We
wanted to make the working classes pay less attention to these party
questions and more attention to their own social conditions. We thought,
or at any rate said, that the Liberal and Conservative leaders kept the
party ball rolling in order to distract the workers from the iniquity of
the distribution of wealth. We insisted that Socialism was an economic
doctrine, and had nothing to do with other problems. Later on we
realised that the form of government is scarcely less important than its
content: that the unit of administration, whether imperial, national, or
local, is germane to the question of the services to be administered;
that if the governmental machine is to be used for industry, that
machine must be modern and efficient: and that in fact no clear line of
distinction can be drawn between the problems of constitutional
structure which concern Socialism and those, if any, which do not
concern it. In the case of the South African war it was mainly the
instinct of self-preservation that actuated us; it is certain that any
other decision would have destroyed the Society. The passions of that
period were extraordinarily bitter. The Pro-Boers were mobbed and howled
down, their actions were misrepresented, and their motives disparaged:
they retaliated by accusing the British troops of incredible atrocities,
by rejoicing over every disaster which befell our arms, and by
prophesying all sorts of calamities however the war ended.
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