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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 SOCIALISM AND POLITICS 
 AN ADDRESS AND A PRO- 
 GRAMME BY J. W. MACKAIL 
 
 HAMMERSMITH PUBLISHING SOCIETY 
 
 RIVER HOUSE, HAMMERSMITH 
 
 MDCCCCIII
 
 This Address was given in Clifford's Inn Hall 
 by invitation of the Metropolitan Council of the 
 Independent Labour Party the 5th of February 
 
 MDCCCCII. 
 
 I
 
 \ TT MAY PERHAPS BE WITHIN THE 
 
 d JL recollecftion of some of this audience, that a 
 
 ^ year ago, in speakingof the final belief & practice 
 
 r^ of the greatest of English Socialists, I summed 
 
 up his view as to the work & duty of the party in 
 
 a single sentence indicating a single task. Their 
 
 primary duty, their all-absorbing work, was to 
 
 make Socialists: that, and that only. 
 
 The twelve months which have passed since 
 then have not in the least altered my view as to 
 the purport of the dodrine thus laid down by 
 William Morris — and indeed he expressed it so 
 often, so clearly, and so emphatically, that no 
 doubt with regard to that is possible — nor my 
 belief, if that were a matter of importance, that 
 in taking up this ground he was profoundly 
 right. But in asking you to consider with me 
 this evening the relation between Socialism 
 and Politics, I should like to look at the whole 
 question in a somewhat fuller and larger way : 
 partly in relation to history, that is, to ascer- 
 tained fads : partly in relation to principle, that 
 is, to the ideas behind and beyond fad:s : and 
 partly also, though for the most part incident- 
 ally and by implication, in relation to what is 
 called pradical policy, that is, the application of 
 principles or ideas to particular occasions and 
 circumstances. 
 
 3 

 
 The subjed; is so large that no one will expedl 
 me to offer a complete view of it. The problems 
 it raises are so complex that no one, I hope, will 
 exped: an attempt to settle them off hand. It 
 will be sufficient if we can to a certain extent 
 define the position in the light of theory and of 
 history, and give some additional clearness to 
 questions which are always more or less ob- 
 scurely and confusedly before our minds. For, 
 once a question is clearly understood, we are at 
 least some way, and often more than halfway, 
 towards the answer ; and what we have to do 
 daily in pradtice, or so it seems to me, is to be 
 perpetually training & accustoming our minds 
 to principles. If we could but move habitually 
 in the atmosphere of great ideas, our practice 
 would indeed still differ widely, as human ac- 
 tion always will ; it might still, even among the 
 most faithful, fall far short of our purpose. But 
 we should at least have lifted ourselves one step 
 up towards that community of ideas which is 
 the substrudlure and the life of all realised or 
 realisable communism. 
 
 In considering the relation of Socialism to 
 Politics, the first thing that naturally occurs to 
 one to ask is, what these two terms mean; and 
 the first obvious answer is, that they both ought 
 to mean the same thing. Politics is an ancient 
 
 4
 
 word of Greek origin : Socialism a modern word 
 of Latin origin. The word Politics, as used by 
 the Greeks, meant the theory, and prad:ice of 
 humaaiife as lived in th.^ polls — the city, or 
 state, or society, in which it as a matter of fadl 
 exists, and outside of which it cannot exist for 
 any length of time or to any particular purpose. 
 City, state, society are all three of them Latin 
 words, which include among them the wider and 
 vaguer meaning of the Greek word: and from 
 the last of the three come the terms Social and 
 Socialism. Socialism and Politics ought then 
 to mean much the same. They ought to: per- 
 haps some day they will : but they do not. So- 
 cialism is very generally regarded as an attack 
 upon the city, upon the state, and aboveall, upon 
 society, with a view to their destruction. As for 
 Politics, whether in theory or practice, one is 
 often reduced to the famous definition in Pick- 
 wick, that it surprises by itself. Hence the need 
 of trying to ascertain the proper meaning of each 
 term and its relation to the other. 
 
 Politics includes in its meaning the whole or- 
 ganic life of mankind outside of the individual. 
 Where two orthree are gathered together, there 
 it is in the midstof them. Where many millions 
 are dispersed abroad, there it embraces them in 
 larger and larger circles, even to the end of the 
 
 5
 
 world. The politics of any moment in any coun- 
 try is the process or struggle going on in the 
 organic life of that country, through which and 
 in virtue of which that life exists. 
 
 Socialism is the application to this organic life 
 of certain ideas, partly economic, partly moral, 
 few and simple in themselves, but multiform in 
 their application, and changing their material 
 embodiment with the general periodic move- 
 ment of human affairs. On the economic side, 
 its central ideaisTHECOMMUNISATION, 
 THE PLACING IN THE HANDS OF 
 THECOMMUNITY, UNDER THECOM- 
 MON CONTROL AND FOR THE COM- 
 MON GOOD, OFTHE WEALTH WHICH 
 THE COMMUNITY HAS INHERITED 
 ORCREATED,AND OFTHE MACHIN- 
 ERY FOR PRESERVING & INCREAS- 
 ING THAT WEALTH. On its moral side, 
 its central idea is THE BROTHERHOOD 
 OF MANKIND, & THE UNIMPEDED 
 EXERCISE BY ALL OF THE HIGH- 
 EST FUNCTIONS & FACULTIES OF 
 WHICHTHEIRNATUREISCAPABLE. 
 The Socialism of any moment in any country is 
 the application of these two ideas to human life 
 as it then and there exists. 
 
