Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/247

 Rh various countries and which meet Socialists in their propagandist and political work, and as the parliamentary parties increase in size it takes upon itself more and more of their character and its business reflects more and more closely their point of view.

" form of association, however, which, if mankind continue to improve, must be expected in the end to predominate, is not that which can exist between a capitalist as chief and workpeople without a voice in the management, but the association of the labourers themselves on terms of equality, collectively owning the capital with which they carry on their operations, and working under managers elected and removable by themselves." Thus Mill wrote in the final edition of his Political Economy. And so, in the end, Mill grew out of the principles which were as swaddling clothes to him, and ranged himself amongst those who believed that the future belonged to Socialism. His declaration of faith was in the form of a prophecy, but of a prophecy which was the ending of a life devoted in singleness of purpose to inquiry, to thought, to a pursuit of truth. And he qualified his forecast by the condition: "if mankind continue to improve."