Part 25
Now it seems to me that these hopefuls allow their desires to distort their reason. The personal equation plays too large a part in the prophecy. They are generally either not yet wholly socialised Radicals or Socialists who have quite recently broken away from mere political Radicalism, and are still largely under the influence of party ties and traditions. They find it almost impossible to believe that the party with which they acted so long, so conscientiously, and with so much satisfaction to themselves, is, after all, not the party to which belongs the future. They are in many cases on terms of intimate private friendship with some of the lesser lights of Radicalism, and occasionally bask in the patronizing radiance shed by the larger luminaries. A certain portion of the “advanced” press is open to them for the expression of their views political. Of course none of these considerations are at all to their discredit, or reflect in the very least upon their motives or sincerity; but they do color their judgment and cause them to reckon without their host. They are a little apt to forget that a good deal of the democratic programme has yet (as I have said above) to be carried. Manhood suffrage, the abolition of the Lords, disestablishment, the payment of members: all these may be, and are, quite logically desired by men who cling as pertinaciously to private capital as the doughtiest knight of the Primrose League. Such men regard the vital articles of the Socialist creed as lying altogether outside the concrete world--“the sphere of practical politics.” Meanwhile the Socialist votes and voices are well within that sphere; and it is every day becoming more evident that without them the above-mentioned aspirations have a meagre chance of realisation. Now, from the eminently business-like Liberal stand-point, there is no reason whatever why concessions should not be made to the Socialist at the polling booth so long as none are asked for in the House of Commons. And even when they are demanded, what easier than to make some burning political question play the part which Home Rule is playing now? Thus an endless vista of office opens before the glowing eyes of the practical politician, those short-sighted eyes which see so little beyond the nose, and which, at that distance only, enable their owner to hit the white.
The Radical is right as usual in counting on the Socialist alliance up to a certain point. For us the complete democratisation of institutions is a political necessity. But long before that complete democratisation has been brought about, we shall have lost our patience and the Radicals their temper.
For as Mr. Hyndman tells the world with damnable (but most veracious) iteration, we are “a growing party.” We recruit by driblets; but we do recruit; and those who come to us come, like all the new American newspapers, “to stay.” Our _faith_, our reason, our knowledge, tell us that the great evolutionary forces are with us; and every addition to our ranks causes us, in geometrical proportion, to be less and less tolerant of political prevarication. Directly we feel ourselves strong enough to have the slightest chance of winning off our own bat, we shall be compelled both by principle and inclination to send an eleven to the wickets. They will have to face the opposition, united or disunited, of both the orthodox parties, as did the defeated Socialist candidates at the School Board election in November, 1888. And whether our success be great or small, or even non-existent, we shall be denounced by the Radical wire-pullers and the now so complaisant and courteous Radical press. The alliance will be at an end.
There is yet another way in which we may win the ill-will of our temporary allies and, at present, very good friends. I have spoken above of certain reactionary items of a possible Radical programme, which, although they have a grotesque resemblance to Socialism, are worlds away from being the thing itself. These proposals we not only cannot support, but must and shall actively and fiercely oppose. At the first signs of such opposition to whoever may be the Liberal shepherd of the moment, the whole flock of party sheep will be in full cry upon our track. The ferocity of the _mouton enragé_ is proverbial; and we shall be treated to the same rancour, spleen, and bile which is now so plenteously meted out to the Liberal Unionists.
The immediate result of this inevitable split will be the formation of a definitely Socialist party, _i.e._, a party pledged to the communalisation of all the means of production and exchange, and prepared to subordinate every other consideration to that one end. Then the House of Commons will begin dimly to reflect the real condition of the nation outside; and in it we shall see as in a glass, darkly, or smudgedly, something of that “well defined confrontation of rich and poor,” of which all who attend Socialist lectures hear so much, and to which _ex hypothesi_, the world, day by day, draws nearer. Then, also, will begin that process which, I submit, is more likely than either the absorption of the Socialist or the prolonged permeation of the Radical: namely, the absorption of the Radical himself into the definitely pro-private capital party on the one side, and the definitely anti-private capital party on the other.
A really homogeneous Socialist party once formed, the world political reflects the world economic, and there is no longer any room for the Radical, as we know the wonder. Each fresh Socialist victory, each outpost driven in, each entrenchment carried, will be followed by a warren-like scuttle of alarmed and well-to-do Radicals across the floor of the House of Commons, which will once more become a true frontier; and, finally, the political battle array will consist of a small opposition, fronting a great and powerful majority, made up of all those whose real or fancied interests would suffer from expropriation.
