hundred Fabians could be got together on a political program in so short
a time.
For good or ill the British workingman has gone in for political action
and will have a try at that before he listens to the Anarchists. Slow of
thought and used to compromise, he is a stern taskmaker and will exact a
rigid account of the stewardship entrusted to those who sought his
suffrage. When the disillusionment comes, as it surely will, real
progress may come. The process of disillusionment does not come with
geometrical precision. To some it comes over night, to others it is a
process of years, and to some it is denied altogether. For years the
Anarchists have been scoffed at as impossible dreamers for advocating
the General Strike as the only effective means of overthrowing the
present system. The glorious fight of the Russian people for freedom has
changed all this, and we find even Bebel threatening the German
Government with a general strike if they attempt to withdraw the
franchise; and Hyndman, who opposed it for years, has finally admitted
its effectiveness. The effect has been felt in Great Britain in the
shape of the unemployed agitations and demonstrations, and although
temporarily allayed by the elections, it will blossom forth again.
If the advent of the Liberal party to power, backed by the Home Rule and
Labor parties, causes an undoing of the harm of the Balfour-Chamberlain
government, it will be more than can reasonably be expected. The trade
unions can never be restored to quite the same legal immunity they had
previously. The forty thousand Chinese imported into South Africa to
take the places of white miners will remain even if no more are brought
in. The Education Act, passed with the assistance of the Irish
Archbishops and attacking secular education, will be amended and not
repealed. The endowment of the brewers will continue, and my Lords Bass,
Burton and the rest will merely await future opportunities to plunder
the British public. In short, little constructive legislation, even of
that mild and tentative character one might expect from a Liberal party,
made up of capitalistic units can be expected after the ten years of
corrupt and extravagant rule of this band of modern pirates.
They who advocate the complete reconstruction of society are under no
illusions as to the time and trouble required to overcome the
superstitions of the past. Being imbued, however, with the belief in
what Christians call "the eternal righteousness of their cause," they
meet the future with smiling face; and far from being downcast over the
turn of events in Great Britain, see hope in the formation of the Labor
Parties.
[Illustration]
AND YOU?
BOLTON HALL
"What would you do," asked the Idealist, "if you were Czar of Russia?"
"I would first abolish monopoly of land, for that is fundamental," said
the Reformer, "and then resign. What would you do?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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