The Rise and Fall of England XII. C. Carson

CLARENCE B. CARSON f1£uglnub 12. THE FABIAN PROGRAM THE MOVEMENT toward socialism in England was guided, directed, and pressed by the Fabians. Of course, others had a hand in it: Marxists, cooperative common wealthers, Christian socialists, land nationalizers, syndicalists, utopians, Liberals, and labor unions, to name a partial list. But the Fabians ,vere central to the undertaking. From the mid-1880's, they pressed vigorously and along many lines for the socialization of England. Most of the big names in English socialism eventually either became Fabians or were closely as sociated with them. The Fabians moved most unerringly toward political power, provided addiDr. Carson, Professor of History at Grove City College, Pennsylvania, will be remembered for his earlier FREEMAN series, The Fateful Turn, The American TradItion, and The Flight from Reality. tional impetus to every rising cur rent, gave the movement its aura of intellectual respectability, and trained so many of the leaders who would move into the political sphere. An examination of the Fa bian program, too, will show that the means employed in the move ment toward socialism in England were generally those advocated by the Fabians. What follows is· an outline of the Fabian program as it was set forth from the 1880's into the early twentieth century, mainly in the Fabian Tracts.

The goal of the Fabians was socialism. They never made any secret of this, and, indeed, on many occasions affirmed it. For example, Tract #7 proclaims that "The Fabian Society consists of Socialists." It goes on to explain what that means: 81 82 THE FREEMAN February It therefore aims at the reorgan ization of Society by the emancipa tion of Land and Industrial Capital from individual and class ownership, and the vesting of them in the com munity for the general benefit.- ... The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property in Land and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of Rent, of the price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as for the ad vantages of superior soils and sites. The Society, further, works for the transfer to the community of the ad ministration of such industrial Capi tal as can conveniently be managed socially ....

State Socialism Exclusively The Fabians proposed to achieve these ends by the use of govern mental power. The matter is bluntly stated in Tract #70: "The Socialism advocated by the Fabian Society is State Socialism exclu sively." More comprehensively, "Socialism, as understood by the Fabian Society, means the organi zation and conduct of the neces sary industries of the country and the appropriation of all forms of economic rent of land and capital by the nation as a whole, through the most suitable public authori ties, parochial, municipal, provin cial, or central." However, Fabians claimed to fa vor constitutional means of tak ing over the government in England and to be advocates of democ racy. Sidney Webb claimed in Tract #70 that the "Fabian So ciety is perfectly constitutional in its attitude; and its methods are those usual in political life in England." Moreover: The Fabian Society accepts the conditions imposed on it by human nature and by the national character and political circumstances of the English people ....

Elsewhere, he affirmed that "all students of society who are abreast of their time, Socialists as well as Individualists, realize that impor tant organic changes can only be ... democratic, and thus accept able to a majority of the people, and prepared for in the minds of all.... "1 It should be clear, how ever, that considerable constitu tional changes in the structure of English governmental power would have to be made before so cialist programs could be made in to law and that democracy in their hands would take on new connota tions. Emphasis on Equality If George Bernard Shaw can be accepted as a spokesman for the Fabians, they believed in equality. 1 J. Salwyn Schapiro, ed., Movements of Social Dissent in Modern Europe (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand, 1962), p. 161.

1969 THE FABIAN PROGRAM 83 In a speech before the National Liberal Club in 1913, he had this to say: When I speak of The Case of Equal ity I mean human equality; and that, of .course, can only mean one thing: it means equality of income. It means that if one person is to have half a crown, the other is to have two and sixpence. It means that precisely .... The fact is that you cannot equalize anything about human beings except their incomes .... 2 The chances are good, however, that Shaw was going beyond what the Fabian Society would have wanted to declare. Perhaps, some such equality was an ultimate goal, but, in practice, the Fabians only pressed toward it, as was their way, in gradual increments. The favorite tactic of the Fa bians for pressing England to ward socialism was one they called "permeation." "In its most gen eral sense, it meant that Fabians should join all organizations where useful Socialist work could be done, and influence them .... Tak ing a broad interpretation of the meaning of Socialism and having an optimistic belief in their pow ers of persuasion, the Fabians thought that most organizations would be willing to accept at least 2 James Fuchs, ed., The Socialis'rft of Shaw (New York: Vanguard Press, 1926), p. 49.

