 long been a
commonplace that that slough awaits State Socialism in the end, if it gets to
the end, which as you know it did not with us. However it went further than this
minimum and maximum business, which by the by we can now see was necessary. The
Government now found it imperative on them to meet the outcry of the master
class at the approaching destruction of commerce (as desirable, had they known
it, as the extinction of the cholera, which has since happily taken place). And
they were forced to meet it by a measure hostile to the masters, the
establishment of government factories for the production of necessary wares, and
markets for their sale. These measures taken altogether did do something: they
were in fact of the nature of regulations made by the commander of a beleaguered
city. But of course to the privileged classes it seemed as if the end of the
world were come when such laws were enacted.
    Nor was that altogether without a warrant: the spread of communistic
theories, and the partial practice of State Socialism had at first disturbed,
and at last almost paralysed the marvellous system of commerce under which the
old world had lived so feverishly, and had produced for some few a life of
gambler's pleasure, and for many, or most, a life of mere misery: over and over
again came bad times as they were called, and indeed they were bad enough for
the wage-slaves. The year 1952 was one of the worst of these times; the workmen
suffered dreadfully: the partial, inefficient government factories, which were
terribly jobbed, all but broke down, and a vast part of the population had for
the time being to be fed on undisguised charity as it was called.
    The Combined Workers watched the situation with mingled hope and anxiety.
They had already formulated their general demands; but now by a solemn and
universal vote of the whole of their federated societies, they insisted on the
first step being taken toward carrying out their demands: this step would have
led directly to handing over the management of the whole natural resources of
the country, together with the machinery for using them into the power of the
Combined Workers, and the reduction of the privileged classes into the position
of pensioners obviously dependent on the pleasure of the workers. The
Resolution, as it was called, which was widely published in the newspapers of
the day, was in fact a declaration of war, and was so accepted by the master
class. They began henceforward to prepare for a firm stand against the brutal
and ferocious communism of the day, as they phrased
