Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/225

 IDEALS OF SOCIAL REFORMERS 211

It will be my task now to criticise the ideals of social reformers by mentioning the dangers to which they seem to me liable. Of course not all are liable to the same mistakes. Con- sidering the space at my disposal I can only sketch in a broad way the dangers to which large sections of men devoted to social progress seem to tend.

First, there is a real menace to individual liberty in the schemes of socialism. For working purposes I am myself a socialist. We want more socialism than we have at present, anyway. Our present individualism is no real individualism. It is a race between men on horseback and men on foot. As long as public functions are in the hands of private corporations and they can tax the public, individualism means tyranny. So I am in favor of at least enough socialism to take natural monopolies out of private management. But when we consider the social- istic programme that lies beyond that practical necessity, we cannot escape the impression that it is full of danger to personal liberty. When the entire nation is organized as a colossal machine, and every cog is dependent on its connection with the machine for its chance to work, will there be freedom enough to make life tolerable ? If a man is harried by a tyrannous foreman or a spiteful fellow-workman now, he can quit his job and try elsewhere. He may be out of a job for a while, but there are at least other employers to try. In the socialistic state there is to be only one employer, the state. If a man there quits his job, he cannot even employ himself. All the instruments of produc- tion are to be owned by the state. He cannot escape the bully- ing foreman or spiteful mate, except by setting the official machine in motion and securing a transt

Only those who have lived where liberty is scarce know its sweetness. As a young man I spent four years in Germany. On my return to my native country, I was conscious, not only of the thrill of a young patriot, but also of an invigorating ease and lorn in dealing with men. I studio! the cause of the sensa- tion and concluded that it was due to the larger freedom accorded here by everybody to everybody. Later I crossed the sea again