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No. 33 JUNE 1955 SIXPENCE FORUMOCIALIST DISCUSSION JOURNALTOWARDS BETTER UNDERSTANDING

CapitaiislD-" .Organized Scarcity or Organized Abundance?

It is a Marxist commonplace thatcapitalism is a system of organized scarcity-i.e., one whose economic functioning-inhibits the free use or the maximum use ofthe wealth resources' socially available.While monopolies and trade associationswith their price-and quota-fixing propen-sities may have distorted the capitalistanarchy of production, they have notessentially modified it. Anarchy of pro-duction leads, as we have seen, to an unevenrate of development in the various industrialsectors; when on a sufficiently large scale itbrings about a crisis.This unequal productive expansion, how-ever, is in constant conflict with the basicmode of capitalism's existence-the se1f-expansion of capital. While the' conflict

does not always occasion crises it doesaccount for the wasted resources, the dupli-cation of function and that bugbear ofcapitalism, surplus or unused plant capacity.Profit expectation serves as a regulator of

IN THIS ISSUEMARXISM AND LITERA TURE.Knighthood, love, and the distributionof landTHE COLOUR QUESTION.Will prejudice continue?OUTLINE.Man in the news.THE WORK OF LEWISMUMFORD.Concluding" Historical Materialism "an.i-;Modern Times.THE SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDEAND OUR D. OF P.Suggesting a method.CUTTINGS.Pieces from the papers.The opinions expressed in FORUMare those of the contributors, and arenot to be taken as the Socialist Party'sofficial views.

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the rate of capital accumulation. Thus, aswas shown last month, there are phases ofhigh as well as of low prices-this factagainst the notion in F. Evans's Nature ofthe Socialist Revolution that some process(unexplained) continually depresses prices.Both serve as a measure of business activityand so of the rate of capital accumulation.Evans holds that capitalism is organizedabundance-organized by the mechanism ofrelative surplus value. It is this, he says,which brings about "the cheapening ofproducts which is capitalism's specific modeof existence." The agencies for its realiza-tion, he contends, are capitalists "pantingfor profit" and "the competition of capitals."Increased productivity, we are told, is con-stantly reducing the value of labour-power,

i.e., reducing the cost of articles necessaryfor its production and reproduction. On theother hand, the mass of use-values incor-porated in it is at the same time constantlygrowing. Hence, Evans argues the workers'standard of living is ever rising. He agrees,however, that increased productivity involvesincreased intensity of effort. If that is so,then increased consumption may be anecessary condition for the replacement ofthe added wear and tear which the extraeffort involves. If it is recognized that livingstandards entail a ratio of input to output,it may be questioned whether increasedconsumption and increased wages aresynonymous terms.Evans's views on relative surplus valueraise implications which evidently he hasnot taken into account. Thus his assump-tion that relative surplus value generates notonly ever-increasing wages but also ever-increasing profits means that there is anever-accelerating rate of capital accumula-tion. The history of capitalist developmentrefutes it. In actual fact capital accumula-tion is not any smooth continuous growthbut, as Marx pointed out, bursts of businessactivity followed by more quiescent andeven stagnant periods. Itcan also be pointedout that relative surplus value is, in everydayparlance, a method of reducing costs.

Whether a reduction in costs enables wagesand profits to be increased depends, as wasshown in Notes on Crises, upon otherfactors. It cannot be made an over-allassumption for the evolution of the entirecapitalist economy. Again; the assumptionof an equilibrium brought about by anieeadjustment of increased capital accumula-tion with an increased working populationand an increased rate of surplus value, isevidence of complete ignorance of how theeconomy functions.Of course, if capital accumulation pro-ceeded in the manner indicated by Evans,an exhaustion of the available labour forcewould be brought about after a period.Before this happened, however, manpowerwould be in such short supply as to raise

wages to the point which threatened theextinction of profits. Accumulation wouldthen be rapidly choked off. Productionwould decline. Unemployment wouldappear and wages rapidly fall. In such ahypothetical situation, capitalism would beforced to do this to save it from self-extinc-tion. There would ensue also a massacre ofcapital values, and any earlier productivegains would be wiped out. In a socialorganization where production is sociallyregulated and controlled, no such barrierswould exist for the continued expansion ofproductive effort. Because of these barriers,capitalism must always be a system oforganized scarcity.Because relative surplus value (strippedof the grandiloquent language of Evans) ismerely the attempt on the part of each con-cern to reduce its "labour costs," eventhough production may expand the ncreffect of all capitalists' action is, as thehistory of capitalism shows, to bring intobeing an industrial reserve army. Thus thetendency for wages to rise under the impulseof relative surplus value will bring a counter-tendency for them to fall. Without suchregulating features of the upper and lowerwage-level limits, profits could not beensured and capital accumulation could nor

normally proceed. Evans's view of some137

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lf-developing, self-regulating mechanism gressive, overall, technical law of develop- good wartime deficits, plus the export drive,hich ensures ever-greater masses of use- ment. Technical progress varies from has lessened the incentive for restrictivealues and consequently ever-greater markets industry to industry and this for long practices. Nevertheless, as H. N. Leylandever-greater wages and profits has more periods. Even discounting cyclic fluctua- points out, trade associations are growing infinity with some paradise of laissez-faire tions, there are times when conditions are number-there are about 2,500 of themwhere all good capitalists go when they unfavourable for either. Even when conditions now-and coverage. Indeed, there is littleare favourable, increased wages do not fall to prevent and plenty to support the viewEven from a 'purely theoretical view, an like ripe plums into the workers' laps. They that surplus capacity is likely to become acelerated increase in the organic com- have to be sought, argued for and even problem once more.JSirion of capital would bring an accelerated fought for. Neither the humanitarian On Evans's assumptions of expandingin the rate of profit unless-and impulses of the employers nor any ineluct- production and, of course, expanding:is is ruled out by definition-workers able process guarantees them. Indeed the markets, with the concomitant expanding'='...;:omeproductive supermen. From:l phase of relative surplus value, as Evans has profits, one cannot ask why the formidable_ crical standpoint, a demand for plant, been told, was not the result of an abstract and steady growth ofmonopolistic tendenciesbuildings, etc., on a scale appreci- law of evolutionary processes but the con- -only how, in such conditions, they couldless than that imagined by Evans- crete outcome of class conflict. Thus capital ever have appeared. Leak and Maizel's-I..!-ciding the supplies of manpower and accumulation had brought about in many report on vertical and horizontal combina-resources were available-would lead sectors, labour shortages. Workers,organized tions (I944), based on the I935 Productionrapidly rising prices and, for the buyers into ever-growing and more powerful trade Census, while it cannot be summarized here,: _. o se requisites, rapidly increasing costs. unions, sought in those conditions to improve shows a 70 to 90 per cent. concentration in= orofit margin between machine costs their standards. The capitalist answer to many sections of British industry.-~ ;-bour costs would soon disappear. this was the extension of labour-saving No suggestion is made here that there is--z::::s, in order to prove his assertions of machinery, which in time changed the pro- some inevitable monopolistic law which will-~erated technical and productive pro- cess of absolute surplus value to relative leave the world under the control of a fewress would have to show steeply cumulative surplus value. One of the drawbacks of an industrial giants: an idea beloved of Com-

