INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY, issued Monthly. Vol. 1. No. 2. MAY, 1899. rue Ofci of Itie Lain movement ...BY... JOHANN JACOBY Translated by FLORENCE KELLEY. NEW YORK: Published by the International Publishing Co., 23 Duane Street. INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY. The OKject of the Labor moment - "~~ BV JOHANN/JACOBY. Being a Speech Delivered Before his Constituency, January 10, 1870. Translated by FLORENCE KELLEY-WISCHNEWETZKY. NEW YORK: Published by the INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING Co., 23 Duane Street. 1898. I? PREKACE. The speech herewith placed before the workers of America is the noteworthy utterance of the Konigsberg physician and noble friend of the working class, Dr. Johann Jakoby, a democrat in the best sense of the word, a warm advocate of the enlightenment of the people and of the improvement of their condition. Johann Jakoby, following the democratic thought to its logical conclu- sion, perceived that the bearer of the democratic idea in our day is the modern social democracy, and he the most eminent of his party, was the first to join the young Socialist Labor Party. In America the old Jefferson democracy perished long ago, and with it, as with the democracy of Jakoby, the "democratic" party of to-day has its name alone in com- mon, as may best be seen from the phases of "develop- ment" through which the "democratic" party has passed, the last stage included. The "democratic" party, after being the pro-slavery party, passed through a phase in which it differed from its "republican*' rival only in repre- senting Free Trade as opposed to Protection. Then, the Tariff question, ceasing to serve as an issue, and the old parties only surviving to divide the spoils (to the shame not alone of the "democratic" party, be it said), a presi- dential election became possible which turned not upon party platforms, but upon the relative decency of two candidates. The rise of the United Labor Party at the November election of 1886, which has been rightly char- acterized as the beginning of a new era in American poli- tics, lent the "democrats" a passing raison d' etre as "saviors of society/' representing neither platforms nor decency, but the great "principle" of "Patriotism." And the fusion of the two old parties for the furtherance of this "principle" is only a question of time. Already dur- ing the campaign of the past autumn, naively upright "democrats" who take "Society Saving" seriously, showered bitter reproaches upon the "republicans" for their "unpatriotic" action in nominating separate candi- dates. And the complete fusion of the "democrats" with their kindred spirits, the "republicans," will be delayed so long only as each of the old parties may still hope to "save" something for itself. Meanwhile the general sav- ing of society is not lost sight of, and bills are pending in Congress to provide for the more effective establishment of the militia, a point which we shall touch upon later. One pre-eminently democratic quality our party, with this glorious record, unmistakably possesses, to do it justice, far beyond all true democracy, namely a colossal respect for popular majorities. A majority it must have at all costs, and, since it would have hard work to con- vince one, it buys its majority wherever it can. Accord- ingly, bribes proving unavailing among the masses of workers, now awakening to a consciousness of their class interests, we behold the spectacle of these worthy "demo- crats" and "patriots" buying among the tenement-house populations of our great cities that popular majority which they so greatly respect. For the purchase of a majority no sacrifice of money is too great, and every fair- minded person must admit that this is the heaviest sacri- fice which a party can make that represents only the inter- ests of that class whose domination in State and society rests solely upon its possessions. Thus do our "patriots" sacrifice that which in their eyes is most sacred. It is, however, a sacrifice that brings its own reward. In spite of all this decay and corruption within the old parties, the spirit and traditions of the Jeffersonian Democracy still live in a considerable part of the Laboring Class; and we see here among us, in the person of Henry George, a man who is following in the path of Jakoby, and, as an upright Democrat, has placed himself on the side of the Laboring Class. If he follows to the end the path he has entered, as we do not doubt he will do, he is, we believe, destined to play an honorable part in the de- velopment of the Labor Movement in America. His ex- clusive demand for the nationalization of the land is totally insufficient for any society which rests upon the capitalist method of production, least of all for the coun- try of the industrial proletariat par excellence. If Henry George extends his demand to cover the demand for the socialization of all the means of production, the demand which, after all, forms the kernel of the Labor Question, that is to say, if he places himself upon the standpoint of modern Scientific Socialism, then only can he become a true representative of the workers; for then he will ex- press the actual interests of the Laboring Class. Other- wise he will be condemned to be a mere leader of a sect, instead of representing a mighty and decisive Labor Movement which, once awakened to class-consciousness, is being driven by the logic of events to modern socialism, 6 and cannot possibly stop with the land question. We say stop with the land question because the modern Labor Movement embraces the land question as a matter of course. The noble-hearted Johann Jakoby arrived at his Social- ist position, thanks to his high intelligence and, one might almost say, to his healthy instinct, when we take into consideration the backward economic condition of Germany in his day and the consequent far from con- spicuous class antagonisms. Wholly different is the position of Henry George. This can be clear and well considered to its utmost con- sequences. He has the good fortune to live and work in a country which is economically and politically perhaps the most advanced; in which the antagonism of the classes is glaring, blurred by no mediaeval social traditions, such as are so frequent even in the most advanced States of the Old World where the so-called middle parties base their existence upon them. Here, no one who has eyes for the reality can fail to recognize the comparatively small class of capitalists, mighty by reason of their possessions; and face to face with it, separated by diametrically opposed interests, by a gulf that can neither be bridged over nor filled up with specious phrases