The superstition called socialism

Front matter

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LIBRARIES of the by Dr. Donald Baker

THE SUPERSTITION

Chapter II

Circulation of commodities — Ghosts of commodities — Marxian and actual circulation — Marx's self-contradictions— Lassalle's/r^« Laiv of Wages — Subsistence wages and sweating wages — The Labour process — Marxian surplus-value— Constant and variable capital — Capitalists classified — Superstitious Socialism . 21

xvii

Chapter III Page

J. A. Hobson's analysis — Subsistence wages — Moral stimulus requisite— Effect of industrial growth on wages — Depreciation and improvement funds — Interest and compensation for risk — Stimulus to evoke capital — Land as capital — Necessary costs of production — Surplus product — Land nationalisation — Scarcity rates — Profit — Business ability — Functions of the undertaker 50

Chapter IV The Marxian Doctrine Of A Class War

Fallacious origin of the doctrine — The Communist manifesto— Falsity of Marx's predictions — Ramsay Mac- Donald's destructive criticism of the doctrine — His misconception of Socialism and his progress towards reason — Socialism and Sociality — Ferri's views — MacDonald compared with Marx and Ferri . . 69

Chapter V

The defining formula of Socialism — Diversity of Socialist schemes — Jules Guesde and Gabriel Deville on the abolition of the family — Classification of Socialists — State Socialists — State Socialism a system of slavery: views of Bax, Webb, Butler, Hyndman, Wells, and Blatchford — Webb on the emptiness of the State Socialist programme — Anarchism and Anarchists — Communal Anarchism — Co-operation of Socialists and Anarchists — Anarchist schools — William Morris and xviii rxGc The Clarion Anarchism — Its absurdity — Mentality of the Communal Anarchist leaders— Blatchford's fallacies — His avoidance of argument — His retort courteous — His self-laudation — Thompson, Grayson, Suthers,and Lowerison — Nebulous Socialism — Christian Socialism — The Rev. James Adderley's challenge accepted — Socialists andreligion— Amental and moral degenerate honoured by the I.L.P. — Blatchford's inconsistencies — The Osborne judgment — Socialism and antipatriotism — Keir Hardie's antics .... 84

Chapter VI Social Progress By The Way Of Reason And Experience

Aristotle on Communism — The three methods of Social Progress— Inconsistency of Socialism and Sociality — Basis for the brotherhood of man — Narrowness of Materialism — Christianity and Civilisation according to Renan, Mill, Mohammedan and Indian teaching, Lecky, and Gladstone — Voluntary organisation and legislation — Social parasitism and its remedy — Sweating and its elimination — Diffusion of ownership of land — The encyclical of Pope Leo YAW. on the Condi' tions of the Working Classes — Organisation in early English life — Artificers' Guilds — Success of *mall holdings in the past— Hyndman on the benefit of the early church to the poor — Robbery of the guild lands by Henry VIII., and of the benefit societies' funds — Oppression of the artisans and labourers under Elizabeth— Seventeenth century improvement in agriculture — Nineteenth century encroachments on common land — Fluctuation in employment — Remedies proposed by Cyril Jackson — Evil results of the Socialist domination of the trade unions — Labour representation in Parliament — True basis for the Labour movement— xix

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An injustice in Lloyd George's Budget, due to ignorance of the conditions of production — Error of the single taxer — Just taxation — Municipal trading . . 167

Part II

THE PSEUDO-PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OF SOCIAL- ISM AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS

Chapter VII General Features Of The Marxian Theory Of Socialism

The Materialistic basis — The economic structure — Ramsay MacDonald on the irrationality of Marx's inversion of Hegel's philosophy — Ferri's summary of Marx's standpoint — Its atheistic nature recognised by Marx — Marx's real achievement — Successive influence of Hegel, Feuerbach, and French Materialism on Marx and Engels — Philosophical origin of Marx's self-contradictions — His honesty of purpose vindicated by Hammacher — Marx's ignoring of Directivity a consequence of his Materialistic theory — Proudhon — The early English Socialists — Origin and construction of Marx' system 245

Chapter VIII The Impossibility Of Materialistic Determinism

Hypotheses of Materialism and of Necessity — An uncontrolled universe cannot be eternal — Nature of the controlling power derivable from observation — Origin of life — Consciousness — Materialism means Fatalism — Natural selection incapable of accounting for reason 259 XX

Chapter IX Page

Vedic views — Basis of Matter — Mind defined — Mind capable of directing energy changes — Mind the giver of life — Universal Mind — Eternal Self-consciousness — Nature of human mind — Function of pain — Evil a necessity of free-will 276

Chapter X

Formation of communities — Individualism and Altruism — Personality — Sociality and Socialism — Justice as Harmony — Rules and Laws — Ideal of Government — Negative and Positive Justice— The State and its sphere of action — Socialist State conception and its consequences — Ideals and the impulse of evolution . 287

Chapter XI

Evolution must be ethical — Scientific argument for immortality— Science and Superstition — Haeckel's passage from Science to Superstition —Absurdity of Haeckel's physics — The Riddle of the Universe, a return to crude polytheism— The " Rationalist " Little Bethel, and its aversion to Reason 301

Chapter XII The Conflict Between Growth And Decay

Conception of the State as an organism — The Socialist State and the Beehive — Socialism in ancient Peru — xxi

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Successful Communism of religious communities — Its complete explanation — Sublime ideal of which Socialism and Anarchism are perversions — Common goal of science, philosophy, and religion — The French Revolution and the present political crisis — Radical- Socialist conspiracyagainst British liberty — The High Court of Parliament and its origin — The Constitution and its growth — Its attempted destruction by the forces of disruption and decay — Their various discordant reasons for assailing it — The coalition logrollers — Political Parties and Labour legislation — The House of Lords and Labour legislation — Analysis of the defending and attacking forces, and their classification as forces of growth and decay . . 328

Index 387 xxii