::'=--~';' increases in capital depreciation, all-embracing theory of immanent progress munist theorists and pseudo-Marxists,of course he cannot do. One can at is that it allows you to see everything and Experience shows that monopolies are insa for Evans that his views are never consequently nothing. constant process of being formed and break-m:pli ated by any evidence. On the question of the competitive ing up, just as it can be shown that thereAgain the Productivity Council based on mechanisms of capitalism, what evidence is are circumstances which favour them ande po ns of the Working Parties (1946) there that they are agencies which provide circumstances which don't. For that reason:x>~eof the lack of technical innovation and for an accelerated productive expansion? it appears to me that Professor Sweezy'schronic excessive capacity that had As H. N. Leyland has pointed out in Trade quite valuable contribution on monopoliesin many important sectors of Associations, competition often not only in The Theory of Capitalist Developmenta sure sign of technical stagnation fails to eliminate surplus plant capacity but was somewhat overdrawn, just as was his:-'" a rebuttal of Evans's view that capitalism brings about the very conditions for it. That notion that the monopolist is the world~ system ofcontinuous tedinlcaJ. deveIop-- ----highly-~ompetitive-eonditions-Iead to a p~ic--- calculator of marginal profits and costs. Itome idea of the rate of expansion of depression below the long-term norm IS a can be said of the laws of monopoly what~~_acity is given by Dr. Rostas in the fairly typical form ?f market behaviour: . It the text-book said of snakes in Iceland-:_ onzic Journal. He shows that between can generally be said that such competitive there are none.zad 1948 the average yearly increase market conditions will rule out technical Monopoly is something not absolute but: ; : ~ : ~ output per head was less than innovations, even among the most efficient relative; not a question of kind but degree.: ; : c ; : cent. Colin Clark, in the Daily concerns. It also means that such competi- While it may be possible for them to control: -. =? .=~ . , of 7th November, I954, says tion does not reduce expenses but raises prices, they can do so only to an extent: : : : z rare of economic progress was them because, due to excessive plant capacity, which will not encourage other powerful- = - - = ; _ , . the last half of the nineteenth even the bigger firms become high cost concerns to enter the field. Again, many. _'''an now. This makes hay of producers. monopolies are hedged round with powerful=supported assertions of some What often happens in those circumstances outside" interests," and examination shows

= cnmulative expansion of produc- is that agreements on quotas and prices are that monopolistic dividends are not on_;:"-':;oll~) if there had occurred an reached. Thus, the less efficient are pre- average higher than non-monopolistic ones._-~- 1::'~production of the means of served and the more efficient held back: There is also fierce competition between- =--,------t.he indispensable basis for technical development is again retarded. many monopolies. Because monopoly helps

=" will-how explain the chronic All of which suggests organized scarcity, to breed monopoly, monopolistic sellers are:;:I capacity for many decades in not organized abundance. often confronted with monopolistic buyers,_ - ~~ and steel and heavy engineer- Capitalists themselves no longer believe and fierce competition is the result. What-in the piratical practices of cut-throat com- ever may be said of monopolies-and a

petition. They much prefer, if and when detailed examination is impossible here-they can get it, the comfortable life of they do not alter the characteristic patternagreed quotas and prices. It is true the very of capitalist production.self-expansion of capital brings about Again on the question of technical pro-evasion and termination of trade agreements, gress, many monopolies provide an impetusbut the vigour and persistency that seek to for technical innovation and research; onrenew them are proof that free competition the other hand, many of them are restric-is no longer regarded as an efficient instru- tionist in this respect. That is because ofment for the removal of that bugbear of their control of markets and productivecapitalism, surplus capacity. substance, which makes them less suscep-The war and its aftermath have changed tible to the shock of new techniques aridthe situation somewhat. The destruction innovations. Thus, they are under no com-and wearing-out of plant during the war pulsion to scrap plant before it is worn out.have necessitated rebuilding and re-equip- Such monopolies tend to slow down bothment of capital goods. Again, the large the rate of capital accumulation and tech-demand for consumption articles to make nical progress.

- = - : : _ - . :0 the question of ever-rising.Iring, one test would be to: - e r s have secured the maier~:.:crion increases, i.e., that::i_'-a} during the course of~i.oDment much faster than

: :: : = - -= : 5 ~ews of course, rule out-...".-rr ~72ges being increased at the

e:::;'!;~ ~. Nevertheless, even on_--:-::.. :__- esamination of profits and= = Est fifty years yields no---=-~ ~ c: course, Evans has any_~ -= __ :~" 'on, for so wordy a~ ~ zs :::-=-- z~.,- reticent about them.i=. :::e ~ ~~ a : capitalism one cannot;=i;-~ -~ _5=;;-arions as to some pro-

