THE GIFT OF 
 
 MAY TREAT MORRISON 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 ALEXANDER F MORRISON
 
 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY
 
 BY THE SAfy/lE AUTHOR. 
 
 THE CITIZEN READER 
 
 411th Thousand 
 
 THE LAWS OF EVERY-DAY LIFE 
 
 67th Thousand 
 
 A HISTORY OF ENGLAND 
 
 33rd Thousand 
 
 THINGS NEW AND OLD 
 
 276th Thousand 
 
 THIS WORLD OF OURS 
 
 20th Thousand 
 
 THE COMING OF THE KILOGRAM 
 
 10th Thousand 
 
 OUR GREAT CITY 
 
 nth Thousand 
 
 IN A CONNING TOWER 
 
 CASSELL & CO., LTD., 
 London, Paris, and Melbourne 
 
 THE ARMY IN 1906 
 
 London : JOIIX MURRAY, 50a Albemarle Street
 
 ENGLISH SOCIALISM 
 OF TO-DAY 
 
 ITS TEACHING AND ITS AIMS EXAMINED 
 
 BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 H. O. ARNOLD-FORSTER, M.P. 
 
 ii J • J ^ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 
 1908
 
 » C C • « «
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The contents of this book originally appeared in the 
 form of articles contributed to the ' Standard.' They 
 have been reproduced practically without alteration, 
 as no criticism has appeared during the course of 
 publication which has necessitated any correction as 
 to matters of fact, or any modification of the con- 
 clusions arrived at. 
 
 There have, however, been some criticisms which 
 are deserving of attention, not because of their 
 weight or cogency, but because they supply a useful 
 confirmation of the statements made by the author, 
 and because they furnish convincing proof of the 
 strength of the case he has sought to establish. 
 
 The criticisms may be conveniently divided into 
 two classes, the elusive and the abusive. The 
 elusive criticism is that which seeks to discredit 
 the case against Socialism by pretending that it is 
 based upon incorrect or unauthorised documents. 
 It is indeed a favourite device of Socialist con- 
 troversialists to repudiate any utterance or any 
 
 4^yri3-
 
 vi ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 written document which does not happen to suit the 
 audience which for the time being they desire to 
 concihate. This practice is rendered easy because 
 within the limits of SociaHst literature diametrically 
 opposite views on alnit)st every subject discussed are 
 to be found. 
 
 Under these circumstances the only safe course 
 for one who desires to express an opinion upon the 
 Socialist policy, and at the same time to be free 
 from the danger of being met with a denial of his 
 authority, is to go straight to the fountain-head, to 
 ask the responsible leaders of the Socialist party 
 what it is they do mean, and to accept their printed 
 official reply as conclusive. This is the course which 
 the author has adopted. The principal official of one 
 of the Socialist organisations has thought fit to 
 upbraid the author for his failure to observe the 
 proper precautions in obtaining information with 
 regard to Socialism, its teaching and its aims. ' If 
 Mr. Arnold-Forster,' says the Secretary of the I.L.P., 
 * desired to have such Independent Labour Party 
 publications as would place him in possession of the 
 general teachings of the I.L.P. why did he not make 
 application to me as Secretary of the Association ? ' 
 These words would possibly not have been written 
 had the writer been aware that the course which he 
 recommends is precisely that which was followed. 
 
 An application was made, not, it is true, to the 
 I.L.P., but to the Secretary of the 'Social Democratic
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 Federation/ asking him to be good enough to send 
 any Hterature which, in his opinion, explained the 
 SociaHst position and described the Socialist 
 programme. In reply the Secretary forwarded a 
 long catalogue of books and pamphlets issued or 
 circulated by his association. The list contained 
 works published by the Independent Labou* Party 
 and by the Fabian Society, as well as those published 
 by the Social Democratic Federation itself. From 
 the list thus acquired some fifty books and pamphlets 
 were ordered, and it is on the documents so supplied 
 that the author has relied. In every case the 
 authority cited is given in full. It will be seen that 
 in the great majority of cases the quotations are 
 taken from the latest authorised official programmes 
 of the two principal Socialist associations. In all 
 other cases they are taken from publications issued or 
 circulated by those associations. 
 
 It might have been thought that under these 
 circumstances the author would have been safe from 
 what has been called the ' elusive ' form of criticism, 
 and that his authorities, at any rate, would not have 
 been called in question. Such, however, has not 
 proved to be the case. The most important, and 
 indeed the only serious, criticism has come from 
 Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, M.P., a courteous and 
 competent opponent, whose position as Chairman of 
 the Independent Labour Party gives special weight 
 to his words. Speaking at Dundee on December 6,
 
 viii ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 1907, Mr. Macdonald declared the present work to 
 be valueless because the author, so far from doing 
 justice to Socialism, had chosen to quote from 
 * obscure and obscurantist documents which expressed 
 the Socialist need in the very baldest and the very- 
 worst form.' 
 
 As has already been made evident, this remark 
 fails as a criticism. The documents from which quo- 
 tations have been made may have the qualities 
 attributed to them ; they may be both ' obscure and 
 obscurantist'; but that is not the fault of the present 
 author. If they are not all that could be desired, 
 they are, at any rate, the best to be got ; for they are 
 the official programmes and the official publications 
 of the principal Socialist bodies in this country. 
 
 Mr. Macdonald's criticism has been referred to 
 here, not for the purpose of continuing a controversy 
 for which there is really no material, but because it 
 serves as a warning to those who are confronted by 
 Socialist denials. The Socialists are appealing by 
 means of books and pamphlets, scattered broadcast 
 throughout the land, to uneducated and unguided 
 men. It is by what these books and pamphlets 
 contain that they ought to be judged ; and the fact 
 that moderate and conciliatory language which has 
 no relation whatever to the printed official statements 
 is sometimes used in addressing audiences composed 
 of educated men and women ought not to weigh for 
 one moment in the balance.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 IX 
 
 Mr, Macdonald in a later criticism lias re- 
 marked, apparently as a matter of reproach, that he 
 notices that ' Mr. Arnold-Forster very wisely quotes 
 sparingly from the Independent Labour party.' 
 The fact that few quotations have been made from 
 the publications of the I.L.P., and that little or 
 no hostility is displayed towards the party in these 
 pages, is not a question of wisdom or unwisdom. 
 The reason is a very simple one. The I.L.P. has 
 undoubtedly made itself responsible as a body for 
 one or two very unwise and dangerous proposi- 
 tions ; several of its members have brought discredit 
 upon it by foolish, uncharitable, or cruel utterances. 
 But it would not be fair to judge any party solely 
 by the worst speeches of its least reputable members ; 
 and though there are objectionable features in the 
 official programme of the I.L.P., the programme as 
 a whole is on an infinitely higher plane than that of 
 the S.D.F., and, in the opinion of the author, is, at 
 any rate, more honest than that of the Fabians. 
 Mr. Macdonald may rest assured that if the author 
 has refrained from attacking the I.L.P. as ardently 
 as its President seems to desire, it is simply because 
 he has attacked only those things which seem to him 
 dangerous and evil. 
 
 The I.L.P. is an English party, which the S.D.F. 
 is not,' and, moreover, it is a party which in the 
 
 ' The S.D.F. is in the habit of descriliing itself as an Inlertiaiional 
 Organisation, and merits the title by the assiduity it dis^ilays in
 
 X ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 nature of things must exist and must play an 
 important part for good or evil in the future of the 
 nation. 
 
 Leaving Mr. Macdonald and his rather unfor- 
 tunate objections, we come to the criticism furnished 
 by the Secretary of the Society of which the 
 Member for Leicester is the President. This criti- 
 cism, which is of a violent and foolish character, will 
 be found in the Appendix (p. 219). It would not be 
 worth preserving here were it not that, from its 
 official nature, and also from the fact that it is 
 characteristic of Socialist methods of controversy, it 
 possesses a certain importance. 
 
 It will be observed by those who refer to the 
 documents in the Appendix that Mr. Johnson's^ 
 criticism, such as it is, is partly of the elusive and 
 partly of the abusive character. He does not ap- 
 parently dispute the fact that the passages quoted, and 
 to which his letter refers, are inflammatory, and such 
 as any public man ought to be ashamed of ; indeed 
 he is evidently ashamed of them himself. But he 
 contents himself with denying responsibility for the 
 incriminated publication,- and seeks to put the blame 
 upon some of his Socialist comrades. With what 
 success he has done this the reader will be able 
 
 disseminating in this country the catchwords and cant phrases of the 
 more violent French and German revoUitionaries. 
 
 • Mr. Frank Johnson, Secretary of the I.L.P. 
 
 2 The Class War.
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 to judge. But the matter does not quite end here. 
 Mr. Johnson, Secretary of the I.L.P., in his particularly 
 discourteous and unwise letters, is not content with 
 one blunder. It was not wise to give the lie direct 
 to a writer who stated that the pamphlet ' The 
 Class War ' emanated from the Publication Depart- 
 ment of the I.L.P. It was not wise, when confronted 
 by a copy of the pamphlet bearing the imprint 
 ' I.L.P. Publication Department,' to omit any apology 
 for a patent error, and to suggest that no such 
 pamphlet existed. But it was still less wise on 
 Mr. Johnson's part to commit himself officially to 
 the statement that ' neither the Independent Labour 
 Party nor any other Socialist organisation holds 
 ideas of class hatred and class tyranny.' We have 
 already given sufficient examples in the text of this 
 work to demonstrate the absurdity of such a state- 
 ment as this. It is not too much to say that the 
 preaching of a class war and the encouragement of 
 class hatred and misunderstanding form the dominant 
 note in current Socialist literature. But if any doubt 
 were possible the following passages, taken respectively 
 from the official programme of the S.D.F. and from 
 a pamphlet circulated by that body, should finally 
 remove it : — 
 
 That in order to ensure greater material ^ and moral 
 facilities for the working class to organise itself and to 
 
 ' Programme and rules of the S.D.F.
 
 xii ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 carry on the class waf, the following reforms must be 
 immediately carried through.^ 
 
 We have enumerated these reforms elsewhere. 
 And again : — 
 
 The Social Democratic Federation is a militant Socialist 
 organisation whose members belong mostly to the working 
 class. 
 
 The Class War 
 
 To this end (the furtherance of Socialism and the interests 
 of the working class) the '&.'D.¥. proclaims and preaches the 
 Class War. 
 
 Indeed, on this question the statement made by 
 Mr. James Leatham, author of the Socialist pam- 
 phlet * The Class War,' seems conclusive, for he tells 
 us : ' The I.L.P. is the only Socialist Party in Europe, 
 probably in the world, which does not accept, but 
 explicitly repudiates, the principle of The Class War.' "^ 
 
 Of the ' abusive ' criticism little need be said. One 
 conscientious critic has declared that the present work 
 is * dull,' another that it is * drivel.' But neither of 
 these generalisations can be regarded as being very 
 enlightening upon the main point at issue — namely, 
 whether what has been written be true or not. More- 
 over, the author has already received testimony from 
 many quarters which lead him to believe that his 
 efforts have been regarded in a more favourable 
 
 ' The Social Democratic Federation : its Objects, its Principles, and 
 its Work. S.D.F. Central Office, 1907 
 * Letter to 6Va;/(/i2;-(/ of Dec. 28, 1907.
 
 PREFACE xiii 
 
 light than the condemnation of the two censors 
 above quoted would permit him to hope. Whatever 
 else may be said of the case which the author has 
 sought to establish, it will be admitted that it is one 
 which can only be met by argument and reasoning, 
 and that personalities, abusive language, and blank 
 denials of well-known facts can only tend to esta- 
 blish it more firmly. These obvious considerations, 
 however, do not seem as yet to have been appre- 
 ciated by some of the Socialist organs. 
 
 Whatever value this little book may possess is 
 due to the facts which it contains. These facts have 
 not been impugned — they cannot be impugned. They 
 furnish the basis upon which we can judge, upon 
 which indeed we are compelled to judge, of the 
 English Socialism of to-day. It is possible to have 
 many opinions as to the importance and bearing 
 of these facts ; but no ingenuity, no violence, will 
 succeed in explaining them away. 
 
 H. O. ARNOLD-FORSTER. 
 
 January 1908.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE REAL BASIS OF THE SOCIALIST CASE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Socialist exaggerations — The Socialist division of Society 
 
 examined — The soil in which Socialism grows . . . i 
 
 CHAPTER n 
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 
 
 The Socialism of the philosophers — Socialism as it is being 
 
 taught— Municipal Socialism — One word and many meaning 14 
 
 CHAPTER HI 
 
 SOCIALISM AS IT IS BEING TAUGHT 
 
 The ' urgent reforms ' of the Socialist programme — The available 
 evidence — The Socialist programme — The State regulation of 
 wages 22 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 OUGHT WE TO FIGHT SOCIALISM ? 
 
 The declaration of war— Why we must fight — Socialism and 
 
 Christianiiy— The need for plain speaking — The real danger 39
 
 xvi ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 A pertinent inquiry—' The State ' and what it means — ' The 
 State ' as we know it — State interference — Do the people of 
 England want what the Socialists promise ? . . . '53 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED — {continued) 
 
 Equality of opportunity — Equal division of profits — Socialisation 
 of means of production — The taxation of unearned incomes . 62 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED — {continued) 
 
 The abolition of the Regular Army — The abandonment of India — 
 
 The Army of the future 73 
 
 CHAPTER VHI 
 
 THE SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED — {continued') 
 
 The repudiation of the National Debt — The effect of repudia- 
 tion—The holders of the debt— What the debt is . . • ^5 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED — {cotltiuued) 
 
 The abolition of the Monarchy — The election of judges — The 
 
 prohibition of child labour — Class rule and the class war . 94
 
 CONTENTS xvii 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION 
 
 PACE 
 
 Robbery by Act of Parliament — The criterion of just taxation — A 
 
 patent fallacy — An example from Barrow-in-Furness . .105 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION — {continued') 
 
 Class taxation— Punitive taxation — Compensation— Self-destruc- 
 tive taxation ......... 
 
 114 
 
 CHAPTER Xn 
 
 THE HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF SOCIALISM 
 
 An old story retold— Socialism in action— The Socialist 
 
 succession — The typical qualities of Socialism in action . 123 
 
 CHAPTER Xni 
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 
 
 The Anabaptist movement — The Socialists of 1793 — ' Liberty, 
 Equality, and Fraternity '—How to deal with the Opposition— 
 The 'Class War' ... .... 134 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION — {continued) 
 
 Expropriation and its results— The reign of ' Reason '—The 
 Army under S.D.F. principles—' Right about face ! Quick 
 march !'— The Socialist Navy— The tree and lis fruit . . 145
 
 xviii ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION — {continued) 
 
 PACE 
 
 The Paris Commune of 187 1 — A Socialist victory — The Govern- 
 ment of ' The People '^Liberty of the Press — The usages of 
 war — The Revolutionary Tribunal — Murder and arson . • '53 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 
 
 Subsidiary points of the Socialist programme- General character 
 of the proposals — The price to be paid — Machinery pro- 
 posals — Old-age pensions — State maintenance of children — 
 Socialism and collective administration — The profits of labour 163 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE — {continued) 
 
 The nationalisation of railways — State servants and their votes — 
 The minimum wage — Municipal dwellings — The public 
 control of the drink traffic — The eight hours' day . . .176 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 
 
 The limits imposed — National ideas and the Empire — Levelling 
 
 up Emigration — The wages problem and tariff reform . .187 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS — {continued) 
 
 The land Land transfer — Security — Communications and power 
 distribution— Afforestation and ror.d-making — The mercantile 
 marine • . . . . . . . .196
 
 CONTENTS xix 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS — {C077tinued) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The amenities of life — Class distinctions— An example from the 
 
 Army — An example from the magistracy —Conclusion . . 207 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 219
 
 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER ! , ,\,, ^ ^ ' '•,'' . 
 
 THE REAL BASIS OF THE SOCIALIST CASE 
 
 Socialist exaggerations — The Socialist division of Society examined — 
 The soil in which Socialism grows 
 
 The question of ' Socialism ' is very much in the 
 air. There are, perhaps, some who would say that 
 it is in the air only, and that the party of whose 
 activities we have heard so much of late has no 
 real existence. There is an element of truth in this 
 view. It has been said by a shrewd observer that 
 there are many Socialists in the world, but no 
 Socialism ; and in the same way it may be said to 
 be doubtful whether the large number of persons 
 who class themselves, or allow themselves to be 
 classed, as Socialists really form any coherent and 
 effective body in the countr)'. The recent municipal 
 elections ' tend to strengthen this view, for it is an 
 undoubted fact that the Socialists as an organised 
 ' The municipal elections ot 1907. 
 
 B
 
 2 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 party, so far from having progressed, have lost much 
 ground. 
 
 Nevertheless it would be a mistake to regard 
 Socialism as a negligible force, or the Socialist party 
 as one which is likely to fail for want of adherents, 
 and which can therefore be wisely disregarded. It 
 is impossible to study the conditions of which it is 
 th^-' outgrowth without feeling that Socialism may 
 easily.. become a great power for good or for evil 
 "in' thi^' country-. 'This is not because the Socialist 
 leaders are very remarkable persons, or because the 
 Socialist creed, so far as it can be ascertained from 
 their teaching, is one which is congenial to the 
 English character. In saying this it must be 
 clearly understood that no attempt is here made to 
 pass judgment upon the merits of that teaching. 
 Some of it is undoubtedly bad ; some of it is good ; 
 much of it is mere Utopianism, which has no 
 particular connection with anything in this world, 
 and which would not be listened to if it were 
 not accompanied by proposals of an exceedingly 
 practical and mundane character. Socialism, as it 
 is now being taught in this country, is important 
 because it is a symptom of a disease. The present 
 writer has been criticised for saying that Socialism 
 is much more the outcome of circumstances than 
 the direct result of Socialist teaching. But the 
 statement will bear examination. To a great extent 
 Socialism is an appeal to the unhappy and the
 
 REAL BASIS OF THE SOCIALIST CASE 3 
 
 unfortunate. There are two classes of persons who 
 are specially susceptible to the appeals of the 
 extreme Socialist : those who have never known 
 hope or enjoyment, and those who, having known 
 the enjoyment of life and the vivifying splendour 
 of hope, have been deprived of the power of enjoy- 
 ment, and have lost the right to hope. It is because 
 there are very many persons in this country who 
 are included in these two sorrowful categories that 
 the teaching even of the most extreme Socialists is 
 received and welcomed. 
 
 Facts, Figures, and Fancies 
 
 If any one desires to know something of the 
 classes who suffer without hope, and of the extent of 
 the suffering which is endured by a vast number of 
 people in these islands, he will find it in many 
 places. Among others, he will find it in some of the 
 Socialist pamphlets, and in one of them, published 
 by the Fabian Society under the title of ' Facts for 
 Socialists,' he will see how the facts are being repre- 
 sented to those to whom the Society addresses itself. 
 Who can deny that in the main these facts are true ? 
 They are not all true, and in one respect they are 
 grossly misleading. There is, however, sufficient 
 truth in them to entitle them to the earnest atten- 
 tion, not only of those to whom they are specially 
 addressed, but of every man and woman in England. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 It has been said, however, that the facts are mis- 
 leading in one respect. Such is the case. They 
 have the dangerous quality of a half-truth. They 
 tell part of the story, but they do not tell the whole. 
 It is true, lamentably true, that the distribution of 
 wealth in this country is grossly unequal—so unequal 
 that it cannot be good for the body politic. It is 
 true that there is great poverty, that there is great 
 suffering, and, above all, that there are hundreds of 
 thousands of men and women who live in daily dread 
 lest the turn of a fashion, or some accident against 
 which they can make no provision, may suddenly 
 condemn them to absolute and hopeless penury for 
 the rest of their lives. But it is not true that when 
 these things have been said the whole truth has been 
 told about English society. The majority of the 
 people of this country are not in abject poverty, nor 
 are they without hope. Happiness is not confined 
 to the rich, nor misery to the poor. If many are 
 incapable of making provision against evil days, 
 there are many who can make, and do make, such 
 provision. It is true that the power of capital is 
 sometimes abused, as all power is. But it is not true 
 that all owners of capital in this country are perverse, 
 inhuman, or unsympathetic. Above all, it is abso- 
 lutely untrue to suggest, as almost every Socialist 
 publication does suggest, that there is a bitter and 
 conscious class war being waged between the two 
 great sections of Englishmen. The sharp line to
 
 REAL BASIS OF THE SOCIALIST CASE 5 
 
 demarcation which the Socialists seek to draw 
 between the ' Capitalists ' and the ' Proletariat ' does 
 not exist. There are infinite gradations with re- 
 spect to wealth, intelligence, and education through- 
 out English society ; and common to every class 
 of society are the great qualities of love of country, 
 sympathy with suffering, a desire to share burdens, 
 zeal for the public service, and an earnest and honest 
 determination to make government equal and just for 
 all. But, when all is said, there is enough truth in 
 the extreme picture of the nation's unhappiness to 
 justify the Socialists in devoting their lives to the 
 teaching of a gospel which will bring relief to those 
 who now sit in darkness. Many of the Socialists 
 doubtless believe that they have such a gospel, and 
 no one, therefore, can blame them for teaching it. 
 But that is no reason why those who are asked to 
 accept the doctrine as true, and to hand over the 
 fortunes of their country to its exponents, should not 
 examine the doctrine for themselves and ascertain 
 whether it is, in fact, a message of healing and peace, 
 or whether it must not necessarily lead to the 
 aggravation of misery and the letting loose of strife. 
 It is to an inquiry of this kind that it is proposed to 
 devote the following chapters.
 
 6 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 The Socialist Division of Society 
 
 But before proceeding to a detailed examination 
 of the Socialist programme it will be well to clear the 
 ground by dealing with one point the proper com- 
 prehension of which is necessary before any of the 
 Socialist proposals can be gauged at their true value. 
 In logic there is an error which is known d.s petitio 
 pnncipit, or, in plain English, ' begging the question.' 
 Throughout the whole of the Socialist literature it is 
 assumed that the entire people of this country may 
 be divided into two mutually exclusive classes whose 
 interests are invariably and necessarily antagonistic, 
 who take, or ought to take, diametrically opposite 
 views on almost every question which can move or 
 occupy the human mind, and who are bound by an 
 irresistible law to come into deadly conflict with each 
 other. 
 
 It is of the greatest importance that the existence 
 of this hypothesis should be realised and its true 
 character understood, for it has a very close bearing 
 upon the whole of the Socialist argument. We shall 
 see that, as a consequence of its acceptance, the 
 declaration of a ' Class War ' has taken the first 
 place in the Socialist programme. It is well, there- 
 fore, to realise what are the two classes which the 
 Socialists desire to hound on against each other in 
 the interests of peace, and what is the numerical 
 strength of that section of the population which they
 
 REAL BASIS OF THE SOCIALIST CASE 7 
 
 tell us is to dominate the rest of the nation, and in 
 whose sole interest society is to be reconstituted. 
 
 It is difficult to be precise on this point : the 
 difficulty is due to the extraordinary vagueness of 
 the Socialist literature with regard to matters in 
 respect of which accurate statements are particularly 
 desirable. The most favoured division is between 
 ' Capitalists,' on the one hand, and the * Proletariat ' 
 on the other. But unless we know exactly what is 
 meant by a capitalist and by a member of the 
 proletariat, it is impossible to appreciate the value of 
 such a division. Schiiffle, whose earlier opinions 
 Socialists still rely on, gives a definition of the 
 proletariat which is obviously absurd. A member 
 of the proletariat, he tells us, is ' a man who does 
 not own the instruments of his work.' This would 
 include the Governor of the Bank of England, the 
 captain of a ship, the director of a railway company, 
 the writer of a book (which must be printed before it 
 can be circulated;, and a very large number of other 
 persons whom the author of the definition beyond all 
 doubt did not intend to include in the proletariat. 
 Nor are we greatly helped by the Socialist definition 
 which apparently divides the population of the 
 United Kingdom into ' Capitalists,' on the one 
 hand, and ' Wage Earners,' on the other. The defi- 
 nition is really quite as absurd as that of Schiiffle. 
 While there arc many persons who arc not wage 
 earners, but are neither capitalists nor owners
 
 8 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 of the instruments of their own work, there 
 are also very large numbers of wage earners 
 who are capitalists : that is to say, who receive 
 a part of their income from sources other than 
 wages. Every member of a building society, every 
 investor in a savings bank, is in this sense a capitalist ; 
 so is every one who employs any person to do work 
 on his behalf In view of such cross-divisions as 
 these, it is evidently impossible to take any of the 
 Socialist definitions seriously. But it is perhaps 
 worth quoting some of the figures which have been 
 adopted in Socialist literature as forming the basis 
 of their policy. According to one estimate, printed 
 by the Fabian Society,' and for which Mr. Mulhall 
 is responsible, the number of families whose principal 
 members are employed at wages in the industries of 
 the kingdom is placed at 4,474,000, the number of 
 * persons ' at something between thirteen and fourteen 
 millions, and this total includes over four million 
 women. Mr. Bowley, in the ' Statistical Society's 
 Journal,' gives the total number of ' manual labourers,' 
 which is, apparently, understood to be the same thing 
 as wage earners, as thirteen million, and Sir Robert 
 Giffen gives six-and-a-quarter million as the number 
 of families of wage earners, representing thirteen 
 million persons. Mr. L. G. Chiozza Money, M.P., 
 stares that the number of persons with incomes above 
 160/. and their families may be taken as five millions, 
 
 ' Facts for Socialists, published by the Fabian Society, June 1906.
 
 REAL BASIS OF THE SOCIALIST CASE 9 
 
 which seems to be the lowest estimate of the kind. 
 It will be observed that there is considerable dis- 
 crepancy between the various figures ; but, whichever 
 estimate be correct, one thing is apparent : namely, 
 that the number of persons who are to be put outside 
 the pale, against whom the ' Class War ' is to be waged, 
 and who are to be made subject to what the Socialists 
 are pleased to call the * ruling class,' must be reckoned 
 by millions. Whether by any conceivable manipula- 
 tion of the figures they can be shown to be a minority 
 of the nation is doubtful. 
 
 The Minority which is to Suffer 
 
 It has been declared in one of the meanest 
 expressions ever uttered by a British politician that 
 ' minorities must suffer.' Even for those who accept 
 this humiliating doctrine the question of the size of 
 the minority which is to suffer must always be a 
 relevant one, and it is perfectly apparent that, even 
 on the hypothesis adopted by the Socialists them- 
 selves, the majority, whose self-constituted advocates 
 and spokesmen they claim to be, is but a slight one. 
 When, however, we remember that in order to arrive 
 at the conclusion which suits their purpose they 
 have entirely ignored the cross-divisions between 
 wage earners and capitalists, which have already 
 been referred to, the value of their assumptions will 
 be properly appreciated.
 
 10 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 These facts must be borne in mind throughout 
 the whole examination of the Socialist programme, 
 for, without a full understanding of them, it is 
 impossible to realise the true nature of the claims 
 which are made by the Socialist leaders to establish 
 a class tyranny in this country. With a lack of 
 humour which is characteristic of many of the 
 Socialist publications, one of their pamphlets is 
 headed by the following quotation from a speech of 
 that level-headed individualist Abraham Lincoln : 
 
 I say that no man is good enough to govern another 
 man without that other man's consent.^ 
 
 President Lincoln's dictum can hardly be 
 accepted as of universal application ; it must, at any 
 rate, be admitted that, for practical purposes, govern- 
 ment must sometimes be conducted without the 
 consent of a certain number of the governed. But 
 it would be hard to find two doctrines further from 
 each other than the dictum of President Lincoln, 
 quoted by the Socialist writer as a text for a Socialist 
 pamphlet, on the one hand, and the essential 
 doctrine preached in every line of every Socialist 
 publication on the other. Whether in their own 
 opinion the Socialist leaders are men whose peculiar 
 merit makes them * good enough to govern other 
 men without their consent' is not definitely stated 
 
 ' Ejnpire and Mui'der, by C. H. Norman, London. The 
 Twentieth Century Press, Ltd., 1906. Circulated by the S.D.F.
 
 REAL BASIS OF THE SOCIALIST CASE ii 
 
 in any Socialist publication with which we are ac- 
 quainted. That nothing these gentlemen have said 
 and done up to the present time is calculated to 
 produce such an impression on the public mind may 
 be safely asserted. But that Socialism, more than 
 any other scheme for managing a nation known to 
 man, does involve the govermne^it of one man by 
 another against his will is absolutely certain. 
 
 Socialist Teaching as it Is 
 
 With this explanation, which is a necessary 
 preliminary to the proper understanding of what 
 is to follow, we may proceed to our examination 
 of Socialism so far as its methods and objects are 
 revealed to us in the ample literature which is now 
 available to the inquiring student. We shall en- 
 deavour to show that while the motives which inspire 
 many Socialists are honourable and worthy, while 
 the evils which they discern and against which they 
 protest are real and in urgent need of a remedy, 
 that remedy is not to be found in the proposals con- 
 tained in the authorised Socialist programme. We 
 shall go further, and we shall endeavour to show that 
 the objects which the Socialists desire to attain, and 
 the attainment of which they declare to be essential 
 to the happiness of a section of the community, are 
 not in themselves desirable ; that if attained they will 
 fail to bring happiness to any section of the community,
 
 12 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 but, on the contrary, will greatly aggravate the 
 very evils they profess to remove. We shall further 
 endeavour to convince our readers that the actual 
 teaching of the Socialists is in many respects 
 dangerous and contrary to public policy, and that 
 those who give this teaching are encouraging poor 
 and ignorant people to adopt a course which if 
 followed must inevitably lead to the infliction of 
 cruelty and injustice upon many innocent persons, 
 and must end in disaster to those who are induced 
 to become the intruments of a false and fatal policy. 
 We shall examine the historical antecedents of 
 Socialism, and shall ask our readers whether the record 
 of the past is of good omen as an earnest of the 
 future. We shall devote special attention to a very 
 practical side of our inquiry. We shall deal with the 
 Socialist proposals one by one ; we shall explain their 
 meaning in language which cannot be misunderstood, 
 and shall ask whether the people of England really 
 do desire those things which the Socialists undertake 
 to bestow upon them. 
 
 Levelling up v. Levelling down 
 
 Finally we shall pass to the consideration oi 
 those parts of the Socialist programme which are 
 open to no objection, which are true expressions 
 of popular aspirations, and which have already 
 been for many years discussed by men of all classes
 
 REAL BASIS OF THE SOCIALIST CASE 13 
 
 and parties who have nothing whatever to do with 
 Socialism or with Socialists. We shall suggest 
 that these subjects are well worthy of discussion by 
 moderate and reasonable men and women of every 
 class. And while not pretending that a Socialist 
 Utopia, or any other Utopia, is ever likely to come 
 into existence upon this earth, we shall give some 
 reasons for believing that much can be done, not 
 only to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, but to 
 increase the amenities of life and the powers and 
 opportunities of enjoyment of all classes. And, lastly, 
 we shall propound, as an alternative to the Socialist 
 watchword of ' level down,' the more hopeful and, 
 as we believe, the more profitable watchword of 
 * level up.'
 
 14 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM ? 
 
 The Socialism of the philosophers — Socialism as it is being taught — 
 Municipal Socialism — One word and many meanings 
 
 * What is Socialism ? ' is a question which is often 
 asked, and which many genuine seekers after truth 
 profess themselves unable to answer. The difficulty 
 of definition undoubtedly arises from the fact that 
 the term ' Socialism ' is used to describe, not one thing, 
 but several different things, and that the Socialism 
 of one exponent differs entirely from that of another 
 who lays down the law with equal confidence, and 
 who purports to speak with equal authority. 
 
 The difficulty is great, but it is not insuperable ; 
 nay, more, until the difficulty is overcome no serious 
 discussion of Socialism can be undertaken with 
 advantage. If it be true that the same name is used 
 to describe several different things, it is necessary 
 to separate these things from one another before we 
 proceed to examine all or any of them. 
 
 At the present time the word ' Socialism ' is 
 applied to at least three distinct schools of thought
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM? 15 
 
 and action ; a fact which many people who approve 
 or criticise Socialist ideas ignore, and of which, in 
 many instances, they appear to be altogether 
 unaware. 
 
 The Socialism of the Philosophers 
 
 In the first place there is the Socialism of the 
 philosophers. It deals, for the most part, with an 
 elaborate analysis of economic and social problems, 
 conducted, as it were, in intellectual space, and with 
 little, and in many cases with no, relation to 
 human life and human experience. Its representa- 
 tives change : from time to time they are called 
 by different names, and they advance different 
 and frequently conflicting theories. There were 
 probably Socialist philosophers in the days of the 
 early Pharaohs, or under the first Chinese Dynasty, 
 and there has probably never been any succeeding 
 age in which they have been wanting ; for it is one 
 of the curious delusions of the Socialists of this 
 generation that their doctrines, their aspirations, and 
 their methods are in any way novel. In compara- 
 tively recent years there has been a rapid succession 
 of Socialist philosophers : such were St. Simon, 
 Fourrier, Lasallc, Karl Marx, and many others. 
 The works of these philosophers arc, as a rule, read 
 by a limited number of persons, and arc under- 
 stood by a still smaller number. It is noteworthy 
 that not one of the systems which these great
 
 i6 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 men have evolved has ever assumed concrete form : 
 human nature has proved too strong for them, and 
 human passions, human affections, human ambitions, 
 and human idiosyncrasies have continued to 
 dominate human life, despite the excellent philosophic 
 reasons which have been given for their entire dis- 
 appearance from society. 
 
 It would, however, be a grave mistake to suppose 
 that the philosophers have had no practical influence 
 upon society, or upon the thoughts and actions of 
 the people who compose it. On the contrary, 
 philosophers are responsible for very much that has 
 been done, or left undone, since the world began. 
 Their opinions, or what are understood to be their 
 opinions, have always had an effect upon the minds 
 of men, sometimes small, but sometimes very great, 
 and have become the inspiration of, and have been 
 claimed as, the sanction for many deeds, good, bad, 
 and indifferent. The society which philosophers 
 have pictured, and whose creation they have con- 
 sidered indispensable to the welfare of the world, 
 has never come into existence. But many of the 
 ideas which they have expressed have been utilised 
 for their own purposes by parties and individuals 
 as weapons in the strife which they have carried on 
 against society as it exists. In no case, however 
 has the ideal of the philosopher been accomplished 
 and we may therefore safely leave to students with 
 ample leisure and a taste for doctrinaire philosophy
 
 WHAT IS SOCIALISM? 17 
 
 the task of examining the various sources from which 
 Socialists at the present day have selected such 
 portions of their programme as happen to suit their 
 particular views and ambitions. 
 
 The Socialism of To-day 
 
 What is of more immediate concern at the present 
 time is to study Socialism in the second, and more 
 important, meaning of the word. There are now 
 living in this and in most other countries a con- 
 siderable number of persons who, having studied 
 with more or less care the works of the philosophers, 
 or having, as is more often the case, dipped into a 
 certain nnmber of little handbooks and leaflets which 
 purport to represent the true opinions of the famous 
 thinkers whose names are mentioned in them, have 
 formulated for themselves a definite policy. This 
 policy they intend, by means which they do not 
 always make clear, but which always include the idea 
 of violence, to impose upon all other persons, however 
 strongly those other persons may disapprove of 
 those ideas. This is the Socialism that matters. 
 As to what it is there is no obscurity whatever : 
 an ample and authoritative literature has made its 
 objects and to a certain extent its methods, clear 
 to all. It is by the light of this complete and 
 authoritative literature alone that we propose to 
 examine the active Socialism of to-day. 
 
