Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/158

 154 Parliament a greater number of men than are there now whose votes represent no opinion and carry out no mandate, because so many will be returned on single issues—e. g. Temperance—but will have to vote on every question that comes before Parliament. The Socialist knows that democracy in government can be secured only by an efficiently working machine and not by an elaborate set of paper perfections of beautiful but intangible delicacy.

Shorter parliaments, payment of members, adult suffrage, is the Socialist machinery of democracy, whilst for further checks and safeguards resource can be had to one thing and one thing only, a higher political intelligence on the part of the majority of the electors.

From the Socialist standpoint, Democracy is both an end in itself and a means to other ends, for, whilst the Socialist regards the Democratic state as the proof and pledge of completed citizenship, he regards political power as the means of social reconstruction and betterment. He therefore supplements his political programme by a social one, and this consists of two main sections. He proposes a series of measures to mitigate present conditions, and another series as the first gatherings in of ripened Socialist opinion.

In the first section are proposals dealing with factory and mine regulation and inspection, the feeding of school children, old age pensions. Some of these he defends on