Richard Bartlett Gregg

“ Hence, to sum up, it seems to me that the valuations, methods and symbols of Gandhi’s program are more important and valuable than the more definite and rigid plan of organization proposed by Socialism. Appropriate symbols rouse and carry more energy than any plan of organization by itself. The control exercised by a system of values and symbols is more profound, powerful and lasting, especially among Indian peasants, than the exterior control of press, radio, telegraphs, railways and other mechanical means of communication and transport. ”

“ Still another form of political control, used with perhaps greater skill by Great Britain than by any other country, is what may be called parliamentarism—the use of talk and discussion to delay action, to tire or split opposition, to exhaust the energy of resentment and discontent, to divert or confuse men’s minds. ”

“ But Gandhi’s full program tends to restore reality to economic, political and social relationships, and to correct a symbolism which has gone wrong. True trust is created not by the issue of coins or pieces of paper by a bank or government, but by unselfish service. In relation to such trust, every man will, so to say, become his own banker, will control the extent to which people trust him. Money can not be a store of such value. ”

“ Under Gandhi’s program, Satyagraha does away with such fear and prestige and deprives that system of values and symbols of its former power. The ruling classes may control guns, soldiers, navy, airplanes, poison gas, police and courts, but disciplined mass Satyagraha abolishes the customary results of those things and lowers the morale of the violent attackers. Gandhi believes that real popular political power does not consist of control over the legislatures but lies in the ability of the masses to say no and to stick to it resolutely with disciplined nonviolent mass resistance. ”

“ After money, the next most powerful and frequently used means of government is physical violence, with its appropriate set of symbols—uniforms, martial music, military parades, display of arms, etc.—controlling people by fear of violence and the prestige of its power. Furthermore, the participation of the people in wars or in counterviolence thwarts them as much as the violence used against them by the State. By fully accepting any scheme of values and its symbols, one is at the mercy of those who are most experienced and skilled in the use of those values and their symbols. ”

“ If Socialism is primarily a program for the manual workers who make up the mass of the people, then those who profess it ought all to do some manual work, both as a symbol and so as to develop, through a common experience, a unity of attitude and understanding. ”

“ Indeed, in Germany and England, Socialists have made no effective changes in any of the old four forms of control described above—money, violence, social rank and parliamentarism. I believe it is for this reason that Socialism, outside of Russia, has been so weak. The Russian Communists have preached hatred of the old ruling classes, and have used that hatred as a means of aiding in the abolition of classes. Khadi is superior, in that it operates through love and pity of the poor, rather than through hatred of the rich. Love is more productive of social trust than is hatred. ”

“ The substance of popular political power is the ability to use disciplined, continuous mass Satyagraha. Satyagraha will enable the people to control not only political governments but also industrialists and financiers. It is more powerful and creative than the strike. It compels industrialists and financiers to realize that domineering methods and control by money symbols will no longer work. ”

“ Many a desirable public reform has been defeated by splitting it into many minor issues and examining and debating these separately and thwarting, obscuring or burying one at a time. By referring matters to committees that often sit in private, intrigue and corruption are made easier. Or, while the matter is being delayed by discussion, one of the other three devices of control is being used to modify the situation in favor of the rulers.
Most intellectuals tend to have too great faith in the efficacy of talk. Educated people therefore easily succumb to parliamentarism. ”

“ Though I do not want to retain capitalism , Socialism is not the only alternative , and I do not think it is the best. I think that Gandhiism, for India, anyhow, is better. As the two systems stand today, it is easier for Gandhiism to select, adopt and use the important parts of the program of Socialism than it is for Socialism to adopt the more important parts of Gandhiism. ”

“ He has lived in great simplicity, eating no more than necessary for health, wearing no more than the poorest in the land wear, giving all his time to public service, going to jail again and again for the people’s cause, proving by his manner of life his unity with them. ”

