithby the acids o f experienceGradual trans it ion with pe r iods o f rapidchange i s pecul iar ly the c harac te r i stic of

B r it i sh c ondit ions , whe re part ie s do no t ho ldto p r inc ip le s as dogmas , but are p repared(within l imits o f c ourse) to be guide d byexpe r ienc e . Henc e it i s that dur ing 113

growth a new po l it ical o rgani sation in

thi s c ountry app eal s not to one but to

bo th the pre c eding po l i t ical partie s for

re c ruits , and embodie s p r inciple s frombo th . which it un ifi e s by reason o f itsmo re c ommanding and c omprehens ivepo int o f view . I t i s ve ry nearly true thatnew wine can be poured into o ld bo ttle s .

T he new bio logical o ffsp r ing has much inc ommon with its de cay ing parents— evenwhen i t i s start ing upon a to tal ly new l ineo f deve lopment .

T he charac te r ist ic s o f the apparent re

ac tion o f o ur time are as fo l lowsT he de c l ine o f vigour in the o ld p rogre ss

iv e party and the act ivity within i t o f narrowv i s ioned and one idea groups :

I 93

The format ion outside i t o f a nucleus o f anew pol it ical party , building itsel f upon fundamental po l it ical theo rie s which are the

re sult o f the pre ssure and character o f

current problems, and which differ from thefundamental p rinciple s o f the o ld partie s ;and, consequently , the beginning o f a se r ie so f exper iments upon new l ines :The almo st unc onsc ious change in thep r inc ip le s which unde r l ie admini strat ion and

l egi slat ion,in the dire c tion o f the pr inc iple s

upon which the new party re sts ,* whichcanno t be altogethe r o bscured by the reac

tionary do ing o f a Conse rvat ive party inpowe r dur ing the trans itionT he steady growth o f what may be c al led

an unassimilated mass o f po l it ical suppo rt ,the re sult o f so c ial inst inc t rathe r than o findividual reason , and al so the re sult o f a

law o f inte l le c tual gravitation by which a

smal l body made we ighty bec ause it knowsits own m ind

,draws mass to it :

I f in the meant ime the reac tion has be enextreme— as has happened in o ur own t imethe mo re healthy s ec t ions o f the o ld party

c o - op e rate w ith the new party , and so by a

pro c e ss which i s no t altogethe r assim i lat ion,

T he exp lanation o f this is, that fru it ful pol it icalideas c annot prec ede v ery long in t ime v ital soc ialmovements ; that the se movements beg in to trans formsoc iety even when it is busy c ombatting and re j ec tingthe ir theoretical and abso lute expre ss ion .

194

but very much l ike one o f sexual reproduct ion ,

the new po l i tical o rgani sm which i s tocarry on the l i fe o f the epo ch i s at lastfo rmed .

This party flouri shes unti l in due time itsv i tal i sing idea i s enfeebled by suc cess , and

it bec omes pregnant with a new po l itical l i feto which it gives birth and then passes away .

This i s the normal p roc ess . Repress ion,

force , revo lution , catastrophe modi fy it , butthi s i s the order o f birth , v iri l ity and decaywhich has hitherto been the l i fe story o f all

po l i tical parti es .

The Social i st party wi l l be no exception tothe rule . Away beyond into the ete rnalfuture we canno t g o . T he only thing we arecertain about i s that Socialism i tsel f wi l lc reate problems hard ly dreamt o f asyet , andthat in i ts bo som wil l gene rate a new so ciall i fe which c an be brought to bi rth onlythrough the gateway o f death and disso lution . But suffic i ent fo r the day i s the goo dthe re o f .T o so lve the problem o f pove rty by c o

o rdinating the various func t ions o f so c ie ty ;to quicken the so cial inst inc t by mak ing thecommunity play a greater part in individuall i fe ; to disc ove r to men ,

wear ied after a

fruitle ss search for l iberty, that the paradise

they sought i s to be found in faithful service

CONCLUSION .

O UR exper ience has shown that the ownership and use o f monopo l ie s essent ial to thep ro duc t ion o f wealth , l ike land , and o f the

capital required unde r the fac to ry and assoc iated labour system ,

de term ine the me tho do f distr ibut ion

,and the extent to which the

individua l membe rs o f a c ommun ity share inits wealth and pro sp e r ity .

