The Imtiation of England; C. Carson

Clarence B. Carson The Imitation of England IT is no accident that the American economy has followed a pattern set earlier by England, that the dollar has declined in value and been de valued in foreign exchange as the pound has been, that the United States is suffering trade imbalances as the English were doing well be fore now, that welfare programs are increasingly burdensome in America as they have long been in England, that production is on the wane here as in England. These parallels, I say, are not accidental. The decline of the British pound was an effect of the same cause ~hat has successively weakened the dollar. In like fashion, many other developments in the United States have a similar cause to those in England. Dr. Careon ha. written and taught exten.lvely, specializing In American Intellectual history. HI. recent aerie., World In the Grip of an Idea, I. now available a. a book.

470 But the relationship between what has happened in England and what is happening in the United States is closer and more direct than the above may convey. It is not sim ply that like causes produce like effects in both England and the United States, though they do. It is more than that. The United States has followed in the path toward socialism that was first trod by Eng land. The United States has im itated England. We have borrowed and imitated tactics devised in Eng land. We have followed in England's footsteps in concentrating and exer cising political power. We have even aped many of the legislative acts of England. Small wonder, then, that the same consequence should befall us. It is not my point, however, that all the socialist influences on the United States came from England.

THE IMITATION OF ENGLAND 471 In the broadest sense, the imitation of England was the imitation of much of Europe, as socialist influ ences from the continent were im portant as well as those from Eng land. Nor is it my point that the American bent to socialism was a foreign import entirely. American thinkers did not originate socialism, but they did much to acclimate it to American circumstances. It is rather that the particular variety of socialism that has had greatest. in fluence on the United States origi nated in England, that most de velopments occurred in England be fore they did· in the United States, and that the imitation of England was the most pronounced feature of the American thrust to socialism. For these reasons, what has befallen England is most relevant to the American· situation. The Fabian Approach Socialism has been introduced in the United States piecemeal and gradually. This tactic was most trenchantly set forth by the English Fabians whom Americans imitated.

The Fabian Society was organized in England in 1884 and, because it drew into its ranks and orbit such talented writers as George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Sidney and Bea trice (Potter) Webb, and Graham Wallas, was not long in beginning to have an .impact. By the 1890s,a periodical was being published. in the United States called The Ameri can Fabian, and Fabian ideas were being introduced politically by way of the Populist Party. The rise of Fabians signaled the emergence of evolutionary socialism as a distinct idea, though it would be several years before Eduard· Bern stein spelled out the concept. Most socialists prior to this time had been dogmatists who advanced some par ticular panacea for curing the world's ills. There were anarchists, syndicalists, revolutionaries, single taxers, land redistributionists, communitarians, and so on. Karl Marx caught much of this in his theory of revolutionary socialism, but for him ((the revolution" became the panacea. By con trast, the Fabians had no one par ticular panacea. Unlike the anar chists, they believed in the use of government power. Unlike the Marx ists, they believed in working within the existing framework of institutions. Unlike the syn dicalists, they launched their appeal to the society at large. They saw the task as much broader than some thing that could be accomplished by a single tax or inflation or land redistribution, although anyone of these efforts, or all of them, might find place among their proposals.

The Fabians were gradualists. More, they were· eclectic. There was no one particular way to socialism for them; any act that brought govern472 THE FREEMAN August ment control over anything was a step in that direction. They were statists, who proposed to arrive at socialism democratically. How to Come to Power The central problem of socialists in the latter part of the nineteenth century, aside from their difficulty in coming to agreement with one another, was how to come to power. It was a large problem indeed. Everywhere, they were a small minority of the population-tiny might be more accurate-eonsisting usually of dogmatic and quarrel some intellectuals. Generally, they lived on the fringes of society, were held in low esteem, and were often harassed by the police. How could they gain respect? How could they gain influence? How could they come to power? The Fabians proposed to solve this problem by what they called ((permeation." An historian of the Fabians describes the tactic this way: ((In its most general sense, it meant that Fabians should join all organizations where useful Socialist work could be done, and influence them .... Taking a broad interpreta tion of the meaning of Socialism and having an optimistic belief in the powers of persuasion, the Fabians thought that most organizations would be willing to accept at least 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 Socialism they were prepared to receive, and in a conciliatory spirit."! George Ber nard Shaw, a leading Fabian spokesman, described the tactic of penneation in more detail: We urged our members to join the Liberal and Radical Associations of their districts, or, if they preferred it, the Con servative Associations. We told them to become members of the nearest Radical Club and Cooperative Store, and to get delegated to the Metropolitan Radical Federation and the Liberal and Radical Union if possible. 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 encourag ing 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 utmost adroitness and energy; and we succeeded so far that in 1888 we gained the solid advantage of a Progressive majority, full of ideas that would never have come into their heads had not the Fabians put them there, on the first London County Council. 2 Bending Existing Organizations to Socialist Purposes To appreciate fully the tactic of permeation it needs to be viewed in the broad context of socialism gen erally. Most socialists looked askance at existing organizations.

