THE COMING DESPOTISM.*

The Pattern Nation is a little book of great merit. In one hundred and seventy-two pages of excellent print it sets out the economic issue which now confronts our Western civilisa- tion :— "The problem is, what will the poor do with the rich ? It arises, when on the political side of life, lawful government by the majority of the people becomes an established fact, in vindica- tion of the principle that all men are equal ; while the industrial and social side of life is still left to be controlled by methods that have for their foundations the fact that men are unequal, and that their rewards in life are to be unequal also."

* (1) The Patient Nation. By Sir Henry Wrixon. N.C. London : Macmillan and eo. met-j—(2) The Chddren of the Nation : Hew their Health and Vigour should be Promoted by the' State. By the Bt. Hon. Sir John E. Gorat. Lesukm-Lidethneatind Co. Cis. 65. net.] And further: "When it is proposed to use the power of the. political side to enforce its own equality upon the social side, the problem that we speak of presents itself. And this is the outlook now before us." (p. 2.)

The factors in the problem are described with admirable lucidity, and with a sympathetic insight which even opponents will recognise. The title of the book is thus explained :—" It

may assist our speculations upon this question if we take the concrete case of one of the advanced nations of Europe, and endeavour to follow in such a nation what will be the working

out of Socialist experiments in its practical life and politics." The first steps of the "pattern nation" in this direction seem highly satisfactory :—

" We see spread abroad an active principle of sympathy with the burdens of the poor, which is a delightful contrast to the indifference of past times The easy side of Socialism will be adopted without troubling with the correlative obligations of the complete system. State employment for the unemployed; regulation of the hours of work and its wages by law ; the con- tinued enlargement of the scope of State industries ; old age pensions for the poor; people's children to be provided for by other people, will all be carried with general applause."

Every reader of the daily papers will recognise the type, but "poverty and struggle will still be found among the people of our pattern semi-Socialist nation." The "pattern nation," however, has not yet committed itself to Socialism ; but it is facing that way :— " Amid tho haze and tumult of the new social advance there• still remain standing two foundation principles of the free system of industry, unremovod as yet, though threatened and somewhat impaired—private property and the private employer—the captain of industry. On these depend the industrial side of our civilisa- tion, just as its domestic side rests on the sister institutions of marriage and the separate home."

" And here "—that is, in the semi-Socialist condition described—" the more wary friends of the new movement

would be willing to rest and be thankful if the course of events could make it possible to do so." The author, we

apprehend, is one of those who have welcomed the semi- Socialist movement ; but he is too clear-sighted to miss the well-nigh inevitable consequences. The friends of the poor • have played a generous part ; they have given the people the•

benefits of Socialism without having to accept its responsi- bilities:—

" If any business appeared to be especially profitable, it was called a monopoly and taken over by the State. Only the leavings of the State, the more difficult and uncertain industries, such as agriculture, were left to private enterprise. The State extended to many of its citizens the comforts of Socialism, leaving them at the same time to live their own lives as they please, with the full rights of individualism."

This, of course, would cease if the "pattern nation" ever did • go into complete Socialism:— " For of it the foundation principle is, not only that the State gives every man his work to do, but sees that he does it, aided by

a penal system to enforce the duty If you imported into full Socialism the freedom of the semi-Socialist state, for men to. , work or not as they please, a crowded nation would soon be starving."

The "pattern nation," in fact, will not maintain itself "without. the impetus to industry of either one system or the other— the incentive of competition or the compulsion of complete

Socialism (if indeed such a system prove to be possible)."

The tendency of the semi-Socialist State to result in a con- traction of industry is analysed in the same luminous way. If betterment is confiscated, the disposition to " hr.tter" is

discouraged. The growing burden of the unemployed (i.e., those who resolutely remain unfitted for the life of free

industry), who must be employed by the State at the cost of such free industry as survives, will cause "a general falling

off in the productiveness of our pattern nation." The position is then reached when, even if we want to turn back, there is nothing left to which we can turn back :— "The more ardent and less wary Socialists will now loudly proclaim that it is half-measures which are paralysing the land, and that the true and only remedy is to advance to complete Socialism ; and," continues our author with kindly irony, "certainly there is force in this contention.. The thorough Socialist is the only consistent man in the Socialist circle of our pattern nation."

Is there any alternative, any chance of resisting the momentum which seems to be hurrying us into the un- known P Again let as quote :—" And here let it be said that the free system, if it is to be maintained, must show that it

has in it capacity to ensure progress in industrial conditions, and to satisfy the just aspirations of men. If it cannot do this, heaven forbid that any arguments or theories .should save it."