 Therefore, in order to appreciate the import 
 6
 
 which Politics have to Socialists, or which So- 
 cialism has to politicians, here at the present 
 day, it is desirable to go back some way in or- 
 der to trace the general course of both in times 
 preceding our own. It is not necessary to go 
 back to first beginnings. These are as old as the 
 human race itself: and experience leads one to 
 have some distrust in those specious epitomes 
 of human history which sum up a thousand 
 years in a couple of sentences. It will be suffi- 
 cient to begin nearer home, and to go back just 
 beyond the beginning of the late reign, to the 
 year 1835 ; in which, it would appear, the word 
 Socialists was invented, to describe a move- 
 ment and a dodlrine which until then had been 
 too slight to require or suggest any specific 
 name. 
 
 At the beginning of the Vidorian age, the 
 great revolution which created the modern world 
 had just worked out its first results. The poli- 
 tics of the time before the revolution had been 
 very simple except as regarded international 
 relations. Within this island, as within each of 
 the other dynastic units into which Europe was 
 divided, the middle and lower classes were in 
 subjedion to a somewhat easy-going aristo- 
 cracy. The workers who constituted the mass 
 of the population had a status without any adive 
 
 7
 
 rights ; they were subjedl to all the inconveni- 
 ences incident to being governed with habitu- 
 ally gross negligence and occasional savage 
 cruelty, but on the whole kept dodging along 
 in the shelter of many remnants of the kindlier 
 construdlive side of feudalism, and as far as can 
 be judged, living a scanty but not unhappy life 
 except where differences of race or religion came 
 between a people and its rulers. 
 
 On that world came the revolution, in its two 
 phases, industrial and political. It swept away, 
 for good and evil, the remains of the mediaeval 
 habits and beliefs that had supported what was 
 left of the mediaeval organisation of society. 
 From the chaos issued the two great guiding 
 forces of the nineteenth century, democracy and 
 capitalism. Their relations to each other, and 
 to the remnants of the system they displaced, 
 constitute the politics of the nineteenth century. 
 
 When in 1832 the territorial aristocracy abdi- 
 cated, and handed over the control of the State 
 to the middle classes, the new governing power 
 was occupied, for about a generation, in abolish- 
 ing, bit by bit, the remains of ancient privilege, 
 whether of birth or religious creed or social sta- 
 tus, and in clearing away the barriers which 
 either old tradition or legislative enadlmentset 
 in the way of unchecked individualism, and the 
 8
 
 organisation of capital in such forms as it found 
 most suitable for its own economic objedls. At 
 the same time the enthusiasm of the new age 
 spent itself in enlarging the sphere of thought, 
 in investigating nature and history with fresh 
 interest, & in the humane endeavour to remedy 
 what were then believed to be the temporary 
 social evils incidental to a period of transition. 
 The Factory Adt of 1833 and the Poor Law 
 Adl of 1834 mark the beginning of this period, 
 which not unfitly ends with the Education Adt 
 of 1870. During it, thegoverning middle class, 
 after much fluctuation, settled down into the 
 two parties known as Liberals and Conserva- 
 tives. The former professed principles of un- 
 checked individualism, but its ad:ual influence 
 was towards freedom, and its acftual legislation 
 on the whole beneficial. The latter, after some 
 half-hearted attempts to take the side of the 
 people against the capitalists, and the side of 
 order of some sort against economic anarchy, 
 threw in their lot with capitalism and relapsed 
 into the general position of opponents of reform. 
 The feelingof the country was throughout these 
 thirty-five years, from 1835 to 1870, predom- 
 inantly Liberal. It was the epoch not in Eng- 
 land alone, but throughout the world generally, 
 of Liberal ascendancy. People looked forward 
 
 b 9
 
 to the gradual and peaceful triumph of a com- 
 plete democracy, and anticipated under it, not 
 only the end of war between Governments, but 
 diffused well-being among the peoples. In the 
 way of social organisation, the country was still 
 living on its inheritance from the past. The 
 menace that lay in capitalism was not fully real- 
 ised. "The exploitation of the world by associa- 
 tion," a phrase which has since taken on it a 
 sinister and tragic meaning, was adlually the 
 formula, in France and England, of the earlier 
 Socialists. Legislation to counteract many of 
 its most obvious oppressions and injustices was 
 busily carried on. There was a sanguine belief 
 that further legislation in the same sense from 
 time to time would be easy, and would effed: all 
 that was necessary. If capitalism should net 
 in the middle class electorate, it could still be 
 checked, men thought, by extending the fran- 
 chise to the working population. This was ac- 
 tually done for the urban districts in 1867: and 
 there was still a large reserve in the rural lab- 
 ourers, that could be called up if necessary. 
 
