The chief aim of all honest Socialists just now is to prevent the coming
of Socialism. I do not say it as a sneer, but, on the contrary, as a
compliment; a compliment to their political instinct and public spirit.
I admit it may be called an exaggeration; but there really is a sort of
sham Socialism that the modern politicians may quite possibly agree to
set up; if they do succeed in setting it up, the battle for the poor is
lost.
We must note, first of all, a general truth about the curious time we
live in. It will not be so difficult as some people may suppose to make
the Servile State look rather like Socialism, especially to the more
pedantic kind of Socialist. The reason is this. The old lucid and
trenchant expounder of Socialism, such as Blatchford or Fred Henderson,
always describes the economic power of the plutocrats as consisting in
private property. Of course, in a sense, this is quite true; though they
too often miss the point that private property, as such, is not the same
as property confined to the few. But the truth is that the situation has
grown much more subtle; perhaps too subtle, not to say too insane, for
straight-thinking theorists like Blatchford. The rich man to-day does
not only rule by using private property; he also rules by treating
public property as if it were private property. A man like Lord Murray
pulled the strings, especially the purse-strings; but the whole point of
his position was that all sorts of strings had got entangled. The secret
strength of the money he held did not lie merely in the fact that it was
his money. It lay precisely in the fact that nobody had any clear idea
of whether it was his money, or his successor’s money, or his brother’s
money, or the Marconi Company’s money, or the Liberal Party’s money,
or the English Nation’s money. It was buried treasure; but it was not
private property. It was the acme of plutocracy because it was not
private property. Now, by following this precedent, this unprincipled
vagueness about official and unofficial moneys by the cheerful habit of
always mixing up the money in the pocket with the money in the till, it
would be quite possible to keep the rich as rich as ever in practice,
though they might have suffered confiscation in theory. Mr. Lloyd George
has four hundred a year as an M. P.; but he not only gets much more as a
Minister, but he might at any time get immeasurably more by speculating
on State secrets that are necessarily known to him. Some say that he has
even attempted something of the kind. Now, it would be quite possible to
cut Mr. George down, not to four hundred a year, but to fourpence a
day; and still leave him all these other and enormous financial
superiorities. It must be remembered that a Socialist State, in any way
resembling a modern State, must, however egalitarian it may be, have the
handling of huge sums, and the enjoyment of large conveniences; it is
not improbable that the same men will handle and enjoy in much the same
manner, though in theory they are doing it as instruments, and not as
individuals. For instance, the Prime Minister has a private house, which
is also (I grieve to inform that eminent Puritan) a public house. It
is supposed to be a sort of Government office; though people do not
generally give children’s parties, or go to bed in a Government office.
I do not know where Mr. Herbert Samuel lives; but I have no doubt he
does himself well in the matter of decoration and furniture. On the
existing official parallel there is no need to move any of these
things in order to Socialise them. There is no need to withdraw one
diamond-headed nail from the carpet; or one golden teaspoon from the
tray. It is only necessary to call it an official residence, like
10 Downing-street. I think it is not at all improbable that this
Plutocracy, pretending to be a Bureaucracy, will be attempted or
achieved. Our wealthy rulers will be in the position which grumblers
in the world of sport sometimes attribute to some of the “gentlemen”
players. They assert that some of these are paid like any professional;
only their pay is called their expenses. This system might run side by
side with a theory of equal wages, as absolute as that once laid down by
Mr. Bernard Shaw. By the theory of the State, Mr. Herbert Samuel and Mr.
Lloyd George might be humble citizens, drudging for their fourpence
a day; and no better off than porters and coal-heavers. If there were
presented to our mere senses what appeared to be the form of Mr. Herbert
Samuel in an astrakhan coat and a motor-car, we should find the record
of the expenditure (if we could find it at all) under the heading of
“Speed Limit Extension Enquiry Commission.” If it fell to our lot to
behold (with the eye of flesh) what seemed to be Mr. Lloyd George
lying in a hammock and smoking a costly cigar, we should know that the
expenditure would be divided between the “Condition of Rope and Netting
Investigation Department,” and the “State of Cuban Tobacco Trade:
Imperial Inspector’s Report.”
Such is the society I think they will build unless we can knock it down
as fast as they build it. Everything in it, tolerable or intolerable,
will have but one use; and that use what our ancestors used to
call usance or usury. Its art may be good or bad, but it will be an
advertisement for usurers; its literature may be good or bad, but it
will appeal to the patronage of usurers; its scientific selection will
select according to the needs of usurers; its religion will be just
charitable enough to pardon usurers; its penal system will be just cruel
enough to crush all the critics of usurers: the truth of it will be
Slavery: and the title of it may quite possibly be Socialism.