I ^' f Presented to the LIBRARY of the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO by C. B« Macpherson Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/socialistmovemenOOvill THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND BY BROUGHAM VILLIERS AUTHOR OF "THE OPPORTUNITY OF LIBERALISM" HI—] III IIIIIIWl SEEN BY PRES£aVATlG^i SERVICES ^ DATE MAN3 1992__^_ i .».<WM«M».»«»«>«»"«-^^ !i^^:a,^U^<^»%'V.^^<--^-*' T** rA T. FISHER UNWIN LONDON LEIPSIC Adelphi Terrace Inselstrasse 2 1908 All rights reserved ; PREFACE It is the purpose of this book to make clear what the Labour-Socialist Party is, and to suggest its probable influence on the near, as well as the more distant, future. The successes of the party- have caused widespread alarm, especially among Conservatives, who do not appear to know whether it is Socialist or not. Socialism is certainly the conscious aim of the majority of its leaders, and probably of most of the rank and file; and the party, at two Conferences, has already asserted that Socialism is its ultimate object. But there is no desire to compel every member to accept Socialism it is sufficient if the affiliated Unions are in favour of acting in the interests of Labour, independently of either of the other parties. Hence such apparently contradictory votes as those at the Hull Conference, where the delegates voted one day against imposing Socialism as a test of loyalty, and the next in favour of Socialism in the abstract. I hope I have made clear how far Socialism and Labourism are one. The appearance of the new party was perfectly natural, nay, inevitable, sooner or later. Under V Preface surface differences, complex enough, indeed, the English people are no more insensible than others to universal appeals ; and the appeal of Socialism, put in its simplest form, is universal. Owing to special causes, and for the lifetime of one generation. Socialism made no apparent progress in this country; but from the days of John Ball to those of Owen, there is enough in our history to show that this is not due to any special anti- Socialist bias in the English character. It was enough, however, to convince politicians who disliked Socialism, and were not averse to flatter themselves on our superiority to continental errors, that Socialism was "un-English." The history of the last two years has shattered that illusion. For the future, practical politicians must allow for the influence of a Socialist-Labour Party in Parliament and the constituencies. I have endeavoured to explain the late arrival of an organised Socialist party in British politics. Though the central idea of Socialism is simple and universal, the methods of its appeal are determined by complex circumstances of time and place. The moment the poor really understand what the Socialist is aiming at, they are convinced —" the common people hear him gladly." But Socialism must speak to the people in the language they understand, in a way that reveals its relation to the things of their daily life. Broadly speaking, the history of the Labour Party is the record ot the evolution of an instrument capable of doing this for the English. The idea is universal, the vi — Preface method national. Like all products of evolution, the party has been shaped as much by the pressure of its national environment as by its inner spirit. Hence it is just as possible for the doctrinaire Socialist to find fault with its programmes and methods as it is for anyone to criticise the defects of any organ of the body, fitted roughly by evolution to the work it has to perform. But this is the spirit of Browning's Caliban "while his hand was in, Why not make horny eyes no thorn could prick, Or plate my scalp with bone against the snow?" The qualities of the Labour Party have been acquired by experience ; its limitations can only be overcome in the same way. I have endeavoured to defend the central aim of Socialism, a society founded upon brotherhood and co-operation, while advocating the utmost freedom in methods. This is to work for the perfection of society by the method of nature. As the pebbles of the brook are worn by the action of the water, not into one uniform shape, but into a common smoothness, so the stream of social tendency works through the ages, rounding off the egoisms of men and nations into fitness for the life of fellowship. But social evolution in no way tends to uniformity — nay, its progress involves an ever more picturesque variety. Nature has no theory, no "philosophy of the State" to teach men. Slowly she impresses upon them the fact that co-operation is less wasteful than com- petition ; and, sooner or later, however painful