What we have to Look for
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Author : William Morris

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The inaugural address in connection with the Oxford and District Socialistic
Union was delivered on Wednesday by Mr. William Morris, at the Central School,
Gloucester-green. There was a crowded attendance, which included many
undergraduates and ladies. Professor York Powell took the chair, and briefly
introduced the lecturer.

Mr. Morris chose for his subject the words "What we have to look for", and said
he did not mean by this what the ideal of Socialism had to offer to them when
they had got people's heads turned in the right direction, but rather what
their present movement might reasonably expect to come across in its progress
towards socialism. Within the last five years or so the movement which
represented the change from the society of so-called free contract to that of
communal organization had undergone a great change. It must be admitted that
behind their propaganda of preaching lay the thought that the change they
advocated would be brought about by insurrection, and this was supposed by
those who were most averse to violence. But now almost everyone had ceased to
believe in the change coming by catastrophe. To state the position shortly, as
a means to the realization of the new society socialists hoped so far to
conquer public opinion that at last a majority of the Parliament should be sent
to sit in the House as avowed Socialists, and on that should follow what
legislation might be necessary. Another change had taken place outside
Socialism among the ordinary politicians which had surely some ralation to
the movement, which was that the old political parties and their watchwords
were losing their importance. When they first began their Socialist work in
London the two orthodox parties of Tories and Liberals were so completely
prominent that no other possible party was thought of, and it was true that
election times were the very worst times for their propaganda. Now, on the
contrary, it had become a commonplace, that there was little difference between
the two parties, except of "Ins" and "Outs". At present the Liberal party was
losing ground, and even tending towards a breakup, perhaps because it had
included as nominal members men who might be called semi-socialists. If it did
actually break up, the result would obviously be a coalition of the Whiggest
Liberals with the Tories, which would make a  party strong enough to snap the
fingers at Socialism and refuse any concessions. On the other hand, the Radical
tail was setting itself up as a Parliamentary party, which would be a very weak
one while it lasted, and would tend to melt into the general advance of
Socialism. Everywhere people were shaken as to their views of the eternity of
the present system, which was once as undoubted a fact to them as the existence
of the sun in the heavens. But what had come of it as yet? In the first place,
had any increase in the material prosperity of the workman come of it? He did
not think so. The strike war, taking it widely, was necessary, but it had to be
paid for. It had been necessary to call attention to the mass of unemployed;
but there were the unemployed, nothing had been done for them, because nothing
could be done while the present system lasted. They would find that, generally
speaking, all the measures for improving the material condition of the
working-classes meant more or less feeding the dog with his own tail. They
bettered the condition of one group of workers at the expense of others, and
thereby they made partial content out of general discontent, hoodwinked the
people, and prevented their action. He did not believe that they would get more
out of the Tories than out of the Liberals, and the reason was ready to hand.
It was just this sort of concession which the Tories would give them — it
was their instinct to make a showy, benevolent present, which in the long run
would be of no use to them, rather than yield a right however small. Of course
from neither party could they expect any measure really Socialist, that was an
impossibility, but by pressure they might get from the Liberals certain
improvements in the present creaky and clumsy electoral machinery which would
be of some use to them when they wanted to get M.P.'s to do their dirty work
for them in Parliament—(laughter and applause). They could only have any
serious improvement in the material conditions of the working classes from
Socialism; while the battle for Socialism was going on they could only have the
hope of realizing Socialism. He had thought the matter up and down, and he
could not for the life of him see how the great change they longed for would
come otherwise than by disturbance and suffering of some kind. Since battle had
been made a matter of commerce, and the god of war must wear a mantle of
banknotes and be crowned with guineas, since human valor must give way to the
longest purse and the latest inventions, since war had been commercialized,
they would not be called upon to gain their point by battle in the field; but
could they escape disturbances and suffering? He feared not. The rise in the
condition of life, if not in the position of the working classes, must disturb
the smooth-going ways of the market, must reduce the profits of their
employers, must reduce therefore their employing power, must reduce their
spending power and injure many forms of the production of useless articles on
which the working man largely lived. What harm in that? It would be a gain if
they were living in a Socialist condition, but as they were now it would mean
the throwing out of work of numbers of industrious men, the greater part of
whom it would be difficult to find employment for. He must own that sometimes
when he was dispirited he thought the labor movement did not mean Socialism at
