THE PLANNED SOCIETY
. independent of all the rest; there is a complete absence of
co-ordination between them. It is the unco-ordinated
activity of large-scale production that leads to those
periodical crises and depressions which inflict such untold
hardship upon the working masses of the people in indus-
trialized countries. Small-scale production carried on by
individuals who own the instruments with which they
personally work is not subject to periodical slumps.
"Furthermore, the ownership of the means of small-scale,
personal production has none of the disastrous political,
economic and psychological consequences of large-scale
production—loss of independence, enslavement to an
employer, insecurity of the tenure of employment. The
advantages of socialism can be obtained by making changes
in the management of large-scale units of production.
Small units of production need not be touched. In this
way, many of the advantages of individualism can be
preserved and at the same time opposition to indispensable
reforms will be minimized.
Our second principle is that no reform, however in-
trinsically desirable, should be undertaken if it is likely
to result in violent opposition. For example, let us assume
(though it may not in fact be true) that collectivized
agriculture is more productive than individualized agri-
culture and that the collectivized farm worker is, socially
speaking, a better individual than the small farmer who
owns his own land. This granted, it follows that the
collectivization of agriculture is an intrinsically desirable
policy. But though intrinsically desirable it is not a
policy that should be carried out, except perhaps by slow
degrees. Carried out at one stroke, it would inevitably
arouse violent opposition, which would have to be crushed
by yet greaterviolence. In Russia the rapid collectivization
of agriculture could not be effected except by the liquida-
tion, through imprisonment, execution and wholesale
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