Thus far the outlook has been clear and focusable enough; and it has needed no extra-human illumination to see the details. All that has been wanted has been normal vision and a mind fairly free of the idols of the cave. But here the prospect becomes dim and uncertain; and little purpose would be served by trying to pierce the mist which enshrouds the distant future.
Much, very much, will depend upon the courage, the magnanimity, the steadfastness, the tact, the foresight, and above all upon the incorruptibility of those whose high mission it will be to frame the policy and direct the strategy of the Socialist party in those early days of its parliamentary life. It will have sore need of a leader as able as, and more conscientious than, any of the great parliamentary figures of the past. The eye expectant searches in vain for such a man now among the younger broods of the new democracy. He is probably at this moment in his cradle or equitably sharing out toys or lollipops to his comrades of the nursery. And this is well; for he must be a man quit of all recollections of these days of _Sturm und Drang_, of petty jealousies, constant errors, and failing faith. He must bring to his task a record free from failure and without suspicion of stain.
But whatever may be the difficulties in store for us who name the name of Socialism, of one thing at least they who have followed this course of lectures may make quite sure. That, however long and wearisome the struggle, each day brings us nearer victory. Those who resist Socialism fight against principalities and powers in economic places. Every new industrial development will add point to our arguments and soldiers to our ranks. The continuous perfecting of the organisation of labour will hourly quicken in the worker the consciousness that his is a collective, not an individual life. The proletariat is even now the only real class: its units are the only human beings who have nothing to hope for save from the levelling up of the aggregate of which they form a part. The intensifying of the struggle for existence, while it sets _bourgeois_ at the throat of _bourgeois_, is forcing union and solidarity upon the workers. And the _bourgeois_ ranks themselves are dwindling. The keenness of competition, making it every year more obviously impossible for those who are born without capital ever to achieve it, will deprive the capitalist class of the support it now receives from educated and cultivated but impecunious young men whose material interest must finally triumph over their class sympathies; and from that section of workmen whose sole aspiration is to struggle out of the crowd. The rising generation of wage workers, instead of as now being befogged and bedevilled by the dust and smoke of mere faction fight, will be able at a glance to distinguish the uniforms of friend and foe. Despair will take sides with Hope in doing battle for the Socialist cause.
These lectures have made it plain enough to those who have hearing ears and understanding brains that mere material self-interest alone will furnish a motive strong enough to shatter monopoly; and after monopoly comes Socialism or--chaos. But the interest of the smaller self is not the only force which aids us in the present, or will guide us in the future. The angels are on our side. The constant presence of a vast mass of human misery is generating in the educated classes a deep discontent, a spiritual unrest, which drives the lower types to pessimism, the higher to enquiry. Pessimism paralyses the arms and unnerves the hearts of those who would be against us. Enquiry proves that Socialism is founded upon a triple rock, historical, ethical, and economic. It gives, to those who make it, a great hope--a hope which, once it finds entrance into the heart of man, stays to soften life and sweeten death. By the light of the Socialist Ideal he sees the evil--yet sees it pass. Then and now he begins to live in the cleaner, braver, holier life of the future; and he marches forward, steeled and stimulated, with resolute step, with steadfast eye, with equal pulse.
It is just when the storm winds blow and the clouds lour and the horizon is at its blackest that the ideal of the Socialist shines with divinest radiance, bidding him trust the inspiration of the poet rather than heed the mutterings of the perplexed politician, bidding him believe that
“For a’ that, for a’ that, Its coming yet for a’ that, That man to man the world o’er Shall brothers be for a’ that.”
FOOTNOTES:
[96] It is to the half-conscious recognition of this generalisation that the disappearance of militant Republicanism among the English working classes is owing.
[97] The difference of principle here is more apparent than real. The Gladstonians repudiate any desire for separation, and affirm their intention of maintaining the absolute veto of the imperial Parliament; while the Unionists avow their ultimate intention of giving to Ireland the same powers of self-government now enjoyed, or to be enjoyed by England and Scotland.
[98] The battles for Catholic Emancipation and the removal of the religious disabilities were fought on sectarian rather than on political grounds.
[99] This is perhaps not, historically, quite true; but the landlords believed that their own prosperity depended upon the exclusion of foreign corn, and that is sufficient for the purpose of my argument.
[100] _Cf._ The speeches of Mr. John Morley on the eight hours’ proposal and the taxation of ground rents. Also the recent writings of Mr. Bradlaugh, _passim_.
