THE ADVANCE OF SOCIALISM.—" OBSTA PRIN CIPIIS."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sra,—I am an old man, and have seen strange things in my time, but never one more strange or startling than the rapid, silent advance of " Socialism " to the front rank of pressing questions on the one hand, and the half-hearted way in which that advance is being met on the other. And yet it is a question of life or death. The principles of Socialism are incompatible with those of our social order as at present con- stituted. In the inevitable battle between them one or the other must go down. And in a battle, Sir, the chances of success are with the side that attacks. Grant me one small assumption, and I dare affirm that other consequences will follow as surely as night follows day. The Socialists will win. Nor is the prophecy so dangerous as most, for they have learned the important lesson that "force" can use votes as well as rifles, and with deadlier effect. Grant me the assumption that in the next Election the Labour Members and the Socialists—not, of course, convertible terms, but sufficiently alike for purposes of argument—may return to the House with numbers doubled, or possibly trebled—a group, i.e., numerous enough to turn divisions and to control Governments—and, if the present temper of the working classes remains what it is, it will assuredly not be long before a " Second Chamber" will be a thing of the past, and with it will go the Established Church. And such movements, Sir, do not slacken speed. The pace- tends to quicken. Like Virgil's " Fame," vires acquirit eundo. Sentimental Socialism has spread, and is spreading farther every day, and political
Socialism uses it for its own purposes. It is an unnatural and disastrous alliance. To the tender hearts of thousands of pitiful men and women (who can wonder at it?) the dreadful miseries of the poor are an argument for radical changes that carries all before it, for they know little and care little about the ulterior designs of political dreamers. But if we ever do come (as seems not impossible) to a single Chamber swayed, if not ruled, by Socialists, and prone to act on the spur of the moment, how long will it be before the wealth of the country is pooled ; before capital flees elsewhere for safety ; before the liberty of the individual, once so sacred, is sacrificed to a " theory," only to return (if ever), as in the seventeenth century, in suffering and blood ? This reads, you will say, like a nightmare, but I submit, Sir, that it lies within the bounds of imagination and possibility. And it does so just because those who ought to be straining every nerve to arrest this fatal movement, who have leisur•e and education and knowledge at disposal, and could (if they would) supply the antidote for the poison by sane and balanced argument, are expending their energies on their motors, and lawn tennis, and idle amusements, and fiddling, with Nero, while Rome is burning. This is no dream. Granting my assumption, it is a sober possibility, a sober truth. I would that some of my younger fellow-countrymen would awake out of sleep and rise to the noble task of saving England from disaster. Indeed, it is high time.—I am, Sir, &s.,
SENEX.
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