ined in those who have governed by bayonets, without
popular support. Is it not almost inevitable that men placed as the
Bolsheviks are placed in Russia, and as they maintain that the
Communists must place themselves wherever the social revolution
succeeds, will be loath to relinquish their monopoly of power, and
will find reasons for remaining until some new revolution ousts them?
Would it not be fatally easy for them, without altering economic
structure, to decree large salaries for high Government officials, and
so reintroduce the old inequalities of wealth? What motive would they
have for not doing so? What motive is possible except idealism, love
of mankind, non-economic motives of the sort that Bolsheviks decry?
The system created by violence and the forcible rule of a minority
must necessarily allow of tyranny and exploitation; and if human
nature is what Marxians assert it to be, why should the rulers
neglect such opportunities of selfish advantage?

It is sheer nonsense to pretend that the rulers of a great empire such
as Soviet Russia, when they have become accustomed to power, retain
the proletarian psychology, and feel that their class-interest is the
same as that of the ordinary working man. This is not the case in fact
in Russia now, however the truth may be concealed by fine phrases. The
Government has a class-consciousness and a class-interest quite
distinct from those of the genuine proletarian, who is not to be
confounded with the paper proletarian of the Marxian schema. In a
capitalist state, the Government and the capitalists on the whole hang
together, and form one class; in Soviet Russia, the Government has
absorbed the capitalist mentality together with the governmental, and
the fusion has given increased strength to the upper class. But I see
no reason whatever to expect equality or freedom to result from such a
system, except reasons derived from a false psychology and a mistaken
analysis of the sources of political power.

I am compelled to reject Bolshevism for two reasons: First, because
the price mankind must pay to achieve Communism by Bolshevik methods
is too terrible; and secondly because, even after paying the price, I
do not believe the result would be what the Bolsheviks profess to
desire.

But if their methods are rejected, how are we ever to arrive at a
better economic system? This is not an easy question, and I shall
treat it in a separate chapter.

V

MECHANISM AND THE