a grain or two of Socialism. It was mainly a matter of addressing them reasonably, with a strong emphasis on facts, diplomatically, with an eye to the amount of So cialism they were prepared to re ceive, and in a conciliatory spir it."3 In the following, Shaw tells how they actually achieved "per meation" in 1888: We urged our members to join the Liberal and Radical Associations of their districts, or, if they preferred it, the Conservative Associations. We told them to become members of the nearest Radical Club and Coopera tive Store, and to get delegated to the Metropolitan Radical Federation and the Liberal and Radical Union if pos sible. On these bodies we made speeches and moved resolutions, or, better still, got the Parliamentary candidate for the constituency to move them, and secured reports and encouraging little articles for him in the Star. We permeated the party organizations and pulled all the wires we could lay our hands on with our utnl0st adroitness and energy; and we succeeded so far that in 1888 we gained the solid advantage of a Pro gressive majority, full of ideas that would never have come into their heads had not the Fabian put them there, on the first London County Council. (Tract #41.) It is not ~necessary, of course, 3 A. M. McBriar, Fabian Socialism and English Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962), pp. 95-96.

84 THE FREEMAN February to accept at face value all the claims· of success of the Fabians, for they were never modest in their claims, in order to see that this is how they intended to op erate by "permeation." In Tract #7, the Fabians de scribed the activities which they were to pursue in the following way: 1. Meetings for the discussion of questions connected with social isnl. 2. The further investigation of eco nomic problems, and the collec tion of facts contributing to their elucidation. 3. The issue of publications con taining information on social questions, and arguments relat ing to socialism. 4. The promotion of socialist lec tures and debates in other so cieties and clubs. 5. The representation of the so ciety in public conferences and discussions on social questions. W ide Range of Activities Actually, the Fabians engaged in a wide range of acti vities: holding their own meetings, is suing tracts, doing research, join ing organizations, engaging in so cio-political gatherings, using their individual talents in subtle ways to promote socialism, writ ing letters to edi tors, making speeches, and so on.

They cast their nets as wide as possible to draw in as many as possible of the wide range of peo ple with beliefs amenable to some degree of socialist activity. While they usually rejected any particu lar panacea, as, for example, syn dicalism and revolution, this did not mean that they rejected the people of these persuasions. The Fabians did not neglect to appeal to Christian socialists. Several of the Tracts are devoted to this sub ject. They attempt to show that there is a close affinity between so cialism and Christianity and, in deed, that the attainment of so cialism is a necessary framework for realizing the ideals of Chris tianity. The Reverend John Clif ford conveys this character of the appeal in the following excerpts from Tract #78: Another sign of the closer kinship of Collectivism to the mind of Christ is in the elevation and nobility it gives to the struggle for life. Collec tivism does not extinguish combat, but it lifts the struggle into the worthiest spheres, reduces it to a minimum in the lower and animal departments, and so leaves man free for the finer toils of intellect and heart; free "to seek first the Kingdom of God.... "

Again, Collectivism affords a better environment for the teachings of Jesus concerning wealth and the ideals of labor and brotherhood. If man is ... only "the expression of his environment," if, indeed, he is that 1969 THE FABIAN PROGRAM 85 in any degree, then it is an unspeak able gain to bring that environment into line with the teaching of Jesus Christ. Nor were the Fabians above ap pealing to communists. In Tract #113, they published a lecture that had been delivered by Wil liam Morris in which he held that "between complete Socialism and Communism there is no difference whatever in my mind. Communism is in fact the completion of So cialism: when that ceases to be militant and becomes triumphant, it will be Communism." All Things to All People The Fabians, then, tended to be all things to all men that they might win people to socialism. Nowhere is this clearer than in the particular programs they ad vocated. Here they appeared to be completely eclectic. They had few biases against any type of pro gram so long as it was in the general direction of socialism.