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Undoubtedly the concentration ofeconomic resources-which the 1948 WhitePaper on Monopoly regards as the normaldevelopment of existing society-has changedand is changing market behaviour based onfree competition. Instead of price-cutting asa general practice (often retaliatory, wastefuland even ruinous), sales promotion andadvertising technique are becoming thecompetitive form of existing society. Theold adage " alike as peas" no longer holds.Certain proprietary brands set out to showthat nothing could be more unlike peas-especially their peas which, they clai~, ~reunique. By selling products and claimingfor them intrinsic qualities, firms seek toattract custom from rival firms. This isknown as imperfect competition.This attempt to increase sales withoutrecourse to price-cutting has led to anenormous growth in distribution costs. Togive some idea of this, it was stated in 1938consumers bought goods in England to thevalue of2,800 million. Distribution chargeswere estimated to have cost over 1,000million. In America, the proportional dis-

tribution costs are said to be greater. Such isthe colossal misdirection of wealth resourcespeculiar to capitalist society. Add to thisthe vast growth of bureaucracy and expen-diture on armies, navies, air forces, militaryneeds, etc., and one realizes to. what ext~ntcapitalism is a system of o~gamzed scarcity,In exhorting workers to ever-increasingproductivity, real anxiety is in. t~at ~ppeal-for unless increased productivity lS main-tained the vast unproductive agencies ofmodern society cannot exist. Even presentliving standards might fall dangerouslyback.The fact that someone propounding atheory of progress should himself be sounaware of what actually is taking place isnot without irony. Evans's struggle to usea Marxist tool of analysis to demonstratehis theory of progress, as I said on a.differ~ntoccasion, reminds one of a small child tryingto use his grandfather's sword. One mayadd: what a pity that, when Evans setout to find socialism, he never discovered

capitalism en route. E.W.E.W's. next article will deal with thereasons which, in his estimate, preventcapitalism from being a system of cu~u-

lative technical progress and organizedabundance.

CORRECTIONS.Last month's issue of FORUM waswrongly numbered; the May issue was

No. 32, not 3I.In the article Can War Hasten Socialism?(April), a printing error gave Colin Cl~r~'sestimate of the average yearly productivityincrease since World War II as 2 ! - per cent.This should have read: "little more than

Iper cent. per year."

The Colour Questionconcern them until it hits them economically(or appears to), in my view it is not justsufficient for the socialist to explain thatwhat seem to be colour problems are usuallyeconomic problems, and that the eliminationof economic conflict would mean less oppor-tunity for the arousing of those horribleprejudices.Let us assume that the people of theworld had introduced economic equality byabolishing private ownership and callinginto existence common ownership. Whilethere would certainly not be economic con-flict, there would possibly still be thisproblem of assimilation. It is pertinent toask, of course, whether it matters if peopleof different coloured skins do not assimilateto the extent which I would like? It couldbe argued that the job of the socialist is tohelp to establish the economic basis forSocialism, and leave the problem of assimila-tion to those who wish to be assimilated.Perhaps under Socialism different peopleswith different cultures will wish to retainthe identity which their cultures give them,and not be drawn into a world culture. Thatthere will be harmful conflicts due to colourand cultural prejudice is hardly to bedoubted. Though those conflicts may notdescend to the level of violence, that doesnot mean there cannot be a serious disrup-tion of social harmony.What kind of disruption? Exactly thesame kind that we see so often undercapitalism, for which there seems so oftento be no economic explanation. Take, forexample, the taboos which cover marriages

between people of different coloured skins.I cannot find, in England at any rate, anyeconomic clash which could be said to bethe primary cause of the ugly expressionsof disgust and loathing that such unionsoften bring forth. They are simply resultsof prejudice: the strange prejudice towardsthat which is different. Again, in the matterof housing or work there is a tendency forpeople to retain the barrier of colour byforming separate groups, even though therewould seem to be no economic explanationfor so doing. If these phenomena cannot beexplained on strictly economic lines thenthere is no reason to think they would dis-appear or be of no consequence wheneconomic equality had been established.

If we can accept the possibility of dis-harmonies of the kind I have mentioned,then it must be part of the socialist case thatthe people of the world must not onlyestablish economic equality, but also be sodivorced from prejudice on colour thatassimilation will follow quite naturally.FRANK DUNNE.

" Socialist propaganda and unpunctualityhave been largely synonymous in thiscountry. The S.P.G.B. will change that."(The Socialist Standard, June, I905).139

We are working for a society which, asyet, exists only in the minds of a little overa thousand people. Itmay be true that theonly definite thing we can tell people aboutthis society is that it will be based oncommon ownership. They, however, insiston knowing more, just as we ourselveswhen dealing with people advocating adifferent kind of society insist on hear-ing more about it than a vague general-ization. Do we not ask our opponents:Will there be wages? Will there be acoercive authority? We cannot demand ofothers what we are unwilling to give our-selves, so we must, as far as it is possible,work out theoretically the many facets ofthe future society. As always, of course,theories are only theories until they areproved correct or otherwise, by application.However, if we are to have a safety-line ofconsistency for action and propaganda wemust continually try to perfect our theoryand always check our original ideas to makesure there is no contradiction.We could not agree that a majority ofworkers who accept the necessity for gettingrid of private ownership, but still possessprejudices about race, could bring aboutSocialism as we visualize it. Or could we?We rreed not be so concerned about theslight disharmonies which may arise due tocolour prejudice, but we must be concernedabout the ideas of people who are assistingus to bring about that society. Howimportant this is, could be seen recently ata meeting of workers who were discussinga strike resolution. The seconder, whoseemed to agree with a lot of socialist ideas,ended his contribution by saying: "We arenot niggers, we are white. Let us be treatedas such." That man, when giving an analysisof capitalism's wealth distribution, soundedno different from the socialist. But we couldnot agree to his being in the Party with suchideas about the supposed superiority of thewhite man. This is the reason for dealingwith the possible problem of assimilation ofdifferent colour or cultural groups underSocialism.The colour question in capitalist societycan be described as the problem which ariseswhen, due to simple prejudice or the clash-ing of different cultures, groups of peoplewith different pigmentation are unable orunwilling to assimilate. Real assimilationwould mean inter-marriage, equal status insocial and working life, etc. I think it is trueto say that for most people there is no colourquestion until there is a clash of economicinterests, as in South Africa at the moment,or as when occasionally we hear of a rowbetween a coloured landlord and whitetenants in London. It is on those occasionsthat hidden prejudices viciously come intothe open and, of course, hinder the possiblesolution of what is in reality an economicproblem. Even though it is true that formost people the problem of race does not

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HE WORK OF LEWIS MUMFORDHistorical Materialism and Modern Times

