THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES FROM THE LIBRARY OF JIM TULLY GIFT OF MRS. JIM TULLY itnstitute of Ind'jstrial R-lationa l^iversity of California Los Angeles 24, California A HISTORY OF SOCIALISM r.Y THE SAME AUTHOR. PROGRESS AND THE FISCAL PROBLEM Crown 8vo, Cloth. Price 3s. 6d. net. SOUTH AFRICA: OLD AND NEW A STUDY OF EMPIRE Grown 8vo, Cloth. Price 3s. 6d. A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. Pholo by J. Russell &■ Sons. J'', ftt^ /t*-«,-^ HISTOEY OF SOCIALISM BY THOMAS KIEKUP THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED LONDON ADAM AXD CIIAIILES BLACK 1906 First Edition, jnMished October 1892 Second Edition, ' „ January lUOO Third Edition ,, Noveniber 1906 b PEEFACE The aim of the present book is twofold : to set forth the leading phases of the historic socialism, and to attempt a criticism and interpretation of the movement as a whole. In this edition the changes made consist chietiy in bring- ing the history nearer to our own time. I have made it no part of my plan to dwell on details. The interest and significance of the history of socialism will be found, not in its details and accidents, but in the development of its cardinal principles, which I have endeavoured to trace. Readers desirous of detail must be referred to the writings of the various socialists, or to works that treat of special phases of the movement. Yet I hope that the statement of the leading theories is sufficiently clear and adequate to enable the reader to form his own judgment of the highly controversial matters involved in the history of socialism. I may add that in every case my account is drawn from an extensive study of the sources. These sources I have given both in the text and in footnotes. For the more recent development of the subject, however, the material is derived from such a multitude of books, pamphlets, periodicals, and journals, as well as from personal inquiry and observation, that it has not been found practicable to indicate them. But the purely historical part of such a work is far from being the most difficult. The real difficulty begins when we attempt to form a clear conception of the mean- ing and significance of the socialistic movement, to indi- 844707 ^ PREFACE cate its place in history, and the issues to which it is tending. In the concluding chapters I have made such an attempt. The good reader who takes the trouble to go so far through my book can accept my contribution to a hard problem for what it is worth. He may at least feel assured that it is no hasty and ill-considered effort which is placed before him. The present volume grew out of the articles on socialism published in the ninth edition of the Encijdopcedia Britannica. The views advo- cated here were first set forth in my Inquiry into Socialism, published in 1887. In this edition of the History they have in some points received such expansion and modi- fication as time and repeated self-criticism have suggested. The concluding chapter contains a fuller discussion of the situation created by the historical development of the subject than I had hitherto been able to attempt. To all thoughtful and discerning men it should now be clear that the solution of the social question is the great task which has been laid upon the present epoch in the history of the world. Socialism grew to be a very important question during the nineteenth century ; in all probability it will be the supreme question of the twentieth. No higher felicity can befall any man than to have thrown a real light on the greatest problem of his time ; and to have utterly failed is no disgrace. In such a cause it is an honour even to have done efficient work as a navvy or hodman. For help with the notes on the recent progress of socialism I wish to express special obligations to Mr. H. W. Lee, secretary of the Social Democratic Federa- tion, to Mr. J. E. Macdonald, M.P., secretary of the Labour Party, and to Mr. E. R. Pease, secretary of the Fabian Society. London, October 1906. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE 1. IXTRODtrCTIOX ..... 1 2. Early French Socialism 22 Saint-Simon ..... 22 Fourier ...... 31 3. French Socialism of 1848 41 y^Louis Blanc ..... 43 •:ilfC Proudhon ..... 51 4. Early English Socialism 58 5. Ferdinand Lassalle .... 73 1. Life ...... 73 2. Theories . . . . , 95 6. RODBEUTUS ...... 123 7. Karl Marx ..... 130 8. The Inteiinational .... 168 9. The German Social Democracy 197 10. Anarchism ...... 237 11. The Purified Socialism . . . . . 273 12. Socialism and the Evolution Theory 294 13. Recent Progress of Socialism . . , . 311 14. Tendencies towards Socialism . . . . 345 15. Conclusion. ...... 363 Al'I'ENDIX ....... 393 Index ....... 401 A HISTOKY OF SOCIALISM INTRODUCTION Though much has been said and written about socialism for many years, it still remains a questionable name which awakens in the mind of the reader doubt, per ■ plexity, and contradiction. But there can be no question that it is a growing power throughout the world. It is hardly an exaggera- tion to say that the most intelligent and the best organised working-men of all civilised countries are passing over to it. The opinions which are being accepted by the foremost of the working-classes to-day will in all probability have the same attraction for their less advanced brethren to-morrow. It is a sub- ject, however, which concerns all classes, and it is forcing to the front a wide group of problems which are every day becoming more urgent. In view of this there is only one right and safe course ; we should seek to know the truth about socialism. The discontent which tends to disturbance and revolu- tion can be removed only by satisfying the legitimate needs and aspirations of those who suffer. 1 2 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM We all know that the propaganda of socialism has been attended with intemperate and violent language, with wild opinions which are often inconsistent with the first principles of social order, with revolutionary outbreaks leading to bloodshed, desolation and long-con- tinued unrest and suspicion. These tilings are greatly to be deplored. But we shall be wise if we regard them as symptoms of wide -spread and deep-seated social disease. The best way to cure such disease is to study and remove the causes of it. No physician will have any success in combating a malady if he content him- self with sujDpressing its symptoms. For the study of socialism two things are essential on the part of the reader — good -will and the open mind. Socialism has at least a most powerful pro- visional claim on our good -will, that it professes to represent the cause of the sufferers in the world's long agony, of the working-classes, of women, and of the down-trodden nations and races. If it can make any solid contribution in such a far-reaching cause it has the strongest right to be heard. Need we say that no new movement like socialism can be understood or appreciated without some measure of the open mind ? In the course of history it has been proved over and over again that established ideas and institutions are not always in the right in every respect, and that novel opinions, though presented in extravagant and intemperate language, are not always entirely wrong. Even the most prejudiced reader will do well to consider that a cause which now numbers INTRODUCTION 3 millions of intelligent adherents, for which men have died and gladly suffered imprisonment and privation of every kind, may contain elements of truth and of well- justified hope for the future. Above all things, it is essential to remember that socialism is not a stereotyped system of dogma. It is a movement which springs out of a vast and only partially shapen reality. It is therefore living and liable to change. It has a history on which we can look back ; but it is above all things a force of the present and the future, and its influence in the future for good or evil wiU depend on how we the men of the jwesent relate ourselves to it. On the one hand, it would be a great wrong if we encouraged vain and delusive expectations ; but it w^ould be a wrong even greater, on the other hand, if from whim or prejudice or pessimism we did anything that might be an obstacle to truth and progress. In a sub- ject so momentous the only right course is to eschew passion and prejudice, and to follow truth with good- will and an open mind. The word ' socialism ' is of comparatively recent origin, having been coined in England in 1835. In that year a society, which received the grandiloquent name of the Association of all Classes of all Nations, was founded under the auspices of Kobert Owen ; and the words socialist and socialism were first used duriue the discussions which arose in connection with it.-^ As Owen and his school had no esteem f(jr the political ^ Holyoake, Uistory of Co-operation, vol. i. p. 210, ed. 1875. 4 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM reform of the time, and laid all emphasis on the neces- sity of social improvement and reconstruction, it is ohvious how the name came to be recognised as suit- able and distinctive. The term was soon afterwards borrowed from England, as he himself tells us, by a distinguished French writer, Reybaud, in his well- known work the B6formateiirs moderTies, in which he discussed the theories of Saint -Simon, Fourier, and Owen. Through Eeybaud it soon gained wide cur- rency on the Continent, and is now the accepted world - historic name for one of the most remarkable movements of the nineteenth century. The name was thus first apphed in England to Owen's theory of social .reconstruction, and in France to those also of Saint-Simon and Fourier. The best usage has always connected it with the views of these men, and with the cognate opinions which have since appeared. But the word is used with a great variety of meaning, not only in popular speech and by poli- ticians, but even by economists and learned critics of socialism. There is a growing tendency to regard as socialistic any interference with property undertaken by society on behalf of the poor, the limitation of the principle of laissez-faire in favour of the suffering classes, radical social reform which disturbs the present system of private property as regulated by free com- petition. It is probable enough that the word will be permanently used to express the change in practice and opinion indicated by these phrases, as a general name for the strong reaction that has now set in INTRODUCTION 5 against the overstrained individualism and one-sided freedom which date from the end of the eighteenth centurj. The application is neither precise nor accu- rate ; but it is use and wont that determine the mean- ing of words, and this seems to be the tendency of use and wont. Even economic writers differ greatly in the meaning they attach to the word. As socialism has been most powerful and most studied on the Continent, it may be interesting to compare the definitions given by some leading French and German economists. The great German economist Roscher defines it as including 'those tendencies which demand a greater regard for the common weal than consists with human nature.' ^ Adolf Held says that 'we may define as socialistic every tendency which demands the subordination of the individual will to the community.'^ Janet more precisely defines it as follows : ' We call socialism every doctrine which teaches that the State has a right to coiTCct the inequality of wealth which exists among men, and to legally establish the balance by taking from those who have too much iu order to give to those who have not enough, and that in a permanent manner, and not in such and such a particular case — a famine, for instance, a public calamity, etc' ^ Lave- leye explains it thus : ' In the first place, every social- istic doctrine aims at introducing greater equality in ^ Quoted by Adolf Held, Sozialismus, Sozialdemokratie, uiid sozial Politik, p. 30. 2 Ibid. p. 29. ** Les orifjincs da socialisme contemporain, p. 67. 6 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM social conditions ; and in the second place, at realising those reforms by the law or the State/ ^ Von Scheel simply defines it as the 'economic philosophy of the suffering classes.' ^ Of all these definitions it can only be said that they more or less ftiithfully reflect current opinion as to the nature of socialism. They are either too vague or they are misleading, and they quite fail to bring out the clear and strongly marked characteristics that distinguish the phenomena to which the name of socialism is properly applied. To say that socialism exacts a greater regard for the common weal than is compatible with human nature is to pass sentence on the movement, not to define it. In all ages of the world, and under all forms and tendencies of government and of social evolution, the will of the individual has been subordinated to the will of society, often unduly so. It is also most misleading to speak as if socialism must proceed from the State as we know it. The early socialism proceeded from private effort and experiment. A great deal of the most notorious socialism of the present day aims not only at subverting the existing State in every form, but all the existing political and social institutions. The most powerful and most philo- sophic, that of Karl Marx, aimed at superseding the existing Governments by a vast international combina- tion of the workers of all nations, without distinction of creed, colour, or nationality. ' Le socialisme contemporain, p. iv. ^ ^chtjuhiiTi^s llandbuch der pol. Oekonomie, art. 'Socialism.' INTRODUCTION 7 Still more objectionable, however, is the tendency not unfrequently shown to identify socialism with a violent and lawless revolutionary spirit. As sometimes used, ' socialism ' means nothing more nor less than the most modern form of the revolutionary spirit with a sugges- tion of anarchy and dynamite. This is to confound the essence of the movement with an accidental feature more or less common to all great innovations. Every new thing of any moment, whether good or evil, has its revolutionary stage, in which it disturbs and upsets the accepted beliefs and institutions. The Protestant Reformation was for more than a century and a half the occasion of civil and international trouble and blood- shed. The suppression of American slavery could not be effected without a tremendous civil war. There was a time when the opinions comprehended under the name of ' liberalism ' had to fight to the death for tolera- tion ; and representative government was at one time a revolutionary innovation. The fact that a movement is revolutionary generally implies only that it is new, that it is disposed to exert itself by strong methods, and is calculated to make great changes. It is an unhappy feature of most great changes that they have been attended with the exercise of force, but that is be- cause the powers in possession have generally attempted to suppress them by the exercise of force. In point of fact socialism is one of the most elastic and protean phenomena of history, varying accorduig to the time and circumstances in which it appears, and with the character and opinions and institutions of the ^ 8 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM ''■ people who adopt it. Such a movement cannot be condemned or approved en Uoc. Most of the current formul;Te to which it has been referred for praise or censure are totally erroneous and misleading. Yet in the midst of the various theories that go by the name of ' socialism ' there is a kernel of principle that is common to them all. That principle is of an economic nature, and is most clear and precise. The central aim of socialism is to terminate the divorce of the workers from the natural sources of subsistence and of culture.' The socialist theory is based on the historical assertion that the course of social evolution for centuries has gradually been to exclude the produc- ing classes from the possession of land and capital, and to establish a new subjection, the subjection of workers who have nothing to depend on but precarious wage- labour. Socialists maintain that the present system (in which land and capital are the property of private individuals freely struggling for increase of wealth) leads inevitably to social and economic anarchy, to the degradation of the working man and his family, to the growth of vice and idleness among the wealthy classes and their dependants, to bad and inartistic workman- ship, to insecurity, waste, and starvation ; and that it is tending more and more to separate society into two classes, wealthy millionaires confronted with an enor- mous mass of proletarians, the issue out of which must either be socialism or social ruin. To avoid all these e^dls and to secure a more equitable distribution of the means and appliances of happiness, socialists propose INTRODUCTION 9 that land and capital, which are the requisites of labour and the sources of all wealth and culture, should be placed under social ownership and control. In thus maintaining that society should assume the management of industry and secure an equitable distri- bution of its fruits, socialists are agreed; but on the most important points of detail they differ very greatly. They differ as to the form society will take in carrying out the socialist programme, as to the relation of local bodies to the central government, and whether there is to be any central government, or any government at all in the ordinary sense of the word ; as to the influence of the national idea in the society of the future, etc. They differ also as to what should be regarded as an 'equitable' system of distribution. The school of Saint -Simon advocated a social hierarchy, in which every man should be placed according to his capacity and rewarded according to his works. In the communities of Fourier the minimum of subsistence was to be guaranteed to each out of the common gain, the remainder to be divided between labour, capital, and talent — five- twelfths going to the first, four-twelfths to the second, and three-twelfths to the third. At the revolution of 1848 Louis Blanc proposed that remuneration should be I equal for all members of his social vjorkshops. In the programme drawn up bjHilie united Social Democrats of ' Germany (Gotha, 1875) it was provided that all sliall enjoy the results of labour according to their reasonable wants, all of course being bound to work. It is needless to say also that the theories of socialism 10 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM have been held in connection with the most varying opinions in philosophy and religion. A great deal of the historic socialism has been regarded as a necessary implicate of idealism. The prevailing socialism of the day is in large part based on the frankest and most out- spoken revolutionary materialism. On the other hand, many socialists hold that their system is a necessary out- come of Christianity, that socialism and Christianity are essential the one to the other ; and it should be said that the ethics of socialism are closely akin to the ethics of Christianity, if not identical with them. Still, it should be insisted that the basis of socialism is economic , involving a fundamental change in the relation of labour to land and capital — a change which will largely affect production, and will entirely revolu- tionise the existing system of distribution. But, while its basis is economic, socialism implies and carries with it a change in the political, ethical, technical, and artistic arrangements and institutions of society, whicii would constitute a revolution greater than has ever taken place in human history, greater than the transi- tion from the ancient to the mediaeval world, or from the latter to the existing order of society. In the first place, such a change generally assumes as its political complement the most thoroughly demo- cratic organisation of society. The early socialism of Owen and Saint-Simon was marked by not a little of the autocratic spirit ; but the tendency of the present socialism is more and more to ally itself with the most advanced democracy. Socialism, in fact, claims to be INTRODUCTION 11 the economic complemeut of democracy, maintaining that without a fundamental economic change political privdlege has neither meaning nor value. In the second place, socialism naturally goes with an imselfish or altruistic system of ethics. The most characteristic feature of the old societies was the ex- ploitation of the weak by the strong under the systems of slavery, serfdom, and wage - labour. Under the socialistic regime it is the privilege and duty of the strong and talented to use their superior force and richer endowments in the service of their fellow-men without distinction of class, or nation, or creed. Whatever our opinion may be of the wisdom or practicability of their theories, history proves that socialists have been ready to sacrifice wealth, social position, and life itself, for the cause which they have adopted. In the third place, socialists maintain that, under their system and no other, can the highest excellence and beauty be realised in industrial production and in art; whereas under the present system beauty and , thoroughness are alike sacrificed to cheapness, which is / a necessity of successful competition. Lastly, the socialists refuse to admit that individual happiness or freedom or character would be sacrificed under the social arrangements they propose. They believe that under the present system a free and har- monious development of individual capacity and happi- ness is possible only for the privileged minority, and that socialism alone can open up a fair opportunity for all. They believe, in short, that there is no opposition 12 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM whiituver between socialism and individuality rightly understood, that tliese two are complements the one of the other, that in socialism alone may every individual have hope of free development and a full realisation of himself. Having shown how wide a social revolution is implied in the socialistic scheme of reconstruction, we may now state (1) that the economic basis of the prevalent socialism is a collectivism which excludes private pos- session of land and capital, and places them under social ownership in some form or other. In the words of SchiiHle, ' the Alpha and Omega of socialism is the trans- formation of private competing capitals into a united collective capital.'^ Adolf Wagner's more elaborate definition of it ^ is entirely in agreement with that of Schatile. Such a system, while insisting on collective capital, is quite consistent with private property in other forms, and with perfect freedom in the use of one's own share in the equitable distribution of the produce of the associated labour. A thorough-going socialism demands that this principle should be applied to the capital and production of the whole world ; only then can it attain to supreme and perfect realisation. But a sober-minded socialism will admit that the various intermediate stages in which the principle finds a partial application are so far a true and real development of the socialistic idea. Even the best definitions, however, are only of ^ Quiiitessenz des Socialisnms, p. 12. ^ Lehrbuch der pol. Oekonomie, Grundlcgung, p. 174. INTRODUCTION ,j , 13 - , secondary importance ; and while we believe that those we have just mentioned give an accurate account of the prevailing socialism, they are arbitrary, abstract, and otherwise open to objection. As we have already seen, the system of Fourier admitted of private capital under social control. The absolute views of the subject now current are due to the excessive love of syctom charac- ter istic of German thought^ and are not consistent either with history or human nature. (2) Socialism is both a theory of social evolution and a working force in the history of the nineteenth century. The teaching of some eminent socialists, such as Eod- bertus, may be regarded as a prophecy concerning the social development of the future rather than as a subject of agitation. In their view socialism is the next stage in the evolution of society, destined after many genera- tions to supersede capitalism, as capitalism displaced feudalism, and feudalism succeeded to slavery. Even the majority of the most active socialists consider the question as still in the stage of agitation and propaganda, their present task being that of enlightening the masses until the consummation of the present social develop- ment, and the declared bankruptcy of the present social order, shall have delivered the world into their hands. Socialism, therefore, is for the most part a theory affect- ing the future, more or less remote, and has only to a limited degree gained a real and practical footing in the life of our time. Yet it should not be forgotten that its doctrines have most powerfully affected all the ablest recent economic writers of Germany, and have even con- 14 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM siderably modified German legislation. Its influence is rapidly growing among the lower and also among the most advanced classes in almost every country dominated by European culture, following the development of capitalism, of which it is not merely the negation, hut in a far wider and more real sense is also the goal. (3) In its doctrinal aspects socialism is most inter- esting as a criticism of the present economic order, of what socialists call the capitalistic system, with which the existing land system is connected. Under the present economic order land and capital (the material and instruments without which industry is impossible) are the property of a class employing a class of wage- labourers handicapped by tlieir exclusion from land and capital. Competition is the general rule by which the share of the members of those classes in the fruits of production is determined. Against this system critical socialism is a reasoned protest ; and it is at issue also with the prevailing political economy, in so far as it assumes or maintains the permanence or righteousness of this economic order. Of the economic optimism implied in the historic doctrine of laissez-faire, socialism is an uncompromising rejection. (4) Socialism is usually regarded as a phase of the struggle for the emancipation of labour, for the complete participation of the working classes in the material, intellectual, and spiritual inheritance of the human race. This is certainly the most substantial and most prominent part of the socialist programme, the working classes being the most numerous and the worst sufferers INTRODUCTION 15 from the present regime. This view, however, is rather one-sided, for socialism claims not less to be in the interest of the small capitalist gradually crushed by the competition of the larger, and in the interest also of the large capitalist, whose position is endangered by the vastness and unwieldiness of his success, and by the world-wide economic anarchy from which even the greatest are not secure. Still, it is the deliverance of the working class that stands in the front of every socialistic theory ; and, though the initiative in socialist speculation and action has usually come from men belonging to the middle and upper classes, yet it is to the workmen that they generally appeal. While recognising the great confusion in the use of the word ' socialism,' we have treated it as properly a phenomenon of the nineteenth century, beginning in France with Saint-Simon and Fourier, in England with Robert Owen, and most powerfully represented at the present day by the school of Karl Marx. As we have seen, however, there are definitions of the word which would give it a wider range of meaning and a more ancient beginning, compared witli which capitalism is but of yesterday ; which would, in fact, make it as old as human society itself. In the early stages of human development, when the tribe or the village community was the social unit, the subordination of the individual to the society in which he dwelt was the rule, and common property was the prevalent form. In the development of the idea of property, especially as regards land, three successive liistorical stages are 16 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM broadly recognised — commo n property and commoi ] enjoy ment of it, common property and private en - joyment, private propertv and private enjoymen t. The last form did not attain to full expression till the end of the eighteenth century, when the principle of individual freedom, which was really a reaction against privileged restriction, was proclaimed as a positive axiom of government and of economics. The free individual struggle for wealth, and for the social ad- vantages dependent on wealth, is a comparatively recent thing. At all periods of history the State has reserved to itself the right to interpose in the arrangements of property — sometimes in favour of the poor, as in the case of the English poor law, which may thus be re- garded as a socialistic measure. Moreover, all through history revolts in favour of the rearrangement of property have been very frequent. From the begin- ning there have existed misery and discontent, the con- templation of which has called forth schemes of an ideal society in the noblest and most sympathetic minds. Of these are the Utopias of Plato and Thomas More, advocating a systematic communism. And in the societies of the Catholic Church we have a per- manent example of common property and a common enjoyment of it. How are we to distinguish the socialism of the nine- teenth century from these old-world phenomena, and especially from the communism which has played so great a part in history? To this query it is not difficult INTRODUCTION- 17 to give a clear and precise answer from the socialist point of view. Socialism is a stage in the evolution of society which could not arrive till the conditions necessary to it had been established. Of these, one most essential condition was the development of the great industrialism which, after a long period of preparation and gradual growth, began to reach its culminating point with the inventions and technical improvements, with the application of steam and the rise of the factory system, in England towards the end of the eighteenth century. Under this system industry was organised into a vast social operation, and was thus already so far socialised ; but it was a system that was exploited by the individual owner of the capital at his own pleasure and for his own behoof. Under the pressure of the competition of the large industry, the small capitalist is gradually crushed out, and the working producers become wage-labourers organised and drilled in immense factories and workshops. The develop- ment of this system still continues, and is enveloping the whole world. Such is the industrial revolution. Parallel with tliis a revolution in the world of ideas, equally great and equally necessary to the rise of socialism, has taken place. This change of thought, which made its world -historic announcement in tlie French Eevolution, made reason the supreme judge, and had freedom for its gi-eat practical watchword. It was represented in the economic sphere by the school of Adam Smith. Socialism was an outcome of it too, and first of all in Saint-Simon an 38 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM f)hnhn), w. A. vfi]-Y p.rmifn rl.!i1>1ft miiiiiuuiu was assui'c d to — Win. — ■ ~ ev cvy iin'inber. Of the reinaindor, five-twelfths went to lalxnir, four-tweh'ths to capital, and tlirec-twelftjis to talent. In the phalange individual capital existed, and inequality of talent was not only admitted, hut insisted upon and utilised. In the actual distribution the phalange treated with individuals. With regard to the remuneration of individuals under the head of capital no difficulty could be felt, as a normal rate of interest would be given on the advances made. Indi- vidual talent would be rewarded in accordance with the services rendered in the management of the phalange, the place of each being determined by elec- tion. L abour would be r'^Tmmprntpil o n a. prineip le entirely differe nt from the present. Hard and commo n or necessary work should be best paid-;_-aise£iiLsmik- sli ould come next, and pleasant work last of all. li\ any case the rewar d of labour, would be-ao -great that eve ry one would have the op poitnnity of 1 becoming _a cap italist. One of the most notable results of the 'phalange treating with each member individually is, that the economic independence of women would be assured. Even the child of five would have its own share in the produce. The system of Fourier may fairly be described as one of the most ingenious and elaborate Utopias ever devised by the human brain. But in many cardinal points it has been constructed in complete contradiction to all that experience and science have taught us of } EARLY FRENCH SOCIALISM 39 human nature and the laws of social evolution. He particularly underestimates the force of human egotism. From the beginning progress has consisted essentially in the hard and strenuous repression of the beast within the man, whereas Fourier would give it free rein. This applies to his system as a whole, and especially to his theories on marriage. Instead of supplying a sudden passage from social chaos to universal harmony, his system would, after entirely subverting such order as we have, only bring us back to social chaos. Yet his works are full of suggestion and instruction, '-^ and will long repay the study of the social economist. / His criticisms of the existing system, of its waste, ^ anarchy, and immorality, are ingenious, searching, and j often most convincing. In his positive proposals, too, / are to be found some of the most sagacious and far- reaching forecasts of the future landmarks of human progress. Most noteworthy are the guarantees he devised for individual and local freedom. The phalange was on the one hand large enough to secure all the benefits of a scientific hidustry and of a varied common life ; on the other it provides against the evils of cen- tralisation, of State despotism, of false patriotism and national jealousy. Fourier has forecast the part to be played in the social and political development of the future by the local body, whether we call it commune, parish, or municipality. The fact that he has given it a fantastic name, and surrounded it with many fantastic conditions, should not hinder us from recognising his great sagacity and originality. 40 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM The freedom of the iiulividuul and of the minority is, moreover, protected against the possible tyranny of the 'phalange by the existence, under reasonable limits and under social control, of individual capital. This individual capital, further, is perfectly mobile ; that is, the possessor of it, if he thinks fit to migrate or go on travel, may remove Ins capital, and find a welcome for his labour, talent, and investments in any part of the world. Such arrangements of Fourier may suggest a much -needed lesson to many of the contemporary adherents of ' scientific socialism.' While, therefore, we believe that Fourier's system was as a whole entirely Utopian, he has with great sagacity drawn the outlines of much of our political and social progress ; and while we believe that the full development of human passions as recommended by him would soon reduce us to social chaos, a time may come in our ethical and rational growth when a widen- ing freedom may be permitted and exercised, not by casting off moral law, but by the perfect assimilation of it. CHAPTER III FRENCH SOCIALISM OF 18J:8 The year 1830 was an important era in the history of socialism. During the fermentation of that time the activity of the Saint-Simon school came to a crisis, and the theories of Fourier had an opportunity of taking practical shape. But by far the greatest result f or so cialism of the re volutionary period of 1830 was the defi nite est ablishment of the contrast between the bourgeoisie and proletariat m France and England, the two countries that hold the foremost place in the modern industrial, social, and political movement. Hitherto the men who were afterwards destined consciously to constitute those two classes had fought side by side against feudalism and the reaction. Through the restricted franchise introduced at this period in the two countries just mentioned the middle class had become the ruling power. Excluded from political privileges and pressed by the weight of adverse economic conditions, the proletariat now appeared as the revolutionary party. The firsts synij ^om in France of tlie altered state of things w as the outbreak at Lyons in 1831, wlien the starving 42 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM workmen rose to arms with the devi ce, ' Live workin g, or die ilghting.' Chartism was a larger phase of the same movement in England. Tlie theories of Saint- Simon and Fourier liad met with acceptance chiefly or entirely among the educated classes. Socialism now directly appealed to the working men. In this chapter our concern is with the development of the new form of socialism in France, Paris, which luul so long been the centre of revolutionary activity, was now, and particularly during the latter half of the reign of the bourgeois King, Louis Philippe, the seat of socialistic fermentation. In 1839 Louis Blanc pub- lished his Organisation du travail, and Cabet his Voyage en Icarie. In 1840 Proudlion brought out his book on property. Paris was the school to which youthful innovators went to learn the lesson of revolution. At this period she counted among her visitors Lassalle, the founder of the Social Democracy of Germany; Karl Marx, the chief of scientific international socialism ; and Bakunin, the apostle of anarchism. The socialistic speculation associated with the three men last mentioned was to have a far-reaching influ- ence ; but it did not attain to full development till a later period. The socialistic activity of Louis Blanc and Proudhon culminated during the revolution of 1848, and exercised considerable influence on the course of events in Paris at that time. FRENCH SOCIALISM OF 1813 43 LOUIS BLANO The socialism of Saiut-Simou and Fourier was, as we have seen, largely imaginative and Utopian, and had only a very remote connection with the practical life of their time. With Louis Blanc the moveme nt ca me into real contact w ith the n ational history of Fr ance . In Louis Blanc's teaching the most conspicu- ous featu re~Tvas that he d emanclec l tlie ciemocraTi c organisation of the State as preparatory to s ocial r e- organisation. His system, tlieretore, liacl a positive and'practical basis, in so far as it allied itself to a dominant tendency in the existing State. It is unnecessary here to recapitulate in detail the life of Louis Blanc. He was born in 1811 at Madrid, where his father was inspector-general of finance under Joseph during his uncertahi tenure of the Spanish throne. At an early age he attained to eminence as a journalist in Paris, and in 1839 established the Bevue du 2y)'0(jrl-i, in which he first brought out his cele- brated work on Socialism, the Organisation chc travail. It was soon published in book form, and found a wide popularity among the workmen of France, who were captivated by the brilliancy of the style, the fer\id eloquence with which it exposed existing abuses, and the simplicity and democratic fitness of the schemes for the regeneration of society which it advocated. The greater part of the book is taken up with unsparing denunciations of the evils of competition, 44 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM wliicli, as common to Louis Blanc with other socialists, need not detain us. ]\Iore interesting are the practical measures for their removal, proposed in his treatise.-^ Like the socialists that preceded him, L. Blanc cannot accept the views wliich teach a necessary antagonism hetween soul and body ; we must aim at the harmoni- ous development of both sides of our nature. The formula of progress is double in its unity : moral and material amelioration of the lot of all by the fr ee co - operation of all, and th eir fraternal association.^ He saw, however, that social reform could not be attained without poKtical reform. The first is the end, the second is the means. It was not enough to discover the true methods for inaugurating the principle of associa- tion and for organising labour in accordance with the rules of reason, justice, and humanity. It was necessary to have political power on the side of social reform, political power resting on the Chambers, on the tribunals, and on the army: not to take it as an instrument was to meet it as an obstacle. For these reasons he wished to see the State con- stituted on a thoroughly democratic basis, as the first condition of success. The emancipation of the prole- tarians was a question so difficult that it would require the whole force of the State for its solution. What is wanting to the working class are the instruments of labour ; the function of Government is to furnish them. If we had to define what we consider the State to be, ^ Organisation du travail. Fifth edition. 1848. ^ Preface to fiftli edition, Orgauiaation da travail. FRENCH SOCIALISM OF 1848 45 we should reply, ' The State is the ba nker of the poor.' Lo uis Bla nc demanded that the democratic Stat e sh ould cr eate industrial associations, which he cal led social u-orkshojjs, and whic h were destined gradually and without shock to supersede individual workshops. The State would provide the means ; it would draw up the rules for their constitution, and it would appoint the functionaries for the first year. But, once founded and set in movement, the social workshop would be self- supporting, self-acting, and self-governing. The work- men would choose their own directors and managers ; they would themselves arrange the division of the profits, and would take measures to extend the enter- prise commenced. In such a system where would there be room for arbitrary rule or tyranny ? The State would establish the social workshops, would pass laws for them, and supervise their execution for the good of all ; but its role would end there. Is this, can this be tyranny? Thus the freedom of the industrial associations and of the individuals composing them would not only remain intact; it would have the solid support of the State. The intervention of a democratic Government on behalf of the people, whom it represented, would remove the misery, anarchy, and oppression necessarily attendant on the competitive system, and in place of the delusive liberty o( laissez-faire, would establish a real and posi- tive freedom. With regard to the remuneration of talent and labour 4(5 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM L. "Blanc tnkes very liigh ground. ' Genius/ he said, ' should assert its legitimate empire, not by the amount of the tribute wliich it will levy on society, l)ut by the greatness of the services which it will render.' This is no mere flourish of eloquence ; it is to be the principle of remuneration in his association. Society could not, even if it would, repay the genius of a Newton ; Newton had his just recompense in the joy of discovering the laws by which worlds arc governed. Exceptional en- dowments must find development and a fitting reward ill the exceptional services they render to society. L. Blanc therefore believed in a hierarchy according to capacity ; remuneration according to capacity he admitted in the earlier editions of his work, but only provisionally and as a concession to prevalent anti-social opinion. In the edition of 1848, the year when his theories attained for a time to historic importance, he had withdrawn this concession. ' Though the false and anti-social education given to the present generation makes it difficult to find any other motive of emulation and encouragement than a higher salary, the wages will be equal, as the ideas and character of men will be changed by an absolutely new education.' ^ Private capitalists would be invited to join the associations, and would under fixed conditions receive interest for their advances ; but as the collective capital increased, the opportunities for so placing individual capital would surely diminish. Tlie tyranny of capital would, in fact, receive a mortal wound. ' Organisation du travail, p. 103. FRENCH SOCIALISM OF 1848 47 The revolution of 1848 was an important stage in the development of democracy. In ancient and also in mediaeval times the democracy was associated with city life ; the citizens personally appeared and spoke and voted in the Assemblies. The modern democracy has grown in large States, extending over wide territories, and the citizen can exercise political power only through elected representatives. Hence the importance of the franchise in modern politics. The evolution of the modern democracy has gone through a long succession of phases, beginning with the early growth of the English Parliament, and continued in the struggles of the Dutch against the Spaniards, in the English Kevolu- tions of 1642 and 1688, in the American Eevolution of 1776, and the French Eevolution of 1789. In the early struggles, however, the mass of the people had no very great share. I t was hardly till 1848 that the working cla ss made its entrance on the stage of history — in Europe at least. The revolutionary disturbances of 1848 affe cted nea rly the whole of western and central Europe. It was a rising of tlie peoples against antic[uated political forms a nd instituti ons ; against the arr angements of the Treaty of Vi enna, whereby Europe was partitioned according to the convenience of ruling houses ; against irr esponsible Go vernments, which took no accoun t of the wishes of^ th ejr Ru])jects. In France, the country witli whicli we are now specially concerned, the revolution was a revolt of tlie people against a representative monarchy with a very 48 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM restricted francliise. It was not a deeply - planned rising, and, indeed, was a snrprise to those who wished it and accomplished it. Yet it marked a most im- portant stage in the progress of the world, for, as a result of it, men for the first time saw the legislature of a great country established on principles of universal suffrage, and the cause of the working men recognised as a supreme duty of government. Louis Blanc was the most prominent actor in what may be called the social-democratic side of the French Revolution of 1848. Through his influence with the working classes, and as representing their feelings and aspirations, he obtained a place in the Provisional Government. He was supported there by others like- mmded with himself, including one working man, whose appearance in such a capacity was also a notable event in modern history. But though circumstances were so far favourable, he did not accomplish much. It cannot be said that his plans obtained a fair hearing or a fair trial. He was present in the Provisional Govern- ment as the pioneer of a new cause whose time had not yet come. The schemes for social reconstruction which he con- templated were certainly not carried out in the national workshops of that year. From the report of the Com- mission of Inquiry into the subject, subsequently instituted by the French Government, and from the History of the National Workshops, written by their director, Emile Thomas, it is perfectly clear that the national vjorkshops were simply a travesty of the pro- FREXCH SOCIALISM OF 1848 49 posals of Louis Blanc, established expressly to discr edit them. They were a means of finding work for the motley proletariat thrown out of employment during the period / of revolutionary disturbance, and those men were put to unpr oductive labour ; whereas, of course, Louis Blanc contemplated nothing but productive work, and the men he proposed inviting to join his associations were to give guarantees of character. It was intended, too, by his opponents that the mob of workmen whom they employed in the so-called national worJcshojJS would be ready to assist their masters in the event of a struggle with the socialist party. A number of private associations of a kind similar to those proposed by Louis Blanc were indeed sub- sidised by the Government. But of the whole sum voted for this end, which amounted to only £120,000, . the greater part was applied to purposes quite foreign from the grant. It was not the intention of the moving spirits of the Government that they should succeed. Moreover, the months following the revolution of February were a period of industrial stagnation and insecurity, when any project of trade, either on the old or on the new lines, had little prospect of success. Under these circumstances, the fact that a few of the associations did prosper very fairly may be accepted as proof that the scheme of Louis Blanc had in it the elements of vitality. The history of the whole matter fully justifies the exclamation of Lassalle that ' lying is a European power.' ^ It has been the subject of endless ' Lassallfi, Die franzOsischen NalionalwcrlcstdUen von 1848. 4 50 IIISTOKY OF SOCIALISM misrepresentation by writers who have taken no pains to verify the foots. As one of the leaders during this difficult crisis, Louis Blanc had neither personal force nor enduring political influence sufficient to secure any solid success for his cause. He was an amiable, genial, and eloquent enthusiast, but without weight enough to be a controller of men on a wide scale. The Labour Conferences at the Luxembourg, over which he presided, ended alco, as his opponents desired, without any tangible result. The Assembly, elected on the principle of universal suffrage, which met in May, showed that the peasantry and the mass of the French people were not in accord with the working classes of Paris and of the industrial centres. It did not approve of the social-democratic activity urged by a section of the Provisional Govern- ment. The national workshops also were closed, and the proletariat of Paris rose in armed insurrection, which was overthrown by Cavaignac in the sanguinary days of June. Louis Blanc was in no way responsible for the revolt, which can be called socialistic only in the sence that the proletariat was engaged in it, the class of which socialism claims to be the special champion. / J FREXCn SOCIALISM OF 1848 51 PEOUDHON Pierre Joseph Proudhon was born in 1809 at Besancjon, France, the native place also of the socialist Fourier. His origin was of the humblest, his father being a brewer's cooper, and the boy herded cows and did such other work as came in his way. But he was not entirely self-educated ; at sixteen he entered the college of his native place, though his family was so poor that he could not procure the necessary books, and had to borrow them from his mates in order to copy the lessons. There is a story of the young Proudhon returning home laden with prizes, but to find that there was no dinner for him. At nineteen he became a working compositor, and was afterwards promoted to be a corrector for the press, reading proofs of ecclesiastical works, and thereby acquiring a considerable knowledge of theology. In this way he also came to learn Hebrew, and to compare it with Greek, Latin, and French. It was the first proof of his intellectual audacity that on the strength of this he wrote an Essai de grammaire g6n6rale. As Proudhon knew nothing whatever of the true principles of philology, his treatise was of no value. In 1838 he obtained the jjcnsion Suard, a bursary of 1500 francs a year for three years, for the encourage- ment of young men of promise, which was in the gift of the Academy of Besan^on. Next year he wrote a treatise On the Utililij of Keeping the Sunday, which 52 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM eunlainod the germs of liis revolutionary ideas. About this time he went to Paris, where he lived a poor, ascetic, and studious life, making acquaintance, how- ever, with the socialistic ideas which were then fermenting in the capital. In 1840 he published his first work, Qtt'est-ce qtie la pi'ojm^i^ ? (What is Property ?) His famous answer to this question. La propri4U ccst le vol (Property is theft), naturally did not please the academy of Besan- <;on, and there was some talk of withdrawing his pension ; but he held it for the regular period.^ For his third memoir on property, which took the shape of a letter to the Fourierist, M. Considerant, he was tried at Besanqon, but was acquitted. In 1846 he published his greatest work, the Systdme des contradic- tions iconomiqties, ou 'philosophic dc la misdre. For some time Proudhon carried on a small printing establish- ment at Besangon, but without success ; and afterwards held a post as a kind of manager with a commercial firm at Lyons. In 1847 he left this employment, and finally settled in Paris, where he was now becoming celebrated as a leader of innovation. He regretted the sudden outbreak of the revolution of February, because it found the social reformers unprepared ; but he threw himself with ardour into the conflict of opinion, and soon gained a national ' A complete edition of Proiidhon's works, including his posthu- mous writings, was published at Paris, 1875. See P. J. Froudhon, sa vie ct sa corrcspondance, by Saiiite-Beuve (Paris, 1875), an admir- able work, tmliappily not comi>leted ; also Revue des Deux Mondcs, Jan. 1866 and Feb. 1873. FRENCH SOCIALISM OF 1848 53 notoriety. He was the moving spirit of the Bepr6- sentant dn Peuple and other journals, in which the most advanced theories were advocated in the strongest language; and as member of Assembly for the Seine department he brought forward his celebrated proposal for exacting an impost of one-third on interest and rent, which of course was rejected. His attempt to found a bank which should operate by granting gratuitous credit, was also a complete failure ; of the five million francs which he required, only seventeen thousand were offered. The violence of lus utterances led to an imprisonment at Paris for three years, during which he married a young working woman. As Proudhon aimed at economic rather than political innovation, he had no special quarrel with the Second Empu-e, and he lived in comparative quiet under it till the publication of his work. Be la justice dans la revo- lution et dans V^glise (1858), in which he attacked the Church and other existing institutions with unusual fury. This time he fled to Brussels to escape imprison- ment. On his return to France his health broke down, though he continued to write. He died at Passy in 1865. Personally, Proudhon was one of the most remark- aljle figures of modern France. His life was marked by the severest simplicity and even puritanism ; he was affectionate in his domestic relations, a most loyal friend, and strictly upright in conduct. He was strongly opposed to the prevailing French socialism of his tune because of its utopianism and immorality ; 51 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM iiud, though he uttered all maiiner of wild paradox and vehcmciit invective against the dominant ideas and institutions, he was remarkably free from feelings of personal hate. In all tliat he said and did he was the son of the people, who had not been broken to the usual social and academic discipline ; hence his roughness, his one-sidedness, and his exaggerations. But he is always vigorous, and often brilliant and original. It would obviously be impossible to reduce the ideas of such an irregular thinker to systematic form. In later years Proudhon himself confessed that ' the great part of his publications formed only a work of dissec- tion and ventilation, so to speak, by means of which he slowly makes his way towards a superior conception of political and economic laws.' Yet the groundwork of his teaching is clear and firm ; no one could insist with greater emphasis on the demonstrative character of eco nomic principles as understooa by liimselt^. H e strongly believed in the absolute truth of a few moral idea s^with which it was the aim of his teaching t o mould and suffuse political economy. Of the se funda - mental ideas, justice, li berty, and equality were the chief. What he deside rated, for in stance, in an id eal societ y was the mo st pprfpot pgnfility of rp.]TinriP.r;j.