AND ADICAL REVIF; WILLIAM Hi LI :..-...: GOULD LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Class SOCIALISM AND SENSE A RADICAL REVIEW. BY WILLIAM HILL. h WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY F. CARRUTHERS GOULD. THE UNIVERSITY OF 4UFOR LONDON : WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, B.C. 1895. GENERAL LONDON PRINTED BY NEVILLE & Go., 45, BAEBIOAN, B.C. PREFATORY NOTE. THERE is considerable evidence to justify the belief that a large proportion of the labouring classes of this country, particularly in the great industrial districts of the North, entertain seriously the illusions so persistently propagated by apostles of latter-day Socialism, and a grave situation is thereby created, alike for individual and for Commonwealth. By means of street-corner meetings, workshop conversations, letters and articles in the local newspapers, and other well-known ways, a great circulation has been given to the impression that the organization of Labour and the management of all the machinery of "production, distribution, and exchange " by the State, is not only highly desirable, but if the electors will assent, perfectly practicable within a very few years, and, in fact, is within an ace of realization ; and there is reason to fear that considerable bodies of working men all over the Kingdom are being seduced into the conviction that if they will only give the help of their countenance, their pence, and their votes to the Socialist Parties, they will, even within their own life time, lap at the wells of the Promised Land of Equal Labour, Equal Payment, and Equal Enjoyment. It is with what has been aptly called " the Socialism of the Streets " that I have concerned myself largely in the following pages : I know that the real leaders of the move- ment here in London are not so foolish as to share in the im- pression so widely created in the country by the missionary speeches of their colleagues and supporters, but this fact only strengthens the feeling of pity inspired by the earnestness and enthusiasm of the indifferently-informed dupes of the idea in the provinces. In view of the cruel disillusionment which acceptance or persistence in the belief in the imminence of a Millennium will entail upon many honest and worthy fellows, I feel acutely the necessity for the wholesale circulation of antidotes of various descriptions ; and as a personal contribution, I venture to submit a Paper prepared specially for the consideration of the arti/.ans and labourers of Tyneside, the substance of it being 9.0.191 d Prefatory Note. delivered before the members of the Borough of Tynemouth Liberal and Kadical Club in November, 1894. This present Paper, prepared amid other claims on attention, makes no pretence to special information, nor to scientific treatment, nor to literary finish : it is .simply an attempt to indicate in a familiar and vivid way to the capable and shrewd working-men who constitute the bulk of the North-Country Constituencies the real meaning of Socialism as preached to-day, and to suggest the true line of the Path of Sense to all who seek to secure, for the benefit of existing generations, a juster distribution of the world's wealth and a wider experience of ennobling and sustaining happiness. This being the object, I do not hesitate to express the hope that this small volume may meet with some measure of success : if such success awaits it, I shall feel that no small proportion of it is due to the co-operation of my friend, Mr. F. Carruthers Gould, whose cartoons, always inspired by sincere political feeling are amongst the greatest weapons at the command of the Party of Sense to-day. W.H. LONDON, June 21, 1895. SOCIALISM AND SENSE. PART I. HISTORIC AL. I. " Twentieth Century, Ahoy ! " are within hail of the Twentieth Century: you dwellers at the feet of Father Tyne don't need to take out a telescope to your Bank-Tops to spy it coming in you can challenge it from the end of your far-stretching Pier. As became, I suppose, a journalist in germ, I strayed oft as a lad to your local hailing-house, where a Customs' officer, armed with a speaking-trumpet, used in stentorian tones to demand from each incoming vessel passing through the Narrows of the Tyne : " Ship Ahoy ! What's your name ? Who's your master ? Where are you from ? What's your cargo ? " In the role of politicians and social re- formers, let us interrogate in some such rough- and-ready way the Twentieth Century: " Where 2 Socialism and Sense. are you from ? Who's your master ? With what are you laden ? " Uncertainty and anxiety upon these vital points are colouring much of current controversy, and it is the duty of good citizens everywhere to undertake a free and frank con- sideration of the various features and aspects of our national situation to-day, in the hope that some considerable measure of social profit may follow thereupon. The Coming Century's " Bill-of-Lading." '"".The Nineteenth Century, we all hope, will prac- tically leave us politically free ; the question of questions now is, how far and in what way will the exercise of political power on the part of the people at large enable us to secure a greater measure of economic justice, and right the many wrongs which still disfigure our social relation- ships in this country ? Our national situation to- day, taken in combination with the lineaments of our national history, institutions, and character, pro- vides politicians, philosophers, and prophets with the ample materials of a complex case ; and no thinking man will venture to glibly determine the principles, position, and prospects of this Empire a hundred years hence. More vivid grows every year Matthew Arnold's picture of the voyage of the Eiver of Time, which, by the way, bears close resemblances to our own Kiver of Tyne : Gone is the calm of its early shore. Border'd by cities, and hoarse With a thousand cries, is its stream ; And we on its breast, our minds Are confused as the cries which we hear, Changing and shot as the sights which we see. The source, the meanderings, and the final haven of "the River of Time" form too big a subject to Socialism and Sense. pursue here or elsewhere ; but, as I have suggested, we may ask of that big and heavily-freighted argosy now looming into view, the Twentieth Century: " Where are you from? Who's your master? What's your cargo?" In short, the question of questions for our People is : Will the Coming Century's bill-of-lading be inscribed "Pro- gress" or " Decay," "Misery" or "Happiness," " Joy " or " Tears," " Shadow " or " Sunshine " ? A Picture of the Past. As I have suggested, he would be a rasn man who would play the part of a positive prophet as to the characteristics of the Coming Century. Probably at no period in our history has the nation been so uncertain as to its final destiny as it is to-day. Perhaps, not so absolutely as to the sub- stance of it, but distinctly, and beyond doubt, as to the form and scope of it. We are emerging from a century which in some respects has been the most remarkable in history. So far as concerned the toiling portion of the population, it opened in igno- rance, poverty, misery, and gloom almost unspeak- able. Those critics of the time whose pens prove them to be without conception of the latitude and longitude of our national history may learn much from the opening chapters of the interesting and valuable volume (" The Maister : or A Century of Tyneside Life," just published by Walter Scott & Co.) in which Mr. G. H. Haswell, in paying filial tribute to the memory of a wise and worthy pioneer teacher, to whom every son of Shields is deeply a debtor, epitomises, as part of a graphic account of the situation of affairs at the Tyne mouth, the con- dition of the country at large at the beginning of the Century. The whole working-class population, as Mr. Haswell therein reminds us, " was poor miserably and chronically poor ; wretched un- 4 Socialism and Sense. doubtedly in most respects, but, just then, mainly as concerned food." " This great sub-nation was starving/' and though the bad harvests which gave the opening years of the century their dread pre- eminence were followed by seasons of over-flowing abundance, " the people of England were to remain in a condition of chronic semi-starvation." Mr. Haswell's picture of the evils of the war (felt with terrible force in seaports like Shields) which raged practically unbroken for almost a generation the infernal per- version of all sense of righteousness, the battening of the classes upon the patriotism of the period, and the sheer demoralization which was widely ex- perienced in every direction ; his illustrations of 4 'the appalling poverty of the time"; and his reflection that "the irritation caused by chronic hunger and hopeless immersion in poisonous surroundings, and the evils flowing from the darkest ignorance and lack of chance of betterment, met with neither tolerance nor consideration," but rather with all the savage rigour of a ferocious penal code ; make the mere reading of the past a sickening ordeal; while, as he observes, " the darkness and horror " of the small towns " the filthy streets, the unsanitary kennels which formed them," with the taxes on window-light, on candle-light, and on salt " rise upon the imagination like a 'hideous night- mare.' " In the light of these reminders, review the England of to-day, with all its defects, and form your own conclusions upon the changes. Where in all history can we find a more unique contrast between periods than between the opening and ending of the Nineteenth Century ? Despite all the critics in creation may aver, has it not been a century of emancipation and enfranchisement and enlightenment of the most marvellous kind ? When in due time it steams past the hailing-station, on its way to the moorings where our Victories and Socialism and Sense. 5 Eoijal Sovereigns are "laid up " in honourable retire- ment, we may justly answer for it : " Individual Initiative" has been its "master," "State Co- operation" its "mate," "Moral Enthusiasm" its "engineer," and "Progress and Promise" its cargo. "Honour Where Honour is Due." We seem to-day to be living in a time of excep- tional dissatisfaction and unrest. But the point of points is this: Is there real ground for dissatis- faction and revolt? The existing turmoil, in my judgment, is one of the most healthy signs of the times, but equally am I convinced that there is no solid foundation for distrust and alarm. All the stir of to-day is not the work of the Socialists of to-day, as these gentlemen, with the amiable vanity which characterizes many of them, would have the world believe. These Socialists of to-day are in several senses the children of our ^Radicalism of yesterday ; yet a cultured section of them, with bare-faced auda- city, would have us treat them as superior persons original discoverers, creators of conscience, infallible teachers, and so forth. No ; a large proportion of the agitation is the much-desired fruit of many years of freely-expended toil and patience on the part of noble men and women in the past those men and women who have striven through long days and nights of shocking and saddening ignorance and indifference to educate and civilize the great mass of the people ; to vivify, if not, indeed, to create, the individual conscience in matters of national concern ; and to stimulate the springs and to raise the standard of national aspiration and determination locally, your Haswells and your Spences ; your Hudsons, your Sutherlands, and your Waltons ; your Thompsons, your Edingtons, and your Greens. 6 Socialism and Sense. A John-the-Baptist Epoch. The Nineteenth Century, as we have so vividly perceived, provides us, in the presence of a higher standard of communication, comfort, and culture, with abundant cause for satisfaction and gratula- tion, and the labourers in our national vineyard who have been the mainsprings of the progress which has distinguished its course are entitled to our undying gratitude and esteem. Still, when we can afford to give ourselves pause for thought, we become all too painfully conscious that that progress, while in the main prodigious, has been greatly impeded by economic blunders and sadly coloured by human selfishness. When, with the late Poet- Laureate, we demand of ourselves, " What knowest thou of the world ? " we cannot think of " all the wealth " without recalling also " all the woe ; " and we are compelled to acknowledge in the frankest way the existence of an unredressed balance of iniquity, anomaly, and absurdity that is responsible for the continued presence of a great " province " of unrequited toil, misery, and wretchedness, which naturally evokes the poet-seer's " curses without number" and the " cries for vengeance*' that are at the present day perpetually sounding in our ears like the worrying scream of the fog-horn or the terrible music of the mitrailleuse. The stone of error, injustice, and unrighteousness has not yet been entirely rolled away from the entrance to the Temple of National Kegeneration. But the past half-century, despite its errors, its shortcomings, and its disappointments, provides abundant cause for comfort and encouragement, and we can with confidence hope and pray that the glimmerings of the Nineteenth Century will prove to have been as a " John-the-Baptist " epoch to the glories of the Twentieth Century ! Socialism and Sense. 7 II. Criticism of Critics. As I have indicated, we hear much wild talk of " the progressive enslavement and degradation of the exploited classes," or, as the latest manifesto of the Independent Socialist Party puts it, " the continued poverty and misery of the great mass of the people in the face of our ever-increasing abundance : ' but where do we meet with any substantial proof of these remarkable assertions ? It is fatuous to bring forward in contrast with present- day facts, as one writer at least has done, prices in Germany in 1400 and wages in England in 1500, without indicating their perspec- tive with respect to measure of population, access to land on the part of rural folk, the current standard of life, and factors like plagues and wars, which would affect materially the verdict on the question at issue ; and it is scarcely less silly to manufacture a grave impeachment of a state of things univer- sally welcomed out of the fact that great as has been the progress attained, it has not been so abso- lutely great as to make Labour's return equitable, and has not yet removed all the pimples and blemishes arising out of the working of a system exceptionally complex in a society strong in fibre and deep in root. That our present position leaves much very, very much to be desired, is incontrovertible, except in the mind of a knave or a fool ; but because some of us consider that "the improvement has been far slower than it need be," and "that the root of the question of poverty must be dealt with if the improvement is to go on," are we to resolutely refuse the recognition of bare justice to the results of the system evolved from the play of natural forces, (dally the results of those parts of the system reformed and regulated by the policy and efforts of our own immediate forefathers ? There is, as we S Socialism and Sense. all know, vast room for reform still for reform of injurious conditions distinctly and directly due to our very prosperity, as well as a more immediate and trenchant reform of anomilies, abuses, and injustices which sit as a hoary crown of unrighteousness upon the Constitution of the country ; but what good is to be got, I ask you, from representing things as worse than they really are ? Are " the Rich Richer, the Poor Poorer P " Of the grumblers, Professor Russell Wallace is at once the most distinguished and the most denuncia- tory. Dwelling upon the increasingly extended use of machinery, the development of rail and maritime transport, the squandering of our mineral resources, the discovery of gold, etc., he maintains that the community as a community is not enjoying a com- mensurate return upon the vast addition made to the national wealth during the present century. Indeed, he commits himself to this remarkable assertion: " Yet all this," he writes, "has only made the rich richer; the poor remaining as numerous, and in many respects, even worse off than before ; " while in another page he declares that the distribution of wealth "is more unequal than ever, and that for every single addition to the exceptionally rich there are scores or hundreds added to the exceptionally poor." Except, it may be, in relation to a very limited class of landlords, surely his laudable zeal for Land Nationalization has here led Mr. Wallace into an extravagance of language almost as great as the ratio of increase in the wealth of the nation? The same idea finds expression in the language of Mr. Kidd, in a summary of criticism current in certain circles to-day: "the immense progress of the century and the splendid conquests of science have brought no corresponding gain to the workers." Even in this form of statement is not there conveyed an impression that is largely Socialism and Sense. 9 false and distinctly unreasonable ? Critics of Pro- fessor Wallace's way of thinking, as I interpret them, complain that when Jg 1,000 has been added to the wealth of the nation it does not flow at once equitably and equably over the entire community. Where is the perfect nation under whose constitu- tion this happens ? Is not altering and enlarging the channels for the distribution of wealth one of the most difficult and tedious tasks to which man can set his hand, a thousand times more difficult than changing the currents of great rivers ? But, as a matter of fact, does not a vastly larger proportion of that 1,000 reach its rightful owners than hap- pened fifty years ago, and is not the whole bent of national legislation and administration towards a still greater increase in the proportion? In brief, are not these highly-coloured and ultra- discontented views of our present position a gross misdescription of the situation, and many leagues away from the actual facts ? The Making of the Machinery of Future Progress. In theory even these criticisms are not absolutely satisfying they don't " weigh-in" all the constitu- ents of the question. Let us test the contention of the critics by a single thought : Let us assume the country unblessed by the discovery of steam power, by the invention of machinery, by the use of mineral deposits, etc., etc. : would the inhabitants of to-day have been greatly ahead of the inhabitants of 200 years ago in proportionate command of the wealth of the nation ? As a primitive people, might not the vast bulk of us have been in a state of primitive poverty still ? Or, assuming a degree of progress, would \\r have managed by to-day to have cut down the rewards of initiative and enterprise to a lower standard ? and would we have succeeded in bringing down the rate of interest and the returns io Socialism and Sense. upon certain forms of plunder lower than they stood two hundred years ago ? If we did not succeed in remaining stagnant if success may be associated with stagnation " for this occasion only " is it not probable that we would more and more have fallen the victims of the privileged, the strong, and the unscrupulous ? It is in the shadow of such reflec- tions as these, as well as in the Herat of the substan- tial facts of to-day, that we ought to judge the position of the population towards the close of the Nineteenth Century. The perfect triumph over the natural tendency to retrogression, the creation of the facilities for further progress, and the stimulus towards that further progress all these, part fruit of the national ferment, intellectual and moral, follow- ing upon the utilisation of the material gifts of God to the Age are as much popular gains from the point of view of ultimate issues, as are the im- mediate gains in wages and purchasing power ; and that the great benefits accruable from the creation of the machinery for a better distribution of wealth, and the stimulus towards the use of that machinery both the work of the Radical politicians of generations now passing away are already beginning to be reaped by the people at large, the wail of the victims of " the Harcourt Screw" (if we may so speak of the historic "Death-Duties Budget " of 1894) sufficiently attest. What We Owe to Politicians and Statesmen. By the way, the name of Sir William Harcourt suggests the reflection that we are far too loath to accord to our Radical Politicians in the country and to our Radical Statesmen in Parliament their really great share of credit for the progress achieved. Recall the wars, with their terrible waste, that they have averted ; consider the economies that they have effected : remember the remissions of taxation that Socialism and Sense. n they have arranged remember particularly the famous Budgets of Mr. Gladstone ; think of the powerful lever towards further progress they put into the hands of the working-classes when they secured for them direct representation in Parlia- ment ; review the advantages that have resulted to our working-people from the liberty to combine to secure rises in wages and like benefits that followed upon the repeal of the Conspiracy Laws ; count up the years that have been added to the lives and the pounds that have been added to the yearly wages of every working man and woman by the inception and development of our factory and sanitary laws ; dwell long upon the incalculable boon of cheap food and the enormous impetus to our prosperity secured by the adoption of the far-seeing and broad-minded fiscal policy which makes us favoured co -partners with the whole world ; and, above all, let your imaginations range over the vast and ever-extending advantages conferred upon the Common People of the Country by the adoption of that grand measure of popular Education indelibly associated with the names of W. E. Forster and W. E. Gladstone ! And remember that this Radical Policy of Progress is being steadily and unflinchingly pursued, indeed more courageously and determinedly pursued, as Parliament succeeds Parliament. Yet we are constantly meeting people who gravely assure us that we* owe nothing to our politicians in the provinces nor to our statesmen at St. Stephen's ! Faugh ! The Rich Poorer, the Poor Richer. On the facts themselves the critics are almost overwhelmed. As to the actual progress attained by the working part of the population during the past century, we do not need to recite at length the statistics of our Giffens and our Atkinsons to prove the falsity of the suggestion that the substantial advances 12 Socialism and Sense. of prosperity enjoyed by our working classes are all myth and illusion ; the falsity of the suggestion must be patent and obvious to every observant man and woman with a good memory, a sense of fairness, and without an " axe to grind." Why, one of the latest papers read before the Statistical Society (by Mr. Bowley) estimated, as the result of careful investigation and analysis, that average incomes and average wages have both been nearly doubled since 1860, and the diminution in the share of the non- producer is still proceeding apace. And the material condition of our working population satisfactory, on the whole, as it is would have been vastly better had we nofc had to bear over all these years the vast cost of the terrific war at the opening of the century against the power of Napoleon a war which, how- ever advantageous in some respects in its results, sucked for a time the life-blood out of the nation a substantial fact, of which the critics of our present position take little, if, indeed, any account whatever. The cry, " The rich are growing richer, and the poor poorer/' is really growing more audaciously untrue every year ; the exact reverse, taking the nation as a whole, is now the truth. A great proportion of the increase in income represented in the income-tax returns is really traceable to the fact that the wages (otherwise salaries) of many workers have risen so high that they now come under the cognizance of the collectors of income-tax ; and as the Chancellor of the Exchequer conclusively showed in his last Budget speech, the wage-earning classes not only con- sumed more but saved more last year than in the years at the beginning of the decade which were regarded as exceptionally prosperous. The returns of the savings which find their way into the savings- banks indicate that the receipts in excess of with- drawals last year (7,169,000) were six million pounds more than in the prosperity year of 1890, Socialism and Sense. 13 the actual amount of deposits being ,41,500,000, or an increase of 11,000,000 upon the figures of 1890 ; while statistics prepared by Mr. Brabrook, the chief Registrar of Friendly Societies, show that the funds invested in savings banks, registered friendly societies, incorporated building societies, re- gistered trade unions, and certified loan societies are 60,008,834 more than ten years ago, the sum at present invested rising to the enormous total of 240,296,733. Yet since the authoritative publica- tion of these figures our Keir-Hardies and Tom Manns and Pete Currans, in " National Administra- tive Council " assembled, have called the world to witness that the " the great mass of the people " are in "continued poverty and misery!" The present, as we have seen, is good, and there is substantial promise that the future will be vastly better : while wages are rising and prices falling, profits are diminishing, interest is falling, and the taxes upon wealth are increasing. "What All the Figures Point to." Listen to what our chief official statistician, Dr. Giffen, wrote in a paper read before the Statistical Society on Dec. 17, 1889: " What all the figures point to is that there has been a steady levelling-up amongst the masses for several centuries ; that this improvement largely takes the shape of constant additions to the lower, middle-class, and the upper artizan class ; and that there is a residuum which does not improve much, and hardly, by comparison, seems to improve at all ; but this residuum certainly diminishes in proportion, and probably diminishes in absolute amount from century to century, and from period to period." I suspect that if Dr. Giffen were revising that summary to-day, he would revise it by raising substantially his estimate of the measure in which the residuum he describes is now sharing 14 Socialism and Sense. in the distribution of wealth. Certainly this is the view of one of the latest of our authorities in the field of political economy, Professor Marshall, who; after enumerating forces " telling on the side of the poorer classes as a whole relatively to the richer " (diffusion of knowledge, the improvement of education, growth of prudent habits amongst the masses of the people, etc.), declares that various items of evidence he enumerates, " pre- dicate that middle-class incomes are increasing faster than those of the rich ; that the earnings of artizans are increasing faster than those of the pro- fessional classes ; and that the wages of healthy and vigorous unskilled labourers are increasing faster even than those of the average artizan." The fact that the great improvement experienced in almost every department of life has had sequelae of disadvantageous concomitants in the form of higher rents in cities or payment of railway fares, greater severity of labour for certain classes, etc., detracts little, if anything, from the immensity of the volume of improvement. As Dr. Giffen shows in a careful examination of these disadvantageous concomitants in his article on " Gross and Net Gain of Rising Wages " in the Contemporary Review for December, 1889, " the complaints, when analysed, are, in truth, signs of the improvement," and, of coarse, the con- comitants are of a kind likely to disappear in the course of a few years through trades-union pressure on employers and popular pressure on Parliament. " On the whole," Dr. Gitfen writes, in concluding this article, " the classes of workmen affected in this way must, from the nature of things, be com- paratively small, while the general conditions are such that the deduction from gross earnings, as a rule, still leaves an enormous net gun ; " and as he also observes with true Scottish shrew J ness, " People would not change back to the former Socialism and Sense. 15 conditions." No ; it is not that things are worse in degree though it may be, in certain limited respects, that they are worse in kind that the marks and sounds of a mild kind of volcanic emotion to-day disturb, and, it may be, distress us. It was with justifiable pride and elation that Sir William Harcourt declared before the bankers and merchants of the City the other night that " in no country and at no time has a greater and a more solid progress been made by any community than has been made in this United Kingdom during the last half century/' Civilisation a Crime! Dr. Wallace's latest defence of his position (Daily Chronicle, March 5, 1895) proves, in my opinion, not that "the poor are poorer/' but really that the poor are richer, through the great onward strides made during the past half-century by the spirit of Humanity and Charity. Dr. Wallace makes a great parade of the increase in the percentage of the deaths occurring in workhouses, asylums, and hospitals, but he strangely overlooks the fact that if these deaths hai not taken place in these institu- tions, they would have taken place, as before the establishment and popularisation of these institu- tions, in " the miserable attics or cellars " of his Chronicle communication, in which, it must be ack- nowledged with pain, large numbers still die. The fact that such large and increasing numbers of our aged and infirm and suffering poor die in these institutions, rather than, as they used to die, in their own wretched homes, or the homes of relatives as poor as themselves, is a fact entirely to the credit, instead of to the discredit, of our newer time. The increasing willingness of the poor to take advantage of the means increasingly provided for the ameliora- tion of their condition ought surely to be a subject 16 Socialism and Sense. for congratulation rather than for condemnation. Clearly Dr. Wallace, overcome with " the strong temptation/' in the words of Prof. Marshall, " to over-state the economic evils of our own time," has momentarily lost touch with the rise in the standard of life and the spread of the spirit of altruism, from which the very poor have benefitted in degree with the rest of the community. It is true, undoubtedly, that the ailments and diseases and injuries of the poor now receive careful and sympathetic attention and treatment where before they were either utterly neglected or indifferently regarded, that our im- beciles and lunatics now live and die under condi- tions that are utterly unlike the beast-like treatment and environment meted out to imbeciles and lunatics at the beginning of the century, and that our infirm and aged poor are much more the objects of the considerate care and direct guardianship of the com- munity at large than they were even half- a -century ago ; but these facts make no impression upon Dr. Wallace. Indeed, these wide-spread proofs of a substantial growth of a humaner spirit the reform of our Poor-law arrangements, the improved treat- ment of the insane, the development and populari- sation of the hospital system, and the education and training of the neglected children of our great cities are actually made the heads of an indictment against the Progress which is respon- sible for them! The numbers ''dying from the direct or indirect effects of insufficient food, clothing, rest, or fresh air" is vastly -less than it was 50 years ago ; yet because victims of these unfortunate conditions now die in hospitals or poor-houses, where they were receiving the best treatment that the Age can command for them, rather than, as of yore, in their own miserable sur- roundings at home, or amongst friends almost equally poor or infirm, they are elevated to the Socialism and Sense. 17 position of martyr- signs of the greater degeneracy and demoralization and inadequacy of the existing form of society ! In short, Dr. Wallace indicts the advance of Civilisation at any rate as indicated in the spread of the spirit of Charity and Humanity as a crime ! The Credit Balance of Radicalism. Of course, we cannot deprive the ultra-discon- tented critics of the consolation afforded by the frequent use of that " pound -of-flesh "-like word " corresponding, " but those folk in your midst who can contrast 1834 with 1894 cannot fail to advise you that in the bulk the people of Shields are to- day immeasurably better fed, better clothed, better housed, better educated, healthier, and though this is the most difficult to determine happier, than in the days which knew not Grey, Cobden, and Gladstone, As it is here, so it is in almost every part of the country. Life for the vast majority is quicker, fuller, and healthier. Certainly, with all our deficiencies, the condition of our population, as all the available statistics abundantly prove, is enor- mously superior to the condition of the people of any other country in the world : at any rate, we have not had to wait for the advent of latter-day Collectivism to attain this highly gratifying result. We can afford to contrast with the utmost complacency the condition of our working population with the position of the working population on the Continent. On this point it is worth listening to the testimony of Mr. Mundella, the late President of the Board of Trade, who has an extensive knowledge of the conditions of labour on the Continent: "He had watched the progress of Socialism in Germany : for forty years the German working-man had concentrated all his energies on Socialism, and to-day he was one of the worst- 1 8 Socialism and Sense. paid, worst-fed, and most over-worked men in Europe." A glimpse of the bad past a know- ledge of the twists and turnings and difficulties of the road along which the nations have so slowly crawled is apt to teach patience even to the most impatient souls, and it would be better if some of our friends were more of students and less of Socialists. The " New Wine " of Education and Power. The cause of the present discontent and upheaval, in my opinion, is not to be discovered in any in- crease (apart from a proportion due to the immense extension of population) in injustice, or misery, or wretchedness. It is rather to be traced to the fact that the people at large are now enabled to look at things with the aid of the microscope of education, knowledge, and enjoyment, that the Press carries the new thought quickly into every town and hamlet in the land, and that the passion for variety, novelty, and experiment is strong in men filled with the " new wine" of education and power. The nation, thanks to the triple micro- scope named, has vastly increased in sensitive- ness, and distinctly developed in the domain of conscience; and, at the same time, thanks to the joint influence of Pulpit, Press, Platform, and School, the People, while attaining to a keener perception of evil, have imbibed a stronger deter- mination to assail it, and have been endowed with a greater capacity to overcome it. in. A Serious Situation. Our out-look to-day is undeniably grave: an increasing population, with a higher standard of life Socialism and Sense. 19 than preceding generations, is confronted with the fact that a considerable proportion of its members able and willing to work stand idle in the market- place ; with the fact that the number of unopened or undeveloped markets will within a few years get within touch of zero ; and, finally, with the fact that it is face to face with a foreign competition, already sharp, which threatens to become terribly keen when the myriad races of the East marvellously imitative, profoundly patient, and inconceivably cheap are put thoroughly into harness by the speculators and superintendents of the West. When the terms of the Treaty of Peace dictated to China by Japan came to hand a few weeks ago a scream of satisfaction emanated from the Press of this country, in view of the increased facilities given for the introduction of machinery into and the establishment of manufactories in China: "We are in for a long period of brisk trade/' cried all the cohorts of trade and commerce. But we cannot be at all sure that these concessions on the part of China will not constitute a curse to the next two or three generations of Englishmen. The present generation will benefit in part, if not wholly, for there is sure to be a prolonged and heavy demand for machinery ; but what is likely to be the course of events when this machinery has been set to work? Our Rivals in the East. There may be factors (similar in type to that of climatic conditions) at present unrecognised, that may be destined to play the part of " good fairy " to the English people ; but on the face of the problem, it certainly looks as if China, Japan> India, and Egypt, will become increasingly for a long period desperately dangerous, if not overbearing, competi- tors with our manufacturers of apparel and other like 20 Socialism and Sense. goods in all the markets of the world. We may hope that in time the Eastern rivals of our own artisan and labouring classes will acquire a greater sense of the dignity of life than they at present possess, and insist upon raising the standard of their comfort and obtaining some glimpses of the real pleasures of existence, with the consequence of diminishing the pressure of their competition upon our own people here in England ; and we shall hope that before many more years have passed the greater proportion of our working population will by their possession of manual skill and technical knowledge have placed themselves beyond the orbit of mere mechanical competition. But meanwhile our customers are in all directions rapidly becoming our competitors ; and until the economic truth, that each country does best to produce mainly that which it is best fitted to produce, has been thoroughly learnt by every nation, we may have to fight in the industrial sense, and perchance in the physical sense also, for our very lives. That, once the gravity of the situation has been grasped, our national resource, industry, and persistence will enable us to emerge from it, if not vain-gloriously triumphant, at any rate unshattered and unshorn, I have every hope ; but that it is a serious situation it would be foolish to deny. With such an outlook, we imperatively need all the initiative, all the enterprise, and all the activity that the Empire can command ! "Goals" in the International Game. Without effort to maintain our position, we can- not always hope to be, as a nation " the pick of the basket ; " and the men, comparatively few, who are following the development of events abroad, especially in the East, are in a position to give the strongest proof that if we do not quickly give a close and determined attention to this subject of for ;i~. Socialism and Sense. 21 of foreign competition we shall find ourselves one day wailing without avail over our present indif- ference and sloth. The inhabitants of a seaport like this ought to feel itself particularly concerned at the prospect of any diminution in our foreign trade, and I would respectfully suggest that to the discussion of the " ways out" you cannot too early and assiduously give your attention in a spirit of sincerity and frankness. As that shrewd, sturdy, and long-suffering Kadical, Bamford, perceived half- a-century ago, " We cannot, any more than we can still the ocean, prevent our manufactures from being set up in other nations, "and the only course open to us as a nation is to see to it that either by cheapness, superiority, or uniqueness, we keep well ahead of our neighbours and rivals. As I have suggested, the Anglo-Saxon alert and armed need fear no foe, but the Anglo-Saxon unprepared and asleep is as likely a subject of ill-fortune as the weakest specimen of the feeblest race in the world. Let us all remember that foreign trade is more vital than football, and resolve anew that no nation shall in the international game score more "goals" than Britain. The " Ocean Greyhound " and its Crew. The Coming Century will, without doubt, witness the solution of many of the difficulties of indi- vidual relation and problems of State which to- day stand like Gorgons in our path ; but what will be the manner and form of these solutions ? If we can assist in the anticipation of them, how- ever roughly, we may be doing useful work, for our impressions and conclusions may enable us to hasten on changes and developments in economic relations for which our sons and daughters for many genera- tions may be deeply grateful, as we are deeply grateful to our forefathers for the arduous strife and 22 Socialism and Sense. : patient labour in matters of political freedom in whiph in their time they engaged for our behoof and encouragement. The mind of man being the miraculous and sensitive instrument it is, the measure of its capacity of development and ramification and achievement cannot possibly be even approximately predicted, and changes beyond human conception intrepidity intellectual as well . as surprises scientific may be in store for the world. It may be the fate of our sons and daughters, if not of ourselves, to hear, with the po y et viewing " bygone ages in their palls," the crash " when some image of old error falls Earth worshipped once as deathless;" and, perchance, they may witness changes as quick and varied ,as those provided in the kaleidoscope of our boyhood's days. But, if you will listen to the plain judgment of a plain mind, we cannot in my opinion escape from the conclusion that, human nature i; being the strong and conservative factor that it is, , and the influences of heredity and environment ,, being what we know them to be, we may naturally expect that that eagerly-awaited " ocean-greyhound, " the Twentieth Century, like the present brave and battered old "tramp," the Nineteenth Century, will prove to have " Individual Initiative " for . {its ; -" commander," " Communal Co-operation " for . its ," mate," and "Moral Enthusiasm" for its " engineer." The new ship, however, will venture upon, many more voyages of discovery than did the old, and the balance-sheet which will ulti- m,ately lie at the office of the managing-owners , will be found to be much more satisfactory alike to .freighters and shareholders, in the shape of profit of .general content, culture, and happiness, than even the balance-sheet of this " good old" and highly - valued Nineteenth Century. Socialism and Sense. PART II. CRITICAL. I. "Paradise Regained." A sanguine school of Socialists entertain no doubt as to the character of the Coming Century. It may provide us with a new heaven, certainly it will present us with a new earth aye, in its very opening chapter. I fancy I have somewhere read of one Mann, a leader of the Independent Socialist Party, predicting, after the flamboyant manner of the wild German Socialist writer, Herr Bebel, the triumph of militant Socialism even before the close of the Nineteenth Century; and I certainly read in a leading article in Mr. Keir-Hardie's paper of May llth, 1895, that " in England the Socialist movement is gathering in its converts by the score weekly, and will, with Germany, be ready to take its place in the confederation of Socialist States which is one of the certainties of the first quarter of the Twentieth Century!" In fact, Carlyle's " Long-expected Year One of Human Felicity " is to be upon us before we have swept and garnished in joyful anticipation of it ! The factory system, despite the Socialist abuse of it, has clearly not yet driven imagination out of England ; and if you betake yourself to the reading of Social- istic literature, you will find, alongside of many chapters of good sound sense, much entertaining romance of the Jules Verne type. Our friends practically label the New Century "Paradise Re- gained/' and whether they paint with a big brush or a small one, the glory of a golden sunrise is over 24 Socialism and Sense. all their pictures. As Byron has written, " The mind can make substances, and people planets of its own with beings brighter than have been, and give its breath to forms which can out-live all flesh ;" and London is flooded with the literature of political fantasy. The blue-book has been superseded by the fairy-tale, and if you may believe the Politicians of the Balloon, Plato's " Republic/' Sir Thomas More's " Utopia," Bacon's " New Atlantis," and many other famous works of a noble imagination, are to breathe and live at last in the Twentieth Century ! II. The Position of the Grab-and-Govern-All School. There is not time here for a full-blooded disquisi- tion on a subject so large and complex as Socialism of the Grab-and-Govern-all school ; but as I agree with Mr. Blatchford, the cleverest apostle of Collec- tivism in this country, that " the important thing now is to make people understand what Socialism is/' and as by the confession of Mr. Fabian Shaw the members of Socialist societies, " from the nature of the recruiting that goes on," "are often more ignorant of the real meaning of Socialism than any other section of the community" (Labour Leader, May 18th, 1895), we may profitably spend an hour or so upon an examination of some of its aspects. Let me grant at once that there is much that captivates in it. From the economic and ethical point of view, its literary champions present very skilfully a very strong case ; although in large part this case (as is too often forgotten) is the case of the Radical as well as the Socialist. Of course, the Socialist case grows the stronger when, under the stress of adverse criticism, its champions, like sensible Englishmen, become illogical, disavow the Socialism and Sense. 25 extremest features of the ancient Socialism (which was scarcely, if at all, distinguished from Com- munism, with its common property in cupboard, POLITICIANS OF THE BALLOON. hearth, and bed), and finally declare that liberty for a fuller individualism has been ever the very essence and foundation of their remarkable agita- tion ! This last confession, by the way, is a piece 26 -Socialism and Sense. of valuable testimony to the strength of the human instinct towards individual initiative, enterprize, and success. It describes, I dare say, an honest aspiration and sincere belief on the part of a few super-idealists in the Socialist ranks, but there is some reason to fear that the " fuller individualism " of a considerable proportion of those seeking to benefit by the proposed revolution would be an in- dividualism of the rankest and worst kind the individualism which would secure gratification for the individual without regard to the Common- wealth aye, even if the State, as a consequence, were to "go by the board " the next day. Anyhow, the undeniable fact of the moment is that " Ideal Socialism" has been found " too strong for human nature's daily food " at the stage human nature has reached to-day, and there has been a general "climb down" to "Practical Socialism." "Almost Persuaded to be a Socialist." Still, even under " Practical Socialism " the main elements of present evil are to quickly vanish, and the industrial organization and social life of Britain are to be simply idyllic. There is, according to my reading, if not a direct conflict of opinion, a great haziness of view amongst the apostles of Socialism on the important question whether the appearance of the Socialist State is to precede or succeed the Transformation of Character which is to be the distinguishing sign of Socialism in practice ; but in the expectation and hope of many, unmistakably, a mere change in the machinery of Society is to work wonders in the heart of man. With the advent of a Socialist State every citizen will live and work, not for his own sake alone, but for his neighbour's as well, and we are to quickly leap to the very pinnacle of comfort, culture, and Christianity! We must not be taken as sneering at the ends which the Socialist Socialism and Sense. 27 party have in view ; only the cynic and the brute can lack close sympathy with their aims. Their sublime ideals, after all, are, in the essential, the ideals of us all ; but while directing an occasional glance at the stars, we do not, like our friends, forget the hard and stony and uphill road over which our feet are slowly travelling. The insinua- tion which Socialists fling at people who refuse to take rank as converts, that they are distinguished by " paucity of the imagination," is a most unjust and foolish accusation. The sentiment towards economy of force, ideal justice, and neighbourly helpfulness and communion which is inherent in the vast majority of Englishmen, makes them only too ready to dwell upon such harmonious and en- chanting pictures as those of the Socialist Paradise which have lately found so wide a circulation in our midst. It has been wisely said that partial truth is bound up in every system ; and as you go over the ground with a champion of the creed, whether he be learned or unlearned, the fascination wrought by the sense of unity, comprehensiveness, economy of power, rapturous idleness, and brotherly love which a survey of the scene evokes, impels you to cry, " I am almost persuaded to be a Socialist ! " "Crude and Illusive! Flimsy and Shadowy!" But as we are in the very act of falling before the temptation, there comes to the rescue our old and trusty friend Caution, whose wisdom finds such admirable expression in the axiom attributed to an ancient Brahmin in a book I carried away from this town many years ago: " As the torrent that rolleth down the mountains destroyeth all that is borne away by it, so doth common opinion overwhelm reason in him who submitteth to it without saying, * What is thy foundation ?' ' 28 Socialism and Sense. This caution, if I may say so, is speedily reinforced by Northern shrewdness, common-sense, and ex- perience of men and things, which have ever been fatal to specious reasonings and eloquent plausi- bilities; and under the lime-light of fact, at the stage of human nature which we have reached to-day, how crude and illusive, how flimsy and shadowy it all seems ! As we rub our eyes and proceed to mix again with the world, we realize, all too keenly, that we have just returned from the country of dreams, from a very pleasant excursion into the Land of the Lotus-eaters! III. The Programme of the Dreamers. Let us glance at the programme of the Dreamers : The State is to become an autocratic sovereign, at least in the matters of creation, distribution, and exchange : that is to say, as individuals we shall lose the liberty to please ourselves in affairs of work or business oft-times, I daresay, a scant liberty, but, nevertheless, a liberty always ; while the governors of the State will become our masters and controllers in the matter of our regular daily occupations. If this statement of the real meaning of an apparently fascinating but much- abused word Socialism should cause you surprise, I cannot express amazement, for, unfortunately, too many Socialists have in the past manifested a partiality for cloudiness of interpretation when their intentions have been in question at any rate, when a clear enunciation of these inten- tions might be likely to act as a shrill note of warning upon enthusiastic and confiding re- formers of our social system. The official pro- grammes of the Socialist Parties afford sufficient Socialism and Sense. 