IV

POLITICS

3 21

ground of its inefficiency in attaining its ownobjects. Contrariwise, devotees of Capitalism are often unduly conservative, and reject reformsin its technique, which might really strengthenand preserve it, for fear that they may proveto be first steps away from Capitalism itself.Nevertheless a time may be coming when weshall get clearer than at present as to when weare talking about Capitalism as an efficient orinefficient technique, and when we are talkingabout it as desirable or objectionable in itself.For my part, I think that Capitalism , wiselymanaged, can probably be made more efficientfor attaining economic ends than any alternativesystem yet in sight, but that in itself it is in manyways extremely objectionable. Our problem isto work out a social organisation which shall beas efficient as possible without offending ournotions of a satisfactory way of life.

The next step forward must come, not frompolitical agitation or premature experiments,but from thought. We need by an effort of themind to elucidate our own feelings. At presentour sympathy and our judgement are liable tobe on different sides, which is a painful andparalysing state of mind. In the field of actionreformers will not be successful until they cansteadily pursue a clear and definite object withtheir intellects and their feelings in tune. Thereis no party in the world at present which ap-pears to me to be pursuing right aims by rightmethods. Material Poverty provides the in-centive to change precisely in situations where