[Socialism As It Is by William English Walling]@TWC D-Link bookSocialism As It Is CHAPTER I 3/25
No one has so thoroughly mastered the history of trade unionism, and no one has done more to promote "municipal Socialism" in England, both in theory and in practice, for he has been one of the leaders of the energetic and progressive London County council from the beginning of the present reform period.
He has also been one of the chief organizers of the more or less Socialistic Fabian Society, which has done more towards popularizing social reform in England than any other single educative force, besides sending into all the corners of the world a new and rounded theory of social reform--the work for the most part of Sidney Webb, Bernard Shaw, and a few others. Mr.Webb has given us several excellent phrases which will aid us to sum up the typical social reformers' philosophy in a few words.
He insists that what every country requires, and especially Great Britain, is to center its attention on the promotion of the "national efficiency." This refers largely to securing a businesslike and economic administration of the existing government functions.
But it requires also that _all_ the industries and economic activities of the country should be considered the business of the nation, that the industrial functions of the government should be extended, and that, even from the business point of view, the chief purpose of government should be to supervise economic development. To bring about the maximum of efficiency in production would require, in Mr.Webb's opinion and that of the overwhelming majority of reformers everywhere, a vast extension of government activities, including not only the nationalization and municipalization of many industries and services, but also that the individual workman or citizen be dealt with as the chief business asset of the nation and that wholesale public expenditures be entered into to develop his value.
Mr.Webb does not think that this policy is necessarily Socialistic, for, as he very wisely remarks, "the necessary basis of society, whether the superstructure be collectivist or individualist, is the same." Mr.Wells in his "New Worlds for Old" also claims that the new policy of having the State do everything that can promote industrial efficiency (which, unlike Mr.Webb, he persists in calling Socialism) is to the interest of the business man. "And does the honest and capable business man stand to lose or gain by the coming of such a Socialist government ?" he asks.
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