s out."[1035] "The
representatives of the State will have disappeared along with the State
itself--ministers, parliaments, standing armies, police and
_gens-d'armes_, law courts, lawyers and public prosecutors, prisons,
rates, taxes and excises--the entire political apparatus. The great and
yet so petty parliamentary struggles have given place to administrative
colleges and administrative delegations, whose function it is to settle
the best methods of production and distribution."[1036] "The
Co-operative Commonwealth will incorporate the whole people into
society. The whole people does not want, or need, any government at
all. It simply wants administration--good administration,"[1037]

The arguments contained in the foregoing extracts are exceedingly
shallow. The various authorities quoted tell us in more or less
involved language that the State disappears because "governments" will
be replaced by "administrations." Unconvincing verbiage apart, the
only change which would take place would be a change of name.
Countries would be ruled by Socialist governments instead of by
non-Socialist ones. The State could disappear only with the
disappearance of nations and of frontiers, with the advent of the
"Brotherhood of Man." The first Socialist State might of course
proclaim the Brotherhood of Man in accordance with the precedent set
by the French Revolution, but other nations might feel as little
inclined to join it as during the time when bloodthirsty demagogues
ruled France in the name of Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality, with
the liberal assistance of the rifle and the guillotine.

What is Communism? John Stuart Mill tells us: "The assailants of the
principle of individual property may be divided into two
classes--those whose scheme implies absolute equality in the
distribution of the physical means of life and enjoyment, and those
who admit inequality, but grounded on some principle, or supposed
principle, of justice or general expediency, and not, like so many of
the existing social inequalities, dependent on accident alone. The
characteristic name for the former economical system is
Communism."[1038] "Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy" says:
"Communism is the theory which teaches that the labour and the income
of society should be distributed equally among all its members by some
constituted authority."[1039]

Let us now take note of some Socialist views on Communism. "Laurence
Gronlund, whose 'Co-operativ