 C
 
 i8 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 The Socialism of Everyday Life 
 
 In addition to the Socialism of the philosophers 
 and the Socialism of the active propagandist there 
 is a third form of Socialism which must also be 
 mentioned and discussed. Little is gained by 
 quarrelling over names, provided we clearly under- 
 stand that the same name may apply, and in this 
 case does apply, to two totally different things. It 
 would, however, be more convenient, and would be 
 greatly in the interests of clear thinking, if the policy 
 and ideas which come within the third category to 
 which the word ' Socialism ' is applied could be called 
 by some other name. 
 
 But this being impossible we must be all the 
 more careful to bear the distinction in mind in dis- 
 cussing our subject. It is perfectly true, and has 
 been often said, that there is already a vast amount 
 of Socialism in the organisation of any modern 
 State, and perhaps there is as much in the organisa- 
 tion of our own State as in any other. In any 
 community, however rudimentary, there are certain 
 things which must be done by, and in the name 
 of, the community on behalf of all its members. 
 It would be superfluous, and therefore tedious, to 
 attempt an enumeration of the many examples of 
 such corporate action which are to be found within 
 the limits of our own country. The whole machinery 
 of Government — the Navy, the Army, the Post
 
 THE SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 19 
 
 Office — are Socialistic in the sense to which we have 
 referred. 
 
 So is every municipal enterprise carried on 
 by the representatives of the community, for the 
 advantage, or the supposed advantage, of those 
 who compose that community. There always Have 
 been, there still are, and there always will be, great 
 differences of opinion with regard to the extent to 
 which this corporate action can be adopted with 
 advantage. It is indisputable that the tendency has 
 been to extend and not to diminish the area of 
 Socialist enterprises such as we have described. 
 There is grave reason to doubt whether in every 
 case the advance has been justified by its results. 
 But in very many cases it has been justified, and no 
 one would think of going back to the earlier con- 
 ditions. It is also equally beyond doubt that there 
 are many persons, moderate, reasonable, and honest 
 men and women, who are convinced that it is greatly 
 to the interest of the nation that the rate of advance 
 in the future should be more rapid than it has been 
 in the past, and it would be difficult to find any 
 one who has devoted serious study to our social 
 problems who docs not to some extent share this 
 belief. 
 
 It is not only important and desirable that these 
 questions should be discussed, it is certain that they 
 will be discussed ; and there is no reason whatever 
 why the discussion should not be conducted with 
 
 c 2
 
 20 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 perfect good temper by persons of all opinions, or 
 why action should not be taken to correspond with 
 the movement of a thoroughly informed public 
 opinion. It would be incorrect and absurd to pretend 
 that there is no connection between Socialism of 
 this kind and the party to which reference has been 
 made as representing the active Socialist propa- 
 ganda of the day. In particular that section of the 
 professed Socialists known as the ' Fabians ' attaches 
 great importance to progress in this direction. Many 
 of the publications issued by the body referred to 
 are not only exceedingly well written, but discuss — 
 generally with ability and often with moderation — 
 the question of collective effort. A good thing is 
 good wherever found, and it would be an immense 
 mistake to regard as negligible, or as necessarily 
 open to objection, many of the proposals contained 
 in the publications of the Fabian Society. But it 
 would be an equally great mistake to shut our eyes 
 to the fact that the Fabians do not come into this 
 controversy with clean hands. They are all things 
 to all men, and because some of the able and sincere 
 men who formulate the views of the society occasion- 
 ally make valuable contributions to the solution of 
 great social questions, it must not be forgotten that 
 the Fabians have deliberately elected to become the 
 supporters of a policy which if adopted will abso- 
 lutely stultify any good which they might otherwise 
 accomplish. Moreover, they have lent the full weight
 
 THE SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 21 
 
 of their organisation to men who are openly preaching 
 civil war, the establishment of a savage tyranny, the 
 destruction of family ties, the repudiation of obliga- 
 tions consecrated both by law and honour, and 
 the abandonment of this country, disorganised and 
 unarmed, to the caprice and the ill-will of the nations 
 of the world. 
 
 Having endeavoured to explain what we believe 
 to be the essential differences between the three 
 things which are indifferently described by the word 
 ' Socialism,' we shall now proceed to an examination 
 of that form of Socialism which we have represented 
 as being the most active and the most urgently 
 demanding public attention. In order to remove all 
 ambiguity, we shall endeavour to state in plain words 
 what this Socialism is, what are the objects which its 
 promoters have in view, and what are the methods 
 by which they propose to attain them. Having given 
 this explanation, we shall ask our readers to go 
 further, and to consider with us what ought to be 
 the answer to this question : Socialism being what it 
 is, ought zve to fight it ?
 
 22 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 SOCIALISM AS IT IS BEING TAUGHT 
 
 The 'urgent reforms' of the Socialist programme — The available 
 evidence — The Socialist programme— The Slate regulation of 
 wages 
 
 It must be clearly understood that, in endeavouring 
 to describe Socialism as it is now being taught to the 
 people of England, the writer is dealing solely with 
 Socialism in the second meaning which has been 
 ascribed to it. No reference is made to the Socialism 
 of the philosophers, or to the Socialism which is a 
 necessary part of the machinery of any civilised 
 country, and the extension of which may legitimately 
 form the subject of careful and sympathetic examina- 
 tion. 
 
 The Socialism which it is proposed to describe 
 is a definite policy which is being recommended for 
 adoption with the view of obtaining certain results. 
 These results are represented as desirable in them- 
 selves, and so beneficial that great efforts should be 
 made to attain them. It would be incorrect to say 
 that, as a whole, the Socialist programme is definite 
 and detailed. That is not so. The initial stages
 
 SOCIALISM AS IT IS BEING TAUGHT 23 
 
 which are almost ahvays purely destructive, are 
 explained with perfect clearness. The objects to be 
 attained are also made tolerably clear, although there 
 is much variety in the pictures presented by the 
 different artists. But there is one portion of the 
 programme which has hitherto been left in blank, or 
 which, at the most, has been filled in in the most 
 perfunctory manner with vague and nebulous expres- 
 sions, which convey no information even to the most 
 earnest and sympathetic inquirer. How to get rid 
 of the old institutions is explained with great 
 lucidity. What is to be the dominant power which 
 is to reign in the future, and what is to be the 
 happy condition of the regenerate society which 
 is to come into existence, are points on which there 
 is a fair amount of agreement. But as to the manner 
 in which this society is to live, by what methods it is 
 actually to be governed, what occupations it is to 
 pursue, above all by what means the ' totally new 
 spirit,' which is frequently and justly referred to as 
 a condition precedent to its existence, is to be im- 
 planted in the minds of men — these are points with 
 regard to which Socialist literature now, as always, 
 fails to supply us with information. 
 
 It is obviously useless to attempt to describe that 
 of which there is no record. But it is possible, and 
 it is necessary, to describe in very clear terms, and 
 apart from the overlay of fine language in which it is 
 usually encrusted, and by which its real meaning is
 
 24 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 obscured, the tangible and concrete teaching of the 
 Socialists. 
 
 The Class War and the Gospel of Hate 
 
 Socialism preaches the gospel of War and the 
 gospel of Hate : civil war carried on by one section 
 of the people in order to compel the other section to 
 surrender its liberty', its propert}', and, what is far 
 more important than either, its convictions, its beliefs, 
 and its natural affections ; Hate, not as the spon- 
 taneous outburst of ill-will for injury done and 
 intended, but hate taught as the doctrine for a 
 nation's acceptance, taught to the little children in 
 the schools, and taught as the foundation of the 
 new code of ethics which is to make all men equal, 
 happy, and good. 
 
 'We are accused of preaching discontent and stirring up 
 actual conflict/ says Mr. Hyndman. ' We do preach dis- 
 content, and we mean to preach discontent, and we mean, 
 if we can, to stir up actual conflict' ^ 
 
 Charged by his opponent in debate with advo- 
 cating violence, the Socialist teacher thought it well 
 to qualify this statement. 
 
 ' We should be fools,' said he, . . . 'if to-day we were 
 to go before the English people, in the minority we are, and 
 advocate force.' 
 
 ' IVill S<xiali:m Benefit the Englizk PeofU ? Twentieth Centmy 
 Press, Ltd., 1907. Circulated by the S.D.F.
 
 SOCIALISM AS IT IS BEING TAUGxHT 25 
 
 That will not do, says his cpp:r.er.: ; what does 
 
 this denial of the appeal to force come to ? Has not 
 
 the same speaker uTitten ? — 
 
 Gunpowder helped to sweep away feudalism with aU 
 its beauty and all its chivalry. . . . Xow far £::;.-..:: 
 explosives are arrayed against Capitalism. 
 
 This is not a figure of speech, it is a fact. Far 
 stronger explosives than gunpowder have been used 
 in many places, as any audience to whom such talk 
 is addressed knows perfectly v:eA. 
 
 Here is yet another description ::' :/.=t "Class 
 War ' which is preached on almost ever}- page of the 
 Socialist publications : — 
 
 We preach the gospel of hatred because, in the 
 circumstances, it seems the only righteous thing we can 
 preach. To talk about the ' Gospel of Love ' is simply 
 solemn rubbish. . . . These who talk of the Gospel of 
 Love, with Landlordism and Capitalism for its objects, 
 want us to make our peace with iniquity.^ 
 
 Then comes the qualification for what it is 
 
 worth : — 
 
 We don't preach hatred of men, but hatred of systems, 
 and those features of men's characters which are the out- 
 come of the faults and bad in those systems.^ 
 
 These sinister e.xpressions are taken from a 
 
 pamphlet printed and circulated by the Independent 
 
 Labour party, and bearing the characteristic title of 
 
 ' 7^ C/ass IVar -. a Lecture by Charles Leatbam, fourth edition, 
 I.L. P. Publication Department. Circulated by the S.D.F. See 
 .\ppendix.
 
 26 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 the 'Class War.' The value of the qualification, such 
 as it is, will be understood when it is remembered 
 that nearly half of the writer's countrymen have 
 been specially pointed out as believing in the system 
 and possessing the characters which are here held 
 up as the objects of hatred and obloquy. By a 
 curious irony, of which probably the writer was 
 unaware, he has 'thrown back' with wonderful 
 precision to his true intellectual ancestors ; the 
 language he uses is almost precisely that of the Holy 
 Inquisition, a ruling and dominant class regulating the 
 lives of men with the best intentions and expressing 
 the most noble sentiments. It was the regular 
 formula for the Holy Office to shed tears of love 
 and sorrow over the individual, to declare that it 
 hated not him but only his wicked ways, and then 
 promptly to hand him over to the * Secular Arm,' 
 adjuring that authority to be tender, and perfectly 
 confident that the stake, the rack, and the pincers 
 would do their work. 
 
 But, as has been stated, through every line of the 
 Socialist literature there runs this doctrine of the 
 ' Class War.' 
 
 Use the suffrage, then, as Social Democrats, not to 
 bolster up any political faction, but to gain for your class 
 the control of that England of which you and your fathers 
 have been defrauded.^ 
 
 ' What Use is a Vote ? Issued by the Executive Council of the 
 S.D.F.
 
 SOCIALISM AS IT IS BEING TAUGHT 27 
 
 Nor is the Independent Labour party in any way 
 behind the Social Democratic Federation in its war- 
 like intentions. The following is from the preface to 
 the fourth edition of ' The Class War/ already 
 referred to. 
 
 Let the Socialists in Parliament and the local bodies 
 introduce any clear general attack upon private enterprise, 
 as they must sooner or later do when they are strong 
 enough, and then we shall see war. If men fight for terri- 
 tory, the flag, or patriotism, will they not fight with tenfold 
 more tenacity for their living, even if that living be as 
 illgotten as the territory ? 
 
 The answer is that they probably will. As we 
 know that, in the opinion of the Socialists, nearly 
 all the property in this country is * illgotten,' and 
 that a man who, after a life of strenuous labour, has 
 succeeded in making a small provision for himself 
 and his family is denounced by them as a robber 
 who has stolen what he possesses, the number of 
 persons who will have the effrontery to fight for 
 what they arc pleased to call their own may be 
 considerable. 
 
 But, indeed, further demonstration, is unnecessary. 
 If the teachers of Socialism had been as silent on the 
 question of the use of force, and the establishment 
 of a class tyranny, as they have in fact been 
 voluble, the evidence against them would still be 
 equally strong. Immense changes are proposed, and 
 it is of the essence of these changes that not only
 
 28 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 must they be efifected in the interests of one class to 
 the detriment of another, but that they can only be 
 efifected by taking from the class or classes which 
 are to be attacked all those things which they value 
 and which they believe they rightfully possess. No- 
 where throughout the whole of the Socialist litera- 
 ture is it suggested that these changes can be effected 
 without the use of force, nor, as we shall show 
 at a later stage, do the dishonest proposals to disguise 
 the use of force by giving legal sanction to the 
 violation of men's rights the least affect the proposi- 
 tion. 
 
 There must be no mistake, therefore, about the 
 fact that Socialism as it is now being taught does 
 involve the preaching of Civil War and the gospel of 
 Hate. 
 
 Expropriation 
 
 Socialism involves Expropriation. Of this there 
 can be no doubt whatever. The authorities are 
 explicit on the point. The following is taken from 
 the programme and rules of the Social Democratic 
 Federation : — 
 
 The ' Class War ' may at first be directed against the 
 abuses of the system, and not against the system itself; 
 but, sooner or later, the workers must come to recognise 
 that nothing short of the expropriation of the Capitalist class, 
 and the ownership by the community of the means of pro- 
 duction, distribution, and exchange can put an end to their 
 abject economic conditions.
 
 SOCIALISM AS IT IS BEING TAUGHT 29 
 
 Now, expropriation is a long word, but its 
 meaning is perfectly clear. It means taking people's 
 property from them against their will, and it is this 
 which Socialist teachers are recommending their 
 audiences to do. Of course, where the word 
 'workers' is used something quite different is meant, 
 for millions of workers are also capitalists. What is 
 meant here, as everywhere else, is that A shall 
 deprive B of his property for the benefit of A and 
 others of his class. The suggestion that it may be 
 convenient to wait before starting a campaign of 
 expropriation need not be taken seriously. If it be 
 just and honourable to deprive some millions of 
 Englishmen of their property to-morrow, it is pre- 
 sumably equally just and honourable to do so 
 to-day. 
 
 The Destruction of Private Property and 
 Private Enterprise 
 
 Socialism means the appropriation by the repre- 
 sentatives of a portion of the population of nine-tenths 
 of the private property in the country, the conduct of 
 every private business by State-paid functionaries, the 
 destruction of shops and private enterprises, and inter- 
 ference with the minutest private concerns of everybody 
 in the country. On all these points the authority is 
 clear and absolute.
 
 30 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 Instruct your delegates to proclaim that private pro- 
 perty in railways, shipping, factories, mines, and land must 
 cease to be.^ 
 
 The following are to be ' nationalised,' that is to 
 say, taken from their present owners and run by 
 elected committees : — All land, and all the machinery 
 of agriculture. The property of all trusts ; all 
 railways, docks, canals, and all great means of 
 transit. All gas works, electric light works, all 
 water supplies, tramways, and omnibuses. There is 
 to be ' public ownership and control of the food and 
 coal supply,' i.e. the butcher, the baker, the green- 
 grocer, the coal merchant — all of whom, under the 
 definition given by the Socialists, are ' capitalists ' — 
 are to be 'expropriated,' and their business done 
 by committees. All the ' banks,' ' pawnshops,' and 
 * public restaurants ' are to be transferred in the 
 same manner to the same authority. There is a 
 good deal more of the same kind, all of which may 
 be found in the printed programme and rules of the 
 Social Democratic Federation ; but the above will 
 suffice to show what the policy of the Socialists is 
 with regard to the ownership of property and the 
 conduct of business. 
 
 ' Wkat Use is a Vote? Issued by the ELxecutive Council of the 
 S.D.F.
 
 SOCIALISM AS IT IS BEING TAUGHT 31 
 
 The Profits of Industry and the Rewards 
 
 OF Labour 
 
 Socialism means tJie appropriation by public elected 
 bodies^ stick as the London County Council and the 
 West Ham Board of Guardians^ of the profits of all 
 industries a7id the serving out of the money thus 
 acquired^ and of the articles produced, at the sweet 
 will of these authorities. 
 
 In every previous case a direct quotation has 
 been made from authoritative Socialist literature, but 
 it is impossible to make adequate quotations in this 
 case, for the most careful research fails to discover 
 what the true doctrine is. It seems to be uncertain 
 whether everybody is to be paid the same or whether 
 a scale of wages is to be fixed by the County 
 Council. Nor is there any evidence to show what 
 the wage is to be or what is to be the scale of pay- 
 ment. As to the articles made in the State factories, 
 the State farms, the State sweetstuff shops, and the 
 State literature and newspaper factories there is no 
 clear teaching at all. It appears to be suggested by 
 some that the articles manufactured should be served 
 out as required : a grand piano to A, a sack of 
 potatoes to B, and a pound of sausages or a five-acre 
 farm to C. On this point, however, Socialist doctrine 
 is obscure. Dr. Schaffle, who, until he changed his 
 mind and declared that Democratic Collectivism was 
 impossible, was a great authority among the Socialists,
 
 32 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 was apparently of opinion that a reversion to the 
 primitive fashion of payment in kind should be 
 resorted to. In a work entitled ' The Quintessence 
 of Socialism ' he says : — 
 
 Those who yielded services of general utility, as judges, 
 administrative oflficials, teachers, artists, scientific investi- 
 gators, instead of producing material commodities — i.e. all 
 not immediately productive workers, all not employed in 
 the social circulation of material — would receive a share in 
 the commodities produced by the national labour in pro- 
 portion to the time spent by them in work useful to the 
 community. 
 
 Evidently Dr. Schaffle at this time was in favour 
 of the sack of potatoes and grand piano system of 
 payment, but there is no evidence that it is universally 
 accepted by Socialists. 
 
 The best opinion seems to be that the various 
 elected bodies are to become bankers, merchants, 
 engineers, manufacturers, public-house keepers, news- 
 paper editors, sellers of cats' meat, and of most other 
 things besides. The enumeration may seem absurd, 
 and the statement exaggerated. But any one who 
 cares to examine Socialist literature, from Karl Marx 
 downwards, will find that the facts are exactly as 
 stated. On these points, which the Socialists are 
 pleased to call ' details,' but which in reality are 
 absolutely vital parts of their programme and policy, 
 they are silent. These things are to be done, but 
 how no man knows. Mr. Hyndman, directly
 
 SOCIALISM AS IT IS BEL\G TAUGHT ss 
 
 challenged to be explicit on this subject, declared 
 that he 
 
 did not expect to have to explain all the details of bottle- 
 washers, cooks, and cabmen in the remote future.^ 
 
 He was not asked to do this. He was asked to 
 explain how he was going to give effect to those 
 ' reforms ' which the Social Democratic Federation, 
 of which he is a member, has declared ' must 
 immediately be carried through.' Mr. Bradlaugh 
 put the matter in a way that cannot be improved 
 upon. He asked : 
 
 Why are these details not worth dealing with ? Why 
 do you talk of the bottle-washer ? — surely he is as good as 
 a prince. I belong to the bottle-washers, and I want to 
 know how our bottles are to be washed.' 
 
 This is exactly what a great many other people 
 want to know, and the writer is among the number. 
 But, for the reasons given, it is impossible to quote 
 any authoritative Socialist pronouncement on these 
 subjects. They are subjects on which Karl Marx, 
 the great authority of the modern Socialists, is 
 absolutely vague. Schaffle, who purported to reduce 
 the abundant vapour given off by Karl Marx from 
 its gaseous to its solid form, has given us no help to a 
 solution, and none of the minor prophets who have 
 succeeded have made the slightest contribution to 
 our enlightenment. 
 
 ' IVi/l Socittlisin Bciu/it Ihc English People ' Twentieth CcnUiry 
 Press, Ltd., 1907. Circulated by the S.D.F. 
 
 D
 
 34 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 The Taxation of Incomes to Extinction 
 
 Socialism means that the whole of the expenses of 
 the country should be paid by taxes to be levied on 
 incomes which have ceased to exist. This may seem, 
 and indeed is, a gross absurdity, but it nevertheless 
 forms part of the Socialist programme, as witness : — 
 
 The true object of industry being the production of the 
 requirements of life, the responsibility should rest with the 
 community collectively. ... As a means to this end we 
 demand the enactment of the following measures. , . . 
 ' Abolition of indirect taxation and the gradual transference 
 of all public burdens on to unearned incomes, with a view 
 to their ultimate extinction.' ^ 
 
 Who is to bear the public burdens after all the 
 so-called ' unearned incomes' have been extinguished 
 is not stated. 
 
 The Destruction of the Empire 
 
 Socialism means the abolition of the Regular 
 Army, the abandonment of India, and of all those 
 portions of the Empire zuhich are retained by the aid 
 of BiHtish troops. On this point, also, the authorities 
 are perfectly clear. The following is an item in the 
 programme of the Social Democratic Federation :— 
 
 The object of the federation is . . . The abolition of 
 standing armies.^ 
 
 ' Programme of the I. L. P., 1907-8. 
 » Programme of the S.D.F., 1907-8.
 
 SOCIALISM AS IT IS BEING TAUGHT 35 
 
 What we can only hold by maintaining an alien garrison 
 had better be given up. ' 
 
 The Monarchy 
 
 One of the urgent reforms demanded by the 
 Socialists is : — 
 
 The abolition of the Monarchy? 
 
 RErUDIATION 
 
 Socialism means the breaking of the national faith 
 with the object of inflicting injury on one set of 
 Englishmen in order to benefit other Englishmen at 
 their expense. As to the fact, there can be no 
 doubt whatever. Among the immediate reforms 
 demanded by the Social Democratic Federation, as 
 officially laid down in the programme of that body, 
 is the following : — 
 
 The repudiation of the National Debt.- 
 
 A Minimum and Maximum Wage 
 
 Socialism mGSins provision for everybody above the 
 age of 16 of a viiniimun income of 78/., for it is 
 declared that among the reforms which must be 
 immediately carried through is 
 
 the legislative enactment of a minimum wage 01 30^. for 
 all workers.' 
 
 ' Social Democracy and the Armed Naiion, written for the S.D.F. 
 by H. Quelch. 
 
 * rrogrammc of the S.D.F. , 1907-8. 
 
 u 2
 
 36 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 But it is equally urgent that every one whose 
 income exceeds 300/. shall be penalised, for we are 
 told that an immediate enactment is necessary 
 
 to abolish all indirect taxation and to institute a cumu- 
 lative tax on all incomes exceeding 300/.^ 
 
 We have already seen that if the whole, or any 
 part, of this income is ' unearned ' it is to be taxed 
 20s. in the pound. 
 
 The Abolition of Child Labour 
 
 Socialism means tJie prohibition of all child labour 
 under the age of 16. It is laid down that, among the 
 reforms which must ' immediately be carried through,' 
 is the following : 
 
 ' No child to be employed in any trade or occupation until 
 16 years of age, and imprisonment to be inflicted on 
 employers, parents, and guardians who infringe this law.' ^ 
 
 The Election of Judges 
 
 Socialism means the substitution of elected judges 
 for judges appointed by the Government. It is 
 declared that among reforms immediately necessary 
 is that of 
 
 'the administration of justice by elected judges.' ^ 
 ' Programme of the S.D.F.
 
 SOCIALISM AS IT IS BEING TAUGHT 37 
 
 The Charge and the Evidence for It 
 
 Objection may be taken to the statements made 
 in this chapter. It may be said that injustice has 
 been done to the Socialists because extreme and 
 unauthorised statements only have been quoted ; 
 that in reality the Socialists do not themselves 
 believe in any of the proposals which have been 
 attributed to them, and that what they really do mean 
 is that all men should unite to improve our municipal 
 administration, to aid those who are in distress, and 
 generally to apply an intelligent public opinion, not 
 only to relieving the sufferings of the very poor, but 
 to ameliorating the condition and adding to the 
 enjoyment of all classes of the population save the 
 very rich. All these things may be said, probably 
 will be said, because they are in accordance with the; 
 usual slack methods of thought and reasoning which 
 many people indulge in. But any criticisms of this 
 kind will, in fact, be absolutely unfounded and 
 unjust. The description of Socialism as it is being 
 taught is not the result of a laborious hunt for the 
 extreme utterances of obscure men. It is taken from 
 the authorised publications of the principal Socialist 
 organisations. It is taken from documents which 
 are being circulated by thousands among poor and 
 ignorant people, and, what is more, it refers to those 
 changes which are declared to be of urgent necessity, 
 and which should be immediately forced upon the 
 
 4'/jyr43
 
 38 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 people of this country. It is possible and reasonable 
 to say that Socialists do teach these things, and that 
 they are quite right in teaching them. It is also 
 possible to say that the Socialists do teach things, and 
 that they are very silly or very wrong, and in many 
 cases both. But it is not reasonable to say, and it is 
 not possible to say with truth, that the Socialists do 
 not teach these things. They do teach them, and it is 
 well that those who desire to form an opinion as to 
 whether Socialism be a desirable creed or not should 
 know exactly what that creed, as expounded by its 
 leaders, really is.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 OUGHT WE TO FIGHT SOCIALISM? 
 
 The declaration of war — Why we must fight — Socialism and 
 Christianity — The need for plain speaking — The real danger 
 
 Ought we to fight Socialism ? This is a question 
 which it is necessary to ask because it appears that 
 some persons have not as yet made up their minds 
 upon the subject, and there are some counsellors who 
 recommend, if not an alliance, at least a compromise 
 with those who advocate Socialist doctrines. What 
 those doctrines are we have already seen, and in 
 them we shall find a very direct answer to our 
 question. Whether we like it or not, we must fight 
 Socialism, because the Socialists have already de- 
 clared open war upon all those who do not agree 
 with them. But, even apart from this fact, there 
 appear to be overwhelming reasons why all those 
 who care for the true welfare of this country should 
 fight Socialism. That a conflict should be necessary 
 is to be deplored ; any multiplication of party 
 divisions, any increase of class animosity, in this 
 country is to be deprecated, and every one who takes
 
 40 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 part in the conflict, which we believe to be both right 
 and inevitable, should do so without passion, and with 
 a perfectly clear understanding of the issue involved. 
 The Socialists should be combated, not because they 
 are unconventional, or because they are extreme in 
 their views. Nor should we entertain any hostile 
 feeling towards them because they have done their 
 best, as many others have done before them, and are 
 doing now, to bring home to the people of England 
 the truth with regard to the condition in which vast 
 numbers of the people of this country live and move 
 and have their being. On the contrary, we should 
 be grateful to them for what they are doing in this 
 respect. There are many Socialist publications which 
 describe in moving and convincing terms the effect 
 of the inequalities of the distribution of wealth, and 
 the hopeless and unhappy lives of those on whom 
 society, as at present constituted, bears most hardly. 
 Many, probably most, of the Socialists are sincere and 
 well-intentioned. Some of them, no doubt, believe 
 that the policy they recommend is calculated to bring 
 about the objects they desire, and that these objects 
 are in themselves desirable. To pretend that all 
 the Socialist leaders are of this opinion would pro- 
 bably be an exaggeration. Some of them, no doubt, 
 are genuinely ignorant of the nature of the forces 
 which they hope to set in motion ; others there are 
 who are well aware that the promises which they 
 make to their dupes will never be made good.
 
 OUGHT WE TO FIGHT SOCIALISM? 41 
 
 but are content with the reflection that, whatever 
 happens, the anarchy and breaking-up of laws which 
 are so congenial to their minds will inevitably 
 result. 
 
 Why We Must Fight 
 
 But having made all these admissions, and 
 having made them readily and with conviction, it 
 is still necessary that we should fight Socialism. 
 There are many ways of fighting. The Socialists 
 have openly recommended that which consists in 
 the use of force. It is conceivable that in the 
 long run they may force those whom they attack 
 to meet them on the field they have chosen. If 
 they do, it is just possible that some unpleasant 
 surprises may await them, for it is a curious and 
 characteristic feature of the Socialist creed that its 
 exponents, who are so ready to divide Englishmen 
 into two classes, one of which they propose to 
 ostracise and persecute for the benefit of the other, 
 always seem to assume that those whom they 
 exclude, amounting to at least ten or twelve million 
 persons, are a set of cravens, who not only will 
 submit without protest to being despoiled of all they 
 possess and to being tyrannised over by a number 
 of vindictive doctrinaires, but will be absolutely 
 incapable of holding their own. 
 
 This is a grave mistake. Indeed, nothing is 
 more curious than to observe the attitude which
 
 42 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 Socialist speakers, inside and outside the House of 
 Commons, adopt towards those English men and 
 English women who do not happen to belong to 
 the particular class of which they themselves are, or 
 for the time being pretend to be, members. This 
 attitude is not calculated either to convince or to 
 conciliate. To hear a Socialist orator calmly speak 
 of all his opponents as ignorant, prejudiced, or 
 selfish, is more grotesque than convincing. After 
 all, the Socialist leaders, to whom the merit of zeal 
 and possibly of good intentions may be freely con- 
 ceded, do not greatly impress the public as being 
 superior in wisdom, knowledge, and general in- 
 tellectual qualities to the bulk of their fellow citizens. 
 There are some who may even be of opinion that 
 this is an under-statement of the case. But much 
 more arrogant and more dangerous than the calm 
 assumption of intellectual superiority is the assump- 
 tion, always tacitly made, and often openly put 
 forward, that the millions of English men and 
 women who do not happen to be paid a weekly wage 
 are to have no place in the sun, are to be denounced 
 as enemies of their country and its welfare, and 
 regarded as being practically outside the pale for all 
 political and social purposes. 
 
 It is not necessary to dwell on this theme, though 
 much might be said upon it ; but it is at least well 
 that Socialists should be made to understand that 
 this classification of their countrymen is not well
 
 OUGHT WE TO FIGHT SOCIALISM? 43 
 
 advised, and is greatly resented. Those persons who 
 happen to work for a weekly wage, and who happen 
 also to share the views of the Socialist leaders, are no 
 doubt estimable people. But the services they have 
 rendered to their country are not so dazzling as to 
 obscure all that has been done, suffered, and endured 
 by those who have not had the privilege of belonging 
 to the new caste. There are tens of thousands of 
 families in England, some rich and some poor, whose 
 members have served, or are serving, their country in 
 every conceivable capacity, not only at home, but 
 throughout the length and breadth of the world. 
 There are few of these families in which there does 
 not exist the treasured recollection of some one 
 member, often of many members, who have devoted 
 a life of strenuous toil and self-sacrifice to the 
 promotion of the nation's welfare. The graves of 
 these men and women are to be found in every land ; 
 their courage, their energy, their loyalty, are among 
 the great assets of our people. The class from which 
 they came, and from which many others like them 
 are now coming, is a class to be reckoned with, and 
 it is just possible that when they find that all that 
 they have held to be honourable and of good report 
 is to be attacked, that all which their labours and 
 their sufferings have acquired or established is to be 
 destroyed, and that they themselves are to be levelled 
 down to the position of subjects of a privileged class, 
 they will not accept the situation as calmly and as
 
 44 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 obediently as the heads of the new tyranny would 
 wish. 
 
 For it is a tyranny, and nothing else, that we are 
 being asked to set up, and that is exactly the reason 
 why, after taking into consideration all the virtues 
 which the Socialists possess and the infinitely greater 
 number which they claim, we should still fight 
 Socialism. 
 
 Socialism and Christianity 
 
 As has been said there are many ways of fighting. 
 In the last resort there is that which is apparently 
 dear to the mind of Mr. Hyndman. But we have 
 not reached that point yet, and it is to be hoped 
 that we are very far off it, and before the non- 
 privileged members of the community — that is to say, 
 those who do not belong to the Socialist sect — need 
 stand to their guns, there will be plenty of time for 
 quieter methods, and probably the best and quietest 
 method of fighting Socialism is to explain it. 
 Perhaps, when it is explained, a number of those 
 who, either because they think carelessly or because 
 they do not think at all, are ready to stretch out the 
 right hand of fellowship will pause. There are many 
 such persons, men and women, with the best inten- 
 tions, but with a certain love of that notoriety which 
 is the outcome of eccentricity, and who are fatally 
 susceptible to the power of catchwords — these are 
 the persons who tell us that Socialism is, after all,
 
 OUGHT WE TO FIGHT SOCIALISM? 45 
 
 the practical application of Christianity. It is true 
 that Mr. Keir Hardie has actually stated that such 
 is the case ; but this does not necessarily prove 
 the fact to be true. If those who find this close 
 correspondence between Christianity and Socialism 
 will take the pains to study the Socialist teaching, 
 not as they think it ought to be, but as it really is, 
 they will, perhaps, find some reason to doubt the 
 similarity of the two. It has been well said by some 
 of the Socialist writers themselves that the existence 
 of the ideal community which they hope to create 
 depends entirely upon the growth of a new spirit 
 in the hearts of those who compose it. This is per- 
 fectly true, and it would, therefore, seem that if such 
 a community is ever to be called into existence — a 
 community which, be it remembered, is to illustrate 
 the practical application of Christianity — some attempt 
 should be made to inculcate and to practise Christian 
 virtues. It is not easy, however, to find any trace 
 of such an effort in Socialist literature. War, violence, 
 hatred, the setting of man against man, the breaking 
 of faith, the loosening of social tics, these are the 
 doctrines which Socialism is teaching to the people 
 as a preliminary to entering into the perfect state. 
 * Seek peace and ensue it ' is a Christian doctrine. 
 It may be that some Socialists also seek peace, but 
 it is absolutely certain that they do not 'ensue il.' 
 ' I have come not to bring peace, but a sword ' are 
 the words of the Founder of Christianity. The
 
 46 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 Socialists appear to have adopted these words, but 
 have given them a strange application. It was not till 
 Christianity had created an organised Church, and 
 that Church had become a persecuting and political 
 force, that the application which the Socialists now 
 seem anxious to give to the great pronouncement 
 became a reality. It was then, and not till then, 
 that the sword became the sword of the secular 
 power, the weapon with which an organised tyranny 
 compelled the acceptance of its views by those who 
 neither respected its authority nor believed in its 
 teaching. 
 
 The Need for Plain Speaking and Clear 
 
 Thinking 
 
 Remembering these things, we may return once 
 more to our original conclusion : namely, that we 
 should fight Socialism, and should fight it on the 
 perfectly clear and intelligible grounds that, while 
 we recognise the truth and the force of much that is 
 said by Socialists with respect to the dangerous and 
 unsatisfactory condition of the fabric of modern 
 society, we do not, as sensible men with all the facts 
 before us, believe that the society which the Socialists 
 promise to create is one which, if created, would be 
 an improvement upon that which now exists ; and 
 are confident that the means proposed to obtain 
 that end are inadequate to the purpose. Finally, we
 
 OUGHT WE TO FIGHT SOCIALISM? 47 
 
 should fight it because we believe that, while any 
 attempt to secure the objects sought for by the 
 means proposed will produce infinite mischief, 
 misery, and hatred in the community, it may not 
 improbably end in bloodshed, and that the outcome 
 of all this purely destructive work will be to leave us 
 further off than ever from the ideal for which all 
 good men are striving : the amelioration of the 
 condition of those who suffer from the extreme 
 inequalities of our modern social organisation. 
 