[101] One of the most indefatigable and prolific members of the Socialist party, in a widely circulated tract, has actually adduced the existence of _hawkers’ licenses_ as an instance of the “Progress of Socialism”!
[102] It is worth noting that those organs of the press which are devoted more particularly to the landed interest have been the first to hint at the probable desirability of dealing with great _industrial_ monopolies by means of legislation.
INDEX.
Absentee Proprietors, 22
Abstinence, Reward of, 17
Abstract method in Economics, 21
Administrative Errors, 37
“Administrative Nihilism”, 38
Adulteration Acts, 41
Aged, Treatment of the, 150
Agriculture and Machinery, 62
Aladdin’s uncle outdone, 9
Aliens, Necessity under Socialism for a law of, 125
Althorp, Lord, 69
America (See UNITED STATES).
American Independence, Declaration of, 60
Anarchists, Modern, 160
Anarchy preferred to corrupt State regulation by progressive thinkers, 160
Andrews, E. Benjamin, on Trusts, 85
Angels, Constitution and status of, 108
Angels, condition of their imitation on earth, 110
Argyle, Duke of, 127
Aristotle, 160
Arkwright’s inventions, 33, 59
Aristocratic employments, 109
Ashley, Lord (See LORD SHAFTESBURY).
Associated Capitals, Competitive force of, 142
Associations, Legal position under Socialism of voluntary, 126
Austin, John, 39, 120, 165
Autobiography of John Stuart Mill, 50, 52
Aveling, Rev. F. W., 52
Balfour, Right Hon. A. J., 106
Barbarous Countries, Exploitation of, 74
Bastille, Fall of the, 34, 60
Bebel, August, 119
Bedford, Duke of, 127
Bellamy, E. (author of “Looking Backward”), 145
Benefit Association, Sheep and Lamb Butcher’s Mutual, 88
Benevolence and Omnipotence, The dilemma between, 23
Bentham, Jeremy, 29, 39, 40, 53, 165
Bequest, 122
Berkeley, Bishop, 39
Besant, Annie, 136
” Walter: His belated chivalry, 108
Bimetalism suggested as a solution of the social problem, 174
Birmingham, 46
” compared with Warwick, 123
Bismarck, Socialism and Prince, 192
Blanc, Louis, His Definition of Communism, 131
Bland, Hubert, 50, 184
Bloodshed: How to argue with its advocates, 166-7
Bonanza farms, 62, 142
Bourgeoisie, The Factory Acts and the, 190 Free Trade and the, 190
Bradford, 46
Bradlaugh, Charles, 182
Bramwell, Lord, 28, 175
Bright, John, 69, 79
Brittany, Standard of comfort in, 123 Peasants of, 134
British Association, 157
” Mind, The Vestry stamp upon the, 182
Bryce, James, 78
Brook Farm, 28
Browning, Robert, 23
Burns, John, 174
Bunyan, John, 135
Cade, Jack, 160
Cairnes, J. E., on the idle rich, 78
Canada, Conquest of, 60, 71
Canals, Socialization of, 141
Cant: Its Source, 4, 106
Capital: Is not machinery, 16 Is the result of saving, 17 Is spare subsistence, 17 Cannot be safely taken by the State except for immediate employment as capital, 173 Source of municipal capital, 175 Provision for municipal accumulation, 178
“Capital” (Karl Marx’s work), 23, 36
“Capital and Land” (Fabian Tract), 43
Capitals, Competitive force of associated, 142
Capitalism, 16 Unscrupulousness of, 69 Its idea self-destructive, 110 Morals of, 69, 106, 109 Characteristic effects of, 111 Its origin in piracy and slave-trading, 158
Capitalist: Separation of his function from that of the _entrepreneur_, 76 Regulation of the, 43 Type of the, 105
Capitalist combinations and State action, 91
Capitulations by proprietary classes, 181
Career open to the talented, 7
Carlyle, Thomas, 30, 41
Cartwright, Rev. Edmund, Inventions of, 59
Caste (see CLASS).