 In the history of Socialism, these thirty-five 
 years are a period of brilliant theorising and 
 manifold experiment. It was only towards the 
 end of them that Socialist thinkers settled down 
 to work on the formation of a fixed dod;rine 
 10
 
 based on the study of ascertained fadls. Until 
 then, the relation of Socialism to Politics was 
 either purely theoretic or violently revolution- 
 ary. The various experiments towards form- 
 ing working models of Socialist communities 
 — those of Fourier, Proudhon, Louis Blanc in 
 France, of Owen and the Christian Socialists of 
 1850 in England — were after all only museum 
 models, curious enough, but with little relation 
 to the great movement of the world. Among 
 the confusions of Central Europe in the early 
 sixties, Lassalle, a Socialist leader of brilliant 
 but undisciplined genius, began to rear in the 
 last two years of his life a sort of fairy palace 
 of constructive Socialism. At his death it col- 
 lapsed as suddenly as it had risen. But it had 
 during that brief and remarkable period been a 
 political force of the first order, and entered into 
 all sorts of relations with adlual politics. Not 
 only so : but in his hands Socialism had taken 
 the fervour and the spiritual power of a new 
 religion. Kings listened to him ; whole cities 
 poured forth from their gates to welcome him. 
 It seemed for a while that a new world was in 
 birth. 
 
 But the false dawn which thus flashed & faded 
 away was the prelude to the adlual morning, 
 breaking grey and heavy among sullen clouds. 
 
 II
 
 Within a month of Lassalle's death, the Inter- 
 national was founded in London. Three years 
 later, Marx published his treatise on Capital- 
 ism. The first of these incidents denotes the 
 beginning of a concerted feeling and movement 
 among the workers of all nations. The second 
 (the defedts and errors of Marx' book do not here 
 concern us) denotes the foundation of Socialism 
 as an indudtive science, and the constitution of 
 Socialists as a political party. Since then, that 
 is to say for the last thirty-five years, the poli- 
 tical adtion of the nations of Europe has been 
 conducted with distind: reference, whether in 
 the way of sympathy or of antagonism, to So- 
 cialist dodlrine as in itself a political force ; and 
 conversely. Socialists of nearly every school 
 have found themselves brought into a close re- 
 lation with politics. It seems probable, that to 
 future historians the period of between sixty and 
 seventy years which we are considering, and to 
 which the single long reign of the late Queen 
 gives, in English eyes at all events, an imposing 
 and irresistible unity, will appear to be sharply 
 divided at its central point. It is generally re- 
 cognised that the war of 1870 has made a pro- 
 found difference ever since in the external or 
 international politics of the world. With it, the 
 era of triumphant Liberalism ended, and a new 
 12
 
 age of blood and iron began. But its effeds upon 
 the internal or social politics of Europe were 
 not less profound. To it were dired:ly due the 
 Commune of Paris, and the growth of the Social 
 Democracy in the newly created organism of 
 the German Empire. Here in England, people 
 were slow to realise that any great change had 
 happened. But it gradually became apparent 
 that an age of reaction was setting in. In the 
 previous generation, the reactionary party were 
 being permeated by the ideas of progress. Even 
 when they came into power they held it by a pre- 
 carious tenure, and only on condition of carry- 
 ing on the general progressive policy of their 
 opponents. It was through the hands of Con- 
 servative Governments that the Liberal Party 
 repealed the Corn Laws in 1846 and democrat- 
 ised the franchise in 1867. In the generation 
 since 1870, the course of events has been almost 
 exadtly reversed. Liberalism became perme- 
 ated by the ideas of reaction. Liberal Govern- 
 ments have been several times in office, but 
 they have been there by sufferance, and have 
 been almost powerless except by tacit under- 
 standings with their opponents. The general 
 result was, that politics for a long time became 
 more and more unreal, although, as if to make 
 up for this, political controversies were con- 
 
 13
 
 dudledwith all or more than all the old violence 
 of language and acrimony of abuse. Nearly 
 twenty years ago, Matthew Arnold, who had 
 a curiously dispassionate way of looking at his 
 fellow-countrymen, wrote these remarkable 
 words : " I have no very ardent interest in 
 politics in their present state, in this country. 
 What interests me is English civilisation; and 
 our politics, in their present state, do not seem 
 to me to have much bearing upon that." 
 
 Since then, the right wing of the Liberal 
 Party, including the Whigs of the old govern- 
 ing class and the middle-class capitalists, have 
 drifted in large numbers, with bag and bag- 
 gage, over to the other side, which they have 
 proceeded to permeate, to a greater degree ap- 
 parently than the other side altogether like. 
 The left wing, the Radical Party, which had 
 been the propelling force of Liberalism, has 
 fallen apart into two sed;ions ; the one holding 
 up, with much constancy and energy, their an- 
 cient banners over a part of the field from which 
 the combatants seem to have disappeared; the 
 other gravitating towards Socialism, with the 
 ideas of which they are largely infedled, but 
 towards which they are in a very perplexed atti- 
 tude of mind — as, it is only fair to say, Social- 
 ists likewise are towards them. What, mean- 
 
 i4
 
 while, has been happening to the Socialist cause 
 itself? 
 
