Chapter XIV: Appendix: I. Bibliography (3)

1. A Candidate must be promoted by an affiliated Society which makes itself responsible for his election expenses.

2. A Candidate must be selected for a constituency by a regularly convened Labor Party Conference in the constituency. [The Hull Conference accepted the following as the interpretation of what a "Regularly Convened Labor Party Conference" is:--All branches of affiliated organizations within a constituency or divided borough covered by a proposal to run a Labor Candidate must be invited to send delegates to the Conference, and the local organization responsible for calling the Conference may, if it thinks fit, invite representatives from branches of organizations not affiliated but eligible for affiliation.]

3. Before a Candidate can be regarded as adopted for a constituency, his candidature must be sanctioned by the National Executive; and where at the time of a by-election no Candidate has been so sanctioned, the National Executive shall have power to withhold its sanction.

V. _The National Executive._

The National Executive shall consist of fifteen members, eleven representing the Trade Unions, one the Trades Councils, Women's Organizations, and Local Labor Parties, and three the Socialist Societies, and shall be elected by ballot at the Annual Conference by their respective sections.

VI. _Duties of the National Executive._

The National Executive Committee shall

1. Appoint a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Treasurer, and shall transact the general business of the Party;

2. Issue a list of its Candidates from time to time, and recommend them for the support of the electors;

3. Report to the affiliated organization concerned any Labor Member, Candidate, or Chief Official who opposes a Candidate of the Party, or who acts contrary to the spirit of the Constitution;

4. And its members shall strictly abstain from identifying themselves with or promoting the interests of any Parliamentary Party not affiliated, or its Candidates.

VII. _The Secretary._

The Secretary shall be elected by the Annual Conference, and shall be under the direction of the National Executive.

VIII. _Affiliation Fees and Delegates._

1. Trade Unions and Socialist Societies shall pay 15s. per annum for every thousand members or fraction thereof, and may send to the Annual Conference one delegate for each thousand members.

2. Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties with 5,000 members or under shall be affiliated on an annual payment of 15s.; similar organizations with a membership of over 5,000 shall pay L1 10s., the former Councils to be entitled to send one delegate with one vote to the Annual Conference, the latter to be entitled to send two delegates and have two votes.

3. In addition to these payments a delegate's fee to the Annual Conference may be charged.

IX. _Annual Conference._

The National Executive shall convene a Conference of its affiliated Societies in the month of January each year.

Notice of resolutions for the Conference and all amendments to the Constitution shall be sent to the Secretary by November 1st, and shall be forthwith forwarded to all affiliated organizations.

Notice of amendments and nominations for Secretary and National Executive shall be sent to the Secretary by December 15th, and shall be printed on the Agenda.

X. _Voting at Annual Conference._

There shall be issued to affiliated Societies represented at the Annual Conference voting cards as follows:

1. Trade Unions and Socialist Societies shall receive one voting card for each thousand members, or fraction thereof paid for.

2. Trades Councils and Local Labor Parties shall receive one card for each delegate they are entitled to send.

Any delegate may claim to have a vote taken by card.

PARLIAMENTARY FUND

I. _Object._

To assist in paying the election expenses of Candidates adopted in accordance with this Constitution, in maintaining them when elected; and to provide the salary and expenses of a National Party Agent.

II. _Amount of Contribution._

1. Affiliated Societies, except Trades Councils, and Local Labor Parties shall pay a contribution to this fund at the rate of 2d. per member per annum, not later than the last day of each financial year.

2. On all matters affecting the financial side of the Parliamentary Fund only contributing Societies shall be allowed to vote at the Annual Conference.

III. _Trustees._

The National Executive of the Party shall, from its number, select three to act as Trustees, any two of whom, with the Secretary, shall sign checks.

IV. _Expenditure._

1. _Maintenance._--All Members elected under this Constitution shall be paid from the Fund equal sums not to exceed L200 per annum, provided that this payment shall only be made to Members whose Candidatures have been promoted by one or more Societies which have contributed to this Fund; provided further that no payment from this Fund shall be made to a Member or Candidate of any Society which has not contributed to this Fund for one year, and that any Society over three months in arrears shall forfeit all claim to the Fund on behalf of its Members or Candidates, for twelve months from the date of payment.

2. _Returning Officers' Expenses._--Twenty-five per cent. of the Returning Officers' net expenses shall be paid to the Candidates, subject to the provisions of the preceding clause, so long as the total sum so expended does not exceed twenty-five per cent. of the Fund.

3. _Administration._--Five per cent. of the Annual Income of the Fund shall be transferred to the General Funds of the Party, to pay for administrative expenses of the Fund.

THE INDEPENDENT LABOR PARTY: CONSTITUTION AND RULES, 1910-1911

NAME

_The Independent Labor Party._

MEMBERSHIP

Open to all Socialists who indorse the principles and policy of the Party, are not members of either the Liberal or Conservative Party, and whose application for membership is accepted by a Branch.

Any member expelled from membership of a Branch of the I.L.P. shall not be eligible for membership of any other branch without having first submitted his or her case for adjudication of the N.A.C.

OBJECT

The Object of the Party is to establish the Socialist State, when land and capital will be held by the community and used for the well-being of the community, and when the exchange of commodities will be organized also by the community, so as to secure the highest possible standard of life for the individual. In giving effect to this object it shall work as part of the International Socialist Movement.

METHOD

The Party, to secure its objects, adopts--

1. _Educational Methods_, including the publication of Socialist literature, the holding of meetings, etc.

2. _Political Methods_, including the election of its members to local and national administrative and legislative bodies.

PROGRAM

The true object of industry being the production of the requirements of life, the responsibility should rest with the community collectively, therefore:--

The land being the storehouse of all the necessaries of life should be declared and treated as public property.