(Part 2: Conclusion)lthough Lewis Mumford has pointedthat a biological age (or "biotechnicplex," as he terms it) is developing, hiscepts of biology appear at times to bearre resemblance to the idiosyncrasies oft Francis of Assissi, who was said toerse with animals and birds, than torn science.he experimental method of science hasvery well summarized as follows:-"All experiments boil down to twoery simple operations: taking apart andtogether again; or, in scientificnguage, analysis and synthesis. Unlessou can take a thing or a process to bitsou can do nothing with it but observeas an undivided whole. Unless youan put the pieces together again andake the whole thing work, there is noof knowing whether you have intro-uced something new or left out some-hing in your analysis."(Science and Society, J. D. BERNAL).comparison, Lewis Mumford writesllows:-" No analysis of the parts and no mereddition of analyses and abstractions willver- give 'any insight into the pattern or -posive configuration that endows themith a special significance: indeed, thisrganic relationship will not even beuspected when methods of abstractiond isolation are the sole ones employed."(The Conduct oi Life).onsidering this comment in its context,nderstand that he was pointing out thed for "ensemble theory." The pointthe purposelessness of electrons, pro-and other fundamental particles ofsics, which could not explain humanlings such as love, hate and joy, wasin the nineteen-thirties by C. E. M.Ithink. However, it is somewhatated," because "ensemble theory," ortheory that shows the effect of arrange-of a number of bodies, has beeneloped somewhat since then. Researchthe field of general statistics was madeWorld War IIbecause of the use oftheories in the problems thrown upthe war. For an introduction tolopments in group theory, statistics,rmation and communication theory, the

is advised to consult mCG books asCybernetics.owe er, treating the quotation as aeral point, as S.R.P. did, what is itsificance? Is it a way of saying that nounderstanding of biological processesever be obtained? Does it mean that itoomed forever to be a science of obser-ion only? Place against this the achieve-

of the model organisms of Grey,

Walter and others, described in such booksas The Human Use of Human Beings byWiener and Minds and Machines bySluckin. The fault is that when something-in this case society-is termed anorganism, the analysis is considered to becomplete. Nothing could be more wrong.We are lucky to-day to see cyberneticsmaking great strides and explaining anumber of features of organisms in anisolation process (how else can you experi-ment?) This is giving us knowledge of howbiological organisms work, and will in thefuture cast more light on society as anorganism. Already we can see the signific-ance of loose couplings with feedbackcontrols in the way the means of productionbrings the structure of society into linewith-it.In understanding society we need toknow more than the fact that it resemblesan organism; we must understand how thatorganism develops. That is why we need atheory of history. We are not interes~edmerely in what is or what has been, but WIshto know why things have happened, and alsohow s-ociety will be in the future. Becausehe has not considered society in thisanalytical way, Lewis Mumford tends attimes to muddle his classifications with hisdesires. He preaches as follows on massproduction methods:-" The fact that simple repetitive opera-tions agree with the psychological con-stitution of the feebleminded constitutesa warning as to the limits of sub-dividedlabour. Mass production under condi-tions which confirm these limits mayexact too high a human price for its cheapproducts. What is not mechanical enoughfor a machine to perform may not behuman enough for a living man. Efficiencymust begin with the utilization of thewhole man; and efforts to increasemechanical performance must ceasewhen the balance of the whole man isthreatened. "

Those may sound very humane sentiments,but do they really come from his analysis ofsociety? They do not. They constitute anexample of his desires, not a description ofthe way twentieth-century society has beendeveloping. What has happened is that moreefficient and often less human processes havebeen developed in order to increase profits,while alongside this the social side _of thefactory has been developed to keep theworker happy, or at least content. Efficiency,as measured bv productivity, has not beenallowed to fall for any more human feelings,though it has been found that bv treatingworkers in a more human way efficiency canbe increased.

From these trends, one would be morejustified in saying that work is becomingmore specialized at all levels, and alongsidethis more time is spent on hobbies and otheractivities in which the personality and thewhole man are developed. Perhaps we cansee this more clearly in 1955 than waspossible in 1932.Mumford tends also to consider that anypossible aspect of the Paleotechnic Phase

was bad, and that the Neotechnic and Bio-technic Phases are good. He considers (page2 I 4 of Technics and Civilization) thatWorld War Iwas a setback for the good anddeveloping Neotechnic Phase, presumablybecause poison gas was used; this is aminers' weapon, and mining is a typicalpaleotechnic occupation. Also biotechnicsis even better than neotechnics, so presum-ably biological warfare based on modernbacteriology is much better than neotechnic-style war with hydrogen bombs, or paleo-technic war using modern nerve-gases!This tendency to mix analysis with desiresmakes his method of classification much less

objective than it could be. If anything wasdesigned well in the nineteenth century,which is definitely in the paleotechnicphase, it is termed either eotechnic or neo-technic. An example is the clipper sailingship, which has beautiful design-and istherefore termed eotechnic. While, in thetwentieth century, if any process (such asthe belt system) is developed by the use ofelectric power, and also appears to be harm-ful to human beings, it is termed quitearbitrarily" really" paleotechnic.It is useful to notice that if the process ofindustrial innovation is studied dynamically,

or as a developing process, such incon-sistencies do not arise. The mechanicalaspect of this was described by this writer(FORUM, March, 1953) as follows:-" Productive processes have been sim-plified so that each man does simply afew manipulations, and then a device isconstructed to perform these manipula-tions more systematically (because it ischeaper) needing man then only formaintenance and adjustment."

He went on in September, I953 to showhow the simplicities resulting from the useof electricity lead to a new attitude to indus-trial welfare or scientific management,because with the increased flexibility offactory design the human operator becomesmore important. Considering it as a processdeveloping in time is both clearer and moreaccurate.It is worth noting also that, althoughLewis Mumford considers that progress inother sciences will increase as they relymore on the study of natural or biologicalforms, robot or control devices were retardedsomewhat in the initial stages by over-con-centration on the human form as a model.

