Socialism and Democracy in Europe Part 40

(_b_) Income tax.

(_c_) Special tax on sites not built over and houses not let.

7. _Public services._

(_a_) The commune, or a federation of communes composing one agglomeration, is to work the means of transport--tramways, omnibuses, cabs, district railways, etc.

(_b_) The commune, or federation of communes, is to work directly the services of general interest at present conceded to companies--lighting, water-supply, markets, highways, heating, security, health.

(_c_) Compulsory insurance of the inhabitants against fire; except where the State intervenes to do so.

(_d_) Construction of cheap dwellings by the commune, the hospices, and the charity offices.

V. ENGLAND

GROWTH OF SOCIALISTIC SENTIMENT IN ENGLAND

In 1885 the Earl of Wemyss made a speech in the House of Lords deploring the advancement of state interference in business and giving a resume of the Acts of Parliament that showed how "Socialism" invaded St. Stephens from 1870 to 1885.

His speech is interesting, not because it voices the ultra-Conservative's apprehensions but because the Earl had really discovered the legal basis of the new Social Democratic advance, which had come unheralded. The Earl reviewed the bills that Parliament had sanctioned, which dealt with state "interference." Twelve bills referred to lands and houses. "All of these measures a.s.sume the right of the state to regulate the management of, or to confiscate real property"--steps in the direction of subst.i.tuting "land nationalization" for individual owners.h.i.+p. Five laws dealt with corporations, "confiscating property of water companies," etc.; nine dealt with s.h.i.+ps: "all of them a.s.sertions by the Board of Trade of its right to regulate private enterprise and individual management in the mercantile marine;" six with mines, "prompting a fallacious confidence in government inspection;" six with railways, "all encroachments upon self-government of private enterprise in railways--successive steps in the direction of state railways." Nine had to do with manufactures and trades, "invasions by the state of the self-government of the various interests of the country, and curtailment of the freedom of contract between employers and employed." "The p.a.w.nbrokers' Act of 1872 was the thin edge of the wedge for reducing the business of the 'poor man's banks' to a state monopoly." Twenty laws dealt with liquor, "all attempts on the part of the state to regulate the dealings and habits of buyers and sellers of alcoholic drinks." Sixteen dealt with dwellings of the working cla.s.s, "all embodying the principle that it is the duty of the state to provide dwellings, private gardens, and other conveniences for the working cla.s.ses, and a.s.sume its right to appropriate land for these purposes." There were nine education acts, "all based on the a.s.sumption that it is the duty of the state to act _in loco parentis_." Four laws dealt with recreation, "whereby the state, having educated the people in common school rooms, proceeds to provide them with common reading-rooms, and afterwards turns them out at stated times into the streets for common holidays."

Of local government and improvement acts, there were pa.s.sed "a vast ma.s.s of local legislation ... containing interferences in every conceivable particular with liberty and property."

The Earl quotes Lord Palmerston as saying in 1865, "Tenant right is landlord wrong," and Lord Sherbrooke, in 1866, "Happily there is an oasis upon which all men, without distinction of party, can take common stand, and that is the good ground of political economy." And the n.o.ble lord concludes by predicting, "The general social results of such Socialistic legislation may be summed up in 'dynamite,'

'detectives,' and 'general demoralization.'"[1]

In 1887 the Earl again turned his guns upon the radical advance, but only seven peers were on the benches to listen. In 1890 he made a third resume under a more liberal patronage of listeners; this time the factory laws and inspection measures came in for his especial criticism. He said: "Now, my lords, what is the character of all this legislation? It is to subst.i.tute state help for self help, to regulate and control men in their dealings with one another with regard to land or anything else. The state now forbids contracts, breaks contracts, makes contracts. The whole tendency is to subst.i.tute the state or the munic.i.p.ality for the free action of the individual."[2]

AN EARLY POLITICAL BROADSIDE BY THE MARXIANS.