Such eclecticism has come to be known as pragmatism in reformist circles, but this is only another in stance of how socialists take words out of context and give them their own content. For the English Fa bians have been no more prag matic in testing the value of their programs against their ultimate results than have American re formers. They have only been pragmatic in the sense that they tested an approach by how suc cessful it was in actually getting a program put into effect. In any case, the Fabians advo cated, from the first, a wide range of programs. They embraced gov ernment intervention and amelio rative reform, though these were, from their point of view, halfway measures at best. For example, a number of the Tracts are con cerned with changes in and ad ministration of the Poor Laws. The following argument, in Tract #54, is clearly melioristic: The expense of relieving the poor, who are not wilfully improvident, is part of the ransom that Property has to pay to Labor; and it is a ransom which is not begged as a charity but demanded as an instalment of justice.

With the growth of enlightenment and the spread of humane ideas amongst all classes, and consequently greater intelligence amongst the mass of voters in the use of their politi cal power, we shall have better laws better administered. The worn-out, deserving worker will be maintained in self-respect in his old age; the temporarily disabled will be helped without pauperization .... Of a similar ameliorative char acter was the proposal for a na tional minimum wage law ad vanced in Tract #127. (Incident ally, the title of this Tract is "So cialism and Labor Policy," and it 86 THE FREEMAN February was published in 1906.) The pro posal reads, in part: Of far greater urgency and impor tance is the need for a minimum wage by law .... Every worker in a civilized state must receive a wage high enough to give him the food, clothing and house-room necessary to physical health and efficiency ....

The first step towards this end should be the determination of a real minimum of food, clothing and hous ing by an authority appointed by the government .... Then the government should be pressed to put its own house in order by the institution of a mini mum in the public service throughout the kingdom. A Minimum Wages Bill should follow, bringing all sweated trades within the scope of the law, and punishing all employers who, after a certain date, pay less than the legal minimum .... Government Ownership and Control The Fabians worked at many levels and addressed themselves to many different audiences. Even the different Tracts were appar ently aimed at people of widely varying degrees of receptivity to socialism. One might be addressed to something as un revolutionary as the Poor Laws. On the other hand, the next might deal with the intricacies of socialist theory, while a third might be burdened down with statistics about condi tions in laundries in England. The immediate thrust of the Fabians was to get the government involved in as many economic activities as possible. The long range aim, of course, was to achieve government ownership and control over the major means of production and distribution of goods and services.

This goal could be painlessly achieved, or so they claimed. Tract #13 put the matter this way: The establishment of Socialism, when once the people are resolved upon it, is not so difficult as might be supposed. If a man wishes to work on his own account, the rent of his place of business, and the interest on the capital needed to start him, can be paid to the County Council of his dis trict just as easily as to the private landlord and capitalist. Factories are already largely regulated by pub lic inspectors, and can be conducted by the local authorities just as gas works, water-works and tramways are now conducted by them in various towns. Railways and mines, instead of being left to private companies, can be carried on by a department under the central government, as the postal and telegraph services are car ried on now. The Income Tax collector who to-day cans for a tax of R few pence in the pound on the income of the idle millionaire, can collect a tax of twenty shillings in the pound on every unearned income in the country if the State so orders ....