 Before 1870 and for some years after, there 
 was no Socialist Party in England, though 
 there may have been groups of Socialists. So- 
 cialism was generally thought of as a thing that 
 happened abroad. Of the three main forms 
 which its political theory has taken — namely, 
 State-Socialism, Communism, and Anarchism 
 — the last has always been somewhat alien from 
 the stolid and cautious English temper, with 
 its love of compromise and its hatred of logic. 
 Communism had only come before people in the 
 shape of fragmentary experiments condudled 
 by what might almost be called private enter- 
 prise, and quite remote from politics. State- 
 Socialism was the only theory which stood out 
 at all prominently to public view. A large num- 
 ber of Radicals of the working class found in 
 it something that seemed to illuminate and 
 explain what they had been vaguely feeling to- 
 wards. After the break-up of the International 
 in 1873 and the enforced or voluntary exile to 
 England of many Continental Socialists from 
 under the reactionary Governments of the 
 French Republic and the German & Austrian 
 Empires, London became a gathering point for 
 all sections of the party. The Liberal Govern- 
 
 15
 
 ment which was in office from 1880 to 1885 
 shared to a considerable extent in the wave of 
 readlionary feeling which was passing through 
 all Europe. Thus the Radicals were driven 
 towards some sort of understanding with the 
 new dodrine ; and at the same time there arose 
 among the other party the important movement 
 towards a construd:ive policy known by the 
 name of Tory Democracy. The golden days 
 of illusion followed, which most of us can re- 
 member ; the days when a new world seemed 
 to be just across the threshold ; when every 
 morning brought Socialism new converts or 
 martyrs; when, among a body weak in num- 
 bers and experience but high in enthusiasm, 
 there rose what we can now see to have been 
 fantastic projedls and extravagant hopes ; when 
 the Social Revolution was confidently fixed for 
 the year 1889, and the millennium for 1890. 
 The policy of Parliamentarianism was then de- 
 nounced, less on grounds of principle, than be- 
 cause it seemed to so many a slow and cumbrous 
 way of reaching a result that could be attained 
 much more swiftly, as well as much more com- 
 pletely, through revolution — not the secular re- 
 volutionofages, but thebrief cataclysm followed 
 by a new heaven and a new earth which was a 
 fixed idea with Marx, and which in many people's 
 16
 
 minds had enwound itself inextricably with his 
 economic theory, if indeed it were not the single 
 part of his teaching that they fully grasped or 
 welcomed. 
 
 The Marxian idea of revolution has, I sup- 
 pose, now taken its place in history among the 
 ranks of obsolete theories. Of whatever nature 
 the revolution will be towards which Socialists 
 now work, and in which they have an unquench- 
 able ultimate belief, it will hardly be of this. 
 The revolution is not an adl, but a process. 
 So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should 
 cast seed into the ground, and should sleep and 
 rise night and day, and the seed should spring 
 up and grow, he knows not how. The kingdom 
 of God comes not with observation: neither 
 shall they say, Lo here ! or, Lo there ! for be- 
 hold, the kingdom of God is within you. 
 
 The notion then was that of capturing the 
 machine. It was to obtain control over the 
 organism of society by a mixture of adroitness, 
 prestige, and main force, and start it running 
 in a new direcflion. But capitalist society was 
 no mere passive structure of rods and cylinders. 
 It was alive; it had the power of growth and 
 the instindl of self-preservation ; it adapted 
 itself to every change in its environment, and 
 drove the men who called themselves its drivers, 
 c 17
 
 To Socialism as a body of economic dodtrine it 
 opposed the iron law of wages. To Socialism 
 as an organisation it opposed a society already 
 organised, whose structure became, year by 
 year, more perfe(5l under the pressure of the 
 struggle for existence, and the inflexible law 
 of the survival of the fittest. To Socialism as 
 a revolt of the human instindts against squalor, 
 monotony, and misery it was able to oppose a 
 thousand palliative measures, dictated by good- 
 nature, by refinement, often by an ardent phil- 
 anthropy ; and not, as was once too freely said 
 or thought, by fear. 
 
 I would lay stress on this last point. For 
 it must not be forgotten that capitalism is no 
 force external to the human race. We are all. 
 Socialists and non-Socialists alike, members of 
 a capitalistic society ; and that society consists 
 wholly of human beings, endowed from birth 
 with some sense of beauty, with some instind: 
 towards justice and mercy, with conscience, 
 honour, religion. The result is that strange 
 paradox of a society more and more helplessly 
 bound to the wheels of capitalism, and yet more 
 and more willing and eager to apply remedies 
 to the ghastly results which the reign of capi- 
 talism brings. The case is not uncommon of a 
 man whose whole place and work in the social 
 i8
 
 system consists in the exploitation of labour, 
 but with whom this is almost without his know- 
 ledge or almost against his will ; and who is 
 continually engaged, with the part of him that 
 is really alive, in trying to make the world less 
 cruel, less ugly, less unhappy; in lightening, 
 at such points as he can reach, the pressure of 
 the system which he is helpless to alter, and 
 does not wish altered. This is perhaps one of 
 the most tragic features of a capitalist society, 
 that the best of its energy and the highest of 
 its virtue has to be devoted to the elaborate, 
 and after all the ineffedlive, undoing of its own 
 work. Of the war between capitalism & labour, 
 it may be said with some measure of truth, not 
 only that it is inevitable, but that it is con- 
 ducted with unexampled humanity. Why it 
 should be inevitable, or what is the sum of the 
 cruelty & suffering, the waste & shame, after 
 which all this humanity toils at such a distance, 
 is another and a graver matter. Perhaps three- 
 fourths of modern legislation has for its real 
 objedt to set barriers against that vast pressure 
 underwhichthe rich must needs become always 
 richer and the poor always poorer, and both 
 classes, rich & poor alike, must always live fur- 
 ther and further away from happiness. To So- 
 cialists alone it has been given to foresee a time 
 