of harmony, the Laboring Class. Another factor must be especially emphasized which is of eminent importance, namely, the possibility of clear in- sight into the economic process going on about us and a true comprehension of it, i. e., scientific enlightenment such as exists to a considerable extent in the more progres- sive proletarian movements of Europe and in an especially high degree among our German brothers, who can already point to a brilliant political Past. Our young Labor Party is now on the way towards be- coming a great political party., and its next task, as it has itself recognized, is the work of consolidation in a national Party. With its growth and the simultaneous increase in political influence, the need of that enlightenment which is now naturally wanting, will become more urgent, in order that the Labor Party may press with full intelli- gence towards the attainment of its main object, the polit- ical and economic emancipation of the Laboring Class. The labor question has left the phase of Utopian plans far behind it. It has become a science, among whose chief representatives,, recognized as founders of Modern Scientific Socialism, are Karl Marx and his life-long friend and co-worker, Frederick Engels. The funda- mental works upon Socialism, Marx's Capital and Engels' Condition of the \Yorking Class in England, have been made accessible in translations to English-reading workers. To return to the accompanying pamphlet. There are two points in which Socialists to-day will not agree with the author as to the means by which the object of the Labor Movement is to be attained. Socialists differ from Jakoby in his estimate of profit- sharing, finding it a measure irrational in theory, and re- actionary in its practical working, a trick of the employer to divert the attention of the workers from their class interests. All profit is produced by labor, is in the ultimate analy- sis unpaid labor. The workers' share would, therefore, 8 naturally be the whole of the profit. But under our pres- ent system the workmen have no claim upon any part of it. The whole belongs legally to the capitalist., and the workers cannot well find any logical argument for claim- ing a part of what is rightfully theirs and legally an- other's. If they insist upon having the whole of what is their own, they insist upon the Social Revolution, for no measure less radical can secure it for them. But if they consent to be bought off by their plunderers with a share of the booty, they assume a position which is not con- ducive to the speedy abolition of legalized robbery. In practice profit sharing has been characterized as em- bodying the principle of the fly on the window pane, which, being close to the eye, shut out the view of the dome of St. Peter's. For profit-sharing has been found by shrewd employers to occupy the minds of workers with petty economies and with watching each other in order to insure the largest possible "share" to the exclusion of larger considerations of class interest. That this is the real object of the arrangement is indicated by two facts. It is in the employing class, and not in the working class, that profit-sharing finds its apostles, and this is an unfail- ing danger signal. And, in the second place, it is adopt- ed chiefly by a certain class of employers, to whom it offers especial advantages in the struggle for existence. The most powerful monopolies do not share their profits with their employees because they do not especially need to attach the '"hands" to the "concern." Employers of labor upon a small scale cannot as a rule share profits with their employees, their margin is too small. It is the mid- dle class of employers who, hard-pressed to fight the large 9 Capitalists on the one hand and the labor organizations on the other, are thankful to buy peace with their own employees upon such favorable terms as profit-sharing offers. Socialists, therefore, do not recommend profit-sharing. If enlightened workers accept it when offered, they are not thereby blinded; they know that profit-sharing bears no criticism from an economic standpoint, but would, if disinterested, be mere philanthropy; they know that there is no standard by which the workers' share can be deter- mined, and they fully understand that the trifling in- crease in their annual income is merely the price which employers gladly pay for decided advantages obtained in the economy and intensity of the labor thus paid for and in immunity from strikes. But Socialists do not, with Jakoby, recognize profit-sharing as a means to a peaceful solution of the labor question. The second point upon which the Socialists will not agree with Jakoby is his assumption of the possibility of effort for a peaceful solution of the Labor Question on the part of the State and the Capitalist class. The individual employer who could recognize his em- ployee "as his own equal and treat him accordingly," gives place more and more to the corporation "with no- body to be kicked and no soul to be damned." And it were folly, indeed to look to the capitalist corporations of America to promote the transition to the Socialist system. That would be asking them to commit suicide. Moreover, the State becomes year by year more com- pletely the property, the willing tool, of these same cor- porations, and less capable of action in the interest of the io people. Such slender concessions as it makes in the di- rection of protecting and advancing the interests of the working class are made in answer to the demands of Labor organized so powerfully that its demand is a threat. And so far as it dares, the State of to-day renders illusory the trifles that it yields If we pass in review the demands which Johann Jakoby makes of the State, we find that, here in America, when the Government yielded to the demand for the eight-hour working day for its employees, the enforcement of the law remained practically nil. In the separate States the eight-hour law, wherever passed, is either a dead letter or vitiated in the first place by the private contract clause. The prohibition of the employ- ment of children under fourteen years of age, though in some States enacted, is generally evaded for want of ade- quate inspection by men and women appointed from the working class, or of that indispensable accompaniment of such a prohibition, sufficient school accommodation and an efficiently enforced compulsory law. A graduated in- come tax could be imposed by the Government only under the stress of the civil war, and the State was the far-too- humble servant of its plutocratic owners to attempt strin- gent enforcement. Instead of universal compulsory military training, we find the irresponsible mercenaries