So long as land i s p r ivate ly owned it canexac t unj ust to l l s from publ ic and p r ivateente rp r i se , and its owne r c an dip his handsinto sto re s o f wealth c reated , c ommonly inspite o f his oppo siti on , and nearly alwayswithout hi s he lp .

This i s no plac e to discuss in de tai l theme r its o f the r ival scho o l s o f Land N ational

isation and the Single T ax in any o f its

fo rms . Suffic e it to say that not on ly i s theSingle T ax wrong in its e c onomic the o ry ,and inaccurate in it s de scr ipt ion o f itsel f ,but it would fai l to so lve the p roblem o f the

pr ivate owne rship o f land . T he Soc ial i stmust suppo rt the national i sati on o f the landitse l f and no t merely the national i sation o fa po rtion o f rent .

I 97

But when the land has been nat ional i sed ,t he p r ivate owne rship o f industr ia l capitalwi l l st i ll p re sent the p roblems which ar i sewhen the supply o f public ne eds 13 le ft tot he care o f pr ivate inte re sts . T he nat ional i sat ion o f the land wil l no t so lve industr ialp ro blems . Unemployment alte rnat ing withove rt ime , r iche s w ith po ve rty , the tradingin luxur ie s and the pande r ing to vic e s and

w eakne sse s which p rivate inte re st enc ourage swithout a thought o f the wide r c onsequenc es ,because it i s c onc e rned only with the mo reimmediate making o f profit upon any transac t ion , all po int to the same c onc lus ionthe c ontro l and c o - o rdination o f indust r ialcapital by the c ommunity .

I f one c ould re ly upon mo ral che cks on

individual c onduc t , o r if it we re suffic ient toset bounds to ant i - soc ial ac t ion by legislat ivee nac tment , a mingling o f publ ic law and

p r ivate charac te r might be a suffic ient safeguard fo r the public

,and thus the p roblem

o f the use o f industr ial c apital might beso lved on l ine s individual i st ic in the main .

N o doubt , thi s so lut ion wo uld pre se rve to

us some o f the advantage s o f the individualist regime which , we re it po ss ible , w e m ightwe l l take pains to p re se rve . But when wesurve y the tendency o f the t ime s , the r i se o f

t he financ ier in succ e ssion to the legitimatebusine ss man , the soulle s s charac te r o f mo sto f our industrial o rgani sat ions , the strang l

198

ing p re ssure which trading interests placeupon mo ral impulse , we must give up in

de spair any hope that in this way can the

problem be so lved . Publ ic ownership mustbe re so rted to . Industry must be o rgani sedl ike a flee t o r an educat ion system .

N o doubt within the l imi ts o f the exist ingsoc ial o rgani sation , much c ould be done to

aid a mo re equitable and e c onomi c distribut ion o f wealth . The incidenc e o f taxat ionc ould be readjusted so that income s whichrep re sent se rvic e s rendered might be

re l i eved,whilst tho se repre senting rents and

monopo ly p ro fits m ight be mo re heavilyburdened . Fo l lowing the idea that whatappears to be ove r - pro duc tion i s in real ityunde r—c onsumpt ion ,

* caused by a me thod o f

distribution which ne ce ss itate s a wasteful andharmful ac cumulat ion o f wealth at one end

and so act s as a bar to the steady and um

interrupted flow o f wealth through So c iety ,we may g o some length ye t under our presentsystem in the direc t ion o f inc reas ing the c on

suming e ffic ienc y o f the publ ic and thusmaintain ing a steady demand for labour . But

Writ ing o f th is , one must ac know led ge the splend id services wh ich Mr. I . A . H obson has done , bothto the sc ience o f economic s and the art of government ,in working ou t and appl ying his theory o f underconsumpt ion , which was the bas is of the P hysiol og yof I ndustry , written by him and Mr. Mummery in

1889 , and ampl ified bv him in subsequent books .