The capital necessary for the industrial operations should be owned and used collectively.

Work, and wealth resulting therefrom, should be equitably distributed over the population.

As a means to this end, we demand the enactment of the following measures:--

1. A maximum of 48 hours' working week, with the retention of all existing holidays, and Labor Day, May 1st, secured by law.

2. The provision of work to all capable adult applicants at recognized Trade Union rates, with a statutory minimum of 6d. per hour.

In order to remuneratively employ the applicants, Parish, District, Borough, and County Councils to be invested with powers to:--

(_a_) Organize and undertake such industries as they may consider desirable.

(_b_) Compulsorily acquire land; purchase, erect, or manufacture buildings, stock, or other articles for carrying on such industries.

(_c_) Levy rates on the rental values of the district, and borrow money on the security of such rates for any of the above purposes.

3. State pension for every person over 50 years of age, and adequate provision for all widows, orphans, sick and disabled workers.

4. Free, secular, moral, primary, secondary, and university education, with free maintenance while at school or university.

5. The raising of the age of child labor, with a view to its ultimate extinction.

6. Municipalization and public control of the Drink Traffic.

7. Municipalization and public control of all hospitals and infirmaries.

8. Abolition of indirect taxation and the gradual transference of all public burdens on to unearned incomes with a view to their ultimate extinction.

The Independent Labor Party is in favor of adult suffrage, with full political rights and privileges for women, and the immediate extension of the franchise to women on the same terms as granted to men; also triennial Parliaments and second ballot.

ORGANIZATION

I.--OFFICERS

1. Chairman and Treasurer.

2. A _National Administrative Council._--To be composed of fourteen representatives, in addition to the two officers.

3. No member shall occupy the office of Chairman of the Party for a longer consecutive period than three years, and he shall not be eligible for re-election for the same office for at least twelve months after he has vacated the chair.

4. _Election of N.A.C._--Four members of the N.A.C. shall be elected by ballot at the Annual Conference, and ten by the votes of members in ten divisional areas.

5. _Duties of N.A.C._--

(_a_) To meet at least three times a year to transact business relative to the Party.

(_b_) To exercise a determining voice in the selection of Parliamentary candidates, and, where no branch exists, to choose such candidates when necessary.

(_c_) To raise and disburse funds for General and By-Elections, and for other objects of the Party.

(_d_) To deal with such matters of local dispute between branches and members which may be referred to its decision by the parties interested.

(_e_) To appoint General Secretary and Officials, and exercise a supervising control over their work.

(_f_) To engage organizers and lecturers when convenient, either permanently or for varying periods, at proper wages, and to direct and superintend their work.

(_g_) To present to the Annual Conference a report on the previous year's work and progress of the Party.

(_h_) To appoint when necessary sub-committees to deal with special branches of its work, and to appoint a committee to deal with each Conference Agenda. Such Committee to revise and classify the resolutions sent in by branches and to place resolutions dealing with important matters on the Agenda.

(_i_) It shall not initiate any new departure or policy between Conferences without first obtaining the sanction of the majority of the branches.

(_k_) Matters arising between Conferences not provided for by the Constitution, shall be dealt with by the N.A.C.

(_l_) A full report of all the meetings of the N.A.C. as held shall be forwarded to each branch.

6. _Auditor._--A Chartered or Incorporated Accountant shall be employed to audit the accounts of the Party.

II.--BRANCHES

1. _Branch._--An Association which indorses the objects and policy of the Party, and affiliates in the prescribed manner.

2. _Local Autonomy._--Subject to the general constitution of the Party, each Branch shall be perfectly autonomous.

III.--FINANCES

1. Branches shall pay one penny per member per month to the N.A.C.

2. The N.A.C. may strike off the list of branches any branch which is more than 6 months in arrears with its payments.

3. The N.A.C. may receive donations or subscriptions to the funds of the Party. It shall not receive moneys which are contributed upon terms which interfere in any way with its freedom of action as to their disbursement.

4. The financial year of the Party shall begin on March 1st, and end on the last day of February next succeeding.

IV.--ANNUAL CONFERENCE

1. The _Annual Conference_ is the ultimate authority of the Party, to which all final appeals shall be made.

2. _Date._--It shall be held at Easter.

3. _Special Conferences._--A Special Conference shall always be called prior to a General Election, for the purpose of determining the policy of the Party during the election. Other Special Conferences may be called by two-thirds of the whole of the members of the N.A.C, or by one-third of the branches of the Party.

4. _Conference Fee._--A Conference Fee per delegate (the amount to be fixed by the N.A.C.) shall be paid by all branches desiring representation, on or before the last day of February in each year.

5. No branch shall be represented which was not in existence on the December 31st immediately preceding the date of the Annual Conference.

6. Branches of the Party may send one delegate to Conference for each fifty members, or part thereof. Branches may appoint one delegate to represent their full voting strength. Should there be two or more branches which are unable separately to send delegates to Conference, they may jointly do so.

7. Delegates must have been members of the branch they represent from December 31st immediately preceding the date of the Conference.

8. Notices respecting resolutions shall be posted to branches not later than January 3d. Resolutions for the Agenda, and nominations for officers and N.A.C. shall be in the hands of the General Secretary eight weeks before the date of the Annual Conference, and issued to the branches a fortnight later. Amendments to resolutions on the Agenda and additional nominations may be sent to the Secretary four weeks before Conference, and they shall be arranged on the final Agenda, which shall be issued to branches two weeks before Conference. A balance sheet shall be issued to branches two weeks before the Conference, showing the receipts and expenditure of the Party for the year, also the number of branches affiliated and the amount each branch has paid in affiliation fees during the year.

