and canvass a street you can find out the politics of your neighbor, perhaps convert him if he needs converting. At any rate, See the Secretary and Join the Election Committee. The German Socialist party is so strong because the electors have been organized, and if we are to win in this country we must take a leaf out of their book. On the Polling-day, Work up to the Last Minute! At an election it is your business to get votes. When the contest is in progress the time for general propaganda is past. The business of the moment is to get your man in. With this in view you cannot afford to disregard any matters which may be before the electors. You can of course treat them from your own point of view; but you must show that your candidate takes an intelligent interest in all the burning questions before the country, even if some of them do not immediately bear upon Socialism, and that, if elected, he will be able to do the ordinary work of the House of Commons better than his opponents. But no election can be won unless, for months beforehand, you have made it your duty to ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE! In this constituency you should report yourself to FABIAN ELECTION LEAFLETS.-No. 64, How to Win; No. 65, Trade Unionists and Politics; No. 66, A Program for Workers. Each 2 pages, 6d. per 100, or 5s. per 1000. OTHER FABIAN LEAFLETS.-No. 24, Questions for Parliamentary Candidates (revised July 1895); No. 1, Why are the Many Poor? No. 13, What Socialism is; No. 16, A Plea for an Eight Hours Bill; No. 19, What the Farm Laborer Wants; No. 22, The Truth about Leasehold Enfranchisement; No. 37, A Labor Policy for Public Authorities; No. 63, Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. Each 4 pages, 6 for id., or Is. per 100. FABIAN TRACTS,-No. 5, Facts for Socialists! No. 47, The Unemployed; No. 51, Socialism: true and false. Id. each, or 9d. per doz. The set of 57 Tracts, post free, 28. 3d.; bound, 35. gd. Published by THe Fabian SocieTY, 276 Strand, London, W.C. Printed by G. STANDRING, 7 & 9 Finsbury-street, E.C. THE DIFFICULTIES OF INDIVIDUALISM. BY SIDNEY WEBB. PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY THE FABIAN SOCIETY. PRICE ONE PENNY. LONDON: THE FABIAN SOCIETY, 3 CLEMENT'S INN, STRAND, W.C. PUBLISHED JUNE 1896. THIRD REPRINT, JANUARY 1908. THE DIFFICULTIES OF Of all the intellectual difficulties of Individualism, the greatest, perhaps, is that which is presented by the constant flux of things. Whatever may be the advantages and conveniences of the present state of society, we are, at any rate, all of us, now sure of one thing -that it cannot last. The Constant Evolution of Society. We have learnt to think of social institutions and economic relations as being as much the subjects of constant change and evolution as any biological organism. The main outlines of social organization, based upon the exact sphere of private ownership in England to-day, did not "come down from the Mount." The very last century has seen an almost complete upsetting of every economic and industrial relation in the country, and it is irrational to assume that the existing social order, thus new-created, is destined inevitably to endure in its main features unchanged and unchangeable. History did not stop with the last great convulsion of the Industrial Revolution, and Time did not then suddenly cease to be the Great Innovator. Nor do the Socialists offer us a statical heaven to be substituted for an equally statical world here present. English students of the last generation were accustomed to think of Socialism as a mere Utopia, spun from the humanity-intoxicated brains of various Frenchmen of the beginning of this century. Down to the present generation every aspirant after social reform, whether Socialist or Individualist, naturally embodied his ideas in a detailed plan of a new social order, from which all contemporary evils were eliminated. Bellamy is but a belated Cabet, Babœuf, or Campanella. But modern Socialists have learnt the lesson of evolution better than their opponents, and it cannot be too often repeated that Socialism, to Socialists, is not a Utopia which they have invented, but a principle of social organization which they assert to have been discovered by the patient investigators into sociology whose labors have distinguished the present century. That principle, whether true or false, has, during a whole generation, met with an ever-increasing, though often unconscious, acceptance by political administrators. Reprinted, with minor changes, from the Economic Journal for June 1891. Thus, it is the constant flux of things which underlies all the "difficulties" of Individualism. Whatever we may think of the existing social order, one thing is certain-namely, that it will undergo modification in the future as certainly and steadily as in the past. Those modifications will be partly the result of forces not consciously initiated or directed by human will. Partly, however, the modifications will be the results, either intended or unintended, of deliberate attempts to readjust the social environment to suit man's real or fancied needs. It is therefore not a question of whether the existing social order shall be changed, but of how this inevitable change shall be made. "Social Problems." In the present phase of acute social compunction, the maladjustments which occasion these modifications appear to us in the guise of "social problems." But whether or not they are the subjects of conscious thought or conscious action, their influence is perpetually at work, silently or obtrusively modifying the distribution of social pressure, and altering the weft of that social tissue of which our life is made. The characteristic feature of our own age is not this constant evolution itself for that, of course, is of all time-but our increasing consciousness of it. Instead of unconscious factors we become deliberate agents, either to aid or resist the developments coming to our notice. Human selection accordingly becomes the main form of natural selection, and functional adaptation replaces the struggle for existence as the main factor in social progress. Man becomes the midwife of the great womb of Time, and necessarily undertakes the responsibility for the new economic relations which he brings into exist ence. Hence the growing value of correct principles of social action, of valid ideals for social aspiration. Hence, therefore, the importance, for weal or for woe, of the change in social ideals and principles which marks off the present generation of Socialists from the surviving economists and statesmen brought up in the "Manchester school." We may, of course, prefer not to accept the watchwords or shibbolethsof either party; we may carefully guard ourselves against "the falsehood of extremes"; we may believe that we can really steer a middle course. This comforting reflection of the practical man is, however, an unphilosophical delusion. As each difficulty of the present day comes up for solution, our action or inaction must, for all our caution, necessarily incline to one side or the other. We may help to modify the social organism either in the direction of a more general Collectivism or in that of a more perfect Individualism; it will be hard, even by doing nothing, to leave the balance just as it was. It becomes, accordingly, of vital importance to examine not only our practical policy but also our ideals and principles of action, even if we do not intend to follow these out to their logical conclusion. |