2 0 0

t ion enjoyed by the wage- earning classes ,that of itsel f wi l l not obv iate industrialcri ses , because i t wi l l only be a further inc entiv e to the indiv idual producer to producea greater propo rtion o f the markets ’ . demands . A rising demand i s a spur uponsupply . I t i s al so obv ious that abstent ion,

thri ft and temperance on the part o f thewage earners wi l l not avo id unemploymentperiods (although such c onduct might robthem o f some o f their wo rst experience s) ,be cause these pe riods are not caused by thefaults o f consumers . They are one o f theproducts o f our machinery o f p roduction .

There can be no steadiness o f industry solong as there i s anarchy in production . Theflow o f p roduc tion must be regulated at i tssource . T he instruments o f product ion mustbe so cial i sed befo re unemployment i s ob

v iated and the problem o f distributionso lved .

This i s supposed to be tantamount to saying that there must be no further improve.ments in machine ry , no furthe r advancesin industrial o rgani sati on, no mo re sav ingof effo rt . But that i s a mi stake . UnderSo cial i sm, a po rtion o f the national product ion wil l be earmarked for experiments , andt here wi l l be mo re ro om for, and enc ouragement given to inventive ini tiative and expe ri

menting with .new processes than under the

2 0 !

.present system whic h , by entrusting produc‘

t ion to c ompet ing individual s , by enc ourag

ing the growth o f monopo l ie s , and bystunting human c apac ity, i s , in spite o f it sboasts to the c ontrary , pre - eminent ly un

fitted to deve lop to the utmo st e i the r thehuman or the me chanical e lement s in pro

«duc t ion . T he Ec onomi c epoch canno t c omp lete itse l f .So far from be ing a static state , So c ial i sm,

by rai s ing each wo rke r into the po s it ion o f

c o - partne rship with all o the r wo rke rs , and

by propo rt ioning reward to approvedhonest e ffo rt , will cal l for such an applica

‘ tion o f sc ienc e to industry as the wo r ld hasno t yet seen . I t wil l provide a c onstant inc entiv e to improve the means o f p roduc ti onbecause such improvement wil l -

not be a

menace to labour , but a direc t and c ertainc ause o f mo re le i sure and c omfo rt to i t .Unde r So c ial i sm , one may re st assured ,n ational product ion will no t only be chargedw ith the expense s o f the po l it ical state , butw ith the wear and tear o f the industr ial state

o ld- ag e pensions , improvements inmachinery , sc ient ific exper iments .

I have been aware whilst wr iting o f the

p roblem o f distr ibut ion , that our economi stse ndeavour to deny altogether its existencein t he charac ter in which I have been c on

sidering it . Pro fessor Marshal l tel l s us that

2 0 2

capital in general and labour in generalare rewarded

“in the me asure o f their re«

“spec tiv e (marginal) efficiencies , a s omewhat vague statement which leaves the

reader to answe r for himsel f the questionwhich immediately oc curs : Efficiencies in“what ? ” But the mo st detai led examinati ono f the subjec t that has been made by an

o rthodox ec onomi st in recent years is thatby Pro fe ssor Smart ? His conclusi on i sthat there i s enough rough justic e” in

”

the

present system to enable him to cal l i t“D i stribut i on according to serv ice .

”T he

publ ic , according to him,by mak ing

demands and by patroni s ing or neglectingto patroni se , rewards with wealth or do omswith fai lure . This , howeve r , i s not the case .

T he machinery o f production, o f financ ing ,

o f buying and sel l ing i s not run by the

publ ic , but by interested parties . The publichave no t placed South African minemagnate s in Park Lane , and Engli sh wo rkmen in two or three - roomed houses in dull ,sunle ss streets . The publ i c did not causethe Ameri can financial pani c , the bit

'

ter fruits

o f which have no t been fully plucked asy et i:The c ondit ions under which property i s held,and unde r which the func t ion o f productioni s carried on

, the re lation between the

P ri'

nc zpl e : of E conomics, London , 1898 , p . 617.

T he D istribu tion of I ncome, London , 1899 .

