Functional socialism

160 FUNCTIONAL SOCIALISM

clothed with full powers to control and co-ordinate industry, is neither an improvization nor a counsel of despair. On the contrary, it is the next logical step in the advance of mankind towards an ordered and cultured society. The vulgar reign of money must instantly cease or it will destroy us; the day of functional control in things functional has come. This means that the production and distribution of wealth must be left to those who know how to produce and distribute; that they shall no longer be the victims of politician and financier. If we reflect on this for a moment and consider its vast implications, how trivial seem the current political issues! It would be quite easy to write down a long list of the futile efforts of a non-functional Parliament, such as ours, to cure our economicills. And we may affirm with confidence that had our economic life been under the control of an economic authority, based on democratic and not dictatorial lines, the grisly horror of the past few years would never have come upon us: would indeed be inconceivable. The House of Industry, in the full panoply of economic power, is now our main hope of escape. For it means, in the economic sphere, a return to the Guild spirit and the triumph of function over finance.

AN ENRICHED CITIZENSHIP

The reactions upon our political life, thus quit of economic entanglements, must be a fruitful source of speculation. We can at least envisage a new Parliamentary personnel. Men who have gone into Par-