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IX.

Prisons.

That this Congress earnestly presses upon Humanitarians and advocates of reform of the criminal law, that the greatest obstacle to the attainment of their ends is the dependence of the capitalist system on a low standard of life and comfort among the mass of wage-workers. All attempts to make prison labor productive are regarded by private capitalists as attempts to compete with them and reduce their profits; and all reforms that aim at making prison life less cruel and more wholesome are resented in all classes on the ground that criminals should not be treated better than honest men. The Congress therefore urges the necessity of improving the conditions of the masses outside the prisons as the surest means of ameliorating the lot of those who are inside them.

X.

Women's Political Rights.

That this Congress calls upon all Trade Unionists and Socialists to strive energetically to secure to women complete equality with men in all political rights and duties.

XI,

The Referendum.

That this Congress warns associations of the working classes throughout the world to scrutinize with great care all proposals for transferring direct legislative and administrative power, including the appointment of public officials, from representative bodies to the mass of the electors. The people can only judge political measures by their effect when they have come into operation: they cannot plan measures themselves, or foresee what their effect will be, or give precise instructions to their representatives; nor can any honest representative tell, until he has heard a measure thoroughly discussed by representatives of all other sections of the working class, what form the measure should take so as to keep the interests of his constituents in due subordination to those of the community. It is to be considered, further, that intelligent reformers, especially workmen who have grasped the principles of Socialism, are always in a minority: they may address themselves with success to the sympathies of the masses and gain their confidence; but the dry detail of the legislative and administrative steps by which they move towards their goal can never be made interesting or intelligible to the ordinary voter. For these reasons the Referendum, in theory the most democratic of popular institutions, is in practice the most reactionary, and is actually being strenuously advocated in England by noted leaders of anti-Socialist opinion with the openly declared

intention of using it to stop all further progress towards Social Democracy. Again, the election of public officials by the general vote makes the official not only independent of the representatives of the people, but makes him practically irremovable, and therefore autocratic, as long as he does not openly scandalize public opinion by expressing unconventional views. The ordinary man, unable to judge whether important public functions are efficiently discharged or not, and reluctant to turn a man out of his employment without some very grave reason for doing so, invariably votes for the retention of an office by its present holder. This has been abundantly proved by the experience of English Trade Unions, in which the bureau, elected by the votes of all the members, is all-powerful, the sole exception being those unions in the cotton industry in which the officials are directly controlled by a representative body and not by the mass of members. The Congress, therefore, without attempting to lay down any general rule in the matter, most earnestly urges its supporters and sympathisers in all countries to study democratic institutions in the light of practice and not of theory alone; to take careful note of the fact that the Referendum, the Initiative, the election of officials by universal suffrage, and the reduction of representative bodies to mere meetings of delegates recording the foregone conclusions of their constituents, usually produce results exactly the opposite of those expected from them by Democrats, and to oppose them strenuously in all cases where their effect would be to place the organized, intelligent and classconscious Socialist minority at the mercy of the unorganized and apathetic mass of routine toilers, imposed upon by the prestige of the aristocratic, plutocratic and clerical forces of reaction.

XII.

Minimum Wage.

That this Congress urges upon public consideration the evils produced by allowing the standard of living among the mass of the people to be fixed by unrestrained commercial competition. Under existing circumstances, the market price of unskilled labor is so low that in all modern States competition wages are popularly called "starvation wages." The Congress desires to point out that a healthy and vigorous national life can only be secured at present by fixing in all industries and in all districts a minimum wage sufficient to maintain laborers and their families in reasonable health and efficiency. The Congress points out that resolute agitation on the part of all electors can already secure a minimum living wage to all direct employees of the central State, the municipalities, and other local authorities; and that these bodies can also protect those whom they employ indirectly by the insertion of effective standard wage clauses in all contracts for public work and in all leases and concessions made to tramway companies, railway companies, dock companies, and other recipients of special powers and privileges. The Congress urges public authorities to endeavor, as far as pos

sible, to organize and conduct public services and industries directly, without resorting to private contractors and companies. In the case of private employees, the Congress recommends Trade Unions and federations of Trade Unions in every industrial district to hold fast to the principle of the minimum living wage, and to resolutely limit by it all proposals-whether by sliding scale or otherwise-to make the remuneration of labor depend or the profits of the trade. In cases where the working classes themselves organize and employ labor, as in Co-operative Societies, the Congress feels justified in demanding the establishment of a minimum living wage as a pledge of the sincerity of the recognition by these societies of community of interest between the shareholders and their employees.

BASIS OF THE FABIAN SOCIETY.

The Fabian Society consists of Socialists.

It therefore aims at the re-organization of Society by the emancipation of Land and Industrial Capital from individual and class ownership, and the vesting of them in the community for the general benefit. In this way only can the natural and acquired advantages of the country be equitably shared by the whole people.

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 advantages of superior soils and sites.

The Society, further, works for the transfer to the community of the administration of such Industrial Capital as can conveniently be managed socially. For, owing to the monopoly of the means of production in the past, industrial inventions and the transformation of surplus income into Capital have mainly enriched the proprietary class, the worker being now dependent on that class for leave to earn a living.

If these measures be carried out, without compensation (though not without such relief to expropriated individuals as may seem fit to the community), Rent and Interest will be added to the reward of labor, the idle class now living on the labor of others will necessarily disappear, and practical equality of opportunity will be maintained by the spontaneous action of economic forces with much less interference with personal liberty than the present system entails.

