Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/659

 A SKETCH OF SOCIALISTIC THOUGHT IN ENGLAND.

FOR STUDENTS OF SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY.'

"Ir is sheer intellectual laziness," Sidney Webb says, "not to know what socialism is " in these days of almost superabundant literature on the subject. Professor Flint says that socialism cannot be defined. One difference between these authorities is, that while the former is engaged in introducing " increments " of socialism, the latter has departed from his proper field of philosophy to write a large book on a subject he has not taken the trouble to investigate. We shall avoid the necessity of deciding this difference of opinion by defining the socialism of this article (in the dynamic sense) as the movement toward the collective ownership and administration of land and capital. Our study will be confined to the development of the collectivist ideal in England. Every reform which would aid collectivism will be considered socialistic.

Socialism in this sense was made possible, perhaps inevitable, by the factory system. With the introduction of the joint-stock principle in capital, it was merely a question of the solidarity of political organization when the community should undertake such enterprises as it could better conduct than private com- panies. Before the advantages of the joint-stock company were fully appreciated, the proposals for industrial reform were almost entirely communistic. The continuance of the communist ideal is doubtless due largely to the maladministration of private corporations, and partly to the survival of domestic methods of production, and a distrust in the superiority of the factory over

1 This may be called a syllabus. The bibliographies are not intended to be exhaustive. Unusual events and only the most important contributors to the progress of thought toward collectivism have been selected. It is impossible to make a thor ough study of the subject without continual reference to material only to be had in London.

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