Socialism As It Is

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Mr. MacDonald claims further that a class struggle, far from uniting the
working classes, can only divide them the more; in other words, that it
works in exactly the opposite direction from that in which the
international organization believes it works. The only "natural
conflicts" in the present or future, within any given society, according
to the spokesman of the Labour Party, represent, not the conflicting
interests of certain economic classes, but the "conflicting views and
temperaments" of individuals.[116] And the chief divisions of
temperament and opinion, he says, will be between the world-old
tendencies of action and inaction--a view which does not differ one iota
from that of Mr. Roosevelt.

Mr. MacDonald asserts that "it is the _whole_ of society which is
developing towards Socialism," and adds, "The consistent exponent of the
class struggle must, of course, repudiate these doctrines, but then the
class struggle is far more akin to Radicalism than to Socialism."[117] I
have already pointed out how the older Radicalism, or political
democracy, no matter how individualistic and anti-Socialist it may be,
is often, as Mr. MacDonald says, more akin to International Socialism
than that kind of "State Socialism" or State capitalism Mr. MacDonald
represents.

Mr. MacDonald typifies the majority of British Socialists also in his
opposition to every modern form of democratic advance, such as the
referendum and proportional representation. Far from being disturbed,
as so many democratic writers are, because minorities are suppressed
where there is no plan of proportional representation, he opposes the
second ballot, which has been adopted in the majority of the countries
of Continental Europe--and, in the form of direct primaries, also in the
United States. The principal thing that the electors are to do, he says,
is to "send a man to support or oppose a government."

Mr. MacDonald finds that there is quite a sufficiency of democracy when
the elector can decide between two parties; and far from considering the
members of Parliament as delegates, he feels that they fill the chief
political role, while the people perform the entirely subordinate task
either of approving or of disapproving what they have already done.
Parliament "first of all initiates ideas, suggests aims and purposes,
makes proposals, and educates the community in these things with a view
to their becoming the ideals and aims of the community itself."[118]

While Mr. MacDonald continues to receive the confidence of the trade
union party, including its Socialistic wing, the Trade Union Congress
votes down proportional representation by a large majority, apparently
because it does not desire its members to be constituted into a truly
independent group in Parliament, does not care to work for any political
principle however concrete, but prefers to take such share of the actual
powers of government as the Liberal Party is disposed to grant.
Proportional representation would send for the first time a few outright
Socialists to Parliament, but the election returns demonstrate that the
trade unionists, if more independent of the Liberals, would be fewer in
number than at present. A part of the Socialist voters desire this
result and, of course, believe it is their right. The majority of the
trade unionists, however, who have won a certain modicum of authority in
spite of the undemocratic constitution of their party, do not care to
grant it--as possibly conflicting with the relatively conservative plans
of "the aristocracy of labor."

The Fabian Society's "Report on Fabian Policy" says that the referendum,
"in theory the most democratic of popular institutions, is in practice
the most reactionary."[119] Mr. MacDonald refers to it as a "crude
Eighteenth Century idea of democracy," "a form of Village Community
government."[120] At the Conference of the Labour Party at Leicester in
1911 he declared that it was "anti-democratic" and that if the
government were to accept it, the Labour Party "would have to fight them
tooth and nail at every step of that policy." As opposed to any plans
for a more direct and more popular government, he defends the "dignity
and authority" of Parliament and bespeaks the "reverence and deference"
that the people ought to observe toward it.

Contrast with these views Mr. Hobson's presentation of the non-Socialist
Radical doctrine. "Under a professed and real enthusiasm for a
representative system," as opposed to direct government, Mr. Hobson
finds that there is concealed "a deep-seated distrust of democracy." He
acknowledges "that the natural conservatism of the masses of the people
might be sufficient to retard some reforms." "But this is safer and
better for democracy," he says, "than the alternative 'faking' of
progress by pushing legislation ahead of the popular will. It is upon
the whole far more profitable for reformers to be compelled to educate
the people to a genuine acceptance of their reform than to 'work it' by
some 'pull' or 'deal' inside a party machine."[121]

