Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/216

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

the community would find itself on short commons. In other words, before the National Guilds could be efficient as economic forces for satisfying the wants of men, we should have to have a new spirit and a new heart at work among us. This Mr. Cole himself acknowledges, for he says on page 105: 'Nothing is more certain than that both State and Trade Union if they are to form the foundation of a worthy Society, must be radically altered and penetrated by a new spirit."

And on page 9 he observes that "in a sense, the war has led men of all classes to make sacrifices; but emphatically it has not led, among the possessing classes, to a change of heart which will bring nearer a Society based on human fellowship."

So the possessing classes, in Mr. Cole's view, have still got their old bad hearts. Has there been that change of heart necessary for bringing nearer a Society based on human fellowship among the working classes? We seem to have heard of disagreements between various trade unions and between the different classes of workers. That such things should arise under the strain of a war was most natural and inevitable, but they certainly show that we have a long way to travel before the right of recogni-