baneful, and is certainly not the desire of the true Socialist." 1

"State ownership, State tyranny, State interference exist to-day. We have to bear them now; we have to submit to them now; we have to pay for them now. The people, as such, own nothing. And the Socialists demand that the people shall own everything. Not the State,' the People.' So great is the difference between the word 'State' and the word 'people.'" 2 "Do you propose that all these means of production which are now. owned by individuals, by this class, as you say, should be made the property of the Government, like the Post Office and the telegraph system are in this country, and the railways as well in some others, or that they should be owned by municipal bodies, as waterworks, tramways, gasworks, and so on, are in many cases already?—No. Socialism does not mean mere Governmental ownership or management. The State of to-day, nationally or locally, is only the agent of the possessing class; the Post Office and the other State-owned businesses are run for profit just as other businesses are; and the Government, as the agent of the possessing class, has, in the interests of its employers, to treat the employees just as other employees are treated. The organised democratic society contemplated by Socialists is a very different thing from the class State of to-day. When society is organised for the control of its own business, and has acquired the possession of its own means of production, its officers will not be the agents of a class, and production will be carried on for the use of all and not for the profit of a few." "The Post Office to-day is an organised sweating-den. The Government get the largest possible amount of work for the lowest possible wages.

Ben Tillett, Trades Unionism and Socialism, p. 14.

2 Clarion, October 18, 1907.

Bax and Quelch, A New Catechism of Socialism, pp. 8, 9.

1

That is capitalist wage-slavery under Government control." "The country postman has to walk excessive distances for miserable wages in order that the profit on the Post Office may be filched from the employees and from the public by the Chancellor of the Exchequer." " The Fabians, on the other hand, advocate State Socialism, but they are a small minority. "The Socialism advocated by the Fabian Society is State Socialism exclusively." Some Socialists would welcome State Socialism in the hope that it would prepare the way for free Communism. Mr. Keir Hardie, for instance, says: "State Socialism with all its drawbacks, and these I frankly admit, will prepare the way for free Communism, in which the rule, not merely the law of the State, but the rule of life will be-From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." 4

"Socialists only believe in the fraternal State. Paternal State Socialism all Socialists unanimously oppose.'

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE SOCIALIST ORGANISATIONS: THEIR MUTUAL

RELATIONS AND THEIR POLICY

THE Social-Democratic Federation is the most honest and straightforward of the various Socialist organisations. Its aims are revolutionary, as the following statement proves :

"The Social-Democratic Federation is a militant Socialist organisation whose members-men and women -belong almost entirely to the working classes. Its object is the realisation of Socialism-the emancipation of the working class from its present subjection to the capitalist class. The means by which it seeks to attain that end are agitation, education, and the organisation of the working class into a class-conscious political party-that is, a party clearly conscious of the present position of the workers as a subject class, in consequence of all the means of production being owned and controlled by another class, and clearly conscious of its duty and mission to free them from that position by the conquest of all the powers of the State, and by making all the means of production collective common property, to be used for the benefit of all instead of for the profit of a class. To this end the Social-Democratic Federation proclaims and preaches the class war."1

"According to the report for the year ending March 1907 it has 186 branches and affiliated societies. One of its members sits in Parliament as a member of the

'Quelch, The Social-Democratic Federation, p. 3.

Labour party, and about 120 are members of various local bodies. Its gross income and expenditure throughout the country is estimated at 15,500l. It has a weekly paper, 'Justice,' and a monthly magazine, The SocialDemocrat.'" I In its own estimation "Justice" is "the most respected of Socialist newspapers." "

2

The various Socialist organisations do not love each other. The Fabian Society caustically remarks: “The Federation runs a newspaper called 'Justice' which has not hitherto been worth a penny to any man whose pence are so scarce as a labourer's, and which has made repeated attacks on the ordinary working-class organisations without whose co-operation Socialists can at present do nothing except cry in the wilderness. The branches are expected to sell this paper at their meetings.” 3 "The Social-Democratic Federation is virtually the oldest Socialist society and is certainly the most conservative. It was founded as the Democratic Federation about 1880, and adopted its present name in 1884. Mr. H. M. Hyndman, its most prominent member, imported its doctrines-which were of German originand the S.D.F. (as it is familiarly called) has ever since endeavoured to maintain an unshaken faith in all the teachings of Karl Marx. In fact, the S.D.F. changes its doctrines not with the times, but a dozen years or so after; so that it is always rather out of touch with the actualities of politics and attracts the type of mind that prefers clear-cut principles to practical political progress." 4

Other Socialist organisations which are less straightforward than the Social-Democratic Federation hide

1 Reformers' Year Book, 1908, pp. 74, 75.

2 Annual Report, Social-Democratic Federation Conference 1906, p. 2.

3 Shaw, The Fabian Society, p. 23.

The Secretary of the Fabian Society in Daily Mail Year Book, 1908, p. 72.

The

their identity and object under misleading titles. Independent Labour Party, for instance, is a purely Socialist party notwithstanding its name. "Its object

is, an Industrial Commonwealth founded upon the Socialisation of land and capital. Its methods are the education of the community in the principles of Socialism; the industrial and political organisation of the workers; the independent representation of Socialist principles on all elective bodies.” 1 "No one will find much difference in the programmes of the SocialDemocratic Federation and the Independent Labour Party."? "The Independent Labour Party, commonly called the I.L.P., which must be carefully distinguished from the Labour party, is much the largest, and politically the most important, Socialist organisation. It was founded at Bradford in 1892, by Mr. Keir Hardie, M.P., and others, and it has from the first advocated Socialism of the English type and endeavoured to work in harmony with trade unionists. The Labour party is mainly due to its initiative, and through its members in trade unions it largely controls the policy of the party. In August 1907 it had over 700 branches, of which 155 had been formed in the preceding six months. Its operations have recently expanded with extraordinary rapidity, its central office expenditure for the years ending February 28 having been 9557. in 1905, 1,8177. in 1906, and 3,5521. in 1907. It does a very large business in the publication and sale of pamphlets and books, and has a weekly paper, "The Labour Leader." At the general election of 1906, eighteen of its members were returned to Parliament, all belonging to the Labour party, and two more have since been elected, one for the Labour party, and one, Mr. Victor Grayson, as an independent

1 Reformers' Year Book, 1906, p. 73.

2 Report of the Twenty-sixth Annual Conference, Social-Democratic Federation, 1906, p. 1.

EE