VIII.

Fabian Individualism.

The Fabian Society does not suggest that the State should monopolize industry as against private enterprise or individual initiative further than may be necessary to make the livelihood of the people and their access to the sources of production completely independent of both. The freedom of individuals to test the social value of new inventions; to initiate improved methods of production; to anticipate and lead public enterprise in catering for new social wants; to practise all arts, crafts, and professions independently; in short, to complete the social organization by adding the resources of private activity and judgment to those of public routine, is, subject to the above conditions, as highly valued by the Fabian Society as Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, or any other article in the charter of popular liberties.

IX.

Fabian Freedom of Thought.

The Fabian Society strenuously maintains its freedom of thought and speech with regard to the errors of Socialist authors, economists, leaders and parties, no less than to those of its opponents. For instance, it insists on the necessity of maintaining as critical an attitude towards Marx and Lassalle, some of whose views must by this time be discarded as erroneous or obsolete, as these eminent Socialists themselves maintained towards their predecessors, St. Simon and Robert Owen.

X.

Fabian Journalism.

The Fabian Society, in its relations with the Press, makes no such distinction as that indicated by the phrase "the Capitalist Press." In England all political papers without exception are conducted with private capital under the control of the owners of the capital. Some of them profess Socialist opinions, others Conservative opinions, others Liberal and Radical opinions, and so forth. The Socialist papers are in no way more independent of social pressure than the others; and the superiority of a Socialist paper from the Socialist point of view is of exactly the same nature as the superiority of a Conservative paper from the Conservative point of view. The Fabian Society, in securing journalistic expression for its ideas, has no preference, except for the largest circulation.

XI.

Fabians and the Middle Class

In view of the fact that the Socialist movement has been hitherto inspired, instructed, and led by members of the middle class or "bourgeoisie," the Fabian Society, though not at all surprised to

find these middle class leaders attacking with much bitterness the narrow social ideals current in their own class, protests against the absurdity of Socialists denouncing the very class from which Socialism has sprung as specially hostile to it. The Fabian Society has no romantic illusions as to the freedom of the proletariat from these same narrow ideals. Like every other Socialist society, it can only educate the people in Socialism by making them conversant with the conclusions of the most enlightened members of all classes. The Fabian Society, therefore, cannot reasonably use the words "bourgeois" or "middle class" as terms of reproach, more especially as it would thereby condemn a large proportion of its own members. XII.

Fabian Natural Philosophy.

The Fabian Society endeavors to rouse social compunction by making the public conscious of the evil condition of society under the present system. This it does by the collection and publication of authentic and impartial statistical tracts, compiled, not from the works of Socialists, but from official sources. The first volume of Karl Marx's "Das Kapital," which contains an immense mass of carefully verified facts concerning modern capitalistic civilization, and practically nothing about Socialism, is probably the most successful propagandist work ever published. The Fabian Society, in its endeavors to continue the work of Marx in this direction, has found that the guesses made by Socialists at the condition of the people almost invariably flatter the existing system instead of, as might be suspected, exaggerating its evils. The Fabian Society therefore concludes that in the natural philosophy of Socialism, light is a more important factor than heat.

XIII.

Fabian Repudiations.

The Fabian Society discards such phrases as "the abolition of the wage system," which can only mislead the public as to the aims of Socialism. Socialism does not involve the abolition of wages, but the establishment of standard allowances for the maintenance of all workers by the community in its own service, as an alternative to wages fixed by the competition of destitute men and women for private employment, as well as to commercial profits, commissions, and all other speculative and competitive forms of remuneration. In short, the Fabian Society, far from desiring to abolish wages, wishes to secure them for everybody.

The Fabian Society resolutely opposes all pretensions to hampe the socialization of industry with equal wages, equal hours of labor, equal official status, or equal authority for everyone. Such conditions are not only impracticable, but incompatible with the equality of subordination to the common interest which is fundamental in modern Socialism.

securing to any person, or any group of persons, "the entire product of their labor." It recognizes that wealth is social in its origin and must be social in its distribution, since the evolution of industry has made it impossible to distinguish the particular contribution that each person makes to the common product, or to ascertain its value.

