THE LABOUR PARTY AND THE NATION.
THE members of the National Executive of the Labour 1. Party are to be congratulated on the promptitude they have displayed in recognizing the importance of the Repre- sentation of the People Bill now passing through Parliament. That Bill will create something like eight million new voters, of whom about six million will be women. The Labour Party, to put the matter briefly, is out to capture as many of these voters as it can, and especially to capture the women. Its Executive has prepared a new constitution for the party, of which the essential features are, first, the establishment of local organizations for the enlistment of individual members, and, secondly, the introduction of specific recognition of the woman member on the governing body of the party. Hitherto the Labour Party has been merely a federation of other organizations—namely, Trade Unions, Trades Councils, and Socialist Societies. It ought to be explained that a Trades Council is itself a local federation of local Trade Unions, so that in effect the Labour Party has consisted of Trade Unions and Socialist Societies, the former outweighing the latter in numerical strength by at least ten to one. The Trade Unions, as we all know, consist almost exclusively of manual workers ;
but the Socialist Societies, which, though numerically unim- portant, have been undoubtedly a very influential factor in the Labour Party, include many members of the "middle classes."
It is possible that to this " middle class " influence may be traced the emphasis now laid by the authors of the new pro- gramme upon the proposition that Labour must be taken to in- clude brain-workers as well as hand-workers. Theoretically that fairly obvious fact has always been recognized by the party, but in practice it certainly has not been emphasized. In practice the word " Labour " has been construed as meaning the weekly wage earner engaged upon manual work. As long as that definition was observed, the dividing-line, whether arbitrary or reasonable, between the Labour Party and other parties was fairly clear. Under the new regime it is difficult to dis- cover what the dividing-line is to be. The new programme explicitly states that the party will include brain-workers as well as hand-workers, without distinction of class or occupation. What does it mean 1 Is a bank manager drawing, say, £3,000 a year to be included in the same Labour Party with the charwoman who cleans out the offices and gets perhaps 203. a week More generally than this, it is necessary to point out that most of the members of the employing class, unless they happen to be sleeping partners or merely shareholders drawing dividends, are themselves very active brain-workers. Are they to be eligible for mem- bership of the new party ? In view of the history of the party and of its present composition, it is hard to believe that this is what is intended. Probably what the authors of the new programme really mean is that they want to include in their ranks the clerk class as well as the manual labour class, but that they have no objection to including also any relatively well-paid employee such as the shop manager. But substan- tially what they aim at is the amalgamation of all the weekly wage earning classes, whatever be their occupation, into one consolidated party without regard to occupation or class. This view is confirmed by a paragraph in the programme which states that the general object of the party is specially to promote the well-being of " those who depend directly upon their own exertions by hand or by brain for the means of life."
In the main this statement does point to a real distinction —namely, the distinction between the man who is liable to have his income cut off by a decree of dismissal from em- ployment, and the man who obtains his living from the control of capital directed to the employment of other people, or who simply lives upon his property. In addition, there is an intermediate class of people—and a very. large one—who may be best described as free-lances. It includes doctors and dentists, solicitors and barristers, small tradesmen and small farmers, authors, actors, and artists, who all offer their wares to anybody who is willing to buy them, and who are not under the direct control of any individual master. In many ways this neutral body, if we may so call it for the purpose of present classification, is one of the most valuable bodies in the kingdom because of the exceptional degree of independence which It possesses. Most of its members would certainly find themselves out of place in the new Labour Party. In substance we may assume that the new Labour Party, in the conception of its authors, represents weekly wage earners versus the rest of the nation.
The word versus is used advisedly, for not only must every political party be shaped as much by what it opposes as by what it advocates, but in this case it is quite clear that the new party does contemplate a hostile attitude towards many of the interests of those outside the weekly wage earning classes. In particular, it aims quite frankly at the abolition of all individual initiative in industry and the establishment of the common ownership of the means of production, com- bined with " popular administration and control of earls industry or service." In brief, the existing industrial organi- zation dependent on the enterprise of individual men is to disappear altogether, and the whole of our economic life is to be controlled by some form of popular organization. This means taking away from a large number of persons, not only the property they already possess in land, houses, factories, and machinery, but also the positions they possess as organizers of industry. It is not likely that such a programme will be accepted by those who would suffer from it. If one side organizes on the basis of its class interest, the other side will be compelled to organize likewise.
The Labour Party no doubt congratulates itself upon the fact that it will have a larger constituency to draw upon. That is perfectly true ; and if human affairs could be entirely settled by the simple process of counting heads, there would be ale
end of the matter. But the Labour Party, while specially claiming to deal with economic problems, has failed to realize some of the fundamental economic difficulties lying in its path. In particular, it has not dealt with the grave problem of the accumulation of fresh capital after the new Socialistic State has eaten up all the capital that it may succeed in confiscating from existing owners. Capital wears out, and new capital is always required for new developments. Under the existing order private individuals are stimulated to save capital, partly for the sake of having a nest-egg for their old age, partly for the sake of having scinething to bequeath to their descendants. When both these motives for the accumulation of capital have disappeared, the new Socialistic State will either have to content itself with a steady reduction in the total volume of capital, which would mean a reduction in the standard of living for all the community, or it will have to take forcible means to compel the weekly war earning classes to set aside a portion of their weekly wages in order to provide capital for the State. So far there is little sign that the electors to whom the Labour Party specially makes this appeal would be willing to consent to any such reduction of their wages. Indeed, one of the most regrettable features of contemporary politics is the way in which very large numbers of wage-earners are refusing even to subscribe out of their greatly increased earnings to the cost of the war either by investing capital or by paying what is legally due from them in the shape of Income Tax.
Equally regrettable is the action of the Co-operators, who arc to be invited to become members of the new Labour Party. The Co-operative Societies have of recent years increasingly adopted the practice of trading with outsiders. To this extent they put themselves on exactly the same footing as individual shopkeepers or shopkeeping companies. Yet instead of recognizing the resulting liability to pay an Income Tax on their profits, they bitterly oppose any attempt to extend this liability to them, and they are indignantly denouncing Mr. Boner Law for having insisted that they shall pay Excess Profits Duty. As long as this remains the attitude of the Labour Party to national obligations that party cannot identify itself with the nation. It is indeed to that extent an enemy of the nation. According to its own definition of itself, it is a class organization aiming solely at the benefit of a particular class or group of classes, without any regard to the well-being of the nation as a whole. Beyond doubt the class or group of classes which the Labour Party professes to represent is very large, but that fact is itself the strongest condemnation of the exclusive policy which the party advocates. The representatives of a small class can safely fight for their own class alone regardless of national interests ; but a class which includes seventy or eighty her cent. of the sum of the nation cannot disregard national interests without disregarding its own.
In conclusion, we must insist that for one reason we heartily welcome the proposed new constitution for the Labour Party. The extension of the borders of the party will make it im- possible for any leader of Labour in future seriously to keep up the old pretence that the manual workers are identical with, and indistinguishable from, " the people " or " demo- cracy." No decent person denies them their right place in the ranks of democracy ; it is a very important place indeed, and in numerous ways during the war they have filled it with honour and great credit. But those who earn their livings with their brains have also their very important share in democracy. We cannot help thinking that the admission of this fact by the Labour Party will lead the party further - than is at present foreseen. We cannot foretell the future, but the admission is, in itself and stripped of any reasons of expediency, thoroughly wholesome.
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