British Socialism. J. Ellis Barker
"Veritas," Did Jesus Christ teach Socialism? p. 1.
[14] Macdonald, Socialism, p. 3.
[15] Labour Record, February 1907.
[16] Webb, The Difficulties of Individualism, p. 15.
[17] Will Socialism benefit the British People? p. 4.
[18] Ball, The Moral Aspects of Socialism, p. 3.
[19] Williams, The Difficulties of Socialism, p. 3.
[20] Bebel, Woman, p. 257.
[21] Sorge, Socialism and the Worker, p. 13.
[22] Ibid. p. 16.
[23] Bax, Religion of Socialism, p. ix.
[24] Lafargue, in Bliss, Encyclopedia of Social Reform, p. 1264.
[25] Macdonald, Labour and the Empire, p. 108.
[26] Blatchford, What is this Socialism? p. 2.
[27] Justice, October 19, 1907.
[28] Keir Hardie, From Serfdom to Socialism, p. 96.
[29] Ethel Snowden, The Woman Socialist, p. 44.
[30] Gronlund, Co-operative Commonwealth, p. 126.
[31] Guyot, Pretensions of Socialism, p. 11.
[32] Hird, From Brute to Brother, p. 1.
[33] Robert Blatchford, Real Socialism, p. 15.
[34] Williams, Difficulties of Socialism, p. 4.
[35] Bliss, Encyclopedia of Social Reform, p. 1265.
CHAPTER IIToC
SOME SOCIALIST VIEWS OF PRESENT SOCIETY AND OF THE SOCIETY OF THE FUTURE
"We are not indebted to reason," wrote the greatest American Socialist, "for the landmarks of human progress, for the introduction of Christianity, the institution of the monastic orders, the Crusades, the Reformation, the American Revolution, or the abolition of slavery. Man is only irresistible when he acts from passion. The masses of men are never moved except by passions, feelings, interests."[36] "Socialism has the advantage of appealing to the interests as well as to the enthusiasm of all except the few who think the world good enough as it is. … It is, of course, to the discontented wage-workers that the Socialist can appeal with the greatest chance of success."[37] These indiscreet words, which might have been written by the most implacable of Anti-Socialists, sum up and explain the Socialistic agitation and tactics. They are a proclamation and an avowal, and the worst enemy of Socialism would have found it difficult to pen a more damaging statement. Socialists rely not on reason or justice, but on unreason and passion, for the victory of their cause; and that fact is very much to be regretted, for it is bound to create prejudice and suspicion, and to greatly weaken their case.
The British Socialists, seeking to rouse the passions of men, habitually rely on exaggeration and misrepresentation. They do not tire of painting the present state of society in the darkest colours and of describing with an unbounded but hardly justifiable optimism and enthusiasm the advantages which will accrue to society when Socialism has come to rule. It will be seen that in describing society of the present and society of the future, Socialists let their imagination run riot in the most astounding fashion.
To the Socialist modern civilisation is worse than a failure. "Our civilisation seems all so savage and bestial and filthy and inartistic; all so cowardly and devilish and despicable. We fight by cheatery and underselling, and adulteration and bribery, and unmanly smirking for our bone of a livelihood; all scrambling and biting round the platter when there is abundance for all, if we were orderly and courteous and gentlemanly; all crushing the weaker; all struggling to the platter-side for the privilege of wearing tall hats and of giving good advice to the poor dogs outside. We, the well-fed, shout lordily to the hungry and cheer them with legends to the effect that though the poor are juggled out of earth, they may be masters in Heaven. Our civilisation is barbarous."[38]
Where'er we go, to east or west
North or south, 'tis all the same;
Civilisation at it's best
Is savagery's newer name.
For we see on every hand
'Midst the whirr and noise of trade
The toilers, crushed and trampled, and
Into beasts of burden made.[39]
"The one reality of the nineteenth century is the scramble for wealth; politics, literature, science, religion, art, are, apart from money-getting, mere lifeless wraiths."[40] Government in general, and British Government in particular, is vicious, tyrannous, and neglectful, and deserves the utmost contempt. "National Government is devised for other objects than the adjustment of essential, economic, and hygienic arrangements for the redemption of human life; to use it for such a purpose is gross tyranny and a deadly blow at the very foundations of morality and religion! Governments exist for quite other purposes than this—to pay a million pounds yearly to one family and its immediate parasites, to supply power of life and death over the people to the exploiting class and fat places to their satellites and creatures, to squander hundreds of millions on gunpowder and armaments, to use the whole socialised power of the nation to overawe, exploit, rob, and ruin the so-called lower races—all these are the proper