 In a word, the time has come for plain speaking. 
 Socialism, as it is being taught by a small number 
 of educated persons and by a large number of 
 ignorant persons, is not Christianity, or anything like 
 it : it is not common honesty ; and it is a gross and 
 dangerous attack upon the liberties of English men 
 and women. Of course, the amiable persons who 
 are so ready to hold out the right hand of fellowship 
 to the new Communists are not really in favour of 
 civil war, confiscation, the repudiation of all legal 
 obligations, the multiplication ad infinitum of 
 Government officials, the abolition or relaxation of 
 the marriage tie, or the transference of all children 
 to a gigantic Foundling Hospital run by half-edu- 
 cated politicians. These and many other items of 
 the Socialist creed they utterly abhor, as would 
 appear fast enough if the new doctrines were applied 
 in concrete form to themselves or their concerns. 
 But when they approve of Socialism, they doubtless
 
 48 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 compound with their consciences by making all sorts 
 of fine reservations which they may possibly under- 
 stand themselves, but which assuredly are not, and 
 never will be, understood by those to whom they 
 address themselves. 
 
 If it pleases any one to think that enlarging a 
 London park at the public expense, or paying 
 a large sum of the taxpayers' money in order to 
 transfer the railways from one set of managers to 
 another, is Socialism, they are perfectly welcome 
 to their opinions, and possibly they are quite right. 
 But if they are thinking of these things, the real 
 teachers of Socialism are thinking of something 
 totally different ; and words which are intended 
 to express approval of perfectly honourable, and 
 often perfectly feasible, objects are being inevitably 
 translated into an approval and acceptance of the 
 Socialist programme which is now being laid 
 before the people of this country. It would be far 
 better if the speakers who thus strengthen a move- 
 ment with which they wholly disagree would weigh 
 their words more closely, and would ascertain what 
 is the true occupation of those whom they are so 
 ready to bless. Charles Peace was justly convicted 
 of murder and burglary, but it is an undoubted fact 
 that he played nicely upon the flute and wrote 
 edifying hymns. It is perhaps a good thing to play 
 upon the flute, and writing hymns is an avocation to 
 which many good men have been addicted ; never-
 
 OUGHT WE TO FIGHT SOCIALISM? 49 
 
 theless, any one who recommended Charles Peace as 
 an estimable public character and an honourable 
 associate on account of what may be called his 
 minor accomplishments, would have been making a 
 great mistake. 
 
 The illustration may seem a harsh one, but it is 
 not really unjust or irrelevant. It is made, not with 
 any desire of impugning the motives of the very well- 
 intentioned persons of whom so many are to be found 
 in the Socialist ranks, and who have certainly no 
 sympathy with crime or lawlessness. But it is made 
 because it truly and aptly describes the danger we 
 incur by failing to recognise that the greater includes 
 and dominates the less. It may seem at first sight 
 unfair to express any alarm as to the actions of those 
 who have filled so many pages with declarations of 
 the excellence of their intentions. But it must not 
 be forgotten that on precisely the same grounds a 
 plea of ' not guilty ' might be put in on behalf of the 
 Commune whose members only interrupted the 
 interminable flow of their generous sentiments and 
 their philanthropic ideas to suppress newspapers, to 
 rob a bank, to murder hostages, or to burn down a 
 city. The Socialists are at this moment urging those 
 to whom they appeal to do things which, if done, 
 would plunge the people of England into civil war, 
 and would steep them in misery such as has never 
 been experienced in the memory of living man. 
 When these leaders have ceased to teach these things 
 
 E
 
 50 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 it will be possible to discuss with them in all sincerity 
 propositions which they and many other people 
 believe to be ripe for discussion ; but not till then. 
 
 Socialists, like other people, are entitled to be 
 judged by what they have deliberately printed and 
 issued as representing their case. It is to docu- 
 mentary evidence of this kind that reference is made 
 throughout the whole of the present examination. 
 The documents lie before us, and they are plain and 
 unambiguous in their intentions. The leaders of the 
 Socialist party in this country are spending large sums 
 of money in endeavouring to induce their country- 
 men to engage in a class war ; to ostracise and treat 
 as public enemies many millions of their fellow 
 citizens ; to break the national faith ; to destroy 
 the national credit ; to abandon the national defence ; 
 to punish and persecute individuals who have com- 
 mitted no crime but that of differing from the new 
 tyranny. It may be that, among the various pro- 
 grammes which are now being officially circulated, 
 proposals for transferring the lifeboat service to the 
 State, for proportional representation, for closing of 
 public-houses on Bank holidays, and for running a 
 County Council milk walk in London, are included. 
 None of these things have anything to do with 
 Socialism as it is now being taught, and they can be 
 discussed, and should be discussed, on their own 
 merits. But those who, because they approve of 
 these and similar experiments, give any sanction
 
 OUGHT WE TO FIGHT SOCIALISM? 51 
 
 directly or indirectly to Socialism as it is now 
 being taught are doing a great disservice to their 
 country. 
 
 The Real Danger 
 
 Nor should the public be too easily induced to 
 underrate the danger which confronts the country 
 by the reflection that, whatever the Socialist leaders 
 may say, the people of England are neither cruel, 
 dishonest, nor wholly devoid of understanding. All 
 these things are perfectly true, and yet there is a 
 danger. Mr, Hyndman has laid down, and in doing 
 so he has correctly stated the teaching of history, 
 that- 
 Hungry men make disturbances and riots, but that they 
 never made an organised revolution yet. 
 
 It is, says he : — 
 
 The best educated and organised and capable men who 
 have always made revolutions in our history. 
 
 Now let it be remembered that the only two 
 revolutions which the Socialist writers regard as 
 being worthy of approbation arc the great French 
 Revolution and that which took place under the 
 Paris Commune ; and that the only revolutionists 
 of whom they claim to be the successors are the 
 Jacobins and the Communards. It is perfectly true 
 that in both these cases the revolution was made by 
 
 F. 2
 
 52 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 men in black coats, well educated, and, in many 
 cases, well-to-do. It is also true that these were not 
 the persons who suffered from the misery which they 
 created. It is the poor and the ignorant who have 
 always had to bear the penalty when they have been 
 left in the lurch by their leaders.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 
 
 A pertinent inquiry — ' The State ' and what it means — ' The Slate ' 
 as we know it — State interference — Do the people of England 
 want what the Socialists promise ? 
 
 We now come to a branch of our inquiry which is 
 most important, and which deals with very practical 
 matters. Hitherto we have, for the most part, dis- 
 cussed what may be called the abstract side of 
 Socialism. We have, it is true, set forth in precise 
 terms, and on the authority of the Socialist associa- 
 tions themselves, the proposals which are put forward, 
 and the immediate adoption of which is declared to 
 be necessary. But we have not discussed any of 
 those proposals in detail, nor have we asked our 
 readers to consider what would be their effect if 
 adopted, or to what extent they are likely to produce 
 the happy results which their authors are always so 
 ready to guarantee as the consequence of their adop- 
 tion, or rather of their imposition. 
 
 It is such an inquiry that we now propose to 
 make. Opinions will, doubtless, always differ with 
 regard to abstract questions of ethics, government,
 
 54 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 and the ideal relations between the various sections 
 of the community. We have given some reasons in 
 support of the view that Socialist ethics are not in 
 themselves admirable ; that Socialist views of govern- 
 ment are not such as should commend themselves to 
 a free people ; and that the class war which Socialists 
 hope to inaugurate will not be an unmixed benefit to 
 the people of England. But whatever may be said 
 on these subjects, there will always remain a con- 
 siderable number of persons who will be ready to 
 give their suffrages in favour of any theory, provided 
 it be new, and involves a direct contradiction of the 
 views which have hitherto been generally adopted by 
 their neighbours. ' You must do the sum to prove 
 it,' they will say, and we shall never know what an 
 English Commune can do for us until we have tried. 
 It will be well, therefore, to give careful con- 
 sideration to an aspect of the problem about which 
 there can be no ambiguity, and to ask some questions 
 which can be answered ' aye ' or ' no ' without the 
 slightest hesitation by every member of the com- 
 munity. The questions may, perhaps, be best in- 
 troduced by means of an assertion. We venture to 
 assert that the Socialists are promising to the people 
 of England things which the people of England do 
 not in the least desire ; that in the guise of blessings 
 they are attempting to bestow upon their country- 
 men gifts which, if accepted, would cause infinite 
 misery ; and which would be rejected with practical
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 55 
 
 unanimity as soon as their true nature was realised. 
 It will be well to test this proposition. The test can 
 be easily applied. Let it be supposed that all 
 obstacles have been removed ; that Mr. Hyndman and 
 Mr. Grayson, Mr. Keir Hardie and Mr. Bernard 
 Shaw, have actually established their Government, and 
 are about to bestow upon the nation the gifts which 
 they have declared it ought to desire, and the accept- 
 ance of which is to bring to their adherents so large 
 a measure of happiness and good fortune. We 
 propose to enumerate those gifts, and, having done 
 so, to ask our readers to say whether we are not 
 justified in asserting that the people of England, in- 
 dependent of party, independent of creed, independent 
 of class, do not want the things which the Socialists 
 desire to give them. In order that the materials for 
 forming a judgment may be available, it will be 
 necessary to restate the offer which is made, and to 
 examine each item in it as a practical proposition. 
 
 'The State' and What it Means 
 
 The object of the Social Democratic Federation 
 is 'the socialisation of the nicaus of production, 
 distribution, and exchange, to be controlled by a 
 Democratic State in the interests of the entire 
 community.' ' In other words, the State is to manage 
 everybody's business, to interfere in all the concerns 
 
 ' Prugiammc oi llie S.D.l.
 
 $6 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 of daily life, to be the sole and universal employer, 
 to be the judge of merit and the earthly Providence 
 of every man, woman, and child throughout the 
 length and breadth of the land. This being so, it 
 is necessary to ask whether the people of England 
 really do want to give these enormous powers to 
 the State, and whether they are so enamoured of 
 State control and State interference as to welcome 
 an immediate and immense extension of both ? Mr. 
 Asquith, speaking on this subject, has said : * It has 
 been our work during late years to emancipate the 
 country from State control. Large areas of our 
 social and industrial life have had to be set free 
 from the misdirected and paralysing activity of the 
 State.' ' If it be true that the public has for many 
 years past been striving to emancipate itself from 
 State control, is it quite certain that it is in a mood 
 to retrace its steps ? ' The State ' is a term which is 
 very frequently used in Socialist literature, and to 
 those who have not time or inclination to pause and 
 think, the introduction of this wonderful new power 
 with a capital ' S ' is doubtless impressive. But, after 
 all, is it a new power ? Is not ' The State ' a very 
 old friend whom we have known for a long time, 
 and have not always greatly loved ? Undoubtedly 
 such is the case, and before trusting our old friend 
 with unlimited powers over our consciences, our 
 children, and our purses, it may be well to have 
 
 ' Times, October 21, 1907.
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 57 
 
 a look at his antecedents. What does ' The State ' 
 mean ? It means in practice a certain number of 
 persons selected by a rough-and-ready method of 
 election, which, in so far as it is to be regarded as a 
 test of the true feeling of the electors, is, under our 
 present system, of about as much value as tossing up. 
 For a short and uncertain period the individuals thus 
 selected are endowed with immense powers over 
 the persons and property of their neighbours. ' The 
 State ' has many manifestations ; it appears to us in 
 many forms. Parliament is one manifestation of 
 ' The State.' A considerable section of the public is 
 already busily engaged in trying to get rid of two- 
 thirds of Parliament, namely, the Monarchy and the 
 House of Lords, and the third portion, the House of 
 Commons, is, in the opinion of many, yearly falling 
 into more deserved contempt for its incompetence 
 and its instability. If there are any sane persons in 
 this country who really desire that the State, as 
 represented by the House of Commons, should 
 regulate their lives and meddle with all their private 
 concerns, we would recommend to them a course of 
 attendance in the Gallery of that assembly. They 
 should be in their places when some matter concern- 
 ing the welfare of the entire Empire or the most vital 
 concerns of the United Kingdom is under discussion. 
 They should note the empty benches and listen to 
 the ineptitudes which party spirit brings into the 
 discussion of every great jjroblem. They should also
 
 58 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 be in their seats when some petty personal scandal, 
 some unworthy incident, some purely personal matter 
 is on the Orders of the Day. The House will be 
 crowded, and they will have an admirable opportunity 
 of judging the tone and temper of the authority to 
 which they are to submit themselves, and whose 
 interference in all their concerns is to prove so 
 beneficial. 
 
 The London County Council, which changes its 
 entire outlook on every subject — economic, social, 
 religious, architectural — about every three years, is 
 < The State.' The Poplar and West Ham Guardians 
 are ' The State ' ; the tax collector, the rate collector, 
 and the horde of inspectors and surveyors with whom 
 we are all so well acquainted are 'The State.' John, 
 Tom, and Harry, who live down the street, are not 
 ' The State ' to-day ; but, if they have no particular 
 occupation and can afford the time to make many 
 speeches and many fine professions as to what they 
 will do with other people's property if they get the 
 chance, they may become 'The State' to-morrow. 
 The fact is, that no amount of fine words will alter 
 plain facts, and there is not the slightest reason to 
 believe that this country will be better governed, or 
 that anybody will be happier or richer because wc 
 have added some hundreds of thousands to the 
 number of salaried officials paid to interfere with all 
 the concerns of our daily life, or because we have 
 turned out all the present occupants of our public
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 59 
 
 offices and have put another set of people in their 
 places. The French Republic is said to enjoy the 
 services of something like a million employees of the 
 Government ; but it has never been suggested that 
 France is very much better off on that account. 
 There are many Frenchmen, indeed, who have 
 expressed the opinion that this swarm of officials is 
 a curse and a menace to their country. In the 
 United States the number of public officials is large, 
 and, from the judges down to the village postmasters, 
 they are constantly being changed in obedience to the 
 caprice of popular elections or in submission to the 
 decrees of more or less corrupt organisations. No 
 fine words are used to describe the system in 
 the United States : it is simply known as ' The 
 Spoils System,' and is regarded as a very congenial 
 soil for growing the tree of corruption. ' The State,' 
 we are told, is to own and control all the means of 
 production, distribution, and exchange. A splendid 
 prospect seen from a distance, but not quite so 
 splendid when we come a little nearer. It is well 
 to put the matter quite plainly. Do the people, say, 
 of West Ham, or the people of Woolwich, really 
 want the West Ham Guardians or the Woolwich 
 Town Council to own all the railways, tramways, 
 cabs, carriages, workshops, machines, tools, hair- 
 dressers' shops, confectioners' shops ; to become the 
 tailors, the butchers, the bakers, and candlestick- 
 makers of West Ham or of Woolwich ; to pay
 
 6o ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 everybody's wages and to fix the rate of payment, 
 to conduct a compulsory creche for all the babies, 
 to send all the children to schools where they 
 will learn the ' Red Catechism,' ^ and to fix exactly 
 what every man's income shall be ? As a matter of 
 fact, the people of West Ham and Woolwich want 
 nothing of the kind ; and, if anything were needed 
 to cure them of such a longing, a week's trial of the 
 system would do it. Not only is there not the 
 slightest reason to believe that 'The State' — or, in 
 other words, the non-working members of a busy 
 community — can carry on business on a large scale, 
 or on a small scale, with advantage ; but it is practi- 
 cally certain that if the work of the Socialists assigned 
 to the State were undertaken by a committee of 
 archangels it would create so much criticism that 
 it would come to a standstill in a week. Nor is 
 there any reason to believe that, if carried on by a 
 casual crowd of persons, who, for an uncertain period, 
 are supposed to represent the local majority, it would 
 serve any purpose whatever save that of stirring up 
 strife and making confusion worse confounded. 
 
 What the Socialists mean by ' The State ' is' 
 simply the introduction of a number of new men 
 into old places. There will be a Government, an 
 Executive, a Parliament of some kind — probably 
 
 ' The Red Catechism for Socialist Children, by A. P. Hazell. 
 Printed by the Twentieth Century Press, Ltd., 1907. Circulated by 
 iheS.D.F.
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 6i 
 
 some dozens of Parliaments — and an innumerable 
 host of officials. It is possible that the methods of 
 public administration might be greatly changed. If 
 Mr. Hyndman and Mr. Grayson and Mr. Keir 
 Hardie and Mr. G. B. Shaw, &c., were to be drawing 
 salaries from their ' comrades ' for governing this 
 country there probably would be a good deal of 
 change ; but that, after all, is only a question of 
 personnel, about which there is no great reason to 
 invoke high and mighty theories. As for the idea 
 that some new, heaven-born entity, called ' The State,' 
 is to descend upon us and alter the whole conditions 
 of our life, it is a patent absurdity which should 
 deceive nobody.
 
 62 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED— (conftnued) 
 
 Equality of opportunity — Equal division of profits — Socialisation of 
 means of production — The taxation of unearned incomes 
 
 Equality of Opportunity 
 
 We are promised equality of opportunity. 
 
 'In a state of nature all animals, at starting, enjoy 
 equality of opportunity. It is obvious that under Socialism 
 all men will be similarly situated.' ^ 
 
 That all animals in a state of nature at starting 
 enjoy equality of opportunity is of course con- 
 spicuously untrue, but independent of this considera- 
 tion, it may not be quite obvious to some of our 
 readers that the general proposition, ' all men are 
 animals,' is of much value in this connection. All 
 pigs are animals, but all men are not pigs. But 
 leaving this doubtful point aside, let us consider the 
 promise itself ' Equality of opportunity ' is a fine 
 phrase, but it has no relation whatever to the facts 
 of life, and, despite all the Socialists in the world, it 
 
 ' Socialism and the Survival of the Fittest, by S. Connell. 
 Twentieth Century Press, Ltd. Circulated by the S. D. F.
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 63 
 
 never will have. It is perfectly true that the idea 
 of equality before the law and of the absence of 
 privilege as attached to any class of society are 
 noble ideals worth fighting for, and, if necessary, 
 dying for. Many Englishmen have been engaged 
 in this laudable strife during the past nine centuries, 
 and many of them have lost their lives in fighting for 
 their ideal. But that is not what the Socialists are 
 fighting for. On the contrary, they have told us 
 distinctly, by the mouth of one of their most notorious 
 spokesmen, that they are fighting not to secure 
 equality, but to create a dominant class. But, 
 supposing this were not so, and supposing that the 
 Socialists really were in favour of equality of oppor- 
 tunity, do they seriously think that this is what the 
 majority of Englishmen want ? When reduced to 
 terms of common sense, the absurdity of the catch- 
 word is seen. Let us suppose that every one is, so 
 to speak, reduced to * scratch ' in the race of life. 
 Every man to start with nothing at all, or, say five 
 pounds, or five hundred pounds, as the case may be. 
 Given this equal start on January i, where shall we 
 be on December 3 1 ? Will the equality of opportunity 
 remain ? Not a trace of it. One man will have 
 buried his talent ; another will have used it. One 
 will have turned his talent into five, another into ten. 
 One will be on the up-grade, another on the down- 
 grade, and the next year will begin with a 
 community from which equality of opportunity has
 
 64 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 already absolutely vanished. The man who can 
 neither use his fingers nor his brains, the man who 
 has bad manners, or even the man who has an ugly 
 face and an unpleasant manner, will never have the 
 same opportunity as the man of nimble fingers, a quick 
 wit, an attractive manner, and a handsome face. 
 Hundreds of things will be open to the one which, all 
 the Socialists in the world notwithstanding, will 
 always be closed to the other. Are we, then, to have 
 a fresh deal at the end of every twelve months — 
 a sort of annual jubilee for the readjustment of 
 life's handicaps ? Every one knows that such an 
 idea is grotesque. Once more let it be repeated that 
 there is a sense in which equality of opportunity has 
 a real meaning : equality before the law. But it did 
 not require the Socialists to preach a doctrine which 
 generations of Englishmen have understood perfectly 
 well, and towards the attainment of which they have 
 been striving, and, on the whole, successfully, for 
 many years. This is not the equality of opportunity 
 which the Socialists want. It must never be forgotten 
 that almost the only thing on which Socialists are 
 agreed is that it is their business to fight — to use 
 force, if necessary — in order to create a dominant 
 and privileged class. Let us, then, dismiss this cant 
 phrase, ' equality of opportunity.' What the Socialists 
 promise is not what the people of England want. If 
 those who listen to the Socialist orators realised what 
 the phrase meant they would have none of it. Let
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 65 
 
 the parents of a boy who is by nature clever and 
 whom they have taught to be industrious ask them- 
 selves how they would like to see the doctrine applied 
 in practice. Their son enters a machine shop at the 
 same time as another boy who is lazy and, it may be, 
 incompetent. The day the boys enter their oppor- 
 tunities will be the same ; at the end of the twelve 
 months one boy will still be sweeping the floor — the 
 other may be on the road which leads to the manage- 
 ment of the concern. The equality of opportunity 
 is gone. Do the parents wish to see it re-created, 
 and their son brought down to the level of his com- 
 panion ? Of course, they want nothing of the kind, 
 and they will not want it any more if the two boys 
 happen to be employed by ' The State ' in the shape 
 of the local authority, which, we are informed, ' is to 
 control all the means of production,' than if they 
 were in the employment of a limited company or a 
 private individual. 
 
 But, before leaving the question of equality of 
 opportunity, it is just to the Socialists, and to a very 
 large number of men and women who are not 
 Socialists, to say that there is a sense in which the 
 phrase * equality of opportunity ' has a real and 
 beneficent meaning. It is desirable that, as far as 
 may be, the advantages which the State purports to 
 confer upon all members of the community should 
 really be open to all members of the community. 
 As a matter of fact, this ideal has not yet been 
 
 F
 
 66 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 attained, and probably, to its full extent, never will 
 be attained. But much more may be done than has 
 already been accomplished. What is called the 
 ' educational ladder ' is an example of what is meant. 
 At present many of the educational boons which are 
 conferred by the State, or under semi-national endow- 
 ments, are not really available to children of poor 
 parents. Much is being done to alter this state of 
 things, and to give to these children 'equality of 
 opportunity ' in the enjoyment of a privilege which 
 the nation intends that all its members who prove 
 themselves worthy of it should enjoy. 
 
 Equal Division of Profit 
 
 The profits of labour are to be equally divided 
 among the workers. Is this what the vast majority 
 of English people want ? Not the least. It is a 
 principle which they would soon make short work of 
 if any one made the slightest attempt to apply it in 
 practice. Two men are working in a machine shop, 
 one as a labourer, the other as a fitter, or as a foreman. 
 Ask the labourer if he would like his wages levelled 
 up to that of the fitter. Of course he will say * Yes.' 
 Ask the fitter or the foreman if he would like his 
 wages to be lowered down to the level of the labourer 
 and he will give an answer more forcible than polite. 
 Nay, more, ask him if he approves of having all wages 
 in the shop raised to a uniform level, and his answer
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 6^ 
 
 will be equally clear. He will never consent to 
 obtain no advantage whatever from his superior skill 
 and his greater knowledge — the outcome in nine cases 
 out often of long application, self denial, and study. 
 But it may be said, ' Oh, this is not what 
 Socialists desire,' In the first place, it must be 
 stated emphatically that many of them do desire this 
 very thing. But there are others who, seeing how 
 rough a reception such a proposal would meet with 
 in many quarters, are prepared to admit that there 
 must be a varying scale of remuneration, but that the 
 scale must be limited at both ends. There is, 
 apparently, to be a minimum wage and a maximum 
 wage. It is very doubtful whether if a minimum wage 
 were to be universally imposed it would make any 
 particular difference to the wage-earners, for prices 
 would, even under the most elaborate system of State 
 interference, tend to adjust themselves to the artificial 
 condition of things, and the minimum wage would 
 probably purchase about the same amount of com- 
 modities as it does now. As to the maximum wage, 
 who is to fix it? On what principle is it to be fixed, 
 and who is the authority who shall say to a man, 
 ' Your skill, your knowledge, your experience shall 
 not be remunerated for what they are worth ? ' For 
 let it be remembered that what a thing is worth 
 depends in no degree whatever upon the theories of 
 any number of Socialists, but upon what other people 
 wanting the thing are prepared to give for it. 
 
 F a
 
 6S ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 The Socialisation of the Means of 
 Production 
 
 This is a fine phrase, which may mean a great 
 deal or may mean a very little. In the opinion of 
 the Socialists it evidently means a great deal. It 
 means, among other things, a vexatious and in- 
 tolerable interference in the most minute concerns of 
 everybody's business. After handing over the rail- 
 ways, the banks, and all other large enterprises, ' The 
 State,' i.e. the parish council or the Socialist com- 
 mittee at the corner of the street, is to take in hand 
 and regulate the occupations of everybody in the 
 street In one of the official Socialist publications we 
 actually find a discussion as to whether a woman is to 
 be allowed to own a sewing machine, and we are told, 
 apparently as a great concession, that a dressmaker is 
 to be permitted to own her own sewing machine, 
 provided no one else be allowed to touch it. A state- 
 ment so absurd as this requires to be substantiated. 
 Here is the actual passage, taken from the ' Red 
 Catechism for Socialist Children ' : — 
 
 (Q.) Would Socialists allow any one to have a machine ? 
 (A.) When the person can use the machine for her ovm 
 use. For instance, Socialists would let a dressmaker have 
 a machine for doing her own work, but not for the purpose 
 of employing others to exploit or rob them. 
 
 We believe that when this proposition is fully 
 understood, and when it is also understood that this
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 69 
 
 interference is to apply, not only to the owners of 
 sewing machines, but to an infinite number of persons 
 who have hitherto been accustomed to get their 
 living with the aid of persons who were willing and 
 anxious to be employed by them, the people of 
 England will reject this ' boon ' as decisively as 
 all the others, and among those who will be foremost 
 in rejecting it will be those who now obtain employ- 
 ment from individuals, but who in the future will be 
 compelled to put themselves under the orders, and 
 work under the directions, of an elected committee of 
 local politicians. In a word, the people of England 
 do not desire ' the Socialisation of the means of pro- 
 duction.' 
 
 The Taxation of Unearned Incomes 
 
 The Social Democratic Federation has laid it 
 down that ' a cnmulative tax on all incojnes and 
 hiheritafices exceeding 300/.' )nust be imposed im- 
 mediately} As we have seen, the Independent 
 Labour party goes a step further, for it has decided 
 that all incomes which it is pleased to describe as 
 ' unearned' arc to be ' taxed to extinction.' * That is 
 to say, those who receive such incomes are to be 
 robbed of every farthing they possess. Here, again, 
 a little explanation is necessary to translate the fine 
 phrases of the official programme, and the oratorical 
 
 ' Programme S.D.F. * Programme I.L.P.
 
 ^o ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 expressions of the street-corner orator into plain 
 English to be understanded of the people. Let us 
 see, in the first place, what is meant by ' an unearned 
 income.' The Independent Labour party, in one of 
 its official publications, has been good enough to 
 explain exactly what it means by an ' unearned 
 income.' The writer of the work in question says 
 that the Socialists have deliberately adopted the 
 definition arrived at by the Select Committee of 
 the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the 
 graduation of the Income-tax. 
 
 ' The committee,' says the writer, * could discover no 
 terms capable of expressing the full intention except those 
 in common use by Socialists for many years, viz. " earned " 
 and " unearned." The mere decision to adopt these titles 
 is a practical justification of the old Socialist formula of 
 Prudhomme that '* property is robbery." ' ' 
 
 Incidentally, this passage is a valuable reminder 
 of the harm that Parliament, in its zeal to please 
 everybody, may do by the use of ill-considered and 
 ill-defined expressions. But, leaving that aspect of 
 the question aside, let us see what light this passage 
 throws upon the Socialist proposals. Here is an actual 
 case which arose a short time ago, and was brought 
 to the knowledge of the writer. A medical man, after 
 thirty-five years of uninterrupted toil, had amassed a 
 small competence, which he had actually invested 
 
 ^ Socialism and the Budget. By H. Russell-Smart. Published by 
 he I.L.P.
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 71 
 
 instead of putting it in a stocking, and from these 
 investments he drew a small income. Worn out by 
 many years of arduous work, he retired from his 
 practice, and determined to pass the remainder of 
 his days in a quiet retreat far from the scene of his 
 work. It has been decided that every farthing of this 
 man's income is to be considered as ' unearned,' as 
 much ' unearned ' as if it had fallen from heaven or 
 been discovered in an old mattress bought at a 
 jumble sale. It is an unearned income of this kind 
 that the Socialists propose to ' tax to extinction.' 
 The doctor in question, having been robbed of every 
 farthing he possesses, will then be in a position to 
 receive a charitable donation, either in money or 
 kind, from the local authority. The amount, ap- 
 parently, will depend upon the attitude of the local 
 politicians towards him. But before receiving his 
 lOi'. a week, or his pair of boots and side of bacon, 
 as the case may be, he will have, we are told, to 
 satisfy the local authority that he cannot work, and 
 ' stone-breaking,' it is explained, will furnish the most 
 suitable test. It is well, therefore, that all English 
 men and women who have made provision for their 
 old age, or who have ventured at any time to put 
 aside money for which they receive interest, should 
 know that they are openly threatened by the 
 Socialists with the taxation of their incomes ' to ex- 
 tinction.' Let those who have invested in the Post 
 Office Savings Bank, in the Building Societies, in 
 
 r
 
 72 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 the Benefit Societies, mark this proposal, and, now 
 that it is put before them in plain English, let them 
 ask themselves whether this is one of the reforms 
 which they urgently desire. We are under the 
 impression that here, again, the Socialists have made 
 a mistake, and a very big one, and that the people of 
 England do not desire, and will not submit to, ' the 
 taxation to extinction of all unearned incomes!
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED — {continued) 
 
 The abolition of the Regular Army — The abandonment of India — 
 The Army of the future 
 
 The Abolition of War 
 
 There are to be no more wars, we are to have no 
 professional Navy and no Regular Army, but a 
 Citizen Army is to take the place of the Regular 
 Army. With regard to these matters, as with regard 
 to a good many others, Socialist teaching is some- 
 what obscure, and the professors are at variance 
 among themselves. Many of the most ardent pro- 
 fessors use arguments which involve the destruction 
 of the Navy, but there appear to be some members 
 who, with more sanity, though less logic, think that 
 the Navy should be maintained. Why this should 
 be so if there is to be no more war, or if the bold 
 citizen, inspired by devotion to the collective idea 
 and to the Government of the new tyranny, is really, 
 as we are so often told, a better man in time of war 
 than the wretched hireling who fights his country's 
 battles for a sordid fee, and who, incidentally, learns
 
 74 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 his business, is not quite clear. F'urther information 
 is required with regard to the fate of the Navy. The 
 doctrine with regard to the Army is much more 
 definite. There is to be no Regular Army, but an 
 immense mob of citizen soldiers is to be called into 
 existence, primarily, it would appear, for the purpose 
 of shooting down other citizens who do not happen 
 to agree with the political directorate of the day. 
 This doctrine finds a very large place in Socialistic 
 utterances. The Citizen Army is to exist in order 
 to make strikes effective, to keep down wicked 
 capitalists, and generally to enable gentlemen like 
 Mr. Keir Hardie, Mr. Grayson, and Mr. Hyndman 
 to use an effective ' argument ' with those misguided 
 people who do not belong to the privileged class. 
 
 We also learn that this Citizen Army is to exist 
 for the purpose of hurling back the invader, and 
 keeping inviolate the national soil : catchwords 
 largely borrowed from the vocabulary of a neigh- 
 bouring nation, which has signally failed to accom- 
 plish these objects by the means recommended. 
 France has more than once tried to defend her 
 national soil and to hurl back the invader by means 
 of a Citizen Army, and has come to most hopeless 
 and irremediable grief in consequence. But it is 
 really difficult to take all the talk about the guaran- 
 teed peace of the world under a Socialist rigivie very 
 seriously. To begin with, from a party which is 
 always preaching war, and which boldly describes its
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 75 
 
 policy as ' a policy of war,' guarantees of perpetual 
 peace come rather strangely. It is one of the fond 
 delusions of the Socialist party that democracy has 
 a tendency towards peace, and that Socialist Govern- 
 ments are particularly distinguished among all other 
 democratic Governments by their entire freedom 
 from aggressive qualities. Of course, it is a mere 
 commonplace, familiar to every one who has the 
 slightest acquaintance with the history of the world, 
 that the exact reverse is the truth. Democracies 
 have always been warlike, and the more nearly a 
 democratic Government has approached to the 
 Socialist form, the more bloodthirsty and the more 
 ready to enforce its views by the sword has it 
 become. 
 
 It is singular, indeed, that a body whose whole 
 talk is of ' war,' and which is not ashamed to put in 
 the very forefront of its programme the duty of 
 declaring war upon everybody who does not happen 
 to agree with it, should be such a firm believer in 
 the advent of an era of universal peace. It is exceed- 
 ingly doubtful whether any Socialist does in the 
 least believe in the advent of such an era. To judge 
 from what is written and spoken by many of the 
 exponents of Socialist doctrine those who assume 
 the advent of such a happy day with the greatest 
 confidence have really never thought about the 
 matter at all. But, whether this be so or not, it is, 
 unfortunately, true that neither the fact that Socialists
 
 76 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 are ignorant of history, or that they decline to think 
 out any proposition which might lead to an un- 
 pleasant conclusion, will protect this country from 
 the dangers of war. Indeed, the Socialist attitude 
 with regard to wars and armies, if it is to be judged 
 by the utterances of Socialists in the House of 
 Commons, is almost imbecile. In the first place, 
 they constantly advocate great reductions in the 
 Army and Navy. This, in its nature, is not a 
 reasonable policy. It may be quite reasonable, from 
 the point of view of a man who believes that there 
 will be no more war, to advocate the abolition of 
 the Army and Navy. But for a man who knows 
 nothing whatever about fighting by land or sea, and 
 who is constantly boasting of his entire ignorance of 
 these matters, to recommend reductions is manifestly 
 unreasonable. A moment's thought will suffice to 
 make this proposition clear. Navies and armies 
 have only one function, and that is to engage suc- 
 cessfully in war. To pay for a navy or an army 
 which will not be successful in war is worse than a 
 folly — it is a crime. If an army exists only to be 
 beaten, it had much better not exist at all; In the 
 ordinary affairs of life most men recognise and apply 
 this reasoning. If a man wishes to build a bridge 
 across a 20 ft. opening he either orders a bridge 
 20 ft. long or leaves the job alone altogether. He 
 does not, for the sake of economy, order 17 ft. of 
 bridge. But that is exactly what our Socialists in
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED y-j 
 
 the House of Commons want to do with respect to 
 the Navy and the Army. They seem to think that 
 fleets and armies can conveniently be bought by the 
 pound, and that if one man or one nation has a ton 
 of the article and the other man or the other nation 
 fifteen hundredweight, the only difference is that one 
 party is a little better or worse off, as the case may 
 be, than the other. Of course, the truth is, as any 
 sensible man will see in a moment, that there is no 
 place at all for armies and navies which are destined 
 to be beaten. Therefore, while Socialists who talk 
 about getting rid of navies and armies altogether 
 may be listened to with a certain amount of respect, 
 those who talk about reductions without any re- 
 ference to the fighting efficiency of the forces they 
 desire to reduce are guilty of a mere impertinence, 
 and should not be listened to at all. 
 
