SOCIALISM 



545 



abstract and completed system identifiable with 

 the theories of Marx or Baknnin ; it is a thing 

 in movement and subject to incessant change. 

 But so far as the movement has proceeded we may 

 justly say that it has had the following permanent 

 results : ( 1 ) It has greatly helped to give prevalence 

 to the historical conception of political economy. 

 The idea of change has been natural to socialists ; 

 their subject has led them to study the rise, growth, 

 decline, and fall of economic institutions. The 

 great principle of evolution, as taught by Hegel 

 and Darwin ( see below ), has been a commonplace in 

 socialistic speculation. (2) Socialism has greatly 

 deepened and widened the ethical conception of 

 political economy. It has in season and out of 

 season taught that the entire technical and economic 

 mechanism should be made subordinate to human 

 well-being, and that moral interests should be 

 supreme over the whole field of industrial and com- 

 mercial activity. The charge sometimes brought 

 against socialism that it appeals only to the lower 

 instincts of man is very wide of the mark. It 

 would he a jnster criticism to say that it inculcates 

 an altruism unattainable by any probable develop- 

 ment of human nature. (3) Socialism has brought 

 the cause of the poor most powerfully before the 

 civilised world. As the cause of the poor represents 

 the social and economic side of the vast ana inevit- 

 able movement of modem democracy, it is not likely 

 again to pass out of the attention of the world, but 

 will be the burning question in every civilised 

 country for a long time to come. ( 4 ) Socialism has 

 given an exhaustive criticism of the existing society 

 and of the prevalent economic theories. In many 

 things the criticism has been exaggerated, but it Ins 

 been also in many things most valuable. Almost 

 every economic treatise now appearing bears the 

 marks of socialistic criticism of the present society. 



Under all the above heads socialism has made a 

 deep and abiding impression on the thought and 

 activity of the world. Here, again, Germany leads 

 the way in the recognition of the influence of 

 socialistic theories, and this is particularly observ- 

 able in the Socialism of the Chair and in the State 

 Socialitm which have played so great a rdle in 

 recent German discussion and legislation. The 

 socialists of the chair are an influential group of 

 professorial and other economists, whose position 

 may be best described as illustrating the influence 

 of the socialist movement in the above directions. 

 They recognise the historical and ethical character 

 of economics ; labour in all its aspects in other 

 words, the cause of the poor is the subject of the 

 most serious and exhaustive investigation ; and all 

 of them make important concessions to the social- 

 istic criticism of the existing society. Bismarck 

 was the redoubtable antagonist of the social 

 democracy, regarding it as subversive of church 

 and monarchy and fatherland ; but he had con- 

 siderable respect for socialistic principles, and he 

 was prepared to hold the state as so far responsible 

 for its suffering members. The state socialism of 

 Bismarck was an outcome of this sense of responsi- 

 bility, and the same feeling has been emphatically 

 expressed by the Emperor William II. 



The above considerations point to large and im- 

 portant changes in the existing society ; yet they 

 are perfectly consistent with the continuance of 

 the present system of industry, the characteristic 

 feature of which is, as we have seen, that it is carried 

 on by private capitalists served by wage-labour. 

 In spite of all such changes the worker would 

 remain divorced from land and capital ; he would 

 have no control of the sources of subsistence and 

 culture ; and he might still have to be content with 

 little better than a subsistence wage. Socialism, 

 however, desires not a modification, but a renova- 

 tion of the existing industry, and through it of the 

 451 



existing society. While, therefore, we may admit 

 that it has exercised a very considerable influence 

 on social-economic thought and practice, the prob- 

 ability is that it will fan in making the revolution 

 in society which it proposes to accomplish. 



But it may also be maintained that, though the 

 historic and contemporary socialism has been so 

 much disfigured by extravagance, and has taken 

 too little account of the fundamental principles 

 of human nature, the main aim of the movement 

 may be perfectly sound. The extravagances of 

 socialism are obvious and confute themselves. 

 Like other systems making great claims on man- 

 kind, it must be tried by its fundamental prin- 

 ciples, which should be distinguished from the 

 accidentals that have been associated with it in 

 history. It may be said that we have only to 

 liberate the historic socialism from its too abstract, 

 absolute, and ultra-revolutionary forms and we have 

 a new type of industrial organisation which has 

 a reasonable claim to supremacy in the future. 

 We can conceive industry as under the entire and 

 efficient control of associated workers, making an 

 equitable distribution of the produce, while pri- 

 vate capital could be maintained in so far as it is 

 necessary to freedom and individual development. 

 In like manner the hereditary principle with 

 all the implicates so important to society would 

 be preserved, and by social control protected from 

 existing abuses. As the co-operative workers 

 would have effective control of the instruments of 

 labour, that divorce of the labourer from the means 

 of subsistence and culture which was one of the 

 most lamentable results of the industrial revolu- 

 tion would terminate. The present differences 

 between capital and labour would cease, inasmuch 

 as labour would be united with capital under one 

 and the same social management. The hours of 

 labour and the remuneration of labour would be 

 mainly and normally regulated not by competi- 

 tion, but by reference to reasonable human needs. 

 For the realisation of such a condition of things 

 much would depend on the growth of habits of 

 free self-government and self-control. It could be 

 brought about, not by a political catastrophe, but 

 by a long and gradual process of organic change, 

 especially in the minds and morals of the masses 

 of the industrial population. 



In short, socialism is the extension to industry 

 and economics of the free self-governing principle 

 recognised in democracy. It is industry of the 

 people, by the people, for the people. When we 

 remember that this type of organisation has from 

 the time of Simon de Montfort taken more than 

 six centuries to attain to imperfect realisation in 

 the English parliament, it will l>e clear that it can- 

 not succeed in the industrial sphere in a day. It 

 may be maintained, however, that we can see the 

 substantial beginnings of such an economic change 

 in the extension of social control through ( 1 ) the 

 state and (2) the municipality or commune, and 



(3) in the growth of the co-operative system. 

 The company is at present the growing power in 

 industry ; but even as regards the great companies 



( 4 ) the control of the state and of social opinion is 

 continually extending. In the application of the 

 profit-sharing principle we may discern a possible 

 change towards a system in which the workers may 

 have an interest in and control of the large industry. 

 And in the continual development and concentra- 

 tion of business of all kinds in these great industries 

 we may see the mechanism by which they might 

 be brought under social management. The great 

 companies are no longer conducted by the owners 

 of the capital as such, but by a paid staff of officials 

 under a manager ; and the whole organisation could 

 without shock be transferred to the direct service 

 of the community. 