|-inn It was his principle that service pays serv ice, that a da ys labour balances a day's labour — in other words, that the duration of labour is the lust measure of value. He _did not shrink from anv of the cousequencea_ jof thistlieoiy. for he would give the same remuneration Eo the worst mason as to a Phidias ; but he looks for- FRENCH SOCIALISM OF 1S48 55 ward also to a period in human development when the pres ent inequality in the talent and capacity of men wn nid hp. Tpdncprl to an inappreciable minimum . Fro m the great principle of service as the equivalent o f service he derived his axiom tha t property is the rio-ht of ai'haine. The auhain was a stranger not ^naturalised ; and the right of auhaine was the right in virt ue of which the Sovereign claimed the goods of such a stranger who had died in his territory. Property i s a rig ht of the same nature, with a like power of a^j^ro- pri.i tjon in the form of rent, interest, etc. It reap s w itjv'iit i'i"— ^'i nr^^^ ^Mi^ ^Qs, wJthout produclug, aud enjoy s wit hout exert ion. Proudhon's aim, therefore, was to realise a science of society resting on principles of justice, liberty, and equality thus understood; 'a science, absolute, rigor- ous, based on the nature of man and of his faculties, and on their mutual relations; a science which we have not to invent, but to discover.' But he saw clearly that such ideas, with their necessary accom- paniments, could be realised only through a long and laborious process of social transformation. ^AsjiifiJia-t©' sai d, he strongly detested the prurient immorality of the schools of Saint-Simon and Fourier. He at tacked them not less bitterly for thinking that society could be changed off-hand by a ready-made and complet e sc heme of reform. It was ' the most accursed lie,' he said, ' that could be offered to mankind.' "Tn^.fJMl r-h!in.r,> ].n (bstinfrui slies bctwecn the tran- aition and the perfection or achievement. With regard 56 IIlSTOllY OF SOCIALISM to the transitio n lie advocated the p roi^ressivc a bolitio n /■ " ^ — ; of the ri ^ht of au hainc^ by reducing in terest, jrent , etc. For the i^oa l h e professed only to £>ive the ge iieial principles ; h e had no ready-made scheme, no Utopia . The p ositive organisation of the new society in its deta ils was a labour that would require fifty Montes - quieus. The organisation he desired wa s one on collectTveprinciples, a free association whi ch wou ld take account ot the division of labour, and which woul d maintain the personality both of the man and th e citizen . With his strong and~iervid feeling for hu man dignity and liberty, Proudhon could not hav e tolera ted any theory of social change that did not giv e full scope for the free development of m an. Connected with this wa s^ his famous paradox of anarchj. a^ _the goa l -€f the free development of Ropiety, by wbip.b hp. meant that through the ethical progress of men govern- ment should become_ unnecessary. Each man_ ^hould be a law_Jo hims elf. ' Grovernment of man by man in every^f OTm.' he says, 'is oppression. The highest perfection of society is found in the union of order and andrcliyT ' Proudhon's theory of property as the right of aubaine is substantially the same as the theory of capital held by Marx and most of the later socialists. Property an d capital are defined and treated as the pow er of_ expl oiting the labou r of other men, of claiming the res ults of labour without giving an equivalent. Proud- horVs famous paradox^ ' PropfiiijLiaJJiell^is merely a trenchant expression of this general principle. As FRENCH SOCLVLLSM OF 1848 57 slaveiy is assassiuatiou inasmuch as it destroys all that is v aluable and desirable in human personality, so pro perty is theft inasmuch as it appropriates the valu e prod uced by the labour of others in the form of rent, interest, or profit without rendering an equivalent. For property Proudhon would substitute individual po sseisiQiynie right ol occupation beingequal for all men. Witli the bloodshed of the days of June French sociahsm ceased for a time to be a considerable force ; and Paris, too, for a time lost its place as the great centre of innovation. The rising removed the most enterprising leaders of the workmen and quelled the spirit of the remainder, while the false prosperity of the Second Empire relieved their most urgent griev- ances. Under Napoleon III. there was consequently comparative quietness in France. Even the Inter- national had very little influence on French soil, though French working men had an important share in originating it. CHAPTEK IV EARLY ENGLISH SOCIALISxM Compared with the parallel movement in France the early socialism of England had an uneventful history. In order to appreciate the significance of Eobert Owen's work it is necessary to r ecall some of t he mo st important features of the so cial condition of the co untry in his time. The English worker had no fixed interest in the soil. He had no voice either in local ornational go vernment. He had little education or none at all. His dwelling was wretched in the extreme. The right even of combi nation was denied him till 1824. O. — - The wages of the agricultural labourer were miserably lOffi- The workman's share in the benefits of the industrial revolution was doubtful. Great numbers of his class were reduced to utter poverty and ruin by the great changes consequent on the introduction of machinery ; the tendency to readjustment was slow and continually disturbed by fresh change. The hours of work were mercilessly long. He had to compete against the labour of women, and of children brought frequently at the age of five or six from the work- EARLY ENGLISH SOCIALISM 59 houses. These children had to work the same long hours as the adults, and they were sometimes very cruelly treated by the overseers. Destitute as they so often were of parental protection and oversight, with both sexes huddled together under immoral and insanitary conditions, it was only natural that they should fall into the worst habits, and that their off- spring should to such a lamentable degree be vicious, improvident, and physically degenerate. In a country where the labourers had neither education nor political or social rights, and where the peasantry were practically landless serfs, the old English poor law was only a doubtful part of an evil system. All these permanent causes of mischief were aggravated by special causes connected with the cessa- tion of the Napoleonic wars, wdiich are well known. It was in such circumstances, when English pauperism had become a grave national question, that Owen first brought forward liis scheme of socialism. Eobert Owen, philanthropist, a nd founder of En.u - lish socialism, w as born at the ^'illage of Newtown, ^lont gomeryshire, North Wales, in 1771.^ His father ^ Of R. Owen's numerous works in exposition of his S3'stem, the most important are the Neiv Vieiv uf Society ; the Report communi- cated to tlie Committee on the Poor Law ; the Book of the New Moral World : and Hcvolution in live Mind awl Practice of the Human Itace. See Life of Robert Owen written by himself, London, 1857, and Threading my Way, Twenty-seven Years of Autobiography, by Robert Dale Owen, liis son, London, 1874. There arc also Lives of Owen by A. J. Booth (London, 1869), W. L. Sur^iint (London, 1860), and F. Podmore (London, 1906). For works of a more general character see C. .7. Ilolyoake, History of Co-oiicraiion in England, London, 1875 ; Adolf Held, Zwci Biichcr zur socialcn Geschichle Englands, Luipsic, 1681. 60 HISTORY OK SOCIALISM liad u small business in Newtown as saddler and iron- nio ngor, and there young Owen received all his school educ ation, which terminated at the age of nine. At ten he went to Stamford, where he served in a draper's shop for three or four years, and, after a short experience of work in a London shop, removed to Manchester. His success at Manchester was very rapid. When only nineteen years of age he became manager of a cotton-mill, in which five hundred people were em- ployed, and by his administrative intelligence, energy, industry, and steadiness, soon made it one of the best establishments of the kind in Great Britain. In this factory Owen used the first bags of American Sea- Island cotton ever imported into the country ; it was the first cotton obtained from the Southern States of America. Owen also made remarkable improvement in the quality of the cotton spun. Indeed there is no reason to doubt that at this early age he was the first cotton-spinner in England, a position entirely due to his own capacity and knowledge of the trade, as he had found the mill in no well-ordered condition and was left to organise it entirely on his own responsibility. Owen had become manager and one of the partners ' of the Chorlton Twist Company at Manchester, when he made his first acquaintance with the scene of his future philanthropic efforts at New Lanark. During a visit to Glasgow he had fallen in love with the daughter of the proprietor of the New Lanark mills, Mr. Dale. Owen induced his partners to purchase New Lanark ; EARLY ENGLISH SOCIALLSM 61 and after his marriage with Miss Dale he settled there, in 1800, as manager and part owner of the mills. Encouraged by his great success in the management of cotton-factories in IVfanchester, he had already formed the intention of conducting New Lanark on higher principles than the current commercial ones. T he factory of New Lanark had been star ted in 1784 by Dale and Arkwright, the water-powe r afforde cj hy thp, ffl]]s_j^t_tlie ^ '*y'*'''- l^'^iiig T.he greaT ^tractio n. T'ouT iectpd with the mills were about two thousan d people.4 ive hundred of who m ^were childi^en. brought , most of them, at the a ge of five or six fr om the poo r- houses jind charities of Edinburgh and Glasgow . The children especially had been well treated by Dale, but the general condition of the people was very unsatis- factory. ]\Iany of them were the lowest of the popula- tion, the respectable country-people refusing to submit to the long hours and demoralising drudgery of the factories. T heft, drun kenness, and other vices were common ; education and sanitation were alike neglected ; f most families lived only in oiiu room" ^b waij th is pijpuliitloii, L'lius committed to his care, wh i ch Owen now set him self to elevate and, ameliorat e. He greatly improved their houses, and by the unsparing and benevolent exertion of his personal influence trained them to habits of order, cleanliness, and thrift. He opened a store, where the people could buy goods of the soundest quality at little more than cost price; and the sale of drink was placed under the strictest supervision. His greatest success, however, was in the 62 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM education of the young, to wliich ho devoted special atte ntion. _ 1 lo was the ibunder oi mtant schools in Great Britain ; and, though lie was anticipated by Continental reformers, he seems to have been led to institute them by his own views of what education ought to be, and without hint from abroad. In all these plans Owen obtained the most gratifying success. Though at first regarded with suspicion as a stranger, he soon won the confidence of his people. The mills continued to prosper commercially, but it is needless to say that some of Owen's schemes involved considerable expense, which was displeasing to his partners. Wearied at last of the restrictions imposed on him by men who wished to conduct the business on the ordinary principles, Owen, in 1813, formed a new firm, whose members, content with 5 per cent of return for their capital, would be ready to give freer scope to his philanthropy. In this firm Jeremy Benthaiji and the well-known Quaker, William Allen, were partners. In the same year Owen first appeared as an author of essays, in which he expounded the principles on which his system of educational philanthropy was based. From an early age he had lost all belief in the pre- vailing forms of religion, and had thought out a creed for himself, which he considered an entirely new and original discovery. The chief points in this philosophy were that man's character is made not by him but for him ; that it hq,sjj een formed by circu mstances over ^vh ich he had no control ; that he is not a proper sub- ject either of praise or blame — these principles leading EARLY EXGLISH S0CIALTS:M 63 up to the practical conclusion th at the great secret in the rjo-ht fornnitio n of man's cliaracter is to place him under the proper inti uences. physica l, mnrnl, nnri social, from his earliest years. These principles, of the irresponsibility of man and of the effect of early influences, are the keynote of Owen's whole system of education and social amelioration. As we have said, they are embodied in his first work, A Ncio View of Society ; or, Essays on the rrinciple of the Formation of the JIuraan Character, the first of these essays (there are four in all) being published in 1813. It is needless to say that Owen's new views theoretically belong to a very old system of johilosophy, and that his originality is to be found only in his benevolent application of them. For the next few years Owen's work at New Lanark continued to have a national and even a European significance. His schemes for the education of his workpeople attained to something like completion on the opening of the institution at New Lanark in ISIO. He was a zealous supporter of the factoiy legislation resulting in the Act of 1819, which, however, greatly disappointed him. He had interviews and communica- tions witli the leading members of Government, in- cluding the Premier, Lord Liverpool, and with many of the rulers and leading statesmen of tlie Continent. New Lanark itself became a much-frequented place of liilgriiiiage for social reformers, statesmen, and royal l>ersonage8, amongst whom was Nicholas, afterwards I'hiiperor of Iiussia. According to tl:e unanimous testi- 64 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM t ^ mony of all who visited it, tlio results achieved by Owen ■were siiifrularly good. The manners of the children, brought up under his system, were beautifully graceful, genial, and unconstrained ; health, plenty, and content- ment prevailed ; drunkenness was almost unknown, and illegitimacy was extremely rare. The most perfect sood-feeliuff subsisted between Owen and his work- people ; all the operations of the mill proceeded with the utmost smoothness and regularity ; and the business still enjoyed great prosperity. Hitherto Owen's work had been that of a philan- thropist, whose great distinction was the originality and unwearying unselfishness of his methods. His first departure in socialism took place in 1817, and was embodied in a report communicated to the Committee of the House of Commons on the Poor Law. The general misery and stagnation of trade consequent on the termination of the great war were engrossing the attention of the country. After clearly tracing the spe cial causes connected with the war which had le d to s uch a deplorable state of thing s, Owen pointed out that the permanent cause of distress was to be fou nd in t he com petition of human labour with machinery, an d that the only effective rem edy was the united nptjnn nf mpn, f^ nd the s iiHHirinf|??^~-Tlf[ iiiachin ery. H is prnpasnk for t| i p. tre-^<^uinnf nf pnnpprigm -yYf^r.^ b ased on these iprincip les. j^e recommended that communities of about twelve hundred persons should be settled on spaces of land of from 1000 to 1500 acres, all living in one large build- EARLY ENGLISH SOCIALISM 65 ing in the form of a square, with public kitchen and mess-rooms. Each family should have its own private apartments, and the entire care of the children till the age of three, after which they should be brought up by the community, their parents having access to them at meals and all other proper times. These communities might be established by individuals, by parishes, by counties, or by the State ; in every case there should be effective supervision by duly qualified persons. Work, and the enjoyment of its results, should be in common. The size of his community was no doubt partly suggested by liis village of New Lanark ; and he soon proceeded to advocate such a scheme as the best form for the reorganisation of society in general. In its fully developed form — and it cannot be said to have changed much during Owen's lifetime— it was as follows. He considered an assoc iation of from 500 to 3000 as the fit numbe r for a good working community. While iii aml y acrrieultural, it should possess all the best machiflpry; .s]iniild_o ffer every v ariety of employ- ; ment ^md should, as far as possib le, be self-containq^. \ In other words, his communities were intended to be self- te the advantag es of town and country life, and s hould correct the mon otonous activityof the factory w ith the freest variety o f occupation, while utilismg a^l thg k test iin provements in mclustriai technique. 'As ' these townships,' as he also called them, 'should in- crease in number, unions of them federatively united 5 66 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM shall he formed in circles of tens, hundreds, and thousands,' till they should emhrace the whole world in one great repuhlic with a common interest. Ilis plans for the cure of pauperism were received with great favour. The Times and the Morning Post, and many of the leading men of the country, counte- nanced them ; one of his most steadfast friends was the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria. He had indeed gained the ear of the country, and had the prospect before him of a great career as a social reformer, when he went out of his way at a large meeting in London to declare his hostility to all the received forms of religion. After this defiance to the religious sentiment of the country, Owen's theories were in the poj)ular mind associated with infidelity, and were henceforward suspected and discredited. Owen's own confidence, however, remained unshaken, and he was anxious that his scheme for establishing a community should be tested. At last, in 1825, such an experiment was attempted under the direction of his disciple, Abram Combe, at Orbiston, near Glasgow ; and in the same year Owen himself commenced another at New Harmony, in Indiana, America. After a trial of about two years both failed completely. Neither of them was a pauper experiment ; but it must be said that the members were of the most motley description, many worthy people of the highest aims being mixed with vagrants, adventurers, and crotchety wrong- headed enthusiasts. After a long period of friction with William Allen EARLY ENGLISH SOCIALISM 67 and some of his other partners, Owen resigned all connection with New Lanark in 1828. On his return from America he made London the centre of his activity. l\Tosf, nf his means having been sunk in the Ne w Harmony experim ent, he was no longer a fiourish- inc y^apitalist. l2ut the h ead of a vigorous propaganda, in whi cli socialism and secularism w ere combined. One of the most interesting features of the movement at this period was the establishment in 183 2 of an equitabl e labour exchange system, in whic h ex chang e was effected by means of labour notes, the usual means of evphnnge anr] t he usual middlemen being a like superse ded. The word ' socialism ' first became current in t he discussions of th e Association of all Class es of-^1 Nation s, formed by Owen in 183 5. During these years also his secularistic teaching gained such influence among the working classes as to give occasion, in 1839, for the statement in the West- minster Review that his principles were the actual creed of a great portion of them. His views on marriage, which were certainly lax, gave just ground for offence. At this period some more communistic experiments were made, of wliich the most important were that at llalaliine, in the county of Clare, Ireland, and that at Tytherly, in Hampshire. It is admitted that the former, which was established in 1839, was a remarkable suc- cess for three and a half years, till the proprietor, who had granted the use of the land, having ruined himself Ijy gambling, was obliged to sell out. Tytherly, begun in 1839, was an absolute failure. By 1846 the only 68 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM permanent result of Owen's agitation, so zealously carried on by public meetings, pamphlets, periodicals, and occasional treatises, was the co-operative move- ment, and for the time even that seemed ( to have utterly collapsed. In his later years Owen became a firm believer in spiritualism. He died in 1858 at his native town at the age of eighty-seven. The causes of Owen's failure in establishing his communities are obvious enough. Apart from the difficulties inherent in socialism, he injured the social cause by going out of his way to attack the historic religions and the accepted views on marriage, by his tediousness, quixotry, and over-confidence, by refusing to see that for the mass of men measures of transition from an old to a new system must be adopted. If he had been truer to his earlier methods and retained the autocratic guidance of his experiments, the chances of success would have been greater. Above all, Owen had too great faith in human nature, and he did not under- stand the laws of social evolution. His great doctrine of the influence of circumstances in the formation of character was only a very crude way of expressmg the law of social continuity so much emphasised by recent socialism. He thought that he could break the chain of continuity, and as by magic create a new set of cir- cumstances, which would forthwith produce a new generation of rational and unselfish men. The time was too strong for him, and the current of English history swept past him. Even a very brief account of 0}veiuJaow:e Yer. woul d EARLY ENGLISH SOCIALISM 69 be _ incQiTipliite without indicating his relation to Malth us. Against Mai thus he showed that the wealth of the country had, in consequence of mechanica l impT-ov ement^ increased out o f all proportion to the popul ation . The problem, therefore, was not to restrict population, but to institute rational social arrang e- meBt S"'"ana to s ecure a fair distribution of wealth. Wh enever the num be r of inhabitants in any of h is commu nities increased beyond the maximum, new ones should be created, until they should extend over the whole world! There would be no fear of over-population for a lou'T time to come. Its evils were then felt in Ireland O and other countries ; but that condition of things was owing to the total want of the most ordinary common sense on the part of the blinded authorities of the world. The period wovild probably never arrive when the earth would be full ; but, if it should, the human race would be good, intelligent, and rational, and would know much better than the present irrational genera- tion how to provide for the occurrence. Such was Owen's socialistic treatment of the population problem. Robert Owen was essentially a pioneer, whose work and influence it would be unjust to measure by theii' tangible results. Apa rt from his so cialistic theories, it should, nevertheless, be remembered that he was one of the foremo st and most ene rgetic promoters of many movements of ac knowledged and enduring usefulness. He was the founder of infant schools in England; he was the fii- st to introduce reasonably short hours mt o factoryTabfjur, and zealously promoted i'actory legisla- 70 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM tio n^r-on c of the most needed and most beneficial reforms of the^ceiitui-y ; and he Wals^fTO real founcler of the co-operative movement. In general education, in sanitary reform, and in his sound and humanitarian views of common life, he was far in advance of his time. Li ke Fourier, als o, he did the great service of calli ng attention to the advantages which might be obt ained in the social development of the future from th e reorganisation of the commune, or self-governing l ocal group of worker s. Still, he had many serious faults ; all that was quixotic, crude, and superficial in his views became more prominent in his. later years, and by the extra- vagance of his advocacy of them he did vital injury to the cause he had at heart. In his personal character he was without reproach — frank, benevolent, and straight- forward to a fault ; and he pursued the altruistic schemes in which he spent all his means with more earnestness than most men devote to the accumulation of a fortune. In England the reform of 1832 had t he same effe ct as the r evolution of July (1830) in France : it broa ght the middl e class into power, and by the exclusion of t he worEm en emphasised their existence as a separate clas s. The discjontent of the workmen now found expressio n in C hartism. As is obvious from the cn ri tents of the Charter, Chartism was most prominently a demand forjpolitical refor m : but both in its origin and in its ultimat e aim the movement was more essentially economic. ^Ag regards the study of socialism, the EARLY ENGLISH SOCIALISM 7l interes t of this mov ement lies greatly in the fact that in it s organs the doctrine of ' surplu s value.' afterw ards elaborated by Marx as the basi s of his system, is broadly and emphatically enunc iated. AVhile the worker pro- duces all the wealth, he is obliged to content himself with the meagre share necessa ry to support his exist- ence, and the surplus goes to tlie capitalist, who, with the king, the priests, lords, es(iuirc's, and gentlemen, lives upon the labour of the workin g man {Poor Man 's Guardian, 1835). After the downfall of Owenism began the Christian socialist movement in England (1848-52), of which the leaders were Maurice, Kingsley, and Mr. Ludlow. The abortive Chartist demonstration of April 1848 excited in [Maurice and his friends the deepest sympathy with the sufferings of the English workincr class — a feeling which was intensified by the revelations regarding * London Labour and the London Poor ' published in the Morniwj Chronicle in 1849. ]\lr. Ludlow, who had in France become acquainted with the theories of Fourier, was the economist of the movement, and it was with him that the idea originated of starting co-operative associations. In Folitics for the Feople, in the Christian Socialist, in the pulpit and on the platform, and in Yeast and Alton Locke, well-known novels of Kingsley, the representa- tives of the movement exposed the evils of the competi- tive system, carried on an unsparing warfare against the Manchester School, and maintained that socialism, rightly understood, was only Christianity applied to 72 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM social reform. Their labours in insisting on ethical and spiritual principles as the true bonds of society, in promoting associations, and in diffusing a knowledge of co-operation, were largely beneficial. In the north of England they joined hands with the co-operative move- ment inaugurated by the Eochdale pioneers in 1844 under the influence of Owenism. Productive co- operation made very little progress, but co-operative distribution soon proved a great success. CHAPTER V FERDINAND LASSALLE I. Life In 1852 the twofold socialist movement iii France and England had come to an end, leaving no visible result of any importance. From that date the most prominent leaders of socialism have been German and Russian. German socialists also played a part in the revolution of 1848 and in the years that preceded it ; but as the work that makes their names really historical was not performed till a later period, we have postponed the consideration of it till now, when we can treat it as a whole. The most conspicuous chiefs of German social- ism have been Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lassalle, and Eodbertus. Of these, Lassalle ^ was the first to make his mark in history as the originator of the Social Democratic movement in Germany. Ferdinand Lassalle was born at Breslau in 1825. 1 The most im[tortaiit works of Lassalle are mentioned in the text. See Georg Brandes, Ferdinand Lassalle ; Franz Mehrinj;, Die Deutsche Social-dcmokratie, ihre Geschichtc und ihre Lchre ; W. H. Dawson, German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle, 74 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM Like Karl Marx, the chief ul' iuternational socialism, he was of Jewish extraction. His fatlier, a prosperous merchant in Breslau, intended Ferdinand for a business career, and with this \iew sent him to the commercial school at Leipsic ; but the boy, having no liking for that kind of life, got himself transferred to the univer- sity, first at Breslau, and afterwards at Berlin. His favourite studies were philology and philosophy ; he became an ardent Hegelian, and in politics was one of the most advanced. Having ^completed his university studies in 1845, he began to write a work on Heracleitus from the Hegelian point of view; but it was soon interrupted by more stirring interests, and did not see the light for many years.' From the Ehine country, where he settled for a time, he went to Paris, and made the acquaintance of his great compatriot Heine, who conceived for him the deepest sympathy and admiration. In the letter of introduction to Varnhagen von Ense, which the poet gave Lassalle when he returned to Berlin, there is a striking portrait of the future agitator. Heine speaks of his friend Lassalle as a young man of the most remarkable endowments, in whom the widest know- ledge, the greatest acuteness, and the richest gifts of expression are combined with an energy and practical ability which excite his astonishment ; but adds, in his half-mocking way, that he is a genuine son of the new era, without even the pretence of modesty or self-denial, who will assert and enjoy himself in the world of reali- ties. At Berlin, Lassalle became a favourite in some FERDINAND LASSALLE 75 of the most distinguished circles; even the veteran Humboldt was fascinated by him, and used to call him the Wunderkind. Here it was also, early in 1846, that he met the lady with whom his life was to be associated in so striking a way, the Countess Hatzfeldt. She had been separated from her husband for many years, and was at feud with him on questions of property and the custody of their children. With characteristic energy Lassalle adopted the cause of the countess, whom he believed to have been outrageously wronged, made a special study of law, and, after bringing the case before thirty-six tribunals, reduced the powerful count to a compromise on terms most favourable to his client. The process, which lasted eight years, gave rise to not a little scandal, especially that of the Cassetten- gescliichte. This ' affair of the casket ' arose out of an attempt by the countess's friends to get possession of a bond for a large life-annuity settled by the count on his mistress, a Baroness IMeyendorf, to the prejudice of the countess and her children. At the instigation of Lassalle, two of his comrades succeeded in carrying off a casket, which was supposed to contain the docu- ment in question (but which really contained her jewels), from the baroness's room at a hotel in Cologne. They were prosecuted for theft, one of them being condemned to six months' imprisonment. Lassalle himself was accused of moral complicity, but was acquitted on appeal. His intimate relations with the countess, which con- 76 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM tinued till the end, certainly did not tend to improve Lassalle's position in German society. Eightly or wrongly, people had an unfavourable impression of him, as of an adventurer. Here we can but say that he claimed to act from the noblest motives ; in the indi- vidual lot and suffering of the countess he saw the social misery of the time reflected, and his assertion of her cause was a moral insurrection against it. While the case was pending, he gave the countess a share of his allowance from his father ; and after it was won, he received according to agreement, from the now ample resources of the lady, an annual income of four thousand thalers (£600). Added to his own private means, this sum placed 'the finances of Lassalle on a sure footing for the rest of his life. His conduct was a mixture of chivalry and business, which every one must judge for himself. It was certainly not in accordance with the conventionalities, but for these Lassalle never entertained much respect. In 1848 Lassalle attached himself to the group of men, Karl Marx, Engels, Freiligrath, and others, who in the Ehine country represented the socialistic and extreme democratic side of the revolution, and whose organ was the New Rhenish Gazette. But the activity of Lassalle was only local and subordinate. He was, however, condemned to six months' imprisonment for resisting the authorities at Dusseldorf. On that occa- sion Lassalle prepared the first of those speeches which made so great an impression on the men of liis time ; but it was not delivered. It contains the FERDINAND LASSALLE 77 first important statement of his social and political opinions. ' I will always joyfully confess/ he said, ' that from inner conviction I am a decided adherent of the Social Democratic republic' Till 1858 Lassalle resided mostly in the Ehine country, prosecuting the suit of his friend the countess, and afterwards completing his work on Heracleitus, which was published in that year. He was not allowed to live in Berlin because of his connection with the disturbances of 1848. In 1859 he returned to the capital disguised as a carter, and finally, through the influence of Humboldt with the king, received per- mission to remain. In the same year he published a remarkable pamphlet on The Italian War and the Mission of Prussia, in which he came forward to warn his country- men against going to the rescue of Austria in her war with France. He argued that if France drove Austria out of Italy she might annex Savoy, but could not prevent the restoration of Italian unity under Victor Emmanuel. France was doing the work of Germany by weakening Austria, the great cause of German disunion and weakness ; Prussia should form an alliance with France in order to drive out Austria and make herself supreme in Germany. After theii' realisation by Bismarck, these ideas have become sufficiently commonplace; but they were nowise obvious when thus published by Lassalle. In this, as in other matters, he showed that he possessed both the insight and foresight of a statesman. 78 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM In the course of the Hatzleldt suit Lassalle had acquired no little knowledge of law, which proved serviceable to him in the great work, System of Acquired Rights, published in 1861. The book professes to be, and in a great measure is, an application of the historical method to legal ideas and institutions ; but it is largely dominated also by abstract conceptions, which are not really drawn from history, but read into it. The results of his investigation are sufficiently revolutionary ; in the legal sphere they go even farther than his socialistic writings in the economic and political. But with one important exception he made no attempt to base his socialistic agitation on his System of Acquired Bights ; it simply remained a learned work. Hitherto Lassalle had been known only as the author of two learned works, and as connected with one of the most extraordinary lawsuits of the nineteenth century, which had become a widespread scandal. Now began the brief activity which was to give him an historical significance. His revolutionary activity in 1848, though only a short phase in his career, was not an accident ; it represented a permanent feature of his character. In him the student and the man of action were combined in a notable manner, but the craving for effective action was eminently strong. The revolutionary and the active elements in his strangely mixed nature had for want of an opportunity been for many years in abeyance. A rare opportunity had at last come for asserting FERDINAXD LASSALLE 79 his old convictions. In the struggle between the Prussian Government and the Opposition he saw an opportunity for vindicating a great cause, that of the working men, which would outflank the Liberalism of the middle classes, and might command the sympathy and respect of the Government. But liis political programme was entirely subordinate to the social, that of bettering the condition of the working classes ; and he believed that as their champion he might have such influence in the Prussian State as to determine it on entering on a great career of social amelioration. The social acti\dty of Lassalle dates from the year 1862. It was a time of new life in Germany. The forces destined to transform the Germany of Hegel into the Germany of Bismarck were preparing. The time for the restoration and unification of the Fatherland under the leadership of Prussia had come. The nation that had so long been foremost in philosophy and theory was to take a leading place in the practical walks of national life, in war and politics, and in the modern methods of industry. The man who died as first German Emperor of the new order ascended the throne of Prussia in 1861. Bismarck, whose mission it was to take the chief part in this great transformation, entered on the scene as Chief Minister of Prussia in the autumn of 1862. The Progressist party, that phase of German Liberalism which was to offer such bitter opposition both to Bismarck and Lassalle, came into existence in 1801. For accomplishing this world - historic change the 80 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM decisive factor was the Prussian nrmy. The new rulers of Prussia clearly saw that for the success of their plans everything would depend on the efficiency of the army. But on the question of its reorganisation they came into conflict with the Liberals, who, failing to compre- hend the policy of Bismarck, refused him the supplies necessary for realising ideals dear to every German patriot. In the controversy so bitterly waged between the Prussian monarchy and the Liberals, Lassalle intervened. As might be expected, he was not a man to be bound by the formulas of Prussian Liberalism, and in a lecture, On the Nature of a Constitution, deliyeied early in 1862, he expounded views entirely at variance with them. In this lecture his aim was to show that a constitution is not a theory or a document written on paper ; it is the expression of the strongest political forces of the time. The king, the nobility, the middle class, the working class, all these are forces in the polity of Prussia ; but the strongest of all is the king, who pos- sesses in tlie army a means of political power, which is organised, excellently disciplined, always at hand, and always ready to march. The army is the basis of the actual working constitution of Prussia. In the struggle against a Government resting on such a basis, verbal protests and compromises were of no avail. In a second lecture. What Next ? Lassalle proceeded to maintain that there was only one method for effectually resisting the Government, to proclaim the facts of the political situation as they were, and then FERDINAND LASSALLE 81 to retire from the Chamber. By remaining they only gave a false appearance of legality to the doings of the Government. If they withdrew it must yield, as in the present state of political opinion in Prussia and in civilised Europe no Government could exist in defiance of the wishes of the people. In a pamphlet subsequently published under the title of Might and Right, Lassalle defended himself against the accusation that in these lectures he had subordinated the claims of Eight to those of Force. He had, he said, not been expressing his own views of what ought to be ; he had simply been elucidating facts in an historical way, he had only been explaining the real nature of the situation. He now went on to declare that no one in the Prussian State had any right to speak of Plight but the old and genuine democracy. It had always cleaved to the Plight, degrading itself by no compromise with power. With the democracy alone is Plight, and with it alone will be Might. We need not say that these utterances of Lassalle had no influence on the march of events. The rulers pushed on the reorganising of the army with supplies obtained without the consent of the Prussian Chambers, the Liberal members protesting in vain till the great victory over Austria in 1866 furnished an ample justi- fication for the policy of Bismarck. But their publication marked an important crisis in his own career, for they did not recommend him to the favourable consideration of the German Liberals with whom he had previously endeavoured to act. He and 6 82 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM they never had much sympathy for one another. They were fettered by formulas as well as wanting in energy and initiative. On the other hand, his adventurous career; his temperament, which disposed him to rebel against the conventionalities and formulas generally; his loyalty to the extreme democracy of 1848, all brought him into disharmony with the current Liberalism of his time. They gave him no tokens of their confidence, and he chose a path of his own. A more decisive step in a new direction was taken in 1862 by his lecture. The WorJcing- Men's Programme ; On the special Connection of the Present Epoch of History with the Idea of the WorJcing Class. The gist of this lecture was to show that we are' now entering on a new era of history, of which the working class are the makers and representatives. It is a masterly performance, lucid in style, and scientific in method of treatment. Yet this did not save its author from the attentions of the Prussian police. Lassalle was brought to trial on the charge of exciting the poor against the rich, and in spite of an able defence, published under the title of Science and the Workers, lie was condemned to four months' imprisonment. But he appealed, and on the second hearing of the case made such an impression on the judges that the sentence was commuted into a fine of £15. Such proceedings naturally brought Lassalle into prominence as the exponent of a new way of thinking on social and political subjects. A section of the working men were, like himself, discontented with the FERDIlSrAND LASSALLE 83 cuiTent German Liberalism. The old democracy of 1848 was beginning to awake from the apathy and lassitude consequent on the failures of that troubled period. Men imbued with the traditions and aspira- tions of such a time could not be satisfied with the half-hearted programme of the Progressists, who would not decide on adopting universal suffrage as part of their poKcy, yet wished to utilise the workmen for their own ends. A Liberalism which had not the courage to be frankly democratic, could only be a temporary and unsatisfactory phase of political develop- ment. This discontent found expression at Leipsic, where a body of workmen, displeased with the Progressists, yet undecided as to any clear line of poKcy, had formed a Central Committee for the calling together of a Work- ing Men's Congress. With Lassalle, they had common ground in their discontent with the Progressists, and to him in 1863 they applied, in the hope that he might suggest a definite line of action. Lassalle replied in an Open Letter, with a political and social-economic pro- gramme, which, for lucidity and comprehensiveness of statement, left nothing to be desired. In the Working Men's Programme, Lassalle had drawn the rough out- lines of a new historic period, in which the interests of labour should be paramount; in the Open Letter he expounds the political, social, and economic principles which should guide the working men in inaugurating the new era. The Open Letter has well been called the Charter of German Socialism. It was the first historic 84 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM act in a new stage of social development. We need not say that it marked the definite rupture of Lassalle witli German Liberalism. In the Open Letter the guiding principles of the Social Democratic agitation of Lassalle are given with absolute clearness and decision : that the working men should ibrm an independent political party — one, how- ever, in which the political programme should be entirely subordinated to the great social end of im- proving the condition of their class ; that the schemes of Schulze-Delitzsch^ for this end were inadequate; that the operation of the iron law of wages prevented any real improvement under the existing conditions ; that productive associations, by which the workmen should secure the full product of their labour, should be established by the State, founded on universal suffrage, and therefore truly representative of the people. The Leipsic Committee accepted the policy thus sketched, and invited him to address them in person. After hearing him the meeting voted in his favour by a majority of 1300 against 7. A subsequent appearance at Frankfort-on-the-Main was even more flattering to Lassalle. In that as in most other towns of Germany the workmen were generally disposed to support Schulze and the Pro- ^ Schulze -Delitzsch was born in 1808 at Delitzsch, in Prussian Saxony, whence the second part of his name, to distinguish him from the many otlier people in Germany who bear the familiar name of Schulze. It was his great merit that he founded the co-operative movement in Germany on principles of self-help. He was a leading member of the Progressist party. FERDINAND LASSALLE 85 gressist party. Lassalle therefore had the hard task of conciliating and gaining a hearing from a hostile audience. His first speech, four hours in length, met at times with a stormy reception, and was frequently interrupted. Yet he gained the sympathy of his audience by his eloquence and the intrinsic interest of his matter, and the applause increased as he went on. AVhen, two days afterwards, he addressed them a second time, the assembly voted for Lassalle by 400 to 40. It was really a great triumph. Like Napoleon, he had, he said, beaten the enemy with their own troops. On the following day he addressed a meeting at Mainz, where 700 workmen unanimously declared in his favour. These successes seemed to justify Lassalle in taking the decisive step of his agitation — the foundation of the Universal German Working Men's Association, which followed at Leipsic on May 23, 1863. Its pro- gramme was a simple one, containing only one point — universal suffrage. ' Proceeding from the conviction that only thi'ough equal and direct universal suffrage^ can a sufficient representation of the social interests of the German working class and a real removal of class antagonisms in society be realised, the Association pursues the aim, in a peaceful and legal way, especially by winning over public opinion, to work for the estab- lishment of equal and direct universal suffrage.' ^ In contrast to the iiiie([ual and indirect system existing in Prussia, according to which the voters are on a property basis divided into three classes. The voters thus anangcd choose bodies of electors, by whom the members for the Chamber are chosen. 86 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM Hitherto Lassalle had been an isolated individual, expressing on his own responsibility an opinion on the topics of the day. He was elected President, for five years, of the newly founded Association, and was there- fore the head of a new movement. He had crossed the Eubicon, not without hesitation and niisf'ivinff. In the summer of 1863 Httle was accomplished. The membership of the Association grew but slowly, and, according to his wont, Lassalle retired to the baths to recruit his health. In the autumn he renewed his agitation by a 'review' of his forces on the Ehine, where the workmen were most enthusiastic in his favour. But the severest crisis of his agitation befell during the winter of 1863-4. At this period his labours were almost more than human ; he wrote his Bastiat- Schulze^ a considerable treatise, in about three months, defended himself before the courts both of Berlin and the Ehine in elaborate speeches, conducted the affairs of his Association in all their troublesome details, and often before stormy and hostile audiences gave a succes- sion of addresses, the aim of which was the conquest of Berlin. Lassalle's Bastiat-Schulze, his largest economic work, bears all the marks of the haste and feverishness of the time that gave it birth. It contains passages in the worst possible taste; the coarseness and scurrility of his treatment of Schulze are absolutely unjustifiable. The book consists of barren and unprofitable contro- ^ Bastiat was the popularise!- in France of the orthodox Political Economy. Lassalle accused Schulze of being a mere echo of Bastiat's superlicial views, and therefore called him Bastiat-Schulze. FERDINAXD LASSALLE 87 versy, interspersed with philosophic statemeuts of his economic position, and even they are often crude, con- fused, and exaggerated. Controversy is usually the most unsatisfactory department of literature, and of the various forms of controversy that of Lassalle is the least to be desired, consisting as it so largely did of supercilious verbal and captious objection. The book as a whole is far below the level of the Working Men's Programme and the Open Letter. After all these labours little wonder that we find him writing, on the 14th of February : ' I am tired to death, and strong as my constitution is, it is shaking to the core. My excitement is so great that I can no longer sleep at night ; I toss about on my bed till five o'clock, and rise up with aching head, and entirely exhausted. I am overworked, overtasked, and overtired in the frightfullest degree ; the mad effort, beside my other labours, to finish the Bastiat-Schulze in three months, the profound and painful disappointment, the cankering inner disgust, caused by the indifference and apathy of the working class taken as a whole — all has been too much even for me.' Clearly the great agitator needed rest, and he decided to seek it, as usual, at the baths. But before he retired, he desired once more to refresh his weary soul in the sympathetic enthusiasm which he anticipated from his devoted adherents on the Ehine. Accordingly, on the 8th May 1864, Lassalle departed for the 'glorious re- view of his army ' in the Ehine country. ' He spoke,' Mehring tells us, 'on May 14tli at Solingen, on the 88 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM 15th at Barmen, on the 16th at Cologne, on the 18th at Wermelskirchen.' Ilis journey was like a royal progress or a triumphal procession, except that the joy of the people was perfectly spontaneous. Thousands of workmen received him with acclamations ; crowds pressed upon him to shake hands with him, to exchange friendly greetings with him. On the 22nd May, the first anniversary festival of the Universal Association, held at Eonsdorf, the enthu- siasm reached its climax. Old and young, men and women, went forth to meet him as he approached the town ; and he entered it through triumphal arches, under a deluge of flowers thrown from the hands of working girls, amidst jubilation indescribable. Writing to the Countess of Hatzfeldt about this time of the impression made on his mind by his reception on the Ehine, Lassalle says, ' I had the feeling that such scenes must have been witnessed at the founding of new religions.' The speech of Lassalle at Eonsdorf corresponded in character with the enthusiasm and exaltation of such a time and such an audience. The King of Prussia had recently listened with favour to the grievances of a deputation of Silesiau weavers, and promised to help them out of his own purse. Von Ketteler, Bishop of Mainz, had published a short treatise, in which he expressed his agreement with Lassalle's criticism of the existing economic system. As his manner was, Lassalle did not under-estimate the value of those expressions of opinion. ' We have compelled,' he declared, ' the FERDINAND LASSALLE 89 workmen, the people, the bishops, the kiug, to bear testimony to the truth of our principles.' It would be easy to ridicule the enthusiasm for Lassalle entertained by those workmen on the Ehine, but it will be more profitable if we pause for a moment to realise the world-historic pathos of the scene. For the first time for many centuries we see the working men of Germany aroused from their hereditary degrada- tion, apathy, and hopelessness. Change after change had passed in the higher sphere of politics. One con- queror after another had traversed these Ehine countries, but, whoever lost or won, it was the working man who had to pay with his sweat and toil and sorrow. He was the anvil on wliich the hammer of those iron times had fallen without mercy and without intermission. His doom it was to drudge, to be fleeced, to be drilled and marched off to fight battles in which he had no interest. Brief and fitful gleams of a wild and desperate liope had visited these poor people before, only to go out again in utter darkness ; but now in a sky which liad so long been black and dull with monotonous misery, the rays were discernible of approaching dawn, a shining light which would grow into a more perfect day. For in the process of history the time had come when the suffering wliich had so long been dumb should find a voice that would be heard over the world, should find an organisation that would compel the attention of rulers and all men. Such a cause can be most effectually furthered by wise and sane leadership ; yet it is also well when it is 90 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM uot too dependent on the guidance of those who seek to control it. The career of Lassalle always had its un- pleasant features. He liked the passing effect too well. He was too fond of display and pleasure. In much that he did there is a note of exaggeration, bordering on insincerity. As his agitation proceeded, this feature of his character becomes more marked. Some of his addresses to the workmen remind us too forcibly of the bulletins of the first Napoleon, He was not always careful to have the firm ground of fact and reality beneath his feet. Many of his critics speak of the failure of his agitation ; with no good reason, consider- ing how short a time it had continued, hardly more than a year. Lassalle himself was greatly disappointed with the comparatively little success he had attained. He had not the patience to wait till the sure operation of truth and fact and the justice of the cause he fought for should bring him the reward it merited. On all these grounds we cannot consider the ev^t which so unworthily closer his life as an accident; it was the melancholy outcome of the weaker elements in his strangely mixed character. While posing as the spokesman of the poor, Lassalle was a man of decidedly fashionable and luxurious habits. His suppers were well known as among the most exquisite in Berlin. It was the most piquant feature of his life that he, one of the gilded youth, a connoisseur in wines, and a learned man to boot, had become agitator and the champion of the workers. In one of the literary and fashionable circles of Berlin he FERDINAND LASSALLE 91 had met a young lady, a Fraulein vou Donniges, for whom he at once felt a passion which was ardently reciprocated. He met her again on the Eigi, in the summer of 186-i, when they resolved to marry. She was a young lady of twenty, decidedly unconventional and original in character. It would appear from her own confession that she had not ahvays respected the sacied German morality. But she had for father a Bavarian diplomatist then resident in Geneva, w^ho was angry beyond all boimds when he heard of the proposed match, and would have absolutely nothing to do with Lassalle. The lady was imprisoned in her own room, and soon, apparently under the influence of very questionable pressure, renounced Lassalle in favour of another admirer, a Wallachian, Count von Eacowitza. Lassalle, who had resorted to every available means to gain his end, was now mad with rage, and sent a challenge both to the lady's father and her betrothed, w-hich was accepted by the latter. At the Carouge, a suburb of Geneva, the meeting took place on the morning of August 28, 1864. Lassalle was mortally wounded, and died on the 31st of the same month. In spite of such a foolish ending, his funeral was that of a martyr, and by many of his ad- herents he has since been regarded with feelings almost of religious devotion. How the career of Lassalle might have shaped itself in the new Germany under the system of universal suffrage which was adopted only three years after his death, is an interesting subject of speculation. He 92 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM could not have remained inactive, and he certainly would nut have been hindered by doctrinaire scruples from playing an effective part, even though it were by some kind of alliance with the Government. His ambition and liis energy were alike boundless. In the heyday of his passion for Fraulein von Donniges his dream was to be installed as the President of the German Republic with her elevated by his side. As it was, his position at his death was rapidly becoming difficult and even untenable ; he was involved in a net of prosecutions which were fast closing round him. He would soon have had no alternative but exile or a prolonged imprisonment. Lassalle was undoubtedly a man of the most extra- ordinary endowments. The reader of his works feels that he is in the presence of a mind of a very high order. Both in his works and in his life we find an exceptional combination of gifts, philosophic power, eloquence, en- thusiasm, practical energy, a dominating ^orce of will. Born of a cosmopolitan race, which has produced so many men little trammelled by the conventionalism of the old European societies, he was to a remarkable degree original and free from social prejudice ; was one of the men in whom the spirit of daring initiative is to a remarkable decree active. He had in fact a revolu- tionary temperament, disciplined by the study of German philosophy, by the sense of the greatness of Prussia's historic mission, and by a considerable measure of practical insight, for in this he was not by any means wanting. In Marx we see the same temperament, only FERDINAND LASSALLE 93 in his case it was stronger, mure solid, self-restrained, matvired by wider reflection, and especially by the study of the economic development of Europe, continued for a period of forty years. But on the whole, Lassalle was a vis intemperata. He was deficient in sober-mindedness, self-control, and in that saving gift of common sense, without which the highest endowments may be unprofitable and even hurt- ful to their possessors and to the world. His ambitions were not pure ; he had a histrionic as well as a revolu- tionary temperament ; he was lacking also in self- respect ; above all, he had not sufficient reverence for the great and sacred cause of which he had become the champion, a cause which is fitted to claim the highest motives^ the purest ambitions, the most noble enthusi- asms. His vanity, his want of self-restraint, his deficient sense of the seriousness of his mission as a Social De- mocratic leader, in these we see the failings that proved his undoing. Throughout the miserable intrigue in which he met his death a simple, straightforward sense of what was right and becominj^ would at once have saved him from ruin. Yet he was privileged to inaugu- rate a great movement. As the founder of the Social Democracy of Germany, he has earned a place on the role of historic names. He possessed in a notable degree the originality, energy, and sympathy which lit a man to be the champion of a new cause. We may go farther and say that at that date Ger- many had only two men whoso insight into the facts and tendencies of their time was in some real degree 94 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM » adequate to the occasion — P^ismarck and Lassalle. The former represented a historic cause, wliich was ready for action, the regeneration and unification of Germany to be accomplished by the I'russian army. The cause which Lassalle brouglit to the front was at a very different stage of progress. The working men, its pro- moters and representatives, and Lassalle, its champion, liad not attained to anything like clearness either as to the end to be gained or the means for accomplishing it. It was only at the crudest and most confused initial stage. FERDIXAND LASSALLE 95 II. TlIEOEIES OF LaSSALLE The socialistic position of Lassalle may generally be described as similar to that of Eodbertus and Karl Marx. He admits his indebtedness to both of those writers, but at the same time he cannot be regarded as a disciple of either of them. Lassalle himself was a thinker of great original power ; he had his own way of conceiving and expressing the historic socialism. Lassalle supplies the key to his general position in the preface to his Bastiut-Schulze, when, quoting from his System of Acquired Rights, he says: In social matters the world is confronted with the question, whether now when property in the direct utiHsatiou of another man no longer exists, such property in his in- direct exploitation should continue — that is, whether the free realisation and development of our labour-force should be the exclusive private property of the pos- sessor of capital, and whether the employer as such, and apart from the remuneration of his intellectual labour, should be permitted to appropriate the result of other men's labours.^ This sentence, he says, contains the programme of a national-economic work, which he in- tended to write under the title, Outlines of a Scientific National Economy. In this sentence also, we need not say, the fundamental position of socialism is implied. He was about to carry out his project wlien the Leipsic ' Batlial- Schulze, ji. iii., Berlin 1878. 