The Dominion. SATURDAY DECEMBER, 1909. SOCIALISM AND HUMAN NATURE

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 693, 18 December 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY DECEMBER, 1909. SOCIALISM AND HUMAN NATURE

Miss Awder'Eeeves—now, Mrs.- White —the clever daughter of the Hon. W. P; Beeves, has a.long and exceedingly well written article in the November Contemporary Review on "Socialism and: Human Nature." Mrs.-White is a.noted : Fabian, .in ardent colleague of Me, H. G. Wells and Mr. G., H. Shaw, and her views are entitled to consideration, for her original thinking has produced monographs on special aspects of the big question of Fabian Socialism sufficiently fresh and new to receive the honour of quotation in Mr. Wells's First and Last Things: Her ■ article in the Contemporary, which is a plea for- Socialism through education, presents the doctrine of the best Fabians in a clear and intelligible form—it may be taken as an authoritative statement of the Fabian position. It is her misfortune that her cleverness and candour and earnestness ; reveal tho. complete unsoundness' of her ; doctrine, as we hope to indicate within the brief space at our disposal. The Fabians have no patience with the: people who believe: that "a new spirit of l'ovc will suddenly flame out in the hearts of mankind" when everything is "socialised." . "The problem," > says. Mrs, \\ "is not so simple as the majority of Socialists; seem ': to think." She. therefore addresses herself to the, "non-Social-ist" insistence on the really vital question that must' bo settled before discussion can proceed, namely, "What, sort of human material will, bo necessary for the' carrying on of a Socialist State'("Many people calling themselves Socialists are "State .Socialists," and want nothing more than the progressive adoption by the State of .all tho functions now, exercised. I by individual enterprise. They say, as you will find some lladical or other in our House of Bepresehtatives saying every ( day, that we have only to keep,on extending, the functions of an:'increasingly paternal State. -But most modern [Socialists, Mrs. White points out,.mean much more than that when: they speak of Socialism.'..'■ They mean "the creation of a national mind,, the slow perfecting and carrying out of a deliberate design which shall comprehend and provide for all the activities of national life;" :.' : : ■■."' The final conclusion of Mrs. White appears to be that: there must bo, no haste or impatience.. Like Mr.'-Wells,., she places her trust in the influence of propaganda through tho'arts. It is in her discussion of the difficulties' that stand in the way of creating tho "national mind" that she unconsciously reveals the'weakness of the Fabian: argument. ■ The bulk of her article is directed 'towards providing' an affirmative for : the question. "whe-' tiler or no the ordinary man can , be trusted to work as usual.;when the stimuli of greed and; anxiety are removed." Those who dare a negative are contemptuously rejected. ■■'■.But; , -the' question is not,one that can be.settled in.vacuorgoing to the sharpest dialectician. This;is what the Fabians all forget; they' forgot.that the people who declare that the._senso' of property, : that . selfishness (which, of course, can be noble as well as ignoble), is the motive force, of progress, have oyer . two .thousand years of history to which to.appeal for evidence. To demolish the individualists Mrs. [ White triumphantly ; exclaims that "at. i the present moment, the majority of'the, lower and- middle: classes, are. j under conditions of ffeb conipetitioh.' This is rather a sad descent to'the claprtrap -of the street-corner Socialist! ■ Competition, excepting where the State tervenes, is certainly, free. The "tyrants" are simply the individuals who",.like the strongest seeds, in; the garden,; rise. high-. est and. grow , most 'vigorously. 1 .To assist her argument, this 'able young lady' has to quote trades unionism as a proof of the possibilities of the race. ! trades- unionism,:she affirms; .-.indicates-i tho reasonableness, of thehope that .that ."national mind" can\bo created, that, men can bo ."trained:'in citizenship,'-".' that thoy : can "be .'taught -to realise that their daily labour ton tributes to a complicated national system." Her argument requires, her'to assert that.: the tradeunionist "has. clearer .viewsj' a wider urn derstanding, a juster standard of values" than the non-unionist, and ; that "it is not true: that men belong: toi trade union's only because they think "it/will, benefit them to do so." ,: ; Everyone knows that men join unions because;' they; think ' it will pay them; and'what is the lesson of the.strike in.:the State coal-mines?:■. '-: , ■ /As to ,_ the grave importance; of teach-, ing tho mass to become "imbued with an ideal of public service," there is universaL agreement. The :anti-Socialists', would ba delighted if tho Socialists could "teach the crowds-.who 'watch League football -matches that politics affect them more < nearly than": football." We,- wish ourselves that tho New Zealand • public woiild grow furiously\political, because it is the public apathy,.: born'•.' of great material prosperity,' that has allowed State Socialism to erect a pseudo-Liberal-autocracy, that wastes' hundreds of thou-/ sands of tho national capital every, year. Mas. -White, by the way;, has evidently, ■not-kept her eye on New Zealand since her father left us, for she says that "in the more democratic of our, colonies thesons and;daughters;.'of.':English: workingmen have already reached a level of political intelligence _' and activity that; is warmly encouraging" ! Our readers will agree with our exclamation mark; M they; turn their attention .to the proceedings of Parliameiit just now. This "political intelligence and activity" does- not prevent its Parliament, from- perpetrating an indecent burlesque; of legislative. ;delibcration. The ; great difficulty of all the Socialists,-Fabian or othorwiso,-' arises' when they are asked,' Who- will do the unpleasant -.work 1 (the deep-sea fishing and;the deep-level mining, for instance), and, Who will: load the of art and industry? Mrs. White simply does not allude to the first of these questions. ■' To "the sepond she ; can give no satisfactory answer.."' If .she had. rea'd' Hippolyte's dream in Anatole France's The WKiic Stone she might have managed some sort of. a- reply. It was explained to Hippolyte, when he stumbled into the Socialistic France of the far future, , that the men who controlled the machine, the scientists, poets, artists, ..and inventors, would -receive coupons admitting their years of study as years of 'labour. This is quite- fantastically feasible. Mrs. White, however,.pleads that already men invent, and lead and control, and amass wealth, for other objects than mere gain —for the purpose of "serving the State," for "no more sordid motives than fame or the advancement of knowledge." This is true; and it will always be true—of a minority infinitesimal an numbers.' And of course numbers and statistics would be everything under Socialism; The most that- this clever advocate can eay is that "under Socialism good work would in some way be rewarded." It may be admitted, that , if the -"national . mind" sketched for us by Mrs. White could be created, Socialism would' be delightful and a roaring business' success. But in: the meantime the only result of State Socialism .is waste—waste wherever, it .hasbeen tried, and waste without any offset in the shape of a beginning of that, tional : mind." The final answer to; the Socialists is still Bastiat's, .which Jβ ,con-: tained in his Sophismes Economiqiies, recently, roprintod by; the Cobdea Club

as "The Fallacies of Protection." Bastiat's question has never -.bccnu answered, and bis conclusion has never been controverted:; '. ■' .-...■'■ •:.-'. .'•:■/ . "•:" ■'■'

"Is -there a State apart from the peopleP Is there human foresight apart from nuinan L ity? . . . Toi found so many .hopes Vupon the State is simply to take for granted tho existence of collective science and foresight after having set out with the assumption of individual imbecility and improvidence."