Those are a few steps towards the desired goal of Socialism.
You may perhaps wonder why I do not ask you to found a Socialist Party. I do not think the workers are ready for it. And I feel that if you found a Labour Party every step you take towards the emancipation of Labour will be a step towards Socialism.
But I should like to think that many workers will become Socialists at once, and more as they live and learn.
The fact is, Mr. Smith, I do not want to ask too much of the mass of working folks, who have been taught little, and mostly taught wrong, and whose opportunities of getting knowledge have been but poor.
I am not asking working men to be plaster saints nor stained-glass angels, but only to be really what their flatterers are so fond of telling them they are now: shrewd, hard-headed men, distrusting theories and believing in facts.
For the statement that private trading and private management of production and distribution are the best, and the only "possible," ways of carrying on the business of the nation is only a theory, Mr. Smith; but the superiority of Municipal management in cheapness, in efficiency, in health, in comfort, and in pleasantness is a solid fact, Mr. Smith, which has been demonstrated just as often as Municipal and private management have been contrasted in their action.
One other question I may anticipate. How are the workers to form a Labour Party?
There are already two Labour parties formed.
One is the Trade Union body, the other is the Independent Labour Party.
The Trade Unions are numerous, but not politically organised nor united.