The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.) Sat 17 Nov 1906 Page 47
SIR HENRY WRIXON ON SOCIALISM.
"The Pattern Nation"
Sir Henry Wrixon, President of the Legislative Council of Victoria, has written an admirably clear and suggestive examination of socialism, under the title "The Pattern Nation" (Macmillan and Co. Ltd.).
Prolixity is the fault of most books on socialism, but Sir Henry has thought out the subject so thoroughly that, in a little volume of 170 pages, he presents as complete a view of the question as anyone need desire.
He has carefully marshalled his facts and arguments, and selected his illustrations, the result being a well-reasoned, popularly written, and convincing treatise on what has already become the one absorbing political question of the day.
A change in the whole structure of society so stupendous as is involved in socialism could never be carried if it were submitted in its entirety to a direct vote of the people, or their representatives. The common sense of the community would unhesitatingly reject such a monstrous and revolutionary scheme.
But, as Sir Henry Wrixon well points out, the danger is that so much of it may be carried in instalments or piecemeal that the adoption of these must inevitably follow.
One of the most original features of the book is the distinction drawn between socialists and the semi-socialists — the latter being the larger class, who are in favour of what is called gradual nationalisation of industry.
This policy of bringing under the control of the Government more and more of the functions of production, distribution, and exchange must necessarily pave the way for complete socialism, as it will gradually weaken and destroy individual initiative and enterprise, and force an ever-increasing number of people into the position of state employés.
The result of complete socialism will be the destruction of the liberty for which the more advanced divisions of mankind have struggled for the last thousand years; and the substitution for it of tyranny as oppressive as that of the Russian autocracy.
What sort of government would be the industrial despotism of democracy that would follow upon the establishment of socialism? It would, as Sir Henry Wrixon shows:—"Spring from the same source and be aided and moulded by the same influences as now produce the city boss in the United States.
These are the practical examples of the consequences that follow, when, in the most advanced democracy, the political authority takes in hand the management of industrial affairs. The style of work to be done; the largesses to be distributed; the wire-pulling necessary to maintain the socialist autocracy: will be of the same kind, only more extensive and demoralising in their scope and operation.
It would be the lowest type of the spoils system, controlling the common funds, allotting work, pleasant and unpleasant, to competing citizens; appointing the vast army of industrial officials, granting concessions, enforcing duties, remitting penalties—these functions, and such as these would represent a lower strata of public affairs than even that reached under the city boss in America.
"Such a system would be destructive, not only of freedom, but of civilisation. Invention and industrial enterprise would cease; capital would disappear; production would dwindle; national bankruptcy would be inevitable; the population would diminish, and what was left would soon be face to face with starvation.
These direful consequences would be first felt among the dense populations of Europe. In a thinly-peopled country like Australia they would be longer in coming, but come they would, unless a determined stand is made by the electors against the first insidious approaches of the socialistic policy.
The Commonwealth general election is the first occasion on which the issue has been directly raised in a British community, and much will depend on how it goes. Everyone who has anything to lose should not neglect to vote in favour of the anti-socialist candidates.
Sir Henry Wrixon has done good service by his impartial and dispassionate analysis of the socialistic problem. His excellent little book ought to be read by all who wish to understand the subject. (Melville and Mullen.)
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The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842–1954)
Saturday 17 November 1906
THE PATTERN NATION
Sir Henry Wrixon, K.C., of Victoria, finds that there is a certain problem in practical politics which must be solved somehow, and he sets himself in "The Pattern Nation" (Macmillan and Co.) to consider the difficulties in the way of the solution.
The problem is: What will the poor do with the rich? It will arise when political control will be in the hands of the majority, on the principle that all men are equal, whilst the industrial and social sides of life are still governed by conditions and methods that are rooted in the fact that men are unequal.
Obviously, if the people who have seized the political machine use their power to equalise the conditions of social and industrial life, they must revolutionise the world as we know it. What will they do with the rich?
If they adopt the idea that property is not the natural result (as it has been the natural cause) of civilisation, but that it is merely the harvest of robbery in the past and the temptation to further robbery, they will make short shrift of the holders of property of whatever kind.
Not, indeed, that one need fear the application of the crude methods of "reform" which marked the rise and progress of the French Revolution, for the simple reason, if for no other, that the "reformers," being in unchallenged possession of the legislative and executive machine, can effect the desired end by methods which are free at least from the reproach of personal violence.
Thus, they could abolish proprietorship in land by the simple but effectual process of taxation, leaving out for a moment the holders of small estates, so that their proposals will have full support to the beginning; but determined always to bring the minimum lower and lower until finally private property in land is abolished.
We see indeed the beginnings of this process in the progressive land tax which the socialists propose in our Federal Parliament. It would be fatal to this proposal’s chance of success if its authors were openly to declare that they want to do away with all private ownership of land.
By so doing they would startle the comfortable folk who vote Labour at the elections. So they declare their aim to be the breaking-up of big estates for the benefit of people who want to go on the land. That is always a popular cry.
