TWO LECTURES ON SOCIALISM.

I. A SEVEN YEARS' RETROSPECT BY MR. WILLIAM MORRIS.

Mr. William Morris addressed the members of the Hammersmith Socialist Society at their annual meeting, on Aug. 30, at Kelmscott House. He said the theme of his address would be "Seven Years Ago and Now." Although seven years ago seemed a very short time to look back upon, yet the events that had characterised that period made the state of affairs which obtained then almost ancient history. Although this country had then passed through some remarkable crises, the ordinary politicians, working-class or aristocratic, would have considered the people thoroughly contented, having nothing to ask for as they had all they could wish, and having nothing to grumble at in the polity of the time. True, nature had ordained that some were up and some were down, but that was accepted as inevitable, so much so that the ups had forgotten to find even compulsion for the downs. Important events such as the Paris Commune and the Chartist movement had been forgotten, and even trade unionism was over-looked. In fact, the only thing that seemed of interest in social matters was as to which of the two great parties should govern, as it was jocosely so-called. (Laughter.) As far as general organised social progress was concerned everything had come to a dead stop. In the midst of all this came the beginning of the Socialist movement, which was at first looked upon as a joke ; in fact, he remembered an evening paper referring to the Social Democratic Federation as something which Mr. H. M. Hyndman would persist in calling himself. (Laughter.) In fact, the whole of modern life seemed depressing to some of them, and art, literature, and pleasant society seemed like the bricks they tried to grasp in a dream which crumbled away in their hands. At first the teachers of Socialism were revived with not exactly amiability ; but gradually people began to find something in it which was not mere mid-summer madness, and, strange to say, the first wave of assent came, not from the lower classes, but from certain knots of people in the middle classes. The lower classes had joined the movement later on, but by quite a different road, and then gradually at first, by some extraordinary process, all the old world workman's associations discovered that they must of necessity find themselves in the midst of the Socialist movement, and it was discovered by everybody at once that there were two definite classes throughout civilisation. It seemed almost extravagant to talk about the suddenness of this change, which had been brought about by the work of a few obscure persons and the distribution of a few thousand leaflets, and the publication of a paper that didn't pay. They had, then, in almost the very words of Matthew Arnold, a stupid upper, a vulgar middle, and a brutal lower class.
Coming to the present, they found then was absolutely no difference between the two political parties, it was always a toss up upon any given occasion as to which would go the farthest in the direction of social reform. The only thing that could be said was that the Tories required a little more pushing but did the work more thoroughly when they were pushed. In fact, he thought they might say that the England of to-day was entirely changed from the England of seven years ago. Then the ordinary educated Englishman thought that working men were well enough paid, and that whatever poverty and misery existed was entirely the fault of the sufferers. But it recognised that society was sharply divided into two classes. There was a mere change of opinion only, the people were no better off, and the present condition of oppressors and oppressed must before long lead to something which looked like the break up of the whole thing. They had once thought that a change would have been brought about by more catastrophic means than now appear possible, but as opinion grows with extension it losses in intention. They were asked where was the present movement to stop? His answer was at the absolute equality of all classes, which meant that there should be not classes at all. Some people talked about greater equality ; this was a loose grammatical term, something like Cobbet's idea of a man who had been moderately cheated, or whose wife was moderately chaste. They, as Socialists, recognised that this was the only goal. At present the workers were wasting their energies in strikes here, there, and everywhere, and at last these spasmodic attacks would so injure the commercial machine, and make it so racketty about the joints, that it must fall to pieces. In fact, he thought capitalism would come to an end because the position of the capitalist would become so bad that nobody would be willing to accept it. At present the position seemed slightly humdrum, and progress appeared slow or at a standstill, yet it might be that with an appearance of powerlessness their movement was like a sword whirled in the air so fast that its movements could not be seen. It might be that some present would have an opportunity of proving their manhood, and he thought, with his friend Shaw, that the loss of three or four thousand lives would be but a drop in the bucket compared with the millions of lives now thrown away for nothing, in bringing about the defeat of the human race.

II.— PRINCE KRAPOTKINE'S UTOPIA.

 Prince Krapotkine delivered a lecture on August 31 at the Athenaeum Hall, Tottenham-court-road, on "Brain Work and Manual Work." The lecturer, in his opening remarks, said in the present state of things it was of the greatest importance for the Socialists to have a special school for their children. The race hatreds which existed were due in great part to the want of knowledge of the languages and habits of the different countries, and this was exploited to a very great extent by those who had an interest in supporting race hatreds. To eradicate this want of mutual knowledge the International School was established, and in it was given also that kind of education which was free from those religious prejudices which helped to support the feuds of nations. But whatever might be the intelligence and devotion of the person under whose management the school was placed it was important that the parents themselves should take a warm interest in the school, so that they and the teachers and the children should be a kind of great family, and in this direction the Socialistic school must be entirely different from any of those which had ever existed in the world.
With regard to the subject proper of his lecture, the distinction between brain and manual workers had been growing for centuries, so that it could not go further, and a movement in the other direction was necessary. It was remark able that many Socialists who criticised everything else were extremely cautious when they approached this division of brain workers and manual workers. They did not seem to realise that there might come a time when there was no such distinction, when every man of science would be a manual worker, and every manual worker a man of science. He need not mention to them the writings of Tolstoi, who advocated the union of labor, and who had carried it out in his person. All over the world, indeed, there was a great movement in favor of developing technical education in all possible ways, and they would find in the elementary schools of France, Germany, and Russia, and, in this country, also, to some extent, manual teaching had been introduced, and it was sought to inculcate into children the habits of manual work. All these were indications of the direction in which society was travelling, and when they considered the question they must come to the conclusion that the next step was to organise a state of society in which every one would receive a good university education and at the same time be a skilled workman. He was fully persuaded that this was possible, because it had already been done by hundreds of young men, and it was strange that the first steps in this direction had been realised at Moscow. To give such an education would be a real economy in society. Let them remember what was spent every year in maintaining the gaols, judges, and hangmen, and the like; but in a society where everyone had been accustomed to work with his own hands they would not have any person who would try to live by avoiding work. In such a community they would not have the division and hatreds which existed between the different classes of society, because all of them would belong to the same class of society, and a community of this kind would be able to produce wealth. In such manner that each would have enough and no one would have to work more than he was willing to do. It was sometimes said that certain countries suffered from over production, but that was an absolute absurdity, for there could never be over production from which our societies suffered, but if everybody became a producer there would never be any of that. It might be said, perhaps, that this state of society would be the death of science and art and literature. Yet he held that science would benefit immeasurably from the change. The progress of industry was the development of science— inventions were made by the workers and then scientific theories manufactured to explain them. Science wanted workers, and literature and art would benefit no less if every man was a labourer. Would it not be a very good thing, for instance, if the poet, who considered himself a person who mustn't work in the fields, should take part in the work of those who laboured in the fields? Would not a poet be a better poet if be were a fisherman himself, a tiller of the soil himself, and a toiler in the mines himself ?

Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld. : 1860 - 1947), Thursday 15 October 1891, page 3