“ As we have seen, the evil of private control of the means of production is vastly diminished as soon as the scale of association is greatly diminished and the masses learn to use Satyagraha. Gandhiism would alter production for profit by altering the money valuation. Under Gandhi’s valuations the motive for production naturally becomes need and use. The factor of export of surplus production would, in India, be largely controlled by Gandhi’s doctrine of Swadeshi—each district and each country relying as far as possible on its own indigenous products. ”

“ The emphasis of Gandhiism on the value of smallness, on the superiority of quality over quantity, and on simplicity of living, tends to control private property and to prevent its excessive modern evils. People can have most of the real advantages of science without enormous ma chines or huge corporations. Though private property needs limitation and reform, the evils of modern capitalism perhaps come more from the defects and misuse of money than from private property. ”

“ In the first place, Socialism, especially as exemplified in Russia, clings to military and police violence and their symbols, as a prime control of society. Gandhiism would abolish this control, and by so doing will create more trust and a finer quality of trust than Socialism or Communism has done. ”

“ It seems probable that Western people believe strongly in large, closely-knit, highly centralized political organizations partly because Western States are all based on military violence. In a crisis the Western States all rely on guns, poison gas and bayonets as the ultimate control. They all spend a large part of their income on armament. Indeed it seems that, although large-scale organization in some ways tends toward security and stability, large size itself is sometimes an influence toward violence in political and economic organizations. ”

“ Despite the immense fund of trust evolved with in the Soviet system, that system has aroused, from its beginning, both in Russia and in other countries, more fears and hatred of itself than has Gandhiism in its own and other countries. That is chiefly due to the violence of the Communists, I believe, though they would say it is be cause of the efficiency of the Soviets in destroying capitalism in Russia. Some Socialists may protest that they do not believe in violence, but no Socialist party in power has yet given adequate proof of such belief. ”

“ Most people think that the world is governed by institutions and organizations such as political governments and banks, or by laws, or by certain ruling classes. But really the control is deeper and more subtle. Governments, banks, laws and ruling classes are only the exterior instruments of management. ”

“ Thus Gandhi’s full program will tend to alter or at least to supplement in India that part of the capitalistic money system which tends to canalize all trust into the form of money credit and tries to put that in the control of financiers and governments. Money, now the most powerful of all modern symbols and schemes of value, will be weakened and will be corrected or supplemented by symbols, values and modes of activity that are nearer to human realities. ”

“ Socialism has weakened the money system, just as Gandhiism is doing, by tending to create sources and modes of trust and credit outside the money system. Socialism, through its doctrine of equality, seeks to end the divisions of society and the social flatteries. In this respect also it resembles Gandhiism. In Russia the Soviet form of organization and the intense activity of every one have perhaps reduced the evils of parliamentarism to a minimum. But parliamentarism is not a device much used in a dictatorship, nor was it much used in old Tsarist Russia. ”

“ Socialism stresses the abolition of certain kinds of private property. No doubt, private property is a system of values which is very powerful and divisive in operation, and perhaps it ought to be added to our list of controls. But Gandhi himself seems to advocate strict regulation of industrial private property, and dedication to public use rather than its abolition. Apparently he relies upon mass Satyagraha to control those who try to misuse private property. ”

“ Furthermore, the most successful leaders of Socialism, such as Lenin, Trotzky and Stalin, have like Gandhi, led lives of austere simplicity, and thus, as well as by their work for the common good, have created trust among the common people. ”

“ For the vast mass of people outside Russia the only way to work for Socialism is to talk or write, or to go to meetings and listen. Gandhiism provides more directly creative channels for action.
Again, the khaddar and charkha program surpasses Socialism for India because it provides immediate economic relief to the masses of poor among whom there is an appalling amount of unemployment every year, and paves the way for many other forms of economic relief, whereas the changes contemplated by Socialism would take longer to get into action. ”