96 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM Central Committee brought the question before him in a practical form. The agitation broke out and left him no leisure for sucli a work. But he had often lamented that the exposition of tlie theory had not preceded the practical agitation, and that a scientific basis had not been provided for it. The Bastiat-Schulze was itself a controversial work, written to meet the needs of the hour. Lassalle has never given a full and systematic exposition of his socialistic theory. All his social-economic writings were published as the crises of his agitation seemed to demand. But, as he himself says, they compensate by the life and incisiveness of the polemical form of treatment for what thfey lose in systematic value. We may add that it is often a scientific gain, for in the career of Lassalle we see socialism confronted with fact, and thereby to a large extent saved from the absolute- ness, abstractness, and deficient sense of reality which detract so much from the value of the works of Marx and Rodbertus. The excessive love of system so charac- teristic of German theorists may be as remote from historic reality and possibility as the Utopian schemes of French socialists. It is, however, also a natural result of Lassalle's mode of presentation that he is not always consistent with himself either on practical or theoretical questions, especially in his attitude towards the Prussian State. On the whole, we can most clearly and comprehen- sively bring out the views of Lassalle if we follow the order in which they are presented in his three leading FERDINAND LASSALLE 97 works, the WorTciiuj Mens Programme, the Open Letter, and the Bastiat-S'chulze. The central theme of the Working Men's Programme is the vocation of the ivorJcing class as the makers and representatives of a new era in the history of the world. We have seen that Lassalle's System of Acgiiired Bights was an application of the historical method to legal ideas and institutions. In his social-economic writings we find the application of the same method to economic facts and institutions. The Working Men's Programme is a brilliant example of tlie historical method, and indeed is a lucid review of the economic development of Europe, culminating in the working men's State, the full-grown democracy. In the mediteval world the owners of land con- trolled politics, the army, law, and taxation in their own interest, while labour was oppressed and despised. The present regime of the capitalist classes is due to a gradual process of development continued for centuries, and is the product of many forces w^hich have acted and reacted on each other : the invention of the mariner's compass and of gunpowder ; abroad the discovery of America and of the sea-route to India ; at home the overthrow of the feudal houses by a central government, which established a regular justice, security of property, and better means of communication. This was to be followed in time by the development of machinery, like the cotton-spinning machine of Ark- wriglit, itself the living embodiment of the indus- trial and economic revolution, which was destined to 7 98 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM produce a corresponding political change. The new machinery, the large industry, the division of labour, cheap goods, and tlie world-market — these were all parts of an organic whole. Production in mass made cheap goods possible ; the cheapening of commodities called forth a wider market, and the wider market led to a still larger production. The rulers of the industrial world, the capitalists, became the rulers also of the political ; the French Eevolution was merely a proclamation of a mighty fact which had already established itself in the most ad- vanced portions of Europe. But the marvellous en- thusiasm of the Eevolution was kindled by the fact that its champions at the time represented the cause of humanity. Before long, however, it became manifest that the new rulers fought for the interests of a class, the hourgeoisie ; and another class, that of the prole- tariat, or unpropertied workers, began to define itsell in opposition to them. Like their predecessors, the hourgeoisie wielded the legal and political power for their own selfish ends. They made wealth the test and basis of political and social right ; they established a restricted franchise ; shackled the free expression of opinion by cautions and taxes on newspapers, and threw the burden of taxation on the working classes. We have seen that the development of the middle class was a slow and gradual process, the complex result of a complex mass of forces. Considering that the special theme of the Working Mens Programme is the historical function of the working class, it is cer- FERDINAND LASSALLE 99 tainly a most serious defect of Lassalle's exposition that he says so little of the causes which have conditioned the development of the working class as the represent- atives of a new era. Their appearance on the pages of Lassalle as the supporters of a great role is far too sudden. On the 24th of February 1848, he says, broke the first dawn of a new historical period. On that day in France a revolution broke out, which called a workman into the Provisional Government; wliich declared the aim of the State to be the improvement of the lot of the working class ; and which proclaimed direct and universal suffrage, whereby every citizen who had attained the age of twenty-one should, without regard to property, have an equal share in all political activity. The working class were therefore destined to be the rulers and makers of a new society. But the rule of the working class had this enormous difference from other forms of class rule, that it admits of no special privilege. We are all workers, in so far as we have the will in any way to make ourselves useful to the human society. The working class is therefore identical with the whole human race. Its cause is in truth the cause of entire humanity, its freedom is the freedom of humanity itself, its rule is the rule of all. The formal means of realising this is direct universal suffrage, which is no magic wand, but which at least can rectify its own mistakes. It is the lance which heals the wounds itself has made. Under universal suffrage the legislature is the true mirror of the people 100 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM that has chosen it, reflecting its defects, but its progress also, for which it affords unlimited expression and development. The people must therefore always regard direct universal suffrage as its indispensable political weapon, as the most fundamental and weightiest of its demands. And we need not fear that they will abuse their power ; for while the position and interests of the old privileged classes became inconsistent with the general progress of humanity, the mass of the people must know that their interests can be advanced only by promoting the good of their whole class. Even a very moderate sense of their own welfare must teach them that each indi- vidual can separately do very little to improve his condition. They can prevail only by union. Thus their personal interest, instead of being opposed to the movement of history, coincides with the development of the whole people and is in harmony with freedom, culture, and the highest ideas of our time. This masterly treatise of Lassalle concludes with an appeal to the working class, in which we see the great agitator reach the high level of a pure and noble eloquence. Having shown at length that the working class are called to be the creators and representatives of a new historical era, he proceeds : ' From what we have said there follows for all who belong to the work- ing class the duty of an entirely new bearing, ' Nothing is more suited to stamp on a class a worthy and deeply moral impress than the consciousness that it is called to be the ruling class, that it is appointed FERDINAND LASSALLE 101 to raise its principle to be the principle of an entire epoch, to make its idea the ruling idea of the whole society, and so again to mould society after its own pattern. The high world-historic honour of this voca- tion must occupy all your thoughts. The vices of the oppressed, the idle amusements of the thoughtless, and the harmless frivolity of the unimportant beseem you no longer. Ye are the rock on which the church of the future should be built.' Pity that in the miserable squabble which terminated his Hfe he did not realise that the leader of the work- ing class should also be inspired by a sense of the nobility of his calling. This exposition of the vocation of the working class is closely connected with another notable feature of Lassalle's teaching, his Theory of the State. Lassalle's theory of the State differs entirely from that generally held by the Liberal school. The Liberal school hold that the function of the State consists simply in pro- tecting the personal freedom and the property of the individual. Tliis he scouts as a night-watchman's idea, Ijecause it conceives the State under the image of a night-watchman, whose sole function it is to prevent robbery and burglary. In opposition to this narrow idea of the State, Lassalle ([uotes approvingly the view of August Boeckh : ' That we must widen our notion of the State so as to believe that the State is the institution in which the whole virtue of humanity should be realised.' History, Lassalle tells us, is an incessant struggle 102 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM with Nature, with the niiseiy, ignorance, poverty, weak- ness, ami unfreedoai in which the human race was originally placed.^ The progressive victory over this weakness, that is the development of the freedom which history depicts. In this struggle, if the individual had been left to himself, he could have made no progress. The State it is which has the function to accomplish this develop- ment of freedom, this development of the human race in the way of freedom. The duty of the State is to enable the individual to reach a sum of culture, power, and freedom, which for individuals would be absolutely unattainable. The aim of the State is to bring human nature to positive unfolding and progressive develop- ment — in other words, to realise the chief end of man : it is the education and development of the human race in the way of freedom. The State should be the complement of the in- dividual. It must be ready to offer a helping hand, wherever and whenever individuals are unable to realise the happiness, freedom, and culture which befit a human being. Save the State, that primitive vestal fire of culture, from the modern barbarians, he exclaims on another occasion. To these political conceptions Lassalle is true through- out. It certainly is a nobler and more rational ideal of the State than the once prevalent Manchester theory. When we descend from theory to practice all obviously ^ See Working Men's Programme. FERDINAND LASSALLE 103 depends on what kind of State we have got, and on the eircnmstances and conditions nnder which it is called upon to act. That the State should, through its various organs, support and develop individual effort, calling it forth, rendering it hopeful and effectual, never weakening the springs of it, but stimulating and completing it, is a position which most thinkers would now accept. And most will admit w4th regret that the existing State is too mucli a great taxing and fighting machine. The field of inquiry here opened up is a wide and tempting one, on which we cannot now enter. We are at present concerned with the fact that the State help contem- plated by Lassalle was meant not only to leave the individual free, but to further him in the free realisa- tion of himself. The Iron Law of Wages may well be described as the key to Lassalle's social-economic position. It holds the same prominent place in his system of thinking as the theory of surplus value does in that of Marx. Both, it may be added, are only different aspects of the same fact. Lassalle insists chiefly on the small share of the produce of labour which goes to the labourer ; Marx traces the history of the share, called surplus value, which goes to the capitalist. Lassalle's most careful statement of the Iron Law, to which he frequently recurs in subsequent writings, is contained in his Open Letter (p. 13). ' The Iron Eco- nomic Law, which, in existing circumstances, under the law of supply and demand for labour, determines 104 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM the wage, is this : that the average wage always remains reduced to the necessary provision which, according to the customary standard of living, is re- quired for subsistence and for propagation. This is the point about which the real wage continually oscil- lates, without ever being; able long to rise above it or to fall below it. It cannot permanently rise above this average level, because in consequence of the easier and better condition of the workers there would be an increase of marriages and births among them, an in- crease of the working population and thereby of the supply of labour, which would bring the wage down to its previous level or even below it. On the other hand, the wage cannot permanently fall below this necessary subsistence, because then occur emigration, abstinence from marriage, and, lastly, a diminution of the number of workmen caused by their misery, which lessens the supply of labour, and therefore once more raises the wage to its previous rate.' On a nearer consideration, Lassalle goes on to say, the effect of the Iron Law is as follows : — ' From the produce of labour so much is taken and distributed among the workmen as is required for their subsistence. 'The entire surplus of production falls to the capitalist. It is therefore a result of the Iron Law that the workman is necessarily excluded from the benefits of an increasing production, from the increased productivity of his own labour.' ^ ^ See Open Letter. FERDINAND LASSALLE 105 Such is Lassalle's theory of the Iron Law of Wages. He accepts it as taught hj Eicardo and the economists of the orthodox school in England, France, and Germany. "We believe that his statement of it is substantially just and accurate ; that it fairly retiects the economic science of his time, and, under the then prevailing economic conditions, may be described as a valid law. Lassalle held that the customary standard of living and the operation of the law generally were subject to variation. Still it may reasonably be maintained that he has not sufficiently considered the fact that, like capital, the Iron Law of Wages is an historical category. He has not overlooked tlie fact, and could hardly do so, as the Iron Law is an implicate and result of the domination of capital. But his method of exposition is too much the controversial one, of pressing it as an argumentum ad hominem against his opponents in Germany, and, as usual, in controversy truth is liable to suffer. It may therefore be argued that under the competitive system as now existing, changes have occurred which render Lassalle's theory of the Iron Law inaccurate and untenable. Even while the present system continues to prevail, the law may undergo very extensive modification through the progress of education and organisation among the workmen, and through the general advance of society in morality and enlighten- ment. The question of modification of the Iron Law is one of degree, and it may fairly be contended by critics of Lassalle that he has not recognised it to a sufficient degree. 106 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM 0)1 the other hand, it may also be rationally main- tained that in so far as education and organisation pre- vail among the workmen, in so far does capitalism, with all its conditions and implicates, tend to be superseded. Trade Unions, Co-operative Societies, Factory Legisla- tion, are all forms of the social control of economic processes, inconsistent with competitive economics. The more they gain ground, tlie more does capitalism tend to break up and disappear! From this higher point of view, we may fairly contend that considerations whicli have been urged as destructive of Lassalle's argument are really symptoms of the decline of capitalism. The Iron Law is an inevitable result of the historical con- ditions contemplated by Lassalle. These conditions have changed, but the change means that capitalism is passing away. We are thus thrown back on the wider question, whether capitalism is disappearing, a question which it would at present be premature to discuss. In any case the position of Lassalle is perfectly clear. He accepted the orthodox political economy in order to show that the inevitable operation of its laws left no hope for the working class; and that no remedy could be found except by abolishing the conditions in which those laws have their validity — in other words, by abolishing the present relations of labour and capital altogether. The great aim of his agitation was to bring forward a scheme which would strike at the root of the evil. The remedy for the evil condition of things connected with the Iron Law of Wages is to secure the workmen the full produce of their labour, by FERDINAXD LASSALLE 107 couiLining the functions of workmen and capitalists through the establishment of productive associations. The distinction between labourer and capitalist is thereby abolished. The workman becomes producer, and for remuneration receives the entire produce of his labour. The associations founded by Schulze - Delitzsch, Lassalle went on to argue, would effect no substantial improvement in the condition of the working class. The unions for the supply of credit and raw materials do not benefit the working class as such, but only the small hand-workers. But hand - labour is an antiquated form of industry, which is destined to succumb before the large industry equipped with machinery and an adequate capital. To provide the hand- workers with the means of continuing their obso- lete trades is only to prolong the agony of an assured defeat. The consumers' unions, or co-operative stores as we call them in England, also fail, because they do not help the workman at the point where he needs it most, as producers. Before the seller, as before the policeman, all men are equal ; the only thing the seller cares for is that his customers are able to pay. In discussing the Iron Law, we saw that the workman must be helped as producer — that is, in securing a better share of his product. The consumers' unions may indeed give a restricted and temporary relief So long as the unions include only a limited number of workmen, they afford relief by chcapenitig the means of subsistence, inasmuch 108 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM US they do not lower the general rate of wages. But in proportion as the unions embrace the entire working class and thereby cause a general cheapening of the means of subsistence, the Iron Law of Wages will take effect. For the average wage is only the expression in money of the customary means of subsistence. The average wage will fall in proportion to the general cheapening of the means of subsistence, and all the pains taken by the workmen in founding and conduct- ing the consumers' unions will be labour lost. They will only enable the workman to subsist on a smaller wage. The only effectual way to improve the condition of the working class is through the free individual associa- tion of the workers, by its application and extension to the great industry. The working class must be its own capitalist. But when the workmen on the one hand contemplate the enormous sums required for railways and factories, and on the other hand consider the emptiness of their own pockets, they may naturally ask where they are to obtain the capital needed for the great industry ? The State alone can furnish it ; and the State ought to fur- nish it, because it is, and always has been, the duty of the State to promote and facilitate the great progressive movements of civilisation. Productive association with State credit was the plan of Lassalle.^ The State had already in numerous instances guar- anteed its credit for industrial undertakings by which ^ See Oixn Letter, passim. FERDINAND LASSALLE 109 the rich classes had benefited — canals, postal services, banks, agricultural improvements, and especially with regard to railways. No outcry of socialism or com- munism had been raised against this form of State help ? Then why raise it when the greatest problem of modern civilisation was involved — the improvement of the lot of the working classes ? Lassalle's estimate was, that the loan of a hundred million thalers (£15,000,000) would be more than sufficient to bring the principle of association into full movement through- out the kingdom of Prussia. Obviously the money required for the promotion of productive associations did not require to be actually paid by the Government ; only the State guarantee for the loan was necessary. The State would see that proper rules for the associations should be made and observed by them. It would reserve to itself the rights of a creditor or sleeping partner. It would generally take care that the funds be put to their legitimate use. But its control would not pass beyond those reasonable limits : the associations would be free ; they would be the voluntary act of the working men themselves. Above all, the State, thus supporting and controlling the associations, would be a democratic State, elected by universal suffrage, the organ of the workers, who form an overwhelming majority of every community. But if we are to conceive the matter in the crudest way and consider the money as actually paid, wherein would the enormity of such a transaction consist ? The State had spent hundreds of millions in war, to no HISTORY OF SOCIALISM appease the wounded vanity of royal mistresses, to satisfy the hist of conquest of princes, to open up markets for the middle classes ; yet when the deliverance of humanity is concerned the money cannot be procured ! Further, as he takes care to explain, Lassalle did not propose his scheme of productive associations as the solution of the social question. The solution of the social question would demand generations. He pro- posed his scheme as the means of transition, as the easiest and mildest means of transition.^ It was the germ, the organic principle of an incessant develop- ment. Lassalle has indicated, though only in vague outline, how such an organic development of productive associations should proceed. They would begin in populous centres, in cases where the nature of the in- dustry, and the voluntary inclination of the workmen to association, would facilitate their formation. Industries, which are mutually dependent and work into each other's hands, would be united by a credit union ; and there would further be an insurance union, embracing the different associations, which would reduce tlieir losses to a minimum. The risks would be greatly lessened as a speculative industry constantly tending to anarchy, and all the evils of competition would be superseded by an organised industry; over-production would give place to production in advance. In this way the associations would grow until they embraced the entire industry of the country. And the general application of the principle would give an enormous J See Bastiat-Schulze, p. 189. FERDIXAXD LASSALLE 111 advantage in international competition to the country adopting it, for it would be rational, systematic, and in every way more effective and economical. The goal of the whole development, as conceived by Lassalle, was a coUcdivisvi of the same type as that contemplated by Marx and Eodbertus. 'Division of labour,' he says, 'is really common labour, social combination for production. This, the real nature of production, needs only to be explicitly recognised. In the total production, therefore, it is merely requisite to abolish individual portions of capital, and to conduct the labour of society, which is already common, with the common capital of society, and to distribute the result of production among all who have contributed to it, in proportion to their performance.' ^ In the controversial work against Schulze-Delitzsch, Lassalle has at greater lengtli expounded his general position in opposition to the individualist theories of his opponents. He contends that progress has not pro- ceeded from the individual ; it has always proceeded from the community. In this connection he sums up briefly tbe history of social development. The entire ancient world, and also the whole medieval period down to the French Ke volution of 1789, sought human solidarity and community in bondage or sub- jection. The French Eevolution of 1789, and the historical period controlled by it, rightly incensed at this sub- jection, sought freedom in the dissolution of all solidarity ' Bastiat-Sch'uhe, \^. 188. 112 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM and community. Thereby, however, it gained, not freedom, but license. Because freedom without com- munity is license. The new, the present period, seeks solidarity in freedom.^ He then proceeds in his theory of conjuncttires to prove that, instead of each man being economically responsible for what he has done, each man is really responsible for what he has not done. The economic fate of the individual is determined by circumstances over which he has no control, or very little. What does Lassalle mean by a conjuncture ? We can best under- stand it by reference to a great economic crisis which has occurred since his time. No better example of a conjuTwture can be found than in the recent history of British agriculture. In 1876, agriculture, still the most important industry of the country, began to be seriously threatened by American competition. The crisis caused by the low prices due to this competition was greatly aggravated by bad seasons, such as that of 1879. The farmers, obliged to pay rent out of capital, were many of them ruined. In consequence of the diminished appli- cation of capital to land the opportunities of labour were greatly lessened. Eents could no longer be paid as formerly. All three classes directly concerned in English agriculture suffered fearfully, without any special individual responsibility in the matter. In Ireland, where the difficulty, great in itself, was inten- sified by the national idea, an economic crisis grew into a great political and imperial crisis. In the eyes of the ^ Bastiat-Schulze, p. 18. FERDINAND LASSALLE 113 impartial inquirer, who of all the millions of sufferers was personally responsible ? Such wide -spread disasters are common in recent economic history. They are a necessary result of a com- petitive system of industry. Lassalle is justly angry with the one-sided and ill-instructed economists that would hold the individual responsible for his fate in such a crisis. Statesmen little understand their duty who would leave their subjects without help in these times of distress. And it must always be a praiseworthy feature of socialism that it seeks to establish social control of these conjunctures as far as possible, and to minimise their disastrous efiects by giving social support to those menaced by them. The main burden of the Bastiat-Schulze is Lassalle's account of capital and labour. For Lassalle capital is a historic category, a product of historical circumstances, the rise of which we can trace, the disappearance of which, under altered circum- stances, we can foresee. In other words, capital is the name for a system of economic, social, and legal conditions, which are the result severally and collectively of a long and gradual process of historical development. The Basiiat-Scliulze is an elucidation of these conditions. The following may be taken as a general statement of them : — (1) The division of labour in connection with the large industry. (2) A system of production for exchange in the great world-markets. 8 114 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM (3) Free competition. (4) The instruments of labour, the property of a special class, who after paying (5) A class of free labourers in accordance with the Iron Law of "Wages, pocket the surplus value. Property consists not in the fruit of one's own labour, but in the appropriation of that of others. Eigentlium. ist Fremdthuni geioordcn} In this way capital has become an independent, active, and self-generating power which oppresses its producer. Money makes money. The labour of the past, appropriated and capitalised, crushes the labour of the present. ' The dead captures the living.' ' The instru- ment of labour, which has become independent, and has exchanged roles with the workmen, which has degraded the living workmen to a dead instrument of labour, and has developed itself, the dead instrument of labour, into the living organ of production — that is capital.'^ In such highly metaphorical language does Lassalle sum up his history of capital. We have already commented on that aspect of it, the Iron Law of Wages, which Lassalle has most emphasised. The whole subject is much more comprehensively treated in the Kapital of Karl Marx ; therefore we need not dwell upon it further at present. It will not be wrong, however, to say a word here about the use of the word capital, as current in the school of socialists to which Lassalle and Marx belong. It is not applied by them in its purely economic sense, as wealth utilised for further production : it is used as 1 Bastiat-Schulze, p. 1S6. ^ jud^^ p_ i^\^ x/mJ^ { ^^^-^ FERDINAND LASSALLE 115 the name of the social aud economic system in which the owners of capital are the dominant power. With them it is the economic factor as operating under the existing legal and social conditions, with all these con- ditions clinging to it. It would be much better to restrict the word to its proper economic use, and employ the new word capitalism as a fairly accurate name for the existing system. The function of capital under all social systems and at all historical epochs is fundamentally the same ; it is simply wealth used for the production of more wealth. But the historical, legal, and political conditions under which it is utilised vary indefinitely, as do also the technical forms in which it is embodied. No real excuse can be offered for the ignorance or i confusion of language of controversialists who maintain/ that the object of socialism is to abolish capital. ' So far! from abolishing capital, socialists wish to make it still more effective for social well-being by placing it under social control. "What they wish to abolish is the exist-' ing system, in which capital is under the control of a class. It would be a considerable gain in clearness if this system were always called capitalism. "We have already remarked upon Lassalle's theory of the State, and his treatment of the Iron Law of Wages. Our further criticism of his social-economic position can best be brought out by reference to his controversy with Schulze-Delitz.sch, the economic representative of Ger- man Liberalism. In general it may be said that Lassalle meets the 116 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM one-sided individualism of Schulze by a statement of the socialistic theory, which is also one-sided and ex- aggerated. His view of the influence of the community as compared with that of the individual is the mos-t prominent example of this. The only accurate social philosophy is one which gives due attention to both factors ; both are of supreme importance, and either may fitly be the starting-point of investigation and discussion. His theory of conjunctures is overstated. It is to a considerable degree well founded ; in the great economic storms which sweep over the civilised world the fate of the individual is largely determined by conditions over which lie has no control. Yet now as ever the homely virtues of industry, energy, sobriety, and pru- dence do materially determine the individual career. For our present purpose, however, it is more important to consider Lassalle's polemic against the practical pro- posals of his opponent. LassalLe contended that the unions for providing credit and raw material would benefit the hand-workers only, whereas hand-labour is destined to disappear before the large industry. But, we may ask, why should not such methods of mutual help be utilised for associations of working men even more than for isolated workers ? These unions may be regarded as affording only a very partial and limited relief to the workmen, but why should the principle of association among workmen stop there ? The system of voluntary co-operation must begin somewhere; it began most naturally and reasonably FERDINAND LASSALLE 117 with such unions, and it proceeds most naturally and reasonably along the line of least resistance to further development. In these unions the workmen have been acquiring the capital and experience necessary for further progress. No limit can be assigned to the possible evolution of the system. They are properly to be regarded as only the first beginnings of social control over the economic processes, the goal and con- summation of which we find in socialism. If in the controversial struggle Lassalle had listened to the clear voice of science, he would have seen that, for his opponent as well as for himself, he must maintain that all social institutions are subject to and capable of development. For the methods of Schulze it may be claimed that they do not provide a ready-made solution of the social question, but they are a beginning. For the associations of Schulze, not less than for those of Lassalle, we may contend that they supply the organic principle of an incessant development. In this way the workmen may attain to the complete management of their own indus- trial interests with their own joint capital. They may thus obtain for themselves the full product of their labour, in which case the objection of Lassalle, with regard to the increase of population, under the influence of the cheap provisions supplied by the stores, would no more apply to the scheme of Schulze than they would to his own. In both cases we are to suppose that the means of subsistence would be more abundant and more easily obtained ; in both cases there nii^^lit be the risk 118 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM of a tuo rapidly increasing population. We may suppose that this increase of population would be met by a still greater increase in the product of labour, all going to the workers. But for the schemes of Schulze there would be this great advantage that, the capital and experience of the workers having been acquired by their own exer- tions, they would have all the superior training requisite for the solution of the population question, and all other questions, which can be obtained only from a long course of social discipline. Lassalle would have done well to remember his own statement, that the only real point of diflerence between them was, that one believed in State help, and the other in ' self help.' And we may further ask. Do the two exclude each other ? In fact, the controversy, considered purely on its merits, was barren enough. Yet it led to profitable results, inasmuch as it directed the mind of Germany to the questions involved, and led to a more thorough discussion of them. Better, however, than any argument which can be urged is the verdict of history on the merits of the question, as already pronounced during the period which has elapsed since the date of the controversy. In 1885, ' just twenty - one years after the bitter controversy between the two representatives of State help and self help, the societies established by Schulze in Germany alone possessed one hundred million thalers of ^capital of their own. It will be remembered that this is the amount of the loan required by Lassalle from the State FERDINAND LASSALLE 119 to bring his productive associations into operation. If the workmen fail in productive association, it will not be, as Lassalle maintained, for want of capital. Productive association with State credit is therefore not the only way out of the wilderness. Must we go further and say that Lassalle's method of State help was not the right method at all ? It is certain that the Government of Germany, though organised on the principle of universal suffrage, has not granted the credit demanded by Lassalle, and that his agitation in this matter has failed owing, it might be alleged, to his early death, and to the fact that since his time German socialism has prematurely moved on inter- national, and even anti-national, lines, thus alienating from itself the sympathies of the Emperor and his Chancellor. We need not say how very improbable it is that the German Government would have guaranteed its credit, however submissive and conciliatory the attitude of the Social Democrats might have been. The Social Democrats themselves, though they gave a place to Lassalle's scheme on the Gotha programme of 1875, seem now disposed to attach little or no importance to it. It does not appear in the Erfurt programme of the party, which was adopted in 1891. In short, Lassalle's agitation has in the point immediately in question been a failure. At the same time, it would be absolutely incorrect to assert that experience has pronounced against his scheme, inasmuch as no Government has ever seriously taken it in hand. Like many other pioneers, Lassalle has not accom- 12Q HISTORY OF SOCIALISM plished what he intended, yet he has achieved great results. We cannot quite accept the dictum of Schiller, that the world's history is the w^orld's judgment. We are not prepared to believe that all things that have succeeded were good, and all things that have failed were evil ; or that things are good or evil only in so far as they succeed or fail. Still, we may well sum up the controversy between Lassalle and Schulze by stating that in 1885 the societies founded by the latter had in Germany a membership of 1,500,000 with a capital of £15,000,000, and at the election of 1890 the Social Democracy of Germany, originated by Lassalle, polled 1,427,000 votes. Both have done great things, which are destined to be greater still. In this, as in so many other instances, the course of history has not respected the narrow limits prescribed to it by controversialists. We need not, however, insist further on the details of Lassalle's controversy with Schulze-Delitzsch. Much more important is it to recall the leading aspects of his teaching. What Lassalle contemplated and contended for was a democracy in which the claims of Might and Eight should be reconciled, a democracy of working men, guided by science, and through universal suffrage constituting a State which would rise to the high level of its function as representative and promoter of free- dom, culture, morality, and progress in the fullest and deepest significance of those great ideas. Above all, this democracy was to be a social democracy, in which the political idea should be subordinate to the social ; hence the duty of the State at least to initiate the solution FERDINAND LASSALLE 121 of the social question by granting credit for productive associations. But this was only to be a beginning ; the solution of the social question must be ardently worked out for generations until labour should be entirely emancipated. With such an ideal, contrast the Prussian- German State as it actually is. The German State must still find its basis in the army and police, the most intelligent of the working class being in profound discontent. It is a fact worth considering by our economists and politicians, that the 6lite of the working men of probably the best educated and most thoughtful nation in the world have gone over to the Social Democratic party. Nor can the German or any other State devote itself heartily to the solution of the social question, for Europe is like a vast camp, in which science and finance are strained to the uttermost in order to devise and provide instruments for the destruc- tion of our fellow-men. Of this state of things the young Emperor who ascended the throne in 1888 is only the too willing representative ; but even if he were inclined, he would be powerless to prevent it, as its causes are too deeply rooted in human nature and in the present stage of social development to be removed by anything less than a profound change in the motives and conditions of life. The historical ante- cedents and geographical position of Germany are such that it must long continue to be a military State; and most other nations have hindrances of their own. Eeformers must therefore wait long and strive earnestly 1-22 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM bolure they can hope to see such an ideal as that ul' Lassallc realised. That the ideal was a noble one, and that tlie gratitude of all lovers of progress is due to him for his energetic and eloquent advocacy of it, notwithstanding certain unworthy passages in his career, few will deny. CHAPTEE VI RODBERTUS To those who identify socialism with the extreme revohitionary spuit, Eodbertus is naturally an enigma. Everything characteristic of Eodbertus is an express contradiction of their notion of a socialist. He was a Prussian lawyer and landowner, a quiet and cultured student, who disliked revolution and even agitation. It was a marked feature of his teaching also, that he meant the socialist development to proceed on national lines and under national control. Yet it is impossible to give any reasonable account of socialism that will exclude Eodbertus. Clearly the only right way out of the dilemma for those who are caught in it is to widen their conception of the subject; and Eodbertus will become perfectly clear and intelligible. Karl Johaun Eodbertus, by some considered to be the founder of scientific socialism, was born at Greifs- wald on 12th August 1805, his father being a professor at the university there. He studied law at Gottingen and Berlin, thereafter engaging in various legal occu- pations ; and, after travelling for some time, he bought the estate of Jagetzow, in Pomerania, whence his name 124 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM of Kodbertus-Jagetzovv. In 1836 he settled on this estate, and henceforward devoted his life chiefly to economic and other learned studies, taking also some interest in local and provincial affairs. After the revolution of March 1848 Eodbertus was elected member of the Prussian National Assembly, in which body he belonged to the Left Centre ; and for fourteen days he filled the post of Minister of Public Worship and Education. He sat for Berlin in the Second Chamber of 1849, and moved the adoption of the Frankfort imperial constitution, which was carried. Then came the failure of the revolutionary movement in Prussia, as elsewhere in Europe, and Eodbertus retired into private life. When the system of dividing the Prussian electorate into three classes was adopted, Eodbertus recommended abstention from voting. His only subsequent appearance in public life was his candidature for the first North German Diet, in which he was defeated. His correspondence with Lassalle was an interesting feature of his life. At one time Eodbertus had some intention of forming a social party with the help of the conservative socialist Eudolf Meyer and of Hasen- clever, a prominent follower of Lassalle ; but no progress was made in this. Eodbertus was neither disposed nor qualified to be an agitator, being a man of a calm and critical temperament, who believed that society could not be improved by violent changes, but by a long and gradual course of development. He warned the working men of Germany against connect- RODBERTUS 125 ing themselves with any political party, enjoining them to be a social party pure and simple. He died on 8th December 1875. The general position of Eodbertus was ' social, mon- archical, and national.' With his entire soul he held the purely economic part of the creed of the German Social Democratic party, yet he did not agree with their methods, and had no liking for the productive associa- tions with State help of Lassalle. He regarded a socialistic republic as a possible thing, but he cordially accepted the monarchic institution in his own country, and hoped that a German emperor might undertake the role of a social emperor. He was also a true patriot, and was proud and hopeful of the career that lay before the regenerated empire of Germany. The basis of the economic teaching of Eodbertus is the principle laid down by Adam Smith and Eicardo, and insisted on by all the later socialists, that labour is the source and measure of value. In connection with this he developed the position that rent, profit, and wages are all parts of a national income produced by the united organic labour of the workers of the com- munity. Consequently there can be no talk of the wages of labour being paid out of capital ; wages is only that part of the national income which is received by the workmen, of a national income which they have themselves entirely produced. The wages fund theory is thus summarily disposed of. But tlie most important result of the theory is his position that the possession of land and capital enables 126 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM the landliolders and capitalists to cornpel tlie workmen to divide the product of their lahour with those non- working classes, and in sucli a ])roportion that the workers only ol)tain as much as can support them in life, Tims the Iron Law of Wages is established. Hence also Rodbertns deduces his theory of commercial crises and of pauperism, and in the following way : In spite of the increasing productivity of labour, the workers obtain in general only sufficient to support their class, and therefore a smaller relative share of the national income. But tlie producers form also the large mass of consumers, and, with the decline of their relative share in the national income, must decline the relative purchasing power of this large class of the people. The growing production is not met by a correspondingly growing consumption ; expansion is succeeded by con- traction of production, by a scarcity of emi^loyment, and a further decline in purchasing power on the part of the workers. Thus we have a commercial crisis bringing with it pauperism as a necessary result. In the meantime the purchasing power of the non-pro- ducing capitalists and landholders continues relatively to increase ; but, as they have already had enough to buy all the comforts of life, they spend the more in the purchase of luxuries, the production of which increases. A fundamental part of the teaching of Eodbertus is his theory of social development. He recognised three stages in the economic progress of mankind : (1) the ancient heathen period in which property in human KODBERTUS 127 beings was tlie rule ; (2) the period of [nivute property in land and capital ; (8) the period, still remote, of property as dependent on service or desert. The goal of the human race is to be one society organised on a communistic basis ; only in that way can the principle that every man be rewarded according to his work be realised. In this communistic or socialistic State of the future, land and capital will ])e national property, and the entire national production will be under national control ; and means will be taken so to estimate the labour of each citizen that he shall be rewarded accord- ing to its precise amount. An immense staff of State officials will be required for this function. As we have already said, Eodbertus believed that this stage of social development is yet far distant ; he thought that five centuries will need to pass away before the ethical force of the people can be equal to it. From what we have already said, it will be understood that by his temperament, culture, and social position Eodbertus was entirely averse to agitation as a means of hastening the new era ; and in the measures which he recommends for making the transition towards it he showed a scrupulous regard for tlic existing interests of the capitalists and landholders. He proposed that those two classes should be left in i'ull possession of their present share of the national income, but that the workers should reap the benefit of the increasing pro- duction. To secure them this increment of production he propo.sed that tin; State should fix a normal working day for the various trades, a normal day's work, and a 128 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM legal wage, the amount of which should he revised periodically, and raised according to the increase of production, the better workman receiving a better wage. By measures such as these, carried out by the State in order to correct the evils of competition, would Eod- bertus seek to make the transition into the socialistic era. The economic work of Eodbertus is therefore an attempt made in a temperate and scientific spirit to elucidate the evil tendencies inherent in the competitive system, especially as exemplified in the operation of the Iron Law of Wages. The remedy he proposes is a State management of production and distribution, which shall extend more and more, till- we arrive at a complete and universal socialism — and all based on the principle that, as labour is the source of value, so to the labourer should all wealth belong. It is hardly necessary further to dwell on the theories of Eodbertus. The general outlines of his teaching are clear enough, and the details could be properly treated only in a work specially devoted to him. In some leading features his economic position is the same as that of Marx and Lassalle. The chief difference lies in the application of their principles. We have seen that he expects the Prussian or German State to adopt his theories, but the interest we can have in the very re- mote realisation of them in this way naturally cannot be very great. It was unreasonable to believe that the people of Germany would make no use of their newly acquired political rights to promote their social claims ; RODBERTUS 129 and it is needless to say that a socialistic evolution slowly carried out under an army of officials is not a very inviting prospect. On the recent political economy of Germany, espe- cially as represented by Adolf Wagner, Eodbertus has exercised a great influence. For many he is the founder of a truly scientific socialism. His criticism of the leading principles of economics has led them to make important changes in the statement and treatment of their science.^ ^ The following are the most important works of Rodbertns : — Zur Erkenntniss unserer staatswirthscTiaftlichen Zustcinde (1842) ; Sociale Briefe an van Kirchmann (1850) ; Crcditnoth des Griindhcsitzcs (2nd ed., 1876) ; 'DerNormal-arbeitstag,' in Tub. Zeiischrift {187 8) ; Letters to A. Wagner, etc., Tub. Zcitschrift (1878-79); Letters to Rudolf Meyer ^882). See also Adolf Wagner {Tiih. Zcitschrift (1878); Kozak's work on Rodbertus (1882) ; an excellent monograph by G. Adler (Leipsic, 18S4) ; and Prof. Conner's Social Philosox)hy of Eodbertus (hondon, 1899). CHAPTEE VII KARL MARX The greatest and most influential name in the history of socialism is unquestionably Karl Marx. He and his like-minded companion Engels are the acknowledged heads of the ' scientific and revolutionary ' school of socialism, which has its representatives in almost every country of the civilised world, and is generally recog- nised as the most serious and formidable form of the new teacliing. Like Ferdinand Lassalle, Karl Marx was of Jewish extraction. It is said that from the time of his father, back to the sixteenth century, his ancestors had been rabbis.^ Marx was born at Treves in 1818, where his father belonged to the legal profession. Both parents were highly cultured and raised above the traditions and prejudices of their race. In 1824, when Marx was six years of age, the family passed over from Judaism to the profession of the Christian faith. Brought up under very favourable circumstances, ardent and energetic, and endowed with the highest ' Franz Mehring, Geschichte der Deutschen Sozialdeviolcratie, part i. p. 156. KARL MARX 131 natural gifts, the young ]\Iarx speedily assimilated the best learning that Germany could then provide. At the universities of Bonn and Berlin he studied law to please liis father, hut following his own bent he gave his time much more to history and philosophy. Hegel was still about the zenith of his influence, and ]\Iarx was a zealous student, and for some time an adherent of the reigning school. In 1841 Marx finished his studies and gained the degree of doctor with an essay on the philosophy of Epicurus. This was destined to close his connection with the German universities. He had in- tended to settle at Bonn as teacher of philosophy, but the treatment which his friend Bruno Bauer as teacher of theology in the same university experienced at the hands of the Prussian minister Eichhorn, deterred him from following out his purpose. In truth, ^larx's revolutionary temperament was little suited to the routine of the German man of learn- ing, and the political conditions of Prussia gave no scope for free activity in any department of its national life. ]\Iarx tlierefore could only enter the ranks of the opposi- tion, and early in 1842 he joined the staff of the Rhenish Gazette, published at Cologne as an organ of the extreme democracy. He was for a short time editor of the paper. During his connection with it he carried on an unspar- ing warfare against the Prussian reaction, and left it before its suppression by the Prussian Government, when it sought by compromise to avoid that fate. In the same year, 1843, Marx married Jenny von Westphalen, who belonged to a family of good position 132 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM in the official circles of the Rhine country. Her brother was subsequently Prussian minister. It was a most happy marriage. Through all the trials and privations of a revolutionary career Marx found in his wife a brave, steadfast, and sympathetic companion. Soon after his marriage Marx removed to Paris, where he applied himself to the study of the questions to which his life and activity were henceforward to be entirely devoted. All his life he appears to have worked with extraordinary intensity. At Paris he lived in close intercourse with the leading French socialists ; with Proudhon he often spent whole nights in the discussion of economic problems. His most intimate associates, however, were the German exiles. Arnold Euge and he edited the Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrhitcher. He met also the greatest of the German exiles, Heine, and is said to have had a share in suggesting to the poet the writing of the celebrated Wintermarchen. Most important of all those meetings in Paris, how- ever, was that with Friedrich Engels. Friedrich Engels was the son of a manufacturer at Barmen, where he was born in 1820. Brought up to his father's business, EnGjels had resided for some time in Manchester. When he met Marx at Paris in 1844 the two men had already arrived at a complete community of views, and for nearly forty years continued to be loyal friends and comrades-in-arms. Early in 1845, Marx, at the instance of Prussia, was expelled from Paris by the Guizot Ministry. Marx KARL MARX 133 settled ill Brussels, where be resided three years. He gave up his Prussian citizenship without again becom- ing naturalised in any country. It was in 1845 that Engels published his important work, The Condition of the Working Class in England. In Brussels, in 1847, Marx published his controversial work on Proudhon's Philosojyhie de la Mis^re, entitled Ilisdre de la Philosophie. Proudhon, it must be remembered, was at that time the leading name in European socialism, and Marx had been on very intimate terms with him. Marx's criticism of his friend is nevertheless most merciless. In defence of the German we can but say that such scathing methods were not unusual at that time, and that where the cause of truth and of the proletariat as he under- stood it was concerned, he scorned all manner of com- promise and consideration for personal feelmgs. His book on Proudhon, in spite of its controversial form, is interesting as the first general statement of his views. This book on Proudhon scarcely attracted any atten- tion whatever. In the same year, 1847, he and his friend Eugels had a notable opportunity for an expres- sion of their common opinions which excited wide attention, and which has had a great and still growing influence in the cause of the working man. A society of socialists, a kind of forerunner of the International, had established itself in London, and had been attracted by tlic new theories of Marx and the spirit of strong and uncompromising conviction with which he advocated them. They entered into relation with 'Mdvx and Engels; the society was reorganised 134 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM under the iiaiuc of tlio Communist League; and a con- gress was held, which resulted, in 1847, in the framing of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, which was puhlished in most of the languages of Western Europe, and is the first proclamation of that revolutionary- socialism armed with all the learning of the nineteenth century, but expressed with the fire and energy of the agitator, which in tlie International and other move- ments has so startled the world. During the revolutionary troubles in 1848 Marx returned to Germany, and along with his comrades, Engels, Wolff, etc., he supported the most advanced democracy in the Neio Rlienish Gazette. In 1849 he settled in London, where he spent his after-life in the elaboration of his economic views and in the realisation of his revolutionary programme. In 1859 he published Zur Kritih der politischen Oelwnomie. This book was for the most part incorporated in the first volume of his great work on capital, Das Kapital, which appeared in 1867.-^ Much of his later life was spent in ill health, due to the excessive work by which he under- mined a constitution that had orighially been excep- tionally healthy and vigorous. He died in London, March 14, 1883. It was a time of the year which had been marked by the outbreak of the Commune at Paris, and is therefore for a twofold reason a notable period in the history of the proletariat. Since the death of Marx his great work, Das Kapital, ^ All English translation of vol. i. by Messrs. Moore and Aveling has appeared, Engels being editor. KARL MARX 135 has been completed by the publication of the second and third volumes, which have been edited by Engels from manuscripts left by his friend. But neither of these two volumes has the historical interest wdiich may fairly be claimed for the first. In 1877 Engels pub- lished on his own account a work called Herrn Eugen Diihrings Unuvalzung der Wisscnschaft^ a controversial treatise against Diihiing (a teacher of philosophy in the university of Berlin) which has had considerable influence on the development of the German Social Democracy. Engels died in 1895, after loyal and con- sistent service in the cause of the proletariat, which extended over more than fifty years. The causes which have variously contributed to the rise of German socialism are sufficiently clear. With the accession of the romanticist Frederick William IV. to the throne of Prussia in 1840 German liberalism received a fresh expansion. At the same time the Hegelian school began to break up, and the interest in pure philosophy began to wane. It was a time of disillusionment, of dissatisfaction with idealism, of tran- sition to realistic and even to materialistic ways of thinking. This found strongest expression in the Hegelian left, to which, after the ideals of the old religions and philosophies had proved unsubstantial, there remained as solid residuum the real fact of man with his positive interests in this life. The devotion ' This book of Eugels, Eugen Duhriiu/s Revolutionishig of Science, is better known in its much shorter form, Entwickchmrj des Sozialismus von dcr Ulopie zur JVisscnschaft. Eng. tr. Social ism: Utopian and S.ietUific. 