Functional socialism

26 FUNCTIONAL SOCIALISM

file. I see it frequently stated or implied, for example, that labour need not even be consulted in giving effect to various proposals, to which so many men and women of good-will devote themselves. But the truth had better be honestly faced: in these democratic days, particularly when democratic principles are invading factory and workshop, you cannot impose these economic changes from above; you must set out to convince the millions whose lives are affected.

The logic of all this is that function, by the instrumentality of the functionaries, must govern itself and no longer be at the mercy either of the politician or the non-functional employer. Incidentally, we may note that the worst of these non-functional employers are those whose only claim to control is their financial power. I have therefore proposed in a little book, The House of Industry, the creation of a representative industrial authority with full powers to control and co-ordinate the whole of our industrial life—a purely functional authority. My purpose here, however, is not to argue in detail the case for the House of Industry but rather to suggest that, in approaching our economic problems with the eye of function, we are finding the true way out of chaos.

FUNCTIONAL CONTROL OF FINANCE

Since I have mentioned the financial employer, and since it is otherwise of first importance, let us begin with finance. Who can deny that the financial interests dominate both our political and industrial