of the great corporations, the Pinkerton armed detective force, growing in recklessness from year to year, while the militia, once meant to serve the ends indicated by Jakoby, has been perverted, corrupted and hedged about with costly conditions, until, to-day, it bears the character of a bourgeois volunteer reinforcement of the regular army, maintained by the State for the support of the capital- 11 ists in the suppression of lawful protests of the proletariat. It is evident that all hope of help towards the peaceful solution of the labor question by the capitalist class and the State is illusory. The transition from the Wage- System to the Socialistic organization of society is going on around us, and its peaceful consummation clearly rests with the Working Class. The clearer the insight of the workers, the speedier and more peaceful the change. "In proportion as the proletariat absorbs socialistic and communistic elements, will the Revolution diminish in bloodshed, revenge and savagery." F. K. W. 13 THE OBJECT OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT. FELOW CITIZENS AND FRIENDS: Permit me to-day to make the Labor Movement, the so-called Social Question, the subject of my remarks. In view of the close connection between the political and the social conditions of a nation, every constituent has a well- founded right to demand of his representative a social confession of faith besides his political one. I shall en- deavor to meet this demand with the utmost frankness. One of the greatest thinkers of antiquity, Aristotle, di- vides the whole human race into two classes, free men and slave natures. The Greeks, he declares, are appointed by reason of their free nature, to rule over other peoples. The barbarous races, on the contrary, are fitted for being ruled and performing the services of slaves. But slavery and slave-labor, he explains as a social necessity, as the in- dispensable material foundation of State and Society; for if the free citizens were obliged to do the work required for their maintenance, how could they have the time and the wish to cultivate their intelligence and attend to the affairs of the State ? And yet, Aristotle makes a remark- able observation as to the conceivableness of a society without slavery. If, he says, an inanimate object, a tool, an implement, could render the service of the slave, if every instrument could perform its function at command, 14 or, still better, without even a command, as the old tradi- tion relates of the statues of Daedalus, and Homer sings of the three-legged table of Hephaestus, which entered the halls of the gods of its own motion; if the looms could weave and t-he zither produce its tones spontaneously, then the artificers would need no helpers and the masters no slaves. Now, every one knows that the miracle here sketched has to a great extent been wrought, and that without the help or intervention of the gods, in the most natural way in the world, by insight into the laws of nature and mas- tery of its forces. What once seemed impossible to the wisest of the Greeks happens daily before our eyes. But how has the miracle worked? Has the success which Aris- totle supposed, attended it? Experience teaches that the wealth of nations has been immeasurably increased by the magnificent mechanical appliances of our time. Yet, the toilsome, anxious lot of the laboring class has been any- thing but lightened. Now, let us carry this dream of Aristotle farther in the light of actual experience. Let us assume that in the re- mote future of the human race the soil of the whole earth had passed into the hands of individual owners, and man had attained, by the progress of knowledge, to the abso- lute control over Nature. Suppose the perfection of mechanical contrivance to have gone so far that machin- ery itself is produced and tended by machinery , and human labor is thus minimized, if not superseded. What would be the result of such a state of things? In conse- quence of the .attractive power which large capital exer- cises upon small, a comparatively small number of 15 wealthy persons would hold exclusive possession of all machinery and other implements of labor. The whole income of the nation, all the goods requisite for the neces- sities and enjoyments of life would fall to these few alone and that rightfully according to the views now current. Under such circumstances, human labor being wholly valueless, what would become of the non-possessing mass if the capitalists did not furnish them the bread of charity? What else would remain to these unfortunates than to die of starvation or to reverse the existing con- ditions of production and possession if not by cunning, then by force. It will be said that this picture is merely a horrible fancy, that such a state of things can never be reached. This I admit, not because the thing itself is inconceivable, but because sane men and women will never let it go -so far. But can we deny that our present social life, founded upon Capitalist rule and Wage-Labor, moves in a direction which, if it should continue unchanged, must bring us with every passing day nearer to the social condi- tions just depicted? Must we not admit that even now, the income of the nation is distributed in a manner which subjects at least a part of the proletariat to the want just described? In such a state of affairs it becomes the duty of every good and thoughtful human being to ask himself the question: "How are the present economic and social conditions to be so changed as to attain an equitable distribution of the income of the people and to lessen the daily increas- ing poverty of the workers?" 16 Let us examine more closely the problem that is to be solved. Two cardinal features characterize our present methods of production, and distinguish them from those of the past, namely, wages labor and production upon a large scale. Whereas, formerly, productive labor was chiefly per- formed by slaves, serfs or bondsmen, all rights of owner- ship in human beings ceased to exist at the French Revo- lution. Rightfully, legally, every worker is free and his own master. But as a matter of fact he is anything else rather than free. Cut off from the means and conditions of employment, with no other possession than his labor power, he is forced to work for wages in the employ of others and for wages which suffice at the utmost for the bare necessities of life. But if he finds no purchaser for the only commodity at his command, for his force of labor, he and his fall into the utmost misery. Yet, de- spite this wretched insecurity of his position, it will hardly occur to any workman to wish the old conditions back. It is a life worthy of man that he strives for, and