Mr. MacDonald not only puts a high value on British conservatism and a
low one on the French Revolution and the Declaration of Independence,
but declares that no change whatever in the mere structure of government
can aid idealists and reformers in any way, and expects politics and
parties to be much the same in the future as they are at the present
moment. It is this attitude that Mr. Hobson has in mind when he protests
that "the false pretense that democracy exists" in Great Britain has
proved "the subtlest defense of privilege"--and that this has been the
greatest cause of the waste of reform energy not only in England but
also in France and in the United States.[122] Mr. MacDonald says
explicitly, "The modern state in most civilized countries is
democratic," and adds impatiently that "the remaining anomalies and
imperfections" cannot prevent the people from obtaining their will.[123]
To dismiss in so few words the monarchy, the restrictions of the
suffrage, the unequal election districts and other shortcomings of
political democracy in Great Britain, and to insist that the government
is already democratic, is surely, as Mr. Hobson says, "the subtlest
defense of privilege."

Mr. MacDonald comes out flatly with the statement that under what he
calls the democratic parliamentary government of Great Britain it is
practically impossible to maintain a pure and simple Socialist Party. He
says proudly that "nothing which the Labour Parties of Australia or
Great Britain have ever done or tried to do under their constitutions
departs in a hair's breadth from things which the Liberal and the Tory
Parties in these countries do every day."[124] "Indeed, paradoxical
though it may appear," he adds, "Socialism will be retarded by a
Socialist Party which thinks it can do better than a Socialistic
Party."[125]

The Independent Labour Party, indeed, has had a program of reform that
is remarkably similar to that of Ministers Churchill and Lloyd George,
and is indorsed in large part by capitalists--as for example, by Andrew
Carnegie. The first measure of this program provided for a general
eight-hour day. Mr. Carnegie protests that to put the Socialist label on
this is as "frank burglary as was ever committed," and the trade union
movement in general would agree with him.[126]

The second demand was for a "workable unemployment act." The Labour
Party had previously introduced a more radical measure which very nearly
received the support of a majority of Parliament. The third measure
called for old-age pensions. Mr. Carnegie remarked of this with perfect
justice: "Mr. MacDonald is here a day behind the fair. These have been
established in Britain before this [Mr. Carnegie's "Problems of To-day"]
appears in print, both political parties being favorable." It is true
that the Labour party demands a somewhat more advanced measure than that
to which Mr. Carnegie alludes, but there is no radical difference in
principle, and the Labour Party accepted the present law as being a
considerable installment of what they want.

Of the fourth point the "abolition of indirect taxation (and the gradual
transference of all public burdens to unearned incomes)," Mr. Carnegie
remarks that "we must read the bracketed works in the light of Mr.
MacDonald's philosophy," and "that this is a consummation which cannot
be reached (in Mr. MacDonald's words) 'until the organic structure of
society has been completely altered.'" We have seen that Mr. Churchill
also aims at the _ultimate_ expropriation of the whole future unearned
increment of the land.

The fifth point of the program was similar,--a series of land acts
(aimed at the ultimate nationalization of the land).

The sixth point was the nationalization of the railroads and mines. Mr.
Carnegie reminds us that many conservative and reactionary governments
own their own railroads. We have seen that Mr. Churchill is in favor of
the same proposal. Mines also are now national property in several
countries, and there is nothing particularly radical or unacceptable to
well-informed conservatives in the proposal to nationalize them
elsewhere.

The seventh demand of the program was for "democratic political
reforms." While the Independent Labour Party and some of its leaders are
in favor of a complete program of democratic reforms, I have shown that
others like Mr. MacDonald are directly opposed even to many modern
democratic measures already won in other countries.

It would certainly seem that the social reformers, Mr. Carnegie and
others, have as much right as the Socialists to claim such measures as
all those outlined.

