SOCIALISM AND THE MONARCHY
The first of the "Immediate Reforms" demanded in the official
programme of the Social-Democratic Federation[561] is the "Abolition
of the Monarchy." That that demand has been made so crudely and that
it has been given so prominent a position cannot surprise anybody who
is acquainted with British Socialism. "Socialists are essentially
thorough-going Republicans. Socialism, which aims at political and
economic equality, is radically inconsistent with any other political
form whatever than that of Republicanism, Monarchy and Socialism, or
Empire and Socialism, are incompatible and inconceivable. Socialism
involves political and economic equality, while Monarchy or Empire
essentially imply domination and inequality."[562]
"As in the political history of the race the logical development of
progress was found in the abolition of the institution of monarchy and
not in its mere restriction, so in industrial history the culminating
point to which all efforts must at last converge lies in the abolition
of the capitalist class, and not in the mere restriction of its
powers. The Socialist Labour Party, recognising these two phases of
human development, unites them in its programme, and seeks to give
them a concrete embodiment by its demand for a Socialist
Republic."[563]
Most Socialists describe all monarchs as the drones of society, and
habitually refer to crowned heads either as "loafers" or as "Royal
paupers, able-bodied and outdoor."[564] "If the people were of my mind
they would not tolerate for twelve months that the Royal paupers
should wear robes and have every luxury, and the honest, industrious
aged poor should wear rags and eat a crust or be imprisoned for being
hungry."[565] (Has ever anybody in Great Britain, or in any other
country, been imprisoned "for being hungry"?)
"Is it possible that this degrading monarchical superstition can
survive in England much longer? Has the schoolmaster now been abroad
so long in vain? Will the English people never take their destinies
into their own hands and close the long era of monarchical and
aristocratic robbery? Are we never to have a Government that can hear
the bitter cry of the outcast, and, hearing, act? We know the goal.
The goal is the Democratic Republic."[566]
Many further extracts regarding English and foreign monarchs might be
given, but they are so indescribably coarse and so offensive--even the
late Queen is most shamelessly slandered, abused, and calumniated--that
they are hardly fit for publication, and their authors shall be
nameless.
FOOTNOTES:
[561] See Appendix.
[562] Bax and Quelch, _A New Catechism of Socialism_, p. 37.
[563] _Platform, Constitutions, Rules, and Standing Orders, Socialist
Labour Party_, pp. 2, 3.
[564] See _The Socialist Annual_, 1907, p. 25.
[565] Glyde, _Britain's Disgrace_, p. 9.
[566] Davidson, _The New Book of Kings_, p. 107.