A blog post intended primarily for friends in the UK & the US who identify with Democratic Socialism.

Jeremy Corbyn, a Democratic Socialist, an animal rights supporter & a vegetarian, is under attack in the UK by right-wingers posing as socialists.

Bernie Sanders has brought Democratic Socialism to the fore in the US. 

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Here is Henry S. Salt, reflecting in 1923 on the anti-socialism prevalent at Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge in the 1880s & later.

Salt was a humanitarian, a socialist and a vegetarian. As early as 1884, he was writing about 100% vegetarianism (today we call it veganism), and he would soon start to write about animal rights.

Please visit our Henry S. Salt Archive – here.

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THE NEW LEADER – JUNE 29, 1923

PUBLIC SCHOOLS – v – SOCIALISM

HENRY S. SALT

An item in our Ernest Bell Library –

THE NEW LEADER – a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years.

JUNE 29, 1923 issue – page 12.

Transcribed –

It would have been surprising if we had not been told at the time of the Election (Evening Standard , November 9, 1922) that it would be won, if at all, on the Eton Playing Fields, seeing that Mr. Bonar Law‘s Government contained no fewer than sixteen Old Etonians and a number of other public schools men. Our public schools have long been regarded as the chief bulwark against Socialism. Whether they have yet dis­covered what Socialism means, I do not know; probably not, if one may judge from the letters still addressed to newspapers by well-educated persons; but certainly at the period to which my recollections go back, the eighties of the last century, the queerest notions prevailed at Eton as to the designs of the “revolutionists,” for that was the name under which all social reformers were genially classed.

A little over forty years ago my brother-in­-law, J. L. Joynes, and I were assistant masters at Eton; and as he became closely connected with the Social Democratic Fede­ration after we left the school in 1882, and as I was a writer in Justice, I found myself somewhat of a suspect among my colleagues, many of whom favoured me with their personal views as to the hollowness of the Socialist ideals. It is a little difficult at this distance of time, to realise what a scare H. M. Hyndman made with so small a party as the S.D.F. then was: his very name was a terror, and in a revised form of the Litany which Edward Carpenter and I prepared for the use of the respectable classes we felt compelled to substitute “Hyndman” for “Satan” in the prayer: “And finally to beat down Satan under our feet.”

Note – see below for Edward Carpenter’s memories of the Litany, in his book My Days and Dreams.

It has never been published in full. Its current whereabouts are unknown.

I regret now that I did not take some notes of the talk about Socialism that I used to hear at Eton, whether at dinner parties, or in the course of walks with other masters: it was so charmingly and frankly inept. The general nature of it, however, I remember well; for indeed I doubt whether anyone ever had the dear old fallacies dinned into him more assiduously than I. At least “a billion of times” (as De Quincey would have said) must I have been told that if all the wealth of the country were distributed in equal shares among the needy, they would in the sequel be no better off. Not less often was I reminded that if the incentive to work were once removed, the prosperity of our country would be sapped; and that it was to thrift, not to confiscation, that we must look for national safety. There was humour, and plenty of it, in the zeal with which the duty of thrift was inculcated by the idle classes in those days, not at Eton only, but on innumerable platforms, and Sunday after Sunday at outdoor meetings in the parks. It became such a fetish as to inspire a Socialist poet (report said it was Morris) with these feeling lines:

“Reward of saving…” he began;

The day was very hot:

The people rose up like one man,

And slew him on the spot.

I could have wished that some of my col­leagues at Eton might suffer that fate.

A lecture which Morris gave before the Eton Literary Society caused considerable excitement, for though Socialism was not directly discussed in it, the suspicions of his audience were aroused, and a good deal of hissing was mingled with the applause be­stowed on him. I remember just after that lecture, hearing R. A. H. Mitchell, the great cricketer, then a master at Eton, explaining to a circle of friends, who listened with grave approbation, the impossibility of Socialism. There was not a single political economist, he said, who did not condemn it.