Many of the other reforms proposed by the Independent Labour Party are
such as might readily find acceptance among the most conservative.
Indeed in urging the policy of afforestation, as one means of helping in
the solution of the unemployed problem, the party actually uses the
argument that even Prussia, Saxony, and many other highly capitalistic
governments are undertaking it; though it does not mention the
reactionary purposes of these governments, as for example, in Hungary
where it is proposed to use the government's new army of labor to build
up a scientific system of breaking strikes. Afforestation would add to
the general wealth of the country in the future, and would be of
considerable advantage to the capitalist classes, which makes the
largest uses of lumber. Such a policy could undoubtedly be devised in
carrying out this work as would absorb a considerable portion of the
unemployed, and, since unemployment is a burden to the community and
troublesome in many ways, besides tending to bring about a general
deterioration of the efficiency of the working class, it is also to the
ultimate interest of the employers to adopt it.

A leading organ of British Socialism, the _New Age_, went so far as to
say of the Budget of 1910 that it was almost as good "as we should
expect from a Socialist Chancellor in his first year of office," and
said that if Mr. Philip Snowden, were Chancellor, the Budget would have
been little different from what it was.[127] And it is true that the
principles of the Budget as interpreted by Mr. Snowden only a few years
ago in his booklet, "The Socialist Budget," are in nearly every instance
the same, though they are to be somewhat more widely applied in this
Socialist scheme. Of course all Socialists would have desired a smaller
portion of the Budget to go to Dreadnoughts and a larger part to
education, though, in view of the popularity of the Navy, it is doubtful
whether Labour Party Socialist's would materially cut naval expenditure
(see Chapter V). It must also be noted that the Socialists are wholly
opposed to the increase of indirect taxation on tobacco and liquor, some
four fifths of which falls on the shoulders of the workingman. But aside
from these points, there is more similarity than contrast between the
two plans.

Mr. Snowden declared that it was the intention of the Socialists to make
the rich poorer and the poor richer, that they were going to use the
power of taxation for that purpose, and that the Budget marked the
beginning of the new era, an opinion in strange contrast with Premier
Asquith's statement _concerning the same Budget, for which he was
responsible_, that one of its chief purposes was "_to increase the
stability and security of property_."

Indeed the word "Socialism" has been extended in England to include
measures far less radical than those contemplated by the present
government. The Fabian Society, the chief advocate of "municipal
Socialism" and a professed and recognized Socialist organization,
considers even the post office and factory legislation as being
installments of Socialism, while the Labour Party would restrict the
term to the nationalization or municipalization of industries--but the
difference is not of very great importance. The latter class of reform
will undoubtedly mark a revolution in the policy of the British
government, but, as Kautsky says, this revolution may only serve "to
Prussianize it," _i.e._ to introduce "State Socialism."

"The best government," says Mr. Webb, "is no longer 'that which governs
least,' but 'that which can safely and advantageously administer most.'"

"Wherever rent and interest are being absorbed under public control
for public purposes, wherever the collective organization of the
community is being employed in place of individual efforts,
wherever in the public interest, the free use of private land or
capital is being further restrained--there one more step toward the
complete realization of the Socialist Ideal is being taken."

The fight of the British Socialists has thus been directed from the
first almost exclusively against the abstraction, "individualism," and
not against the concrete thing, the capitalist class. John Morley had
said that the early Liberals, Cobden, Bright, and others, were
systematic and constructive, because they "surveyed society and
institutions as a whole," because they "connected their advocacy of
political and legal changes with theories of human nature," because they
"considered the great art of government in connection with the character
of man, his proper education, his potential capacities," and could
explain "in the large dialect of a definite scheme what were their aims
and whither they were going."

"Is there," Mr. Morley had asked, "any approach to such a body of
systematic political thought in our own day?" Mr. Webb announced that
the Fabians proposed to fill in this void. It was primarily system and
order rather than any particular principle at which he aimed. The
keynote of his system was to be opposition to the individualistic
_theory_ of the philosophic Liberals whom the Fabians hoped to succeed
rather than opposition to the _principles_ of capitalism, which lend
themselves equally well either to an individualistic or to a
collectivistic application.