9. The Chairman of the Party for the preceding year shall preside over the Conference.

10. _Conference Officials._--The first business of the Conference shall be the appointment of tellers. It shall next elect a Standing Orders Committee, with power to examine the credentials of delegates, and to deal with special business which may be delegated to it by the Conference.

11. In case any vacancy occurs on the N.A.C. between Conferences, the unsuccessful candidate receiving the largest number of votes at the preceding election shall fill the vacancy. Vacancies in the list of officers shall be filled up by the vote of the branches.

12. The principle of the second ballot shall be observed in all elections.

13. The Conference shall choose in which Divisional Area the next Conference shall be held.

V.--PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES

1. The N.A.C. shall keep a list of members of the Party from which candidates may be selected by branches.

2. Any Branch at any time may nominate any eligible member of the Party to be placed upon that list.

3. The N.A.C. itself may place names on the list.

4. No person shall be placed upon this list unless he has been a member of the Party for at least twelve months.

5. Branches desiring to place a candidate in their constituencies must in the first instance communicate with the N.A.C., and have the candidate selected at a properly convened conference of representatives of the local branches of all societies affiliated with the Labor Party, so that the candidate may be chosen in accordance with the constitution of the Labor Party. The N.A.C. shall have power to suspend this clause where local or other circumstances appear to justify such a course.

6. Before the N.A.C. sanctions any candidature it shall be entitled to secure guarantees of adequate local financial support.

7. No Branch shall take any action which affects prejudicially the position or prospects of a Parliamentary candidate, who has received the credentials of the Labor Party, without first laying the case before the N.A.C.

8. Each candidate must undertake that he will run his election in accordance with the principles and policy of the Party, and that if elected he will support the Party on all questions coming within the scope of the principles of the I.L.P.

* * * * *

_The Constitution shall not be altered or amended except every third year, unless upon the requisition of two-thirds of the N.A.C. or one-third of the branches of the Party, when the proposed alterations or amendments shall be considered at the following Conference._--Resolution, Edinburgh, 1909.

BASIS OF THE FABIAN SOCIETY

The Fabian Society consists of Socialists.

It therefore aims at the re-organization of society by the emancipation of land and industrial capital from individual and class ownership, and the vesting of them in the community for the general benefit. In this way only can the natural and acquired advantages of the country be equitably shared by the whole people.

The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property in land and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of rent, of the price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as for the advantages of superior soils and sites.

The Society, further, works for the transfer to the community of the administration of such industrial capital as can conveniently be managed socially. For, owing to the monopoly of the means of production in the past, industrial inventions and the transformation of surplus income into capital have mainly enriched the proprietary class, the worker being now dependent on that class for leave to earn a living.

If these measures be carried out, without compensation (though not without such relief to expropriated individuals as may seem fit to the community), rent and interest will be added to the reward of labor, the idle class now living on the labor of others will necessarily disappear, and practical equality of opportunity will be maintained by the spontaneous action of economic forces with much less interference with personal liberty than the present system entails.

For the attainment of these ends the Fabian Society looks to the spread of Socialist opinions, and the social and political changes consequent thereon. It seeks to promote these by the general dissemination of knowledge as to the relation between the individual and society in its economic, ethical, and political aspects.

The following questions are addressed to Parliamentary candidates by the Fabians:

Will you press at the first opportunity for the following reforms:--

I.--_A Labor Program_

1. The extension of the Workmen's Compensation Act to seamen, and to all other classes of wage earners?

2. Compulsory arbitration, as in New Zealand, to prevent strikes and lockouts?

3. A statutory minimum wage, as in Victoria, especially for sweated trades?

4. The fixing of "an eight-hours' day" as the maximum for all public servants; and the abolition, wherever possible, of overtime?

5. An Eight-Hours' Bill, without an option clause, for miners; and, for railway servants, a forty-eight-hours' week?

6. The drastic amendment of the Factory Acts, to secure (_a_) a safe and healthy work-place for every worker, (_b_) the prevention of overwork for all women and young persons, (_c_) the abolition of all wage-labor by children under 14, (_d_) compulsory technical instruction by extension of the half-time arrangements to all workers under 18?

7. The direct employment of labor by all public authorities whenever possible; and, whenever it is not possible, employment only of fair houses, prohibition of sub-contracting, and payment of trade-union rates of wages?

8. The amendment of the Merchant Shipping Acts so as (_a_) to secure healthy sleeping and living accommodation, (_b_) to protect the seaman against withholding of his wages or return passage, (_c_) to insure him against loss by shipwreck?

II.--_A Democratic Budget_

9. The further taxation of unearned incomes by means of a graduated and differentiated income-tax?

10. The abolition of all duties on tea, cocoa, coffee, currants, and other dried fruits?

11. An increase of the scale of graduation of the death duties, so as to fall more heavily on large inheritances?

12. The appropriation of the unearned increment by the taxation and rating of ground values?

13. The nationalization of mining rents and royalties?

14. Transfer of the railways to the State under the Act of 1844?

III.--_Social Reform in Town and Country_

15. The extension of full powers to parish, town, and county councils for the collective organization of the (_a_) water, (_b_) gas and (_c_) electric lighting supplies, (_d_) hydraulic power, (_e_) tramways and light railways, (_f_) public slaughter-houses, (_g_) pawnshops, (_h_) sale of milk, (_i_) bread, (_j_) coal, and such other public services as may be desired by the inhabitants?

16. Reform of the drink traffic by (_a_) reduction of the number of licenses to a proper ratio to the population of each locality, (_b_) transfer to public purposes of the special value of licenses, created by the existing monopoly, by means of high license or a license rate, (_c_) grant of power to local authorities to carry on municipal public houses, directly or on the Gothenburg system?