(Continued on page 142)

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MARXISM and LITERATURE: 2

"He observed that stink, or stench,meant no more than a strong impressionon the olfactory nerves; and might beapplied to substances of the most oppo-site qualities; that in the Dutch language,stinken signified the most agreeableperfume, as well as the most fetidodour, as appears in Van Vloudel'stranslation of Horace, in that beautifulode, Quis multa gracilis, &c ... thathe had reason to believe the stercor-aceous flavour, condemned by prejudiceas a stink was, in fact, most agreeableto the organs of smelling."Thus Smollett, in 1770, contended thatbeauty is a relative thing. So it is. Thewritings which delight one age are tosh toanother: Lyly's Euphues and Sidney'sArcadia, acclaimed four centuries ago, aremerely boring now. "Modern" poetry isunacceptable to those of us who werebrought up on Tennyson, Newbolt andGray's Elegy. Nor is it simply a questionof what is acceptable-the whole purposeand manner of literature may vary fromepoch to epoch. The writer of to-day whofeels impelled to analyze and probe wouldhave been, a few generations back, amarvellous storyteller instead. "Even thephantasmagoria in men's brains," wroteMarx and Engels, "are necessary supple-ments of their material life process, ernpi ..ric ally demonstrable and bound up withmaterial premises."Beowulf 1 3 a bore-pedestrian, heavy andunlikely; in Anglo-Saxon England, it thrilledand inspired its hearers. The Romans leftBritain, the pent-up migratory movementfrom Germany and the north began, andthere were decades of struggle until thewarlords formed the first English kingdoms,such as they were. The struggle producedbarbarian epics, as in Greece: homespuntextures of legend, passed 011 and enlarged

by wandering gleemen and tale-tellers, untilthey were written down and Christianizedin the monasteries in the eight century A.D.Only a few fragments remain: The Fightat Finnsbure, Waldere, The Battle ofMalden and Beowulf.Legends begin from facts-often, thefacts of man's contest with the elements.Long before the great migration, the tribeson the coasts of northern Europe, strugglingagainst the sea, formed the legend of Beowa,the god who overcame Grendel the sea-monster. When they escaped from the sea,the god became human. Thus, early in thesixth century a new hero was sung. Round

about 520, the Gears from South Sweden

went plundering on the lower Rhine; therewas a battle, and the Franks drove themaway. After the battle, tales spread of 3 -great fighting man-Beowulf, the nephewof Hygelac, king of the Gears. "Beowulf,the son of Ecgtheow, took the place ofBeowa, the vanquisher 'of Grendel. .. Tothis germ were gradually joined severalappendages, derived partly from mythical,partly from historical sources, or from theanalogy of related sagas" (B. Ten Brink,Early English Literature). Beowulf came toEngland as the warrior who slew dragons:he was Saint George's grandfather.That is how legends always grow. Thereare three stages. First, the factual basis-often slender, sometimes guesswork,sometimes in circumstance rather thanhappening. Next, the addition of later, lessaccurate, less relevant records; and finallythe "fabulous history" stage, when it hasC011}et9serve a specific social purpose (e.g.,dIe demand for a national hero) and thelegend is all that matters. Beowulf, KingArthur, Achilles and Cuchulainn are all ofone family.The Anglo-Saxon epics mirror the timesin which they were made. The kingdoms werea matter of military protection, developed

from the German war-bands which Tacitusdescribed: there was, in short, a division oflabour between the farmers and the fighters.The warlord's followers-his thegns-fought with him, developing the concept o fpersonal rather than tribal loyalty; in return,he shared his spoils with them. Beowulfdescribes his service in youth to Hygelac:"Irepaid him in battle for the treasureswhich he gave me."And, as Dorothy Whitelock points out inThe Beginnings o f English Society: "Therichly furnished ship-burial at Sutton Hoosuggests that even the kings of heathen dayshad considerable wealth at their disposal."The minstrel was the preacher of thosetimes, His stories contained practicalwisdom, law and justice; they drew roughmorals, stirred and solaced men. Theywould be sung in the hall after the day'swo::!",o~ by the fire after the day's hunting

or fighting :" ..... The thegn fulfilled his office,He that bore in his hand the ale-mughuge,And ~adorned; he poured the pure,sweet liquor.Oftimes a singer sang, full merrily sang,In Heorot's hall; there was joy of

h "eroes. (B if1eotou sr :

" In every historical epoch, the prevail-ing mode of economic production andexchange, and the social organizationnecessarily following from it, form thebasis upon which is built up, and fromwhich alone can be explained, thepolitical and intellectual history of thatepoch." MARX.,----------------There were two kinds of minstrels: thescop, who devised songs, and the gleeman,who merely repeated them. Often the chiefsthemselves were singers, and sang as theyled their men to battle. A scop could relyon a good living, either in a king's employ-ment or travelling from place to place.Widsith the Wanderer and The Lament ofDior describe both sides of it; the first anaccount of his travels, the second with afamiliar story-" For many winters Iheld noble offices,Had a kindly lord; till now Heorenda,A man skilled in song-craft, receives

the land-rightThat the protector of Earls gave melong ago."He had, in short, received the Anglo-Saxonequivalent of cards and coppers.Christianity enhanced, not altered, theSaxon political structure; that is why itspread over England in a century. Thesocial ideals of duty to overlords, protectionof property and so on were reinforced bydivine authority. Cnut's laws said: "For allthat ever we do, through just loyalty to ourlord, we do to our own greater advantage,for truly God will be gracious to him who isduly faithful to his lord." Some gleemen

became priests, putting Bible stories intoverse. There came into being, too, a classo f monastic hack writers, whose job it wasto set down the old epics with a Christianoverlay.The kings and the Church were history-conscious, because history makes propa-ganda for power. The seventh, eighth andninth centuries produced innumerablereligious and political surveys-lives ofsaints, priests and martyrs, Bede's Ecclesias-tical History o f the English Nation (only themonasteries' concern for this sort of thing,in fact, has made them appear as " oases oflearning" in the Dark Ages"); Gildas's

