reigns triumphant--pledge of joy and peace.[663]

On the other hand, there are Socialists who think that Socialism
cannot succeed if it cuts itself adrift from the great national
parties and pursues a purely Socialistic Labour policy. "A member of
an Imperial Parliament is an Imperialist in spite of himself. A party
which concerns itself with sectional interests only will soon cease to
be a party; it will degenerate into a group, and as such it cannot
hope to receive serious backing in the country."[664]

Many Socialists feel confident that they will conquer power by
conquering Parliament. "Parliament has always governed the country in
the interest of the class to which the majority of its members
belonged. It governed in the interest of the country gentlemen in the
old days when they were in a majority in the House of Commons; it has
governed in the interests of the capitalists and employers since they
won a majority by the Reform Bill of 1832; and it will govern in the
interest of the people when the majority is selected from the
wage-earning class."[665] "No sooner shall two hundred Labour members
be firmly seated upon the cross-benches of the House, than both
parties will approach them with bended knee, bringing gold and
frankincense and programmes."[666] "There is a fine impartiality about
the policeman and the soldier, who are the cutting edge of the State
power. They take their wages and obey their orders without asking
questions. If those orders are to demolish the homestead of every
peasant who refuses to take the bread out of his children's mouths in
order that his landlord may have money to spend as an idle gentleman
in London, the soldier obeys. But if his orders were to help the
police to pitch his lordship into Holloway Gaol until he had paid an
income-tax of twenty shillings on every pound of his unearned income,
the soldier would do that with equal devotion to duty, and perhaps
with a certain private zest that might be lacking in the other case.
Now these orders come ultimately from the State, meaning in this
country the House of Commons. A House of Commons consisting of 660
gentlemen and 10 workmen will order the soldier to take money from the
people for the landlords. A House of Commons consisting of 660 workmen
and 10 gentlemen will probably, unless the 660 are fools, order the
soldier to take money from the landlords for the people."[667]

FOOTNOTES:

[618] _John Burns and the Unemployed_, p. 1.