17. Amendment of the Housing of the Working Classes Act by (_a_) extension of period of loans to one hundred years, treatment of land as an asset, and removal of statutory limitation of borrowing powers for housing, (_b_) removal of restrictions on rural district councils in adopting Part III. of the Act, (_c_) grant of power to parish councils to adopt Part III. of the Act, (_d_) power to all local authorities to buy land compulsorily under the allotments clauses of the Local Government Act, 1894, or in any other effective manner?

18. The grant of power to all local bodies to retain the free-hold of any land that may come into their possession, without obligation to sell, or to use for particular purposes?

19. The relief of the existing taxpayer by (_a_) imposing, for local purposes, a municipal death duty on local real estate, collected in the same way as the existing death duties, (_b_) collecting rates from the owners of empty houses and vacant land, (_c_) power to assess land and houses at four per cent. on the capital value, (_d_) securing special contributions by way of "betterment" from the owners of property benefited by public improvements?

20. The further equalization of the rates in London?

21. The compulsory provision by every local authority of adequate hospital accommodation for all diseases and accidents?

IV.--_The Children and the Poor_

22. The prohibition of the industrial or wage-earning employment of children during school terms prior to the age of 14?

23. The provision of meals, out of public funds, for necessitous children in public elementary schools?

24. The training of teachers under public control and free from sectarian influences?

25. The creation of a complete system of public secondary education genuinely available to the children of the poor?

26. State pensions for the support of the aged or chronically infirm?

V.--_Democratic Political Machinery_

27. An amendment of the registration laws, with the aim of giving every adult man a vote, and no one more than one vote?

28. A redistribution of seats in accordance with population?

29. The grant of the franchise to women on the same terms as to men?

30. The admission of women to seats in the House of Commons and on borough and county councils?

31. The second ballot at Parliamentary and other elections?

32. The payment of all members of Parliament and of Parliamentary election expenses, out of public funds?

33. Triennial Parliaments?

34. All Parliamentary elections to be held on the same day?

THE PROGRAM OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION, 1906

OBJECT

The Socialization of the Means of Production, Distribution, and Exchange, to be controlled by a Democratic State in the interests of the entire community, and the complete Emancipation of Labor from the Domination of Capitalism and Landlordism, with the establishment of Social and Economic Equality between the Sexes.

The economic development of modern society is characterized by the more or less complete domination of the capitalistic mode of production over all branches of human labor.

The capitalistic mode of production, because it has the creation of profit for its sole object, therefore favors the larger capital, and is based upon the divorcement of the majority of the people from the instruments of production and the concentration of these instruments in the hands of a minority. Society is thus divided into two opposite classes: one, the capitalists and their sleeping partners, the landlords and loanmongers, holding in their hands the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and being, therefore, able to command the labor of others; the other, the working-class, the wage-earners, the proletariat, possessing nothing but their labor-power, and being consequently forced by necessity to work for the former.

The social division thus produced becomes wider and deeper with every new advance in the application of labor-saving machinery. It is most clearly recognizable, however, in the times of industrial and commercial crises, when, in consequence of the present chaotic conditions of carrying on national and international industry, production periodically comes to a standstill, and a number of the few remaining independent producers are thrown into the ranks of the proletariat. Thus, while on one hand there is incessantly going on an accumulation of capital, wealth, and power into a steadily diminishing number of hands, there is, on the other hand, a constantly growing insecurity of livelihood for the mass of wage-earners, an increasing disparity between human wants and the opportunity of acquiring the means for their satisfaction, and a steady physical and mental deterioration among the more poverty-stricken of the population.

But the more this social division widens, the stronger grows the revolt--more conscious abroad than here--of the proletariat against the capitalist system of society in which this division and all that accompanies it have originated, and find such fruitful soil. The capitalist mode of production, by massing the workers in large factories, and creating an interdependence, not only between various trades and branches of industries, but even national industries, prepares the ground and furnishes material for a universal class war. That class war may at first--as in this country--be directed against the abuses of the system, and not against the system itself; but sooner or later the workers must come to recognize that nothing short of the expropriation of the capitalist class, the ownership by the community of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, can put an end to their abject economic condition; and then the class war will become conscious instead of unconscious on the part of the working-classes, and they will have for their ultimate object the overthrow of the capitalist system. At the same time, since the capitalist class holds and uses the power of the State to safeguard its position and beat off any attack, the class war must assume a political character, and become a struggle on the part of the workers for the possession of the political machinery.

It is this struggle for the conquest of the political power of the State, in order to effect a social transformation, which International Social Democracy carries on in the name and on behalf of the working-class. Social Democracy, therefore, is the only possible political party of the proletariat. The Social Democratic Federation is a part of this International Social Democracy. It, therefore, takes its stand on the above principles, and believes--

1. That the emancipation of the working-class can only be achieved through the socialization of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and their subsequent control by the organized community in the interests of the whole people.

2. That, as the proletariat is the last class to achieve freedom, its emancipation will mean the emancipation of the whole of mankind, without distinction of race, nationality, creed, or sex.

3. That this emancipation can only be the work of the working-class itself, organized nationally and internationally into a distinct political party, consciously striving after the realization of its ideals; and, finally,

4. That, in order to insure greater material and moral facilities for the working-class to organize itself and to carry on the class war, the following reforms must immediately be carried through:--

IMMEDIATE REFORMS

_Political_

Abolition of the Monarchy.

Democratization of the Governmental machinery, viz., abolition of the House of Lords, payment of members of legislative and administrative bodies, payment of official expenses of elections out of the public funds, adult suffrage, proportional representation, triennial parliaments, second ballot, initiative and referendum. Foreigners to be granted rights of citizenship after two years' residence in the country, without any fees. Canvassing to be made illegal. All elections to take place on one day, such day to be made a legal holiday, and all premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquors to be closed.

