CHAPTER XVI IS SOCIALISM POSSIBLE, AND WILL IT PAY?
Non-Socialists assert with the utmost confidence that Socialism is impossible. Let us consider this statement in a practical way.
We are told that Socialism is impossible. That means that the people have not the ability to manage their own affairs, and must, perforce, give nearly all the wealth they produce to the superior persons who at present are kind enough to own, to govern, and to manage Britain for the British.
A bold statement! The people cannot manage their own business: it is impossible. They cannot farm the land, and build the factories, and weave the cloth, and feed and clothe and house themselves; they are not able to do it. They must have landlords and masters to do it for them.
But the joke is that these landlords and masters do not do it for the people. The people do it for the landlords and masters; and the latter gentlemen make the people pay them for allowing the people to work.
But the people can only produce wealth under supervision; they must have superior persons to direct them. So the non-Socialist declares.
Another bold assertion, which is not true. For nearly all those things which the non-Socialist tells us are impossible are being done. Nearly all those matters of management, of which the people are said to be incapable, are being accomplished by the people now.
For if the nation can build warships, why can they not build cargo ships? If they can make rifles, why not sewing machines or ploughs? If they can build forts, why not houses? If they can make policemen's boots and soldiers' coats, why not make ladies' hats and mechanics' trousers? If they can pickle beef for the navy, why should they not make jam for the household? If they can run a railway across the African desert, why should they not run one from London to York?
Look at the Co-operative Societies. They own and run cargo ships. They import and export goods. They make boots and foods. They build their own shops and factories. They buy and sell vast quantities of useful things.
Well, these places were started by working men, and are owned by working men.
Look at the post office. If the nation can carry its own letters, why not its own coals? If it can manage its telegraphs, why not its railways, its trams, its cabs, its factories?
Look at the London County Council and the Glasgow and Manchester Corporations. If these bodies of public servants can build dwelling-houses, make roads, tunnels, and sewers, carry water from Thirlmere to Manchester, manage the Ship Canal, make and supply gas, own and work tramways, and take charge of art galleries, baths, wash-houses, and technical schools, what is there that landlords or masters do, or get done, which the cities and towns cannot do better and more cheaply for themselves?
What sense is there in pretending that the colliers could not get coal unless they paid rent to a lord, or that the railways could not carry coal unless they paid dividends to a company, or that the weaver could not make shirtings, nor the milliners bonnets, nor the cutlers blades, just as well for the nation as for Mr. Bounderby or my Lord Tomnoddy?
"But," the "Impossibles" will say, "you have not got the capital."
Do not believe them. You have got the capital. Where? In your brains and in your arms, where all the capital comes from.
Why, if what the "Impossibles" tell us be true—if the people are not able to do anything for themselves as well as the private dealers or makers can do it for them—the gas and water companies ought to have no fear of being cut out in price and quality by any County Council or Corporation.
But the "Impossibles" know very well that, directly the people set up on their own account, the private trader or maker is beaten. Let one district of London begin to make its own gas, and see what will happen in the other districts.
Twenty years ago this cry of "Impossible" was not so easy to dispose of, but to-day it can be silenced by the logic of accomplished facts. For within the last score of years the Municipalities of London, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham, Bolton, Leicester, and other large towns have proved that the Municipalities can manage large and small enterprises efficiently, and that in all cases it is to the advantage of the ratepayers, of the consumers, and of the workers that private management should be displaced by management under the Municipality.
Impossible? Why, the capital already invested in municipal works amounts to nearly £100,000,000. And the money is well invested, and all the work is prosperous.
Municipalities own and manage waterworks, gasworks, tramways, telephones, electric lighting, markets, baths, piers, docks, parks, farms, dwelling-houses, abattoirs, cemeteries, crematoriums, libraries, schools, art galleries, hotels, dairies, colleges, and technical schools. Many of the Municipalities also provide concerts, open-air music, science classes, and lectures; and quite recently the Alexandra Palace has been municipalised, and is now being successfully run by the people and for the people.
How, then, can Socialism be called impossible? As a matter of fact Socialism is only a method of extending State management, as in the Post Office, and Municipal management, as in the cases above named, until State and Municipal management becomes universal all through the kingdom.
Where is the impossibility of that? If a Corporation can manage trams, gas, and water, why can it not manage bread, milk, meat, and beer supplies?
If Bradford can manage one hotel, why not more than one? If Bradford can manage more than one hotel, why cannot London, Glasgow, Leeds, and Portsmouth do the same?
If the German, Austrian, French, Italian, Belgian, and other Governments can manage the railway systems of their countries, why cannot the British Government manage theirs?
If the Government can manage a fleet of war vessels, why not fleets of liners and traders? If the Government can manage post and telegraph services, why not telephones and coalmines?
The answer to all these questions is that the Government and the Municipalities have proved that they can manage vast and intricate businesses, and can manage them more cheaply, more efficiently, and more to the advantage and satisfaction of the public than the same class of business has ever been managed by private firms.
How can it be maintained, then, that Socialism is impossible?
But, will it pay? What! Will it pay? It does pay. Read To-Day's Work, by George Haw, Clarion Press, 2s. 6d., and Does Municipal Management Pay? by R. B. Suthers, Clarion Press, 6d., and you will be surprised to find how well these large and numerous Municipal experiments in Socialism do pay.
