Page:Confessions of an Economic Heretic.djvu/141

 the attempts to stamp out political and economic democracy in Germany, Italy, Japan, and certain other countries where it appeared to be advancing, has cast doubt upon the reality of popular power alike in the political and economic fields. In the struggle between humanism and organized force can we rely upon the victory of the former? Leaving in doubt the lasting strength of dictatorship in countries which have only tasted democracy, we may better test the issue in those countries which have had long experience of popular self-government. Here the humanist advances of the past few generations are visibly imperilled by the demands of armed defence and the sympathies for Fascism manifested by large sections of the upper classes, who prefer to undergo the expenses of armaments with the risks of war to the encroachments of a Labour or Socialist Party upon their profits and the management of industry. What I here term “humanism” appears an invasion of the rights of property to the “rentiers,” the directors, the city men, the army, and the highly placed officials who see their incomes, social status, and power over their followers threatened by a “revolutionary” movement.

Whether a Fascist reaction is likely in England, France, or America turns in large measure upon the discretion of the organized democratic forces. It is not so much a matter of power as of method. This question of method applies to the ways of furthering the humanist advance successfully. Here the