The earlier att.i.tude of the Marxian Socialists of London toward partic.i.p.ating in elections is shown in the following broadside, dated July, 1895:

"We, revolutionary Social Democrats, disdain to conceal our principles. We proclaim the cla.s.s war. We hold that the lot of the worker cannot to any appreciable extent be improved except by a complete overthrow of this present capitalist system of society. The time for social tinkering has gone past. Government statistics show that the number of unemployed is slowly but surely increasing, and that the decreases in wages greatly preponderate over the increases, and everything points to the fact that the condition of your cla.s.s is getting worse and worse.

"Refuse once for all to allow your backs to be made the stepping stones to obtain that power which they (the politicians) know only too well how to use against you.

"Scoff at their patronizing airs and claim your rights like men.

Refuse to give them that which they want, i.e., your vote. Give them no opportunity of saying that they are _your_ representatives. Refuse to be a party to the fraud of present-day politics, and

"ABSTAIN FROM VOTING."

THRIFT INSt.i.tUTIONS IN ENGLAND FOR SAVINGS, INSURANCE, ETC., 1907

(FROM CHIOZZA MONEY--"RICHES AND POVERTY," p. 56)

----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- _Name of Inst.i.tution_ _Number of _Funds_-- Members_ ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- Building Societies 623,047 73,289,229 ========================================+==============+============== Ordinary Friendly Societies 3,418,869 19,346,567 Friendly Societies having branches 2,710,437 25,610,365 Collecting Friendly Societies 9,010,574 9,946,447 Benevolent Societies 29,716 337,393 Workingmen's Clubs 272,847 381,463 Specially Authorized Societies 70,980 532,717 Specially Authorized Loan Societies 141,850 897,784 Medical Societies 313,755 65,513 Cattle Insurance Settlers 4,029 8,570 Shop Clubs 12,207 1,349 ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- Total 15,983,264 57,128,168 ========================================+==============+============== Co-operative Societies, industry and trade 2,461,028 53,788,917 Business Co-operative Societies 108,550 984,680 Land Co-operative Societies 18,631 1,619,716 ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- Total 2,588,209 56,393,313 ========================================+==============+============== Trade Unions 1,973,560 6,424,176 Workmen's Compensation Schemes 99,371 164,560 Friends of Labor Loan Societies 33,576 260,905 ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- Grand Total of Registered Provident Societies 21,301,027 193,660,351 ========================================+==============+============== Railway Savings Banks 64,126* 5,865,[email protected] Trustee Savings Banks 1,780,214* 61,729,[email protected] Post Office Savings Banks 10,692,555* 178,033, ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- Bank Total 12,536,895 245,628,634 ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- Grand Total 33,837,922 439,388,985 ----------------------------------------+--------------+-------------- * Depositions @ Deposits ----------------------------------------+--------------+--------------

In this table allowance must be made for those belonging to more than one society, and, of course, not all the depositors or members are workingmen, especially in the savings banks and building-societies.

CONSt.i.tUTION AND STANDING ORDERS OF THE INDEPENDENT LABOR PARTY OF ENGLAND

STANDING ORDERS (1911)

_Contributions_

Affiliation Fees and Parliamentary Fund Contributions must be paid by December 31st each year.

_Annual Conference_

1. The Annual Conference shall meet during the month of January.

2. Affiliated Societies may send one delegate for every thousand or part of a thousand members paid for.

3. Affiliated Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties may send one delegate if their affiliation fee has been 15s., and two delegates if the fee has been 30s.

4. Persons eligible as delegates must be paying bona fide members or paid permanent officials of the organizations sending them.

5. A fee of 5s. per delegate will be charged.

6. The National Executive will ballot for the places to be allotted to the delegates.

7. Voting at the Conference shall be by show of hands, but on a division being challenged, delegates shall vote by cards, which shall be issued on the basis of one card for each thousand members, or fraction of a thousand, paid for by the Society represented.

_Conference Agenda_

1. Resolutions for the Agenda and Amendments to the Const.i.tution must be sent in by November 1st each year.

2. Amendments to Resolutions must be sent in by December 15th each year.

_Nominations for National Executive and Secretarys.h.i.+p_

1. Nominations for the National Executive and the Secretarys.h.i.+p must be sent in by December 15th.

2. No member of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress or of the Management Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions is eligible for nomination to the National Executive.

CONSt.i.tUTION