The Irish standard., 1914-05-16
bination of the district visitor ant
the boy clerk"


The point need not be labored /:
Socialists are beginning to give up
their socialism because they are los
ing their faith in the State. OF
course they realize that with a per-
fectly enlightened and public-spirit-
ed electorate. a trustworthy State
might be possible: but it is just this
ideal electorate that is 50 hard to
get. The experiences Of the work
ing Of representative government
during the last half century in Eng
land. America and France have not
been encouraging. Hence Socialists
are giving up the State. and in so do
ing they are ceasing to be Socialists.
1t would be blunder to assume
that the contemporary decline of So
cialism is an indication If an in
creasing inclination to be resigned
to to capitalism. On the contrary
discomfort is growing wider and
deeper. do not think that there
has been any time since 1848 when
revolutionary thought and revolu-
tionary feeling were so strong as
they are today. The revolutionary
movement throughout Europe which
eliminated in 184S, was directed
against political systems; the pres
ent movement is directed against the
economic system of capitalism. What
will be the outcome of the movement
do not pretend to prophesy; but it
cannot fail to be important for good
or evil.
In abandoning Socialism,, men are
taking up fresh schemes not less an
tagonistic to the established order|
To indicate the nature Of the chief of
these schemes is the purpose of this
article. Syndicalism is the first and
most notorious. though not perhaps
on that account any better known or
understood; there is also Guild So
cialism and Economic Federalism,
of which hardly more than the
names have yet reached the newspa-
pers. All these schemes are success
sors to Socialism, in the sense that
they have received their main in
spiration from Socialism; their ad-
herents are recruited from the ranks
of Socialists; like Socialism they are
at war with capitalism, and most i'm
portant of all they agree with So
cialism in their opposition to private
ownership of land and capital. They
may be called neo-Socialisms. There
is another doctrine of a new sccia!
order gaining disciples, but its ex-
planation does not come within the
scope of the present article, for
though this doctrine is as hostile az
any to capitalism. it is vet utterly
alien to Socialism, and stands not
for the abolition of private capital,
but for it's wider diffusion and Sc
curer maintenance; it's advocates
name their ideal the Distributive or
Associative State. and they have re-
ceived their main inspiration from
the teaching of Mr.. Hillaire Belloc.
Socialism as theory of economic
organization. implies essentially the
concentration of economic power in
the hands Of the State; the placing
OF economic and political functions
in the same hands. Syndicalism is
an extreme reaction against Social
ism. Instead of trusting the state
so far as to endow it with economic
sovereignty as it already possesses
political sovereignty. the Syndicalist
will trust nothing to the state; he
would abolish the state altogether.
Says leading exponent of Syndical-
ism in France: 1T is necessary to
prevent the workers from passing
from a society in which they are un-
der the economic oppression of their
masters. to one in which they would
be under the oppression of an eco
nomic State"
The Capitalization and ccncentra-
tion CT power which State control i'm
plies. makes it's despotism more dan
gerous in the eyes of the Syndical-
lists. Control Of industry must
therefore be in the hands not of the
State, but Of the workers themselves,
and it must be exercised through the
workers industrial unions; the min
ers managing the mines. the railway
men the railways and so on. The
unions must be quite independent OF
the State; they must possess com
plete autonomy. 1--WE must" says
a Syndicalist leader. sweep from
the workshop. the factory and the
administration every authority ex-
ternal to the world of labor" And
M. Pouget. in the book already quot
ed, urges that all the necessary legis-
lative and administrative functions
can be performed by the labor un-
ions. Political institutions are un-
necessary. The State is "a social
superfluity, a parasitic and external
excrescence."
The Syndicalists have borrowed
for their own use some Of the stock