1 Summer of 190 8 .

2 04

not think that existing distribution i s just ,he regards the charac ter o f the productivemechani sm as the determinant o f how dis

tribution i s to be made ; and fromthat standpo int he sees the inadequacy of allpersonal and individual i st theories accounting for mal - distribution, such as drunkenness and improv idence , and he labours , inconsequenc e , for a readjustment o f the partso f the mechani sm .

At the same time he takes no mechani calv iew o f the problem . He knows that anabso lutely accurate di stribution acco rding tome ri t i s quite impossible . The problem i sbio logical , and i s the re fo re incapable o f

'

a n ic e mathematical so lution down to mo raldec imal po ints . N or indeed i s thi s nece ssary .

We do not objec t to “ the present systembe cause it fai l s to d isc riminate betweendesse rts measured by £10 0 and thosemeasured by £10 0 and sixpen

-cc . We obj ec tto it because i t dooms who le c lasses to_ infadequate food , inadequate mental equipment , inadequate oppo rtunities to becomehuman beings ; and all that So cial i sm and a

Soc ial i st system o f distribut ion can claim to

do is to destroy so cial parasites , and secure ;

that eve ryone that give s serv ice to So cie tyshal l rece ive from So cie ty an ample measureo f opportuni ties to l ive and enjoy l iv ing .

Attempts have been made from time to

2 0 5

time to lay down l imits to the social i s ingpro cess , and settle by a priori logicalmethods that certain trades are in theirnature individual istic , and, therefore , incapable o f being included within the scope o fSoc ial ist reconstruction .

That may or may not be so . We are not

in a po sit ion at the present time to ho ld anyvery definite opini on on the subjec t . T he

charac te r o f these trades the artist icgroup— wil l not remain as i t i s at p resent ,afte r So c ie ty hastaken upon itsel f a diffe rento rgani c fo rm . I t may be that their necessit ie s wil l be the so i l from which is to springthe new growth of soc ial idea which wil lcharac ter i se the epoch after Soc ial ism . But ,whe the r the one or the other happens ,matters l itt le to us at present .The func t ion o f the Soc ial ist theo ry i s toguide . T he seaman,

in his voyage s ac ro ssthe seas , steers by certain marks , and at

c e rtain po ints alte rs his course and fol lowsnew marks when the old can lead him no

further . So with Social i sm . I ts method isnot the architectural and dogmatic one o f

bui lding straight away from bo ttom to top ,

but the o rganic and experimental one o fre l ieving immediate and press ing difficult ieson a c ertain plan, and in accordance with a

certain scheme of org anisation .

.We have , therefore , begun with municipal

2 06

admini strati on, and have proceeded fromwater to trams and from light to milk ,

thenecessity for the latter developments beingsuggested partly by the principle which un

derlay the first experiments , and partly because as a matter o f exper ience certaindefinite grievances met us aswe went on .

From admini stration to legislati on i s a

natural and necessary step . As pressingmatters l ike housing and trams we re readyfor treatment , and as pract ical p lans hadalready been prepared for their settlement ,they were fi rst of all deal t with . As

'

in Munic ipal Social i sm , so in National Social i sm , theharve st whic h i s ripe and most easi ly reapedw i l l ‘

be gathered first , and the experi ence

g ained in reaping it wil l be used when laterharvests have to be brought in . Thus , weshal l begin the pro ces s o f national i s ingc apital by

,

taking over servi ces l ike the rai lways , o r by securing for the who l e c om

muni ty such values as mining royalt i es ;fo r we shal l begin the process o f in

d ustrial reconstruction by agrarian po l icieswhich wil l bring the towns into c on

.t act with the country , re - populate deserted‘

v i l lages , and t e - ti l l the wasted fields.

Asthe problem o f the unemployable and theu nemployed i s mo st pressing , and as i t i s thed irect re sult o f some of the mo st glaringfoll ie s and imperfections o f our presentsystem, i t wil l afford the first opportunities

2 0 8

i sm is,therefore , a

“

defence of property'

against the existing o rder . As , however , i tregards the living facto r in production— man— as be ing o f mo re consequence than the 15

dead fac to rs— land and capital ,— it seeks toset l imits upon the employment o f propertyfor the purpo se o f keeping men in economicsubjec tion , and i t propo ses to o rgani se!