I lingered on at Eton till the end of 1884, but was subject to the reproof and admoni­tion of my friends on many occasions before I made my escape. It was a habit of Hyndman’s to talk rather big about the forces at his disposal, and in one speech that he made he mentioned that he had won recruits even among the Assistant Masters at Eton. This led to my receiving a letter from an old schoolfellow, Dr. E. C. Selwyn, then Principal of Liverpool College, afterwards of Uppingham, insisting that I should repudiate Hyndman’s statement on pain of being myself disowned by my friends; an absurd ultimatum which I mention merely to show the sort of feeling that was prevalent at that time. I lectured once to the Ascham Society, a body of Eton Masters, on ”Liberty”; and the next day I was asked by F. W. Cornish, one of the leading Liberals of the school: “Well, did you establish licence?” For sheer stagnation of thought, the Eton of forty years back must have been almost unrivalled.

Licence – noun – definition =  Freedom to behave as one wishes, especially in a way which results in excessive or unacceptable behavior.

When I took leave of the Headmaster, Dr. Warre, some reference was made to Socialism, and, as I have elsewhere related, he exclaimed: ”Socialism! Then blow us up, blow us up! There’s nothing left for it but that.” Such was his idea of the move­ment. A few hours later one of the senior assistants, Arthur James, a schoolmaster to the core, asked to have a word with me, and pointed out that, whereas during the pre­vious ten years I had been doing good, solid, constructive work as a teacher at Eton, I was now about to undo and ruin it all by spreading abroad the mischievous and vicious tenets of Socialism. I was really left in no doubt as to the opinions of a public school on that subject.

Nor did it end with my departure from Eton; for several times in after years I was amused by getting retrospective glimpses into the public school mind. The one I most enjoyed was when Leonard Abbott came to tell me how, when he was a boy at Upping­ham and had been caught reading a Socialist pamphlet in school, the Headmaster, my old friend E. C. Selwyn, had given him a pater­nal ”talking to” and, as a crowning proof of the folly of Socialism, had remarked: “In all my life I have only known two Socialists, Joynes and Salt; and they both came to a bad end.” Nothing could have been more conclusive.

But the respectability of Eton got some severe shocks when Dr. Lyttelton became Headmaster, in succession to Dr. Warre; for not only was he a vegetarian, but he had a dangerous tendency to hear both sides on social questions, and there was one terri­ble occasion (February, 1908) when, as the Eton College Chronicle expressed it, “a working man, a person, too, of the blood-and-thunder type, almost an anarchist,” was permitted to address the school on the sub­ject of unemployment, standing on the chapel steps in the school-yard. Upon which a correspondent, ”One of many Old Eton­ians,” wrote thus to the school journal:

“May I trespass on your valuable space for the purpose of endorsing every sentiment expressed by your correspondent of last week (as quoted by the Daily Mail) on the subject of the desecration of the Chapel steps by the so-called representatives of the equally so-called unemployed ?

“We should be glad to know, why every stone in the school-yard was not pulled up in defence of our most cherished and valued traditions. We should have as soon expected to read that the representative in question had been allowed to ad­dress the House of Lords, as that Etonians of today had permitted the man to command their at­tention from the Headmaster’s steps.

“Are we really to believe that, in all that large gathering of members of some of our best families, not one voice was raised in protest against the bullying extravagancies of – we cannot say work­men, for work they would not, if they could – un­educated beings of meaner intellect. God help England in future ages and future emergencies, if it really was so!”

This was comical enough; yet it may be that Socialism will someday find itself up against a difficult problem in dealing with this arrogant public school spirit; for though these “old boys,” as they like to call them­selves, are very good fellows, none better, on cricket-ground or football field, they are determined, where property is concerned, to hold on to ”the good old rule, the simple plan,” which has served them so well in the past; and we may be sure that the lesson of Fascismo is not being overlooked. As for the ”democratic tone” which we are told is now permeating the schools, I doubt whether it means more than the fluent talk about “goodwill” between employers and employed – a good will which is an indifferent substitute for good deeds.

When I was an undergraduate at King’s College, Cambridge, we had an annual cricket-match with the college servants, and the game was followed by a diner at which we sat “in and out,” each undergraduate between two servants, and each servant be­tween two undergraduates. Doubtless the one party disliked it as much as the other; and the thought which alone sustained us was that the occasion, like Christmas, came but once in the year. Of such kind is the sham democratic spirit of which we now hear a good deal, and which is evidently in­tended to be a buffer against Socialism itself. The real struggle lies beyond and behind.

