To be submitted to the members at Essex
Hall on Fridays the 7th and 14th December, 1906, at 7.30 p.m. The Fabian
Society. November, 1906 (pp. 48).
[37] See his "New Worlds for Old," Chapter III, The First Main
Generalisation of Socialism, which according to Mr. Wells is as
follows:--
"The ideas of private individual rights of the parent and of his
isolated responsibility for his children are harmfully exaggerated in
the contemporary world. We do not sufficiently protect children from
negligent, incompetent, selfish, or wicked parents.... The Socialist
holds that the community should be responsible ... it is not simply the
right but the duty of the State ... to intervene in any default for the
child's welfare. Parentage rightly undertaken is a service as well as a
duty to the world ... in any completely civilised state it must be
sustained, rewarded, and controlled...."
Except for the last three words all this is neither new nor
controversial amongst not merely Socialists but the mildest of social
reformers, always excepting the Charity Organisation Society. The last
word is not, I think, further explained.
[38] A Tramway or a Gasworks consists of two things: the actual plant,
and the nominal capital which represents its value. When the plant is
municipalised, its control is vested in the community, and the
shareholders are "compensated" with municipal securities or cash
obtained by loans from other investors in these securities.
Pages:
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227