 The Abolition of the Regular Army 
 
 It is, however, part of the regular Socialist 
 programme ^ that standing armies should be abolished. 
 The abolition of a standing army may be justified 
 either on the ground that some other kind of army 
 can take its place, and do its work as well or better 
 than the army which has been got rid of ; or el.se on 
 the ground that, as there will be no more war, there 
 need be no more armies. Something has already 
 
 ' Programme S.D.F.
 
 7S ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 been said with regard to the first of these reasons. 
 Sociahsts may, and do, assert that a citizen army in 
 the field will get the better of a regular trained army. 
 But the teaching of history in all ages, and under all 
 circumstances, flatly contradicts the Socialist state- 
 ment. History teaches us that what the Socialists 
 say with regard to the value of citizen armies is 
 the direct reverse of the truth. We may therefore 
 afford to leave that part of the argument aside for 
 the present. 
 
 A Guarantee Wanted 
 
 We now come to the second argument : namely, 
 that as there will be no more wars, there need be no 
 more armies. It is a curious fact that no Socialist is 
 prepared to give a guarantee valid even for a single 
 year that there will not be war. It is no doubt very 
 interesting for the audience at a Socialist meeting in 
 London to be told that war is wicked, and un- 
 necessary, and anti- social, and so on. All these 
 things may be perfectly true. Lightning is danger- 
 ous ; plague and pestilence are dangerous ; but by 
 calling attention to these facts over and over again 
 we do not get rid of the danger. If some one were 
 to convince us that there would be no more thunder- 
 storms, we might dispense with lightning rods ; 
 if we were absolutely certain that there was to 
 be no more pestilence, we might pull down our
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 79 
 
 fever hospitals ; but, as a matter of fact, we have not 
 got, and we are not likely to get, these assurances, 
 and the result is that we still prefer to stick to 
 our precautions where we can. English Socialist 
 leaders frequently go abroad and engage in not 
 very seemly wrangles with ' comrades ' from other 
 countries ; but it is noticeable that they never bring 
 back anything of much more value to the cause of 
 peace than a bag of wind. The great nations of 
 Europe do not disarm ; the Socialist orators who 
 propose that they should disarm get a slap in 
 the face even from their own associates, and the 
 preparation for war, and, above all, for war against 
 England, goes on steadily. Here, again, it is well to 
 put matters quite plainly. The people of England 
 do not want what the Socialists declare they do 
 want. It is as certain as anything in the world can 
 be that if the Navy were reduced, and the standing 
 Army abolished, this country would be invaded and 
 occupied within six months, and that though a 
 Socialist orator were stationed at every landing place 
 round the coast, and orated for his full eight hours 
 a day at the public expense, the march of the armed 
 enemy would proceed without one hour's interrup- 
 tion. If any one prefers to exchange the vague 
 pictures drawn by the Socialists for a living represen- 
 tation of the truth, let him read the account of what 
 happened in France in 1870 and 1871 ; what 
 happened in the Southern States of America in 1864 ;
 
 8o ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 what happened in the Netherlands in 1794, when the 
 Socialists of that day devastated them with fire and 
 sword ; they would then, perhaps, be somewhat 
 reluctant to accept the false coin which is offered 
 them at the value placed upon it by the coiners. 
 
 The Abandonment of India 
 
 Before leaving the question of fleets and armies 
 it is worth while to discuss one other aspect of it 
 which ought to be brought home to every English 
 man and woman. 
 
 The Regular Army having been got rid of, it is 
 obvious that all those parts of the Empire which 
 owe their existence as such to the protection and 
 authority afforded by the Regular Army must be 
 lost to the Empire.^ Foremost among these countries 
 is the vast territory of India. That India was won 
 by the sword and is kept by the sword is a fact 
 which the plain teaching of history forbids us to 
 deny. Mr. Keir Hardie, who has made a special 
 reputation for himself by the ignorant, inconsiderate, 
 and cruel things that he has said in furtherance of 
 his political schemes, never said a more foolish thing 
 than that ' what is good for Canada is good for 
 India.' 
 
 ' ' What we can only hold by maintaining an alien ' {i.e. a British) 
 ' garrison had better be given up. ' Social Democracy and the Armed 
 Nation, written for the S.D.F. by H. Quelch.
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 8i 
 
 It would be tedious and unnecessary to refute 
 Mr. Keir Hardie's dictum. It would be an insult to 
 our readers, to whatever party or school of thought 
 they may belong, to imagine that they could be 
 misled for an instant by such a blundering phrase. 
 It will suffice for our present purpose to point out 
 that India and Canada differ essentially in the fact 
 that one is governed by the sword and that the other 
 is not. It may be wrong that any country should be 
 governed by the sword ; as a matter of fact, India 
 has never been governed by anything else ; and if we 
 were driven out of it or retired from it to-day, it 
 would be governed to-morrow by a sword not less 
 sharp, and much more frequently and cruelly used, 
 than that which is now in the hands of the British 
 Army in India. A well-known representative of one 
 of the fighting races of India was asked not long ago 
 what, in his opinion, would happen in India if the 
 British power were withdrawn. His reply was more 
 trenchant than polite, but it was true. ' In six 
 months,' said he, ' there would not be a virgin or a 
 rupee left in Bengal.' It is worthy of remark, in 
 passing, that the withdrawal of British troops from 
 Canada has led to no such result ; a fact which would 
 indicate some divergence between the condition of 
 the two countries. But it is exactly this withdrawal 
 that the Socialists advocate. They do not tell the 
 straight truth to their audiences. They do not say 
 we propose to abandon India to plunder and rapine, 
 
 G
 
 82 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 to turn every English man and woman out of the 
 Peninsula ; to destroy Indian trade and commerce, 
 and to close the ports of India against the commerce 
 of this country. But that is what they mean ; for 
 this must be the inevitable result of the adoption of 
 their policy. 
 
 Do the people of England want these things to 
 happen ? That is a question which can soon be 
 answered if we get rid of the clap-trap in which the 
 Socialist policy is usually wrapped up, and expose it 
 in its naked simplicity. 
 
 Let any Englishman stand on London Bridge and 
 cast his eyes down the busy river beneath him. Let 
 his imagination come to the aid of his vision, and let 
 him picture the various scenes of activity which lie 
 between Tower Bridge and Tilbury Dock ; then let 
 him imagine for a moment that the talk of the 
 Socialists has been transformed into a real policy ; 
 let him assume that the British Army has been with- 
 drawn from India, and that India, as an inevitable 
 consequence, has relapsed into a seething tumult of 
 civil war, only to be terminated by the intervention 
 of some strong military Power, carrying with its 
 bayonets a strict system of protection. What will be 
 the result ? The whole of the great industries which 
 we now behold will have been obliterated. What 
 are those industries, and what do they mean to the 
 people of this country ? Here is a brief enumeration 
 of some of the principal items : —
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 83 
 
 Exports from the United Kingdom to India ;^45, 830,000 
 Imports to the United Kingdom from India 26,663,000 
 
 Total . . . ;^7 25493,000 
 
 Exported from the United Kingdom to India : — 
 
 Cotton goods .... ;^26,466,ooo 
 Machinery, metals, railway plant . 5,170,000 
 
 Imported into the United Kingdom from India : — 
 Jute ...... ^^4,876,000 
 
 Wheat ...... 4,276,000 
 
 Tea ...... 4,600,000 
 
 The figures relating to tea do not include the enormous 
 import from Ceylon, which would certainly vanish if India 
 were abandoned. 
 
 No less than 12 percent, of the total exports of the 
 United Kingdom go to India. 
 
 All this will have been destroyed, and with its 
 destruction will have come the ruin and beggary of 
 hundreds of thousands of men and women. The 
 thousands who now handle the goods, the tens of 
 thousands who live by manipulating, distributing, 
 and manufacturing those goods. And last, but not 
 least, the millions to whom those goods represent 
 the necessaries of daily life. The great Indian ware- 
 houses will be closed, the Indian liners will have 
 ceased to ply, the cessation of the Indian wheat 
 import will have sent up the price of bread, and the 
 destruction of the Indian and Ceylon tea trade will 
 have taken away the principal comfort and solace of 
 millions of families. And what shall we have in 
 
 G 2
 
 84 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 return ? The windy talk of Mr. Keir Hardie, Mr. 
 Grayson, and others of their school — adepts, it may 
 be, in destruction, but utterly powerless either to 
 create or to restore. 
 
 No ; beyond doubt the people of England do not 
 want to lose India, and for that reason, if for no other, 
 they do not want to abolish standing armies.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED — {continued) 
 
 The repudiation of the National Debt — The effect of repudiation — 
 The holders of the debt— What the debt is 
 
 Repudiation of the National Debt 
 
 The repudiation of the National Debt is an important 
 plank in the Socialist platform. It is only necessary 
 to examine the proposal very briefly in order to dis- 
 cover that here, again, the English people are offered, 
 not only that which they do not want, but that which 
 they would consider an immense calamity if they 
 were compelled to accept it. Let us think for a 
 moment what the National Debt is, and what its 
 repudiation would mean. The phrase ' repudiation 
 of the National Debt,' like so many others which are 
 used by the Socialists, fills the mouth and has a fine 
 ring about it. 
 
 To wipe out 800,000,000/. of debt, and thereby 
 to relieve the taxpayers from contributing some 
 28,000,000/, every year for the payment of interest, 
 seems at first sight an attractive and easy process. 
 But it will not seem cither easy or attractive if we
 
 86 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 translate the fine words of the orator into the plain 
 prose of ordinary life. 
 
 What the Debt is 
 
 The National Debt represents sums which have 
 been borrowed by the British Government over a 
 long series of years. The money has been lent by 
 all sorts and conditions of men, and in every single 
 case the amount of the loan and the amount of 
 interest to be paid for it have been sanctioned by 
 Parliament. The greater part of the debt is due to 
 the efforts which this country has had to make in 
 order to protect itself from invasion, and to acquire 
 and preserve the immense additions which have 
 been made to the British Empire since the middle 
 of the eighteenth century. It is quite possible to be 
 of the opinion that some of the money raised was 
 not wisely spent, or that some of it ought not 
 to have been raised at all. But that is not the 
 question which concerns us now. The money was 
 raised at the time on the lowest terms on which 
 it could be obtained, and its repayment, or the 
 payment of interest upon it at a fixed rate, was 
 guaranteed in every case on the faith of the British 
 Government. The rights of the original lenders have 
 passed through many thousands of hands, and every 
 buyer of Consols has paid the full current value for 
 the British Government's promise to pay. It is
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAIMINED 87 
 
 now proposed by the Socialists to repudiate the 
 whole of this debt ; that is to say, to break the 
 promises made by the British Government, and to 
 bring to absolute ruin a large number of individuals, 
 some rich and some poor, who have committed no 
 sort of crime save that of trusting the good faith 
 of the Government of their country. It must 
 be remembered, too — though the fact does not 
 affect the principle of the question — that not 
 only will thousands of individuals be ruined, but 
 that a very large number of institutions — some 
 public and some private, institutions which provide 
 for honourable and good purposes — will be ruined 
 also. To a Socialist it would probably be useless to 
 point out that such an act as that proposed would 
 be sheer robbery, for he would say, as many of 
 his leaders have said, that, provided it be called by 
 another name, the operation is legitimate. 
 
 TfiE Effect of Repudiation 
 
 But, laying aside for the moment the question 
 of morals, let us see what would be the result of 
 repudiating the National Debt. In the first place, 
 as has been pointed out, some hundreds of thousands 
 of individuals and a very large number of institutions 
 would be ruined, because their legally and justly 
 acquired property would be suddenly taken from 
 them. The Socialists, who, apparently, are always
 
 88 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 looking either at what is going to happen to-morrow 
 or what is going to happen a thousand years hence, 
 seem quite unable to devote their attention to what 
 is likely to happen next year or during the next ten 
 years. The ignorant persons to whom they appeal 
 are led to believe that the 28,000,000/. a year required 
 to pay the interest of the National Debt is a sort of 
 tribute levied on the country by a foreign Power, 
 and that the nation is annually made poorer by the 
 amount of the levy. This, of course, is absurd. The 
 interest paid on Consols goes back into circulation 
 every year, and is paid away, principally in wages, 
 with absolute regularity. If the interest ceased to be 
 payable to-morrow, and the money went into the 
 national exchequer, or remained in the pockets of 
 the taxpayers, it would be spent in very much the 
 same way. But the immediate consequence would 
 undoubtedly be that every one who is now receiving 
 employment as a consequence of the payment of the 
 interest on the National Debt would cease to receive 
 that employment. Eventually he might obtain some 
 other work ' under Government,' or he might not. 
 But, for the moment, the result would be as disastrous 
 to those who receive their pay from the owners of 
 Consols as it would be to the owners of the Consols 
 themselves. But this is only a very small part of the 
 business. It is possible to cheat your creditors 
 once, but it is very difficult to do it twice, especially 
 when the sum involved is large and when you happen
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 89 
 
 to be very well known to the police. A country 
 which repudiates its debt is in the position of a 
 banker who fraudulently misapplies the money of 
 his customers. He does not do it twice, because he 
 does not obtain any more customers. If the Socialists 
 were quite determined that the nation should never 
 borrow a farthing again, one, at any rate, of the 
 objections to their plan of repudiation would be 
 removed. But no such proposition is to be found in 
 their programme. Meanwhile it is noticeable that 
 democratic States have always been amongst the 
 most voracious borrowers. At the present moment 
 the debt of Australia is no less than 243,000,000/., 
 or 60/. per head. Some say that this is a good thing 
 for the Commonwealth, some that it is a very bad 
 thing. But be that as it may, if Australia were to 
 repudiate its debt to-morrow, no one would ever lend 
 it another shilling. Yet beyond all doubt the desire 
 of borrowing, which, indeed, is the craze of all 
 Socialist or semi-Socialist communities, is not in the 
 least likely to pass away. Of course there is always 
 f)ne alternative to a loan ; it was well known to and 
 was practised by other tyrants before the days of 
 Socialist tyranny. In the fifteenth century the 
 monarchs of the day hit on the happy plan of what 
 were called ' Benevolences.' They said to those 
 from whom they desired to extract money, ' We do 
 not wish to borrow from you, but wc should be 
 exceedingly pleased if you were to offer us a con-
 
 90 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 siderable sum in cash ; you are perfectly free agents 
 in the matter, but '—and the ' but ' generally meant 
 if you do not give we will take. King John had 
 very much the same idea when he ' borrowed 'money 
 from the Jews. He drew their teeth until they came 
 forward in a generous spirit. These things can 
 always be done by a powerful tyrant, but they have 
 an unfortunate way of leaving matters worse than 
 they were, for somehow money slips away and 
 evades capture. The method is, like many other 
 Socialist methods, open to the objection that the 
 thing can be done once, but that it cannot be done 
 
 twice. 
 
 Put quite shortly, the repudiation of the National 
 Debt means the absolute destruction of Government 
 credit, and no man in this country or any other will, 
 from the date of such repudiation, trust the British 
 Government, not even if it be a Socialist Government, 
 with the value of a sixpence. What the Government 
 wants it will have to take by force ; and, as our 
 English history shows, the task of breaking open 
 private strong-boxes is sometimes dangerous to those 
 who engage in it. 
 
 It must, of course, be obvious to all persons who 
 have time to think for a moment that the repudiation 
 of the National Debt means also, and obviously, the 
 repudiation of all other debts. To begin with, if the 
 promise of the nation, made through Parliament, is 
 of no obligation, the promise of a town council or a
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 91 
 
 parish council, made in the name of a majority which 
 has for the moment ceased to be a majority, has 
 certainly no greater binding force. The municipal 
 debt of this country amounts to no less than 
 544,000,000/. Its repudiation must follow the 
 repudiation of the National Debt as certainly as 
 night follows day. In the first place, the policy 
 which approves of the one must necessarily approve 
 of the other ; in the second place — and this is a much 
 more important consideration — the repudiation will 
 be a necessary and certain consequence of the de- 
 struction of the national credit. Millions of pounds' 
 worth of Consols are held by corporate bodies ; and 
 aS; of course, these bodies will lose the interest due 
 to them, so will their own payments correspondingly 
 cease. 
 
 The Holders of the Debt 
 
 But perhaps it will be said that the class which 
 the Socialists wish to set up as the rulers and tyrants 
 of this country do not very much care whether the 
 holders of Consols or the holders of municipal stock 
 are ruined or not ; that it is, indeed, a matter which 
 solely concerns the negligible millions of the popula- 
 tion who do not happen to be working for a daily 
 wage. We have already given some reason for 
 believing that this view is altogether erroneous, and 
 that the destruction of the national credit must inflict 
 irreparable injury upon all classes alike. But it may
 
 92 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 perhaps be useful to point out that, even on the 
 comparatively narrow lines of the argument which 
 has just been submitted, the class for which alone the 
 Socialists profess to cater will be great and direct 
 sufferers from repudiation. One example alone will 
 suffice to prove the truth of this statement. At the 
 present moment a sum of no less than 419,950,000/. 
 is invested almost entirely by the particular class 
 referred to above. The particulars are as follows : — 
 
 Members Amounts invested 
 
 14,000,000 Friendly societies . . . ^^49,000,000 
 
 120,000 Workmen's compensation schemes 200,000 
 
 11,600,000 Trade unions .... 6,000000 
 
 600,000 Building societies . . . 68,000,000 
 
 2,200,000 Industrial and provident societies 50,000,000 
 
 42,000 Loan societies .... 250,000 
 
 60,000 Railway savings banks . . 5,500,000 
 
 1,700,000 Trustee savings banks . . 61,000,000 
 
 9,700,000 Post Office Savings Banks . 180,000,000 
 
 40,022,000 Total ;!^4i9,95o,ooo 
 
 Some of these are doubtless duplicates. But 
 there are omissions from the list. It has been 
 estimated that the so-called working classes now 
 own invested property to the amount of 600,000,000/. 
 sterling. 
 
 The whole of this vast sum of money will be 
 confiscated, or will melt away into nothing. To 
 investors in the Trustee and Post Office Savings 
 Banks alone the effect of repudiation would be 
 immediate and terrible. No less than 240,000,000/.
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 93 
 
 worth of the deposits in these banks is invested in 
 the National Debt, and the National Debt, as we 
 know, is to be repudiated. 
 
 Lastly, it must be clearly realised that repudiation 
 can never cease with the repudiation of national or 
 municipal debts. When the Government of his 
 country has set him the example, the individual 
 citizen, ruined by the action of his rulers and 
 demoralised by their teaching, not only will, but 
 must, repudiate his own debts too. Even the most 
 lively imagination fails to picture the condition of 
 a community of forty- five million people, hitherto 
 entirely dependent upon the maintenance of a great 
 system of national credit and upon the regular ex- 
 change of cash and commodities with people in 
 other lands, suddenly plunged into the moral and 
 financial chaos which must inevitably follow the 
 repudiation of the National Debt. 
 
 And let it be remembered, in conclusion, that 
 this particular policy, The Repudiation of the National 
 Debt, has been deliberately included in the Socialist 
 programme, and is one of the boons which are offered 
 to a portion of the people of this country as a reward 
 for their support. Wc venture to assert most 
 emphatically that the people of England do not 
 want to repudiate the National Debt.
 
 94 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED — {continued) 
 
 The abolition of the Monarchy — The election of judges — The pro- 
 hibition of child labour — Class rule and the class war 
 
 The Abolition of the Monarchy 
 
 Another of the reforms which the SociaHsts have 
 determined must be ' immediately carried through ' 
 is ' the abolition of the Monarchy! ^ It is not desirable, 
 nor is it necessary, to devote much space to an 
 examination of this further boon offered by the 
 Socialists to the people of England. It is sufficient 
 to say that if the Socialists are really of opinion that 
 the people of this country desire to exchange the rule 
 of their present sovereign for that of a ' Commune,' 
 of which the rulers are to be the leaders of the 
 Social Democratic Federation, they are very much 
 mistaken. In including this item in their programme 
 they only furnish one more example of their profound 
 inability to understand what it is their countrymen 
 really do want. Of this we may be perfectly certain, 
 that the people of England do not desire the ' aboli- 
 tion of the Monarchy' 
 
 ' Programme S.D.F.
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXxAMINED 95 
 
 Elected Judges 
 
 It is declared to be necessary that the following 
 ' reform ' ' must immediately be carried through/ 
 ^ the administration of justice by judges chosen by the 
 people.' ^ A long experience has taught the people 
 of England to believe that the best way to obtain 
 competent and impartial judges is to select men 
 specially fitted, by their accomplishments, their legal 
 knowledge, and their character, for the post, and, 
 having selected these men, to put them in a position 
 in which they shall be absolutely independent, un- 
 moved by fear, favour, or affection, and certain that 
 if only they do what they believe to be just and true 
 they will be supported by the nation to whom their 
 lives are dedicated. It is for these reasons that the 
 people of England have thought well to appoint 
 their judges for life, subject to removal only by the 
 Crown on a joint address from both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment. It is for this reason that the salaries of the 
 judges have been placed upon the consolidated fund, 
 and it is for this reason that the judges are protected 
 by a rule which, alas ! is too often broken, from 
 animadversion and attack in the House of Commons, 
 a purely partisan assembly utterly incapable of dis- 
 cussing any question in a judicial spirit. 
 
 The Socialists have discovered that in regard to 
 all these matters the English people are wrong, 
 and they have discovered, or believe they have
 
 96 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 discovered, ' a better way.' We say they believe they 
 have discovered it ; but in this, as in so many other 
 instances, they are only raking up a soiled object 
 from the rubbish heap of the past. The election of 
 judges by a popular vote, with its corresponding 
 condition of their dismissal by the same authority, is 
 a system which has been tried and failed many times 
 in the world's history. There is not space here to 
 confirm this general statement by a long historical 
 retrospect. It will, perhaps, serve the purpose if we 
 content ourselves with examining the institution as 
 it at present exists, for it actually does exist at 
 the present moment. The Supreme Court of the 
 United States is not an elected court, and its 
 members hold their offices for life. It has a far 
 higher reputation than any other court in the United 
 States, and is, in some respects, the most powerful 
 and influential tribunal in the world. But the 
 Supreme Court is the exception, not the rule, in the 
 United States, and the election of judges by a 
 popular vote and for a limited period only is the 
 rule throughout the Republic. Here is what a 
 competent critic has said of the system : — 
 
 By the wisdom of the Constitution it is decreed that 
 American judges shall be elected by the people, which 
 means that in practice they are chosen by the party bosses. 
 The party ' bosses ' being corrupt, they nominate judges, 
 not for their learning in the law, or for their intellectual 
 ability, or for their impartiality, but for their usefulness to 
 the managers of the party that carries its ticket.^ 
 
 ' Titiies Leading Article, Oct. 1907.
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 9; 
 
 It is true that this judgment has been criticised 
 and corrected, but the correction is furnished by way 
 of protest against the suggestion that the whole of 
 the United States suffers from the abuse of which 
 the nature has just been indicated. Sir Frederick 
 Pollock has pointed out ^ that, while popular election 
 of judges is now the rule in thirty-three States, in 
 several of the leading Eastern States and some of the 
 Southern the Governor of the State nominates, with 
 the advice of the Senate or Council, and that in a 
 few cases the Legislature elects. In 1890 the State 
 of Mississippi gave up the plan of popular election 
 and reverted to that of nomination. But it will be 
 observed that, though the explanation qualifies the 
 original statement, it does not modify in any way 
 the description of what the popular election of judges 
 has, in fact, degenerated into. 
 
 Here, again, we believe that the Socialists have 
 made an entire mistake in judging the tone and 
 temper of the English people. The people of 
 England do not believe that the principle on which 
 their forefathers set so much store, and which they 
 established with so much effort, is wrong. They do 
 not want their judges to be involved in the narrow and 
 sordid conflicts of politicians, or to become the .sport 
 of fickle-minded electors. Once more we venture to 
 assert most emphatically that the people of England do 
 not desire that \.\\e judges of the land should be elected. 
 ' Times t Oct. 22, 1907. 
 
 11
 
 98 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 The Prohibition of Child Labour 
 
 Yet another Socialist reform which * must imme- 
 diately be carried through' is the suppression of child 
 labour} ' No child to be employed in any trade or 
 occupation until sixteen years of age, and imprison- 
 ment to be inflicted on employers, parents, and 
 guardians who infringe this law.' 
 
 This item of the Socialist programme stands on 
 a very different footing from many of those which 
 have hitherto been mentioned. Like all the others, 
 it is set down as a reform which is to be adopted 
 immediately. There are probably very few thinking 
 people in the country who do not in principle, at any 
 rate, support the view that the period of childhood 
 and early youth should be devoted to enjoyment and 
 instruction, and not to regular and monotonous work 
 on an industrial basis. Every person who has the 
 means which permit him to do so does, as a matter 
 of fact, withhold his children from professional work 
 until they have at least passed the age of sixteen. 
 It is evident that want of means and opportunity 
 alone compel poorer people to adopt a different 
 course. Children are not sent to work at the age 
 of twelve years for their own good, but because the 
 necessities of the parents govern the situation. It 
 would undoubtedly be a very good thing if the 
 opportunities of the well-to-do could be extended to 
 
 ' Programme S.D.F.
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 99 
 
 all classes. There must always be exceptions ; but, 
 allowing for such exceptions, there is no reason why 
 we should not look forward to the day when no 
 child will be employed in any factory or in any 
 regular and monotonous occupation. But, while 
 frankly admitting the excellence of the Socialist idea 
 in this particular case, we must still ask whether, if 
 this 'boon ' were conferred to-morrow, it would prove 
 much more acceptable to the people of England than 
 the other and much more doubtful benefits which 
 they are promised. 
 
 It is curious to note that in this, as in many other 
 instances, men are ardent Socialists until Socialism, 
 to use a vulgar expression, ' comes down their own 
 lane.' The great cotton industry of Lancashire, the 
 wool and worsted industry of Yorkshire, and many 
 other industries in a less degree are at the present 
 time dependent upon child labour. It is interesting 
 to observe that as lately as the autumn of 1907 a 
 deputation waited upon the responsible Minister to 
 urge upon him the desirability of raising the age of 
 half-timers from twelve to thirteen. The desirability 
 of the change was not denied, but it was not con- 
 sidered possible to give effect to it. 
 
 Those who have any acquaintance with the cotton 
 
 trade are well aware that that great industr}' 
 
 employing as it does no less than half a million 
 
 persons, is conducted upon the most minute margins 
 
 of profit and loss. The rate book of the cotton 
 
 H 2
 
 100 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 trade, in which wages of every kind of work are 
 calculated out to the tenth of a penny, is a miracle of 
 painstaking and intelligent computation. These fine 
 calculations are absolutely necessary. Both em- 
 ployers and employed know perfectly well that the 
 trade is, so to speak, balanced on a knife-edge ; and 
 that any sudden increase of cost, whatever may be 
 its cause, is likely to upset the balance, and turn the 
 hardly won profit out of which operators as well as 
 employers obtain their living, into a loss. The fierce 
 competition of the world, especially of those countries 
 in which child labour and long hours are prevalent, 
 has to be met, and the persons principally concerned 
 are only too well aware of the fact. It would be 
 curious and interesting to know whether the repre- 
 sentatives of the cotton workers in Lancashire, 
 experienced men such as Mr. Shackleton and 
 Mr. Gill, would really regard the compulsory adoption 
 of the Socialist reform as a ' boon.' 
 
 It is probable that they would not so regard it, 
 and that at most they would look upon the proposal 
 as an ideal to be aimed at, and not as a change to be 
 imposed on Lancashire without delay, and with the 
 full terrors of the criminal law and the gaol behind 
 it. The moral of all of which seems to be that even 
 a good thing may become evil and mischievous if it 
 is forced upon the community without thought and 
 consideration, and that in this, as in so many 
 other matters, the Socialists have failed to under-
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES I^KAMmE't)" 'idi' 
 
 stand the true temper and the real aspirations of the 
 people on whose behalf they assume to speak, and for 
 whose benefit they are so anxious to play the part of 
 a special providence. 
 
 Class Rule and the Class War 
 
 Socialism means a diUer war of classes and the 
 creation of a dominant class using and possessing power 
 and privilege for its own benefit. There can be no 
 doubt at all as to the fact ; the claim is written large 
 on every line of the Socialist literature. Whole 
 publications are devoted to advocating class war, and 
 Mr. Keir Hardie's statement stands on record as a 
 frank and open avowal of the intentions of himself 
 and those who follow him. ' I have tried,' says he, 
 ' to make my own class the ruling class, and it is 
 going to happen.' We venture to believe that in 
 putting forward these claims and recommending this 
 policy the Socialists are making yet one more mis- 
 take, and are again offering to the people of England 
 a boon which they do not desire, and which, if they 
 fully undenstand its nature, they will most certainly 
 reject. We venture to believe that the opinion of the 
 majority of English men and women coincides very 
 closely with that expressed by Mr. Bradlaugh when 
 he said : 
 
 Class war is murder; class war is fratricide; class war 
 is suicide,' 
 
 ' Speech in reply to Mr. Ilyndman. See Will Socialism benefit 
 the Ent^lish Peopled Twentieth Century Press, Lid.
 
 102 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 We venture to believe that English men and 
 women will not hail with satisfaction the creation of 
 a new dominant and privileged class ; we entertain 
 this belief because the whole history of England for 
 800 years past supports the opinion. For 800 years 
 the people of England have been struggling against 
 class domination and privilege. That the Socialists 
 should support Mr. Keir Hardie's claim is not remark- 
 able ; it is merely an example of the way history 
 repeats itself The extreme representatives of every 
 powerful class in every age have expressed them- 
 selves in almost the same words, and have acted on 
 exactly the same principle. It is not necessary to 
 blame Mr. Keir Hardie or his predecessors. He is 
 acting, and they no doubt acted, conscientiously. He 
 thinks, and they thought, that one class is better than 
 all others, and that that class ought to rule. In the 
 Roman Republic the Patricians considered that none 
 but themselves were fit to fill any of the public 
 offices, and by law they kept all the public offices 
 to themselves. Torquemada, the great Spanish 
 inquisitor and persecutor, was positive that his class 
 — that is to say, the Church — was the best, and ought 
 to be the ruling class, and he put to the torture those 
 who did not agree with him. In England we have a 
 series of object lessons. At one time the Church 
 sought to be, and, to a great extent, was, the ruling 
 class ; and it used its opportunity to surround itself 
 with an infinite number of privileges. At a later
 
 SOCIALIST PROMISES EXAMINED 103 
 
 date the Barons became all powerful : they held the 
 kings in awe, and oppressed the people for their own 
 advantage. They owed their position partly to their 
 swords, partly to their wealth, but principally to the 
 special laws which they passed, and which conferred 
 upon them special privileges and immunities. After 
 the Barons came the Crown, arrogating to itself 
 hitherto unheard-of privileges, and using those 
 privileges for its own aggrandisement. Then came 
 Parliament. The history of the Long Parliament, 
 with its sordid and disreputable ending, is one long 
 record of privilege and its abuse. Since then other 
 classes in a lesser degree, but in the same manner 
 and with the same result, have used their power to 
 confirm old privileges or to create new ones for their 
 own benefit. And now, in perfectly natural and 
 historical sequence, we have Mr. Keir Hardie follow- 
 ing in the steps of Thomas a Becket, King John, the 
 Earl of Warwick, and the members of the Rump 
 Parliament, and declaring that his class, and his class 
 alone, is to rule ; and, like those who have gone 
 before him, passing exceptional laws to secure the 
 ascendency he seeks to establish. 
 
 It will be seen that the lesson of history is uniform ; 
 class rule has always meant class privilege. 
 
 But history has more than one lesson to teach us, 
 and, happily, our English history is particularly rich 
 in its teaching. There have always been men ready 
 to fight for class supremacy ; we have seen that there
 
 104 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 still are such men. Luckily, there have always been, 
 and there still are, men to whom the supremacy of 
 a class was, and is, detestable. For the last hundred 
 years the story of political and social life in England 
 has been a record of the surrender or the removal of 
 class distinctions, and it is gratifying to think that 
 those who have been foremost in this good work 
 have almost invariably belonged to a class which had 
 a privilege to surrender, or a right which it was ready 
 to share with others. Ecclesiastical privilege, aris- 
 tocratic privilege, judicial privilege — all these and 
 many others have disappeared, not only with the 
 good will, but in many cases with the ardent co- 
 operation of those who had enjoyed them. To say 
 that no traces of old class privileges remain would be 
 untrue. They remain protected, not by the law, but 
 by custom and the slow change of habit in this 
 country. Nevertheless, for a century past, there has 
 scarcely been a British statesman worth the name 
 who has not recognised and given effect to the great 
 truth that class rule is an evil, certain to lead to 
 abuses, and contrary to the public interest. Let 
 those, therefore, who look with sorrow and alarm 
 upon the creation of a new dominant class remember 
 that they have on their side the whole tendency of 
 modern thought, and the examples of thousands of 
 English men and women who have worked steadily 
 and faithfully for the highest good of their country.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION 
 
 Robbery by Act of Parliament — The criterion of just taxation — A 
 patent fallacy — An example from Barrow-in-Furness 
 
 Robbery by Act of Parliament 
 
 ' Get wantonness confirmed by Act of Parliament an honesty, 
 And so received of all.' 
 
 It would almost seem as if the authors of * A Wife 
 for a Month ' ^ had had in their minds the develop- 
 ments of modern Socialism when they wrote these 
 lines, for they exactly describe the attitude of mind 
 of many Socialists towards the policy which they 
 propose to pursue. Among the various methods ot 
 redistributing the property of their neighbours which 
 commend themselves to the Social Democratic 
 Federation, and especially to members of the P^abian 
 Society, is what may be called the legal and .statutory 
 method. It is one which finds peculiar favour, 
 because it has a superficial appearance of honesty 
 which commends it to those persons who still retain 
 the old-world prejudices against robbery with violence. 
 ' Beaumont and Fletcher.
 
 io6 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 ' Every good citizen is bound to obey the law. Let 
 us then make a law by which all those citizens who 
 do not belong to our sect shall be compelled to 
 surrender their property, and the problem of the 
 transfer of their goods will be solved. A man who 
 resists the law is a bad citizen. A bad citizen not 
 only may but must be punished. Here, then, are 
 morality and legality arrayed on the side of the 
 highwayman, and the victim becomes at once the 
 lawbreaker and the wrongdoer.' Such, apart from 
 the fine language in which the proposition is generally 
 concealed, is the essence of the Socialist proposals 
 with regard to taxation. It is well to state the 
 matter clearly, because tnany soft-hearted, and 
 possibly soft-headed, persons who have not time or 
 inclination to think, have a tendency to accept the 
 proposition provided only it be properly disguised. 
 In the form in which it is usually presented to 
 nervous people the proposition is generally stated 
 in terms less crude than those which have been 
 cited above. ' Parliament,' we are told, ' already 
 has the power to tax the community to any extent ; 
 it exercises that power to the extent ot raising a 
 revenue of some 170,000,000/. per annum. Many of 
 the contributories pay against their will, but they 
 have to pay nevertheless, and both law and public 
 opinion would condemn them if they refused to pay. 
 The amount of taxation is only a question of degree. 
 If Parliament may tax a man at the rate of one
 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION 107 
 
 shilling in the pound upon his income, it may with 
 equal propriety tax him at the rate of 5^-., lOi-., or 20^-. 
 in the pound. This statement is not only plausible, 
 but is true. It is possible to conceive a national 
 emergency in which the State would be justified in 
 taking all the goods of all men to save the existence 
 of the nation. But, because this general proposition 
 is true, it does not in the least follow that the par- 
 ticular propositions put forward by the Socialists are 
 true, and the fact is only one more proof of the 
 danger of incorrect reasoning. 
 
