The first of the "Immediate Reforms" demanded in the official programme of the Social-Democratic Federation[561] is the "Abolition of the Monarchy." That that demand has been made so crudely and that it has been given so prominent a position cannot surprise anybody who is acquainted with British Socialism. "Socialists are essentially thorough-going Republicans. Socialism, which aims at political and economic equality, is radically inconsistent with any other political form whatever than that of Republicanism, Monarchy and Socialism, or Empire and Socialism, are incompatible and inconceivable. Socialism involves political and economic equality, while Monarchy or Empire essentially imply domination and inequality."[562] "As in the political history of the race the logical development of progress was found in the abolition of the institution of monarchy and not in its mere restriction, so in industrial history the culminating point to which all efforts must at last converge lies in the abolition of the capitalist class, and not in the mere restriction of its powers. The Socialist Labour Party, recognising these two phases of human development, unites them in its programme, and seeks to give them a concrete embodiment by its demand for a Socialist Republic."[563] Most Socialists describe all monarchs as the drones of society, and habitually refer to crowned heads either as "loafers" or as "Royal paupers, able-bodied and outdoor."[564] "If the people were of my mind they would not tolerate for twelve months that the Royal paupers should wear robes and have every luxury, and the honest, industrious aged poor should wear rags and eat a crust or be imprisoned for being hungry."[565] (Has ever anybody in Great Britain, or in any other country, been imprisoned "for being hungry"?) "Is it possible that this degrading monarchical superstition can survive in England much longer? Has the schoolmaster now been abroad so long in vain? Will the English people never take their destinies into their own hands and close the long era of monarchical and aristocratic robbery? Are we never to have a Government that can hear the bitter cry of the outcast, and, hearing, act? We know the goal. The goal is the Democratic Republic."[566] Many further extracts regarding English and foreign monarchs might be given, but they are so indescribably coarse and so offensive--even the late Queen is most shamelessly slandered, abused, and calumniated--that they are hardly fit for publication, and their authors shall be nameless. FOOTNOTES: [561] See Appendix. [562] Bax and Quelch, _A New Catechism of Socialism_, p. 37. [563] _Platform, Constitutions, Rules, and Standing Orders, Socialist Labour Party_, pp. 2, 3. [564] See _The Socialist Annual_, 1907, p. 25. [565] Glyde, _Britain's Disgrace_, p. 9. [566] Davidson, _The New Book of Kings_, p. 107. CHAPTER XV SOCIALIST VIEWS ON PARLIAMENT AND THE NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION