[26] Blatchford, _What is this Socialism?_ p. 2.

[27] _Justice_, October 19, 1907.

[28] Keir Hardie, _From Serfdom to Socialism_, p. 96.

[29] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 44.

[30] Gronlund, _Co-operative Commonwealth_, p. 126.

[31] Guyot, _Pretensions of Socialism_, p. 11.

[32] Hird, _From Brute to Brother_, p. 1.

[33] Robert Blatchford, _Real Socialism_, p. 15.

[34] Williams, _Difficulties of Socialism_, p. 4.

[35] Bliss, _Encyclopedia of Social Reform_, p. 1265.

CHAPTER II

SOME SOCIALIST VIEWS OF PRESENT SOCIETY AND OF THE SOCIETY OF THE
FUTURE

"We are not indebted to reason," wrote the greatest American
Socialist, "for the landmarks of human progress, for the introduction
of Christianity, the institution of the monastic orders, the Crusades,
the Reformation, the American Revolution, or the abolition of slavery.
Man is only irresistible when he acts from passion. The masses of men
are never moved except by passions, feelings, interests."[36]
"Socialism has the advantage of appealing to the interests as well as
to the enthusiasm of all except the few who think the world good
enough as it is.... It is, of course, to the discontented wage-workers
that the Socialist can appeal with the greatest chance of
success."[37] These indiscreet words, which might have been written by
the most implacable of Anti-Socialists, sum up and explain the
Socialistic agitation and tactics. They are a proclamation and an
avowal, and the worst enemy of Socialism would have found it difficult
to pen a more damaging statement. Socialists rely not on reason or
justice, but on unreason and passion, for the victory of their cause;
and that fact is very much to be regretted, for it is bound to create
prejudice and suspicion, and to greatly weaken their case.

The British Socialists, seeking to rouse the passions of men,
habitually rely on exaggeration and misrepresentation. They do not
tire of painting the present state of society in the darkest colours
and of describing with an unbounded but hardly justifiable optimism
and enthusiasm the advantages which will accrue to society when
Socialism has come to rule. It will be seen that in describing society
of the present and society of the future, Socialists let their
imagination run riot in the most astounding fashion.

To the Socialist modern civilisation is worse than a failure. "Our
civilisation seems all so savage and bestial and filthy and
inartis