BOOKS.

THREE BOOKS ON SOCIALISM.*

Wa take these books in what appears to be their logical order.

In New Worlds for Old Mr. Wells sets out the grounds of our discontent, and pictures for us reconstructions of

society which are alluring, if not convincing to the sober imagination. He is not, he tells us, "a fanatical or uncritical adherent" of Socialism. He is willing to direct some destructive criticism against the doctrines of Marx and the earlier attitude of the Fabian Society. There is on p. 250 a humorous description "of a great rally of the Social Democratic Federation," presided over by Lady

Warwick in a "floriferous bat," where the result, to Mr. Wells at all events, was that " fatalistic Marxism crumbled down to dust." " Socialism," comments Mr. Wells in his constructive mood, "is to be attained not by fate but by will." This leads naturally to a discussion of administrative

Socialism. The Fabians, under the guidance of Mr. Sidney Webb,

"insisted that the administrative and economic methods of the future must be a secular development of existing institutions, and inaugurated a process of study—which has long passed beyond the range of the Fabian Society, broadening out with the organised work of the new University of London. with its special School of Economics and Political Science, and of a growing volume of University study in England and America—to the end that this how' should be answered."

The "broad lines of the process" are the taking over from private enterprise, " by purchase or otherwise," of the great common services ; expropriation of private owners by Death- duties and taxation ; the gratuitous provision of education and medical attendance, the public support of mothers and children, old-age pensions, and the establishment of a legal

minimum wage. With this, " Socialism," says Mr. Wells, "ceased to be an open revolution and became a plot." This,

however, will not do. " Socialism," he goes on, " as dis- tinguished from mere Liberalism, for example, is an organised plan for social reconstruction, while Liberalism relies on certain vague 'principles ' ; Socialism declares that good intentions and doing what comes first to hand will not suffice." Under this new opportunism the " typical Webbito" came

near to turning the great wisdom of Mr. and Mrs. Webb to foolishness, till one day in 1902 " the present writer [i.e., Mr. Wells] put before the Fabian Society a paper on Adminis-

trative Areas, in which he clearly showed" much that it concerned them to consider :—

" The leading conception" of this epoch-making paper "appeared subsequently, running through a series of tracts These tracts are remarkable if only because they present the first systematic recognition on the part of any organised Socialist body of the fact that a scientific reconstruction of the methods of government constitutes not simply an incidental but a necessary part of the complete Socialist scheme."

Socialism in this *ay has ceased to be a plot, and has become (Mr. Wells's happy knack of phrasing fails us, so shall we say ?) a net spread with much ostentation, and perhaps in vain, in the sight of all the birds.

Mr. Villiers's book, The Socialist Movement in _England, deals principally with the political aspects of the subject.

Socialism is a somewhat vague term, and hitherto has been thought " un-English." That illusion, says Mr. Villiers, is shattered. "The moment the poor really understand what the Socialist is aiming at, they are convinced." "Socialism must speak to the people in the language they understand." "The history of the Labour Party is the record of the evolution of an instrument capable of doing this for the English." Doctrinaire Socialists may criticise, but this is the machinery which will perform the work.

We cannot follow the argument at great length ; our

• (1) New Worlds for Old. By H. G. Wells. London: A. Constable and Co. Mal —(2) The Socialist Movement in England. By Brougham Villiers. Loudon : li`isher Unwin. [roe. 6d. net 1—(3) British Socialism: an Examination of its Deetrinss, Policg, Aims, and Practical Proposals. By J. Ellis Barker. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. [10s. 6d. net.j

purpose is to draw attention to the point from which these authors approach their subject. The main doctrines of Socialism are fairly well understood. The strength of Socialism does not lie in its doctrines. Seriously speaking, these do not bear examination. Its power arises from the discontent caused by the imperfections of society, and from the lively imagination of better things with which the human mind has been endowed.

It is interesting to notice Mr. Wells's satisfaction at the "crumbling into dust" of Marx's theory that society was inevitably rushing headlong down the steep places into Socialism. As against Marx there is a. happier fatalism which is content to go forward into the future trusting in the principle of liberty. The only effective answer to Socialism, in our judgment, is to be deduced from a true exposition and understanding of the benefits of liberty. No candid student will deny that hitherto the progress of the civilised world has been from status to contract, from slavery to a certain measure of freedom. This has brought with it a noble compassion which supplies the only thing that is admirable in the world of Socialism ; and now that things are beginning to mend, we are implored to destroy the liberty which to us seems to be the cause, not only of the divine prerogative of pity, but also of all our advantages.

This optimistic fatalism, as Mr. Wells might term it, which supports the faith of those who believe in the energising, purifying influence of liberty is hopelessly misconceived or ignored by Socialist writers. In the opening sentences of Mr. Villiers's book it is, for instance, suggested that there is an irreconcilable antagonism between co-operation and competition. The largest measure of co-operation which the world knows is the vast system of industrial effort which is organised on the principle of free exchange. How utterly misleading is an analysis which opposes this world-wide and automatic co-operation, in which competition—i.e., the substi- tution of the better for the worse—plays its useful part, to the interesting but relatively unimportant plan known as the Co-operative Movement, wherein Labour is encouraged to bargain for a deferred payment out of profits which may be earned in a given undertaking. Similarly Mr. Wells (p. 97) entirely misconceives the argument of the advocate of free exchange, which lie misinterprets into a bald assertion that profit-seeking is the moving power of the world. He proceeds to argue that much work is done by salaried servants who have no profits (to which term he gives a narrow and arbitrary interpretation); but the whole point of the argument is that in every exchange, even in the exchange of service for wages, both parties profit. Mr. Wells seems to admit that what he considers sordid has vanished from that form of exchange in which services are exchanged for a salary or wages. We entirely agree ; but we must press him to admit the equity, economy, and convenience of a system which, by a fatalism much more potent than that suggested by the childish and now discredited predictions of Marx, has been inextricably interwoven into the economic fabric of society.

We have left ourselves but little space to comment on the third volume now before us. We may say at once that British. Socialism is a work of praiseworthy industry, which will be most useful to those who wish to know the practical suggestions deduced from Socialist theories. The author has consulted about a thousand Socialist works, and his " book is a summary of the whole literature of British Socialism and a key to it." Mr. Barker has rendered excellent service to the disputants in this controversy. In Mr. Wells's and Mr. Villiers's respectable pages we get the theory and aspirations of Socialism dressed out for us in attractive colours; we have here the gloss which has been put on these theories by the Socialist in the street. Mr. Barker's book reads like a catalogue of absurdities. The controversy between Liberty and Socialism is going to be a long and a bitter one. Non. omnia possamus *muss, and there is room for every variety of treatment. Mr. Barker begins his book by positing the question, " What is Socialism ?" He answers it practically in one, if not the only, way in which it can be answered, by a most industrious study of Socialist literature. If the voices are discordant, and if the propaganda appear impracticable, we must not assume, and Mr. Barker does not ask us to assume, that Socialism is a negligible quantity. In this connexion we

should bear in mind a quotation taken by the author from Gronlund's Co-operative Commonwealth :—" We are not indebted to reason for the landmarks of human progress.

Man is only irresistible when be acts from passion." This is not a generalisation which we can accept as repre- senting the facts of history, but it epitomises eloquently the danger of many a critical hour.