136 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM and enthusiasm which had previously been fixed on ideal and spiritual conceptions were concentrated on humanity. To adherents of the Hegelian left, who had been delivered from intellectual routine by the most intrepid spirit of criticism, and who therefore had little respect for the conventionalisms of a feudal society, it naturally appeared that the interests of humanity had been cruelly sacrificed in favour of class privilege and prejudice. The greatest thinkers of Germany had recognised the noble elements in the French Eevolution. To re- cognise also the noble and promising features of French socialism was a natural thing, especially for Germans who had been in Paris,- the great hearth of the new ideas. Here they found themselves definitely and con- sciously in presence of the last and greatest interest of humanity, the suffering and struggling proletariat of Western Europe, which had so recently made its definite entry in the history of the world. Thus socialism became a social, political, and economic creed to . Karl Marx and his associates. But they felt that the theories which preceded them were wanting in scientific basis ; and it was henceforward the twofold aim of the school to give scientific form to socialism, and to propagate it in Europe by the best and most effective revolution- ary methods. The fundamental principle of the Marx school and of the whole cognate socialism is tlie theory of ' surplus value' — the doctrine, namely, that, after the labourer has been paid the wage necessary for the subsistence KARL MARX 137 of himself and family, the surplus produce of his labour is appropriated l)y the capitalist who exploits it. This theory is an application of the principle that labour is the source of value, which was enunciated by many of the old writers on economics, such as Locke and Petty, which was set forth with some vagueness and inconsistency by Adam Smith, and was more system- atically expounded by Eicardo. The socialistic applica- tion of the principle in the doctrine of surplus value had been made both by Owenites and Chartists. It was to prevent this appropriation of surplus value by capitalists and middlemen that the Owen school tried the system of exchange by labour notes in 1832, the value of goods being estimated in labour time, repre- sented by labour notes. The prmciple that labour is the source of value has been accepted in all its logical consequences by Marx, and by him elaborated with extraordinary dialectical skill and historical learning into the most complete pre- sentation of socialism that has ever been offered to the world. A like application of the principle, but in a less comprehensive fashion, has been made by Eodbertus; and it is the same theory that underlies the extrava- gances and paradoxes of Proudhon. The question whether the priority in the scientific development of the principle is due to Marx or Eodbertus cannot ]»e discussed here. But it may be said tluit the theory liad been set fnith liy Eodbertus in liis first work in 1842, that the importance of the principle was understood by the Marx school as early as 1845, and 138 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM tliut in a bruad and general way it had indeed become the common property of socialists. The historical im- portance and scientific worth of the writings of llod- bertus should not be overlooked ; nor are they likely to be when so much attention has been given to him l)y A. Wagner and other distinguished German economists. But in the great work of Marx the socialist theory is elaborated with a fulness of learning and a logical power to which Eodbertus has no claim. With Marx the doctrine of surplus value receives its widest appli- cation and development : it supplies the key to his explanation of the history and influence of capital, and consequently of the present economic era, which is dominated by it. It is the basis, in fact, of a vast and elaborate system of social philosophy. In any case it is an absurdity as well as an historical error to speak of Marx as having borrowed from Eodbertus. Marx was an independent thinker of great originality and force of character, who had made the economic development of modern Europe the study of a laborious lifetime, and who was in the habit, not of borrowing, but of strongly asserting the results of his own research and of impressing them upon other men. The great work of Marx may be described as an exposition and criticism of capital. But it is also in- directly an exposition of socialism, inasmuch as the historical evolution of capital is governed by natural laws, the inevitable tendency of which is towards socialism. It is the great aim of Marx to reveal the law of the economic movement of modern times. Now, KARL MARX 139 the economic movement of modern times is dominated by capital. Explain, therefore, the natural history of capital, the rise, consolidation, and decline of its supre- macy as an evolutionary process, and you forecast the nature of that into which it is being transformed — socialism. Hence the great task of the Marx school is not to preach a new economic and social gospel, not to provide ready-made schemes of social regeneration after the fasliion of the early socialists, nor to counteract by alleviating measures the wretchedness of our present system, but to explain and promote the inevitable pro- cess of social evolution, so that the domination of capital may run its course and give place to the higher system that is to come. The characteristic feature of the rigime of capital, or, as Marx usually calls it, the capitalistic method of production, is, that industrial operations are carried on by individual capitalists employing free labourers, whose sole dependence is the wage they receive. Those free labourers perform the function fulfilled in other states of society by the slave and the serf. In the develop- ment of the capitalistic system is involved the growth of the two classes, — the capitalist class, enriching itself on the profits of industry, which they control in their own interest, and the class of workers, nominally free, but without land or capital, divorced, therefore, from the means of production, and dependent on their wages — the modern proletariat. The great aim of the capital- ist is the increase of wealth through the accumulation of his profits. This accumulation is secured by the 140 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM appropriation of what the socialists call surplus value. The history of the capitalistic method of production is the history of the appropriation and accumulation of surplus value. To understand the capitalistic system is to understand surplus value. With the analysis of value, therefore, the great work of Marx begins. The wealth of the societies in which the capitalistic method of production prevails appears as an enormous collection of commodities. A commodity is in the first place an external object adapted to satisfy human wants ; and this usefulness gives it value in use, makes it a use value. These use values form the material of wealth, whatever its social form may be. In modern societies, where the business of production is carried on to meet the demands of the market, for exchange, these use values appear as exchange values. Exchange value is the proportion in which use values of different kinds exchancje for each other. But the enormous mass of things that circulate in the world market exchange for each other in the most different proportion. They must, however, have a common quality, or they could not be compared. This common quality cannot be any of the natural properties of the commodities. In the business of exchange one thing is as good as another, provided you have it in sufficient quantity. Leaving out of consideration, therefore, the physical qualities that give commodities use value, we find in them but one common characteristic — that they are all products of human labour. They are all crystallised forms of human labour. It is labour applied to natural KARL MARX 141 objects that gives them vahie. What constitutes value is the human labour embodied in commodities. And the relation of exchange is only a phase of this value, which is therefore to be considered independently of it. Further, the labour time spent in producing value is the measure of value, not this or that indi- vidual labour, in which case a lazy or unskilled man would produce as great a quantity of value as the most skilful and energetic. "VVe must take as our standard the average labour force of the community. The labour time which we take as the measure of value is the time required to produce a commodity under the normal social conditions of production with the average degree of skill and intensity of labour. Thus labour is both the source and the measure of value. The conditions necessary to the existence and growth of capitalism, therefore, are as follows : — A class, who have a virtual monopoly (jf the means of production ; another class of labourers, who are free, but destitute of the meaus of production ; and a system of production for exchange in a world market. But it may be asked how these iiistorical conditions were established ? How did the capitalist class originate, and how were the workers divorced from the instruments of labour, and how was the world market opened up ? Such a state of things was established only after a long and gradual process of change, which Marx copiously illustrates from the history of England, as the classic land of the fully developed capitalism. In the Middle Ages the craftsman and peasant were the owners 142 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM of tlie small means of production then extant, and tliey produced for their own needs and for their feudal superior; only the superfluity went into the general market. Such production was necessarily small, limited, and technically imperfect. Towards the close of the Middle Ages a great change set in, caused by a remark- able combination of circumstances — the downfall of the feudal system and of the Catholic Church, the discovery of America and of the sea route to India. Through the breaking-up of the feudal houses with their nume- rous retainers, through the transformation of the old peasant-holdings into extensive sheep-runs, and gene- rally through the prevalent application of the commer- cial system to the management of land, instead of the Catholic and feudal spirit, the peasantry were driven off the land- a multitude of people totally destitute of property were thrown loose from their old means of livelihood, and were reduced to vagabondage or forced into the towns. It was in this way that the modern proletarians made their tragic entry in history. On the other hand, there was a parallel development of the capitalist class, brought about by the slave-trade, by the exploitation of the American colonies and of both the Indies, and by the robbery, violence, and corruption which attended the transference of the land from the Catholic and feudal to the modern regime. The open- ing and extension of the vast world market, moreover, gave a great stimulus to industry at home. The old guilds having already been expropriated and dissolved, the early organisation of industry under the control of KARL MARX 143 an infant capitalism passed through its first painful and laborious stages, till, with the great mechanical inven- tions, with the application of steam as the motive- power, and the rise of the factory system towards the close of the eighteenth century, the great industrial revolution was accomplished, and the capitalistic method of production attained to its colossal manhood. Thus the capitalistic system was established. And we must remember that in all its forms and through all the stages of its history the great aim of the capitalist is to increase and consolidate his gains through the appropriation of surplus value. We have now to in- quire how this surplus value is obtained ? The starting-point of the capitalistic system is the circulation of wares. As we have seen, the capitalistic method of production is dominated by exchange. If exchange, however, consisted merely in the giving and receiAdng of equivalents, there could be no acquisition of surplus value. In the process of exchange there must appear something the utilisation of which by the buyer yields a greater value than the price he pays for it. The thing desired is found in the labour force of the workman, who, being destitute of the means of produc- tion, must have recourse to the owner of these, the capitalist. In other words, the workman appears on the market with the sole commodity of wliieh he lias to dispose, and sells it for a specified time at the price it can bring, which we call his wage, and which is equiva- lent to the average means of subsistence required to 144 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM support himself and to provide for the future supply of labour (in his family). But the labour force of the workman, as utilised by the capitalist in the factory or the mine, produces a net value in excess of his wage; that is, over and above his entire outlay, including the wage paid to his workmen, the capitalist finds himself in possession of a surplus, which can only represent the unpaid labour of his workmen. This surplus is the surplus value of Karl Marx, the product of unpaid labour. This appropriation of surplus labour is a very old phenomenon in human society. In all the forms of society which depended on slave-labour, and under the feudal rSgime, the appropriation of the results of other men's labour was open, undisguised, and compulsory. Under the capitalistic system it is disguised under the form of free contract. The effect is the same. For the workman who is unprovided with the instruments of labour, whose working power is useless without them, this compulsion is not less real because it is concealed under the forms of freedom. He must agree to this free contract or starve. It is the surplus value thus obtained which the capitalist seeks to accumulate by all the methods avail- able. These methods are described by Marx with great detail and elaboration through several hundred pages of his first volume. His account, supported at every step by long and copious citations from the best historical authorities and from the blue-books of the various parliamentary commissions, is a lurid and ghastly KARL MARX 145 picture of the many abuses of English industrialism. It is the dark and gloomy reverse of the industrial glories of England. The fearful prolongation of the hours of labour, the merciless exploitation of women and of children from the age of infancy, the utter neglect of sanitary conditions — whatever could lessen the costs of production and swell the profits of the capitalist, though every law of man and nature were violated in the process ; such are the historical facts which Marx emphasises and illustrates with an overwhelming force of evidence. They receive ample confirmation in the history of the English Factory Acts, imposed on greedy and unscrupulous capitalists after a severe struggle pro- longed for half a century, and required to prevent the moral and physical ruin of the industrial population. We must now consider the process of the develop- ment of capitalism rather more closely.^ Under the old system industry was carried on by the individual. There could be no doubt as to the ownership of the product, as lie produced it by his own labour, with materials and tools that belonged to himself. Such was the normal method of production in those days. It is very different in the existing system. The most conspicuous result of the capitalistic system is, that production is a social operation carried on by men organised and associated in factories ; but the product is appropriated by individual capitalists: it is social production and capitalistic appropriation. Whereas the property of the preceding era rested on tlie indi- ' See Fr. Engels' Umwdlzung der Wissenschaft p. 253, and passim. 10 146 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM vidual's own labour, property under the capitalistic system is the product of other men's labour. This is the contradiction which runs through the entire history of capitalism. Here we have in germ all the antagonism and confusion of the present time. The incompatibility of social production and capitalistic ap- propriation must more and more declare itself as the supremacy of the system extends over the world. The contradiction between social production and capitalistic appropriation naturally appears in the con- trast between the human beings concerned in it. For the appropriators form the hourgeoisie, and the social workers constitute the proletariat, the two historic classes of the new era. Another conspicuous and im- portant result is that, while we have this organisation in the factory, we have outside of it all the anarchy of competition. We have the capitalistic appropriators of the product of labour contending for the possession of the market, without systematic regard to the supply required by that market — each one filling the market only as dictated by his own interest, and trying to outdo his rivals by all the methods of adulteration, bribery, and intrigue; an economic war hurtful to the best interests of society. With tlie development of the capitalistic system machinery is more and more per- fected, for to neglect improvement is to succumb in the struggle ; the improved machinery renders labour super- fluous, which is accordingly thrown idle and exposed to starvation ; and this is entirely satisfactory to the capitalist class, whose interest it is to have a reserve KARL MARX 147 array of labourers disposable for the times when industry is specially active, but cast out on the streets through the crash that must necessarily follow. But as the technique improves the productive power of industry increases, and continually tends more and more to surpass the available needs of the market, wide as it is. This is all the more inevitable, because the consumption of the masses of the population is re- duced to the minimum requisite merely to maintain them in life. It is another contradiction of the capital- istic system that on the one hand its inherent laws tend to restrict the market which on the other hand it is ready by all means fair and foul to extend. The con- sequence is, that the market tends to be overstocked even to absolute repletion ; goods will not sell, and a commercial crisis is established, in which we have the remarkable phenomenon of widespread panic, misery, and starvation resulting from a superabundance of wealth — a " crise plethorique," as Fourier called it, a crisis due to apfethoraofwealth. These crises occur at periodic intervals, each one severer and more widespread than the preceding, until they now tend to become chronic and permanent, and the whole capitalistic world staggers under an atlantean weight of ill-distributed wealth. Thus the process goes on in obedience to its own inherent laws. Production is more and more concentrated in the hands of mammoth capitalists and colossal joint-stock companies, under whicli tlio proletariat are organised .mkI drilled into vast industrial armies. ]>ut as crisis succeeds crisis, 148 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM vintil panic, stagnation, and disorder are universal, it becomes clear that the hourgeoisie are no longer capable of controlling the industrial world. In fact, the pro- ductive forces rise in chronic rebellion against the forms imposed on them by capitalism. The incompatibility between social production and anarchic distribution decidedly declares itself. A long course of hard experience has trained the modern democracy in the insight necessary for the appreciation of the conditions of its own existence. The social character of production is explicitly recognised. The proletariat seizes the political power, and through it at last takes complete control over the economic functions of society. It expropriates the private capitalist, and, appropriating the means of production, manages them in its own interest, which is the interest of society as a whole ; society passes into the socialistic stage through a revolution determined by the natural laws of social evolution, and not by a merely arbitrary exercise of power. It is a result determined by the inherent laws of social evolution, independent of the will and purpose of individual men. All that the most powerful and clear-sighted intellect can do is to learn to divine the laws of the great movement of society, and to shorten and alleviate the birth-pangs of the new era. The efforts of reactionaries of every class to turn the wheel of history backwards are in vain. But an intelligent appreciation of its tendencies, and a willing co-operation with them, will make progress easier, smoother, and more rapid. KARL MARX 149 AVe need hardly return to the role which is played by surplus value in this vast historical process. The capitalist appropriates the product of labour because it contains surplus value. It is the part of the product that embodies surplus value and represents a clear gain which attracts him. Surplus value is the beginning, middle, and end of capitalism. It moves it alike in its origin and progress, decline and fall. It is the keynote of a great process of historic evolution continued for centimes ; the secret of a vast development, which becomes more and more open as time goes on. And capitalism grows sick of the sustenance which formerly nourished it. It dies of over -repletion, of habitual excess in surplus value. Let us now inquire how far the Marx school have thrown any light on the forms likely to be assumed by the new society after the downfall of capitalism. In his mature works as far as published Marx himself has said little to guide us. The clearest indication of his views is contained in the following passage: — 'Lot us assume an association of free men, who work with common means of production and consciously put forth their many individual labour powers as a social labour power. The total product of the association is a social product. A part of this product serves again as means of production. It remains social property. But another part is as means of living consumed by the members of the association. It must therefore be distributed among them. The nature of this distribution will change according to the special nature of the organisation of 150 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM production and the corresponding grade of historical development of the producers.' And then he goes on to assume that the share of each producer in the means of living may be determmed by his labour time. Labour time will at once serve as measure of the share of each producer in the common labour, and therefore also of his share in the portion of tlie common product which is devoted to consumption.-^ Another important indication by one who has full right to speak for Marx is contained in Fr. Engels' views regarding the State. After the proletariat have seized political power and transformed the means of production into State property, the State will cease to exist. In the old societies the State was an organisa- tion of the exploiting class for the maintenance of the conditions of exploitation that suited it. Ofiicially the representatives of the whole society, the exploiting class only represented itself. But when the State at last becomes the real representative of the whole society it renders itself superfluous. In a society which contains no subject class, from which class rule and the anarchy of production and the collisions and excesses of the struggle for individual existence have been removed, there is nothing to repress, and no need for a repressing force like the State. The first act wherein the State really appears as representative of the entire society — the appropriation of the means of production in the name of society — is also its last independent act as State. In place of the government over persons, there ^ Das Kapital, i. 48. KARL MARX 151 will be au admiuistration of things and the control of productive processes. The State is not abolished; it dies away.^ In effect, these two indications of opinion point to a condition of society which is not fundamentally different from that contemplated by the anarchist school. Both look forward to a period when men will live in free associations, and when the administration of social affairs will be conducted without the exercise of com- pulsion. It will have been seen that what Marx and his school contemplate is an economic revolution brought about in accordance with the natural laws of historic evolution. But in order to understand the full import of this revolution in the mind of Marx, we must remember that he regards the economic order of society as the groundwork of the same, determining all the other forms of social order. The entire legal and political structure, as well as philosophy and religion, are con- stituted and controlled in accordance with the economic basis. This is in harmony with his method and his conception of the world, which is the Hegelian reversed : ' For Hegel the thought process, which he transforms into an independent subject under the name idea, is the creator of the real, which forms only its external mani- festation. With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing else than the material transformed and trans- lated in the human brain.' His conception of the world is a frank and avowed materialism. ' Umwdlzxiivj dcr WisscnschafI, pp. 267, 2G3. 152 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM And to a world thus understood he applies the dialectic method of investigation. Dialectic is a word current in the Hegelian and other philosophies. It sounds ratlier out of place in a materialistic view of the world. In the system of Marx it means that the busi- ness of inquiry is to trace the connection and concatena- tion in the links that make up the process of historic evolution, to investigate how one stage succeeds another in the development of society, the facts and forms of human life and history not being stable and stereotyped things, but the ever-changing manifestations of the fluent and unresting real, the course of which it is the duty of science to reveal. Both Marx and Fr. Engels, moreover, are fond of expressing the development of capitalism in the language of the well-known Hegelian threefold process — thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Private property resting on a man's own labour of the former times is the thesis. The property resting on other men's labour of the capitalistic era is the nega- tion of this individual property. The expropriation of the capitalists by the proletariat is the negation of the negation, or synthesis. But how far this use of the Hegelian terms is merely a form of literary expression, or how far it is a survival in Marx of a real belief in Hegelianism, it is not easy to determine.'^ The whole position of the Marx school may be characterised as evolutionary and revolutionary socialism, based on a materialistic conception of the world and of human history. Socialism is a social revolution deter- 1 See Preface to secoud edition of the Kajdtal, p. xix. KARL MARX 153 mined by the laws of historic evolution — a revolution which, changing the economic groundwork of society, will change the whole structure. It may now be convenient to sum up the socialism of the Marx school under the following heads : — (1) j\Iaterialistic conception of the world and of history, (2) Dialectic method of investigation. (3) The economic order is the basis of all social order ; the entire legal and political structures of society, religion, and pliilosophy are to be explained in accordance with the economic basis. (4) The historic evolution of capitalism; how, from the fifteenth century onwards, the capitalist class was developed, and how a corresponding proletariat was created. (5) The capitalist class grows by the appro- priation and accumulation of the surplus value contained in the product of labour, whilst the proletariat is reduced to a subsistence wage. It is social production and capitalistic appropria- tion. (6) Organisation in the factory; anarchy in society as a whole. (7) This anarchy is intensified, especially in the great commercial crises, showing that the middle class are no longer able to control the productive forces. (8) All these contradictions can be solved only by an explicit recognition of the social character of ^ Ut^l64 |»'Vw^^ «v.Av..li HISTORY OF SOCIALISM production. The proletariat seizes political power and transforms the means of production into social property. (9) The State, which has hitherto been an arrangement for holding the producing class in subjection, will become superfluous, and die a natural death. Henceforward, government will consist simply in the control of industrial pro- cesses. The work of Marx is a natural history of capital, especially in its relation to labour, and in its most essential features is a development of two of the leading principles of the classic economics — that labour is the source of value, but that of tliis value the labourer obtains for himself merely a subsistence wage, the surplus being appropriated by the exploiting capitalist. Marx's great work may be described as an elaborate historical development of this glaring fundamental con- tradiction of the Eicardian economics, the contradiction between the Iron Law of Wages and the great principle that labour is the source of wealth. Marx's conception of labour is the same as that of Eicardo, and as a logical exposition of the historic contradiction between the two principles, on the basis of Eicardo, the work of ]\Iarx is quite unanswerable. It is obvious, however, that the definition of labour assumed both in Eicardo and Marx is too narrow. The labour they broadly posit as the source of wealtli is manual labour. In the early stages of industry, when the market was small and limited, and the technique was of the simplest and rudest KARL MARX 155 description, labour iu that sense might correctly enough be described as the source of value. But in modern industry, when the market is world-wide, the technique most complex, and the competition most severe, when inventiveness, sagacity, courage, and decision in initia- tive, and skill in management, are factors so important, no such exclusive place as has been claimed can be assigned to labour. The Eicardian principle, therefore, falls to the ground. And it is not historically true to maintain, as Marx does, that the profits of the capitalist are ob tamed simply by appropriating the products of unpaid labour. In initiating and managing, the capitalist is charged with the most difficult and important part of the work of production. As a natural consequence, it follows that Marx is also historically inaccurate in roundly explain- ing capital as the accumulation of unpa,id labour appropriated by the capitalist. In past accumulation, as in the control and management of industry generally, the capitalist has had the leading part. Capital, there- fore, is nut necessarily robbery, and in an economic order in which the system of free exchange is the rule and the mutually beneficial interchange of utilities, no objection can be raised to the principle of lending and borrowing of money for interest. In short, in his theory of unpaid labour as supplying the key to his explanation of the genesis and development of the capitalistic system, Marx is not true to history. It is the perfectly logical outcome of certain of the lead- ing principles of the Eicardian school, but it does not 156 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM give an adequate or accurate account of the facts of economic evolution. In his theory of unpaid labour Marx is not consistent with the general principles of his own philosophy of social evolution. With him history is a process deter- mined by material forces, a succession of orderly phenomena controlled by natural laws. Now we may waive the objection suggested by the principle enun- ciated in the Marx school itself, that it is not legitimate to apply ethical categories in judgment on economic processes that are merely natural; which, however, Marx does with revolutionary emphasis throughout some hundreds of pages of his great work. It is more important to point out, in perfect consistency with the principles of the school, that the energy and inventive- i^ess of the early capitalists especially were the most essential factors in determining the existence and development of a great economic era, and that the assertion of freedom was an indispensable condition in breaking the bonds of the old feudal order, which the new system displaced. Instead, therefore, of living and growing rich on the produce of unpaid labour, the capitalist had a great social and industrial function to perform, and played a great part in historic evolution. The position and function of the workman was sub- ordinate. In short, Marx has not sufficiently recognised the fact that the development of the new social forces brought with it a new set of functions: that of initiating and directing industrial enterprise. These functions are KARL Ml Vv.t • i-^PJtlr'^i not comprehended in the narrow definition of labour, but they are, nevertheless, most essential to progress ; and the men that performed them have a most complete historical reason for their existence and a share in the results of industry. We need not add that such an argument does not justify all they did as the heads of the new industry. There is ample evidence that they were often rough, hard, cruel, and unscrupulous in the prosecution of their industrial enterprises. ISTor does it prejudice the question whether the like direction of industry must and should continue in the future. There can be no doubt that in his theory of surplus value obtained from unpaid labour, Marx, as agitator and controversialist, has fallen into serious contradiction with himself as scientific historian and philosopher. The theory that labour is the source of value was widely accepted among economists during his early life, and by its justice and nobleness it was well adapted to the comfortable optimism prevalent among so many of the classical school. The economists, however, did not follow tlie principle to its obvious conclusion : tliat if labour is the source of wealth, the labourer should enjoy it all. It was otherwise with the socialists, who were not slow to perceive the bearing of the theory on the existing economic order. In his controversial treatise against Proudhon, Marx gives a list of writers (beginning with the political economy of Hopkins,-'^ published in 1822, only five years after the appearance ' This, liowevcr, must be a mistake for T. Hodg.skin, who in 1825 pnljlishc'l a pami)]ilct, Labour defeiuled against the Claimx of Capital, in wliich sucli views are set forth. 158 ^ HISTORY OF SOCIALISM of Pticardo's great work), by whom the principle was applied to revolutionary purposes. Its simplicity and seemino; effectiveness must have made it most attrac- tive. As posited by the classic economy, and applied by the socialists, Marx accepted the principle. It was an unanswerable argumentum ad liominem when addressed to an economist of the Eicardian school ; but it should have broken down when confronted with historical fact. Nevertheless it was made, and continued to be, the foundation-stone of the system of Marx, and is really its weakest point. His doctrine of surplus value is the vitiating factor in his history of the capitalistic system. Tlie most obvious excuse for him is that he borrowed it from the classic economists. Fr. Engels sums up the achievement of his friend Marx in the two great discoveries — the materialistic conception of history, and the revelation of the secret of the capitalistic method of production by means of surplus value. Materialism is a very old theory of the world. It is now given up by competent thinkers, and we need not discuss it here. Nor need we say that it is a grave exaggeration to maintain that all social insti- tutions, including philosophy and religion, are to be explained by reference to the economic factors. History is a record of the activity of the human mind in very many directions. Men have had various interests, which have had a substantive, and so far, an independent value, though they must also be regarded as an organic whole. It is absolutely impossible to account for all by reference to any one. KARL MARX 159 Nevertheless, it is a great merit of Marx that he has so powerfully called attention to the vast importance of the economic side of history. The economic factors in the life of mankind have been sadly neglected, even by philosophic historians. Such neglect has been partly due to the scarcity of material relating to this aspect of their subject, partly owing to false conceptions of the function of the historian, chiefly because their public was a high-bred class, which had no particular M'ish to read about such imfashionable topics as those connected with the daily toil of the lower orders. In this way the true causation of history has often been overlooked, or totally misconceived, and results have, in thousands of instances, been traced to conventional and imaginary agencies, when the real origin lay deep down in the economic life of the people. We are now beginning to see that large sections of history will need to be rewritten in this new light. To proceed with our criticism of ]\Iarx. It is a feature of his materialistic conception of history that his language respecting the inevitable march of society would sometimes suggest a kind of fatalism. But this is more than counterbalanced by his strong assertion of the revolutionary will. On both sides we see over- statement. The most prominent feature of his teaching, however, in this reference, is the excessive stress which he lays on the virtues and possibilities of the revolu- tionary method of action. The evolution he contem- plates is attended and disturbed by great historic breaks, by cataclysm and catastrophe. Tlicsc and other 160 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM features of his teaching, to which objection must be made, were most pronounced in his early writings, especially in the Manifesto of the Communist League, but they continue to be visible throughout his life. According to his latest teaching, a great revolutionary catastrophe is to close the capitalistic era ; and this must be regarded as a very bad preparation for the time of social -peace which is forthwith to follow. The proletariat, the class which is to accomplish the revo- lution, he described as oppressed, enslaved, and degen- erate.'^ How can such a class be expected to perform so great an historic function well and successfully ? But the main defect of his teaching lies in the arbitrariness and excessive abstractness that character- ise his method of investigation and presentation ; and this defect particularly attaches to the second great discovery attributed to him by Fr. Engels— his theory of surplus value. We shall better understand the position of Marx if we recall some of the important circumstances in his life and experience. As we have seen, his family passed from the profession of Judaism to Christianity when he was six years of age, and he thus lost the traditions of the faith of his ancestors without living into the traditions of the new faith. Like many Jews in a similar position the traditions of the past therefore had little influence on Karl Marx, and he was so far well fitted to take a wide and unprejudiced view of human affairs. With his great endowments and vast knowledge he should have been one of the freest heads in Europe. KARL MARX 161 His practical energy was uot inferior to the range of his intelhcfence. All the more regrettable, therefore, is it that Marx should have adopted such a narrowing system of philo- sophy as materialism. It is also remarkable that he, the severest of critics, should have adopted, at so early an age and with out due scrutiny , the theory of value set forth by Adam Smith and Eicardo, and that he should have applied it without question during the remainder of his hfe to the building up of a vast system of thought, and to a socialistic propaganda which was meant to revolutionise the world. Another instance of the premature dogmatism which lias so often exercised a great and not seldom a mischievous influence on human thought. In this connection it may not be altogether fanciful to observe that his heredity derived from rabbinical ancestors may account for much that is peculiar in his way of thinking. The excessive acumen, the relentless minuteness with which he pursues his course through details which often seem very unreal, the elaboration which lie bestows upon distinctions which are often abstract and artificial, may well be regarded as alien to Western modes of thought. Revolutionary materialism was a strange sphere in which to exercise a logic after the manner of the rabbi. However this may be, we know that when his mind was being formed the Hegelian philosophy was supreme in Germany; and it can hardly be said tliat the study of Hegel is a good training for the study of history, 11 162 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM according to the freest and purest conception of the subject. The study of history, in the highest sense of the word, requires a modest attitude towards objective fact whicli is not easily attained in the philosophy of the schools. ]\Iarx was a German, trained in the school of Hegel ; and he passed most of his life in laborious seclusion, in exile and revolt against dominant ideas and institu- tions. Though a materialist, he does not show sufficient respect for facts, for history. In reading his great work we feel that the facts are in chronic rebellion against the formulas to which he seeks to adapt them. Adam Smith, the founder of Political Economy, was also academic at the outset of his life ; but he was a Scotsman of a period when the ablest Scotsmen were trained by French clearness and common sense. And he was not in revolt, like Marx, but in full sympathy with a cause whose time had come, whereas Marx represented a cause which had not yet attained to any considerable degree of clearness. In learning and philosophic power, Marx will compare favourably with Adam Smith ; but in historic reasonableness, in respect for fact and reality. Smith is decidedly his superior. In Smith's great work we see philosophy controlled by fact, by historic knowledge and insight. The work of Marx, in many of its most important sections, is an arbitrary and artificial attempt to force his formulas on the facts of history. Whether the fault lay in the Hegelian philosophy, or in Marx's use of it, there can be no doubt that its influence has inflicted most serious KARL MARX 163 damage on what might otherwise have been a splendid historical work. We are therefore obliged to say that the historical work of Marx does not by any means rise to the highest conception of history. It is deficient in the free outlook, in the clear perspective, in the sympathy and impartiality which should characterise the best historical achievements. The historical work of Marx is placed at the service of a powerful and passionate propaganda, and of necessity is disturbed and troubled by the function which it is made to serve. In dealing with history we must accept facts and men as we find them. The facts are as they are ; and the men of history are not ideal men. Like other men Marx had to work under human limitations. The great task of his life was to rouse the proletariat of the world to a sense of its position, its mission, and destiny, to discover the scientific conditions under which a new era in the evolution of the human race could be in- augurated and carried on by the working classes of all lands. It was a mixed task in which science and practice were combined, and in which the purely scientific study of history naturally suffered in the partnership with a very strenuous revolutionary practice. We need not say that it was not the fault of Marx that he adopted the revolutionary career. He was bom at a time and in a country where men of inde- pendence and originality of character of necessity became revolutionists. In face of the European reac- 164 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM tion Marx never made any concession or compromise. He never bowed liimself in tlio house of Eimmon. Seldom in the history of human thought has there been a man who travelled right aliead in so straight- forward a path, however formidable the opposition and however apparently hopeless surrounding circumstances might be. Public opinion had no weight with him ; neither idle sentiment nor amiable weaknesses found any place in his strongly-marked individuality. In view of such a career spent in the unflinching service of what he regarded to be truth, and in the greatest of human causes, it would be mean and dis- graceful not to speak of Marx in terms of profound respect. His sincerity, his courage, his self-abnegation, his devotion to his great work through long years of privation and obloquy, were heroic. If he had followed the broad and well-beaten highway of self-interest, Marx, with his exceptional endowments both for thought and action, might easily have risen to a foremost place in the Prussian State. He disdained the flesh-pots of despotism and obscurantism so much sought after by the average sensual man, and spent forty hard and laborious years almost wholly in exile as the scientific champion of the proletariat. Many m°.n are glad to live an hour of glorious life. Few are strong and brave enough to live the life heroic for forty years with the resolution, the courage, and consistency of Karl Marx. In the combination of learning, philosophic acumen, and literary power, he is second to no economic thinker KARL MARX 165 of the nineteenth century. He seems to have been master of the whole range of economic literature, and wielded it with a logical skill not less masterly. But his great strength lay in his knowledge of the technical and economic development of modern industry, and in his marvellous insight into the tendencies in social evolution determined by the technical and economic factors. Whether his theories in this department are right or wrong, they have suggested questions that will demand the attention of economic thinkers for a lone time to come. It is in this department, and not in his theory of surplus value, that ]\Iarx's significance as a scientific economist is to be found. Notwithstanding all that may justly be said in criticism of Marx, it remains, then, that his main achievement consists in the work he has done as scientific inquirer into the economic movement of modern times, as the philosophic_Jiistorian of the V'- capitalistic era. It is now admitted by all inquii-ers worthy of the name that history, including economic history, is a succession of orderly phenomena, that each phase in the line of succession is marked by facts and tendencies more or less peculiar to itself, and that laws and principles which we now condemn had for- merly an historical necessity, justification, and validity. In accordance with this fundamental principle of liis- torical evolution, arrangements and institutions which were once necessary, and originally formed a stage in human progress, may gradually develop contradictions and abuses, and thus become more or less antiquated. 166 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM The economic social and political forms which were the progressive and even adeqnatc expressions of the life of one era, become hindrances and fetters to the life of the succeeding times. This, the school of Karl Marx says, is precisely the condition of the present economic order. The existing arrangements of land- lord, capitalist, and wage-labourer under free competi- tion are burdened with contradiction and abuse. The life of society is being strangled by the forms which once promoted it. They maintain that the really vital and powerful tendencies of our time are towards a higher and wider form of social and economic organisa- tion — towards socialism. Here, as we believe, is the central point of the whole question. The place of Marx in history will depend on how far he has made a permanent contribution towards the settlement of it. During his lifetime the opinions of Marx were destined to find expression in two movements, which have played a considerable part in recent history — the International and the Social Democracy of Germany. Of the International, Marx was the inspiring and con- trolling head from the beginning; and the German Social Democracy, though originated by Lassalle, before long fell under Marx's influence. Marx wrote the famous inaugural address of the International and drew up its statutes, maintaining a moderation of tone which contrasted strongly with the outspoken vigour of the communist manifesto of 1847. But it was not long before the revolutionary socialism which underlay KARL MARX 167 the movement gained the upper hand. The Inter- national no doubt afforded a splendid opportunity for the propaganda of j\Iarx. The fortunes of the Inter- national and of the German Social Democracy will be sketched in subsequent chapters. >-V«f Uc^'A-i i^^^ «»^ Ct'J,«-rfVVVtM/U^ 0f tu*^A^ <^ ""^ CHAPTEE VIII THE INTERNATIONAL It is au inevitable outcome of the prevalent historic forces that the labour question has become inter- national. From the dawn of history there has been a widen- ing circle of communities with international relations. Civilisation had its earliest seats on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates. The Greeks and Phoenicians carried it round the shores of the Mediterranean. The Eomans received it from the Greeks, and, after adding to it a valuable contribution of their own, handed it on to the nations of Western and Central Europe. The Christian Church spread over the countries in which the Eoman peace prevailed, but did not confine itself to the limits of the empire. Amidst the group of nations who thus participated in the Greco-Eoman culture and in the Christian life, there has always been a special degree of international sympathy : ideas and institutions have been largely common to them all. Feudalism and the Church, chivalry and the Crusades, all these were international in their influence. THE INTERNATIONAL 169 Tlieii, US now, great ideas and great movements could not be confined within national barriers. In the expansive and progressive epochs of history, parti- cularly, supreme interests have raised men above the prejudices of race, and have united them by wider and deeper principles tlian those by which they are separated into nations. At the great religious revolt of the sixteenth century, Germans combined with the Swedes and the French against their own countrymen. The Catholic Church, as its name implies, has always been, and still continues to be, a great international institution. The enlightenment of the eighteenth century had an international influence, and at the French Picvolution high concerns of political and social freedom for a time brolce through the conventional feelings of patriotism. Germans, Italians, and even Englishmen, were in many cases ready to receive the boon of a better order of things at the price of French victory over their own countrymen. Only for a time, till the enthusiasm of the Eevolution was made subservient to the selfishness of tlie new France — an instrument for the colossal egotism of a single man. In our time, steam and the electric telegraph have become the bearers of a widening international move- ment. All the great human interests are cultivated and pursued on a wider scale than ever — religion, science, literature, art. Commerce and industry have naturally shared in the general expansion. We have only to scan the opera- 170 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM tious of the great markets and exchanges in any daily paper as a proof of this. In a small space round tlie Bank of England, financial transactions are carried on which powerfully affect the entire world. Even the very simple breakfast of an ordinary citizen is a great international function, in which the productions of the most diverse countries combine to appease his wants. The methods and appliances of this modern industry have been developed in England since the middle of the eighteenth century. Not many years ago England was still the supreme, almost the exclusive, representative of the new industry ; now it is becoming the common possession of all countries dominated by European culture, and is rapidly, gaining ground in the long- isolated nations of the East. The competition for business among the capitalists of various countries grows more intense every year. Once carried on chiefly or entirely for local needs, production has now to work for a market of wide and often incalculable extent. Under these circumstances, we need not be surprised that labour, the prime factor in industry, has inter- national interests and relations of the most serious importance. Its antagonism to capitalism must declare itself on the international arena. In the competitive struggles of the last sixty years, the cheap labour of one nation has not seldom been thrown into the scale to weigh down the dear labour of another. Irishmen, Germans, Belgians, and Italians have often rendered unavailing the efforts of En-dish and French workmen for a higher standard of living. Continuous emigration THE INTERXATIONAL 171 from Europe depresses Americau labour. The Chinese and other Eastern races, habituated to a very low- standard of subsistence, menace the workmen of America and Australia. The great industry which is now beiiiCT established in the East will be a most serious danger alike to workmen and capitalists in the "Western World. The capitalists of most countries have long sought to shield themselves against the consequences of competi- tion by protection, by combinations tacit or avowed among themselves, of wide and frequently international magnitude. In view of the facts that we have indicated, in view of the example thus set them, why should not the working men seek to regulate their international interests ? Efforts towards the international organisation of labour have proceeded chiefly from men who, banished from their own country by reactionary governments, have carried to other lands the seeds of new thought, aud, meeting abroad those of like mind and like fate rt^ith themselves, have naturally planned the overthrow of their common oppressors. The origin of the famous International Association of Working Men was largely due to such a group of exiles. In 1836, a number of German exiles at Paris formed themselves into a secret society, under the name of the League of the Just, the principles of which were com- munistic.^ Being involved in a rising at Paris in 1839, ' Enlhullungcn uhcr den Communisten-Prozcss zu Koln, vuu luiil Marx, Einleitung von Fr. Eiigels, p. 3. 172 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM they removed to London. Here they met with work- men belonging to the nations of Northern Europe, to which German is a common speech, and the League naturally began to assume an international character. This was not the only change which the League underwent. Its members began to understand that their real duty under the present circumstances was not conspiracy or the stirring up of revolutionary out- breaks, but propaganda. The basis of the League had been a sentimental communism, based on their motto that ' all men are brothers.' From Marx they learned that the emancipation of the proletariat must be guided by scientific insight into the conditions of its own existence and its own history ; that their communism must indeed be a revolutionary one, but it must be a revolution in harmony with the inevitable tendencies of social evolution. The cardinal point in the theory worked out by Marx and now impressed upon the League, was the doctrine that the economic conditions control the entire social structure, therefore the main thing in a social revolution is a change in economic conditions. The group of exiles put themselves into communica- tion with Marx, and a Congress was held in London in 1847, with the result that the association was reorganised under the name of the Communist League. The aim of the League is very comprehensively stated in the first article of its constitution : ' The aim of the League is the overthrow of the hourgeoisie, the rule of the proletariat, the abolition of the old society resting THE INTERNATIONAL 173 on class antagonisms, and the founding of a new society without classes and witliout private property.' Marx and Engels were commissioned by the League to set forth its principles in a manifesto, which, as the manifesto of the communistic party, was published shortly before the Eevolution of February 1848. We shall best illustrate the spirit and aim of the treatise by quoting Fr. Engels' Preface to the edition of 1883 : — ' The Preface to the present edition I must, alas ! sign alone. Marx, the man to whom the entire working class of Europe and America owes more than any other — ]\Iarx rests in the cemetery at Highgate, and the grass already begins to grow over his grave. Since his death nothing farther can be said of a revisal or completion of the manifesto. It is therefore the more necessary expressly to make the following state- ment. 'The pervading thought of the manifesto: that the economic production with the social organisation of each liistorical epoch necessarily resulting therefrom forms the basis for the political and intellectual history of this epoch; that accordingly (since the dissolution of the primitive common property in land) the entire history is a history of class struggles — struggles between ex- ploited and exploiting, ruled and ruling, classes at diffeient stages of social development; but that this struggle has now reached a stage when the exploited and oppressed class (the proletariat) can no more free itself from the exploiting and oppressing class (the hoiirc/eoisie) without at the same time delivering the 174 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM whole of society for ever from exploitation, oppression, and class struggles — this pervading thought belongs exclusively and alone to Marx.' 