SOCIALISM
A N D SUCCESS
A Book by W . J. Ghent that Fills a Real Need and Answers Oft-asked Questions about Socialism By T H O M A S S E L T Z E R "UNINVITED Messages," Ghent calls his six essays, and uninvited and unwelcome they must be to the de votées of the various cults to whom they are addressed. They bring home some unpalatable truths, the more ex asperating because of the form in which they are couched. W r i t t e n sine ira et studio, with perfect sobriety of tone and evident restraint, they disarm the criticism of exaggeration, a crit icism to which our more heated Socialist friends frequently make themselves liable. Fact is heaped upon fact, and all available statistics are adduced. What is there to do in such a case but just get mad? A n d that is what some of the critics have done. In the first essay, " T o the Seekers of Success," the great and mighty American deity Success is dissected, turned inside out, shivered into bits. There have been heretics in the world's history from Socrates and Savanarola to Strauss and Haeckel. They have questioned the Catholic trinity, questioned the divinity of Jesus, even questioned God. But what can equal the profan ity of one who dares to overthrow faith in the god Success? A n d yet Ghent calmly writes, e pur si muove, your American Success is humbug. After exposing the childish yet wide-spread fallacy that success is possible to all, Ghent turns to a brief analysis of the quality of success as it is known today, and reveals it in all its ugly nakedness. H e quotes Thiers : " M e n of principle need not succeed. Success is necessary only to schemers." A n d in his own words : " A n ardent pursuit of success involves an almost entire avoidance of ethical precepts. . . . It [suc cess] is too often defeat and impoverishment. It is the sacrifice of what is best in man for a trumpery prize. Whether, as with the over whelming mass of mankind, by whom the goal can never be attained, or whether, as with the few, by whom it is attained in some measure, the rage of pursuit inevitably means the harden ing of the social feelings, the extinguishment of the spirit of brotherhood, the clouding and darkening of the social vision by which a people live and become great." Returning to the subject in a subsequent essay the author says to the retainers: " Y o u cannot understand, such is your sub servient complacence, that multitudes among the revolutionary working class are proud of their unsuccess and wear it as a badge of honor. P r a y you, under the existing scheme of things, how many and what quality of men achieve 'success,' and what must they not do to achieve it? . . . It is, in the majority of cases, grafting and lying, fawning and cringing, selfishness and brutality, restrained only by that Chinese ethical standard, the necessity of 'saving your face,' that give vic tory in the struggle. A n d the men who are seek ing the overthrow of this system disdain to make use of these means. They leave the function to you." 1
It is a fact well known to Socialists that the hardest class to deal with are those who are w i l l ing to go with us a certain distance, but who stop short at the very point at which they can become useful. I n his second message Ghent turns his logical and statistical batteries upon the re formers. H i s arguments seem irrefutable. But what psychologist can tell the effect of good logic applied to indisputable facts when brought into contact with the brain of a reformer? T h e author asks the reformers exactly what they have
accomplished in their long years of activity by their favorite go-slow, "step-at-a-time" policy. His answer is : "The practical things done by you these last twenty years have not perceptibly impeded the tide of wealth concentration or lightened the gen eral lot of the poor." The trouble with the reformers, says Ghent, is, they have not the correct "philosophy of his tory." Yes, they do not know, or do not care to know, the materialistic conception of history, and they throw up their hands in pious horror at the mere mention of the class struggle. T o be a politician out of a job is bad enough. But to be a politician with no prospect of a job is worse still. So Ghent, perhaps, is wasting his time in trying to teach the reformer the materialistic conception of history and the class struggle. Nevertheless, there are sincere reformers who must be taken account of. F o r although their condition is chronic and in most cases hopeless, it occasionally yields to expert radical treatment. Ghent is at his best in speaking " T o the Re tainers," and also at his angriest. The author of
that the subject is not worth discussing. "So cialism and Success" is in the main a criticism of the present social order in advocacy of Socialism. To introduce a question of differences between certain individuals within the Socialist party in such a general book on Socialism is as ap propriate as it would be to give the NewtonLeibnitz controversy in a textbook on calculus. It not only attaches exaggerated importance to the differences but assumes a degree of interest in them among non-Socialist readers—for it is to the non-Socialist that the book is in the main ad dressed—which is unwarranted by fact. Surely M r . Ghent realizes that it is one thing to know So cialism, another, to be familiar with the compo sition and spirit of the Socialist party. A knowl edge of the one can be obtained from books; a thorough knowledge of the other is scarcely pos sible without actual and continued participation in the work of the party. W h a t place, then, has " T o Some Socialists" in the general plan of the book?
