act the evil consequences of Capitalism. It was both a natural and an effective first move. It was not only a protection to the consuming public, but a legitimate demand for an extended amount of selfadministration for localities. It does not altogether fit in, however, with the complete Socialist scheme of distribution, and the time has now come for a consideration of the relative functions of the municipalities and the Co-operative movement in trading. There is a substantial difference between the municipalization of a tram and a milk supply which makes it easy to classify one under the group of municipal service, and the other under that of Co-operative service, but the boundary can hardly be fixed by any clearly drawn line of principle. For instance, a plentiful supply of cheap and clean milk is so necessary for public health and infant welfare, that no municipality can afford to neglect the matter. The best way seems to be for the municipality to arrange with the Co-operative committee of the district to supply milk of reliable quality, and to purchase from the Co-operators what it requires for its own purposes.* The whole question is one that ought to be considered by those municipalities upon which there is a good representation of labour, and in whose areas there are strong Co-operative Societies. This basic rule may be laid down. All the ordinary supplies required for individual consumption should obviously belong

*It is worthy of note how this year (1921) the milk supply is being endangered and its price kept up at artificially high standards on account of the reckless slaughter of heifers because the market price of cattle is high. Thus one can see how a capitalist interest sacrifices common well-being for its own immediate advantage. A Co-operative Society concerned with the supply of milk could not, and would not, treat its farm stock in this way.

to the business of Co-operation and should be organized as part of the machinery of distribution, with agreements, where necessary, between the Societies and the municipalities for supply, the municipalities frankly giving the Societies preferential treatment wherever possible, and regarding them as their natural allies in public service. On the other hand, all those public services like gas, water, trams, electricity, which concern the community as a corporate whole, should be under the control of the municipality but be managed in accordance with the scheme of workers' control already outlined. These great changes, however, are not yet, but they should be the vision in front of both the municipalities and Co-operation, and should guide them in their immediate plans and development.

CHAPTER VI

POLITICAL CONSTRUCTION

TH

STATE ORGANIZATION

HE State organized for police purposes, or for purposes of checking the excessive use of economic power, needs but a very simple form. It has its departments of defence which to-day are tripartite an army, a navy and an air force. Part of this organization is its Foreign Office to maintain peace and to carry on international business in such a way as to promote security. This means a staff of ambassadors, diplomatic representatives, agents and spies, a contact with a League of Nations, an International Arbitration Court. For internal purposes it has to maintain order and justice as defined by law, and it therefore provides police and judges; it has also to levy taxes for an income and has to create the necessary offices and staffs. As the communal spirit grows, and the inter-relations of individuals to each other become intimate and more and more interests arise which no number of individuals separately, and no private corporation of individuals, can look after-like public health, education, general minimum conditions of labour, the preparation of statistics relating to the national life, like the census, the volume of trade and the streams into which it is divided the organization of the State has to be extended, and thus we have Public Health, Education, Factory Inspection, Labour Departments, with

the necessary subdivisions. A further stage is reached when people begin to think of the community as something capable of serving itself and protecting itself against rivalries and disruptive forces within it. In this way we get departments concerning themselves with arbitrating in labour disputes, deciding railway rates and charges, and a provision of miscellaneous things and services like the delivery of letters and the running of trams is made and State organization adapted accordingly. For these purposes the State becomes differentiated into Legislature, Judiciary, Executive, Administration, and bodies of derived authority like municipalities are brought into being and fitted into the system.

Up to this point, the organization of the State is simple. It tries to express the general will in policy and carries out certain common civic interests of a mechanical and administrative character. Its work as to direction rests upon a general public opinion, and is made effective by a trained civil service and subordinate administrative bodies. State issues are generally raised and determined by political groups called parties, sometimes divided upon questions of principle, as when the great Reform controversies were raging, sometimes only on smaller points of a programme, or upon day to day disputes. Each of the groups, however, appears with historical reputations. They are clans with chiefs, dead and alive, battling with each other as the Campbells and MacDonalds battled, sometimes for good reason, but not infrequently for bad tradition. The issues they raise do not depend solely upon their own will, but must have something to do with general interests. They can manipulate and falsify, but the material they work upon is popular psychology. What is

known as public opinion is the swaying fortunes of the political clans. In the fight there are several groups, the sworn followers, a kind of standing clan army, the enrolled members of the political associations, and the usually detached crowd whose support depends upon the moods of the time of battle, and very often more upon the decrees of the seers as to which side is most likely to win.

The organized political groups could not offer battle-cries that were meaningless, or at which the unattached electors only yawned. Referring only to the two old parties of this country, they represented historical interests-the Conservatives or new ideas and interests-the Liberals, and by their conflicts the masses of electors got more and more political power, and more and more social or communal interests became the concern of the State. If we omit side issues and incidents, the real fight that these fought was whether or not public opinion was to determine State policy. The antagonists may have had an imperfect notion of what public opinion was, and no foresight as to what it would do, or what consequences were to follow. They may even have failed to see what their own words like Liberty or Conservation implied. In the end, it was settled that the supreme political authority in the State was to be the majority of a body of enfranchised citizens, and when that was settled, the political clans settled down to the task of capturing that majority by educative propaganda and electioneering skill. It is outside the scope of this study to detail the machinery and method evolved to do this. Suffice it to say that, on the discovery that the enfranchised masses included a large percentage of people of but poor judgment and reflective qualities, and that elections