29 proof that when Sir William Harcourt on that breezy night in the Commons some seven years ago emitted the famous dictum, "We are all Socialists now/' with the characteristically royal wave of the hand which I still so vividly recall, he meant something radically different in spirit to Socialism as "made in Germany." Even those mild-mannered gentle- men the Fabians confess to a desire after "the re- organisation of Society, by the emancipation of land and industrial capital from individual and class ownership, and the vesting of them in the com- munity for the general benefit/' At its Newcastle Conference, the Independent Labour Party defined its object as " an Industrial Commonwealth, founded upon the socialization of land and capital." While the Social Democratic Federation the oldest as well as the only honest and courageous society amongst the Socialist bodies " makes no bones " about its programme: " 6. The land, with all the mines, railways, and other means of transit, to be declared and treated as collective or common pro- perty ; 7. The means of production, distribution, and exchange to be declared and treated as collective or common property; 8. The production and distribution of wealth to be regulated by society in the common interests of all;" one of its "palliatives" being stated thus : " Nationalization of the land and organization of agricultural and industrial armies under state or municipal control on co-operative principles/' Surely this language cannot leave any room for doubt as to the true meaning of Socialism, which, clearly, is not the innocent and healthy " soda-water system " which some mild and worthy people have hitherto believed it to be. Religion in the Socialist State. Whether the State's autocracy would stop at dictation of our daily tasks whether individual 3o Socialism and Sense. thought and judgment and action in matters apart from material production and distribution and exchange would be State-ordered likewise is a point still left in great uncertainty. Certainly, I have never seen it explained, for illustration in this par- ticular, how a journal of opinion hostile to the Government is to be " run " in a Socialist State ; and I have not yet discovered how the specially-appointed guardians and propagators of Keligion the great body of clergy, priests, and ministers of all denomi- nations, and in fact, the entire machinery of the Churches would be treated under a Socialist re- gime. If the future of the Churches under Socialism can be ascertained from the pages of Mr. Belfort JBax's " Religion of Socialism/' then the Churches would have no future under Socialism. In Mr. Bax's book Socialism is represented "in religion as atheistic Humanism/' and we are told that Socialism ' ' utterly despises the ' other world ' with all its stage properties that is the present objects of religion/' and that * ' it brings back religion from heaven to earth." " The establishment of society on a Socialistic basis," it is clearly declared, " would imply the definitive abandonment of all theological Cults, since the notion of a transcendent god or semi- divine prophet is but the counterpart and anologue of the transcendent governing-class." How does good Dr. Clifford square his sympathy with Socialism, his belief that it does not imply the control of religion by the community, and his hope that it will provide " a far better body for the soul of Christ's teaching and the Spirit of His Life and Death," with the spirit which breathes through these and other passages in Mr. Bax's book ? Of course, the desires of Mr. Keir- Hardie must not be judged by the intentions of Mr. Bax, whose volumes of plain pronouncements, I dare say, have caused great annoyance to many of his comrades ; but it is the character and will of the Socialism and Sense. 31 men who would be likely to figure as over-lords in a Socialist State that we must keep prominently in view : we may forget Danton, but we never forget Kobespierre. What may be involved in the Socialist Creed. What shade of a sign of religion and liberty is to be found in Mr. Bax's Socialist State ? What glimpse of tolerance even ? Is the spirit of Socialism, I won- der, to be found in his observations upon " liberty of conscience," which he maintains means in the com- mon interpretation of to-day "a liberty to deprive others of liberty." Denouncing the " liberty of conscience " which permits " a child or person intellectually incapable, either naturally or through ignorance, or both/' to be " terrified by threats of the wrath of God into conversion/' and to become " the slave of General Booth or the ' Church/ " and to be " warped morally and mentally for life," he observes significantly : "against this the only weapon he (the bourgeois free-thinker) permits himself is argument or persuasion/' What, it is reasonable to ask, is the attitude of John Burns, and H. M. Hyndman, and Tom Mann, and Pete Curran, and Joseph Burgess, and Ben Tillett, and Fred. Hammill in relation to the points here cited ? Mr. Bax may be, as he asserts, on the side of true liberty : but at least we cannot decline to recognise that, in relation at any rate to the exclusion of Christianity from a Socialist State, it is the kind of " liberty " which the English nation has squandered its best brains and blood in resisting the kind of " liberty " which, while giving full fling to the demonstration of one set of opinions, stamps another set of opinions as immoral or illegitimate and penalises their propagation except in a manner or at a time prescribed by the possessors of power in the State. It may be that we shall all ultimately range our- 32 Socialism and Sense. selves under the banner of Mr. Bax ; but it is, all the same, well that we should discover early in the day, rather than late, that doctrines of an insidious and far-reaching character may be involved in the acceptance of the Socialist creed which is being so assiduously preached all over England, Wales, and Scotland to-day. The point is one which we cannot afford to overlook in discussing the pros and cons of a Socialist State ; for it is one which touches for many men and women the vitals of life, and of which it is only fair they should have the fullest warning. For myself, I remember that it is in relation to Liberty of Press and Pulpit that human passion ever finds itself in highest key ; and having some knowledge of the strength and masterfulness of the " human nature " of some of the Socialist leaders of to-day, I cannot help entertaining a strong suspicion that, unless the guarantees taken for the protection of minorities were complex and powerful, the mailed hand of Tyranny might be felt throughout the land even in matters apart from production, distri- bution, and exchange. The Octopus of the State. However, it is with the industrial liberty of the individual under Socialism that we are here mainly concerned, and at this juncture no subject can be more profitably discussed. According to current proposals, the State is to become Producer- General as well as Protector- General : farmer, manufacturer, merchant, as well as educator, guardian, and defender. The latch-key of home you are graciously permitted to retain, but with the key of the world you are no longer to be entrusted. You will be kindly allowed to buy on your own motion to the utmost of your capacity, but you are not to be allowed to make or sell a single article except by direction and under control. The State Socialism and Sense. 33 II is to take over, not only lands and mines, but factories and workshops, railways and ships, offices and shops, and its octopus-like clutch is only tc be stayed at such private belongings and accu- mulations as are not likely to be invested in production, trade, or commerce. Whether build- ing-society investment or savings-bank book, house or garden, either owned or rented, hand-saw or sewing-machine, would come within this latter category, it is hard to determine ; but the line between instruments of production and private luxury would certainly be hard to draw. The Dreamers, frightened out of their logic by the strength of the force they are attacking, insist that apart from the land, they don't mean to end private property ; but, at least, it is unquestionably clear that what they do seek to do is to abolish private businesses. That is to say, for example, the extensive drapery and furnishing establishment of Messrs. Green and Byers, the ancient grocery busi- ness of Messrs. Baines, the well-known leathershop of Mr. Hogg, the carriage manufactory of Mr. Charles Foot, the old-established musical warehouse of Mr. Jonathan Eskdale, the ships of Mr. Donkin, the ship- slip of Messrs. Smith, and, I suppose, even the Co- operative Store in Camden-street, would be " taken over," as it is euphemistically called, by the State. To be run by whom ? who can tell ? Seizure of the Greatest Instrument of All. But this catalogue does not cover all that would be " taken over ; " although the Socialist propa- ganda is unusually reticent upon this point. The greatest of all the instruments of production, distri- bution, and exchange or, as the Duke of Argyll puts it, " the one only instrument of all production " the brain and hand of man are also to be taken captive! The citizens all have, willy nilly, to be 34 Socialism and Sense. organized, directed, and, if need be, dragooned, in the name of the Commonwealth ! That is the very pivot and essence of the Socialist scheme. No citizen will be permitted to produce goods, or to distribute goods, or to exchange goods, on his own initiative and for his own benefit. Not only is the machinery of production, distribution, and ex- change to be owned by the State the citizens them- selves are to be treated as part of that machinery ! That is really a sober and truthful way of stating the Socialist proposition. No man or woman is to be allowed initiative or permitted to follow his or her own inclination : in the work of production, dis- tribution, and exchange their respective shares will be allotted them, and will be carried out under the direction and supervision of officers appointed by the State ! In a word, not only has all the material machinery of production, distribution, and exchange to be seized and worked by the State, but the citizens themselves are all to be i" taken over " and worked as if so many machines machines "run" and regulated by some one not themselves ! The Latter-Day "Jacob's Ladder." Whether compensation is to be granted to the holders of the property so taken over, is apparently still an open question with Socialists ; should com- pensation be conceded, some would make it compen- sation in the form of what they term " consumptive values " that is, tickets entitling solely to goods, to be presented for satisfaction at some State- distributing store. But, whether with compensation or without, the State is to take over all the machinery of production, distribution, and exchange ; and the population of the State is to work this machinery under the direction and government of officers, to be appointed in a manner not yet determined ; the Socialism and Sense. 35 I workers to be duly rewarded by the presentation of warrants for commodities, under a standard of reward for individual workers not yet settled. Such, in brief outline, is the scheme of the Dreamers. By this ladder of Socialism, a latter-day sort of Jacob's ladder, " Man," that sage of Socialism, Engels, grandiloquently tells us, is to " ascend from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom," and so to develop into "the conscious lord of Nature!" All of which is very picturesque and pleasant and plausible on paper. IV. What Within the Region of " Practical Politics ? " Now, what measure of practicability is there in this Programme of the Dreamers ? Provided always you have induced in the owners of the property a consenting and reasonable frame of mind about the biggest proviso ever penned, I imagine the process of " taking over " plant and businesses by the State, though the hugest piece of work ever undertaken by man, is not, to my mind, absolutely beyond the capacity of a country so rich in administrative experience and ability as is Britain. As the Dreamers so joyfully and eagerly point out, private traders were lately " playing the game " in this particular in a most striking way. Should that tendency of speculators t6 group themselves into trusts which has been so marked a feature of the past few years develop which the last census, at any rate as interpreted by Mr. Mallock, gives us some slight reason to doubt the idea of the Socialists, so far as mere "taking over" is con- cerned, might easily enter into the region of " prac- tical politics." At any rate, the principle of just pecuniary compensation being always assumed, it would not be absolutely surprising to find Parlia- ment some day, under the influence of the communal D2 36 Socialism and Sense. spirit, resolving, in the case of manifest monopolies in vital national requirements, that as the facility to "take over" had been laidso close to its hands, it would "take hold" of certain combined businesses and work them by State servants for the benefit of the State. The number of businesses in which " syndicating " is a probable or even a possible outcome, is, however, comparatively small : for example, will you ever be likely to get a permanent combination amongst the colliery owners of this country ? and, to bring the idea still nearer home, do you think you will soon be in a position to socialize shipping ? Perhaps, as I have suggested, the State may, in the course of time, acquire a control more or less direct, as certain Continental Governments have already done, in cases of virtual monopolies, like railways and telegraphs, or manifest monopolies in raw materials, limited in area or quantity, like, say, oils or seals ; but when you pass outside of this classification, you will discover that the idea of State management or control gets absolutely clogged with complications. The Case for " Taking-Over " the Railways. Even the case for " taking over " the railways in this country a policy strongly urged by many men who are in no sense Socialists is not utterly con- vincing. A forcible case for their purchase by the State, I admit, can be presented ; and the feeling that the country ought to be in absolute control of what are now its most important high-roads may some day compel our Statesmen to effect their pur- chase in the name of the State. But all the same, two or three weighty objections to absorption by the State can be put briefly before you : Granted economies in administration from combination of systems, would the State as State benefit therefrom, or would the hundreds of thousands of employes on the railroads use their influence and power as Socialism and Sense. 37 Parliamentary voters to ensure that these economies passed to their profit in the shape of shorter hours or increased wages ? And would the travelling public and commercial firms obtain from the hide-bound autocratic officialdom of the State the same civility, the same speed, the same comfort, the same safety, and the same facilities for trade and travel justly subject as these are to criticism under the existing system as they are able under the stress of the competitive system to wrest from the companies of to-day ? Or should we find ourselves, like our Conti- nental neighbours who have experienced the mean- ing of State control or ownership of railways, " in the fire," rather than in the " frying-pan," of obnoxious and obstructive conditions ? State owner- ship might prevent undue preference ; but surely the State is strong enough to do this now, without incurring the danger of popular corruption through our Parliamentary institutions that might ensue if control was taken over by the State ? Another im- portant consideration : What would be the position of the State as owner of the railroads should another system of transit say, for the sake of vividness of presentation, aerial navigation eventually supersede the railroad ? The problem as to the railways, it will be seen, is not so easy of determination as some people would have us believe ; and a glimpse at its aspects may well increase our questionings as to the wisdom and practicability of some of the wider and huger proposals which have been so glibly and vaguely advocated during the past few years. Socialism by County-Council-dom. Before discussing in detail, for argument's sake, the wisdom and practicability ol these enormous and earth-quaking proposals, let us consider whether they even come within the range of the possible 1 38 Socialism aM Sense. Of course, we are aware that our Fabian friends don't anticipate ariy trouble whatever in " seizing the means of -production " in the name of Society. They are the "clever fellows" of Socialism, who believe that a phrase of theirs will prevent an earthquake and a resolution accomplish a ? revolu- tion. They have the card up their sleeve that will Carry the trick : Socialism, it seems, is to come Slowly and insidiously by County-Council-dom I So, at least, that delightful admixture of Carlyle- and-clay, Mr. Shaw, assures us in the "'Fabian Essays/' By the taxation of the ground-land- lords, the County Councils are to be provided with capital for the organization of industrial enterprises, and these enterprises, by the pressure of their superiority in the form of possession of public funds, are to drive private manufacturers and traders out of the market : " eventually the land and industry of the whole town would pass, by the spontaneous action of economic forces, into the hands of the municipality ; and, so far, the problem of socializing industry would be solved ! " How clever ! how easy ! Mr. Shaw. But has not your Celtic imagination caused you to reckon without the shrewdness and the fairness and the stubborn- ness of the Englishman ? Ignoring the capital to be made out of the scorn with which all vivid and vigorous Social-Democrats regard at any rate the beginnings of your so-called " Municipal Socialism " the purchase of tramways, the control of gas- works and water-works, etc., etc., which they treat as at best a cowardly and bastard kind of Socialism { we readily bow to you and your Fabian friends as sincere Socialists, acting with the fullest Socialistic intent; but universally recognised as such, is not your scheme, once disclosed, eternally damned? Anti^ Socialists maintain that whatever may be the route :by which we travel towards Socialistic Collectivism, Socialism and Sense. 39 we must ultimately reach the Clapham-Junction of Socialism, where we will be turned on to the Batter- sea siding of that re -organization of labour, with its compulsory " we-will-jpMf-you-in-your-appointed- place " programme, which is the natural and in- evitable goal of all convinced and honest Socialists ; and firmly taught this, will the average type of British constituency be ever likely to lend stable countenance to any insidious Socialistic proposal, however feasible, however tempting ? As a matter of fact, is it not already plain that you and your friends have wilfully and recklessly dealt a heavy blow at the public trust in the legitimate develop, ment of those municipal institutions from the work- ing of which within a certain range the community has so much to hope ? The Prospect of Imposing- Socialism by Stealth ? Where are the signs that Mr. Shaw and his friends are likely to succeed in imposing Social- ism upon us by stealth ? What disposition is there on the part of Borough or County Councils to go into the business of production outside the sphere now generally recognised as included in their legitimate function the supply of such common requirements and generally-needed facilities, and, it may be in addition, elevating features of common environment, as can be provided best and cheapest by communal co-operation ? Is there the slightest prospect of the London County Council seeking to open, say, a great workshop in Hackney for the manufacture of boots and shoes? or is there the slightest prospect of either the Northumberland or Durham County Councils resolving upon the es- tablishment of shipbuilding yards on Tyneside ? If they did, is it at all probable that they would be able to work them more efficiently, or more economically, or more profitably (even in the widest interpretation 40 Socialism and Sense. of the word) than boot manufactories and shipbuild- ing yards are worked to-day by private enterprize ? Has even that legitimate piece of Municipal duty, the Works Department of the London County Council, been a perfect success ? and will com- munities bear losses as readily as they welcome gains ? Have the prospects of this scheme im- proved in the slightest degree since the "Fabian Essays " were first published five years ago ? If there was an attempt on the part of any Municipal Council to start manufacturing works in frank competition, either at the expense of the rates or out of taxation of ground-rents, with works now run by private enterprize, is there the faintest prospect that the general body of the citizens would permit them to be undertaken ? It is easy to write about " the progressive nationalization of in- dustries " which means, in the Fabian sense, as we have seen, a specious, covert, and insidious piece-meal attack upon the present organization of Society ; but, as I have already suggested, does not all prospect of success for this procedure vanish with the publication of the programme ? With all developments of the spirit of Municipalisation now current, Radicals cannot fail to be in the utmost sympathy ; but you reach a plane where all such sympathy must be withheld when it is pro- posed to substitute for private initiative, enterprise, and oversight in trades and occupations of a delicate, wide-spread, and speculative character, the initia- tive, the enterprise, and the oversight of a Com- munal committee ! for that way is the railway to ruin ! Is it likely that a progressive enslave- ment will be permitted by a great and powerful people with eyes wide-awake and ears wide-open ? Are the supporters of the present system, once in- formed and alarmed as to the intentions of the enemy, likely to allow the edifice of Society to be so Socialism and Sense. 41 deliberately under-mined, and to hand over without a duel-to-the-death the keys of the all-important fortress of Individual Liberty and Imperial Prosperity. That Little Matter of Compensation. Can we be surprised if a section of Fabians prefer to fall back upon the safer card of " Evolution," and lay the flattering unction to their souls, that Socialism will surely come in by Syndicate ? These gentlemen, however, will do well to remember that even " Evolution " must have regard to ethics and the temper of mankind, of which apparently Fabianism possesses a very indifferent knowledge not, certainly, a very striking sin on the part of a small body of either vain or ambitious or bookish men and women, who, if not lacking in ability and usefulness in the collection and presentation of facts and opinions of public importance, are still young enough to imagine that they are largely responsible for the trend of the universe in these latter years ! We may gradually gather all trades and busi- nesses into " pools " and " trusts " even into one gigantic "trust" but it does not therefore follow that the stock-holders in the " trusts " or " trust" which will still signify private property, however much concentration there may have been will submissively permit non-stockholders, even though they speak in the name of the State, to enter into their labour and their wealth, and participate in the advantages thereof, especially without payment therefor, without a struggle of a terrific character ! The "takings-over" by the State which we originally discussed pre-supposed the payment of just compen- sation to present holders of the property " taken over." But the balance of evidence indicates that compensation, at any rate compensation of a really tangible character, will not be part of the Socialist plan. Without touching the question as to 42 Socialism and Sense. the whereabouts of the capital necessary for the payment of compensation, it is difficult to determine where the overwhelming advantage would come in if compensation at the customary rate were to be paid ; while the idea of the State starting afresh building new factories, making new machinery laying down new railways, launching new ships, organising trade anew when factories, machinery, railroads, ships and trade are ready to the hand may be dismissed, I think, as an idea born and bred in lunacy. No : the only feasible plan is the " taking over " of existing plant and businesses without compensation. The Socialist objection to a plan of compensation can be easily understood : an agreement to compensate, especially in the sense in which compensation is understood in England to-day, would in all probability mean the fixing around the neck of the Socialist State of a mill- stone that would for a long time at least make the last condition of the People worse than their first condition ; while the payment of compensation would create a privileged and idle class, the existence of which would strike a heavy blow at the essential principles of Socialism, and might even involve the ultimate disintegration and destruction of the State. Through the Gateway of Civil War. And if the various estates, properties, manufac- tories, and businesses are to be seized without compensation, how is the tremendous task going to get itself accomplished ? It would not be a gentle game of " bluff " in which we would then find ourselves engaged. We shall do well to grasp early in the day the fact that there would not be any sign of quiet acquiescence, or, indeed, acquiescence of any kind, on the part of those so deeply interested as holders of property and their innumerable squires and henchmen. Putting the upper and middle /li Socialism and Sense. 43. classes out of the question, how will the Socialists deal with the millions of thrifty working-class folk, who own the bulk of the 240,000,000 deposited in, savings-banks, building-societies, and co-operative stores, and the small farmers and allotment-workers owning the small patches of land which they till ? The Socialist State could not leave these good people in possession of their money to use for purposes of manufacture or trade else what would become of the whole Socialist scheme ? The utmost it could do would be to permit them to practise idleness or spend their funds upon luxuries both of which courses would be a positive danger in a Socialist State. No : disguise the fact in plausible phrase as they may, what the Socialist Party propose is, from the stand-point of existing society, highway robbery of the most outrageous kind ; and were the Socialist Party ever likely to become master of the govern- mental machine, it would at once find itself in death-grips with the strongest forces in Britain to- day. The Party of Property would have arrayed on its side not merely all the material resources of wealth, position, and power realise in a flash, if you can, what that means but also all the subtler and deeper influences emanating from the instinc- tive conservatism of the nation, and the passionate resentment and opposition which would be aroused in many disinterested minds by the conception of monumental outrage and gigantic plunder. Do all who contemplate so complacently the coming of a Socialist State understand that if it is to come within the orbit of our latter-day prophets say, within the next couple of centuries it must emerge, if it emerges at all, through the gateway of Civil War? Would the Masses Beat the Classes? And the inevitableness of Civil War being con- ceded, ask yourselves whether the Socialist State 44 Socialism and Sense. would be likely to emerge therefrom ? Set down in cold blood the forces, with their facilities, sources of strength, and resources, that would be rallied on each side in such a war, and then calmly ask yourselves, what would the end be ? Even if the Socialist propaganda should take the shape of a class-war, can we be quite sure that the masses would beat the classes, with all the influence of the Church, the Army, and the Civil Service, and all the advantages of knowledge, training, wealth, position, physique, and discipline, on the side of the classes ? It is idle, however, to contemplate class-war : in this country we have never divided-up absolutely in that fashion ; our mental and moral bias or social associations or leanings usually determine the tendencies of our sympathies rather than class- distinctions. And if it should ever come to a real battle-royal upon the question of the acceptance &f a Socialist State that is, a Socialist State founded upon robbery and maintained by slavery, as is understood to-day it is overwhelmingly probable that victory would smile upon the banners of the People in Possession after, of course, great up- roar, terrible blood-shed, and vast unsettlement. V. Bed-Rock Questions. But for the purposes of argument, let us grant that by consent or through Civil War the State has 44 taken over " all the plant and stock and businesses in the country. The question of questions remains : Assume all the machinery and plant of production, distribution, and exchange in the possession of the State : Could the State work them successfully on a {Socialist basis ? The question carries us right down to the bed-rock of human nature and the conditions of human progress. Clearly the imperative require- ment would be a human nature vastly different Socialism and Sense. 45 to that which prevails to-day ; but would that essential change in human nature be quickly forthcoming? Has Selfishness been expelled from the heart of man ? or, if not absolutely ex- pelled, are we approximately near the time when it will cease to be a factor in human affairs ? And would the absence of Self- Interest be a good thing or a bad thing from the point of view of Progress ? Taking the last point first : Of course, we all believe that the human race will some day reach a point of perfection when it will be universally recognised that Self-Interest has finished its part in the great work of Evolution ; but suppose before we attain these halcyon days Self-Interest disappeared for a season suppose, say, Self-Interest were to run off to Mars for a holiday " change of air," or were to be imprisoned for a term in the Tower by the Socialists would the world's progress be main- tained ? Without the stimulus to initiative and exer- tion supplied by Self-Interest should we not quickly be landed in a state of stagnation, with the inevitable sequel of demoralization and decline ? As to the prospect of speedily saying " farewell " to Selfish- ness, where resides the man who entertains the idea ? Must he not exist alone in a balloon which never approaches the earth ; or pass his years in attempting alone to reach the North-Pole ! Have we a Kingdom of Christs? Over all of us Selfishness exercises influence and power ; while in many men Self-Interest is so ingrained that, in the homely phrase, they aie " selfish to their finger-tips," and cannot under- stand, let alone appreciate, acts of men less susceptible to the environment. In short, Selfish- ness stalks abroad naked and unashamed ; and there is no sign of discovery of Science, or influence of Ethics, or promise of Religion, that will instantly 46 Socialism and Sense. transmute Selfishness into Self- Sacrifice. Which is had for the prospects of Socialism. For whatever may have been the incentive of the German materialists who are paraded as the prophets of the modern forms of Socialism, the supporters of Socialism in this country, it will generally be conceded, have hitherto commanded and won allegiance to it largely on the ground that, apart from its advantages, it founded its hopes of acceptance on the rights, duties, and delights of human brotherhood, elevated by Christ to the position of the highest and holiest principle of Religion. At any rate, to carry out the grand and beautiful conception in its completeness would require the existence of a kingdom of Christs ; and, without disparagement to the activity of the Churches and the vitalizing elements of the Christian religion, it will generally be conceded, I think, that the most powerful mental telescope at present in our midst has not yet brought that Millennial period within the range of human vision. The Confession of a Deputy High-Priest of Socialism. If we had needed proof that this is not an ex- aggerated view proof that the application of Socialist principles pre-supposes a condition of ; society perfectly Arcadian, a condition from which we are as distant as is the Astronomer-Boyal from the " Man-in-the Moon " it has recently been pro- vided by a sort of deputy high-priest of the Socialist Party in this country, Mr. Frederick Hammill, a 1 " Labour " candidate at Newcastle, in opposition to : Mr. John Morley : " Human nature/' Mr. Hammill promises, " will really be altered," but he is fain to confess that " human nature as it is to-day is not prepared for the full cup of Collectivist proposals." " The eternal necessity," Mr. Hammill proceeds to explain, "is a moral change in the people, and until human passion is curbed, human desire OF THE UNIVERSITY Socialism and Sense. 47 quenched, and human ambition quelled, we can accomplish little or nothing/' Not only, it seems, is " a great moral upheaval necessary/* but " it is coming, and " prodigious ! " the next Newcastle election will pave the way for it more than any event of the century ! " (Sunday Times, Dec. 2, 1894). Still, many of the orators and writers who acknowledge Mr. Hararnill as " comrade " continue to talk and write as if we are all on the eve of being despatched to the Heaven of Socialism by pneumatic- post ! These Socialist vapourings, on which the above extract casts so curious a side-light, might be amusing if they were not so pathetic- pathetic, I mean, in their proof of the folly, if not, indeed, the criminality, of those men, so- called "leaders" of Labour, who, from one motive or another, are seeking to beguile the working population of this country into the belief that if they will only trust them they will quickly find themselves with their feet on the threshold of the Golden Age ! Oh, for a philanthropist prepared to provide a political creche : " Socialist leaders watched, tended, and educated ! " Brotherly Selfishness ! Now that our Socialist friends are having forcibly brought home to them the fact that the lion-and- larub era is not yet in sight on our national horizon, strain our eyes as we may to catch a glimpse of it, it cannot surprise us to discover that many of them are shirking their foundation principles. It is true that some of them contend that the selfishness which they acknowledge afflicts and moulds the world is solely the outcome of our present economic in id social system, and that if we change the system selfishness as a factor in human affairs will disappear as a suinnier-niorning's mist dis- perses before the rising sun. Those gentlemen 48 Socialism and Sense. forget that Self-interest was rampant even when the world was young, that in fact Self-Interest has been the parent of our systems; and that an element of Christ's mission was to save poor frail humanity from the penalties attaching to the sins of selfishness. Why, one of the very writers who raise this plea actually winds up with the admission that " selfishness begotten of nature is a very proper thing, inasmuch as it inspires the individual to develop his mind, and otherwise do what he can for himself," " but not, mark you," I suppose this is a species of conscience-clause " to the detriment of his fellows." Gronlund, one of the chief literary champions of Socialism, con- fesses : " Interest, self-interest, is the foundation, the prime motor, the mainspring of our actions : so it is, has always been, and will always be ; " and some Socialists, notably the author of a recent " Utopia," are actually rushing to set up selfishness as the cardinal element in Socialism. " The whole success of the Kevolution," writes the author of " The Phalanx," "lay in its being an appeal from the selfishness of a clique to the selfishness of twenty millions of the population." Imagine to yourself British selfishness hypnotised by the mere enunciation of economic equality ! What a mira- culous picture of an assembly of wolves and tigers restrained from a revel in gore by the exhibition of a banner of " strange device !" The scheme might conceivably be accomplished on the basis of brotherly love some centuries hence; but on the principle of brotherly selfishness never ! What a hodge-podge of system and selfishness they would introduce ! "Old King Adam!" There resides in the whole human family, happily, great possibilities in the way of thoughts Socialism and Sense. 49 and deeds noble and inspiring examples of just dealing, self-sacrifice, and heroism, I readily concede to sanguine Socialists, multiply upon us amain but the very fact that these attract attention and applause proves that 4i Old Adam '' is still effective monarch of human nature, and that his sovereign sway diminishes as slowly as rock scoured away by mountain torrent. Which observation sug- gests the reflection that when Niagara's horse-shoe- fall fails to fascinate, when the caves on the American side cease to be shrouded in spray, and when the whirlpool-rapids subside into a tranquil river which the latest calculations put another 5,000 years ahead then, perhaps, we shall be able to prepare for the advent of that heaven upon earth which is to come, not by grace, but by growth ! "Millennial Manners " and the " Keir-Hardie Express." Why, proofs of the impracticability of Socialism are being constantly provided by the devotees of Socialism itself. Upon no class of men, it appears to me, have passion and prejudice so strong a hold as the men who preach the latest evangel of peace and harmony. Socialism, without question, is the half-way station to Paradise ; but when I summon up the qualifications necessary to the journey to the City of Beautiful Content by grand special " Keir-Hardie Express," I am often dis- posed to doubt whether our Socialist friends them- selves have even taken their tickets. Brotherly love ! Talk rather of brotherly jealousy and all uncharitableness ! If you can't get behind the scenes of the Socialist movement, you can get a notion of Millennial manners now and again in Justice, the Labour Leader, and the Clarion, and regularly week by week in the faithful columns of Reynolds s Newspaper. You cannot have forgotten the language of Mr. John Burns at the Battersea Socialism and Sense. KEIR-HARDIE EXPRESS. Music Hall a short time since, nor the cartoon in Mr. Keir-Hardie's paper a fortnight later, nor the cries of " traitor ! " which greeted Mr. Burns on Clapham Common and in Hyde Park during the latest Labour-Day demonstrations ; while some of you may recall how we had thrust upon us the other week the squalid disputes of the German Socialist party, mainly arising out of that trouble- some topic for Socialists, the "wages of ability/ As that distinguished Court Jester to the Socialist Party, Mr. Geo. Bernard Shaw, characteristically remarked the other day, Socialism might possibly be established if we could get rid of the Social- ists ! If it is too much to assert that while we have Socialists we will never have Socialism, at E2 5$ Socialism and Sense. least we may be permitted to affirm that Socialists will never be fit for Socialism except by and through the policy and progress of Eadicalism ! VI. Would there be a Wholesale Redistribution of Jobs ? When glancing at the many facets of Socialism, it is most important that we should early direct our attention to the influence and effects of the organizing ideal which runs like a crimson thread through all the schemes of the Socialists. After all, it is not the Collectivity so much as the Tyranny that distinguishes these which provokes the opposition of thinking men, and those artizans and business men sympathetically disposed towards the Socialist propaganda would do well to look carefully at the prospect in this particular. Many worthy folk are won to the Socialist standard by the impression that in a Socialist State they would escape from the hard or monotonous or disagreeable tasks which fall to their lot under the present dispensation, and would be enabled to satisfy to the full the craving of their natures for more varied or artistic or ennobling occupations. " Breathes there a man with soul so dead who never to himself hath said" that he is capable of performing work of greater value, im- portance, and dignity than has been imposed upon him by fate ? An expectation entertained in many minds captured by the ''wild and whirling" arguments of Socialist preachers is that the in- coming of the new era would be marked by a general measure of disestablishment and a whole- sale re-distribution of jobs ; and, the establishment of a Socialist State enacted, there can be no question that we should be nearly all found clamour- ing lor a change of occupation, of course in the direction of occupations of greater ease, or power, Socialism and Sense. 53 or distinction. But should we be likely to obtain that change of occupation ? Would you get a "Fuller Individualism?" Ask yourselves how your local John Burns or Tom Mann would be likely to respond to an appli- cation for a change in occupation, particularly if you did not happen to be a " pal " of his, or a " pal " of a 4< pal's"? "What you are after, old man," the Socialist " Boss " would probably reply, " is a ' soft job/ and that you will not get. The truth is you have got a ' swelled head ' you ' fancy ' yourself too much ! You want to spend your days drawing designs for a new High-Level Bridge ; you will be sent to do the work of a porter-pokeman on the Quay. You seek a command to write a historical romance ; :>ur work shall be to print other people's romances, ou ask to be instructed to assist in the deco- ration of the new Town Hall ; you will be accepted as a recruit to the police-force. You desire to be appointed to the foremanship of a fitting-shop ; you will have to trim coals at Howdon Dock. You pray to be commissioned to paint pictures of pretty * bits ' on Tyne and Coquet ; you will be given a place in the sanitary corps of the city. I know better than you what suits your ability and circum- stances best, and you will disobey our orders at your peril ! " It would be little use pleading that such assignment of task was contrary to the preliminary propaganda ; you would probably be told in very rough-and-ready language that the missionary-talk was " all rank nonsense ! " and that " if you didn't like it, you could lump it." Socialists urge strongly and persistently that the average man under the existing system is prac- tically in the position of a slave ; but that assertion must surely be meant for consumption among people without minds or memories. At least, the 54 Socialism and Sense. Briton of to-day possesses the power to choose his occupation ; the power to choose the town or district in which he will work ; the power to choose whom he shall serve, and the special department in which he will serve ; and the power to determine the hours he shall work, and the wages he shall receive. Whether he always exercises his power is another matter ; if he fails to avail himself of his rights and privileges, he cannot well blame the system or the State. And it is certain that he would not enjoy such a wide variety of choice if, indeed, any choice at all under a Socialist regime. A Restricted Individualism in Leisure-Hours. The parade of a fuller individualism as the ultimate cutcome of a Socialist State is calculated to beget harsh criticism, as fostering illusions in the minds of men ill-suited to bear disappointment. One simple man down Glasgow way, I note in the daily paper " run " there in the Labour interest, is sus- tained in his " struggle for life " by the belief that "the uniform-pattern scare-crow" which he treats as the evil of the present system will disappear, that " every-one will have a better opportunity of developing his own particular individuality, and that there will be full scope for all kinds of variety of human achievement ! " Poor man, I wonder how he would secure the opportunity for this mani- festation of his individuality in achievement ! As a matter of fact, would he not be daily and hourly under the absolute control and direction, in fact, under the crack of the whip, of men who would naturally conceive that they were much better judges and have a much better knowledge of his capacity and his value than himself ? And, instead of having more liberty for the expression of his individual powers, might he not actually have less than he enjoys to- day? if, indeed, he were permitted any liberty at all? Socialism and Sense. 55 All men with knowledge of the world who care to look at this matter in a clear, dry light, cannot reach, I conceive, any other conclusion than that under the Socialist system the enjoyment of the individual desire and will could only be had after the regulation day's work was over, and then not in the form of creation, distribution, or exchange which would certainly be retrogression with a vengeance ! If you want light on this aspect of the subject, you cannot do better than study the circular recently sent out, under Fabian pressure, by the Parks Committee of the London County Council, demanding to know how the employes of the Parks Committee spent their time beyond the hours paid for by the County Council. And after you have read that circular and the replies, ask yourself whether you would be likely under a Socialist system to get liberty fora " fuller individualism," especially if that individualism took the form of industry, forethought, and thrift? Even if there was perfect liberty for the exercise of "indivi- dualism " in leisure hours, would not the fruit of that " individualism " be coloured and tinged by the atmosphere of restraint in which it had been culti- vated ? You will never get Culture out of Coercion ; genius will never grow in the soil of slavery. VII. Who would be the Managers and Overseers ? Let us examinee a practical aspect of Socialism as it might present itself to workmen on an indus- trial river like the Tyne. Tacitly recognising that certain schemes paraded as Socialistic would on trial produce an instant shipwreck of Socialism, Socialists, as a rule, plead that a real Socialist scheme of organisation is at present very much " in the air " : "a practical plan will doubtless evolve itself when the proper time arrives," they tell you 56 "Socialism and Sense. with a light heart, regardless of their responsi- bility for the creation of hopes in the breasts of the labouring folk of to-day which cannot by any possibility be fulfilled, if 'they can be fulfilled at all, until many generations of men have been lowered into their graves. " Mum ! " is really the Socialist word in relation to the spirit and form in which the new organisation of labour is to be accomplished, and it is the duty of every lover of a hardly-won and highly-profitable Liberty to bring out distinctly and vividly, even with some slight exaggeration in pre- sentation, maybe, the vitally- distinguishing "mark of the beast " of Socialist re- organization, so that all classes of the community shall perceive what acceptance of current ideas may in ultimate shape involve. Therefore, for purposes of homely illustra- tion on Tyneside, let us suppose that in some fashion the State has entered into possession of all the mines, factories, shipyards, ironworks, and workshops in the land, and that we all started work under the new firm last Monday morning. Employerdom is now concentrated in the State, and we are all servants of the State. In the first place, who will direct and control us ? Mr. William Clarke, whose able and trenchant pen is placed at the service of Socialism, conceives, in the "Fabian Essays," that the knowledge and experience of the existing employers and managers would be instantly utilized. But is that likely? The Socialist case is sometimes put as Capability v. Cupidity; but where is the hope that if Cupidity were exorcised, Capability would get its reward ? In practice would not the case prove to be, Am- bition v. Ability ? Are there not thousands of men in the Socialist Movement to-day who con- sider themselves far better qualified to organize industry and administer affairs than all the employers and managers who have ever breathed ? Socialism and Sense. 57 What solid guarantee is offered that the all-important offices of direction would be occupied by the men best fitted to fill them? I grant that under the present system the " round man" is not always fit into the "round hole," that accident of position, association, or audacity sometimes determines the choice, rather than knowledge, experience, or ability ; but, as a rule, the keen self-interest of the employer assists him to scent out the people who can serve him most efficiently and economically, and the conditions which give us unfortunate selections are rapidly disappearing under the influence of the spread of education and the breakdown of the ridiculous system of social caste. It cannot be denied, either, that the present system is abun- dantly justified by its success ; no other country gives so satisfactory a product, not even in agricul- ture. Would selection of managers and over -lookers by the popular vote ensure us so satisfactory a result ? The Chances of Cajolery and Corruption. We are assured that Industry under Socialism would be simply co-operative production "under specialists elected by the popular vote." But would the " specialists " be elected by the popular vote? A "specialist" as a rule is not favoured by the qualities which make the "popular" person; and, when electing their task-masters, are not men likely to prefer candidates of the easy-going, " hail- fellow-well-met 1 ' type, rather than men of special knowledge, ability, and resource ? I have ever had great and abiding faith in the honesty and integrity of our working people ; but you put a man's honesty and good intentions to a severe strain when you Bet him to elect his own task-master ! Where would be discipline if private soldiers elected their officers ? and how would officers be likely to treat 58 Socialism and Sense. soldiers who had voted against their selection ? Note an observation by Prince Krapotkin, in the course of a letter of advice on Communistic Com- munities addressed to a Northern Committee the other day: "In the hundreds of histories of Communities which I have had the opportunity to read, I always saw that the introduction of any sort of elected authority has always been, without one single exception, the point which the Com- munity stranded upon." Is it not likely that can- vassing and cajolery, wire-pulling and corruption, would be extensively resorted to by those anxious to secure the coveted posts, with the result that men of noise and push, rather than the men of merit and modesty, would, as a rule, be placed in the offices of distinction and power ? Can we not learn a lesson in this relation from the records of Tammany Hall ? There would inevitably arise what may be described as an autocracy of officialdom ; and pro- bably out of that autocracy, especially if the nation were comfortable and complacent, would spring evils manifold more corroding and baneful than those which afflict us to-day. With this grave danger manifestly in front of the new State, it cannot surprise us to discover (see " The Socialist State/' by Professor Gonner) that the probability of the Socialist State finding its best builders in a Conservative Government of the honest, able, strong, and persistent type, rather than in such an admini- stration as would be provided by " a crude and untrained Democracy/' has already occupied the attention of serious students of Socialism. But " what price " Liberty, then ? Where would be your Liberty as a Workman? Let us take it for granted, however, that in some fashion we have been supplied with directors and managers and overseers of some kind, and thai Socialism and Sense. 59 business is in full swing : Suppose you have been drafted to work to which you are not accus- tomed, or been told-off to a job which you don't like, or been worried by a cross-grained or "nigger-driving" foreman, or been offered pay, or, rather, " reward," below what you re- gard as a fair standard all of which are strong probabilities under the new system : Where lies your remedy ? At present, you enjoy the liberty of refusal, the right to strike, the freedom and the power to seek and obtain work elsewhere. But with the State as universal master and yourself as a soldier in an industrial regiment, what will be your position ? To-day, if you quit Wallsend you may get a job at Edwards's ; if you " get the sack " at Palmer's, you may obtain a " start " at Mitchell's ; if you lose your work at Stephenson's, you may get taken on at Armstrong's without special questions asked, or any exceptional trouble whatever. But suppose you have become a mere number, " AGO " for illustration, are under regimental discipline, and have not a soul to call your own, what will be your position ? Will you be permitted to clear out of the job and betake yourself elsewhere ? May not a tyrannical or malicious "gaffer" have the power to pursue you to the ends of the earth at least, say, from Tyne to Tees and finally to wreak his vengeance upon you ? Nay, malice apart, merely ,11 incident of the system, might you not be ordered to another part of the country, altogether regardless of your own wishes, on the ground that the circumstances of the industry in which you were engaged necessitated the removal ? Is Socialistic Brutality Beyond .Conception ? These suggestions may evoke a smile, but you must not overlook the probability that business would then enter into politics in a way which would excite horror 60 Socialism and Sense. to-day. We have, in the main, got beyond the stage at which the battles between our political "Ins" and " Outs " affect business relations ; but with Socialism in full swing, the " Ins " would be in full command of all the workshops, manufactories, and business- houses in the country, and the "Outs" would be entirely at their mercy. Fierce political controversy sometimes plants a germ of malice even in the most generous and kindly natures ; and, truth to tell, there are Labour leaders of to-day whom I would not trust to deal generously with rivals if they had the misfortune to come under the leash of their lash. Capitalistic brutality we well know exists ; but is Socialistic brutality an impossible conception ? Where would be your Court of Appeal? Kemember, too, that you would have home-rule with a vengeance : the possibility of getting justice from the Central Executive would be very remote indeed. Servants of the Government to-day ex- perience a great difficulty in getting at the heads of their departments. As Mr. Spyers notes in his "Epitome of the Evidence and the Report of the Royal Commission on Labour " : " The Government employes themselves complained chiefly of the exceptional difficulty which they had in bringing pressure to bear upon their employer. It is true that they have the political power of which the Socialists made so much ; but this, they contended, does not compensate them for the relative weakness of their Trade-Union power/' Would not this difficulty be increased at least a thousand-fold if the Govern- ment were administering all the works and businesses of the country ? Of course, sanguine Socialists may offer plausible answers to questions like the above. They will tell you, for instance, that there will be no separate shipbuilding yards that they will be all concentrated in one large concern ; but would not Socialism and Sense. 