Just as Mr. Webb is the leading publicist, so Mr. Bernard Shaw is the
leading writer, among the exponents of Fabian Socialism. It is now more
than twenty years since he also began idealizing the State, and he is
doing the same thing to-day. "Who is the people? What is the people?" he
asked in the Fabian Essays in 1889. "Tom we know, and Dick; also Harry;
but solely and separately as individuals: as a trinity they have no
existence. Who is their trustee, their guardian, their man of business,
their manager, their secretary, even their stockholder? The Socialist is
stopped dead at the threshold of practical action by this difficulty,
until he bethinks himself of the State as the representative and trustee
of the people."[128] It will be noticed that Mr. Shaw does not say the
State may become the representative and trustee of the people, but that
it _is_ their representative. "Hegel," he continues, "expressly taught
the conception of the perfect State, and his disciples saw that nothing
in the nature of things made it possible or even difficult to make the
existing State if not absolutely perfect, at least trustworthy;" and
then, after alluding with the greatest brevity to the anti-democratic
elements of the British government, Mr. Shaw proceeds to develop at
great length the wonderful possibilities of the existing State as the
practically trustworthy trustee, guardian, man of business, manager,
secretary, and stockholder _of the people_.[129]

Yet Mr. Shaw says that a Social-Democrat is one "who _desires_ through
democracy _to_ gather the whole people into the State, so that the State
may be trusted with the rent of the country, and finally with the land
and capital and the organization of national industry." He reasons that
the transition to Socialism through gradual extensions of democracy and
State action had seriously begun forty-five years before the writing of
the Essays, that is, in the middle of the nineteenth century (when
scarcely one sixth of the adult male population of Great Britain had a
vote, and when, through the unequal election districts, the country
squires practically controlled the situation--W. E. W.). In Mr. Shaw's
reasoning, as in that of many other British Socialists, a very little
democracy goes a long way.[130]

Later Mr. Shaw repudiated democracy altogether, saying that despotism
fails only for want of a capable benevolent despot, and that what we
want nowadays is not a new or modern form of democracy, but only capable
benevolent representatives. He shelved his hopes for the old ideal,
government _by_ the people, by opposing to it a new ideal of a very
active and beneficent government _for_ the people. In "Fabianism and the
Empire" Shaw and his collaborators say frankly: "The nation makes no
serious attempt to democratize its government, because its masses are
still in so deplorable a condition that democracy, in the popular sense
of government by the masses, is clearly contrary to common sense."[131]

Mr. H. G. Wells, long a member of the Fabian Society, has well summed up
the character of what he calls this "opportunist Socialist group" which
has done so much to shape the so-called British Socialism. He says that
Mr. Sidney Webb was, during the first twenty years of his career "the
prevailing Fabian."

"His insistence upon continuity pervaded the Society, was re-echoed
and intensified by others, and developed into something like a
mania for achieving Socialism _without the overt change of any
existing ruling body_. His impetus carried this reaction against
the crude democratic idea to its extremest opposite. Then arose
Webbites to caricature Webb. From saying that the unorganized
people cannot achieve Socialism, they passed to the implication
that organization alone, without popular support, might achieve
Socialism. Socialism was to arrive as it were _insidiously_.

"To some minds this new proposal had the charm of a schoolboy's
first dark lantern. Socialism ceased to be an open revolution, and
become a plot. Functions were to be shifted, quietly,
unostentatiously, from the representative to the official he
appointed; a bureaucracy was to slip into power through the
mechanical difficulties of an administration by debating
representatives; and since these officials would, by the nature of
their positions, constitute a scientific government as
distinguished from haphazard government, they would necessarily run
the country on the lines of a _pretty distinctly undemocratic
Socialism_.

"The process went even farther than secretiveness in its reaction
from the _large rhetorical forms of revolutionary Socialism_. There
arose even a _repudiation of 'principles' of action_, and a type of
worker which proclaimed itself 'Opportunist-Socialist.' This
conception of indifference to the forms of government, of accepting
whatever governing bodies existed and using them to create
officials and '_get something done_,' was at once immediately
fruitful in many directions, and presently productive of many very
grave difficulties in the path of advancing Socialism." (Italics
mine.)[132]

Besides the obvious absurdities of such tactics, Mr. Wells points out
that they ignored entirely that reconstruction of legislative and local
government machinery which is very often an indispensable preliminary to
Socialization. He is speaking of such Socialism when he says:--

