such light. He sees a mass of misery which he believes--and in large
measure justly believes--Socialism would put an end to; and he has no
patience with the conservative who points out--and justly points out--
that the poverty is being steadily, though gradually, overcome in the
advance of mankind under the existing order. "Away with it," he says;
"we cannot wait a hundred years for that which we have a right to
demand today." And "away with it" we ought all to say, if Socialism,
while doing away with it, would not be doing away with something else
of infinite value and infinite benefit to mankind, both material and
spiritual; something with which is bound up the richness and zest of
life, not only for what it is the fashion of radicals to call "the
privileged few," but for the great mass of mankind. That something is
liberty, and the individuality which is inseparably bound up with
liberty. The essence of Socialism is the suppression of individuality,
the exaltation of the collective will and the collective interest, the
submergence of the individual will and the individual interest. The
particular form--even the particular degree--of coercion by which this
submergence is brought about varies with the different types of
Socialism; but they all agree in the essential fact of the
submergence. Socialism may possibly be compatible with prosperity,
with contentment; it is not compatible with liberty, not compatible
with individuality. I am, of course, not undertaking here to discuss
the merits of Socialism; my purpose is only to point out that those
who are hostile to Socialism must cherish liberty. And it is vain to
cherish liberty in the abstract if you are doing your best to dry up
the very source of the love of liberty in the concrete workings of
every man's daily experience. With the plain man--indeed with men in
general, plain or otherwise--love of liberty, or of any elemental
concept, is strong only if it is instinctive; and it cannot be
instinctive if it is jarred every day by habitual and unresented