 19
 
 when there shall be neither poor nor rich, when 
 war between classes, like war between nations, 
 shall not be inevitable but inconceivable, and 
 when a humanity, not then unexampled ; but as 
 natural and simple in its life as the drawing of 
 one's breath, shall no longer have to weary itself 
 out on the desperate task of patching up, but flow 
 forth in endless and unimpeded energy to in- 
 crease the beauty, the joy, the well-being of the 
 whole world. ABOVE AND BEYOND 
 SOCIALISM AS AN ECONOMIC DOC- 
 TRINE, AS A CONDITION OF SOCIETY, 
 AS A PROTEST AGAINST MISERY, 
 STANDS SOCIALISM AS AN IDEAL 
 AND A RELIGION. 
 
 This ideal, this religion, is a thing indepen- 
 dent of organisations and policies. Whether a 
 man is a Socialist in the inmost meaning of 
 the term, or not, depends not on what party he 
 belongs to, or what line of political adtion he 
 takes, but simply on whether or not he has this 
 religion within him. The true Socialist Party 
 consists of all people who have : nor will there 
 ever be a united Socialist Party until all the 
 world is Socialist. There will be no question 
 then as to the relations between Socialism and 
 Politics; for the two will then have reverted to 
 their common meaning, and be one and the 
 same thing. 
 20
 
 I have wandered far from my immediate sub- 
 ject and returned to it by a rather circuitous 
 road. But now to revert to the questions as 
 to the relation of Socialism to the Politics of 
 the present day, which must be continually 
 pressing on the mind of every thoughtful So- 
 cialist. 
 
 The possible kinds of this relation, accord- 
 ing to any abstrad: or logical division, are many. 
 Pradlically, they may be reduced to three, each 
 of which, while not wholly excluding the others 
 in certain cases, has a general unity sufficient 
 to make it at least a basis for concerted and 
 consistent adion. These three methods do not 
 cover the whole ground of pradlice. Not only 
 are there various degrees of compromise be- 
 tween them, but beyond them on either hand is 
 a large region of practice as to which no dif- 
 ference of opinion can arise. Outside of all con- 
 troversies as to method there lies, on the one 
 hand, that first, and last, and perpetual work 
 of making Socialists; on the other hand, the 
 fixed habit, just as applicable to politics as to 
 individual daily life, of distinguishing sharply 
 between what is right and what is wrong, of 
 taking pains to do right instead of doingwrong, 
 and of not deliberately doing wrong under any 
 plea or pretext whatever. But as regards that 
 
 21
 
 part of life which bears a diredl relation to poli- 
 tics, local or national, there are broadly these 
 three principles. First, that principle well put 
 in words which I quote from the last number 
 of the "Independent Labour Party News," that 
 Socialists should confine themselves to the 
 work of preaching the pure gospel and to hold- 
 ing up the ideal steadily, uninfluenced by any 
 compromise or alliance. Second, the principle 
 of an alliance with the advanced wing of that 
 party which calls itself variously Progressive, 
 Radical or Liberal, on a basis of compromise 
 and mutual permeation. Third, the principle 
 of seeking diredt representation of Socialism, 
 in the House of Commons and in the lesser 
 local councils of the kingdom, by a group of 
 Socialist members holding itself apart from 
 and independent of all other parties. These may 
 respectively be called, as regards politics, the 
 method of abstention, the method of permea- 
 tion, and the method of interference. 
 
 Before proceeding to consider them further 
 there are two remarks I should like to make : 
 in the first place, that for all Socialists alike 
 who live in the world as it now is, some amount 
 of compromise, some inconsistency between 
 their dodlrine and their practice, is inevitable. 
 The same is true of other classes of men as 
 
 22
 
 well. No Christian, for example, actually lives, 
 however sincere his belief, in accordance with 
 the dodlrines of the Christian religion. Some 
 come nearer to doing so than the rest, and they 
 are the saints. No capitalist adtually lives, even 
 so far as the law would permit him, on a wholly 
 capitalistic basis. Some come nearer to doing 
 so than the rest; & they are the unpaid agitators 
 and the standing objed:-lessons of Socialism. 
 The other remark I would make is, that I 
 exclude from consideration a wrecking policy; 
 that of the deliberate destrud;ion of civilisation, 
 such as it is, the good with the bad ; of a war 
 of revenge and subjugation against capital ; a 
 policy of opposing measures of social ameliora- 
 tion (even though they be only palliative and 
 fall short of the true remedy), in order that the 
 unchecked horrors of capitalist control may 
 swell to such a growth as will make a violent 
 revolution inevitable. Such a policy may have 
 been advocated or adopted by men maddened 
 by injury. It has been rejedled by all the best 
 Socialists, not so much because it is foolish, as 
 because it is wrong. So that the preacher of the 
 pure gospel & holder up of the ideal need have 
 no quarrel with his fellows who go to work in 
 politics : nor need they have any quarrel with 
 him. 
 
