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SOCIALISM IN MODERN TIMES
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AND GERMAN
SOCIALISM IN MODERN TIMES
BY
RICHARD T.'ELY, PH.D.
Theodore
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE JOHNS HOPKINS
UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE; AND LECTURER ON POLITICAL
ECONOMY IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y.
………..
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1883

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
All rights reserved.
....
.....

ΤΟ
MY FATHER AND MOTHER
THIS VOLUME IS
Affectionately Dedicated
;
Replacement
**
Barnes & Make
7-27-42-
46038
Chapter
I. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE LABORING
CLASSES
INDEX..
CONTENTS.
1
II. BABŒUF
29
III. CABET
39
IV. SAINT-SIMON
53
V. FOURIER.
81
VI. LOUIS BLANC..
108
VII. PROUDHON..
124
VIII. SOCIALISM IN FRANCE SINCE PROUDHON..
143
IX. RODBERTUS.
156
X. KARL MARX..
170
XI. THE INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 183
XII. FERDINAND LASSALLE………..
189
204
XIII. THE IDEAL OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
XIV. SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE THE DEATH OF LASSALLE 211
XV. SOCIALISM OF THE CHAIR.
235
XVI. CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM
245
··
·
··
..
...
•
·
Page
•
263
PREFATORY NOTE.
THE publication of this volume is due to the
friendly counsel of the Hon. Andrew D. White,
president of Cornell University; a gentleman tire-
less in his efforts to encourage young men, and alive
to every opportunity to speak fitting words of hope
and cheer. Like many of the younger scholars of
our country, I am indebted to him more than I can
say.
The present work is based on lectures delivered
in Baltimore before the students of the Johns Hop-
kins University, and in Ithaca before the students
of Cornell University. Although these lectures have
been thoroughly revised and, in fact, rewritten, traces
of this origin will be found in a certain freedom of
style and matter, which will, I trust, render the book
neither less interesting nor less instructive.
My aim is to give a perfectly fair, impartial pres-
entation of modern communism and socialism in
their two strongholds, France and Germany. I be-
lieve that, in so doing, I am rendering a service to
the friends of law and order.
RICHARD T. ELY.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE, August 3, 1883.
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM
IN
MODERN TIMES.
CHAPTER I.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE LABORING CLASSES.
COMMUNISM and Socialism represent different and
yet allied movements of theory and practice. They
aim to improve the common lot of humanity, in par-
ticular that of the lower classes, in a radical manner
and by the application of thorough-going measures.
Now, when we utter the word improvement we indi-
cate a desire to change, and consequently dissatisfac-
tion with the state which is to be changed. This
brings us at once to the common standing-ground of
politico-economic reformers. They are one and all dis-
satisfied with the present condition of society. We have,
therefore, in the first place, to examine the accusations
which are brought against the social régime of our time.
Complaints against the methods of producing and
distributing wealth are not new; complaints of such
a character as we hear at present, however, have orig-
inated since the middle of the eighteenth century.
Before the French Revolution, dissatisfaction with
the then existing order of things had been expressed
T
1
2
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
often enough, and had even led to rebellion; but the
economic life of Christendom was then different from
what it is now, and consequently the discontent and
the proposed measures of reform were not of the same
nature. While the study of the condition of the labor-
ing classes in ancient times and the Middle Ages is
highly profitable, it is not necessary to go farther back
than the latter part of the eighteenth century to ob-
tain a tolerably accurate notion of existing socialism
and communism.
A brief examination of the peculiarities of modern
socialistic schemes will make this plain. One of these
is to be found in the developed self-consciousness and
awakened desires of the poor, taking their origin in
democratic institutions and increased enlightenment.
Another is the greater prominence given to capital in
the present system of production. Disputes concern-
ing capital-profit and wages now lead to communistic
and socialistic schemes. "Such war-cries," to use the
words of Schäffle's "Socialism as Presented by Kauf-
mann," "as we find Lassalle raising against capital,
would not have been even understood among the
ancients and the oppressed classes of the Middle Ages.
The promises held out by agitators to the masses now
are equal rights for all, no monopolies, liberty and
equality for the people. Liberalism itself has paved
the
way to communism. The right of coalition among
laborers for their own interests, liberty of the press,
the extension of the suffrage, together with the facility
of rapid and cheap inter-communication by post and
telegraph, afford laborers the means for united action
where their interests are at stake. The working-man
of our day has a consciousness of his own power quite
unparalleled by any of his compeers in former ages."
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
3
A third peculiarity of modern forms of communism
and socialism is their cosmopolitan and practical char-
acter. All the plans of reformers, described in this
work, were meant to be executed and to inaugurate a
new era in the development of humanity. Attempts
have been made, or are being made, to realize every one
of them. Older socialistic schemes are of two kinds.
Those of the first class were applied only to sects or
small associations. Such were the communities of
Buddhist and Christian monks and the villages of the
Essenes in Judea. Those of the second class were
dreamy and speculative. No attempt was made by
their authors or any group of immediate disciples to
regenerate the world by substituting them for exist-
ing social and economic organizations. Of this char-
acter were the "Republic" of Plato and the "Utopia"
of Sir Thomas More. Even the speculations of French
writers immediately preceding the Revolution, like
Mably, Morelly, Brissot de Warville, and Jean Jacques
Rousseau, were of this kind. De Warville, for exam-
ple, tickled the palates of those craving literary and
philosophical sensation by declaring private property
theft, and then defended private property in the Na-
tional Convention of 1792;* while Rousseau, only a
few months after lamenting that the first man who
laid claim to property had not been instantly de-
nounced as the arch foe of the human race, speaks re-
spectfully in his "Political Economy" of property as
the basis of the social compact, whose first condition was
that every one should be protected in its enjoyment. †
* Vide "Histoire du Communisme," par Alfred Sudre (5th ed., Paris,
1856), ch. xiv. sec. iv. pp. 232-250.
+ Vide "Rousseau," by John Morley (Lond. 1873), vol. i. p. 192.
4
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
Morley says of him that he "never thought of the
subversion of society or its reorganization on a com-
munistic basis," and that would hold generally of
French socialistic thinkers before 1789. Modern so-
cialists and communists, on the other hand, not only
think of a reorganization of society, but work with
might and main to accomplish it. This at once draws
a broad line between them. This difference finds ex-
pression in new designations. A man without prop-
erty is no longer what he was previous to the French
Revolution-viz., a poor man; he is a proletarian,
while the class to which he belongs are not called col-
lectively the poor, but the proletariat.
Previous to the French Revolution an attempt had
been made to embrace all the inhabitants of a state
in some shape in a fixed and definite social organism.
There were the ruling classes, consisting of the nobili-
ty and the clergy, and the commons. The latter were,
to be sure, hewers of wood and carriers of water for
the two higher estates, but they were bound to them
in a certain manner. The feudal lord usually felt some
sort of concern for the welfare of his vassals, looked
after their interests, when these interests were attacked
by others, and in a general way afforded them protec-
tion to be found only in his wealth and power. The
greatest of the feudal lords, the sovereign, was the
mighty father of all, and his government was often a
shield to the weak and helpless. The third estate, the
bourgeoisie-those who pursued trades and commerce.
-were connected together, and with the rest of so-
ciety, by guilds. and corporations. The arrangements
of these institutions brought into close personal con-
tact master and laborers. Manufactures were con-
ducted in small shops, where the employer worked.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
5
side by side with two or three journeymen and ap-
prentices, the latter living in the master's house. Ac-
cording to the rules of the guilds the apprentice be-
came a journeyman in a few years, and the journeyman
rose in time to the rank of master. Thus there
were common experiences and common feelings to
unite employers and employed. They were not dis-
tinct and separate classes, with interests sharply an-
tagonistic to one another.
It is so unusual to hear one speak a good word for
the institutions of the Middle Ages, that I fear the
reader will be tempted to exclaim, "Can any good
thing come out of Nazareth?" But that it may not
be necessary to take my ipse dixit for believing that
there was a favorable side to feudalism, I will quote
the testimony of Thorold Rogers, Professor of Political
Economy in the University of Oxford, and one of the
most distinguished economists of our time. "It is in
vain to rejoice over the aggregate of our prosperity,"
says Professor Rogers, in his "History of Agriculture
and Prices,"*"and to forget that great part of the
nation has no share in its benefits. It may be that the
wisdom of our forefathers was accidental; it is certain
that society was divided by less sharp lines, and was
held together by common ties in a far closer manner,
in the times which it has been my fortune to study
[the Middle Ages], than it is now.
The feudal sys-
tem of the Middle Ages was one of mutual interests;
its theory of property involved far more exacting
duties than modern rights ever acknowledge, or re-
member, or perhaps know."
The war of La Vendée, in the French Revolution,
*Vol. i. pp. viii. ix.
6
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
gives striking corroboration of this view of feudalism.
In the western part of France, particularly in Anjou,
feudal institutions still retained their better character-
istics, while in other provinces large landed proprie-
tors intrusted their estates to agents, that they might
lead idle and dissipated lives in Paris. The landlords
of La Vendée and the surrounding country lived on
their manors, and took a paternal interest in the well-
being of their peasants and dependents. The rela-
tions of Church and people were those of protection.
and affection. The result was the obstinate adherence
of this part of France to the old order of things, and
the stubborn resistance of the peasants of Anjou and
Poitou to the revolution.*
Yes, it is true; much more can be said in favor of
the social organization of the Middle Ages than is
commonly supposed. Nor were those times so back-
ward as many think. Cities like Nuremberg, in Ger-
many, show remains of the civilization of the Middle
Ages which convince one that a considerable grandeur
had then been attained, and that the people of those
times were by no means in every respect inferior to
But the framework of this past civilization, not
admitting of expansion, broke to pieces. It was not
large enough for the modern growth of population
and wealth. Its institutions were abused by those in
power, and in a time of general corruption and oppres-
sion they fell with a terrible crash. The French Revo-
lution swept them away forever. While this revolu-
tion formed one of the grandest epochs in history, it
us.
* Vide Von Sybel, "Geschichte der Revolutionszeit," Bd. i. Buch i.
Capitel 1, and Bd. ii. Buch vii. Capitel 3. In regard to absenteeism,
consult, especially, Taine's "Ancient Régime," bk. i. ch. iii. pt. iii.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
7
left society in a singularly disorganized state. No one
appeared to be connected with his fellow-man. Each
one stood alone by himself. The individualistic and
atomistic condition of modern society had begun. In
the reaction which followed upon restraint this was
thought to be an unmixed good. Each one was left
free to pursue his own interests in his own way.
Commerce and industries took a wonderful start, and
by the aid of inventions and discoveries expanded in
such a rapid and all-embracing manner as to astound
the world. It is probable that as we, after more than
two thousand years, look back upon the time of Peri-
cles with wonder and astonishment as an epoch great
in art and literature, posterity two thousand years.
hence will regard our era as forming an admirable
and unparalleled epoch in the history of industrial in-
vention. During this time of growth and increasing
wealth it was at first generally thought that every-
thing was moving along finely. The third estate had
been emancipated. Its members had no longer to bear
alone the burdens of government. It betook itself to
trade and manufactures, grew wealthy, and became
the bourgeoisie of modern political economy. But
speedily a fourth estate was discovered, whose mem-
bers consisted of dependents-workers for daily
wages. What had been done for them? They had
also nominal freedom, but did they enjoy actual free-
dom? They were in possession of political equality,
but had they advanced one single step in the direction
of social and economic equality? There were not
wanting those who went even further than to answer
both of these questions in the negative. They pointed
to the fact that the weak and needy had, as never be-
fore, lost all connection with the strong and powerful.
8
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
Hundreds of laborers crowded in a single shop lost all
personal feeling with their one employer. Formerly
the distance between journeyman and master was slight,
and the passage from the one condition to the other
could invariably be effected by diligence and ability.
This change of condition now became absolutely im-
possible for the greater number. The majority of those
engaged in manufactures must, in the nature of things,
remain common laborers. A few, unusually gifted or
favored, might hope to rise, but even for them it be-
came ever more difficult to ascend the social ladder.
On the one hand, the division of labor was carried so
far that the labor performed by each was exceedingly
simple. Instead of taxing the ingenuity, and thereby
conducing to mental development, the endless repeti-
tion and sameness of the labor tended to make one
stupid. On the other hand, inventions rendered it
necessary not only to employ an ever-increasing num-
ber of machines, but to make use of those which were
constantly becoming more expensive.* The gulf be-
tween employer and employed widened unceasingly.
The employer, losing personal feeling with his labor-
ers, too often forgot that they were men with natures
like his own. Frequently, it must be acknowledged,
he looked upon them as mere beasts of burden, and re-
garded their labor in the same light as any other com-
modity which was sold in the market-place. They
were hired for the cheapest price, worked to the ut-
most limit of endurance, and, when used-up, thrown
aside like any other old and worthless machine. The
capitalist grew richer, and among the higher classes
* Cf. De Laveleye's "La Démocratie et l'Économie Politique"
(Bruxelles, 1878), pp. 8, 9.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
9
of society luxury and extravagance increased. The
laborer, noticing all this, asked himself if his lot had
in any respect improved. He was inclined to deny
that it had. His daily bread was not earned with less
toil, nor was he surer of an opportunity to work. His
existence was as uncertain and as full of anxiety as
ever. Being brought together in large shops with
those in like condition, he talked over his wrongs and
sufferings with them. A class-feeling was developed.
The heartlessness and assumed superiority of those
who had become suddenly, and often by mere chance,
wealthy were looked upon with frowns and gloomy
countenances foreboding no good. The harsh separa-
tion in material goods between these parvenus and
the lower classes was accompanied by no mitigating
circumstances. In the case of the old and wealthy
families of a more ancient era the superiority in wealth
appeared more just, on account of lapse of time and a
certain superiority in intellect and manners. They
were, to a considerable extent, superior beings in oth-
er respects than mere externals. The new rich looked
down upon and despised the orders from which they
had so recently escaped, and were, in turn, hated by
those beneath them. A division of society into caste-
like classes was taking place. The rich were becom-
ing richer; it was thought the poor were becoming
poorer. Free competition imposed no restraints upon
the powerful. They were at liberty to exploit the
poor to their heart's content. The strength on the
one side was so great, and the capability of resistance
on the other so insignificant, that there could exist no
real freedom of contract. As Sismondi said, the rich
man labored to increase his capital, the poor man to
satisfy the cravings of his stomach. The one can
10
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
wait, the demands of the other are imperative. To
the laborers their state appeared like "a hell without
escape and without end" (Mehring). They were pre-
pared to listen to those who should preach them a
gospel of hope, even if it involved violent change.
Revolution might help them; it could not render
their lot more hopeless. They were ready to examine
more critically the evils of society, when bidden to
do so by their leaders. Verily, they did not need to
search long to discover many sore spots on the social
body. The luxurious immorality of the parvenus in
European capitals made no attempt to conceal itself.
When the laborers were told that their wives and
daughters were considered rightful booty by the
wealthy, they remembered women of their class who
had fallen a prey to the fascination of wealth and the
elegance of the higher classes, and were angry. The
peace of many of them had been ruthlessly destroyed
by some rich voluptuary. Perhaps a poor father, think-
ing of a fair daughter, whose employer in shop or fac-
tory had taken advantage of his position and her need
to seduce her, gnashed his teeth in rage, and was ready
to swear eternal vengeance against the bourgeoisie.*
*To many a thoughtless man, who has misused his wealth and so-
cial position to drag down women of the poorer classes, it would
doubtless seem like a new revelation to have the truth brought home
to him that the fathers, mothers, and brothers of his victims had
precisely such feelings as his own father and mother, or himself,
towards his sisters. But the socialistic agitation in Germany has
brought out clearly the fact that this is true. Poor men hate the
wealthy on account of their sins. Nearly all of the thousands and
tens of thousands of fallen women in cities like New York and Ber-
lin, it is said, come from the poorer classes. It is terrible to think
of the anguish they have brought to parents whose only crime has
often been poverty. If the wealthy use their superior advantages to
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
11
But these things were noticed by the more thought-
ful among the higher classes. They were bitterly
disappointed. The doctrines of political and economic
liberalism had been expected to usher in the millen-
nium, and instead of that they beheld the same
wretched, unhappy, sinful world, which they thought
they had left. If there had been progress in the gen-
eral condition of humanity, it was so slight that it
was a matter of dispute. Many, finding things in such
a sad condition, one so different from what they had
expected, affirmed boldly that we had been going from
bad to worse.
In speaking of Lamennais, the distinguished French
Christian socialist, the Rev. Mr. Kaufmann, an Eng-
lish clergyman, describes the grief that eminent man
experienced, as he observed the economic develop-
ment of society after the great French Revolution:*
oppress and afflict the poor, terrible retribution will some day be ex-
acted of them as a class, and the innocent will suffer with the guilty.
The French Revolution should forever be a terrible warning to those
to whom much has been committed.
Modern novelists have devoted themselves assiduously to the work
of reform. Every oppressed class has found some one to sympathize
with it and describe its wrongs. Married women, misused by their
husbands; school children, maltreated by masters; orphans, wronged
by tedious processes of law; the negro slave in our South—all have
been made interesting, and excited our pity. The fourth estate, with
which Dickens concerned himself more or less, has also found its
novelist, whose skill reveals to us the laborer's views and feelings, so
that we laugh when he laughs and weep when he weeps. I refer to
Max Kretzer, whose latest and best work is "Die Betrogenen" (Ber-
lin, 1882). For an excellent review of his writings, vide the Wochen-
blatt der Frankfurter Zeitung, 20 Aug., 1882.
For a further illustration of the views of social democrats concern-
ing the crimes of the wealthy, vide a story in the newspaper Die Fackel
(Chicago, 20 Mai, 1883) entitled "Die Geschichte einer Arbeiterin.”
In Contemporary Review, April, 1882.
12
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
"It was Lamennais' fate to see three revolutionary
waves pass over his country, and to watch with sor-
row and bitterness of heart the disappointments to
which they gave rise. He had seen the sore distress
of the people whose condition the political changes of
the first revolution left to all intents and purposes
unimproved. It had, in fact, given rise to new social
grievances. In destroying patriarchal relationships
and feudal bonds of social union, it had handed over
the masses to the tender mercies of free contract and
competition. The introduction of machinery, with the
rise of modern industry, had a pauperizing effect, and
intensified popular discontent. Hence the various
socialistic and communistic schemes for the liberation
of the working-classes from the tyranny of capital,'
and the attempts to promote the free association of
labor by means of voluntary co-operation following
in the wake of revolution.
(
"Every section of society was represented in this re-
volt against the excessive individualism of the laissez-
faire system as the result of the new social contract.
Among the saviours of society who rose rapidly one
after another-Saint-Simon, on the part of aristocratic
crétins impoverished by the revolution; Fourier, as
the spokesman of the aggrieved lower middle-class,
in danger of being crushed by the superior force of
the plutocracy; Babœuf, representing the communis-
tic materialism of the 'common people'-each in their
own way had their theories of social reconstruction;
""
. . whilst a small band of generously minded church-
men, with Lamennais at their head, made it their ob-
ject to save society by means of spiritual regeneration.'
A reaction against liberalism set in. This was of
two kinds. A romantic party, represented by Adam
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
13
Müller, and a conservative party, represented by the
Kreuzzeitung, advocated a return to the social organi-
zation of the Middle Ages. They dreamed of a golden
age in the past, in which humble simplicity and trust-
ful dependence on the part of the laborer were met
by generous benevolence and protecting care on the
part of the master. They thought it possible to re-
store a time in which the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain,
happy and contented because a kind Providence had
granted him salt for his potatoes, filled an ideal posi-
tion.
The communistic and socialistic parties, on the other
hand, urged the necessity of an advance to a totally
new form of society. Very unlike in many respects,
in others these parties resemble and sympathize with
each other. The accusations which they bring against
our present condition of society are so similar that
one often does not know whether one is reading the
production of a social democrat or of an ultra-conser-
vative.
I will quote the indictment of the great socialist,
Karl Marx, against liberalism, which, it will be seen,
might just as well have been written by a conserva-
tive. In fact, if I had been shown the passage and
told that it appeared in the Kreuzzeitung, I should
not have been in the least surprised. "Although the
liberals," says Marx, "have not carried out their prin-
ciples in any land as yet completely, still, the attempts
which have been made are sufficient to prove the use-
lessness of their efforts. They endeavored to free
labor, but only succeeded in subjecting it more com-
pletely under the yoke of capitalism; they aimed at
setting at liberty all labor powers, and only riveted
the chains of misery which held them bound; they
14
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
wanted to release the bondman from the clod, and de-
prived him of the soil on which he stood by buying
up the land; they yearned for a happy condition of
society, and only created superfluity on one hand and
dire want on the other; they desired to secure for
merit its own honorable reward, and only made it the
slave of wealth; they wanted to abolish all monopo-
lies, and placed in their stead the monster monopoly,
capital; they wanted to do away with all wars be-
tween nation and nation, and kindled the flames of
civil war; they wanted to get rid of the state, and
yet have multiplied its burdens; they wanted to make
education the common property of all, and made it
the privilege of the rich; they aimed at the greatest
moral improvement of society, and only left it in a
state of rotten immorality; they wanted, to say all in
a word, unbounded liberty, and have produced the
meanest servitude; they wanted the reverse of all
that which they actually obtained, and have thus given
a proof that liberalism in all its ramifications is noth-
ing but a perfect Utopia.
99
Before considering separately the different varieties
of communism and socialism it is necessary to say a
few words about the proper method of treating the
subject. The movements indicated by the words com-
munism and socialism are designed to aid especially
the lower classes. If mankind generally were as hap-
pily situated as are what we call the middle and higher
classes, these systems would never have been heard
of. The members of the upper classes have nothing
* Quoted by Mrs. Fawcett in her article on "Communism" in the
"Encyclopædia Britannica." Cf. De Laveleye's article on the "Prog-
ress of Socialism" (Contemporary Review, April, 1883, pp. 567, 568).
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
15
to hope from communism or socialism, but have much
which they might possibly lose-I say possibly, be-
cause I wish to express it in the most favorable man-
ner. If wealthy and well-to-do writers and politicians
oppose social reform they are consequently often sus-
pected of advocating their own selfish interests ex-
clusively. They are not likely, therefore, to have
much success in converting socialists and communists,
unless they manifest in word and deed their sincere
concern for the welfare of their poorer brethren. I
think, therefore, that we ought to strive first of all to
understand thoroughly the various systems of social
reformers, and then to describe them in such manner
that their supporters themselves could not find fault
with our representation. A kindly, well-disposed
criticism might follow, with hope of doing some good.
To understand people, however, we must have some
sort of sympathy (ouv-nádos-Mitleiden) with them.
We shall not be likely to comprehend a social system,
if we approach it with coldness or, still worse, with
hatred. The severe Protestant is not likely to appre-
ciate a Madonna of Raphael, unless he is able for a
time to forget his Protestantism and enter into the
feelings of the devout Roman Catholic. As Carlyle
so finely says, "the heart lying dead, the eye can-
not see." So, to obtain an adequate idea of socialism
and of the justice of its claims, we must imagine our-
selves for the time being laborers, with all their trials
and sufferings. We must endeavor to think ourselves
into (hineindenken) their condition. Nor let us sup-
pose that there is anything to be feared from a dis-
closure of the full truth. It is only from the opposite
course that danger is to be apprehended. As a dis-
tinguished American political economist has well said:
16
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
"The time has passed for dealing with the masses as
children who are to be treated to truth in quantities
and on occasions suited to their welfare or the inter-
ests of society. The political economist only aban-
dons his ground of vantage and forfeits the confidence
of the community when he accepts any responsibility
for the use that may be made of the truth he dis-
covers and discloses."*
Bearing this thought in mind, even a hasty exami-
nation of the vast majority of books written on social-
ism and communism shows how utterly worthless
they are. Their authors start out with such intense
hatred of all socialistic systems, that it is simply im-
possible for them to understand these systems. But
the worst of it is, that they couple their misunder-
standing with such hard words and severe epithets as
to excite bad blood and drive the various classes of
society farther apart than ever. The wealthier classes
lose their ardor for reform, and the poorer people be-
come enraged. As I write, I take up the first book
on Communism which lies at my hand, and, opening it,
find communists spoken of as "a hideous fraternity
of conspirators." I turn over a few pages and read
this: "To-day there is not in our language, nor in
any language, a more hateful word than communism."
Of a sentence uttered by a socialist, this writer says
more pestilent words were never spoken." On the
next page communism is spoken of as "infecting
the Russian universities. "Now," continues our au-
thor, "it poisons the blood and maddens the brains of
artisans and peasants." Such words do more than ex-
(6
""
"Money in its Relations to Trade and Industry," by Francis A.
Walker (New York, 1879).
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
17
cite the anger of socialists. They arouse the indig-
nation of every lover of fair play, and convince no
one. I take up another work and find that a very
different effect is produced on me as I read it. A
kindly tone pervades it, which, if it does not convince
error, tends at least to obtain the good-will of those
whom it combats. This latter work to which I refer
consists of "Lectures on Social Questions," and was
written by the Rev. Dr. J. H. Rylance, of St. Mark's
Church, New York, a large-hearted, fair-minded man.
Once for all, we must rid ourselves of the notion
that we can persuade people by misrepresenting them
and calling them hard names. Such conduct only re-
acts against ourselves. The folly of such a course has
been demonstrated often enough by the history of so-
cialism. A striking instance is given by Mehring in his
"History of Social Democracy in Germany" (pp. 96-
98).* It appears that a large number of working-men's
unions had formed an alliance (Verband deutscher Ar-
beitervereine), of which the Party of Progress (Fort-
schrittspartei) had assumed the leadership. This is a
political party which was violently opposed to Lassalle,
and had considerable sympathy with the doctrines of
the Manchester school. When Lassalle began his agita-
tion, the leaders of this party misrepresented his doc-
trines in shameful manner. It hardly seems as if their
misrepresentation could have been otherwise than wil-
ful. They appeared to believe that the end justified
the means in fighting so odious an opponent, and
that they were not required to treat him fairly and
honestly. Well, their programme worked brilliantly
for a time. At the meetings of these working-men's
* "Die deutsche Social-Demokratie" (Bremen, 1879).
Adana
2
18
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
unions members of the Party of Progress used to ex-
plain the doctrines of Lassalle in such manner as to
place them in a false light, and then let the laborers
reject his plans by unanimous votes. Union after
union voted against him, and in the summer of 1863
these unions, at their annual meeting, professed the
principles of the Progressists, and selected a newspa-
per edited by a member of that party as their organ.
In 1864, at the general meeting of the unions, some
followers of Lassalle contradicted the misstatements
of the teachings of their master. This produced an
effect, and Friedrich A. Lange, who had been elected
a member of one of the committees of the alliance of
the unions, warned the Progressists against the course
they were pursuing, and advocated the fairer, more
honorable, and more manly method of warfare. He
told them that a reaction would surely set in against
themselves, when the laborers heard an adequate state-
ment of Lassalle's plans, especially if they were pre-
sented in his own fiery, eloquent words. But Lange's
earnest warnings were unheeded. The laborers learned
how to reply to a fictitious, non-existent Lassalle, but
not to the real, living one. Every annual meeting of
the working-men's unions witnessed, accordingly, an
approach to social democracy until 1869, when it was
accepted without reserve, and the alliance of work-
ing-men's unions was merged into the Social Demo-
cratic Working-men's Party (Social-demokratische Ar-
beiterpartei). As Mehring forcibly observes: "It is,
indeed, a singular misfortune, and manifests a rare
lack of tact, to lead to the enemy as welcome auxilia-
ries not merely single recruits, but entire army corps
(p. 98). Thousands of laborers might have been saved
from social democracy if its opponents, in fighting it,
""
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
19
had adhered to the maxim, "Honesty is the best pol-
icy." In fact, Mehring attributes the success and pop-
ularity of Lassalle more to his enemies than to his own
brilliant talents. Falsehoods respecting his teachings
were uttered by his opponents without compunction
of conscience, and these, when exposed, only gave the
laborers new confidence in Lasalle, and less faith than
ever in his enemies. Newspapers abused him person-
ally in such manner as to assist him in playing the róle
of a martyr and hero. They spoke of his unripe spir-
it and of his mental dependence upon a tailor by the
name of Weitling, at a time when the most renowned
scholars of Germany could not find words with which
to express their almost unbounded admiration for his
learning and talent.
As I wish to represent communism and socialism
fairly, I will at once correct a few popular errors in
regard to them.
First, then, it is supposed that advocates of these
systems are poor, worthless fellows, who adopt the arts
of a demagogue for the promotion in some way of
their own interests, perhaps in order to gain a liveli-
hood by agitating laborers and preying upon them. It
is thought that they are moved by envy of the wealth-
ier classes, and, themselves unwilling to work, long for
the products of diligence and ability. This view is
represented by the following well-known lines:
"What is a communist? One who hath yearnings
For equal division of unequal earnings;
Idler or bungler, or both, he is willing
To fork out his penny and pocket your shilling."
This is certainly a false and unjust view. The lead-
ing communists and socialists from the time of Plato
up to the present have been, for the most part, men of
20
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
character, wealth, talent, and high social standing. Of
Plato it is unnecessary to speak, since people are not in
the habit of calling him a shallow demagogue. Sir
Thomas More, the author of the communistic romance
'Utopia," was lovable, learned, and socially honored.
Robert Owen, the English communist, was a wealthy
manufacturer and a distinguished philanthropist. Of
Rodbertus, Marx, and Lassalle I shall speak presently.
If we examine the history of even those who are less
known among the German social democrats of to-
day, we shall discover that a great number have made
sacrifices for their faith. Hunted about and perse-
cuted as they are, it is assuredly no light matter to
proclaim one's self a social democrat. While, of
course, among communists and socialists, selfishness,
meanness, and enough that is contemptible may be
found, I do not believe any movement of modern soci-
ety is able to exhibit a greater amount of unselfish
devotion than that they represent.
A second charge against the communists consists in
making them responsible for the doings of the Pa-
risian mob in 1871. The error of this has been ex-
plained often enough. It is due largely to an acci-
dental resemblance between the words commune and
communism. Many who use the word commune
glibly have a very imperfect understanding of its
significance, and little imagine that it is as harmless.
and innocent a word as township, and means pretty
much the same thing. The commune, with an em-
phasis on the article, means simply Paris, or, in a
secondary sense, the administrative officers collec-
tively governing Paris. France is divided into de-
partments and communes, the same as our states are
divided into counties and townships, and Paris by it-
66
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
21
self forms one of these communes. The insurrection in
Paris, of March 18, 1871, was one in favor of extreme
local self-government. The idea was to make each
commune at least as independent as one of the states
of the United States, and to unite all the communes
into a confederation with limited powers.* The move-
ment in favor of the autonomy of Paris is an old one,
and has been supported by many able and respectable
Frenchmen. One in favor of the movement is, how-
ever, properly called a communalist, and not a commu-
nist, and the movement itself is communalism-not
communism. A careful study of the decrees of the com-
mune, of the reports and of the various histories which
have described its rebellion in 1871, shows that the
movement was political, primarily, and only to a very
limited extent economic. Even the economic decrees,
like the stay-laws, postponing the time for payment of
debts due, might be regarded as war measures. How-
ever, out of the seventy and more members of the
communal government nine or ten were social demo-
crats and members of the International, and it is prob-
able that concessions may have been made to win them
and their adherents. They were effectual in this, since
the Internationalists were disposed to favor the move-
ment from the start, and that for two reasons. First,
believing that their ends can be attained only by rev-
olution, they are inclined to look favorably upon any
revolution whatever, as tending to cultivate a revolu-
tionary spirit in the people. Second, they favor the
* Vide the published programme of the Commune of Paris, April 19,
1871, in Pierroti's "Décrets et Rapports Officiels de la Commune de
Paris et du Gouvernement à Versailles du 18 Mars au 31 Mai, 1871"
(Paris, 1871, pp. 181–185).
22
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
autonomy of large cities, holding that the masses in
the cities might more readily be induced to adopt
communistic and socialistic reforms, if not held in
check by the more conservative rural population.*
But let us ask ourselves this question: If all the
members of the communal government had been com-
munists in the ordinary sense of the word, would com-
munism have been necessarily condemned? I think
that another question will help us to answer this. All
the members of that government were republicans :
was republicanism then necessarily condemned? No
one but a rabid tory would think of giving an affirm-
ative answer to this second question. It is at once
seen that the republican form of government is not re-
sponsible for the conduct of every scoundrel who pro-
fesses republican principles.
It is urged further that communism and socialism
would destroy religion and the family institution.
The reason of this complaint is evident enough. A
number of social reformers have been at the same time
atheists and advocates of free love. The questions of
atheism and free love are, however, totally different
from that of even communism, the most radical of all
the reforms proposed. There is no necessary connec-
tion whatever between them. If it could once be
*The whole question is discussed in a satisfactory manner in Meyer's
"Emancipationskampf des vierten Standes" (Bd. ii. SS. 600-718).
Among other authorities may be mentioned, as most noteworthy,
Pierroti's "Décrets et Rapports; Enquête Parlementaire sur l'Insur-
rection du 18 Mars"-an official report of the investigation of the
French government; "Unter der Pariser Commune, ein Tagebuch von
Wilhelm Lauser" (Leipzig, 1879); Maxime du Camp, "Les Convul-
sions de Paris" (6th ed., Paris, 1883); B. Becker, "Geschichte der
revolutionären Pariser Kommune" (Brunswick, 1875).
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
23
shown that communism were practicable, it would be
easy to give many reasons for supposing that in such
a society the love between man and wife and parents
and children would be freer from selfish and sordid
motives than at present.* The clergy are partly to
blame for the irreligious attitude of many modern so-
cialists. They have too often made themselves the
advocates of conservatism simply as conservatism, re-
gardless of all abuses which it embraced. In countries
where Church and State are connected, the clergy have
been too often a sort of police, assisting the govern-
ment to maintain existing institutions, and to oppose
change, good or bad. They have favored the higher
classes, upon whom their support has depended, and
neglected the interests of the poor and down-trodden.
I do not write this as an enemy of the Church, but as
her friend. Nor do I express myself differently from
the best of our clergymen at present. Rev. Dr. Ry-
* In his "History of American Socialisms" (Philadelphia, 1870),
Noyes presents the opposite view, and argues forcibly in favor of it.
He thinks "familism" and communism necessarily antagonistic, and
adduces as proof the success of the Shakers and other communities
which repress the family feeling, and the failure of many which allow
marriage and private families as in the outside world. I do not think
his arguments satisfactory. At most, they would hold of small com-
munistic bodies living in a world practising individualism. They
would not be conclusive in a discussion of the practicability of com-
munism—much less socialism-as a universal system. It is true,
also, that the leadership of social democracy in the United States and
elsewhere has fallen into the hands of those who, for the most part,
hold views regarding religion and the family which may fairly be
called brutal. The irreligious attitude of social democracy is, how-
ever, to be explained partly by the fact that it is a German product,
and Germany is to-day lamentably irreligious. What is, however,
temporary, accidental, and transitional should not be mistaken for
what is necessary and permanent.
24
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
lance, indeed, has, in his "Lectures on Social Ques-
tions," clothed this same thought in stronger language.
In one place he says, "The proper relations of Chris-
tianity to the legitimate efforts of socialism to im-
prove the condition of the suffering classes will never
be understood, or the minds of those now alienated
from the religion of Christ will never be disabused of
their antipathy, till the essential claims of that religion
be set in fairer and fuller light; all the perversions it
has suffered being frankly acknowledged, and the
wrongs done in its name, as far as possible, atoned
for. Your Church histories are full of such perver-
sions, while your most expert apologists cannot dis-
guise the wrongs .
Ecclesiasticism* has often been
a fraud and a tyranny in history. As the Church
grew in power and wealth, it allied itself to power
and wealth in the hands of civil rulers and their creat-
ures, and the fruits of the alliance have often been
wicked and infamous."
Dr. Rylance also declares that Christianity is a sort
of socialism, and quotes in proof these texts of Script-
ure, among others: "As every man hath received the
gift, even so minister the same one to another." "If ye
fulfil the royal law, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself, ye do well; but if ye have respect to persons,
ye commit sin.” "This commandment have we from
him, That he who loveth God, love his brother also.” "†
* Dr. Rylance very properly distinguishes ecclesiasticism from
Christianity.
The decay of religion among the working classes was the subject
of a conference of working-men, held in London in 1867. Mr. J. M.
Ludlow, one of their friends and counsellors, writes as follows in the
66
Progress of the Laboring Classes from 1832 to 1867," concerning
their reasons for forsaking religious services: "At the bottom of those
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
25
"One way of aspersing the doctrines of commu-
nism," says another writer,* "is to call them anti-Chris-
tian. It is forgotten that the Christian idea of equal-
ity underlies all the reasonings of communism, and
communism has succeeded only in so far as it was
Christian in principle, having for its fundamental max-
im brotherly love. In this, communism is much more
Christian than the hankering after privileges of the
old aristocracy, or the unbounded avarice of the plu-
tocracy."
There are other false accusations brought against
communism and socialism, which it is not necessary to
examine now. A well-disposed person will scarcely
experience difficulty in separating them from scientific
argument.
It behooves us to disabuse our minds of all preju-
dice and ill-will. It is only thus that we shall be able
to meet and overcome the social dangers which threat-
en even our own country in a not very distant future.
We have never had a permanent laboring class, but
reasons there may be felt, not dislike or indifference to the Gospel itself,
but, on the contrary, a deep yearning for some mighty manifestation
of it. The complaint is not that Christianity is given, but that' priests
and parsons' have given of it 'short weight and short measure;' not
that it is practised by its professors, but that their practice falls so far
short of their professions; not that clergymen and minister inter-
meddle with the working-men, but that they do not come among them
and show practical sympathy with them in their undertakings. Sure-
ly a temper like this, even when speaking out through hard and
scornful words, instead of discouraging Christian ministers, should
brace and quicken them to their work-ay, though that work should
consist partly in the shaking off of their most cherished traditions
and habits of religious thought" (p. 279).
* Schäffle's "Socialism as Expounded by Kaufmann" (London, 1874,
p. 103).
26
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
with the increase of population one is rapidly de-
veloping. If it is now becoming extremely difficult
for the laborer to rise, what will the condition of
things be when we number two hundred millions?
And that time is not so far off. At our present rate
of increase, it will come when some of us are still
living. It is a laboring class without hope of im-
provement for themselves or their children which will
first test our institutions. But he must be singularly
blind or unacquainted with the views of the various
social classes who is unable to detect even now, in
certain quarters, the formation of habits and modes of
thought characteristic of the poorer classes in Europe.
The fact of this growth was twice brought home to
me forcibly two winters ago. As I was walking by
the Union League Club - house, in New York city,
at the time of its house-warming, while the people
were driving up in their fine carriages, one poor fel-
low stood on the opposite side of the street watching
the ladies enter in their luxurious and extravagant
toilets. He was a good-looking, intelligent - appear-
ing man, but wore no overcoat. It was a cold even-
ing, and he seemed to me to be shivering. He was
evidently thinking of the difference between his lot
and that of the fashionable people he was observing ;
and I heard him mutter bitterly to himself,
"A revo-
lution will yet come and level that fine building to
the ground." A friend of mine, about the same time,
passed a couple of laborers as he was walking by Mr.
Vanderbilt's new houses on Fifth Avenue. Some kind
of bronze work, I believe, was being carried in, and
he heard one of them remark, savagely, "The time
will come when that will be melted by fire."
More significant and more ominous still is the re-
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
27
ception accorded in this country to a man like John
Most, who has been expelled from the social-demo-
cratic party in Germany on account of his extreme
views, particularly respecting assassination as a means
of progress. He has been travelling about the United
States, has been warmly received, and listened to with
favor by large bodies of workmen while uttering coun-
sels of war and bloodshed. On the 11th of February,
1883, he lectured in Baltimore. It was a cold, rainy,
cheerless day, and the sidewalks were so covered with
melting snow as to make it extremely unpleasant to
venture out of doors. But Most had a full hall of
eager listeners.
He told the laborers that he had lit-
tle hope of their overthrowing their oppressors by the
use of the ballot. He believed their emancipation
would be brought about by violence, as all great re-
forms in the past had been. He consequently advised
them to buy muskets. He said a musket was a good
thing to have. If it was not needed now, it could be
placed in the corner, and it occupied but little space.
The presiding officer, in closing the meeting, empha-
sized this part of Most's address particularly. He told
the laborers that a piece of paper would never make
them free, that a musket was worth a hundred votes,
and closed with the lines-
"Nur Pulver und Blei,
Die machen uns frei "-
"lead and powder alone can make us free.” There
can be no doubt that a considerable portion of his
hearers sympathized with his views. They listened
approvingly, and applauded his fiercest remarks most.
loudly.
Nor is it without significance that in New York
28
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
alone at least three social democratic newspapers are
published. Two of the three use the German lan-
guage; one of these is a weekly only; the other ap-
pears in a daily, a weekly, and a special Sunday edition.
The third paper is an English weekly, but it announces
the appearance of a daily edition in the near future.
The motto of one of these papers-Most's Freiheit—
is "Gegen die Tyrannen sind alle Mittel gesetzlich
"All measures are legal against tyrants "—i. e., against
our employers, against capitalists, against all classes
superior to the laboring class.
It is not, however, necessary to take a pessimistic
view of our prospects, for it rests with us to shape the
future. If we, as a people, become divided into two
great hostile camps- those who possess economic
goods and those who do not-the one class devoted to
luxury and self-indulgence, the other given up to
envy and bitterness - then, indeed, dire evils are in
store for us; but we have reason to hope better
things. The attitude of clergymen like Dr. Howard
Crosby* and Dr. Rylance, the generosity of our phi-
lanthropists, unparalleled in past history, and the noble
efforts of noble women to relieve every kind of suffer-
ing and distress, lead us to trust that, as new evils
arise, strength and wisdom will be vouchsafed us to
conquer them, and that among us the idea of the
brotherhood of man will ever become more and more
a living reality.
""
* Vide his manly article on the Dangerous Classes in the North-
American Review for April, 1883.
BABEUF.
29
CHAPTER II.
BABEUF.
SOCIALISM, strictly speaking, denotes simply the
social system. It is the opposite of individualism. A
socialist* is one who looks to society organized in the
state for aid in bringing about a more perfect distri-
bution of economic goods and an elevation of human-
ity. The individualist regards each man not as his
brother's keeper but as his own, and desires every
man to work out his own salvation, material and spir-
itual. His advice to government is expressed in the
well-known formula, laissez-faire, laissez-passer, that
is, let things take care of themselves, do not interfere
in the business affairs of the citizens. While the
socialist ascribes to the state numerous functions, the
individualist admonishes government to do as little
as possible. To the one the state is a necessary good ;
to the other, a necessary evil.
But socialism is also used in a popular sense which
renders it nearly equivalent to communism, although
the two ought to be distinguished. The central idea
of communism is economic equality. It is desired by
communists that all ranks and differences in society
*The words socialist and socialism were introduced into economic
discussion by L. Reybaud, in 1840, in his "Études sur les Réforma-
teurs ou Socialistes Modernes."
30
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
should disappear, and one man be as good as another,
to use the popular phrase. The distinctive idea of
socialism is distributive justice. It goes back of the
processes of modern life to the fact that he who does
not work, lives on the labor of others. It aims to dis-
tribute economic goods according to the services ren-
dered by the recipients. We see thus that the word
socialist is most inclusive. Every communist is a
socialist, and something more. Not every socialist is
a communist. We might call a communist an ex-
treme socialist, and thus include under socialists both
socialists and communists, though it is in general best
to make the distinction. We could not include social-
ists under communists.
The socialistic and communistic schemes of modern
times may be classified as follows:
A. Communism.
1. French and English Communism.
2. Social Democracy.
3. International Communism.
B. Socialism.
1. Pure Socialism.
2. State and Professorial Socialism.
3. Christian Socialism.
4. French Collectivism.
5. French Anarchists and Blanquists.
6. Social Democracy.
7. International Socialism.
The most general division is that into communism
and socialism. As subdivisions, social democracy and
the International figure under both of the leading di-
visions, as these parties include socialists and com-
munists. Under French communism are included
BABEUF.
31
adherents of the French Collectivists, Anarchists, and
Blanquists.
Babœuf and Cabet are perhaps the two leading
French representatives of pure communism, Babœuf
representing that of the French Revolution.*
François Noël Babœuf was born in St. Quentin, in
the Department of Aisne, in 1764. He appears to
have come of a good family, for his father was a
major in the Austrian army.
The elder Babœuf de-
voted much attention to his son's education, and, in
particular, took especial pains to give him a good
mathematical training; but he died when the young
man was only sixteen years of age, and this obliged
Babœuf to leave his studies and seek employment.
After having filled various subordinate positions,
he became a land - surveyor, and was finally elected
an administrator of the Department of the Somme;
but did not enjoy this post long, for he was soon
arrested on a charge of forgery, condemned, and
sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. He es-
caped to Paris and joined the revolutionary move-
ment. Like Mably and numerous speculative thinkers
at that time, he was filled with admiration for the
socialistic institutions of the Greeks and Romans.
He even called himself Gracchus Babœuf, after the
Roman tribune, and founded a paper which he named
Tribune of the People, and which was the first social-
*It does not fall within the province of this work to describe
English communism. Its best representative is Robert Owen, about
whose life and teachings information is to be found in "The Life of
Robert Owen, Written by Himself," and in A. J. Booth's "Robert
Owen, the Founder of Socialism in England." Both of the works
are interesting and valuable.
† 1762 is also given as the year of his birth.
32
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
istic newspaper ever published. He signed his arti
cles Caius Gracchus, and in them he attacked the in-
stitutions of civilized society and the party which ac-
complished the Revolution of Thermidor, executed
Robespierre and St. Just, and finally terminated the
Reign of Terror. His violent abuse of those in au-
thority and his revolutionary projects led to his im-
prisonment for a few months in 1795. He improved
the opportunity to establish a connection with Darthé,
Buonarroti and other Jacobins and Terrorists, of whom
there were nearly two thousand in the same prison.
Upon their release, they formed a conspiracy, called,
after its leader, "the conspiracy of Babœuf." Its ob-
ject was to overthrow the Directory and introduce
the communistic millennium, which they had begun
to evolve in the prison. The members of the band
called themselves the Equals. They formed a com-
plex and skilfully contrived organization, whose cen-
tre was the secret committee of insurrection. This
consisted of the following seven members; Babœuf,
Buonarroti, Sylvain Maréchal, Felix Lepelletier, An-
tonelle, Darthé, and Debon. Most of them were jour-
nalists. Maréchal was author of a Dictionary of
Atheists ("Dictionnaire des Athées"). Paris was di-
vided into districts, in each of which workers and re-
porters were engaged in propaganda. They did not,
however, even know the names of the seven chiefs of
the committee of insurrection, a general agent, Didier,
acting as intermediary between the committee and
other agents.
The activity of the leaders was remarkable, and met
with a considerable success in winning adherents. In
April, 1796, seventeen thousand men were prepared to
join them in an insurrection against the Directory and
BABEUF.
33
for the establishment of a communistic republic. A
Manifesto of the Equals, prepared by Maréchal, was
published and scattered broadcast among the people.
It contained a development of their programme, and an
invitation to join in the proposed movement. Tracts
were distributed in large numbers, and incendiary
broadsides were from time to time affixed to the walls.
One of the leaders, however, proved false, turned in-
former, and procured the arrest of the chief conspira-
tors on the 10th of May, 1796. After a considerable
delay and a long trial, two of them, Babœuf and Dar-
thé, were condemned to death in the following year,
while Buonarroti and six others were sentenced to
deportation. Sixty-five were tried, but fifty-six were
discharged on account of lack of evidence. Babœuf
and Darthé were guillotined on the 24th of May, 1797,
Babœuf's last words being, "I wrap myself into a
virtuous slumber."*
Buonarroti did not suffer deportation, but was in-
stead confined in prison for some time and then al-
lowed to escape to Switzerland, whence he was obliged
to flee to Belgium after the Congress of Vienna, be-
cause Geneva was unable to tolerate him during the
reactionary period which followed. He supported him-
self by teaching music and other branches of learning,
and wrote a remarkable account of the conspiracy in
which he had been engaged. It was published in
Brussels in 1828, and after the Revolution of July it
*For the details of the conspiracy, consult Von Sybel, "Geschichte
der Revolutionszeit," Bd. iv. Buch i. Capitel 4, and Buonarroti's "His-
toire de la Conspiration pour l'Égalite, dite de Babœuf” (2 vols.,
Brussels, 1828). A fourth edition in one volume appeared in Paris
in 1850. An English translation by Bronterre appeared in London
in 1836.
3
34
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
became a power in France. It revived the memory
of Babœuf and his schemes, and rallied a number of
followers about the old flag. Bavouism, as Babœuf's
system was called, was thus enabled to play a role in
French history from 1830 to 1839, when a premature
rising of the laborers was easily suppressed.* Even
to-day, Buonarroti's work has not ceased to influence
the thought of French laborers.