he knows that this can be attained only in a state of freedom. As the French Revolution proclaimed the workers per- sonally free, so did it liberate inanimate property from the last shackles of the Middle Ages. Without reference to previous restrictions and obligations, whoever was in pos- session at the moment, found his right to the absolute control of his property recognized. This release of prop- erty, the application of steam power which followed soon after, and the general introduction of machine work pro- 17 duced a mighty and far-reaching transformation in the existing economic and social conditions. Handicraft and trade upon a small scale were ever more crowded into the background; production by wholesale, the capitalistic method of production, took their place. But precarious as this change has rendered the lot of the handicraftsman without means, and the small retail deal- er, the advantages for the development of civilization con- nected with production and distribution upon a large scale are too weighty for Society ever to renounce them. A general return to production on a small scale by handi- craft is as impossible as a return to slavery. We must, therefore, limit the question under considera- tion as follows: How can a more equal distribution of the national income in the interest of all be attained without limiting freedom of labor, and without interfering with the progress of civilization won by production on a large scale? The answer cannot be doubtful, for us at least. There is but one means to that end: ABOLITION of the WAGE-SYSTEM, and the substitution for it of Co-oper- ative Labor. Whoever has an open eye for the signs of the times must recognize that this thought more or less clearly for- mulated forms the basis of the Labor Movement now making itself felt in every country in Europe. As slavery and serfdom, once a "necessary" social institution also, at last made way for Wage-Labor, so in our day there is coming about a similar change of no less importance, the transition from the Wage-System to free Co-operative work. The important point is that the transition should 18 take place in the most peaceful way. But this is only possible on condition of the harmonious activity of all the social forces concerned. The question which occupies our attention should, therefore, finally be formulated thus: What has the workman, what has the capitalist em- ployer, and what has the State to do to further the transi- tion already begun to the co-operative method of pro- duction, and to bring this change to its consummation in the way most advantageous to the community? We shall see that to answer this question we need do no more than collate the facts before our eyes, a clear proof that the present age is in the midst of the process of social remodelling. First, as to the workers themselves. The main point is that they become clearly conscious of their own situation and that they recognize and respect their own inherent nobler nature. I have stated in the foregoing that, as a rule, the work- er's wages barely suffice for scanty maintenance for him- self and his family. If any one doubts this relation, the so-called iron law of wages, let him refer to the testimony recently given by the Committee of the German Board of Trade in an opinion upon the seizure of wages. There he will find, word for word, this statement: "We cannot let pass without qualification the assertion that there is a considerable difference between the laborer's wages and the means of subsistence requisite for his scant maintenance. It is exactly this point, the rate of wages, upon which practically the whole great social ques- tion turns. The workingmen insist upon the insuffi- 19 ciency of the wages rate. The employers do not deny this, but explain the rate of wages as a link in the chain of economic phenomena which they cannot arbitrarily change (under the pressure of the market in the midst of which they themselves stand) without destroying the whole chain. So long as this controversy is not settled, and we fear it is an everlasting one (sic), so long shall we be obliged to maintain the opinion as the only correct one, that the expressions 'wages of labor' and ' necessary means of subsistence'. are in general identical.'' The "indestructible chain of economic phenomena!" Indeed a more striking expression could not have been found! True, the capitalist rulers of labor are not pre- vented by it from heaping capital upon capital, but heavily does the "chain of economic phenomena" press upon the laboring class. Yet, even here the poet's word proves true : "There dwelleth a spirit of Good in all Evil." The ruling industrial system, by making indispensable the assemblage of masses of workers at one point, gives the first impulse to the removal of the evil itself has created. As man first sees his own features in the mirror, so the laborer first awakens to a full appreciation of his own pitiable situation when, in the misery of masses of his comrades in suffering the image of his own lot stares him in the face. Sharing the life of his companions in toil, men placed like himself and equally oppressed, in constant contact and interchange of thought with them, working together for reciprocal support and the com- mon defense against common danger, there arises a class 20 consciousness which sustains and elevates the individual and inspires the masses to battle for their social rights. It is a strange fate which decrees that Capitalist produc- tion itself shall assemble and drill the powers destined to make an end of capitalist and class rule. From the great central rallying places of industry the Labor Movement has proceeded, which, within a few de- cades, has spread from England over France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, and has attained power and definite form in the foundation of the International Workingmen's Association. Everywhere we see unions forming whose object is the improvement of the material condition of the laboring class; craftsmen's guilds and workingmen's clubs, educational and beneficial associa- tions, co-operative, loan and credit societies, trades unions and co-operative manufacturing companies. Under the prevailing conditions of credit and production all these undertakings, originating in the working class and rest- ing upon the principle of self-help must prove powerless to cure the misery of the masses. But they have accom- plished a vast work for the intellectual and moral eleva- tion of the laboring class and in paving the way for a thorough reform of labor. The true significance of these associations, their value, which cannot be overestimated, lies in this, that, wholly apart from the especial object at