404

XXXII. STATE SOCIALISM 411

XXXIII. THE SOCIALIST ORGANISATIONS: THEIR MUTUAL RELATIONS
AND THEIR POLICY 415

XXXIV. THE GROWTH AND DANGER OF BRITISH SOCIALISM 431

XXXV. HOW THE PROGRESS OF SOCIALISM MAY BE CHECKED 440

XXXVI. IS SOCIALISM POSSIBLE?--A GLANCE INTO THE SOCIALIST
STATE OF THE FUTURE 444

XXXVII. CONCLUSION 470

APPENDIX--OFFICIAL PROGRAMMES OF THE SOCIALISTIC ORGANISATIONS 481

BIBLIOGRAPHY 493

ANALYTICAL INDEX 509

BRITISH SOCIALISM

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION--WHAT IS SOCIALISM?

What is Socialism?

It is exceedingly difficult to answer that question in a few words,
for Socialism is exceedingly elusive and bewildering in its doctrines,
its aims, and its proposals.

Its opponents have described it as "a doctrine of sordid materialism
and of atheism," they have denounced it as "the gospel of everlasting
bellyful,"[1] and as "the coming slavery."[2] They have stated that
Socialism means to abolish religion, that it "would try to put
laziness, thriftlessness, and inefficiency on a par with industry,
thrift, and efficiency, that it would strive to break up not merely
private property, but, what is far more important, the home, the chief
prop upon which our whole civilisation stands."[3]

The Socialists, on the other hand, claim that "Socialism presents the
only living ideal of human existence"[4]; that "Socialism is science
applied with knowledge and understanding to all branches of human
activity"[5]; that "Socialism is freedom,"[6] and that it is
exceedingly just, for "the justice of Socialism will see all things,
and therefore understand all things."[7] One of the Socialist leaders
has told us "Socialism is much more than either a political creed or
an economic dogma. It presents to the modern world a new conception of
society and a new basis upon which to build up the life of the
individual and of the State."[8] Another informs us "Socialism to
Socialists is not a Utopia which they have invented, but a principle
of social organisation which they assert to have been discovered by
the patient investigators into soci