So cie ty in such a Way as to render it mecessary that the se rvices upon which propertyis held are continuous , and not as to - day,

‘

sto red up , so that a Mar lborough , Whofought a few battles and had a wife whocould manage her sovereign two centuriesag o , could found a fami ly and put i t in a

po sition to c onsume other people ’s wealthfbr ever and

'

ev er. To secure thi s aim ,

Soc ial ism need no t refuse to rec ogni se theright o f inhe ritanc e . I ts busines s i s no t top revent accumulation, or prohibit its transferenc e , but to prov ide that such ac cumu

lat i on i s not made at the publ ic expense , andi s no t employed to keep the public in subjeet ion for all generations .

But , on the other hand , the Social i st contends that the community , aswell as the individual , create s value which i t should holdasproperty and devote to common interests .

Bal four’s imag inative e conomic s propounded . at

Birmingham '

( isth November, 190 7) Individualenergy c an only be cal led forth by a system basedupon the fac t that what a man earns he owns .

2 09

Ev ery'

valid argument which establishes theright o f individual s to own and use property ,i s equal ly applicable to a defence o f thecommunity’s right to own and use property ;So c ial income , in the shape of taxes and

rates , i s not private income appropriated .

I t i s public wealth devoted to public uses .I f our taxation we re impo sed so that value sc reated by the public were p laced in

the publi c excheque rs , the effe ct would beto deprive paras it ic classes o f their nourishment , ease industrious classes o f the ir '

burdens , and provide nouri shment for the :use ful organs o f the c ommunity . Here thereopens out ano ther

“

broad avenue leading to

the Soc ial i st state .

I do no t know if it i s real ly nec essary toconsider the objec t ion taken by some po l itic iansto Soc ial i sm on the ground that whenthe means o f production are so c ial i sed the recan be no private property , so mani fe st lyabsurd is the c ontention . T he so cial ownership o f industr ial capital i s essent ial to theenj oyment o f private prope rty in the fruitso f one ’s labour . Co l lec t ive and privateproperty are no t mutual ly destruct ive butmutual ly he lp ful . I f the argument we readvanc ed with any serious fo rce , one mightdr ive the reply further , and say that i f co l leet ive prope rty i s so fatal to enterpr i se ‘

and

industry , it hasprecise ly the same e conomicand industrial features as Joint Stock and

9 10

l imited Liabi l ity property . The holders o fstock in a tram company are l ittle moredirectly concerned in it s success , and much

”

l ess able to influence its work ing , than are

sthe ratepayer owners o f a muni cipal serv ice .

Simi larly , we have had acute di scussionw hich has been worse than useless , uponl abour no tes , coins , and other forms o f‘So cial i st c urrency and standards o f value .At the present moment all that the Social i stneed do is to lay down and defend as a

gene ral principle that reward for workshould be certain and sufficient , and that ff-ul lo pportunity should be given to each adultto wo rk at some remunerative employment .Whe ther our successors are to calculate inlabour notes o r in pounds sterling , and

whe ther they are to establ ish an equal ity o freward for all serv i ces (a thing no t at all

essential to Social i sm, though no t at all nu

desirable from some points o f v iew) , our

successo rs wi l l have to decide when the

application o f So cial i st princ ip les has goneso far asto make the matter a prac tical one .

Some things wi l l have happened in the interval , we may depend upon i t , which wil lhave a very important bear ing on the que stion . Again, not Sic 0 0 10 ,

but So lv itur‘

ambulando '

-A mi sunderstanding regarding the Social

2 12

m ined to make the machine a social instrum ent , to make it serve society and not

c ontro l Soc iety . He is the refo re no t againstmechanic al invent ion . He is no .Luddite .

“

His idea i s that such aids to labour shouldbe c ontrolled in the common interest .Moral cons iderati ons should in the maind etermine the form o f social organ i sation ,

and the non - so cial use o f e c onomic forcesshould be put an end to before they de stroythe mo ral growths which So c ie ty at presentp o sse sses . The Soc ial i st welc omes every newmac hine , but demands that i t be used asparto f a mo ral o rgani sation, and no t put intoo peration under the c ontro l o f sec tionale c onomic interests . Machinery must ampl i fyl i fe , not profits it must the refore be subjectt o so cial control , and no t c las s control .

