Functional socialism

42 FUNCTIONAL SOCIALISM

ptisonment—the supreme function of the Church must be served. ‘That is certainly the functional spirit. The guilds come nearer to our purpose. They were unquestionably functional bodies. Each guild was attached to some particular function—masons, carpenters, smiths, armourers, staplers, bootmakers, tailors. Their function was their foundation; they existed so long as they were loyal; they gradually shrank and finally dissolved because they followed and served other gods. The political and financial distractions of the period destroyed too many of them and so left the loyal remainder helpless. It would be foolish to draw any close resemblance between the guilds of yesterday and any functional society to-day. The guilds took their guidance and colour from the philosophy, sentiments and circumstances of their own times. They had masters, journeymen and apprentices. If they were concerned with quality, they were equally concerned with profits. Nor were they united; on the contrary they competed with each other and were not above intrigues to destroy or absorb each other. They were guildsmen but not guileless. Nevertheless, the spirit of functional loyalty, of honest craftsmenship, of sturdy self-respect, survived them. It became a tradition which persisted well into the first half of the nineteenth century. And that tradition was in part revived by the craft unions.

Whilst it was inevitable that, in an industrial country like Great Britain, function should express and sometimes assert itself—generally through the