If the socialists are successful, however, and the thin end of the wedge is introduced, it will not be long before the scope of the Act is increased, and farmers and other small holders will find that they must share the fate of the big estates. All kinds of property will in time be penalised in similar fashion if the socialists once got unchecked control of the political machine.
Sir Henry Wrixon imagines a Pattern State, in which old conditions have been superseded by a socialist rule. In these circumstances a start is made with reforms which appeal to humanitarian sentimentalism, such as State employment for the unemployed, the whittling away of hours of labour, old-age pensions, free education, and so forth.
Upon this the axiom is laid down that the wants of all men must be supplied by somebody, and before long the conclusion is arrived at that this "somebody" must be private property and the private employer.
Once the determination has been made to make this "somebody" bear the burden of State charity and State activities generally, then, in Sir Henry’s opinion, socialism is established.
The State taxes private property, which means that the majority taxes the minority; the State assumes more and more generally the position of employer, which means that the majority has decided to abolish the private employer.
According to our author, Australia is now in the semi-socialist period; but the signs are not wanting that if the socialist campaign at present being waged is crowned with success, or anything like success, at the elections, the full rigour of the socialistic ideas will be felt before long in the Commonwealth.
Sir Henry Wrixon’s book, all the more valuable because of its dispassionate tone, may be read with particular interest and profit at the present crisis.
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Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885–1954)
Saturday 21 September 1907 Page 49
THE PATTERN NATION
A new edition of "The Pattern Nation" by Sir Henry Wrixon has been published by Messrs. Macmillan. It is identical with that reviewed in these columns some time ago, except for a preface and an addition to the title.
In the preface Sir Henry Wrixon deals with the criticism that his work is destructive and negative, that he condemns socialism without offering a substitute. In reply he argues that as socialism is a definite and organised proposal, a book devoted to exposing some of its fallacies is justified and required.
To make the scope of the book clear to the reader, he gives this second edition a fuller title — "The Pattern Nation; or Socialism, its Source, Drift and Outcome."
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Wellington Times (NSW : 1899–1954)
Thursday 24 January 1907
THE SOCIAL UNREST.
SIR HENRY WRIXON AND 'THE PATTERN NATION.'
THE POWER OF THE POOR.
In The Pattern Nation, published by Macmillan and Co., Sir Henry Wrixon adds another to the attractive books in which he has placed his mind before the public of Australia and the world. It is a lengthy pamphlet, running to 172 pages, undivided into chapters, a frank consideration of the social problem as it presents itself to one who has thought long over it from the standpoints of law, politics, and administration.
The subject is so interesting, and the treatment is so masterly, though inconclusive, that we give a series of extracts rather than an ordinary review.
The problem, as Sir Henry phrases it, is
“What will the poor do with the rich?”
“This,” he says, “arises when, on the political side of life, lawful government by the majority of the people becomes an established fact, in vindication of the principle that men are equal; while the industrial and social side of life is still left to be controlled by methods that have for their foundation the fact that men are unequal, and that their rewards in life are to be unequal also.”
All this “is but a new manifestation of the old problem between the rich and the poor which fills so many pages of history; only, the question now is, not what the rich will do with the poor, but what the poor will do with the rich. And this does involve the fate of our present civilisation; for if the socialist scheme of life, which is clearly avowed by its authors, is carried out, our present form of civilisation must pass away. We are told we shall have a better one. All that we can be sure of is, that we cannot maintain that one which we have now.”
The Domination of the Wage Earners.
“This domination of the wage earners will be the great factor of our age. In due time it will be uniform in its effect over our civilisation. The idea that some Western peoples will accept and some reject it, owing to racial and other differences, will prove imaginary.
For the wants, the grievances, and the object of the masses are substantially the same in all our Western peoples; and the differences in nationality will be found less potent in dividing them than will the community of feeling and needs among the poor be in uniting them. There will soon be a sameness in the people’s politics the Western world over. The wage earners are of one brotherhood.”
This has most beneficent results in some directions. “All must rejoice at two at least of the results that follow from this uplifting of the poor. One is, that they will be cared for with a thoroughness and an earnestness that, such is the imperfection of mankind, they never would have been were it not that now even the self-interest of men prompts loyal efforts to improve their lot.”
“The other valuable result is that, under the people’s rule, the people are governed in peace, and with such wisdom as each community may have at its hand. This is a great thing in times when the only way of ruling the people is through themselves. You solve the question of how to govern the people by the people governing you. But there is a settled government. Thus far have things grown, that there is no other solid basis of human rule now left in our civilisation.”
The Rise of the ‘Boss’.
On the other hand, the new system has a most selfish side. “The elector, instead of being taken out of himself and taught to venerate himself as a trustee for his country, becomes absorbed in the struggle for his share in the good things going; while the representative, who has to live too, forgets the general interests of the general public — further, perhaps, than at present — in satisfying the clamorous wants of the most active section of his supporters. Politics, from being the work of looking after the nation, becomes the work of taking care of yourself. Instead of the statesman, you have the ‘Boss,’ and instead of the elevating spectacle of a people’s election for the high purposes of national life, you have the debasing wire-pulling of the ‘machine.’
Socialism v. Freedom.