61 that fact immeasurably decrease the chances of escape from disagreeable work or personal tyranny ? Can You Coerce the Commonwealth? At least, it will be conceded that discontent may arise on the part of a workman or bodies of workmen on account of tjie conditions or rewards of labour ; and it is interesting to discover in what form will exist the power of protest. Mark you, it will not then be the case of a body or bodies of workmen striking against a single employer, or even a body of employers it will be a trade or syndicate of trades striking against the entire nation. In the last resort, will malcontents be permitted to defy the State, and as a minority to snap their fingers at the decrees of the majority ? Or will the State step in with its police and soldiers and enforce obedience to the behests of the majority ? Justice may he with the strikers ; but irresistible power to enforce its will will rest with the State. As Mr. Spyers observes in the course of his summary of the evidence given before the Labour Commission : " Officialdom, with its fixed and regular salaries, cannot be frightened," and " the Government has no fear of strikes"; as Mr. Gould, a shipwright employed in the Ports- mouth dockyard, pointed out, " it would be futile to strike against the powerful arm of the Govern- ment." Mr. Keir Hardie has been crying out against the interference of the police in the Scotch miners' strike, even when they interfered only to preserve order ; what will workmen say when they interfere to compel them to return to work ? If the bureaucratic officials of the Govern- ment are in a position to give vent to a tyrannical temper to-day, what may not be the measure of their power to order and compel when all the mines, factories, workshops, and businesses of the land are under their control ? As has been proved over and 62 Socialism and Sense. over again, you can coerce Capital, but can you coerce the Commonwealth ? Don't treat the sug- gestion of strikes stopped by soldiery as a piece of imagination : don't forget that merely to enforce an Eight Hours' Act, Mr. Frederick Hammill, a leader of the Independent Labour Party, " would use bayonets if necessary!" (Interview, Sunday Times, December 2nd, 1894.) VIII. " By the Very Conditions of the Case." Of course, your Socialist friends will be quick to protest that the foregoing suggestion-sketch of Industrial Socialism in full-swing is in the nature of an absurd caricature. I am quite prepared to find myself denounced as an ignoramus of the deepest dye, and to hear you assured that no such interference with the liberty of the subject as has been there indicated, for the purpose of arresting attention, in bold outline, is for an instant con- templated. But don't you hastily accept the assurance ; rather question them pertinently and persistently upon the point. Particularly don't be deceived by Fabian Fanny's pretty ways ; Fabian tactics are occasionally clever, but (as many good Socialists sorrowfully admit) they are seldom honest. Fabian writers and speakers are experts in the preparation and distribution of sugar-candied phrases ; honied words are ever on the tips of their tongues and their pens. They are well aware that a frank disclosure of the ultimate form of organization in a Socialist State would speedily destroy all substantial hope of making converts in England ; so they deliberately resort to Fabian tactics, the chief feature of which is calculated and insinuating circulation of their principles in hazy, vapoury language. Most misty are they on the question of the manner in which the organization ol labour, which is the very backbone of industrial Socialism and Sense. 63 Socialism, is to be carried out. Indeed, the way in which Socialist writers generally shirk this crucial question or, when they venture to touch it, wriggle over it becomes positively amusing when the pursuit of it is taken up as a recreation. If you think the issue out, you are bound to perceive that by whatever route Socialists reach the goal of industrial organization, they cannot fail to come at last to a point when the whole population must inevitably come under the direction and dictation of officers of Commune or Commonwealth. Here, say, we have a whole townful of people nay, a whole countryful of people with only one employer : how, under these circumstances, is the work of town or country to be performed, except by dictation or coercion ? The number of pleasant and profitable occupations is very limited : the number of applicants for work in these occupations is overwhelming. Somebody, then, must undertake the distribution of jobs, and that somebody's distribution of jobs will practically be as unassailable as it will be arbitrary. I don't overlook the fact that there is a distribution of jobs under the existing system ; but it is a dis- tribution in which the employe has a voice as well as the employer. Under the present system, as I have already pointed out, you have absolute power to choose your town and your occupation, you have it partially in your power to select your employer and your job, and you have it entirely in your power to determine your hours and pay ; but under the Socialist system, your home, your occupation, your job, and your remuneration, must necessarily, by the very conditions of the case, be deter- mined wholly by the pleasure of officials. The Socialist^Pistol : Slavery OP Starvation. Either from knowledge ot your skill, by reason of your sympathies, or by a mere desire for ease 64 Socialism and Sense. and comfort, or a high reward, you may to-day seek a particular class of job, or, at any rate, work at a particular trade ; but under the Socialist regime there would not be the slightest guarantee that your wishes in these particulars would be respected in the faintest degree. At present, with such desires, you can push your own claims in any direction you please, you can move from locality to locality until your wishes are met, and in some trades you can secure the satisfaction of your views by setting up business on your own account. But under the Socialistic system there is no getting away from this conclusion your occupation and your job would practically be selected for you by someone with whom you would possess little, if indeed, any influence, direct or indirect, and you would have to acquiesce in the selection made for you, unless you were prepared to starve to death. Under the existing system, you may find work for all your life, as you desire, in an engine shop, where all the interests of your mind are agreeably engaged, but under the Socialistic system you might find yourself ordered off to work in a tannery ; under the existing system you may, if a steady and superior man, readily find work entirely to your liking as well as in accordance with your skill in a printing office, but under the Socialistic system you might be despatched much against your will to labour in a white-lead factory ; under the existing system, you may easily find employment absolutely suited to your ability and your tastes in a shipbuilding yard, but under the Socialistic system, you might find yourself ordered off to work in a coal-mine ; and these orders so contrary to your skill, your sympathies, and your desires -you would have to obey at peril of your life, disobedience entailing starvation. Go-operation by consent is a very fine thing; but co-operation by compulsion spells a very ugly and disagreeable fact Socialism and Sense. 65 indeed. It would be bad enough now, but with as we shall rapidly get a thoroughly educated people, it would be a thousand times more intoler- able. Where Mrs. Besant Failed. Now, the possibility, nay, the probability, of such interferences with personal liberty as these no honest Socialist will deny, though, of course, Socialists are careful not to give advertisement to the unpopular fact. Alone, I believe, amongst the Fabians at any rate, Mrs. Besant, following Mr. Bellamy, in " Looking Backward/' so far ventured to approach the subject in the " Fabian Essays " as to contemplate a rush into the agreeable occupa- tions and the avoidance of the use of compulsion which a crisis of this kind would otherwise demand by an equalisation of the comparative pleasure and repulsiveness of the various trades and occupa- tions : that is to say, a sewer-cleaner or a miner this is Mrs. Besant's classification, not mine would work a vast number of hours less every year than men engaged in more attractive avoca- tions. But Mrs. Besant failed to enlighten us as to what would happen if this method of regulating volunteering for occupations failed to work if the charm of shorter days did not drive men into the sewers and the mines and the chemical works, and they persisted in pressing into the more pleasant and profitable trades ? She hadn't the courage to advise her audience that compulsion must in that event at any rate be used to get the productive and distributive work of the country performed. Mrs. Besant naively confessed that this equalisation of advantages would be far better than any attempt to perform "the impossible task of choosing an employment for each." But again I ask, what if this Bellamy equalisation -of-advantages scheme did not work, and 66 Socialism and Sense. people persisted in seeking employment only in the favoured occupations as with a more highly-culti- vated population is extremely probable ? Would not Officialism have then to " choose an employment for each ?" What claim has Socialism upon Society if it does not mean a better organisation of labour ? But how are we to get a better organisation of labour on a different principle to the existing system unless you have an operative element behind it all com- pulsion in the last resort by means of cell or bayonet ? Surely if the Socialist scheme of organisa- tion is to be much superior to the existing system it must carry with it the power to organise and move men at pleasure, in the same way as armies are organised and moved ? Are we prepared to see our- selves put on a military basis ? Again, if " choosing an employment for each " is " an impossible task," where is the advantage of setting up a Socialist State ? As Mrs. Besant, with exceptional wisdom, observed, " A person would be sure to hate any work into which he was directly forced, even though it were the very one he would have chosen if he had been left to himself;'' but what course would be open in the ultimate to a Socialist State but to force people to perform particular pieces of work regard- less of whether they liked them or not ? If these were her best arguments, I am not surprised if Socialists are glad that Mrs. Besant has gone over " bag and baggage " from Socialism to Mahatmaism. She might well re-issue her Essay under the title, " The Impossibility of Socialism, by an Ex- Socialist." "Wage Slaves" or "State Slaves?" If the above is an accurate forecast of the position of workmen in a Socialist State, I hope you enjoy the prospect ! " Wage Slaves " the artizans and Socialism and Sense. 6 7 labourers are called to-day by our friends the Dreamers; "State Slaves" would be their desig- nation then ! What a tremendous satire the sug- gestion is upon all the past campaigns and exertions of the working-class of this country ! They go and fight for and win personal freedom ; they go and fight for and win political freedom ; they go and fight for and win trade freedom ; and when they are just beginning to enjoy the substantial profits accruing from the exercise of these hardly-won rights, they are coolly invited to place the manacles of a strict Socialistic Slavery around their wrists ! Will the British Workman be so great a fool as to accept the invitation ? Let him at least think thrice before he does so ! IX. Manacled England ! Bad as the Socialistic Slavery might be from the point of view of production, it would not, un- fortunately, stop there. Your work and your wages, as we have seen, would be settled for you by some person, probably personally unknown to you, whose appointment to the office of Master of Labour might not have secured your sanction, your vote, perhaps, having been cast for an unsuccessful candidate for the post. But that would not be all : in matters of personal inclination, pleasure, taste, luxury, aye, even needs, you might also discover yourself at the mercy of the rulers of the Socialistic State. Socialists, of course, will insist that this view, at any rate, is a ridiculous invention ; but before you so decide, think out the situation for a moment. A great card of the Socialist Party is that the rulers of the Socialist State would regulate production, and nothing could be created without their expressed assent, if not, indeed, direction. You might want to spend a 2r 68' Socialism and Sense. night at the theatre ; you might wish to possess a suit of particular cut or colour, or your wife might beseech you for a bonnet of a novel fashion, or a dress of a special pattern ; you might desire a book of certain information or peculiar opinions, or pictures of a certain genre ; you might be disposed to join with others in building a church or a chapel, or establishing a newspaper; you might crave for a peculiar kind of food or drink. But it would by no means follow that you would get your wish satisfied. Why ? Because the rulers of the State, under the pretence of regulating pro- duction, would have the power to determine that there was no need for a theatre in a particular spot,, or, for that matter, for theatres anywhere ; that it; would be foolish and wasteful to make clothes and bonnets in a great variety of patterns and fashions ; that the book or picture desired would be an unprofitable venture, even harmful to the State ; that the church, or chapel, or newspaper, you and your friends were anxious to establish, was not required by the Commonwealth ; and that the food or drink you demanded could not be procured except at a loss which could not possibly be incurred. And if the rulers of the State so determined, what could you do ? Having the direction and control of production, they would practically direct and control our lives : whether at the altar or in the library, whether in the cupboard or in the wardrobe, whether at play or at work, we would hear the galling fetters of an all-powerful State domination constantly clanking upon us ! Nobody now dreams of seek- ing to enchain human thought ; yet how glibly some folk are talking of the prospect of enchaining human will and action ! Merrie England indeed 1 Manacled England rather ! The Market Price of Liberty and Independence. Certain thinkers and writers of fine-strung natures are deeply impressed by the power of individual Socialism and Sense. 6 9 "will, caprice, and might" in determining the course of events to-day : but would the disappear- ance of the " will, caprice, and might " of the individual employers of to-day compensate us for the loss of liberty in all the essentials of life on the part of the people at large ? After all, we must JOHN 1KLL IN A SOCIALISTIC STATE. pay a certain price for Freedom : like most things, it has its market value. You can't enjoy Liberty and Independence " without money and without pricr." And all manly Englishmen will have no hesitation in deciding that the article is well worth the price! 70 Socialism and Sense. " Alliteration's Artful Aid " in Political Economy ! But these mere glimpses of Socialism in the ideal and Socialism at work have left unnoticed the vital objections to it as an anti-progressive force : in a phrase, Socialism, as it is understood to-day, is a fell disease. I guess the arrows of epigram and anger that can be righteously shot at Competition in some of its present aspects : we may be told, for illustration, that Kivalry signifies Eapacity and Com- petition Cannibalism; but, on the other hand, I have a stronger feeling still that Dreams mean Death. There is much that is just and weighty in the Socialist indictment of Competition, which the Dreamers regard as the bane of life ; and, as I hope to indicate later, Eadicalism must bestir itself to remove as far as possible the more wasteful and uglier aspects of it. But, despite the defects of its qualities, we cannot help concluding that Competi- tion is as unassailable as the Pyramids. It is of the very pith of healthy life, whether individual or national, and the least competitive, as you will see not only in the careers of men but also in the history of countries, is generally also the least advanced. Competition really spells Civilisation. Conditions of Competition. Competition is denounced as " the blackest animalism/' and when we view it from any special or restricted stand-point (say, when contemplating the fierce struggles for work which used to take place at the gates of the London Docks) the temp- tation is great to so stigmatise all competition. It is a hard thing to suggest, but even in the role of " blackest animalism" may not Competition be simply fulfilling an end of Nature ? As the weak races of the earth disappear before the strong, Socialism and Sense. 71 may it not be ordained that the weakest members of the strongest races shall go down in their turn before their stronger brethren ? The law of the "survival of the fittest" is always a hard and cruel law, but none the less, it is to be feared, is it an unchanging and eternal law. But in a civilised State and especially in a Chris- tianised State that is, if Civilisation and Christianity be not as a veneered surface to savagery the " blackest animalism " phase of Competition must gradually be modified to a minimum, if it cannot be eliminated entirely. As Mr. Mill showed, Custom has long been in operation on this line ; Charity has done much in the same direction ; and Conscience will " play up " splendidly in this spirit in the future. A perception of Justice as an ever- victorious force will more and more become a tangible factor, a factor which even the " intelligent vultures" of Professor Gonner'sbook will not be able to ignore ; and Humanity also will have a word to say in the way of softening the struggle in the first place, by the inculcation of the beauty and the profit of self-sacrifice, and ultimately, it may be, in the form of the calm and convincing counsel of Courts specially set up for the purpose by the community. The State will more directly intervene in the role of Public Conscience and as guardian of the highest interests of the Commonwealth, which are specially involved in the national standard of living ; whilst individual selfishness will more constantly dilute itself with doses of self-sacrifice. The con- ditions of Competition must inevitably tend more and more towards equality ; and the principle of treating in a large-minded and large-hearted way the defeated and the down-trodden in the combat of Competition as helpers to victory, as participators in degree in the creation of the country's pros- perity, must rapidly find recognition alike in 72 Socialism and Sense. private relationships and public legislation and administration. The duty of our Statesmen in this particular is (primarily) to open the portals of Competition wider and ever wider, by seizing every opportunity that presents itself to make the conditions more equal, to remove from it every sign and suggestion of monopoly, and to seek, so far as law and public sentiment can attain such an end, that every transaction between man and man shall be stamped with the hall-mark of Equity and Justice ; and (secondarily) to pass measures, which, while interfering in no way with true, fair, and legitimate Competition, will " give the whip" to the men who either play with loaded dice or practice savage methods of warfare, which will mitigate to the uttermost certain harsh and wasteful features of Competition, and which will ensure that the aged and wounded soldiers of Industry shall not suffer unduly from "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." The Future of Competition. Competition true, fair, free Competition, as we all hope will remain with us when many another hoary and cherished institution has had duty-com- pliments paid it in the Obituary columns of the Press. Indeed, one is sometimes inclined to decide that Competition is still mantled with the blush of Youth. As education extends and enfranchisement develops in this country, the intensity of Competi- tion is bound to increase ; while if we venture to glance at it from the International point of view, we cannot fail to conclude (however painfully the con- clusion may affect us as patriotic Britons) that Competition as between the nations is as an infant finding its feet. We may have more of competition by syndicate, but it will be competition still ; we Socialism and Sense. 73 may get more of competition by groups, but competi- tive selfishness it will still be. We all trust that Com- petition will in time " throw off the brute/' but the Battle of the Brains will probably become all the severer in consequence. Men may be growing more generous in the distribution of the fruits of their success in Competition, but they are bound to grow and are really growing teener than ever in the war of wits. Which fact is from the point of view of Society highly satisfactory. Brains will be exercised in the way best fitted to bring to fruition in their utmost capacity the power with which the Creator invested them, and the world will get the benefit thereof. The author of " Merrie England " has affirmed that " Competition is detrimental to Pro- gress ; " but can you, as men of the world, come reasonably to any other conclusion, after calm, un- biassed thought, than that Competition is really the prime motor of all Progress ? We acknowledge, of course, that Competition entails a great waste of power ; but may not that very waste be in large part only the production-cost of Progress ? Stress of competition compels to a cudgelling of the brain, and is provocative of those experiments through which, and only through which, we get these economies in production that are ultimately a blessing to the consumer, who is often blessed whilst cursing. In the fashioning of the perfect article, there must inevitably be waste ; and Com- petition is practically the purge of Progress. There could not fail to be "waste" in Socialism; but would it be likely to be of so healthy and profitable a kind ? Many of our Socialist friends, as we have seen, fly the flag of Evolution : is not Competition a birth-pang of Evolution ? You can't jump chasms in Civilization, any more than young Cuthbert Lambert's horse was able to jump the historic 74 Socialism and Sense. " Lambert's Leap" at Newcastle; and I am afraid that, although we may every now and again manage to revise the handicap weights, it is not possible for us to reach the Era of Evolution in any other way than by racing along the regular and appointed course of Competition. The Life-blood of the Universe. Socialist writers can't shake off the impression of the everlasting character of Competition, but insist that it must be lifted to a higher plane : men are to compete for honour in the courts of art, science, and literature. But surely what is good for one depart- ment of life must be at least equally good for an even more important department of life? The truth is that Competition, after all. is the life-blood of the universe, and it is folly to shower terms of opprobrium upon the exercise of faculties of man which find for a period at least their natural and legitimate vent in Competition. Even if we became a Socialist State it is extremely probable that we would be driven to become a competitor with other countries for the trade of the world ; one Socialist scheme which engaged the sympathy of Socialists a few years ago clearly entailed competition amongst groups, while a proposal published a few weeks ago evidently contemplated competition between localities ; and so deeply is the spirit of Competition implanted in man that it would not be surprising to find it after a very brief suspension under a Socialist regime bursting all bounds, whatever the penalty. While man remains unconverted to the idea that his physical or mental advantages were con- ferred upon him merely that he might share the fruit of them equally with his less fortunate fellows, Competition clean, equal competition, with fair consideration for the luckless competitors is the Socialism and Sense. 75 Ibroad-guage of Justice: as Mr. Mill maintained, high wages are as much a product of competition as low wages : it secures for superior knowledge, or talent, or skill, or patience its proper reward and it must surely prevail. While mental and physical inequality exist as they must ever exist, I imagine we must have inequality of per- formance ; and in these days of increasing mental and physical education, our working men, especially as the guardians of the rights of their children, should be the last persons in the world to throw away the chance of earning the full and fair wages of mental and physical advantage that the principle of Competition so clearly confers upon mankind ! The National Value of " Giants " and " Gladiators." Good men, worthy of all respect, are apt to speak somewhat scornfully of giants in business and gladiatorial methods in commerce ; but where would e have been as a nation but for our giants and our gladiators ? Its original force and weight still attaches to Adam Smith's observation concerning he capitalist, " led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention : " "By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of Society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it ; " and it may be that in these days we cast contempt upon capitalists when we ought to be sympathetically regarding them as men who build more wisely and broadly than they know. Content, placidity, and restraint are words of ill-omen when the future of a race is under discussion ; and if the signs of the times are to be read in the sense of still severer Competition awaiting the nations of the world, we may soon be only too glad as Britons to recognise and rejoice over our posses- sion of giants in production and gladiators in commerce. II a II 76 Socialism and Sense. XI. Not Work-and-Work Alike, but Share-and-Share Alike. The Dreamers acknowledge that there must be some stimulus to exertion : in a becomingly mild manner, they talk of the sovereign virtue of emulation, and proclaim honour and esteem as the all-sufficing rewards for men of action. According to orthodox Socialism, there is to be no special wage for ability apart from honour and public esteem, ability is to be its own reward. As one of the ablest of the writers quoted by Socialists, Mr. Hobson, observes, in his work on "The Evolution of Modern Capitalism/' " no two individuals are precisely similar in physical, intellectual, or moral nature," but under Socialism all are to be treated as if they were precisely similar. Not merely has no man to suffer on account of his weakness ; but no man is to be permitted to benefit from his strength. It would not be work-and-work alike ; but it is to be share-and-share alike ! According to orthodox Socialism, as I have said, whatever their ability or their services, their material reward is to be alike : Socialistic bread-and-cheese is to be their legal wage ; public esteem is to be, as it were, their dessert, and popular " Hosannas ! " their coffee and cigarettes. As if individual fame were likely to come the way of millions of workers ! Or as if the men who think and work in the cause of the People to-day are the men who always gain honour and applause ! Con- ceive yourself, on going up to the office to receive your wages on Friday night, finding in your box as your wages, first a ticket conferring upon you the right to receive the same measure of goods as a man who had done half the work you had performed, and then a certificate expressing in degrees of fame merely the other half of your week's work ! Would you feel in a satisfied frame of mind ? No : Socialism and Sense. 77 Current coin of the realm, I am afraid, must be 3ver the pay of the common-place ; fame can only DC the pay of the few. The Principle of Need and the Platform of Need. Probably, if you could divide your population into two States one composed of people to whom fame is all-sufficient recompense, and the other composed of the folk with whom mercenary reward is an essential of life the Socialistic system might possibly work in the State of Fame ; but the States, I am afraid, would be of very unequal proportions, and "the balance of power" would in all probability quickly fall to the side of the State left with rem- nants of human nature sufficient to appreciate inequality of reward and the product of a national mint. But such a scheme would compel the enlistment of a body of skilled phrenologists to put those whose " bumps" of " love of approbation " are strongly developed apart from those whose " bumps" denote keen "acquisitive- ness" to separate, in short, the sheep from the goats ; and Socialism by Phrenology, I conceive, is not yet a feasible plan. Socialism by Brotherly Love and Duty, I fear, is equally impracticable. The idea of a standard of reward according to capacity and needs which one section of Socialists propound and fight for can hold attention only for a moment : upon it you ask, as Mazzini asked, "Who is to be the judge of the capacity and the wants of the individual ? " What, for illustration, would be the nature of the reception accorded to the proposition that a man should be paid wages in proportion to the size of his family r the bachelor without encumbrance receiving the minimum pay ? 1 fancy they could give you a ready- made answer to that question in some colliery villages, where young men are reported to have 78 Socialism and Sense. shown on various occasions a great lack of consider- ation for the position of the married and older men amongst them. How would the skilful workman like the notion of being paid the same wage as the stupid workman ? the hard-working man the same wage as the lazy, " miking" fellow? In short, on looking around, you are bound to forsee any amount of brotherly jealousy and squabbling, and discontent gradually developing into Mutiny. If men were to be rewarded on the principle of Need, you would soon, I am afraid, have the great mass of the popu- lation advertising themselves as on the platform of Need ; and upon well-nigh universal clamour and intrigue there could not fail to follow dis- appointment and disaster dire ! "Vineyard" Principles in the Twentieth Century. Most remarkable is the " school " which proposes that workers shall be paid on the basis of ' ' labour- time" that is to say, mental ability, manual skill, or physical exertion shall not count only the time spent in actual labour ! The wonder is that no " school " has proposed to enact a statute to-day severely limit- ing the expressions of mental and manual ability and the manifestation of physical exertion ! With time spent in labour as the only basis of payment, without risk of dismissal for laziness, what motive would there be for the exhibition of inventiveness or skill, or mere interest in work, or even for the expression of simple physical power ? Would not such a basis of payment be an absolute premium on dawdling ? And with laziness and " scamping " on the part of a large body, and a value of every article determined, not by its real worth to a purchaser, but by the time it took a lazy man to make it, what but quick bankruptcy could be the fate of the State ? Apparently, there is no end to the idiocies to be discovered in Socialistic Socialism and Sense. 79 literature ; and the student of Socialist ideas and schemes will soon find himself the victim of a literary nightmare even Herr Bebel himself con- fesses that the visions with which he is troubled are apt to make you " giddy even to think of ! " Amid these multifarious proposals, one cannot, after all, withhold the tribute of respect from those whole- souled Socialist-Communists, like that veteran school-master of many Labour leaders of to-day, Mr. Morrison Davidson, who take their stand on Christ's vineyard parable, in which every labourer, whatever his capacity, or whatever his "tale" of work, was paid a penny for his day's work ; the strength of the strong being in this way distributed amongst the weaker brethren. This is a beautiful idea ; but, like many other charming conceptions, utterly impractic- able " here below." What would be said to-day, or even a century hence, if Palmer's resolved to pay their " helpers " as much as their " platers/' or the Elswick Company their "machine-men" as much as their " fitters ? ' Many trades-unions insist that their members shall be paid the same wage, what- ever their capacity, whatever their product; but they would fight to the death against a proposition that their labourers should be paid the same wages as themselves. Present-Day Side-Lights on Socialism. By the way, two very interesting side-lights on this aspect of Socialism recently came to hand. The first side-light was contained in a newspaper report from Paris : " The mine of Monthieux in Northern France was found by the company which owned it to be so unprofitable to work that the works were on the point of being closed, when the miners suggested that they should be allowed to try their fortune on the co-operative plan. The directors consented, and the mine was worked with such energy and success 80 Socialism and Sense. that disaster was turned into triumph. But what happened then ? The auxiliary workmen called in to aid the original co-operators naturally asked for their share of the profits. They said to the miners : ' You are Socialists : you will not object to divide the property with us ' ' Oh, no,' was the reply, ' we are the owners of the mine, and you are only our servants at a weekly wage/ So the Socialists of Monthieux are now transformed into full-blown capitalists and champions of proprietary rights." The next side-light is to be found in the Keport written by the British Government's Eepresentative in Paraguay upon the failure of " New Australia," the very latest Socialist Utopia : " The intention to consider each person's work, however different it might be in character, so far the same as to be entitled to an equal division of the remaining wealth production, without any regard being paid to sex, age, office, or physical or mental capacity, did not produce the satisfactory results expected, even as to the amount of work accomplished, nor did it offer such inducements as to prevent members from leaving the Colony so soon as they found the means to do so," Where, indeed, are we to get the veriest glimpses of that change in human nature which is, in the language of Mr. Godkin, to "make us all wise, just, industrious, and self-denying ? " Do not these incidents prove that for once Mrs. Besant was right when in her debate with Mr. Foote she ad- mitted, ardent Socialist as she then was, that "So- cialism will not at once quite alter human nature?" A Hard Nut and a Vital Question. The difficulty here presented is a hard one to over- come for the Socialists. Here is a case which many Socialists shirk : Is John the master-builder to be paid the same as Pat the hodman ? or is he to have the wages of ability and experience ? If he is to Socialism and Sense. iave the wages of knowledge and ability, what be- comes of the equality which is declared to be the cardinal principle of Socialism ? If ability and expe- rience is not to be considered in the wage, are you likely to get men of ability and experience to serve you ? Upon no point are Socialists more divided, I conceive, than upon this vital point. The balance of my own reading and inquiry points to an ack- nowledgment of the necessity of recompensing men according to their ability, experience, and exertions ; but according to the very latest " Handbook of Socialism," by a Socialist, equal pay is the line of true justice, and "the problem of getting the best men into the places of organizing ability and trust" is to be met, not by offering higher pay, but "by giving them (a far more effectual motive) higher honour ! " It would be a great gain if the Socialist Parties would summon up courage to settle this all- important question equality or inequality of re- munerationonce for all. Remember that this is a question which touches the very founda- tions of the proposition that the British State should transform itself into a Socialistic State ; for if the Socialistic State could not obtain the services, at any rate the free-hearted and willing services, of men of experience and ability, the transformation, whatever the . hopes it inspired, could not fail to bring in its train colossal calamity ! Yes, this proposal to average ability with incompetence is the steepest hurdle in the whole field of Socialism, and it demands a still closer portrayal of its great absurdity and danger. Those Socialists most in touch with the world appear to recognise that inventors and scientists, captains of industry and skilled artisans, artists and literary teachers, will have to be paid in some form on a higher basis than the rank and file ; but others are almost fanatically persistent in main- 82 Socialism and Sense. taining equality of material reward, as distinct from honour and esteem, as the essence of the new system. Indeed, certain coteries of Socialists really treat Ability as they treat Capital, as a mono- poly to be ever viciously attacked, and if possible brought humbly to the heel of Labour. The Socialist Quarrel with the Aristocracy of Ability. This assuredly is a crazy line to take at a time when Ability is just about to enter upon the threshhold of its long-postponed reign. At present, in the words of a confession by Mr. Bernard Shaw, " the capitalists and the labourer run helplessly to the able man," and both forces are destined to do so more and ever more so in the future. Yet at this juncture, on the " abstract justification/' as one of its defenders has styled it, that " the special ability or energy with which some persons are born is an unearned increment due to the influence of the struggle for existence upon their ancestors/' certain " schools " of Socialists have determined that if their will and pleasure shall ever take effect, the possessor of ability whether superintending manufacturer or simple mechanic, artist or artizan, merchant- adventurer or literary teacher shall, whatever the nature of the work, be paid the same wages, say, as a builder's labourer, a railway porter, or a watch- man. Such a creed as this may, perchance, catch the votes of the unthinking and credu- lous section of the labouring classes, but what about the future of the country ? What if the able men refused to work on the Socialistic terms ? Who, then, would do the inventing, the finding work, the directing, the superintending, without which mere labour is largely helpless ? And if these functions were not fulfilled because there was nobody to fulfil them, where would the country come out ? Oft-times, as your experience in these Socialism and Sense. 83 days has no doubt taught you, a change of management in a manufacturing or trading con- cern means all the difference between loss and profit ; and, as you also know, it is our inquiring men, our scheming men, our clever men, who, if they do not absolutely enlarge needs, at least open new markets, work our businesses with the greatest economy and efficiency, and provide us with the means of supplying all markets in the way best calculated to keep us supreme in them. Now, ask yourselves, as you know men and things to-day, do you really believe that you would be likely to secure the requisite experience and ability and audacity if you were to pay and treat the possessors of it as you paid and treated the ignoramuses, the dolts, and the fools of the country ? And if you bring knowledge and ignorance, ability and ineptitude, energy and loafing, on to a common level, and abolish the present all-powerful incentives to initiative and action, what but Catastrophe huge and abiding can come upon the State ? Incidental Touchstones of Socialism. Incidentally : There appears to be no general dis- position amongst Socialists to realise that liberty to idle and an environment of luxury and ease the surroundings of library, lawn, elegant furniture, articles of vertu and pictures, and the help of servants are sometimes necessary to the production of the works of art and literature and achievements in science which charm and profit mankind to-day. The spirit which animates many of them, too, is to be traced in the answer made by one of their literary leaders to a question as to the means by which the disagreeable work of our sanitary departments is to be accomplished, work which even Plato con- templated casting on a special caste of slaves the answer being that the method adopted may o2 84 Socialism and Sense. well be that pursued in the Army, where each man takes his turn at this kind of labour ; though in the Army the officers, of course, don't participate. Well, now, I put it to you : will pride of intellect have been so humbled, will majesty of muscle have become so meek and mild, even by the Twenty-First Century, as to give so unsavoury and tangible a proof of the perfect equality of man and the thorough triumph of Christianity ? Another " Mayflower " Expedition ? But to return to the vital point of management : Can you really persuade yourself, as the Socialist agitator would persuade you, that on a given date all desire for mercenary reward and comfortable living would suddenly drop out of the minds of the men of experience, ability, and enterprise then running our various manufactories and businesses, much in the same way that the debris of the Tyne drops out of the bottom of the hoppers associated with your river-dredgers when they have been towed out to sea beyond the three-mile limit ? Does not the Co-operative system sensibly suffer to-day from its indisposition to give fair wages to ability and experience, its tea-tasters, for illustration, frequently throwing up their offices with their salaries of about J6300 per annum for posts with salaries of about ,1,000 per annum offered by private firms ? Under Socialism with its enormously-increased areas of management and consequent responsibility the necessity for able men as directors and superin- tendents would be even greater than it is to-day. But would the able men be willing to abandon the higher standard of living, with its luxuries and pleasures, which their ability at present enables them to secure for the benefit of themselves and their families, and at the command of a Socialist State consent to nourish their bodies and brains Socialism and Sense. upon " fame," as upon a species of " frame-food ? " and more important still would they be content to have themselves, their wives, and their children placed on the same physical level as their lowliest labourers and their families ? Mark you : I am not here discussing the virtue of equal treatment ; I only ask you to consider the possibility of equal treatment. And would not these men of experience, ability, and enterprise be still less likely to acquiesce in such a scheme of treatment if they found them- selves " bossed " by men of no experience or ability in the special line of manufactures or business con- cerned, particularly if these were men who had succeeded in getting themselves placed in the commanding positions by means of "back-stairs" influence with men in power, or by means of a seduction or manipulation of the vote of an angry or hungry populace ? As that versatile Fabian, Mr. Shaw, wrote in relation to the recent appoint- ment of Licenser of Plays. " to be controlled by a nobody is vexatious and impertinent tyranny ! " and of all men, men of experience, ability, and enter- prise in business are least likely to submit to such a tyranny. Would not the effect be to drive most men of experience, talent, and independence to give the help of their brains and hands to the building up of other countries, probably younger and more enterprizing countries, across the seas ? In short, would not we be likely to witness another Mayflower Expedition ? XII. Danger from the Daisy-and-Butter-Cup Party. I can understand the literary Dreamers : The Daisy-and-Buttercup Party, with its rural delights, its merrie gambols round the maypole, and its lyrics of love at even-tide ; and the Reading-and-Research 86 Socialism and Sense. Culture-and-Art Party, with its intellectual pursuits, its scientific problems, and its artistic pleasures : parties oblivious of the probability that under Social- ism they would be unable to resort to the woods after the manner of Thoreau, without leave sought and obtained from the Labour-Generalissimo of their district, and that life would lose much of the variety and colour which at present make it interesting and zestful, but parties with healthy and honourable, though probably in the main (in effect, if not in intention) unprogressive aspirations. But I am half afraid that these parties, if they are not the sign, may be made or become the servants of the spirit of Decadence to which, as the century runs to its close, we shall find the copy-clutching jour- nalist give a still wider and freer advertisement. That the flower of Decadence exists in our midst there can be no question, and, if we give it any encouragement, there can be as little question that its seed will quickly cover the whole land. " Bohemianism " and Socialism. It is not easy to forget because there is so large a measure of truth in it Kobert Louis Steven- son's generalization upon his intercourse with second- cabin humanity in the course of his famous Atlantic voyage in the role of emigrant : " It is not sufficiently recognised that our race detests to work." Yes, " Bohemianism" is a factor (a growing factor too, I fear) which so far has not been adequately reckoned with in this country. If we are to " come oat on top," " Bohemianism" in the sense of pure laziness must be resolutely discouraged wheresoever it shows itself. No student of the agitation, I should imagine, can get away from the impression, whether the subjects of it be conscious of it or not, that a desire to diminish, if not entirely to escape from, the accustomed burden of labour, Socialism and Sense. 87 and to live lives of ease and comfort, accounts to a considerable extent for the dimensions of the present Socialist movement. Indeed, Mr. Belfort Bax freely confesses that " to the Socialist labour is an evil to be minimised to the utmost." Socialism to these gentlemen signifies sleep the sleep of death. They don't at all resemble your 44 Grand Old Man," Mr. John Foster Spence, who, in the spirit which has built up the character for in- dustry and independence which distinguishes the North Country, said the other day on the occasion on which you paid him such richly-merited honour, 44 If I had not work, I would have to have my coffin ! " The strongest ally of the Socialists is Human Indolence, and if, as a Northern writer has pointed out, the Socialist doctrine that 44 Indolence deserves equal reward with Industry " finds general acceptance, Gibbon of the future may reasonably start upon the opening chapters of the " Decline and Fall of Britain. 1 ' " Stomach OP Soul ? " The truth is that in this aspect, as in other aspects of the question, our friends fail to make sufficient allowance for the idiosyncrasies of human nature. They don't seem to have yet mastered the greatest of human facts, that if the average man feels comfort- able, he will only do that which is most attractive and pleasing to him ; and it is beyond question that the idea of activity and exertion is unattractive and displeasing to a vast number of people. Why, even so 44 live " and earnest a man as " Nunquam " has confessed that he is ' ' constantly halting between duty and inclination ; " and the greatest evil and danger of our time I conceive to be the desire of great masses of men and women in all grades of society to "slide" through life without responsibility and trouble. In essence, this controversy comes 88 Socialism and Sense. down to the issue : " Body or Brain ? Stomach or Soul ? " and it is greatly to be feared that if this issue were to be left to-day to the population en masse, the verdict of the majority in fact if not in words (for in many of us there is good intention, but feeble execution) would be given in favour of the pursuit of the grosser rather than the nobler things of life. Are there not thousands of men in the North here who are content if they can loiter at a street corner with " sixpence and a fobful " in their pockets ? and is not the absolute indifference of a great propor- tion of the labouring classes to the means of self- culture and grace the pain and despair of the best and most active friends of the working population ? I am not asserting that other grades of the popula- tion are different in this particular I have good reason to believe that they are not ; but the working- class constitutes the vast majority of the popula- tion. There exist substantial reasons for doubting the soundness of the Socialist expectation of halcyon days, when men shall work little and want none ; but I maintain that it is reasonable on the part of students who have some regard for the lessons of heredity and environment to entertain the fear that should the Socialist promise be fulfilled the land to vital ills will quickly fall a prey. The " Slide " to the Pit of National Decay. As our latest social philosopher, Mr. Kidd, has pointed out in an admirable sentence of summary of history: " In the great civilisations that have developed and declined, the social ideal of what- ever class into whose hands power has fallen has nearly always been to obtain the highest possible standard of ease and comfort with the least exertion for the largest 1 possible proportion of their number ;" and surely it is not empty rhetoric but sound sense to suggest that should men learn by Socialism and Sense. 8 9 irience that their lives and work are the special care, not of themselves, but of a conglomeration of citizens called " the State ; " that should men be taught by experience that by a few hours' work per day they can get all things for which the stomach craves and the body appeals ; that should men realize by experience that if they are mechanically regular and indifferently careful in the perform- ance of their task-work, their own physical wants and the physical wants of their families will be supplied perpetually ; that should men, in short, discover by experience that if they will consent to descend to the level of the domesticated animals, they will be fed as liberally and treated as comfortably as the dog or the horse or the cow the sense of physical comfort will over- come us as a nation as it often overtakes us individually to-day, will and intellect will cease to find exercise, sensual indulgence will make the 4 'numbering of the people" an enormous and ominous task, and the population will rapidly slide down the easy gradient of ripe content to the foetid pit of national decay : in a phrase, we shall become like over-fed sows, and we shall wallow in our mire until some more alert race come along and kill us and eat us up. A Giant Contract. However we may dislike it, it is the " struggle for life " which is the essential spur to success, alike amongst men and amongst nations. Competition it is which acts as a sharpener of the wits and helps to speed on the plough of Progress. The people who insist that the secret of perpetual motion has not yet been discovered make a grand mistake : individual rivalry it is which keeps the world of achievement spinning round, whether men like it or not. Th> history of Civilization is really go Socialism and Sense. the history of our gradual emergence from a con- dition of Socialism, from the tribal and commu- nistic form of society. Are we to march away from our painfully -won achievements back to our original starting point ? Are we to confess that all modern tendency the outcome of strong conflict with many natural obstacles and difficulties has been a terrific mistake ? Has it not been well said, " But for selfishness we would have been savages still?" I believe that the natives of New Guinea are pure and simple Communists, but they are savages still. Competition, in fact, is engaged in fulfilling a big contract in Evolution : it is engaged in the making of Man ; and as the standard of the Creator is sublime, the giant job is very far from being finished. The Case for Competition. Over some aspects of Competition let us say, certain excrescences of Competition we cannot fail to grieve and protest, and, if the circumstances per- mit, take legislative action; but what man with brain and soul can fail to be in love with the imagination and originality, the initiative and the enterprize, which the genuine spirit of Competi- tion begets ? Under Socialism, for illustration, we would lose the tremendous advantage of individual initiative. Think for a moment what that means : Nobody could do anything off his own bat, at least in the wide domain of production, dis- tribution, or exchange. Every scheme, small as well as great, would have to be submitted to a com- mittee, or at least to some other person, probably an unsympathetic or jealous person, before it could be attempted ; and the abnormal caution and red-tape which are common to public-service officials and committees, by the delay and the loss of directness of purpose they would entail, would in most in- Socialism and Sense. 