THE TENDENCY OF ENGLISH SOCIALISM.

 REVIEW OF RAMSAY MACDONALD'S BOOK.

Mr. W. G. Spence, M.H.R., sends us the following review of Mr. Ramsay Macdonald's "Socialism and Society": —
Within 186 pages Mr. J. Ramsay Macdonald has compressed much useful thought. The arguments are well stated, and cover a wide range. The book should be read by and will prove invaluable as a corrective of many errors held by extremists. In his preface he points out that we are in the age of constructive politics, and hence the organic conception of society is a necessity. The Socialist considers not only the individual but the unit in his work and his relation to organic society, it is therefore essential that a proper concept should be held as to the influence of history on each unit and on society. He enters into the discussion by stating the problem as poverty, which is not merely physical, but mental and moral. He shows how outward improvement may go on side by side with vital decay. The workman, the capitalist, the whole of society is affected adversely by the competitive system.
"Business is a war in which he whose nerves are not always well strung, whose eye is not always fixed upon the vigilant enemy, and whose heart is not always prepared to drive home every advantage, is likely to be overborne."
"The result is inevitable. The arts languish, the vulgar empire of plutocracy extends its gilded borders, luxurious indulgence takes the place of comfort, selfish pursuits that of public spirit, philanthropic effort that of just dealing."

BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION.

"The cause of progress is, that the individual, endowed with possibilities of action by his ancestors, is launched into society — the race— to receive from it the impress and the impact of its inherited qualities, and thus by the play and inter-play of the individual and social inheritance and individual and social dynamic change in a systematic sequence of stages is carried on."

ECONOMIC EVOLUTION.

"The reasons which make the private ownership of light and air unthinkable tend to make the private ownership of land and industrial capital unthinkable."
"The fact is that the state of individual competition, the state of serving the community by making personal profits, is nothing except the chaotic interregnum between two states of social organisation — between Feudalism when society was organised to maintain national life, and Socialism when society will be organised to maintain the industrial and moral efficiency of the community. It is inconceivable that the unregulated clash of individual interests and the haphazard expenditure of individual effort, which competition means, with all their accompanying waste of economic power and of human energy, should stand forever as the final word which rational beings have to say upon their industrial organisation."
"When the legislative palliative is inconsistent with the system upon which it is to be imposed, the awakening moral consciousness which prompts the demand must see that it really condemns the existing state fundamentally, and not merely in some of its superficial and alterable features."

NO REVOLUTIONS.

One of the most notable thoughts running through the book is the emphasis laid on the fact that progress is evolutionary, and he begins to develop this idea in his second chapter in which he discusses the question of society and the individual. He shows how futile are revolutions, and how all attempts to bring about a change in social conditions by small settlements, such as those of Robert Owen, must fail, because man cannot escape from his past.
The revolutionary Socialist gets no encouragement from Mr. Macdonald. He refers to the South African war as an example of the waste of revolution. After the war conditions are much the same. After referring to many other historical revolutions, he says :—
"Effect, of course, all these revolutions had, but how little compared with the furies that accompanied them, and the tremendous efforts which were consumed by them."

MARXIAN SOCIALISM.

Worshippers of Marx may disagree with his opinion of that great man as summed up in the sentence : "The place which Marx occupies is on the threshold of scientific sociology, but not altogether over it." Before they assert so strongly as some do that Marx has laid down a complete basis for a Socialistic state they must read Macdonald's line of reasoning. He shows how Marx was influenced by the teachings of Hegel, which happened to control thought in Germany at the time. Darwin had not then appeared, and the admittedly great mind of Marx lost by that fact. We live in the age which accepts evolution as an established law, and must adjust our Marxian economic and other views accordingly.
Mr. Macdonald also denies that the teaching off those who proclaim a class war is right. He shows how the wage earner is too often bound up with the capitalist for an appeal to class interest to touch him except perhaps in a wrong direction. He says :—
"But, further, any idea which assumes that the interests of the proletariat are so simply opposed to those of the bourgeoisie, as to make the Proletariat feel a oneness of economic interest is purely formal and artificial." . . . "The tug of the class war is across, not upwards. There is no constructive value in a class war." . ..
"Convey it in what spirit we may, an appeal to class interest is an appeal to personal interest. . . It is an appeal to individualism, and results in getting men to accept Socialist formulae without becoming Socialists."

SOCIALISM.

