A Critical Examination of Socialism

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A Critical Examination of
Socialism, by

William Hurrell Mallock
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Title: A Critical Examination of Socialism
Author: William Hurrell Mallock

Release Date: December 30, 2005 [eBook #17416]
Language: English
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A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF SOCIALISM
by
W.H. MALLOCK

London John Murray, Albemarle Street, W. 1908 Printed by Hazell,
Watson and Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.

PREFACE
The Civic Federation of New York, an influential body which aims, in
various ways, at harmonising apparently divergent industrial interests
in America, having decided on supplementing its other activities by a
campaign of political and economic education, invited me, at the
beginning of the year 1907, to initiate a scientific discussion of
socialism in a series of lectures or speeches, to be delivered under the
auspices of certain of the great Universities in the United States. This
invitation I accepted, but, the project being a new one, some difficulty
arose as to the manner in which it might best be carried out--whether
the speeches or lectures should in each case be new, dealing with some
fresh aspect of the subject, or whether they should be arranged in a
single series to be repeated without substantial alteration in each of the
cities visited by me. The latter plan was ultimately adopted, as tending
to render the discussion of the subject more generally comprehensible
to each local audience. A series of five lectures, substantially the same,
was accordingly delivered by me in New York, Cambridge, Chicago,
Philadelphia, and Baltimore. But whilst this plan secured continuity of
treatment, it secured it at the expense of comprehensiveness. Certain
important points had to be passed over. In the present volume the
substance of the original lectures has been entirely rearranged and
rewritten, and more than half the matter is new. Even in the present
volume, however, it has been impossible to treat the subject otherwise
than in a general way. At almost every point a really complete

discussion would necessitate a much fuller analysis of facts than it has
been practicable to give here. Arguments here necessarily confined to a
few pages or to a chapter, would each, for their complete elucidation,
require a separate monograph. Most readers, however, will be able to
supply much of what is missing, by the light of their own common
sense; and general arguments, in which, as in block plans of buildings,
many details are suppressed, have for practical purposes the great
advantage of being generally and easily intelligible, whereas, if stated
in fuller and more complex form, they might confuse rather than
enlighten a large number of readers.
The fact that the fundamental arguments of this volume were
disseminated throughout the United States, not only at the meetings
addressed, but also in all the leading newspapers, has had the valuable
result, by means of the mass of criticisms which they elicited, of
illustrating the manner in which socialists attempt to meet them; and
has enabled me to revise, with a view to farther clearness, certain
passages which were intentionally or unintentionally misunderstood,
and also to emphasise the curious confusions of thought into which
various critics have been driven in their efforts to controvert or get
round them. I may specially mention a small volume by Mr. G.
Wilshire of New York--a leading publisher and disseminator of
socialistic literature--which was devoted to examining my own
arguments seriatim. To the principal criticisms of this writer allusions
will be found in the following pages. Most of my socialistic opponents
(though to this rule there were amusing exceptions) wrote, according to
their varying degrees of intelligence and education, with remarkable
candour, and also with great courtesy. Mr. Wilshire, in particular,
whilst seeking to refute my arguments as a whole, admitted the force of
many of them; and did his best, in his elaborate _résumé_ of them, to
state them all fairly.
The contentions, and even the phraseology of socialists are in all
countries (with the possible exception of Russia) identical. All are
vitiated by the same distinctive errors, and it is indifferent whether, for
purposes of detail criticism, we go to speakers and writers in this
country or America. Except for the correction of a few verbal errors

which have escaped my notice in the American edition, and which
obscure the meaning of perhaps four or five sentences,