Functional socialism

GENIUS 85

interest and profits disappears, and the sinister group of vultures and harpies who live by squeezing or swindling inventors is dispersed. But function wants the inventor, the man of creative mind: wants him urgently, since economy of labour and new ideas and inventions are the life-blood of all functional bodies. Again I quote from National Guilds:

At this point we touch closely upon the psychology of the inventor. To him, the product of his genius (not forgetting that aw fond it is a social product) is as a newborn child to its mother. He wants time to nurse it, to perfect it, to work out the developments that inevitably flow from it. If such opportunity be afforded him, he is probably perfectly happy. He is, in reality, a creative artist. The instinct to create is in him quite as much as it is in the painter (who is also an inventor), or the writer (who is also an inventor), or the musician (who is also an inventor). In their own interests, therefore, the Guilds must make attractive conditions and a happy atmosphere in which the inventor can work. Having proved his mettle, the inventor can look to the Guild for support, for protection and for material aid. He will be released from the routine of Guild work; he will work in a laboratory where there is no stint; he will, on good cause shown, travel to perfect his knowledge and experience of his particular work, and his position will be one of amenity and distinction.

The craftsman, in his turn, has his problems which also call for understanding. It is obviously more difficult to apply any fixed principles to his case; for, unlike the inventor, he depends upon constant con-