For the attainment of these ends the Fabian Society looks to the spread of Socialist opinions, and the social and political changes consequent thereon. It seeks to promote these by the general dissemination of knowledge as to the relation between the individual and Society in its economic, ethical and political aspects.

Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, London, W.C. FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE: A Manifesto. 4d. post free. FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM. (35th Thousand.) Paper cover, 1/-; plain cloth, 2/-, post free from the Secretary. FABIAN TRACTS and LEAFLETS.

Tracts, each 16 to 52 pp., price 1d., or 9d. per dos., unless otherwise stated. Leaflets, 4 pp. each, price 1d. for six copies, 1s. per 100, or 86 per 1000. The Set of 88, 3s.; post free 3/5.1 Bound in Buckram, 4/6; post free for 55. I.-General Socialism in its various aspects.

TRACTS.—121. Public Service versus Private Expenditure. By Sir OLIVER LODGE. 113. Communi.m. By WM. MORRIS. 107. Socialism for Millionaires. By BERNARD SHAV. 78. Socialism and the Teaching o: Christ. By Dr. JOHN CLIFFORD. 87. The same in Welsh. 42. Christian Socialism. By Rev. S. D. HEADLAM. 75. Labor in the Longest Reign By SIDNEY WEBB. 72. The Moral Aspects of Socialism. By SIDNEY BALL. 69. Difficulties of Individualism. By SIDNEY WEBB. 51. Socialism: True and False. By S. WEBB. 45. The Impossibilities of Anarchism. By BERNARD SHAW (price 2d.). 15. English Progress towards Social Democracy. By S.WEBB. 7. Capital and Land (6th edn. revised 1904) 5. Facts for Socialists (10th edn., revised 1906). LEAFLETS-13. What Socialism Is. 1. Why are the Many Poor? 38. The same in Welsh. II.-Applications of Socialism to Particular Problems. TRACTS.-128. The Case for a Legal Minimum Wage. 126. The Abolition of Poor Law Guardians. 122. Municipal Milk and Public Health. By Dr. F. LAWSON DODD. 120. "After Bread, Education." 125. Municipalization by Provinces. 119. Public Control of Electrical Power and Transit. 123. The Revival of Agriculture. 118. The Secret of Rural Depopulation. 115. State Aid to Agriculture: an Example. 112. Life in the Laundry. 110. Problems of Indian Poverty 98 State Railways for Ireland. 124. State Control of Trusts. 86. Municipal Drink Traffic. 85. Liquor Licensing at Home and Abroad. 84. Economics of Direct Employment. 83. State Arbitration and the Living Wage. 73. Case for State Pensions in Old Age. 67. Women and the Factory Acts. 50. Sweating: its Cause and Remedy. 48. Eight Hours by Law. 23. Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 47. The Unemployed. By JOHN BURNS, M.P. LEAFLETS.-89. Old Age Pensions at Work. 19. What the Farm Laborer Wants. 104. How Trade Unions benefit Workmen. III.-Local Government Powers: How to use them. TRACTS.-117. The London Education Act, 1903: how to make the best of it. 114. The Education Act, 1902. 111. Reform of Reformatories and Industrial Schools. By H. T. HOLMES. 109. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. By RAYMOND UNWIN. 103. Overcrowding in London and its Remedy. By W. C. STEADMAN, L.C.C. 101. The House Famine and How to Relieve it. 52 pp. 76. Houses for the People. 100. Metropolitan Borough Councils. 99. Local Government in Ireland 83. Workmen's Compensation Act. 62. Parish and District Councils. 61. The London County Council. 54. The Humanizing of the Poor Law. By J. F. OAKESHOTT. LEAFLETS.-68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 71. Same for London. 63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 58. Allotments and how to get them. FABIAN MUNICIPAL PROGRAM, FIRst Series (Nos. 32, 36, 37). Municipalization of the Gas Supply. The Scandal of London's Markets. Labor Policy for Public Authorities. SECOND SERIES (Nos. go to 97). Municipalization of Milk Supply. Municipal Pawnshops. Municipal Slaughterhouses. Women as Councillors. Municipal Bakeries. Municipal Hospitals. Municipal Fire Insurance. Municipal Steamboats Second Series in a red cover for 1d. (9d. per doz.); separate leaflets, 1/- per 100. IV. Books. 29. What to Read on social and economic subjects. 6d. net. V.-General Politics and Fabian Policy.

A

127. Socialism and Labor Policy. 116. Fabianism and the Fiscal Question: an alternative policy. 108. Twentieth Century Politics. By SIDNEY WEBB. 70. Report on Fabian Policy. 41. The Fabian Society: its Early History. By BERNARD SHAW. VI.-Question Leaflets. Questions for Candidates: 20, Poor Law Guardans. 24, Parliament. 28, County Councils, Rural. 56, Parish Councils. 57, Rural District Councils. 102, Metropolitan Borough Councils.

BOOK BOXES lent to Societies, Clubs, Trade Unions, for 68. a year, or 2'6 a quarter Printed by G. Standring, 7 Finsbury St., London. E.C.. and published by the Fabian Society,

3 Clement's Inn, Strand, London W.C.

THE MORAL ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM.

By SIDNEY BALL, M.A.
St. John's College, Oxford.

PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY

THE FABIAN SOCIETY.

PRICE ONE PENNY.

LONDON:

THE FABIAN SOCIETY, 3 CLEMENT'S INN, STRAND, W.C. PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 1896. THIRD REPRINT FEBRUARY 1908.

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