'The history of all society hitherto has been the history of class struggles ' ; such is the keynote of the manifesto. ' But it is a distinguishing feature of the present time that it has simplified class antagonisms ; the entire human society more and more divides itself into two great hostile camps, into two great conflicting classes, hourgeoisie and proletariat.' The manifesto is for the most part an exposition and discussion of these two classes, the historical conditions under which they have grown up, their mutual relations, past, present, and future. It would not be easy to give a brief analysis of the manifesto, nor is it necessary, as we have, in our chapter on Marx, already given an account of the same views in their maturer and more philosophic expression. The manifesto is a treatise instinct with the fiery energy and enthusiasm of a young revolutionary party, and its doctrines are the doctrines of Marx in a crude, exag- gerated, and violent form. In such a pamphlet, written for propaganda, we must not expect the self-restraining moderation of statement, the clear perspective, or the high judicial charity which should characterise a sober historical exposition. The Iron Law of Wages is stated in its hardest and most exaggerated form. To the charge that they desire to abolish private property, its authors reply that in- dividual property, the produce of a man's own labour, is THE INTERNATIONAL 175 already abolished. Wliat they desire to abolish is the appropriation of other men's labour by the capitalist. To the charge that they wish to abolish the family, they reply to the hourgeoisie with a tu quoque: ye have already abolished it by the exploitation of women and children in the factories, which has broken up the family ties, through the prevalence of prostitution and the common practice of adultery. The charge of abolish- ing patriotism they repudiate in the same manner : the workman has no country. We cannot understand the manifesto unless we re- member that it was drawn up by young men living in exile, and that it was written in 1847, shortly after some of the earliest inquiries into the condition of labour both in England and the Continent had revealed facts which ought to fill every human heart with sorrow and indignation. As the manifesto of the first international combina- tion of workmen, it has a special historical importance, and claims special attention. And apart from that, it is one of the most remarkable utterances of the nineteenth century. ' The manifesto,' says Fr. Engels, ' was sent to the press at London a few weeks before the February Eevo- lution. Since then it has made the tour of the world. It has been translated into almost every tongue, and in the most different countries still serves as the guidino-- star of the proletarian movement. The old motto of the league, "All men are brethren," was replaced by tlie new battle-cry, "Proletarians of all lands unite," 176 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM which openly proclaimed the international character of the struggle. Seventeen years later this battle-cry resounded through the world as the watchword of the International Working Men's Association, and the militant proletariat of all lands has to-day written it on its lianner.' ^ The Eevolution of 1848, as we have already seen,^ was a rising of the people in France, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Hungary against antiquated political arrangements and institutions. It was partly an inter- ruption to the operations of the League, as it was far too weak to exercise any great influence on the course of events ; but it was also an opportunity, as its members found access to the land of their birth, and in many parts of Germany formed the most resolute and advanced wing of the struggling democracy during that troubled period. After the triumph of the reaction it became clear that the hope of effective revolutionary activity had again for a time passed away. A period of unexampled industrial prosperity set in. Capitalism was about to enter a far wider phase of development than it had yet seen, a fact which abundantly showed that the time was not favourable for an active propaganda in the interests of the proletariat. When capitalism has become a hindrance to progressive social development, when it is obviously too weak and narrow a framework for further evolution, only then is there hope of successful effort against it. So reasoned Marx and his associates. He 1 Enthullungen, Introduction, p. 11. ^ P. 47. THE INTERNATIONAL 177 withdrew, therefore, from the scene of action to his study in London. In 1852 the first international com- bination of working men came to a close. Observers who could not reasonably be considered superficial, thought that the movement had died without hope of resurrection. But the triumph of reactionary governments in 1849 was not a settlement of the great questions tliat had been raised during that period of revolution ; it was only a postponement of them. Before many years had passed, the peoples of Europe again began to move uneasily under the yoke of antiquated political forms. The rising of Italy against Austria in 1859 ; the struggle of Prussian Liberals against the Ministry ; the resolve of Bismarck and his Sovereign to have the Prussian army ready for action in tlie way of reconstituting a united Germany on the ruins of the old Federation — these were only different symptoms of a fresh advance. They were ere long to be followed by similar activity in France, Spain, and Eastern Europe, all proving that the history of European communities is an organic move- ment, the reach and potency of which often disturb the forecast of the politician. In the generation after 1848 the governments were everywhere constrained to carry out the political programme which the people had drawn out for them during the revolution. The social question may seem to have only a remote connection with the political movements just mentioned, and yet the revival of the social question was but another sign of the now life in P'urope, which could not 1)0 12 178 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM repressed. The founding of the Social Democracy of Germany by Lassalle, and the appearance of the Inter- national on a wider and worthier scale under the auspices of Marx, were a -clear proof that the working classes of the most advanced countries of Europe now meant to claim a better share in tlie moral and material inherit- ance of the human race. We have now to sketch the growth of the movement, which is properly styled the International. Appropriately enough, the event which gave the first occasion for the founding of the International Associa- tion of Working Men was the International Exhibition of London in 1862. The workmen of France sent a deputation to visit the Exhibition, This visit had the approval and even pecuniary support of the Emperor ; and it was warmly commended by some of the leading Parisian journals as a means not only of acquainting the workmen with the industrial treasures of the Exhi- bition, but of removing from the relations of the two countries the old leaven of international discord and jealousy. In the course of their visit the French dele- gates were entertained by some of their English brethren at the Freemasons' Tavern, where views as to the identity of the interests of labour, and the necessity for common action in promoting them, were interchanged. In the following year a second deputation of French workmen crossed the Channel. Napoleon was interested in the Polish insurrection of 1863, and it was part of his policy to encourage the expression of opinion in favour of an intervention in Poland by the Western THE INTERNATIONAL 179 Powers. At this visit wishes for the restoration of Poland and for general congresses in the interest of labour against capital were expressed. Xothing decisive, however, was done till 18C-4, when on the 28th September a great public meeting of working men of all nations was held in St. ]\Iartin's Hall, London. Professor Beesly presided, and Karl Marx was present. The meeting resulted in the appointment of a provisional committee to draw up the constitution of the new asso- ciation. This committee consisted of fifty representa- tives of different nations, the Enirlish formino; about half of its number. At the first meeting of the com- mittee the sum of three pounds was collected, a humble beginning of the finances of an association which was designed to shake the world. The work of drafting the constitution was first of all undertaken by Mazzini, but the ideas and methods of the Italian patriot were not suited to the task of founding an international association of labour. The statutes he drew up were adapted to the political conspiracy, conducted by a strong central authority, in which he had spent his life ; he was strongly opposed to the antagonism of classes, and liis economic ideas were vague. Marx, on the other hand, was in entire sympathy with the most advanced labour movement — had indeed already done much to mould and direct it ; to him, therefore, the duty of drawing up a constitu- tion was transferred. The inaugural address and the statutes drawn up liy liim were unanimously adopted by the committee. 180 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM In the inaugural address ^ three points were particu- larly emphasised. First, ]\Iarx contended that, not- withstanding the enormous development of industry and of national wealth since 1848, the misery of the masses liad not diminished. Secondly, the successful struggle for the ten -hours working- day meant the break -down of the political economy of the middle classes, the competitive operation of supply and demand requiring to be regulated by social control. Thirdly, the productive association of a few daring ' hands ' had proved that industry on a great scale, and with all tlie appliances of modern science, could be carried on with- out the existence of capitalist masters ; and that wage- labour, like slave-labour, was only a transitory form, destined to disappear before associated labour, which gives to the workman a diligent hand, a cheerful spirit, and a joyful heart. The numbers of the workmen gave them the means of success, but it could be realised only through union. It was the task of the International to bring about such an effective union, and for this end the workmen must take international politics into their own hands, must watch the diplomacy of their Governments, and uphold the simple rules of morality in the relations of private persons and nations. ' The struggle for such a policy forms part of the struggle for the emancipation of the working class ; proletarians of all lands, unite ! ' The preamble to the statutes contains implicitly the 1 For the official documents connected with the International, .see R. Meyer's EmanciiMtionskampf dcs vierten Standes, vol. i. 2nd ed. THE INTERNATIONAL 181 leading principles of international socialism. The economic subjection of the workmen to the appropriator of the instruments of labour — that is, of the sources of life — is the cause of servitude in all its forms, of social misery, of mental degradation and political dependence ; the economic emancipation of the working class is the great aim to which every political movement must be subordinated ; the emancipation of the working class is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, to be solved only by the combined effort of the most advanced nations. ' For these reasons the International Association of AVurking Men has been founded. It declares : ' That all societies and individuals who adhere to it recognise truth, justice, and morality as the rule of their conduct towards one another, and to all men without distinction of colour, faith, or nationality. ISTo duties without rights ; no rights without duties.' Such are the leading ideas of the preamble ; we have only to develop them, and we have the programme of international socialism. Whatever opinion we may h(jld of the truth and practicability of the theories set forth in it, we must respect the lucid and masterly form in which Marx has presented them. It is seldom in the history of the world that talents and learning so remarkable have been placed at the service of an agitation that was so wide and far-reaching. The International Association was founded for the establishment of a centre of union and of systematic co-operation between the woiking-meu societies, which 182 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM follow the same aim — viz. the protection, the progress, and the complete emancipation of the working class. It would be a mistake to regard its organisation as one of excessive centralisation and dictatorial authority. It was to be a means of union, a centre of information and initiative, in the interests of labour ; but the exist- ing societies wliicli should join it were to retain their organisation intact. A General Council, having its seat in London, was appointed. While the president, treasurer, and general secretary were to be Englishmen, each nation was to be represented in the Council by a corresponding secretary. The General Council was to summon annual congresses and exercise an effective- control over the affairs of the Association, but local societies were to have free play in all local questions. As a further means of union, it was recommended that the workmen of the various countries should be united in national bodies, represented by national central organs, but no independent local society was to be excluded from direct correspondence with the General Council. It will be seen that the arrangements of the Association were so made as to secure the efficiency of the central directing power on the one hand, and on the other to allow local and national associations a real freedom and abundant scope for adapting themselves to the peculiar tasks imposed on them by their local and national position. As in founding, so in conducting the International, Marx took the leading part. The proceedings of the various congresses might be described as a discussion. THE INTERNATIONAL 183 elucidatiou, and filling up of the programme sketched by him in the inaugural address and in the statutes of the Association. Men representing the schools of Proudhou (who died in 1865), of Blauqui, and of Bakunm also exercised considerable influence ; but the general tendency was in accordance with the views of Marx, It was intended that the first congress for finally arranging the constitution of the Association should be held at Brussels in 1865, but the Belgian Government forbade the meeting, and the Council had to content itself with a conference in London, The tir^t congress was held at Geneva in September 1866, sixty delegates being present Here the statutes as drafted by Marx were adopted. Among other resolutions it decided on an agitation in favour of the gradual reduction of the working day to eight hours, and it recommended a most comprehensive system of education, intellectual and technical, which would raise the working people above the level of the higher and middle classes. Socialistic principles were set forth only in the most general terms. With regard to labour the International did n(jt seek to enunciate a doctrinaire system, but only to proclaim general principles. They must aim at free co-operation, and for this end the decisive power in the State must be transferred from capitalists and landlords to the workers. The proposal of the French delegates for the exclusion of the intellectual proletariat from the Association led to an interesting discussion. Was this proletariat to be reckoned among the workers ? Ambitious talkers 184 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM aud agitators belougiiig tu this class had doue much mischief. Ou the other hand, their exclusion from socialistic activity would have deprived the labourers of the services of most of their greatest leaders, and the intellectual proletariat suffered from the pressure of capital quite as much as any other class of workers. The proposal for their exclusion was rejected. The second congi-ess, held at Lausanne in 18G7, made considerable progress in the formulating of the socialistic theories. It was resolved that the means of transport and communication should become the property of the State, in order to break the mighty monopoly of the great companies, vmder which the subjection of labour does \dolence to human- worth and personal freedom. The congress encouraged co-operative associations and efforts for the raising of wages, but emphatically called attention to the danger lest the spread of such associations should be found compatible with the existing system, thus resulting in the formation of a fourth class, and of an entirely miserable fifth. The social transformation can be radically and defi- nitely accomplished only by working on the whole of society in thorough accordance with reciprocity and justice. In the third congress, held at Brussels in Sejjtember 1868, the socialistic principles which had all along been implicitly contained in the aims and utterances of the International received most explicit statement. Xinety- eight delegates, representing England, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, assembled at THE IXTEKNATIOXAL 185 tliis coui^ress. It resolved that mines aud forests and the land, as well as all the means of transport aud communication, should become the common property of society or of the democratic State, and that they should by the State be handed over to associations of workers, who should utilise them under rational and equitable conditions determined by society. It was further resolved that the producers could gain possession of the machines only through co-operative societies and the organisation of the mutual credit system, the latter clause being a concession apparently to the followers of Proudhon. After proposing a scheme for the better organising of strikes, the congress returned to the question of education, particularly emphasising the fact that an mdispensable condition towards a thorough system of scientific, professional, and productive in- struction was the reduction of the hours of labour. The fundamental principle, ' to labour the full product of labour,' was recognised in the following resolution : ' Every society founded on democratic principles re- pudiates all appropriation by capital, whether in the form of rent, interest, profit, or in any other form or manner whatsoever. Labour must have its full right and entii'e reward.' In view of the strusirle imminent between France and Germany, the congress made an emphatic declara- tion, denouncing it as a civil war in favour of Russia, and calling upon the workers to resist all war as systematic murder. In case of war the congress recommended a universal strike. It reckoned on the 186 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM solidarity of the wuilvers of all lands fur this strike of the peoples against war. At the Congress of Basel in September 1869, little remained for the International to accomplish in further defining the socialistic position. The resolution for transforming laud from private to collective property- was repeated. A proposal to abolish the right of inheritance failed to obtain a majority, for while thirty- two delegates voted for the abolition, twenty- three were against it, and seventeen declined to vote.-* If we now turn from the con2;resses of the Inter- national to consider the history of its influence in Europe, we shall see that its success was very consider- able. A conference of. delegates of English Trade Unions which met at Sheffield in 1866 most earnestly enjoined the unions to join the International ; and it repeatedly gave real help to the English trade unionists by preventing the importation of cheap labour from the Continent. It gained a substantial success in the effectual support of the bronze- workers at Paris during their lock-out in 1867. At the beginning of 1868 one hundred and twenty-two working men's societies of Soutli Germany, assembled at Nuremberg, de- clared their adhesion to the International. In 1870 Cameron announced himself as the representative of 800,000 American workmen who had adopted its principles. It soon spread as far east as Poland and Hungary ; it had affiliated societies, with journals devoted to its ^ Oscar Testu, L'Interiiationalc, p. 153. THE INTERNATIONAL 187 cause, in every country of Western Europe. The lead- ing organs of the European press became more than interested in its movements ; the Times published four leaders on the Brussels Congress. It was supposed to be concerned in all the revolutionary movements and agitations of Europe, thus gaining a world-historic notoriety as the rallying-point of social overthrow and ruin. Its prestige, however, was always based more on the vast possibilities of the cause it represented than on its actual power. Its organisation was loose, its finan- cial resources insignificant; the Continental unionists joined it more in the hope of borrowing than of con- tributing support. In 1870 the International resolved to meet at the old hearth of the revolutionary movement by holding its annual congress in Paris. This plan was rendered abortive by the Franco-German war. The war, how- ever, helped to bring the principles of the Association more prominently before the world. During the Austro- Gernian stnirrole of 1866 the International had declared its emphatic condemnation of war ; and now the affiliated societies of France and Germany, as well as the General Council at London, uttered a solemn protest against a renewal of the scourge. Some of its German adherents likewise incurred the wrath of the authorities by ven- turing to protest against the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine. All will agree that it is a happy omen for the future tliat the democracy of labour as represented by the International was so prompt and courageous in its 188 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM duiiunciatiun oi" tlie uvils of wur. It gives us ground to hope that as tlie intlueiice of the democracy prevails in the council of nations the passion for war may decline. On this high theme no men have a better right to speak than the workers, for they have in all ages borne the heaviest of the burden of privation and suffering imposed on the world by the military spirit, and have had the least share in the miserable glories which victory may obtain. The relation of the International to the rising of the Commune at Paris in 1871 is often misunderstood. It is clear that the International, as such, had no part either in originating or conducting the Commune ; some of the French members joined it, but only on their indi- vidual responsibility. Its complicity after the event is equally clear. After the fall of the Commune, Karl Marx, in the name of the General Council, wrote a long and trenchant manifesto commending it as substantially a government of the working class, whose measures tended really to advance the interests of the working class. ' The Paris of the workers, with its Commune, will ever be celebrated as the glorious herald of a new society. Its martyrs will be enshrined in the great heart of the working class. History has already nailed its destroyers on the pillory, from which all the prayers of their priests are impotent to deliver them.' ^ The Commune was undoubtedly a rising for the autonomy of Paris, supported chiefly by the lower classes. It was a protest against excessive centralisation raised ^ Der Bilrgerkrieg in Frankrcich. THE INTERNATIONAL 189 by the democracy of Paris, whicli has always been far in advance of the provinces, and which found itself in possession of arms after the siege of the city by the Germans. But while it was prominently an assertion of local self-government, it was also a revolt against the economic oppression of the moneyed classes. Many of its measures were what we should call social-radical. In two important points, therefore, the communal rising at Paris had a very close affinity with socialism. In the first place, it was a revolutionary assertion of the Commune or local unit of self-government as the cardinal and dominating principle of society over ao"ainst the State or central government. That is to say, the Commune was a vindication of the political form which is necessary for the development of social- ism, the self-governing group of workers. And in the second place, the Commune was a rising chiefly of the proletariat, the class of which socialism claims to be the special champion, which in Paris only partially saw the way of deliverance, but was weary of oppression, and full of indignation against the middle-class adventurers that had on the Ml of the Empire seized the central government of France. It would, however, be a mistake to "assume for the Commune a clearness and comprehensiveness of aim which it did not really possess. We sliould not be justified in saying that the Commune had any definite consciousness of such an liistorical mission as has been claimed for it. The fearful shock caused by tlie over- wliehning events uf tlie Franco-German war had natu- 190 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM rally led to wide-spread confusion and uncertainty in the French mind ; and those who undertook to direct it, whether in Paris or elsewhere, had painfully to grope their way towards the renovation of the country. At a time when it could hardly be said that France had a regular government, the Commune seized the oppor- tunity to make a new political departure. The true history of its doings will, we hope, be written after pas- sion and prejudice have sufficiently subsided to admit of it. The story of its rise and fall was only one phase of a sad series of troubles and disasters, which happily do not often overtake nations in so terrible a form. From this point the decline and fall of the Associa- tion must be dated. The English trades unions, intent on more practical concerns at home, never took a deep interest in its proceedings ; the German socialists were disunited among themselves, lacking in funds, and hampered by the police. It found its worst enemies perhaps in its own household. In 1869, Bakunin, with a following of anarchists, had joined the International, and from the first found themselves at variance with the majority led by j\Iarx. It can hardly be maintained that Marx favoured a very strongly centralising authority, yet, as his views and methods were naturally entirely repugnant to the anarchists, a breach was inevitable. The breach came at the Hague Congress in September 1872. Sixty-five delegates were present, including Marx himself, who with his followers, after animated discussion, expelled the anarchist party, and THE INTERNATIONAL 191 then removed the seat of the General Council to New York. The congress concluded with a meeting at Amsterdam, of which the chief feature was a remark- able speech from Marx. ' In the eighteenth century,' he said, ' kings and potentates used to assemble at the Hague to discuss the interests of their dynasties. At the same place we resolved to hold the assize of labour ' — a contrast which with world-historic force did undoubtedly mark the march of time. ' He could not deny that there were countries, like America, England — and, as far as he knew its institutions, Holland also — where the workmen could attain their goal by peaceful means ; but in most European countries force must be the lever of revolution, and to force they must appeal when the time came.' Thus it was a principle of Marx to prefer peaceful methods where peaceful methods are permitted, but resort to force must be made when necessary. Force also is an economic power. He concluded by expressing his resolve that in the future, as in the past, his life would be consecrated to the triumph of the social cause. The transfer of the General Council of the Marx International from London to New York was the beginning of the end. It survived just long enough to hold another congress at Geneva in 1873, and then quietly expired. The party of destruction, styling themselves autonomists and led by P^akunin, had a bloodier history. The programme of this party, as we shall see in our cliapter on Anarchism, was to overturn all existing institutions, with the view to reconstructing 192 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM them on a communal basis. This it endeavoured to realise by the great communal risings in Southern Spain in 1873, when its adherents set up their special form of government at Barcelona, Seville, Cadiz, and Carta- gena — at the last -mentioned place also seizing on part of the iron-clad fleet of Spain. The risings were suppressed, not without difficulty, by the national troops. The autonomists had a lingering existence till 1879. In its main practical aim, to serve as a common centre for the combined efforts of working men of all nations towards their universal emancipation, the International had only a moderate and transitory success. It was a great idea, for which the times were not ripe. How effectually organise so many millions of working men, of different countries, at different stages of social development — men ignorant of each other's language, with little leisure, without funds for travelling and purposes of propaganda ? It was in- evitable that some such effort should be made ; for we need not repeat that labour has international interests of vital and supreme importance. And we may feel assured that the attempt will Ije renewed. But on the vast scale contemplated by the International it was at least premature, and inasmuch as it drew the attention of the workmen from practical measures to far- distant and perhaps Utopian aims, and engaged them in revolutionary schemes for which the times were not ready, even if they were otherwise desirable, its influence was not salutary. THE INTERNATIONAL 193 In a movement so momentous, however, it is important to have taken the first step, and the Inter- national took more than the first step. It proclaimed a great cause in the face of the world — the cause of the poor man, the cause of the suffering and oppressed milhons of labour. As an instrument of propaganda, as a proclamation of a great cause with possibilities of vast and continual growth, it has had a world-historic significance, and teaches lessons from which all govern- ments and all men may learn. Its great mission was propaganda, and in that it has succeeded marvellously. Largely by means of it, the ideas of Marx and his associates are makingr the tour of the world. The governments most menaced by the social revolution, and most antagonistic to its principles, must perforce have regard to the questions raised by the Inter- national. It is a movement that will not rest, but will in many ways, and for many a year, claim the attention of the world. Though the International is dead, its spirit is still living. The principles it proclaimed continue to exercise the thoughts of men. It has placed before the world a whole group of problems for study, for experiment, to be pursued through doubt, struggle, and agony, to some kind of wise and beneficial solution, we fervently hope. We should not be discouraged by the fact that the efforts made for the solution of the questions of the world have so often been so hopelessly incommensurate with the greatness of the task which they attempted. 13 194 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM In beginning these liigh endeavours, men have always been like children groping in the dark. Yet the failures of one generation have frequently shown the way to success in the next. The International at- tempted the great task of the present epoch of the world in its most difficult form. We need not be surprised that its success was partial ; and we may with confidence expect that the lessons tauglit by it will prove most helpful for the future. No association styling itself International and fulfilling the same functions now exists. But the various socialistic societies all over the world are fully conscious of the international character of the move- ment in which they are engaged. Without a formal organisation they represent the claims and aspirations of the same class, have common sympathies, and pursue like aims. While differing greatly in methods of action, and even in principle, they belong to the same stream of historic effort and tendency. This international movement, however, still finds ex- pression in congresses representing the different coun- tries. Such was the congress at Ghent in 1877, which was not marked by any noteworthy feature. Greater than any socialist congress previously held were those which assembled at Paris in 1889, the centenary of the Revolution, on the 14th of July, the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. There were two congresses, one representing, as far as any difference of principle was concerned, the more uncompromising Marx school, the otlier consisting of delegates who are not indisposed THE INTERNATIONAL 195 to co-operate with other democratic parties. But tlie cleavage of principle was by no means definite; the difference between the two meetings originated largely in personal matters, especially as regards the French socialist parties, which issued the invitations. The immediate occasion of disagreement related to the manner of proving the mandates of the members. Both congresses advocated an energetic collectivism, while both also urged more practical measures for the protection of labour, such as Sunday rest, an eight- hours working-day, etc. The Marx congress consisted of 395 delegates, and the other congress of about six himdred delegates from the various countries of the civilised world. Worthy of mention also is the International Congress held in London in 189G. It was the scene of much disorder, caused chiefly by the presence of a consider- able number of delegates with anarchist sympathies, and proving only too clearly that the International of Workers is like the Concert of Europe, not yet ready to march. After being alarmed by an International of Workers, the world was agreeably startled by the project for an International of Governments. In 1889 the Swiss Government brought forward a proposal for an Inter- national Conference on Labour of the countries most interested in industrial competition. The question assumed a new aspect when, early in 1890, the young German Emperor issued rescrijjts, one of which contained the same proposal. Naturally, the matters 196 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM presented for discussion by the Emperor covered only a small part of the ground occupied by the International of Workers. The protection of adult labour, except in mines, was excluded from the business of the conference. Sunday labour, the protection of women, children, and young persons, were the chief questions laid before the meeting. There can be no doubt that the conference gave a much-needed and a beneficial stimulus to lesis- o o lation for the protection of labour in civilised countries, though it by no means realised the sanguine expecta- tions that many formed regarding it. The main result of the conference has been the recognition by the Governments of the fact that there are labour questions of vast importance, and that these questions have international aspects which can no longer be ignored. Let us hope that it may be the beginning of better things. In the course of human improvement we may hope that the question of the needs and rights of labour will ever take a large place beside the concerns of war and diplomacy, and that it will eventually supersede them. The workers have a growing influence at the elections in civilised countries. It is their duty to press their just claims on the Governments, and so to bring about that desirable consummation. CHAPTER IX THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY To understand the modern development of Germany, we must recall a few of the leading facts of its history. German history is largely a record of disunion, and this became chronic at the Eeformation, which divided the country between two conflicting forms of religion. The reliEfious strugfrle had its culmination and its catastrophe in the Thirty Years' War. Seldom, if ever, in the history of the world, has a calamity so awful befallen a people so highly endowed and so well fitted to excel in all the paths of progress. In every respect — economical, political, and moral — • Germany in the Thirty Years' War received wounds from which she has hardly recovered even to-day. Division and weakness at home invited interference and aggression from abroad. Tor generations it was the corner-stone of French policy to foster the divisions of Germany, and so to maintain her supremacy in Western Europe. The victories of the Great Frederick, the works of her great writers — Lessing, Schillei-, and Goethe, and of her great philosophers — Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and 193 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM llegel, and the mighty struggles of the War of Libera- tion in 1813, did much to restore the national con- sciousness of Germany, r>ut tlie disunion continued, and in her industrial organisation she was far behind England and France. Feudalism survived, especially in the regions east of the Elbe, far into the nineteenth century. The power -loom was not introduced, even into the more progressive Ehine country, till the middle of the nineteenth century. The results of the "War of Liberation were, for the German people, most disappointing. After throwing off the French yoke, citizen and peasant alike found that the enthusiasm and devotion with which they had spent blood and trea-sure had been in vain. The German princes took to themselves all the fruits of victory, and the old abuses continued to flourish under the old regime. The only considerable reforms were those which had been established in the Ehine country by the hereditary enemy, the French, and which the German reaction did not venture to abolish. In these circumstances we need not wonder that a profound and brooding discontent began to occupy the best German minds. A Fatherland which was dis- united at home and weak abroad, princely despotisms which fostered servility and raised a barrier to progress, backward methods and institutions which were all the more galling when contrasted with the pre-eminence which Germany had attained in literature and philo- sophy — how could any patriot be satisfied with such a wretched condition of affairs ? Thus it happened that THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 199 Germany took a leading part in the revolutionary troubles of 1848. Both at Vienna and Berlin the old regime was for a time overturned; and a national Parliament met at Frankfort. But the German re- formers were not united ; they had no clear aims ; and there was little or no material strength behind them. The reaction had been taken by surprise. But it wielded the organised military power, and so was able to act whilst the Liberals talked and proposed. Before the troubled year had come to a close the reaction was triumphant both in Vienna and Berlin. Then a time of darkness which could be felt, and which apparently was as hopeless as ever, followed in Germany. Parliaments were dispersed. Many who had shared in the struggle were put to death or imprisoned. In 1849 Switzerland counted within her borders as many as 11,000 German refugees, most of whom eventually found a home in America. It appeared as if only one failure the more had been made in the toilsome march of human progress. But it was not an entire failure. The revolutionary disturbances had at least proved that many of the old institutions were untenable, and must in whole or in part be removed. It was found necessary to make some concessions to Liberalism. ]\Iuch of the old feudalism was set aside. Above all, both in the middle and working class there had arisen a new spirit which only awaited the opportunity that was sure to come. The opportunity arriv^ed a few years afterwards, when Lho forces which 200 . HISTORY OF SOCIALISM have made the Germany of to-day came iuto action. In the new circumstances it was an interesting question how far the hourgeoisie and the working class could march together. It is a standing charge brought against German Liberalism by the Social Democrats, that it has never led the progressive forces against the reaction witli any degree of courage or resolution. They maintain that in the revolutionary struggles of 1848 the German Liberals never trusted the workmg class, that when the choice came to be made between the reaction and a strenuous democratic policy supported by the proletariat, they preferred to transact with the reaction, and so committed treason on the sacred cause of progress. On this question largely turns the history of recent German politics. It is a wide and com- plicated question which can be rightly answered only by due consideration of the facts of the historical situation. The middle class had triumphed both in France and England. But the industrial revolution which natu- rally brings with it the rule of the middle class, was in Germany much later than in France and England. In 1848 the German middle class was still in its infancy, and had neither the insight nor the material means to lead the democracy against the reaction with any prospect of success; nor was it reasonable to expect that it should. Further, it may be maintained tliat the German working class, following the example of their French brethren, has been too ready to enter on revolutionary THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 201 courses, and by thus exciting the alarm and suspicion of all sober-minded men, has done vital injury to the cause of rational and hopeful progress. There can be no doubt that for those who are bent on revolutionary courses, and those who are content with what is usually comprehended under the name of liberalism, the parting of the ways must come sooner or later. That is no reason why the parting should be premature. If they can wdth mutual advantage make their way along a common road against their common enemy, feudalism and the reaction, why slio iild th ey no t do so ? Unfortunately for German Liberals and the energetic Democratic party, there was no common way. The parting came at the very outset, and it may be regarded as inevitable. The chief aim of the Democrats was universal suffrage, and for a time at least universal suffrage in Germany, as in France, meant the strengthen- ing of Conservatism. In Germany, as in France, universal suffrage would give the deciding power at the polls to the peasantry and the rural population generally which were under the control of the reaction, and which largely outnumbered the urban population. The German Liberals did not wish universal suffras^e, as it was not in their interest. Thev treated the working men and their leaders with scant courtesy or consideration. They wished to utilise them as subordinates, or, at the best, as dependent allies. If the workmen were not willing to be thus treated, the Liberals were ready to show them the door. The working men were not willing to be so treated. 202 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM and tli(3y turned to Lassalle, with the result which we have already briefly narrated. As time went on the gulf between Liberals and Democrats widened, and the democratic working men became Social Democrats. It was a breach which may fairly be regarded as extremely hurtful to the sound political development of Germany. On one hand it has led to the result tliat the German middle class has never with resolution and comprehen- siveness of purpose led the democracy along the path on which a really free German State might have been established. Partly from choice, partly from the necessities of its position, the German middle class has followed the policy of making for itself the best terms it could with the reaction ; and the socialists say that this meant the sacrifice of democratic ideals to the material interests of the middle class, ' The treason of the lourgeoisie^ ' the abdication by the bourgeoisie ' of its historic place at the head of the democratic movement : these phrases sum up the worst accusations brought by the Social Democrats against the German middle class. On the other hand, the working men, finding them- selves neglected or repudiated by those who, according to the natural laws of historical development, should for a time at least have been their leaders, gave ear, it may be prematurely, to men of revolutionary views and antecedents like Lassalle and Karl Marx ; and in this manner was formed a revolutionary party which in many ways has not had a salutary organic relation to the main stream of German life. It is in fact the re- THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 203 action which has profited by the division between the bourgeoisie and the working class. "We shall now return to the history of the Universal "Working Men's Association which, as we have seen, was founded by Lassalle in 1863.^ At the death of the founder in 1864 the membership of the Association amounted to 4610, a small number, but we must recollect that it had existed for only about fifteen months. Lassalle, in his will, had recommended as his successor Bernhard Becker, a man totally unqualified for such a difficult post. At the founding of the Association it had been thought good that the president should exercise a species of dictatorship. This arrangement might be suitable so long as the office was filled by a Lassalle. It was not easy to get a competent man of any kind. In such a novel organisation we need not say that there were hardly any members of ability and experience. Lassalle's choice was therefore extremely limited. The most capable of his adherents undoubtedly was Yon Schweitzer, a young man who belonged to a patrician house of Frankfort on the ]\Iain, but his reputation was so far from stainless that the German workmen for some time refused to have anything to do with him. Becker was elected, and conducted the affairs of the Association with more energy than wisdom, ' Tlie best authority for the facts connected with the development of the German Social Democracy is Franz Mehring's Gcschichte der Dcutschcn Sozial-demokralie. 204 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM while tlie Countess Hatzfeldt, as the intimate friend of Lassalle, nsed lier wealth and social position to control its fortunes in a way little calculated to satisfy the self-respecting German working men. It was a time of confusion and uncertainty in the Association ; of suspicion, jealousy, and contention among its leading members. There would be no profit, however, in narrating the squabbles which disturbed the progress of the Association in its helpless infancy. Indeed, if we consider the matter with some measure of sympathy and impartiality, it would hardly have been natural had it been otherwise. Let us try to realise from what low estate the German working men were now endeavouring to rise. We must re- member that the German workman had no share or experience in government, either local or national. The right of combination, of free speech in a free meeting, and even of free movement, had been denied him for generations. He could hardly turn to the right hand or the left without coming into collision with the police and the courts of law. He had no leaders whom he could trust. The German working men, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say, had in the sphere of social and political action everything to learn. Under conditions which were most trying and uncertain they had to shape out a policy which suited their interests and ideals ; they had to learn to know each other and to work in union, and they had to find trustworthy and capable leaders. Nameless misery and degradation prevailed in too THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 205 many of the industrial regions on the Ehine in Saxony and Silesia. ]\Ien, women, and children were worked for fifteen hours a day. Hand labour was disappearing with the wonted unspeakable suffering before the machinery brought in by the industrial revolution. Both the hand labour and the factory labour of Germany suffered under the pressure of the competi- tion of the more advanced mechanical industry of Eno'land. In the lot of the German working man there had been neither light, leading, nor hope. The men who represented State and Church, law and learning, and who should have been responsible for his guidance, were too often found among his oppressors. In view of facts like these need we wonder that Lassalle, with all his eloquence and energy, found it difficult to rouse the German working men out of their apathy and hopelessness ? Under such depressing cir- cumstances it was no particular disgrace for an ordinary man like Bernhard Becker to fail, Becker's tenure of the presidency was of short duration. He was succeeded by Tolcke, a man of ability and energy ; but at his entrance into office the prospects of the Association were not bri^dit. The funds in its treasury amounted to only six thalers or eighteen shillings. If finance be the test of success the Association founded by Lassalle was iiidcL'd at a very low ebb. The brightest feature in the early history of the Association was the Sozialdemohrat, a paper founded by Schweitzer at the end of 18G4, and which liad on 206 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM its list of contributors the names of Marx and Engels. But even here the evil fortune of the Association clung to it. In a series of articles on Bismarck, Schweitzer had given expression to views regarding that statesman which were liighly displeasing to tlie two revolutionists in England, and they publicly renounced all connection with the paper. Following Lassalle, Schweitzer had shown his readiness to join hands with the Conserva- tives of Prussia when circumstances made it advisable in the interests of tlie Social Democracy. Such a policy met with no favour in the eyes of Marx and Engels. They demanded from Schweitzer the same energetic opposition to the feudal and reactionary party as he showed to the Progres'sists. Schweitzer claimed the right to shape his tactics in accordance with the situa- tion of affairs in Prussia, which he knew better than men living in exile. A socialist who could take a lucid and comprehensive view of the theories wliich he professed, a man of the world of real insight and tact, Schweitzer, by his articles in the Sozialdemohrat, ren- dered effectual service to the Association and to the socialist cause in Germany at a most critical time in their history. During those years the political condition of Germany was most uncertain and chaotic, and the Association had to grope its way through the darkness as best it could. It was a new party composed of members who had no experience of common action, and who had with much labour and perplexity to work out a set of connnon convictions. Under the circum- THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 207 stances a clear line of policy was impossible. The first mighty step out of this political chaos was made in 1866, when Bismarck, after defeating Austria, estab- lished the Xorth German Confederation. The elections to the North German Diet, which was now established, were based on universal suffrage. The first North German Diet met in 1867, and in the same year Schweitzer was elected president of the Association founded by Lassalle. How ^^'ere the Social Democrats of Germany to relate themselves to the new order of things ? Before answering this question we must say something of important movements which were pro- ceeding on the Social Democratic side. The adherents of the Universal Working Men's Association were drawn chiefly from Prussia and North Germany. In Saxony and South Germany there had meanwhile grown up a new working men's party, from which Schweitzer encountered the most strenuous opposition. Under the influence of the new life which prevailed in Germany in the years following 1860, many workmen's unions were established. As it was dangerous to make too open a profession of a political object these unions adopted the name of work- men's educative associations {ArhciterMlclungsvereine). Some of these working men's associations had attached themselves to Lassalle, but from the first many had held aloof from him. Many of these associations had been founded and promoted under liberal democratic influences, and their aim may generally be described as political and educational rather than economical ; but 208 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM it would be more accurate still to describe them as having no clear aims, and as on the look-out for a policy rather than possessing one. It is certain that as Saxons and South Germans thev were to a large degree inspired by the hatred to the growing ascendency of Prussia which prevailed around them. Shortly after the founding of the Lassalle Associa- tion a Union of the working men's associations which continued loyal to the Progressist party was founded at Frankfort in 1863, and was intended to form a bulwark asrainst the influence of Lassalle. But this Union of associations speedily began to move in the direction of democracy and through democracy to socialism. Two men were chiefly responsible for this result, Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel. Liebknecht had taken an active part in the revolu- tionary disturbances in Germany in 1848, had been a member of the group of exiles that gathered round Karl Marx in London, and from him had imbibed the principles of international revolutionary socialism. He had joined the Universal Association of Lassalle, but he never enjoyed the entire confidence of his chief. Liebknecht counted Luther among his ancestors, and was descended from the learned middle class of Germany. His friend, August Bebel, was a working man, who, being left an orphan at an early age, had been educated at charity schools. Brought up to the handicraft of turner, Bebel continued with the most laudable diligence and thoroughness to educate himself. By his acquirements, his natural talent and his force of THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 209 character, he soon gained considerable influence among his comrades. Bebel before long became a force in the German workmen's unions. At first Bebel was merely a radical of strong con- victions, and he had no love for a socialistic agitation like that of Lassalle which was to adapt itself so much to Prussian nationalism. It was only a (]^uestion of time, however, when a nature so thorough and strenuous would make the transition from radicalism to socialism. As the representative man of the German workmen's educative associations, we see him making his way in a few short years to Social Democracy, and the associations followed him step by step. Influential members soon expressed their preference for universal suffratre. The Union of associations at its meeting in Stuttgart in 1865 declared for universal suffrage, whilst their organ in the same year repudiated the Schulze- Delitzsch schemes in the most emphatic language. In 18G6 a "reat meeting of workmen's associations at Chemnitz in Saxony adopted a programme which on its political side was entirely democratic, and on its economic side made considerable advances towards socialism. At its congress in Nuremberg in 1868 the Union by a large majority declared its adhesion to the principles of the International. In a great congress at Eisenach in 1809 they founded the Social Democratic Working ]\Ion's Party, and in the same year sent representatives to the International Congress at Basel. The Union which had been designed liy the Progressists as a bulwark against Social Democracy had proved a 14 210 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM roadway l)y wliich the workmen marched into the enemy's camp. Thus two socialist parties were established in Germany, the Lassalle Association, which had its membership chiefly in Prussia, and the Eisenach Party, which found support in Saxony and South Germany. r>oth parties were represented in the North German Diet, in which at one time as many as six socialists sat. Tliey now had a tribune from which to address the German people, but it cannot be said that they were particularly grateful to P)ismarck for the opportunity which he had given them. To men of the revolutionary party of 1848, whose ideal had been the unification of Germany under the free initiative of the people, the work of Bismarck could not appear a very delightful consummation, even though it was accompanied with the gift of universal suffrage. Schweitzer regarded the North German Confederation as a very unpleasant and very unwelcome, but yet irrevocable fact, with which the Social Democracy would need to find a way of getting on, on whose basis they would have to establish themselves as the extreme opposition if they wished to continue a political party. Liebknecht, on the other hand, looked upon the North German Confederation as a reactionary work of violence and injustice that must be overthrown. In order not to strengthen it he repudiated all practical participation in the legislative measures of the Diet, The parliamentary tribune was only a platform from which he could hurl his protest against the new arrange- THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 211 inent of tilings among the masses of the German people. In his opinion the creation of Bismarck meant the division, weakening, and servitude of Germany, and history would march over its ruins. During the Franco-German "War of 1870-71 the flood of patriotic enthusiasm for a time almost sub- merged the socialistic agitation. At the commencement of hostilities Liebknecht and Bebel refrained from voting on the question of a war loan ; they disapproved alike of the policy of Prussia and of Bonaparte. The other socialist deputies, including Schweitzer, voted for it, as the victory of Napoleon would mean the overthrow of the socialist workmen in France, the supremacy of the Bonapartist soldiery in Europe, and the complete dis- integration of Germany. But after the fall of the French Empire all of them voted against a further loan and recommended the speediest conclusion of peace with the Eepublic, without annexation of French terri- tory. Such views did not meet with mucli acceptance in Germany, either from Government or people. Several of the socialist leaders were thrown into prison. At the first election to the German Eeichstag in 1871 the socialists counted only 102,000 votes, and returned two members. Soon afterwards Schweitzer announced his intention of retiring from the leadership of the Universal Work- ing ]\Ien's Association. He had been defeated at tlie general election. His position at the head of the A.ssociation, which, as we have seen, was a species of dictatorship, was no longer tenable. His trials and 212 • HISTORY OF SOCIALISM struggles with the Prussian police and courts of justice, the troubles he experienced in the midst of his own party, the persecution and calumny which he endured from the opposing Eisenach party, the sacrifice of time and money, of health and quiet, which were inseparable from such a post, had made it a very uneasy one. He had conducted the affairs of the Association with a tact, insight, and appreciation of the situation to wliich his successors in the leadership of the German socialists have apparently never been able to attain. He died in Switzerland in 1875. About the same time, in the spring of 1871, came the tidings of the great rising of the working class in tlie Commune at Paris. Mass meetings of German workmen were held in Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Dresden, Leipzic, and other large towns, to express their sympathy with their French brethren in the struggle which they were waging. In the Eeichstag Bebel made a speech which contained the following passage : — * Be assured that the entire European proletariat, and all that have a feeling for freedom and independence in their heart, have their eyes fixed on Paris. And if Paris is for the present crushed, I remind you that the struggle in Paris is only a small affair of outposts, that the main conflict in Europe is still before us, and that ere many decades pass away the battle-cry of the Parisian proletariat, war to the palace, peace to the cottage, death to want and idleness, will be the battle- cry of the entire European proletariat.' ^ ^ See Mehring, GescJiichte. THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 213 When the war fever of 1871 subsided the soeiaHstic agitation resumed its course, and it was fostered by the wild speculations of the time, and by the industrial crisis which followed it. At the elections of 1874 the socialist party polled 340,000 votes and returned nine members. From Lassalle's first appearance on the scene in 1862, the socialistic adtation had encountered the German police at every step of its career. Its leaders were prosecuted and thrown into prison. Meetings were broken up, newspapers and organisations were suppressed. The free expression of opinion on the platform and through the press was curtailed in every way. Such experience taught the socialist leaders the advantage and necessity of union in face of the common enemy. The retirement of Schweitzer from the con- trol of the Lassalle party in 1871 had removed the most serious obstacle to union. Hasenclevcr had been elected president in his stead, but it was felt that the party had outgrown the autocratic guidance which had been helpful and perhaps necessary to it in its early years. All the tendencies and intluences of the time served to bring the Lassalle and the Eisenach parties together. They were pursuing the same aims under the same conditions, against the same opposition ; and there was really nothing now to keep them apart except the recollection of old rivalries and animosities which soon faded under the pressure of their practical diffi- culties. Under these circumstances the process of union was 214 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM easy, and the fusion of the Eisenach and Lassalle parties was effected in a con<'iess at Gotha in 1875. At this o congress 25,000 reguLir members were represented, of whom 9000 belonged to the Marx party and 15,000 to that of Lassalle. The united body assumed the name of the Socialistic Working Men's I'arty of Germany, and drew up a programme, which, as the most im- portant tliat till that time had been published by any socialistic organisation, deserves to be given entire.