ntly limit and spoil his work and services in
the interests of a dividend or of some financial manoeuvre. So far they
have been antagonized towards Socialism by the errors of its
adherents, by the impression quite wantonly created, that Socialism
meant either mob rule or the rule of pedantic, unsympathetic
officials. They have heard too much of democracy, too much of
bureaucracy, and not enough of construction. They have felt that on
the whole the financial exploiter, detestable master as he often is,
was better than the rule of either clamour on the one hand or red tape
on the other. But, as I have been seeking to suggest, mob rule and
official rule do not exhaust the possible alternatives. Neither
ignorant democracy nor narrow bureaucracy can be the destined rulers
of a Socialist State. The only conceivable rule in a Socialist
civilization is through the operation of a collective mind that must
be by its nature constructive and enterprising, because only through
the creation of such a mind can Socialism be brought about. A
Socialist State cannot exist without that mind existing also, and a
collective mind can scarcely appear without some form of Socialism
giving it a material body. Now it is only under an intelligent
collective mind that any of the dreams of these constructive
professions can attain an effective realization. Where will the
private profit in a universal sanitation, for example, be found, in
the abolition of diseases, in the planned control of the public
health, in the abolition of children's deaths? What thought of private
gain will ever scrap our obsolescent railroads and our stagnating
industrial monopolies for new clean methods? So long as they pay a
dividend they will keep on upon their present lines. The modern
architect knows, the engineer knows we might build ourselves perfectly
clean, smokeless magnificent cities to-day, as full of pure water as
ancient Rome, as full of pure air as the Engadine, if private
ownership did not block the way. Who can doubt it who understands what
a doctor, or an electrical engineer, or a real architect understands?
Surely all the best men in these professions are eager to get to work
on the immense possibilities of life, possibilities of things cleared
up, of things made anew, that their training has enabled them to
visualize! What stands in their way, stands in our way; social
disorganization, individualist self-seeking, narrowness of outlook,
self-conceit, ignora