Functional socialism

THE REVIVAL OF GUILD SOCIALISM 19s

we discover that these two functions may diverge in the affections and persons of the worker. As a citizen he may prefer this or that policy; as a Guildsman his business is to concentrate upon wealth production and distribution. For the first time in the history of mankind he will clearly understand that nations, like men, do not live by bread alone. The inter-mixture of spiritual with economic considerations which now paralyses every State action will be, in form certainly and largely in substanceended.” Bearing in mind then the practical administration of the actual functions that minister to political purposes—the army, navy and police, the Foreign and Colonial Offices, education, central and local government—the main business of citizenship finally released from economic entanglements, is to give voice to its spiritual and cultural needs and desires. This is the true vé/e of an enlightened political system.

It is, in fact, vital to our future, if we would still remain a great people, that the moral power and cultural capacity of the general body of citizens shall be raised beyond all economic dictation. In this time of economic plenty—a condition that, it seems certain, will indefinitely continue—and providing we put our material affairs in order, there can be no conceivable excuse for any Government (acting as the agent of the State) not to pursue a policy of spiritual expansion and intellectual enrichment, undeterred by economic considerations. The reason, then, why the Guild Socialist rejects the non-political