This was the large plan, but each step had to be taken in its 1969 THE FABIAN PROGRAM 87 own time, and particular argu ments were advanced for each one. A favorite mode of argument was to use analogy with some service government already per formed to claim that another should be brought under the arm of government. For example, here is the argument for munici pal milk supply in Tract #90: If we want good milk, let us estab lish our own dairy farms in the coun try and our milk stores in the city. Many of our large towns have spent enormous sums of money to provide their citizens with water: why should they not also provide them with milk? The arguments in favor of municipal water apply with greatest force to municipal milk. ... Municipalization In the early years, the Fabians directed much of their attention to getting local governments to take over enterprises. The Tracts called for "municipalization"

much more frequently than for nationalization. Tract #91 called for municipal pawnshops. Tract #92 advocated municipal· slaugh terhouses. Tract #94 advanced the notion of having municipal baker ies. There appears to have been no particular order of priorities, for municipal hospita'ls did not gain the limelight until Tract #95. Mu nicipal steamboats got full atten tion in Tract #97. The argument for municipal slaughterhouses was similar to the others in many re spects, so it may be presented in brief: Many of our private slaughter houses are in so insanitary a condi tion that the meat is exposed to foul emanations from drains, decompos ing blood, offal, etc. They may easily become a source of grave danger to the surrounding districts. In munici pal slaughterhouses, on the other hand, the buildings are especially de signed for their purpose; they are kept in good sanitary condition, and the meat is therefore not subject to deteriora tion. . . .

The Fabian Society had earlier, in Tract # 86, called for the munic ipalization of liquor traffic. Provisions existed from 1890 onwards for municipalities to build houses for private occu pancy, and the Fabians wished to accelerate this kind of activity. In Tract #76 they noted that the "provision of housing accommoda tion for the industrial classes has hitherto been left almost entirely in the hands of private enterprise, with the inevitable result that high rents are exacted for the privilege of occupying squalid dwellings whose very existence is a grave social danger." They give this advice: "In order to get the Acts utilized by the local sanitary authority, it is advisable to care fully collect facts relating to in sanitary areas and dwellings, and 88 THE FREEMAN February thus to prove the necessity for municipal action. In large towns the work of demonstrating such need is only too easy."

A Middle Way Of course, the Fabians did not overlook a prominent role for the national government and for na tionalizing. Local governments in England are, in their inception, creatures of Parliament, and their activities have been at one time or another authorized by that body. Thus, whatever body under took socialization directly, its ac tivities would be authorized and could be directed by Parliament. In Tract #108 the Fabians advo cated "National Efficiency," and a "National Minimum" for working conditions, for housing, for stand ards of living, and for education. To achieve this, they proposed the use of grants-in-aid, a device with which Americans have since become familiar. Their argument for the grantin-aid is sufficiently revealing of the way they ad vanced an idea to be worth ex amining briefly. They descrihed it as a middle way between centrali zation and local autonomy. "The middle way has, for half a cen tury, been found through that most advantageous of expedients, the grant in aid. We see this in its best form in the police grant." Ac cording to the Tract, local police were frequently ineffective, and poorer districts were not finan cially able to maintain efficient police. "A grant in aid of the cost of the local police force was of fered to the justices and ,town councilors - at first one quarter, and now one half, of their actual expenditure on this service, how ever large this may be."

Nationalization But for activities which were nationwide, the Fabians proposed nationalization. It is clear, too, that even where the activity was not truly nationwide, they were thinking of national planning for and control of it. For example, Tract #125 deals with the ques tion of electricity and street transportation. The author (s) argues that the provision of these services efficiently extends beyond the bounds of any municipality. He proposes, then, that the coun try be divided into several prov inces, in each of which there will be a provincial board em powered by Parliament to plan for these services. Nationalization, however, appears to be the ulti mate aim. For they say: The establishment of a system of provincial boards as here indicated does not exhaust the possibilities of coordination of area in connection with local government and the col lective control of industry. In course 1969 THE FABIAN PROGRAM 89 of time it will be found possible to carry· the development· a stage fur ther, and from the Provincial Boards to elect National. Boards, which would stand in the same relation to the Provinces as the Cooperative Whole sale Society does to the various so cieties which are its component parts.

