BERNARD SHAW ON SOCIALISM

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 441, 24 August 1928, Page 14

BERNARD SHAW ON SOCIALISM

(Written for THE SUN) ' tpHERE are many people in the Socialist movement to-day who owe their introduction to that movement to the activities of a group of people who in the early ’eighties of

the last century met together to discuss political and social problems, and who in January, 1884, formed the Fabian Society. They were, in many respects, a remarkable group of people, and they took upon themselves a remarkable duty, nothing less than “reconstructing society in such a manner as to secure general welfare and happiness.” They set about their task by learning all they could about society and its ills, and suggested remedies for these ills, and by imparting the knowledge they gained to the general public in the form of tracts and essays. They were not a political party, yet few if any similar groups have had as much influence on the political life of Britain during the past 30 years as the Fabian Society. One of their first and best-known publications was “Fabian Essays,” first published in 1889; since reproduced in several editions in English and in Continental languages. The volume consists of eight essays. Mr. G. Bernard Shaw was editor, and wrote two of the essays. Other contributors were Sydney Webb, William Clarke, Graham Wallace, Hubert Bland, Sydney Olivier, and Annie Besant. Some of them have since made for themselves world-wide reputations; some have left the Socialist movement; others are still in it and are still contributing to its literature. Perhaps the best-known among the group, certainly the best-known in the field of literature, is Mr. G. Bernard Shaw. He has now written a much larger volume of essays under the title of “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism.” It is a book of 85 chapters, each of which is an essay on some aspect of our present political, industrial or social problems. To those who are accustomed to read Shaw’s plays, there is a peculiarity about this new book. There is no preface to it. We have sometimes wondered if Shaw’s plays were excuses for the prefaceessays, or the essays excuses for the plays. In the present book no such question arises. There is not even a foreword. But there is an appendix, which is itself a first-rate summary of the history of Socialism in Britain and the literature of the movement. The Rt. Hon. Ramsay Macdonald describes the book itself as “a brilliant exposition” of Socialist principles. Mr. Shaw dedicates the book to his sister-in-law, “the intelligent woman to whose question this book is the best answer I can make.” In one passage he tells why he wrote the book: “I am a writer’ of plays and books myself. I know the folly and peril of it better than you do. And when I see that this moment of our utmost ignorance and helplessness, delusion and folly, has been stumbled on by the blind forces of Capitalism as the moment for giving votes to everybody, so that the few wise women are hopelessly overruled by the thousands whose political minds, so far as they can be said to have any political minds at all, have been formed in the cinema, I realise that I had better stop writing plays for a while to discuss political and social realities in this book with those who are intelligent enough to listen to me.” The book will be welcomed by the Socialist movement, not because the

movement will agree with all that is in it. It will not. But because it will compel a consideration of Socialism by Socialists and by non-Socialists alike. “Fabian Essays” was often used by anti-Socialist speakers in the early days, and no doubt this book, too, will often be quoted to the discomfiture of those who speak for Socialism. We' do not all agree in details with Mr. Shaw, but I think we shall all agree that, with the production of this book, as with the production of “Fabian Esays” 37 years ago, and many of his other books, he has done a great work toward making known to the intelligent women and men what Socialism is and what it is not. T. BLOODWORTH.