91 stances dispose of the idea of enterprise and human interest in association with the matter. Have in- ventions or discoveries, or, indeed, ideas of any kind ever emanated from a committee as committee ? Why, this Socialistic agitation is its own condemna- tion ! We owe it entirely to individual initiative and enterprise. Pawns on the National Chess Board. Really, when you come to picture the figure like to be cut by Individuality in the Coercive Common- wealth of the Collectivists the project becomes quite pantomimic in its possibilities. Let us view a few striking examples, general and local : Imagine that INDIVIDUALITY UNDER THE COERCIVE COMMONWEALTH. Mr. John Bums. Mr. Frederick Hammill. Mr. T. Mann. Mr. Passmore Edwards. Mr. Joseph Cowen. Mr. W. T. Stead. 92 Socialism and Sense. volatile man of active brain, independent mind, and strong will, Mr. Passmore Edwards, the owner of at least one journal given over to the circulation of Socialistic opinions, placed at the orders and working under the direction of Mr. John Burns ! Or con- ceive that very Imp of Individuality and the very Epitome of Enterprise, Mr. W, T. Stead, who cannot be suspected of flirting with Socialism, having to take the instructions and labour at the dictation of Mr. Thomas Mann ! Again : Imagine Mr. Joseph Cowen " under the harrow " of Mr. Frederick Hammill ! or Dr. Spence Watson " living and moving and having his being "' according to the wisdom or folly of Mr. Pete Curran ! Or conceive your great local inventors, Lord Armstrong or Mr. Swan, working under the direction, criticism, and coercion of a Collectivist Committee elected by universal suffrage ! These suggestions, I grant, are comic enough; but, after all, they present Socialism in one most important aspect in essence. For no amount of plausible explanation will ever get rid of the fact that Private Judgment and Individual Liberty would disappear under the necessary Coercion of Collectivism ! As Mr. Cowen himself said in his latest speech: " The bent of current teaching is to treat man as a machine." Dr. Schaffle put the case too weakly when he defined Socialism as "Equality for all and Individuality for none : " it would really be Autocracy for the few and Slavery for the many. Nine-hundred-and- ninety-thousand men out of every million of our Population would become mere pawns on the Chess- Board of National Life ! If there had been Power to Muzzle Adventure ! Let us test the effect of the Socialist scheme on Enterprise by two or three local illustrations : Suppose Sir Charles Mark Palmer could have been Socialism and Sense. 93 prevented by some official or committee of officials from quitting the manufacture of glass to start the building of iron ships, would Ecclesiastical Jarrow have been transformed and developed into Industrial Jarrow, and would iron-shipbuilding have been the mainstay of the population on the banks of the Tyne that it is to-day ? As a matter of fact, it is on record that although the practicability of change from wood to iron had been repeatedly proved in the previous half-century, " the distrust and opposition which this great change met with from the public, and even from a large section of ship-owners and builders, hindered its development for many years " in fact, until men of foresight and enterprise and determination like Charles Mark Palmer risked reputation and fortune on the adventure. Again : Suppose Lord Armstrong could have been prevented by some official or committee of officials from giving effect to his wish to quit the lawyer's office in Newcastle to betake himself to the designing and manufacture of hydraulic-engines and the invention and making of guns, would the world-renowned Elswick Works have had an existence to-day ? Again : Suppose Mr. Carl Bolckow and Mr. Tom Vaughan had had to obtain the assent of some official or committee of officials before undertaking the search for iron-stone in Cleveland and establishing iron-making furnaces on the banks of the Tees, would Middlesbrough have been the busy seat of the great iron industry ? Once more : Suppose the genius of George Stephenson and the far-seeing enterprise of Edward Pease could have been permanently " sat upon " by some official or committee of officials, would the Railway System have been the marvellous and vital feature of our civilization it is to-day ? As it was, the initiation of the system was considerably hampered through the necessity of obtaining the sanction of Parliamentary 94 Socialism and Sense. Committees to cross lands of prejudiced persons, and it is matter of history that a considerable period elapsed after the feasibility of railways had been proved " before the public at large could be stimu- lated to give any heed to the subject/' And so on in relation to all kinds of enterprizes, small as well as great, which we owe to individual inception and development. Is Individual Enterprize to be Extinguished? It is easy for Socialists to maintain to-day that the required consent to these enterprizes would have been readily obtained ; and it is still easier to swear that there can be no doubt that such assent would be instantly given to-morrow. But as well- informed and experienced men of the world ask of yourselves, whether, having regard to the national temperament, our instinctive conservatism, and the characteristics of beaurocratic government, it would be likely that a permanent official or committee of permanent officials, or, for that matter, a committee of average stolid, jog-trot, easy-going citizens, would give immediate sanction to any original project a project, I mean, out of the ordinary groove of development in accomplished ideas which might be submitted to them in the course of next week? It is not impossible that they would give their sanction if the State were not to incur the liability of cost ; but would they be likely to give it if the responsibility of the enterprise, if a failure equally as if it were a success, were to be cast upon the nation at large ? You will agree, I conceive, that, judging from the standpoint of national history and characteristics, they would not be likely so to do. Individuality, as we have seen, does not lack audacity ; but Collec- tivism, I am afraid, would not find an ally in Courage. Englishmen of the type who have con- Socialism and Sense. 95 ferred upon England her renown and given her her great place in the consideration of the nations will be disgusted with one article in the gospel according to Herr Bebel : Expeditions u on which there is any prospect of danger " are to be " left to volunteers ! " and there is too much reason to fear that the attitude herein disclosed would in time become the perma- nent attitude of the entire Socialistic State. In place of energy and audacity in business enterprizes, we would get conflict of opinion, cross-purposes, interminable delays, and general cowardice, and we would grow as changeless as the " changeless land " of China itself! It is universally conceded that under our present system the Empire gets the benefit of the trial of all projects and adventures which commend themselves to anybody, even if to one person only, as worthy of consideration and pursuit. That that is a tremendously strong position to be in, who will gainsay ? Are we, then, prepared to take away that liberty of individual initiative and adventure which is absolutely the foundation and bulwark of our national prosperity and Imperial greatness ? Not while Englishmen are sane and strong, I predict. XIII. Where are OUP Future Leaders? I sometimes wonder how many of the Socialist leaders even have thought for the space of five minutes upon the immensity of the task which seemingly they contemplate with so light a heart ! Get at some great railway terminus (say Waterloo) a glimpse of the vast mass of business people, each with his or her distinct individuality, experience, engagement, and ambition, who pour into London every morning ; think of the great variety in manufactures and businesses unlinkable in any 96 Socialism and Sense. practical form throughout the country ; note the multiplicity of works and businesses, each with a chief of capacity, experience, and*energy, and some with many able lieutenants in addition, even in a single provincial town; recall the wide area of farms diverse in nature included in, and the many difficulties associated with, the administration of agriculture ; dwell for a moment upon the multi- farious and in many instances vital details of the vast net-work of enterprizes and businesses through- out the Kingdom, each of which demands the constant attention of the present directly and keenly interested owner or director ! One Advanced missionary who has had the courage to look at the business in detail, Mr. Kenworthy, in a recent issue of the Echo, expressed himself aghast at the prospect involved in the Collective administration of one branch of national industry alone, the agri- cultural interest; and if our Socialist preachers would contemplate other great branches of industry in minute detail, they would not in the future, I venture to predict, talk and write in the glib and and visionary fashion that has become so wearisome and nauseous to men of knowledge and sense. When you have closed a brief contemplation of the grand maze of the existing system, are you not inclined to ask : In the name of Keason, how is the Collectivist Transformation going to get itself into being? Where can we set eyes upon the heaven-sent geniuses who are to " set the crooked paths straight ? " Where can we catch a glimpse of the heaven-inspired arrangements that are to bring us all into Nature's ordained order ? In short, where are the men and where is the organization which are to supersede the existing men and organizations because of their inadequacy and inefficiency ? Why, it was only the other day that Mr. Keir-Hardie, in the Labour Leader, was Socialism and Sense. 97 trouncing his " comrades " for their most unbusiness- like qualities, as manifested in the preparations for some recent elections ! And the recently-issued Government Report on the break-up of the latest Socialistic experiment the "New Australia" in Paraguay tells us that the leaders " splendid plat- form orators ! " forgot to take out tents, and the Colonists had to rely on sledge-hammers instead of axes for the clearing of the forests ! Yet in all pro- bability it would be this type of man who would in a Socialist State supersede the experienced and prac- tical and resourceful men upon whose initiative, enterprize, and courage the progress of the nation so largely depends ! XIV. The Permanent Official in Power. The administration of the Post Office and the administration of the War Department hard task- masters both, by the way are examples of National Collectivism : but, having regard to the lack of initiative and the general behind-the-times attitude which characterise these services, are they examples upon which we can effusively congratulate ourselves ? Is it not conceivable the nation might have been better served if the work now done by the Post Office had been left to the rivalry of private firms ? Is its success really extraordinary ? As Mr. Brooks has asked in his penny pamphlet, does not the business success of Messrs. W. H. Smith and Co., the news- agents, contrast favourably with the success of the Post-Office, with all its State privileges ? If the Post-Office had been a regular business establish- ment, instead of an establishment which is in a position to run in a groove undisturbed by outside influences if it had had to watch the markets 98 Socialism and Sense. of the world and pit its wits against the rest of the world ; if it had had to conceive and initiate new policies every six months, in order to keep up to date ; if it had had important contracts to " fix up," in competition with other firms, every few weeks : would it have earned the record which some Socialists eagerly parade to-day ? And under similar circumstances, would a committee of London County Councillors he likely to manage very differently to a committee of bureaucratic officials of the State ? No : when we recall its customary features outlined by that excellent authority, Mr. John Rae, thus : " its routine, red- tape spirit, its sluggishness in noting changes in the market, in adapting itself to changes in the public taste, and in introducing improved means of produc- tion" nobody can be in love with bureaucratic government as we know it to-day. We have advanced since the days when Thorold Rogers reigned in cer- tain circles as wit and wise-acre, but there is still too much truth in his biting sarcasm : "A Govern- ment Office has as much heart as a gasometer, and as much humanity as a gas-pipe." Socialist leaders, oddly enough, seem to be amongst those who protest against the vagaries of bureaucratic government most frequently and loudly. Mr. Keir- Hardie's activity in relation to the grievances of Post Office employes and certain unemployed hands at Enfield may be in the recollection of some of you. Parliament and the Government is constantly being denounced by the Socialist Parties as unsympathetic, ignorant, and incompetent, if not, indeed, corrupt ; and the contempt of Mr. Keir-Hardie and his friends for these institutions will probably not be lessened by the proceedings and attitude assumed by the Committee on Want of Employment which re- sulted from his activity in the cause of the un- employed. Socialism and Sense. 99 The Irony of the Situation. Yet these self- same men propose that at some not distant date Parliament or some other body similarly elected shall be empowered to initiate, direct, carry on, and control all the manifold and complex and widely - ramified industries and busi- nesses of this mighty Empire ! Nobody claims that Government as we experience it to-day is an unqualified success in its working it is too costly, it lacks sympathy, it has no elasticity, it is as a rule without quick courage. Alert -minded men who have had occasion to learn the ways of Whitehall are ever apt to echo with shrill emphasis the lament, " With what little knowledge the world is governed !" and people " behind the scenes " of Government will gravely advise you that anomaly remains un worried, absurdity unashamed, and injustice unassailed because Ministers are weak and Perma- nent Officials strong, and that the greatest danger ahead for the Empire is the already great and rapidly- increasing power of the Permanent Official. Britain, in fact, is governed, the well-informed people assure you, not by the temporary figure-heads in the House of Commons, but by the framers of policy and the pullers of wires who are permanently in- stalled in power in Whitehall. Yet it is this type of Government which the Socialist Parties wish to develop and magnify and render all powerful ! " A strange world, my masters ! ' XV. "All Things to all Men! " This, perhaps, is a good opportunity to explain that it is impossible to give a consistent idea of Socialism because in the hands of its apostles it is the most chameleon-like of systems. Never was H 2 i do Socialism and Sense. political force more Protean in its features. Mr. Bliss, in his " Hand-book of Socialism," confesses that " perhaps most Socialists hold Communism in their minds as an ultimate ideal ; " while at the same time he assures us that " True Socialism is as flexible in its system as it is definite in its aim." The business-card of the supply-stores of Socialism reads somewhat after this style : "Every disposition catered for ; every environment suited." " Get in thin-edge of the wedge in any way, but get it in," is the working-rule of certain schools of Socialists, and to this end they are prepared to be " all things to all " men and countries. It may almost be said that they are willing to call anything Socialistic out of which they can get the kudos that helps them to converts note in this connection Mr. Bliss's remarkable chart of "The Development of Socialism in the Nineteenth Century," which includes the abolition of the Slave-Trade, the various Eeform Bills, and even the Liberal Party's Newcastle Pro- gramme ! Certainly they are prepared to utilise all the forces that will help them on to victory as, for illustration, the Co-operative Movement, to which the Socialistic Parties are now "making-up," its great success having apparently swept away their early hostility to it. In brief, there is a mistiness and shiltness about everything Socialistic in a word, too much of the " I'm a candidate in short" atmosphere about it that deprives the Socialistic propaganda of the dignity and the power which has ; hitherto characterised great movements. On the ground that " Socialism is a principle and not a system," we are judiciously advised that we are very foolish folk if we inquire after details : it is only the practical people who have given its character to the Nineteenth Century who are foolish enough to think of details. The reason Socialists depreciate allusion to details is really to be discovered in their jeluctance Socialism and Sense. develop their scheme for the re-organization of labour ; for any organization of labour different to the existing organization must inevitably entail direct loss of individual liberty in less or greater degree. The Socialistic propaganda, I believe and at least hope, will never make any material impress upon the British people until it has presented a scheme frank in the face and firm on its feet. We demand substance, not slipperiness, from the apostles of Socialism ; and without it, an attitude of suspicion is undoubtedly the correct attitude to assume towards all proposals emanating from a Socialistic source. XV. What Proof is there in the Prospectus? Of course it is open to grave doubt whether Socialism in practice would fulfil the flamboyant promises now made in its name. In fact, we are sometimes tempted to classify the tracts of the propaganda with the prospectuses of the bubble companies with which we are so familiar in these days. Can the sympathisers with Socialism be at all certain that they would get the easier time, the ampler reward, the greater gratification of the physical and intellectual senses, which constitute the attraction of the movement ? It is the easiest thing in the world to make an assertion to this effect; but where are the materials which would constitute prospective proof of a substantial kind ? Take the Socialist hope that the possessors of ability and skill and industry, whether artisans or " captains of industry," wo aid consent to be deprived of their present superiority in wages (in the vulgar parlance of the hour, " swindled " out of the fruits of their natural advantages) in order that men without ability, or skill, or industry should become at least IO2 Socialism and Sense. equal to them (Mr. Belfort Bax actually insists above them) in the right to food, clothing, house accommodation, recreation, and luxury : Where exists any solid ground for indulging in this hope ? Is not all the Bellamy talk about "Fame" and " Honour " being accepted as a balance of wages especially when " honour " became, not an excep- tion, but a common thing shared with millions the purest idleness at this juncture ? Men, espe- cially men circumstanced like soldiers and sailors, will, under inspiriting conditions, or in seconds when the soul is supreme, do a.cts which will bring them only honour and glory; but if these acts were to become regular parts of a life of routine and mechanical monotony of performance, would " honour and glory " continue to be accepted as a sufficient reward ? Why, by offering six months' holiday in every year to pitmen and scavengers the Socialists themselves practically confess that they could not hope to induce a miner to moil in the mine or a sanitary labourer to sweat in the sewers for mere wages the superiority of which over the wages of men in less hazardous or disagreeable occupations would consist in a greater measure of " honour and fame." "Fame" being ruled out as an item in wage-sheets, what becomes of the prospects of Socialism ? Does not Mr. Bellamy, the American prophet of Socialism, whose one principle is " equal maintenance for all," advise us that " any attempt to realise a Co-operative Commonwealth on any other basis than uniformity of wages in all trades alike the less attractive being equalised with the more attractive by differences of hours will infallibly fail by the dissensions and mutual jealousies of the trades." The State as Lying-in-Hospital for Labour. Next glance at the Socialist promise of a greater Socialism and Sense. 103 jonomy : Do not many conclusions point to the probability of a greater waste ? Remember that public officials do not usually exhibit the same measure of restraint upon extravagance that is manifested by persons directly affected by the re- sult ; and remember also that although it is true that gains would be equally shared, it is also true that the losses, which are now sometimes con- fined to small areas, would then be spread over the whole surface of society. And is it not extremely likely that there would be a great falling off in the amount of production per head of the popula- tion ? Without any strong spur to thrift, private property being confined to an accumulation of " household gods/' with even the number of pictures limited ; with industrial life a dull and monotonous round, under the direction of bureau- cratic officialdom ; with every man entitled to the same wages as his fellow-man, whatever the ability or industry exhibited at work ; without any power- ful personal stimulus to manifestation of interest or skill, without even the best having the slightest incentive to u take their coats off : " would not the productive output of the nation quickly diminish to u dangerous point, with general poverty as its outcome *? It has always been a universal failing, we must not forget, to treat the State as a never- failing milch-cow. Too much weight need not be attached to the fact, but it is worth noting here that the Manager of the Works Committee of the London County Council recently reported that "for some time after the Works Department was established there was a tendency on the part of the skilled workmen not to do the same amount of work for the Council as they would be expected to do for a con- tractor, and it was only after repeated dismissals that this idea was shaken." Socialism would be really a tremendous aggravation of the great evil 104 Socialism and Sense. and danger which is leading men to imagine that the State is a sort of lying-in-hospital for Labour. It has been pointed out that the effect of the early Poor Laws " was to make the labourers such poor workers that they were hardly worth the wages they got," and this tendency towards laziness and sloth has been painfully exhibited in most Socialistic experiments : where it might least of all be expected, it turned up in the Community of Brook Farm. " If the love of work for its own sake, the sense of public duty, the desire of public appre- ciation," writes Mr. Eae, " could be expected to prevail anywhere to any purpose, it would be found among the gifted and noble spirits who founded the Community of Brook Farm; but the late W. H. C banning, who was a member of the Community and looked back upon it with the tenderest feelings, explained its failure by saying : ' The great evil, the radical, practical danger, seemed to be a willingness to do work half thorough, to rest on poor results, to be content amidst comparatively squalid conditions, and to form habits of indolence." Would not equality of pay produce equality of performance, and that performance on the very lowest grade ? " Short of Sumptuary Slavery ? " Again : review for a moment the Socialist hope of economy from the prevention of over-produc- tion : Would the managers of the new State possess in a much greater degree than the manu- facturers and merchants of to-day the ability at the command or the facilities open to these last for estimating accurately the exact measure of work demanded from the population ? By laying down peremptory rules as to the amount of food to be consumed and the number and character of the gar- ments to be worn by each citizen, it would be pos- Socialism and Sense. 105 sible, of course, to issue an absolute!} 7 exact order for production ; but short of prison dietary-scales and sumptuary- slavery how could they, any more than the manfacturers and merchants of to-day, determine with mathematical positiveness the measure of popular demand, dependant, as that is so largely, upon conditions of weather and like considerations ? How more than the directors of production to-day would they be able to accurately determine the de- mands of the rest of the world ? If not, where is that gain from circumscribed production on the existence of which the success of the Socialist State is so largely predicted ? The Dearest Market in the World. An English Socialist State would probably receive its death- wound earliest through its attitude towards foreign trade. For " Little England "-men in these days we must betake ourselves to the Socialist Parties. Englishmen, in the opinion of many of them, can get along decently enough without the rest of the world, the existence of which is an un- necessary worry. Even if it consented to recognise the rest of the world, would the Socialist State be able to do business with it? Foreign-buyers will only buy in the cheapest market, but England, owing to the principles governing its production of goods, would then be the dearest market in the world ! Even if it were possible for Britain to become a self-contained country which there is abundant reason to doubt it would be sheer insanity to de- liberately cast away our foreign trade, which has made us as a nation, and is indispensable to the maintenance of our prosperity as a people. The Test of the Balance. But here is the main point : Might not any gain resulting from a closer organization of labour, from 106 Socialism and Sense. the disappearance of the commercial-traveller, the advertising agent, and the middle-man generally, and from the greater concentration of administration, be more than counterbalanced by the losses resulting from the tying-up of originality and initiative, the imprisonment of intellect, ability, and skill, the hand-cuffing of enterprise and energy, the withhold- ing of proportionate reward, and the decay of the spirit of self-reliance and the spread of the spirit of sloth ? Slave-labour is notoriously the most waste- ful form of labour ; and instead of a four-hour day, a ^5-week, and a champagne-and-chicken menu, might not the Path of Poverty become a broad- highway, along which the people would travel to a national quagmire, vastly bigger and deeper than any which may appear to be in sight to-day ? But even if this be not so, does not the problem under consideration resolve itself into this alternative: Liberty, with probability of prosperity ; or Slavery, with possibility of comfort ? No number of plau- sible assurances can argue us out of this alternative. As to the general outlook under a Socialist regime, who can review it, even in bold outline, without repugnance and detestation ? The Socialist ideas in their outcome were thus faithfully epitomised on the occasion of the Newcastle Conference of the Independent Socialist Party by that Premier of the Statesmen of Journalism, the Editor of the Spectator : " They would reduce all society to one dead level, that of a horde of workers receiving from the State, and the State only, the wages or doles which their necessities required, without regard, apparently, either to the kind of work demanded of them, or to their capacities for performing it. Their object, in fact, would be to reduce the community to an army of private soldiers, all alike obeying orders, all sustained alike, all living the same lives, and all, it inevitably follows, kept in their places by H and Sense. 107 a compulsion which would soon develop a more than military rigour. They would secure universal freedom from hunger, as there is in a workhouse ; universal labour, as there is in a prison ; universal equality, perfect as that of frogs under a flagstone." And who that is not a Dreamer can review the situation at large without realising with Mr. Herbert Spencer, in the language of his latest declaration, " that the advent of Socialism will be the greatest disaster the world has ever known, and that it will end in military despotism ? " With such a prospect before them, can any intelligent or self-respecting man or woman do other than turn resolutely away from the seductive appeals stf prominent and pro- lific to-day ? The Ruin of an Empire. To summarise our thoughts: Why should the nation deliberately shut itself up to one form of expression of its enterprize the form bearing the imprimatur of the State when it can obtain the advantage of forms of expression as numerous as the millions of men and women there are in the population ? Taking all precautions against such use of their powers as might militate unfairly and unjustly against the interests of the people at large, why not give the capable and the strong their head ? Where would we have been to- day if our strong men had not acted for them- selves, without waiting for anybody's approval? Just in proportion as you restrict initiative and rivalry, do you run the risk of degeneration and de- cline on the part of the nation at large. Socialism, I fear, would be like the convict chain-gang, regulated by the pace of the weakest ; and both mental and physical paralysis would result. The enterprise and audacity which have characterised this England of ours since the Elizabethan Age down to the present io8 Socialism and Sense. day would come to be regarded as emanations from the Evil One ; and they would find fitting burial in the folds of the meteor flag of a Decayed Country and a Shattered Empire. XVI. "For Worship, Not for Use." The subject does not lack many other interesting and important issues as, for example, the attitude of certain schools of Socialists in relation to marriage and the family, which, as a pamphlet recently issued by Mr. George Brooks sufficiently shows, is apt to stagger the average citizen but we must perforce quit it. Once for all, let us acknowledge that So- cialism is a beautiful and artistic product, in every way worthy of men of high ideals and noble aspira- tions; but, at the same time, let us confess, again once for all, that as we do not hold the " magic wand," the absence of which Mr. John Burns has betaken himself in these latter days so keenly to lament, it is a product for worship and not for use. Greatly as its wings have been clipped to render it acceptable to the sympathetic eye of the Age, an attempt to substitute it for the complex machinery of to-day would entail even upon the most courageous of statesmen a responsibility too awful to be borne. An angelic theory demands fully-equipped angels, and the fully-equipped angels are still in the shape of raw material of very tough and tenacious character. It has been happily said by Sir Edward Russell : " Citizens are perfectible, but they need a great deal of perfecting/' With his long-established acuteness and shrewdness, my old chief, Mr. Stead, pointed out in his book on the American Labour War of a few months ago that the heirs of " modern commercialism" "are not ready for the heritage;" and further consideration of so Socialism and Sense. 109 momentous a proposition as is contained in the Socialist propaganda will be adjourned sine die by all sensible people, whatever their sympathies or their aspirations may dictate. As the great American Labour leader, Mr. Gompers, is recorded in the same book as observing : " The Labour movement has too much at stake, and has too slender means at its command, to indulge in dubious experiments." Industrial Socialism may be very Napoleonic in conception, but we are amply justified in dwelling upon the reflections suggested by the terrible word 4 * Moscow," and the enormous risks of a frightful defeat. Practical Politics. Why will our friends the Dreamers not take to heart the advice tendered to the students at St. Andrews University by Mr. Froude a few years ago: "I tell you, who take up with plausibilities, not to trust your weight too far upon them, and not to condemn others for having misgivings which, at the bottom of your own minds, if you look so deep, you will find that you share yourselves with them." Our Socialist friends profess to abhor waste as one of the deadliest of sins, yet they go on spending valuable time and money and votes on their precious ideals ; and some of them are actually talking of a Collectivist Cabinet as a probability of the next decade at a time when we can't, even amongst us all, manage to abolish the House of Lords ! Why don't these gentlemen recognise that, the age of miracles having passed, they are thousands of miles from the Millennium, and, by combining with the Radical Party to obtain practicable reforms on the line of Democratic progress, make the best of the transitional period through which, according to the Socialist gospel, we are now passing ? During this period their illustrious comrade, our great poet, William Morris, expressly tells them, " they must no Socialism and Sense. waive the complete realization " of their ideals. If men like Mr. Mann can compromise on a subject like the Eight Hours' Question, surely they ought to be able to compromise on a project so much more im- probable of accomplishment as the adoption of a scheme of Practical Socialism. A Lesson for the "Evolutionists" from Cinderella. The more modest of the followers of Marx seem to seek no higher honour than to be regarded as the Darwins of the politico-economic world. Well, we Eadicals, I take it, are quite content to take our chance in the weaving of the great web of Evolution if the avowed Evolutionists of our political world will only go straight to the business of practical political weaving here and now. Surely it cannot be that, conscious of being, as Evolutionists, inevitably on the winning side, they seek to escape the hard labour and difficulty of guiding and directing the course of Evolution ? The hewing of wood and drawing of water may not be a particularly heroic occupation ; but without it the world would not get along at all. Of course, it is very easy and pleasant and exciting to spend our time in trumpeting and prancing and posing; but don't let our friends forget that it was the humble drudge Cinderella who ultimately won the favour of the Prince. Let us all Darwinise for we are all Darwins in a wide sense to-day as much as we please in our books and our speeches ; but don't let us fiddle and caper before the polls. Help to Raise the Standard of Environment ! The dreams of the Dreamers may take shape and substance, but clearly the time is not yet ; and meanwhile we are all clamouring for a little further alleviation of our hard lot, which is very limited in Socialism and Sense. in its span. We cannot always be attempting to live up to a fairy tale, and Socialists would do well to cease vague wanderings in the wilderness, and, acting on the advice of Mr. John Burns, be- gin to realize the homely charms of " the common sparrow of Immediate Benefit" which is within reach of the hand, rather than to go on admiring at an immeasurable distance the beauties of " the swan of Ideal Socialism." Let them remember that despite the most earnest and wide-spread of agitations in this country, we never go "full steam ahead ! " never even steer straight ahead ; and that the greatest and hardest part of all their work the education of the head and heart and conscience of Great Britain in the recondite virtue of pure un- adulterated equality of reward, whatever the service, the capacity, and the need has scarcely yet been entered upon. Perhaps they will not take too kindly to Comte's great doctrine, that " the improve- ment of the Social organism can only be effected by a moral development, and never by any changes in mere political mechanism, or any violence in the way of an artifical distribution of wealth." But surely they cannot fail to give heed to William Morris when he gravely and wisely advises them that " the economical aim, which to put it in another way, is the fair apportionment of labour and the results of labour, must be accompanied by an ethical or religious sense of the responsibility of each man to each and to all of his fellows." They must not forget that they cannot reap before they sow. A class, let alone a country, cannot be lifted as a bale of goods is lifted, in the lump. It is a prodigious task: each man and woman has to be morally and spiritually elevated singly and separately. While organized movement and contagious enthusiasm is an indis- pensible aid, each man and woman must bo H2 Socialism and Sense. lifted personally and individually. It is a giant's labour which lies before the Socialist Party, and disdain of co-operation, it ought to be obvious to them, can only make their march to their goal the stonier and the longer. The raising of the standard of Environment is all-important to their cause. For this they must look mainly to the energy and power of the Kadical Party. Yet they seem to take a special pleasure in obstructing the most strenuous efforts of the Eadical Party. A Socialist " Illustration" for Socialist Application. The commonest " illustration " employed by Socialist lecturers has as its subject the pushing of a cart up a steep hill. Under our present economic condition, they say, there is no united attempt to push the cart up the hill, but while one man is engaged in helping it up another man is employed in seeking to drag it back. It is a pity that they do not apply this " illustration " to our present political position. The Socialist parties require to get to the top of the next political brae quite as much as the Eadical Party does, but for some occult reason they persist in preferring to help the Tory Party to "skid" the wheels of the chariot of political reform. Our friends grumble much I think sometimes very unjustly at the failure of the Kadical Party to confer substantial benefits apart from voting reforms ; but until they have joined hands with the Eadical Party in getting the gearing of the political machine into good working order, and given the machine a fair chance of a clear run, they are clearly out of court as complainants. The Radical Party No Petrified Party! Indeed, altogether, the attitude of the Socialists on the side of practical political policy is lamentably Socialism and Sense. weak always provided, of course, that they don't wish their followers of to-day to live and die as martyrs to the cause of Socialism, but do desire them to share in an increasing degree in the common but substantial bread-and-cheese fare of every-day life. They will really do well to reconsider their position in this particular : by loyal co-operation with the Eadical Party they will at least assist in forcing marches along the path of progress. That the Radical Party can offer men of Socialistic sym- pathies much in the way of the palliatives which take at present such a secondary place in the pro- grammes of the Socialistic Parties is clear not only from its past history, which is too often forgotten in these days, but also from its present tendencies, which are pretty steadily ignored in the Socialist Press. The record of the achievements of the Radical Party constitutes one of the longest and grandest 4 ' prospectuses " ever laid before the popu- lation of any country ; and as its latest ideas and aspirations indicate, it is as " thorough " and earnest as ever in the advancement of the cause of Justice in all departments of our national life. The Radical Party is no petrified party it is always ready to acknowledge error, is always eager to face the light, and the word " Finality " is not to be discovered in its dictionary. 114 Socialism and Sense. PART III. PEACTICAL. CHAPTER I. RADICAL AIMS. The v Nationalization of Sense. Short of systematised Socialism, with its slavery and the sequelae of slavery, the Radical Programme covers every Reform which Culture can desire, Patriotism command, or Justice demand. It really offers you all the substantial elements of Socialism without its sla-very. To prove this, let us pass from Socialism to Sense let us forswear further criti- cism, and let us become constructive. But, mark you, constructive we have been and will be in our good old English way : we decline to be Continental and logical, and will be English and shrewd. We shall have regard to the history and characteristics of the English people, and shall prefer to utilize and de- velop the institutions that are the slow and stubborn growth of centuries rather than betake ourselves to revolution in the sudden and the whole- sale way common to more volatile countries. As the evils by which we are confronted are not the outcome of one cause, so we will recognise that we cannot rely upon one remedy, or follow only one form of treatment ; also that short cuts to prosperity and happiness come less and less within the pur- view of man. As in the past, so in the future : we shall continue to look at each particular case on its merits, or rather its dements, and suit the remedy to the disease adopting a mild and gradual course when a mild and gradual cause will best meet the situation, not hesitating to take swift and strong action when the cir- Socialism and Seme. cumstances demand swift and strong action. As Lord Salisbury said the other day at Edinburgh : "Each matter is a question for separate decision: There are some things which the State can do better than the individual ; there are some things which the individual can do better than the State." We will be Individualist or Collectivist, as it seems to us wisest, in relation to the matter strictly in hand. In short, we are for the Nationalization of Sense the Sense which secures to man the largest available share of the good things of life without an undue sacrifice of the greatest of human rights Liberty, which is the very life-blood of Man. We will take what is good and reject what is evil in both systems : we will pluck good fruit wherever it grows ; and neither Collectivist sneers nor Indi- vidualist grunts shall make us afraid or turn us from the path of reason and obvious sense. The Spirit Behind System. After all, it is not so much the system as the spirit behind the system which will make for the salvation of the nation. And who will deny that there is not enormous room for an improvement in spirit / I am not going to proclaim to you, amid a racket of prose hysterics, the discovery of any New Spirit in any department in life ; but if the Ship of State is to have a prosperous voyage, I do insist upon the urgent necessity for a still quicker and wider development of that Spirit of Justice and that sister Spirit of Humanity which have already left a substantial mark on our time. What should be our national object ? Assuredly the intellectual and spiritual growth and the mental and physical happiness of the People. The real wealth of the world is comprised in its men and women, and to raise uml maintain the value of this wealth by i2 n6 Socialism and Sense, offering to all industrious citizens all possible facilities for the provision of good food, good clothing, and comfortable homes, and the acquisition of leisure for the pursuit of intellectual pleasures and healthy recreation, ought to be the first duty and main con- cern of our statesmen. To this end they must see to it that the whole shall ever be regarded as greater and more important than a part, and that no boggle over privilege or over method shall stay the doing of Justice or hamper the progress of Righteousness. The future of the nation, however, lies far more in the domain of private conduct than in the province of public action. It is in the region of private relationships, in the region of business association more especially, that the all- vital transformation can be most effectively wrought. Between captain and soldier in the Grand Army of Industry particularly we need a clearer "note" of comradeship and a stronger sense of solidarity. We want a larger infusion of the spirit of Christ without the detestable and ruinous machinery of Socialism. In short, we want the truest kind of Socialism the Reign of Justice and Righteousness, with Liberty ; and that kind of Socialism " Socialism with Sense/' we might almost call it we are in the way of winning bit by bit as is our way of winning things in this country through the progress of the Policy of Radical Reform. " Wake thou and watch ! " as Whittier sings " the world is grey with morning light!" II. "There shall be an End to Idleness in England." Of course, a cardinal resolve in our constructive scheme must find expression in the cry, " There shall be an end to Idleness in England ! " The community must no longer be divided into Producers Socialism and Sense. Non-Producers ; every bee in this British hive must be represented in the future by a quantum of honey. The Duke shall no longer live upon us ; the Stock Exchange speculator, whether Jew or Gentile, shall cease to plunder and begin to create; the Gaiety " Johnny " and the Kotten Row exquisite will have to " soil their mittens," like the " dirty kittens " of the nursery rhyme, by regular doses of hard work. There is no greater barrier to the progress of true politics than the prominence given by the profuse- ness of their wealth and the lavishness of their expenditure to the tribes of gilded idlers in which this country is prolific. Here are specimens of reports which are enormously influential in giving recruits to the Socialist Parties : the other week the Speaker told how two men lunching at a restaurant in the West-end of London spent 4 15s. upon a * light repast," and how a young nobleman enter- taining his friends at his country-seat provided thirty new bicycles and distributed amongst them presents which aggregated to one thousand pounds! The nee of men of this type in our midst is really pestilential : and the adoption of strong measures by the State for the suppression of so noxious a nuisance would be in every way defensible. Industry, after all, is the true key to the Kingdom of Honour and Patriotism, and I hold strongly these three points : that no man or woman should be permitted to live without labouring ; that the legitimate development of our present system of taxation ought to involve a compulsion to work even on the part of the eldest in the richest of families; and that the State will not be in the full enjoyment of its full benison until the aristocratic and wealthy classes have been compelled to contribute their share of intelligence and ability, often no mean amount, to the welfare of the country. Mr. Froude remarked in one of his Addresses: "There are but three n8 Socialism and Sense. ways of making a living, as some one has said : by working, by begging, or by stealing ; those who do not work, disguise it in whatever pretty language we please, are doing one of the other two." There must and shall be an end to these ignoble methods of obtaining the means of existence for with the description of "life" we cannot afford to dignify some of the methods and devices which are accepted by Society as legitimate and honourable. "Plain Living and High Thinking!" And as an accompaniment to the disappearance of the idle classes there ought to be a levelling down of the luxuries of life or, if not for a while the luxuries, certainly at once a levelling down of the necessities of existence. While often the labouring classes are without the decencies and comforts of life, there is a large body of men and women, par- ticularly in London, who know no stint in rich dishes, rare wines, costly dresses, and lavish enter- tainments. It was my fortune to experience the vividness of the contrasts of life in this particular in a very striking fashion a few weeks ago : Rising from a glimpse of Mr. Arnold White's latest picture of the "misery which is peeping around the comer of the coming century/' I came plump upon a couple of members of Parliament Radical members, too ! discussing the merits and demerits of certain brands of champagne ! No reflection is cast upon these good men, excellent servants of the People, both of them : the mention of the incident is only meant to emphasize the fact' that the luxury which we lament is rather a matter of habit than a matter of thought with many of the men and women who practice it. By hook or by crook we must obtain something approximating to a medium in the distribution of the good things of life. There must be less glitter and ostentation and more "plain living and high think- Socialism and Sense. 119 ing " on the part of the wealthy and educated ones of the earth, and more good cheer and brightness and less squalor and misery in the lives of the labouring classes of the country. Both objects will gradually be attained, 1 have no doubt, if by no other means, by successive falls in the scale of capi- talist profits and a juster revision of the taxation of the country. "Labour" as a Cult of Dignity and Duty. Anyhow, as I have said, " Work ! Work!! Work ! ! ! " sweat of brow or brain on the part of the peer as well as the peasant ; income-earning on the part of the " masher " as well as the mechanic ; in brief, labour on the part of " all sorts and con- ditions of men" and women must be made a leading " note " of the Coming Century. No prayer more pertinent and pressing than this can be offered up on behalf of our country. For if 44 Labour " once 44 catches on " as a cult of dignity and duty on the part of the leisured and cultured classes of this country, so well-stored an arsenal are they of muscle and mind, no nation on earth will be able to approach us in all the qualities which bring pros- perity, progress, and happiness ! 44 Equality of Opportunity." But our premier watchword in the conflicts which lie before us, as it has been in the conflicts from which we have emerged, must ever be 44 Equality as Eng- lishmen ! " As Radicals, we are all for the Equalities Citizenship political equality, educational equality, social equality, spiritual equality, and, especially equality of sacrifice. There is much idle froth at present afloat on the subject of equality : manifestly there is no equality either in man or in nature, yet some people talk in a strain which suggests that it is open to us, if we were only wilh'ng, I2O Socialism and Sense. to scientifically distribute brains, equalize limbs, and balance muscle. Whatever may be the prospect of this in the Socialist-Labour-Party's Heaven, at pre- sent it is far beyond the dreams of mundane science. But despite the analysis of Lord Farrar, there is still great force in the good old Kadical battle-cry of " Equality of Opportunity," the latest varient of which seems to be " Social Justice," the demand of some of our latter-day philosophers. " How will opportunities be equal" Lord Farrar demands, "as long as there are differences in homes, in families, in constitutions, in understandings, and in charac- ters ? " Of course, perfect equality of opportunity can never be attained in this life, but so far as such an end can be attained by law and social change, the whole object of Eadical Keform is the elimination of these differences. For example : better wages and lighter taxation will help to give the bulk of the population better homes and stronger constitutions, the prudence which usually follows on education will affect families, and the better education and environ- ment which will accompany higher wages and lighter taxation is bound to exercise a material influence on understandings and character. And with better homes, stronger constitutions, smaller families, and a higher standard of culture and character, there will be a much closer approximation on the part of the great mass of the population to " equality of opportunity " than exists to-day. The Obligations of the State. Law by itself may not be able to accomplish all this, but Law at least can say that it will strain every nerve to secure so far as Law can secure such a result a fair start for everybody in the race of life in short, Equality of Opportunity before the Law. The Privilege of Position is doomed many of those to whom it attaches by reason of hereditary Socialism and Sense. 