 23
 
 Now, within the last few years there may be 
 traced — doubtfully perhaps : I would not insist 
 on this with too much confidence — a certain 
 increase of reality in English politics, both na- 
 tional and local. The penetration of Socialist 
 ideas has already gone so far that a certain 
 amount of Socialist or semi-Socialist work is 
 actually being done through a capitalist Parlia- 
 ment and capitalist municipalities. The more 
 of such work is done, by whatever hands, the 
 greater is the advance made in what is the 
 present-day work of the Socialist Party, educa- 
 tion towards revolution. Even what is called 
 gas and water Socialism is not without this 
 educational side. The nationalisation, or mu- 
 nicipalisation, of large public services consti- 
 tutes a series of useful objecl-lessons towards 
 the communisation of capital and machinery. 
 The extension of a general control by Govern- 
 ment over the conditions of industry is a step, 
 though but a small one, on the way towards 
 the freeing of labour. The provision, by de- 
 finite enad;ment, of a living wage both for 
 workers and for those who cannot or ought 
 not to work — a provision which the younger 
 generation may possibly live to see — may re- 
 sult in so great a bettering of the physical life 
 of the people as will enable the preaching of 
 24
 
 Socialism to be carried on under far more fa- 
 vourable conditions. Among men and women 
 decently fed, housed, clothed, instructed, and 
 leisured, not dull with hunger, sodden with 
 ignorance, debauched with feeble and vicious 
 excitement, it may become, instead of a gospel 
 of discontent and revolt, a gospel of hope and 
 progress ; though still, and still as much as 
 ever, the hope of and the progress towards 
 revolution. 
 
 If, then, the amelioration of the conditions 
 of labour through the public opinion and the 
 legislative adtion of a capitalist society all 
 works towards the interest of Socialism, a po- 
 licy of mere abstention from political life can- 
 not be universally applicable, and, for most 
 Socialists, the question comes to be how far, 
 in given circumstances, a policy of interference 
 in politics is either practicable or useful. Can 
 they help the general cause of Socialism for- 
 ward by throwing in their lot with that party, 
 or that secftion, or that organisation, which 
 among a capitalist society most favours pro- 
 gress, and by seeking to permeate it more and 
 more with Socialist dodlrine? Can they obtain 
 a more diredl expression for their views and a 
 wider currency for their teaching, through re- 
 turning individual Socialists as members of 
 d 25
 
 the local councils and of the great council of 
 the nation? Either course has its dangers. 
 Against the first, there is the old rock of in- 
 trigue on which so many ships have split : the 
 risks ofcorruption, of slackening of enthusiasm 
 and weakening of principle through compro- 
 mise : the constant tendency to go off on side 
 issues : the certainty that a permeating process 
 will not be all on one side ; and the possibility 
 at least, that a gas and water Socialism, cut 
 away from its deepest roots, may forget its 
 highest aims, and itself dissolve into mere gas 
 and water. Against the second, there are the 
 considerations, that the party would thus con- 
 demn itself, for years to come, to an isolation 
 ill borne by small numbers and puny resources ; 
 that, as regards the House of Commons at all 
 events, very few Socialists could possibly get 
 into Parliament, or be sure of staying in it if 
 they did: that the failure of the representa- 
 tives of any movement to produce tangible or 
 impressive results is apt to read: unfavourably 
 on the movement ; and lastly, that on the 
 Socialist members themselves, the picked men 
 of their party, there would be imposed a life 
 artificial, wearisome, full of temptations, full 
 of disappointments, and perhaps beyond their 
 strength. Many a man has got into Parlia- 
 26
 
 ment only to find that he was doing better 
 work out of it, and to wish himself back on the 
 open road. The fad: is, that representation in 
 Parliament, like the numerical superiority of 
 one party to another in Parliament, is not what 
 really moulds and turns the main channel of 
 legislative adlion. What does that, is public 
 opinion : and to public opinion Parliament is 
 acutely and tremulously sensitive ; while the 
 opinion of some half dozen of its own members 
 is a thing it can cheerfully negledl. 
 
 Now, as it will be for a long time yet, the 
 Socialist Party in England is numerically small 
 everywhere, and only exists at all, for practical 
 purposes, in a few of the large centres of popula- 
 tion. To be frank, I must add that when con- 
 siderations as to its secondary work in politics 
 arise, one is not able to give a very satisfactory 
 answer to the question how it is performing 
 its primary work, that of making Socialists. 
 Among the working class it does not spread 
 fast. Among the wealthier and more educated 
 — for they, no less than the poor, have need of 
 the new gospel — its work has barely begun. It 
 is through the education of opinion, among rich 
 and poor alike, that the only way lies towards 
 that common well-being which shall have need 
 of neither riches nor poverty. The old error 
 
 27
 
 still lurks in some minds, that Socialism is 
 something which can be imposed on society by 
 force or palmed off on society by clever manage- 
 ment. But the prospects of Socialism would 
 be poor indeed, if its objedl were to beat down 
 & hold down the forces of wealth, intelligence, 
 and trained capacity by the forces of poverty 
 and ignorance. 
 