Legislation by the people in such wise that no legislative proposal shall become law until ratified by the majority of the people.

Legislative and administrative independence for all parts of the Empire.

_Financial and Fiscal_

Repudiation of the National Debt.

Abolition of all indirect taxation and the institution of a cumulative tax on all incomes and inheritance exceeding L300.

_Administrative_

Extension of the principle of local self-government.

Systematization and co-ordination of the local administrative bodies.

Election of all administrators and administrative bodies by equal direct adult suffrage.

_Educational_

Elementary education to be free, secular, industrial, and compulsory for all classes. The age of obligatory school attendance to be raised to 16.

Unification and systematization of intermediate and higher education, both general and technical, and all such education to be free.

State maintenance for all attending State schools.

Abolition of school rates; the cost of education in all State schools to be borne by the National Exchequer.

_Public Monopolies and Services_

Nationalization of the land and the organization of labor in agriculture and industry under public ownership and control on co-operative principles.

Nationalization of the trusts.

Nationalization of railways, docks, and canals, and all great means of transit.

Public ownership and control of gas, electric light, and water supplies, as well as of tramway, omnibus, and other locomotive services.

Public ownership and control of the food and coal supply.

The establishment of State and municipal banks and pawnshops and public restaurants.

Public ownership and control of the lifeboat service.

Public ownership and control of hospitals, dispensaries, cemeteries, and crematoria.

Public ownership and control of the drink traffic.

_Labor_

A legislative eight-hour working-day, or 48 hours per week, to be the maximum for all trades and industries. Imprisonment to be indicted on employers for any infringement of the law.

Absolute freedom of combination for all workers, with legal guarantee against any action, private or public, which tends to curtail or infringe it.

No child to be employed in any trade or occupation until 16 years of age, and imprisonment to be inflicted on employers, parents, and guardians who infringe this law.

Public provision of useful work at not less than trade-union rates of wages for the unemployed.

Free State insurance against sickness and accident, and free and adequate State pensions or provision for aged and disabled workers. Public assistance not to entail any forfeiture of political rights.

The legislative enactment of a minimum wage of 30s. for all workers. Equal pay for both sexes for the performance of equal work.

_Social_

Abolition of the present workhouse system, and reformed administration of the Poor Law on a basis of national co-operation.

Compulsory construction by public bodies of healthy dwellings for the people; such dwellings to be let at rents to cover the cost of construction and maintenance alone, and not to cover the cost of the land.

The administration of justice and legal advice to be free to all; justice to be administered by judges chosen by the people; appeal in criminal cases; compensation for those innocently accused, condemned, and imprisoned; abolition of imprisonment for contempt of court in relation to non-payment of debt in the case of workers earning less than L2 per week; abolition of capital punishment.

_Miscellaneous_

The disestablishment and disendowment of all State churches.

The abolition of standing armies, and the establishment of national citizen forces. The people to decide on peace and war.

The establishment of international courts of arbitration.

The abolition of courts-martial; all offenses against discipline to be transferred to the jurisdiction of civil courts.

THE LABOR PARTY: SESSION OF PARLIAMENT, 1911-1912

[At the beginning of every session of Parliament, the Labor Party members agree on a program of procedure to which they adhere for that session. They stick to the bills, in the order chosen, until they are either passed or defeated. The following is the list for 1911.]

Bills to be balloted for in order named:

1. Trade Union Amendment Bill.
2. Unemployed Workmen Bill.
3. Education (Administrative Provisions) Bill.
4. Electoral Reform Bill.
5. Eight-Hour Day Bill.
6. Bill to Provide against Eviction of Workmen during Trade
Disputes.
7. Railway Nationalization Bill.

Motions to be balloted for in order named:

1. Militarism and Foreign Policy: (on lines of Resolution passed
by the Special Conference at Leicester).
2. Defect in Sheriffs' Courts Bill (Scotland) relating to power of
Eviction during Trade Disputes.
3. General 30s. Minimum Wage.

Other Motions from which selection may be made after the three
foregoing subjects have been dealt with:

Saturday to Monday Stop.
Eviction of Workmen during Trade Disputes.
Extension of Particulars Clause to Docks, etc.
Nationalization of Hospitals.
Adult Suffrage.
Commission of Inquiry into Older Universities.
Workmen's Compensation Amendment.
Atmosphere and Dust in Textile Factories.
System of Fines in Textile and Other Trades.
Inclusion of Clerks in Factory Acts.
Eight-Hour Day.
Electoral Reform.
Inquiry into Industrial Assurance.
Poor Law Reform.
Truck.
Railway and Mining Accidents.
Labor Exchanges Administration.
Labor Ministry.
Veto Conference.
Day Training Classes.
School Clinics.
Indian Factory Laws.
Hours in Bakehouses.
House-letting in Scotland.

FABIAN ELECTION ADDRESS

[The following is an election broadside issued for the municipal election of London, soon after the establishment of municipal home rule for the metropolis, by the organization of the London County Council. It discloses the practical nature of the earlier Fabian political activities.]

COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTION: ADDRESS OF MR. SIDNEY WEBB, LL.B.
(LONDON UNIVERSITY), (PROGRESSIVE AND LABOR CANDIDATE)

Central Committee Rooms,
484, New Cross Road, S.E.

ELECTORS OF DEPTFORD,

On the nomination of a Joint Committee of Delegates of the Liberal and Radical Association, the Women's Liberal Association, the Working Men's Clubs, and leading Trade Unionists and Social Reformers in Deptford, I come forward as a Candidate for the County Council Election. I shall seek to lift the contest above any narrow partisan lines, and I ask for the support of all who are interested in the well-being of the people.