Within the sc ope o f thi s communal organisation o f industry there w i l l be need forsmal le r groups

,such as trade un ions ,

c hurc he s,fami l ie s Indeed

, the large ro rgani sat i on wil l greatly depend upon the

smal l er groups for itsvital ity . As the c om

munal o rgan i sati on bec ome s more efficient ,T he argument that the community benefits by the

cheap produc ts o f machinery is good up to a point .T he cheapne ss of sweating , the cheapne ss wh ichde stroys cra ftsmansh ip , the cheapne ss which meansunemployment , is the cheapness of deterioration.

Soc ial ism al so means cheapness , bu t cheapness con

sistent with soc ial we l lbe ing .

2 13

1the individual wi l l respond with more intellig enc e and mo re character , and as the ind ividual thus re sponds , the se smal le r groupsw i l l be c ome more impo rtant . Trade unionism ke eping the c ommunal industrial'o rgani sat ion in the close st touch with the

needs o f the wo rke rs ; a church attendingwith enthusiastic c are to the l i fe , and not

merely to the dogma , o f Chr i st ianity ; a

“fami ly o rgani sation bui lt upon a sound ec onomic basi s and se rving ,

in as pure a form

as humanity will al low , the spir itual needso f men and safeguarding at the same t imet he r ight s o f the c ommunity , would be

precious o rgans in the body c ommunal .

One o f the assumpt ions which bear up thefabr ic o f So cial i st thought and expectat ioni s

, that asSoc i ety approache s in itso rgani sat ion to the Soc ial i st c ondition , the individualwi l l re spond to the mo ral responsibi l it ie swhic h that condit ion will lay upon him . Theindividual i s in tune with his So c ie ty , and fort hat reason So c ial i sm c an pur i fy the gro ss ,blunde r ing , vulgar thing to - day cal led indiv idualism into an impulse which wil l se ek toexpre ss itse l f and find itsl ibe rty in soc ial c onduc t through se rvic e to the community .

Henc e it i s that the key idea to the unde rstanding o f So cial i sm i s no t a wiping out but

a transfo rmat ion ,not a re - c reat ion but a ful

fi lment . The impulse s and appet ites o f the

2 x;

old are to be carried on into the new ,

‘

but theyare to run in difierent channels and demanddifferent nourishment .At the threshold o f Social ist speculationstands as sentinel the Law o f Continuity ,

asguidesthe Laws o f Variation .

P rinted by Wadsworth 6' CL , Rydal P f arr, K eig lz l ey

So cial i sts hal f a century ag o , so the growtho f B r i ti sh demo c rat ic inst itut ions and the

charac te r i st ic s o f Brit i sh po l it ical me tho ds .

have a special and direc t bearing upon Soc ialist the o r ie s and tac tic s .

I t i s al so disquie ting to think that , on the

one hand , the inte l lec tual l i fe o f our c ountryis bec oming mo re and mo re attache d in itsinte re sts and sympathie s to reac tion , and

that , on the o the r , so many who li ft up theirvo i ce s against backward tendenc i es e ither '

lo ok behind with regre tful regard upon pol icies which are exhausted and can no longerguide us

, or frank ly c onfe s s that they are

disc onso late without hope .

T o the promo ters o f this L IBRARY , So c ial~ism appears to be no t on ly the ideal which.has to be grasped be fo re the benumbingpessimi sm whic h lie s upon the minds o f

'

would - be refo rme rs can be removed , but a l so.

the one idea which i s guiding such progre s sive legislation and admini strat ion to—day as.

are l ike ly to be o f pe rmanent value . But tho seexper imenting with Soc ial i sm are on lygroping ; are wo rking with an instrument

the y do no t unde rstand ; are apply ing an ideathe y have no t grasped ; and i t i s the re fo rebe l ieved that as a prac t ical c ontribution to

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T he LIBRARY,howeve r

,with mo re assur

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.

istandpo ints, which wi l l be st imulat ing to the.So c ial i st movement , and which may do some

‘

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