War_, pp. 13, 14.

[331] _Socialism Made Plain_, p. 10.

[332] Programme, _Social-Democratic Federation_.

[333] _Clarion_, October 18, 1907.

[334] Marx and Engels, _Manifesto_, p. 30.

[335] _Motto of The Socialist_, weekly, taken from Marx and Engels'
_Manifesto_.

[336] _The Class War_, p. 2.

[337] _Socialism Made Plain_, p. 10.

[338] Joynes, _The Socialist Catechism_, p. 5.

[339] Bax, _Essays in Socialism_, pp. 101, 102.

[340] Bax, _Ethics of Socialism_, p. 82.

CHAPTER VI

THE ATTITUDE OF SOCIALISTS TOWARDS THE WORKING MASSES

Before investigating the attitude of British Socialism towards the
working masses, it is necessary to take note of its doctrines
regarding work.

Most thinkers, from the time of King Solomon, Socrates, and Confucius
down to the present age, have seen in work conscientiously performed a
blessing; many, probably most, British Socialists declare it to be a
curse and a vice. The leading English philosopher of Socialism, for
instance, tells us: "To the Socialist labour is an evil to be
minimised to the utmost. The man who works at his trade or avocation
more than necessity compels him, or who accumulates more than he can
enjoy, is not a hero but a fool from the Socialists' standpoint."[341]
A leading French Socialist informs us: "Through listening to the
fallacious utterances of the middle-class economists, the workers have
delivered themselves body and soul to the vice of work."[342] When Mr.
Victor Grayson, M.P., a Socialist, in a speech ventured to refer to
work as "one of the greatest blessings and privileges ever conferred
on humanity," one of the Socialist papers wrote: "Victor Grayson is
simply an agent of the capitalist class. Is Mr. Victor Grayson, M.P.,
trying to allure the capitalist class by picturing work as a blessing,
or is he trying to get the worker to look upon work through a rosy
mist conjured from the brains of the capitalist's agent who is
saturated with capitalist philosophy? It is time the Beatitudes were
extended or revised. How would this do?--'Blessed is the worker who
works (for the capitalist), for he shall inherit the kingdom (of
starvation and misery under capitalism).' 'Blessed is work in itself,
because it enables (the capitalist) to live in peace and happiness.'
Since work is a blessing, it follows that whatever saves work is a
curse. All the beautiful machinery which the working class have shed
their life blood to produce, to devel