of all the articles in their programmes is to increase the powers of the State and to entrust it with the care of the national economic life. "When the unified organisation of labour shall have become a reality," says Schoeffle, "the organs of the Socialist State will be geared up in the high degree which was characteristic of the Middle Ages." Every centralisation of powers is a supporter of Socialism, and a Socialist Society can only be confined within rigid limits.

A collectivist society could only work on the model of Peru under the domination of the Incas, or of Paraguay under that of the Jesuits. The struggle of humanity would be suppressed, except as between the leaders, and these would develop factions in their contentions for power. In this stage of civilisation the existence of parties side by side would be impossible and the struggle could only terminate in the annihilation of the vanquished.

1 Supra, Book I., pp. 30 and 40.

CHAPTER III

THE DEFLECTIONS OF ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANS

Every public organisation becomes an end in itselfPrivate organisations subject to competitionOfficialdom of the German Socialist party-TradeUnion officials.

even

EVERY organisation established for the promotion of a particular purpose rapidly forgets the object for which it is designed and becomes an object in itself, unless restrained by the permanent menace of a heavy responsibility. This state of mind attains its maximum intensity in public administrative departments, in which officials and employees do not know whether they are made for the service or the service for them. It manifests itself in an army or a navy in which, the eventuality of war appearing far-off or improbable, too many officers forget that it is their business to prepare for it, and since they are not kept pre-occupied by the fear of the sanction of the battlefield, their attention is principally directed to the minor advantages of their profession in time of peace. For some, these consist of an existence undisturbed by anxiety, combined with a good and undisturbed administration of their commands; for others, the opportunity of employing only a moderate degree of application to the discharge of their professional duties; for a certain number the zeal and ability which will procure them promotion, while a very small number are pre-occupied exclusively with military activities.

In industrial organisations the same spirit would rapidly gain the upper hand, were it not every day disturbed by competition.

Among political organisations, the German Social Democratic party has furnished a topical example. Charged with the administration of a Budget derived from the subscriptions of 400,000

paying members, its managers have forgotten that the party is merely a means to an end; they have made the party an object in itself, since it secured them positions and remuneration, and have administered it in order to preserve it and not as an engine of war which runs the risk of self-destruction in the performance of its work. Its leaders speak, but do not act, and their only fear is that some movement may put their beautiful arrangement out of order. This attitude of mind was well displayed at the Stuttgart Congress. The electoral defeat of 1906, says Bebel, has done us no harm. The party has increased its membership from 384,000 to 530,000, and our subscriptions in June amounted to 170,000 marks; and among the arguments put forward by them in opposition to Hervé's theories, they pointed to their personal security without any false shame. If this is their conception of their work when constituted as a revolutionary party, imagine how they would have conceived it had they been at the head of a Government. They would have approved themselves as model Conservatives, without either activity or energy, except in opposition to those who might have threatened their positions.

Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb have told us of the increasing number of Trade Union officials, and have shown us that the policy they carry out is influenced by their personal position rather than by the interests of the members of the Unions.1

What collectivist is there who can imagine that, if the collectivist state became a reality, its leaders and officials would never act otherwise than with the object of attaining its true ideal?

1 History of Trade Unionism.

CHAPTER IV

THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF COLLECTIVISM Schoeffle-Negation preceded by apology.

IN his Gospel of Collectivism, as propagated by the collectivists, Schoeffle concluded by saying: "Socialism must be able and willing to modify, from foundation to coping-stone, its fundamental thesis that value results exclusively from the total amount of labour necessary to production. We think that this is not impossible, but this notion, as it has been hitherto formulated, reduces the current economics of Socialism to a mere Utopia" (p. 78).

a

Ten years later, he published a pamphlet entitled "Die aufsichstlosigkeit der Socialdemokratie" (Perfection of Social Democracy) in which he demonstrated the impossibility of the collectivist organisation which he had himself expounded.1 (1). Collectivist production is impossible upon a democratic basis. It could only be directed by a hierarchical administration devoid of democratic character, without liberty, equality or any guarantee against abuses of power. (2) It suppresses nature and property: all matters of the same class are concentrated in a great social workshop working upon the principle of equal remuneration for the same time spent in labour, but with a democratic organisation individuals impregnated with perpetual flattery would not submit to the sacrifices requisite to effect the economics. necessary for this development of the means of production. Those who possessed them would not be disposed to share their surplus with others.

1 See an analysis in "Les Progrès de la Science économiques," by Maurice Block.

(3) Supposing that it were possible to concentrate in one body all the branches of production on the basis of uniform labour and a uniform estimate of the time of labour and to set up complete local factories, that would be to act contrary to all experience in industrial matters.

(4) An increase of production could only take place subject to the following conditions: (a) strict administration, and (b) an increase in the activity of the workers. Now democracy cannot admit of compulsion and would have nothing with which to replace profits, risks and graduated wages, so that there would be no initiative, no responsibility, no interest and no motive for action. (5) Social democracy has not discovered a method of apportioning to each individual the exact value of his social labour.

(6) If each individual be remunerated in proportion to the social value of his labour, inequality must reappear.

(7) But collectivists at the same time promise a distribution of products according to requirements. This is contradictory, but only one thing could be more impracticable, that is to declare all requirements to be equal. (8) Democratic collectivism claims to abolish "the exploitation of man by man," but the collectivist dispensation would involve the organisation of the exploitation of labour as distributed by the agents of the party in power, without recourse to any remedy for its abuse than to overthrow it. In proceeding to the control of the hours of labour, in fixing the normal quantities of products, in reducing complex to simple labour by a method of calculation, the triumphant parasites of Socialism would set about their work in a spirit so far removed from one of