“ Action as well as talk is necessary to a full and strong understanding and to the development of the implications of any idea. For instance, one cannot really understand algebra or the activities that use algebra until one has actually and painstakingly, with his own fingers and pencil, written all the little figures involved in hundreds or thousands of algebraic problems. Gandhi’s program provides an immediate channel for the social good will of every one, without interfering at all with other forms of social service. ”

“ Small-scale operation of industry would also act as a control.
It might be urged that Socialism is superior because it has a definite, concrete plan for the organization of society. But organization or structure is a resultant, exterior expression of inner purpose. In society, as in any growing organism, each stage or attainment grows organically out of the preceding stage with all its factors, and necessarily partakes of the character of the preceding stage and the means used in making the change. ”

“ The British ruling classes are aware of the situation and use this flattery of prestige, this creation and manipulation of superiority and inferiority complexes, to influence American attitudes toward international affairs. The person who is flattered is apt to believe what the flatterer in high position says, to imitate him in one way or another, to look favorably upon what the flatterer suggests, whether it be using influence to get something accomplished, withholding approval or action, or what not. The same thing is done in India. ”

“ The United States grew from the sedition of George Washington. Probably every modern State is the result of sedition. When sedition is successful, it is considered heroism. Sedition is wicked only if unsuccessful. Nonviolent sedition has none of the moral stigma applicable to violent sedition. Sedition and violence are different. Therefore the use of the word sedition as a term of general moral reproach is simply evidence of lack of discrimination and of prejudice and anger.
Some may say that Satyagraha means anarchy. Anarchy means lack of any government or control. ”

“ Small-scale organization would considerably affect the problems of social control. Village populations are so small that every one knows every one else. Therefore the trust that evolves in such surroundings is far more real and complete than the trust that exists in huge organizations where so much is necessarily based on hearsay. Public opinion counts so greatly in a village that there is less need to rely on physical force to control the people. ”

“ By being violent themselves, the people tacitly make a fundamental agreement with the ruling class—namely: that violence is the surest way of settling conflict. When they accept the system of violence values, they are thereby bound and restrained by it, and must do the will of those most skillful with the weapons of violence. ”

“ The Socialists, it seems, do not trust the nature of the individual man but insist on an exterior supreme authority; whereas Gandhi is hopeful that in reasonably short time the mass of men can attain a far greater degree of self-control and can largely develop their mutual good will—enough to live together without violence and without forceful coercion by the State. ”

“ But Asiatic civilization has traditionally been founded on village life, only loosely integrated into larger district and national units. Two facts indicate that there must be considerable validity in this form of political, social and economic organization. One is the great permanence and stability of those civilizations, despite many invasions, wars and famines. Another is the fact that all the great religions have come from Asia, although Communists and some others consider this a weakness rather than a strength. ”

“ Furthermore, much of the evil resulting from private property arises because there is no limit to the extent of private property held by one person. The vast size of modern corporations and governments adds greatly to their power for evil and to the difficulty of preventing abuses.
Gandhi wants all large or expensive machinery limited in amount, controlled and probably owned by the State and operated only for the welfare of the workers and of society. He has no objection to small, inexpensive machinery that is adapted to family or individual use and obtainable by all. ”

“ But Gandhiism is, in my judgment, more effective, more powerful and in other ways superior to Socialism. It alters the old controls more efficiently and completely and offers a finer basis for a new society. ”

“ They determine the character of the result far more than does any intellectual plan of organization evolved in advance. If a revolution is attained by violence, the old violence values and use of violence as a control will be found in the resulting government, and will eventually find their way into the hands of the group which is specially skilled in the use of violence. ”

“ Every day he does manual work for the poor. He has tried to serve all groups and all classes , and to bring harmony, unity, freedom and better days to India. Thus he has created an immense fund of trust and faith among the people. By Satyagraha [3] and khaddar he has taught the people to have confidence in themselves and in their own strength, ability and power as well as in himself.
Bankers create financial credit; Gandhi creates moral trust, faith and credit. The symbols that the bankers use are coins and paper instruments of obligation. ”