ABSTRACT
IN discussing the historic groundwork of Socialism, it is worth remembering that no special claim is made for Socialism in the assertion that it possesses a basis in history. The historic ancestry of the English social organization during the present century stands witness to the irresistible momentum of the ideas which Socialism denotes. Historic fossils are more dangerous; for they are left at large, and are even excluded from Downing Street or Westminster. But man is a social animal; and after more or less interval there necessarily comes into existence a new nexus, differing so entirely from the old-fashioned organization that the historic fossil goes about denying that it is a nexus at all, or that any new nexus is possible or desirable. Extension of the general provisions of the Factory and Workshops Acts to all an employers of labor.