Destruction and Conquest of Britain, theAnglo-Saxon Chronicles, Nennius's Historyof the Britons. Not that these were historicalworks in any modern sense. "Gildas," sayshis editor Williams, "would never haveregarded himself as a 'historian'; he is apreacher, a revivalist who will ' attempt tostate a few facts' by way of illustrating hismessage that divine anger must visit withpunishment 3. sinning people and priest-hood."The unification of the southern Englishkingdoms under Alfred and the growth oftrade drew attention to the question oflanguage. The Englisc spoken by the fifth-

century immigrants existed only in a number141

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dialects, and the Danish invasion addedthem (the monks wrote Latin, of course).e "revival of learning" promoted byfred was chiefly an attempt to make Westxon the standard speech of England-ccessful insofar as most surviving piecesearly English are written in that dialect.d it not been for the Norman conquest,nglish would probably have developedch as the other Low German forms have,eloped, and we should now be speakinglanguage not unlike modern Dutch."earsall Smith, The English Language).It is worth mentioning that the Englishthe tenth-century manuscripts, far froming crude,is full of complexities of gender,ectional forms and so on: the precisionwritten language was produced by thek of unified speech. The same sort ofing happened in China (Professor Shih-iang Chen describes it in Unesco'srrelations of Cultures). Spoken Chineseludes several different languages andects, but the written language is universald is precision itself, with its ideographsrresponding to monosyllables. That is

Chinese education has always beenphatically literary, and why Chineseetry for three centuries has aimed at per-ion of verbal form above everything else.Regrettably, in a survey of this kind wholeeratures have to be left out. While theglo-Saxons, laying the foundations ofdalism, produced their hero-myths andemsand chronicles and moralities, Bagdadew the legends and wags' tales that makeThe Thousand and One Nights; Norsery-tellers were at work in Iceland andorish ones in Spain; Omar Khayyams looking at the stars (never knowing

W he would be misrepresented eightnturies later). And, because trade andies moved, there was continually a gentleerchange of stories and knowledge-sot the legend of King Arthur, for example,nt back and forward between Wales andovence for centuries before it was writtenThe Normans superimposed theirguage as firmly as their feudalism. Forentury and a half, French was theguage of court and castle; for almost thee period, literature meant French poetryd Latin prose. Something new appearedmantic love; not merely as a theme forurtly poems, but as a social concept. ThisEngels' account of it:"". . . Matrimony remained what it haden since the pairing marriage, a matter ofnvenience which was arranged by therents. The first historical form of sexuale as passion, a passion recognized astural to all human beings (at least if theylonged to the ruling classes), and as theghest form of the sexual impulse-andt is what constitutes its specific characterfirst form of individual sexual love,chivalrous love of the middle ages, was"no means conjugal. Quite the contrary.its classic form among the Provencals, itads straight for adultery, and the poetslove celebrated adultery. The flower of2

Provencal love poetry are theAlbas (aubades,songs of dawn). They describe in glowingcolours how the knight lies in bed beside hislove-the wife of another man-while out-side stands the watchman who calls to himas soon as the first grey of dawn (alba)appears, so that he can get away unobserved;the parting scene then forms the climax ofthe poem." (Origin of the Family).The troubadors who sang these songs,

like the old gleemen, were professionals inthe sense that they lived by them; theycarried honours, gifts and places in richmen's retinues. The idea of direct paymentfor a piece of writing had never arisen sofar, however. That belonged apparently tothe age of printing, essentially to the age ofwages. Nevertheless, when the output ofRomance stories was at its height, a half-literary profession appeared. People foundprose easier to read, so clerks were com-missioned to render poems and songs intoeveryday language. "It is recorded of aclerk named Birton," says Ford in TheMarch of Literature, " that for one lord oranother he thus as it were castrated upwardsof ninety romances."All this and rnuch more comprised theliterature of feudalism, and not much per-ception is needed to see that, from Beowulfon, it was aristocratic, concerned with warand love and upholding the military caste.The world might have been made up ofwarriors and knights and pretty youngthings, except that someone had to feedthem. The common people did come in,however, in the priests' tales. For the pur-pose of teaching and preaching, stories werecollected from every source and adapted topoint morals in everyday affairs. Many ofthem were Eastern stories, diffused throughArabic, Hebrew and Syriac into French andthence into English; they representedhusbands, peasants, merchants, priests them-selves in all sorts of situations where a pioustwist might be given-the effort sometimesmust have been great. The priests' talesultimately gave more to literature thanall the court romances. The best-knowncollection is the fourteenth-century GestaRomanorum-still being printed to-day; itsjokes and fables provided authors' materialeverlasting. Boccaccio, Gower, Chaucer,Shakespeare, Schiller, Rossetti and ever somany more borrowed from it. There, at anyrate, was a literature of and for everyday.By the thirteen-twenties the beginningsof what is now called Middle English hadappeared. Layamon's Brut d'Angleterrewas the supposed story in verse of England" after the flood." Part west-country folk-lore, part drawn from the fabulous, epic-struck histories of Wace and Geoffrey ofMonmouth, for the first time it presentedthe centuries' accumulation of legend-Learand his daughters, Gorboduc, King Arthur.Other writings proved the influences of thetime: the poetical debate The Owl and theNightingale, for example, "reminding usthat we are in an epoch when jurists andlawyers quickly rose to great influence,

wealth and pOSItIOn, a time when Bractonwrote his book on the laws and customs ofEngland" (Ten Brink).It is worth pausing over the case of KingArthur. If he lived at all, he was relativelya nobody; if he lived at all, he was nevermentioned by contemporary writers. Butthe. Druids of Gaul had a legend of Merlin,before the Romans came to Britain, and theWelsh a tale of a leader with a black flag,and the Breton followers of the Norman

kings had heard of an Arthur in Sicily. Athousand and one conjectural stories werethere to be added until, as England becamea nation, national sentiment wanted anational hero. Thus, when Geoffrey andLayamon and Malory at last wrote it down,Arthur turned out to be, after all, only apersonification of the upper-class ideals ofthe thirteenth century. As was observedearlier, that is how legends-and religions-are born. R. COSTER.

The Work of Lewis Mumford(Continued from page 140)

Having pointed out some of the limita-tions of Lewis Mumford's contribution, Imust mention a few of the highlights. Hegives a fine account of the relationshipbetween mass production and warfare inTechnics and Civilization. Also his accountof time-keeping in the same book isexcellent. The following is an interestingexample:-"The new bourgeoisie, in countinghouse and shop, reduced life to a careful,uninterrupted routine: so long for busi-ness; so long for dinner; so long forpleasure-all carefully measured out, asmethodical as the sexual intercourse ofTristram Shandy's father, which coin-cided, symbolically, with the winding ofthe clock." (Technics and Civilization).

