The general programs have
in every country many features in common. To see what this common basis
is, let us look at the generalizations of some of the leading reformers.

One of the most scientific and "constructive" is Mr. Sidney Webb. No one
has so thoroughly mastered the history of trade unionism, and no one has
done more to promote "municipal Socialism" in England, both in theory
and in practice, for he has been one of the leaders of the energetic and
progressive London County council from the beginning of the present
reform period. He has also been one of the chief organizers of the more
or less Socialistic Fabian Society, which has done more towards
popularizing social reform in England than any other single educative
force, besides sending into all the corners of the world a new and
rounded theory of social reform--the work for the most part of Sidney
Webb, Bernard Shaw, and a few others.

Mr. Webb has given us several excellent phrases which will aid us to sum
up the typical social reformers' philosophy in a few words. He insists
that what every country requires, and especially Great Britain, is to
center its attention on the promotion of the "national efficiency." This
refers largely to securing a businesslike and economic administration
of the existing government functions. But it requires also that _all_
the industries and economic activities of the country should be
considered the business of the nation, that the industrial functions of
the government should be extended, and that, even from the business
point of view, the chief purpose of government should be to supervise
economic development.

To bring about the maximum of efficiency in production would require, in
Mr. Webb's opinion and that of the overwhelming majority of reformers
everywhere, a vast extension of government activities, including not
only the nationalization and municipalization of many industries and
services, but also that the individual workman or citizen be dealt with
as the chief business asset of the nation and that wholesale public
expenditures be entered into to develop his value. Mr. Webb does not
think that this policy is necessarily Socialistic, for, as he very
wisely remarks, "the necessary basis of society, whether the
superstructure be collectivist or individualist, is the same."

Mr. Wells in his "New Worlds for Old" also claims that the new policy of
having the State do everything that can promote industrial efficiency