which they aim, they are a school for self-culture for their members; that they confer upon them skill in the inde- pendent management of their own affairs and in har- monious action with others for common ends; that, by education, promotion of a comprehension of business and fraternal public spirit, they prepare the worker for a 21 gradual transition from the prevailing Wage- System to the co-operative method of production of the future. It was the spirit of co-operation which, in the Middle Ages raised the working middle class to so high a level of culture and proeperitv. of power and consequence. The re-awakening of the spirit of co-operation in our day will hear similar and still more precious fruit, not for one class alone, but for the whole human society. The labor ques- tion as we apprehend it, is no mere stomach and money question; it is a question of Civilization, Justice and Humanity. When our saving of State and Society, the "glorious" achievements of our policy of blood and iron, like a lost tradition, shall long have been forgotten, it will be remembered to the credit of our time that it quickened and cherished the spirit of co-operation, the germ of human greatness and virtue in the laboring world, so lay- ing the foundation for a new and truly moral social life, which shall rest upon the principle of equality and frater- nity. The founding of the smallest workingmen's club will be for the historian of Civilization of greater worth than the victory of Sadowa. Let us pass to the second question: What has the employer to do? The demand that we make of him is simply this, that he respect in every worker the human being, that he recognize the laborer whom he employs as a being fully his own equal, and that he treat him accordingly. Everything, they say, has two sides. In this every- day saying lurks a good piece of popular wisdom; the most difficult problems of knowledge, as of life, find their solution in it. Like everything else, man has two sides, a personal one, peculiar to himself as an individual, and a universal one which marks him as a member of a greater whole. In reality, the two sides can neither be separated nor sharply distinguished, for it is the two taken together which, in their unity, make the man. But in our con- sciousness temporarily or permanently one side or the other can very well press into the foreground and assert a predominant influence upon our thought and action. Let us assume the case that the special, individual side predominates in a man's character. It would find ex- pression primarily in his estimate of himself, as self-con- sciousness, self-confidence. "Help yourself." "Hercules helps him who helps himself/' becomes such a man's maxim, the rule of his thought and action. If he retains the consciousness of the other universal side of his nature, not losing sight of the connection between himself and his fellow men, he will admit that his own powers do not suffice to obtain him, by his personal effort alone, a sub- sistence worthy of a human being; that man can live and prosper only in society, that brotherly co-operation with others, therefore, lies in his own interest. Respect for others, sympathy and public spirit will hold his self -con- sciousness and self-confidence properly in check. Quite otherwise if the consciousness of self gets the upper hand in a man. True, the insufficiency of his own unaided powers cannot escape even then, for the consciousness of the broad universal side cannot be wholly suppressed. But the conclusion which he draws from it is in this case different, he will regard others, not as his equals, not as equal members of a great whole, of which he, too, forms a part, but as subservient to himself, mere tools for satis- fying his needs and gratifying his desires. Thus the con- sciousness of self, praiseworthy enough in its place, de- teriorates into selfishness, and self-consciousness into conceit. Selfishness, pretension and the desire to rule tempt him to make his fellow men serve his own will, all that he believes to be for his own advantage. What is here said of the individual applies to the whole community. The same powers which are active in the mind of the individual make themselves felt in the life of peoples, in the history of the human race. The power of man over man, the right of the strong and the oppression of the weak, that is the characteristic feature, the scarlet thread that is woven into the history of antiquity and of the Middle Ages. And is it other- wise now? Does not the order of society to-day rest, in spite of the much-praised progress of Civilization, upon the same prin- ciple of human subservience? Has the Present a right to look back into the conditions of heathen antiquity and of the Christian Middle Ages with pride and self-satisfac- tion? With a frankness which leaves nothing to be desired, a statesman of the Nineteenth Century, Count Joseph de Maistre, has expressed himself, literally, thus: "The human race was created for the benefit of a few men. It is the business of the clergy, the aristocracy, and the higher officers of the State to teach the people what is good or bad, true or false in the worlds of morals and intellect. Other persons have no right to dispute about such matters, they must endure without murmuring." If this is rather highly-colored, the picture is none 24 the less drawn from nature. So long as the shepherds of the nations go to war without saying "by your leave" to the people, so long as ecclesiastics come together in coun- cil and synod "To judge false human science under the auspices of the Holy Ghost/' so long we have no right to accuse de Maistre of falsehood. But wrong and incom- prehensible it is that de Maistre approves this state of things, that he dreams such conditions can and will en- dure for all time. Let me produce another witness: Robert Owen, the founder of the co-operative system in England, once met in the house of a Frankfort banker, Friedrich von Gentz, the well-konwn statesman. Owen set forth the excellence of his socialistic system, and ob- served : "If only unity could replace disunion, all men would have enough to live upon." "That may be true," replied von Gentz, "but we do not wish the masses to be prosperous and independent of us, for how could we then continue to govern?" There we have the whole Social Question of the present in a nutshell! If Owen speaks the word of deliverance, the Unity of Mankind, Gentz proclaims the fundamental evil that stands in the way of redemption: the love of power of the more favored classes. Aristotle also divided mankind, it will be remembered, into two classes, such as are destined to command, and such as are born to serve. But it was difference of