Still more important is the essential antagonism of the old and new ideals — “If you maintain the freedom of industry and its reward, private property, you cannot have the social plan of life. But if you undermine the freedom of industry and the institution of property, you cannot get on without it.”
“This much may be said, whether the socialistic scheme is good or bad, and whether it is coming upon us, or whether it is not. For it may be coming, and at the same time it may be a mistake. The history of man would not be the blurred page it is if all his social movement had been under wise direction.”
Sir Henry Wrixon is at his best in defining what is and what is not socialism... “When under the free system you abolish all class privilege, when you educate all, when you protect the rights of labour, when you exempt the poor from undue burdens, when you leave the course open for all to enter, you do all that you can to give men an equal opportunity — if you leave them free to run the race at all. If you do leave them free to run this race and the best man to win, then you are not a socialist, and no amount of clearing the course and giving all an equal chance will make you one.”
Human Nature’s Veto.
“The chief thing, and the crucial fact, for the socialistic scheme to face, [is] the power of self-interest upon men, [which] still remains the same as it ever was. It has the same effect upon men, whether singly or in masses, that it had at the dawn of history. It is still the main-spring of human nature.”
Paying the Bill.
“If you start with the principle that people must have things right about them, so long as there is somebody else to pay the bill, you enter upon a course of action under which you may hope to supply the needs of those who want but you may be certain that you will exhaust the resources of those who have.”
Semi-Socialism’s Issue.
The gradual increase of civil servants, the socialisation of monopolies, and other stages of semi-socialism will finally be known in practice... “Its leaders seek to combine the comfort of socialism without its discipline, with the freedom of individualism, without its spur, competition. They glory in the beneficence of the socialistic state, but do not face its responsibility, and denounce the tyrannical, capitalist system, while they live on the fruits of its industry.”
A Better Path.
The author’s path of development would be different — “Without dogmatising upon the new methods which the enlarged experience and growing improvement of the wage-earners may in time point out to them, we may safely say that the true goal for labour to have worked towards is to rise from the condition of wage-earners to that of profit sharers, but preserving at the same time, individual freedom.
And this would have been its natural destiny had not its energies been turned aside by the plausible but enervating principles of paternalism.”
The Sacrifice of Freedom.
“Socialism begins with democracy; but it cannot stop there. On the contrary, its trend is round again to despotism... The popular feeling has been so engrossed with the cause of social amelioration, and especially with the passion for equality, that it waxes cold on its old love of liberty.”
The Fate of Our Civilisation.
“Things change more quickly in our time, and the present century will see either socialism discredited or Europe declining. A social system, the foundation of which is the sacrifice of freedom for ease, contains within itself the conditions of decay.”
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The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854–1954)
Saturday 3 November 1906
NEW BOOKS.
"The Pattern Nation," by Sir Henry Wrixon.
(Macmillan and Co.)
Philosophical, rather than strictly practical, is the examination into the trends and tendencies of Socialism which Sir Henry Wrixon discusses in this interesting and, in many ways, suggestive essay on modern political economy.
To his arguments there is no definite concrete application, local or otherwise, though for his illustrations he draws, of course, upon the experiences of the United States and other democratic Governments.
His theme is the ultimate development of the present state of society in a highly civilised community, whether it will evolve into “freedom, with the struggle for life,” or “Socialism, with promised ease and comfort.”
The free Democracy represents a progressive movement that is political in its scope and aims, and which, while pursuing the social amelioration of the people, seeks to do it through themselves, and has for its foundation principle, before all things necessary for true popular progress, freedom and the natural individuality of man.
The other, which may be termed the Democracy of Socialism, cares for political power, and prizes it chiefly as an instrument by which to promote social equality and the industrial relief of its citizens, which it holds can only be achieved by changing the present constitution of society, which it terms “capitalistic,” and constituting it anew under the benevolent despotism of Socialism.
The foregoing sentences outline the attitude which Sir Henry Wrixon takes up. He presupposes a nation which has accepted Government interference and control to the extent of, say, Australia, a condition which he describes as semi-Socialism, and then follows out the train to which such surrendering of the rights of individualism must, in his opinion, inevitably lead, to the consummation of a complete Socialistic community, and the danger of decadence and risks of retrogression attendant thereon.
There is much close reasoning in the pages, and a thoroughly able survey of the circumstances of the future. Naturally, the survey is that of a man who views with dislike the prospect of a thorough-paced Socialistic State, though at the same time he regards that State as the logical outcome of the present-day rise of the worse-off classes, unless wiser counsels prevail and the Democracy accept a more stable condition of discipline.
Sir Henry Wrixon is not an alarmist, flying off at heady denunciations of an improbable perversion of ethics and morals when the Socialists shall have power. His monograph is, on the contrary, temperate and well considered, the work of a man of culture, to whom the respect of his most pronounced political opponents is undoubtedly due.
Sir Henry Wrixon Colonial Conference 1895
Sir Henry Wrixon "Socialism: being Notes on a Political Tour" 1897
Sir Henry Wrixon. THE RELIGION OF THE COMMON MAN. Book reviews 1909
