ΤΟ THOSE WHO, HAVING NO "STAKE IN THE COUNTRY," YET FOUGHT FOR ITS HONOUR ABROAD, IN HOPE THAT THEY MAY ONE DAY FIGHT FOR THEIR OWN AT HOME, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED INTRODUCTION THE one word which has bitten into the minds of the masses of the people during the War, as far as social and economic relations are concerned, is Profiteering. The word has become popular, but with its meaning curiously twisted. It has come to mean the private extortion from the community, under the present terrible circumstances, of amounts exceeding what is regarded as "fair." But Profiteering really sums up the whole system under which such social functions as production and distribution are conducted by private individuals and enterprises seeking to make profits without regard to the consequences. Indeed, the word simply unveils the truth which was previously hidden under the pseudo-scientific and abstract term," Capitalism," execrated by reformers and Socialists. Profiteering is "Capitalism" without its mask, and with its deformities revealed. Before 1914 men endured this structure of economic privateering (whence the word "profiteering") with all its horrors and absurdities, because they were told-by the capitalists and their spokesmen— that it was the only system that could be depended upon to withstand the strains and shocks both of peace and war. Therefore, the legend ran, if you interfere with Capitalism, you are rendering a civilised society unsafe. Facts have given the lie 1 It was coined several years before the War by the editor of the New Age. to the capitalist claims. At the first alarm of war, Capitalism trembled; and its stunted spires were brought down in ruins by the first shot that was fired. Exposed to the stress of war, private Capitalism has failed equally in production, distribution, and finance. The State has had to reorganise production as the only means of conducting it with any degree of efficiency; although, in as far as production has been rebuilt on the lines of restricted Capitalism, it is still inefficient and must still fail. The inadequacy of individual command of the means of distribution was exemplified when the State found it necessary to systematise and "control" the whole machinery of transport before even our first little Expeditionary Force could be mobilised and despatched. In the world of finance-the capitalists' chosen kingdom-the failure was no less complete. The State had to guarantee the financiers many millions of pounds to cover the foreign bills of exchange accepted by them, before those great men would consent to carry on at all. Since, then, its unqualified failure at the very outbreak of the War, Capital has gradually been brought at a ruinous cost, admittedly-under the "control" of our only slightly more public-spirited State officials. Had not this been done, the conduct of the War would have been not only more incompetent and more unsuccessful than it has been, but we should have found it impossible to face the enemy at all. But it is in regard to Labour that the War has shown most clearly the rottenness of Capitalism. |