AN ENQUIRY INTO SOCIA LTSM.
An Enquiry into Socialism. By Thomas Kirkup. Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged. (Longmans and Co. 48. 6d. net.)—Now that Socialism aspires to take its place in practical politics, we are naturally anxious to know precisely what it means. We cannot say that Mr. Kirkup's volume will be very helpful. The Socialism into which he invites us to inquire is something very amiable and very vague, and we find it difficult to understand on what definite economic framework (if any) he regards it as being based. Indeed, he makes a merit of his vagueness. "Socialism is not a technical subject merely, but a wide human question, most intimately connected with the moral, social, and political development of the present age." The author accordingly proceeds with a mild and engaging sentimentalism to identify with Socialism all the beneficent impulses of modern times. Co- operation, for instance, which certainly has a strong anti-Socialist element in it, is repeatedly spoken of as if it were an emanation of Socialism. Mr. Kirkup disavows Marx and his theories ; but if the so-called scientific basis of Socialism as developed by Mars is set aside, it is difficult to see on what basis an advocacy of Socialism can be made to rest. Socialism, deprived of the Mandan exegesis, becomes a mere declamatory invective against the economic weather, if the phrase may be allowed. It offers to the serious inquirer no ground for the rejection of the present economic order, and still less any valid constructive scheme for replacing it. Mr. Kirkup's volume is an admirable example of the sentiment which makes for Socialism, and which fails to see that if Marx's destructive and constructive theories are rejected some other economic basis of Socialism must be put forward.
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