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this way—The opposition between Parliamentary procedure and the question of how to deal with the unemployed is purely a fictitious one. The unemployed can never be treated by any Parliament except by one which has rules of procedure, and these rules must prescribe majority responsibility. Every facility given to a minority to impose its will upon the majority is a facility which any minority can use, and not merely a Labour or a Socialist minority. To protect the conditions and the existence of democratic government is just as essential to the building up of the Socialist State as is the solution of the problem of unemployment. The latter is our aim, the former is the only condition under which our aim can be secured. The Party which proposes to strike at the heart of democratic government in order to make a show of earnestness about unemployment will not only not be tolerated by the country, but does not deserve to be.

Socialists must not assume, moreover, that the agitation for scenes and suspensions is merely superficial and should be treated with good-natured tolerance. It is, in its very nature, anti-Parliamentarian. It must evolve into a policy to which, I feel sure, Socialists will not consciously commit themselves, but to which they will be committed, if they are not careful, before they know what has happened. The master of Parliament is the Nation, and if Parliament does not do its work it is no use smashing it; it is little use blaming it, because it is a mere thing in the hands of the electors of the country. If these electors want Parliament to do a certain thing, Parliament, more particularly so long as a body of Independent Labour and Socialist members sit in it, cannot evade its responsibilities. If the majority of electors do not want Parliament to do a certain thing, a minority in Parliament trying to force it to do that thing is not only committing political suicide, but is also adopting precisely the method which its opponents would like it to adopt, and is damaging the cause which it professes to serve. The task of the Socialist is to convert the country, not to agitate Parliament. Parliament is an expression of public opinion up to any given moment. It can simply do what public opinion will allow it to do, and the duty of a Socialist Party inside is to see that it does not lag behind public opinion; whilst the duty of the Party outside is to see that public opinion is properly educated.

The policy we are to adopt depends fundamentally upon how we think Socialism is to come. Is it to be by a sudden change—a
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