A B C of modern socialism

VIII FUNCTIONAL CO-ORDINATION

WE now see that, as in the biological so in the economic life, harmony is the first essential in function. Equally this is true of the workers, who to-day are the first to suffer the discordance, moral and industrial, of the class struggle and the relentless competition of wages. When, therefore, function supplants capitalism, the first objective must be co-ordination. Any defect in co-ordination spells functional frustration. More to the point: all and any selfish interests, known as subjective rights, must be cashiered. No nonsense about that!

The general outline of the functional organisation has already been sketched; can we be sure that its various parts will function smoothly? To co-ordinate twenty or twenty-five National Guilds, affecting twenty million men and women workers, to transform their workshop habits to change their purpose: function demands it; the workers desire it. It seems a stupendous undertaking; actually, if the workers will it, it merely becomes a problem of willing regimentation. Why should they not be willing? They have nothing to lose but wagery.

With the principles governing the relations between the Houses of Commons, Industry and Culture we have already dealt. If adopted, there is