We confess that Sir H. Wrixon's willingness to embrace the revolution, if present conditions do not ensure the millennium, is, to our mind, perhaps a little precipitate; but it is his obvious and sincere sympathy with Socialist aspiration which, we hope, will obtain a hearing for arguments which, in the mouth of those who cannot conceal their conviction that Socialism is an impracticable craze, are not often so sympathetically stated. What is wanted is a justification of the constructive elements of a free society, and a well- directed and intelligent effort to spread the practicable advantage of existing civilisation over a wider area. Our author singles out two questions 'that a free system must grapple with if it is to survive. One is the facilitating the developuient of the wage-earner into a profit-sharer. The other is the purging of the free system from abuses that have grown up around it, but which are no true part of the system itself." We suspect that the abuses which are alleged to have grown up in connexion with free industry are due to the weakness and wickedness of human nature, and not to the system. In any case, it remains that the Trust, the main abuse which our author mentions, flourishes most luxuriantly in the nations which have departed most widely from the system of industrial freedom of exchange. In this country, which still enjoys the advantage of Free-trade, this extreme nervousness about Trusts seems to us a little premature. We attach more importance to the development of the proletariat into a profit-sharing and property-owning class. If property has been the ordained means by which mankind have provided for the risks of life that arise when the power to earn wages ceases, it follows that mere wage-earning is an incomplete equipment, if the system of personal, as opposed to collective, responsibility is to continue.

Sir H. Wrixon's exposition of the constructive aspects of liberty is not worked out in any detail. It was perhaps no part of his task. There is in the literature of the controversy a disposition to leave this side of the question to take care of itself,—a matter for regret, as it impairs the efficiency of the argument against Socialism. Perhaps, also, he is right. If the "pattern nation" declines a complete experiment in Socialism, it will be due, not to a philosophic appreciation of the value of the inevitable principle under which we live, but to a recoil from a looming despotism of another kind. "Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour for the statutory day, but only as the State Boss allows him." If the "boss" were as wise as Solomon and as upright as Washington, all might be well. This, however, is not to be expected, but rather "the lowest type of the Spoils system." Will the "pattern nation" realise, before it is too late, that it is again in the presence of the old conflict between freedom and despotism ? Our author's answer is somewhat pessimistic, but he has joined the issues with admirable perspicuity.

Sir John Gorst dedicates his book "to the Labour Members of the House of Commons, in token of my belief that they are animated by a genuine desire to ameliorate the condition of the people" ; and the spirit in which it is written is an apposite illustration of the ease and applause with which semi-Socialist experiments are being recommended for our acceptance. Admittedly the case of children is one of great difficulty. Even Sir John Gorst can write of the proposal for the free feeding of children tbat "it would tend, as free education has tended, to lessen parental interest and parental co-operation in the bringing up of children The mother who loves her child is by far the best instrument the State can employ in providing for its real education; better than teachers, &c., &c It is reckless extravagance to cast away all this natural force which costs the State nothing, and gives work and interest and pleasure in life to the mothers themselves, and trust the whole of education to the incom- petent hands of State officials." (p. 76.) Such language, in a book of which the greater part is devoted to arguments for extending the responsibility of the State, is evidence, we suppose, of the recoil which Sir H. Wrixon expects to see when the semi-Socialist enthusiast finds himself confronted, not with the millennium, but with the State "boss." Sir John Gent's glimpse of this apparition does not deter him from recommending gratuitous treatment of the young in sickness,

and such large facilities of relief in other respects, that it is a little difficult to see how his above-quoted panegyric on motherhood is anything more than lip-service. His book, indeed, is a characteristic product of the time, a very apt illustration of Sir H. Wrixon's thesis. In the above quotation he argues in favour of preserving to mothers "the work and interest and pleasure in life" which they derive from the care of their children. It will bring out the issue more clearly if we suggest that there is something more than this at stake,— namely, the economic competence of the family. For the sake of all future generations of children, it is, in our view, essential that the protective influence of the family shall be preserved. The occasionalsinstances of parental neglect, the hard cases quoted to make bad law, cause suffering which is only infinitesimal as compared with the degeneration of the race that would result from the weakening of the protective influence of the family. This is to be upheld, not that parents may be reformed by the suffering of their children —an argument which Sir J. Gorst imputes to an opponent— but for the sake of the children themselves.

Apart from the larger question, it is admitted freely that the detailed procedure of the State in respect of those duties towards children which have been assigned to it by common consent is probably defective, and the criticisms of Sir John Gorst deserve respectful attention. We regret that exigencies of space oblige us to refer to the book only in its relation to what we may call the larger controversy.