Functional socialism

48 FUNCTIONAL SOCIALISM

have legal sanction, and therefore must be constituted by Parliament. ‘This is not only a legal truism; it instantly touches the deeper issues of human society. Why must our functional organization depend upon Parliament for its legal existence? Because the means, however vitally important, are secondary to the end. Our economic organization is not an end in itself; itis a means toan end. To what end? A cultured citizenship, to be ultimately expressed by the House of Commons. The Bible has long since distinguished between bread and the word of God. However shadowy may be the theology, even the religious habits, built on that aphorism, the truth of it is that the material things, including their production and distribution, are and must always be subsidiary to the affairs of the spirit. If this be not so, why then should men of spirit fash themselves making more efficient an already efficient nursery for vulgarians?

Since the word “‘spiritual” must frequently creep into all discussions wherein the functional life is brought into contrast with the political, this seems the moment to make my meaning clear. I happen to have had some share in saving the word from its former purely Christian connotation. General Booth once asked: ‘‘Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?” We may also ask: ““Why should the Church have all the best words?’ More than twenty years ago, I deliberately and habitually used this beautiful word in its secular sense. For example: