Excerpt from Guild Socialism: An Historical and Critical Analysis In 1913, while I was an undergraduate in Northwestern University, one of ray instructors called ray attention to a school of social thought which had just been promulgated in England. As my knowledge of labor problems and of social theories grew, I came to feel more and more strongly that this philosophy of National Guilds was of especial timeliness and significance. Accordingly, I selected it six years afterwards as the topic for my doctrinal dissertation in Harvard University, and later for personal investigation in England. Out of these years of study and of observation this book has been written. I have somewhat regretfully come to the conclusion that Guild Socialism, as at present formulated, is not the sovereign remedy that at first it seemed. I find much of inconsistency, irrelevancy, and obscurity in its doctrines. Nevertheless, I feel that the Guild Idea contains elements of vital importance to the problems of industrial relations and of community organization that so urgently press themselves for solution to-day. Consequently, I feel that there may be use for a book that states the history and doctrines of Guild Socialism, and that also attempts an estimate of its strong and weak points. I realize only too well the shortcomings that are all but unavoidable in the presentation of so comprehensive a subject within the relatively narrow compass that it has seemed wise to set for this work. I realize also the difficulty of essaying anything like a definitive critique of a movement so new and so constantly in flux as the Guild Movement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Includes papers and proceedings of the annual meeting of the American Economic Association. Covers all areas of economic research.

Socialism is the watchword and the catchword of our day. The socialist idea dominates the modem spirit. The masses approve of it. It expresses the thoughts and feelings of all; it has set its seal upon our time. When history comes to tell our story it will write above the chapter “The Epoch of Socialism.” As yet, it is true, Socialism has not created a society which can be said to represent its ideal. But for more than a generation the policies of civilized nations have been directed towards nothing less than a gradual realization of Socialism.17 In recent years the movement has grown noticeably in vigour and tenacity. Some nations have sought to achieve Socialism, in its fullest sense, at a single stroke. Before our eyes Russian Bolshevism has already accomplished something which, whatever we believe to be its significance, must by the very magnitude of its design be regarded as one of the most remarkable achievements known to world history. Elsewhere no one has yet achieved so much. But with other peoples only the inner contradictions of Socialism itself and the fact that it cannot be completely realized have frustrated socialist triumph. They also have gone as far as they could under the given circumstances. Opposition in principle to Socialism there is none. Today no influential party would dare openly to advocate Private Property in the Means of Production. The word “Capitalism” expresses, for our age, the sum of all evil. Even the opponents of Socialism are dominated by socialist ideas. In seeking to combat Socialism from the standpoint of their special class interest these opponents—the parties which particularly call themselves “bourgeois” or “peasant”—admit indirectly the validity of all the essentials of socialist thought. For if it is only possible to argue against the socialist programme that it endangers the particular interests of one part of humanity, one has really affirmed Socialism. If one complains that the system of economic and social organization which is based on private property in the means of production does not sufficiently consider the interests of the community, that it serves only the purposes of single strata, and that it limits productivity; and if therefore one demands with the supporters of the various “social-political” and “social-reform” movements, state interference in all fields of economic life, then one has fundamentally accepted the principle of the socialist programme. Or again, if one can only argue against socialism that the imperfections of human nature make its realization impossible, or that it is inexpedient under existing economic conditions to proceed at once to socialization, then one merely confesses that one has capitulated to socialist ideas. The nationalist, too, affirms socialism, and objects only to its Internationalism. He wishes to combine Socialism with the ideas of Imperialism and the struggle against foreign nations. He is a national, not an international socialist; but he, also, approves of the essential principles of Socialism.