His descriptions are not related to thedistant past. On the twentieth century, forexample, he points out that the camera isreplacing the clock in some ways and thismay well be the cause of " the change froman introspective to a behaviourist psycho-logy."The works of Lewis Mumford have short-comings which this writer has been at painsto point out, because they contain so much

that deserves serious study. However, hecannot conclude with saying that Technicsand Civilization is a good book. Itwas notmerely worthwhile to read it-it was apleasure. ROBERT.Family crests on personal writing paperare seldom seen these days, and there arevery few private cars whose doors areemblazoned with their owner's coat of arms.... The modern reluctance to do so maywell be due to self-consciousness, or to anunderstandable dislike of appearing osten-tatious. Debrett's Peerage, 1955.

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Outline-2

HUGH GAITSKELL, Labour politicianof "planned economy" era. No working-class struggle: from Army-officer family,public school and Oxford. Studied and formedviews under Robbins, Cole. First job withWE A, economics for Nottingham miners;moved up one year later to lectureship atLondon University. Spoke for Labour inthe 1929 elections, adopted candidate(unsuccessful rival: Colin Clark) forChatham at next election, 1932. Defeated,given South Leeds safe seat next time.Wartime secretary to Dalton in Ministryof Economic Warfare. Re-elected 1945,followed Shinwell as Minister of Fuel andPower; was in on nationalization of themines. Next rung: Chancellor of theExchequer. "It was undoubtedly Gaitskell,together with Douglas Jay, who made upthe Government's mind to devalue thepound." (Picture Post, 7th April, I95 I).Conclusion: Still concerned with economicwarfare--on the other side from workers.

. .Cuttings

In an article in "Family Doctor," theBritish Medi.ca~ Association's magazine,Dr. Roger Pilkington, the geneticist andanthropologist, says: "It is high time that~ll ?f us . . . realised that our colour pre-judices have no foundation in fact." . . .Leading experts had declared that availablescientific knowledge provided no basis forbelieving that the groups of mankind differedin their innate capacity for intellectual andemotional development. "Given the sameopportunities of education and environmentthe performance and ability of individualsdoes not differ appreciably from one race toh "anot er. Manchester Guardian, 28/4/55.

*; . : - *

recurring profits. Unilever Ltd. is paying afinal dividend of 90t per cent., making 15iper cent. Manchester Guardian, 14/4/55.

*Hundreds of Glasgow school-children,aged between 14 and 17, took a " decisionfor Christ" in front of Mr. Billy Graham,the American evangelist, at a crusade meet-ing yesterday. Nearly ten thousand childrenhad been released from school by the educa-tion authorities to attend a special service inthe Kelvin Hall, Glasgow.Manchester Guardian, 28/4/55.

* * - 1 ( -Every year increasing mechanisation atthe coal-face means one per cent. less coalmined-c-or one per cent. more slack.(Director of Public Relations,National Coal Board).

The Observer, 1/5/55.*~t is essential to Communism to give allchl.ldreJ.?- an all-round education tip touniversity standard.

Daily Worker, 16/4/55.f..ft~r completing seven years of schoolRussian boys may be compulsorily sent totrade or factory schools between the ages of14 and 17 (girls between 15 and 16); pupilswho carryon in professional secondaryschools or the upper forms of generalsecond~ry schools are legally exempt, butotherwise the call-up to trade schools is atpresent quite arbitrary. . . . It is a criminal

offence to run away from these schools(which are usually residential and may beat a considerable distance from the child'shome) punishable by up to a year in a cor-rective labour colony.Manchester Guardian, 20/4/55.* - 1 : -

The recent confusion over Japan's foreignpolicies has been cleared by a blunt state-ment from the Prime Minister, Mr.Hatoyama .... Japan has now returned itsattention, after this statement on foreignpolicy, to the pressing matter of what theimmediate future holds for an impoverishednation and what can be done about it.The Cabinet is quickly preparing for theday when United States generosity may end.There is, therefore, a six-year economicplan and a rearmament plan under consider-ation .... Manchester Guardian, 13/5/55.

* *

Lady Pakenham defended the habit ofkeeping up with the Joneses-"a thoroughlynice family"-when she addressed theAdvertising Association at Brighton yester-day. . . . "Is it a good thing to take noticeof other people's standards? Is it not just acase of keeping up with the Joneses? To me'keeping up with the Joneses' is a muchmaligned social habit. The ordinary house-wife m~ans two things by 'a higher standard'-keeping up with the Joneses, and passingh "em. Manchester Guardian, 7/5/55.

Mr. Malik, Russian Ambassador toLondon, who on Saturday went to theBritish Industries Fair at Castle BromwichBirmingham, said at a luncheon there that. . . the economies of Britain and Russiawere supplementary to each other, and therewere substantial possibilities for an increasein trade between them. The Soviet Unioncould place in Britain substantial orders forships, equipment and consumer goods. Butto make. trade ?ormal, it was necessary tolessen. ~nternatlOnal tension by way ofnegotiations on a policy of peace and not ona policy of force.Manchester Guardian, 9/5/55.

* * *Very rightly, the B.B.c. takes extremepai~s to remain detached and impartialduring a general election campaign. It hasa monopoly ov~r the most P?werful existingmea~s .of makmg ~r breaking reputations,yet It IS bound by Its charter to be strictlynon-party and non-partisan.The Observer, 24/4/55.

*The record amount of 373 millions wasadvanced on mortgage by building societieslast year, according to Mr. C. B. Crabbe,chief registrar of Friendly Societies, in arep~rt publish~d to-day. This was 74~11hons more tnan last year; it was the firsttime that advances had exceeded 300millions. Of the 352,000 advances madeduring the year 91 per cent. were foramounts of 2,000 or less .... There wereat the end of 1954 1,879,000 borrowers whobetween them owed 1,574 millions.Manchester Guardian, 16/5/55.

