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My dear John,

We have already seen how impossible many of the basic theories of Socialism are; but, heretofore, we have been dealing with definite proposals, and not with the general application of the Socialist ideas. To return to the simile of the jig-saw puzzle, John, we may say that we now have all the pieces properly cut out before us. What we have to do is to fit them together and see what kind of a picture they give us.

Of course, we shall not be able to do this without some protests from Socialists. They do not like us to test their theories by constructing an imaginary Commonwealth, even though we use no other material than the facts which they themselves have given us—the admitted principles of international Socialism—in its construction. Indeed, Socialists insist that it is a mark of imbecility for anyone to ask for such a picture to say nothing of complaining because it is not available. “Only the ignorant would ask for a cut-and-dried plan of a state that can exist only in its completeness in the distant future,” says Suthers, in his popular propaganda booklet, “Common Objections to Socialism Answered.” “Why is it impossible to produce a cut-and-dried plan? Simply because comprehensive prophesy of the future is beyond human power.... Is there a man alive to-day who can forecast the details of all the events that will register themselves in his single consciousness to-morrow?... It were a silly waste of time for any Socialist to spend his life in drawing up cut-and-dried plans of a distant future.... They (the critics) say that one says one thing and one another. God of brains, what else do they expect?”

“For all his heat,” says Kelleher (“Common Ownership,” p. 105), “Mr. Suthers is far from answering a very serious objection, or rather, consciously or unconsciously, from dealing with the real point of the objection at all. It is not the mere details of the socialistic state that the critics of Socialism are demanding to have explained, but its essential constitution. It is no reply to say that we do not require or expect to know the details about the future under the existing system. We do not, but we know the conditions in which these details will work themselves out, and rightly or wrongly we accept them, because, with all their faults, we are convinced that they are the best that are available for us.”

Moreover, not all the Socialists have been as loath to forecast the details of the proposed Co-operative Commonwealth as Mr. Suthers. H. G. Wells has given us a rather elaborate series of prognostications in his “New Worlds for Old,” and the following—Mrs. Besant’s picture of the future which Socialism proposes—is said by Bliss to be “one of the best short ideals of Socialism yet written.” In quoting this “prophecy” I have found it necessary to abridge it slightly, but you will find all the details that have been omitted in Mrs. Besant’s contribution to the “Fabian Essays.”

“The unemployed have been transformed into communal workers—in the country on great farms, improvements of the bonanza farms in America—in the towns in various trades. Public stores for agricultural and industrial products are open in all convenient places, and filled with the goods thus communally produced. The great industries, worked as Trusts, are controlled by the state instead of by capitalist rings.... After a while the private producers will disappear, not because there will be any law against individualistic production, but because it will not pay. The best form of management during the transition period, and possibly for a long time to come, will be through the Communal Councils which will appoint committees to superintend the various branches of industry. These committees will engage the necessary manager and foreman for each shop, factory, etc., and will hold power of dismissal as of appointment.... This (making the worker accommodate himself to the demand for labor), however, hardly solves the general question as to the apportioning of laborers to the various forms of labor. But a solution has been found by the ingenious author of ‘Looking Backward.’ Leaving young men and women free to choose their employments, he would equalize the rates of volunteering by equalizing the attractions of the trades.... But there are unpleasant and indispensable forms of labor which, one would imagine, can attract none—mining, sewer-cleaning, etc. These might be rendered attractive by making the hours of labor in them much shorter than the normal working day of pleasanter occupations.... Further, much of the most disagreeable and laborious work might be done by machinery, as it would be now if it were not cheaper to exploit a helot class.... In truth, the extension of machinery is very likely to solve many of the problems connected with differential advantages in employment; and it seems certain that in the very near future the skilled worker will not be the man who is able to perform a particular set of operations, but the man who has been trained in the use of machinery.... Out of the value of the communal produce ... all charges and expenses are deducted, and the remaining value should be divided among the communal workers as a ‘bonus.’ It would be obviously inconvenient, if not impossible, for the district authority to sub-divide this value and allot so much to each of its separate undertakings—so much left-over from gas works for the men employed there, so much from the tramways for the men employed on them, and so on. It would be far simpler and easier for the municipal employes to be regarded as a single body, in the service of a single employer, the local authority; and that the surplus from the whole businesses carried on by the Communal Council should be divided without distinction among the whole of the communal employes.”

Taking Mrs. Besant as a guide and calling upon other Socialist authorities for further directions, let us see if we can put our jig-saw puzzle together and thus ascertain what kind of a place the Co-operative Commonwealth is likely to be.

