Great Britain -- Social conditions; Moral conditions; Social problems
This implies, of course, the transfer to the community, at a just
payment, of the land, the mines, and the means of transit, and the
gradual extension of municipal enterprise to productive and
distributive industries. I am contending only for principles, and
would refer the closer inquirer to such detailed constructive works as
those of Mr. H. G. Wells. It would be futile to construct a rigid
scheme of collectivist organisation. Such industries as the press,
literature, art, etc., present difficulties which it would be foolish
to override. But these affect comparatively few workers, and it is
pedantry of an unintelligent kind to wrangle over them while we have a
clear case in regard to other industries which involve many millions
of workers. We would do well, however, to remember that the
middle-class industries themselves are overcrowded and chaotic, and
that most members of that class would gain by organisation, wherever
it is possible. Instead of shrinking from it and inventing
difficulties, we ought to be eager to discover its possibilities.
I ignore also certain more or less academic objections which have been
made against this proposal to organise employment. Mill's essay _On
Liberty_ is a monument of the futility of this kind of reasoning. Mill
was a civil servant, and, except in the case of the idle and criminal,
no restriction of individual liberty is proposed other than that which
Mill cheerfully endured. Middle-class men are apt to take fright at
the word "Socialism." It ought to be by this time generally known
that half a dozen very different theories pass under that name, and it
is particularly unintelligent to confuse the extreme and the moderate
proposals. Nearly the whole of the employment in any civilisation
could be organised without laying on any who are willing to work a
greater restraint than is laid on officials of the postal service. As
to "confiscation," it will be gathered from an earlier page that I
favour generous compensation to actual holders of land or mines, but
no perpetual pensions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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