 Just Taxation 
 
 Taxation to be just must be imposed in the 
 interests of the nation, not of a class. It must be 
 imposed with the object of securing a benefit and 
 not of inflicting a penalty. And, lastly, it must be 
 imposed in such a way as not to destroy the sources 
 from which it is obtained. The Socialist proposals 
 violate all these conditions ; the taxation they 
 propose is purely in the interests of a class, it is 
 vindictive and punitive, and, above all, it is neces- 
 sarily self-destructive, and consequently cannot be 
 permanent. 
 
 That a party should commit itself to such a 
 scries of errors may seem strange, but it ceases to be 
 .strange when we realise that the whole Socialist 
 system of economy is based upon a patent and far-
 
 io8 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 reaching fallacy. It has been laid down by the 
 Socialist writers as an incontrovertible proposition 
 that ' it passes the wit of man to conceive of any 
 method by which the poor shall be made richer 
 which does not necessarily involve as a corresponding 
 consequence that the rich shall be made poorer.' 
 
 A Patent Fallacy 
 
 It would be hard to find a more crude and patent 
 fallacy than that which is contained in this so-called 
 axiom. The fallacy is, indeed, so glaring that it seems 
 inconceivable that it should carry weight with any 
 but the most thoughtless and the most ignorant. 
 Unfortunately, it is to the thoughtless and the 
 ignorant that the Socialist appeal is made. There is, 
 of course, one case in which the enrichment of one 
 person is the direct and instant consequence of the 
 impoverishment of another. For instance. A, 
 possessing one pound, meets B, who has five pounds, 
 and, putting a pistol to his head, orders him to stand 
 and deliver. B, in fear of his life, does stand and 
 deliver, and, as a consequence, the transaction ends by 
 A having six pounds and B having nothing, and to 
 this extent the Socialist axiom holds good. It will 
 be observed, however, that the total wealth of the 
 community, as represented by A and B, remains as 
 before, and that the transaction is attended by con- 
 sequences which in our present society, at any rate,
 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION 109 
 
 are considered undesirable. Among them is the 
 possibility that what A has done to-day B, by the 
 same warrant, may do to-morrow, and such reprisals 
 may be continued ad infinitum. It will be seen that 
 some Socialists do actually contemplate methods 
 which are not essentially different from that which 
 has been described ; they do intend that one class 
 shall put a pistol at the head of another and compel 
 him to hand over. It would scarcely be profitable 
 to debate the wisdom of this proceeding viewed 
 from the ethical standpoint. The Socialist who says, 
 and professes to think, that in compelling those who 
 are not of his persuasion to surrender what they have 
 hitherto called their property he is doing right is 
 naturally unmoved by any reference to the Eighth 
 Commandment. He feels he is doing a laudable and 
 justifiable act. To argue with a highwayman and to 
 endeavour to convince him that his profession is not 
 an honourable one, or one which is approved by 
 society at large, is to waste time and temper. The 
 highwayman has probably formed his own views on 
 that question before taking to the road. But it may be 
 very useful for the traveller to inform him that he has 
 nothing about him but a crossed cheque, of no value 
 to any one save the owner ; that he intends to make 
 a good fight for the retention of that cheque ; and 
 that, as he observes the police are already approach- 
 ing, his would-be despoiler will be well advised to 
 take to his heels. Something of the same kind
 
 no ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 should be pointed out to those Socialists — if there be 
 any — who really believe that one part of the com- 
 munity will be made richer or happier by the simple 
 process of robbing the other part. It will be well to 
 point out to them that the taking of other people's 
 property by force is not always an easy operatioi. ; 
 but it is infinitely more important that they should 
 be made to understand that the spoliation of one half 
 of society not only cannot possibly enrich the other 
 half, but must inevitably involve the whole of society 
 in a common misfortune. 
 
 Apart from the crude method of redistributing 
 wealth which has just been described, there are 
 no other conditions under which the mere process 
 of making A poorer can be relied upon to make 
 B richer. Let us take a single example of what 
 usually happens in the world in which we live. 
 A few years ago the foreshore at Barrow-in-Furness 
 was a deserted and desolate expanse on which, 
 perhaps, a few persons obtained a precarious livelihood 
 by digging for sand eels. Then came a change. 
 Messrs. Vickers and Maxim set up their great works 
 in front of Walney Island. Presumably Messrs. 
 Vickers and Maxim have got rich as the result ot 
 their enterprise. Have the inhabitants of Barrow-in- 
 Furness become poorer in consequence ? The question 
 need only be asked to demonstrate its absurdity. 
 Nor does an examination of the converse proposition
 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION in 
 
 lend any support to the Socialist axiom. If that 
 axiom were true, it is obvious that the impoverish- 
 ment of Messrs. Vickers and Maxim ought to be 
 followed by an increase in the wealth and prosperity 
 of the great working population of Barrow. Every 
 one knows perfectly well that the exact contrary 
 would result. The same conclusion is arrived at if 
 we examine the case of any ordinary business. It is 
 part of the Socialist scheme that the owners of 
 capital should be taxed practically to the full extent 
 of their incomes, and by this process we are told the 
 money which they now receive will in some myste- 
 rious way be transferred to those whom they now 
 employ. Let us take the case of a limited company 
 which employs a thousand hands in a large factory. 
 In good times the shareholders, perhaps, make from 
 five to ten per cent, upon their capital. In bad 
 times they make nothing at all. But the wages they 
 pay arc maintained unaltered throughout. Now 
 comes the Socialist remedy. The shareholders are 
 taxed, not only to the full extent of their profits, but 
 are compelled by law to surrender the greater part, 
 if not the whole, of their capital. What will happen ? 
 If the tax is not absolutely destructive of all profit, 
 the shareholders will consider whether it is best to 
 reduce the scale of their operations, or to give up the 
 business altogether. If, however, the tax approaches 
 the figure approved by the Socialists, the latter course
 
 112 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 will be inevitable. The business will be closed, the 
 shareholders will get as much out of it as they can, 
 and will hasten to invest the proceeds in some 
 country where the blessings of Socialism are unknown. 
 Perhaps they will not succeed in doing this, in which 
 case they will be ruined. But does any human being 
 suppose that the thousand hands who have been 
 employed in the business will be one whit happier or 
 better ofifin consequence? The workers in our great 
 Yorkshire and Lancashire factories are far too clear- 
 headed to be under any illusions on this point. They 
 know perfectly well that the consequence of such a 
 change would simply be to fill the North of England 
 with a hungry population, without work, without 
 wages, and without hope of a return to a better state 
 of things. They know perfectly well that, by merely 
 making the employers' business impossible, the 
 employed will not be benefited. In other words, they 
 know that the Socialist axiom is absolutely untrue. 
 The process which we have described above is 
 exactly that on which the Socialists rely to improve 
 the condition of the workers of England. 
 
 This statement may be denied, but the denial 
 can only come from those who are totally un- 
 acquainted with what Socialist teaching is ; or from 
 those who, knowing what it is, attempt to conceal 
 the truth from the public. For the benefit of the 
 former class we propose to make a brief examination 
 of Socialist methods of taxation, with the object of
 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION 113 
 
 showing, in the first place, that they are based upon 
 the utterly erroneous theory that the impoverishment 
 of one class means the enrichment of the other ; and, 
 in the second place, that they offend against every 
 one of the principles which ought to characterise just 
 taxation.
 
 114 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION— (contimied) 
 
 Class taxation — Punitive taxation— Compensation — Self-destructive 
 
 taxation 
 
 Class Taxation 
 
 It is obvious that Socialist taxation is to be im- 
 posed in the interests of a class ; the fact has been 
 made abundantly evident throughout these chapters. 
 There is no pretence whatever that the taxation is to 
 fall on all classes alike, or to be for the benefit oi 
 all classes alike. On the contrary, it is plainly 
 stated that one section of the community is to lay 
 the other under contribution ; that nothing is to be 
 contributed by the party of ascendency, but that the 
 whole tribute is to be taken from those who are to 
 be excluded from power. It requires little argument 
 to show that this is an evil policy. We have already 
 departed too far from the old English principle that 
 taxation and representation should go together. At 
 the present time vast numbers of persons exercise 
 political power who pay no taxes at all. It is true 
 that there are also many persons in poor circum-
 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION 115 
 
 stances who pay an amount in indirect taxation — 
 principally on alcohol, tea, and sugar — which, in 
 comparison with their incomes, may be called heavy. 
 But this affords no justification for the view that 
 these persons should be relieved from taxation al- 
 together. The obvious remedy is to alter the in- 
 cidence of indirect taxation, so that it shall not fall 
 almost exclusively upon a few of the necessaries of 
 life. So far from it being desirable that the whole 
 taxation of the country should be levied upon a 
 very limited number of persons, there is reason for 
 believing that the country would gain if taxation 
 were more widespread than it is at present. It is 
 well that those who exercise political power should 
 be made to feel the weight of their responsibility. 
 
 Punitive Taxation 
 
 The Socialist scheme of taxation also trans- 
 gresses against the rule that taxation to be just 
 should be imposed with the object of securing a 
 national benefit, and not of inflicting a penalty. 
 Ample reasons might be adduced in support of this 
 very obvious proposition. But perhaps the most 
 cogent rca.son against the Socialist plan of punitive 
 taxation is that, once adopted, no limit can be placed 
 upon it. It is clear from the passages we have 
 already quoted that under the new dispensation 
 certain members of the community are to have the
 
 ii6 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 right to say exactly what amount of property they 
 consider to be objectionable, and are to be entitled 
 to punish persons found guilty of possessing such 
 amount by confiscation. But it will be easily seen 
 that a principle of this kind once admitted is 
 capable of no limitation. No natural law defines the 
 point at which the possession of property ceases to 
 be a virtue and becomes a crime. No law, save the 
 caprice of the mob which happens for the moment to 
 be in the ascendant, can draw a distinction between 
 property which is 'justly' acquired, and, therefore, 
 may be retained, and property which is ' unjustly ' 
 acquired, and, therefore, must be confiscated. The 
 minimum which commends itself to the majority 
 to-day may be reduced to-morrow, and the methods 
 of acquisition approved by one committee may be 
 condemned by another. The Socialist orators at the 
 street corners who are less careful to qualify their 
 doctrine than some of their leaders, are wont to 
 appeal to their audiences somewhat after the follow- 
 ing fashion : — * Comrades, here are men with ten 
 thousand a year. We do not propose to deal harshly 
 with them. All that they have they have robbed from 
 us.' (This is one of the cant phrases picked up from 
 French sources, and much favoured by platform 
 orators.) ' We only propose to take 5000/. from 
 them, we leave them 5000/., and that is quite enough 
 to get on with.' There are good reasons for de- 
 ploring the inequality of incomes, but there are no
 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION 117 
 
 good reasons for depriving a man of property merely 
 because he possesses it. Moreover, it is perfectly 
 plain that the principle which permits the community 
 to punish a man who has ten thousand a year is 
 equally good as applied to the man who has five 
 thousand, two thousand five hundred, five hundred 
 pounds, or one hundred pounds a year. To sanction 
 punitive taxation is to let loose the unbridled 
 passions of man without any power of arresting or 
 directing them. We have spoken of the doctrine of 
 the street-corner orator, but it would be unjust to 
 that individual if it were not made perfectly clear 
 that, in comparison with his chiefs, he is a moderate 
 and reasonable man. It must be clearly understood 
 that the taxation proposed by the Socialists is, for the 
 most part, purely punitive, as much so as that which 
 Brennus extracted from the conquered Romans, or 
 that which Tamerlane inflicted upon a refractory 
 tribe. ' All unearned incomes arc to be taxed to 
 extinction,' not for national needs, but because the 
 new tyranny does not approve of the methods by 
 which they have been earned. 
 
 That humorous capitalist, Mr. Bernard Shaw, 
 tells us that landlords should be fully compensated 
 for the land of which they are deprived, but that the 
 compensation should be obtained by taxing them 
 at least iqj-. in the pound} It is the fashion to say 
 
 ' Address to the Students of University Cullcgc, London, 
 October 23, 1907.
 
 ii8 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 friendly things about the Fabian Society, and to 
 laugh at Mr. Shaw's witty paradoxes. There is no 
 reason in the world why those who believe in Fabian 
 doctrines should not support them ; only it is well 
 that they should understand exactly what those 
 doctrines are. The proposal just referred to is 
 merely a synonym for 'stealing.' For those who 
 believe in stealing it is a good doctrine. But those 
 who do not agree with the proposition when trans- 
 lated into honest English would be well advised not 
 to accept it, because it is wrapped up in a cant 
 phrase or two. 
 
 Compensation 
 
 And here it may be mentioned that the whole 
 question of compensation is one which has evidently 
 caused some difficulty to the Socialist leaders. A 
 curious examination of the question is to be found 
 in the works of Karl Koutsky, a well-known Con- 
 tinental Socialist, whose books are circulated by the 
 S.D.F. After carefully weighing the question 
 of compensation or no compensation, he decides in 
 favour of the former. But the methods by which he 
 proposes to give effect to his intention are curious 
 and instructive. He perceives clearly enough that 
 if the compensation is to be real, the campaign ot 
 confiscation which is to result in the destruction of 
 capitalists will, in fact, only recreate the condemned 
 class. He admits with perfect frankness that the
 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION 119 
 
 obvious remedy would be to tax the recipients of the 
 compensation to the full extent of the money received 
 by them, a simple plan which has already com- 
 mended itself to Mr. Shaw. But Mr. Koutsky is 
 acute enough to perceive that capital is a shy bird, 
 and that those who have received the value of their 
 confiscated possessions may transfer their cash to 
 some country where Socialism is unknown. To 
 guard against such an unfortunate result he makes 
 the following amazing proposal. No actual payment 
 is to be made to those who are nominally com- 
 pensated, but they are to be credited in the books 
 of the State with a certain number of tickets, available 
 only for the purchase of commodities from the State 
 warehouses, but not available for the payment of 
 wages, and of no value outside this country. If the 
 person possessing the credit offers the tickets in 
 payment of wages, or attempts to leave the country, 
 the whole of his credit will be promptly cancelled. 
 As Mr. Koutsky points out, by this clever device the 
 State will be given a hold upon every man, and will 
 be able to prevent his escaping with his ill-gotten 
 gains. To such a point of all-pervading tyranny 
 and individual surveillance would a Socialist regime 
 inevitably bring us.' 
 
 ' See On (he Morrow oj the Social Revolulioii, Ijy Karl Koulsli)', 
 circulated by the S.D.F.
 
 120 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 Self-destructive Taxation 
 
 Lastly, a word must be said with regard to 
 Socialist taxation judged by the light of the third 
 principle which should characterise taxation which 
 is just and reasonable. It is obvious that if taxation 
 is to be of any value to the community it must be 
 imposed in such a manner as not to destroy the 
 sources from which it is derived. Every one knows 
 that even under the present moderate system of 
 taxation it is quite possible to reach a point at which 
 the yield of the impost diminishes. Some striking 
 examples of this simple truth have occurred in 
 connection with the recently imposed beer duties 
 and duties on railway tickets in Germany. But 
 with the Socialists it is not a question of overloading 
 a tax ; their intentions are quite clearly avowed. 
 Their taxes are to be imposed with the object of 
 destroying the resources of the taxpayer. There is 
 to be a cumulative tax on all incomes above 300/., 
 and ' unearned ' incomes are to be ' taxed to ex- 
 tinction.' Land is to be taxed to its full value, and, 
 in fact, every one capable of paying a tax is to be 
 regarded as a criminal and treated as such. It 
 seems scarcely necessary to use arguments against 
 propositions so foolish and extravagant, but it would 
 be a mistake to pass them over, because they are 
 the actual proposals which are being made by the 
 Socialists, and which ignorant and credulous crowds
 
 SOCIALIST TAXATION 121 
 
 are being induced to accept as a real solution of their 
 difficulties. Moreover, it is advisable to dwell upon 
 this question of Socialist taxation, because what is 
 true of the extreme doctrine is scarcely less true of 
 the doctrine in its modified form. The moment 
 taxation begins to become punitive, it ceases to 
 become effective. It is possible to rob a man of all 
 his possessions once, but it is difficult to do it twice. 
 Moreover, as soon as he knows he is liable to be 
 robbed he will do his best to get out of the juris- 
 diction. For this reason, if for no other, every 
 Socialist scheme, however attractive in appearance, 
 should be carefully examined. Its object may be 
 admirable, and, if it can be accomplished without 
 injury to the community, may be quite unobjection- 
 able. But so long as its accomplishment depends 
 upon the result of punitive taxation, it should be 
 condemned. It .should be condemned on the ground 
 of principle, because punitive taxation is unjust and 
 impolitic, and it should be condemned on the 
 practical ground that such taxation always fails 
 because it tends to destroy the sources from which 
 it is derived. 
 
 We have sought in this chapter to make it clear 
 that the Socialist proposals for relieving one portion 
 of the community at the expense of another are 
 unsound ; that it is not true that the impoverishment 
 of the well-to-do results in the enrichment of the 
 poor ; that proposals for spoliation do not lose their
 
 122 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 character because they are disguised under the 
 form of taxation ; and that a law, unless it be inspired 
 by the principles of equity and justice, may be as 
 much an act of violence as the summons of the 
 highwayman who offers to his victim the alternative 
 of ' your money or your life.'
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF SOCIALISM 
 
 An old story retold -Socialism in action— The Socialist succession — 
 The typical qualities of Socialism in action 
 
 An Old Stoky Retold 
 
 It would probably be unjust to the Socialist leaders 
 to suggest that they claim any particular novelty for 
 their proposals, or that they are unaware that the 
 pronfiises and threats which form the staple of their 
 programme are, for the most part, mere repetitions 
 of the stock phrases which have done duty over and 
 over again on the Continent any time during the 
 last hundred years. Indeed, the dependence of our 
 English Socialists upon their German and French 
 masters accounts in great measure for their adoption 
 of proposals which are altogether alien to the 
 English temperament and repugnant to English 
 ways of thought. The jargon of the French Revolu- 
 tion and the long-winded philosophical abstractions 
 which were fashionable in Germany in the latter half 
 of the last century constantly appear in the writings
 
 124 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 of modern English Socialists, whose strength cer- 
 tainly does not lie in originality. But it is most 
 important to note that, while the teachers, as a rule, 
 know perfectly well that they are merely telling an 
 old story over again, the vast majority of their 
 pupils have no such knowledge. To them the ideals 
 and promises of the Socialists come as a new 
 revelation. It is inevitable and natural that those 
 who are under such a delusion should give an 
 attentive, and, indeed, a sympathetic, hearing to men 
 who come to them as the prophets of a new faith, 
 the founders of a new and regenerate society, in 
 which new principles and new ideas are to replace 
 the worn-out beliefs and conventions of a suffering 
 and a weary world. Who would not welcome such 
 promises as those which are made by the Socialists ? 
 Who would not be ready to exchange the disappoint- 
 ment, the drudgery, and misery of life, as it is, for 
 the bright existence which is guaranteed to all who 
 are privileged to enter into the glorious Promised 
 Land ? 
 
 Of those to whom the Socialists address them- 
 selves ninety-nine out of a hundred honestly believe — 
 what their teachers intend they shall believe — that 
 the experiment they are invited to make is a new 
 one. It is well that those who have fallen into this 
 error should be undeceived. It is well that they should 
 understand clearly that the Socialist doctrines, so far 
 from constituting a new gospel, are merely a repeti-
 
 HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS 125 
 
 tion of the phrases with which thousands of equally 
 enthusiastic and fluent talkers have endeavoured to 
 capture the attention of the public in days gone by. 
 It is well that they should understand that the 
 Promised Land into which they are invited to enter 
 is in truth a well-known desert in which many 
 deluded men have already wandered, in which they 
 have dwelt for a brief unhappy period, and which, like 
 the arid steppes which Ghengis Khan conquered, are 
 marked only be the whitened bones of the victims 
 of tyranny. Ghengis Khan is dead and forgotten ; 
 the sufferings of those whom he tortured and slew 
 scarce occupy a page in history, for the world is 
 forgetful, and time heals even the deepest scars. 
 But memories would be short indeed if the recol- 
 lection of what Socialism incarnate has been, and 
 of the things which it has accomplished in days none 
 of which are distant, and some of which are in the 
 recollection of living men, were to pass from the 
 minds of men. 
 
 Socialism is not new as a creed, and, what is 
 much more important. Socialism is not new as a 
 concrete working scheme. We have quoted the 
 saying that there arc many Socialists, but no 
 Socialism. The saying is true of the present day, 
 but it is not true of all time. Socialism has had its 
 opportunity, Socialist Governments have existed, 
 and the men who composed them have had ample 
 opportunity of giving effect to the magnificent
 
 126 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 prophecies which they, like their successors, have 
 never wearied of making to a credulous world. 
 
 Socialism has been tried, and Socialism has 
 failed. It is of supreme importance that the new 
 generation which now listens with sympathetic 
 attention to the fomenters of a great class war should 
 understand clearly what are the true historical 
 antecedents of their would-be leaders, and what are 
 the credentials which they bring with them. 
 
 Socialism in Action 
 
 We have said that Socialism has had its trial. 
 It is probably true to say that it has had its trial 
 many hundreds of times since the world began ; but 
 we will content ourselves with an examination of the 
 three experiments which the Socialists themselves 
 claim as being illustrations of Socialism in action. 
 The first is the great Anabaptist movement which 
 convulsed the western half of Europe in the sixteenth 
 century, and which culminated in the siege and 
 capture of the town of Munster. The second is the 
 Jacobin period of the French Revolution. The third 
 is the Paris Commune of 187 1. It may be said that 
 we have no right to introduce as examples 01 
 Socialism in action episodes which the Socialists 
 themselves would repudiate as illustrating their 
 principles. But we have no intention of making any 
 such mistake. We have selected the three periods
 
 HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS 127 
 
 referred to because they have already been selected 
 by the Socialists themselves. It is to the works 
 of well-known Socialists, who are, for the most part, 
 now taking an active part in preaching Socialist 
 doctrines in England, that we have gone for our 
 authority in every case. 
 
 The curious story of the Anabaptist movement 
 is not well known to the majority of Englishmen. A 
 few words will be said in the following chapter with 
 regard to what actually took place during the 
 progress of that movement ; but here it will be 
 sufficient to show that, such is it was, the Ana- 
 baptist revival is recognised by the Socialists as an 
 example, though it may be an imperfect example, of 
 the application of their principles to the affairs of 
 everyday life. Among the various authorities who 
 have described the rise and fall of the Ana- 
 baptists we have selected for our present purpose 
 Mr. Belfort Bax, who, it appears, is himself an 
 ardent Socialist, and is the author of some ol 
 the most important documents now issued in the 
 interests 01 the movement. He is quite clear as 
 to the blood relationship between the Anabaptist 
 movement of 1525 and the Socialist movement of 
 to-day. 
 
 'We may regard Anabaptism,' says Mr. Bax, 'as the 
 culminating effort of mcdicxval Christian Communism, 
 which saw in the communisaliDn of worldly goods (under- 
 standing by this the economic' products designed for
 
 128 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 consumption) the farthest goal of man's social existence. 
 The modern notion of the socialisation of the means of 
 production was not as yet thought of, as it was not 
 even conceivably possible at the then stage of economic 
 evolution.' ^ 
 
 In other words, the Anabaptists did their best, 
 according to their lights ; they had the true Social- 
 istic spirit, but their opportunities were unhappily 
 limited. We shall see that, despite these limitations, 
 the Anabaptists made very good progress down the 
 path which their better-equipped successors have 
 trodden in later days. 
 
 The Socialist Succession 
 
 In answering the question whether the Socialists 
 of to-day regard themselves as the true successors 
 in title of the French Revolutionists of 1795, it would 
 be sufficient to refer to Socialist literature generally, 
 for the claim is everywhere advanced, and is 
 abundantly justified. But it is well to be precise. 
 Axnd here, again, to avoid any ambiguity, we 
 propose to go to the fountain-head, and to quote 
 unimpeachable Socialist authority. There lies before 
 us a work, entitled 'The French Revolution,' by 
 E. Belfort Bax, and in it we find some very in- 
 
 1 The Rise atid Fall of the Anabaptists, by E. Belfort Bax. 
 Swan Sonnenschein.
 
 HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS 129 
 
 teresting information. In the first place Mr. Bax 
 tells us that 
 
 the real Socialist Communist revolution did not begin till 
 after the loth August 1792.^ 
 
 He says, with perfect truth, that on that date 
 
 the first part of the French Revolution may be considered 
 as complete. The middle-class insurrection proper had 
 done its work. The importance of that work from certain 
 points of view can hardly be overrated. 
 
 No student of history can deny the correctness of 
 this view. It is the work of this first period of the 
 Revolution in which all classes took their part that 
 has lived, and that has contributed greatly to the 
 making of modern France. It was then, and not till 
 then, that, as Mr. Bax tells us, 
 
 the period of the ascendeticy of the '•people ' began, and lasted 
 for two years. 
 
 The new revolutionary municipality, or Commune of 
 Paris, was now, for the time being, the most powerful 
 executive body in all France. 
 
 We shall sec further on what this all-powerful body 
 did for the ' people ' in whose name it acted. Mean- 
 while, let us return for a moment to our point : 
 namely, the question of the kinship between the 
 Government of the Jacobins in 1795 and the 
 
 ' The French Revolution., l:)y E. Bclforl Bax. Swan Sonnenscheiii. 
 Circulated by the S.D.F. 
 
 K
 
 130 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 programme of the Socialists in 1907. On this point 
 Mr. Bax is explicit. 
 
 ' The party of the Mountain and the Jacobins,' he tells 
 us, 'the Baboeuf conspiracy, the Chartist movement, the 
 days of June, 1848, the Commune of 187 1, are all so many 
 stages in the awakening of the proletariat to the full con- 
 sciousness of itself, which it attains in modern Socialism.' 
 And again : 'The Commune of 1793 may be taken as the 
 representative in the revolution of the proletarian interest 
 pure and simple.' 
 
 Let the reader bear these words in mind. It 
 is the proletarian interest pure and simple which 
 modern Socialists desire to make the dominant 
 power in England. It is to the proletarian interest 
 pure and simple that Mr. Bax assigns, and justly 
 assigns, the full and sole credit for the govern- 
 ment of France during the two years of Jacobin 
 supremacy. It is the heads of this Government that 
 Mr. Bax recognises as the political and intellectual 
 predecessors of the Socialists of to-day, and it is the 
 Government of France, at a time when these men 
 exercised absolute control, which he recognises as a 
 true example of Socialism in action. 
 
 That the Socialists of to-day claim to be, and are, 
 the true successors in title of the Paris Commune of 
 1 87 1 is a point which they themselves have been at 
 pains to establish. 
 
 ' The Commune of Paris,' says the Socialist historian, 
 'is the one event which Socialists throughout the world 
 have agreed with single accord to celebrate. . . . The
 
 HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS 131 
 
 Commune is a landmark as being the first Administration 
 manned by the working classes, having for its more or less 
 conscious aim the reorganisation of social conditions— the 
 transformation of a civilised society into a Socialist society.' ^ 
 
 Now that we have placed it clearly on record 
 that the three great outbreaks which have been 
 referred to were true examples of the working of 
 Socialist principles, it will be well to recount, as 
 briefly as may be, what actually happened during 
 these selected periods of history. Such a recital is 
 necessary, for, unluckily, the readers of history do not 
 form a majority in this country, and memories are 
 very short. Many of those even who were living 
 during the Commune have forgotten — or, perhaps, 
 never really knew — what actually took place in the 
 stricken city of Paris ; and to the majority of those 
 who belong to a later generation the name of the 
 Commune conveys no idea at all. To many it 
 might just as well signify a person, a place, or the 
 name of a sect. 
 
 The Typical Qualities of Socialism 
 IN Action 
 
 The three typical periods of Socialist activity arc 
 separated from one another by considerable intervals 
 of time, and differ from one another in some 
 important particulars. There arc, however, certain 
 
 ' A Short History of the Paris Comiuune, by E. liclfort Bax. 
 The Twentieth Century Press, Ltd., 1907. Circulated by the S.D.F, 
 
 K 2
 
 132 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 features which are common to them all, and which 
 because they are characteristic of and inseparable 
 from practical Socialism demand special notice. 
 
 In each case the leaders of the movement have 
 put their claims to support very high ; they have all 
 invoked the most sublime principles ; they have 
 attributed to themselves abnormal and peculiar 
 virtues ; and they have held out the most alluring 
 prospects to all those who undertook to follow them 
 faithfully. The Anabaptist prophets promised a new 
 heaven and a new earth. The Jacobins and the 
 Communards contented themselves with guarantee- 
 ing to their dupes the enjoyment of an earthly 
 Paradise. In each case the great watchwords — or 
 should we call them the great catchwords ?— of 
 ' Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity ' played a leading 
 part. In each case the finest humanitarian sentiments 
 were to be found in the written and spoken ex- 
 positions of the new doctrine. It is true that in 
 all the three cases referred to the promises were made 
 to the ' Elect ' only. Torment in the next world, or 
 ruin, torture, and death in this world, were the 
 portions assigned to those who were outside the 
 fold. It is also true that in all three movements 
 a minority claimed the right to coerce, and did in 
 fact coerce, a majority. 
 
 Nor are the three movements alike in their 
 inception and their main principles only. At every 
 stage we see similar forces producing identical results.
 
 HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS 133 
 
 The Government, which is, in theory, purely demo- 
 cratic, and depends upon the people's will, becomes 
 the Government of a narrow and tyrannical 
 oligarchy. Liberty is instantly strangled, Fraternity 
 gives place to deadly hate and internecine feuds, 
 while the only trace of Equality is found in the 
 equal zeal with which one section after another 
 strives to trample its rivals under foot. In each case 
 war and bloodshed, cruelty and rapine, become the 
 order of the day, and the only industry which 
 flourishes is that of ' delation,' the dirty business of 
 the informer, which is steadily carried on in order to 
 supply the mock tribunals with a due supply of victims. 
 Lastly, the end of each movement is the same. 
 There is a period of anarchy, then fierce resentment 
 against an intolerable tyranny, a welter of bloodshed, 
 and finally the sweeping away of the whole de- 
 vastating apparatus of injustice, cruelty, and folly 
 which have been the sole outcome of the Socialist 
 experiment.
 
 134 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 
 
 The Anabaptist movement — The Socialists of 1793 — ' Liberty, 
 Equality, and Fraternity '—How to deal with the Opposition — 
 The ' Class War ' 
 
 The Anabaptist Movement 
 
 Let us now turn our attention to the actual record 
 of the three famous examples of Socialism in action 
 which are referred to in the previous chapter, and 
 see what encouragement they afford to those who 
 are tempted to bring about a repetition of them. 
 
 The great religious revival known as the Ana- 
 baptist movement began in January, 1525, and was 
 practically ended by the capture of the town of 
 Munster in June, 1535. As already pointed out, 
 the essence of the movement was its Communistic 
 character. All things were to be held in common ; 
 passive resistance was to be the rule of life, and 
 salvation was to be the guaranteed reward of all 
 those who, by accepting the new doctrine, entered 
 into the ranks of the elect. Five years after the 
 commencement of the movement there were already
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 135 
 
 thirteen different and recognised varieties of the new 
 doctrine. It was interpreted to enjoin a strictly 
 ascetic life, or, by a slight development, a life free 
 /rom all restraint, in which every kind of indulgence 
 was lawful. The elect could commit no crime, and, 
 therefore, it mattered not what crimes they com- 
 mitted. The elect were to hold all their property 
 in common, but that was no reason why they should 
 not possess themselves of the property of other 
 people. Celibacy was declared to be a higher state 
 than matrimony, but, all things being in common, 
 another man's wife came within the rule, and the 
 rule thus interpreted was duly honoured. The 
 doctrine of passive resistance gave way to the 
 practice of fierce and aggressive war. 
 
 At length it was formally announced that the 
 New Jerusalem had been definitely established in 
 Munster, and in that unhappy town the leaders of 
 the movement established themselves and began to 
 carry out their famous experiment in practical 
 Socialism. How the experiment was carried out 
 may be briefly stated. John of Leyden, the prin- 
 cipal prophet, the self-elected representative of the 
 will of the people, the servant of the democracy, 
 promptly declared himself ' King,' provided himself 
 with a golden crown, a costly chain, and magnificent 
 robes at the public expense. As a further tribute 
 to the principles of cviuality he created twelve 
 ' Dukes.' Setting a precedent which later imitators
 
 136 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 have strictly followed, he established an arbitrary 
 court, which, on the accusation of private informers, 
 condemned to death all persons whose existence was 
 found inconvenient to the * King.' Men's houses 
 were entered and plundered, and their goods appro- 
 priated by those who had sufficient force to take and 
 keep them. The ' King ' decreed that polygamy 
 should be compulsory, and did full honour to the 
 new law by marrying fifteen wives. 
 
 Then came the end. A wretched story of non- 
 combatants starved to death between the conflicting 
 armies ; of anarchy, of betrayal, of the capture of the 
 town, and the horrors of sack and reprisals. The 
 'King' himself, detected in an attempt to escape, 
 was dragged from his hiding-place and put to a cruel 
 death. The name of John of Leyden is still remem- 
 bered ; his doctrines have not yet been generally 
 adopted, but his exploits have furnished the material 
 for a well-known opera. Such is a brief sketch of 
 the first modern experiment in practical Socialism. 
 Such is the Government from which the Socialists 
 of to-day are pleased to derive their intellectual 
 descent. It must be admitted, however, that in 
 every way the leaders and promoters of the first 
 Socialist experiment were infinitely more reputable 
 and worthy of respect than their successors of 1793 
 and 1871.
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 137 
 
 The Commune of 1793 
 
 Having traced the fortunes of the Anabaptist 
 movement, ' the culminating effort of Christian Com- 
 munism/ we now proceed to a brief examination of the 
 Jacobin Revolution of 1793, the second of the three 
 examples which the Socialists themselves have 
 chosen as illustrating Socialism in action. With its 
 immediate offspring the Commune of 1 871, it may be 
 fairly described as the ' culminating effort of pagan 
 Communism.' We have pointed out elsewhere that 
 the Socialist historian, in a work adopted and 
 circulated by the Social Democratic Federation, has 
 deliberately chosen the date of the establishment of 
 Jacobin rule at the end of the year 1792 as marking 
 the moment when the true Socialistic experiment 
 began, and has limited the period of its successful 
 operation to the two succeeding years. It is of what 
 happened during the selected years that we propose 
 to give some account. 
 