_The Point at Issue_

For much is at stake for London at this Election. Notwithstanding the creation of the County Council, the ratepayers of the Metropolis are still deprived of the ordinary powers of municipal self-government. They have to bear needlessly heavy burdens for a very defective management of their public affairs. The result is seen in the poverty, the misery, and the intemperance that disgrace our city. A really Progressive County Council can do much (as the present Council has shown), both immediately to benefit the people of London, and also to win for them genuine self-government. Do you wish your County Council to attempt nothing more for London than the old Metropolitan Board of Works? This is, in effect, the Reactionary, or so-called "Moderate," program. Or shall we make our County Council a mighty instrument of the people's will for the social regeneration of this great city, and the "Government of London by London for London?" That is what I stand for.

_Relief of the Taxpayer_

But the crushing burden of the occupier's rates must be reduced, not increased. Even with the strictest economy the administration of a growing city must be a heavy burden. The County Council should have power to tax the ground landlord, who now pays no rates at all directly. Moreover, the rates must be equalized throughout London. Why should the Deptford ratepayer have to pay nearly two shillings in the pound more than the inhabitant of St. George's, Hanover Square? And we must get at the unearned increment for the benefit of the people of London, who create it.

_A Labor Program_

I am in favor of Trade Union wages and an eight-hours day for all persons employed by the Council. I am dead against sub-contracting, and would like to see the Council itself the direct employer of all labor.

_Municipalization_

At present London pays an utterly unnecessary annual tribute, because, unlike other towns, it leaves its water supply, its gas-works, its tramways, its markets, and its docks in the hands of private speculators. I am in favor of replacing private by Democratic public ownership and management, as soon and as far as safely possible. It is especially urgent to secure public control of the water supply, the tramways, and the docks. Moreover, London ought to manage its own police, and all its open spaces.

_The Condition of the Poor_

But the main object of all our endeavors must be to raise the standard of life of our poorer fellow-citizens, now crushed by the competitive struggle. As one of the most urgent social reforms, especially in the interests of Temperance, I urge the better housing of the people; the provision, by the Council itself, of improved dwellings and common lodging-houses of the best possible types, and a strict enforcement of the sanitary laws against the owners of slum property.

_Local Questions_

I believe in local attention to local grievances, and I should deem it my duty, if elected, to look closely after Deptford interests, especially with regard to the need for more open spaces, and the early completion of the new Thames tunnel.

A more detailed account of my views may be found in my book, "The London Programme," and other writings. I am a Londoner born and bred, and have made London questions the chief study of my life. I have had thirteen years' administrative experience in a Government office, a position which I have resigned in order to give my whole time to London's service. With regard to my general opinions, it will be enough to say that I have long been an active member of the Fabian Society, and of the Executive Committee of the London Liberal and Radical Union.

SIDNEY WEBB.

4, Park Village East, Regent's Park, N.W.

The following meetings have already been arranged. Others will be announced shortly.

February 11.--Lecture Hall, High Street, at 8 P.M.
February 25.--Lecture Hall High Street, at 8 P.M.
March 3.--New Cross Hall, Lewisham High Road, at 8 P.M.

FABIAN ELECTION DODGER

[The Fabians and other Socialists broke into London municipal politics under the name "Progressives." The following is one of their earliest election dodgers.]

COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTION

_Saturday, March 5, 1892_

Part of the

PROGRAM OF THE PROGRESSIVES

_Rates._--Reduce the Occupiers' Rates one-half, by charging that portion upon the great Landlords, whose ground values are increased by every improvement, and are now untaxed; and by a Municipal Death Duty.

_Gas and Water._--Reduce the cost and improve the quality and quantity by new sources of supply, if the present Companies will not come to terms favorable to the Taxpayer.

_City Companies._--Apply their whole Income of, say L500,000 (on leave obtained from the new Parliament), for the benefit of London. The Royal Commission of 1884 stated that this income is virtually Public Property. About L300,000 is now squandered each year among the members and their friends.

_Homes for the Poor._--The Poor can all be comfortably housed, as in the Municipal Dwellings of Glasgow and Liverpool, without extra cost to the Taxpayer, and the "Doss-houses" abolished.

_Cheap Food._--By doing away with the Market Monopolies of the City Corporation and other private owners, Food can be lowered in price. Good food, especially fish, is now often destroyed or sold for manure to keep up the price.

_Poor Man's Vote._--One-third of your Votes are lost. The Registration Laws must be thoroughly altered.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Debates, House of Lords, July, 31, 1885. The speech was privately printed.

[2] Debates, May 19, 1890. This speech was also given private circulation.

VI. GENERAL

1. ORIGIN OF THE WORD "COLLECTIVISM"

"This word, invented by Colins, came into common use toward the end of the Empire. Bakunin used it in the congress at Berne in 1868, to oppose it to the communistic regime of Cabet. An economist in 1869 designated, under this name, the system under which production will be confined to communes or parishes. The Socialists who opposed authority, disciples of Bakunin, used the word for a long time to designate their doctrine. The section of Locle was one of the first to employ it. But by and by, about 1878, the Marxists, partisans of the proletarian reign, used the word 'collectivism' to distinguish their 'scientific Socialism,' of which term they were fond, from the communistic utopias of the older school, which they discovered. And they gave to Bakunins the name Anarchists. These accepted the name, taking care to write it with a hyphen, _an-archie_, as their master Proudhon had done. They soon dropped the hyphen and accepted the word anarchy as a declaration of war against all things as they are."[1]

2. TABLE SHOWING RESULTS OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

(COMPILED FROM REPORT OF SECRETARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL, 1910)