Babœuf's theoretical development of communism,
based largely on Morelly's "Code de la Nature," is
comparatively simple. Its leading idea is expressed
in these words: "The aim of society is the happiness
of all, and happiness consists in equality." The fact is
emphasized again and again that this equality must
be perfect and absolute. It is officially proclaimed
that the harmony of the system would be broken if
there was one single man in the world richer or more
powerful than his fellows. The adherents of this doc-
trine were ready to sacrifice everything to their de-
sire for equality. "We are prepared," cried they,
"to consent to everything for it, we are prepared
even to make tabula rasa to obtain it. Let all the
arts perish if need be, provided we retain real equal-
ity." The first article of the official declaration of
rights, as established by the secret committee of in-
surrection, reads: "Nature has given to every man
an equal right to the enjoyment of all goods." In the
proofs" following, it is maintained that all public
and private wrongs, as oppressions, tyrannies, wars,
66
* The best authority on the economic movements of this period is
L. Blanc's "Histoire de dix ans 1830-40" (12th ed. 1870).
+ Vide the Manifesto of the Equals. This, as well as a number of
their most important papers, may be found in Reybaud's "Études sur
les Réformateurs" (vol. ii. pp. 423-453, 7th ed., Paris, 1864).
BABUF.
35
and crimes, take their origin in disobedience to this
natural law. At least six of the eleven articles of
this "Charter of Equality" do little more than repeat
in varying form the idea contained in article 1. Ar-
ticle 7, e. g., reads: "In a true society there ought to
be neither poor nor rich." Article 10, "The end of
the revolution is to destroy inequality and to re-es-
tablish the common happiness."
How was equality to be attained? Perhaps it is
best to correct at the start a popular error by stating
how they did not expect to obtain equality. They
were not foolish enough to propose to divide the
wealth of society among the various citizens and then
allow the production and distribution of economic
goods to go on as at present. It is a matter of course
that under such circumstances inequalities would again
arise within twenty-four hours. This is so perfectly
obvious that no communist of note has ever proposed.
anything so childish and absurd. Yet it is a widely
prevalent notion that this is what the communists have
desired. One of the Rothschilds of Frankfort-on-the-
Main once hearing a poor man complain of his lot,
and express a desire for the equality of communism,
is said immediately to have put his hand in his pocket,
drawn out two or three shillings, and offered them to
the poor man as his share of the wealth of a Roths-
child, were it equally divided among all the inhabit-
ants of Germany. This is often told as a business
man's concise and practical refutation of communism.
It has, however, no significance at all either for or
against that economic system. All communists with-
out exception propose that the people as a whole, or
some particular division of the people, as a village or
commune, should own all the means of production—
·
36
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
land, houses, factories, railroads, canals, etc.; that pro-
duction should be carried on in common; and that
officers, selected in one way or another, should dis-
tribute among the inhabitants the fruits of their labor.
Under such circumstances inequalities could have no
opportunity to spring up; nor do we find communistic
experiments failing because it is impossible to main-
tain equality. Where it is really desired, it is not
difficult to secure it. As a matter of fact, however, it
is not desired by the great masses of any land of Chris-
tendom, nor would they for a moment consent to en-
dure it.
But to return from this digression. Babœuf pro-
posed to attain equality by degrees. He desired that
a large national and common property should be at
once formed out of the property of corporations and
public institutions. The property of individuals was
to be added to this upon their death, as inheritance
was to be abolished. All property would thus become
nationalized in the course of fifty years. Production
was to be carried on in common under officers chosen
by popular vote. These same officers, according to
the scheme, decide upon the needs and requirements
of the different individuals of the society, and divide
the products of their common industry. The earth
must belong to all, and its fruits must be common
property. Officers receive no more than those under
them, and a rapid rotation in office prevents the ac-
quirements of habits and thoughts consequent on su-
perior position. No one becomes accustomed to com-
mand; no one becomes accustomed to obey.
The country is divided into "regions," and the "re-
gions" into "departments." There is a central and
superior administration for the entire country, an in-
BABEUF.
37
termediate one for each "region," and a subordinate
one for each "department." Each administration has
its own duties-the lowest coming into contact with
individuals, the higher supervising the subordinate
boards. Government is absolute, notwithstanding the
adoption of the watchword "Liberté." On its orders
citizens are sent from commune to commune, as their
services may be required; and the "superfluous"
products of one region are transferred to another less
fortunate one. The supreme administration must store
up the surplus of years of plenty as provision for un-
fruitful years. It also conducts trade with foreign
nations, for which purpose great magazines or store-
houses are erected on the frontiers and the borders of
the sea.
No private individual is allowed to trade
with foreign countries, and all merchandise used in
such trade is confiscated for the benefit of the com-
munity. All intercourse with outside countries is care-
fully watched to prevent the importation of erroneous
ideas and disastrous customs. Even within the coun-
try only such publications are allowed as teach the un-
qualified blessings of equality.
Article 3 of the "Organization of the Government of
the Community "enumerates the kinds of labor which
the law considers useful, and which alone entitle an
individual to exercise any political right whatever.
They are the following: agriculture, which is especial-
ly favored, as being most natural to man; the pastoral
life; fishing; navigation; mechanic and manual arts;
retail trade; transportation; war; teaching; and the
sciences. However, teaching is only then considered
useful when it is undertaken by one who has declared
his adherence to the principles of the community, and
bears a certificate of "civisme." Literature and the
38
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM,
fine arts are not included, being regarded with little
favor.
All
The whole scheme is dreary and monotonous.
differences save those relating to age and sex being
abolished, equality is even interpreted to mean uni-
formity. All must be dressed alike, save that distinc-
tions are made for sex and age; all must eat the same
quantity of the same kind of food, and all must be
educated alike.* As the higher goods of life are light-
ly esteemed, education is restricted to the acquirement
of elementary branches of knowledge, and of those
practical in a material sense. Comfortable mediocrity
in everything is the openly expressed ideal.
Children are removed from the family at an early
age, and brought up together, to train them in princi-
ples of communism, and to prevent the growth of dif-
ferences and inequalities.
All things are contrived to level down and not to
level up; to bring the highest down to the plane of
stupid, self-satisfied mediocrity, and not to elevate the
less fortunate to higher thoughts, feelings, and enjoy-
ments.
This most cheerless of all communistic schemes fitly
took its origin among those sunk in the most degraded
materialism of the French Revolution.
* Vide the "Manifesto of the Equals."
CABET.
39
CHAPTER III.
CABET.
Ir is a relief to turn one's attention to the plans of
Étienne Cabet. They, at least, have the merit of not
robbing life of all poetry, sentiment, and trust in some-
thing higher and better than food and drink. One
might find life tolerable in one of Cabet's communes ;
but every noble soul will acknowledge that if life's
ends and aims are all to centre in a full stomach and a
warm cloak, then, indeed, life is not worth the living.
Cabet, son of a cooper, was born in 1788 in Dijon.
He received a good education, became a lawyer, and
practised first in his native city, then in Paris. He
was appointed attorney-general of Corsica in 1830,
but lost his place in the following year on account of
his opposition to government. He was elected mem-
ber of the Chamber of Deputies shortly after, and re-
turned to Paris. He devoted the remainder of his
life to literature, politics, and communism. One of
his principal works was a "Popular History of the
French Revolution from 1789 to 1830."* In a journal
which he published at that time, Le Populaire, he ad-
vocated moderate communistic principles, or Icarian
principles, as they were afterwards called. He was
* "Histoire Populaire de la Révolution Française de 1789 à 1830”
(5 vols., 2d ed., Paris, 1845-47).
40
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
condemned to two years' imprisonment for an article
in this paper, in which he attacked the king personal-
ly, but he was fortunate enough to escape imprison-
ment by flight to London. It was here he became
acquainted with Sir Thomas More's "Utopia," from
which he drew a large part of his inspiration. He re-
turned to France in 1839, and published his "Voyage
to Icaria,”* which he himself called a philosophical
and social romance-Roman philosophique et social.
The title indicates his dreamy character. He de-
scribes in this work a previously unknown country,
not quite so large as France or England, but as popu-
lous and a thousand times more blessed. Peace,
wisdom, joy, pleasures, and happiness reign there.
Crimes are unknown. It is Icaria; "a second Prom-
ised Land, an Eden, an Elysium, a new terrestrial
Paradise." +
t
The writer of the "Voyage to Icaria " represents that
he met in London Lord William Carisdall, who found
in Icaria the one truly happy people he had discovered
in his travels. Lord William kept a journal, in which
he described this wonder-land, and this, we are told,
has been edited and revised for the public with his con-
sent. The object is to show that communism is prac-
ticable and is the solution of all social problems. It
contains an account of an ideal society, but one which
Cabet thought he was able to establish. He made the
attempt, choosing Texas as a place in which his ideals
were to be realized. He secured the grant of a large
tract of land on the Red River, and sent out several
advance-guards of Icarians in 1848, who were, however,
* "Voyage en Icarie" (2d ed., Paris, 1842, 1 vol. 8vo, pp. 566).
+ Ibid. p. 3.
CABET.
41
attacked by the yellow fever, and had disbanded before
he arrived in New Orleans with a later detachment.
He learned on his arrival that the Mormons had aban-
doned their settlement in Nauvoo, Ill., and set out
for that place with his followers. While the Icarians
were in Nauvoo they numbered, all told, at one time
fifteen hundred. As Nordhoff, in his "Communistic
Societies in the United States," justly remarks, Cabet
might have done something with such a large band,
if he had had anything of a business head. But he
lacked firmness and perseverance. They met with
some success in cultivating their land, established
shops, pursued trades, and set up a printing-office;
but instead of rejoicing in his prosperity, and laboring
to increase it, Cabet was dreaming what he might do
if he had half a million, as is evinced by a publica-
tion which appeared about that time, entitled "Wenn
ich $500,000 hätte "-"If I only had $500,000." He
described the theatre and the fine houses he would
build, the gas- works he would found, the parks he
would lay out, and showed, among other things, how
he could then introduce hot and cold water in the
houses.
To his description of this brochure Nordhoff adds:
"Alas for the dreams of a dreamer! I turned over
the leaves of his pamphlet while wandering through
the present Icaria, on one chilly Sunday in March,
with a keen sense of pain at the contrast between the
comfort and elegance he so glowingly described and
the dreary poverty of the life which a few determined
men and women have there chosen to follow, for the
sake of principles which they hold both true and valu-
able."*
* Page 335.
42
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
It is said that Cabet developed a dictatorial spirit
in Nauvoo. This may be doubted. It is possible he
only attempted to enforce measures without which he
believed the commune must prove a failure. At any
rate, a division took place among the Icarians. The
colony at Nauvoo was broken up, and the members
scattered, save fifty or sixty, who emigrated to Iowa.
Cabet and his followers went to St. Louis, where he
died in 1856. The emigrants to Iowa founded a set-
tlement near Corning, on the Burlington and Missouri
Railroad, which they called Icaria. They began with
four thousand acres of land and a debt of $20,000. At
first they had a hard struggle, being obliged to content
themselves even with log-houses. When Mr. Nord-
hoff wrote his book, in 1874, the debt was paid, they
lived in frame houses, and enjoyed a considerable de-
gree of comfort. The community consisted of eleven
families and sixty-five members, comprising twenty
children and twenty-three voters. They had a good
saw-mill and a grist-mill, and owned one thousand
nine hundred and thirty-six acres of land, of which
three hundred and fifty were under cultivation. They
had one hundred and twenty cattle and five hundred
sheep.
*
A friend has lately spent a week in Icaria, and has
kindly written me the following account of the present
condition of the community, which has experienced
noteworthy changes since Mr. Nordhoff paid it a brief
visit a few years ago:
GRINNELL, IA., May 7, 1883.
First, let me say that I think no one has yet done ade-
quate justice to Icarian history. I was fortunate in being re-
((
•
* Mr. Albert Shaw, late graduate student in the Johns Hopkins
University.
CABET.
43
ceived into the community in the most friendly manner, and spent
many hours in talking with the members. Especially, I was fortu-
nate in making the acquaintance of two old men-original members
—one of them the leader in the quarrel with Cabet at Nauvoo, and
the successor of Cabet as president. . . . I have never enjoyed a
visit more than this, for the Icarians, though poor and necessarily
very hampered, are highly courteous and intelligent. To begin with
their dissensions." [For the present purpose it is sufficient to state
that the members of the community, not being able to live together
peaceably, agreed to separate; the "Young Party" retained the old
village, and is now officially known as the "Icarian Community," and
the "Old Party" established a new commune in the vicinity.]
"The reorganization into two groups happened just four years ago.
The court declared the articles of incorporation forfeited, on the
technical ground that a commune incorporated as an agricultural so-
ciety was exceeding its charter in running a grist-mill and manu-
facturing four! The arbitrators divided the property on an equitable
basis. They ascertained the amount of property each had brought
into the society, the number of years each had labored for the society,
and on these principles they declared each individual entitled to a
certain proportion of the property. The 'Young Party' associated
themselves and obtained new articles of incorporation. . . They
assumed the original name. They were the minority in voting num-
bers, but, counting children, they were more numerous than the 'Old
Folks' Party.' The 'Old Folks' did not take out articles of incorpo-
ration. Instead, they formed themselves into a general partnership
based on recorded articles of agreement, which I send you (Contrat
de la Nouvelle Com. Icar.). The other party having got possession
of the name, the 'Old Folks' called their society 'The New Icarian
Community.'
"At the time of the dissolution, the Icarians owned over two thou-
sand acres of land. The 'Old Party' were found entitled to some-
what more than half the property. Both parties have at different
times made small purchases and sales of land. At the time of the
dissolution it was expected that the 'Old Party' would remain in the
original village, and that the 'Young Party' would go to the east side
of the estate and build themselves new houses; but finally the 'Old
Folks' chose to be the emigrants, and they have a new village nearly
a mile east of the original village (which is now occupied by the
'Icarian Community').
44
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
"At present the 'New Icarian Community' (i. e., the 'Old Folks')
have about one thousand and eighty-five acres. About two hundred
acres is in timber (which, however, is not valuable except for fire-
wood, posts, etc. There are few trees left which are valuable for
lumber. Iowa timber in general is of little value.) About three hun-
dred acres are being cultivated this year. They were planting corn
while I was with them, and will put in two hundred acres.
One
hundred acres will be in wheat, potatoes, etc. They have eighteen
horses, and about one hundred cattle-milk about thirty cows. In
summer they sell cream to the Creamery in Corning. They will sell
this year a dozen or so beef steers. They have about two hundred
hogs, and will sell eighty this year. Last year they sold $300 worth
of potatoes. They cut from two to three hundred tons of hay an-
nually. They have the old mill, built in 1853 or 1854, but are not
doing a great deal with it. They make some flour, and the mill nets
them a clear profit of not more than $200 or $300 per year.
"The official inventory of the 'New Icarian Society,' made on Jan.
1, 1883, gives the
Total assets..
Total debts.
Net..
In the above estimate the land was valued rather too low, and a part
of the indebtedness has already been paid. The way is now pretty
clear out of all financial difficulties. They pay about $225 annual
taxes. They number at the present time thirty-four people. Their
village consists of a central two-story frame building (worth about
$1500), twenty-two feet by forty feet, perfectly plain; the first story
is a common dining-hall and kitchen, and the second story has rooms
for a family and several old men. They have also eight frame houses,
'story-and-a-half,' about fourteen by twenty-two, built uniformly, and
arranged symmetrically about the dining-hall. Each is occupied by
a family. The arrangement is as follows:
Trees and Park.
$28,009.35
5,646.50
$22,362.85
Hall.
CABET.
45
Each house has a small plot for flowers, etc. The interiors are ex-
cessively plain. The living in the common hall is frugal but abun-
dant. Of the thirty-four people twelve are men, of whom six are
over sixty; ten are women, of whom two are over sixty, and two are
young and unmarried; and twelve are children, ranging in age from
three weeks to twelve years. Seven children are in school; the other
five are too young. Of course everything looks new and rather bleak
about this new village, but the site is admirably chosen. The pros-
pect, as one looks out from the windows of the dining-room, is beau-
tiful, and a dozen years hence, if fortune favors, the New Icaria will
be a charming place. In spite of bitter adversities, these New Ica-
rians are a bright, agreeable, vivacious people. They could talk Eng-
lish well enough for my benefit, but their home-talk is entirely French.
The children are very pretty and attractive, and all are polite and
superior - mannered. They have a promising young vineyard and
apple-orchard, and a good large garden for kitchen vegetables. The
people are all French except one Spaniard, who came from Cuba
many years ago. Their president, A. A. Marchand, was one of the
original sixty-nine vanguard who went to Texas in 1848, and he has
always been a prominent man. He is a gentleman worthy of the
highest regard. Another member, Sauva, who was president the year
Hinds's book ('American Communities,' 1878) was written, and whom
you find mentioned in Hinds's account, is still with this society. He
was formerly a member of the Cheltenham branch;* returned to Eu-
rope, took active part in the International and the Paris Commune,
and joined the Iowa Icarians two or three years after. He is a man
of high intelligence. A number of these members are men of good
literary ability. They have a small press, and print a monthly paper,
the Revue Icarienne. They have a shoemaker's shop, but scarcely
anything in the industrial line besides their mill. They have a fair
supply of good agricultural implements, and conduct their farming
about as their neighbors in general do.
"If they maintain harmony, they can readily pay this debt and im-
prove their mode of life. They are somewhat chary of admitting new
members, because they already have men enough to farm their land,
and they do not feel able to make their settlement an asylum for all
who hold communistic ideas. Their school is one of the regular district-
*After the death of Cabet a few of his adherents, in the quarrel
at Nauvoo, founded a short-lived colony at Cheltenham.
46
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
schools of the county. It is located between the two communities and
patronized by both. The teacher at present is a French lady, educated
in Cincinnati- -an Icarian in her early days-and the school is well
conducted. At the time of the split the library was divided. Each
village has a library of more than one thousand volumes, mainly
French, and containing the works of the standard old French authors.
In both communities newspapers are taken freely, both English and
French, and the people seem more conversant with affairs-especial-
ly with European affairs-than the average American farmer's family.
Their family-life seems natural and affectionate. Their life is neces-
sarily plain, toilsome, and monotonous, but I think it is fully as agree-
able and diversified as that of isolated American farmers. The life
in the 'New Icarian Community' seems more genial and social than
in the 'Icarian Community.' At the time of the split a number of in-
dividuals withdrew, and did not join either party in reorganizing.
Since, also, there have been numerous accessions and withdrawals,
the latter preponderating, especially in the 'Icarian Community.'
"The 'Icarian Community,' according to Mr. Peron, now contains
thirty souls seven are men over twenty years; five are women over
eighteen years; eighteen are children. One man, Michael Brumme,
a German, is about seventy years old. There is one lady over sixty
years old. Both these were Nauvoo members. All the other men
and women are under forty years of age. All are French except two
Germans and one Spaniard. There were several other old members,
who have withdrawn within the past two or three years. They have
seven hundred and seventy-two acres of land; two hundred acres are
timber;
three hundred acres are seeded in clover or timothy grass.
This year they are planting one hundred and twenty acres of corn-
they profess to believe in intensive agriculture. They are turning almost
exclusive attention to stock-raising, and all their agriculture is with
reference to feeding cattle and hogs. They have now about ready for
the market thirty-six steers and seventy-five hogs. Altogether they
have about one hundred and thirty head of cattle, one hundred and fifty
hogs, twenty horses and colts. They are intending to raise sheep, and
are just beginning with a flock of seventy-five, expecting to buy a
larger flock soon. They have a productive vineyard of nine or ten acres.
Last year they made fifteen barrels of wine; they made twenty bar-
rels the previous year. Last fall they made seven or eight barrels of
cider and fifteen barrels of vinegar; also five barrels of sorghum mo-
lasses, of which they will make ten barrels this year. They have ten
CABET.
47
acres of apple orchard. They have a blacksmith shop, wagon shop,
and shoemaker shop, for their own work exclusively. They give for
their financial report for April, 1883, the following: assets, $30,300;
liabilities, $8751.80. They estimate their real estate at two thirds
and their stock at one third their assets. They expect that the hogs
and steers which they will market in a few days will bring about
$3700—about $3000 of which will be applied to the debt. They pay
an average interest of seven per cent. on their debt. They have a
central hall similar to the one already described. They also have
eight frame houses like those in New Icaria. (The houses in New
Icaria were moved bodily from old Icaria when the new settlement
was formed, except the hall and the outbuildings.) A picturesque feat-
ure of old Icaria is the dozen old log cabins, now used as sheds, etc.,
which were the original homes. They are close by the present habi-
tations. For a year or two this community has been seriously talk-
ing of leaving Iowa. If they can make an advantageous sale of
their property they say they would go. They have prospected some-
what in the South, but have concluded that California is the place
for them. In the spring of 1881 over a dozen persons, in five or
six families, withdrew from Icaria and moved to Sonoma Co., Cali-
fornia, where they bought eight hundred acres of land and have
formed a commune. They are said to be prospering as fruit-grow-
ers. Icaria talks of joining them in California with a view to the fusion
of the communes. Peron (a prominent member) says they would
like the climate better than that of Iowa, and would also find fruit-
growing more congenial than general farming. It would give more
time for mental culture, and would admit of a more agreeable style
of living. The society publishes a monthly paper called the Commu-
niste-Libertaire—-which is written and printed by Peron. If there
had been harmony, and no division, I think that Icaria would have
been prosperous to-day-with perhaps several hundred members. As
things now stand it is hard to foretell the fate of either branch. If
the one goes to California, the other may have a slow, steady growth
in Iowa. A good many young people lack the devotion to the princi-
ple of communism necessary to keep them in the society, and they
withdraw from time to time. The difficulty of Frenchmen living har-
moniously in a commune seems the great source of disaster. Spite
of his theory to the contrary, a Frenchman has a great deal of “in-
dividualism," and not a great deal of patience and forbearance.
It just occurs to me to say one thing more.
The Icarians are good
•
48
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
American citizens. Cabet and all his comrades took out naturaliza-
tion papers, and were all ardent abolitionists! They voted the first
Republican ticket (Fremont) in 1856, and Mr. Marchand tells me that
he has voted for every Republican president since. The "old folks "
in New Icaria are still solidly Republican in politics; but Mr. Peron
and his friends in the other community have been voting the Green-
back ticket for a year or two. They say that it seems to them that
the Greenback party represents the laboring classes in their struggle
against great corporate and moneyed monopolies; and it is in the
spirit of agitators that they support the Greenback party, and not so
much because they expect anything definite from that party.
"Peron is very brilliant and epigrammatic in conversation. . . . He
is a scientist, a positivist philosopher, an internationalist, somewhat
of an avowed anarchist, and a terrible proletarian. In short, he is a
character whose acquaintance I enjoyed making-Gérard, Marchand,
Peron, Fugier, Sauva, and Bettannier are the sort of men who figure
in French history or in Hugo's novels. Their tremendous individual-
ity seems to me ill at ease in an obscure little commune where, theo-
retically, no man is more than his fellow-man."
They are still governed by the essential principles
of Cabet's constitution, the two leading ideas of which
are the equality of all and the brotherhood of man.
They elect executive officers every year, who are,
however, only empowered to execute the orders of
their fellow-citizens, and may not so much as buy a
bushel of corn without being authorized to do so by
the society. They have no servants, and are too poor
for the enjoyment of luxuries. The directors buy the
goods needed by the Icarians twice a year at whole-
sale. Each one makes known his wants previous to
the semi-annual purchases. Marriage is essential ac-
cording to Cabet's scheme,* and wives are highly
The community adopt the institutions of marriage and the
family purified from everything which injures and debases them.
Voluntary celibacy, when not induced by any physiological reason, is
regarded as a transgression of natural laws" (Arts. 32 and 33 of the
"Icarian Constitution ").
CABET.
49
honored. Not only is the strictest fidelity enjoined
upon the husbands, but they are required to render
special acts of homage to their wives.*
Education is valued. All children are sent to school
till they are sixteen, and they regret that their poverty
does not allow them to give the young a more extend-
ed mental training.
As is evident, the community has been by no means
an entire failure, although it has been one of the
poor-
est communistic societies in our country. The differ-
ences which have sprung up may possibly be benefi-
cial to the cause, as they have led, as has been seen,
to three communes instead of one. At present, it is
safe to say that the only possible way for communism
to succeed is to adopt, as the Icarians have done, the
communal or township system. This affords room for
a diversity of growth and the development of at least
local individuality.
A gentleman, learning that Mr. Nordhoff had visit-
ed Icaria, wrote to him as follows: "Please deal gen-
tly and cautiously with Icaria. The man who sees
only the chaotic village and the wooden shoes, and
only chronicles those, will commit a serious error. In
that village are buried fortunes, noble hopes, and the
aspirations of good and great men like Cabet. Fer-
tilized by these deaths, a great and beneficent growth
yet awaits Icaria. It has an eventful and extremely
interesting history, but its future is destined to be
still more interesting. It, and it alone, represents in
America a great idea-rational democratic commu-
nism."
A good notion of Cabet's teachings may be ob-
* Cf. "Voyage en Icarie," p. 137.
4
50
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
tained by studying Icaria and its constitution; but,
if more complete information is desired, it can be
found in the "Voyage to Icaria "-a really fascinating
book. His principles are quite simple, and all centre
in the beneficent effects of equality, to which frater-
nity, as understood by Cabet, necessarily leads. "If
we are asked, 'What is your science?' we reply, ‘Fra-
ternity.' 'What is your principle?'-'Fraternity."
'What is your doctrine ?— Fraternity.' 'What is
"""*
your theory?'— 'Fraternity.' "What is your sys-
tem ?”—Fraternity.' But how were people to be
taught to practise communism? how induce the aris-
tocracy to renounce their privileges? This was to be
accomplished by peaceful means alone. The apostles
of Icarianism should, like Christ, whose principles they
were only carrying out, convert the world by teaching,
preaching, writing, discussing, persuading, and by set-
ting good examples. The wildness of his dreams is
shown by the fact that he allowed fifty years for a
peaceful transition from our present economic life to
communism. In the interval, various measures were
to be introduced by legislation to pave the way to the
new system. Among these may be mentioned com-
munistic training for children, a minimum of wages,
exemption of the poor from all taxes, and progressive
taxation for the rich. But "the system of absolute
equality, of community of goods and of labor, will not
be obliged to be applied completely, perfectly, uni-
versally, and definitely until the expiration of fifty
years." No one who has studied the slow formation
* Quoted by B. Malon, in his "Exposé des Écoles Socialistes Fran-
çaises (Paris, 1872), pp. 104, 105.
"Voyage to Icaria," p. 563.
+ Page 358.
CABET.
51
of social organizations could possibly hope for a radi-
cal change in so short a period. Some are doubtless
led to such anticipations by noticing the rapid changes
in the commercial and industrial world. This is, it is
said, a fast age, and in not a few respects the saying
is true. But man's nature and society are not chang-
ing so rapidly. It is the mere externals of our life
which change speedily.
Cabet's political organization consists of a demo-
cratic republic.* Representatives and executives are
allowed, but they derive their power from the people.
Those whom the Icarians choose to rule over them pre-
pare laws and regulations which are submitted to the
citizens for approval, provide amusements, conduct in-
dustries in large establishments, and divide the prod-
ucts of common labor equally among all. Houses,
villages, provinces, communes, and farms are as near-
ly alike as possible. The economies of common pro-
duction enable all to enjoy every comfort and many
luxuries. Elegance and beauty are encouraged.
The only choice allowed in one's clothes concerns
their color; otherwise all are dressed alike, save that
distinctions are made for age and sex.
Marriage and family are held sacred, as might per-
haps be expected from the high honors accorded by
Cabet to the fair sex. Perhaps his views concerning
the elevated position due woman were influential in
drawing to him the large number of sympathizers he
found among the ladies of Paris, who encouraged him
with kind words and frequent floral gifts.
As large an amount of liberty was granted by the
Icarians as was practicable. Work was common, as has
* Vide p. 37 et seqq.
52
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
been stated, but young men and young women were
allowed to choose their own career. However, if there
existed a disproportionate number of applicants for
any particular trade or profession, competitive exam-
ination decided who should be selected for the said
pursuit. The others were obliged to make another
choice.
Diligence and thrift were enjoined on all. Men
worked till sixty-five years of age and women till
fifty. The length of a day's labor was seven hours in
summer and five in winter; for women, however, only
four. All labor ceased at 1 P.M. Dirty and disagree-
able work was performed by machines.
Science and literature were held in high esteem and
encouraged, though publication was not free. Any
one might write books, but only those could be print-
ed whose publication had been authorized by law.
SAINT-SIMON.
53
CHAPTER IV.
SAINT-SIMON.
WHEN We turn from Babœuf and Cabet to Saint-
Simon we discover a man of a new type. He differed
from his predecessors in aims, purposes, and character.
We find in him one who did not desire the dead and
uninteresting level of communism, but placed before
him as an ideal a social system which should more
nearly render to man the just fruits of his own indi-
vidual exertions than does our present society.
Count Henry de Saint-Simon* was born at Paris in
1760. He belonged to a noble family of France, which
traced its origin to Charlemagne. The family attained
distinction early in the fifteenth century through the
gallant conduct of one of its members at the battle
of Agincourt. It divided into five branches in the
seventeenth century. The celebrated Duke de Saint-
Simon, author of the "Memoirs of the Reign of Louis
XIV. and of the Regency," belonged to one branch;
Louis François de Saint-Simon, Marquis de Sandri-
court, grandfather of the socialist, to another. Among
the sons of the marquis were Balthasar Henri, Maxi-
milien Henri, and Charles François Simeon, of whom
the two latter became distinguished. Balthasar Henri
was the father of the subject of this chapter.
* An interesting account of his life and teachings is given in A. J.
Booth's "Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism" (London, 1871).
54
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
Although not the grandson of the duke, as has been
erroneously supposed,* Saint-Simon would naturally
have inherited his titles and property. They were
lost to him, however, through the quarrel of his father
with the duke. The titles he lost were those of a
grandee of Spain and a duke of France, while the
property he would have inherited yielded an annual
income of 500,000 francs. "I have lost the titles and
the fortune of the Duke of Saint-Simon," he writes,
"but I have inherited his passion for glory." This
was manifested in a singular way when he was only
sixteen years of age. That he might not forget the
grand destiny in store for him, he ordered his servant
to awaken him every morning with the words, "Arise,
Monsieur le Comte, you have grand deeds to perform."
Saint-Simon had already entered the army at this
time, and the year afterwards went to America and
fought in the War of the Revolution under Washing-
ton. He took part in the siege of Yorktown and
witnessed the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. He dis-
tinguished himself for bravery on this occasion, and
received honorable recognition of his gallant con-
duct from the Society of the Cincinnati. Upon his
return to France, he was made colonel of the Regi-
ment of Aquitaine at the early age of twenty-three.
But he soon resigned his position and abandoned all
hopes of a military career, although his prospects
were certainly brilliant. In speaking of his sojourn in
the United States, he says: "I occupied myself much
more with political science than military tactics. The
war in itself did not interest me, but the purpose of
the war interested me exceedingly, and this interest
* It is so stated in the "Encyclopædia Britannica" and elsewhere.
SAINT-SIMON.
55
nance.
enabled me to endure its hardships without repug-
I desire the attainment of the purpose, I was
accustomed to say to myself, and I ought not to rebel
against the means thereto. . . . My vocation was not
that of a soldier; I was drawn towards a very differ-
ent, indeed, I may say, diametrically opposite, kind of
activity. The life purpose which I set before me was
to study the movements of the human mind, in order
that I might then labor for the perfection of civiliza-
tion. From that time forward I devoted myself to
this work without reserve; to it I consecrated my en-
tire life."*
Saint-Simon was taken prisoner by the British when
returning to France in the Ville de Paris, and carried
to Jamaica, where he was detained until the close of
the war. In returning to Europe he visited Mexico,
and there made an attempt to carry out one of the mag-
nificent plans for the advancement of mankind which
he had been revolving in his mind. He endeavored
to interest the viceroy in a project for building a
canal to unite the Atlantic with the Pacific. While
his exertions were unsuccessful, it is interesting to
note that one who drew his inspiration largely from
Saint-Simon-viz., De Lesseps-may yet execute his
plan.
A few years later Saint-Simon formed designs for
a canal to connect Madrid with the sea, and might
possibly have succeeded in realizing them, had not
the French Revolution recalled him to France. He
* Vide Lettres à un Américain, deuxième Lettre in his "L'Industrie
ou Discussions Politiques, Morales, et Philosophiques," tome ii. pp. 33,
34 (Paris, 1817). Interesting comparisons between America and Eu-
rope are also to be found in the letters.
56
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
sided with the people, although his family traditions
and early training would have led him to connect
himself with the royalists, and although in the strug-
gle he lost the property he had inherited from his
mother. He was elected president of the commune
where his property was situated, in 1789, and in an
address to the electors proclaimed his intention to re-
nounce the title of count, since he regarded it as in-
ferior to that of citizen; and he refused another office
lest it should be supposed he owed it to his rank.
All this, however, did not prevent his imprisonment
on account of his nobility, which rendered him in the
eyes of the terrorists a dangerous character. He was
kept in prison, first at St. Pélagie, afterwards at the
Luxembourg, for eleven months, and was released.
after the Revolution of Thermidor. It was at this
time that his ancestor Charlemagne appeared to him
and encouraged him with a prophecy of future great-
He describes the vision in these words: "At
the most cruel epoch of the Revolution, and during a
night of my detention at the Luxembourg, Charle-
magne appeared to me and said: 'Since the world
has existed, no family has enjoyed the honor of pro-
ducing a hero and a philosopher of the first rank;
this honor has been reserved for my house. My son,
thy success as a philosopher will equal mine as a war-
rior and politician.'"
ness.
Upon his release from prison Saint-Simon began to
speculate in the confiscated national lands, in order to
obtain money to enable him to prosecute his plans
for the improvement of society. He realized 144,000
francs from his investments, and then retired from
business, as he thought he had all the property he
needed. He devoted the following seven years to
SAINT-SIMON.
57
preparatory study, taking up his abode first in the
neighborhood of the École Polytechnique, afterwards
near the École de Médecine. Physiology and the
physical sciences interested him chiefly. What he
had in view was a science of the sciences, a science to
classify facts derived from all sciences and to unite
them into one whole; and it was from him that his
scholar, Auguste Comte, derived the idea of found-
ing a universal science, as he attempted in his "Cours
de Philosophie Positive." In fact this work was only
a development of his "Système Politique Positive,”
which he, as a scholar of Saint-Simon, wrote at the in-
stance of his master.*
* One finds in the writings of Saint-Simon all the fundamental
ideas of Comte's philosophy: the oneness of science; its progress
from the theological stage to positivism-called by Saint-Simon phys-
icism-accompanying the transition from the military to the indus-
trial régime; the present crisis of society due to the fact that this is
a transitional period, or disharmony in the material world accom-
panying the disharmony in the world of thought; the belief that
a restoration of harmony is dependent upon the advancement of
science, and that social regeneration must be physico-political; the
subordination of knowledge to feeling; finally, the view that religion
of some kind is indispensable to social progress, and that the priests
of this religion must be the rulers of the world. Indeed, Comte did
not hesitate to acknowledge more than once his indebtedness to
Saint-Simon for his scientific impulse, although in later years he
seems to have become embittered towards the Saint-Simonians and
refused all credit to his former teacher. Comte was original in so
far as he expanded and developed what he received from his master,
but this does not lessen his obligation. This whole question, which
has been much debated, is discussed in a masterly way by John
Morley in his article on Comte in the last edition of the "Encyclo-
pædia Britannica." Consult also Karl Hillebrand's essay on "Die
Anfänge des Socialismus in Frankreich" in Deutsche Rundschau,
Bd. xvii., 1878, and Booth's “Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism,” pp.
61-81.
58
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
Saint-Simon thought it necessary to add an experi-
mental training to his theoretical one in order to pre-
pare himself for his mission, and accomplished this
by living every kind of life, from that of the wealthy
entertainer of savants to one of poverty and dissipa-
tion. While this attempt to pass through all the ex-
periences and feelings of a lifetime in a few years
was not altogether unsuccessful, it was unfortunate in
making him prematurely old.
Saint-Simon began his career as an author and so-
cial reformer at the age of forty-three, in 1803, and
never abandoned it until his death in 1825.
-
His life was a sad one. His property was soon gone,
and he often worked at his system while suffering the
direst want, but he was sustained by the spirit of the
martyr. Saint-Simon endeavored to bring to pass the
happy future which he believed possible for the hu-
man race. "The imagination of poets," said he, "has
placed the golden age at the cradle of the human
race, amidst the ignorance and grossness of the ear-
liest times. It had been better to relegate the iron
age to that period. The golden age of humanity is
not behind us; it is to come, and will be found in the
perfection of the social order. Our fathers have not
seen it; our children will one day behold it. It is
our duty to prepare the way for them."
Saint-Simon had thus devoted his life to a cause
which he held sacred, and he pursued it through fort-
une and misfortune, through good report and through
evil report. For a time he occupied the position of
copyist at a salary of $200 per annum; a strange
place for a scion of one of the proudest families of
France. He copied nine hours a day, and robbed
himself of sleep in order to develop his philosophical
SAINT-SIMON.
59
and social system. His health had begun to fail him,
when he was relieved from his deplorable situation
by the kindness of a man who had been his valet in
brighter days. This servant, one of the few who nev-
er lost faith in Saint-Simon, supported him, and as-
sisted him in the publication of his works. The
death in 1810 of the former valet, Diard by name,
again left Saint-Simon in a wretched state, but he
continued his labors, and wrote two works, entitled
"Sur la Science de l'Homme " and "Sur la Gravita-
tion Universelle." As he had no means of printing
them, he sent them in manuscript to various scientists
and other prominent men, with the following letter :
"Sir,-Be my saviour. I am dying of starvation. For fifteen days
I eat only bread and drink water; I work without a fire, and I have
sold everything save my garments to cover the expense of the copies.
It is a passion for science and the public good, it is the desire of dis-
covering a means of terminating in a peaceable manner the dreadful
crisis in which I find the entire European society engaged, that has
caused me to fall into this condition of distress; therefore, it is with-
out blushing that I am able to confess my misery and demand as-
sistance to enable me to continue my work."
This letter met with no very favorable response,
though Cuvier made him a small donation and others
showed a mild interest in his welfare. His disciples,
however, were afterwards proud of it. The follow-
ing exhortation follows its quotation in the "Doctrine
de Saint-Simon:"*"Children of Saint-Simon! genera-
tions of the future! guard as a religious memorial
these lines which your father has left you as a sacred
legacy. When his word shall have renewed the face
of the earth, when the doctrine of recompense accord-
* "Première Année" (1828-29, 2d ed., Paris, 1830), pp. 72, 73.
60
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
ing to works shall have been realized among men,
when the last of the living shall obtain from the solici-
tude of society a guaranteed subsistence, a remunera-
tion in proportion to merits, children of Saint-Simon,
you will then love to repeat how, in order to accom-
plish his mission of regeneration, your father was re-
duced to begging."
A small pension was finally granted Saint-Simon
by his family, and he worked on quietly till 1823,
but he found little sympathy and encouragement, and
for once his courage deserted him. He was more
than sixty years of age, his strength began to de-
crease, he was in want of every comfort and con-
venience and lacked the support and helpful consola-
tions of domestic life. In his state of loneliness he
was filled with despair by the thought that his life
had been a failure, and he resolved to put an end to
his own wretched existence.
Fortunately, however, he only succeeded in inflict-
ing severe but not fatal injuries upon himself. His
pitiable condition appears to have moved some kind
hearts, for he was cared for tenderly until he recov-
ered, when he regained faith in his mission and worked
more diligently than ever. In the same year he fin-
ished his "Catéchisme des Industriels," and in 1825,
the year of his death, he completed the "Nouveau
Christianisme." These two works and his "Système
Industriel," published in 1821-22, are his three most
important productions.
Perhaps the most celebrated of them all is his last
work, the "Nouveau Christianisme," the New Chris-
tianity. It was from this that his disciples chiefly
drew their inspiration, and it was in this that his
hopes centred as he lay on his death-bed, surrounded
SAINT-SIMON.
61
(
by his friends, Auguste Comte, Rodrigues, and others.
Reybaud* describes the last scene in the following
manner: "Saint-Simon, feeling the approach of death,
assembled about his bed his confidants and said to
them: For twelve days, my friends, I have been oc-
cupied with plans designed to assure the success of
our enterprise (a projected journal called Le Produc-
teur); for three hours, despite my sufferings, I have
been endeavoring to present to you a résumé of my
thoughts. You have arrived at a period where by
your combined efforts you will achieve a great suc-
cess; . . . The fruit is ripe; you are able to gather it.
The last part of my labors, the New Christianity, will
not be immediately understood. It has been thought
that every religious system ought to disappear be-
cause men have succeeded in proving the weakness
and insufficiency of Catholicism. People are deceived
in this. Religion cannot disappear from the world;
it can only be changed. Rodrigues,' addressing his
favorite scholar, 'do not forget, but remember that to
accomplish grand deeds you must be enthusiastic.
All my life is comprised in this one thought; to
guarantee to all men the freest development of their
faculties.'
"He paused for a few moments, then in the final
struggle added,
"Forty-eight hours after our second publication
the party of the laborers will be formed; the future
is ours.'
"After having said these words, he raised his hand
to his head and died."
* "Études sur les Réformateurs" (7th ed., Paris, 1864), vol. i. pp.
83, 84.
62
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
There are certain leading doctrines in Saint-Simon's
writings, which I will endeavor to present briefly, be-
fore passing on to a consideration of his followers,
the Saint-Simonians. Comparatively unimportant
changes of opinion respecting the details of his prac-
tical programme, as well as other minor points, will
be omitted in this presentation.
""
We find running through all the writings of Saint-
Simon, from his first work, "Lettres d'un Habitant de
Genève," to his last one, the "Nouveau Christianisme,
an aim and purpose which may be considered the
leading feature of his system. It is the attempt to
discover an authority which shall rule the inner life
of man as well as his external acts. There have been
powers which were able to do this. The Catholic
Church, up to the fifteenth century and the begin-
nings of the Reformation, was one. Since then, how-
ever, it has failed to embody in itself all the advances
of science; it has consequently lost its hold on the
minds of men, has declined in influence, and ceased
to be an organic bond uniting different nations and.
molding men's lives. The present age is, therefore,
critical: that is to say, the preponderating factors en-
tering into it are disintegrating. This was seen in the
French Revolution, the culmination of this period,
which was destructive. This critical period was nec-
essary to clear away hinderances and prepare for an
organic and constructive period, which ought now to
follow, since the time is ripe for a new social system
based on universal association.
We are now in a transitional stage which is called
a crisis.*
The problem is to terminate the crisis.
* Vide "Du Système Industriel" (Paris, 1821), preface.
SAINT-SIMON.
63
This can be accomplished only by an advance in
knowledge, accompanied by a passage from the feudal
and theological to the industrial and scientific system.
War and industry occupied the Middle Ages and must
now be replaced by industry alone. Belief, faith,
having lost its power, must be replaced by knowledge.
Knowledge and industry are to be united and govern
the world. They are to furnish to men the guidance
and leadership they need and desire.
Carlyle said that the poor laborer "would fain find
for himself a superior that should lovingly and wise-
ly govern," and that the wish and prayer of all human
hearts was 66
give me a leader; a true leader, not a
false sham-leader; a true leader, that he may guide
me on the true way, that I may be loyal to him, that
I may swear fealty to him and follow him, and feel
that it is well with me."* So thought Saint-Simon,
when he appealed to thinkers and workers to unite
and lead. He would gladly have seen England and
France join in this movement, believing that they
could draw the other powers into it.
What were the specific objects of this leadership?
What were the functions of this restored authority?
First, universal peace was to be guaranteed. For-
merly, the Catholic Church, in its character of arbiter
of nations, imposed a wholesome restraint on kings,
and lessened the number of wars. Since the decay
of belief it was no longer possible for it to accom-
plish this. A European parliament composed of true
leaders must now arbitrate between nations. This
was ever a favorite theme of Saint-Simonism, and
* Vide "Chartism, Past and Present" (Harper's ed.), pp. 320 and
345.
64
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
modern sentiment and agitation in favor of peace owe
more than is generally known to Saint-Simon and his
followers.
Second, leadership is to establish universal associa-
tion, guaranteeing labor to all, and a reward in propor-
tion to services rendered. Equality is to be avoided,
as involving greater injustice than our present eco-
nomic life. Recompense in proportion to merit is the
true maxim. But as all are to be guaranteed work,
all must work either mentally or physically. In a
socially regenerated state there is no room left for
idlers. An idler is a parasite; he devours what others
produce and makes no return. Wealthy idlers are
thieves; another class of idlers consists of beggars,
and this last class of do-nothings, we are told by Saint-
Simon, is scarcely less contemptible and dangerous
than the first.* This makes it sufficiently evident that
the Saint-Simonians were acting in the spirit of their
master in proposing the abolition of inheritance.
Again, this new society would not be ascetic, like
the old Christianity-Saint-Simon's kingdom was of
this world. Flesh and spirit both had their rights,
and their harmonious union and development alone
formed the perfect man. Everything that was good
and true and beautiful was to be encouraged. Luther
is even accused of heresy because he rejected art as a
handmaid of religion. The new society is religious
and holy, and its chiefs are its priests.
Revolution is injurious and is not to be looked to
as a means of social regeneration. It is destructive,
whereas a constructive power is sought. Reform
* "L'Industrie," tome ii. p. 9 (Paris, 1817).
Saint-Simon again and again protests against revolution, vide
"Catéchisme des Industriels" (ed. 1832), pp. 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 69, 70.
SAINT-SIMON.
65
must be brought about by public opinion; and pub-
lic opinion is to be enlightened by the printed and
spoken word. An appeal is made to royalty to assist
in this noble work, as its interests are at one with the
industrials, and opposed to those of the do-nothings.
In the new state the king is to take the title of the
"First Industrial of his kingdom."*
While Saint-Simon is not to be made responsible
for all the later extravagance of his school, it is true
that authority is to be found in his works for the fun-
damental ideas of his followers, and even for their
practical measures before the separation which took
place between Enfantin and Bazard. They were act-
ing in accordance with his dying instructions in or-
ganizing and in preaching in behalf of labor. I am
unable to separate, as some do, Saint-Simon from his
disciples. So long as they were united and moderate
they were carrying out consistently his teachings.
They simply developed his thoughts and expressed
precisely notions at which he had only hinted in vague
and indefinite language.
The New Christianity was the Bible of the Saint-
Simonian religion. Saint-Simon held that God had
founded the Christian Church, and that we ought to
honor the Fathers of the Church with the deepest rev-
erence. Catholics and Protestants had, however, per-
verted the only true and valid Christian principle, and
it was this he sought to restore. "In the New Chris-
tianity," said he, "all morality will be derived imme-
diately from this principle; men ought to regard each
other as brothers. This principle, which belongs to
* Vide "Catéchisme des Industriels " (ed. 1832), pp. 38, 44, 62, 63,
74, 75.
10
5
66
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
primitive Christianity, will receive a glorification, and
in its new form will read: Religion must aid society
in its chief purpose, which is the most rapid improve-
ment in the lot of the poor." It is thus that the social
question becomes the essence of religion. This was
the starting-point of Saint-Simon's disciples, and led
to the formation of a Saint-Simonian sect with a
priesthood.
But let us devote a few moments to a description
of the economic and social organization proposed by
the Saint-Simonians, before discussing the religious.
society they founded to do honor to the memory of
Saint-Simon, to assist in carrying our their socialistic
schemes, and to satisfy the yearnings of hearts which
refused to find satisfaction and contentment in the
Christian Church.
Saint-Simonism is the first example of pure socialism,
by which I understand an economic system in which
production is entirely carried on in common, and the
fruits of labor distributed according to some ideal stand-
ard, which appears to the promoters of the scheme just.
This standard will, of course, vary according to the
subjective ideas of different socialists. Any plan, to
be practicable, must necessarily be a compromise be-
tween various views and historical antecedents.
Another writer defines "Socialism Proper "—by
which he means about what I understand by Pure
Socialism as follows: "It is that system which
recognizes inequality both in the capacity and require-
ments of individuals, and accordingly allows wages to
be proportionate to work done, and admits of private
income along with collective property.'
""*
* Vide Kaufmann's "Socialism," p. 115.
SAINT-SIMON.
67
The Saint-Simonians were led to socialism by ob-
serving the ill-regulated distribution of economic
goods under our present social régime. They found
the idle surfeited in luxuries and the diligent without
the comforts and often without even the necessaries of
life, the former enjoying the right to live as parasites
on the fruits of the toil of the busy, the latter enjoy-
ing the right to choose between hard and ill-paid
labor and death by starvation. They were able to
perceive no sufficient connection between merit and
recompense. Consequently the world appeared in a
state of disharmony and they proposed to restore har-
mony by a new economic system.