121 association are even ashamed of it ; only the Privi- lege of Knowledge, Intellect, and Wisdom is recog- nised to-day, and if the Democracy is only true to its rights and its interests, unmerited and unwar- ranted Privilege will in a few years pass into the lumber-room of the State which may happen to be the House of Lords without a veto if not tongueless, toothless and fangless ! The State's duty must be to see that every man and woman born under the British flag has an equal chance in life, so far as that equal chance can be conferred by their fellow-men and women through the Law, without detriment to the obligations of Justice and Righteousness. The State, however, must not stop there : it must not simply take off the signs and features of handicap which mark our social system to-day it must be active in helping in the development, recognition, and utilization of in- dividual intelligence, talent, and character ; so that the nation may obtain the full benefit of all the possibilities of ability, service, and strength which may reside in the sons and daughters of Britain. If this obligation should necessitate the granting of State hi'lp in the way of loans of money to worthy and able persons for the advancement of schemes un- mistakably calculated to benefit the State, I don't think the country would " kick," so long as no sub- stantial injustice was done to any body of honest and patriotic citizens. It may be, indeed, that it is in this way the Socialists are to get the form of equality of opportunity upon which they most set thi'ir hearts access to capital. The Duty of the State. The duty of the State extends even further than this: it must not only offer a " fair field and no favour" where individuals are concerned it must likewise see to it that the interests of mere 122 Socialism and Sense. individuals don't over-ride the interests of the community at large, that the wealth which the community equally creates is distributed equally amongst the community, and that the community receives from individuals the complete measure of the return to which it is entitled for the protection and advantages it affords them. But the State must not merely be just it must be also generous and wise : it must particularly aim to protect the weak against the strong not simply from a motive of humanity, but from that even higher motive, the ultimate strengthening of the State. Above all, Vhenever the State intervenes say, for the destruc- tion of a monopoly it must intervene, not for the benefit of a class, but for the ultimate good of the Commonwealth. If the ultimate good of the Commonwealth should seem to compel the State to acquire control, direct or indirect, over any concern or business that may interfere with the rights or liberties of the body of the citizens good, let the control be acquired ; but let us be sure we take all guarantees for liberty and justice alike to selling citizens and buying State. The general good " the greatest happiness of the greatest number " is the object to be kept constantly in view : the general good, however, will never be promoted, mark you, by the perpetration of acts of injustice or the establishment of a system of slavery. " Equality of Opportunity " genuine freedom of access to all the wells of knowledge, genuine freedom of access to all positions of influence and power in the government of the country, genuine liberty to all men to show the best that is in them will finally give us "the greatest happiness of the greatest number, " and to the attainment of this object in its full flower we must re-pledge each other to devote ourselves heart and soul. If "Equality of Opportunity' should only intensify Competition, as it inevit- Socialism and Sense. 123 ably will, we can only submit with words of grace and gratitude : the best of our race will then be fulfilling, under the most satisfactory conditions, the high destiny of a great people. 124 Socialism and Sense. CHAPTER II. RADICAL POLICY. A Panorama of Problems. Having settled our main principles, let us set down roughly what constitute the gravest and most pressing evils confronting the State to-day : 1. The large proportion of citizens willing to work who are either without work or are only able to obtain work at intervals. 2. The great amount of irregularity, waste, and loss associated with production. 8. The monopolies permitted in the Territory of Nature notably in land and machinery. 4. The limited and inadequate cultivation of the land of the country. 5. The heavy burden entailed by wars past and the fear of wars to come. 6. The inequalities so persistently and painfully manifest in the distribution of profit and wealth. 7. The defects of the factory system ; the friction existing between Capital and Labour ; the compara- tive lack of technical knowledge and skill ; and the prevalence of antagonism between the Classes of the Country. What a panorama of problems here ! The fore- going heads of existing evils evils which entail a great mass of wretchedness and misery and no- small amount of danger represent, I grant you, complicated problems, every one of them ; but surely statesmanship of the acute, sagacious, and sympa- thetic type which the present decade is producing the type at the head of which stand at present Mr. John Morley, Mr. Acland, and Mr. Asquith is not incapable of mastering and overcoming these on the basis of the form of society which has its roots so deeply planted in our national character, history, and institutions. The line of solution, I conceive,. Socialism and Sense. 125 ill run in the direction of a continuous de- velopment of the old-established working partner- ship between individual initiative and enterprise and communal co-operation. As a community we must get out of both Engines of Progress fche best that they can give us. They are two great forces, but not forces necessarily antagonistic no more antagonistic, in fact, than man and woman are antagonistic : each exists to serve and complete the other, and, as the history of their union so far proves, their marriage gives adequate occasion for expressions of satisfaction and encouragement. The Policy of Sense. While, on the one hand, we dare not lose the advantages of private initiative, enterprise, and energy, it would, on the other hand, be unwise and disastrous to reject all the powerful aids to industrial profit and social progress which co- operation, either municipal or national, can confer. Like the Socialists, we abhor waste ; but, unlike the Socialists, we would utilize all the powers within the compass of man. The Socialists would deliberately decline to avail themselves of the services of the bold, adventurous, and combative by nature unless they would consent to be directed and controlled by an elected committee or dictator ; while the activities of the men of individuality, initiative, and persistence who, in combination with the men of adventurous temperament, have made this country the greatest nation in the world would be tabooed by them : we thank God that the country has such an abundant supply of such men. It is a blessed word, " Utilization " that cardinal principle of Englishmen. At one and tke same moment we will utilize Carlyle's "industrial notabilities and men of insight" in their individual capacities, and avail ourselves of ail the 126 Socialism and Sense. advantages that can be wrested from the know- ledge, power, and labour of the community when brought into combination. At the same time, we will not permit any person, method, or thing to stand in the way of the Common Good: "Make way for King Common-Good ! " will be the word that will pass from mouth to mouth down the line of the Statesmen of the future. " The Good Old English Lines." Unlike our friends the Socialists we cannot present any daring or dazzling or sensational solu- tion of the problems which vex us all : we prefer not to fill our bellies with the east wind. We are going to be guided by Eeason as well as influenced by Emotion ; and because our desires and aspirations in relation to the future of Humanity are not fulfilled with mathematical accuracy, we are not going to commit the folly of assuming that the only remedy for admitted injustices and abuses is instant flight to the slavery of the Socialistic system ! And who can gainsay the declaration that we Kadicals and Evolutionists carry first-class credentials to the voting masses of this country ? As Mr. John Morley remarks in one of his books, the only valid and reliable test of what a political party will do in the future, is not their promises, but their antecedents ; and weBadical-Evolutionists can surely claim that the legislation of the past half century constitutes a strong assurance that, whilst declining to merely vapour and pose as extremists, we are likely to secure in a really practicable way the most substantial and sug- gestive gains for the cause of Justice and Righteous- ness. We don't promise as much as these other fellows, the Socialists, but History is our guarantee that what we do promise we must certainly perform ! Our chief aim must be to secure a greater natural and initial equality of position and condition, mainly Socialism and Sense. 127 by the elevation and enfranchisement of the majority, to weld the various classes of the community in a closer harmony, and to get a fairer distribution of profits and wealth if possible, by changes in the relations of Capital and Labour ; if need be, by nationalization of monopolies ; and certainly by increased taxation of estates at death without losing the factors (apart from the bounty of nature and the aggregation of population) which produce the wealth the liberty of private initia- tive, the right of private pursuit, the enterprise, the energy, and the enthusiasm which come from self-direction and self-interest. It would be pure idleness to take to the prediction of the precise form which the necessary concessions to Justice and Righteousness will assume ; but T have little doubt that on most if not on all details a fair rule -of- thumb, honest, and just settle- ment will be reached on the good old English lines which shock the severely logical and the sensitively scientific, but satisfy the sense of solid justice and square-dealing which is inborn in every Briton and has largely helped to give its strong and lasting character to the national reputation which is- our chief pride and satisfaction to-day. Our method will take the form of a steady, sober, gradual evolution on the basis of existing characteristics and institutions : decade by decade, no doubt, new avenues of Truth and Justice will come into view,. and never hysterical, yet never halting the Com- monwealth will march on and on to the goal of all noble and inspiring ambitions and aspirations perfect Liberty, perfect Service, and perfect Happi- ness. 128 Socialism and Sense. CHAPTER III. EXPERIMENTAL LEGISLATION. A Grand Era of Experiment. The task will be furthered, I conceive, by the tentative media of Experiment. We have already made considerable progress on this principle ; and judging from the signs and tendencies of the times, the opening quarter of the new Century, it seems to me, will be distinguished in history as a grand Era of Experiment. Our diseases have now grown so complex that no prescription, however experienced and eminent may be the physician who pens it, can be accepted off-hand as providing the sure and certain remedy. As a country we are rich enough and crowded enough and varied enough to have all kinds of experiments tried upon us : why, then, should we not try them? " Try any experiment/' says Mr. Goldwin Smith, even " which may hold out a reasonable hope of putting an end to poverty, for by the success of such an experiment the happi- ness of the rich, of such, at least, of them as are good men, would be increased far more than their riches would be diminished/' If carefully protected by limitations as to time and liberty, experiments can at the worst do us as a nation little harm ; while they may confer incalculable benefits upon us. In- deed, it may happen that our failures in some cases may prove to be amongst our best investments. Of course, a certain measure of discretion would have to be exercised. For illustration, we could not well socialise Shields while leaving Newcastle free to follow mercilessly its old-fashioned and vicious ways. But, for the life of me, I cannot see why you shouldn't " Gothenburg " Birmingham, or run trials of State-countenanced co-operative farming on the vacant lands of Essex. In short, let us turn our country into a public laboratory : if we are careful in Socialism and Sense. 129 the selection of learned and skilful chemists, we may not only escape serious explosions, but make social discoveries of inestimable value, not only to our-* selves, but to all the nations of the earth. How Socialists Have Seized Radical Capital. In pursuing this policy of Experiment we must not allow ourselves to be deterred from testing the practicability of promising ideas because they figure as " palliatives " in the Socialist programmes. That some of these apparently feasible features of Socialist programmes should be ear-marked as Socialist property is akin to fraud and at least distinctly misleading. Common Action for Common Ends by no means commits us to " Collectivism " as the phrase is being insidiously used to-day. Some of the ideas claimed as Socialistic that are taking practical form just now are not specially distinctive of Socialism as Socialism is being taught to-day: they are ideas common to all thoughtful minds, nay, the natural product of experience and of experiment on the part of the English people ; and they disprove, rather than prove, that an upheaval and recasting of the frame-work of Society is necessary to the pursuit of a policy of Sense. The English Poor-Law was in no sense Socialistic in its inception ; and, as I scarcely need to remind you, we had entered upon the path of Municipalization long before our Socialist Parties were in a position to preach the policy. The seed of common action for common ends is to be found in the foundation of the reformed Municipal Corporations in 1835, the very year the word " Socialist " was first coined in this country ; and communal baths and wash - houses, communal markets, communal slaughter-houses, communal schools, communal parks, communal libraries, com- munal gas-works and water-works, communal ferries, communal bridges, and communal tram-services 130 Socialism and Sense. have been known in many of our towns for a greater or less number of years. No credit is really due to Socialist philosophers or agitators in this country if the wholesome trend of the times should be, as it unmistakably is, to develop, mainly in the Municipal sense, the principle of public ownership of public services, for this was brought into operation through the agency of Eadical reformers decades ago. It looks as if in a few years every county and borough, if not every parish council, will own the source and machinery of the common water, lighting, and travelling services in its district, with the result, it is believed, or, at least, hoped, that the community will be served better and cheaper than it is to- day. But there is, as I have said, no distinctive sign of Socialism about this indeed, honest and coura- geous Socialists ridicule the feebleness of the feeble folk who claim municipal ownership of water-works and tramways as Socialism in practice ! Socialism and Sense. CHAPTER IV. COMMUNAL GOVERNMENT. How Much Further Along the Path of Municipalization? How much farther are we likely to walk along the path of Municipalization ? Well, it is not easy to predict : experience and the demands of the time will determine. It is just on the cards that at the close of half-a-century we may find our large towns possessed of communal dwellings, communal bakeries, communal butcheries, communal milkeries, communal kitchens, communal coal-yards, and com- munal hospitals ; and certainly, judging from the " run " of opinion to-day, it will not surprise me to find the communal drawing-room, the communal -yrnnasium, the communal cafe, and the communal tavern, if not, indeed, the communal band and the communal theatre, amongst the institutions of Britain within the first decade of the New Century. There is a large measure of danger in all this, I grant corruption may creep into our Corporations when they begin to deal on an extensive scale in affairs which are productive of large monetary profit, but the facilities for the expression of public sus- picion and public opinion are now so numerous that the danger from this source will probably be always kept well in hand. Beyond dealings with the prime necessaries of life I have already indicated, I don't think we are likely to go, if even we go so far. The notion that municipalities may establish and profit- ably work manufactories has only to be stated to be dismissed from consideration unless, indeed, the product to be worked is in the nature of a monopoly. What prospect of beating the alert, keenly-interested, and uncontrolled manufacturer would have the comfortably-settled and regularly paid beaurocratic manager, especially " cribbed, cabined, and confined " as he would be by the K2 132 Socialism and Sense. instructions and criticism of his masters, the alder- men and councillors? Would the Newcastle Cor- poration be likely to carry on a gun-factory more successfully than Lord Armstrong and his col- leagues ? and is there any probability that the Town Council of Sunderland would manage the shipbuild- ing businesses of Mr. James Laing and Mr. J. Y. Short more ably and profitably than these gentle- men manage them to-day ? As Mr. Mawdsley wrote the other day, no profitable manufacturing enter- prise on ordinary lines waits in these days for a municipality to take it up. No : all the evidence indicates that the main avenues of ordinary private enterprise will remain free and open, and probably all the more profitable and prosperous because of the greater freedom from taxation which a discreet policy of Municipalization may confer upon men engaged in trying and hazardous businesses. The Millennium by Municipalization. Of Municipalization on the lines and in the spirit in which we have carried it out since Municipal Corporations were established, I don't think we have need to be in the slightest degree afraid, and all proposed developments of it we can afford to examine with a not unfriendly eye. Socialists, it is true, steal the thunder of our municipal successes for uses alien te their original purpose ; but there is no need to be alarmed, as many of us are, at the noise it makes when under their manipulation. By their very composition, Corporations will seldom or never be audacious or energetic, even though audacity and energy should be the requirement of the moment ; any radical act will, as a rule, possess popular sanction before it is carried into effect, and you may be sure that English electorates will not hastily endorse measures characterised by the absence of good sense and fair- Socialism and Sense. 133 play. Indeed, our Municipal Councils will be too heavily burdened by legitimate work of a highly responsible kind to seek to place upon their shoulders the conduct of delicate and weighty enterprises altogether outside the domain of common action for common ends, and which are at present managed much more successfully by private enterprize than they could ever be carried on by an elected body and bureaucratic officials. In the great work ot reform that lies before us, the Municipality has it in its power to be a leader, if not, indeed, the leader. Most of the dullness, ugliness, and dreari- ness of our towns, with the slums and the squalor, that form so large a part of the current Socialist indictment, it is already in the direct power of the Municipality to greatly abate, if not entirely abolish. You don't need to wait until we have transformed human nature to change the aspect of our towns : at the expense of those who benefit by their exist- ence, you can get to work on the necessary change straightaway. You will yourselves be solely to bLinie if Parliament does not give you quickly the power to tax the holders of urban lands greatly beyond the present measure of their contributions. Why not, as the task nearest to your hand, proceed to bring in the Millennium by Municipalization ? In no other way can you so effectively and speedily pro- duce the environment necessary to its introduction. 134 Socialism and Sense. CHAPTER V. POVERTY WITH PLENTY. To Statesmen : Why ? Why ? ? Why ? ? ? Now, let us turn for a space to the problems which demand National treatment. The pressing need for experiments on a national scale arises, of course, out of the failure of a considerable propor- tion of men and women able and willing to work to find work of any kind at any rate of pay, and the payment of another large proportion at rates which leave them in only slightly better case. The present Socialist agitation is built mainly upon the exist- ence of the floating mass of workless or wretchedly- paid workers so painfully obvious every now and again ; and if work could be found for those willing to work the sting would unquestionably be taken out of the wild Socialistic talk current to-day the Socialism of many Socialists being born and nurtured in their stomachs. As we have contended, the actual material position of the great bulk of the population, whatever the cause, is much better than it was 50 years ago. A case of direct starvation now- a-days attracts the attention of the Press ; whereas fifty years ago, thirty years ago even, a state of semi-starvation must have been constantly the lot of vast masses of the population in every part of the country. Still, with all our increase in comfort, the position of things is grim enough. We cannot forget Mr. Charles Booth's " 32 per cent, below the poverty-line " although this fact is solely the melancholy burden of the metropolis ; nor can we view with the smile of complacency the fact stated in the Report of the recent Eoyal Commission on the Poor-Laws, that nearly one out of every two of the labouring classes in this kingdom who reach the age of 65 passes into the category of pauper. That great poverty coexists alongside of great plenty Socialism and Sense. 135 has long been a terrible common-place ; the question is, how can Poverty be reduced to the measure of the idle and the worthless ? There is no more grief- burdened figure and ghastly spectacle than that of an honest, hard-working, skilful man, the father of a family, searching for work for many months and finding none ; if such a man does not eagerly hug to his heart the generous promises of the Socialists, then human nature is in the state which constitutes the Kingdom of Christ. Why Poverty with Plenty? Why, the nation demands, should there be glut on one hand and barrenness on the other ? We know, of course, that we have to reckon in this matter with the influence of other countries on our own, which no body of men can hope to master ; but still the question, " Why Poverty with Plenty? " keeps knocking at our door. Why should a million Englishmen and women be within a month's march of starvation ? Why should men go workless who are willing to work ? Fifty years ago, " National beneficial employment for all who require it " figured on the election programme of Kobert Owen ; but the idea is still on paper. Difficulties in finding work for the workless on the basis suggested in the phrase quoted can easily be perceived ; but can nothing be done for our brothers ? Is it really beyond the power of our statesmen to save their fellow subjects from starvation ? Surely we are not going to permit that to be said in our Britain of to-day ! If it must be said, then fit and ready are \\ all for Davy Jones's locker! But it cannot be , and it must not be said. "The Universal Vital Problem of the World." Do not, however, let us run away with the impres- sion, so glibly suggested by Socialist street orators, 136 Socialism and Sense. that the task here set our statesmen is as easy as blowing air bubbles. The proceedings of the Commit- tee on Want of Employment have sufficiently proved that it is one thing to insist upon an instant transfor- mation and another to propose feasible remedies. Unhappily, it is as true now as in Carlyle's day, that " the Organization of Labour is the universal vital Problem of the World," as, indeed, it must ever be while man remains a creature of blood and emotion. We have made considerable advances in various directions since the " Latter Day Pamphlets" were written ; but the lack of organization and the con- sequences of lack of organization still abundantly justify the use of language of lamentation. The factors of the problem notably the influence of the industry and the needs of vast populations in distant parts of the globe, which can never be accurately foretold and still less controlled will ever prevent the attainment of perfection, or even an approxima- tion to perfection, in the organization of labour ; but for attempts at improvement upon the existing condition of things there is still unlimited scope, and the greater the improvement in organization achieved, we must not forget, the weaker will grow the demand for a resort to a state of Socialistic slavery. It is wise to remember that, as the field is in no way restricted, so there is no one sovereign remedy. There are prescriptions simple and there are prescriptions complex ; but really there is no certainty of cure about any one of them. In a word, our position as a Nation is complex almost beyond comprehension, and what with the inter-play of ethics and economics which is so marked a characteristic of our later condition, never had vessel of State greater need for pilots gifted with insight, sympathy, sanity, and courage. Socialism and Sense. 137 CHAPTER V. CAPITAL AND LABOUR. The " Make-up " of the Nation's Wealth. At this point, in view of the fanciful sketches of the National wealth and the pictures of possibilities, vague in outline and still more blurred in detail, which are painted by the street artists of the Socialist parties, much in the style of the pictures with which the pavements of the streets of London are sometimes embellished, it will be found both interesting and profitable to glance at this juncture at a capital pic- torial Chart of the Capitalised Wealth of the country, prepared by Mr. W. H. Mallock, for the illustra- tion of a valuable and suggestive article on " The Condition of the People " which appeared in No. 23 of the Pall Mall Magazine (to the Editors of which periodical I am indebted for the privilege of reprodu- cing the chart here). Mr. W. H. Mallock, as a writer on economics, is suspect in Radical quarters, but this chart (which is as admirable in execution as it is clever in conception) is well worth examining as a rough indication of the actual " make-up " of our wealth, being based, as Mr. Mallock declares, on materials contained in the blue-books relating to the last census, in the Agricultural Returns for 1891, published by the Board of Agriculture, and certain information published by Mr. Giffen and other statisticians, English and Continental. Herewith, is the explanation with which Mr. Mallock accompanies this Chart of the National Wealth : The chart "is a parallelogram, of which the total area represents the total capital value of the United Kingdom, estimated as being something like ten thousand million pounds ; and it is divided by dark lines into thirteen compartments, proportionate in size to the valu<- <>f tin- things or goods which they represent. The smallest item of all is money and 138 Socialism and Sense. LAND JflJULJ! HlMlPilll FURNITURE PicruRES.^aooKS, LLOTHINC ._ETC LOANS & |NVSTMfNTS. 13 13 Socialism and Sense. 139 uncoined bullion ; but, small as this shows itself on the diagram, it is really much smaller. Had it been allotted its proper proportion of space only, it would have been hardly visible to the eye. The two largest items are houses and land, the land counting for about fifteen hundred millions, and the houses for twenty-Jive hundred millions. Next come furniture and works of art, which are supposed to be worth about twelve hundred millions ; the railways, worth about nine hundred millions ; and the public works, Imperial and local (with certain private enterprises in the shape of gas and waterworks included), worth about eight hundred millions. The other items, such as machinery, merchandise, &c., occupy, as capital, a space so small as compared with their importance, because they are worn out or consumed so rapidly as compared with the land. For instance, iron-works are capitalised by Mr. Giffen at four years' purchase, and land and railways at twenty- eight. Another portion of our capital, our foreign loans and investments, is represented in the diagram by the lowest section. These really should come directly after the land, of which in capital value they do not fall far short ; whilst, as related to the income which they represent, it is important to note this that the money which comes annually into the United Kingdom from foreign investments is a sum 15 per cent, greater than the entire agricultural rental of England, Scotland, and Ireland ; and that the larger part of this money goes ultimately in the remuneration of home labour. In other words, more than a million and a quarter of our own working men live on wages paid to them from an income that comes to us from foreign sources." A Lesson for Labour: Restraint. It is useless to enter here into the abstruse and much-debated questions as to the sources and morality 140 Socialism and Sense. of Capital and Interest. The greatest extremist must be content to recognise that for a couple of centuries to come at least we must acknowledge them as facts which refuse to be dissolved as easily as a lump of sugar is dissolved in a cup of tea. This attitude, however, does not necessarily constitute us special defenders and glorifiers of Capitalists and Money-mongers generally ; in this, as in all other things, there are degrees, and the Apostles of Sense are no more inclined to glorify the position, attitude, and conduct of men of the Jay-Gould type than the Apostles of Socialism are inclined to advocate and put into practice the principles of the ancient Com- munists. The Jay-Goulds of the world, I fear, occupy too prominent a place in these debates ; their introduction suggests a plethora of wealth that, as I have already indicated, begets pictures of prospective profusion that are, I am sorely afraid, without much substantial foundation in fact. It is not necessary to recite the numerous calculations as to the relations of national wealth to national population which, if accepted, give more than confirmation to this fear ; but it is important that we should keep in mind the fact that a considerable proportion of the wealth of the country is as fragile as a rose-leaf, and that it is confidence, not consternation, that promotes pros- perity. Spouters of wild talk and promoters of frivolous strikes are amongst the worst enemies of the working-classes at this moment. Foreign competi- tion is no figment of the imagination it is a fact of which we may some day become as cognisant as we are cognisant of the blue sky above us ; and, remembering that Capital acknowledges no country, and that, in the minds of many capitalists, pounds stand before patriotism, it behoves all British work- ing-men to assiduously cultivate, at this juncture particularly, the tremendous virtue of Prudence. At this crisis in its history no more urgent lesson can be Socialism and Sense. impressed upon Labour than the value of Restraint. British Labour is just now entering upon a momen- tous game with transference of a large proportion of work to Eastern rivals as a possible issue, and admission to substantial co-partnery with Capital as a probable ending and an impetuous " move " at this time may entail enormous and conceivably irre- trievable injury upon the cause of British Labour. Destitute Capital and Destitute Labour. The notion which is the source of most mis- chief in our national situation to-day is the idea entertained by large bodies of artisans and labour- ing men, expressed in a plenitude of vivid phrase, and conveyed in a great variety of vernacular, that they undergo robbery daily at the hands of the men who employ them and whom they serve. These men seem to have got the impression that if they only got " justice " they would be living as well as their employers appear to live ; which, of course, is a great fallacy. If there be " robbery " on the part of the employer, it must be from the point of view of the individual workman " robbery' practically insignificant in amount, and this almost infinitesimal item of " theft " may happen to be the sole margin of advantage large in the aggregate, it may be, but small in the case of each particular workman that keeps an employer in the business of finding work for other people as well as for himself. The great wealth of individual men in these days can be ac- counted for largely on the principle that " many a mickle makes a muckle : " as a rule if an employer gets rich now, it is either owing to the multiplicity of his employes or the multiplicity of his customers. That famous theory which represents Labour as being robbed of two-thirds of its produce is being everywhere exploded, and Socialists may well begin to fight shy of it. The Socialist contention admits 142 Socialism and Sense. of several effective replies as, for example, the interesting answer given in your local Leader, which showed " that the iniquity of the capitalist consists in the fact that for allowing the labourer the use of ,100 worth of machinery and tools he receives J3 a year/' The idea favoured by many labouring men that they are as veritable gold-mines to their em- ployers may have had and probably had a basis of fact in past decades, before the birth and during " the minority " of Trade-Unionism, but it is difficult to believe that it is the fact to-day. While Labour, thanks to many factors, but largely to the principle of unity which finds expression in the too-meagrely- sustained Trades Unions of the country, is gaining annually in strength, ancient Capital unallied to Ability and activity is rapidly climbing down from a position of arrogance and despotism to an attitude of sweet reasonableness, and in some instances almost whispering humbleness. The cost of management, the charge for Ability, may be going up, and justly going up, in correspondence with the cost of labour; but Interest on mere Capital has lately fallen heavily, and will inevitably fall still further. There is, in fact, a Destitute Capital as well as a Destitute Labour; and the problem to which patriotic minds have now to direct and devote them- selves is really that of finding employment for Capital as well as work for Labour, by the promotion and perpetuation of an enlarged and regular demand for goods. The Solution of the^Unemployed Question. " An enlarged and regular demand for goods." Yes, there is the solution of the Unemployed Ques- tion. But how are we to get " an enlarged and regular demand for goods ? " The man who could positively promise this enlarged and regular demand, by any method, whether complex or simple, would Socialism and Sense. be assured of a statue in gold on the flags of that Royal Exchange whose front bears boldly the legend, " The Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." All minds, however, are being bent to the solution of the problem, and solutions not solution will the earlier arrive, so far as our environment and natural advantages permit, the earlier we shake off the shackles of ignorance, prejudice, and fear which still bind large masses of the population in all grades of society, and the freer we can (in consistency with the claims of humanity) permit our rnanfacturers, merchants, and traders to pursue their own ideas in their own way. " Help, but don't unnecessarily handicap" must be the motto of the State towards all persons practically engaged in attempts to solve this all-important problem. 144 Socialism and Sense. CHAPTER VI. A BARRIER TO PROSPERITY. " Oh, for a Year of Self-Denial ! " Talking of the shackles of ignorance, prejudice, and fear : we realise all too lightly how greatly our national prosperity that is, an enlarged and regular demand for goods is dependent upon international Peace, how largely our Woe is directly related to War and the prevalence of the war-spirit. If we could throw off that " National Millstone " in the shape of the National Debt at present amount- ing to 664,163,141, entailing an annual charge of 16,132,000 for Interest who, on sound grounds, can deny that, though fund-holders might be personally inconvenienced, and trade might be temporarily dislocated by the transfer of monies involved, the Country would be as a giant refreshed with wine ! By the way : Except for the fact that a vast proportion of the National Debt is held in the name of a large proportion of the proletariat themselves, I might be somewhat uneasy if I were a fund-holder half-a-century hence ; for it can- not be concealed that an ugly feeling is steadily growing up in relation to the National Debt, which is openly stigmatised as the terrible sign- mark of the immoral and wasteful engagements of a governing clique that the people at large, now that they have come into power, would be perfectly justified in repealing, on the same principle that the bad laws of old have been repealed. What a grand achievement it would be if the nation, following the example of the Salvation Army, could be induced to enact a " Self-denial Year" and get rid of this monstrous incubus once for all ! Despite certain fine-spun theories afloat as to the virtues of the National Debt, no practical business man will deny that the nation out of debt, like a family free Socialism and Sense. 145 from debt, would be a much more frequent and valuable customer than a nation that is living "up to the ears " in debt. Sir William Harcourt's hands have never been sufficiently upheld in his patriotic efforts to clear off year by year an increasing pro- portion of the National Debt. Talk of popular agitations : Why not a great popular agitation for the discharge of the National Debt? It would inevitably bring to the front in the most vivid and irresistible fashion the series of important questions which the Financial Reform Association is so laudably engaged in pressing upon public attention. It could not fail to give a front-rank place to that most urgent of all public questions the question of the increasing measure and cost of National Armaments. The Democracy and the Black Eagle. Whilst numbers of us are chattering daily over the probability of the speedy advent of a United States of Universal Brotherhood, the War-Spirit is poised over Europe like a gigantic black eagle, with evil in its heart, destruction and death in its talons and the suggestion of a funereal pall in its wings. How earnestly it is to be wished that Mr. Mallock, or some other expert in graphic presentation of figures, would issue to the world a picture of the deprivation it suffers in loss of production and waste generally through the existence of the standing Armies and Navies of Europe at their present dimen- sions. Europe really cannot afford to carry so many armed men on its back ; if it persists much longer in its present policy it will stumble badly, and somebody King, Emperor, even Czar may come a very sad " cropper " indeed. To reasonable measures of National Protection like the British Fleet of half-a-dozen years ago the average English- man will never raise objection ; but the trouble L 146 Socialism and Sense. is that in matters of national defence Eeason has been superseded by a Eivalry which is at once the outcome of cowardice and vanity. One strong man in one strong nation might stem the torrent of foolish fear and idiotic emulation which is rapidly carrying the nations towards the break-up of empires and the devastation of peoples ; but Europe has almost ceased to breed strong men. Failing the strong man, the Democracy of Europe must be left to carry its fate in its own hands, and there is every reason to dread that that fate, therefore, will be a grief that will live for many a decade, and a misery that will burn into the memories of millions as the hot iron of the slave-dealers of old burnt the fatal letter of ignomy and hard-labour into the very flesh of the most ill-fated of the sons of Adam. Unhappily, it is on the side of war that Democracy is ever weakest ; and a flighty Emperor, a vain Statesman, or a feather-brained Journalist, may any day drag a great nation in his train to red ruin if he likes to pipe in Hamlin-like strains of patriotism and imperial greatness ! Why, as we have just seen, one of the best Governments (from the point of view of legislative performance and intention as well as from the point of view of administration) that the working- people of this country have ever known, has been killed by a powder-cart ! How to Celebrate the New Century's Birthday. Who can save Europe from so tremendous a calamity? There is one Grand Old Man whose influence to such an end could not fail to be enormous. We thank him always for his scathing epistles against the propagators and feeders of the War- Spirit, but our thanks would be forthcoming a thousand-fold if he would only get into the saddle in pursuit of that Peace which even the German Emperor has confessed that all the nations need Socialism and Sense. and desire ! The material gains alone will justify superhuman exertion. Disarmament in however moderate a measure would probably disorganize industry for a period ; but the ultimate gain to the entire Continent resulting from a vast body of men keeping themselves instead of being kept by a body of other men would be as a glorious burst of sunshine amidst November gloom. For economic reasons, if for no other, as I have suggested, a desperate effort ought to be made to distinguish the opening of the Twentieth Century by a reduc- tion of the Armaments of Europe, in measure, say, corresponding; with the age of the New Century. Failing a farewell blast from Mr, Gladstone's golden trumpet, here is a magnificent chance for the Labour Leaders of Europe : it may be open to them to succeed where Peer Premiers, even when aided by able Editors, have distinctly failed. Let them remember that it is Labour in the main which carries the load, and that it will be Labour which will feel the greatest measure of relief when the weight of the burden is diminished. Mr, Mill, they may recall, wrote thus in relation to war loans : " When- ever capital is withdrawn from production, or from the fund destined for production, to be lent to the State, and expended unproductively, that whole sum is withheld from the labouring classes : the loan therefore is in truth paid off the same year ; the whole of the sacrifice necessary for paying it off is actually made : only it is paid to the wrong person, and therefore does not extinguish the claim ; and paid by the very worst of taxes, a tax exclusively on the labouring classes/' When is our own Trades Congress going to show real earnestness on this question ? Why does it not summon an International Conference and demand that the resolves of Labour shall be heard, and not only heard but respected, in the Cabinets of Chancelleries and the Palaces of L 2 148 Socialism and Sense. Emperors ? Why not a travelling deputation to Borne, Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg, beginning and ending, we must not forget to add, at Downing Street? Oh, for a breezy talk between William of Germany and Burns of Battersea ! and a calm confab between Fenwick of Northumberland and Nicholas of Russia ! This over-whelming Question of Over- Armament is above everything else a People's Ques- tion, and the Peoples of Europe must be bestirred to see and do their duty in respect thereto. Sensible movements like that with which the name of Mr. Cremer is associated have sown the seed on the Continent for a momentous revolution : who is going in to reap the harvest of Peace and the never-ending gratitude of the Peoples of Europe ? Socialism and Sense. 149 . CHAPTER VII.-INTERNATIONAL INTERDEPENDENCE. The Prime Interest of Britain. It is upon the prevalence of a sense of stable Peace, after all, I repeat, that all stable prosperity must be based; and emphatically "the greatest British interest is Peace/' To an industrial nation like Britain the existence of constant and ex- panding markets that is, peoples working at the height of their productive power, and therefore eager for an exchange of products is all vital ; and suspicion and fear the withdrawal of vast numbers of men from production turmoil, devastation, and death are destructive of that demand for manufactured goods which is imperative if we are not merely to exist but to flourish and wax fat. Confidence and Consumption are cause and effect in the economic world. Peace at home is good, but Peace abroad is quite as much to be desired. For good or ill, the world is one and indivisible ; and if Civilization is to be maintained, the game of free exchange must continue to be played. All talk of the self-contained capacity of this country like that in which certain members of the Indepen- dent Socialist Party indulge is sheer nonsense : we exist by interdependence, and this inter- dependence is as striking in countries as in persons. The countries of the world were not built as water- tight compartments : and it is sheer insanity to refuse recognition to the most palpable of facts, that the universe will have reached its climax of prosperity only when each nation has discovered that its truest interest lies in the friendliest and and freest interchange of what is produced best and cheapest in one country for what is produced best and cheapest in a sister country. Even from the point of view of supply of food stuffs alone, the case for Free Exchange on the part of Britain is irresistible. 150 Socialism and Sense. The Battle of Free Trade. It looks as if the Battle of Free Trade will have to be fought out afresh in this country ; but, with the issues clearly stated, the shrewd folk who inhabit these isles can surely come to no conclusion other than that which would intensify and magnify the triumph of Cobdenism. There is much plau- sible talk afloat as to the feasibility and the wisdom of putting market-tolls on goods manufactured abroad ; but where exists its force in face of the probability that the English consumer would ulti- mately have to pay the toll, and that the temper to- wards retaliation on the part of foreign countries would then admit of no brooking ? As to the value of free trade to the working man of Britain, I cannot resist quoting a passage from the speech in which Mr. James Craig so gallantly rallied to the side of Mr. John Morley in the fight for the con- fidence of the citizens of Newcastle, for rarely, if ever, have I seen its virtues so vividly presented and so earnestly extolled : "But I was speaking, gentle- men, of the policy which had been introduced by such men as Bright and Cobden and Mr, Gladstone. You will be told daily daily, if you will only listen to it that these men have ruined the country. Kuined the country ? Is it ruin to get a loaf where you would only get a quarter or a third before ? Is it ruin to find that you can live on smaller wages ? Is it ruin for the merchant, the manufacturer, the man of business, or the tradesman, to find that he can now live on half what he lived on before ? Is it ruin to find that all the necessaries of life have been so brought to our door so aggregated and swept in, as it were, upon us by the goodwill of other peoples, that we are absolutely barring accidents of war and, such like absolutely better provided than ever we, were in the history of this country ? Is it ruin to Socialism and Sense. know that, happen what may, there is not a country in North or South America, there is not a country from China to Peru, that will not pour in upon this poor, this barren, this bankrupt country some people call it, every article it can make, every article it can produce, and will supply us with everything we want ? " We should be proud, rather than protesting, because our country is the centre of the World's Exchange. Rome in her greatest glory never en- joyed so magnificent and so profitable a distinction ! To be the Capital of Cosmopolitanism is to be in a position to mould and transform the Universe ! Socialism and Sense. CHAPTER VIII. HOME REMEDIES. A Wide Field. But whilst recognising from our national stand- point the overwhelming importance of maintaining and extending by all legitimate and just means, of course our commercial status abroad, I confess that I am in strong sympathy with the growing demand for changes at home which will enable us to utilise more extensively and profitably our own powers and capacities as a nation, which will help us to benefit more equally and equitably from the exercise of our powers and capacities as a nation, and which will at the same time help us to mitigate, if not absolutely obviate, the severities of fluctuations and depres- sions of trade so largely due to foreign influences, which there is grave reason to fear will, under the growing stress of international competition and com- plication, be increasingly experienced, unless we brace ourselves as a nation to meet and overcome them. The Home Eemedies suggested to this end cover a wide field the most urgent have great works of public utility as their subject, some relate to the regulation of production, several deal with the relations of Capital and Labour, others are con- cerned with the unlocking of barriers to production, a lew have in view stimuli to consumption, others have reference to a better distribution of profits and while some appear to be utterly impracticable, others are obviously feasible, and some even im- mediately practicable. Work for the Workless. Let us turn at once to these schemes of the im- mediately-practicable order, bearing especially upon the urgent question of lack and irregularity of em- ployment. Before long the Government cannot fail Socialism and Sense. 153 to give its attention in dead earnest to proposals of a recuperative and remunerative kind, schemes which, while providing work for the unemployed, will at the same time make the nation healthier, stronger, and richer. A great plan of afforesting ought to be amongst the earliest of its works, and loans on easy terms to local authorities anxious to build railways, either heavy or light, through districts at present suffering from the want of up-to-date communication, would be a very wise way of indicating its solicitude for the employment of the unemployed and the advancement of the best interests of the country. There can be little question that the proposal to plant the waste lands of the country with trees even lands covered with coal debris and slag can be so planted deserves immediate attention. Mr. Fletcher, the ex-Editor of the Daily Chronicle, who is an earnest advocate of this scheme, maintains that a large portion of the timber which is now imported at a cost of 18,000,000 every year might be grown within our own borders, and employment be found for 70,000 persons for 40 years, by which time a handsome profit would begin to be realised. Forty years ago the district of Landes, in France, was a wilderness, but since it has been successfully afforested 80 millions sterling has been added to the national wealth. Other opportunities for the pro- fitable employment of the unemployed are to be found in fore-shore reclamation, and in the further drainage of the land: some 15,000,000 acres of land, I believe, yet remain to be drained. There is also the scheme for a ship canal from Sol way to Tyne, a tunnel from Scotland to Ireland, and a ship canal through Ireland. A beginning must really be made quickly with works of this kind : they are works of national utility which must be undertaken sooner or later, and a policy of delay not only provides ammunition for 154 Socialism and Sense. Socialist agitators, but keeps many willing workers workless. The employable unemployed, we recog- nise, are at present unemployed because they cannot be employed profitably in the ordinary channels of private enterprize ; but here are works either too huge in area or too distant in profit for private enterprize to tackle on which they could in all probability be employed quite profitably if the State would recognise it as its direct duty to give a helping-hand, by undertaking these tasks as long- distance investments, beyond the scope of private organizations of an ordinary kind. As Mr. Fletcher forcibly observes: " Is it not more economical to employ the workless on schemes not immediately remunerative than to spend millions on gaols and workhouses for them when they have been starved into crime and pauperism ? " The Chance for Trade Unionism. Then more, I think, might be obtained than has hitherto been got out of Mr. John Burns's pet plan of Municipal Labour Bureaux (situated along with the offices and meeting-halls of the leading trades-unions, in the local Town Halls) in association with an Imperial Labour Bureau, "utilising the 18,000 post-offices for ascertaining and exchanging the varying local industrial needs ; " and when this idea assumes a working shape, part of its develop- ment may in time take the form of inducing or compelling the railway and other transit companies to convey destitute labour to all the centres of demand, at specially low fares, the interests of the nation in this particular taking precedence over the interests of the companies, whose practical monopolies sufficiently justify the proposal. Again, a great gain in the direction of the organization of labour (using " organization " in its wide sense) may be scored by the simple expedient of raising the Socialism and Sense. 