^ The union of the two parties thus accomplished was the starting-point of a new career of prosperity for the German Social Democracy. At the election of 1877 the new party polled nearly half a million votes, and re- turned twelve members to the Eeichstag. This result was largely due to the admirable organisation to which the socialistic propaganda had now attained. A staff of skilful, intelligent, and energetic agitators advocated the new creed in every town of Germany, and they were supported by an effective machinery of news- papers, pamphlets, treatises, social gatherings, aird even almanacs, in which the doctrines of socialism were sug- gested, inculcated, and enforced in every available way. At all the great centres of population — in Berlin, Ham- burg, and in the industrial towns of Saxony and on the PJiine — the Social Democrats threatened to become the strongest paity. Such a rate of progress, and the aggressive attitude of the spokesmen of the party, naturally awakened the apprehensions of the German rulers. They resolved to ^ Sec Ap^iendix. THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 215 meet it by special legislation. The Social Democrat programme contained nothing that was absolutely in- consistent with the idea of a peaceful development out of the existing state. As we have seen, it is a principle of the Marx socialism that its realisation depends on the inlierent tendencies of social evolution ; but the process can be hastened by the intelligent and energetic co-operation of living men, and as this co-operation may take the shape of revolutionary force, and was actually in Germany assuming a most aggressive and menacing attitude, both on the platform and in the press, it was inevitable that the German Government should adopt measures to repress it. The occasion of the anti-socialist legislation was found in the attempts of Hodel and Nobiling on the Emperor's life in 1878. It is needless to say that neither attempt was authorised by the Social Democratic party. Tlie two men had no official connection with the party. Both were weak in character and intellect. Their feeble brains had been excited by the socialistic doctrines which were fermenting around them. No further re- sponsibility for their acts attaches to the Social Demo- cratic party, whose principles and interests were en- tirely opposed to such attempts at assassination. The Bill introduced after the attempt of Ilodel was rejected by the Keichstag. On the attempt of Nobiling the Government dissolved the Eeichstag and appealed to the country, with the result that a large majority favourable to exceptional legislation was returned. At the general election tlio socialist vote declined from 216 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM 493,000 to 437,000. Severe anti-socialist laws were speedily carried by the new Pieichstag. A most interesting feature of the discussions which took place in connection with the exceptional legisla- tion was the attitude of Bismarck. Now when the great statesman is no more it is specially necessary to state that he approached the subject of socialism with an open-mindedness which does him honour. He felt it his duty to make himself acquainted with all the facts relating to his office, and took particular pains to understand the new social and economic problems which were engaging the attention of the country. In a sitting of the Eeichstag on September 17, 1878, he did not hesitate to express his sympathy and even respect for Lassalle. He explained how he had met Lassalle three or four times at the request of the latter, and had not regretted it. Referring to baseless rumours that had been circulated to the effect that he had been willing to enter into negotiation with the agitator, he stated that their relations could not have taken the form of a political transaction, for Lassalle had nothing to offer him, and there could be no bargain when one of the parties had nothing to give. ' But Lassalle had something,' Bismarck went on to say, ' that attracted me exceedingly as a private man. He was one of the cleverest and most amiable men with whom I ever met ; a man who was ambitious in great style, and by no means a republican; he had a very strongly marked national and monarchical feeling, the idea which he strove to realise was the German Empire, and therein THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 217 we had common ground. Lassalle was ambitious in the grand style ; it was doubtful, perhaps, whether the German Eni})ire should close with the Hohenzollern dynasty or tlie dynasty Lassalle, yet his feeling was monarchical through and through. . . . Lassalle was an energetic and most intellectual man, whose conversa- tion was very instructive ; our talks lasted for hours, and I always regretted when they came to an end. . . . I should have been glad to have had a man of such en- dowments and genius as neighbouring landlord.' It should be added also that Bismarck saw no objec- tion in principle to the scheme of productive associations with State help recommended by Lassalle, Such ex- periments were not unreasonable in themselves, and were entirely consistent with the range of duties recog- nised by the State as he understood them ; but the course of political events had not left him the necessary leisure. Before leaving this matter we should note that, as regards universal suffrage and the scheme of productive associations with State help, Bismarck and Lassalle had common ground, on which they could have co-operated without sacrifice of principle on either side. In his speech in the Eeichstag of September 17, 1878, the Chancellor also explained the origin of his hostility to tlie Social Democracy. One of its leading representatives, eitlier Bebel or Liebknecht, had in open sitting expressed his sympathy with the Commune at Paris. That reference to the Commune had been a ray of light on the question ; from that time he felt entirely convinced that the Social Democracy was an enemy 218 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM against which the State and society must arm them- selves. As we have seen, it was liebel who had used the objectionable language in the Eeichstag ; but Liebknecht had never been backward in the frank and uncompro- mising expression of views of a similar nature. Such views were not the passing feeling of the hour ; they were the statement of firm and settled conviction, and may fairly be taken as representative of the beliefs and convictions of the German Social Democracy in general. The Social Democrats were hostile to the existing order in Germany, and they did not hesitate to say so. In these circumstances it is hardly necessary to say that a collision with a Government like that directed by Bismarck was inevitable. Bismarck himseK was a Prussian Junker who had become a great European statesman, but in many ways he remained a Junker to the end of his life. With rare sagacity and strength of will he had shaped the real forces of his time towards the great end of uniting the Fatherland and restoring it to its fitting place among the nations of Europe. To use his own words, he had lifted Germany into the saddle, and his task afterwards was to keep her there. The methods, how- ever, by which he had accomplished the first part of his task, were scarcely so suitable for the accomplishment of the second. In the now united Germany he found two enemies which appeared to menace the new structure which he had so laboriously reared, the Black International, or THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 219 the Ultramontane party, and the Keel International, or the Social Democrats. These enemies he tried to sup- press hy the high-handed methods which liad heen familiar to him from his youth. He was about fifty-six years of age when the German Empire was established. It was too much to expect of human nature that he should at so late a time of life break away from his antecedents as Prussian Junker and statesman, and adopt the methods which would make Germany a free as well as a united State. Yet it is only right to say that he w^ent a consider- able distance on this desirable path. Both as realist statesman and as patriot he wished to have the German people on his side. "When he attempted to suppress the Social Democracy by methods which are not worthy of a free and enlightened nation, he did so in all serious- ness, as a German patriot. He was a man working under the human limitations of his birth, antecedents, and position. On the other hand, the Social Democrats had endured oppression for many generations from the classes which Bismarck represented. They had now risen in anger out of the lower depths of society as an organised party, demanding that the hereditary oppres- sion should cease. Considered in this aspect the anti- socialist legislation of Bismarck was only a new phase in a secular process. Time has not yet fully revealed the means Ijy which a process of this kind can be Ijrought to a close. The anti-socialist laws came into force in October 1878. Socialist newspapers and meetings were at once 220 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM suppressed, and the organisation of the party was broken up. Generally, it may be said that during the operation of the laws the only place in Germany in which the riglit of free speech could be exercised by the socialists was the tribune of the Eeichstag, and the only organisation permitted to them was that formed by the representatives of the party in the IJeichstag. As time went on the minor state of siege was estab- lished in Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, and other towns, and the police did not hesitate to exercise the power thereby put into their hands of expelling Social Democratic agitators and others who might be objectionable to them. For some time confusion, and to some extent dismay, prevailed among the Social Democrats. But ere long they found that their union and their power did not depend on any formal organisation. As Marx had taught, the organisation of the factory necessarily brings with it the organisation of the proletariat. A well- drilled working class is a natural and inevitable result of modern industrial evolution, which tio fiat of the law can disturb, if the workmen have the intelligence to understand their position and mission. Thus the German workman realised that the union in which he trusted was beyond the reach of repressive laws, how- ever cunningly devised and however brutally exercised. The want of an organ, however, was greatly felt, and accordingly, in September 1879, the Socialdcmo- crat, International Organ of the Soeialdemocracy of German Tongue, was founded at Ziirich. From 1880 it was edited by Eduard Bernstein with real ability THE GERMAN" SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 221 and conscientious thoronghness. Every week thousands of copies were despatched to Germany, and, in spite of all the efforts of the police, were distributed among the Social Democrats in the Fatherland. In 1888 it was removed to London, whence it was issued till the repeal of the anti-socialist laws in 1890. The efforts of Bismarck against socialism apparently had a temporary success, for in 1881, the first election after the passing of the laws, the voting power of the party sank to about 312,000. But it was only tem- porary, and probably it was more apparent than real. The elections in 1884 showed a marked increase to 549,000, and in 1887 to 763,000. These symptoms of growth, however, were vastly exceeded by the results of the poll in 1890, when the number of Social Demo- cratic votes swelled to 1,427,000. They were now the strongest single party of the Empire. In all the large towns of the Empire, and especially in the largest of all, such as Berlin, Hamburg, and Leipzig, where the minor state of siege had been pro- claimed, the socialists could show an enormous increase of votes. Till about 1885 the Social Democrats liad, by their own confession, made very little progress in country districts, or among the Catholic population either of town or country. At the election of 1890 there was evidence of a very considerable advance in both quarters. The election sounded the knell of Bismarck's system r»f repression, and the anti-socialist laws were not renewed. The Social Democrats thus came out of the struggle 222 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM against r>isinarclv with a voting power three times as ereat as it liad boiMi wiicn tlie anti-socialist laws were passed. Tlic struggle had proved the extraordinary vitality of the movement. The Social Democrats had shown a patience, resolution, discipline, and, in the absence of any formal organisation, a real and effective organisation of mind and purpose which are unex- ampled in tlie annals of the labour movement since the beginning of human society. They had made a steady and unH inching resistance to the most powerful statesman since the first Napoleon, who wielded all the resources of a great modern State, and who was supported by a press that used every available means to discredit the movement ; and, as a party, they had never been provoked to acts of violence. In fact, they had given proof of all the high qualities which fit men and parties to play a great role in history. The Social Democratic movement in Germany is one of the most notable phenomena of our time. After the anti- social legislation had ceased the Social Democratic party found that its first task was to set its house in order. At a party meeting at Halle in 1890 an organisation of the simplest kind was adopted. The annual meeting forms the highest repre- sentative body of the party. The party direction was to consist of two chairmen, two secretaries, one trea- surer, and also of two assessors chosen by a Board of Control of seven members. The Sozialdemokrat, which, as we have seen, had for some time been published in London, was discontinued, and the THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 223 Voriodrts of Berlin was appointed the central organ of the party. In 1891, at the party meeting at Erfurt, a new pro- gramme, superseding that of Gotha, was adopted; and as it may fairly be regarded as tlie most developed expression of the Social Democratic principles yet put forth by any body of working men, we give it here entire for the perusal and study of our readers.^ ' The economic development of the hovrgeois society leads by a necessity of nature to tlie downfall of the small production, the basis of which is the private property of the workman in liis means of production. It separates the workman from his means of production, and transforms him into a proletarian without property, whilst the means of production become the monopoly of a comparatively small number of capitalists and great landowners. 'This monopolising of the means of production is accompanied by the supplanting of the scattered small production tln^ough the colossal great production, by the development of the tool into the machine, and by gigantic increase of the productivity of liuman labour. But all advantages of tliis transformation are monopolised by the capitalists and great landowners. For the proletariat and the sinking intermediate grades — small tradesmen and peasant proprietors — it moans increasing insecurity of their existence, increase of * Our tr. of tlie piogramiiic is talaroiilly not yet been publislied. Ilencc tlie above meagre account of iiis life. 238 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM Dresden in 1849. But the hands of the reactionary Governments and of their police were heavy on the haffled enthusiasts of the revolution. Bakunin had a full share of their bitter experience. As he tells us himself in his work on Mazzini, he was for nearly eight years confined in various fortresses of Saxony, Austria, and Eussia, and was tlien exiled for life to Siberia. Fortunately, Muravieff, Governor of Siberia, was a relative, who allowed him considerable freedom and other indulgences. After four years of exile, Bakunin effected his escape, and through the greatest hardships made his way to California, and thence to London in 1860. Bakunm thus passed in prison and in exile the dreary years of European reaction which followed the revolutionary period of 1848. Wlien he returned to London he found that the forward movement had again begun. It was a time of promise for his own country after the accession of Alexander II. to the throne. In the Kolohol he assisted Herzen to rouse his countrymen and prepare them for a new era; but the impatient temperament of Bakunin could not be satisfied with the comparatively moderate counsels followed by his friend. The latter years of his life he spent, chiefly in Switzerland, as the energetic advocate of international anarchism. In 1869 he founded the Social Democratic Alliance, which, however, dissolved in the same year, and entered the main International. He attempted a rising at Lyons in September 1870, soon after the fall of the Second Empire, but with no success whatever. ANARCHISM 239 At the Hague Congress of the International he was outvoted and expelled by the Marx party. His acti\dty in later years was much impaired by ill-health. He died at Berne in 1876. In their preface to Bakuuin's work, God and the State, his friends Cafiero and Elis^e Eeclus afford us some interesting glimpses of the personality of the agitator. ' Friends and enemies know that the man was great by his thinking power, his force of will, and his persistent energy ; they know also what lofty disdain he felt for fortune, rank, glory, and all the miserable prizes which the majority of men are base enough to covet. A Russian gentleman belonging to the highest nobility of the empire, he was one of the first to enter in that proud association of the revolted, who knew to detach themselves from the traditions, the prejudices, the interests of race and class — to contemn their own happiness. With them he fought the hard battle of life, aggravated by prison, by exile, by all the dangers, and all the bitterness which devoted men have to undergo in their troubled existence.' They then go on to say how ' in Paissia among the students, in Germany among the insurgents of Dresden, in Siberia among his brethren in exile, in America, in England, in France, in Switzerland, in Italy, among men of goodwill, his direct influence has been con- siderable. The originality of his ideas, his picturesque and fiery eloquence, his untiring zeal in propaganda, supported by the natural majesty of his appearance, and by his strong vitality, gained an entrance for him 240 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM in all the groups of revolutionary socialists, and his activity left deep traces even among those who, after having welcomed it, rejected it because of differences in aim or method.' But it was mainly by the volumi- nous correspondence with the revolutionary world, in which he spent whole nights, that his activity was to be explained. His published writings were the smallest part of his work. His most important treatise, God and the State, was only a fragment. ' My life itself is a fragment,' he said to those who criticised his writings. Nothing can be clearer or more frank and compre- hensive in its destructiveness than the socialism of Bakunin. It is revolutionary socialism based on materialism, and aiming at the destruction of external authority by every available means. He rejects all the ideal systems in every name and shape, from the idea of God downwards ; and he rejects every form of external authority, whether emanating from the will of a Sovereign or from universal suffrage. ' The liberty of man,' he says in his Dicu et VEtat, ' consists solely in this, that he obg ctlie laws of "NTature. because he has himself recognised them as such, and not because they have been imposed upon him externally by any foreign will whatsoever, human or divine, collective or indivi- dual.' In this way will the whole problem of freedom be solved : that natural laws be ascertained by scientific discovery, and the knowledge of them be universally diffused among the masses. Natural laws being thus recognised by every man for himself, he cannot but obey them, for they are the laws also of his own nature; AXARCniSM 241 and the need for political organisation, administration, and legislation will at once disappear. It follows that he will not admit of any privileged position or class, for ' it is the peculiarity of privilege and of every privileged position to kill the intellect and heart of man. The privileged man, whether he be privileged politically or economically, is a man depraved in intellect and heart.' ' In a word, we object to all legislation, all authority, and all influence, privileged, patented, official and legal, even when it has proceeded from universal suffrage, convinced that it must always turn to the profit of a dominating and exploiting minority, against the interests of the immense majority enslaved.' The following extracts taken from the programme of the International Social Democratic Alliance, which he founded, will help to complete our knowledge of the views of this extraordinary agitator. The Alliance declares itself atheistic ; it seeks the abolition of all religions, the displacement of faith by science and of divine justice by human justice, the abolition of marriage as a political, religious, legal, and bourgeois institution. The Alliance demands above all things the definite and complete abolition of classes, and political, economic, and social equality of individuals and sexes, and abolition of inheritance, so that in the future every man may enjoy a like share in the produce of labour ; that land and soil, instruments of labour, and all other capital, becoming the common property of the wliole society, may be used only l)y the workers — that is, ])y 16 242 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM associations of cultivators and industrialists. It looks forward to the final solution of tlie social question through the universal and international solidarity of the workers of all countries, and condemns every policy grounded on so-called patriotism and national jealousy. It demands the universal federation of all local associa- tions through the principle of freedom. Bakunin's methods of realising his revolutionary programme are suited to his principles. He would make all haste to sweep away the political and social institutions that prevent the realisation of his plans for the future. The spirit of destruction reaches its climax in the Eevolutionary Catechism, which has been attributed to Bakunin, but which contains extreme statements that do not consist with his acknowledged writings. It is at least a product of the school of Bakunin, and as such is worthy of attention. The spirit of revolution could not further go than it does in this document. The revolutionist, as the Catechism would recommend him to be, is a consecrated man, who will allow no private interests or feelings, and no scruples of religion, patriotism, or morality, to turn him aside from his mission, the aim of which is by all available means to overturn the existing society. His work is merciless and universal destruction. The future organisation will doubtless proceed out of the movement and life of the people, but it is the concern of coming generations. In the meantime all that Bakunin enables us to see as promise of future recon- struction is the free federation of free associations — ANARCHISM 243 associations of wliich we find the type in the Eussian commune. The influence of Bakunin was felt chiefly on the socialist movement in Southern Europe. The im- portant risings in Spain in 1873 were due to his activity. In the later revolutionary movement of Italy his influence superseded that of Mazzini, for there, as elsewhere, the purely political interest had yielded to the social in the minds of the most advanced. The doctrines of Bakunin have also left their mark on the recent social history of France and French Switzerland. About 1879 the anarchist propaganda showed signs of activity in Lyons and the sur- rounding industrial centres. Some disturbances among the miners at Montceau-les-Mines in 1882, also pro- voked the attention of the police and Government, with the result that sixty-six persons were accused of belonging to an international association with anarchist principles. Of the accused the most notable was Prince Kropotkine, who, with the eminent French geographer Elis^e Eeclus and the Eussian Lavroff, may be regarded as the greatest living exponents of anarchism. There is no more interesting figure in the recent revolutionary history of Europe than Prince Kropot- kine. Like Bakunin, he belongs by birth to the highest aristocracy of Eussia ; his family, it was some- times said among his familiar friends, had a better right to the throne of that country than the present dynasty. A man of science of European f;xme, of kindly nature and courteous manners, it may seem strange that he 244 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM should be an avowed champion of tlie most destructive creed now extant. A few of the leadincj facts of his life, as he gave them in his defence at the trial at Lyons in 188."., may throw some light on that question,^ His father was an owner of serfs, and from his child- hood he had been witness to scenes like those narrated by the American novelist in Uncle Toms Cabin. The sight of the cruelties suffered by the oppressed class had tautrht liim to love them. At sixteen he entered the school of pages at the Imperial Court, and if he had learned in the cabin to love the people, he learned at the Court to detest the great. In the army and the administration he saw the hopelessness of expecting reforms from the reactionary Eussian Govern- ment. Tor some time afterwards he had devoted himself to scientific work. When the social movement began, Kropotkine joined it. The demands made by the new party for more liberty met with a simple response from the Government : they were thrown into prison, where their treatment was terrible. In the prison where the Prince was detained nine lost their reason and eleven committed suicide. He fell seriously ill, and was carried to the hospital, from which he made his escape. In Switzerland, where he found refuge, he witnessed the sufferings of the people caused by the crisis in the watch manufacture ; everywhere the like miseries, due to the like social and political evils. Was it surprising that he should seek to remedy them by the transformation of society ? ^ Proems des Anarchistes, p. 97. ANARCHISM 245 The record^ of the great anarchist trial at Lyons in 1883, to which we have already referred, is an historical document of the first importance. Every one who wishes to understand the causes, motives, and aims of the anarchist movement should study it care- fully. At the trial a declaration of opinion was signed by the accused. The following extracts which give the purport of this declaration may be useful in elucidating the anarchist position. What they aim at is the most absolute freedom, the most complete satisfaction of human wants, without other limit than the impossi- bilities of Nature and the wants of then- neighbours, equally worthy of respect. They object to all authority and all government on principle, and in all human relations would, in place of legal and administrative control, substitute free contract, peipetually subject to revision and cancelment. But, as no freedom is possible in a society where capital is monopolised by a diminishing minority, they believe that capital, the common inheritance of humanity, since it is the fruit of the co-operation of past and present generations, ought to be at the disposal of all, so that no man be excluded from it, and no man seize part of it to the detriment of the rest. In a word, they wish equality, equality of fact, as corollary, or rather as primordial condition of freedom. From each one according to his faculties ; to each one according to his needs. They demand bread for all, science for all, work for all ; for all, too, independence and justice. ^ Le Prods des Anarchistes, Lyons, 1883. 246 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM As one of the accused maiutaiued; even a Govern- ment based on universal suffrage gives them no scope for effective action in the deliverance of the poor, as of the eight million electors of France only some half a million are in a position to give a free vote. In such a state of affairs, and in view of the continued misery and degradation of the proletariat, they proclaim the sacred right of insurrection as the ultima ratio ser- vorum. Perhaps the most striking feature of the trial was the defence of Emile Gautier before the Court of Appeal. Gautier was described by the Public Prose- cutor as a serious intelligence gone astray, a licentiate in law who had passed brilliant examinations, a power- ful orator who might be considered as the apostle of the anarchist idea in France. He was only twenty-nine years of age. In his defence Gautier described with passionate eloquence how he, the son of a law- officer (Jiuissier), had been converted to revolution and anarchism by the sight in court of the daily miseries of debtors and bankrupts and other victims of a capitalist society. As Voltaire is said to have had an attack of fever at every anniversary of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, so he, far away in Brittany, was seized with a fever of rage and of bitter indignation when the calendar brought round the accursed dates at which bills and rents became due. The leading principles of anarchism are marked by great clearness and simplicity, and may be summed up as the rejection of all external authority and of all ANARCHISM 247 private appropriutiou of land and capital. All human relations will depend on the free action and assent of the individuals concerned. Tree associations will be formed for industrial and other purposes, and these associations will with a like freedom enter into federal and other relations with each other. The process of social reconstruction is, in short, the free federation of free associations. Considered as an historic socialist movement, anarch- ism may therefore be set forth under these three heads : (1) Economically it is collectivism ; (2) it is a theory of revolutionary action, which is certainly its characteristic feature ; (3) it is a theory of the relation of the individual to law or government. As regards the first point, its collectivism is common to it with the prevalent socialism, and therefore need not detain us here. Nor need much be said in the way of criticism of the detads of the ultra -revolutionary programme of the anarchists. In our chapter on Marx we have already indicated that the materialism which is common to both schools cannot now be regarded as a tenable or admissible theory of the world. The materialism of both schools sprang from the Hegelian left. It should now be considered as dead, and should in all fairness be set aside in discussion for or against socialism. With regard to religion and marriage, it is hardly necessary to state that progress lies, not in the abolition, but in the purification and elevation of those great factors of human life. Bakunin's criticism of religion is simply a tissue of confusion and miscon- 2i8 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM ceptioii. ]\Iarriage is a fuiidameutal institution, on the purity and soundness of which social health and social progress must above all things depend : in this matter, more than almost any other, society must and should insist on the maintenance of due safeguards and regula- tions. Free love is a specious and delusive theory, which would tend to brinrr back social chaos. It would certainly establish a new slavery of women, whose needs and rights would be sacrificed in .the name of a hollow and disastrous freedom. With regard to the third leading principle above mentioned, the negation of government and external authority, the anarchy of Bakunin is essentially the same as that of Prou.dhon. But in Proudhon the principle was set forth in paradox, whereas Bakunin expounds it with j)erfect frankness and directness, and with a revolutionary energy which has seldom been equalled in history. Wliat they both contemplate is a condition of human enlightenment and self-control in which the individual shall be a law to himself, and in which all external authority shall be abolished as a despotic interference with personal freedom. It is an ideal to which the highest religion and philosophy look forward as the goal of man, not as one, however, which can be forthwith reached through the wholesale destruc- tion of the present framework of society, but through a long process of ethical and social improvement. The error of the anarchists consists in their impatient insistence on this proclamation of absolute freedom in the present debased condition of the great mass of the ANARCHISM 249 people in every class. They insist on taking the last step in social development before they have qnite taken the first. Like its collectivism, the theory of freedom is not a special feature of anarchism. Collectivism is simply the economic side of the prevalent socialism generally. Its theory of freedom is a very old theory, which has no necessary connection whatever with a revolutionary programme, and we should not misunderstand it because of the strange company in which we here find it. It is a high and long-cherished ideal of the best and greatest minds. The good man does his duty, not from fear of the police or the magistrate, but because it is his duty. And we must regard it as the high-water mark of his probity and goodness that the right is so wrought into the texture of his conscience and intelligence that the doing of it has become as natural to him as breathing or locomotion. It is an ideal, also, which we must cherish for society and for the human race. And not in vain ; for there is an ever-widening circle of human action, in which good and reasonable men do the right without pressure or stimulus from without, either from law or govern- ment. We are therefore to regard a well-ordered, intelligent, and ethical freedom as the goal of the social development of the human race. But it is an ideal which nmst obviously depend for its realisation on the moral and rational development of men. It cannot come till men and the times are ripe for it. No doubt the realisation of it may be hindered 250 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM by evil institutions and reactionary Governments ; yet these, too, are merely the outcome of such human nature as was once prevalent in the countries where we now find them. They have outlived their time. We are certainly right to get rid of them, as of other evil habits and conditions of the past, but it is best done when done wisely and reasonably. And it can- not be done in any wise or effectual manner except through a wide organic change in the human beings concerned. A moral and rational freedom is therefore the goal of the social development of the world, and it is a goal towards which we must strive even now. But it is a goal that lies far ahead of us. Yor the present, and in the future with which we have any practical concern, society cannot be maintained without adequate laws, sanctioned and enforced by a regular Government. The elimination of the baser elements from human character and human society proceeds with most regrettable slowness. In the meantime, therefore, we must hold them in check by the best available methods. "We may improve our laws, our police, and magistrates, but we cannot do without them. It is an interesting fact that socialism has taken its most aggressive form in that European country whose civihsation is most recent. The revolutionary opinions of Eussia are not the growth of the soil, and are not the natural and normal outcome of its own social develop- ment : thev have been imported from abroad. Fall- ANARCHISM 251 irig on youthful and enthusiastic temperaments which had not previously been inoculated with the principle of innovation, the new ideas have broken forth with an irrepressible and uncompromising vigour which has astonished the older nations of Europe. Another pecu- liarity of the situation is that the Government is an autocracy served or controlled by a camarilla which has often been largely foreign both in origin and sympathy. In this case, then, we have a revolutionary party in- spired by the socialism of Western Europe fighting against a Government wliich is also in many ways an exotic, and is not rooted in the mass of the people. The history of Eussia turns on two great institutions, the Tzardom and the mir. The Tzardom is the organ of Eussian political life, while the mir is the social form taken by the agricultural population, and is the economic basis of the nation generally. No reasonable man can doubt that the Tzardom has performed a most important function in the historical development of Eussia. It was the central power which united tlie Eussian people and led tlieni in the long, severe, and successful struggle against Tartars, Turks, Lithuanians, Poles, and Swedes. Without it Eussia would in all probability have suffered the same fate as Poland, wliich was distracted, weakened, and finally ruined by the anarchy and incurable selfishness of its nobles. As in other countries, so in Eussia, the central power was established tlirougli tlio subjection of i)rinccs and lords who were crushed by the strong and merciless 252 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM rule of the Tzars. Among those Tzars, too, were men of originality and courage like Peter the Great, who forced the people out of the old-world grooves which they loved so much ; and when other means failed they did not hesitate to employ the cane, the knout, and the axe of the executioner to urge their nobles into the paths of Western progress. We need not say that the Tzars were not moved by benevolent reasons thus to benefit their subjects. The historic Tzars were not philanthropists or humanitarians. The aim of their reforms was political, to provide the Itussian nation with better means and appliances for the struggle with her neighbours. While the nobles were unable to make head against the Tzardom, the clergy were neither able nor disposed so to do. In Piussia the clergy were not backed by a great international power like the Papacy. They were nursed in the traditions of Eastern Greek despotism and had no inclination to resist their rulers. The peasants were not a political power, except at the rare intervals when desperation drove them into rebelhon. Thus the circumstances of Eussia have combined to establish an autocracy which bas performed the greatest historic functions, and which has had a power and solidity without example in the rest of Europe. It has maintained the national existence against fierce and powerful enemies, it has in every generation extended the borders of the Eussian power, and has been a real centre of the national life, satisfying the needs and aspirations of the people, not in a perfect manner by ANARCHISM 253 any means, yet with a considerable measure of success. If we do not realise the supreme importance of the work that the Tzardom has done for Russia, we cannot understand its present position and the liokl it has on the feelings of the Russian people. The power of the Tzar has been such that it was hardly an exaggeration, when the Emperor Paul stated to General Dumouriez that there was no important man among his subjects except the person he happened to speak to, and while he was speaking to him. It is only another instance of the irony of human affairs, however, that the really effective limit to the power of the Tzars is found in the officials, who are intended to carry it into effect. These officials act as the organs of the imperial authority from the centre to the farthest extremities of the empire. Yet they can by delay, by passive resistance, by suggestion, by false- hood, by the arts of etiquette and ceremonial, and all the other methods familiar to the practised servants of autocracy, misltsad or tliwart tlic will of their master or render it of no effect. Such is the central power. Let us now considtn* the body of tlie peo[)le. In Russia, industry and city life have not formed a large part of the national existence. The mass of the people still live directly from the soil, and arc organised in {]\r. mir. As is now well known, the mir is merely the Russian foi m of the village com- iiiiinity, which at oik; tinui prevailed over ;dl l]\o. countri(!S of the wmlil, us tluiy attained to the sedentary or agriiiill mid stage of development. It was the n;ilni;i] 254 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM social form assumed by people settling down into agri- culture. It was the social unit as determined by obvious local economic and historic conditions. In most countries the village community has been reduced to a shadow of its former self, partly through the opera- tion of natural economic causes, but largely also because the central power and the classes connected therewith have crushed it out. The local life of England in par- ticular has been repressed and starved through the want of the most elementary resources and opportunities. It has been recognised as a most pressing duty of states- men to revive and restore it in accordance with the prevalent conditions, but it will be long before the capacity and habit of common action can be again adequately acquired. Owing to a variety of causes, which we cannot ex- plain here, the Eussian mir has continued to survive. It gave to the mass of the Russian people their own form of social life and of self-government ; and it was economically self-sufficing. Tlie mir drew from the soil, which it held in common occupation, the means for its own support and for the support of the nation as a whole. The relations of the members of the mir to each other were substantially conducted on terms of equality and freedom ; but in view of the nobles and the Tzardom they were serfs till their emancipation in 1861. The mir was a social-economic arrangement, convenient both for the noble proprietors and for the Tzardom. It afforded to the central Government the necessary taxes and the necessary recruits ; and there- ANARCHISM 255 fore the Tzars did not disturb it, Imt rather sought to fix and solidify it, and thereby make it more efficient as a source of supply both of soldiers and material means. Thus for centuries, full of movement in the political history of Eussia, the mir has with little change en- dured as the social and economic basis of the national life. In Eussia, therefore, we find only two institutions that have had a real vitality and a specific influence, the Tzardom and the peasant community. Nobles and priests have exercised a substantive power only when the Tzardom has suffered a temporary lapse. The middle class has always been inconsiderable. It was into a nation thus constituted that the most advanced revolutionary opinions of Western Europe at last found their way. The spirit of revolt had indeed not been unknown in Eussia in former times. Among a peasantry sunk in immemorial ignorance and misery, and harassed by the incessant tril)ute of men and taxes wliich they were forced to pay, discontent had always been more or less prevalent, and it had sometimes broken out in open rebellion. During the reigns of the great Catharine and of Alexander I. a sentimental Liberalism had been fashionable in tlie upper classes. But it was not a very practical matter, and was not a serious danger to the autocracy. At the beginning of his reign Nicholas had to face a rising among the Guards at St. Petersburg, led by Liljeral officers of high birth. He suppressed it in tlic speediest ."ind most sunmuuy manTier. Till liis death, in IS55, Nicholas iiiiiiiitfiiiHul 256 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM a rdijime of repression at home, and was the champion of absolutism in Europe. Many circumstances combined to render the acces- sion of Alexander IT. a new departure in Eussian history. The old methods of government had been thoroughly discredited by the failures of the Crimean war. There was a general feeling that the ideas and methods of the West, which had proved their superiority during the struggle, must be tried in Eussia. As the young Emperor recognised the necessity of a new policy, great changes were made, and all went well for a time. Alexander carried the emancipation of the serfs, instituted new courts of law and a new system of local government, and gave a real impetus to education. It was not long, however, before the Emperor began to hesitate in view of the Liberal forces which he had let loose, and which threatened to overturn the whole fabric of Eussian society. Like his uncle, Alexander I., the young monarch had not resolution enough to persevere in a practical and systematic covirse of reform. The changes already made, and the prospect of changes still to come, roused into action all the con- servative instincts and prejudices of old Eussia. The insurrection of Poland in 1863, which called forth the sympathies of many Eussian Liberals, provoked also a powerful reaction in old Eussian circles. An attempt by Karakozoff on the Emperor's life in 1866 may be regarded as the turning-point of his reign. Ideas of steady reform and of gradual temperate change have ANARCHISM 257 not jet become familiar to the Prussian temperament. Between those who wished to reform everything, and those who wished no change at all or to change very slowly, no compromise was possible in the circum- stances and conditions of Eussian society. Thus a revolutionary movement soon declared itself in full opposition to the policy of the Tzar. When we con- sider that the new party menaced not only the special political institutions of Eussia, but the fundamental principles of the existing society generally — property, religion, and the family — we can see that the breach was inevitable.^ Three stages may be recognised in the history of the revolutionary movement. The first covered the period from the accession of Alexander II. in 1855 to about 1870. Its leading characteristic was negation, and the name of Nihilism, which is often erroneously applied to the whole revolutionary movement, should properly be restricted to this early stage. In the main it was simply the spirit of the Hegelian left frankly accept- ing the materialism of Ei'ichner and Moleschott as the final deliverance of philosophy. In a country where religion had little influence among the educated classes, and where philosophy was not a slow and gradual growth of the native mind, but a fashion imported from abroad, the most destructive materialism made an easy conquest. It was the newest fashion; it was the ' The fullest account of the revolutionary movement in Russia is AliilioriH Tlinn's flrsrJn'rktc dcr rcvolutionarcn Bcwcr)uncjcn in IlusslaiuL 8ec also Stepniak'.s Underground Jliissia, and Prussia under the Tzars, 17 258 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM prevalent form among those who were reckoned the most advanced thinkers; it was clear, simple, and thorough. It was particularly well suited to a state of culture which was superficial, without experience or discipline. In the words of Turgenief, who has portrayed the movement in his novel. Fathers and Sons, the Nihilists were men who ' bowed before no authority of any kind, and accepted on faith no principle, whatever veneration may surround it.' They weighed political institutions and social forms, religion and the family, in the balances of that negative criticism, which was their prevailing characteristic, and they found them all wanting. With revolutionary impatience they rejected everything that had come down from the past, good and bad alike. They had no respect for art or poetry, sentiment or romance. A new fact added to our positive knowledge by the dissecting of a frog was more important than the poetry of Goethe or a painting by Eaphael. Nihilism as represented by Bazarof, in the novel of Turgenief, is certainly not an attractive picture. We may respect his courage, honesty, thoroughness, and independence ; but his roughness, cynicism, and in- difference to family feelings are very repellent. Through the early death of the hero we are prevented from ob- serving what might have been the further development of his character. We feel sure that if the story of this typical life had been continued, we should have seen very considerable changes in a more positive direction. The mood of universal negation can only be a tempo- ANARCHISM 259 rary phase in imliviclual or national development. ISTegation may be the physic, it cannot be the diet, of the mind. No movement for emancipation can be a purely negative thing; and no movement can be adequately described by reference to a single characteristic. The Nihilists found a wider view of the world in the writings of Darwin, Herbert Spencer and J. S. Mill ; and they had also at an early period felt the influence of Saint-Simon, Fourier, Eobert Owen, and latterly also of Lassalle and Marx. From the first, Nihilism seems to have involved a broad and real sympathy with the suffering classes. They wished to recall the attention of men from windy verbiage about art and poetry, from a sentimentalism which was often spurious, and from the clatter of the parliamentary machine, whose grind- ing was solely for the benefit of the wealthier classes, to the question of ' daily bread for all,' to the common people perisliing for lack of elementary knowledge. And they insisted strongly on the equal riglits of women. It is evident that Nihilism could only be a passing phase in the history of Kussia, ami that it hail a whole- some and beneficial side as well as a repellent one. In a country which was oppressed by an enormous burden of immemorial prejudices and abuses, a powerful dose of negation was calculated to have a most salutary operation. But the movement could not long live on negations merely. As time went on, the struggle for emancipation in liussia began to assume a more positive character. 