nationality, as between Greeks and Barbarians, which lay at the foundation of his dis- tinction Gentz and de Maistre, on the contrary, draw a dividing line within the same race, between the upper ten 25 thousand who are ordained to rule and prosper, and the remaining masses destined to be governed and to languish. Whether we examine the state of the Church, the State or Society everywhere we cannot ignore it we meet with the class rule of the Middle Ages, the mediasval sys- tem of guardianship. In one point only does the Present differ from the Past, namely that, thanks to the German Reformation and the French Revolution, the conviction gains ground from day to day in ever-widening circles down to the lowest strata, that it cannot go on so forever, that men are not created to be ruled and governed, held in leading strings and oppressed by their fellow-men. For thousands of years love of one's neighbor and the fellow- ship of man have been preached to the people. The present demands that in every deed, in daily life, in the State and Society, this teaching be applied in earnest. There was a time the older men among you remem- ber it when everyone who doubted the right of absolute government was branded a rebel. To-day a similar fate is the lot of everyone who ventures to lay hands upon the "chain of economic phenomena." Do but venture to attack the privileges of the possessing class, the abuse of power by Capital, the prevailing credit and loan system, or even to broach a more even distribution of material goods, and you are in certain circles branded forthwith as the enemy of all social order, a social heretic, a Commun- ist. But this shall not deter me from recognizing freely and publicly that all individual property, material not less than intellectual, is the common good of society. Like man himself, every form of the property of man 26 possesses, besides its special character which makes it the private possession of an individual, a universal side which gives the community a well-grounded claim to a right to it. That the State and the municipality appropriate a part of the property of every citizen as taxes we all con- consider a matter of course, or that the law limits the free control of the individual's property. But, we ask, has the property-holder no other duties than those which the law of the land prescribes, and, in case of need, compels him to fulfill ? Has he not duties to society as well as to the family, the municipality, the commonwealth? What the individual calls his own, whether of real or personal property, is it, can it be solely the product of his own activity? Does he not owe by far the greater part of it to the co-operation of others, to the social labor, the labor in common, of the people who have lived before him, and of his contemporaries? And, as the individual attains possession of property only by means of the help of others, so he cannot enjoy its fruits without the help of others. Only in society has property value, only in society can men rejoice in it. Hence the moral obligation of every owner of property so to use his fortune that it may be of use, not to himself alone, but to the community as well, especially to those of his fellow men who are less favorably placed than himself. The grand Labor Movement of the last forty years has had a wholesome effect in this respect. As it has awakened in the workman the consciousness of his social rights, so it has sharpened in the possessing class the sense of social duty. We are glad to admit that there are employers for whom the laborer is not a commodity which one buys as cheaply as possible, like every other commodity, to make the most of the use of it. In England, France, and even with us in Germany, there is no lack of individual ex- amples of mill-owners, business men and landlords who endeavor to improve the sad lot of their employees through increase in wages^ or shortening the hours of labor, the foundation of savings-banks, beneficial societies and insurance for old age, or by the erection of healthful dwellings, asylums, hospitals, educational institutions, and other means. Especially worthy of notice in this respect is the system of profit-sharing, according to which the workman receives, besides his wages, a regular share of the profit obtained by his labor. In England alone there are some ten thousand workmen who hold this relation to their employer, and both sides have reason to be content with their success. Yet, we must not overlook the fact that here everything depends more or less upon the good will of the employer, and that in the best case certain workingmen or groups of workingmen only are benefited by it. Valuable as such humane endeavors are as educational preparation for the removal of the social wretchedness which has arisen out of the wages system, they are as little adequate as the workmen's attempt at self-help. That great task requires another power, capable of taking general and radical measures. And this brings us to the third question: What has the State to do to bring about a peaceful solu- tion of the Labor Question? The new constitution of the Canton Zurich adopted April 18th, 1869, answers our question as follows: 28 Art. 23. "The State promotes and facilitates the de- velopment of the co-operative system, based upon self- help. It enacts through its law-giving power the pro- visions requisite for the protection of the workers." Art. 24. "It creates, for the furtherance of the gener- al credit, a Cantonal bank." The original wording of the articles was still more pre- cise. It was as follows: Art. 23. "It is the duty of the State to protect and advance the welfare of the working class and the development of the co-operative system." Art. 24. (As above.) Protection, Advancement in these two words the object of the great co-operative body which we call the State is sharply and clearly formulated. But how are protection by the State and advancement by the State to be understood? The despot calls himself shield and pro- tector of the people, and war is praised as a means of pro- moting civilization. Vera rerum vocabula amissimus, the right names of things are lost to us. The more need then to specify the sense in which the terms are here used. "Protection by the State" means the duty of the whole body of persons assembled and united into a State to pro- tect each individual in the free development and employ- ment of his power so far as the like freedom of others is not thereby interfered with. But with mere protection the duty of the State is not exhausted, however much the politician may prefer to limit it thereto. The reciprocal advancement of the members of the State must be added. Under advancement by the State we