155 age up to which children must continue at school. " More of Teaching and less of Toiling" for our children would give us profit at both ends of the scale. Another prescription of the " simple " order is an extension and development of the Trades- Unions. When the results that have accrued to the working-classes, in the shape of augmented wages, shortened hours, and enhancement of the dignity of labour, through the policy of Trades-Unionism, are counted up, the proportion of non-unionists to unionists amongst the working population to-day cannot fail to strike the investigator as astounding* While one section of Socialists is seeking by every art to " capture " the Trades-Unions for Socialism, another section openly sneer at the unions as an effete institution, which Socialism is quickly to super- sede ; but the Trade-Unionists of the country, by the pursuit of a broad-minded policy with the common (rather than class) good as its basis, in a spirit of zeal and helpfulness where weaker brethren are concerned, and in a spirit of reasonable con- sideration for employers when temporary difficulties of the industrial situation are in question, have it in their power to prove that the Future really rests with them. Broad based, securely organized, and wisely guarded, the Trades Unions, indeed, may become a substantial factor in the development of events : they may yet figure as an instrument of evolution of a far-reaching and vital kind ; at least, they may bring in a reign of dividend-sharing on conditions \vhich are beyond cavil or question, and they may even be transformed by State -help into Co-operative Companies of Capitalists. 156 Socialism and Sense. CHAPTER IX. OVER-WORK AND UNDER-WORK. The Regulation of Production. Another remedy of the simple order, I submit, is to be found in a scheme for a partial avoidance of the over-production, with its consequent irregularity of employment and waste, which is at the present time one of the incidents of competition. Social- ists, as we know, make a strong point of the '* strife and waste " attending the working of the existing system, which they maintain are conditions necessary to individual vitality. Even if this were so, I would be prepared to pay the price, for without individual vitality the nation would speedily have to put up its shutters altogether ; but I hold that these in their present measure are not at all an absolutely necessary sequel to the working of the existing system, and I contend that the processes of production and distribution and exchange can be brought more within the area of knowledge, reason, and common sense. The State ought to be the ever-watchful and eager handmaiden of Trade and Commerce ; and I hold that it is within the power of the Government materially to diminish the " strife and waste " which at present constitute the element that chiefly makes for industrial disasters. Abun- dant evidence was laid before the Eoyal Commis- sion on Depression of Trade in 1885 as* to syste- matic over-production continued during a long period, " and resulting, "according to the unanimous testimony of the witnesses, in the language of the Commissioners' Eeport, " in little or no profit to the producing classes ; " and the fact which was in my mind when I first ventured to submit this suggestion has since been admirably expressed in Mr. Gonner's volume, " The Socialist State : " " Of course, the work of production is not undertaken Socialism and St unintelligently and without reference to the probable needs of the country, for a great element in business success consists in the skill of gauging the possible markets, and the intelligence brought to bear on this task ranks very high ; but, despite all efforts, the fact remains that goods are produced which are not wanted, at prices at which they are not wanted, and in quantities in which they are not wanted, since, however correct the forecast of the need and demands of society may have been, there is nothing to prevent too many producers from simultaneously making this forecast in ignorance of each others inten- tions, and of a threatening over-production." The Board of Trade already does something to acquaint our manufacturers and commercial classes with the course of trade ; but I hold it ought to do very much more. Every man in his senses, I suppose, will admit not merely the advantage of, but the need for such a regulation of production as can be obtained without infringing upon any producer's individual private judgment and liberty of action ; and I maintain that one of the chief objects of the Board of Trade ought to be the prevention of ignorant or rash speculation and the promotion of regularity of production, and con- sequently the attainment of greater regularity of employment. The Government as "Danger-Signal." The main object the avoidance of alternating periods of over-work and lack of employment may be largely attained, as I contend, by the utilisation of the resources of the State for the benefit of our manufacturers and traders. "We all know the " bursts " of confidence on the incoming of a time of prosperity and the eagerness to take the utmost ad\anta^eof seeming indications of demand which seduce our manufacturers into the over-building and 158 Socialism and Sense. over-machining of factories and the working of large bodies of workpeople at the highest pressure ; and we are painfully acquainted with the collapses and disasters which follow upon the niad-bull rushes which sometimes overtake Industrialism. The latest illustration of this vice of our industrial system I find in an article in the South Wales Daily News (March 12th, 1895) setting out " excess of com- petition and over production " as " a fruitful cause of the present deplorable depression in the Welsh tin-plate trade " : " No sooner does a trade become especially prosperous and profitable than capital is poured into it without stint, and without due and careful consideration of possible contingencies and of temporary or permanent restriction of the trade caused by lessened demand, or by the competition of foreign rivals ; consequently, when the recurring seasons of general trade depression occur, as occur they always do in given cycles of years, that particular trade which had forced production to its extremest limit is sure to suffer, and to suffer heavily." It is to this " excess of competition and over-production '' that we owe in a considerable measure those great depressions of trade which are the chief source of our national trouble ; and for the avoidance of this enormous evil, with its terrible sequel in the vicissitudes experienced by our artisan and labouring classes, the administrative depart- ments of the Government must give help to the utmost of their knowledge and power. We cannot hope to control the tides of trade ; but if our famous national knowledge of what Eogers calls " the machinery of trade " is worth anything at all, we ought to be able to anticipate, direct, and con- serve them better than we have managed to do hitherto. It must be made more and more the duty of the Government to assist manufacturers and traders to a better interpretation of the requirements Socialism and Sense. of the situation, and to induce them to recognise the individual benefit likely to result from looking at the position, immediate and prospective, from a collective as well as from a personal point of view. This kind of help is well within the capacity of our Government Departments : it is only an extension of the work which they are performing to-day in several directions ; and it is the kind of help which it is the proper province of the Government to offer for the advantage of the citizens at large. A National Clearing-House of Production. For illustration : Why should not the Board of Trade present to the country at least once a month a picture of our national production a kind of current chart of sales, stocks, and orders which would let everybody individually concerned know how we stand collectively? The existing Export and Import Keturns don't come within miles of my meaning ; the Bank Returns are nearer it. I would have the Government issue at very short intervals a Return which would show, say, roughly, in national aggre- gate for each trade : 1, amount of orders fulfilled, alike as to nature, quality, and monetary value; 2, amount of stock, both in raw material and finished goods ; 3, orders in hand, as to nature, quality, and monetary value ; 4, buildings and machinery- power, increased or diminished ; 5, number of hands, increased or diminished, and wages paid, increased or diminished; 6, reports from foreign countries (alike from private agents and Government officials) as to probable character and measure of demand for next 12 months. In short, let us establish a National Clearing- House of Production, Distribution, and Ex- change. There ought to be no real difficulty expe- rienced in giving practical effect to this idea. Each manufacturer and trader would forward his share of the necessary information to a Board of Trade official, 160 Socialism and Sense. under the seal of confidence, in the same way as he gives information under the income-tax regula- tions ; and out of this material the Board of Trade ought to be able to compile a return of the greatt st national service. Since putting the idea into shape, I have discovered that the commercial classes of the City have already travelled a considerable distance along the road I have suggested. In reply to a series of questions issued by the Royal Commission on Depression of Trade and Industry, in 1885, the London Chamber of Commerce suggested "the publication and circulation of more complete statistics of home production and consumption, capital invested, labour and machinery employed, remuneration of labour, wages, selling-prices, etc. in a word, of a periodical and complete industrial census (as in the United States, France, Germany, Austria, etc.)/' No action, however, has been taken in this direction. " Cutting " in Trade. Is it necessary to dwell upon the advantages of such a system as has been here outlined ? The essence of prosperous manufacturing and trading is regularity and evenness of production ; while to the work- people this simply spells health and life. Now, each firm acts on the strength of its own particular knowledge of present consumption and impressions of future demand, and often in comparative ignorance as to the work and orders and impressions of rival firms, with the result that frequently all suffer badly ; and worst effect of all '* cutting " of the most unhappy description is often an outcome of this ignorance and absence of intimate corres- pondence. By the way, "cutting/' in the form now extensively practised that is, a manufacturer or trader accepting a price lower than he considers just because he is persuaded by the would-be pur- Socialism and Sense. 161 chaser that a competiting manufacturer is prepared to do the work for less than the sum originally named can scarcely be described as fair competition, and there is some danger that if rigorously pursued it may bring serious disaster on certain districts of the country. A scheme such as I have sketched could not fail to help to rid the commercial classes of " cutting" in its more obnoxious forms. What possible objection can any manufacturer or trader raise to receiving information, most valuable to him in his business, that is far beyond the resources of his own inquiry-bureau, particularly when his own contribution to the aggregate information is as sacred as if confided to a father-confessor ? The Sir Courtney Boyle of the Future. The Return would enable the manufacturers and traders of the country to approximate to the methods of the great monopolist " trusts " and the large co- operative stores, which benefit largely from their ability to accurately estimate consumption from period to period. The Return might be sup- plemented at times of crisis, or even at regular intervals, by conferences between representatives of the Government and the manufacturers and traders of the country, distributed in their respective trades. Just as the Sir Courtney Boyle of the present invited the representatives of the employers and work-people in the boot-trade to meet him at the offices of the Board of Trade for consultation on the position of their trade, so I can anticipate a time when the Sir Courtney Boyle of the future will call upon the manufacturers and traders of the country to meet him in groups, so that he may lay before them facts of great importance as to the probable course of trade at home and abroad, and confer with them as to the adoption of the policy best calculated to keep the trade and commerce of the Empire running 162 Socialism and Sense. on an " even keel." I do not put forward this sug- gestion as a panacea for all the ills from which the nation suffers, but I do maintain that it is distinctly on the lines of experience and sense. Why should the secrets of our manufactures and com- merce be hidden when great calamities may be prevented by their disclosure ? The manufactur- ing and trading classes could not well offer objec- tions to a return largely issued in their own in- terests ; and if those Members of Parliament who so loudly proclaim themselves as specially interested in matters affecting Industry and Commerce are really in earnest, such a Return ought to be a com- mon-place of our administrative system within the compass of the next twelve months. Socialism and Sense. 163 CHAPTER X. BROTHERHOOD IN BUSINESS. " The Service of Affection." Another remedy of the immediately-practicable order a remedy on the lines of business-profit as well as on the basis of humanity is contained in the demand that there must be between the Partners in Production, between the employer and the labourer, a clearer acknowledgment of that flesh-and-blood relationship which Mr. Gladstone so eloquently em- phasized in the earlier stages of the Franchise agitation, and a closer recognition and association of interests which in the ultimate form a common interest. The British working-man, indeed the servant in every occupation, is still over an exten- sive area treated as if he or she were a mere machine without sentient interest of any kind. Comparatively few heads of businesses in these days have yet grasped the importance of Mr. Kuskin's demonstration of the superior value of the "service of affection," and fewer still, grasping it, have prac- tised it. There are many large establishments where the predominant partner is scarcely seen from year's end to year's end, where workmen are prac- tically on twenty-four-hour engagments, and where the managers are as ignorant of the identity and interests of their hands as if they lived in China or Japan. This was not so in the olden time, and now that we are in the mood to re -organise after the upheaval created by the introduction of machine methods of production, we would do well to return quickly to the spirit, if not to the forms, of per- sonal knowledge and friendly intimacy between employers and employed that materially helped to give its strong and lasting qualities to the social fabric of the nation. Our greatest danger as a State arises from the contrasts H'l 164 Socialism and Sense. which can be drawn and are daily drawn be- tween the social signs of the various grades of Society, and all minds must be persistently bent to the task of obliterating the facts which give these substance and point, removing all factors which leave rankling amongst any body of men a sense of unjust treatment, and knitting class and class, partner (Capital) and partner (Labour), and man and man, closer and closer together, on the basis of a common parentage, a common interest, and a common patriotism. "Conscience" in the New Century. 44 But how is this to be accomplished?" you will ask. Mainly, I answer, by minimising to the utmost the metallic ring which runs in so un- musical a way through all our associations in the relation of master and servant. The servant, in the eyes of the master, must take rank once for all as a man and a brother, and not as a machine insensible to all human feelings ; the servant, on his part, must acknowledge, and acknowledging sympathise with, the troubles and trials of the body of men who, while seeking primarily to benefit themselves and their families, use their brains at the same time for the benefit of those of their fellow men either less wise or less able or less assertive or less audacious or less active than themselves ; and both must strive without ceasing after the establishment of a harmonious and beneficial union between the two forces. Don't let us anticipate miracles from a general acceptance of this attitude of mind the atmosphere of the Twentieth Century will not be favourable, I am afraid, to the working of miracles ; but do let us believe because belief is an all-important factor in the development of the fact that the main end of all well-wishers of their country that is, an augmentation of the welfare, Socialism and Sense. the happiness, and ihe progress of the population at large will be materially advanced by the continued pursuit of this policy. Conscience, mummified so long, is slowly but surely casting off the wrappings of the Ages, or, rather, Conscience is now beginning to emerge from bud into blossom ; and it is reasonable to anticipate that a great development of the tendencies it has already manifested in affairs material will be witnessed as the years of the Coming Century roll on. OUP British Lepers ! Let us hope that the earliest workings of Con- science in the New Century will have as their result the disappearance of the words " sweating" and 1 'sere wing" in their industrial sense from the language of the English-speaking peoples. Let all honest and manly citizens combine to stamp with the stigma of shame and contumely the man, what- ever his position, whatever his influence, who un- necessarily and wantonly takes advantage of the distress or weakness of a brother in blood and brain, to wrest from that brother an undue pro- portion of his property, the fruit of his labour. Firms must not be permitted to work " pockets" of unsophisticated or weak men as adventurers work " pockets" of gold; for not only is rank injustice wrought from the individual point of view, but a solid injury is done to the public interest likewise, when bodies of working people are paid, not according to the natural value of their labour, but according to their ignorance of the value of their work, or their lack of courage, or their lack of unity, or the weight of their family cares. What a pity it is that we cannot clip or " ear-mark " all the money that is made in an ignoble way ! If we could be able to say on seeing a dirty shilling, " That was made by the great Jones 1 66 Socialism and Sense. by * screwing ' poor Brown ;" or concerning a soiled sixpence, " That was ' sweated ' from the starving girl Smith by the wealthy Kobinson," how our eyes would be opened to the extent and horror of evils which make no impression upon us to-day, and what a striking change would follow in the business policy of numerous big and famous firms ! To pay a man, not according to the value of his ability in the market, but according to his necessities at the moment, must be treated as one of the meanest acts committable under the canopy of heaven, and the man who piles up gold at his bankers by such methods as these must be shunned as a leper, whose touch is contaminating to civilized men and women. ilism and Sense. CHAPTER XI. LABOUR AND LIBERTY. The Eight-Hours' Day. Amongst the impracticable schemes for easing the industrial situation I do not hesitate to place the proposal that nobody in Britain, whatever his wish or whatever his needs, or whatever the wishes or needs of others, shall work more than eight hours per day. An hour aye, an eight-hours' day might easily be spent upon an examination of this scheme ; but it seems to be already proving self-destructive, and some of its ablest advocates are hastily covering up their defeat by identifying with it things (such as wise amend- ments made, in a humanitarian spirit, in the factory and workshop laws, a change in the age of half- timers, and voluntary concessions of an eight- hour day in national and municipal establishments) which have no bearing upon the attempt to fix a universal eight-hour day by law the observance of which men would neglect at peril of imprisonment. No intel- ligent man will to-day be disposed to deny that up to a certain point (varying acccording to the trade or occupation, and, of course, also according to the physical and mental characteristics of the worker) it will hold good, as a rule, that the shorter the .time spent in labour the greater will be the efficiency of the labourer a fact of which our leading " captains of industry " are already taking cogni- zance in the most practical form ; and, apart from economic reasons, all good men and women must .pray earnestly for a further shortening of the surfeit of toil, which interferes so disastrously with the full enjoyment of the truest pleasures of life. But surely there never has existed a domain into which Law strict, inelastic, cast-iron Law could enter with so indifferent a justification and so poor a 1 68 Socialism and Sense. prospect of success as the domain of hours of labour. In no sphere of national life are the com- plexities greater, the inequalities more striking. Yet all occupations are to he measured by the same foot-rule of the Law. Certain occupations are a gamut of alternations or variations of labour which no amount of organization can alter, and the length of day, too, is often governed by the arduousness or otherwise of the occupation ; but these familiar facts have, apparently, no tangible influence upon the agitators for this law. Posts of hardship and respon- sibility and posts of elegance and ease are to weigh alike in the balance ; and the uncontrollable forces of Nature, the necessities of the public, and the facts of foreign competition, are all treated as if they are so many figments of an idle imagination. Can hope of victory along a line of such resistance be really entertained by sane men ? The Contemplated Coercion of the Northern Counties. This seems to be an unfortunate moment to im- pose such a law upon certain trades we may yet reach a point of depression when many worthy fellows will be glad to work ten hours per day, if thereby they can keep the wolf of hunger from the door of their humble homes. Still, I am so much for liberty of action that I would even accord men liberty to put themselves under the control of the law, if so they pleased ; and as I have already indicated, I found great hopes upon a Policy of Experiment always provided that it is Experiment with Liberty. So, believing that we can some times benefit as much from the experiment that fails as from the experiment that succeeds, I am inclined to ask, If theie be any consider- able body of men desperately anxious to fetter themselves, why should they not be allowed to try the experiment at their own cost, in the interest Socialism and Sense. 169 of the " Common Good ? " It will be, obviously, an act of supreme silliness for any body of workmen to tie themselves up to the whipping-post at so critical a period in our industrial history, but so long as they are not given the power to tie up other people at the same time, why refuse them the satisfaction of experimenting upon themselves? With natural conditions unequal, a law applying equally to all districts would impose upon the poor and indifferent districts a harsh handicap of injustice which could not possibly be maintained. As a well-known Northumbrian miner, Mr. W. Straker, pointed out in the course of an address to a body of Oxford students the other day : " If you establish a uniform eight hours' day, those districts with good natural conditions will eventually drive the other districts out of the market, and the result, I fear, will be that many in those districts that are now loudest for this measure will be the first to cry out against it in order to secure employment." Probably the very men who are at present most urgent for an enactment would be the first to run to the Home Secretary to pray for its repeal, as was the case in the Colony of Victoria. Still, if the Midland miners want a legal right to demand an Eight- Hours' Day within a strictly-defined area in the Mid- lands district, why not let them have it ? If they can fix up terms with the colliery proprietors, Parlia- ment can do little harm by endorsing the agreement for a period. Of course, they can accomplish the same end without Parliamentary endorsement, but if Parliamentary endorsement will ensure a greater content on their part, why not let them have their way ? As we cannot conceive of the Midland colliers desiring to coerce their comrades in other parts of the country, the miners of Northumberland and Durham would meanwhile go on enjoying the liberty of working in the way which suits and pleases them 170 Socialism and Sense. best ; and the country would in time pick up the points of profit in the procedure. But if it should be the fact that the Midland miners really do desire to coerce the Northern miners to their method of working with the idea, conceivably, that they can thereby help their employers to injure the Northern mines in the markets of the world then the knell of an interesting experiment is sounded : Parliament dare not attempt the coercion of the Northern Counties in a matter which is entirely within the constitutional domain of individual rights and liberty, or, if it dared, there would not be gaols enough to hold the righteous rebels, nor soldiers sufficient to compel the observance of the law. Those leaders of the Liberal Party who countenance the Miner s' Eight-Hours' Bill had better walk warily : their con- duct is very like that of men who wilfully carry a torch into a powder magazine. Have they contem- plated the situation which would be created if the industrious and sturdy miners of the North totally refused to accept an Eight-Hour Law ? " Ulster would fight, and Ulster would be right." The Force of Facts. " Facts are chiels that winna ding/' and the champions of the scheme of a universal Legal Eight-Hours' Day have willy-nilly had to acknow- ledge their existence. Experience of the working of a Voluntary Eight-Hours' Day tends to show that in a number of trades a change from a nine-hours' to an eight-hours' day would not result in any considerable thinning of the ranks of the unem- ployed, the extra efficiency of the men and savings in administration balancing the reduction of hours ; while it is as unmistakably apparent that in certain other trades a reduction of hours cannot be obtained without a reduction of wage or a serious loss of trade to the country for all assurances that hours socialism am tense. 171 and wages in this country have no influence what- ever on the capacity of foreign producers to hit our home-producers in the markets of the world are merely the assurances of men who feel that favourite theories are on the point of being crumpled up and thrown into the waste-paper-basket of national re- jection. The air around this question has now been perfectly cleared: Where it is distinctly proved to be an economic advantage to work short hours, in those trades, rest assured, the employers will quickly introduce them : while you may conclude with equal certainty that no law, however recom- mended, will induce an employer to carry on a busi- ness at a continuous loss. We have only to calmly ask ourselves : " Can we at the present time afford to enact a compulsory Eight-Hours' Day in trades where the same amount of work cannot be produced in eight as in nine hours ? " in order to bring the impracticability of the idea home. In short, under the stress of facts and arguments manifesting the practical difficulties and dangers likely to attend the enforcement of a law prescribing an Eight- Hours' Day, the original scheme, out of which much bold advertisement was got, is, like a yokel's twig, being whittled away to two very slim points the point of a 48-hours' week and the point of a re- stricted trade option. A Reduction of Wages Bill. As to the trade option scheme, the proposal IB, practically, that the majority of a certain trade in a certain locality should be permitted to do under the form of law what it can already do under the form of social custom enforce, if it is strong enough, a change in the hours to be worked in that trade in that particular district. Of course, in this direction, as in every other aspect of the agitation, the ability and disposition of the employer is a factor tne ar 172 Socialism and Sense, which will not be ignored : You may get an Eight- Hours' Act to-morrow, but you cannot by any law bind the employer to pay you for an eight-hours' day the sum he pays you for a nine-hours' day. The working men of this generation will no more succeed in attaining this end than did the champions of the Eight-Hours' Movement in 1834 the Society for Promoting National Kegeneration. In some trades, the employer, through the attitude of the public towards the goods manufactured, or through the pressure of foreign competition, may be driven to say to his men : " By law, I am compelled to close my works an hour earlier every day ; but the law does not compel me to pay you more for your labour than it is worth to me, and as the value of your labour, by virtue of your shorter hours, has fallen, say, by 4s. per week, you must accept such a reduction in your wages, if I am not to close the works alto- gether ;" or he may resort to the equally easy plan of paying by the hour instead of by the day, as was the case in California. By reason of the greater effi- ciency of labour secured through the shorter hours, this reduction of wages will not be necessary in cer- tain trades, but in certain other trades, where a greater efficiency cannot be attained, such a reduction seems to be inevitable, and all the Eight-Hour-Day Laws in the world will not prevent it taking effect : in a word, an Act for the Eeduction of the Hours of Labour to eight per day would in certain occupations be also an Act for a Keduction of Wages. As I send this volume to press, I note that a certain body of London tramway men have realised my contention in practical experience : the London County Council on taking over certain lines of tramway arranged that the men employed upon them should work only eight hours per day, but the Company to which it leased the lines with this condition has declined to pay the men the same wages for the shorter day Socialism and Sense. 173 that they paid them for the longer day, and it is even said that it is taking advantage of the oppor- tunity to reduce wages beyond the proportion of the actual difference in hours. There is good reason to believe that a number of advocates of the eight-hours' day regard it merely as a grand means to raise wages by increasing the overtime hours ; but these folk manifest a simplicity which is painful. Whatever they may be able to do in the way of reducing the returns to Ability or Capital, all the Tom Manns in creation can- not, either by lung-power or law, permanently "boom" wages beyond the purchasing desire of the public, and the sooner our artisans and labourers recognise this stern and stubborn fact, the better it will be for everybody. Prices may be raised, of course, but a rise in price under such circumstances is a mere boomerang you receive with one hand only to pay out with the other hand, while at the same time you may inflict irreparable injury upon trade and commerce. A Forty-Eight-Hour Week. As to the scheme of a forty-eight hours' week, to which in another direction the idea is drifting down, it undoubtedly removes the objections of many people, to whom the suggestion of a universal eight-hours' day presents itself as a piece of sheer insanity ; and if those responsible for the agitation were to frankly declare that they would be content with the enactment of a 48-hours' week for those tiades which can stand a reduction of hours without material damage to the employer or loss of trade to the country, I should not be surprised to see shortly a compromise "run through" on the illogical but eminently shrewd " lines " which a r e known all the world over as "English, quite English, you know." But whether an eight-hour day or a 48-hour week, 174 Socialism and Sense. not much in the way of relief from the pressure of the unemployed is to be expected, I fear, from this famous panacea. A Sanitary Standard for Labour A considerable impression on the unemployed fringe, however, might be made if Parliament, following the well-established principle of intervening on humanitarian grounds, as distinguished from economic grounds, were to enact, say, ten-hours as the Sanitary Standard for Labour the maximum of the labour-day enforceable in this kingdom, as such a law would affect large bodies of 'busmen, tram- men, railway servants, shop folk, and " sweated" trades like the bakers and tailors, though even in these cases, as we have seen, you can't compel employers to pay as much for a short day as they did for a long day. For this proposal which would destroy the strongest argument of the legal eight- hours'-day man much can be said and much needs to be said for there are men in certain easily-learnt occupations working to-day hours which constitute a crime against Humanity. But in any other way there is little to be expected, I think, from purely national legislation fixing hours of labour in a wide- spread and arbitrary way. International Legislation. Legislation affecting hours, however, might mate- rially change the situation : the kind of legislation I mean is International Legislation. As, perhaps, becomes one who was in a sense the historian of the strike in the North which laid the foundation of the Nine-Hours' Day as a great national fact, the idea of the arrangement or enactment of an International Eight-Hours' Day or 48-Hours' Week has often driven my pen in years past ; and every day now the need for the discussion of it grows in urgency. UNIVERSITY Socialism and Sense. 175 In certain trades, I admit, we have no reason to fear foreign competition indeed, I am prepared to believe that the best weapon with which to fight competition in some trades may be the concession of shorter hours to the workmen, the diminution of hours down to a certain limit increasing pro- portionally the efficiency of the worker ; but there remain a number of trades in which the longer hours worked and the smaller wages paid on the Continent are facts of the greatest consequence, and may develop into factors of the gravest import- ance. All concerned for the welfare of Britain, therefore, may reasonably be invited to give instant heed to the question of the means by which a greater equality of conditions may be obtained. But the approximation to equality must be, not in the direction of a levelling down to Continental conditions, but of a levelling-up to British hours, regulations, and pay. With all nations on the same footing, no one could complain of being handicapped assuredly not England ; while the workers of the Continent could not fail to benefit to an enormous extent. A Chance for " The Gospel of Wealth." This, indeed, is an Industrial Revolution worth setting about in grim earnest. Of course, this suggestion will be met by the cry, " Impracticable," and I readily admit that beyond the laying down of very broad lines of agreement, little can be accom- plished in the initial years of such a movement. But even a mere approach to equalization of in- dustrial conditions throughout Europe might change materially the social face of the Continent, and would inevitably better in a prodigious measure the position and prospects of our own country. A long time ago I urged that the trades unions of this country could not spend their funds more 176 Socialism and Sense. wisely than by commissioning missionaries to preach the gospel of shorter hours and higher pay amongst the artizans and labourers of the Con- tinent, year in and year out, in season and out of season ; and I am sure it would pay employers of labour to rally to the aid of our trade -unions in this particular. I remember that I had once the temerity to suggest (unsuccessfully, of course) to a famous philanthropist that he could not better serve Humanity and fulfil his duty in this life than by bearing the cost of a Mission of this kind ; and failing voluntary effort, I would not hesitate to maintain, in view of the issues at stake, that it is a work towards the accomplishment of which the Parliament of this country might wisely and pro- fitably vote a grant of money to a large amount. Talk of the task of Trades-Unionism : where a directer and quicker method of accomplishing the objects of Trades -Unionism than by raising the standard of desire and aspiration on the Continent ? Talk of the necessity and nobility of missionary work for improving the condition and elevating the tone of the labouring classes of the world : where is there a wider, a closer, and more fruitful field ! Talk of the main business of Governments promoting the economic welfare of the population and spreading content over the country : where a bigger chance, where a greater prospect ! The leaders of Labour must lose no time in bringing this idea of Inter- nationalizing the Conditions of Industry under the practical consideration of all men in a position to advance it. Is there no millionaire Briton capable of seizing an opportunity of amazing and unique distinction ? Failing a patriotic Briton, is there no American cousin in a position to bring in the wealth of the New World in order to redress the balance of injustice and misery in the Old ? If it should hap that "the Gospel of Wealth" has been Socialism and Sense. 177 preached in vain, then the People must surely help themselves, by commanding its Government to use its funds for the highest and most profitable of Communal purposes. The Diplomat may have to put the coping-stone upon the edifice ; but the Missionary must first dig the foundations, and the sooner he is set to work the earlier will the hour of universal rejoicing arrive. A Concordat fixing the primary conditions of industrial labour among the nations of Europe would be an achievement that would give the Government which accomplishes it a position of great eminence and precious consideration on the Records of the Twentieth Century. 178 Socialism and Sense. ..... . . . r CHAPTER XII. THE PROBLEM OF PROSPERITY. "Buy! Buy!! Buy!!!" To quiet people who think for themselves rather than echo boisterous people's thoughts it will appear, I conceive, that the solution of the Unemployed Question will have to be sought in some other direction than legislative peddling over reductions in hours of labour. In the main, of course, it will have to be found in an increase of the direct public demand for goods. Something must be anticipated from the development of Foreign Markets, and much certainly ought to be forth- coming from our Colonial Markets else what material return are we to get for the expenditure of blood and treasure in the pursuit of "Imperial interests ? " Those who recall recent speeches of Mr. Chamberlain at Birmingham will not be sur- prised if the right hon. gentleman signalises his occupancy of the Colonial Office by an attempt at a great expansion of our Colonial Markets ; and, always provided that this end is accomplished with- out robbery of natives or bloodshed of peoples, such a policy cannot fail to win for him the lustre of popular favour. But, as I have already suggested, our hopes, for a period at least, will best be built upon Home-Kemedies, and, of course, the home-remedy of home-remedies is best conveyed in the British tradesman's old and familiar cry, " Buy ! Buy!! Buy ! ! ! " Political economists are just now scratch- ing their heads sorely over the peculiar position of the country, owing to the enormous accumulations of capital without satisfactory employment ; and a certain school, actively represented in the Press by Mr. J. A. Hobson, seem to be strenuously preaching the doctrine (as I interpret it) that the nation is too niggardly, and that what the country needs is less Socialism and Sense. 179 saving and more spending. The problem is really comprised in the existence of the "irresponsible wealth which stagnates "a happy phrase used by the late Cardinal Manning in commenting upon Mr. Glad- stone's famous but unsuccessful plea for a charitable tithe on "the six or seven hundred millions" of "irresponsible wealth" possessed by the country; and the question is, how is a current of circulation to be sent through the stagnation ? Upon the answer to be given to this question almost everything depends. Much may be done at once by the 'Millionaires" themselves, if they are so minded, but much more will probably have to be done through the law a point upon which I dwell later. While the " millionaires " are miserly, it is impossible to preach the doctrine of a wise and profitable ex- penditure to the working-classes. Mr. Hobson undoubtedly scores a strong point when he writes : " Supposing everbody in England wanted to save, and reduced himself to the mere necessities of life, we should find that the greater part of the capital was absolutely valueless ; " but the working-man, as I daresay Mr. Hobson thoroughly realises, is not yet, unhappily, in a material position suffi- ciently strong to be reached by his argument. He can do little by purchase to give an impetus to pro- duction, because he is practically now at the end of his tether, if he must have regard to old age. Circulation of coin, not congealinent, I am quite ready to believe, is the imperative necessity of the situation, but only those can circulate the coin who possess it. Prosperity by Pension! If a further revision of our standards of taxation does not enable them to do it in the meantime, we must wait for the working-man to engage in the new form of investment Prosperity by Purchase^ N2 180 Socialism and Sense. until we have given him a reasonable sense of security against ill-luck in old age by granting Old- Age Pensions to all honourable men and women who have served the State faithfully and well. It is arguable that a national system of pensions might prove to be a very profitable form of national investment. if the population were under the assurance that provision for the enjoyment of the decencies of life would automatically await in old age those who bear the imprimatur of good citizenship, there might be a larger degree of spending to-day, to everybody's advantage. I have not space here to argue the case for Pensions : I will content myself by quoting a sentence from the pen of Mr. Euskin : "A labourer serves his country with his spade, just as a man in the middle ranks of life [or in the upper, Mr. Kuskin might have added, for is there any assemblage of men with so many pensioners as the House of Lords contains ?J serves it with his sword, pen, or lancet ; if the service is less, and, therefore, the work during health less, then the reward, when health is broken, rnay be less, but not, therefore, less honourable ; and it ought to be quite as natural and straight- forward a matter for a labourer to take his pension from his parish, because he has deserved well of his parish, as for a man in higher rank to take his pension from his country, because he has deserved well of his country. . . . As we advance in our social knowledge, we shall endeavour to make a government which shall have its soldiers of the ploughshares as well as its soldiers of the sword, and which shall distribute more proudly its golden crosses of industry golden as the glow of the harvest, than now it grants its bronze crosses of honour bronzed with the crimson of blood." A system of Old- Age Pensions would really be a national expression of the general impression that Socialism and Sense?'. 181 some compensation is due to our labouring popula- tion for their partial loss of economic independence through the monopoly permitted in land and the persistent intrusion of the Machine into the domain of Labour, and that a certain measure of " deferred pay " is due to the men and women whose labour has contributed so materially to the vast increase in the aggregate wealth of the nation upon which we all congratulate ourselves. But this suggestion apart, it is the highest duty and interest of the State to put and keep all its citizens in good heart, and with a sense of security in old age entertained by the great bulk of the population, a greater prosperity might await us. In a phrase, is it not conceivable, however startling, that Permanent Prosperity may possibly come in part by the Path of Pensions ? l2 Socialism and Sense. , CHAPTER XIII. MULTITUDE AND MACHINE. The New Continent the Continent of Machinery. As Statesmen are still in search of an inexhaustible well from which old-age pensions may he drawn, perhaps I may be permitted to " tap " a source which is more legitimate and likely than any which has so far come under my notice the Nationalization of the Monopoly of Machinery. No topic springs more .naturally out of the Unemployed Question than the subject of the attitude of the State in relation to Machinery. This has long taken rank in my mind as one of the most important and urgent questions of the day, and the recent trouble in the boot-trade in this country will doubtless help to force it upon the attention of Statesmen. We cannot over-rate the changes in our social situation already wrought and to be wrought by the introduc- tion of Machinery. Already the Machine, at any rate in the great manufacturing countries of the world, is far ahead of the mobilised manhood of these countries in power of production ; and Inven- tion, I believe, is still in its infancy. It is quite easy to imagine a period when Machinery will participate in all mechanical work, and what will be the position of the labouring peoples of the world then ? Verily, the Inventor has created a New Continent the Continent of Machinery ; and though its situation cannot be traced on any map in our atlases, it is destined to have a bigger influence, it may be even disastrously, upon the fortunes of mankind than any discovery of a Columbus or a Cook or a Stanley. The Machine should be, not the master, but the handmaiden of Man ; but there is just perceptible the danger that unless care is taken now to guide and befriend and bind him to the side of the People for ever, the and Sense. kind but blind Giant may be carried irretrievably captive into slavery by the Monopolists, and Man's most powerful and dearest friend may come to be regarded, and reasonably regarded, by millions of people as his greatest enemy. How the World has been Peopled Afresh. Have you ever reflected for five minutes upon the measure in which the population of the Earth has been increased by the multiplication of Machines ? It is as if the English-speaking peoples had deli- berately set themselves to people the world with a new race a race unknown to the anthropologists a race of dumb men, but a race absolutely accu- rate, religiously regular, constantly under control, and preternaturally powerful. Judging from the scantiness of the references in Mr. Hobson's " Study of Machine Production," no reliable statistics are available as to the measure in which machines have superseded men in this country, but the First Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labour of the United States (Washington, 1886) contains a very interesting chapter on the subject. Here are a few examples of the degree in which labour had been displaced up to that year: In a workshop for the manufacture of agricultural implements in one of the Western States 600 employes were doing the work which under the conditions prevailing fifteen or twenty years previously would have required '2,145 employes, a displacement of 1,545. In the manufac- turing of small arms, one man individually turned out and fitted the equivalent of 42 to 50 " stocks" m ten hours, as against one stock in the same length of time by manual labour, a displacement of 44 to 49 men in this one operation. Jt required 500 persons working by hand processes to make as many women's boots and shoes as 100 persons were able to make with the aid of machinery, a displacement 184 Socialism and Sense. of 80 per cent. Where a first-class workman could turn out six pairs of women's boots of another quality in one week, machinery enabled him to turn out 18 pairs. In other classes of boots the number of men required to produce a given quantity of boots had been reduced by one^half. Goodyear's sewing machine for turned shoes, with one man, sewed 250 pairs in one day ; it required eight men working by hand to sew the same number One man with the McKay machine could handle 300 pairs of shoes per day, while without the machine he could handle but five pairs in the same time. In nailing on heels, by the use of machinery one man and a boy could heel 300 pairs of shoes in a day ; it required five men to do this by hand. In finishing the bottoms of shoes, one man with a sand-papering machine could handle 300 pairs, while it would require four men to do the same by hand. On another grade of boots, facts were collected which showed that in 1886 one man could do the work which twenty years previously required ten men. In the making of brooms, one machine did the work of three men; in one establish- ment half the number of men produced double the number of brooms previously made by hand. In the production of a carriage, one man accomplished in twelve days labour which formerly covered thirty -five days. In the manufacture of carpets, taking all the processes together, machinery had displaced from ten to twenty times the number of persons engaged to work the machinery. In spinning alone, it would take, under the hand method, from 75 to 100 times the number employed to turn out with machinery the same amount of work. In cutting out hats and caps, one man with a machine did six times the amount of work done by one man in the old way ; and in the manufacture of some kinds of hats, espe- cially soft and stiff hats, it was calculated that there had been a displacement in the proportion of 9 to 1. Socialism and Sense. 185 The Strength of " The New Man : " Further Statistics. The results of the introduction of machinery into the textile trades are the best known of course, but still sufficiently startling : In the days of the single spindle hand-wheal, one spinner, working 56 hours, could spin 5 hanks of No. 32 twist; whereas in this country, right back in 1886, one spinner with the assistance of two boys, could, with one pair of self- acting mules, having 2,124 spindles, produce 55,098 hanks of No. 32 twist in the same time, when the mules were running at the moderate rate of three stretches in 45} seconds. In the olden time (in U.S.) a fair adult hand-loom weaver wove from 42 to 48 yards of common shirting per week ; a weaver tending 6 power looms in a cotton factory in 1886 would produce 1,500 yards a week. In the manu- facture of flour there had been in 1886 a displace- ment of nearly three-fourths of the manual labour necessary to produce the same product. In the manufacture of furniture from one half to three- fourths only of the old number of persons was required in 1886. A saving of about 25 per cent, had been made in the manufacture of machines and machinery over the hand methods, while in the pro- duction of metals and metallic goods long estab- lished firms testified that machinery had decreased manual labour by 33 l-3rd per cent. In the manu- facture of railroad supplies there had been a displace- ment of 50 per cent. ; there had been a displacement of 50 per cent, in the manufacturo of rubber shoes ; there had been 40 per cent, displacement in the silk trade ; and in the soap trade the displacement was put at 50 per cent. And so on, in relation to many other trades. Astounding- Calculations. Mr. Wright's summary of the situation in the United States in 1886 is really an astounding and i86 Socialism and Sense. thought-compelling paragraph : " The mechanical industries of the United States are carried on by steam and water power representing, in round numbers, 3,500,000 horse-power, each horse-power equalling the muscular labour of 6 men : that is to say, if men were employed to furnish the power to carry on the industries of the country it would require 21,000,000 men, and 21,000,000 men repre- sent a population, according to the ratio of the census of 1880, of 105,000,000. The industries are now carried on by 4,000,000 persons in round numbers, representing a population of 20,000,000 only. There are in the United States 28,600 locomotives. To do the work of these locomotives upon the existing common roads of the country and the equivalent of that which has been done upon the railroads the past year would require in round numbers 54,000,000 horses and 13,500,000 men. The work is now done, so far as men are concerned, by 250,000, representing a population of 1,250,000, while the population required for the number of men necessary to do the work with horses would be 67,500,000. To do the work, then, accomplished by power and power machinery in our mechanical industries and upon our railroads [in the United States, in 1886] would require men representing a population of 172,500,000, in addition to the existing population of the country of 55,000,000, or a total population with hand processes and with horse-power, of 227,500,000, which population would be obliged to subsist on present means." The Future of the Machine. Is not, then, the Machine the most stupendous of modern facts ? Do you think that in our collective capacity as a nation we have taken adequate account of it if, indeed, any account at all ? If this new Continent of Machinery had been a continent of Socialism and Sense. earth like Australia or Africa, we would have been eager to proclaim sovereignty over it, or at least to control its destiny through a Chartered Company. But so far the nation, as a nation, has looked on with indifference at the rapid growth of the greatest of Great Powers, and as our landlords and royalty- owners were permitted to possess themselves of the vitals of the country in the past to the lasting detri- ment of the People! so we in our own day are quietly permitting the most powerful Force in the world to develop in our midst without taking any guarantees whatever in the direction of national control and collective advantage. What are we going to do $hout it ? The Future of the Machine cannot longer remain a subject of purely private concern. Every year more people will be thrown out of employment by the introduction of Machinery, and though it may remain as true as ever that the consumer benefits, the cry cannot fail to rise that this Monster of the mind of man should be compelled to pay some form of direct tribute to the State. Its future will also compel attention in another form. Machinery tends more and more to make all the nations equal in capacity of production a fact of tremendous import- ance to ourselves. Maybe in a few months time our workshops will be working double shifts for the pro- duction of machinery for use in China and Japan ; but in that case will we not be merely manu- facturing "men" more accurate, more regular, and more powerful than Englishmen, " who," with the aid of men (the native machine-minders) less capable and less powerful, but more persistent and far less costly, than Englishmen, will at once figure as higly-favoured rivals of our own industrial population here at home ? May it not be a case of Brother Burns eating up Brother Mawdsley ? the English engineer eating up the English cotton- spinner ? It is difficult to determine the policy of 1 88 Socialism and Sense. wisdom in this relation : for my part I should be strongly disposed to douht the expediency of any prohibition of the export of machinery or the emigration of engineers the countries demanding the machinery would only get the machines and the men from our Continental or American rivals ; but in any case it is the purest folly to follow an ostrich- like policy in a matter of this vast importance. This Question of the Future Position of the Machine demands instant consideration. If we don't handle the matter quickly, a grave danger may confront us, and we won't have anybody but ourselves to blame. A Cry for a Malthus of Machinery. Why, as it is, we might be almost justified in saying that the past attitude of this country to Machinery is almost entirely responsible for the extreme Socialistic agitation with which we are con- fronted now; this impression was strikingly con- firmed by the notable speech delivered by the French Socialist Deputy, M. Jules Guesde, in the Chamber of Deputies, recently. We have got beyond the stage of Luddism, of course : those men who smashed Machines to-day would be treated as mad- men; but I am convinced that a spirit is abroad over a large area which classes Inventors among the worst enemies of Society. There are many men and women who would hail with gladness the advent of a Malthua of Machinery, and if the conditions should ever grow favourable to revolutionary violence, it would not quite amaze me to find a number of our mechanical geniuses strung up to the lamp-posts of Trafalgar Square, like so many Foulons, with grass in the mouth. You may conclude that in this particular I exaggerate, but at least you will admit that a very unhealthy feeling prevails amongst a great mass of men and women in consequence of the increasingly rapid introduction of Machinery into all kinds of trades and occupations. Socialism and Sense. 189 The Lesson of the Linotype. Part of the feeling I am attempting to solidify, no doubt, is directly attributable to the fate of the many good and worthy folk who have been successively driven out of employment by the introduction of Machinery into the occupation in which they were engaged. No intelligent person, of course, can fail to recognise that, while individual labourers suffer, the world in the bulk gains immensely by the introduction of these new Ma- chines ; but none the less is their lot a cruel one. Landlords, when taxation falls heavily upon, or their incomes fail them owing to the extravagance of their ancestors, cry aloud for sympathy, with success, too ; but little practical sympathy is ever extended to the men who find the trade upon which they depend for their living and the living of their families disappear in the manner of a traveller o'er a quicksand. This aspect of the case is very prominent in the printing trade in London just now, as it is, in- deed, in Newcastle, owing to the introduction of the Linotype, which may prove a double blessing if it helps to drag to a front place amongst the questions of the day the status of the Machine in the eyes of the Commonwealth. The Nationalization of Ideas. But the greater proportion of the growing feel- ing in relation to Machinery that I have tried to describe is due to the strong belief that the community as a community does not get out of the God-given Gift of Machinery the full measure of gain to which it is entitled. I may be very hetero- dox, but I cannot resist the impression that the ideas which fructify in Labour -Saving Machines were not implanted in the mind of man mainly for the benefit of the men in whose minds they were born i go Socialism and Sense. and the profit of the men who are wealthy enough to exploit the ideas so generated. I am a great advocate of the Nationalization of Ideas I am sure that if we could start afresh at Creation again, Land IS ationalization would become a working fact. In this our day and generation we are actually partici- pating in Creation in relation to new Inventions, and I ask : Why should not these be nationalized straight away ? What happens at present ? The Inventor as inventor, as a rule, I believe, obtains a comparatively small pecuniary advantage out of the results of his invention ; the Capitalist who finds the money to work the invention " collars," I imagine, the bulk of the profit created by the invention ; while the Consumer, we may take it for granted, is conceded only such fraction of advantage as will make assured a considerable profit to those responsible for the introduction of the Machine: even if the consumer got a larger proportion of benefit than at present, the distribution, having regard to the special circumstances of the case, might still be very unequal, from the point of view of the entire population. The old theory as to the consumer benefiting indirectly by reduction in the price of the article may be still correct in a substantial sense, but to secure equality of benefit, as well as to satisfy sentiment, the nation impera- tively requires to reap an advantage directly in the concrete. Whereupon the question arises : How are we to secure to the State its natural and proper participation in the national wealth that is created on the introduction of each new Invention ? How to Deal with " Victims " of the Machine. It would be alike impossible and undesirable to distribute it in the shape of wages to the men either employed upon or displaced by the new Machine : such a distribution would be local and inadequate. Socialism and Sense. 191 The case of the men thrown out of work by the introduction of new Machinery, as I have already admitted, must always be a hard case. Sufficient attention, I think, has never been attached to the sympathetic suggestion in relation to the case of these people made by John Stuart Mill : " This/' wrote the S-eat political philosopher, " does not discharge overnment from the obligation of alleviating, and if possible, preventing the evils of which this source of ultimate benefit is and may be productive to an existing generation ; and since improvements which do not diminish employment on the whole, almost always throws some particular class of labourers out of it, there cannot be a more legitimate object of the legislator's care than the interests of those who are thus sacrificed to the gains of their fellow citizens and of posterity. " How displaced workmen and work- women are to be directly compensated, it will surpass the wit of men, I fancy, to determine unless, indeed, it could be managed somewhat in this fashion : that in case a universal pension-scheme takes effect in this country, men and women who are proved on unimpeachable evidence to have ex- perienced disastrously the influence of the intro- duction of machinery into their respective trades and occupations shall come within a sort of " most- favoured nation" clause, either in respect to earlier age or larger amount. The State and The Machine. But to return to the main point the procuration of a fair share of the profit of new Inventions for the State : I don't attach great weight to the objection to a tax on Machinery urged on the rare occasions when this subject is discussed, that such a tax would be a barrier to invention ; for I can thoroughly realise the assurance given me a short time back by one of the leading inventors of the age, that 1 92 Socialism and Sense. an inventor is " like a hen with an egg " that his idea is bound to find expression, even if it be to his own disaster. Such a tax, however, would not only be difficult to enforce, but would also be alien to all the principles which have made Britain a great country. .No: rny suggestion would rather run in the direction of a wider distribution of the fower and profit of Inventions. With present light, would be inclined to make it compulsory on every Inventor to first offer his invention for purchase to the State, the State incurring the expense of a trial of the invention whenever a prima- facie case for belief in its value was produced. A delegation of inde- pendent specialists of repute, to b? appointed by the Board of Trade, would determine whether an in- vention was of such importance as to make a purchase on the part of the State desirable ; and if there was, in the case of purchase, any differ- ence between the Inventor and the Government officers as to terms, these might be reached by arbitration. The State having become the purchaser of the invention, I would bring into operation the element of fair-play totally lacking under the present system. I would have the State offer the invention for general use, on the payment of a royalty, which might well be fixed on the principle of the sliding- scale. Some of you may be disposed to treat this proposition as offering small relief, the day of revolutionary invention being over, as is supposed. But as a matter of fact an amazing number of inventions sometimes go to make up a perfected machine : for example, it was put on record in 1887 that the carding machine of the day was a compound of about sixty patents, and that the spinning machinery then in use was supposed to be a compound of about eight hundred inven- tions ! And as inventions, at the present time at least, are mainly in the direction of the improve- Socialism and Sense. 193 ment of other inventions, the State Royalty on Inventions might prove a considerable source of income : no manufacturer could afford to do without an invention which made a rival's machine more efficient than his own machine ; while the amount of the royalty would be fixed by the State with a view to a substantial addition to the coffers of the nation. Good for Inventor, Manufacturer, and State. Under the scheme here propounded the Inventor would be handsomely treated, probably in every way more handsomely treated than under the existing system ; every manufacturer to whom the invention would be valuable would be placed on a footing of perfect equality with his fellow manufacturers ; and the entire community would directly participate in the advantages resulting from the Invention. For the royalty I would have the State pay into the credit of a Universal Pension Fund, which might mean the reduction of poors' rates, and would cer- tainly give proof to the Soldiers of Industry that all who have served faithfully and valiantly under a grand though crimson-stained flag would pass into a " Chelsea Hospital " of national recognition, consideration, and care. Here I leave the ques- tion of the Future Position of Machinery, satisfied that it will one day take a very prominent place indeed in the eyes of the nation. It is one that would well repay investigation by a Royal Commission, except that Royal Commissions waste valuable time and have their evidence and decisions buried in almost inaccessible blue-books. The idea is respectfully commended to the immediate and serious attention of all Ministers and ex-Ministers. The solution of the matter may not be the solution here outlined, but the question to which it relates is one of the problems of the future which the nation will act wisely if it tackles early in a spirit of dis- crimination and determination. 194 Socialism and Sense. CHAPTER XIV. LABOUR AND CAPITAL. On the Threshold of a New Stage in Evolution. In the meantime we must keep brightly aglow the tendency now strongly manifest towards a radical change in the relations of Labour and Capital. Knowledge of the immense losses that have been caused by strikes will cause this tendency to be welcomed everywhere with sincere pleasure : as a leading Northern coal-owner, Sir James Joicey, remarked in a recent debate in the House of Commons, strikes have often driven trade to foreign countries or to other districts which will never be recovered. Happily, the most belligerent of Labour leaders are now disposed to admit that the Strike is too costly a weapon for use, except, perhaps, in battles of the first class note that apart from losses in wages the recent strike in the Boot-Trade cost the operatives ^60,000 in the hard cash of their union funds, which were almost run dry. ID a word, in industrial affairs we are obviously passing from a state of savagery into a state of civilization. The hiring system pare and simple has probably passed its meridian. Owing to their peculiar character, it will prevail for many years, if not for all time, in certain occupations. But most skilled operatives and many semi-skilled labourers are seemingly on the threshold of a higher stage in Evolution the stage of Co -Partnership. But Co-Partnership with whom? with their fellow- labourers, or with their employers ? This question is not easily answered ; but that Labour is at last going to enrobe itself as Capital is, I think, tolerably clear. The idea may well cause the mere agitator to squirm, and even give the genuine Labour Leader occasion to put on his " considering cap." Socialism and Sense. 195 Within OP Without the Citadel of Capital ? Losses to Labour are conceivably involved in the tendency of Labour to merge itself in Capital. Labour may thereby forego its ability to take the utmost advantage of rising markets, it may in some measure barter away its power of rapid movement, it may lose in large part its capacity to help Labour, especially unskilled labour, in its battles in other fields. On the other hand, think of the enormously- strong position into which Labour steps Labour is actually placed on a practical as well as a theoretical equality with Capital, and, in fact, becomes Capital ; it is surer of certain and regular employment ; its knowledge of the factors affecting its reward will become closer and keener as month succeeds month ; and as year rolls after year, its influence and power will be strengthened more and more, until in many cases, perhaps, it will find itself in abso- lutely the controlling and premier position. For a period, unskilled labour might suffer from the change ; but ultimately Labour would be more powerful than ever to secure justice for all its grades, and Labour everywhere would be perceptibly elevated. Looking at the problem free from prejudice, surely it is distinctly better for Labour to be inside the Citadel of Capital rather than outside of it ? And particularly so, if Labour can enter in upon its own ever-lasting terms in fact, its inevitable terms that Labour shall not be called upon to share losses as well as profits. An ancient sage declared that indirect methods were as a rule more effective than direct methods. JSo it is with Labour and Capital : Labour, if it so wished, could only get possession of the Capital of the country by violence, but by indirect methods it can ultimately secure every atom of reward that the justice of the cir- cumstances admits and demands. 2o 196 Socialism and Sense. Various Capital and Labour Schemes. The schemes to the end of converting every labourer into a capitalist are numerous. The idea of Mr. Donisthorpe in his notion, "Labour Capitalization," that every labourer should treat himself as a lump of capital and invest himself as other capital is invested, in such enterprises as will accept his capital (himself), represents a healthy reaction from the spirit of wagedom ; but the labourer, clearly, cannot yet gamble with himself in the manner suggested. To some forms of profit- sharing the objections are manifest : they are too obviously schemes for mooring the labourer by the bribe of bonuses, which, in view of advances in the wage-market, may lose all semblance of superior advantage. Something, perhaps, may be said for yearly-bond engagements on a new basis the basis of a,regular weekly wage for such a form of engagement would give to the workman relief from an anxiety as to his continuance in employment which is often physically harmful and mentally demoralising, while it would furnish the employer with a better oppor- tunity of regulating production and making contracts more profitable alike to employes and employer ; but its manifest disadvantages probably far outweigh its advantages. The Sliding-Scale arrangement has done great service in preserving the peace in the North of England, but it does not seem to quite give the operative that evidence and grip of association and identification with Capital which the spirit of the times will increasingly demand. The Co-Part- nery, if it is to be of any progressive value, must be much directer and closer in form much more ,in the spirit of that miraculous and , great Co-Operative Movement which has done so mighty a service in developing, if it has not, indeed, created, the tendency which is seemingly Socialism and Sense. 197. S'/ng to transform the relations of Capital and hour. With the various forms of Co-Operative Production " run " by workmen alone, we must always feel in the heartiest sympathy ; but clearly their day has not yet " arrived." Some marvellous successes have been attained by organizations of this type the continuous working of the Co-operative Boot-Factory at Leicester throughout the great trouble in the boot-trade was a striking testimony to the value of all co-operative schemes which make the worker energetic and contented ; but the records of Co-operation, unhappily, indicate that associations composed of workmen solely are like war-ships with- out manceuvring-power adequate enough and guns heavy enough to give them even a chance of victory in a sea-fight of the regular ding-dong order. Trades-Unions of the front-rank may enter into the business of Co-operative Production perhaps the Engineers' Society may start an engine-works and the Iron- Shipbuilders' Society a shipbuilding-yard but unless autocratic power is conferred upon the superintending directors in an unassailable form for a period of years, the danger of disaster, from the temper which so easily begets crude and carping criticism, will be considerable. Labour in the Courts of Capital. All of which leads irresistibly to the impression that the next stage in the elevation of Labour from the platform of wagedom must come in the form of direct Co-Partnership between Labour and Capital. That the spirit necessary to the initia- tion of this transformation is afloat in the ranks of the Capitalists is obvious from a recent re- mark by Lord Dudley, that the books of employers ought to be open to the inspection of any officially- appointed Court of Conciliation and Arbitration ; and Labour ought to be found no less willing and 198 Socialism and Sense. cordial. There will probably be considerable varia- tions in the detail of the Co-Partnership. In the case of concentrated trades with wealthy unions, like the miners, the workmen, through the use of the funds of their unions, may be enabled to enter firms as shareholders on " most-favoured-nation "- clause terms. In other cases, they may enter on conditions which will give them rank as shareholders entitled to participate co-equally with capitalist- shareholders in any balance of dividend remaining after a certain defined percentage of dividend has been deducted as the regular and legitimate reward of capital and superintendence. This last form the form, as I understand, that meets with the energetic support of that able, staunch, and versatile veteran in the ranks of reformers, Mr. Holyoake would give all the advantages of the present system wages certain, liberty to move to more lucrative or engaging employments, incentives to rise through rivalry or ambition, freedom to suggest improve- ments, resulting in rises of salary or wages with added advantages of its own loyalty to a firm, interest in its progress, the economies flowing upon awakened concern, and the augmented production which follows upon stimulated energy. The crux as to direction and control will not be at once surmounted, I am afraid ; but British good-sense will in good time, no doubt, recognise the lines of legitimate and fair and judicious intervention and participation by the elected representatives of Labour. In any event, nothing but advantage can result from the workmen in any establishment having a delegate or delegates on the Board of Directors ; exact and reliable information on points of moment (the absence of which at present is often the direct cause of strikes) will then be forth- coming, and the peace and prosperity of the firm and of all its employes cannot fail to be materially Socialism and Sense. 199 promoted thereby. This form of Co -Partner ship, at any rate, would be a good beginning ; and the Labour Leaders who, from whatever motive, counsel its rejection before trial will incur a responsibility of the gravest character. The workmen of the various firms in which this form of Co -Partnership was adopted would benefit immediately, their ability to help in the elevation of Labour generally would be immeasurably increased, and the hold of Labour upon the great productive and distributing estab- lishments of the world would be enormously strengthened. Conciliation Canal. It is idle to write either of the Capture of Labour by Capital, or the Capitulation of Capital to Labour : rather do I contemplate a feat of moral and social engineering a species of Conciliation Canal which will mingle the Ocean of Capital with the Ocean of Labour, and produce such a levelling and unifica- tion of interests and rewards as will give the world an Era of Peace and Progress beyond in its achieve- ments and influence the wildest dreams even of that all-too-insufficiently-appreciated Prophet of the Rights of Labour, Joseph Mazzini. 2oo Socialism and Sense. CHAPTER XV. THE LAND QUESTION. Wanted : A Big Agrarian Policy ! In the Field of Experiment, the widest opportunity lies ready to hand in the fuller and more scientific cultivation of the land of the country good " Mother Earth." The most urgent of our neces- sities, probably, is a closer cultivation of the land of the country. I confess that I have no expert knowledge of the Land Question, but on the balance of extensive reading on the various points at issue, I cannot shake myself free from the impression that as a nation we have not yet done what we might do in relation to the land ; and I shall never be satis- fied in my conscience that the best has been done for the people in relation to the land until the State has offered facilities for experiments with it upon a scale of considerable magnitude. Britain would do well to recall the address of Carlyle, in the role of p r i me Minister," to the " able-bodied Lackalls " of his period : " Enlist, stand drill ; become, from a nomadic Banditti of Idleness, Soldiers of Industry ! I will lead you to the Irish Bogs, to the vacant de- solations of Connaught now falling into Cannibalism, to mistilled Connaught, to ditto Minister, Leinster, Ulster, I will lead you; to the English fox-covers, furze-grown Commons, New Forests, Salisbury Plains : likewise to the Scotch Hill- sides and bare rushy slopes, which as yet feed only sheep moist uplands, thousands of square miles in extent, which are yet destined to grow green crops, and fresh butter and milk and beef without limit (wherein no foreigner can compete with us), were the Glasgow sewers once opened on them, and you with your Colonels carried thither." I insist that Carlyle's views on this subject have not yet had adequate justice done to them, and that it is growing increas- Socialism and Sense. 201 ingly imperative that they should receive quickly the final attention of the nation. Our greatest, our most urgent need, as a nation, at this moment, is a big and wise Agrarian Policy and as our Minister of Agriculture Radicals put in Mr. Herbert Gardner ! A Radical Ministry, if it is to solve current problems, must pursue their task in a spirit different to this ! The post is important enough to be worth the occu- pancy of Sir William Harcourt himself. Provided his sympathies run with the farmer rather than with the landlord, the " Squire of Mai wood " might serve his country in many worse ways than by becoming Minister of Agriculture for a period ! The Avenue of Adam ! On one hand, we have got seemingly a perishing Agriculture ; on the other hand, there is being imported into the Kingdom annually sixty million sovereigns worth of produce (apart from wheat and beef) which apparently might be as well produced, in large part at any rate, in our own country ; while, directly related to this situation there is the problem which has long occupied the minds of town politi- cians and philanthropists : how to de-populate the towns and re-populate the country ? This highly unsatisfactory condition of things, it is hardly neces- sary to point out, affects the general trade of the country in the most direct manner, a customer at home being of much greater value to the British manufacturer than a customer abroad. Is there, then, no way by which this complexion of affairs can be appreciably changed, with reasonable rapidity, through the agency of Parliament and Government in combination ? Of course, we are aware that the Government cannot produce sunlight at pleasure, any more than Parliament can control the fruits of the rest of the world. But is it not open to Parlia- ment to enact statutes that will throw off from the 202 Socialism and Sense. land some at least of the iron shackles with which it is bound ? and cannot Government, by the loan of capital and sympathetic counsel, help to the use of it waiting bodies of willing workers, who are likely to cultivate it with greater profit to the country at large than many of the men semi- idlers and locusts, a proportion of them who at present hold it in the thrall of their will and pleasure ? There is no need to argue that to the land forming the country the people of the country stand in unique relation that access to it as the source of all things is the inalienable birth-right of a free people, if not in their individual capacity, certainly as ajpeople holding in common through Commune or Commonwealth, and that their right to access to it for the production of food is as unassailable as their right of access to light, air, and water. Of the primary elements of Nature no man can be permitted to make a monopoly ; and where such a monopoly has been assumed, it is the duty of the people's repre- sentatives to overthrow it whenever the circum- stances of the case justly permit, due consideration, of course, being given always for the improvements effected in the land by clearances, creation of roads, and scientific cultivation. Where the land of a country is so completely within the control of a limited body of men that the great body of the people are unable to have access to it when they so desire, that country is in a state of slavery ; and consequently, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is in a state of slavery still. To argue that because men maintain that they are entitled to 61 equal opportunity" of access to the source of all production with fellow-men now called landlords, they ought, therefore, to claim also equal possession of all the fruits of production is to write utter nonsense. Delving, sowing, and reaping, remain the most direct method of living open to man, and while this ancient Socialism and Sense. way may not now be held to be the best or the roost acceptable way, the avenue of Adam ought never to be closed to him. In fact, the old-fashioned trinity delving, sowing, and reaping would in natural circumstances actually rule wages in the more complex world of manufactures and trade ; for, as Mr. Gallie has pointed out in his recent little book, issued in answer to " Merrie England," ''with access to the land the labourer is independent," and " man would never work for less than he could get off the land." A Cry for a Clanriearde ! An Act of Parliament conferring easy access by right to land would demolish half the arguments of the writers and orators belonging to the Socialist Parties. At present, they insist, they have to ask " an idler's leave to live/' and are deprived of the chief weapon of man when refused direct access to land. " Men," they say, "are by hunger and necessity made to depend upon the whims and advantages of their fellows," but with access to land they would no longer experience such ignominy and pain. Indeed, in whatever direction you turn in the consideration of social problems, the Land Question in some form confronts us, and a righteous solution of the Land Question would be as the forging of a key that would unlock many dark chambers of anomaly and iniquity, and open to a vast number of our fellow- country men and fellow -country women for the first time the attractive domain of reasonable labour, just reward, mental and physical recreation, and all the pleasures of a contented and happy life. An attempt after a full and prompt solution of the Land (Question ought to be accepted as the first and most urgent duty of a Radical Government ; but so far our statesmen have contented themselves with acquiescence in experimental measures very 204 Socialism and Sense. confined in character and timid in tendency. The most pressing need of England to-day is a Davitt and a Dillon and a Healy. Our farmers and our labourers are too like the sheep that are pressing them out of the country ; our farmers' clubs are too much like ante-rooms of the hall and the castle. The greatest evil of the situation undoubtedly is the neighbourly spirit, the genial bearing, and the sympathetic attitude of the great bulk of the land- lord class. Oh, for the uprising of a Clanricarde that would set the whole country by the ears ! It is clear that if this Land Question is to be settled in a large way the Towns will have to make it in the most emphatic and determined way a Town Question ; and Kadical leaders will have to be com- pelled to put Agrarian Politics in the very forefront of their next Programme. The Verification of the Village ! Justice compels the acknowledgment that Kadical Ministers have already manifested a sympathetic spirit in relation to allied subjects, if in no other di- rection certainly in the direction of that most urgent requirement of the age, the Yivification of the Village. From the Parish Councils Act we hope for much in the way of improvement ; and if private enterprise conies forward to the sup- port of communal activity the results may be intensely interesting and gratifying. That learned social reformer, Dr. Alfred Eussel Wallace, has lately thrown out a most attractive suggestion : he proposes, as I read his scheme, a return on a large scale to our old form of village life, with the addition of all our modern improvements. Wherever possible, he would have the villagers combine an industrial occupation with the tillage of the soil ; but also he would not hesitate to attract from the towns people who have no capacity for tillage provided they were Socialism and Sense. 205 industrious and frugal. He would have the weaver, the shoemaker, and the tailor betake themselves to village life ; and to make this feasible in these days when hand-labour in these or similiar occupations has become comparatively impossible, he would have them seek salvation in power-machines, supplied by water, gas, or electricity, which, as you are aware is now easily portable. In short, he imparts new life to Robert Owen's aspiration : " to unite the ad- vantages of town and country." This is not merely an attractive proposal : my impression is that it is also a perfectly feasible proposal, and this impression is confirmed by the experiments of certain disciples of Mr. Ruskin. It would provide for a large number of people of country-loving instincts a life of the description so widely desired a life of variety, interest, and profit ; and in many ways the pres- sure upon the towns would be sensibly relieved. Adult Half-Timers I Indeed, the imagination is inclined to stray far beyond the scope of Dr. Wallace's scheme : I can conceive a time when factories will be built as far in the country as railway facilities will permit, and " the monotony, degradation, and disease of the factory system " will be overcome by a system of adult half-timers, mill-hands spending half-a-day in the factory and the rest of day in garden or field. In Sir Thomas More's " Island of Utopia," as the late M. Lavelaye once reminded us, " everyone works alternately in the fields and in the workshops and factories." A certain measure of economic loss would probably be involved in this method ; but the mental and physical gains could not fail to counterbalance it many times over, and thus, in the ultimate, an economic gain would be recorded. This scheme for the Revival of the Village loudly calls for the utmost encouragement 206 Socialism and Sense. in the interest of the entire nation. Mr. Charles Booth, as the result of his careful inquiries, is enabled to declare that "in one way or another effective working-life is ten years longer in the country than in the town, or, speaking generally, is as seventy to sixty," and that " the old are much better-off in the country." If we could remove 25 per cent, of our town population to the country or, what is more practical, keep in the country the same proportion who would other- wise drift into the towns the Commonwealth could not fail to be a tremendous gainer. The immediate economic profit would be great ; while our British races would grow amain in health, strength, and vitality. Gas and Gaiety for the Villages. Few topics more important can engage attention than this question of Magnifying the Village. It is too much forgotten that, as Mr. Mallock puts it, " the influx into towns is a mental movement." The part played by the shop and street lamps of our towns in the creation of some of the most pressing social problems of our time has not yet arrested the attention which the fact demands. It is " the lights of London" as much as " the coin of Cockneydom" which draws country folk to the metropolis. Parish and District Councils will render enormous service to the country at large if they will early in their career direct their attention to the lighting of the villages and the recreation of the villagers. Half-a- dozen arc lamps and a few brilliantly lighted shops, in combination with a village library, a village gymnasium and cricket ground, and a village hall for meetings, concerts, and plays, may spell salvation to many thousands of people in town and country alike. Indeed, it might even pay the large towns, as a matter of mere economy, were their Municipal Socialism and Sense. 207 Councils to offer large subsidies to the Councils of parishes in their county areas to provide or sustain libraries, game grounds, and recreative movements of various kinds. There is much to be said for this programme of Progress by Pleasure. But if it has to be of any considerable value it will have to be accompanied by a resolve on the part of town as well as country folk that all the land of the country shall be cultivated for all it is worth, and that the profit of the fruit of cultivation shall go proportionally to cultivator (the farmer, small or large) and owner (County Council, through direct control, or the State, through taxation of the exist- ing landholders). Land Resumption Methods. in what form shall the nation resume its rightful grip on the soil of the nation ? is an interesting question. For my own part, I believe the end will have to be attained in several ways, the directest way, perhaps, being the least practicable. Tyneside is not the place to speak slightingly of land national- ization, for the father of the idea and a martyr to it was Thomas Spence, the Newcastle schoolmaster. The natural justice embodied in the idea must per- force make every Eadical a land nationalizer in principle, and when he recalls the autocratic power wielded over a great tract of his native country by the family of the Percies, or, rather, the Smythes, a Northumbrian especially is tempted to ignore the barriers to a wholesale expropriation set up by reason and common -sense. But as the conditions of the question stand to-day, I confess I should hesitate to make a practical application of the principle at any rate in the form of a direct resumption of the land by the State. To begin with, there are the doubts which arise as to the wisdom of the various forms of administration suggested ; and then there 20 8 Socialism and Sense. stands before us the fact, so plain and palpable that it cannot be overlooked, that unless the nation could obtain the great estates of the country on very low terms of compensation indeed, the State might make a wretchedly bad bargain by taking over the land of the country in a wholesale way at the present time. Of course, it is arguable that it might be the highest wisdom for the btate to buy out the land-holders just now when land is cheap, say, by the payment of annuities extending over two or three lives. It is conceivable that discoveries of science or change of environment may make the land of this country a hundred times more valuable than it is to-day; while, on the other hand, disaster in war, crippling our power of communication with distant countries, may cause us to fall back upon land as on a first line of defence, and compel us to regard national possession of land as important as the national possession of a fleet. But in the last-named case the State would probably be justified in seizing the land wholesale without compensation ; while in the first-named illustration, the principle of taxation would secure to the community the full measure of the increased value given to the soil. If taken over at all, the best p]an, I think, would bs to have it taken over by the County Councils, who would let it on lease, with the condition of satisfactory cultivation as a sine qua non. But the line of least resistance, as well as the line of true economy, is, I believe, the line of taxa- tion. In this particular, we can learn a lesson Irom China : according to Sir John Gorst, every occupier of land pays a tax to the State, and as this tax has to be paid whether the land is cultivated or not, no one ever takes more land than he can cultivate. However, all methods may be advantageous accord- ing to circumstances, and all methods may have to be applied. The method which I prefer is the method which gives you the keen interest and the Socialism and Sense. 209 energetic action of individual or syndicated farmers, rather than the slow and uncertain methods and possibly the jealous hostility of local communes. A Chinese Motto for an English Policy. Our future Agrarian Policy might advantageously assume for its motto the command of the Chinese Emperor Kanghsi : " Suffer not a barren spot to remain in the wilds or a lazy (unemployed) person to abide in the cities/' There are either in operation or on paper schemes innumerable for the regenera- tion of England through Agriculture, but there is not one which could not claim that this command entirely covers its object; while "barren spots" and " unemployed persons " are directly due to the working of the existing system. There is at present small indication that the great landholders are likely to be distinguished in the twentieth century as the great landholders of the eighteenth century were dis- tinguished by their passion for experiments in agriculture ; and, failing this, the State must take the remedy of the existing condition of things into its own hands. It must secure greater consideration for present tenant farmers, by means of rent-courts, relief from local taxation, and juster tariffs on the part of the railway companies ; and it must re- solutely determine that so far as the Law and the Government can offer facilities, the utmost facili- ties shall be available for the promotion of the pros- perity of the country by an easy access on the part of citizens to the soil, and, generally, by a fuller and more scientific cultivation of the land of the country. The Awakening in Agriculture ! Gratifying reports are coming to hand concern- ing the success of the experiments in allotments and small farms which Parliament sanctioned a few years ago, notwithstanding the exceptionally 2io Socialism and Sense. heavy rents charged for such lands. But w6 must have something more than an extension of the allotment and small-farm system : we must give a closer attention to the new methods of culti- vation and distribution working so successfully in foreign countries ; and we must also make a deter- mined effort to cultivate the uncultivated lands of the country. I am well acquainted with the answer that is invariably made by so-called practical men to suggestions of this character: "Impossible! Impossible! Impossible!" they all cry in strident chorus. We are told that the uncultivated land is not capable of cultivation ; we are assured that only large farms will pay; and as to newer methods, we usually receive replies which, if not scornful, are unsympathetic. But I am disposed to believe that the people who mete out these replies have not taken the pains to study out these ques- tions in the light of the mass of fresh knowledge and inspiration now available on all hands. These gentlemen, it seems to me, don't take sufficient account of the industry and patience of which man is capable when he realizes that material gain, or, at any rate, a reasonable measure of food and comfort, are likely to result from the exercise of in- dustry and persistence ; they ignore the fact that science and invention may serve the small man as well as the great; and they are apparently ignorant of the success of certain experiments in what is called " intensive agriculture" (meaning deep delving, heavy manuring, and extensive " glassing '') and " co-operative farming " (meaning co-operative use of ploughs, machines, and carts, and co-operative dis- tribution of produce) \\hich give great promise of revolutionizing the agricultural position in this country. There is certainly room ior an official inquiry of some sort into the startling statistics as to increases in the production of vegetables secured Socialism and Sense. 211 by attention to plant-food, warm frames, glass bells, and the like. Attention to " glassing,'' for illustra- tion, will give the English market-gardener, it is asserted, naturally-grown produce some six weeks sooner than if planted out of doors, while stories almost incredulous are afloat as to the returns given to " intensive agriculture." These reports (for which Prince Krapotkin and writers in the Clarion and the Echo have especially made themselves responsible) demand attention, if for no other reason than that they are being powerfully used in advance- ment of the Socialist agitation ; they might, however, equally well repay attention on economic grounds. If we had a great man as Minister of Agriculture as the importance of the post demands we would undoubtedly have great prizes offered for discoveries that would increase the productivity of the soil, and we would have important scientific investigations undertaken and scientific results regularly distributed by the Board of Agriculture ; as it is, Professor Long tells us that for our knowledge in relation to dairy produce and our advantages in machinery we are entirely indebted to foreign investigators and makers. Perhaps, from the agrarian point of view, the most important need of the moment is that Science should be applied to the Soil ; yet all demonstrations in that direction elicit very slight sympathy from those most directly con- cerned. An agricultural philanthropist might do worse than endow a Galvanic Battery Chair at the Board of Agriculture. The Demand for Peasant Cultivators. As we have suggested, a great Minister of Agri- culture would at once direct his attention to the creation of a scheme for enlarging the number of the small cultivators of the soil, and bringing uncultivated land into cultivation. Such a scheme 2 P 212 Socialism and Sense. would riot involve the disappearance of large farms; there is room enough for both systems to work side by side, even for great farms run (as is proposed) on the limited liability principle, except that such a system would entail the evil of introducing a force stronger and harsher than any landlord. Whatever may be the economic advantages of large farms, a strong popular sentiment unmistakably exists in favour of trying to solve current social problems by placing a large propoition of our people back upon the land, and insisting that all the land cultivable shall be cultivated ; and I am satisfied that popular content will never be forth-coming in this country until an experiment in this direction has been made upon a grand scale under national auspices. Even if there were an economic loss, I think the social gain from this step would at least equal it ; but there is good reason to believe that instead of a loss there would even be an economic profit. No one can rise from the reading of Dr. Rus- sel Wallace's book on "Land Nationalization" and from much other material of a like character without realizing what a valuable element would be con- tributed to the development and stability of the country if England could possess over an extensive area a peasant-cultivator class, secure in the fruits of their toil, such as strengthens and steadies Switzerland, Norway, Germany, and France, and is in these latter years beginning to confer a long- postponed prosperity upon Ireland. We need not speak of a peasant-p-opn'^or class : the actual pro- prietorship might be held by present land-holders, the State, or the County Council, always provided that we unmistakably convey to the cultivator the assurance, that so long as he and his pay such fair rent as market prices not the personal requirements of landlords demand, and treat the land properly, they will be guaranteed in possession and enjoyment Socialism and Sense. 213 of the full fruits of their labour, and will be in receipt of all the honour and advantage that belongs to men who scorn not toil but live industrious days. Once a class of cultivators of this type is firmly established on the land of the country, we could scarcely fail to be quickly gladdened by the sight of delightful transformations, wrought by what Arthur Young called " the magic of property/' which ' turns sands to gold/' Thopold Rogers's "Capital Fact." I am glad to believe that at this moment there is a distinct " stirring of the dry bones " in this mat- ter ; and if the people who are now moving in it are made of persistent stuff, we may be on the eve of a domestic revolution of a most important and far- reaching character. While absorption, without 1 doubt, is the preferable policy when circumstances permit, Mr. Mathers's schemes for farm colonies for giving profitable and settled employment to the employable unemployed deserve the most sympa- thetic consideration. Particularly are they entitled to consideration in view of the fact that they would be largely concerned with bringing into cultivation a great area of cultivable land at present out of cul- tivation. The late Professor Thorold Rogers, who is unapproachable, I believe, as an authority on the history of British Agriculture, declared in the course of his valuable lectures on "The Economic Inter- pretation of History : " " Now the capital fact in the history of rent is that agriculture, however rude the industry may be, can always produce more than is necessary for the husbandman's maintenance and that of his family." That declaration, I conceive, gives a clue to a " way out " from a large proportion of our present trouble. Of course, the declaration ignores rent ; but we here are not concerned for the fortunes of mere rent-receivers like the Duke of 214 Socialism and Sense. Northumberland or the Duke of Cleveland. We are concerned that all the cultivable land of the country should be cultivated, and that people capable of tilling the land should win food, shelter, clothing, and com- fort for themselves and their families by tilling it. Let rent go hang, if people and land otherwise must stand idle and starve. Rent or no rent, the land must no longer be permitted to lie idle when there are hands willing and eager to cultivate it. A Short Way with Landlords. Of course, there are difficulties in the way, but I believe that they would nearly all, if not all, vanish before a sympathetic and resolute attitude on the part of the Government and the country. Failing immediate acceptance of an extension of the prin- ciple of taxation, why should not the Government begin operations by giving notice to the existing land-holders in some such fashion as this: "There are, say, five hundred acres within the boundaries of your estate which have never been cultivated : if a bona fide attempt to cultivate them is not made within two years from this date, we shall order their transfer (without compensation) to the County Council or Parish Council of the district, which will take measures to ensure their cultivation for the public benefit." The land transferred, it would be in the power of the County Council, Dis- trict Council, or Parish Council, as the case might be, to make a very interesting and valuable experiment. Such action as this could only have a beneficial effect. If the land was transferred from the lord or squire to the Commune, it would be cultivated ; while if the lord or squire preferred to retain it on the condition enacted, it would also be cultivated. While I would not on any account assent to the State or a Commune making a permanent loss on any such plan, on the other hand Socialism and Sense. 