In the first place, John, it is scarcely probable that any Socialist will deny that all means of production, distribution and exchange will be in the hands of the collective state. This means that all the manufacturing will be done by the communal authorities acting for the people; that all the methods of disposing of these products, through shops or otherwise, will be under the same direction, and that all means of transportation—railways, steamships, etc.—will, like the Post Office to-day, be in the hands of the people or their representatives. So far, in all probability, we shall meet with no denial from the Socialists.

In the matter of land, however, our Socialist authorities are not so thoroughly in agreement. For example, when they are talking with the farmer, or other small land owner, who does not wish to have his real estate expropriated, some Socialists are quite willing to admit that their program makes no provision for the confiscation of farm lands. As you have seen, however, the Socialists are quite ready to hide any feature in their scheme that seems likely to arouse opposition in the minds of the small property holders. Yet, land being invariably included in “means of production” by all authoritative Socialists, it is not easy to see how any real Socialist can promise to exclude farm lands from the general plan of confiscation. It is far easier to assume that the Appeal to Reason and the Socialist propagandists who write propaganda matter to induce the farmer to vote the Socialist ticket are not telling him the truth about this phase of the question.

Then, too, when we remember the Socialist proposition that all labor in the Co-operative Commonwealth shall be performed collectively and not under the direction of an employer, it is pretty difficult to imagine how a farmer will be able to operate a farm when he is prevented from employing others to help him. Certainly, Mrs. Besant’s suggestion is the more logical one—farm lands must be expropriated and the industry of agriculture pursued on great farms, operating on the bonanza farm basis which has already proved such a gigantic failure in this country.

With all means of production, distribution and exchange in the hands of the Commonwealth, there would naturally be but one source of employment for labor—The Commonwealth. If you wanted a job, John, you would have to go to the employment bureau of the Commonwealth and present your application, upon which you would be assigned to such a position as might chance to be open at the time your application was received. You are a machinist, but it might chance that machinists are not much in demand on the day you apply for the job. Accordingly, you would be sent to paint houses, or to build streets; anything that happened to be open would be assigned to you and you would have to take it or starve to death, because the Commonwealth, as we have seen in a previous letter, could not be expected to find for every applicant the particular kind of work that he preferred to perform.

Under our present system, inadequate as it is in some respects, a man can select the work that he prefers, and there is no limit to the heights that he can ascend, provided he shows an ability to occupy a higher position in the industrial world. To-day merit counts; to-day knowledge and initiative, as well as industry, mean something. But, under the system that Socialism proposes, it would be the favor of the bosses or, at least, the votes of one’s associates that could alone secure promotion.

Election of bosses by popular vote may sound all right in theory, but I seriously fear that the scheme would not operate successfully if applied practically. Popularity would be a poor substitute for proficiency, especially in view of the fact that it would probably be the easiest boss and not the most exacting boss, who would secure the votes of the most people. Try to picture what would happen under these conditions, and you will have taken the first step toward a clear understanding of industrial conditions under Socialism.

But, let us suppose, for argument’s sake, that you have secured employment at a trade that is fairly satisfactory to you and that the more important industrial problems have been reasonably well adjusted. At the end of the work-week you receive the labor check which represents the “full value” of the products which have been produced. We have already seen how difficult the Socialists will find it to determine the full value of the work of each operative and to measure it for exchange, so there is no need to emphasize this question further. We will suppose that the apparently insurmountable difficulties have been satisfactorily overcome, and that you are well pleased with the share you receive in your labor check.

Now, what are you going to do with it?

We are told that the laborer will be permitted to purchase whatever he pleases—as much or as little as he has a mind to buy. Of course he can buy only from the State because everything—all the stores, shops, factories, farms, etc.—will be owned and operated by the government. “Our cities cannot give us to-day two things so simple as pure water and clean streets,” remarks Father Kress. “By what magic will they be made capable of doing the thousands of things implied in production and distribution?”

Imagine yourself, your pay check in your hand, going in to the gigantic government warehouse, or as Mrs. Besant prefers to call them, “public stores for agricultural and industrial products.” The fact that you are to be permitted to buy anything you like, or can, with the amount in hand, presupposes that everything you desire will be kept in stock. But what if you do not find it? The clerk could not promise to get it for you, because it is not impossible that the committee on manufactures may have decided that you ought not to have it. Caviare and Limburger cheese are two commodities that are extremely pleasing to some people’s palate, while there are other people who could not be induced to eat them for pay. Suppose the committee on manufactures was composed chiefly of persons who saw no excuse for the existence of caviare or Limburger cheese. Is it likely that they would take the trouble to see that the supply of these commodities did not run short, especially when, in a Commonwealth where there was no competition, there is no need to make any special effort to please purchasers?

