Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/208

 In the meantime if the consumer is to have any voice in the question of what is to be produced, and if, under the system of National Guilds, the State is to represent the consumers, it would seem that the freedom which is promised to the workers by Guild Socialism, will be very seriously qualified by State control. On a later page (page 106) Mr. Cole tells that the State "has no claim to decide producers' questions, or to exercise direct control over production; for its right rests upon the fact that it stands for the consumers, and that the consumers ought to control the division of the national product, or the division of income in the community." If the consumers are thus to decide concerning the division of the community's income, it is clear that the producing Guildsmen will have to work according to their wishes, and in return for pay provided by them. And the freedom of the Guildsman seems to be narrowed down to mere control of the "conditions under which work is carried on" (page 107). "The workers," says Mr. Cole on page 108, "ought to control the normal conduct of industry; but they ought not to regulate the price of commodities at will, to dictate to the consumer what he shall consume, or, in short, to exploit the community as the indi-