A Critical Examination of SocialismMallock, W. H. (William Hurrell)
Philosophy
A Critical Examination of Socialism
Mallock, W. H. (William Hurrell)
Communism; Socialism
One of my reasons, then, for beginning the present examination of
socialism with exposing the fallacy of principles which the intellectual
socialists of to-day are so eager to proclaim that they have long since
abandoned, is the fact that these principles are still the principles of
the multitude; that for practical purposes they are those which most
urgently require refutation; and that the intellectual socialists who
have doubtless repudiated them personally, not only do not attempt to
discredit them in the eyes of the ignorant, but themselves continue to
appeal to them as instruments of popular agitation.
My other reason for following the course in question is that the theory
of socialism in its higher and more recent forms, which recognises
directive intellect in addition to manual effort as one of the forces
essential to the production of modern wealth, cannot be understood and
estimated in any profitable way, without a previous examination of those
earlier doctrines and ideas, some of which it still retains, while it
modifies and rejects others.
And now let us take up again the thread of our main argument. We laid
this down early in the present chapter, having emphasised the fact that,
the intellectual socialists of to-day agree, on their own admission,
with one proposition at all events which has been elucidated in this
volume--namely, that labour alone, as one of their spokesmen puts it,
"is impotent to produce the wealth of modern nations," the faculties and
the functions of the minority by whom labour is directed and organised
being no less essential to the result than the labour of the majority
itself. In the following chapter we shall see that this agreement
extends yet further.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Mr. Hillquit--a lawyer, who has adopted the business of propagating
socialism in America--is unknown in England; but his name, not long ago,
was to be found in the English papers, as that of one of the
representatives sent from America to a recent Socialistic Congress in
Europe. Amongst the socialists of the United States he holds a position
analogous to that enjoyed by Mr. Shaw, Mr. Webb, and Mr. Ramsey
Macdonald in England.
[4] Whilst this work was in the press a "Catechism," lately published in
England, for use of children, was sent me. It was proposed to use this
Catechism on Sundays in the London County Council Schools. The first
economic "lesson" in it begins thus: "Who creates all wealth? The
working-class. Who are the workers? Men who work for wages." All who are
not wage-workers are declared in this catechism to be absolutely idle
and not productive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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