The Fabian Society desires to offer to all projectors and founders of Utopian communities in South America, Africa, and other remote localities, its apologies for its impatience of such adventures. To such projectors, and all patrons of schemes for starting similar settlements and workshops at home, the Society announces emphatically that it does not believe in the establishment of Socialism by private enterprise.

XIV.
Finally.

The Fabian Society does not put Socialism forward as a panacea for the ills of human society, but only for those produced by defective organization of industry and by a radically bad distribution of wealth.

RESOLUTIONS.

I.

The Eight Hours Day.

The Congress declares its adhesion to the resolution regarding the Eight Hours Day passed at the Zurich Congress, and puts forward the following proposals as the immediate steps to be taken towards the introduction of that reform and as the irreducible minimum of the demands of Labor :

1. That the hours of labor for all Government and Municipal employees shall be at most eight per day or forty-eight per week;

2. That in the mining, railway, and baking industries, and in all dangerous trades, the working-day shall be limited to eight hours;

3. That in all other industries the Minister responsible for Labor shall be bound, on the demand of a Labor organization, to institute an enquiry into the hours of labor in any given trade, and to issue, subject to formal revision by the Legislature, such regulations as may, to his expert advisers, seem expedient;

4 That, subject to cases of unforeseen emergency, for which an indemnity must be obtained from the Minister responsible for Labor, overtime above the hours specified in the foregoing clauses shall be prohibited.

That the employment of children in industry at too early an age is not only injurious to their health, but also causes physical deterioration in following generations; that their competition is used to beat down the wages of adult workers; and that the only possible excuse for the employment of children, namely, the training of them to be efficient workers, no longer exists owing to the breakdown of the apprenticeship system through the development of extreme specialization in manufacturing processes,

This Congress demands

1. That the minimum age at which children can be employed as half-timers shall be raised at once to 14 years, and in two years time to 16.

2. That the minimum age for full-timers shall be similarly fixed at 16 years, and in two years at 18.

3. That in mines, glass-works, iron-works, and all dangerous trades, the minimum age of employment shall be 16.

4 That the State shall provide an efficient system of technical education, free and compulsory, with maintenance, for children between the time of their leaving the elementary school and the age at which they can be fully employed as workers.

That it is one of the chief duties of the State to secure the health and safety of the workers, but that this duty cannot be effectually fulfilled unless it is undertaken in a scientific manner,

The Congress demands

1. That every Government shall institute committees of experts (including machine workers) to study the best means of preventing accidents from the different kinds of machinery; 2. That every Government shall also establish laboratories for the investigation of the safest processes of manufacture; 3. That, supported by the opinion of his expert advisers, the Minister responsible for Labor shall have power to issue departmental regulations in such matters as the fencing of machinery, precautions to be taken in manufacture, etc., and also, ubject to revision of his orders by the Legisla ture, to prohibit processes as dangerous;

4. That the white-lead industry and the making of matches from yellow phosphorus-dangerous occupations for which safe and effectual substitutes are acknowledged to existshall be at once prohibited.

IV.

Women's Work.

That this Congress approves the principle of equal pay for equal work; and of equal opportunities for educational and technical training for men and women; and strongly urges, for the benefit of both sexes, the immediate practical application of this principle.

V.

Government Workshops.

This Congress, recognizing that even under the present order of society the manufacture by the Government of all the commodities which it requires to perform the functions entrusted to it by the nation can be made the means of setting a fair standard of employment and of putting down sweating, but that at the same time it can be used simply as tax-saving machinery and a weapon of political servitude, urges the electors to press upon their respective Governments to do all their own industrial work themselves, without the intervention of a private contractor, on the following conditions:

1. That the working-day shall be limited to eight hours;

2. That the wages paid shall be at least equal to those paid by the best private employers;

3. That a sufficient pension shall be paid to employees when incapacitated by age or accident;

4. That a week's holiday per year on full pay shall be secured to each worker;

5. That no worker shall be hindered by any departmental regulations in the exercise of his ordinary rights as a private citizen.

VI.

Nationalization and Municipalization of Industry.

In view of the importance of losing no opportunity of transferring industrial capital from private to public control, and securing to as many wage-workers as possible the comparative independence and permanence of employment enjoyed by public servants, especially in the more democratic countries, this Congress recommends all workers to agitate and vote in favor of:

1. The immediate nationalization of all mines, railways, canals, telegraphs, telephones, and other national monopolies :