" T o Skeptics and Doubters" is a real and much-needed addition to 'Socialist literature. Here Ghent may be said to have undertaken street cleaner's work in Socialist authorship. A n d he has done it well. W e hope his recompense will be commensurate with the unpleasantness of his task, and some form of reward will be found by the Socialists to keep the incentive alive in him. For what Socialist has not smarted under an at The Ordered Restraints tack of the questions that are answered so ably in this essay? H o w can you bring about Social OF SOCIALISM- WILL ism ? What will be the incentive to work ? What Endow MANKIND WITH will you do with the lazy people? W h o will do the dirty work? T o those of us who are im A L I B E R T Y WHICH IT patient and whose sense of humor is insufficient HAS NEVER BEFORE to carry them easily over such futilities there is now an excellent way out. Give your questioner K N O W N . the last essay in "Socialism and Success." Make him read it. If he is sincere he will stop asking W.J. GHENT questions. F o r M r . Ghent answers them as well as any man can who is not endowed with the gift of prophecy. If the querist does not stop ask ing questions, draw your own conclusions.
"Our Benevolent F e u d a l i s m " cannot touch this subject without w a x i n g thoroughly indignant. W h a t was said above of his restraint does not apply to his essay on the "retainers." H e r e he throws aside his reserve, and i n plain terms berates the lawyer, the professor, the teacher, the minister, the editor—all those upon whom devolves the duty of preserving by precept and practice the system of capitalism which is their masters'. W e doubt whether many of the retainers will read this essay, not to speak of enjoying it. It is too shockingly direct and outspoken. It has none of the precious quality of talking around the subject and evading the essential which makes the bulk of our contemporary literature so safe and 'sane, and« gives so pleasant a feeling of security. Its argument is not based upon a technicality, but upon the broad basis of a comprehensive prin ciple. "Crude" is a nice little word with which to characterize this style of writing and dismiss the subject summarily. " T o the Retainers" is the best of the essays. It will prove a source of pleasure and instruction to many readers not within the circle of "retainers." The message " T o Some Socialists" strikes a jarring note. It is out of keeping with the entire scheme of the book. Not that Socialists need be afraid of showing their faults to the public, nor 12
The book throughout breathes a warm, manly, proletarian spirit. It shows that esteem for the working class which comes from a full apprecia tion of the grand historic mission it is destined to fulfil and which, is characteristic of the best Socialist writers in our own country and abroad. Blind to the faults of the working class Ghent certainly is not, but for that very reason the trib ute he pays it is all the more convincing. "This class," he says, "for all its present de fects has vast latent powers of self-reformation and upbuilding. It learns by experience—a thing the ruling class rarely does; and its experiences in this day of capitalist supremacy are of a sort which tend ever to give it a better understanding of its environment, a closer unity, a greater de termination and a higher ideal of its mission. F r o m every repulse it returns upon itself, gaining new strength and a riper knowledge. Year by year it sees more clearly the futility of its earlier modes of warfare and comes more generally to accept the tactics of its Socialist vanguard. There are momentary reactions from this tendency here and there, but the whole movement of the work ing class throughout the civilized world is in creasingly toward Socialism." Is it heresy for a Socialist to admit a weakness for good English? If so the reviewer pleads guilty. The pleasure of reading "Socialism and Success" was heightened for him by its fine style.