====================+===========+===========+===========+==============
| _No. | _Total No.|_No. Seats |_Per cent. of
_Country_ | Socialist | Seats in |Held by |Socialists
| Votes_ |Parliament_|Socialists_| Seats_
--------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------------
Great Britain (1910)| 505,690 | 670 | 40 | 5.97
Germany (1912) | 4,250,000 | 397 | 110 | 38.81
Luxemburg (1909) | | 48 | 10 | 20.8
Austria (1907) | 1,041,948 | 516 | 88 | 17.06
France (1910) | 1,106,047 | 584 | 76 | 13.01
Italy (1909) | 338,885 | 508 | 42 | 8.26
Spain (1910) | 40,000 | 404 | 1 | 0.25
Russia | | 442 | 17 | 3.82
Finland (1910) | 316,951 | 200 | 86 | 43.00
Norway (1907) | 90,000 | 123 | 11 | 8.94
Sweden (1909) | 75,000 | 165 | 36 | 21.81
Denmark (1910) | 98,721 | 114 | 24 | 21.06
Holland (1909) | 82,494 | 100 | 7 | 7.00
Belgium (1910) | 483,241 | 166 | 35 | 21.08
Switzerland (1908) | 100,000 | 170 | 7 | 4.11
Turkey (1908) | | 196 | 6 | 3.06
Servia (1908) | 3,056 | 160 | 1 | 0.62
U.S.A. (1910) | | | 1 |
--------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------------

IN 1910 THE SOCIALISTS HELD THE FOLLOWING NUMBER OF LOCAL OFFICERS, ACCORDING TO THE REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY

============================+============================
Great Britain 1126 | Finland 351
Germany 7729 | Norway 873
Austria-Bohemia 2896 | Sweden 125
Hungary 96 | Denmark 1000
France 3800 | Belgium 850
Bulgaria 7 | Servia 22
----------------------------+----------------------------

3. TABLE SHOWING THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY, IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES

(COMPILED FROM REPORTS OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL, 1909-10)

=========================+===================+===================
| 1907 | 1908
-------------------------+-------+-----------+-------+-----------
|_Local | |_Local |
_Country_ |Groups_| _Members_ |Groups_| _Members_
-------------------------+-------+-----------+-------+-----------
Great Britain, L.P. | 275 | 1,072,412 | 307 | 1,152,786
| | | |
Great Britain, J.L.P. | 600 | 35,000 | 765 | 50,000
Great Britain, S.D.F. | 202 | 14,500 | 250 | 16,000
Great Britain, Fabians | 10 | 1,207 | 27 | 2,015
Germany | 2704 | 530,466 | 3120 | 587,336
| | (10,943)| | (29,458)
Austria | | | |
Bohemia | | | |
| | | |
Hungary | | 130,000 | | 102,054
France | | 48,237 | | 49,328
Italy | | | | 43,000
Russia* | 8 | 16,000 | 8 | 5,000
Spain | | | |
Poland-Prussian | | | 10 | 400
Poland-Russian | | 22,700 | |
Finland | 1156 | 80,328 | 1127 | 71,266
| | (18,873)| | (16,826)
Norway | 499 | 23,000 | 602 | 27,500
| | (1,800)| | (2,000)
Sweden | | | 296 | 112,693
Denmark | | | |
Holland | 167 | 7,471 | 176 | 8,411
Belgium | 803 | 161,239 | | 183,997
Switzerland | | | |
Servia | | 615 | |
Bulgaria | 71 | 2,658 | 80 | 2,886
U.S.A. | 1900 | 26,784 | |
-------------------------+-------+-----------+-------+-----------
=========================+====================
| 1909
-------------------------+-------+------------
|_Local |
_Country_ |Groups_| _Members_
-------------------------+-------+------------
Great Britain, L.P. | 318 | 1,481,368
| | (4,000)
Great Britain, J.L.P. | 900 | 60,000
Great Britain, S.D.F. | | 17,000
Great Britain, Fabians | 39 | 2,462
Germany | 3281 | 633,309
| | (62,259)
Austria | | 126,000
Bohemia | 2462 | 156,000
| | (6,000)
Hungary | 769 | 85,266
France | 2500 | 51,692
Italy | | 30,000
Russia* | 8 | 3,000
Spain | |
Poland-Prussian | 40 | 1,500
Poland-Russian | | 3,500
Finland | |
| |
Norway | 637 | 26,500
| | (2,500)
Sweden | 338 | 60,183
Denmark | 360 | 47,000
Holland | 211 | 9,289
Belgium | 906 | 185,318
Switzerland | 23 | 21,132
Servia | | 1,950
Bulgaria | 109 | 4,287
U.S.A. | 3200 | 53,375
-------------------------+-------+-----------

* Province of Lettland.

Figures in parenthesis indicate number of women members.

4. AMERICAN SOCIALIST PARTY PLATFORM

[Adopted by National Convention May, 1908, and by Membership Referendum August 8th, 1908. Amended by Referendum September 7th, 1909.]

PRINCIPLES

Human life depends upon food, clothing, and shelter. Only with these assured are freedom, culture, and higher human development possible. To produce food, clothing, or shelter, land and machinery are needed. Land alone does not satisfy human needs. Human labor creates machinery and applies it to the land for the production of raw materials and food. Whoever has control of land and machinery controls human labor, and with it human life and liberty.

To-day the machinery and the land used for industrial purposes are owned by a rapidly decreasing minority. So long as machinery is simple and easily handled by one man, its owner cannot dominate the sources of life of others. But when machinery becomes more complex and expensive, and requires for its effective operation the organized effort of many workers, its influence reaches over wide circles of life. The owners of such machinery become the dominant class.

In proportion as the number of such machine owners compared to all other classes decreases, their power in the nation and in the world increases. They bring ever larger masses of working people under their control, reducing them to the point where muscle and brain are their only productive property. Millions of formerly self-employing workers thus become the helpless wage slaves of the industrial masters.

