SOCIALISM

New Zealand Tablet, 9 July 1908, Page 10

SOCIALISM

ITS PURPOSE ; AN IMPORTANT QUESTION ; PROBLEMS OF PRODUCTION; TASK OF THE CENTRAL AUTHORITY

(Continued from last week.) Socialism, then, seeks to overthrow the present order of" society and to establish an entirely new order in its place. At present the wealth of the world is held by individual owners. Each one of us is a * capitalist,' as it is called, in a greater or lesser degree. In the Socialist State there would be no individual capitalists. The whole of the capital would be held by the State — that is, by all the people who constitute the '" organism called a State. Although, on the. one hand (roughly speaking), no one would own anything, on the other, every one would own everything. That is the principle of collective ownership. Thus, the whole of the land, the mines, the quarries, the workshops and the factories, with all machinery, tools, and all other instruments for producing articles, would be owned by the State, which would be the sole producer and manufacturer, and also the sole distributer or shopkeeper. All railways, steamboats, and means of transport would therefore also be held by the State. The State would have to determine what kind , of articles and how much of them are to be produced or manu- ' factured; how these goods are to be distributed, and the proportions in which they are to be distributed. No private individual would be allowed to produce anything except as a State laborer or for his own personal use.i "That is the first principle of Socialism as expounded on the Continent and in America and England to-day. * The collective ownership of all the means of production.' That is why Socialists usually call themselves Collectivists. Now, let us get clearly into our minds, even' at the cost of repetition, what i.as means. The State— that is, thewhole community of individuals who compose it— are to be the joint owners, each one as much as the other,, of all the instruments of. production, distribution', and exchange. Land, with all that H produces and supports, ; mines, minerals, ..all the raw materials of use and commerce, all the factories and workshops, all the tools and implements— everything that can be produced , or .manufactured, and everything that can be used in producing • or manufacturing, will belong to the State 5 that is, equally to' : every man, woman, and child composing -it. There will be- no ..priVate, property in the sense we know of it; or at most orily,to a, limited extent— that is, to such extent as is comprised- in ' the possibility of personal use. AN IMPORTANT QUESTION. ' "' ; Now, before we. go any further, let us ask this question a I rather important one-flow is the State to become possessed 1 By Socialism is meant ' the establishment of a political power— in place of the present class State— which shall have for its conscious and definite aim the common ownership and •control of the whole of the world's industry, exchange, etc.'— Catechism, of Socialism, Bax and Quelch, p. 5.

of all these things? Either their present owners riuist jjiVe them u$ of their own free will, or they must be bought out, or they must be expropriated — that is, turned out by force and violence from the things they possess. Now, the first of these alternatives is hardly likely to' happen. Human nature being" what' it is, it would be the wildest of dreams to expect . that the present owners will voluntarily hand over their possessions to the State.

Will, then, the State purchase all these things? This* is hardly a promising solution, for* in the first place, whence will come the money for their purchase and how will it be raised? Or, if it is left as a charge against the State, as some Socialists propose, how, with such a heavy handicap at .the start, can it hope to prosper? Think of what it means. The capital invested in English railways in 1902 was nearly That is one branch of industry alone. Now take into account the cotton industry, the iron industry, the shipping industry, and the host of other manufacturing— and distributing agencies, and add to that the value of the land of the country, and. .we arrive at a total that is so vast as to be with difficulty grasped by the imagination. Purchase on anything like equitable terms does not seem a possible or practicable solution, and, to do the propounders of Socialism justice, they carefully avoid promising to "adopt it. Some of them do indeed suggest a system of purchase, but with limitations that make it more like a species of theft than purchase. Such solutions as the payment to present owners by bonds, which can then be heavily taxed until ihe charge is extinguished, or by terminable annuities, are only forms of deferred confiscation, and resemble the Chinese method of execution by taking off a slice at a time. On the^other hand, there is a school of Socialists who make no secret of their plan of simply clearing out the present proprietors by force. They are the revolutionary Socialists of various degrees, and are pretty numerous on the Continent and in America, and include most of the Social Democrats in this country. In this connection it is worthy of note that one of the chief items in the programme of the Social Democratic Federation is the ' repudiation of the National Debt.' As all the money in the Post Office Savings Bank and much of the money in many other savings banks is invested in Consols, that would include the confiscation of all the savings of thousands of thrifty people who have put aside small sums, often by great self-denial. Ido not know how far a programme of this kind will receive assent, but a very elementary sense of justice would place the ordinary man in revolt against it.