 The watchword of the Jacobins was the famous 
 motto, ' Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.' Their 
 avowed object was the establishment of a free 
 Democratic Government, depending directly upon 
 the popular will. They were, par excellence, the 
 champions of ' The Rights of Man.' Of the ' Duties' 
 of man they said little and thought less. They were 
 to shine as a light and example to all the nations which 
 still sat in darkness and error. Many volumes might
 
 138 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 be filled with their beautiful sentiments and their 
 attractive promises. But it is not necessary to repeat 
 the sentiments or to recall the promises, for they are 
 to be found, copied almost verbatim, in the Socialist 
 literature of to-day. What the Jacobins professed 
 and what they promised are unimportant, for they 
 regarded none of their professions and performed 
 none of their promises. What they did is important, 
 and of this, therefore, we propose to give some 
 account, relying upon the statements of our Socialist 
 historian, whose actual words we shall quote through- 
 out. 
 
 • Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity ! ' 
 
 In August, 1792, the period of the ascendency of the 
 people began. The new revolutionary Municipality of 
 Paris was now for the first time the most powerful executive 
 body in all France. 
 
 It is noteworthy that, as in every other Socialist 
 movement, this all-powerful body was not only a 
 self-selected oligarchy, created without the sanction 
 of any popular vote, but which, throughout its whole 
 existence, notoriously represented only a minority of 
 the people of Paris and an insignificant minority of 
 the people of France. Its first work was character- 
 istic. It established an ' Extraordinary Tribunal.' 
 
 'The National Assembly' (that is to say, the represen- 
 tatives of the nation) ' hesitated to agree to it, whereupon it
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 139 
 
 received a message from the Commune that if such a 
 tribunal were not forthwith constituted an insurrection 
 would be organised the following night which would over- 
 whelm the elect of France.' 
 
 By the end of the month matters had progressed. 
 Danton, the impassioned advocate of ' Liberty, 
 Equality, and Fraternity,' 
 
 boldly urged that a policy of terrorism should be adopted 
 to first intimidate the reactionary population of the city, 
 and, through them, that of the whole country. 
 
 The ' reactionary population ' meant the vast 
 majority of Frenchmen who did not agree with 
 the Revolutionary Committee. The advice was 
 taken : — 
 
 The gates of Paris were closed, and domiciliary visits 
 were made during the night, so large a number of suspected 
 persons being arrested that the prisons were filled to over- 
 flowing. 
 
 The next step taken in the interests of ' Liberty 
 and Fraternity' was to murder the untried prisoners. 
 A gang of three hundred men visited the prisons. 
 
 The prisoners were severally called by name, tlieir 
 cases decided in a few minutes, after which they were 
 removed, nominally, to another prison to be released. . . • 
 No sooner had they reached the outer gate than they were 
 met by a forest of pikes and sabres . . . those whom the 
 representatives of tlie Commune disapproved of were 
 immediately butchered. Upon ihem the pikes and sabres 
 at once fell, in some cases veritably hewing them to pieces.
 
 140 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 The Princesse de Lamballe was among the 
 number. 
 
 ' Her head was struck off, and her body stripped and dis- 
 embowelled. A Sansculotte ' {i.e. a supporter of the new 
 Socialist Tribunal) ' boasted of having cooked and eaten 
 one of the breasts of the Princess. Probably,' says our 
 historian, ' about twelve hundred persons in all perished.' 
 
 And he adds significantly, and with absolute truth : 
 
 there is no doubt that the principal actors in these events 
 were either under the orders of, or were at least in com- 
 munication with, the Commune. 
 
 In other words, it was the full-fed, black-coated 
 gentlemen who, as Mr. Hyndman tells us, ' make 
 revolutions ' — the gentlemen who wrote the Socialist 
 pamphlets of the day — who were responsible for this 
 bloody work. 
 
 How TO Deal with the ' Opposition ' 
 
 The next step was to make the tyranny of the 
 minority secure. There was a party in the Con- 
 vention known as the ' Girondists ' : they were 
 Revolutionists and Republicans, but they were 
 neither Socialists nor Communists. The Girondists, 
 we are told, 
 
 were the party of orderly progress, sweetness, and light, 
 the men who dreaded all violent, i.e. energetic measures. 
 Such men, however well-intentioned they may be, owing to
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 141 
 
 the vagueness of their fundamental principles and their 
 class sympathies must always in the long run become the 
 tools of reaction. 
 
 Let our readers mark the close resemblance of these 
 words to the cant of to-day. It was necessary in the 
 interests of ' Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity ' and 
 of the Social Democratic Commune to get rid of the 
 ' party of orderly progress.' The Social Democrats 
 rose to the occasion. Marat was one of the most 
 active, as he was unquestionably one of the vilest, of 
 the leaders of the Socialist Commune. He it was 
 who, in strict accordance with the political economy 
 which then, as now, was preached by the Socialists, 
 
 suggested that a few of the forestallers [i.e. corn merchants] 
 who were helping to keep up the price of bread should be 
 hanged at the doors of the bakers' shops. 
 
 Marat it was who ' issued his memorable appeal 
 calling for the heads of traitors,' the traitors being 
 his political opponents and some of the most honour- 
 able and patriotic of living French Republicans. 
 Marat, the instigator of massacre, the cruel and 
 persecuting journalist, who with Robespierre directed 
 and inspired the work of the Revolutionary Tribunal, 
 took the case of the Girondists in hand. 
 
 ' Marat,' we are told, ' who had been the life and soul 
 of the movement throughout, now dictated the names of 
 the proscribed and the form of the resolution from tlie 
 Tribunal.'
 
 142 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 From that moment the fate of ' the party of orderly 
 progress' was sealed. All the leading Girondists 
 were arrested, and in October twenty-two of them 
 were guillotined. A few months later Marat himself 
 perished, stabbed in his bath by a woman who 
 conceived herself entitled to avenge by a private 
 crime the commission of so many public villainies. 
 The Jacobins lost their chosen leader, and doubtless 
 the cause of ' Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity ' 
 suffered by being deprived of such a champion. But 
 Marat is happily not without a memorial. It is of 
 him that our historian writes in carefully chosen 
 words : — 
 
 Thus perished the first great vindicator of the rights 
 of the proletariat. 
 
 It is devoutly to be hoped that the proletariat, 
 which, we are told, is soon to become ' the ruling class,' 
 may not produce many more heroes of the same 
 type. 
 
 The ' Class War ' 
 
 But the murder of the Girondists was not the last 
 of the triumphs of the Socialist Commune. The 
 King was guillotined ; the Queen, whom our Socialist 
 author, in the charitable language of his tribe, 
 describes as ' an obscene abortion,' followed him to 
 the scaffold, and over thirteen hundred French men 
 and women shared the same fate. The Provinces
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 143 
 
 refused to pay homage to the new tyranny, and the 
 same methods of persuasion which had succeeded in 
 regulating pubHc opinion in Paris were adopted out- 
 side the capital. 
 
 Lyons and Toulon were visited with a fearful vengeance. 
 Lebon worked the guillotine at Arras. Couthon, the disciple 
 of Robespierre, ordered wholesale massacres. Freron, the 
 Dantonist, made his holocausts at Marseilles and Toulouse. 
 At Nantes, Carrier, another commissioner, inaugurated his 
 horrible Noyades, or drownings, in which those suspected 
 of royalism or moderation were placed in boats with false 
 bottoms and drowned in the Loire. In some of these cases 
 a man and a woman were tied together naked. This was 
 called a Republican marriage. 
 
 During the whole of this time the perpetrators of 
 these atrocities were pouring forth sonorous platitudes 
 of exactly the same kind as those which are now 
 being printed and circulated by the men who claim 
 to be their successors in title. Nor were these fine 
 sentiments unaccompanied by acts. The things 
 which the Socialists of to-day promise the Socialists 
 of 1794 did. The law of ' the maximum ' was passed, 
 and the plan of regulating prices ' by Act of Parlia- 
 ment' was tried. It failed disastrously, as it always 
 has failed and always will fail. The Bourse was 
 closed, and paper money was issued, but, strangely 
 enough, no one was made richer or happier in 
 consequence. Capital, it is true, was for the moment 
 destroyed ; but even this docs not appear to have 
 greatly benefited the 'proletariat.' Five thousand
 
 144 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 francs' worth of paper would scarcely buy a pair 
 of boots, and even the greatest enemies of capital 
 require boots. The property of the Church and 
 millions of pounds' worth of private property were 
 confiscated in the name and for the supposed benefit 
 of 'the people.' In a word, the policy of forcible 
 expropriation which is now being recommended 
 by the Social Democratic Federation was put into 
 practice on a grand scale. Our historian tells us 
 that ' two-thirds of the houses in Paris became national 
 property.' But, alas ! even this spirited effort of 
 pure Socialism failed to produce any great amount 
 of happiness.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SOCIALISM IN A.CTlO'H— {continued) 
 
 Expropriation and its results — The reign of ' Reason ' — The Army 
 under S.D.F. principles — ' Right about face! Quick march!' — 
 The Socialist Navy— The tree and its fruit 
 
 Expropriation and its Results 
 
 The first half of the Socialist ideal had undoubtedly 
 been realised ; the rich had been made a great deal 
 poorer, thousands of them had been reduced to 
 actual beggary and starvation, and thousands had 
 been driven forth to wander in strange lands. And 
 yet, strangely enough, nobody seemed much happier 
 or better off than before. The second half of the 
 Socialist miracle hung fire. The rich had become 
 poorer, but the poor had not become one whit richer. 
 On the contrary, what little they had they had for 
 the most part lost. 
 
 Let us turn once more to our Socialist historian 
 for information on this point. This is what he tells 
 us : — 
 
 After the fall of the Girondists . . . confiscation both 
 of the lands and movables of the nobles and suspects went 
 on at a greater pace than ever. But it was various agents 
 
 L
 
 146 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 of the Government in the Departments who made vast 
 fortunes out of them by their clever manoeuvres. . . . The 
 net result of the sales of the confiscated lands ordered by 
 the Committee of Public Safety was that large tracts of 
 public land were sold in a lump as before ; but this time 
 they went into the hands of a new class of thieves. 
 
 The ninth Thermidor (the day of Robespierre's fall) 
 arrived without the working classes of the towns having 
 touched any of the ' goods ' of the emigrants, the clergy, or 
 the suspects ; while the peasantry had to be satisfied with 
 here and there a few crumbs in the shape of the partition 
 of Communal lands. 
 
 Such was the outcome of two years of the 
 undisturbed rule of a Social Democratic Government. 
 
 The Reign of ' Reason ' 
 
 Yet one more achievement of the Jacobin 
 Commune must be recorded, for, as our historian 
 tells us, it is its greatest title to fame. 
 
 The work for which the Commune is most famous is 
 the establishment of a new cultus — the worship of 
 Reason. 
 
 Briefly, this substitute for Christianity consisted 
 in procuring the services of an actress, rouged, 
 decked in an elaborate costume and a Republican 
 cap, and installing her as the * Goddess of Reason.' 
 The goddess v^as borne into the Convention by the 
 leaders of the Socialist party, escorted by a number 
 of their supporters, dressed in grotesque costumes 
 and dancing the ' Carmagnole,' and most of them
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 147 
 
 disgustingly drunk. The representatives of the 
 people rose to the occasion ; they each of them in 
 turn bestowed a kiss upon their new divinity. The 
 goddess was then borne off to the Cathedral of 
 Notre Dame, 
 
 where the new worship was inaugurated amid music, 
 tricolor, and virgins dressed in white. . . . Commissions 
 soon established the new worship throughout the length 
 and breadth of French territory, from Antwerp in the north 
 to Marseilles in the south. 
 
 Presumably each locality found its own goddess. 
 
 We can afford to laugh at these grotesque antics 
 and at this silly and offensive travesty, the actors in 
 which have all been long dead and gone. But the 
 comment of the modern Social Democratic historian 
 contained in a book now being circulated throughout 
 London by the Social Democratic Federation is not 
 laughable, and is not wholly unimportant. 
 
 ' The Goddess of Reason was never intended to be 
 more than a symbol, and not, as has been sometimes 
 represL-ntcd ' (by our author among others), ' herself an 
 object of worship. Viewed in its true light, the idea, if 
 somewhat pedantic, was not unpleasing.' 
 
 Tastes differ. 
 
 The Army under S.D.F. Principles 
 
 It is sometimes suggested that if they accom- 
 plished nothing else, the Jacobins at least created 
 a victorious army. This is a pure delusion which 
 
 1, i
 
 148 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 has been fostered by many ignorant and by some 
 interested persons. Whatever the Sociah'sts of the 
 Revolution touched they defiled, and the French 
 Army was no exception to the rule. The cannonade 
 of Valmy, in which some two hundred men lost their 
 lives, was exalted as a Revolutionary victory. It was 
 in fact little more than a skirmish in which the chief 
 part was taken by the remains of the Regular Troops. 
 The campaign of 1792 produced no result save the 
 exasperation of a nominally friendly population by 
 the brutalities of the Revolutionary soldiers. Routed 
 at Helvetsluis by Coburg, the Republicans were 
 again defeated, with a loss of 5,000 men, at Neer- 
 winden. The ' Volunteers and the National Guard,' 
 we are told,^ 
 
 were the troops that failed in the battle ; after which 
 the men broke up and fled away by whole battalions. 
 Dumouriez was fain to form a rampart of his artillery and 
 his few line battalions. 
 
 Bad as matters were, the Jacobin Government soon 
 made them worse. The Army was delivered over to 
 the Socialists, and they at one set to work to apply 
 to it their theories of military government. 
 
 A camp was ordered to be formed at Peronne, and in 
 it were assembled, not with disgrace, but with honour, all 
 the soldiers who had been imprisoned by Dumouriez for 
 misconduct ; all the deserters, the cowards, and the skulkers 
 who had fled from the army of Belgium. ' 
 
 ' Fortescue, HiUory of the British Army.
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 149 
 
 Jacobin Commissioners accompanied the generals. 
 Informers were encouraged, and every officer was 
 in danger of being denounced to the Revolutionary 
 tribunal by his own men. Discipline was banished ; 
 it was decreed that officers should be elected by their 
 battalions, and that all offences should be tried by 
 juries of the soldiers. The results were what might 
 have been expected. The French were defeated at 
 Famars ; Valenciennes was taken ; the army of Italy 
 was utterly routed at Saorgio. ' Nothing, indeed, 
 but failure upon failure in the field could result from 
 the policy of the Jacobins.' Levies were decreed, 
 and the basest pretexts were put forward for the 
 evasion of service. The true Jacobin preferred 
 remaining in Paris, where the Reign of Terror 
 afforded a congenial outlet for his energies ; or 
 joining the ' Infernal Columns ' under Turreau, en- 
 gaged in the task of carrying fire and sword into the 
 French province of La Vendee, to risking his life 
 against a foreign enemy. 
 
 Maddened by constant failure, the Jacobins re- 
 doubled their attacks upon the soldiers. But, as the 
 impartial historian of the war justly remarks, 
 
 a campaign cannot be won solely by decapitation of 
 one's own troops . . . but it was not easy to convince the 
 unspeakable rogues of the Commune of I'aris that terror, 
 which had brought them enormous personal profit, was, as 
 a national policy, a failure.
 
 I50 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 'Right about Face! Quick March!' 
 
 What Socialist theories and Socialist methods 
 could not accomplish was, however, eventually 
 brought about by very different means. At the end 
 of the year 1793 a soldier who was not a terrorist, 
 but was a hard-working man of genius, was almost 
 accidentally introduced into the War Office. Carnot 
 commenced the work of true organisation. Gradu- 
 ally a change came over the Army. The Socialist 
 Commissioners were driven with ignominy from 
 headquarters ; the election of officers was abandoned 
 with the full assent of the soldiers themselves. 
 Military considerations began to take the place of 
 those which were purely political. At the siege of 
 Toulon a young colonel of artillery, named Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, won much distinction. Eventually this 
 young colonel came to Paris. He was a soldier, he 
 could give an order and see it obeyed. In October, 
 1795) General Bonaparte, lately from Toulon, put 
 down the insurrection of ' Vendemiaire.' From that 
 day the making of the victorious Republican army 
 of France began. Rivoli, Areola, and all the triumphs 
 of the Italian campaign followed. The victories were 
 due to the fact that a soldier of genius was in 
 command of an army which had shaken itself free 
 from the fetters which the Socialist Commune had 
 forged for it. The members of that Commune who 
 had not already fallen victims to the internecine strife
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 151 
 
 which decimated their quarrelsome ranks were 
 already vying with one another in their frantic race 
 to gain the favour of the soldier who had dissipated 
 with a whifif of grapeshot the whole sordid structure 
 which they had raised. 
 
 The Socialist Navy 
 
 Nor was the Socialist Navy more successful than 
 the Socialist Army. Its great and indeed its 
 only performance beyond that of murdering its non- 
 Socialist officers, was to undergo an overwhelming 
 defeat at the hands of Lord Howe at the battle on 
 the First of June. The 74-gun ship ' Vengeur,' a 
 model of which was suspended by order of Barrere, 
 with characteristic effrontery, in the Pantheon 
 achieved the curious, and probably unique, distinc- 
 tion of striking her flag twice during the same action 
 before her captain, officers, and crew were taken off 
 by the boats of the British Fleet. 
 
 The Tree and its Fruit 
 
 We have now concluded our brief risnmd of the 
 two years of French history which have been specially 
 selected by the Social Democratic Federation as 
 an illustration of Socialism in action. It is not too 
 much to say that the earlier years of the Revolution 
 have left indelible marks upon the whole of Europe
 
 152 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 in general, and upon France in particular ; while the 
 great movement in favour of social equality, in- 
 augurated by the National Assembly, has borne 
 good fruit. France also owes an immense debt to 
 the strong-willed and warlike genius who rose amid 
 the reaction against the Terror, and associates with 
 the name of Bonaparte the best of her laws, her 
 institutions, and her communications ; but she owes 
 nothing that is good to the cruel and bloody reign 
 of the Social Democratic Commune which controlled 
 her destinies during the two years in which the 
 Commune of Paris ivas the most powerful executive 
 body in all France.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION — {continued) 
 
 The Paris Commune of 1871 — A Socialist victory — The Government 
 of ' The People ' — Liberty of the Press — The usages of war — The 
 Revolutionary Tribunal— Murder and arson 
 
 A Socialist Victory 
 
 We now come to the third and last example of 
 Socialism in action : namely, the Paris Commune of 
 1 87 1. Here, again, it will be well to allow the 
 Socialists themselves to establish the connection 
 between the work in which they are engaged to-day 
 and that which their predecessors accomplished in 
 1 87 1. Once more, therefore, we propose to quote 
 from the work of a modern Socialist historian, whose 
 history of the Commune is included in the list of 
 publications of the Social Democratic Federation, 
 and is now being circulated by that body to the 
 people of England.^ 
 
 ' The Commune of Paris,' he tells us, ' is the one event 
 which Socialists throughout the world have agreed with 
 single accord to celebrate. Every 18th of March witnesses 
 thousands of gatherings throughout the civilised world to 
 
 ' A Short History of the Paris Coiiiviutte, by E. Belfort Bax.
 
 154 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 commemorate the ( alas ! only temporary ) victory of 
 organised Socialist aspiration over the forces of property 
 and privilege in 1871. . . . The Commune is a landmark 
 as being the first Administration manned by the working 
 classes, having for its more or less conscious aim the 
 reorganisation of social conditions — the transformation of 
 a civilised society into a Socialist society.' 
 
 Now that we know exactly how matters stand, 
 now that we have it on the best authority that the 
 Commune was in fact ' a victory of organised 
 Socialist aspiration,' and that it was an event which 
 * Socialists throughout the world ' delight to cele- 
 brate, it will be well to give a short account of what 
 the Commune actually was, and what it actually did, 
 so that English men and women who are not 
 Socialists, and, for the matter of that, a great many 
 who think they are, may know what to expect when 
 organised Socialism once more comes by its own. 
 
 The Government of 'The People' 
 
 It was in the spring of 1871, when France, still 
 bleeding and exhausted after a series of terrible 
 defeats, lay at the feet of the Germans. The gates 
 of Paris, closed during the long siege, had been 
 opened after the capitulation, but the Prussians were 
 still within a few miles of the city, and the whole of 
 the north and east of France was occupied by 
 the invaders. This was the moment chosen by 
 the Social Democratic party to proclaim the govern-
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 155 
 
 ment of the Commune in Paris. The riffraff of 
 Europe flocked in from all quarters to take part in 
 the adventure, and swashbucklers from the ends 
 of the earth were welcomed as allies in the task of 
 inflaming the passions of the people of Paris against 
 their countrymen and in lighting the fires of civil 
 war in the stricken land. On March 18 the Com- 
 mune was proclaimed in Paris. On May 21 and 22 
 it was blotted out in blood and flame by the French 
 troops ; but during the two months of its existence 
 it had provided a complete object lesson of what 
 Socialism with a free hand and an unlimited 
 command of men and money can accomplish. It is 
 noteworthy and characteristic that the first and most 
 powerful Executive of the Commune, the Central 
 Committee, was a purely self-constituted body, created 
 without any reference whatever to the popular will, 
 and representing nobody but the individuals who 
 compo.sed it ; and Socialism, be it remembered, is, 
 above all things, the outcome of the freely expressed 
 will of ' The People.' The Commune, having con- 
 stituted itself, next sought to obtain an ex post facto 
 sanction for its existence. An election was held. 
 In France, perhaps more than in any other European 
 country, the system of official candidatures has been 
 adopted by Governments and denounced by those 
 who posed as popular leaders. The use of force and 
 undue influence to bias elections in favour of the 
 official candidates has often been laid to the charge
 
 156 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 of Governments, and has been unsparingly con- 
 demned by the same critics. Under these circum- 
 stances it is interesting to observe that, in view of 
 the elections, the Commune published complete 
 official lists of all the candidates who it intended 
 should be returned. In order that the will of 
 the people might be quite freely expressed, and that at 
 the same time the right candidates should be 
 elected, the National Guard were called out and 
 stationed in the neighbourhood of the polling 
 stations to take care that ' the reactionaries ' — that 
 is to say, the persons who did not approve of the 
 Commune — should be kept in order. They were kept 
 in order. None of them dared to go to the poll. 
 The small number of votes actually cast under these 
 encouraging circumstances were found to be in 
 favour of the official candidates. The Socialist 
 Government was now fully established. It soon 
 began to show what the reign of freedom really 
 meant. Even before the formation of the Central 
 Committee, the reign of violence and cruelty had 
 begun, and two French officers. Generals Lecomte 
 and Clement Thomas, who had had the temerity 
 to enter Paris, had been captured by the National 
 Guards and murdered under circumstances of great 
 brutality. The institution of a regular Government 
 soon put these earlier efforts to shame. On March 
 22 the Socialist troops opened fire in broad daylight 
 upon a procession of peaceable and unarmed citizens
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 157 
 
 who were on their way to the headquarters of the 
 Commune to make representations in favour of peace 
 and reconciliation. Seven persons were shot dead 
 and many others wounded. 
 
 Liberty of the Press 
 
 This manifestation of ' Fraternity ' was followed 
 by a series of equally characteristic acts. The whole 
 of the independent Press was promptly suppressed ; 
 only the official journals sanctioned by the Commune 
 were allowed to exist. The freedom of the Press is 
 evidently not one which is consistent with Socialism. 
 An armed party was sent down to rob the Bank of 
 France, and sixteen million francs were taken from 
 that institution. Owing to the courage of the bank 
 officials, and also, no doubt, owing to the fact that 
 the emissaries of the Commune were unaware of the 
 amount of the plunder which lay under their hands, 
 the bulk of the money in the national bank was 
 saved. 
 
 The Usages of War 
 
 The Socialist Minister of War, an ex-officer of 
 the Army, who had turned traitor to his flag and 
 broken his military oath, made his contribution to 
 the new outburst of fraternity by threatening to 
 murder the bearers of a flag of truce. 
 
 'My dear comrade,' said Rossel to z. parkmeniaire sent 
 from the French Army to summon the fort of Issy, ' the
 
 158 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 first time you permit yourselves to send us such an insolent 
 summons I shall have your flag of truce shot.' ^ 
 
 The Sociah'st eulogist of the Commune certainly 
 seems justified in his commentary upon this dastardly 
 threat. 
 
 'This cynical levity,' says he, 'smacked of the Con- 
 dottiere ; certainly to threaten to shoot an innocent soldier 
 . . . was foreign to the great heart of Paris and her civil 
 war.' ^ 
 
 It was, at any rate, foreign to the ideas of all 
 honourable and civilised men. 
 
 The Revolutionary Tribunal 
 
 The Law of Hostages was passed, decreeing that 
 for every person executed by the French troops 
 three hostages should be taken. A principal 
 member of the Commune undertook to find the 
 hostages. He seized the Archbishop of Paris and 
 various other ecclesiastics and school teachers, who 
 had nothing, and could have nothing, to do with the 
 strife between the two parties. But this was only 
 the beginning. A regular revolutionary tribunal was 
 established, and as usual private informers were en- 
 couraged to come forward to denounce any persons 
 who were supposed to be hostile to the Government 
 As is always the case under such circumstances, the 
 
 ' Lissagaiay, Hisioiy of the Commune, The author was a Com- 
 munard soldier, but did not belong to Ruisel's gang.
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION 159 
 
 profession of public zeal was made a cloak for 
 private revenge. Meanwhile, day after day, the 
 Commune sat, occupying its time in the issue of 
 proclamations containing the same fine sentiments 
 and vague generalities as are to be found in the 
 present Socialist literature — in denouncing and 
 persecuting persons who were not considered ' good 
 citizens ' and in fierce quarrels among its members. 
 
 Each member denounced the other in turn as a 
 traitor and a villain, and there seems no reason to 
 doubt that the accusers were generally right. By a 
 stupid act of vandalism, the Vendome Column was 
 thrown down, churches were broken open, the 
 churchyards were actually rifled, and the remains of 
 the dead cast into the streets with every circum- 
 stance of indignity. As usual, the whole power 
 rapidly passed from the so-called ' representatives 
 of the people' to the self-elected members of the 
 Committee of Public Safety, and in this body the 
 most violent and the most unscrupulous soon suc- 
 ceeded in getting rid of those who were by com- 
 parison moderate and reasonable. 
 
 The Beginning of the End 
 
 As the days went on it became evident that the 
 fate of the Commune was sealed, and the more 
 closely the cordon surrounding the city was drawn, 
 the fiercer and more brutal became the acts of the
 
 i6o ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 Government. Preparations were made for winding 
 up the experiment. An edict was issued by the 
 ' Delegate of Public Works ' as follows : — 
 
 All persons who have in their possession petroleum or 
 other mineral oils must declare the same in the Govern- 
 ment Lighting Offices within forty-eight hours. ^ 
 
 It will be seen that the petroleum and mineral 
 oils were wanted. 
 
 On May 21 the French troops began to enter 
 the city at the Point du Jour, and fighting began in 
 the streets. But the Government of ' Liberty, 
 Equality, and Fraternity ' had not come to the end 
 of its resources. On May 25 the priests, who had 
 been confined in the fort of Bicetre, were dragged 
 from their prison by the commander of one of the 
 Communist battalions, and, to the number of thirty- 
 eight, were shot down by the National Guard. On 
 the 23rd began the work of incendiarism, and during 
 the next few days the principal public buildings of 
 Paris and scores of private houses were drenched 
 with petroleum and set on fire, the Socialists making 
 the most strenuous efforts to interfere with any 
 attempt to extinguish the flames. 
 
 Murder and Arson 
 
 On May 26 the Archbishop of Paris and the 
 rest of the unfortunate hostages were butchered. 
 
 ' La Coiiuiiiine de Paris, de Vassy-Beaumont. Paris, Gamier 
 Freres.
 
 SOCIALISM IN ACTION i6i 
 
 As to the complicity of the Commune in the burning 
 of Paris there can be no doubt, and for the murder 
 of the hostages here is the order actually given with 
 regard to the murder of the Archbishop : — 
 
 ' Citizen Raoul Rigault and Citizen Regere are charged 
 with the execution of the decree of the Commune of Paris 
 with regard to the hostages. Paris, 2 Prairial, year 79,' 
 signed by Delescluze, Billioray, and five other members of 
 the Commune. ' 
 
 Another order, dated the 3rd Prairial, signed by 
 Delescluze and Dombrowski, and found on Delescluze, 
 tells us the number of persons who are to 
 
 ' set fire to suspected houses and public monuments ' in 
 every arrondissement. ^ 
 
 The Ministry of War is responsible for the follow- 
 ing brief order, dated 4th Prairial : — 
 
 To Citizen Lucas. P>urn the Offices of Finance and 
 come back here. ' 
 
 Many similar orders might be quoted, all showing 
 that the Commune ended as it began — a Government 
 ruling by force and cruelty, pretending to rely upon 
 the popular support, but perfectly conscious of the 
 fact that even in Paris itself it represented but an 
 insignificant minority of the people. 
 
 Such was the Government, and such is the 
 example of Socialism in action which the Socialists 
 
 ' La Commune de Paris, de Vassy-Eeaumont. Paris, Gamier 
 Frere*. 
 
 M
 
 i62 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 of to-day love to commemorate. It is well to re- 
 member these things ; it is well to understand that it 
 is the history of this cruel and detestable tyranny 
 which is now being circulated among the people of 
 England by the Social Democratic Federation, and 
 that it is being circulated as a true example of 
 what Socialism is, and as the record of a ' victory of 
 organised Socialist aspiration which every Socialist 
 should agree to celebrated
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 
 
 Subsidiar)' points of the Socialist programme— General character of 
 the proposals — The price to be paid— Machinery proposals — Old- 
 age pensions — State maintenance of children — Socialism and 
 collective administration — The profits of labour 
 
 Subsidiary Points of the Socialist 
 Programme 
 
 Having discussed what we believe to be the dan- 
 gerous and mischievous aspects of Socialism, we 
 now come to the consideration of that part of the 
 Socialist programme which is not open to any such 
 condemnation, and which not only may be, but 
 ought to be, discussed with sympathy and with the 
 hope of ultimate agreement. We have already 
 intimated that the various Socialist programmes 
 contain a number of subsidiary recommendations 
 dealing with what we have called ' the Socialism of 
 everyday life ' ; in other words, with the problems 
 which arise in connection with the extension of State 
 and municipal enterprise. In this category are to be 
 found proposals dealing with such varied subjects as 
 the following : — The payment of members ; the 
 
 M 2
 
 i64 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 payment of the cost of elections ; adult suffrage ; 
 proportional representation ; triennial parliaments ; 
 second ballot ; initiative and referendum ; raising of 
 the age of school attendance ; the unification of 
 intermediate and higher education, both general and 
 technical ; the State maintenance of children attend- 
 ing State schools ; the transfer of the cost of education 
 to the national exchequer ; the nationalisation of 
 the land, of trusts, railways, gas, electric light, water 
 supplies, &c. ; the establishment of State banks ; 
 public ownership and control of the drink traffic ; 
 a statutory eight hours' day ; the construction of 
 healthy dwellings to be let at a rent which does not 
 include the cost of the land ; and last, but not least, 
 a system of free State insurance against sickness and 
 accident, and free and adequate State pensions for 
 aged and disabled workers.^ 
 
 It will be seen at once that these proposals vary 
 greatly in importance, some being comparatively 
 minor matters, while others involve a very wide 
 extension of the accepted views with regard to State 
 and municipal enterprise. It will also, doubtless, be 
 observed that nearly all the subjects referred to have 
 already engaged public attention in this and other 
 countries, have been carefully studied by men and 
 women who have no connection or sympathy with 
 the existing Socialist parties, and have in many 
 instances been already dealt with by various national 
 
 ' See Programme of ihe S.D.F.
 
 SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 165 
 
 legislatures. It should therefore be possible to 
 discuss the questions raised without prejudice, and 
 to take into counsel men of all opinions and all 
 parties. It is true that the Socialist leaders, by their 
 arrogant tone and by their persistent refusal to 
 recognise that any members of the community 
 outside their own fold can be sincere, or even com- 
 petent, make such co-operation difficult. But though 
 difficult it ought not to be impossible. It is, of 
 course, necessary for the leaders to adopt a ' pose,' 
 and to represent themselves as being the only genuine 
 saviours of society. But thousands of their followers' 
 whose sole ambition is to see a change for the better, 
 and who are under no necessity whatever to pose, 
 may be relied upon as valuable and reasonable allies. 
 It is greatly to be feared that from the extremists no 
 aid can be expected : they are compelled by the law 
 of their being to produce a continuous output of 
 crude, extravagant, and ill-considered proposals, to 
 say bitter and untrue things of their countrymen, 
 and to impress upon their supporters the belief that 
 they alone possess the key to our intricate social 
 problems. 
 
 General Character of the Proposals 
 
 It would, of course, be idle to attempt to discuss 
 the pros and cons of all the proposals above referred 
 to within the limits of this volume, but there are 
 certain general observations which apply to all of
 
 i66 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 them, and which may possibly prove suggestive 
 and useful to those who are not in the habit of 
 applying general principles to particular instances. 
 In the first place, it must be frankly admitted that 
 none of the proposals which have been mentioned 
 are inherently impossible. That which is proposed 
 might be accomplished if the nation so desired. That 
 having been accomplished, it would work out as its 
 authors hope is by no means equally certain. It is a 
 peculiarity of Acts of Parliament that in nine cases 
 out of ten they produce no result, or produce a 
 result totally different from that which was intended 
 by their framers. 
 
 The Price to be Paid 
 
 In the second place it is just to say with 
 regard to many of the proposed changes that, 
 provided they were made by moderate and fair- 
 minded men, whose desire was to remove abuses 
 and not to punish classes or individuals, they might 
 be adopted without violating the rules of justice and 
 honesty. It will be seen, therefore, that these 
 proposals occupy a very different category from that 
 in which we were compelled to place those items 
 of the Socialist programme which have been dealt 
 with in earlier chapters. But having made these 
 admissions it is necessary to add a caution. The 
 adoption of these proposals must inevitably involve 
 the sacrifice of much which the people of this
 
 SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 167 
 
 country have hitherto regarded as of great value, and 
 the preservation of which they have considered to 
 be essential to the welfare of the State, the preserva- 
 tion of family ties, and the happiness and good con- 
 duct of individual citizens. It may be that the 
 people of England are ready to sacrifice the old in 
 order to obtain the new ; it may be that they are 
 so enamoured of the gifts that are offered them that 
 they will readily abandon possessions they have 
 long treasured in order to obtain them. The 
 Socialists tell us the people of England are ready to 
 make these sacrifices. They may be right — of 
 that there can be no certainty at present. But one 
 thing is certain, ' here and now,' we cannot have 
 both the old and the new. If the new be good, the 
 old is bad, and the new cannot enter in until the 
 old has been cast out. 
 
 There is some reason to doubt whether all those 
 who are attracted by the novel proposals we have 
 enumerated have clearly perceived this. It is pos- 
 sible that when they do perceive it their views may 
 be modified to some extent. 
 
