Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - Socialism To-day (1909).djvu/12

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

forms themselves were. The explanation appears to be that tendencies to change accumulate and show themselves suddenly when circumstances draw them out.

Practical Problems of Socialism.

In Society to-day we are aware of this pent-up accumulation of forces. Capitalism violates our moral sense as well as our reason. It brings, decade after decade, its prolific crop of industrial failures and these industrial failures present not merely material but also spiritual ugliness. Therein lies the hope and the promise of change which we desire, but we must work scientifically, we must organise, we must release, we must encourage, we must aid those creative forces, and no academic dogma, either regarding the way in which we are to define our Socialism, or the way in which we should carry it out, should be allowed to stand in our path in following Truth as it is revealed to us. We are called upon to take our part as a conscious factor in social evolution. Our problem is to be found at every street corner, in every factory, in every crowd, in every slum, in every workhouse. The axioms we have to use in solving the problem are to be found in the experience that organisation is mightier than disorganisation, law and order mightier than anarchy and chaos, science than rule-of-thumb, the foresight and purpose of intelligence than a happy-go-lucky faith in the virtue of "muddling through." In addition to that, these more recent years have given us something else. They have placed at our disposal the weapon of a political party sharing the responsibilities of legislative work, gathering experience and capacity at the point at which social change is made effective. If it be true, as undoubtedly it is, that during the last three years you may say that some of us have not given you peace, but a sword, the reason is not far to seek. It lies in the fact that our success up to that time only consisted in preparing for further battles. There is no lying down at the end of our day’s labour. There is no finality in our formulæ and modes of expression. Our cause, like the cause of knowledge itself, constantly leads us to new discoveries which require a re-statement of our creeds and a revision of our methods. Socialism shall prevail just as it is served by men who follow it, not as flatterers, but as counsellors, and who employ in its service not their lips only, but their heads and their hearts.


9