Castlereagh, Viscount, 34
Catastrophic Socialism, 136, 166, 183, 185
Catechism, Misquotation of the Church, 110
Catholic Church, Socialism of the, 113
Catholic Emancipation, 34, 188
Centralization of State industries, 142, 181
Chalmers, Rev. Thomas, 39
Charity, 19, 169, 174
“Charter, The People’s”, 48
Chartism, 48, 169
Cheque Bank: Suggestion as to Communal currency, 150
Children: In Communes, 150 Effect of Socialism on the status of, 182
“Christian Socialism”, 79, 80
Church Catechism, The, 110
Church, The Catholic, 113
Church of England: A mere appanage of the landed gentry, 31
Church of England: Effect of property holding on the, 124 Democratization of the, 182
“Church Reformer, The”, 39
Churches, 2
Church-going, Hypocrisies of, 5
Church, Declaration of the Pan-Anglican Synod concerning Socialism and the, 174
Civilizations and Societies, 20
Civil Servants: Their reputation for unconscientiousness, 107, 165
“Claims of Labor, The”, 36
Clanricarde, Lord, 53
Clarke, William, 28, 56, 136, 183
Class Feeling and Morality, 17, 103, 105, 106, 108-110
Classes, Separation of, 17
Cleavage, Economic, 185
Clive, Robert, 60, 71
Coal mining, Application of machinery to, 151
Coal monopoly in the Unite States, 78
Cobden Club disconcerted by the appearance of Imports not paid for by Exports, 169
Cobden, Richard, 74, 79
Colonization, Modern, 21, 182
Coleridge, S. T., 40
Combination, 14 Benefits of, 91
Commercial policy of England under Capitalism, 71
Commodities: Exchange of, 9 Process by which their value is reduced to the cost of production of the most costly unit of the supply, 12, 178
Common Sense, 94, 116
Commune: Its establishment in England already accomplished, 143
Communes, 2
Communism defined, 131
Communities, Savings of, 123 Debts of, 128
Compensation for expropriated proprietors, 175
Competition: Theory of, 161 Decline of, 81 Effect on wages, 171
Comte, Auguste, 27, 30, 169
Comte de Paris, 28
“Condition of the Working Classes” (F. Engels’ work), 36
Conduct and Principle, Incompatibility set up by Private Property between, 4
Conscience, Social, 137
Conservatives, Present attitude of, 188
Consols: Nature of the operation called “reducing”, 181
Consumption, Associated, 121, 133
Contracts restricted in England, 130
Contradictions apparently besetting the investigation of value, 10
Conventions as to Morality, 100, 101
Cooking, Public and private, 140
Co-operative Movement, 41, 81, 124, 144 Socialist origin of the, 79, 174 Aims of the leaders, 174
Co-operative Experiments, 129
Co-ordination, Social, 54
Copyright, 120, 132, 133
Copper, The “corner” in, 84
Corners, 14
Cost of Production: What it means, 13 Reduction of value to, 13 On inferior soils, 4
Cotton Manufacture, Progress of the, 66
Cotton-seed Oil Trust, 88
County Councils, The new, 35, 123, 128, 138, 171, 181
County Council, The London, 181
County Family, Origin of the, 4
County Farms, Organization of, 139
County Government Act (See COUNTY COUNCILS).
Covert Garden Market and the Duke of Bedford, 127
Crime: Its relativity, 105
Criminal Class: Its formation, 18, 112
Cromptom, Samuel, Inventions of, 33
Cultivation of the Earth, 1 Its beginning, 2 Its “margin”, 3, 5 Effect of exploration on the progress of, 20
Cultivation of the Earth: Discrepancies between its actual progress and that deduced from abstract economics, 20
Culture: Effect on profits of industrial management of the spread of, 179
Currency, Suggestion as to communal, 150
Cynicism of our time, 5
” Routed by Socialism, 24
Dante, 8
Darwin, Charles, 41, 85, 169
“Darwinism and Politics”, 51
Darwinian theory appealed to by monopolists, 85 By Socialists, 51
Day, The working, 141
Debt, The National, 129
Debts, Law as to, 125 Of Communities, 128
Decentralization, Necessity for, 170
Definitions of economic rent, 4
Demand, Effective, 19 Supply and, 8
Democracy: Import of, 29, 30, 35, 54, 55, 195 Instability of, 55 Postulated by Socialism, 166 Further steps necessary to consummate, 170
Democrat, Distinction between the Ordinary and the Social, 166
Democratic Federation (See S. D. F.)