The advocates of expropriation justify their action by reasoning that all property is the outcome of robbery, and that consequently it is almost a virtue to dispossess those who own it, but neither history, philosophy, nor political economy can be appealed to for support for such a contention.

However, for the purpose of discussing the practicability of a Socialist State, let us put aside the difficulty of acquiring possession of the instruments of production, etc. Let us suppose the apparently impossible case to occur : that in some fashion- or other, either by purchase, gradual processes, or some sudden and successful revolution, we have arrived at the stage in which the Collectivist State has come into being. Obviously we must suppose also that this revolution has been world-wide, or nearly so, for whatever internal advantages might accrue to the Members of such a State, there would be no guarantee of Mi2tr permanence if one or more strong individualist and military States existed outside their borders. Such States would be a constant menace, and a constant source of attraction to those ambitious and intelligent men to whom the rewards of a Socialist State would appear insufficient. And I will pass over with simple mention the other problem that suggests itself,- as to what would happen if the inhabitants of countries ill-favored by Nature, of scanty resources, or of ingrained poverty, desired, as would "be quite natural, to enter countries whose natural endowments made them desirable residences. •' - - - ; We will leave aside these difficulties, however pressing and fundamental they may be, and take it for granted that "such"' a State has been established and can hope for some stability, ' and we will now examine some of the problems that will preseni themselves for solution.

We must recall first of all that the common owenrship of everything productive has. given to each citizen exactly the same rights as every other citizen. Master and servant, rich and poor, become words without meaning, for where all are equally rich and all have an equality of ownership such differences could not exist. And Socialist teachers and the platforms of Socialist conventions lay down as a fundamental, tenet of their creed that there must bean equality of rights and duties in the State.

Every dne' will, have to work in order to live, and alt wili have the .game claim to remuneration. Whether a man 'serves as the head of a great department, planning and arranging the host of details that his office demands, or whether he is engaged in 'the humblest function that depends upon the great man's policy, there cannot in fairness be -any distinction made between their pay. Each one will give so much .time — so much socially necessary labor, as Marx has named it — and therefore each one will'deserve the same reward. In such a State, then, -certain problems will arisen the - solution of which must be considered, before we can realise what the. conditions, of existence will be, both for the State and for the individual. I know that many leading Socialists urge that such discussion is futild First, they say, realise the Social Revolution, create the Social State, and the problems will Be easily settled; they will, in fact, settle themselves. That is the doctrine of Jaures, the French leader, and of Ramsay Meic» donald, the Englishman. But that is like asking a man to pull down and destroy his well-built and well-appointed house because of certain defects in its arrangements before showing hi«M the -plans of his new one. It is as though an architect should promise a palace of beautiful design, of unheard-of splendor- and conveniences, and yet decline to produce any working plans, to justify his promises. • Yet this is the line of argument often adopted. Socialist writers are, however, very like. other writers* They may deprecate the discussion of details, yet these detail? are so vital to their scheme that .in their writings they have beeo led, when expounding their views, . to a description of things as they will be in the Socialist State. We are thus enabled to examine and criticise not only their anticipations and promises, but also the social conditions which they conceive will fojlow the adoption of their ideas. Marx, Engels, Bebel, Stern, Kautzky, Ferri, and even the cautious Ramsay Macdonald, have all written books which may be studied with profit and which offer a foundation for the considerations I shall notf advance. The chief problems of the Socialist State may accordingly be grouped as follows-; — * '*■" ' ' I. How will the work . of production Be organist? 11. How will the produce be distributed? 111. How will labor be organised and distributed? IV. How will labor be paid? (and, interwoven with these questions,) V. How will the equality of rights, which is the essence and foundation of Socialism, be maintained? THE PROBLEMS OF PRODUCTION. \ We will consider these questions in order, and to begirt with we will investigate the problem of the organisation of production— i.e., we will consider how in the Socialist State -the , providing of all materials will be managed. First of all, let me remind you of the volume of trade in this' country.. In 1964 imports and exports amounted to 922 million pounds?'wqr£hj of goods. This gives us some idea of the size of the work to be^ undertaken. At present this huge volume of trade is managed by a host of .individuals, each one of them more-ot less a specialist in his work. Businesses are organised by men who seek out markets and endeavor to supply them; who, have agents abroad and at home, keen to make their work succeed, for success means wealth and failure poverty. In Preston, for instance, with cotton for our principal industry and -many subordinate industries, we find businesses which have grown up in long years, with agents in Manchester and! markets all over the world. Think of the number of mills, workshops, and manufactories in this town, each managed by -men to whom!" success means- independence, wfealtn,"'ease, powe'r-^each. owner, a specialist in his business, ever seeking to keep, to consolidate^' 1 to extend his business; and finding work for the workers as the y result of his energies. Now" multiply these local activities b£ all the cities, towns, and villages' of the kingdom,' and you have the total activities that -.result in our huge volume of traded How will this vast business .be managed in the Socialist State?: It is all to be in the hands of one central authority— with local, agencies whose sole business it will be to carry out the directions, of the central authority. This, is freely recognised by Socialist. " teaqhers -^anj^w/j.fcers..,. It is the. essence of their case that' production tjnust^he centralised and regulated -by a supreme authority acting on behalf of the community.; Thus this central/ authority, will have- to regulate, all tfiis vast volume of business 5 to coordinate it, so .that "there shall be harmony not only in' the productive effort in each business, but in the relations, of '

