mmons could simply revive
its resolution of January 6, 1649, decreeing their abolition."[587]

Many Socialists are opposed not only to the House of Lords but to all
second chambers. "When the hereditary House is abolished, the demand
which will be made by reactionaries for a representative second
chamber must be sternly resisted. True, most nations have second
chambers in imitation of our pernicious example; but there is not one
of them, however constituted, whose history is not a conclusive
argument against such institutions. The second chambers of Europe and
America are nothing more than standing monuments of the gregarious
folly of mankind. Nations can no more have two wills than individuals.
A second chamber at one with the first is superfluous, in opposition
it is noxious."[588]

A large number of Socialists do not think that the democratisation of
the House of Commons and the abolition of the House of Lords will
suffice. They fear that party politics and party intrigues may become
more pernicious in a Labour Parliament than they have proved to be in
a middle-class Parliament. They fear that adult suffrage may not
improve matters, and that impecunious professional politicians may
prove worse than the class of politicians who up till now have sat in
Parliament. "We stand in England at the parting of the ways. One leads
to the payment of members and the creation of a class of professional
political adventurers; the other leads to the referendum and
initiative."[589]

"In the Republics of France and the United States the electors are
virtually endowed with male adult suffrage, and Labour representation
is facilitated by State payment of members and of their election
expenses. Yet the French Chamber, with its Panama and Southern Railway
scandals, in which the patriots have gorged their servile lusts, has
stood for many years before the nations as a monument of infamy. The
United States Congress has not a single Labour representative within
its walls, and the Government of the country is become a vile synonym
for corruption."[590] "In America the compensation of each Senator and
each Representative is fixed at five thousand dollars, or one thousand
pounds per year. In addition to this the members have special fares on
the railways, and many other perquisites. Yet the American
'Encyclopedia of Social Reform,' edited by W.D.P. Bliss, says, on page
325, 'Congressmen, notoriously, do not represent the people, but
specia