TOO 



corrupt functionary, from such or such a dis- 

 honest contractor but by going to the root of 

 the evil, to the uncontestable source of virulent 

 infection. By radically transforming the 

 regime by the substitution of social owner- 

 ship for private ownership the healthy and 

 vital forces of human society must be renewed, 

 in order that it may rise to a higher phase of 

 civilisation. Then the privileged will cer- 

 tainly not be able to pass their lives in 

 idleness, luxury, and debauchery, and they 

 will have to resolve to lead a laborious and 

 less pompous life : but the immense majority 

 of men will rise to serene dignity, to security, 

 to a happy fraternity, instead of living in the 

 sufferings, the anguish, and the ill will of the 

 present. 



We can give an analogous answer to the 

 hackneyed objection that socialism will sup- 

 press all liberty this objection repeated to 

 satiety by all those who conceal under the 

 colours of political liberty more or less con- 

 scious tendencies to economic conservatism. 



Is not this repugnance which many persons, 

 even with good faith, feel towards socialism 

 in the name of liberty, the manifestation of 

 another law of human evolution which Herbert 

 Spencer has thus formulated : " Every progress 

 realised is an obstacle to further progress"? 



It is indeed a natural, psychological .ten- 

 dency, which one might call " fetich-ist," to 

 refuse to consider the ideal attained, the pro- 

 gress realised as a simple instrument and 

 point of departure for other progress and other 

 ideals, and to stop in "fetichist" adoration 



