WHY SOCIALISM?
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.!
Sin,-1 wish you wouldn't do it. I thought we had finished with this correspondence, and now you publish a letter which challenges me to define Capitalism. Is Mr. John Murray trying to get a cheap lesson on economics out of me instead of buying a shilling book on the subject ? Or is he digging a controversial pit for me to fall into? Anyhow, I must answez him, or he and other of your readers will say I funked it. So here goes.
In the economic sphere Capitalism means concentrating the Means of Production (Land, Credit, Factories and Work- shops, Machinery) in the hands of a small number, who thus have power—almost of life and death—over the very large number who cannot support themselves save by applying their labour to production by those means. Socialism aims at placing the means of production under the ownership of society as a whole, and under the management of persons appointed by society to use them in the public interest.
In the moral sphere Capitalism acknowledges as its main motive force (I quote Mr. Keynes, who is an upholder of it), "an intense appeal to the money-making and money-loving instincts of individuals." Socialism substitutes for these the social instinct, appeals to comradeship instead of selfishness, makes the test of every activity, not "Will it pay a few people ? " but "Will it benefit all ? "
Mr. Murray opines that many Socialists must be Capitalists. So they are. Under present conditions all who save money for their old age, or to secure their wives and children against destitution, must be Capitalists. I advocate a State scheme of contributory old age pensions to meet the needs of such savers, and I work for a system better in every way, which shall relieve us all of anxiety as to the future, without forcing any to become usurers ; to purchase with their savings a stranglehold upon industry, to establish an undying e7aira upon the toil and tribute of generations to come.
I have no cut-and-dried scheme to put before Mr. Murray ; no prospectus describing in minute detail the Socialist Commonwealth, but I can give him a pointer. If he reads all that Christ said about making a kingdom of God on earth, he will see what is our ideal. The reality will fall short of this, but we believe that communities as well as individuals do all the better for hitching their wagons to stars.—I am, Sir,
2 Carmelite Street, E.C. 4.
HAMILTON FYPE.
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