202

THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

changed  for  the  labour-notes  and  the  labour-notes  for  them.
This  mechanism  of  exchange  is  ingenious.  The  larger  co-operative ­
  stores  in  London  give  some  idea  of  it,  though  they  do  not
form  an  integral  part  of  Collectivism.  A  more  accurate  conception ­
  of  the  system  would  be  gained  by  supposing  that  the
“  Equitable  Pioneers  of  Rochdale  ”  had  been  so  successful  that
everything  had  passed  into  their  hands—lands,  houses,  shops,
factories,  and  working  establishments  of  all  kinds—and  that  all
other  districts  had  followed  the  example  of  Rochdale.
Collectivism  does  not  involve  the  complete  abolition  of
hereditary  succession  ;  but  as  all  immovable  property  would
belong  to  either  State,  Communes,  or  Corporations,  and  as  every
man  would  be  obliged  to  live  henceforth  by  the  trade  he
exercised  or  by  the  function  he  fulfilled,  it  would  follow  that
the  power  of  accumulation  would  be  very  much  reduced,  and
that  the  right  of  inheritance  would  be  limited  to  movables.
Dr.  Schæffle  seems  almost  to  believe  that  such  an  ideal
might  be  realized  in  the  future  ;  at  any  rate,  he  points  out  clearly
the  condition  of  ultimate  success.  No  Socialist  reform,  he  says,
can  succeed  which  ignores  the  psychological  fact  on  which  the
individualistic  system  at  present  rests,  namely,  that  private
interest  is  the  great  incentive  to  production.  It  is  not  by  formal
rules,  nor  by  appeals  to  sentiments  of  duty  and  honour,  that  we
can  secure  the  care  and  zeal  necessary  for  producing  as  much
as  possible  at  the  lowest  cost,  without  waste  of  time  or  material.
The  main  difficulty  lies  in  the  efficient  management  of  large
industrial  enterprises.  It  is  through  the  want  of  good  management ­
  that  so  many  co-operative  societies  have  failed.  Collectivism ­
  assumes  that  bodies  of  working  men  are  capable  of
carrying  on  collective  industries  with  as  much  success  as  enterprises ­
  based  on  private  property.  Once  they  have  given  proof
of  this,  the  triumph  of  the  new  organization  will  only  be  a  question ­
  of  time  ;  but  so  long  as  the  labouring  classes  do  not  show
themselves  capable  of  doing  without  the  guidance  of  masters,
all  attempts  at  hastening,  by  revolutionary  means,  the  advent
of  the  new  order  of  things  will  only  end  in  lamentable  failure.
Collectivism,  also  called  by  its  advocates  Communisme  libertaire, ­
  has  become  the  watchword  of  revolutionary  Socialism