It may be as well to state here that political econo-
mists are generally inclined to admit a certain jus-
tice in such complaints and only object to socialistic
schemes as impracticable or as involving still worse
evils. To show how far a man who holds a high rank as
an orthodox political economist can go in his objection.
to the present method of distributing economic goods,
it
may be well to cite a celebrated passage from John
Stuart Mill's "Political Economy :" "If the bulk of
the human race are always to remain as at present,
slaves to toil in which they have no interest and there-
fore feel no interest-drudging from early morning
till late at night for bare necessaries and with all the
intellectual and moral deficiencies which that implies
without resources either in mind or feeling-un-
taught, for they cannot be better taught than fed;
selfish, for all their thoughts are required for them-
selves; without interests or sentiments as citizens and
members of society, and with a sense of injustice
rankling in their minds, equally for what they have
not and what others have; I know not what there
7
68
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
is which should make a person of any capacity of
reason concern himself about the destinies of the hu-
man_race.”* In another place Mill says that if the
institution of private property necessarily carried with
it all the sufferings and injustices of the present state
of society, and a choice had to be made between pri-
vate property and communism, "all the difficulties,
great or small, of communism would be but as dust
in the balance." t
Now, the Saint-Simonians believed it possible to
remedy these evils of distribution only by the sub-
stitution of state property for private property. At
the same time, they rejected any equal distribution of
labor's products, which would give the active and
energetic no more than the slow and indolent, which
would treat alike the stupid clown, who was only a
burden and a nuisance, and a great genius whose tal-
ents increased the wealth and prosperity of the nation.
The Saint-Simonians held that men were by nature
unequal, and that it was right to reward superior
power, when exerted for the general good. Their
idea was that each one should labor according to his
capacity and be rewarded according to the services
rendered. They wished to organize civil society on
the plan of an army. This thought is distinctly ex-
pressed by one of their leaders in these words: "In
the army gradations in rank and authority are al-
ready established, while in civil life that is precisely
what is wanting; and in an enterprise conducted upon
the principle of association, a central administration
is imperiously required." The officers are the direct-
"Political Economy," bk. i. chap. xiii. sec. 1.
+ Loc. cit. bk. i. chap. 1. sec. 3.
Quoted by A. J. Booth.
SAINT-SIMON.
69
ing authority in this scheme, and they decide on the
value of the services rendered to society and reward
the citizens accordingly. As society consists of priests,
savants, and industrials- the industrials comprising
those engaged in manufactures, agriculture, and com-
merce so the government consists of the chiefs of the
priests, the chiefs of the savants, and the chiefs of the
industrials. All property belongs to the church, i. e.,
to the state, and every profession or trade is a religious
exercise and has its rank in the social hierarchy.f
It is not clearly stated how the ruling body was
to be selected, whether by popular vote or otherwise.
The idea of the Saint-Simonians seems to have been,
however, that the good and wise, the best, would be
voluntarily and without dissension selected as leaders
-an idea scarcely warranted by the world's experi-
ence with universal suffrage.
The Saint-Simonians necessarily rejected inheritance
from their scheme, as they regarded idlers as thieves,
and wished each one to be rewarded only in accord-
ance with his own individual merits. All should start
with equal advantages and only avail themselves of
nature's inequalities, i. e., superior talents. Christ's
command was "Away with slavery!" Saint-Simon's,
"Away with inheritance !" Property now inherited
would naturally become common property in the new
society.
The Saint-Simonians were accused in the Chamber
of Deputies of advocating community of goods and
community of wives. They defended themselves in
a brochure dated October 1, 1830, which it is worth
*
* Vide "Catéchisme des Industriels," p. 2.
+ Reybaud, vol. i. pp. 82, 83.
70
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
while to quote, as it gives their ideas on these two
important subjects: *
"Yes, without doubt, the Saint-Simonians profess
peculiar views regarding property and the future of
women, as well as concerning religion, power, liberty,
and, finally, concerning all the great problems which
are agitated so violently in Europe to-day. But these
are very different from those ascribed to them. The
system of community of goods means a division among
all the members of society, either of the means of
production or of the fruits of the toil of all.
"The Saint-Simonians reject this equal division of
property, which would constitute in their eyes a more
reprehensible act of violence, a more revolting injus-
tice, than the present unequal division, which was ef-
fected in the first place by the force of arms, by con-
quest.
"For they believe in the natural inequality of men,
and regard this inequality as the very basis of asso-
ciation, as the indispensable condition of social order.
"They reject the system of community of goods,
for this would be a manifest violation of the first of
all the moral laws which it is their mission to teach-
viz., that in the future each one should rank according
to his capacity and be rewarded according to his works.
"But in virtue of this law they demand the aboli-
tion of all privileges of birth, without exception, and
consequently the destruction of inheritance, the chief
of these privileges, which to-day comprehends all the
others, and the effect of which is to leave to chance
the distribution of social privileges among a small
*Taken from Reybaud, loc. cit. vol. i. pp. 105-7. The translation
is abridged in places.
SAINT-SIMON.
71
66
number, and to condemn the most numerous class to
deprivation, to ignorance, to misery.
They demand that land, capital, and all the instru-
ments of labor should become common property, and be
so managed that each one's portion should correspond
to his capacity and his reward to his labors. . . . Chris-
tianity has released woman from servitude but has con-
demned her to religious, political, and civil inferiority.
The Saint-Simonians have announced her emanci-
pation, but they have not abolished the sacred law of
marriage, proclaimed by Christianity. On the con-
trary, they give a new sanctity to this law.
"Like the Christians, they demand that one man
should be united to one woman, but they teach that
the wife ought to be the equal of the husband, and
that, in accordance with the particular grace given to
her sex by God, she ought to be associated with him
in the triple function of temple, state, and family, in
such a manner that the social individual which has
hitherto been man alone should hereafter be man and
woman.
*
“The religion of Saint-Simon is to put an end to this
legal prostitution which, under the name of marriage,
consecrates frequently to-day a monstrous union of
devotion and egoism, of intelligence and ignorance, of
youth and decrepitude."
The leaders of the Saint-Simonian religion were En-
fantin and Bazard, the Supreme Fathers. Rodrigues.
had been chosen by Saint-Simon as his successor, but
he generously ceded his position to them as his supe-
riors, in accordance with the rule that rank should be
the measure of capacity.
* i. e. one unit-man-woman.
72
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
The new faith gained a large number of adherents
after the Revolution of July, 1830.* Some of these
became prominent afterwards, some of them were
then men of wealth and importance. The best known
are perhaps Buchez, who wrote a "Parliamentary
History of the Revolution," and was President of the
Constituent Assembly of 1830; Laurent, a distin-
guished author and professor; Michel Chevalier, a
civil engineer, since celebrated as a writer and a po-
litical economist; Barrault, professor of literature at
the College of Sorèze, a dramatic author of distinc-
tion, some of whose plays had been performed at the
Théâtre Français, and an orator of remarkable elo-
quence; Fournel, who had studied at the Polytechnic
and afterwards made a name as an engineer; Adolphe
Blanqui, who became an orthodox political economist,
and wrote a "History of Political Economy," and
Pierre Leroux,† who at a later period became the ex-
ponent of Humanitarianism, a kind of Saint-Simon-
ism modified and tinctured with Hegelian philosophy,
and under whose influence several of Madame Sand's
works, as "Consuelo" and "La Comtesse de Rudol-
stadt," were written. Other men of more or less note,
bankers, lawyers, merchants, and particularly all kinds
of engineers, joined them. The École Polytechnique
was ever their stronghold. De Lesseps, an engineer
who has disturbed the peace of many Americans, was
also for a time connected with them.
Enfantin was, indeed, a strange man. It is scarcely
comprehensible what could have given him such power
* Perhaps there is no better authority than Louis Blanc concern-
ing the activity of the Saint-Simonians at this time. Cf. his "His-
toire de Dix Ans,” tome vii. ch. xxv. (ed. Bruxelles, 1843–44).
+ His principal work is "De L'Humanité," published in 1840.
SAINT-SIMON.
73
over men of ability, learning, wealth, and shrewd busi-
ness capacity. In commenting upon this circumstance,
Mr. Booth says: "He ruled despotically over their
lives and thoughts; he induced them . . . to lead an
ascetic life; he withdrew them from refined society,
and forced them to share in the coarsest toil; he com-
pelled them to undergo the humiliation of public con-
fessions, and he received from them the honors and
the reverence accorded to a divine teacher. Yet his
intellectual powers were inferior to those possessed
by some of his disciples." . . . However, "his views
were noble and generous and he advocated them with
all the sincerity of genuine enthusiasm and the bold-
ness of matchless self-confidence. It was natural that
they should fascinate young men of an ardent tem-
perament, who burned with a chivalrous desire to
redress the evils of the world. They were readily
charmed by a prophet whose countenance was re-
markable for its dignity and repose, and whose affec-
tionate disposition inspired them with boundless con-
fidence and fervor. It must be admitted also that
both his religious and political opinions contained a
large amount of truth; but his vanity has invested
them with an appearance of absurdity, for he delighted
in fantastic dresses, in solemn processions, and impos-
ing ceremonies; and he exposed himself to the ridi-
cule of the world by permitting his disciples to speak
to him of the majesty of his countenance and the di-
vine brightness of his smile."* An absent follower
writes to the father, le Père, as they called him, from
Corsica: "The kiss of my father will give me power,
and his eloquent voice; I have every confidence in
* Pages 102, 103.
74
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
my father, for I am sure that he knows his children
better than they know themselves; why do I, never-
theless, tremble in going to him?" Other expressions
addressed to the father are too absurd, extravagant,
and impious to be quoted. Once, indeed, Enfantin re-
buked the homage of his disciples with the words:
"No one of us is God: I am only a man.
The Saint-Simonians in an early stage of their
proselytism formed a "Sacred College of Apostles,"
consisting of six leaders. These chiefs were Enfantin,
Bazard, Buchez, Rodrigues, Laurent, and Rouen. The
younger and less influential disciples were organized as
a subordinate order. They established missions and
bishoprics in Toulouse, Montpellier, Sorèze, Lyons, in
fact, in all parts of France, and also carried the new
gospel to foreign lands, as Belgium and Algeria. Paris
was divided into twelve districts and a male and a
female missionary sent into each part. They propa-
gated their faith by numerous lectures and by the
press. One of their organs was called the Globe; its
mottoes were: "Religion, Science, Industry, Univer-
sal Association.
"The purpose of all social institutions ought to be
the intellectual, moral, and physical amelioration of
the poorest and most numerous class.
"All privileges of birth, without exception, are abol-
ished.
"To each one according to his capacity; to each
capacity according to its works."
These mottoes are a good résumé of their ideas.
The Saint-Simonians considered it necessary first to
distinguish themselves in marked manner by wearing
a peculiar costume, afterwards to separate themselves.
from the world by retiring to a sort of monastery.
SAINT-SIMON.
75
Bazard and
Their costume consisted of blue cloth.
Enfantin wore light blue, the other adherents a darker
shade, according to rank, the lowest members of the
hierarchy being clad in royal blue. At a later period
a still more peculiar costume was adopted, which em-
braced a waistcoat so contrived that no one could
either put it on or take it off without assistance; and
this symbolized the dependence of man upon his
fellow-man.
In 1831 a schism took place in the Saint-Simonian
church. Enfantin's views regarding love and mar-
riage were becoming constantly less and less ortho-
dox. His belief in the substantial correctness of the
impulses of the flesh led him to advocate, first, divorce,
then views which can fairly be called free-love. In
this he departed widely from the doctrines of the earlier
and purer Saint-Simonism. A violent controversy fol-
lowed the announcement of Enfantin's later opinions.
The debates lasted day and night for some time. They
were all terribly in earnest. Young men were borne
from the room unconscious and some even lost their
reason. The matter did not terminate until Bazard
and a large number of disciples, including Mde.
Bazard, M. Fournel and his wife, and Pierre Leroux,
withdrew from the association. To the credit of the
women connected with the Saint-Simonians, it should
be stated that not one of them remained with En-
fantin.
Enfantin and Bazard had been the two fathers, and
in their assemblies Bazard had had a seat beside En-
fantin. His chair was left vacant, as an appeal to
some female Messiah to come forward and occupy it,
and form together with Enfantin the couple-prêtre, the
true priest man-woman. As man and woman together
76
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
formed one unit, the supreme priesthood could only
be perfect when composed of both. Enfantin's beauty
and wonderful magnetism appear to have attracted nu-
merous candidates, but the right one never appeared.
The perfect priest remained an unrealized dream.
After the schism Enfantin and a number of his dis-
ciples decided to come out from the world, and for
this purpose retired to Ménilmontant, where Enfantin
owned a house surrounded by a large garden. Here
forty or fifty of the faithful led a most strange life.
It was one of severe asceticism. Husbands separated
from their wives for the sake of their religion, after
they had assumed the monastic dress. Sometimes
the wives shared the enthusiasm of the disciples;
sometimes they murmured. One of them, who finds
the trial a hard one and yet appreciates her husband's
motives, writes to him: "On Wednesday, I shall see
you assume the dress of an apostle, and then I can
give you but a sisterly kiss. I will endeavor to col-
lect all my strength to hear you renounce me as a
wife and your Amelia as child. Such a proceeding
requires an energy which I trust I shall possess. Re-
ceive the tender farewell of her who will soon no
longer be able to subscribe herself your Amelia."
To a friend she writes: "I am sensible of the aims
to which his noble and generous heart leads him, when
he separates himself from me. This knowledge is
sufficient for me to accept the sacrifice, and, after all,
what is my grief, what are my tears, when the en-
franchisement of the world is concerned ?"
As they held the performance of labor to be a re-
ligious act, they employed no servants, and at Ménil-
montant you might have been edified by the sight of
a man scrubbing the floor, who has since attained a
SAINT-SIMON.
77
world-wide fame.
They were generally cheered in
their work by music. Another part of their creed laid
stress upon mental development, and we find at the
monastery instruction given in astronomy, geology,
physical geography, music, and civil engineering. Any
one might well be proud to have had such instructors
as those who taught. To mention only one, the teacher
of music was David, the composer of the operas
"Lalla Rookh," "Désert," and "Herculanum.'
It is not necessary in this place to describe the
strange and fantastic life by which the apostles en-
deavored to attain a more elevated spiritual state,
reverencing Saint-Simon and Enfantin as sacred mes-
sengers of God. They were finally dispersed by
dissensions, the desire of some to return to their fam-
ilies, financial difficulties, and external persecution.
Enfantin and Chevalier were imprisoned for holding
illegal assemblies. The faith, however, continued to
prosper for a few years, and missionaries were still
sent out to teach the New Christianity. One of the
latest expeditions was headed by Enfantin himself
after his release from prison. Its aim was to con-
nect the Red Sea with the Mediterranean. De
Lesseps was associated with them in this, but he
finally separated from them, as they could not agree
upon the engineering plans. Enfantin and other
Saint-Simonians continued to advocate the project and
scouted Stephenson's assertion that it was impossible.
This may seem at first like strange missionary work,
but it does not, when you remember that to them all
labor for the advancement of humanity was sacred.
It is owing to Enfantin's persistent endeavors that the
Suez Canal was built. When Enfantin heard that De
Lesseps was going on with the canal alone, it was
78
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
thought that he might feel injured. He exhibited,
however, a truly noble spirit, and simply remarked
that, "Provided the work which I have brought into
notice, and caused to be studied as highly useful to
the moral and material interests of humanity, be
executed, I will be the first to bless him by whom
it is executed. Undoubtedly, it is but just that
posterity should know that the initiation of that gi-
gantic enterprise was taken by those whom the Old
World could recognize only as Utopists, dreamers, or
fools."*
The Saint-Simonians never reunited after the Egyp-
tian expedition. A considerable number were able to
make themselves useful in that country on account of
their engineering skill. Mehemet Ali, the viceroy,
recognized their talents and employed them in numer-
ous ways. One received a commission to found a Poly-
technic School at Cairo, another was placed at the head
of a school of artillery, two others were appointed pro-
fessors in the school at Kauka, and several medical
men received positions in the hospital. David de-
lighted the Alexandrians with concerts, and Barrault
charmed them by his eloquent lectures. An Egyp-
tian paper declared of Barrault that "Alexandria, since
the best days of its glory, has never heard within its
walls a voice so eloquent or a poetry of language so
harmonious." t
The most of these Saint-Simonians returned to
France, and, like many of their former associates who
had not left their native soil, acquired positions of
prominence and influence.
Enfantin himself received a post as director of the
* Quoted by Booth.
+ Ibid.
SAINT-SIMON.
79
Lyons Railway and became wealthy. He never lost
faith in Saint-Simonism, but thought that as much had
been done for the system as was then possible, since
its doctrines had been proclaimed far and near, and
were slowly leavening the mass of society.
Many of the principles taught by the Saint-Simonians
must receive our hearty approbation. We sympathize
with their endeavors to improve the lot of the poor
and oppressed, and assent to them when they preach
the dignity and sacredness of labor, the reverence due
woman, and the duty of maintaining peace between
nation and nation. When Chevalier proposes that the
armies of Europe, "instead of being applied to the
destruction of property and life, should be employed
upon works of public utility," "* we are reminded that
the coming of a time has been prophesied when
"nations shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war any more." †
Saint-Simon has ceased to be the prophet of a re-
ligious school, but he did not sacrifice life and happi-
ness in vain. He still lives in the lives and actions
of men, and to-day possesses an historical importance
which has been well expressed in these words:
"Saint-Simon first taught us to consider the history
of labor and property as an essential element of hu-
man development, and consequently to investigate
the history of society.
"He first discerned clearly the separation of the two
great classes of industrial society, and implanted bitter
hatred in the consciousness of the lower classes. Saint-
* Quoted by Booth, p. 170.
+ Isaiah ii. 4.
80
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
Simon's word that the party of the laborers would be
formed, has been fulfilled. Saint-Simonism is the first
expression of the proletariat.
"He first represented social reform as the only true
function of government.
"Finally, he first brought forward the question of
inheritance, the question upon which the entire future
of the social form of Europe will rest during the next
two generations.
"Thus through Saint-Simon is society, in its power,
its elements, and its contradictions, for the first time.
half understood, half vaguely conjectured. He is the
boundary of a new era in France. He left the beaten
track and laid down his life in discovering and open-
ing for society a new path. In it we have as yet
taken only a few steps, and no human eye is able to
discern the goal whither we are tending.'
"
* Vide Lorenz von Stein, "Geschichte der Socialen Bewegung in
Frankreich" (Leipzig, 1850), Bd. ii. SS. 226, 227. The translation is
abridged and is rather free in places.
FOURIER.
81
CHAPTER V.
FOURIER.
IN his "Social Movements in France"* Lorenz
von Stein uses these words, in comparing Saint-Simon
and Fourier: "While Saint-Simon was sacrificing his
life in Paris in his efforts to attain an unknown and
only vaguely conjectured goal, and while his school
was struggling against foes from within and without,
there lived in another part of France a man who,
without knowing Saint-Simon, was taking an essential-
ly different route towards the same goal. This man
was Charles Fourier. . . . Never has any land at the
same time produced two men of such importance in
the history of society."†
These two men together constitute one whole.
Each was required as a complement of the other.
The one started in his career as a man of wealth and
social eminence, the other as a man of the people.
The one observed society, studied its history, its de-
velopment, and sought to find therein a clew to guide
him in his work of regenerating the world, morally
and economically; the other, regarding the past as
such a series of blunders as to afford no proper basis
for future formations, searched the depths of his own
*Bd. ii. S. 228.
That is, of so much importance to one writing or studying the
history of social movements.
6
82
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
consciousness, and discovered a law which furnished
premises, enabling him to construct deductively an
ideal and perfect society, and to explain with mathe-
matical accuracy the past, present, and future of the
entire universe.
Saint-Simon was a man of impulse and feeling;
Fourier was a man of the understanding and logic.
The former founded a religion; the latter a science.
Charles Fourier was born in 1772 in Besançon. He
came of an ordinary family and represented the mid-
dle-class. His father was a cloth-merchant in his na-
tive city, and he himself spent the greater part of his
life in mercantile pursuits of one kind or another.
Fourier seems to have been a bright boy, for when
only eleven years of age he took prizes for excellence
in French and Latin. He liked the study of geography,
spending a considerable part of his pocket-money for
maps and globes, and was passionately fond of music
and flowers. It is said that he was himself a good
musician. His mechanical ability was remarkable
enough to attract attention at an early period in hist
life. As a commercial traveller he visited Germany
and Holland, and was thus able to gratify his desire
to see the world. Upon the death of his father, he in-
herited about one hundred thousand francs at an early
age, invested the money in foreign trade, and lost it in
the siege of Lyons in 1793, during the Reign of Terror,
when his bales of cotton were used to form barricades
and his provisions to feed the soldiers. But Fourier's
misfortunes did not end here. He was taken prisoner,
and kept in confinement for some time, expecting daily
to be led forth to execution. Release, however, enabled
him to join the army, for which he had some taste.
It is, indeed, stated that he was able to make sugges-
FOURIER.
83
tions concerning military operations which were fol-
lowed to advantage by his superiors. But ill-health
obliged him to retire from the army at the expiration
of two years, and return to a business life.
Fourier was never greatly prospered, nor did he
ever, so far as I know, give evidence of ability to
achieve a large amount of worldly success. In this
he was unlike almost every other great communist or
socialist. However, it must be acknowledged that his
mind was from childhood engaged with other thoughts
than the means of acquiring wealth, so that we are
scarcely in a position to say what he might have done
in this direction if he had devoted himself heartily to
business. It is certain that to him the words idler and
bungler do not apply, and that he had no desire to fork
out his penny and pocket another's shilling. On the
contrary, it was to give, and not receive, that he de-
sired. This trait of all large souls was manifested in
a touching way when he was a small boy. There came
one morning to the door of his father's house a poor
cripple, asking if little Charles was ill. When he was
told that Charles was not ill, but had left the city, he
burst into tears. Inquiry disclosed the fact that while
on his way to school, and without the knowledge of
others, the little fellow had every day given half of
his lunch to the poor man.
Two events occurring to Fourier in early life led
him to a train of thought which ended in his con-
demnation of the economic organization of society as
a disastrous failure.
When he was five years of age he proved himself
an enfant terrible by telling the truth in an innocent
and childlike manner to some customers, about certain
goods in his father's shop; and for this he was punished.
84
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
The falsehood which his father or some person con-
nected with the shop was accustomed to tell the cus-
tomers appears to have been one of the kind common
in some parts of the mercantile world, and which
many might to-day regard as not very sinful-as not
worse, at any rate, than the white lies of society.
The other incident occurred when he was nineteen
years of age. He was connected with a business house
in Marseilles, and was required to assist in throwing
overboard rice, which his employer had kept for specu-
lative purposes and had allowed to remain in the hold
of a ship until it was spoiled. Prices were high, owing
to a famine, and it was feared they would fall if the
rice were thrown on the market. Young Fourier ar-
gued that a system which forced children to lie and
men to allow food needed by hungry people to rot
must be radically defective.
He began to elaborate a social scheme which should
promote truth, honesty, economy of resources, and the
development of our natural propensities. This became
the one aim of his life. He constructed an ideal world,
and in this he ever lived. Association with its imagi-
nary creatures was his company; the fancy that he
had benefited them was his consolation in adversity,
and the unwavering belief that the creations of his
brain were good, enabled him to persevere to the end.
Yet at times he must have felt the severity of his
struggle against self and the world. He had pub-
lished what he considered a weighty work, "La
Théorie des Quatre Mouvements," containing a pro-
spectus and an outline of his system, five years before
he found even one supporter. Think what that means!
* In 1808.
FOURIER.
85
A reformer presents to mankind plans which he knows
will save men from poverty, selfishness, hypocrisy,
corruption, intrigue, deceit, crime, and all manner of
misfortune and wickedness, and for five years his proj-
ects are not so much as noticed. Like Luther of old,
he offers to maintain his theses against all comers, and
no one thinks it worth while to engage in the contro-
versy. The sufferings of humanity pain his large
heart, but year after year slips by and brings not one
sympathizer, not one helper, in his endeavors to save
the world. It is easy to speak the words "five years,'
but such a period has often seemed endless to those
who have been obliged to live it.
""
Fourier's first supporter was not such a one as he
desired to promote his plans. Slowly others came,
but he never had a large following. He wrote to
Robert Owen, the English communist, but received
no encouragement, while the Saint-Simonians treated
him with contempt. He did not desire so much the
adherence of personal disciples as men of property,
who could enable him to make a trial of his scheme; for
he thought the practical workings of one experiment
would convince the world. He announced publicly
that he would be at home every day at noon to meet
any one disposed to furnish a million francs for an es-
tablishment based on the principles which he had pub-
lished, and it is said that for twelve years he repaired.
to his house daily at the appointed hour. The philan-
thropist whom he awaited never came. Only one
experiment was made in his lifetime.
In 1832 a
member of the Chamber of Deputies offered an es-
tate near Versailles as the basis of an association,
and the offer was accepted by a few converts. Fou-
rier was never satisfied with the management, which
86
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
seems to have been defective, and the experiment soon
failed.
Fourier died at the age of sixty-five, without having
had the satisfaction of seeing any decided measures
taken for the realization of his plans. He had, how-
ever, succeeded in gaining the appreciation and friend-
ship of a number of followers, and he passed his last
days in the enjoyment of every comfort.
His tombstone bears this characteristic inscription,
expressive of his faith and his hope:
"Les attractions sont proportionnelles aux destinées,
La série distribue les harmonies."
Fourier wrote three works of importance. The
first is the one already mentioned, "La Théorie des
Quatre Mouvements et des Destinées Générales"
"The Theory of the Four Movements and the General
Destinies "-published in 1808. The four movements
were social, animal, organic, and material, giving us
society, animal life, organic life, and the material
world. The object is to show that one law, that of
attraction, governs them all. Newton discovered the
law of one movement, the material; Fourier, that this
same law of attraction pervaded all four movements.
This discovery prepared the way for the most aston-
ishing and most fortunate event which could happen
to this globe-viz., "the sudden passage from social
chaos to universal harmony.”*
This work was con-
sidered incomplete by Fourier himself, and the fan-
tastic notions and ridiculous prophecies contained in
it were the subject of so much ridicule and criticism
* Vide Introduction to the "Théorie," tome i. of Œuvres Com-
plètes.
FOURIER.
87
that for a long time he would not mention the book,
and was unwilling to hear others speak of it. When
he was afterwards urged to republish it he refused,
saying that it contained errors, and he should be
obliged to rewrite it, to make it satisfactory to him-
self.*
Fourier's chief work was his "Traité de l'Associa-
tion Domestique Agricole ou Attraction Industrielle "
"Treatise on Domestic Rural Association or Indus-
trial Attraction "-published subsequently in his com-
plete works under the title of "La Théorie de l'Unité
Universelle "-"The Theory of Universal Unity."
The first edition appeared in 1822. The fourteen
years between the appearance of the "Théorie des
Quatre Mouvements" and the "Traité de l'Associa-
tion" were passed in meditation, in revolving and
evolving plans in his mind.
He worked out a complete philosophy in the
"Traité." His system not only included man and the
earth, but the heavens above and the waters under
the earth. His scientific notions were crude in the
extreme. Nature was composed of eternal and in-
destructible principles of God, active and moving
principle; of matter, passive principle; and of justice
or mathematics, the regulating principle of the uni-
verse, to which God himself was subject. One of the
most curious features of Fourier's system is the use
he makes of figures. Pythagoras himself did not at-
tach more importance to them. They revealed to him
hitherto undisclosed secrets, so that he was able to
give a precise answer to any conceivable question.
M
* Vide Preface of editors to second edition (Paris, 1841).
+ Tomes ii.-v. of Euvres Complètes (1841-43).
.88
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
They enabled him to prophesy. He foresaw that the
existence of the human race on this earth was to con-
tinue until it completed a period of eighty thousand
years. This period is divided into four phases, two
of them ascending phases of vibration or gradation,
and two descending phases of vibration or degrada-
tion. The following table gives the four phases:
ASCENDING VIBRATION.*
FIRST PHASE.
Infancy, or ascending incoherence, 15,000 years.
SECOND PHASE.
Growth, or ascending combination, 35,000 years.
DESCENDING VIBRATION.
16
THIRD PHASE.
Decline, or descending combination, 735,000 years.
FOURTH PHASE.
Dotage, or descending incoherence, 15,000 years.
80,000 years.
Total,
The life of the race thus resembles the life of man.
The earth is just progressing out of its infancy. It
will have passed into the second phase when it has
adopted Fourier's plan of association. Its life up to
the present time has been weak, childlike, and full of
sufferings, but it is to receive reparation for this in
seventy thousand happy years, surpassing in good
fortune any previously described millennium. Lions.
will become servitors of man, and draw his carriage
* Vide "Théorie des Quatre Mouvements," Euvres, tome i. p. 50.
These phases are subdivided into thirty-two periods, of which a table
accompanies p. 52.
FOURIER.
89
from one end of France to another in a single day;
while whales will pull his ships across the waters,
provided he does not prefer to ride on the back of a
seal. Sea-water will become a more delightful bever-
age than lemonade; while a bright light at the North
Pole will not only render that part of the world in-
habitable, but will diffuse an exquisite aroma over all
the earth. Our bodies are part of the earth, and it
suffers with us. When we adopt Fourier's scheme we
shall cease to suffer, and shall release the earth from
its ills. Our souls are also parts of the great world-
soul, and no part can be in pain without bringing
grief to the whole. As St. Paul has it, "The whole
creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together."
Fourier believed, further, in the immortality of the
soul, in its existence hereafter, and in its previous ex-
istence. He held to the transmigration of the soul, and
in its frequent return to this earth to partake in the
happy future of the human race. According to him,
mind is always joined to matter so that it may ever
enjoy material pleasures. When the mind leaves one
body it unites itself to another, and always to a high-
It develops continually. It passes also from
world to world, though ever and anon returning to the
earth. Our souls will have existed in one hundred and
ten different worlds before the end of our planetary
system. The planets themselves have immortal souls,
which are also subject to transmigration. At the ex-
piration of eighty thousand years the soul of the earth
will take up its abode in another and more perfect
body.
er one.
But it is not necessary to devote more time to these
nonsensical speculations. It is not on their account
that Fourier is remembered. He himself recognized
90
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
the fact that his chief merit was the production of his
social system. On this point he says:
"But what do these accessories impart to the prin-
cipal affair, which is the art of organizing combined
industry, whence will issue a fourfold product; good
morals; the accord of the three classes-rich, middle,
and poor; the discontinuance of party quarrels, the
cessation of pests, revolutions, and fiscal penury; and
universal unity?
"My detractors condemn themselves in attacking
me on account of my views touching the new sciences
-cosmogony, psychogony, analogy which lie out-
side of the domain of the theory of combined indus-
try. Although it should prove true that these new
sciences are erroneous and foolish,* it does not remain
less certain that I am the first and the only one who
has presented a plan for associating inequalities and
for quadrupling the products of industry in employ-
ing such passions, characters, and instincts as nature
has given us. This is the only point upon which peo-
ple ought to fix their attention, and not upon sciences.
which have only been announced."
M
The "Traité de l'Association" is prolix and tedious.
It abounds in meaningless combinations of figures,
letters, and hieroglyphics. New and strange words,
coined without necessity, often render the thoughts.
difficult to understand. The wheat which it undoubt-
edly contains is buried beneath such an immense pile
of chaff that it is too likely to be overlooked. Fortu-
nately, Fourier has given us a better and more con-
densed exposition of his doctrine in the "Nouveau
* He seems finally to have been inclined to believe that they
were so.
FOURIER.
91
Monde Industriel et Sociétaire" "The New Indus-
trial and Social World"-published in 1829, and the
latest of his more important works.
The central idea of Fourier's social scheme is asso-
ciation. The all-pervading attraction which he dis
covered draws man to man and reveals the will of
God. It is passionate attraction—attraction passion-
nelle. It urges men to union. This law of attrac-
tion is universal and eternal, but men have thrown
obstacles in its way so that it has not had free course.
Consequently, we have been driven into wrong and
abnormal paths. When we return to right ways-
when we follow the directions given us by attraction,
as indicated in our twelve passions or desires-uni-
versal harmony will again reign. Economic goods—
an indispensable condition of human development-
will be obtained in abundance. Products will be in-
creased many fold, owing, first, to the operation of
the passion to labor and to benefit society; secondly,
to the economy of associated effort.
Since happiness and misery depend upon the lati-
tude allowed our passions-our propensities—it is
necessary to enumerate these. They are divided into
three classes the one class tending to luxe, luxisme,
luxury; the second tending to groups; the third to
series. By luxe is meant the gratification of the de-
sires of the five senses-hearing, seeing, feeling,
tasting, smelling each one constituting a passion.
These are sensual in the original sense of the word,
or sensitive. Four passions tend to groups-viz.,
amity or friendship, love, paternity or the family feel-
ing (familism), and ambition. These are affective.
* Third edition, as vol. vi. of Collected Works (Paris, 1848).
•
92
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
The three remaining passions are distributive, and be-
long to the series. They are the passions called caba-
liste, papillonne, and composite. The passion cabaliste
is the desire for intrigue, for planning and contriving.
It is strong in women and the ambitious. In itself it
would tend to destroy the unity of social life, as would
also the passion papillonne, or alternante (the love of
change). These are, however, harmonized by the
passion composite (the desire of union). All twelve
passions unite together into the one mighty, all-con-
trolling impulse, called unitéisme, which is the love.
felt for others united in society, and is a passion un-
known in civilization. It is rather difficult for the un-
initiated to see how this differs from the passion com-
posite, unless it be in strength. The following table
serves to make the relations of the passions clearer :*
Seeing
Hearing
Smelling
Feeling
Tasting
Amity
Love
Paternity
Ambition
Passions tending (pertaining) to
luxury (sensual or sensitive).
Passions tending to groups (affec-
tive).
Cabaliste
Papillonne, or alternante
Composite
Passions tending to
series (distribu-
tive).
Unitéisme.
A social organization must be formed which will
allow free play to our passions, so that they may com-
* Vide Fourier's Œuvres, tome ii. pp. 142-147, and references there
given. Lorenz von Stein sets a high value on the philosophical value
of this classification, as compared with similar efforts of Pythago-
ras and Bossuet. Although appreciative, he criticises Fourier vigor-
ously, and shows the contradictions involved in his classification (vide
Stein, "Sociale Bewegung," Bd. ii. SS. 276-285).
FOURIER.
93
bine harmoniously. Our present society, called civili-
zation,* does not, and cannot, do this. It is a system
of oppression and repression, and is necessarily a fright-
ful discord. Harmony can only be found in combina-
tions of suitable numbers in communities known as
phalanxes, and occupying buildings called phalans-
teries. Each phalanx is a unit, a great family, and
dwells in a single building, a phalanstery. What is
it that determines the proper number for a single
phalanx? It is again the twelve passions of man.
These can be combined in eight hundred and twenty
different ways in as many individuals, and no possible
combination ought to be unrepresented in the workers.
of any phalanx, or there will be a lack of perfect har-
mony. But in every community there will be found
old men, infants, and those disabled on account of
illness or accident. Provision must also be made for
absences. There ought not, then, to be less than fif-
teen or sixteen hundred members in a phalanx, though
four hundred is mentioned as a possible but undesirable
minimum. Eighteen hundred to two thousand mem-
bers are recommended. A larger number would pro-
duce discord, and is, therefore, inadmissible. But a
further arrangement is necessary. These different
characters thrown together helter-skelter would no
more produce harmony than it would for one blind-
folded to draw from a bag two thousand combinations
of notes for the piano and play them in the order in
which they were drawn. On the contrary, they must
be ordered intelligently in series, the series combined
C
* Always thus designated by Fourier. He attaches such a re-
proachful meaning to it that the word has an ugly sound to one
immediately after reading his works.
94
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
into groups, and the groups united into the phalanx.
Those having similar tastes form a series, which must
consist of some seven, eight, or nine members. Sev-
eral series having related tastes and desires unite in a
group. A group undertakes some one kind of labor,
as the care of fruit-trees, and a series concerns itself
with one particular branch of the labor of a group, as
the care of apple-trees.
All labor becomes pleasant to man, as nature meant
it should be. It is only when he is forced to do a
kind which he does not like, or is obliged to over-
work, that productive exertion becomes repulsive.
This is avoided in the phalanxes, as each one is al-
lowed to follow his own bent, being at perfect liberty
to join any group of laborers or to change from group
to group as he may see fit. In fact, the desire for
change the passion papillonne, or alternante-is so
strong that at the expiration of two hours a change
is usually made from one kind of labor to another.
Work of this character becomes play, and children
like it, while men are as fond of it as of athletic sports.
We now discover men undergoing severe physical
exertion for the sake of excelling in running, swim-
ming, wrestling, rowing, etc. There will spring up a
similar rivalry between groups of cultivators in the
phalanxes. One set of laborers will endeavor to ob-
tain more useful products from ten or one hundred
acres than another similar group from the same ex-
tent of land of like quality. We find such a rivalry
at present among cultivators of the soil, and it might
undoubtedly be increased in organizations such as
Fourier described. Every fall you see it reported in
local papers that farmer A has raised, let us say, four
hundred bushels of oats from ten acres; this at once
FOURIER.
95
provokes B to inform the world that his ten acres
yielded five hundred bushels. C may report five hun-
dred and fifty bushels in the coming year. This de-
monstrates the existence of a rivalry of a valuable
kind, of which much might be made. But Fourier
pushed things to an extreme when he thought that
the productiveness of labor might thereby be increased
fourfold, or even fivefold. He held that a man could
produce enough under his social régime from his
eighteenth to twenty-eighth year, so that he could
pass the remainder of his life in elegant leisure. He
maintained, too, that if England should introduce his
socialistic phalanxes her labor would become so pro-
ductive that she could pay off her national debt in
six months by the sale of hens' eggs. This is what
he says on this point: "It is not by millions, but by
billions, that we shall value the product of small ob-
jects which are to-day despised. It is now the turn
of eggs to play a grand role, and resolve a problem be-
fore which those learned in European finance have
grown pale. They only know how to increase public
indebtedness. We are going to extinguish the colos-
sal English debt on a fixed day with half of the eggs
produced during a single year. We shall not lay vio-
lent hands on a single fowl, and the work of accom-
plishing our purpose, instead of being burdensome,
will be an amusement for the globe.
"Let us make an arithmetical calculation. We wish
to pay a debt of twenty-five billions during the year
1835, with hen's eggs.
"Let us estimate, to begin with, the real value of
these eggs. I appraise them at ten sous or half a
franc a dozen, when they are guaranteed fresh and of
a good size, like those of the hens of Caux.
96
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
"Valuing at ten sous a dozen the guaranteed good,
large, and fresh eggs of fowls, nourished with all the
resources of art, we should have to count upon fifty
billions of dozens of eggs in order to extinguish in a
single year the English debt.
"The hen, the most precious of fowls, is a truly
cosmopolitan bird. With suitable care she becomes
acclimated everywhere. She flourishes on the sands
of Egypt and among the glaciers of the North.
"I will prove that the hennery of one phalanx
ought to contain at least 10,000 hens, not including
the pullets, twenty times as numerous.
"Let us estimate that a hen lays 200 eggs a year.
She ought not, perhaps, to be expected to do this under
our present social régime, but well cared-for in a so-
cialistic phalanx she could do rather more.
"Let us add up, and, after the manner of good
housewives, neglect fractions. . .
Let us suppose
that the hennery of each phalanx
hens, instead of 10,000.
contains 12,000
•
“One thousand dozens of eggs at half a franc the
dozen would amount to 500 francs. Multiplying this
by 200, we would have from each phalanx a product
valued at 100,000 francs. We must now multiply this
by 600,000, the number of phalanxes, which gives a
total product of 60,000,000,000.
"Now, as we have estimated the number of hens at
12,000 for each phalanx, in order to facilitate the cal-
culation, it will be necessary to deduct one sixth from
our product, which will leave 50,000,000,000. Divide
this by two, and the quotient is 25,000,000,000, pre-
cisely the amount of the English debt expressed in
round numbers." -Q. E. D.
Of course, such amusing and ridiculous passages in
FOURIER.
97
Fourier's writings do not give us any sufficient ground
for condemning the cardinal principles of Fourierism.
Besides the productivity of labor by a rivalry be-
tween producers, the socialistic phalanx will avoid
the waste of goods caused by industrial and commer-
cial competition. Twenty men are often employed to
do what three or four might accomplish with ease,
were the labor properly organized. Think of the
enormous loss to society of labor and capital due to
a superfluity of retail shops all over a great country
like the United States! It may not have occurred to
some that whenever capital, consisting of economic
goods, like houses, buildings, implements, etc., is not
fully employed, or whenever men are waiting for
work, economic power is being wasted. This view
of the effects of competition ought to influence our
legislators more than it does. Let us take the case of
two parallel railroads, where one might do all the
business. Thousands of acres of land are needlessly
and forever removed from agricultural purposes,
thousands of tons of iron and steel are diverted from
other uses, the labor of hundreds of men is perma-
nently wasted-in short, the millions sunk in the en-
terprise in the first place, together with the cost of
maintaining and working it, are forever lost to the
society. Competition thus often makes it cost far more
to do a given amount of business than it would other-
wise. If Fourierism could rid us of the evils of free
competition without depriving us of the benefits we
derive from it, it would, indeed, be in so far a great
blessing to the world. Fourier felt positive that it
could, but he has never succeeded in convincing a
large number to put faith in his bright promises.
The economy of associated effort and associated life
Cveld 2 BAKA
7
98
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
is one of the leading factors which will increase the
wealth of man. Every square league of land has
its one phalanstery occupied by a phalanx, consisting
of some four hundred families. It costs no more to
build a palace for all these families than it would to
construct four hundred separate and uncomfortable
cottages. While each family has its separate rooms,
cooking is carried on in common, and great saving
is thereby secured. A fire to cook four hundred din-
ners may not cost ten times as much as a fire to cook
two, while it requires scarcely a greater exertion to
watch a large roast than a small one. In the housing
of animals, foods, implements, etc., a similar economy
is secured. A large number working together afford
every opportunity for a fruitful combination and di-
vision of labor. Other economies will be effected by
the suppression of useless classes. In the new society
there will be no soldiers of destruction, no policemen,
agents of a discordant social régime, no criminals and
lawyers, both products of civilization, of disharmony;
finally, no metaphysicians and no political econo-
mists. Agriculture is the leading occupation, while
commerce and manufacturing industry are reduced to
a minimum. Products are conveniently exchanged
among members of a commune, while phalanx ex-
changes superfluities with phalanx and nation with
nation in the most economical manner.
Fourier's socialistic system is not so pure a form of
socialism as that of Saint-Simon, inasmuch as he re-
tained private capital and, temporarily at least, inheri-
tance. The division of products takes place in this
wise: A certain minimum-a very generous one-is
set apart for each member of the commune, and the
enormous surplus is divided between labor, capital,
FOURIER.
99
and talent--five twelfths going to labor, four twelfths
to capital, and three twelfths to talent. The division
is made by the phalanxes through the agency of offi-
cers whom they elect. The maxim is not labor ac-
cording to capacity and reward according to services,
as with the Saint-Simonians, but labor according to
capacity and reward in proportion to exertion, talent,
and capital. Labor is divided into three classes-
necessary, useful, and agreeable—the highest reward
accruing to the first and the smallest to the last division,
in accordance with the principles of equity.
Government-for which, however, there seems to be
little need—is republican. Officers are elected. The
chief of a phalanx is a unarch. The next highest offi-
cer is at the head of three or four phalanxes, and is
called a duarch. Triarchs, tetrarchs, pentarchs, etc.,
follow; while the highest officer of the world is the
omniarch, who dwells at Constantinople, the capital of
the world.
While there are grades in society, the rich and
powerful are so animated by the spirit of association
unitéisme — that the differences give no offence.
Familism, the love of those nearest and dearest, loses
its excluding character. The law of social attraction,
"while it conserves the ties and affections of the fam-
ily, will destroy its exclusive interests. Association
will mingle it to such an extent with the great com-
munal or phalansterian family that every narrow
affection will disappear, that it will find its own in-
terest in that of all, and will attach it sincerely and
passionately to the public concern (chose publique)."*
* Vide "Fourier et son Système," par Madame Gatti de Gammond
(3d ed. 1839), p. 86.
100
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
Fourier favored the so-called emancipation of
woman, and assigned her a high rank in society. He
found the economic, legal, and social position of wom-
an at any given period, or in any country, an exact
measure of the true civilization of said period or coun-
try. At the same time he was obliged to allow many
things which good men generally regard as degrading
to woman, as he started from the belief that all nat-
ural desires and propensities were good. It is much
to be feared that he would practically have abolished
marriage and the family, as we now understand these
institutions. It is altogether probable that Fourier
would have been more successful in his propaganda
had his ideas in every respect been more in conso-
nance with the teachings of Christian morality.
Fourier was naturally a man of peace. Holding, as
he did, that a single experiment would convince the
world that his system of phalanxes was the only cor-
rect organization, he could not consistently advocate
a violent revolution. He believed that the millen-
nium was to dawn in a few years, even within a
shorter period than ten years. Once he advised his
followers not to purchase real property, as the prog-
ress of Fourierism would soon cause it to depreciate
in value. His disciples have been disappointed in
their hope that men would speedily accept the princi-
ples of their master, but they have ever opposed vio-
lence.
Kaufmann, in his "Schäffle's Socialism," thus sums
up the chief merits of Fourier's teachings: "There is
a good deal of truth in some of his critical remarks.
The importance of co-operative production has been
recognized chiefly in consequence of his first pointing
out the economical benefits of the association. The
FOURIER.
101
narrow-minded fear of wholesale trade, and machin-
ery, too, was in a measure dispelled by Fourier's un-
qualified recognition of their value. His remarks on
the unnecessary hardships of labor and the evil conse-
quences of excessive toil have had their influence on
modern factory-laws for the protection of labor and the
shortening of the labor hours. Sanitary reforms, and
improvements of the laborer's homestead, which have
become the question of the hour, owe not a little of
their origin to the spread of Fourier's ideas."
Fourier's first adherent was Just Muiron, who at-
tached himself to the master in 1813, and remained
a faithful follower for many years. He wrote two
works,* in which he exhibited the vices of our exist-
ing industrial society and explained the metaphysical
principles of Fourierism. Gradually others joined the
movement, of whom the most important was Victor
Considerant, the author of "La Destinée Sociale, Ex-
position Élémentaire, Complète de la Théorie Socié-
taire"-"Social Destiny, a Complete Elementary
Exposition of the Social Theory "-published in the
years 1834-38, in three volumes, and in a new edition,
in 1851, in two volumes. This is the ablest presenta-
tion of the doctrine, and has become, as another writer
has said, the text-book of the school. Among other
members of note may be mentioned Baudet-Dulary,
the deputy who, in 1832, offered an estate for an ex-
perimental association; Madame Gatti de Gammond,
author of the best short and popular exposition of
*"Vices de Nos Procédés Industriels" (1824; 2d ed., with the
title "Aperçus sur les Procédés Industriels," 1840) and "Nouvelles
Transactions Sociales, Religieuses et Politiques de Virtomnius "
(1832).
102
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
Fourierism;* Madame Clarisse Vigoureux, a wealthy
and talented lady; † Charles Pellarin, the able biog-
rapher of his master; finally, Jules le Chevalier, a
former Saint-Simonian, and author of a Fourieristic
work of importance. § When the Saint-Simonians
separated, a considerable number of them passed over
to Fourierism. It will be seen that the new doctrine
lacked neither wealth nor ability. Its numbers were
at first small, but after the death of Fourier the school
received large accessions of adherents. The disciples
published a paper, which, under various names, || and
with breaks in its appearance, was published as a week-
ly, monthly, and daily. The disciples finally formed
"The Society for the Propagation and Realization of
the Theory of Fourier"-"La Société pour la Propa-
gation et pour la Réalisation de la Théorie de Fou-
rier"-which is probably still alive. At any rate, a
writer stated in 1872 that it was then in existence,
in possession of a capital of seven hundred thousand
francs, and was still determined to labor for the good
cause. All the strictly Fourieristic experiments tried
in France thus far have failed. Possibly another trial
* "Fourier et son Système" (1st ed. 1838; 3d ed. 1839, pp. 384).
Madame de Gammond modifies Fourier's views concerning the rela-
tions of the sexes in her presentation, as would naturally be expected
of a lady of culture.
+ Wrote "Paroles de Providence" (1835).
"Fourier, Sa Vie et sa Théorie " (5th ed. 1872).
§ "Études sur la Science Sociale” (2 vols. 1831–34).
| 1832, La Réforme Industrielle, ou le Phalanstère; La Phalange,
whose mottoes were "Social Reform without Revolutions," "Realiza-
tion of Order, of Justice, and of Liberty," "Organization of Indus-
try;" La Democratie Pacifique, the daily, suppressed in 1850.
Arthur Booth, in article on Fourier in Fortnightly Review, vol. xii.
N. S. (July-Dec. 1, 1872).
FOURIER.
103
may be more successful. At present the school em-
braces only a small number of peaceful socialists, liv-
ing mostly in Paris. Victor Considerant, now seventy-
five years old, is among these.
One of the best fruits which Fourier's teachings
have borne may be found in a social community at
Guise, in France, where capital and labor are asso-
ciated much after his plans, although all objectionable
and immoral elements appear to have been left out.
The founder is Jean Godin, a wealthy manufacturer,
and a Fourierist with modified views, who has used
his wealth to benefit his own laborers directly and
immediately, by providing them with comfortable
homes, amusements, instruction, etc., and laborers, as
a class, indirectly and remotely, by paving the way
for a higher form of social life, a certain kind of
co-operation. He himself says of the Familistère at
Guise, as the building in which the community lives.
is called, that it "is the first example of a capital res-
olutely employed under a single direction, with the
view of uniting in one place all the things necessary
to the life of a large number of working families; it
is the first example of an administration concentrating
operations so diverse in order that the results may ac-
crue to the greatest good of the families, removing
thus useless intermediaries: all this in preserving, by
an economic organization, the capital engaged in the
enterprise."*
While the community resembles a phalanx, as de-
scribed by Fourier, in many respects, it also differs
from it in many others. It resembles it in its abode,
constructed much like a phalanstery, and with a large
* Godin's "Solutions Sociales" (Paris, 1871), p. 529.