 On the other hand, dire(5t political adlion may 
 be and sometimes is a means of spreading 
 dod:rine. Even as regards the specific matter of 
 Parliamentary eledlions, there seems no valid 
 reason why, from this point of view, a Socialist 
 candidate should not be regularly put forward in 
 every constituency where there is any consider- 
 able nucleus of Socialists, irrespective of any 
 other candidates or candidatures whatsoever. 
 Such a candidate would hardly ever, as things 
 stand now, get into Parliament ; nor, in view 
 of the considerations I have been urging, would 
 it matter so very much whether he did or not. 
 As the number of such cases grew, the moral 
 effecft of many unsuccessful attacks would be 
 equivalent to that of a few showy successes ; 
 for it is not the local vidlory or the local defeat 
 that matters, but the spread of the dodlrine. It 
 cannot be doubted that a substantial Socialist 
 vote throughout the country would impress 
 28
 
 public feeling and impel public adlion in a very- 
 marked degree, even though not a single Social- 
 ist candidate obtained a seat in Parliament. 
 
 At the present moment such a course of adlion 
 is impracticable in the vast majority of cases, for 
 various reasons, which pretty much sum them- 
 selves up in this, that there are not enough So- 
 cialists to do it. A Socialist candidature in fifty 
 constituencies of Great Britain would certainly 
 for years to come be a liberal allowance — so 
 liberal that some might regard it as almost fan- 
 tastic — but that would still leave five hundred 
 more unprovided for. In some of these, com- 
 promise & alliance would be not only possible 
 but clearly desirable. The amount of common 
 ground between Socialists and an ordinary 
 political candidate on the progressive side, as re- 
 gards work towards thebettermentofthepeople, 
 is often sogreat that Socialists, whether as indi- 
 viduals or as a party, might cheerfully give him 
 adive support. There is nothingintheprinciples 
 of his belief which debars a Socialist, as things 
 are, from supporting one capitalist candidate as 
 against another, if the return of the former will 
 to a substantial degree help to promote the 
 social changes which may form a basis for the 
 enlarged, purified and deepened Socialism of 
 the future. But there will be many cases, prob- 
 
 29
 
 ably the majority, in which the candidates put 
 forward by both political parties profess a doc- 
 trine and policy almost equally alien from all 
 that Socialists believe or respedt. It is im- 
 possible, as things are now arranged, to vote 
 impartially against both. It is true that people 
 desirous of doing so might go to the poll and 
 deliberately record spoiled votes, and such a 
 course would have at least one great merit — it 
 would keep men up to the sense of civic right 
 and duty, and check the tendency, already great, 
 towards sulking, and afinal state of mere apathy 
 towards the common national life. But, while 
 not unworthy of serious consideration, the plan 
 is subjedl to obvious abuses, and might have to 
 be dismissed as too fanciful for use. On the 
 other hand, to bring the Socialist vote into the 
 market, to hold it in suspense, and use it as 
 a negotiable counter in view of some remote 
 contingency or refined strategy, is a policy 
 that comes too near intrigue to be either safe or 
 quite honourable. In such cases it is a grave 
 question whether the only safe rule is not inflex- 
 ible abstention. But here, as elsewhere, one 
 is continually being brought back to the old 
 point, that it is no use being over-engrossed 
 with organising until there is something more 
 to organise, and that what is to be done, 
 
 30
 
 above all and before all, is to go on making 
 Socialists. 
 
 We stand on the verge of times in which it is 
 possible that the making of Socialists may start 
 on a wholly new course of expansion. Allow me 
 to quote from the " Manchester Guardian " of 
 3 1 st January last the following striking passage, 
 written in connection with the returnof a Social- 
 ist, from a constituency hitherto represented by 
 a Liberal, to an Imperial Parliament: 
 
 " It is pitiable to see the once powerful and 
 generous National Liberal Party ranged among 
 the forces of reaction, and defeated at the polls 
 as an enemy to the policy which it advocated so 
 powerfully thirty years ago. But ever since that 
 fatal day when a section of the National Liber- 
 als deserted their principles the party has stead- 
 ily declined in numbers and influence. It has 
 wiped its slate clean, with the result that the work 
 of spreading Liberal principles and making head 
 against the Tory reaction has devolved upon the 
 Radicals & Socialists, & the National Liberal 
 Party is doomed to disappear." 
 
 The Imperial Parliament referred to is that, 
 not of the United Kingdom, but of the German 
 Empire. But even from the Germans we may in 
 this, as in other matters, perhaps learn a lesson. 
 We are accustomed, ever since the start that this 
 
 31
 
 countrytook at the industrial revolution,tothink 
 of ourselves as a generation ahead of the other 
 nations of Europe. But Nature has her compen- 
 sations, and in some respedls we may be a gener- 
 ation behind. Here in England, the age of blood 
 and iron has barely begun. It began in Germany 
 thirty years ago, with the pride and wealth that 
 followed the war through which Germans awoke 
 to a sense oftheir imperial destiny. Thirty years 
 of militarism and readion, of forced markets 
 & heavy taxation, might possibly lead, in Eng- 
 land also, to the decay and political extindlion of 
 nineteenth-century Liberalism. It would be the 
 Radicals & Socialists who would then have to 
 carry on the struggle against the armed & organ- 
 ised forces of capitalism. Nor is it inconceivable, 
 that it would then be the business, less of Social- 
 ists to consider an alliance with an already per- 
 meated Radicalism, than of Radicals to consider 
 an alliance and incorporation with an already 
 permeating Socialism. 
 