From the book on Municipal Management, by R. B. Suthers, above mentioned, I will quote a few comparisons between Municipal and private tram and water services.
WATER
"In Glasgow they devote all profits to making the services cheaper and to paying off capital borrowed.
"Thus, since the Glasgow Municipality took control of the water supply, forty years ago, they have reduced the price of water from 1s. 2d. in the pound rental to 5d. in the pound rental for domestic supply.
"Compare that with the price paid by the London consumer under private enterprise.
"On a £30 house in Glasgow the water rate amounts to 12s. 6d.
"On a £30 house in Chelsea the water rate amounts to 30s.
"On a £30 house in Lambeth the water rate is £2, 16s.
"On a £30 house in Southwark the water rate is 32s.
"And so on. The London consumer pays from two to five times as much as the Glasgow consumer. He does not get as much water, he does not get as good water, and a large part of the money he pays goes into the pockets of the water lords.
"Last year the water companies took just over a million in profits from the intelligent electors of the Metropolis.
"In Glasgow a part of the 5d. in the pound goes to paying off the capital borrowed to provide the waterworks. £2,350,000 has been so spent, and over one million of this has been paid back.
"Does Municipal management pay?
"Look at Liverpool. The private companies did not give an adequate supply, so the Municipality took the matter in hand. What is the result?
"The charge for water in Liverpool is a fixed rate of 3d. in the pound and a water rate of 7½d. in the pound.
"For this comparatively small amount the citizen of Liverpool, as Sir Thomas Hughes said, "can have as many baths and as many water closets as he likes, and the same with regard to water for his garden."
"In London the water companies make high charges for every separate bath and water closet."
TRAMWAYS
"In Glasgow from 1871 to 1894 a private company had a lease of the tramways from the Corporation.
"When the lease was about to expire the Corporation tried to arrange terms with the company for a renewal, but the company would not accept the terms offered.
"Moreover, there was a strong public feeling in favour of the Corporation working the tramways. The company service was not efficient; it was dear, and their bad treatment of their employees had roused general indignation.
"So the Corporation decided to manage the tramways, and the day after the company's lease expired they placed on the streets an entirely new service of cars, cleaner, handsomer, and more comfortable in every way than their predecessors'.
"The result of the first eleven months' working was a triumph for Municipal management.
"The Corporation had many difficulties to contend with. Their horses were new and untrained, their staff was larger and new to the work, and the old company flooded the routes with 'buses to compete with the trams.
"Notwithstanding these difficulties, they introduced halfpenny fares, they lengthened the distance for a penny, they raised the wages of the men and shortened their hours, they refused to disfigure the cars with advertisements, thus losing a handsome revenue, and in the end were able to show a profit of £24,000, which was devoted to the common-good fund and to depreciation account.
"Since that time the success of the enterprise has been still more wonderful.
"The private company during the last four weeks of their reign carried 4,428,518 passengers.
"The Corporation in the corresponding four weeks of 1895 carried 6,114,789.
| In the year 1895-6 the Corporation carried | 87,000,000 |
| In the year 1899-1900 | 127,000,000 |
| In the year 1900-1 | 132,000,000 |
| In 1895-6 the receipts were | £222,121 |
| In 1899-1900 the receipts were | £464,886 |
| In 1900-1 the receipts were | £484,872 |
| In 1895 there were | 31 miles of tramway |
| In 1901 there were | 44½ miles of tramway |
| In 1895 the number of cars was | 170 |
| In 1901 the number of cars was | 322 |
"The citizens of Glasgow have a much better service than the private company provided, the fares are from 30 to 50 per cent. lower, the men work four hours a day less, and get from 5s. a week more wages, and free uniforms, and the capital expended is being gradually wiped out.
"In thirty-three years the capital borrowed will be paid back from a sinking fund provided out of the receipts.
"The gross capital expenditure to May 1901 was £1,947,730.
"The sinking fund amounts to £75,063.
"But the Corporation have, in addition, written off £153,796 for depreciation, they have placed £91,350 to a Permanent Way Renewal Fund, and they have piled up a general reserve fund of £183,428.
"Under a private company £100,000 would have gone into the pockets of a few shareholders on last year's working—even if the private company had charged the same fares and paid the same wages as the Corporation did, which is an unlikely assumption."
If you will read the two books I have mentioned, by Messrs. Haw and Suthers, you will be convinced by facts that Socialism is possible, and that it will pay.
Bear in mind, also, that in all cases where the Municipality has taken over some department of public service and supply, the decrease in cost and the improvement in service which the ratepayers have secured are not the only improvements upon the management of the same work by private companies. Invariably the wages, hours, and conditions of men employed on Municipal work are superior to those of men employed by companies.
Another thing should be well remembered. The private trader thinks only of profit. The Municipality considers the health and comfort of the citizens and the beauty and convenience of the city.
Look about and see what the County Council have done and are doing for London; and all their improvements have to be carried out in the face of opposition from interested and privileged parties. They have to improve and beautify London almost by force of arms, working, as one might say, under the guns of the enemy.
But if the citizens were all united, if the city had one will to work for the general boon, as under Socialism happily it should be, London would in a score of years be the richest, the healthiest, and the most beautiful city in the world.
Socialism, Mr. Smith, is quite possible, and will not only pay but bless the nation that has the wisdom to afford full scope to its beneficence.