104
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
share of the elegance and comfort so glowingly pict-
ured by Fourier. It resembles it also in securing
economy and increased comfort by associated effort.
Further resemblance is found in the care for the chil-
dren, the sick, the aged, and the disabled, in the pro-
vision for education and recreation, and in the attempt
to realize a condition of things fitting those who be-
lieve in the brotherhood of man. Differences are found
in the large share of power which M. Godin has re-
served for himself, the removal of obviously ridicu
lous and fantastic contrivances, and in the absence al-
together of agriculture, which Fourier considered the
chief occupation of regenerated society. The estab-
lishment consists of iron, copper, sugar, and chiccory
factories. M. Godin regrets that agriculture has not
been included in the pursuits, but it does not seem to
have been found practicable.
The social body consists of about fifteen hundred
members. The familistère, or social palace in which
they live, is thus described: it is “ an immense brick
edifice in the form of three parallelograms,' each of
which encloses an interior court, covered with a glass
roof and paved with cement. The building is four
stories high. The central parallelogram, or rec-
tangle, is two hundred and eleven feet front and
one hundred and thirty feet deep. . . . The stores of
the association . . . on the lowest story of the central
portion of the building . . . contain whatever is nec-
essary for ordinary need and comfort, without refer-
ence to luxuries. . . . 'In the social palace fifteen hun-
dred persons can see each other go to their daily do-
mestic occupations, reunite in public places, go to
market or shopping, under covered galleries, without
traversing more than two hundred yards, and as com-
FOURIER.
105
fortably in one kind of weather as in another.'"*
There is also a large nursery, where children are
taught "to associate equitably with one another."
They are brought there by the mothers at about ten
in the morning, and are taken back to the family
apartments between five and six in the afternoon.
Many pleasant things are connected with the life in
this social palace, as it is called. There are numerous
concerts, and a theatre furnishes opportunity for the-
atricals. Even a billiard-room is provided for the
amusement of the members. Two festivals are cele-
brated yearly-"The Festival of Labor," in May, and
the "Festival of the Children," in September.t
The following are a few extracts from the declara-
tion of principles with which their "laws" open:
"V. It is the essential duty of society and of every individual so
to regulate their conduct as to produce the greatest possible benefits
to humanity, and to make this the constant object of all their
thoughts, words, and actions.
"VI. The perception of this duty has dictated to the sages of all
time the following precepts:
"To love others as one's self.'
"To act towards others as you would wish that they should act
towards you.'
To make our abilities conduce to the perfection of our existence
and that of others."
"To unite together and give support to one another.'
«VII. . . .
The laws of universal order, and especially the law of
human progress, place at the disposal of men—
"Association of Capital with Labor" (translated by Louis Bris-
tol; published by the "New York Woman's Social Science Society,"
Room 24, Cooper Institute, 1881).
The exercises at the former of these celebrations is described in
the Overland Monthly for March, 1883, by Marie Howland; in the
Californian for January, 1881, a description of the latter festival
may be found.
106
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
"The resources of nature and those of the public property.
"Labor and intelligence.
"Capital or accumulated labor.
"VIII. It is for the good of all humanity that nature vivifies and
produces everything useful to human life, and it is, without doubt, for
the benefit of all, that each generation should transmit to its suc-
cessors its acquired knowledge.
"IX. By giving existence to man, God accords to him a right to
what is necessary for him in the resources which nature every day
affords to humanity, as well as the right to profit by the progress of
society.
"XI. (The) perpetual and gratuitous assistance from nature proves
that man, by the very fact of his birth, acquires, and should never
lose, a certain degree of natural right in the wealth that is produced.
"Hence it follows that the weak have the right to enjoy what nat-
ure and the public property place at the disposal of men.
"And that it is the duty of the strong to leave to the weak a just
share of the general product." *
The products are divided according to this socialis-
tic-not communistic-scheme between labor and cap-
ital. It has existed upwards of twenty years thus far,
and has prospered. This may have been due to the
talent of M. Godin, its founder. Whether it will be
able to maintain its existence after his death remains
to be seen.t
M. Godin has described his views on social problems
and his endeavors to benefit the laborers in a valuable
work entitled "Solutions Sociales," which should be
read carefully by those who contemplate founding co-
operative or other establishments for the benefit of the
masses.
Fourierism was brought to America about 1840,
and soon found numerous advocates, including many
* “Association of Capital with Labor," pp. 5, 6.
This enterprise is admirably described in an article entitled "The
Social Palace at Guise" (Harper's Monthly, April, 1872).
FOURIER.
107
names of which America is proud. Prominent among
the leaders were Albert Brisbane,* the head of the
movement, Horace Greeley, and Charles A. Dana. In
his "History of American Socialisms," Mr. Noyes men-
tions thirty-four experiments made by Fourierists in
this country, all of which failed for some reason or
other. The most remarkable of these experiments
was Brook Farm. At first it was not called a phalanx,
although from the start it combined many of the
features of Fourierism, but it shortly fell in line and
became a Fourieristic experiment. When it is men-
tioned that its leading spirits were George Ripley,
Charles A. Dana, Margaret Fuller, and others of like
character, it is needless to add that its moral basis
was sound. Others, more or less connected with the
experiment, were George William Curtis, Horace
Greeley, Dr. Channing, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Its exceedingly interesting and pathetic history is to
be found in Frothingham's "George Ripley."+
* Wrote "The Social Destiny of Man," founded on Considerant's
"Destinée Sociale."
Published in the "American Men of Letters Series," and vide
also Noyes's "History of American Socialisms," ch. xi.
108
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
CHAPTER VI.
LOUIS BLANC.
SAINT-SIMON and Fourier are first among French
socialists. In the history of society no socialistic sys-
tems occupy a higher rank than those to which they
gave their names. France has, however, produced
two other men who have taken positions as leaders in
social movements. If Saint-Simon and Fourier take
precedence over them in the hierarchy of socialists,
there is certainly no Frenchman who can dispute their
right to the next highest places. They were chiefs.
after Saint-Simonism and Fourierism had begun to
wane and before German socialism had begun to exist.
These two men were Louis Blanc and Proudhon, and
it is necessary to devote a few words to them before
passing over to a very brief consideration of the latest
phases of French socialism.
Saint-Simon and Fourier were social reformers only.
They divorced economic reform from politics. They
did not seek to use the existing political machinery of
society as a means to their ends. They appealed to
religious fervor, to brotherly love, to self - interest,
and to passionate attraction, and regarded these as
quite sufficient moving and organizing forces. Al-
though these men accomplished much, it was very
little in proportion to their hopes and expectations.
What they did bring to pass did not come precisely
LOUIS BLANC.
109
in the way they wished it. To all intents and pur-
poses the great social problem seemed as far from so-
lution as ever. The next step in the development
of socialism was its connection with politics. A man
was needed who should recognize the intimate rela-
tion between political and social life, and should take
the lead in the attempt to use the power of the one to
regenerate the other. Louis Blanc was the one des-
tined to lead socialism into this way. This is his true
significance. He was the first state socialist. He was
a practical politician of too much influence to make it
possible to ignore him, but politics were always a
means, never an end. Louis Blanc is thus the connect-
ing link between the older socialism, which was in
many respects superstitious, absurd, and fantastical,
and the newer, which is sceptical, hard, and practical.
Louis Blanc, journalist, author, politician, socialist,
was born in Madrid, Spain, October 28, 1813. His
parents were French people, who were living tempo-
rarily in Madrid, as his father had been appointed
General Inspector of Finance under Joseph Bona-
parte. They naturally left Spain soon after this and
Louis Blanc passed his early years in Corsica, his
mother's native land. He studied in the College at
Rodez, and went to Paris about 1830 to continue his
studies. As the revolution had ruined his father, Louis
appears for some time to have been obliged to live in
cramped circumstances. He assisted himself at first
by copying and teaching, but he soon began to make
his influence as a writer felt. He became one of the
editors of Le Bon Sens in 1834, was made editor-in-
chief in 1837, and resigned in 1838, owing to a differ-
ence of views between him and the proprietors of the
journal, regarding the railway question, they holding
110
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
to the system of private railways while he favored
state railways. He also contributed at the same time
to the National, the Revue Républicaine and other
papers, all of which were republican or radical pe-
riodicals. In 1839 he founded the Revue du Pro-
grès, which became the organ of the most advanced
democrats, and it was in this paper that his chief
socialistic work, "Organisation du Travail"—"Or-
ganization of Labor "-appeared in 1840.
It was
published afterwards in book-form, and has achieved
a world-wide fame. The ninth edition appeared
in 1850. The first volume of his most important
historical work, the "Histoire de Dix Ans ”—“His-
tory of the Ten Years" (1830-40)—appeared in
1841. It was completed in sixteen volumes* in 1844.
A twelfth edition was published in Paris in 1874, in
five volumes. This is one of the most remarkable of
histories. Few literary works have exercised a greater
influence in shaping events. It held up the meanness,
littleness, and narrowness of the reign of Louis Phil-
ippe to public gaze and contributed not a little to the
overthrow of that monarch. It further contains a
better account of the development of socialism during
that period than can be obtained elsewhere. Louis
Blanc was an actor in the events of the ten years de-
scribed, and understood their import. He saw the
separation growing ever wider and wider between the
bourgeoisie and the fourth estate, and the political in-
fluence which the latter was beginning to acquire, and
appreciated the significance of this development as
no other writer. His work has consequently become
an indispensable source of information regarding the
* Small 12mo.
LOUIS BLANC.
111
reign of Louis Philippe. Next to the "History of the
Ten Years" his leading historical work is the “His-
tory of the French Revolution " "Histoire de la
Révolution Française," published in twelve volumes *
in the years 1847-62. A second edition bears the
date 1864-70. This work treats of a period which he
did not understand so well as his own age. Viewing
the events described through the eyes of a nineteenth
century socialist, he does not always appreciate the
underlying spirit. Nevertheless the work is a note-
worthy one. "Charles Sumner used to say that the
first volume was one of those profoundly philosophical
studies which mark an epoch in literature and in the
development of human intelligence." Another writer
says of this history: "By many eminent judges this
has been considered the most satisfactory history of
the revolution yet produced. It gives evidence of
careful and ingenious research, abounds in most strik-
ing delineations of character, and is written with great
energy and brilliancy of style. The portraiture of
Robespierre, and the description of events leading to
his fall, are among the most satisfactory accounts of
the subject ever presented.Ӡ
* 8vo.
† G. W. Smalley, New York Tribune, Feb. 4, 1883.
‡ C. K. Adams's "Manual of Historical Literature," p. 332.
-
Louis Blanc was prominent in the Revolution of
1848. He was made a member of the Provisional
Government in February, 1848, and with his colleagues,
Albert, a workman, and Ledru-Rollin, a former mem-
ber of the assembly, attempted to commit the govern-
ment to the introduction of a large number of social-
istic measures. The majority were, however, opposed
to him, and he did not meet with a great measure of
112
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
success, although the droit au travail was proclaimed.
This is the technical term for the right of laborers to
demand work from the government if they cannot find
it elsewhere. He demanded the creation of a ministry
of labor and progress-ministère du travail et du pro-
grès-which should concern itself with the interests of
labor. Unable to obtain the consent of the majority
of his colleagues, Louis Blanc tendered his resignation,
but was finally induced to withdraw it and content
himself with the presidency of a powerless commission
appointed to meet in the Luxembourg and debate.
That was all-debate. But what does debate without
authority signify in a revolution? It means the loss
of precious time and of all real influence. It is con-
temptible and ridiculous in the eyes of the masses at
such times. Louis Blanc was lost when he consented
to the formation of a debating club as a substitute
for a ministère du progrès. This was the purpose of
the government. They made a pretext of carrying
out what was implied in the droit au travail by the
erection of national workshops-ateliers nationaux.
The real purpose of the ministers was the discredit
of Louis Blanc, who had proposed ateliers sociaux
in his "Organisation du Travail." They planned the
foundation of sham national workshops, which should
fail and demonstrate the impracticability of his scheme,
and they carried out the programme to the letter.
M. Marie, the Minister of Public Works, intrusted the
management of the ateliers to Émile Thomas, one of
Louis Blanc's worst enemies, informing Thomas that
* For a satisfactory description of the true import of this measure,
vide John Stuart Mill's essay, "The French Revolution of 1848 and
its Assailants;" "Dissertations and Discussions" (Am. ed.), vol. iii.
pp. 54-58.
LOUIS BLANC.
113
""*
"it was the well-formed intention of the government to
try this experiment of the commission of government
for laborers; that in itself it could not fail to have
good results, because it would demonstrate to the
laborers the emptiness and falseness of these inappli-
cable theories and cause them to perceive the disas-
trous consequences flowing therefrom for themselves,
and would so discredit Louis Blanc in their eyes that
he should forever cease to be a danger.' The false
reports which were continually being circulated con-
cerning the ateliers nationaux, especially their unjust
attribution to him, were a constant source of annoy-
ance to Louis Blanc. It is probable, however, that
these falsehoods have done more harm to the de-
fenders of law and order than to the socialists. The
true state of the case is now generally known, and
adds bitterness to the minds of French and German
laborers. The continual circulation of the falsehood
that Louis Blanc had tried his ateliers sociaux and
they had failed, enabled Lassalle to begin an account
of them with the startling phrase: "Die Lüge ist
eine europäische Macht"-"Lying is one of the
great powers of Europe."+
Louis Blanc's power was of short duration. Al-
though he sacrified his popularity with the laborers in
his endeavors to maintain peace and order, he was ac-
cused of participation in their rising of May 15, and
* Vide "Lorenz von Stein,” iii. S. 292.
†There was once some doubt about the case, but the publication
of official documents and later testimony has settled the question
conclusively, vide article on Louis Blanc in "Nouvelle Biographie
Générale, vol. vi.; Roscher's "Political Economy," sec. 81, note 6;
E. Thomas, "Histoire des Ateliers Nationaux ;" Louis Blanc, "His-
torical Revelations," and "La Révolution de 1848,” vol. i. ch. xi.
8
114
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
fled to Belgium, thence to England, where he lived
until the overthrow of Napoleon III., in 1870. Louis
Blanc was, on the whole, well received in England, and
maintained himself by literary work of various kinds.
He wrote an account of the Revolution of 1848, which
was published in two volumes, in 1870, in Paris. He
was the English correspondent for the great French
newspaper Le Temps. His letters, interesting and valu-
able essays on life in England, were published in four
volumes in 1866 and 1867, in Paris, and in an English
translation in London in the same years.
*
The 8th of September, 1870, witnessed his return to
France, where he labored for the Government of the
National Defence. He was elected to the National
Assembly, February 8, 1871, and took his place on the
extreme Left. During the rising of the Commune of
Paris he again lost popularity with laborers of revo-
lutionary sympathies, by opposing the insurrection and
taking the part of the Government of Versailles. The
law of March 14, 1872, directed against the Inter-
national Workingmen's Association, even found in
him a supporter, although its severity is certainly ex-
treme. It was under this law that Prince Krapotkine
was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
After his return to Paris Louis Blanc published a
work on questions of the time, entitled "Questions
d'Aujourd'hui et de Demain." He continued to ad-
vocate quietly his doctrines in behalf of oppressed
* "Lettres sur l'Angleterre" (Paris, 1866-67); "Letters on Eng-
land," translated from the French by James Hutton and revised by
the author (London, 1866, 2 vols.). "Letters on England," second
series, translated by James Hutton and L. J. Trotter (London, 1867,
2 vols. in one).
† Paris, 1873.
LOUIS BLANC.
115
humanity, and had so gained in public estimation that
upon his death, on the 6th of December, 1882, in Can-
nes, France, the Chamber of Deputies voted him the
honor of a state funeral.*
Louis Blanc's is a character which it is difficult to
resist loving, so frank, generous, simple, and whole-
souled was he. If he erred, it was largely because he
attributed to others that warmth and devotion for
common interests which he experienced, and that high
point of honor which guided him. His tender solici-
tude and affection for his wife was beautiful, while
his love for his brother Charles, the writer on art, has
been celebrated far and wide. It is even said that
his diminutive size was due to his sacrifices in behalf
of the younger brother, to whom he gave the largest
share of the lunch which they carried to school. A
sympathetic chord seemed to connect them, for when
Charles was ill in the summer of 1882, Louis, to whom
the news had not been communicated, said to his
friends, "Charles is ill: he is in danger." So it proved,
for Charles soon died. The affliction was a heavy blow
to the surviving brother, and probably hastened his
own death, which happened only a few months later.
"Charles Blanc was a kind of complement to Louis.
The delicacy of his (Charles's) intellectual nature was
a source of ever-new delight to the politician and
man of the people, whose heart throbbed for all the
woes and wants of humanity, and whose life was de-
voted to action rather than to the contemplation of
art."† This intimate affection had been noticed long
before, and Alexander Dumas had them in mind when
*The vote was 380 to 85.
† Edward King in Evening Post, Dec. 28, 1882.
116
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
he wrote his "Les Frères Corses " "The Corsican
Brothers."
Louis's purity of character and his honesty of purpose
were remarked by every acquaintance. Mr. Smalley*
applies to him what Emerson said of Charles Sumner:
“He was the whitest soul I ever knew:” and con-
tinues : "If ever a man lived free from stain, it was
he who has just died. All his life long the fierce
light of passionate political and still more passionate
social controversies beat upon him. He made in-
numerable enemies; he was the object of innumer-
able calumnies. Not one of his enemies hated the
man, not one of the calumnies touched his private
worth." Karl Blind, his friend, thus describes his
personal appearance: "A very small, but elegantly
formed man; of almost Napoleonic features, as may
be common to many Corsicans; entirely beardless,
which was rare in the revolutionary days. The glance
of his dark, prominent eyes, brilliant, almost spark-
ling; his thick, dark-brown hair, long and straight;
the color of his countenance rather dark. Notwith-
standing his short figure-for he was not taller than
Thiers-an impressive appearance."†
J
An examination of Louis Blanc's social philosophy
is best begun by asking the question: what is in his
opinion the aim of life? The answer to it is the
starting-point from which all his arguments proceed.
Louis Blanc finds the purpose of human existence to be
happiness and development. Any acceptable, any toler-
able organization of society must make both possible
for every single human being. While development.
* In the letter in the New York Tribune already referred to.
+ Die Gegenwart, 6. Januar, 1883.
LOUIS BLANC.
117
may come first, "it is repugnant to reason to admit
in the theory of progress that humanity ought for-
ever to be a victim of I do not know what strange and
terrible combat between the flesh and the spirit."*
But what does development imply? It signifies that
every one should enjoy precisely those means which
are required for his largest mental, moral, and physi-
cal growth; or, to express it in a word, for the perfec-
tion of his personality. These requirements are for
each individual his needs. The next question we have
to ask is this: Does our present society guarantee to
every member of it his needs? If it does not, it must
be condemned. Obviously it does not. It is a war
of all against all, a bellum omnium contra omnes.
is a society whose fundamental principle is competi-
tion, and competition means universal warfare. Every
man's hand is against his brother. Individualism
It
reigns, the principle of which is that, "taking man
outside of society, it renders him the sole and exclu-
sive judge of that which surrounds him, gives him an
exalted sentiment of his rights without indicating to
him his duties, abandons him to his own powers, and
proclaims laissez-faire as the only rule of govern-
ment." The result of this is want and misery, ren-
dering the fulfilment of his destiny impossible to man.
This must be corrected by a new organization of
labor, which, abandoning individualism, private prop-
erty, and private competition, the fundamentals of ex-
isting society, shall adopt fraternity as its controlling
principle. Fraternity means that we are all com-
mon members (membres solidaires) of one great family;
66
* ( Organisation du Travail," 9th ed. p. 9.
+ Quoted from Louis Blanc, by H. Baudrillart in his "Publicistes
Modernes" (Paris, 1863), p. 308.
118
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
that society, the work of man, ought to be organized
on the model of the human body, the work of God;
and found the power of governing upon persuasion,
upon the voluntary consent of the hearts of the gov-
erned."*
Let it not be objected that our aim, the abolition
of misery, is materialistic. "The most exalted spirit-
ualism reposes on the suppression of misery. Who
does not know it? Misery restrains the intelligence
of man in darkness, in confining education within
shameful limits. Misery counsels always the sacrifice.
of personal dignity and almost always demands it.
Misery places him whose character is independent in
a position of dependence, so as to conceal a new tor-
ment in a virtue and to change into gall what there
is of nobility in his blood. If misery creates long-
suffering, it engenders also crime. . . . It makes slaves;
it makes the greater part of thieves, assassins and
prostitutes." The work before us is then eminently
moral. It is the work which God would have us do.
In Louis Blanc's own words: "In demanding that
the right to live should be regulated, should be guar-
anteed, one does much more than demand that mill-
ions of unhappy beings should be rescued from the
oppression of force or of chance; one embraces, in its
highest generalization and in its most profound sig-
nification, the cause of humanity; one greets the
Creator in his labor. Whenever the certainty of be-
ing able to live by one's labor does not result from
the essence of social institutions, iniquity reigns." The
first step then is the contrivance of means which shall
* Quoted in Baudrillart, ibid. Cf. "Droit au Travail," pp. 9, 10.
"Organisation du Travail," p. 4. Cf. "Histoire de la Révolution
de 1848," pp. 265, 266.
LOUIS BLANC.
119
guarantee to every one the certainty of finding work
i. e., the droit au travail. This must be accomplished
by the erection on the part of the state of social work-
shops, ateliers sociaux, "destined to replace gradually
and without shocks individual ateliers."* Violence
of every kind is deprecated as injurious, as produc-
tive of ruin. The poor cannot now combine and
produce for themselves without the intervention of
capitalists, because they lack the instruments of labor.
It is the function of the state to furnish these and
thus become the banker of the poor. It must found
the ateliers sociaux, pass laws for their government,
watch over the administration of these laws as of
other laws, and do this for the profit of all. For the
first year only the state regulates the "hierarchy of
functions," that is to say, assigns to each one his place
in accordance with his ability, his faculties. After
the expiration of the first year the laborers will soon
become acquainted with each other, and will then elect
their own chiefs.§ This all requires funds. Whence
are they to come? The state is to grant its credit in
aid of the ateliers, and for this credit no interest is to
be charged; it is to be gratuitous. The state will re-
pay the loans by general taxation and by the revenues
derived from the management of railways, which must
become public property, and from other public under-
takings, as mines, insurances, and banking. ||
The absorption of private industry will be gradual.
The public ateliers will all be united from the start
* " Organisation du Travail,” p. 13.
† "Droit au Travail" (Paris, 1849), pp. 65–67; “Organisation du
Travail," pp. 18, 19.
+ Ibid. pp. 13, 14, 17, 18, 199.
§ Ibid. p. 71.
|| Article 3 on p. 120 of “Organisation du Travail."
120
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
into a grand federation, and will form a mutual insur-
ance company, so that the losses of one may be made
good by the profits of others. One part of all profits
will be set aside for this purpose.* Capitalists will at
once be invited to join these associations, and will be
paid interest on whatever capital they put into the
ateliers, besides receiving their wages like other labor-
ers. While no one is to be forced by law to join the so-
cial workshops, the competition of the ateliers sociaux,
working without the payment of interest and with all
the advantages of a vast combination, will before long
become so severe that all private employers will be
glad to fall in line to save themselves from ruin.
Then the socialistic state will have been formed. It
is for the interest of the rich as well as the poor.
They will then enjoy safety, tranquillity and the sat-
isfaction of observing universal happiness, whereas
they are now harassed by all sorts of dangers and
anxieties, born of individualism and private competi-
tion.f
We have finally to inquire what is the principle in
accordance with which functions (positions, offices)
and remuneration are distributed among the workers
in the ateliers sociaux? What is the ideal of social
justice?
First, as to the social hierarchy, or social rank.
Faculties, powers, abilities, are of almost infinite va-
riety in man. They are, however, all talents meant to
be used for others. Have I great strength? In giv-
ing it to me God measured thereby my obligations
to society. The same holds regarding mental acumen,
profundity of thought, poetic imagination, a fine voice,
*"Organisation du Travail," pp. 72, 114, 120. † Loc. cit. pp. 18, 19.
LOUIS BLANC.
121
etc.
We must then be so placed that we can use to
the full our capacities. These are the measure of our
rank in the ordering of society. "Man has received
of nature certain faculties—faculties of loving, of
knowing, of acting. But these have by no means been
given him in order that he should exercise them soli-
tarily; they are but the supreme indication of that
which each one owes to the society of which he is a
member; and this indication each one bears written
in his organization in letters of fire. If you are twice
as strong as your neighbor it is a proof that nature
has destined you to bear a double burden.* If your
intelligence is superior, it is a sign that your mission
is to scatter about you more light. Weakness is a
creditor of strength; ignorance of learning. The
more a man cân (peut), the more he ought (doit); and
this is the meaning of those beautiful words of the
gospel: Whosoever will be chief among you, let him
be your servant.' Whence the axiom, From every one
according to his faculties; that is one's DUTY."+
6
But this is only one half of the formula of ideal
justice. It shows what each is to give. What is
each to receive? We saw that the Saint-Simonians
constructed their social hierarchy in accordance with
capacity. They added, however, that reward must
be proportioned to works. "To each one according
to his capacity, to each capacity according to its
works." But is that a high moral standard? Ought
we to complete our formula in that way? Is it not
selfish and hard? Would it not condemn the weak
and feeble to extinction? Has not God, in our wants,
* "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the
weak."-Rom. xv. 1.
+ "Histoire de la Révolution de 1848," vol. i. pp. 147, 148.
122
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
our needs, given us a different indication? So thought
Louis Blanc. Not equality, but needs, are to deter-
mine the distribution of products. Each one must
have whatever he truly needs, in so far and in propor-
tion as the means of society will admit it.
"All men
are not equal in physical force, in intelligence; all
have not the same tastes, the same inclinations, the
same aptitudes, any more than they have the same
visage or the same figure; but it is just, it is in the
general interest, it is in conformity with the principle
of solidarity, established in accordance with the laws.
of nature, that each one should be placed in a condi-
tion to derive the greatest possible advantage from
his faculties in so far as this can be done with due re-
gard to others, and to satisfy as completely as possible,
without injuring others, the needs which nature has
given him. Thus there is no health and vigor in the
human body unless each member receives that which
is able to preserve it from pain and to enable it to ac-
complish properly its peculiar function. Equality,
then, is only proportionality, and it exists in a true
manner only when each one in accordance with the
law written in some shape in his organization by God
himself, PRODUCES ACCORDING TO HIS FACULTIES AND
""* Here we
CONSUMES ACCORDING TO HIS WANTS.
have the formula of perfect justice complete.
We see, then, that Louis Blanc was not an égalitaire.
He opposed equality as unnatural and unjust.† He
was, however, unwilling to adopt works as a basis
of inequality. It would, nevertheless, amount in the
end to pretty much the same, although the animating
* ( 'Organisation du Travail," p. 72.
+ Cf. loc. cit. pp. 72, 73, 77, 187, 188, 195, 196, 207, 208, et passim.
LOUIS BLANC.
123
spirit might be different. Who would occupy the su-
perior positions in Louis Blanc's ideal state? Natu-
rally the ablest, the largest natures. But those are
precisely the ones whose needs are greatest. The
true wants of the ignorant day laborer are simple and
easily satisfied. Books tire him, grand music wearies
him, while he turns away uninterested from the great-
est painting of an old master. How different are the
wants of a sensitive, refined nature like Louis Blanc
himself; how much larger, how much more expensive
to gratify! It is, indeed, pleasant to think of society
as one vast Christian family, in which each would
gladly contribute to the common good in proportion
to his faculties, and in which all would cheerfully ac-
cord to every member whatever he truly needed for
his most perfect development. But does the attempt
to bring about such a state of society take men as
they are or presuppose them as they ought to be? It
is truly a glorious ideal! but will it ever become a
reality this side of the golden gates of Paradise?
124
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
CHAPTER VII.
PROUDHON.
THE principle of authority occupied a prominent
place in the socialistic schemes of Saint-Simon and
Louis Blanc. The former planned a religious society
in which the priests should exercise undisputed sway
over the production and distribution of goods, assign-
ing to each member of the society his proper rank
and rewarding him in proportion to his services. The
latter expressly demanded a strong government, in
order that it might be able to transform the economic
life of the people by the erection of social workshops,
although a large amount of local self-government was
in the end to be allowed to each group of workers.
Fourier did not explicitly reject the principle of au-
thority, but contrived a system in which it should be
easy and natural to rule and to be ruled, in so far as
any ruling was necessary. There existed in his mind
still a large and compact social organization. He
made war, not on authority in itself, but upon all re-
straint placed on the desires and passions of man.
He
thought a natural combination of these rendered com-
pulsion unnecessary. There was thus room left for
another advance in the development of French social-
ism. A problem which had not as yet been attempted,
was to unite absolute and unqualified individualism
with perfect justice in the production of goods, and
PROUDHON.
125
in their distribution. Does not this imply a contra-
diction? Can there be such a thing as individualistic
socialism? or socialistic individualism? Can collec-
tivism and anarchy obtain in the same group of peo-
ple?
Do they not mutually exclude each other?
What matter! The task must be tried; and a man
appeared on the scene who delighted in contradictions,
and thought that truth sprang out of their union.
This man was Proudhon.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was born July 15, 1809,
in Besançon, of humble parents. His father was a
cooper, while his mother was a bright and vigorous
country girl. He was of the people, the masses, and he
spoke of it freely as an advantage. Proudhon pro-
fessed that he always remained one of them and thus
knew their life. It was early necessary that he should
assist in his support, and this he did by agricultural
labor, in particular by guarding the cows as they
pastured on the mountains of the Jura. Later he be-
came a waiter in a restaurant. Time was, however,
found for the school and the college, where he distin-
guished himself for unusual talents and carried off a
large number of prizes and honors. The public li-
brary furnished him with reading-matter, so that he
read a large number of books before he was fourteen.
He used to call for as many as six books at a time. At
the age of nineteen Proudhon was compelled to leave
the college in order to assist his father, whose business
had fallen into a sad condition. He learned the print-
er's trade and soon became a corrector in a publish-
ing house of some note, which became to him a school.
The house published a large number of theological
works, which he perused so carefully that it was after-
wards supposed that he had studied at a theological
-
C
126
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
seminary. He learned Hebrew when they published
a Bible with an interlinear translation. The result
was that he was able to contribute a number of theo-
logical articles to the "Encyclopédie Catholique.”
The Académie de Besançon having honors and prizes
to distribute, proposed every year a subject for an es-
say. In 1839 the subject was "The Utility of the
Celebration of Sunday." Proudhon competed for the
prize, but was not successful, although the book met
with some praise, and passed through two editions in
two years. He had, however, already been fortunate
enough to secure a pension of 1500 francs, which had
been founded to encourage literature and science, and
placed in charge of the Académie. Besides his work
demonstrating the utility of the observation of Sun-
day, Proudhon had written several essays of more or
less merit on comparative philology, and he was con-
sidered a very promising young man. But he was
thinking all this time of means to elevate the laboring.
classes. When he solicited the votes of the Académie
for the pension, he told them plainly that it was his
intention to direct his studies towards the means of
ameliorating the physical, moral, and intellectual con-
dition of the most numerous and the poorest class.
In a letter to Paul Ackermann, a distinguished man
of letters, with whom he had formed a connection, he
wrote as follows, concerning the congratulations he
had received on being awarded the pension: "I have
received the congratulations of more than two hun-
dred people. Why do you think that people felicitate
me? Because it is almost certain that I shall attain
honors equal to those which the Jouffroys, the Pouil-
lets have obtained, and perhaps, I am told, even greater
honors. No one has come to me and said: 'Proudhon,
PROUDHON.
127
you ought before everything else to devote yourself
to the cause of the poor, to the enfranchisement of
the little ones, to the instruction of the people. You
will perhaps be an abomination to the rich and power-
ful; pursue your way as a reformer regardless of per-
secutions, of calumny, of sorrow, and of death itself.””*
About this time he founded a printing establish-
ment in his native city, which appears never to have
flourished greatly. He had already taken up the
study of political economy, in addition to theology
and philology, to both of which he hereafter devoted
comparatively little attention. One of his first in-
structors in his new study was the able economist,
Pellegrino Rossi. His economic studies bore fruit in
1840, in his work on property, "Qu'est-ce que la Pro-
priété ?”—“What is Property?" A startling an-
swer to the question is given - viz., “Property is
theft" and "Property-holders are thieves."
C
The work marks a new epoch in the history of so-
cialism, on several accounts. First, he attacks in it di-
rectly the chief support of individualism and the great-
est obstacle to the realization of communism—private
property. Others had proposed phalansteries, relig-
ious sects, and social workshops, all presupposing the
abolition of private property; but Proudhon was the
first to attempt to prove directly and scientifically
that private property per se was a monstrosity—was
robbery. Again, he set an example of harsh and rude
attacks on classes and institutions, which modern so-
cial democrats have not been slow to follow. He
* Quoted from Sainte-Beuve's "P.-J. Proudhon, Sa Vie et sa Corre-
spondance" (1872), by H. Baudrillart, in his article on Proudhon in
the Revue des deux Mondes, 1873.
† New edition (Paris, 1873, tome i.) of "Œuvres Complètes."
128
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
could easily have expressed the thought which he
wished to convey otherwise than by using the word
"theft," but he preferred the cruel, biting expression.
Likewise, in condemning the God of the theologians,
he cried out, "God is the evil !" (" Dieu c'est le mal!”)
Very likely he simply meant to condemn certain ideas
concerning God, but it was not at all necessary for
him to use an expression sure to give offence and pain
to many good people. In the same way he was not
content to call property-holders thieves. He says else-
where that the "proprietor is essentially a libidinous
animal, without virtue and without shame."
This reveals another side of Proudhon's character.
He felt for the poor, but he hated the rich as a class,
if not individually. He tells us himself that he first
experienced a feeling of shame on account of poverty,
but finding existence intolerable while tormented by
such a humiliating feeling, he succeeded in transform-
ing it into hate and anger. Afterwards his hatred
turned into contempt and he became calmer, though
it is probable that he always retained a certain bitter-
ness of feeling. He writes to the Académie de Be-
sançon "When I sought to become your pensioner, I
was full of hate for that which exists and of projects
of destruction. My hatred of privilege and of the au-
thority of man was without measure. Perhaps I was
sometimes wrong in confounding in my indignation
persons and things; at present I only know how to
despise and complain. In order to cease to hate, it
was only necessary for me to understand."*
:
In the third place, this book is remarkable, because
so many modern socialistic schools can be traced back
* Preface to “Qu'est-ce que la Propriété ?" p. 5.
PROUDHON.
129
to it. The ideas of the anarchists of France at the
present time are well presented in it. We also find
in it a good presentation of that part of Marx's doc-
trine of value which treats of labor-time as the meas-
ure of value, and the portion of the products which
the capitalist takes under the name of profits as rob-
bery. Marx developed it, and doubtless understood
its import better than Proudhon, but nevertheless the
germs of his most important theory are very plainly
contained in this work on Property.*
Finally, the essay on Property is important be-
cause it led socialists and even political economists
to a revision of their theories and a more careful ob-
servation of facts. Louis Blanc discouraged fantasti-
cal and supernatural schemes of reform; but the sharp,
cutting criticism of Proudhon, directed now against
the communists, now against the Saint-Simonians and
Fourierists, now against the political economists, ren-
dered them impossible. High-priests and revealers of
visions could henceforth count on no favor on the part
of the laborers.
Proudhon disposed of his printing establishment in
1843, but at such a loss as to leave him in debt to the
amount of 7000 francs, which, however, he was finally
able to pay. His next business enterprise was the for-
mation of a connection with a company which was en-
gaged in transportation on the Saone and the Rhone.
This occupation lasted five years, but he did not, in
*Chap. iv. 2d Proposition. I do not mean to assert positively that
Marx borrowed his ideas from Proudhon. He was more indebted to
Rodbertus, who, contemporaneously with Proudhon, but probably in-
dependently of him, was carrying on similar investigation and arriv-
ing at similar results. It is, however, true that Proudhon was the
irst of the three to publish an extensive presentation of his ideas.
9
130
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
the meantime, cease his literary labors. In 1846 he
published his "Système des Contradictions Éco-
nomiques ou Philosophie de la Misère."* If the
work, "Qu'est-ce que la Propriété ?" ranks first in im-
portance of all his works, this certainly occupies the
second place. It contains a sharp criticism of social-
istic and economic theories, which he opposes to one
another, and shows that they are mutually destruc-
tive. Here, as elsewhere, no one has doubted the
merit of his criticism. He adopted as the motto of
the book "Destruam et ædificabo”—“I will destroy
and I will build up again." He was powerful as a de-
stroyer, but weak as a constructor. He could not keep
the second part of his promise. He had become im-
perfectly acquainted with the Hegelian logic at sec-
ond-hand through Carl Grün, who became his transla-
tor, and he sought to unite contradictories, "thesis
and "antithesis," into a "synthesis." But Hegel is
not an author whom a Frenchman is likely to under-
stand, and Proudhon did not succeed well in the use
of his logical method.
""
Proudhon took no part in the Revolution of Febru-
ary, as he was not a politician, holding that all forms.
of government were equally vicious, and it was of
little importance whether this or that party triumphed.
He held himself aloof from any participation in the
events which were transpiring until the political rev-
olution was past, in order then to make his power
more effectually felt in the settlement of social ques-
tions. In April he became editor of the Représentant
du Peuple, and in June he was elected, by a large ma-
jority, to the Constituent Assembly as one of the repre-
* Vols. iv. and v. of "Œuvres Complètes."
PROUDHON.
131
sentatives of the Departement de la Seine. After he
had seen the various social parties retire, defeated,
from the scene, one after another, it became his turn
to present positive measures of social reform. He had
combated all socialistic sects, while maintaining per-
sistently his position as a friend of the poor. What
had he to offer, now that he had assisted to overthrow
every plan of improvement which had been proposed?
On the 31st of July he brought forward his scheme of
organization of credit, which would guarantee labor
to all in the only effectual way, as it would furnish
every one with the instruments of labor. What this
was we will consider presently. It is only necessary
to state that it was rejected by the overwhelming ma-
jority of 691 to 2.* He attempted the execution of
his plan without the aid of the state, by the erection
of a bank, which failed about April 1, 1849, after an
existence of a few weeks. Thus ended the attempt of
the last great French socialist to carry out a scheme
of social and economic regeneration. Proudhon's pa-
per was suppressed, but it reappeared twice under
different names, before the arrest and sentence of its
editor to three years' imprisonment for breaking the
press-laws terminated its existence. During his im-
prisonment he wrote his "La Révolution Sociale
Démontrée par le Coup d'État du 2 Décembre"
"The Social Revolution Demonstrated by the Coup
d'État of 2d December" (1851). This created a sen-
sation, and six editions were sold in less than six
months. His imprisonment terminated on the 4th
ɔf June, 1852, and he retired to private life. He had
* Details given in "Œuvres Complètes," vol. vii. pp. 263–313.
+ New edition (Paris, 1864) of " Œuvres Complètes,” tome vii.
132
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
been married in 1850 to the daughter of a merchant,
and it is said that his conduct as a husband and a
father was exemplary. It is necessary to mention
only one other work which he wrote-viz., "De la
Justice dans la Révolution et dans l'Église "—which
appeared in 1858.* He shows in this book that out-
side of the Catholic Church and Christianity there is
no God, no theology, no religion, and no faith. Has
Proudhon become a Catholic and a conservative? By
He immediately proceeds to demonstrate
that the Church is ever in conflict with justice. The
book was seized eight days after its appearance, its
author tried, and sentenced to a fine of 4000 francs
and to three years' imprisonment, which he escaped
by flight to Belgium, where he remained until an am-
nesty in 1860 allowed him to return to France.
died in Passy in 1865.
no means.
He
It is necessary to dwell more at length on three
points in Proudhon's teachings-viz., his ideas con-
cerning property, government, and positive reform.
"Property is theft," says Proudhon. Every ar
gument brought forward to sustain it destroys the
institution. Some seek to justify it by the theory
of occupation, in accordance with which theory that
which belongs to no one becomes the property
of him who takes possession of it. But if this be
admitted, then property depends upon the accidents
of number of population and extent of territory
Those who are born too late will be property-less
However, if the soil originally belonged to no private
* "Euvres Complètes," vols. xxi.-xxvi.
†The formula of Roman law is "Res nullius cedit primo occu
panti."
PROUDHON.
133
individual it must have belonged to all collectively,
and all will not and cannot renounce their right to
this common possession. If I fashion a plough it is
mine, because I made it. Who made the earth? God.
Well, let him then demand a rent for it-let him take
his own.
But this he will not do. His gifts are free.
We see that the theory of occupation presupposes
common property, and that cannot be surrendered
any more than life or liberty.
The second theory of property is the labor theory.
But this theory likewise destroys property. That
only is mine which I produce. The earth is mine only
so long as I cultivate it. The moment another labors
on my farm it becomes his property. Again, labor
presupposes the instruments of labor, and where is
one to obtain these in a system of private, personal
property, provided one does not already possess them?
The theory of labor demands the abolition of proper-
ty, in order that every one may have free access to
the soil and to the other instruments of labor.
Property is robbery because it enables him who has
not produced to consume the fruits of other people's
toil. What I produce is worth what it costs—¿. e.,
the time and economic goods which enter into it. If
a capitalist or landlord takes away ten per cent., then
the product costs me more than it is worth. I am
robbed of this ten per cent. The proprietor is a thief.*
Shall we, then, return to the original state of socie-
ty, to communism? By no means. Private property
is unjust. It is robbery of the weak by the strong.
Communism is the reverse injustice. It is robbery of
the strong by the weak. "Community is inequality,
*“Qu'est-ce que la Propriété ?" pp. 133-137.
134
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
but in an inverse sense from property. Property is
exploitation of the weak by the strong. Community
is an exploitation of the strong by the weak. In the
system of property inequality of conditions results
from force, under whatever name it may disguise it-
self-force, physical and intellectual; force of circum-
stances, hazard, fortune; force of acquired property,
etc. In community inequality springs from mediocri-
ty of talent and of labor, elevated to an equality with
force; and this injurious equation is revolting to con-
science and causes merit to murmur. "'*
We have now our thesis and our antithesis. The
synthesis is found in POSSESSION. I may possess the
instruments of labor of every kind in order to enable
me to labor. It is labor which renders them mine-
my own individual labor. So long as I cultivate my-
´self a piece of land, it is mine and the product is mine.
I
may not rob another by charging for the use of the
instruments of labor. It will be seen thus that what
Proudhon really is fighting against is rent † and profits
of capital. He allows inheritance—everything except
individual ownership. Of course, when this is ana-
lyzed, it becomes apparent that inheritance can amount
to very little.
What is the ideal of government? ANARCHY. We
desire absolute liberty. Any control of man by man
is oppression. "What form of government shall we
prefer? Ah, how can you ask? replies one of my
youngest readers.-You are a republican? Republi-
can, yes; but this word defines nothing. Res publica
—that is, the public thing; now, whoever wishes the
* "Qu'est-ce que la Propriété ?” p. 204; cf. pp. 205, 206.
† Henry George and others might get some useful hints from him.
PROUDHON.
135
public thing, under any form of government, can call
himself a republican. The kings also are republicans.
—Ah, well, you are a democrat? No.-What! are
you a monarchist? No.-A constitutionalist? God
forbid.-You are, then, an aristocrat? Not at all.—
Do you wish a mixed government? Still less.—What
are you, then? I am an anarchist. . . . Anarchy-
the absence of master, of sovereign-such is the
form of government which we approach every day,
and our inveterate habit of taking man for a guide and
his will for law makes us regard it as a heap of dis-
order and an expression of chaos. . . . No one is king.
... Every question of internal politics ought to be
solved according to the data of the Department of
Statistics; every question of international politics is a
question of international statistics. The science of
government belongs of right to one of the sections of
the Academy of Sciences, of which the perpetual sec-
retary necessarily becomes the first minister; and
since every citizen may address a mémoire to the
Academy, every citizen is a legislator; but as the
opinion of no one counts except in so far as it is de-
monstrated to be true, no one can substitute his will for
reason—no one is king. . . . Justice and legality are
two things as independent of our consent as mathe-
matical truth. . . . In order that truth should become
law, it must be recognized. Now, what is it to recog-
nize a law? It is to verify a mathematical or meta-
physical operation. It is to repeat an experience, to
observe a phenomenon, to prove a fact.”*
What positive measures of reform are proposed to
bring about equality associated with anarchy? One
* "Euvres Complètes," tome i. pp. 214, 216, 217.
136
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
is a great national bank, in which product shall be ex-
changed against product without any intermediaries,
so that money-mongers shall not be able to stop the
circulation and thereby the production of goods. Pa-
per money is to be given in exchange for whatever
is brought to this place of deposit. This paper is a
check, which indicates labor - time. It may be ex-
changed for anything else of the same value, which
has cost the same labor. Products are exchanged for
products, and what is received has the same value as
what is given. Property must be abolished, and no
landlord or capitalist may intervene and, by exacting
toll, make what I receive cost me more than it is worth.
What Proudhon proposed in the National Assembly
was a bank which should effect exchanges of this sort.
It was to be established by funds derived from a part
of the proceeds of a tax of one third, or thirty-three
and a third per cent. on revenues derived from prop-
erty, and from a progressive tax on salaries of govern-
ment officers. Branches were to be established in every
part of France, and all were to be furnished with gra-
tuitous credit. Interest has shown a tendency to de-
crease, which may be traced back for centuries.* Its
normal rate is zero, and the national bank is to assist
in bringing it down to this point. Everybody wants
credit and everybody will be benefited by the meas-
ure.† All the world will give and receive credit.
Rights and duties, privileges and obligations, are mut-
ual. We may call this scheme MUTUALISM. I
But when interest becomes zero, it follows natu-
* "Euvres Complètes," tome vii. p. 271.
+ Ibid. p. 290.
This name is frequently given to Proudhon's plans by the social-
ists.
PROUDHON.
137
use.
rally and inevitably that rents and profits become nil.
Credit enabling every one to obtain the instruments
of labor without price, it is self-evident that no one
will pay anything to landlord or capitalist for their
The problem of abolishing the class of idlers is
therefore solved. Henceforward property does not
exist. The laborer receives all, and products cost no
more than they are worth. This is the highest and
the only true form of SOCIABILITÉ. All men are asso-
ciated on terms of equality; no one is subject to an-
other.
Proudhon rejected communism. His ground of op-
position was of a twofold nature. First, communism is
based on property-not the property of an individual,
but of the community. We have in it, consequently,
the same kind of slavery as in our present society, save
that we have many masters instead of one.
"The
members of a community, it is true, have nothing
which is individual; but the community is proprietor,
and proprietor not only of goods, but of persons and
of wills. It is according to this principle of sovereign
property that in every community labor, which ought
to be for man only a condition imposed by nature, be-
came a human command, and thereby odious."* Sec-
ond, communism is unjust, because it is unequal. It
is the robbery of the strong by the weak.
We have to ask, then, what is the equality which
Proudhon desired? If he did not wish to place all
on the same level as regards recompense, what did
he wish? He tells us that "equality consists in the
equality of conditions—that is, of means—not in the
equality of well-being, which with equal means ought
* "Qu'est-ce que la Propriété ?" chap. v. 2e partie, sec. 2.
138
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
to be the work of the laborer."* Was he not, then,
a Saint-Simonian? did he not wish to proportion re-
ward to services? He tells us distinctly, No.† He
combats Saint-Simonism as unjust and impracticable.
He also speaks of equality as the corner-stone of his
system. The highest stage of society towards which
we are moving he calls LIBERTY—that is, the synthesis
of the thesis, community, and the antithesis, property
--but "liberty is equality, because liberty exists only
in the social state, and outside of equality there is no
society." And he again and again condemns inequal-
ity of wages and recompense in his new society.
Some writers, dwelling merely upon his condemna-
tion of community, have said that he was not in favor
of equality. This is a mistake. But how are we to
reconcile his statements? They are contradictories.
Where is the synthesis? It is found in the fact that
all will hereafter produce alike. When possession
takes the place of property, each one will labor equal-
ly, and the products, being measured by labor-time,
will be equal in value. Equality of conditions be-
comes absolute equality. "On the one hand, the task
of each laborer being easy and short, and the means
of performing it successfully being equal, how could
there, then, be great and small producers? On the
other hand, the functions all being equal, either by
the real equivalence of talents and capacities or by
social co-operation, how can a functionary, arguing
from the excellence of his work, demand a propor-
tional salary?" (i. e., a remuneration larger than the
* "Qu'est-ce que la Propriété ?" chap. v. 2e partie, sec. 3. Cf. also
his speech in the National Assembly on 31st of July, 1848, in
"Euvres," vol. vii. pp. 268, 269.
† Ibid. chap. iv. 5° "Prop. et Appendice."
PROUDHON.