 Let us examine two or three of the most import- 
 ant of these proposals with a view to ascertaining 
 what they really involve, and whether the good to 
 be gained is in all cases wholly commensurate with 
 the good which is to be lost.
 
 i68 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 Machinery Proposals 
 
 What may be called the ' machinery proposals ' 
 of the Socialists may safely be passed over as of no 
 real importance. No human being in his heart 
 supposes that if all the suggested tinkering with our 
 political machinery which is suggested were accom- 
 plished to morrow the people of this country would 
 be one whit happier, wiser, or better off the day 
 after. The abolition of the House of Lords, the 
 payment of members of Parliament and of all 
 administrative bodies, adult suffrage, triennial parlia- 
 ments, second ballot, and all the rest of it are 
 matters which are quite out of place in a discussion 
 which deals with the real welfare of the people. 
 They are not live issues which touch, or ever will 
 touch, the welfare of human beings. Ruskin was 
 justly contemptuous of the value of a telegraph wire 
 as a means of adding to human happiness so long 
 as the speakers at either end had nothing more to 
 say than their predecessors. Parliament, which 
 makes so many foolish and useless laws during its 
 term of six years, will make just as many and just 
 as foolish laws in two terms of three years each. 
 The ' Voice of the People,' as expressed by some 
 seven million adults, will not speak with any more 
 wisdom or advantage because another two or three 
 million adults join in the chorus. It is just con- 
 ceivable that Proportional Representation and the
 
 SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 169 
 
 Referendum are items which might be placed on a 
 special footing, for their introduction would involve 
 something more important than a mere multiplication 
 of elections and an addition to the horde of paid 
 officials. But both proportional representation and 
 the referendum have long been discussed, quite apart 
 from Socialism, and there seems no reason to believe 
 that public opinion is as yet ripe for the adoption of 
 either of them. 
 
 Putting aside, therefore, the purely political items, 
 we come to the much more important proposals 
 which deal with social and economic problems. 
 Such are State insurance and old-age pensions, 
 State maintenance of children in schools, the nation- 
 alisation of railways, and the other matters which 
 have been already referred to. 
 
 Insurance and Old-age Pensions 
 
 J^y far the most important and far-reaching of 
 the proposals is that for State insurance and Old-age 
 Pensions. It is probable that there are still rigid 
 economists of the Manchester School who set their 
 faces against any scheme of insurance or pension. 
 But those who hold this view are not destined to 
 prevail. No fine writing, no sensational expressions, 
 are necessary to describe the evils against which these 
 measures are intended to provide. The curse of 
 numbers lies heavy upon the people of this country. 
 In war there is no cause of suffering more poignant
 
 170 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 than the obliteration of individuality. Men become 
 items — their sufferings, their death, are matters of 
 average, things which must be accepted in order to 
 produce the desired result. The condition of very 
 many English men and women is much the same as 
 that of the soldier in war. If once they fall out of 
 the ranks for a moment the advancing host will 
 trample on them, or, what is still worse, will leave 
 them to die forgotten and untended. It is true 
 that millions of men and women live in the know- 
 ledge that an accident, a change in the fashion, or 
 even a new invention may leave them absolutely 
 crippled in the battle of life. It is not true to 
 say that under existing conditions all men can 
 by their unaided thrift and self-denial protect them- 
 selves from this fate. Still less is it true that those 
 who have reason to dread it are confined to the 
 wage-earning class alone. Poor professional men, 
 clerks, men and women in an infinite variety of 
 employments, are exposed to the danger. Let those 
 who have not experienced the terror use their imagina- 
 tion and endeavour to picture to themselves what this 
 uncertainty means, and what is the condition of those 
 on whom the blow falls. If they succeed in doing 
 so they cannot fail to admit that, if this blight can 
 be removed from our national life, no effort can be 
 too great to secure such a result. 
 
 Can it be secured ? The answer is that it can. 
 Not wholly — perfect remedies are not of this world —
 
 SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 171 
 
 but to a great extent. How can the thing be done ? 
 It can be done, as some would do it, by granting aid 
 as a matter of right to all old and all injured persons 
 without any contribution on their part. It can also 
 be done on a contributory basis. Which plan should 
 be chosen ? There may be legitimate differences of 
 opinion, but if the former plan be preferred it will be 
 well to understand exactly what it entails. It means 
 that thrift, self-denial, unselfishness, and many other 
 qualities which we have hitherto professed to regard 
 as desirable in the individual, and of advantage to the 
 State, will receive a heavy blow. Some leading 
 Socialists declare that thrift and saving are ignoble 
 vices ; that is because they do not understand the 
 true reason why men value these qualities. It is not 
 the actual saving of money that has any virtue, it is 
 the motive for which men save, the self-restraint they 
 exercise in saving, the love and hope which go with 
 their efforts, which are good and admirable. But be 
 that as it may, non-contributory insurance and non- 
 contributory pensions will most assuredly not only 
 tend to destroy thrift, but will, as they always have 
 done, encourage and promote idleness and poverty. 
 
 If this be true — and there is ample warrant for the 
 statement — it would seem that, while there is reason 
 for the demand for insurance and old-age pensions, 
 there are very strong reasons for not adopting the 
 particular method of obtaining them which the 
 Socialists favour.
 
 172 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 The State Maintenance of Children 
 
 Much the same may be said with regard to the 
 question of State maintenance of children in schools. 
 The object of those who advocate this policy is two- 
 fold. In the first place, it is believed that, by 
 making education in all its branches free, the nation 
 will gain, because the whole population will become 
 more enlightened, and because, as is alleged, the 
 equality of social conditions, which is considered 
 desirable, will be rendered possible when the level of 
 education and intelligence of all classes is uniform. 
 In the second place, it is held by those who advocate 
 the change that the State maintenance of all children 
 will tend to raise the physical condition of the 
 people and to arrest the growing degeneration of the 
 national stock. Who can deny that these are most 
 laudable objects ? The arrest of the physical decay 
 of our people is more especially an end for which 
 every one ought to strive, and for the attainment of 
 which scarcely any sacrifice can be too great. The 
 question, therefore, we have to ask is, not whether 
 the objects are in themselves desirable, but whether 
 they will, in fact, be attained by the methods 
 recommended, and whether those methods in them- 
 selves are free from objection. These questions will 
 not be solved by declamation. They are exceedingly 
 difficult and complicated. At present there is no 
 evidence that the proposed changes are desired by
 
 SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 173 
 
 the majority of the people of this country ; that if 
 adopted they will produce the desired result, or that 
 they can be adopted without doing more harm than 
 good. One thing is certain : those who believe in 
 parental responsibility, and who desire that good 
 parents should be encouraged and bad parents 
 should be compelled to take thought for their 
 children, cannot reasonably support the proposals. 
 The same may be said of those who are not pre- 
 pared to sec the nation victualled at the public 
 expense like a ship's crew ; for it is obvious that if 
 the whole of the population, up to the age of eighteen, 
 is ' maintained,' i.e. fed, clothed, and taught, at the 
 public expense, there is no valid reason why the 
 practice should not be extended to all men and 
 women. It is noticeable that two such great com- 
 munities as the people of Scotland and the people 
 of London do not at present favour the principle 
 of gratuitous State feeding, even in the modest 
 form of free meals to all school children. Like all 
 the other problems which have been referred to in 
 this chapter, the question of free maintenance of 
 young persons should be discussed strictly upon its 
 merits. ' 
 
 ' The system in operation in Paris under whicli the machinery of 
 the Municipality is used with great consideration and tact for the 
 distribution of voluntary contributions has much to commend it, 
 and deserves careful study. It has been slated recently by various 
 Socialist authorities that the school children of Paris are fed by the 
 Municipality. This is not the case.
 
 T74 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 Socialism and Collective Administration 
 [It is most important to remember that, although the subjects 
 dealt with in this and the following chapter have been included under 
 the general term ' Socialism,' there is. in fact, a vital distinction 
 between them and the Socialism which has been discussed in preceding 
 chapters. In speaking of the Army, the Navy, the Post Office, and 
 of large municipal undertakings as Socialistic in their character, it must 
 be remembered that not only are these important public services 
 organised on a principle which is not Socialistic at all, but that the 
 introduction of the true Socialist principle into any one of them would 
 bring it to ruin in a week. The Navy and the Post Office are 
 recruited by open competition, and in both promotion is by merit. In 
 both there is a carefully constructed and jealously preserved series of 
 orders and degrees, and the emoluments of all persons employed are 
 dependent upon rank, length of service, and capacity. Competition, 
 the reward of merit, the differentiation of reward, are all things 
 repugnant to the Socialist idea. It is a mistake, therefore, to regard a 
 great business as an example of Socialism merely because it is carried 
 on by public servants on behalf of the community. Those who cite 
 the excellent organisation of the Navy, the comparative success of 
 the Post Office, and the occasional absence of failure in municipal 
 enterprises as examples of successful Socialism should be asked if 
 they propose that Socialist principles should be applied to the conduct 
 of these services ; and if so, how long they think they are likely to 
 survive the experiment. There is much confusion of thought with 
 regard to this matter, due almost entirely to carelessness in the use of 
 words. 
 
 The Profits of Labour 
 One other important point remains to be noticed. It is contended 
 by Socialists that the profits of labour should go wholly to labour, and 
 there is not the slightest reason why their aspirations should not be 
 gratified. There is nothing to prevent the establishment of any number 
 of co-operative enterprises conducted by, and for the sole benefit of, 
 those who do the actual work. There need be no difficulty about 
 capital — many millions are already employed in co-operative dis- 
 tribution. It may be asked. Why, then, has this simple and obvious 
 experiment never been tried ? The answer is that it has been tried 
 many times ; and that most unfortunately the experiments that have 
 been made have, with very rare exceptions, failed. The lesson to be 
 learnt from a study of the many failures and the few successes is
 
 SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 175 
 
 most instructive. It does not encourage the idea that the Socialist 
 panacea is of any particular value when applied on a small scale, and 
 it furnishes no reason whatever for the belief that if applied on a large 
 scale by State officials it would prove more efficacious. One thing, 
 however, does become quite clear : namely, that there is not the 
 slightest reason why those who believe in the profits of labour going 
 wholly to those who are at present wage-earners only should not test 
 the value of their faith by experiment. At the same time they will 
 have the equally valuable opportunity of testing the principle of an 
 equal division of losses among the workers.]
 
 176 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE — {continued) 
 
 The nationalisation of railways — State servants and their votes — 
 The minimum wage — Municipal dwellings — The public control 
 of the drink traffic — The eight hours' day 
 
 The Nationalisation of Railways 
 
 This is a subject about which there is much mis- 
 apprenhension. It appears to be supposed by some 
 persons, and particularly by Socialist writers, that 
 there is some magic in the idea ; that railways in the 
 hands of a Government Department will be totally 
 different from railways under private management ; 
 and that the change will be wonderfully beneficial. 
 This is a mere dream. The nationalisation of railways 
 has long ago passed from the realm of theory into 
 that of accomplishment. There are many State 
 railway systems in the world, some of them good, 
 some indifferent, and some extraordinarily bad. But, 
 whether the systems are good, bad, or indifferent, 
 the fact that they are State-controlled has made 
 no sensible contribution to the wealth, happiness, or 
 prosperity of the countries affected. As far as the
 
 SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 177 
 
 individual passenger is concerned, there is practically 
 no difference at all. On the Continent many rail- 
 ways are State-owned, many are not. Ninety- nine 
 travellers out of a hundred are quite unaware whether 
 the railway on which they travel is managed by the 
 Government or by a company. Fares on State 
 railways may be lower than on a privately owned 
 line ; they may be, and often are, higher. Neither 
 system has an advantage in speed, though it is prob- 
 ably true to say that the average speed on privately 
 owned lines is far higher than on State lines. If the 
 latter sometimes have an advantage in the matter of 
 freight rates, the fact is due not so much to State 
 ownership as to other causes. In some cases it is 
 true that low rates, especially low through rates, are 
 given as a matter of public policy to exporters. 
 Such is the practice in Germany. But subsidies — 
 and rates which do not cover cost can only be main- 
 tained by subsidies — need not be confined to State 
 railways. It is probable, moreover, that in this 
 country the chief factor in keeping up rates is the 
 immense amount of State interference with the work 
 of the companies. It is not probable that there 
 would be less interference if the State owned the 
 concern instead of regulating it. In India the State 
 rates are higher than our home rates, and it is re- 
 markable that in Belgium the working cost of the 
 State railways is practically identical with that of 
 British lines. 
 
 N
 
 178 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 But when all this has been said, it must be 
 admitted that there is no overwhelming objection in 
 principle to the State ownership of railways. In 
 some cases the service might be better than it is 
 now, in other cases it might be much worse. But 
 it is not necessary to confine ourselves to pure specu- 
 lation ; there is a vast amount of material ready to 
 the hand of those who desire to study the problem. 
 It is not always very lively reading, but it is much 
 more relevant to the issue than the vague generalities 
 of the Socialist programme. 
 
 The idea that any great income would be derived 
 
 from the working of the railways by the State may 
 
 be dismissed. Setting aside the extreme Socialist 
 
 view that the State should acquire the railways by 
 
 stealing them from the present shareholders, we find 
 
 ourselves confronted with the problem of purchase. 
 
 The State can, of course, purchase the railways. It 
 
 may conceivably work them so successfully that, after 
 
 paying the interest on the purchase money, it will 
 
 receive a surplus. But the omens are not very 
 
 favourable. It has been stated on good authority 
 
 that the falling-in to the Government of the French 
 
 lines has already been so fully discounted that no 
 
 serious addition to the net revenue of the Republic 
 
 is to be expected when the event takes place. In 
 
 Germany loans are being raised for railway expenses. 
 
 In Australia and New Zealand the railways are run 
 
 at a loss, or with an insignificant and doubtful margin
 
 SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 179 
 
 of profit. It must be admitted, however, that in the 
 last two cases it is alleged that profit is not an object. 
 After examining all the evidence pro and con 
 Parliament may come to the conclusion that the 
 railways in this country can be worked at a profit 
 by the State, and it is even conceivable that Parlia- 
 ment might turn out to be right. Such profit, 
 when obtained, might be utilised either in the relief 
 of taxation or for the purpose of lowering passenger 
 fares and goods freights. But it must be remem- 
 bered that the tendency will be to raise all salaries 
 and wages, and it is doubtful whether any Govern- 
 ment will be strong enough to resist the pressure 
 which will be put upon it to compel it to sanction 
 such an increase. 
 
 A Public Danger 
 
 And here we come to a very important question 
 which arises in connection not only with the State 
 purchase of railways, but with respect to all plans 
 for the extension of State and municipal enterprise. 
 The creation of enormous numbers of Civil Servants, 
 all capable of exercising the franchise to further 
 their own pecuniary interests, cannot fail to be most 
 detrimental to the nation. The danger is not an 
 imaginary one. Already we have seen the evil in 
 the case of School Board elections and in connection 
 with the General Post Office. In other countries the 
 evil has now become most formidable. In Victoria 
 
 N 2
 
 i8o ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 the community, alarmed by the claim of the railway 
 employees to govern the State and to bleed the 
 public for their own advantage, sought to protect 
 itself by the passage of a law by which definite 
 representation was conferred upon the Civil Servants 
 and railway employees who were debarred from 
 exercising their votes outside the limits of the 
 special franchise. The plan had much to commend 
 it ; it was both just and reasonable. But the Act 
 was repealed in 1906 ; whether because it was con- 
 sidered no longer necessary, or because it came too 
 late, and the power of the State employees has already 
 become too formidable to brook any control, is not 
 quite apparent. 
 
 Those who desire to see to what an extent the 
 evil has grown in France should read the remarkable 
 speeches in which M. Clemenceau, a Radical of the 
 Radicals, defended his refusal to allow the State 
 servants to become members of the Confederation du 
 Travail. A more lucid and convincing exposure 
 of the dangers of the situation, and a better defence 
 of the policy of providing against them, cannot be 
 found. 
 
 In Italy the pretensions of the railway employees 
 have led them to inflict upon the public which 
 employs them the immeasurable hardship and in- 
 convenience of a general strike.^ So gross was the 
 attack on public liberty that the action of the Govern- 
 ' In the autumn of 1907.
 
 SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE i8i 
 
 merit in using troops to quell the strike was thoroughly 
 endorsed by public opinion, and the strikers dared 
 not face the just indignation they had provoked. 
 That a similar danger will arise in this country if 
 we nationalise or municipalise our institutions on a 
 large scale, and without due precaution, is certain. 
 
 It would seem, therefore, that the advisability of 
 nationalising the railways must be greatly affected 
 by the decision we arrive at with regard to restrain- 
 ing the voting power of the employees. That the 
 unrestrained exercise of that power must be bad for 
 the community is obvious, and if only the case 
 were stated apart from matters of prejudice would 
 be universally admitted. No sensible man would 
 consent to the proposition that out of a hundred 
 hard-working citizens ten should be empowered by 
 law to lay the remaining ninety under tribute with- 
 out remedy and without appeal. Yet this is exactly 
 the position which is created by the exercise of a 
 solid minority vote by the Government employees 
 in any constituency. In nine cases out of ten the 
 members of the minority will be able to control the 
 balance vote, and thereby to exclude any person who 
 does not pledge himself to their demands. It is the 
 tendency of the members of every such minority to 
 put their own personal pecuniary interests in the 
 forefront ; the consequence is that they arc able to 
 compel their neighbours to sacrifice their own earnings 
 in order to pay whatever may be demanded by men
 
 i82 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 who are neither more hard-working nor meritorious 
 than themselves, but who have been placed in a 
 position in which they can tax the community at 
 will. 
 
 In a word, the nationalisation of railways is a 
 policy which should be accepted, if at all, solely upon 
 its merits. Before we decide whether it has any 
 merits we should study very carefully all the facts 
 which are available for our guidance. At the best 
 it may prove to be a convenience ; at the worst it 
 may turn out to be a costly incubus. Under no 
 circumstances can it prove to be what the Socialists 
 tell us it will be — a remedy for our ills, or for any 
 part of them. 
 
 The Minimum Wage 
 
 Again, with regard to the proposals for a 
 minirninn wage, much the same thing may be said. 
 It is a fact, which nobody can deny, that the system of 
 unrestricted competition has resulted in many workers 
 in this country being compelled to accept wages 
 which are painfully inadequate to support life. Who 
 does not wish to see this state of things altered ? 
 But who is there who really believes that by going 
 back to the follies of the French Revolution, and 
 decreeing by Act of Parliament a universal minimum 
 wage, we shall make matters any better than they 
 are now ? But can the rate of wages be raised ? 
 Yes, it can. Already the Trade Unions, whose work
 
 SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 183 
 
 in this direction has been admirable, have taught us 
 that much. They have put their foot down heavily 
 upon free competition as the universal rule of life. 
 If they are in fault, it is because they have gone 
 almost too far in their rigid system of protection. 
 They have limited apprenticeship ; they have driven 
 thousands of workers out of the skilled trades ; thc}^ 
 have imposed every kind of artificial restriction 
 upon men and workers ; and they have made it 
 their sole object to force up wages. The lesson to 
 be learnt is, not that we should imitate the precise 
 practice of the Trade Unions, but that we should 
 learn from them the truth thit cheapness is not 
 everything, and that the comfort and independence 
 of the human being are much more important than 
 strict adherence to the principle of laisser /aire. 
 Wages will not be raised by Act of Parliament, but 
 it is most desirable that they should be raised, and 
 there arc methods by which they can be raised. Of 
 one of those methods wc propose to speak in a later 
 chapter. 
 
 Municipal Dwellings 
 
 The proposal to tax one portion of the population 
 in order to provide suitable housing accommodation 
 for another portion is not new cither in theory or in 
 practice. There is great and admitted need for an 
 improvement in the houses in which many of our 
 countrymen live. The question is what is the best
 
 i84 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 manner of effecting that improvement. Hitherto 
 improved houses have been provided principally by 
 private enterprise and partly by municipal enterprise. 
 It is now suggested that the second plan should be 
 adopted to the exclusion of the first ; but it is by no 
 means certain that, quite apart from other objections, 
 such a policy would achieve the desired results* 
 Hitherto the general effect of municipal enterprise 
 has been to put a check on private enterprise, and 
 it is probably no exaggeration to say that every 
 municipal building that is erected puts a stop to 
 the erection of five or six similar or better buildings 
 which would have been erected by private enterprise. 
 In a few cases municipal buildings have proved a 
 success ; in the majority of cases they have proved 
 a failure ; and the lamentable condition of the London 
 County Council tenement houses, which are sparsely 
 inhabited by persons for whom they were not 
 intended, stands as a warning rather than as an 
 encouragement. Municipal building will never solve 
 the housing problem, but may, if undertaken with 
 great care, tend in some cases to alleviate it. 
 
 The Public Control of the Drink Traffic 
 
 The carrying-on of the drink traffic by the com- 
 munity is a plan which has long been recommended 
 by many who are not Socialists. Mr. Chamberlain 
 and Dr. Jayne, Bishop of Chester, among others,
 
 SOCIALISM OF EVERYDAY LIFE 185 
 
 have urged that a trial should be given to what is 
 known as the ' Gothenburg system.' There is much 
 to be said in favour of such a trial, but it must not be 
 supposed that any magical result will flow from a 
 reform of this kind. The plan has often been tried ; 
 it has sometimes met with a limited measure of 
 success, but it has often proved a failure ; and many 
 persons who feel very strongly with regard to the 
 drink question are opposed to it. The plan has 
 nothing to do with Socialism, and should be dealt 
 with solely on its merits. 
 
 The Eight Hours' Day 
 
 The adoption of a universal eight hours' day is a 
 consummation devoutly to be wished. It will never 
 be fully attained, but we have been approximating 
 towards it for a good deal more than half a century, 
 and for the most part the progress has been quite 
 independent of statute, and has been achieved with- 
 out any aid whatever from the Socialists. Every- 
 thing that tends towards increasing leisure, and at the 
 same time giving to those who obtain that leisure the 
 means of utilising and enjoying it, is good. But one 
 thing must be clearly borne in mind : it is idle to 
 forbid men to work for more tlian eight hours in 
 this country and then to expose them to the com- 
 petition of other countries in which no sucli limita- 
 tions arc imposed upon the workers. This truth will
 
 i86 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 before long impress itself very clearly upon the 
 people of this country. 
 
 We have been compelled to deal very briefly with 
 what may be called the controversial but un- 
 objectionable portions of the Socialist programme. 
 It will be seen that not one of them is in any sense 
 either the property or the invention of the Socialist 
 party. It will be seen also that they all involve 
 problems of great complexity which have exercised 
 and are exercising many minds. These problems 
 will not be solved by declamation, but by steady, 
 painstaking inquiry. Some may be willing in order 
 to ' do a great right ' to ' do a little wrong ' ; but even 
 that doubtful precept is of no avail in cases where 
 the certainty of doing great mischief can only be 
 compensated for by the achievement of a small and 
 doubtful gain. We therefore venture to commend 
 to our readers the wisdom of examining all these 
 minor proposals without any prejudice ; of working 
 where they can with those of their fellow-countrymen 
 who are Socialists, but not working with them because 
 they are Socialists, for Socialism itself has nothing 
 to teach us with respect to them.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 
 
 The limits imposed — National ideas and the Empire— Levelling up 
 emigration— The wages problem and tariff reform 
 
 The Limits Imposed 
 
 It would be impossible to close a review of Socialism 
 such as the present without some reference, however 
 brief, to the subject of an alternative policy to that 
 which is proposed by Socialists. The object of the 
 preceding chapters has been frankly critical ; it has 
 been the aim of the writer to show that for the evils 
 which exist in our body politic Socialism can never 
 supply a remedy. But he has wholly failed in his 
 purpose if he has not also made it clear that, in his 
 opinion, those evils are great and urgently call for a 
 remedy ; and also that the remedy is not to be found 
 in a strict adherence to existing methods and accepted 
 ideas. There is need for action. It is not enough to 
 reprobate those who propose to act in a way of which 
 we do not approve. It is necessary to show that there 
 is a better way. It would be idle to pretend that 
 such a task is an easy one, or that any individual
 
 i88 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 can bring towards its accomplishment more than a 
 very small contribution in the way of suggestion. A 
 responsible Government, acting in accordance with 
 an enlightened and powerful public opinion, is the 
 principal, if not the only, instrument by which great 
 changes can be effected. Moreover, it must be 
 clearly understood that those who do not believe in 
 the Socialist policy do not themselves pretend to 
 provide a panacea. It is, indeed, part of their case 
 that human nature, in its essentials, does not greatly 
 change throughout the ages, and that Acts of 
 Parliament or administrative decrees are quite power- 
 less to alter it. There always have been, there are, 
 and there always will be, inequalities in human 
 society which no law will remove or greatly modify. 
 There always has been, there is, and there always 
 will be, suffering which no system of government 
 will alleviate. The man who pretends that he will cure 
 these evils is a quack who will eventually be found 
 out. But many quacks have prospered exceedingly 
 before they were found out, and this is a fact which 
 must be taken into account. It is far easier to 
 promise a new heaven and a new earth than to 
 make one corner of the earth a little better than it 
 is. It is evident, therefore, that, while fine aspirations, 
 some well-sustained hatreds, and some general 
 professions of sympathy are "'all the equipment that is 
 required by those who are believers in the virtue of 
 the ' Panacea,' something much more definite and
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 189 
 
 much more difficult is required of those who take 
 the less ambitious view of the possibilities of human 
 progress. They must sec things as they are ; they 
 must take human nature into account ; they must 
 study history and try to understand its teaching ; 
 and, above all, they must be courageous enough to 
 believe and to say that persecution and injustice can 
 never prove of real benefit to an individual, to a class, 
 or to a community. 
 
 National Ideals and the Empire 
 
 With these preliminary remarks we pass to 
 a consideration of some of those proposals which 
 seem worthy of consideration as likely, if adopted, to 
 produce an improvement in the social economy of 
 this country, and to diminish, if not to remove, some 
 of the evils the existence of which has been recog- 
 nised. 
 
 We venture to believe that the first place should 
 be given to those points of policy which affect the 
 nation's ideals. It is the principal, if not the only, 
 merit of the Socialist teaching that it professes to be 
 actuated by a spiritual motive and to depend for its 
 accompli.shment upon the acceptance of an ideal. 
 That in its practical working, as explained by its 
 accredited teachers, Socialism involves much that is 
 cruel and selfish, much that is impracticable, and 
 much that is mischievous should not blind us to
 
 190 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 this fact. ' Man cannot live by bread alone ' is 
 true now as always, and the policy that has no ideals 
 will never vivify or help a people. The whole 
 history of the world tells us that this is true. Can 
 we find under our modern conditions the soil in 
 which a great ideal can grow .'' Undoubtedly we 
 can. The filling-up, the consolidation, the wise 
 direction of the great Empire to which we belong 
 furnish a field of work such as has never been 
 granted to any other people since the world began. 
 The possibilities which await success are scarcely 
 greater than the calamities and the disgrace which 
 must be the outcome of failure. It is absolutely true 
 to say that at the present moment there are many 
 people in this country upon whom life bears so 
 hardly that they have neither the power to under- 
 stand nor the spirit to cherish any ideals. For them 
 the constant round of daily sorrow and daily effort is 
 absorbing and crushing. But that is no reason 
 whatever why we should accept the dismal doctrine 
 that, because some of our countrymen are not yet 
 able to share our privileges, we should level down to 
 their misfortune and should abandon all that we 
 believe in, and rightly believe in. The true policy is 
 to have the courage of our opinions, to declare that 
 those things in which we believe are good and true, 
 and to do all in our power so to improve the circum- 
 stances of those who cannot now sympathise with us 
 that they may come to be numbered among the
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 191 
 
 most active and convinced propagandists of our 
 faith. We believe, therefore, that every movement 
 which tends to unify the Empire and to make its 
 immense possibilities known to all who live in it is 
 good, and that the contrary teaching and the con- 
 trary policy are bad, are inspired by no ideal, but by 
 a barren pessimism which can only lead to disaster. 
 The idea here inadequately expressed is conveyed in 
 the moving and convincing words of Lord Curzon : — 
 
 ' No other policy,' says the ex-Viceroy of India, ' no 
 other creed than Imperialism can successfully solve our 
 problems. Insular Radicalism cannot solve them ; Cos- 
 mopolitanism cannot, Socialism cannot. To Imperialism 
 alone can we look to satisfy the needs and to hold together 
 the framework of the British Dominion. But if Imperialism 
 is to play this part, let us be sure that it is animated by the 
 supreme idea without which it is only as sounding brass 
 and a tinkling cymbal — namely, the sense of sacrifice and 
 the idea of duty. Empire can only be achieved with 
 satisfaction or maintained with advantage provided it has 
 a moral basis. To the people of the Mother State it must 
 be a discipline, an inspiration, and a faith.' 
 
 What is true of the great ideal of Imperial unity 
 is true of many other hopes and aspirations. We 
 must have the courage of our opinions. It is good 
 that men and women should be thrifty and inde- 
 pendent. It is good that freedom should be the rule 
 of our lives, and State control the exception. It is 
 good that there should be an incentive to individual 
 action, and that monotony and uniformity should
 
 192 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 be banished from our lives, instead of being imposed 
 by the heavy hand of the State. It is, nevertheless, 
 true that to speak of these things and of many others 
 which those who have education and the means 
 which give leisure and independence know and feel 
 to be good, to the helpless, the wretched and the 
 uninformed, is like describing a landscape to a blind 
 man. What, then, is the conclusion at which we should 
 arrive ? What is the policy which such reflections 
 seem to dictate ? Not the policy of despair, still 
 less the policy of denying our own faith ; but rather 
 the policy of levelling up, and of giving to all the 
 people of this country the opportunities which are 
 now enjoyed only by some of them. The ideal will 
 never be wholly realised, but it is an ideal towards 
 which we can approximate. 
 
 It is because we believe that a nation which is 
 not consciously working in accordance with a 
 great ideal is a nation without force or value in the 
 world that we have placed the question of Imperial 
 Unity in the forefront. 
 
 Emigration 
 
 Closely akin to the question of Imperial Unity 
 is that of the rational treatment of emigration. Within 
 the broad limits of the British Empire there are vast 
 areas in which skill, labour, and energy are urgently 
 required. Within the narrow limits of the United 
 Kingdom there is an abundance of skill, labour, and
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 193 
 
 energy', but the scope for their exercise diminishes 
 day by day. A real emigration poHcy, undertaken 
 in open accord with the self-governing States of 
 the Empire, is greatly needed. Before we decide to 
 spend time and effort in inventing work, and creating 
 a sham demand in the United Kingdom, is it not 
 better to exert ourselves in order to supply workers 
 where they are really needed ? It is true that many 
 emigrants leave our shores now, some of them with 
 sore hearts and with little good will to the country 
 which they abandon. But if the essential unity of the 
 Empire were once properly understood, these leave- 
 takings might be shorn of nearly all their bitterness, 
 and those who depart might be made to feel that 
 in very truth they were only moving from one part 
 of their own country to another. But to make any 
 such policy effective our statesmen must possess and 
 exercise the high quality of imagination. They must 
 look forward and must understand that the future 
 of our race is not, and cannot be wholly, or even 
 mainly, in these islands. The time must come when 
 this little kingdom, set almost on the edge of the 
 Arctic circle, with its 121,000 square miles of land, 
 must become an appanage, a glorious and treasured 
 appanage, of the great countries across the sea. A 
 map will help us to understand the nature of the 
 problem. The area of Canada is 3,750,000, of 
 Australia 3,200,000, of British East Africa 750,000, 
 of British South Africa 1,238,000 square miles. The 
 
 O
 
 194 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 area of the United Kingdom is but 121,000. Let us 
 then act as if we really believed that in transferring 
 our stock to these growing communities we are doing 
 more for the future of our race than we shall ever 
 accomplish by still further overcrowding the tiny 
 islands on which we live. 
 
 Wages and Fiscal Reform 
 
 We have already spoken in an earlier chapter 
 of the question of State Insurance and Old-age 
 Pensions, and have expressed the opinion that it is 
 most desirable in the interests of the community that 
 these great benefits should be secured for the people. 
 But we have given reasons for our belief that it is 
 also in the highest interests of the nation that these 
 benefits should be conferred, not in the form of poor 
 relief, but should rest in part, at any rate, on a con- 
 tributory basis. But of even greater importance 
 than the question of Insurance and Old-age Pensions 
 is the question of wages. The former concerns the 
 maimed, the infirm, and the aged ; the latter is a 
 vital issue for the active, the industrious, and the 
 hard-working. Good wages are a condition precedent 
 to the establishment of any system of Old-age Pen- 
 sions. Men must earn before they save, and the 
 proposition is equally true whether the saving is 
 made by individuals or by the State. At the risk 
 of incurring the censure of some of our readers, we
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 195 
 
 must express the opinion, an opinion which grows 
 in strength with every day's study of the wage 
 problem, that by far the most certain and effective 
 method of securing adequate and constant wages for 
 able-bodied and willing workers is to introduce a 
 reasonable scheme of Fiscal Reform. It would be 
 useless, and, indeed, impossible, to attempt within 
 the limits of this book to set forth the considera- 
 tions upon which this conclusion is based. It 
 must suffice to put on record our belief that the 
 system of free imports is doomed by its inherent 
 injustice and absurdity ; and that the inevitable 
 diminution of the trade activity which has marked 
 the last three years will lead not merely to the 
 acceptance of Fiscal Reform by the wage-earning 
 population of this country, but to its compulsory 
 adoption at their instance. 
 
 2
 
 196 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS — {continued) 
 
 The land — Land transfer — Security— Communications and power dis- 
 tribution — Afforestation and road-making — The mercantile marine 
 
 The Land 
 
 No programme of change, by whatever party it is 
 put forward, is now considered complete without 
 some reference to the Land Question. In the 
 Socialist programme it occupies a foremost place, 
 and all sorts of wonderful consequences are expected 
 to follow the transfer of the land of this country 
 from its present owners to a Socialist Government. 
 Nor can it be denied that in many programmes, far 
 less ambitious and far less objectionable than that 
 of the Socialists, the land is treated as if it possessed 
 some magic qualities not to be found in any other 
 commodity. It is true that land, owing to its being 
 immovable and limited, does possess some special 
 attributes. But it is not at all true that for that 
 reason its possession, transfer, and occupation are not 
 to a very large extent governed by the same laws 
 which prevail in respect to all other commodities.
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 197 
 
 There are undoubtedly strong reasons for desiring 
 a change in the distribution of the ownership and 
 occupancy of land. But it is a mistake to suppose 
 that, even if these changes were to be effected, any 
 very wonderful consequences would follow. It is 
 said, and said truly, that the land of England is for 
 the most part in the hands of a few people, and it 
 is contended that it should be in the hands of many 
 people. The Socialists contend that it should be 
 in the hands of all the people ; in other words, that 
 there should be State ownership of the land. It 
 is said, and said truly, that the congestion of the 
 population in the great towns, owing to the exodus 
 from the country, is to be deplored, and that it 
 is earnestly to be desired that as many people as 
 possible should be induced or compelled to go back 
 to the country and to stay there. It is said, and said 
 truly, that it is in the highest interests of the nation 
 that the land should be cultivated in such a way as 
 to give the greatest possible return which Nature, 
 stimulated by art, will allow. In so far as all or any 
 of these things can be accomplished, the nation will 
 undoubtedly benefit. But it is well to be moderate in 
 our expectations, both as to what can be accomplished, 
 and as to the advantage likely to ensue if the desired 
 changes are effected. A very little consideration will 
 suffice to show that the methods of dealing with the 
 land which at present find most favour with Parliament 
 are mere ' nostrum.s,' which can by no possibility cure
 
 198 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 the disease. The Augurs must indeed be laughing 
 at each other outright by this time, as one poHtical 
 * dodge ' after another is put forward with perfect 
 gravity and assurance. 
 
