The
intellectual outlook is bright; the principles of Socialism are already
accepted by a sensible proportion of the men and women in all classes
who take the trouble to think, and if we must admit that but little has
yet been done, we may well believe that in the fullness of time our
ideas will prevail. The present war is giving the old world a great
shake, and an era of precipitated reconstruction may ensue if the
opportunity be wisely handled.
* * * * *
The influence of the Fabian Society on political thought is already the
theme of doctoral theses by graduates, especially in American
universities, but it has not yet found much place in weightier
compilation. Indeed so far as I know the only serious attempts in this
country to describe its character and estimate its proportions is to be
found in an admirable little book by Mr. Ernest Barker of New College,
Oxford, entitled "Political Thought in England from Herbert Spencer to
the Present Day."[47] The author, dealing with the early Fabians, points
out that "Mill rather than Marx was their starting point," but he infers
from this that "they start along the line suggested by Mill with an
attack on rent as the 'unearned increment' of land," a curious
inaccuracy since our earliest contribution to the theory of Socialism,
Tract No. 7, "Capital and Land," was expressly directed to emphasising
the comparative unimportance of Land Nationalisation, and nothing in the
later work of the Society has been inconsistent with this attitude.
Pages:
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300