 I take, simply as an instance that lies closest 
 at hand, the address issued the other day by the 
 Socialist candidate to the eledors of Dewsbury. 
 I do not desire to express any opinion on that 
 address, but only to call attention to a very sig- 
 nificant feature it presents. Two-thirds of that 
 address might have been issued by a Radical 
 
 32
 
 candidate of the Liberal left wing. The other 
 one-third, which is the most important, could 
 not. But why ? It simply states the principles, 
 the ideas, upon which the remaining two-thirds 
 are based. Progressive policy cannot for ever 
 sustain itself upon detached measures without 
 any consistent base of ideas : and the more such 
 a base is sought, the more plain it becomes that 
 it is in the fundamental dodlrine of Socialism 
 that such a base can alone be found. 
 
 And in view of this, it is more than ever 
 necessary that Socialism itself should keep, in 
 these evil days, a pure heart and clean hands. 
 
 33
 
 PROGRAMME
 
 I 
 
 p 
 
 THE OBJECT OF LABOUR IS THE 
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN 
 FACULTIES AND THE PRODUCTION 
 THROUGH THEM OF WHATEVER 
 HUMAN LIFE REQUIRES FOR USE 
 AND ENJOYMENT. 
 
 RIVATE OWNERSHIP OF THE 
 MATERIAL AND MACHINERY OF 
 PRODUCTION, AND COMPETITIVE 
 PRODUCTION FOR PRIVATE PROFIT, 
 ARE FOUNDED ON INJUSTICE AND 
 SUSTAINED BY FORCE, REQUIRE 
 PERPETUAL LEGISLATIVE INTER- 
 FERENCE TO ALLEVIATE THEIR 
 CONSEQUENCES, AND ARE INCON- 
 SISTENT WITH ANY STABLE AND 
 PERMANENT CIVILISATION. 
 It follows from these principles that: 
 
 The land, which is the inheritance for life of 
 each generation of mankind, should be resumed 
 into communal ownership. 
 
 The capitalised wealth by means of which 
 fresh wealth is created, and that fresh wealth as 
 it in turn becomes capital, should be owned and 
 used by the community for the common good. 
 
 To the community each individual or group 
 of individuals should contribute all reasonable 
 
 35
 
 work and service ; from the community each in- 
 dividual or group of individuals should receive 
 all reasonable comfort, instru(5lion, recreation 
 and enjoyment. 
 
 These aims can only be fully attained in a 
 fully Socialised Commonwealth. Our objedl at 
 the present day is to work for such provisional 
 and intermediate ends as seem best adapted to 
 makethebirthofsuchacommonwealth possible. 
 
 As means, among others, to this end, we advo- 
 cate the following measures. 
 
 1 . A maximum eight hours working day and 
 six days working week. 
 
 2. Work at recognised trade union rates with 
 a statutory minimum living wage. 
 
 3. Compulsory powers to all public eled;ive 
 bodies of acquiring land ; of building or main- 
 taining thereon houses for the people, schools, 
 libraries, hospitals and all other kindred insti- 
 tutions; of carrying on industries necessary for 
 the common welfare ; and of levying rates for 
 these purposes. 
 
 4. Adequate provision for sick, disabled, and 
 superannuated workers, for orphan children, 
 and for women whether single or widowed who 
 are otherwise without sufficient support. 
 
 5. Free and secular national education from 
 
 36
 
 the elementary schools to the Universities both 
 inclusive. 
 
 6. The abolitionof child labour for wages, and 
 its stringent regulation when not for wages. 
 
 7. Public ownership and control of all statu- 
 tory monopolies such as railways, tramways, 
 eledlric light and power, gas and water, and the 
 traffic in intoxicating liquors. 
 
 8. Readjustment of taxation so as to propor- 
 tion its burden to the capacity of bearing it. 
 
 9. International courts of arbitration. 
 
 10. Continuous and systematic redudlion of 
 armaments, both military and naval, with a view 
 to their total suppression except so far as re- 
 quired to preserve internal civic order. 
 
 37
 
 Printed at the Chiswick Press : Chades Whit- 
 tingham & Co., Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, 
 London. And sold by the Hammersmith Pub- 
 lishing Society, River House, Hammersmith.
 
 ESSAYS and ADDRESSES towards the 
 formation of CONSTRUCTIVE IDEALS 
 in POLITICS, COMMERCE and EDUCA- 
 TION, published and sold by The Hammer- 
 smith Publishing Society, River House, Ham- 
 mersmith. Price 2s. 6d. net each. 
 
 ECCE MUNDUS. By T. J. COBDEN- 
 SANDERSON. 
 
 WILLIAM MORRIS. ByJ.W. MACKAIL. 
 
 SOCIALISM AND POLITICS. AN AD- 
 DRESS AND A PROGRAMME. 
 By J. W. MACKAIL. 
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. AN 
 ADDRESS. By J. W. MACKAIL. 
 
 Others are in contemplation.
 
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