Anarchists and revolutionists be lieved that they would have to be de1980 THE IMITATION OF ENGLAND 473 stroyed. Those of a more peaceful bent usually thought in terms of establishing their own communities and organizations. Land redis tributionists have been inclined to think in terms of breaking up large farms and parceling them out to those who would tend them. Socialists of a political bent favored forming their own political parties, and the usual result was a prolifera tion of parties, each pushing its par ticular panacea and very particular doctrines. By contrast, the Fabians accepted the existing system of organizations. They accepted the government, the political parties, the businesses, the educational institutions, the churches, the newspapers, and so on. That is not to say that they did not want to make changes in them, for that they did, but what they en visioned was subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, alterations, not aboli tion, destruction, or replacement.

They wanted to permeate them, in fluence them, and eventually con trol the course of their development. The Fabian Society had only a few members at its inception. Eventu ally, there would be several thousand members, but it never be came a mass organization. It would not have been to their purpose if they could have had one. (Convinced and determined socialists constitute only a small minority of the popula tion in any land.) What they sought may be best conceived as intellectual leverage. That is the underlying meaning of permeation. Intellectual Leverage Intellectual leverage does not re quire quantity; it needs quality in stead. Organizations concentrate decision making power: in cabinets, boards, committees, and ultimately in individuals. All that is necessary to alter their course is to influence the decision makers. One man can play a pivotal role on a board, com mittee, commission, or cabinet sim ply by adroitly advancing his ideas.

The commitment of the Labour Party to socialism at the end of World War I required only the permeation of its leadership. Intellectual leverage has a broader impact than may be sug gested by influence within particu lar organizations. Ultimate intellec tualleverage is achieved by the cre ation and domination of the intellec tual climate. This, too, the Fabians eventually achieved in England. They made socialism respectable, at least that variety they propounded. Indeed, for a time-particularly in the 1940s-they made it about the only respectable outlook. Their eclec ticism made the task much easier than it would otherwise have been. They could draw into their frame work reformers, interventionists, welfarists, nationalizers, and what have you. After all, an inflationist 474 THE FREEMAN August was a socialist, too, even despite himself, for Fabians were in flationists, and they were socialists.

Permeation was a most useful tac tic in dominating the intellectual climate. One does not have to own a newspaper in order to determine what books get good reviews. For that, one needs only to be the book review editor, and, sometimes, only the reviewer. Careers are made and unmade in such fashion, and an in tellectual climate is shaped. When that has, been accomplished, mere politicians tend to be but reflexes of the prevailing ideas. The American, Pattern In a general way, it is clear that Americans used tactics similar to . those advanced by the English Fa bians. Americans have certainly moved gradually, and episodically, toward socialism. They did not, for example, rush.out and take over the railroads in one fell swoop (except briefly during World War 1). In stead, they passed mild regulation at the first, in the late nineteenth century. Then, over the years they tightened the regulation until the Interstate Commerce Commission had a virtual stranglehold on them., Then, the government ,began to. en courage the consolidation of compet ing lines. In the course of time, the federal government has taken over providing some of the rail services and some railroads. Control over the money supply was not achieved all at once. It was done step by step and gradually over the better part of the century. It was not complete until the final steps were taken in making it outright fiat money' in the late 1960s and early 1970s.