For instance, a N ationalBoard elected from the provincial Transit and Electricity Boards might be em powered to carryon the work of build ing rolling stock by direct employ ment in its own workshops for the whole of the publicly owned transit services of the country ..It might also start factories for the manufacture of traIuway rails and motor cars. It could undertake the work of con structing plants of all kinds for pub licly owned electric light and power installations. Various local authori ties build their own vans, carts, and wagons, and there is no reason why tramcars could not be built in a pub lic workshop with equal ease.... The above has been quoted at length because it indicates how Fabians would move from local activity to regional control to na tionalization to socialism. Some nationalization was to be more directly undertaken, as they envisioned it. Tract #119 called for the direct nationalization of the railways and merchant ma rine. This would involve some kind of confiscation, as they fore saw. Of course, the owners should be compensated, but the Fabians proposed that the compensation should only constitute a payment of profits to shareholders, not the return of their capital investment.

In short, the capital would simply be expropriated. As for agricul ture, Tract #123 says.: "Our ulti mate aim is to bring the whole of the land into national owner ship ..... " Land would be acquired in much the same way as railroads and shipping. "The Committee would have power to acquire land compulsorily. If a fair rent had already been fixed, then the pur chase would proceed on the lines of securing to the vendor his net income, that is, the rent .... If such a rent has not been fixed, then its ascertainment would form a preliminary to purchase." Each Step Forward a Prelude to the Next Thus would England proceed step by step toward complete so cialism. This involved no necessary order to action. Each step would draw the country inexorably toward the next, or toward others. Government ownership at any level of anything would prepare the English mentally for owner ship at another level of something else. Government planning of one activity would make necessary the planning of associated activities.

Since an economy is ultimately in extricably intertwined, it must all 90 THE FREEMAN February be eventually socialized to attain national integrity. The produc tivity and flexibility of private en terprise could be continued with out what were for them the in felicities of private ownership, and all could be achieved without anyone being greatly hurt. This was the Fabian blueprint for England. The Fabians were remarkably provincial. The rest of the world concerned them hardly at all in the early years. That England was the world's financier during the years in which they were constructing their pipe dream hardly concerned them. But they were probably as innocent of knowledge about international fi nance as they were of how to milk cows. Yet the English people were greatly attracted to these notions, and they were drawn into the po litical efforts by which the blue prints were supposed to result in a new edifice. That these were blue prints for the Fall of England, they were not told. To see that they were, we must now turn to the actual course of development.

~ The next article of this series will trace the implementation of "Reform Ideas into Political Action." The Power of the Press JOURNALISTS, always chary of saying that which is distasteful to their readers, are some of them going with the stream and adding to its force. Legislative meddlings which they would once have condemned they now pass in silence, if they do not advocate them; and they speak of laissez-faire as an exploded doctrine. "People are no longer frightened at the thought of socialism," is the statement which meets us one day.... And then, along with editorial assertions that this economic evolution is coming and must be accepted, there is prominence given to the contributions of its advocates. Meanwhile those who regard the recent course of legislation as disastrous, and see that its future course is likely to be still more disastrous, are being reduced to silence by the belief that it is useless to reason with people in a state of political intoxication.

HERBERT SPENCER, The Man Versus the State (1884) THE ~U~~ ON THE MIDDLE CLASS WILLfAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN THE MIDDLE CLASS, the large group of many occupations - profession al men, engineers, skilled me chanics, farmers, small business men, salaried employees, farmers, to list only a few - that stands between the extremes of wealth and poverty has always been the standardbearer and the surest and most solid support of a society based on political liberty and eco nomic freedom. It began to emerge with increased power and influ ence with the decay of the me dieval feudal system and waxed strong in the struggle to curb the arbitrary power of monarchy and establish free representative in stitutions. The middle class was active in the leadership of the three prin cipal revolutions of the Western Mr. Chamberlin is a skilled observer and re porter of economic and political conditions at home and abroad. In addition to writing a number of books, he has lectured widely and is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal and numerous magazines.