understand the duty of the whole community to step in with its means 29 whenever the welfare of the individual does not suffice to obtain him a life worthy of a human being. As protection by the State corresponds to the principle of Liberty, and Advancement by the State to the prin- ciple of Fraternity, so the assurance of protection and advancement to all, "to each according to his need," meets the demand of Equality. This doctrine of the object of the State is quite the same as that which I expressed on a former occasion in the formula : Each for all is human Duty! All for each is human Right; "But," some one may object, "if protection and advance- ment by the State are to be afforded to all equally, why is the working class especially emphasized in the article of the Zurich constitution? Is the working class to be espe- cially favored by the State, advanced at the cost of the others?" Reasonable as this objection at first sounds, it does not bear scrutiny. It must be remembered that the equality of all consists solely in every man's being protected and helped "accord- ing to his need"; and who can deny that at this time it is precisely the wage-worker who most needs protection and help? But wholly apart from this greater need, there is an- other circumstance which, for the Present and the imme- diate Future, makes an especial consideration of the work- ing class by the State a demand of reparative justice. It is only necessary to call to mind the genesis of what is commonly called capital to make this perfectly clear. 30 However the definitions of capital may differ, in this they all agree, that it is accumulated labor, applicable to fur- ther productive ends. But who has performed this labor? They, perhaps, who now control capital! Does the manu- facturer, the merchant, the landlord, owe his wealth of accumulated labor to his own activity and the industry of his ancestors? Is the want of capital, the poverty of the toiling proletarians solely due to their own and their fathers' fault ? But if the present inequality of fortune is not solely due to the economically correct action of the property-holding class and the shiftlessness of the non- possessing class, to what other cause can it be attributed? Whence comes it that Capital concentrates more and more in the hands of the small minority, while the mass of wage-laborers, despite their industry, can scarcely sat- isfy their barest needs? The reason for this can evi- dently be' found nowhere else than in a distribution of the product of labor disproportionate to the labor performed, and, therefore, unjust. We shall not investigate the chain of historical condi- tions in consequence of which the workman was gradually separated from the means of production and the present disproportion between work and wages brought about. The question now is: What has the State done to bring about a more just distribution of the product of labor? Has it made any attempt, by legislation or otherwise, to protect the work- ingman against the superior power of capital, or to set a limit to the social inequality that is growing from day to day? Whoever scrutinizes the history of the nations down to 31 the present day will find that in this direction practically nothing has been done. Nobility, clergy and the higher dignitaries of State have separately and together exercised an almost exclusive control in public affairs; they have not hesitated to turn to account for themselves and their own interests power and wealth from which all should have profited equally. Legislation itself, far from distributing air and sunshine equitably in the economic race, has contributed its large share by conferring privileges on the one hand and inter- fering with liberty on the other, to widen and deepen the chasm between the property-holding and the non-possess- ing classes. How then can any one blame the men of toil, if, having awakened to the consciousness of their rights and their power, they demand from the State a very special con- sideration of their so long neglected interests? -When, in the article of the Zurich Constitution, State protection and State help is especially promised to the workers, there is involved in this no infringement upon the principle of equality. There is no question, as some anxious souls fear, of feeding the poor workingman at the cost of the rich citizen; still less of forming a privileged class of workingmen, stipendiaries of the government. It is simply the frank and honorably outspoken recognition by the law-givers of the State's duty to do that which has been left undone and to expiate injustice committed, so righting the social wrong for which the State is, in part, responsible. It is only the wished-for fulfillment of that which we have called the demand for reconci Hating and reparative justice, 32 But the Zurich Constitution does not stop with the recognition of the duty and responsibility of the State in general; it specifies in precise terms the means by which alone the working class can now be helped: "The development of co-operation based upon self-help shall be promoted and assisted." The ultimate object of this process of development is: The abolition of wages-labor by the gradual transition from the wages system to that of co-operative labor. Let us glance now in detail at the demands to be made of the State, i. e., the whole community of individuals. First comes unrestricted freedom of opinion and the right to organize and hold meetings at will. The repeal of all laws framed for the purpose of limiting or, as the phrase goes, "regulating 77 liberty. Next, equal right of participation in public affairs for all, universal, direct suffrage and its corollary, universal direct participation of the people in legislation and administration. Further, free compulsory education in public secular institutions and the introduction of universal compulsory military training in place of standing army and militia. These two demands we combine because public instruction and the people's power of defense are more closely connected. For the conduct of war the primary need is money and efficient soldiers; both are secured by efficient schools. The wealth of a country depends upon the successful labor of its inhabitants, but work is the more successful the better the workman can calculate the success of what he undertakes, that is, the more intelligent he is. And the soldier, like the workman, will be more skillful in the performance of his task, the defense of his country. With 33 us in Germany, as in most of the countries of Europe, nearly half of the nation's income is spent in preparation for war, while education and culture are put off with sums scarcely worth mentioning. Let us