Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/69

mercialism is its chaos. It has no system at all. A B and C engage in competition with each other. Nothing but capacity of output or danger of bankruptcy limits and controls their activities. They pour upon `the markets their goods; they manufacture their stocks in expectation of orders which may or may not come. They take work-people from other employers and callings, and may have to discharge them at the end of a week. Production is theoretically for the feeding and clothing of the people, but conducted as it is to-day by rivals who seek to stuff their victims and bury them under clothes, and who only stop their mad follies when the markets are choked, and when a paralysed industry tells them in words that cannot be mistaken that they must stop, it results in industrial disorder, uncertainty and poverty. Hence, it is true not only of over-capitalised trusts that production is bearing too heavy burdens, it is true of industry in general. There is far more capital in use than is necessary for efficient production, and for that competitive commercialism is to blame. An oft-used illustration of this is a comparison between the duplicating and overlapping milk-carts and barrows that are dragged up and down our streets of a morning, and the organised and non-competitive system of selling postage stamps. A well-organised milk trust run in the interests of the consumers would reduce the price of milk, diminish the amount of water in it, and improve its quality, not because it would eliminate