Every one who has recognized the evils of the Capitalist system, and been forced to the conclusion that State Socialism, though it might cure some of these evils, could do so only at the risk of a great loss in productive output and by the establishment of bureaucratic control that might have deadening effects on moral and intellectual growth, must have been thrilled, as with the hope of spring, when he or she heard that a new school of Socialism was setting out to make things better by means of National Guilds. The word guild is hardly associated with freedom, having, as hitherto used, generally implied a more or less close corporation, very jealous of its privileges. Nevertheless, it had a pleasant mediaeval smack on the mental palate, and everybody but the most uncompromising economic Tories turned to the study of the literature of the new faith with a hopeful mind, most ready to find salvation, if it was really to be had.
