Self-government is present to some degree in every form of society of which there is a record. Under some circumstances it is confined to one caste or class. Again it is the right of the whole society. In one place it is confined to political affairs alone. In others it is present in all public activities. Everywhere, however, there is self-government of some kind.
Recent generations have devoted their attention to the fostering of political self-government, and to the organization of a multitude of voluntary associations based on the self-governing principle. Generation by generation the peoples have been prepared to assume an ever-increasing authority over the complicated mechanism of public affairs. Self-government in the clan or in the agricultural village was a simple matter compared with the management of public affairs in a modern economic society. It is this task, however, that confronts the present generation. The principle of self-direction, extended into the complex field of economic relationships, must be relied upon to pull together the scattering threads of economic activities. That this task involves an immense amount of propaganda and educational activity, goes without saying. That it is the only sound basis for social procedure seems to be the conclusion inevitably arising out of a careful examination of the premises.
The organization of sound economic groups is a problem in the field of social engineering. The preparation of the industrial populations for economic self-government is a problem in the field of education. Both of these problems lie at the root of any effective reorganization of the world's economic affairs.
V. A WORLD PRODUCERS' FEDERATION
An organization of producers into groups corresponding with their occupations lays the basis for world thinking and world federation. Each active member of society would then be directly associated with a group that was world wide in its scope, so that transport workers, miners, farmers and other producers would be in constant touch with similarly occupied men and women on every continent.
One of the principal disadvantages of the present organization of society is the sectionalism arising out of the political divisions established by national boundary lines. In a world where all of the producers were organized along lines corresponding with their occupations, sectionalism would have much less chance to play a rôle in the lives of the people. To be sure issues would arise between the various economic groups, but each individual would be affiliated with a world organization, and the scope of his interests and of his thinking would therefore be much broader than it is under the present system of political divisions. World thoughts and world views on a hitherto unknown scale would be the logical outcome of world economic affiliations in producer groups.
The organization of society along the lines of production will therefore necessarily broaden the outlook of those whose visions are now limited by the confines of a political state, and the present ties of loyalty which bind the individual within a geographic area would then attach him to a world organization and would compel him to think in world terms. That there are limitations imposed by the affiliation of the individual with an economic group cannot be denied, but such limitations are far less drastic than those prescribed by restricted geographic areas.