The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1920-05-14


bourgeois trick. We are told, the other hand by
the capitalists that i. is antidemocratic to attemp5
by means of direct action to prevent reactionary
Parliament from fiouting the will of the majority.
Let us try to understand what democracy in capital
ist community consists Of We have to begin with the
Judiciary and the Civil Service, both allies of the
Plutocracy. We have the fact that Members of Par
lament and still more, Ministers through their So
cia status and income are brought into natural con-
necton with the possessing classes We have the fact
that captalistic influences more concentrated
swift and secret than labor influences and the fact
that the psychology of power tends to make its pos
SCISSORS more sympathetic with the directors the
capitalist industrial machine than with those who
for the time being obstruct its smooth working The
constitutional power of the democracy is limited to
the expression of choice about once in five years.
choice often between candidates none of whom are
really expressive of the political opinions of the
stituency for owing to the expense of elections only
great and rich organizations, very wealthy indiv
duals fight with any hope of success In the whole
process of forming opinion before the exercise of the
vote, capitalism has enormous preponderance Begin
nng in the schools, where the education is designed
to produce acQuiescence in the stains quo, and
tinuing in the press which, with very exceptions
isln the mind of the child is warped, and the mind
of the adult is lllled with falsehoods, that only
persons of exceptional energy and independence of
thought can hope to arrive at anything approaching
true view of the issues to be decided at an election
The early Benthamite advocates of democracy mag
ined that it was easy for to ascertain his iu.
crest and that he would certainly vote in accordance
with it. Thus the result Of democracy would be just
oil in 10 thair
numerical strength Admirable theory But if they
had studied for example. the Jezus and their in.
fJuence they might have seen its falsehood The
average mars opinions are made for him like the
house he lives in He choose among few varieties
but the varieties rgdly limited by fOrca quite out
side his control They are limitations it true to what
can be done in the way of manufacturing opinion. If
the opinions inculcated lead to the death in un-
successful of q large proportion of the men,
end to the starvation Of the women and children, it
may happen, after a certain number of years tha5
The usual methods of generating opinion will fail. In
that case, revolution results But the hardshps re-
Quired before this climax is reached are appalling
What is called the rule of the majority in bourgeois
democracy is therefore in reality the rule of those
who control the methods of manufacturing opinion,
especially in the schools and the press 1t is absurd
TO give sort of fetish worship to such system,
CT to condemn all of the weapon of direct action
because of the supposed sacrosanct authority of
Government elected years ago on quite other issues.
The Bolsheviks right in maintaining that bourg-
co.'s democracy Is trick by which the victims are
induced to pronounce their own condemnation in or.
der to minimize the force required for carrying it out
At the outbreak of the late war; capitalism pre-
tended that feudalsm as represented by the Kaiser
hal @bo J,1;e
eone but capitalism has shown itself incapable of
making any real peace Quite apart from the hostility
10 communist Russia the trade rivalres inherent in
capitalism have necessitated harsh treatment Of
Germany and Austria, which makes any stable peace
impossible Every thoughtful person must realise that
the continuance of the capitalist system is incsm-
patbe with the continuance Of civilization 1t is as
clear as monday that if Chis system survives, the
late war must be succeeded by other wars, which will
be even more destructive in proportion as they are
more scientific. few of such conflicts must
put an end to everything that has made the European
Iaees Of Importance to the world.
Finally capitalism has begun to fail a technic
ri method of production. The wellfounded and un
iversal belief in the Importance of production no
longer, as the past, strengthens the hold of the
capitalist system The old incentives to work have
broken down. for the bees have begun to think that
it is not worth while to make honey for their owners
At the present moment, as a result of the war the
world needs speedy production in quite unprccedent
ed degree but if speedy production is to be possible
incentives must be found, and can only be found
through selfgovernment in industry. II is this that
has given IN Great Britain, such extraordinary and
sudden strength to the guild idea. We have all been
watching the experiment of the building trade in
Manchester where, after the whole capitalist machin.
cry had failed hOpelessly to deal with the housing
problem, it is being found that guild methods afford
complete solnton equally perfect from the point of
view of the producer and of the consumer. Largely
because Of this technical breakdown of capitalism.
the advent Of sociastc methods Of production
lmmeasuraby easier than at any previous time What,