and its dominant idea is that the individual worker must be regarded not simply as a "hand," a decreasingly important adjunct to the industrial machine, but as a man among men, with rights and responsibilities, with a human soul and a desire for self-expression, self-government and personal freedom."
This dominating idea is cherished by most of us in these days. But is it likely to be achieved by the establishment of a group of great monopolies? It is rather disappointing—after the bitter criticisms of State control and bureaucratic tyranny expressed by Guild Socialists, especially by Mr. Cole—to find that the control of industry by the workers is to be exercised "in conjunction with a democratized State." Perhaps, however, the word "democratized" is expected to cover a multitude of blessings, and perhaps it might actually do so. Mr. Cole continues a little later (page 6): "Recognizing the paramount need for destroying the wage system and giving the producers the fullest possible share in the control of their life and work, National Guildsmen saw also the true function of the State and the municipality as the representatives of the consumers, of all those who had a common interest born of neighbourhood and common use of the means of