Freedom to purchase is impossible unless every possible want is provided for. Perhaps this condition would exist in the Co-operative Commonwealth. Perhaps it wouldn’t!

Let us take another example, John.

Suppose you wanted to build a house. At present you can do this in accordance with any plans that please you. You don’t have to ask anybody’s advice if you don’t want to. But would things be like this under Socialism? You might want to build a bookcase in the centre of the room instead of around the walls. You might have very good reasons for wishing to do this. But do you think it would be a simple matter to convince the committee on carpentering that your plan should be carried out, if they happened to disapprove of your ideas? Under our present system you can get almost any kind of work done if you are willing and able to pay for it. All you have to do is to find the laborer and employ him. Under Socialism, it wouldn’t be a single laborer that would have to be seen, but a committee whose consent would have to be obtained before any laborer could undertake your work.

The Socialists tell us that Socialism will inspire inventors, writers and other mental workers to a degree never before dreamt of.

Is this possible?

An invention to-day stands a fair chance of being put on the market so long as it has the slightest evidence of practicability; somebody can usually be found to furnish the money for the experiments needed to perfect the scheme of the inventor. But how would it be in a Commonwealth where the practicability of an invention and its value as a social factor would have to be determined by a special committee before it could be produced and its merits tested by actual experience? We know how much money has been spent in the experimental work of many inventors. We know, too, that, in the majority of cases, inventions have been perfected in the face of widespread scepticism. Few people believed that the telephone would ever be made of practical value. Even when the telephone had succeeded and become an absolute necessity, the great mass of the people laughed at the idea of wireless telegraphy. Do you think that a committee on inventions would have passed favorably upon such ideas, and would have authorized the necessary appropriations for perfecting them in the face of such strong popular opposition?

Socialists also tell us that freedom is the choicest jewel in our possession; that freedom of press, speech and assemblage are rights which are inherent in human nature and which must be defended, with our lives if need be. But what do we find under Socialism? Could there be any freedom of press when the Socialist State owned every press, when the Socialist State employed every printer, when the Socialist State controlled every sheet of white paper?

Before a printed word could be given to the world, it would have to pass the censorship of the special bureau entrusted with these responsibilities. Such a committee would have to determine whether an author’s work was worth printing or not; and suppose, by any chance, an author or an editor desired to give expression to opinions that did not harmonize perfectly with those of the ruling majority, do you suppose that the State-owned presses would be permitted to run in the publication of such theories?

There is one thing, John, that you can depend upon; and that is that the Socialist scheme makes absolutely no provision for freedom. The Socialists talk as if we were “wage slaves,” but no conditions existing to-day—not excepting the worst—represent such galling servitude as would exist under the despotic bureaucracy that Socialism would develop. It is true that you might be guaranteed against unemployment so long as you were willing to take the kind of work provided for you. It is true that you might exchange your labor checks for the commodities that other workers had produced—so long as you desired to purchase the kind of things that the officials of the Commonwealth wanted you to buy. It is true that you might be permitted to write and speak and teach, so long as you desired to promulgate ideas approved by the majority. Once you begin to think along the lines advocated by the minority, what do you think would happen to you? If a full stomach were all that man required for his happiness, the Co-operative Commonwealth might seem to offer an enviable state of existence. It is because Socialists believe that a full stomach is the highest aim of man, that they fail to recognize the inadequate character of their proposed Commonwealth.

It is an elaborate program that Socialism has planned—a program that provides for free services on every hand, free amusements, free excursions, free transportation, free professional services, etc. Education, of course, will be free, not only the tuition and the books but the clothes the children wear and the victuals they eat. “Will the State be able to carry out this program?” asked Godkin in The Forum (June, 1894). “It cannot give more than it gets; will we be rich enough to pay the extravagant bills of Socialism?” It is assumed by Socialists that the wealth of the State will be unlimited, but on what foundations is this assumption based?

I have called your attention to merely a few of the problems that suggest themselves when we attempt to consider what kind of an existence Socialism has planned for us. There are hundreds of other examples that will occur to you if you stop to think the matter over seriously. If this is the kind of life you want to live—the kind of freedom you think you would enjoy—you are welcome to it.