139
remuneration of others, in proportion to the superiori-
ty of his work).
"But what do I say? In equality the salaries are
always proportional to faculties. But what is the sal-
ary or remuneration received? It is that which com-
poses the reproductive consumption of the laborer.
The act itself by which the laborer produces is then
this consumption, equal to his production. When the
astronomer produces observations, the poet verses,
the savant experiences, they consume instruments,
books, travels, etc.; now, if society provides for this
consumption, what other proportionality of honors
can the astronomer, the savant, and the poet demand?
Let us conclude, then, that in equality, and in equality
alone, the adage of Saint-Simon, 'To each one accord-
ing to his capacity, to each capacity according to its
works,' finds its full and complete application.”*
In intention, then, Proudhon was a communist in
the sense of the definition given in this work. No
man ever preached more plainly and unreservedly ab-
solute equality as an ideal. He was not a communist
in the sense of favoring communities such as we see
in a few places at present, because they involve con-
trol and authority. He was, on the contrary, in favor
of anarchic equality. The distinction might be made
by saying that he was a communist, but not a com-
munitarian.
I have, nevertheless, spoken of him several times as
a socialist, because the entire tendency of every posi-
tive proposal which he made was socialistic, and not
communistic. Equality has no logical connection with
his projects. He proposed to transform property into
*"Qu'est-ce que la Propriété ?" p. 157.
140
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
possession, which means simply limiting very material-
ly the rights of property. Now, how could this change
be so restricted without allowing inequalities to arise?
Each one cultivates his land as he pleases and works
as he will, all authority being banished from the face
of the earth. Can any one, without resorting to some
supernatural and unwarranted theory, suppose that all
would derive the same products from the same instru-
ments? Then let us take up the case of gratuitous
credit. Will all avail themselves of it with equal
profit in anarchy? What is to prevent my accumu-
lating labor receipts if my production exceeds con-
sumption? Or shall the state or some outside body
prevent my taking more than I consume from the
magazines or banks, whatever they are called? If so,
do we not have all the interference and control of the
hated community? It is thus seen that Proudhon is
inconsistent as well as paradoxical, and is unable to
effect his synthesis.
Jo
The following ten statements contain, in Proudhon's
own words, a résumé of the system which we have
just examined:
"I. Individual possession is the condition of social life; ... Prop-
erty is the suicide of society. . .
"II. The right of occupation being equal for all, possession varies
according to the number of possessors.
“III. The effect of labor being the same for all, property is lost
by its use on the part of others and by rent.
“IV. All human labor proceeding necessarily from a collective
force, all property becomes, for the same reason, collective and indi-
visible; in terms more precise, labor destroys property.
"V. Every capacity for labor being, the same as every instrument
of labor, an accumulated capital or collective property, inequality of
remuneration and of fortune, under pretext of inequality of capacity,
is injustice and theft.
"VI. Commerce has for its necessary conditions the liberty of con-
•
PROUDHON.
141
tractors and the equivalence of products exchanged; now, value hav-
ing for its expression the sum of the time and of the expense which
each product costs, and liberty being inviolable, the laborers neces-
sarily remain equal in wages, as they are in duties and in rights.
"VII. Products are purchased only by products; now, the condi-
tion of every exchange being the equivalence of products, profits
from exchange are impossible and unjust. Observe this principle of
the most elementary economy, and pauperism, luxury, oppression,
vice, crime, and hunger will disappear from among us.
"VIII. Men are associated by the physical and mathematical law
of production;.
"IX. Free association, liberty, which confines itself to the mainte-
nance of equality in the means of production and equivalence in ex-
changes, is the only form of society possible, just, and true.
"X. Politics is the science of liberty; the government of man
by man, under whatever name it may disguise itself, is oppression.
The highest form of society is found in the union of order and
anarchy."
"'*
Proudhon's earnestness and sincerity can scarcely be
doubted. We must give him credit for honesty, how-
ever strong our conviction that his schemes are utter-
ly impracticable, and however severely we condemn
the bitterness and injustice with which his views are
presented. He closes his first mémoire on property
with the following appeal to the Deity to hasten the
coming emancipation and to witness his unselfish de-
votion: "O God of liberty! God of equality! Thou
God, who hast placed in my heart the sentiment of
justice before my reason comprehended it, hear my
ardent prayer.
Thou hast dictated that which I have
written. Thou hast formed my thought, thou hast
directed my studies, thou hast separated my spirit
from curiosity and my heart from attachment, in or-
der that I should publish the truth before the master
* "Qu'est-ce que la Propriété ?” pp. 222–224.
?"
142
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
and the slave. I have spoken as thou hast given me
power and talent; it remains for thee to complete
thy work. Thou knowest whether I have sought my
interest or thy glory. O God of liberty! May my
memory perish, if humanity may but be free; if I may
but see in my obscurity the people finally instructed,
if noble instructors but enlighten it, if disinterested
hearts but guide it. Shorten, if it may be, our time
of trial; smother inequality, pride, and avarice; con-
found this idolatry of glory which retains us in ab-
jection; teach thy poor children that in the haven of
liberty there are no more heroes nor grand men. In-
spire the strong one, the wealthy one, whose name my
lips shall never pronounce before thee, with horror on
account of his robberies. . . . Then the great and the
small, the rich and the poor, will unite in one inef-
fable fraternity; and all together, chanting a new
hymn, will re-erect thy altar, O God of liberty and of
equality !"*
* "Euvres Complètes," tome i. pp. 224, 225.
SOCIALISM IN FRANCE SINCE PROUDHON. 143
CHAPTER VIII.
SOCIALISM IN FRANCE SINCE PROUDHON.
THE last thirty years of the history of France con-
stitute an unfruitful period in the development of so-
cialism. They have been years of dearth, following
in the wake of an equal number of plenteous years.
There has arisen during all this time no developed
communistic or socialistic system in France. The
French socialism of to-day may be traced to three
sources―viz., pure dissatisfaction with existing eco-
nomic life, previous French speculations, like those of
Proudhon and Fourier, and present German theories.
A diligent search continued for some time convinced
me several years ago that there was little new or orig-
inal in the ideas of the living leaders of socialistic
movements in France. Since then I have come across
three confirmations of this view in as many writers.
Rudolf Meyer, a German, in his "Emancipations-
Kampf des Vierten Standes," says: "Since Proudhon,
France has produced no socialists of importance."*
Frederic Harrison, an Englishman, in an article in the
Fortnightly Review on "The French Workmen's Con-
gress of 1878," uses these words to express his view
of existing French socialism: "The first impression
conveyed is this, that communism, or, indeed, any sys-
* Bd. i. S. 42.
144
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
tematic socialism, is entirely extinct in France."* A
French socialist writes rather regretfully, "The sec-
ond remark is that we, the young generation of social-
ists, have discovered little in the domain of theory.
We live almost exclusively upon the thoughts of our
predecessors."t
New life has, however, been manifested within the
last year or two among French socialists, and if they
are not discovering new theories, they are making
large use of the studies of others. There is also a
considerable class whose communism, or socialism,
whichever you call it, does not get beyond the purely
negative state of complaint. It is like a cry of dis-
tress, like "blind yearnings for light-like the voice
of one crying, 'Watchman, what of the night? Will
the night soon pass?" Those of this class condemn
our present society with unmeasured severity, but
they are unable to suggest plans for a better. They
are groping about blindly for a guide who shall lead
them in their endeavors to realize the ideal of the
French device, "liberty, equality, fraternity." If you
purchase at hap-hazard a French socialistic paper, you
will very likely find in it only murmurings, repinings,
and bitter accusations against existing institutions, rav-
ings and outcries as incoherent as Carlyle's collection
of exclamations which he calls the "History of the
French Revolution." Perhaps Louise Michel and
Felix Pyat ought to be classed among the adherents
of this group.
* Fortnightly Review, May, 1878.
"Exposé des Écoles Socialistes Françaises," par B. Malon (2d ed.
Paris, 1872). "Avant-Propos," p. iii.
Frederic Harrison, in article in Fortnightly Review, already re-
ferred to.
SOCIALISM IN FRANCE SINCE PROUDHON.
145
We may roughly divide the remaining communists
and socialists of France into three classes-viz., the
Blanquists, the Anarchists, and the Collectivists.
The Blanquists are followers of the late Auguste
Blanqui (1805-1881), brother of Adolfe Blanqui, the
political economist. Their principle of action is to
join hands under the leadership of some man, for the
negative work of pulling down existing economic in-
stitutions. They come forward with no programme
for reconstruction, because that would be likely to
disunite them, and it is as yet too early for positive.
plans for the new society to be built on the ruins of
the old. There is a certain monarchical element in
their operations, inasmuch as they expect their ad-
herents to follow the leader or leaders, without know-
ing precisely whither they are going, but with confi-
dence in the guiding spirit. Leadership and agitation
without a programme are both unpopular with most
modern socialists, and the Blanquists do not count a
large number of adherents. They are, however, active,
courageous, and irreconcilable. They are "intransi-
gentes," who will make no compromise with our pres-
ent institutions. Their leader is Eudes,* a member
of the Committee of Public Safety at the time of the
rising of the commune. The title of a paper which
they published for some time indicates the fierceness
of their disposition. It was "Ni Dieu ni Maître ❞—
"Neither God nor Master." Among its contributors
Cournet, Breuillé, and Granger are named. The paper
has ceased to appear for lack of patronage, and they
are now compelled to make propaganda orally by con-
-
*For this, as well as a few other facts, I am indebted to an article
on "French Socialists" which appeared in the weekly edition of the
London Times, March 30, 1883.
V
10
146
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
versation and by speeches. It cannot be said that
they differ from the other groups of socialists in their
attitude of defiance towards God and religion, and
perhaps they do not in this respect differ so widely as
is supposed from a large number of French and Ger-
man political leaders and thinkers. It must be fairly
stated that their opposition to religion has no logical
connection with their socialistic views. On the con-
trary, it is as illogical for them to reject Christianity
as anything well could be. The French social re-
formers of about 1850 perceived this. At that time,
if one had visited the assembly rooms of a commu-
nistic or socialistic society in Paris, he would in all
probability have found there a picture of Christ, with
these words written under it, "Jesus of Nazareth, the
First Representative of the People."*
The anarchists are also a small but determined
band. Their leading representatives are Prince Kra-
potkine, a Russian by birth, and Elisée Reclus, the
celebrated geographer. Emile Gautier, Bernard, and
Bordat, who, like Krapotkine, were sentenced to five
years' imprisonment at the Lyons trial, January 19,
1883, for connection with the International Associa-
tion of Laborers, are also prominent anarchists. Al-
though their programme may be found almost word
for word in Proudhon, they profess to follow more
closely Bakounine, the Russian nihilist, who separated
himself from Marx and the Internationals, and formed
secret societies in Spain, Switzerland, France, and else-
where, and thus propagated nihilistic views; for an-
archy and nihilism are pretty much one and the same
thing when nihilism is understood in the older, stricter
* Vide B. Malon's "Exposé," etc., p. 230.
·
SOCIALISM IN FRANCE SINCE PROUDHON.
147
sense, which does not include, as it does in a larger
and more modern sense, those who are simply political
and constitutional reformers.* Like Prince Krapot-
kine, Bakounine came of an old and prominent Rus-
sian family; like him, he revolted against the cruel-
ties and injustices he saw about him; like him, he
despaired of peaceful reform, and concluded that no
great improvement could be expected until all our
present political, economic, and social institutions
were so thoroughly demolished that of the old struct-
ure not one stone should be left on another. Out of
the ruins a regenerated world might arise. We must
be purged as by fire. Like all anarchists and true
nihilists, he was a thorough pessimist, as far as our
present manner of life was concerned. Reaction
against conservatism carried him very far. He wished
to abolish private property, state, and inheritance.
Equality is to be carried so far that all must wear
the same kind of clothing, no difference being made
even for sex. Religion is an aberration of the brain,
and should be abolished.t
Fire, dynamite, and assassination are approved of
by at least a large number of the party. They are
brave men, and fight for their faith with the devotion
of martyrs. Imprisonment and death are counted but
as rewards.
Their press is comparatively insignificant. Their
* Consult, on this point, Stepniak's "Underground Russia" (Lon-
don, 1883). Careful inquiry of a large number of Russians, young
and old, rich and poor, convinced me long since that the views this
book expresses concerning the condition of Russia are substantially
correct.
† Cf. Rudolf Meyer, Bd. i. SS. 42, 43, and two articles on Michael
Bakunin, in the Deutsche Rundschau (1877), Bde. 11 u. 12.
148
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
principal newspaper appears to be the Révolté, a small
paper published at Geneva since 1879. A paper was, a
few years ago, published in their interests at Verviers,
Belgium, with the characteristic title, The Cry of the
People (Le Cri du Peuple). It lasted only a little
over a year, its final number appearing on the 21st of
June, 1879, and containing this sentence, among many
similar: "Yes, we applaud all the executions made by
the Russian nihilists, and wish that their propaganda
might extend itself over the whole earth."
Forty-seven anarchists signed a declaration of prin-
ciples, which was read by one of their number at their
trial at Lyons. It was substantially as follows:
"The anarchists are citizens who, in an age when one preaches
everywhere the liberty of opinions, have believed it their duty to rec-
ommend unlimited liberty.
"Our only merit consists in speaking out openly what the masses
are thinking. We are several millions of laborers, who wish abso-
lute liberty, and nothing but liberty.
"We wish liberty-that is to say, we demand for every human
being the right and the means of doing that which pleases him, and
of doing only that which pleases him; to satisfy integrally all his
wants, without any other limits than natural impossibilities and the
wants of neighbors equally respectable.
"We wish liberty, and we believe its existence incompatible with
the existence of any power whatsoever, whatever its origin and form
-whether it be elected or imposed, monarchical or republican-
whether inspired by divine right or by popular right, by anointment
or universal suffrage.
"The best governments are the worst.
"The evil, in other terms, in the eyes of the anarchists, does not
reside in one form of government more than in another; it is in the
idea of government itself, in the principle of authority.
The substitution, in a word, in human relations, OF FREE CONTRACT,
perpetually revisable and dissoluble, is our ideal.
"The anarchists propose to teach the people how to get along
without government, as they already begin to learn how to get along
without God.
SOCIALISM IN FRANCE SINCE PROUDHON.
149
"They will learn, likewise, how to get along without property-
holders,
"No liberty without equality! No liberty in a society where the
capital is centralized in the hands of a minority, which continually
grows smaller.
“We believe that capital—the common patrimony of humanity,
since it is the fruit of the co-operation of contemporaneous genera-
tions-ought to be placed at the service of all.
"We wish, in a word, equality equality in fact, as corollary or
rather as primordial condition of liberty. From each one according
to his faculties, to each one according to his needs: that is what
we wish sincerely, energetically.
"Wicked and insane as people call us, we demand bread for all,
science for all, work for all; for all, also, independence and jus-
tice."*
—
The anarchists believe in a kind of collectivism.
Their ideal consists of independent communes united
very loosely in a confederation. Of course, the con-
federation has no powers save such as are voluntarily
granted it by each individual and during the time
which it may please him to grant them. It is no gov-
ernment. It is simply combined action. There are
groups and confederations within the communes based
on similar principles.
The collectivists are French socialists and social
democrats, who have adopted the views of the Ger-
mans, chiefly of Marx and Lassalle. Their opinions
we will then discuss under the head of German social-
ism. It is here only necessary to give evidence of the
fact that they build on German foundations; to men-
tion their organizations and a few of their leaders.
If French expositions of collectivism are examined,
it will be found that constant references are made to
* This was copied in the February (1883) number of the Journal
des Économistes from the Révolté. I take it from the Journal.
150
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
the German socialists and citations taken from their
writings. Thus Malon, himself a collectivist, cites
Depaepe's presentation of international collectivism-
and pretty much all collectivism and social democracy
are to-day international; and Depaepe, in the passage
quoted, states plainly that he has only given a more
or less perfect résumé of Marx and Lassalle.* The
French socialist who wrote the article for the London
Times on French socialists, to which reference has al-
ready been made, mentions familiarly the names of
Schäffle, Marx, and Lassalle. Émile de Laveleye, in
his article in the Fortnightly Review on the “Euro-
pean Terror," follows Schäffle's "Quintessence of
Socialism" in explaining the system of the collectiv-
ists, and Schäffle simply presents German social de-
mocracy at its best. The international spirit of so-
cial democracy was illustrated in the marriage of two
of Marx's daughters to two French socialists, Longuet
and Lafargue, the latter of whom translated his work,
"Das Kapital," into French.
The collectivists are divided into two branches-
the evolutionist collectivists and the revolutionary
collectivists.
The evolutionist collectivists do not reject reform
as a possible substitute for revolution. While they
do not claim to be able to say that a social revolution
will never be necessary, they recognize the fact that
a change of the economic forms of society is a matter
of growth and evolution, and are willing to approach
the socialistic state by degrees. A writer much in
vogue with them is Colins, a Belgian, who advocated the
nationalization of land. His two chief works, “Qu'est-
÷ ( Exposé," etc., p. 260.
† April, 1883.
SOCIALISM IN FRANCE SINCE PROUDHON.
151
ce que la Science Sociale ?"_"What is Social Sci-
ence?"—and "L'Économie Politique," were published
between 1848 and 1857. A number of millionnaires
belong to this group of collectivists, and a society has
been formed to publish and disseminate the works of
Colins. It is said that 40,000 francs have been sub-
scribed for this purpose.
Colins favored these four measures as a transition
from private property in land to its nationalization:
"1. Abolition of collateral inheritances.
"2. Proclamation of the liberty of bequest.
"3. A tax of twenty-five per centum upon all inheritances.
(i
4. Enlightenment of the masses, so that they shall soon demand
the collectivity of the soil, or, as the English say, the nationalization
of land." *
Collectivists of this group are called “Possibilists”
and “Opportunists," on account of their temporizing
inclinations. Although M. de Laveleye states that
they are gaining favor with the laborers as opposed
to the Irreconcilables, they have few leaders, or, at
any rate, talkers of note. On occasion of the election
at Belleville, when a deputy was to be elected to re-
place Gambetta, the evolutionist collectivists nomi-
nated a respectable mechanic by the name of J. B.
Dumay. He was not, however, elected.
The revolutionary collectivists, also called Marx-
ists, are divided into two factions, owing to personal
rivalries. These are called the "Fédération du Cen-
tre," among whom are Jules Guesde, Paul Lafargue,
Émile Massard, and Gabriel Deville; and the "Union
* Vide Malon's "Exposé," etc., p. 183. A further account of
Colins's ideas is given in a very interesting manner in an article
already referred to-viz., De Laveleye's "European Terror" (Fort-
nightly Review, April, 1883).
152
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
Fédérative," among whom are B. Malon, author of the
work which I have several times cited; Paul Brousse,
and Joffrin, a municipal councillor, who recently de-
manded of the council the execution of a large number
of socialistic measures, like the erection of city work-
shops (ateliers municipaux) to furnish work to the
unemployed, the establishment of bakeries and meat-
markets in order to sell provisions at a moderate price,
and the construction of houses to be let to laborers at
cost price.
At the time when Dumay was candidate at Belle-
ville for the place in the Chamber of Deputies which
Gambetta's death left vacant, the revolutionary col-
lectivists nominated Jules Guesde, who received only
a small number of votes. He issued, however, an elec-
toral programme, which is valuable as an authentic
statement of principles approved by his party at sev-
eral different congresses between 1879 and 1882. It
is as follows:
((
Considering: That the emancipation of the productive class is
that of all human beings, without distinction of sex or race; that the
producers can never be free until they are in possession of the means
of production (lands, factories, ships, banks, credit, etc.); that there
are only two forms under which the means of production can belong
to them:
"1. The individual form, which has never existed as a general and
universal fact, and which is being eliminated more and more by in-
dustrial progress;
"2. The collective form, whose material and intellectual elements
are furnished by the very development of capitalistic society:-
Considering: That this collective appropriation can result only
from the revolutionary action of the productive class—or the prole-
tariat-organized as a distinct political party; that such an organi-
zation ought to be pursued by all the means at the disposal of the
proletariat, universal suffrage included, and thus transformed from
an instrument of injury, as it has hitherto been, into an instrument
SOCIALISM IN FRANCE SINCE PROUDHON.
153
of emancipation-the French socialistic laborers, in proclaiming as
their end the political and economic expropriation of the class of
capitalists, and the return into the collective form of all the means
of production, have decided, as the means of organizing the conflict,
to enter into the elections with the following demands:
"A. POLITICAL PROGRAMME.
"1. The abolition of all laws concerning the press, assemblies, and
associations, and especially the law against the 'International Asso-
ciation of Workmen,' suppression of the workman's book,* this regis-
tration of the laboring class, and of all articles of the code estab-
lishing the inferiority of the laborer vis-à-vis his employer and of the
inferiority of woman vis-à-vis man.
"2. Suppression of religious appropriations, and the return to the
nation of all property designated by the term mortmain (Decree of
the Commune of April 2, 1871). . . .
"3. Suppression of the public debt.
"4. Abolition of standing armies, and the establishment of a mili-
tia system to include all the people.
"5. The establishment of the freedom of the Commune as regards
its administration and its police.
"B. ECONOMIC PROGRAMME.
"1. One day of rest in seven; eight hours to constitute a day's
labor for adults; prohibition of the labor of children under fourteen
in private establishments, and the reduction of their labor to six
hours a day between fourteen and eighteen.
"2. A protecting 'surveillance' of apprentices by corporations of
laborers.
"3. A legal minimum of wages, determined each year according to
the local price of provisions, by a statistical commission composed of
laborers.
"4. Legal prohibition of the right to employ foreign laborers with
smaller wages than those given to Frenchmen.
"5. Equal wages for equal work for laborers of both sexes.
* A little book which a workman is compelled to keep and exhibit
to each employer, in order that the latter may know who have em-
ployed him before, the new employer in turn signing his name in the
book when the laborer enters his service and when he leaves it, and
expressing his opinion of the laborer's conduct.
154
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
"6. Free instruction in science, trades, and professions.
"7. Support of the aged and infirm by the public.
"8. Suppression of all interference of employers in the manage-
ment of funds destined for the benefit of laborers.
"9. Responsibility of employers for accidents to their employees.
"10. Participation of laborers in the establishment of rules and
laws for different shops; suppression of the right of employers to
impose fines and penalties upon laborers.
“11. Annulment of all contracts which have alienated public prop-
erty (banks, railroads, mines, etc.), and the management of all state-
workshops by laborers employed therein.
"12. Abolition of all indirect taxes, and the transformation of
all direct taxes into a progressive tax on incomes exceeding 3000
francs; suppression of all collateral inheritances, and of inheritances
in direct line exceeding 20,000 francs.”*
Clovis Hugues, mentioned as "unclassed," is a col-
lectivist deputy. It is stated, however, that he has
announced his intention of leaving the party, on ac-
count of the tyranny with which they have attempted
to control him in every step. Joffrin refused to at-
tend Louis Blanc's funeral, as he held that he had
proved false to the laborers in 1871. Hugues, an old
friend of Blanc's, attended, and was reproved for this,
whereupon he indignantly declared the above-men-
tioned intention, maintaining that Louis Blanc was
an honorable, high-minded man, and a true friend of
the laborer.
De Laveleye believes that a majority of French
workmen are socialists, while Malon confidently speaks
of the socialists as forming the élite of the proletariat.
The latter states their views and tendencies at the
present time in the following language: "We have
rejected all religious regenerations, whether they are
* Quoted from Journal des Économistes for March, 1883, pp. 450–
452.
SOCIALISM IN FRANCE SINCE PROUDHON.
155
called New Catholic, New Christian, pantheistic, or
theo - humanitarian; and we have accepted every
scientific demonstration, however much opposed it
might be to the previous order of our conceptions.
"We have recognized that the social and intellec-
tual world, like the physical world, are governed by
natural laws, and are subject to relations of succes-
sion and similitude independent of our personal in-
tervention. We have admitted that our will itself is
determined by natural laws which it may not break.
"This has given us larger views, and especially has
taught us to seek in a terrestrial future the ideal which
is at the basis of every human nature.
"We have acquired a more profound knowledge of
the laws which govern social phenomena. We know
that as our human nature is essentially capable of
modification and perfection, so social phenomena and
industrial phenomena, being based thereon, are modi-
fiable in large degree, and we labor to modify them
as much as possible."*
* "Exposé des Écoles Socialistes Françaises," pp. iii., iv.
156
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
CHAPTER IX.
RODBERTUS.
(C
In turning our attention to Germany we come to
the period of classical epoch-making socialism." It
is the only living socialism of world-wide impor-
tance; for, with few comparatively unimportant ex-
ceptions, all socialism of to-day, whether found in
Paris or Berlin, in New York or Vienna, in Chicago
or Frankfort-on-the- Main, is through and through
German.
The German socialists are distinguished by the pro-
fundity of their systems. These are not exhausted by
a few hours' study. You can come back to them time
and time again, and obtain ever new ideas. A great
German economist (Schäffle) declares that it took him
years to comprehend the full significance of German
socialism. It gives no evidence of decreasing power,
but, on the contrary, its influence is manifestly spread-
ing and becoming more and more deeply rooted in
the minds and hearts of large masses. Its vitality is
due, on the one hand, to the logical and philosophical
strength of the systems on which it is based; on the
other, to the patience and indomitable perseverance
of its leaders.
One of its leading characteristics is its thoroughly
scientific spirit. Sentimentalism is banished, and a
foundation sought in hard, relentless laws, resulting
RODBERTUS.
157
necessarily from the physiological, psychological, and
social constitution of man, and his physical environ-
ment. Like French socialism, its most prominent side
is its negative character, but this is not declamatory.
Coldly, passionlessly, laws regulating wages and value
are developed, which show that in our present eco-
nomic society the poverty of laborers and their robbery
by capitalists are as inevitable facts as the motions
of the planets. Histories, blue books, and statistical
journals are searched, and facts are piled on facts,
mountain - high, to sustain every separate and indi-
vidual proposition. Mathematical demonstrations as
logical as problems in Euclid take the place of fine
periods, perorations, and appeals to the Deity. Politi-
cal economy is not rejected, but in its strictest and
most orthodox form becomes the very corner-stone of
the new social structure. No writer is valued so
highly as Ricardo, who, in political economy, was the
strictest of the strict, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
English political economy is developed to its logical
and consistent conclusion with wonderful learning and
skill. In the German socialists, says Rudolf Meyer,
6C
we have learned men belonging to the higher mer-
cantile and professional classes, in affluent circum-
stances, who, out of pure love for the cause, devoted
themselves to profound economic investigations, and
who united a serious, searching mind with thorough
knowledge of history, philology, and law. They are
political economists equal to the great English leaders
in this study, but having at their command a greater
scientific apparatus, especially such as is afforded by
statistics."
99* Roscher, indeed, finds in them alike the
* "Emancipationskampf," etc., Bd. i. S. 43.
158
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
strength and the weakness of the English school. He
describes them thus in his " History of Political
Economy in Germany." "Some of them seem to be
more historical than the Free-trade School, but this
is only an appearance, as they apply history so so-
phistically. As far as doctrinal abstractions are con-
cerned, they are at least equal to the extreme Free-
traders. They indulge in the same cosmopolitism,
which entirely overlooks real peoples, states, and de-
grees of culture, in the same naïve assumption of the
equality of all men, . . . and in the same mammonistic
undervaluation of ideal goods." t
*
Two of the earliest adherents of this school were
Friedrich Engels, who wrote a work on the "Condi-
tion of the Laboring Classes in England;"‡ and K.
Marlo, who published, in 1849, his "System of World-
Economy, or Investigations Concerning the Organiza-
tion of Labor ;"§ and proposed a federation of social-
istic communities. Both of these writers, however,
were soon so far surpassed in importance by the three
socialists, Rodbertus, Marx, and Lassalle, that they
are scarcely noticed in the great current of German
socialism. We will consequently at once proceed to
the consideration of the life and teachings of Rodber-
tus, from whom it may be considered as taking its be-
ginning. Its growth from the time he published his
doctrines has been unbroken.
-
* Free-trader is used here, as often in Germany, not to denote sim-
ply an advocate of free-trade, but a supporter of the entire abstract
and theoretical system of the English free-traders.
† Page 1023.
"Die Lage der arbeitenden Klassen in England" (1845).
§ "System der Weltökonomie, oder Untersuchungen über die Or-
ganisation der Arbeit."
RODBERTUS.
159
Karl Rodbertus, who lived from 1805 to 1875, was
a man of social standing, universally respected alike
for learning and character. He was at first a jurist,
and afterwards a farmer, having purchased the estate
in Pomerania called Jagetzow. On this account he
is often called Rodbertus-Jagetzow.*
Rodbertus took some part in politics during the
stirring events of 1848, and for a short time there-
after. He was member of the National Assembly in
1848, and in 1849 of the Second Chamber of the Prus-
sian Parliament. He was Prussian Minister of Edu-
cation and Public Worship for a brief period. But he
finally abandoned politics and led a quiet life in his
country home, devoting himself chiefly to scientific
and literary pursuits. His knowledge of some parts
of Roman history is considered quite profound.
Rodbertus, one of the ablest socialists who ever lived,
is perhaps the best representative of pure theoreti-
cal socialism. Professor Wagner of Berlin calls him
the Ricardo of socialism. This gives him an impor-
tant place in the history of political economy, for po-
* As this German custom is not generally understood in America
and often leads to confusion, it may be well to state that it is cus-
tomary to affix the name of a man's estate or native village or even
his wife's name to his own to distinguish him from others of the same
name. Thus, the founder of the people's banks is called Schulze-
Delitzsch, because he lived formerly in a little place called Delitzsch.
He afterwards lived in Potsdam, but was still called Schulze-Delitzsch.
Delitzsch is, however, really no part of his name. In speaking to
him you would generally have addressed him as Mr. Schulze, never
Mr. Delitzsch. In reading a book recently written by a learned Ameri-
can, I was amused to see him spoken of seriously as Mr. Schulze
von Delitzsch. It originated undoubtedly in Lassalle's calling him
in contempt for his admiration for the bourgeoisie Mr. Bastiat-Schulze
von Delitzsch.
160
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
litical economists may be considered as practically
unanimous in the opinion that "scientific socialism.
represents an economic system which no science of
political economy can any longer neglect" (Wagner).
It is certain that he resembles Ricardo in many re-
spects, and I personally am quite inclined to think
he equalled him, though his name has never become
very popular, as his life was a quiet, retired one, and
he took no part in agitation. His writings are rather
difficult reading for laborers, and they are consequent-
ly little acquainted with him. His influence on the
greatest living economists has been remarkable.*
Rodbertus's principal works are:
1. "Zur Erkenntniss unserer Staatswirthschaftlichen Zustände ”
-"Our Economic Condition" (Neubrandenburg und Friedland, 1842).
This contains his leading views, which were not changed thereafter.
Out of print.
p
2. "Sociale Briefe an Von Kirchmann " "Social Letters to Von
Kirchmann" (1850-51). Out of print.
3. “Zur Beleuchtung der Socialen Frage”—“ Elucidation of the
Social Question" (Berlin, 1875). This contains a second edition of
the second and third letters to Von Kirchmann, and, with the two fol-
lowing essays, gives a very good idea of his economic theories.
4. "Der Normal Arbeitstag "—"The Normal Labor Day" (Berlin,
1871). Reprinted in Tübinger Zeitschrift für die gesammte Staats-
wissenschaft für 1878. Cf. also, in the same volume of the Zeitschrift,
an essay on Rodbertus by Adolf Wagner, entitled "Einiges von und
über Rodbertus-Jagetzow."
5. "Offener Brief an das Comité des Deutschen Arbeiter-Vereins
(C
""
Open Letter to the Committee of the German Laborers Union"
(Leipzig, 1863). Reprinted in Volume I. of Lassalle's collected
writings-F. Lassalle's "Reden und Schriften" (New York, 1882).
6. "Zur Erklärung und Abhülfe der heutigen Creditnoth des
Grundbesitzes "-" An Explanation of the Necessity of Credit for
Land-owners and Proposal of Measures to Assist Them" (2 vols.
1868-69). Out of print.
* Cf. Wagner, in Tübinger Zeitschrift (1878), SS. 211, 212.
RODBERTUS.
161
The aim of Rodbertus is naturally to solve the so-
cial problem, to abolish the sharp contradiction be-
tween the real life of society and the desired and
striven-for ideal. But there are two chief evils in the
existing economic life of man, which are the cause of
most of the others. These evils are PAUPERISM and
COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL CRISES, the latter lead-
ing to overproduction and a glut in the market. Rod-
bertus directs his attention principally to the means
of abolishing these evils.
The starting-point of Ricardo's political economy
is his conception of labor expressed in the following
sentence: “All economic goods are to be regarded
only as the products of labor, and they cost nothing
but labor."*
This proposition he claims was first in-
troduced into economic science by Adam Smith, and
was more firmly established by the school of Ricardo.
His whole theory consists of a logical extension of
this theory, according to which pauperism and crises
result from one and the same circumstance-viz.,
"that when economic processes are left to themselves
in respect to the distribution of goods, certain rela-
tions (Verhältnisse) connected with the development
of society bring it about that as the productivity of so-
cial labor † increases, the wages of the laboring classes
constitute an ever-decreasing portion of the national
product." This does not mean necessarily that what
the laborer receives becomes absolutely smaller; only
that it decreases relatively. If ten laborers produce
now twenty bushels of wheat in a given time, and re-
* "Zur Beleuchtung," etc., SS. 23, 24.
†That is, the labor of man in economic society.
"Zur Beleuchtung," S. 24.
11
162
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
ceive ten bushels as wages, and at a later period the
productivity of labor has increased to such an extent
that they produce thirty bushels in the same time, but
receive only thirteen, their portion, their quota has
decreased.*
Now let us see how this produces pauperism and
crises.
In society we find laborers, capitalists, and landlords.
These classes can exist only because there is a division
of labor, and laborers produce more than they con-
sume. Landlords and capitalists receive what is called
rent, which is any income derived from the fact of
possession and not from labor. All the rest is labor's
share. Now how does it happen that rent-receiving
classes are able to exist? in other words, how is one
man enabled to take from another a part of the fruits
of his labor? This is because private property in land.
and capital exists. Land and capital constitute the
instruments of labor, and without them production is
impossible. Their possessors refuse to give them up
to another's use unless a share of the produce is guar-
anteed them therefor, while the laborer's hunger and the
sufferings of his family compel him to assent. Labor
is treated as a commodity. It is bought and sold like
other commodities, and its value depends on its cost.
What is the cost of labor? Manifestly the cost of
continuing labor; in other words, such means as will
enable the laborer himself to live and to beget chil-
*The Fourteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of
Statistics of Labor for 1883 goes to substantiate this theory. In
1875 the "percentage of wages paid of value of product" in over
two thousand establishments was 24.68; in 1880 only 20.33. Vide
p. 371; cf. also other statistics on the same page and on p. 370.
RODBERTUS.
163
dren who shall continue to labor after he is gone.
What the laborers require to live, and to marry, and
beget children in sufficient numbers to supply the
labor market, is their standard of life. This they ob-
tain and no more. Labor costs labor, and is measured
by labor; but labor produces more than it consumes,
and this surplus-value is rent. Does the laborer's stand-
ard of life rise with the increase in productivity of
economic forces? No, it is even doubtful whether it
is rising at all. Then the conclusion is inevitable that
labor's proportion or quota decreases. Rodbertus
thinks he can prove, from the income returns in Eng-
land since 1800, and from the division of the national
product of England into rent, wages, and profits, that
the increased production of machine power, estimated
as equal to the labor of five hundred and fifty mill-
ions of men, has benefited wholly and entirely land-
lords and capitalists.* Rodbertus puts the matter as
follows to laborers: "Under the régime of laissez-faire
and with our present property laws, your level, your
portion of the goods produced, tends to fall, not to
rise; to convince yourselves, look at our situation in
general. Has the separation in the incomes of social
classes become greater or smaller since we possess
machines and railroads, and productivity and produc-
tion have increased so remarkably? The answer can-
not, indeed, be doubtful. Or consider our situation in
particular, and ask the oldest among you whether, dur-
ing the last forty years, wages-real wages, measured
in what wages will buy-have increased as much in
your fatherland or your native city as land-rent, or,
what is the same, the value of the land, and as much
*"Normal Arbeitstag;" Tübinger Zeitschrift, S. 361.
164
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
as capital has increased." We have here, then, an
explanation of pauperism and of discontent. A man's
poverty does not depend so much upon what he has
absolutely, as upon the relation in which his posses-
sions stand to those of others about him, and upon the
extent to which they allow him to share in the prog-
ress of the age. A cannibal in the Sandwich Islands
is not poor because he has no coat; an Englishman is.
When the vast majority were unable to read, a man
was not poor or oppressed because he was unable to
purchase books, but a German who to-day has not the
means to do so is both poor and oppressed.†
Rodbertus undertakes, in the second place, to prove
that crises result from the continued decrease in la-
bor's share of all the goods produced. His arguments
are remarkable, and contain the ablest explanation yet
given of the commercial and industrial crashes which
occur every few years.†
Let us suppose that the total national production
equals at a given moment ten millions of units. It
makes no difference what a unit is. It may represent
the value of ten oxen, five horses, one thousand bush-
els of wheat, ten tons of hay, and one hundred sheep,
or it may equal the value of any other amount of eco-
nomic goods. That is a matter of indifference. This
production is divided between landlords, capitalists,
and laborers, so that each class receives three millions
of units, one million going to the state in the shape of
Let us further assume that there is at this mo-
taxes.
* "Offener Brief," etc., in Lassalle's "Reden," Bd. i. S. 270.
† Cf. Lassalle's "Reden," Bd. i. SS. 40-42, where this thought is
brought out clearly and forcibly.
I do not mean by this to state that I consider the explanation
correct.
RODBERTUS.
165
ment an equilibrium in production. Three millions of
units of such goods, necessaries, and comforts, as labor-
ers require, are produced; three millions of units of
necessaries, comforts, and luxuries are produced for
capitalists; and a like amount for landlords. One
million units of goods, such as the state requires, are
produced. So long as this relation is maintained a
cessation in production is needless. The laborers have
the means of purchasing all that is produced for them,
as have also landlords, capitalists, and state. If pro-
duction is doubled, and the same relations are pre-
served, no crisis is thereby occasioned. But the diffi-
culty lies in the fact that the same proportions are
not preserved. Production increases, but the laborer's
share diminishes. He has not the means of purchas-
ing what is produced for him. The capitalists and
landlords do not increase their consumption of luxuries
pari passu with the diminishing consumption of labor-
ers, as they save in order to become wealthy. Their
savings are invested in putting up factories and pro-
ducing goods for laborers, which laborers have not the
means of purchasing in the additional amounts. Cot-
ton goods, cloths, and other commodities are heaped
up, and finally there comes a crash. During the pe-
riod of depression the proper relations are gradually
restored. The production has increased to twenty
millions of units, let us say, of which the laborers re-
ceive four millions of units. Equilibrium is restored,
when four millions are produced for them and sixteen
millions for the other classes of society. Consequent-
LY, IN A STATE OF INCREASING PRODUCTION, WE OB-
SERVE AN INCREASED CONSUMPTION OF LUXURIES
AFTER EVERY CRISIS. Production continues to in-
crease in the same relations until the laborers are
C
166
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
again unable to purchase what is produced for them,
when goods are again heaped up, and we have the
anomaly of magazines full of commodities for which
there are no purchasers, although there are plenty who
desire them. Those for whom they were destined
have not the means of purchasing them; and this en-
tails also distress upon others, those who handle these
commodities, as well as upon a large part of the rest
of society, owing to the close relations existing be-
tween different members of the social body. Equi-
librium is finally restored by an increased consump-
tion of luxuries. So long as economic life is not
regulated these processes will never cease to repeat
themselves.
Poverty and commercial panics can be banished
only by arrangements which guarantee to laborers a
share in the national product, which increases pari
passu with increasing production. How is this to be
done? I cannot, in this place, give the details, which
must be sought in Rodbertus's writings, particularly in
his "Normal Arbeitstag." I will sketch the outlines
of his plan.
The state must interfere. An estimate must be
made of the value of the national product, and of the
share which laborers receive at the time of the valu-
ation. We will assume that all the products of so-
ciety during a year can be produced by four millions
of hours of the labor of an average man. The value
of the yearly production equals four millions of hours.
Let us suppose that the laborers receive the product
of one million hours. They are given in exchange
for this receipts, a kind of paper money, the unit of
which is one hour. All that is produced finds its way
first into magazines, and laborers and others, on pre-
RODBERTUS.
167
senting labor-time money, receive its value in goods.
If the productivity of labor doubles, an hour will se-
cure double the amount of goods. This is the solu-
tion, then, of the problem of securing for the laborers
a fixed share of production and an amount of goods
which increases with increased production.
It is probably in itself, per se, not impossible. What
is lacking is the will. This makes it practically im-
possible. Many practical men have regarded the
scheme with favor. Indeed, a German architect has
prepared and published tables showing the value of
the product of an average hour's work in the building
trade, and of the share received by the laborer him-
self.* Their accuracy was not disputed by builders,
though they doubted the advisability of letting the
laborers know exactly the proportion which consti-
tuted their wages.
Rodbertus did not claim that it
would be the task of a day to carry out this plan, but
he thought a state which regarded lightly the expen-
diture of four hundred millions for military purposes
ought not to begrudge one hundred millions at once,
and perhaps more hereafter, to banish pauperism and
stagnation in trade and industry. He spoke of one
or two centuries as necessary to realize these plans.
He did not, however, regard private property in land
and capital as the ultimate form of their possession,
although the above scheme allows both. He thought
there were three stages in economic development. In
the first, private property in human beings-slavery,
*“Hülfstafeln zu Preisberechnungen für Zimmerarbeiten, auf
Grundlage der durchschnittlichen Leistung der Arbeiter," von H.
Peters. Schwerin i. M., and “Hülfsbuch zur Aufstellung von Lohn-
regulativen und Preisberechnungen für Bautischlerarbeiten, mit An-
gabe des Materialbedarfs und des durchschnittlichen Arbeitswerths
nach Stunden und Minuten," von H. Peters (Berlin, 1877).
168
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
serfdom, and vassalage-existed; in the second, that
in which we now live, private property in capital-
i. e., the instruments and means of labor-was a social
institution; in the third, private property in income
alone was to be allowed. Each one was to enjoy in
this third stage the full fruits of his labor.
It is needless to say that Rodbertus waged no cru-
sade against land or capital. No one was ever so
great a fool as to do that. Every social democrat,
even, admits the necessity of both land and capital.
He did not, however, believe that it was forever nec-
essary that capitalists and landlords as separate classes
should exist. There is the same difference between
capital and capitalist as there is between labor and
slave. Once, he who waged war on slavery was looked
upon as a man who was trying to abolish labor. In
the future Rodbertus thinks we will separate in the
same manner capital and capitalist, and abolish the
capitalist class as we have already abolished the slave-
holding class. This does not at all imply equality.
Great differences could still exist, but they would be
based on merit.
A period of laissez-faire was held by Rodbertus to
denote a transitional stage and a preparation for a
different social organization. After the social order of
the Roman republic, which was founded on the pos-
session of many slaves, and production on a large scale
by them, had had its day, freedom in trade and com-
merce reigned under the emperors, but was terminated
by the feudal system of the Middle Ages, for which
state it was only preparatory. In the same manner,
the present imperfect and unsatisfactory organization,
or, as he perhaps would have said, disorganization,
was to end in a higher social stage. It was wicked
RODBERTUS.
169
and impious to hope for an improvement from laissez-
faire, which he called a fool's paradise. Good things.
did not come to us in this world of themselves. It
was intended that we should work for them, and for
their attainment use all the instrumentalities which
Providence has committed to us, the state included.
All of the leading socialists of to-day, to whatever
socialistic group they may belong, have been influ-
enced greatly by Rodbertus. An understanding of
his theories renders it comparatively easy to under-
stand Marx and Lassalle.
German socialists of to-day may be divided into
three groups-viz., social democrats, professorial so-
cialists, and Christian socialists. We also hear of
state socialists, who form one class with professorial
socialists; save that a few of them may, perhaps, be-
long to the social democrats. Sometimes they are
separated from professorial socialists and made to in-
clude simply German office-holders, but the ideas of
German office-holders, as such, can have no interest
for us in this place. The same man is sometimes
called a professorial socialist and sometimes a state
socialist, as, for example, Professor Wagner — state
socialist as an office-holder who lays stress on the
beneficial effects of state activity, professorial social-
ist as a professor who does the same. It is best to
use the term professorial socialists in a wide sense, so
as to include all holding similar views.
170
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
CHAPTER X.
KARL MARX.
Ga
THE more immediate theoretical founder of social
democracy, and for many years its leading represent-
ative, was Karl Marx, born in 1818 in Treves (Trier).
The social position of his family in Germany was ex-
cellent. His father, a converted Jew, occupied a high
position in the civil service. Marx studied law at the
universities of Bonn and Berlin. In the latter place
he became so much interested in philosophy that he
abandoned law. The philosophy which he adopted
was the Hegelian. He intended to become a profess-
or, but was led into politics and journalism by the ap-
parent dawn of freedom accompanying the succession
of Frederick William IV. to the Prussian throne in
1840. He soon became editor-in-chief of the Rhenish
Gazette (Rheinische Zeitung), which had been founded
by leading liberals, and began to criticise the govern-
ment with what was then called unheard-of boldness.
But he was so skilful in his expressions that the spe-
cial censor of the press, who was sent from Berlin to
Cologne to watch the paper, could find no cause for
legal proceedings against him. Finally, government
becoming weary of such attacks, and having then the
power to do so, simply decreed that at the expiration
of the first quarter-year of 1843 the paper should
KARL MARX.
171
cease to appear.
The interest which Marx had be-
gun to take in matters of government showed him the
necessity of informing himself more fully on subjects
of political economy. He went to Paris, accordingly,
after the suppression of the Rheinische Zeitung, to
study that science, thinking that France then afforded
better advantages for that purpose. He was, no doubt,
right in this, as the Germans have only lately become
great in political economy. In Paris he continued to
wage war with the pen on the Prussian government,
and was banished from France in 1844 by Guizot, to
please Prussia. Going to Brussels, he continued his
economic studies, interested himself in the cause of
the laborers, and in his writings at this time ex-
pressed views similar to those which he held at the
time of his death. In 1847, in company with Fried-
rich Engels, he composed and published a manifesto of
the communistic party, which closed with these words:
"The communists scorn to conceal their views and
purposes. They declare openly that their aims can be
attained only by a violent overthrow of the existing
social order. Let the ruling classes tremble before a
communistic revolution. The proletarians have noth-
ing to lose except their chains. They have a world
to gain. Proletarians of all lands, unite!"
The events of 1848 brought Marx to Germany
again, where, with his friends, Engels, Wolff, and the
poet Freiligrath, he founded the New Rhenish Gazette
(Neue Rheinische Zeitung). For one year this paper
was an able advocate of the cause of the laborers.
German democracy and reaction were alike rejected,
*
* For these and other facts, vide Mehring's "Die Deutsche Social-
Demokratie," ch. v.
172
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
and the interest of the laborers was represented as ir-
reconcilably opposed to that of all other classes. The
paper was suppressed in 1849, and its founders
banished from Germany. Marx lived thereafter in
London.
The last issue of the paper contained a spirited fare-
well poem, by Freiligrath, promising the reappearance
of the journal when its undying spirit should have
triumphed over all its foes. The following is a good
translation:*
"FAREWELL OF THE NEW RHENISH GAZETTE.
"Farewell, but not forever farewell!
They cannot kill the spirit, my brother;
In thunder I'll rise on the field where I fell,
More boldly to fight out another.
When the last of crowns like glass shall break
On the scenes our sorrows have haunted,
And the people its last dread 'guilty' shall speak,
By your side you shall find me undaunted.
On Rhine or on Danube, in war and deed,
You shall witness, true to his vow,
On the wrecks of thrones, in the midst of the field,
The rebel who greets you now."
In London, Marx continued his agitation and liter-
ary work uninterruptedly-the former reaching its
climax in the foundation of the International, in 1864;
the latter in the appearance of his most important
work, "Das Kapital” (“Capital "), in 1867.† It is a
development and continuation of his "Zur Kritik der
politischen Oekonomie "-"A Critique of Political
*This translation, by Ernest Jones, appeared in John Rae's "The
Socialism of Karl Marx and the Young Hegelians" (Contemporary
Review, October, 1881).
+ Second edition (Hamburg, 1872).
KARL MARX.
173
Economy"-published in 1859. Marx intended, in
"Das Kapital," to present a complete system of po-
litical economy in three volumes, but had published
only the first, "On the Process of Capital Produc-
tion," at the time of his death, March 14, 1883. The
delay was due, it is said, to the extraordinary thor-
oughness with which he worked. He had, however,
practically completed the second volume and had
the third volume well under way before his decease.
These two volumes, treating of the "Circulation of
Capital" and "The Forms of the Entire Process and
the History of the Theory," will be brought out by
his friend, Friedrich Engels. It is further stated that
Marx had prepared a third and improved edition of
the first volume, which is now in press.