260 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM In this way the revohitionarj movement entered on its second stage, the stage of socialistic teaching and propaganda. Events in the "West had kindled the imagination of the youthful champions of liberty in Russia, the rise and progress of the International, the terrible struggle at Paris under the Commune, the growth of the German Social Democracy. A positive and far-reaching ideal now drew the aspirations of the enthusiasts for liberty, the deliverance of the proletariat, represented in Eussia by an ignorant and wretched peasantry. The anarchic socialism of Bakunin was unquestionably the controlling element in the new Eussian movement. Beside it we must place the in- fluence of Lavroff, another eminent Eussian exile, who represented the more temperate phase of anarchism, shading off into the recognition of a constitutional and gradual development of the theory. In its second stage also the revolutionary movement of Eussia was a mixed phenomenon. The anarchism of Bakunin continued, however, to be the characteristic feature, and thus the negative factor was still prominent enough. From Bakunin also proceeded the practical watch- word at this stage of the revolutionary movement, ' to go among the people' and spread the new doctrines. And this course was unwittingly furthered by the action of the Government. Early in the seventies^ hundreds of young Eussians of both sexes were study- ing in Western Europe, particularly at Zurich in Switzerland. As their stay there exposed them to constant contact with revolutionary Eussian exiles, and ANARCHISM 261 to infection with all the unsettling ideas of the West, an imperial nkase of 1873 recalled them home. They returned home, but they carried their new ideas with them. ' Going among the people ' was adopted as a systematic principle, a passion and a fashion among the youthful adherents of anarchism. In accordance with their creed they had no appointed organisation, no very definite plan of action. They ' went among the people ' as the apostles of a new theory, each one as his heart moved him. They went to be teachers or midwives or medical helps in the villages. In order the better to identify themselves with the common folks, some learned the humblest occupations. The trades of carpenter or shoe- maker were most usually chosen, as being the easiest to master. Others toiled for fifteen hours a day in the factories, that they might have an opportunity of say- ing a word in season to their fellow-workers. Ladies and gentlemen, connected with the aristocracy and nurtured in all the refinement of civilisation, patiently endured the nameless trials of living with the Eussian peasant. They endeavoured to adopt the rougli hands and swarthy weather-beaten complexion, as well as the dress of the peasant, tliat they might not excite his dis- trust, for tlic gulf between the lower classes and the gentlemen in Kussia is wide and fixed. The peasants had experience of the gentleman only as the representa- tive of the Government coming with the knout and the police to extort taxes and recruits. No wonder that the sight of a sliirt underneath the sheepskin of the 262 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM socialist missionary was enough to arouse the uncon- querable suspicion of the poor people of the country. The success of the missionaries was limited. "With all his strong suspicion and his narrow range of ideas, the peasant could not easily understand the meaning and purpose of those strange men teaching strange things. The traditions of the past, as they came down to him dim and confused, contained many a bitter memory of disappointed hopes. He was apathetic as well as suspicious. Moreover, the teacher often de- livered his messao'c in half-dicrested formulas which had O O a meaning only as connected with the economic develop- ment of Western Europe, and which did not rightly attach themselves to anything within the experience of the Russian Peasantry. Above all, the propaganda enjoyed only a very brief period of activity. The teachers went about their work with very little circumspection, in the careless free-and- easy way which seems so natural to the Eussian tem- perament. Consequently, the Government had no difficulty in discovering and following up the traces of the propagandists. Before the year 1876 had ended, nearly all of them were in prison. More than 2000 were arrested during the period 1873-76 ! Many were detained in prison for years, till the investigations of the police resulted in 50 being brought to trial at Moscow and 193 at St. Petersburg at the end of 1877. Most were acquitted by the courts, yet the Government sent them into exile by administrative process. The adverse experiences wliich we have recorded ANARCHISM 263 brought the attempts at peaceful propaganda to a close, and the revolutionary party decided on the propaganda of action. They resolved to settle among the people and prepare them for a rising against the Government. Where peaceful teaching had failed, they sought to force a way by violent methods. It was a desperate policy to pursue among a people who had not been able even to understand the aims of the revolutionary party. It is very characteristic of the circumstances of Eussia that the most successful attempt at thus organ- ising a scheme for revolutionary action could gain the adhesion of the peasantry only by pretending that it had the sanction of the Tzar. Jacob Stephanovitz, one of the prominent members of the revolutionary party, gave it out in South- Western Eussia that he had an order from the Tzar to form a secret society among the common people against the nobles, priests and officials who were opposing the imperial wishes to confer land and freedom on the peasants. Those to whom he ad- dressed himself could hardly believe that the Emperor was so powerless, ])ut he did eventually succeed in forming a society of about a thousand members. When the plot was discovered by the police, the peasants were naturally enraged at the deception which liad been practised on them. It should be added that such a method of action did not meet with the approval of the party as a whole. Like the peaceful propaganda, the propaganda of action failed to gain a finn footing among the people. ^64 tllSTORY OF SOCIALISM At every step the revolutionary party found the organs of the central power ready to suppress their efforts in the most summary way. They were now convinced that they must directly attack the autocracy and its servants, and as they had received no mercy they decided to show none ; and thus began the resolute, systematic, and merciless struggle of the revolutionary party against the Tzardom. For this end they naturally made a great change in their mode of action. They adopted a strong organisation instead of the lax disci- pline or total want of discipline commended by Bakunin. Affairs were conducted by a secret central committee, who with unsparing energy carried out the new auns of the party. The first great act in this the third stage of the Russian revolutionary movement was the assassi- nation of General Trepoff, Prefect of Police, by Vera Sassoulitsch, at St. Petersburg, in 1878. The occasion of the deed was the flogging, by command of Trepoff, of a political prisoner personally unknown to her. Her object was to avenge the cause of outraged humanity on the servant of the autocracy. At the trial she was acquitted by the jury, to the great surprise of the Imperial Court. An attempt by the police to apprehend her on leaving the place of trial was frustrated by the mob, and she succeeded in making her escape to Switzerland. The public gave the most unmistakable proofs of sympathy with Vera Sassoulitsch ; and the event natu- rally excited great enthusiasm and emulation among the eager spirits of the revolutionary party. Police officials ANARCHISM 265 and spies of the Government were cut off without mercy. General Mezentseff, Chief of Police, was stabbed in the streets of the capital in broad daylight. Prince Kropotkin, Governor of Charkoff, a relative of the revolutionist, was shot. General Drenteln was also openly attacked in the streets. After thus assailing the officers of the executive, they proceeded systematic- ally to plan the assassination of the Tzar himself, as the head of the central power which they abhorred so much. Solovieff fired five shots at the Tzar without doing any harm ; three attempts were made to wreck the imperial train, one of them failing because the Tzar had made a change in his arrangements ; and he escaped the terrible explosion at the Winter Palace only because he was later than usual in entering his dining-room. These failures did not prevent the exec- utive committee from prosecuting its desperate work, and on March 13, 1881, followed the tragic dcatli of Alexander II. "We need not say that the violent death of Alexander II, sent a thrill of horror throughout Europe. It was felt to be a most lamentable and regrettable ending to a reign which liad begun with such high and generous aspirations, and with so much promise of good to the liussian people. There was a natural difliculty in understanding how a Sovereign, Ijenuvolent in character and not unwilling to pursue a liberal policy, should be the victim of a forward movement among his peojjle. Tiie explanation must be found in the .sjjecial circum- stances of Ivussia, for Alexander was merely the rcpre- 266 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM sentative of a political system which, by its historic evolution, its nature and position, has exercised an absolute and often merciless mastery over its subjects, and the men that cut him off were youthful enthusiasts, who with revolutionary impatience were eager to apply to the belated circumstances of Eussia the most extreme theories of the West. The historian has often to regret that more wisdom is not available for the management of human affairs, and we may believe that a moderate measure of wisdom and patience might have prevented the fatal collision between the Tzar and the revolutionary party. The Tzardom, as we have seen, has performed a great and indispensable function in the national life of Eussia. It still seems to be the only practicable form of govern- ment in such a country. No class is advanced or powerful enough to take its place. The mass of the Eussian people are not yet capable of self-government on a wide scale. There is no large educated class. The middle and industrial class, in the modern sense of the word, are still comparatively small and unimportant; and it is })robable enough that if there had been an influential middle class, and if the abolition of serfdom had been effected under their auspices, the peasants would have received less favourable treatment than they experienced from the autocracy. The best avail- able form of government for Eussia seems to be an enlightened Tzardom, and the Emperor Alexander II. was personally both enliglitened and well-intentioned. At the same time the position of the Tzardom cannot ANARCHISM 267 very long be tenable in its present form. Eussia lies where it is, in close proximity to progressive countries. In the past the Eussian people have been largely disciplined by Germans ; they have learned much from England, and have perhaps shown the greatest social and spiritual affinity to the French. This intercourse will go on. The strongest and most watchful Tzar cannot maintain a Chinese wall of separation between his country and tlie rest of Europe. Nor can the Tzars expect to have the benefit of the science of Western Europe for military purposes, and at the same time succeed in shutting it out from influencing the social and political life of their people. It is inevitable, therefore, that the liberal ideas of the West will con- tinue to dissolve and disintegrate the old fabric of Eussian ideas and institutions. One of two results appears necessary, either that the Tzars must strenu- ously follow the path of reasonable and energetic re- form, or they may risk a revolution which -will sweep away the present central power. For Eussia, as for other countries, there are but two alternatives, progress or revolution. If the latter con- summation were to happen, it does not, however, follow that the cause of freedom would have any great direct and immediate furtherance. In the circumstances of Eussia the man who wields the military power must be supreme. A new ruler resting on the army might be not less an autocrat tlian the old. Wo can but say that the present policy of tlie Tzardom is seriously re- tarding and arresting the natural and national develop- 268 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM ment of Eussia, and that it tends to provoke a cata- strophe which may endanger its own existence. The industrial progress now being made in the country renders it only the more necessary that her political institutions should make a corresponding advance. It remains now to say a word about the revolutionists who have played so remarkable a part in the recent history of Eussia. The members of the Eussian revolu- tionary party have been drawn from nearly all classes of the people. Some, as we have seen, belonged to highly placed aristocratic families ; some have been sous of priests and of the lower officials. More recently the rural classes supplied active adherents to the militant party. One of the most notable features of the move- ment is the influence exerted in it by women. It was Vera Sassoulitsch who opened the death-struggle with the autocracy in 1878. A lady of high birth, Sophia Perovskaia, by the waving of a veil guided the men who threw the fatal bombs at the assassination of Alexander II. But whether aristocrats or peasants, men or women, the members of the Eussian revolutionary party have been remarkable for their youth. The large majority of those engaged in the struggle had not attained to the age of twenty-five. In view of their extreme youth, therefore, we need not say that they had more enthu- siasm than wisdom, and more of the energy that aims at immediate success than of the considerate patience that knows how to wait for the slowly maturing fruits of the best and surest progress. Having regard to the ANARCHISM 269 very subversive theories which they tried to sow broad- cast among the masses of the Eussian people, we see clearly enough that no autocracy in the world could avoid taking up the challenge to authority which they so rudely threw down. Only the Government of an enlightened people long familiar with the free and open discussion of every variety of opinion, can afford to give unlimited opportunity of propaganda to such views as were entertained by the Eussian revolutionary party. Yet while the theories of the party were from the first of a most subversive nature, it is right to empha- sise the fact that they did not proceed to violent actioii till they were goaded into it by the police and the other officials of the central Government. Indeed, the meas- ures of the Government and its representatives have often directly tended to the stirring up of the revolu- tionary mood. By their irritating measures of repression they provoked, among the students at the universities, disturbances which they quelled by most biutal methods. Young men arrested on suspicion, and kept in vile prisons for years while awaiting investigation, were naturally driven to hostile reflection on the iniquity of a Government from which they received sucli treatment. In speaking of a country like Eussia, we need not say that the most elementary political rights were denied the revolutionists. They had no right of public meeting, no freedom of the press, no freedom of utterance anywhere. They were surrounded with spies ready to give to every word and deed the worst inter- 270 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM pretation. The peasants whom they desired to instruct in the new teaching might inform upon them. Their comrades in propaganda might he induced or coerced to betray them. It was often fatal even to he suspected, as the police and the other organs of Government were only too disposed to take the most rigorous measures against all who were charged with revolutionary opinion. Nor could the accused appeal to the law with any confidence, for the ordinary tribunals might be set aside, and his fate be decided by administrative procedure; that is, he could be executed, or condemned to prison or exile in Siberia, without the pretence of a legal trial. In such circumstances it was natural that resolute champions of liberty should be driven to secret conspiracy in its extremest form, and to violent action of the most merciless character. While, therefore, historical accuracy obliges us to emphasise the fact that the aims of the revolutionary party far exceeded all that is included in liberalism and constitutional government, it is only just to explain that they resorted to violent methods only because the most elementary political rights were denied them. In the fiercest mood of their terrible struggle with the auto- cracy, they were still ready to throw aside their weapons. In the address sent by the Executive Committee to Alexander III, after the death of his father, in March 1881, they offered to give up their violent mode of action, and submit unconditionally to a National Assembly freely elected by the people. They meant ANARCHISM 271 under a constitutional government to have recourse only to constitutional methods. With regard to the number of those concerned in the Russian revolutionary movement, it is not easy to speak with precision. There is no proof that the anarchist opinions have gained a large body of adherents in the country. The numerical strength of the party directly engaged in the struggle with the Tzardom has always been comparatively small. On the other hand, the movement has evidently met with a very wide sym- pathy in Piussian society. In the absence of precise information, we may quote the words of one who has a good right to speak for the revolutionary party : — ' The Piussian revolutionary movement is really a revo- lution sui generis, carried on, however, not by the mass of the people or those feeling the need of it, but by a kind of delegation, acting on behalf of the mass of the people with this purpose. 'No one has ever undertaken, and perhaps no one could with any certainty undertake, to calculate the numerical strength of this party — that is to say, of those who share the convictions and aspirations of the revolutionists. All that can be said is, that it is a very large paity, and tliat at the present moment it numbers hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of men, disseminated everywhere. This mass of people, which might be called the Eevolutionary Nation, does not, however, take a direct part in the struggle. It entrusts its interests and its liKiiour, its liatred and its vengeance, to those wlio nmkc llii- rcvohifion their .sngli.sh Society with progressive socialist ideas. Tlw Fabian Essays on Socialism, by seven of its leading members, published in 18'JO, a work which has 330 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM been the chief literary product of the Society, have had a great success. By its popular lectures and discus- sions, by its tracts and its articles in the montlily reviews, as well as by its activity in the press, the Fabian Society has undoubtedly done much toward the permeation of public opinion with a progressive evolu- tionary socialism. The tracts, of which there is now a large number, have been always able, generally well informed, and often brilliant. A tract by one of its members on the Workmen's Compensation Act, issued in 1898, had a circulation of 120,000 the first year of its publication. Important works on a large scale have been The History of Trade Unionism and In- dustrial Dertioeracy by Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb. The writings of Mr. G. B. Shaw and of Mr. H. G. Wells have done much to startle men's minds out of the old way of thinking. The Fabian Society numbers about 1000 members. We give its Basis in the Appendix. The Independent Labour Party, formed in 1893, was an organisation of socialists with a view to political action. It was to a large extent an offshoot from Fabianism in the provinces, and many of its leading members are Fabians. It has kept itself in close touch witli trade unions. All sections of recent English socialism have in- cluded men of real ability and culture, and the move- ment has been marked by sincere conviction, generous enthusiasm, and liard work in a great cause. For some years after its rise, in 1883, it had considerable in- fluence in the country. Its mission was to rouse men RECENT rROGRESS OF SOCIALISM 331 of all classes out of the iudividualistic routiue which had so long beeu prevalent. Trade uuioiiists and co- operators were the objects of denunciation not less unsparing than that which they poured upon the middle class. The disturbances in Trafalgar Square in 1887 made no little stir; and the Dock Strike in London, which was so ably conducted by John Burns in 1889, for a time gave the movement a national importance. It almost seemed at one period as if English public opinion was veering round to Socialism. The reaction which was bound to set in was certainly due in part to the vehemence and extravagance of the socialistic orators, and to their want of skill and insight in adapting their theories to the atmosphere of the English mind. It is clear that recent English socialism has been too loyal to Marx. This particularly applies to the Social Democratic Federation. But even the Fabian basis has implications which are ultra-revolutionary, and it favours too much the abstract and rigid col- lectivism which is so largely due to the too systematic German mind. The claims of socialism must rest on its superior efficiency from an economic, political, and moral point of view ; and one of its chief aims must be to give full scope to the free, many-sided historic life of the people. The Fabian Society has also Un) often interpreted socialism in terms of the State and the Municipality. Though most important, the State and the Municipality are only historic phases of deeper principles and forces. 332 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM It may be well to use such language to make the sub- ject intelligible ; but this convenience has been more than counterbalanced by the tactical disadvantage, that thereby orators on the other side find an easy way of * confuting ' socialism by asking how the State or the Municipality can grapple with the vast complexity of modern industry. This question has usually been accepted in England as a sufficient reply to socialism, and on the whole it may be regarded as summing up the condition of the English mind on the subject. At the general election of 1895, the organised socialism in England polled only about 45,000 votes. The mass of the English working men still voted with the old political parties. On the other hand, the Trade-Union Congresses, representing over a million workers, for several years passed resolutions of a coUectivist nature by large majorities, showing that when the man or men appear that know how to give voice and form to the half-articulate or latent socialism of the country it may have a great future. In 1900 steps were taken towards the political organisation of labour on a wider scale than formerly. There was formed a Labour Eepresentation Committee in which trade unions, the Independent Labour Party, the Social Democratic Federation, and the Fabian Society were represented. The Social Democratic Federation retired, however, at the end of the first year. The new committee had about a million adherents including workmen and socialists. It was too recently formed to take much part in the general election of RECENT PROGRESS OF SOCIALISM 333 1900. Yet it then returned two members, find three more at subsequent bye -elections. At the general election of 1906 it had a great success, and produced an impression even greater on the national mind. As there was no definite dividing line at the election between socialism and labour on tlie one hand, or between labour and liberalism on the other, it is im- possible to speak precisely as to the results. The purely socialist vote was reckoned at 106,000. The Independent Labour Party in the House of Commons numbered 30, of whom 19 belonged to socialist organ- isations. Of the liberal-labour group at least 5 were socialists. We may reckon the labour members at 54, of whom about half were socialists. After the election the Labour Eepresentation Com- mittee transformed itself into the Labour Party, and very wisely decided not to formulate a jorogramme. Mr. Keir Hardie, who had taken the leading share in the formation of a Labour Party distinct from the old political parties, was elected chuiiman. The Lal)oui- I'arty, whose origin we have briefly described, may faiily be regarded as a successful attempt on a worthy scale to form a labour-socialist organisation suited to liritish conditions. It appears to be commendably free from tlie excessive Marx influence ; l)nt in many important qtiestions it has not thrown off old radical views which are inconsistent with a reasonable and enlightened socialism. What we may call the avowed and organised social- ism has made no great headway in the United States 334 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM of America or in the Enrrlish colonies. Books lilve Bellamy's Looldng Backivard have made a great im- pression, but in a vague way. Labour questions have, on the other hand, attained to a very high state of development. The struggle between trade- unionism and the employers' combinations is carried on with an energy and comprehensiveness which can hardly be equalled in any part of the old world. Australia has a Labour Party which is well organised and well led and takes a most honourable place in the recently constituted Commonwealth. It even formed the government in 1904, though it did not retain power long. It is, however, most powerful when out of power, as it then holds the balance between the other two parties. The party is to a great degree socialistic in aim and tendency. During recent years we have seen in America a transformation which is without parallel in the history of the world. Till the middle of the nineteenth century the United States might be described as an agricultural country, which, apart from negro slavery, had no division of classes, no poverty, and no social question. It was a highly favoured region which to the most energetic and enterprising of the working classes of Europe had for generations been a Land of Promise. The early settlers had in the main brought from England all that was best and highest in respect of character, belief, and institutions. In particular, for the planting of New England the " finest of the wheat " was sifted from the most progressive counties of RECENT PEOGRESS OF SOCIALISM 335 England ; and as the area of emigration widened it embraced the best elements in the British Isles and in north-western Europe, the best endowed and the most progressive in the world. The country they came to live in had resources, and offered opportunities which were almost boundless. In the development of the country from the first settlement of Virginia there was just enough of difficulty to stimulate and correct the energies of a free people. A marvellous set of new conditions came into operation in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The industrial revolution ran its course with astonish- ing rapidity and thoroughness, and on a scale absolutely unprecedented. The Eepublic now has a gigantic machine industry and a vast railway and financial system organised in trusts which are controlled by a few men wealthy beyond example in history, and it has also got a large wage-earning class, the unemployed, poverty and slums. If the commonwealth has not already become a plutocracy, it appears to be on the downward way to it. If the wage-earning class consisted of fully trained American citizens, the situation would be clearer. It is complicated by the fact that for many years the Republic has received an enormous numl)cr of immi- grants from the less-advanced countries of eastern and southern Europe, and lias the very difficult task of raising them to its own liigli standard of citizeushi]). The general result is that America is confronted witli the vast problem, which socialism lias undertaken to 336 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM solve, in its most formidable form. Between a highly organised and gigantic capitalism and a continually increasing labour class wliich is largely composed of new immigrants, and is only partially organised, a wide gulf is fixed. A growing chasm threatens to divide the commonwealth in two. This rent is made manifest in the strikes, which degenerate into private war and even into civil war. Socialists maintain that they have been repressed with a severity and brutality known in Eussia alone. As yet the organised socialism has made only moderate progress. In 1902, however, a resolution in favour of socialism obtained abont half the votes at the congress of the American Federation of Labour, which numbered over 2,000,000 members. At the presidential election of 1904 the socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs received 441,000 votes. It is obvious that the gigantic growth of the trust system in America has quickened inquiry into the most fundamental ques- tions of industrial and social order. The programme of the Knights of Labour was for many years the nearest approach to socialism made by any great labour com- bination in America. But there can be no doubt now that America contains all the elements which favour the growth of socialism, and especially of the labour organisations which make for socialism. The result of our brief review is, that in most countries of Western and Central Europe the avowed and organised socialism has a formidable and rapidly increasing number of adherents. It is equally clear that socialistic theories have made a wide and deep RECENT PROGRESS OF SOCIALISM 337 impression on the opinion of most countries of the civilised world. Socialism has been a standing challenge to the economic theories so long prevalent : it is a protest against the existing social-economic order; and as such it has been discussed on every platform, in all journals, and we may venture to say in every private gathering, with some comprehension of its nature and aims. Whatever the issue may be, it is very improbable that reasonable men can ever again regard the competitive system of economics with the same satisfaction as formerly. The mere fact that we can survey and analyse great ideas and institutions with critical objectiveness is a proof that we are look- ing back upon them, and that we have already so far left them behind in the onward march of progress. In countries where the socialistic theory is accepted in its entirety only by a few, it has nevertheless effected a great change in opinion. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the orthodox political economy, if it exist anywhere, survives only in old books and in the minds of a diminishing band of doctiinaires. Friends of the existing order would now almost have us believe that the old competitive political economy never existed at all, which at least may be taken as a sufiicient proof that its days are numbered. Under these circum- stances it is not surprising that we do not at present possess a settled political economy. We may best consider Iho growing influence of socialistic ideas on current opinion under the following heads : — 22 338 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM 1. On the theory of the State's relation to labour. — The attitude of most governments to the organised socialism is naturally unfriendly ; but the accepted view of the relation of the State to the working and suffering classes has marvellously changed in recent years. Whereas not many years ago the policy and principles of government took little account of the masses of the people, it is now a recognised duty of the State to care for them. So complete has the trans- formation been, that it will soon require a considerable knowledge of history to realise it, for the times when the claims of the lower orders were ignored are already beginning to pass out of the memory of the younger and most active portion of the community. 2. The relation of political economy to socialism. — We have already referred to the influence of social problems on the classical political economy of this country. The development of J. S. Mill's economic views from loyal adherence to Eicardo, to a reason- able socialism, cannot be regarded as representative, seeing that he has so entirely outstripped his scholars. In recent important works on economics we see indeed only a moderate recognition of the new influences, but they do not command the assent of the public as for- merly, the result being that English Political Economy remains in a most unsettled problematical and unsatis- factory condition. Here again Germany leads the way. The socialism of the chair is not to any large extent really socialistic. But it includes among its representatives eminent RECENT PROGRESS OF SOCIALISII 339 professors and other economists, who recognise the historical and ethical sides of political economy, who go far in giving labour problems their due place in the treatment of their subject, and who have made most important concessions to the socialistic criticism of the existing society and the prevalent political economy. One of the most notable of living German economists and sociologists, Albert Schaffle, is more than historical; his great work Ban iind Lchcn des socialen Koi'pers is a construction of society from the evolution point of view. In the same work he has even expressed his conviction that 'the future belongs to the purified socialism,' though later utterances make his attitude somewhat doubtful. However that may be, he has brought to the study of social problems a combination of learning, of philosophic insight directed by the best light of his time, and of sympathy inspired by the cause of the poor man, which is not equalled by any living economist. No great living economist has been so powerfully influenced by socialist specu- lation. 3. The relation of the Christian Church to socialism. — Tt is a most serious mistake to suppose that there can be any real antagonism between the ethical and spiritual teaching of Christianity and the principles of socialism rightly understood. The difTiculty is how to reconcile the prevalent competitive system willi any reasonal)le concey)tion rtf Cliristian ethics. "We can now see that Christianity was a strong assertion of tlie moral and spiritual forces against the struggle foi^ existence, 340 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM wliicli had assumed such a hard, cruel, and vicious form in ancient civilisation and in the Eoman world. The Christian Church did much to soften and then to abolish slavery and serfdom, into which the peoples defeated in the struggle for existence had been forced. A right comprehension of the Christian life and of the spirit and tendency of Christian history should show that the Church should also use its influence against the continuance of the struggle for existence in the competitive system, and in favour of the less fortunate, who in the course of that form of strucmle have been driven to precarious wage-labour as their only means of livelihood. Some of the prominent spokesmen of the Church have seen clearly enough that the competitive system is not consistent with Christian teaching. That there have been so few such, is a striking and lamental)le proof of the little interest taken by the clergy in the real and living questions of the time. As we have already seen, Maurice and Kingsley denounced the Manchester school, started the Christian Socialist movement of 1848, and gave a very considerable impetus to co-operation. The participation of the Catholic Church of Germany in the social question dates from the jDcriod of the Lassalle agitation. In 18G.3 Dolliiiger recommended that the Church should intervene in the movement, and Bishop von Ketteler of Mainz lost no time in expressing sympathy with Lassalle. In a treatise entitled Die Arbeiterfrage unci das Christenthum (1864) RECENT PROGRESS OF SOCIALISM 341 Ketteler criticised the liberalism of the Manchester school iu substantially the same terms as Lassalle, and recommended the voluntary formation of productive associations with capital supplied by the faithful. In 1868 the Catholic Socialism of Germany took a more practical form : it started an organ of its own and began to organise unions for the elevation of the working men. The principles of the movement were with some precision expounded by Canon Moufang in an electoral address at Mainz in 1871, and by the writers in their organ. All agree in condemning the principles of liberalism, especially in its economic aspects, as destructive of society and pernicious to the working man, who, under the pretence of freedom, is exposed to all the precari- ousuess and anarchy of competition and sacrificed to the Iron Law of Wages. Self-help as practised in the Schulze-Delitzsch schemes is also considered to be no sure way of deliverance. The general remedy is union on Catholic principles, especially the formation of trade- guilds suited to modern exigencies, which some of their leaders would make a compulsory lueasure enforced by the State. The views of Moufang, which are most definite, may thus be summarised : legal protection lur the workers, especially as regards hours of labour, wages, the labour of women and cluldren, sanitation ; subventions for workmen's productive associations ; lightening of taxes on labour ; control of the moneyed and sjtecuhiting interests. In the organisation of unions the success of Catholic Socialism has been 342 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM great; aud for several years the Social Democrats made no progress in Catholic districts. The socialist activity of the Protestant Church of Germany dates from 1878. The most important literary product of the movement is a work by Pastor Todt entitled Der radikale deutsche Socialisiims und die christliche Gesellschaft. In this work Todt condemns the economics of liberalism as unchristian, and seeks to show that the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity are entirely Scriptural, as are also the socialist demands for the abolition of private property and of the wage system, that the labourer should have the full produce of his labour, and that labour should be associated. The chief leader of the movement was the Court preacher Stocker, the head also of the anti- Semitic agitation, which is largely traceable to economic causes. Stocker founded two associations — a central union for social reform, consisting of members of the middle classes interested in the emancipation of labour, and a Christian social working men's party. The former has had considerable success, especially among the Lutheran clergy. The movement met with the most strenuous resistance from the Social Democratic party, and was greatly hampered by the anti-socialist law of 1878. In recent years all the sections of the Christian Church in England have felt tlie influence of the democratic movement, aud have shown a commendable interest in social questions. The most notable repre- sentative of this new spirit was Cardinal Manning. EECENT PROGRESS OF SOCIALISM 343 The Eeport on Socialism made to the I'an-Anglican Coufereuce, which met at Lambeth in 1888, by the committee appointed to deal with the question, was also a remarkable sign of the times. In a vague and undecide^l way the Eeport accepted what should be regarded as the main aim of socialism — the reunion of capital and labour through the principle of association. Without expressing an opinion on the Eeport, the Conference commended it to the consideration of the people. The Christian Social Union, founded in 1889 by members of the Church of England, has done good service. 4 It is needless to speak of the great revolution in current opinion regarding labour, as reflected in the press and in contemporary literature. All is changed since the time when Carlyle and Euskin lifted up their voices in the wilderness to an unbelieving generation ! All that is best, all that is tenable in the teaching of those two great men is comprehended in socialism rightly understood. 5. Nor is it necessary to say anything of the greatest change of all, which has taken place in the opinions and feelings of the masses of working men, who con- stitute the modern democracy. Few uwu, hdwevcr, really understand the new power that lias arisen in l\\v. growing intelligence of the workers, in the discontent, in the passion for improvement, in the liopcs and aspirations wliich so deeply move tlicm. IL has iiot yet found adei^uate expression, direction, and organisa- tion ; but every year it is making I'resh advance towards 344 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM clearness of aim. A main part of the significance of Marx's activity lay in the fact that he strove to give utterance and organisation to this vast and growing mass of vague and half-conscious sentiment. In the future we can but hope that it will receive wise and salutary guidance. CHAPTEli XIV TENDENCIES TOWARDS SOCIALISM So much may fairly be said regarding the iiiflueuce of socialistic speculation on the opinion of the civilised world. It must be admitted, however, that as yet the change is mainly in the region of opinion. For in the domain of practice the competitive system, in S2)ite of many very important modifications, still holds the field ; and the old Political Economy, though greatly discredited, still finds its strongest justification in the fact that it is a reasonably accurate analysis of an existing and working system. When asked for any grounds that may be brought forward for believing that the socialistic ideal is becoming a reality, we can only point to symptoms or tendencies, not to definite results on a scale commensurate with liie development of modern industiy. Yet these tendencies are large, most significant, and visil>ly increasing. 'Jhe folhnving are the main hues along wliich they may be observed: — 1. Tlie State,which by a reasonable socialism should be regarded as the association of men on a large scale, and as such should continue to have a most important function. 346 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM 2. The Muuicipality, or Commune, which, notwith- standing certain objections, is the more convenient word, as it inchides the parish as well as the munici- pality, and which should be regarded as the association for local purposes. As every one knows how greatly the range of State and municipal action for the com- mon good has been extended in recent years, we need not enlarge on this aspect of our subject. But in what we have to say it will be convenient to consider the State and the local body together, as they are really complements of each other. In a well-ordered community there should be no real opposition between the two. Under the conditions which now prevail there can be no flourishing local life except in reason- able relation to an efficient central organ ; and the central organ can do its part wisely and effectively only by allowing suitable scope to local energy. JSTo absolute rules can be laid down for the relations of the two to each other ; these must be determined by con- siderations of time and circumstance. But the problem of their opposition under any regime can be a difficulty only for unwise statesmanship. It may not be a new thing in theory, that the State should be an association for the promotion of the com- mon interests of all its members, or that the commune should be an association for the general good of the inhabitants of a locality ; but it is practically new. It is only during the last generation that the people who form the majority of every society have received any reasonable consideration from the organs of the TENDENCIES TOWARDS SOCIALISM 347 State. We have diiriug the last seventy years seen a tardy reversal of the old iujustice in our own country, and for some years the movement towards improve- ment has been growing apace. But our leading states- men seem even yet to be reluctant or only half willing to advance. The domestic history of recent times is the record of concessions made, not because the leaders of either of our great parties particularly approved of them, but because they were demanded by large sec- tions of voters. In fact the initiative in legislation has now passed from the statesmen to the democracy, and our leaders await the dictation of the people. It is an instructive and pathetic, but not too dignified, spectacle, that politicians trained in the theory and practice of laissez-faire should without open confession of a change of principle thus do the bidding of the democracy ! The statesmen of Germany have been more con- sistent; for when they inaugurated their schemes of State socialism they frankly proclaimed their adhesion to its principles. In this they were encouraged by the old law of Prussia, which recognised the duty of the State to provide subsistence for those wh(j cuuhl not make a living, and labour for those wlio were out of employment. The position of the Prussian kingdom has always been such that it required to foster tlic full strength of the State by all available means, and therefore could not afford Lu neglect any considerable portion of its population. In his State socialism, therefore, Bismarck could appeal with some show of 348 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM reason to the traditional policy of Prussia. But it was really a new departure. Its leading principles were announced in an Im- perial message to the Eeichstag on the l7th of November 1881. Besides the repressive measures necessary to restrain the excesses of the Social Democracy, the Emperor declared that the healing of social evils was to be sought in positive measures for the good of the working man. The measures proposed were for the insurance of the workmen against accident, sickness, old age, and inability to work, by arrange- ments under State control. ' The finding of the riyht ways and means for this State protection of the work- ing man is a difficult task, but also one of the highest duties that concern every society standing on the ethical foundations of the Christian national life.' The aged Emperor next went on to say that he would look back with greater satisfaction on the successes with which Providence had visibly blessed his reign, if he could bequeath to the Fatherland new and lasting pledges of peace at home, and to the needy greater security and larger means for rendering the help to which they had a claim. Tlie message also spoke of 'organising the life of the people in the form of corporative associations under the protection and furtherance of the State, to render possible the solution of problems which the central power alone cannot undertake.' The Imperial programme has now been realised. It may be regarded as the beginning of better things to come. Tlie help provided by its TENDENCIES TOWARDS SOCIALISM 349 various measures is scanty enough, but no one can reasonably doubt that it is immeasurably superior to our English Poor Law. So much for State socialism in Germany. To find a democracy which is really government of the people by the people for the people, we must go to our colonies at the antipodes. It is a democracy which both in theory and practice has most fully recognised that the State is an association for the promotion of the well-being of the whole people. Xew Zealand, one of the youngest of the English colonies, is the finest example of such a State. The State in New Zealand owns and works railways, telegraphs, and telephones. When the Bank of New Zealand was on the point of stopping payment, with the most dis- astrous results to the country, the government came to its help with a guarantee of £4,000,000 and made it a State institution. It made advances of cheap money to settlers and passed legislation to ])ifak up large estates. The laws for the protection of labour are of the most advanced type. It settles labour dis- putes by compulsory arbitration, and has in operation an old-age pension scheme by which persons over 65 years of age receive an annual pension. At first fixed at £18, this has been raised to £2G, or 10s. a week. It has introduced women's suffiagc, graduated taxation, a complete .system of local option in the drink trade, a public system of life insurance and of medical care, and a public trustee with very wide ami beneficent powers. 350 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM All these measures and others which we need not name are the outcome in New Zealand of a great wave of agrarian labour and socialistic feeling which spread over the world about twenty years ago. It has been well described as socialism without dogma. Every measure has been examined and approved on its merits. The policy therefore is all the more valuable as a mass of testimony to the beneficent tendency of a reasonable socialism. The conditions have no doubt been ex- ceptionally favourable. New Zealand is a young country with great natural advantages and a small population which has a very high average of intelli- gence, initiative, and energy. It is an example, how- ever, which should be most encouraCTinfj to the world, as it shows what may be done in a true democracy, where the government is in entire sympathy with the people and responsive to their wishes. The high honour of carrying out this model legislation belongs to Eichard Seddon and his associates. Seddon was Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1893 to his death in 1906. 3. The co-operative society or association for the ordinary purposes of industry. — Co-operation for some time made comparatively little progress in production, but when we consider the low point from which the movement started, only about sixty years ago, and how painfully capital, experience, and skill had to be acquired by the poor workers, we should rather be surprised at the advance that has been made in so many progressive countries. It is only a partial TEXDEXCIES TOWARDS SOCIALISM 351 realisation of the socialistic ideal, but it is well founded, solid, and most promising. Its strongest point is that it has arisen directly out of the people and remains in close touch with them. In England a co-operative society is usually a group of workers who manage distribution with their joint capital in their own interests. The group is entirely democratic, open to every one, organised on the prin- ciple of one man one vote, and choosing their own committee or executive ; the manager is a social functionary ; no member can lei^allv hold more than £200 of capital in any society. Production, especially for domestic consumption, has now made very great progress. The 1637 societies numbered about 2,260,000 members in 1006. By that date the £28 with which the movement started in 1844 had expanded into a capital of £30,000,000, witli an annual turnover of £94,000,000, and an annual profit of £10,500,000. It provides for the consumption of one-fifth of the popula- tion. The co-operative movement in Great Britain is already an industrial and economic power of no mean order. If it has not solved the social question, it has at least done much to clear the way towards a solution. Tlio movement is also making rapid progress in Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, and Italy, and its greatest successes arc in other fields than distribution. Tn Denmark the co-operative system is one of the brightest features of recent history. More recently a co-operative movcnient of groat promise has bcgini in Ireland. Tlie co-operative society, therefore, is u Kclf-governing 352 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM group of workers, which has ah'eady made very con- siderable progress in controlling the economic interests of the labouring class. Not a little disappointment is felt that it has not accomplished greater results; as we believe, without good ground. Tt might reasonably have been expected that human nature would survive among co-operators, and that the self-regarding prin- ciple would continue to be the mainspiing of individual action. Better social arrangements can only provide for it a more efficient system of regulation. It is particularly regrettable that co-operative societies have not always had sufficient regard for their employees. There can be little doubt that the contrast between producers and consumers, and between the centralising and de-centralising tendencies in organisa- tion, will long be a difficulty among co-operators, who do not thoroughly understand the new system to which they belong. Yet it should also be said that many of the objections raised by the critics of the movement are really due to the fact that they do not understand its real nature, and imagine that they find old things where really they meet only old names. The noblest embodiment of the co-operative idea is to be found in one of the oldest seats of industry in Western Europe. This is the Vooruit (Forward) Society, which was founded at Ghent in a season of scarcity by Edouard Anseele and a few weavers in 1873. Tt was started with a capital of 84 francs and 93 centimes, about £3 : 8s., at first naturally as a bakery, and has grown till it embraces the economy TENDENCIES TOWARDS SOCIALISM 353 and life of about 100,000 out of the 165,000 inhabitants of the city. Besides the enormous and splendidly -equipped bakeries, it has huge stores and the largest cotton factory in Ghent, with an eight- hours' day. It has its own printing works, a daily and weekly press, its own system of life insurance, and old- age pensions. It offers to its members at its People's Palace the means of education and of wholesome re- creation and it encourages art. This is a great achieve- ment in a country where Church and State, landlord and capitalist, have so long combined to keep the workers in the lowest ignorance and degradation. The Vooruit has been a model to similar co-operative enterprises not only in Belgium, but in France, Holland, and Germany. 4 Of all the recent movements for the better order- ing of society in England, we believe the co-operative movement to be the most hopeful, because the most thorough and practical, but it is only one of many. During the last half-century we have seen a long suc- cession of efforts, partially successful, towards a new organisation of society rendered necessary by the changes due to IIk; indiistiial levolution. In all spheres the watchword of the new era has been free- dom, the removal of restraint. Hut it has been Innnd that positive measures of reconstruction were also necessary. Factory legislation carried in opiiosition to the prevailing economic theory, trade- unions, em- ployers' combinations, industrial partnerships, boards of conciliation, the co-operative system, — nil these are [ 354 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM real, if partial, endeavours towards a new organisation of society suited to tlie new conditions. They are all modifications and limitations imposed on the com- petitive system, and to tliem the progress of the last sixty years is largely due. Socialism claims to be the comprehensive scheme of organisation which embraces in a complete and consistent unity all these partial efforts. 5. But the most striking feature of recent economic history is the continuation of the movement which began with the industrial revolution. Through this process the small producer was superseded by the capitalist, the smaller capitalist by the larger. And now the single capitalist is being absorbed by the com- pany, an increasing proportion of the world's business being so vast that only a great company can provide the requisite capital and organisation; whilst in the large companies, in case they cannot drive each other out of the field, there is a marked tendency to bring about a fusion of interests. In all this we see a great constructive jjrocess going on as the result of the inherent laws of industrial development. The movement is active in our own country ; but it is far surpassed in magnitude and activity by similar phenomena in the United States of America, where it is favoured by special circumstances. Under the pro- tective system the economic development of America has proceeded without being disturbed by the industrial power of England. It is a self-contained and self- sufficing continent with a vast area and enormous natural TENDENCIES TOWARDS SOCIALISM 355 resources. The people have not such a wide variety of political, social, literary, and artistic interests as have the ruling classes of England, and have therefore been all the more keenly engaged in the exploitation of the new world that lay open to them. Capitalism in America has shown an energy, acuteness, and fertility of re- source which even in England are unparalleled. But in the various departments of industry the chiefs have found that competition may be suicidal and mutually destructive, and have therefore seen it expedient to arrange with each other for the regulation of pro- duction, of prices and wages. Hence the trusts, or great combinations of capitalists, which now confront American society and the American Eepublic, and which, as the latest development of capitalism, are well calculated to excite scientific curiosity in every country. The trust system is, however, by no means confined to America. A like organisation under the name of cartels or syndicates is, in ])roportion to the size of the country, almost equally strong in Germany. Tji forms more or less open and undisguised it is spreading in England, Austria, and other lands. It may be re- garded as an inevitable stngf in (he natural liistory of capitalism. Thus far have we come through the natural gruwtli of the company. Tf we consider tlie nature and de- velopment of the company, we shall find that it is not entirely undemocratic. The directors arc, iu ]ninciple at least, elected and removalilo by tlir- sliaidiolders. 356 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM And as the shares are open for purchase by any one, a porter may be a shareholder in the railway company of which he is a servant, with, so far, a voice in the management. But in point of fact the companies are owned and controlled by the capitalist classes, and are a development of capitalism. The directors are usually large capitalists. Their main aim is to produce dividends. The relation of the management to the employees cannot have much of a kindly, human, and personal element. On the other hand, the development of the company in a large degree means that the real administration of the economic movement is passing out of the hands of the owner of capital as such. The companies are for the most part managed by paid officials, who may or may not have a substantial holding in the capital. That is, the capitalists do not really manage the com- panies in which their capital is embarked. The manager, with a staff of paid officials, has become the pivot of the industrial movement. Generally speaking, the large company is more amenable to social regula- tion than a variety of small enterprises. And now we see that the natural development of the company has prepared the whole organisation necessary for its complete transference to social ownership and control, if such a step were deemed advisable. A great railway or system of water-supply can be transferred to State or municipal control without any particular change in the organisation by which it is worked. In fact, capitalism has prepared or is preparing the mechanism TENDENCIES TOWARDS SOCIALISM 357 by which it may be superseded. It has done its work so thoroughly that it has been rendering even itself superfluous. We need not add that preparatory steps towards the transformation of the company may also be seen in the spread of the principle of industrial partnerships or profit-sharing. In America, where the industrial development is more recent, the founders of the great corporations still to a large degree continue to control them. Yet we can see how the constructive talent they have so marvellously shown has paved the way for social control when the time may come for it. 6. But the greatest force in the social evolution of the present time consists of the human beings who are most directly interested in it — the modern democracy. This democracy is marked by a combination of char- acteristics which are new to history. It is being educated and enlightened in the school and by the cheap press ; it is being drilled and organised in large factories, in the national armies, by vast popular demonstrations, in the gigantic electoral struggles of the time. Thus it is becoming conscious of its enormous power, and able to make use of it. It is becoming conscious also of its unsatisfactory social and economic position. The democracy which is growing to be the master-force of the civilised world is still for the most part economically a proletariat dependent on precarious wage-laboui'. Wliile they are resolved to jiroceed with the consummation K.sih]e nor desiral)!*'. Monnpnly 360 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM is incompatible with freedom. The only course for peoples who desire to be free is to adopt some form of social ownership and control. This appears to be the lesson taught us by the development of the trusts. 