A history of socialism

by Thomas Kirkup

This great ideal remains, therefore, as a far-shining goal to provoke and encourage the endeavours of men to attain it. We cannot lower it, but we should be grateful for every sincere attempt to reach it, for every successful step towards it. For the rise and growth of socialism a lower and, as some would reckon, a more solid foundation is all that we need. The necessary minimum is an enlightened self-interest. Socialism does not aim at the extinguishing or superseding of the self-regarding principle—that is impossible and absurd. It seeks to regulate it, to place it under social guidance and control. When and so far as the mass of the people in any particular country and throughout the world gain a moderate, rational, and enlightened view of their real needs and interests, then and so far will socialism tend to be realised. While the elect souls have been and are ready to go far in deeds of heroism and self-sacrifice, nothing more is demanded of the average mass of mankind than to learn to understand their true interests. On this prosaic basis much has already been done.

While the competitive system still holds the field, we have very good grounds for thinking that it should pass away, and is passing away. We have seen how, in accordance with the fundamental principles of socialism, the State is becoming, not in name only, but in reality, an association for the promotion of common national interests, in so far as they can well be furthered by the central organ; and we have also seen how the municipality or commune is really beginning to perform the same functions for local purposes. In the co-operative system, in the growth of trade unions, of arbitration, boards of conciliation, and similar forms of organisation, we see partial efforts towards a comprehensive system of social control over the industrial processes. And the natural development of the company is providing the mechanism whereby it may also be placed under social management. It is clear that along these lines the movement may spread till it cover the whole field of our social-economic life and place the competitive spirit under an effective and reasonable regulation.

It may be well here to speak more at length regarding the functions of the State under a rational socialism. Of all the absurdities entertained about socialism by its critics, and apparently also by some of its adherents, the most grotesque is the idea that everything will be done by the direct action of the State. It will rather be the aim of a reasonable socialism to diminish and lighten the pressure of the State as an engine of compulsion and coercion, and to offer suitable scope for the free action of the individual and the family, for free association and voluntary agreement. For this reason one of the most urgent needs of such a socialism will be to promote local autonomy, and also to foster what we may call the autonomy of the individual and the family, but in a living organic relation to the whole community.

We must therefore regard social action as proceeding not only from above downwards, but also from below upwards, and indeed mutually and reciprocally through all the members and departments of society, from the centre to the extremities and from the extremities to the centre. But even this is only a very imperfect explanation of an organic process which expresses itself in a consensus of life and action.

The federal idea also very imperfectly expresses the relation that the parts may bear to each other and to the whole in a great society, but it helps us to understand. This federal conception may have a great future, in Austria-Hungary, in Russia, and in the Balkan Peninsula, for the solution of political difficulties. The British Empire is being transformed into a free association of free States. And we may add that the highest directing agency in the Empire, the British Cabinet, is a combination of the leading men of the strongest party for the time being, who in the main hold the same political views, and who are united, not according to a statute or a written constitution, or any kind of formal contract, but by what for want of a better name we may call a gentlemen’s agreement. The British Cabinet may be regarded as a free association of gentlemen, the Premier presiding primus inter pares.

As regards socialism, one of the most urgent needs for the promoting of local and individual autonomy is fully to reconstitute the homestead and the village community. The homestead will satisfy the most natural craving for individual property and for a family and ancestral home, with all the beneficent and sacred association implied in such a home. ‘The area of the homestead should be sufficient to employ and support a family.’ In my book Progress and the Fiscal Problem (p. 172) I have spoken of such a homestead as a freehold. But it matters comparatively little what legal term we employ, provided the occupancy be permanent and not dependent on the will of officials connected with the central government. There should, however, be some guarantee that the social conditions of occupancy be fulfilled. Tax or rent might reasonably be paid into a social fund for collective needs. Here, as in other matters, one of the difficulties in elucidating a reasonable socialism lies in the fact that we have to use old words to express facts and institutions that may be expected to become new, or at least to undergo a material change in the course of social development. For such words, it should be observed, have not a final and conclusive meaning which can be stereotyped and put into a definition in a dictionary or legal enactment, but can only be unfolded in actual human use and in the process of changing human history. It is meant that the homestead and the village community be restored to a full and beneficent life under modern conditions and to serve modern needs.

Of the State for the near future the most desirable type undoubtedly is one which, while providing a strong and efficient central organisation, gives a real and substantial autonomy to the various parts and members of which it may be composed. And it will be one of the noblest functions of such a State to train to a higher social and political life the peoples which are now subject and by some are reckoned inferior. This duty Great Britain is performing in India and Egypt. The United States of America have undertaken a like office in Cuba and the Philippine Islands. It might even be possible under wise guidance to lead peoples like the Kaffirs direct from the warlike and tribal stage into the industrial and co-operative stage. Some day, perhaps, the best solution for racial difficulties in America may be to give some kind of special autonomy to the negroes in the hot regions where they are most thickly planted near the Gulf of Mexico.

Progress in these high matters will obviously depend on the growing insight and sympathy of the rulers, as well as on the increasing enlightenment, self-control, and political experience of the subject races. It is a most important matter that the task has been worthily begun. Such work is in quality like mercy—

It is twice blest:

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.