In our review we have had much to say of the possibilities of revolution. To all who shrink from sudden change the experience of the Labour Party in Australia should be reassuring. The Labour Party of the Commonwealth attained to power in 1904 and again in 1908. But the Party when in power can do very little. It is only one of three or four parties. When in power it must depend on outside support. Thus do the desires and ideals of men find their limitations in human nature and in our environment. What men have most to fear as the greatest danger, particularly in English-speaking lands, is not sudden change, but the indifference and neglect which make change slow and inadequate. The efforts of labour to raise itself deserve our entire sympathy and our most careful study. Force devoid of counsel, whether it be of the reaction or of the revolution, will only result in increase of evil. Evil in itself each tends to aggravate and perpetuate the other. We can avert the baneful consequences of both only by pursuing with temperate energy the course of well-considered and beneficent change. To guide the vast and ever-growing labour movement of the world into paths which shall be wise, righteous, peaceful, and happy, this is the task and, we hope, will be the achievement of the twentieth century. Happy the men who have the good-will, sympathy, and insight to make a worthy contribution to this great work! ----- [1] See p. 316. [2] See _Inquiry into Socialism_, 3rd ed. p. 96. [3] See p. 313. CHAPTER XVI CONCLUSION In the last chapter we have seen how in many lands the social democracy is seeking to reach its goal by parliamentary action, and how in France, Italy, and Russia the socialist movement tends less or more to assume an aggressive and violent form. We have seen how socialism is everywhere becoming the creed of organised labour. The socialist parties and the trade unions are the organised and articulate expression of the labour of the world, and they are being combined into one great movement. We must, therefore, understand the socialist movement as having its basis and its background in a vast reality which as yet has only partially found voice and organisation. One of the most striking features in recent history is to be found in the symptoms which so frequently appear of a latent and undefined socialism, which only needs a fitting occasion to call it forth, and which forms a serious but incalculable quantity in the forces of our time. In these symptoms the seeing eye can discern labour moving uneasily under its chronic burden. The unorganised labour breaks out in street riots and agrarian risings. Labour partially organised in Russia shows an intense revolutionary energy. While the prevalent socialism seeks to gain its ends by peaceful action the situation contains serious possibilities of revolution, especially in Eastern Europe.