§ 4.

So this general account of Socialism concludes. I have tried to put it as what it is, as the imperfect and still growing development of the social idea, of the collective Good Will in man. I have tried to indicate its relation to politics, to religion, to art and literature, to the widest problems of life. Its broad generalizations are simple and I believe acceptable to all clear-thinking minds. And in a way they do greatly simplify life. Once they have been understood they render impossible a thousand confusions and errors of thought and practice. They are in the completest sense of the word, illumination.

But Socialism is no panacea, no magic “Open Sesame” to the millennium. Socialism lights up certain once hopeless evils in human affairs and shows the path by which escape is possible, but it leaves that path rugged and difficult. Socialism is hope, but it is not assurance. Throughout this book I have tried to keep that before the reader.

Directly one accepts those great generalizations one passes on to a jungle of incurably intricate problems, through which man has to make his way or fail, the riddles and inconsistencies of human character, the puzzles of collective action, the power and decay of traditions, the perpetually recurring tasks and problems of education. To have become a Socialist is to have learnt something, to have made an intellectual and a moral step, to have discovered a general purpose in life and a new meaning in duty and brotherhood. But to have become a Socialist is not, as many suppose, to have become generally wise. Rather in realizing the nature of the task that could be done, one realizes also one’s insufficiencies, one’s want of knowledge, one’s need of force and training. Here and in this manner, says Socialism, a palace and safety and great happiness may be made for mankind. But it seems to me the Socialist as he turns his hand and way of living towards that common end knows little of the nature of his task if he does so with any but a lively sense of his individual weakness and the need of charity for all that he achieves.

In that spirit, and with no presumption of finality, this little book of explanations is given to the world.

THE END

Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E.,
AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

Footnotes

  1. As I pass these proofs I am reminded that Mr. J. R. MacDonald has in the press Socialism (Jacks, Edinburgh)—a general account of the movement. From Mr. Kirkup’s An Enquiry into Socialism and from Fabian Essays (the Fabian Society, London) a good idea of the general Socialist position may also be obtained. [Return]
  2. The facts of the case are put very clearly, and quite invincibly, by Miss Margaret Macmillan in Infant Mortality. See also The Babies’ Tribute to the Modern Moloch, by F. Victor Fisher. (Twentieth Century Press, 1d.) These are small polemical tracts. The case is treated fully, authoritatively and without bias in Infant Mortality by Dr. G. Newman. [Return]
  3. This Misery of Boots. It is intended as an introductory tract explaining the central idea of Socialism for propaganda purposes, and it is published by the Fabian Society, of 3 Clement’s Inn, London, at 3d. That, together with my tract Socialism and the Family (A. C. Fifield, 44 Fleet Street, London, 6d.), gives the whole broad outline of the Socialist attitude. [Return]
  4. Elihu’s tracts are published by the Independent Labour Party at one penny each. The best are: Whose Dog Art Thou? A Nation of Slaves; Milk and Postage Stamps; A Corner in Flesh and Blood; and Simple Division. [Return]
  5. Pure Sociology, p. 271-2, by Lester F. Ward. (The Macmillan Company, New York.) [Return]
  6. In Dakota, 1906-7, private enterprise led to a particularly severe coal famine in the bitterest weather, and the shortage was felt so severely that the population rose and attacked and stopped passing coal-trains. [Return]
  7. For a clear and admirable account of the Socialist attitude to the temperance question, see the tract on Municipal Drink Traffic published by the Fabian Society; price one penny. [Return]
  8. The Future in America, Ch. IX. (Chapman & Hall, 1906.) [Return]
  9. Studies Scientific and Social, Vol. II., Ch. XXIV.; by Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace. (Macmillan & Co., 1900.) [Return]
  10. Socialism and the Family. (A. C. Fifield. 6d.) [Return]
  11. Socialism and the Family. [Return]
  12. “The haircloth encased the whole body down to the knees; the hair drawers, as well as the rest of the dress, being covered on the outside with white linen so as to escape observation; and the whole so fastened together as to admit of being readily taken off for his daily scourgings, of which yesterday’s portion was still apparent in the stripes on his body. Such austerity had hitherto been unknown to English saints, and the marvel was increased by the sight—to our notions so revolting—of the innumerable vermin with which the haircloth abounded—boiling over with them, as one account describes it, like water in a simmering cauldron. At the dreadful sight all the enthusiasm of the previous night revived with double ardour. They looked at each other in silent wonder, then exclaimed, ‘See, see what a true monk he was, and we knew it not!’ and burst into alternate fits of weeping and laughter, between the sorrow of having lost such a head, and the joy of having found such a saint.” (Historical Memorials of Canterbury, by the Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D.) [Return]
  13. “The ethical case for slavery in the Southern States of America,” my friend Mr. Graham Wallas reminds me, “was largely argued on the instance of the widow ‘with a few strong slaves.’” [Return]
  14. See “Scepticism of the Instrument,” the Appendix to A Modern Utopia. (Chapman & Hall.) [Return]
  15. What makes the expression particularly inappropriate in my case is the fact that in my Mankind in the Making there is a clearly-reasoned chapter (Ch. II.) which has never been answered, in which I discuss and, I think, conclusively dispose of Mr. Francis Galton’s ideas of Eugenics and deliberate stirpiculture. [Return]
  16. On Municipal and National Trading, by Lord Avebury. (Macmillan & Co., 1907.) [Return]
  17. The student will find very clear, informing, and suggestive reading in Kirkup’s History of Socialism (A. & C. Black, 1906). It is a fine, impartial account of these developments, which may well be used as a corrective (or confirmation) of this book. [Return]
  18. It was probably first used in the Poor Man’s Guardian in that year. See The Life of Francis Place, by Graham Wallas, p. 353. [Return]
  19. The Future in America. (Chapman & Hall, 1906.) [Return]
  20. In the Days of the Comet. (Macmillan & Co., 1906.) Anti-Socialist speakers and writers are in the habit of quoting passages of a review from the Times Literary Supplement, published during the heat of the “Book War,” and promptly controverted, as though they were quotations from this book. [Return]
  21. Fabian Tracts. (Fabian Society, 5s.) [Return]
  22. See Appendix to Mankind in the Making. (Chapman and Hall, 1905.) [Return]
  23. 1. Municipalization by Provinces. 2. On the Reform of Municipal Service. 3. Public Control of Electric Power and Transit. 4. The Revival of Agriculture: a National Policy for Great Britain. 5. The Abolition of Poor Law Guardians. Others to follow. (Fabian Society, 1905-6.) [Return]
  24. This generalization is a sweeping one, and would need, were one attempting to give more than a very broad impression of the sequence of Socialist ideas, considerable modification. Such earlier tracts as The New Reform Bill, Facts for Londoners, Facts for Bristol, dealt mainly with the question of machinery. [Return]
  25. I visited Liverpool and Manchester the other day for the first time in my life, and was delighted to find how the inferiority of the local art galleries to those of Glasgow rankled in people’s minds. [Return]
  26. Chapman & Hall. [Return]