As the economic power of the ruling class grows it becomes less useful in the life of the nation. All the useful work of the nation falls upon the shoulders of the class whose only property is its manual and mental labor power--the wage worker--or of the class who have but little land and little effective machinery outside of their labor power--the small traders and small farmers. The ruling minority is steadily becoming useless and parasitic.

A bitter struggle over the division of the products of labor is waged between the exploiting propertied classes on the one hand and the exploited propertyless class on the other. In this struggle the wage-working class cannot expect adequate relief from any reform of the present order at the hands of the dominant class.

The wage workers are therefore the most determined and irreconcilable antagonists of the ruling class. They suffer most from the curse of class rule. The fact that a few capitalists are permitted to control all the country's industrial resources and social tools for their individual profit, and to make the production of the necessaries of life the object of competitive private enterprise and speculation is at the bottom of all the social evils of our time.

In spite of the organization of trusts, pools, and combinations, the capitalists are powerless to regulate production for social ends. Industries are largely conducted in a planless manner. Through periods of feverish activity the strength and health of the workers are mercilessly used up, and during periods of enforced idleness the workers are frequently reduced to starvation.

The climaxes of this system of production are the regularly recurring industrial depressions and crises which paralyze the nation every fifteen or twenty years.

The capitalist class, in its mad race for profits, is bound to exploit the workers to the very limit of their endurance and to sacrifice their physical, moral, and mental welfare to its own insatiable greed. Capitalism keeps the masses of workingmen in poverty, destitution, physical exhaustion, and ignorance. It drags their wives from their homes to the mill and factory. It snatches their children from the playgrounds and schools and grinds their slender bodies and unformed minds into cold dollars. It disfigures, maims, and kills hundreds of thousands of workingmen annually in mines, on railroads, and in factories. It drives millions of workers into the ranks of the unemployed and forces large numbers of them into beggary, vagrancy, and all forms of crime and vice.

To maintain their rule over their fellow-men, the capitalists must keep in their pay all organs of the public powers, public mind, and public conscience. They control the dominant parties and, through them, the elected public officials. They select the executives, bribe the legislatures, and corrupt the courts of justice. They own and censor the press. They dominate the educational institutions. They own the nation politically and intellectually just as they own it industrially.

The struggle between wage workers and capitalists grows ever fiercer, and has now become the only vital issue before the American people. The wage-working class, therefore, has the most direct interest in abolishing the capitalist system. But in abolishing the present system, the workingmen will free not only their own class, but also all other classes of modern society. The small farmer, who is to-day exploited by large capital more indirectly but not less effectively than is the wage laborer; the small manufacturer and trader, who is engaged in a desperate and losing struggle for economic independence in the face of the all-conquering power of concentrated capital; and even the capitalist himself, who is the slave of his wealth rather than its master. The struggle of the working class against the capitalist class, while it is a class struggle, is thus at the same time a struggle for the abolition of all classes and class privileges.

The private ownership of the land and means of production used for exploitation, is the rock upon which class rule is built; political government is its indispensable instrument. The wage-workers cannot be freed from exploitation without conquering the political power and substituting collective for private ownership of the land and means of production used for exploitation.

The basis for such transformation is rapidly developing within present capitalist society. The factory system, with its complex machinery and minute division of labor, is rapidly destroying all vestiges of individual production in manufacture. Modern production is already very largely a collective and social process. The great trusts and monopolies which have sprung up in recent years have organized the work and management of the principal industries on a national scale, and have fitted them for collective use and operation.

There can be no absolute private title to land. All private titles, whether called fee simple or otherwise, are and must be subordinate to the public title. The Socialist Party strives to prevent land from being used for the purpose of exploitation and speculation. It demands the collective possession, control, or management of land to whatever extent may be necessary to attain that end. It is not opposed to the occupation and possession of land by those using it in a useful and bona fide manner without exploitation.

The Socialist Party is primarily an economic and political movement. It is not concerned with matters of religious belief.

In the struggle for freedom the interests of all modern workers are identical. The struggle is not only national but international. It embraces the world and will be carried to ultimate victory by the united workers of the world.

To unite the workers of the nation and their allies and sympathizers of all other classes to this end, is the mission of the Socialist Party. In this battle for freedom the Socialist Party does not strive to substitute working class rule for capitalist class rule, but by working class victory, to free all humanity from class rule and to realize the international brotherhood of man.

PROGRAM

As measures calculated to strengthen the working class in its fight for the realization of this ultimate aim, and to increase its power of resistance against capitalist oppression, we advocate and pledge ourselves and our elected officers to the following program:

_General Demands_

1. The immediate government relief for the unemployed workers by building schools, by reforesting of cut-over and waste lands, by reclamation of arid tracts, and the building of canals, and by extending all other useful public works. All persons employed on such works shall be employed directly by the government under an eight-hour work-day and at the prevailing union wages. The government shall also loan money to states and municipalities without interest for the purpose of carrying on public works. It shall contribute to the funds of labor organizations for the purpose of assisting their unemployed members, and shall take such other measures within its power as will lessen the widespread misery of the workers caused by the misrule of the capitalist class.

2. The collective ownership of railroads, telegraphs, telephones, steamboat lines, and all other means of social transportation and communication.

3. The collective ownership of all industries which are organized on a national scale and in which competition has virtually ceased to exist.

4. The extension of the public domain to include mines, quarries, oil wells, forests, and water power.

5. The scientific reforestation of timber lands, and the reclamation of swamp lands. The land so reforested or reclaimed to be permanently retained as a part of the public domain.

6. The absolute freedom of press, speech, and assemblage.

_Industrial Demands_

7. The improvement of the industrial condition of the workers.