It
Marx's book, "Capital," has been called the Bible
of the social democrats, and it deserves the name.
defends their doctrines with acuteness of understand-
ing and profundity of learning, and certainly ranks
among the ablest politico-economic treatises ever
written. I should place it on a par with Ricardo's
"Principles of Political Economy and Taxation."
Much has been said against its style. I think it, at
least, equal to Ricardo's. It is difficult reading, not
because it is poorly written, but because it is deep.
Any one, however, who has had some training in po-
litical economy, and is ordinarily bright, ought not to
find its difficulty insurmountable.
Marx lived a quiet life in London, directing from
that point the movements of the International, cor-
responding for the New York Tribune for a time,
besides writing his books and pamphlets, and enjoy-
ing the society of his friends. His family life was a
happy one. His wife was Jenni von Westphalen,
174
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
daughter of the Prussian minister of the same name,
who belonged to the celebrated reactionary ministry
of which Von Manteuffel was president. He had four
children, of whom two have already been mentioned
as wives of well-known French socialists. The death
of a son in early life was a severe blow to him, and
he never recovered from the death of his wife, in 1881.
About the ability of Marx there is unanimity of
opinion. The philosopher Professor Friedrich A.
Lange regarded him as one of the ablest political
economists that ever lived. So conservative a man as
Professor Knies, of Heidelberg, has often spoken in
high terms of his talents and acquisitions; and the
well-known Cologne Gazette used these words in an
obituary notice: "He exercised, perhaps, a more
lasting influence on the inner politics of civilized
states than any one of his contemporaries. Political
economy, especially in Germany, knows no writer who
has influenced both masses and scholars in a more de-
cided, thoroughgoing manner than Karl Marx. .
He was one of the sharpest thinkers and readiest dia-
lecticians ever possessed by economic science.
His Capital' is classical and indispensable for every
one who wishes to concern himself earnestly with so-
cial and economic science."
•
Immediately after the death of Marx, meetings
were held in all parts of the United States and else-
where, as far as the laws would allow it, to do honor
to his memory. One characteristic feature of these
meetings was the vow which was taken in all to
spread the works and to disseminate the ideas of their
departed leader. At the mass-meeting in the Cooper
*"Wochenausgabe," 23. März, 1883.
KARL MARX.
175
Institute, in New York city, undoubtedly the largest
one held, the following resolutions were read and
adopted:
"In common with the workers and the disinherited, with the true'
friends of liberty of all countries, we deplore the death of our great
thinker and champion, Karl Marx, as a grievous and irreparable loss
to the cause of labor and freedom.
"We pledge ourselves to keep his name and his works ever in re-
membrance, and to do our utmost for the dissemination of the ideas
given by him to the world.
"We promise, in honor of the memory of our great departed, to
dedicate our lives to the cause of which he was a pioneer-the strug-
gle in which he left so noble a record--and never, at any moment, to
forget his great appeal, 'Workmen of the world, unite!'
""
Similar resolutions were adopted at the other meet-
ings, in Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, etc.
Marx's followers boast particularly of two discov-
eries which he made-viz., the correct theory of the
development of history and his doctrine of value.
While it is not true that these were, by any means,
entirely original with him, no one would dispute that
his presentation is worked out in an original and re-
markable manner.
.
His theory of history is that it is a development,
and is shaped at each period by the economic life of
the people, by the manner in which goods are pro-
duced and distributed. He takes, as his starting-
point, the fact that men must eat, drink, wear clothes,
and find shelter from rain, snow, and cold. Art, re-
ligion, and science come after the satisfaction of these
elementary wants. The production of wealth by slaves.
gave form to the history of the classical world, while
that of the Middle Ages is dominated by serfdom and
and its accessories. The governing idea of the pres-
ent age is capitalistic production-that is to say, con-
176
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
centration of large masses in factories, running a race
with immense machines, and systematically robbed by
their employers. When we take the view that his-
tory is a growth governed by the necessities of pro-
duction, past ages do not seem so inhuman as they
otherwise do. It has hitherto been necessary that the
vast majority should toil incessantly, while only few
devoted themselves to the pursuit of the higher goods.
The processes of production were so primitive and
imperfect that it was physically impossible for the
many to enjoy leisure for cultivating their minds
and bodies. Hence it was that the ancients regarded
slavery as necessary and natural. Plato and Aristotle
both considered it a law of nature, just the same as it
has hitherto been supposed that private property in
land and capital was a law of nature; whereas, as al-
ready shown by Rodbertus, they are all only institu-
tions of positive and changeable law. Private prop-
erty in the instruments of production can be abolished,
as private property in human beings has been. This
abolition could not, however, take place until society
had made such advance in the art of producing goods
that all requisites for human-existence and progress
could be produced without requiring the unceasing
toil of the vast majority. That time has come. It is
now easy to produce all the requirements of civiliza-
tion and at the same time to leave leisure to each one
to make the most of himself. Aristotle, in defending
slavery, uttered words which sound almost like a
prophecy. In his "Politics" (i. 4) he uses this lan-
guage: "Every servant is an instrument more valu-
able than any other instrument. For if every in-
strument at command, or from foreknowledge of its
master's will, could accomplish its special work-if
KARL MARX.
177
the shuttle thus should weave and the lyre play of it-
self-then neither would the architect want servants
nor the master require slaves." These remarks seem
to contain a dim foreboding of the marvellous inven-
tion of machinery which has taken place in this age,
and has substituted iron and steel for bone and muscle.
A feudal aristocracy was once required to protect
and guide industry and agriculture. The growth of
the bourgeoisie in the cities finally rendered feudalism
an antiquated institution, and it had to make way for
the third estate, under whose guidance wealth has in-
creased most marvellously and laborers have been
gathered together and organized. But the bourgeoisie
has fulfilled its mission. It is now but a hinderance
and an obstacle. The repeated crises and the contin-
ual concentration of property in the hands of a few
mammoth millionaires prove conclusively that they
are not equal to the task of leadership. The time has
arrived when the proletariat, the fourth estate, must
take the reins into its own hands. It is now to play
the grand role in the history of the world.
"With
the continually decreasing number of the magnates of
capitalism, who usurp and monopolize all the advan-
tages of the changed form of production, there is an
accompanying increase in the mass of misery, of op-
pression, of bondage, of degradation, of exploitation;
but there also arises a revolt of an increasing class of
laborers, who have been schooled, united, and disci-
plined by the mechanism of the capitalistic processes
of production. The monopoly of capital becomes a
shackle to the method of production, under and with
which it has grown up. The concentration of the
means of production and the association of laborers
reach a point where they are incompatible with their
12
178
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
·
capitalistic shell. The shell is broken. The death-
knell of capitalistic private property sounds. The
expropriateurs are expropriated."*
Thus dawns a
new and better era in the history of human develop-
ment.
-
The key to Marx's economic doctrines is his theory
of value, with an exposition of which "Das Kapital"
opens. It is based on Ricardo and Rodbertus, but is
developed and defended in an original manner. He
begins by separating value in use from value in ex-
change. Value in use is utility, arising from the
adaptation of an article to satisfy some human need.
Air, water, sunshine, wheat, potatoes, gold, and dia-
monds are examples. It does not necessarily imply
exchange value. Many goods are very useful but not
exchangeable, because they are free to all. Such is
the case, usually, with water. On the other hand, no
good can have value in exchange unless it is useful.
Men will not give something for that which satisfies
no want or need. Both value in use and value in ex-
change are utilities, but, as they differ, there must be
some element in the one which the other does not per
se contain. We find what that is by analyzing the
constituent elements of different goods which possess
exchange value. How can we compare them? Only
because they contain some common element. But
what is there in common between a horse and a
house? You cannot say that this stick is longer than
that sugar is sweet. Yet you say this house is worth
ten times as much as that horse. Materials are not
compared, nor stability with swiftness, nor color with
color. The common element is found alone in human
*"Das Kapital," 2te Aufl. S. 793.
KARL MARX.
179
labor. You compare labor with labor. It requires ten
times the amount of average social labor (gesellschaft-
liche Durchschnittsarbeitskraft) to secure such a house
as it does to put one in possession of such a horse.
Labor-time is the measure which we apply to differ-
ent commodities in order to compare them. We mean
thereby the ordinary average labor which is required
at a given time in a given society. The average man
is taken as a basis, together with the average advan-
tages of machinery and the arts. This is average so-
cial labor-time. Complicated labor is simply a mul-
tiple of simple labor. One man's labor, which has
required long and careful training, may count for twice
as much as ordinary, simple labor; but the simple la-
bor is the unit.
This distinction between value in use and value in
exchange enables us to understand how capitalists ex-
ploit their laborers. They pay for labor its exchange
value, which depends upon the cost of labor or the
standard of life of the laborer, as we have already
seen in our examination of Rodbertus's system. What
it takes to support a laborer's family is the exchange
value of all the labor which can be got out of that
family.
Let us suppose that a laborer requires each day
goods whose value is denoted by A, each week in ad-
dition thereto goods denoted by B, besides quarterly
needs which are satisfied by goods whose value is C.
Then his support for each day will require the value of
365 A + 52 B + 4 C*
365
Now, if it requires six hours to produce these goods,
"Das Kapital," S. 158.
180
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
the laborer is producing surplus value if he labors
more than that time. This the capitalist requires him to
do, as he has hired his entire labor power. Under these
circumstances, the laborer who works twelve hours a
day for his employer is paid for six hours' work, while
he is robbed of the product of the other six hours' la-
bor. The capitalist is able to do this because he pos-
sesses the means of production. The laborer would
gladly work without recourse to the capitalist, but he
has not the means, the instruments with which to pro-
duce. He must accede to the terms of the capitalist
or starve. The capitalist goes on the market and
finds there the commodity, labor, for which he pays
its value in exchange, as for any other commodity.
But value in use does not depend upon value in ex-
change. The value in use of labor to the capitalist is
all that he can squeeze out of it. The capitalist pock-
ets the surplus value, and it becomes capital, enabling
him to continue and enlarge his process of exploitation.
Let the line,
-b⋅ C,
represent the labor of twelve hours, b dividing it into
two equal parts; ab is necessary labor; b——c is un-
paid labor productive of surplus value. It is the cap-
italist's interest to extend bc as much as possible, as
that governs his accumulations. Hence, the efforts of
employers to increase the length of a day's labor;
hence, the efforts of employees to shorten a—c, as
they thereby diminish the amount of unpaid labor,
of whose value they are robbed.
(6
This enables us to comprehend the significance of
Marx's definition of capital, which is as follows: A
negro is a negro. In certain relations he becomes a
slave. A cotton-spinning-machine is a machine for
a-
KARL MARX.
181
Ma
spinning cotton. It becomes capital only in certain
relations. Capital is a social relation existing in the
processes of production. It is an historical relation.
The means of production are not capital when they
are the property of the immediate producer. They
become capital only under conditions, in which they
serve at the same time as the means of exploiting and
ruling the laborer. . . . The foundation of the capi-
talistic method of production is to be found in that
theft which deprived the masses of their rights in the
soil, in the earth, the common heritage of all."* That
is to say, Marx limits the name capital to economic
goods in the hands of employers.
The capitalist buys the commodity labor (7), for mon-
ey (m), and sells its product for more money (m+).
The formula of capitalistic production is therefore
m-l-m+. In the socialistic state, the +, surplus
value, vanishes. The entire product belongs to the
producer. If he exchanges it for other products by
means of money which must be based on labor-time
-labor-time money—the formula will be c
Money becomes simply a medium of exchanging com-
modities (c) of equal value. The only source, then, of
obtaining the fruits of labor will be labor, physical
or mental, but always labor of some kind or another.
Idlers will disappear from the earth. The race of
parasites will become extinct.
C.
One of Marx's most important doctrines is his the-
ory of crises. During prosperous times manufacturers
employ all the men, women, and children who will
work. The laboring classes prosper, marriage is en-
couraged, and population increases. Suddenly there.
* Quoted by Knies in "Das Geld," S. 53.
772
S
182
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
comes a commercial crisis. The greater part of the
laborers are thrown out of employment, and are main-
tained by society at large; that is, the general public
has to bear the burden of keeping the laborers—the
manufacturer's tools-for their employer until he may
need them again. These laborers without work consti-
tute an army of reserve forces for the manufacturer.
When times begin to improve, he again gradually re-
sumes business, and becomes more prosperous. The la-
borer's wages have previously been reduced on account
of hard times, and the manufacturer is not obliged to
raise them, as there is a whole army in waiting, glad
to take work at any price. "If a surplus labor popu-
lation is a necessary result of the accumulation or the
development of wealth on a capitalistic basis, this sur-
plus population is in turn a lever of capitalistic accu-
mulation. It forms an always ready, industrial re-
serve army which belongs as absolutely to capital as
if it had been at the expense of raising it. . . . Surplus
capital presses forward with frenzy into all established
branches of production, whose market suddenly widens,
and into new ones, as railroads, etc., the need of which
springs from this development. In all such cases must
large masses of men suddenly, and without loss to the
leaders of production in other places, be ready to be
employed at the important point. These masses are
furnished by the surplus population.'
"*
"Das Kapital," SS. 656, 657.
INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 183
CHAPTER XI.
THE INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION.
THE International Workingmen's Association (In-
ternationale Arbeiterassociation) is a society based on
social democratic principles, and intended to embrace
all the laborers of Christendom. The International-
ists believe that working-men, having nothing to hope
from the higher classes, must fight out their own eman-
cipation. They hold, also, that the interests of labor
throughout the civilized world are so vitally connected,
that it is necessary for all lands to march together.
They are thoroughgoing cosmopolitans.
The following permanent "statutes" (by-laws) were
adopted at its first meeting in London, September, 1864,
and confirmed at its congress in Geneva in 1866:
'In consideration that the emancipation of the laboring classes
must be accomplished by the laboring classes, that the battle for the
emancipation of the laboring classes does not signify a battle for
class privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and duties, and
the abolition of class rule;
'That the economic dependence of the laboring man upon the mo-
nopolist of the implements of work, the sources of life, forms the
basis of every kind of servitude, of social misery, of spiritual degra-
dation, and political dependence;
((
That, therefore, the economic emancipation of the laboring classes
is the great end to which every political movement must be subordi-
nated as a simple auxiliary;
"That all exertions which, up to this time, have been directed towards
the attainment of this end, have failed on account of the want of
184
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
solidarity between the various branches of labor in every land, and
by reason of the absence of a brotherly bond of unity between the
laboring classes of different countries;
"That the emancipation of labor is neither a local nor a national,
but a social, problem, which embraces all countries in which modern
society exists, and whose solution depends upon the practical and
theoretical co-operation of the most advanced lands;
((
'That the present awakening of the laboring classes in the indus-
trial lands of Europe gives occasion for new hope, but at the same
time contains a solemn warning not to fall back into old errors, and
demands an immediate union of the movements not yet united;
“—————, in consideration of all these circumstances, the First Inter-
national Labor Congress declares that the International Working-
men's Association, and all societies and individuals belonging to it,
recognize truth, right, and morality as the basis of their conduct
towards one another and their fellow-men, without respect to color,
creed, or nationality. This congress regards it as the duty of man
to demand the rights of a man and citizen, not only for himself, but
for every one who does his duty. No rights without duties; no du-
ties without rights."
The International resolved to hold yearly congress-
es. Its members have met at Geneva at least twice,
at Basle, at Lausanne, at the Hague, and other places.
It is not necessary to give the history of these differ-
ent meetings, as they were all of one general charac-
ter. Their importance consists in the repeated em-
phasis given to the thought of the oneness of the in-
terests of laborers in all civilized states. Delegates
at the congresses gave reports of progress, of strikes,
reductions in labor-time, and of all matters likely to
interest the working classes. Measures for continuing
the propaganda more successfully were discussed. The
* A good account is given in Rudolf Meyer's "Emancipations-
kampf," etc., Bd. i. SS. 93-174. The Frenchman Villetard has written
a "History of the International," which was translated into English by
Susan M. Day, and published in New Haven in 1874.
INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 185
congress at the Hague in 1872 is more important than
the others, as it witnessed a split in the ranks of the
Internationalists. The original International stood
under the influence of Marx, who was the guiding
spirit of its general council, with its seat at London.
The whole arrangement was that of a strong govern-
ment. Some were envious of Marx, and others—the
Anarchists-objected to the principles of the organiza-
tion. Bakounine led the opposition, and a new Inter-
national was formed, based on anarchic principles. In-
stead of a General Council, they instituted a Federal
Council. The Internationalists of the country where
the next congress was to be held carried on the corre-
spondence with the various societies, gathered statis-
tics, etc. Thus, their leading body, their central organ
(not authority), changed from year to year. Each
land was left free to conduct its agitation in its own
way, and every individual atom, i. e., local organiza-
tion, was left free to come and go as it pleased.
The
Anarchists, and other adherents of this newer branch,
made strenuous efforts to spread their organization, and
were particularly successful in Spain, where Bakou-
nine was their representative. Both Internationals
held congresses in Geneva in 1873.
It is often supposed that the International is dead.
This is a great mistake. The formal organization of
the old International was dissolved in 1875; but the
original spirit survived. I am much inclined to think
that the association founded by Bakounine has still
a formal organization, but, however that may be, the
International to all intents and purposes is stronger
to-day than it ever was before.
Membership in the International is one of the con-
ditions of membership in the revolutionary organiza-
186
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
tion of the Black Hand in Spain.* Prince Krapot-
kine and others were this year condemned to impris-
onment for belonging to an International Association
of Laborers, and to-day organizations are being formed
in America, with the title of Branches of the Inter-
national Association of Laborers. At the great mass
meeting held in Cooper Union to honor the memory
of Karl Marx, March 19, 1883, speeches were delivered
in English, German, Russian, and other languages, to
illustrate the spirit of the International, and to im-
press upon laborers the fact that at such a time no
differences existed between them due to the accident
of nationality. One of the speakers declared trium-
phantly to the audience that the spectacle they were
then witnessing was conclusive proof that the Inter-
national still lived. He was right.
The International has caused the governments of
Europe no inconsiderable alarm at various times, and
it is likely that its importance has been overrated.
Still it must be acknowledged that the existence of
such a society, presided over by a man of undoubted
ability, spreading itself over Europe and America,
was in itself a significant fact. Its importance must
by no means be estimated by the number of its de-
clared adherents or the attendance at its congresses.
Where one laborer avows himself openly an Inter-
nationalist, we may be sure that there are twenty
holding like views who conceal them from motives of
policy. Moreover, the society is still in its infancy.
It may yet play a rôle in the world's history.
At present, the International appears like a little.
* Vide De Laveleye's "European Terror (Fortnightly Review,
- April, 1883).
""
INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 187
cloud on the horizon, no larger than a man's hand, but
it is possible that it points to growths and formations
which in the future shall darken the heavens with
black and heavy clouds. It is possible, it foreshadows
a tragedy of world-wide import, which shall make all
the cruelty and terror of the French Revolution sink
into utter insignificance. It is possible, it portends
the destruction of old, antiquated institutions, and the
birth of a new civilization in a night of darkness and
horror, in which the roll of thunder shall shake the
earth's foundations, and the vivid glare of lightning
shall reveal a carnival of bloodshed and slaughter.
These are all possibilities, but let us trust that they
are not probabilities. The International Working-
men's Association is one of many signs which gives us
reason to hope for a continued growth of international
relations; and this growth may terminate in that
longed-for internationalism, which shall lead to the
formation of a world- organization, guaranteeing to
the nations of the earth perpetual peace. There are
numerous evidences of this development, of which the
following are a few examples; the international post-
al union, international congresses, international courts
of arbitration, and the efforts to establish international
factory legislation. It was once hoped that free-trade.
would help on the good work by knitting nation to
nation so firmly that they would realize the identity
of their interests. In this people have been disap-
pointed. Free-trade has united, perhaps, a few great
merchants and manufacturers, and led to cosmopolitan
feelings among the wealthier classes. The masses
have never been affected by questions of international
commerce. It may be that an international union be-
tween the laborers of all lands will finally force upon
188
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
men the recognition of the folly and crime of war, and
will bring to pass that peace and good-will among
men prophesied so long ago. Would not that be a
grand regeneration of this old world, nay, may I not
say, a new creation, not less glorious than that earlier
one, "when the morning stars sang together, and all
the sons of God shouted for joy”?
FERDINAND LASSALLE.
189
CHAPTER XII.
FERDINAND LASSALLE.
THE most interesting figure in the history of social
democracy is incontestably Ferdinand Lassalle. In
some respects he resembled Marx. He also was of
Hebrew descent, and belonged to the higher classes of
society. Both were interested in the welfare of the
lower classes, and made sacrifices willingly in behalf
of their cause. Both intended to become university
professors, and there is not the shadow of a reason to
doubt that both might have succeeded as such. Las-
salle, the son of a wealthy wholesale merchant of
Breslau, was born in 1825. His father wished him to
devote himself to business, but Lassalle was too fond
of his studies to consent. He went to the univer-
sities of Breslau and Berlin, where he devoted himself
to philology and philosophy. His career as a student.
was brilliant in the extreme. The most distinguished
men of the time were carried away with admiration.
Wilhelm von Humboldt called him "Das Wunderkind”
"The Miraculous Child." His first literary work
was an exposition of the "Philosophy of Heraclitus
the Obscure.”* "Before this book," to use the words
of another, "Humboldt and the whole world bent
* “Die Philosophie Heracleitos des Dunkeln," 2 Bde. On account
of his absorption in the celebrated Hatzfeldt case for eight years, it
was not published until 1858.
190
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
the knee." Lassalle's second important work was one
on a system of jurisprudence entitled, "The System
of Acquired Rights"-"Das System der erworbenen
Rechte" (2 Bde.). The great jurist Savigny called it
the ablest legal book which had been written since
the sixteenth century. It was published in 1861. Be-
fore this, Lassalle had become interested in the case
of the Countess von Hatzfeldt, the misused wife of a
wealthy but brutal man. While he was indulging in
the most extravagant dissipation, she was obliged to
live in cramped circumstances. The Countess had
begun a suit against her husband for separation and
alimony, but did not make much headway until Las-
salle took charge of the case, in 1846. After an eight
years' contest, he secured a brilliant triumph. The
Countess, although over forty, was still beautiful, and
Lassalle, in taking up her case, appears to have been
actuated by the same motives as the knights-errant
of an earlier period who went about redressing wrong
and protecting the weak. The entire affair is illus-
trative of his fiery, romantic temperament.
It was in 1862 that Lassalle began his agitation in
behalf of the laboring classes, an agitation which re-
sulted in the formation of the German Social Demo-
cratic Party. Previous to his time, German laborers.
had been considered contented and peaceable. It had
been thought that a working-men's party might be es-
tablished in France or England, but that it was hope-
less to attempt to move the phlegmatic German labor-
ers. Lassalle's historical importance lies in the fact
that he was able to work upon the laborers so power-
fully as to arouse them to action. It is due to Las-
salle above all others that German working-men's bat-
talions, to use the social democratic expression, now
FERDINAND LASSALLE.
191
form the vanguard in the struggle for the emancipa-
tion of labor.
Lassalle's writings did not advance materially the
theory of social democracy. He drew from Rodbertus
and Marx in his economic writings, but he clothed
their thoughts in such manner as to enable ordinary
laborers to understand them, and this they never could
have done without such help. Even for an educated
man their works are not easy reading; for the un-
educated they are quite incomprehensible. Lassalle's
speeches and pamphlets were eloquent sermons on
texts taken from Marx. Lassalle gave to Ricardo's
law of wages the designation, the iron law of wages,
and expounded to the laborers its full significance,
showing them how it inevitably forced wages down
to a level just sufficient to enable them to live. He
acknowledged that it was the key-stone of his system,
and that his doctrines stood or fell with it.
Laborers were told that this law could be over-
thrown only by the abolition of the wages system.
How Lassalle really thought this was to be accom-
plished is not so evident. He proposed to the laborers
that government should aid them by the use of its cred-
it to the extent of 100,000,000 of thalers, to establish
co-operative associations for production; and a great
deal of breath has been wasted to show the inade-
quacy of his proposed measures. Lassalle could not
himself have supposed that so insignificant a mat-
ter as the granting of a small loan would solve the
labor question. He recognized, however, that it was
necessary to have some definite party programme to
insure success in agitation, and could think of no bet-
ter plan at the time than to work for universal suf-
frage and a government subsidy. He wrote to his
192
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
friend Rodbertus to the effect that he was willing to
drop the latter plank in his platform, if something
better could be suggested.* It would be going too
far to say that he was positively insincere, for he might
have thought that if government had voted the pro-
posed credit of one hundred millions, it would have
opened the way for other reforms. He might have
regarded this modest proposal merely as an entering
wedge.
Lassalle took this project of productive co-operative
associations founded on government loans from Louis
Blanc, with whose work he was well acquainted; in-
deed, as he began his agitation, he wrote to the French
socialist, and requested some kind of an open letter of
recognition which should give him credit with the
laborers. We may get some clew to thoughts pos-
sibly lingering in the background, which Lassalle
might have intended to express later by recalling the
proposals of the Frenchman. Louis Blanc, as will be
remembered, wished government to use its power of
taxation to assist the social workshops with large ad-
vances of money, for which no interest was to be
charged. No one was to be forced to join these
ateliers sociaux. According to this scheme private
manufacturers are allowed to continue their busi-
ness as long as they choose. However, as no in-
terest is paid for the government loans to the co-
* Vide "Briefe von Lassalle und Carl Rodbertus-Jagetzow, mit
einer Einleitung von Adolf Wagner" (Berlin, 1878), SS. 44, 67, 71,
72.
This matter was referred by Louis Blanc to Karl Blind, who ad-
vised him to not grant the request, as he had no faith in Lassalle,
believing that he intended from the start to "sell out" to Bismarck.
Vide article on Louis Blanc, in Die Gegenwart, 6. Januar, 1883.
FERDINAND LASSALLE.
193
operative undertakings, the public establishments will
be in a position to undersell private employers of
labor and thus compel them to fall in line. The
only possible termination is the socialistic state. As
Lassalle was thoroughly informed concerning Blanc's
ideas, it is quite possible that in the course of time
he may have intended to go equally far. The way
he presented the matter to the laborers was some-
what as follows: There exists at present a conflict
between labor and capital, which must be abolished.
This contradiction between the elements of produc-
tion can only be terminated by their union in co-
operative associations, in which no capitalist comes
between the working-man and the fruits of his toil, to
levy toll thereon. But at the present time only large
establishments can succeed, as the increased division
of labor makes it necessary to employ a large force
of men, and mechanical inventions have forced pro-
ducers to use many and expensive machines. The
laborers have not the means to found large manufac-
tories; consequently government must advance these
means in order to cause the existing and unhappy so-
cial conflict to cease. Government is to advance capi-
tal to different groups of laborers, who conduct vari-
ous enterprises. These groups are associated, new
ones are continually added, and, finally, their united
power is so great that they can stand alone without
government aid.
This all appears harmless enough, and no govern-
ment would be justified in refusing 100,000,000 of tha-
lers, or $75,000,000, if so much good could be done
by it. But one of the ablest men of his time must
have been fully conscious of the utter insufficiency of
such a sum. If he had any other idea in his mind
13
194
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
than simply to use his demand of government as a
rallying-point for purposes of agitation, it cannot well
be doubted that he had further petitions to address
to government as soon as they had granted his first
one. It is not at all improbable he might have been
willing to see collateral inheritances abolished, and
the income derived therefrom devoted to co-operative
undertakings. Proposals, like abolition of interest on
loans, must have followed, with the view of rendering
private competition impossible. Thus would be intro-
duced the socialistic state longed for by the social
democratic party founded by Lassalle.
"On the 23d of May, 1863, German social democ-
racy was born. Little importance was attached to the
event at the time. A few men met at Leipsic, and,
under the leadership of Ferdinand Lassalle, formed a
new political party called the 'Universal German
Laborers' Union' ('Der Allgemeine Deutsche Ar-
beiterverein '). That was all. Surely, no one could
be expected to ascribe great weight to the fact that a
handful of working-men, led by a dreamer, had met
and passed a few resolutions-resolutions, too, as mod-
est in their expression of purpose as they were harm-
less in appearance. It was simply declared that the
laborers ought to be represented in the different Ger-
man parliaments, as only thus could their interests be
adequately cared for and the opposition between the va-
rious classes of society terminated; and in view of this
fact it was resolved that the members of the Union
should avail themselves of all peaceful and legal means
in endeavoring to bring about universal suffrage.
"But it was soon discovered that the members of
the Union, the first organization in Germany of social
democracy, desired political power only as a means of
FERDINAND LASSALLE.
195
overthrowing entirely the existing order of the pro-
duction and distribution of wealth."*
Lassalle never tired of representing in vivid colors
the injustice of our present social institutions. The
crimes, selfishness, and heartlessness of the bourgeoisie
were unfailing topics in his agitation. The laborers
were told that they had no right to be contented with
their lot. It is this damnable, easily satisfied disposi-
tion of you German laborers which is your ruin, they
were told.f
"The German laborer was finally moved. His an-
ger and discontent became permanent and terrible in
proportion as it had been difficult to arouse him. He
was not to be easily pacified. He soon showed strength
and determination in such manner as to attract the
attention of the civilized world. Statesmen grew pale
and kings trembled." I
Lassalle did not live to see the fruits of his labors.
He met with some success and celebrated a few tri-
umphs, but the Union did not flourish as he hoped.
At the time of his death he did not appear to have a
firm, lasting hold on the laboring population. There
then existed no social-democratic party with political
power. Although Lassalle lost his life in a duel, which
had its origin in a love affair, and not in any struggle
for the rights of labor, he was canonized at once by
the working-men, and took his place among the great-
est martyrs and heroes of all times. His influence in-
creased more than tenfold as soon as he ceased to live.
* Quoted from my article on "Bismarck's Plan for Insuring Ger-
man Laborers" (International Review, May, 1882).
+ Vide Lassalle's "Ronsdorfer Rede," held May 22, 1864, and pub-
lished in Berlin.
See first note above.
196
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
This was not entirely undeserved. Men remembered
and appreciated better his extraordinary talents and
his ardent, romantic temperament. Even Bismarck,
with whom he had been personally acquainted, took
occasion once, in the Reichstag, to express his admira-
tion for Lassalle. I was in Germany at the time, and
remember well what a sensation his words created.
He expressed himself as follows:* * "I met Lassalle
three or four times. Our relations were not of a po-
litical nature. Politically he had nothing which he
could offer me. He attracted me extraordinarily as a
private man. Lassalle was one of the most gifted and
amiable men with whom I have ever associated-a
man who was ambitious on a grand scale, but not the
least of a republican. He had a very marked inclina-
tion towards a national monarchy; the idea towards
the attainment of which his efforts were directed was
the German Empire, and in this we found a point of
Lassalle was ambitious on a grand scale,
and whether the German Empire should close with
the house of Hohenzollern or the house of Lassalle,
that was perhaps doubtful; but his sympathies were
through and through monarchical. . Lassalle was
an energetic and exceedingly clever man, and it was
always instructive to talk with him. Our conversa-
tions have lasted for hours, and I have always regret-
ted their close. It would have given me great
pleasure to have had a similarly gifted man for a
neighbor in my country home."
contact.
It has, indeed, been stated that Lassalle, at the
time of his death, had some thoughts of making terms
•
•
* On the 17th of September, 1878. I translate Bismarck's words
as given in his "Ausgewählte Reden," Bd. iii. SS. 131, 132.
FERDINAND LASSALLE.
197
with the Prussian government. He was to come out
as a supporter of Bismarck, and to receive a high ap-
pointment in return. I am unable to say how much
truth there may be in this report. It is possible he
may have begun to lose faith in social democracy ;
still it must be confessed that he was not a man to be
easily diverted from a purpose which he had once
formed. This is abundantly shown by his indomita-
ble perseverance in the case of the Countess von Hatz-
feldt. It is nevertheless significant that the second
edition of his "System of Acquired Rights," which
appeared in 1881, was edited by Lothar Bucher, who
bears the title of privy-councillor and holds a high
position under the government in Berlin.
There are three doctrines upon which the social
democratic leaders lay especial stress in their attacks
on the economic institutions of to-day.
The first is "Das eherne Lohngesetz "—"The Iron
Law of Wages "—or “Cruel Iron Law of Wages," as
it is also called. It is with this law that the name of
Lassalle is especially connected.
The second doctrine teaches the systematic robbery
of laborers by capitalists. They rob them by taking
from them all the surplus value which they produce,
over and above the means necessary to sustain life.
This is Marx's doctrine of the appropriation of sur-
plus value (Mehrwerth) by employers.
The third doctrine is Marx's theory of industrial
crises and panics.
What is "The Iron Law of Wages"? . It is, as al-
ready stated, only Lassalle's statement and interpreta-
tion of Ricardo's "Law of Wages." Ricardo expresses
his law in these words: "The natural price of labor
is that price which is necessary to enable the laborers,
198
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
one with another, to subsist and to perpetuate their
race, without either increase or diminution." Ricardo
has previously explained what is to be understood by
market price and what by natural price. Market price
is the price actually obtained for an article; the natural
price is that which pays labor and the profits of capi-
tal. Through miscalculation, too much or too little
of a commodity is at times offered on the market, and
it departs from its natural price. If too little is of-
fered, profits will be too high, and capital will rush to
the production of the commodity in order to gain the
unusual profits, until competition forces them down
to the usual rate, or, very likely, below it, when capi-
tal will be withdrawn from the production of said
commodity. So the market price fluctuates about the
natural price with a continual tendency to return to
it. Now, labor is a commodity, and may be increased
or diminished in quantity like other commodities. In
an advancing state of society the market price will be
above the natural price, and may continue so for a
long time; but early and frequent marriages and
large families will produce all the labor required, and
reduce it to its natural price eventually. In a declin-
ing state of society, on the other hand, labor would
sink below its natural price, and the supply would di-
minish on account of frequent deaths, few marriages,
and small families.
This law of wages may be difficult for those to
comprehend who are not thoroughly familiar with
economic discussions. In order to make it clearer, I
will quote, with a few changes and abbreviations,
a passage of some length from John Stuart Mill,*
* "Political Economy," bk. ii. chap. xi. sec. 2.
FERDINAND LASSALLE.
199
""
giving a lucid explanation of the law. "Mr. Ri-
cardo assumes," says Mill, "that there is every-
where a minimum rate of wages-either the lowest
with which it is physically possible to keep up the
population, or the lowest with which the people will
choose to do. To this minimum he assumes that the
general rate of wages always tends; that they can
never be lower beyond the length of time required
for a diminished rate of increase to make itself felt,
and can never long continue higher. This assumption
contains sufficient truth to render it admissible for the
purposes of abstract science. . . . But in the applica-
tion to practice it is necessary to consider that the
minimum of which he speaks, especially when it is not
a physical, but what may be termed a moral minimum,
is itself liable to vary. A rise of the price of food
will permanently lower the standard of living of la-
borers, "in case their previous habits in respect of
population prove stronger than their previous habits
in respect of comfort. In that case the injury done
to them will be permanent, and their deteriorated con-
dition will become a new minimum, tending to perpet-
uate itself as the more ample minimum did before."
It is to be feared that this is the way in which a rise
in the price of provisions usually operates. "There is
considerable evidence that the circumstances of the
agricultural laborers in England have more than once
in our history sustained great permanent deteriora-
tion from causes which operated by diminishing the
demand for labor, and which, if population had exer-
cised its power of self-adjustment, in obedience to the
previous standard of comfort, could only have had a
temporary effect; but, unhappily, the poverty in which
the class was plunged during a long series of years.
200
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
brought that previous standard into disuse, and the
next generation, growing up without having possessed
those pristine comforts, multiplied in turn without
any attempt to retrieve them." . . . The salutary effect
of a fall in the price of food is of no permanent value
"if laborers content themselves with enjoying the
greater comfort while it lasts, but do not learn to re-
quire it. . . . If from poverty their children had pre-
viously been insufficiently fed or improperly nursed,
a greater number will now be reared, and the compe-
tition of these, when they grow up, will depress wages
probably in full proportion to the greater cheapness
of food. If the effect is not produced in this mode,
it will be produced by earlier and more numerous
marriages, or by an increased number of births to a
marriage." I believe Mill renders the law as plain as
it can be made, without entering into subjects foreign
to this work. The standpoint is this: labor is a com-
modity, like wheat or potatoes, which is increased or
decreased according to the existing demand. The la-
borers live not for themselves, but solely for the high-
er classes, in particular, for the capitalists. This is
the way Lassalle expresses it to the laborers of Frank-
fort in an eloquent speech, which has not yet ceased
to be a power in Germany: "What is the consequence
of that law, which, as I have proved to you, is accepted
by all political economists? What is the consequence
of the same? I ask. You believe, perhaps, laborers
and fellow-citizens, that you are human beings-that
you are men. Speaking from the standpoint of politi-
cal economy, you make a terrible mistake. Speaking
from the standpoint of political economy, you are
nothing but a commodity, a high price for which in-
creases your numbers, just the same as a high price
FERDINAND LASSALLE.
201
for stockings increases the number of stockings, if
there are not enough of them; and you are swept
away, your number is diminished by smaller wages-
by what Malthus calls the preventive and positive
checks to population; your number is diminished, just
as if you were vermin against which society wages
war.”
." Lassalle then shows them how much shorter
the average of life is among the laboring classes than
among the wealthy. He demonstrates to them that
poor and insufficient food means starvation. "There
are, gentlemen," says he, "two ways of dying of star-
vation. It, indeed, happens seldom that a man falls
down dead in a moment from hunger; but when a
man is subjected to a greater expenditure of power
than he is able to replace, on account of poor food or
a miserable mode of life-when he gives out more
physical energy than he takes in-then, I say, he dies
of slow starvation."
Rehearse this in a thousand different ways and with
all the resources of oratorical art, to laborers really ill-
fed, ill-housed, and ill-clothed, and you shall indeed
find yourself soon standing upon a volcano, whose
forces are no longer latent and slumbering.
In his definition of capital Lassalle clothes the same
thought contained in his "Iron Law of Wages" in
other words. The definition reads as follows: "
Cap-
ital exists where a division of labor obtains and where
production consists in the creation of values in ex-
change, and in such a system of production it is the
advance of labor already performed (congealed, coag-
ulated labor), which is necessary to sustain the life of
the producer. This advance of coagulated labor brings
it to pass that the excess of labor's product over and
above what is necessary to support the life of the pro-
202
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
ducer accrues to the person or persons who made the
advance."
The more one reflects upon this definition, the more
meaning is discovered in it. It has furnished the text
for many a social-democratic sermon. Like Marx, Las-
salle holds that capital is based on a theft-on that theft,
namely, "which deprived the masses of their right in
the soil, in the earth-the common heritage of all."
It is substantially the same doctrine which we have
met with so often-viz., that labor alone is the source
of wealth, and if capitalist and landlord could be swept
out of existence the entire social product would go to
the laborer. It resulted from a one-sided development
of certain teachings of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Na-
tions." "The produce of labor," says Adam Smith,
in one place and, as will be seen, he means the en-
tire product-" constitutes the natural recompense or
wages of labor.
"In that original state of things which precedes
both the appropriation of land and the accumulation of
stock, the whole produce of labor belongs to the la-
borer. He has neither landlord nor master to share
with him.
"Had this state continued, the wages of labor
would have augmented with all those improvements
in its productive powers to which the division of labor
gives occasion. All things would gradually have be-
come cheaper. They would have been produced by a
smaller quantity of labor; and as the commodities
produced by equal quantities of labor would naturally,
in this state of things, be exchanged for one another,
they would have been purchased likewise with the
produce of a smaller quantity."
"*
*Bk. i. ch. viii.
FERDINAND LASSALLE.
203
Repeat this to the man toiling and moiling for a
bare subsistence, while he crouches before the em-
ploying capitalist surfeited in luxury; or to the poor
tenant farmer, whose half-starved family can hardly
find the wherewithal to cover their nakedness, while
his absentee landlord indulges in the extravagant
pleasures of a gay capital—and do you imagine that
from it he will be slow to draw a very natural conclu-
sion, and one fraught with tremendous practical con-
sequences? If that originally and naturally belonged
to him which another now enjoys, will he not long to
return to the state of nature? As he reflects upon his
wrongs and sufferings, will he not be filled with hatred
towards that one who, as he thinks, unjustly and cruel-
ly keeps him from the fruits of his labor? And as
time goes on, and the hardships he endures sink more
and more deeply into his mind, will he not finally, in
desperation, resolve to put down his oppressor, be he
landlord or be he capitalist, and to reverse, by the
force of a strong right arm, an unnatural and artificial
social organization ?
In that thought and in that determination origi-
nated social democracy.
204
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE IDEAL OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY.
SOCIAL democrats form the extreme wing of the
socialists, though, at present, many of them are in-
clined to lay so much stress on equality of enjoyment,
regardless of the value of one's labor, that they might,
perhaps, more properly be called communists. But
as they are usually known as social democrats, and as
the name is not likely to lead to misunderstanding,
there is no reason why we should not adhere to the
ordinary appellation, especially as there are those
among them who do not favor equality. They ought
scarcely to be called simply socialists.
They have two distinguishing characteristics. The
vast majority of them are laborers, and, as a rule, they
expect the violent overthrow of existing institutions
by revolution to precede the introduction of the so-
cialistic state. I would not, by any means, say that
they are all revolutionists, but the most of them un-
doubtedly are. The tendency of their popular writ-
ings is revolutionary. They are calculated to accus-
tom the thoughts to revolution, and to excite the
feelings of laborers to such a pitch as to prepare them
for risking all in battle. If one of their prominent
organs, as, for example, Their People's Calendar (Der
arme Conrad-"The Poor Conrad") for 1878, is ex-
amined, one finds revolution mentioned frequently,
THE IDEAL OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY.
205
and invariably in such manner as to popularize revo-
lution as revolution. Even the most exceptionable
doings of the masses in the French Revolution, in the
revolutions of 1848, and in the insurrection of the
commune in 1871, are glorified. Every fallen labor-
er becomes a hero and a martyr. Hitherto the people
-so the readers of the Arme Conrad are told-have
fought for others, but the next time they engage in
battle it will be for themselves, and they will then
obtain their well-earned wages.
The most general demands of the social democrats
are the following: The state should exist exclusively
for the laborers; land and capital must become col-
lective property, and production be carried on united-
ly. Private competition, in the ordinary sense of the
term, is to cease. Officers, especially charged with
this function, are, by means of carefully collected
statistics, to regulate production according to the
needs of the people. Our present money is to be re-
placed by money representing labor units; labor is to
become the sole purchasing power. One of the par-
ty programmes requires a distribution of products ac-
cording to the needs of each recipient. Some of the
planks of the social democratic platforms would find
sympathy with the best people in America and Eng-
land. So, for example, their unceasing demand that
even the present state should forbid work on Sunday,
the employment of very young children, and labor in-
jurious to the health and morality of working-women.
Social democrats have never failed to recognize the
advantages of education and the need of improved
methods of instruction. Their cry, as that of all
popular leaders, is to increase the appropriations for
educational purposes. It is unfortunately significant.
206
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
that while in America proposals to decrease the pitia-
ble salaries of school-teachers and otherwise diminish
school expenses are often calmly and favorably list-
ened to by even the poorer people, in Germany not
popular politician or newspaper would dare advocate
such measures. Every project for increasing the
school appropriations is there regarded with favor by
the great masses of the people.
Even now, despite the movement of the party, as a
whole, towards communism, many of the best edu-
cated and most intelligent of the social democrats
are, no doubt, socialistically, rather than communisti-
cally, inclined. I am speaking here not of the pro-
fessional agitators—those who make the most noise.
These classes control the social democratic conven-
tions, and since the death of Lassalle they have
approached more and more nearly to the purest com-
munism. By those who are socialistically inclined, I
mean such members of the party as do not think of
all as occupying like positions in the socialistic state,
but expect it will be organized more on the plan of
an army. It is, in fact, on this account that so many
social democrats look with complacency on the great
standing armies of modern times, which include every
able-bodied man in their service for a considerable
period of his life. They are training-schools for the
future social organization. It will thus be seen that
emulation and rivalry are provided for, as at present
in the army. Those who serve society best will be
promoted. The higher officers will receive larger sal-
aries than the lower, while the rank and file will cor-
respond to the laborers of to-day. Industry and in-
telligence will enable one to rise, but there will be
no heaping up of PRIVATE productive property from
THE IDEAL OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY.
207
generation to generation, for all the means of pro-
duction will be in the hands of the state—that is, of
society collectively. Property which will not enable
one to avoid labor, as books, pictures, statuary, all
sorts of ornaments, household furniture, etc., will re-
main private property, and be transmitted from fa-
ther to son. The children of the higher orders of
society will, of course, still enjoy, to a certain extent,
superior advantages, inasmuch as they usually inherit
greater talents, besides receiving the inestimable ad-
vantage of the personal training of gifted and highly
educated parents. Fathers and mothers, it might be
expected, would take more care than at present in
bringing up their children, knowing that their social
rank depended entirely on their ability to make them-
selves useful to society.
In a state like Prussia, where there is now a splen-
did civil service, the office-holders are often children
of office-holding fathers-are, in fact, not rarely de-
scended from families which have held office for gen-
erations.* The offices are open to universal competi-
tion, and are kept in the same families only by the
exertions of the children and the self-denial of parents,
in expending a large part of their incomes in giving
them the best possible advantages. This might be ex-
pected to continue to a considerable extent in the ideal
socialistic state. No one could, however, leave his
children much else than personal talents and abilities
well developed, save such articles of enjoyment as
have been mentioned-paintings, old family plate, etc.
Houses, lands, shops, machines, and everything which
yields an income, belong to the socialistic state. No
* Beamten familie is a common expression.
208
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
one could be left in such a position as to avoid exer-
tion of some kind. All are thought of as workers, but
not what we call common laborers. There would be
artists, writers, physicians, etc., as now.
If any child
of even the poorest member of society should give
satisfactory evidence of any special aptitude or talent
which might be developed so as to become useful to
society, provision would be made for his special train-
ing after leaving the common - school. Every one
would have an opportunity to attain the highest de-
velopment of which he was capable. Those who were
meant by nature for wood-choppers would not lead an
idle life of dissipation, consuming the fruits of other
people's labor.
It is supposed that there would be no financial pan-
ics, with their terrible consequences, in the socialistic
state. Indeed, if the socialistic ideas could be carried
out, panics would be impossible. Every new inven-
tion, every advance, would accrue to the benefit of all.
The greater the product, the greater the value of
each day's labor; and each one would receive the full
product of his labor, as no capitalist would retain a
part. Capital exists and increases, but always re-
mains common property. All could live better; since
many fold as much would be produced as now. At
present the chief difficulty appears to be to avoid.
over-production. Government appoints a committee.
in Prussia to inquire into the cause of the late depres-
sion, and they report over-production; in England,
committees also investigate and report likewise; in
America, business companies and factory owners ex-
plain their distress by over-production, and are obliged
to enter into mutual agreements to produce less. In
the socialistic state over-production is an impossibil-
THE IDEAL OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY.
209
ity.
G
The great waste of competition, furthermore,
would cease with the competition itself. Two rail-
roads would not be built to perform the service which
one could render as well, nor would six dry - goods
shops exist in a town where two would be amply
sufficient. This saving of capital, labor, energy, and
talent would benefit all alike. Strikes, then unheard-
of save as a reminiscence of the past, would no longer
be a considerable element in the cost of production.
Business failures would cease to impoverish the widow
and the orphan.
It is impossible at present to enter into a criticism
of social democracy and attempt to separate the true
from the false. The comparison, however, which so-
cial democrats make between the future organization
of society and that of the army is suggestive. It
might be that we could afford to put up with what
that implies, if we attained thereby all that is hoped ;
still it is terrible to think of army discipline extend-
ing itself over society in all its ramifications. To
many-to the majority-the restraint would be a very
great evil. Then it must be remembered that army
discipline is maintained at the cost of no inconsider-
able amount of actual, positive suffering. As Roscher
pointedly remarks, there are thirty offences punishable
with death according to the military penal code.
I have thus presented, in their most favorable aspect,
the doctrines of social democrats, apart from the agi-
tators who now preach them. The next chapter will
afford an opportunity to judge whether or not the so-
cial democratic leaders of the present are men of such
a character that it would be wise to give them despotic
power over one's life and actions.
Social democracy is not now precisely what it was
14
210
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
when it lost Ferdinand Lassalle, its greatest agitator.
Nevertheless, he is still its father. It is the product
of his activity. Lassalle did not write history: he
created it. He accomplished certain facts which no
power can undo. He infused into the minds of Ger-
man laborers new thoughts, ideas, aspirations. Ger-
man emigrants become missionaries, and carry with
them, as they believe, a gospel of hope and promise,
wherever they go. They hold, as Lassalle taught
them, "that they are the state, that all political pow-
er ought to be of and through and for them, that their
good and amelioration ought to be the aim of the
state, that their affair is the affair of mankind, that
their personal interest moves and beats with the pulse
of history, with the living principle of moral develop-
ment."*
Thus have new factors, for good or for bad, entered
into the life of the world, and with them we must
deal.
* John Rae (Contemporary Review, June, 1881).
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE.
211
CHAPTER XIV.
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE THE DEATH OF LASSALLE.