reverse the propor- tion and the people's wealth will multiply ten-fold with- out injury to our power of defense. A Minister of Edu- cation who understands his business is the best Minister of Finance and War. For the working class especially, and that in the inter- est of the Commonwealth, we demand: SHORTENED HOURS OF LABOR AND A LEGAL WORKING DAY. The wage-worker, too, must have time and leisure "to cultivate his intelligence and attend to the .affairs of State." The Congress of English Trades Unions, held last year in Birmingham, recommended an eight- hour working day for all trades, and expressed its con- viction that by this means "the physical and mental power of the workers will be increased and morality pro- moted and the number of the unemployed diminished." Prohibition of the employment of Children and equal pay for equal work for Men and Women. Both are necessary to prevent the further sinking of wages and to save the rising generation from deteriora- tion. Abolition of indirect Taxes and introduction of a Pro- gressive Income Tax. Every tax upon necessaries of life is a tax upon the 34 worker's force of labor, hence a restriction upon produc- tion and an injury to the prosperity of the people. Finally: Reform of the Money and Credit System, and promotion of Industrial and Agricultural Productive Co-operative Associations by the Intervention of State Credit or State Guaranty. The point is to make credit accessible to the working class. This the State has done in most generous measure both directly and indirectly for the promotion of the capi- talistic method of production. Let the State now in its own interest do the same for the co-operative associations of the workers. Nothing is more advantageous to the Commonwealth than justice in all things. So much for the preliminary conditions of labor re- form. The workingmen have been advised, perhaps honestly enough, to keep out of politics and busy them- selves solely with their economic interests, as if political and economic interests could be separated, as kindlings are split, with a hatchet. Whoever has followed our line of reasoning thus far, cannot, I think, be in doubt that precisely the working class must first of all and most of all resolve to transform political conditions in the direc- tion of freedom. State-help no less than self-help is needed for securing to the worker the full, undimin- ished result of his industry, that is, an existence worthy of a man. The State alone, and only a free State, will help the workers! Let us sum up briefly the substance of the foregoing: The system of wages-labor meets the demands of Jus- lice and Humanity as little as did the slavery and servi- 35 tude of former times. Like slavery and servitude, wages- labor was once a step forward in civilization from which undeniable advantages have accrued to society. The social question of the Present is how to abolish the wages system without losing the advantages of pro- duction and distribution en gros by means of associated labor. To this end there is but one means, the system of free, associated labor, the co-operative system. The Present is a time of transition from the wages system (capitalistic method of production) to the system of Associated Labor. In order to secure a peaceful transition, the worker, the employer and the State must work together: It is the part of the workers to offer united resistance to the pressure of capitalistic rule, and by self -culture to prepare themselves for independence. It is the part of the employer to concern himself for the welfare of the workers, and especially to yield them a share of the profits. It is the duty of the State to promote the efforts of the workers for self-culture by promoting their organization, determining a legal working day and affording adequate opportunity for free instruction. It is the further duty of the State to assist the development of the co-operative system by reform of the bank and credit system, and by affording to co-operative effort the support of State credit. Such help being possible only on the part of a free State, it follows that all workers, and all friends of the workers, must aim primarily at establishing true freedom within the State. Political and social freedom, freedom 36 of the citizen without the sacrifice of the majority of man- kind as wage-slaves; this is the task of our century. The achievements of the policy of blood and iron, the clang of arms in these, our days, the chase and struggle for wealth and sensual enjoyment, these are but ripples on the sur- face of the stream of the spirit of our time. In the depths, still but ceaseless, is the forward movement of our knowledge of nature and of mind, and with this con- sciousness of the sovereignty of man, that thought which moves the world, the Liberty, Equality, Fraternity of all. Though years may pass in vain, the word of the Scripture shall yet be fulfilled, the joyful message which the electric wire sped as its first greeting from free America to Europe, still armed to the teeth : "Peace on Earth; Good Will to Men!" THE END. *'Empty thy purse Inlo thy head.' * Shakespeare. J. A. Way land. So many billions of people have dumbly stumbled their way through this brief span existing, without that intel- lectual grasp of things that' makes life a pleasure. Ignorant, prejudiced, earth's teeming millions have come and gone, denying themselves the profit of a well stored mind, for the petty pleasures of a passing hour. Then, they laid down the life which was a burden which should have been a joy much the same as the patient oxen haxe quit the scene. Intelligence need not be bought at a sacrifice in these times. The Appeal to Reason in answer to the requirement for a new economic condition, has printed and circulated over 9,000,000 copies, while the total number of all papers issued by J. A. Wayland (editor of the APPEAL) explaining the only theory that will abolish poverty, amounts to over 18,200,000 copies. Besides this over 100 tons of books have been sold. That means that some people understand Socialism whether you do or not. If it is to your advantage, you want to know it. If it is not, it won't hurt you to know it anyway. The APPEAL is printed weekly, without advertising, and costs 50 cents per year or 15 cents for three months. It is probably worth your while to read it if you wish to be considered well posted on all political movements. Postage stamps taken. Address APPEAL TO REASON. Girard, Kansas. High commission paid good agents. 14 DAY USE URN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below or ^on the date to which renewed t to immediate recall. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6 7. 8. . ?&$*&-? ). nistpi t