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At one time he and I composed jointly “A Church Service for the use of the Respectable Classes” — which I am afraid however has never yet been properly published. It consisted of a Preface, in the manner of our Prayer-book Preface of 1661, of a sort of Athanasian Creed (on the Trinity of Land, Capital and Interest) called the creed of St. Avaritius, of a Litany (on the lines of salvation through dividends and social advancement), and a final Processional Hymn. Of this last, as it has already been printed among some of Salt’s verses, the two first stanzas may here be given: —

For Respectables are we

And you presently will see

Why we confidently claim to be respected :

In well-ordered homes we dwell

And discharge our duties well —

Well dressed, well fed, well mannered, well connected.

We have heard the common cant

About poverty and want

And all that is distressing and unhealthy ;

Some cases may be sad,

But the system can’t be bad

Which affords such satisfaction to the Wealthy.

And SO on.

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Details of the book – Memories of Bygone Eton by Henry S. Salt – here.

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Related Blog Posts

Socialism For Animals – Jeremy Corbyn – Tony Benn – Billy Bragg – here.

Socialism & Veganism – Many Years Ago – Henry S. Salt – J. L. Joynes – H. M. Hyndman – here.

10 Reformers Debating In 1917 – Lizzy Lind-af-Hageby – here.

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Anti-Socialist Union

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Our Projects

The Henry Salt Archive is one of our, almost completed, projects.

The Humanitarian League is our Hong Kong registered charity. It cares for The Ernest Bell Library, which was conceived in 1934.

The library is still strong & very active eighty years later –  its primary objectives are to: –

Collect all of Ernest Bell’s book & non-book works and make them easily accessible to everyone.

Collect the literature of vegetarianism and all the other humanitarian movements in which Ernest Bell was so deeply involved.

Assist students and scholars in their research.

Introduce all aspects of Ernest Bell’s life, including his writings, campaign work, influences and his circle of friends.

Undertake our own research into missing aspects of Ernest Bell’s life and work.

We already have more than 300 pieces of Ernest Bell’s own writings.

We are also actively building a collection of examples of promotional material, campaign material, fundraising & marketing activities etc. – related to: –

Veg(etari)an products.

Veg(etari)an books & other publications.

Veg(etari)an organisations.

Veg(etari)an businesses.

Animal rights organisations.

Animal rights publications.

Humanitarian organisations.

Humanitarian publications.

Rambling clubs run by members of the above groups & related publications.

The work of Richard St. Barbe Baker & the ‘Men of the Trees’ organization & its many sub-branches.

The history of Democratic Socialism.

Pre-WW2 Trade Union badges / pins / ephemera.

There are currently more than 2,000 items in the Ernest Bell Library. We will complete the cataloging of the collection as & when adequate funds are available.

 “I have little doubt that the proposal for the establishment of an Ernest Bell Library, which would specialize in humanitarian and progressive literature, and so form a sort of centre for students, will meet with a wide response.” 

Henry S. Salt – writing in September 1934

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If anyone would like more information about our projects, please send an email to: – 

humanitarianleague (at) outlook (dot) com

– or message me  through HappyCow –

https://www.happycow.net/blog/author/JohnnySensible/

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“A people without a history is like a tree without roots.”

April / May 2007 – Satya

Q) Colleen Patrick-Goudreau – You use the phrase “historical amnesia” to refer to the fact that contemporary animal activists—and society as a whole—know nothing of the legacy of animal activism in the U.S. What are some of the effects of having “historical amnesia”? Why is it so important to know our legacy?

A) Diane Beers – Animal advocacy has an amazing history, yet it is essentially an untold story. African American activists will often say, “A people without a history is like a tree without roots.” Indeed, if activists don’t know the history of their cause, they can have no sense of their movement’s struggles, long-term strategies, achievements and heroes. In addition, they can’t promote their long impressive movement to the public, and their opponents—the meat industry, medical research industry and the government—will fill the void. They have been the ones most aggressively and successfully constructing negative images and outright myths of animal advocacy that the public often believes.

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