THE last chapter contained a description of the de-
sires and demands of the German social democratic
party, without entering into any discussion of the
careers and characters of its leaders or of the organi-
zations which have been formed to support its pro-
gramme. This chapter will treat of what may be
called social democracy in the concrete. I shall first
take up the external history of the political party
which is designated by that name, and then enter
into a consideration of its internal history. By its ex-
ternal history I mean an account of its outward life,
as manifested in the field of politics; by its internal
history I mean a description of the men who have led.
the party, and a presentation both of the ideas which
have controlled it and the measures which it has
adopted in its political and economic propaganda.
C
It was the introduction of universal suffrage by the
North German Confederation, in 1867, and by the
German Empire, in 1871, which enabled the social
democrats to enter into political contests with any
reasonable hope of success. German laborers do not
appear previously to have played any role in the poli-
tics of their country. The Prussian constitution is so
constructed as to give a preponderating influence to
wealth. This is not the place to explain the Prussian
212
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
system of voting. It is only necessary to remark that
the voters are divided into three classes, according to
their wealth, and that a voter of the wealthiest class
in Berlin counts for as much as fifteen voters of the
poorest class. The laborer could not, of course, hope
to gain political influence with such tremendous odds
against him. It was to enable the poor man to fight
his own battles that Lassalle demanded universal and
equal suffrage for all. This was, as will be remem-
bered, the only explicit demand of the social demo-
cratic party, contained in the statutes or by-laws of
the "Universal German Laborers' Union." Lassalle
appears to have been acquainted with Bismarck's in-
tention to embrace it in the constitution of the em-
pire he was striving to found, and hoped great things
therefrom. But as he died in 1864, and the citizens
of the North German Confederation first voted in
1867, he was never able to make use of it in his agi-
tation. It is not often profitable to speculate upon
what might have happened if this or that event had
not occurred, but it is self-evident that Lassalle's agi-
tation would have been very formidable if he could
have led the laborers to the ballot-box and defended
their cause, first in the North German, afterwards in
the Imperial, parliaments, with all the resources of hist
learning, mental acumen, and impassioned eloquence.
Lassalle's death discouraged the social democrats for
a moment only. It can scarcely be said that it caused
an interruption in the progress of the party, though
this progress would, we may believe, have been far
more rapid had he lived. However, his death itself
was made useful. Living, he could scarcely have been
glorified as he was after his death, and his name could
not have so influenced the laborers.
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE.
213
The social democrats entered into the contest for
election of members to the Constituent Assembly of
the North German Confederation. In one of the dis-
tricts their candidate ran against Bismarck and a lead-
ing liberal, and received about one fourth of the votes
cast for the three candidates. As no one received a
majority, a new election was ordered, and Bismarck
was elected by the aid of the social democrats, who
always prefer conservatives to liberals. As Bismarck
was elected in another district, it was necessary to
vote for a third time in this place, when the social
democrat ran against the celebrated liberal, Dr. Gneist,
Professor of Constitutional Law in the University of
Berlin, and one of the leading jurists in Germany.
The votes were about evenly divided, but the social
democrat was defeated by a small majority. The so-
cial democrats elected two representatives, however,
and in the fall of the same year (1867) they sent eight
members to the Parliament of the North German Con-
federation.
Since the organization of the German Empire the
social democratic votes for members of the Imperial
Parliament (Reichstag) have numbered as follows:
1871, 123,975; 1874, 351,952; 1877, 493,288; 1878,
437,158. The entire number of votes cast in 1877
was 5,401,021. We see, then, that the social demo-
cratic voters numbered over one eleventh of all the
voters in that year. When it is remembered that
there are nine or ten political parties represented in
the Reichstag, it must be acknowledged that the elec-
tions revealed a large relative strength of the social
democratic party. Its votes have, however, been so
scattered that it has not had its proportionate number
of representatives in Parliament. The social demo-
214
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
cratic members of the Reichstag numbered two in
1871, nine in 1874, twelve in 1877, and nine in 1878.
The total number of members of the Reichstag is
about four hundred. It is thus seen that the social
democratic party advanced in strength, as far as that
is measured by votes, until 1878, when the decrease
was only slight. Two attempts were made on the life
of the Emperor William in that year, and the social
democrats had to bear a good share of the blame.
There was a considerable popular indignation mani-
fested; private employers, as well as government,
discharged laborers who entertained social democratic
principles; and in the elections following the police
put every obstacle in the way of the party. In the
Reichstag the celebrated socialistic law was passed,
which gave government exceptional and despotic pow-
ers to proceed against social democracy. The severity
of the government appears to have done more harm
than good. In spite of what can be fairly designated
as persecution, in the elections which took place in
October, 1881, the social democrats secured thirteen
seats, the largest number they have ever yet gained.*
This is, indeed, significant when it is remembered that
the exceptional law (Ausnahmegesetz) allows severe
measures against the social democrats which would
not even be thought of against any other party. Gov-
ernment has thus been enabled to suspend all their
party newspapers, to prohibit the sale of their books
and pamphlets, and to suppress all public agitation of
the party.
Their associations were dissolved, and for
* One candidate was elected in two districts which required a new
election in one of them, in which the social democrats lost. This re-
duced the number of their members to twelve.
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE.
215
a hotel-keeper even to rent them rooms for a meeting
was made an offence punishable with imprisonment for
a length of time varying from one month to a year.
The German government was undoubtedly placed
in a trying position, but they appear to have made a
mistake. It is said that at the time the Ausnahmege-
setz was passed, things were in a bad way with the so-
cial democrats. They had twenty or thirty journals,
but many of them were on the point of bankruptcy.
Differences existed in the party, and no one seemed
to know what to do next. It is possible, if the party
had been left alone, it might have fallen into a sad
state of disorganization, and have become so weak that
it would have ceased to trouble the peace of the gov-
ernment for years. However this might have been, it
is certain that the measures of government were not
altogether unwelcome to the party leaders. It relieved
them of numerous perplexities. It was much better,
e. g., for them to have their newspapers and magazines.
suspended by government than to cease to appear for
lack of support. Governmental persecution united
the divided members and gave new energy to all.
Every social democratic laborer experienced, to a
certain extent, the elevating feelings of martyrdom.
They all became secret missionaries, distributing
tracts and exhorting individually their fellow -la-
borers to join the struggle for the emancipation of
labor.
The German social democrats have held two con-
gresses since the socialistic law, both, of course, on
foreign soil, and both have indicated progress. The
first was held at Wyden, Switzerland, August 20-23,
1880. This resulted in a complete triumph for the
more moderate party. The two leading extremists,
216
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
Hasselmann and Most, were both expelled from the
party—the former by all save three votes, the latter
by all save two.
The next congress was held at Copenhagen, Den-
mark, from March 29 to April 2, 1883. It exhibited
greater unanimity of sentiment and plan, and a more
wide - spread interest in social democracy, than any
previous congress. One feature of interest was the
very considerable financial aid from America which
was reported.*
"Bismarck has acknowledged that the measures
which government has adopted up to this time have
not proved successful in weakening social democracy,
or in checking, in any effectual manner, its spread
among the people. But he claims that he has not as
yet carried out his full programme. This is true.
During the discussion upon the socialistic law of Oc-
tober 21, 1878, he declared distinctly that he did not
expect to cure the masses of the disease of social
democracy by repressive measures alone. Something
more than external remedies was needed. The social
democrats had built upon well-grounded discontent of
the people, and he proposed to win back the masses
for king and fatherland by removing the grounds of
discontent. These grounds were of an economic nat-
ure. Wages were low, taxes high, work scarce, and
the entire economic existence of the lower classes un-
certain and full of anxiety. But what was to be done
about it? No one knew exactly, but all looked for-
ward with eagerness to Bismarck's proposals. Two
years passed away without bringing any of his plans
*The leading organ of the social democrats, the Sozial-demokrat,
of Zurich, gave a fair report of the proceedings, which was reprinted
in the Vorbote of Chicago, May 5, 1883.
SOCIAL. DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE.
217
to light. People began to think that the promises of
relief to the poor had been thrown out simply as a
bait to catch votes for the bill which became the so-
cialistic law."* That they were intended to serve this
purpose is undoubted. The only question is whether
Bismarck really intended to make any attempt to
carry through legislation in behalf of the laborers.
The lapse of time made men sceptical. The opinion
more and more prevailed that the last had been heard
of government institutions designed to ameliorate the
condition of the poor. "But Bismarck has a good
memory and a strong will. When he has once made
up his mind to pursue a certain course of action he is
not to be diverted therefrom. More than once Ger-
many has thought that he had forgotten some threat
or resolve because he allowed years to slip by without
making any public move towards the execution of his
plans, but in such cases she has reckoned without her
host. It now looks as if Bismarck might have meant
all he said when he promised to use the power of the
state to relieve the poor classes. He had not for a mo-
ment forgotten his promise, but was only working out
his plans and waiting for an opportune moment to
execute them." The German emperor, too, had been
urging him forward in the path he had marked out
for government. The old Kaiser-who seems, in his
way, to have a warm, fatherly affection for his people
-professed his distress at the sufferings of the un-
fortunate, and maintained his sincere desire to relieve
them. He was an old man, he said, and he longed to
* This quotation is taken from my article in the International
Review on "Bismarck's Plan," etc., May, 1882. The remaining quo-
tations in this chapter are taken from the same article when no other
reference is given.
218
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
see the labor question satisfactorily adjusted before.
his death. To one who realizes the utter impossibil-
ity of his seeing this pious wish gratified, there is
something undeniably touching in the simple and
honest expressions of this good-natured father of his
people. "Early in the year 1881 the Reichstag ob-
tained an earnest of Bismarck's plans for pacifying
the discontented elements in Germany in the Acci-
dent Insurance bill, which is merely an episode in the
history of German socialism. The aim of the meas-
ure is to make provision for industrial laborers injured
in the prosecution of their callings, or for their fami-
lies when they are killed. It is proposed to establish
a great insurance society something like the one
founded and managed by the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company.* The resemblance between many
features of the two plans is, indeed, surprising. It is
desired, however, in Germany, that government should
bear a portion of the expenses; at any rate, that is
one characteristic of the government bill. Govern-
ment also wishes to manage the insurance society or
societies undertaking this work, although it might al-
low employers and employees some representation in
the administration of the business. In both these re-
spects the bill is clearly socialistic, and no one is better
aware of this than Prince Bismarck. It has been de-
liberately decided that private individuals, or volun-
tary combinations of private individuals, are unable to
perform all the duties of society towards the poorer
classes. The state is to become a benefactor and pro-
tector of the weak and needy. Bills introduced by
* Vide a description of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Em-
ployees' Relief Association, by B. J. Ramage, in the Johns Hopkins
University Studies in Historical and Political Science.
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE.
219
government are always accompanied with so-called
'motives,' explaining and defending them. The
'motives' accompanying the Accident Insurance bill
opened with these words: "That the state should care
for its poorer members in a higher degree than it has
formerly done is a duty demanded not only by hu-
manity and Christianity-and the institutions of state
should be penetrated through and through by Chris-
tianity—but it is also a measure required for the pres-
ervation of the state. A sound policy should nourish
in the indigent classes of the population, which are
the most numerous and least instructed, the view that
the state is a beneficial, as well as a necessary, ar-
rangement. Legislative measures must bring them
direct, easily perceived advantages, to the end that
they may learn to regard the state not merely as an
institution devised for the protection of the wealthier
classes, but as one which likewise ministers to their
needs and interests.'"
Bismarck proposes, then, to conquer social democ-
racy by recognizing and adopting into his own plat-
form what there is of good in its demands.
It is cu-
rious to notice that friends of Bismarck and supporters
of the government have even gone so far as to adopt
some of the social democratic phrases. They have
spoken of the laborers as the "disinherited" classes
of society. Yet this originated with the social demo-
crats; and a few years ago government gave as one
reason for prohibiting the sale of a certain book in
Germany the fact that it called the laborers the "dis-
inherited" (die Enterbten). Thus far has Bismarck
gone in the way of making concessions. In the one
point of the Accident Insurance bill he has drawn a
number of social democrats to his support. They look
220-
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
upon it as only a beginning, and, indeed, Bismarck has
proposed to add features making provision for old age
and for death from disease and other causes than ac-
cident. But all that Bismarck has promised is to them
only one step. Those who regard the matter in this
light are willing to support him in this first step.
Bebel, one of their leaders at present, was one of the
most earnest supporters of Bismarck's Insurance bill
in the Reichstag, when the measure was brought for-
ward. Kayser, another social democrat, declared that
he would let no one "terrorize him-he would de-
fend Bismarck." All this makes a strange impression
upon us when we remember the cruelties and persecu-
tions which the social democrats have suffered through
the instrumentality of the great German statesman.
It is amusing, and, at the same time, it is not devoid
of a certain pathos. It reminds one of an ancient
prophecy—“The wolf and the lamb shall feed togeth-
er, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock.”
However, the two parties drew near together only
for one special purpose, and but for a moment. No
reconciliation has taken place between the opposing
elements of industrial society in Germany. Only one
of Bismarck's schemes for the amelioration of the
condition of the laboring man has been adopted.
In treating of these schemes I have brought the ex-
ternal history of social democracy down to the present
moment, for they are to-day being discussed in Ger-
many. They are viewed with the deepest distrust by
large classes of the population, and Parliament has
greeted them coolly. Were they accepted, they alone
would not be sufficient to cure so deep-seated a dis-
ease; perhaps they would scarcely mitigate it. Radi-
cal changes, not to be hoped for in our life-time, must
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE.
221
take place before the conflict between capitalist and
laborer-between rich and poor—will cease to disturb
the peace of Christendom. The evil is rooted in the
very nature of society itself, and can only terminate
in a transformation and moral elevation of the various
social elements. Its cause lies deeper than the agita-
tion of Karl Marx or the eloquence of Ferdinand
Lassalle, who only acted upon latent feelings and ex-
pressed thoughts, of which the laborers had already
a dim consciousness. Sooner or later their feelings
were bound to become active and their thoughts to
find adequate expression.
Roscher, in his "Political Economy," describes five
conditions which, meeting together, produce commu-
nistic and socialistic movements. As his description
of them has become celebrated, and explains not the
mere surface phenomena, but the underlying causes
of communism and socialism, I think it worth while
to present them. I shall, however, take the liberty of
making abbreviations and changes, and interspersing
such remarks of my own as will better adapt the de-
scription to the purpose of this volume.
The first condition is "a well-defined confronta-
tion of rich and poor. So long as there is a middle-
class of considerable numbers between them, the two
extremes are kept, by its moral force, from coming
into collision. There is no greater preservative against
envy of the superior classes and contempt for the in-
ferior than the gradual and unbroken fading of one
class of society into another. . . . But when the rich
and the poor are separated by an abyss which there is
no hope of ever crossing, how pride, on the one side,
and envy, on the other, rage! and especially in the
centres of industry, the great cities, where the deepest
222
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
misery is found side by side with the most brazen-
faced luxury, and where the wretched themselves,
conscious of their numbers, mutually excite their
own bad passions. It cannot, unfortunately, be de-
nied that when a nation has attained the acme of its
development we find a multitude of tendencies pre-
vailing to make the rich richer and the poor, at least
relatively, poorer, and thus to diminish the number of
the middle-class from both sides; unless, indeed, rem-
edial influences are brought to bear and to operate in
a contrary direction.”
The second condition mentioned is "a high degree
of the division of labor, by which, on the one hand,
the mutual dependence of man on man grows ever
greater, but by which, at the same time, the eye of
the uncultured man becomes less and less able to per-
ceive the connection existing between merit and re-
ward, or service and remuneration. Let us betake our-
selves in imagination to Crusoe's island. There, when
one man, after the labor of many months, has hollowed
out a tree into a canoe, with no tools but an animal's
tooth, it does not occur to another, who, in the mean-
time, was, it may be, sleeping on the skin of some
wild animal, to contest the right of the former to the
fruit of his labor. How different this from the condi-
tion of things where civilization is advanced, as it is
in our day; where the banker, by a single stroke of
his pen, seems to earn a thousand times more than a
day-laborer in a week; where, in the case of those who
lend money on interest, their debtors too frequently
forget how laborious was the process of acquiring the
capital by the possessors, or their predecessors in
ownership! More especially, we have in times of
over-population whole masses of honest men asking,
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE.
223
not alms, but only work-an opportunity to earn their
bread, and yet on the verge of starvation.”
The third condition: "A violent shaking or per-
plexing of public opinion in its relation to the feeling
of right by revolutions, especially when they follow
rapidly one on the heels of another, and take opposite
directions. On such occasions both parties have gen-
erally prostituted themselves for the sake of the favor
of the masses. . . . In this way they are stirred up to
the making of pretentious claims which it is after-
wards very difficult to silence." It is in this prostitu-
tion of parties that our greatest danger in the United
States lies. It is already sought to influence large
classes by promises of office. The evils of political
contests controlled by those who hope to gain offices
and those who fear they may lose them will increase
in two ways. First, the number of offices will neces-
sarily become greater with the increase of population
and the growth of public business. Instead of one
hundred thousand federal office-holders, we will yet
have two hundred thousand. Second, as population
increases, and it becomes ever more and more difficult
to gain one's bread, to say nothing about ascending.
the social ladder, public offices will be coveted even
more than at present, and over each one there will be
waged a bitter personal warfare. What, then, we have
to fear is that, as in ancient Rome, politicians will
strive to influence the great masses by promises of
favors-food and entertainments (panem et circenses).
If a beginning is ever made in that direction the ene-
mies of the republic will have already crossed the ru-
bicon. It behooves us to stop in the downward path
before it is too late. This can be done only by put-
ting our civil service-federal, state, and municipal-
on a sound moral basis.
224
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
The fourth condition: "Pretensions of the lower
classes in consequence of a democratic constitution.
Communism is the logically not inconsistent exag-
geration of the principle of equality." If you reflect
upon it, you will perceive that political equality, in the
course of time, very naturally leads to thoughts of
economic equality-equality in the enjoyment of spir-
itual and material goods.
The fifth condition: "A general decay of religion
and morality in the people. When every one regards
wealth as a sacred trust or office, coming from God,
and poverty as a divine dispensation, intended to edu-
cate and develop those afflicted thereby, and considers
all men as brothers, and this earthly life only as a prep-
aration for eternity, even extreme differences of prop-
perty lose their irritating and demoralizing power. On
the other hand, the atheist and materialist becomes
only too readily a mammonist, and the poor mammon-
ist falls only too easily into that despair which would
gladly kindle a universal conflagration, in order either
to plunder or lose his own life." The maxim of the
materialist, sunk in poverty and despair, is, as is no-
ticed, not that noble one of our fathers, "Give me lib-
erty or give me death," but "Give me pleasure, enjoy-
ment in this life, or let me die in my misery." "The
rich mammonist aggravates this sad condition of
things when he casts suspicion on all wealth by the
immorality of the means he takes to acquire it and the
sinfulness of his enjoyments.'
""
Turning to the internal history of social democracy
The first four conditions are taken from the American transla-
tion of Roscher; the fifth is translated by the author from a subse-
quent German edition.
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE,
225
after Lassalle's death, we have first to notice the con-
dition of the "Universal German Laborers' Union
since that event. It was controlled for some time by
the Countess von Hatzfeldt. Her former connection
with Lassalle and the possession of large financial re-
sources enabled her for some time to maintain her
position as its leading spirit. She interested herself
in politics, however, more on account of Lassalle than
for the sake of the laborers. She wished to honor his
memory and promote the cause which had been dear
to him.
Before Lassalle died he mentioned the name of a
man whom he recommended as his successor in the
presidency of the "Laborers' Union." The choice.
was not a happy one. The new president soon made
enemies of the ablest members of the Union, and
finally had a falling-out with the countess, in whose
house he lived, and who, for the sake of the cause,
supported him. It appears that one day the countess
commissioned him to purchase butter and cheese for
the household. This was too much for the poor pres-
ident. He regarded the performance of such offices
as incompatible with his manly dignity and the re-
spect due his high and honorable position. He did
not, indeed, fail to appreciate to the fullest extent the
honor which Lassalle had conferred upon him. Iden-
tifying the Union with all mankind, he was accus-
tomed to sign himself "President of Humanity."
He compared his noiseless activity to the gentle rain,
which, without thunder and lightning, gradually pen-
etrates the hard crust of the earth.
The amenities of life among the social democrats
are curiously illustrated by their dissensions during
the presidency of this man-Becker by name.
Be-
15
226
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
coming enraged at Marx once, he proposed that the
author of "Capital" and the founder of the Inter-
national should embalm himself with his International
and have himself hung in the chimney as a mad her-
ring. In return for this Liebknecht moved, in the
Berlin association, that Becker should be expelled
from the Union as a low-minded slanderer and a
hopelessly incurable idiot.*
New presidents were elected yearly for two or three
years, but the countess could agree with none. She
finally withdrew, with her followers, and established a
new association, called the "Female Line." It never
played a considerable role, and in a few years died a
natural death.
After the withdrawal of the countess the "Univer-
sal Laborers' Union" showed good sense enough to
elect their ablest man president.
This was Jean Bap-
tista von Schweitzer, a dramatic writer of some note,
whose comedies are considered among the best which
have appeared recently. Perhaps the best known.
are "Die Darwinianer," "Epidemisch," and "Gros-
städtisch."
Von Schweitzer belonged to an old and wealthy
patrician family of Frankfort-on-the-Main. He had
led a dissipated life, been involved in a scandalous.
affair in Mannheim, and become a noted roué. When
society in Frankfort could tolerate him no longer he
took up his abode in another city, but here again be-
came suspected of improper acts. It is surprising that
a man of such character should join the laborers and
declaim about their hardships. While it is possible.
that he was so thoroughly blasé that he could find
* Mehring, S. 80.
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE.
227
needed excitement in no other way, I should prefer
to regard this move on his part as the first step
in a better path. He was a man of talent, and was
never entirely absorbed in sensual pleasures. When
he took up the cause of the social democrats he began
to think about other things than his own selfish and
immoral gratifications. For four years he held the
post of president of the "Universal German Laborers'
Union;" and in this position not only displayed ad-
ministrative ability of a high order, but manifested
an unwearied devotion in his leadership. He found
the Union weak and about to fall to pieces; he left
it a strong, compact body. The Social Democrat,
one of the most prominent organs of the party, was
founded by him, and in this paper he defended the
doctrines of Lassalle with vigor and understanding.
Von Schweitzer withdrew from the social democrats
in 1871, and led thenceforth an unexceptionable life.
The love of woman had finally conquered his wild
nature. He was happily married, and passed the last
years of his life in literary pursuits. He died in 1875,*
having already gained an honorable position as an
author.
The Union elected another president, who contin-
ued to hold the position as long as the association ex-
isted. Its importance soon began to decline, however,
and it was finally absorbed by the organization formal-
ly known as the "Social Democratic Labor Party
("Social-demokratische Arbeiterpartei "). This grew
out of the alliance of "German Laborers' Unions"
("Verband deutscher Arbeitervereine"), whose mem-
bers were gradually led over into the social demo-
*Born in 1833.
""
228
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
cratic camp, as I described in the first chapter of this
work. The two leading spirits in this party, which
swallowed up all other social democratic organiza-
tions, were Liebknecht and Bebel.
Liebknecht, unlike some of the other social demo-
crats, is, as generally admitted, personally an honor-
able man. Nothing can be said against his private
life. He differed from Marx, Lassalle, and Von
Schweitzer in family and fortune. He was born
poor, and has always remained so. While in party
matters Liebknecht is unscrupulous as to means, he
would sacrifice no principle for the sake of personal
gain or advancement. If he had been less conscien-
tious his life might have been a prosperous one.
I
have it directly from a friend, who associated with
him considerably in Leipsic, that Bismarck offered
him an excellent position as editor of the Kreuzzeitung,
which I have already mentioned as the leading organ
of the conservatives. Liebknecht declined promptly,
and without hesitation, what was intended as a bribe.
He is satisfied with the merest necessities of life, so
long as he can serve his cause. Mehring, who is far
from being a social democrat, says that in this respect
he is irreproachable. "No one can accuse him of im-
proper motives in the lower sense of the term." It is
only when the cause of the social democrats is con-
cerned that he shows himself unscrupulous, exciting
envy and discontent, and arousing class against class.
His ideas have taken such hold of him that he cannot
see the deeds of opponents in their true light. He
ascribes the worst of motives to what government
does with the best intention.
Although he must be called a demagogue, Lieb-
knecht is a highly educated man. He comes of what
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE.
229
the Germans call a Beamtenfamilie-i. e., of a family
whose members have for a long time devoted them-
selves to the civil service. This implies, at least, edu-
cation and social respectability. Liebknecht was only
sixteen years of age when he graduated from a Ger-
man gymnasium-what we would call a college-but
he had already decided that a career as a civil-service
officer placed one in a position of such dependence
that it was unworthy of a freeman. At the univer-
sity he took no regular professional course, as he de-
spised bread-and-butter studies, but devoted himself
to various branches of science according to his in-
clination, or as he fancied they might contribute to
the free development of his mind. At twenty he
thought he had freed himself from bondage to the an-
tiquated institutions of a corrupt world.
Liebknecht took part in the revolutionary movement
of 1848 in Germany, and threw himself into the contest
with admirable personal bravery. Regardless of dan-
ger, he was ever to be found in the thick of the fight.
When the rebellion was put down, he found it neces-
sary to flee to Switzerland, whence he emigrated to
London, where he lived in exile for thirteen years.
His life in London was a hard struggle for existence,
and this may have embittered him. His associates,
while there, were the old rebels, Engels, Wolff, and
Marx, and they must have confirmed him in his views.
Amnesty was granted him when the present Emperor
William was crowned King of Prussia, and he re-
turned full of hatred for Germany. He has devoted
his entire life to the purpose of making propaganda for
social democracy, and has never for a moment forgot-
ten his end and aim. Mehring says that in the years
since he again set foot on German soil there has been,
230
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
perhaps, no day, no hour, no minute in which he has
not been conscious of the object of his existence. It
is this indomitable will, this inflexible purpose, this
devotion on the part of men of learning and intelli-
gence, which has filled the world with German social-
ism. Anything like it has never been known in his-
tory.
Liebknecht is not original, but is able to interpret
Marx to the common people, since he is not too much
ahead of them, but only far enough to take the lead, to
express thoughts struggling in their minds for utter-
ance. He takes, however, extreme positions, and in-
jures himself and his party thereby. While he can
excite those already won over to his side, he cannot
gain adherents from those as yet undecided, still less
from those opposed. He cannot persuade such, be-
cause he is unable, even for a moment, to place him-
self in their position so as to understand their thoughts
and feelings.
Bebel is a disciple of Liebknecht, and his most im-
portant one. He is a turner by profession, and his only
education was received in common schools, in Sunday
schools, and in travelling about from place to place in
the practice of his trade. He has never left his trade,
and has never made any pretensions to being anything
more than an ordinary artisan. He is sincere, simple,
and of sound understanding. Bebel has been called
the incorporated ideal of a modern laborer in the best
sense of the word. This was, however, before he had
been embittered by Liebknecht. He is unassuming,
but has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. His
influence on the people has been very great. He has
a homely sort of eloquence which appeals strongly to
them. In the Imperial Parliament he has been able
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE.
231
to hold his own with men like Lasker and Simson, the
Chief-justice of the Supreme Court of Germany. Be-
bel's historical importance lies in the fact that he is
the first and, up to the present time, the only German
artisan who has pushed himself into the foreground
of political life and shown himself an equal of other
leaders.
He has become prosperous, and employs two or
three hundred laborers. He owns, also, a valuable
house in Leipsic. Some have objected that he was in-
consistent in paying his employees just as other masters
do and in living well himself. Those who do so cannot
understand the social democrats. The very corner-
stone of their belief is that the individual is not re-
sponsible for the present condition of things; that
harmony can be secured only by the combined action
of society-by a social, and not by an individual, re-
generation. All that the individual can do, they hold,
is to labor for the overthrow of existing society and
the establishment of the people's state, and in the
meanwhile to live like other people.
A change has taken place in German social democ-
racy since the death of Lassalle, who was a patriot,
and with whom it was national. He sought a basis
in united Germany. Social democracy is now cosmo-
politan and international in the sense of anti-national.
It has approached more and more nearly to the most
unqualified communism. Like French communism, it
lays most stress on equality, and at times appears
ready to sacrifice everything else to obtain that. The
unity of interests (solidarité) and economic equality
(egalité) are the watchwords of the leaders. Lieb-
knecht says: "Human progress consists in the ap-
proach to equality; freedom is only a conventional
232
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
phrase, which conceals all possible things." It begins
to be recognized that equality and liberty—as now
understood, at any rate-are incompatible, and greater
value is attached to the former.
Most, in his lecture in Baltimore, to which refer-
ence has already been made, brought out vividly the
gross, materialistic view the social democrats take of
liberty. "You boast of your American liberty," cried
he, "but of what value is it? Has any one ever been
able to clothe himself with it? to house himself in it?
or to satisfy with it the cravings of his stomach ?”
Previous to the attempts to take the life of the
German emperor, in 1878, the necessity of overthrow-
ing existing institutions by violence was proclaimed
with ever-increasing openness. Lassalle had spoken.
of a radical change brought about peacefully, which
he called a peaceful revolution. The upper classes
had the choice between yielding to the demands of
the fourth estate and a violent overthrow of existing
economic institutions. "I am persuaded," said he,
"that a revolution will take place. It will take place
legally and with all the blessings of freedom if, be-
fore it is too late, our rulers become wise, determined,
and courageous enough to lead it. Otherwise, after
the lapse of a certain time, the goddess of revolution
will force an entrance into our social structure, amid
all the convulsions of violence, with wild, streaming
locks and brazen sandals on her feet. In the one way
or the other she will come; and when, forgetting the
tumult of the day, I sink myself in history, I am able
to hear from afar her heavy tread.”
But the social democrats soon became convinced
that the existing powers of state and society would
not yield their positions without a combat. Glorifi-
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY SINCE LASSALLE.
233
cation of bloody struggles of laborers in the past be-
came ever more common. Laborers were taught that
they had, in times gone by, seized the sword and sac-
rificed life in behalf of their wealthy oppressors; they
were told that they must next use the weapons of war
in their own behalf, to fight for the day of their own
deliverance from bondage. This was made to appear
just by representing them as humanity and the few
rich people as wilfully cruel and wicked taskmasters.
The presiding officer of the Social Democratic Con-
gress, in 1869, used these words in the address with
which he closed their meetings: "There is a tree which
bears golden fruit, but when those who have planted
it reach out their hand to pluck it, it draws back and
escapes them.
Wound about the tree there is a ser-
pent, which keeps every one away from it. This tree
is society; the serpent is our present economic organi-
zation, which prevents us from enjoying the golden
fruit. Gentlemen, we are determined to enjoy the
golden fruit and to drive away the serpent. If that
cannot be done in peace, then, as men who do not
tremble before a conflict, are we ready to fell the old
tree, and in its place to set a new, powerful tree.”
This sort of talk was stopped by the stringent law
which was enacted after the attempts on the life of
the emperor. There is no evidence to warrant the be-
lief that the social democratic party had any direct
connection with these attempts, but those who com-
mitted them had been, doubtless, excited by the con-
stant talk of wrong and oppression, and of release
therefrom by a destruction of our present leaders of
society. They consequently struck at its very head.
Social democrats are fond of comparing themselves
to the early Christians. They speak of their leaders
234
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
as the apostles of the present and of laborers as the
rock upon which the Church of the future must be
built. The German has a strongly religious nature,
of which he can never divest himself. So these social
democrats make their economic belief a matter of re-
ligion, and therein attempt, even unconsciously, to
satisfy their religious feelings.
We would not, for a moment, accept the compari-
son between social democracy and Christianity in the
sense in which these men mean it. Yet when we find
rude, uneducated men-for such are the social demo-
cratic masses-turning the world upside-down, and
striking terror into the hearts of the powers that be,
we are reminded of that earlier faith, propagated by
poor, ignorant men, which, in the course of centuries,
has become more powerful than statesmen, monarchs,
and armies. No one, save a fool, would pretend to be
able to describe exactly the ultimate organization of
society; but we know that in profane, as well as in sa-
cred, history, weak and contemptible beginnings have,
ere this, led to grand and glorious growths and devel-
opments.
SOCIALISM OF THE CHAIR.
235
CHAPTER XV.
SOCIALISM OF THE CHAIR.
Ir is generally known that Bismarck has been en-
deavoring to introduce new economic measures and
institutions of a more or less socialistic nature in Ger-
many. One of these projects has been described in
an earlier chapter. It is not, however, an equally fa-
miliar fact that he may be regarded as a member of
an economic school. Such is, nevertheless, the case.
In the earlier part of his career as imperial chancel-
lor Bismarck accepted the doctrines of English politi-
cal economy in modified form, as taught by the Na-
tional Liberals of the Reichstag. But he professes
that he received their teachings only as a makeshift,
until he should find time to study political economy
and investigate economic problems for himself. This
he did some eight years since. The first-fruits of his
new researches were the tariff reform of 1879. Later
fruits have been the tobacco monopoly and labor
insurance bills. He repudiates the politicians with
whom he formerly worked as "representatives of a
party which in political economy advocates the right
of the stronger and deserts the weak in the struggle
against the might of capital, and which refers him to
free competition, to private insurance, and I do not
know what else-in short, refusing him all help of the
state."
236
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
It is, then, a matter of more than ordinary interest
to study the principles of the economic system, whose
leading advocate at present is the favorite counsellor
of the most powerful statesman of modern times.
This is the system of the so-called professorial social-
ists, or socialists of the chair.
In the ordinary or vulgar signification of the term
professorial socialists are not socialists at all; in the
strict sense of the word they are. They recognize the
existence of a social problem, and hold that the co-
operation of government is necessary to its solution.
They believe that man, associated with his fellows in
the state, has duties to perform which, single and
alone, he is unable to fulfil. They point to the fact
that all civilized governments are, even at present,
more or less socialistic. Sanitary legislation, govern-
mental inspection of buildings, the legal limitation of
a day's labor, the prohibition of work on Sunday, the
regulations respecting the labor of women and chil-
dren, temperance laws, state control and management
of railroads, the post-office, and other like arrange-
ments, are socialistic in their nature.* These matters
are not left to individual initiative and private com-
petition. The state-in a certain sense, even now,
the highest and most majestic of co-operative associa-
tions-steps in and attempts to do for the citizens
what it is supposed they could not do for themselves
without the help of such a union as government rep-
resents. It is sought to give, as it were, a divine sanc-
*The Rev. Samuel A. Barnett mentions the following as socialistic
laws on the statute-book of England: "The Poor Law,"
""The Edu-
cation Act," "The Established Church," "The Land Act," and "The
Libraries Act;" vide his article on "Practicable Socialism" (Nine-
teenth Century Magazine, April, 1883).
SOCIALISM OF THE CHAIR.
237
tion to this kind of socialism, by calling to mind the
strong socialistic tinge of the Mosaic legislation. Of
such character were the laws compelling the return
of land in the year of jubilee, of which one had been
forced to dispose by reason of poverty, the setting free
of slaves at the same time, the forgiveness of debt, and
the prohibition of interest in passages like the follow-
ing: "And if thy brother be waxen poor and fallen
in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him. . . .
Take thou no usury (=interest) of him or increase; but
fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee."*
The party of professorial socialists was formed ten
years ago in Germany. They received their name
from an opponent, a clever newspaper writer. He
also called them "sweet - water" socialists, but the
first name is their ordinary designation, and they do
not, as a rule, object to it. Some of them have sought
to give the word socialist an honorable and respected
meaning by avowing themselves unreservedly social-
ists on all occasions. Others think that the prejudice.
against the name is so strong that they only injure
themselves thereby. They are, in the narrowest sense,
all university professors of political economy, though
there is no reason why the name should not be ex-
tended so as to include others who hold similar views.
G
The scientific leader of the party is its most radical
member, Adolf Wagner, the Berlin professor. Other
prominent members are Gustav Schmoller, recently
professor in Strassburg, now, likewise, professor in Ber-
lin, and Brentano, professor in Breslau, lately trans-
ferred, I am told, to Strassburg. Adolf Held, the late
young and talented professor in Bonn, and later in
*Cf. Lev. xxv. and Deut. xv.
238
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
Berlin, did not hesitate to speak of himself as a profes-
sorial socialist. Although John Stuart Mill died before
this school of political economists became known, his
views and tendencies as regards social questions were so
much in accord with theirs that he can properly enough
be ranked among them. It must be remembered that
Mill placed no limit to state activity save the general
good, and declared that all the difficulties of even com-
munism would be but as dust in the balance if he were
called upon to choose between that system and a con-
tinuance of our present economic life without improve-
ment.
Perhaps, to-day, no professorial socialist could give
a better statement of his own aims and desires than
Mill's description of the views and expectation of
himself and his wife some thirty years ago.
"While
we repudiated," says Mill, "with the greatest energy,
that tyranny of society over the individual which
most socialistic systems are supposed to involve, we
yet looked forward to a time when society will no
longer be divided into the idle and the industrious;
when the rule that they who do not work shall not
eat will be applied, not to paupers only, but impar-
tially to all; when the division of the produce of
labor, instead of depending, as in so great a degree it
now does, on the accident of birth, will be made by
concert on an acknowledged principle of justice; and
when it will no longer either be, or be thought to
be, impossible for human beings to exert themselves.
strenuously in procuring benefits which are not to be
exclusively their own, but to be shared with the so-
ciety they belong to. The social problem of the fut-
ure we considered to be how to unite the greatest in-
dividual liberty of action with a common ownership
SOCIALISM OF THE CHAIR.
239
in the raw material of the globe, and an equal par-
ticipation of all in the benefits of combined labor."
This is, I must remark in passing, an extreme position.
The professorial socialists are not accustomed to ex-
press themselves in favor of carrying socialism so far,
and I believe Mill does it nowhere else. "We had
not the presumption," continues Mill, "to suppose that
we could already foresee by what precise form of in-
stitutions these objects could most effectually be at-
tained, or at how near or how distant a period they
would become practicable. We saw clearly that to
render any such social transformation either possible
or desirable an equivalent change of character must
take place both in the uncultivated herd who now
compose the laboring masses and in the immense ma-
jority of their employers.
Both these classes must
learn by practice to labor and combine for generous,
or, at all events, for public and social purposes, and
not, as hitherto, solely for narrowly interested ones.
But the capacity to do this has always existed in
mankind, and is not, nor is ever likely to be, extinct.
Education, habit, and the cultivation of the sentiments
will make a common man dig or weave for his coun-
try as readily as fight for his country. True enough,
it is only by slow degrees, and a system of culture
prolonged through successive generations, that men
in general can be brought up to this point. But the
hinderance is not in the essential condition of human
nature." Ruskin expresses the thought that one ought
to be as ready to give money as life for one's country
when he says: "I will tell you, good reader, what
would have seemed Utopian on the side of evil instead
of good: that ever men should have come to value
their money so much more than their lives, that if
240
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
you call upon them to become soldiers, and take
chance of a bullet through their heart, and of wife
and children being left desolate, for their pride's sake,
they will do it gayly; but if you ask them, for their
country's sake, to spend a hundred pounds without
security of getting back a hundred and five, they will
laugh in your face."*
The German professorial socialists held a meeting
in Eisenach in October, 1872, and founded the "Union
for Social Politics." They hoped, by means of an
organization holding yearly meetings, to be able to
exercise greater influence on legislation and public
opinion. Their proceedings were published in Leip-
sic, in 1873, under the title "Transactions of the
Union for Social Politics," and reports of meetings
which have since been held have been published at
the same place under the same title.
They discussed such questions as joint-stock com-
panies, insurance, savings-banks, and factory legisla-
tion, including the prohibition of labor on Sunday and
protection of women and children in factories. Their
negative work consisted in combating the empty ab-
stractions of the English free-trade school, or, as they
call it, the Manchester school. They accused the Man-
chester men of lacking all appreciation for the higher
duties of the state or the ethical side of economic life,
and of having no warmth of heart for the interests of
the lower classes. The professorial socialists endeav-
ored, on the other hand, to reconcile the laborers and
social democrats to society by recognizing and favor-
ing what might be called their just demands.
The difference between professorial socialists and
* Munera Pulveris" (New York, 1872), pp. 141, 142.
SOCIALISM OF THE CHAIR.
241
other professors of political economy in Germany is
one of degree. The former emphasize more strongly
the beneficial effects of governmental intervention,
and believe that the state has not as yet gone nearly
far enough in recognizing its duties towards the weak
and poor and in regulating the distribution of wealth.*
They regard political economy as, first and foremost,
an ethical science. To them the state is, above all
things, a moral person. It is, indeed, necessary to ob-
tain a clear understanding of their conception of the
state before it is possible to comprehend their teach-
ings. They regard the state as something sacred
and divine, holding that it arises out of the essential
characteristics of the human nature given us by God.
They have a reverence for state obligations which re-
minds one of the doctrines of the ancient Greeks and
of the heroic self-sacrifice of Socrates, who considered
it his duty to obey the laws, even when they ordered
his death. They consider that the rights of the state
spring from a higher source than a social contract,
either implicit or explicit, of the citizens with one
another. The state stands above the citizens as the
Church above its members. Humanity, in their
opinion, progresses, and ever must progress, through
Church and state. They see God in both. They
know nothing of any civilization in the past apart
from the state, and are able to imagine none in the
future existing outside of such a social organism. In
this spirit Professor Schmoller defines the state as the
grandest moral institution for the education and de-
velopment of the human race.
* Cf. Wagner's celebrated "Rede über die sociale Frage" (Berlin,
1872).
16
242
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
The socialists of the chair deprecate any attempt
to separate political economy from the higher ideal
side of our nature. They do not believe that in busi-
ness or anywhere should man be governed solely by
selfish motives.
In practical politics they reject decidedly violent
change, but advocate a gradual and peaceful develop-
ment. Some of them do not expect that their ideal
will be realized for a thousand years to come.
Wagner believes that he has discovered a law ac-
cording to which the functions of government are con-
stantly increasing-in many places, even in spite of
theory. According to him, government in all civil-
ized countries is uninterruptedly taking upon itself
new duties. The post-office, education, the telegraph,
railroads, and the care of forests are examples. The
increase in state business in England, e. g., may be
seen from the fact that the expenses of government
were forty times as great in 1841 as in 1685, although
the population had little more than trebled its num-
bers.*
If it can be shown that Wagner's theory is
really a law, and that the apparent proofs of it are
not merely temporary social phenomena, it will at
once be admitted that it is of the highest importance.
Its operation would, of itself, establish the socialistic
state, since, if government continually absorbs private
business, there will, in the end, be only state business.
In this socialistic state there would be the same differ-
ences in rank as at present between the different gov-
ernmental employees. At the top of the social ladder
* Vide Macaulay, "History of England." Cf. article "Budget," by
Spofford, in "Cyclopædia of Political Science," in regard to increase
of expenses of various states.
SOCIALISM OF THE CHAIR.
243
there would still be an emperor, and at the bottom
ordinary laborers, steadily employed in the service of
the state, as, e. g., the workmen on the state railroads
now.
At present things are moving pretty rapidly in Ger-
many towards the accomplishment of Wagner's ideal,
if we may suppose that expressed by his law. In fact,
since Bismarck is said to value him highly, it is not
impossible that he may have considerable to do with
directing the economic policy of Germany. He has
always been a strong advocate of state railways, the
compulsory insurance of laborers by the state, and the
tobacco monopoly. What may be the ultimate results
of the changes taking place in Germany it is far too
early to say.
The leading ideas of the professorial socialists may
be best learned from a little work by Professor Gustav
Schmoller, entitled "A Few Fundamental Principles.
of Law and Political Economy."* It is an open let-
ter, addressed to Professor von Treitschke, a Prussian
of the Buncombe type, who, with a very insufficient
study of their writings, had the rashness to attack
the professorial socialists in his "Socialism and Those
Who Favor It" ("Der Socialismus und seine Gön-
ner"). Von Treitschke is generally regarded as hav-
ing fared ill in this encounter. As Schmoller pointed
out, those whom he attacked had spent more years in
the study of economic questions than he had weeks.
But one of the most interesting features of this
new school of political economy, altogether apart
from the correctness of its other doctrines, is its re-
*“Ueber einige Grundfragen des Rechts und der Volkswirth-
schaft" (Jena, 1875).
244
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
pudiation of selfishness, or self-interest, as it is more
euphemistically called, as a sufficient guide in eco-
nomic matters. The necessity of Christian self-denial
and self-sacrifice is emphasized by its adherents.
They attack what they call the mammonism of the
Manchester school, and elevate man, not wealth, to
the central position in economic science. "The start-
ing-point, as well as the object-point, of our science ist
man" (Roscher). All hope of resolving "the social
question" without a moral and intellectual elevation
of mankind is abandoned. The Christian religion is
assigned an important work in this field, and political
economy becomes a Christian science. To see the
leaders of economic thought, starting with anything
rather than religious predilections, gradually forced
to this position, may indeed be styled a triumph of
Christianity.
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.
245
CHAPTER XVI.
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.
WE have come to a point now where professorial
socialism and Christian socialism meet. Professors of
political economy, finding themselves forced to aban-
don every hope of reconciling adverse interests of
society without a moral and religious regeneration of
the various social classes, turn to Christianity, and
appeal to it for co-operation in their endeavors to
bring about an era of peace and harmony. Profes-
sorial socialism terminates in Christianity. Christian
socialism seeks in it a starting-point.
De Lamennais, who was born in 1782, was one of
the earliest representatives of Christian socialism.
He was for a time a French Catholic priest and an
ardent defender of the faith. He sought to bring
about an alliance between the masses and the Church,
in opposition to kings, whom he regarded as oppressors
of the people. The Church was to become an organ-
izing power, and was to gather the individuals, the
atoms, of industrial society, into a compact and harmo-
nious whole. She was to become the soul, the animat-
ing spirit, of the economic as well as the religious
world. He hoped to see her found a grand co-opera-
tive association of laborers, which should free them
from the yoke of capitalist and the tyranny of land-
lord. The democratic views entertained by Lamen-
246
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
nais, and his opposition to the monarchs of Europe, did
not give satisfaction among the Church authorities.
He went to Rome to plead his cause before Leo XII.,
and was received with open arms. But afterwards the
motto of his journal L'Avenir, "Séparez vous des rois,
tendez la main au peuple "-" separate yourselves from
the kings, extend your hand to the people"-displeased
Gregory XVI., and Lamennais, unable to win over the
Pope to his views, finally left the Church in despair.
"Catholicism was my own life," said he, "because it is
the life of humanity. I wished to defend it and draw
it from the abyss into which it sinks more and more
daily. Nothing was easier. The bishops have found
that it would not suit them. Thus Rome lagged be-
hind. I went there and saw the most abominable
cloaque which ever offended human eyesight. . . . No
other God rules there but egotism. For a piece of
land, for a few piasters, they would bargain away
the nations, the whole human race, even the blessed
Trinity."*
He wrote, after his return, "Les Paroles d'un Croy-
ant"—"The Words of a Believer"-published in 1833,
and perhaps his most celebrated work. It is a strange,
weird, fascinating book. In prose, yet with all the
fervor, imagery, and beauty of poetry, he describes
the wrongs and sufferings inflicted on the laborer
by rulers and capitalists. How is it, one might ask,
that he, so far above the masses, can depict their
sorrows as vividly as if he had felt them? It is pre-
cisely because he is not far above the toiling many;
he has in sympathy drawn near to them; he feels with
* Quoted by Kaufmann in "Lamennais and Kingsley," Contempo-
rary Review, April, 1882.
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.
247
and for them; what they have experienced, that has
he also lived. Their pain is his pain; their anguish
is his anguish, and has penetrated perhaps more deeply
into his soul than into theirs.
In the following passage from "Les Paroles d'un
Croyant " he shows how much worse are modern em-
ployers who oppress their laborers than were the earlier
slave-owners. The story he tells is this:
"Now, there was a wicked and accursed man. And
this man was strong and hated toil, so that he said to
himself: 'What shall I do? If I work not I shall die,
and labor is to me intolerable.'
"Then there entered into his heart a thought born
in hell. He went in the night and seized certain of
his brethren while they slept, and bound them with
chains.
"For,' said he, 'I will force them with whips and
scourges to toil for me, and I will eat the fruit of their
labor.'
"And he did that which he had resolved; and oth-
ers, seeing it, did likewise, and the men of the earth
were no longer brothers, but only masters and slaves.
"This was a day of sadness and mourning over all
the face of the earth.
"A long time afterwards there arose another man,
whose cruelty and wickedness exceeded the cruelty
and wickedness of the first man.
"Seeing that men multiplied everywhere, and that
the multitude of them was innumerable, he said to
himself:
"I could indeed enchain some of these, and force
them to work for me; but it would then be necessary
to feed and otherwise maintain them, and that would
diminish my gains. I will do better: I will let them
248
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
work for nothing; they will die, in truth, but their
number is great; I will amass a fortune before their
number is largely diminished, and there will always
remain enough of them."
"Now all this multitude of men might live on what
they received in exchange for their labor.'
"Having thus spoken, he addressed himself sepa-
rately to some of them, and said: 'You work six hours,
and you receive a piece of money for your labor;
work twelve hours and you will receive two pieces of
money, and you and your wives and your little ones
will live better."
"And they believed him.
"Then he said to them, 'You work only half the
days of the year; work every day in the year and your
gains will be doubled.'
"And they believed him still.
