British Socialism: An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical ProposalsBarker, J. Ellis
History
British Socialism: An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical Proposals
Barker, J. Ellis
Socialism; Socialism -- Great Britain
The emphatic statements contained in the foregoing declarations that
unemployment is due to the private ownership of land and capital are
absurd. If the private ownership of land and capital were the cause of
unemployment, unemployment should be almost equally great in all
civilised countries, because in all civilised countries land and
capital are in private hands. Whilst in Great Britain unemployment is
a fearful and permanent evil, it has been practically unknown during a
long time in Germany, where there has been for many years so great a
scarcity of labour that immigration is greater than emigration.[377]
Whilst in capitalist Great Britain employment is so bad that from
200,000 to 300,000 people have to emigrate every year, employment in
capitalist Germany has been excellent, and in the capitalist United
States it has been so good that they have absorbed during a number of
years almost 1,000,000 immigrants per year. These facts prove that
private ownership of land and capital and over-production have nothing
to do with unemployment, which is, as a rule, due not to
over-production but to ill-balanced production, as has been proved on
page 70 of this book. In the case of a country such as Great Britain,
unemployment is due principally to the insufficiency and insecurity of
her markets for her manufactured goods and to the decay of her
agriculture.
The various Socialist organisations have so constantly preached the
doctrine that unemployment is due to the private ownership of land and
capital that the Trade Unions have at last come to believe it. Owing
to Socialist inspiration, the Trade Union Congresses have passed
resolutions in favour of the nationalisation of land and of the other
means of production at most of the meetings since 1888, and a
Socialist weekly has been able to assert that "Every member of the
Socialist Labour Party, either by Trade Union Congresses or by
Independent Labour Party programme, is committed to the
nationalisation of land and the instruments of production."[378] To
the delight of the Socialists, resolutions of the Trade Unions urging
the nationalisation of all land and capital are becoming more and more
emphatic. In the "Social Democrat" for October 1907 we read, under the
heading "Trade Unionists and Unemployment," the following: "The
resolution on unemployment passed at the Bath Trade Union Congress
shows that the Trade Unionists are falling into line with Social
Democrats on this question, and that they are beginning to see that
Trade Unionism alone is no solution for this evil. After referring to
the failure of the Unemployed Workmen Act, and the niggardly manner of
doling out the grant of _200,000l._, the resolution goes on to say
that 'This Congress, recognising that unemployment is now permanent in
character in busy as in slack seasons, in summer and in winter, and is
common to all trades and industries; also that this is due to industry
being unorganised and carried on for private profit and is bound to
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