 What is the problem ? The problem is to get 
 people to live on the land who now want to do so 
 and cannot ; to ensure that those who do live on 
 the land shall be enabled to make a living out of it ; 
 and to enable those who find they cannot make a 
 living out of it to get off it again with as little 
 trouble and as little expense as possible. Such 
 being the problem, it might be thought that some 
 of the main principles of the solution were clearly 
 indicated. The purchase and sale of land should be 
 made cheap and easy ; the industry of farming in all 
 its branches should be made profitable and attractive ; 
 ownership, which all over the world has been the 
 life of successful agriculture, should be encouraged ; 
 security of possession should be guaranteed by 
 contracts openly made by willing parties, and safe- 
 guarded by the sure protection of the law. Lastly, 
 the owners and occupiers of land should be encou- 
 raged by every possible means to enrich the soil 
 which they cultivate. What are the contributions 
 which recent land legislation and more recent land 
 projects have made towards the fulfilment of these 
 essential conditions ? In every part of the United 
 Kingdom contracts have been torn up, agreements 
 made by willing parties with their eyes open have
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 199 
 
 been set aside, and there is not an owner or occupier 
 of land in the United Kingdom who has not been 
 made to feel that his property and his industry have 
 become the sport of political parties to whom his 
 welfare and interests are a matter of no concern 
 whatever. It is desirable that the transfer of land 
 should be easy and cheap. What do we find ? We 
 find that the sale and transfer of land is a process so 
 complicated and costly that the purchase of an acre 
 is a perilous adventure from which no man can be 
 sure of emerging with safety and profit — except the 
 lawyers. So far from any real encouragement being 
 given to agriculture, land is made the subject of 
 special and onerous taxes, which are not the less 
 onerous because they fall on the owner even more 
 heavily than on the occupier. Not only is the 
 business which is thus hampered by every kind of 
 legal absurdity and fiscal disability exposed to the 
 fierce competition of all the world, but its conduct is 
 made difficult by minute, though doubtless necessary, 
 regulations and restrictions, and by a system of 
 transport in many respects inadequate and often 
 costly. If these be the difficulties which induce men 
 to abandon the attempt to live on the land and 
 induce them to come into the towns, what is the 
 obvious way of mending matters ? Clearly to 
 remove the main obstacles, and thus to make agri- 
 culture both paying and attractive. The idea that 
 it is necessary to pa.ss Acts of Parliament by which
 
 200 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 new occupiers may be quartered by force on the 
 country districts is absurd. Still more absurd is it 
 to suppose that the persons thus set down to serve 
 a political purpose will prosper any better than those 
 whom they dispossess. The land of England has 
 come into the hands of a comparatively small number 
 of owners not by accident, but partly by design and 
 partly by the irresistible force of economic conditions. 
 At the time the Enclosure Acts were passed it was 
 believed, and rightly believed, that large holdings 
 were necessary in order to obtain the maximum 
 product from the soil. What was true in the 
 eighteenth century is true now. Small farms may 
 succeed in certain cases, but they will not increase 
 the available agricultural output of this country. 
 Market gardens may do so. But in either case it 
 is only very experienced and competent men who 
 will achieve success. 
 
 Land Transfer 
 
 There is one way, and one way only, of bringing 
 the right people on to the land and inducing them 
 to stay there — namely, to make it easy for them to 
 come, profitable for them to stay, and easy for them 
 to go. It would seem, therefore, that our efforts 
 should follow the line of least resistance. Land 
 transfer should be made simple and cheap. There 
 is only one reason why it should not be both : that
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 201 
 
 reason is to be found in our complicated land laws, 
 and our cumbrous system of conveyancing, which 
 has become a vested interest of the lawyers, whose 
 participation in every transaction is, under present 
 conditions, inevitable. That it is difficult to simplify 
 the conditions of title and transfer in an old country 
 is true, but the difficulty is not insuperable. There 
 is no real reason why we should not eventually have 
 a system almost as simple as that created by the 
 Torrens Act in Australia, or that which exists in the 
 city of Hamburg, where two signatures in an official 
 register constitute an effective and complete transfer. 
 A cadastral survey is required, but already the ten- 
 foot-to-the-mile maps of the Ordnance Survey have 
 done all that is required for certain districts. 
 
 Security 
 
 The rates and taxes on land, and all that 
 appertains to the cultivation of land, should be 
 diminished. The foolish idea that land goes out 
 of cultivation because evilly disposed landlords 
 refuse to part with it, should be dismissed from the 
 minds of rational men and left to street-corner 
 agitators. Landlords who spend thousands of pounds 
 more upon their properties than they obtain from 
 them — and there are many such — would certainly 
 make a profit out of those properties if energy, money^ 
 and science could secure it. If the land does not
 
 202 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 pay in their hands, it will not, save in rare instances, 
 pay if transferred to other people. Contracts with 
 respect to the land should be strictly observed 
 instead of being made the sport of political parties. 
 Security is the life-blood of all successful enterprise 
 in business. But when all is said and done, no laws 
 will effect any very great change, and the idea that 
 the soil will become much more productive than 
 it is at present, as the result of any legislative 
 interference, need not be taken seriously. 
 
 Communications and Power Distribution 
 
 There is, however, a reason which has nothing 
 whatever to do with the agricultural output, but 
 which makes it desirable that the number of dwellers 
 in the country should be increased. The congestion 
 in the great towns is an evil which cannot be 
 exaggerated. Undoubtedly this evil can be dimin- 
 ished by increasing the amenities and profits of 
 agriculture. It can also be diminished by the im- 
 provement ot communications and by a proper 
 system of power distribution. Those mournful col- 
 lections of small houses and large mills and ware- 
 houses which we call manufacturing towns are the 
 outcome of conditions which no longer exist. They 
 came into existence because manufacture could only 
 be carried on profitably in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of the sources of power ; in other words
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 203 
 
 on, or on the fringe of, the coalfields. The trans- 
 mission of electrical energy has changed all this ; 
 a fact we are only just beginning to realise, and 
 of which the consequences may transform the con- 
 ditions of national life. The transmission of elec- 
 trical energy for power, traction, and lighting should 
 therefore be encouraged in every way. It will not 
 be encouraged, but will be retarded, if we pursue the 
 policy which has found so much favour of late, and 
 which consists in encouraging public bodies to hunt 
 down, to threaten, and to ruin all private enterprises. 
 Public and private enterprise should exist side by 
 side in friendly co-operation, and not as enemies 
 engaged in a war of extermination. 
 
 Afforestation and Road-making 
 
 It is a cardinal point of Socialist doctrine that 
 the State should provide work for all who desire 
 employment, and it is fair to add that the view is 
 not confined to members of the Socialist party. We 
 have already expressed the opinion that the true way 
 to provide employment is to increase the extent and 
 add to the emoluments of home industries. This 
 can best be done by methods which involve no State 
 interference. If, however, we are to commit our- 
 selves, even for a time, to the doubtful experiment of 
 inventing work, it is obviously far better that labour 
 thus employed should be devoted to some rational
 
 204 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 purpose than to a sort of glorified oakum-picking. 
 There are undoubtedly some great operations which 
 might be undertaken with advantage to the State, 
 and on which the resources of the community might 
 be expended with the certainty that the money 
 would not be absolutely wasted. It is said that in 
 the German Empire there is an acre of forest for 
 every inhabitant, and over 40,000 persons are em- 
 ployed by the Forest Administration. It is difficult 
 to exaggerate the value of this great forestry system 
 to Germany, We can never hope to rival the German 
 forests in extent, but there is no reason why, by 
 an intelligent combination of scientific direction and 
 judicious expenditure, we might not enormously 
 increase the forest area of the United Kingdom. 
 Work might also be profitably expended upon our 
 roads. There are probably only two highways in 
 England which would be admitted into the category 
 of properly engineered roads in any Continental 
 country. A single instance of the speed at which 
 we move in the matter of road-making is worth 
 citing. Fifteen hundred years ago, when the Romans 
 went from Pulborough to Arundel, they climbed 
 the steep ascent to the top of Bury Hill because the 
 sea came up beyond Amberley. The distance was, 
 and is, nine miles. For many hundreds of years the 
 sea has left Amberley, and is now ten miles off at 
 Littlehampton. The river Arun and the Brighton 
 Railway go direct from Pulborough to Arundel on
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS >05 
 
 the level, a distance of eight miles, but the British 
 road authorities have not yet discovered the change 
 which has taken place, and the distance is till nine 
 miles over the top of Bury Hill. Even worse than 
 the condition of our main roads is the confusion of 
 authorities responsible for their management. If 
 any Government would do for the United Kingdom 
 what Bonaparte did for France, we should have 
 reason to be grateful. 
 
 The Mercantile Marine 
 
 The transformation of the mercantile marine is a 
 task that may well occupy any Government which 
 desires to improve the conditions of one of the 
 greatest of British industries. Something has 
 already been done to make the life of the seamen 
 and firemen more tolerable than it was, but the 
 discomforts are still far in excess of what they need 
 be even in so hard a calling, and the enormous 
 number of foreigners employed on board our ships 
 is an evil which urgently demands a remedy. It is 
 quite true that foreign seamen are often employed 
 because, as regards character and efficiency, British 
 seamen sometimes leave much to be desired. But 
 to accept such an argument as conclusive is to 
 misunderstand the whole situation. If there is a 
 good business good men will go into it, and far more 
 might be done than is at present done to make
 
 2o6 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 seafaring a good business. The systematic training 
 and regulation of our merchant seamen are matters 
 which might well engage the attention of the 
 Government. There is no country in the world 
 which has such a peculiar, direct, and vital interest 
 in the maintenance of a well-manned mercantile 
 marine as Great Britain. Probably no country spends 
 less intelligence upon improving and encouraging 
 the personnel of its mercantile marine than our own.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS— (confmued) 
 
 The amenities of life — Class distinctions — An example from the 
 Army — An example from the magistracy — Conclusion 
 
 The Amenities of Life 
 
 We have readily admitted that the misery of the 
 very poor furnishes us with a reason for action and 
 for change. But it would be a mistake to suppose 
 that it is only in the condition of the very poor 
 that a change is needed and demanded. The desire 
 for a larger share of the good things of this life is 
 far keener among those who have happily begun to 
 enjoy them than among those who have never 
 known them. This is a fact that, so far from causing 
 any concern, should be a ground for satisfaction. 
 Life need not be dull, and drab, and limited. No 
 legislation, it is true, will alter the power of the 
 individual to rise .superior to his surroundings, to 
 find happiness in the spiritual side of life, and interest 
 in all that goes on in the world around him, even 
 though his lot be monotonous and his share of the 
 world's goods small. The soul of man is outside
 
 2o8 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 and above the domain of Governments. To ignore 
 these facts would be to challenge criticism and 
 contradiction and to ignore the existence of many- 
 beautiful lives in which contentment and happiness 
 are the outcome of true religion, and are indepen- 
 dent of external circumstances. Nevertheless there 
 is a great deal of happiness which does come, and 
 comes only, from the enjoyment of leisure, from bright 
 surroundings, from rational amusements, and from the 
 contemplation and possession of things which are 
 beautiful and interesting. We are woefully behind- 
 hand in this country with respect to all these things. 
 Our Puritanism brought us perhaps some blessings, 
 of which we are not infrequently reminded ; but 
 it laid upon us the tremendous curse of dulness and 
 mediocrity, of the inability to enjoy ourselves, of 
 want of taste, of want of toleration ; defects which 
 have made our towns hideous, our amusements a 
 byword, and the public amenities of life inferior to 
 those of almost every other country. It is im- 
 possible not to sympathise with much that is said 
 on this subject by the Rev. Stewart Headlam in his 
 pamphlet entitled ' Municipal Puritanism.' ^ Briefly 
 there is no reason why those who like cakes and 
 ale should not have them because some other people 
 do not want them. To those who know the great 
 and beautiful places of public resort in every large 
 
 ' Municipal Puritanisin, published 1)y the Guild of St. Matthew, 
 and circulated by the S.D.F.
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 209 
 
 town on the Continent, places where men, women, 
 and children can meet for refreshment, for reasonable 
 recreation, and for social intercourse, it seems a cry- 
 ing shame that we should be compelled to admit 
 that a young woman or a child cannot fitly be 
 allowed to enter the places where half the popula- 
 tion at least are in the habit of taking their refresh- 
 ment. Our great towns are also a disgrace to the 
 nation. Not because no money is spent upon them, 
 but because neither taste nor judgment is allowed 
 to influence their construction and adornment, and 
 because the laws by which clearances are permitted 
 are notoriously inadequate and based on incorrect 
 principles. Things have come to such a pass that 
 heroic treatment is required before our great towns 
 can be redeemed from their squalid mediocrity. In 
 London we are now completing two modest improve- 
 ments, the construction of Kingsway and the removal 
 of the carriage road from the side to the middle of 
 the Mall, which were declared to be urgent seventy- 
 five years ago.' It would pay amply, both from the 
 moral and the material point of view, to drive a score 
 of great avenues through London from east to west 
 and north to south, to plant them and adorn them, 
 and to make them the pride of all Londoners. 
 Those who wish to sec what can be done to glorify 
 and beautify a city, and to make it a bright and 
 
 ' These are two of the five improvements declared by Mr. Sydney 
 (afterwards Sir Sydney) Smirke to be urgent over seventy years ago. 
 
 P
 
 210 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 happy place, not only for the few, but for all who 
 live in it, should visit Zurich, Frankfort, and many 
 other Continental towns. Frankfort, which since 
 1866 has increased its population from 60,000 to 
 300,000, furnishes an example which puts to shame 
 all our puny efforts. There is not a class in the 
 community whose welfare has not been considered 
 and whose opportunities for enjoyment, recreation, 
 and instruction have not been increased. 
 
 Class Distinctions 
 
 We are told that this country is hopelessly 
 divided by class distinctions. That the number of 
 classes is almost infinite is true, and ' pity 'tis, 'tis 
 true.' And be it said that the class divisions go 
 down to the very depths of society. The idea that 
 the whole population can be divided, after the 
 Socialist fashion, into 'sheep' and 'goats,' sheep 
 possessing under 300/. a year and goats 301/. and 
 upwards, is a fantasy. Class distinctions may be 
 comprised within two categories : there is the legiti- 
 mate division into classes which necessarily follows 
 the division of occupations. Soldiers, lawyers, clergy- 
 men, manual labourers, operatives, and journalists 
 will all necessarily be specially interested in their 
 own particular calling, and will tend to form classes 
 corresponding with their occupations. In any form 
 of society these divisions must inevitably exist. But
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 211 
 
 there is another form of class distinction which is not 
 inevitable, and which certainly is far from beneficial. 
 This is the distinction which comes from the existence 
 of different planes of intellectual interest. It is a fact, 
 which no one can deny, that in English society as at 
 present constituted the whole intellectual and social 
 outlook of different classes varies so greatly that it 
 may almost be said that each class speaks a language 
 which some other class cannot understand. It is 
 absurd to pretend that one class is better or worse 
 than another. But the fact that there are so few 
 points on which all classes speak the same language, 
 and in respect of which they are moved by the same 
 ideas and interests, is undoubtedly a disadvantage 
 to the nation. The remedy in this, as in almost 
 every other case which we have discussed, is ' to level 
 up ' ; to make it possible for all members of the 
 community to share the same great interests and 
 ambitions, and to give to the whole community as 
 far as possible the chance of learning the same social 
 language. This may seem an obscure saying, but 
 it is a true one and capable of infinite expansion. 
 Education, especially the increase of popular univer- 
 sities and the recent great growth of secondary 
 schools, of which the full effect has not yet been felt, 
 is doing much. Everything that tends to extend the 
 amenities and pleasures of life to the bulk of the 
 people, to give leisure, to give facilities for social 
 intercourse, to give a share in the performance of 
 
 p 2
 
 212 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 national duties, is a step in the right direction. It is 
 by these means, and these means only, that class 
 distinctions can really be eradicated ; and be it said 
 that the education of the idle rich and the civilisa- 
 tion of what is called ' Society ' itself are perhaps 
 as much needed as the extension of civilisation 
 in any other direction. The ' barbarian ' element 
 which Matthew Arnold so often depicted for us is 
 still very powerful. But the way to remove class 
 distinctions is emphatically not that which now finds 
 much favour in some quarters. Class distinctions 
 will not be removed either by pretending that they 
 do not exist, or by forcibly introducing members of 
 one class into another. 
 
 An Example from the Army 
 
 A couple of examples will suffice to illustrate 
 this proposition. It is said, and said truly, that the 
 National Army is, to a very large extent, the Army 
 of a class ; that its officers come almost exclusively 
 from one class, and that the bulk of the people 
 neither have, nor can have, any share in the 
 emoluments, the distinctions, and the glories which 
 service in the Army confers upon those who attain 
 to its highest ranks. It is absolutely untrue to say, 
 as careless critics sometimes do, that the class from 
 which our officers are chiefly drawn does not supply 
 us with good officers. Making full allowance for all
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 213 
 
 possible failings, no country in the world has a 
 better class of officers than our own, and no country 
 has been better served than England has by those, 
 many of them poor men, who have followed the 
 career of arms with little reward save the honour 
 and distinction which it has afforded. Nevertheless 
 it would be better, beyond all question, if, in this 
 instance too, we could level up, and bring the full 
 current of national life, and not only one small 
 branch of it, into the service of the Army. But 
 emphatically the way to do this is not to ignore 
 class distinctions, and the plan which is often 
 advocated in Parliament and elsewhere, of giving 
 commissions to men in the ranks, merely because 
 they are in the ranks, is utterly wrong. A man who 
 is serving in the ranks may have all the qualities of 
 a good officer, but he does not possess them because 
 he is serving in the ranks ; and everybody who knows 
 anything whatever of the interior life of either the 
 Navy or the Army, which, after all, is very much 
 like the interior life of any other section of society, 
 knows perfectly well that the mere transference of 
 men from the non-commissioned to the commissioned 
 ranks is like trying to mix oil with water, and often 
 does far more harm than good. The proper method 
 is to lay down the qualifications we require in an 
 officer — the higher we put them the better — and to 
 accept no man, whether duke or tinker, who docs 
 not possess them. But obviously that is only half
 
 214 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 the battle. We must, as far as possible, give to all 
 who desire to serve the country as commissioned 
 officers the chance of obtaining the necessary 
 qualifications. If, therefore, we were to create an 
 educational ladder by which boys of every class 
 could be trained to the service of arms with the 
 assistance of the State, much would have been 
 accomplished, and the establishment of military 
 training schools into which the holders of scholar- 
 ships could pass would be invaluable to the Army. 
 One other thing is required — namely, that the pay 
 of the officer should be such as to enable him to live 
 upon it. Such an increase must inevitably be made. 
 When these things have been done there is no 
 reason why the Army should remain a class organ- 
 isation. But this can only be done with safety by 
 levelling up, by refusing to abandon any of those 
 qualities which we know to be necessary to an officer 
 who is to lead men in the field, and by turning a 
 deaf ear to those who would have us make the Army 
 a mere subject for political experiments. 
 
 An Example from the Magistracy 
 
 Much the same may be said of the magistracy. 
 It is true that the great trust of administering justice 
 ought to be shared by all sections of the community. 
 But that is no reason at all why men should be
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 215 
 
 made magistrates because they belong to a parti- 
 cular class. A magistrate ought to be selected 
 because he is a man with some knowledge of the 
 law, of high character, fair and impartial, and gifted 
 with an alert and intelligent mind. A man ought 
 no more to be made a magistrate because he is a 
 trade-unionist, a politician, or a road mender, than 
 because he is a duke, a brewer, or a professor of 
 Sanscrit. If any member of one of these classes 
 possesses all the qualifications which go to make 
 a good magistrate, he should be made a magistrate. 
 But the idea of ' rigging ' the Bench with party or 
 class representatives tends to degrade justice and to 
 accentuate rather than to destroy class distinctions. 
 It is no answer to say that many men have been 
 appointed merely because they were wealthy, or 
 because they have belonged to a particular class. If 
 these men so appointed have not had the proper 
 qualifications, it was a mistake to appoint them. 
 But the error will not^be improved by perpetuating 
 and extending it. 
 
 Many more examples might be given in support 
 of the view that the true way to eliminate class 
 distinctions is not to ignore them, but to extend as 
 far as possible the opportunities of the few to the 
 many.
 
 2i6 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 We have now concluded the all too brief chapters 
 which we have devoted to constructive suggestions. 
 Had space permitted they might have been greatly 
 extended. But to whatever length produced, they 
 could only be that which they purport to be — the 
 contribution of an individual towards the solution of 
 a great problem. That problem will never be wholly 
 solved. Great changes will never be made rapidly, 
 and no changes, however great, will eradicate human 
 misery or free us from human misfortune. But 
 progress can be made and will be made if all men 
 and women will combine in a common cause. 
 
 We have spoken of an alternative policy to that 
 of the Socialists, but, in a sense, the expression 
 is open to criticism, for it involves the proposi- 
 tion that Socialism ever can help us out of our 
 difficulties. It has been our object to make it 
 perfectly clear that Socialism can do nothing of the 
 kind, and that it should be opposed on its merits 
 because, however excellent the intentions of its 
 supporters, it must inevitably aggravate the ill from 
 which we suffer, must increase the poverty it is 
 designed to remove, must intensify the class dis- 
 tinctions which it professes to obliterate, and instead 
 of bringing peace must bring hatred, strife, and, 
 possibly, open war. Change is to be desired not 
 because the teaching of Socialism makes change
 
 SOME CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS 217 
 
 inevitable, but because the need for change always 
 exists. 
 
 Change is to be desired because, as a society 
 becomes more complicated, and as population grows, 
 civilisation tends more and more to crush the indi- 
 vidual. It is the individual for whom all laws 
 should be made, and to whose happiness all our 
 institutions should minister. It is to be desired, 
 therefore, that the community should take thought 
 for the individual. This is work in which all English 
 men and women have a right to join, and it is 
 perhaps the greatest condemnation of the Socialist 
 teachers that they have dared to arrogate to them- 
 selves not only the sole capacity to solve our social 
 problems, but the sole right to deal with them. In 
 the whole history of our national politics it would 
 be hard to find a more arrogant claim than that 
 which stands in the forefront of Socialist literature ; 
 the claim that millions of Englishmen should be 
 excluded altogether, not merely from participation 
 in the government of their own country, but from 
 all recognition as persons who desire, or can con- 
 tribute, to the improvement of the conditions of life 
 of their fellow-countrymen. 
 
 In conclusion, we only ask that what has been 
 here written .should be judged fairly and dispassion- 
 ately. We have set out the principal heads of 
 Socialist teaching in the words of the Socialist 
 teachers themselves ; it is for our reader? to exercise
 
 2i8 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 their judgment with regard to those teachings. If 
 they believe in them, they will support the Socialists 
 as men who are truly serving their country. If they 
 do not believe in them, it is their duty to act accord- 
 ingly, and to do all that in them lies to preserve 
 their country from the dangers which threaten it.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 The following letters and the comments upon them ap- 
 peared in the 'Standard 'of December 14 and 18, 1907. 
 The letters are printed here because they furnish a valuable 
 commentary upon the methods of controversy adopted by 
 some of the representatives of the Socialist organisations, 
 and because the official position of Mr. Francis Johnson 
 gives a special importance to the statements which he is 
 instructed to make on behalf of the organisation to which 
 he belongs. 
 
 From the ^Standard' of December 14, 1907. 
 
 A Socialist Denial 
 
 We have received the following letter, written on the 
 official notepaper of the Independent Labour Party, and 
 we give it in full, including its printed heading : — 
 
 independent LAnOUR PARTY. 
 
 Organising Department. 
 
 Chairman, J. Ramsay MacDonald, M.P. 
 Treasurer, T. D. Benson. .Secretary, Francis Johnson. 
 Telegrams, ' Ilper, London.' Telephone, 2262 Central. 23 
 Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London, E.C., December 12. 
 
 To tJie Editor of the * Standard ' 
 
 Sir, — My attention has been called to No. 3 of Mr. 
 Arnold-Forster's articles on Socialism, wherein he quotes
 
 220 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 from a pamplet entitled ' The Class War,' which he says is 
 a publication of the I.L.P. This statement is absolutely un- 
 true, as no pamphlet bearing that title has been issued by 
 this office. This matter would be of no importance had not 
 your contributor, by means of quotations from it, tried to 
 make the I.L.P. responsible for ideas of class hatred and 
 class tyranny which neither we nor any other Socialist 
 organisation hold. 
 
 I may say, in conclusion, that Mr. Forster's articles are 
 filled with misstatements, misquotations, and twisted 
 meanings. As a serious criticism of Socialism they have 
 little or no value. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Francis Johnson. 
 
 It will be observed that the writer is the Secretary of 
 the Independent Labour Party, or I.L.P., and therefore 
 qualified to speak on its behalf. His statement is perfectly 
 clear and definite. It is that Mr. Arnold-Forster's state- 
 ment in our columns — that the pamphlet ' The Class War ' 
 is a publication of the I.L.P. — is 
 
 'absolutely untrue.' 
 
 In support of his letter he forwards us a copy of the 
 pamphlet referred to. The title-page of this copy is as 
 follows :— 
 
 'Third Edition. " The Class War," a lecture by James 
 Leatham. One penny. Printed and published by the 
 Author at the Clerkhill Press, Peterhead. London : The 
 Twentieth Century Press (Limited).' 
 
 In a negative way this might seem to be evidence in 
 support of Mr. Francis Johnson's contention. Unfortunately 
 for him, however, a reference to the title-page of the
 
 APPENDIX 221 
 
 pamphlet from which Mr. Arnold-Forster quoted shows 
 that it reads thus : — 
 
 'Fourth Edition.' One penny. "The Class War," a 
 lecture by James Leatham.' (Then follows a quotation 
 from Fawcett's 'Manual of Political Economy.') 'Peter- 
 head : The Clerkhill Press. London : The Twentieth 
 Century Press (Limited). LL.P. Publication Department.' 
 
 To make certain that the pamphlet is still in circulation 
 a copy was purchased yesterday. There was no difficulty 
 in obtaining it. And, again, it was a copy of the ' Fourth 
 Edition. — LL.P. Publication Department,' as above. It is 
 worth mentioning, moreover, as Mr. Francis Johnson 
 professes to speak not only for the LL.P. but for all other 
 Socialist organisations, that the pamphlet was purchased at 
 the central offices of the Social Democratic Federation. It 
 appears in the list issued by that body of ' Books on 
 Socialism, or treating of various subjects from the Socialist 
 standpoint,' The LL.P. and the S.D.F., it is understood, 
 have their own little quarrels, but in the matter of official 
 approval of ' The Class War ' they are most beautifully 
 harmonious. ' Justice,' a Socialist organ edited by Mr. 
 H. Quelch, whose name occurs so frequently at the time 
 of a general election, remarks : ' We are always glad to see 
 a pamphlet by our comrade J. Leatham, as it is sure to 
 contain spirited writing and pointed argument.' ' Entirely 
 admirable ' is the comment of the ' Clarion,' Mr. Blatchford's 
 organ, on another of Mr. Leatham's works ; and of still 
 another, the ' Labour Leader,' Mr. Keir Hardie's paper 
 remarks that it is ' written in excellent style and forcibly 
 argued.' 
 
 It is thus clear that Mr. Leatham's pointed and 
 spirited works arc perfectly well known to Socialists of 
 all classes ; that his writings in general are approved 
 by Socialists of quite different types ; that the particular
 
 222 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 pamphlet under notice — ' The Class War,' from which 
 Mr. Arnold-Forster quoted — is officially approved by both 
 the S.D.F. and LL.P. ; and that it bears upon its own 
 face the statement that it emanates from the I.L.P. Publica- 
 tion Department. 
 
 Now what is to be said of Mr. Francis Johnson, 
 ' Secretary of the I.L.P.,' who, apparently trusting to the 
 ingenuousness of his opponents, calmly sends us the letter 
 printed above ? Unfortunately the only thing that can be 
 said is that this method of controversy is characteristic ot 
 the party to which he belongs. How can Socialism be 
 judged except by the utterances of its leaders? Yet, if 
 a quotation from one of these leaders be made, there is 
 immediately a great cry from the others of the unfairness 
 of charging them with what someone else said. The 
 device is an everyday one on Socialist platforms and in the 
 Socialist Press. Now, however, we have a quotation taken 
 direct from an authorised publication of the I.L.P, them- 
 selves. And the reply, written authoritatively and officially 
 by the Secretary of that body, is — what? In the first 
 place, a flat denial of the facts. In the second place, an 
 attempt to bolster up his denial by the production of an 
 out-of-date copy of the pamphlet. Are these the morals of 
 Socialists ? 
 
 It must not be overlooked that the ' Third Edition,' 
 which Mr. Francis Johnson produces, is one of the most 
 damning pieces of evidence against him. (Unless, indeed, 
 on the Socialist principle of the inversion of things, it is 
 going to be contended that the ' Fourth Edition ' naturally 
 comes before the ' Third Edition.') The fact that the 
 earliei "edition was published solely by the author and the 
 Twentieth Century Press, and that the later edition bears 
 the name of the I.L.P. in addition, is convincing evidence 
 that, although the initial responsibility for the pamphlet
 
 APPENDIX 223 
 
 was not apparently the I.L.P.'s, after the issue of the Third 
 Edition they voluntarily and deliberately assumed that 
 responsibility. If they are now prepared and desirous to 
 repudiate Comrade Leatham, well and good ; it is a matter 
 which they may settle with the Peterhead author. But 
 while their name is upon his pamphlet they must bear the 
 responsibility for it. And in the meantime we leave Mr. 
 Francis Johnson to meditate on the fate which befalls a 
 controversialist who attempts to play the game of Socialist 
 ' bluff' in such an inefficient manner as he has done. 
 
 From the '■Standard'' of December 16, 1907. 
 
 Another Statement from the I.L.P. 
 
 We have received another letter from the Secretary 
 of the I.L.P., which we print below : — 
 
 To the Editor of the * Standard^ 
 
 Sir, — In reply to your remarks in Saturday's issue of 
 the ' Standard,' I beg to repeat that it is absolutely untrue 
 that the pamphlet entitled ' The Class War ' is an official 
 Independent Labour Party publication. I have not seen 
 a copy of the new edition which you say is now on sale. 
 If our name is on it, it is there entirely without our 
 permission, and we shall take up the matter with the 
 author. 
 
 Mr. Arnold-Forster's object in taking sentences from 
 this pamphlet and isolating them from their context, a 
 method which is generally most unfair and misleading, 
 is quite plain. He would have your readers believe that 
 the Independent Labour Party, in its publications as well 
 as from its platforms, endeavours to foster and develop 
 a hatred between the working class and the employing 
 classes, which it hopes may soon become strong enough
 
 224 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 to infuriate the former into making a bloody attack upon 
 the latter for the possession of the capital and the imple- 
 ments of production. 
 
 I warn your readers that this is untrue. If they take 
 this view they will be misled, and the first time they hear 
 an Independent Labour Party speaker deal with the 
 subject, or they speak to an Independent Labour Party 
 member, they will find out that the ' Standard ' has been 
 guilty of misrepresentation. 
 
 If Mr. Arnold- Forster desired to have such Independent 
 Labour Party publications as would place him in possession 
 of the general teachings of the Independent Labour Party, 
 why did he not make application to me as the Secretary 
 of the organisation ? I should have only been too pleased 
 to have helped him with such publications. Any bona 
 fide inquirer into Independent Labour Party views would 
 have done this. 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 Francis Johnson. 
 
 On comparison of the foregoing letter with the com- 
 munication from the same writer which we printed last 
 Saturday, two remarkable omissions will be noticed. In 
 the first letter Mr. Johnson made the sweeping declaration 
 that ' neither we nor any other Socialist organisation hold ' 
 the ideas of class hatred and class tyranny to be found in 
 the pamphlet ' The Class War.' The evidence which we 
 produced as to the pamphlet on Saturday on this point was 
 incontrovertible. On this point Mr. Johnson now says 
 nothing. 
 
 Secondly, Mr. Johnson's charge was one of bad faith 
 against Mr. Arnold-Forster. His words were : ' He quotes 
 from a pamphlet entitled "The Class War," which he says 
 is a publication of the I.L.P. This statement is absolutely
 
 APPENDIX 225 
 
 untrue.' We showed that Mr. Arnold-Forster's quotations 
 were from a pamphlet bearing as its publishers' imprint 
 upon its face the names : 'Peterhead : The Clerkhill Press; 
 London : The Twentieth Century Press (Limited), LL.P. 
 Publication Department.' This evidence surely demanded 
 a withdrawal of the charge of bad faith. On this point also 
 Mr. Johnson now says nothing. 
 
 As to his present letter, apart from the comment on 
 Mr. Arnold-Forster, which is a mere red herring drawn 
 across the track, Mr. Johnson's position is this : He 
 declares that he has ' not seen a copy of the new edition 
 which you (the 'Standard') say is now on sale,' and that 'if 
 our (Independent Labour Party) name is on it, it is there 
 entirely without our permission.' The graceful doubts 
 contained in his ' which you say ' and ' if it is there ' can be 
 settled by anyone who cares to ask for a copy of 'The 
 Class War ' at the ofifice of the Social Democratic Federa- 
 tion, 21A Maiden I^ne, Charing Cross. The pamphlet 
 ' The Class War,' is on the list of publications of that body 
 issued in October of this year (and, for all that we know, 
 may have appeared on earlier lists). That Mr. Johnson 
 should be unaware that this important Socialist organisation 
 has been circulating the pamphlet, and including it in its 
 list of 'Books on Socialism, or Treating of Various Subjects 
 from the Socialist Standpoint,' for at least three months, 
 and that he should have been unaware that the pamplilet 
 has been in circulation with the name of the Independent 
 Labour Party prominently upon it, leave us to marvel at the 
 manner in which the Independent Labour Party conducts 
 its operations. But other people who have not the ad- 
 vantage of his imperfect knowledge can .scarcely be blamed 
 for taking the pamphlet for what it professes with all this 
 degree of publicity to be — an official publication of the 
 Independent Labour Party. 
 
 Q
 
 226 ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY 
 
 We shall, however, watch with interest the development 
 of Mr. Johnson's undertaking to ' take up the matter with 
 the author.' 
 
 On December 28 Mr. James Leatham sent a long 
 communication to the ' Standard,' of which the greater part 
 has no relevance to the point at issue. In the course of 
 his letter, however, he makes the following statements : 
 
 (i) Mr. Leatham is himself a member of the I.L.P. 
 
 (2) The LL.P bought 2,000 copies of Mr. Leatham's 
 pamphlets, including copies of ' The Class War.' 
 
 (3) The I.L.P. is a distributor of 'The Class War.' 
 
 (4) 'The LLP.' (according to Mr. Leatham) 'is the 
 only Socialist party in Europe which does not accept, but 
 explicitly repudiates, the principle of ' The Class War.'
 
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