632 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



liberty ; its policy, which envisages regulation, control, official 

 sanctions and State action, is towards order. It demands 

 political liberty and economic security ; but history shows that 

 the latter has been purchased at the price of the former. The 

 slave-State gives security ; in the free State the individual takes 

 the risk. Labour has not decided whether, in the last resort, it 

 is for the individual or the State. 



The Chesterton-Belloc school have coined the phrase, " the 

 servile State," to describe a certain type of modern legislation. 

 It is precisely that legislation which the Labour Party approves. 

 Yet it would repudiate the label with indignation. It advocates 

 nationalisation, but denounces bureaucracy ; unluckily, it has 

 not yet made it clear how it proposes to secure the one without 

 the other. 



The fact is, that political Labour contains both Liberal and 

 Conservative elements, and the balance of power sways now in one 

 direction, now in another. It believes in State railways, but 

 not in a State Church ; it denounces privilege, but supports 

 the Trade Disputes Act ; it suspects combinations of Capital 

 as instruments of tyranny and a danger to the State, but sees 

 no danger in precisely similar combinations of Labour. 



Every political party, it is true, commits inconsistencies. 

 Liberals have resorted to coercion. Unionists have passed the 

 Home Rule Act, Conservatives are arguing in favour of reforming 

 the House of Lords. But these inconsistencies are accidents of 

 office or opposition, not defects in the underlying philosophy of 

 the group. In the case of Labour the inconsistencies seem to be 

 an indication of incomplete development. The party has yet 

 to test its fundamental principles in their actual working. 



Rewards. 



In our fair land, where'er the eyes 

 Can range the open scape and skies, 

 A hundred beauteous mansions rise ; 

 Whose turrets to the seeing Sun 

 Flash back his beams when day is done ; 

 Whose oaken floors can scarce endure 

 Their lordly load of furniture ; 

 Whose swarded lawns and gardens trim 

 Are laid to flatter every whim. 

 " Here dwell," the Stranger cries, elate, 

 " The men who made this Britain great 

 In Science, Wisdom, Art and State. 

 This house is doubtless that of one 

 Who hath some superservice done. 

 And that, and that — say, theirs who find 

 Great benefits for all mankind, 



