FROM FREEDOM TO BONDAGE. 735 



endowment of those sentiments required to prevent the growth of 

 a despotic bureaucracy. 



Were it needful to dwell on indirect evidence, much might be 

 made of that furnished by the behavior of the so-called Liberal 

 party a party which, relinquishing the original conception of a 

 leader as a mouthpiece for a known and accepted policy, thinks 

 itself bound to accept a policy which its leader springs upon it 

 without consent or warning a party so utterly without the feel- 

 ing and idea implied by liberalism, as not to resent this tram- 

 pling on the right of private judgment which constitutes the root 

 of liberalism nay, a party which vilifies as renegade liberals, 

 those of its members who refuse to surrender their independence ! 

 But without occupying space with indirect proofs that the mass 

 of men have not the natures required to check the development 

 of tyrannical officialism, it will suffice to contemplate the direct 

 proofs furnished by those classes among whom the socialistic idea 

 most predominates, and who think themselves most interested in 

 propagating it the operative classes. These would constitute 

 the great body of socialistic organization, and their characters 

 would determine its nature. What, then, are their characters as 

 displayed in such organizations as they have already formed ? 



Instead of the selfishness of the employing classes and the 

 selfishness of competition, we are to have the unselfishness of a 

 mutual-aiding system. How far is this unselfishness now shown 

 in the behavior of workingmen to one another ? What shall we 

 say to the rules limiting the numbers of new hands admitted into 

 each trade, or to the rules which hinder ascent from inferior 

 classes of workers to superior classes ? One does not see in such 

 regulations any of that altruism by which socialism is to be per- 

 vaded. Contrariwise, one sees a pursuit of private interests no 

 less keen than among traders. Hence, unless we suppose that 

 men's natures will be suddenly exalted, we must conclude that 

 the pursuit of private interests will sway the doings of all the 

 component classes in a socialistic society. 



With passive disregard of others' claims goes active encroach- 

 ment on them. " Be one of us or we will cut off your means of 

 living," is the usual threat of each Trades Union to outsiders of 

 the same trade. While their members insist on their own free- 

 dom to combine and fix the rates at which they will work (as they 

 are perfectly justified in doing), the freedom of those who disa- 

 gree with them is not only denied but the assertion of it is treated 

 as a crime. Individuals who maintain their rights to make their 

 own contracts are vilified as "blacklegs" and "traitors," and 

 meet with violence which would be merciless were there no legal 

 penalties and no police. Along with this trampling on the liber- 

 ties of men of their own class, there goes peremptory dictation to 