"Now it happened that the quantity of labor having
been doubled without any increase in the demand
therefor, the half of those who previously lived by
their labor could find no one to employ them.
"Then the wicked man whom they had believed
said to them: 'I will give labor to all, under condition
that you will labor the same length of time, and that
I shall pay you only half so much as I have been in
the habit of doing; because I indeed desire to render
you a service, but I do not wish to ruin myself.'
"And as they, their wives, and little ones were suf-
fering the pangs of hunger, they accepted the proposal
of the wicked man, and they blessed him; for, said
they, 'He gives us our life.'
"And, continuing to deceive them in the same man-
ner, the wicked man ever increased their labor and
ever diminished their wages.
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.
249
"And they died for lack of the necessaries of life,
and others pressed forward to take their places; for
poverty had become so terrible in the land, that entire
families sold themselves for a morsel of bread.
"And the wicked, cruel man, who had lied to his
brothers, amassed a larger fortune than the wicked
man who had enslaved them.
"The name of the latter is tyrant; but the former
has no name save in hell itself.”*
The Christian socialism of England has peculiarities
which render it exceedingly interesting in connection
with an account of French and German Christian
socialism, furnishing, as it does, opportunities for in-
structive comparisons.
It arose about thirty years ago. Its founders were
men like Charles Kingsley, Frederick Maurice, and
Thomas Hughes. They were filled with horror at the
wrongs and hardships of the lower classes, and reject-
ed with lofty moral indignation the theory of the
Manchester men that state and society were to do
nothing about it. They refused to believe that the
action of self-interest led to the most perfect social
harmony, or that government should do nothing to
alleviate suffering and elevate the masses. Some of
their expressions might have satisfied even a social
democrat. Kingsley expressed his opinion of eco-
nomic liberalism by describing the Cobden and Bright
scheme of the universe as the worst of all narrow,
hypocritical, anarchic, and atheistic social philosophies;
while he predicted the coming of good times to the
poor, and the overthrow of mammonism, in these
words: "Not by wrath and haste, but by patience.
* "Paroles d' un Croyant," pp. 16-18.
250
FRENCH AND. GERMAN SOCIALISM.
made perfect through suffering, canst thou proclaim
this good news to the groaning masses, and deliver
them, as thy Master did before thee, by the cross and
not the sword. Divine paradox! Folly to the rich
and mighty-the watchword to the weak, in whose
weakness is God's strength made perfect. 'In your
patience possess ye your souls, for the coming of the
Lord draweth nigh.' Yes, he came then, and the
Babel-tyranny of Rome fell, even as the more fearful,
the more subtle, and more diabolic tyranny of mammon
shall fall ere long-suicidal, even now crumbling by
its innate decay. Yes; Babylon the Great-the com-
mercial world of selfish competition, drunken with the
blood of God's people, whose merchandise is the bodies
and souls of men-her doom is gone forth. And then
-then-when they, the tyrants of the earth, who
lived delicately with her, rejoicing in her sins, the
plutocrats and bureaucrats, the money-changers and
devourers of labor, are crying to the rocks to hide
them, and to the hills to cover them, from the wrath
of him that sitteth on the throne; then labor shall be
free at last, and the poor shall eat and be satisfied,
with things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard,
nor hath it entered into the heart of man to con-
ceive, but which God has prepared for those who
love him."*
Kingsley and his confrères held that modern com-
petition was only one kind of warfare, and conse-
quently sinful. They sought to replace it by co-oper-
ation, in which they found a practical carrying-out of
Christian principles. Mr. Ludlow, Maurice, and others
talked the matter over, and finally formed a society in
* Alton Locke, ch. xli.
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.
251
London to promote co-operative undertakings and the
education of the lower classes. They assisted laborers
to found productive co-operative associations. They
established also a newspaper, the Christian Socialist,
in which they made propaganda for their faith. They
thought they had discovered the panacea for all social
evils: “I certainly thought," said Mr. Hughes after-
wards-" and, for that matter, have never altered my
opinion to this day-that here we had found the solu-
tion of the great labor question; but I was also con-
vinced that we had nothing to do but just to announce
it, and found an association or two, in order to convert
all England, and usher in the millennium at once, so
plain did the whole thing seem to me. I will not un-
dertake to answer for the rest of the council, but I
doubt whether I was at all more sanguine than the
majority."*
The Christian socialists established seventeen co-
operative societies in London and twenty-four in other
parts of England, but chiefly, if not wholly, in the
south, before their organ ceased to appear. These,
however, all failed. But about this time there began
to spring up in the north of England distributive co-
operative societies, not designed to produce commodi-
ties, but, as their name implies, to distribute them by
establishing stores. These associations, which have
prospered greatly, furnished an opportunity for some
of the Christian socialists to exert themselves in be-
half of the laborer. So far as there is to-day any
active Christian socialism in England, it is to be found
in the Co-operative Union. Indeed, Mr. Thomas
Hughes seems to identify the two movements in a
* Quoted from Kaufmann's article.
252
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
letter,* which he was kind enough to write me about
Christian socialism. As it is interesting, and Ameri-
cans are always glad to hear what the author of
"Tom Brown at Rugby" has to say, I will take the
liberty of quoting such parts of his letter as bear on
our subject:
"The details of the Christian socialist movement may still be
gathered from The Christian Socialist newspaper, and tracts, The
Journal of Association, its short-lived successor, and Politics for the
People, its more short-lived predecessor. The leaders are quite
scattered-Maurice, Kingsley, and Mansfield dead; Lord Ripon, Gov-
ernor-general of India; Ludlow, Registrar of Friendly Societies; El-
lison, a metropolitan magistrate; I a county-court judge. The only
one left actively in this movement (which I have left only two months
since) is E. Vansittart Neale, who is general secretary (and backbone
and conscience) of the Co-operative Union. I was chairman of the
southern section till I took this judgeship.
•
•
•
“We have managed to keep this great organization, now consist-
ing of some thousand societies, with some millions of capital, up to
the principles of the Christian socialists—nominally, at any rate—and
I really think the old spirit is, at any rate, alive in a large propor-
tion of the rising leaders, though the mammon devil is, I am bound
to own, vigorous among them, and hard to put down. . . . I still look
to this movement as the best hope for England and other lands."
Mr. Neale has been good enough to write me a
fuller account of the connection between co-operation
and Christian socialism, which he regards as two dis-
tinct movements - in their origin, at least. I will
quote what he has to say about them:
"MANCHESTER, December 4, 1882.
*
*
*
*
"I think that the Christian social efforts of Messrs. Maurice,
Kingsley, Hughes, etc., and the co-operative movement out of which
our present Union has grown up, ought to be distinguished as really
separate actions, independent of each other in their origin, though
they have subsequently, to a certain extent, coalesced.
* Dated Chester, October 6, 1882.
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.
253
"The distributive societies have grown up since 1844, principally
from the impulse originating in the Rochdale Pioneers, which was, so
far as it can be said to embody any moral principle, Owenite rather
than Christian. No doubt it included, from the first, members of
the various religious bodies which exist in England, and it never pro-
fessed to substitute any other religious teaching for that given in
the name of Christianity, as R. Owen's followers had done. There-
fore, among the disciples, men soon appeared who said, This co-oper-
ation which you advocate is nothing else than the practical applica-
tion of Christianity to the ordinary business of life. Likewise, when,
at a later date, those who had gathered around Mr. Maurice's endeav-
ors to show systematically the connection of Christian ideas with the
Co-operative Union, as is done by Mr. Hughes and myself in the
'Manual for Co-operation,' . . . this application was accepted by the
Congress of the Co-operative Union as a legitimate descent of co-
operation, and is more or less assented to at the present time by co-
operators who never were in any way connected with Mr. Maurice.
"But this has been, as I have said, a result of relations which have
grown up between two movements, distinct in their origin, but simi-
lar in their tendencies, and from this similarity, and the aid afforded
by each to the other, naturally disposed to coalesce.
"In their origin the stores were antecedent to the teachings of the
Christian socialists, which did not begin in any definite shape until
1849 and 1850, when the Rochdale Pioneers had got over the diffi-
culties of their beginnings, and were doing a business of £6611 8s. 9d.
in 1844 and £13,179 17s. in 1850; and other stores were beginning
to spring up and attain considerable proportions in various towns of
Lancashire and Yorkshire, under the influence of the success of
Rochdale. In London we had scarcely any knowledge of these so-
cieties till the end of 1850; and our efforts took principally the
direction of attempts to form productive associations of workers by
means of advances of capital to them on loan at four per cent. inter-
est, and with no other security than the stock in trade of the socie-
ties founded by these endeavors.
"Theoretically, the idea we endeavored to spread was the concep-
tion of workers as brethren-of work as coming from a brotherhood
of men associated for their common benefit-who therefore rejected
any notion of competition with each other as inconsistent with the
true form of society, and, without formally preaching communism,
sought to found industrial establishments communistic in feeling, of
which it should be the aim, while paying ordinary wages and interest
254
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
at the rate I have mentioned, to apply the profits of the business in
ways conducive to the common advantage of the body whose work
produced them.
"The Christian element about this teaching was rather a some-
thing floating over it than definitely embodied in it. No attempt
was made to formulate any religious creed which should be professed
even by those who formed the central body-'The Council of Pro-
moters of Workingmen's Societies,' as it was called. Still less was
there any attempt to limit the men employed in any of the societies
to those professing Christianity. There was a general understand-
ing that the tone of any writings put forth by the council or any of
its members should be such as Maurice and Kingsley would approve.
But this was all. Of the freedom of opinion in the council a striking
proof is Mr. Lloyd Jones, who had been one of R. Owen's mission-
aries, and never professed any form of Christianity, and who was one
of the most active members.
"Such was the character of this Christian socialism, even where it
was most concentrated. In its relation to the co-operation of the
north the religious element was yet more thrown into the background.
Our connection with these societies came through the law-I mean
the English law-not the Gospel. Mr. Hughes, Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Fer-
nival, another active member of our council, and I, were barristers.
The law relating to such societies as we desired to form, and as our
northern friends desired to form on their own account, was then very
little suitable to our wants. Mr. Slaney, a member of Parliament,
who took a great interest in all efforts of the working population to
help themselves, got a committee appointed to inquire into the in-
vestments of the middle and working classes. Much interesting
evidence was given before this committee in 1850 and in 1852. Mr.
Slaney introduced into Parliament a bill originally drawn by Mr.
Ludlow, with some assistance from me, which was carefully consid-
ered by a special committee of the House of Commons, who sug-
gested many improvements in it; and on their report was accepted
by the House, and became the original law of 'Industrial and Provi-
dent Societies.' These operations established, as you will easily sup-
pose, friendly relations between us in London and our friends in the
north, who went on and flourished greatly in their distributive sc-
cieties under the protection given them by the law of 1852; and
were in continual communication with Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Hughes, and
myself during the next seventeen years as to alterations and amend-
ment of their law, of which there were several in the course of these
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.
255
years, and as to questions of a legal character affecting their busi-
ness.
"In the meantime the societies formed under our special influence
in London had all come to grief. Had it not been for the growth of
distributive co-operation in the north the movement would have been
at an end in England. And this growth took place spontaneously,
with no other help from us than was afforded by the legal assistance
that I have mentioned and occasional visits of some one of our body.
At last, in 1869, principally through the influence of the late Mr.
William Prior, one of the disciples of R. Owen, a conference was
held in London, which was continued for four days, and was attend-
ed by several delegates from the northern societies. At the confer-
ence papers were read on a number of topics of a social character.
Discussions were carried on upon them, and an impulse was given to
the feeling of union out of which our present organization has arisen.
From that time a conference-or, as we call it, a congress-has been
held every year in some part of Great Britain. Subscriptions from
the societies have been organized. In 1873 a systematic division of
Great Britain into districts, for the purposes of propaganda, was
established. Sectional committees were appointed in each district,
and a united board formed by delegates from them, which has
the general direction of the whole movement. Now, with the for-
mation of this organization, the southern influences which had given
birth to the notion of Christian socialism began again to make them-
selves felt. We have supplied more largely than our northern friends
the intellectual factor, which has found the material to which to ap-
ply itself in the co-operative societics of manufacturing Britain.
Thus it is that the 'Manual for Co-operation,' which I think must be
considered as the most matured and complete exposition of the rela-
tion between Christianity and social reform, has come to be accepted
by the Co-operative Union, and published at its expense, as a recog-
nized exposition of the views entertained by most of those who en-
deavor to give a distinct form to their views."
The Englishman, like the American, is eminently
practical. He must find some concrete form in which
to embody his ideas. If he cannot now obtain all he
desires, he will take what he can get and wait for an
opportune moment to gain possession of what remains.
He does not cease to think, plan, and even dream, but
256
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
he spends more time in action than in talk. Thus
have the Christian socialists of England, without
changing their views, contented themselves for the
present with distributive co-operation. They have,
however, done far more than to establish co-operative
associations. They called attention to the duties and
responsibilities of wealth as well as its rights. They
induced men to stop and consider whether it might
not, after all, be possible to do something to amelio-
rate the condition of the unfortunate and to improve
the poor and degraded.
and degraded. The results have been seen
in generous, philanthropic, and, to a large extent, suc-
cessful endeavors to elevate those low down to a high-
er plane of life and thought. Legislation has followed,
limiting the length of a day's work, restricting the
employment of young children, regulating the labor
of women, protecting operatives in factories, and oth-
erwise benefiting the laboring classes. This has coun-
teracted the effects of discontent and dangerous agi-
tation so far as to prevent the violent attempts at
revolution, once feared. The humane and enlightened
views, which to-day obtain to such an extent in Eng-
land, are due, far more than is generally supposed, to
the warm-hearted zeal of those noble Englishmen who
were called Christian socialists.
In Germany, there are two branches of the Chris-
tian Socialists, the Protestants and the Roman Cath-
olics.
The Protestant Christian Socialists are not numer-
ous, nor are they sufficiently important to justify much
more than the mention of their existence. Their two
leaders are Dr. Todt, a pastor, and Dr. Stöcker, court-
chaplain, who is known on account of his leadership in
the Anti-Semitic agitation in Germany. His part in
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.
257
this latter movement shows how little nobility there
is in his nature. I attended one meeting of the Chris-
tian Socialists in Berlin. Instead of proposals to ame-
liorate the condition of laborers, I heard little save
abuse of the Jews. When any member of the audi-
ence was invited to reply, a bright-appearing young
man of twenty or thereabouts came forward and be-
gan to talk in a sensible sort of way concerning the
position of the Hebrews, but his arguments were soon
drowned by the hooting of the rabble. Court-pastor
Stöcker bowed him off the stage with mock ceremoni-
ousness. I thought the young man showed to far bet-
ter advantage than the leader of those whom he was
addressing.
The ideas of the Protestant Christian Socialists are
rather vague and indefinite. They favor, however,
legislation in behalf of the laboring classes similar to
that which is now in force in England, and desire a
strong monarch to take the lead in measures designed
to elevate the toiling masses. They wish also to bring
the people back to the Church, that they may enjoy the
consolations of religion. Dr. Todt appears to hope for
a peaceful introduction of communism, or some form
of socialism approaching thereto, in a far-distant future.
Catholic Christian Socialism in Germany is a far
more important, a far nobler, movement. Its leading
light was the late Bishop of Mainz or Mayence, Baron
von Ketteler.
Wilhelm Emanuel Baron von Ketteler was born in
1811, in Münster. He came of an old and honorable
family. He studied law, and began his career in the
German courts, before he decided to devote himself
to the Church. He was ordained as priest in 1844
and was made bishop in 1850.
ܚܐ
17
258
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
Von Ketteler was keen, eager, eloquent-a valiant
champion of the Church, who fought for her emanci
pation from state control, and obtained important con-
cessions. His activity was remarkable, and displayed
itself prominently in the foundation of numerous
institutions, as monasteries, unions, schools, orphan-
asylums, and houses of refuge. He understood how
to make use of the press in forwarding his designs,
which included plans intended to promote the welfare
of the masses.
After the formation of the German
empire Von Ketteler took a leading position in the
party of the Ultramontanes, and was ever ready with
tongue and
pen in all matters concerning the relations
of state to Church and school.
He opposed the proclamation of the doctrine of
papal infallibility as inopportune, but, after it had
been proclaimed, he became its ardent supporter.
Von Ketteler's eventful life ended in 1875, and his
body now rests in the cathedral at Mainz.
Von Ketteler accepts the doctrine of the iron, cruel
law of wages, and assents to many of the teachings of
the social democrats, in so far as they are directed
against our present social organization. He seeks sal-
vation, however, in the Catholic Church.
He holds that God or the Church is the supreme
owner of all property, and that human rights are only
secondary. Men have only the right of administering
what has been committed to them. The Church has
always held, says he, that if a starving man took a
loaf of bread to satisfy hunger which he could still in
no other way, it was no theft. In that case human
proprietary rights yield to the divine right of self-
preservation.
The good-will of the Church is also shown in the
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.
259
large property which she has accumulated to alleviate
the sufferings of the poor. It was not her fault that
she was deprived of a great part of this by the secu-
larization of her possessions, which took place after
the Reformation. It increased the distress of the un-
fortunate, and the worldly powers were obliged to
enact poor-laws to relieve those who had thereby been
reduced to helplessness.
The misery of the present time is due to material-
ism and liberal politics. The state and the Church
should exercise greater control over human conduct in
such matters, e. g., as marriage.
"We will not deny," says Von Ketteler, "that in
various regions the contraction of marriage is made
too difficult; but, on the other hand, a certain limita-
tion is justifiable—is founded in reason as well as in
Christianity—and the abolition of all limitations can-
not fail to promote thoughtlessness in the contraction
of marriage, and thus injure the family. Of such a
character is the general effort and tendency to regard
marriage as a simple civil institution, to introduce the
Civilehe— i. e., marriage by civil authorities alone—
and to separate it entirely from the Church. The
stability of the family is based on the religious and
Christian doctrine of marriage. Especially is the
view of the Catholic Church that marriage is a sacra-
ment, and can be dissolved only by death, the immov-
able foundation of this stability."*
Von Ketteler regards the dissolution of the organic
bonds, or ties of society, as one cause of our present
troubles. He is, consequently, in favor of trade corpo-
*"Die Arbeiterfrage und das Christenthum" (Mainz, 1864), Seite
112.
260
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
rations, and has a friendly feeling for the guilds of the
Middle Ages. He combats vehemently the atomism
of modern liberalism. There is, in my opinion, a
great deal of truth in what he says about the neces-
sity of religion to cure the ills of modern society.
He declares that "Christ is the Saviour of the world,
not only because he has redeemed our souls, but also
because he brought salvation for all human institu-
tions and relations-civil, political, and social. Es-
pecially is he the Saviour of the laboring classes.
He has elevated the labor-class from servitude to its
present condition; * without him all humanitarian ten-
dencies of the so-called friends of the laboring man
will not prevent his sinking again into a state of
slavery."
Von Ketteler mentions five remedies which the
Church has to offer the laborer.
1. She founds and manages institutions for the
benefit of the laborer unable to work.
These are
managed by those who have a tender interest in his
welfare. Love to Christ will enable the Catholic
nurses to perform disagreeable and repulsive ser-
vices in a mild and gentle manner.
2. She offers him the institution of the Christian
family.
3. She presents to him the truths and doctrines of
the Church, which are the true education of the labor-
er. The doctrine of the liberals, that education for
the laborers is to be found in self-help and in their
unions for instructing working-men is only a simula-
crum and deceit.
4. She offers him the social power of the Church.
* He attributes the abolition of slavery to the Church.
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.
261
This unites men, and may be used to assist in found-
ing unions and societies of laborers. Such unions are
Christian in nature.*
5. This social power of the Church might be used
in establishing productive co-operative associations
on a Christian basis. Nothing could be more pleasing
to God and beneficial to man than gifts of the wealthy
for this purpose.
For our part, we rejoice that men of all shades of
opinion are turning to Christianity for help in the so-
lution of social problems, and trust that the poor and
needy, where they are now estranged from the Church,
may ere long be led to recognize in her their best.
friend. All Christian men, and particularly the au-
thorities of the Church, should see to it that no oppor-
tunity is lost to win to her the toiling masses.
We
fully agree with a celebrated Belgian professort of
Political Economy when he writes: "The proletarians
have been detached from and will return to Christi-
anity when they begin to understand that it brings to
them freedom and equal rights, whereas atheistic ma-
terialism consecrates their slavery and sacrifices them
to pretended natural laws. By a complete misappli-
cation of its ideas, the religion of Christ, transformed
into a temporal and sacerdotal institution, has been
called in as the ally of caste, despotism, and the 'an-
cient régime to sanction all social inequalities. The
Gospel, on the contrary, is the good news to the poor
-the announcement of the advent of that kingdom
*The Catholic Church in Germany has been instrumental in es-
tablishing a large number of Gesellenvereine, or bachelors' unions.
They resemble in many respects our Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciations.
† De Laveleye.
262
FRENCH AND GERMAN SOCIALISM.
when the humble shall be lifted up and the disinher-
ited shall possess the earth.”*
* Quoted by Kaufmann in his article on Lamennais and Kingsley,
in the Contemporary Review, April, 1882.
INDEX.
Adams, C. K., criticism on Louis Blanc's "Histoire de la Révolution
Française," 111.
Albert, colleague of Louis Blanc, 111.
Anarchists, Proudhon avows himself one of them, 135; their promi-
nent representatives in France, 146; equality their doctrine, 147;
declaration of principles, 148; separation from the International
Workingmen's Association, 185.
Antonelle, member of the Committee of Insurrection, 32.
Aristotle, defence of slavery, 176.
Association, to be established by leadership (Saint-Simon), 64; the
central idea of Fourierism, 91–99.
Babœuf, opposed to the laissez-faire system, 12; sketch of his career,
31; connection with the Reign of Terror, 32; execution, 33; equali-
ty the leading idea of his system, 34; equality be obtained by de-
grees, 36; his scheme, 37; a cheerless scheme, 38.
Bakounine, pessimist, leader of the Anarchists, 147; leads the oppo-
sition to the old Internationalists at the Hague, 185.
Barnett, S. A., socialistic laws on the statute-book of England, note,
236.
Barrault, a Saint-Simonian, 72; lectures in Alexandria, 78.
Baudet-Dulary, offers an estate for a trial of Fourierism, 101.
Bazard, separates from Enfantin, 65, 75; a leader of the Saint-Simo-
nians, 71.
Bebel, a supporter of Bismarck's Insurance Bill, 220; a disciple of
Liebknecht, 230; historical importance, 231.
Becker, president of the Laborers' Union, 225, 226.
Bismarck, admiration for Lassalle, 196; plans for universal suffrage,
212; checks to social democrats, 216; his determination, 217; his
Accident Insurance Bill, 218; his plan to conquer social democracy,
219; concessions, 219, 228; his schemes in behalf of labor viewed
with distrust, 220; a member of an economic school, 235; appre-
ciation of Wagner, 243.
Black Hand of Spain, members of the International, 186.
Blanc, Charles, affection of Louis Blanc for, 115.
264
INDEX.
Blanc, Louis, an authority on the times of Louis Philippe, 34, note ;
first state socialist, 109; life, 109 et seqq.; "Organisation du
Travail," 110; "Histoire de Dix Ans," 110; perceived the widen-
ing separation between the bourgeoisie and the fourth estate, 110;
"Histoire de la Révolution Française," 111; droit au travail, 112;
ateliers sociaux, 112, 119; experiments, 112; flight from France,
114; character, 115; social philosophy, 116; evils of present so-
ciety according to, 117; suppression of misery by fraternity, 118;
his formula for the distribution of functions, 121; of products, 122;
not an égalitaire, 122; correspondence with Lassalle, 192 and note.
Blanqui, Adolphe, a Saint-Simonian, 72.
Blanqui, Auguste, founder of Blanquism, 145.
Blind, Karl, description of the appearance of Louis Blanc, 116; no
faith in Lassalle, 192, note.
Booth, A. J., criticism on Enfantin, 73; statement regarding the So-
ciety for the Propagation, etc., of the Theory of Fourier, 102 and note.
Bourgeoisie, the third estate, 4; rise of, 7; enmity of the poor against,
10; separation from the fourth estate, 110; growth of, inimical to
feudalism, 177; Lassalle's indictment of, 195.
Bretano, a professorial socialist, 237.
Bright, his schemes called narrow by Kingsley, 249.
Brisbane, Albert, head of Fourierism in America, 107.
Brissot de Warville declares private property theft, but afterwards
defends it, 3.
Brook Farm, a Fourieristic experiment in America, 107.
Bucher, L., edits Lassalle's "System of Acquired Rights," 197.
Buchez, a Saint-Simonian, 72.
Buonarroti, connection with Babœuf, member of the committee of
insurrection, 32; escapes to Switzerland, 33; his history of the
conspiracy of Babœuf, 33 and note, 34; preaches Bavouism, 34.
Cabet, Étienne, career of, 39-42; "Voyage en Icarie," 40; the Ica-
rians at Nauvoo, 41; division among the Icarians, 42; letter of
Albert Shaw concerning present condition of Icarians, 42-48; the
New Icarian Community, 44; the Icarian Community, 46; govern-
ment and marriage among the Icarians, 48 and note, 51; educa-
tion, 49; success, 49; fraternity the principle of the Icarians, 50.
Carlyle, necessity of sympathy, 15; the laborers need a leader, 63;
"History of the French Revolution," 144.
Chevalier, Michel, a Saint-Simonian, 72; imprisoned, 77; proposal
about the armies of Europe, 79.
Church, relation to people before the French Revolution, 6; the Cath-
olic before the Reformation, 62; restraint of, 63; duty of, 66;
Proudhon's work on justice in, 132; views of Malon, 154, 155; an
organizing power, 245; remedies offered to laborers by, 260.
Civil service, in Prussia, 207; need of reform in the United States;
possible future dangers arising from its prostitution, 223.
.
INDEX.
265
Cobden, Kingsley's dislike of the plans of, 249.
Colins, an advocate of the nationalization of land, 150.
Collectivists, French socialists, and social democrats, 149; are inter-
national, 150; evolutionists, 150; revolutionists, 151; Guesde's
electoral programme, 152.
Commune, its nature explained, 20; aims of the communists, 21;
the communal government, 22.
Communism, object, 1; cosmopolitan, 3; proper method of treat-
ment, 14; modern hatred of, 16; modern fallacies about, 19; not
chargeable with the doings of the Commune, 20; connection with
atheism and free-love, 22; opinions of Noyes and Rylance, 23 and
note, 24; not necessarily anti-Christian, 25; included in socialism,
30; schemes of, 30; Bavouism, 34; Icarians, 40; to be preferred
to the present state of society (Mill), 68; objected to by Proudhon,
133, 137; in France, 144; movement of the social democrats tow-
ards, 206.
Comte, A., a pupil of Saint-Simon, 57 and note.
Considerant, Victor, presentation of Fourierism, 101, 103.
Co-operation, scheme of Lassalle, 189; to replace competition, 250;
societies to promote, 251; efforts of Hughes, 251; letter of E. V.
Neale, 252, 255; Church can aid, 261.
Crises, one of the evils Rodbertus sought to abolish, 161; state in-
terference needed, 166; Marx's doctrine of, 181; social democrats
to abolish, 208.
Crosby, Dr. Howard, attitude of, towards laboring class, 28 and
note.
Curtis, George William, 107.
Cuvier, a benefactor of Saint-Simon, 59.
Dana, Charles A., prominent among the Fourierists of America, 107.
Darthé, member of the committee of insurrection with Babœuf,
32.
David, teacher of music at Ménilmontant, 77; afterwards at Alexan-
dria, 78.
Debon, member of committee of insurrection, 32.
Democratic constitutions, pretence of lower classes in consequence of,
a condition productive of socialism, 224.
Depaepe, presentation of international collectivism, 150.
Diard supports Saint-Simon, 59.
Dickens treats of the laboring class, 11, note.
Didier, agent of the committee of insurrection, 32.
Distribution of products, complaints about, 1; Babœuf favored equal,
36; Saint-Simonians advocate, according to works, 64, 68, 71, 74,
and reject equal, 70; Fourier's doctrine of, 98, 99; at Guise, 106;
Louis Blanc's doctrine concerning, 122; Proudhon's, 140; Rod-
bertus's, 162; Marx's, 180; social democrats, 205; Mill's plea for
justice in, 238.
266
INDEX.
Division of labor, effects of, 8; implies capital, 201; extreme, a con-
dition productive of socialistic movements, 222.
Dumas, Alexander, derives the idea of "Les Frères Corses" from
Charles and Louis Blanc, 115.
Dumay, candidate of the collectivists to succeed Gambetta, 151.
Economic programme of Guesde, 153.
Enfantin, leader of Saint-Simonism, 71; character, 73; views re-
garding marriage, 75; retires to Ménilmontant, 76; expedition to
Egypt, 77; Suez Canal due to him, 77; director of Lyons Railway,
79.
Engels, "Condition of the Laboring Classes in England," 158; one of
the founders of Neue Rheinische Zeitung, 171.
Equality, promised by agitators, 2; Christian idea of underlying com-
munism, 25; idea of Bavouism, 34; among Icarians, 50; Saint-Si-
monians oppose, 64, 68, 70; opposed by Louis Blanc, 122;
"com-
munity is inequality" (Proudhon), 133; how obtained by Proudhon,
138; of anarchists, 147, 149; égalité and solidarite the watchwords
of German social democrats, 231.
Eudes, leader of the Blanquists, 145.
Feudalism, Thorold Rogers points out certain good features in, 5;
swept away by French Revolution, 6; makes way for third estate,
177.
Fourier, opposed to laissez-faire system, 12; compared with Saint-
Simon, 81; life, 82 et seqq.; generous and truthful, 83; influences
leading him to a study of political economy, 83, 84; his social
scheme, 84, 91; "La Théorie des Quatre Mouvements," 84, 86;
Association at Versailles, 85; "Traité de l'Association," etc., 87;
use of figures, 87; duration of the world, 88; religious belief, 89;
"Nouveau Monde Industriel," etc., 91; classification of the pas-
sions, 92; evils of modern civilization, 93; phalanxes, 93; bene-
ficial effects of rivalry, 94; scheme for paying the English debt
with hens' eggs, 95, 96; evils of competition, 97; Fourierism not
so pure a socialism as Saint-Simonism, 98; division of products,
98; unitéisme, 99; ideas about women, 100; opposes violence, 100;
criticism of Kaufmann, 100; adherents, 101; Fourieristic experi-
ments, 102; experiment of Jean Godin, 103; Fourierism in Amer-
ica, 106; criticism on, 108; principle of authority, 124.
Fournel, a Saint-Simonian, 72.
Free-trade school, comparison of, with German socialism, 158; cos-
mopolitan tendency of, 187.
Freiligrath, one of the founders of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, 171;
farewell ode, 172.
French Revolution, chap. i.; writers immediately preceding, 3; the
war of La Vendée, 5; sweeps away feudal institutions, 6; history
of, by Louis Blanc, 111.
INDEX.
267
Fuller, Margaret, a leading spirit in the Brook Farm experiment, 107.
Gammond, Madame de, exposition of Fourierism, 101.
Gneist, Dr., is elected to the Assembly, 213.
Godin's Familistère, 103; extract from laws, 105.
Government, Babœuf's idea of, 37; among the Icarians, 48; Saint-
Simon's idea of, 64; Fourier's, 99; Louis Blanc's opinion of, 117,
124; Proudhon's contempt for, 130; anarchy is Proudhon's ideal
of, 134, 141; opinion of the anarchists about, 148; Lassalle's idea,
193; demands of the social democrats, 205, 208; Wagner's law of
expenses of, 242.
Greeley, Horace, prominent among the Fourierists of America, 107.
Guesde, Jules, a revolutionary collectivist, 151; his electoral pro-
gramme, 152.
Guilds before the French Revolution, 4.
Guise, M. Godin's experiment at, 103.
Harrison, F., view of existing French socialism, 143.
Hasselmann expelled from Social Democratic Party, 216.
Hatzfeldt, Countess Von, interest of Lassalle in the case of, 190, 197;
coutrols the Universal German Laborers' Union, 225.
Held, Adolf, a professorial socialist, 237.
History, theory of, by Marx, 175.
Hughes, Thomas, a Christian socialist, 249; co-operation to solve the
labor question, 251; letter of, about Christian socialism in Eng-
land, 252.
Hugues, Clovis, a collectivist deputy, 154.
Humboldt, Von, admiration for Lassalle, 189.
Icarians, vide Cabet.
Individualism, result of French Revolution, 7; advice to the govern-
ment, 29; opinion of Louis Blanc about, 117; individualistic
socialism, 125; attacked by Proudhon, 127.
Inheritance, rejected by Saint-Simonians, 69, 70, 80; retained by
Fourier, 98; allowed by Proudhon, 134; abolished by collectivists,
151; doctrine of social democrats regarding, 207.
International Workingmen's Association, members of the communal
government, 21; law against, 114; separation of Bakounine from,
146; Guesde's political programme demands the abolition of the
law against, 151; based on social democratic principles, 183; stat-
utes, 183; congresses, 184; at the Hague, 185; importance, 186;
possibilities of, 187.
Joffrin, a revolutionary collectivist, 152; refuses to attend Louis
Blanc's funeral, 154.
Kaufmann, Schäffle's socialism, 2; on Lamennais, 12; definition of
socialism proper, 66; merits of Fourierism, 100, 101.
268
INDEX.
Kayser, a defender of Bismarck's Insurance Bill, 220.
Ketteler, Baron von, life, 257, 258; character, 258; doctrines, 258;
on marriage, 259; remedies the Church offers to laborers, 260.
King, Edward, describes the affection of Louis Blanc for his brother
Charles, 115.
Kingsley, Charles, a Christian socialist, 249; opinion of economic
liberalism, 249, 250; competition sinful, 250.
Knies's opinion of Marx, 174.
Krapotkine, Prince, imprisoned on account of membership in the In-
ternational Workingmen's Association, 114, 186; a prominent an-
archist, 146.
Kretzer, Max, novelist of the fourth estate, 11, note.
Laboring class, rise of, 7; their novelist, 11, note; decay of religion
among, 24, note; no permanent, in America as yet, 25; prophecies
of, 26; Most's method for the emancipation of, 27; needs a leader,
63; scheme of Fourier for, 93; plans of Louis Blanc for, 112;
sympathy of Proudhon with, 128; his plan for, 136; opinion of De
Laveleye, 154; their share of products (Rodbertus), 164; increas-
ing misery of, 177; statutes of the International Workingmen's
Association concerning, 183, 184; agitation of Lassalle for, 190, 194;
duration of life among, 201; political influence of, in Germany to-
day, 211; plans of Bismarck for, 219, 220; lesson taught them by
the social democrats, 233; alliance with the church, 245; sympathy
of Christian socialists for, 249; legislation in behalf of, favored by
Christian socialists, 257; benefits offered by the Church, 260.
Laissez-faire system, revolt against, 12; the advice of the individual-
ist, 29; condemned by Louis Blanc, 117; effect of, 163; opinion
of Rodbertus, 168.
Lamennais, De, distress at results of the French Revolution, 12;
sketch of his life, 245; does not satisfy the church authorities,
246; "Les Paroles d'un Croyant," 246; modern employers worse
than early slave-owners, 247.
Lange, F. A., warnings of, to the progressists, 18; his opinion of
Marx, 174.
Lassalle, war-cries against capital, 2; party of progress opposed to,
17; his success attributed by Mehring to his enemies, 19; account
of the ateliers sociaux, 113; life, 189 et seqq.; interest in Countess
Von Hatzfeldt, 190; agitation in favor of the laboring class, 190;
success of his writings, 191; the "Iron Law of Wages," 191, 197;
productive co-operative associations, 192; leader of the Universal
German Laborers' Union, 194; Bismarck's appreciation of, 196;
father of social democracy, 210; nominates Becker as his succes-
sor in the presidency of the laborers' union, 225.
Laurent, a Saint-Simonian, 72.
(C
Laveleye, De, “La Démocratie et l'Économie Politique,” 8, note;
European Terror," 150; regards Christianity as the hope of the
laboring class, 261.
INDEX.
269
Le Chevalier, Jules, a Fourierist, 102.
Ledru-Rollin, a colleague of Louis Blanc, 111.
Lepelletier, member of the Committee of Insurrection, 32.
Leroux, exponent of humanitarianism, 72.
Lesseps, De, inspired by Saint-Simonism, 55, 72; Enfantin associated
with, in agitation for the Suez Canal, 77.
Liebknecht moves the expulsion of Becker from the Universal Ger-
man Laborers' Union, 226; character, 228; decides not to enter
civil service, 229; takes part in the revolution of 1848, 229; inter-
preter of Marx, 230; an extremist, 230.
Louis Philippe criticised by Louis Blanc, 110.
Ludlow, J. M., describes causes of decay of religion among the work-
ingmen, 24, note; assists in forming co-operative societies in Eng-
land, 251.
Luther accused of heresy by Saint-Simon, 64.
Mably compared with Babœuf, 31.
Macaulay mentions growth of state business in England, 242, note.
Malon, B., a collectivist, 150; description of present tendencies of
French socialism, 154.
Manchester school, sympathy of the party of progress with, 17; at-
tacked by professorial socialists, 240; indignation of Christian
socialists at, 249.
Maréchal, member of the Committee of Insurrection, 32; prepared
the "Manifesto of the Equals," 33.
Marie, M., wishes to discredit Louis Blanc with the laborers, 112.
Marlo, "System of World Economy," 158.
Marriage, absence of, among the Shakers, 23, note; among the Icari-
ans, 48 and note, 51; among the Saint-Simonians, 71; Enfantin's
views regarding, 75; Fourier's, 100; Von Ketteler's, 259.
Marx, Karl, indictment against liberalism, 13; indebtedness to Proud-
hon and Rodbertus, 129, note; his views adopted by the collectiv-
ists, 140; life, 170 et seqq.; "Das Kapital," the Bible of the social
democrats, 172, 173; his ability, 174; meetings after his death,
174, 175; theory of history, 175; doctrine of value, 178; labor-
time the measure of value, 179; head of the International, 185;
enmity of Becker for, 226.
Maurice, Frederick, a Christian socialist, 249; takes part in the
formation of co-operative societies in England, 251.
Mehring, on the misery of the poor, 10; "History of Social Democ-
racy in Germany," 17; on the relations between Progressists and
the social democrats, 18; his opinion of Liebknecht, 228.
Meyer, R., on socialism in France since Proudhon, 143; estimate of
German socialists, 157.
Mill, John Stuart, objects to present method of distributing economic
goods, 67; exposition of Ricardo's law of wages, 199; a profes-
sorial socialist, 238.
270
INDEX.
Morality, state of, after French Revolution, 10; to be derived from
principle of fraternity, according to Saint-Simon, 65; decay of
among laboring class as productive of socialistic movements, 224.
More, Sir Thomas, his "Utopia" socialistic, 3; character of, 20; in-
spired Cabet, 40.
Morelly, "Code de la Nature" the inspiration of Babœuf, 34.
Morley on Rousseau's social ideas, 4; on Comte's relation to Saint-
Simon, 57, note.
Most, lecture in Baltimore, 27, 232; expelled from the social demo-
cratic convention, 216.
Muiron, adherent of Fourier, 101.
Müller, Adam, head of the romantic party, against liberalism, 12, 13.
Mutualism, Proudhon's scheme, 136.
Neale, E. V., letter about the Christian social efforts of Maurice,
Kingsley, Hughes, etc., and co-operation in England, 252–258.
Nordhoff criticises Cabet, 41.
Noves thinks "familism" and communism antagonistic, 23, note; on
Fourieristic experiments in America, 107.
Nuremberg contains magnificent remains of mediæval civilization, 6.
Owen, Robert, character of, 20; representative of English commu-
nism, 31, note; does not encourage Fourier, 85.
Parisian mob of 1871, 20.
Pauperism one of the evils Rodbertus sought to abolish, 161; aboli-
tion of requires state interference, acccording to Rodbertus, 166.
Pellarin, Charles, biographer of Fourier, 102, and note.
Peron, one of the Icarians, 46, 48.
Peters, H., values the average work of a laborer in the building
trade, 167.
Plato, his "Republic " socialistic, 3; not a demagogue, 20; idea of
slavery, 176.
Political programme of Guesde, 153.
Progressists, their contest with Lassalle; defection of laborers from,
18.
Proletarians, men without property, 4; Saint-Simonism first expression
of, 80; mentioned in Guesde's electoral programme, 152; Malon's
opinion about, 154; call of Marx to the, 171; growing importance
of, 177; will return to Christianity when they understand its true
mission (De Laveleye), 261.
Proudhon, life, 125-130; study of theology, 125; his work on the
observation of Sunday, 126; studies political economy, 127; im-
portance of "Qu'est-ce que la Propriété ?" 127-129; hatred of rich,
128; discouraged visionary projects, 129; "Système des Contra-
dictions Économiques," etc., 130; a destroyer, 130; combats other
systems, 129, 131; failure of his bank designed for the benefit of
INDEX.
271
the laborers, 131, 136; ideas on property, 132; anarchy his ideal
of government, 134; mutualism, 136; rejects communism, 137;
how equality is to be obtained, 138; anarchic equality, 139; ré-
sumé of his system, 140; his honesty of purpose, 141.
Reybaud introduces the word socialist, 29, note; "Études sur les
Réformateurs, 34, note; description of the death of Saint-Simon,
Ricardo, estimation of, by German socialists, 157; law of wages, 191,
197, 199.
61.
Rich, confrontation of, by poor productive of socialistic movements,
221.
Ripley, George, one of the leading spirits in the Brook Farm experi-
ment, 107.
Rochdale, co-operative experiment at, 253.
Rodbertus, Karl, life, 159; representative of pure theoretical social-
ism, 159; compared with Ricardo, 160; his writings, 160; describes
pauperism and crises as the great social,evils, 161; his starting-point
is his conception of labor, 161; the cause of pauperism and crises,
162; evils of the laissez-faire system, 163; division of products,
164; pauperism and panics to be banished by state interference,
166; his influence, 169; correspondence with Lassalle, 192.
Rodrigues chosen by Saint-Simon as his successor, 71.
Rogers, Thorold, points out certain good features in feudalism, 5.
Roscher, criticism on German socialism, 158; offenses punishable
with death in the army, 209; conditions productive of socialistic
movements, 221; elevates man to the central position in economic
science, 244.
Rossi, Pellegrino, instructor of Proudhon, 127.
Rothschild, his refutation of communism, 35.
Rousseau, opinions about property, 3.
Ruskin, complains of a lack of patriotism in money matters, 239.
Rylance, Dr. J. H., "Lectures on Social Questions," 17; relation be-
tween socialism and Christianity, 24.
Sacred College of Apostles founded by Saint-Simonians, 74.
Saint-Simon, opposed to the laissez-faire system, 12; life, 53 et seqq. ;
in America, 54; life purpose, 55; Mexico, Panama Canal scheme,
55; president of the commune, 56; imprisonment, 56; teacher of
Comte, 57; destitution, 58; writings, 59; obtains a pension, 60;
"Nouveau Christianisme," 60; doctrines, 62; teaches the need of
authority, 63; association, 64; revolution injurious, 64; economic
and social organizations, 66; a representative of pure socialism,
66; state property versus private property, 68; society to be or-
ganized as an army, 68; his followers, the Saint-Simonians, accused
of advocating communism of wives and property, 69; they reject
inheritance, 69; their views regarding women, 71; their costume,
272
INDEX.
75; schism among them, 75; Ménilmontant, 76; beneficial results
of Saint-Simonism, 79; Saint-Simon compared with Fourier, 81;
contempt of Saint-Simonians for Fourier, 85; Saint-Simon's rank
among French socialists, 108.
Savigny, opinion concerning "Das System der erworbenen Rechte"
of Lassalle, 190.
Schäffle, his "Socialism as Presented by Kaufmann," describes war-
cries against capital as modern, 2; considers communists as not
necessarily anti-Christian, 25; criticism on Fourier, 100; his "Quin-
tessence of Socialism," 150; took him years to understand German
socialism, 156.
Schmoller, a professorial socialist, 237; definition of state, 241; his
open letter to Professor von Treitschke, 243.
Schweitzer, Von, president of the Universal German Laborers' Union,
226; his life, 226, 227; withdrawal from the social democrats, 227.
Shakers referred to by Noyes in the question of "familism" versus
socialism, 23, note.
Shaw, Albert, his letter on present condition of the Icarians, 42–48.
Sismondi, purpose of the poor and rich in labor, 9.
Slaney introduces in Parliament a bill which becomes the law of in-
dustrial societies in England, 254.
Smalley, G. W., eulogy on Louis Blanc's character, 116.
Smith, Adam, regards economic goods only as products of labor, 161;
the wages of labor, 202.
Social democrats, views of, concerning the crimes of the rich, 11;
Mehring's history of, in Germany, 17; irreligious attitude of, 23;
one of the divisions of communism and socialism, 30, 169; the
collectivists are social democrats, 149; are international, 150;
admit the necessity of land and capital, 168; Marx their lead-
ing theoretician, 170; "Das Kapital" the Bible of, 173; Lassalle
their leading agitator, 189; rise of, 194, 203; doctrines, 197; ex-
tremists, 204; characteristics, 204; demands, 205; some bene-
ficial doctrines, 205; movement towards communism, 206; their
programme involves army discipline, 209; since the death of Las-
salle, 211; universal suffrage, 211; number of their votes for
the members of the Reichstag, 213; blamed for attempts on the
life of the emperor, 214; congress at Wyden, 1880, 215; at Co-
penhagen, 1883, 216; grounds of their discontent, 216; internal
history of the party after Lassalle's death, 225; the Laborers'
Union, 225; Social Democratic Labor Party, 227; change in since
Lassalle, 231; violence thought necessary, 232; connection with at-
tempts on the life of the emperor, 233; compared with early Chris-
tians, 233.
Socialism, object, 1; peculiarities of modern schemes, 2; cosmopoli-
tan, 3; older schemes, 4; before the French Revolution, 4; taught
the necessity of new forms of society after the French Revolution,
13; proper method of treatment, 14; hatred of most authors for,
INDEX.
273
16; opposed to individualism, 29; distinguished from communism,
30; modern schemes of, 30; Saint-Simonism vide Saint-Simon,
Fourierism vide Fourier, connection with politics, 109; principle
of authority, 124; Proudhon, 124; in France since Proudhon, 143;
cause of French, 143; existing French, 144; Blanquists, 145; an-
archists, 146; nihilism, 146; anarchists believe in collectivism,
149; collectivists, 150; classical epoch-making is to-day German,
156; vitality of German, 156; German, like French, is negative,
157; adherents of German school of, 158; Rodbertus, 159; clas-
sification of German, 169; Marx, 170; International Workingmen's
Association, 183; Lassalle, 189; conditions productive of, 221;
Bismarck's measures, 235; professorial, 236; belief of professorial,
236, 241; mosaic legislation, 237; formation of party of profes-
sorial socialists, 237; Mill's statement of doctrines of professorial,
238; convention at Eisenach in 1872, 240; questions discussed,
240; exaltation of the state by professorial, 241; Wagner's law
of expenditures of government, 242; accomplishment of Wagner's
ideal, 243; professorial repudiates self-interest, 243; De Lamen-
nais and Christian, 245; Christian, in England, 249; co-operative
societies, 251; letter of Mr. Neale, 252-255; two divisions of
Christian, 256; Protestant Christian, 256; Catholic Christian,
257.
Stein, Von, describes Saint-Simon's historical importance, 79, 80;
comparison between Fourier and Saint-Simon, 81; comparison be-
tween the classification of the passions by Fourier and that by
Pythagoras and Bossuet, 92, note.
Stöcker, a leader of Protestant Christian Socialism in Germany, 256.
Strikes, to be reported to the congresses of the International Work-
ingmen's Association, 184; to be abolished by the Social Demo-
crats, 209.
Sumner, Charles, opinion of Louis Blanc's "Histoire de la Révolution.
Française," 111.
Sybel, Von, History of the French Revolution, 6, note, 33, note.
Taine, "Ancient Régime," 6, note.
Thomas, Émile, manager of the ateliers nationaux, 112.
Todt, Dr., a leader of Protestant Christian Socialism, 256.
Treitschke, Von, attacks the professorial socialists, 243.
Union for social politics, formation of, 240.
Universal German Laborers' Union, formation of, 194; demanded
universal and equal suffrage, 212; since Lassalle, 225; its presi-
dents, 226; presidency of Von Schweitzer, 227.
Value, Marx's doctrine of, presented by Proudhon, 129; is found in
"Das Kapital," 178.
Vigoureux, Madame Clarisse, a Fourierist, 102.
274
INDEX.
Wages, Iron Law of, significance of, 191; Lassalle's statement of, 197;
Mill's statement of, 199; accepted by Von Ketteler, 258.
Wagner, opinion of Rodbertus, 159; a professorial socialist, 169;
leader of the professorial socialists, 237; his law of expenditures
of government, 242.
Walker, F. A., proper method of dealing with social questions, 16.
Weitling, alleged dependence of Lassalle upon, 19.
Wolff, one of the founders of Neue Rheinische Zeitung, 171.
Workshops, Louis Blanc's system of, 112, 113, 119-122, 192.
THE END.
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1


I
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 00263 6754
Trans
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