all, it only meant improvement in the condition of the working classes. They
would get that on some terms or another—till the breakup came, and it
might be a long way ahead. And yet the workmen of this country seemed to him to
be going very far from the right road to winning the slavish peace he had been
speaking of that he could not think they meant nothing but that. Imperfect,
erring, unorganized, chaotic as that movement was, there was a spirit of
antagonism to their present foolish, wasteful system in it, and a sense of the
unity of labor as against the exploiters of labor, which was the one
necessary idea for those who were ever so little conscious of making towards
Socialism. One thing alone would make him think that more was aimed at than the
stereotyping of a would-be tolerable condition of servitude for the working
classes, and that was the success of their comrade Blatchford's Merrie
England—(applause). The thousands who had read that book must, if
they had done so carefully, have found out that something better was possible to
be thought of than the life of the prosperous mill hand. For what, after all,
was that something more than a low form of workman's prosperity, constant work
to wit, and a fair day's wages for a fair day's work. Surely it was nothing
less than that which made life worth living, Self-respect, happy and fit work,
leisure, beautiful surroundings, in a word, the earth our own and the fullness
thereof. The question was, what was to be done—a question all the more
necessary to ask, since at present they were doing very little. They must take
it for granted that the first means, so to say, were, as already stated, to
conquer the general opinion of the country, and gradually to get the majority
in the House of Commons, and they must remember that before that could be done
the thinking part of the population would have gone Socialistic so that nothing
but the last act of the play would remain to be played. Well, that was the end,
a long way off doubtless, but in no wise an impossible end. What was to be done
to get there? First, what were the Socialistic forces in this country. Two or
three—say two—bodies, partly propagandistic, probably of no great
strength as to count of noses. More of them he would not say at present, as he
did not want to get into controversy, so he would but note that there was at
least rivalry between them, and sometimes dissension. Besides these two bodies,
there were no doubt many pronounced Socialists not attached to either, and
there were also many who tended towards Socialism, and were certain to be
absorbed by it when it took more definite action than it had yet done. His hope
was that if people really cared for Socialism enough it would be realized, that
they would do so much propagandist work and convert so many people to
Socialism, that they would insist on having a genuine Socialist party, which
should do the due work, and they would not allow the personal fads and
venalities of leaders, so-called, to stand in the way of real business, He
thought they had, above all, to point out to the working-man who felt Socialist
sympathies that there were many measures which might be for the temporary good
of their class, which were both temporary and experimental, and adapted only
for the present state of things, and that these were not for the genuine
Socialist to push forward. Let, then, Liberal and Radical, and, if they would,
their Tory friends, make their experiments and take all the reresponsibility
for their failure; for in the long run fail they would. Their present system
would admit of no permanent change in their direction. Unlimited competition,
the laissez faire of their old Manchester school, the privilege of the
possessing class, modified if they would be by gifts of the improved workhouse
kind, in a word, once more the machine-life of the useful classes made as
little burdensome to them as could be; that was all that could be got out of
the present system. If that was their ideal, let them not fight against their
employers, for they would but waste their livelihood by doing so. But, on the
other hand, those who had a wild fancy to be free men, to have their affairs
under their own control, those who wished to work happily and unwastefully, to
enjoy rest and thought and labor without fear or remorse, those in a word who
wished to live like men, let them say, good wages or bad, good times or bad,
good masters or bad, let them use them now as best they might, yet not so much
for the present profit they might get out of them as for hastening the
realization of the new society— the time when at last they would be free
because they would be equal—(applause).

Questions were then invited and replied to, and the proceedings terminated
with a vote of thanks to the chairman and Mr. Morris, proposed by Mr. Grenfell2 and seconded by Mr. W. Hines.


    
       Title
    
    
      What we have to look for (as reported by the Oxford Times)
    
    
	Notes
    
	1. Printed in the Oxford Times, Saturday November 2, 1895. The notes for the first version of this talk are  only partially preserved, and the content here may fill some of the gaps in that version.
	2. Grenfell was the Secretary. He wrote the following letter to Justice (published 9th November, 1895):
		
William Morris' address was a brilliant success in all ways. Crowded room, excellent lecture, earnest and full of sound advice, a brisk fire of questions answered with much point and brilliancy. I send Oxford Chronicle with report.

J. Grenfell, Sec. Oxford and District Socialist Union



     From : Marxists.org

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     What we have to Look for -- Added : February 28, 2021

     What we have to Look for -- Updated : January 08, 2022

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