143

* .){- *The sharp expansion in profits and theincreased dividends of the Unilever groupreported this morning are a reflection ofthe consumer boom. Value of turnoverfor 1954 increased to the record figure ofr,437A29,000, compared with 1,310,I2I,OOO for 1953. Combined trading profitincreased by nearly 14 per cent. to70,095,000 and the net profit, after tax,from 25,799,000 to 31,854,000, includ-ing 2,667,000 exceptional items and non-

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The ScientificAttitude

and our D. of P.Scientific method can broadly be dividedthree main categories-that of classi-ation and measurement, experimentalsearch, and the laying down of particulard general statements usually known asientific laws.The problem confronting the scientisthen examining a particular system ofenomena, is so to arrange his observa-onal methods that the system he is examin-is isolated as much as possible frome ~~mediate. environment. For example,sicer the difficulty of weighing in gramsthree places of decimals a quantity ofme powder e.g., chalk. On an openlance mere exposure to the atmosphereresult in the weight of the chalk fluctuat-up and down as it acquires and gives offoisture from the air around it. The degreeisolation is not sufficient to complete theperiment. The chalk could be dried andntained in a vessel the material of whichless prone to take up moisture, the balanceuld be closed in or vacuumised, and sorth. In other words measures would havebe taken to render the environment asutral as possible.

The whole method of scientific examina-n is concerned just with that-isolation,rendering the environment neutral. Ofurse, absolute isolation is never attainable.follows therefore that in the developmentscientific knowledge no law or statementon any system of phenomena can be thet word. For if isolation is never completen there are casual agencies outside thestem under examination. The process ofaw-making" then, becomes one of ever-dening and more general statements; asre and more of the environment is takeno account, in the endless quest to rendersystem neutral.For the scientific outlook it is axiomatict our knowledge be regarded as relatived approximate. In every field of study,ether it be in the so-called exact sciences,physics, chemistry, mathematics or in-chemistry, biology and so forth, no

Bound Volumes" FORUM" for I954 will be availablertly at about lOS. Orders should be sentthe Literature Secretary at the Party'>"d Office.

theory has ever failed to undergo changes.Where theories appear superficially tooccupy the same position of importance,closer examination reveals that what haschanged is their applicability. That is, whatwas once used as a general theory is nowapplicable only as a special case. A simpleexample-Boyle's Law of gases describesthe inverse ratio of pressure and volume atconstant temperature. No such gas of courseexists; and the behaviour of gases onlyapproximates to this idealised statement,precisely because of the inability to neutralisethe environment as far as temperature isconcerned. Thus was the Gay-Lussac lawrequired, which takes into account the varia-bility of pressure, volume and temperature.Boyle's Law did not in consequence becomewrong, but merely a special case of the moregeneral law which followed it. SimilarlyNewtonian physics, with its conservation ofmass, conservation of energy, its concepts offorce and gravitation, has been supplantedby the principles of relativity physics. Again~t is not that the former was ~rong, but thatIt represents only a special case in a field inwhich the latter is a more general statement.The history - o f all theory stands in thisrespect, and our D. of P. embodying as itdoes a statement of theory and guide toaction cannot claim exemption. If we areto retain the claim of scientific socialists, wemust organize to continually review ourtheory and as in other scientific fields researchis necessary. The methods adopted forresearch in the natural sciences must inevit-ably involve methods which are unsuitablefor social science. In the former not onlyare instruments used in which the limits ofaccuracy are known, and can be taken into

account, but also the investigator is outsidethe material to be investigated. In socialscience however, no such conditions prevail.Precision measurement is not the generalmode of estimation, and the investigatorhimself is part of the material to be studied.The investigator becomes to some extent hisown measuring instrument. Thus in anylarge scale social research, unless some tech-niques of investigation are developed todiscount the variability of the investigators,no reliable conclusions can be reached.Accepting then the need for a continualquestioning attitude towards our theory, theproblem arises as to method. There are

several useful methods widely used in manybranches of science particularly applicableto social studies. One probably most con-venient for our use is known as anonymousgroup working. In our case it would involvethe circulation by branches of preliminarydraft material to other branches, groups orindividuals as desired, for comment andcriticism. This may involve the productionof a number of drafts before a final draftstatement is prepared. During the course ofthis work, specialists in various fields could

. .be invited to attend. Although the investi-gating group would change its compositionon the basis of branch attendance, success inthe continuity of the work would depend onthe regular attendance of a small core ofmembers. ' .Experimentation being the-practice :in theresearch laboratory, it will be seen thatrepeated drafting functions as its substitutein any field where experimentation is notpossible. As each draft is brought forwardfor the discussion, the errors and ;gaps serveas the material for the next period of work.A main drafting committee would beresponsible for consolidating all the separatefinal branch drafts. From the considerationof this end-product of the research wouldemerge basic differences if any, which wouldbecome the subject for a successive large-scale investigation.This method commends itself on twomain counts. Giving as it does directionand canalization to social study, it has notthe time-wasting disadvantages of discussioneither as a series of Forum meetings at H.O.,or in written form in the LP.}. Secondly,anonymity avoids the possibility of viewsbeing discounted or favoured on the basisof the status of a member of the party.Also, comparatively new and. inexperiencedmembers can contribute views which mightotherwise tend to be disregarded. In thisway bias can be off-set to a considerabledegree.We live in a world in which theory andpractice must indissolubly ,be bound together.Thus to some critics of the D. of P. Iwouldsay that mere criticism is not enough. Analternative basis for organization must befound. Until the quantity of qualifying factsis sufficient to enable workable alterationsin the D. of P. to be effected, then it muststill remain as our guide to action. On theother hand, this does not mean that thosemembers who frequently rush to the defenceof the D. of P. with the pleas-" absolutetruth", "unqualified acceptance", "invio-late," etc., can settle more comfortably intheir chairs. Unless we can get rid of thisreligious dogmatism, the party will certainlynot survive as an organization claiming withsome degree of truth to be scientific. Thefailure of such members to face up to theimplications of the scientific attitude canmean little else than intellectual cowardice,

RAY BOTT.Contributions to "Forum" should beaddressed to the Internal Party JournalCommittee, at Head Office. If they cannotbe typed, articles should be written in inkon one side of the paper only, and con-tributors are asked to give their addressesand the names of their Branches. Con-tributors intending series of articles shouldgive an indication of the scope oftheir series,not send merely a first article.

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