De Quincey, Thomas, 40
Desire as a social motor, 96, 102
Detailed suggestions for social organization of unemployed labor, 140
De Tocqueville. A. C. H. C., 29
Devil worship, 24
Diocesan Councils, Central Conference of, 54
Dirty Work, 145
Discipline in socialized industries, 143
Discovery of new countries, 21
Disestablishment of the Church, 188
Dishonesty a product of Capitalism, 111
Disingenuousness of Class Economics, 14, 19, 21
Dismal Science now the Hopeful, 25
Dismissal, Power of, 143
Dissolution of the Old Synthesis, 31
Division of labor, 3
Drainage Acts, 41
Drinking Fountains, Communism exemplified in, 131
Drone and Worker, 4
Earnings distinguished from the revenue of Private Property, 20
Ecclesiastical intolerance, Reaction against mediæval, 161
Economics (See POLITICAL ECONOMY).
Economists (See POLITICAL ECONOMISTS).
Education: Reform of, 49 Moral, 102 A necessity for morality, 111 Socialist ideal of, 115, 134 Effect on profits of industrial management, 179 Tendency of Social Democracy to encourage, 180
Eight Hours, Working day of, 141
Electors, Number of, 35
Elizabethan merchant adventurers, 159
Emigration, 167
Employer: Differentiated from Capitalist, 76 And laborer, 137 Not harmed by Socialism, 177
Engels, F., 36
England: Her social policy to-day, 19 In 1750, 30 Her foreign policy dictated by Capitalism, 73, 74 Her mineral fertility, 167
“English Factory Legislation.” (See also FACTORY LEGISLATION), 36
_Entrepreneur_ (See EMPLOYER).
Episcopal Conference, 54
Equality of remuneration, 148, 149
Errors (See MISTAKES exposed by Socialism).
Ethics: Metaphysic of, 94 Positive science of, 95
Evolution, Effect of Hypothesis of, 24, 51
Exchange of Commodities, 12 Mechanism of, 10
Exchange Value (See VALUE), 9
Exploitation, 18
Factories before the Factory Act, 36, 67
Factory Legislation, 36, 41, 70, 125, 167, 190
Factory System, Introduction of the, 33, 59
“Facts for Londoners”, 181
“Fair Trade”, 92
Family: Effect of Socialism on the, 182 Origin of the County, 4 Isolation of the, 122, 133
Farms: Organization of County, 139 Bonanza, 142
Fawcett, Henry, 4
Federation of Municipalities, 181
Feudalism: Survival of, 31 Reaction against its domineering, 160 Feudal dues, 38
Fielden, John, 70
Filibuster, The Colonizing, 182
Final Utility, Theory of, 11, 12
Flag, Trade following the, 182
Flats, Living in, 121
Fly-Shuttle, Invention of the, 59
Foreign Investments, Interest on, 169
Foreign Markets, The fight for, 74, 181
Foreign Policy: Effect of Capitalism upon, 71 Effect of Socialism upon, 181
Foreign Trade following the Flag, 182
Forestalling, 14
Fourier, F. C. M., 121
Fox, Charles James, 34
Foxwell, Professor H. S., 37
Free Ferry, The London, 47
“Free Land” and the Radical party, 50, 195
Free Trade Movement, 73 Foreign investments left out of account by the, 169 The bourgeoisie and the, 190
Freethinker, Possible Election to the Deanery of Westminster of an avowed, 182
French Revolution, 34, 60, 174
Friction caused by introduction of Municipal Socialism, 178
Furse, Canon, 54
Gambling, 2
Gasworks, Socialization of, 45, 139, 181
George III, 72
George, Henry, 95, 127, 161, 169, 172
Georgism, Checkmate to, 173
Giffen, Robert, 169, 173
Gladstone, Right Hon. W. E., 47 Retrogressive instincts of, 161
Glasgow, 47 Growth of, 33
Godin and Leclaire, Experiments of, 151
Godwin, William, 39
Gold: As money, 10 Effect of Discoveries in California and Australia, 167
Goschen, Right Hon. G. J., 181
Gould, Jay, 69
Government: In 1750, 32 Industries carried on by, 42 “Government Organization of Labor”, 46
Gradual Socialization, 31 Compensation a condition of, 175
Greek Republics, 125, 148, 160
Greenock, 46
Gronlund, Laurence, 119, 121, 125
Grote, George, 39
Ground values, Municipilization of, 175
Growth of Towns, 32
Guild of St. Matthew, 39
Guillotining, 182
Habits: Moral, 97 Automatic, 98
Harbors, Nationalization of, 149
Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Sir W. V., 106 On the teetotal stump, 106 “We are all Socialists now”, 190
Hargreaves, James, The Inventions of, 33, 59
Harrison, Frederic, 54
Hastings, Warren, 71
Haves and Have-nots, 186
Head Rents, Relative Insignificance of, 8
Hegel, G. W. F., 162, 165
High Church Party, 39