Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/186

 which works out in detail how it came into being. William Morris' beautiful dream in News from Nowhere shows us life under Socialism but does not tell us how it came about, or even how the material needs of the Socialistic community were met. Mr. Tressall's scheme, though it bristles with obvious diffculties and involves some injustices, is not altogether impracticable and, while the mere suggestion of paper money in connection with a Socialistic Government makes one shudder in the light of recent experiences, there is nothing necessarily unsound in his paper money as long as its authors did not make too much of it.

Most of us will admit that the picture is in many ways highly attractive, and that if the writer's ideals could be secured by the methods that he proposes it would be worth while to sacrifice a good deal, in order to obtain them. But some very large assumptions are involved by his exposition. In the first place, he gives to the State officials a power of organization which is at present more notable as an effort of idealist imagination than likely to be realized in the world of fact; and it also assumes efficiency and alacrity on the part of those who work for the State concerning which one can only feel a certain amount of scepticism.