the vii Preface process, men must learn her lesson. Nation after nation has risen to greatness, grown wealthy, and allowed its wealth to surfeit the few, while the many were left hungry. They have failed to realise that, as the blood flows freely to all the active members of the body, so, in a healthy society, should the fruits of the earth return to those who won them. Again and again, nature has turned to the Gentiles, the honoured civilisation has been destroyed, and the long task has been recom- menced with a new race of barbarians. The political ideas accepted and admired in one age are generally such dreary reading in the next, because they ignore the fact that no theory of property, however logical, has the sanction of nature, unless, under it, the people get properly fed, clothed, and educated. Nature is not moral, " but practical ; she cares little whether you rob the rich " so long as you feed the poor. She presents to societies, not a doctrine of the schools, but a crude alternative—fellowship or death. Fortu- nately, the new Labour Party is not hampered with many doctrines. It has come to persuade our people to choose the first alternative—fellowship. The central chapters, dealing with the evolution of the Labour Party and Socialism, give indeed a glance at the history of the movement, but only in order to explain the present - day party itself. They are political criticism, rather than history, a criticism written in the light of the above con- ception of Socialism. The time has not arrived to write a formal history of the party, and only viii Preface widely known facts are here recorded. But with- out some knowledge of its past, we cannot gauge the party's present strength, nor its possibilities of growth. So far, then, and so far only, as it appeared necessary to be historical in order to do this, I have dealt with the history of the movement. It is a Labour Party that is wanted at the moment, for it is Labour questions, in the narrower sense, that constitute the essential social politics of the day. Only on matters concerning the physical well-being of the people do the forces of social evolution speak to us in the imperative mood ; as to what superstructure they shall build upon our foundation when we have fed the people, coming generations may have a good deal of freedom of choice. Yet so great a change as the acceptance of the basic principle of Socialism implies must necessarily have far - reaching effects on every aspect of life. These, however, it is only possible to foreshadow ; and each reader may prefer to make his own forecast of the future. I have, however, in the concluding section of the book, tried to suggest some probable lines of future development. Such questions as that of the position of women, the drink problem, of freedom, of machinery, are all seen in a new light from the point of view of Socialism. But prophecy is dangerous, and I have not attempted to elaborate any general scheme of future society. The chapters in the third part may be read as scattered essays in various aspects of Socialism, immediate or more ix Preface remote. It is the people, not present-day Socialists, who will make the Socialism of the future. In the writing of Utopias, the personal equation is every- where present; we learn how the author would have the people use their heritage, not what the people will actually do with it. Hence, these chapters are suggestions merely, though not made without some study of what seem to me the abiding laws of social science, and the character of the English people. BROUGHAM VILLIERS. January 29, 1908. CONTENTS PART I THE ORIGIN AND CAUSES OF THE MOVEMENT CHAPTER I PAGE The Purpose of Socialism . i CHAPTER II Medi/Eval Socialism, Organic and Theoretic . 19 CHAPTER III The Industrial Revolution . .36 CHAPTER IV Early Victorian Socialism . .48 CHAPTER V The Apprenticeship . .64 xi Contents PART II THE LATER MOVEMENT CHAPTER I PAGE The Revival . -83 CHAPTER H Conscious Socialism in the Eighties— I . 98 CHAPTER HI Conscious Socialism in the Eighties— II . .113 CHAPTER IV The Independent Labour Party . .127 CHAPTER V The Labour Representation Committee . 147 CHAPTER VI Possibilities and Limitations . .164 CHAPTER VII Contemporary Socialistic Tendencies . 184 PART III SOCIALISM AND LIFE CHAPTER 1 The Influence of the Labour Party . 207 xii Contents CHAPTER II I'AGE The Downfall of Capitalism . .225 CHAPTER III Socialism and Machinery .... 248 CHAPTER IV Socialism and the Reform of the Liquor Traffic ...... 264 CHAPTER Y Socialism and Freedom . .283 CHAPTER VI Socialism and the Emancipation of Women . 295 CHAPTER VII Socialism and Communism . .311 Bibliography .