215 I would not insist upon the making of rents such as present land-holders demand : the object should not be the making of rent, so much as the provision of employment, food, clothing, dwelling, and other necessaries of mankind for the actual tillers of the soil : a plus of profit to be obtained for the Com- mune if possible, but only if justly and humanely possible. Of course, the lord or squire might lose his sport, or, perhaps, what might be more important to him, rents paid by sporting men from Town ; but, on the other hand, many hands at present idle would find work, stomachs would be filled, and bodies clothed, and, perhaps, other benefit might result ta the nation, in the form of rent paid to the Commune, increased demand for goods on the part of the newly-established cultivators, and the price of goods cheapened to the citizens at large. There is weighty evidence that the barren tracts brought into cultiva- tion in Belgium, Holland, Ireland, and Scotland, could only have been reclaimed by the strenuous labour of their cottagers ; and there is substan- tial reason to believe that the pursuit of a similar policy in this country on a wide scale would not only slake up a considerable proportion of the unemployed part of the population, but would in addition enable us to keep in the country the vast sums annually sent abroad for the meat, butter, fruit, poultry, and eggs, at present drawn therefrom. The Industrial Village. Such a plan as is here suggested for the closer cultivation of the soil would fit in admirably with Mr. Russel Wallace's scheme for the revival of the Industrial Village. The union of agriculture with industries has often been a success : I am personally acquainted with more than one instance in your imme- diate neighbourhood. A most valuable light is cast upon 216 Socialism and Sense. this subject by Mr. Thorold Rogers in his " History of Agricultural Rents in England," as instance the following paragraphs : Speaking of rents in the seven- teenth century, Mr. Rodgers said : " There was how-' ever, in some parts of England, notably in the Eastern Counties, in the west and north, a bye-in- ; dustry of sufficient importance as to make the tenant- farmer comparatively indifferent as to accretions of rent. This was the linen and woollen industry, carried on, I am persuaded, in most farmhouses, in certain districts of England, the products being coP lected and purchased by travelling agents. Such, almost, if not quite, within living memory, were the ; woollen, particularly the flannel, industry of some parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Such was, a generation ago, the universal practice of Ulster, and I have recently been told by those who can well remember the universality of the practice, that the small farmers of Northern Ireland were compara- tively indifferent to the magnitude of their rents, out of all proportion, as I know, to the value of their holdings, if their spinning-wheels and looms pro- duced enough to pay the spring and autumn gale. When, however, the large manufactories extin- guished in part (for the industry is still carried on) domestic weaving, the rent to which the peasant was indifferent became a famine rent, and absolutely unbearable." May not Science and Invention have providentially placed in our hands the means of making a return to a manner of life which was the source of widespread health, content, and happiness ? We cannot afford to lose sight of Pr. Wallace's scheme. There may be in it germ seeds of national regeneration. A Great Chance for the Government. Experiments of the character here outlined are worthy of the direct, immediate, and substantial ; Socialism and Sense. 217 encouragement of the State : to put land into tilth or to bring land back into tilth is a distinct national service, which deserves recognition in the shape of financial aid, at least in the way of loan : and where this national service is accompanied by the further national service of reducing a large amount of misery and discontent in the country by utilising a mass of idle labour, it ought not to fail to elicit the hearty co-operation and help of the Government. The fact that a mass of this idle labour is unskilled ought not to act as a deterrent, for those responsible for the public works established during the cotton famine have borne the testimony that " unskilled men may soon be taught the use of tools when practical means are found to furnish employment." Kemember, always, that the landlord of to-day, thanks to the extravagance of his ancestors, and the competition of foreign growers, free from a number of the shackles which enswathe competitors at home, is now too poor, as a rule, to give the land a chance, and that, if a change in the condition of agriculture is to be wrought, it will have to be wrought, not from the iside, but from the outside. It is a very striking and significant fact that the Tory member for Inver- ness-shire, Mr. Baillie, during his election campaign, just before the Dissolution, declared that the root of the difficulty of "a great and pressing question " was not the lack of land, but the manner in which the people were to be on the land " so as to give them some prospect of ultimate prosperity," and suggested that the Government should take over large tracts of suitable grounds, and let them in small holdings to crofters, cottars, and small farmers, the Government being the landlord, paying, not purchase money down to the old landlords, but a small interest on the purchase money of such lands. 218 Socialism and Sense. The Peasant as Saviour of His Country. It looks as if the poor and despised peasant of to-day may prove the saviour of his country from the evils brought upon it by the idleness and luxury of much-belauded peer and squire of olden times. To the only critics of the proposed change those who parade the economic advantages of large over small farms it is easy, as I have already sug- gested, to make reply: we are concerned, not to make a certain percentage of profit, possibly for the benefit of men who have done little to deserve it, but to build up a body of contented and prosperous citizens out of material which, if continued in its present form, may drag the State into a condition of wreck and demoralization. We may under the peasant-cultivator system miss a little in pro- ductiveness, though this, it is conceivable, may be recovered by co-operation in the use of machinery and carts ; but what need we care for decreased productiveness if we gain in the increased comfort and content spread over a wide area of country ? The question is the maintenance of a population and the production of crops of good citizens, and who can doubt that many cultivators keenly interested in bringing forth the fruits of the earth in greatest plenitude is better than having a certain number of large farms, with the bulk of the labourers thereon obeying instructions in the spirit of slaves rather than in the spirit of free men ? An intimation that the Government meant to offer facilities for the establishment of a large body of peasant cultivators in this country would send a vivifying thrill over the entire land : it would roll over the whole country as a lava tide of hope ! Oh, that our Government possessed the courage of the opportunity ! An opportunity lost, it will inevitably mar the future of the nation. Socialism and Sense. 219 CHAPTER XVI MULTITUDE AND MILLIONAIRE. Wealth Distribution : The Radical Plan of Campaign. Finally, we reach that most important, most con- stant, and most pressing of topics the inadequate and unfair distribution of the wealth created through and by the nation, and the inequality of the sacrifice which has for centuries characterized our levies of Taxation. The Radical Party, as I have insisted all through, is as conscious as the Socialist Parties of the iniquity represented by the inequalities and anoma- lies still so numerous in our midst ; but the Radicals justly maintain that their shots at the blots are of a much more practical nature than the far-distant and illusive methods favoured by our Socialist friends. The Radical plan of campaign is this: to permit Nature to become the selector of those best qualified to perform the particular piece of work demanded, and to let the State give them a fairly " free hand " in the performance of it ; and then to have the State see that the wealth so created under the protection and with the co-operation of the State shall be distributed amongst its creators with fairness and discretion generous measure of reward being meted out to those who have thus acted as handmaidens of the State. The Socialist remedy is Revolution : ours Reform, the most important part of that Reform, perhaps, being Reform of Taxation. They would spoil the face to spite the nose ; we would by a proper course of medicine bring the nose into proper subjection to the face. They would kill the goose which lays the golden eggs ; we would en- courage the goose to go on laying the eggs, but would see that those who facilitated the laying of them were adequately remembered at the time of distribution. 22O Socialism and Sense. Not Disestablishment, but Disendowment. In a phrase, the Eadical Plan, as I conceive it, is Fair-Play for Natural Forces, with the subsequent Participation of the Nation, as partner and protector, in the Fruits thereof. There is, I am afraid, no possibility of " stamping out " those men in our midst specially and peculiarly fitted and adapted by nature for the " making" of money the men classified generically as Millionaires. Many of these men are on account of their initiative, their enter, prise, and their energy entitled to the respect and esteem of their fellow citizens. For others, " whose gospel/' in Milton's words, " is their maw," we may be excused if we entertain no sentiment of regard whatever. Their function in nature may be difficult to comprehend, but of their existence we sometimes become disagreeably conscious. Our Socialist friends would not manifest any considera- tion for the "Millionaire:" they would not even permit him to exist. They would waste all the extraordinary capacity for the making and accu- mulation of wealth which he is constantly manifest- ing ; they would not merely make this type of man miserable by depriving him of his function in life, but they would deprive Society of the service which he is specially qualified to render it. We, on the other hand, will be just and even helpful towards the Millionaire ; but at the same time we will take care that Society reaps the fullest benefit from the exercise of his unmistakable talent for acquisition and capacity for accumulation. Even if we wished, we cannot Disestablish the Millionaire ; but, in a sense, we can, if we please, Disendow him. The State as " Sleeping Partner." I am all for the Utilization of the Millionaire : I am for making him a conduit-pipe to the great reservoir of State wealth. He should enjoy all; Socialism and Sense. 221 the gratification resulting from the exercise of his exceptional ability or luck, and such happiness as follows upon the presence of all the conditions of comfort, nay luxury ; but at his death I would have the State insist upon its right as a working partner with the Millionaire a "sleeping partner," if you like to carry to its credit a considerable share of the remaining proceeds of the partnership. Every man should have the liberty to live and die a Millionaire, but no man should have the right to confer Million- aire honours upon people who have done naught to deserve them. " Sleeping Partner with the State" is no mere phrase : it is a phrase full of significance and substance. Would the Millionaire have existed except for the presence of the Multitude, and except for the protection and facilities afforded him by the State ? Why, it is the People and the State which make him possible : as Robinson Crusoe alone on an island, Millionaire honours would have been beyond him ; while in an unorganized, lawless com- munity, his functions would be limited in their manifestation, and he would hold his acquisitions at great risk. Yes, I would have us give the freest of play to the exercise of private imagination, audacity, and enterprise, but I would also have us see to it that the State, in consideration of its providing the " happy hunting ground," " making a ring," and providing opportunities for the perfectly safe and profitable exercise of this imagination, audacity, and enterprise, is handsomely rewarded when the final casting of accounts takes place. Forms of Taxation. There are various forms of taxation, and the peace and prosperity of the nation is sometimes very much wrapped up in the question of form. For example : I am sometimes disposed to doubt the wisdom of any considerable development of the graduated form of 222 Socialism and Sense. income tax. You may recall that Thomas Paine, just a century ago, worked out a table under which the twenty-third thousand pounds of a man's income and all beyond went absolutely to the State ; and there have been political leaders amongst us since who have advocated similar schemes of taxation. But if in the application of any scheme of graduated income tax no consideration is to be given to the case of the producer as distinguished from that of the non-pro- ducer, I should greatly question its wisdom ; for it may happen to work in restraint of individual enter- prise and energy. In the case of the non-producer there is less need, if, indeed, any need at all, for consideration, aud you may reasonably introduce as against him a scale of graduated taxation, beginning to grow heavy after allowance has been made for the utmost conception of luxury. The Millionaire often " wards off" criticism by the assurance that he has only one stomach, can only wear one coat, and can only be in one place at a time, Well, we can pro- ceed to tax the non-producer on the assumption that the margin of luxuries can be, after all, only very slight. There is developing a disposition to differen- tiate strongly between personal and impersonal capital : that is to say, it is contended that in the levying of taxes a considerable distinction should be drawn between income made by direct personal exertion or supervision and incomes derived from investments in brief, incomes in the earning of which the income-receiver did not personally participate by " taking off his coat," as the current slang of the day has it. There is a large degree of force in this proposal; but applied in its entirety it might be made an instrument of grave injustice. ]1 dividend-income is to be dealt with differently from direct-income, great attention would have to be paid, if that were possible, both as to the source irom which the original capital was Socialism and Sense. 223 derived and the character of the investment from which the immediate income was drawn. But to certain forms of direct and immediate taxation of the non-producer, there can be no possible source of objection whatever. Take loans to foreign States, or investments in works in foreign lands : in some instances these are unpatriotic, in certain cases distinctly anti-patriotic ; and, while recognising the significance of Mr. Mallock's figures in this par- ticular, it is easy to understand and appreciate the sentiment that those who resort to investments of this character ought to be made to feel that a more pro- fitable form of investment might be the employment of their money in the interest of their own country. " Unearned Increment." Another mere rent-receiver whom there can be no hesitation in attacking with alacrity and vigour is the receiver of "unearned increment " : surely that is a case for immediate taxation up to the hilt. You in the North don't need to be told what " unearned increment " is : unearned increment is that value created by a community which is " collared " by a land-holder. By the gradual growth of your towns, the land upon which they are built and the land by which they are environed has been rendered of vastly greater value than it possessed before the town was built and extended ; but the inhabitants are carefully and sedulously kept Irom participating in the value which they themselves have created. No, it is retained by the holders of the land, who in many cases do absolutely nothing by co-operation with the inhabi- tants to justify their acceptance of the increased values conferred upon their lands I recall statistics I collected a number of years ago which indicated that the improvement of the lyne by the Tyue Com- missioners has conferred "unearned increment" upon a number of holders of land along the banks 224 Socialism and Sense. of the Tyne. Surely the time has arrived for this "unearned increment " to pass into the corporate coffers of the communities whose enterprises and activities alone have created it. What Corporations of boroughs must do is to buy the land over which the town is likely to spread, or, better still, take powers to tax it as it rises in value through the growth of the town, leaving speculators to do the work of development. If Tyne-made electrical power should ever make this town a town of wide- spreading work- shops and manufactories, and, of course, of cozy homes for the working classes, you must watch that no hungry speculator steals the increased value of the land created by the natural situation of the town and the enterprise and activity of the community as a whole. You must see to it that you become in your corporate capacity owners of the present un- occupied lands yourselves, or that you are placed in such a position to tax the holder or holders of these lands that the community will secure for itself all the value which it puts into it of itself. For my part I am growing strong in the belief that the wisest way for communities to secure for them- selves the " unearned increment " is not to buy lands which may never grow in value, but to take power to levy taxes upon all land which does in- crease in value, or is held for a rise. By this means you will reap all the advantages of the nursing of a keen and shrewd speculator, and, perhaps, save your- selves much loss through the medium of municipal corruption. How the People will " Get theip Own Again." The nationalization of the land, as I have already said, will probably be best achieved by taxation, rather than by direct resumption or communal ad- ministration. In "getting at" the ancient land- holders of the country by means of taxation I would Socialism and Sense. 225 manifest small compunction. Mark you, I say "the ancient landholders of the country:'* if it were possible I would set the sheep apart from the goats. Of course, I would exercise the tenderest regard for the interests of the vast majority of the landholders small men, whose property has been acquired in the most legitimate and even laudable way ; and I would further treat gentlemen who have acquired estates within recent years (since within the past century) on a different footing to men whose families have occupied and exercised for their personal benefit a position of privilege for centuries past. There is evidence in abundance that these families have in many ways plundered the people at large for hundreds of years ; it cannot be a matter of surprise if the people should now proceed to concert measures for securing a degree of resti- tution. But this popular policy of restitution, they need not fear, will be based on reason and justice. The People will get their own again by taxation, and by taxation of a kind to which objection cannot be, under the circumstances, legitimately raised. The Millionaire Bred by Multiplicity. Taxation must be made more and more the great distributing machine for the apportionment of righteous reward of individual labour and communal co-operation. It would probably be better if we paid less attention to Bills and more to Budgets ; for many years to come the Budget ought to be universally regarded as the most important piece of work that can issue from the hands of Government and Parliament. The Death-Duties are an unex- ceptionable method of securing a fairer distribution of the national wealth. Sir William Harcourt's splendid advance-movement in the Session of 1894, indeed, is everywhere recognized as only the goose-step in an admirable arrangement for producing that juster Q 226 Socialism and Sense. distribution of national profits, as well as that greater equality of sacrifice, so imperatively demanded by the circumstances of the time. The payment of the Death-Duties is really in a large degree a deferred payment of profits earned through and by the nation. As Mr. Mill taught, there are other commodities than land that carry an un- earned increment ; and it is meet that wherever it can the State should secure the increment for its rightful owners. It is the Multitude that in most instances breeds, by its very multiplicity, the Millionaire, and the Multitude must get through taxation some substantial share of recognition for providing the Millionaire with the opportunity for the exercise of his ability. Why should the Millionaire alone benefit from the multiplicity of the Multitude ? Why should not the Multitude benefit indirectly, if not directly, from its own multiplicity ? The Balance-sheets of "Managing Partners." At least, it must be acknowledged that the State renders services to the Millionaire of to-day in facilities given and protection afforded -which are out of all proportion to the sum he pays annually in the form of income-tax. Even if we keep in view the principle of sacrifice according to ability only, who can affirm that the contributions of the working-man through indirect taxation and the contributions of the professional man both through indirect and direct taxation do not represent a much greater degree of sacrifice than that represented by the easily-drawn and never-missed cheque of the Millionaire ? Take three of the earliest wills which came under the Harcourt Screw a Sunder- land shipowner's, 256,000 ; a Stock- Exchange broker's, 306,421; and a London hop-merchant's, 215,234. Can it reasonably be asserted that the Socialism and Sense. 227 $ums paid by the deceased gentlemen annually during life and the 17,922, the .21,474, and the 15,670 paid by their executors respectively after their death represented their just contribution to the coffers of a nation which furnished them with the occasion and opportunity for amassing their fortunes, which afforded them every facility for the making of their wealth, and which spent vast sums in securing them in the possessions of these fortunes when making and made? In 1894, five persons died, leaving fortunes amounting in the aggregate to 5,612,446, and 12 other persons died leaving fortunes amounting in the aggregate to 8,175,903 ; while 3 persons left 1,403,047, 12 persons 4,130,230, 20 persons 4,762,661, 31 persons 5,346,367, and 51 persons 6,226,437; 134 per- sons thus leaving behind them 35,657,091. Of this huge sum, probably only some 5,000,000, at the outside, passed into the National Exchequer. Can it be maintained that the sleeping partners of these 134 gentlemen the State was sufficiently considered when the respective estates the result of their joint efforts in co-operation were wound up ? Where is the man who will maintain that in these cases " the protection and assistance afforded by the State in the process of acquisition" Mr. Mill's language was adequately assessed ? "If there had been no England." If there had been no England if there had been no huge and hard-working population to work coal, to puddle iron, to make machines, to spin cotton, to weave cloth, to build and man ships, to eat bread and beef, to drink beer, to buy clothes, to do the half-hundred other acts which make up the trade and commerce of the nation would these 134 gentlemen have accumulated amongst them 35,657,091 ? Granted that they earned every Q.2 228 Socialism and Sense. penny by the exercise of their own brains and skill, where would they have been if there had been no material upon which to exercise their talent ? Why, one at least of these gentlemen, actually built up his fortune, not on the sale of the fruits of the earth, as is the fashion in other countries, but by sending out of the country wholesale little bits of this island, dragged by ill-paid miners out of the bowels of the earth, and carried by ill-paid sailors to ports abroad, there to be used by our Continental rivals in competition against us ! Ought not gentle- men of this type to pay very much more than they do to-day for " the glorious privilege " of being Englishmen ? If these 134 gentlemen had all cast in their lot with the late Mr. Stevenson on the island of Samoa would their wills have disclosed the sum of 35,657,091 ? Yet 5,000,000 at the outside was all they paid as the price of the unique advantage they enjoyed, the exceptional facilities accorded them for building-up their fortunes, and the costly institutions established to secure them in the perfect possession of their wealth ! In sight of figures like the above, it is clear that the Harcourt {Screw will have to be turned many times before the claims of the State as business-partner with the Millionaire have had substantial justice done to them. It will be idle for these gentle- men to whimper about oppressive taxation. They will do well to note, as has been pertinently observed that taxation, even of the severest kind, is better than Socialism, " which proposes to take everything. 1 ' Mr. Mill for Limiting Capacity of Inheritance. It is important to remember that under the Death Duties form of taxation no grevious injustice is done to anybody. The State obtains its sleeping- partner share of the estate without anyone suffering Socialism and Sense. 229 the loss oi any creation which he or she could claim to be the result of personal labour, and the disap- pointed heir or heiress is ultimately the gainer, at any rate physically, and probably also morally. Of course, the plan is not without its injustices and its dangers. You may, for example, bring up children on a scale of comfort and luxury to which they will not be able to attain in later years, but that often happens to-day ; and it will certainly be a great gain attained if a stricter taxation brings in its train a simpler and healthier mode of life. The intention of the law, too, may be evaded by frequent gifts, but the State will probably prove itself in the end stronger than deeds of gift framed by the cleverest lawyers that money can buy ; while a more frequent distribution of fortunes during life would be certainly better than the present system. Let us not forget that so eminent and influential a political economist as John Stuart Mill advocated the imposition of ex- tremely heavy succession duties u with the object of producing a better distribution of national wealth, and compelling individuals to rely upon themselves." " I see nothing objectionable/' wrote Mr. Mill, " in fixing a limit to what anyone may acquire by the mere favour of others, without any exercise of his faculties, and in requiring that, if he desires any fur- ther accession of fortune, he shall work for it ; " and I believe that in some countries, certainly in the State of Illinois, laws have been passed limiting the capacity of inheritance. "Millionaires 1 ' by Birth not "Millionaires" by Merit. This Question touches the stability of the Com- monwealth as closely, if not closer, than any of the other urgent questions which occupy public attention to-day. It is the Millionaire by Inherit- ance, much more than the Millionaire by Intellect, or the Millionaire by Pluck, or even the Millionaire 230 Socialism and Sense. by Luck, who "sets up the back " of the Coinless in these times. It is not alone the Socialists in this country who echo the cry of the author of " Merrie England/' that " the wealthiest men in our nation are men who never did a useful day's work : " the grievance is one which Radicals have vigorously voiced for many years, and have even done something in a practical way to minimise, up-rooting being beyond their power for the present. If Content is to dwell in this kingdom, a much more trenchant dealing with the Millionaire, but especially with the Millionaire by Inheritance, must be undertaken quickly. If Millionaires be Trustees for the Multitude by the law of Natural Selection, as is so often urged, then it is high time that there should be a more rigid audit of the accounts of their stewardship. Legalise " The Gospel of Wealth." This Question is rapidly ripening for stronger national action. If the Multitude is unsettled, the Millionaire himself is uneasy. His great wealth is in these times becoming daily a greater burden, and his intellect and conscience are also being awakened to the peculiarities and responsibilities of his position. Years have passed since the charm of simplicity began to exercise its spell upon him, but Mr. Herbert Spencer's " manifest corollary " is still slow in following. Many of the American Millionaires have been represented as dwelling upon the deceitfumess of riches ; Mr. J. J. Astor is reported as having said : "I can do nothing with my income but buy more land, build more houses, and lend money on mortgage ; in short, I am found with the necessaries of existence, and more than that I cannot get out of my money." Still they bear their burden bravely. Mr. Gladstone gave the Millionaires the chance of their lives when Socialism and Sense. 231 five years ago he proposed the formation of a Society that would have given them the pleasure of participation in the distribution of their fortunes which they at present control ; and this having been neglected, there is now no other course open to the Nation than to legalize Mr. Carnegie's " Gospel of Wealth " by becoming itself Distributor- General. In taking this course, the Nation will have Justice and Sense on its side. There is nothing more demoralizing and dangerous to the Nation than the presence of a large body of men and women who revel in the fruits of the work of thousands of other men and women without having themselves contributed an ounce of work or a pound of wisdom to the common fund of the universe. We may not be able to abolish heirs, but we must somehow stop idle- ness in heirs. The best thing that could happen to the heirs of to-day, alike from the point of view of their own happiness and the profit of the world, would be to cast them into the furnace of common occupation and common life. Upon the platform of this proposition practical men and philosophers join hands in almost unique fashion. Heirs and Idleness. Many people admire, with Mr. Froude, "that ancient rule of the Jews, that every man, no matter of what grade or calling, shall learn some handi- craft ;" and there is rising a tide of feeling in the direction of a resort to compulsion to ensure the acquirement of technical knowledge of a trade or profession on the part ol every citizen. Few men of the world will deny the force of certain observa- tions which fell in a recent interview from " The Diamond King of South Africa," Mr. Joseph Mylchreest, whose striking career opened as a ship- wright in a boat-building yard: "But there is 232 Socialism and Sense. another sort of failure in life, and if it is not quite so common, it is among the most tragic and pathetic of all. I mean the man of great accumulated wealth who labours all day and every day to provide for his children as he will say, though in reality he is slaving in his way because he does not know how to take his ease. He does a bad thing by himself, and very often a wicked thing by his own children, in leaving them to spend money which he himself never learned how to use, which they have never had the opportunity of learning how to earn. I hold that the richest man in England cannot rightly afford to despise a training as a mechanic. Come what may, he can in that way give his son a bit of capital that will bring a tair return the wor]d over/' Mr. Ruskin wrote in 1875 : " I would assert that the father should never provide for the children. He is to educate them and maintain them to the very best of his power, till they are of mature age never live upon them in their youth. (Damned modernism eats its own children young, and excuses its own avarice by them when they are old !) When they are strong, throw them out of the nest as the bird does. But let the nest be always open to them. But no fortune left them ; Father's house open, nothing more." Who with knowledge of men and things to-day can refuse to agree with the sentiment expressed by Mr. Carnegie when, after affirming (with the partial endorsement of Mr. Gladstone) that " to die possessed of millions of available wealth " is to " die disgraced,'' he declared that " to leave great fortunes to our children is to impose upon them burden and disadvantage?" " Without supposing extreme cases," Mr. Mill wrote, " it may be affirmed that in a majority of instances the good, not only of Society, but of the individuals, would be better con- sulted by bequeathing to them a moderate rather than a large provision." Even Mr. Goldwin Smith, who Socialism and Sense. 233 234 Socialism and Sense. "John Bull, Unlimited." A further trenchant revision of the basis and a further considerable rise in the scale of the Death Duties would have the result of limiting in a very considerable degree the power of bequest, without the trouble of creating new statutes upon the point, and the influence of this step would soon be experienced and appreciated, both in individual life and conduct and in national profit and progress. "While taking care to deduct whatever may be due to monopoly, or the machine, or the multiplicity of the multitude, the Party of the People will act, I have no doubt, with perfect justice and discretion. It cannot fail to recognise that perfect and absolute equality of position is unattainable in this mundane sphere, that a certain prominence and distinction of persons is inevitable in this life ; and any fair profit which may be the fruit of the exercise of sheer natural ability on the part of the millionaire deceased will in all likelihood be left in the perfect control of his widow and family. In this way, probably, the chief source of luxurious idleness would be drained away, yet with the best of the heirs and heiresses left with incomes, insufficiently large to save them from labour, but sufficiently large to enable them to figure as bearers of the national standard of the higher amenities and influences of life ; while the nation would reap the direct benefit of a mass of wealth which otherwise would have been either largely stagnant in hands of idle heirs, or spent foolishly or wickedly, with results demoralizing to the country at large. A vast amount of good English stuff, the stuff out of which our Empire has been largely built, is lost to the nation through the enervation and enfeeblement which follow upon the " coddling" and luxury which the possession of great wealth Socialism and Sense. 235 induces and permits, and a juster, and, therefore, a wider distribution of wealth through the machinery of the State, is likely to bring in its train deep and abiding blessings both upon man and nation. The founding of a family upon mere money-bags and paper credit must be "ruled out" from the catalogue of the honourable ambitions of man, and " Riches and Ruin " must be close allies no longer. In their place, we must witness the reign of Liberty and Equity the liberty of individual initiative, enterprise, and enjoyment, and the equity of fair distribution of profit of joint co-operation between the active and sleeping partners in the old- established and widely-known firm of " John Bull, Unlimited." Where can there be a Sound Reason? Distribution of National Profits by Death Duties has much to recommend it. Taxation, I admit, is a process attended by grave dangers when you attempt to drain heavily the resources of the great army of producers, It is not here proposed, however, to increase, at any rate materially I am disposed to urge not at all the measure of taxation levied during life, except, of course, in relation to those landlords who happen to be non-producers, especially those of them whose families happen to be " hoary sinners" against the rights and rewards of the labour- ing classes. Producers would be touched by taxation during life practically no more than they are touched to-day ; it would only touch their posses- sions on a large scale when they had passed beyond control of them, and when their accumulations would otherwise fall into the hands of people who had played no part in their production certainly, very much less than the " sleeping partner" the State. If the change should lead to a wider dis- tribution of the Millionaire's wealth during life no 236 Socialism and Sense. one could complain, for that, at any rate, would be a great improvement upon the existing condition of affairs ; but, as a matter of fact, the passion for accumulation in many cases is beyond all reason and calculation : as one of the Tory prints re- minded us the other day, the squeezing of the Jewish money-lenders by the Plantagenet Kings "never abated the ardour with which they amassed wealth." This point disappearing, what ob- jection founded on justice and sense, I ask, can be raised to the proposition above set forth ? The position of widows and families would be generously adjudged without the sons and daughters of the house being enfeebled and demoralized by being " saved " from working for a living ; while the Nation, by coming into its share of the profits as provider and protec- tor, would be enabled to entirely relieve the Nation of the necessity for taxation, carry out much-needed public improvements, and develope the resources of the Empire to the utmost limit with results in the form of Prosperity, Culture, and Happiness that would surpass the records of any State, ancient or modern. Rights and Restitution. There is, I am satisfied, no disposition on the part of the labouring classes of this country to inflict the slightest tittle of injustice upon the classes which rank above them ; but they will not accept a tittle less than justice. It is well it should be realized, especially by journals of the just influence of the Spectator, that they have a claim to consideration, not only by reason of transactions in the present, but by reason of transactions in the past. If the claims of the heirs of to-day are to be valiantly defended, a reminder of rights as heirs of robbed ancestors must not be treated as a crime. Many dark and base acts of robbery have been Socialism and Sense. 237 committed against the labouring classes in the past ; and they cannot yet afford to recognise a Statute of Limitations. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the English kings used to " take it out " of wealthy subjects by insisting upon what were euphemisti- cally styled " benevolences " alias loans, alias gifts. Our latter-day Monarch, the Democracy, does not demand " benevolences " of this character nor even " ransom : " all he asks for is restitu- tion. While the measure of this restitution remains unsatisfactory, the Democracy does well not to readily forget past wrongs ; but it will do even better to insist upon present rights. The rights must be obtained through a vastly developed recognition of the principle of equality of sacrifice, the demand for a more equitable division of dividend, and the claim of the Multitude to the direct fruits of their multi- plicity ; while the wrongs may be compounded for by the establishment of, or contribution to, some fund, which, while relieving the aged workman and workwoman from any stigma of pauperism, will remove from the minds of the working population the terrible dread of a poverty-stricken old age which staggers and afflicts them to-day. " There is a Good Time Coming:, Boys I " There is " corn in Egypt " yet for the lowly and laborious ones of the earth, and the exercise of discretion and patience will be rewarded in "good time," which approaches every year in more rapidly- increasing ratio, through the thorough and complete triumph of Truth, Justice, and Righteousness. Un- like our Socialist friends, we cannot promise them " Leisure, Content, and Happiness while you wait ; " but we can offer them sincerely the assurance, con- tained in the words of a good old song, very popular in the North thirty or forty years ago, " There's a good time coming, boys ; wait a little longer." 238 Socialism and Sense. The promise of that song has already been amply fulfilled certainly fulfilled in a greater degree than the promissory notes of our Socialist friends are ^ver likely to be met ; but provided we all do our duty, the achievements of the past are likely to be to the achievements of the future as the living Nazareth is to the dead Nineveh ! Socialism and Sense. 239 CHAPTER XVII. THE MEANS TO THE END. The Key to "The Kingdom." I have sought to suggest the various gates by which the greater kingdom the real Greater Britain may be entered : it only remains to name the key which will ultimately unlock to the multi- tude of our countrymen all these multifarious gates the golden key of Education ! The Poor are poor mainly because they are weak that is to say, because they are ignorant and incompetent : give them knowledge, and give them skill, and, with the passage of the years, Poverty, as one of the issues of ignorance and incompetence, will largely be transformed into Prosperity, Prosperity will give us Content, Culture, and, above all, Character ; and the Empire, being founded upon knowledge, justice, and happiness, will so increase in strength and influence that the waves of foreign rivalry, competition, and jealousy will break against its ramparts with effect as slight as when the terrific rollers of one of your far-famed North-Eastern gales break against the historic " Cliffs of Old Tynemouth." If we are patriotic Britons, it is the Child that we must cultivate : Fatherhood and Motherhood must acquire a new meaning a new responsibility ; and every local community must grow at least as jealous of the character of its educa- tional facilities as at present it is jealous of its re- putation for manufactures or trade. If we are not to be overwhelmed by the Machine if we are to keep well at head of the Peoples of the World it is to an advance in Technical Education and to an in- crease in manipulative and artistic skill that we must look for salvation ; and the leaders of our working-men will best serve their class by pro- claiming this truth with all the persistency and 240 Socialism and Sense. power of which they are capable. It is the School that is the main avenue to National distinc- tion and power and stability, and every nerve must be strained to render it the efficient and enduring instrument of Education and Progress that a great and wealthy country can well afford to make it. To the end of a healthy, educated, and cultured people, too, mothers must be got out of the mills ; the monotony and disease -producing features of factory life must be minimised to the utmost ; our slums, whether in town or village, must be swept away ; the drinking habits of a large section of the people must be attacked both through the remedy of decreased temptation and the medium of healthy recreation, without entailing the loss of the facilities for friendly intercourse and communion which well- conducted public-houses at present supply to all classes of citizens ; children must be kept longer under the influence of the school teacher, whose hands must be strengthened in innumerable ways notably by a diminution in the number of his pupils and an increase in his dignity and intellec- tuality ; our popular literature must be purified and strengthened ; and wherever the circumstances of trade permit, the opportunity for physical recreation and intellectual improvement must be enlarged. The greatest and noblest industry in which we can engage is the Making of Man ; and those who apply themselves to the attainment of such objects as these are employed in the workshop of the world in the highest and grandest of occupations. A Closer Unity of the Classes. Not only will Education rid us of our three igno- minious i's- incompetence, idleness, and intem- perance but it will materially aid us in a vital object a closer unity of the classes of the country. Various vital reforms demanded in the interests of Socialism and Sense. 241 he People at large may militate for a time against. his closer unity of the classes, but the doing of justice lever produces permanent rancour in England ; and is Education spreads and the sense of Justice is increasingly satisfied, we will enevitably get that better knowledge of each other essential to a greater harmony, and upon greater harmony there will natu- rally follow a larger and deeper prosperity, and, above all, a development of that moral power which is imperative to the creation and continuance of a sound and splendid State. Education, in fact, has already begun to play its part in this particular, in initiating that revision of the relations of Labour and Capital which is so full of promise at the present moment. " The wisdom of mankind creeps slowly on," but Conscience, enlightened, will become more and more the conqueror, and, the old methods crumbling in the dust, the New Partnership the Partnership of Labour and Capital on the basis of friendly familiarity and co-operative association, mutual respect and confidence, and just distribution of profits will quickly grow into one of the strongest and staunchest guarantees of the prosperity of the British People. In combination with the other re- forms so urgently demanded, a partnership of this character will toll the knell of the numerous kinds of highway robbery and forms of industrial mono- tony and degradation rampant in many business quarters to-day, will relieve us of the worry of irregularity and uncertainty of employment which is the source of untellable demoralisation, and will bring us more quickly than by any other method at present advertised to that life of reasonable physical comfort, healthy recreation, and invigorat- ing intellectuality which is the just, righteous, and sane standard of the best of our British workmen to-day. Yes : our greatest triumphs are yet to be won in the Territory of the Mind, and the careful and 242 Socialism and Sense. assiduous cultivation of that vast and unknowable region ought to be to us as a State our earliest and supremest care. Enfranchisement and Enlighten- ment are our national search-lights : they may be trusted to show us the track of Truth, knowledge of which will alone give to the British Nation that sense of freedom and stability necessary to the fullest exercise and fruition of its marvellous and magnificent powers. " Full of Hope and Encouragement." As we have already indicated, Eadical Evolu- tionists, unlike Socialists, cannot promise you Paradise at the end of a penny ride. The policy here outlined is a Policy that above all things calls for Patience. As Mr. Herbert Spencer has advised us, the processes of evolution " cannot be abridged : " a generation of men weighs as a grain of sand in the onward march of mankind. However hard it may be, we must ever try to exercise " the patience " which commends itself to Mr. Ruskin the patience " which seeks improvement with hope but not with haste/' As Gerald Massey &mgs " 'Tis weary watching wave by wave, And yet the Tide heaves onward." All that it is open to us to do is to play our part manfully and faithfully in this our day and genera- tion. Hitherto the People have only won their way to the courtyard of their heritage : are t^men and women of this generation going to enter into the Mansion of the Commonwealth not a palace filled with heavenly delights, it is true, but still a very desirable residence indeed ? Carefully studied, the signs of the times are full of hope and encouragment. Sir Thomas More's lament that the Government " takes no care of those of a meaner sort," has now no meaning : already there are many amongst Socialism and Sense. 243 us who, in the words of Mr. John Morley, in the capacity of biographer of Rosseau, "deem a day basely passed in which no thought has been given to hard life of garret and hovel, to the forlorn children and trampled women of wide squalid wilder- nesses in cities ; " rapider and stronger grows that sense of Equality, Justice, and Humanity which has ever been the keynote of the historic Radical Party ; and our pulses beat faster and our hopes rise higher as every session brings us " one day's march nearer home " the home of justly- rewarded industry, sweet content, and noble aspira- tion. "No Road This Way!" But for the moment the road to home is blocked : " No road this way ! " cry "my lords and lackies." Are we going to tamely submit to this denial of the fruit of life-long labours and ambitions ? It is not likely, if I have analysed Northern blood aright! The outlook over sea is stormy, but let us have no fear the grand old ship of Radicalism, "staunch and strong, a goodly vessel," can " with wave and whirlwind wrestle," and " laugh at all disaster." The Radical Party may be for the moment in slight peril, from within as well as from without ; but if we will determine to put more sanity and grimness into the pursuit of our resolves, and, above all, if we will be united recognising no class distinctions, permitting no minor " fad " to come between us and the main issue and deter- mined as staunch and as stubborn as Northmen knows so well to be the glory of triumph will be our portion. Let us seek our inspiration and en- couragement in the story of the adventure of a beautiful creation of our illustrious Northumbrian poet Swinburne's "Tristram, of Lyonnesse " Tristram, who pushed out with some comrades on 2 R 244 Socialism and Sense. a knightly errand, " in the east wind's lull face and the strong sea's spite : " . " for with one stroke yet Went all men's oars together, strongly set As to loud music, and with hearts uplift They smote their strong way through the drench and drift." Till " across the thin and slackening rain, Sprang the face southward of the sun again." Mayhap, in entering upon this long- delayed battle, we have entered upon one of the decisive battles of the world ! Let us prove equal to the occasion. It is sufficient for us that we are fighting it under the ancient and never-fading flag of " Truth, Justice, and Eighteousness : " we will quit ourselves as becomes the sturdy heirs of a glorious Party a Party with a record of Reforms unequalled in history and un- exampled in influence, and consequently a Party with a Responsibility that demands and an Inspira- tion that commands an enthusiasm and an activity and a success worthy of being enshrined in deathless story. The Responsibility of the Radical Party. This is no idle rhetoric : it is well within the range of reason to affirm that the character of the Coming Century, so far as the British Empire is concerned, will be largely the creation of the Radical Party of Britain. The Radical Party in Britain, in brief, will in the main manufac- ture the cargo that the good ship, " Twentieth Century" will ultimately bring to port; and upon its sanity and its strength, and especially upon the sanity and strength of its leaders, the gravest of issues will unmistakably depend. It is the lives of millions of unborn men and women that will be coloured by the success or failure of the Radical Party of to-day : the question is, shall these Socialism and Sense. millions of men and women have cause to bless or curse the Radical- Reformers of the close of the Nine- teenth Century ? This personal responsibility for de- termining the contents of the " Twentieth Century's " bill-of-lading, as she passes to her final moorings amid the hulks of other centuries, is a responsibility which cannot be too early or closely taken to heart by all men and women with souls above the puerile controversies and foolish trivialities of the hour. We cannot escape, if we would, from the unending influence of our words and deeds to-day ; and we had best brace ourselves to a full realization and acceptance of our responsibilities. And acknowledg- ing our responsibilities, let us face them boldly and bra\ely with the sole but stern resolve that Where the Vanguard camps to-day, The Rear shall rest to-morrow ! OF THE UNIVERSITY Of Nkoi ik A Co , PniHc.-, 45. I3rliicn. K.. . Walter Scott's Publications. THE SCOTT LIBRARY Crown 8vo. f Cloth, Price Is. 6d. Gilt Top, Uncut Edges. Romance of King Arthur Thoreau's Walden Thoreau's Week Thoreau's Essays English Opium-Eater Landor's Conversations Plutarch's Lives Beligio Medici, &c. 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By E. C. K. QONNER, M.A., Brunner Professor of Economic Science, University College, Liverpool. E NEW VOLUMES IX THE VERY-DAY HELP SERIES OF USEFUL HAND-BOOKS. 'rice Ml. encli. Contributors J. Langdon Down, M.D., F.B.C.P. ; Henry Power, M.B., F.R.C.8. ; J. Mortimer-Granville, M.D. ; J. Crichton Browne, M.D., LL.D.; Robert Farqnharaon, M.D. Edin.; W. 8. Greenfield, M.D., F.R.C.P.; and others The Secret of a Clear Head. Common Mind Troubles. The Secret of a Good Memory Sleep and Sleeplessness. The Heart and Its Function. Personal Appearances In Health and Disease The House and its Surroundings. Tola. How to do Business. A Guide to Success ia Life How to Behave. A Manual of Etiquette and Personal Habit-. How to Write. A Manual of Composition and Letter Writing. How to Debate. With Hints on Public Speak- inc. Alcohol : Its Use and Abuse. Exercise and Training. Baths and Bathing. Health in Schools. The Skin and Its Troubles. How to make the Best of Life. 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