each business to every other. Accordingly in some vast centres •there will be gathered together directors, statisticians, clerks;, joining in one all the myriad threads that bind an industry together, and not for one industry- only but for every industry — a huge agglomeration of -men- that will dwarf our present central offices into utter insignificance. , In these centres will i>e- gathered all , the actual moving forces to keep going the apparatus of production. From them will issue the directions that will : organise all work and all distribution of the products of labor. And note here, that there must be no failures. War Offices and ' Local Government Boards may make mistakes,- and the vital interests of the country feel it- little ;■ but in these new centres a mistake at once affects the whole of the State; for- not only must each central authority for one industry act for- itself, but it must act in perfect accord with every other industry, or confusion will be worse confounded. Let. us see more closely then—(a) What manner of work these centres will have to do, and (b) How they will arrange to get their orders carried out. THE TASK OF THE CENTRAL AUTHORITY, First, what will these central authorities have to do? They will have to determine at regular intervals, as the result of inquiries and estimates previously made, how much of each product will be required for a given time.i Take, for instance, the amount of cotton goods. They will have to ascertainjhe requirements of the whole State in every article of cotton material for whatever period they make their estimate. This involves a register of the requirements of every individual in the community— that is to say, of some forty millions of people in this country, in every variety of cotton goods, from the baby's shirt to Sunday frocks. Then the "varying tastes of each will need some consideration, unless every one is- to be compelled to adopt the patterns and texture provided by the State. Unless the nature of woman changes, a condition of this kind would, alone, wreck the whole calculation. Again, we must remember that production in the Socialist State is primarily for use, and that surplus goods would represent labor wasted, so that it becomes of the greatest importance that register of requirements shall be exact. But, besides, there will have to be considered what production may be necessary for exchange. We cannot, for instance, grow cotton here • therefore we must buy it from abroad, and -we can only do this with goods in exchanges Now, the same inquiries that will be requisite for cotton goods will be necessary for every other article in use, from thimbles to bedposts, and from Sunday clothes to china dishes. Can you conceive what an army of officials will be requisite for this purpose— to register and estimate the varied requirements of forty millions of people, to make the complicated inquiries and calculations that will be necessary to determine what production is-ff&eded for exchange— and what tabulating and summarising will have to be gone through to arrive at a definite result? It takes some years for the Registrar-General's Office to^make out the simple details of the census. You can imagine, then, what proportions this function would .assume and what an army of unproductive workers it would employ. And it must be repeated at short intervals, for the increasing or diminishing population will necessitate regular revisionsof the estimates. I do not suppose it is just to say that this could not be done, but it is,, I think, obvious that it would be an enormous work, liable to great errors and consequent failure and waste And add to this that the central authority, having found out the amount necessary to be produced for use and exchange would then need to distribute or arrange for distribution the produce of the country so that at every centre there would be an ample supply of materials to meet the needs of the community. There must be in Preston and Liverpool,- say the articles that Preston and Liverpool will need. One Can easily realise that we are in presence of a task so colossal, that it requires no less an imagination than that of the professional Socialist to see it successful and to conceive of its satisfactory working. "• J (To be concluded.)

1 See Kautzky, Morrow of Social Revolution, p. a 4.a 4 . a The value of cotton imported in 1906 was over * We .mported during that year, also food, drink, and tobacco value and raw materials for manufacturing purposes to the value of £211,478,327. Practically all these imports are- paid for in manufactured goods.