SOCIALISM BREAKDOWN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 164, 12 June 1926, Page 4

SOCIALISM BREAKDOWN

SOME JRENCHANT CRITICISM IN ENGLAND. by N.Z. Welfare League) The Socialist advocates make a study of psychology. They seek constantly to impress the public mind with the idea that theirs is the party, of success. By this means they hope to win support from, the considerable section, of people who have ho settled convictions but are anxious generally to “back the winning horse.'’ Recently some eminent British publicists have been showing that the Reds are far from being on lines; which spell success for their economic theory. Dr. Arthur Shadwell, in a series of articles in the Times under the title, the “Breakdown of Socialism,” points out the extraordinary fact that while Socialism has made enormous progress throughout Europe as a political movement, it has declined as an economic theory. Even Socialists themselves, particularly the Social Democrats of Germany, recognise this, but cannot stultify themselves by admitting and acting upon it. The same phenomenon is appearing in this country. The abler typo of Socialists, like Mr Macdonald, as is clear front his criticism of the I.L.P. programme, see the danger ahead when the timo comes for them to put their theories to the test of practice. They know that the experience of Germany and Austria will be repeated here, and that any experiment in nationalising any of our great industries will bo a tragic failure. It is this knowledge that accounts for the lack of decision and purpose in their policy and lays them open totho attack of the Communists who know what they want oven if it is unattainable. WHY NATIONALISATION HAS FAILED. Dr. Shadwell gives a number of reasons for the economic failure of State Socialism on the Continent. It is chiefly due to the breakdown of production under State ownership and ’ control. Lenin found this to bo tho ! fatal defect of the regime ho established in Russia in 1917, which ho was compelled to modify in 1921. As in Russia so it is found in Germany, Austria and Scandinavia, tho production of goods shrunk and dwindled under the withering influence of State management and without tho stimulus of personal interest and responsibility. Socialises in their anxiety for a wider distribution of wealth have failed to estimate the vital importance of production and that without greater production there would bo less wcajtl} to distribute. Other factors that have contributed to a loss of faith in Marxian doctrines, in addition to the decline of prcduc--1 tion under nationalisation, are tho proofs that under capitalism the conditions of the workers are being steadily improved. There is also the growth of a new middle class, composed of brain workers whose existence would bo destroyed by Socialism. But the main consideration was the realisation that State-run industries could not compare with privately owned industries in enterprise, initiative, proand in the benefits which they bring to the individual and to tho nation. OUT-OF-DATE SOCIALISTS. On the second reading of the Electricity Bill, Colonel Ashley, the I Minister of Transport, twitted the Socialists with 1 holding mid-Victorian ideas arid with sitting at the feet of a German who lived 50 or 00 years ago. This criticism is perfectly just, for British Socialists-still preserve a pathetic faith in the principles of Karl Marx, oven when they have been . proved impossible in practice and I have in fact been abandoned in many I cases where they have been tried and failed. Mr Amerv, Secretary for tho Dominions, in his speech at Birmingham on April 17th, described how since the war there had been parties in power in Germany, Sweden, Czecho-Slovakia, and other countries, which had an opportunity of carrying out the Socialistic theories of nationalisation, and when they had done so and been ,up ngainst facts, they had found that, so . far from any wonderful benefit coming to the people from _ State ownership and enterprise, nothing had followed but loss, difficulty and friction. In one case after another they had handed back industries from State * ownership either to private ownership, or, at any rate, to direct administration by business corporations, leaving them to be run entirely 'on business lines, independent of tho State, and allowing the Stato to get only’ its share of the profits, 'as if it were an ordinary shareholder. In Russia, as we know, the experiment has been tried on a gigantic scale, with the result that after appalling bloodshed the condition of tho country is worse to-day than it was under the old regime, and no class in the country is as well off in any respect as it was in the worst days of the Tzarist autocracy. Yet, as Mr Amery pointed out, our Labour Party still continues to cling desperately to these exploded and obsolete doctrines, and are ready to expose the existence of the nation to what at best is a hazardous experiment which has failed wherever it has been attempted. THE ILLUSIONS FADE. The Easter Conforenco of the I.L.P. declared for a universal minimum wage. Mr Ramsay McDonald in his weekly article in Forward (17.4.26) comments on the proposition .thus, “God alone knew how much it would bo or how it was to bo fixed.On the cry of “Socialism in our Time” he exclaims “Whoso timo?” and also says he is grieved to the quick that the poor old I.L.P. seems to be making itself ridiculous.” Yet, Mr McDonald regards himself as “one of the fathers of the 1.L.P.” These ovents show how the Socialists differ, and that in respect to economic practice they know not where they are, where they are going, nor how they are going to get there.