those who are acquiring power
are not very fierce, and do not terrify their opponents by threats of
ruin and death. It cannot be done quickly, because quick methods
require that very mechanism and subordination of the individual which
we should struggle to prevent.

But even equalization of power is not the whole of what is needed
politically. The right grouping of men for different purposes is also
essential. Self-government in industry, for example, is an
indispensable condition of a good society. Those acts of an individual
or a group which have no very great importance for outsiders ought to
be freely decided by that individual or group. This is recognized as
regards religion, but ought to be recognized over a much wider field.

Bolshevik theory seems to me to err by concentrating its attention
upon one evil, namely inequality of wealth, which it believes to be at
the bottom of all others. I do not believe any one evil can be thus
isolated, but if I had to select one as the greatest of political
evils, I should select inequality of power. And I should deny that
this is likely to be cured by the class-war and the dictatorship of
the Communist party. Only peace and a long period of gradual
improvement can bring it about.

Good relations between individuals, freedom from hatred and violence
and oppression, genera diffusion of education, leisure rationally
employed, the progress of art and science--these seem to me among the
most important ends that a political theory ought to have in view. I
do not believe that they can be furthered, except very rarely, by
revolution and war; and I am convinced that at the present moment they
can only be promoted by a diminution in the spirit of ruthlessness
generated by the war. For these reasons, while admitting the necessity
and even utility of Bolshevism in Russia, I do not wish to see it
spread, or to encourage the adoption of its philosophy by advanced
parties in the Western nations.

VI

WHY RUSSIAN COMMUNISM HAS FAILED

The civilized world seems almost certain, sooner or later, to follow
the example of Russia in attempting a Communist organization of
society. I believe that the attempt is essential to the progress and
happiness of mankind during the next few centuries, but I believe also
that the transition has appalling dangers. I believe that, if the
Bolshevik theory as to the method of transition is adopted by
Communists in Western nations, the result will be