Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/161

 Rh to substitute the schoolmaster for the mother, and the school desk for the fireside, is fatal to both religion and the child. So with divorce. As I am writing this book, a committee of worthy persons is sitting considering with the help of a great variety of witnesses whether the curse of unhappy wedded life can be mitigated by the other curse of easy divorce. The Socialist is like a man in a tangled wood, having to turn now to the right, now to the left, and even occasionally to turn back upon his steps, but guided all the time by a compass and a general map of the country he is traversing. The others are like the same man similarly beset, but without compass or map.

Finally, there is the constructive section of the programme—the section which lays the rounds of well-trimmed and prepared stones on the permanent Socialist fabric. Municipalisation and nationalisation in every shape and form, from milk supplies to telephones, are included in this section. But even here, the reader must be warned, the full intention of Socialism cannot yet be carried out. State capitalism is no more Socialism than is peasant proprietorship secured by public credit land nationalisation. The state can be as bad an employer as any joint stock company. It can exploit one class of users and consumers to benefit the class of tax and rate payers, just as effectively and objectionably as a limited liability company can