"Socialism has concerned itself only with the material
reorganization of Society and its social consequences, with
economic changes and the reaction of these changes on
administrative work; it has either accepted existing intellectual
conditions and political institutions as beyond its control or
assumed that they will obediently modify as economic and
administrative necessity dictates.... Achieve your expropriation,
said the early Fabians, get your network of skilled experts over
the country, and your political forms, your public opinion, your
collective soul will not trouble you."[133]

Here Mr. Wells shows that, while the practical difficulties of making
collectivism serve all the people were ignored on the one hand, the
first need of the people, political education, was neglected on the
other. It is true that during the first few years of its existence the
Fabian Society made a great and successful effort to educate public
opinion in a Socialist direction, but soon its leading members deserted
all such larger work, to support various administrative "experiments."

Mr. Wells referred to this same type of Socialism in his "Misery of
Boots":--

"Let us be clear about one thing: that Socialism means revolution,
and that it means a change in the everyday texture of life. It
_may_ be a very gradual change, but it will be a very complete one.
You cannot change the world, and at the same time not change the
world. You will find Socialists about, or at any rate men calling
themselves Socialists, who will pretend that this is not so, who
will assure you that some odd little jobbing about municipal gas
and water is Socialism, and backstairs intervention between
Conservative and Liberal the way to the millennium.... Socialism
aims to change, not only the boots on people's feet, but the
clothes they wear, the houses they inhabit, the work they do, the
education they get, their places, their honors, and all their
possessions. Socialism aims to make a new world out of the old. It
can only be attained by the intelligent, outspoken, courageous
resolve of a great multitude of men and women. You must get
absolutely clear in your mind that Socialism means a _complete
change, a break with history_, with much that is picturesque;
_whole classes will vanish_. The world will be vastly different,
with different sorts of houses, different sorts of people. All the
different trades and industries will be changed, the medical
profession will be carried on under different conditions,
engineering, science, the theatrical trade, the clerical trade,
schools, hotels, almost every trade, will have to undergo as
complete an internal change as a caterpillar does when it becomes a
moth ... a change as profound as the abolition of private property
in slaves would have been in ancient Rome or Athens." (The italics
are mine.)

Here is the exact opposite view to that which has been taught for many
years by the Fabian Society to no small audience of educated Englishmen
(and Americans). For there are comparatively few who have neither read
any of the Fabian pamphlets nor seen or read any of Bernard Shaw's plays
in which the same standpoint is represented.

Mr. John A. Hobson classes the Socialist and non-Socialist reformers of
Great Britain together as regards their opportunism. Though a Liberal
himself, he objects that some Socialists are not radical enough, and
that "the milder and more opportunist brand suffer from excessive
vagueness." Of the prevailing tendency towards opportunism, Mr. Hobson
writes:--

"This revolt against ideas is carried so far that able men have
come seriously to look upon progress as a matter for the
manipulation of wirepullers, something to be 'jobbed' in committee
by sophistical motions or other clever trickery. Great national
issues really turn, according to this judgment, upon the arts of
political management, the play of the adroit tactician and the
complete canvasser. This is the 'work' that tells; elections, the
sane expression of the national will, are won by these and by no
other means.

"_Nowhere has this mechanical conception of progress worked more
disastrously than in the movement towards Collectivism._ Suppose
that the mechanism of reform were perfected, that each little
clique of specialists and wirepullers were placed at its proper
point in the machinery of public life, will this machinery grind
out progress? Every student of industrial history knows that the
application of a powerful 'motor' is of vastly greater importance
than the invention of a special machine. Now, what provision is
made for generating the motor power of progress in Collectivism?
Will it come of its own accord? Our mechanical reformer apparently
thinks it will. The attraction of some present obvious gain, the
suppression of some scandalous abuse of monopolist power by a
private company, some needed enlargement of existing Municipal or
State enterprise by lateral expansion--such are the sole springs of
action. In this way the Municipalization of public services,
increased assertion of State control over mines, railways, and
factories, the assumption under State control of large departments
of transport trade, proceed without any recognition of the guidance
of general principles. Everywhere the pressure of special concrete
interests, nowhere the conscious play of organized human
intelligence!...