The narrow view is too often taken by declared Socialists that Socialism is simply and solely an economic question. This is a mistake, and it is pleasing to find that the writer recognises fully and urges strongly the view that human life and character, as a whole, is beneficially affected by Socialism. Mere industrial class consciousness is not enough, even if it could be spread amongst workers. His idea is briefly given in the following questions: —
"Not only, therefore, is it incumbent upon Socialism to recognise the existence of an intellectual motive, it must place that motive above the economic, because without it the economic struggle would be devoid of any constructive value, it would be a mere tug-of-war, it would never bring us to Socialism." . . .
"Socialism marks the growth of society, not the uprising of a class. The consciousness which it seeks to quicken is not one of economic class solidarity, but one of social unity and growth towards organic wholeness."

THE WAY TO SOCIALISM.

Mr. Macdonald has no doubts as to the right way out of the present evil conditions, and his proposals are all in line with those guiding the Labor movement in Australia to-day. Change is inevitable, but must be brought about by active work through political and social methods. Socialism will not come of itself ; it must be moulded out of the material of the present. Palliatives are good, so long as they are in keeping with the aim of finally arriving at a Socialistic state.
Though a Freetrader fiscally, he says of it: "Freetrade solves no social problems." He urges that all that is good in Liberalism should be made use of; in short, that we can only evolve from the present to an advanced and improved social state by conscious and intelligently diverted effort, we cannot jump into new conditions. He says : —
"The fact is, there are no gulfs in the course of organic evolution, and nothing in the main stream of that evolution has been crushed out. Lower forms merge into higher forms, one species into another; the vegetable into the animal kingdom, in human history, one epoch slides into an other. Each new stage in evolution retains all that was vital in the old, and sheds all that was dead. . . . The democratic work of Liberalism is the basis of the Socialistic state, the individualistic morality of evangelicism is the basis of the social morality of Socialism, the economies and organisation of production are the basis of the Socialist economies and organisation of distribution.". . .

"Labor has but one intelligent road of advance—that of economic and industrial reconstruction — that of Socialism." . . .
"Economic hardships are the flints on the road, but these flints may develop on us the hoofs of the beast or may compel us to use our intelligence to find smoother paths. Socialism is the latter alternative."

CAPITALISM WORKED OUT.

"Capitalism has worked itself out, atomic individualism has become barren, the conception of property is being revised, all the old axioms regarding the State and the individual are being swept away into reliquary chambers, the centre of gravity is shifting from problems and methods of production to problems and methods of distribution. In the political arena the old champions of political freedom, having fought with their own appropriate weapons, are riding off the lists, whilst their places are being taken by a new generation, armed differently and fighting by new methods."

MAN v. MONEY.

"Finally, a very definite and pressing need has arisen, for the development of moral and social wealth, which can bring no dividends to capital, and therefore is neglected by capitalism. The character and quality of citizenship can be nurtured and encouraged by a policy of legislation and administration, but there is no private profit in it. . ... The deterioration of the physique of our people is but of remote interest to the factory owner or the house agent, and by them can be neglected, on the ground that it will not materially affect profits and rents — this generation at any rate. Indeed, profits and rents can be made out of the very conditions which hasten this deterioration. But, for the community, every depopulated parish, every overcrowded area, every class of underfed children, is dead loss." . . .
"There can be no steadiness of industry so long as there is anarchy in production. The flow of production must be regulated at its source. The instruments of production must be socialised before unemployment is obviated, and the problem of distribution solved."

THE SOCIALISTIC CREED.

"The function of the Socialist theory is to guide. The seaman, in his voyage across the seas, steers by certain marks, and at certain points alters his course, and follows new marks when the old can lead him no further. So with Socialism. Its method is not the architectural and dogmatic one of building straight away from bottom to top, but the organised and experimental one of relieving immediate and pressing difficulties on a certain plan, and in accordance with a certain scheme of Organisation."
"The Socialist creed is that property can be legitimately held only as the reward for services. It condemns the existing state of things, because those who do no service own most property. Socialism is therefore a defence of property against the existing order." . .

LAST WORDS.

"Hence it is that the key to the under standing of Socialism is not a wiping-out but a transformation, not a reaction but a fulfilment. The impulses and appetites of the old are to be carried on into the new, but they are to run in different channels and demand different nourishment. At the threshold of Socialist speculation stands as sentinel the Law of Continuity, and as guides the Laws of Variation."

Worker (Wagga, NSW : 1892 - 1913), Thursday 18 July 1907, page 7