Page:The Woman Socialist - Snowden - 1907.djvu/23

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Socialism
7

consecrate his life. This, he realises, is but a means to an end, and not an end in itself. He wants the people to be lifted out of their intellectual poverty, and is anxious for material benefits because he knows that where one is strong enough to master his circumstances a thousand are conquered by them and perish miserably. But he knows better than he can be told that the nationalisation of the land and capital of the country is not the last word in progress; that without the social spirit, the socialisation of men and women, our condition under Socialism might be little better than our present lot. If "Each for all and all for each" be nothing more than a text for a banner or a motto for a wall; if its truth has not captured the hearts and minds of men and women in that new society, we shall be an official-ridden people, with our eye on the best posts in the State for ourselves or our sons; and we shall be as pitiable in our spiritual deformity as we are in our economic bondage.

For the purposes of this book it is necessary to make one other point clear. Not only is it possible to conceive of the workers being little better off under a Socialist