A Literary Man on Labour Leaders

Mr. Sisley Huddleston, in his “Europe in Zig-zags,” has something to say about the changed outlook of those whom he once regarded as Socialists. It is, of course, the social reformers he has in mind.

  When I was a boy already interested in social questions, it was taken for granted that Socialism was revolutionary. This did not mean that Socialists would necessarily provoke a Revolution, but certainly that they would not neglect the opportunity which might be offered by social upheavals. But when I became a man I found that all the Socialists whom I knew set themselves up as the guardians of the existing society. Since the war there are no anti-Communists, no anti-Revolutionaries so fierce as the Socialists. They have become respectable and respected. They make the world safe for capitalism. (p. 242.)