Social revolt in Britain had sprung from dissent. The leaders of Chartism learnt their eloquence in dissenting chapels and the Anti-Corn agitation was led by Quakers and other nonconformists. Dissenters became the backbone of the working-class party, and the ILP was composed of dissenting moralists who would not accept the usual political compromises. They readily responded to the oratory of lay preachers like Philip Snowden and Arthur Henderson, and it is no accident that so many of the leaders of the Labour Party have been Christians who believed they were inaugurating a moral and social revolution. Morality and politics were one.

This generation has grown up ignorant of the fact that socialism is as old as the human race. When civilization dawned upon the world, primitive man was living his rude Communistic life, sharing all things in common with every member of the tribe. Later when the race lived in villages, man, the communist, moved about among the communal flocks and herds on communal land. The peoples who have carved their names most deeply on the tables of human story all set out on their conquering career as communists, and their downward path begins with the day when they finally turned away from it and began to gather personal possessions. When the old civilizations were putrefying, the still small voice of Jesus the Communist stole over the earth like a soft refreshing breeze carrying healing wherever it went.

I have said, both in writing and from the platform many times, that the impetus which drove me first into the Labour movement, and the inspiration which has carried me on in it, has been derived more from the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth than from all other sources combined.

I am sending with this letter some of Mr. Gilray's pamphlets on Socialism. I am very glad to have had them, and could never have collected them for myself. I think that, very soon, when these teachings and ideas are better known, people generally will declare themselves Socialists. They are bound to do it, if they think at all. I instinctively felt they were good people, and now I believe they are the true disciples and followers of Christ.

One of my Nonconformist friends was Rev. Belcher, minister of the Congregational Church, Hackney. He invited me to occupy the pulpit, and I did so. There was a great congregation, and when in the heart of my address I denounced the hypocrisy of the churches, there were hisses. as I proceeded there were cheers, and for the space of thirty or forty minutes there was frequent alternations of cheering and hissing.

My close friendship with various ministers of religion led to the circulation of a report that I was about to enter the Church. One morning a pressman called upon me to ask what truth there was in the statement that appeared in The Times: "We are informed that Mr. Tom Mann, the well-known Labour leader, is an accepted candidate for Deacon's orders in the Church of England."

Surely that man or woman is no Christian at all, except in name, in so far as he or she remains indifferent to the awful abyss that yarns between rich and poor; to the insufficiency of the share in our immense wealth which falls to the lot of those who produce it.

Socialism is co-operation, the method of Individualism is competition. The one regards man as working with man for a common end, the other regards man as working against man for private gain. The aim of Socialism is the fulfillment of service, the aim of Individualism is the attainment of some personal advantage, riches, or place of fame. socialism seeks such an organisation of life as shall secure for every one the most complete development of his power. Individualism seeks primarily the satisfaction of the particular wants of each one in the hope that the pursuit of private interests will in the end secure public welfare.

I do not think it is possible to say how the transition to communism will be made. More than that, I do not think we should greatly concern ourselves about that question: our business is to create a Christian Communist consciousness, and to let the revolution, or what there be, come out of that...

We must concentrate upon the ideal, preach and teach it everywhere, proclaim it in the cities, in the churches, at the street corners - go into the highways and the hedges and compel the people to see life anew, and in the light of a finer ideal to re-create the world... to create a public opinion, organise a spiritual movement for the overthrow of Capitalism and the establishment of Communism which will be positively irresistible...

Great changes are necessary... and if we do not accomplish them by means of a vigorous and aggressive pacifist policy they will be attempted by methods more drastic if less successful.

Middleton Murry decided to practise what he was preaching and establish his own advance post of the new Christendom on a 183 acre farm in Suffolk in October 1942. He too noticed "a strange carelessness, amounting to a resentment of order" amongst the membership. This was particularly the case with regard to the farm tools: in a situation where they were considered to belong to the community as a whole, too often no-one took responsibility for caring after them, symptomatic in Murry's mind of "a rank confusion of thought, which sees no difference between non-attachment to possessions and carelessness towards them." As in the case of so many community projects, factions developed between the dozen or so individualists who made up the membership. Murry was subjected to a lot of criticism as he insisted on retaining financial control of the farm, having invested all his capital in the project. Murry, for his part, charged that like most zealots for "community", they did not really think about finances at all. They were fascinated by their own Utopian vision of self-governing community - a vision uncontaminated by mundane realities. Like communities before and since, the farm seemed to attract more than its fair share of eccentrics and oddballs - people who appeared to be motivated more by the desire to escape the constraints and responsibilities of the "outside world" rather than by a positive vision of how to remake the world.

Most socialists rested their case solely on the economic argument, whereas I saw the basic error of capitalism in certain spiritual deficiencies, and realised that unless these deficiencies were made good little would be gained in the long run, and my unresolved problem was how the socialists would carry the spiritual idealism of their prophets into the new social order...

I began to feel that the most urgent need of our time was knowledge of how to live, in every section of the community, capitalists and workers alike, and that it might be my duty to take some part in spreading this knowledge of the art of living, by word, by pen, and by living.

In my political work I have found that my Christian experience has given me a fresh dynamic. I am certain that the Labour Party will lead this country to success if it clings to the fundamental principles of Christianity in its interpretation of our modern industrial and social problems. Dialectical materialism as expressed by Marx and Lenin, seems to me an excuse to enable individuals to ignore personal moral standards and to justify themselves under the cloak of proletarian interests. The working class to me is made up of millions of human beings like myself, with the same human kindnesses, the same hatreds, the same weaknesses and the same aspirations. True happiness cannot come to the workers at the expense of the happiness of any other section of the population. It can only be obtained by justifying the claims of the working people in the eyes of their opponents. The success of Socialism can only be achieved by ensuring that all people see the justice and the beauty of it, and willingly join in building it.

No true philosophy can endure on a basis of hatred. Socialism, to me, is beautiful and practical. There is nothing more practical than a freely convinced human mind; all other things, all other sacrifices, all successes, will come from that. People in the mass will be convinced when they see living examples of the beliefs which modern politicians proclaim.