8. The success of socialism greatly depends on the realisation of the two ideals, which may be regarded as the main pillars of the theory, when applied to practice. These are : — (a) The normal working day : the general reduction of tlie working day to eight hours in the immediate future, and eventually to a shorter time. Such a desirable change would be better accomplished by voluntary agreement under the pressure of public opinion than by legislation ; but it would be better made by legislation than by the cruel and clumsy method of strikes. (h) A remuneration which will ensure a suitable standard of living; in other words, the means of a normal development. A reasonable standard of living, the competent means of a normal development have been determined by science and are no longer a matter of Utopian guess-work. A fairly definite measure of fresh air, food, clothing, house comfort, recreation, and of satisfaction for the affections associated with wife and children constitute the rational needs of the average man. This is tlie moral and scientific basis of a rational system of distribution. The competitive wage determined by the tVo?i laiv of ivagcs of the older economists should be superseded by a remuneration TENDENCIES TOWARDS SOCIALISM 361 embodying this principle. It is the Daily Bread of the Lord's Prayer as definable by modern science. The effect of the socialistic theory on these points is to remove two vital interests of man from the range of competition, and to j^lace them on an ethical and scientific basis under social control. In so far as the working day of the employees of government, munici- palities, co-oi)erative societies, companies, and private firms approximates to eight hours, in so far as the wage jiaid by them secures to the workers a fit and reason- able standard of living, in so far is the socialistic ideal I'ealised. Every one conversant with the history of the last sixty years knows how vast an improvement has been made in both respects. We have thus reviewed the great social and economic movements of our time. How shall we interpret them? There are two main tendencies : one towards control of the economic processes by the people in state, muni- cipality, and co-o]Derative society ; the other towards tlie consolidation of capitalism in trusts. In Ijoth we see plan, constructive and organising intelligence, the limi- tation of the anarcl)y of comjjetition. ]>ut while tlie former makes for the ]»uljlic good, the latter is subser- vient to overgrown wealth. The portentous growth of the trusts is indeed an object-lesson to the world. It proves that .socialism is not an idle question ; nor is ituto]ii;in or revolutionary merely. It is a question forced ujjon the j)resent generation by the most gigantic industrial movement of lecent times. All good citizens, all friends of righteous- 362 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM ness and of progress, all inquirers worthy of the name, are under an imperative obligation to understand the true inwardness of the subject. In considering the question of the practicability of a rational socialism, let us remember that it only proposes to accomplish on a wider scale and for a more enlight- ened time a task analogous to that undertaken by the guilds for the mediaeval world. The guild was an organisation for the promotion of the common interests of the workers at a time when law and order were not sufficiently established by strong central governments, and when the present distinction between labourer and capitalist had not declared itself It was a fairly equitable organisation of an industry which was local and associated with city life, and which worked with a very limited and undeveloped technique. Socialism proposes an equitable organisation of industry for the modern world with its enormous mechanical develop- ment and large industry, under a democracy guided by science and professing allegiance to the highest moral ideals. CHAPTER XV CONCLUSION In the Erfurt Programme we have seen that the task of the social democracy is to give form and unity to the struggle of the working class, and to point out its natural and necessary goal. This goal is the trans- formation of private property in the means of produc- tion into collective property, but tlie change \\ill be accomplished not in tlie interest of a class but of the entire hunuin race. The Erfurt Programme has been followed by others of a like nature in Belgium, Austria, France, and elsewhere. It may be regarded as the aim of the social democracy of all countries to obtain pos- session of political power in order to make the economic transformation which we have indicated. The task thus outlined is a vast one. As yet even the political part of it is only to a sniall extent realised. At present the woiking class, though I'ui niing the vast majority of the people, has no corresponding representa- tion in legislatures or influence in government. in England the ruling class has long been, and still is, an aristocracy, slowly changing in the course of genera- tions into a plutocracy, which has the wisdom to yield 364 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM to the ever-growing pressure of democracy. France is now nearer to a real democracy than any other great European state. In Germany the executive depends on the Emperor; but his Chancellor has to find a majority for legislation and for the budgets in the Keiclistag, which is elected by universal suffrage with an antiquated distribution of seats. The German executive is really a bureaucracy with the Emperor as chief Government in Austria and Eussia is also a bureaucracy of which the Emperor is the head. In Italy the democracy is slowly growing. It has very little real influence in Spain. If the American people do not exert themselves very effectively in the immediate future, the Eepublic seems destined to be a plutocracy. A power which appears to be incompatible with a real commonwealth has arisen in a marvellously short time. The oil industry in America goes back only to 1859. Mr. J. D, Eockefeller entered the trade in 1865. It was organised by him and his associates into the Standard Oil Company ; and the Company has been the type of further organisa- tion, has provided the men, the methods, and the capital, by which other great industries have been transformed. That is to say, Mr. J. D. Eockefeller and the men trained in his methods have gained control of railways, of finance and insurance, and even of the basic industries of steel and coal. The process has naturally gained enormously in momentum as it has gone on; the capital accumulated, and still more the capital controlled by the Trusts, the interests they have absorbed or CONCLUSION 365 brought within their orbit are gigantic and continually increasing. Even the American Senate is declared to be in their pay. Most evil of all symptoms, when an eminent American senator, Mr. Tillman, lately undertook to speak for his order, a main point in his defence was, that the House of Representatives was worse than the Senate ! Thus we see the industrial and economic power, whicli is also the money power, subordinating to itself the political, and, indeed, threatening all that is articulate and organic in the American people. Warnings have been given by some observers, includ- ing the present writer, that such a condition of things was coming. In my Inquiry into Socialism, puljlished in 1887, I said : ' In crossing the ocean the colonists left behind them the monaichy and aristocracy, and many other social forms hoary with venerable abuse ; but they carried with them an institution older and more fundamental than royalty or a hereditary legislature — human nature itself.' The old evils of Europe grew out of human nature. On the other side of the Atlantic men will still be human, 'Ereedom in America seems threatened with the domination of great cori)orations combining to obtain the control of industrial operations, of governments, and courts of justice. If unchecked by the healthy public opiniftn, and by the collective will of the Aiufiican people, such cori)oration8 may establish an economic, social, and political tyranny quite as oppressive as anything exisling in Eurojn-. It will lie ,'i inis(i;i1ilc thing foi- thf world if triumphant 366 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM democracy, and a material prosperity unexampled in the annals of mankind, end in a fiasco such as this.' ^ The struggle to curb the corporations and bring them within the limits prescribed by the public good will not be an easy one. "Waves of popular enthusiasm are apt to be fitful and transient, whilst the pull of organised wealth is stead}-, continuous, incessant. The favourite rhetorical figure of the octopus spreading its gigantic tentacles over American society gives but a faint impression of the subtle and insidious activity of the Trusts. Even in Eussia the problem is a simple one compared with that in America; the contest with the Tzardom is merely one of force striving against force by all available means. Vastly simpler was the earliest struggle of historic civilisation, when the Greeks met the clumsy hosts of Persia. The Americans may consider themselves as the foremost champions, at the most critical point, in the most momentous struggle now going forward on the planet. Noblesse oblige was the maxim of a caste that is vanishing. It is still an imperative call on all truly noble men and nations. The American colonies were founded by the noblest pioneers of freedom, from the best and strongest races of Europe. Such a high ancestry lays men under a special obligation to acquit themselves well in the warfare against organised wealth. One of the main causes of the present situation is that in the eager race for wealth or for a living the Americans have had no leisure to be good citizens, in the sense ^ See Inquiry into Socialism, p. 86. CONCLUSIOX R67 contemplated by the founders of the Republic. They have left their own proper civic work to professional politicians. In the combination of professional poli- ticians ready to be bought and of wealthy capitalists ready to 1)uy lies the supreme danger to American freedom. The danger will be averted when the people take care duly to think the matter out, and to enter upon a course of resolute organised action suitable to the time and its needs. One of the first duties of the people will obviously be to simplify the cumbrous machinery of the Constitu- tion, and to make it a more efficient organ of their will. In the two great crises of American history, nothing strikes us so forcibly as the high standard of character and intelligence which was shown. It may be regarded as a symptom of a really strong race, that they were so slow and reluctant to take decisive measures in the struggle for Independence and at the time of the Civil War. AVe may now see the same natural hesitation in deciding how to handle a problem of surpassing gravity. Such crises are the severest and truest tests of national character. All friends of freedom in every part (if \]n'. world will fervently hope that the people of America may display their historic qualities of insight, liigh principle, energy, and resolution in the mighty stnigglo of Commonwealth against "Wealth upon which they are entering. According to Liebknecht, late leader of I lie flernian socialists, ' the social democracy is the party of the whole people, except 200,000 largf proprietors, squires, 368 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM middle-dass capitalists, and priests.' We need not discuss the exactitude of such figures in relation either to Germany or any other country. It is a fact which no reasonable man can dispute that economic and political power is in most civilised countries actually wielded by a very small minority. Nor need we stay here to inquire into the methods by which such power has been gained. Even as regards England we have not yet an impartial and comprehensive account of the rise of the present economic and political order since the liquidation of the mediaeval system began about the middle of the fourteenth century. How labour legisla- tion was carried on by the ruling class in its own interests for five centuries after 1349 ; how Henry VIII. took his courtiers and privy councillors into partnership for the dividing of the church lands ; how commons were inclosed ; how even the poor-law became an occasion for the subjection and degradation of labour ; how for generations bribery was a normal instrument of government ; how wealth was gained in the slave- trade, in the East Indies, in the jobbing of government loans and contracts, and by the imposition of corn-laws — all these we vaguely know, but they have not yet been presented in a form which can satisfy the canons of scientific history. It is too soon, therefore, to determine how far the business of the Standard Oil Company has been built up on its merits ; how far its success is due to efficient management and organisation by the shrewdest and ablest men, nnd how far due to the illegal and immoral COXCLUSION 369 methods of wliich they are accused. In any case, we in England, looking back on our own history, have no right to point the finger of reproach at our American kinsmen. There is indeed a cynical theory that our ruling classes are free from such reproach only because they have been sated with the wealth they have already gained. With us the struggle has long been decided ; whereas in America the dust and heat of battle still blind the eyes of men. The motives and merits of the agents by which great historic changes are accomplished, whether they be Julius Cajsar, Henry VIII., or J. D. Eockefeller, form a most interesting and important subject of study. But far more important is the problem we must face regarding the forces and tlie issues which they set in movement. Here we are concerned with live forces and urgent issues. Briefly we may describe the situation with which we have to deal as the struggle now proceeding between various forms of autocracy, bureaucracy, and plutocracy, on the one hand, and a social democracy wliich claims to represent the mass of the people, on the other. The features of the former powers we all know. The social democracy is still in its giant and untried youth. Not very long ago, as we have seen, the German working men had neither voice nor organisation nor insight into their position and prospects. France, after the Aiilurcs of 1848, was hardly better. In most countrifs labour was duml), or moaning under its burden of jiardship and sorrow. Now much is changed. The working men 24 370 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM have the foremost orators in the world to speak with their enemies in the gate, and they have an organisation which the strongest statesmen liave been unable to break up or weaken. In previous chapters we have had frequent occasion to characterise the democracy of which the workers are the vast majority. We shall understand it better if we duly consider a few special points. On the 28th November 1905 the city of Vienna saw a new sight. The gay city on the Danube has been the scene of many stirring events. It was twice in vain besieged by the Turks, and twice taken by Napoleon. It was the seat of two congresses which met to rearrange the map of Europe after the downfall of the French conqueror. It witnessed many of the most dramatic incidents of the mad year {dcs tollen jaJires) — the year of revolution, 1848. To those who can see beneath the surface of things, the scene of November 1905 was vastly more significant than any of the events we have mentioned. A pro- cession of working men, estimated by the correspondent of the Morning Post at 300,000, marched under the red flag through the streets. Work ceased and traflBc was stopped, while the serried ranks passed on. But there was no tumult, no call for the interference of the police or the display of military force. Not a shout was raised or song sung or voice heard above a whisper. The silence, order, and discipline shown by this vast liost, wliicli was about equal to either of the great armies that lately contended in Manchuria, were even more CONCLUSION 371 striking than its numbers. Members of parliament who witnessed the demonstration fiora the lieichsrath declared that they were more impressed by it than by any political event since Austria became a parlia- mentary state. Even the most stubborn adherent of the old order was bound to feel that a new era had come, and that the demand for universal suffrage, which was the object of the demonstration, could no longer be refused. It was, indeed, a lit subject for meditation in Austria, but not in that country only. The monition contained in such an event should be taken to heart by all con- cerned in all lands. In the ordering and organising intelligence, in the self-restraint and force of character displayed by the working men of Vienna on tliat day, we see qualities which are replete with meaning in their relation to the great problems of the present century. Or let us consider the matter from another point of view. It is now about half a century since the socialist agitation began in Germany. During that time the German workmen have received an education in social politics such as no university in the world can furuisli. They have been accustomed to IIk? freest and most thorough discussion of tlie widest variety of topics in books and pamphlets, at jiublic meetings and dubateB, in private talks over their beer and colfce. Great strikes, elections, and demonstrations have been object- les.sons to them of the most vivid and forcible doscription. A new move on tlio part of tlie Kaiser, a new Hpeech of 372 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM Bebel or Liebknecht has given fresh food for reflection and discourse. Above all, the matters so handled have come near to their hearts, have touched them in their everyday life in the closest and most real way. They were no hearsay, conventional, or traditional subjects that thus appealed to them ! Xeed we wonder that the teaching of Marx, Lassalle, and Engels has become a possession to them, a theme for mind and heart ? The seed has taken root among three millions of men and women remarkable for intelligence, thoroughness, and earnestness. And the process that has thus gone on in Germany goes on more or less all over the world. The men and women of the labouring democracy, let us remember, have, many of them, known hunger and privation in every form, not only as an exceptionally severe occurrence in times of strike and unemployment, but as a chronic experience. Mothers have been obliged to work hard too Ion" before child-bearing, and too soon after it, to eke out a scanty family income. For a society that has shown so little respect even for the sacred function of motherhood, what can we say but that it is time to repent ? The children in the same competitive society have cried for bread when there was none to give them, and have not had rags enough decently to cover their nakedness. In a moment of feeling at the Jena meeting of his party Bebel confessed that for years it was his ideal for once to eat his fill of bread and butter. During the sieges of Kimberley and Mafeking our countrymen had a new experience ; they found out what it meant never CONCLUSION 373 to have enough to eat, to be always hungry. The leader of one of the strongest organisations in the world, one of the foremost orators in Europe, to whom all men listen when he makes a speech, had the experience for years in the very heart of modern civilisation. The same children who were thus early acquainted with hunger have gone to be racked at the mill of labour before they were eight, or even six years of age. We need not wonder that they were stunted and dwarfed in growth, that they were wrinkled, deformed, attenuated, grey, and decrepit before their time ; and they have suffered all this hunger and privation through a long agony of years, they and their fathers and mothers before them, while the classes whicli liave held economic and political power have wasted the means so much needed for worthier uses in war and in the preparation for war, in the luxury and extravagance of society and of courts. Nor lias this condition of rags, hunger, and privation come to an end. We may see it in the course of a casual walk in almost any quarter of any of tlie towns of Groat Britain to-day. The division into two nations of Piich and Poor, which the Earl of Beaconsfield described in iiis jujvel, Syhil, as existing in England, has become international. A chasm more or less wide and abrupt extends throughout the civilised world. Vavw .lajian now has an active socialist party, and when the industrial revolution has fairly begun to run its course in China we may expect to see its people anjong the foremost 374 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM in the social revolution. The real economic and political power still lies in the hands of a small minority, while over against it stands the democracy composed of workers who are every day advancing in intelligence, in organisation, and in the resolute endeavour towards a common goal. Wealth, power, and enjoyment go together. Labour is attended by poverty and privation. A great struggle is going on, and there can be no doubt that it will go on. How is it to be fought out ? This is the supreme question which the twentieth century must try to solve. It is of unspeakable importance that it should take a wise and peaceful course. In all countries which have a genuine system of universal suffrage fairly carried out, a peaceful solution is practicable. But for such a peaceful solution it will be necessary that all autocratic and bureaucratic government should cease, and that an executive, not only formally responsible to the people but really responsive to their wishes, and in close touch with them, should be established. Such a government could accomplish a beneficent social and economic transformation without violence, without spoliation or confiscation, without even giving an undue shock to the reasonable claims and habits of any section of the people. This might be effected by a truly democratic government, or by the steady pressure of the democracy on the old governments, which would be gradually changed. So much for the peaceful transformation of the State. CONCLUSION 375 May we not also in the course of time hope for a modification of the aims and methods of socialists ? If these were more reasonable, they would obviously be more convincing, and the prospects of a peaceful as well as a successful issue would be vastly increased. At present their demands are often so put in elaborate programmes, in language more or less technical, that they repel the sympathy even of reasonable men. To use a common saying, socialism as frequently presented is such 'a big order,' expressed in alien language, that men with the best will in the world cannot give it a hospitable welcome to their minds. In fact, it is not a paradox but the plain truth that socialists are now the greatest obstacle to the progress of their ideal. Nor is this at all strange. The same thing has happened in the development of all great ideals; men are too little for them, and in their love for forms and dogmas forget and even repudiate or suppress the spirit. For the progress of socialism tlie thing most needful now is to throw off the technicul dogmatic and ultra-revolutionary form which it has inherited from the past, and to study the real needs and live issues of the present. Socialism is .still coloured to its detriment by excessive loyalty to Marx, and the views of Alnr.x were shaped by a time which lias passed away. In the early forties, when the system of Miirx w;i8 taking form, idealism had declined, and a very enidf! dogmatic materialism was in the a.scendnnt. Tiie very active speculation, wliieh had previously l»een 376 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM directed to the ideal, attempted to work in the real and material without due preparation on a very inadequate basis of facts — with strange results ! A fierce militant revolutionary spirit, which in the circumstances must be regarded as very natural, was preparing for the troubles of 1848. Eicardo, a man singularly deficient in the requisite historical and philosophical training, was the reigning po\A'er in economic theory. Under such influences the views of Marx were prematurely shaped into the dogmatic system which we know. He continued to hold and develop them without any real attempt at self-criticism in riper years, and he, an exile living in England, forcibly urged them from his study on the socialist groups and parties of the Continent. In his manifesto of the Communist party, Marx declares that the proletariat has nothing to lose but its chains. It has been the unfortunate destiny of him and his school to forge new chains for the working class in the shape of dogmatic materialism, a rigid and abstract collectivism, and ultra-revolutionary views, which still hamper it in the task of emancipation. The promptitude with which the emancipators of the human race have provided new chains is strange enougli. Still stranger is the readiness men have shown in putting them on ! As we have seen in a previous chapter, the followers of j\Iarx have gone farther in this way than their chief.^ An ill service was done to the working class by utterances on marriage and the family, which gave the 1 See p. 313. CONCLUSION 377 ruling classes who keep the workers out of their rights the plea that they were maintaining the fundamental principles of social order. Tlie abstract collectivism which is the prominent economic feature of his school suggests two serious doubts : if by a revolutionary act they took the delicate and complex social mechanism to pieces, whether they would be able to put it together again ; and if they did succeed in putting it together, whether it would work. The same devotion to abstract collectivism has made his followers unable to draw up a reasonable agrarian policy suitable to the peasantry. Their hostility to religion, expressed most freely iu the early years of the agitation in Germany and elsewhere, has been a serious hindrance to their progress, both among Catholics and Protestants, especially the former. Thus in many directions their propaganda has been an obstacle to their success in their proper task of emancipating the working class, and it has at the same time been a hindrance to the peaceful solution of the great struggle. The great central problem has been confused by side issues and irrelevant n)atter. We can best sliow how tragic lias been the confusion of parts and of issues by reference to religion. Love, brother- hood, mutual service, and peace are most ])r()minent notes in the teaching of Jesus. They nnist be woven into the moral texture of socialism if it i.s to succeed and be a benefit to the world. If M;irx and his school had merely attacked what we may call the odicial and professional reprcsoutatives of the Cliristiau 378 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM Church, they would have beeu within their rights. As it has been, the religion of love, brotherhood, and mutual service has officially become part of a govern- ment system by which the hereditary oppressors of the poor in Germany and elsewhere claim to continue their unblest work. The professional representatives of Christ's teaching support and encourage them in it, and so make themselves accomplices, not only in the oppression and degradation of the poor, but in war and militarism, and in all the waste, extravagance, and misdirection of class government. How many of them are conscious of the profound incongruity of their position ? In the history of human thought opinion has hardened often prematurely into dogma, and dogma has usually degenerated into pedantry. Dogma has often been simply the expression of egotism, which had not the saving grace either to be loyal to truth or really helpful to mankind. So it has been in the development of socialism. Its champions have too frequently failed in keeping a single eye and mind on a task which requires insight, self-restraint, loyalty, and consistency, as well as energy and enthusiasm. A great cause demands the best and noblest service. Such a cause as socialism demands from its supporters the self-denial which will suppress the many phases of an excessive, disorderly, morbid, and malignant egotism that has done so mucli harm in the past — no easy task for human nature. When we consider the little wisdom by which parties CONCLUSION 379 and nations are governed, it behoves all men of good will in every countrv to ponder the extreme gravity of the situation which is being created throughout the civilised world. Are we to face a confused struggle of the old sort between those who have and those who have not, or are we to see the blessed and beneficent action of a great transforming principle ? Is it to be a contest for the possession of political power, carried on with violence, and pregnant with incalculable disaster to all concerned? Or may we expect to watch tlie peaceful progress of a new type of industry gradually but effectually realised, under the guidance of men inspired by high economic and ethical ideals ? In England we have good ground to hope for a peaceful solution. Among our working classes there is a notable absence of rancour, and even of l)ittcrness. But it would be very unwise to count upon the con- tinuance of this spirit, and most unfair to make it an occasion or excuse for further neglect. It should rather be a stimulus to a truer appreciation of the position and needs of the working class. If (to go no furtlier back) we survey Englisli history I'nnw the year 1349 to the beginning of the nineteenth century, mir main difliculty is to determine whether our sins of omis- sion or commission have been the greater. Uoth liave been heinous and enormous. Factory workers giiincil much during the nineteenth century. But even yet the State has hardly done anything substantial for the rural workers. Scarcely a voice has been raised for a class which has borne the chief burden of national industry, 380 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM of colonisation and war, which for so many centuries carried Church and State, aristocracy and squirearchy, on its much-enduring shoulders. Some of us hoped that in 1885 the time had at last come. We all know what happened to defer it again. AVill the State never give heed to such a duty till the demand grows clamorous, and agitation menacing ? Xo class has done so much and received so little as the rural workers. Every man connected with the ruling class in England should be ashamed to look one of the peasantry in the face. It is the continual neglect of the needs and claims of the people that makes a peaceful change difficult and prepares for revolution. We have in the foregoing pages discussed the State as a possible engine of social amelioration. But we should not forget that the most hopeful movement of recent times, the co-operative movement, owes little to the State. The State has very great power, but it has no magical power. And it is a grave mistake to regard it too much as the pivot of social evolution. The State itself is only a phase of social evolution. We can trace its rise and progress in history, and its record has not been a good one. While it has been a decisive element of strength in the struggle for existence, it has also too long and too much been an organ for the exploiting of the mass of the people by the ruling minority. If we are to understand the true inwardness of our subject we must go behind the State. Eightly under- stood, socialism is concerned with principles and ten- dencies which are more fundamental than the State. COXCLUSIOX 381 As I have said in another place, ' Socialism is a new type of social and economic organisation, the aim and tendency of which are to reform the existing society, the State included. It is a principle of social change which goes beyond and behind the existing State, which will modify the State, but does not depend upon it for its realisation.' ^ To be more precise, socialism is a prin- ciple of economic organisation, with the correlated social and ethical principles constituting a great ideal, to which the State must be made to conform. How far the State may in this way need to be transformed is a question which hardly concerns us at present. In the chapter on the Purified Socialism I attempted to show how ' the true meaning of socialism is given in the dominating tendencies of social evolution,' ^ Through the fog of controversy we should clearly see that the funda- mental principle of socialism is marked by extreme sim- plicity. It means that industry should be carried on by free associated workers utilising a joint capital with a view to an equitable .system of distribution. And in Hk; political organisation of .society it has for coinj)loni(Mit a like ideal, namely, that the oM nietliods of force, subjection, and exploitation should give place to the principle of free association. Socialism rests on the great ideals of freedom and justice, of brotherhood and nnitual service. It may well claim to be the licir of the great ideals of the greatest races. The Hebrew ideal nf irutli, righteousness, and * Iiiqnirtf info Socialism, \>. 1-1. « Soc p. 287, 382 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM mercy, which on its ethical side was widened and deepened into the Christian ideals of love, brotherhood, and mutual service, and the Greek ideal of the true, the good, and the beautiful, all may and should be accepted by socialism, and they should be supplemented by the Roman conceptions of law, order, and continuity, but with far wider aims and meanings. In its law of mutual service, by which it at once asserted the inter- dependence of the members of the social organism and a profound conception of social duty, Christianity went deeper, both in philosophy and practice, than the French Eevolution with its watchwords of liberty, equality, and fraternity. All these ideals, though not seldom abused and discredited in the rough school of human experience, are in their essence profoundly true and real, and they all meet and are summed up in a worthy conception of the great socialistic ideal. These ideals, it will be seen, go together ; and it should be specially observed that freedom for the mass of mankind can be won and maintained only by asso- ciation. In the competitive struggle the victors are few ; the many are defeated and become subject. It is a delusion to suppose that freedom and competition are really compatible. Rightly understood, socialism will thus be seen to embody the highest conceptions of life, ancient and modern, and the highest aspirations of Christian ethics interpreted and applied by the experience of centuries. The failures which we have experienced in realising our ideals are no excuse for lowering them. They are far- CONCLUSION 383 reaching ; they are limited by obvions natural facts, and cannot be realised in a day. But we should remember that every step forward brings us nearer to the goal. This great ideal remains, therefore, as a far-shining goal to provoke and encourage the endeavours of men to attain it. "We cannot lower it, but we should be grateful for every sincere attempt to reach it, for every successful step towards it. For the rise and growth of socialism a lower and, as some would reckon, a more solid foundation is all that we need. The necessary minimum is on enlightened self-interest. Socialism does not aim at the extinguishing or superseding of the self- regarding principle— that is impossible and absurd. It seeks to regulate it, to place it under social guidance and control. When and so far as the mass of the people in any particular country and tliroughout the world gain a moderate, rational, and enlightened view of their real needs and interests, then and so far will socialism tend to be realised. "While the elect souls have been and are ready to go far in deeds of heroism and self- .sacrifice, nothing more is demanded of tlie average mass of mankind tlian to learn to understand their true interests. On this prosaic basis much has already been done. Wliile the competitive system still holds the field, we have very good grounds for tliinking that it should pa.ss away, and is passing away. We have seen how, in accordance with the funrhinicntal ])rinciph's of socialism, the State is becoming, not in name only but in reality, an associatir)!) for thi' promrjtion of fdinmon 384 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM national interests, in so far as they can well be furthered by the central organ ; and we have also seen how the municipality or commune is really beginning to perform the same functions for local purposes. In the co-operative system, in tlie growth of trade-unions, of arbitration, boards of conciliation, and similar forms of organisation, we see partial efforts towards a com- prehensive system of social control over the industrial processes. And the natural development of the com- pany is providing the mechanism whereby it may also be placed under social management. It is clear that along these lines the movement may spread till it cover the whole field of our social-economic life, and place the competitive spirit under an effective and reasonable regulation. Eeferring to questions which were raised in other parts of this book, we believe that recent modifications in the Iron Law of Wages, which have been alleged in confutation of Lassalle's position, are really symptoms of the decline of capitalism. Such modifications are due to influences which are inconsistent with the con- tinued predominance of capitalism. And here we may say explicitly that socialism has no controversy with the prevalent political economy in so far as it is a cor- rect description and analysis of the prevalent economic system. The aim of socialism is to show why and how that system should and must pass away, and is passing away ; and we may believe that this is a much worthier task, from the point of view both of science and the public good, than the microscopic investigation of the CONCLUSION 885 conditions of the competitive system, which constitutes so large a portion of the current political economy. Anyhow the practical aim of socialism is to remove and abolish the conditions under which the so-called laws of political economy had their validity. Eegarding the assumption so often made by economists that indi- vidual self-interest is the solid basis on which science must build, we can only say that it is not science, but a one-sided and erroneous conception of human nature, of human society, and of social evolution, which obviously requires the most serious correction. With regard to the population question, and the question of the struggle for existence so intimately connected with it, we can no longer ignore the practice of limitation of families, which has now become so pre- valent. It cannot be regarded as a satisfactory solution of the population question. In tlie past it has been one of the surest signs of a stagnant and decadent nation. No race or nation, in wliich tlie rights and duties of motherhood or the family moralities are slightly valued, can hope permanently to maintain a high standard of life and worth. But we are not in this Imok concerned with the general question. What we have to note here is that the practice of limiting families, having become so prevalent, will tend to diminish the intensity of the strua^rle for existence, which it is the aim of socialism to regulate. For this reason we must recognise it as a fact which has an important bearing on our subject. It was a theory of the Marx school that the honrgroinc, in the course of the development of capitalism, would 26 386 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM be 'no longer capable of controlling the industrial world.' ^ The recent development of the trust system in America and Germany has shown that the bourgeoisie are only too capable of doing so on the vastest scale. The leaders of the trusts are showing that they can regulate production, wages, prices, and the markets, not for nations only but for the world. Oligarchies showed their capacity in Eome, Carthage, Venice, and Holland for centuries. They came to ruin at last, but the causes of their ruin were wider and deeper than mere want of capacity. With these we are not concerned here. The concern of socialism is that the oligarchy or plutocracy which is foreshadowed in the gigantic trust system should not be allowed to gain a permanent footing, but should be regulated and transformed in the way required by the public good. The trust is a menace alike to labour and to society. With the growth of the trust system free competition really ceases to exist, and the alternative lies between a gigantic system of monopoly and socialism. We believe also that Marx made a serious mistake in holding that the further development of capitalism will be marked by the growing ' wretchedness, oppres- sion, slavery, degeneracy, and exploitation ' ^ of the working class. Facts and reasonable expectations com- bine clearly to indicate that the democracy, on which the social evolution of the future depends, is marked by a growing intellectual, moral, and political capacity, and by an increasing freedom and prosperity ; and all 1 See p. 148. ^ Kapital, j). 790. CONCLUSION 887 these tilings make it only more ardent and capable for further progress and for the great tasks that lie before it. Social progress must in the last resort depend on the character and capacity of the human beings con- cerned in it. The democracy, the representative and promoter of the new order, shows a growing fitness for its world-historic mission. The claim of socialism to be the dominant form of social organisation in the future must ultimately be its efficiency to fulfil the great ends of social union, and the decisive element in this effi- ciency must be the fitness of the agents who are to realise it. This is a point of supreme and far-reaching im- portance which it will be well for us to ponder. All social problems in the long run resolve themselves into the question of human character. The moral forces control the world and the course of history. It has been the special function of socialism to show that a real and durable freedom can be established only on an economic basis. We should also not forget that such freedom can be attained and secured only by loyalty to reason and especially to moral law. Freedom and social progress, reason and morality, are correlated and organic conceptions which go together and can thrive only in harmony. Government of State and municii)ality is oidy a mechanism, of which the action for good or evil will depend on the sjjirit by Mliich it is nun-cd. TIk; nationalisation of railways may merely open \\\> ;i new field of corruption, if there is not integrity to manage 888 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM them for the public good. Noble ideals are of no avail, if they remain outside of our spiritual framework : they must be assimilated and become part of us. Fine senti- ments, unless they are consolidated into character and translated into habitual action, may become an insidious and harmful form of self-indulgence. Let it be under- stood that in the great struggle for a really free common- wealth against organised wealth, called plutocracy, on which men are now entering, we shall achieve victory only by deserving it. The sacred cause of freedom will not be maintained by mammon-worshippers, parasites, and pedants. No nation or class whose women are slaves of self-indulgence and of fashion can expect to be free. We cannot hope that freedom will thrive among the base and mean, or the hysterical, irresponsible, frivolous, and apathetic. To use the words of John Milton, it was a ' strenuous liberty ' which was cherished and maintained by our Puritan forefathers, the fathers and founders of the American Commonwealth. We know with what solem- nity and earnestness, with what gravity, deliberation, and foresight they entered on the long struggle against Stuart tyranny. If the Americans and we are to succeed in the coming struggle against plutocracy, an abundant measure of the high and virile qualities which characterised their forefathers and ours will be needed. Happily signs are not wanting that a spirit and character strenuous and capable of the task of reforma- tion will be forthcoming. In all civilised countries, CONCLUSION 889 and especially iu America, men have been accomplices in the sin of mammon -worship : success in the struggle for wealth, with its many base and unscrupulous inci- dents, has been far too highly esteemed. There has been, especially in America, a great moral awakening, which we may expect to have good results among all classes. As regards the working classes, we have seen how long and hard in most countries has been their discipline of privation and sorrow. The repre- sentatives of labour have for generations undergone a stern and severe training in prison and exile. In liussia to-day they are suffering and inflicting horrors which are far worse. But as we have repeatedly had occasion to point out in this book, their training in constructive work, in political organisation, in trade-unions, and co-operative societies has been vastly more efficacious. Most pro- mising of all, as we have seen, is the co-operative movement, because it best combines the collective use of the means of production and excliango with individual freedom and responsibility. In the vast and ever- widening co-operative movement we can see a new society rising in the midst of the old. Every year it widens and grows, and we liopc it will grow and widen till the old, witli all its false and base ideals, its un- reason, its militarism, its mismanagement, waste, and extravagance has been put away. Hearts liave been burning witii the sacred fire of noble ideals in tlie promoting of tin's grand work. Imaginalions have been haunted with beautiful dreams, whicli have not been 890 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM vain. But we should prize not less the patient and per- severing integrity which, through a multitude of petty and prosaic details, is bearing the movement onward to an ever higher position in the world. At Ghent and other places "we may already see both in spirit and material outline the city that is to be, the new society that is rising to make life happy and beautiful for the people who have mourned so long ! In the application of the co-operative principle to agricultiire we can at last see an ending to the oppression of the tiller of the soil by the usurer and middleman, which has been a stain on civilisation since it began thousands of years ago in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile. The day is coming, perhaps it may be near at hand, when we shall be able to discover and to apply the true tests of greatness. When, with their help, we are able to write history in a really scientific manner, we shall find that the Napoleons and the others, the records of whose doings now fill our libraries, were not great at all, but the reverse of it, and that the true heroes and benefactors of the nineteenth century were the poor weavers of Eochdale and Ghent, who started and carried forward the co-operative movement. All honour to them for what they have done ! And yet all that they have done is only the solid and hopeful beginning of the realisation of our dreams. For the ideal is superb and exacting. Men are slow to move towards it. They find it hard even to understand and appreciate its beauty and excellence. Let us fervently hope that after the way towards a good and CONCLUSION 391 beautiful life for humanity has been so clearly pointed out, an ever-increasing multitude may have the wisdom to walk in it. The lesson taught by much recent experience and the goal of many convergent tendencies seem un- doubtedly to be, that society should control industry in its own interest. An industry carried on by free associated men would be in perfect accord with other forms and methods of progress, ethical, political, and economic. The purified socialism may be regarded as the co-ordination and consummation of every other form of human progress, inasmuch as it applies to the use of man all the factors of scientific, mechanical, and artistic development in harmony with the prevailing political and ethical ideas. It is therefore a most desirable form of organisation. And many large and growing symptoms show that it is practicable. It is a type of organisation which may take shape in a thousand diverse ways, according to the differences in liistoric conditions and in national temperament. Within its limits there will be reason- able scope for individual development and for -every variety of liking and capacity consistent with tin- well- being of others; but exceptional talent and the gener- ous enthu.siasm which is its fitting accompaniment will more and more lind their proi)er field in the service of society, an idral which is already largely realised in the democratic state. In a rational socialism we may therefore sec a long and widening avenue of progress, along which the 392 HISTORY OF SOCIALISM improvement of mankind may be continued in a peace- ful and gradual, yet most hopeful, sure, and effective way. Such a prospect offers the best remedy for the apathy and frivolity, cynicism and pessimism, which are now so prevalent ; and it is the most effectual counteractive to restlessness, discontent, and all the evils and excesses of the revolutionary spirit. May we not with Saint-Simon hope that the golden age is not behind but before us ? APPENDIX After the Ilevolution of 1830 the Saint-Simonists were referred to in the French Chamber of Deputies as a sect who advocated community of goods and of women. The follow- ing commiuiioation in their defence was addressed to the Chamber by Bazard and Enfantin, October 1, 1830: — ' The Saint-Simonists undoubtedly do profess ideas on the future of property and of Avomen which are special to themselves, and which are connected with views entirely new and special on religion, authority, liljcrty — in short, on all the great problems which are now being agitated over the whole of Europe with so much disorder and violence ; but these ideas are very different from the opinions wliirh men attriljute to them. 'The system of community of goods is always under- stood to mean erjual division among all the monilters of society, either of the miians of pioduction or of the fruit of the labour of all. 'The Saint-Simonists reject this equal division of pro- perty, wliich in their eyes would constitute a greater violence, a more revolting injustice, than the une(ju;d divi- sion, which was originally cU'ected by force of arms, by con(|uest. 'For they believe in the natural inequality of men, and regard this inequality as the veiy basis of association, as the indispensable condition of social order. 'They reject the system f)f community of goods, for this would be a manifest violation of the first of :dl the 394 APPENDIX moral laws, which it is their mission to teach, and Avhich enjoins that in the future each man should be placed according to his capacity, and rewarded according to his work. ' But in virtue of this law they demand the abolition of all the privileges of birth without exception, and con- sequently the destruction of the right of inheritance, the greatest of those privileges, which at present comprehends them all, and of which the effect is to leave to chance the distribution of social privileges amongst the small number of those who can lay claim to them, and to condemn the most numerous class to depravation, ignorance, and misery. ' They demand that all the instruments of labour, land, and capital, which at present form the divided stock of private proprietors, should be exploited by associations with a suitable gradation of functions, so that the task of each may be the expression of his capacity, and his riches the measure of his services. ' The Saint-Simonists do not attack the institution of private property, except in so far as it consecrates for some the impious privilege of idleness — that is to say, of living on the labour of others ; except as it leaves to the accident of birth the social status of individuals. ' Christianity has delivered women from slavery, but it has nevertheless condemned them to an inferior position, and in Christian Europe we still see them everywhere deprived of religious, political, and civil rights. ' The Saint-Simonists announce their final liberation, their complete emancipation, but they do not aim at abolishing the sacred law of marriage proclaimed by Christianity ; on the contrary, they desire to fulfil this law, to give it a new sanction, to add to the authority and inviolability of the union which it consecrates. ' Like Christians they demand that a single man be united to a single woman ; but they teach that the wife should become the equal of the husband, and that, accord- ing to the special grace with which God has endowed her sex, she should be associated in the exercise of the triple function of religion, the State, and the family, so that SOCIALISTIC WORKING MEN'S PARTY OF GERMANY 395 the social individual, which hitherto has been the man only, may henceforward be man and woman. ' The religion of Saint-Simon seeks only to abolish the shameful traffic, the legal prostitution, which, under the name of marriage, at present so frequently consecrates the unnatural union of self-sacrifice and eocotism, of intelligence and ignorance, of youth and decrepitude. ' Such are the most general ideas of the Saint-Simonists on the changes which they demand in the arrangements of property and in the social condition of women.' PROGRAMME OF THE SOCIALISTIC WORKING MEN'S PARTY OF GERMANY GoTHA, May 1875. I. Labour is the source of all wealth and all culture, and as useful work in general is possible only through society, so to society, that is to all its members, the entire product belongs ; while as the obligation to labour is universal, all have an equal right to such product, each one according to his reasonal)le needs. In the existing society the instruments of labour are a monopoly of the capitalist class ; the subjection of the working class thus arising is the cause of misery and .servitude in every form. The emancipation of the working class demands the transformation of the instruments of la1)0ur into tlie common property of society and the co (jperativo control of the total labour, with ajjplication of the prochict of labour to the common good and just distribution nf the same. The emancipation of labour must be the work of tlio labouring cla.ss, in contra.st to which all other chi.sses uro only a reactionary mass. II. Proceeding from these prinriph's, tin; socialistic working men's party of Germany aims by all legal iiicaim at the estaldisluncnt of the free state and the socialistic society, to destroy the Iron loint8 of agreement with Lassalle, 273, 274. Bourgeoisie, the middle or capitalist class, 41, 98, 139, etc., 172, otc. ; its position in Russia, 255, 266 ; 886. 20 402 INDEX Capital, aim of socialism with regard to it, 8, 9, 10, etc. ; contrast between labour and capital, 25 ; individual capital, an institution in Fourier's system, 38, 40 ; how regarded by L. Blanc, 45, 46 ; by Proudhon, 56 ; how to be obtained by the productive associations of Lassalle, 108 ; a historic category, 113 ; word wrongly used by socialists, 114 ; exposition of capital by Marx, 138, etc. ; its international relation to labour, 171, etc. ; its place in anarchism, 241, 245 ; its place in a reasonable socialism, 290, etc. Capitalism, correct name for the prevalent economic order as con- trolled by capitalists, 115, 141, 145. Catholic Church, its societies and their property, 16 ; liow related to Saint-Simon, 25, 29 ; its social activity, 340. Chartism, its import, 42, 70. Christian socialism, in England, 71 ; in Germany, 342. Christianit)', relation to socialism, 10, 71, 339, 377. Collectivism, economic basis of the prevalent socialism, 12 ; its place in L. Blanc's system, 46; goal of Lassalle's scheme, 111; eco- nomic basis of anarchism, 247, 249. Commune, the, its place in Fourier's system, 31 ; at Paris, 188 ; its place in anarchism, 243, 273 ; its general place in socialism, 289, 346. Communism, its relation to socialism, 16, 18. Conjunctures, Lassalle's theory of, 112. Co-operative movement, really founded by Owen, 70 ; promoted by Christian socialists in England, 71 ; movement in Germany and its relation to Lassalle, 84, 106, 107, 116 ; commended by the International, 180, 184, 185 ; its recent progress, 350, etc. Darwin, relation of his doctrine of development to economics, 281 ; relation of his teaching to that of Marx, 294 ; relation of his theory to socialism, 295, etc. Democracy, socialism its economic complement, 10 ; one of the con- ditions necessary for the growth of socialism, 18 ; the political basis of L. Blanc's schemes, 43, etc. ; development of, 47 ; democracy of workers, 99, 120 ; how trained for its gi'eat task, 148, 160 ; its importance, 284, 287, 288 ; its place in social evolution, 357, 886. Denmark, 318. Distribution, problem of, how solved in various schools of socialism, 9 ; such methods criticised, 291 ; moral and scientific basis of, 360. Donuiges, Fraulein von, 91. Enfantin, 26, 27, 29. Engels, Fr., 73, 130, 132, 135 ; Ins exposition of the function of the State, 150. INDEX 403 Fabian Society, 329. Feudalism, iu relation to socialism, 11, 19, 24 ; its overthrow by the capitalist class, 97, 142 ; not a stereotyped system, 278 ; evolved by the struggle for existence, 298. Fourier, method of remuneration, 9 ; admitted private capital, 13 ; a founder of socialism, 15 ; grew up under the immediate influence of the French Revolution, 18 ; life and opinions, 31 ; contrast to Saint-Simon and the centralising socialism, 31, 273, 274 ; his safeguards for individual and local freedom, 290. George, Henry, 328 Hegel, influence on Lassalle, 74 ; on Marx, 131, 151, 152, 161, 279 ; his doctrine of development, 294. Held, Adolf, definition of socialism, 5. Holland, 318. Independent Labour Party, 330, 332. Individuality under socialism, 11, 307, 391. International, its aim, 6 ; Marx and the Internatiomil, 166 ; history, 168 ; influence in it of Bakunin, 190 ; influence of it on the Fiussiau revolutionary movement, 260. Italy, 322. Janet, Paul, definition of socialism, 5. Jaurez, 321. Keir Hardie, Mr., 333. Kent, Duke of, 66. Kettekr, lii.shop, 88, 310. Kingsley, 71. Kropotkinc, Prince, 243, 244. Laissez-faire, 4; economic optimism implied in it, 14; entirely un- suitable to I'ruiaia, 280 ; its adherents in Kngland, JJI7. Lassalle, at Paris, 42 ; on tlio jiower of lying, J9 ; iiis lifi', 73 ; his theories, 95 ; his rolation.s to Marx, 95 ; Koilburtu«, 95, 124 ; ])08i- tion of the Social Di;m<)(rati<' parly ut hia death, 203 ; I'.JNntarck'H relation to liira, 216; his inlliience on the revolutionary parly in Russia, 269 ; points of agreement with L. P»lanc, 273, 274 ; his presentation of socialism, 279 ; exagguratiil osliinale of tim influence of the social principle, 306 ; his Iron Law of Wiiyen, 384. Laveleyo, definition of socialism, .5. 404 INDEX Lavroff, 243, 260. League, Communist, 133 ; reorganised by Marx, 172 ; its manifesto, 173. Leroux, Pierre, 26. Liebknecht, W., 208, 210, 218, 233, etc. ; 316, 367. Ludlow, 71. Malthus, relation to Owen, 69 ; liis theory and the population question, 296 ; struggle for existence, 297. Manchester theory of the State, 102. Marx, Karl, his relation to the existing State, 6 ; his school the most influential form of contemporary socialism, 15 ; Proudhon's right of auhaine, compared with the theory of capital, 56 ; his theory of surplus value enunciated by the Chartists, 71 ; com- parison of his character with Lassalle's, 92 ; relation of his theory of surplus value to Lassalle's Iron Law of Wages, 103 ; collectivism common to him with Lassalle and Eodbertus, 111 ; use of the word capital, 114 ; life and theories, 130 ; criticism of his theories, 154 ; compared with Adam Smith, 162 ; his place in history, 166 ; founding of the Communist League, 172 ; influ- ence on the International, 179, etc. ; influence on the Social Demo- cratic movement in Germany, 230 ; influence on the revolu- tionary movement in Russia, 259 ; socialist movement should not be identified with his views, 275 ; his abstractness, 279 ; in England, 328 ; his views criticised, 375, 385, etc. Materialism, relation to socialism, 10 ; as held by Marx, 151, 158, etc. ; held by Bakunin, 240 ; socialism purified from it, 285, Maurice, 71. Mazziui, 179, 243. Mill, J. S., his conception of socialism, 286. Mir, the Russian form of the village community, 251, etc. ; its analogy to the community of Owen, the phalange of Fourier, and the free commune of Bakunin, 273. More, Thomas, 16. Napoleon I., 169. Napoleon III., 57, 178. New Christianity of Saint-Simon, 25. New Harmonj^ 66. New Lanark, 60. New Zealand, a democratic State, 349. Nicholas, Emperor, 63. Nihilism, the correct name for the early stage of the revolutionary movement in Russia, 257, etc. INDEX 405 Orbiston, 96, Oweu, Robert, founder of the association of all classes of all nations, 3 ; one of the historic founders of socialism, 4, etc. ; ,'the in- fluences that conditioned his work, 19 ; life and theories, 59 ; doctrine of surplus value held in his school, 137 ; influence on Russian revolutionary movement, 259 ; desire for a ready-made socialism, 273. Phalange, 31, 33, 273. Plato, 16. Progressist party in Germany, 79, 83, 208. Proletariat, the class excluded from land and capital and dependent on wage-labour, 8 ; brought into active historic contrast to tlie bourgeoisie, 41 ; its share in the risings at Paris, 1848, 50 ; its position conditioned by the development of capitalism, 139 ; and necessary to it, 141 ; its great rdle in the final dissolution of capitalism, 148, etc. ; its emancipation, the great aim of inter- national socialism, 172 ; llarx the scientific expounder of the conditions of its existence and of its emancipation, 173, etc. ; the Commune at Paris considered as a struggle for its deliver- ance, 189 ; how existing in Russia, 260 ; the democracy still mainly a proletariat, 357 ; Marx's theory of its future develop- ment, 386. Proudhon, one of the leaders of the socialism of 1848, 42 ; life and theories, 51 ; theory of surplus value underlies his extravagances, 137 ; the founder of anarchism, 56, 237 ; his indueuco in the International, 183 ; his ex[iosition of anarchism, 248. Ralahine, 67. Keybaud, 4. Rockefeller, 364, 369. Rodbcrtus, liis general conception of socialism, 13 ; relation to Lassalle, 95, 96 ; life and theories, 123 ; relation to Lassallc and Marx, 137 ; too abstract and Prussian, 279. Roscher, 5. Rousseau, 18. Saint-Simon, one of the historic founders of socialism, 4, 15, olc. ; his life and opinions, 22 ; rci)rcsentcd the principle of authority in the development of socialism, 274. Schaflle, definition of socialism, 12; too abstract and Prussian in his conception of socialism, 277 ; his high rank as an cconomi.st, 339. Scheel, 6. Schulze-Delitzsch, his schemes, 84 ; Lassalle's treatment of him, 86 ; Lassalle'a criticism of his schemes, 107 ; the same cxuniined, 115, etc. 405 INDEX Schweitzer, 203, 207, etc. Smith, Adam, in relation to freedom, 17 ; compared with Marx, 162 ; liis principle of natural liberty, 278, 292. Social Democracy, its programme in Germany, 9 ; as taught by L. Blanc, 48 ; by Lassalle, 84, etc. ; German, 197, etc., 311, etc. ; its general aim, 363, etc. Social Democratic Federation, 329. Social workshops of Louis Blanc, 45, 48. Socialist League, 329. State, in relation to socialism, 6 ; historic relation to property, 16 ; its place in Saint-Simon, 31 ; in Louis Blanc, 44 ; in Lassalle, 101, etc.; in Rodbertus, 127 ; its rUc as explained by Fr. Eugels, 150 ; Bakunin's relation to it, 240 ; two opposing tendencies with regard to it in socialist movement, 274 ; its place in socialism, 345, etc. ; 380, etc. Stepniak's estimate of the numbers of the Russian revolutionary party, 271. Surplus value, theory of, as held by Chartists, 71 ; as held by Owen- ites, Rodbertus, Proudhou, etc., 137 ; its development by Marx, 138, etc.; criticism of Marx's theory of it, 154. Times, the, and the International, 187. Trust system, 335, 336, 355, 357, 359, etc. ; 364, etc. Turgenief, his novel, Fathers and Sons, 258. Tytherley, 67. Tzardom, its great function in Russian history, 2.51, 266, etc. Vienna, great demonstration, 370. Voltaire, 18, Vooruit, at Ghent, 352. Wages, Iron Law of, 103, etc., 384, Wagner, definition of socialism, 1 2 ; justly charged with abstract- ness, 277. Webb, Sidney, 330. William I., Emperor, 79. William II., Emperor, 121, 195. THE END Printed by R. &, R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. Athenaeum. " So fair, so learned, and so well written that we have nothing but praise for its autlior." Saturday Review. " Mr. Kirkuji has done more than anj' other writer to expound the history and pliilosojihy of the socialistic movement. . . . eminently philosophical and sane." Manchester Guardian. "Unquestionably the best study of Socialism in the English language ... of the utmost value." Pall Mall Gazette. "A book which should be on the slielvcs of every pulilic library and every working-men's club." Daily News. 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