Functional socialism

FUNCTION 67

(vi) To that end, a functional or economic authority must be constituted. It is suggested as politically desirable that the present House of Lords be superseded by an economic authority which might be known as the House of Industry.

(vii) This House of Industry must be composed of members democratically elected by the organized industries. Every member must have a functional qualification.

(viii) The economic authority must, in all its ramifications, be finally responsible for the maintenance, in health, illness, or old age, of every worker.

(ix) Functional organization involves the abolition of the wage system. Every worker goes on permanent pay.

(x) Functional control implies workers’ control. The worker is the instrument of function.

(xi) Efficiency is secured by the recognition of groups, having functional value and definite identity. Representation derives from groups.

With such a synopsis, our Macmillans may see red revolution and the breaking up of laws. In reality, however, function is already upon us, nascent, not consciously organized, blindly asserting its power, frequently to our undoing. We must now give it formal recognition and finally establish it as the dominant principle in the economic sphere. Function thus formulated can systematically work out its own scale of values and urgencies.

To achieve this purpose is a stupendous task; the burden cast upon our post-war generation and call-