lit WORKERS' CONGRESS.
MR. GUNNINGHAME GRAHAM, whatever his shortcomings, has one great merit. He is perfectly honest and perfectly straightforward, and when he speaks in public gives the true and not the sham grounds for the faith that is in him. An excellent illustration of this has just been afforded by him in his address to the Marxist Con- gress,—one of the two so-called Workers' Congresses which have been sitting in Paris during the past fortnight. The Continental Socialists are never tired of deploring the lamentable fact that the English working men will not embrace with any heartiness the communistic and revolu- tionary doctrines preached by the disciples of Marx and Lassalle. Usually the Marxist orators, though in their hearts they must know better, attribute this regrettable fact to the enslavement of the workers in England beneath cruel and oppressive laws, and to the continued existence of a monarchical and feudal system of government. Mr. Cunninghame Graham, however, does not stoop to any such subterfuges to conceal the circumstance that Socialism does not go down with the English working man. Regard- less of the consequences, he boldly faces the facts and gives as the true explanation his belief that the work- -men "have been kept down by the Bible, long hours of work, drink, and respect for the upper classes." 'This is plain-speaking ; but if we leave out of account Mr. Cunninghame Graham's rhetoric, and his reference 'to long hours, it is without question substantially true. The ordinary English workman undoubtedly refuses to • adopt the wild, foolish, and essentially unjust portions • of the Socialistic creed, because his devotion, and that of his forefathers, to the Bible has made him at 'heart not only deeply religious, but essentially a serious and. self-restrained man,—not a person frothy in word and thought, and without moral or spiritual educa- tion, as are the majority of the same class in countries where the people have never been entrusted with the best .and most potent instrument of self-improvement, but one -very much in earnest and endowed with that all-important sense,—an appreciation of what is just and what unjust. In the same way, the comparatively high standard of material comfort which the adoption of the great principle of free exchange in all relations of life has given to the 'English workman, preserves him in a great measure from that restlessness which is so noticeable among his class upon the Continent. That he can enjoy his pipe and his beer under the existing conditions of society, has, in a word, inclined him to doubt the advisability of entering upon projects which common-sense tells him must end in -failure. A person who is wretched and uncomfortable -will be eager to try a change in spite of the fact that his reason tells him that such change will in the end only make him worse off ; for there is no restlessness and no ennui so terrible as the restlessness and ennui of a life led always a little below the physical demands of human nature. On the other hand, a person satisfied, on the whole, with his own existence, though he may know that there are plenty of people better off than him- self, will hardly care to embark upon an experimental revolution.
Again, what Mr. Cunninghame Graham calls angrily -" respect for the upper classes," but which is more -truly described as the refusal among the working men as a body to indulge in class-hatreds and class-warfare, or to regard all persons whose incomes are above £10 a -week as "the rich," and so necessarily enemies of the 'human race, works very strongly to prevent the adoption -of Socialistic views in England. The fact that ever since the English have been a nation all persons have been equal before the law, and that in no true sense has there ever existed a privileged class, has prevented the growth of that sense of antagonism between different portions of the com- munity which so seriously undermines the social fabric in many of the European nations. In a bad sense there is most certainly no admiration of the upper classes among the working men. Such a feeling was, no doubt, and perhaps is still, carried to excess by the middle class ; but to say that it exists among their poorer neighbours is simply absurd. People in general are, of course, interested in those pecuniarily above them, for such persons are actually enjoying what is the ideal of those below. The man with a six-roomed house and a scrap of garden, naturally enough has as his material ideal a mansion standing in its own grounds, with lodge-gates and a drive up to the front door through an avenue of elms, and so is intensely curious to know about the life led under such conditions. • To speak of this feeling as if it were a species of slavish adulation, is, however, entirely inconsistent with the facts. Still, Mr. Cunninghame Graham is right enough in assuming that the feeling with which the poor regard the rich in England tells against Socialism. There is no trace in England of an abstract doctrinaire hatred of the rich as such. Almost all poor men want to be rich themselves, and some, in their discontent at not being able to become so, feel, no doubt, bitter against the possessors of wealth. That, how- ever, is not a feeling upon which the fabric of Socialism could be built up. Out of it, in its most exaggerated form, might, of course, come plunder and a violent transfer of the good things of this world ; but it could not possibly be used to create the new society after which the Marxists are striving. They want men who have renounced all idea of private benefit from property, not persons who merely desire to rise in the world by violent means, and to reverse the present condition of affairs. Socialism can only flourish among a people inclined by race, traditions, and long habits of discipline or self-denial to complete sub- missiveness to the social authority. In England, where all men at bottom depend upon individual action, the notion of establishing a Socialistic community is an absurdity.
No doubt an advocate of Socialism would reply to all this by declaring, as Mr. William Morris declared at the Marxist Congress, that Socialism is, as a matter of fact, making way in England. According to the author of "The Earthly Paradise," England is getting more Socialistic every day. Six years ago the Socialist creed was unknown ; now it has become a power in the land which must be reckoned with. While formerly the Socialist stump-orators were hooted, they are now enthusiastically applauded. Though we are quite willing to admit the literal truth of a certain portion of these remarks, Mr. Morris is indulging in very false hopes if he really thinks that the doctrine he favours has made substantial progress. No doubt the Socialist propaganda meets with less difficulty than it did a few years ago, and no doubt a very much greater number of persons than formerly have nominally enrolled them- selves as Socialists. These facts, however, are by no means important. When the London rough seed or hears anything new, his first notion is to jeer and hoot, and possibly to employ such missiles as may come handy. When, however, he becomes accustomed to what was once a novelty, he is perfectly tolerant, or rather passes by, with a fine habit of disregard, all that is familiar.
Hence it happens that though he once yelled insulting and opprobrious epithets at the Socialist lecturers, he has now ceased to interfere with them, and hears comparatively without interest that the rich at the West End drink nothing all day but Maraschino, and that the "Queen's kitchen watch, let alone her best watch," is worth .220,000.
No other inference, however, can in fact be drawn from the lack of disturbance. The cause for the increase in the numbers of the Socialist clubs admits of still easier ex- planation. London, though in proportion to its size the number is small, contains among the workmen that inhabit it a large body of persons intellectually of a restless and unsettled disposition. In this class the fashion in movements and agitations changes rapidly. A few years ago, Red Republicanism and an intense hatred for kings and nobles was all the rage in the advanced clubs. Then an exaggerated Atheism took its place ; and finally a turn of the wheel of fashion has placed Socialism for the time in the ascendant. The old-fashioned Republican and Secularist Societies have been deserted, and nothing apparently is now talked about or thought about except the nationalisation of the land and the acquisition by the State of all the sources of production. The Socialism which is gaining ground in London is, in fact, a sort of intellectual lux dangerous in so far that it may temporarily tend to foolish legislative experiments, but in the revolutionary sense not worth reckoning. As Mr. Cunninghame Graham sees, we must in England—before we can make a start with Socialism—get rid of the religious feeling, produce material discontent, and introduce class-jealousy. To do this, if we mistake not, will, however, tax the Socialists much beyond their strength; and we may therefore bear with equanimity the schemes so busily expounded for the enslavement of the race.
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